Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A61621
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A sermon preached before the King & Queen at White-hall, March 23, 1689/90 by ... Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester.
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Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S5661; ESTC R14192
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14,698
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38
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hath its force and ought to make a deep impression upon us For 1. Know thou Thine is not then the same case with Creatures that have no understanding they are not capable of any Check from themselves having no Law of Reason or Conscience within them to controul or govern their Sensual Desires but God hath given thee not meerly a Brutal Appetite but a Rational Soul capable of understanding the differences of Good and Evil and the Reasons why some things which appear Pleasant are very disagreeing to the Principles of Humane Nature i. e. to that Order Decency Modesty and Regularity which the more elevated frame and capacity of Mankind do require 2. For all these things as light and vain as you esteem them as soon as they are over and forgotten by you as secretly and closely as they are committed as much as you endeavour to palliate and excuse them yet but for all these things God will certainly bring thee into Iudgment Therefore you have all the reason in the world to consider what you doe since every thing will be brought to judgment whether it be good or evil as Solomon concludes this Book Which shews the great Regard God hath to the Good or Evil of our Actions and if the great Judge of the World hath so certainly we ought to have it and never think our selves at liberty to doe what we please in gratifying our Lusts and pursuing our Natural Inclinations to Evil. 3. God will doe it If there were no God to call thee to an account yet there are some Actions of Vertue so agreeable to Mankind and some Vices so loathsome and deformed that there would be sufficient cause for them to love the one and to abhor the other If we could suppose such a frame of things and such sorts of Beings as we now see and no God to make them which is most Absurd and Unreasonable yet we must suppose these Beings to have Natures and Properties distinct from each other so that we could not imagine Men to become Beasts and therefore they must not act like them but preserve that Decorum or Agreeableness in their Actions which is suitable to the peculiar Excellencies of Humane Nature And there are some Sins so much below the Dignity thereof that no Circumstances no Suppositions can make them fitting for Mankind to commit them which shews that the Nature of Good and Evil is no Arbitrary thing but is founded in the very frame of our Beings and in the Respects we owe to our selves and to one another And since there is an Infinite and Supreme Being which hath Absolute Power and Command over us and gives us both our Beings and the Comforts of our Lives it is most Absurd to suppose it not to be a fault to hate his Goodness or to despise his Mercy or to slight his Power and to contemn his Authority For in all these there is something repugnant to the common sense of Mankind and to all Principles of true Honour and Justice And there are such common Principles of Morality arising from our necessary Relation to God and each other which are of so clear and convincing Evidence that every one that considers them will grant that Wicked Men may as well go about to dispute their Beings as their Sins and may as easily prove that they are not but onely appear to be as that no Actions are really Evil but only by false Glasses appear so to be But however vain men may deceive themselves God will not be mocked for he not onely sees and knows all our Actions but he will bring us to an Account for them 4. God will bring thee into Iudgment It is a dreadfull consideration to a Sinner that God knows all his false steps all his secret Sins all his Falshood and Dissimulation with God and Men And there is nothing which men of Art and Design hate more than to be discover'd and found out in all their double and deceitfull dealings but to have these not onely privately discover'd but exposed and laid open to the view of the World and not onely so but to have every Circumstance examin'd and every Action scanned and that by the great Judge of all the World whom nothing can escape nothing can deceive nothing can withstand whose Justice is inflexible whose Knowledge is incomprehensible whose Power is irresistible and whose Vengeance is insupportable This we cannot but imagine must strike an awe and terrour into the Minds of Men when they are pursuing the Pleasures of Sin that for all these things God will bring them into judgment But notwithstanding these and many other Expressions to the same purpose in Scripture wherein God hath declared that he will certainly Iudge the World in Righteousness at the Great Day that the Secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed that we must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ and that God will render to every man according to his Deeds And notwithstanding it is a thing in it self very reasonable from the consideration of God's Justice and Providence and the Nature and Consequences of Good and Evil Actions yet the generality of Mankind go on as secure and careless as if there were no such thing or that they ought not to be concerned about it Therefore I shall not spend time in the Proof of that which I take for granted you all believe and I am sure have Reason so to doe but I shall enquire into these things which are most Practical and therefore proper for our Consideration at this Time 1. How a matter of so great Importance as a Iudgment to come makes so little Impression on the Minds of the generality of Mankind who profess to believe it 2. By what means the consideration of a Future Judgment may have a greater Influence on all our Minds 1. How a thing of so great Importance as God's bringing us into Iudgment comes to make so little Impression on the Minds of the generality of those who profess to believe it when we are so tender and sensible of small things with Respect to this World For Resolving this we must consider that there is a great Difference between the Not Disbelieving Doctrinal Points of Faith and the Practical Improvement of them in our Minds without which they remain there but as general and confused Notions Thus too many who abhor being thought Atheists live as if there were no God not that they deny or dispute his Being or Attributes but they have no Regard to them in the last Dictates of their Minds or in the Course of their Actions To go about to prove such things to be true they look on as lost labour for they do not question them but there is another thing then which we are to give an Account of viz. how it comes to pass that so great and so weighty Doctrines being received and allowed to be true make so little Impression on the generality of Mankind especially
