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A59239
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Of devotion By J. S.
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Sergeant, John, 1622-1707.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing S2585A; ESTC R220098
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48,774
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178
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Generality were there the same Application of mind us'd to improve Spirituality as is employ'd in acquiring Temporal Things I could also avail my self of the Example of a Neighbouring Nation which puts even those Authors that treat deepest Points Fathers amongst the rest into the common Language of the Country As for the Manner I observe in handling my Matter I guide my self much by the Experience I have of what is needful for the Tempers of divers Spirits I observe some exceeding Scrupulous they are not Devout and yet they not only intend but strain with all their Powers to be so Lest such well-meaning Souls conscious to themselves they do their utmost and yet fearing they fall short of the Duty they aim at should as there is danger lose their Hope I endeavour to up-hold it by showing them that an Intention firmly bent to God's Service cannot fail of rendering them truly Devout Others conceit they want Knowledge requisit to attain it wherefore to humble the Pride of Humane Wit and comfort their honest Simplicity I show how their frequent Application to pious Duties joyn'd with a sincere Well-meaning goes beyond all the high Knowledges of the acutest Understandings if the Will be never so little less Perfect Others are to seek in the Means to attain Devotion which therefore I propose sutably to every ones respective Pitch Lastly I have observed many either neglecting totally or less using Prayer and that too but faintly out of an Apprehension grounded on an Ill-principled Humility that they deserve not to be heard and so all they do in that kind is in vain as was once S. Teresa's Case which she afterwards so feelingly bewail'd in her self and of which she so Charitably fore-warn'd others Such Persons therefore I strive to encourage by laying open the Excellency and Utility of Prayer and how Connaturally Prayer for our true Good Virtue is the immediate Disposition to attain it and so is the very thing that renders us worthy to be heard At once letting them see that no Address to our infinitly bountiful Lord can be put up in vain and also thence exhorting them to that Devout Importunity and struggling with Heaven so much recommended by our Saviour which by the constant and ordinary Course of Supernatural Causes lay'd by Providence cannot fail of obtaining the Blessing pray'd for And is so far from injuring Faith or abating its Efficacy that it exceedingly comforts and strengthens it by letting us see how certainly God unchang'd in Himself performs his Promises to those who use the Means he has laid and commanded to be us'd to Effect those happy Changes in Us. Hence 't is very easy to remark that in this Treatise I meddle not with the Efficaciousness of Prayer for others nor with other stranger Effects of it nay somtimes even miraculous Ones which by means of a firm Faith and Relyance on God are brought to pass Nor lastly do I Treat of Prayer or Devotion as they depend on God ' s Grace or the secret Workings of the Holy-Ghost as I hint also in the Treatise it self p. 60. which I from my Heart acknowledge to give us Ability to begin continue and consummate both Prayer and every good Act that is Supernatural Though an imbitter'd Adversary of mine will needs throw that Scandal upon me to deny it What I concern my self with is that part of our Christian Actions or that Co-operation of ours with God's Grace that stands under our Endeavours which I strive through the Whole to encourage and particularly in discoursing of Prayer I meddle only with those Effects of it which are the ordinary and necessary Consequents of a fervent and constant Address to God for our Soul 's true Good Virtue In a word There are many and various Tempers of Spirits in Gods Church amongst which my Experience as well as Reason tells me there are not a few so Naturally Speculative and given to look into the Reasons and Grounds of Things that they find most comfort and improvement in these Discourses that go to the Bottom and give an account of Them from their Principles To such Persons as those I hope I may when call'd upon write agreeably to their Genius and Pitch not blaming but heartily applauding those pious Men who accommodate themselves to others For as it is a great Weakness to imagin or expect that every manner of handling a Subject will sute with every Capacity so it is no less to conceit that any kind of Discoursing so it be True and agree with Christian Principles can be such as sutes with None CHAP. I. Of Devotion in Common its Kinds and the Means to Attain it SECT I. Of the Nature of Devotion in Common DEvotion is a word transplanted into our language from the Latin and derived from the primitive Vovere to Vow It imports among the Heathens a steady and fixt Resolution or rather Ty obligatory but yet voluntary and that of unusual strength such as carried them to the most difficult actions It keeps the same notion among Christians the Object only or Motive of the resolution changed For whereas false Glory was heretofore the most dazling and most prized end of the actions of the Heathens and nothing was thought more glorious than to dy for their Country they were said Devoted who voluntarily in circumstances particularly remarkable threw themselves for its sake upon a certain death So Codrus among the Athenians Curtius and the Decij among the Romans are remembred for Devoted to the service of their several Countries perhaps their resolutions having been confirm'd by some solemn Vow to their Idols But since we came to be Instructed in the notion and inclin'd to the pursuit of true Glory and true Good Devotion has got another Object and keeping the same Steadiness and Promptness and Strength in its notion as heretofore is apply'd only to the Service of God It signifies then a resolution or addiction to the Service of God but strong and prompt such as sets all the Powers of man efficaciously a work in all occasions that occur It is not confin'd to any one kind For we say a man gives Almes Fasts visits the Sick or Afflicted goes on Pilgrimage c. out of Devotion that is exercises Devotion in all these Actions But Prayer being the most ordinary and most frequent Act by which men use to serve God Devotion is most ordinarily understood of Prayer and when we hear of a Devout man we generally apprehend a man who prayes frequently and well For these two qualities enter too into the Notion of Devotion we not thinking him devout who prays but seldome or carelesly § 2. By what has been said the Nature of Devotion may be understood and we may perceive it is a Quality or Disposition in Man strong and always efficacious which moves all his powers to act in the service of God ac-according to their several natures both with frequency and perfection § 3. Hence may be gather'd First that
