Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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B06039
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A sermon preached at Great Yarmouth, June 6th. By R.S., M.A. and rector of [illegible] in the county of Norfolk.
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Scamler, Robert, b. 1653 or 4.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing S807B; ESTC R183256
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44,829
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80
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most Signal Testimonies of my love I rebuke and chasten They are the Oxen destined for slaughter which graze in green Pastures but those appointed for a more mild and gentle usage are dayly harrased with labour and subject to travail The barren Tree is not beaten but the Tree planted by the River side bringing forth fruit in due season We read that the Stones which were to beautifie the Temple of Solomon were hewn and squared before they were thought meet for so glorious a Fabrick every Christian in like manner must expect to be encountred with sorrow and calamities to fit and polish them for the building up that Triumphant Church whereof Jesus Christ is the Head no marvel then that great are the troubles of the Righteous For if we reflect on them with an impartial eye we shall conclude them highly conducive to the good and benefit of Gods Children For do I own the right and Sovereignty of God over me if so I must consequently submit to his hand kissing the Rod that scourgeth me and then my afflictions will be more medicinal then afflictive For without doubt we cannot fufficiently relish the sweetness of good without the tryals of evil Joseph mounted on the Triumphant Chariot of Pharaoh by Prisons and Fetters David to the Throne of Saul by many persecutions and they thought their great prosperities to be much more pleasant because they were ushered in by sharp afflictions as Wine is most pleasant after the Lees of Vinegar Nay let us but consult Nature we may make the same remarques where we shall behold the Sun darting forth more brisk and lively Rays after an Eclypse The Sea more calm after it hath been discompos'd and ruffl'd by a Tempest and the Air much fairer when it hath wept those showrs which did obscure its brightness upon which account Seneca did affirm that as Storms and Tempests did contribute to the clearness of the Heavens and smoothness of the Sea even so the enterchanges of prosperity and adversity did much contribute to the happiness of men How could we judge of that pleasure the Spring and Summer entertain us with if they were not ushered in by the piercing winds and cold of the two contrary Seasons Neither can happiness delight us till we first bear the affronts of infelicity For was it it the power of humane nature to prescribe an antidote as a preservative from all manner of miseries that very want of miseries would prove an occasion of misery because the mind cloyed with continual happiness would prove a glut and burthen to it self disgusting that at last which an intermission would have rendred pleasant Doth not that meat which is most pleasing to our pallats by our dayly feasting thereon both take away our appetite and proves loathsome and not to be endured Even so it is with the pleasures of this world never more unpleasant than when they are not served up with the sowr herbs of adversity But perhaps some may here object that if we can never relish happiness without a mixture of evil we might thence infer the Angels were not sufficiently happy because they attained their perfection of bliss without passing through tribulation for like the Lillies of the field they neither spinn'd nor toyl'd to be cloathed with the robe of glory I answer There is a great difference between the condition of things eternal and things temporal Angels entred almost as soon into felicity as being They being placed in the upper Region of the the World where miseries cannot approach and being so singularly favoured by God needed not to be ballanced by the counterpoize of adversities but as for us we are born in a soil as fertile in calamities as Forrests with Birds and Rivers with Fish and are likewise extreamly ignorant of Gods grace when we long enjoy prosperity We grow wanton and are ready to kick against our Maker so long as we are puffed up with prosperity till the Scene is changed and we come to act a more melancholy part and then adversity opens our eyes that we may perceive those noble felicities which attend and wait upon her and also maketh us to understand who is the Author and Original from whence they proceed And this is the reason why Angels are perfectly happy without afflictions but men must first be afflicted before they can be happy made miserable before they can be glorious because they are not capacitated for the infusions of grace until they have freed and ridd themselves of all earthly matters whatsoever We must never look to ascend Mount Tabor till we first have climbed Mount Calvary nor can we eat of the Honey-comb he fed on after his Resurrection until we have pledged him in that Vinegar and Gall he drank upon the Cross God will have it so for several reasons whereof these are the principal The first reason why God visits us with afflictions may be to Withdraw us from the love of this World For whilst we are swallowed up with the pleasing conceit of the flourishing condition of our goodly Heritages and prosperous fortunes our devotion proves a melancholy disturber and one that exacts too severe a service from the minds of generous Spirits God is imagined as one who deals after too rough and rugged a manner because he will not licence us to be always revelling in our jollities but expecteth some certain parts not only of our lives but also of every day to be set apart for his service and worship and this makes Religion to meet but with a slight entertainment at our hands this makes us stopp our ears at the voice of the Charmer our hearts are wholly ravish'd with the delightful reflexions on our great abundance till we prove totally forgetful both of our eternal interest and also of the respect due to him who hath blessed us with the fatness of the Land They are the cloddy incumbrances of the World that debase and clogg our spirits making them listless and unactive which like Bird-lime hamper and entangle our souls indisposing our minds for the most noble and clarified contemplations of eternity But when the pruning-hook of afflictions comes to lop off these corrupting branches then are we brought to hate that which before was the delight of our eyes and sole possessor of our hearts and to hunger and thirst after that which formerly seemed crude and nauseous to our Palates Ill weeds are to be destroyed before we can sow good Corn neither is the Soul capacitated for the entertainment of divine truths until some sinister accident accident and cross affliction hath cleansed and purged it from the dross of the World Aurem cordis Tribulatio aperit quam saepe prosperitas hujus mundi claudit Tribulation opens the ear of the heart which is too frequently shut and deafned by worldly prosperity Thus Antiochus when he enjoyed the constant Series of a smiling fortune boasted himself superior to God himself but when the inconstant Goddess withdrew her beams and
