A sermon preached at Hampton-court on the 29th of May, 1662 being the anniversary of His Sacred Majesty's most happy return / by Richard Allestry ... Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681. 1662 Approx. 65 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 27 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-08 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A23768 Wing A1164 ESTC R22785 12490677 ocm 12490677 62368 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A23768) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62368) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 302:15) A sermon preached at Hampton-court on the 29th of May, 1662 being the anniversary of His Sacred Majesty's most happy return / by Richard Allestry ... Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681. [6], 46, [1] p. Printed by J. Flesher for John Martin, James Allestry, and Thomas Dicas ..., London : 1662. Errata: p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685 -- Sermons. 2004-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-04 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-05 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2004-05 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED AT HAMPTON-COURT On the 29th of May 1662. BEING The Anniversary of His Sacred Majesty's most happy Return . BY RICHARD ALLESTRY , D. D. and Chaplain to His MAJESTY . LONDON , Printed by I. Flesher for Iohn Martin , Iames Allestry , and Thomas Dicas , at the Bell in S. Pauls Church-yard . MDCLXII . TO The Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of Clarendon , Lord high Chancellor of England , and Chancellor of the University of Oxford . My Lord , TO vouch your Lordships commands for the publishing this Discourse , I might reasonably think , would be to libel your judgement ; and the prefixing your Name to it , and this mean address , would look rather like revenge then homage or obedience : if I did not know that low performances are due to the transcendency of such a subject as I then discours'd upon , and such a Patron as I now dedicate to : So I lie prostrate under my great Arguments , here insufficiency is Art and Rhetorick . And the truth is , my Lord , it was not this which made me so sollicitous to avoid your injunctions , but apprehensions of the unusefulness of the Discourse it self . When God's most signal methods of all sorts do not seem to have wrought much conviction ; when neither our own dismal guilts , nor miseries , nor most express miracles of deliverance have made us sensible , but after the equally stupendous 30th of Ianuary and 29th of May , and the black time that interven'd , we are still the same perverse untractable people ; when luxury is the retribution made for plenty , licence for liberty , and Atheism for Religion , whil'st miracles of mercy are acknowledg'd only by prodigies of ingrateful disobedience : and on the other side , when factious humors swell against all Laws , as they would either over-flow those mounds , or make them yield and give way to them ; when Declarations and Decrees , which were infallible when they came only from a party of a part of a Parliament , are neither of force nor esteem when they have all solemnity and obligation that just and full authority can give ; alas , what hopes of doing any thing can a weak Harangue entertain ? But , my Lord , since you are pleas'd to command , I give up both it and my understanding to your Lordship , and the weaker the Discourse is , so much the more pregnant testimony is it of the obsequiousness of My Lord , Your Lordships most devoted and most humble servant RICHARD ALLESTRY . HOSEA 3. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return , and seek the Lord their God , and David their King , and shall fear the Lord and his goodness . HE had said in the words before , that the children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince , without a sacrifice and without an image or altar , and without an Ephod and without Teraphim . Now when they shall have been for many years in such a state of helpless desolation , shall have no King under whose shadow they , their laws and rights might hope for shelter ; no Prince to guard them from the sad calamities of wild confusion or usurping violence ; shall have no exercises of religion to allay and soften those calamities , and give them comfort in the bearing of them ; no Altar to lay hold on for security against them , or to stretch out their hands towards , for deprecation of them ; no nor a God to put an end to this sad state ; nor any means of direction what to doe under it , no Ephod to ask counsel at ; nor yet the pageantry , the fallacy of these , no Teraphim for Ephods , nor Image for a God ; the same destruction having seized these and their worshippers , the people and their Idols going into Captivity together , and the onely true God having forsaken them : Now when the Prophet had denounc'd this state of Woe , which was to dwell with them so long as that their very expectations of deliverance should be dying , having continued threescore years and ten , a longer and more wearisome age of patience then life , he then proceeds to sweeten all by telling them of a return , and what things they shall doe in it ; and they are three . First , Seek the Lord their God , apply themselves to his Worship and Obedience , and cleave to him ; for so the word is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 19. 31. and Ieremy repeating this c. 30. 9. words it , shall serve the Lord their God , and David their King : Which is the second thing they were to doe . As the Ecclesiastical state was to be setled , so the secular too upon its just foundations : Religion and Loaylty both running in their ancient current . Thirdly , They shall fear the Lord and his goodness : not onely tremble before him , who is the Lord , that did exert his power in their destruction ; but shall much more revere his goodness , that did flow out in such plentiful miraculous expresses of deliverance , Now these being not onely prophecy what in that juncture they would doe , nor onely duties what they were to doe , but also counsels and directions immediately from God what they were best to doe , the onely prudent and safe course according to the policies of heaven ; the direct view of these particulars in reference to that state of theirs is not an unconcerning prospect at this season , which is the Anniversary of an equal return ; and therefore I shall lay them so before you , and the reflexion on them in our practice shall make the application . 1. They shall seek the Lord their God is my first part , and the Lord 's prime direction for the repairing of a broken Nation . Neither indeed can any other course be taken ; for till we have found him , while he does hide his face , nothing but darkness dwells upon the land ; or if any light do break out , 't is but the kindlings of his anger : so he expresses , Deut. 31. 