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A66984
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A sermon preached before the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London at the Guild-Hall Chappel October 26, 1679 by Benjamin Woodroffe ...
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Woodroffe, Benjamin, 1638-1711.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing W3468; ESTC R22688
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16,210
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38
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us do not most effectually carry on their work If the wicked our Enemies have bent the bow and made ready the arrow upon the string as 't is in the context are not they who promote these the men who have discharged it for them have shot out the others arrows in their bitter words Psal lxiv. 3. 'T was the complaint of the Prophet Jeremiah Chapter xx verse 5. I have heard the defaming of many Fear on every side report say they and we will report I wish our Times did not furnish us with too many instances of this nature and that in those men who do not only as it there follows watch for but are ready to make the Halting of the Righteous Those whatever they say who strike at the very Foundations whose greatest Joy 't would be to see the Nation bereft of the Security of her Laws and the Comforts of her Religion Only I cannot but rejoice too as all good men must that in such Times as these wherein to be open and plaindealing to dare to love and vindicate Truth is to expose ones self to the Calumny of every Scurrilous Libeller I and all good men cannot but rejoice in our hearts I speak it to the Honour of this great and Royal City and the good and wise Government thereof that like what is given in the Character of the heavenly Jerusalem and may Jerusalem the City where they shall see Peace be always its name that I say like what is given in the Character of the heavenly Jerusalem you have made it your singular Care that whosoever loveth and maketh a lye barking snarling wretches as they are should be shut out with Dogs And may you Order against Hawkers Septemb. 7. 1679. See the Right Honourable Sir Robert Clayton's Speech Lord Mayor Elect and the Right Honourable Sir James Edwards Speech Septem 29. 1679. go on still to justifie your Authority the Authority of that Law which cannot but protect them who make it their Rule Never may those who have ill will at Zion be so prosperous as to see the day when you either want Power or Will to execute it Never may the Religion we profess and its Foundations be so far destroyed as to let Anarchy and Confusion be the badg of the Protestant No Let it be the Reproach and the single reproach of our Enemies that 't is only in throwing down Foundations that their Cause can prosper in Subverting all the Laws of God and Man all the Principles of true Christian Religion that they must ever hope to advance their Catholick Faith For what else is their unbounded Primacy of the Pope but the overthrowing all * Clerici legibus civilibus ut sunt Leges Principum non tenentur obligatione aliquâ correctivâ sed solum directivâ Non possunt tamen à Magistratu politico puniri nec ullo modo trahi ad Magistratus Secularis Tribunal Bellarm. de Cleric l. 1. A Clericis qui jure subjectionis exempti sunt propriè quidem Majestatem non laedi Eudaemon Jesuita Apolog. c. 34. p. 110. Clerici Rebellionem non esse crimen laesae Majestatis quia non est subditus Regi Zimanch Aphoris de Cons Juramentum Fidelitatis ne suscipi quidem posse à Papistis nostris sine Fidei Catholicae abnegatione Bellarm. Resp ad Apolog. pro juram Fidel. De Fide eertum esse quemcunque Principem Christianum si à Religione Catholicâ manifesto deflexerit alios avocare voluerit excidere statim omni potestate dignitate idque ante prolatam Papae sententiam posseque debere subditos si vires habeant istiusmodi Haereticum ex hominum Christianorum Dominatu ejicere Philopat Sect. 2. p. 109. Suarez in Libro de Censuris Disp 15. Sect. 6. p. 262. hath many things to the same sense Non licere Christianis tolerare Regem Haereticum si ille conetur subditos ad suam haeresin protrahere Bellarm de Rom. Pontif. 5. 7. Sed Christiani Principes qui diu in Ecclesiasticam potestatem tyrannico furore surrexerunt cui flectere genua caput submittere debuerant Nonne sacris Conciliis sunt depositi percussi Anathemate pulsi regno atque imperio Vt Ladistaus Leo III. Henricus III. Fredericus II. Constantinus VI. Conc. t. 14. p. 992. In Orat. Cornelii Episcopi Bitontini 1. Oportere Jesuitas in suo Generali ac multo magis in quovis Pontifice Romano non hominem erroribus obnoxium considerare sed ipsum Christum qui est sapientia Patris intueri atque horum vocem excipere non secus ac Christi ipsius qui nec decipi potest nec decipere 2. Debere eos apud animum suum statuere se moveri ac dirigi à divinâ voluntate providentiâ quoquoversus moventur ac diâ—iguntur à suo Superiore Maffeius in vita Loyolae l. 3. c. 7. Prudentiam esse solius Imperantis non autem Obedientis virtutem Sum. Constitut Jesuit Regul 36. In Colloquio Ratisbon Sess 9. p. 282. â—88 confidenter asserunt Jesuitae Populum ita subjectum esse Regimini Praepositorum suorum ut si illi in aliquo dubio definiendo errarint populus vi Regiminis errare simul posset imò deberet These as a few of those multitudes of Testimonies and Authorities which might be cited under this head he who desires more of the particulars shall need only to consult the Bull of Pius IV. Conc. Trident. p. 944 945 946. Con. t. 14. Anno 1564. where the Errors alluded to in this part of our continued discourse are with many others reckon'd up to our hand and confirm'd by the Pope as Articles of Faith and as such to be professed by every one therein concern'd Government in the World The wresting the Scepter out of the Princes hand which God Himself put there And giving such Laws and Rules of Obedience as are utterly inconsistent with all Civil Power And as if this were not enough wresting the Scepter out of Gods own hand too That greatest Royalty of his Crown to forgive sins by giving that absurd Licence and impunity to all manner of Transgressions which he were not God must forfeit the Holiness and Justice of the Divine Nature should he permit Again Is there any Prerogative of Heaven equal to the Infallibility they usurp Or can any thing reconcile the Infallibility they pretend to with the many Contradictions their Religion defends 'T would be no difficulty to demonstrate that they who so far depose Christ in his Kingly Office as to set up another in his stead to dispense with his Laws and give new Rules and measures of Obedience to his Subjects That they who so far evacuate his Prophetick Office as in fact at least to deny that he led his Apostles into all Truth as appears by their Doctrines concerning Civil Powers and submissions due to them according to which what was to be taught and allowed in their Times when the
