will amend and do better for the future And we should endeavour also to fortifie these good Resolutions in the best manner we can by serious consideration and by solemn promises of better obedience and of a more conscientious Care of our Lives and all our Actions for the future And then with the greatest earnestness and importunity we should implore the Assistance of God's Grace and Holy Spirit to this purpose By this means the great End of a solemn Fast and Humiliation will be in some good Measure attain'd and not wholly defeated as for the most part it is by being hudled up and lost in a confused and general Repentance which commonly ends together with the publick Assembly without any real and permanent Effect upon particular Persons Perhaps a great part of the Congregation may have been in some degree sorry for their Sins but after all no man forsakes them nor is the better for his sorrow but leaves that behind him in the Church and carries home with him the same Affection for his Sins which he had before and a secret Resolution not to leave them Thus it was with the People of the Jews They had their solemn monthly Fasts in which they made a great shew of Humiliation hanging down their heads like a bulrush for a day and spreading sackcloth and ashes under them But there was no inward change of their minds no real Reformation of their Lives and assoon as ever the publick Solemnity was over they turned every one to his former evil Course So God complains of them I hearkned says He and I heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done but they turned every one to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel They spake not aright that is they did not take the right Method for an effectual Repentance They humbled themselves indeed before God and repented at random for the Sins of the Nation in general which they were all of them ready enough to acknowledge and to lay a heavy load of guilt upon the Community But all this while they never reflected upon themselves in particular they had no sense no conviction of their own personal faults and miscarriages without which there can be no true general Repentance No man repented of his wickedness saying what have I done And as they had no sense of their own particular Sins which they had been guilty of so they had no thought of leaving them but assoon as ever the publick Fasting and Humiliation was over they return'd to them again with the same eager and furious Appetite they turned every one to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel that is without any consideration or sense of danger Secondly We should likewise upon this Day heartily lament and bewail the Sins of others especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation committed by all Ranks and Orders of men amongst us and whereby the wrath and indignation of Almighty God hath been so justly incensed against us This hath been the temper and practice of good men in all Ages to be greatly troubled and afflicted for the Sins of others as well as for their own to mourn for them in secret as the Prophet Jeremy does for the obstinacy and impenitency of the Jews and for the terrible Judgments and Calamities which their Sins were ready to bring down upon them But if ye will not return says he to that obdurate People my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride or obstinacy and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's Flock is carried away captive And indeed almost the whole Prophecy of Jeremy and his Book of Lamentations are little else but a perpetual Humiliation and Mourning for the Sins of that People and for the Judgments of God which he saw already inflicted or foresaw to be coming upon them We reade likewise of Lot when he dwelt in Sodom how he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man saith St. Peter dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds Holy David also upon all occasions testifies his great trouble and grief for the Sins which he saw committed by others and was so affected with them that he trembled at the very thought of them Rivers of tears says he run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law And in the same Psalm Horrour hath taken hold of me because of the wicked which forsake thy Law And again I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy Word And how does Daniel humble himself before God and mourn and in the Name of all the People and of all Degrees and Orders of men among them take shame to himself and them for the great Sins which they had been guilty of We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day To our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee With what trouble and confusion does Ezra upon a solemn Day of Fasting and Humiliation acknowledge and bewail the Sins of the People O my God says he I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God For our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasses grown up unto the heavens Since the days of our Fathers we have been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our Kings and our Priests been delivered into the hands of the Kings of the Lands c. And thus also ought we the People of this sinful Land upon this solemn Day of Fasting and Humiliation to set our Sins in order before us with all their heinous Aggravations and in the bitterness of our souls to lament and bewail that general prevalence of Impiety and Vice which hath over-spread the Nation and diffused it self through all Ranks and Degrees of men Magistrates Ministers and People I shall speak something more particularly concerning each of these 1. The Sins of the Magistrates and those that are in Authority They that make Laws for others and are to see to the execution of them ought to be strict observers of them themselves For it must needs put a man not a little out of countenance to be severe upon those faults in others of which he knows himself to be notoriously guilty And yet how many are there whose place and duty it is to correct the vices and immoralities of others who are far from being examples of vertue themselves And therefore it is no wonder that there is so lame and unequal a distribution of justice in the Nation and that Magistrates are so cold and slack in the discountenancing of Vice and Impiety and in putting the good and wholesome Laws made against them
