Mr. BUTLER'S SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen c. On the Feast of St. Michael 1696. Houblon Mayor Martis 29 Sept. 1696. Annoque Regni Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. octavo THIS Court doth desire Mr. Butler to Print his Sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City at the Parish-Church of St. Lawrence Jury this Day being the Day of Election of the Lord Mayor of this City for the Year ensuing Goodfellow A SERMON Preached before The Right Honourable The Lord Mayor and Aldermen AND Citizens of LONDON AT St. Lawrence Iewry On the Feast of St. Michael 1696. At the Election of the Lord Mayor for the Year ensuing By LILLY BUTLER Minister of St. Mary Aldermanbury LONDON Printed for Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil over against the Royal-Exchange 1696. TO THE Right Honourable Sir John Houblon Lord Mayor of the City of London And the Court of Aldermen MY LORD I Have obeyed your Order for the printing this Sermon and the more readily because it will be a publick Acknowledgment of the Necessity and Vsefulness of Religion especially in your own Hearts and Lives to the good and happy State of the People committed to your Care and Government A Confession very seasonable and honourable in such an Age as this wherein so little Regard is had to Religion in all our Schemes of Politicks My particular Obligations to your Lordship do also deserve the most publick Acknowledgment I endeavoured in this Discourse to represent and inforce the Magistrate's Duty with the greatest Plainness and Sincerity that whilst I was preaching the Duty of others I might not be thought to forget my own May the God of Heaven stablish strengthen settle you in every good Work in a prudent and impartial a diligent and courageous Execution of those great Offices he hath called you to to the Glory of God the Joy of the People and your own double Honour both here and hereafter This is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most obliged and humble Servant LILLY BUTLER Prov. xxix 2. When the Righteous are in Authority the People rejoyce ONE great design of Solomon in this Book of Proverbs is to recommend Religion by declaring the excellent fruits which single persons and publick Societies might reap from the sincere practice of it He tells us that length of days are in Prov. iii. 16 17. her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour that her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace that the Throne is established that a Nation and a City are Prov. xvi 12. Prov. xiv 34. xi 11. exalted by it That it is the Safety and Honour and Happiness of a People That it doth in a most eminent manner conduce to the Publick Good and deserve a general rejoycing when it adorneth and influenceth the Lives of those that are in Authority When the Righteous are in Authority the People rejoyce This is a Political Aphorism of Solomon a great and mighty Prince who better than any before or after him understood all the most advantageous methods of governing for the publick good having Wisdom and Knowledge given him by the special favour of God to judge his People over whom he had made him King 2 Chron. 1. 11. By the Righteous Solomon doth generally mean in this Book of the Proverbs those that are so in the most comprehensive sense Religious and good Men those that fear God and keep his Commandments That these are the Righteous Men spoken of in the Text doth farther appear from the opposition of them to wicked Men in general When the Righteous are in Authority the People rejoyce But when the wicked beareth rule the People mourn The People rejoyce i. e. Then they have great and worthy cause of rejoycing then their condition will be flourishing and prosperous and happy It being very common to speak of those things as consequent in effect which in reason ought to follow Thus then we may express the meaning of the Proposition in the Text. That Religious Magistrates do contribute very much to the general Happiness of a People When those that have a lively and vigorous sense of God upon their Minds and a sincere regard to his Divine Will when Men of Conscience Integrity and Religion when such Men are in Authority they do highly promote the good estate of that Society they govern I shall First endeavour to clear the Truth of this Proposition And Secondly make some seasonable Application of it First I shall endeavour to clear the Truth of this Proposition as it respects subordinate Magistrates the Ministers of Justice for God and the King in which sense it is most proper matter for our present Consideration by shewing these Four things First That Religious Men in Authority will make Conscience of performing the proper work of their Office in the several parts and exercises of it Secondly That the proper work of the Magistrate's Office in the several parts and exercises of it doth highly tend to promote the good and happy State of the People Thirdly That Religious Men in Authority will perform all the proper exercises of their Office in the most advantageous manner for the effectual promoting the publick good and benefit of the People Fourthly That great Blessings are derived upon the People for the sake and by the intercession of Religious Magistrates First I shall shew that Religious Men in Authority will make Conscience of