directive Rules how we may best reduce it to Practice I begin with the First And 1. To forget the LORD imports in general to contemn the power of Religion and with that old Fool to say in ones heart there is no GOD no Judge or Judgment to come at least to deny Him that Honour and Worship due to His Holy and Reverend Name and give it to Another to put ones trust and confidence in Creatures or Idols the works of God's or of Mens hands more then the Creator and cast his Commandments behind ones back as if he owed no duty either to God or Man It implies a stupid habitual neglect of Gods Service which is the great business and chief end of our Creation when a Man immerseth himself so deep in the fruitless cares the frothy Vanities of this World and the sinful Lusts of the Flesh that GOD is not in all his ferious thoughts that is not in one of them All but he lives and dies an Atheist Epicure Idolater or ungodly Infidel and so plungeth himself headlong into that dreadful Doom in the Psalm The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget GOD. 2. To forget the LORD signifies here more especially not to recount and value not to be duly sensible of and truly thankful for his past or present Mercies and Deliverances not to lay them to heart and call them to mind not to suffer them to have their proper effect upon us when his own beloved and of late distressed People forget GOD their SAVIOUR who brought them out of Aegypt with a high Hand and stretched out Arm who led them through the Wilderness and fought all their battels for them drowning some of their Enemies in the depth of the Sea and routing all others at Land and planted them in a good Land in another Paradice even the Land of Promise a Land of Corn Wine and Oyl a Land flowing with Rivers of Milk and Brooks of Honey For them to Rebel and lift up their heel against Him merely out of wantonness and too much Peace and Plenty were beyond all Parallel if not all Pardon also for as the Royal Prophet observes the merciful and gracious LORD hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in Remembrance And therefore 3. And Lastly To discover the full strength and force of the Caution we must fly to that usual figure in Rhetorick whereby much more is implied then is expressed like that of the Prophet Can a Woman forget her sucking Child and not have compassion on the Son of her Womb It is impossible in Nature That of St. Paul I am not ashamed of that is I glory in the Gospel and Cross of CHRIST albeit the wise Greeks account it Foolishness or that of the holy Psalmist If I forget thee ô Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee then let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth the sweet singer of Israel wisheth his curious right hand useless and his graceful Tongue disabled from chanting any more Hallelujahs to his Harp if instead of forgetting He doth not prefer Jerusalem's distress above his own chiefest Delight and Joy Then beware lest thou forget the LORD That is be sure that thou remember to love and honour him in the day of thy Prosperity for then thou hast all the reason in the world and the strongest obligations imaginable to praise and glorifie his holy Name and that not in Word and Tongue only saying GOD be thanked the LORD be praised though that sounds well but indeed and in Truth also as that dying Roman said to his Friend Quae voluerit meminisse quae mandaverit exequi To remember his Will and Pleasure and do all his Commands For to be truly thankful to GOD is certainly to love him and if ye love me keep my Commandments saith the LORD And yet after all that Jeshurun waxing fat in her fresh Pasture grew sturdy and restiff and Kicked against her Feeder and most shamefully forgot the Lord her Redemer appears by the Writings of the Prophets as a Cloud of Witnesses as also by those stupendious Showers of Judgments which fell upon them according to the Predictions of those Prophets and lastly by their utter Extirpation and Destruction their being Blotted out of the List of Nations for Crucifying the Lord of Life and Killing their only Lord and Saviour For to this day they are under a Curse they are Vagabonds over all the Earth they are no People they have no Laws or Government no King in Israel neither God nor Man Which things happened unto them for Ensamples says St. Paul and are written that is left upon Record Chiefly for our Admonition upon whom the Ends of the World are come And therefore lest we should tread in their Ungracious Steps and forget the Lord when we are full fed with his Manifold Mercies lest we should tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and be Destroyed of the Destroyer lest our Iniquity also should be our Ruine I proceed 2ly To back and Inforce this seasonable Caution with some proper Arguments or Confiderations that it may make the deeper Impression upon all our Spirits And 1. Consider we that by forgetting GOD and