Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A26158
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Ten sermons preach'd before Her Royal Highness, the Princess Ann of Denmark at the chappel at St. James by Lewis Atterbury ... LL.D. and one of the six preachers to Her Royal Highness.
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Atterbury, Lewis, 1656-1731.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing A4157; ESTC R35290
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112,085
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264
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we Reprove in another and the Consideration that his Eye is upon us will make us more wary in our Carriage towards him and more exact in the Government of our Lives and Conversations Thou that teachest another says the Apostle teachest thou not thy self Rom. 2.21 thou that preachest a Man should not steal dost thou steal thou that sayest a Man should not commit Adultery dost thou commit Adultery thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege 3. We shall Entitle our selves to a blessed Reward He that saith to the Wicked Thou art Righteous shall the people Curse Prov. 24.24 25. Nations shall abhor him but to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good Blessing shall come upon him Lastly We shall hereby avoid those Mischiefs which the neglect of this Duty will certainly bring upon us For if we do not admonish our Neighbour when we see him commit any grievous and presumptuous Sin we our selves are Partakers in his Guilt and shall be accountable for it before God Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Eph. 5.11 but rather reprove them And not to Reprove them will be accounted to have fellowship with them These are such weighty Considerations and powerful Motives as one would think should encourage every one to the Practice of this Duty tho' never so Difficult But since it requires not only Courage and Ability but also a great measure of Prudence and Circumspection to perform it aright I shall in the IV. and Last place lay down some Directions for a due and prudential Execution of it 1. Propose to your self a good End in Reproving others 2. Have certain Knowledge of the Offence 3. Endeavour to avoid that Fault your self you reprove in others 4. Use the most inoffensive Words and do it after the mildest manner imaginable 5. Observe such due Circumstances of Time and Place as your Christian Prudence shall direct 1. Be sure to propose to your self a good End in reproving others Which must be the Benefit and Amendment of the Person to be reproved For if it appears that the Reason why you reprove him is to vent your own Passion or to give way to the Resentments of your own Mind the Person reprov'd will reap very little Benefit by it he will look upon it as a personal Quarrel proceeding from the Ill-will of his Adversary and rather seek a way how he may retaliate the Injury as he calls it than look into his own Breast and amend his Fault 'T is the first step to a Cure to have a good Opinion of our Physician which will incline us to follow his Advice and make a due Application of his Prescriptions For 't is not the Excellency of a Medicine without a proper and timely Application of it can make it effectual If therefore we desire our Reproof should take place we must be sure so to manage it that the Person admonished may look upon it as an Effect of our Love and Good-will our sincere Desire to promote his Interest rather than of any Advantage we may propose to our selves by it or the gratifying a peevish and querulous Humour 2. Let us be sure to have certain Knowledge of the Offence before we take upon us to Reprove any one An uncertain Rumor or common Fame which is to frequently a common Lyar is not a sufficient ground of Reproof much less a groundless Surmise or wide Conjecture But we must be morally certain of the Offence and either Witnesses of it our selves or else we must have such plain Evidence for it tho' not ocular Demonstration as no reasonable Man can call in Question before we believe an ill Report of our Neighbour To yield a ready and willing Ear to Defamation and Tale-bearing shews that either we are very Ill-natur'd our selves or else very Credulous that we want the most excellent of all Christian Vertues which is the very Life and Soul of Christianity I mean Love and Charity to our Neighbour which as the Apostle tells us Is not easily provok'd thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things i. e. believeth and hopeth the best of every thing and every Man And this is a Grace so Essential to Christianity that whosoever is destitute of it may make what Pretences he pleases to Purity Holiness and Perfection but he is in the lowest Form of Christ's School and ignorant of the first Rudiments of true Religion 3. Be sure you your self are not guilty of that Fault Psal 141.5 which you Reprove in others Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oil which shall not break my head For though 't is the Wisdom and Duty of every good Christian to suffer the Word of Exhortation and Reproof tho' from the worst Man and his most inveterate Enemy Yet for the most part it so falls out that the Reproof of those Men who are notoriously guilty of the same Crime makes very little Impression upon us we can hardly believe them in earnest who blame us for the doing those things which they recommend by their own Examples and we are very apt to conclude that the Reason why they cry down the Vice is that they may engross the Practice of it to themselves But when a Man of known Vertue and Probity takes upon him to Reprove his Admonitions earty weight and Authority along with them the Reverence which is paid to his Person sets an edge upon his Reproofs and he doth not so much request as command a Reformation 4. In Reproving we must use the most inoffensive words and do it after the mildest manner imaginable Brethren Gal. 6.1 says the Apostle if any Man be overtaken in a fault you that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of Meekness considering thy self least thou also be tempted If his Offence proceed either from weakness or inadvertency from mistake or the frailty of humane Nature the Oyl of Pity and Compassion a mild and friendly Admonition will sink deeper into his Mind and sooner heal the wound than a more rough and churlish Medicine There is indeed a time when we must use the Caustick and the Corrosive when we meet with a daring and insolent Offender At such a time as this to be cold or lukewarm is to give up the Cause of God and to encourage Men in their wicked doings We must shew our selves Zealous for the Law of our God and the Good and Welfare of our Brother But then we must take Care that this Zeal be according to knowledge Rom. 10.2 That it be moderated and temper'd with true Christian Prudence 5. And Lastly we ought to observe such due Circumstances of time and place c. as our Christian Prudence shall direct and right Reason dictate to us 'T is the Observation of Men conversant in Business that the Success of our
