A SACRED RECORD To be made of GODS MERCIES TO ZION A Thankesgiving Sermon Preached to the two Houses of Parliament the Lord Major Court of Aldermen and Common-Councell of the City of London at Christ-Church June 19. 1645. Being the Day of their Publike Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Great and Glorious Victory obtained by the Parliaments Army under the Conduct of Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX in Naseby-field By Stephen Marshall B. D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in ESSEX Exod. 17. 14. And the Lord said unto Moses Write this for a Memoriall in a Booke and rehearse it in the Eares of Joshua m Psal. 44. 1. Our Fathers have told us what Works thou didst in their dayes in the times of Old Psal. 78. 4. Wee will not hide them from their Children shewing to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderfull Works that he hath done London Printed by Rich. Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in Popes-head-Alley TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT YOur time is so taken up with the important Worke of rescuing these bleeding Kingdomes and the Church of Christ in and with them that I am sure you are not at leisure to read long Epistles and were I able in a Dedication to write what might very much kindle your zeale provoke your whole inward man and thereby further your great Work I conceive it were onely to tell the world what counsell I thought might doe you good and therefore in stead of studying to present you with an Epistle which few of you would read I doe onely obey your Order and at your Command publish to the view and for the use of all and present unto your selves this plaine Sermon Preached unto you upon the day of your late Thanksgiving unto God for one of the greatest mercies the Victory and what came with it duly considered that God hath bestowed upon our unworthy Nation these many yeares What else I desire to have pressed upon your hearts I chuse to doe it when I am called at any time to Preach unto you or rather to beg it for you at the Throne of Grace where you and your great Work are every day as by many thousand others humbly remembred by Your most obliged Servant STEPHEN MARSHALL Die Veneris 20. Junii 1645. IT is this Day Ordered by the Lords in Parliament Assembled That Mr. Marshall one of the Assembly of Divines who Preached yesterday in Christ-Church London before the Members of both Houses of Parliament and in the presence of the Lord Major Aldermen c. of the City of London is hereby thanked for his great pains that he took in the said Sermon it being a day of Publike Thanksgiving within the said City and Lines of Communication for the late prosperous successe of the Parliaments Forces under the Command of Sir Thomas Fairefax And that he is hereby desired to Print and Publish the said Sermon which none shall presume to Print or re-print but by Authority under his own hand Jo. Brown Cleric Parliamentorum Die Veneris 20. Junii 1645. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Peter Wentworth and Sir William Masham doe returne the Thanks of this House to Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshall for the great paines they took in the Sermons they yesterday Preached at the intreaty of both Houses before the said Houses the Lord Major and Aldermen at Christ-Church in London And that they be dered to Print their Sermons And it is Ordered that none shall presume to Print their Sermons but such as shall bee authorized under their hands writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I doe appoint Stephen Bowtell to Print my Sermon Stephen Marshall A THANKESGIVING SERMON PREACHED To the two Houses of Parliament June 19. 1645. PSAL. 102. 18. This shall bee written for the Generation to come and all the People which shall bee created shall praise the Lord Right Honourable and Beloved I Have formerly in two Sermons opened the two Verses immediately going before this Text The first of them before the Right Honourable the House of Peeres The latter before the Honourable House of Commons and there shewed at large that these two Verses did containe two Circumstances which alwayes accompany the Lords Work of building up of his Church and they are rendered as two Arguments why all the world should stand in admiration of it The one is because when ever the Lord builds up Zion Hee dotb appeare in his Glory hee appeares like himself magnifying all his Attributes The other that he does then return a gracious answer unto the Prayers of his afflicted People These two were handled in the valley of Baca the valley of Teares upon dayes of Humiliation that out of them you might receive some strength in your mourning after the Lord to help you to wait upon him while you are at his Work building the Street and Wall of Hierusalem in a troublesome time But now the Lord having in great measure given a gracious experience and fruit of those two in this late great and unexpected Victory and Mercy wherein God hath appeared in his Glory and answered his Peoples Prayers in our exceeding low condition his Providence having also called me by your choice to meet you in the valley of Beracah the valley of Blessing to praise God for this I could not thinke of a fitter Text then of the very next words to those that helped you in the dayes of your Mourning which containes the use which the Church in all ages shall make of the Lords building up of Zion And though my time for preparation hath