Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A62608
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A sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall, March the XXth, 1691/2 by John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.
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Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing T1245; ESTC R16847
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15,855
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37
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troubled at it Thus man walketh in a vain shew and disquieteth himself in vain courting happiness in a thousand shapes and the faster he follows it the swifter it flyes from him Almost every thing promiseth happiness to us at a distance such a step of Honour such a pitch of Estate such a Fortune or Match for a Child But when we come nearer to it either we fall short of it or it falls short of our expectation and it is hard to say which of these is the greatest disappointment Our hopes are usually bigger than enjoyment can satisfie and an evil long fear'd besides that it may never come is many times more painful and troublesome than the evil it self when it comes In a word man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards He comes into the world naked and unarm'd and from himself more destitute of the natural means of his security and support than any other Creature whatsoever as it were on purpose to shew that he is more peculiarly the care of a Superior Providence And as man of all the Creatures of this lower world is only made to own and acknowledg a Deity so God in great wisdom hath so order'd things that none of the other Creatures should have so much need of Him and so much reason to acknowledg their necessary dependance upon him So that the words of David are the very sense and voice of Nature declaring to us that Mankind is born into the World upon terms of greater dependance upon the Providence of God than other Creatures Thou art he says David there to God that tookest me out of the womb thou madest me to hope or thou didst keep me in safety when I was upon my mother's breasts I was cast upon thee from the womb thou art my God from my mother's belly Be not far from me for trouble is near Trouble is always near to us and therefore it is happy for us that God is never far from any of us For in Him we live and move and have our being And when we are grown up we are liable to a great many mischiefs and dangers every moment of our lives and without the Providence of God continually insecure not only of the good things of this life but even of life it self So that when we come to be men we cannot but wonder how ever we arriv'd at that state and how we have continued in it so long considering the infinite difficulties and dangers which have continually attended us That in running the gantlope of a long life when so many hands have been lifted up against us and so many strokes levell'd at us we have escaped so free and with so few marks and scars upon us That when we are besieged with so many dangers and so many arrows of death are perpetually flying about us to which we do so many ways lie open we should yet hold out twenty forty sixty years and some of us perhaps longer and do still stand at the mark untouch'd at least not dangerously wounded by any of them And considering likewise this fearful and wonderful frame of a human Body this infinitely complicated Engine in which to the due performance of the several functions and offices of life so many strings and springs so many receptacles and channels are necessary and all in their right frame and order and in which besides the infinite imperceptible and secret ways of mortality there are so many sluces and flood-gates to let Death in and Life out that it is next to a miracle tho we take but little notice of it that every one of us did not dye every day since we were born I say considering the nice and curious frame of our Bodies and the innumerable contingencies and hazards of human Life which is set in so slippery a place that we still continue in the land of the living we cannot ascribe to any thing but the watchful Providence of Almighty God who holds our soul in life and suffers not our foot to be moved To the same merciful Providence of God we owe that whilst we continue in life we have any comfortable possession and enjoyment of our selves and of that which makes us men I mean our Reason and Understanding That our Imagination is not let loose upon us to haunt and torment us with melancholick freaks and fears That we are not deliver'd up to the horrors of a gloomy and guilty mind That every day we do not fall into frenzy and distraction which next to wickedness and vice is the sorest calamity and saddest disguise of human nature I say next to wickedness and vice which is a wilful frenzy a madness not from misfortune but from choice whereas the other proceeds from natural and necessary causes such as are in a great measure out of our power so that we are perpetually liable to it from any secret and sudden disorder of the Brain from the violence of a Disease or the vehement transport of any Passion Now if things were under no government what could hinder so many probable evils from breaking in upon us and from treading upon the heels of one another like the Calamities of Job when the hedge which God had set about him and all that he had was broken down and removed So that if there were no God to take care of us we could be secure of no sort no degree of happiness in this World no not for one moment And there would be no other World for us to be happy in and to make amends to us for all the fears and dangers all the troubles and calamities of this present life For God and another World stand and fall together Without Him there can be no Life after this and if our hopes of happiness were only in this Life Man of all other Beings in this lower World would certainly be the most miserable I cannot say that all the Evils which I have mentioned would happen to all if the Providence of God did not rule the World but that every man would be in danger of them all and have nothing to support and comfort him against the fear of that danger For the nature of man consider'd by it self is plainly insufficient for its own happiness so that we must necessarily look abroad and seek for it somewhere else And who can shew us that good that is equal to all the wants and necessities all the capacities and desires all the fears and hopes of human nature Whatsoever can answer all these must have these following Properties First It must be an all-sufficient good Secondly It must be perfect goodness Thirdly It must be firm and unchangeable in it self Fourthly It must be such a good as none can deprive us of and take away from us Fifthly It must be eternal Sixthly It must be able to support and comfort us in every condition and under all the accidents and adversities of human Life Lastly It must be such a good as can give perfect
