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A62626 Sermons preach'd upon several occasions by his Grace John Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury ; the first volume.; Sermons. Selections Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. 1694 (1694) Wing T1260; ESTC R18444 149,531 355

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Rom. 1.16 18. because therein the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that if we call our selves Christians we profess to embrace the holy doctrine of the Christian Religion which is perfectly opposite to all impiety and wickedness of life We profess to be governed by those laws which do strictly enjoyn holiness and vertue We profess to be perswaded that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel are true which offer such great and glorious rewards to obedience and threaten transgression and disobedience with such dreadfull punishments And if so we are obliged both by our reason and our interest to live accordingly 2. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to live in the imitation of Christ's example and to follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Son of God came into the world not onely by his Doctrine to instruct us in the way to happiness and by his death to make expiation of sin but by his life to be an example to us of holiness and vertue Therefore in Scripture we find several Titles given him which import his exemplariness as of a Prince and a Captain a Master and a Guide Now if he be our pattern we should endeavour to be like him to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to walk in love as he also hath loved us and given himself for us We should aspire after the highest degree of holiness make it our constant and sincere endeavour to please God and do his will and to fulfill all righteousness as he did Does any man profess himself a Christian and yet abandons himself to intemperance and filthy lusts is this like our Saviour Are we cruel and unmercifull is this like the High Priest of our profession Are we proud and passionate malicious and revengefull is this to be like-minded with Christ who was meek and lowly in Spirit who prayed for his enemies and offer'd up his blood to God on the behalf of them that shed it If we call our selves Christians we profess to have the life of Christ continually before us and to be always correcting and reforming our lives by that pattern 3. He that calls himself a Christian hath solemnly engaged himself to renounce all sin and to live a holy life By Baptism we have solemnly taken upon us the profession of Christianity and engaged our selves to renounce the Devil and all his works and obediently to keep God's commandments Anciently those who were baptized put off their garments which signified the putting off the body of sin and were immers'd and buried in the water to represent their death of sin and then did rise up again out of the water to signifie their enterance upon a new life And to these customs the Apostle alludes when he says How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 6. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we might not serve sin So that by Baptism we profess to be entered into a new state and to be endued with a new nature to have put off the old man with his deeds to have quitted our former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And therefore Baptism is called the putting on of Christ Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now if we profess to have put on Christ we must quit and renounce our lusts because these are inconsistent as appears by the opposition which the Apostle makes between them Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 And as we did solemnly covenant with God to this purpose in Baptism so we do solemnly renew this obligation so often as we receive the blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood Therefore the cup in the Sacrament is called the new Covenant in his Blood that is this represents the shedding of Christ's blood by which rite the covenant between God and man is ratified And as by this God doth confirm his promises to us so we do oblige our selves to be faithfull and obedient to him and if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is after we are become Christians we account the blood of the Covenant a common thing that is we make nothing of the solemnest rite that ever was used in the world for confirmation of any covenant the shedding of the blood of the son of God And that this was always understood to be the meaning of this holy Sacrament to renew our Covenant with God and solemnly to confirm our resolutions of a holy life is very plain from that account which Pliny * Plin. Epist L. 10. Epist 97. gives us of the worship of the Christians in a Letter to Trajan the Emperour in which he tells him that they assembled early in the morning before day to sing a Hymn to Christ as God and then saith he they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves by a sacrament or oath not to rob or steal or commit adultery not to break their word or falsisie their trust and after they have eaten together they depart home Which is plainly an account of the Christians celebrating of the holy Sacrament which it seems was then look'd upon as an oath whereby Christians did solemnly covenant and engage themselves against all wickedness and vice Thus you see what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon us to holiness of life From all which it is evident that the Gospel requires something on our part For the Covenant between God and us is a mutual engagement and as there are blessings promised on his part so there are conditions to be performed on ours And if we live wicked and unholy lives if we neglect our duty towords God we have no title at all to the blessings of this Covenant The contrary doctrine to this hath been greedily entertained to the vast prejudice of Christianity as if in this new Covenant of the Gospel God took all upon himself and required nothing or as good as nothing of us that it would be a disparagement to the freedom of God's grace to think he expects any thing
