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A57934
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A sermon preach'd at St. Mary-Le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, June 28, 1697 / by John Russell.
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Russell, John, fl. 1660.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing R2346; ESTC R26224
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19,860
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54
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and put off the time And a 3d seeming willing to be his Disciple yet would excuse himself from the immediate attendance on his Service Lord I will follow thee but let me first bid them farewel which are at home To whom our Lord replies in the words of the Text No Man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God i.e. No Man having engag'd himself to my Service and after turning back to his secular Concerns with a regard had first to those is fit for the Kingdom of God The words are allegorical pressing a constancy to the Service of Christ from the diligence of him that tills the Ground As if our Lord had said He that holds the Plough must keep to his Business not look behind him or neglect his Work to trifle about other things that come into his head if he does he 's unfit for such an Imployment as requires a constant attendance on it So those that enter into my Service they must put on Resolution and not make vain and trifling Excuses to return back to the Affairs of the World but be constant and sedulous otherwise they are not qualified to be my Disciples and so by consequence are unfit for the Glories of my Kingdom which are only design'd as the blessed Rewards of the sincerely Faithful and constantly Laborious The Text appears to be a severe Reproof levell'd against the coldness and negligent carriage of too many who profess to be Disciples of Jesus Christ who having engag'd themselves by their Character and Vows by their Office and Order by their Profession and Pretensions to be his Followers to espouse the Cause of Religion and Piety and the Interest of Holiness and yet after all these solemn Declarations by a sad Tergiversation return to the World and the things thereof and to a remiss and loose state of Life And like Lot's Wife by Sodom tho they were once by themerciful hand of convincing Grace brought out of that supine and sinful Condition in which by Nature they lay after all those Enlightnings and Lectures of their own Consciences do return again like the Dog to his Vomit to their former Corruptions or at least with longing Desires and incurved Hearts look back to that state which will become a Prey to Fire and Brimstone In speaking therefore on this Subject I shall endeavour to do these following things I. To shew what it is to put our Hands to the Plough II. To shew what it is to look back III. To shew the Danger and sad Consequence of such a dreadful Retrospection after we have been engag'd in so good a Work which is That such Persons are not fit for the Kingdom of God I. For the first What it is to put our Hands to the Plough Since our Lord himself is pleas'd to make use of this so plain and homely a Metaphor I hope it cannot savour of Clownishness or Rusticity to follow his Example and since he applies it to those who make a Profession of being his Disciples and afterwards withdraw themselves from his Service I am sure it 's safe and easy too to follow such an Expositor The Plough we know is an Instrument of Husbandry and they that hold it render the Ground fit for Seed and this apply'd spiritually signifies all those that labour to make the World fit to bring forth fruits of Peace that strive to reform the deplorable state of Mankind and to render Mens Hearts capable to receive the Seed of the Word To put our hands to the Plough therefore is to declare against Sin and the Kingdom of Satan and to act against it in our Station It is to engage in the service of Jesus Christ to endeavour to render the Church fruitful of good Works 't is to commence an holy Warfare against the state of Darkness to suppress Vice and encourage Holiness and to do what in us lies to carry on the Cause and Interest of Religion 'T is with an holy Zeal and an undauntedness of Mind to make opposition against that torrent of Vice which is breaking in upon the face of the Church and not only to reform our selves and bring our own Lives into a conformity to the Divine Pleasure but also strenuously endeavour to reform others to break up that Soil which is crusted over with a Callus of Sin and to render it fit for the ingrafted Word of the Gospel to enter 'T is in a word publickly to espouse the Cause and Honour of Religion and to give a check to the growing Progress of the Synagogue of Satan And since the Church of God in holy Scripture is compar'd to a Field as our Lord himself delivers it in that Parable Mat. 13. of the Wheat and the Tares let us consider how much every particular Person is concern'd in the Tillage and Cultivation of it in order that a bountiful Crop of Righteousness may be brought forth to the Glory of God and the Salvation of those that labour in this holy Imployment 1st Every Man by Nature is a barren Ground in which only the Seeds of Sin spring up and fructify to the dishonour of God and destruction of himself And since by that infinite Love of God in giving Jesus Christ and contracting with us on conditions of Love he has render'd us capable of bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance and reaping as the effect of such a gracious Harvest eternal Life And since on our entring into this contract of Peace I mean the Covenant of the Gospel we have sworn to our great Master to become his Subjects and Servants to labour in his Vineyard to be diligent in his Work the neglect and breach of which awful Vow will terminate in Destruction Every one therefore that is baptized into Christ and has put on Christ and has received the Seal of the Covenant of Grace confirm'd by our Redeemer between God and Us has put his Hand to the Plough He has vowed himself to be the obedient Servant of Jesus Christ and has declar'd himself an irreconcileable Enemy to all Ungodliness he has promis'd according to the Prophet Jer. 4.3 To break up the fallow Ground of his Heart and not to sow among Thorns and agreeable to Hosea 10.12 To sow to himself in Righteousness and thereby to reap Mercy to break up the fallow Ground since it's time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon him But 2dly Since we are not design'd by our great Creator for our selves alone but made for Society and therefore for the Good and Comfort of others And since in this regard there must be a discrimination of Persons in respect of Superiority and Inferiority it will be fit to consider how far we have put our Hand to this good Work in the behalf of others and who those are that are more particularly concern'd in it And in doing this I shall briefly consider the three great Divisions into which all Men are rank'd
