Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A48131
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A lady's religion In a letter to the Honourable my Lady Howard. By a divine of the Church of England. With a prefatory epistle to the same lady, by a lay-gentleman.
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Divine of the Church of England.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing L159; ESTC R212982
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13,260
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95
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greatest Follies and the latter to engage us in the practice of Vertue which is our greatest Wisdom the threatnings prepare the way for the Promises and qualify us to receive 'em in as much as they shake off our affections from ill objects in order for the Promises to fix them upon good ones We must needs cease to do evil before we can learn to do well Now although a due consideration of the divine nature will carry us on to the belief of a future state in which he who is in perfection the best of all Beings will distinguish the good from the bad by ample rewards and just punishments yet because every ones capacity may not be sufficient to make this wise reflection therefore Jesus Christ was pleas'd as the Gospel phrases it to bring Life and immortality to light i. e. to give the World full assurance of a future state in which the just God will distinguish Men hereafter in such a manner as they shall distinguish themselves here and 't is the wisdom of every one to preserve this belief in his heart and bear it always about him because 't is the most awful Monitor against our committing folly and yields the strongest encouragement to Virtue From what has been said your Ladyship sees first what is meant by saving a Soul viz. to deliver it from vitious habits and fearful punishments the fatal consequents of such habits and by establishing Virtue therein to recommend it to the favour of God And secondly that the Gospel of Christ was design'd to this very end and its tendency hereunto is its Wisdom And thirdly from hence you also perceive in what respect Faith in Jesus Christ is said to save us viz. because this Faith is our receiving the Christian Moral for the Rule of our lives and the threats and Promises contain'd in the Gospel for the outward motives of our practice according to that Rule And from these three considerations summ'd up together you may examine all the various pretences which differing Churches and Communions make to the purity of Christian Faith so as to form a right judgment of 'em for that Communion which manifests it self to have no other design than to assist its Members in saving their Souls from the power of Sin by the Moral and Motives aforemention'd is certainly the purest Church and that Faith which has no other tendency is the purest Faith So that if you form your self upon this Principle you may pass by all nice Speculations or profound Mysteries which have no direct tendency to improve your Morals without any hazard of Salvation Secondly As the Christian Institution is wisely practical so it is plain or in other words we may say that as the wisdom of the Christian Religion appears first by its being practical so it appears secondly by being plain The obscure answers which were given out from the old Heathen Oracles are now known to have proceeded from the indirectness of a designing Priesthood who to maintain their pretence of foretelling what shall come to pass sent back all those who came to inquire after future events with doubtful and uncertain Answers And it has been the observation of wise Men that when any one affects to be dark and mysterious in his Conversation either he has some indirect design in so doing or else whilst he makes an ostentation of wisdom he does in reasity but discover his folly Now the Wisdom of God cannot be conceiv'd to aim at any other design in communicating it self to us than the Information of our Minds in the nature of good and evil and this in order to direct our choice and all Instruction must of necessity be plain since 't is by things easy and familiar such as at first sight we may apprehend whereby we can be led on to the knowledge of matters more remote and difficult but obscure and unintelligible doctrines can have no effect upon us beside unprofitable amusement and whatsoever is by the wisdom of God laid out of our reach can be no part of our concern Farther to what end did he give us intellectual Faculties surely not to amuse but to improve us by enabling us throughly to understand each part of our holy Religion which directly tends to that end viz. our moral Improvement as you will soon perceive if you reduce the Christian Institution to its general heads which are these First A Narration of matters of Fact Secondly A Declaration of moral Laws Thirdly A Revelation of such motives which are proper to inforce this Law upon our minds And Fourthly Serious Exhortations to refresh our Memories with our duty and earnestly to recommend it to our practice First Your Ladyship sees that the matters of fact contain'd in the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles viz. the Travels and Transactions of Christ and his Disciples are so plainly related that you understand the Relation as easily as you read it And Secondly all Laws must be plain because they are Directions Now obscure directions are but Delusions And Laws which are dubious and difficult to be understood are Traps and Snares And Thirdly 'T is as necessary that Motives should be very intelligible because their design is to work strongly upon our Wills by convincing our Understandings Add to this Fourthly That mystical and unintelligible Exhortations