Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A45743
|
A sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret Westminster, on the thirtieth of January, 1694/5 by John Hartcliffe ...
|
Hartcliffe, John, 1651-1712.
|
1695
(1695)
|
Wing H970; ESTC R9583
|
12,292
|
31
|
Treachery and Falseness the predominant Principle of Mens Actions as when we see the same or more open Profaneness the same or more lewd Debaucheries of all kinds calling aloud for Vengeance from Heaven This is the Cause that if we look back but a few Years we shall find God's Judgments have all along followed us still corroding into our very Bones This would more plainly appear if I might be suffer'd to rehearse the Evils that have befaln this Nation and might trace them backward to that great one which was the Spring of many others and the unhappy Cause of this Day 's Observation Blessed be God that after so many Afflictions he hath caused Light to spring out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion who hath reduced all things into that firm State out of which they have been distorted hath wrung our Religion and our Liberties out of the very Clutches of the Roman Wolf hath fixed the Throne and the Church upon a sure bottom both which are fenced about with the most excellent and useful Laws But then what Requital have we made to God for all these Benefits How have we demeaned our selves under this happy Constitution of Affairs What Fruits do we yield answerable to these great Advantages One might rationally expect to see Religion in quite another Face among us than is hath in other parts of the World and having had sufficient experience of the manifold Woes arising from Discord there should no such thing as Division be heard of and living under the most merciful and indulgent Prince all the Strife methinks should be how to serve faithfully so good and so great a Master But alas the Behaviour of many is contrary to all this who quarrel still without any Ground and without any Measure who do not yet give over to reproach and Nick-name one another What the issue of these unreasonable Differences may be we know not I pray God they do not end in our Fall for these were the Sins if it be lawful to guess at the reason of God's Judgments from outward Appearances that brought the sorest Evils upon our Forefathers Wherefore if these uneasie and quarrelsom Persons have not the Grace of Christians have they not the Hearts of Men Have they no Compassion nor Love for the Good of their Countrey Will they not at least pity their own Progeny Will they commit Sins and breed up Children to inherit the Curse Shall the Infants now unborn have cause to say hereafter in the Bitterness of their Souls our Fathers have by their Falshood and Rebellion forfeited those Liberties and Lost that Religion which should have been our just Inheritance Thanks be to God that at present we are made whole he hath by a Miracle of Goodness healed our Breaches applied a proper Remedy to our Maladies and hath poured Balsam into the Wounds of a distemper'd Nation What remains then but that we take the Counsel that was given upon a like miraculous Cure Go and sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto you Go and raise no more intestine Feuds lest you make your selves weak little and indefensible But since our Sufferings have been so great as none to be acknowledged worse since our Calamities have reach'd the very top I must say Go and sin no more lest the same Evils befall you if my Advice will not be receiv'd let that in 1 Sam. 12.24 25. prevail Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth for consider how great things he hath done for you But if ye still do wickedly ye shall all perish both ye and your King For there is no such mighty difference in the Wits and Contrivances of Men no such great Advantages in Military Power and Conduct no such wonderful Disproportion in the Courage or Wisdom of Mankind But when God hath been pleased to send his Locusts or his Grashoppers the meanest and very contemptible Creatures the most flourishing Kingdoms the best disciplin'd Armies and the most fortified Cities have been overturned But a due Regard to our most holy and peaceable Religion as it will prevent private Animosities by Justice and Honesty Truth and Plain-dealing so it will keep off publick Disturbances by casting out all bad Principles which are the fatal Nurseries of Rebellion by teaching us Patience a due Government of our selves and Obedience not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake Whereas a vicious Course of Life all loose and extravagant Desires do naturally dispose Men to endeavour After-changes in hopes of bettering their Condition and this Expectation prompts them on to unhinge the Government by Fraud or to cut the Sinews of it by Force But if Men were wise they would consider in this their Day the things which do belong to their Peace for whose sake if they were wise they would abandon their most beloved Sins and for whose sake if they were wise they would lay aside their most beloved Scruples For how can they answer it to their own Consciences if at such a critical time when all things valuable to us lie at Stake they shall then labour to support the Interests of distinct Parties and refuse to do those things which they may do lawfully towards a Union with the whole Nation They would not act thus if they had any Veneration for the Memory of King CHARLES the First or did from their Souls abhor those black Counsels and accursed Practices which finished the last part of his Tragedy May all of us therefore be most industriously watchful that the same Spirit of Peevishness and Division which in the Years of our trouble inspired so many ill Men mis-guided some credulous Persons and cost the King so dear may not once more revive and insinuate it self again under the same or craftier Disguises and find an Opportunity to attempt the like Mischiefs May all dissatisfied Persons be brought to a better Temper by reflecting seriously on those great things which God hath done for the saving their Country and not be so debased in their Spirits as to court Bondage and Destruction May they at length cease to be turbulent or to justle their Brethren when we are all standing upon the brink as it were of a steep Precipice we are at present held up by a strong hand but as by one single Thread Can we then think our selves secure from so great Danger We are bound therefore to humble our selves before God to bewail with a broken and a contrite Heart those crying Sins which may justly provoke him to punish us with the utmost Severity earnestly imploring his Mercy that he would protect our Church and Nation from the Designs of their Enemies and deliver us all from unreasonable and wicked Men That in the midst of Judgment he would remember Mercy and make us glad in giving Health long Life and Prosperity to the King after the Time in which we have been so forely afflicted for the late Loss of our most Gracious Queen who was truly the Breath of our Nostrils the Delight of our Eyes and the Joy of all our Hearts Which Mercy we importunately pray that God would grant us for the Sake of Christ Jesus our Lord to whom be ascribed as is most due all Honour Praise and Dominion now and for ever FINIS
