you and will defend you and protect you and believe me Brethren one God this one God I say is enough against all the posse Inferni all the Devils in Hell and their Agents on Earth Well God is on your side then go on You may say as he Psal 118. 6. The Lord is on my side I will not fear what can Man do unto me 4. As you have a good Cause a good Call a good Patron you shall have a good a great Reward a glorious massy Reward if your Hearts are right with God you shall not lose your Reward God does not need you but he takes it kindly from you that you are on his side and he will once testify this and you shall find it placed to your account in the Day of the Lord if not before If a Cup of cold Water given to a Disciple of Christ shall not lose its reward Mat. 10. 42. to be sure this Service for his Name shall not Therefore go on 5. For your Incouragement still you have good Company all the Great that are good on your side and all the Good too You have God as was mentioned just now God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost the Uncreated Great on your side and you have the Created Great the great and glorious Angels assisting of you in your sincere Indeavours and doing you many great tho unseen good Offices of defending of you under God in all your Difficulties and Dangers and approving of you and pleased with you in all your Designs and Labours and you have the Spirits of the Just made perfect all the holy happy heavenly Society are on your side all these are great and good above and you have all the Great and Good below too on your side You have the King and Parliament your Governors on your side and you have all the Good of all Denominations all that know and love and fear God on your side you have their Approbation Judgment Prayers and hearty Wishes and for the Bad and the Great that are bad they are not so considerable in this matter being against God as either to be regarded or feared Then by Faith behold the blessed God and his holy Angels and all the heavenly Company from the Battlements of Glory looking on and applauding your Indeavours and let this incourage you notwithstanding Difficulties and hereupon be you filled with the utmost Vigour in all your Enterprizes and Attempts Thus you see what abundant Incouragement you have for you have a good Cause the best Cause the Cause of your God your King your Country you have a good Call as well as a good Cause and you have a great Almighty Patron as well as a good Cause and good Call and you have as a good Cause Call Patron you have good Company all the great that are good and all the Good and as you have a good Cause Call Patron Company you shall have a good a great a vast Reward an exceeding eternal Weight of Glory Then surely you may well go on as you have been exhorted to do 3dly And lastly to you of the Society Carry in all things towards God and Man as becomes those that are ingaged in such a Design and united in a Society for such an End Carry so as all that see you and know you may have reason to believe you are filled with the Fear of God with an awful Reverence of his Name and glorious Perfections and blessed Word and Laws and Government Be filled with a deep sense of his Dishonour by the abounding Sins of the day keep your selves very faithful to God in being pure from the Sins of the day wherein you live not only from the Sins of the Profane but the Professors of the day many of whom God knows take a strange liberty in many things very unbecoming their Profession and very dishonourable to it but do not you do so be neither afraid nor ashamed to bear your Testimony for God where you have a Call to it and do all that ever in you lies singly socially against the Sins of the day to stem and if it might be to turn the Torrent of Profaneness into that of Holiness and carry so towards all Men as becomes you being altogether just and true in your Dealings in your Words and Works further let your Carriage towards all Men be filled with all that Love Goodness Tenderness Humility Meekness that Readiness to do them all good Offices and In-offensiveness in Words and Actions that becomes such as profess to do nothing to others but only what is for their Good Be sure you carry thus to Men. I am afraid it may not be possible for you to carry so considering your Circumstances as to avoid Reproach and Censure for Men value their Lusts above their Souls nay they do not value them above their very Lives and therefore they will rage at that and them that stand between them and their beloved Sins but however be you blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom shine ye as lights in the World Phil. 2. 15. That all Men may have Reason however to believe that you have no design but their Good in your Indeavours that the Laws may be executed upon flagitious incorrigible Transgressors yea so as that themselves whose lot it may be to be punished by them may have no cause to believe any other but their Good not Hurt is pursued therein for those that indeavour the Reformation of others should themselves be great Instances of Reformation and Purity I am sure they should be so See you be so as ever you would be any ways at all useful in what you have undertaken as you would do any Good as you would not do Hurt I must tell you with all Faithfulness and Freedom it is a shameful vile accursed thing I would use harder words if I had them for the thing will bear it for those that take upon them to be Reformers of others to be unreformed themselves If any of the Society