and that men who are resolv'd to continue in an evil course are glad to be of a Church which will assure Salvation to men upon such terms The great difficulty is for men to believe that things which are so apparently absurd and unreasonable can be true and to persuade themselves that they can impose upon God by such pretences of service and obedience as no wise Prince or Father upon earth is to be deluded withal by his Subjects or Children We ought to have worthier thoughts of God and to consider that He is a great King and will be obey'd and observ'd by his creatures in his own way and make them happy upon his own terms and that obedience to what he commands is better and more acceptable to him than any other sacrifice that we can offer which he hath not required at our hands and likewise that he is infinitely wise and good and therefore that the Laws which he hath given us to live by are much more likely and certain means of our happiness than any inventions and devices of our own Thirdly I observe that even the better and more considerate sort of Christians are not so careful and watchful as they ought to prepare themselves for Death and Judgment whilst the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept Even the Disciples of our Saviour whilst he was yet personally present with them and after a particular charge given them from his own mouth Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation yet did not keep that guard upon themselves as to watch with him for one hour In many things says St. James we offend all even the best of us And who is there that doth not some time or other remit of his vigilancy and care so as to give the Devil an advantage and to lye open to temptation for want of a continual guard upon himself But then the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins was this that tho they both slept yet the wise did not let their Lamps go out they neither quitted their Profession nor did they extinguish it by a bad life and tho when the Bridegroom came suddenly upon them they were not so actually prepar'd to meet him by a continual vigilancy yet they were habitually prepar'd by the good disposition of their minds and the general course of a holy life Their Lamps might burn dim for want of continual trimming but they had Oyl in their Vessels to supply their Lamps which the foolish Virgins had taken no care to provide But surely the greatest wisdom of all is to maintain a continual watchfulness that so we may not be surpriz'd by the coming of the Bridegroom and be in a confusion when Death or Judgment shall overtake us And blessed are those Servants and wise indeed whose Lamps always burn bright and whom the Bridegroom when he comes shall find watching and in a fit posture and preparation to meet Him Fourthly I observe likewise how little is to be done by us to any good purpose in this great work of Preparation when it is deferr'd and put off to the last And thus the foolish Virgins did but what a sad confusion and hurry they were in at the sudden coming of the Bridegroom when they were not only asleep but when after they were awaken'd they found themselves altogether unprovided of that which was necessary to trim their Lamps and to put them in a posture to meet the Bridegroom When they wanted that which was necessary at that very instant but could not be provided in an instant I say what a tumult and confusion they were in being thus surpriz'd the Parable represents to us at large vers 6 7 8 9. and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps that is they went about it as well as they could and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out At midnight there was a cry made that is at the most dismal and unseasonable time of all other when they were fast asleep and suddenly awaken'd in great terror when they could not on the sudden recollect themselves and consider what to do when the summons was so very short that they had neither time to consider what was fit to be done nor time to do it in And such is the Case of those who put off their Repentance and Preparation for another World till they are surpriz'd by Death or Judgment for it comes all to one in the issue which of them it be The Parable indeed seems more particularly to point at our Lord 's coming to Judgment but the case is much the same as to those who are surpriz'd by sudden Death such as gives them but little or not sufficient time for so great a work because such as Death leaves them Judgment will certainly find them And what a miserable confusion must they needs be in who are thus surpriz'd either by the one or the other How unfit should we be if the general Judgment of the World should come upon us on the sudden to meet that great Judge at his coming if we have made no preparation for it before that time What shall we then be able to do in that great and universal consternation when the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory when the Sun shall be darken'd and the Moon turned into blood and all the powers of Heaven shall be shaken when all Nature shall feel such violent pangs and convulsions and the whole World shall be in a combustion flaming and cracking about our ears When the Heavens shall be shrivel'd up as a Scroll when it is roll'd together and the Earth shall be toss'd from its Center and every Mountain and Island shall be removed What thoughts can the wisest men then have about them in the midst of so much noise and terror Or if they could have any what time will there then be to put them in execution when they shall see the Angel that standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifting up his hand to Heaven and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever that Time shall be no longer as this dreadful Day is described Rev. 10.5 6. and chap. 6.15 where Sinners are represented at the Appearance of this Great Judge not as flying to God in hopes of mercy but as flying from Him in utter despair of finding mercy with Him The Kings of the Earth and the Great Men and the Mighty Men and the Rich Men and the Great Captains hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Earth and said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the Great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The biggest and the boldest Sinners
