be as infinite as mens phansies And though when those are but in circumstantial things those who are strong and know them to be such are no otherwise concerned to contend for them then on Authorities behalf to which every change is a Convulsion fitt and on the account of decency and of compliance with the universal Church yet when others do dogmatize and put conscience in the not doing them and stand at such a distance from them as to chuse Schisme Disobedience and Sedition rather and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them these differences make as great a gulfe and chasme as that which does divide Dives from Abraham's bosome It is one God one Faith one Worship makes hearts one Hands lifted up together in the Temple they will joyn and clasp and so Religion does fulfill its name à religando binds Prince and Subjects all together and they who thus do seek the Lord their God will also seek David their King God's next direction and my second part 2. And here three things offer themselves a King their King and David their King I am not here to read a Lecture of State policy upon a vie of Governments why seek a King not any other sort of Government and why their King one that already was so by the right of Succession not whom addresses or election should make so And though I think 't were easie to demonstrate onely Monarchy had ever a divine or natural original and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome full of dangerous and uneasie consequences and this so much to sight that choice for the most part bounds it self proves but a ceremony of Succession yet this I need not doe for I am dealing with the Jews who had God's judgement in the case and his appointment too and to me that is argument enough And when God hath declar'd for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof many at once as in a Common-wealth or many several families successively for so God reckons also one or many 't is still we see David their King while 't is in David's line and so the King does truly never die while his race lives If either of these many be God's punishment for the sins of a land I will not say that they who love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so but I will say they who do chuse that which God calls his plague that quarrel for his vengeance and with great strife and hazard take his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own options and enjoyments but O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self with that which Calvin saies upon the words Nam aliterverè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin se etiam subjiceret legitimo imperio cui subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall adde that they who do forsake their King will soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdome of the house of David and the Kingdome of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if we do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that when they were without their King they alwaies were without their God Moses was the first King in Ieshurun and he was onely gone into the Mount for forty daies and they set up a golden Calf they make themselves a God if they want him whom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate if they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idol When Moses his next successor was dead we read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his sons to be his Priest and truly he might make his Priest who made his Deities And the account of this is given In those daies there was no King in Israel Iud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan. There was no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance which till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice will know no boundaries if there be no King whose sword is the onely mound and fence against it for if we reade on there 19 20 21 ch we shall find those dismal tragedies of Lust and Warre the one of which did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them who had a righteous cause and whom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel these all sprang from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those daies there was no King in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Iudges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the children of Israel did evil again after the death of such an one till he raised them another Those 450. years being divided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Ieroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other character from God but this the Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State were ended when their calves and their Kingdome were destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390. daies to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this was more then the years of their State which were onely 255. 390 years indeed there were betwixt the falling off of the ten Tribes and the destruction of Ierusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes were gone their Kingdome perfectly destroy'd above 130. years before but their iniquity was not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from which they did divide As if Seditious and Schismaticks sin longer then they are even while they are whom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there was an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Iosiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings were guards also to God and his Religion the great defendors of his Faith and Worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore S. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for
