Mr. BVTLER's Fast-Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen April 28. 1697. Clarke Mayor Martis quarto die Maii 1697 Annoque Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. Nono THIS Court doth desire Mr. BUTLER to print his Sermon preached at the Parish-Church of St. Mary-le-Bow on Wednesday last before the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City Goodfellow A SERMON Preached at St. MARY-LE-BOW Before the LORD MAYOR AND Court of Aldermen and Citizens of LONDON On Wednesday the 28th of April A Day appointed by his Majesty's Proclamation for a General and Publick FAST By LILLY BUTLER Minister of St. Mary Aldermanbury LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhil over against the Royal-Exchange MDC XC VII JAMES 4. 9 10. Be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up THOSE Jewish Christians to whom the Apostle directs his Discourse in this Chapter were ingaged in Wars and Fightings and earnestly Ver. 1. wishing for the return of Peace and Plenty and those other Advantages they fought for but could not obtain them ver 2. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not He therefore informs them what was the true Cause of all their ill Success and Disappointments they did not seek to God for the Blessings they desired or asked them only for evil Ends not that being delivered out of the hand of their Enemies they might serve him without Fear but be inabled to make the more plentiful provision for their Lusts and with the greater Quietness and Freedom pursue the fulfilling of them Ye have not because ye ask not Ver. 2 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your Lusts They had also contracted such a Friendship with the World as was Enmity with God to whom they had espoused themselves and therefore he calls them Adulterers and Adulteresses ver 4. They doubled and dissembled with God in their Hearts and their Hands were polluted with many foul Practices which their Ver. 8. greedy Covetousness had imployed them in He well knew there could be no good hopes of better Times till they were better themselves and therefore proceeds to tell them what was fit and necessary to be done by them That they must submit themselves to God and resist Ver. 7. the Devil that they must diligently perform the neglected Duty of Prayer and the other Exercises of Divine Worship Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Ver. 8. That they must prepare themselves for such Approaches unto God by putting away the Iniquity of their Hands and the Hypocrisy of their Hearts Cleanse your Hands ye sinners and purify your Hearts ye double minded And that Ver. 8. in order to the effectual working this Repentance and Reformation they must afflict their Souls with a godly Sorrow and humble themselves in the sight of God for the Sins they had committed and then and not before they might expect the happy Fruits of God's Favour Be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up The words of the Text then if we seriously compare our Case with theirs to whom they are written we cannot but acknowledg are very proper Matter for our present Meditation In speaking to them at this time I. I shall shew What that Duty is which they require of us II. I shall shew The great Necessity of this Duty III. I shall shew The Seasonableness of it at this time IV. I shall shew The great Benefit of performing this Duty intimated in these words and he shall lift you up V. I shall direct to some proper Considerations for the exciting you to it And VI. I shall shew What are the necessary Fruits of a due performance of it 1. I shall endeavour to shew What that Duty is which the Text requires of us And to this end I shall shew First What is to be the general Matter of our Sorrow and Mourning Secondly What are the necessary Qualifications of this Sorrow And Thirdly The particular Reasons of our Sorrow and Humiliation for that general Matter First I am to shew What is to be the general Matter of our Sorrow and Humiliation What that is we are to be afflicted and mourn and weep and to humble our selves in the sight of God for It is for Sin The Apostle had been declaring and reproving the Peoples Sins and is here calling them to repent of them Ye Adulterers saith he ye Adulteresses ye Sinners ye double minded be ye afflicted and mourn and weep that is humble your selves in this manner for all those Iniquities whereby ye have justly deserved such reproachful Names as these are Every Man then should afflict his Soul with Shame and Sorrow for his own for other Mens and for the Nation 's Sins for all the Abominations have been done in the midst of us for the Sins of Magistrates and Ministers and of all other Ranks and Conditions of Men for all have sinned and helped to increase the Publick Guilt and to compleat the Character of a sinful Nation a People laden with Iniquity For these things both God and the King do call us this Day to fasting and weeping and mourning And by our assembling together at this time we make profession of humbling our selves in this manner I shall therefore for your farther Direction shew Secondly What are the necessary Qualifications of that Sorrow which is required of us 1. It must be a hearty Sorrow That Mourning and Humiliation which God expects from us is chiefly that of the Soul and Spirit Rent your Hearts and not your Garments saith the Prophet Joel God will not be satisfied with Joel 2. such outward Ceremonies and Formalities of Mourning as those were in which alone the Fasts of the Jews did too often consist such as tearing their Garments bowing down the Head like a Bulrush spreading Sackcloth and Ashes under them disfiguring their Faces and appearing before him with a sad Countenance Wilt thou call this a Fast and an Isa â—8 4 5. acceptable Day to the Lord All these may be nothing but a vain-glorious shew and pageantry of Mourning to attract the regard and esteem of Men nothing but Mockery and Hypocrisy in the sight of God It is the breaking of the Heart the melting of the Spirit the humbling of the Soul for Sin this is that Humiliation which God hath the greatest respect to The other may make us appear to Men to grieve and be afflicted but this this inward Sorrow is necessary to the humbling our selves in the sight of God who searcheth the Hearts of Men. 2. It must be a great and deep
