are the presages of much impending calamitie 1. The encrease of sin what diseases and infections are to our bodies personally such are common raging vices to Kingdoms and Nations publickly Apparent ill habits moral Pestilences If the former may be death to us the latter may be as truly ruine to them The Amorites sin was the Amorites undoing We are told in the Prophet Amos 9. 8. The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdome and I will destroy it from off the face of ths earth saith the Lord. Thus is sin the abomination that maketh desolate wherever it cometh The Achan the accursed thing that always troubleth Gods Israel There is no delusion more frequent then for wicked persons to flatter themselves with hopes of favourable fair issues in their most villanous fowlest actions 'T is taken for granted some may be so bold so hardy as to say I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst But it seems the Conclusion is too hastily drawn Gods reckoning and theirs agree not The Lord will not spare him but the anger and jealousy of the Lord shall smoke against that man Deut. 29. 19 20. so inseparable a connexion there is between the cause and the effect Cain quickly found it a real truth He hath no sooner done his bloudy work but the next tidings is My punishment is greater then I can bear Gen. 4. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my sin one and the same word is left in the Hebrew to express both in token that the sinner carrieth his punishment in his sin If he will needs have the one God will see that he shall also have the other The case it is plainly the same toward whole Nations that we finde here toward one Cain If there be any difference 't is this some pious learned persons who have most sollicitously observ'd the methods and history of Divine Providence have thought that God who sheweth many times such great patience toward particular persons in their sins proceedeth usually with a more visible severity when sin becometh common and National when all flesh shall have corrupted their way then is a time for God to take the case more immediately into his own hand then may we fear days of vengeance and visitation All ages all histories have jointly exemplified the reality of this danger thus Xenophon relateth the Persian Monarchy became ruined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In part through their impieties toward God in part through their injuries and evil courses toward men Thus the Grecians and thus after them the Romans they also fell As vice was seen to rise they and their Empire were as manifestly observed to decline and fall An hundred Walls as the Comoedian sportingly said in that serious matter are no desence to a vicious City It lieth still open and naked to all misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus firmly was this great truth believed thus openly asserted among the Heathen by their own Poets For these things say they God hath visited and for these things God will yet visit So that if we either credit Gods word or mans experience we may safely say sin leads to ruine 2dly The decay of Piety that is likewise as hard an abodement we finde this very case propos'd as Moses's life or death a blessing or a curse and the sequel left to the peoples practical choice The Lord is with you while ye be with bim but if ye forsake him he will forsake you 2. Chron. 15. 2. As if the great Crisis lay perfectly here And the truest calculation of all publick welfare or misery were to be derived from our faithfulness or unfaithfulness to God Religion it is as those sacred ministrations in the Temple the preservatives of the City And on the contrary where the Holy fire goeth out where the Daily sacrifice ceaseth calamity seemeth there to follow as it were of course When Abraham gives over interceding then Sodom burns down to ashes indeed When Moses's hands fall down through faintness then Amalck prevaileth When there is none found to stand in the gap then God powreth out his indignation upon Israel When the Disciples fall to slumber we may too truly say then is Satans hour and the power of darkness I confess we neither need nor can believe that every stir and bustle that is preposterously made in the world about Religion goeth for real piety in the sight of God We have all of us more of dross then gold More of carnal passion and animosity then of spiritual devotion and zeal for God or Heaven Religion 't is a sacred concern and must be modestly not boisterously managed There is scarce any consideration sadder then that of those manifold dismal mischiefs that have been acted from mistakes of this nature But still there is such a thing as a cordate affection and forwardnesse for Religion Our bounden duty and of great price in the sight of God and wherever this first love is once lost we may justly fear Gods Candlestick is in imminent danger of being removed It were extreme arrogance and disrespect toward the common sense of mankinde for any of us to think that slights of Religion are safe things Italie saith the Poet hath smarted sorely upon this very account Dâ—j multa neglecti dedere Hesperiae mula luctuosae And we finde Livy taking up the case into a peremptory standing assertion Omnia prospera eveniunt colentibus Deos adversa spernentibus all things saith he succeed well where Religion is duely observed and where that lieth neglected all things go usually as backward and ill But we shall close up this Consideration with a greater Testimony then any of these even that of dying Moses who taking his last leave of Israel and having forewarned them that in case of their revolt from God he would heap up mischiefs upon them at length sealeth up his whole Discourse with this moving Argument putting duty and mercy both together Observe saith he all the words of this law for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land whither ye go over Iordan to possess it Deut. 32. 