us and we hope hath prepared for him too the first daies of David having no Sheba in the Field nor Achitophel in the Councel nor an Abiathar in the Temple not in that Temple which himself hath rais'd God having made him instrument of that which he would not let David doe building his house and furnishing it with all its Offices and making it fit for God to meet us in when we do seek him also which was the other perquisite of our Condition There never was so much pretence of seeking God as in those late daies of his absence from us and it should seem indeed we knew not where to find him we took such several waies to seek him But if God did look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God should he not then have found it here as there They are altogether gone out of the way their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and unhappiness is in their waies and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes They eat up my people as it were bread and which is worse in these then them they even then call upon God as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people and when they did seek God they meant to find a prey Yet where were any others that did seek him or that do cleave to him now The Schismatick does not seek God who shuns the place where he appears and meets and dwells nor does he cleave to God who tears himself off from the Lord's body Mark such as cause divisions saith S. Paul and avoid them and if all Christians must avoid them then I am sure God is not with them The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels that terminate divinest Worship in a creature or do they cleave to God when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text who did not seek David their King but did apply themselves to several forein Princes and to others which they hoped would set up their Golden calf Incendiaries that make fires and raise commotions these are farre from God for the Lord was not in the fire or in the Earth-quake but in the still small voice in the soft whispers of peace and love The Atheist he that saies in his heart there is no God will not seek God you may be sure nor does he care to seek David his King who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his licences and who hath no Religion to tie him to any If he at all dislik'd the former it was upon reasons of burthen or of pride or Libertinisme so much Religion though counterfeit was a reproach to him and the face of such strictness was uneasy to him These are so farre from seeking God that God saies these did drive him out of Israel Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit that 't is now the Complexion of the Age and they who thought fit to shew their not being hypocrites by license and to give it an easie word by drollery in sacred things have now made nothing to be sacred to them how shall the Lord dwell among such they are enough to exorcise God out of a Nation The Hypocrite also for all his Fasts and Prayers never did seek God for he is but a whited Sepulchre our Saviour saies Now who would seek the living God among the dead the Lord of life sure is not to be found in graves Golgotha was a place to crucifie him in not worship him he takes not in the air of funeral Vaults for incense 't was a Demoniack that us'd to be among the Tombs The subtle false and faithless men that walk in mazes never shall meet God these are the windings and the tracts of the old Serpent and they lead onely to his habitation They that do climb as if they meant to find God on his own Throne that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple or to the top of that exceeding high Mount whence they can overlook the glories of the World and pick and chuse these do not goe to seek Christ there It is the Devil that does carry up thither upon his own designs Nor is it possible to seek the Lord in the waies that lead to the strange Womans house for her house is the way to hell Solomon saies and he did know nay more her steps take hold on hell seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin In a word they that seek their own that turn all merely to their advantage they cannot seek God too he will not be joynt God with Mammon And then where are the men that sought him that did retrive him to us or with whom does he dwell If he be not among us we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace gawd it in all our bright appearances Have we not seen the Sun rise with the glory of a day about him and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness or any spot to checquer or to fleck the countenance of day when strait a small handful of vapour rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face and by little and little getting strength bedasht his shine and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light till it even put out the day and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him So may prosperity it self if the Lord and his blessing be not in it raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation That wine which now makes your hearts glad may prove like that which did commit the Centaures and the Lapithae first kindle Lusts then Warres and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment and that oyle that does make you chearful countenances may make your paths slippery and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all But God who is found of them that seek him not nay who himself sought the lost sheep and carried him when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return has also sought and found and brought together us and our great Shepherd for this is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes these waies of his also are so past finding out that we may well conclude they are the mere footsteps of his incomprehensible goodness and we have onely now
