with us and give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it and never leave us nor forsake us but be our helper and deliverer Hath He not bid us not fear them that can do no more but kill the body but fear Him that can throw both Soul and Body into Hell and repeated it again that we should fear this great Lord fear to offend Him fear to lose His favour and the glorious hope He hath set before us Hath He not bid us lay hold on this hope and hold fast our confidence and the rejoycing of our hope unto the end Hath He not bid us trust to this that stronger is He that is in us than he that is in the world than the Devil and all his partakers and instruments who have no power to hurt us unless He consent to it and in that case the thing we account a hurt shall work together for our good We are not Christians if we believe not this And what is there more to be believed but that He hath power to make good his word And how can we question that when we remember that He is the LORD whose power is no less large than his desire So that He cannot be inclined by his good will to design or to promise any kindness to his Servants which He hath not equal ability actually to perform He doth not merely wish us well nor can He be suspected ever to find any impotency in himself whereby He should be disabled from expressing the love which we think He bears us And therefore He cannot be more forward either to conceive good intentions towards us or to make us promises of the good He intends than He is ready and able to do to the full what He purposes and what He promises The consideration of which power of his is the great support of our Faith when we read any of his exceeding great and pretious promises in the Holy Scriptures and should make us heartily depend upon them and with a settled resolution go about our duty in an unshaken confidence of their performance To this Power of God it was that Abraham the Father of the Faithful had respect when God promised to give him an heir though an impossible thing in Nature He staggered not at the promise through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform iv Rom. 20 21. The object of his faith was the promise of God who as He had never deceived him so he knew could not be worse than his word But that which preserved him from staggering at such a Promise as this was his laying hold on the Power of God which made him strong in faith And the Glory he gave to God was his conceiving so highly and magnificently of his Power as nothing to doubt of what He had said nor in the least to imagine the thing He promised was beyond it but to rest fully perswaded that He was no less able to perform than He was willing to promise it The like strong Faith we ought to have in the power of our Lord Christ from whose Majesty we shall extreamly derogate if we think there is any thing too hard for Him to do But to think He cannot do what He hath promised to do for us is to blemish Him with such a weakness that there cannot be a greater disparagement to Him For though it be no discredit to one of us not to be able to do every thing that another man can do yet to put our Friends in hope and expectation by promises of what we know is without the reach of our abilities is such a dishonour that it reflects scorn and contempt in the face of those who are guilty of it And therefore if it could be conceived which we ought not in the least to admit that our Blessed Lord hath any weakness or defect of Power in Him yet so great a defect as this to promise things which He cannot make good to those that believe them and depend upon them must need be far removed from Him And we being sure that the same Goodness and Love which moved Him to make those promises of Grace and strength to us will move Him to imploy his Power to communicate them we ought to trust to this and with an assured Faith depend upon His powerful Goodness and in that Faith stedfastly and couragiously perform most constant obedience to Him who we are sure cannot fail us II. But that we may not deceive our selves with a false dependance on Him nor vainly trust to his Almighty Power for our aid let us always remember which will bring me to the second thing I propounded that it is such a Faith in Him and dependance on Him as makes us use all the means which He hath appointed in conjunction with our trust in his might for our preservation Else it is not a right Faith in the power of his Might nor will derive the communications of it into our souls for He that bids us confide in that requires us also to do many other things in the exercise of which He tells us we may be confident his Power will give us the better And if we believe as we ought we shall take his word as much for the one as for the other According to which Doctrine the Apostle who could best explain his own mind immediately adds this injunction in the words after my Text Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil It was not enough it seems barely to confide in the invincible strength of the Lord Jesus but they must put their own hand to the work and prepare themselves for the incounter and valiantly when occasion was enter into it and sustain it For opposition we must expect as the Apostle shows vers 12. and great opposition from very powerful very subtil very industrious and likewise invisible Enemies For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses in high places Who among other ways they have to trouble us stir up the spirits of evil men to give us all the disturbance and do us all the mischief that is in their power and stir them up to so high a degree of rage that they persecute us many times with such inhumane malice and cruelty as flesh and blood could not invent were it not acted by a Diabolical fury This mighty and frightful opposition we are apt to make an Argument why we cannot hold out but should despair of being able to do our duty But the Apostle quite contrary makes it an Argument why we should be strong and resolved and watchful and ready arm'd against all temptations and able to stand because we have to do with such potent and crafty Enemies who are so much above us in high places from whence