found that which gave more joy and gladness to his heart the favour of God and the light of his countenance This gave perfect rest and tranquillity to his mind so that he needed not to enquire any further For so it follows in the next words I will both lay me down in peace and rest for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety The Hebrew word signifies confidence or security Here and no-where else his mind found rest and was in perfect ease and security I shall now only make two or three Inferences from this Discourse and so conclude First This plainly shews us the great unreasonableness and folly of Atheism which would banish the belief of God and his Providence out of the World Which as it is most impious in respect of God so is it most malicious to Men because it strikes at the very foundation of our happiness and perfectly undermines it For if there were no God Man would evidently be the most unhappy of all other Beings here below because his unhappiness would be laid in the very frame of his nature in that which distinguishes him from all other Beings below him I mean in his Reason and Understanding And he would be so much more miserable than the Beasts by how much he hath a farther reach and a larger prospect of future evils a quicker apprehension and a deeper and more lasting resentment of them So that if any man could see reason to stagger his belief of a God or of his Providence as I am sure there is infinite reason to the contrary yet the belief of these things is so much for the interest and comfort and happiness of Mankind that a Wise man would be heartily troubled to part with a Principle so favourable to his quiet and that does so exactly answer all the natural desires and hopes and fears of Men and is so equally calculated both for our comfort in this World and for our happiness in the other For when a man's thoughts have ranged and wandered as far as they can his mind can find no rest no probable foundation of happiness but God only no other reasonable no nor tolerable Hypothesis and Scheme of things for a Wise man to rely upon and to live and die by For no other Principle but this firmly believed and truly lived up to by an answerable practice was ever able to support the generality of Mankind and to minister true consolation to them under the calamities of life and the pangs of death And if there were not something real in the Principles of Religion it is impossible that they should have so remarkable and so regular an effect to support our minds in every condition upon so great a number of persons of different degrees of understanding of all ranks and conditions young and old learned and unlearned in so many distant Places and in all Ages of the World the Records whereof are come down to us I say so real and so frequent and so regular an effect as this is cannot with any colour of reason be ascribed either to blind Chance or meer Imagination but must have a real and regular and uniform cause proportionable to so great and general an effect I remember that Grotius in his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion hath this observation That God did not intend that the Principles of Religion should have the utmost evidence that any thing is capable of and such as is sufficient to answer and bear down all sorts of captious Cavils and Objections against it but so much as is abundantly sufficient to satisfie a sober and impartial Enquirer after Truth one that hath no other interest but to find out Truth and when he hath found it to yield to it If it were otherwise and the Principles of Religion were as glaring and evident as the Sun shining at Noon-day as there could hardly be any vertue in such a Faith so Infidelity would be next to an impossibility All that I would expect from any man that shall say that he cannot see sufficient reason to believe the Being and the Providence of God is this That he would offer some other Principles that he would advance any other Hypothesis and Scheme of things that is more agreeable to the common and natural Notions of Men and to all Appearances of things in the World and that does bid more fairly for the comfort and happiness of Mankind than these Principles of the Being of a God and of his watchful Providence over the children of men do plainly do And till this be clearly done the Principles of Religion which have generally been received by Mankind and have obtain'd in the World in all Ages cannot fairly be discarded and ought not to be disturbed and put out of Possession And this I think puts this whole matter upon a very fair and reasonable Issue and that nothing more needs to be said concerning it Secondly From what hath been said in the foregoing Discourse it naturally follows That God is the only Object of our trust and confidence and therefore to him alone and to no other we ought to address all our Prayers and Supplications for mercy and grace to help in time of need But now according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome the Psalmist here puts a very odd and strange Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee To which they must give a quite different answer from what the Psalmist plainly intended namely that God was the sole Object of his hope and trust and that upon Him alone he relied as his only comfort and happiness But to this Assertion of the Psalmist the Church of Rome can by no means agree They understand this matter much better than the Psalmist did namely that besides God there are in Heaven innumerable Angels and Saints in whom we are to repose great trust and confidence and to whom also we are to address solemn Prayers and Supplications not only for temporal good things but for the pardon of our Sins for the increase of our Graces and for eternal Life That there are in Heaven particular Advocates and Patrons for all exigencies and occasions against all sorts of dangers and diseases for all Graces and Vertues and in a word for all temporal spiritual and eternal Blessings to whom we may apply our selves without troubling God and our Blessed Saviour who also is God blessed for evermore by presuming upon every occasion to make our immediate Addresses to Him For as they would make us believe though Abraham was ignorant of it and David knew it not the blessed Spirits above both Angels and Saints do not only intercede with God for us for all sorts of Blessings but we may make direct and immediate Addresses to them to bestow these Blessings upon us For so they do in the Church of Rome as is evident beyond all denial from several of their Prayers in their most publick and authentick Liturgies They would
