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A64352 Concerning holy resolution a sermon preach'd before the King at Kensington, Decemb. 30, 1694 / by His Grace Thomas Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Elect. Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715. 1695 (1695) Wing T690; ESTC T31087 8,931 18

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Concerning Holy Resolution A SERMON PREACH'D before the KING AT Kensington Decemb. 30 1694. PRALM 119. 106. Old Translation I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments New Translation I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments By his Grace THOMAS Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Elect. LONDON Printed and Sold by H. Hills in Black-fryars near the Water-side For the Benefit of the Poor PSALM 119. 106. Old Translation I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments New Translation I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments THESE are the Words of King David and and the Saying is the more remarkable by reason of the Condition of the Speaker For the more power opportunity temptation there is to break God's Commandments the greater is the vertue of religiously observing them This Prince was a Debtor to the Law as one who had entred into a Covenant with the God of Israel he renew'd this Obligation as often as by the hand of the Sacrificer he presented an Offering to him When he came to the Throne he understood no doubt from the Book of God to which he was no Stranger that it was his Duty to write out a Copy of God's Law and to keep it by him and to read in it at convenient Seasons all the days of his Life Deut. 17. 18 19. in order to his better observing the Contents of it He was in many troubles Psal 132. 1 c. and those troubles both Publick and Private were also exceeding great and he made many solemn Promises to that God who could alone support comfort and deliver him and by these he strengthened his Obedience Of such Holy Resolutions he hath given some account in the Words of the Text Saying I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments In this Pious Declaration are contained four thing well worthy our notice First Herein is taken for granted a possibility o● keeping the Law of God That is according to the measures of a sincere Man and by the assistance o● God's grace for without him we can do nothing David was a Man of better Understanding then to take an impossibility upon him and of greater Piety then to assume to himself a power of doing that which was righteous and in its nature possible without the help of his God Secondly We have here supposed the eternal Equity of God's Commands which are called Righteous Judgments they being the Results not of the Arbitrariness but the Counsel of his Will Thirdly Here is further suggested the Rule by which Wise and Pious Men go in making Vows They do not rashly oblige themselves to things either doubtful or unlawful or if lawful inexpedient But they proceed upon sure grounds vowing and resolving to perform such things as God himself has enjoyned in his Righteous Judgments or Statutes Fourtbly The Royal Psalmist does here expresly set forth a most serious and fixed Resolution of obeying these possible these just and reasonable Laws of that God whose Wisdom and Clemency are equal to his Power I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy Righteous Judgments I have chosen the last of these four Points for my present Subject designing to discourse by God's Assistance concerning Holy Resolution and the strengthning our by it in our religious Duty And In the first place I shall enquire into the Nature of Resolution Then Secondly I shall shew how useful how necessary a stedfast Holy Purpose is in the Course of our Lives Thirdly I shall conclude with a hearty exhortation to this Practice endeavouring so to move you to it that you being true to your Religious Obligations may finally obtain the Fruit of the exceeding great and precious Promises of that God and that Sun of Righteousness with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turni●g First For the Nature of Resolution it may be describ'd as an an Act or Habit of the Mind as determined with strength vigour and steddiness towards some Object concerning which it was formerly doubtful or towards which it was either indifferent or a verse It is the application of the Will to Business in the Opinion of some Moralists It is the bent of the Mind which setteth on work the other Powers It is as it were the Seal of the Inclination St. Peter seems to describe it as the fortifying of the Soul in these Words Forasmuch ●s Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh Arm your likewise with the same mind 1 Pet. 4. 1. or with the like force of Holy Resolution Resolution consider'd in it self is neither good nor evil but it is either according to the matter and the degree of it It is of a like Nature with Zeal which so long as it is exercis'd in a good matter and with due temper is very commendable and useful but in a bad Cause it is a most pernicious Instrument and like Fire in an undue place the more it rageth it is the more destructive The Resolution which I am to recommend hath Religion for its Object and Discretion for its Temper To be peremptory in a Trisle is great folly and weakness to be resolute in any Brutal way is hight Impiety To be moved by the Reason of the Case is just complaince To be stedfast and unmoveable in our Duty to God and others and our is Resolution truly and properly so called To such a sort of Resolution there are several Distempers in the Mind Will and Affections which oppose themselves The first is Slightness Carelesness and indifferency of temper which causeth so little regard to be had to Persons or things even those of the greatest moment that it neither setteth the Heart upon them or against them Such was the disposition of Gallio the Deputy of Achaia Acts 18. 17. Though he was a Man in Authority and acquainted with the Riot of which the Greeks were guilty in the Case of Sosthenes yet he cared for none of these things The Second is Hoesitancic and doutfulness of Mind a kind of halting betwixt God and Baal a Spirit not wrought up to that pitch of Resolution to which the Prophet Elijah would have the purpose to rise in his Expostulation with the double minded Men of his time how long halt ye between two Opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him 1 Kin. 18. 21. A Third opposite is Fickleness and Instability an humour which abounds where the Imagination governs that beinp pleas'd not so much with things that are really good as with those which are new Thus some of the Israelites affected Novelty in Worship more than the Heathen themselves This mov'd the Prophet to upbraid them on this manner hath a Nation changed their Gods which are yet no Gods but my People hath changed their Glory for that which doth not profit Jerem. 2. 11. A Fourth Distemper is easiness of