17. This people will forsake me and break my Covenant ; then my anger shall be kindled against them , and I will forsake them , and hide my face from them , and they shall be devoured , and many evils and troubles shall befall them , so that they will say in that day , Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not amongst us ? This absence is onely another word for desolation : Be thou instructed , ô Ierusalem , saith God by Ieremy , c. 6. 8. lest my sould depart from thee , and I make thee desolate , a land not inhabited : As if without him there were nothing else but solitude in Cities and in Courts , and all were desert where he does not dwell . Yea there is something beyond desolation , Hos. 9. 11 , 12. As for Ephraim , their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the womb , and from the conception : though they bring up their children , yet will I bereave them that there shall not be a man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea wo also to them when I depart from them . And it must needs be so ; for let our state be never so calamitous , if God be not departed , there is comfort in it , and a deliverer at hand : If we are in the place of dragons , his presence will make heaven there ; and although we be covered with the shadow of death , if the light of his Countenance break in , we are in glory ; and the brightness of that will soon damp and shine out the fiery trial . But if the Lord depart , then there is no redemption possible : God hath forsaken him , persecute him and take him , for there is none to deliver him , Psa. 71. 11. But if there were deliverance some other way , yet the want of God's presence is an evil , such as nothing in the whole world can make good : the presence of an angel in his stead does not . When the Lord said to Israel , I will not go up in the midst of thee , but I will send an Angel with thee , and drive out the Amorite , the Hittite , &c. yet when the people heard these evil tidings , they mourned , and no man did put on his Ornaments , Exod. 33. 4. Nay more , I shall not speak a contradiction if I shall say , that the most intimate presence of the Godhead does not supply God's absence ; and such a small withdrawing of himself as may consist with being united hypostatically , was too much for him to bear who was Immanuel , when he complained God was not with him : I mean our Saviour on the Cross. He , who although he did beseech against his cup with fervencies that did breath out in heats of bloody sweat , with agonies of prayer ; yet when he fell down under it , did chearfully submit to it , saying , Not my will , but thy will be done ; yet when God hides himself , he does expostulate with him , crying out , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? His God could no more forsake him , then himself could be not himself : and yet the apprehension of that which could not be was even insufferable to him , to whom nothing could be insufferable . He seems to feel a very contradiction while he but seems to feel the want of the Lord's presence . Such is the sad importance of God's not being with us ; and this same instance tells us what drives him away . 'T was sin that he withdrew from then : Christ did but take on him our guilt , and upon that the Lord forsook him : God could no more endure to behold wickedness in him , then the Sun could to see God suffer ; Iniquity eclips'd them both , and sin did separate betwixt him and himself , and made that person who was God cry out , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? And it will doe the same betwixt God and a people . Isa. 59. 1 , 2. Behold , the Lord's hand is not shortned that it cannot save , nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear ; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God , and your sins have hid his face from you , that he will not hear . His face is clothed with light , we know ; but when Wickedness over-spreads a people , those deeds of darkness put out the light of his countenance . His hand although it be not shortned , yet it contracts and shuts it self , not onely to grasp and withhold his mercies from them , but to smite : Iniquity builds such a wall of separation as does shut out omnipresence , and makes him who is every where , not be with such a people ; not be in hearing of their needs ; for when their sins do cry , no prayers can be hearkned to ; he will not hear you , saith the Prophet . And that gives us the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lord's departure from a people , and the manner of it . He is taking away his peace and mercies from a Nation when he will hear no prayers for it ; and He declares that he will hear no prayers when he withdraws once from his house of prayer , and makes his offices to cease . The place appointed for these offices , the Sanctuary , he calls , we know , the tabernacle of a meeting , that is , where he would b meet his votaries , and hear and bless them ; calls it his c house , his d dwelling-place , his court , his e presence , and his f throne : and if so , when he is not to be found in these , when he no longer dwels nor meets in them , we may be sure that he hath left the land . The Psalmist , when he does complain men had done evil in the Sanctuary , the adversaries roared in the midst of the Congregations , and set up their banners there for trophies ; they broke down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers , and had defiled the dwelling places of God's name even to the ground , and burnt up all the houses of God in the land ; he does suppose that God was then departed when they had left him no abiding place : and therefore he cries out , O God , wherefore art thou absent from us so long ? Remember Sion where thou hast dwelt . But 't is not only upon these Analogies I build this method of departure ; we shall finde exactly in Ezekiel's Vision of that case to which my Text referres : it begins chap. 9. 3. And the glory of the God of Isreal ( i.e. the shining cloud , the token of his presence in the Sanctuary , ) went up from the Cherub whereupon he was , to the threshold of the House , as going out ; and then ver . 8. he does refuse to be entreated for the land : after that ch . 10. 18. The glory went from off the threshold to the midst of the City ; and chap. 11. 23. it went from thence to the mountain without the City , and so away : And then nothing but desolation dwelt upon the land , until the counsel of my Text was followed , and they did seek the Lord their God : for then the glory did return into the Sanctuary just as it went away , as you may find it ch . 