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A71315
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Several sermons upon the fifth of St. Matthew .... [vol. 2] being part of Christ's Sermon on the mount / by Anthony Horneck ... ; to which is added, the life of the author, by Richard Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.
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Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing H2852; ESTC R40468
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254,482
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530
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but that thou approvest of it And supposing thou approvest of it if the Grace of God restrains him not he soon begins to think that what is lawful for thee may be lawful for him and thus he learns of thee though thou doest not open thy Lips to him There are few Men so bold as in their Words and Speeches to defend and justify things directly contrary to the Will of God in the Gospel but you do mischief enough to the Souls of Men by your evil Practices The Mutes among the Turks teach by their Gestures much more may Men be taught by Actions especially where there is already a Disposition to embrace that which is Evil. Physicians and Naturalists talk of transplanting Diseases from Men into Beasts nay some go so far as to prescribe ways to transfer Distempers from Men into Herbs and Plants Whether it be so I enquire not but sure I am that the Diseases of the Soul are and may be transplanted and conveyed from one Man to another even by evil Practices and this is teaching and making Proselytes to Hell and to the Kingdom of Darkness the readiest way to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven which will give me occasion IV. To represent to you what it is to be the least or to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven Fancy you saw a poor miserable Man starving with hunger and so placed that directly over against him he could see the richest Banquet the most delicate Dishes huge plenty of Victuals of all sorts the Company eating their fill and satiating themselves with all the Variety that Earth and Sea and Air can yield and the poor Wretch that is over against this Company but a few paces removed from them unable to get the least Morsel of Bread ready to tear his own Flesh from off his Shoulders and yet in an utter impossibility to get so much as the Crums that fall from those Rich Mens Tables Do not you think this would be as great a Torment as can well be imagined Why this is the Emblem of being the least or excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven The Soul that is so unhappy as to miss of it will see Abraham a far off and Lazarus in his Bosom be ready to perish ready to burst see all the Glory and Joy of blessed Creatures before his Eyes the Delicates the Dainties the Pleasures the Festivals the rich Entertainments they enjoy and swim in passing before him and yet not able to touch not able to reach the least Extremity of all though his Soul be big with ten thousand desires after them What a Torment what a Plague what a Vexation must this be What Grief what Sorrow what Anguish must this cause And if this must continue to Eternal Ages what Tongue is able to express the Torment And can you after all this call any of the Commandments of the Gospel little ones and break them and pass by them as if they did not belong to you and tempt others to do so too when this is the high way to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven But V. Are there no Ambitious Men here Are there none among you that desire to be Great Have none of you a mind to be prefer'd and exalted to eminent Places You must be either very mortified or very dull if Greatness can make no Impression upon you Preferment What is there that is more hunted after How do many break their Sleep and fall into Discontent and Vexation because they cannot be advanced What waiting at Court What cringing what bowing to Great Men What running to this Friend and to th' other Friend What Flattery what Dissembling what Compliances are used and all to be Great Behold We can tell you a way to be Great greater than Caesar or Pompey or Alexander greater than all the Kings or Rulers of the Earth Great Where Not at Court not in the Camp or Army Not in Church-Dignities or Preferments but great in the Kingdom of Heaven And is not the Kingdom of Heaven a more lofty and more spacious Empire than the whole Roman Monarchy in all its greatest Extent and Glory It 's true we cannot shew you this Kingdom we cannot make it visible to your Eyes but we can tell you that St. Paul saw it and Christ did enter into it and he that hath power to dispose of all the Glories of it hath sent us to tell you That you may be great and he 'll make you so great as Angels great as the Worthies of God greater than Kings greater than all the Princes of the Earth greater than all the proud things which make so great a noise in the World now and all this if you will close with his Desires and both do and teach the Commandments Christ recommends to in his famous Sermon Little they may seem and contemptible they may appear in the Eyes of the Men that have their portion in this Life But as little as they may seem to be your Conscientious and Impartial Respect to them all to the least as well as to the greatest shall exalt you exalt you far above all the Glory and Splendor of this World raise you from the Dunghil take you out of the Dust and set you with Princes even with the Princes of God's People If you are great already this shall make you greater Lay up therefore these Commandments in your Hearts and in your Souls bind them for a Sign upon your Hands let them be as Frontlets between your Eyes teach them your Children speak of them when you sit in your Houses and when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up Assure all those you Converse with that these Commandments are Life and Peace and Rational and Equitable and Just and Necessary and Health to the Soul Foretasts of Happiness and Prefaces to an endless Glory Thus do and thus teach Teach by your Discourses teach by your Actions teach by your Example So Noah taught the unbelieving World by building an Ark to the saving of his House to save themselves from the Wrath to come So do you and build upon the Word of the Son of God That you shall be great in the Kingdom of Heaven SERMON XXI St. Matt. Ch. v. Ver. 20. For I say unto you That except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven A Preface or Introduction will be needless It 's enough that these Words are part of Christ's Famous Sermon on the Mount The Method I shall observe in handling them shall be this following to Enquire and Consider I. Who these Scribes and Pharisees were II. What their Righteousness was and wherein it consisted III. How and in what our Righteousness is to exceed their Righteousness IV. The danger if we do not ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I. Who these Scribes and Pharisees were 1. The Pharisees You
