Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A65571
|
Eight sermons preached on several occasions by Nathanael Whaley ...; Sermons. Selections
|
Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.
|
1675
(1675)
|
Wing W1532; ESTC R8028
|
120,489
|
326
|
Sect in his Childhood and lived till he became a Christian exactly according to them as he tells King Agrippa in the hearing of the Jews at the fifth Verse of this Chapter And therefore what he charges himself with we are not to look upon as his own private perswasion only but rather as an instance of the general sentiment of the Men of his way and indeed as the Natural brood and Issue of Pharisaical Superstition By Superstition I mean a groundless Apprehension of pleasing God by doing things which he never commanded or forbearing those which he hath no where Forbidden And this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great and leading Error of the Pharisees They added to the written Word of God and made more Duties and sins than ever the Law had made Their Traditions which had nothing to recommend them but the Custom of their Fathers they esteemed equal at least to the Divine Commandments Nay our Saviour expresly tells us They made the Commandments of God of no effect by their Traditions as if they thought to please him better in their own way than in His And Reckon'd they advanc'd themselves above others by what they did over and above their Duty as much in his asthey did in their own Opinion And hence Conformity to their Traditional Rites was their measure of Improvement and Perfection in Religion as appears by St. Pauls Character of himself Gal. 1.14 I profited in the Jews Religion above many of my Equals in my own Nation being more exceedingly Zealous of the Tradition of my Fathers Which words if we observe their connexion with those immediately before them seem to come in as the Reason why beyond measure as he there tells us he Persecuted the Church of God and wasted it i.e. His mighty Zeal for the Unscriptural Doctrines of the Pharisees was the true ground of his Bitter and furious Zeal against the Professors of the True Religion And this is the rather to be noted because it shews us the Spirit and Genius of that Sect that had the chief hand in bringing our Saviour to his Cross and first conspired the ruine of Christianity From the Words thus explained the matter I would crave leave to Propose to your serious considerations is this That the Consciences of Men may be so far mis-guided by Erroneous Principles and an Affectation of things in which Religion does not consist as to encourage them to the fiercest opposition to the express Revelations of God and the truths of Jesus Or more briefly thus That Christianity is liable to the sharpest Opposition from Men under the highest Pretence of Zeal and Conscience towards God and Religion In speaking to this Subject my Design is 1. To confirm the truth of this Observation 2. To shew whence it is that Men are liable to be thus Misguided by Erroneous Principles and transported with this Extravagant and Destructive Zeal 3. To make some Inferences that may be Useful to our felves 1. For the confirmation of this Truth That the Consciences of Men may be thus Misguided and their Spirits Inflamed by Erroneous Principles against the Truth may appear from our Saviours Character of his and his Churches Enemies and from many plain and undeniable Instances Parallel to this of the Confessor in the Text. 1. From our Saviours Character of His and his Churches Enemies Our Blessed Lord fore-seeing what a zealous Opposition his Church and Doctrine would assuredly meet withal after his decease takes occasion a little before his Passion to fore-warn his Disciples of it He had often told them in the general That they must look for Troulbe and Persecution from Men. Now the time of Tryal drawing on to prevent the damp of a Surprisal he Describes the temper and Spirit of their Enemies and shews them what hard measure they and their Followers must expect from them They shall put you out of the Synagogues i.e. excommunicate and curse you for Hereticks yea the time cometh That whosoever Killeth you will think that he doth God service John 16.2 It seems to kill a Disciple for his Religion was in the judgment of these Men like the Worshiping of God by Sacrifice They shall think by it saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perform a grateful Service or Sacrisice to God As if they knew no better way of pleasing him than by takeing a Lamb out of his own Flock and making it an Oblation to him Now this is certainly a very strange way of servig God and such as men would never have thought of if they had not Deify'd something more than him and changed the Glory of the Holy and Merciful God into a direful Image of their own Temper and Complexion whom they Worship instead of him And as I doubt not but the Jews were primarily intended in this Prophecy so to the Infinite Scandal of Christianity there is unanswerable Reason to think that many that shelter themselves under the Sacred Profession of it are very deeply concerned in it sure I am that all the Marks of this Prophecy the same Religious zeal exprest by the same rage rancour and cruelty are very fresh and easie to be seen upon them 2. By many plain and Undeniable Instances Parallel to that we meet with in the Text. The Apostles Confession was indeed a sinular thing But for the Crimes which he taxeth himself with he might as justly have charged his Nation with them the main Body of the Jewish Church especially the governing part of it being strangely Leavened with this Sowre and Destructive zeal They had a zeal for God as St. Paul himself Testifies of them but not according to knowledge for they knew not his Immence Goodness and Benignity to Mankind nor his only begotten Son when he was amongst them They had a zeal for the Law but so they presumed to call what ever they had made Law by their Glosses and Traditions and directed it against those that had a zeal against them And a very fierce and fatal zeal it was A zeal that Crucifyed the Lord of Life That threw the Apostles into Prisons That cleared the Synagogues of them and their Disciples That Crampt and Loaded them with Chains and Fetters and for a good work gave forty Stripes save one A zeal that suborned Witnesses and breathed out Threatnings and slaughter against Men of whom the World was not worthy a zeal that listed Men into Conspiracies and bound them under an Oath to Kill an Innocent Person An outragious zeal it was that made Men exceedingly Mad as one that had too much experience of it tells us v. 11th of this Chapter so mad as to think they ought to d many things contrary to the clearest Revelations of God and the Name of Jesus Nor is this kind of Zeal Peculiar to the temper of the Jewish Nation There are those in the World that would be thought the only Good Christians who roundly Excommunicate all other Churches for not complying with their
