and Threaten to devour them So when Mens Spirits and Speeches are so full of venom against the Saints and their Passions so heightned that they are ready to fall down right on them then God arises and rebukes their Passions And Behold there is a great Calm Now as the Mariners cryed out What manner of Man is this that even the Winds and the Seas obey Him Oh! that all the Churches of Christ in England would be Adoring and Admiring and breaking forth in this Extasie What manner of God is this that even the enraged Passions of men are subjected to Him Thus the Lord who is a present help in time of Trouble hath done great things for us Fifthly The Lord the God that is affected with and concerned at his Peoples troubles we read his Soul was grieved for the misery of Israel He is pleased to call his People the Apple of his Eye and who cannot but be deeply sensible when that part is touched So near so greatly near is the Relation between God and his People as all that is done to them is in his account as done to Himself Saul Saul why Persecutest thou me was his word to him that then as a malicious Informer went up and down like his Master the Devil seeking where and whom of the Saints he might devour And upon his enquiry Who art thou Lord he was sharply answered I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou Persecutest and at the last Judgement he will tell the hard-hearted World I was Hungry and ye gave me no Meat I was Thirsty and yee gave me no Drink The Saints wants are His wants the Saints troubles are His troubles Isa 63.9 In all their Afflictions He was Afflicted and the Angel of his Presence saved them in his Love and in his Pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carryed them all the days of old The former verse tells us He said Surely they are my People and being his People he could not but be concerned at their troubles yea so greatly that he did as it were take part with them in their Afflictions And in their Afflictions he was Afflicted The expression is very strange and hardly to be parallell'd What the Poet said of Augustus we may more truely say of God Est placidus facilisquae parens veniaeque paratus Et qui fulminio sepe sine igne tonat Qui cum triste aliquid statuit sit tristis et ipse Cuique ferre poenam sumere poena sua est And herein he glorifies and magnifies the riches of his Love in being so concerned at and affected with the troubles of his People Oh! He is moved He is touched with the sence of our Infirmities And hence he cannot hold from coming to his Peoples Assistance when their pressures and Calamities are great and their Sorrows many when the floods of Persecutions are over whelming them the inraged passions of wicked men engages the Compassion of a gracious God to appear for their help and that right early hear himself speaking fully as to this Psalm 12.5 For the oppression of the Poor for the sighing of the Needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that pusseth at him When the World are doing great things against the People of God he will arise and do great things for them as God said of Sodom Because the Cry of Sodom and Gomorra is great and because their Sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the Cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know So he saith of Zion Because the cry of Zion is great and their Calamity is very grievous I will go down now and see whether it be altogether according to the cry of it from their Sighs and Groans which is come unto me and if not I will know Thus the Sympathizing Lord hath done for us great things Sixthly The Lord the only God He has done and indeed none but he could have done Great Things For there is none besides Him all the Gods of the Heathens are Idols Mouths have they but they speak not Feet have they but they walk not Hands have they but they act not But the Lord our God is the Living God the only True God whose Glory is above the Heavens and whose Power is extended to the utmost confines of the Earth Isa 45.22 Look unto me and be Saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else There may be many false Gods many pretended Gods but there is no God the Saviour but me none whose Arm hath wrought out Salvation but mine Judas Machabaeus had these words written on his Ensign as his Motto Mi Camoca Belohim Iehovah Who is like unto thee among the Gods O Lord VVho can act as he acts For he doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number And as he so only he doth great things There is none can do like him expectation from any other Agent will be miserably frustrated Jer. 3.23 Truly in vain is Salvation hoped for from the Hills and from he multitude of Mountains truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel By the Hills and multitude of Mountains here we are Tropologically to understand great powers great capacities great abilities and how great soever they may be in the Creature vain is the help expected from them God will have no Partner no Rival in this great work of saving his poor distressed People he will have the sole Honour and Glory of it himself that Praises may be resounded and re-echoed in all the Churches millitant O sing to the Lord a new Song for he hath done marvellous things His Right Hand and His holy Arm hath gotten him the Victory The Lord hath made known his Salvation his Righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen He hath remembred his Mercy and his Truth toward the House of Israel and the ends of the Earth have seen the Salvation of our God Thus the great Lord the Gracious Lord the Faithful Lord the present helping Lord the Compassionate Lord the only Lord has done great things And so I pass from the Agent to the Object For Vs First For Vs poor low mean insignificant Greatures whose Original was Dust and Clay and whose dissolution will be in the same matter for dust we are and to dust we shall return The highest Honour we can pretend to is with Job to claim Kindred with the inhabitants below saying to Corruption Thou art our Father and to the Worm Thou art our Mother and our Sister Our Bodies are called Houses of Clay Behold he put no trust in his Servant and his Angels he chargeth with Folly How much less on them that dwell in Houses of Clay whose foundation is in the Dust which are crushed before the Moth. We are fit Creatures indeed for the Almighty to do such great things for
