Dr. FOWLERS SERMON Preached at BOW-CHURCH ON THE FAST DAY April the 16th 1690. PILKINGTON Maior c. Cur. Special tent apud Dom. Mansional Domini Maior Die Lunae xxi o. Die Aprilis 1690. Annoque Regni Regis Reginae Willielmi Mariae Angliae c. Secundo THis COURT doth desire Dr. Fowler to Print his Sermon Preached at St. Mary le Bow the 16th of this Instant April 1690. before the Lord Maior Aldermen and Citizens of this City Wagstaffe A SERMON Preached at BOW-CHURCH April the Xvi th 1690 Before the LORD MAIOR AND Court of Aldermen AND CITIZENS of LONDON Being the FAST-DAY By EDWARD FOWLER D. D. LONDON Printed by T. M. for Brabazon Alymer at the Three Pidgeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil And Awnsham Churchil at the Black Swan in Ave-Mary-Lane MDCXC To the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Pilkington LORD MAIOR Of the CITY of LONDON AND THE Court of Aldermen Right Honourable SINCE Your Favourable Acceptance of this Sermon hath Produced Your Order for my making it thus Publick I do here Humbly Present You with it In Composing whereof it was my whole Aym and Endeavour to promote as well as I was able the Proper Business and that which ought to be the only Design of Publick Days of Humiliation Namely the Atoning of the Divine Displeasure by so Penitent a Sense of our Personal Sins and the Sins of our Nation that cry aloud for Vengeance as is followed with the Forsaking of them and with hearty Endeavours in our several Stations to be Instrumental as much as in us lies towards a General Reformation To which I doubt there never was in any People a more Obstinate Aversness than is at this present to be observed among us The Consideration whereof makes the hearts of Good Men Ake to think what at last may become of us after the Wonderful Things God hath from time to time and now of late done for us It can be at no time Excuseable but is on Fasting-days Unpardonable to be Mealy-mouth'd and Shy of justly Representing the Untoward State we are in with the true Cause thereof or of impartially Enumerating and Exposing our Reigning Sins or to be sparing in Reproving those Vices and Follies which are grown so Popular as with very many among us to pass for Virtues And the only Apology I shall make to those who may happen to be Offended at several Passages in the Applicatory Part of this Discourse is that if we spare to speak now we may for ever hold our Peace But the Truth is We are under no small Discouragement to hope for Success upon those men who stand in most need of Plain-dealing since long Experience assures us that these have made themselves Sermon-Proof Yet however Whether they will Hear or whether they will Forbear there is great Satisfaction in having faithfully done our Duty and discharged our Consciences Now that God would Multiply His Blessings upon this Great and Renowned City and especially on Yourselves who under Their Majesties have the Chief Government thereof And make You Happy Instruments in the diverting of His Iudgments from it by Vigorously Setting Yourselves to the Suppressing of the Vices that Abound in it which will be Your Crown and Glory at the Great Day is the Hearty Prayer of Right Honourable Your most Humble Servant Edward Fowler A SERMON Preach'd before the LORD MAIOR AND THE Court of Aldermen c. Hosea 11. 8. How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together THere is nothing to be affirmed of Almighty God with more absolute Certainty than that the making of his Creatures happy according to their Capacities of Happiness is highly pleasing to him Let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me That I am the Lord which exercise Loving-kindness Iudgment and Righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord Ier. 9. 24. The Divine Nature is all Love and Benignity God is Love saith the Apostle St. Iohn The Sun and Light may be as soon separated as God and Goodness the Deity and Loving-kindness Nor is that Glorious Lamp of Heaven more free in communicating Light and Heat to the several Parts of the World according as they are capable of receiving them than is God in spending the benign Rays and Influences of his Goodness upon his whole Creation according as 't is qualified and disposed for them And whensoever he withdraweth the Light of his Countenance and Fatherly Care from any People whensoever he turns their Ioy into Heaviness and puts them into unhappy Circumstances it is long of themselves not of the least Defect of Goodness in Him 't is wholly owing to their rendering themselves unmeet to be any longer Partakers of his Grace and Favour So that he cannot act the Part of an Indulgent Father towards all sorts of men and do like an infinitely Wise and Holy Being who is above all things concerned to promote the Interest of Righteousness and Universal Goodness in the Universe God is ever a like Good in himself and a like willing to do good to all as the Sun is equally full of Light at all times and a like free in displaying his Beams And therefore as it is not to be ascribed to any deficiency in the Sun that we are every night in darkness but to the Earth's interposing between it and us so is it not I say to be imputed to any want of Goodness in God that Nations or particular Persons are at any time deprived of his wonted Protection but they must blame themselves for it Your Iniquities saith the Prophet have seperated between you and your God and your sins have hid his Face from you c. Isaiah 59. 2. In short God as God is always inclined to do good to his Creatures but considering Him as Governour of the World he is too often under a necessity of being very severe though indeed he may be truly said to do good in inflicting Evil nay he designeth herein the greatest good he aimeth at the good of their Souls whom he punisheth till they grow obdurate and are incorrigible But he ever designeth a general good in the Iudgments he executeth viz. The Reformation of those Corrigible People who are Observers of them or made acquainted with them When thy Iudgments are abroad in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness Isaiah 26. 9. Which is as much as to say Mens learning of Righteousness is Gods Design in his Iudgments and they are very powerful means in order thereto in their own nature Now this being the true State of the Case it is apparent that God Almighty inflicts his Iudgments not out of Free Choice but from Constraint and with a kind of unwilling willingness And this he hath expresly told us Lam. 3.
