God's side and is in its place necessary to our Salvation It is required of every one in the first Commandment Exod. 20. 3. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me Therefore our blessed Lord says Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Father's and of his Holy Angels And agreeably hereunto the Apostle Paul says Rom. 10. 10. As with the Heart Man believeth as in the first Particular unto Righteousness i e. unto Justification by the Righteousness of Christ so with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation If we are on God's side according to the first Particular we must own we are so according to this This is in it 3. Being on God's side carries this in it That such as are in Covenant with God and own God as God and their God be filled with a very deep Sense of his Dishonour by the Sins of the Day If we are God's we are as reconciled to him so renewed by his Spirit according to his Image and so are like him in the communicable Perfections of his Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then we must have the same Interest with God the same Friends and the same Enemies Now Sin all Sin being contrary to him being against his Honour as being against his Nature and Attributes as being against his Laws Government and Revealed Will especially when Sin that is so in a day of publick Defection grows high and becomes impudent and audacious having no Bounds knowing no Limits but overspreading all like an Inundation like a Deluge In this case I say there are none on God's side but from the Fear they have of him and the Love they bear in their Hearts to his Blessed Name they must they cannot but be deeply sensibly filled and affected with a Sense of God's Dishonour As ingenious Children must needs be grieved when their Parents are reproached and dutiful Subjects when their Governours whom they know to be just and good are so Thus the Good have been always affected in their several Generations Psal 119. 136. Rivers of Waters i. e. Tears in great abundance it is an hyperbolical Expression run down mine Eyes Why what was the Matter Was he under some great Affliction some great Misfortune as the World calls it Nay the Reason follows Because they keep not thy Law That was the Cause of all his Tears and of all that inward Sorrow that was the Spring that fed them Thus Jeremiah ch 9. 1. is another Instance of this O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the Slain of the Daughter of my People That it was their Sin that most of all affected him See ver 2 3 c. And the Godly in that doleful Day I mean that Day of Sin ended in sacking Hierusalem by the Caldeans burning the Temple Desolation of the Land and 70 Years Captivity in Babylon mourned and sighed for the Abominations that were the Cause of all these Miseries Ezek. 9. 4. These Instances are a few of those many the Book of God abounds with of this Nature 4. Keeping our selves faithful to God and our Covenant-Engagements to him and particularly faithful to him by keeping our selves pure and at a distance from the Sins of the Day As from all Sin as much as may be walking before God in Holiness and Righteousness without Fear i. e. servile Fear in all the Duties required both in the first and second Table in Holiness respecting the first in Righteousness respecting the second Luke 1. 74 75. Allowing our selves in no known Sin nor in the neglect of any known Duty desiring to know every Sin as Men that go to Sea desire to know Rocks and Sands that they may stear wide of them and desiring to know every Duty to comply with the Mind of God therein approving our selves to the Searcher of Hearts in abstaining from the one and a hearty Discharge of the other and keeping our selves with a great deal of Care Vigilance and Circumspection for we can't be too careful herein from the Sins of the Day wherein we live by which God is most dishonoured and by reason of the universal Spreading and Contagion of which we our selves are most indangered This is to be on God's side in an evil Day How else are we can we be on God's side except we save our selves from the Sins of the untoward Generation wherein we live Acts 2. 40. So the Apostle Peter exhorted his Hearers then to be on God's side So Noah in his Day was on God's side Gen. 6. 9. 7. 1. Thee have I seen righteous before me in this Generation i. e. such as was so dreadfully wicked that they were all except Noah and his Family destroyed by a Deluge sent from God on purpose for that very end 5. We are on God's side when we bear our Testimony against the Sins of the Day for God I say for God not only by owning him and his Worship and his revealed Will in the Holy Scriptures the only Rule of Faith Worship and Practice in which all those Sins are forbidden condemned and threatned and their contrary Graces Vertues and Duties commanded and recommended with illustrious shining Examples of them and advantaged by great and glorious Promises made to the Subjects and sincere Observers of them But further upon all occasions where the Laws of God are violated yea condemned and Men are so horribly impudent as to justify their Evils pleading for Profaneness and Immoralities and running down Piety and Goodness as a weak foolish thing when it is thus not to keep silent but to open the Mouth for God and plead for him and his Laws and Government and Ways and the Necessity and Excellency of Godliness and Goodness Tho it is true sometimes to do so tho it be done with never so much Unpassionateness and Prudence may make some Men rage the more to such a formidable