Published with Allowance The Dissenters JUBILEE As it was Sounded in the Audience of A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY AT The Publick Meeting-Place in Spittle-Fields near London on Tuesday May 17. 1687. BEING A Day of Thanks-giving to praise the Lord for his VVonderful Appearance and Over-ruling Providence in the Present Dispensation of Liberty of Conscience By Charles Nicholets Preacher of the Gospel and Pastor of a Congregation there Judg. 10.16 And his Soul was Grieved for the Misery of sIrael Psalm 12.5 For the Oppression of the Poor for the Sighing of the Needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that Puffeth at him LONDON Printed by G. Larkin without Bishopsgate and are to be Sold by most Book-Sellers 1687. To the most August And Justly-Renowned-Monarch James the Second By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Dread Soveraign AMongst the Numerous Returns of Gratitude that flow from great Bodies of Your People in all Parts of Your Dominions for Your Majesties Gracious and most Healing Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Vouchsafe to admit this mean Discourse to be humbly Dedicated to Your Immortal Name For which if any censure me as highly presumptuous I must with Submission alledge that it was Your Gracious Clemency that not only Encouraged but in a manner Enforced me thereunto For since Your Majesty has been the Glorious Instrument in the Hand of God of Delivering us from those Shackles upon Conscience and the many Insupportable Rigors whereunto the Penal Laws and their severe Prosecution had long expos'd us I could not think we should fully discharge our Duty to the Almighty in that respect without some particular Expression of Thankfulness to Your Majesty his Vicegerent And withal to Evidence the Sincerity of our Hearts I was not unwilling to declare publickly what Doctrine and Sentiments we Endeavour to Impress upon our Hearers on this happy Occasion For however Dissenters may have been Misrepresented It has always been my Principle unfeignedly to Obey that Precept of our Blessed Saviour To give unto God and unto Caesar each their due Thus as I Preach'd the following Sermon to demonstrate that I fear God and desire to improve all his Providences to the great Ends of Christianity so I offer these poor Papers as a standing Testimony that I sincerely Honour the King. In which Application I forget not your Majesties Grandeur nor my own Groveling Condition Yet I cannot induce my self to apprehend a Frown from that Face which has spread such Irradiating Smiles throughout more than three Kingdoms or that Your Majesty can be Angry tho the meanest of your Subjects thank you for those Favours they can never be enough sensible of He that would not a Beggar should bow to him must with-hold his Hands from giving Alms. Had Your Majesty restrain'd your Goodness Your Throne had been too Dreadful for the Approach of such a Shrub as I. But now that You have dilated Your Clemency in so extraordinary a manner to every Corner of Your Territories whilst the Lofty Hills are Ecchoing Your Just Praises You cannot for the Harmony 's sake be offended that the Humble Valleys bear a part in the joyful Chore. 'T is Great Sir on these Considerations that I humbly beg leave by this Dedication to Express my own Thankful Acknowledgments together with those of that Little Flock whereunto I am more peculiarly â—elated for the Invaluable Happiness we enjoy through Your Majesties Benignity Now that that Great GOD who enclin'd Your Royal Heart to this Blessed Work may be a Glorious Canopy of Protection over You and bless You with the Dew of Heaven and Fatness of the Earth And that as He has given You to the Joy of Great Britain a Crown here He may fit You by His Grace for a Better an Immarcessible Crown hereafter Is and shall always be the dayly and most Fervent Prayer of Your Majesties most Dutiful most Obedient and most Thankful Subject CHARLES NICHOLETS THE Dissenters Iubilee PSAL. CXXVI 3. The LORD hath done great things for us whereof we are glad WHat our blessed Lord said to his Hearers concerning another Text relating to Himself I may say to you with respect to the first Verse of this Psalm When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion we were like them that dreamed This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears God has strangely wonderfully unexpectedly turned back our Captivity and we verily are even as those that dream Our hearts like the Babe in Elizabeths Womb leaping for joy and skipping like the young Vnicorns on Lebanon or dancing like David before the Ark in the sence of this amazing and stupendious Providence Now is the time that our Mouths are filled with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing for those that wish not well to us are forced to say among themselves The Lord hath done great things for them And if they say so much more reason have we to answer with the Church here by way of Concession The Lord indeed hath done great things for us whereof we are Gald The words are very plain and without much help of Logick or Grammar we may easily see through them as containing an Historical account of GOD's Acting in way of Mercy and his Peoples Rejoycing in way of Gratitude and exultation of Spirit My work is with respect to the occasion of our Meeting here this day to show you how obvious the one is and how congruous the other would be There can be no such stranger in our Israel as to be unacquainted with what great things the Lord hath done for us Oh! that there were never a Son or Daughter in our Zion backward in their Humble thankful and joyfull acknowledgment of it crying out from the very bottom of their Hearts Whereof we are glad Gaudia quae multo parta dolore placent Method obliges me to speak in order unto Four Things which lie before us in the Text. 1. The Agent or Person acting and that is the Eternal God The Lord hath done 2. The Object for whom he acts for us 3. The Predicate with its Amplification concerning his acting He hath done great things 4. The Influential Operation that this has upon all that fear the Lord Whereof we are Glad I begin with the first of these 1. The Lord Jehovah the Great and Powerful God the Creator of the ends of the Earth who can and does all things in Heaven above and on earth below according to the good pleasure of his own will That God who by his all-commanding Power brought Light out of Darkness extracted Order out of Confusion and dasht back the Waters from the naked Land. That God who made Almonds flourish upon Aarons sapless Rod That God who supplied his People with Water out of the hard Rock In a word that God who is glorious in Holiness Fearful in Praises and one that worketh Wonders in and among the Children of Men he it is that
hath done great things for us that in the Ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his Power in his kindness towards us in rescuing us from the jaws of Death and keeping us from going down into the Pit and by his glorious Omnipotence turning our Captivity as the streams of the South And this Almighty Power of his has been of old exerted for the deliverance of his poor distressed People as we may see in the Churches appeal to it upon her Invocation in time of trouble Isa 51.9 10 11. Awake Awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord as in the Antient days in the Generations of Old Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon art thou not it which hath dried the Sea the Waters of the great deep that hath made the depths of the Sea a way for the Ransomed to pass over therefore the Redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with Singing unto Zion and everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain Gladness and Joy and Sorrow and Mourning shall flee away As if she had said Thou hast formerly shined forth in the Glory of thy Power in cutting Rahab that is in plaguing Egypt in wounding the Dragon that is in destroying Pharoah and in drying up the Waters of the Red-Sea Oh put forth that power now in Freeing and redeeming us from our present troubles that we with them may sing those Hosannahs of Joy on Earth which will be perfected in Hallelujahs when we come to Heaven Tantum gaudebimus quam tum amabimus tantum amabimus quantum cognoscemus says the devout Austin We shall Rejoyce as much as we shall Love and we shall Love as much as we shall know