A81254:211
A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, August 22. 1645.…
A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, August 22. 1645. Being the day appointed for their solemn thanksgiving unto God for his several mercies to the forces of the Parliament in divers parts of the kingdom, in the gaining of the towns of Bath and Bridgewater, and of Scarborough-Castle, and Sherborne-Castle, and for the dispersing of the Clubmen, and the good success in Pembroke-shire. By Thomas Case, preacher at Milkstreet, and one of the Assembly of Divines.A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, August 22. 1645. Being the day appointed for their solemn thanksgiving unto God for his several mercies to the forces of the Parliament in divers parts of the kingdome, in the gaining of the towns of Bath and Bridgewater, and of Scarborough-Castle, and Sherborn-Castle, and for the dispersing of the Clubmen, and the good successe in Pembroke-shire. By Thomas Case, preacher at Milkstreet, and one of the Assembly of Divines.
London: printed by Ruth Raworth for Luke Fawne, 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.
1. Do it thoroughly. Would you have a thorough Deliverance, study a thorough Reformation of Church and State.
1. Do it thorowly. Would you have a thorow Deliverance, studie a thorow Reformation of Church and State.
Think not, renowned Nobles and Patriots, of doing the work of Reformation by degrees, and piecemeal: It will be Christs Honour, and your Advantage, to let your Reformation come forth as full and honourable at first as may be: O it will strike the more fear and awe into the hearts of people; it will be your honour in the eyes of your own people, and strangers abroad, who will certainly say, O what Nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? (surely Reformation is the great thing which the Saints this day in England and in the three Kingdoms have prayed for) And what Nation is there so great, that hath Statutes and Judgements so righteous as all that Law of Reformation is, which Englands Parliament have set up?
But now, let your Reformation be poor, and mean, and low at first, such as wicked men may sit securely under; you discourage & kill the hearts of the godly that have been praying for you, and expecting a Reformation from you; encourage the common people to trample upon your Reformation, and the Ministry; and render your selves cheap and contemptible to all the reformed Churches, who do certainly stand at a gaze upon Englands Parliament and Assembly, expecting not only ⟨p. 28⟩that you should follow them, but that you should hold forth to all the Christian world the most full, purest and glorious Reformation that hath been since the Churches have begun to shake off the yoke of Antichristian Bondage.