A32047:161
The noble-mans pattern of true and real thankfulness presented in a sermon preached before…The noble-mans patterne of true and reall thankfulnesse presented in a sermon preached before…
The noble-mans pattern of true and real thankfulness presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Lords, at their late solemn day of Thanksgiving, June 15, 1643 : for the discovery of a dangerous, desperate and bloody design tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament and of the famous city of London / by Edmund Calamy ...The noble-mans patterne of true and reall thankfulnesse presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Lords, at their late solemne day of Thanksgiving, June 15, 1643 : for the discovery of a dangerous, desperate and bloody designe tending to the utter subversion of the Parliament and of the famous city of London / by Edmund Calamy ...
London: printed by G.M. for Christopher Meredith, 1643
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Secondly, Let me exhort you to go on more and more resolutely in this great Cause. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. It is not enough to do the work of the Lord, and to abound in it, but we must do it steadfastly and unmoveably, steadfastly as a Tree fastened in the ground, that is not removed though the winds blow never so much; unmoveable as a Rock in the Sea, that stands fast though the Sea rageth and roareth round about it. For there are so many, and so mighty Anakims and Zanzummims that are your enemies, so many temptations both of the right hand and of the left, both flattering and frowning, fiery trials, and golden Apples. So many mountains of opposition lying in your way, that unless you be endued with this excellent grace of spiritual resolution, you will never be able to do God any service in these times. But this admirable grace of divine fortitude and Christian resolution, will make you like a wall of brass, to beat back all the arrows of strong persuasion, that are shot against you. This is Armour ⟨p. 49⟩of proof, against all kind of temptations. This is as the ballast of a Ship, to keep you steady in this great Cause, without which you will be [Greek or Hebrew],1 men of double-minds unsettled and unstable in all your ways. This is like the Angel that rolled away the stone from before the door of the Sepulchre, this will enable you either to remove the great mountains that lye in your way,2 or to stride over them. Excellent is the Story of S. Basil. The Emperor sent to him to subscribe to the Arian Heresy. The Messenger at first gave him good language, and promised him great preferment if he would turn Arian. To which Basil answered. Alas, these speeches are fit to catch little children withal that look after such things; but we that are nourished and taught by the holy Scriptures, are readier to suffer a 1000. deaths, then to suffer one syllable or title of the Scripture to be altered. The Messenger offended with his boldness, told him he was mad. He answered. Opto me in aeternum sic delirare, I wish I were for ever thus mad! Here was a stout Cedar. Such another was Luther, Unus homo solus totius orbis impetum sustinuit, Luther alone opposed all the world.