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A61281
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Sermons preach'd upon several occasions never before published / by George Stanhope ...
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Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing S5233; ESTC R15305
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178,532
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482
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holy Living and make Heaven their first and greatest care These are the Men who fill the House and partake of that Supper And This signification being equally proper and more pertinent and suitable to Our Condition than Either of the Former I shall endeavour to fix my own and your attention upon it by considering these two General Heads First The Justice of those Men's losing Heaven and Happiness who for any Worldly Respects refuse the proffers of it made to them Secondly The Great Mercy and Goodness of God in the means used for the Conversion of those who do accept and profit under them For upon these Two Points the whole Substance of the Passage turns and They together make up the Moral of this Figurative Representation 1. Let us consider First The Justice of God in debarring those Men any Access to Heaven and Happiness hereafter who refuse the proffers of it made to them here For that is the Importance of the Twenty fourth Verse I say unto You that none of Those men which were bidden shall taste of my Supper This though last in order of the Text yet because depending upon that which is first in the Parable I chuse to begin with And for the clearer Manifestation of the Matter before us These two things should be attended to 1. The Character and Condition of the Refusers and then 2. The Insufficiency of those Excuses they made for themselves I. The Character and Condition of them who absented is easily to be gathered from the Excuses made to soften their Refusal Three whereof are positively alledged here as sent back by Three Persons respectively The first said * V. 18 19 20. I have bought a piece of Ground and I must needs go and see it The second is I have bought five Yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them And the third I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come The Two former of These will fall under the same denomination and the ground of their absenting seems to proceed from the same Cause Which is The Love of the World and immoderate pursuits of Business and Riches For the Wealth of those Eastern Countries consisting partly in Land and partly in Cattel Avaâ—ice is the distemper common to them both The Third is more properly reduced to Love of Pleasure and Fondness of Sensual Delights which carries some signs of a worse and more untractable Disposition along with it Thus much Some have thought intimated by the differing Forms in which the Answers are returned For whereas the Purchasers of Land and Oxen make a shew at least of Civility and Modesty desire the Servant to make their Excuse and express some sort of Concern that their Weightier Affairs detain'd them He that had married a Wife in a more blunt and sullen manner replies roughly I cannot come A Reply which speaks that Air of Scorn usual in Men abandoned to Sense and Appetite Who disdain every Thing and every Person whose Business and Aim it is to divert them from such present Gratifications This likewise is farther remarkable in all Three That our Lord introduces not the bold and daring Sinners defiers of God and good Manners and such as by long shameless Vice have worn out all Distinctions between Good and Evil But such as indulge those Cares and those Pleasures only which in their own Nature are lawful and allowable He sets before us not the Vile Oppressor the Impious Perjured or the Actors of Violence and Rapine of Forgery or Fraud But Men intent upon their own Affairs Patterns of Provident and Honest Industry so far as the Quality of the Things themselves is concerned Had he done otherwise we should be apt to fancy that no degree of Anxiety had been Criminal so long as our hands were clean of Injustice and Deceit As we were cautious not to heap polluted Treasures nor give our selves the liberty of being foul and dishonest in our Dealings Or Had he instanced in Adulterers in Lewd and Impudent Sensuality that prostitutes Mens Souls their Bodies their Tongues to Filthiness and Lust We might imagine none could be to blame in giving scope to loose Desires and fleshly Satisfactions And that no Bounds no Laws restrained our Pleasures where Modesty and Decency were observed where no Man's Property had been Invaded no injured Bed or violated Honour could be laid to our Charge But now by producing honest Purchases and honourable Marriage he plainly teaches us That even the most Innocent Profits and Pleasures may cease to be Innocent in our manner of using them As If they engross our Hearts and draw us off from better Thoughts and Practices If they intrude upon our Spiritual Affairs vitiate our Affections and in a word grow to Excess or prove Unseasonable For how reasonable soever these Allegations appear'd to those who made them here and do no doubt still to Millions more that urge them daily yet you see they found no favour with Almighty God These Men of Honest Business and Innocent Delights are notwithstanding declared to be unworthy and all their Avocations supposing them both real and important could not nor ever will acquit the Persons or bear out their refusal to attend upon higher Duties These are the Bidden the Vngrateful Wretches whom Christ rejects with Anger and not one of them is admitted to taste of his Supper Which brings me to the second branch of this Argument II. The Insufficiency of those Excuses made for not complying with this Invitation And This appears much more from the Thing designed by the Parable than it does by any express words in the Parable it self There we are left to gather that there was Reason good why the Guests should have preferred this Feast before their own Worldly Advantages and Delights But in the Benefits of the Gospel Goodness and Truth in This and Glory in the next Life the Obligation and Necessity of making these our first care approves it self to every common Understanding As will soon appear Whether the Person Inviting the Feast it self or the Causes that detain Man from attending it be regarded 1. The Person Inviting us is God And this alone is cause sufficient why we should come In Humane Conversation we may make great Distinctions and proportion our Respects according to the Quality or the Friendship of those that ask our Company With Them whom Birth or Fortune make our Equals we can be bold and use those Liberties which good Breeding will forbid to Them above us And if a mighty Prince or kind Benefactor a Patron and a Friend require our Presence all our Affairs must be dispensed with all Business and Diversion laid aside to testify our Gratitude and Honour and nothing waited on but He. Shall we not then obey the Gracious Offer when the Great King of Heaven and Lord of Lords vouchsafes to call us He is our Best our Only Friend from Him we derive all our Comforts all our Hopes nay even our very Selves He commands all