growing careless of his Laws in the midst of our temporal Felicities we provoke the best Friend we have to become our professed Enemy For they draw not GODS Attributes to the Life and Truth who allow him only Mercy for a Penitent and no Justice at all for a Presumptuous Sinner They are more False Prophets then Balaam himself who would stretch the Words of his Parable to signifie that GOD doth not behold but Connive at all manner of Iniquity in the beloved Jacob because he saw none there at that time that cried loud enough for Speedy and Publick Vengeance which is the undoubted meaning of that Place No GOD is not so fond of any of his Servants as to be in love with their Follies The dearest Child he hath must tast of the Rod if he deserve it David was indeed a Man after GODS own heart in other things but yet his Murder and Adultery were Damnable Sins for all that as he had found by woful Experience if he had not carefully washed them away with his own Penitent Tears more Richly Influenced with his Redeemers Blood St. Peter was a Man of Undaunted Courage and most forward Faith at other times but yet there is no excuse to be made for his denying his Lord and Master and that with an Oath saying I know not the Man Israel was once GODS Elect peculiar People of all others Engraven upon the Palms of his Hands and kept as the Apple of his Eye so tender he was of them but all this while their Sins were written with a Pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond saith the Prophet to shew that the Memory of them was lasting and they so far from being winked at
A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Mayor AND Court of ALDERMEN AT THE GVILD-HALL CHAPPEL Jan. 20. 1683. By John Standish D.D. Rector of Therfield and Chaplain in Ordinary to HIS MAJESTY Published at the Desire of the LORD MAYOR and Court of ALDERMEN LONDON Printed by H. Hills Jun. for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1684. TO THE Right Honourable Sir HENRY TULSE Lord Mayor And to the Court of ALDERMEN My Lord IT was somewhat late before I received your Commands for such I ever account the Desires of my Lawful Superiours which is one reason that this short Discourse hath been so long in coming to your Hands And I shall not trouble your Lordship with any other Apology because it was not framed for nor fixed to any Solemn Time or Special Occasion but with an equal respect to every Day in the Year or rather to all the Days of our Lives Indeed the Subject thereof is Common but not therefore to be despised more then any other Common Good more then our Common Prayers Common Salvation or our Common Faith which the Apostle elsewhere calls our Precious Faith or Honourable as the Greek imports And the more Common things of Publick use and consequence are they should be so much the more Precious in our Eyes 'T is true the Scene is laid in LONDON yet not so confined thither but it may reach the remotest parts of the Nation for this little Mapp presents you with a Transient view of the present State and Morals of all ENGLAND England another Canaan for Beauty Wealth Prosperity Peace and Plenty 〈◊〉 all good things that a Loyal Heart can wish and yet I wish I could not truly say another Canaan too for Ingratitude and forgetting GOD their Saviour The happiest Nation under Heaven at this hour and only miserable in this that we do not know how Happy we are For we may fairly challenge all Europe for a more Gracious KING a more Glorious CHVRCH a more Peaceable STATE a more Gentle and Easie GOVERNMENT more Just and Wholesome LAWS and yet we cannot way we will not see it We are unthankful still and still murmuring and know not what we would have unless we would be Angels before the time This provoking ill Humour hath of late spread it self throughout the Kingdom and therefore my Arguments against it are so General and take in all sorts and degrees of Men all that would be thought good Christians or good Subjects the very Dissenters themselves are not a little concerned therein if they please to read them without that false Glass of guilty Prejudice However they deal with us for doing our Daty and speaking the Truth in Love so long as we have Patronage and Protection from your Lordships Chair and that Honourable Bench we shall never think our Labour lost or unrewarded The time hath been when Men in Your Lordships High Place would not endure sound Doctrine having itching Ears Thanks be to GOD and his Vicegerent that time is now past and the Case so well altered that sound Doctrine and sincere Loyalty will as easily go down and pass muster in the City as at Court With my hearty Prayers for the long continuance of GODS Blessing upon Your Lordship your Loyal Brethren and the whole Government of this City I am My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Servant John Standish Deut. VI. part of the 11 and 12 verses When thou shalt have Eaten and be Full then beware lest