1645 GASPAR HICKS. Puritan Warns of the Dangers of Prosperity and the Benefits of Affliction.

As the Presbyterians rose in power under Cromwell and the Presbyterian-influenced Parliament, Gaspar Hicks [1605-1677] of the Westminster Assembly of Divines warns of the corrupting influence of power and prosperity.

A superb sermon preached in the heat of the English Civil War under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. The Presbyterians and other Puritan Independents and Congregationalists were engaged in a heated philosophical debate regarding the right of more fundamentalist Presbyterians to utilize their new-found power to establish a Covenanted Kingdom based on establishment of something very like Scotland's Solemn League and Covenant. It would, by default, mean persecution of Anglicans, Baptists, and of course Catholics at the National level. 

Some of the Presbyterians were so-inclined, which led to Rogers Williams labeling them as no better than the Priests & Popes with their persecuting and narrow spirit. Gaspar was hoping to head them off at the pastoral pass by warning them of the self-presumptive sense of rightness and entitlement that can come with power.

Hicks, Gaspar. The Advantage of Afflictions: A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable House of Peers, January 28, 1645, being the day of publike Humiliation, in the Abbey Church, Westminster. London. Printed by G. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard, 1645. 31pp. 

EXTRACT:

It is a great Question, whether is the highest and hardest exercise of faith, to flee to God and rest on him in misery, or to keep close with him, and ascribe all to him in prosperity. Some give the precedency to the last named, because in this we are drawn and bound to God by his own goodness; in the other we are thrust upon him by our necessity. Indeed afflictions have a singular usefulness in them to acute and enlarge the desires of Saints after God, to render him more sweet and satisfactory to them. Good men are bettered by afflictions: 'Tis hard for the best to keep their spirits so humble, so intent without them, as under them . . .

. . . 

And let all of us (Beloved) turn Seekers in good earnest; I mean in the old, the good, the right way. We that are now before the face of our God, to humble our souls, to pour out our requests, to renew our vows to God, our peace with God; let it be our great resolution, our main design to seek him, to get into his mind, his bosom, his heart; and to get him into the possession of our faith: in this, let us raise up our spirits to an higher strain than ever; let us do it early, instantly, from this very moment set about it with fresh and renewed intentions and endeavours. And let all our afflictions present or possible, personal or public, with more vehement desires, more importunate longings and strivings put us upon the great task of seeking our God. So seeking him we shall be sure to find him; and find him we shall to be the joy of our hearts, our invaluable treasure, our strong salvation, our exceeding great reward.

Very nicely preserved complete English Civil War sermon from the Cromwellian era. Complete as issued, removed from a larger sammelband at some point with relevant flotsam on spine. Textually generally crisp, minor ex library stamp at lower right of title from the New College, Edinburgh. Rare on the market.