performing the proper work of their Office in the several parts and exercises of it When a Religious Man one that truly fears God comes into any publick Office he considereth it not only as a Place of Honour or Profit but also as a new Scene of Duty and therefore presently sets himself about the study and performance of it for he cannot be willingly ignorant or regardless of any part of his Duty He knows that Power and Authority are Talents put into his Hands by God who expects to receive his own with Vsury He dares not therefore hide or bury them but imployeth and improveth them to those Ends for which he received them remembring the account he must give of his Stewardship and the fearful doom of the unprofitable Servant He cannot bear the thoughts of Perjury and therefore cannot satisfie himself in neglecting any thing which by solemn Oaths he hath obliged himself to perform A Religious Magistrate then is a Magistrate indeed he doth not only bear the Name but do the Work of his Office and that for Conscience sake from a most strong and lasting Principle Such Magistrates then must needs contribute very much to the Happiness of the People as will be farther manifest by shewing Secondly That the proper work of the Magistrates Office in the several parts and exercises of it doth highly tend to promote the good and happy State of the People They are Ministers of God to them for
discharge of your high and honourable Callings The testimony of your Conscience that you have done your Duty especially in so difficult and useful a Station will be a continual Feast a Pleasure which no sensual Delights can equal no Adversity extinguish no outward Violence no Changes or Revolutions can rob you of What a noble Satisfaction will it be to reflect upon all the happy fruits of your Industry the Glory you have brought to God and the Good you have done to Men how highly instrumental you have been to the Peace and Safety the Prosperity and Reformation of that People committed to your Care and Government This will give you of the Joy of Angels those heavenly Ministers of God for our good yea of the greatest pleasure of God himself who chiefly delighteth in exercising loving-kindness upon Earth and doing good to Men. What an assured Hope what a delightful Prospect will it give you of the Glory and Happiness reserved in Heaven for you What an unspeakable Comfort and Refreshment will it be in the hour of Death when you must part with all your Wealth be devested of all your Pomp resign all your Preferments and yield up your Bodies to Dust and Worms then to be able to say with St. Paul that you have fought the good fight and finished your Course and faithfully served God and your Generation With what Confidence then may you look up to God with what Peace and Pleasure may you give up your Souls to him in hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot Lye hath promised to all his good and faithful Servants Mark the perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the End of that Man is Peace Psal xxxvii 37. Thirdly Consider How much the faithful and zealous discharge of the Magistrate's Office will advance your Honour and Reputation It is not Mens great Offices but the faithful exercise of them that maketh them truly Honourable To have great Opportunities and great Obligations to do publick Good as Men in Authority have and through sloath or meanness of Spirit through Fear or any selfish regards to neglect them must needs expose them to the Scorn and Indignation of the People Every one will grudge to see such a price in the hand of those that have not a Heart to use it But those that are diligent and zealous in doing all the good Offices their Authority qualifieth them for and obligeth them to perform Those Magistrates by whose Care and Zeal and Industry our Properties and Possessions are secured our Rights and Priviledges maintained our Persons defended our Peace preserved the Poor imployed or relieved Religion advanced and Wickedness suppressed such Men such great such publick Benefactors will be honoured of God and Men They will be as Signets on God's Right Hand and remembred when he maketh up his Jewels the excellent ones upon Earth in the sight of God of great price Every Man will think them worthy of that Power and Authority which is so zealously and effectually employed by them to such beneficial purposes The Ear that heareth them blesseth them and the Eye that seeeth them beareth witness to them they are every where Job xxix 11. extolled and praised and secure a great and good and lasting Reputation Their very Graves will be persumed their Works will praise them in the Dust and the generations to come will call them blessed Such Righteous Men especially Righteous Men in Authority will be had in everlasting remembrance Fourthly Consider The glorious reward which God hath prepared in the other World for all such good and faithful Servants Your Work is great on Earth and your Reward will be great in Heaven The Lord himself hath said ye are Gods He hath given you of his Power and Authority and set you to Judge for him upon Earth and if you act for him faithfully and diligently with Zeal and Courage he will make you partakers of his Nature and Glory his Joy and Happiness in a degree far beyond what you can now conceive and ye shall be like God in Heaven The faithful