Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A26155
|
A sermon before the queen at White-hall, May 29, 1692 by F. Atterbury ...
|
Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing A4153; ESTC R7712
|
12,125
|
34
|
such as there is hardly greater between Man and Beast And this proceeds all from the different Sphere of Thought which they Act in and the different Objects they converse with The Mind is Essentially the same in the Peasant and the Prince the Forces of it naturally equal in the untaught Man and the Philosopher Only the one is busied in mean Affairs and within narrower Bounds the Other Exercises himself in Things of weight and moment And This it is that puts the wide distance between ' em Noble Objects are to the Mind what the Sun-beams are to a Bud or Flower They open and unfold as it were the Leaves of it put it upon exerting and spreading it self every way and call forth all those Powers that lie hid and locked up in it The Praise and Admiration of God therefore brings this Advantage along with it that it sets our Faculties upon their full Stretch and improves 'em to all the Degrees of Perfection of which they are capable It farther Promotes in us an exquisite Sense of God's Honour and an high Indignation of Mind at every thing that openly profanes it For what we value and delight in we cannot with Patience hear slighted or abus'd Our Own Praises which we are constantly putting up will be a Spur to us to procure the Glory of God in every Other instance of it and will make us set our Faces against all open and avow'd Impieties Which methinks should be consider'd a little by those Men who can be silent under the foulest dishonours done to Religion and its great Authour For tamely to hear God's Name blasphemed by Others is no very good Argument that we have been us'd to Honor and Reverence him in good earnest Our selves It will beyond all this work in us a deep Humility and a Consciousness of our own Imperfections Upon a frequent Attention to God and his Attributes we shall easily discover our own Weakness and Emptiness Our swelling thoughts of ourselves will abate and we shall see and feel that we are lighter to be laid in the Ballance than even Vanity it self And This is a Lesson which to the most part of Mankind is I Think very well worth learning We are naturally Presumptuous and Vain full of Ourselves and regardless of every thing besides Especially when some little Outward Privileges distinguish Us from the rest of Mankind then 't is odds but we look into Ourselves with great degrees of Complacency and are wiser and better every way without doubt than seven Men that can render a Reason Now nothing will contribute so much to the Cure of this Vanity as a due Attention to God's Excellencies and to the Praise of ' em By comparing These with our Own we shall learn not to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think of Ourselves but to think soberly We shall find more satisfaction in looking upwards and humbling Ourselves before Our common Creator than in casting Our Eyes downward with Scorn upon our Fellow-Creatures and setting at nought any part of the Work of his Hands The vast distance we are at from Real and Infinite Worth will astonish us so much that we shall have no Mind to value Ourselves on those lesser Degrees of Pre-eminence that Custom or Opinion or some little accidental Advantages have given Us over other Men. I shall mention but one Use of it more and 't is This That a conscientious Praise of God will keep Us back from all false and mean Praises all Fulsome and Servile Flatteries such as are in use among Men. Praising as 't is commonly manag'd is nothing else but a Tryal of Skill upon a Man how many good Things we can possibly say of him All the fine Characters that ever were made are heap'd together and thrown into One for His sake And no matter whether it belongs to him or not so there be but enough on 't Which is one deplorable Instance among a thousand of the Baseness of humane Nature its small regard to Truth and Justice to Right or Wrong to what is or is not to be prais'd But He who has a deep Sense of the Excellencies of God upon his Heart will make a God of nothing besides He will give every thing its just Encomium Honour where Honour is due and as much as is due because it is his Duty to do so but the Honour of God will suffer him to go no further Which Rule if it had been observ'd a Neighbouring Prince who now God be thanked needs Flattery something more than ever he did would have wanted a great deal of that Incense that has been pay'd him Upon these Grounds does the Duty of Praise stand and these are the Obligations that Tye us to the Performance of it 'T is the End of our being and the very Rule and Law of Our Nature flowing from the Two great Fountains of humane Action the Understanding and the Will naturally and almost necessarily It is the most Excellent part of our Religious Worship enduring to Eternity when the rest are to be done away and pay'd even Now after the frankest manner with the least regard to Our own Interest It recommends it self to us by several peculiar Properties that Belong to it As it carries more Pleasure in it than all other Kinds of Devotion as it enlarges and exalts all the Powers of the Mind as it breeds in Us an exquisite Sense of God's Honour and a Willingness to promote it in the World as it learns us to be Humble and Lowly Ourselves and yet preserves us from the Baseness of Flattery from bestowing mean and undue Praises upon Others A great deal more might be said for it if This were not sufficient For no Subject affords more Room for our Praises than the Praise of God it self if we had leisure to pursue it I shall now shut up the Arguing part of this Discourse with a short Application to Two sorts of Persons the Careless and the Profane One of which Neglects the Practise of so Important a Duty and the other lives in Defiance of it A Neglect in this Case is certainly the Grossest that can be 'T is we see the Neglect of our Duty our Honour our Interest and our Pleasure all at once 'T is to omit doing that which we were purposely sent into the World to doe And without doing which all the other Affairs of Life are but one continued Impertinence That which we have so many Obligations to doe and no Excuse for leaving undone For Praise is within every Man's Reach There is no One but has it in his Power to be Thankfull God commanded the Jews to acknowledge his Sovereignty and Beneficence by Sacrifices a Costly and a Troublesome way of Worship Of Us he requires onely the Cheap and Easie Offering of Our Thanks and Praises And shall we not pay it Alas we do not Every thing proves an hindrance to us in the way to this our Bounden Duty and Service We are too