Our knowledge of the glorious Attribute of Gods Power will then be perfect and our rejoycing at it will be in perfection also we find the Prophet in a dark and gloomy day when things lookt black upon the People of God had recourse to this great Power of God for his support and bearing up under the pressures of those sad and heavy things he saw a coming upon Jerusalem as you may see in that solemn and serious Prayer of his Jerimiah 32. verse 17 c. Ah! Lord God behold thou hast made the Heaven and the Earth by thy great Power and stretched-out Arm and there is nothing too hard for thee Thou shewest Loving kindness unto Thousands and recompensest the Iniquity of the Fathers into the bosome of their Children after them the Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in Councel and mighty in Work for thine Eyes are open upon all the ways of the Sons of Men to give every one according to his wayes and every one according to the fruit of his doings which hast set Signs and Wonders in the Land of Egypt even unto this day and in Israel and amongst other men and hast made thee a name as at this day and hast brought forth thy People Israel out of the Land of Egypt with Signs and with Wonders and with a strong hand and with a stretched-out Arm and with great terror This prayer is very argumentative and conclusive concerning the Power of God that it is able to effect all things since by it the vast globe of the World was made out of nothing the Lords Might anb his Mercy are the good Soul's Jachin Boaz the names of the two main Pillars in Solomons Temple the one signifying Stabllity the other Strength to note the Saints are safe and established in the the Power and Mercy of God. Thus the great Lord hath done great things for us Secondly The Lord the good and gracious God the Tender and Merciful God who hath proclaimed himself before Heaven and Earth before Angels and Men. The Lord The Lord God Mercifull and Gracious Long-suffering abundant in goodness and Truth the Lord who is good yea exceeding good whose Mercy endures for ever The Lord whose thoughts concercing Mercy are not as our thoughts nor his ways with respect to doing good as our wayes but as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are his Thoughts higher than our Thoughts his Ways than our Ways The Lord that is as ready to Grant as his People can be to Ask who is nigh to all that call upon him in sincerity when Troubles and Calamities do Surround them as you may see in his most tender affectionate answer to bemoaning Ephraim as soon as he came upon his knees before him Jeremiah 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are Troubled for him and I will surely have Mercy upon him saith the Lord. God may seem a great while as one unconcerned at the troubles of his People but when they are so high as to overwhelm their Spirits and their Hearts are bowing and bending yea breaking under them he then hath Pity and Compassion upon them in their Distresses As Croesus's dumb Son who never spoke in his Life before when he saw one attempting to Assassinate his Father violently cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Man Do not kill Croesus So the blessed God cannot hold coming in with supplyes of Mercy when his People are ready to be swallowed up in the gulf of Misery Mercy is his Name and Mercy is his Nature there is nothing he delights in so much for Mercy pleases him as much as it pleasures us and as he is great in Mercy so he is rich in it and free in it without any previous condition or qualification in the Creature He is a most free Agent in the distribution of Mercy Romans 9.15 for he saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on on whom I will have Compassion No other reason can be assigned no other motive by the Wisdom of Men and Angels could be produced why God should shew any Mercy to any of the Sons of Adam but his own free-will to it and his gracious Complacency in it When he is angry with his People and visiting them with some Judgments as Tokens of his Displeasure he is said to come out of his place importing that when he is doing good and shewing mercy he is then in his own proper place the place he would for ever be in did not our Sins too often occasion his removal We likewise read of his delighting in mercy Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee That pardonest iniquity and passest by the transgressions of the Remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy O Admiration Admiration That a dishonoured provoked and highly-incensed God should keep in the Vials of his wrath and shew so much Love and so much Mercy to his distressed ones yea in his Love and in his Mercy to do such great things for them Indeed when God strikes he strikes to
purpose and that wound cannot be small which is of his making A Jove percussus non leve vulnus habet He may and many time does lay his Hand on his People and that hand must needs be heavy and the blows very terrible such as will make the stoutest heart to quake and the most couragious Spirit to faint away When thou saith David with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a Moth. God in his Anger doth great and dreadful things to a sinning a provoking People Oh! but when he ariseth to have Mercy upon Zion he will do greater things for them than ever he did against them and such are the great things the Church speaks of here in the Text. The Lord the Merciful Lord hath done great things for us whereof as we have great reason for it we are glad Thirdly the Lord The true and faithful God keeping Covenant with his People and will do according to every Promise of his and this is the thing he hath promised in his Covenant Joel 2.21 Fear not O Land rejoyce and be glad for the Lord will do great things And this Promise he hath doth and will make good to his People even unto the End of the World. Our Miseries are our Advocate to Plead the Truth and Faithfulness of his Covenant with him So we find it Exodus 2.24 And God heard their Groaning and God remembred his Covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob. Which was to bring them out of that place They had been there a great while under cruel Bondage and Oppression God was ingaged in his Covenant to their Fathers to deliver them And their Sighs their Sobbs their Groans through their hard Usage to speak by an Anthropopathie did put him in remembrance of his Covenant Oh! 