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A36271
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A sermon preached before the king on Tuesday, June 20th. 1665 being the day of solemn thanksgiving for the late victory at sea / by J. Dolben ...
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Dolben, John, 1625-1686.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing D1832; ESTC R32800
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15,472
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34
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A SERMON Preached before the KING On Tuesday June 20th 1665. Being the Day of SOLEMN THANKSGIVING For the late VICTORY at SEA By J. DOLBEN D. D. Dean of WESTMINSTER and Clerk of the Closet Published by His Majesties Special Command London Printed by A. Maxwell for Timothy Garthwait 1665. PSAL. 54. Vers 6 7. 6. An offering of a free heart will I give thee and praise thy Name O Lord Because it is so comfortable 7. For he hath delivered me out of all my trouble and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies HAving the Honour to serve the Devotions of the King and the Court in their joynt Thanksgiving to God for a Victory I have taken the Theme of my Discourse from the mouth of a King who was the greatest Conqueror and withal the greatest Master and Example of Devotion recorded in holy Scripture A Prince who with the same spirit and affection led his People in their Battels and in all their Acts of Worship and Religion Went In and Out before the Congregation as constantly to the Tabernacle as the Camp And therefore as the Historical Books of the Old Testament a good part whereof are but Davids Commentaries short and summary Memorials of his glorious Atchievements afford matter enough for the admiration of Captains and Commanders in War So is his Book of Psalms a rich Treasure and Magazine of Heavenly Meditations where every Pious Soul may find somewhat suited to its condition fit to assist its infirmities and improve it's Graces If we can as S. Augustine adviseth form our souls In Psal 30. by the affection of the Psalm tune our hearts to the Aire and spirit of Davids raptures we shall meet in these Divine Compositions that which is able to kindle Zeal inflame Love mellow and impregnate holy Sorrow for sin to give Wings to our Prayers and carry our Petitions with speed and force into Heaven to animate and enliven our Praises and make our Hallelujahs like those of Angels and Beatified Spirits To actuate all the good Resolutions which any of these Affections our Love our Fear the sense of our own unworthiness or Gods abundant Mercies have begun in our hearts In such plenty and variety I could not be long to seek for words proper to our present occasion And such will this Psalm appear to be A Psalm of Instruction so the TITLE calls it teaching us in few words how we ought to demean our selves in a War for the procuring good success to our Armies and making that success happy to us when we have obtained it In the three first Verses David being sought for by his Enemies as we lately were by ours prayes against them That was his Course He always began his Conflict with God contending and wrestling with Him for a blessing and assistance He durst not lift up his hands even against the Enemies of God yet what durst not David do till he had first lifted them up in humble Supplication to the Lord his strength Who taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight Psal 144. 1. This being done his Courage breaks out like Lightning he doubts not of slaying his Thousands and Ten Thousands So in the 4th and 5th Verses he becomes his own Prophet promising himself Victory For who can resist him who hath Omnipotence for his Second Or how can any Enemy maintain a Fight against that Captain who hath before-hand defeated and broken their Forces by his Prayers assur'd his Conquest before he put on his Armor Then in the last Verses which are my Text David concludes where he began thankfully acknowledgeth Gods goodness in his Deliverance and the Dissipation of his Enemies obliging himself to a return of dutifull affectionate service in consideration of so great Mercies received and those as they are the essential parts of a Thanksgiving so shall they be of my Sermon I will begin with that which is first in the order of nature though last in the words The Acknowledgment which is double of the Benefit and the Author The Benefit is likewise two-fold consisting of a Deliverance and a Victory David is delivered from all his trouble all the treacherous plots and attempts of his Adversaries And his eye hath seen his desire upon those Adversaries and of all this God is confessed the sole Author He hath delivered me c. I Am to begin with the Benefit acknowledged and with that part of it which is here called Deliverance and that being in Davids case not a Rescue from actual mischief or distress but only a diversion of a Danger coming toward him is such a Negative mercy as we seldom trouble our selves to consider much less to acknowledge and give thanks for How many hundreds of Perils hath every one of us escaped in our Persons Fame and Fortunes which we never dreamt of The watchful Providence of God maintaining a continual guard over us waking and caring for our good while we sleep and perhaps neglect both our selves and him that keeps us Would we but meditate a little upon the infinite accidents occurring in the course of things the infirmities of our natural frame and temper with the nice and curious contexture of our parts the consequences of our Disorders the malice of our enemies and of the Devil all or any of which may easily shorten our days or make them miserable And from hence admit these two evident Deductions 1. That in this estate it is morally impossible for a man to continue one day were not the goodness of God particularly intent upon his Preservation 2. That it is a double mercy to be kept from danger and from the knowledge of it too Because had we a distinct apprehension of all the evils to which we are obnoxious our fear and sollicitude must needs be a continual rack and torment to our Souls This contemplation would I assure my self cause every Person here present to add in his private Closet-Devotions one new Laud and Thanksgiving to God for his Deliverance from the Dangers which he never thought of But how little soever we are affected with these unknown Perils and Escapes wherein our eye is not sharp enough to discern the small thred by which a Calamity hangs over us or the hand that holds it from falling on our heads Yet when a considerable Danger comes close and stares us in the face when the Clouds gather apace and the sky looks black about us then we apprehend a Storm and bethink us of a shelter and retreat When death surrounds us when the Pestilence walks in darkness and the sword destroyes at noon day casting down thousands besides us and Ten thousands at our right hand then Qui habitat in adjutorio is a seasonable Hymn Then 't is a valuable Priviledge to retain unto Providence and have an Interest in Gods favor that he may defend us under his wings and we may be safe under his feathers 'T is great pitty that after such convictions Psal 91.