measure of their Sins is full it is no wonder if the Cup of his indignation begin to overflow It is said of the Amorites four hundred years before God brought that fearful ruin upon them that God deferr'd the extirpation of them because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full When neither the Mercies nor the Judgments of God will bring us to repentance we are then fit for destruction according to that of the Apostle What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction They who are not wrought upon neither by the patience of God's Mercies nor by the patience of his Judgments seem to be fitted and prepared to be ripe and ready for destruction 2. Because this incorrigible temper shews the Case of such persons to be desperate and incurable Why should they be smitten any more says God of the People of Israel they will revolt more and more How often would I have gathered you says our B. Saviour to the Jews even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left to you desolate that is ye shall be utterly destroyed as it hapned forty years after to Jerusalem and to the whole Jewish Nation When God sees that all the means which he can use do prove ineffectual and to no purpose he will then give over a People as Physicians do their Patients when they see that nature is spent and their case past remedy When men will not be the better for the best means that Heaven can use God will then leave them to reap the fruit of their own doings and abandom them to the demerit of their Sin That which now remains is to apply this to our selves and to the solemn Occasion of this Day And if this be our Case let us take heed that this be not also our Doom and Sentence First The Case in the Text doth very much resemble Ours And that in three respects God hath sent great Judgments upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses He hath punish'd us less than our iniquities have deserv'd And hath given us a very great and wonderful Deliverance 1. God hath inflicted great Judgments upon us for our evil deeds and for our great Trespasses Great Judgments both for the quality and for the continuance of them It shall suffice only to mention those which are of a more ancient Date Scarce hath any Nation been more calamitous than this of Ours both in respect of the Invasions and Conquests of Foreigners and of our own Civil and intestine Divisions Four times we have been Conquer'd By the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans And our intestine Divisions have likewise been great and of long continuance Witness the Barons Wars and that long and cruel Contest between the two Houses of York and Lancaster But to come nearer to our own Times What fearful Judgments and Calamities of War and Pestilence and Fire have many of us seen And how close did they follow one another What terrible havock did the Sword make amongst us for many years And this not the Sword of a Forreign Enemy but of a Civil War the mischiefs whereof were all terminated upon our selves and have given deep wounds and left broad scars upon the most considerable Families in the Nation Alta manent civilis vulnera dextrae This War was drawn out to a great length and had a Tragical end in the Murther of an excellent King and in the Banishment of his Children into a strange Countrey whereby they were exposed to the Arts and Practices of those of another Religion the mischievous Consequences whereof we have ever since sadly labour'd under and do feel them at this day And when God was pleas'd in great mercy at last to put an end to the miserable Distractions and Confusions of almost twenty years by the happy Restoration of the Royal Family and our ancient Government which seem'd to promise to us a lasting settlement and all the felicities we could wish yet how soon was this bright and glorious morning overcast by the restless and black Designs of that sure and inveterate Enemy of ours the Church of Rome for the restoring of their Religion amongst us And there was too much encouragement given to this Design by those who had power in their hands and had brought home with them a secret good will to it For this great Trespass and for our many other Sins God was angry with us and sent among us the most raging Pestilence that ever was known in this Nation which in the space of eight or nine Months swept away near a third part of the Inhabitants of this vast and populous City and of the Suburbs thereof besides a great many thousands more in several parts of the Nation But we did not return to the Lord nor seek him for all this And therefore the very next year after God sent a terrible and devouring Fire which in less than three days time laid the greatest part of this great City in ashes And there is too much reason to believe that the Enemy did this that perpetual and implacable Enemy of the peace and happiness of this Nation And even since the time of that dreadful Calamity which is now above twenty years agone we have been in a continual fear of the cruel Designs of that Party which had hitherto been incessantly working under ground but now began to shew themselves more openly and especially since a Prince of that Religion succeeded to the Crown our eyes have been ready to fail us for fear and for looking after those dreadful things that were coming upon us and seem'd to be even at the door A fear which this Nation could easily have rid it self of because they that caused it were but a handful in comparison of us and could have done nothing without a foreign force and assistance had not the Principles of Humanity and of our Religion too restrain'd us from violence and cruelty and from every thing which had the appearance of undutifulness to the Government which the Providence of God had set over us An instance of the like patience under the like provocations for so long a time and after such visible and open attempts upon them when they had the Laws so plainly on their side I challenge any Nation or Church in the World from the very foundation of it to produce Insomuch that if God had not put it into the hearts of our kind Neighbours and of that incomparable Prince who laid and conducted that great Design with so much skill and secrecy to have appear'd so seasonably for our rescue our Patience had infallibly without a Miracle been our ruine And I am sure if our Enemies had ever had the like Opportunity in their hands and had overbalanced us in numbers but half so much as we did them they would never have
