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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67018	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, and Aldermen of the city of London, at St. Mary Le Bow on Wednesday the 19th of June, 1695, a day appointed for a solemn fast, for supplicating Almighty God for the pardon of our sins, and imploring his protection of His Majestie's person, by Josiah Woodward ...	Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.	1695 (1695)	Wing W3520; ESTC R23478	15,685	41

to the utmost in the proper work of it i. e. Humiliation and Prayer And blessed be God who giveth us this day another season of intercession for mercy before the final execution of his vengeance For it is infinite mercy alone that has suspended our Destruction thus long when our sins have so long and so loudly cry'd for it And surely this suspension of God's wrath gives us room to hope that it is the waiting of his Goodness to be gracious to us We trust that the door of Divine Mercy is not yet nailed up against us by such a severe Decree as that which is thrice mention'd Ezek. 14. v. 14 18 20. that tho' those three Favourites Heaven Noah Daniel and Job stood up in the behalf of that People they could not turn away God's wrath from them Let us therefore cry mightily to God this Day humbly pouring out our melted Souls before him according to the Example of Moses in the Text. And God Almighty grant that our Prayers may find the same acceptance as that of Moses did To this end let us pray with his Fervency and Integrity and say O Lord God destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed thro' thy greatness which thou hast brought forth of Egypt with a mighty hand This Book of Deuteronomy is a brief Rehearsal of the most Memorable Passages which occurr'd to the People of Israel under the Conduct of Moses with very suitable and serious applications all along The Text touches upon their great Transgression in the matter of the Golden Calf a Sin of very great provocation and had been of as dismal Consequence had not Moses with the deepest humiliation and earnestness like that of Wrestling Jacob cry'd and interceded for them as in the Text I Prayed therefore unto the Lord c. In which words these two Observations are obvious to every considerate Mind viz. I. That times of great provocation should be to all the Faithful Servants of God a season of earnest and extraordinary intercession with him Israel falls to Idolatry and Profaneness and Moses throws himself down before the Lord to asswage his Wrath and solicit his mercy I prayed therefore unto the Lord c. II. That a People's profession of the true Religion and being those which God has signally delivered and defended in times past may make an humble Plea with God for farther Deliverance Destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed thro' thy greatness c. 1. In the first place let us take notice That times of great wickedness and provocation should be a season for good People's earnest and assiduous Intercession with God The greater the sin of Israel was the longer and the more earnestly did Moses cry to God for Mercy towards them A People are not in the last extremity whilst they have a Moses left among them A Righteous and Zealous Intercessor stands a People in great stead in time of Wrath. Insomuch that when God fully determines to destroy any People he first stops the mouths of Intercessors As Jer. 7. 16. Pray not thou for this People neither lift up Cry nor Prayer for them neither make intercession for them for I will not hear thee And in this very case of the Golden Calf tho' at the first there seem'd little hope of obtaining mercy with God when he said in his anger to Moses Let me alone that I may consume them Exod. 32. 10. Yet after Moses's humble and earnest Prayer in the Text it had this effect That the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his People Exod. 32. 14. Yet they were not to come off clear without many a blow of Correction for this Fault as they were told v. 34. Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them When God took up the Rod to lash them on other occasions he gave them a blow or two the more for this which the Jews knew very well insomuch that in most of their Sufferings afterwards they used to say that there was a hair of the Golden Calf in them But still it was the Chyrurgeons Launce not the Executioner's Ax. And this was happily procured by means of Moses's Intercession And that in this method 1. He falls down before the Lord. 2. He Fasts Forty days and Forty nights 3. He Prays with great Fervour and a sort of undeniable urgency for the Publick Good First He falls down before the Lord. This is twice mentioned in the verse before the Text v. 25. By which must be meant either that he fell down on his Knees or more probably on his Face before the Lord as he did Numb 16. 22. And as our blessed Saviour himself did Mat. 26. 