Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A49403
|
Religious perfection: or, A third part of the enquiry after happiness. By the author of Practical Christianity; Enquiry after happiness. Part 3.
|
Lucas, Richard, 1648-1715.
|
1696
(1696)
|
Wing L3414; ESTC R200631
|
216,575
|
570
|
4thly If the Duties of Religion be very troublesome and uneasie to a Man we may from hence conclude that he is not Perfect For though the Beginning of Wisdom and Vertue be generally harsh and severe to the Fool and Sinner yet to him that has Conquered the Yoke of Christ is easie and his Burden light to him that is filled with the Love of God his Commandments are not grievous hence is that observation of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 4.17 18. For at the first she will walk with him by crooked ways and bring fear and dread upon him and torment him with her discipline until she may trust his Soul and try him by her Laws then will she return the straight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets The reason of this Assertion is palpable it is the nature of an Habit to render difficult Things easie harsh Things pleasant to fix a floating and uncertain Humour to Nurse and Ripen a weak and tender Disposition into Nature And 't is as reasonable to expect these effects in Religious as in any other sorts of Habits Lastly He who does not find Religion full of Pleasure who does not Glory in God and rejoyce in our Lord Jesus he who is not filled with an humble Assurance of the Divine Favour and a Joyful expectation of Immortality and Glory does yet want something he is yet defective with respect either to the brightness of Illumination the Absoluteness of Liberty or the Ardor of Love he may be a Good Man and have gone a great way in his Christian Race but there is some thing still behind to Compleat and Perfect him some Error or other creates him groundless Scruples some Incumbrance or Impediment or other whether an Infelicity of Temper or the Incommodiousness of his Circumstances or a little too warm an Application towards something of the World retards his Vigour and abates his Affections I have now finished all that I can think necessary to form a general Idea of Religious Perfection For I have not only given a plain Definition or Description of it and Confirm'd and Fortified that Description by Reason and Scripture and the currant Sense of all Sides and Parties but have also by various Inferences deduc'd from the General Notion of Perfection precluded all groundless Pretensions to it and enabled Men to see how far they are removed and distant from it or how near they approach it The next thing I am to do according to the Method I have proposed is to consider the Fruits and Advantages of Perfection A consideration which will furnish us with many great and I hope effectual Incitements or Motives to it and demonstrate its Subservencie to our Happiness CHAP. IV. A General Account of the Blessed Effects of Religious Perfection THE Glorious and Delightful Fruits of Religious Perfection may be reduc'd to these four Heads First It advances the Honour of the True and Living God and of his Son Jesus in the World Secondly It promotes the Good of Mankind Thirdly It produces in the Perfect Man a full Assurance of Eternal Happiness and Glory Fourthly It puts him in Possession of true Happiness in this Life Of the two former I shall say nothing here designing to insist upon them more particularly In the following Section under the Head of Zeal where I shall be oblig'd by my Method to consider the Fruit of it only I cannot here forbear Remarking That Perfection while it promotes the Honour of God and the Good of Man does at the same time promote our own Happiness too since it must on this account most effectually recommend us to the Love of the One and the Other Them that Honour me saith God I will Honour 1 Sam. 2.30 And our Saviour observes that even Publicans and Sinners love those who love them Matth. 5.46 Accordingly St. Luke tells us of Christ Luk. 2.52 That Jesus increased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man and of those eminently Devout and Charitable Souls Act. 2. that they had favour with all the People so resistless a charm is the beauty and loveliness of Perfect Charity even in the most deprav'd and corrupt Times And what a Blessing now what a Comfort what a Pleasure is it to be the Favorite of God and Man The Third and Fourth I will now discourse of and that the more largely because as to Assurance it is the foundation of that Pleasure which is the richest Ingredient of Human Happiness in this Life And as to our present Happiness which is the fourth Fruit of Perfection it is the very thing for the sake of which I have ingag'd in my present subject And therefore it is very fit that I should render the tendency of Perfection to procure our present Happiness very conspicuous Beginning therefore with Assurance I will assert the Possibility of attaining it in this Life not by embroiling my self in the Brakes of several nice and subtle Speculations with which this subject is over-grown but by laying down in a Practical manner the Grounds on which Assurance depends by which we shall be able at once to discern the truth of the Doctrine of Assurance and its dependance upon Perfection Now Assurance may relate to the time Present or to Come For the Resolution of two Questions gives the Mind a perfect ease about this Matter The first is am I assured that I am at present in a state of Grace The second am I assured that I shall continue so to my Life's end To begin with the first the Answer of this Enquiry depends on three Grounds First A Divine Revelation which declares in General who shall be Saved namely They who Believe and Repent Nor does any Sect doubt but that Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as St. Paul speaks are the Indispensable Conditions of Life 'T is true the Notion of Repentance is miserably perverted by some and that of Faith by others But what remedy is there against the Lusts and Passions of Men The Scripture does not only require Repentance and Faith but it explains and describes the Nature of Both by such Conspicuous and Infallible Characters that no Man can be Mistaken in these two Points but his Error must be owing to some Criminal Prejudices or Inclinations that Byass and pervert him Good Men have ever been agreed in these Matters And Catholick Tradition is no where more uncontroulable then here the General Doctrine of all Ages hath been and in this still is that by Repentance we are to understand a New Nature and New Life And by Faith when distinguished from Repentance as it sometimes is in Scripture a Reliance upon the Mercy of God through the Merits and Intercession of Jesus and Atonement of his Blood Heaven lies open to all that perform these Conditions every Page of the Gospel attest this this is the Substance of Christ's Commission to his Apostles that they should Preach Repentance and Remission of
