A SERMON PREACHED at the General Meeting OF Gloucestershire-MEN For the most part INHABITANTS OF THE City of London In the Church of St. Mary Le-Bow December the 9th 1684. By Edward Fowler D. D. LONDON Printed by T. B. for Braybazon Aylmer at the Sign of the Three Pidgeons in Cornhill M DC LXXXV TO MY Honoured COUNTRYMEN Mr. John Haynes Mr. Aaron Pengry Mr. Richard Bishop Mr. Gwynnet Freeman Mr. Edward Sandys Mr. Edward Davis Mr. Anthony Partridge Mr. Stephen Rose Mr. John Ferrers Mr. William Till The STEWARDS of the late Gloucestershire-FEAST Gentlemen THE Sermon which in complyance with your desire I Preached to a very Numerous Meeting of our Country-men and the Publishing of which you since Requested I here present you with And God grant that this plain Discourse Composed in a hurry of other Business may in some Measure Contribute to the better observance of the great Praecepts of Fearing God Honouring the King and Loving one another therein recommended and inforced Then shall I have great cause to be thankful as to Almighty God for His Blessing on this endeavour so to your selves for putting into my Hands this opportunity of doing good I am Gentlemen Your Affectionate Countryman and Humble Servant EDWARD FOWLER A SERMON PREACHED at the Gloucestershire-feast 1 Pet. 2. 17. Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King THat the Religion of which our Lord Jesus is the Founder is most admirably fitted for the making Mankind as happy as they are capable of being in this world as well as in the world to come is a no less certainly true than common observation As also that it tends as much to the happiness of Societies and Bodies Politick as of single Persons And were I to give a Demonstration of this I should need to do more than propose to your consideration this one short Verse Honour all Men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King If Christians generally practised the four duties which our Blessed Lord by his Apostle St. Peter here enjoyneth if they gave all Men the respect due to Human Nature to the Relations they stand in to each other and the Rank and Circumstances God hath placed them in if they loved one another as Brethren the Children of the same Father indued with one common Nature and Redeemed by one Saviour if they Revered the Divine Majesty and dreaded the wilful Transgression of any one of his Laws and under God Honoured their Kings as his immediate Representatives and Vicegerents If I say Christians were generally as willing to put these Duties in Practice as they are to acknowledg their Obligation to them I need not tell you that to live in Christendom would be to live in a Heaven upon Earth and in all likelyhood in a short time the whole World would be taken into Christendom In the handling of this Text I shall begin with the duties of Fearing God and Honouring the King and spend the rest of my Discourse upon that of Loving the Brotherhood each of which three Arguments doth well suit with the occasion of this Meeting but more especially the Last In the Prosecution of these Words Fear God ' Honour the King I will endeavour to shew these three things First What it is to Fear God Secondly What to Honour the King Thirdly That there is a necessary Connexion between these two Fearing God and Honouring the King First We will shew and that very briefly what is implyed in this Precept Fear God 1. To Fear God is to be possessed with an holy Awe and Reverence of his Infinite Majesty of his Glorions Attributes and Perfections Particularly of His irresistible Boundless Power of his Absolute Dominion over us and the whole World of His infinite Wisdom and Knowledg of His unspotted Purity and Holiness of His uncorrupted Justice and His inexhaustible Goodness The Fear of God doth presuppose an hearty belief and acknowledgment that all these Perfections are in the Divine Nature and implyeth in the first Place the being affected with Awe and Reverence towards God upon the account of all these He who understandingly believes the Existence of God must necessarily believe Him to be a Being Absolutely Perfect and Consequently must believe that He hath all these Perfections Of this Natural Light assures men no less than Divine Revelation And therefore the Philosophers who were hearty Asserters of the Deity which the Epicuraeans were not as Tully confidently and with great reason affirms have abundantly Preached this Doctrine as well as the Prophets and Apostles concerning God And he I say that Fears God doth so believe this Doctrine hath so lively and vigorous a Sense of the Truth thereof as to have an holy Awe and Dread of the Divine Majesty upon his Spirit upon the account of the foresaid Perfections of His Nature Each of which singly and much more altogether do make Him an Object of the Greatest Reverence Awe and Fear and each of them doth necessarily attract Fear from him who Considers it You may Object that the last of these Perfections viz. the Divine Goodness doth not seem to be attractive of Fear but of Love and Gratitude I Answer That it is no less attractive of Fear than of Love and Gratitude Not of a Slavish but of a Fillial Fear which is founded on Love and Gratitude and necessarily results from them And therefore the Prophet Hosea ch 3. 