TWO SERMONS Preached at the Cathedral Church OF NORWICH The one upon the 3 d of May being Wednesday in Rogation Week The other upon the 29 th of May being the Solemnization of His Majesties Birth and Restauration Published at the desire of the Chief Magistrates of the City of Norwich By William Smith D. D. Preb. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Sign of the Bishops-head in S. Pauls Church-yard 1677. Imprimatur August 18. 1676. G. Jane 1 Thess 5. 17. Pray without ceasing IF because there appear some remarks of ancient Solemnity upon this time and because the established Liturgy doth oblige us to a religious regard to it any man should inquire after the reason and intention of both the question will be easily solved if he do but heed the name and appellation of it as it is commonly called the Rogation-week or the Week of Prayers that is a time chosen and separated by the Churches Wisdom and Authority for Fasting and Prayers the more solemnly to implore the mercy of God upon the World at a season when commonly the rage of Epidemic diseases takes its beginning the fruits of the Earth are in greatest danger to miscarry and Wars are then ordinarily commenced and Campagnes opened Now this pious custom was so early an off-spring of Primitive Devotion that it was made a Constitution of the Church from a considerable Antiquity and hath been ever since observed in most places of the Christian World and particularly in all the Lutheran Churches ever since the Reformation to this very day But how pious and reasonable how ancient and universal soever the observation hath been yet the demolishers of our Rites and Order have so prevailed with the people that there 's scarcely one of a hundred that understands their duty in it nor one of a thousand that have conscionably and duely practised and performed it And yet I don't despair but that some pious persons here before me may be so affected with this short account of their duty therein that they may in some measure answer the intention of this ancient Establishment and the Command of this present Church to observe it Which that they may the better do I have endeavoured to accommodate them with a suitable subject for their encouragement and direction and that from the words now propounded Pray without ceasing or continually Which words offer these two occasions of discourse 1. What is meant by continually praying and how far the command of God lays upon us on that account 2. The reasonableness of observing that command so represented by several instances of advantages to engage us to the constant practice and performance of it 1. What is meant by praying without ceasing or continually And for the true understanding of this according to the several ways of speaking which the best Interpreters have used it signifies such an habitual frame and continued state of mind whereby we may and do so often perform the duty of prayer as is consistent with the discharge of other duties of Religion and our necessary attendance upon the common business and affairs of the world in our lawful imployments and that may reasonably comply with our natural infirmities as men And in this we ought to have respect both to the private and publick performance of the Duty And then by praying continually as to the first I understand the well management of our Devotions as to those which we call private Prayers Whether they be those of the Closet which our Saviour mentions Mat. 6. or those between married persons which a great Divine of our Church supposed the Apostle to have intimated as a duty 1 Cor. 7. 5. or whether those of the family where every supreme in it is a kind of Priest to God to order the periods and circumstances of Gods service in his own house And that man that hath given rules to himself for the ordinary performance of those several offices such as a wise Guide of Souls may approve and the practice of other holy persons have exemplified may be believed to have performed the duty of praying without ceasing so far as concerns his private Devotion But then secondly by the performance of the duty of praying continually as to the Publick Prayers I mean a constant attendance upon them in all such appointed periods which the Governors of every Christian Church must be supposed to have determined to be performed in some publick place set apart and consecrated to that service of God whether they be in some certain seasons of the year as this week of Rogation is one or in so many days in the week as by the frequent successions of the Lords day and other Festivals and Fasts or in so many divided portions of the day and in all other contingent occasions of Christians assembling together for the service of God Which Periods being so set apart for God and appointed for our duty do so indispensably oblige the Consciences of men that no man can make a wilful omission of them especially if it be habitual but he may be interpreted to have so far departed from God and thrown himself off from his protection and blessing And because I see the neglect of this duty to be so universal and amongst them particularly that otherwise pretend themselves to be a praying people to a greater degree than others I desire but once to know from any of them what they can object against the obligation that I have affirmed to lay upon their Consciences so as may solve