43. And having seen when and how God forsakes a people , and for what , that does direct us how to seek him , and it is thus ; When men forsake those paths in which they did not onely erre and goe astray , but did walk contrary to God , so that they did forsake each other ; and do return , walk in his waies , the waies of his Commandments , and return also to his Church , and seek him in his house , fall low before his footstool , begge of him to meet in his tabernacle , renew his Worship , and all invitations of him to return into his dwelling-place . For sure as it is in vain to seek him but in his own waies , nor can we hope to meet him but in his Tabernacle of meeting ; so also Scripture calls both these to seek the Lord , and promises to both the finding him . To the first , Deut. 4. 29 , 30. If from thy tribulation thou shalt seek the Lord thy God , thou shalt find him , if thou seek him with all thy heart , and with all thy soul , if thou turn to the Lord thy God , and shalt be obedient unto his voice . And to the second , Ier. 29. 12. speaking of this sad state to which my Text relates , Then shall ye call upon me , and ye shall go and pray unto me ; and I will hearken unto you , and I will be found of you , saith the Lord , and I will turn away your captivity . I could produce you instances of Asa making all his people swear to seek the Lord : but because my Text speaks of David , he shall be the great explication , as he was the practice of this duty in both senses . In the former , 119. Psal. I have sought thy Commandments above gold or precious stone ; more then that which does make and does adorn my Crown , then that which furnishes all the necessities and all the pomps of Royalty . And for the other , Psal. 63. 1 , 2. O God , thou art my God , early will I seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee , my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is : To see thy power and thy glory , as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary . His very words do seem to labour too , and he does seek expressions to tell us how he seeks . The hot fits of a thirsty palate that call so oft and so impetuously are in his soul ; it hath a pious fever , which cannot be allay'd but by pouring out of his soul to God in the Temple , by breathing out its heats in his devotion offices . Nay more , he longs , hath that I know not whether appetite , or passion , which is not to be understood , but onely suffered ; to which all the unreasonable violences which passion can be heated into , all the defaillances nature can be opprest into , are natural ; it is the bodies Extasie . Now this he had towards the worship of the Sanctuary ; his very flesh found rapture in those exercises , and when he was in a barren and dry land , was driven from the plenties of a Court , and from the glories of a throne into a desert solitude , he found no other wants but of God's house ; did mind , pant , and long after nothing else , did neither thirst for his necessities , nor long for his own Crown , but for the Tabernacle only . And besides the Religion of this , he had reason of State too to be thus affected ; this was the best means to engage his Subjects to him and secure his Throne . He knew , if by establishing God's worship and by going with the multitude , as he did use , to the exercises of it ; if by royal example and encouragements of vertue , and by discountenancing and chastising impiety , by doing as he did profess to doe Ps. 101. ( that directory for a Court ) he could people his land with holy living , and his Temple with holy-Worship ; he knew he should then have good Subjects , loyal to him and at peace with themselves . If they will seek their God , then they will seek their King. The Lord saw this dependence , and therefore counselled this course should be taken . The Master of our Politicks discerned it too , and therefore does advise that the first and chiefest publick cares should be about things of Religion , that and the same profession of it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the cement of Communities , and the very foundation of all legislative , and indeed all power in the Magistrate : and in the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 't is a most efficacious philtre , a charm , a Gordian knot of kindness . And as a Iew observed of their own Nation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To have one and the same opinions of God , and not to differ in their rites from one another , breeds the best harmony in mens affections . When on the other side no obligations , though the most signal and divine , will hold them in obedience and peace , if their ambitions or interests look another way : and if at any time present advantage , or an expectation , or some passion do encline them to seek David their King ; yet the appearance of a change of Interest , that expectation defeated , or a cross animosity will burst those bonds , unless Religion and Communion in Worship help to twist them . David had had experience of this . Abner knew of God's oath to David that after Saul he should be King over all Israel ; but he was otherwise concerned , and therefore he made Ishbosheth King , maintained a long and a sore warre even against what he knew God was engaged to bring about , and made himself strong for the house of Saul , 2 Sam. 2 , 3. ch . But when a quarrel happened betwixt Ishbosheth and him , then , So doe God to Abner and more also , except as the Lord hath sworn to David , even so I doe to him , to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Iudah . And he sent Messengers to him saying , Whose is the land ? make but thy league with me . c. 3. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. Do but look forward , and you find when Abner was cut off , and Ishbosheth was slain , and Israel had no leader , then they came to David , saying , Behold , we are thy bone and thy flesh , and the Lord said to thee , Thou shalt feed my people Israel , c. 5. 1 , 2. They knew all that before , yet would not let him doe it , till they had no other leader . Nay , when they had done that , by Absalom's insinuations ( who in a way of treacherous pity did instill dislikes against the government , and did remonstrate in good wishes , as some men do in prayers , c. 15. 3 , 4 ) they were all drawn into rebellion against this David , and made him flie out of the land , and became Subjects to that Absalom . When he was dead indeed they speak of bringing back the King , c. 19. 10. and when his own Iudah had done it , quarrell'd ver . 43. because that their advice was not first had : and though Iudah had nothing but their service , for , Have we eaten at all of the Kings cost , or hath he given us any gift ? say they , ver . 42. yet Israel is angry , because he came not back upon their score , for they forsooth have ten parts in him , v. 43. and yet the next day every man of Israel went after him that said , We have no part in David , Sheba a man of Belial , ch . 20. 