Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A50683
|
A sermon preached before the King at White-hall July 30, 1676 by John Meriton ...
|
Meriton, John, b. ca. 1630.
|
1677
(1677)
|
Wing M1821; ESTC R744
|
12,431
|
32
|
delight in their Abominations c. And what-ever Veneration these righteous men in the Text had for themselves for tything Mint Annice and Cummin but neglecting the weightier things of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith for making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter remaining within full of Extortion and Excess making long Prayers to devour Widows Houses Our Saviour esteems no better of them than whited Sepulchres which appear beautiful to the eye but within are full of rottenness and dead men's bones let our care be then to be really what we appear not having a Form of Godliness denying the Power and let every man that names the Name of Christ depart from all Iniquity for bodily Exercise profits little but Godliness hath the Promise of this life and that that is to come This is that Law of Perfection which it is the design of all positive Laws to advance and propagate as the Promulgation of the Decalogue and the Institution of the Gospel which is so far from being a relaxation to Moral Duty as it is the greatest help and obligation to promote it upon a twofold account First As the most clear and manifest Revelation of Truth The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ The Law was Truth in obscure Types and Shadows but the Gospel is Truth in its own Image and Likeness and the clearer and more manifestly any Law is promulged the greater and more forcible is its Obligation Acts 17. 35. The time of this ignorance God winked at but now he commands all men every where to repent Secondly As the most clear evidence of the truth and certainty of a future life after this the main Argument of the Gospel being the truth and certainty of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead in the truth and substance of Humane Nature and in the Circumstances of Life and Immortality to die no more 2 Tim. 1. 9. Who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel The Summary Article of which is to confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God hath raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 10. God hath been pleased to give many instances of his Power in raising the Dead by his Prophets under the Law and by Christ and his Apostles under the Gospel which are strong Inferences of the possibility of a Resurrection but because all that were raised from the dead till Christ dyed again and he only lives to die no more His being so raised is the only assurance as the First Fruits of a full Harvest of a future Resurrection and Judgment when every man shall rise again with his own Body to receive according to what he hath done in the Flesh whether good or evil and the belief of this is the most if not only powerful Motive to Moral Goodness for if there be no Resurrection it is a Natural Inference Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die But if there be a Resurrection it is equally rational to infer herein let us exercise our selves continually to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man The Jews were generally governed by the hope and fear of Reward and Punishment only in this life and generally looked for a Temporal Messiah to deliver them from the bondage of the Roman Tyranny and to give them great temporal Peace and Prosperity and because Christ came in the weakness and poverty of a Servant and they expected him in the pomp and power of a Sovereign they owned him not for their Messiah but to this day look for another the which their Errours and Mispritions were the Genuine Off spring of their ignorance and uncertainty of a Future State And the Sadducees a great and learned Party amongst them said there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit And though the Gentiles at least some of their wise men and Philosophers asserted and believed the Immortality of the Soul yet they were all uncertain if not altogether in unbelief of the Resurrection of the Body that these Mola's of flesh and blood should put on Incorruption and be cloathed with Immortality which is the only clear Revelation of the Gospel and the mâ—st powerful Argument to all the Duties and Obligations of Moral Righteousness c. The Jews went into Captivity under Shisack King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel and at last were desolate under Titus and Vespatian with the Temple of the Lord in their mouths and the sign of Circumcision in their flesh and Abraham to their Father And if God spared not the Natural Branches it is fair warning to the Wild Olives grafted in not to be high minded but fear not to trust to the outward Privileges of the due Administration of the Word and Sacraments or external obedience to Instituted Righteousness and positive Laws without cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God for it is not that that goes in but that that comes out that defiles a man Good and Evil properly consists not in the external act and operation of the Body but in the inward habit and disposition of the mind whence it is that love is the fulfilling of the Law and consequently Hate the transgression of it so that he that loves his Neighbour as himself is his preserver and he that hates him in his heart is his murtherer though neither ever have power or opportunity actuallay either to save or to destroy Charity is not properly to rerelieve them that want but to love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves nor Martyrdome every dying but dying for the love of God and Truth 1 Cor. 13. 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Joh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Optimus animus pulcherrimus Dei cultus Seneca He worships God best who hath the best mind God bears respect to Abel and to his Offering That Holocaust and Oblation which smokes from the Altar of a dovoted heart to God for the Altar sanctifies the Gift bears our acceptable Odour otherwise we are but like Vaults that sound merely from their hollowness c. External Profession of the best Religion Outward Communion with the best Church such as the Jewish once was and the Christian now is cannot secure or privilege from the storms of Divine Vengeance without the true belief and necessry practice of Truth and Holiness c. And since we have the Profession of the best Religion and live in Communion with one of the best Churches this day in the world which happiness God grant us long to enjoy under the protection and in the long life and prosperity of our most religious and gracious Sovereign and may it ever be the Blessing to us and our Posterities for all Generations that therein we may effectually save our souls from death and hide the multitude of our sins may it please God so to assist us with his Grace as that in the firm belief of all her Principles in the uniform practice of all her Duties and Obligations we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and Honesty that being holy and humble and undefiled the Children of God without rebuke we may at last together with all those that are departed this world in the true Faith and fear of God be made partakers of the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God of the same Substance Power and Eternity be given of us all Angels all Men and all Creatures all possible Honour and Glory Praise and Dominion Power and Thanksgiving Fear Adoration and Obedience now and for ever Amen FINIS
