Sermon Preached 25 May 1642, Title page – Author to printer
A SERMON PREACHED TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS Aſſembled in PARLIAMENT, At a publike Faſt, May, 25. 1642.
By ROBERT HARRIS, Batchelor of Divinity and Paſtor of Hanwell. OXON.
Publiſhed by Order of that Houſe.
PSAL. 10.
14. Thou haſt ſeene: for thou beholdeſt miſchiefe, and ſpite to requite it with thy hand. The poore leaveth himſelfe to thee. Thou art the help of the fatherleſſe.
17. Lord, thou haſt heard the deſire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart: thou wilt cauſe thy eare to heare, &c.
LONDON, Printed by M. F. for Iohn Bartlet, and are to be ſold at the gilt Cup, neere S. Auſtins gate in Pauls Churchyard, M. DC. XLII.
TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS, now aſſembled in Parliament.
I Now tender what you are pleaſed to owne: ſooner I could not, becauſe wanting time and health, I had onelyonly broken notes. I am now come as neere my ſelfe, as my notes will help mee. It was my reſolution from the firſt, to hold me to the worke in hand, the worke of the day, the worke of my calling; accordingly I made, and purſued my choice, waving all diſputes Sacred, or Civill. Things ever move beſt in their owne Spheare: And O that all things might ever runne in their right channell! My worke was to Mourne, to Preach; not to Parliament-it: and I never brought a ſadder heart to a buſineſse. Nay, The diviſions of Reuben ſtill ſtick, and have left thoſe impreſsions, which will not off.Judg. 5.15. I bleed ſtill in the breaches of Dying Ireland, and in our Home-Jealouſies. Alas! That Brethren, who promiſe and purpoſe ſo well, worke and ſweat ſo hard, ſhould ſo hardly underſtand each other. There is, I feare, a Divine diſpleaſure in it. Where Unity is,Pſal. 133: 3. the bleſsing is. The ſpirit of Iealouſy and diviſion is a Meſſenger of wrath.Judg. 9. &c. And then moſt, when All complaine of it, and No One will owne it. For this My Soule ſhall weep in ſecret; and in Rebeccahs caſe, I will take up her complaint; Why is it thus! As for you, Noble gentlemen, What can I ſay now? It is wiſdome (you know) to know ones owne Compaſſe, and you are far above me. Your Place is high, your Task great; and yet your ſtrength not infinit. By Place, you are Gods: Pſal. 82.and yet Men; you muſt Fall, (and may ſail) like others. Quideſt Eccleſia? Viri. & mulieres. Chry. in Eph. 5.Gods own Synod (the Church) is made up of men: and men be Men, in the Greateſt Councels. Compare them to the Higheſt God, their greateſt agitations are but as the buſie ſweatings of ſo many Ants in a Molehill. Your work is alſo great. As your Place, ſo your Work is Gods. Your buſineſſe lies about Laws, and Orders. Order is a Sacred thing. Law, the work of a God No man can ſee, or ſay All in his Law; Sin will evade; witneſſe our good Laws touching The Lords day, Swearing, and Drinking. Now (forſooth) you muſt tell us, what Prophaneneſſe is, what Swearing you meane, and when a man is Drunken. Nay, when a Law is with ſome difficulty conceived, and with more brought forth, it is not an eaſie thing, to teach it to Speak plainly: nor are men ſo happy in their expreſsions as was S. Paul, who wrote, nor more,2 Cor. 1. nor leſſe, then we Read. I ſpeak not this in a Diſcouraging way. Noble Spirits know not what that meanes. OnelyOnly they know from the Poet,Et neſeit remeave Lon. Claud. foreign &c. Eurip. That it makes a man, leſſe then nothing. Laws therefore muſt be; elſe all goes to loſſe. Leave men to themſelves; each mans luſt will be a Law; each mans Opinion, a Bible. My ſpeech onelyonly tends to this, to provoke you, and my ſelf to prayer, and dependence. He that will undertake the work of God, with the wit, and ſtrength of a man, will but ſhame the work, and break himſelf. My hope is, That you will begin, and end with God: that you will doe all in his ſtrength, and do his beſt work, firſt. Mens Conſciences are miſerably perplexed between Command, and Command. Our Congregations are as much divided, betweene Teacher, and Teacher. The concluſion in time will be, Wee are of Chriſt, 1 Cor. 1.1We will believe none of them all. Let me aſſure you, The caſe betwixt Paſtor, and Flock will be very ſad, if there bee not a timely ſettlement. But things of this nature I had rather ſpeak in Private, then in Preſſe, or Pulpit. And there rather to God, then to Man. I therefore reine in and betake my ſelfe with aged Jerome to my Tuguriolum, and there bleſſe God, that I dare ſleep, and can ſay, that ought is my owne, and there deplore my barren miniſtery for almoſt twice twenty yeares, and implore the bleſsing of heaven upon my Deare Soveraigne, and his Great Councell. Eſay 9. 2 Tim. 2.Now the Great Counſellor give you a right underſtanding, in all things: 2 Theſ. 3.16.And the God of Peace himſelf (he alone can do it) give you peace, in all things, by all meanes. So will pray
The unworthieſt of thoſe that ſerve you in the faith ROBERT HARRIS. From my poore Study, Iune 13, 1642.
Die Mercurii 25. Maii 1642.
IT is this day Ordered by the Commons now aſſembled in Parliament, that M. Harris, and M. Obadiah Sedgwick, who this day being the day of the publike Faſt at the intreaty of the ſaid Commons preached at S. Margarets Weſtminſter, ſhall have thanks returned them, for the great and worthy paines they have taken, and that they bee deſired to print their Sermons, and that no man preſume to print them, but ſuch as they ſhall appoint, till the Houſe ſhall take further Order.
H. Elſyng Cler. Parl. D. Com.
I appoint Iohn Bartlet, to print my Sermon.
Robert Harris.