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A40094
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A sermon preached before the Queen at White-hall, on Sunday, March 22, 1690/1 by Edward Fowler ...
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Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.
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1691
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Wing F1721; ESTC R10617
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12,747
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36
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expecting so great a Judgment while we refuse to be Intirely God's Servants Thirdly Let the partially Obedient Consider what unaccountable Folly and Madness it is to Disobey God in any thing What can you say for your selves why you should obey Him but just so far Is there not the same Reason why you should be in every thing Obedient that there is why you should be in any thing so Is it most Reasonable to Obey Him in some things and is it not so to Obey Him in all things Can we say that God goes beyond His Power in imposing some Laws or that those we dislike are less Reasonable than His other Laws Surely we dare not admit such a Thought Is it possible then that we can think it Fit or Tolerable that the great Creator and Governour of the World should be in any thing Disobeyed Such a Worm as thy self art highly offended with thy Servant when he willingly disobeys thee and too often when he does so against his Will But is thy Authority over thy Servant equal to God Almighty's over thee Are the Obligations in which he stands to thee like those in which thou standest to God Or is there any Comparison between those Encouragements thou art able to give thy Servant to please thee and those which God gives thee to please Him Who would not think himself greatly Affronted to have such Questions seriously put to him And this minds me to Entreat you Fourthly To Consider what a Glorious Reward is assured to us to Encourage us to Obey It is called a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Life and a Crown of Glory There are given to us for this End exceeding great and precious Promises as St. Peter calls them A Promise of seeing God even as He is Of being forever with our Lord Iesus Christ Of Beholding the Glory which the Father hath given Him and of Partaking too of His own Glory and that to all Eternity A Promise that the Righteous shall shine forth like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Of their being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Equal with the Glorious Angels And of having their Vile Bodies made like unto Christ's most Glorious Body Which and many other such like Promises our Lord Confirmed by Innumerable Miracles Wonders and Signs and then Sealed them With His Blood and next by His Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven Whither He declared He went as the Fore-runner of His Obedient Disciples there to prepare a Place for them that where He is there they may be also And lastly He Confirmed these exceeding great and precious Promises by sending the Holy Ghost according to His Promise before He left the World Now who can have any worthy Sense of the Reward of Obedience and think much of Obeying in any one Instance tho' much more were required of him than there is If the Apostle said of the Sufferings of that Present Time which were Extraordinary and Prodigious Ones and especially those which himself underwent that they are not Worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us much more may this be said of the Services of this Life of all the Duties to which our Creator and Redeemer have oblig'd us And therefore Fifthly Let it be likewise considered that as vastly great as the Reward of Obedience shall be there is no more required of us under the Gospel Dispensation than all things considered needs must It may with the greatest Assurance be affirmed that nothing is now commanded but what is necessary to make us capable of the Glorious Inheritance purchased for us or doth tend to the better Inabling us for those Duties which are of indispensable Necessity to this End And that nothing is Forbidden us which doth not either directly or consequentially tend to make us unmeet for that Inheritance So that to complain of any one of our Lord's Precepts is the same thing with finding fault with Him for designing to make us such Happy Creatures Sixthly Consider also that the LAWS which are given us as they are most necessary so they are not so many as that we need to be scared at them Many are apt to think that because the Bible is a Great Book the Divine LAWS are almost Numberless But the far greater Part of the Bible consists of History and Relations of Matters of Fact and of Pious Mens devout Prayers and Praises c. And in the Preceptive Part there are very many Laws which are Abrogated and never concerned Christians And those which are of Force are many of them abundance of times Repeated and Inculcated In short our whole Duty may be brought into a very Narrow Compass St. Paul reduceth it to Three Heads Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness And our Blessed Saviour to Two The Love of God and our Neighbour and the particular Instances of each of these are easily and quickly learn't Nay they are generally written in our Hearts as St. Paul tells us i.e. are the plain Dictates of Natural Reason Seventhly Let us farther Consider that there is so close a Connexion between them all that Obedience to one Law will inable us to obey another and so on And the Performance of one Duty will prepare us for another and make it easie to us And on the other hand the Breach of one Law will cause Carelessness in keeping other Laws and no Sin goes alone So that 't is but a bare Supposition in the Text that a Man may keep the Whole Law and offend but in one Point or slight one Law and observe all the rest for there can really be no such thing as is evident from what hath been now discoursed Eighthly I may also add that there is no necessity of being very solicitous about any more than one thing in order to our keeping God's Laws and that is the Vigorously possessing our Souls with the Love of God This saith St. Iohn is the Love of God that we keep His Commandments or this is a necessary expression thereof and His Commandments are not grievous Namely to those that Love God And what can we imagine so Natural to Creatures Capable of understanding God as Loving Him with all their hearts Considering the infinite Loveliness of His Nature and the Inexpressible Obligations He hath laid upon them What so Agreeable to our Nature as to love Him who is the Author of our Being after whose Image we were made who is the Centre of our Souls and in whom alone consisteth our True Happiness And 't is very easy to shew that the Love of God will naturally draw after it all those duties which relate either immediately to Him or to our Neighbour or to our own Souls and Bodies Now Considering these things well may God Almighty Expostulate with Partially Obedient Christians as once He did with such Iews and that with greater reason O my people what have I done unto thee And wherein have I wearied thee Testify against me He hath been indeed so far from wearying us with His Impositions that every good Christian's Experience is able to Testify that the greatest satisfaction the truest self-Enjoyment ariseth from the Observance of His Laws Nor can it be otherwise since Love and the Love of God is the fulfilling of them For what so Pleasant as Love and much more as love placed on such an Object as God is We ought therefore to be so far from thinking much of yielding Obedience to all His Laws that we are highly disingenuous if we be not heartily thankful to Him for giving us so few and those such as in Obedience to which consists such Pleasure In the last place and with these words I will Conclude What a sad thing and miserable disappointment must it needs be to come near to the Kingdom of Heaven and yet at last fall short of it for want of going a little farther May all Partially Obedient Professors of Christianity Consider this also and lay it well to heart FINIS 1 Tim. 5.24 Iob 27.8 Psal. 130.3 4. Rom. 10.8 Mica 6.3
