Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
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A42268
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A sermon preached before the King & Queen at Whitehall, June the Ist. 1690 by Robert Grove ...
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Grove, Robert, 1634-1696.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing G2159; ESTC R2928
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9,218
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30
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our tender years and insinuates into us besore we arrive at any ripeness of Judgment It is always present with us and perpetually beating upon our senses making a noise in our ears and displaying all its gaudery before our eyes It possesses our minds in such a manner that it will not give us leisure to consider seriously of any thing else And no wonder then that they that know nothing of the substance should be mightily taken with such a shadow of happiness But we should be of another mind if we were truly sensible of the wonderful excellency of that blessed state which God has prepared for those that love him and how empty and insignificant all things are which we can ever hope to enjoy here For our love of any thing is always measured by the opinion we have of the goodness of it And we should never love the world much if we did but rightly understand what it were 2. Secondly When we have gotten right apprehensions of these things we should be often rowling them over in our thoughts and meditate upon them till our hearts be affected with a due sense of them and then compare them together and judge impartially what it is that does really deserve the greatest share of our love It is the want of this that causes so many to rush heedlesly into destruction For if the miserable Worldling did but sit down and compute how little he is like to gain at the last by the treasures of unrighteousness if the idle Sensualist did but think with himself how dearly he must pay for his stoln pleasures if the proud and ambitious man would be pleas'd to consider that he pawns his soul for a puff of air they might all possibly be inclin'd to more sober thoughts and moderate desires For 't is altogether incredible that any one that is not under the power of a perfect frenzie should deliberately make such a foolish exchange and cast away the hopes of a blessed Eternity for the unsatisfactory pursuit of some fading impertinencies which shall be certainly concluded with everlasting Miseries 3. Thirdly We should firmly resolve to act agreeably to the judgment we have made This is the greatest security we have without this it is not sufficient to have right apprehensions and some good inclinations We may know well enough that the world is nothing but a grand Impostor a great Magician that inchants our minds and deludes our senses with false appearances and we may have some faint wishes that we might be delivered from the power of these Charms but this notwithstanding we may be born down by the stream and hurried away by the violence of temptation or allured by the importunity of some pleasing passion To these dangers therefore we must oppose our greatest strength and arm our minds with a steddy resolution to act conformably to the determinations of our Conscience This may preserve us upright and intire in the midst of all assaults For when it is assisted by the grace of God there is nothing able to over-power the will of a man 4. Fourthly We should herein exercise a kind of self denial and abridge our selves sometimes of some delights we might have innocently taken We should not always go to the extreme point of our liberty nor use the utmost freedom that might be given us even in lawful things This will keep our Appetites within compass and bring them into better obedience For when they have been used to be constantly gratifi'd they grow the more craving they run after their several Objects with the greater impatience and will be very apt to transgress their bounds But when they are curb'd and restrain'd they become gentle and tractable and resign themselves quietly to the conduct of our Reason and they cannot be in such danger of being carried into any extravagance when they are not suffered to go to the extremity of what is lawful Some voluntary abstinencies are a good guard upon the Soul He that would love the world no more than he should must not always use it so much as he might V. Lastly We should address our selves frequently to Almighty God by Supplication and Prayer This is the only way to procure that Grace which is absolutely necessary to enable us to overcome the world and besides that it will likewise acquaint us with Heavenly things and make them more familiar and pleasant to our thoughts And when by this holy entercourse with our Maker we shall have attained any relish for Spiritual Joys we shall quickly despise all those fulsom and unmanly Pleasures we admired before We shall soon perceive that there is no comparison betwixt Earth and Heaven and that the Crowns of Glory which we expect do infinitely outshine all the glittering Vanities of the world And we shall love God above all and all things else for him or rather we shall love him in them by loving them only as the Effects and Emanations of his Goodness and Wisdom acknowledging his Bounty and praising his Name for whatever we enjoy And so shall the love of the world be lost and swallowed up in the love of God till at length it be compleat and consummated in his Heavenly Kingdom Of which God of his Infinite Mercy make us all partakers through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen FINIS