their omission to a consistency with any real sense of Religion or the fear of God I hope they don't imagine the personal faults of them that administer or the different manner of the administration of those Offices as with such Rites and Circumstances which they perhaps dislike because they will and God hath not forbidden them while the substantial Worship is preserved entire can acquit them for their gross disobedience to God and man and the intolerable prejudice they make and encourage against the Governors the Establishment and the obedient Sons of the constituted Church with which they are bound to hold Communion in such publick Offices Now that man that shall religiously and constantly observe all such determin'd and commanded Periods for the Service of God in publick may be said to perform all that 's obligatory in the Command of God for praying without ceasing or continually in this second respect And I think I may affirm that the Apostle did principally intend this kind of praying continually by the command in my Text and my reason is because I find the same and the like expression to be necessarily so interpreted in other places of Scripture Thus when it 's said that Hannah went not out of the Temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day Luke 2. 37. the meaning is that she never failed to discharge her duty there at all the appointed seasons of the Jewish Church And
allay those storms and reduce his temper to the quietness and sweet easiness of a Lamb or Dove Lastly Is any man surpriz'd with the ruling passion of a sensual love let him imitate the example of that wise and excellent Virgin of whom I have read that she commanded her fond Amorist to respite his addresses to her till he and her self had compleated forty days in Fasting and Prayer by which religious expedient she cured his folly and preserved her own innocency 4. The fourth Instance of advantage by our constant attendance upon God in Prayer is because that duty is the common Scene and opportunity for the exercise and improvement of all spiritual Graces which as they were attained by the use of means so are they maintained and improved by the constant practices of vertue and the services of our God And as the exercise of every particular duty improves its proper Grace so does the duty of Prayer imploy and improve them all First as to Faith every period in our Devotions is an act of that Faith by which a just man is said to live to God and to all the purposes of a religious Conversation Then as to Hope our constant Prayers feed it and confirm it and make the expectation of a future bliss lively and prevailing There we are exercising and acting the precious Grace of Humility making our selves dust and ashes in the apprehension of our selves towards God and are tempering our hearts for all kinds of submission and condescension to men Here the Virgin ties on her girdle of Chastity and the married pair are every day renewing their first betroth and fastning the knot of their promised love and fidelity to one another Here the Subject does daily profess his Loyalty upon his knees and guards the Crown and engageth his Faith for his Princes safety Here we discipline all our inclinations to malice and revenge here we forgive every trespass and are softening our Souls for admission of terms of peace and reconciliation with all the World In a word our constant attendance on that duty will every day more and more be raising our hearts up to a pitch of heavenly Conversation with God and Angels and preparing us to be fit Companions of that blessed Society above when God shall please to call us to it 5. The fifth Instance of advantage which makes our constant attendance upon all religious offices highly reasonable is because it will make our time our precious time more accountable to God and our selves by adjusting it into fit portions for the service of God For if men were as curious of considering what accounts must be made of all the Talents with which they are intrusted in order to the securing their future Bliss they would begin to think that that of Time which God hath put in our power and left to our choice for the good or bad imployment of it were as considerable as any And if they would recount the mercy of enjoying Time or foresee the conflicts of a dying Soul when he is lamenting the loss of it they would be as advisable in this point as in any other concern of Religion Now no proposal can be offered to a mind truly pious whereby a man may better secure his time for a fair account with God than by apportioning a considerable part of it in attendance upon the offices of Prayer in the periods chosen or appointed for it At which seasons we should no more wilfully take a liberty to withdraw our selves from our duty whether when our Closets or our Families or when the set hours of Prayers at Gods House call for it than we would lay our Consciences waste by committing an enormous act of sin And as such a course of spending time will make that Talent of our lives happily accountable to God so will an habituation of our selves to perform our duty at such appointed seasons make our time easie and acceptable to our selves it's idleness and sin that makes time a burden and our lives uneasie and we should with the same pleasure think of those periods of Prayers as we do entertain the seasons of our