Righteousness not for the Righteousness of our Work but his own Promise indeed what is there in us or our services worthy that Eternal Happiness which he hath promised as the reward of of his Grace to a sincere Repentance since both the Will and the Deed is from his Grace who works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. So that after we through God having done the will of God what remains for God to reward in us but his own Gifts and Graces c. who renders to every man according to though not for his works and with him is no respect of persons Evident with respect 1. To the Perfection of his Nature who is free from all such Defects and Imperfections as are incident to Humane Natures whereby Judgment is often turned into Gall and Righteousness into Hemlock the Wicked are justified and the Righteous condemned both which are alike Abomination to the Lord and Justice frequently impartially administred in this Life Thus Saul spared Agag and the best of the Spoil of the Amalekites when he should have destroyed them all out of Covetousness or Cowardise or both 1 Sam. 15. 8. Thus Eli slightly reproved his Sons when he should have recompenced their sin with death which was great before the Lord through natural sondness 1 Sam. 2. 23. But God is free from all such Weaknesses and Imperfections and therefore with him is no respect of persons which will yet more evidently appear with respect to the Immutability of his Will who is not as a Man that he should change or as the Son of Man that he should repent God is free from all such grounds and causes as render Humane Wills subject to alteration as Ignorance and Impotence Men often change their Wills for want of discretion to chuse no better and for want of a present clear discerning and interview of things Men are often forced to After-games of Prudence which is the proper Notion of Repentance but God hath an Intuitive Knowledge and sees all things as they are and shall be in time from all Eternity Men frequently change their wills whether they will or no the Rational Faculty of the Soul is sometimes captivated through force and violence but who can resist his Will who is Omnipotent to whom all Nations are as the drop of a Bucket and as the small dust of the Ballance and the concurrent strength of created Power but as the Wit hs wherewith the Philistines bound Sampson as a Thred of Tow when it toucheth the fire c. And as for that Objection which some urge against the Immutability of the Divine Will from such Scriptures as seem to ascribe Repentance to God as Joel 2. 14. Jonah 3. 10. Who knows if he may repent be it considered that the threatnings of God are conditional and when not expressed are ever implyed according to that Maxime of the Prophet Jeremy 18. 7 8 9. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil then I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them So that it being the Immutable Will of God to repent of the Evil of Punishment upon Man's repenting of the Evil of Sin Penitere est sententiam mutare to repent is but to change his Sentence but not the Will the Will still remaining without variableness or shadow of turning And the immutability of his Will establisheth the truth of his distributing Rewards and Punishments according to every man's work without respect of persons and that he regards not the Persons of men but the persormance of the Conditions upon which he hath established the Covenant of our Reconciliation and Happiness by Jesus Christ The proper Inferences now from this Discourse are First Encouragement and Secondly Caution First Encouragement for every man to make good his Interest in the Common Salvation Indeed who would sweat in the Exercise of Grace and bleed in Conflict with Sin if after he hath done the Will of God he must remain uncertain whether he shall inherit the Promise This is that detains the Devils in Impenitence who believe and tremble James 2. 19. because they are reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness to the Judgment of the Last Day Jude 6. But though Christ took not on him the Nature of Angels he hath of the Seed of Abraham and all that do the Works of Abraham are the Children of Abraham and Heirs according to the Promise Then let no man say with those in Jeremy 18. 12. There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and every man do the imagination of his evil heart But let the Wicked forsake his way and the Unrighteous man his thoughts and turn unto God for he is gracious and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon And let every man work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling lest a Promise being left any man seem to come short of it c. Secondly Caution 1 Pet. 1. 17. Since we call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and repose no more confidence of security from Succession from Holy men than as we are followers of their Faith and Virtues nor in the strict and zealous performance of all instituted Righteousness and positive Laws then as they are productive of the main end of purifying our hearts by faith renewing us in the Spirit of our minds and cloathing us with that New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness and the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. And as it follows the Law that is Positive Law is not for a righteous man in whom the Law of Nature lives and can perform the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Dictates of it without the help of outward Laws for the design of all instituted Righteousness and positive Laws is but to conform us to the Duties and Obligations of the Law of Moral Righteousness and all obedience to them is no farther acceptable than as it is instrumental and serviceable to that great purpose And God is so far from being pleased with the performance of Instituted Righteousness in the guilt of Immoralities as it is the great aggravation of his displeasure and indignation Isa 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices bring no more vain Oblations your hands are full of blood Isaiah 66. 3. He that kills an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dog's neck he that offers an Oblation as if he offered Swine's blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol whilst they have chosen their own ways and their souls