for Reforming others be as ill as those they pretend to reform what a Shame Reproach and Mischief will it be unto you and how prejudicial to your Design If any are of a Society for Reformation of others and are unreformed themselves can they with any Modesty indeavour the Reformation of others that are guilty themselves Can those indeavour a Drunkard's Reformation by his Punishment according to Law that are drunk sometimes themselves Can those be concerned in executing the Laws upon profane Swearers that swear profanely themselves and curse and rail How can any see that others be punished for profaning the Lord's Day when themselves make no Conscience of it See then to your Hearts to your Lives to your Words to your Actions to your Families that there be all Purity and Reformation within you without you and round about you See you be altogether such as that
A SERMON Preach'd to the SOCIETY FOR Reformation of Manners IN NOTTINGHAM February 16 1698 9. Publish'd at their Request By JOHN RYTHER Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by Sam. Bridge for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside 1699. Mr. JOHN RYTHER's SERMON FOR Reformation of Manners To the Society for Reformation of Manners in Nottingham Gentlemen AT Your Desire this Sermon was Preached and as you know at your Desire it was Printed or else it had lain buried in Dust and Obscurity with many others Seeing it is Printed at your Request it concerns you not me to be accountable to the World for it I can only say I endeavoured Faithfulness and Plainness if it may be of any use to you or your Design in that I shall rejoice You have my Heart and shall not want my poor Prayers May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus make you such all of you as you should be that endeavour the Reformation of others and make you very successful as well as sincere in your Attempts to Reform this Place and may we and our Posterity in this Town have cause to bless God that ever you begun this Work amongst us So prays Your Faithful Friend and Servant John Ryther April 21 1699. To the READER I Know there are a great many Sermons out upon this Occasion and that there is this one more is not at all in pursuance of my Inclination and Choice for it would have pleased me much more if it had never gone farther as to Publication than the Pulpit for I am very far from thinking that I am capable of adding any thing to what has been said upon this Subject or so much as equalling what has been so but if thou say Why did I suffer it to come out I might have hinder'd it I answer it is true but I can give this Reason for the bare suffering it to come abroad hereby my Testimony for God against the Profaneness of the Day is more publick and that I confess it not displeasing to me and I think carries some weight in it for I judg a Man should not suffer that which is in his Power to hinder without being able to give at least one good Reason for it Seeing it is come out I heartily pray God it may be blest to the confirming and incouraging those on God's side and to the awakening those that are not in order to their being brought over from their Tents of Sin Satan and the World to those of God Christ Holiness Heaven Reader It concerns thee infinitely whoever thou art to be on God's side It is certain thou art or art not If not thou art in a very miserable Condition and if thou look not about thee thou wilt soon be irremediably eternally miserable Consider seriously weigh diligently what is here said and it may not be altogether unuseful to thee through the Blessing of God if thou art on God's side I almost think there is nothing here that will be offensive to thee And if there be any thing that proves advantageous to thee give God the God of all Grace the Glory and let me have thy Prayers That thou mayst be on God's side now and act very faithfully on it and so be found on it at Death and the eternal Judgment is the Prayer of thy Soul-Friend John Ryther A SERMON Preached to the Society for Reformation of Manners in Nottingham EXOD. 32. 26. Then Moses stood in the Gate of the Camp and said Who is on the Lord's side Let him come unto me And all the Sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him THE Words in this Verse that I intend to speak to are these Who is on the Lord's side Let him come unto me The occasion of these Words was this Moses who had the Charge and Conduct of the People of Israel in their way from Egypt to Canaan was with God in Mount Sinai and staying there forty Days to understand the Mind of God and make it known unto them they in this time of his Absence from them revolt unto Idolatry turning from God unto Idols making themselves Golden Calves and worshipping them as you may see ver 1-6 Hereupon Moses the Man of God as he is called by the Holy Ghost Deut. 33. 1. coming down from the Mount and seeing what was done was filled with a Holy Zeal for God and Indignation against this their horrid Sin against him and Provocation of him and that he might as became his Place punish it and thereby for the future deter others from so horrible an Impiety he utters these Words I have not time to be particular in taking notice of the Context only let me mind you of this that there is something in these Words extraordinary and so not imitable but there is enough that is ordinary and so imitable by us and so come directly to the Words In which you have these two Doctrinal Truths 1. That in a Day of publick Defection from God it is the Magistrates Duty especially the Supream to appear openly for God and to ingage their People on God's side against the Wickedness of the Day calling upon them and using all Methods in order thereunto This was the case here with the People of Israel there was a publick and in a manner almost an universal Apostacy from God to Idols And Moses the Supream Magistrate of this People for he was King in Jeshurun Deut. 33. 