natural refreshments of meat and sleep and as delightfully recount the hours of the day by them as by any artificial division of time and make us go as cheerfully to our devotions when the Bell tolls as when it rings us to our meals or sounds a retreat to our labours or as when the setting Sun tells the wearied Traveller that his journey is at an end 6. The sixth and last Instance by which it will appear that the constant attendance upon the offices of Prayer must needs be reasonable is because it will be a considerable part of the discharge of the command of God upon us to shew mercy and to do good to those that need our help and relief For amongst the various capacities of doing good that God hath put in our power one is that we can succour and relieve the infelicities of the World by the Charity of our Prayers By them we can get bread at Gods hand for the distressed as well as give it with our own By them we can reach the sorrows of the Widow and the heavily afflicted and pass through the Walls and Bars of Prisons to support and comfort the mourning Captive By them we can fight for the Prince and the Church when both in danger By these we can clear the infectious Air in raging Pestilences and water the dry Furrows when parched with drought and fortifie our Peace when threatned with the Alarms of War with all other the instances of doing good that hold proportion with these Now what can acquit any man to God or man that understands his indispensable obligation of doing all the good he can and can believe what God hath promised and done to assure him of the success of his Prayers I say how can any man acquit himself to God and man that shall refuse any offices or neglect any of those opportunities when Prayers are to be put up to God for either the common or the particular blessings of them that need them I wish the Consciences of men that have any designs for Religion and they are infinitely unreasonable that have none were sufficiently informed and seriously affected in this case our Assemblies would not be so thin nor so unconcerned when we are every day crying out for mercy and pleading for blessings Now it is in this last Instance of advantage by our constant attendance to this duty that we are at this time especially concerned and therefore as upon this ground the ancient Churches took their just plea for the first establishing a Week of Prayers and why our Church have continued the obligation to observe it so I shall there only fix my Application And then I say That if ever there were an Age that called for this kind of Charity and might lay claim to the benefit of a Week of Rogations and all other the constantly
2. The second Head was a consideration of the Quality of the established Power that God was pleased to set over them and that was a King he gave them the blessing of a Monarchy a Vicegerency of Power and Government most like to God himself that gave it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one God and for which reason with more congruity and decency he allows the Monarch the Credit and Honour of his own Name I have made thee a God to this people saith the Almighty to Moses And I have said that is I have made you Gods Psal 82. 6. A Government which God established over the especial part of Mankind his Church under Christ his anointed King as my Text prophesied and David typified A Government of which the holy Scripture only gives us an account in all its Histories and in all its directions to rule and to obey All other Authorities are mentioned but as Gods Creatures I Pet. 2. 23. but the Monarch as himself dignifying him with his own Name and the Ministration of his own Soveraign Authority and grand instances of his Providence over the World But I shall advance the reason of this days Joy on that account by offering to you two great advantages of Monarchical Government above all others 1. It is more noble and honourable than any other form of Dominion and renders a Nation more considerable and renowned in the eye of the World It is fresh in our memories that in the days of our Common-wealth as they called it we were a reproach to all our neighbouring Nations a scorn and derision to them that were round about us And when our Natives walkt in the streets of Foreign Cities from whom before we had the Priviledge of a kind acceptance above any People in the World the finger of scorn was lifted up against us our name was Schellam and our entertainment an exprobration of such shameful practices as by the example of which the Turk might plead innocency and the Salvages justifie their Barbarisms 2. Monarchical Government as it is more honourable so most safe because like a well fixed Centre of Power it will terminate and combine all lines of interest in one point of Authority And it appears to be so certain an Expedient of the safest Peace that whensoever a defection or any contingency of State have laid designs for a multiplication of Supremes nothing hath so infallibly confounded the Nations where they have happened When Gods ancient people fell to a division between two Kings ten Tribes revolting to Jeroboam then began that sad Scene of troubles to that great people which enjoyed Halcyon days of peace when they were centred in one Solomon And we read of the vast Roman Empire that when Constantine had divided his Kingdoms among three though his own