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A65385
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A sermon before the societies for reformation of manners in Dublin preached in New-Row, April the 26th, 1698 / by Nath. Weld.
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Weld, Nathaniel, d. 1731.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing W1261; ESTC R24608
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16,736
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28
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A SERMON Before the SOCIETIES FOR Reformation of Manners IN DUBLIN Preached in NEW-ROW April the 26th 1698. By NATH WELD Published at the desire of the said SOCIETIES DVBLIN Printed by Andrew Crook for Eliphal Dobson Bookseller at the Stationers Arms in Castle-street MDCXCVIII To the SOCIETIES FOR Reformation WHEN I was called to this Service I considered that you had several excellent Sermons already in your Hands in which I found those Prudent Directions and Perswasive Arguments for promoting your Pious Design that seemed to me to supersede the necessity of adding more in particular or of saying again what was much better said before I thought therefore I could not be more Serviceable to this Good Work than by Directing you to that Sacred Fountain from whence all your Supplies and Successes flow This I have Attempted in the following Sermon And though I am sensible the Performance is very mean yet since you Judge its Publication may be of some Use I chuse thus to Expose my Weaknesses to Publick Uiew rather than decline any Testimony of my Zeal for this Excellent Undertaking And that it may prosper in your Hands I stall not cease to Pray that you may have fresh Effusions of the Holy Spirit upon you to preserve your Zeal from Decays and to carry you on with yet greater Alacrity So that it may be evident 't is not only the Novelty of the Attempt that Charms you into some Fondness for it at the present but that you are Acted by Nobler and more Steady Principles in this matter I do also hope you will be so far under the Conduct of the Spirit of Wisdom from above that your mutual Love and Correspondence will not be Abated or Interrupted by any unkind Insinuations nor you be Diverted from your present Work to an unseasonable Enquiry how the Flame was first kindled when our utmost United Indeavours are necessary to Quench it The Suppressing Prophaness is visibly our common Interest and we may make this Advantage of our unhappy separate Communions to provoke one another to an Holy Emulation Let us only contend who shall be most Zealous and Exemplary in serious Piety and abound most in the Exercise of that diffusive Charity that confines not its self within the narrow bounds of a party but Embraces all without Distinction that appear to have the Character and Impress of Real Holiness And if we be thus affected towards one another the mischievous Effects of our different Apprehensions and Practices in lesser Matters will be in a great measure prevented That this may be the amiable Temper of Protestants towards each other and particularly yours and that in Acting Conformably to it your Pious Endeavous to Reform a Licentious Age may be Crowned with Visible and Glorious Success shall be the Prayer of Your Servant in the Gospel N. W. Isaiah XXXII 14. Verses Because the Palaces shall be forsaken the multitude of the City left c. Isaiah XXXII 15. Verses Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the Wilderness be a fruitful Field and the fruitful Field be counted for a Forrest Isaiah XXXII 16. Verses Then Judgment shall dwell in the Wilderness and Righteousness remain in the fruitful Field Isaiah XXXII 17. Verses And the work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and assurance for ever Isaiah XXXII 18. Verses And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places THE Degenerate Condition of Human Nature is obvious to every Eye and administers just occasion of wonder and lamentation to all that have any free and raised thoughts about their own Being and End That Nature which originally was a bright resemblance of the Divine Purity like Eden the Garden of the Lord is in its fal'n State a confused deformed Masse a barren Wilderness It is despoil'd of those Moral Excellencies that were the Glories of our Innocent State It is perverted to that degree that reasonable creatures are under the power of disaffection to their true happiness And being maim'd in that principal point a deluge of all kinds of disorders and miseries is broke in upon it How is it oppressed by malicious Devils invaded by loathsom Vices under the government of those defiling dividing Lusts that make men even cruel to themselves and enemies to one another Who that has any bowels of love to that Nature whereof he is a part can behold it labouring under these dismal ruins and hastening to greater with an insensible frame or refuse to contribute his utmost towards its relief This Generous Motive has I hope had its influence on you my Brethren who are ingaged in this Pious Design of promoting a Practical Reformation A Work beyond exception excellent at all times and so highly necessary at this that without some considerable Advances in it we may yet entertain the most dismal apprehensions of our own Estate and expect to be abandoned to all the Calamities an Incorrigible People can deserve And yet this necessary Work is attended with such formidable difficulties as would utterly discourage our attempts and make us conclude our Wound incurable if we had no reason to expect the concurrence and assistance of a Power above our own To this Glorious Spring of our help my Text directs you wherein an happy reformed state of things is described and amplified by the cause from which it flows and the happy Fruit it bears First A Reformed State of things is described in part of the 15 and 16 v. In it persons whose hearts and lives were like a barren Wilderness became Fruitful in universal Holiness and that to such a degree that they who before were accounted Fruitful comparatively with them are but as the Forrest Among them Judgment and Righteousness abound Terms comprehensive of the Duties of Piety towards God and Justice and Charity towards Men When a people are throughly Reformed these excellent Virtues will flow down our streets like a stream Secondly You have here the Cause that produces such an happy Change viz. The pouring the Spirit from on high This is as necessary in order to it as the warm Beams of the Sun and gentle fruitful Showers are that the face of our Earth may be renewed agen Thirdly You have the comfortable effects of this Reformed State in abundance of temporal prosperity and peace and the secure stable continuance thereof even to succeeding Generations 17 and 18 verses I am not concerned to enquire what particular time these Words refer unto Expositors generally agree that they had a partial accomplishment upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity And a fuller one in a Spiritual sense at the coming of the Messiah tho' some expect to see them literally fulfilled in a Glorious state of things yet to commence But my design from the Words engages me not to determine in this matter for I shall only improve the connexion which the Prophet here observes between
