Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A65628
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Select sermons of Dr. Whichcot [sic] in two parts.; Sermons. Selections
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Whichcote, Benjamin, 1609-1683.; Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1671-1713.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing W1642; ESTC R12788
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192,891
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478
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with several Mens Fancies and Opinions Now I will make use of my Text to describe and lay out a truely GOOD Man one that is real in his Religion one that keeps the ways of the Lord c. and that keeps himself from his Iniquity And the better to explain my self I must observe * to you in the first place a Different State of Men a State of Wickedness and Sin when Evil prevails And a State of Religion when Goodness and Vertue take place And these two differ in degree as Heaven and Hell For it is a great Mistake for us to think that all of Heaven or Hell is hereafter for both the one and the other is in measure and degree begun here For Heaven and Hell are not so much a Place as a State They that are reconciled to God in the Frame and Temper of their Minds and that live according to the Law of Heaven the everlasting and immutable Rules of Goodness Righteousness and Truth may truly be said to have begun Heaven while they are upon Earth But they who confound the Difference of Good and Evil and who care not to approve themselves to God but do without difference or distinction These are Partakers of the Devilish Nature and are in the Hellish State There may be Weaknesses Failings Mistakes Misapprehensions some Errors in Judgment and Opinion there may be false Conceits in some things about Religion and all these within the STATE OF RELIGION where Men are substantially honest and mean GOD Goodness and Truth and live in all good Conscience towards God We read Genesis 20. how God did apologize for Abimelech tho' he was not altogether without fault for he ought to have taken more care But yet he was innocent as to the great Transgression and therefore God saith I know thou didst it in the Integrity of thy Heart So St. Paul doth alleviate his Persecution of the Saints Acts 26. 9. I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth And 1 Tim. 1. 13. he saith he obtain'd Mercy because he did it ignorantly and in Unbelief Therefore we must conclude that none of those things that I have named come within the compass of wickedly departing from God But all those that are sincere in their Religion may yet say I have kept the ways of the Lord c. And thus it is reported of those good Men and Women that are upon Record in Holy Scripture Zechariah and Elizabeth are both said to walk in all the Statutes and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Neither is this particular to them but unto all good Men. This is the Testimony of all the Worthies in the Old Testament that they walked before the Lord in Integrity And this is RELIGION not in the Notion only and in Speculation but in POWER and in TRUTH Wherever it is less or otherwise it is with a double Heart not with a whole Heart as you read Psalm 12. 2. So in St. James we read of a double-minded Man Religion is not satisfied with a bare Profession and partial Reformation This may be for other Ends and Purposes and not out of Love to God and Righteousness But we must harmonize with the Nature Mind and Will of God and find a Displacency and Animosity in our Souls against Evil and this from the Love of Righteousness and Goodness And therefore to bring this home being a matter of the greatest consequence even that by which we must stand or fall I will tell you that this Text is not verified in any of these Cases First In the Case of Fundamental Ignorance Secondly In the Case of great Negligence and Carelesness Thirdly In the Case of voluntary Consent to known Iniquity First It cannot be verified in the Case of Fundamental Ignorance I call it Fundamental IGNORANCE in answer to Fundamental KNOWLEDGE For there is a Knowledge necessary to make a Man good I will not take upon me to determine the least that may be But this is certain there is some degree of Knowledge necessary to make a Man GOOD Therefore to instance in two things that are Fundamentally necessary to Religion and Conscience 1 st To know that there is a GOD and that we all ought to reverence adore and worship Him God hath made Men to know that He is and if they know that He is they must know that they ought to reverence adore and worship Him 2 dly They must have Knowledge of those great Crimes which are against God's Honour which are against the State of a Creature and unworthy in respect of God And this Knowledge I hold Fundamental and indispensable and must be where-ever there is a Capacity And from this I can excuse none but Infants and Idiots that are not come to the Use of Reason or are deprived of it All else may know that there is a God and * may know the great Instances of Evil such as Murder Adultery Blasphemy Perjury and the like I might add a third Instance which yet I do not mention with the like Evidence as the former to wit that there will be Rewards and Punishments in the next World That God will sooner or later judge the World and controul the Wickedness of it and reward eminent Vertue and Goodness Such a Belief as this tho' it be not equally knowable to the other two yet it is knowable and is necessary for the encouraging of Vertue and Discouragement of Vice and Wickedness This is the first thing Those that are ignorant of the things that are Fundamentally necessary to RELIGION cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from God For these have wickedly departed from Him altho' they have no more than Natural Knowledge and those Principles with which at first God created Man For these things are manifest to all Men And all Men are A LAW unto themselves in these Matters And therefore the Apostle saith that God is not far from every one of us And that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World and those things that he hath made So that they who deny his Eternal Power and Godhead are without excuse Secondly They who are greatly careless and neglective of God cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord c. For two things are absolutely necessary to the State of Religion and wherein we ought to take great care to wit Judgment of Right and Conscience to do accordingly The Judgment of what is Right and Wrong True and False Good and Evil do require great Care Diligence and Pains Nay let me ask you what there is in the whole Life of Man that is valuable or worthy but doth require Care Pains Industry and Diligence Go over the several Employments of the World The Husbandman plows and sows and doth every thing necessary to his Land before he expects a Crop Take the Merchant in
