Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A58050
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Of religious melancholy a sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall March 6, 1691/2 / by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Bishop of Norwich.
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Moore, John, 1646-1714.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing R2548; ESTC N24486
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14,188
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16
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of his Laws and doing any thing contrary to his Righteous Will and also when we trip or go astray from his Ways to quicken our Returns to our Duty So that when Fear doth prevail upon a Man to amend his bad Life he puts this passion to the very use for which he received it from God and having thus applied it to the end for which it was made an Essential Ingredient of his Nature we have no cause to question but God will own him and graciously allow his Obedience 2. We may observe That God hath enforced all the Laws he hath given to the Children of Men by Threatnings as well as by Promises But as Promises are to work upon our Love so Threats are to excite our Fears God having made the Motives to our Obedience to answer the different Passions with which he hath endued our Souls Wherefore there cannot be the least reason to conceive that God should threaten Punishments against the Disobedient which naturally act upon the fears of Men and yet not be pleased with the Service which these fears raised by the Penalties annext to his own Laws do bring forth No God therefore doth set Life and Death before Men that the fear of Death may make them chuse Life and he threatneth them with Everlasting Punishments that the amazement and horrour which the serious and due consideration of them will cause in their Souls may powerfully engage them with all speed and care to labour to fit themselves to partake of the Divine Mercies 3. Our Blessed Saviour first and his Disciples after him in their Sermons do address hemselves not only to the Passion of Love but also to that of Fear which they never would have done had they been conscious that the Sacrifices of Fear would not have ascended up to Heaven with a grateful savour He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16.16 Doth not Christ here intend to bring Men to a belief of his Gospel and to yeild obedience to the Laws thereof as well by the fears of Damnation as the hopes of Salvation And when he had cured the Man who had been afflicted with an Infirmity thirty eight Years he bids him sin no more lest a worse thing come unto him The Argument our Lord used to engage the poor impotent Man to live innocently was directed to the passion of his Fear taken from the danger of a Calamity greater than the very long Infirmity of which he was now cured that would befal him if he did still continue in his sins Knowing the terror of the Lord saith St. Paul we perswade Men. The Apostle well knew that the greatness of these Terrors exprest in the foregoing Verse That we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2. Cor. 5.10 if fully and maturely weighed would be of irresistible force to recover Men from a lewd and prophane Conversation They must be brought to a state of extream obstinacy or desperation upon whom an Argument of such worderful Power and Efficacy can make no impression 2. I come to a second Case often complained of by some serious Christians which is a want of inclination to holy things and a coldness in their Devotions They do not come to God's House nor address themselves to their Prayers with such an appetite as they do to the Business of the World but want earnest and fervent Desires for the success of the Petitions they put up to their Father in Heaven they cannot warmly ingage their Hearts in the Cause of their Salvation but find a listlesness to Spiritual Exercises which they apprehend to be a full proof of their Hypocrisie and that God will refuse their Prayers and Thanksgivings as vain and insincere Oblations Now before I proceed in the best and clearest Method I can to relieve Persons in this unhappy Condition I desire it may be first observed that why many have no more Zeal and Life in God's Service is their own fault for which they are greatly to be blamed Because this dulness of Spirit that attends their Religious Exercises does come from their own negligence and want of consideration They take care to make an appearance in the Congregation but no care about what their Souls are there employed They have not considered of what infinite importance it will be to them to serve God in the most acceptable manner nor how they shou'd render their Service acceptable neither by what cause their Devotions have decay'd nor by what means they may revive and increase them Now if they neither consider where they are nor for what end they came it is no wonder that their Minds should be flat and unactive all the time they stand before the Lord and very little concern'd for the prosperous issue of the Prayers that are offered up by the Congregation As therefore it is high presumption for such careless Persons to hope for any benefit by that part they bear in the Publick Worship so they may cure their Malady by retiring from their Business and their Pleasures and by reflecting in good earnest upon the terrible dangers whereunto they do every hour expose their Immortal Souls But these are not the Men to whose Case I would speak at this time but I direct my Discouse to those who have frequently striven to remove this coldness from their Souls when they did approach the Heavenly Throne and yet have failed in their attempt Now in abatement of their trouble give me leave to lay the following Observations before them 1. That the difference of degrees of affections with which Men serve God does often depend upon the difference of their Tempers and Constitutions Some have such heavy Constitutions that it must be a great matter that will work upon their hopes or fears and it will require some time to make them very sensible either of their gain or loss But others have such a tenderness in their Natures and such quickness of sence that the least things do much affect them A little prosperity makes all their Spirits to mount and they are overflow'd with joy and as small a cross sinks them down and causes them to have sad and melancholy perswasions of their Condition Now People of such various Dispositions notwithstanding they have equally endeavour'd to prepare themselves cannot serve God with equal affections but yet he may be alike pleased with what they both do Because he will measure their Obedience by the sincerity of their minds that lies in their own power and not by the difference of their Constitutions which was not made by themselves The Constitutions of some Men being much warmer than those of others they easier take fire whether they are paying Homage to God or doing business among Men. Where therefore Men have more heat in their natural Temper it is no