1. Thus no allegiance , no tie however sacred and divine will hold them who follow not upon God's score . Nay at the last , because that Rehoboam would not ease their taxes , all Israel cry out , What portion have we in David ? see to thine own house , David . And to make this secession perpetual ( which all the former did not prove ) Ieroboam did use no other policy , but to change the Worship and the Priests : He knew he should divide their hearts and Nations for ever , when he had altered once the Service and the Officers ; and if he could but keep them from seeking God at Ierusalem , he was secure they would not seek David their King. And so it proved . Now the Lord to prevent divisions had provided so farre Uniformity in his worship , that he required a single Unity ; and that it might be but in one manner , he let it be but in one place . And truly , when men once depart from Uniformity , what measures can they set themselves of changing ? what shall confine or put shores to them ? what principle can they proceed upon which shall engage them to stay any where ? and why may not divisions be as infinite as mens phansies ? And though , when those are but in circumstantial things , those who are strong , and know them to be such , are no otherwise concerned to contend for them then on Authorities behalf , ( to which every change is a Convulsion fitt , ) and on the account of decency , and of compliance with the universal Church : yet when others do dogmatize , and put conscience in the not doing them , and stand at such a distance from them as to chuse Schisme , Disobedience , and Sedition rather , and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them ; these differences make as great a gulfe and chasme as that which does divide Dives from Abraham's bosome . It is one God , one Faith , one Worship makes hearts one . Hands lifted up together in the Temple they will joyn and clasp : and so Religion does fulfill its name à religando , binds Prince and Subjects all together ; and they who thus do seek the Lord their God , will also seek David their King , God's next direction , and my second part . 2. And here three things offer themselves , a King , their King , and David their King. I am not here to read a Lecture of State policy upon a vie of Governments ; why seek a King , not any other sort of Government ; and why their King , one that already was so by the right of Succession , not whom addresses or election should make so . And though I think 't were easie to demonstrate onely Monarchy had ever a divine or natural original , and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome , full of dangerous and uneasie consequences , and this so much to sight , that choice for the most part bounds it self , proves but a ceremony of Succession : yet this I need not doe , for I am dealing with the Jews , who had God's judgement in the case , and his appointment too ; and to me that is argument enough . And when God hath declar'd , for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof ; many at once , as in a Common-wealth , or many several families successively , for so God reckons also one or many ; 't is still , we see , David their King , while 't is in David's line , and so the King does truly never die , while his race lives . If either of these many be God's punishment , for the sins of a land , I will not say that they who love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so ; but I will say , they who do chuse that which God calls his plague , that quarrel for his vengeance , and with great strife and hazard take his indignation by force , I can but pity them in their own options and enjoyments : but , O my soul , enter not thou into their counsels . As for seeking their King , I shall content my self with that which Calvin saies upon the words ; Nam aliterverè & ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit , quin se etiam subjiceret legitimo imperio cui subjectus erat : For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God , except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects . And I shall adde that they who do forsake their King , will soon forsake their God. The a Rabbines say it more severely of Israel , that they at once rejected three things , the Kingdome of the house of David , and the Kingdome of Heaven , and the Sanctuary . And truly , if we do consult that State from the beginning , we shall find that when they were without their King , they alwaies were without their God. Moses was the first King in Ieshurun , and he was onely gone into the Mount for forty daies , and they set up a golden Calf ; they make themselves a God if they want him whom the Lord makes so , as he does the Magistrate : if they have not a Prince , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , living Image of God , then they must have an Idol . When Moses his next successor was dead , we read that the man Micah had an house of Gods , and consecrated one of his sons to be his Priest : and truly he might make his Priest who made his Deities . And the account of this is given , In those daies there was no King in Israel , Iud. 17. 5 , 6. The very same is said ch . 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan. There was no heir of restraint , as it is worded ver . 7. It seems , to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance , which till it be supprest , he hath not what he is heir to . But Vice will know no boundaries if there be no King , whose sword is the onely mound and fence against it : for if we reade on there , 19 , 20 , 21 ch . we shall find those dismal tragedies of Lust and Warre , the one of which did sin to death the Levites wife ; the other , besides 40000. slain of them who had a righteous cause , and whom God did bid fight , destroyed also a Tribe in Israel : these all sprang from the same occasion , for so the story closes it , In those daies there was no King in Israel , ch . 21. 25. Just upon this , when God in their necessities did raise them Iudges , that is , Kings , read all their story , you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry : God still complaining , the children of Israel did evil again after the death of such an one , till he raised them another . Those 450. years being divided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols . After them Ieroboam , he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince , hath got no other character from God but this , the a Man that did make Israel to sin , at once against God and against their King. Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State were ended , when their calves and their Kingdome were destroyed . Ezek. 4. 4 , 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390. daies , to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity . But this was more then the years of their State , which were onely 255. 390 years indeed there were betwixt the falling off of the ten Tribes , and the destruction of Ierusalem by the King of Babel ; but those ten Tribes were gone , their Kingdome perfectly destroy'd above 130. years before : but their iniquity was not , it seems , that does outlive their State , so long as that God's Temple , that King's house did stand from which they did divide . As if Seditious and Schismaticks sin longer then they are , even while they are whom they do sin against in separating from . 