good Soldier of Christ Jesus who firmly believes that He is now a Spectator and will very suddenly come to be a Judge and Rewarder of his sufferings How natural is it to run with Patience the Race that is set before us to him who has an Eternal Joy an Eternal Crown alway in his Eye And if a Life to come can make a Man rejoyce even in suffering Evil how much more in doing Good If it enable him to Conquer in the day of the Churches Tryal and Affliction how much more will it enable him to abound in all Vertues in the day of its Peace and Prosperity How freely will a Man give to the distressed Members of Christ who believes that he sees Christ himself standing by and receiving it as it were by their Hands and placing it to his own account to be repaid a thousand-fold in the great day of the Lord How easily will a Man allay the storms of Passion and cast away the weapon of Revenge and Anger with Indignation against himself if his Faith do but present him often with a view of that Canaan which the Meek in Heart shall inherit for ever How Importunately will a Man pray for the Pardon of Sin whose Sense whose Soul whose Imagination is struck with a dread of being for ever divided from God and excluded from the Joys and Vertues of the Blessed How fervently will a Man pray for the Spirit of God for the Increase of Grace whose Thoughts are daily swallowed up with the Contemplation of an Eternity and whose Mind is as fully possess'd of the certainty and the Glory of another World as of the emptiness and vanity of this How natural finally will it be to be poor in Spirit and to delight in all the Offices of an unfeigned Humility to that Man who has the Image of Jesus washing the feet of his Disciples and a little after Ascending up into Heaven alway before him But I know it will be here Objected we discern not this Efficacy you attribute to this Motive The Doctrine of another Life is the great Article of the Christian Faith and it is every where Preached throughout Christendom and yet Men generally seem to have as much fondness for this World as they could were there no other They practise no Vertues but such as are Profitable and Fashionable or none any further than they are so To this I answer though most act thus there are many I hope very many who do otherwise and that all in general do not proceeds from want either of due Consideration or firm Belief of this Doctrine of another Life First from not Considerating it as we should 'T is the greatest disadvantage of the Objects of Faith compared with those of Sense that they are distant and invisible He therefore that will be Perfect that will derive any Strength and Vertue from this Motive must supply this distance by devout and daily Contemplation he must fetch the remore objects of Faith home to him he must render them as it were present he must see and feel them by the strength of Faith and the force of Meditation which if he do then will his Faith certainly prove a vital and victorious Principle then will no Pleasure in this World be able to combate the assured Hopes of an Heaven nor any worldly Evil or difficulty sustained for Vertue be able to confront the Terrors of an Hell A Second Reason why this Motive doth not Operate as it should is want of Faith We doubt we waver we stagger or take things upon trust assenting very slightly and superficially to the Doctrine of another Life and looking upon good Works rather as not injurious to this World then serviceable to a better And then 't is no more wonder that the unbelieving Christian does not enter into Perfection and Rest than that the unbelieving Jew did not 'T is no more wonder if the word of Life do not profit the Christian when not believed by him then if it do not profit a Pagan who has never heard of it And what is here said of Infidelity is in its measure and proportion true when applyed to a weak and imperfect Faith He therefore that will be Perfect must daily pray Lord I Believe help thou mine unbelief He must daily Consider the Grounds on which the Faith and Hope of a Christian stand the express declarations of the Divine Will concerning the future Immortality and Glory of the Children of God the demonstrastration of this contained in the Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead and his Ascension and Session at the Right Hand of God And to this he may add the Love of God the Merits of Jesus and the State and Fortune of Vertue in this World From all which one may be able to infer the undoubted certainty of another World The Sum of all amounts to this whoever will be Perfect must daily I should I think have said almost hourly ponder the blessedness that attends Perfection in another Life he must ponder it seriously that he may be throughly perswaded of it he must ponder it often that the Notions of it may be fresh and lively in his Soul SECT II. Of the several Parts of Perfection WHat the several Parts of Religious Perfection are will be easily discerned by a very slight Reflection either on the Nature of Man or the general Notion of Perfection already laid down If we consider Man whose Perfection I am treating of as it is plain that he is made up of Soul and Body so 't is as plain that Moral Perfection relates to the Soul as the chief subject of it and to the Body no otherwise then as the Instrument of that Righteousness which is planted in the Soul Now in the Soul of Man we find these three things Vnderstanding Will and Affections In the Improvement and Accomplishment of which Human Perfection must consequently consist And if we enquire wherein this Improvement or Accomplishment lies 't is a Truth so obvious that it will not need any proof that Illumination is the Perfection of the Vnderstanding Liberty of the Will and Zeal of the Affections If in the next place we reflect upon the Description I have before given of Perfection nothing is more evident than that to constitute a firm Habit of Righteousness three things are necessary 1. The Knowledge of our Duty and our Obligations to it 2. The Subduing our Lusts and Passions that we may be enabled to perform it Lastly not only a free but warm and vigorous Prosecution of it In the first of these consists Illumination in the second Liberty and in the third Zeal Upon the whole then 't is evident both from the Nature of Perfection and of Man that I am now to treat in order of these three things Illumination Liberty and Zeal as so many Essential Parts of Religious Perfection Nor must I stop here but must to those three unavoidably add Humility For whether we consider the Sins of the