improvement of those more rich and numerous and useful Talents you are intrusted with will intitle you to a proportionable reward in the great day of recompence Your temporal Honours and Preferments cannot follow you into the other World but the Service you do to God and his People by virtue of them will and obtain for you from a merciful God a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory It is to you God hath given the ten Talents and if you make a due improvement of them to you he will pronounce that blessed Sentence Well done ye good and faithful Servants have ye Authority over ten Cities He will advance you to the highest rank of Saints in Light among the chiefest Favourites of the King of Heaven where you will sit upon unmoveable Thrones and shine with the brightest Rayes of Divine Glory What then remains but that we all make our earnest Addresses to God that he would continually supply this great City with such Righteous and Religious Magistrates as may faithfully and diligently imploy their Power and Authority to the Honour of God the Interest of Religion and Virtue and the great and general good of this famous Corporation that so all the People may rejoyce and the worthy Instruments of our Happiness may be loved and honoured whilst they live and unspeakably happy when they die Amen Some Books Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill THE Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury containing Fifty four Sermons and Discourses on Several Occasions together with the Rule of Faith Being all that were published by his Grace himself and now collected into one Volume To which is added an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters Price 20 s. Six Sermons viz. Of Stedfastness in Religion Of Family Religion Of Education of Children Of the Advantages of an Early Piety By his Grace John late Archbishop of Canterbury In 12o. price 18 d. A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Also by his Grace John late Archbishop of Canterbury In 12o. bound 6 d. or Stitch'd in 8o. 3 d. or something Cheaper to those that are so Charitable to give away Numbers The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New with Annotations and very exact Parallel Scriptures To which is Annex'd the Harmony of the Gospels as also the Reduction of the Jewish Weights Coins and Measures to our English Standards And a Table of the Promises in Scripture By Samuel Clark Minister of the Gospel Printed in Folio on a very Fair Letter
good for their good in all respects promoting all their dearest and greatest Interests There is no sort of good but it is the Magistrates business to endeavour to procure and there is no part of the Magistrate's business but what tendeth to procure some sort of Good to the People This will be very evident if we take a particular view of the several parts of the Magistrate's Office As First One part of the Magistrate's Office is to maintain their Peoples Property to secure them as far as they can in the quiet possession of their Estates to take care to prevent and punish Fraud and Theft and to oblige those to Restitution who are unjustly possest of another Man's Goods or Inheritance to concern themselves in a regular defence of those Laws by which the Peoples Property is secured that every Man may eat the labour of his hands and reap the Fruits of his Industry and enjoy the Inheritance of his Fathers and sit securely under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree whilst none are suffered to make him afraid And how manifestly is the Publick Good advanced by the exercise of this part of the Magistrate's Office Secondly Another Part of the Magistrate's Office is to maintain all the legal Rights and Privileges Liberties and Immunities of the whole Body and of each Member of the Society to see that no Man do oppress his Brother or usurp any unjust Power or Dominion over him to see that Servants be faithful and obedient to their Masters and that Masters give unto their Servants that which is just and equal To suffer no Man to transgress the Bounds of his own proper Station to seize upon the Advantages which belong to another's Place and Calling to invade the Office or intrude into the Business of his Neighbour to watch and consult and endeavour by all lawful Ways that no Encroachments be made by any arbitrary or illegal Proceedings upon the common Privileges of those who are committed to their immediate Care and Government And how beneficial to the People must the Exercise of this Part also of the Magistrate's Office be Thirdly Another Part of the Magistrate's Office is to preserve their People in Peace to keep them from private Quarrels and publick Tumults to compose their Differences to allay their Jealousies to determine their Controversies to restrain and punish the contentious to discountenance all dividing into Factions and breaking into Parties and to endeavour as much as in them lieth that under them all their People may lead quiet and peaceable Lives which must be to the great Advantage of the Society Fourthly Another Part of the Magistrate's Office is to take care of their People's Lives to defend them against the open Assaults and the secret Conspiracies of malicious and cruel Men to execute all those Laws which are made for the Security of every Man's Person that they may serve God and