Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	lord_n	sir_n	thomas_n	11,969	5	8.7332	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67018	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, and Aldermen of the city of London, at St. Mary Le Bow on Wednesday the 19th of June, 1695, a day appointed for a solemn fast, for supplicating Almighty God for the pardon of our sins, and imploring his protection of His Majestie's person, by Josiah Woodward ...	Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.	1695 (1695)	Wing W3520; ESTC R23478	15,685	41

Mr. Woodward's SERMON before the Lord-Mayor On the Fast-Day June the 19 th 1695. Lane Mayor Jovis 20 die Junij 1695. Annoque Dom. Reg. Gulielmi tertij Ang. c. Septimo THis Court doth desire Mr. Woodward to Print his Sermon Preached yesterday at the Parish-Church of St. Mary Le Bow before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City Goodfellow A SERMON Preached before The Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor AND ALDERMEN OF THE City of London At St. Mary Le BOW On Wednesday the 19th of June 1695. A Day appointed for a Solemn Fast for Supplicating Almighty God for the Pardon of our Sins and imploring his Protection of His Majestie 's Person and the Prosperity of His Arms by Sea and Land By Order of the Lords Justices By Josiah Woodward Minister of Poplar LONDON Printed for Ralph Simpson at the Harp in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. TO THE Right Honourable Sir Thomas Lane Lord Mayor of the City of London AND THE Court of ALDERMEN My Lord SINCE nothing in the following Discourse can be supposed to have recommended it to the Hearers but those serious and seasonable Truths whereby it recommends it self to every Man's Conscience It must be look'd on as a Specimen of your Lordship's and your Worshipful Brethren's Integrity towards God and Fidelity to the present Government in a time when some so easily shake hands with both together That you desire to review what was humbly offered upon our late Fast-Day on those two Topicks of Duty to God and the King which the Nature of the Things and the Duty of the Day entwisted together And may these Heaven-born Twinns never be devided upon Earth For indeed they are but half-Friends if we may not call them Enemies to any Civil Government who are impatient of the Government of God by whose Blessing alone Kingdoms Flourish The sins of such Persons hurt the side they take more than their Assistance helps it And therefore when all is done unfeigned Holiness how lightly soever esteemed in these filthy dreggs of time is surely the most Honourable and useful accomplishment of Humane Nature The real Servant of God is the true Person of Quality being one of the Household of God And till any Empire can be found equal to that of God no Title or Employment can be of equivalent Honour to that of belonging to the Court of Heaven Yet we see the World laughs at this And according to the Notions of some there is Glory in the service of the Devil And the most like him in Pride Falsehood Revenge and Blasphemy are the finest Men. But are not these very horrible and very perverse Sentiments Has Bedlam it self any such reverse to common sense as this And will not insupportable shame succeed this Phrenzy when once they come to see things in a true light And this they will see to the purpose within a little while either in their Conversion or Condemnation God Almighty grant it them in the first Method not in the last It is not more evident that the Sun guilds and cheers this lower World than that Religion is the Light Glory and Advancement of the Intellectual part of it Happy are its Votaries yea blessed are its very Martyrs It is a very light thing to bear the mockery and Affronts of this World if we do but pass on directly to the Glory of the other Those that are blind will be apt to jostle those they meet in the streets But it is the Duty of such as see to endeavour to put them into the right way And therefore there is no Post beneath the Clouds so honourable as that of a Person in great Power employing it to reclaim and reform the Community to which it belongs It is like the Good Angel's leading Lot and his Family out of the reach of the descending Flames The comforts of which here is almost as inexpressible as it's Reward hereafter Vpon the whole if there be any such Great and Blessed Man or set of Men upon Earth by whose Piety Prudence and Power under God Christianity is to retrieve its Credit and God his Honour in the World Blessed is He or They above the common rate of Mortals All the sober part of Mankind will kiss their feet and the most remote Posterity will bless their Memory I confide My Lord That your just indignation to the wretched Atheism of this prophane Age will incline your Lordship to excuse the Prolixity of this Address to you to which shall now put a speedy Period so soon as I have implored this one mercy of God viz. That your Lordship and your Worshipful Brethren may by your pious and prudent Conduct establish the Peace restore the Piety and advance the Prosperity and Renown of this Great and Famous City And hereby ascertain to your selves abiding Mansions in that City which has Divine Foundations which is the unfeigned Desire of My Lord your Lordship 's very Respectful Humble Servant Joshiah Woodward Deut. IX 26. I Prayed therefore unto the Lord and said O Lord God destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed thro' thy greatness which thou hast brought forth of Egypt with a mighty hand THE Solemn Duty of every Soul of us this Day but more especially of all Publick Persons is the same with that of Moses in the Text viz Humbly to importune our offended God for mercy to a sinful People And this in the method of Fasting and Prayer as Moses here did Yea the Parallel runs further in that about this time the Armies of Israel were to Attack their Enemies in their Entrenchments and Fenced Cities as we read at the beginning of this Chapter Hear O Israel thou art to pass over Jordan this day to go in to possess Nations greater and mightier than thy self Cities great and fenced up to Heaven v. 1. i. e. Very strongly Fortified so as to be impregnable by any Forces but such as were led on by the Lord of Hosts And therefore he takes this occasion to shew them the absolute necessity of making their peace with God and securing his powerful Alliance And may we in a like juncture prudently take the Hint But here the Parallel discontinues viz. In that Moses here had but one single Enormity of Israel tho' a very great one to lament before God and that too was happily nipt in the bud by an impartial execution of Justice on the known Offenders Exod. 32. 27. But our Sins alas are prodigiously many as well as great And these too are fatally ripen'd by long indulgence and impunity So that our Breach is very wide and we need many such as Moses to stand in the Gap and fill it up which I pray God raise up to us in this important Juncture in which the very Being of our Church and Nation lies at stake May the good God pour out a Spirit of Contrition and Supplication on us that every Soul this day may put it self out

may do more for the glory of God by one exemplary Punishmment of Prophaneness than we can by a Volume of Sermons against it Many Persons have sin'd themselves to an utter obduracy in Spiritual things they are insensible of reproof their Faith is dead and their Conscience seared But their Senses are alive and 't is you only that can touch them in their most sensible Parts their Bodies and their Purses Oh! make these Rampant Sinners know that you hold not the Sword of Magistracy in vain Can it be any longer endured that Women to whom it would be shame enough to be solicited should solicit Men to Uncleanness in the open Streets even before the Noon-day Sun Can we longer bear the Wounds which Blasphemy and Obscenity make in our Ears as we pass along Is it not time that those vain People be undeceiv'd who think themselves advanced in Greatness and Gentility by the height of their Vices Oh! what can be more Divinely Honourable and more absolutely necessary than to fix resolvedly on the Reformation of these crying Enormities which would at once advance the Honour of God retrieve the Reputation of Religion dispel the Causes of our Ruine in Church and State settle the peace of our Consciences and tend to our everlasting happiness Reformation is a Work so Divine so Glorious so Blessed that were it the work of the Saints above as it is of those below we might well think that Moses would gladly come down from the Heavenly Mount Zion as he did from the Mount in the Context to bring Men to a better acquaintance with the ways of God But we are told from Heaven that a Man arising from the Dead is no proper Instrument to reclaim Sinners The Answer is they have Moses and the Prophets already Luke 16. 29. We have indeed their Writings Oh! that we had their Spirit too or rather a double Portion of it to check the inveterate Prophaneness of the Aged World For I take it to be an unquestionable Truth and I pray God fix it deeply in our Minds and Hearts That there is no more hope of our solid Prosperity than there is of our real Reformation It was never yet known that such mercies as we enjoy and such sins as we commit continued long together III Inf. Lastly we may hence discover one Reason of the slowness of our success against the common Enemy viz. Our unfitness for such a Mercy Were our Enemies entirely subdued we might probably grow worse For our Mercies have hitherto ripned our Sins and therefore till we are better disposed for Deliverance and Victory mercy it self cannot but keep it from us or dispense it as a Physician does flesh-meat to a crazy Constitution very rarely and in small Portions So that the Divine Goodness may be supposed to sigh over us as once over Israel and say Oh that my People had hearkned unto me that Israel had walk'd in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my hand against their Adversaries Psal 81. 13. So that we here see the readiest way to make a speedy end of our long War We see then my beloved Brethren wherein lyes our direct and only Path to the Temporal Prosperity of our Nation as well as the Eternal happiness of our Souls Namely in a general and unfeigned return to God in true Repentance for past Sins and in casting away from us that Prophaneness Bitterness Division and Hypocrisie whereby God has been so long offended and dishonoured serving the Lord with fervency of Spirit in newness of Life for the time to come For it is impossible that we should be happy here or hereafter without the Favour and Blessing of God And it is also impossible to attain the Favour of God whilst we continue in our Impieties Why should we then any longer delay to keep God's Commandments But you 'll say perhaps This is that we are doing this Day The whole Nation is required to be at their Prayers this Day and to humble themselves before our offended God and seek his Favour In a General Fast every one is in some sense to gird himself with Sackcloth and lie in the Dust and repent and reform in order to purge away the National Guilt To this I Answer Oh! that it were so indeed I wish with all the Concern I am able that there were such a General Repentance this Day amongst us as we extreamly need even to the last necessity But ah may it not here be reply'd as Samuel once did to convince a pretended Piety of real Iniquity 1 Sam. 15. 