in humane reason they can by no other means be remedied than by the special hand of Heaven Which we come therefore here to implore in a particular blessing upon the consultations and endeavours of the great Council of the Kingdom and in defeating the wicked counsels and devices of our enemies and uniting the hearts of all his Majesties loyal Protestant Subjects But these great Blessings we cannot reasonably hope to obtain no not by our Fasting and Humiliation and Prayers unless we endeavour a true reconciliation with God by being unfeignedly penitent and resolving to forsake those sins which we our selves confess have brought us into such distresses and perplexities as nothing else can remedy Now in order unto this As I excited you on the last Day of solemn Fasting and Prayer to a serious and speedy Repentance by such Arguments as I found in those words of our Saviour to another of the seven Churches of Asia ii 16. Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and fight against thee with the sword of my mouth so at this time I shall direct you a little in the way and method of repentance and point at some things of which you are to repent from these words which I have read out of our Saviour's Letter to the Church of Sardis with whom we of this Church have too manifest a resemblance For as our blessed Lord complains ver 1. we have a name that we live i. e. are good Christians but alas in deed and truth are dead for we produce not the fruits of Christian vertue There is a great deal of bustle and stir about Religion for which we seem to be mightily concerned but the inward life and power of it is generally wanting which we do not love to be troubled withal Nay we can scarce say so much of our people as God doth of Judah in the first Lesson for Evening Prayer lviii Isai 2. They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God c. which alas we have most openly deserted though this was far short we find in that Chapter of making them an acceptable Nation to him At the best we must confess we are fallen asleep and grown very slothful as our Saviour here supposes ver 2. them of Sardis to have been and there is so great and universal a decay of true piety and goodness among us that we are in apparent danger to lose the small remainders of it Something good there is still left in this Church as there was in that but far from that intire and compleat obedience which our Lord expects from us as will appear by considering what is to be done by us for our recovery to a better condition And there are three things which our Lord here requires of them in my Text and are incumbent upon every one of us as our necessary Duty if we would be saved from our present danger First To remember what they had received and heard Secondly To hold it fast Thirdly To repent of their forgetfulness I suppose their looseness and indifferency in their Religion I shall treat of them all in the order wherein they stand and consider them both with respect to the condition of that Church to whom they were first delivered and then with respect to ours who have no less need of such admonitions I. The first of them supposes That they had been taught some Doctrin which they had received and entertained with belief and had heard it also often since inculcated and pressed so I understand the words by those Pastors who were set over them by the Apostle or those who first delivered the Truth unto them Which was nothing else but the Christian Religion of which I must not here speak at large but only tell you It is that way of serving God which is prescribed by Christ and his Apostles in the Books of the New Testament Wherein we now read what they then received by word of mouth from the Apostles and understand fully what we must believe and do to be saved Now as there is no cause to which God more frequently ascribes the sins and particularly the Idolatry of the Children of Israel than their forgetfulness of Him and of his Law and of what He had done for them so this very thing stupid forgetfulness and neglect of what Christ and his Apostles delivered by Signs and wonders and mighty deeds introduced that deadness in Religion of which our Saviour complains in the beginning of this Chapter and He foresaw would bring in all the corruptions which afterwards followed in the Church and began very early to appear in the Christian World For there arose false Apostles and false Prophets nay direct Antichrists as this very Apostle Sr John tells us men who denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ that brought in damnable Heresies sleighted the authority of the Apostles turned the Grace of God into lasciviousness nay brought back the old Idolatry as you read in the foregoing Chapter of this Book vers 14.20 And though this Church of Sardis is not charged with so deep a degree of Apostasie as those of Pergamus and Thyatira yet there was great danger of falling into it unless they took this advice of our Saviour to remember better than they had done what they had received and heard Which is the very same with that which God himself had given of old to the Israelites to prevent their defection from Him in many places of the Book of Deuteronomy viii 1 2 18 c. and which his Prophets were wont to give in after times as the first step to their recovery when they had revolted from God their Saviour xlvi Isai 8 9. vi Mic. 5. Who here calls upon his Church in like manner to bring to remembrance and think again and again till they had fixed it in their mind what they had received and with what affection also they had embraced the Gospel of God's Grace for that may be implied in the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how you have received and heard as the only means to preserve them from lapsing farther into a worse condition and losing that good which was still remaining but ready to dye among them This the Apostles afterward endeavoured with great care and diligence and promised as we read in St. Peter 2. i. 12 13 15. to endeavour that after their decease they might have those things in remembrance always which they had been taught But for want of the like diligence and watchfulness in the people who did not take such heed as they ought to have done to these admonitions the Christian Religion in process of time was so adulterated that a great part of the Church fell into that lamentable apostasie which is foretold and described in this Book of the Revelation and which we see now fulfilled too plainly in the Church of Rome and those of its