follow the Business of their several Callings without Fear or Danger and lay themselves down in Peace and take their rest and by the Blessing of God upon their Endeavours be made to dwell in Safety which is a farther Advancement of the happy State of a People Fifthly Another Part of the Magistrate's Office is to incourage Industry To provide Work for those that want it and cannot otherwise maintain themselves and their Families to punish Vagrants and Beggars and all Managers of such unlawful Games and Sports as are wont to draw Men off from the useful Imployment of their Callings and to lead them into an idle and dissolute Way of living whereby they become unprofitable and hurtful Members of a Society And a careful Performance of this Part of a Magistrate's Duty will highly promote the Wealth and therefore also the Strength and Glory of a People for it is the Hand of the diligent that makes even Cities and Kingdoms rich Sixthly It is another Part of the Magistrate's Office to succour and relieve the poor and needy the distressed and afflicted Part of the Society To look to the faithful Management of publick Charities and to make a legal Provision for those that cannot otherwise provide for themselves To be what Job tells us he was Eyes to the blind Feet to the lame and Fathers to the poor Job 29. 15 16. to give seasonable Succour to the indigent and fatherless and to him that hath no Helper who are the proper Objects of the Magistrate's Care and Compassion This also is an Imployment which is very serviceable to the good of the People Seventhly It is a principal Part of the Magistrate's Office to preserve and promote true Religion To restrain Men by a due Execution of Laws from corrupting the Doctrine it teacheth from throwing off the Worship it prescribeth and transgressing those Rules it obligeth them to walk by To stop the Mouths of blaspheming Atheists and Infidels to punish the impious Prophaners of God's holy Name and Day To curb the Insolence of Lust and Intemperance to make the Sword which God and the King have put into their Hands a Terrour to all such Evil-doers who are the Bane and Plague of a Society and pull down the Judgments of God upon it To give all the Countenance and Protection they can to Piety and Virtue and to be a Praise to them that do well To bestow their Favour and Places and inferiour Offices not only for the Sake of Money or Party but chiefly with regard to Piety and Honesty and Virtue To do all they can that it may go well with the righteous for when it doth so Solomon tells us the City rejoyceth Prov. 11. 10. These are some of those Exercises which the Office of a Magistrate oblige him to and they do all greatly and manifestly tend to make a People happy And the Religious Man as I have shewed will not dares not neglect any Part of the Duty of that Place and Relation he is in When such therefore are in Authority there must needs be great Cause of Rejoycing For the farther Confirmation of the Truth of this Proposition I proceed to shew Thirdly That Religious Men in Authority will perform all the proper Exercises of their Office in the most advantagious manner for the effectual promoting the publick Good and Benefit of the People They will perform them most prudently most impartially most diligently most courageously and most becomingly and when they are thus performed they can hardly fail of being successful to the making a People happy First A Religious Man in Authority will perform all the Exercises of his Office most prudently The Fear of the Lord saith Solomon is the Instruction of Wisdom It disposeth Prov. xv 33. a Man to do every thing wisely it will direct his Thoughts and steer his Judgment and determine his Choice to the best Methods for the attaining every good End he is concerned for The Integrity of the Vpright shall guide him the Righteousness of the Perfect shall direct his Way Prov. 11. 3 5. The
such Mens exercise of Authority But when a Religious Man is thus employed he will be thought to act from a Principle of Conscience and an earnest regard to the People's Good His own exemplary Virtue will beget a great Veneration and Affection for his Person and that will add great Weight and Authority to all he doth There appeareth something very kind and obliging in his endeavours to propagate that he so much values and chooses for himself and to restrain Men from those Vices he is so zealous to purge out of his own Life So that if we consider in what an advantageous manner the Religious Man doth exercise his Authority for the effectual promoting the Publick Good we cannot but conclude that when such Men are in Authority there must needs be very great cause of rejoycing This will be yet farther manifest by shewing Fourthly That great Blessings are derived upon the People for the sake and by the intercession of Religious Magistrates What Men are so qualified to stand in the Gap and to turn away Wrath from the People as a Religious Moses such Righteous Men in Authority How much will their fervent prayers avail with God How prevailing will their interest in their People's Happiness be for the procuring Publick Blessings upon them The Jews were generally prosperous or unhappy according as their Governours were Righteous or Wicked They received great Favours and Deliverances and suffered great Punishments and Calamities for their sakes There is nothing more acceptable to God than the faithful Execution of the Magistrate's Office which Religion doth effectually oblige him to To do Justice and Judgment is more acceptable to God than Sacrifice Prov. xxi 3. The staying of the Plague from Israel is attributed Num. xxv 6 8 11. Psal cvi 30. by God himself to the Zeal of Phinehas in executing Judgment without any notice taken of the People's Humiliation their weeping before the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation One Religious Magistrate executing Judgment might have saved the great City Jerusalem Jer. 5. 