Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A64370
|
A sermon concerning holy resolution preached before the King at Kensington, December 30th, 1694 / by ... Thomas Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Elect.
|
Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.
|
1695
(1695)
|
Wing T712; ESTC R20714
|
9,084
|
34
|
of Balaam but let it proceed out of a more righteous Heart If any one would give me his House full of Silver and Gold I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord my God to do less or more With Caleb and Joshua follow the Lord wholly and you will enter into a better Land of Promise than they at first did Engage your Hearts to approach unto the Lord and he will draw nigh unto you and make what you do to prosper In purposing on this manner be pleased to observe these few Directions First When Difficulties in Religion discourage you oppose Necessity to them saying Let come on it what will we must serve God we must save our Souls It must be confessed that when those who have been enchanted with sinful Pleasures begin to think of reforming themselves there is a great strife betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit and they are ready to think they cannot by any means get the Victory and they cry out with Anxiety and say Men and Brethren what shall we do What should they do Doubtless they should encourage themselves in God who is greater than those who are against them and will come in to their Aid if they pray to him and repeat their Holy Vows in sincerity of Heart It cannot be denied but that the first Steps in our Ascent towards Christian Perfection are very laborious but in due time we shall make good Progress if we faint not S. Paul when at first he found his Mind strugling betwixt Grace and Nature cried out as a Man in great distress who shall deliver me from the body of this Death Yet at length the Grace of God did carry his Resolution to such a Degree of Power that he chang'd his Complaint into the Triumph of these Words I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Secondly In all Temptations maintain such a Presence of Mind as may enable you to reflect upon the Resolutions which you have formerly taken up against them Commune with your own Hearts after this manner Is not this the very Evil which upon due Consideration we have so often vow'd to forsake How can we thus contradict our selves How shall we do this great Wickedness and sin against our Conscience our Baptismal Engagement our Righteous Purposes and our Holy Just God who keepeth his Promise for ever Thirdly When you have taken a Resolution to lead a more Christian Life abstain at least for a time from the familiar Conversation of such who account it a Crime not to be dissolute and endeavour by mockery to discourage all Seriousness in Religion The prophane and scurrilous Breath of such Men who are of a Party for Vice may drive back again that Disease which was coming forth by Confession and Repentance Fourthly Think frequently of the solemn Vow Promise and Profession which you made in Baptism and renew it often in the Holy Communion By it all worthy Partakers are strengthned and refresh'd Lastly Say not All this we will do though not now yet in a convenient Season It may be that convenient Season will never come for who knows what a Day may bring forth How foolish are such and ignorant who say in effect We resolve to be good but not till it be more difficult to be so not till Custom in Sin hath hardned our Hearts and stiffned our Necks into Inflexibility O ye Sons of Men how long will ye love Vanity and seek after Leasing Imitate rather Holy David and attend to his Words in the 119th Psalm I thought on my Ways and turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments I have said or fully determined that I would keep thy Words Finally Let us pray unto Almighty God in some such Words as these Lord we believe Lord help our weak Belief Lord we resolve Lord strengthen our Holy Resolutions And as by thy Grace preventing us thou dost put into our Hearts good Desires and Purposes so by thy continual Help make us able to bring the same to good Effect through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE END Deut. 17. 18 19. Psal. 132. 1. c. 1 S. Pet. 4. Act. 18. 15. 1 Kings 18. 21. Jerem. 2. 11. Prov. 7. 7 21 22. Acts. 26. 28 29. Jer. 18. 12. c. 44. v. 17. Nehem. 4. 6. Rom. 7. 19. 1 Tim. 6. 9. Answer * Plin. lib. 10. Ep. 97. Pervieam certè inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri non dubitari Acts 11. 25. a Andron Rhod. 1. 6. c. 2. p. 151. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 24. 15. Numb 2. 18. Jer. 30. 31. Rom. 7. 24. Phiiip 4. 13. Psal. 119. 59 60 57.