been very short yet I am incouraged because I have been taught of God that a Peace-Offering to himself is easily found And I have often found from you that my poore endeavours how weak soever being the best I have have never been rejected And therefore without further Apology and Preface let us consider of the words as they thus lie This shall bee written for the Generation to come And the People which shall bee created shall praise the Lord Here are you see two Sentences And for the Interpretation of them some Expositors doe conceive that the first Sentence containeth the use that the Generation who receive this Mercy shall make of it They shall Write it for the good of Posterity The second they think containes the use that the future Generation shall make of former Mercies that are thus written and and transmitted to them The People that shall bee created shall praise the Lord the unborn Generation shall praise God for it But others and I think more rightly doe conceive that both sentences are meant of the same individuall People and that the one of them is but an Exegeticall interpretation of the other or rather the first of them is an expression of one way how the redeemed of the Lord shall
while in the world and then it is dissolved and their people remaine not to them but are either destroyed or delivered over and left to some other Governour but this Kingdome of Christ shall never leave its people to any other Conquerour It is with other Kingdomes as my Text a little after tells you it is with the Earth and Heavens as a garment they all wax old as a Vesture they change and rot and come to nothing but the Kingdome of Christ like himself hath never any end and the Generation of his Servants shall ever continue in his sight The Church is sometimes more and sometimes lesse visible The people that praise God are sometimes more in number and sometimes fewer but they alwayes are in all ages God will have them that shall give him his glory and sing him praises in the Churches This I onely mention Secondly another which more concernes us is the works they should attend unto that the glory of this great deliverance might be alwayes rendred unto him Which affords us this lesson That a People who are truly thankfull for Gods building up of Zion and hearing the prayers of his afflicted ones will endeavour by all meanes possible that all ages present and to come may glorifie God for it Or more briefly take it thus The whole work of Gods redeemed people is to provide that God may alwayes and every where have the glory of it Expositors observe upon this Text that this redeemed Church take no thought concerning themselves about their own ease pleasure wealth gaine or any thing else might accrew unto themselves by this deliverance to make their own life easie or sweet but their thoughts and studies are wholly laid out how the present and succeeding Generations should give all glory to God for it And hee that runnes may read it in the practise of many others recorded in Scripture The time would faile me to give you a catalogue of the Churches Kings Prophets Priests and other holy men of God who have been like minded Their care was as Joabs at the taking of Rabbah of the Ammonites that David might have the glory of it Thus did Moses when they were brought out of the Egyptian bondage Thus Deborah and Barak after the discomfiture of Jabin Thus did Hannah 1 Sam. 2. and innumerable others who in all the Lords administrations to them whether inlargements or pressures have been studious of nothing so much as how in all things God might have his glory preserved and spread David the man after Gods own heart exceeded all others in this thing Quid retribuam what shall I render unto the Lord was his usuall study and hee never thought his own parts his wit fancy thoughts tongue pen c. sufficient for it but when hee had stirred up all within him Blesse the Lord O my soule and all that is within mee blesse his holy Name Hee would also stirre up all without him all the Church Blesse the Lord yee house of Israel let Israel say let all that feare God say His mercy endureth for ever All the Nations make a joyfull sound unto God all ye Lands All the Angels Blesse the Lord yee his Angels all yee his Hosts Yea all Creatures blesse the Lord all his workes in all places of his Dominion whether above or below animate or inanimate The Sun and Moon the Starres of Light the Dragons and deeps fire and haile Snow and vapours Mountaines and hills fruitfull trees and Cedars Beasts and all cattle creeping things and flying Fowles hee layes a tax upon them all to come in and contribute their utmost that God might have the glory due to his Name for exalting the horne of his people even the children of Israel the people neere unto him And there are three speciall Reasons why this should bee the great worke of the Lords saved and rescued people and why indeed they can doe no other then study thus to exalt him One is because they well know that the Lord hath reserved nothing to himselfe but onely his glory the benefits hee gives to them all the sweetnesse and honey that can bee found in them hee gives them leave to suck out but his glory and his praise is his owne and that which hee hath wholly reserved of that hee is jealous lest it should either bee denyed Eclipsed diminished or any the least violation offered to it in any kind All Gods people know this of him and therefore they cannot but indeavour to preserve it for him Secondly besides they know as God is jealous in that point so it is all the work that hee hath appointed them to doe he hath therefore separated them to himself out of all the Nations of the world to be his peculiar ones for this very end that they might give him all the glory and praise of his mercy I have said God created him formed and made him for my glory Esay 43. 