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A28157
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A sermon preach'd to the Society for the reformation of manners in Kingston upon Hull on Wednesday, January the 10th, 1699/700.
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Billingsley, John, 1657-1722.
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1700
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Wing B2908; ESTC R31590
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17,484
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56
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them out of the Fire But the Matter treated of under the former Inquiries hath so multiplied and lengthened on my hands that instead of a more distinct Consideration of the several Obligations that lie upon us to so important a Duty I must content my self with a brief Representation of them in the way of an Hortatory Address to the Worthy Gentlemen of the Society for Reformation of Manners in this Palce which I think is all the Application that either the Subject requires or the Time will admit Let me therefore Much Honoured and Dearly Beloved in the Name of my great Lord and Master beseech and exhort you as you have put your Hand to this Plough so not to entertain the least Thought of looking back Luke 9. 62. Let no Discouragements affright you from continuing with unwearied Diligence in the Prosecution of your Endeavours for the effectual Suppressing of all Vice Immorality and Profaneness amongst us Error and Impiety have their Patrons and Advocates every where and they are bold restless and importunate be not you ashamed or affraid to plead the Cause of Truth and Holiness which is evidently and beyond Dispute the Cause of God 'T is God himself who requires and expects this at your hands the God who made you and redeemed you the God whom you profess to love and serve the God who hath prepared a Crown of Glory and blessed Immortality for all them who are Faithful to his Interests here on Earth and who is able to punish with inconceivable endless Torments of Body and Soul all those who falsly betray their Trust and hath threatened so to do Your Profession of Christianity obligeth you to Zeal and Diligence in this Work Christianity is a Doctrine of Love and surely this Love ought not to be confined to the Bodies of Men but to be first and principally extended to their Souls If he that hath this World's Good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from him do thereby evidence himself utterly devoid of the Grace of Charity as the Apostle assures us 1 John 3. 17. What Charity what Love to God or Man can he be thought to have that seeth his Brother running post in the direct Road to Hell and will do nothing to stop or turn him Do I need to set before you the Excellency of your Work To oppose the Kingdom of Satan and the Powers of Darkness To Advance the Kingdom and Interest of God and our Lord Jesus Christ to Rescue poor Souls from Temporal and Eternal Destruction to Promote the Security Peace and Happiness of your Native Country All this the Work you are engaged in hath a visible Relation and hopeful Tendency to Consider farther whose Character it was that he went about doing good Acts 10. 38. and how much it is your Concern and will be your Credit to be Followers of him Remember also that it is too late after Vows to make enquiry Prov. 20. 25. You are the devoted Servants of God-Redeemer by the Bonds of your Holy Baptism in which you were listed as Christ's Soldiers and engaged in a perpetual War against Satan your own Flesh and this present evil World Christ came into the world to destroy the works of the devil 1 John 3. 8. and we are under all imaginable Obligations to be subservient unto him in that great Design of his Besides I might urge upon you the heavy Judgments growing Sensuality and Profaneness have brought upon other Countries and our own the wonderful Patience God hath long exercised towards us and the innumerable Benefits and Favours he hath conferred upon us So that if we now neglect a real and hearty Reformation and Return to God we shew our selves the most stupid and ungrateful Creatures upon Earth If the present Conjuncture seem not to us a fit and favourable one to undertake and go through with such a Work when do we hope there may such a one arise Are we ever like to have a Prince that will more favour Reformation Do we ever expect better Laws to enable us for it Can we hope till the Work it self have made some considerable Progress to find the Nation in a greater readiness to embrace and comply with it So that this seems to be the very critical Minute for England's Reformation and we have Reason to conclude or at least strongly to conjecture that it must be now or never Let it be farther thought on that the Desires and Expectations of all good Men at Home and Abroad are that now something should be made of so good a Work Our poor Brethren of France under all the Miseries and Hardships they endure comfort themselves that the Reformation and Settlement of the rest of the Protestant Churches and of Vs in special may be the Presage and Beginning of Peace Rest and Restauration unto them And this hath been for many Years the Prayer Hope and Endeavour of the wisest and best among our selves We have alas too long been divided in Communion and Affection and have thereby made our selves the Sport of our Enemies and the Pity of our Friends and all Endeavours hitherto used for the healing of our Breaches have been fruitless and ineffectual But I verily persuade my self that if the Work of Reformation of Manners were but once brought to a considerable pitch of Perfection the other would as it were fall in of course For whence come wars and fightings among us even Ecclesiastical Wars for I think it 's too great a Solaecism to call them Religious ones come they not hence even of our Lusts that war in our Members Jam. 4. 1. Again What could more contribute to our Comfort in Death and Confidence at Judgment than our Faithfulness to God and his Interest here in this World When our Consciences should bear us witness that we have shunned no Labour Cost Shame or Suffering so we might promote Righteousness Godliness and Sobriety in the Places where we lived And to Conclude Of how great Advantage might our Faithfulness and Success be not only to the present Age but to Posterity also How might an happy Contagion spread it self over this and neighbouring Kingdoms Vice has been propagated by Example Who knows but by the concurrent Blessing of Heaven Vertue and Piety may be so too And then how great Cause would Posterity have to rise up and call us Blessed I close all with the Apostle's Exhortation 1 Cor. 15. 58. Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHereas I have been given to understand that those Words Page 12. I know this Matter hath been carried too far c. were taken by some in the Hearing for a designed Reflection on the Church of England and 't is possible this Sermon may fall into the Hands of Persons not more knowing nor less prejudicate than the aforesaid Objectors I thought meet here to declare what I suppose every intelligent and candid Reader will concurr with me in That in what is there said I had no Thoughts of the Established Church nor of any other Body or Society of Protestants of whatever Denomination but those Words did entirely refer to the Bigots of all Parties who place Religion in things very accidental if not wholly extrinsick to it and value themselves more upon those things which divide and distinguish them from other Christians than upon those much weightier and more important ones wherein the whole Body of Christ's Catholick Church are agreed In a word that Passage is wholly levelled against an unwarrantable false furious Zeal for doubtful or little things to the Neglect and Detriment of the greater and weightier Matters of the Law and Gospel Judgment Mercy and Faith Matth. 23. 23. Whether the Object of such Zeal be Presbytery and Doctrinal Calvinism or Episcopacy and Arminianism or Anarchy and Antinomianism If Men of this Temper be capable of any Cure as I hope some may I would commend to their serious Reading Judge Hales's Three Short Tracts of Religion and the Appendages to it Bishop Wilkin's Two Sermons on Rom. 4. 17 18. Mr. Chandler's Effort against Bigotry on the same Text and Mr. Corbet's Kingdom of God among Men. Reader I have no farther Trouble to give thee but to conclude with that Apostolical Benediction in which thou may'st read if I know any thing of it my very Heart 2 Thess 3. 16. Now the Lord of Peace himself give you Peace always by all means The Lord be with you all Amen