Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	evil_a	good_a	1,020	5	3.4395	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67821	The great advertisement, that a religious life is the best way to present happiness in two sermons preach'd at White-hall, the 1st on Sunday, April the 15th, the 2d on Sunday, Apr. 22, 1694 / by E. Young ...	Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705.	1694 (1694)	Wing Y60; ESTC R19843	23,419	64

M r YOUNG's TWO SERMONS AT WHITE-HALL THE Great Advertisement That a Religious Life is the best way to present Happiness IN TWO SERMONS Preach'd at WHITE-HALL The 1 st on Sunday April the 15 th The 2 d on Sunday Apr. 22. 1694. By E. YOUNG Fellow of Winchester-College and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Publish'd by Her Majesties Especial Command LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV SERMON I. Psalm xxxvii 4. Delight thou in the Lord and he shall give thee thy heart's desire THere are Two Opinions which the Devil has been always busy to propagate in the World as the Two main Pillars of his Kingdom The First is That a Sinful Life is a State of True Liberty and sincere Pleasures and happy Advantages The Second is on the contrary That a Religious Life is a Servile and Uncomfortable State He made the first Breach upon humane Innocence by the former of these Suggestions when he told Eve That by Eating of the Tree of Knowledge she should be as God that is she should reap some high and strange felicity from doing that which was forbidden her to do But we know the Success Eve learnt the difference between Good and Evil by her Transgression which she knew not before but she learnt the Difference to be this That Good is that that gives the Mind pleasure and assurance and Evil is that that must necessarily be attended sooner or later with shame and sorrow As he thus began his Kingdom so he has carried it on ever since by the same Imposture that is by possessing mens minds with vast expectations of the present Incomes of Sin and making them dream of golden Mountains mighty gratifications and advantages they shall meet with in following their Appetites the forbidden way Whereas on the contrary there are Seasons wherein all Sinners are ready to confess that their Counsellour has been a Deceiver that their Foolish Hearts have been darkned that their Hopes have been Vain their Gains no Profit and all their Enjoyments leading to Bitterness So little trust is to be given to all the promising Overtures of Sin To promote the second Opinion That a Religious Life is a Servile and Uncomfortable State the Devil suggests to our thoughts That true Freedom is to follow our own Humour That to deny our Appetites is to be Miserable That not to prosecute our Passions is to be Cowards That to ty our selves up to Truth and Iustice is to have no Liberty That to live by moderate and prescribed Rules is to have no Ioy and therefore that when the Religious Man looks for Ioy he can only see it at the tedious distance of a Future Life Which were it true our Nature that is so importunately goaded on with the desire of present Happiness could not but languish under the discouragement of so Remote an Expectation But in the mean time the Holy Scriptures give us a quite different prospect of this matter there we are told that the service of God is true Liberty that the Yoak of Christ is easy in comparison of that which any other Form of Living will bring upon us that Religion has Pleasantness in its ways as well as Glory in its End that it will bring us in Peace and Ioy such as the World cannot give and therefore that the Religious Man's Ioy does not stand at so tedious a distance but is so present and at hand that it may be felt and tasted every moment And a Summary Confirmation of all this we meet with in the words of the Text Where we have Religion described both in its State and in its Fruit and recommended to us in both from that which we so much long for Delight thou in the Lord this is the State of Religion and he shall give thee thy Heart's Desire This is the Fruit of Religion even it s Present Fruit Now where there is Delight for the Principle and Attainment of Desires for the Income we have little reason to suspect that such a State can either be Servile or Uncomfortable The Words therefore lead me to assert the great Advantages of a Religious Life and to recommend it from the influence it has upon our present well-being And this is the Point I shall pursue and pass to the Evidence of it by the steps of these Three Propositions viz. I. That to Delight in God is our most reasonable Duty II. That to Delight in God is the True State of Religion And III. That to Delight in God is the happiest Method of compassing all our Ends as is imply'd in this Promise or Assertion He shall give thee thy heart's Desire I. That to delight in God is our most Reasonable Duty We may observe that none of the Voluntary Actions of Men whether Good or Evil can have any Life or long