Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A30731
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A sermon preached at St. Mary-le-Bow before the Lord Mayor, Court of Aldermen, and citizens of London, on Friday the 26th of June a day appointed by proclamation for a general and publick fast / by Lilly Butler ...
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Butler, Lilly.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing B6280; ESTC R20323
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13,686
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29
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be rich that the old and honest Ways of Traffick are too slow for the Violence of their covetous Desires and they greedily run after the new Inventions of a corrupt and fraudulent Age. Notwithstanding the publick Dangers have threatned us which are wont to unite a People amongst themselves we have retained our old and ingaged in new Quarrels and are still assaulting one another with unchristian Censures and Revilings and seem to be more heartily concerned for Victory in our little Differences at home than in our Wars abroad for our common Safety Liberties and Religion And are not all these very great Provocations Secondly These will appear still greater Provocations if we consider what Ingagements we are under to abstain from all Transgressions of the Laws of God This was a great Aggravation of the Sins of Israel that they were a People in Covenant with God The Sins of the uncircumcised Nations were nothing so great Provocations as theirs who professed themselves the People and were solemnly dedicated to the Service of God And therefore this is often charged upon them as a heavy Aggravation of their Disobedience and Rebellion against God that thereby they had dealt falsly in and broken his Covenant The same Aggravation only much heavier are our Transgressions loaded with We are as solemnly dedicated to God as they were and ingaged to him by the Rites of a better Covenant established upon better Promises and requiring a more easie and reasonable Service We have generally made Promises and Profession of renouncing the Devil and all those his Works which notwithstanding are so commonly and so impudently practised by us and are therefore false and perjured Wretches in every wilful Sin we commit How great then are our Provocations Thirdly Our Sins are very great Provocations as they have been committed against the most prevailing Attempts of the Spirit of God to restrain and reclaim us from them This is particularly mentioned as one Aggravation of the Sins of Israel Verse 20. that God had given them his Spirit to instruct them and Verse 30. that he testified against them by his Spirit in the Prophets But we that are Christians have clearer Revelations made both of our Duty and the Motives to it than the Jews had by the same Spirit And these things have been taught and urged upon us with great Plainness and Affection by those whom the Holy Ghost hath set apart for the Work of the Ministry who have not spared to tell us of our Sins to warn us of our Danger and to call us to Repentance The Author to the Hebrews mentions this as a peculiar Aggravation of despising the Law of Christ in comparing it with despising the Law of Moses to do Despite to the Spirit of Grace The Sins of Christians Heb. â—0 29. are committed against more prevailing Methods of God's Holy Spirit and these Methods have been no where used with greater Strength and Advantage than amongst us we have had more of his Light more of his Calls and Invitations more of his Warnings and Reproofs more frequent and earnest Applications than most if not than any other of the Christian Nations Our Sins therefore which notwithstanding all this we have multiplyed against God must needs be very great Provocations Fourthly Our Sins are great provocations as they have been committed against many and great Mercies The Mercies of God are particularly insisted on by the Levites in this Chapter in confessing and aggravating the Sins of Israel His choosing them for his People his delivering them out of Egypt his feeding them in the Wilderness his long forbearances and his many gracious deliverances of them And how like to these are the Mercies we have sinned against How early did God choose us to plant his Gospel amongst us and take us into Covenant with him How graciously did he deliver us from the Tyranny of Rome from a far worse Bondage than that of Egypt What a rich and plentiful Land hath he planted us in What an excellent Form of Government hath he Establish'd for us How constantly hath he been watching over us interposing for us and making bare his Arm in our defence How many signal Mercies and Deliverances have been crouded into a few years past When our hearts were ready to fail for fear and for looking for those things that were coming upon us how seasonably did God send us a Deliverer and surprise us with the safety of all that was dear to us And when our danger was greater because our fear was less by what wonderful methods of Providence were the dark bloody designs of our Enemies discovered and disappointed and their expected Triumphs turned into everlasting Infamy and Reproach If we look abroad what Nation is there that hath had God so nigh unto them for all that we call upon him for yea for what we have neither asked nor thought of And though we complain still as we have always done yet we should hardly be willing to change Conditions with any of the Nations round about us How great then are our provocations the abominable Transgressions which we have committed against our good and gracious God who hath striven by all the methods of Love by the most valuable expressions of Mercy and Goodness to ingage us to return to him Fifthly Our Sins are great provocations as they have been committed against the Discipline of God's Rod and those many Judgments he hath sent to teach us Righteousness This also is one of the aggravations of the sins of the Jews mentioned in this Chapter and they are often in other places upbraided with it for being smitten in vain and receiving no correction but still revolting more and more And how just is this Charge against us also How impregnable have our Lusts been against all the Batteries of the Divine Displeasure How many fiery Trials have we past through without leaving any thing of our Dross behind us God hath sent the Pestilence among us after the manner of Egypt He overthrew some of us as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha our young men he hath slain with the Sword He hath visited us with intestine and foreign Wars the Person of our Sovereign our greatest Security upon Earth and many Thousands of our Country-men are still exposed to all the sharp and fiery Instruments of Death yet have we not returned unto the Lord but in this our distress we rather sin yet more against him Our Lusts have increased and multiplied under the Curses of God the severest Judgments he hath punished them with Thus also have we wrought great provocations Sixthly Our Sins are yet greater provocations as they have been committed even whilst we have been making publick Professions of Repentance For this is the pretence of appointing and observing our monthly and yearly Fasts that we may confess and bewail our sins and humble our selves with purposes of Reformation and Amendment The Prophet Isaiah Chap. 58. 3. doth thus aggravate the Sin of the Jews