of their time and heat about things doubtful that they have no leisure to mind the things that are necessary And are so concern'd about little Speculative Opinions in Religion which they always call fundamental Articles of Faith that the Practice of Religion is almost wholly neglected by them And they are so taken up in spying out and censuring Error and Heresy in others that they never think of curing those Lusts and Vices and Passions which do so visibly reign in themselves Deluded people that do not consider that the greatest Heresy in the World is a wicked life because it is so directly and fundamentally opposite to the whole design of the Christian Faith and Religion And that do not consider that God will sooner forgive a man a hundred defects of his Understanding than one fault of his Will Secondly Another great mischef which attends this temper is that men are very apt to interpret this zeal of theirs against others to be great Piety in themselves and as much as is necessary to bring them to Heaven and to think that they are very Religious because they keep a great stir about maintaining the Out-works of Religion when it is ready to be starv'd within and that there needs no more to denominate them good Christians but to be of such a Party and to be listed of such a Church which they always take for granted to be the only true one and then zealously to hate and uncharitably to censure all the rest of Mankind How many are there in the World that think they have made very sure of Heaven not by the old plain way of leaving their sins and reforming their lives but by a more close and cunning way of carrying their Vices along with them into another Church and calling themselves good Cathliques and all others Heretiques And that having done this they are in a safe condition as if a mere Name would admit a man into Heaven or as if there were any Church in the World that had this phantastical Privilege belonging to it that a wicked man might be saved for no other reason but because he is of it Therefore as thou valuest thy Soul take heed of engaging in any Faction in Religion because it is an hundred to one but thy zeal will be so employed about lesser things that the main and substantial parts of Religion will be neglected Besides that a man deeply engag'd in heats and controversies of this nature shall very hardly escape being possess'd with that Spirit of uncharitableness and contention of peevishness and fierceness which reigns in all Factions but more especially in those of Religion V. The due care of our Souls consists in the even and constant practice of the several Graces and Vertues of a good life or as the Apostle expresseth it in exercising our selves always to have a conscience void of offence towards God and men For herein is Religion best seen in the equal and uniform practice of every part of our Duty Not only in serving God devoutly but in demeaning our selves peaceably and justly kindly and charitably towards all men Not only in restraining our selves from the outward act of sin but in mortifying the inward inclination to it in subduing our Lusts and governing our Passions and bridling our Tongues As he that would have a prudent care of his health and life must not only guard himself against the chief and common diseases which are incident to men and take care to prevent them but must likewise be careful to preserve himself from those which are esteemed less dangerous but yet sometimes do prove mortal He must not only endeavour to secure his Head and Heart from being wounded but must have a tender care of every part there being hardly any disease or wound so slight but that some have dyed of it In like manner the care of our Souls consists in an universal regard to our Duty and that we be defective in no part of it Though we ought to have a more especial regard to those Duties which are more considerable and wherein Religion doth mainly consist as Piety towards God Temperance and Chastity in regard of our selves Charity towards the poor Truth and Justice Goodness and Kindness towards all men But then no other Grace and Vertue though of an inferiour rank ought to be neglected by us And thus I have endeavour'd as plainly and briefly as I could to declare to you in what Instances the due care of Religion and our Souls doth chiefly consist And I would not have any man think that all this is an easy business and requires but little time to do it in and that a small degree of diligence and industry will serve for this purpose To master and root out the inveterate Habits of Sin to bring our Passions under the command and government of our Reason and to attain to a good degree of every Christian Grace and Vertue That Faith and Hope and Charity Humility and Meekness and Patience may all have their perfect work and that as St. James says we may be perfect and entire wanting nothing nothing that belongs to the perfection of a good man and of a good Christian And this whenever we come to make the trial we shall find to be a great and a long work Some indeed would make Religion to be a very short and easy business and to consist only in believing what Christ hath done for us and relying confidently upon it Which is so far from being the true Notion of Christian Faith that if I be not much mistaken it is the very Definition of Presumption For the Bible plainly teacheth us that unless our Faith work by Charity and purify our hearts and reform our lives unless like Abraham's Faith it be perfected by works it is but a dead Faith and will in no wise avail to our Justification and Salvation And our B. Saviour the great Author and finisher of our Faith hath no where that I know of said one word to this purpose That Faith separated from obedience and a good life will save any man But He hath said very much to the contrary and that very plainly For he promiseth Blessedness to none but those who live in the practice of those Christian Graces and Vertues which are particularly mention'd by Him in the beginning of his excellent Sermon upon the Mount of Humility and Repentance and Meekness and Righteousness and Mercifulness and Purity and Peaceableness and Patience under persecution and sufferings for Righteousness sake And afterwards in the same Sermon Not every one saith He that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in heaven And again Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a Rock And afterwards He tells us that whosoever builds his hopes of eternal happiness upon any other