46 47. May it be our care to approve our selves faithfull in the one may it be our lot to experience Gods goodnesse in the other The Application And now Honoured and Beloved I have but one Use to make of the whole but it calleth for the utmost seriousness at all our hands Such as you have heard such is the riseness such the contagiousness such the destructiveness of Sin In Gods most holy Name let us fear and tremble lest we also fall under this sad infection and so iniquity becomeâ—h our ruine If sovereign Antidotes be so greatly esteemed in times of common Pestilence unless we do most wretchedly prevaricate in the whole profession of Religion thus highly must we value thus
A SERMON PREACHED In Christs Church Bristol At the Assizes for that City and County Holden August the 1st 1676. By Samuel Crossman B. D. One of his Majesties Chaplains and Prebend of Bristol Imprimatur Tho. Turner R. P. Dno Episcopo Lond. à sacris domesticis LONDON Printed in the Year 1676. To the Right Worshipfull Sir Robert Cann Kt. and Baronet Mayor of the City of Bristol Right Worshipful 'T Is matter of just amazement that sin so wretched in its nature so pernicious in its issues should yet obtain so vast so general an Interest all over the world This great dishonour thus apparently done as well to Reason as Religion must certainly be attributed to the common depravedness of mankinde to the naughtiness of our own hearts which in this collapsed condition of ours are now carnal and sold under sin Or as Solomon expresseth it fully set in us to do evil For the better redress whereof God having erected those solemn ordinances Magistracy and Ministry hath put this matter into both their Commissions making it an eminent part of their work in their several sphears to give all due rebukes to vice all due encouragements to vertue as the proper direct method both to civil and sacred welfare Such hath been the gracious care of God in our behalf Every good man must and will heartily say Amen Oh let this righteous pleasure of the Lord prosper in their hands In some desires of serving these good ends was this discourse at first compos'd and since thus published Honoured Sir Omitting any circuitous ambages I shall only take leave with all due gratefulness to acknowledge the many obligements you have pleased to lay upon me and by this paper to offer to your second Meditations what you vouchsafed so religiously to resent when first preached before you by Honoured Sir Your justly obliged and Truly humble servant Samuel Crossman Bristol Aug. 10. 1676. A SERMON Preached in Christs Church at Bristol At the Assizes holden for that City and County August 1. 1676. St. Matth. 24. 12. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold A Severe declaiming against present times may be in some cases not so much the fruit of piety as of pettishness A querulous ingratitude towards God and as unhandsome disingenuity towards men 'T is a caution justly given by Solomon say not what is the cause that the former days were better then these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this Eccl. 7. 10. Certain it is the world hath its frequent vicissitudes in morals as well as in naturals It hath had its open alternations and seasons of sinking sometimes into viece and of recovering it self again at other times to some competent degrees of vertue else we had long since come to those sad Hercules pillars whereof the Poet so satyrically speaketh Non habet ulterius quod nostris moribus addat posteritas Sin had long ago risen to its utmost Zenith its fullest growth and height beyond which it could have proceeded no further But still though some ages may have the happy lot of appearing as a hopeful spring after a dead winter yet others prove as a declining autumn after a more fruitful summer The succession of ages 't is very often like that of families If a pious Iosiah comes forth after a wretched Amon 't is as true a wicked Manasseh may succeed a righteous Hezechiah This decay touching these last days 't is not only the conplaint of the vulgar where we have many times as much passion as judgement but the deep sense and sorrow of all impartiall serious persons that iniquity abounds and the love of manywaxeth cold We have in this and the next Chapter our Saviours memorable prediction both of the destruction of Ierusalem and of the end of the world The former as some Embleme and adumbration of the latter Plain it is from all writers scarce any judgement in many circumstances fuller of consternation then that which befell these hard hearted Iews for their rejection of Christ Their sin 't was dearly bought dearly paid for That kingdom which had sometime appeared as Princess among the provinces that City which had been so honourably stiled the joy and beauty of the whole earth that Temple which Tacitus acknowledgeth a structure of most immense magnificence and riches one of the just wonders of the world as others call it for all exquisitness and splendour loe now people and kingdom City and Temple all these goodly buildings laid together under one common ruinous heap And if Iosephus their own historian may be believed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Travellers passing by could scarce see or say here was once Ierusalem The stones of emptiness and line of confusion were now truly enough stretch't upon it Turnus Rufus that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Wicked wretch as the Jewish writers with indignation call him had now drawn a plough in scorn over that very place where formerly the Temple stood Fulfilling literally what was in all probability neither believ'd nor fear'd though so expressly foretold Zion for your sake shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forrest Mich. 3. 