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A67238 A sermon preach'd in the Collegiate-Church of Ripon, on Sunday the 22d of September, 1695 being the day appointed for a publick thanksgiving for the reduction of the town and castle of Namur ... / by Christopher Wyvill ... Wyvill, Christopher, 1651?-1711. 1695 (1695) Wing W3788; ESTC R34105 13,390 27

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therefore be God who hath given prosperity unto his King and hath delivered David his Servant from the peril of the Sword IV. And this leads me to the Fourth and last head of my present Discourse and that is concerning the effect which our Success in this War should have upon us 1. And first it should fill our hearts with an holy Joy in the remembrance of the loving-kindness of Almighty God towards us for should we not rejoice and exult when we consider that God is still mindful of us that he hath not yet left off to do us good and that he gives us every year fresh instances of his concern on our accounts Is it not a ground of exceeding great comfort to receive so clear and so many pledges of his love and favour exprest in such watchful care over us such Protection in times of danger such Success over our Enemies such deliverance from their Spight and Malice Such publick Benefits as these cannot I am sure they ought not to be received without great chearfulness and gladsomness of heart We are all of us or at least should be concern'd for the Publick Good as being living and sensible Members of the State and are like to partake both of the good and ill sare thereof And therefore how can we look upon or hear of any prosperous Issue of God's Providence over our Nation of any happy Success with which God hath blessed our Publick Undertakings without great delight and complacency 2. The Success with which God hath blessed us should also excite us to praise and bless God for it For God's Favour towards us will not have its due effect unless it fill our Mouth with Praise as well as our Heart with Joy We should look beyond the Hills from whence cometh our help beyond the efficacy of second Causes and search out the Primum Mobile that secret sacred Wheel of Providence which winds and turns about humane affairs as it pleaseth Then shall we be ready to acknowledge with David that it is not our own arm that helpeth us but the right hand of God and his arm and the light of his countenance because he hath a favour unto us It is necessary indeed that towards the atchievements of great Exploits or the encountring of formidable Enemies great Preparations should be made Arms and Money the strength and Sinews of War should be provided and considerable Forces raised For God who makes use of second Causes to produce his own wise designs works by these towards the defence and safeguard of his People and we can no more reasonably expect that God will help a Nation or Kingdom without their own concurrent endeavours than that he will recover a Man out of a dangerous Sickness without the application and use of proper Remedies or relieve a Man in distress and want without his own Industry and Care But then we must not impure our Victory and Success purely to any Prowess or Conduct or Wisdom of our own but to the great God who teacheth our arms to war and our finger●●o fight who guides our Councellors and teacheth our Senators Wisdom who presides over Ba●●les and gives not always Victory to the strong and crafty but oftentimes to ●he weak and seeble who pulleth down the mighty from their s●at and exalleth the humble and meek who alone giveth Victory unto Kings and delivereth his Servants from the hurtful Sword Upon the consideration therefore of the good Success we have hitherto had as we cannot but ascribe the accomplishment thereof to God's good hand of Providence so we are bound to make a grateful acknowledgment of it by our hearty Thanksgiving unto him saying with the Royal Psalmist Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Praise for thy loving-kindness and for thy truths sake for we know that no King or People can be saved by the multitude of an host and that no mighty Man is delivered by much strength And we have great reason to praise and bless All-mighty God for our late Success if we either look upon it as the ●●●●ious return of our Prayers and Fasting or if we reflect upon our unworthiness of it First If we look upon it as the gracious return of our Prayers and Fasting For we prayed and humbled our selves by fasting and implored the Blessing of God upon our Forces and upon our King throughout his Expedition and he hath been graciously pleas'd to hear our Prayers and hath granted our desires by giving us good Success and protecting the King in the day of Battle Blessed therefore be God who hath not withholden the request of our lips Blessed be God who hath not cast out our Prayer nor turned his Mercy from us Secondly let us reflect upon our unworthiness of it when we consider our many great and high Provocations of All-mighty God our unthankfulness for former Mercies our Incorrigibleness under all the Judgments which God at several times hath brought upon us and when we withal reflect upon the goodness of God in having thus blessed and prosper'd us notwithstanding such our unworthiness of it can we forbear to praise God saying with the Holy Psalmist Thou Lord hast forgiven the offences of thy people and covered all their sins thou Lord hast dealt graciously with thy servants be thou therefore exalted in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power 3. Moreover the Success we have had should engage us to trust in God for the future and never to doubt that God who hath appear'd so much and so signally stretched forth his arm on our accounts will now leave us but to hope with humble confidence that he will still continue to do great things for us 4. It should also oblige us to newness of Life and better Obedience towards God For fresh instances of his goodness do call aloud upon us to shew forth his praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to his Service and walking before him in holiness and righteousness all our days 5. Lastly The Success we have had against our temporal Enemies should put us in mind of the contest we have with our Spiritual and that as we are Christians we are engaged in a War far more dangerous and of far greater consequence than any we can have with our most inveterate Foes upon Earth in which if we are overcome we shall be reduced to a worse condition than all our other Enemies can ever bring us into in which if we get the Victory we shall gain Imm●●tal Life and Glory in the Regions above in comparison with which all the Trophies and Spoils all the Riches and advantages we can obtain over our Enemies here are but inconsiderable trifles When we were baptized into the Faith of Christ we took upon us to fight manfully against Sin the World and the Devil these are our most formidable Enemies with which we must have no Peace so long as we live upon Earth with these we must not so much as enter into a Truce or think of doing so nay 't is extreamly dangerous even but to parly with them We carry a War continually about with us the flesh warring against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other we have a law in our members warring against the law of our mind endeavouring to bring us into captivity to the law of sin We have Lusts and Passions which War in our Members and there are fleshly lusts which war against the Soul A Christian Man's Life therefore in this World is a state of continual Warfare and the Church of Christ it self is but Militant here upon Earth Let therefore our Success against our temporal Enemies encourage us to get the better of our Spiritual What a shame will it be for us to conquer those and to suffer our selves to be led Captive by these What disgrace is it to let Sin reign in our Mortal Bodies when we can so easily subdue our other Enemies What a sad exchange of a Victory would it be to beat our Enemies so as that they wax weaker and weaker and yet to suffer our Lusts and Passions to wax stronger and stronger O therefore let us watch and stand fast in our Faith let us quit our selves like Men like Christians and be strong Let us take unto our selves the whole Armour of God that we may be able to withstand all the assaults of our Spiritual Enemies Let us gird our loins with truth and put on the Breast-plate of righteousness let our feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and let us take the shield of Faith and the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God And let us withal humbly beg the Assistance of God's Holy Spirit and Grace which then will not fail to strike in with us and then we need not doubt but that we shall overcome all our Enemies of what nature soever they be Then when we have fought a good fight and finished our course and Successfully ended our Warfare here we shall enjoy an Eternal Jubilee of Peace Rest and Glory in the happy Regions of Immortality Which God of his infinite mercy grant to you and to me and to all Mankind through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost Three Persons and one most Glorious God be ascribed by you and by me and by all our Fellow-Creatures all Honour Praise and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS Sermons Written by the same Author AN Assize-Sermon Preached in the Cathedral-Church of St. Peter's in York March the 8th 1685. on Judgess xvii 6. The Duty and Obligations of serving God A Sermon Preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall July xxix 1694. on Joshua xxiv 15. 1 Sam. 11. 8. 2 Sam. 24. 9. Jam. 4. 1. Rom. 13. 4. Gen. 14. 19 20. Exod. 17. 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. Luke 3. 14. Is. 2. 4. Mich. 4. 3. Jud. 8. 34 35. 2 Kings 19. 28.