he hates nothing that he hath made He is good to all His tender Mercies are over all his Works A mild and gentle Spirit governs the World loving to Mankind It 's not to glorifie God to think that God hath imposed a Law upon himself or any way limited or disabled himself to commiserate in all compassionable Cases to think that he is not perfectly free in all Futurity of time to do that which is just and fit merciful and gracious friendly benign and kind becoming Infinite Goodness sutable to his relation to his Creatures * It is not to glorifie God to say that of him which may discountenance Application to him by any of his Creatures in any Case of Necessity and Misery For God is known to us by Good And there is no true Notion of God unless the full Form Essence and Substance of Good be fully in it For there is no absolute Perfection but in Conjunction with Goodness wherefore God magnifies his Mercy Goodness Righteousness fair compassionate equal Dealing above all other his names But those that are of malignant spightful envious naughty Dispositions they think it is the Excellency of God to be revengeful and to drive Designs of Ill upon his Creatures Psal. 50. 21. Thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self And really do we find Men of narrow Spirits that are ready to malign the Good of their Neighbour you may be confident what Apprehensions they have of God a hundred to one but the Excellency of these Mens Divinity is Soveraignty to ruin a great part of his Creation to show his Power But nothing is more certain than that Infinite Goodness doth to the full what is Good Nothing more certain than that God doth answer the Relation he stands in to his Creation and where we see Indulgency of Fathers this Goodness of Disposition in them is but a Communication from God a Resemblance of his Affection to his Creatures in some measure for is there any thing of Perfection in all the World that doth not derive from him who is the first and chiefest Good When you have done all you can the best Notion you can have of Deity is Goodness God and Good are best known by one another He that came from God came to seek and to save It is therefore not a Divine Work to make havock and spoil This is the first thing in Religion to have true Suppositions concerning God And if we have not these we may dread and fear him as an Enemy but * not love him we shall withdraw from God yea hate him and seek Happiness other-where 3 dly For Men to assume to themselves Power and Authority to assign a Mode of Divine Worship to make some material thing a Representation of God to us or exhibitive of his Influence to make an Instrument in Divine Worship without warrant from God or * as accountable in way of Reason This is not to glorifie God as God For this is to limit and confine him This hath been done presumptuously in the Heathen World And this is that which God took so much Offence at in the Jewish State And there is the same thing in the use of the Roman Worship In former times God did make some material things a Testimony of himself as the Temple was the place of Shecinah or Divine Habitation There should be no Shecinah but by Divine Assignation God may do what he pleases but for us to take upon us is to change the Glory of the incorruptable God into an Image c. and to turn the Truth of God into a Lye and serve the Creature more than the Creator This the Israelites did For when they made a Calf they would have something of Divine Representation which tho' the Text so calls in contempt yet they by the name of the Angel And this is also in Popish-Church Images It is not reasonable to imagine the Heathen World did otherwise The Idolatry of the World hath been about the Medium of Worship not about the Object Can any one think the Jews were so stupid and sottish as to think that what they made did make them or that their Calf did bring them out of Egypt The Calf was Loco Mosis non Dei These * things are prohibited in the second Commandment the Reason of which is moral and perpetual 4 thly Men do not glorifie God when they do degenerate into the clean contrary Nature as in the 30 and 31 st Verse degenerating into all sorts of Naughtiness living in Contradicton to the Nature of God and his Laws the Rules of Righteousness and Dictates of Reason It is expected and nothing is more natural to us than that we should govern our selves by the Laws and Dictates of our Nature and that we should write after God's Copy and that we should endeavour to be in our measure and proportion what God is in his Height and Excellency If this be to adore him to think that all the Ways of God are Truth Righteousness and Goodness then it is Religion in us to bring forth the Fruits of Truth Righteousness and Goodness We glorifie God therefore in the fullest and highest measure when we do so adore the Divine Perfections and are so taken with them that we affect an Imitation of them and a Participation according to our Capacity and when this is Final and Ultimate in us Therefore they do not glorifie him as God who do not set themselves in a way of Subordination to God to act for his Glory and in their Places and Spheres of Action do not serve these glorious Ends of Goodness Righteousness and Truth They glorified him not as God NEITHER WERE THANKFUL 5 thly Unthankfulness To be devoid of Sence of God's Goodness and Kindness in the many Fruits of his Love and Faithfulness to us * This is not to glorifie God What have we that we have not received Can we sacrifice to God of any thing that is our own But this is our own * to be thankful and he that is truly thankful to God will certainly glorifie him as God Since we are so much beholden to the Divine Goodness and are so unable to make Recompence there is all the Reason in the World we should be sensible and make due Acknowledgments And indeed Thankfulness and Obedience are our truest Sacrifices acceptable to God and available in our behalf Whoso offereth Praise glorifies me Psal. 50. 23. otherwise Oblations are insignificant Therefore see Isa. 66. 3 4. There things of Divine Institution and choice things are represented as things most infamous and abominable How comes this to pass Because they have chosen their own Ways and their Souls delight in their own Abominations So that it is Thankfulness and Obedience that are things of a Nature that cannot be corrupted Sacrifice and Things external may be vitiated and corrupted they may be in an ill Conjunction and they will be looked upon as Bribes to satisfie God for Immorality That God