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A30732 A sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor and aldermen and citizens of London at St. Lawrence Jewry on the Feast of St. Michael, 1696 : at the election of the lord mayor for the year ensuing / by Lilly Butler. Butler, Lilly. 1696 (1696) Wing B6281; ESTC R24759 12,031 29

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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
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