know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this But more especially in vindication of his oppressed Truth and Religion and in the great and signal Deliverances of his Church and People God is wont to take the conduct of affairs into his own hands and not to proceed by humane rules and measures He then bids second Causes to stand by that his own Arm may be seen and his Salvation may appear He raiseth the spirits of men above their natural pitch and giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength as the Prophet expresseth it Thus hath the Providence of God very visibly appear'd in our late Deliverance in such a manner as I know not whether He ever did for any other Nation except the People of Israel when He delivered them from the House of Bondage by so mighty a hand and so outstretched an arm And yet too many among us I speak it this day to our shame do not seem to have the least sense of this great Deliverance or of the hand of God which was so visible in it but like the Children of Israel when they were brought out of Egypt we are full of murmurings and discontent against God the Author and his Servant the happy Instrument under God of this our Deliverance What the Prophet says of that People may I fear be too justly apply'd to us Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord Lord When thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed And I hope I may add that which follows in the next verse Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us What God hath already done for our deliverance is I hope an earnest that He will carry it on to a perfect peace and settlement and this notwithstanding our high provocations and horrible ingratitude to the God of our Life and of our Salvation And when ever the Providence of God thinks fit thus to interpose in humane affairs the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong For which reason their Majesties in their great Piety and Wisdom and from a just sense of the Providence of Almighty God which rules in the Kingdoms of men have thought fit to set apart this Day for solemn repentance and humiliation That the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of and which are of all other our greatest and most dangerous Enemies may not separate between God and us and hinder good things from us and cover us with confusion in the day of our danger and distress And likewise earnestly to implore the favour and blessing of Almighty God upon their Majesties Forces and Preparations by Sea and Land And more particularly for the preservation of his Majesties sacred Person upon whom so much depends and who is contented again to hazard Himself to save us To conclude There is no such way to engage the Providence of God for us as by real Repentance and Reformation and by doing all we can in our several Places from the highest to the lowest by the provision of wise and effectual Laws for the discountenancing and suppressing of Profaneness and Vice and by the careful and due execution of them and by the more kindly and powerful influence of a good Example to retrieve the ancient Piety and Virtue of the Nation For without this whatever we may think of the firmness of our present settlement we cannot long be upon good terms with Almighty God upon whose favour depends the prosperity and stability of the present and future Times I have but one thing more to mind you of and that is to stir up your charity towards the poor which is likewise a great part of the Duty of this Day and which ought always to accompany our Prayers and Fastings Thy Prayers and thine Alms saith the Angel to Cornelius are come up before God And therefore if we desire that our Prayers should reach Heaven and receive a gracious answer from God we must send up our Alms along with them And instead of all other arguments to this purpose I shall only recite to you the plain and perswasive words of God Himself in which He declares what kind of Fast is acceptable to Him Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his soul Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen To loose the bands of wickedness and to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily thy righteousness or thine Alms shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Then shalt thou call and I will answer thee thou shalt cry and He shall say here I am Now to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Vnto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen And the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen The way to prevent the Ruin of a Sinful People A FAST-SERMON Preached before the LORD-MAYOR c. ON Wednesday June the 18th 1690. Pilkington Mayor Mercurii xviii Junii 1690. Annoque Regis Reginae Willelmi Mariae Angliae c. Secundo THis Court doth desire Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls to Print his Sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of London at St. Mary-le-Bow Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable
