Sermon Preached to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, Title page – Dedication
A SERMON Preach'd to the SOCIETIES FOR Reformation of Manners, IN THE Cities of London and Westminster, AT SALTERS-HALL, Aug. 15. 1698.
Preached and Published at the desire of the said SOCIETIES.
By VINCENT ALSOP.
LONDON: Printed for Iohn Lawrence, at the Angel in the Poultry, MDCXCVIII.
To the WORTHY GENTLEMEN Engag'd in the SOCIETIES FOR Reformation of Manners.
Honoured Sirs!
THE Preaching, Printing, Publishing this Discourse, is due both to God, and you: He gave the Commission, you ministred the Occasion: The Authority is from Heaven, the Opportuity from your selves. It would therefore be a piece of Impertinent Modesty, and such whose sincerity you might well question, should I frame an excuse for doing that, for which I could have made no excuse had I not done it. What will Iustify me, will Vindicate you, for both of us owe a duty to God, and perishing Souls, to pluck them like Brands out of the Fire, upon whom the Wrath of God, and the Malice of Hell, have begun to kindle; if at least our God will honour us, and use us as his Instruments in so Blessed a Work: I know well that they who most need our Help will least accept it; nay, most desperately oppose it: But it's a charitable Severity to bind the hands of the Distracted, though they rage at, and revile us, to prevent if possible their destroying themselves.
I know also that the Persons with whom you deal, will imperiously demand, By what Authority you do these Things, and who gave you this Authority? Now tho' you might retort their Question: By what Authority do you Curse, Swear, Blaspheme, and Prophane the Lord's Day? And who gave you this Authority? Yet seeing the most notorius Crimes committed against the Laws Divine and Humane, ought to be Punisht in a Legal and Regular Way, however they be, illegal and irregular, you need not insist upon that Answer: Nor yet upon extraordinary examples to justify your ordinary Proceedings; you need not plead the Zeal of Phineas, or Samuel; your Cause and Practise need no such Defences: That Law which Enacts that such an Ossence shall be punished with such a Penalty, limiting the Conviction of the Offender to the Deposition of one or more Witnesses is your clear Warrant, and abundant Iustification; for if there were no Witnesses, it would be the same as if there were no Laws, no Penalties: And because that which is every Man's Business is no Man's Business, you may honestly agree, that where any shall dare to Transgress, you will dare to impeach the Transgressor: It were a hard Case if Men might associate and combine for Sinning, and none might unite in Societies for Reforming.
I remember a time when the Name of an Informer suffered some disrepute: But it's unjust that you should fall under their Reproach, for a slender understanding is able to distinguish between Praying to God, and Blaspheming Him; between Sanctifying the Lords Day and Profaning it; between setting up the Devils Kingdom, and pulling it down. There is a Text, which having been sometimes abused in the Pulpit, and oft-times exposed by the Press, must not be quoted without some Preface to remove Prejudice, though it stands legible in our Bibles to this day: Tis Iudg. 5.23. Curse ye Meroz, (said the Angel of the Lord) Curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof, because they came not out to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the Mighty. Say not, God needs none of our Help: Tho his Enemies are mighty, yet in their closest Confederacies, and strongest Combinations, they cannot make up one Almighty Enemy, and God can plead his own Cause, and avenge his own Honour upon them without our over-officious assistance: 'Tis true, if we consider his Absolute Power, he needs no Kings, nor Princes, nor inferiour Magistrates to come in as his Auxiliaries; He can with more ease kill the Murderer, than he could his weaker Brother: choak the Blasphemer with his own Blasphemies, and stifle the Swearer with his own poisonous breath: But he has seen Good to chuse other Methods in which, other Means by which to govern his own World: As Kings Reign by Him, he governs by them by Legislators and their Laws; Iudges and their Sentences, Magistrates and their Executions; in a Word, He governs the Physical World in a Physical way; the Moral World Morally; the Spiritual World Spiritually.
But still you persist, and say: God needs none of our help: No more does Christ need your Relief: And yet God calls for our help, Christ for our Relief: And they both need what they call for; God needs help in his despised Cause: Christ needs Relief in his poor distressed Members: and in these respects none needs help more than God: None Relief more than Christ.
Now as God calls for our help, he does it under a dreadful Curse; and I hope none of us will venture to stand in the Line & Rake of Heavens Artillery: For God sometimes steps out of the ordinary Road, and punishes daring Sinners by the immediate Hand of Heaven, that he may, by some few but notable Instances, convince the World that he has not forsaken it, but regards Mischief, and Spight, with his Eyes, to punish them with his Hand. Thus when Nadab, and Abihu, offer'd strange Fire to God, which he commanded them not, he consumed them with strange Fire which they expected not: Levit. 10.2. And when Ananias and Saphira dared to commit Sacriledge, and palliate their Sin with a Lie, Christ struck 'em both dead in a moment, Acts 5.
Gentlemen,
God needs your Help, he bespeaks it, offer your selves willingly to his Call: And yet your Case is much the same with that of the Disciples, Matth. 14.24. when the Ship (in which they were) was in the mid'st of the Sea, toss'd with the Waves because the Wind was contrary. You see they went to Sea by Christ's commission; nay, by his compulsion, v. 22. He constrained them to get into a Ship: They were in the clear way of their Duty, and yet they met with a Storm; and the Winds were not only high, but contrary; and yet they had some great Encouragements, first, that whil'st they were in the Storm at Sea, Christ was Praying in the Mount, v. 23. And then that in the fourth Watch of the Night, Jesus went unto them walking on the Sea: When Night was darkest, the Storm highest, their Fear greatest, and their Faith weakest, then was the season for Christ's coming: But their greatest trouble was, that Christ came to deliver them walking upon the Sea; which though it might have been their greatest Comfort, that their Lord was above the Waves, and had them under his Feet, yet they cry'd out for fear: Were more afraid of their Deliverer, than of their Danger: So true it is, that God comes sometimes to save us in such uncouth Ways, that we are afraid of his Way and Means more than the Tempest.
But fear not the Devil, though he roars and rages, I would hope his time is but short when he rages most: For thus when Christ came to eject and disposses him, Mark 9.20. the evil spirit tare the young Man.
Let me seriously advise you from what point of the Compass you may expect the greatest Danger, and I will conclude.
Your great Danger will arise from those publick Nurseries, and Seminaries of Debauchery: Where Fools make a mock of Sin, and a mock at all Sobriety; who debauch more in one Night than you reform in a Year: You may prune off some few luxuriating branches of Impiety, but till God shall cut up the Tree by the roots, they will spring again thicker and stronger: Pull up what you can, these Nurseries will replenish all again: For here that Art and Mystery of Sinning is taught, as if it were a science to be Prophane; and if the Christian Religion have not power and interest enough to suppress them, they will suppress all Religion: But I must leave the Blasting of these, and the Blessing of you to Him, who loves Righteousness, and hates all Iniquity. I am,
Gentlemen, Your Faithful Servant in the Work of the Lord, V. A. October 31. 1698.