are ridiculous upon which account St. Paul forbad religious Exercises to be perform'd in an unknown Tongue Now as the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles contain matters of fact laws and motives so the Epistles contain Exhortations to Seriousness and Piety arising from the laws facts and motives before-mention'd and 〈◊〉 take these Books to be sufficiently comprehensive of the Institutions and Ordinances of Jesus Christ which ought indeed to be easily intelligible because they concern the poor weak and unletter'd People as much as the Learned Nor can I see that the doctrine of Christ was by him or his Apostles deliver'd first of all into the hands of the learned to be by them convey'd into the minds of the ignorant but on the contrary 't is manifest that our Saviour directed both his discourses and actions immediately to the common people as well as to the Scribe and in like manner did his Disciples address their Preachings and Writings From all this Discourse concerning the clearness of Christ's Institution you may spare your self the needless trouble of reading abstruse and mysterious points of Divinity Nor need you suffer your self to be amus'd with the pretended deep Speculations of profound Men when you have the plain directions of a wise and a good God before you in following whereof you shall meet with great reward Thirdly The Christian Institution is short True and genuine Religion has always been summ'd up and gathered together into a narrow compass by those who best understood it Thus Micah 6.8 speaking of God saith He hath shewn thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but
as well as Closet Forms of Prayer as if God had not been in all their thoughts The reason whereof seems to be because their formal Petitions supersede their habitual Endeavours Men are apt to think that since they spend in every day such a portion of time in Prayer they have done all their part And so they leave God Almighty to take care of the event And this is indeed all we can do when we make our Petitions to our Benefactors upon Earth viz. offer up our requests to them either by word or writing and then only expect their answer But 't is otherwise with relation to God Our Petitions to him must not take off from our constant endeavours to perform that work for which we pray his Enablement And this occasional Devotion which I would recommend is in its own nature a constant endeavour after Virtue as well as a serious Petition for it For it ariseth from a frequent observation of our selves in our particular occurring circumstances from which observation suitable desires will almost necessarily flow As if at any time I find that I have done an ill thing immediately upon the discovery I beg God's Pardon and resolve to make recompence for the ill I have done Or if I have design'd any evil in my heart and presently beg Pardon of him who knoweth the secrets thereof in so doing I have given check to its progress In like manner if I have spoken slanderously rashly or injuriously concerning any one and upon Recollection thereof I ask forgiveness of God and desire that I may not do the like for the future but on the contrary that I may govern my Tongue better in all this I am labouring to with-draw my Soul from evil and to form my self upon a principle of Virtue Every Night and Morning are proper times of leisure to call to Mind the preservation support and advantages we have receiv'd the day or night preceding And this Recollection being accompany'd with thankfulness to our great Preserver is the actual continuance and carrying on of our gratitude to God If I perceive Pride or Passion to arise in my heart so that I am apt to put a great value upon every thing I do and despise others or if I find my self eagerly concern'd for any little Worldly advantage or any small punctilio of honour and hereupon I beg of God for an humble Spirit and a Heavenly Mind I am herein endeavouring to expel the Poison of Sin by its proper Antidote We cannot but feel the Disorders of our Minds as much as the Diseases of our Bodies And the causes of a disorder'd Mind are much more easily discern'd than the causes of a Bodily Distemper For either my Mind is troubl'd for want or losses or it may be for the prosperity of others or want of a revenge or because I cannot have my will in what I design'd Upon these or such like occasions the proper Cure is Devotional in begging God's Pardon for my discontent and being desirous that my will should be submitted to his who has taught me that I should not return evil for evil but that I should love my Neighbour as my self This sort of Soliloquy and occasional mental address to God is a sure way to compose the disorders of our thoughts For the growing power of any Sin is most certainly suppress'd by introducing the opposite Virtue into our desires The same method may be used as to Sins of Omission A serious Person will observe neglects of common duties which respect either God or Man He cannot but take notice how much he has neglected his business or his health how little he has confider'd God as his Owner Governour and Benefactor and how small a portion of what God has bless'd him with he has laid out upon the good of his Fellow-Creatures And if hereupon a Man is seriously desirous to become more dutiful to God more useful to himself and beneficial to others he is therein actually bending his mind to supply his former Omissions This casual Devotion arising from the observation of our selves under the common circumstances of Life although it can have no set times and forms prescrib'd to it will be very effectual to produce preserve and increase a true sense of Religion within us And if you are pleas'd to apply your thoughts hereunto as occasion shall