39. Which shews us that reverence of bodily gesture is very requisite in the solemn Worship of God Methinks I cannot imagine how any sober Person can think otherwise or chuse to do otherwise Our Bodies are an Essential part of our selves and we expect to be glorified in them as well as in our Souls and therefore we ought to glorifie God in our Souls and in our Bodies which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. We must indeed first and principally look to the Composure and Frame of our Hearts And then where no impediment prevents us we ought to dispose our Bodies too into a very reverend and humble posture that one part of us may not seem to disallow and undo that which the other is doing 2. Moses Fasts Forty Days and Forty Nights being miraculously supported for he kept a very strict Fast as he describes it v. 18. I did neither eat bread nor drink water being earnestly intent on the work in hand Now tho' we cannot imitate this for so many days yet methinks such as are healthy may well bear it for one day Not that there is any Spiritual Holiness in the bare Act of Fasting any more than in Eating but that it better conduces to the proper work of a day of Humiliation and is indeeed a natural expression of self-abhorrency and of the inward bitterness and affliction of the Soul If we have lost a dear Relation we forget to eat our bread and all our usual refreshments are insipid to us And surely it cannot be otherwise when we are duly convinc'd that by our wickedness we are like to sin away our God our Mercies our Eternal Bliss The Prophet speaking of the sorrow of Penitents says They shall mourn as one that mourneth for his only Son and be in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his first-born Zech. 12. 10. This this my Brethren is our proper Behaviour this day We are to lament crying Sins and departing Mercies yea I fear a departing God Let this engage our hearts in a more conscientious discharge of the duties of this day than is usual As for such as give their minds to business or vanity in the Mornings of our Fast-days and after this come coldly and

Mr. Woodward's SERMON before the Lord-Mayor On the Fast-Day June the 19 th 1695. Lane Mayor Jovis 20 die Junij 1695. Annoque Dom. Reg. Gulielmi tertij Ang. c. Septimo THis Court doth desire Mr. Woodward to Print his Sermon Preached yesterday at the Parish-Church of St. Mary Le Bow before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of this City Goodfellow A SERMON Preached before The Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor AND ALDERMEN OF THE City of London At St. Mary Le BOW On Wednesday the 19th of June 1695. A Day appointed for a Solemn Fast for Supplicating Almighty God for the Pardon of our Sins and imploring his Protection of His Majestie 's Person and the Prosperity of His Arms by Sea and Land By Order of the Lords Justices By Josiah Woodward Minister of Poplar LONDON Printed for Ralph Simpson at the Harp in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. TO THE Right Honourable Sir Thomas Lane Lord Mayor of the City of London AND THE Court of ALDERMEN My Lord SINCE nothing in the following Discourse can be supposed to have recommended it to the Hearers but those serious and seasonable Truths whereby it recommends it self to every Man's Conscience It must be look'd on as a Specimen of your Lordship's and your Worshipful Brethren's Integrity towards God and Fidelity to the present Government in a time when some so easily shake hands with both together That you desire to review what was humbly offered upon our late Fast-Day on those two Topicks of Duty to God and the King which the Nature of the Things and the Duty of the Day entwisted together And may these Heaven-born Twinns never be devided upon Earth For indeed they are but half-Friends if we may not call them Enemies to any Civil Government who are impatient of the Government of God by whose Blessing alone Kingdoms Flourish The sins of such Persons hurt the side they take more than their Assistance helps it And therefore when all is done unfeigned Holiness how lightly soever esteemed in these filthy dreggs of time is surely the most Honourable and useful accomplishment of Humane Nature The real Servant of God is the true Person of Quality being one of the Household of God And till any Empire can be found equal to that of God no Title or Employment can be of equivalent Honour to that of belonging to the Court of Heaven Yet we see the World laughs at this And according to the Notions of some there is Glory in the service of the Devil And the most like him in Pride Falsehood Revenge and Blasphemy are the finest Men. But are not these very horrible and very perverse Sentiments Has Bedlam it self any such reverse to common sense as this And will not insupportable shame succeed this Phrenzy when once they come to see things in a true light And this they will see to the purpose within a little while either in their Conversion or Condemnation God Almighty grant it them in the first Method not in the last It is not more evident that the Sun guilds and cheers this lower World than that Religion is the Light Glory and Advancement of the Intellectual part of it Happy are its Votaries yea blessed are its very Martyrs It is a very light thing to bear the mockery and Affronts of this World if we do but pass on directly to the Glory of the other Those that are blind will be apt to jostle those they meet in the streets But it is the Duty of such as see to endeavour to put them into the right way And therefore there is no Post beneath the Clouds so honourable as that of a Person in great Power employing it to reclaim and reform the Community to which it belongs It is like the Good Angel's leading Lot and his Family out of the reach of the descending Flames