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A70459
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A sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, at the Guildhall-Chapel on the fifth of February 1681/2 by J. Lambe ...
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Lambe, John, 1648 or 9-1708.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing L221; ESTC R17540
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19,313
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49
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compassion of our weakness hath prescribed us rules of life which in the Love and Practice are a certain Cause an inexhaustible Fountain of Joy and Peace Which leads me to the Third head of discourse proposed namely III. To Illustrate the truth of the Assertion that this Blessed Peace and content of mind will certainly follow upon the Love and practice of the Law of God Great Peace have they that Love thy Law First now this inward Serenity or Peace of mind may either arise from the Smoothness the Steddyness the Agreement of our Actions or Secondly from a prudent government of our selves and our affairs under all circumstances and in all conditions or Thirdly from Internal Spiritual communications of courage joy and comfort to the Soul But the Love of the Law of God will both dispose us for and effectually operate to the production of Peace after all these several ways and according to all our Capacities of receiving it And First Content or peace of mind arises from the Smoothness the Steddyness and Agreement of our Actions But the Law of God is compiled with so much Wisedom and with such respect to Inclinations of the humane nature that it guides its subjects through all the parts and Scenes of life in a consonant equal sutable procedure To govern our lives by a Rule with reguard to one last End which shall run through all our actions causes Peace and Acquiescence how unwarily soever we have chosen or however we may have forced and contradicted our Wills and live in a kind of Violence to our Inclinations because we have Approved and are Resolved we are delivered from multiplicity of ends and objects from the repugnancies of contrary desires from the contradiction of divers interests from the torment of hesitation shame and confusion But the Peace which flows from the Love of the Law of God is not only the satisfaction of Order and Uniformity in our motions or the terminations of all our actions in the one great end of Glorifying God and saving our Souls But the Duties themselves which the Law requires are the proper actions of reasonable creatures the very best motions of our own minds the most exquisite Pleasures and Entertainments of our being If therefore the constant observation of a Rule be a certain Principle of Peace and Satisfaction how much more the Observation of such a Rule the commands whereof are the very vital Powers and Perfection of our Natures For the Soul enjoys and exercises its life chiefly by the mediation of the body in the way of action Such therefore as our actions are such is the Health or Sickness the Strength or Weakness the Beauty or Degeneracy of the mind Psam 19 7. 119.142 Jer. 31.33 But the Law of the Lord is Perfect It is written in our hearts it is within our selves directing us to such a government of our Affections Wills and Actions as we our selves cannot but approve For it is not a matter of dispute but we Know infallibly by an exquisite sense of the Tendencies and Inclinations of our inward life that to be wife and just to be pure and holy to imitate the life of God are the unquestionable Excellencies of our being the habits or Perfection of those Dispositions which we feel in our selves And the more we Practise it the more we shall discern the kind agreeable nature of it because the Prejudices of contrary opinions and desires will wear away the Soul will be more and more Awakned into a sense of its own life and by degrees recover a beautiful habit a sound vivacious constitution Perfect content and Peace is therefore the necessary effect of Loving the Law of God because the right Opinions the true Relishes the proper Exercises of the Soul are the same which the Law it self commands There is a Sympathy an affinity between the Mind and Vertue Whosoever therefore are under the power of Godlike dispositions are eo nomine in a full Possession of Pleasure Ease and Peace That is the First Secondly Content or Peace of mind proceeds from a prudent Government of our selves and our affairs under all circumstances from a Judicious prosecution of Good from a dexterous eschewing of Evil and from a ready application of reasons or means of peace to our selves in all Events But the Law of God is contrived with such respect to the Happiness of men that those who are under its Power and Conduct are throughly instructed in all the arts of a wise procedure And First in the most Effectual methods of Acquiring good and Diverting evil And Secondly in such Dispositions of mind and principles of Reason that none of the passions or accidents of life shall Deject our mind or Destroy our peace First It instructs us in the most Effectual methods of acquiring good and diverting evil The destruction of most men is from themselves Either our ends are out of our reach or some way or other unsutable to us Or if we have Chosen well yet how many thousands miscarry in the Prosecution Either we are Vain and Presuming or Timerous and Dejected Debauched and Negligent or Rash and Violent Giddy and Inconstant or Conceited and Ungovernable Our own Temper our own pretended Wisedom are the Principal instruments of our vexation and disappointment But the Law of God is a lively and exact Image of an Vnderstanding infinitely Perfect Those therefore whose minds whose wills and actions are informed and governed by it partake in a proper sense of the Wisedom of God himself and are moved in some sort by the vigour and activity of a Perfect Mind Hence Solomon represents Religion speaking of it selt Wise counsel is mine and sound wisedom I have understanding I have strength Pro. 11.3 For Vertue disciplines and subjects the body stills the passions files off the chains and removes the weights which depress and sink the soul into a sluggish unactive State and restores it to a Free and ingenuous exercise of its own life and being And thus redeemed from the dominion of passion from the power and impulse of the lower Spirit our Apprehensions of things will be distinct and clear our Inward Sense will be true and quick our Judgment masterly and comprehensive directing our faculties and instruments of action with an assured Light In a word whosoever is under the Power of the Law of God will improve in his knowledge he will be prudent in the choise of his ends Sparing of his Affections Master of his Passions advised in his proceedings Resolute in difficulties Seasonable in his applications Vigorous in his Executions and always present to Himself And thus his decrees shall be established and the light shall shine upon his ways Job 22.28 It would be tedious to state particular cases and show how this Principle of Love to the Law of God would act and show it self in laying the Design disposing the instruments foreseeing the difficulties and finally compassing the End it is enough that the Law is
