A81131:78
The arraignment of unbelief, as the grand cause of our nationall non-establishment
The arraignment of unbelief, as the grand cause of our nationall non-establishment: cleared in a sermon to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament, at Margarets Westminster, upon the 28th. of May, 1645. being the day of their public fast. / By Joseph Caryl, late preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn, now pastor at Magnus near the bridge, London.The arraignment of unbelief, as the grand cause of our nationall non-establishment: cleared in a sermon to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament, at Margarets Westminster, upon the 28th. of May, 1645. being the day of their publike fast. / By Joseph Caryl, late preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolnes-Inne, now pastor at Magnus neer the bridge, London.
London: printed by G. Miller for Giles Calvert, 1645
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.
Should this inquisition be enlarged, and the lot cast to find out every accursed thing, which hath obstructed the influences of Heaven, from making this Land a quiet habitation, I might with like ease and clearness resolve them all into unbelief; and therefore I leave unbelief under the guilt of this grand charge, The Kingdoms enemy, the hellish vapour which continues this our long Church-quake, and State-quake; or in the word of the text, The stop of our establishment.
Should this inquisition be enlarg'd, and the lot cast to finde out every accursed thing, which hath obstructed the influences of Heaven, from making this Land a quiet habitation, I might with like ease and cleernesse resolve them all into unbelief; and therefore I leave unbelief under the guilt of this grand charge, The Kingdoms enemy, the hellish vapour which continues this our long Churchquake, and State-quake; or in the word of the text, The stop of our establishment.
Let me then a while call in the help of faith, as the noblest expedient for the cure of all our evils? It is said (Joh. 7. 37.) that, In the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying; He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water: Will it not be seasonable, in this great day of your Fast and solemn humiliation, to lift up a voice for faith, and cry out, saying, If ye believe, surely ye shall be established? Set faith awork, in every work, let it be an ingredient in all your counsels, in all your actions. Ye act but as men, not as the people of God, as a Roman, not as a Christian Senate, without faith. As by faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice then Cain his brother; so by faith, one offers the Church, the state, better advice then his neighbour. When you prepare arms and Armies, arm your selves with this shield. Faith is the best weapon, It will quench the fiery darts of men, as well as the fiery darts of the Devil; if your Armies were weak, faith would recruit and strengthen them; now they are strong, faith will continue and increase them: when your affairs are at a stand, faith will put them in motion, faith is a friend at a dead lift. If there be but a little meal in your barrel, and a little oil in your cruse, faith will lead you into the store-houses of Heaven, and show you all the treasures and riches which are laid up there. As Hezekiah led the Ambassadors of Babylon from chamber to chamber, and showed them all the riches and provisions of his royal house, both for peace and war; so will faith (but upon better principles) take you by the hand, and lead you from one attribute of God to another, and show you all fullness of all things, there unsearchable riches of mercy, here unchangeable faithfulness, there infinite strength, and here purest exactest wisdom to improve and manage