The comforts of which here is almost as inexpressible as it's Reward hereafter Vpon the whole if there be any such Great and Blessed Man or set of Men upon Earth by whose Piety Prudence and Power under God Christianity is to retrieve its Credit and God his Honour in the World Blessed is He or They above the common rate of Mortals All the sober part of Mankind will kiss their feet and the most remote Posterity will bless their Memory I confide My Lord That your just indignation to the wretched Atheism of this prophane Age will incline your Lordship to excuse the Prolixity of this Address to you to which shall now put a speedy Period so soon as I have implored this one mercy of God viz. That your Lordship and your Worshipful Brethren may by your pious and prudent Conduct establish the Peace restore the Piety and advance the Prosperity and Renown of this Great and Famous City And hereby ascertain to your selves abiding Mansions in that City which has Divine Foundations which is the unfeigned Desire of My Lord your Lordship 's very Respectful Humble Servant Joshiah Woodward Deut. IX 26. I Prayed therefore unto the Lord and said O Lord God destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed thro' thy greatness which thou hast brought forth of Egypt with a mighty hand THE Solemn Duty of every Soul of us this Day but more especially of all Publick Persons is the same with that of Moses in the Text viz Humbly to importune our offended God for mercy to a sinful People And this in the method of Fasting and Prayer as Moses here did Yea the Parallel runs further in that about this time the Armies of Israel were to Attack their Enemies in their Entrenchments and Fenced Cities as we read at the beginning of this Chapter Hear O Israel thou art to pass over Jordan this day to go in to possess Nations greater and mightier than thy self Cities great and fenced up to Heaven v. 1. i. e. Very strongly Fortified so as to be impregnable by any Forces but such as were led on by the Lord of Hosts And therefore he takes this occasion to shew them the absolute necessity of making their peace with God and securing his powerful Alliance And may we in a like juncture prudently take the Hint But here the Parallel discontinues viz. In that Moses here had but one single Enormity of Israel tho' a very great one to lament before God and that too was happily nipt in the bud by an impartial execution of Justice on the known Offenders Exod. 32. 27. But our Sins alas are prodigiously many as well as great And these too are fatally ripen'd by long indulgence and impunity So that our Breach is very wide and we need many such as Moses to stand in the Gap and fill it up which I pray God raise up to us in this important Juncture in which the very Being of our Church and Nation lies at stake May the good God pour out a Spirit of Contrition and Supplication on us that every Soul this day may put it self out

unaffectedly to the publick Service of God and thence return to their usual meals and spend the rest of the day as impertinently shall I say or rather as provokingly as this I cannot but ask them in the words of the Prophet Isa 58. 5. Is this the Fast which God has chosen Wilt thou call such idleness as this an acceptable day to the Lord Alas what wretched notions hast thou of the Great God if thou thinkest him pleased with the skin of a Sacrifice What sense of his Glorious Majesty His Spiritual and Holy Nature His Infinite Glory and Ubiquity If thou settest so light by his Service and Presence If any one had greatly offended you and came to you to ask your pardon and to lament his fault should he now come fleering and laughing into your presence and presently set him down on his Seat and talk of something else and do nothing but toy and trifle whilst he is with you would you not say this Fellow came hither on purpose to mock me and defie me I am more offended by his sham-repentance than by his first fault But alas what is a slight done to us poor sinful Dust if compared to mockery done to the Almighty God Ah Sirs be not deceived God will not cannot be mock'd Gal. 6. 7. Our formal and ineffectual Fasts do rather kindle God's wrath than encline his mercy Fasts did I say the common observance of these days by some People deserves not that name There 's not so much as the likeness and outward appearance of a Fast in many places The same concourse in the Streets the same throng in Publick Houses and diversion in the Fields the same Ornaments and Meals and Mirth as on other days and the same idleness and indevotion Oh! that I could awaken the drouzy Consciences of these People or at least their care of decency for the common abuses of these Solemn Days are to be abhorr'd and hiss'd at by all that have any sense of Religion or indeed any due regard to Civil decorum The Fasts of Jews and Turks are grave severe and devout Solemnities and shall the Fasts of Christians be trifling vain and unsincere God forbid Let us then seek the Lord this day with all our Soul and this in a serious contrite and self-abasing manner which leads me to the third thing remarkable in the behaviour of Moses on this occasion viz. 3. He Prays with great fervour and with a sort of undeniable urgency for the publick good I Prayed therefore unto the Lord and said Oh Lord God destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance c. As if he