Deluge And this Ark was Noah in preparing for Forty Years together that so it might give the longer Warning for otherwise 't is likely he might have finish'd it in a much shorter time How long and how frequently had both the ten Tribes and the two Warnings sent them by the Prophets before they were carried away Captive And what an Awakening Warning had the two Tribes from the fulfilling of the Threatnings against the ten to prevent the fulfilling of the like against themselves Nor did God thus concern Himself to give Warnings only to the People of Israel but He did the like also to Heathen Nations As the Moabites the Syrians the Egyptians the Tyrians the Ninevites c. I say the Threatnings sent to all these were designed for Warnings God's meaning in them was nothing less than to torment them before the time They were sent to Rouze sleepy Souls out of their security and to awaken them to a speedy Repentance that so there might be no necessity of making good His Threatnings which the Ninevites found by happy Experience Well was it for them that they were so Threatned since they had been actually destroyed had they not first been threatned with destruction Because then they would not have repented as they did And the Design of those other Threats which were fulfilled to the utmost was the very same with the design of those pronounced against Nineveh as the Prophets do abundantly assure us Conditions we plainly perceive were implyed in such as were most absolutely exprest as what Threatning could be exprest more absolutely than thaâ— against Nineveh Even our Saviour's so punctually Predicting the Destruction of Ierusalem with the heavy Calamities leading to it and the strange Prodigies which gave notice of the near approach of it we are to reckon in the number of Warnings although the Destruction of that City was irreversibly decreed for the murthering of the Lord of Glory there which was at hand as also were the Miseries that befel the obdurate Iews That Prediction and those Prodigies were Warnings to the sincere Christians that they might escape as accordingly they did the dreadful Iudgment And likewise to those who were not hardned to the utmost degree among the Iews that they might Repent of their Infidelity and embrace the Gospel and so might escape too And as I have shewed how God did of old give Fore-warnings by the Prophets of great Iudgments so I think it no hard matter to make it out that He hath given Presages in all these latter Ages by very significant Providences and extraordinary Events which our Saviour calls Signs of the times before especially Great Revolutions or General and Extraordinary Calamities History hath surnish'd us with abundance of Instances of this nature and our own Histories with not a few that have been observed in these Kingdoms And we may if we please call to mind several of these Presages which have happened in our own time before great Iudgments But this is a Topick which the Scepticism of the Age will scarce bear the handling But I can't forbear saying that I much fear we have some ill-boding Signs at this present of God's sending viz. Instances of a marvellous Infatuation no whit I doubt inferiour to that we observed a while ago with no less pleasure than wonder in our Adversarys I say at this present we have Instances of such an Infatuation as all must needs observe who are not in the number of the Infatuated and which seems perfectly unaccountable if it be'nt Iudicial No doubt the wiser and better sort ought to look on these as Warnings designed for them especially if not only Thirdly 'T is Gods usual Course to try a wicked People with Lighter Iudgments before He brings the Heaviest upon them We have a Remarkable Place to this purpose Amos 4. 6 c. Here God minds his People First that he had given them great scarcity of Bread and yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Next that he had given them the like of Water and yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Next that he had sent upon their Vineyards and Olive-yards c. blasting Winds and devouring Insects and yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Next that he had sent among them a sweeping Plague and moreover the Heavier Iudgment as King David accounted it of a bloody War and yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. And by the way you can scarce need to be minded that these three last were our Late Calamities and since they were I fear as much lost upon us as they were on those Iews we have the greater reason to attend to what follows in the next verse which is a dreadful one indeed Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel Which is as much as to say seeing so many other Iudgments have proved ineffectual to the Reforming of you do you now expect some Fearful thing which shall be nameless Some Iudgment far more dreadful than any that have hitherto fallen upon you and therefore put your selves into a posture of defence and see whether you are able to contend and try it out with me And the Author of the Book of Wisdom tells us that God dealt after the same manner with the Canaanites themselves that before they were for their Horrid Practices devoted to Destruction He Executed upon them his Iudgments by little and little and by so doing gave them place for Repentance Ch. 12. 8 c. Fourthly When God had determined to pour down the Vials of his Vengeance on a wicked People He hath some times plainly intimated that he did it not till their wickedness was come up to such a Heighth as did necessarily call for them For instance When he was resolved on the destruction of the old World he declared that the wickedness of man was not only great upon the Earth but so great that every thought and imagination of his heart was only evil and that continually And that mankind was grown so horribly depraved that it even Repented him that he had made man or he was become as hateful to him as if he repented his Creating of him God did not rain down Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah before he had signified to his Servant Abraham that the cry of their wickedness was come up unto him that it was great and their sin very grievous The reason he gave for his deferring the Destruction of the Amorites to the fourth Generation was that the Iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full And our Blessed Saviour supposeth that there is a certain Measure and Proportion of wickedness which sinners do come up to before God is so severe as to inflict the heaviest Iudgments upon them in those words to the Scribes and Pharisees Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers Mat. 23. 32. Fifthly 'T is