't is a great advantage then to belong to the Covenant Externa foederis gratiae Communio est qua Vocati pro foederatis Dei populo censentur saith a Judicious Author and upon how much higher ground do such stand then all others in the World for they can plead Covenant-promises and Covenant-priviledges Covenant-Engagements and Covevenant-Encouragements from that god who would not have his People strangers to him nor think that he is a stranger to them He owns himself his Peoples God and hence it is that he doth and will help them 20 Exodus 2. I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage The Lord is pleased to own himself his Peoples God and gives therefore incouragement to all his to cry out with the Church Thou art our Father though Abraham be Ignorant of us What God doth for his People he doth as their God as God in Covenant with them And as this makes delivering Mercy the greater so it raises the Obligation to praises and thankfulness much the higher Covenant-Interest is the sweetest part in any mercy we can enjoy whether privitive or positive Moses that Blessed Servant of God was very sensible of this demonstrated in that Song of his upon Israels deliverance from the hand of Pharoah which you will find Recorded Exodus 15.2 The Lord is my strength and Song he is become my Salvation he is my God and I will Exalt him Q. d. This deliverance shews God to be our God our Fathers God and mindful of the Covenant he made with them VVe have great reason therefore to exalt him in our Hearts and Lives and to sing aloud of his Righteousness that hath given such a Glorious Instance this day of his being a God keeping Covenant with his Chosen Ones Not a strange God but the Lord Our God our own God keeping Covenant inviolably with all that Fear him and put their Trust in him It is HE even HE that hath done great things for us Fourthly The Lord the Lord that is a present help in time of Trouble the Lord that staid the Knife just at Isaac's Throat which gave occasion to Abraham to call him Jehovah-Jereh Deus providebit God will provide or as our Translators render it In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen The Saints Extremity is his Oportunity He is the Lord that of old has come in with succour most seasonable when Miseries have been lookt upon by his People as inevitable The Light of his help has been always rising when the Star of his Saints hope hath been setting He is then nearest to his People when all other expectation is farthest from them The Scripture is not barren of instances of this great Truth to buoy up the Anchor of Christians Faith in most imminent times of danger God will appear in one way or other for them according to His old wont He steps in in the nick of time Psalm 124.1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the Waters had overwhelmed us the Stream had gone over our Soul Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a Prey to their teeth Our Soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the snare is broken and we are escaped Our help is in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth This If hath spoiled many a cunning project of the Devil and his Instruments to ruine the Church of God They would certainly many times prevail in their cursed designs of crushing the poor Saints if God did not arise Ay but He doth arise and that spoils all He doth come to deliver at seasonable times which blasts all the Enemies purposes and fills their faces with Confusion We have a notable Emblematical confirmation of this thing in the story of the Disciples being in a Ship with our Lord and ready to Perish even in the judgement of the Mariners themselves through the fury of the Storm Mathew 8.25 26. And his Disciples came to Him and awoke Him saying Lord save us we Perish And he saith unto them Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great Calm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is more significant then the English word Calm some derive it from a word that signifies Milk to note that the Air was as white and clear as that in a Winter Night which is called Via lactea the milky way but I rather conclude with Piscator Scapula and some others that it comes from a Theam in the Greek signifying to laugh or to look marvelous chearful The word then imports that there was upon Christs rebuking the Winds and the Seas not only a great Calmness Stillness and Quietness but also a wonderfull Serenity the Heavens and the Sea did as it were Smile and Laugh upon them which before did so Frown
who are not able to stand against the weakest Creature but waste insensibly and by degrees as a Garment that is Moth-eaten Man in his best state in his best dress under his best circumstances is al together Vanity and this makes him truely nothing to be accounted of The Prophet David could not but break forth with a Quid est Homo after contemplating the rest of Gods Creatures Psalm 8.4 What is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou dost visit him Q. d. Man is verily nothing at all O what a wonder of wonders is it then that the Blessed and Glorious God should take such notice of him and be so concerned for him In like manner we may be thus reflecting What are we O what are all the Dissenters in England abstractly considered but a company of very low mean Creatures unable to duty uncapable of Mercy And yet that God should appear for us and do such great things for us at this day this is verily the Lords doings and Oh that it could be marvellous in our Eyes That we might break forth into admiration at it Jacob on this account thus reflected upon himself Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my Staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two Bands Even so let us be bowing down our Heads and worshiping the Lord our God this day crying out We are not worthy of the least of thy Favours and of thy Truth for we are the wretched offspring of fallen man and yet thou hast showred floods of Mercy upon us Thou hast lifted us up out of the Horrible Pit of Tribulation and Persecution which we were so miserably sunk into and hast set our feet upon a Rock filling our Mouths with Praises and Gladness therefore Oh! Glory Glory Glory be to thy Name for Ever Secondly For Vs poor distressed Creatures who are in a miserable condition yea as miserable as miserable could be not only Persecuted almost to the utmost extremity by our open Enemies but forsaken and lookt a squint at by our quodam Friends who through pusilanimity were ready with Peter to swear they never knew us 'T is rare for man to keep close to much less to choose a Friend in Misery as the Poet well observed Nulla fides unquam miseros elegit Amicos Ay but God does he fixed on Vs for the objects of his signal Favour when we were burning in the hottest Fire of Persecution when we were so like our dear Redeemer who said of himself The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. Oh how great was our Misery in this respect The Drunkards and Debauchees of this Age were in their Cieled Houses and the Contemners of Religion dwelled secure in their Habitations but the Saints of the most High knew not where to fly for refuge But then O then God looked upon us in Mercy 136 Psalm 23 24. Who remembreth us in our low estate for his Mercy endureth for Ever and hath redeemed us from our Enemies for his Mercy endureth for Ever I shall not make any recapitulation of the particulars of our Sufferings least the design of this day be changed from the seasonable duty of Rejoycing into the unseasonable work of Sighing and Sobbing It would be Infandum renovare dolorem and the reflecting on never so few instances would make the yet-scarce-healed wounds to bleed afresh and extort tears of Lamentation from the greatest part of this Assembly Quis talia fando temperet alachrimis I confess I could not keep in my self as being able to say with AEneas Quaeque ipse misserima vidi et Quorum pars magna fui But this calamity was not personal but epidemical The cry of all the dissenting People of God seemed to be that of the Church Psalm 79.8 9. O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercy speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Help us O God of our Salvation for the Glory of thy Name and deliver us and purge away our Sins for thy Name sake And this bitter cry hath at length pierced the Heavens and come up before