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A52426
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Practical discourses upon several divine subjects written by John Norris.
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Norris, John, 1657-1711.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing N1257; ESTC R26881
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131,759
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372
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born away before us We have indeed in our Eye a much Nobler Mark but we want a Steddy Hand Our End is better than theirs but our Management is not so good And what a shame is it for us that have proposed a Greater and a Better End and are also more Instructed in the Choice of Means which are pointed out and described to us by God himself to be yet so far out-witted by those of Lower Aims and who are fain to Study and Contrive their own Means and whose Wisdom after all is Foolishness with God! And yet thus it is the Devil's Scholars are better Proficients than Christ's Disciples the Ark falls before Dagon and Light is outshone by Darkness What therefore remains but that since we will not Learn in Christ's we should be sent to the Devil's School and imitate the Politicks of the Dark Kingdom and of the Children of this World Imitate them I say not in the Choice of the End which indeed is very Poor and Low but in that Wisdom Diligence and Care wherewith they prosecute it and be as Wise at least unto Salvation as they are to Destruction Go to the Aunt thou Sluggard says Solomon consider her Ways and be Wise. And may I not in like manner bespeak the greatest part even of Piously disposed Christians Go to the Men of the World and learn Wisdom Let us then be as Wise as these Serpents and since we have Chosen the Better Part and are so nigh to the Kingdom of God let us not for the want of One thing miss of being compleatly Wise and Happy But as we have made a good Choice let us prosecute it with equal Prudence So will our Wisdom be Whole and Intire Uniform and Consistent Blameless and Irreprehensible in a Word that Wisdom which shall be Justified of all her Children A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Righteous and Vnrighteous Judgment John 7. 24. Judge not according to the Appearance but judge Righteous Judgment THAT which the great Descartes makes necessary to a Philosopher is indeed no less so to a Christian to strip and devest himself of all Prejudices and Partialities to unravel all his former Sentiments to unthink all his Pre-conceived Opinions and so reduce his Soul to the natural Simplicity of a Blank Table and to the Indifferency of an even and well-poised Ballance For as it matters much in reference to our Actions what our Sentiments and Judgments of things are because we always act as at that present instant we think so does it to the Regularity and Uprightness of our Judgments what the Temper and Disposition of our Mind is The Wise Ben-Sirach has long since observed that Wisdom will not enter into a Polluted Spirit and St. Paul that the Animal Man perceives not the things of God There are it seems some Moral as well as Natural Dispositions of the Man that make the Soul unfit for Knowledge and till these Scales fall off from her Eyes she cannot see But the Pythagoreans went higher and taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they must separate and unwind themselves even from their very Bodies if they would be good Philosophers This in a Qualified and Corrected Sense is true for the Body is the great Impediment and Disadvantage of the Soul and therefore all Bodily Passions and Inclinations as well as Intellectual Habits and Appetites must be put to Silence in the still and Attentive Search and Inquiry after Truth But to the present purpose it will be enough to remark that Prejudices and Prepossessions as well as vitious Habits a cross Constitution and a gross Texture of Blood and Spirits do Cloud and Pervert the Understanding and take away the Key of Knowledge This is that Veil which as the Apostle complains remain'd untaken away upon the Jews in the Reading of the Old Testament and which hindered them from understanding it and made them stand out in defiance against all the Divine Precepts and Convincing Works of the Son of God whose Divinity through this Veil of Prejudice they could not discern It was a greater hindrance to them in distinguishing the Character of his Person than the Veil of his own Flesh was or the Mystery of the Incarnation This therefore must be removed by the Christian as well as by the Philosopher and the Soul must be Purged before it can be Enlightened Freed from Prejudices and false Appearances before it can be from Errors and Misapprehensions Without this Purity of Heart there will be so little Clearness of Head that let our Parts stand upon never so great Advantages either of Art or of Nature we shall neither be right in our Determinations of things nor just in our Censure of Persons neither Wise in our Discourses nor Righteous in our Sentences we shall neither maintain Truth nor Charity All which is briefly Intimated and summarily Contained in this Admonition of our Saviour to the prejudiced and partially affected Jews Judge not according to the Appearance but judge Righteous Judgment In Discoursing upon which Words I shall First of all Inquire what it is in general to judge according to Appearance Secondly Whether all judging according to Appearance be opposed to judging Righteous Judgment and consequently here forbidden Thirdly If all be not which it is that is so Lastly I shall shew the great Reasonableness and Necessity of the Precept and Conclude I begin with the first Inquiry what it is in general to Judge according to Appearance Now this will be best known by Considering the import of the Terms severally By Judging therefore is properly understood that action of the Mind which either joins the Attribute with the Subject or separates it from it Or to speak less Artificially and more to Common Apprehension which either Affirms or Denies one thing of another By Appearance I understand the Representation of the Object to the Mind with its Motives and Arguments true or false in order either to Assent or Dissent So that to Judge according to Appearance is in other Words to Affirm or Deny one thing of another upon the representation of certain Arguments or Motives to Believe Think or to be Assured that a thing is so or so uppon such and such Grounds and so it takes in the Three-fold kind of Assent and that in all the variety of Degree Faith Opinion and Science with this only difference between them that whereas Faith and Opinion do not necessarily suppose a Firm Foundation but are indifferent to due and undue Appearances for a Man may believe and think upon false as well as upon good Grounds Science does always suppose a due and regular Appearance of the Object and cannot proceed but upon sufficient Grounds And this I think sufficient in Answer to the First Question I proceed therefore to inquire Secondly whether all Judging according to Appearance be opposed to judging Righteous Judgment and consequently here forbidden But we need not inquire long about it for 't is most certain