'T is true , there was an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David , but Hezekiah and Iosiah did succeed . Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy , as 't is upon rebellion and having no King. It does appear their Kings were guards also to God and his Religion , the great defendors of his Faith and Worship . God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together : Therefore S. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings , that we might live in godliness and honesty ; and still they were the same who sought the Lord their God , and David the King. But why David their King ? for could his Kingdome disappear and be to seek , of whom the Lord had said , I have sworn once by my Holiness , I will not fail David ? Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore was as sure as God is holy . But yet the Lord had said to the people of Israel , If ye doe wickedly , ye shall be destroyed both you and your King. There are other sins besides Rebellion and Treason that murder Kings and Governments . Those that support their Ills by their dependencies , and use great shadows for a shelter to rapacity , oppression , or licences , or any crying wickedness ; these prove Traitors to Majesty and themselves , strike at the root of that under which they took covert , fell that and crush themselves . National vices have all Treason in them , and every combination in such sins is a Conspiracy . If universal practice palliate them , we do not see their stain , it may be , think them slight ; but their complexion is purple : Common blood is not deep enough to colour them , they die themselves in that that 's sacred . Nay these do seem to spread contagion to God , as if they would not let the Lord be holy , nor suffer that to be which he swore by his holiness should be : for the Psalmist cries out , Where are thy old loving kindnesses which thou swarest unto David ? But sure some of God's oaths will stand ; if not those of his kindness , those will by which he swears the ruine of such sinners , and God that is holy will be sanctified in judgement upon them . Yea , upon more then the offenders , for the guilty themselves are not a sacrifice equal to such piacular offences . Innocent Majesty must bleed for them too ; If you doe wickedly , you shall be destroy'd both you and your King. Thus when God would remove Iudah out of his sight , good Iosiah must fall ; and the same makes them be to seek David their King. But how David their King , when 't was Zorobabel ? for with Theophylact and others I conclude he must be meant in the first literal importance of the words . It was the custome of most Nations from some great eminent Prince to name all the Succession , so at once to suggest his Excellencies to his followers , and to make his glory live . Now without doubt David was Heroe enough for this , and his valour alone sufficient to ground the like practice upon . And though we do not find that done , yet we do find his piety and his uprightness made the standard by which that of his Successors is meted . Of one 't is said he walked in the waies of David his father ; of another , he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord , but not like unto David his father . And because David went aside , and was upright with an Exception , once therefore it is said , The Lord was with Iehoshaphat , because he walkt in the first waies of his father David . But besides this , his very name is given to two , Zorobabel , and the Messiah ; both which were to be the restorers of their people : the one from Sin and Hell , to re-establish the Kingdome of heaven it self ; the other to deliver his people from Babel , and to repair a broken Nation and demolish'd Temple . And for this work God bids them seek David their King. The waies from Babel to Ierusalem , from the Confusion of a people to a City that is at unity in it self , the City of God where he appears in perfect beauty , and where the throne of the house of David is , must be the first waies of David : in those he walk'd to Sion , and did invest his people in God's promises , the whole land of Canaan . In those Zorobabel brought them back to that land and Sion . And in these our Messiah leads us to Mount Sion that is above , to the celestial Ierusalem ; does build an universal Church and heaven it self . And all that have the like to doe must walk in those first waies , fulfill that part of David , and must copy Christ. Such the repairers of great breaches must be : these are the waies to settle Thrones , the onely waies in which we may find the goodness of the Lord ; which to fear is the third direction , and my last part . They shall fear the Lord and his goodness . 3. That Israel who came but now out of the furnace should fear the Lord whose wrath did kindle it , whose justice they had found such a consuming fire as to make the Temple it self a Sacrifice , and the whole Nation a burnt-offering , is reasonable to expect : but when his goodness had repair'd all this , to require them to fear that , does seem hard . That that goodness , which when it is once apprehended does commit a rape upon our faculties , and being tasted melts the heart , and causes dissolution of soul through swoons of complacency , that this should be received with dread and trembling , is most strange . Indeed the Psalmist saies , There is mercy with God that he may be feared ; for were there not , we should grow desperate : but how to fear those mercies is not easie . 'T is true , when God made his goodness pass before Moses , shewed him the glory of it , as he saies , in those most comfortable attributes , the sight of which is beatifick Vision , Exod. 34. 6 , &c. The Lord , the Lord God merciful and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , transgression and sin ; if that which follows there be part of it , forgiving sin , and that will by no means clear the guilty , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation ; if this be one ray of the glory of goodness , if it dart out such beams , alas , 't is as devouring as the lake of fire , his very goodness stabs whole successions at once , and the guilty may tremble at it for themselves and their posterity . But if those words doe mean as we translate those very words , Ier. 46. 