The Peoples Happinesse A SERMON PREACHED IN St. MARIES IN CAMBRIDGE Upon Sunday the 27 of March being the day of His MAJESTIES happy Inauguration By RI. HOLDSVVORTH D. D. Master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge Vicechancellour of the Universitie and one of His MAJESTIES Chaplains Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the Vniversity of Cambridge Anno Dom. 1642. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE CHARLES By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Most Gracious Sovereign I Had not adventured to bring these unpolished meditations into the publick light much lesse to have set them before the Sunne but that Your Majestie was pleased to becken them to Your self and to draw them as by Your own beams so under Your own shade into Your Royall Presence that being first animated with the gentlenesse of Your beams they might not be dazled with the splendour Neither is this the least of Your Princely excellencies that You please as Christ in the Gospel to come down from the Mount Matth. 8.1 for the more free accesse of Your people and know with Moses to put the vail of Goodnesse over the shinings of Majestie so that the meanest of Your subjects may be refresht with the light of Your countenance notwithstanding the lustre and draw livelihood from the splendour through the serenitie finding the medium of their happinesse as well as the object to be under God in Your Self It is not to be expected at this present that the irradiations of this light should be so vigorous in a cloudy Region we now see to our grief what a misery it is to have the Royall influence intercepted as of late it hath been and still is by those disastrous obstructions which at first had onely the appearance of Elia's cloud 1. Kings 18.44 like the hand of a man but are since grown to that vastnesse as they threaten to the whole Kingdome such ruine as our sinnes call for Yet in the midst of these sad distractions it is Your Majesties comfort that as their occasions are from below so their disposall is from above both for the exercise of Your Princely clemency and patience and for the triall of the sincerest loyaltie of Your subjects yea and religious hearts through all these clouds can discern and do with thankfulnesse acknowledge the saying of Solomon to be most true Prov. 16.15 In the light of the Kings countenance there is life the life of the whole State that it may happily rise to the former glory wherein it so long flourished the life of the Church that it may recover out of this sad languishing condition into which it is brought the life of the Universities that they may fruitfully spread forth their numerous branches to all parts of the Land Lastly the life of this small inconsiderable Tractate in as many degrees as Nature hath bestowed it upon man in that Your Majestie vouchsafed first to require a copie in writing then to command it to the Presse then to afford it Your Patronage whilest it presenteth to the world some little portion of that great happinesse which this eighteen years we have enjoyed under your blessed government I wish the Argument had had a better workman but what is defective in the Sermon shall be supplied by my prayers That the happinesse hereafter spoken of howsoever it be now eclips'd may again shine forth in full strength through Your Majesties great prudence whose Royall beams as they are powerfull for the fostering of piety so I hope they shall be powerfull also for the dispelling of all foggie vapours that may hazard either to prejudice the welfare of Your people or to pervert their allegiance Which as it hath been hitherto untainted to the envie of other Nations and honour of our own So that it may be alwayes inviolably preserved is the daily prayer of Your MAjESTIES humblest subject and servant Ri. Holdsworth A Prayer O Lord hear our prayer and let our cry come unto thee We are here met together to call upon thy holy name and to be made partakers of thy holy word revealed in Jesus Christ In whose name we are bold to begin these our weak prayers and supplications In our own names we are unworthy by reason of our sins that are so in-bred in our natures so strengthened by impenitency and so multiplied by custome that as we dare not conceal them from thee so now when we would confesse them we are not able to number them O Lord if thou shouldest plead with us there is nothing that we can say for our selves but that which would make more against us we are a sinfull Generation and even now when in thy Courts where we should bring holy affections we are above measure sinfull Our originall is wholly sinfull and our lives have answered and exceeded our originall and besides that we are born in sinne we confesse we have so lived O Lord as if we had been born to no other end but to sinne against thee and to grieve thy holy spirit Our first misery is that sinne hath conceived us our second that we have conceived it and brought it forth and made it our daily work and fulfilled it with greedinesse Our whole lives are nothing else but a course of sin we have run through sins of all sorts sins of Ignorance and of knowledge sinnes of infirmitie and of wilfulnesse sinnes of a hard heart and of a stiffneck we have committed them after a most presumptuous manner and continued in them after an impenitent manner against heaven and against earth and before thee therefore against them because against thee Against thy righteous law which pointeth out unto us a better way of piety against thy manifold mercies which should be pledges and engagements of better obedience against the glory of thy name the motions of thy spirit the couenant of grace the promises of salvation the hope of heaven the light and peace of our own consciences against our many solemne vows and protestations of reformation That now if thou shouldest enter into judgement with us and call us to a strict account for all or any of these in the least of them thy severity might find sufficient cause to deprive us of thy mercies to overwhelme us with thy judgements to leave us to our selves in this life and after this life to give us our portion with hypocrites in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone where is nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth But we know that thou art a mercifull God that thou mayest be called upon in a time accepted and thy mercie is a sweet and a safe Sanctuary it is thy self as well as thy justice therefore in the confidence of thy mercy we are imboldened to appeal from thee to thee from the barr of thy justice to the bowels of thy tender compassions beseeching thee that thou wilt be pleased not to look upon us as we are in our selves but to behold