know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this But more especially in vindication of his oppressed Truth and Religion and in the great and signal Deliverances of his Church and People God is wont to take the conduct of affairs into his own hands and not to proceed by humane rules and measures He then bids second Causes to stand by that his own Arm may be seen and his Salvation may appear He raiseth the spirits of men above their natural pitch and giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength as the Prophet expresseth it Thus hath the Providence of God very visibly appear'd in our late Deliverance in such a manner as I know not whether He ever did for any other Nation except the People of Israel when He delivered them from the House of Bondage by so mighty a hand and so outstretched an arm And yet too many among us I speak it this day to our shame do not seem to have the least sense of this great Deliverance or of the hand of God which was so visible in it but like the Children of Israel when they were brought out of Egypt we are full of murmurings and discontent against God the Author and his Servant the happy Instrument under God of this our Deliverance What the Prophet says of that People may I fear be too justly apply'd to us Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord Lord When thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed And I hope I may add that which follows in the next verse Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us What God hath already done for our deliverance is I hope an earnest that He will carry it on to a perfect peace and settlement and this notwithstanding our high provocations and horrible ingratitude to the God of our Life and of our Salvation And when ever the Providence of God thinks fit thus to interpose in humane affairs the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong For which reason their Majesties in their great Piety and Wisdom and from a just sense of the Providence of Almighty God which rules in the Kingdoms of men have thought fit to set apart this Day for solemn repentance and humiliation That the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of and which are of all other our greatest and most dangerous Enemies may not separate between God and us and hinder good things from us and cover us with confusion in the day of our danger and distress And likewise earnestly to implore the favour and blessing of Almighty God upon their Majesties Forces and Preparations by Sea and Land And more particularly for the preservation of his Majesties sacred Person upon whom so much depends and who is contented again to hazard Himself to save us To conclude There is no such way to engage the Providence of God for us as by real Repentance and Reformation and by doing all we can in our several Places from the highest to the lowest by the provision of wise and effectual Laws for the discountenancing and suppressing of Profaneness and Vice and by the careful and due execution of them and by the more kindly and powerful influence of a good Example to retrieve the ancient Piety and Virtue of the Nation For without this whatever we may think of the firmness of our present settlement we cannot long be upon good terms with Almighty God upon whose favour depends the prosperity and stability of the present and future Times I have but one thing more to mind you of and that is to stir up your charity towards the poor which is likewise a great part of the Duty of this Day and which ought always to accompany our Prayers and Fastings Thy Prayers and thine Alms saith the Angel to Cornelius are come up before God And therefore if we desire that our Prayers should reach Heaven and receive a gracious answer from God we must send up our Alms along with them And instead of all other arguments to this purpose I shall only recite to you the plain and perswasive words of God Himself in which He declares what kind of Fast is acceptable to Him Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his soul Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen To loose the bands of wickedness and to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily thy righteousness or thine Alms shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Then shalt thou call and I will answer thee thou shalt cry and He shall say here I am Now to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Vnto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen And the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen The way to prevent the Ruin of a Sinful People A FAST-SERMON Preached before the LORD-MAYOR c. ON Wednesday June the 18th 1690. Pilkington Mayor Mercurii xviii Junii 1690. Annoque Regis Reginae Willelmi Mariae Angliae c. Secundo THis Court doth desire Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls to Print his Sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of London at St. Mary-le-Bow Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable
passages we may easily understand wherein these Monthly Fasts of the Jews were defective and what was the fault that God finds with them when he expostulates so severely in the Text When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh Month even these seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me In the general the fault which God finds with them was this that these Solemnities did not serve any real end and purpose of Religion but fail'd in their main design which was a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives For which reason he tells them that they were not at all acceptable to Him nor esteem'd by Him as perform'd unto Him because they did not answer the true intention and design of them My work at this time shall be First to consider in general what it is to fast unto God that is to keep a truly Religious Fast Secondly to bring the matter nearer to our selves I shall consider more particularly what the Duty of this Day appointed by their Majesties for a solemn Humiliation and Repentance throughout the Nation does require at our hands I. I shall consider in general what it is to fast unto God that is to keep a truly Religious Fast And of this I shall give an account in the following particulars First a truly Religious Fast consists in the afflicting of our Bodies by a strict abstinence that so they may be fit and proper instruments to promote and help forward the grief and trouble of our minds Secondly in the humble Confession of our Sins to God with shame and confusion of face and with a hearty contrition and sorrow for them Thirdly in an earnest deprecation of God's displeasure and humble supplications to Him that he would avert his Judgments and turn away his Anger from us Fourthly in Intercession with God for such spiritual and temporal Blessings upon our selves and others as are needful and convenient Fifthly in Alms and Charity to the poor that our Humiliation and Prayers may find acceptance with God I do but mention these particulars that I may more largely insist upon that which I mainly intended and proposed to consider in the next place namely II. What the Duty of this Day appointed by their Majesties for a solemn Humiliation and Repentance throughout the Nation doth require at our hands And this I shall endeavour to comprize in the following particulars First that we should humble our selves before God every one for his own personal Sins whereby he hath provoked God and increased the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the judgments and vengeance of God upon the Nation Secondly that we should likewise heartily lament and bewail the Sins of others especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation committed by all Ranks and Orders of men amongst us and whereby the wrath and indignation of Almighty God hath been so justly incensed against us Thirdly we should most importunately deprecate those terrible Judgments of God to which these our great and crying Sins have so justly exposed us Fourthly we should pour out our earnest prayers and supplications to Almighty God for the preservation of their Majesties Sacred Persons and for the establishment and prosperity of their Government and for the good success of their Arms and Forces by Sea and Land Fifthly our Fasting and Prayers should be accompanied with our Charity and Alms to the poor and needy Lastly we should prosecute our Repentance and good Resolutions to the actual Reformation and Amendment of our lives Of these I shall by God's Assistance speak as briefly and as plainly as I can and so as every one of us may understand what God requires of him upon so solemn an Occasion as this First We should humble our selves before God every one for his own personal Sins and Miscarriages whereby he hath provoked God and increased the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the Judgments and Vengeance of God upon the Nation Our Humiliation and Repentance should begin with our selves and our own Sins because Repentance is always design'd to end in Reformation but there cannot be a general Reformation without the Reformation of particular Persons which do constitute and make up the generality And this Solomon prescribes as the true Method of a National Reformation and the proper effect of a publick Humiliation and Repentance in that admirable Prayer of his at the Dedication of the Temple If there be says he in the Land famine if there be pestilence blasting mildew locust or if there be caterpillar or if their Enemy besiege them in the Land of their Cities what-ever plague what-ever sickness there be what prayer or supplication soever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel WHO SHALL KNOW EVERY MAN THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART and spread forth his hands towards this House Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his way whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men that they may fear thee all the days which they live in the Land which thou gavest to their Fathers You see here that in case of any publick Judgment or Calamity the Humiliation and Repentance of a Nation must begin with particular Persons What prayer or supplication so-ever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel WHO SHALL KNOW EVERY MAN THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive Particular persons must be convinced of their personal Sins and Transgressions before God will hear the Prayers and forgive the Sins of a Nation And because we cannot perform this part of confessing and bewailing our own personal Sins and of testifying our particular Repentance for them in the publick Congregation any otherwise than by joining with them in a general Humiliation and Repentance therefore we should do well on the Day before the publick Fast or at least the Morning before we go to the publick Assembly to humble our selves before God in our Families and especially in our Closets confessing to Him with great shame and sorrow all the particular Sins and Offences together with the several Aggravations of them which we have been guilty of against the Divine Majesty so far as we are able to call them particularly to our remembrance and earnestly to beg of God the pardon and forgiveness of them for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ And so likewise after we return from the Church we should retire again into our Closets and there renew our Repentance with most serious and sincere Resolutions of reforming in all those particulars which we have confessed and repented of And if we would have our Resolutions to come to any good we must make them as distinct and particular as we can and charge it upon our selves as to such and such Sins for which we have declared our sorrow and repentance that we