change God will Not himself indeed for He was always thus resolved but his dealings with you which you shall not find so favourable to you as they have been He will not always wait to be so gracious as he is at present for He is not insensible of all the affronts that impudent Sinners put upon Him He will take another course since they will not and meet them as you shall hear presently after another manner than he was wont to do making them know what it is to abuse the goodness of their gracious God You would have him indeed to change his Laws for your sakes nay to change Himself and go back with his Word to love those sins which he cannot but hate and pardon that which he hath told you he will punish a change which is impossible to be made But another change every man that goes on still in his trespasses shall find to his cost a change which he would by no means suffer but which God hath purposed and decreed and will not repent which is that He will not always strive with men in so much love but make Himself known to them in another way in tokens of his anger and wrath And that now would lead me to the Second thing only before we leave this let us a little seriously consider it Have you so much reason to love your sins that rather than change your lives you care not though God turn his loving kindness into displeasure After your sins have turned the World upside down and made it such a confused and uncomfortable place as we now find it do you not care though they reach up unto Heaven and make still a greater alteration there to our utter destruction Is it of no concernment in what manner God comes to visit you Is it all one whether he clothe himself with wrath and put on vengeance or come as a Friend and make affectionate addresses to your Souls Would you have Him that used to knock at the door of your hearts desiring to come in and entertain you with festival joys break in upon you with a dreadful violence and fill you with the terrours of the Lord with an amazed Conscience with benumming fears with ghastly apprehensions of the wrath to come with the beginnings of Hell fire and that not to turn but to torment you Or can you be content that He should come against this sinful Nation to break down what He hath built up and to pluck up that which he hath planted as Jeremiah speaks of his Country xlv 4. Or would it be as welcome a sound as any other to hear such a Cry as that in the Prophet Joel ii 1. The day of the Lord cometh it is nigh at hand a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness wherein he will come to lash us with the severest scourge of all other for the abuse of the light of his glorious Gospel for the despisal of his Messengers and our slighting all his benefits and continuing incorrigible under his Judgments O do not presume that you shall never see such a dismal time because he hath not yet made you so miserable Do not put away far from you this evil day nor imagine you shall always hear nothing but his kind invitations and his loving entreaties his good motions and his gracious promises if you will not be perswaded by them to turn unto Him He will turn away from you and set himself against you He will not always strive in vain with you but resolve at last though much against his first design to abandon such stiffnecked Sinners and pronounce such a Sentence on them as that in the Prophet i. Isai 24. Ah I will ease me of mine Adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies And that is the next Consideration II. A continued course of sin doth in conclusion weary the patience and tire the long-suffering of our most merciful and indulgent Lord and Master For He says here in my Text I will come unto thee QUICKLY There is a time when he will bear no longer but bring the Controversie to a speedy issue in the ruine and destruction of those that oppose him Now though there are many signs mentioned in Scripture of an approaching ruine yet I shall name but two The first is When Men have been not only often rebuked for their sins but convinced of their guilt and danger and have had their hearts set against them and yet will not amend For which we have the known Maxim of the Wise Man xxix Prov. 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy This is a mortal mark upon that person A token of a plague of the heart so incurable that nothing is to be expected but a sudden death Which will seize on such men if not presently yet on a sudden as to them in a moment when they look not for it but think themselves in peace and safety Thus it was in the days of Noah and thus it was at our Saviours coming to destroy his Crucifiers and thus we see it oftimes with our eyes or hear of it with our ears that the confident and the merry Sinner is in an instant cut off and goes down into the Pit But secondly The condition of impenitent persons is never more dangerous than when they remain unreformed after many punishments have been inflicted on them by divers strokes of the Rod of God Which seems to be supposed in those words of our Saviour in his Letter to the last of these Churches iii. Rev. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent As if he had said When I would do good to mens souls as long as I have any hope of them I correct and afflict them that I may reduce them to obedience It concerns you therefore highly to stir up your selves to repent in good earnest of those sins for which you have smarted much already for there are no means to be used after these but you must perish if they do not prevail upon your hearts And this reason the Prophet Isaiah gives of the utter desolation which was coming upon Israel ix Isai 13 14. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of hosts Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and rush in one day To which many places might be added out of the Prophet Jeremiah but one shall suffice vii Jer. 27 28. Therefore thou shalt speak these words unto them but they will not hearken to thee thou shalt also call upon them but they will not answer thee But thou shalt say unto them This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth That is to say It is to no purpose to speak to them any more Thou mayest preach and
