A77366:87
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.
2. It is only exactness that doth cause conviction in those Reas. 2 that do behold. There is no National Reformation but the eyes of Nations are upon it. Give me leave to tell you what I have read in a letter written from a learned Professor of Divinity in an University beyond the s•as, who writes thus to England: Upon your reformation (saith he) if happily performed,1 doth depend the reformation of all the Churches in Christendom as upon a Rule and Exemplar. So that I say there is no reformation on foot in any Nation but the eyes of other Nations are upon it; If it be done exactly, the beholding Nations will also come in, and say, We will take hold of your skirt, and your God shall be our God. When Judah shineth, and Gods glory resteth upon them, then Nations come in and join themselves unto them; Esa. 60. 1, 2, 3. It is only beauty that doth take the eye; when there is no beauty, there is no allurement; [Greek or Hebrew], beautiful, comes from [Greek or Hebrew], which signifies to call, because beauty calls forth the eye a•d holds it in its beams; Now 4. things must concur to beauty. 1. There must be all the parts. 2. All in their proportion. 3. All in their due place. 4. All laid over with a sweet and lively colour. So it is in the beauty of Gods house; There must be all the ordinances, all in their place, all in due proportion▪ and laid over with the power of godliness. When these meet in any Church, there is beauty; but meet they cannot, unless there be exactness in reforming. Surely therefore stones of reformation are to be laid with most exactness.
2. It is onely exactnes that doth cause conviction in those Reas. 2 that do behold. There is no Nationall Reformation but the eyes of Nations are upon it. Give me leave to tell you what I have read in a letter written from a learned Professour of Divinity in an Vniversity beyond the s•as, who writes thus to England: Upon your reformation (saith he) if happily performed,1 doth depend the reformation of all the Churches in Christendom as upon a Rule and Exemplar. So that I say there is no reformation on foot in any Nation but the eyes of other Nations are upon it; If it be done exactly, the beholding Nations will also come in, and say, We will take hold of your skirt, and your God shall be our God. When Judah shineth, and Gods glory resteth upon them, then Nations come in and joyne themselves unto them;