5. was because of this filled with Zeal for the Honour of God and Indignation against this abominable Wickedness they were guilty of and with such an holy Temper as has been now named appears as in the Text openly for God uttering these Words declaring his doing so and calling upon others to do so too in their Places as he did in his But this brings me to the Second for the First I wave 2. That in the Day of publick Defection from God when Magistrates call upon a People to appear for God It is then the Duty of all Persons upon the Call of their Magistrates to be on God's side to come over to him Who is on the Lord's side Let him come unto me Moses as supream Magistrate of this People calls upon them all that were unconcerned in the Impiety or not so deeply concerned as the rest to appear for God against those Rebels that were deepest in the Guilt and thereupon we see the Levites did so who were either many of them not at all concerned in this Sin or however less concerned and for their answering this Call in the Text they are commended Deut. 33. 9. speaking of Levi i. e. his Posterity ver 8. he says of them ver 9. Who said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledg his Brethren nor knew his own Children for they have observed thy Word and kept thy Covenant So that this is the Truth I intend to speak unto That in a Day of publick
God's side and is in its place necessary to our Salvation It is required of every one in the first Commandment Exod. 20. 3. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me Therefore our blessed Lord says Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Father's and of his Holy Angels And agreeably hereunto the Apostle Paul says Rom. 10. 10. As with the Heart Man believeth as in the first Particular unto Righteousness i e. unto Justification by the Righteousness of Christ so with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation If we are on God's side according to the first Particular we must own we are so according to this This is in it 3. Being on God's side carries this in it That such as are in Covenant with God and own God as God and their God be filled with a very deep Sense of his Dishonour by the Sins of the Day If we are God's we are as reconciled to him so renewed by his Spirit according to his Image and so are like him in the communicable Perfections of his Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then we must have the same Interest with God the same Friends and the same Enemies Now Sin all Sin being contrary to him being against his Honour as being against his Nature and Attributes as being against his Laws Government and Revealed Will especially when Sin that is so in a day of publick Defection grows high and becomes impudent and audacious having no Bounds knowing no Limits but overspreading all like an Inundation like a Deluge In this case I say there are none on God's side but from the Fear they have of him and the Love they bear in their Hearts to his Blessed Name they must they cannot but be deeply sensibly filled and affected with a Sense of God's Dishonour As ingenious Children must needs be grieved when their Parents are reproached and dutiful Subjects when their Governours whom they know to be just and good are so Thus the Good have been always affected in their several Generations Psal 119. 136. Rivers of Waters i. e. Tears in great abundance it is an hyperbolical Expression run down mine Eyes Why what was the Matter Was he under some great Affliction some great Misfortune as the World calls it Nay the Reason follows Because they keep not thy Law That was the Cause of all his Tears and of all that inward Sorrow that was the Spring that fed them Thus Jeremiah ch 9. 1. is another Instance of this O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the Slain of the Daughter of my People That it was their Sin that most of all affected him See ver 2 3 c. And the Godly in that doleful Day I mean that Day of Sin ended in sacking Hierusalem by the Caldeans burning the Temple Desolation of the Land and 70 Years Captivity in Babylon mourned and sighed for the Abominations that were the Cause of all these Miseries Ezek. 9. 4. These Instances are a few of those many the Book of God abounds with of this Nature 4. Keeping our selves faithful to God and our Covenant-Engagements to him and particularly faithful to him by keeping our selves pure and at a distance from the Sins of the Day As from all Sin as much as may be walking before God in Holiness and Righteousness without Fear i. e. servile Fear in all the Duties required both in the first and second Table in Holiness respecting the first in Righteousness respecting the second Luke 1. 74 75. Allowing our selves in no known Sin nor in the neglect of any known Duty desiring to know every Sin as Men that go to Sea desire to know Rocks and Sands that they may stear wide of them and desiring to know every Duty to comply with the Mind of God therein approving our selves to the Searcher of Hearts in abstaining from the one and a hearty Discharge of the other and keeping our selves with a great deal of Care Vigilance and Circumspection for we can't be too careful herein from the Sins of the Day wherein we live by which God is most dishonoured and by reason of the universal Spreading and Contagion of which we our selves are most indangered This is to be on God's side in an evil Day How else are we can we be on God's side except we save our selves from the Sins of the untoward Generation wherein we live Acts 2. 