Disposition and good Nature commonly indeed but very falsly so called The Persons whom God hath formed out of the softer Clay go on tollerably well when they are left to themselves but they are soon drawn aside by the ordinary perswasions of others and much more by their Importunities Some gentle Entreaties and seemingly kind but deceitful Words bring them off from their Judgments and good Purposes One of these easie Persons is the simple one describ'd in the Seventh Chapter of the Proverbs The Harlot with her much fair Speech caused him to yield with the flattering of her Lips she forced him And he went after her straightway as an O●● goeth to the Slaughter or as a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks Prov. 7. 7. 21 22. A Fifth Distemper which hindreth Resolution is Weakness and Faintness of purpose whence divers express themselves in Phrases of desire rather then of bent and fixedness of mind They say we wish we would be glad to have it so but there are not Nerves strong enough in their Hearts to cause them to protest tho in a good and necessary matter that they are resolv'd and peremptorily determined Agrippa is represented in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 26. 28 29. as a Man of such a temper He said unto Paul who spake with a force of Evidence not to be resisted by a teachable Mind almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian To whom that Apostle thus dextrously apply'd himself I would to God that not only thou but also all that hear me this Day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these Bonds Sixthly Nigh to the Nature of the forementioned Evil is that of Fearfulness and Cowardice in reference to the Difficulties which Men must go thorough if they will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Men in whom this Passion ruleth start out of the streight way as soon as they espy the Cross tho' it be at some distance from them They do indeed take up a Resolution but it is to go no further then they shall be attended by Ease and Safety by worldly Pleasure Profit and Honour When Persecution ariseth by reason of the Word or Gospel of Christ by and by they are offended They stumble at the Affliction and forsake a good Cause rather than suffer for it Lastly there is a temper which it is true is ● pretence to Resolution but it is as different from it as those others which I have named that is to say Wilfulness Stubbornness or Perverseness which maintrins the same stifness be the matter what it will This ariseth partly from sowerness in the frame of the Body party from Ignorance which first blindeth Men and then makes them confident in a false way and partly from Pride which is very assuming and dogmatical and will not suffer a Man either to see his Mistake or when it is seen by him to own it of this refractory stomackful and restive Humour were divers Jews in the days of Jeremiah who were resolute without Reason saying We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our Mouth and yet every thing which proceeded out of it was far from being Oracle Jer. 18 12. c. 44. v. 17. Hitherto I have consider'd the Nature of Resolution and those Distempers in the Faculties Passions and Tempers of Men which are Enemies to it It is time in the Second place To bring under our Consideration the usefulness and the necessity of such purposes as are both wise and holy firm and stedfast in the course of our Lives in order to the obtaining the end of our hopes the Salvation of our Souls Here then I lay down these two things First there is great power and strength in Resolution Secondly We have need of all the Assistance that it can possibly give us towards the performing of our Duty In order to that there is great Force in the Resolution which is Natural and much more in that which is Moral and Religious First There is great Force in that kind of Resolution which is but Natural This appears from Experience which shews us daily that the resolute discourage all others and are by nothing discouraged themselves This is also shew'd by the very Nature of Resolution before explain'd for it is the Fortitude of the Mind in executing its Designs it knitteth those Powers of it in which before there was a luxation It is certain that there is great Difficulty oftentimes in resolving but when we are once resolved our Trouble is well nigh over The main point is gained when we have gained the Will The Wall of Jerusalem saith the Book of Nehemiah Nenem 4. 6. went forward because the People had a mind to the work We are at first like Children who stand trembling upon the brink of a River they desire to step in but they fear to do so and no sooner have they done it but the Fear vanishes and Refreshment and Pleasure succeed Likewise the power of Natural Resolution is manifest from that Reverence which every Man has naturally for his own Mind I mean every Man who is not become brutish by evil Custom and in whom the very Ruins of understanding are not perished An uneasiness arises in the Minds of those who deliberately break their own measures and live in a War with their own Judgments and Purposes St. Paul complaineth of the wretchedness of his Estate Rom. 7. 19. whilst his Affections and Appetites did in such sort over-rule the purposes of his Mind than the good which he would do that he did not and the evil which he would not do that he did There is naturally more greatness in the Mind than to be willing solemnly to give it self the Lye to make Promises to it self and then presently to break them Stedfastness therefore is many times the effect of holy vows and purposes because it is pain and grief to the Mind to be a daily witness of its own Instability to blush as it were before it self and to be condemned by its own Evidence in its own Tribunal Again The Strength of Natural Resolution does in some sort appear from the tender sense men have of their Reputation Their good Name is dear to them and a point of Honour is that on which they naturally insist Now all VVeakness is dishonourable and to vow and resolve and by and by to violate such Vows argues a weakness in the Judgment in resolving without good ground or a weakness in the VVill and Temper in not prosecuting that which was off good ground stedfastly purposed VVhere this Infirmity if I may call it by so soft a Name is understood it brings a Man presently to shame and contempt Now if there be so much force in the Resolution which is natural there may be much more in that which is Moral and Religious Even where the Conscience is deprav'd in same degree but not wholly wasted such as have made holy Vows and are willing to break them would