A SERMON PREACHED AT HAMPTON-COURT On the 29th of May 1662. BEING The Anniversary of His Sacred Majesty's most happy Return BY RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. and Chaplain to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by I. Flesher for Iohn Martin Iames Allestry and Thomas Dicas at the Bell in S. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXII TO The Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of Clarendon Lord high Chancellor of England and Chancellor of the University of Oxford My Lord TO vouch your Lordships commands for the publishing this Discourse I might reasonably think would be to libel your judgement and the prefixing your Name to it and this mean address would look rather like revenge then homage or obedience if I did not know that low performances are due to the transcendency of such a subject as I then discours'd upon and such a Patron as I now dedicate to So I lie prostrate under my great Arguments here insufficiency is Art and Rhetorick And the truth is my Lord it was not this which made me so sollicitous to avoid your injunctions but apprehensions of the unusefulness of the Discourse it self When God's most signal methods of all sorts do not seem to have wrought much conviction when neither our own dismal guilts nor miseries nor most express miracles of deliverance have made us sensible but after the equally stupendous 30th of Ianuary and 29th of May and the black time that interven'd we are still the same perverse untractable people when luxury is the retribution made for plenty licence for liberty and Atheism for Religion whil'st miracles of mercy are acknowledg'd only by prodigies of ingrateful disobedience and on the other side when factious humors swell against all Laws as they would either over-flow those mounds or make them yield and give way to them when Declarations and Decrees which were infallible when they came only from a party of a part of a Parliament are neither of force nor esteem when they have all solemnity and obligation that just and full authority can give alas what hopes of doing any thing can a weak Harangue entertain But my Lord since you are pleas'd to command I give up both it and my understanding to your Lordship and the weaker the Discourse is so much the more pregnant testimony is it of the obsequiousness of My Lord Your Lordships most devoted and most humble servant RICHARD ALLESTRY HOSEA 3. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodness HE had said in the words before that the children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince without a sacrifice and without an image or altar and without an Ephod and without Teraphim Now when they shall have been for many years in such a state of helpless desolation shall have no King under whose shadow they their laws and rights might hope for shelter no Prince to guard them from the sad calamities of wild confusion or usurping violence shall have no exercises of religion to allay and soften those calamities and give them comfort in the bearing of them no Altar to lay hold on for security against them or to stretch out their hands towards for deprecation of them no nor a God to put an end to this sad state nor any means of direction what to doe under it no Ephod to ask counsel at nor yet the pageantry the fallacy of these no Teraphim for Ephods nor Image for a God the same destruction having seized these and their worshippers the people and their Idols going into Captivity together and the onely true God having forsaken them Now when the Prophet had denounc'd this state of Woe which was to dwell with them so long as that their very expectations of deliverance should be dying having continued threescore years and ten a longer and more wearisome age of patience then life he then proceeds to sweeten all by telling them of a return and what things they shall doe in it and they are three First Seek the Lord their God apply themselves to his Worship and Obedience and cleave to him for so the word is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 19. 31. and Ieremy repeating this c. 30. 9. words it shall serve the Lord their God and David their King Which is the second thing they were to doe As the Ecclesiastical state was to be setled so the secular too upon its just foundations Religion and Loaylty both running in their ancient current Thirdly They shall fear the Lord and his goodness not onely tremble before him who is the Lord that did exert his power in their destruction but shall much more revere his goodness that did flow out in such plentiful miraculous expresses of deliverance Now these being not onely prophecy what in that juncture they would doe nor onely duties what they were to doe but also counsels and directions immediately from God what they were best to doe the onely prudent and safe course according to the policies of heaven the direct view of these particulars in reference to that state of theirs is not an unconcerning prospect at this season which is the Anniversary of an equal return and therefore I shall lay them so before you and the reflexion on them in our practice shall make the application 1. They shall seek the Lord their God is my first part and the Lord 's prime direction for the repairing of a broken Nation Neither indeed can any other course be taken for till we have found him while he does hide his face nothing but darkness dwells upon the land or if any light do break out 't is but the kindlings of his anger so he expresses Deut. 31. 17. This people will forsake me and break my Covenant then my anger shall be kindled against them and I will forsake them and hide my face from them and they shall be devoured and many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not amongst us This absence is onely another word for desolation Be thou instructed ô Ierusalem saith God by Ieremy c. 6. 8. lest my sould depart from thee and I make thee desolate a land not inhabited As if without him there were nothing else but solitude in Cities and in Courts and all were desert where he does not dwell Yea there is something beyond desolation Hos. 9. 11 12. As for Ephraim their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception though they bring up their children yet will I bereave them that there shall not be a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea wo also to them when I depart from them And it must needs be so for let our state be never so calamitous if God be not departed there is comfort in it and a deliverer at hand If we are in the place of dragons his presence
