Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A43703
|
A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-hall, on Sunday the 26th of October, 1690 by Charles Hickman.
|
Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.
|
1690
(1690)
|
Wing H1900; ESTC R11429
|
12,291
|
29
|
convers'd with Men Face to Face that he might instruct them in his holy Will by his own Presence and teach them Vertue from the original For this it was that he appointed all the Sacrifices under the Law namely to purge his People from their Sins till they had learnt the art of retaining their sins in spite of all their Sacrifices and then God cryed out Bring me no more vain oblations Then came our Saviour to shew us a more excellent way and therefore this was the only design of the publication of the Gospel too not to indulge our sloathful Vices and give us a lazy Inheritance in the Kingdom of God but by a severe Repentance to attone for our sins past and by an active Faith to preserve us from them for the time to come that we might improve our Vertue by the preaching of his Word and by the power of Prayer might bring it to some perfection Without this improvement all the attempts of the Gospel are but thrown away upon us our Faith is dead and our Repentance vain the preaching of God's Word is ineffectual and our Prayers can have no return As we increase in Knowledge we do but increase our Sorrow and the Sacraments themselves those means of Grace which have been so often administer'd to us will prove but so many aggravations of our Sins So far as we have amended our Lives so far are we advanc'd in Christianity but to expect Salvation upon any other terms is imposing upon our selves and mocking of our God To think with some that a superficial attendance at the Altar an outward compliance with the formalities of Religion will serve our turn is such a slight Notion of religious Duty as would disparage the worship of a Heathen Idol To fansie with others that an implicite Faith will make us whole and that we shall be saved by believing as the Church believes is making our Religion to be we know not what and expecting to be sav'd we know not why Nay to suppose that any Faith whatsoever can do us good but only that which works a Reformation to imagine that a strong presumption can make us Saints in spite of all our sins is like the rest an absurd Opinion devis'd by wicked Men to delude the World with a shew of Godliness and under that colour to disguise a wicked Life St. Peter tells us There is none other name under Heaven given unto man whereby we must be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ And St. Paul assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but only a new Creature It is not holding with this or the other Church neither the using nor the forbearing of any Rites or Ceremonies though it be by Gods own appointment that can entitle us to the benefits of the Gospel without the Concurrence of an industrious Vertue and an obedient Life He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is our duty here lies the main stress of our Religion for this it was that God spake in times past to our Fathers by the Prophets for this it was that he sent at last his own Son into the World and by this test we must know whether we are his Disciples for whatever Doctrine does not naturally lead us to newness of Life is not the Wisdom of God from above but the vain suggestion of our own Lust or the false insinuation of the Devil Thus we see that the great business and concern of Man is to preserve himself from Sin and yet against sin we have no Antidote but in Religion How Religion comes to work this Cure upon us is the Second thing observable in my Text. That we may learn not to sin it teaches us to stand in awe We have already seen what a powerful influence our Passions have upon us how they lead us into Vanity and drive us into Sin and do so tyrannize over our Reason that we have no remedy left but to combate one Passion with another and by a Religious Fear to overcome the extravagance of a sensless Joy We cannot chuse also but perceive how subtily Lust insinuates itself into our affections and by degrees gets the dominion over us how artificially it closes in with our Flesh and so overtops our Spirit that we stand in need of some supernatural assistance to subdue it and all the succours of Religion are little enough to cast it out Some may think perhaps that natural Religion it self those notions of a God which are born and bred within us and are so deeply imprinted in the hearts of all Mankind should be sufficient to secure our Vertue and force us to stand in awe But by universal experience we find that these notions are apt to degenerate into superstition and superstition leaves us naked and expos'd only to our fears but takes away all our security Others perhaps may conceive that our own rational fears the necessary sense of our weakness and the natural apprehension of our danger might be a sufficient guard unto us and teach us to avoid those practices which do but weaken and expose us more but what can our nature do when 't is corrupted it self and grown impotent and unable to relieve us Nay what is worse 't is grown obstinate and perverse and most commonly takes part against us For though our reason sometimes keeps us in and confines us to the Rules of Vertue yet how often does Passion break the Chain and turn us loose to our own inventions Others there are who depend upon their own honour for the security of their Vertue and would have us depend upon it too But alas what is the honour of a Man when his Religion is lost it is but the staff of a broken reed that has just strength enough to pierce through our hand but not enough to support our Body In short there is nothing but an awful regard for God and a just respect for his holy Attributes that can effectually put a restraint upon us and over-rule the violence of our Passions and this awe we owe purely to our Religion which for that very reason is call'd the fear of God Gen. 20.11 To what purpose else did God reveal himself to the Patriarchs and Prophets of old but to put this fear of his name into their hearts and what other use but this did they make of those his Revelations We shall surely die says one for we have seen the Lord. Wo is me for I am undone says another for I am a man of unclean Lips and mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts To what purpose did God appoint the Sacrifices under the Law but to give us a dreadful instance that death is the natural consequence of our Sins a necessary tribute which we owe to his Justice though his Mercy allows us to