us the Blessings we pray for he will give us some better thing instead of them Or if he doth not deliver us out of that Affliction or Trouble we groan under he will bestow upon us a suitable Measure of Grace to support us under it Either of these Considerations may be a sufficient Encouragement to place our Trust and Confidence upon God and to Persevere in our Addresses at the Throne of his Grace SERMON IX PROV IV. 23. Keep thy Heart with all Diligence For out of it are the Issues of Life IT was deservedly look'd upon as one of the chief Excellencies of the Persian Laws that they did not so much design the Punishment of Wickedness and Vice as the using means to prevent the Commission of it that by a careful Education of Youth in the Principles of Vertue and Morality they took away the Cause of all inordinate Desires and Affections and render'd their Duty so familiar and habitual to them that they had no need of those terrible Tortures and Bloody Executions whereby other Law-givers frighted their Subjects into Obedience And of this Nature is the Duty recommended in the Text For was but this one Precept sincerely conform'd to did we but perform this one Duty conscientiously and honestly we should find very little Difficulty in yielding Obedience to all the rest For that Man would never commit Murder that durst not be angry without a Cause nor be adulterous in the Act who did not first transgress in his Desire Can we think he would be Guilty of a deliberate Perjury that fears an Oath or defraud another who permits not himself to Covet For if the first Sparks of ill were quench'd within they would never break out into a Flame and therefore it was Advice well becoming the Wisdom of Solomon To keep our Hearts with all Diligence For out of them are the Issues of Life In which Words be pleas'd to take Notice I. Of a Duty recommended to us To keep our Hearts II. Of the manner how this Duty ought to be perform'd With all Diligence III. Of the Motive to engage us thus to perform it For out of them are the Issues of Life IV. I shall add some Directions to facilitate this Duty to us and to assist us in the due Government of our Hearts 1. Here is a Duty enjoyn'd us Psal 12.2 2 Kin. 10.30 Matth. 22.37 2 Sam. 24.5 Rom. 7.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Man within us 1 Pet. 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hidden Man of the Heart To keep our Hearts Now the Heart has different Acceptations in the Holy Scripture 't is sometimes taken for one Faculty of the Soul and sometimes for another for the Understanding the Will the Affections the Conscience and sometimes for the whole Soul I shall take it in the most comprehensive Sence and then it will denote to us all the Thoughts and Inclinations the Passions and Affections of the Soul For 't was the Opinion of the Ancients that the Heart was the Seat of the Soul and the Instrument of its most noble Operations So that by keeping the Heart is meant a looking into the most private Recesses of our Soul a curious and particular Observation what is transacted there the taking a view of all our Inclinations Passions Desires and Affections and comparing them with the Rule of God's Word approving those which are Good and disallowing those which are Evil. It denotes also the making use of such Means as may be effectual to bring our Souls into a due Frame and Temper the taking Care that the Thoughts of our Hearts may not be taken up with any unlawful Object or drawn out too far on any sensual Pleasure or worldly Advantage but that we sincerely desire and heartily endeavour to render them entirely conformable to the Laws of God Not that it is possible for the best and most Holy Men to govern their Hearts so exactly as never to transgress the strict Rules of their Duty or never to offend in Thought Alass Vain and sinful Thoughts will continually spring up in our Minds they are the necessary Effects of our deprav'd Natures and the Devil will take all Opportunities of inciting them in our Souls and presenting such tempting and alluring Objects to our Phancies as will produce inordinate Affections and Desires 'T is not in our Power and therefore it cannot be our Duty so to keep our Hearts as that no vain Thoughts should intrude themselves there Whilst we continue in these frail Bodies and Houses of Clay we shall be subject to many Passions and the Fumes which arise from our inferiour Appetites will cloud our Understandings and in some measure captivate our Reason 'T is plain and Evident that many of our Thoughts proceed from the Frame and Constitution of our Bodies and do in a great measure depend on the present Circumstances we are in and the Objects we converse with If we are of a cold and Phlegmatick Constitution we shall be affected with Melancholy and distrustful Thoughts and Phancies if of a Cholerick Temper Passion will sometimes get the upper hand of us when we are at Ease and in Prosperity our Thoughts will be apt to be too gay and volatile if in Pain or Misery we must needs be sensible of it and poring on it And therefore all that a good Christian can do is to Endeavour to keep his Heart in as good a Frame as he possibly can to be continually on his Guard and though he cannot attain to Perfection in this Life yet to endeavour after it by curbing his unruly Passions governing his Affections and Appetites by the Laws of Reason and whenever they break out and Act irregularly reducing them within their due Bounds and not allowing or delighting in the least sinful Thought or suffering it to dwell or remain in our Hearts but casting it out with all speed and Indignation imaginable And this must be done II. With all Diligence which denotes these two things 1. That this Duty ought to be our constant Employment that we do not let any day slip without examining the Frame of our Hearts for if we sleep never so little The Evil one will take the Opportunity of sowing his tares in our Souls if we are not always upon our Guard the Cares and Business of Life or the Pomps and Vanities of the World will imprint either such light and garish or such Melancholy and distracting Ideas of things in our Minds as will produce a fruitful Crop of Vain Sollicitous and Sinful Thoughts This must be the business of every day for the Thoughts of our Hearts are apt to be disorder'd with every Gust of Passion and will require a watchful Eye and a continual Care to keep them in any tolerable Order 2. The keeping our Hearts with all Diligence implies the greatest Intenseness and Application of Mind imaginable For we must take a great deal of Pains to come to a through knowledge of the thoughts of our Heart