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A63871 A sermon preached before the right honourable the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen of London at the Guild-Hall Chappel, Octob. the 28th 1677 / by Bryan Turner ... Turner, Bryan, 1634 or 5-1698. 1678 (1678) Wing T3270; ESTC R1722 13,679 40

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cords of his sin says Solomon i. e. A guilty offender can naturally arrive at any opinion of God but as powerful and severe in order to punishment unless God in mercy give new grounds of hope for pardon upon repentance as he has to mankind by his Son whom he first promis'd and in due time sent into the world for this very end to save sinners by this way i. e. to principle men afresh with the Love of God which their sin and guilt had extinguish't Which Love of God in this merciful act of Redemption appears more fully to 'em than it did before in Creation and Providence because 't is superadded thereunto and like a second Beam of Light conjoyn'd to a first shines to all eyes with a greater lustre and therefore attracts a warmer affection And this I take to be the Apostles meaning Eph. 3. 17 18. That we being rooted and grounded in love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and heighth and depth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg i. e. To know the immensity of that Love of God discovered in Christ Jesus superadded to all the other instances of Divine Goodness in Creation and Providence What spirit or frame of mind therefore our Services of God in Christianity ought to proceed from you see according to the Text. And as by this that has been said we may examine our selves in the matter of Fact so we may all those opinions in matter of Faith pretending to frame Religion in men and promote it in the world For 1. No man can be Religious upon this Principle of Love but he that has just and honourable opinions of Gods goodness both in his Nature and his Promises to men and therefore whosoever promotes opinions to render God dreadful to any but impenitent Sinners whatever their aims may be can in effect promote nothing but either Despair or Superstition 2. As all fatal opinions strike at this root of true Religion so none more directly than those of the Leviathan who has swell'd the waters of the Lemon-lake to their full height and not dissembling his consequences has plainly told us in effect that there can be no other Religion but Superstition among men For these are his words in his Book of Man Chap. 12. In these four things an opinion of Ghosts Ignorance in second Causes veneration towards what men fear and taking things casual for prognosticks consist the natural seeds of Religion From whence these inferences are unavoidable 1. That there can be no Religion but what is truely Superstition for these natural seeds as he calls 'em or rather tares can produce no fruit but Fear 2. That the thing call'd Religion is not sit to lodg in a wise-mans breast seeing an idle opinion of Ghosts ignorance in second Causes devotion to what men fear and taking things casual for prognosticks are seed 't is fit a wise man should eradicate out of his breast as soon as he can Had there been any other natural seeds of Religion in his Judgment surely he would have told us when he set himself to treat industriously of their precise number unless he fail'd as much in his Arithmetick as in the rest of his Mathematicks Of the true God or any Sentiments of him he has not said a word as to any of the natural seeds of Religion for by an opinion of Ghosts he means not God but invisible Agents which the Latines call imagines umbrae and thought them spirits i. e. thin aerial bodies as he explains himself in the same Chapter where he adds these words From the like things past men expect the like to come and hope for good or evil luck superstitiously from things that have no part in causing of it This is the humour of taking things casual for prognosticks which he expresly acknowledgeth to create superstitious hopes And he says further That a perpetual fear always accompanies men in the ignorance of second Causes So that we see by his own Explication these seeds can spring into nothing but Fear which alone can fructifie into nothing but direct Superstition I know the Leviathan has in words asserted the Being of a God infinite and omnipotent but by excluding him 't is evident that in his Judgment no natural seed of Religion consists in any Sentiments of him for he expresly distinguisheth betwixt him and Ghosts I know likewise he has in words distinguish't betwixt the Religion of Gentilism and Christianity allowing Christianity a Divine appointment thank the Areopagites for that But I say he has in the inevitable consequence of his Doctrine made Christianity nothing but a Superstition of Divine appointment For these are his words p. 54. These Engl. Edit seeds i. e. an opinion of Ghosts ignorance in second Causes c. have received culture from two sorts of men one who have nourish't and ordered them according to their own invention the other have done it by Gods Commandment and Direction c. Of the former sort were all the Founders of Commonwealths and Law-givers among the Gentiles of the latter sort were Abraham Moses and our blessed Saviour So he From whence it must needs follow that Gentilism and Christianity differ not in the Seeds but in the Culture which may alter the growth but not totally alter the nature of the fruit Therefore according to this Doctrine our Blessed Saviour by Gods Commandment and Direction had only these Four natural seeds of Religion to cultivate an opinion of Ghosts ignorance of second Causes Devotion to what men fear and taking things casual for prognosticks All which can produce nothing but Fear and nothing but Fear can produce nothing but Superstition and consequently Christianity is but a Superstition set up by Divine appointment as Gentilism was by the Invention of men according to this Author What musick this makes in your ears I know not but lest you think him either wittier or wickeder than he deserves I 'le tell you where he learn'd his Notes These natural seeds of Religion grew first in the Garden of Epicurus Lucretius has set 'em down to his hand out of whom he collected 'em into this precise number Lib. 6. de Rer. Nat. p. 140. Amstelodami Epic. Et genus humanum frustra plerumque probavit Volvere curarum tristes in pectore fluctus Nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis In tenebris metuunt sic nos in luce timemus Interdum nihilo quae sunt metuenda magis quàm Quae pueri in tenebris pavitant singuntque futura Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse'st c. Et paulo post Caetera quae fieri in terris coeloque tuentur Mortales pavidis cum pendent mentibu ' saepe Efficiunt animos humiles formidine divûm Depressosque premunt ad terram propterea quod Ignorantia causarum conferre deorum Cogit ad imperium res concedere regnum Quorum operum causas