A77366:2
A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their public fast, Novemb.…A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their publique fast, Novemb.…
A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their public fast, Novemb. 29. 1643. By William Bridge, sometimes fellow of Emanuel College in Cambridge, now preacher of Gods Word at Yarmouth.A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their publique fast, Novemb. 29. 1643. By VVilliam Bridge, sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, now preacher of Gods Word at Yarmouth.
London: printed for R. Dawlman, 1643
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of COMMONS, At their Public FAST, Novemb. 29. 1643.
A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of COMMONS, At their Publique FAST, Novemb. 29. 1643.
BY WILLIAM BRIDGE, sometimes Fellow of Emanuel College in Cambridge, now Preacher of Gods Word at Yarmouth.
BY VVILLIAM BRIDGE, sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, now Preacher of Gods Word at Yarmouth.
REVEL. 16. 15. Behold I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
REVEL. 16. 15. Behold I come as a theef, blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments lest he walke naked, and they see his shame.
LONDON, Printed for R. DAWLMAN. M. DC. XLIII.
TO THE HONOURABLE THE KNIGHTS, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament.
TO THE HONORABLE THE KNIGHTS, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament.
Right worthy Senators,
According unto your command I have presented these notes unto your hands & the worlds view; give me leave withal to present my humble thankfulness, for your unwearied labour of love to these three Kingdoms, and in them unto all the Churches of Christ: for as once the Poles Ambassador said in regard of the Turk, Per latus Poloniae petunt Europam, I may say in regard of your and our enemies, through the sides of England, Scotland and Ireland, they strike at all that i• truly called Christendom, your wisdom therefore doth well to make good these passages.
ACcording unto your command I have presented these notes unto your hands & the worlds view; give me leave withall to present my humble thankfulnes, for your unwearied labour of love to these three Kingdoms, and in them unto all the Churches of Christ: for as once the Poles Ambassador said in regard of the Turk, Per latus Poloniae petunt Europam, I may say in regard of your and our enemies, through the sides of England, Scotland and Ireland, they strike at all that i• truely called Christendome, your wisdome therefore doth well to make good these passages.
It is true indeed your work is, 1. great, but it is for the 1great God, and Solomon saith, The house that I build is great, for great is our God, 2 Chron. 2. 5. Shall not we do great things for him who hath done and suffered great things for us, and by us?
- 1Sicut calere contra frigidum hoc est repugnare frig• do, virtutis est▪ atque vigoris, sic amare•t appet•re▪ insuav• siv• molestum, &c. Paris. de fide.
2. Your work is clogged with many difficulties; but if it were not so, how should the strength of your love appear either to your God, or to your Country? a man may be said to ⟨image 3⟩love the truth before the wind of opposition riseth, but he cannot be said to hold it fast or cleave unto it till he meets with some that would take it from him, Deut. 13. 1, 2, 3, 4. Difficulty doth commend duty; there was a stone rolled upon Christs grave, And there is a difficulty rolled upon every truth or way of God, which through the evil of the times hath been buried; But when you come to the graves mouth, the place where you think to meet with most difficulty, 1there, and then, the stone shall be rolled away. The more difficulty in doing, the more sweetness in the work done.
2. Your worke is clogged with many difficulties; but if it were not so, how should the strength of your love appeare either to your God, or to your Country? a man may be said to ⟨image 3⟩love the truth before the winde of opposition riseth, but he cannot be said to hold it fast or cleave unto it till he meets with some that would take it from him, Deut. 13. 1, 2, 3, 4. Difficulty doth commend duty; there was a stone rolled upon Christs grave, And there is a difficulty rolled upon every truth or way of God, which through the evil of the times hath been buried; But when you come to the graves mouth, the place where you think to meet with most difficultie, 1there, and then, the stone shall be rolled away. The more difficulty in doing, the more sweetnes in the work done.
- 1Operum difficultates coelotum saa••tates consequuntu•.
3. Your work is berounded with many dangers, but the 1neglect of it is more dangerous, and the frown of a Prince may sometimes stand with the favour of God; neither shall flattery always hold in credit, nor truth ever continue in disgrace.
3. Your work is berounded with many dangers, but the 1neglect of it is more dangerous, and the frown of a Prince may sometimes stand with the favour of God; neither shall flattery alwayes hold in credit, nor truth ever continue in disgrace.
- 1Nec menda•ii utilitas est diuturna, nec veritatis damnum diu nocet.
4. Your work is reproached sometimes, and calumniated by divers adversaries; But as Seneca said to his friend (male de te loquuntur homines, sed mali) so 1may I say to you, Men speak evil of you, but they are evil men, and it may be, yea tis likely, God will hear the language of your Peninnahs, & make you the more fruitful, especially you doing as Hanna did, who though she was willing to answer to the charge of Eli, because he did speak from Zeal, yet she would not answer the reproach of Peninnah, because she spake from hatred. Surely Malignants clamours are best answered when neglected. Tutius aliquando agit qui calumnias non exaudit; Jesus Christ was eclipsed, that Gods servants might shine.
