Faith and Humility by the Arrogancy of his Wit and Invention This exalted Exercise of Praising and Blessing the Lord will also fill the Imagination with Heavenly Imagery 'T will adorn it with the Vine and Pomgranate of the Temple making that Faculty an holy Receptacle of pious Emblems which in its Corrupt Nature is the chief Seat and Empire of Original Sin the Infernal Theatre where all the busiest Scenes of Temptation are display'd 'T will teach us not to lay out our best superlative words on Earthly things not to embalm Rottenness and Corruption with the Epithites of Divinity not to Deifie the Ambitious with sacred Oratory or to commit Idolatry with a too Bounteous Invention but to reserve a peculiar Hierarchy of Language for our Superior Intercourse Lastly It will spiritualize our Affections call them off from the defilements of the World make them languish in unaccountable Unions and give them a tender Sympathy with all the Endearments of the Canticles It will create in us such an Habitual Indulgence towards the sweetnesses of a Religious life that amidst the Avocations of the world the disturbances of secular business and the Afflictions of Common Conversation we shall be able to maintain a secret Under-current of pious Aspirations and Affections Let us therefore summon up all that is within us all the Faculties and Powers of our Souls to Bless and Praise the Lord with fervent Gratulations For surely Christianity is not only a bare Avoydance of Evil a plausible course in Moral Actions or an External living up to the Decency of a Station which yet in a Degenerate Age are no mean Patterns and Examples but certainly there are requir'd some Affectionate Heats some Breathings and Pantings after further degrees of Holiness and an Indefinite Perfection And though the cold Logicians are apt to call this a Spiritual Romance and the effect of a Religious Spleen yet we know of what Complexion they were who styl'd the miraculous effusions of the Holy Ghost Drunkenness and the fumes of New Wine St. Pauls Learning and the Sobriety of his Reason Madness and Distraction Surely no man can be an Heretick in his secret Communions with God or a dangerous Enthusiast in his Inward Adorations And if some Weaknesses have been found among the private Ardours of the Retir'd alas what are they but the glorious Frailties of the Pathetic Soul the Noble Extravagancies of a Seraphick Temper and an impetuous Devotion I know there is a lower Draught of Christianity but I speak a practical Mystery to the Wise to the Perfect to the Prophets and Sons of the Prophets who know how to be warm and affectionate in Religion without being Superstitious how to Adore without being Idolatrous I speak to you who are plac'd in all the Circumstances of an Extatick life who are so nearly acquainted with the intelligible World that what is but plain Picture to the Vulgar is Hieroglyphick to you they must be contented with the bare External View whilst you enrich your minds with the more Excellent Moral and Mystery To you who are able to compose and consecrate the Recollection of your Daily Studies into an Evening Hymn whose constant Imployment consists in such an Eminency of Spiritual Duties as others faintly attempt in seldom Festivals with secular Mixtures and divided Powers To you lastly who are perpetually attending on the Altar who love to speak of the Glory of Gods Kingdom and to talk of his Power who are continually standing before the Throne having your lives hid with Christ in God in Internal Joy and the secrecies of an Incomprehensible peace who live under such an Extraordinary sense of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that you find it difficult to refrain from publishing his Perfections continually and from letting the Mistaken world know that it is our Priviledge our Duty and our Excellency never to cease from uttering in some measure our Gratulations and Praises here on Earth till they Expire into Greater till we arrive to those Perfect Harmonies above where our Glorify'd Souls and Bodies shall for ever dwell in an Eternal Triumph of Adoration and Amazement where like the voice of Trumpets of Thunders and like the noise of many Waters vve shall for ever sing Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power be to the Blessed Trinity And again we shall sing Hallelujah FINIS
PRAISE and ADORATION OR A SERMON ON TRINITY-SUNDAY BEFORE THE University at Oxford 1681. By THOMAS MANNYNGHAM M. A. late Fellow of New-Colledge Oxford LONDON Printed for William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Barr PSALM 103. V. 1. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name THere is an Habitual and also an Actual praising or Glorifying of God the first consists in a regular conformity of our Lives or the general course of our Actions to the holy Will and Commands of God But Actual Adoration which is to be the Subject of my Ensuing Discourse is it self a peculiar and solemn part of Divine Worship which does not only consist in an open recitation of Hymns and Spiritual Songs but also in a silent Exultation of our Faculties and a Religious warmth of Soul wrought by Heavenly Objects Now there are many Words and Phrases in holy Scripture especially in this Book of Psalms which are often us'd to express the same Duty of Blessing or praising the Lord And though they are promiscuously inserted as certainly they ought to be either in Popular or Poetick Writings yet are they many of them of peculiar limitation and significancy which being somewhat stated and explain'd may serve to establish a full and easie notion of what in my following Discourse I shall make more copious and less nice reflexions Wherefore our most humble and worthy Apprehensions our sincere devout resentments of the Divine Perfections are necessarily requir'd to constitute the Invisible Adoration of the Heart and Soul and Spirit which from its Vital and inward heat is continually displaying it self into great variety of External Evidences according to the diversity of those