Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A67012
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The duty of compassion to the souls of others in endeavouring their reformation being the subject of a sermon preached December the 28th 1696 at St. Mary-le-Bow before the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the city of London / published at their request by Josiah Woodward.
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Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing W3515A; ESTC R26400
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16,419
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58
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blasphemous Language You must in any wise rebuke the Wretch and not only so but deliver him up to the Magistrate as the People did in the like Case Lev. 24. 11. They went and told Moses of it See you a Person so void of God's Fear as to profane that Day which God hath blest and sanctified Dare he expose his Wares on that Sacred Day or follow his Sports or Vices See that you suffer not this Sin upon him but suppress it by all lawful Ways and Means As pious Nehemiah Neh. 13. 17. who not only threatned and drove away such as brought their Goods to be sold but contended with the Nobles of Judah who suffered it upon the Sabbath The same Care should be taken to reform not only plain and down-right Drunkenness but unseasonable and immoderate frequenting of Publick Houses which are not designed to cherish the Vices but to supply the Necessities of Men. And partieular Care must always be taken to root out that nasty Sin which above others deserves the Name of Vncleanness and to brand those impudent People with publick Shame and Correction who dare proclaim their Impudence in the very Streets and before the Sun By these Sins a Land is greatly defiled and the Wrath of God highly incensed against it And therefore it becomes every Christian to set himself couragiously against them and to rejoice in an Opportunity of doing such a piece of Service to his great and good Master as to bring them before the Magistrate to receive condign Punishment That the World may see that there are some who dare be as bold and vigilant for the Honour of the Prince of Light as some others are in the Service of the Prince of Darkness And tho your Adversaries will cry out of a Beam in your own Eye we are sure these are not Motes which you endeavour to pull out of theirs nor can they with any Reason or Justice apply those words of our Saviour to you Mat. 7. 5. unless they can prove you abundantly more guilty of that Sin for which they are punished than themselves And as to the second Point which is necessary to support our Religion and the publick Good namely The impartial Execution of Justice upon profane and licentious Persons This is the Magistrate's peculiar Province and blessed be God that as we have good and excellent Laws against Profaneness and Debauchery so we have some righteous Magistrates who duly put them in Execution The good God raise up more of these Labourers to cut down this ripe and exuberant Vintage of Vice the Fields of which are grown even white unto Havest O! what an Honourable and Divine thing is Magistracy duly exerted in its proper Acts How venerable is that Person in the sight of Angels and Men who piously uses that Sword wherewith the God of Justice to whom Vengeance belongeth has girded him withal Ah! let none dare to wear that Sword in vain lest it be drawn at last forth against themselves by the Almighty God as David did Goliath's to the destruction of him that wore it Truly I here testify to you that I know no other way for Magistrates to shun this but by their present and impartial executing of Justice upon Evil-doers and supporting them that do well This is indeed a blessed Work and will receive a glorious Reward at last from God the Righteous Judg. It is so God-like to distribute just Punishments to such as do Evil and to support Religious and Vertuous Persons that the Magistrate who does it in the Integrity of his Heart will find Favour with God and Esteem among Men. It is indeed more than a single Good there is a Constellation of Vertues and Advantages in it it will glorify God and credit our Religion it will make our Publick Affairs Prosperous and our Nation Happy It will make the Name of such a Magistrate truly Honourable and his Conscience serene yea 't will make his Life Comfortable his Death Hopeful and his Eternity Blessed And to press this further let us consider the Motives express'd or imply'd in the Text which tend to fix Holy Purposes of setting in good earnest to this Duty in every Person according to his Station and Capacity And this will be the proper Application of what has been said Motive 1. Let us therefore remember in the first place That it is Hatred to any one not to rebuke him for his Fault For indeed it is the greatest Declaration of God's Wrath towards a Sinner that he expresses upon Earth when he will no more reprove nor correct him for his Offences As in that dreadful Expression Hos 4. 17. Ephraim is join'd to Idols let him alone Let him be no more disturbed either by Reproof or Affliction but let him securely persist in his Sin and harden in it and perish And can we be content that our Remisness in our Duty to our Brother's Soul should draw on him these direful and eternal Plagues It is a part of the Law of Nature as well as a Statute in Israel That no Person hate his Brother in his Heart but that he be very kind and compassionate towards him We are to live by the mutual Kindness of each other this is the end of our incorporating into Societies And indeed this is suggested to us in the Frame of Nature Our good and wise Creator has so ordered the state of Humane Life that no Person of what Rank or Condition soever can subsist without the Help and Assistance of others We are born naked destitute and impotent and should not survive our Birth many Hours except some Eye pitied us and did the common Offices of sutable Ministration to us And thus we live many Years by the Kindness and Charity of others being in our Infancy not only unable to provide our own necessary Food and Raiment but even incapable of feeding or dressing our selves tho the Means of both be provided to our hands And when a Man comes to maturity of Years and Strength he is absolutely insufficient to supply his own wants of himself but must crave the helping Hands of many others both as to the necessaries of his Soul and Body And it has pleased the common Father of all Men to give peculiar Accomplishments to the various Individuals sutable to the Exigencies of the universal Kind And the thing in which one Man excels is providentially fitted to make up the Defects of the rest by Him who distributeth to every one severally as he will And the Case is the very same if we are considered as Christians We are often minded in the Gospel that we are Members one of another and are to have the same Care of one anothers Welfare as the Members in the Natural Body where the least part has its necessary Use and the greatest cannot say to it I have no need of you And this is one end of our Blessed Saviour's uniting us in a Church or Christian Society that we might be like Stones