40. So the Apostle Peter exhorted his Hearers then to be on God's side So Noah in his Day was on God's side Gen. 6. 9. 7. 1. Thee have I seen righteous before me in this Generation i. e. such as was so dreadfully wicked that they were all except Noah and his Family destroyed by a Deluge sent from God on purpose for that very end 5. We are on God's side when we bear our Testimony against the Sins of the Day for God I say for God not only by owning him and his Worship and his revealed Will in the Holy Scriptures the only Rule of Faith Worship and Practice in which all those Sins are forbidden condemned and threatned and their contrary Graces Vertues and Duties commanded and recommended with illustrious shining Examples of them and advantaged by great and glorious Promises made to the Subjects and sincere Observers of them But further upon all occasions where the Laws of God are violated yea condemned and Men are so horribly impudent as to justify their Evils pleading for Profaneness and Immoralities and running down Piety and Goodness as a weak foolish thing when it is thus not to keep silent but to open the Mouth for God and plead for him and his Laws and Government and Ways and the Necessity and Excellency of Godliness and Goodness Tho it is true sometimes to do so tho it be done with never so much Unpassionateness and Prudence may make some Men rage the more to such a formidable height is Wickedness gotten Now if a Man were sure of this I think one should leave such Company rather than occasion such Wickedness but it is certain that oftentimes yea I think always where there is a Probability that any Good may be done there it 's the Duty of all that are God's to speak for God and against such Wickedness whereby Religion is indeavour'd to be hooted out of the World as unworthy of reasonable Creatures whereas indeed its the greatest Ornament and Perfection of humane Nature And if such as are God's do not speak in this case they are guilty of Cowardliness and Treachery and do not behave themselves as those that are God's but as though they were on the other side I am sure to have nothing to say in this case is not in this thing to be on God's side nay in this thing it is to be against hm and this is dreadful
It is to strengthen Evil-doers in their evil Ways for when they see Persons that profess God present and observe they say nothing may they not however will they not conclude such said nothing for God for Godliness because they could not And thus they will triumph and glory over you and God and his Ways And thus God is dismally dishonoured And if there be any in such Company not altogether so confident and raging but that are too far pleased with such Discourses and are in danger of being as ill as the others may not their Souls be highly indangered by such base perfidious Silence Besides when we speak judiciously gravely seriously may not some be recovered out of the Snare of the Devil and then God will be greatly honoured and you will find it in your Accounts both now and at the Day of the Lord. Yea we must in this case speak freely How can we approve our selves to God if we dare not bear our Testimony against such Wickedness What do we fear or whom do we fear If in this case we fear'd God as we should we should not fear Man not any Man not all the Men in the World Shall vile Wretches dare to blaspheme the God of Heaven and his Holy Laws and belch forth their black-mouth'd Impieties against all that is sacred and shall not we dare to oppose them in doing so Surely it becomes us neither to be afraid nor ashamed of doing thus but with all Courage and Faithfulness to use the best Arguments we have for God And not only in the former case when Men are so impudent as to talk against Religion but in case there be any Evil spoken or done in our Company to do so it 's part of the lovely Pourtraiture of a truly good Man i. e. one that loves God and Man His Mouth speaketh of Wisdom and his Tongue talketh of Judgment 1 Pet. 37. 30. i. e. He does not make common unprofitable things lest of all sinful things but things good in the sight of God and things useful to Men being some way or other instructive and edifying the Subjects of his Discourse Now there is never more occasion to do so than when Men in our Company and Hearing are so wicked as to cast Dirt and Filth upon all that is most excellent and venerable This is one way by which we should hold forth the Word of Life Phil 2. 16. Is it our Duty to open our Mouths for the Dumb in the Cause of all such as are appointed to Destruction i. e. for those that can't speak through Fear or want of Ability through Ignorance for I think that 's the meaning of Dumb here Prov. 31. 