objects about which it is immediately conversant So that we may be said to praise the Lord when we declare his free and most excellent works of Mercy and Justice of Creation and Providence to Magnifie and Adore him when we set forth his incommunicable and Natural Excellencies such as his Omnipotence Immensity c. which joyntly consider'd with his Universal Dominion and Sovereignty over all Creatures may seem to signifie all that we mean by the Glorious Majesty of God We may be said to Bless the Lord by our wishes and words and being the good we wish is Extrinsick to his Nature and not yet obtained as that the whole World may be converted and fear his Name c. we must be sure to bless him with our endeavours too But chiefly this Blessing is effected by our most solemn Gratulations for seeing we cannot confer any real good on God we must continually express our joy and gladness for his actual possession of all possible perfection To worship him usually denotes a most humble posture of Body when we incline towards or prostrate our selves on that Dust out of which we were made We Glorifie God with our Mouths and accordingly the Psalmist calls his Tongue his Glory Awake thou my Glory Thanksgiving is an open profession and a hearty acknowledgment that we have received a Benefit most freely and without any merit of our own Adoration and Thanksgiving seem to differ in these respects we adore God for things that were acted long ago which concern not us any more than that they were the Effects of his Omnipotence as for all the Wonders done in the behalf of the Children of Israel Thanksgiving relates to those Benefits which either we immediately receive or whose effects are communicated to us Also we adore God for his Judgments and his Vengeance however displayed either on our Enemies or on our selves for which we are not properly said to return Thanksgivings because Adoration respects the Justice of the Action Thanksgivings the goodness of it These Words and Phrases being thus somewhat explain'd I shall make no scruple to use them again in their popular sense and freedom according as I shall find occasion for them in my farther amplifications on the Text which I will endeavour to handle in these three respects I. You may be pleas'd to consider the Necessity and Excellence of Praise and Adoration Bless the Lord O my Soul II. I shall endeavour to shew what are those Faculties and Capacities of the Soul whereby this Adoration is perform'd All that is within me III. I will point out some of those Benefits which will arise from a Worthy performance of the Duty Bless the Lord c. I. You may be pleas'd to consider the Necessity and Excellence of Praise and Adoration Bless the Lord O my Soul Prayers and Praises which bear the name of all that we can properly call Divine Worship are as well the Eternal Dictates of Nature as the most Sacred Commands of Revelation and if there may be allowed any remarkable precedency in these higher Duties of Natural and Reveal'd Religion Praise or Adoration seems justly to challenge that Prerogative for should not we first acknowledge our Being before we view and lament its imperfections should not we return our sacrifices of Gratitude for what we have already received before we implore the Divine Benignity for further accessions fresh supplies and new assistances Common Justice obliges us at all times first to look back and magnifie the Lord for our actual preservation before we presume to put up our Petitions for pardon and future security and it requires a Psalm of Thanksgiving that we are in a capacity to know our Wants to survey our Infirmities The meanness of our nature has indeed placed us below the possibility of making any Recompence and yet the indigency of our condition still calls upon us to make fresh acknowledgments and however imperfect these oblations are yet are they the only shew of real service we can render the only Image of Requital which our Creator has indulged us And as this Adoration is our indispensable Duty so 't is our Advantage and our glory too 't is not only the business of our Creation but the Excellency of it and we never appear in a more exalted State than when we Glorifie In the performance of this Duty we more eminently make good our Communion with Saints and Angels whilst with those blessed Spirits we constitute the same Choire and make one Universal Hallelujah Nothing surely can be more Just and Natural than to imploy our breath to the glory of him who gave it us nothing more profitable than to magnifie the Lord into greater Mercies to our selves Nothing more delightful than to be always full of glorious Conceptions always pouring forth the Language of Blessing and Affection Prayers are but the Mournful Draught and Table of our Misery the representation of our Ship-wreckt Nature Repentance has a gloomy side but Praise is Faiths and Reasons Triumph a bright unmixt immaculate Joy and only wants some few degrees of being all we can conceive of Heaven Therefore II. You may be pleas'd to consider what are those Faculties and Capacities of the Soul whereby this Duty is perform'd Now the powers of the
Holy Scripture scarce ever meddles with an Attribute in its Absolute Nature but only in a Relative and endearing way and that Creation and Providence which are richly pregnant with all those Divine Perfections which most nearly concern us are the two chosen and most sublime Topi's on which the Eucharistical Psalms are chiefly spent And who among us can forbear from breaking forth into acts of Praise and Adoration when he considers how the Almighty was pleas'd out of his Infinite and Boundless Goodness according to the Freedom of his Eternal Decree I must not say to Empty but to Irradiate himself into this amazing variety of Beings this stupendous Fabrick of the World indefinite to our most Travelling Conceptions and only less infinite than He who made it Here we may behold his Wisdom in its Throne and praise him in the Firmament of his Power whilst we attentively recall how by his Word the Heavens