4. Your work is reproached sometimes, and calumniated by divers adversaries; But as Seneca said to his friend (male de te loquuntur homines, sed mali) so 1may I say to you, Men speak evil of you, but they are evil men, and it may be, yea tis likely, God will heare the language of your Peninnahs, & make you the more fruitfull, especially you doing as Hanna did, who though she was willing to answer to the charge of Eli, because he did speak from Zeale, yet she would not answer the reproach of Peninnah, because she spake from hatred. Surely Malignants clamours are best answered when neglected. Tutius aliquando agit qui calumnias non exaudit; Jesus Christ was eclipsed, that Gods servants might shine.
- 1Cur respondet Sacerdoti, sed Peninnae non respondeat Anna? quia Peninna •rat persona privata, sacerdos autem publica: item Peninna loquebatur ex odio, sacerdos ex zelo: unde allud negligendum e•at, ille instruendus. Mend. in Sam.
5. Your work also is or may be disadvantageous unto ⟨image 3⟩your own particular interests, your public employments cannot but hinder your private affairs, yet be pleased to remember Moses and Joshua, who were men of great service in their generation, having as full an opportunity to have made themselves rich as ever men had, yet we do not read of any great lot they shared out to themselves or their posterity: You are now employed upon Gods service, As for your own private affairs, if you afford them some Relics of your love, and so much only as the public 1leaves, it is enough; for what is too cold for God, is hot enough for the world; yet as the baggage unto an Army, so are things temporal to spiritual, and personal estates to public employments.
5. Your work also is or may be disadvantagious unto ⟨image 3⟩your own particular interests, your publike imployments cannot but hinder your private affaires, yet be pleased to remember Moses and Joshua, who were men of great service in their generation, having as full an opportunity to have made themselves rich as ever men had, yet we do not read of any great lot they shared out to themselves or their posterity: You are now employed upon Gods service, As for your own private affaires, if you afford them some Reliques of your love, and so much onely as the publike 1leaves, it is enough; for what is too cold for God, is hot enough for the world; yet as the baggage unto an Army, so are things temporall to spirituall, and personall estates to publike employments.
- 1Toleramus potius praesentia quam diligam••. Aug.
And in the throng of all your discouragements, be pleased also to remember how good, how honourable, how successful your service is and will be.
And in the throng of all your discouragements, be pleased also to remember how good, how honourable, how successefull your service is and will be.
Tis good, first, in regard of the State; for you are now in travail for your Countries liberty, which though it may stick some time in the birth, and a dragon stand before you to devour it before it is borne, yet in due time it shall be brought forth, and we shall not only be liberati, but 1liberi. The Hebrews have a Proverb which they have borrowed of Solomon, That Whoso breaketh down the •edge, shall be bitten with serpents. The hedges of the State or Church are the Laws, (as Drusius interprets it) or the Ordinances thereof: Those enemies of yours or ours, that have or would tread down our hedges even to the ground, shall not ever go unpunished. When the hedge is lowest, the serpent is nearest.
Tis good, first, in regard of the State; for you are now in travail for your Countries liberty, which though it may stick some time in the birth, and a dragon stand before you to devoure it before it is borne, yet in due time it shal be brought forth, and we shall not onely be liberati, but 1liberi. The Hebrews have a Proverb which they have borrowed of Solomon, That Whoso breaketh down the •edge, shall be bitten with serpents. The hedges of the State or Church are the Laws, (as Drusius interprets it) or the Ordinances thereof: Those enemies of yours or ours, that have or would tread down our hedges even to the ground, shall not ever goe unpunished. When the hedge is lowest, the serpent is nearest.
- 1[Greek or Hebrew] Qui diruit maceriam, eum mordebit serpens: qui legum constitutiones impingit, non feret impune; qui Religionis sacra violat, non erit a poena immunis. Drusius proverb.〈non-Latin alphabet〉 Qui diruit maceriam, eum mordebit serpens: qui legum constitutiones impingit, non feret impune; qui Religionis sacra violat, non erit a poena immunis. Drusius proverb.
2. Good in regard of the Churches; for through your pains and labour of love, those swelling parts (I had almost said wens) which engrossed all the outward nutriment ⟨image 4⟩unto themselves, (the direful presage of a peoples 1death and ruin, saith Gersom) are either taken off, or made more proportionable.
2. Good in regard of the Churches; for through your paines and labour of love, those swelling parts (I had almost said wens) which engrossed all the outward nutriment ⟨image 4⟩unto themselves, (the direfull presage of a peoples 1death and ruine, saith Gersom) are either taken off, or made more proportionable.
- 1[…] in corpore humano (cui […] in […] epistolarum suarum pas•bu• compa•a•) quod si nut•imentum luit ad unum membrum, ita ut •no•miter ingrossetur & alga […] attenuation demacerentur nonpotest […]; sicin c•rpore Eccles. si supe•iore• fiant ita graves attractione substantiae quod in[…]res vix possunt pra inopia se sustinere, hoc est signum •am prop•nquae ruinae. Gersom.〈…〉 in corpore humano (cui 〈…〉 in 〈…〉 epistolarum suarum pas•bu• compa•a•) quod si nut•imentum luit ad unum membrum, ita ut •no•miter ingrossetur & al•a 〈…〉 attenuatione demacerentur nonpotest 〈…〉; sicin c•rpore Eccles. si supe•iore• fiant ita graves attractione substantiae quod in〈…〉res vix possunt pra inopia se sustinere, hoc est signum •am prop•nquae ruinae. Gersom.