in his present Expedition and crown him with victory and good success And to our Repentance and Prayers let us add our liberal Alms and according to the counsel given by the Prophet to Nebuchadnezzar let us break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthening of our tranquility We are yet blessed be God in the full enjoyment of peace and quiet at home and of our Religion and Civil Liberties God hath given us two excellent Princes sitting on the Throne together and both of the same Religion with the main Body of the Nation and as bright Examples of piety and goodness as England ever saw And who do by all ways and means study and seek the good of the People committed to their charge So that if we did but know our own happiness and how to value it we might be the happiest People this day under Heaven And yet for all this we are very far from being happy because we are neither contented nor united and tho we have all the materials of Happiness about us and within our reach yet have we not the skill and wisdom to put them together Miserable People that may be happy and will not whom neither so fresh a Deliverance from so great a Danger as was just ready to have swallowed us up nor the fear and apprehension of falling again into the like confusion can be a warning to us from returning again unto the same folly For those odious and unhappy Names of difference which some years ago sprang up among us the Devil knows how did seem whilst a common danger threatned us to be quite dead and buried But no sooner was the danger over but by a kind of miraculous infatuation behold a sudden Resurrection of them with greater heats and animosities if possible than before Just as it was with the Jews in the Siege of Jerusalem when the Romans had made a wide breach and the City was furiously assaulted the Factions then gave Truce to one another and ran in to the common defence but as soon as ever the danger was a little over they fell on afresh and prosecuted their main design of destroying one another And now that the danger is a little over with us also how like a Fate upon us does it look that we are so soon alter'd from our wiser and better temper Did we well and wisely before out late happy Revolution when we united for our common defence against a common danger and did let those unlucky Names of distinction fall so that they seem'd to be quite extinguish'd And can it be now wise to revive them and to take them up again when the same danger in some degree and from the same implacable Enemies still hovers over us No surely it would not be wise if the danger were quite past and over but when it still remains and threatens us what greater folly and infatuation can there be than still to divide and quarrel among our selves Will nothing but sad and bitter experience be an admonition to us Will nothing but the last necessity and extremity of things bring us to our selves and teach us wisdom Methinks we should all now be glad to be at rest after the tedious troubles and distractions the fruitless quarrels and divisions of fifty years So long I remember and in all that space how very few years pass'd over us without some great Calamity and dismal Event So that by this time one would think we should all be sick of our own follies and so tir'd with our unprofitable feuds and dissentions as to make both sides look about them to see if any body will take pity on us and step in to part our quarrels And now I begin to be sensible that I have engag'd in a tender Point indeed and do feel my self standing upon a very slippery place For who is fit to interpose in such hot and fierce differences who can do it without danger or with any hopes of success And yet for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep silence Of so great consequence is it to the peace and happiness of this Church and Nation that these Names and Distinctions of Parties should be laid down and abolish'd for ever In order whereunto I take it for granted and lay it for a Principle that he who hopes to persuade both sides must provoke neither And therefore I will not so much as enquire where the fault lies It is in these Civil differences as in Family quarrels between Man and Wife if any man ask on which side lies the fault one may almost safely answer at a venture on both sides It must indeed begin on one but if it be not presently heal'd and made up the other Party is always so civil as to run in and take a share of the fault that all the blame may not lie wholly on one side And now my Brethren let me for once persuade and prevail with you for your good Let me be so happy as to say something that may sink into your hearts and incline your minds to peace and good agreement with one another Have salt in your selves says our Blessed Saviour the great Peace maker and peace one with another By Salt is meant grace and spiritual wisdom and if that do but rule and sway in our hearts we shall then endeavour if it be possible and as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men If we have salt in our selves that is if we be wise we will then certainly have peace one with another And if we were but once come to this healing temper in this divided and distracted Nation we should not then need to fear all the power of the Enemy And this our Enemies know full well and therefore their chief policy and wisdom is and ever hath been to divide us and it will be our own great folly and weakness if we suffer our selves to be divided For who that is wise will take counsel and advice from an Enemy But if we could agree and hold together then our Jerusalem would be as a City that is compact together strong and impregnable Let us then be instructed and know in this our day things which belong to our Peace before they be hid from our eyes And let us all earnestly endeavour and pray for the peace of Jerusalem They shall prosper that love her says the Psalmist and they do not love her that do not seek her peace and endeavour by all means to procure it That peace may be within her walls and prosperity within her Palaces The one cannot be without the other without Peace there can be no Prosperity And to go on with the words of the Psalmist let every one of us say yea let us all with one heart and voice say for our Brethren and Companions sake for the sake of our Protestant Brethren all the World