7. This is the law of his new Creation which is as powerfull in them as the law of Nature or the first creation is in the rest of his Works And therefore with a holy and spirituall naturalnesse if I may so call it the hearts of all the Saints are carryed to give God the glory as really as the stones are carryed to the Center or the fire to fly upwards this is fixed in their hearts the work of grace hath moulded them to it that they can doe no other but endeavour to exalt God it being the very end why their spirituall life and all their other priviledges are conferred upon them Yea thirdly they know their owne Interests are much concerned in Gods glory they never are losers by it if in any work of God he want his praise they will want their comfort but if God bee a gainer they shall certainly bee no losers Whatsoever is powred upon the head of Christ what ointment soever of praise or glory it will in a due proportion fall downe to the skirts of his garments nor is there any other way to have any sweetnesse comfort praise or glory to bee derived unto themselves but by giving all unto him to whom alone it belongeth and then although hee will never give away his glory the glory of being the fountaine the first supreame originall giver of all good yet they shall have the glory of Instruments and of fellow workers with him which is a glory and praise sufficient This is a lesson of singular use to all Gods redeemed ones in many particulars But the onely thing I shall at the present insist upon is to direct how we may best improve the mercy of this day and how we may do something worthy of this dayes meeting the Lord hath turned our heavinesse into rejoycing hath took off from us the garment of mourning and put upon us this day the garment of salvation And I am perswaded this honourable Assembly hath
not for a long time had a more reall rejoycing heart then you now feele for the mercy which this day wee meet to celebrate and commemorate Now would you know what you should doe what you should render unto the Lord what would bee the comeliest and most excellent sacrifice in this day of your praise and rejoycing before God Surely there is nothing comparable to this That you provide that of all those great things which the Lord hath wrought for us all possible praise and glory may bee set upon the head of our Lord Jesus and abide unto succeeding Generations Some such work as might preserve his honour in the present and succeeding ages were worthy such a great assembly worthy of the name of a day of their Thankesgiving I am perswaded your hearts are so warmed with the unexpected Victory that you would readily swear with David to take no rest untill you were doing that very Work if once you knew what it were I shall tel you Even in doing that where in his glory is most concerned in all ages and that is the setting up of his Kingdome the purgation reformation of Religion setting up his Ordinances in purity providing that his Church may bee governed and ruled by his own laws according to his owne Word This would indeed bee a lasting Monument of your thankfulnesse This wee should all study and to this every thankfull heart may contribute something but none so much as you Right Honourable Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament by whose appointment and for whole furtherance in this work I stand here this day God hath put into your hands the greatest opportunity and meanes of providing for all the glory that he expects from England while the world stands that he did put ever into the hands of any The measuring line and plummet of his house is put into your hands as once it was in the hand of Zerubbabel From you he seems to expect what portion himselfe shall have in England for time to come what kind of Subjects hee shall have what Worship shall bee offered to him what kind of Guests shall sit with him at his Table by what lawes his house and people shall be governed hee seems now to put into your hands what unto the end of the world hee may expect from the Kingdome of England in the way of his Ordinances not onely the managing of a Kingdome of men but of the Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus seemes now to bee in the hands of the two honourable Houses of Parliament Now when such opportunities as these are in your hands to doe such great things for God how silent should all slesh be till this worke be done how hush't and laid aside should all your other businesses bee your own estates and priviledges and private interests or any thing that concernes your selves names or families how should they all be waved and set aside till all that bee done from which Jesus Christ shall receive glory in all ages If then Right Honourable and Beloved any of you should after all the mercy God hath bestowed upon you make it your worke to feather your own nests build your owne Houses and let the House of God lie waste or hinder the setting up of this Work in purity and perfection if you should make a slight businesse of the Worke of Religion and cause the authority of the Gospel and Kingdome and Ordinances of Christ to vaile bonnet to the lusts