oeconomy of the world and the Liberty of agents and all disposed according to the good will and pleasure of a Supreme agent And thus I have drawn together the most considerable Moral Assistances which the Love of the Law of God will Furnish us withall for the Acquiring good Diverting evil and the Pacification of our minds in all Events 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hier. in Aur. Car. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de Tranq an But the wicked are exposed to Misery and torment for want of these pious arts of Defence and safety They govern themselves by Inconstant Principles by Diversities of Goodness and are distracted by Multiplicity of Objects They steer their lives at Adventure The Images and representations of a corrupted fancy are the best Reason and Councel of their Resolutions which are pursued and executed by a torrent of Hot ungoverned Spirits They grope in the dark and stagger like a drunken man as it is in the 12. of Job v. 25. And the steps of his strength shall be straitned his own Counsel shall cast him down Job 18.7 Pro. 4.18 Isa 1.56 But he that hath Chosen the Law of God for the rule of his life is instructed in all the moral Instruments of Peace His passions are Temperate his Mind Inlarged his Judgment True his Resolutions Steady his Counsel Solid his Confidence Unshaken his Courage Invincible his Execution Vigorous but above all whatsoever happens he is satisfyed in himself that he hath endeavoured to doe the Best 3. And as Peace or tranquility of mind proceeds from the Equality of our lives and from the Moral Accomplishments of the mind so Lastly from Divine and secret communication of Joy and comfort of Courage and assurance of Vnspeakable Bliss and Glory to the Soul But this is the certain effect of Loving the Law of God For the Law of God is God dilated and spread forth to us And the pleasures of God are not distinct from himself but the Reflexion upon and the Enjoyment of his own Perfections The display and exercise of his Wisedom Providence Power and Goodness For nothing without himself can entertain a being that is infinitely perfect Whatsoever therefore is Good is Pleasant and in Perfect Good there is Perfect Pleasure The weakest disposition therefore to the Life of God hath so much in it of Absolute Delight as it partakes of the Divine nature But he that Loves his Law is the lively Image of God Himself he desires by His affections he is moved by his Will he acts by the measures of Infinite Goodness he preserves the Unity of his Soul with its Root and Principle and shall therefore be filled with those Divine delights which flow and are Inseparable from the Life of God But the Complement and Perfection of this inward Peace and Joy Job 22.22 Psam 17 15. are the Secret Testimonies of the Favour of God and the Irradiations of His Love These are the greatest Rewards of Vertue upon earth the Positive pleasures of Religion And though they do not flow by Natural Causality from Obedience to the Law Yet an humble expectation of such a Blissful Presence of God in the Soul is both Reasonable in it self and much encouraged in the Holy Scriptures For a man Regenerate and sanctifyed by the Law of God approaches so near to his likness Sympathizes so exactly with His being lives His Life does His actions serves His purposes and magnifies His glorie that it is not Immodest to expect the rays of the Divine light should Shine into him that God should Encourage his vertue with Sensible expressions of His Love That according to his promises He should manifest Himself unto Him Joh. 14.27.15.11 Eph. 5.30.31 Psal 36.7.94.19 And cause Him to drink of the rivers of His pleasure And whensoever God doth thus unfold Himself and His Love to the Soul it must needs be touched with Inexpressible Ecstacy and Joy And thus I have finished the Third head of discourse proposed and have endeavoured to prove that the Love of the Law of God will both dispose us for and Effectually operate to the Production of peace after all the several ways by which it is possible the effect should be produced and according to all our several Capacities of receiving it IV. And so I proceed as I proposed in the 4th Place To consider the full and perfect agreement of this Peace thus flowing from the Love of the Law of God to the Character of my Text Great Peace c. And forasmuch as nothing Greater can be said of a Principle of Peace than what I have endeavoured to prove true of the Love of the Law of God namely that it Operates after all the ways by which it is possible the effect should be produced and to the Highest Degrees the subject is Capable of receiving it It would therefore now be superfluous to collect and in-large any further upon the most Excellent qualities of Peace and to shew their agreement with the Peace of my Text. I have anticipated my pains in this particular by a full description of its nature It is therefore unnecessary to remark the Vniversality of its Influence that every faculty will be Exercised with its proper actions and entertained with its Greatest pleasures That the whole Soul is vigorously informed rightly Habituated and filled up to the very brim Sen. de Vit. Beat. Habitum implevit finibus se suis cinxit nihil extra totum est he hath all and there is nothing beyond it It is needless to Commend the Steadyness the Constancy and Duration of it Because that evidently follows from the Nature of the thing For love is the deepest root and therefore best secured against External violence Joh. 16.22 Rom. 8.37 It is a Principle incorporated into our very frame and nature the effects are therefore necessary and its Vertue infinite and Inexhaustible For Peace of mind and the habit of Love to the Law of God arc in order of time the same and hardly ever to be Separated I shall therefore chuse to improve the little time that is left in discovering the Weakness and Imperfection of all other Principles and Kinds of Peace whatever which will render the Peace of my Text exceeding Great and Glorious not onely in it self but because there is none Besides it And there are three Dispositions or habits of mind which comprehend the rest and in especial manner Pretend to give us Peace The First is that which is falsly called Liberty of mind the banishment of Religion and the fear of Invisible Powers Thinking Speaking and Doing what we list The Second is an obsequious superstition or the Compensation of a licentious life by External rites and services The Third is an Vnconsidering Vnreflecting state a life of Mirth and Jollity It is deplorable to observe how almost eveâ—â— man takes sanctuary in one of these And yet how sadly we shall find them shrink from the test How miserable will they