Mr. HARTCLIFFE's SERMON Before the House of Commons January 30. 1694 5. Jovis 31. die Januarii 1694. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. HARTCLIFFE for the SERMON by him Preached yesterday at St. Margaret VVestminster And that he be desired to Print the same and that Mr. Hunt and Mr. Hungerford do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cler. Dom. Com. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET WESTMINSTER ON The Thirtieth of January 1694 5. By John Hartcliffe B. D. CANON of Windsor LONDON Printed for Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over-against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1695. A SERMON ON PSALM 90. Verse XV. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil THIS Psalm is made up of a complaint for the afflictions as well as the shortness of human Life together with an earnest prayer to God for a speedy return of his Mercy it doth particularly reflect on those times in which Moses lived when the Children of Israel suffered great hardships in the Wilderness and numbers of them were cut off for their provocations So that the Author hereof doth in the most passionate manner cry out our Troubles have been very heavy and have lasted very long let us have O Lord some proportion of Joy to so large a share of Sorrow and make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil By the Words we are directed First To consider what we have seen of Evil in passed years chiefly that which this day reminds us of Secondly To flie to the God of all consolation for comfort and joy that he would make us glad according to the days wherein he hath afflicted us To look back upon days of adversity and trouble is an unpleasant and melancholly sight however some good use may be made of it for thereby we shall see that a long Sun-shine of God's Mercy hath ripen'd the Sins of a Nation so that it shall be ready for the strokes of his Justice Thereby also we shall perceive with what subtlety the Seeds of Sedition have been sown and how mischievously they have been spread abroad in Libels To what a degree of heat and madness the lust and ambition of some Men hath been raised so that nothing could allay them till they had sull scope to take their revenge and wreak 〈◊〉 their malice both upon Church and State In order to this End we our selves have seen and our Fathers have told us what strange and monstrous Things have been done it being very much so for Subjects to Murder their King without shame and in the face of the Sun for the feet thus unnaturally to trample upon and throw off their Head The meanest indeed of the People must be the most proper and fit Instruments for such a work because low Descent and poor Education do by a natural Power incline the thoughts to an imperious Humour to cruelty and disobedience Now the more effectually to recommend this black Design and to give it a fair Face it was nam'd the Cause of God and the principal Actors therein were stiled God's own Israel Whereupon every Street was filled with their Cryes that all People would come out of Egypt and they had indeed provided them a Red-Sea of Blood for their passage So that in this day of our affliction all the Evil was acted under the vizard of Religion which did much aggravate the guilt of the chief Agents whose hearts were engag'd in the contrivance of the most unwarrantable Deed when their hands and eyes were offering up prayers and tears to Gods Throne nay they seemed to labour under strong Impulses of Spirit till they had brought forth the evil thing they had conceived which they could not have done so easily had they not united Men of different Interests by a Covenant What a Device was this to help forward the birth of the most amazing Wickedness by such an engagement as was never heard of in antient Times any otherwise than as at the making of their Leagues they were wont to kill Beasts and divide them so this also was solemniz'd with division and slaughter These were the years in which peaceable and upright Walking before God and Obedience to lawful Authority were exchang'd for an unusual Mode of Speech only and a formality of Looks The worst actions Men could be guilty of were attributed to the dictates of God's Holy Spirit and they were more busied in finding out some marks of Conversion than about the practise of real Godliness till at length the whole State was overthrown by fictions and lying Words For by these they did blacken and misrepresent the King himself that he might the more plausibly be Sacrificed to the will of his Enemies The horridness of which Fact may be here briefly considered in the fatal Consequences of it for as one absurdity begets many so did this Evil spread itself into many pernicious Evils which may be reduced to these two sorts 1. Such as were of Civil 2. Such as were of a Religious Concern We have felt the Death of the King to be a sore Judgment by the terrible Effects of it which did spead themselves over the Face and thrô the Veins and into the Bowels of the three Kingdoms Many Noble and Antient Families were not only undone but there immediately followed a Change of that Government whose Praise had been proclaimed on the Earth for many Centuries For as soon as the King was gone our Fellow-Subjects took upon them to be our Princes and to govern us at their pleasure in order to satisfie their Avarice or their Ambition and first they called themselves a Council of State but after that and the Nobility was excluded came in the Rule of the Common People by their Representatives only this increased the Number of our Rulers consequently the Burden of our Slavery by being forced to serve so many Masters After these were deprived of the Power they had usurp'd and abused began the Dominion of the Sword then we had as many Princes as there were Major-Generals who perhaps if they had out liv'd their Captain would have canton'd the Kingdom into so many several Principalities as when it was shred into Democracy the Streams of Government ran thin and shallow being cut into many Channels Thus it was when their Leader after the Pattern of Jeroboam who made Priests of the basest of the People set up his Creatures too in the House of Lords and would have all the Tribes come up and worship them After this manner when the King was gone a kind of Giddiness seized those who would be uppermost and usurp his Place insomuch that the state of things was continually toss'd from hand to hand rolling like a Ship in the midst of a tempestuous Sea with all her Rigging Masts and Rudder-Bands broken down and without a Pilot to stee her