in execution As against the profanation of the Lord's Day by secular business by vain sports and pastimes which by the very nature of them are apt to dissolve the minds of men into mirth and pleasure and to carry them off from all serious thoughts of God and Religion and from the Meditations of another World and to give the Devil an advantage and an opportunity which be never fails to take to steal the good seed the Word of God which they have heard that Day out of their hearts and to make it of none effect And which is yet worse by lewd and sinful practices which are unlawful at any time but upon that Day are a double breach and violation of God's Law And likewise by neglecting to put in execution the Laws against profane Swearing and Cursing for which the Land mourns and against Drunkenness and Adultery and Fornication which are so common and so impudently committed amongst us whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws and it is hard to say which of them are most remisly executed And to mention no more by neglecting to prosecute that horrible Sin of Murther so frequently now committed in our Streets beyond the example of former Ages with that severity and impartiality which is necessary to free the Nation from the guilt of that crying Sin which calls so loud to Heaven for Vengeance And all this notwithstanding the Magistrates are under the Oath of God to put the Laws in due execution against all these Crimes so far as they come to their knowledge and fall under their cognisance 2. The Sins of the Ministers who serve at God's Altar and watch over the Souls of men whose bloud will be required at their hands if any of them perish through their fault and neglect There is no reason to doubt but that there are a good number of faithful Shepherds in the Land who watch over their Flocks with great care and conscience remembring the dreadful Account which they must one Day make to Him who shall judge the quick and dead of the Souls committed to their charge But yet how grosly do many of us fail of the faithful discharge of the substantial parts of this high Office wanting a just sense of the inestimable worth and value of the Souls of men for whom Christ died taking little or no care to instruct them in the good knowledge of the Lord and to lead them in the way to eternal happiness by an exemplary conversation Nay too many among us demean themselves so scandalously as perfectly to undermine the credit and effect of their Doctrine by leading lives so directly contrary to it and to alienate their People from the Church and to make them to abhorr the Sacrifice and Service of the Lord by their wicked and unhallowed Conversations hereby exposing them to the craft of Seducers and rendring them an easie prey to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome or to any other Sect and Faction that pretends a greater zeal for Religion or makes a better shew of a strict and unblameable life For who will regard or believe those Teachers who give all the evidence that can be by their lives and actions that they do not believe themselves and their own Doctrines When all is said the life and manners of the Preacher are the best eloquence and have that dint and power of persuasion in them which no words no art can equal Who so lives as he speaks does as it is said of our Blessed Saviour Speaks as one that hath authority and not as the Scribes Not as the Scribes whose words notwithstanding all the formality and gravity with which they were deliver'd did therefore want weight and force because as our Saviour tells us of them they said but did not their Lives were not answerable to their Doctrines Whereas our Blessed Saviour therefore spoke as never man spake because he liv'd as never man liv'd so innocent so useful so exemplary a life He was holy harmless and undefil'd He did no sin neither was guile found in his lips He fulfilled all righteousness and went about doing good This was that which made Him so powerful a Preacher of Righteousness and we must necessarily fall so much short of Him in the authority and efficacy of our Sermons as we do in the holiness and goodness of our Lives Such a Preacher and such a practice as that of our Blessed Saviour was is every way fitted to reprove and persuade and reform Mankind We now live in an Age and Church wherein they who are called to be the Teachers and Guides of Souls ought to take great heed both to their Doctrine and their Lives that the Name of God may not be blasphem'd and his holy Religion be brought into contempt by those who above all others are most nearly concern'd to preserve and support the credit and honour of it And we cannot but see how our Religion and Church are beset and endanger'd on every side by the rude assaults of Infidelity and by the cunning Arts of seducing Spirits and by our own intestine Heats and Divisions And it can never be sufficiently lamented no though it were with tears of bloud that we whose particular charge and employment it is to build up the Souls of Men in a holy Faith and in the resolution of a good Life should for want of due instruction and by the dissolute and profligate lives of too many among us and by inflaming our needless Differences about lesser things have so great a hand in pulling down Religion and in betraying the Souls of Men either to downright Infidelity or to a careless neglect and profane contempt of all Religion May not God justly expostulate this matter with us as he did of old with the People of the Jews A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets prophesy falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my People love to have it so and what will ye doe in the end thereof When they who are the Pastors and Guides of Souls have by their ill conduct and management brought matters to that pass that the generality of the People sit down contented with the worst state of things and are become almost indifferent whether they have any Religion or not what can the end of these things be but that the Kingdom of God will be taken from us and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits of it If ever there be a publick Reformation among us it must begin at the House of God and they who are the Ministers of Religion must lead on this work and be more careful and conscientious in the discharge of that high and holy Office which is committed to them by the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls Else what shall we say when God shall challenge us as he once did the Pastors of the Jewish Church by his Prophet saying Where is the Flock that was given thee thy beautiful