said let not thy wrath good God consume that People which has the Divine honour to be called thine and to bear thy Name They are thy peculiar People for whose sake thou hast wrought such glorious Miracles such as no People but they were ever favoured withall This is that People which thy goodness redeemed from the slavery of Egypt in which Deliverance thou didst make bare thine Almighty Arm And now O Lord shall thy vengeance cut down those whom thy mercy has so lately raised up Wilt thou destroy those in the Wilderness for whom thou shewedst such tenderness in Egypt Will not the Heathen blaspheme thy name and the Egyptians triumph when they shall hear of this and say that thou destroyedst this People because thou couldst not perform thy Promises made to them Permit O Mighty Jehovah I pray thee permit a poor sinful worm to lay this humble Expostulation at the Footstool of thy Mercy Seat Not to instruct my Maker who knoweth all things but to express my earnest zeal for the glory of thy Name and the good of thy People This is the Scope of this Pious Man's Prayer in the Text which was not put up in vain For it averted imminent wrath and obtained seasonable Mercy Now as the Example of Elijah's Prayer by which the Heavens were opened and shut is proposed to us for our encouragement by the Holy Ghost Jam. 5. 17. so may we here enliven both our Affections and our Hopes from the Example of praying and prevailing Moses in the Text. Days of Fasting ought to be days of extraordinary Prayer and Intercession A real Christian cannot do otherwise his concern for the honour of God is mightily rowz'd up by the perfidiousness and Apostacy of others And on this occasion Zeal for God Compassion to Men and Indignation against Sin will make him put himself out to the utmost As when a Valiant Heroick General sees some of his Troops quitting their station and fleeing in Battle He bravely opposes the retiring Crowd throws himself into the chiefest place of danger and valiantly defends that ground which others had basely quitted And thus sometimes the single valour of one brave Commander wins the day Thus seasonably did Moses step in to the succour of the People of Israel when otherwise the breach of their integrity like a breach made in the ranks of an Army had opened a passage to the consuming wrath of God amongst them And by this Moses is said to stand up in the breach without which they had been destroyed Psal 106. 23. and this Moses did very often For When Corah and his Accomplices had generaly misled the People into an execrable Sedition And for this God had kindled a dreadful Plague among them With what earnestness did this good man direct Aaron to make a speedy attonement for them Take a Censer says he and put fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly into the Congregation and make attonement for them for the Plague is begun Numb 16. 46. And this Aaron did whilst Moses lay on his face v. 22. seeking mercy for them and so these two pious Intercessors stood as a Bulwark betwixt the dead and the living and stop'd the progress of God's wrath for that time also But this powerful intercession of Moses never was so clearly seen as in the Battel with Amalek Exod. 17. 11. where Moses no sooner sunk his devout hands but the Victory of Israel declined with them and fell to the other side as if the Victory and power of Israel had been chain'd to his arm by which it pleased God to give them a demonstration of what importance the prayers of this one eminent Servant of his was to them Thus did Joshua and the Elders of Israel when their Forces had been discomfited before the People of Ai. They rent their cloaths and fell on their faces to the earth and put dust upon their heads and prayed earnestly to the Lord and obtained favour in his sight Josh 2. 6. Thus did Abraham Samuel Jehosaphat Josiah Ezra Daniel and all the eminent Servants of God in all Ages whose devout prayers have frequently scattered those black Clouds which the common guilt had raised which otherwise had faln in a dreadful storm upon their heads Oh! that this throng of Holy Precedents might be effectual to excite our most

elevated Devotions this day Let us indeed afflict our Souls before the All-seeing God lest our mock-Fasts make work for real ones and lest we hasten that wrath which we seem to deprecate Let us indeed do the needful work of Intercessors with God and that we may not want Arguments to plead for mercy the latter part of my Text will suggest something apposite to our Case which is summed up in my second observation viz. That a Peoples profession of the true Religion and being those whom God had signally deliver'd and defended in times past may be humbly pleaded with God as an argument for further Deliverance For thus Moses prays and pleads in the Text. O Lord destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance which thou hast redeemed thro' thy Greatness which thou hast brought forth of the Land of Egypt with a mighty hand In which he seems to argue thus Oh Lord may it please thee to make the procedure of thy Providence towards this People suitable to what it has been hitherto Thou hast hitherto preserved and defended them by astonishing dispensations We can never forget that dreadful succession of miraculous Plagues which thou broughtest upon our Enemies the Egyptians How grosly thou didst infatuate them and