5. praedicts concerning the Children of Israel that They shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter days 2. The Fear of God implyeth also the Expressing of this inward Fear and Reverence in our Outward Conversations in all the Actions of our Lives And it is impossible where there is an holy Awe of God in the Heart but it must express it self in the Life In short This is in the general the true Character of the man that Feareth God He is one who escheweth Evil. It was part of Job's Character that He feared God and eschewed Evil which are two Phrases to express the same thing and so are departing from evil and fearing God Prov. 3. 7. Fear the Lord and depart from evil He that Fearetb God is one that though he may happen to transgress a Law of God before he is aware and may be surprized into a sin yet dares not sin deliberately nor allow himself in the doing of any thing which God hath forbidden nor in the neglecting of any thing God hath commanded And therefore he endeavours sincerely to acquaint himself with his whole Duty He is one who dreads more to offend the great God than to provoke the greatest of Men As knowing that these have done their worst when they have killed the Body whereas Almighty God is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Which is our Saviours Motive to the making of God the object of our greatest Fear Mat 10. 28. The Man that feareth God is so affected with those words as to be incomparably most afraid of the evil of
World as they wickedly presume God Almighty will deal with them in the other And whatsoever Furious People will Own 't is too likely that most of them think that God is a Being like themselves and saves and damns men not by fixed and standing Laws but by mere Will and Power Again This Strife and ill Will c. destroys all the Comfort and Pleasure of Conversation And that as they engage the Company in Siding against one another and in wrathful disputing when they meet together for mutual Enjoyment And also as they cause Fear and jealous Mistrust and so destroy all Freedom in Converse Again when this ill Will Emulation and Strife c. come to be between great Numbers they have a most mischievous Influence upon the Government Nothing makes men so ungovernable And therefore Traiterous Heady and High-minded do well follow False Accusers Incontinent Fierce 2 Tim. 3. 3. It is not possible that the Government should carry it with such an Even and Steady hand as not to favour one side more than the other nor is it indeed fit it should because it hardly ever so happens that one part hath no more right on it's side than the Opposite And it would be Strange too if both should be equally guilty of Injustice and Transgressing the Laws Now nothing is more natural than for men of Wrath and Fury to take high offence at those who are in the least favourable towards their Adversaries especially if they perceive them to be one jot more in their favour than themselves And I think they are far more apt to take this heighnously at their Governours hands than at their fellow-Snbjects Because they always on each side pretend to be most faithful to the interest of the Government Now when once offence is taken at the Government whilst People are so generally acted by Interest much more than by Principles of Religion and Conscience I need not say that the Government can be no longer secure from open Violence or private Conspiracies than till the offended Party grows strong enough to hope for Success Oh how sad a Felling have we of this Nation had of the Truth of this Moreover this evil Spirit when 't is gotten into Societies tendeth mightily to the Debauching of them This it doth as it takes men off from following the Business of their Callings as it makes them Idle and Gadders about The Heads of those who are engaged in Strife and Contention are too much heated to mind as they should do Serious Business And therefore they commonly employ themselves as the Athenians did who spent their time in nothing else than to tell or to hear some new thing VVhen they should be in their Shops and about their necessary Affairs you may find them in the Coffee-Houses or in the Taverns Caballing together And as in the one they spend many pretious hours one while in vain prating and another while in Seditious Talking or Unchristian Censuring Railing and Reviling So in the other in adding to these and the like Immoralities Excessive Drinking which I need not tell you draweth after it other vicious and leud Practices I add also that by this means they become great Sufferers in their Fortunes and Abundance Break and run-out of all and bring themselves and Families to a Morsel of Bread VVhat a number of sad Instances of the Truth of this have we of late years had in this City And lastly Strife and Variance if not timely abandoned brings upon that Kingdom City or other Society utter Ruin and Desolation This our Lord Himself hath told us Mat. 12. 25. Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to dosolation and every House divided against it self cannot stand And he intimates to us in the following words that the Devils are so wise as to be aware of this and therefore will agree together as natural as Malice and Contention are to them and as great pleasure as they take in imbittering Mens Spirits towards one another There are innumerable instances of the truth of that saying of our Blessed Lord and the Experience of those to whom He spake it found it Verifyed within about half an Age after with a Vengeance The horrible Feuds that were in Jerusalem did the Romans business to their hands and brought them under a Fatal Necessity of a total Destruction and Desolation Again 2. As the Community must needs Suffer thus by the means of those Vices that are Opposite to Love so are they the heaviest Plague to those Particular Persons in whom they reign that can befal them But the time will suffer me to say but a very little to this Argument In short therefore thus Malice Revenge and Fury c. are mightily Uneasy and Restless Vices they are a very Hell to him in whom they dwell They give not so much trouble and vexation to others but that they give more to those men themselves who entertain and gratify these Lusts. All corrupt Appetites whatsoever are of a Tormenting nature but 't is most especially true of them in whom the Spirit of ill will is found that They are like the troubled Sea which cannot rest whose waters cast up Mire and Dirt. This farthermore is the true Spirit and Temper of the Devil S. James saith Chap. 3. 15. If ye have bitter Envying and Strife in your hearts Glory not and Lye not against the Truth this Wisdom descendeth not from above but is Earthy Sensual Devillish The Pharisees who were acted by this Spirit our Saviour calls the Devil's Children Ye are saith he of your Father the Devil and the Works of your Father ye will do he was a Murtherer from the beginning c. In this saith S. John the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil he that doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother Or the man who is guilty of this instance of Unrighteousness Hating his Brother is in a more especial manner the Child of the Devil No man doth Resemble him so exactly as doth this man And Envious and Malicious Kain is said by the same Apostle to be of that wicked one of his Spirit and Temper as if he were his Natural Off-spring and Begotten of the Devil Consequently This Spirit and Temper sets us at the greatest distance imaginable from God who is a most Kind Gratious and Benign Being whose tender mercies are over all his works Who is a Being most Placable and Reconcileable towards Repenting Sinners A Being of Wonderful Patience and Long-Suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance A Being that considers our Frame and remembers that we are dust and is Compassionate in all Cases that are Compassionable And Lastly 'T is apparent from the foregoing Account that this Spirit of Malice and Revenge c. puts men into the Hellish State and completely qualifies them for the Place called Hell and the Company thereof and for the worst of Company
there the Devil and his Angels for whom Hell was originally prepared A Soul destitute of Love and fraught with the Contrary Qualities when it goes out of this Body will be prest down by them into the bottomless Pit 'T will as naturally sink down thither as the Stone or any Heavy Body falls to the Ground Hell is the very Center of all such Souls And therefore what remains but that we Hate this Malign Spirit as we Hate the Devil and that we Shun it as we would do Hell it self As also that we make it the Chief Business of our Lives to get our selves intirely possessed of the Godlike Spirit of Love of that Wisdom which is from above which is first Pure then Peaceable Gentle and Easy to be Entreated sull of Mercy and Good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisy But it may be Objected are we obliged to be United in Love and Friendship with those who are Enemies to all Unity who do all they can to Encourage Faction and Sedition in the State and Schism in the Church and are Enemies both to our Ecclesiastical and Civil Government Hereto I Answer 1. If we could all be perswaded to love one another we should have no such Offenders