A SERMON PREACHED Before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On Sunday the 26th of October 1690. By CHARLES HICKMAN D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties By Her Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN PSALM IV. iv Stand in awe and sin not Commune with your own heart and in your Chamber and be still THE Holy Ghost who sanctifies the hearts of Men is mighty in operation but then his Motions are unaccountable He pierces like the lightning but like the Wind he bloweth where he listeth And this is one cause why so many Men are the less sollicitous to procure his Gifts and neglect the means of their Salvation They stand gazing when the good hour shall come that some kind light from Heaven shall convince them of their Errours and some powerful influence shall reclaim their Sins and in the mean while they give a loose to their own Inclinations and think they have no more to do But 't is a dangerous and a great mistake For as all other excellencies in Man require industry and practice to bring them to Perfection so Religion also amongst the rest is to be improv'd by exercise and application of Mind and there is a certain Art of Vertue Though the Principles of it were born within us yet 't is a diligent laborious Education that must make them serviceable and fit for use The Foundation indeed was laid by God but for the Superstructure we must be beholden to our selves And in this Art no Man was ever so well accomplisht as the Holy Psalmist nor ever left us so perfect Rules The method which he here proposes in my Text is very excellent and worthy of our imitation wherein he has discover'd to us the gradual progress which a good Man makes in this Art the several steps and advances whereby he arrives to a mastery in his profession As I. That the great business of Religion is to teach us not to sin II. That the way not to sin is to stand in awe III. That this religious awe is to be wrought in us by Communing with our own hearts IV. That if we would have this Communication with our own hearts to be effectual we must retire into our Chamber and be still I. The great business of Religion is to teach us not to sin to subdue our unruly Lusts and reduce our troublesome affections and to bring every rebellious thought into subjection to the will of God To restore Vertue to its proper place and Reason to its due Command and to recover the natural freedom of our Will from the tyranny of our Passions and the usurpation of Vice There is nothing in Nature of greater moment to us than to form our minds aright to keep a strict hand upon our manners and critically to confine our selves to the paths of Life And yet there is nothing in nature that requires greater pains How easy is it for us to be drawn aside upon the lest intermission of our care and how hard is it to be reclaim'd again If we would return we find it a difficult tedious thing and yet the greatest difficulty of all is to find out our mistake For when we have gone so far astray we are apt to lose not our way only but our selves We find some little satisfaction in roving about and then never think of our Journeys End To correct this Extravagance of ours and to keep us within the bounds of Wisdom is the proper work of Religion 'T is a great work indeed as much as all the Religion in the World can do or rather more and yet without Religion we can do nothing towards it For Vice no sooner takes possession of our heart but it depraves all our Faculties disarms our Will and darkens our Understanding and every sin that debauches us disables us too It seizes upon our affections first and then how weak an opposition is our reason like to make when our affections are engag'd against it And what is Man when he is brought unto the power of Lust but an impotent abandon'd Creature harrass'd without and tortur'd within and after a shameful Life here condemn'd to a miserable Life hereafter How does Sin debase the Soul of Man and make him degenerate from the great rule of his Creation and so forfeit his title to that happiness for which God sent him into the World 'T is an ill habit of Soul like ill health unto the Body that takes off the relish and enjoyment of all the other Blessings which we possess 'T is a Curse which we have brought upon our selves and yet all our industry can never work it out a burden which we have entail'd upon our Estate and till this accursed Entail be cut off our estate it self will be but a burden to us What signifies all the Plenty and Power and Pleasures of this World to a Man that is going down in horrour and disgrace to a wretched Portion in the next It is but like Achan's Babylonish Garment a goodly sight but an accursed thing and though he lookt upon it with a covetous greedy eye at first yet it soon brought him to a heavy heart and administer'd but sorry comfort to him at his Execution Just such are all the Enjoyments of a Sinner his Guilt makes him always restless and unquiet uneasie in every posture and dissatisfi'd in every place and though he has worn out all the pleasure of his Vice already yet he is fain to beat over the same filthy Tracks again and in the loathsome repetition of his Sin he flies for shelter against the terrible Convictions of his Conscience Surely for a wicked Man to reflect upon the state of his Soul and consider into what a helpless forlorn condition he has brought himself is enough to make him either asham'd of his folly or a-weary of his Life and repent that ever he was made To see how miserably we have corrupted our selves and defaced the glorious Image of God within us is enough to make him also repent that he has made man Our Lusts are now so interwoven with our nature that we are grown into an intimacy with Vice a familiarity with Perdition and our Passions have got so much the ascendant over us that they are grown above the reach of reason or any other human means In this miserable lost estate whilst we were ty'd and bound with the Chain of our Sins and by that Chain lead towards our destruction God in his mercy instituted a holy Religion to set us free to rescue us from that Captivity which our own Fault and our Forefathers Folly had brought upon us and once more to restore us to that Paradise of Innocency from whence we fell And if we look upon Religion in its whole progress and extent we shall find that this is its whole design For this it was that God reveal'd himself to the Patriarchs in ancient times and