his Protection 1. In all the Designs of the Wicked against the Righteous it is the Duty of the Righteous to rely upon God only for safety and deliverance and that they will find they have great reason to do as they consider how many ways their gracious God is as I may say obliged to deliver them How His Holiness His Power His Omniscience His Justice are all concern'd in the Protection of the Righteous 1. God is in his Holiness concern'd for the safety of the Righteous and that whether by his Holiness we understand the Purity of his Essence or of his Religion The Immaculate Perfections of his own Nature or the Imitation of these he requires from all who ingage in his service agreeable to what is so particularly urged in the words immediately after the Text of his being in his holy Temple For how can we imagine that He who is himself of the greatest Purity should not favour those who endeavour to make good the Image and similitude of God in which they were made by cleansing themselves as the Apostle expresses it 2 Cor. 7. 1. from all filthiness of flesh and spirit Can there be any thing more acceptable to the Divine Being than to see such a Resemblance of his own perfections in his Creature Or with reference to his Religion to be exercis'd in his holy Temple can there be any thing more reasonable than for them to expect the Blessings of the Temple who are so faithful to attend its Worship Was not this the place towards which under the Law his eyes were open'd night and day as we read 1 Kings 8. 29. the place where he put his Name where a Ps 26. 8. his honour was said to dwell the place b King 1. 8. 30. towards which whoever and in what condition soever did but pray was sure to be heard in Heaven So that whatever were the Trespass between man and man c ibid. v. 31. here was the place to decide it whatever the affliction under which they were whether led Captive into a strange Land or punish by Famine Sword or any other of God's just Judgments for their sin in their own if they had but thoughts of returning to his Religion and Service He who had set apart the godly to himself as 't is Psalm 4. 3. could not but in the defence of his own Name and Honour which he had made to dwell there likewise distinguish them in his care and uphold them in the work to which he called them Such was the Protection the Holiness to which they were separated then gave such the security of flying to the Altar that the very Oblation of their Wills their true and earnest desire of appearing there before God was a Sacrifice he would not refuse 2. A second Reason why the Righteous should look upon it as the only Remedy against the Treatment they meet with from the Wicked to put their trust in God is because of the honour of his Power concern'd in their deliverance 'T is with respect to his Soveraign Dominion and Rule over all that his Throne is in the next words said to be in Heaven and certainly that is not a Throne that can be establisht by iniquity Heaven as 't is a place where no injustice can enter so much less can it prevail against it nothing can resist the Power and Supremacy of him who sits there Changes Alterations and Vicissitudes may be in things below but to the Heaven in which his Throne is it belongs only to over-rule not feel these He who dwells above may for the purposes of his own glory permit the Cruelty and Oppression of the Violent but so that his permitting and converting these to his own glory is none of the meanest instances of his Power that in all the Motions which are made about it all the Commotions which are made against it yet still his Throne is in Heaven the place of Bliss and Holiness and they who hope to interrupt the Righteous in either do but thereby prepare themselves for a severer Sentence at this Tribunal Which of how great moment must it be to the good man thus to consider the over-ruling Power of him in whom he trusts that if as 't is v. 1. the wicked say unto his Soul flee as a Bird unto your Mountain Heaven is that Mountain whither he can flee there the Hills from whence cometh his help Psalm 121. 1. 3. A third Attribute which ought to incourage the Righteous to trust in God is that of his Omniscience for so the Psalmist adds in the same verse His eyes behold and his eye-lids try the Children of men Did not God know as the Psalmist brings in the Wicked making his boast against the Righteous Psalm 73. 11. and were there no knowledge in the most High there were then some reason why his people should spare some of their over-forward confidence and abate of that so full and absolute trust they put in him because whatever his Holiness is to detest whatever his Power to avenge injustice yet what would all this signifie if he had no privity of the Fact But then on the contrary for the Wicked as well as the Righteous to be always under his eye to be seen and detected in their closest Devices to have their very Imaginations lye open before him their secretest Councels and most hidden works of darkness still in the light of his Countenance to have pardon the lowness of the comparison as you may have sometime seen in excellent Pictures where the Archer is so painted as in every posture of the Beholder to direct his Arrow at him to have I say this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of Vengeance always aiming at the Offender Him who must be his Judge to be still present not only at the committing but the first designing of the Crime to see to watch and over-awe him in every motion How must this be cause of joy and transport to the Righteous in his greatest Sufferings as being hereby assur'd that nothing can befall him as without the Cognizance so which is one signification of the Eye without the Pity and Compassion of his good God That 't is He who knows and sees all things who permits the Enemy to design against him He too of whose Omniscience this must be one Effect that he knows what 's best for him that as his Eye-lids try the Children of men in general so in particular they try the Righteous as the Refiner doth his best and most valued Mettals to bring them more clean and purged freer from dross and dregs out of the Fire that 't is only to make them fitter Objects for his own Love and Favour that whom with the rest of Mankind his Eye cannot but see as 't is Verse the last of the Psalm his Countenance may behold i. e. encourage and approve 4. The last Argument I shall take notice of in the Psalm why in the Designs of the Wicked