HIS GRACE The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's SERMON BEFORE THE QUEEN March 20 th 1691 2. A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL March the XX th 1691 2. By JOHN Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Published by Her Majesty's special Command LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCII PSALM Lxxiii 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee THE design of this Psalm is to vindicate the goodness and justice of the Divine Providence notwithstanding the prosperous estate of the wicked and the afflicted condition of good men many times in this World And in the first place the Psalmist whoever he was whether David or Asaph lays down this for a most certain Truth that God is good to good men Of a truth God is good to Israel to such as are of a clean heart And yet for all this he tells us that at some times he was under no small temptation to question the truth of this Principle when he beheld the promiscuous dispensation of things here below that the wicked are often prosperous and good men exposed to great calamities in this life as if God either neglected human affairs or had a greater kindness for the workers of iniquity than for pious and good men As for me my foot had well nigh slipp'd for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked This he says was a very great stumbling block to good men and tempted them to doubt of the Providence of God Therefore his People return hither and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them and they say doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High This Sentence is somewhat obscurely rendred in our Translation so as to make the sense of it difficult which is plainly this Therefore his people return hither that is therefore good men come to this in the greatness of their affliction and in the bitterness of their soul to question God's knowledg and care of human affairs Behold say they these are the ungodly and yet they are the prosperous in the world they increase in riches To what purpose then is it for any man to be Religious and vertuous Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency In vain have I endeavoured after purity of heart and innocency of life since so little good comes of it nay so far from that that I have been in continual trouble and affliction All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning Such thoughts as these often came into his mind and gave him great trouble and disquiet But he presently corrects himself If I say I will speak thus I should offend against the generation of thy Children that is I should go against the sense of all pious and good men who have always believed the Providence of God notwithstanding this Objection Which at last he tells us he had raised on purpose to try if he could find the solution of it I thought to know this which was grievous in mine eyes And then he resolves all into the unsearchable wisdom of the Divine Providence which if we fully understood from first to last we should see good reason to be satisfied with the equity of it When I go into the Sanctuary of God then shall I understand the end of these men How thou didst set them in slippery places c. This satisfied him that whenever the secret design of God's Providence should be unfolded whether in this World or the other how strange and cross soever things might seem to be at present yet in the issue and conclusion it would appear that neither are bad men so happy nor good men so miserable as at present they may seem to be So that upon a full debate of this matter the Psalmist concludes that these Objections against Providence do spring from our ignorance and short and imperfect view of things whereas if we saw the whole design from beginning to end it would appear to be very reasonable and regular Thus my heart was grieved so foolish was I and ignorant and as a beast before thee And in regard to himself he tells us that he saw great reason to acknowledge God's tender care over him in particular and that he could find no security or comfort for himself but in God alone Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by thy right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory as if he had said I am sensible of thy constant presence with me and care of me and do entirely depend upon thy guidance and direction not doubting but that my present troubles and afflictions will have a happy and glorious issue And at last he breaks out into a kind of exultation and triumph for the mighty consolation which he found in the firm belief of the Being and Providence of God as the great stay and support of his soul in the worst condition that could befall him in the words of the Text Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee If a man were to chuse a happiness for himself and were to ransack Heaven and Earth for it after all his search and enquiry he would at last fix upon God as the chief happiness of man and the true and only rest and center of our souls This then is the plain meaning of the Text That nothing in the world but God can make man happy Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee That man of himself is not sufficient for his own happiness is evident upon many accounts Because he is liable to so many evils and calamities which he can neither prevent nor remedy He is full of wants which he cannot supply compassed about with infirmities which he can only complain of but is not able to redress He is obnoxious to dangers which he must always fear because he can never sufficiently provide against them Consider man by himself and from under the conduct and protection of a superior and more powerful Being and he is in a most disconsolate and forlorn condition Secure of nothing that he enjoys and liable to be disappointed of every thing that he hopes for He is apt to grieve for what he cannot help and perhaps the justest cause of his grief is that he cannot help it for if he could instead of grieving for it he would help it He cannot refrain from desiring a great many things which he would fain have but is never likely to obtain because they are out of his power and it troubles him both that they are so and that he cannot help his being