likewise apparent that God Almighty is most backward to the destroying of a wicked People or putting them into miserable circumstances till necessitated in that he hath again and again declared his being diverted from so doing by such Motives as one would think could have but very little influence upon such a Being as He is or rather none at all As if to speak with Reverence he were glad of any Excuse for the longer sparing those who had made themselves lyable to the stroak of his Iustice. 1. A meer partial Humiliation an Humiliation far short of true Repentance hath been one of those Motives Thus upon Ahabs putting on Sackcloth Fasting and going Softly said God to the Prophet Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days c. 'T is said of Ahab that he sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord whom Iezebel his Wife stirred up And I need not recite unto you the abominable things he did for which God threatned him by the Prophet Elijah that He would bring evil upon him and take away his Posterity and cut off from him him that pisseth against the Wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and would make his House like the House of Ieroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin 1 Kin. 21. 21 c. And it follows ver 27. And it came to pass when Ahab heard these words that he rent his clothes and put Sackcloth upon his Flesh and Fasted and went softly Would any one have thought now that this Humiliation of so Vile a man could in the least have moved the Divine Compassion We are not to think that he only acted a part and play'd the Hypocrite in this Humiliation for then he would have so much the more provoked God against him But yet God knew that this his humbling himself proceeded from meer dread of the Threatned Iudgment that there was no Detestation of his wicked doings at the bottom of it and therefore that no Reformation would be produced by it Yet it pleased the Almighty to shew how averse he was to great severity by being wrought upon by so very imperfect an Humiliation as this to the putting off the Execution of this Threatning till after his time It follows verses 28 29. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself because he humbleth himself before me because he doth not mock at this Threat but so far humbleth himself as thou hast seen I will not bring the evil in his days but in his Sons days will I bring the Evil upon his House Which Threatning we may suppose had this tacit Condition I will bring the evil in his Sons days if another sort of Humiliation than the Fathers was doth not prevent it Again We have another instance like this of Ahab 2 Chron. 12. 7 8 We read in the beginning of the Chapter that when Rehoboam had Establish'd the Kingdom and had strengthened himself he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him And that in the Fifth Year of his Reign Shishack King of Egypt came up against Ierusalem because they had transgressed the Law of the Lord with 1200 Chariots and 60000 Horsemen c. And ver 5. Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah and said unto them Thus saith the Lord you have forsaken me and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishack And what effect this terrible Message had upon them we are told in the next words Whereupon the Princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves and they said the Lord is Righteous Now what could be expected less than this from them under such frightful Apprehensions when they were in sight of so Formidable an Enemy and when as we read they had already taken the Fenced Cities of Iudah and were come to Ierusalem And it appears by ver 14. that this was but such a kind of Humiliation as that of Ahab but for all this the next verse tells us that when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah saying they have humbled themselves therefore I will not destroy them but I will grant them some deliverance and my wrath shall not be poured forth upon Ierusalem by the hand of Shishack Nevertheless they shall be his Servants or Tributaries to him that they may know my service and the service of the Kingdoms of the Countries i. e. That they may feel the vast difference between My service which they refuse and the service of Foreign Nations And again 't is said ver 12. And when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him that he would not destroy him altogether and also in Iudah things went well 2. Another Motive by which God hath also been diverted from destroying a wicked People is the Prayers of a few good People nay of one good man 'T is said Psal. 106. 23. that God said he would destroy the Israelites had not Moses his Chosen stood before him in the Breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them And there is a strange passage Ezek. 22. 30. where God complains that there was no one to be found to intercede for those whom he had often threatned with Destruction I sought said he for a man among them that should make up the Hedge and stand in the Gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy them but I found none Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them c. But to prevent the making an ill use of God's having been perswaded from executing the fierceness of his Wrath by an Humiliation short of Reformation or by the Intercession of good People we are to know that neither the one nor the other Motive will always do nor is it fit they should These two Motives have no doubt prevailed again and again for this Nation of ours but it follows not that therefore they shall still prevail and the oftner they have so done there is much the more danger of their not doing so for the future Besides such Motives as these do only prevail for the longer staving off of Iudgments not the keeping them off for altogether There was a time when God professed concerning his Antient People That though Moses and Samuel stood before him yet his mind could not be towards them c. Ier. 15. 1. And he said the like concerning the Intercession of Noah Daniel and Iob those great Favourites of Heaven that were they on the Earth again it should nothing avail them and that they should only deliver their own Souls by their Righteousness Ezek. 14. 14. 3. We may see another Motive God laid hold on for the sparing the same Rebellious Israelites Deut. 32. 27. I said I would scatter them into Corners I would make the Remembrance of them to cease