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A31429 A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, on Sunday, January 18th, 1684/5 by William Cave ... Cave, William, 1637-1713. 1685 (1685) Wing C1607; ESTC R36289 9,318 37

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A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL ON Sunday January 18th 1684 5 By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. Canon of Windsor and One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Published by His Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXV Psalm iv vii Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased JOy and Pleasure are things so truly desirable by all Mankind so agreeable to the frame and first inclinations of humane nature that Religion usually suffers from nothing more in the minds of Men than in being thought to be an enemy to them They look upon it as a dry and sower task a piece of sullen and cloystered Devotion that dooms Men to a black melancholy temper and condemns them to nothing but fasting and mourning to sadness and solitude As if a Man could no sooner engage in a strict vertuous course but he must presently renounce his appetites and divest himself of all the ease and comfort of his Life Such are the ordinary apprehensions which Men of loose and prejudic'd Minds have of Religion Than which nothing can be more absurd and fals e and more directly opposite to its Nature and Tendency which is to ennoble the Minds of Men to advance our present interest and to instate us in perfect peace both with God and our own Consciences It were no hard matter to shew that things rightly considered Religion is no Enemy to external pleasure it ties us up from nothing but what our own Reason and Interest should restrain us from to wit what is either unmanly or pernicious unbecoming the Dignity of our Natures and destructive both of our present Wellfare and our future Happiness In all harmless and innocent satisfactions that neither intrench upon the Honour of God nor the Rights of others nor our own peace and quiet we have leave to pick and choose to crop what delights we please and what wise and reasonable Man can desire more Besides by obliging us to use lawful things according to the measures of Temperance and Sobriety it gives the truest gust and relish to them But my business at present lies with pleasures of another sort such as are Divine and Spiritual and seated in the noblest part of Man and which are as much beyond all sensual delights as the Soul is of a finer make and constitution than the Body and these the Royal Psalmist here tells us he valued infinitely above all advantages upon Earth Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time See Isai ix iii. Jer. xlviii xxxiii though a time of greatest festivity and rejoicing the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased In prosecution of which words I shall briefly enquire into three things 1. The nature of this inward joy and pleasure 2. What influence Religion has upon the Joy and Pleasure of a Man's mind 3. I shall consider the excellency of the pleasures of Religion above all the Delights and Pleasures of this World We shall begin with the Nature of this inward Joy and Pleasure by which I do not mean a natural gaiety and chearfulness of Humour or a few light and transient fits of Mirth nor yet any strong and confident presumptions of God's Love and Favour or any rapturous transports and sensible ravishments of Joy which however in extraordinary cases they may be granted to some are yet very often in those that pretend most to them little else but the quick and vigorous motions of the Animal Spirits impregnated by the force and power of a warm active fancy That which I here intend is a solid and rational satisfaction of mind in the goodness and soundness of a Man's estate towards God and flows usually from these two things 1. From a sincere and regular discharge of our duty which brings its own comfort and tranquility along with it The Harmony of our Souls depends upon an even and orderly course of Piety every violation of our obedience makes a breach upon our peace and sets us back in the favour of Heaven All pleasure is founded in an agreeableness between the Faculty and the Object Now there is an essential and eternal congruity between a reasonable Soul and moral goodness which the more it is cherished the nearer we return to our Natural and Original State All actions of Nature are very pleasant and delightful and certainly we never act more agreeably to the right frame and constitution of our Souls than when we pursue the designs of Vertue and Religion when we are careful to Love Worship Honour and Obey our Maker to keep our Faculties in due Order and Decorum to be just kind helpful and beneficial to Men Hence springs that contentment and satisfaction that is lodged in the minds of good Men it being as possible for the Sun-beams to be without Light and Heat as Vertue without an inward complacency and delight 2. This pleasure lies in a cheerful reflexion upon a Man's innocency and the integrity of his actions when a Man dares look back upon what he has done and knows that he has the testimony and approbation of Heaven on his side bearing witness to the vote and suffrage of his own conscience And indeed what can possibly administer greater security and satisfaction to a good Man than the assurance that he has sincerely done his duty and that he is accepted with God If our heart condemns us not says the Apostle that is either of Hypocrisie or neglect 1 Joh. iii. xxi then have we confidence towards God Upon such a review a calmness and Joy overspreads the mind and a Man is refreshed with the remembrance of his past Life Which made the wiser Heathens say that Vertue was a reward to its self and that a good Man always carries a Heaven in his own Bosome Nulla re tam laetari soleo says Cicero quàm officiorum meorum conscientia I am refreshed and pleased with nothing more than the Conscience of having done my duty or it might have been rendred in those words of St. Paul This is our rejoycing 2 Cor. 1. xii the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the World And this will be farther evident if we consider What influence Religion has upon the Joy and Pleasure of a Man's mind which will clearly appear from these following instances 1. Religion restores a Man to the grace and favour of God and assures him that Sins are pardoned and his peace made with Heaven that there is a league of friendship between God and him that his transgressions are done away and that God will remember his Sins no more Than which what stronger Spring of Joy and comfort can there be to a Man's mind If the respects and kindness of a great Man be so highly valuable and the smiles of a Prince so refreshing that as Solomon