A SERMON Preached at GREAT YARMOVTH June 6th By R. S. M. A. And Rector of Taverham in the County of NORFOLK Quos Amo Arguo Castigo Was the Way to Heav'n direct smooth and strait I should think Heaven to be a Counterfeit Great are the Troubles where the Prize is great For there 's no Virtue where we find no Sweat LONDN Printed for and sold by GEORGE ROSE Bookseller in NORWICH 1677. To the Right Honourable ROBERT Lord Viscount YARMOVTH and Lord Lieutenant of the County of NORFOLK My Lord HAD I been affected with that itching Humour of Ambition to raise an Obelisk to my Memory and to leave behind me some tokens that I have had a Being and Existence upon Earth I could have experienced no easier method or more advantagious Artifice to gain an immortality upon Earth than by fixing your Lordships Name to these my poor and weak endeavours But I am so perfectly sensible of my own Youth and unworthiness that far be it from me let others reflect with what eye they please to make any such thought the occasion of this Address though I have two urgent Motives which induce me to implore your Patronage and Protection Not to speak my Lord lest I affront the Modesty so innate to your Temper or come within the sphear of flattery so contrary to my Genius of your generous compassion and mighty condescention to all of the Ministerial Function which would have been too copious a Theam for my small Eloquence and Rhetorick to pitch upon I shall acquaint your Lordship with the Reasons of this my Humble Dedication First To congratulate the Honours our most Gracious Soveraign hath so worthily as well as freely conferred upon your Lordship More especially in that having so plentiful a choice of worthy Gentry in this County He hath selected you to lead the Van in that Honourable Office wherewith you are intrusted The Conduct and management of which I shall spare to tell the World because Fame hath already every-where proclaimed your prudent setling and which is highly considerable your great augmenting the Militia Go on then my Lord to perform as worthily as you have begun that your Lordship may be for ever famous over England for your Services to God the King and his Country and at last live eternally with that Glorious Militia of Heaven who continually attend about the Majestick Throne of the Lord of Hosts The other Reason of the Dedication my Lord is because it hath been the Lot of the later of these Discourses as well as its Author who blesseth God for it to pass through good report and bad report it hath been accus'd of False Doctrine because I somewhat glaunced at Election and Reprobation though my Friends judged so candidly of it that after many denyals their importunity hath wrought so effectually with me that I am willing it should appear in the World in that same impolite and unlick'd form it was delivered in either to clear or to condemn me If there be any thing discordant to Scripture or Reason I free every Reader from from endeavouring to justifie me But if they be angry with me because I have told them the truth of the Faith once delivered to the Saints and daily contended for by the Orthodox Divines of of the Church of England let Geneva account it my fault I 'll ever esteem it my duty and my Glory For a former Experience hath fully convinc'd me my Lord that the loyalty of a Sermon is more offensive than the Superstition and Popery thereof If we deny the Legality of the Scotch Covenant and will not comply with the Principles of Levellers but preach Subjection to the King and his Government what do they imagine it less than a Crime unpardonable If we stand up in defence of the Catholick Faith establish'd in our Kingdom and are earnest to maintain a Conformity to the Rites and Ceremonies of the same They presently cry out the Romans will come and take away their place and Nation But alas poor mistaken Souls how are they deceived When as the speediest Voyage to the Court of Rome is by Sayling the way of Amsterdam For I am bold to Challenge any man of reason to shew me a more Compendious way to erect a Papal Jurisdiction amongst us than by the destruction of the Religion of Edward the Sixth and confirmed unto us by Charles the Second For a strict maintaining the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church is the only Armour to withstand the Policies of the Papal Interest For nothing can endanger our Religion from abroad so much as our Contentions at home whilst we seperate our selves from our Churches and are crumbled into little Sects and Parties We give too great advantages and opportunity for a Common Enemy to break in upon us which the Romanists are so quick-sighted to espy that it is upon this account they send their little Agents among us who make it their sole business slily to insinuate themselves and creep into the bosoms and humours of our People encouraging and fomenting all publick differences pursuant to that secret End on which they are sent on Embassy Now that your Lordship may be more particularly satisfied in the verity of this confident Assertion I humbly desire your Lordship at your greatest conveniency to consult the History of Henry the Fourth King of France written by the Bishop of Rhodes and also that of the Spanish Monaachy whose Author is Campanella In both which I have observed that after a large Discourse of the intended Invasions of those two Potent and Mighty Princes on the Kingdom of Great Britain being incited thereunto by the forcible perswasions and commands of Rome as much as pricked forward by their own Ambition They especially declare their Judgements of the Means and Instruments to be applyed for the Ruine and utter Subversion of the Church of England in this manner That there was no better Artifice than by causing Divisions and Dissentions amongst the English and by a continual encouraging and fostering the same and that it was no easie Province to eradicate and overthrow their Religion unless by the Foundation of some certain Schools or Academies in Flanders that the Students thereof may disseminate and scatter abroad Seeds for Divisions in Natural and Theological Sciences which would disorder and discompose their Opinions and unhinge and unsettle their Judgements For say they the English are of a temper and constitution much tending to Novelties and inclining to changes and therefore the Effects of such a Contrivance will be very considerable Now I leave it to your Lordship's better Judgement and Experience whether this hath been put in practice or not and whether the Zealous Brethren of England be not industrious to forge Gives and Fetters to shackle themselves withal whereas poor deluded Souls they might see if they pleas'd they are the Agents imployed by Rome to defeat and destroy the Religion of Christ and to promote the Errors of Antichrist