WARD MAYOR Cur. prima tent die Jovis quarto die Novemb. Annoque Regis CAROLI Secundi Angl. c. xxxij THis COURT doth desire Master Dean of Peterburgh to Print his SERMON preached at the Guild-hall Chappel on Sunday morning last WAGSTAFFE A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable THE LORD MAYOR AND THE ALDERMEN OF THE City of LONDON At Guild-Hall Chappel Octob. 31. 1680. Being the XXI Sunday after TRINITY By SYMON PATRICK D. D. DEAN of PETERBVRGH and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by I. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty 1680. To the RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir PATIENCE WARD Lord Mayor Of the CITY of LONDON Right Honourable IT is so hard on some occasions to be a thoroughly good Christian and much more to be such a Magistrate that some have given over the endeavour of it out of a perswasion that it is impossible Which as it proceeds from great ignorance of the Christian Religion so would be a great disparagement to it if our blessed Saviour and his Apostles had not taken special care not only to breed in us a quite contrary opinion but also to raise our minds to the highest degree of confidence that we shall be able by the Divine assistance to surmount the greatest difficulties This I have endeavoured in as plain a manner as I could devise to press in this Sermon which by the desire of that Honourable Court where Your Lordship presides I now humbly present to Your and the publick view Which will do the more good I hope not only because Your Lordship judged it very seasonable at Your entrance upon Your Office but because I was directed to this subject not so much by my own Prudence as by a kind of Divine Providence which I have oft observed on the like occasions For having in the common course of my Sermons this year at my own Parish Preached upon some part of the Epistle for the Day I found there was no need to go out of my way to meet with a fitting Argument upon that Sunday when I was appointed to preach to Your Lordship And therefore I sought no further but applyed my self to prosecute the first words which occurred there and that not with such matter as humane invention might have furnished me withall but such as the Apostle himself suggested in the rest of the Epistle for that day And indeed they are matters of great and weighty importance which though there be many of them I have both comprehended in a little room and also made them not hard to be remembred because I have considered them as relating all to one and the same end and as having not only the same scope but such a dependance also one upon another that they cannot well be separated I am sure where they are all united there the Divine Blessing will be for they are the compleat Armour of God that heavenly defence which will certainly secure us in our station if we will but make use of it with a mind to be and to do what soever Christ would have us The first step toward which is rightly to understand our duty as should have been pressed more largely if I had had room enough from those words be girt about with Truth In which if we be defective we shall miscarry do what we can and the more Zealous we are the more we shall be out of the way But it is not likely we shall be defective in any material part of Christian Knowledge if to our serious study of a right understanding and judgment in all things we add according to the last Advice in this discourse most earnest prayer to God for his direction guidance and assistance and can appeal to Him in such words as those of David which are full of sincere affection that we are heartily resolved to do whatsoever we know to be our duty and that there is nothing we long for so much in this world as to know it intirely CXIX Psal 34 35. Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments for therein do I delight Which that Your Lordship may alwayes do and thereby acquit your self in your difficult charge to the general satisfaction of all good men is the hearty prayer of My LORD Your most humble Servant S. PATRICK A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD MAYOR and ALDERMEN Of the CITY of LONDON EPHES. vi 10. Finally my Brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might I Have chosen you see for your present instruction Right Honourable and well beloved the beginning of the Epistle for this Day In the first word of which the Apostle signifies that he was drawing to a conclusion of this Letter to the Christian Church at Ephesus Finally my Brethren I have nothing more to add but this all that remains is to exhort you to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might He had made his most earnest Prayer to God in the middle of this Epistle iii. 14 c. that he would grant them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that so they might be able to perform all their Christian duty which follows in the insuing part of the Epistle till you come to my Text. In which he puts them in mind that it was not sufficient to receive strength from Heaven in their inner man but they must also be strong or strengthen themselves not indeed in themselves but in the Lord in that heavenly strength which our blessed Saviour gives us and in the power of his might wherewith He will always assist our weakness There lyes the security of Christians from whom our Saviour expects a faithful obedience both in their single and in their relative capacity either as Men or Women or as Husbands or Wives as Parents or Children as Masters or Servants all whose duties the Apostle had just before most punctually set down because He requires no impossible thing but such an obedience as he strengthens us with might by his spirit to perform if we will but be careful and diligent to strengthen our selves in him and in the power of his might In which words we cannot but observe these two things First A Christian duty incumbent upon them which was to be strong or to strengthen themselves For it is an Exhortation of the Apostle to the Ephesians whom he charges with this as the very upshort of his foregoing discourse Secondly The ability they had to perform this duty which is in or by the Lord For there he tells them their strength lyes in him and in the power of his might that is in his mighty insuperable power The first of which supposes that they would need a great deal of courage and resolution for that is to be strong in the
they can more easily assault us This he repeats again vers 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that is because you have so many so great and dangerous Enemies to conflict withal take unto you to put it on that is that Divine Armour which God himself furnishes you withal and let no part of it be wanting but be intirely at all times covered with it that so you may be able to withstand or to resist with constancy and patience in the evil day or the time when you must indure many calamities for Christs sake And having done all to stand that is having compleated your resistance by an unyielding resolution to consent to nothing against your duty you may remain as conquerours over all those Enemies that assaulted you Stand therefore vers 14. he repeats it a third time the more to imprint their Duty in their mind and to excite and encourage them unto it He would not have them doubt of getting the better but be confident they should be able to withstand all manner of opposition provided they put on intirely that compleat Armour which he was about to recommend to them from God himself Without that their confidence even in Christ and his mighty Power would not keep them in safety but they were to trust in Him imploying those weapons which He had given them for their defence and security Let me therefore briefly explain them that you may see what you have to do if you would be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might In which it is impossible that any body should be able to direct you so well as the Apostle himself and therefore I shall seek for no other means of attaining this Divine strength but those which he hath set down in the remaining part of the Epistle for this day 1. And first you must take care to have your loyns girt about with truth vers 14. that is with a true understanding of all things that concern our duty safety and happiness Which we can receive from no place so certainly and so amply as from the Revelation our Lord hath made of the mind of God to us in his Gospel which is called the word of truth teaching us both what is true and false and what is good and evil so fully that we want no necessary Information Direction or incouragement in our Christian warfare Only we must make it our business throughly to understand the mind of God and to let it sit close to our hearts for that is to have it girt about us This will make us ready against all assaults and they will find us better prepared to receive them we shall be the more at liberty and have nothing interpose to intangle our mind and hinder us from doing our duty For that was the end of a Souldiers girding up his cloaths about his loyns that he might be the more nimble and expedite in action when he was not incumbred by his garments hanging loosely about his heels Such will the clear knowledge of things especially of the Truth as it is in Jesus render our minds Which will find themselves fit for any service and able to perform it with ease and freedom when they are delivered by this illumination from all vain opinions about those things which we call Good and Evil in this world from all false principles from causeless doubts and scruples from confusion of thoughts and uncertainty of mind which weaken and discourage the hearts of men in any incounter with their spiritual enemies Whose great advantage lyes in our ignorance and folly mistakes and false perswasions which this Divine Light shining in us will chase away and let us see through all the thin pretences whereby we are tempted to