the Holy One who hath heard us and helped us and delivered us in the day of our great Trouble and in the day of the vexation of our Souls when we were so low that never any People surely were lower then we were Having from without this only thing to comfort us that whilst it pleased God to defer the altering our condition for the better we might bid defiance to the Devil to make it worse Qui jacet in terris non habet unde cadet But now Oh now in the midst of this low and deplorable state God hath done great things for us Thirdly For us Sinful Unworthy Creatures whose deportment hath been such in all our sufferings that we may truely and without complement cry out with the Church Thou hast punished us O Lord less then our iniquities have deserved we have Tempted him as at Missah and Provoaked him as at the waters of Meribah we have Sinned in our Hearts and in our Lives in our words and in all our Actions There have been found among us even among us Spots that have hardly been the Spots of Gods Children VVe have Sinned away our Mercies and thereby justly provoked the Lord to forsake his Tabernacle that was in our Shiloh and the Tent which he had placed among us men And as our Sins have justly brought down Judgments upon us so have they continued them to us VVe have Sinned in as well as before our Sufferings VVe have been as that AHAZ Who trespassed yet more and more in his Afflictions VVhat was said of them of Old may well be applyed to us in this Generation Jer. 17.1 The Sin of Judah is written with a Pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond it is graven upon the table of their hearts and upon the horns of their Altars Their Sins lay there where the Law should have lain even in their hearts and so it hath been with us Ay and on the Horns of their Altars too where they should have Offered up their pure and unblemisht Sacrifices And have not we done the very same Yea verily we have sinned even in our Worshiping our Hearing our Praying Oh! what corruptions what horrid Iniquities have accompanied our most solemn Duties and thereby rendered us the most impious and impudent of Sinners Oh! that God should then do such great things for such as we Oh! that ever we should come into His Heart for delivering Mercy who with our own hands have brought down upon our own heads the flood of all Misery In looking back on our former ways we cannot but joyn with the Church in condemning our selves as justly forfeiting all those precious and
pleasant things the loss of which we so much deplore Lam. 5.16 The Crown is fallen from our head wo unto us that we have Sinned for this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim because of the Mountain of Zion which is desolate the Foxes walk upon it Ponit symbolum verae contritionis And Oh! that we were as hearty and as violent in bemoaning of Sin the true cause as ever we were in complaining of Sorrow the genuine effect But we have sinned and behold we are delivered Oh! what a miracle of Mercy that the Almighty should appear in any way for us Sinners Were there any real manifestations of Repentance among us or any beginnings of turning from the evil of our ways the admiration of this day would not be so great But as we have Sinned we do yet Sin and are going on farther and farther in the paths of Sin without any remorse or reluctancy without any Humiliation or Contrition and yet that God the Holy God the Sin-hating God should do such great things for us great Sinners Oh! wonder wonder Fourthly For Vs despised and contemptible creatures who were low and vile in the sight of the whole World and so far following the steps of our dear Lord in his Sufferings that we were verily rejected of men a People of Sorrow and acquainted with Grief We were the Drunkards Song the Atheist Scorn and a scoff to all the Profane Ones So that the complaint of the Church was exactly true of us Psalm 79.4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us What flouts what jears were the sons of Belial making at us because and meerly because we defended the Kingly Office of Christ in his Church and in the defence of that with Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches then the treasures of the World How odious hath the name of a Dissenter been in this Land How miserably have we been misrepresented in all our ways in all our actions in all our circumstances VVhat artificial tricks have been used to make us despicable even among them that never knew us VVhat contempt hath been poured upon us by the men of this Generation VVhat villanous base things have been told of us from one end of the Land to the other How have the Pulpits and the Benches been full yea running over with these vile and most untrue suggestions As if our Ministers were men without Learning our People without Sence and all of us a company of mad distracted creatures scarce fit to live How have we been Be-rebell'd and Be-traytor'd How many times have we been confidently accused to be no friends to Caesar implacable Enemies to all Government hatching of Plots contriving of mischiefs continually These with a thousand other shams have been industriously managed to render us Odious and Loathsome in the Eyes of our Soveraign Like the dealings the Prophet speaks of Jer. 20.10 11. For I heard the defaming of man fear on very side Report say they and we well Report it All my Familiars watched for my Halting saying Peradventure he will be Enticed and we shall prevail against him and we shall take our Revenge on him But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible One therefore my Persecutors shall stumble and they shall not prevail they shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper their everlasting Confusion shall never be forgotten The Practice of our Adversaries these late Years past hath been much like this they have Reported the worst they could invent Calumniari audacter fortiter aliquid Hoerebit hath been their avouched Principle and indeed by their art of Lying they have keep us a long time under their hatches But now for us thus Abused and Slandered Creatures the Lord hath rouzed up himself to do great things for our Persecutors are now stumbling they can no longer prevail they are now greatly ashamed and confusion of Face is inevitably come upon them Fifthly For us distrustful unbelieving Creatures we were so worn out with Persecutions and bitter Sufferings that as we had almost forgot what a quiet comfortable State was so we had left it out of our Creed to believe that such a State should ever be our Portion again Oh! How much down and flagg'd was our Faith We were ready to conclude with Zion The Lord had forsaken us and our God had forgotten us and that he had quite shut up the tender Bowels of his Mercy and would be gratious no more to us Nay our distrustfulness of the possibility of deliverance and the All-sufficiency of God to bring it about came up parallel with that high Provocation of Israel we find mentioned Psal 78.19 Yea they spake against God they said Can God Furnish a Table in the Wilderness Therefore the Lord heard this and was wrath so a Fire was kindle against Jacob and Anger also came up against Israel Oh! Have we not tempted God in the very same kind Have not we made reflections on his Power Have we not thought it impossible Deliverance should be wrought cut for us and thereby highly dishonoured the Lord our God in the wilderness