have no lust to obey in any thing that they shall propose to them but harden their hearts in infidelity and disobedience Which I have shewn you already is one of the most fearful Judgments that God can inflict upon us and which we ought to dread more than the enraged Romanists iron-yoke which he saith is prepared for us It hath been preparing many years and it seems now to have been very near to be clapt when we thought not of it upon our necks It is a Miracle of Gods mercy that it was not But let not that make us too confident that it shall never be laid upon us nor fansie it is quite broken in pieces because we are slipt from under it at present For if our shameful disobedience to the Gospel and contempt of its Ministers still continue notwithstanding that they are acknowledged to be much better now in most places than when that Doctor wrote I fear we do but feed our selves with vain hopes of an absolute deliverance Or suppose He will not let them be the Instruments of that punishment which our sins deserve because they of that Church are so exceeding wicked so void that is of all faith truth and honesty so perfidious malicious and cruel and all under a colour and pretence of Religion which warrants all these things and makes them the more abominable yet assure your selves He will find some other way to execute the Judgments He hath threatned to the impenitent There is some likelihood He will take them in their own craftiness but let not the hope of that tempt you to be secure for He will destroy us too in our impudent disobedience and hardness of heart which will not be moved by any thing to come to repentance No not when we our selves acknowledge that we expect mercy and deliverance from Him upon no other terms For so we constantly pray in the Collect for deliverance from our enemies where we first acknowledge that to Him it justly belongs to punish Sinners and to be merciful to them that truly repent and then desire Him to deliver us from the hand of our enemies to abate their pride asswage their malice and confound their devices Unless we repent we here confess that we have no reason to expect his salvation but rather such punishments as He justly inflicts upon such Sinners as will notwithstanding go on still in those trespasses whereby they see they are in danger to perish inevitably Let me once more therefore beseech you as you love your souls as you love your Religion your Lives your Liberties and all that is dear to you examine and search and try your selves by the infallible test of God's most holy Word lay your hearts to that Rule while you have it and resolve by God's gracious assistance to bring them to a sincere conformity with it Especially let all good men whatsoever the rest are pleased to do apply their endeavours to purifie themselves more perfectly to walk more circumspectly to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation and to cry mightily unto God for his sparing mercy It is possible they may be saved though He punish others Nay by their importunate cries unto Him and sollicitous prayers day and night for this poor Church and Kingdom they may obtain some respite of his Judgments and prevail for the putting them off till a further time if they cannot quite avert them Ahab's humiliation you know procured this favour And therefore if all both King and people did this day imitate him so far as with great sorrow and affliction of Spirit to acknowledge their offences earnestly beg pardon cry for mercy with strong and constant importunity and reform some notorious sins though not all of which we are guilty it might prove a prolonging of our tranquillity Nay it is possible as I said that though others continue still insensible and negligent yet if all good people would make it their business every day to grow better and to pray to God incessantly that He would at least forbear us and have patience with us expecting still longer if we will bring forth fruit worthy of his Gospel it is likely they might obtain this mercy of enjoying truth and peace in our days Let me speak to you therefore in the words of a pious and learned man before the late wars All ye that fear God and tremble under the expectation of his wrath give Him no rest stand up in the breach make a strong assault as I may say upon Heaven with your Prayers give not over till you have received a gracious answer till the sins of our Nation be pardoned his imminent Judgments averted his antient favours recovered till He have rebuked Satan and trodden Him under our feet till He have frustrated the bloody hopes and desires of the enemies of his Truth till He build up the breaches raise the ruines and bind up the wounds of his Sion Saying with Daniel O Lord God we have sinned and committed iniquity c. yet compassion and forgiveness is with Thee O Lord and therefore we beseech Thee hear the Prayers of thy Servants and their Supplications and cause thy face to shine upon this Church for thy Names sake O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord consider and do it defer not for thy own sake O our God for thy Name is called upon us and we are thy people THE END A SERMON PREACHED On the Late FAST DECEM xxii 1680. Afternoon Rev. III. beginning of the third Verse Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent THE sad and calamitous condition of this once most happy Church and Kingdom is so great and so visible that it can be no longer dissembled but we must confess with the Prophet Isaiah in the first Lesson for this Morning Prayer i. 5. that the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint c. which hath moved his Majesty by the desire of his Parliament to cause it to be proclaimed to all his people that we may be awakened to look about us and see how we may prevent the dreadful Judgments which are now impending over us That which hath occasioned this deplorable state of things is as we are told in the Proclamation which called us hither the impious and horrid Conspiracies of a Popish Party who have not only plotted and intended the destruction of our Sovereign the subversion of the Government and Religion established among us but still obstinately prosecute their intentions notwithstanding Gods most wonderful discovery of their wickedness And one of the ways whereby they carry on this design being as we are there also informed by fomenting divisions among our selves these are no less to be bewailed by us than any other thing whatsoever both as a calamity and as one of those sins those most grievous and many sins which must be acknowledged to be the main cause of all our dangers And they are so great that