commit any Sin or to neglect our duty and make the vanity of them so transparent that we shall never be cheated by them any more For Truth is great and will prevail not indeed unless it be seated and rooted in our minds but if it have taken fast hold there it hath the Lord on its side whose mighty power resides there where his sacred Truth doth which being the sense of his own mind is something of himself residing in us There would not for instance be so many deserters and revolters from their Religion so many cowardly and timerous spirits who will do nothing for it so many cold and indifferent persons who care not what becomes of it if we understood the truth of it better and its principles did not hang loose in our minds but we had a lively sense of its excellency purity simplicity and Divine original Which would preserve us also from doing any thing unbecoming our Religion while we make profession of it and pretend to admire it and love it and to endeavour to preserve it For who could act contrary to its principles whose heart were affected deeply with this single truth that he who knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes It will go exceeding hard with that man and he will lye under the severest lashes of his own Conscience as well as under the heavy displeasure of his Lord and Master who taught him the way of God in truth if he would have taken care and set his heart to walk in it Which leads me to the next II. Unto this clear knowledg of the truth as it is in Christ we must add the Brest-plate of Righteousness Which is nothing else but integrity of heart and loyal Affection to our blessed Lord and Master Christ a sincere and unfeigned love to the business of Christianity which we understand to be the will of God For a Brest-plate you know is the defence of the region of the heart and Righteousness I take here to be as much as uprightness and sincerity in what we pretend and therefore both put together signifie the unfeigned bent of our will the cordial consent of our heart and affection to all that we know to be the mind of Christ aiming at nothing in the world but to keep a good Conscience and thereby to preserve the love of God and at last to obtain favour with Him in the day of the Lord. Which besides that it is most highly esteemed by our blessed Saviour above all knowledge and wisdom in the world and may certainly depend upon His power for the maintenance of that which is so dear unto Him hath many singular advantages in it to make us successful in our Christian warfare For a constant sense of our fidelity to our Lord naturally gives us a stronger confidence that He will be faithful unto us This makes us also as bold and fearless as Lyons when we have nothing within to dismay us but all the reason in the world to be secure and confident that we shall still attain our end which is to approve our selves to our Lord and Master whatsoever befals us And on the other side nothing more daunts all opposers
one with another For where envying and strife is iii. Jam. 16. there is confusion and every evil work The Devil gets in at this breach above all others and tempts men to the most dangerous sins and most spiritual wickednesses Which prove not only the ruin of particular souls but of whole Societies and Churches and therefore the causes of such divisions ought most carefully to be avoided if we would stand fast like men and be strong in the evil day This is a point to be now most diligently studied because it is of great necessity to this Church and at this time When we had need be all prepared to maintain at least the Truth which we profess but cannot in all likelyhood secure unless we strengthen our selves by being knit together most heartily and firmly in such Brotherly affection that though there be too many Dissenters God knows who cannot or will not conform to the publick Laws yet the peace be preserved and not the least thing done to disturb the settlement of this Church Which whatsoever defects any man may think it hath is so well constituted that as there is little hope to see a better so if it be disturbed we shall find to our cost that we have changed for one infinitely worse though it be one of our own making and devising Let us consider that if the Apostles and others thought themselves obliged to propagate the Truth it self in a peaceable manner even the most necessary and essential Truths of the Gospel of Christ which they Preached without any disturbance to the publick Government much more ought we to be very careful not to unsettle a Christian Church well established nor to make a rupture in it about those things which are now controverted Which might be better handled and to more advantage and hope of convincing one another if we did live in Unity and in the same Communion notwithstanding our differences than when we separate and divide one from another For then we begin to look upon each other as Enemies and are not so apt to be moved by those Arguments which might be very effectual if we continued knit together in the same Society But if this cannot be yet whatsoever different perswasions we have about Rites and Ceremonies and such like things I am sure it is every mans interest to be thus far a peaceable Dissenter as to comply with the publick order so far as he is able with a safe Conscience and where he cannot comply to be quiet not to make a stir