this and support and carry Her through all the Difficulties of it And Lastly That He would bless them Both with a long Life and a peacefull and happy Reign over us that under them we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty Fifthly Our Fasting and Humiliation should be accompanied with our Alms and Charity to the poor and needy And we should every one of us according to the counsel given by the Prophet to King Nebuchadnezzar break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity Hereby intimating that if there be any way to prevent or remove the Judgments of God and to prolong the tranquillity and happiness of Prince and People a sincere Repentance and a great Charity to them that are in necessity and distress are most likely to prevail with God not only to respite the ruine of a sinful People but to incline Him to thoughts of peace towards them For so he promiseth to the Jews upon their sincere Repentance and earnest Supplication to Him which are always accompanied with Charity to the Poor For I know the thoughts which I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an unexpected end Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart And I have often thought that the extraordinary Charity of this whole Nation and of our pious Princes who are so ready to every good work and such bright and shining Examples in this kind more than once so seasonably extended to the relief of our distressed Brethren who fled hither for refuge from the Rage and Cruelty of their Persecutors I say I have often thought that this very thing next to the infinite Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God hath had a very particular influence upon our preservation and deliverance from those terrible Calamities which were just ready to rush in upon us And what cause have we to thank God who hath allotted to us this more blessed and merciful part to give and not to receive to be free from Persecution our selves that so we might be in a capacity to give refuge and relief to them that were persecuted There are but few that have the faith to believe it but certainly Charity to the Poor is a great security to us in times of evil So David assures us speaking of the Righteous or Charitable Man He shall not says he be afraid in the evil time and in the days of Dearth he shall be satisfied And so likewise in Times of publick Distress when we are beset with cruel and powerful Enemies who if God were not on our side would swallow us up the publick Charity of a Nation hath many times prov'd its best safeguard and shield It shall fight for thee saith the Son of Sirach speaking of the Charity of Alms against thine Enemy more than a mighty shield and strong spear And of this as I said before I doubt not but We of this Nation by the great Mercy and Goodness of God to us have had happy experience in our late wonderful Deliverance under the Conduct and Valour of one of the best and bravest of Princes to whom by too many among us the most unworthy and unthankful returns have been made for all the unwearied pains he hath undergone and for the many desperate hazards to which he hath exposed himself for our sakes that ever were made to so great and generous a Benefactor To so great a Benefactor I say not only to these Nations but even to all Europe in asserting and maintaining their Liberties against the insolent pride and unjust encroachments of one of the greatest Oppressors the World hath known for many Ages Of whom it may be said as Job doth of the Leviathan Vpon the earth there is not his like I am glad I cannot apply what immediately follows That he is made without fear but surely the next words are apposite enough He beholdeth all high things and is King of all the children of pride And yet He that is higher than the highest even He that sitteth in the Heavens doth laugh at him for He seeth that his Day is coming To conclude this Particular If we would have our Prayers ascend up to Heaven and find acceptance there our Alms must go along with them So the Angel intimates when he says to Cornelius Thy Prayers and thine Alms are gone up for a memorial before God Thy Prayers and thine Alms they must go together if we desire that our Prayers should be effectual And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Fast which God hath chosen and which is acceptable to Him makes Charity and Alms a most essential part of it Is it not says he to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and He shall say Here I am Sixthly and Lastly We should prosecute our Repentance and good Resolutions to the actual Reformation and Amendment of our Lives For in this Repentance doth mainly consist This is the proper fruit and effect of all our Humiliation and good Resolutions to forsake our sins and to become better for the future more pious and devout towards God more sober and chast with regard to our selves more just and charitable more humble and meek towards all men In a word more innocent more useful and more holy in all manner of conversation And without this all our Fasting and Humiliation our most earnest Prayers and Supplications will signifie nothing All our Sorrow and Tears will be but as water spilt upon the ground and will not turn to any account either to save our own Souls or to preserve this untoward Generation this crooked and perverse Nation from ruin and destruction So God tells Solomon that this is the only way to appease and reconcile Him to a sinful People If my People which is called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear in Heaven and forgive their sin and heal their Land And if this were the happy effect of our Prayers and Humiliation this Day to turn us from our wicked ways God would then turn away his anger from us and as he promised to the Jews by the Prophet Zachary He would turn these our Monthly Fasts into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts as he hath in a great measure already done Blessed be his great and glorious Name But if we will not hearken and obey can we expect that God should deliver us from the hands of our