that no leisure can be found for the Concerns of Eternity Shall sinful Delights nay shall important Affairs draw you off What is this but to indulge your Bodies or to feed your Families while something nearer to you than both these is suffered to lye and perish for Hunger without any seeming Concern But farther yet Remember who it is that invites you Your Father your Friend your King your God And is there no respect due to these Characters It is your Christ that calls he who hungered and thirsted and wept and bled and dy'd for you He calls you to that health and happiness which you could never have had unless he had in mercy condescended to do and suffer all this for you He earnestly intreats you in this Sacrament to accept the pledges of his future and the tokens of his past Love to strengthen your Faith in the One by these lively remembrances of the Other And not refuse to be found by one who hath taken so much pains to seek and to save you when you were lost How can you then so rudely so unworthily absent your selves How unpardonable is this Coldness this Refusal this Contempt of so great a Mystery and your own Mercy Is this a suitable return for so much Kindness And would you forgive your selves for using any Patron upon Earth so ungratefully But you want no inclination if Business and troublesome Engagements would permit you to come Alas vain Man Your Fields and Yoke of Oxen the following your Employment and providing for your Children will not discharge you from attending here If these things ought to be done yet the other ought least of all to be left undone Nor hath God so ordered the matter but that Both may very well be done and each in their due place will be highly acceptable to him But if our necessities were truly considered this is the much more necessary For hither we come to find Cure for our Sins Food for our inward Strength Comfort for our Sorrows a Sanctified use of our Enjoyments a Blessing upon our honest Labours and which is more worth than all the rest a Fore-tast of Heavenly Bliss in peace of Conscience pure Devotion and an intimate Union with our dear Redeemer These are the Benefits of worthy Communicating and They who will consent to be thus happy here shall by these means be happy for ever hereafter Do not then turn the deaf Ear to so kind so advantagious offers nor let Gods empty Tables any more reproach you Defraud not thus your Souls whose dangerous Sickness is want of Appetite to this Spiritual Food And that Inappetence is caused by too long abstinence Frequent and devour approaches will quicken your desires will heal your distempers will refresh all your Languishings And believe me it highly concerns you to make up for past neglects while you have time For fear these precious opportunities rise up in Judgment and draw on that Sentence of my Text That They who will not taste this Supper here shall not be suffered to partake in Heaven of That which this represents even the Glorious Presence of the King of Saints the Company of Angels and Blessed Spirits the everlasting Festival of the Faithful and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb of God Which Condemnation God give us all Grace to escape for the sake of that Lamb the blessed Holy Jesus who takes away the sin of the World and to whom with God the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen SERMON XII THE CASE OF A Weak and Imperfect FAITH St. Mark IX 24. Latter part Lord I believe help thou my Vnbelief WHILE our Saviour was discovering his Glory to some of the Disciples in his Transfiguration on the Mount a Person in grief for his Son who was grievously vexed with a Devil brings him to the remainder of those Disciples left behind to have the evil Spirit dispossest Providence in great Wisdom had so ordered the matter that They were not able to effect this Cure which gave occasion to the Scribes to attack them And in the Heat of that Dispute our Saviour returns * Vers 1. to 14. to inquire into the Cause of their Controversy †Ver. 16. and is answered by the Party concerned that he had made Tryal of the Disciples in Vain which gave him some distrust of their Master too For so it is manifest it had by that doubtful form in which he begs his assistance V. 22. But if thou canst do any thing have compassion on us and help us Our Saviour hereupon gives him to understand that even the Power of working Miracles was under some confinements and not to be exerted except in favour of such Persons as met it with a ready Faith But where it found Men duly qualify'd nothing was or should be wanting on God's part Jesus said unto him If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth V. 23. The Father of the Child full of concern for his Son sadly sensible of his own Defects and desirous of greater perfection replies with a very moving earnestness and an over-flowing of Tears Lord I believe help thou my unbelief This manner of Address plainly speaks the State of the Man's Mind and shews he wanted a full and absolute perswasion and such an entire confidence in the Power and Goodness of Christ as he wished and ought to have had Nay such as we find several instances of in the History of our Saviour's Life and Actions But though he had not all Faith yet it seems he had Enough for his purpose He did not come up to the highest and foremost Rank but he was accepted and thought worthy of Compassion though not of Commendation Accordingly the following Verses declare the success of this imperfect condition of Soul for our Lord commanded the dumb and deaf Spirit and wrought the Cure though with some pain and difficulty to the Patient A difficulty which seems to have born proportion to the Father's Faith * Ver. 26. For the Spirit cried and rent him sore and he was as one dead But however the Command was too mighty to be disobey'd for the Spirit came out of him and as St. Matthew adds in his relation of this Passage the Child was cured from that very Hour My design from hence is to apply this instance at large by enquiring into the nature of a Weak and Imperfect Faith and that chiefly for these two Reasons First For the Humiliation of those who imagine themselves more perfect than really they are And Secondly for the Comfort of Them who are in reality Better men than they imagine themselves to be And I do not doubt before I have done but to convince the most exalted Christian that though he may truly say with this person in my Text Lord I believe yet there is need enough still of joyning in the latter part of the Verse and of praying as he did Lord help my Vnbelief And