this of the Day of Judgment of which these seem to be the main Reasons 1. Mens Impatience of Considering great and weighty things at a Distance which cannot affect and move our Senses 2. The bewitching and stupifying Nature of Present and Sensual Pleasures which draw off the Mind from greater things and weaken all the Impressions they make upon us 3. A General Presumption upon God's Mercy towards Mankind on the Account of the Frailty of Humane Nature notwithstanding the severity of his Threatnings in Scripture 1. I begin with Mens Impatience of Considering We flatter and please our selves with the thoughts that we are Intelligent and Considering Beings when it may be Considering especially as to matters of greatest consequence is one of the things which Mankind have the greatest Aversion to For generally they love to go no farther than the Outsides and Appearances of things and have their Minds wholly possessed with false and flattering Imaginations having neither Truth nor Consistency in them And those who account themselves of better Breeding than others are often more imposed upon than others in this way The Pomp and Grandeur of the World the Gaity and Splendour of Living strikes their Fancies with such vehement Impressions that scarce any thing else gets into their Minds or sinks deep into them There are many other things that seem to stand fair in their Opinion at some times but it is as they are thought Serviceable to Worldly Greatness and Honour This after all the Instructions of Philosophers the Declamations of Heathen and Christian Orators and the far more Powerfull Arguments of the Wisest and Best of Men recorded in Holy Scripture is still the great Idol of Mankind which they serve and worship with the truest and warmest Devotion All other things how great and weighty soever in themselves yet are really look'd on by them as a sort of Metaphysical Abstracted Notions of things Invisible and Immaterial quite out of the reach of their Imagination which may serve for the Amusement of some and the Affrightment of others and the Entertainment of Speculative Minds but how to raise themselves in the World to appear Great and have many Dependents to pursue and carry on their own Interests though without regard to Justice and Honesty these they account Great and Noble things and fit to employ their Minds upon But alas How much are such imposed upon by meer Shews and Appearances of things which are really what God made them but are not what we fansie them to be There are no doubt real Conveniencies of Life in Riches and Honour and Ease and Plenty or else they could never be esteemed Blessings nor could we have reason to thank God for them but there is a great difference between the Fitness of things for our present use and for our happiness i. e. when we make them our End and do not employ them in order to a farther End But it is good Advice of S. Paul Vsing the World as not abusing it for the Fashion of this World passeth away it passes like a Ship under Sail while the generality of Mankind like Passengers lie asleep in it Sometimes when Storms arise or Waves cross them they seem to be awake and to look about them and to think whither they are going but those thoughts being uneasie to them they lie down again and are carried they know not whither But still it is but the Fashion of this World a meer Landskip wherein there is great Variety but little Satisfaction the Shew far out-doing the Substance When the Devil shewed Christ the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them the highest Mountain could afford but a small Prospect of them but as some think he caused a Representation in the Air of the most tempting Splendour and Glories of them And this was the truest Representation of them by glorious Appearances and bewitching Shews But unless there be something in Humane Nature which makes it very apt to be deceived by such things it were strange the Devil should think to prevail on our Saviour by them We pity those who travelling in the Night are deceived by false Fires and shining Meteors and follow them into Bogs and Precipices but the case of such is so much worse who are deluded by the Deceitfull Vanities of this World to their own Destruction And can there be any greater Argument of the want of Consideration than for Persons to suffer themselves to be so easily and so fatally cheated It is a Wise Observation of Aristotle that True Knowledge and Wisedom lies most in settling and fixing the Mind For it is not the subtlety and fineness of Thoughts not the quickness and sharpness of Apprehension not the close and mathematical Deductions of Reason which make a Wise Man but the having a calm and composed Temper of Mind the subduing our Passions and governing our Actions with respect to our Chief End And in order to this Consideration is absolutely necessary without which that which is nearest to us and offers it self first to our Choice must prevail upon us And here lies the main Difficulty to perswade Mankind to choose a far greater Happiness at a Distance and Invisible before a present Enjoyment of things we are constantly conversant with and have made an early Impression upon us But still we say that it is nothing but Mens Impatience of Considering which makes them have so little Regard to another Life For if they would but lay both Worlds in the Balance one against the other they would soon discover the wonderfull Folly of preferring that which this World accounts Happiness before that which is offered to our Choice in another For let us make all the fair and reasonable Allowances that may be as to our Inclinations and Appetites and Circumstances in this World as to the Distance Obscurity Incomprehensibleness of the Joys of another World yet every considering man that regards true Happiness will be sure to chuse that which is to come For 1. Supposing the Happiness were Equal yet there is no proportion in the Continuance of them and a considering Man will be sure to choose a Happiness that can never have an End before one that may be irrecoverably lost in a moment and can certainly be enjoyed but for a little time if there were any certainty at all in the Enjoyment of it 2. The more any have considered the more they have repented placing too much of their Happiness here because Reason and Experience shews them the Folly of it But the more they have considered the better satisfied the Minds of Good Men are in placing their Happiness above where alone that Good is to be found which can make us truly Happy and is to be enjoyed in that Fulness that Purity that Certainty which makes it fit for the wisest and most considering Men to prefer above a present Happiness if it were to be enjoyed on Earth 3. He that looks after a Future Happiness