you and will defend you and protect you and believe me Brethren one God this one God I say is enough against all the posse Inferni all the Devils in Hell and their Agents on Earth Well God is on your side then go on You may say as he Psal 118. 6. The Lord is on my side I will not fear what can Man do unto me 4. As you have a good Cause a good Call a good Patron you shall have a good a great Reward a glorious massy Reward if your Hearts are right with God you shall not lose your Reward God does not need you but he takes it kindly from you that you are on his side and he will once testify this and you shall find it placed to your account in the Day of the Lord if not before If a Cup of cold Water given to a Disciple of Christ shall not lose its reward Mat. 10. 42. to be sure this Service for his Name shall not Therefore go on 5. For your Incouragement still you have good Company all the Great that are good on your side and all the Good too You have God as was mentioned just now God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost the Uncreated Great on your side and you have the Created Great the great and glorious Angels assisting of you in your sincere Indeavours and doing you many great tho unseen good Offices of defending of you under God in all your Difficulties and Dangers and approving of you and pleased with you in all your Designs and Labours and you have the Spirits of the Just made perfect all the holy happy heavenly Society are on your side all these are great and good above and you have all the Great and Good below too on your side You have the King and Parliament your Governors on your side and you have all the Good of all Denominations all that know and love and fear God on your side you have their Approbation Judgment Prayers and hearty Wishes and for the Bad and the Great that are bad they are not so considerable in this matter being against God as either to be regarded or feared Then by Faith behold the blessed God and his holy Angels and all the heavenly Company from the Battlements of Glory looking on and applauding your Indeavours and let this incourage you notwithstanding Difficulties and hereupon be you filled with the utmost Vigour in all your Enterprizes and Attempts Thus you see what abundant Incouragement you have for you have a good Cause the best Cause the Cause of your God your King your Country you have a good Call as well as a good Cause and you have a great Almighty Patron as well as a good Cause and good Call and you have as a good Cause Call Patron you have good Company all the great that are good and all the Good and as you have a good Cause Call Patron Company you shall have a good a great a vast Reward an exceeding eternal Weight of Glory Then surely you may well go on as you have been exhorted to do 3dly And lastly to you of the Society Carry in all things towards God and Man as becomes those that are ingaged in such a Design and united in a Society for such an End Carry so as all that see you and know you may have reason to believe you are filled with the Fear of God with an awful Reverence of his Name and glorious Perfections and blessed Word and Laws and Government Be filled with a deep sense of his Dishonour by the abounding Sins of the day keep your selves very faithful to God in being pure from the Sins of the day wherein you live not only from the Sins of the Profane but the Professors of the day many of whom God knows take a strange liberty in many things very unbecoming their Profession and very dishonourable to it but do not you do so be neither afraid nor ashamed to bear your Testimony for God where you have a Call to it and do all that ever in you lies singly socially against the Sins of the day to stem and if it might be to turn the Torrent of Profaneness into that of Holiness and carry so towards all Men as becomes you being altogether just and true in your Dealings in your Words and Works further let your Carriage towards all Men be filled with all that Love Goodness Tenderness Humility Meekness that Readiness to do them all good Offices and In-offensiveness in Words and Actions that becomes such as profess to do nothing to others but only what is for their Good Be sure you carry thus to Men. I am afraid it may not be possible for you to carry so considering your Circumstances as to avoid Reproach and Censure for Men value their Lusts above their Souls nay they do not value them above their very Lives and therefore they will rage at that and them that stand between them and their beloved Sins but however be you blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom shine ye as lights in the World Phil. 2. 15. That all Men may have Reason however to believe that you have no design but their Good in your Indeavours that the Laws may be executed upon flagitious incorrigible Transgressors yea so as that themselves whose lot it may be to be punished by them may have no cause to believe any other but their Good not Hurt is pursued therein for those that indeavour the Reformation of others should themselves be great Instances of Reformation and Purity I am sure they should be so See you be so as ever you would be any ways at all useful in what you have undertaken as you would do any Good as you would not do Hurt I must tell you with all Faithfulness and Freedom it is a shameful vile accursed thing I would use harder words if I had them for the thing will bear it for those that take upon them to be Reformers of others to be unreformed themselves If any of the Society for Reforming others be as ill as those they pretend to reform what a Shame Reproach and Mischief will it be unto you and how prejudicial to your Design If any are of a Society for Reformation of others and are unreformed themselves can they with any Modesty indeavour the Reformation of others that are guilty themselves Can those indeavour a Drunkard's Reformation by his Punishment according to Law that are drunk sometimes themselves Can those be concerned in executing the Laws upon profane Swearers that swear profanely themselves and curse and rail How can any see that others be punished for profaning the Lord's Day when themselves make no Conscience of it See then to your Hearts to your Lives to your Words to your Actions to your Families that there be all Purity and Reformation within you without you and round about you See you be altogether such as that