height is Wickedness gotten Now if a Man were sure of this I think one should leave such Company rather than occasion such Wickedness but it is certain that oftentimes yea I think always where there is a Probability that any Good may be done there it 's the Duty of all that are God's to speak for God and against such Wickedness whereby Religion is indeavour'd to be hooted out of the World as unworthy of reasonable Creatures whereas indeed its the greatest Ornament and Perfection of humane Nature And if such as are God's do not speak in this case they are guilty of Cowardliness and Treachery and do not behave themselves as those that are God's but as though they were on the other side I am sure to have nothing to say in this case is not in this thing to be on God's side nay in this thing it is to be against hm and this is dreadful
for this flowing down to you in the precious Blood of the Covenant you had remained yet on the side of God's Enemies and would have perished everlastingly with them Antidate Heavens holy happy Employment living in the raised thankful affectionate humble Praises of Free Grace 2dly Be faithful to the side you are on to the Interests you are in Do as much against the other side Sin and Satan and their Interests as you can the more the better and do all you can for the side you are on you cannot do too much you cannot do enough Be most faithful to and active for God Be sure you be so in all the Particulars that have been named Go over them particularly in your own Thoughts and let the Reasons serve for Motives I cannot inlarge But I would more particularly address my self First To you of the Society Secondly To all others on God's side tho not of the Society First To you of the Society in three Particulars 1st Be all of you on God's side Be sure you be so I know all of you are so by Profession by agreeing and combining together to appear for God against the horrid Profaneness of the Day Let all and every one of you then and I speak nothing to you but what I would speak to my own Soul see that you be indeed savingly internally vitally on God's side that you indeed fear God and love God that you do indeed hate Evil and love Good as you have been not long since exhorted to do Let what you do in this matter be in the Sincerity of your Souls and out of Love to your King Country and the Good of others See God have your Hearts that there be a thorow regenerating Change there or else I must tell you it is not being on God's side by appearing outwardly against Profaneness that will do no tho you be never so industrious and active and run never so many Risques and Hazards all these will not do if the Heart be not with God and for God God will have the Heart or nothing The Heart must be God's or all will be accounted nothing at all of by God Make sure then of this that you have savingly laid hold of God's Covenant and so be ingaged in this matter 2dly Being thus continue all of you on God's side Being savingly on it keep on it Keep on it personally considered every one of you and socially considered as you are united together against the Sins of the Day So go on and pursue heartily the Ends for which you did coalesce and combine I say Go on prosperously Go on Couragiously Go on Resolvedly Go on Unweariedly Go on Patiently Go on Invincibly Go on constantly Perseveringly Let nothing discourage you much less turn you out of the way you are in or make you faint or succumb under the Burden of this great Undertaking Let not the Threatnings Huffs Scoffs or Reproaches of the Ungodly at all weaken your hands You expected these things before you ingaged in this Work now then you meeâ— with them be not at all concerned at them so as to slackea your Diligence or go on fearfully or heavily There is no Reason you should be discouraged but you should go on as I have exhorted you to do For 1. You have a good Cause the best Cause 1st It is the Cause of God Profaneness and Immorality are contrary to God what he cannot away with the abominable things that he hates as he speaks of Idolatry You are ingaged then in this Matter against nothing but what God himself is ingaged against you are ingaged against none but only his Enemies that are mad of their Lusts and that shew their selves to be so by being so desperate and obstinate that they cannot be dealt with by hands but Men that deal with them must be fenced with Iron and the Staff of a Spear I mean the Magistrate's Sword and Power You are ingaged against nothing but what is offensive and dishonourable to God and for nothing in this Affair but what is pleasing to and honourable in the Sight of God Then go on it is the Cause of God God calls to you to be on his side as in the Text against the Profaneness of the Day by which he is so sadly dishonoured and you in some measure have answered his Call go on to do so more and more God calls to you too as Psal 94. 