continuance unless they are supported by some Kind of Delight Even sinful actions will cease when we come to have no pleasure in them And hence it comes to pass that many Men have forsaken particular Sins without ever Repenting of them forsaking them only from the Principle of a Carnal disgust And if Sinful Actions will cease without the support of Delight much more-will Religious to which we have so much less both of Power and Propension Forasmuch therefore as there are many Offices of Religion which cannot be in themselves the proper matter of Delight we must either delight in Him for whose sake we do them that is in God or else we must necessarily sink from their performance Now to Delight in God is to possess our Minds with such a proper sense of his Goodness as may be able to produce an habitual comfort and pleasure in the Contemplation of Him And this is a matter so practicable that the only reason why it is not done is because we do not set about it For let us but consider what it is that makes us take delight in any thing It is only this First to conceive a thing as Good and secondly to conceive that Good thing as Ours and then it is impossible but that such a thing should delight us Now all allow that we have no Notion worthy of God unless we conceive him to be the chiefest Good nor have we any notion worthy of his Truth unless we likewise conceive him to be Ours For by the Christian Covenant he has engaged himself to be Our God that is the Author of all Good unto us And therefore God infinitely Good as he is is more certainly Ours than any thing that the World can most hopefully promise us For in respect of any such thing many accidents may interpose to prevent our possession of it Nay God is more Safely Ours than any thing of the World that we possess for that Possession is defeisible it may it must determine in a little while But God is Ours Certainly Safely Everlastingly unless we consent to part with our Title unless we

I am aware that Religion is frequently express'd in Scripture by the name of Fear the Fear of God a Passion very opposite to Delight But if we look into the bottom we find shall that Fear is a Duty arising rather from the Respect to our own Nature which is corrupt than from the Respect to God's Nature which being all Goodness and all Propensity to do good it requires no more than Love and Delight to express our Iust Sentiments and Veneration of it So that Fear is not so much the State as the Guard of Religion and a necessary means of restraining our Appetites from offending God rather than the true and proper Worship of Him And this we may learn from Mount Sinai it self where to usher in the Delivery of the Law God presentiated himself in all the Formalities of Terrour in Thunder and Lightning and Darkness and Fire and Smoak and all that was powerful to create an astonishing Fear and yet after all this terrible Preface the Precept it self was only Love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart And this Love is the fulfilling of the Law Now there is so great an Affinity betwixt Love and Delight that we can hardly distinguish between them what we love we always delight in and what we delight in we always love And if we will distinguish them as nicely as we can the Difference is only this That Love is the Desire of our Object and Delight is the Complacency that accompanies that Desire So that delighting in God is one thought higher both in Worth and Efficacy than simply loving Him because it implies the Activity and Heartiness of our Affections But to clear my Point That to delight in God is the true State of Religion I shall insist upon these Two Arguments 1. That to delight in God is the only way to express that we have a Iust Sense and worthy Notion of Him And 2. That it is the only way to render Him a proper Service 1. To Delight in God is the only way to express that we have a Iust Sense and worthy Notion of him What notion we ought in Iustice to have of God I shall argue from the Consideration of these Two familiar things 1. The Names that we are entitled to call upon him by and 2. The common Benefits we receive at his hands 1. God has entitled us to call upon him by the name of Father the nearest and most beneficial and most indulgent of all Relations And though there are some Fathers whose behaviour might bring the Credit of the Relation into Dispute Fathers without Affection yet it cannot be so with God whom pure Affection has made him to be our Father who has drawn us out of the distance of Aliens and Destitutes and brought us near unto himself and adopted us into his Family and assigned an Inheritance for us with the Saints in light such a Father cannot but have an Affection more large and inexhaustible than the most tender Bowels of the most tender Sex And he himself expresly says as much of himself Is. 49. 