how eminently thou didst inspirit us and by what a wonderful Revolution thou wast pleased to free us from their slavery Oh Let us not now perish by that powerful hand by which we were so lately delivered 'T is true we are guilty of great provocations but thy mercy is greater than our perverseness Oh spare a very sinful People for thine infinite mercy sake Lest when the Egyptians hear of our destruction they triumph in our ruine in the Wilderness as much as we did in the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea Yea lest they think thy power oftner displayed in Judgment than in Mercy This is the purport of the Plea in my Text which may be reduced to these four Particulars 1. He pleads for mercy for them on the account of their relation to God as they were his People Destroy not thy People and thine Inheritance They were a peculiar People by a very singular and selecting love of God Deut. 4. 43. Hath God essayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation by Signs Wonders and by a mighty hand as the Lord your God did you c. So that now the honour of God seemed to be concerned for their preservation Now all that profess the incorrupt Religion of our Lord Jesus Christ may form an Argument somewhat like this and say Lord we are Christians we cleave to the Doctrine of thy Beloved Son for his sake whose Name we bear and for the honour of thy visible Church on Farth destroy us not And tho' alas too too few of us are duly influenced by our holy Faith yet we generally avow thee thee alone to be our God in opposition to Idols and other Gods Oh that we could say we are Christians in opposition to Hypocrisie and Prophaneness too then our plea would be irresistible II. There may be a further plea inferr'd from Moses his Prayer thus viz. For as much as there is seldom the profession of the true Religion without some hearty and entire embracers of it So that an Argument may be made like that of Abraham's Gen. 18. 24. If there be Fifty or Forty or but Ten Righteous Persons wilt thou not spare the corrupt generality for the sake of this little sound part This we have great hope may be pleaded in the behalf of this Nation yea of this City Even in a far greater Number than that which Abraham began his Plea with But truly the number of the Good is too too small And indeed except the Lord had left unto us this small Remnant we had been altogether as Sodom and like unto Gomorrah Isa 1. 9 But we trust we shall fare the better for the sake of these III. Another part of Moses's Plea is grounded on the past Mercies which God had vouchsaf'd to this People This is the People says he which thou hast redeemed thro' thy greatness and brought out of Egypt with thy mighty hand In this respect also some Plea may be made for England It is a Land which God has by a Series of Wonders freed from the Slavery and Corruptions of Popery An infinite Blessing which we have now enjoy'd for almost two Centuries of Years And tho' there have been many Combinations and restless Plottings against us yet blessed be God they have hitherto proved abortive And we are at this day thro' infinite mercy a Free People enjoying the blessed Beams of the Gospel and the Just and Antient Rights of our Mother-Country O! may that Bountiful God who has hitherto thus seasonably thus marvelously appeared for us still be our Guardian May his infinite Goodness never leave us but flow down with the same exuberant Streams on us and our Posterity to the latest Generations So that we may here say as Solomon The Lord our God be with us as He was with our Fathers let him not leave us nor forsake us 1 Kings 8. 57. IV. Another part of Moses his Plea is taken from the Insolence of the Enemy ver 28. Lest the Land whence thou broughtest us out say Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the Land which he promised them and because he hated them he hath brought them out to slay them in the Wilderness The World is apt to judge of the goodness of the Cause by its success and to make very wild Interpretations of the Language of Providence Wicked men are apt to conclude that God is on their side when their Mischievous Designs take effect So that on this account also we may form a Plea for Mercy For if Protestants be consumed the Papists will be sure to glory in their Ruine as in the Fall of Miscreant Hereticks Especially since their Cardinal Champion makes outward Prosperity and Victory the mark of his splendid Church * Ultima Nota est faelicitas temporalis Divinitùs ijs collata qui Ecclesiam defenderunt Bellarmin de Notis Ecclesiae cap. 18. Which by his leave would better have fitted the mouth of a Turk than a Christian For Mahomet proposed to propagate his Faith by the Sword which our Blessed Saviour never did but the very contrary Now therefore since the French Papists have so glutted themselves already with the groans and blood of the Protestants in their own Country should their bloody Designs against us prosper too how would they blaspheme the Reformed Religion and triumph in their own Delusions May the Lord of Armies therefore enfeeble the Power and blast the Designs of those Massacring Legions And if our sins are so ripe that Infinite Justice can spare us no longer nor infinite patience any longer suspend our punishment may we fall into the hands of God rather than Men. Rather the Pestilence or Scarcity or any earthly Plague