A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WHITEHALL June the 1st 1690. By Robert Grove D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to their MAJESTIES Published by their Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for W. Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1690. 1 John II. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him LOVE is the most powerful of all the Passions of the Soul and that which does most effectually byass and incline the Mind unto any Object it happens to be placed upon And there are two things in the general that do most earnestly court us and one of them is always sure to win our Affections God himself out of his Infinite tenderness to the Sons of Men is pleas'd so far to condescend as to woo and beseech us to be reconciled unto him And he enforces his suit by the real proposal of Peace and Honour Glory and Immortality and Everlasting Joys And on the other side the world too that strives to gain the greatest interest in our Hearts and endeavours to work upon us by the vain promises of some transitory Pleasures a little Wealth and a certain kind of Happiness which it pretends it can bestow upon us out of hand And if we harken to the one of these we shall become Sober Good and Holy Men and shall be sure at the last not to lose our Reward But if we give ear to the other we shall grow vain and wicked in our imaginations eager and restless in the pursuit of shadows and trifles and in the end we shall be most certainly defeated of all our foolish hopes so that our love according as it is diversly plac'd becomes the Original of all the Good and Evil in the world and of that Happiness or Misery that is consequent upon them and the whole of Moral Divinity does in some sort depend upon the due management and regulation of this one Passion And because the Vanities of this present world are very apt to insinuate themselves into our Affections and get too great an interest in them we may easily understand what Reason we have to be always mindful of the serious Caution and Exhortation of the holy Apostle which I have read unto you Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For the better Explication and Improvement of which words I shall discourse something briefly upon these five general Heads And shew 1. First What is here meant by the world and the things that are in it 2. Secondly How far it may be lawful for us to love them 3. Thirdly What kind of love of them it is which is here forbidden 4. Fourthly That such a love of them is inconsistent with the love of God 5. Fifthly and lastly I shall lay down some Directions how to avoid this irregular and inordinate love of the world I. First What is here meant by the World and the things that are in the World And there can be no doubt but that according to the usual phrase of the holy Scriptures we are to understand this inferiour and sublunary world the Earth which we do for the present inhabit this place where Labours and Sorrows have taken up their abode ever since the fall of Man And the things of the world are the various Objects of our Senses the several Toys and Vanities that are wont to charm our deluded Fancies and Appetites They are very commonly and well enough divided into Pleasures Profits and Honours for this is the sum total of all earthly Enjoyments this is the utmost that the Carnal Man desires and this is all that the world is able to give St. John in the words that immediately follow my Text describes these things by the effects which they too often have upon us when he calls them the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and tells us that this is all that is in the world that is There is nothing else there but what may occasionally excite and foment such inclinations as these Nothing but what may either prompt us to Sensuallty and Intemperance or make us guilty of Covetousness and Injustice or swell us up with ambitious and aspiring thoughts Such is the world and such are all the things that are in it II. Let us in the second place consider how far it may be lawful for us to love these things For they are not absolutely Evil in themselves but may sometimes be made so unto us by our abuse of them but God created them all for good purposes and therefore we may love them in some measure without offence if we be but careful to observe these and the like Cautions 1. First we must love them but according to the nature and usefulness of them Every Creature of God is good and every degree of goodness does naturally require a sutable degree of love and our love is then reasonable and such as becomes wise and sober men when we do as much as may be proportion our affections to the worth and dignity of the Object God therefore being infinitely good our love to him as far as is possible ought likewise to be boundless and immense stretched out and extended to the very utmost capacities of our Souls And for other things it is lawful for us to love them too so far as they do participate of that Supreme and Soveraign Goodness The real Perfection of the Object ought to be the standing Measure whereby we should always limit and regulate our love And if we do but carefully observe this Rule there is nothing that God has made which may not afford us some innocent delight or advantage The very Pleasures of Sense wherein men are generally the most apt to offend and run into excess yet these if they be duly circumscribed and kept within the bounds which the Laws of God and Nature have set them may be harmless and allowable Riches may be lawfully desired by us as they serve the necessities and conveniencies of this mortal life as they may make our Charity more useful and beneficial unto others and as they maintain that difference of Degrees and Quality amongst men which is absolutely necessary to the preservation of good Order and Government in the world Honour is not wholly to be despised as it is a Tribute which ought to be paid to great and virtuous Actions as it confirms the testimonies of our own Consciences and as it gives us many opportunities of doing good which we could not have without the assistance of a clear and spotless Reputation And in such a manner as this we are not forbidden to love the things of the world and if any man will make it his choice to rid his Soul wholly of all earthly concerns to make the more room for the love