by contradiction and opposition but merely to omit what he cannot do Not reviling the Publick Establishment nor indeavour to bring it into contempt and to overthrow it For whosoever spends his zeal that way and takes himself for a man of spirit doth but abuse himself and the Gospel in giving the name of courage to hardness of heart and calling that resolution which is mere insensibility of Gods Holy Laws about Humility Meekness Patience Peaceableness long-suffering and such like Vertues Which great things did we lay to heart we should be more quiet and not make a quarrel about the small matters which now divide us but rather bear with what is well settled and not impious than go about to mend it by fierce oppositions Which commonly produce bitter strife and contention and that is followed by worse disorders which the Apostles to avoid connived at many things among the Jewish Christians which they by no means approved of but desired to see reformed And after men have done all they can if they be not able to endure some things peaceably which they do not like they must seek for another kind of world than this and for more perfect Creatures than Men. There will be defects in all humane constitutions there will be variety of apprehensions even in those things which God himself hath declared after never so many changes we shall be as far from settlement as ever if we will not be quiet till all things be according to our mind And therefore I take it to be much better as a wise man resolved many years ago to be driven on shore by a storm though in a crazy vessel than in a stronger to be still upon a tempestuous sea in the power of the winds and in danger of Shipwracks As for us who have consented to be governed by the Laws of this Church and have submitted to its orders there needs not many words sure to perswade us to lay aside all our enmities though never so small at such a time as this together with all jealousies suspicions and evil surmises much more all evil-speakings and whatsoever is contrary to that love which ought to be between us We ought not now especially to be so much as cold towards one another because of any differences that may happen to be in our opinions or which we fancy to be between us but embrace each other with a fervent Charity as those who are linkt together by the same common faith and ingaged in the same common cause and must stand or fall together But in the prosecution of this weighty point I have been transported so far that I have left but little time for the remaining which I must therefore pass over the more briefly IV. The next is the Shield of Faith v. 16. which the Apostle saith we must above all things guard our selves withal That is we must continually represent to our minds by a strong and lively Faith the great rewards which Christ hath promised to his valiant followers These we must ever carry before our eyes as a Souldier did his shield that by an actual present sense of them we may beat off all assaults either from pleasure or from pain which are made upon us to move us from our duty For either of them may be understood by the fiery darts of the wicked which the Apostle here speaks of the motions to inordinate pleasure being sometimes no less hot and violent than the grief and pain which we feel by sore persecutions which are more peculiarly called in the Holy Scriptures by the name of the Fiery Trial. As those work very fiercely upon fear so do pleasures upon desire and by this Faith we shall be able to vanquish both Witness the Confessors and Martyrs who having first overcome themselves could not be moved from their stedfastness when they saw a real Fire before them into which they were threatned to be thrown if they did not recant the profession of Christianity This Shield of Faith was their security they being fully perswaded that Christ our Lord who is greater than all Kings having all power in Heaven and Earth would raise them from the dead to an immortal and more glorious life if they did not to gain or save the best thing in this world break any of his Sacred Laws For this Faith was so potent that it wrought in them a lively hope which is the next thing V. And take the Helmet
of Salvation vers 17. which in the 1 Thess v. 8. is called the Hope of Salvation This he compares to a Helmet which you know is the Armor of the head because the blessed hope of immortal Glory hereafter and of Gods special favour love and protection here makes a Man erect himself and lift up his head as we say with confidence and boldness in the midst of the greatest terrors and dangers knowing they shall not hurt him but rather bring Salvation to him With this Hope therefore we must fill our hearts which is the fruit of Faith when Faith works by love and makes us faithful unto God Then we may have a lively hope in him and this Hope will make us not only strong and so full of courage that we shall not quail or be cast down by any dreadful appearance of dangers but inable us to rejoyce in Hope of the Glory of God VI. To which he adds The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God or the Holy Scriptures For they are the Treasury of those Sacred Promises which are the great support of our Souls the Repository or Magazine as I may call them wherein are laid up those Truths spoken of in the beginning which we must oppose to all the temptations which either