of our Troubles by disponding in his Goodness and by distrusting of his Power Our Hearts grew faint and our Spirits fail'd within us so that we gave up all for lost And through the extream sinking of our Faith we lookt upon our selves as a People wholly markt out for destruction In so much as we were ready to say with the Prophet Oh that we had in the Wilderness a Lodging place of Wayfaring men That we might go and live solitarily alone or that we might hide our selves in the Deserts of the Earth till the bitter Calamity were over past Indeed we knew not where to go or what to do so great was our Fear and so little was our Faith. Oh! what an unexpected change of Providence is now come upon us even upon us who were puting this great and glorious day of Mercy so far from us in our thoughts and apprehensions It was with us as with that Lord we read of on whom the King leaned 2 Kings 7.12 Then Elisha said Hear the Word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord To morrow about this time shall a Measure of fine Flower be sold for a Sheckle in the Gates of Samaria Then a Lord on whose hand the King leaned answered the man of God and said Behold if the Lord would make Windows in Heaven might this thing be And he said Behold thou shalt see it with thine Eyes but shalt not Eat thereof There requires more Faith then I doubt most of us were ever possessors of to see the Plenty of Deliverance in the midst of the pinching Scarcity of Persecution Tarda solet magnis rebus in esse fides Well but though our Faith could not behold it God hath graciously vouchsafed it He hath done great things for us who were great Unbelievers Sixthly
out of their Dwellings without having their Houses Plundered and Pillaged without having their Goods wasted and destroyed without being ruined and undone in their Trades and Callings and that for no other cause than their Conscientious fearing to offend God in complying with those terms of worship which according to the discerning God had given them after use of Prayer and other means were really sinful Without being a Prey to wicked and ungodly Ones who rejoyced in nothing more then in Ravage Devastation 'T was an awful Judgment the Lords own People lay under that he should give them up to these Savage Mens Lusts whose tender mercies they so wofully experienced to be Cruel And indeed he was the Efficient cause in it Who gave Jacob to the Spoil and Israel to the Robber Did not I saith the Lord Yes he did But tho he did so for the glorifying his Justice he hath at length for the greater glorifying of his Mercy rescued them again from these Spoilers and taken the Power out of their hands as he promised of old Ezek. 34.38 And they shall no more be a Prey to the Heathen neither shall the Beasts of the Land devour them but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid Whatever men may think of themselves the Spirit of God calls them no better then Beasts for devouring his Heritage But now lift up your Heads and rejoyce ye Sons and Daughters of the most High ye shall be devoured no more Ye shall now live in quiet and enjoy the Mercy the Pagan accounted so great Optat Fumum de patriis posse videre focis Return ye scattered Ones into your Habitations again for now the King of Kings will be a Wall of Fire round about you and the Glory in the midst of you Oh! Beloved this is a great thing this is a pleasant thing that God hath done for you Now the Shops may be open'd again that have been so long shut up now the Houses may be furnished again that have been so long desolate and now you may all visit one another again with comfort and delight who have been so long dispersed by a Storm so full of Terror and Amazement Now you may sit down every one under his own Fig-Tree and eat the Labour of your own hands without danger of the hungry Canibal to snatch it out of your Mouths As God said his own People should do Jerem. 23.8 But the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the Seed of the House of Israel out of the North Countrey and from all Countreys whether I had driven them and they shall dwell in their own Land. God hath now made our Land Peaceable and hath restored our Cities to dwell in Verily this is a great thing This is that whereby God hath made himself known in our Judah and whereby his Name is become great in our Israel Whereby also he hath manifested his Tabernacle to be in our Salem and his Dwelling-Place in the midst of our Zion Oh! what shall we say to these things If God be for us who can be against us Fourthly He hath given us just Liberty of Conscience to Serve Him and VVorship in that way which we are absolutely convinc'd to be the truest and nearest the Rule So that every one hath now the Liberty and glorious Freedom of his own Conscience in matters of Religion which hath been so much opposed and Tyranniz'd over by the Men of this Generation Oh! unparallel'd Tyranny Had VVe and our little Ones been sold for Bond Slaves our oppressions had not been so great VVe might have had recourse to God in Prayer and hearing his Word which would have alleviated our Sorrows though never so great and eased our burdens though never so heavy But to be denied this Liberty is so great a piece of inhumanity that nothing can be greater No Slavery like that of having the Conscience manacled and fettered by the impious will of Man which as our most Excellent Soveraign hath declared is not to be Constrained or any way Forced Man hath nothing so near to him or so dear to him as his Conscience hence Compulsion and Coertion as to that is both against the Law of God and the very Light of Nature Heathens have abhorred it 'T was the glory of Ahashuerus his Feast that there was no compelling any man to do beyond what he had a mind to or saw in himself cause for every man was left to his own freedom Esther 1.8 And the drinking was according to the Law none did compel for so the King had appointed to all the Officers of the house that they should do according to every mans Pleasure And shall there be more imposing in a Christian Church then there was in the Persian Court Shall a Heathen King be more tender then Protestant Magistrates Truely this is little for the honour of Christianity Well how ever Conscience hath been bound 't is now free this Glorious and Golden Liberty is once more restored again Aurea Libertas auro pretiosior omni Oh! what a great thing is this that God hath wrought out for us Rejoyce O Land and break forth into Shouting Oh England for thy Inhabitants are now indeed made a free People The Iron Yoak of the worst sort of Bondage and Captivity which hath so long and so greatly galled them is taken off their necks and every man is at ease Nothing so welcome to all Christians as this thing As Aristotle saith of the Hand it is Organon Organoon the Instrument of Instruments so we may say of Liberty of Conscience it is the Mercy of Mercies Indeed it is a a Mercy that makes all other enjoyments to be Mercy without this our Bread is mingled with Gaul how fine soever and our drink with Worm-wood how rich soever without this our health would do us little good yea Life 〈…〉 self is but a protracted Misery And as this Liberty is so pleasing to every Creature so it is no less consonant to the mind and will of the Great Creator and hence those that have the Spirit of God cannot dare not be against it 2 Cor. 3.17 Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty VVhere-ever the Spirit of the Lord dwells in Power and Life that Soul is for Liberty that Soul having tasted the sweetness of Liberty is as willing to allow it to his fellow Creatures as to take it himself Whilst men are tying the Consciences of others up to the hard mead of their humours they are doing the Devils work and not Gods. Oh Sirs God hath done this great thing for us he hath given us Liberty of Conscience Oh! that we might be so glad of it as to use it to his Glory and not as an occasion of farther provoking him for this would be sad and dreadful indeed Fifthly He hath enlarged the Preaching of the Gospel of that Gospel which brings the Glad-tidings of Salvation to