the way in which he is walking whither it tends and where 't will end that he 'd not rush into the Gulph of everlasting Destruction thro' folly and incogitancy but consider the Weight of Eternity the Worth of his Soul and the Love of God and the Value of Heaven and the dreadful State of Eternal Vengeance and that he 'd labour earnestly to obtain the one and avoid the other And this is a Duty which we owe to Mankind both as we are of the same Nature and as we are commanded by the Divine Word Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him And so St. Paul Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day And in another place let us provoke one another to Love and to good Works And farther We are not only to Perswade our Neighbours and to use all the Methods of Love and Kindness to engage them to their Duty but also since some are so abominably vicious that nothing but the terror and punishment of the Magistrate can restrain them from the open violation of the Law of God therefore it 's the Duty of every Man to detect Such unto the Magistrate that where the Force of Perswasion cannot prevail there the Power of the Sword may restrain And that 't is our Duty thus to discover all such Persons who are the Open and Notorious Opposers of Piety and endeavour to bring upon them legal Inflictions not only appears from the nature of the thing but also from a consideration of that general Duty which lies upon us to labour for the support of the Kingdom of Christ and the suppression and destruction of the Power of Satan And since there are Many so deplorably wicked that the whole Bent and Stream of their Conversation is scandalous and vicious offensive to God destructive to Themselves and pernicious to Others Therefore every Man is bound in Conscience to God and in Honour to Vertue to make such Persons publick Examples by labouring to inflict those Penalties upon them which our good and wholsom Laws have determined 'T is our great happiness that we live under a Government where Iniquity is so far from being established by a Law or so much as left Neutral that 't is not only forbidden but also punished But our Laws are nothing but dead Letters and Justice holds but a wooden Sword without execution for 't is that which is the Life of the Law it self and the Honour of that People which enjoy such wholesom Constitutions And since Magistrates to whom the execution of our Laws are committed cannot do it without information of the Persons and Crimes of Offenders therefore 't is every Man's Duty as he tenders the Honour of God and the Glory of the Gospel the Increase of the Church and the Good of the Weal-Publick and as He would not be a partaker of other Mens Sins in hiding and concealing them to detect such as openly and commonly affront the Majesty of God and the Authority of Man by notorious Vices and those scandalous Impieties which make us stink in the Nostrils of the Almighty and bring down his Plagues and Judgments upon us But this Point having been formerly so well prov'd in this place and on this occasion in former Discourses I shall therefore proceed towards a conclusion of the first head of the Text That Magistrates by their Power Ministers by their Office and every Christian by his Character as such has put his Hand to the Plough of God has given in his Name as a Labourer in the Field of the Church of Christ in order to root out the Weeds of Impiety and to sow and cherish the good Seed of Grace that we may all grow up to Eternal Life But besides all this more particularly God has stirr'd up the Hearts of Some in and about this Great City whose Numbers God of his Mercy increase and whose Zeal God of his Goodness augment who have united themselves in Religious Fraternities for the more effectual carrying on of This Glorious and never to be enough commended Work of giving a check to Vice and reforming if possible the corrupt and depraved Manners of the unhappy Age in which we live And You who are enter'd into this Noble Design whose Hearts God has more especially touch'd with a sense of your Duty You have in a more than ordinary manner put your hand to the Plough And to encourage you in it I shall truly affirm that this Work and the Undertakers of it are the great springing Glory of our Church and a comfortable Testimony that God has not utterly left us off to Judgment This is a Design worthy of Men as we are the Image of God and worthy of Christians as we are the Disciples of Jesus Christ 'T is the Cause of God that you have undertaken in opposition to the Devil and the Cause of Vertue in opposition to Vice and of Religion in opposition to Atheism 'T is an Enterprize that is every way praise-worthy and I may speak it with a sufficient degree of Reverence 'T is worthy of God to own and Men to prosecute and I hope it 's carried on by Means that are agreeable unto the noble End which it designs And certainly no Man can oppose it or become an Enemy unto it that does not first by his own Life render himself obnoxious to it But now my Brethren if after you have thus begun in a Divine Work and have increas'd your Numbers and diffus'd your Design throughout the Parts of this mighty City and you have seen many good Fruits of these your Endeavours In cleansing many Augean Stables of Lust and Filthiness In making many who made no conscience of profaning the Name of God to set a bar before their Lips In repressing the Disorders which are too frequently committed on the Lord's Day And in charity one may hope of bringing several to a sense of their Sin and to a sincere Repentance and to bless the Almighty for this your Undertaking Now if after all this Satan should become so mischievously successful as to stifle your Zeal and to baffle you in your Work by the little Mocks Scoffs and Taunts of those that are his Agents If you faint at the opposition that you must expect to meet with from the Frowns of Some and the Threats of Others If this beat you out of the Field into which you have entred in order to work It would not only be a sad Omen of your own Spiritual Decay but be also a great Discouragement unto Others and would give the greatest blow unto the Cause of Religion by adding the Trophies and Ensigns of Success to the black Triumphs of the Prince of Darkness But this I shall farther insist on in the next part of the Text which is II. To shew what 't is to look back As the putting our Hand to the Plough intends the ingaging our selves in the Cause and Interest of Holiness and