and humbled themselves before him he repented of the Evil he said he would do unto Jonah 3. them And when the King of Egypt had gathered a mighty Army against Israel because they had forsaken 2 Chron 12. God 2 Chron. 12. and the Lord saw that the great Men particularly humbled themselves he sent his Prophet to tell them that he would not destroy them but Ver. 5. grant them some deliverance and his Wrath should not be poured upon them by the hand of Shishak And accordingly we read vers 12. that in Judah things went well Is it then in our Power to do any thing so serviceable to our publick Peace and Prosperity and shall we still neglect it Are not these Blessings worthy to be sought with Tears and Sorrow and would they not be very cheaply purchased by the performance of so reasonable a Duty after so large an Expence of Blood and Treasure in vain for the recovery of them Secondly Our particular penitent Sorrow and Humiliation may prevail with God to lift us up above those Calamities it may be too late for us to prevent When Men are cast down then thou shalt say There is lifting up and he shall save the humble Person Job 22. 29. An eminent Instance of this distinguishing Providence of God we have Ezek. 9. 4. where God commands a Mark to be set on the Forehead of those that did sigh and cry for the Abominations that were done in the midst of Jerusalem that the Ministers of his Wrath might not come near any of them ver 6. For such Men are the particular Care of Heaven and the peculiar Objects of the Divine Favour To this Man will I look saith God Isa 66. 2. even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and trembleth at my Word Thirdly God will lift up them that mourn and afflict themselves as the Command of the Text requires that is He will raise their drooping Spirits revive and comfort their humbled Souls He is therefore called by St. Paul 2 Cor. 7. 6. The God that comforteth those that are cast down The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith the Prophet Isaiah he hath sent me to preach glad Tidings to the Meek to bind up the broken hearted and to comfort them that mourn Isa 61. 1 2. Such Men have an everflowing Spring of Comfort always abiding in them even the Holy Spirit of God who dwelleth with such as are of a contrite and humble Isa 57. 15. Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble and to revive the Spirit of the contrite Ones to give them such a Sense of the Divine Love such joyful and glorious Hopes as will abundantly sweeten the worst Condition they can be in So that to be thus sorrowful is the best way to be always rejoicing Fourthly God will lift them up who thus humble themselves in his sight here to his own everlasting Kingdom hereafter where they shall shine as the Sun and whither no Clouds can reach to diminish ought of their Glory and Joy Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 3. As God delights to dwell with such Men here so will he receive them to dwell with himself hereafter when he will dry up all their Tears heal all their Wounds put an end to all their Sorrows and fill their Souls with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory when he will no longer speak to them as he doth in the Text Be afflicted and mourn and weep but will call them to enter into the Joy of their Lord to sing the Song of the Lamb and to exercise themselves in perpetual Hallelujah's Thus then you see how necessary how seasonable and how profitable the Duty of the Text and the Duty of the Day is And shall we not now at length set our selves in earnest to the performance of it Shall we still rejoice to do Evil and delight in the frowardness of the Wicked Shall we still maintain the Character which the Prophet gave of Niniveh Zeph. 2. 15. This is the rejoicing City that dwelleth carelesly God forbid Let us search and try our Ways then and know every Man the Plague of his own Heart and turn to the Lord with weeping and mourning for all our great and crying Sins And for the afflicting our Hearts with this Sorrow I shall V. Direct to some proper Considerations for this purpose First Let us consider the Goodness and Mercy of that God we have sinned against and try to afflict our Souls with Shame and Sorrow for the base Ingratitude of our Sins When David had put Saul in mind of the tender regard he had had for his Life and Safety we read that Saul lift up his Voice and wept at the thoughts 1. Sam. 14. 16. of his cruel Designs against him And will not our Souls melt with Sorrow when we consider the tender Love the great and innumerable Favours of that good God we have injured and provoked Was ever Love so great as his or Ingratitude so vile and monstrous as ours hath been How kind how compassionate how bountiful a Father have we offended O the Riches of that Forbearance and Long-suffering we have despised O the height and depth of that Love we have abused The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but ungrateful Wretches that we have been we have not known we have not considered as we ought our innumerable Obligations to love and serve him in whom we live and move and have our being That we should thus requite the Lord the Lord that made and bought us that preserves and provides for us of whom and from whom are all the good things we enjoy What more than brutish stupidity are our Hearts depraved into if they are not pierced through with Sorrow at the remembrance of such prodigious Ingratitude Secondly Let us endeavour to afflict our Souls with Sorrow for the Sins we have committed by considering the bitter Sufferings of the Son of God by and for them They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn and be in bitterness saith the Prophet Zech. 12. 10. And methinks we should always be thus affected when we look upon him when we consider the Death and Passion of our Blessed Saviour who did bear our Sins in his own Body on the Tree How doleful were his Cries how tormenting his Pains how shameful his Death when he carried our Sorrows and our Iniquities were laid upon him Are we not pained at the very Heart to think how insensible we have hitherto been of all these things how we have renewed and increased his Sorrows Crucified him afresh and again and again put him to an open shame by the hardness of our Hearts and the scandal of our Lives O my Soul methinks we should every one of us be ready to say How canst thou any longer endure the Thoughts of these things without shame and remorse the Thoughts of
