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A20534
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A remedy against priuat contentions A godly and fruitfull sermon on Iames, 4.1. &c. Wherin is at large discouered the hatefulnes, and perniciousnesse of priuate iars and contentions, with manifold remedies against the same. By Mr. Iohn Dod.
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Dod, John, 1549?-1645.
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1614
(1614)
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STC 6942; ESTC S116344
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22,830
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33
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A REMEDY AGAINST PRIVAT CONTENTIONS A GODLY AND FRVITFVLL Sermon on Iames 4. 1. c. WHERIN IS AT LARGE DISCOuered the hatefulnes and perniciousnesse of priuate Iars and Contentions with manifold remedies against the same By Mr. IOHN DOD 2. Cor. 10. 3 The weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mightie through God to cast downe holds AT LONDON Printed by Humfrey Lownes for Thomas Man and are to be sould at the signe of the Talbot in Pater noster rowe 1614. The points of Doctrine handled in the Sermon following Doctrine 1. It is a most horrible sinne and shame for Christians to liue in strife and contention Doctrine 2 Our owne distempered affections are the cause of contention with others Doctrine 3 Whosoeuer is led by his lusts neuer maketh a thriuing or a sauing bargaine of it Doctrine 4 Earthly minded men are still subiect to bee vexed with enuie Doctrine 5 Prayer is the best meanes to bee prouided of all needfull things Doctrine 6 It is most iust that God should denie and reiect their prayers who aske of him earthly things for worldly respects Doctrine 7 It is a dangerous and damnable kind of adulterie to set our minds on earthly things Doctrine 8 All men are esteemed of God as they are affected A REMEDIE AGAINST Priuate Contentions Iames 4. 1. c. 1 From whence are wars and contentions among you are they not hence euen of your lusts that fight in your members 2 Ye lust and haue not ye enuie and haue indignation and cannot obtaine yee fight and warre and get nothing because yee aske not 3 Yee aske and receiue not because ye aske amisse that yee might consume it on your lusts 4 Yee Adulterers and Adulteresses know yee not that the amitie of the world is the enmitie of God Whosoeuer therefore will be a friend to the world maketh himselfe the enemie of God IN the former Chapter the Apostle had sharply reproued them for that bitter enuying strife contention that was among them perswading them vnto peace and louing agreement but because they would bee ready to answere that they liked well enough of peace vnitie Obiection but they had so many vvrongs and indignities so many occasions of griefe discontentment offered vnto them that they could not auoide brawles and iarres and therefore they were not to be blamed for their dissensions but all the fault was in others that prouoked them hereunto Answer To this he answeres in the beginning of this Chapter saying From whence are warres and contentions among you are they not hence euen of your lusts As if hee should haue said vvill you now lay the fault of your iarring and contending vpon others If you doe so you little know your owne hearts for all your distempers proceed from no other cause but from your owne lusts that is your ouer-eager desire of earthly things viz. of profit pleasure or credit and these strong vvorldly affections must needs bring forth such effects because they fight in your members that is in the powers of your soule especially yet so as also they breake forth and shew themselues in the parts of the bodie They trouble your minds and memories disquiet your wils and affections causing you one while to thinke well of such a thing or such a person and by and by to dislike the same one while to wish for this or that presently after not to care for it nay many times to abhor it hence ariseth a ciuill warre as it were vvithin your selues and thence it is that you contend with others for he will accord vvith none that cannot agree vvith himselfe Next he sets before them the effect of these wordly desires verse 2. Ye lust and haue not as who should say what doe you get by giuing place to your lusts The more you lust the lesse you haue Obiection And where they might thinke themselues hardly charged and that this accusation of earthly lusts and affections could not be proued against them Answer Yes saith hee it will plainely appeare by the effects in that yee enuie and haue indignation one against another now if you did not care for and loue the world you would neuer enuie those that goe beyond you in wordly things Obiection Further it is added Yee fight and warre and get nothing Then belike might some say wee are not Gods children if things be thus farre amisse on our parts and God also deale so seuerely vvith vs. Answer Answ Nay the Apostle doth not conclude any such matter but sayes thus much in effect you may be Christians many of you though very carnall Christians and children you may bee though ill children neither is the Lord to bee charged with ouer-seuere dealing no it is not the hardnsse of the father that vvill not grant but the badnesse of the children that will not aske that is the cause why you get nothing so that it was not the want of friends nor the want of means that caused them to be in necessity but the want of praier and so consequently of a faithfull heart and fitted to receiue the things they prayed for Obiection But here they would reply again as hypocrisie makes men full of shifting and say you charge vs that wee doe not pray that is not so I haue prayed againe and againe and yet am neuer the better Answer Indeed saith hee Yee aske and yet ye receiue not and why Because ye aske amisse As if he had said if ye speede not in prayer it is certaine all is not well in your prayers for that is a key to open Gods treasurie neither is his eare â—uer shut against the faithfull supplications of his seruants and hereby doth it appeare that you aske amiss in that ye aske That ye might consume it vpon your lusts They would not be so absurd as to say so to God Lord giue me this that I may bestow it vpon my lusts but that was their purpose intent which is euident by this that the scope and drift of their petitions vvas for earthly things if they were sicke oh how earnest would they be for wealth if in debt what importunitie vvould they vse to get out it of and so for other the like matters but why did they aske these worldly things Euen for worldly respects not to serue God better but to serue themselues they desired health that they might pursue their commodities or follow their pleasures and delights they asked wealth to the intent they might hold vp their heads with the best that they might haue larger maintenance that they might better their apparell and their diet c. Obiection What if we doe desire these things in those regards is Obiection that any such great fault Answer I will tell you saith the holy ghost Yee adulterers and adulteresses c. As if he should haue said you wretched and sinfull men and women doe you imagine that God doth bestow these things vpon you that you should abuse