1. If ye can find a Man saith God to them if there be any that executeth Judgment and seeketh the Truth I will pardon it If now we lay all these things together they will sufficiently clear the Truth of this Proposition That Religious Magistrates do contribute very much to the general Happiness of a People I proceed now Secondly To make some seasonable Application of it From hence we may learn First That Religion and Piety are chiefly to be regarded in the Choice of Magistrates nothing being more necessary or useful to make them effectual Instruments of promoting the Publick Good This was the reason of that Advice of Jethro to his Son in Law Moses Exod. xviii 21. Thou shalt provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God and hate Covetousness and place such over them and let them Judge the People at all times The happy State of this City then is very much in your own power because the Choice of your Magistrates is so upon which it so very much depends And if laying aside all respect to private Interests or Parties you would always make this your principal Aim in bestowing and Voting into Offices that Righteous Men might be in Authority you would certainly have great reason to rejoyce in the happy Fruits of their Interest with God and their Labours for the Publick Good Secondly We may also learn from what hath been said That we ought to give great Honour and Respect to Religious Magistrates who are Ministers of God for so much good and Instruments of conveying so great Benefits to us Tertullus his Language when it is directed to a good Magistrate doth but express the due sense we ought to have of our Obligations to him Seeing that by thee we enjoy great Act. xxiv 2 3. quietness and that very worthy deeds are done unto this Nation by thy Providence we accept it always and in all places with all thankfulness We should heartily Pray especially for our Righteous Magistrates chearfully render them all their Dues zealously vindicate them from all unjust Censures and Reproaches and confer all we can to their Support and Ease and Comfort under that load of Care and Toil they sustain for the Publick Good Thirdly From hence also we may learn That a Good Man should not be too obstinate in refusing the Office of a Magistrate when by the Providence of God by the Favour of the Prince or by the Election of the People he is called to it The consideration of that Publick Good he is qualified to promote by it should weigh more with him than the Care or Labour the Charge or Censures it may bring upon him Fourthly I shall Apply what hath been said in a word of Exhortation to those that are in Authority That they would approve themselves Religious and Good Men by a due Exercise of the several parts of their Office by being diligent and courageous in a prudent and impartial Execution of those Laws which are made for the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and the maintenance of true Religion and Virtue For by this means it is that the Righteous in Authority do make their People Happy And for the inforcing of this Exhortation I shall lay before you these following Arguments for your Consideration First Consider the necessity of such a faithful and diligent discharge of publick Offices in order to your escaping the Wrath to come even the greater damnation Your Talents are larger and the Improvement of them of higher consequence to the Honour of God and to the Good of Mankind than other Mens and as this doth advance your Obligation to Diligence and Industry so it will aggravate the Neglect inflame the Reckoning and increase the Damnation of the slothful and unprofitable Servant In such cases will be verified that saying of the Author of the Book of Wisdom Sap. vi 5 6. A sharp Judgment shall be to them that are in high places for Mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty Men shall be mightily tormented Vnto You much is given and of You much will be required in that day when without respect of Persons God will judge every Man according to his Works when the Small and Great shall stand before God when the Magistrate himself must come down to the Bar and give an account of his Stewardship to an impartial and inflexible Judge who will have no consideration of his former Wealth or Grandeur of the Titles he bore or the Preferments he enjoyed or the high Places to which he was advanced but of his Works of his faithfulness and diligence in executing the great Trust he reposed in Him and performing that publick Service he called him to And then shall the unprofitable Servant of what Degree or Quality soever he was be cast into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Secondly Consider The great pleasure that will attend the faithful and industrious