were made and all the Host of them by the breath of his Mouth how he spread out the Sky like a Molten Glass and ordered the ballancings of the Clouds how he stretched out the North o'er the empty Place and hung the Earth upon nothing how he form'd the first Man out of the Dust of the Ground breath'd into his Nostrils the immortal Halitus or Breath of Life and made that last Imperial Draught to stand the Beauty the Dominion and the Sabbath of all his wondrous Works in a Word how ravishing a Reflection must the Creation needs be to Men and Angels too when God Almighty is Represented in the second of Genesis as it were sitting down Contemplating and with all intellectual Complacency surveying the Accomplish'd Miracle And as for Providence what fuller matter for our Celebrations have we than to consider how all the unaccountable Passages here below which seem so rugged and like wild Contingencies to us are notwithstanding particularly directed by the certain guidance of an Almighty Wisdom and in their proper seasons produc'd by a Beautiful Order of Causes that not only Universal Nature but Nations Cities Private persons their Policies Justice Thoughts and Contrivances are evermore Actuated Advanced or Confounded by the imperceptible streams of a Divine Prerogative And that all that multitude of strange Appearances which look like so many Monstrous and Extravagant Lines to us in this position will one day be reflected into a Regular piece and make a glorious Figure in the Beatific Vision I cannot well conceive how the Epicurean could ever be thought effectually to Praise and Worship the Deity only for the bare Excellency of his Being whom he fancied to be like some Persian Monarch Morosely Great full of himself and his one Solitude of a Cloyster'd Majesty or a Providence that never stoopt below the Heavens whereas the Stoic more truly tells us Nulla Majestas sine Bonitate and we are sufficiently satisfy'd that there was nothing so powerful to awaken Gratitude and reconcile men to the Sacrifices of Religion as that Transcendent goodness and particular Care which men evidently found to flow from what they Worship'd I grant the Sun by reason of its bright Appearance and resplendency will naturally excite a Transient Wonder in Beholders but yet I question whether ever it would have been Ador'd as it certainly was by the greatest part of the Heathen World and have had its own Frankincense offer'd it again if it had not been for that Annual and Experienc'd Course of Benefits which its continual Influences Hatch produce and perfect for the Generations of Men. What weighty ingredients and commanding Subjects of Adoration were the Extraordinary Managements of Providence in behalf of the Jews and their Religion And accordingly we find the Royal Psalmist every where paraphrasing on those great and numerous Miracles of Egypt and the Desart in an exceeding sublimity of Phrase in all the Raptures of Eastern Poesie and here might be one reason given why the Inanimate Creation is so distinctly call'd upon in the Old Testament to Praise the Lord because so many of those Beings had started from their own Law and Natures to be either an Eminent rescue or a mighty Conduct to the Chosen people that in the Jewish oeconomy it is hard to determine whether greater Miracles were perform'd by the Ministry of the Elements or of the appointed Angels 2. We may be said to praise the Lord with our Imagination when we study to adorn our Divine Conceptions with the most Excellent Idea's with the most lively Representations we can invent for not only Reason and Judgment but also Imagination and Fancy not only the Firmament but even the Meteors too are call'd upon to praise the Lord. The Imagination is the chief Spring and Engine of our Affections it gives Sublimity Spirit and Vivacity to our Conceptions Beauty and colour to our Expressions and communicates all those agreeable Illustrations which serve to adorn the severity of Reason The exactest Science we are acquainted with cannot supply us with such cautious forms of Speech but that they are full of Solecism extremely defective and inadequate when apply'd to Notions concerning God and Heaven The most accurate wisdom of Words that can be invented cannot defend it self from many Absurdities when positively conversant about an Infinite Object and which cannot be fully comprehended because in such a case there is a greater Latitude of still shewing what a thing is not than what it is But then what we want of strict scientifical propriety in our Discourses concerning Divine subjects may be nobly supply'd by rais'd and figurative adumbrations And this is wholly the business of the Imagination which when it has warily receiv'd the Truth and Worth of its Object from a superiour faculty may be allow'd to raise the Mind into a nobler Amplitude of thought and to kindle it into vaster Conceptions and then to beautifie and set them forth with all those proper Ornaments which usually recommend a speculation to our Affections Fancy indeed is not permitted to give a Positive and definitive sentence or to close up its Period with an Anathema but it may search for lively Representations For such similitudes of things as may best suit with the Analogy of our Natures also for such transcendent and superlative Terms as are most apt to inflame the Soul and to shadow to us the spiritual secresie of Mysterious Truth And therefore the Holy Scripture has every where exhibited to us its heavenly Wisdom in Parables and sensible Types and proportion'd its Revelations mores to the Imaginations of Men than to their more subtile modes of Reasoning Therefore also God appeared to Moses in a Cloud and his Glory shone through a Veil that since the Prophet was not able to sustain his more open Appearance he might with safety understand his Infinity by the concealment of an indefinite and mysterious Declaration and more ardently desire a further Manifestation of those Excellencies which were but imperfectly revealed to him in remote and distant Scenes for no