Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n
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A46792
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A thanksgiving sermon preach'd upon the fifth of November, 1689 by Ben. Jenks.
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Jenks, Benjamin, 1646-1724.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing J623; ESTC R28742
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21,433
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42
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A THANKSGIVING SERMON Preach'd upon the Fifth of November 1689. By Ben. Jenks Rector of HARLEY in Shropshire Licensed November the 15. 1689. LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke and are to be Sold by R. Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1689. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Francis Lord Viscount Newport Of BRADFORD TREASURER OF Their Majesties Houshold And one of the Lords of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council My Lord I Must confess the Presumption of this Address to seek so great a Patronage for so small a Performance But when nothing would satisfie some without my consenting now to appear thus openly never durst I think of exposing so invidious Reflections a Name remarkable for nothing but your Honor's Favours under any weaker shelter than that which I now make bold to beg But if what is here submitted to common Inspection may find no further Approbation but the bare forgivness of so piercing a Judge of Style and Sense I may harden my self against the Shock of all other Censures And the same Charity which was the Temptation to this Impression will I hope answer for all Imputations on your Honor's Judgment for pardoning a Piece so Mean and Dilute Which if it must carry the sound of my despicable Name any further than the little Circumference wherein it is already known I shall think it to good purpose only so far as it serves to exemplifie the thankfulness which I Preach in Publishing the continued Munificence of such a truly Noble Patron as for above Twenty Years I have found To tell of which I am Conscious I do my self too great an Honor But I had rather be charg'd with Ostentation of such Favours than really incur the worse Guilt of Ingratitude for them My Lord I have not recover'd the Transport which the late surprising Redemption gave me and while I am entertaining my self with such daâ—ling Splendors as kind Heaven darted in upon us at the Critical Juncture when a complication of ill Omens were presaging the most Dismal Night ready to Involve us I humbly beg some Indulgence if like the reputed Head of Infallibility himself in the Transfiguration I speak some things more Warm and Affectionate than Exact and Apposite But whatever Ecstacy the Wonder and Joy of this Reviving Scene have occasion'd yet of this I cannot chuse but be extremely sensible that besides my own biggest Obligations there 's a just Debt of the highest Honor and Gratitude for which the Publick is Responsible to Your Lordship for your Conduct so Wise and Worthy your Noble Self in that Happy Settlement whereof we are glad And however my forwardness to express the Pleasure I have taken in it may already have render'd me as cheap as I can be in the Opinion of such as look with an Evil Eye upon that very thing which others most cheerfully embrace with all thankfulness yet cannot I omit any fit Occasions of Declaring That with all my Soul I do Bless the God of Heaven for it And as your Honour has still been most deservedly great in my Thoughts on many other Considerations so in particular for your Honor's Favour to that Revolution which eases the Minds and exhilarates the Spirits of all Well-Willers to the Reformed Religion I am more than ever My Lord Your Honor 's ever Obliged Most Humble Servant Ben. Jenks PSAL. XXXIV 3. O Magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together WHat was said of that Concourse Act. 19.32 cannot surely be applied to any of our Congregations this memorable Day That the Assembly was confused and the bigger part knew not wherefore they were come together The Fifth of November is a Day better known as it is a Day still to be much observed to the Lord of all our Israel in their Generations And tho it were quite struck out of our Kalendars yet would it never be razed out of our Memories especially now that another wonderful Eighty Eight has made it the Aera of our new Deliverance And last year the happy Man of Gods right Hand whom he made so strong for himself set foot on our Land the very same Day as the Powder-Plotters were found digging our Graves under it This has not only afresh riveted the Memory of it in our Minds but by reduplicating the occasion of our Thanksgiving has made it to England now a high Day indeed the day of the gladness of our Hearts because the day of our double escape not only from the old Monk's Gunpowder but from a new sort of Jesuits Powder whereof they had laid large Trains not only to blow up a single Bishop and a College but the very Foundations of all our Church To themselves indeed as the Event has made them sensible a sorry Blast it proved to blow off even their Head but to us a good Wind that clear'd our Land of the Locusts which were got so busily at their Work to spoil all the envied Prosperity of this Flourishing Church And as we cannot forget it to their Infamy saying with the Prophet Jer. 20.11 The Lord is with us as a mighty terrible One therefore our Persecutors shall stumble and they shall not prevail nor prosper but be greatly ashamed and their everlasting Confusion never be forgotten As we cannot I say but remember both the later and former Plots to the loss of all their Credit in this Nation However the Woman in Scarlet may have a Face of the same die with her Garb to leave no room for any modest blush So must we not forget to put an honorable note of distinction upon this Day to the glory of God's singular Mercy and to the exciting in our selves all the most thankful Acknowledgments Nor thinking it enough only to affect our selves unless we endeavor to beget the like Resentments in others As those 2 Kings 7.9 that said one to another We do not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace 'T is far from well to be listless and dumb to the Divine Praises upon such lowdspeaking Occasions And like the devout Psalmist here who calls upon all about him to bear a part with him O Magnifie c. Of such excellent Matter and Composition is this Psalm that Mollerus applies to it in particular what St. Basil says of the Holy Scripture in general 'T is like a Well which flows the purer the more 't is drawn and the oftener attentively read the sweeter it will be found It was composed upon a wonderful escape which David had when flying affrighted from one danger he fell into another and to avoid the Rage of King Saul betook himself to the Court of King Achish As more afraid of a stingy Father-in-Law than of all those very Philistims whose great Champion he had lately slain and with him all their hopes 'T was deep distress we may imagine that made him act as one bereaved of his Senses to go cast himself into such Hands But whatever was his design in coming there supposing he