Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30733
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A sermon preach'd at St. Mary-le-Bow to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, April 5, 1697 by Lilly Butler.
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Butler, Lilly.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B6282; ESTC R27140
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16,186
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51
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I proceed now Secondly To shew That to help forward the execution of Penal Laws upon notorious and scandalous Sinners is a good Work and therefore also proper matter to be zealous in This will be manifest if we consider First How much the execution of Penal Laws would conduce to that Reformation of Manners which I have already shewed so eminently promotes the Honour of God the Interest of Christianity the Welfare of our Country and the present and eternal Good and Happiness of Men. It must needs be a great Discouragement to Vice to see it continually exposing Men to Shame and Punishment to see Men of Honour and Authority imployed against it Piety and Virtue must needs gather Strength and Boldness when the Sword of Justice defends them and chastiseth the Enemies of them When Wickedness is forced to hide its Head and to creep into Corners for Fear of it The Habits of Sin will lose their strength when they are restrained from exercise and it cannot spread its Infection so wide when the Examples of it are not suffered to be Common Publick or Secure when it is forced out of current use and Fashion When Men cannot combine in such Numbers for the practice and Countenance of it to aid and hearten one another in it The sins of the Nation then would certainly be less in Number less Scandalous and less Provoking If the execution of Laws could effect no more than this yet God would be nothing so much dishonoured nor our Religion disgraced nor the Nation in Danger of publick Judgments and therefore it cannot but be a Good thing and great enough to deserve our most warm and vigorous Endeavours Secondly Such an execution of Judgment and Justice though it should avail but little towards the Reforming of Men yet it might for its own sake procure many Blessings from God to a People The Actions of publick Persons in their publick Stations have the greatest Influence upon the publick good These are the Actions of the Society and therefore will the soonest procure common Judgments or Blessings For Government and Magistracy and the execution of Justice belong to a Society as such and therefore according as these are administred it is reasonable to expect God should dispense his publick Favours It was for want of Eli's executing Judgment upon his lewd Sons that the Israelites were delivered into the Hands of the Philistines and the Ark of God taken from them 'Till Judgment was executed upon Achan for the Accursed thing the Israelites still fled before their Enemies It was by executing Judgment upon two scandalous Offenders that Phinehas stayed the fury of a devouring Plague and restored health to the Congregation of Israel Such another might afterwards have saved them from Captivity if they could have found a Man in Jerusalem that executed Judgment God would have Pardoned it Jer. 5. 1. But Magistrates cannot ordinarily do this alone if there be none to testify against the Transgressors It is good therefore for us all in our several places to endeavour the promoting so good a Work As Magistrates should be forward to execute Judgment so should others be ready to discover and accuse notorious Offenders without which there would be no opportunity for it These are good things then I have been hitherto pleading for and therefore such as we ought to be zealously affected in I proceed now Thirdly To shew What it is to be zealously affected in a good matter and consequently what is our Duty with respect to those exceeding good matters which are under our present consideration Zeal is the warmth and fervency of the Soul and Spirit that which actuates all our Powers and Faculties and inspires them with a new life and vigour in the pursuit of that we are zealous for More particularly First He that is zealously affected in any matter will be very earnest in his desires of succeeding in it He will wish and long for more Power and greater Opportunities and stronger Aids for the accomplishing of it His Thoughts will be mighty intent upon it and continually busied in seeking out proper and effectual ways of prospering in his Endeavours for it He will follow it with as vehement Desires as covetous and ambitious Men do Riches and Honour Where then is our Zeal for Reformation that most excellent good Thing if we seldom think how we may be serviceable to the promoting of it If we are not grieved that we can do no more towards it If we carelesly neglect any proper means or opportunities of being aiding and assisting to it If we willingly shift it off to others and are glad to be excused from having any hand in it our selves It is very sad to think of it but this I fear is almost the common Case of Christians of those I mean that call themselves so For what can they have of Christianity besides the Profession of it who are thus coldly affected to that wherein the Honour of Christ and his Gospel and the Happiness of those for whom he was born and died are so very much concerned Secondly He that is zealously affected to any good End will be exceeding active and industrious in the prosecution of it His Endeavours will be proportionable to his Desires great and strong as they Such was the Zeal of our Blessed Saviour who went about doing good and that of St. Paul which engaged him in Watchings often and in Labours more abundant And if we are zealously affected towards the reforming the lives of Men we shall not be slothful in this Business but fervent in Spirit serving the Lord with all our Might in it We shall never think we can take too much pains or grudge any toil or labour for the accomplishing of it When an Opportunity appears to us we shall greedily embrace it and improve it with our utmost Vigour Where then is our Zeal in this matter What little Difficulties discourage us How little Time or Pains do we imploy in it How much short do the most industrious of us come of the restless travail and unwearied diligence with which we see Men every day labouring for the uncertain Riches the fading Honour and the vain and forbidden Pleasures of this world Thirdly He that is zealously affected in any good thing will be very courageous in the pursuit of it If we were indeed zealously affected to this good work of reforming the Lives of Men we should not easily be frighted from doing our part in it by the Enemies and Opposition we are like to encounter with We should not care what a foolish World may call us or how a malicious World may use us We should not be afraid of their Terrours or discouraged by their Censures or put out of countenance by their Reproaches but boldly and resolutely proceed in that Good Cause we are ingaged in These would be but as dry Hay and Stubble unable to stop the progress of a flaming Zeal for God and Religion we should scorn to desert