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A64289
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A sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Canice Kilkenny, Feb. 27. 1669. By Joseph Teate, dean of St. Can. Kilkenny
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Teate, Joseph.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing T620; ESTC R219172
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20,777
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55
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in the external glorifications of God and is like those sort of Meteors that shine onely in their fall from heaven But a Form in conjunction with the Power is an Ornament of great Price in the sight of God St. Paul doth not discourage a form that is modest in Complexion grave in Gesture discreet in the Expressions of it self that waits on the Power of Godliness as a Disciple on his Master or a Servant on his Lord as he saith in the first Epistle Good works become women professing Godliness Religion is not to be like those mineral mountains that appear barren when the Veins of Gold lodge in their Bowells but as the Kings daughter all glorious within yet her Rayment is of wrought Gold Can a Maid forget her ornaments or a Bride her attire or the Spouse of Christ her Rayment of Needle-work as David invited all his faculties within him so his Glory his Tongue to joyn in the Chorus as the most natural proper and musical Instrument whereby an heart Big with the Burden in the songs of Praise could best deliver it self our Lights are so to shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in heaven The corruption of this form is either Gross and Pharisaical when men are Zealots for the first Table for the Temple and Invocation for Sacrifices and Altars for Incense and Oblation Sabbaths and solemn Feasts but break in pieces the second neither sparing their neighbours Wives in Lust nor their Lives in their Anger nor their Estates in their Avarice nor their Good Names in their Ambition as if the two Tables were as the two Principles and Gods of the Manichees the one Good and the other Evil the first Table a Sacred Edict a Royal Promulgation to be kept the second to be violated as a Snare and Tyrannical Exaction The other corruption is Subtile and Moral when a Form of Godliness and Honesty do meet together and Kiss each other A man may be born in the Pale of the Church baptized into the most holy faith instructed in her Catechismes and Homilies And only be a Patriot of Virtue in the profession of Faith he may stand up at the recitation of the Creed and say Amen to every Article and yet be just in his actions temperate in his life generous in his spirit upon no other principles then Socrates or Seneca might be his Religious Duties are all Moralities he reads the scripture and entertains them with an humane Faith as the stories of Zenophon or Plutarch he gives to the Poor and calls it Charity when his Almes are the Issues of a natural Compassion and Benignity what he doth is from the Dictates of Reason which are perfective of the humane nature not from an assent to a divine Revelation or Obedience to the will of God Now Virtue in a Profession of Godliness is the highest semblance of Grace I cannot perswade my self that the light of nature that convinceth Atheism and contemplates on the Omnipotence and Wisdom of God is an ignis fatuus or that the Law of Nature that God hath written in the Sacred Scriptures as well as the hearts of all men is a Throne of Iniquity or that Honesty Temperance Chastity and Justice are glittering sins but rather beleive that they are Rudiments of our Creation not wholy Obliterated by the fall of man though they do not please God in that way of Complacency that faith doth they may be Strictures and darker Shaddowes though Graces are the Bright and Orient Colours in that Soul that is created after Gods image To apply all this if a man professeth himself a Christian and is only Chast as a Brave Romane out of Glory or a Mind cultivated by Reason none can resolve the Sophism and say that his Virtue doth not flow from the influences of faith but the infallibility of Heaven and his own Conscience The Formes of Godliness being then skilfull to deceive I shall absolve my discourse in two particulars First in shewing Reasons why Godliness will express it self in a Form then Rules to direct the Form by the Power Reasons why Godliness hath a Form The nature of Graces is to be active in the Discovery of it self The Spirit of God is no where more Rhetorical then in the Variety of Metaphors on this Subject He calls it a Light that must shine before men that may as easily be suppressed in its Heat as conceal'd in its Brightness He compares it to the vital moysture of a Tree planted by the Rivers of water that sendeth forth its Blossoms and Fruits in due season to Leaven whose Fermentation continues till it hath Leavened the whole Lump to perfumed Garments the smel of Lebanon and the Powders of the Merchants such an Impulse there is in Grace to display its own Glory So it was with St. Paul who was to beare the name of Christ before Kings saith he I beleived therefore have I spoken and in St. Peter who bare the name of Christ before the Sanedrim we cannot but speake the things we have seen and heard when David mused the Fire burned but it flamed forth when he spake out of the Abundance of his heart with the heart a man beleiveth unto Righteousness and with the tongue Confession is made unto Salvation The sense of those great Priviledges and divine Relations we have