15. Now how is it possible we can call upon him by this Name and in the mean time conceive any proper sense of the Name we pronounce and not withal be convinc'd both of our Obligation and our Privilege to take delight in him There is another Name that I must not pass by God in the third Personality of his amiable Essence specifies himself by the name of Comforter Now is it possible we can have any true notion of a Comforter and not delight in him Is not Comfort in it self a Delight Nay it is the greatest of all Delights in this respect viz. That it comes in the Season when we have most need of it And do not the Exigencies of our Life afford any Seasons wherein Comfort would be welcome Certainly they do If then it be necessary to our nature to delight in a Comforter and yet we do not delight in God what can be the Reason but that we are sunk away from the notion that God is a Comforter We have no Iust sense of his being so And this is the Cause why we neglect his gracious Influences that would support us in our Exigencies and betake our selves to Sins and Vanities which can no otherwise than fail of our design Remember that we condemn the Socinians and we do but our Duty in condemning them for denying the Holy Ghost but remember likewise that we by not delighting in God do in effect deny the Comforter which is both of equal scandal and prejudice to Christianity I might make the same Reflection upon the endearing name of Saviour and so represent the whole Blessed Trinity condescending to our Affections and courting us to make themselves the subject of our Delight But I leave this as obvious to your own Meditation to supply and pass to the Consideration of 2. Those Common Benefits which we receive at the hands of God How great is the summ of them Says the Psalmist and how can we say less when we think upon Life and all its Blessings upon our Mercies Comforts Aids Preventions Deliverances how great is the summ of those Benefits we enjoy Now if we look upon these Benefits and not look upon God to be their Author we have no notion of him at all And if we delight in these Benefits but cannot delight in God as their Author our notion of him is very Irrational I know there is a Difference between a Benefit and its Author and this difference Men often catch at as the Opportunity of their Unthankfulness while they hugg and rejoice in a Benefit and in the mean time neglect and vilifie the Benefactour But remember there is a difference too between the Benefactions of God and the Benefactions of Men when a Man bestows a Benefit we can retain it and enjoy it in spight of the Donor because he may want power to call us to account for our Unthankfulness But God certainly has this power to call us to account and 't is as certain that he will execute it Nay further to speak accurately in the Benefactions of God there is no difference between the Benefit and the Author there is difference indeed between God and the thing he gives but not between God and the good of that thing because God himself is properly the Good of every thing he gives Insomuch that if he but withdraw himself and turn away his Countenance though the thing remains yet the Benefit becomes immediately voided and lost Thus Life and all its Comforts are the most valuable Benefits so long as we are thankful to God for them but when we cease to be so they change their nature and turn into so many Debts for which we shall be found to be miserably insolvent But in the mean time we all certainly agree in this Point That it is natural for a Man to delight in that which seems good to him and consequently in

this was an Affront to the Divine Majesty which he was commanded to cry loudly against And we may lay down this for a Rule That of all Hypocrites they are the greatest who pretend that they delight in God and of all Enthusiasts they are the highest who believe that they delight in God while they dare delight in any thing that does offend him If therefore we will delight in God it is necessary to draw off at least so far from the World as to make our Delight in him preside over and moderate all the rest of our Enjoyments The third Hinderance of the Duty is Superstition which is the Vice of those that dare not delight in God The word Superstition is sometimes taken in a greater latitude but I take it here in its strict and original sense to signifie a Worship of Fear a Worship of Fear proceeding from a sowre and terrifying Opinion of the Nature of God Now this unworthy Opinion which is the Parent of Superstition does sometimes grow from Principles of Doctrine received and sometimes from bare Complexion As for example Supposing it to be believ'd That God has determin'd a great part of Mankind to Eternal Misery meerly to shew the Absoluteness of his Dominion How does such a Doctrine as this detract from the Amiable Goodness of God and necessarily tend to make all Mankind superstitious fearful and heartless unless it be such as pretend to be secure of their own Exemption from that Decree And yet none can be secure of this without a particular Revelation But my chief Aim is to speak of that Superstition that