reason spoils his understanding and helps to make himself a fool whereas he that conquers his passions and keeps them under doth thereby preserve and improve his understanding Freedom from irregular passions doth not onely signifie that a man is wise but really contributes to the making of him such 2. Religion tends to the ease and pleasure the peace and tranquillity of our minds wherein happiness chiefly consists and which all the wisdom and Philosophy of the world did always aim at as the utmost felicity of this life And that this is the natural fruit of a religious and vertuous course of life the Scripture declares to us in these Texts Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Great peace have all they that love thy Law Psal 119.165 and nothing shall offend them Her ways are ways of pleasantness Pro. 3.17 and all her paths are peace Isa 32.17 The fruit of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever The plain sense of which Texts is that pleasure and peace do naturally result from a holy and good life When a man hath once engag'd himself in a Religious course and is habituated to piety and holiness all the exercises of Religion and devotion all acts of goodness and vertue are delightfull to him To honour and worship God to pray to him and to praise him to study his will to meditate upon him and to love him all these bring great pleasure and peace along with them What greater contentment and satisfaction can there be to the mind of man when it is once purifi'd and refin'd from the dregs of sensual pleasures and delights and rais'd to its true height and pitch than to contemplate and admire the infinite excellencies and perfections of God to adore his greatness and to love his goodness How can the thoughts of God be troublesome to any one who lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world No man that loves goodness and righteous ness hath any reason to be afraid of God or to be disquieted with the thoughts of him There is nothing in God that is terrible to a good man but all the apprehensions which we naturally have of him speak comfort and promise happiness to such a one The consideration of his attributes is so far from being a trouble to him that it is his recreation and delight It is for wicked men to dread God and to endeavour to banish the thoughts of him out of their minds but a holy and vertuous man may have quiet and undisturb'd thoughts even of the justice of God because the terrour of it doth not concern him Now Religion doth contribute to the peace and quiet of our minds these two ways First By allaying those passions which are apt to ruffle and discompose our spirits Malice and hatred wrath and revenge are very fretting and vexatious and apt to make our minds sore and uneasie but he that can moderate these affections will find a strange ease and pleasure in his own spirit Secondly by freeing us from the anxieties of guilt and the fears of divine wrath and displeasure than which nothing is more stinging and tormenting and renders the life of man more miserable and unquiet And wha● a spring of peace and joy must it needs be to apprehend upon good grounds that God is reconcil'd to us and become our friend that all our sins are perfectly forgiven and shall never more be remembred against us What unexpressible comfort does overflow the pious and devout soul from the remembrance of a holy and well-spent life and a conscience of its own innocency and integrity And nothing but the practice of Religion and Vertue can give this ease and satisfaction to the mind of man For there is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds and consequently to our happiness and that is holiness and goodness which as it is the perfection so is it likewise the happiness of the Divine nature And on the contrary the chief part of the misery of wicked men and of those accursed spirits the Devils is this that they are of a disposition contrary to God they are envious and malicious and cruel and of such a temper as is naturally a torment and disquiet to it self And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of mens minds and till this be cur'd which can onely be done by Religion it is as impossible for a man to be happy that is pleas'd and contented within himself as it is for a sick man to be at ease Because such a man hath that within him which torments him and he cannot be at ease till that be remov'd The man's spirit is out of order and off the hinges and till that be put into its right frame he will be perpetually disquieted and can find no rest within himself The Prophet very fitly describes to us the unquiet condition of wicked men Isa 57.10.21 The wicked is like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked So long as sin and corruption abound in our hearts they will be restlesly working like wine which will be in a perpetual motion and agitation till it have purg'd it self of its dregs and foulness Secondly Religion does likewise tend to the happiness of the outward man Now the blessings of this kind are such as either respect our health or estate or reputation or relations and in respect of all these Religion is highly advantageous to us 1. As to our health a Religious and vertuous life doth eminently conduce to that and to long life as a consequent of it And in this sense I understand these following Texts Prov. 3.1 2. My Son forget not my Law but let thy heart keep my Commandments for length of days and long life shall they add to thee and v. 7 and 8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones and v. 16. among the temporal advantages of wisdom or Religion this is mention'd as the first and principal length of days is in her right hand and v. 18. she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and again Whoso findeth me findeth life but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8.35 36. that is injurious to his own life all they that hate me love death all which is undoubtedly true in a spiritual sense but is certainly meant by Solomon in the natural sense And these promises of the blessings of health and long life to good men are not only declaratory of the good pleasure and intention of God towards them but likewise of the natural tendency of the thing For Religion doth oblige men to the practice of those vertues which do in their