28. I will not leave thee altogether unpunish'd , yet will not utterly cut off , not make a full end of the guilty , when I visit iniquities upon the children , but will leave them a remnant still ; then there is nothing dreadful in it , but those very visitations have kindness in them , and his rod comforts , and this issue of his goodness also is not terrible but lovely . To fear God's goodness therefore is to revere it , to entertain it with a pious astonishment , acknowledging themselves unworthy of the crums of it , especially not daring to provoke it by surfeting , or by presuming on it , or by abusing it to serve ill ends , or any other then God sent it for , those of piety and obedience : not to comply with which , is to defeat God's kindness , and the designs of it . If when they sought the Lord , he was found of them , and came to his dwelling-place onely to be forc'd thence again by their abominations ; if when his goodness had restor'd all to them , they had David their King but to conspire against , an Altar onely to pollute , and a Temple to separate from , as Manasses the Priest , Sanballat's son in law , with his accomplices did doe ; this were both to affront and to renounce that goodness , which above all things they must dread the doing : for if this be offended too , ruine is irreversible ; there is no other attribute in God a sinner can fly to with any hope . His Holiness cannot behold iniquity , his Iustice speaks nothing but condemnation to guilt , his Power without kindness is but omnipotent destruction ; but if we have his Goodness on our side , we have an Advocate in his own bosome that will bear up against the rest , for his mercy is over all his attributes as well as works : but if this also be exasperated , and kindness grow severe , there is no refuge in the Lord , no shadow of him to take Sanctuary under ; for there is nothing to allay the anger of his Compassion and Bounty . This sure is the extremest terrour we are to dread , his kindness more then his severity and wrath ; we have an antidote , a buckler against these , but none against the other if it be provok'd ; and if the heats of love take fire and rise into indignation , 't is unquenchable flame and everlasting burning . Therefore when God hath done all things that he can doe or they can wish , then most of all they must fear the Lord and his goodness . My Text and I have spoke all this while to the Iews : nor do I know whether I need to address any other way , all this did so directly point at us . The glories of this day need not the foil of those calamities from which this day redeem'd , to set them off : Or you may read them in my Prophet here , and our own guilts will make too sad a Comment on his Text , who were more barbarous Assyrians to our selves . We also were without a Prince and without Sacrifice , had neither King , nor Church , nor Offices , because we our selves had destroy'd them , and that we might not have them had engag'd or covenanted against them ; ty'd to our miseries so , that without perjury we could neither be without them , nor yet have them . As we had broke through all our sacred oaths to invade and usurp calamity and guilt , so neither could we repent without breach of Vows . If this were not enough to make us be without a God too , then to drive him away we had defil'd his dwelling places to the ground , and by his ancient gists of remove he was certainly gone . There was indeed exceeding much Religion among us , yet , God knows , almost none at all , while Christianity was crumbled into so many , so minute professions , that 't was divided into little nothings , and even lost in a crowd of it self ; while each man was a Church , every single professor was a whole multitude of Sects . And in this tumult , this riot of faiths , if the son of Man should have come , could he have found any faith in the land ? Vertue was out of countenance and practice , while prosperous and happy Villany usurp'd its name , while Loyalty , and conscience of oaths , and duty were most unpardonable crimes , to which nothing but ruine was an equal punishment ; and all those guilts that make the last times perillous , Blasphemy , disobedience , truce-breakings and Treasons , Schisms and Rebellions , with all their dismal consequences and appendages , ( for these are not single , personal crimes , these have a politick capacity ) all these did not onely walk in the dress of piety , and under holy Masks , but were themselves the very form of Godliness , by which 't was constituted and distinguished , the Signature of a party of Saints , the Constellation of their graces : And on the other side , the detestation of such hypocrisie made others Libertines and Atheists ; while seeing men such holy counterfeits , so violent in acting , and equally engag'd for every false Religion , made them conclude there was none true , or in earnest . And all this was because we were without our King ; for 't was the onely Interest of all those usurpations that were to contrive and preserve it thus . And when we had roll'd thus through every form of Government , addrest to each , mov'd every stone , and rais'd each stone to the top of the Mount , but every one still tumbled down again , and ours like Sisyphus's labour was like to have no end , onely restless and various Calamity ; Necessity then counsell'd us , and we applied to God's directions in the Text , I know not whether in his method , but it is plain we did seek David our King. And my heart is towards the Governours of Israel , that offer'd themselves willingly among the people : bless ye the Lord : yea , Thou , ô Lord , bless them . May all the blessings which this was the birth-day of , all that my Text encloses , all the goodness of the Lord , be the sure portion of them and their Families ; may they see the King in his beauty , and peace upon Israel , and may their Names be blest in their posterities for evermore . We sought him with the violent impatiences of necessitous and furious desires , and our eyes , that had even fail'd with looking for him , did even fail with looking on him , as impotent and as unsatisfied in our fruitions as expectations ; and he was entertain'd with as many tears as pray'd for ; as one whom not our Interests alone , but our guilts had endear'd to us , and our tears : he was as necessary to us as repentance , as without whom it was impossible for us to repent and return from those impieties to him , of usurping his rights , of exiling , of murthering him by wants , because we could not doe it by the Axe or Sword ; without him 't was impossible for us to give over the committing these ; and the tears that did welcome him were one of our best lavers to wash off that blood that we had pull'd upon our selves . One endear'd also to us by God's most miraculous preservations of him for us : We cannot look upon his life but as the issue of prodigious bounty , snatch'd by immediate Providence out of the gaping jaws of tyrannous , usurping , murtherous malice , merely to keep him for our needs , and for this day : One whom God had train'd up and manag'd for us , just as he did prepare David their King , at thirty years of age to take possession of that Crown which God had given him by Samuel about twelve years before ; and in those years to prepare him for Canaan by a Wilderness , to harden him with discipline , that so the luxuries and the effeminacies of a Court might not emasculate and