The Necessity of Agreement with God, Title page – Dedication
THE NECESSITY OF Agreement with GOD: OPENED IN A SERMON Preached to the Right Honourable the Noble Houſe of PEERS aſſembled in PARLIAMENT, VponUpon the 29th of October, 1645. being the Monethly Faſt. By C. BURGES, D. D. Preacher of the Word to the City of London.
Publiſhed in Obedience to an Order of their Lordſhips.
LONDON, Printed by G. Miller for Philemon Stephens, at the Signe of the golden-Lion in Pauls Church-yard, 1645.
TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HOVSE OF PEERS Aſſembled in PARLIAMENT.
Moſt Noble LORDS:
THE main deſigne of this plain Sermon, is, to awaken men not yet agreed with GOD, out of their golden dreams of nothing but Halcyon dayes, and mountains of perpetuall proſperity, which the almost innumerable glorious Victories heaped on your Armies, ſeem to promiſe. To effect this, I have endeavoured to put all upon the Triall of their Agreement with GOD, which being the ſoul of my Text, ought to be the chief ſubject of my Diſcourſe. I have therein inſiſted moſt upon the examining our performance of the Nationall Covenant, which (notwithſtanding your pious command, to whet the people upon it, every Faſt day) is ſo much neglected, yea deſpiſed, that he is, by ſome, ranged among the diſſolute, that now will take it; and, it is made one character of the godly party (which they who ſay, ſtand apart, appropriate,) to refuſe it.
Uniformity which we have Covenanted to promote, is become a ſcorne. And they who (being ſenſible of the miſchiefs of no Government in the Church) preſſe the ſetling of a Diſcipline according to our Covenant, do every where hear, Rigid Presbyterians, Perſecutours, worſe than Biſhops; and what not, but what they are? None know now how to Time things, but they who while out the times to prevent the ſetling of any thing at all.
My Lords, it is our happineſſe, and your honour, that you have continued with Chriſt in his temptations, and remained faithfull in the midſt of a perfidious generation, when the enemy had his hour. For, what Tiberius once ſpake to Nero and Druſus in the Senate,Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Ita nati eſtis, ut bona malá que veſtra ad Rempublicam pertineant, may be much more ſaid of you, who are ſo borne for the Publike, that you are engaged in honour to promote that, what ever become of your ſelves. There is no Publike act of yours, if good, but the whole Kingdom fares the better for it; no evil that you commit, but all the Nation ſuffers by it. Be faithfull unto Chriſt (who had never more need of your Zeal) and let him alone with your ſafety and honour, untill he give you a crown of life.
It is not enough that you act, when acted, unles you alſo quicken others to more expedition in that great buſines of the Government of the Church. It is not ſufficient that your ſelves come up to an Agreement with God, unleſse, as Joſiah, you do your utmost with all vigour, to draw others into the ſame alſo. Nor will it ſuffice that you do good your ſelves, if you wittingly ſuffer others to do evil againſt God and Chriſt, without exerciſing that authority which God hath put into your hands againſt them.
You remember Galba, who though innocent of much harm, which paſsed under his name, yet becauſe he permitted them to commit it, whom he ought to have bridled, or was ignorant of that which he ought to have known, loſt reputation, and opened a way to his own destruction.
The Lord of Lords guide, quicken and proſper you in all the great affairs which are under your hands, make you more and more zealous for Jeſus Chriſt, that he may yet further honour you above all your Noble Progenitours, and give you hearts ſo to improve this homely piece, that it may further your Account, and not riſe up in judgement againſt you in the great day of the Lord Jeſus: in whom I am, and ever ſhall be
Your Lordſhips moſt humble ſervant, C. BURGES.