assault our Faith and Hope or would seduce us from our Obedience And therefore our business must be to study the Holy Scriptures diligently till we be well skill'd in them and have learnt to wield this weapon aright and thereby cut in sunder all objections as our Blessed Saviour did when the Devil tempted him in the Wilderness And by no means suffer any body to wrest this Sword out of our hand for if they do they have so effectually disarmed us that we may in time yield to any thing They may make us believe what they please having our Faith in their keeping and likewise do what they please perswading us the best service we can do to God is to be the greatest Enemies disturbers and destroyers of mankind VII Lastly All these will be the more effectual if by ardent Prayer as the Apostle advises vers 18. we call in the assistance of Heaven Praying alway with all Prayer and supplication in the spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints For as it is not enough to be thus armed and appointed for the combate unless God be present with us which we ought to believe He will as I told you at first because he hath said He will so it is not sufficient to rely upon his word and stedfastly believe it but He expects to be solicited for his aid by our earnest Prayers and Supplications This He hath commanded as much as for the other we have his promise And our very Prayers make us strong by giving us a more lively sense of God if they be not cold and careless and a more vigorous apprehension of his love and of our Heavenly Country to which they lift up our minds And besides they derive more strength from Him when we faithfully importune Him that he will inable us to discharge all the duties of good Christians in every condition And they intitle us also to his powerful protection when we commend our selves intirely to His Providence and trust all we have with Him Which likewise mightily raises our spirits and gives us a higher degree of strength confidence and courage when we think we have made Him our friend by thus intrusting Him and relying wholly upon Him to make us happy in what way He himself pleases And if all Christians made a Conscience also to Pray one for another it might still be of greater force and avail more toward our Salvation For so the Apostle would have us make supplication for all saints that is Christians that they also may be indued with the power of Christ and get the victory over their spiritual Enemies And these Prayers would be still more prevalent did we all persevere as he says in our Supplications and Pray always at all times of prayer and that in the spirit very ardently and with such fervent desires for spiritual aid from Heaven as we feel for those things we most need for this mortal life And this also with so great care and solicitude that we watch for opportunities of Prayer and when great dangers press us take some time from our sleep or other occasion for this Heavenly converse with God our Saviour This is a thing wherein we are too defective and so find our selves faint and weak in the performance of the rest of the duties of Christian life because we languish in our Devotion especially in our COMMON PRAYER when we meet together to Pray not only for our selves but for one another for the King particularly the Royal Family the great Council of the Kingdom the Clergy and all People of whatsoever order or condition they be Whom if we did commend to God with greater earnestness and true fervour of affection we should find I am confident as happy effects of our Prayer as we our selves desire We should either for instance prevail with God to turn from us all those evils which we most righteously have deserved or to enable us so to put our full trust and confidence in his mercy as notwithstanding any troubles to serve him evermore in holiness and pureness of living to his honour and glory To summe up all that hath been said The Apostle in this Discourse compares Christians unto Souldiers who being to conflict with their Enemies took care as not to want weapons themselves so not to leave any part of their bodies uncovered and exposed to the weapons of their Adversaries The middle of their body they girt about with a Belt upon their Brest they wore a Brest-plate upon their Head a Helmet Greaves as they are called in the story of Goliath upon their legs a shield they carried in their left hand and a sword in their right and being thus appointed they called upon their Gods for help and succour Such a complete Armour must we Christians put on if we will conflict successfully with our spiritual Enemies who are of little force to do us any harm if they always find us armed with Truth in our mind with Integrity to our heart with Purity and peaceableness in our affections with Faith in Gods promises and hope of his Salvation working both in mind and heart and affections with the word of God often in our hand and with devout Prayers and Supplications in our mouth proceeding from our very heart and most intimate desires whereby we constantly implore both for our selves and our fellow Christians the gracious assistance of Him who is the Captain of our Salvation and by these means got the victory and won the Crown which He now wears at God's right hand And be you well assured that in this way by being trained up in Christian knowledg and sincere love to what you know to be