and liberties of poore sinfull Men and decline the setting up of the authority of his Scepter lest the corruptions of Men should be brought under the yoake more then they are willing you will provide ill for Christs honour ill for the Church worst of all for your owne souls in betraying the cause of Religion and spoyling the most glorious opportunity of advancing the honour of Christ that ever men were betrusted with these thousand yeares But if you shall resolve so to goe through with it that there shall not need a reformation to come the second time I meane in stablishing the rule for Faith VVorship and Government as neere as can be found out by the VVord all carnall considerations set aside should you but doe this that it may bee set up in the Kingdome and transmitted to posterity God will then acknowledge you really thankfull and that you have done as much for his honour as hee expects from any mortall men and posterity shall confesse that as you are the most remarkable Parliament for Gods owning you protecting and saving you so God received more glory from you then from any former Parliament Josiahs praise should be verified of you â—ever the like went before you or followed after you I therefore humbly beseech you Right Honourable Lords and noble Gentlemen whilst now your hearts are warm with this mercy all of you are ready to say with David what shall I tender to the Lord what shall I give the Lord for all his mercies towards us take this cup of salvation resolve to pay your vowes the vow you made that you would endeavour the reformation of Religion according to the word of God and to the nearest conformity with the best reformed Churches Goe on zealously and impartially with it let the successe bee what it will work belongs to us successe belongs to God therein shall you in truth give unto God and our Lord Jesus Christ that glory and prase which a Parliament should give him other people must come short though wee all are interessed in this Mercy and are equally bound to provide for his honour yet our meanes are shorter wee move in a narrower spheare Some of our endeavours must bee in our own Families to make them better Others in a Pulpit to make our Congregations better few of us though raised to our highest are able to do any great things for his glory but if the Lord enlarge your hearts to doe your worke aright the whole Christian world in her severall ages shall be able to give glory unto him by your improvement of these mercies which our God hath given us And a little further to provoke you unto it consider seriously of these three things First in all our great conflicts these huge shakings of the Nations and combustions the Lord hath no designe in any of them but onely the building up of his Church and answering his peoples prayers his heart is set upon nothing else You indeed contend for Liberties and Laws and justly you may doe so and the rather because the liberty of your Religion stands and falls with your laws but God can looke upon England as well if it were in slavery as in freedome he regards neither of them further then slavery and freedome hath relation to his Church and the welfare of it if all other his works were buryed as one day they shall resolve into the Chaos out of which they were taken God cares not one whit sobeit that
bee done his heart is set upon record his work of building of Zion and let what else so ever be forgotren it matters not ought yee not to be like minded unto our Lord Secondly let me assure you there is nothing else will ever appease our troubles but the vigorous carrying on of this work A great many are afraid lest the quick establishing of Religion through the multitude of mens divided thoughts and ungodlinesse of many mens minds should make our troubles and conflicts more then they have been but be ye assured the Lords Kingdome being provided for in the right way God will prepare salvation for walls and bulwarks hee will be the safety of that Kingdome which advanceth his Kingdome the Kingdome of Christ it is a Kingdome of Peace as himselfe is a Prince of Peace It will never make tumults it will appease tumults in a Kingdome where Christs Scepter prevailes whare hee strikes the Earth with the rod of his mouth Cockatrices will be charmed and all enemies shall bee hush't and quiet It will I say make no tumults where it is received but let mee tell you Christs heart is so set upon the advancement of his Kingdome that where it is not received himselfe will breed tumults enow for them that oppose him and the stone cut out of the mountaine without hands will dash asunder all men and all things all Kingdoms all States that shal not give way to him I adde further concerning your selves that there is nothing will bring so great and everlasting glory to you as to have been instruments in your generation to further the work wherein Christs honour is so much concerned you have read Books and know the world I beseech you tell me out of all the ages of the world that are past cull out the choisest among men in their generations and say who among them was really an eminent Man if it were not for being an instrument in helping forward the Church of Christ multitudes have made stately buildings Fish-ponds Gardens Palaces Some have erected Kingdomes what is become of them all Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit is the doome of all of them they are all turned into vanity and so are the Makers of them Consider the greatest wisest richest learned'st