them in all their conflicts to supply them with all those graces needfull to their sick and weak estate Mitigate their pains asswage their grievances make those bones which thou hast broken to rejoyce Work in them true remorse of conscience for their sinnes and seal unto them the pardon of them in Jesus Christ that from thence may arise that peace of conscience and that joy in the Holy Ghost which is so unspeakable and glorious If it be thy blessed will thou canst restore them to their former health that they may praise thy name among much people if otherwise thou hast disposed of any of them prepare and preserve them to thy heavenly Kingdome that they may have a peaceable passage out of these earthly tabernacles into those heavenly mansions which thou hast prepared for those that love thy appearing And give us grace all of us that are here present before thee this day to be warned by the many examples of our mortality that thou dayly settest before our eyes to prepare for the day of ourvisitation whensoever thou shalt send it sooner or later that we may have oyl in our lamps and our lamps always burning and the door of our hearts alwayes open to let thee the King of glory in whensoever thou shalt knock Last of all let thine illuminating and sanctifying spirit descend down upon all congregations assembled as this day in thy fear in particular upon this congregation here present that thy word that is to be sowen among them by me thy unworthy seruant though in great weaknesse by thine enabling Grace may prove thy strong arme of power to salvation to the enlightening of their understandings the sanctifying of their affections the amendment of their lives the comfort of their souls in this world and the salvation of them in the day of the Lord. Annoint our eyes with the blessed eye salve of thy Holy Spirit that the scales and mists of ignorance being removed we may clearly see the wonders of thy law prepare our hearts for the receiving of it set an edge upon our affections that we may hunger and thirst after this heavenly Manna and be alwayes gathering some an Omer some an Ephah every one some and that for his sake who is the Manna that came down from Heaven the eternal Word with thee from the beginning thy Christ our Jesus in whose holy Name we pray unto thee further as he himself hath taught us saying Our Father c. FINIS PSALME 144.15 Happy is that people that is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the LORD THe Genius of this Scripture as it is very gracefull and pleasing in it self so it is also very suitable to the respects of this day on which we are met together It presents unto us what we all partake of if we be so well disposed as to see it Felicitie or Happinesse And if a single happinesse be too little behold it is conveyed in two streams the silver stream and the golden It is reached forth as it were in both the hands of Providence There is the happinesse of the left hand which is Civill in the first clause of the words and the happinesse of the right which is Divine and Religious in the second Answerable to these are the two welcome aspects of this day the Civill aspect or reference which ariseth from the annuall revolution as it is Dies Principis a day of solemnitie for the honour of the King and the Religious aspect from the weekly revolution as it is Dies Dominica a day of devotion for the worship of God In these there is so evident a correspondence that I cannot but congratulate both the day to the text and the text to the day in regard of their mutuall complications For we have on the one side both clauses of the text in the day and on the other both references of the day in the text Happinesse is the language of all and that which addes to the contentment it is Happinesse with an Echo or ingemination Happy and Happy From this ingemination arise the parts of the text the same which are the parts both of the greater world and the lesse As the heaven and earth in the one and the body and the soul in the other so are the passages of this Scripture in the two veins of Happinesse We may range them as Isaac doth the two parts of his blessing Gen. 27. The vein of civill happinesse Gen. 27.28 in the fatnesse of the earth and the vein of Divine happinesse in the dew of heaven Or if you will have it out of the Gospel here 's Marthaes portion in the many things of the body Luke 10.41 42. and Maries better part in the Vnum necessarium of the soul To give it yet more concisely here 's the path of Prosperity in Outward comforts Happy is the people that is in such a case and the path of Piety in comforts Spirituall Yea happy is that people which have the LORD for their God In the handling of the first without any further subdivision I will onely shew what it is the Psalmist treats of and that shall be by way of Gradation in these three particulars It is De FELICITATE De Felicitate POPULI De HAC felicitate populi Of happinesse Of the peoples happinesse Of the peoples happinesse as in such a case Happinesse is the generall and the first a noble argument and worthy of an inspired pen especially the Psalmists Of all other there can be none better to speak of popular happinesse then such a King nor of celestiall then such a Prophet Yet I mean not to discourse of it in the full latitude but only as it hath a peculiar positure in this Psalme very various and different from the order of other psalmes In this Psalme it is reserved to the end as the close of the foregoing meditations In other Psalmes it is set in the front or first place of all as in the 32 in the 112 in the 119 and in the 128. Again in this the Psalmist ends with our blessednesse and begins with God's BLESSED BE THE LORD MY STRENGTH In the 41 Psalme contrary he makes his exordium from mans BLESSED IS HE THAT CONSIDERETH THE POOR his conclusion with God's BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL I therefore observe these variations because they are helpfull to the understanding both of the essence and splendour of true happinesse To the knowledge of the essence they help because they demonstrate how our own happinesse is enfolded in the glory of God and subordinate unto it As we cannot begin with Beatus unlesse we end with Benedictus so we must begin with Benedictus that we may end with Beatus The reason is this Because the glory of God it is as well the consummation as the introduction to a Christians happinesse Therefore as in the other Psalm he begins below and ends upwards so in this having begun from above with that which