Judah that enter in at these Gates to Worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Amend your wayes and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Ah! Sirs if we desire the continuance of this great Mercy of entring the Gates to worship the Lord for Gods sake let us be reforming our Lives and turning every one from the Evil of his wayes that we may provoke the Lord no more to hate the Palaces of our Jacob or forsake the Assemblys in our Israel for hereby indeed can we only shew that we are glad of these great things that God hath done for us Fifthly We should be glad demonstrated in our satisfaction and contentedness of Spirit with what God hath done laying aside all needless fears and jealousies which tend only to disquiet the mind and render us uncapable of worshiping God as we should do Oh hear and tremble at the Apostles solemn Admonition 1 Exo. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer God hath influenced our Soveraign to do such great things for us which none of his Predecessors ever did largly expressed in his unparalleld Declaration A Declaration so full of Princely Love and Affection so full of Amazing Candor and Condescention that it deserves to be writ in Letters of Gold. Behold Majesty on the Thone veyling the Scepter and darting the Rayes of his Royal Favour into the poorest Cottage Behold a Crowned King Compassionating and Commiserating the Calamities of his meanest Subjects What shall I say Behold an Index pointing to the rich graces and vertues in the large Folio of the Royal Breast And shall we be yet murmuring and indulge discontents and fears Oh! this would be a very ungrateful Requital both to God and the King. Oh Beloved I earnestly beg you that we may Eat our Bread with Joyfulness and dwell in our Habitations with Gladness with what God and the King hath done for us Sixthly We should be glad demonstrated in our Dutiful Deportment towards our Soveraign God is the Efficient he is the Instrument of these great things let us therefore be like those of old who blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyful and glad of Heart for all the goodness he had done for David his Servant and for Israel his People We are now under the indispensible Duty of Gratitude as well as of Law and Gospel to be a quiet and peaceable People Oh! that the King may never see any thing in our Carriages to make him Repent of the kindness he hath shown to us I will leave that word with you and I cannot but earnestly press it upon you which Solomon the wisest of men left in charge to his Son 24 Prov. 21.22 My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the Ruin of them both Oh! let us make good our Soveraigns good Opinion that good Christians will be good Subjects and herein shall we shew our selves glad in a right gladness I shall now in a few words shew you what a kind of gladness this should be and I have done First It should be a forgetful gladness I do not mean forgetful of the Mercies we receive but of the Miseries we have felt Oh! let them be Buried in the Grave of Oblivion let them be as though they never were and to that end I would commend the Spiritual Improvement of those words Prov. 31.6 7. Give strong Drink unto those that are ready to Perish and Wine unto those that be of heavy Hearts let him drink and forget his Poverty and remember his Misery no more Who ever hath been pincht by the late Persecution Oh! let him come and drink of the waters that are runing in our Sanctuaries so will he forget his Poverty and remember his Miseries no more God did not depress us so low but he hath now raised us again Dejicit ut relevei premit ut solatie praestet Denecat ut possit vivificare Deus He covered the head of our Zion with a Cloud in the day of his Anger that the Light of his Countenance and the Glory of his Presence might be now more sweet and precious He over-whalmed us with Sorrow that the Table he hath now spread for us and the Oyl wherewith he is Anointing our Heads might be the more fragrant and odiriferous He brought us down into the Valley of Death that after two days he might revive us and that in the third day he might raise us up that we may live in his sight that we may know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the Morning and that his coming to us is as the Rain as the latter and former Rain unto the Earth Oh then what-ever hardships we have undergone let them all be forgotten Secondly It should be a Charitable gladness We should so be glad for these great things as to put away all Anger and Malice and thoughts of Revenge against those that have done us wrong for so is the Gospel command 5 Math. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies Bless them that Curse you do good to them that Hate you and Pray for them which Dispitefully use you and Persecute you Oh! Remember that a Forgiving Spirit is a Gospel Spirit Thirdly It should be a Profitable gladness We should labour to be so glad for these great things as to get good by them improving the means of Grace we now enjoy for our Souls good saying with David 112 Psa 1 2 3 4 5 6. I was glad when they said unto me Let us go unto the House of the Lord. Our Feet shall stand within thy Gates O Jerusalem Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compact together whether the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord for there are set Thrones of Judgment the Thrones of the House of David Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Oh Sirs This gladness will turn to a good account at the last day Fourthly It should be a Spiritual gladness Not in a Carnal way of Rejoycing as the World do nor upon the account of any Carnal or VVorldly Intrest but purely on a Spiritual account As our Saviour admonished his Disciples Luke 10.20 Notwithstanding In this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven I have not now time to apply it but so should our gladness be Fifthly It should be an Eucharistical gladness Oh! how should we be Blessing Praising Adoring and Magnifying the Lord our God in the Sense of these great things he hath done for us How should we be stiring up our selves to the Praise of him as David did 108 Psa 1.2 3 4. O God my Heart is fixed I will Sing and give Praise even with my Glory Awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early and I will sing Praises to thee among the Nations for thy Mercy is great above the Heavens and thy Truth reacheth unto the Clouds This will be a gladness truly becoming the Professors of the Gospel Sixthly It should be an Influential gladness Oh! what an Influence should these great things have upon our whole Man to serve our God more purely to live to him more holily and to walk before him more humbly then ever we have done as the Apostle urgeth the Romans Chap. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercy of God that you present your Body a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service If this Exhortation were well practiced by all that profess the Name of God in England Oh! How would Peace Triumph over Dissention in the Nation How would Plenty Triumph over Poverty in the City And that which is best of all how would Religion Triumph over Prophaneness in every Corner of the Land And thereby how would God have the Glory and we the solid lasting Comfort of these great things he hath done for us Amen Amen Hallelujah Hallelujah FINIS Advertisement THere will very shortly be Published for the gratifying the Desires of many another Sermon of this Reverend Authors the very first he Preacht at the opening of the Meeting-House in Spittle-fields being a most Seasonable Discourse of Gods hearing Prayer