feel our Hearts afflicted with Shame and Remorse for our many and great Transgressions This is that temper of Soul which becomes the Fast that God hath chosen and which we profess to appear before him with O that we might all manifest to our selves and to the World by our future Behaviour that we have not dissembled with God this Day but at length humbled our selves in sincerity before him and indeed sorrowed after a Godly sort both for our own and the Nation 's Sins I shall conclude my Discourse with shewing VI. What are the necessary Fruits of such a true godly Sorrow First It must and will be followed with an actual forsaking the Sins we have mourned for and lamented If we are in earnest pricked to the Heart with the remembrance of our former Sins how can we consent to stick such Thorns into them again Can we be easily perswaded to repeat those Practices which have so deeply afflicted our Souls and created us so much Shame and Sorrow Can we willingly load our selves with those Burdens again we have heartily sighed and groaned under If we do return to the service of the same Lusts and persist in the same sinful Neglects we pretend to bewail it is most certain we are not humbled unto this Day we proclaim our selves Dissemblers with God or such extravagant lovers of Sin that though it hath cost us a great deal of Grief and Pain yet we cannot but still cherish and embrace it And then what will all our Sorrow avail It will aggravate the Guilt of our continued Disobedience and we shall be but the greater Sinners the greater Mourners we have been Secondly Our Sorrow and Humiliation must and if it be sincere it will be followed with vigorous and earnest Endeavours to restrain and reclaim Men from those evil Practices which give us so much Grief and Vexation To what purpose do we pretend to fast and mourn for the Sins of the Times if we neglect to do our parts to make them better It is very much in the Power of this Assembly of the Magistrates and Officers of this City to advance the Reformation of it at least to prevent the bold and publick commission of many of those Sins we are met together to humble our selves for And what provoking Hypocrisy must it be to pretend to mourn and be afflicted for those Maladies we have power to cure and will not Is it possible you can lay to Heart as you profess to do this Day the Dishonour is done to our God and Religion the Mischief is done to our Countrey and to the Souls of Men by the open and insolent Vices of the Age if any little private worldly Considerations can hold your Hands from a zealous and faithful execution of those Laws which are made for the Terror and Punishment of such evil Doers For God's sake then for the sake of our most Holy Religion for the sake of all that is dear to us here for the sake of those Souls for whom Christ died and for the discharge of our Oaths and Consciences let us do all that is proper for us in our several Places and Circumstances at least to repress the Growth and Insolence of open Wickedness Let the World see by our Zeal and Diligence and Courage in prosecuting this Design that we do not sigh and mourn in appearance only for the Abominations that are done in the midst of us that the sight of them is really so grievous and hateful to us that we cannot forbear as far as it is in our Power to force them out of Publick View and Practice We must all shortly appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an Account of our executing those Trusts God hath reposed in us And do we not tremble to think of being found unfaithful in the most weighty and important Matters of our Duty both to God and Man But I am perswaded better things of you though I thus speak You have already given many Instances of your Zeal in striving against Sin and the Effects of it are not altogether invisible May its Flames increase and spread yet more and more till it have burnt up all those Briars and Thorns which prick and wound the Souls of all Righteous Men and hedg up our Way to Peace and Settlement Then would you have Praise of God and Peace in your Minds and the Applause of all good Men and the Generations to come would call you Blessed Then you would have comfort in the Hour of Death and boldness in the Day of Judgment and an exceeding great Reward in Heaven inestimable Treasures unfading Crowns and Joy unspeakable for ever more Amen FINIS Some Books Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil THE Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury containing Fifty four Sermons and Discourses on several Occasions together with the Rule of Faith Being all that were published by his Grace himself and now collected into one Volume To which is added an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters Price 20 s. Six Sermons viz. Of Stedfastness in Religion Of Family Religion Of Education of Children Of the Advantages of an Early Piety By his Grace John late Archbishop of Canterbury In 120. Price 18 d. A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper also by his Grace John late Archbishop of Canterbury In 120. bound 6 d. 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A Sermon Preached at Bow-Church before the Lord Mayor c. upon a General Fast June 26. 1696. On Neh. â— 9. part of the 26th and 27th Verses A Sermon Preached at St. Lawrence Jewry at the Election of the Lord Mayor 1696. On Prov. 29. 2. A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Mr. James Lordell March 27. 1694. On Rev. 14. 13. A Sermon Preach'd at St. Mary-le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners April 5. 1697. All four by Lilly Butler Minister of St. Mary Aidermanbury Sold by B. Aylmer