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A49187
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A practical discourse concerning repentance and the nature of the Christian religion. By A. Lortie, rector of Barton, near Nottingham. Imprimatur, Oct. ult. 1692. Guil. Lancaster, R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris.
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Lortie, André, d. 1706.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing L3078; ESTC R218635
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34,929
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144
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at by all God's Dispensations Let us always remember then to make it the end of our Faith Our Saviour tells us The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field the which when a man has found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he has and buyeth that field Matth. 13.44 That is they that will purchase the Kingdom of Heaven must part with all their darling Sins and all their beloved Lusts Christianity is not to be attain'd unto any otherwise O then how many dream of Divine Treasures and Kingdoms fancy they have found the Pearl of great Price and as we say Build Castles in the Air and are still errant Beggars as to the concerns of the everlasting Riches and in the sight of God How many are there in the World call themselves Christians and have nothing at all of it but just the Name They have nothing to shew for their Title to the Kingdom of Heaven but their own false and impudent Claim without any Grounds But we may as well call our selves Jews and Mahometans when we do not observe the Laws of Moses or of the Alcoran as call our selves Christians when we do not live according to the Precepts of the Gospel would you therefore know whether you are Christians Compare your Lives with the Laws of Christianity Our Saviour hath commanded us to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven Matt. 5.16 And in the following Verses he adds a warning very necessary to this present Generation Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the propbets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven 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 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment And whosoever shall say to his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire Ye have heard that it was said Thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and if thy right hand offend thee cut it off It is better for thee that one of thy members should perish than that thy whole body should be cast into Hell Swear not at all Love your enemies Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect All these we find in the 5th Chapter of St. Matt. and in the 11th of the same Gospel at the 29th Verse Take my yoke upon you says our blessed Saviour and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart We are infinitely unreasonable if we fancy that to be a Christian it is sufficient to own Christ by an outward Profession without actual Obedience to all his Commands He declares expressly Matt. 7.21 That 't is not every one that says unto him Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of God Yet after all this we have but too much reason still to complain and cry out with the Psalmist Psal 82.5 They will not be learned nor understand but walk on still in darkness all the foundations of the earth are out of course Still Men will needs fancy themselves Christians that is members of the kingdom of Heaven when they are evidently the Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness How many are there that commit Sin and yet pretend that they are born of God against the positive Declaration of the Apostle St. John 1 Joh. 3.9 But some will say If none were true Christians but those who keep the Commandments of God and do not commit sin who then can be a Christian I answer in the words of our blessed Saviour Matt. 7.14 Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Few God knows few they are especially in these our days that are true Christians indeed tho' there be many that call themselves by that holy Name But the mischief is the greatest part of them who name the Name of Christ depart not from iniquity and therefore the greatest part of them that call themselves Christans shall find by a sad Experience at the great and terrible Day of the Lord that they have no share in Christ Jesus For either we must not believe the Scriptures or we must be sure that all Drunkards Swearers unjust or uncharitable Persons c. are far from being Christians and yet how many such do we find among the Professors of Christianity What more frequent now a days than Wrath Malice and Revenge Fraud Injustice Drunkenness Swearing and all sort of Sin And still if you believe it we are all Protestants that is the purer sort of Christians But how few notwithstanding all this pretended Purity how few are there among us that are truly humble meek and lowly in heart charitable patient and of long suffering How few are there that do not to others what they would not others should do unto them How few do we see that will bear an affront or an injury without resentment and revenge How few can find in their Hearts to forgive their Enemies How few then love their Neighbours that is all other Men as themselves And yet we may be sure that without all this our Pretentions to Christianity are groundless vain and insignificant But is it then impossible to be a Christian No such matter we read of many in the holy Scriptures that they were just in their Generations and perfect in the sight of the Lord as of Noah Gen. 6.9 Job Job 1.1 David 1 Kings 11.34 14.8 Asa 1 Kings 15.11 Josias 2 Kings 22.2 and Zacharias and Elizabeth Luk. 1.6 Which shews that God doth not expect of us a perfect state of Impeccability but a perfect Sincerity I say a perfect Sincerity We must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind Matt. 22.37 And therefore we must obey his Commandments and do his will with all the power of our Soul and all the sincerity of our Mind and sure that is not impossible But never flatter your selves that you have done all you can and that you are sincere as long as yon continue in a wicked course of Life Alas you are then worse then Heathens Don't you believe that God affords
