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A57934
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A sermon preach'd at St. Mary-Le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, June 28, 1697 / by John Russell.
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Russell, John, fl. 1660.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing R2346; ESTC R26224
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19,860
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54
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A SERMON Preach'd at St. Mary-Le-Bow TO THE SOCIETIES FOR Reformation of Manners June 28. 1697. By JOHN RVSSELL Rector of St. John of Wappin LONDON Printed by J. Darby for R. Mount at the Postern on Tower-hill 1697. TO THE READER HE that will look over the Histories of the most famous Kingdoms and Governments of the World will find that they have been rais'd and carried on to their most exalted Heights altho estrang'd to the Knowledg and Worship of the True God by the Rules and Practices of Moral Vertues And that when the Babylonian the Persian the Grecian and Roman Monarchies fell to decay it was Luxury and Vice that open'd the Door to let in that Ruin which transplanted the Scepter from one Kingdom to another People For as long as they kept to their Antient Vertue which laid the Foundation and also built up the Edifice of their Strength and Grandeur they maintain'd their Power they continu'd their Empire but as soon as they grew loose and vicious when Bribery and Corruption Softness and Flattery seiz'd upon the Court and Debauchery and Fraud and contempt of Religion altho a false one had infected the People they quickly grew ripe for those Judgments which swept them into that Pit of Destruction which their Immoralities had been digging as the Grave of their dying Glory and Greatness And tho I do not affirm that Dominion is founded on Grace yet I assert That all flourishing Kingdoms are established by Vertue And that what People soever depart from that they cut down the Props and remove the Pillars that support their own Strength and Felicity And this is not only historically true in respect of the Ages that are past and gone but actually so in respect of our selves and the very Age and Day in which we live and it 's not only so in respect of the Nature of Vertue which gives Men a noble and elevated Mind carries them thrô the greatest Difficulties and by Justice and Honesty must necessarily cause the Sun of Prosperity to shine upon them And on the other side in respect of the Nature of Vice which enervates and softens those that are its Vassals takes away their Courage brings on Fear and creates those Jars and Jealousies among a People which makes 'em divide and become an easy Prey to the next bold Invader I say Ruin is not only the Consequent of Vice and Debauchery in respect of the thing it self but much more in respect of God whose Justice and Holiness cannot allow that a wicked People should long be happy or flourish in the enjoyment of those Favours which they have forfeited by their Impieties And to render this applicable to our selves it 's too apparent that we are a People fallen into a most wretched and degenerate State extreamly debauch'd both in Principles and Practices And notwithstanding God has gone on in a long course of Mercy towards this Nation in delivering us 1st From Idolatrous Worship I mean that of the Church of Rome when others are still blinded with it 2dly In saving us from Despotick Tyranny and Arbitrary Power which has prey'd upon some of our neighbouring Countries 3dly In rescuing us from our late Fears and Dangers from the sad apprehensions of the breaking in of both I mean Idolatrous Worship and Arbitrary Power when we had little hope of preserving our selves from either Tho we have enjoyed these Favours and have pretended too to be sensible of them yet we have behav'd our selves under these Deliverances and great Enjoyments with great Ingratitude and loud Provocations so that we seem by our Deeds to say with the Jews of old Jer. 7.10 We are delivered to do all these Abominations For where is there any publick sense of our preservation to effect a change of life from Profaneness to Holiness to testify we are grateful to our Deliverer And that we look upon it as the Hand of Heaven that has sav'd us from our Fears Should one enquire after the Returns of Repentance and Reformation in respect of the main Body of our People I am too sensible they cannot be found or perceived amongst us But on the contrary that we are as lewd as vile as vicious as ever and that in some Sins we outstrip the Iniquities of our Fathers in that the Hireling is opprest in his Wages and we sell the Poor for Silver and the Needy for a pair of Shoes we make merchandize one of another and have no farther any regard to the Publick Interest than as it's subservient unto our own Private We have lost that publick Zeal and Affection which every Man ought by Nature to express to the Land of his Nativity When I have read some Sayings of the old Prophets describing the great Degeneracy of the Jewish State in that Age of the World I have been affected with melancholy thoughts that our Condition is but too near a Copy of that foul Pattern But however if by Melancholy and the Cries of the Poor which are very loud and clamorous in all our Streets I am sure at lest in those that I daily walk I may be mistaken yet the scandalous Debaucheries which are too notorious and all are sensible of all I mean that are the Friends of Piety and Vertue give a just cause to fear that notwithstanding we whisper to our selves Peace and Safety some heavy Judgments from the Justice of Heaven are yet approaching And since nothing but Reformation can fit us for Mercy since 't is not our being Protestants that can screen us from the Fire of Destruction if we are reform'd only in our Doctrines but not in our Lives Therefore it has and will be the Eternal Honour and Reward of some among us whose Names are written in the fairest Characters in the Book of Life That God has made them sensible of our Degeneracy and has stirr'd them up to undertake this great and noble Work of checking the predominant Vices in and about this great City Such as profanation of the Lord's Day the execrable Sin of Cursing and Swearing Houses of Lewdness and notorious Uncleanness Drunkenness Whoredom and the like by endeavouring the execution of those good Laws which have piously been enacted for this End and Purpose And this Vndertaking which at first was but like Elijah's Cloud no bigger than a Man's hand has by the Divine Blessing so enlarg'd it self that there are now above twenty Societies in and about this Great City who have dedicated themselves to this Good Work And that it might be made the more manifest to the terror of evil doers it has been resolv'd that Four Sermons a Year viz One on the Monday next ensuing after the four usual Quarter-Days should be preach'd by some Minister of the Church of England to shew and justify the Excellency of this Design and to encourage to a resolution in its execution And being requested to perform this Office and also to make publick what I deliver'd I have now perform'd both tho