grows from Complexion And this Complexion is sometimes natural by reason of the Melancholy of Temper and sometimes occasional by reason of the Infirmity of Conscience Now in both these Cases it is usual for the Minds of Men to suggest That to delight in God is too bold a Familiarity That as we are Creatures of a sinful Nature and much more as we are actual Sinners the Majesty of God requires a more awful distance of our Affections than to be delighted in by us But all this is no more than weakness of Thought For first Although we cannot be too sensible of the vast Distance that is between the Vileness of our Nature and the Majesty of God's Yet we must remember that his Condescension has been pleased to void all this distance so that though He dwells in the highest Heavens yet He declares himself to dwell too with the humble spirit and therefore if we can but keep our Spirits humble which is very well consistent with Delight there is no fear of our being too Familiar But secondly To reflect on our selves as Actual Sinners And here indeed the Case requires a Distinction For supposing a Sinner to retain the purposes of Sin such a one has neither Reason nor Ground to delight in God and his Pretences to do so are a direct Affront But supposing a Sinner to turn from his Sin in Sincerity such a one has of all others the most Reason to delight in God and to love much because much shall be forgiven him as our Saviour argues in the Case of Mary Magdalen And if we consider the Passages of the returning Prodigal in the Parable and what Delight his Father express'd to receive him we must conclude the Son to have been Unthankful if he did not delight in his Father more after his Return than if he had never gone astray For by the way we must not have so mean a Notion of delighting in God as to think it is exclusive of Godly Sorrow The Heathen could say of true Ioy That it is not a Giggling thing It is a Severe thing Ioy we know has its Tears ev'n in Nature but it has more in Grace and nothing better expresses our Delight in God and nothing better advances it than Sorrow for Sin So that supposing a Man's Mind to be but religiously bent there is no other Circumstance can exclude him exclude him did I say nay can excuse him from delighting in God For we must consider That to delight in God is not only our Privilege but our Duty it being the proper Acknowledgment that is due to the Divine Goodness and therefore whatsoever may be pretended to hinder it can be no other than sinful and weak because it does not only deprive us of our Comfort but it likewise robs God of His Due And now I come to II. The great Motive and Encouragement of this Duty He shall give thee thy Heart's desire It was a very large Promise the Devil once made when pointing at all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glories thereof he cry'd All this will I give thee and yet had he had power to make his words good the Overture had been short of this in the Text For we see that they who have the greatest share in the Kingdoms of the World and the Glories of them have still an Emptiness of Heart and complain of as many Wants and Troubles and Disappointments as are to be met with in meaner Fortunes and therefore it is evident That to have our Heart's Desire is a greater Boon than all the Pomp and Affluence of the World is able to contribute Now were so large and obliging a Promise as this is not to be fulfilled till the future Life it were well worth the waiting for but yet God has provided more indulgently for those that love him Godliness has the Promises of this Life as well as of that which is to come and this in the Text has peculiar Respect to this Life and therefore I shall only treat of it in reference to its Accomplishment here and shew how and in what manner the Goodness of God will infallibly make it good to every one that delights in Him When a Man shall hear of such an Overture as this Thou shalt have thy Heart's desire It is natural for him immediately to consult his Heart and see what Desires he has there thronging forth at the Hopes of their Accomplishment And there perhaps he may find the Desire of Ahab to enlarge his Possessions or the Desire of Amnon to compass his Lust or the Desire of Haman to gratifie his Pride and Revenge I mention these Instances particularly because they may afford us some farther matter of Instruction For we may observe of these Three Men that though one of them was a King and the other was a King's Son and the third a King 's chief Minion or Favourite yet each of them accounted himself an unhappy Man till such time as he could compass his particular Desire They could neither eat nor drink nor sleep without it notwithstanding all the Greatness of their other Circumstances And from their Example I would have you take notice of one mischie●vous Errour that all Mankind is prone to i. e. We are all apt to think that our present Desires are necessary to make us happy and that we cannot be happy without them