could not set fast upon his Head while such Disloyal Ones as we were at Peace in the Land. But we now stand right in our Soveraigns Favour he has been pleased to spread the Wings of his Clemency over us and this we humbly Acknowledge to be a great thing God hath done for us Now then If stopping the Mouths of our Adversaries which were so open if lifting up the Head of our Ministers which were so low if securing our Inhabitants which were so uneasy if giving Liberty of Conscience which was so tyrrannyzed over if enlarging the Gospel which was so opposed if making way for the worst to hear the Word who were so miserably kept from it if turning the Heart of our Soveraign To Vs who suffered so much by that Fatal Eclips If these are great things then God hath done great things for us I come now to the last part of the words Namely The Influence that this has upon all that fear God Whereof we are glad The word saith Light is Sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in Heart And this seems to be the Harvest time for our God is returning after so long with-drawing and repenting concerning us his Servants He is satisfying us also with his Mercy and making our Hearts glad in this day Yea he is making us Joyful according to the days wherein he hath afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil his VVork is appearing unto us and his Glory upon our Children Oh! That we could therefore make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord that we could serve the Lord with Gladness and come before his Presence this day with Singing Oh! That we could enter his Gates with Thanks-giving and into his Courts with Praise and be thankful unto him and bless his Name The Preacher saith There is a time to Weep and a time to Laugh a time to Mourn and a time to Dance VVe have had our days of VVeeping and of Mourning we have been in the VVilderness of Sin and as in the Vale of Siddim with Jeremy we have even had Furrows on our Faces and Isickles from our Eye lids with continual VVeeping with Origen we have almost been dead with Grief with Chrysystome we have been consuming our days in Sorrow with Basil we have been even old before our time and with Rebeckah we have been weary of our Lives but now Gaudia post luctus veniunt the Laughing time the Dancing time is come our Lord is now saying to us as to his Church 2 of the Cant. 10.11 12 13. My Beloved speak and said unto me Rise up my Love my Fair One and come away for lo the Winter is past the Rain is over and gone the Flowers appear on the Earth the time of the Singing of Birds is come and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land the Fig-Tree putteth forth her green Figs and the Vine with tender Grapes gives a good smell Arise my Love my Fair One and come away From whence should she come VVhy from setting in her Mourning-Chamber giving up her self to Sorrow and Lamentation for though it had been a blustering and stormy Winter with her yet it is now past though it had been a time of great and dismal Rain yet it is now over and gone and the Pleasant Spring time is come for the Flowers appear on the Earth and the Birds begin to Sing So it hath been with us The ways of our Zion have Mourned because none did come to the Solemn-Feast all her Gates were desolate her Priests sighed her Virgins were afflicted and she was in Bitterness But now our Condition is changed and we are called to Rejoycing and we shall Sin greatly if we do not Rejoyce Deut. 28.47 Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with Joyfulness and with gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things This was a great and a provoking Sin pray let it not be our Sin. But let us Rejoyce in the Lord our righteousness and glory in the Rock of our Salvation who hath done this great thing for us Give me leave very briefly to shew you how we should be glad First As it is an Answer of Prayer God hath manifested himself a God hearing Prayer in doing these great things for they are the very things we have been long Praying for as Hannah said to Eli. 1 Sam. 1.27 For this Child I Prayed and the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him So for this day for this Change for this time of Liberty the People of God have been VVeeping and Praying and Crying aloud Oh! what floods of Tears have been poured out Oh! what volleys of Sighs and Sobs have been sent up in the Exhalations of the Spirits of the Saints unto the great God that he would do what he hath now done for them as it is of God that we are not destroyed so it is of God that we are delivered and shall we not be glad that he hath at length heard our Prayers and answered our Request Secondly VVe should be glad in respect to the Time of it He hath done great things for us at this time when we least expected it This Inhanced the value of deliverance of the Jews 7 Ezra 12. Artaxerxes King of Kings unto Ezra a Priest a Scribe of the Law of the God of Hâ—aven perfect Peace and at such a time Our King hath sent the blessed Message of Peace to the poor Ministers of the Gospel and to all the Churches of Christ in this Land and at such a time when we looked for nothing but Sorrow and Trouble and surely for this we should be glad Thirdly We should be glad demonstrated in our Vnion Bondage and Oppression hath not driven us together Oh! That Deliverance might since it hath pleased God to open a Door of Liberty for us all of what perswasion soever Oh! That we might heedfully attend to the Apostles pressing Exhortation Ephe. 4.3.4 Endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace There is one Body and one Spirt even as you are called in one hope of your calling I could heartily wish that all the unhappy Names of distinction which have kept up the feud so long among us might be now laid aside and that we might live together in Love and be sincerely loving one another as the fellow Citizens of the New Jerusalem Oh! This would be a great thing a glorious manifestation of our Gladness Fourthly We should be glad demonstrated in our Reformation There is a voice in Mercies as well as in Afflictions in Deliverance as well as in Persecution God hath been a long time speaking to us from the Fulminations of Mount Sinai and now is speaking to us from the sweet Irradiations of Mount Sion and his voice is that you will find mentioned Jere. 7.2.3 Stand in the Gate of the Lords House and proclaim there this word and say Hear the Word of the Lord all ye of