a Son of his charity to feed his eyes with horrid Spectacles to delight in mischief and entertain himself with Feasts of Blood the Repasts and Banquets of Devils God forbid they who profess it their duty to love and cherish their very enemies should imitate the execrable ferity of Hannibal who viewing a ditch full of Roman Blood applauded the loveliness Plutarch of the sight or that diabolical temper of Vitellius Suetonius Tacit. who professed the stench and killing savour of enemies Carkasses to be an odour and perfume more grateful then all the Gums and Spices of the East Should our eyes thus offend us 't were good literally to pull them out much more profitable to want all our senses then that by them so much of Hell should be let into our Souls This hath so far affected some excellent men in the first and best Ages of the Church as to make them conclude all War unlawful under the Gospel and you know 〈…〉 among us God-wot very unlike them who profess the same belief I should be sorry to see them tried with such an opportunity of fighting as they wish and I fear lately expected But if war be now unlawful then the Christian Magistrate beareth the Sword in vain which Rom. 13. 4. yet St. Paul sayeth he does not it being possible that an Army may be as needful to procure the execution of Justice upon strong Thieves and numerous Murderers as the Sheriffs Halberts are to guard a Common Hangman I could heartily wish the Commands of Christ were so universally and so sincerely obey'd that there might be no need of Armies nor of Courts of Justice no use of Bonds or Mortgages to secure the honesty of one Christian to another which must certainly be the Case if men having imbided the Doctrine of Christ into their hearts and being thereby instructed in their Duty would do it Not for wrath but Conscience sake Yet seeing this is hopeless in the dreggs of a corrupted World the End must be obtained as it may We must pray for our Princes that under them by the protection of their Power and their Arms we may live peaceably and quietly in all Godliness and Honesty and that God will bless and prosper their Wars which are not only just but charitable also when they undertake to punish wrong Doers that they may be able to cherish and defend them who do well And if it be lawful to make War it must be lawful to profe 〈…〉 weaken and disable nay and to Destroy those whom no fair course will bring to reason And what we may so endeavor as to hazard our own lives for the procuring we may with all doubt rejoyce in when we have it so that we are thus far sure it is an innocent and honest satisfaction to see our desire upon our enemies We may and must be affected with such publick Benefits and he is unworthy to breath in England whose heart does not exult and triumph that the Pride of our insolent Enemies is in some measure mortified their Injustice chastised their vain Rhodomontades returned upon them with shame and confusion and their real extraordinary strength on which they bare themselves so high become no further useful then to embellish our Trophies and ennoble our Victory to make the KINGS Name more glorious and the Bravery of those who Commanded his Navy more conspicuous then otherwise they would have been The Caution then must be That we rejoyce in our Victory soberly and use it mercifully Not fixing our delight directly upon the Calamity of our Enemies for what can be more unnatural then to make Sorrow the Object of Joy but receiving it by reflexion from the advantage resulting thence to our own Condition So Lucretius observes that Men apprehend a Contentment in seeing from the shore a Ship tost in a Tempest not that he supposeth any so inhumane as to be pleased with the Danger and Misery of others but such a comparison sets off and endears their own safety to them Such a Pleasure I would prescribe you in this Case as Merchants have when they hastily cast out their Goods to save a Ship Or wounded Souldiers when they reward a Chirurgian for cutting off their Limbs to prevent the consequences of a Fever or a Gangreen These are called mixt acts of the Will being compounded of satisfaction and regret For 't is impossible a man should desire to lose the effects of an Indian Voyage be delighted in seeing the fruits of so much toil and hazard perish in a moment Yet when he hath even at that rate redeemed his Life he thinks the great and hardly gotten Treasure unhappily but profitably expended And no man so hates his own flesh as to be glad to see it mangled and torn from him But yet he loves the Knife and applauds the Skill which takes off a Member to save the Body bemoaning nevertheless the necessity of that method If you consider that every Man is nearer to us then our Goods Bone of our Bone and Flesh of our Flesh and every Christian is our fellow-Member in that Body whereof Christ is the Head We shall never behold the miseries of such Relations but with that tenderness and sympathy wherewith the first Fathers of the Church looked on those whom they charitably punished satisfying themselves in the good effects of their Censures both publick and private the affrighting others from imitating what they saw so condemned and correcting the offenders themselves by their sufferings delivering them to Satan for the destruction 1 Cor. 5. 5. of the flesh that their souls might be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus But yet leading them out to the execution of their sentence with Tears and groans and compassionate mournings as we read frequently in ancient Christian Authors and St. Paul intimates to us in many places of his 1 Cor. 5. 2. 2 Cor. 2. 1. 12. 21 Epistles and in truth had they not had such affections they had excommunicated themselves together with these Sinners cut their own Souls off from that essential Charity which is the Life and Soul of our Profession the only tye and bond which knits and holds us together in our real internal Christian Communion while they separated others from outward Participation in the Churches Rites and Offices If you think it hard thus to abstract the cause from the men and to govern those affections which are inseparable from the estate of War by such nice distinctions I must acknowledge that it is no ordinary pitch of vertue which Christianity aimes at those Divine Instructions Examples Motives and Helps given us by Our Saviour were not intended to produce little and trivial things in us but though perfection be not easie yet sincerity and honest endeavor is Me thinks it should be possible not to indulge to that Passion which you are not at leisure to mortifie much more to direct it to a right object which is that I require And after