Of Religious Melancholy A SERMON PREACH'D before the QUEEN AT White-Hall March 6. 1691 2. PSALM xlii 6. Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted in me By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of Norwich Publish'd by Her Majesty's Special Command The Fifth Edition LONDON Printed and Sold by H. Hills in Black-fryars near the Water-side For the Benefit of the Poor PSALM xlii 6. Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted in me A Man in no part of his Life wherein he is sensible he has offended God can be exempted from the Duty of repenting presently it being an obligation which constantly lieth upon him whenever he perceives his sin to ask pardon for it and to forsake it However considering the multitude of business and many diversions Men meet with in the ordinary course of Things that hinder them from repenting as they ought to do of their Sins it is of absolute necessity that they should single out and set apart several portions of their Time wherein they may exactly consider their Spiritual Condition severely judge their Actions and narrowly search into the Occasions and Causes of their Errors and Failings and endeavour to find the best means to prevent the same Crimes for the future A good part of that Season is now spent which our Church hath appointed for a Review of our Lives and to discover our Trespasses against the Divine Laws that we might humble our Souls for them and amend whatever we find amiss And during this Season you have heard the Nature of Repentance often and fully explain'd and the most prevailing Reasons urged to excite your Care and engage your Diligence in a matter of such infinite consequence to your Salvition and I hope with good effect on the minds of many who in secret have blessed God most heartily for these Publick Occasions of Reforming themselves and making their peace with him But notwithstanding these solemn Seasons are designed for the benefit of all Men that the bad may be converted tha the weak may be confirmed and that those who have made a large progress in the ways of Virtue may still proceed to further degrees of perfection yet it is manifest that as hardned Sinners who have little four of God and no regard of their Duty do certainly grow worse by their contempt and neglect of these Opportunities so also that divers good Christians but of timerous and melancholy Constitutions do fear they do not become better or recieve any improvement from them For they feeling no present comfort from their long and strict Fasts nor from their earnest and often-repeated Prayers do conclude That whatever they have been doing in the Service of God is so mean and full of imperfections that it will neither please him nor profit their own Souls Wherefore at this time I shall not insist upon the Arguments which are proper to affect and awaken obdurate Offenders but rather apply my self to the case of those melancholy Persons who notwithstanding they are in a safe condition yet are in great need to have their minds quieted and composed So that even they who indeed most deserve it may have their share of advantage from such holy Seasons as these The scruples and fears which disturb them are manifold I now can only have time to consider two or three of those Cases which as more commonly so more violently use to disorder and affright them and shall give the most satisfactory answer to them that I can 1. The first Case is of those who are apt to think that the Reformation of their Lites hath not proceeded from a sincere love of God and an unwillingness to displease him but from a meer dread of those punishments which he hath threatned 2. The second Case relates to them who find a flatness on their Minds and want of Zeal when they apply themselves to any Religious Duty which makes them fear that what they do is so defective and unfit to be presented unto God that he will not accept it insomuch that this coldness when they are imploy'd in their Devotions doth lamentably deject them and even tempt them to lay the practice of them aside 3. The third Case doth concern those unhappy Persons who have naughty and sometimes blasphemous thoughts start up in their minds while they are exercised in the Worship of God which makes ready to charge themselves with the Sin against the Holy Ghost to pronounce their Condition to be without hope of Remedy and that God hath utterly cast them off 1. I begin with those Persons who are apt to think that the Reformation of their Lives hath not proceeded from a sincere love of God and an unwillingness to offend him but from a meer dread of those Punishments which he hath threatned to inflict on unrelenting Sinners Their doubt is that fear which hath had the greatest influence in reclaiming them from an ill Life is but a slavish and sordid Passion which God does despise and that he will refuse all those Services which do not spring from a nobler Principle For seeing God is Love he will not be pleased with any Sacrifice but what is offered by Love I answer That there can be no question but Love is a more noble Principle of Action than Fear And therefore that the Religious Service which hath its rise from Love is more Perfect more Angelical and more grateful to God But for all that he will not turn aside his face from those weaker and less improved Servants of his whose Service and Obedience owe themselves chiefly to their Fears They who have forsaken their evil ways out of a horrible dread that they would lead them to the Pit of Hell will it is to be hoped find a place in the glorious Kingdom of Heaven For Hell was made on purpose to terrifie daring Sinners and to reduce and confine them within the bounds of their Duty The thing then I affirm is this That they who have departed from their Iniquities out of fear that had they continued in them they should have been condemned to dwell with everlasting Burnings will at the Judgment of the Great Day be allowed to have been true Penitents whom God will set on his Right Hand and receive into the Bright Mansions of Infinite Happiness which may be proved by the following Reasons 1. Fear is one of the Passions God has planted in our Souls as well as Love they are both the Creatures of his Wisdom and Power and whatever he did put in us was for some end and may have a good use Wherefore when the Passion of Fear doth serve the End for which God grafted it in our Minds there can be no doubt but he will approve the good Effects which it doth produce Now the end for which God placed Fear in our Nature was cheifly to beget in us an awful regard of his most Glorious Majesty to make us dread violating