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A62593 A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, upon Friday the 26th of Febr. 1691/2 by W. Talbot ... Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730. 1692 (1692) Wing T123; ESTC R7001 16,845 34

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A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL Upon Friday the 26th of Febr. 1691 2. By W. Talbot D.D. and Dean of Worcester Published by Her Majestie 's Command LONDON Printed for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCII HABAKKUK Chap. I. Ver. xiii Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he A Subject which will almost necessarily lead our thoughts and meditations to a future Judgment and State kill our affections and desires to the empty fading vanities of this World and raise them to the more substantial and durable satisfactions of that which is to come Teach us a quiet submission to the will of God's Counsels and engage us to a sincere obedience to that of his Commands A subject which as it must be necessary at all times so cannot be unseasonable at this these being the great ends which that abstinence those pious Austerities which our holy Mother in conformity to pure and uncorrupted Antiquity enjoyns us at this season are designed for and subservient to and these will be the proper improvements of my intended Discourse upon the Argument now before us It is St. Hierom's observation in his Preface to his Commentary upon this Prophecy that the name of Habakkuk is derived from a word that signifies Embracing and one Notion that he understands it in is the Embraces of a Wrestler who clasps his Arms about the person he contends with and in this sence our Prophet has very emphatically deserved his name for in this Chapter we have him contending with no less an Antagonist than the great God the Lord of Hosts and upon no lower a Subject than his Holiness Justice and Goodness expostulating with him about the flourishing estate and prosperity of bad Men and the miseries and afflictions of the Good as if his permitting thereof were inconsistent with those his Glorious Attributes for to that effect he addresses himself to him in the words I have now read But is it not a very bold and daring thing for a Creature thus to arraign the Justice of his Creator for the thing formed to dispute with him that formed it why is such or such a thing so or so The forementioned Father labours to bring the Prophet off by saying that he does not here speak his own sence as if he thought hardly of God for those his Dispensations but in his own person represents the frailty and impatience of Man Thus much indeed must be allowed that it is not unusual for holy men in Scripture to speak of others in the First Person especially when they blame or reflect upon any fault in them So St. Paul when he had spoken some things in his own Person in the 4th of the 1st to the Corinthians expresly tells them that he had in a figure transferr'd those things unto himself for their sakes And in the 3d. to the Romans 7th says he If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye to his glory why am I judged which certainly St. Paul never meant of himself but only personates an impious Objector But yet that there is any necessity for us with St. Hierom to excuse the Prophet in this place as not objecting of himself but only urging what Wicked or Atheistical persons might object against such a seemingly unjust dispensation is more than I can see This I am very sure of that the best of God's servants pretend not to Perfection or to be without their Failings and in this particular case before us we have several instances in Scripture as we shall see by and by of men of no less character than Habakkuk who have made the same objection with this in the Text. But whether he objects in his own or in the person of another I will not contend be that as it will the case was this He had in the beginning of the Chapter complained of the iniquity of the Jews for which God threatens from the 5th vers to bring upon them the Chaldaeans that bitter and hasty Nation as he calls them and that they shall march through the breadth of their land and possess their dwellings and lead them away captive And then after he had in the 12th ver deprecated this severe Judgment and begg'd of God not to suffer those whom he had from the beginning chosen to be his peculiar people to come to an utter excision He acknowledges that Nebuchadonosor was raised up by God for a scourge to the wicked strengthened and supported by him for the correction of his Enemies But yet expostulates with him for suffering him to ruin and to grow fat with the spoils of those that were not so bad as himself As if he had said True it is O Lord we are a very wicked and sinful people but yet not so bad as the Tyrannous Nebuchadonosor and his Idolatrous Chaldaeans How then can it be consistent with thy justice and hatred to sin to permit the greater sinners to prosper in their oppressions of the less of those that are better than themselves Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil this is one of those many condescensions to our infirmities which the holy Spirit is pleased to make in Scripture when he speaks of God and means no more than that sin is the most odious and detestable thing to God that can be as offensive to him as those things are to us which we cannot bear the sight of And canst not look on iniquity i.e. thou canst not abett or approve of it for so the phrases to behold to know to look on do frequently signifie in the Scriptures The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous says David i.e. he is pleased with he does approve of it And the Lords eyes will behold or look on the thing that is just i.e. with Approbation or Complacency Wherefore then looke'st thou upon them that deal treacherously i.e. Why dost thou favour them with success in their treacherous enterprises And holdest thy tongue dost not interpose dost not hinder the wicked from Devouring Oppressing Enslaving Persecuting Murdering the man that is more righteous than he who comparatively with respect to the Oppressor may be said to be righteous or at least less wicked than he The words thus explained contain an expostulation with God concerning that seemingly strange dispensation of his Providence in suffering the wicked to prosper and thrive and that by the afflictions and oppressions of the Righteous as if it were a reproach to his Holiness and Justice Which since it is the main engine by which the Atheist endeavours to batter down the great