of all who have lived if they were not for Christ and his Church what glory doth now remaine to any of them how much so ever they magnified themselves or were flattered by others who now wil honour them who now extols Pharaoh for a wise King Absalon for a compleat Courtier Achitophel for a politique States-man who now would have the lot of any of them do they not all lye buried ingloriously hath not the Lord made the moth corruption to rot them al But now look into Gods Book and read all Chronicles and you shall find that all they who have set their hearts to this work all Rulers Counsellers Parliaments who have been for the Lord and his Church and Kingdome their memoriall is honourable and blessed in all ages they are still eminent and glorious and shall bee so to the worlds end and in Heaven to all Eternity Set therefore your hearts to this great work shew a reall defire to glorifie him who hath these great things for us This Right Honourable Lords and Patriots I had to say unto you and as for you the rest of this Honoured and Reverend Assembly very many things might bee suggested unto you as means to exalt the glory of this our God and Saviour but the onely thing I shall at the present commend unto you is to be often with God in the Mount follow him with your prayers and supplications give him no rest till hee hath carryed on this great and Honourable Assembly to doe this work that they may raise the foundations for many Generations This from the second part of the Text The work that they should doe not to seek themselves but how the glory of God may be preserved in the present and future Generations The third and last followes which concernes the way they shall take to perpetuate Gods glory for building his Church and answering his peoples prayers what way shall they take for it This shall be written in perpetuam reimemoriam for an eternall monument of it The onely Lesson which I shall hence observe is this That one great way of giving God his deserved glory for his building of his Church and answering his peoples prayers is by causing these wonderfull workes of God to be written for the generations to come For the truth of it it is one of Gods Ordinances You shall finde it in the 78 Psal. vers. 5. where the Prophet had exhorted them to give eare and learne what God had done for them that they might teach it to their children This said he hee ordained for a Law and a Statute for Israel what was this Ordinance that they should write it and teach their posterity to come the wonderfull things which God hath done for his people he commanded not onely themselves to know him and his works and to talk of them but to provide that the generations to come might know what God had done So in the 17. of Exod. 14. vers. When God had begun to appeare for his people in a Warre against Amalck write it said he in a Booke a Book of the Warres of God for his Church and against his enemies must bee written and kept as a record from age to age So also Moses commanded them in the 31 of Deut. 19. vers. Now therefore write ye this Song for you and teach it the Children of Israel A song must be written and learned to expresse what God had done for a people who were most unworthy of the Mercies bestowed upon them So likewise Ester Est 9. 32. The great work of Gods defeating the conspiracy of Haman and deliverance of his Church was recorded not onely by an anniversary feast but it must bee written in a Booke Thus you see the Lord hath often enjoyned his people to record and transmit to posterity the great things which hee hath done for them And as he hath commanded it so his Spirit hath ordered and brought to passe that it hath been so Moses and Samuel and the rest of the Prophets have done it what should I trouble you with a discourse of particular instances since the whole Book of God is nothing but a Chronicle Book of Acts and Monuments of the Lords wonderfull works in gathering and building protecting and saving and doing good to his Church and destroying their Enemies And they did it many wayes sometime they made Eucharisticall Songs which they taught their children sometime they wrote them upon their Childrens names sometime by giving names to the places where the mercies were received sometime erecting stones and pillars sometime by appointing yearly Feasts of remembrance Many of which wayes were presented unto you the
glorifie him by writing the Mercies they have received and transmitting them to posterity and the other is a comprehension of their whole Work that they shall not rest in any one way of manifesting their care to glorifie God but shall make it the sum of their whole life they being created to no other end The People that shall bee created shall praise the Lord And I rather incline to this because this expression The People that shall bee created does ordinarily in the Scripture signifie a People brought from an extreame low despicable condition to a state of happinesse and blessednesse fit to serve God These are said A people created for Gods praise But Beloved wee need not bee solicitous about it chuse which of them you please the difference will not be materiall in respect of the practicall Observations arising from them both of them afford many and the same helps for a day of Thankesgiving Some few whereof I shall endeavour by the Lords assistance in one houre or a little more to set before you The first and the maine and that which indeed is the comprehension of the whole Verse is this That