12. Thus was the admired Naomi become now another Marah The joyous City and people made a sad spectacle of astonishment a second Shilo a pillar of salt a terrour and warning to all Men and Brethren let us not deceive our selves sin 't is no trifle nor can God be mocked He that spared not Ierusalem how shall he spare us if we tread under foot the things that belong to our peace The Text 't is one of those previous signes which should forerun Ierusalems ruine Many whereof as Aretius very well observes Ad diem judicii quoque accommodari possint they do as well suit with and may as safely be applyed to these last days of the world as those of Ierusalems fall So that we may too truly say this day is this Scripture fulfilled iniquity aboundeth and the love of many waxeth cold Iniquity that is taking the word as Grotius in a restrictive sense the iniquity of persecutions the continuance and encrease of their savage cruelties against Christians Such a bloody trade did the Devil then drive in those primitive perfecutions Oh what abundant cause of thankfulness to God have we to whom Divine providence hath reserved milder times times of serenity and freedom in the profession of Christian religion May we be wise unto soberness and make a right improvement of our mercies Or 2dly Iniquitie that is say others those manifold scandals which not long after did arise some from the persons seducing such as Benchochab that false son of the stars with his wilde rabble after him some from the numerous heaps of persons seduced crying loe here and loe there in a meer phrenzy of delusion whereby the lustre of the Christian Church became greatly
ecclipsed and multitudes no doubt unhappily cool'd and taken off from the due embracement of the Gospel Such sad spectacles both the one and the other have most ages afforded so prone have some been to believe a lie And so unable have others been to step over this stone of offence and to continue notwithstanding this sore temptation a sober constant love to deserted slighted truth 3ly And lastly Iniquitie that is taking the expression as some others at a greater latitude it then importeth Communem naturae humanae pravitatem the common pravity of humane nature As if our Saviour had said this as another Nilus shall overflow all its banks Exiliet fraenis Natura remotis The reins being laid loose mankinde shall be seen to run even wilde into all excess of vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 't will not be the bare subsistence and being of sin but sin multiplyed and encreased measures of iniquity heaped and running over sin rampant with all circumstances of hainousness accompanying of it fulfilling that ancient similitude of the prophet the press is full the fats overflow their wickedness is great Ioel. 3. 13. Such saith our Saviour will be the forepart of the seene and the latter as dismal The love of many shall wax cold That love which is the end of the commandment that love which is the fulfilling of the whole law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall lose its vital heat and warmth It shall become in this hard season as it were frozen to death disheartned and driven off the stage by the violence of sin An issue sad enough but too likely to ensue where sin prevails Vera pietas extinguetur so Gerhard the prodigious torrent and inundation of sin shall even quench and discourage allmost all practice or owning of any piety or vertue We have in the words without any labour of more curious division the cause and effect the antecedent and consequent all of the same sad complexion sin upon sin and misery upon misery as devouring waves immediately following one another Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold From the verse as it stands capable of a various aspect we have several weighty truths emergent such as may sadden us but such as must also concern us 1. Looking upon the words in their causality and influence they bear the former to the latter we may thence observe the growth and encrease of sin 't is an extreme prejudice and hindrance to all goodness Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold 2. Looking upon the words as they stand in conjuncture with the times they point unto we may then observe All those seasons when people both might and should be best it may so fall out that they prove then far worst 3. The last view of the words is in some respects yet sadder Looking on them as one of the previous signes of Ierusalems destruction they plainly import The encrease of sin the decay of piety they are things fatal and ominous to any people presages of impending calamity where these go before we may justly fear the tragical sequels they here relate to Then shall there be great tribulation vers 21. 