A SERMON Preach'd to the SOCIETY FOR Reformation of Manners IN NOTTINGHAM February 16 1698 9. Publish'd at their Request By JOHN RYTHER Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by Sam. Bridge for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside 1699. Mr. JOHN RYTHER's SERMON FOR Reformation of Manners To the Society for Reformation of Manners in Nottingham Gentlemen AT Your Desire this Sermon was Preached and as you know at your Desire it was Printed or else it had lain buried in Dust and Obscurity with many others Seeing it is Printed at your Request it concerns you not me to be accountable to the World for it I can only say I endeavoured Faithfulness and Plainness if it may be of any use to you or your Design in that I shall rejoice You have my Heart and shall not want my poor Prayers May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus make you such all of you as you should be that endeavour the Reformation of others and make you very successful as well as sincere in your Attempts to Reform this Place and may we and our Posterity in this Town have cause to bless God that ever you begun this Work amongst us So prays Your Faithful Friend and Servant John Ryther April 21 1699. To the READER I Know there are a great many Sermons out upon this Occasion and that there is this one more is not at all in pursuance of my Inclination and Choice for it would have pleased me much more if it had never gone farther as to Publication than the Pulpit for I am very far from thinking that I am capable of adding any thing to what has been said upon this Subject or so much as equalling what has been so but if thou say Why did I suffer it to come out I might have hinder'd it I answer it is true but I can give this Reason for the bare suffering it to come abroad hereby my Testimony for God against the Profaneness of the Day is more publick and that I confess it not displeasing to me and I think carries some weight in it for I judg a Man should not suffer that which is in his Power to hinder without being able to give at least one good Reason for it Seeing it is come out I heartily pray God it may be blest to the confirming and incouraging those on God's side and to the awakening those that are not in order to their being brought over from their Tents of Sin Satan and the World to those of God Christ Holiness Heaven Reader It concerns thee infinitely whoever thou art to be on God's side It is certain thou art or art not If not thou art in a very miserable Condition and if thou look not about thee thou wilt soon be irremediably eternally miserable Consider seriously weigh diligently what is here said and it may not be altogether unuseful to thee through the Blessing of God if thou art on God's side I almost think there is nothing here that will be offensive to thee And if there be any thing that proves advantageous to thee give God the God of all Grace the Glory and let me have thy Prayers That thou mayst be on God's side now and act very faithfully on it and so be found on it at Death and the eternal Judgment is the Prayer of thy Soul-Friend John Ryther A SERMON Preached to the Society for Reformation of Manners in Nottingham EXOD. 32. 26. Then Moses stood in the Gate of the Camp and said Who is on the Lord's side Let him come unto me And all the Sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him THE Words in this Verse that I intend to speak to are these Who is on the Lord's side Let him come unto me The occasion of these Words was this Moses who had the Charge and Conduct of the People of Israel in their way from Egypt to Canaan was with God in Mount Sinai and staying there forty Days to understand the Mind of God and make it known unto them they in this time of his Absence from them revolt unto Idolatry turning from God unto Idols making themselves Golden Calves and worshipping them as you may see ver 1-6 Hereupon Moses the Man of God as he is called by the Holy Ghost Deut. 33. 1. coming down from the Mount and seeing what was done was filled with a Holy Zeal for God and Indignation against this their horrid Sin against him and Provocation of him and that he might as became his Place punish it and thereby for the future deter others from so horrible an Impiety he utters these Words I have not time to be particular in taking notice of the Context only let me mind you of this that there is something in these Words extraordinary and so not imitable but there is enough that is ordinary and so imitable by us and so come directly to the Words In which you have these two Doctrinal Truths 1. That in a Day of publick Defection from God it is the Magistrates Duty especially the Supream to appear openly for God and to ingage their People on God's side against the Wickedness of the Day calling upon them and using all Methods in order thereunto This was the case here with the People of Israel there was a publick and in a manner almost an universal Apostacy from God to Idols And Moses the Supream Magistrate of this People for he was King in Jeshurun Deut. 33. 5. was because of this filled with Zeal for the Honour of God and Indignation against this abominable Wickedness they were guilty of and with such an holy Temper as has been now named appears as in the Text openly for God uttering these Words declaring his doing so and calling upon others to do so too in their Places as he did in his But this brings me to the Second for the First I wave 2. That in the Day of publick Defection from God when Magistrates call upon a People to appear for God It is then the Duty of all Persons upon the Call of their Magistrates to be on God's side to come over to him Who is on the Lord's side Let him come unto me Moses as supream Magistrate of this People calls upon them all that were unconcerned in the Impiety or not so deeply concerned as the rest to appear for God against those Rebels that were deepest in the Guilt and thereupon we see the Levites did so who were either many of them not at all concerned in this Sin or however less concerned and for their answering this Call in the Text they are commended Deut. 33. 9. speaking of Levi i. e. his Posterity ver 8. he says of them ver 9. Who said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledg his Brethren nor knew his own Children for they have observed thy Word and kept thy Covenant So that this is the Truth I intend to speak unto That in a Day of publick
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