compleating Head stone also That we may with Shoutings cry Grace Grace unto it Zech 4.7.9 And shou'd it not raise our hopes higher to behold a portion of the same Spirit resting upon our Publick Councils Are not those Excellent Laws against some instances of Vice that have been lately Enacted both in England and this Kingdom And that Pious Zealous Address of those Noble Senators in England the fruit thereof Surely 't is matter of great Incouragement and ground of hope that our Legislative Powers have thus own'd and succoured the languishing Cause of Religion Yea several of those that are in Subordinate Authority seem anointed with the same Spirit Among whom the Magistraâ—â— of this City and some persons of Worth in the Commission for the Peace near it deserve a most Honourable Remembrance both for their active Zeal in punishing Offenders and their prudent care to cover Informers from Violence and Rage And is not this Sacred Anointing upon the head of our Body Politick descended to the Skirts of our Garments even to many Private persons whose Spirits God has stirred up to put their hand to this Work with Zeal Alacrity Courage and Self-denial It looks as tho' God had some Merciful Design on foot when he has done such a new thing in the Earth that private persons have formed themselves into distinct Societies that their Endeavours may be both more Regular and Successful in executing our Wholsom Laws And the Design seems so much the more to be of God that there is such a sweet harmony and accord among persons of different Perswasions in promoting the common Interest of Religion And that I may mention no more It looks like a Token for Good That so many of the Rising Generation seem to have in their hearts some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel That the Lord is pleased to rejoyce in our Young Men that his Providence has so wonderfully secured any of them from the infection of evil Examples and preserved them from the Vanities and Vices to which that Age is commonly addicted So that instead of Sensual Intertainments they associate for the Exercises of Religious Worship and to provoke one another to Love and to Good Works Oh my Brethren what an happy change may we see in the Face of our Affairs What a turn has God given to the Spirits and Inclinations of many It would be a denying to give unto God the Glory due to his Name to ascribe so great an Effect to a lower Cause I conclude therefore that there are some Effusions of the Spirit from on high among us And Oh what encouragement shou'd you derive from hence to go on with undaunted Fortitude and Zeal May I not apply to you the words of the Prophet Haggai 2.4 Yet now be strong oh Zerubbabel c. Be strong all ye people of the Land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts This Consideration should be your great Relief against the difficulty of the Work you find it proposed for this end by the Holy Ghost Zech. 4.6 Not by Might nor by Power but by my Spirit saith the Lord and then it follows Who art thou O great Mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a Plain Assistances from the Holy Spirit should raise our Hearts and Hopes above all discouragement It must be confest there are Mountainous Difficulties in the Way but what are they before the Spirit of God How soon can Omnipotency smooth and level them Our Disease is indeed so inveterate it has spread so far and prevailed so long that our Case would be desparate in any other Hand But if that great Physitian undertake the Cure of our sick Souls and State the work will prosper in his Hand This Consideration should also help you against the paucity of the Numbers that are yet Ingaged in this Work it is yet but in its Infancy and Beginning If we do not sin away our own Mercies this heavenly Dew will descend more plenteously and difuse its self more generally so that this small Cloud shall cover the whole Heavens The work is in his Hand who can of Stones raise up Children unto Abraham Let us not therefore despise the day of small things but persist in this way of known duty and refer the Issue to the Soveraign will of God Tho' the Body of the People should not yet be Reformed yet a small number of Zealous Pious Persons may be set in the Balance against all the rest and may prevail to obtain a longer space of Repentance for them and in order thereto your Example may provoke others to an Holy Emulation yea it has done so already The happy Design was at first but in a few hands all of them Members of the Establisht Church This Honour God has put upon them and it should be far from being matter of Envy to Protestant Dissenters who I hope will bless God for it and be ready to acknowledge it to their just praise upon all occasions But is not Jacob's Staff already become Two Bands in this City And does not the same design happily succeed in some other parts of this Kingdom and we hope will in a little time prevail in many more May we not see God going forth with us and shall our Successes dishearten us Shall we faint with grounds of hope about us on every side Oh remember you serve a good Master you are Engaged in a most Honourable Work You have promises concerning effectual help and if a Season for an eminent effusion of the Holy Spirit be at hand Mercy will further shew its pleasing Face to us on every Hand Glory will adorn our Lands and great will be the day of Jezreel But whatever be the Issue tho' Israel should not now be gathered tho' these attempts for Reformation should be fruitless which God forbid yet if your Hearts be sincere in this Work the Lord will not be Unrighteous to forget your Zeal and that Labour of Love which you have shewn and shall further shew to his Name in this matter FINIS