by Godliness excites us to it if we are a chosen Generation a Royal Preist-hood a Holy Nation and Peculiar People it is to shew forth the Praises of him that called us so David that was a chosen Prince a Royal Prophet a Peculiar Person did Come and heare all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul it is not proper for that Soul that is Loud in begging mercyes to be Silent when it receives them God hath delivered my Darling from the Paw of the Lyon redeemed me from sin rescued me from Satan ransomed me from the Bottomless Pit and with a greater depth of Love hath invited me with glorious Liberties made me a member of his Son equal to the Angels an Heir of his Kingdom and if I am still silent I must implead his goodness because it is unutterable and my own joy that is unspeakable and full of glory It is Gods end in giving Graces that their intrinsick Worth and Lustre may shine forth to his own Glory and the Good of others we are filled with the fruits of Righteousness to the praise and glory of God and hereby is the Father glorifyed if we bring forth much fruit Grace loseth that advantage of its Influence and Exemplarity when it is a candle put under a bushel which it hath when all the Graces shine as a Branch of lights to the whole house when faith leads a Monastick Life is an Hermit in Solitudes and agitates devout meditations in a private Bosome it is an inclosed Garden in a Wilderness it gives pleasure to a contemplative Life but
inquiry into those mysteries that is the Emulation of Angels to pry into if a man hath Honour this Power makes it a Champion for the Patronage and Lustre of Religion it Humbles him to fling down his Coronet at the feet of the Lamb and Advanceth him because he hath something the world hath an Esteem for to Deny for his Saviour which is beyond the Proportions and possibilities of ordinary Christians if he hath Riches this Power turns his Almoner feeds the Hungry cloaths the Naked Erects Hospitals builds Schools of Learning and makes his life the definition of the Law of Charity all his measures in religion are laudable and transcendent not onely thrust down and shaken together but running over But do not these Gloryes of the Power of Godliness discourage those that are weak in grace I answer that it may be propounded as a Probleme that the New-born Babe hath more strength then the Old man the infancy of grace is more powerfull then the Decrepid Age of an inveterate Lust as there is more vigour in a few Drops of Spirits then a great quantity of water so there is in the smallest seed and sparkle of Godliness then the greater measures of Corruption for this seed grows in the midst of all the Tares that would choak it and this sparkle lives in the midst of all the waters that would extinguish it and the smoaking Flax and bruised Reed break forth into Victory against all the Winds and Tempests that oppose them which strange vigour doth not arise from the immortality of any Grace in it self but from the supplies of that spirit that is greater potentior saith Beza stronger in us then he that is in the world I shall conclude all by an instance how to reduce the Habit of Love that Powerful and Operative Grace into act which when it is once Kindled in the Bosom of a man he finds his Heart like the Disciples going to Emaus burn in the flames of a most Seraphical Affection The Master of the Sentences denies any habit of Love in the soul but asserts that all its Emanations flow immediately from the Person of the Holy Ghost but seeing the Apostle expressly distinguisheth between the habit of Love and the Spirit as between the Effect and its Cause when he tells us That the Love of God is shed abundantly in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost and the Acts of this Love are Defined to be the Fulfilling of the Law the Bond of Perfection and the end of the Commandment we may reduce this habit into act by Examples and Arguments 1. By Argument Enter then O my soul into those Galleries wherein the King of Glory Walks and is Detained and Observe how he hath commended his Love toward thee All the Dimensions of his Love its Height Length Depth and Breadth are so many Topicks to perswade and allure thee to be Espoused to him as thy Bridegroom The heighth of this Love is Extasie that God over all blessed for ever equal to the Father in whom are hid all the Treasures of wisdom and Knowledge whom the Angels worship should have his heart Ravished with a Creature polluted with Blood defiled with Sin subjected to Damnation that when thou wast upon the Precipice of Ruine stretched forth his hand to save thee and draw thee into his Bosom Canst thou O my soul forbear to say with the beloved Disciple To him that Loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever The depth of this Love was humility he humbled himself to assume our nature in the Form of a servant to bear our miseries and become obedient to death David and Jonathan were a famous pair of Lovers Jonathan who was heir apparent to the Crown Knew David was designed for it by the Almighty yet was faithful to him in his secrets sollicitous for him in his Dangers and gave him his hand to advance him to his own Throne But the Love of Christ is without a Parallel That supream power should assume the Form of a Servant infinite glory should submit to a Reproach exquisite Purity should suffer imputed sin that the Son of God's Complacency should bear the Viols of his Wrath should descend from heaven come out of the Bosom of his Father to enter into a Grave what greater token of his Love could he give thee then his Agony his