melt him ; by constant Watches , cares and business , to make him equal for , habituated to , careful of , and affected with the business of a Kingdome ; and by constraining him to dwell in Mesech , with Aliens to his Religion , to teach him to be constant to his own , and to love Sion . And hath he not prepared our David so for us ? and we hope hath prepared for him too the first daies of David , having no Sheba in the Field , nor Achitophel in the Councel , nor an Abiathar in the Temple , not in that Temple which himself hath rais'd , God having made him instrument of that which he would not let David doe , building his house , and furnishing it with all its Offices , and making it fit for God to meet us in , when we do seek him also , which was the other perquisite of our Condition . There never was so much pretence of seeking God as in those late daies of his absence from us ; and it should seem indeed we knew not where to find him , we took such several waies to seek him . But if God did look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God , should he not then have found it here as there ? They are altogether gone out of the way ; their throat is an open sepulchre , with their tongues have they deceived , the poison of asps is under their lips , their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness , their feet are swift to shed blood : destruction and unhappiness is in their waies , and the way of peace have they not known ; there is no fear of God before their eyes : They eat up my people as it were bread ; and , which is worse in these then them , they even then call upon God , as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people ; and when they did seek God , they meant to find a prey . Yet where were any others that did seek him ? or that do cleave to him now ? The Schismatick does not seek God , who shuns the place where he appears , and meets , and dwells ; nor does he cleave to God who tears himself off from the Lord's body . Mark such as cause divisions , saith S. Paul , and avoid them : and if all Christians must avoid them , then I am sure God is not with them . The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them ; do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels ? that terminate divinest Worship in a creature ? or do they cleave to God , when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones ? or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text , who did not seek David their King , but did apply themselves to several forein Princes , and to others which they hoped would set up their Golden calf ? Incendiaries , that make fires and raise commotions , these are farre from God ; for the Lord was not in the fire , or in the Earth-quake , but in the still small voice , in the soft whispers of peace and love . The Atheist , he that saies in his heart there is no God , will not seek God , you may be sure : nor does he care to seek David his King , who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his licences , and who hath no Religion to tie him to any . If he at all dislik'd the former , it was upon reasons of burthen , or of pride , or Libertinisme : so much Religion though counterfeit was a reproach to him , and the face of such strictness was uneasy to him . These are so farre from seeking God , that God saies these did drive him out of Israel , Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit , that 't is now the Complexion of the Age , and they who thought fit to shew their not being hypocrites by license , and ( to give it an easie word ) by drollery in sacred things , have now made nothing to be sacred to them ; how shall the Lord dwell among such ? they are enough to exorcise God out of a Nation . The Hypocrite also , for all his Fasts and Prayers , never did seek God , for he is but a whited Sepulchre , our Saviour saies . Now who would seek the living God among the dead ? the Lord of life sure is not to be found in graves . Golgotha was a place to crucifie him in , not worship him : he takes not in the air of funeral Vaults for incense ; 't was a Demoniack that us'd to be among the Tombs . The subtle , false and faithless men that walk in mazes , never shall meet God ; these are the windings and the tracts of the old Serpent , and they lead onely to his habitation . They that do climb as if they meant to find God on his own Throne , that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple , or to the top of that exceeding high Mount , whence they can overlook the glories of the World , and pick and chuse , these do not goe to seek Christ there : It is the Devil that does carry up thither , upon his own designs . Nor is it possible to seek the Lord in the waies that lead to the strange Womans house , for her house is the way to hell , Solomon saies , ( and he did know ; ) nay more , her steps take hold on hell , seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin . In a word , they that seek their own , that turn all merely to their advantage , they cannot seek God too , he will not be joynt God with Mammon . And then where are the men that sought him ? that did retrive him to us ? or with whom does he dwell ? If he be not among us , we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace , gawd it in all our bright appearances . Have we not seen the Sun rise with the glory of a day about him , and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night , not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness , or any spot to checquer or to fleck the countenance of day ? when strait a small handful of vapour rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face , and by little and little getting strength bedasht his shine , and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light ; till it even put out the day , and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him . So may prosperity it self , if the Lord and his blessing be not in it , raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation . That wine which now makes your hearts glad , may prove like that which did commit the Centaures and the Lapithae , first kindle Lusts , then Warres , and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment ; and that oyle that does make you chearful countenances , may make your paths slippery , and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all . But God , who is found of them that seek him not , nay who himself sought the lost sheep and carried him , when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return , has also sought , and found , and brought together us and our great Shepherd : for this is the Lord 's doing , and it is marvellous in our eyes ; these waies of his also are so past finding out , that we may well conclude they are the mere footsteps of his incomprehensible goodness , and we have onely now to fear that goodness . But give me leave to say , those that despise his goodness do not fear it ; and they