I will turn away your captivity I could produce you instances of Asa making all his people swear to seek the Lord but because my Text speaks of David he shall be the great explication as he was the practice of this duty in both senses In the former 119. Psal. I have sought thy Commandments above gold or precious stone more then that which does make and does adorn my Crown then that which furnishes all the necessities and all the pomps of Royalty And for the other Psal. 63. 1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is To see thy power and thy glory as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary His very words do seem to labour too and he does seek expressions to tell us how he seeks The hot fits of a thirsty palate that call so oft and so impetuously are in his soul it hath a pious fever which cannot be allay'd but by pouring out of his soul to God in the Temple by breathing out its heats in his devotion offices Nay more he longs hath that I know not whether appetite or passion which is not to be understood but onely suffered to which all the unreasonable violences which passion can be heated into all the defaillances nature can be opprest into are natural it is the bodies Extasie Now this he had towards the worship of the Sanctuary his very flesh found rapture in those exercises and when he was in a barren and dry land was driven from the plenties of a Court and from the glories of a throne into a desert solitude he found no other wants but of God's house did mind pant and long after nothing else did neither thirst for his necessities nor long for his own Crown but for the Tabernacle only And besides the Religion of this he had reason of State too to be thus affected this was the best means to engage his Subjects to him and secure his Throne He knew if by establishing God's worship and by going with the multitude as he did use to the exercises of it if by royal example and encouragements of vertue and by discountenancing and chastising impiety by doing as he did profess to doe Ps. 101. that directory for a Court he could people his land with holy living and his Temple with holy-Worship he knew he should then have good Subjects loyal to him and at peace with themselves If they will seek their God then they will seek their King The Lord saw this dependence and therefore counselled this course should be taken The Master of our Politicks discerned it too and therefore does advise that the first and chiefest publick cares should be about things of Religion that and the same profession of it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cement of Communities and the very foundation of all legislative and indeed all power in the Magistrate and in the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a most efficacious philtre a charm a Gordian knot of kindness And as a Iew observed of their own Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have one and the same opinions of God and not to differ in their rites from one another breeds the best harmony in mens affections When on the other side no obligations though the most signal and divine will hold them in obedience and peace if their ambitions or interests look another way and if at any time present advantage or an expectation or some passion do encline them to seek David their King yet the appearance of a change of Interest that expectation defeated or a cross animosity will burst those bonds unless Religion and Communion in Worship help to twist them David had had experience of this Abner knew of God's oath to David that after Saul he should be King over all Israel but he was otherwise concerned and therefore he made Ishbosheth King maintained a long and a sore warre even against what he knew God was engaged to bring about and made himself strong for the house of Saul 2 Sam. 2 3. ch But when a quarrel happened betwixt Ishbosheth and him then So doe God to Abner and more also except as the Lord hath sworn to David even so I doe to him to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Iudah And he sent Messengers to him saying Whose is the land make but thy league with me c. 3. 9 10 11 12. Do but look forward and you find when Abner was cut off and Ishbosheth was slain and Israel had no leader then they came to David saying Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh and the Lord said to thee Thou shalt feed my people Israel c. 5. 1 2. They knew all that before yet would not let him doe it till they had no other leader Nay when they had done that by Absalom's insinuations who in a way of treacherous pity did instill dislikes against the government and did remonstrate in good wishes as some men do in prayers c. 15. 3 4 they were all drawn into rebellion against this David and made him flie out of the land and became Subjects to that Absalom When he was dead indeed they speak of bringing back the King c. 19. 10. and when his own Iudah had done it quarrell'd ver 43. because that their advice was not first had and though Iudah had nothing but their service for Have we eaten at all of the Kings cost or hath he given us any gift say they ver 42. yet Israel is angry because he came not back upon their score for they forsooth have ten parts in him v. 43. and yet the next day every man of Israel went after him that said We have no part in David Sheba a man of Belial ch 20. 1. Thus no allegiance no tie however sacred and divine will hold them who follow not upon God's score Nay at the last because that Rehoboam would not ease their taxes all Israel cry out What portion have we in David see to thine own house David And to make this secession perpetual which all the former did not prove Ieroboam did use no other policy but to change the Worship and the Priests He knew he should divide their hearts and Nations for ever when he had altered once the Service and the Officers and if he could but keep them from seeking God at Ierusalem he was secure they would not seek David their King And so it proved Now the Lord to prevent divisions had provided so farre Uniformity in his worship that he required a single Unity and that it might be but in one manner he let it be but in one place And truly when men once depart from Uniformity what measures can they set themselves of changing what shall confine or put shores to them what principle can they proceed upon which shall engage them to stay any where and why may not divisions
Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they were the same who sought the Lord their God and David the King But why David their King for could his Kingdome disappear and be to seek of whom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore was as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the people of Israel If ye doe wickedly ye shall be destroyed both you and your King There are other sins besides Rebellion and Treason that murder Kings and Governments Those that support their Ills by their dependencies and use great shadows for a shelter to rapacity oppression or licences or any crying wickedness these prove Traitors to Majesty and themselves strike at the root of that under which they took covert fell that and crush themselves National vices have all Treason in them and every combination in such sins is a Conspiracy If universal practice palliate them we do not see their stain it may be think them slight but their complexion is purple Common blood is not deep enough to colour them they die themselves in that that 's sacred Nay these do seem to spread contagion to God as if they would not let the Lord be holy nor suffer that to be which he swore by his holiness should be for the Psalmist cries out Where are thy old loving kindnesses which thou swarest unto David But sure some of God's oaths will stand if not those of his kindness those will by which he swears the ruine of such sinners and God that is holy will be sanctified in judgement upon them Yea upon more then the offenders for the guilty themselves are not a sacrifice equal to such piacular offences Innocent Majesty must bleed for them too If you doe wickedly you shall be destroy'd both you and your King Thus when God would remove Iudah out of his sight good Iosiah must fall and the same makes them be to seek David their King But how David their King when 't was Zorobabel for with Theophylact and others I conclude he must be meant in the first literal importance of the words It was the custome of most Nations from some great eminent Prince to name all the Succession so at once to suggest his Excellencies to his followers and to make his glory live Now without doubt David was Heroe enough for this and his valour alone sufficient to ground the like practice upon And though we do not find that done yet we do find his piety and his uprightness made the standard by which that of his Successors is meted Of one 't is said he walked in the waies of David his father of another he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not like unto David his father And because David went aside and was upright with an Exception once therefore it is said The Lord was with Iehoshaphat because he walkt in the first waies of his father David But besides this his very name is given to two Zorobabel and the Messiah both which were to be the restorers of their people the one from Sin and Hell to re-establish the Kingdome of heaven it self the other to deliver his people from Babel and to repair a broken Nation and demolish'd Temple And for this work God bids them seek David their King The waies from Babel to Ierusalem from the Confusion of a people to a City that is at unity in it self the City of God where he appears in perfect beauty and where the throne of the house of David is must be the first waies of David in those he walk'd to Sion and did invest his people in God's promises the whole land of Canaan In those Zorobabel brought them back to that land and Sion And in these our Messiah leads us to Mount Sion that is above to the celestial Ierusalem does build an universal Church and heaven it self And all that have the like to doe must walk in those first waies fulfill that part of David and must copy Christ. Such the repairers of great breaches must be these are the waies to settle Thrones the onely waies in which we may find the goodness of the Lord which to fear is the third direction and my last part They shall fear the Lord and his goodness 3. That Israel who came but now out of the furnace should fear the Lord whose wrath did kindle it whose justice they had found such a consuming fire as to make the Temple it self a Sacrifice and the whole Nation a burnt-offering is reasonable to expect but when his goodness had repair'd all this to require them to fear that does seem hard That that goodness which when it is once apprehended does commit a rape upon our faculties and being tasted melts the heart and causes dissolution of soul through swoons of complacency that this should be received with dread and trembling is most strange Indeed the Psalmist saies There is mercy with God that he may be feared for were there not we should grow desperate but how to fear those mercies is not easie 'T is true when God made his goodness pass before Moses shewed him the glory of it as he saies in those most comfortable attributes the sight of which is beatifick Vision Exod. 34. 6 c. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin if that which follows there be part of it forgiving sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation if this be one ray of the glory of goodness if it dart out such beams alas 't is as devouring as the lake of fire his very goodness stabs whole successions at once and the guilty may tremble at it for themselves and their posterity But if those words doe mean as we translate those very words Ier. 46. 28. I will not leave thee altogether unpunish'd yet will not utterly cut off not make a full end of the guilty when I visit iniquities upon the children but will leave them a remnant still then there is nothing dreadful in it but those very visitations have kindness in them and his rod comforts and this issue of his goodness also is not terrible but lovely To fear God's goodness therefore is to revere it to entertain it with a pious astonishment acknowledging themselves unworthy of the crums of it especially not daring to provoke it by surfeting or by presuming on it or by abusing it to serve ill ends or any other then God sent it for those of piety and obedience not to comply with which is to defeat God's kindness and the designs of it If when they sought the Lord he was found of them and came to his dwelling-place onely to be
