Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A49848
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A sermon preached at the anniversary meeting of the Eaton-scholars at St. Mary le Bow, on Nov. 22d, 1683 by Joseph Layton.
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Layton, Joseph.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing L760; ESTC R25797
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12,974
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34
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and Eminent Persons is a bold curiosity to enquire but all the ordinary Confidences which the Spirit of God creates in the Elect are built upon Duty and conditional Agreements Hereby we know we are Translated from Death to Life if we love the Brethren 1 John 3.14 And many the like Scriptures are but Rational Inferences from supposed Premisses And when departing Saints cast the last Eye upon themselves their securest Anchor next to the All-sufficient Merits of Christ is I say ordinarily but the Conclusion of a Syllogism whereof God makes the Major And every Man by the Assistance of his Reason and Examination of his Conscience is to add the Minor Such a joyful Prospect I presume shall ye one day have when after the Toil and Troubles of a busie Life ye shall seek Privacy and be glad to retire into the Simplicity of the years ye this day Commemorate For I reckon we must once more go to School to Con over this dull Lesson of the World again where Experience will be your Master and Repentance your Discipline It shall be a joy then I say upon rational grounds to conclude I have run my Race I have finished my Course henceforth a Crown of Life is laid up for me Lastly and not the least this Education this Ability this Knowledge is best to teach us our own Ignorance and consequently Humility Meekness and Condescention to others He that knows the intricacies of Things the variety of Apprehensions the different sizes of Understandings The Power of Prejudice and Passion must needs have compassionate thoughts for the generality of Men and can with equal affection maintain Reason and pity Ignorance In Sum Among all your Gifts and Graces there is none so Amiable so Honourable so becoming a Schollar as Humility and Modesty and Mercy Insomuch that though you could speak With all Tongues and work Miracles yet without this Charity they were nothing worth So that if we bethink our selves well we shall find this one of the most Reasonable Services of all These are some few of the many advantages of your Education as it qualifies to serve God Reasonably and with Understanding than which next to his Sanctifying Grace he has not bestowed a nobler Talent upon the Sons of Men and which therefore deserves our most serious Consideration and our most sincere acknowledgments To illustrate this a little more and settle it upon your affections it will not be amiss briefly from these Regions of Light to look down and behold the Children of Darkness grovling and wandering in the Mazes of Error whom I reduced to three ranks in our Second Part 1. Such as make no use Formal Customary Christians 2. Such as Enslave it by an implicit Faith 3. Such as renounce and despise it under Pretence of the Spirit 1. Formal The bred and born Christian he that sucks in his Religion with his Country Air and holds his Creed by the courtesie of England that distinguishes Christianity from Mahometanism by Crosses and Half-Moons and the Reformation from Popery by Beads and Bibles In short He that is a Proselyte to Custom and the Laws a Disciple of Leviathan rather than Christ And it is a sad truth How few are able to render a reason of their Faith and yet what a noise and a bustle do they make for the Cause and the True Protestant Religion to whose Support they Contribute no more than the Antick Faces do to the strengthning of a Church 'T is true 't is a mercy to be born within the Pale of the Church to open our Eyes in the Light of the Gospel and so 't is to be born in a Temperate Clime I make no doubt but God accepts the sincerity of the Plough-man as well as the reason of the Philosopher That he will favour his own Gift and receive those to Glory whom he has predestin'd to Grace Altho then These little Ones have their Angels and a Title to the Kingdom of Heaven yet in this blind Felicity they are apt to stumble and when Persecution comes to draw back It is little more then the Homage which Birds and Beasts pay It is seeing by the benefit of Clay and Spittle a Sacrifice without Salt Whereas the Excellency of Religion consists in a free and rational complyance with God's Commands to understand the Excellency of them and this is it that fixed David's heart that preserved Lot amidst a crooked and perverse Generation And made St. Paul so confident That nothing of any Nature should be able to separate them from the Love of Jesus 2. From hence turn your Eye to the Men of implicit Faith and you shall see them creeping before Images adoring of Wafers paying Pensions for Purgatory and Traffiquing for the price of Sins In the midst of all this Pageantry and this Nonsense Their comfort is they believe as the Church believes But God calls upon us to employ our Talent to Exercise our selves in these things to Build up our selves in our most holy Faith and to Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us Free There can be no Articles de Novo impos'd upon the Church because the Church signifies a Number of Men already agreed upon common Terms And to impose New is to alter the Primitive Constitution of the Church But this device serves the ends of both Parties And the Juggle is That what the People part with of their Understanding and the Use of their Reason is made up to them in Allowances and Indulgences for sin in easie Absolutions and cheap Penances 'T is a powerful Temptation to be freed from the trouble of Searching Discussing Examining and it is a strong support of the Papal Tyranny But where has God allowed this shifting and shuffling of Duties from one to another How is it possible for one Man to understand and believe for another But God accepts not the Sacrifice of Fools nor can any Man Redeem his Brothers Life And at the last day whatever aggravations there may be for our Pride and our Sloth in this Case yet there will be no Commutations of Punishments no engagements for one anothers Souls will there be accepted But every Man shall suffer in his own person according as He has done in the Body Lastly Behold the Enthufiast that is above Reason and the Carnality of Discourse and you shall find him to be given over to folly and madness to giddy Doctrines and destructive dangerous Impulses If he commits a murther 't is with the Sword of the Spirit and if he throws down Churches 't is with the Breath of the Spirit In the Transactions with Mankind God declared not only his Attributes but his Nature subsisting in a Trinity of Persons and as such he will be worshipped But is it reasonable that the manifestation of the Spirit should swallow up the work of the Creation and by being Christians we should cease to be Men. If the Scriptures which were given by Inspiration of the Holy Ghost be not