when God appeares in his Glory to build his Church and gratiously answers his Peoples Prayers their whole work should hee to praise him That is the generall They have then nothing else to doe but to make it the work of their life to give praise and glory to him This paying of the Rent-penny of praise to our God this worke of Thankesgiving which is the end God aimes at in all his workes which is the end why Man at first was created why the Church was redeemed why the Saints are called This that is the onely heavenly work that can bee done upon earth this which is the onely joyfull imployment that shall last to all Eternity in another life This work which should ever waite for God in Zion Praise waiteth for thee O God in Zion This whereof the Church should bee the Magazine the Store-house and Treasury Unto him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages and the Church is therefore called his Glory Israel my Glory Not onely because hee glories in it but because it glorifies him This Duty I say of Gods redeemed ones To praise him can never be handled often enough never pressed enough on Gods people But truly it hath been so frequently and so fully in all the branches of it delivered unto your selves upon such joyfull dayes as these are wherein you have had the whole institution of a thankfull people and all their work that I know not what to adde to that which heretofore hath been delivered save onely that what is said of our English laws That we have abundance of good Lawes and need but one more that is to put all the rest in execution the same I may say that there are abundance of Sermons of Thankesgiving extant and we need but one more and that is to have our hearts inflamed to practise them which I shall endeavour this day by the Lords help by handling some more particular Observations which this Verse affords very suitable to the condition whereinto the Lord hath brought us at the present And there are three things in the Text from whence as from so many Well-heads may flow severall instructions seasonable and usefull for our present businesse First somewhat I shall collect from the Persons who should perform this work The People that shall be created that is their Epithet Secondly from the Work which these Persons shall imploy themselves in that is to endeavour that God may have his Glory from themselves and succeeding ages Thirdly and principally and that which I shall most insist upon from the way and meanes which this created people should take that God might have his due glory from themselves and succeeding ages and that is this great Mercy of God in building his Church and hearing his Peoples Prayers should bee Recorded by them This shall bee written for the Generation to come In the first of these which I shall onely point at the Persons from whom God doth promise himselfe the performance of this great Duty The People that shall bee created Many excellent Collections might be made One is that which Mr. Calvin observes upon this Text viz. Wee may here discerne what in the Judgement of Gods People is the state of the Church when they are deprived of Gods Worship and Ordinances and scattered among the Heathen and what their estate is when God is pleased again to set up his Tabernacle amongst them In the first of these conditions they were as if their Creation were annihilated as if they were resolved into their first principles But when God was pleased from Heaven to looke upon them with a restauration of his Temple and Worship and bring them again into a Religious Common-wealth then they looked upon themselves as a People that were new created that had a new being bestowed upon them Their outward condition was much alike in both for the things of this life Bond-men they were in Babylon and Bond-men they were when they returned into Canaan the same Emperours and Kings bore sway over them and kept them under and for ought I can learne they were richer in their captivity then in their own Countrey but when they were brought back to have liberty againe to serve God in the way of his Ordinances then they looked upon themselves as people that had a new being Thus they constantly judged of themselves when their Temple was burnt and they scattered among the Heathen then they judged of themselves as dead and ary bones as those whose bones lay scattered as when one cutteth chips about the pits mouth but when they had againe got a naile in Gods Sanctuary and might enjoy the liberty of his Sabbaths Feasts Sacrisices c. it was as the founding of a new Heaven and a new Earth unto them This I onely mention Another is That when the Lord would engage his Servants to give him his praise and glory for their deliverance hee chuses to call them by this Name A people created that is reduced out of nothing brought to a blessed state from a low and meane condition from a people whom God calls by this Name hee promiseth himself his glory and praise whoever forget him yet the people who shall thus bee Created will praise him And that affords this Lesson That the People whom God in Mercy brings from a low and meane condition are the People from whom God promises to receive praise and glory Indeed such is the selfishnesse of our corrupt Nature that if we are any thing or doe any thing we are prone to forget God and sacrifice to our own nets and burn Incense to our own yarne insomuch that when ever God finds a people who shall either trust in him or praise him it must be an an afflicted and poor people