this and support and carry Her through all the Difficulties of it And Lastly That He would bless them Both with a long Life and a peacefull and happy Reign over us that under them we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty Fifthly Our Fasting and Humiliation should be accompanied with our Alms and Charity to the poor and needy And we should every one of us according to the counsel given by the Prophet to King Nebuchadnezzar break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity Hereby intimating that if there be any way to prevent or remove the Judgments of God and to prolong the tranquillity and happiness of Prince and People a sincere Repentance and a great Charity to them that are in necessity and distress are most likely to prevail with God not only to respite the ruine of a sinful People but to incline Him to thoughts of peace towards them For so he promiseth to the Jews upon their sincere Repentance and earnest Supplication to Him which are always accompanied with Charity to the Poor For I know the thoughts which I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an unexpected end Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart And I have often thought that the extraordinary Charity of this whole Nation and of our pious Princes who are so ready to every good work and such bright and shining Examples in this kind more than once so seasonably extended to the relief of our distressed Brethren who fled hither for refuge from the Rage and Cruelty of their Persecutors I say I have often thought that this very thing next to the infinite Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God hath had a very particular influence upon our preservation and deliverance from those terrible Calamities which were just ready to rush in upon us And what cause have we to thank God who hath allotted to us this more blessed and merciful part to give and not to receive to be free from Persecution our selves that so we might be in a capacity to give refuge and relief to them that were persecuted There are but few that have the faith to believe it but certainly Charity to the Poor is a great security to us in times of evil So David assures us speaking of the Righteous or Charitable Man He shall not says he be afraid in the evil time and in the days of Dearth he shall be satisfied And so likewise in Times of publick Distress when we are beset with cruel and powerful Enemies who if God were not on our side would swallow us up the publick Charity of a Nation hath many times prov'd its best safeguard and shield It shall fight for thee saith the Son of Sirach speaking of the Charity of Alms against thine Enemy more than a mighty shield and strong spear And of this as I said before I doubt not but We of this Nation by the great Mercy and Goodness of God to us have had happy experience in our late wonderful Deliverance under the Conduct and Valour of one of the best and bravest of Princes to whom by too many among us the most unworthy and unthankful returns have been made for all the unwearied pains he hath undergone and for the many desperate hazards to which he hath exposed himself for our sakes that ever were made to so great and generous a Benefactor To so great a Benefactor I say not only to these Nations but even to all Europe in asserting and maintaining their Liberties against the insolent pride and unjust encroachments of one of the greatest Oppressors the World hath known for many Ages Of whom it may be said as Job doth of the Leviathan Vpon the earth there is not his like I am glad I cannot apply what immediately follows That he is made without fear but surely the next words are apposite enough He beholdeth all high things and is King of all the children of pride And yet He that is higher than the highest even He that sitteth in the Heavens doth laugh at him for He seeth that his Day is coming To conclude this Particular If we would have our Prayers ascend up to Heaven and find acceptance there our Alms must go along with them So the Angel intimates when he says to Cornelius Thy Prayers and thine Alms are gone up for a memorial before God Thy Prayers and thine Alms they must go together if we desire that our Prayers should be effectual And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Fast which God hath chosen and which is acceptable to Him makes Charity and Alms a most essential part of it Is it not says he to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and He shall say Here I am Sixthly and Lastly We should prosecute our Repentance and good Resolutions to the actual Reformation and Amendment of our Lives For in this Repentance doth mainly consist This is the proper fruit and effect of all our Humiliation and good Resolutions to forsake our sins and to become better for the future more pious and devout towards God more sober and chast with regard to our selves more just and charitable more humble and meek towards all men In a word more innocent more useful and more holy in all manner of conversation And without this all our Fasting and Humiliation our most earnest Prayers and Supplications will signifie nothing All our Sorrow and Tears will be but as water spilt upon the ground and will not turn to any account either to save our own Souls or to preserve this untoward Generation this crooked and perverse Nation from ruin and destruction So God tells Solomon that this is the only way to appease and reconcile Him to a sinful People If my People which is called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear in Heaven and forgive their sin and heal their Land And if this were the happy effect of our Prayers and Humiliation this Day to turn us from our wicked ways God would then turn away his anger from us and as he promised to the Jews by the Prophet Zachary He would turn these our Monthly Fasts into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts as he hath in a great measure already done Blessed be his great and glorious Name But if we will not hearken and obey can we expect that God should deliver us from the hands of our