direct you this Devotion will soon become habitual customary and easy And its returns which will be frequent and short will be a continual restraint from evil-doing and an actual exercise of Virtue This exercise which I have been prescribing is commonly reserv'd to be perform'd all at once in an actual preparation before receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which is usually perform'd by help of an artificial Catalogue of Sins methodically collected out of the Ten Commandments according to which Catalogue set Forms of Confessions are drawn up which the Preparant is to take upon content and without any sort of judgment or discretion of his own he confesses himself guilty of all the Sins therein mention'd together with all their Aggravations though it may be many of them were of such a heinous nature as never enter'd into his heart to commit And if these Catalogues and confessional Forms are read over once a quarter of a Year or it may be once a Month against the usual Sacrament-Day the work of Preparation is thought to be well pass'd over Yet I cannot but think it better to keep a constant customary watch over our selves and upon the first discovery of any evil design or action immediately to retract it within our own hearts as in the presence of God and by mental Prayer proper to the occasion arm our selves against committing the like for the future Hereby you discharge a duty in its proper season which is better than to delay it to a prefix'd distance of time for what is most fresh in memory will make the most lively Impression upon us but may in a little time be forgotten Besides we are apt to turn Forms into Formalities And a natural discharge of religious duties must be more improving than an artificial one And by this your Ladyship sees the reason why I have written a Discourse of Religion in general in Answer to your Letter wherein you wrote only concerning the Lord's Supper viz. because I esteem a serious well-inclin'd temper of Mind to be the best preparation either for that or any other of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ that we may partake of 'em with advantage and delight David advises us to delight our selves in the Lord i. e. in all his ways and Ordinances And I cannot see why our preparation for the Lord's Table and participation at it should be accompany'd with greater Anxieties of Mind than our Communicating in any other holy Office such as publick Prayer or Preaching We expect the same Blessing of God in the improvement of our Virtues from all of these Ordinances alike And why with terrour upon our Minds we should use any of those means which God has ordain'd for our good I do not understand A Man indeed ought to perform every religious office seriously and soberly but Fear by amusing and distracting the Mind is apt to render the Ordinance unprofitable Men ought likewise to be discourag'd from coming to Prayer Preaching or Communicating at the Lord's Table with a careless or profane temper of Mind because such unpreparedness does harden Mens hearts and renders the Ordinance unprofitable Such as this was the case of the Corinthians who in celebrating the Lord's Supper were so inconsiderate of what they came to do that some of them were drunk at the Lord's Table as you read 1 Cor. 11.21 and to this their prophane behaviour those Texts of Scripture do particularly relate which affright some Men from and others in receiving the Sacrament on this account 't was said by St. Paul that they were guilty of the body and blood of Christ and to eat and drink damnation to themselves not discerning the Lord's body Ver. 27 29. i. e. by such a profane and unworthy communicating they call down God's Judgments upon themselves for so the word Damnation ought to be understood because it refers to the Judgments specify'd in the following Verse where 't is said that For this cause viz. of drunken Communicating many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep i. e. die V. 30. Now to avoid these Judgments he exhorts them to examine themselves i. e. to consider with themselves what was the meaning of that duty which they were to perform at the Lord's Table which duty was this viz. to call to mind the death of Jesus Christ And this Commemoration is by St. Paul stil'd Discerning the Lord's body The visible signs of our Saviour's Death which we discern on the Lord's Table do prepare our minds to contemplate a divine Person who for his great Charity to the stupid World suffer'd the highest injustice with such an invincible patience and Heroick Fortitude as was superiour to the sharpest malice of his Enemies Thereby setting before us the brightest Example of an unshaken resolution to do good in spight of all Discouragements You will perceive Madam by this Discourse that the Christian Religion is a wise a plain and a short Institution the Belief whereof was design'd to save our Souls from the power and danger of Sin by ingrafting virtuous habits in our Minds You will likewise perceive that I hold it necessary to keep a constant watch over our selves to repent as often as we perceive our selves to transgress and by occasional mental Devotion incline our hearts to observe the law of Christ and all this in order to build up a habit of Virtue within us You will also perceive that the Contemplation of the death of Christ with all its circumstances tends to the same admirable end And if these or any other means shall work upon you to be generously just to bear a good will to all Men to do what good you can and to be unconcern'd for the events of things which are not within your power you will be easy within your self and satisfy'd in your own Conscience which is the Dawn of Heaven upon Earth and you may chearfully Communicate at any time FINIS