as these among us All true Love and Unity hath its foundation as I shewed true Loyalty hath in the Fear of God And where that is as I shewed too there will be Submission to the Higher Powers The Combinations of Traiterous Factious and Schismatical Persons and indeed of all wicked Men whatsoever is as the Father saith Conspiratio non Unit as A Conspiracy not an Unity But because we cannot expect in this Depraved State of Mankind that so much as the Major part should be induced with the Principle of Love I answer 2. That there is a twofold Love a Love of Complacency and of mere Good-will Now as to the love of Complacency that cannot be between Persons of unlike Spirits and Tempers they cannot take delight in one another A Man of Loyal Principle and Practices can take no delight in a Man of Disloyal ones nor can any good Man take delight in a wicked Man nor ought he so to do if he could But then we ought still to retain the love of good-will for such we ought in this sense to love their Persons whilst we hate their Principles and Practices And we ought to express our good-will to their Persons by pitying them and praying for them and using all endeavours to reclaim them We ought as the Apostle adviseth with meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves if God per adventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And when there is a necessity of exercising Severity it should never proceed from a Principle of Revenge but the design thereof ought always to be the Preservation of the Government and the Reformation too of the Offenders when their punishment is not Capital So that in no case whatsoever Malice and Revenge Wrath and Fury may take place among us And all Men whatsoever should be Objects either of our Love of Delight or of Good-will And now my Honoured and Dear Country-men God Almighty grant that this our happy Meeting may contribute towards the promoting and encrease of Love among us And fully answer the Designs thereof expressed in the Tickets viz. Mutual Society and Charity And it is my humble request to you that this our first Feast after a long discontinuance may give a noble Example to all succeedings ones of forwardness to this great work of Charity The putting out to Apprentice poor Children of our Country or otherwise releiving the most Necessitous of our Brethren And farther God Almighty grant that no other strife no other Emulation may ever be discerned in Our Brotherhood than these most highly Praise-worthy ones viz. Who of us shall give the best demonstration to the world of his Fearing God and Honouring our King or of Honouring our King from the true principle of Fearing God and of sincere Zeal for the interest of the Government Who of us shall be most concerned for the Religion of our truly Apostolick Church in opposition to both its Adversaries Popery on the one Hand and Fanaticism under all forms on the other And who of us shall most hate medling with either of those Extremes who would fain change our Government whether Civil or Ecclesiastical A word or two more and I will no longer Trespass upon your Patience We have a Country I think take it altogether not inferiour to speak modestly to any one in England both for Riches and Pleasure and a Country that is Honoured with Inhabitants of Great worth and Great Quality equally with most in England She hath indeed but a few of the Nobility but among these She can boast of one Family of the very Highest Rank of Nobles And I can't but take notice farther of the Honour which some would have to be done our Country by an Antient Proverb the like to which no other place I ever heard of can lay claim to except Heaven it self Namely this As sure as God is in Gloucester-shire Our Country 's so abounding heretofore with Religious Houses hath been thought as Dr. Fuller and others say to be the occasion of this Proverb But though those Houses have been long gone which we have no cause to be sorry for except their Religion were better than it was I could be content we might never lose our Proverb on condition that it may never for the future be prophanely used as alass now it is and that this for the time to come may be the ground of it viz. That Gloucester-shire abounds above all other Countries with Love and Friendship Then there may be a defence made for such a Proverb as this For though God be every where yet is He most especially and peculiarly present there where Love reigneth For God is Love and those that dwell in Love dwell in God and God in them As St. John assures us I say upon so Blessed an Account as this Let this Proverb so it be never as I said for the future prophanely or irreverendly used to all Generations be continued THE END ERRATA Page 1. l. 10. read no more Page 13. l. 21. read Representing Viz. Ever since the Burning of London His Grace the Duke of Beauford's