1. Looking upon the words in that causality and influence the former bear to the latter we may thence observe the growth and increase of sin 't is an extreme prejudice and hindrance to all goodness Because iniquitie shall abound the love of many shall wax cold sin 't is as the weeds in the field their encrease impairs the whole crop of corn or as that venemous tree the Arcadian Yew-tree which as Plinie relates casteth a deadly killing shade nothing kindly thrives wherever that spreads its branches That men as men owe to God a life of vertue and as Christians a life of more transcendent piety all our hearts and indeed the whole world must freely yield and Eccho Yes But alas where sin sets up its hellish standard how shall this be performed Humane nature is weak and example proves more then whole loads of arguments Pecorum ritu antecedentium gregem sequimur pergentes non quà sit eundum sed quà itur said Seneca very truly we are like sheep following the common tract of others though never so far out our way principles of good are but faint and weak even in the best when the iron age comes on indeed the next news is Vict a jacet pietas Vice goes up and the sacred interest of vertue that goes as fast down Dayly experience sheweth it in things natural Contraries we say abide not together They are of a contending nature the one chaseth away the other Thus where darkness cometh light is forced to go Thus where the extremity of cold prevaileth the more desirable warmth and heat are lost The case 't is parallel in a diviner sense after this manner saith the Apostle doth sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 23. It fighteth and fighteth in earnest against the whole interest of holiness It seems to cry out againg piety as the Edomites did against Ierusalem Rase it rase it even to the ground Let but evil once get up and that will quickly bring down whatever is good Where the one usurps the other becomes dethroned To be truly religious in the best times 't is much but to be such in bad times 't is almost a miracle If ill words be enough as the Apostle observes to corrupt good manners ill words and ill works put both together are much more able to do it In such a common degeneracy one Lot one Noah is a great raritie in Gods own reckoning Thee that is thee only have I seen righteous before me in this generation Gen. 7. 1. To put the case into a familiar way of instance when Atheism and contempt of religion shall generally reign how shall an ingenuous person without very much conflict in himself be able to bear up any due acknowledgments of God in all his ways when almost all places shall run into drunkeness and excessive healths how shall the most sober person contain himself within the due bounds of temperance when uncleanness and all manner of wanton lusts shall appear Epidemical impudent and as the sin of Sodom how hard is it then to observe and honour chastity as it ought when people shall every where become effeminate and fond in their attire how loth shall we be to expose our selves to the scorn of others by continuing a plain decent modest habit when profane swearing shall grow the common dialect how prone will our own lips be to take up those unhappy accents when every novell wilde opinion shall grow the more creditable religion who can then without very much grace steadily consist with ancient sound doctrine Lastly to ask no more of these fadning questions when debauchedness and drollery shall grow the only gentile mode oh how ready shall we all then be to grow ashamed of holiness and the fear of God Thus may a
righteous cause become oppressed and religion it self even laught to scorn through the insolencies of sin Under such hard circumstances the best of men may be prone to fall into such convulsive fits as one sometimes expressed Ah! quoties mecum dixi numquid ego solus sapio c. It is the secret language of many a good mans heart Lord my judgment is satisfied my affection setled I could truly say methinks no life like a life of serious piety But when I look abroad into the world I see 't is far otherwise Lo there rioting and drunkenness chambering and wantoness strife and envying And these things I must confess almost quench and cool all my former willing thoughts for heaven I could often lay my hand upon my heart and say what am I wiser am I better then others who or what do I take my self to be Oh my Brethren A holy life it is not without its difficulties Lo here the snare unseen the temptation that presseth so hard upon the most candid persons They are many times better inwardly then they know to shew themselves outwardly Others are bad and this maketh them half ashamed to be good Loth they are to disoblige loth to do any thing which might seem to reflect on the vices of others And this maketh us still at our former loss sin depresseth better things When that is at its highest Tropick Religion is usually then at its lowest We commonly say and the preceding instances are evidence enough of it that scarce any man sinneth singly to himself alone he becomes a snare and danger to others At this unhappy rate have the overflowings of ungodliness in these last days drowned many The devils work proves done to his hand Ingentious natures become dayly debauch'd hopeful inclinations immediately blasted green unpoiz'd years easily drawn aside And all this through the common encrease of sin Thus as the Poet said is Astraea driven away or rather thus may we say is Piety weakned and wounded amongst us Honoured and Beloved the consideration it is momentous it is truly great and weighty it calleth upon us all in our several places to be real and earnest for the suppressing of evil lest otherwise that pulleth down whatever is good our kindness to sin it is our unkindness to God So far as we countenance vice so far we frown upon vertue and tread under foot whatever is honest whatever is lovely whatever is praiseworthy in the sight of God or men 2dly Looking upon the words as they stand in conjuncture with the times they point to we may then observe At those seasons when people both might and should be best it may so fall out that they prove then far worst We may look upon the present arraignment as relating either to the sins of the Iews or of the Gentiles 'T is the same truth we have the same equal grounds for the observation in both 1. In reference to the Jews 'T was Gods complaint in the prophet When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered Hos. 7. 