SERMON Preached at St. Mary-le-Bow Before the LORD MAYOR Court of Aldermen AND Citizens of LONDON On Friday the 26th of June A Day appointed by Proclamation for a General and Publick Fast By LILLY BUTLER Minister of St. Mary Aldermanbry LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil 1696. To the Right Honorable Sir JOHN HOUBLON Lord Mayor of the City of London And the Court of Aldermen MY LORD IN Obedience to your Commands I have published this Sermon preached before you on our late General and Publick Fast day I endeavoured to speak those things which were most suitable to the occasion of that our Solemn Assembly and proper to excite only those Affections which became a People humbling themselves before God and supplicating for Pardon and Mercy and Assistance And if the Printing of this plain Discourse may in any measure help to forward that Reformation of our Lives it was designed to convince the hearers of the necessity and advantages of I shall bless God for this opportunity of doing something how little soever it be towards the promoting the Publick Good Which that we may all in our several places zealously endeavour to advance is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your most obliged and humble Servant Lilly Butler Mr. BUTLER'S Fast-Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen June 26. 1696. Houblon Mayor Martis 30 die Junii 1690. Annoque Regni Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. octavo THis Court doth desire Mr. Butler to Print his Sermon preached at the Parish Church of St. Mary-le-Bow on Friday last being a general Fast-day before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City Goodfellow Nehem. 9. part of the 26 and 27 Verses They wrought great Provocations Therefore thou deliveredst them into the Hand of their Enemies THE Children of Israel being assembled together with Vers 1. fasting upon a day of publick and solemn Humiliation as this is The Levites in the Name of all the People make an humble Acknowledgment to God of their ungrateful and rebellious Behaviour towards him how they had all along defeated the gracious Methods of his Providence to oblige and turn them to him and how justly at length they were punished by him He spared them long and delivered them often and did many great things for them But they dealt proudly Vers 16. 17. and hardned their Necks and refused to obey And though God was slow to Anger and for a great while suffered their Vers 19. Manners and in his manifold Mercies forsook them not yet at length when he saw they obstinately persisted to abuse his Patience and Mercy and had aggravated their Sins to a most intolerable Degree he became weary of forbearing He gave his People to the Sword and was wroth with his Inheritance They wrought great Provocations Therefore he delivered them into the Hand of their Enemies In which Words we may observe First The Character of the Israelites Practice They wrought great Provocations Secondly The Punishment inflicted by God for it He therefore delivered them into the Hand of their Enemies In this manner he did often punish their great Provocations He had told them by Moses Lev. 26. that if they walkt in his Statutes and kept his Commandments he would give Peace in their Land and none should make them afraid Verse 6. They should chase their Enemies and make them fall before them by the Sword Verse 7. But if they should despise his Statutes and abhor his Judgments and break his Covenant Verse 15. then he would set his Face against them they should be slain before their Enemies and they that hated them should reign over them verse 17. And the Prophet Isaiah long after speaks to them to the same purpose Isa 1. 19 20. If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured by the Sword for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it This was to be the standing Method of God's proceeding with them and accordingly we find it observed in abundance of Instances I shall therefore make it my Business at this Time to apply this Account is given of God's Method in dealing with his People Israel as may be most suitable to the Occasion of our present meeting to our own particular Case and Circumstances by shewing First How justly we may be charged as the Jews are in the Text with having wrought great Provocations Secondly That we have great reason to fear that our great Provocations may be punished by God as theirs were that he may therefore give us up into the Hand of our Enemies Thirdly What a dreadful Judgment this would be which our Sins threaten us with Fourthly What is the most effectual means to prevent this Punishment of our great Provocations Fifthly What Particulars are required of us in order to the Discharge of that general Duty which is so effectual a means to prevent this Punishment These are all of them very proper Matter for our present Meditation First I am to shew how justly we may be charged as the Jews were in the Text with having wrought great Provocations This will manifestly appear if we consider these following things First To what a prodigious Height all Kinds of Iniquity are raised amongst us Atheism and Infidelity have strangely improved their Interest in this Age in respect both of the Number and Impudence of their Proselytes And what David chargeth with Folly but to say in our Hearts Men are bold to profess with their Mouths as an Argument of a more discerning Wit and Reason How insolently do many set their Mouths against Heaven disputing the Being and exposing the Oracles of God and deriding all the sacred Mysteries of Religion Are not profane Attempts daily made to propagate the most unchristian Notions with that Zeal and Earnestness with which we are required to contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints With what Loudness and Affectation do Men profane the awful Name of God As if Blasphemy were a sort of Eloqence and Oaths and Curses Wit and Rhetorick as if there were no greater Bravery than for Men to defie God and contemn his Judgments and to curse themselves into Damnation How is the Land overspread with Luxury and Intemperance And what Numbers are there that regard nothing else even now that God so loudly calls for fasting and mourning but to sit down to eat and drink and to rise up to play Chambering and Wantonness are become a Trade and Calling and all the Arts of Solomon's Harlot Prov. 7. have been daily practised in our Streets with the greatest Cunning and Impudence How many Examples doth almost every Day produce of such prodigious Frauds as former Ages were Strangers to How little of that Sense of Honour is left in managing Trade which was wont to give such great Advantage to it Men are now in so much haste to