A SERMON Concerning Holy Resolution Preached before the KING At KENSINGTON December 30 th 1694. By his Grace THOMAS Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Elect. Published by his Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCXCV A SERMON PREACHED Before the KING at Kensington Psalm 119. 106. Old Translation I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments New Translation I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments THESE are the Words of King David and the Saying is the more remarkable by reason of the Condition of the Speaker For the more Power Opportunity Temptation there is to break God's Commandments the greater is the Vertue of religiously observing them This Prince was a Debtor to the Law as one who had enter'd into Covenant with the God of Israel he renew'd this obligation as often as by the hand of the Sacrificer he presented an Offering to him When he came to the Throne he understood no doubt from the Book of God to which he was no Stranger that it was his Duty to write out a Copy of God's Law and to keep it by him and to read in it at convenient Seasons all the days of his life in order to his better observing the Contents of it He was in many Troubles and those Troubles both Publick and Private were also exceeding great and he made many Solemn Promises to that God who could alone support comfort and deliver him and by these he strengthned his Obedience Of such Holy Resolutions he hath given some account in the Words of the Text Saying I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep tby righteous Judgments In this Pious Declaration are contained Four things well worthy our notice First Herein is taken for granted a possibility of keeping the Law of God That is according to the measures of a sincere Man and by the assistance of God's Grace for without him we can do nothing David was a Man of better Understanding then to take an impossibility upon him and of greater Piety then to assume to himself a Power of doing that which was righteous and in its nature possible without the help of his God Secondly We have here supposed the eternal Equity of God's Commands which are called Righteous Judgments they being the Results not of the Arbitrariness but the Counsel of his Will Thirdly Here is further suggested the Rule by which Wise and Pious Men go in making Vows They do not rashly oblige themselves to things either doubtful or unlawful or if lawful inexpedient But they proceed upon sure Grounds vowing and resolving to perform such things as God himself has enjoyned in his Righteous Judgments or Statutes Fourthly The Royal Psalmist does here expressly set forth a most serious and fixed Resolution of obeying these Possible these just and reasonable Laws of that God whose Wisdom and Clemency are equal to his Power I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments I have chosen the last of these four Points for my present Subject designing to Discourse by God's assistance concerning Holy RESOLUTION and the strengthening of our selves by it in our religious Duty And In the First place I shall inquire into the Nature of Resolution Then Secondly I shall shew how useful how necessary a steadfast Holy Purpose is in the course of our Lives Thirdly I shall conclude with a Hearty Exhortation to this Practice endeavouring so to move you to it that you being true to your Religious Obligations may finally obtain the Fruit of the exceeding great and precious Promises of that God and that Sun of Righteousness with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning First For the Nature of Resolution it may be describ'd as an Act or Habit of the Mind as determined with strength vigour and steddiness towards some Object concerning which it was formerly doubtful or towards which it was either indifferent or averse It is the Application of the Will to Business in the Opinion of some Moralists It is the Bent of the Mind which setteth on work the other Powers It is as it were the Seal of the inclination St. Peter seems to describe it as the fortifying of the Soul in these Words forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh A R M your selves likewise with the same mind or with the like force of Holy Resolution Resolution considered in it self is neither Good nor Evil but it is either according to the matter and the degree of it It is of a like Nature with Zeal which so long as it is exercis'd in a good matter and with due temper is very commendable and useful but in a bad Cause it is a most pernicious Instrument and like Fire in an undue place the more it rageth it is the more destructive The Resolution which I am to recommend hath Religion for its Object and Discretion for its Temper To be premptory in a Trifle is great folly and weakness To be resolute in any Brutal way is high Impiety To be moved by the Reason of the Case is just Compliance To be stedfast and unmoveable in our Duty to God and others and our selves is Resolution truly and properly so called To such a sort of Resolution there are several Distempers in the Mind Will and Affections which oppose themselves The First is Slightness Carelesness and Indifferency of Temper which causeth so little regard to be had to Persons or Things even those of the greatest moment that it neither setteth the Heart upon them or against them Such was the disposition of Gallio the Deputy of Achaia Though He was a Man in Authority and acquainted with the Riot of which the Greeks were guilty in the Case of Softhenes yet he CARED for none of these Things The Second is Haesitancie and doubtfulness of Mind a kind of halting betwixt God and Baal a Spirit not wrought up to that pitch of Resolution to which the Prophet Elijah would have the Purpose to rise in his Expostulation with the double minded Men of his Time how long halt ye between Two Opinions If the Lord be God follow him But if Baal then follow him A Third Opposite is Fickleness and Instability an humour which abounds where the Imagination governs That being pleas'd not so much with Things which are really good as with those which are new Thus some of the Israelites affected novelty in Worship more than the Heathen themselves This mov'd the Prophet to upbraid them on this manner hath a Nation changed their Gods which are yet no Gods but my People have chang'd their GLORY for that which doth not profit A Fourth Distemper is Easiness of Disposition and good Nature commonly indeed but very falsly so called The Persons whom God hath formed out of this softer Clay go on tolerably well when they are left to Themselves but they are soon drawn aside