nothing dear in comparison of the Love of their Master whom they serve and the Crown of Glory which is propos'd as their Eternal Reward For those that draw back at any little Difficulty and faint in the hour of Trial and time of Temptation that have not spiritual Strength nor Courage sufficient to buoy them up against some Shocks and Oppositions which they must expect to meet with here in the World Such Persons shall never at the great Day of Account be adjudged faithful or worthy of that incomprehensible Felicity which shall be the Portion of all those that are truly the Servants of Jesus Christ Religion carries with it such a Grace and Loveliness it appears even to the common Persons of the World with such a Majesty and Advantage that he must be strongly engaged in the Work of Sin and closely fetter'd even from his Infancy in the slavery of Satan that never had any Purpose or Resolve to be one of its followers And I am apt to believe that the far greatest number of Mankind have at some particular times in their wisest and most considerate hours being convinced of its Worth and Excellency made Resolutions to set about Godliness and to walk in the Paths of Vertue and Religion But when they have found it a Business of difficulty to quit their Sins to deny their Lusts and that the power of Holiness would abridg perhaps their Profit and worldly Advantage and deny them the Excursions of sensual Gratifications that the way of Piety would sometimes be attended with Taunts and Reproaches and the Thorns and Briars of Affronts and Indignities Then like those whom our Saviour describes by receiving Seed on stony Ground They are presently offended their Warmth decays their Zeal grows cold and they falter and stumble and at last desist from their good Resolutions And tho they have often on a new fit of Zeal springing from a restored sense of the Excellency Benefit and absolute Necessity of a holy Life renewed their Attempts to proceed in Piety Yet Satan and the World returning again with strong Allurements to the ways of Sin All their good Purposes like an evening Cloud have vanished away and they have easily return'd to their former Follies put on their old Fetters and been bassled and beat off from all their Religious Undertakings Like the Children of Israel when deliver'd out of Egypt and pursuing their Journey to the promised Land yet by and by their Appetite tho they fed upon Angels Food gave them an hankering for Melons and Cucumbers and Garlick and Onions and this tho an Argument of prodigious Folly yet made them in their hearts return back to the House of Bondage So These not being constant in heavenly Resolutions have look'd back with eyes of Affection on the Pleasures of Sin and the Delights of the World and could not keep up to the just tenour of their own good Purposes But yet notwithstanding being still perhaps under the sense of Conviction and the strugglings of Conscience in order therefore to silence That and to rebate its edg they have at last fall'n on the same Project with those Strangers planted by Shalmaneser the King of Assyria in the Cities of Israel who when Lions were sent among them because they feared not the Lord 2 King 17.13 in order to remove the Plague and yet not wholly quit their Idolatry they made a mixture of Religion and serv'd God and their Idols And so the Persons which fall under the Character which I have been now describing will endeavour to reconcile their temporal and spiritual Interest and carry on both mix the Concerns of Time and Eternity and be moderately religious and moderately wicked And reply to the inward Arguings and Reproofs of their own Mind when that checks them for the decays of their former Zeal and their state of Lukewarmness and declining their first Love Why should I attempt a Degree of Holiness above others by appearing in a singular Zeal in the Cause of Religion And not only concern my self for my own Salvation but also for the Salvation of the Souls of my Neighbours as if I were made my Brother's Keeper And perhaps after all my Zeal may be no better than folly in procuring the Frowns of Superiors the Loss of a Customer the Coldness of a Friend the Shyness of an Acquaintance because I am now still on the Rebuke and pressing the Duties of a rigid Piety on all occasions And it may savour of Presumption too and a sond conceit of my own Abilities to attempt the Reformation of the Age and to amend the World My Zeal may be too hot as well as too cold and Moderation and Self-preservation too is good in all things And therefore since Piety ought to be mix'd with Prudence let me not exceed the Rules of Discretion Such Returns as these to the Calls of Conscience are very apt to stifie it when the Will and Affections remain unsanctified or in a meer moral State And Men may please themselves that all shall do well and that Heaven and Eternity may still be gain'd and Salvation secur'd without so much ado as some Persons make and that they themselves have been more warm than wise in the Business of Religion And worldly Interest and mundane Designs and sinful Pleasures egging on such thoughts and urging such false and sinful Arguments it becomes a snare and a stumbling-block to multitudes who still may think their eternal Welfare secure enough under the decays and apparent wanings of their former Zeal and Holiness But that such Persons as these are in a dangerous state and altogether unfit for the Service of Jesus Christ and the Glory of his Kingdom and to have their Names inserted in the Book of Life our Lord informs us here in this Chapter by the observation which he himself made on the comportment of some who pretended a great desire to be his Disciples In the 57th Verse of this Chapter we read that a certain Person appli'd himself unto our Lord with very great seeming Zeal and Affection to his Service Lord I will follow thee whither soever thou goest But on our Lord's telling him that if he would engage in that Undertaking he must not expect any secular advantage but rather the contrary in regard that tho the Foxes had Holes Dens wherein to lodg and the Birds of the Air bad Nests places to retreat to to roost in all the night Yet he tho Lord of all things here in the World had no where to lay his Head no House no Bed no place of his own to receive him and therefore none were to expect the Advantages of this World by an entrance into his Service on which we read no farther and hear no more of this great Pretender And calling to another v. 59. to come and follow him he desires first that he might have leisure to bury his Father He did not absolutely refuse to obey our Lord's Command but he was willing to procrastinate