and Tranquility of Mind in this World and Eternal Rest and Glory in that which is to come Then follows the Exhortation of which the Text is part Wherefore lift up the Hands which hang down and the feeble Knees and make streight Paths for your Feet By Paths we are to understand the General Course of our Actions which are then Streight when they lie even with the Rule that God has given us to Frame and Govern them by For streightness has a necessary relation to a Rule and consists in an evenness or adequate conformity to it And then we do make our Paths streight when we take due care to understand our Rule and being well assured of the rectitude of it to order our Actions so as to make them Answerable to it and when we have begun well to hold on our Course without any stop or deviation from it Now the Gospel being the Rule of the Christian Life the meaning of the Apostles Exhortation to the Hebrews who began to waver in the Profession of it must be this Having a Streight and Perfect Rule before you see that your Actions be conformable to it Don't faint at any Discouragements or follow any crooked and deceitful Paths but keep to them that are streight as the Gospel leads you which is the Direct and Infallible Way to Everlasting Bliss and Happiness From the Words thus explained there are three things observable of which I shall speak in their order 1. That there is a Streight and Direct way to Heaven and Happiness 2. That this Way may be certainly found with due care and enquiry 3. That having found the Streight Way to Heaven we ought to be very careful and exact in walking in it and not yield to any Temptation to forsake it 1st Observ That there is a streight and direct Way to Heaven and Happiness This is supposed in the Text which exhorts the Hebrews to make use of this Way and implies that they were already in some measure acquainted with it And well might the Apostle suppose that there is such a Way without being at the pains to prove it when it is universally owned by all that believe there is any such thing as True Religion in the World and that is all the World but the Atheist that is of no Religion Very many indeed are mistaken in their Way to Heaven But that there is a streight and certain Way thither was never denied by the Professors of any Religion for they all pretend to be in the Right Way how wide soever they are in Opinion and Practice from one another All the Controversie is which of those several Paths which men take to be the streight and plain Way to Heaven is truly so And certainly to know this is a matter of very great concernment and deserves a very serious and impartial Enquiry for tho a man may fall into the right way by chance that never enquires after it which is the case of those that Profess the True Religion for no other reason but because they were instructed in it from their Infancy yet 't is no virtue in such a man that he is in the right Nay he does not so much as know that he is and so long is in danger of being toss'd about and carried off from one Church and Religion to another according as the Wind of Doctrine sits and the Tide of Preferment turns He that takes his Religion upon Trust and never examines the Grounds and Reasons of it may be easily persuaded that he has no Reason to be Obstinate in it especially when he is like to be a loser by the hand and is fairly offered another that promises the Life that now is and pretends to give Infallible Security for that which is to come And hence St. Peter admonisheth the Christians that fled out of Judea for the freedom of their Religion 1 Pet. 3.15 to be always ready to give an Answer to every man that should ask them a Reason of the Hope that is in them i. e. to be able to defend their Religion and themselves by declaring as often as their Adversaries urged them to it what certain Grounds and Reasons they had for it And in truth a Religion without Rational Grounds and Motives to induce us to the Belief and Practice of it is not worth the suffering or contending for But perhaps it will be said allowing that there is a streight and sure way to Happiness yet there is such variety of differing Opinions and Persuasions about it that it is hardly possible to be certain where it is or when we have found it There are so many several Paths each of which are taken to be the right by those that are accustomed to them which yet can never be because they apparently cross one another that let a man be never so confident of the Goodness of his Way there are others who are no less confident that he is in a wrong Path and must come over to them if he will set himself right and timely prevent his Eternal Errors And since there is so great a diversity of Methods in Religion and so great a Confidence on both sides how is it possible for a plain man that would fain go the nearest and the streightest way to Heaven to be sure to find it Thus the Sceptick argues against the certainty of Religion in general and the Romanist thinks there is no Argument like this to confound the Protestants and to prove the necessity of an Infallible Guide But still I hope there is no great hurt in this Argument and that a plain man may be sure of finding his way to Heaven after all the Mistakes and Controversies that there are about it tho there should be no such thing as an Infallible Guide on Earth And this I shall endeavour to clear in the handling of the second Proposition evidently implied in the Text which is this 2d Observ That the streight way to Heaven may be certainly found with due care and enquiry I mean by men of ordinary capacity sincerely using the means which God is pleased to afford them without the assistance of any Earthly Infallible Guide Otherwise in vain did the Apostle admonish the Hebrews to make streight Paths for their Feet For supposing them uncapable of discerning between streight and crooked Paths either for want of a Rule to guide them or a faculty to apply their Rule to the several ways that were proposed to them it was to no purpose to give them any advice in this matter They that must judge of their Guides by the Rule of Scripture as all Christians are required to do must judge of their Rule first And they that cannot judge of a streight Rule when it lies before them cannot judge of an Infallible Guide As he that has not the wit to know when a Line is streight can be no competent Judge of a Perfect Mathematician For the fuller explication of this Truth it may be proper