A SERMON Before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL MAY 29. 1692. By F. ATTERBURY Student of Christ-Church Published by her Majesty's Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. PSAL. L. 14. Offer unto God Thanksgiving AMong the many Excellencies of this pious Collection of Hymns for which so particular a Value has been set upon it by the Church of God in all Ages This is not the Least that the true Price of Duties is there justly stated Men are call'd off from resting in the Outward Shew of Religion in Ceremonies and Ritual Observances and taught rather to practise that which was meant by these things and to which they were design'd to lead sound inward Vertue and Piety The several Composers of these Hymns were Prophets Men whose Business it was not onely to foretell Events for the Benefit of the Church in succeeding Times but to correct and reform also what was amiss in the present Race of Men with whom they liv'd and convers'd To preserve a foolish People from Idolatry and false Worship To rescue the Law from corrupt Glosses and the superstitious Uses which were made of it And to put Men in mind of what they were so willing to forget that Eternal and Invariable Rule which was before these Positive Duties and would be after e'm and was to be observ'd even Then in preference to ' em The Discharge I say of this part of the Prophetick Office taking up so large a room in the Book of Psalms has been one reason among many others why they have been always so highly esteem'd of Because we are from hence furnish'd with such an Account of things as takes off the Exceptions of those unreasonable Men who run down all reveal'd Religion as a Pretence and a Trick from what they imagine they see of it in that of the Jews The whole of which they first suppose to lie in Outward Performances and then easily perswade themselves that God could never be the Authour of such a mere Piece of Pageantry and Empty Formality That it could never be agreeable to the Divine Nature to delight to be worship'd by a Company of wild and unaccountable Ceremonies Which Objection of Theirs we should not know what to say to unless we could prove out of the Psalms and other parts of Prophetick Writing that the Jewish Religion was something more than bare Outside and Shew And that Inward Purity and Spiritual Devotion was a Duty Then too as well as Now. One great Instance of this Proof is in the words now before us which are taken out of a Psalm of Asaph's written on purpose to set out the weakness and worthlessness of external Performances when compar'd with more vital and substantial Duties To enforce which Doctrine God himself is brought in as delivering it Hear O my People and I will speak O Israel and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God The Preface is very solemn and therefore that which it ushers in we may be sure is of no common Importance I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy Burnt-Offerings to have been continually before me That is I will not So reprove thee as if These were the Only or the Chief Things I requir'd of thee I will take no Bullock out of thy house nor He-goat out of thy folds I prescrib'd thee not Sacrifices for my Own sake because I needed 'em For every Beast of the Forest is mine and the Cattle upon a thousand Hills Mine they are and were before ever I commanded Thee to offer 'em to me so that as it follows If I were hungry yet would I not tell thee for the world is mine and the fulness thereof But can ye be so gross and Senseless as to think me liable to Hunger and Thirst as to imagine that wants of that kind can touch me Will I eat the Flesh of Bulls or drink the Blood of Goats Thus does he expostulate severely with 'em after the most graceful manner of the Eastern Poetry The Issue of which is a plain and full Resolution upon the Case in those few words of the Text. Offer unto God Thanksgiving Would you do your Homage in the most agreeable way would you render the most acceptable of Services Offer unto God Thanksgiving The use I intend to make of these words is from hence to raise some Thoughts about that very excellent and important but much neglected Duty of Praise and Thanksgiving A Subject not unfit to be discours'd of at this Time whether we consider either the more than ordinary Coldness that appears a-late in Mens Tempers towards the practice of This or any other part of a warm and affecting Devotion The Great Occasion of setting aside This particular Day in the Kalendar some years ago Or the Fresh Instances of mercy and goodness which God even Now has been pleas'd to bestow upon us Answering at last the many Prayers and Fastings by which we have besought him so long for the Establishment of Their Majesties Throne and for the Success of their Arms and giving us at length an Opportunity of appearing before him in the more delightful part of our Duty in the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving among such as keep Holy days Offer unto God Thanksgiving Which that we may do let us enquire first what is meant by offering Praise and Thanksgiving unto God and then how reasonable it is that we should do so Our Enquiry into what is meant here will be very short For who is there that understands any thing of Religion but knows that to offer Praise and Thanks to God is to have a lively and devout Sense of his Excellencies and of his Benefits to recollect 'em with Humility and Thankfulness of heart and to express these Inward Affections by suitable Outward Signs of 'em by reverent and lowly Postures of Body by Songs and Hymns and Spiritual Ejaculations either Privately or Publickly either in the Customary and Daily Service of the Church or in its more Solemn Appointments upon extraordinary occasions This is the Account which every Christian easily gives himself of it and which therefore it would be needless to enlarge upon I shall only take notice on this Head that Praise and Thansgiving do in strictness of Speech signifie Things somewhat different Our Praise is properly terminated on God on the Account of his natural Excellencies and Perfections and is that by which we give Honour to all his several Attributes but Thanksgiving is a narrower Duty and Imports only a grateful Sense and Acknowledgment of past Mercies We praise God for all his glorious Acts of every kind that regard either us or other men for his very Vengeance and those Judgments which he sometimes sends abroad in the Earth But we thank him only for the Instances of his Goodness and for Such only of those as We our selves are concern'd in This I say is what the Two words strictly mean but since the