Mr. Woodward's Sermon at St. Mary-le-Bow Decemb. 28. 1696. Before the SOCIETIES for Reformation of Manners THE DUTY of Compassion to the Souls of others In endeavouring their Reformation Being the Subject of a SERMON Preached December the 28th 1696. At St. Mary-le-Bow Before the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the CITY of LONDON Published at their Request By JOSIAH WOODWARD Minister of Popler London Printed by J. Darby and sold by A. Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil and other Booksellers 1697. Price stitch'd 4 d TO THE SOCIETIES FOR Reformation of Manners In the Cities of London and Westminster IT is a Divine and Blessed Work my Honoured Brethren to which you have so heartily and effectually applied your selves And may the God of Heaven and Earth prosper your Handy-work or rather his own Work in your Hands The Reformation of wicked People is ever very requisite but in the present height of our Impieties it is not only seasonable but of absolute Necessity to be done without Delay lest our Iniquity which has visibly been our languishing Distemper should speedily become our utter Ruin which shews the Vnreasonableness of such who call your Zeal an unseasonable Heat And as far are they from Truth who call it a medling with things which do not belong unto you since God makes it your bounden Duty in that Text which is the Subject of the following Discourse And as little Reason have they to call it Cruelty since God there calls it Charity and assures us that the contrary is Hatred in the very Heart So that my Text is both your Commission and Vindication And truly it is your Plea of furthering this your excellent Design by the publication of this Sermon which alone induces me to consent to it For I know no greater Good that can possibly come upon this corrupt World than its Reformation yea I do not see how any Good can come unto it or abide with it without this And this is indeed a direct way to prevent not only the Calamities of Kingdoms but the Eternal Miseries of Humane Souls And therefore it cannot but be matter of great Joy to all good People to hear of your successful Progress in this your pious Enterprize What exalted Praises will they offer to God when they hear of your Order Courage and Vnanimity in a Work of such absolute Necessity and when they understand that Thousands have been brought by your means to legal Punishment for their abominable Enormities and that Multitudes of scandalous Houses which were the odious Nurseries of Uncleanness have been suppress'd by you and that publick Vice and Profaneness is manifestly check'd and in a way to be rooted out by your exemplary Diligence Zeal and Expence in this great Vndertaking As it is more particularly related in an Account of the Rise and Progress of the Religious Societies of Young Men lately published It was indeed impossible that an Affair of this general and important Nature could have been carried on with any probability of Success but by the conjoined Prudence Power and Cost of an Associated Body of considerable Persons And blessed be God who inclined the Hearts of so many of you to unite together in an Affair of such difficult and discouraging Circumstances and that he hath guided your Motions in it with such irreproachable Justice and Prudence For your Method of Procedure against Offenders is so strictly Legal and your Rules of Management so Prudential that you have not only drawn many to incorporate with your Societies but have very much silenced the Calumnies of all but vicious and unreasonable People against them So that when your noble Design your just Proceedings and your considerable Success comes to appear to the World in a true Light it cannot reasonably be questioned but that you 'll gain all the Honourable and Sober part of it by the pure worth of your Cause to pray for you support and vindicate you according to their Place and Power For how can the Magistrate who would be thought Righteous in his Place or faithful to the Vows of his Religion or to the Oath of his Office in the least decline his Assistance to that which so manifestly asserts the Authority of God over Men and so directly sutes the very End for which Magistracy was ordained in the World And will not every Minister of the Gospel of Christ depart from his Sacred Character yea revolt from his Lord and Master if he be wanting to assist you in any thing proper to his Function Yea every private Person who hath or desireth to have a clear and comfortable Conscience or has but a just Sense of Moral Decency and of Civil Government will find himself in Duty and Interest obliged to join with you in a seasonable informing against Vice and endeavouring to suppress those intolerable Impieties which have so long been a Reproach to our Religion and Government So that Peoples agreeing with you or being against you in this your Undertaking which all the Sense of Mankind must pronounce Pious and Just will be a sort of a Test to discern Religious and Vertuous Minds from others In which I pray God none be distinguisht to their Reproach here and Condemnation hereafter But as our Blessed Lord himself was injured reviled and opposed when upon Earth So you must expect yea I know you have experienced the injurious Treatment of a sinful and perverse Generation But here you are to tread in the Steps of your Saviour in his Sufferings as well as in his Doings And with him pray That such may be forgiven by a Merciful God who do they know not what against him And whilst you bring poor senseless Sinners to undergo the just Penalties of the Laws let your Prayers follow them that it may indeed be an effectual Method of their Reformation But there is one Great Thing wanting yet to accomplish this desired Amendment of wicked People the want of which I have heard some of you lament which is A due Provision of Work and Work-houses to imploy the Hands of the Poor which otherwise will most certainly be misimployed in sinful and vicious Courses If we ask any Thief Strumpet or other Malefactor What it was that brought them to their wicked way of Life They usually reply That it was their want of an honest Employment and that they did it to get Bread And 't is very probable that they speak the Truth For had they been bred up to diligent Labour and been inured to Business it is very likely that neither the Devil nor their Lusts had ever gotten such Dominion over them Nor indeed is there any probability of reclaiming them but by such means as these Were every Malefactor who is sent to the Prison kept there strictly to the utmost bodily Labour that they are capable of and this for a competent Time And had they withal the Benefit of frequent Prayers and Sermons sutable to their Condition This would make their Prison a