not so tamed as it should be I am not able to maister it grant thy strength therefore vnto thy seruant that I may be able to preuaile against it Vse 2 Secondly this is for instruction that if euer wee would liue comfortablie in regard of our selues or others wee should labour to haue the command of our owne hearts and minds It is a maruellous errour in men and women to thinke if I had so much liuing so much credit and respect and withall a strong and healthfull bodie then my heart would be at quiet this is a foule and monstrous delusion what will outward things heale a sinfull soule It is as absurd as if a man that hath his arme or his legge broken should say Oh if I had a sute of cloth of Gold or a paire of silke stockings or my chamber hanged with veluet I should feele no paine euery man would thinke such a one out of his wits because his paine is within his bodie which those outward things cannot remoue so it is with euery strong affection and vnmastred desire they are corrupt humors cleauing vnto the soule and therefore let the parties be shifted hither and thither and haue their estate mended and their reputation bettered yet if they bee not healed within they are neuer the neerer to any sound contentment Quest How to master strong affections But how should wee attaine to the mastering of these boisterous affections Answer First we must mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit the best haue flesh in them but they must bee euer knocking of it downe Now then we mortifie the flesh by Rom. 8. the spirit when we bring spirituall reasons against the lusts thereof and seeke to quench the flame thereof by powring water vpon it and taking away the fuell that might maintain it A man may haue perswasions from his friends but those will not kill his carnall desires but the perswasions of the spirit will and therefore wee should vse the arguments of Gods word for the crucifying of our flesh But many take a contrary course when they feele themselues stirred they aggrauate all the euils that are vpon them and all the wrongs that are in their conceit offered vnto them their memorie will forget no circumstance of them Neither will their tongues faile to amplifie them at the full and hereby they imagine to ease themselues but alas this is to adde lust to lust and to heape more drie wood on the fire that burneth too vehemently alreadie and therefore let them vse Gods meanes or neuer looke to liue quiet and peaceable daies A second meanes to bring our boisterous affections into subiection is to liue and labour diligently in a calling for labour is appointed to humble the sonnes of men and whosoeuer doth not vse this medicine may quickly make worke enough for a whole towne for idle persons are alwaies passionate and when they haue nothing else to do they fall to conceits and surmises and suspicions and iealousies and when the least occasion is offered out comes all the filthie matter that hath beene breeding within them Thirdly that we may get victorie ouer the ill affections that stirre within vs wee must consider that wee are Pilgrimes 1. Pet. 2. 11 Many are verie impatient and crie out of their miserie that it is such as they neuer looke to liue merry day more but what neede they trouble them selues about that it may be they shall not liue an houre more a Pilgrim is in his Inne at night and gone in the morning and so may they and why therefore should they make such a long and tedious matter of their crosses If they haue assurance of heauen their momentanie afflictions are nothing in comparison of that eternall crown of glory which shall bee bestowed vpon them If men would cease looking and lusting after the temporall things which are seene and fasten their hopes and desires vpon the eternall things which are not seene they would esteeme and reckon their heauiest griefes to bee verie light and their longest afflictions to be short and momentanie 2. Cor. 4 17. 18. Fourthly and lastly let vs consider of that which was mentioned before viz. that fleshly lusts doe fight against our 1 Pet. 2. 1 soules Those that are in thraldome vnto them thinke it good husbandrie to yeeld vnto them and hope to better their estate thereby but do they know what God saith in this matter Hee telleth them that they make warre against their soules they blindfold their minds that they cannot see into spirituall things they make their hearts fat and senselesse that neither threatnings nor promises iudgements nor mercies will any whit at all moue them Now when wee find in our selues these hurtfull affections and dangerous lusts and we doe not onely feele them but others also far much the worse thereby were it not great madnes to nourish them still within vs Therefore let vs rather vse these and all other good meanes to suppresse them then any meanes at all to cherish and strengthen the same Vers 2. Ye lust and haue not In these words he setteth out the absurditie of other lusts by the ill effects they haue along and tedious seedes time but all their labour and toile comes to nothing they are altogether disappointed of their expected haruest whence the Doctrine is that Doct. 3 Nothing is gotten by yeelding to lust Whosoeuer yeeldeth vnto his lustes neuer makes a thriuing nor a sauing bargaine thereby but the more he lusts the more he lackes and the more eager his desires are the more and greater his wants are likely to be Reason 1 First because the loue of earthly things makes God his enemy For hee that loues the World the loue of God is not in him but hee withdrawes his heart from God and 1. Iohn 2. 15 Iere. 17 goeth a whooring after the world the setting of our affections vpon the creature maketh vs to be estranged from the Creator Secondly as the desire of earthly things makes men impious against God so doth it make them iniurious towards men He that hasteth to bee rich cannot be innocent Pro. and he that is greedie of gaine troubleth his owne house and that which is said of the excessiue desire of gaine holdes as true in all other sinnefull lustes that he that is greedie of pleasure or credit or any the like is still a troubler and disquieter of those with whom he liues because first his owne heart is poisoned and being distempered within he must needs shew his distemper without Therefore the more God loues vs the more he wil crosse vs so long as we set our hearts on lying vanities for hee knowes that if wee had them in that manner and measure as wee desire they would turne to our owne and others exceeding great hurt and disaduantage For the more we desire any earthly thing the more we shall abuse it as the more we desire any heauenly thing the