Advent Sunday 1660

The Advent quality of the restoration of the Church of England in 1660 was captured by the sermon preached by William Sancroft on Advent Sunday of that year, at the consecration of seven bishops in Westminster Abbey for the newly restored Church:

When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion, they made their thankful acknowledgements, and said in the Psalm, The Lord hath done great things for us already, whereof we will be glad. But then it follows immediately in the next Verse, Turn again our Captivity, O Lord, as the Rivers in the South. It seems, their Captivity (I am sure Ours) is still to turn again, even after 'tis returned. For there are relics of it still behind; and the sad Effects remain, (an Age will hardly be able to Efface them;) and, which is the saddest of All, we are still, I fear, in captivity to the same Sins, that occasioned that; and they are able to bring upon us Ten Thousand Captivities, worse, than the former. Plainly, there are Riddles in our Condition ... Returned, and not returned: Restored, and yet not so fully restored:- in fine, with them in the Psalm, We are like to them, that dream ...

We have Jerusalem ('tis true) and the Hill of Sion in our Eye: Yet many look back to Babel; and multitudes sit Captives still by those Waters, increasing them with their Tears. If any have taken down their Harps from those Willows, they are not strung, nor well in Tune: and we scarce find how to sing the Lord's Songs, even in our own Land.