Sons the division was occasional of such ruinous inconveniencies that it gradually lost its greatness till it withered and lessened to a name What was the State of our ancient Heptarchy but a collision of inconsistent Powers which kept the Nation in a continual state of War till a resolution into one Monarchy ended the controversie And lastly let us look a little back upon our late unparallel'd Confusions and you 'l find that the Contriyers of them could never have insinuated themselves into so many advantages for a War had they not laid their ground upon a pretended Coordination of Power in the two Houses with the King or not found out two Supremacies in his Person one in his Natural another in his Politick capacity pretending to fight for the one where they actually pursued the destruction of the other Now if any Republican should murmur object and say That some Cities and Societies of Merchants have not only subsisted but flourished under popular Governments I answer that such Societies have always been most safe when they have kept up the nearest resemblances to Monarchy among themselves and that great State that pretends least to it may in time be either necessitated to chuse a Monarch of their own or admit him whom they at first threw off or shrowd themselves under the Protection of some other or be swallowed up by one that can controul their Greatness Now bless God for the mercy of this Day that made us Subjects of this happy Government and that he hath put the Nation under the safe Authority of a fixed Monarch who just before stood wavering upon the points of contending Swords for its Protection and was continually hurried up and down by the violence of every tempest of War that came from the several Quarters of different Interests In those days our Governors were all along they that wore the longest Sword and were the present most successful Invaders and every he that had most strength to bind our hands rifle our Liberties and despoil our Proprieties That had it not been for the kind Theocracy of a gracious God who shewed us Mercy in the midst of Judgment to keep us together by a most wise and unaccountable Providence the whole Nation had several times run into one great riot of disorder every man had invaded every man with the most horrid acts of cruelty and savagery Therefore rejoyce O Britain that the Power that is now set over thee is not any new Model of Government no new Set of Militeers no Table full of a packt Company that eat and govern in the same posture but a gracious Monarch a King who came to deliver thee out of the hands of thy Oppressors the nerves of whose loyns should strengthen and uphold thee not whose weight should crush and oppress thee whose Scepter might become a Crosier to thee whose Crown a covering and whose Throne a Mercy-seat And thus I have discharged my self of the second Head of my Discourse and accent of thankfulness and 3. I come to the third the Extent of the Monarchs Government it is upon Gods holy Hill of Sion that is over the Affairs that concerned Religion as well as those that respected the Civil Welfare of his Subjects Thus Moses had the disposal of both the Trumpets to convocate Assemblies both of Ecclesiastick and Temporal concernment Joash had the Testimony put into his hand as well as the Crown set upon his head 2 Chron. 23. 11. And as our Saviour when he came to establish his Religion made no alteration no not in the least instance of that practice in his Life or Doctrine so that Power over Ecclesiastick Affairs and persons was allowed and continued to all the Roman Emperours as soon as they assumed the Christian Profession as Socrates the Historian affirms And S. Austin assures us that the Power of Kings extended not only to those things quae pertinent ad humanam societatem sed quae pertinent ad divinam Religionem which pertained to humane Society but those that concerned the divine Religion Lib. 3. contra Cresconium But who knows not that if a man would pretend to an accumulation of Authorities he might be
performed offices of prayers for the good of Mankind as necessary it is now certainly the most proper time the sad face and deplorable state of the Christian World every where do now require it now implore it And first the deeply afflictied Asiatic and Grecian Churches the first Plantations of Christ and his Apostles that have so long groaned under the heavy oppressions of him that bids defiance to the Christian name lays claim to the Charity of your Prayers But those Barbarians late approaches and successes must alarm your pity if you can but consider the Hungarian and Polonian calamities But if these distant accents of sorrow cannot reach your hearts yet let the near and loud Cry of those neighbouring Countries that are harassed and undone by the conflicting Legions of so many Princes now engaged in War awaken you to your most compassionate Prayers Let us have a care that those poor ruined Countries may not take up Jerusalems Lamentation against us O all ye that not only pass but live by us have ye no regard Lam. 1. O that God should lay it to your charge as he did once to his people by his Prophet Amos Chap. 6. That we lye upon the beds of Ivory and stretch our selves upon our Couches c. that we are drinking wine in bowls immerst in all sensual pleasures and are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph nor charitably concerned for their calamities O to your prayers and let your earnest supplications put a stop to the flames of Gods raging displeasure against them lest for our ingratitude and uncompassion God should change the sad Scene and afterwards make them Spectators of our ruines that are such uncharitable beholders of their miseries But if the distant Alarms of Foreign Calamities cannot awaken us from our lethargic unconcernedness yet sure there is something at home that may more nearly affect us and that may implore the charity of our daily Devotions And if there were nothing but the common miseries of Mankind among us such as usually and universally follow Nations in their best peace and prosperity yet no pious and considerate mind could want a sufficient subject matter for such offices of his Charity Let us but consider how many poor Prisoners are now sorrowing in their strait confinements how many of our brethren are roaring in torments languishing in diseases pinched with penury strugling with difficulties to live and in a thousand cases of distress are crying for help in the bitterness of their Souls And can we think there 's never a tear never a petition due Do these need no share in a time of Prayer no concern in the offices of our daily Devotions But besides this cannot a wise and pious heart as things are at present find any thing else that begs the charity of his Prayers Is there no case wherein we stand in need of the counsel and the aid the care and protection of a merciful God For though God hath blessed us above any people of the World under the happy Government of a gracious Prince who hath wisely provided for our peace and plenty when all the World besides are tossed up and down in miserable circumstances yet are there no just fears no real dangers set before us for which it is needful to implore the mercy of a good God to prevent the approaches of many likely ensuing troubles Yes certainly no Nation in prosperous circumstances could ever offer a prospect of more to a considering mind Who can but suggest to himself thoughts of danger to the State when he shall behold so considerable a part of the people to be so malicious to their Rulers of every kind so seditiously disposed against all just Rules of Government so wretchedly intractable to all Laws for subjection and obedience so unfaithful to all the Sacred obligations of Oaths and tyes of Conscience and moreover so universally immoral and vicious that we look like a people preparing our selves for our own ruine if God prevent it not The Charity of your Prayers is here seasonable if you have any design of doing good to your selves and Country As to the Church the poor Church of England the Mirror and Miracle of the Christian World a Church that never refused the exactest tryal from the Scriptures right Reason and the best Rules of Catholicism from the purest Antiquity A Church that never had an enemy but the man was distinguishable by some remarks of ignorance ill humor or of driving on some base design A Church that hath always stood an unshaken Bulwark against the strongest invasions of her enemies of every side she now needs your Prayers and the especial protection of a merciful God Her misery is that she hath a long time layn between two Mill-stones but they are now grinding her to powder as the great Archbishop and Martyr forewarn'd his late Majesty of blessed Memory She hath been hitherto hurrican'd with violent tempests on every side but now she is whirlwinded with their combin'd blasts and must expect all the evils that enmity and treachery faction and prophaneness can bring upon her Where 's your Prayers your addresses for help Are you not rather promoting your animosities quarrelling with circumstances picquering the Government making stories of the infirmities of your Superiours pursuing your base lusts and interests when you should be on your knees begging and pleading and crying for mercy Can any think that we are in Jehosaphats case that we know not what to do and shall not our eyes be upon our God who is sufficient to help us if we seek him Are we with the Apostles in a sinking ship and shall we not with them lift up our voices and say Lord save us or we perish Which if we shall daily and heartily do in our never-ceasing offices of Prayer to our merciful God and shall withal repent and amend our evil lives I doubt not but that yet God will recover us from our dangers and restore us to our safety Or to use the words of the Prophet Hos 6. with which I shall conclude Though he hath hitherto torn us he will yet heal us though he hath hitherto smitten us he will yet bind us up Which God grant for Jesus sake Psal 2. 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion WE appear this day before the most high and holy God to express our thankfulness to him as for the Birth so for the Restauration of our gracious King And to recount with all joy and gratitude the concurrence of all those mercies we then received and now enjoy by the incomparable blessing of that happy day in both respects As we celebrate it as the day of his Birth we may remember that it had a remark upon it of an Hactenus Anglorum nulli as it was the Motto of the Medals dispersed upon that day by his Royal Father that is No English Prince was ever so born before with so undoubted a Title to the three united