A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On Sunday MARCH 22. 1690 1. By EDWARD FOWLER D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Her Maiesties Special Command LONDON Printed by T. M. for Ric. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard 1691. Dr. FOWLER 's SERMON Preached before THE QUEEN March 22. 1690 1. A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN Iames 2.10 For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point he is guilty of all THERE are several Passages of our Saviour and his Apostles which at the first hearing do sound very harshly and seem to savour of over-great Severity that upon due Consideration are found to have nothing in them but what is highly Reasonable To omit others this Text is one of those Passages and many no doubt have been startled at it and been ready to say as the Disciples of our Saviour did upon another Occasion This is an hard saying who can hear it For can this Doctrine be true that whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point is guilty of all and we be in the mean time dealt with according to the Gentleness and Clemency of a Covenant of Grace Is this the GOSPEL we talk so much of Is this the Glad-Tydings which our Saviour hath brought us We find none so bad we read nothing so sad in all the Old Testament The worst Passage there is and that is bad enough Cursed is he that continueth not in all that is written in the Law to do it It is no where there said that he who is never so careful to observe the whole Law if he chance to transgress in any one Point shall be look't upon as a Transgressour of all the Commandments and dealt with like such a one That other Saying is a very terrible one but this is much more terrible If this be so we may well Repeat that other Question of the Disciples Who then can be saved In many things we offend all if therefore he who keepeth the whole Law and yet offends in one Point be guilty of all how Desperate must the Case not onely of the Generality needs be but of every Individual Person I must confess that these Words may well Confound us and fill us with Amazement were they to be understood in the severest Sense they are capable of but we are certain they are not so to be understood and therefore that the fore-mentioned Paraphrase upon them is by no means a true one And the Context sheweth that this is the plain Meaning of them viz. Upon Supposition that a Man were careful to observe all the Laws of God but one his living in the Breach of that one shall be so far from being connived at upon the Account of his Obedience to all the rest that he shall be lyable to the Punishment which is due to the Transgression of the whole Law That is the same Punishment for kind not for degree there being nothing more plainly revealed than that the more and the greater Sins Men are guilty of the greater and severer shall be their Punishment And in saying that such a one shall have the same Punishment for kind I mean that which consisteth in being forever Banished from the Presence of God and which is called Eternal Death Now the Reasonableness of this Assertion of our Apostle thus understood may be fully made to appear by these following Considerations First He who refuseth Obedience to any One of the Divine Laws may as truly be said to Contemn the Divine Authority as if he lived in the breach of all Men in wilfully Disobeying any One Law do put as true an Affront upon the Law-Giver tho' not so High a one as they do in Disobeying all This Reason St. Iames gives in the Words next following for what he affirms in the Text For he that said do not Commit Adultery said also do not Kill now if thou Commit no Adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a Transgressour of the Law That is it is the same Law-Giver who hath forbidden Adultery and Murther and His Authority is as truly Contemned in Transgressing one as both of these Laws Every deliberate Act of Disobedience is flat Rebellion and so for forth a Renouncing of God's right to Govern us It is a virtual denial of His Authority to Prescribe any Laws to us and lays a foundation for Universal Disobedience For if God Almighty's Soveraignty be Disacknowledg'd in any One Instance it may as well be so in all other The same Reason that leads to the Violation of one Law doth Enervate and render invalid all other Laws Again Secondly He who willfully Disobeys any One of the Divine Laws is no Sincere Observer of any of the rest For whosoever allows himself in any one Act of Disobedience hath no True Love either for God or Goodness but it is necessary to the Sincerity of Obedience that it proceed from that Love which hath both these for its Objects That it proceed from Love to God and which is indeed Materially the same Love to Goodness Goodness Or Universal Righteousness Purity and Benignity being that upon the account of which God Almighty is a Lovely Being Now it is Evident that those who live in any Disobedience to God do not Love Him They love him not according to the Scripture-Notion of Loving God because whatsoever that is for the sake of which we can find in our hearts to Disobey Him must needs be valued and Esteemed above Him And the Scripture-Notion of Loving God is the Esteeming Him above and Preferring Him before all Creatures He who hath No true Love for God may Obey Him in many instances as the poor Pagans Worship the Devil out of a Slavish Fear and Dread of Him He may Obey him too as a meer Mercenary I mean for the good things of this Life and a Sensual kind of Happiness in the Other But this Obedience is far from being Genuine or the true Evangelical Obedience as is Easy to shew And again it is no less apparent that the Love of Virtue and true Goodness is inconsistent with harbouring any thing in our breasts that is contrary there to Thirdly He who lives in disobedience to any One Law of God as he Obeys none Sincerely so is he prepared to break all other Laws and that in the grossest manner whensoever forceable Temptations may assault him For if the Divine Authority can't prevail with a Man to Abstain from this or that Sin how is it to be Expected it should Restrain him from Other Sins when he may happen to be incited to them by alike strong and Violent Temptations Such a one may forbear not a few sins while he is not at all or not very violently set upon by a tempter but if God should once suffer him to be sharply encountred either from without or from within it is not hard to divine what Success such Temptations would have upon