Family and Country and Religion with them insomuch that they thought there lay no Obligation upon them to be so much as Civil and do the common Offices of Humanity to a Samaritan or a Heathen no not so much as to shew him the way to a Town or to a Well of Water if he was dry or spent with Thirst. 2. From this narrow signification of the word Neighbour they flatter'd themselves that if a Man had wrong'd or done them an Injury they were not oblig'd to love him or that they might lawfully hate him because he was no Friend no Neighbour no fit Person to be call'd so and that they stretcht this even to Men of their own Religion is evident from v. 46 of this Chapter and their ordinary Practice 3. Because God had order'd their Forefathers to destroy the seven Nations of the Land of Canaan and to root out the Memory of Amalek from under Heaven Deut. xxv 19 They inferr'd that they might lawfully hate all Nations that were not of their Religion a strange Inference this for though God made them the Executioners of his Wrath and Indignation and intended them as Instruments whereby he meant to punish and remove those wicked Men yet from thence it follow'd not that they were to hate them in ordinary Converse or as they had occasion to meet them accidentally or about business In a just publick War they were order'd to destroy them and not as they appear'd in a private Capacity nor was their Order to destroy them in a publick War a sufficient Warrant for them to hate them at other times no more than an Executioner is bound to hate the Person he hangs up or Beheads or Executes by order of the Magistrate no more than a Soldier who Fights in the Field and kills a publick Enemy must needs be suppos'd to hate the Person he kills because he only executes the Command of his General Yet such ill Logicians they were that from hence they inferr'd 1. That all Persons who were not of their Religion were their Enemies 2. That they might lawfully hate them and do those things against them if they had a fair opportunity and could do it safely whereby People commonly express their hatred Thus the Pharisees taught them from Tradition and these were the Men even the ancient Masters of Tradition from which the Pharisees deriv'd their Pedigree who perverted this Precept of loving their Neighbour and by whom it was said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy A Maxim very agreeable to corrupt Nature And the II. Thing I am to treat of Its agreeableness to Humane Nature appears 1. From hence because corrupt Nature loves its ease it hates to be restrain'd And this Maxim is so far from confining it that it gives it Elbow-room and leave to follow its course and natural inclination Take a Person abstracted from the Sanctifying Grace of God and that 's a Stranger to the transforming work of God's Spirit if he may have his Will thus he will act i. e. Love his Friend and hate his Enemy This is that he would have and there the byass runs Here is no need of any Self-denial or swimming against the Stream no need of great Consideration or Deliberation or deep Thoughts it is as natural to an unregenerate Man as sucking is to a Child Other things he cannot learn without taking Pains such as Riding Fencing Painting Reading Writing c. but this he learns without a Teacher without going to School without Breeding without the trouble of an Academy as easily as he doth Aversion from Goodness and backwardness to Vertue and gratifying his brutish Appetite In a word This loving his Friend and hating an Enemy is no painful work and therefore very agreeable to corrupt Nature 2. With this Principle a Carnal Man may justifie all the ill Nature he exercises in Converse and all the ill Offices he doth to his Neighbour he may excuse with this That he loves his Friend and hates his Enemy Cain's angry Looks and Joab's secret Grudges and Absalom's Malice and Judas's Envy and the Pharisees Spleen may all shelter themselves under this cover With this Maxim the vain Man can baffle all the checks of an unruly Conscience put by its Importunities stop its Mouth dash its Terrors and silence its loud Cries and all this is very agreeable to corrupt Nature and the Person who teaches such pernicious Doctrines must needs be very welcome to wicked Men and his words as a lovely Song of him that hath a pleasant Voice and that can play well upon an Instrument But how irrational this Principle is how contrary to the Rules of Reason and the design of Christianity as it deserves Enquiry so it is the III. Particular I am to speak of And here 1. Reason tells us that Man stands in such Relations one Man to another Relations imparting Love and Amity and Kindness that hating even of an Enemy is inconsistent with those Relations No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh this is an indubitable Principle of Reason And now let the Enemy we have be never so inveterate never so Malicious or Injurious still he carries the same Flesh and Blood about him that we do The same Father made him even God blessed for evermore We are Brethren and God created us both after his own Image The same God maintains feeds and supports him that keeps our Souls in Life and though his hostile Acts may be very great yet still this Consideration will oblige us not to hate him Not to mention that Reason bids us preferr the Interest of the Soul before that of the Flesh. And it 's evident that by the Enmity of others our Souls are signal Gainers as they have an opportunity to exercise the noblest Vertue which is Self-conquest Caesar said Tully uses to forget nothing but Injuries and Aristotle makes it the Character of a magnanimous Man and it was well observ'd of that Religious Man in the Lives of the Fathers That an Enemy doth us a greater kindness than our Friends and our Souls thrive best when we have store of Enemies 2. The design of Christianity is to raise to polish and to refine our Natures and to make us like God and consequently hating an Enemy must be contrary to this Design for it doth not only keep our Natures in a mean pitiful base and groveling Condition but makes us very unlike God who lets his Sun shine upon the Just and Unjust and his Rain drop upon the Pastures of the good and bad It 's true God doth punish his Enemies but not to mention that even this Punishment is an act of Charity as it is an endeavour to reclaim them from the Errors of their Ways this he doth not till all other means prove fruitless and ineffectual However to be sure in this Life on this side Hell in the midst of the execution of his Wrath and Vengeance he heaps innumerable Mercies upon them and that 's sufficient