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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
the Apprehensions of God and the Obligations of Religion have a deeper Root and a stronger Influence on us We must not imagine God demands our Prayers and Thanksgivings as if he received any Benefit from them any Addition to his Happiness was fond to hear himself entreated and commended or was not of himself willing to do us good but must be overcom'd as it were through meer Importunity by many repeated Addresses But Experience teaches us how apt they are to create in us a vigorous sence of God our Duty and Eternal Interest and how necessary to preserve it since any considerable neglect therein bereaves us by degrees of that devout and zealous Temper which is the chief Root of all true Holiness and Vertue It was not for nothing our Blessed Saviour spent so many hours both day and night in Meditation and Prayer It was not for nothing he set so good an Example to us and gave us an express Command to watch and pray alwaies Luke 21.36 and his Apostle after him exhorts us to continue in Prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving Col. 4.2 Would not one guess Christians after this to be the most devout men in the World and the most constant in Prayer Yet 't is nothing so He had not the advantage of the Gospel of Christ that sang unto God I have remembred thy Name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law seven times a day do I praise thee in the night-season I am not silent I call to remembrance my Song in the night I commune with mine own Heart and my Spirit makes diligent search Psal 119.55 164. Ps 22.2 77.6 Even the Mahumetans we are told fearing that a whole Night would cause too great an Interval between their Devotions interrupt their Sleep and rise constantly every night to spend some of that time in Prayer But we who have the Son of God for our Master and Teacher nay for our Guide and Pattern we that are commanded to pray without ceasing 1 Thess 5.17 that is constantly how cold and careless are we in the performance of this Duty There are but few of those that call themselves Christians will spend so much as an hour in the day in God's Service If ever they pray God 't is but by Fits And how uneasie and unattentive are the most part of them all the while Strange We scandalize our Neighbours and those we live and converse with often perhaps in a day It would make some reparation if presently after we gave them the Marks of our Sorrow and Repentance by our Devotion and the constancy earnestness and fervency of our Prayers But alas how little is this minded What makes us so dull and sottish in the things that concern the Service of God and the eternal Salvation of our Souls when we are so sagacious so earnest and vigilant about poor momentany concerns For shame let 's no longer be so very childish and foolish If we 'll act seriously and rationally to mean and do as we profess we must either renounce the Name of Christ or become new Creatures that we may be holy as our Blessed Lord is holy and as his Divine Religion indispensably obligeth us to be There are a great many that name the Name of CHRIST who rise eat and drink follow their Worldly Business lye down at night and scarce ever think of God all the while tho they cannot subsist one moment without Him and they receive from Him daily nay hourly innumerable Benefits They pretend to be the Disciples and Followers of the Son of God and yet they are perfect Strangers with God It 's no wonder therefore there is so little Zeal so little Charity and so much Malice and Wickedness to be seen among those that are called Christians But it is not to be question'd we should soon see with the Blessing of God that primitive Christian Purity break forth and shine again in the midst of us if Men would be perswaded to use constant Devotions in their Families Many excuse themselves as if they were not able or had not the Time and Opportunity to perform them Yet they can find the time and opportunity to meet together for their Repasts Morning and Evening And why not to pray God and consult his Word Are the Concerns of this World and this Body so precious as to be more worth than our Souls And is it not strange that those that have the Word of God in their Hands and have often heard it read and expounded should not know what great Obligation God has laid and daily heaps on them for which they are to thank him and praise his Holy Name what Failings they have been subject to which they are to beg Pardon for and pray against that they may never be guilty of them and what things they stand in need of which they are to beg of God And do they not know we are to pray one for another 1 Tim. 2.1 and are commanded to make Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgivings for all men Let none think to excuse himself because he is not eloquent Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh Luke 6.45 He that cannot pray cannot be a Christian There 's no man tho' never so mean but can reason pertinently of his Business It is a sign he doth not look upon Religion as his Business that can say nothing of it But are Scholars only and Learned men commanded to pray Or is it a Duty incumbent upon All And is it our Words and Phrases God looks at and not the pious Dispositions of our Souls rather In fine Has not our Church put most excellent Prayers into our Hands And have we minded them so little all this while as to remember nothing of them That those that shall meet with these Papers may be absolutely without Excuse I conclude with a Prayer that may serve both for Morning and Evening They that have so much Piety as not to think that time lost which is spent in Devotion will not complain of its length And as for them that are otherwise dispos'd it 's no matter what they shall think of it I have but one thing to add by way of Caution to those that shall use this or any other Form of Prayer that is To take care they let not their Tongue run faster than their Understanding but considering to whom it is they speak namely to Him who is to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth let their Hearts ever accompany their Words and then they may be sure that the LORD who is far from the Wicked will hear the Prayer of the Righteous Prov. 15.29 FINIS ☞ By Mistake at the Press the Recapitulation which should have followed next after the Discourse c. is put after the Prayer Books Printed for William Rogers A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper 12o. The eighth Edition price bound six pence in 8º stitcht 3 d. A Sermon preach'd before the King and Queen at Whitehall the 27. of October being the day appointed for a publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the signal Victory at Sea for the preservation of His Majesty's Sacred Person and for his sase Return to his People 4. Both by the most Reverend Father in God John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Of the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence two Sermons preached before the Queen at Whitehall on Aug. 17. 24. 1690. 4 to Of Religious Melancholy a Sermon preached before the Queen at Whitchall March 6. 1691 2. Both by the Right Reverend Father in God John Lord Bishop of Norwich A Practical Discourse concerning Death in 8o. price 3 s. in 12o. price 2 s. A Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment 8o. The Charity of Lending without Usury and the true Notion of Usury briefly stated In a Sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor at St. Bridget's Church on Tuesday in Easter-week 1692. 4o. These three by William Sherlock D. D. Dean of St. Pauls Master of the Temple and Chaplain in ordinary to Their Majesties The necessity of Serious Consideration and Speedy Repentance as the only way to be safe both living and dying 8o. price 1 s. 6 d. The Folly of Atheism demonstrated to the Capacity of the most unlearned Reader 8o. price 1 s. 6 d. The Lambs of Christ fed with the Sincere Milk of the Word in a short Scripture-Catechism in 12o. price 6 d. These three by the Reverend Mr. Clement Elis Rector of Kirkby in Nottingham-shire