Blood his Life Surely O my soul thou art harder then Iron if this Loadstone will not draw thee Well might Solomon rifle all the Rarities of Nature to be Symbols of this Love to which the whole Creation is not sufficient to be an Allegory For greater Love then this hath no man then to Lay down his Life for his friend but herein he commended his Love to us that while we were sinners he died for us Consider the High Priest of our Profession hanging on the Altar of his Cross with his arms stretched wide open to receive thee and canst thou forbear Leaning on his Breast and prying into the secrets of his Love the Knowledge of which passeth Understanding The Breadth of this Love is Universality so immense it is that it hath mercy for thousands a Plenteous Redemption salvation to the uttermost he tasted death for every man and Laid down his life for the world No man ever perished for want of Bounty or Bowels the Passion or Compassion of a Saviour but because his sensual Part is offended at Christs Cross and commands Consider then O my soul how delectable are his Laws how glorious his Cross Obedience is essential to Love and where it is habitual there is as much Pleasantness in his Precept as there is Sweetness in his Promise if thou prefer profit with Judas pleasure with Zimri honour with Diotrephes an Obliquity before a Right path thou dost not only sin against the Precept but the Grace of God that would assist thee to observe it Faith looks at a future Retribution but love immediately at the Merit of the Law-giver and the kindness of his Commands and if the Amabilities of them were once presented to thee it would be as uneasie to thee to be vicious as it would be to a vicious Person to be Devout thou wouldst see Liberty in his Yoake and Lightness in his Burden it would be as a Wing to a Dove an help in motion as Ballast to a ship an hindrance against fluctuation As his Commands are Pleasantness so is his Cross peace our Saviour to commend his Love to us consulted not the Dignity of his person the Tragedy of his Passion but longed for his Suffrings thirsted after his Cup hungred after that Passover which he was to eate with such bitter herbs Esteem then O my Soul but all things as Dross to know the fellowship of his sufferings which are Seals of thy Adoption Pledges of Gods paternal Love and and work an eternal weight of Glory The length of this Love is eternity it s an antient Love from everlasting he loved us first its durable to everlasting he loved us to the end it is not Critical or Captious to take offence at every lapse or Omission And if it be lawfull to speak of the Duration of God by the Measures of time this Love was as great in the first Moment as it can be to Eternity for then did the admirable and astonishing Wisdom of the blessed Trinity consult the Salvation of thy Precious Soul by the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God when the fallen Angels were left in a State of irrecoverable Perdition That he that is Glorious in holiness should be a Sin and a Curse for us by the Projects set up from everlasting is so stupendious a Depth that unless it had been manifested in the Gospel had been the highest Blasphemy to imagine it and what the Wisdom of the three Persons did contrive the Love of the second did bestow he loved us and gave himself for us Thou must then O my Soul either account all this a Golden Dream or a well devised Fable or else not suffer the world to be a Rival in thy Estimation and Affection with the Son of God if these meditations be seriously beleived and judiciously weighed thou canst not Expostulate what is thy Beloved more then another Beloved who is the cheifest among ten thousand altogether Love and altogether Lovely 2. Converse with divine Objects and Examples As Flame Kindles Flame so doe examples excite Love and Objects not only Attract the heart but Ravish and Transform it if David muses the fire will burn if Moses be in the mount his face will shine the Butterfly doth adorn her self and the Bee enrich her self by dwelling on the Flowers of the feild if a Ray of Love may spring from a Glance how much more from a Vision face to face a full contemplation of the beauty of holiness I shall consider but three freinds of the Bridegroom and their Delicious Intimacies with him Mary Magdalen she loved much and kissed the feet of Christ to acknowledge her subjection to him she washed them with her Tears and wiped them with the Haires of her head if there wâ—re virtue in touching the Hemme of his Garment much more in kissing his feet that were so Beautifull that his very foot-stool was glorious and the Throne of Grace St. John we may say kissed the hands of Christ to acknowledge his Dependance on him whose hand was the great instrument of Bounty whose Bosom in which he Lodged the Treasury of Grace and Cabinet of secrets where he had the misteries of the Kingdom of Heaven revealed to him could a man choose a diviner mansion or inhabite a better Tabernacle The Spouse kissed the Lipps of Christ to show her Communion with him Those Lipps that had Grace powred into them and spake the Words of eternal Life such Examples will excite the heart to Emulation and make it sick of Love I will give him then ten thousand Kisses and embraces I will serve him praise him Trust in him till my love is consummate by being for ever with the Lord And then O my Soul if he should aske thee as he did Peter Simon Bar Jonah Lovest thou me thou wilt answer as he did Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee By this instance we are directed to exercise any other Grace of the Gospel FINIS