forc'd thence again by their abominations if when his goodness had restor'd all to them they had David their King but to conspire against an Altar onely to pollute and a Temple to separate from as Manasses the Priest Sanballat's son in law with his accomplices did doe this were both to affront and to renounce that goodness which above all things they must dread the doing for if this be offended too ruine is irreversible there is no other attribute in God a sinner can fly to with any hope His Holiness cannot behold iniquity his Iustice speaks nothing but condemnation to guilt his Power without kindness is but omnipotent destruction but if we have his Goodness on our side we have an Advocate in his own bosome that will bear up against the rest for his mercy is over all his attributes as well as works but if this also be exasperated and kindness grow severe there is no refuge in the Lord no shadow of him to take Sanctuary under for there is nothing to allay the anger of his Compassion and Bounty This sure is the extremest terrour we are to dread his kindness more then his severity and wrath we have an antidote a buckler against these but none against the other if it be provok'd and if the heats of love take fire and rise into indignation 't is unquenchable flame and everlasting burning Therefore when God hath done all things that he can doe or they can wish then most of all they must fear the Lord and his goodness My Text and I have spoke all this while to the Iews nor do I know whether I need to address any other way all this did so directly point at us The glories of this day need not the foil of those calamities from which this day redeem'd to set them off Or you may read them in my Prophet here and our own guilts will make too sad a Comment on his Text who were more barbarous Assyrians to our selves We also were without a Prince and without Sacrifice had neither King nor Church nor Offices because we our selves had destroy'd them and that we might not have them had engag'd or covenanted against them ty'd to our miseries so that without perjury we could neither be without them nor yet have them As we had broke through all our sacred oaths to invade and usurp calamity and guilt so neither could we repent without breach of Vows If this were not enough to make us be without a God too then to drive him away we had defil'd his dwelling places to the ground and by his ancient gists of remove he was certainly gone There was indeed exceeding much Religion among us yet God knows almost none at all while Christianity was crumbled into so many so minute professions that 't was divided into little nothings and even lost in a crowd of it self while each man was a Church every single professor was a whole multitude of Sects And in this tumult this riot of faiths if the son of Man should have come could he have found any faith in the land Vertue was out of countenance and practice while prosperous and happy Villany usurp'd its name while Loyalty and conscience of oaths and duty were most unpardonable crimes to which nothing but ruine was an equal punishment and all those guilts that make the last times perillous Blasphemy disobedience truce-breakings and Treasons Schisms and Rebellions with all their dismal consequences and appendages for these are not single personal crimes these have a politick capacity all these did not onely walk in the dress of piety and under holy Masks but were themselves the very form of Godliness by which 't was constituted and distinguished the Signature of a party of Saints the Constellation of their graces And on the other side the detestation of such hypocrisie made others Libertines and Atheists while seeing men such holy counterfeits so violent in acting and equally engag'd for every false Religion made them conclude there was none true or in earnest And all this was because we were without our King for 't was the onely Interest of all those usurpations that were to contrive and preserve it thus And when we had roll'd thus through every form of Government addrest to each mov'd every stone and rais'd each stone to the top of the Mount but every one still tumbled down again and ours like Sisyphus's labour was like to have no end onely restless and various Calamity Necessity then counsell'd us and we applied to God's directions in the Text I know not whether in his method but it is plain we did seek David our King And my heart is towards the Governours of Israel that offer'd themselves willingly among the people bless ye the Lord yea Thou ô Lord bless them May all the blessings which this was the birth-day of all that my Text encloses all the goodness of the Lord be the sure portion of them and their Families may they see the King in his beauty and peace upon Israel and may their Names be blest in their posterities for evermore We sought him with the violent impatiences of necessitous and furious desires and our eyes that had even fail'd with looking for him did even fail with looking on him as impotent and as unsatisfied in our fruitions as expectations and he was entertain'd with as many tears as pray'd for as one whom not our Interests alone but our guilts had endear'd to us and our tears he was as necessary to us as repentance as without whom it was impossible for us to repent and return from those impieties to him of usurping his rights of exiling of murthering him by wants because we could not doe it by the Axe or Sword without him 't was impossible for us to give over the committing these and the tears that did welcome him were one of our best lavers to wash off that blood that we had pull'd upon our selves One endear'd also to us by God's most miraculous preservations of him for us We cannot look upon his life but as the issue of prodigious bounty snatch'd by immediate Providence out of the gaping jaws of tyrannous usurping murtherous malice merely to keep him for our needs and for this day One whom God had train'd up and manag'd for us just as he did prepare David their King at thirty years of age to take possession of that Crown which God had given him by Samuel about twelve years before and in those years to prepare him for Canaan by a Wilderness to harden him with discipline that so the luxuries and the effeminacies of a Court might not emasculate and melt him by constant Watches cares and business to make him equal for habituated to careful of and affected with the business of a Kingdome and by constraining him to dwell in Mesech with Aliens to his Religion to teach him to be constant to his own and to love Sion And hath he not prepared our David so for