strive by continual Prayer made after that weak manner at least as they are able to improve those Imperfect Wills into Perfect Ones and groaning under the Slavery they now fully experience at once sigh and tremble before their justly offended God Which kind of Exercise in this case is more profitable and proper for them to use than Love of God of which their Hearts yet full of Filth are at present uncapable Yet their utmost Industry must be imploy'd by Faith and some Degree of Hope which are here the only Acters to promote and advance these good Motions and Graces of the Holy-Ghost not yet within them but only moving them to towards that Grace by which the same Holy-Ghost enters into their Heart and inhabits there The hardest struggle is at first till the Scales begin to turn which done all is easie to us if we pursue our Victory But for those who are in this State it were very fit that Mortification went along with Prayer to wean deterr and divert the Soul from the noxious Gust she took in sinful Objects 14. Lastly We may hence admire the Wise Methods and Matchless Bounty of our good God in alluring us by so many Motives to apply to him by Prayer that so we may arrive at true Happiness and giving us by the very asking that is as soon as ever we ask all that is our certain and true Good or all we can according to right Reason heartily beg of him You 'l say It will follow hence that if one immediately ask Heaven he shall have it I answer That this were the same manner of fond Petition but far more highly unreasonable as to ask the Virtue of our Lady or the Apostles without thinking of putting first the Immediate Disposition to have it which is to press God to do a Miracle for our sakes a thing true Humility Reverence the Requisites to a rightly made Prayer will scarce allow And so still our general Principle remains firm to us that we shall be sure to obtain what we pray for when we ask for our true Good so we ask as we ought Now the Immediate Disposition to Heaven being Love of God if we pray for the Means we shall be sure both to obtain This and Heaven too which is our End by it Which secures to us the Effect of our Prayer or the Accomplishment of our Wishes though it come not to us after our own foolish manner but according to the Method our infinitly Wise God has appointed that is that all things even in Super-naturals except in some few Cases be carryed forwards from Connatural Causes or Dispositions to proper Effects Which Consequence of the Effects out of their proper Causes is the true meaning of the Word Merit so misrepresented by our Adversaries only superadding That God has promis'd this certain Effect shall follow and that the Generality of the Faithful Work out of that Consideration or out of a Relyance on God's Promises without knowing perhaps how this Promise is brought about or perform'd to us Which yet when known by those who are capable of understanding it must needs add a strange Degree of Comfort and an exceeding Courage to employ themselves in Prayer Whence may be easily Collected that I only concern my self with that kind of Impetrative Virtue by which rightly made Prayer obtains certainly of God our true Spiritual Good that by shewing the Connatural Efficacy of it and with how necessary a Consequence the Attainment of Virtue springs from it I may excite my Readers to pursue that best Duty and withal by the way instruct them how to perform it What other Virtue Prayer has of obtaining many things of God for our selves and our Neighbour by obliging his infinit Goodness and Wisdom in his Government of the World so to contrive and order Things that not one Prayer of the Just be left unavailable as far as can possibly consist with the common Good of the Universe nay even so far as if the Prayer be made with a perfect Faith Confidence and firm Relyance upon him to alter the Course of Nature by Miracle for such a Prayer's sake Of these I say it is not my purpose to treat at present it being out of my Road as depending on Principles which ly very remote from my present Design as was said formerly in a like Case concerning Prayer to Saints at the End of the Fourth Section I shall end this Discourse with those most expressive Words of St. James If any one wants Wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all abundantly and without grudging and it shall be given him But let him ask in Faith nothing doubting For he that doubts is like a Wave of the Sea which is mov'd and tost about by the Wind. Let not then such a Man think that he shall obtain any thing of our Lord. Where we are to note first that by Wisdom is not meant Speculative Knowledge but that Wisdom which is our certain and true Spiritual Good and of which the Fear of God is the Beginning as the Love of God is its Accomplishment or Perfection Next he assures us It shall be given and that without grudging or upbraiding any that they have receiv'd enough already but abundantly without stint so they dispose themselves by Prayer to receive it Thirdly He puts the Disposition to receive it to be a firm Hope Faith or Confidence in God's over-flowing Goodness which is strengthen'd by knowing that what we ask is agreeable to his Holy Will Lastly He declares that the want of this Confidence in asking renders our whole Prayer ineffectual For the Wish cannot be strong and efficacious to work the Soul into a hearty and habitual Love of God if it be held before-hand as it ought that it cannot be had without God's giving it and the Asker thinks that let him ask Virtue how he will it is yet an obscure kind of Mystery lying in God's Breast and depending on his meer Will whether he will please to give him any Virtue or no and that let him pray for it how he will there are yet no determinate or certain Causes laid in the Course of his Supernatural Providence to attain it and thence comes to doubt whether he shall ever obtain any Virtue or none at all which is very uncomfortable Whereas were it known and well penetrated that God's Will is already as to that Point determined by his Wisdom governing and promoting Souls by Prayer to Virtue and by Virtue to Heaven as by proper Dispositions to those Effects according to that Saying of the Psalmist They shall rise from Virtue to Virtue till they see the God of Gods in Sion Also were it known and consider'd that an unwavering and thence efficacious Prayer or Wish strengthen'd by directing it to God is the proper Disposition or Means effectually and necessarily as we may say to gain Virtue It will become impossible to want Courage to ask it heartily and absolutely impossible to waver or want Assuredness in our asking it impossible our Wishes of it should not become an Efficacious Means to obtain it Lastly impossible we should not obtain what we ask Soli Deo Gloria FINIS