whom it does not lead to repentance , do despise it , S. Paul saies , Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-sufferance , not knowing that the goodness of the Lord leads thee to repentance ? And now , ô Lord , what sort of men among us hath thy goodness wrought upon , and made repent ? Those whom it was directed to convince , and came on purpose to , to prove by their own onely argument they had of providential Miracles , they were not in the right , but that destruction and misery were in their waies ; yet these chuse rather to deny their own conclusions , and resist God's goodness , then to be convinc'd and repent : for we have seen them as bold Martyrs to their Sin as ever any to Religion , signalize their resolv'd impenitence with chearful suffering , as if the fire they were condemn'd to were that triumphal Chariot in which the Prophet mounted up to heaven . Others that did not go so farre in condemnation nor guilt as they , and therefore think they have no reason to repent of that , do they repent of what they did contribute to it ? Of those that lifted up their hands to swear and fight , how many are there that have made them fall , and smite their own thigh , saying , What have I done ? Do not all rather justifie as farre as they themselves proceeded ? and if all that were well , why do not we repent of our Allegiance and Loyalty ? if all that were well , what hath thy goodness done , ô Lord , that hath reverst it all ? And for the rest , those that do not partake the plenties of thy goodness , murmure and repine at it ; are discontent at having what they pray'd for , what they would have dy'd for : those that have been partakers of it , have turn'd it into wantonness , have made it furnish them for base unworthy practices . Such as have not the generosity of vice , have not a noble , manly wickedness , are poltron sins ; have made it raise a cry on the faithfullest party , the best Cause , and the purest Church in the World. While we have debauch'd God's own best Attribute , made his Goodness procure for our most wicked or self-ends : and the face of things is so vicious in every order and degree and sexe , that — But the Confession is onely fit for Litanies , and we have need to make the burthen of ours be , Lord , give us some afflictions again , send out thy Indignation , for we do fear thy goodness , it hath almost undone us : and truly , where it does not better , 't is the most fearful of God's Attributes or plagues , for it does harden there . S. Paul saies so in the fore-cited place ; and Origen does prove this very thing did Pharaoh's heart , indulgence was his induration . Now induration is the being put in Hell upon the Earth : there is the same impenitence in both , and Iudgement is pronounc'd already on the hardned , and the life they lead is but the interval betwixt the Sentence and the Execution , and all their Sun-shine of Prosperity is but kindled brimstone , onely without the stench . And then to make the treasures of God's bounty be treasures of wrath to us , to make his kindness , his long-suffering , that is , S. Peter sayes , salvation , condemne us , his very goodness be hell to us ! But sure so great a goodness as this we have tasted cannot have such deadly issues ; and it was great indeed , so perfectly miraculous in such strange and continued successes , resisting our contrivances and our sins too , overcoming all opposition of our vices and our own policies , that do not comport with it , and in despight of all still doing us good ; it was fatality of goodness . Now sure that which is so victorious will not be worsted by us . But oh ! have we not reason so much more to fear the goodness ? The greater and more undeserv'd it is , the more suspicious it is : as if it were the last blaze of the candle of the Lord when its light gasps , its flash of shine before it do goe out , the dying struggles and extreme efforts of goodness , to see if at the last any thing can be wrought by it . And if we did consider how some men menage the present goodness , make use of this time of it , and rake , and catch , we would believe they did fear the departure of it : but yet 't is in our power to fixe it here . If we repent , God's gifts then are without repentance , but one of us must change : bring Piety and Vertue into countenance and fashion , and God will dwell among us . Nay S. Paul saies , Goodness to thee if thou continue in his goodness . If we our selves do not forsake it and renounce it , not fear it so as to fly from it , but with the fears of sinking men , that catch , and grasp , lay fast dead hold upon it ; if , as God promises , he so put his fear in our hearts , that we never depart from it , fear that hath love in it , and is as unitive as that , then it shall ne're depart from us ; but we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living , and shall be taken thence to the eternal fulness of it . This day shall be the birth-day of immortal life , the entring on a Kingdome that cannot be moved . A Crown thus beautify'd is a Crown of glory here , and shall adde weight and splendour to the Crown hereafter : A Church thus furnish'd is a Church triumphant in this World , and such a Government is the Kingdome of heaven upon Earth ; and then we shall all reign with him who is the King of Kings , and who wash'd us in his blood to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father , to whom be glory and dominion for ever . Amen . FINIS . Errata . Pag. 9. line 8. after build place the semicolon ; after departure in the line following blot it out . Pag. 16. line 18. for farre Uniformity reade for Uniformity . Pag. 23. line 9. for David the King , read David their King. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A23768-e690 Psal. 44. 19. Luk. 22. 44. Ver. 42. Mat. 27. 46. Mat. 27. 45. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Exod. 29. 42 , 43. c Psal. 42. 4. d Psal. 74. 7. e Psal. 31. 20. f Jer. 17. 12. & 14. 21. Psal. 74. Ver. 3. Ver. 7. Ver. 1. Psal. 42. 4. Arist. Pol. l. 7. Joseph . l. con . Appio . 1 Kings 12. 16. Luk. 16. 26. Prov. 28. 2. a R. Simeon the son of Jochai said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and R. Simeon the son of Menasiah said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 33. 5. Exo. 32. 1 , 5. Judg. 3. 7. & ver . 12. Ch. 4. 1. Ch. 6. 1. Ch. 10. 6. Ch. 13. 1. a 1 Kings 16. 26. Ch. 21. 22. & 22. 52 , &c. 1 Tim. 2. 2. Ver. 35. 1 Sam. 12. 25. Psal. 89. 49. Isa. 5. 16. 2 Chro. 34. 2. 2 King. 14. 3. 2 Chro. 17. 3. Psal. 122. 3 , 5. Psal. 130. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 5. 9. 2 Sam. 5. 4. Inter 7 & 9 Sauli qui regnavit an . 20. Vid. Sim Chron. Psal. 120. 5. Psal. 14. Rom. 3. Rom. 16. 17. 1 Kings 19. 11 , 12. Mat. 23. 27. Mat. 4. Prov. 7. 27. Prov. 5. 5. Phil. 2. 21. Isay 65. 1. Luk. 15 ▪ 4 , 5. 2 King. 2. 11. Jer. 31. 19. Rom. 2. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Rom. 11. 22. Jer. 32. 40. Apoc. 1. 5 , 6.