1. An extreme improper season The accent of time when made the offence sevenfold the greater 'T was sin very ill timed Such was Ierusalems case The Messiah was now come on this very design That he might destroy the works of the devil the darkness was now pass't and the true light shining life and immortality those dear desirable things brought now to light The times of former ignorance God had winked at but now call'd upon all men every where to repent The Apostles those blessed Ministers of state ready at hand to assist in this heavenly work A definitive time prefixt as in the Ninevites case yet within a few years or it would be too late Temple and City and People would all lie under ashes if the sore threatned judgment were not prevented by a religious speedy turning to God But lo after all in stead of grapes behold wilde grapes in stead of holiness to the Lord it proveth as the Apostle relateth their case far otherwise A filling up their sins that wrath might come upon them to the uttermost 1 Thes. chap. 2. ver 15 16. Ierusalem that very people to whom Christ had so divinely preach't Never man spake like this man Iohn 7. 46. that very people over whom he had so pathetically mourned And when he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it Luk. 19. 41. that very people for whom after all their indignities and in the midst of all his own extremest Agonies he yet so affectionately prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. that very people toward whom his bowels had always so particularly so tenderly yearned Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would I have gathered thy children together even as an hen gathereth her chickens Math. 23. 37. yet this this very people as if uncapable of being obliged by all the methods of love and sweetness nothing can rellish nothing seems to take with them but sin and hell Iniquity abounds Men and Brethren who can conceive how far the hopefullest persons the fairest seasons may fall short of divine expectation 'T was Ierusalems case it was their sin 't is our danger Or 2dly If we take the words as relating to the sin of the Gentiles the aggravation is still the same now was their Accepted time now was their Day of salvation Now were those wilde branches to be ingrafted with so much honour into the good Olive Divine grace hitherto so great a stranger to them and they to that sought now for their embraces this was their heavenly nuptiall day Lo saith the Apostle we turn to the Gentiles that is to carry and tender to them that kingdom those treasures of mercy which you Iews so unworthily turn your backs upon how justly might the worth of the message make the feet of those holy men who brought these blessed tidings beautiful and welcome to them yet here also as if all flesh were willfully set upon walking contrary to God we finde the holy City troden under foot by these Gentiles and by them polluted with Idols The religious Ierusalem was now turned into a prophane Aelia A swines head set up at the gates in derision of the Jews And that they might at once bid the more open defiance to Christianity and give the fullest establishment to Heathenisme a temple is set up for Iupiter with all Paganish solemnities upon Mount Zion It might have then been said with very little alteration as in the Psalms The bloud of thy Apostles and primitive Martyrs have they shed like water in the streets the dead bodies of thy Saints have they given to the beasts of the earth not only putting them to death but as Tacitus though a heathen confesseth Pereuntibus addita ludibria ut serarum tergis contecti canum laniatu interirent c. The most barbarous inhumane cruelties cruelties not fit to be related for their unparallel'd savageness
heartily must we seek Gods Grace as the souls divine and only true Antidote in evil times And blessed be God a holy watchfulness duly kept up may preserve us while security and carelesness would most certainly betray us into danger Watch and pray that ye enter not into Temptation Diogenes Laertius reporteth of Socrates though he lived in Athens where the plague often raged even to extremity in his time yet by his strict Temperance he kept himself in perfect health through all those dangers Such is the world likely enough to be An infected Athens Oh that we may be found as Socrates in a state of better health untouch't of all the evils of it Our Duty herein 't is truly great such as may prove a full employment for the whole soul but still such as approveth it self to every mans Conscience in the sight of God We may freely say as once Moses What doth God the Lord require of us but to keep our selves inoffensively clear from the sins of these last days not waving the good offices of love or kindness due to the persons of any and yet pertaking in evil with none Like Cassianus his Jewel-signet Universa quae occurrunt ad sui statum transformat nullius vero incursibus insigniri potest Such should every one of us likewise be As a seal of Diamond giving fair impressions of virtue upon every occasion to others but of that firmness as not to suffer the least impressions of vice to be made by any means upon our selves How happy oh how lovely were it could men be truly brought to this good consistency rais'd to this harmony with Heaven settled in this excellency of Spirit this steadiness of Life neither superciliously forward nor yet sinfully facile but