us in the face and mediation of Jesus Christ In our selves we are vile and unlovely but in the beholding of him alone there is aboundant to make us amiable in thine eyes Aboundant in the purity of his incarnation aboundant in his death and passion aboundant in his victorious resurrection and ascention Through these we intreat thee to look upon us through the veil of our nature which he took through the merits of that precious bloud which he shed through the sweet odor of the satisfaction of obedience which he performed through the attonement which he purchased the reconciliation which he wrought and the intercession which he makes at thy right hand And having thus looked upon him look upon us give us grace to look upon our selves to examine our own wayes to try and to search our own hearts to leave no sin unrepented of open our eyes that we may see them open our hearts that we may mourn for them strengthen our endeavours to strive against them Make us truely to consider with our selves and to understand what we have done what adventurous courses we have taken how holy a name it is we have profaned how righteous a law that we have broken how happy a state that we have lost how blessed a recovery that we have neglected how good a spirit that we have grieved how righteous a father that we have provoked And by these considerations weary us and shame us out of our sins into the true trade of piety and love of thy holy name that loving thee we may seek thee and seeking thee find thee and in finding thee hold thee and in holding thee we may apply our selves to walk in those wayes that are approvable in thy sight For the time past of our lives it may suffice for it is enough O Lord it is enough and too too much that we have spent the prime of our years and the first fruits of our time in the vanities of this world and the lusts of the flesh hitherto O give us grace so to order our steps that we may consecrate whatsoever of our future age remains wholly unto thy service hereafter that we growing on forward from grace to grace from virtue to virtue from one degree of righteousnesse to another in the end of our dayes we may enjoy likewise the end of our hopes the salvation of our sinfull souls in Jesus Christ In whose name we are bold to continue these our weak prayers unto thee not onely for our selves but for the estate of thy holy Catholick Church wheresoever dispersed over the face of the whole earth that thine eyes may be alwayes open towards thine inheritance to enlarge her borders to water her growth to gather her dispersions together to make up her breaches to fulfill her moneths of travell to establish her station that howsoever the winds blow and the rain fall and the flouds lift up their voice the house which is built upon thy self may stand and the gates of hell may not prevail against it In this universalitie we humbly beseech thee to pour down thy blessings upon that part of thy fold in this land O let the light of thy countenance still shine upon us in the pardoning our many backslidings in the continuing our peace and plenty and all other benefits we do enjoy by thy Gospel that as thou hast fixed more eminent tokens of thy love among us then among other nations so thou wouldest give us grace also to bring forth fruit proportionable to so plentifull means even worthy amendment of life that thou mayest continue to be unto us a good and a gracious God and we may continue to be also unto thee a chosen Generation a royall priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people even thine own pleasant plant Blesse all estates and conditions herein from the highest to the lowest and more particularly we intreat thee for our gracious sovereign Lord the King's Majesty Charles by thy grace King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the true ancient Catholick and Apostolick faith and over all persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Temporall within these his Majesties Realms and Dominions next and immediately under Christ supream Lord Governour Bless him in his Royall Person establish his Throne in Righteousnesse unto himself set him as a seal upon thy heart and as a signet upon thine arme that as thou hast made him unto us precious as the light of our eyes so let him be tender unto thee as the apple of thine that he may prove an incomparable instrument of thy glory here and a vessel of glory hereafter Blesse him as in his Royall Person so in the comfort of his beloved Consort the fruitfull Vine the most excellent Lady our Gracious Queen Mary and in the hopefull growth of his Royall Posterity the precious Pledges of thy love unto this Land the Noble Prince Charles the Duke of York and the Lady Mary And in the happy reestablishment of those other illustrious Branches of the same Royall Stock beyond the seas the most renounced Lady the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Issue For the better effecting whereof be pleased to be assistant to all their allies and confederates to prosper their designes to fight their battels to go in and out before their armies to crown thy servants with new victories that yet at length thy poor distressed people may returne with joy to their ancient habitations that peace may be planted upon earth for the further propagating of thy Gospel the advancement of thy truth and the consummation of thy Kingdome Be pleased likewise to be gracious to all the people of this land from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hysop upon the wall let thy severall graces distill down upon their heads for the discharge of those particular places wherin thou hast set them The spirit of knowledge and piety upon the head of Aaron the Prelacy of the Church the most reverend Arch-bishops and Bishops and from thence to the skirts of his cloathing the inferiour ministers The spirit of wisdome and understanding upon the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell and all the true hearted Nobility The spirit of Justice and integrity upon the Judges and Magistrates of this land The spirit of increase and fructification upon all Schools of learning especially upon those two famous Universities Cambridge and Oxford and in Cambridge upon the good estate of S. Johns Colledge The spirit of obedience and fear of the Lord upon all the commonalty in particular upon the condition of this great and populous City The spirit of patience and consolation upon all thy poor afflicted members especially those commended to thee in our prayers at this time be pleased to compasse them about with thy blessings to establish thy mercies to replenish them with the graces of thy holy spirit to make the light of thy countenance to shine in their hearts to fill them full of heavenly comfort to support