8. And is it not more much more our Duty most of all our Duty to open our Mouths in bearing a Testimony for God against Sin 6. and Lastly This being on God's side comprizes in it a doing all we can in our Places for God against the Wickedness of the Day to prevent it by all the Methods mentioned before under the several foregoing Particulars and not only so but by all others using our Interest Gifts Graces and Authority if we have it for this end and where it cannot be prevented to do all we can to shame Men and to bring the incorrigible Transgressors of God's Laws and the Land 's to such Punishments as are by our Laws in that case most justly provided Thus when Magistrates in their places bear not the Sword in vain but draw it out for the Punishment and Terror of Evil-doers and for the warning and deterring others And Ministers in their Station do all that becomes them by Preaching Living Watching and all the Duties their Office calls for When Heads of Families do all that in them lies in their Families and all and every one in their several Capacities do all that 's possible to restrain and prevent it This is to be on God's side Thus much for the first thing II. To prove That it is the Duty of all upon the Call of the Magistrate in a Day of publick Defection to be on God's side This is so exceeding clear and plain that very little needs to be said about it who can deny it Who dare do so What an horrible Wickedness would it be for any Man to do so And indeed as no Man can deny it so no Man of Reason can so much as question it A Man that owns the Being of God and Providence cannot do it tho very few for all this do seriously consider it i. e. so as to be brought under the powerful influencing and predominant Sense of it That it is so shines in its own Light and cannot but approve it self to the Understanding Reason and Conscience of every Man that hath not abandoned himself and of a Man is become a mere Brute I will not therefore spend time in insisting upon this If we consider God Sin and the Nature of the thing spoken of it will appear most abundantly evident If we consider God whose side Men are called to be of his glorious Majesty transcendent Excellency supereminent Authority and wonderful Attributes and his Relations unto us that he is our Maker Proprietor and Owner Benefactor Saviour Judge Also if we consider Sin by Love to which and living in and adherence to which we are Enemies to God I say if we consider the horrid Evil Malignity Abominableness and because if all the Words in the World the most expressive and significant of what is vile were heap'd up it can't be stiled by any thing worse nor indeed so ill as it self therefore said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding sinful as we render it Rom. 7. 13. I say if we consider the Sinfulness of it and that to be concerned in it is to side with Satan God's and our most avowed Enemy and the Tendency of this Then certainly it 's clear that we should have done with it and be on God's side and so ingaged against it And Lastly if we do but reflect upon the Nature of the thing spoken of it is a Covenanting with God a laying hold of God's Covenant and thereby of God's Grace and God's Christ for our Salvation and then an owning that we have done so c. according to the former things and who can have any thing to say against such things as these Therefore III. I proceed to the Reasons 1st Reason We have all the greatest highest and most binding Ingagements unto it that can be if there be any thing in this World that can be an Ingagement upon any one to any thing there is that to be urg'd and alledged as a Reason for this yea and much more Whatsoever Obligations we are under to others still we are under greater higher to God to this blessed God who calls us thus mercifully and kindly to be on his side for whatsoever it is that we are bound most strongly and firmly by unto others still that is stronger and firmer here for no Obligation
and bearing our Testimony for God against the Sins of the day and doing all we can against them This is a Duty that contains all this But more particularly 1. It is the most reasonable thing in the whole World there is all the Reason in the World for it and none not the least not the least colour or shadow of any against it Are we Men reasonable Creatures why then let our Hearts eccho back again to this Call of God 2. It is necessary Most highly necessAry if the Honour of God be so if it be necessary for us in our Stations in the World to honour God nay without this we must necessarily dishonour God If the Interest of our Souls be necessary this is so for without this we are in a state of Sin and Condemnation and by being on God's side we get into a state of Salvation and so secure their Spiritual and Eternal Interests and by carrying our selves on God's side as becomes us we walk continually in the way to Glory and Blessedness and that will be the happy End of such a Walk This is necessary if the Good and Welfare of our Native Country be so for by the abounding of Sin if there be no care taken to restrain it or prevent it Wrath will break out among us and fall down upon us This is necessary if the Good of others be necessary the Good of their Souls of their Bodies of their Families for all these are expos'd indanger'd and ruin'd by Profaneness and Immoralities And should we not do what is thus necessary Nothing is necessary as this is 3. Just and righteous The most righteous God would never else call us to it The Word of Righteousness as God's sacred Word is called would never else put us upon it Is it not most righteous that we do what we can and Lord how little is that for the great God to maintain the Honour of his Laws and Government and to bring those to publick Punishment that milder Methods will not prevail with there is not the least appearance of Unrighteousness in it neither as to God nor Man but it is altogether just nay the