discreetly Religious Then neither should Iniquity abound nor Piety decay then neither should our welfare fly from us nor those miseries which are the common attendants on sin hover with such frightful wings about us The general mending of bad times we must all confess 't is a great work it may be too great for particular persons and beyond their Sphear Abi frater in cellam c. as he said Our private prayers and tears may better become us then excentrical agitations But still 't is very much that every one might truly do in his place so much that could all be fairly perswaded the whole might soon become happily redressed However at the lowest ebb Noah Daniel and Job all good men may yet deliver their own souls when they cannot prevail to save the land But why speak we thus dejectedly Be of good cheer all ye that fear God Dabit Deus his quoque finem I am prone to hope it might be safely said Atheism and giddiness those hateful short liv'd things will quickly run themselves out of breath and the serious fear of God shall yet become a praise in the land Religion is an ancient weather-beaten Ship that hath successfully out-ridden many a hard Sea-storm and behold it is still above water or like those Witnesses in the Revelation Prophane men may rant and huff they may deride and insolently run over it supposing that they have dispatcht and slain it But this kinde of crucifying effecteth little it hindreth not the promised Resurrection Our Saviour after his sufferings and the Witnesses after their slaughter they both presently revive And thus Religion after all these rude affronts after all these vain attempts to eclipse it usually shineth forth to the joy of all good men as the Sun out of a dark cloud with much brighter rays To draw to a Close The Ends of the World are come upon us evil Days Days full of Sin full of danger as an holy man said Omnia periculis plena plena laqueis All things all places are as it were filled up with Temptations and snares Pudeâ— non esse impudentem as St. Austin so pathetically cried out It is come saith he to that height of impudence that a virtuous person is pâ—â— almost to blushing if he be not as shamelesly forwaâ—d in evil as the worst Now if ever may we say as the Apostle only Oh that it may be conducted with all due circumstances of candour Save your selves from this untoward generation Partake not with wicked men in their sins that you partake not with them in their plagues This good care we owe to our selves and our own preservation But that is not all There is somewhat more we still owe to God A striving against sin Hebr. 12. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exerting our utmost strength and spirits even to an Agony in this Sacred Combat to foil and bring down the Enemy Upon these terms we became initiated into Christian Religion Thus to renounce the Devil and all his works Thus to bear up as Israel against Ama'ek a perpetual hostility against evil We â—aâ—e opened our mouth to the Lord as Iephthah and â—â—nnot go back â—his is that Holy War to which we are all called that harmlâ—ss war which alone aimeth to save not to destroy And happy are those that are found Gods Worthies in it Such virtuous Cato's did the Romans account as needful to contend against the vices of peace at home as their most valiant Scipio's to fight their enemies in times of war abroad We may slothfully meditate many foolish excuses but certainly while there is so much of sin up and down the world Every true Christian must hold himself very highly concern'd to appear so much the more visibly for God and goodness in his place Christianity 't is not the bare acknowledgment of that worthy name by which we are called but the practical exhibiting of such a Conversation as may be fairly presidential a real Patern and Copie to all And praised be God 't is possible as he said in the Poet Exemploque suo mores reget The strength of solid good Examples may very far stem the stream of Vice and by degrees recover men from the errour of their ways to the love and acceptance of better things Goodness of Life 't is an Argument will be resented and heard when it may be the lowdest words are not Conversation best winneth Conversation and is always the most prevailing Oratour in this case that may gain many happy converts where other means though truly righteous may yet prove abortive and miscarry And now could this desirable effect this pious conquest be attain'd we should soon finde the consequence like that rare passage that religious Close between Caecilius and Octavius in Minutius Felix Both joy'd neither griev'd Both Victors and yet neither Captive Such might our case also be a mutual mercy a general Triumph an universal joy satisfaction and honour on all hands Our stations may be different as the Occasion which we this Day wait upon sheweth but our Duty it is to all of us at least for substance but one An unfeigned upright approving our selves to God in all well-doing May we so resolve and so practice we have this just comfort that none can take from us whoever falleth this man standeth whoever is found a curse or shame to the place or times he liveth in loe here is one whom Posterity shall freely acknowledge both a Blessing and Honour to his Countrey We may cheerfully say as the spirit of God to the Churches in the Revelation They that defile not their Garments shall walk with God Or as our blessed Saviour in the Consolatory Promise immediately added to allay the sad tidings of the Text Though iniquity should abound and the love of never so many wax cold yet He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved Which God of his Mercies vouchsafe to us FINIS