thou forget the LORD PRosperity and Adversity are the great Theatres of Humane life the two famous Tests to prove what Spirit and temper Men are of for it is an Error of the Vulgar only that all is well when their Gold and Silver Flocks and Herds Corn and Wine increase and grow upon them Wiser Men find it as hard a task at least to command and manage a head-strong flowing fortune as to keep themselves from sinking and being desperate when they are reduced to their lowest Ebb last Shifts and Wits end It is an old Question amongst the learned Moralists which of the two Estates is most entangled with dangers and difficulties the great cry is out upon Prosperity who by her killing Smiles treacherous Enchantments and stealing Flatteries Effeminates and Robbs the Spirit of its due force and vigour She basely betrays the Fort by letting the Enemy in at a Postern and easily conquers those daring Heroes who never turned their backs of visible danger Whom no Adverse affair not Death it self in all its frigthful change of shapes could ever daunt or dash out of Countenance And indeed 't is a Truth which the Oracles of GOD have vouched to us by no mean Instances to put it beyond all dispute For whilest Gideon was a private man the least in his Fathers house and threshed Wheat by the Wine-press he was a very Good man and a great Favourite in the Court of Heaven the Text says that the Angel of the LORD visited and communed freely with him as a Man does with his Friend but then when once He grew Great and was fleshed with a miraculous victory over the mighty Kings of Midian the same man was not the same for he abused his prosperous fortune and made him an Ephod of the Ear-rings taken in spoil and put it in His City Ophrah and all Israel went a whoring after it which thing became a snare to Gideon and his house Thus one bewitching Dalilah subdued the invincible Sampson when all other Arts and Arms of Palestine could neither withstand no nor find out his strength Before I was troubled I went wrong saith King David And It is good for me that I was afflicted that set him right But then again when He sat still at Jerusalem in a profound Peace and had nothing else to do He fell into those two grievous Sins which cut him out work for Repentance all the days of his Life His son Solomon the wisest Prince that ever swayed That or any other Scepter under the Sun yet stands charged with very great folly towards the end of his peaceable Reign for living in all ease and pleasure and having no manner of Enemies but those most deadly ones of his own house his False Friends he unadvisedly suffer'd them in his Old declining Age to tempt him to Idolatry To add no more Israel in general who found the land of Egypt that house of Bondage and hardship a wholesome School of Vertue made the blessed Land of Canaan a Nourse of all Vices a mere Land of forgetfulness which Moses the Man of GOD here having a clear prospect of he lays in early caution against it in these words When thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest thou forget the LORD For our due handling of these words I shall endeavour 1. To state the genuine sense and full importance of the caution 2. To back and enforce it with some proper Considerations 3. And Lastly To tender some short
that they were more surely and speedily punished then if they had been Aliens Witness the many Woes and Threats Judgments and Curses discharged upon them at divers times such as Pestilence and Famine Blasting and Mildew the Sword the Fiery Serpents the Heavens sometimes as Iron the Earth as Brass Because my People hath forgotten me I will scatter them as with an East-Wind before the Enemy I will shew them the Back and not the Face in the day of their Calamity Jerem. 18. And again I will be unto them as a Lyon or a Leopard as a Bear bereaved of her Whelps I will Rent the Cawl of their hearts and Devour them like a Lyon saith the LORD Hos. 13. All this to that Beloved People So that however Vain Men may fancy that their being of the Number of GODS Elect and in a State of Grace is a sufficient Patent or Priviledge to excuse their Sins yet the Case is clear that they deceive themselves herein although they be if 't were possible of the very Elect. For be he Jew or Christian be he Saint or Angel that Forgets his GOD he thereby Forfeits his Favour and Friendship and Incurrs his utmost Enmity and Wrath he loseth the Light of his Countenance and makes the Sun of Righteousness appear to him in no other then that Terrible shape of a Consuming Fire This Argument alone methinks should be strong enough to drive the Nail home beware lest thou forget the LORD for thereby thou wilt make him thine Enemy and a Potent Enemy he is worthy of all thy fear For he can Torment thee with a thousand Plagues here and then Cast both Body and Soul into the Nethermost Hell hereafter 2. Consider that to forget GOD when we are Daily Loaden with his Blessings would argue us extreamly disingenuous and basely Ingrateful the most detestable Name of all others call me that and call me worse if you can A Name that Nature it self abhors For not to mention the Stork that Famous Symbol of Piety very Lyons and Wolves Tygers and Bears are Civil and Grateful to their own Parents and Relatives Only the Noble and Rational Creature that calls himself Man in this exceeds the very Beasts that Perish That he is sometimes Ingrateful to his own Kind oftner to his King but most of all to his most Gracious GOD. Insomuch that the Almighty doth as it were Challenge the whole Creation to Match or Vie with his Unworthyness Isa 1. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the LORD hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have Rebelled against me The Complaint is of Israel still the peculiar People and may it be peculiar to them alone but let it not be told in Gath nor published in the Streets of Askelon that we should ever deserve that unnatural Brand and most odieus Name of Ingrateful Christians 3. Consider the Vncertainty of our present happiness and Halcyon Days of Peace and Plenty For GOD lets no Leases for Lives in dispensing his Temporal Blessings We are all but Tenants at will and may be turn'd out of all and Beggar'd at his Pleasure There is ye know a natural Vicissitude of things The whole World is ever turning Round Day and Night Summer and Winter have their mutual Courses The most Glorious Day is shut up with a pitchy Night a dull uncouth Winter usually follows the most Sprightly Summer nay the Sun is oft sequester'd of his Noon day Glory by a little Cloud appearing first like a Mans hand but afterwards shewing it self to be more like the Hand of him who sometimes makes Darkness his Pavilion though he ever dwells in in accessible Light A very lively Emblem of the Instability of all humane affairs which admit of as much change of Weather as Nature it self For there is seldom one Sun-shine day of Peace but a Cloud rises in the midst on 't from whence the Thunder and Lightning of Fatal Wars breaks out of a sudden however Night is drawing on and will at length overtake us and then all our Joys and Comforts will suffer a more continued Interruption perhaps be totally Eclipsed by Trouble and Misery Nulla sors longa dolor est voluptas invicem cedunt brevior voluptas says the excellent Tragedian no condition of Life here not the best is fixed and immutable Sorrow and Joy take their turns there going commonly a whole day of Trouble to one hour of Joy and the Stars in their Courses fight either for or against us according as we demean our selves Beloved our Memories are treacherous indeed if we have quite forgotten the severe Discipline GOD hath of late Years exercised upon this City and this Sinful Nation Chiefly by the devouring Sword the Raging Pestilence and the Consuming Fire for all which we ought to lay our hands upon our Mouths and acknowledg them as just Judgments upon us for our forgetting GOD in the midst of our Jollity Those Storms through Mercy are at present over and we in a very great Calm we enjoy more Temporal Felicities if we would see it then even heart could wish as the Psalmist speaks though we hear of nothing but Wars and Rumours of Wars abroad yet we are not troubled at home bating our own groundless Jealousies and Superstitious Fears farther then to sit down quietly under our own Vines and Fig-trees and Reap the Fruit of GODS Blessing upon our own Labours GOD hath marveluosly turned our great Captivity long ago as the Rivers in the South He hath ever since given us Beauty for Ashes The Oyl of Joy for Sorrow and the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness All the danger is lest we also grow sick of Israels Disease Lest we become proud and presumptuous wax wanton and careless of paying him due Returns and so make our own Tables a Snare our very Blessings a Curse GOD doth not intend to kill us with his Kindnesses but if we know not when we are well if we can't wield and manage a full and prosperous Estate if nothing but a Furnace will melt us into Tears and purge away our Dross and Follies wretched Dust as we are into the Furnace we must go again even until seven times The Scene will certainly alter in a Moment the Wheel of things turn quite round and the end of our sorrows be far worse then the beginning Then let not the Pride of thine Heart deceive thee O Man and say not thou who shall disturb me when I am at rest in my Possessions or Transgressions for though thou exalt thy self as an Eagle and set thy Nest among the Stars yet thence will I bring thee down saith the LORD Obad. v. 4. 4. Consider the many solemn Vows and Promises we offered up to GOD in our distress to make our Prayers for deliverance effectual and succesful for they will all be required at our hands as so many further Obligations we freely laid upon our selves not to forget the LORD in the day