contrary is unjust highly unjust 4. Most honourable It is honourable to serve Princes and great Men certainly its more honourable to serve the great and blessed God and the Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of the Kings of the Earth and this is to serve him 5. Most safe And all would be on the safe side and all should in this matter which is not only safe but reasonable and necessary and just and righteous and honourable too But these things I am forc'd to leave with you to inlarge upon in your own Thoughts 3. If we consider what we are called from it will appear we are under the strongest Ingagements to it if we consider the Greatness of the Sin of not being on God's side This appears from the Greatness of the Duty if the Duty be so great as you have heard being not any one single Duty but containing all Duties in it without which no Duty can be performed and which if faithfully performed all Duties are Evangelically sincerely performed how great must the Sin be that is a Neglect of it that is contrary to it It must be not only a very great Sin but all Sin that which contains the Poyson Venom and Sinfulness of all Sin in it for if the Duty be the most reasonable necessary righteous honourable safe thing in the World what must this Sin be but the most unreasonable unnecessary unrighteous dishonourable vile dangerous thing in the whole World It is indeed to deny God that made us to disown our Dependance on him our Engagements to him It is to own God's Enemies to be engaged actually in Rebellion against him It is Crimen loesa Majestatis Divina High-Treason against the Crown and Dignity of the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God to whom Honour and Glory from all Creatures for ever and ever is due and it will be found to be so one day when God will deal with all them that were not on his side in a way of Judgment It is true it is not usual for Enemies to deal with one another in a judicial way but God will deal with his Enemies so because they are rightfully his Subjects for he is our Maker Lawgiver and King and such have made a most unnecessary unreasonable wicked Defection from him having gone over to his Enemies and therefore God will judge and condemn such as Traitors and Rebels as Princes do such Subjects that owed Allegiance to them and rebelled against them This is that you are called from that Sin that Hell you are called from with what speed should you fly from it except you would be on God's Enemies side at Death at the Day of the Lord the everlasting Judgment This is the first Reason 2. The next Reason is this If we are not on God's side as the Guilt of all our own Sins will be charged upon us so the Guilt of other Mens Sins will be so too and their Ruine also will lie at our door If we are not on God's side we are on Satan's side on the Wicked's side and all the Evil we do that others are acquainted with strengthens them in their Wickedness and all the Sin that is committed by others through our Example Persuasions Instigations or Encouragements any ways either by Word or Actions will lie upon us Yea if we do not prevent all the Sin we can the Guilt of all those Sins committed that we might have prevented will lie upon us will be imputed to us and have not poor Sinners Guilt enough and much too much of their own but they must be concerned in other Mens Guilt too Will it not be sad enough at the Day of the Lord for Men to have their own unrepented of unpardoned Sins to answer for but they must have the Sins of others of many very many even so many as they have encouraged to Sin hardned in Sin and so help'd to damn for Sin to answer for too O the Wrath such will lie under for ever 3. The third and last Reason is this This is the greatest Good the best Service we are capable of and therefore surely it concerns us to be on God's side We should not only be good but do Good and not only do Good but do all the Good we can setting our selves no Bounds no Limits at all therein We should endeavour as much as is possible to be every one of us a publick Good not only to be and do Good in our Families in our more private Stations and Capacities but in all Capacities in the Churches whereof we are Members in the Neighbourhoods and Towns where we live yea in the Nation in which we were born and where we enjoy so many of Heaven's Blessings yea in the World which we are Inhabitants and Citizens of This is the greatest Service we can do God
against stubborn Breakers of them God expects this from you in your place The Trust reposed in you and the Nation 's Interest and the Duty of your Office calls for this from you and blessed be God whereas we have seen the days wherein some Magistrates were the most active of all others in Violence against those that were peaceable in the Land and did only desire and indeavour to worship God according to his Word that we now see the Times so far changed as this Violence is wholly laid aside and we have free liberty by Law of worshipping God according to his Mind and have Magistrates that are willing and ready to turn the edge of their Sword against the Profaneness of the day 2dly Let Ministers do their part to further the Ends of the Society by their faithful painful constant Preaching denouncing God's Wrath against incorrigible Sinners shewing them the Evil and Danger of their Sins preaching the Law for Gospel-Ends and shewing them the way of Salvation by Jesus Christ that there is Hope and Help in him for the worst of Sinners and by living what they preach and by watching over Souls as those that must give an account and such an one as may be with Joy and not with Grief Heb. 13. 