6. Who will rise up for me against the Evil-doers who will stand up for me against the Workers of Iniquity Do you still do so 2d It is the Cause of the King It is his Mind and Will that Men should reverence the Name of God their great Maker and assemble themselves for the Worship of God and abstain from Profaneness and Immoralities as you may see by his excellent Proclamation In truth these Sins do the King his Interest and Government a great deal of hurt they indanger him and them Profane Persons are the King 's worst Subjects It is the King's Interest that Men avoid these things because they often bring down the Wrath of God upon Governors and Governments especially when they are not check'd by Law and the Execution of it Then go on to plead this Cause of the King 3d. It is the Cause of your Country your dear Native Country that you are bound by so many Ingagements to and that you injoy so much Good in They are England's greatest Enemies that dare provoke God that dare sin against him and bring down his Wrath upon it And they are England's best Friends that do what they can to reform England's Inhabitants and to restrain Sin and purge it out of the Nation 2. You have a good Call therefore go on and a good Cause and a good Call may very well be a great Incouragement to you You have a good Call you have the Call of God as in the Text and in Ps 94 16. as before You have the Call of the King and the Call of the Parliament the Magistrates Call The Words are the Words of Moses Israel's Supream Magistrate You have the Call of all the Godly in the Land their hearty Approbation and best Prayers and Wishes God calls you by his Word by the Precepts of his Word Promises of his Word Threatnings of his Word and by his Providence giving you a fair Opportunity very inviting and incouraging Advantages which should they be neglected not improved who can tell whether you shall live to see such another and you have the Call of the incouraging successful Example of the City of London which has gone before you herein I am sure of this every Man that hath a Heart to appear for God and Ability has a good Call and no Man can question his Call that has a Heart Ability and Opportunity for such Services as this 3. As you have a good Cause a good Call so you have a good Patron a great one the Blessed Jehovah the Almighty God He stands by
Country has been answered so often and so well by many worthy Men with whom I am not worthy to be named both of the Conforming and Non-conforming Perswasion that have pleaded this Cause of God against the Profaneness and profane Ones of the day that for my part I will spend none either of your time or mine own in answering it Nor is there any Injury by informing done to the guilty Party but as there is in it a Service done God the King Country and Place where we live so the Person himself receives Good thereby or may do so if he do not it is his own fault as you heard under the 3d Exhortation to the Profane What Injury is it to a Man in a raging Feaver for those that love him to use some rough but proper Methods for his Cure or what Injury for a Man to be forc't by those that may lawfully do it to do that or suffer that which if he did not do or suffer would be his Ruine and his doing or suffering it at least may be a means to save him Then inform only let me leave this Caution with you Be sure when you do so you do it uprightly for God's Honour and doing Good and not to vent your Ill-will against the Party for as I said before to the Society if you do so God sees it and he will deal with you for it 3. Lastly by Prayer All of you pray for the Society's and their Indeavours that the Blessing and Presence of God may be upon them and with them and make them effectual for the personal Good of many and publick Good of all That this Cloud may spread may over-spread all our British Hemisphere and increase until it fall down in Showers of Blessings upon us and our Posterity after us Strive with God wrestle with God in Prayer for all the Societies that where they are begun they may be a great Blessing in being effectual for the Restraint of Sin and Conversion of Sinners and that in Country Towns where they are not begun they may and be effectual there too as was mentioned just now Pray for the pouring down of the Spirit from on high on all sorts of People that there may be in many very many a Reformation the effect of Conversion that we may live to see that joyful Day when Profaneness Irreligion and Immorality shall be banished out of the Land and Godliness Religion and Goodness shall be in a flourishing spreading prevailing and prospering Condition every where Pray for the King for the Parliament that God would inspire them with Zeal in this Cause that Laws may be yet made that may facilitate Reformation and may more effectually discourage Sin and suppress Wickedness That all may issue in substantial universal Goodness the Love of God and Man the alone true saving Morality and Reformation of Manners FINIS BOOKS Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel FOrty Nine Sermons on the whole Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians by Monsieur Daille Minister of the Reformed Church in Paris Folio Sermons and Discourses on several Divine Subjects by the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson B. D. and sometime Fellow of Clare-Hall Cambridge Folio A Body of Practical Divinity consisting of above One hundred seventy six Sermons on the Lesser Catechism of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster by Tho. Watson formerly Minister of Stephen Walbrook Folio The Support of the Faithful in Times of Persecution or a Sermon preach'd in the Wilderness to the poor Protestants in France By M. Brousson an Eminent Minister who was broke upon the Wheel at Montpelier Novem. 6. 1698. Quarto The Fountain of Life opened or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatoral Glory containing Forty two Sermons on various Texts Wherein the Impetration of our Redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun carried on and finished by his Covenant Transaction mysterious Incarnation solemn Call and Dedication blessed Offices deep Abasement and supereminent Advancement By J. Flavel