14. What meaneth then this bleating of the Sheep in mine Ears and the lowing of Oxen which I hear Thus as to our Case What meaneth the ratling of idle Coaches in our Ears and the tramplings of the Horses of such as ride abroad to divert themselves What means the noise of Business and Vanity yea of Lewdness in the Streets Do the open preparations in the Butcher's and Cook 's Shops denote the self denial of a Fast or the Entertainment of a Festival Do the Modern garish Dresses bear any resemblance to the Scriptural Sackcloath Yea do not some amongst us mock our Fasts and defame the Observers of them And alas may it not hence be feared or rather concluded with too great reason that a sort of Perverse Spirit is fallen upon us like that of the Jews a little before their Captivity which is described Isa 22. 12 13. In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with Sackcloth i. e. to the most solemn and severe humiliation and self-abasement And behold Joy and Gladness slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating of Flesh and drinking of Wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye Here was a perfect Scheme of Epicurism in times when God called both by his Prophets and Providences to bitter mourning and sorrow of Heart And therefore what Ear can without tingling hear that which follows in that Prophesie Or what Heart can without trembling and terror consider it vers 14. And it was revealed in mine Ears by the Lord of Hosts the God whom they mockt and whose Calls they despised Surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die i. e. this Daring Mocking Obstinacy of yours will and shall be your Destruction Oh! may no share of this Guilt no spark of this Wrath befall us or our Nation May we all be numbered amongst those that mourn now in hope of the promised Consolation Luk. 6. 21. rather than after a little empty and unseasonable merriment go down to the place of Everlasting Weeping and Wailing vers 25. Be we assured that God observes the Frame of every one of our Souls this day and will perhaps signalize the secret Mourner for publick Sins by a peculiar exemption in the Day of Calamity as it was in a like Case Ezek. 9. 4. And the Lord said unto him go thorow the midst of the City thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a Mark upon the Foreheads of the Men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof And this Mark was to be to them a note of Divine Protection from the Besom of Destruction whereby others were swept away Just as the Blood of the Pascal Lamb on the Door-posts of the Israelites was their security from that Plague whereby the First-born of the Egyptians were destroy'd But as for such who never yet kept a Fast in that contrite humble and affecting manner which is required by God But deal by this as by all other parts of Religion If a little formal and lifeless observance of it will serve the turn they will be for it as loudly as any But more than this is over-doing with them These I say do rather cumber the Work of this day than forward it They deny God their Heart and therefore give him nothing And as Religion has no Hold of them so they can have no Benefit from it They are for a Religion that will cost them nothing but this will appear a Religion which they can get nothing by May we then from this day forward turn to the Lord our God with all our Heart and serve Him with all our might That it may be said of this Fast of ours as it was of that Effectual Fast of Nineve Jon. 3. 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil ways And he repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and did it not I therefore humbly beseech the God of all Grace to kindle a most Ardent Zeal for his Ways in every one of us and make us indeed an Holy People that the Holy God may with Honour save and defend us as his People and his Inheritance and continue to deliver us as he lately did with a Mighty Hand And in order to the Repose and Renown of these Kingdoms May it please Almighty Goodness to prosper His Majesty's Forces by Sea and Land in the Just-defence of all that 's dear to us May his Great Affairs every where be favoured with the Divine Blessing And above all may it please God to preserve his Royal Person the Breath of our Nostrils That under his shade we may continue to breathe our Free Native-air Free I say from all the Fogs and Plagues of the Spiritual Egypt That being blest with the Cherishing Beams of the Holy Gospel we may rejoice in the Experience of God's Mercy here and in the Hope of a perfect Enjoyment of it for ever Now to him that is able to Save and Defend us and to do more for us than we can ask or think To Him be Worship and Praise Dominion and Obedience ascribed for ever and ever Amen FINIS