serve me with an Answer to an Objection wherein it is pretended that Men are the worse for having so much Application made to them for their Recovery that they suffer in their Morals by being over-tutour'd as some Men do in their Health by being over-Physick'd The ground of which Objection proceeds I suppose upon this Observation that when there are the greatest helps and advantages to goodness the Age is then always worst The Observation I confess is too true but the Consequence that is made from it may I conceive be taken off by supposing that this comes to pass by the special Assignment of God's Providence reserving the best assistances against the worst times and not by any natural connexion that is between the things themselves in order to such a Juncture Upon these Considerations I am incouraged to send these Discourses abroad having this only to say concerning them that as the Subjects of them are of extraordinary importance so I think they do not fall very much beneath what they undertake for in their several Titles that they consist of very weighty and serious matter and are indifferently Correct as to their Composition that they speak both to the Reason and to the Affection of the Reader and are in good measure fitted both to Convince and to Perswade In short that they may be read with a great deal of Profit and not without some Entertainment The former is the more considerable end and 't is what I mainly aim at I wish the Reader may do the same and when both of us concur in so laudable an End 't is to be hoped the Blessing of God will not be wanting and I pray God it may not J. Norris The General CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME A Discourse concerning Worldly and Divine Wisdom upon Luke 16. 8. A Discourse concerning Righteous and Unrighteous Judgment upon John 7. 24. A Discourse concerning Religious Singularity upon Rom. 12. 2. A Discourse concerning the Excellency of Praise and Thanksgiving upon Psal. 50. 23. The Importance of a Religious Life considered from the happy Conclusion of it upon Psal. 37. 38. A Discourse concerning Heavenly-Mindedness upon Phil. 3. 20. A Discourse of Submission to Divine Providence upon John 18. 11. A Discourse concerning the Folly of Covetousness upon Luke 12. 20. A Discourse concerning the Consideration of God and of the Divine Presence upon Psal. 16. 9. A Discourse concerning doing God's Will on Earth as it is in Heaven upon Mat. 6. 10. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Worldly and Divine Wisdom Luke 16. 8. The Children of this World are in their Generation Wiser than the Children of Light Of all the infinite Follies incident to Mankind there is none that may more justly imploy both our Pity and our Admiration than an Ill-timed Misplaced and Disproportionate Wisdom The thorough Fool is not nigh so great a Prodigy as the Half-wise Man nor is a stark uniform Ignorance so mysterious and unaccountable as an uneven misconducted Prudence Of this latter we may conceive Two sorts either a proposal of a wrong End or an undue prosecution of a right one In the sormer the Man is supposed to be right enough in his Means but to be wrong in his End in the latter he is supposed to be as right in his End but to be wrong in his Means In the former we consider the Man as Wife in little things and a Fool in great concerns Wife where Wisdom might be spared and a Fool where 't is highly necessary In the latter we consider him as not so wise in great things as either himself or another is in little things And this I take to be a stranger sort of Folly than the former for here the Man is supposed to be so wise as to have aim'd at the true Mark and to have fixed upon a right End but yet withal at the same time to be so much a Fool as not to prosecute this right End as prudently and carefully as the other does a wrong one which truly is a very odd Combination 'T is a great Folly not to propose a good End and he that fails in this part can never expect to have any thing orderly and regular in the whole course of his Life Such a Man if he deserve that Name lives Backward and the longer he lives and the more active and busie he is the more he is led out of his way and the further he is from his Journey 's End A Man were better have no Mark before him but live at Rovers without any End or Design at all than to propose an End to himself that is not good The former indeed seems to be more sottish and stupid and to have less of Soul and Thought in it but the latter if I mistake not is more dangerous and mischievous and will lead a Man into more fatal Miscarriages But though it be so great a Folly not to propose a good End yet it seems a much Stranger Folly not to prosecute it when you have proposed it and when one has attained so far not to proceed further The Reason may be obvious why a Man does not propose a good End for he may want clearness of Understanding to discern which is so But he that has proposed aright shews by his very doing so that he does not want that The rightness of his Aim sufficiently argues the goodness of his Eye-sight and why then he should not prosecute his well-chosen End is somewhat unaccountable And besides the greatness and the goodness of the End has a natural and genuin efficacy both to quicken and to regulate the execution of it and the more considerable the End 18 the more it has of this Influence As the Means themselves do take their measure from the End so does the execution of them too and the more weighty and concerning is the End proposed the more pressing and urging is the engagement that lies upon the Proposer both to chuse fit and proper Means for the compassing it and to be diligent in the use and application of them when chosen So that whether we regard that rational Light and discernment of Mind which he discovers himself to be Master of that proposes a right End or that aid and assistance which is communicated to him from the weight and moment of the End it self which cannot but help on its own prosecution the Folly of not prosecuting a well-proposed End will appear to be of all others the most strange and amazing And yet this is that Folly which is more or less chargeable upon the Wisest of Men those who have duly considered and taken a just measure both of themselves and of the World without them that have well examined and sifted out the capacities of their Nature and the utter insufficiency of all created Good to fill those Capacities those that have duly prized and valued the whole Inventory of this Worlds Goods and have fixed a general Inscription of Vanity upon them all and who