17. and by doing all that belongs to their sacred Office in their Day and Generation 3dly Let Heads Masters and Mistresses of Families do theirs by not suffering Sin in their Children or Servants but by shewing them the Evil of it and restraining it in them and by indeavouring their Conversion and so their Salvation being Instances of Holiness themselves walking in their Houses with a perfect Heart wisely in a perfect way Psal 101. 2. keeping up the Worship of God in their Families Morning and Evening by serious fervent Prayer and reading the Scriptures by Catechizing theirs and taking great care of the lord's-Lord's-day both as to themselves and all about them that it be kept holy to the Lord. The neglect of Family-Religion has filled the Nation dreadfully with Ignorance and Wickedness for when Heads of Families take no care to bring up those about them in the Knowledg and Fear of God those young ones when they go out into the World they are wicked and they learn others and when they come to marry and have Families they are such as they were brought up ignorant and godless and so their Children and Servants are and so there is no end of Wickedness See then in your places you promote Reformation by promoting Godliness 4thly Let all not only Magistrates Ministers Governors of Families but these and all others in their places too do so for there is not one the meanest Person not a Servant not a Child but may be helpful in this matter and greatly further it They may do so and see you all do so by 1. Personal Reformation and promoting it by their holy Examples Keeping pure from all Sin by their burning and shining Conversations thus all should condemn Wickedness and contend with the Wicked Prov. 28. 4. And further let all help the Society and further Reformation by using their Interest in others to prevail with them to be reconciled to God and turn to God beseeching and intreating them to look to these things Let them do what they can by their Counsels and Discourses with others that will hear them that there may be a Reformation the effect of Conversion 2. By informing the Magistrate when you hear and see the Laws transgressed by impudent Sinners against such as will do so Only this I would say where Attempts for Reformation are not yet begun as soon as they are brought into any place I would not have a Person that is not an impudent customary Transgressor made first of all an Instance of Punishment nay further in this case I would have those concerned in such Attempts in a friendly loving manner tell their Relations if they are so unhappy as to have any such or their Neighbours that they know to live customarily and impudently in violating the Laws that such a thing is to be or is set on foot in their Town and that they are to be concerned in it and that if they will not reform their Manners they are bound in Conscience to do what they can that the Laws be executed upon them This I take to be altogether a fair unexceptionable way and what carries Sincerity Love and Goodness in it and is as likely to win upon such as any whatsoever however it will leave such inexcusable wholly so and those concerned in executing the Laws will be by this means lifted up above all just Reproach and Blame even by Malice it self But where it is settled there Men have had warning enough if any thing would prevail and therefore I would exhort you all to inform against such as will be drunk and will swear rashly profanely and will break the Lord's-Day I would have you all Informers in this case it is the Duty of all not only Men but Women and young People Servants and all capable of giving in a Testimony and Oath Turn Informers for your God your King your Country to prevent Wrath and Ruine Otherwise I pray you how should Sin be ever restrained and Wrath and the Ruine of the Nation thereby prevented This is the case The Supream Magistrates have done their Duty in making Good Laws against Profaneness and Immoralities So the King and Parliament have done It is the Duty and Office of inferiour Magistrates to execute these Laws upon the Transgressors of them but inferiour Magistrates cannot do so but upon Information of others or their own personal Observation As to this latter little can be done this way for they have no more Eyes no more Ears than other Men besides few Men if any will break the Laws before Magistrates that they know will punish them so that upon the matter all that can be done must be done by the Information of others and if Men will not inform how is it possible that the Laws should ever be executed And where then must the Guilt lie not on the Supream Magistrates who have done their part in making Laws not on the Inferiour Magistrates that are ready to do their part if informed Then for the Lord's sake consider the Guilt must lie at their door that ought to have informed and would not at your door and my door if we can inform and refuse it Verily as we would not have others Guilt and the Nation 's Wrath and Ruine lie at our door we must do so Object But what a strange thing is this Must we all turn Informers against our Neighbours and Acquaintance Answ This is not to be Informers in the Sense of the Word under the two last Reigns but to be Informers in the Sense I have exhorted is a Duty a great Duty every one's Duty if to love God his King Country be a Duty But this Objection that has made so much noise in City and