A Practical Discourse Concerning REPENTANCE And the NATURE OF THE Christian Religion By A. LORTIE Rector of BARTON near Nottingham IMPRIMATUR Oct. ult 1692. Guil. Lancaster R.P.D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã Sacris LONDON Printed for Will. Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1693. To My much Honoured Lord and Noble Benefactor The Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in GOD HENRY L d Bishop of LONDON One of the Lords of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. My LORD THE incomparable Goodness and Affability your Lordship useth towards all not excepting the meanest Persons encourageth me humbly to lay at your Lordship's Feet this plain Practical Discourse which as I have had the comfort to understand that they were edified who heard it so I hope it may be of farther use when more leisurely considered and perhaps may serve to give the common sort of People a clearer and more distinct Notion than they usually have of their indispensable Duty and of that wise and holy Religion which they profess The zeal of doing something towards this before I die according to my little Sphere made me desirous to leave this Discourse with my Parishioners It would be indeed an unspeakable satisfaction to me if it prove any advantage to them but chiefly if your Lordship might condescend so far as to accept it as a Token of my most humble and hearty Gratitude instead of what I should but am not able to perform for the great and many Obligations laid upon my Relations and my self in particular for which we shall ever stand indebted to your Lordship My Lord Your Lordship and all the World knows it very well hath not only been ready upon all Occasions to assert and maintain even with the most eminent danger of your Life your Country's most admirable Laws and Reformation but has been a common Father to all the Persecuted of France who were forc'd to flee from their Native Country How many Souls can declare to the World and shall testifie at the Great Day before our blessed Lord and his holy Angels to your Lordship's immortal Glory that they have tasted of no other Bread in this their Distress but that which your Lordship did put into their hands There my Father will stand with his Family in the fore-front of that vast multitude of the Witnesses of your Lordship's unbounded Charity and we shall thereby convince the World that Christianity was not then lost among Men. In the mean while my Lord I submit my self wholly and this little Treatise to your Lordship assuring your Lordship it is meant candidly and purely for God's Glory and the Salvation of Souls proceeding from a sincerely penitent Heart having studied nothing so much as this Subject these several Years in which I have so often been in a state of dying I shall add no more but this That the chiefest Blessing I shall always ask of GOD and my chiefest Happiness the remainder of my Life will be to see God's Glory further'd and your Noble House my Lord and Yourself in particular prosper and flourish to the Honour and Felicity of this Church and Nation I humbly beg your Lordship's Blessing I am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble most Dutiful and most Obliged Servant A. LORTIE A Practical Discourse Concerning REPENTANCE c. JOHN the Baptist came Preaching as we read Mat. 3.1 2. and saying Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand That was the Voice that cried before the Messiah Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight Luk. 3.4 And at the eighth Verse of that Chapter we learn what was to be done in order to that viz. to Repent without any further excuse upon no account whatsoever Repentance indeed is a Duty incumbent upon all Men seeing all have sinned and therefore must certainly be for ever undone except they Repent As the World goes it is a Duty to be insisted upon at all times But if it be specially call'd for at some Seasons more than others it is surely in times of Publick Humiliation when we address our selves to God or he addresses himself to us and whensoever we are call'd to renew our Engagements to Religion All we can do without it is but Hypocrisie and a meer mocking of Almighty God John the Baptist it seems esteem'd it the true and only Preparative for the Christian Religion Repent ye says he for the kingdom of heaven is at hand All Men are therefore highly concern'd to have a right Notion of Repentance otherwise they can never be good Christians I shall endeavour to shew in the following Discourse I. What Repentance is II. What is the Nature of the Christian Dispensation which is call'd the Kingdom of Heaven III. What reason there was to Repent the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand and what reason then there is now we should Repent And IV. I shall represent what manner of Persons are the Subjects of this heavenly Kingdom that we may know assuredly whether we are such or not that if we are we may praise God for it and continue to be so and if we are not we may see what is to be done to become such Then I shall draw some Inferences from the whole First What Repentance is For there are too many in the World take that for Repentance which indeed is no such thing their Hearts being evil and therefore willing to substitute any thing in its room to be excused from it But God is not mocked and their very Consciences were they permitted to speak would cry aloud against them for their unpardonable blindness and folly in mistaking so easily if not wilfully in so clear and plain a matter Some fancy a fence of Sin to be Repentance That is if they are but sensible that they have done what ought not to have been done that they are miserable Sinners and that Sin is a most wretched and odious thing which 't were good never to be guilty of I say if they do but feel themselves sensible of all this then they think they are well enough and are so presumptuous as to hope well of their state tho' they still continue in their sins Others something more modest do not think it sufficient to have a bare fence of sin if withal they do not entertain a hearty sorrow for it But if they do but grieve and weep for their sins they question not but they have made full amends for them altho' they grow never the better but still sin on still complaining and sorrowing for their sins and bemoaning their infirmities But others yet come nearer to the business for to all this they will add vows and resolutions and endeavours They are not only sensible that they have done those things which they ought not to have done they are not only heartily sorry for it but they for malso good resolutions against sin they vow they will endeavour with all their might never to fall into