Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A63871
|
A sermon preached before the right honourable the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen of London at the Guild-Hall Chappel, Octob. the 28th 1677 / by Bryan Turner ...
|
Turner, Bryan, 1634 or 5-1698.
|
1678
(1678)
|
Wing T3270; ESTC R1722
|
13,679
|
40
|
Chaplyn Mayor Martis VI. die Novembris 1677. Annoque Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi Angliae c. XXIX THis Court doth earnestly desire Mr. Bryan Turner to Print his Sermon Preached at the Guild-Hall Chappel on Sunday last being St. Simon and Jude's Day before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe Imprimatur GVIL. JANE Novemb. 22. 1677. A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Mayor AND Aldermen of London AT THE GVILD-HALL CHAPPEL Octob. the 28th 1677. By BRYAN TVRNER B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Carlisle c. One of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun near the West-End of St. Pauls 1678. 2 Tim. I. 7. God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind IN the Consideration of which words three Things will be requisite for me to endeavour 1. The Explication of the Apostles meaning 2. The Observation and Discussion of the grand Doctrine asserted 3. The Application of such useful inferences as that Doctrine offers and the time permits First The Explication will depend upon the satisfaction of these three Inquiries First What is meant by the spirit of fear on the one hand and the spirit of Love on the other Secondly Who he intends by them to whom the spirit of Fear was given for by the other 't is plain he means Christians Thirdly What the reasons are of this different spirit here described 1. Then by the spirit of Fear he means that inward frame disposition or habitual affection of Mind arising from the passion of Fear as by the Spirit of jealousie Numb 5. 15. is meant that affection seizing and possessing the Mind So by the spirit of Love he means the contrary frame or habitual affection For the spirit of power and a sound mind are but coincident with Love and make up that one frame of Spirit opposed here to the spirit of Fear Power is opposed to weakness and a sound mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed to stupidity and abject thoughts so that power and a sound mind are but the immediate results of Love as debility and stupidity are of Fear For Fear naturally is an impotent passion First it weakens the mind and betrays the succours of the soul upon which it secondly discomposes the mind and like an amazing blow staggers and obstructs the acts of Understanding and befools it But Love is a vigorous and active affection and therefore First It gives strength or activity called here Power Secondly It gives thereupon invention will and sagacity called here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound mind or a quick and wisely apprehensive mind Love is always strong and active I cannot say 't is always clear-sighted or of a sound mind and judgment but this defect ought not to be ascribed to the affection but its object 'T is a passionate Love of an undue object that is blind Religious Love the subject of the Text is always clear-sighted i. e. it frames the mind of Man to the noblest and therefore wisest apprehensions of God and things Divine of any disposition or affection whatsoever In short that weakness and meanness of spirit which fear is apt to beget is the spirit of fear That cheerful activity and sagacity that Love is apt to beget and dispose the mind to is the spirit of power love and a sound mind which satisfies the first Inquiry What is meant by the spirit of Fear c 2. Who the Apostle intends by them to whom this spirit of fear was given 3. For what Reasons was it so To both which I answer They were the Jews chiefly under the Mosaical Law not excluding the Heathens under Gentile Superstition That Oeconomy under which the Jew was and that Superstition under which the Gentiles were were the Reasons of that spirit of fear they were under Not that both these were alike in the Apostles account but that in comparison with Christianity as Gentilism was sinful so Judaism was imperfect By this Apostle when Christianity is is oppos'd to other ways of Religion 't is plain he sometimes implies Gentilism but especially Judaism as 't is evident from all his Epistles especially to the Romans and Galatians and when he says in the Text of Christians God hath not given us the spirit of fear he doth imply some others had that Spirit given 'em or were under it That the Gentiles in their Religion were acted by the spirit of fear is manifest from this Apostle who calls their Devotions Acts 17. 22 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superstition or a dread of Demons which with them signified Divine Powers That the Jews under the Mosaical Oeconomy were in a great measure acted by the spirit of fear is evident from this Apostle Gal. 4 6. and Rom. 8. 15. where the same phrases that are in the Text occurring do extend the sense of it to Christians universally as under the Gospel and not to Timothy alone as in a peculiar Function and Ministry We have not received the spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. again to fear as the Israelites at the dreadful giving of the Law Exod. 19. 16. but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father i. e. the filial disposition proceeding from Love excited in us by the placid invitations and paternal directions of the Gospel For that this spirit of bondage to fear refers to the Jews under the Mosaical Law is most apparent from Gal. 4. 1 2 3 c. So that the true and extensive meaning of the Text is this The spirit of fear was a temper naturally imprest by the Mosaical Law and suitable to that Oeconomy a main impulsive principle in their Religious observations of it And in freedom from this consists a great part of that mistaken Christian-liberty this Apostle speaks of in his Epistles Whereas the spirit of Love or a filial disposition is a temper which the Gospel is apt to beget and the chief and permanent principle moving to the Religious observations of it The truth of both which will appear from these Reasons 1. The Law was given in a tremendous manner so terrible was the sight that as the people could not endure that which was commanded so even Moses the Mediator said I exceedingly fear and quake Heb. 12. 18 c. Exod. 19. 16. 2. The Rules it prescrib'd were precise restraints of natural liberty and being both ceremonial and numerous not to add painful and expensive they were a heavy yoke and as the Apostle says intolerable Act. 15. 10. such as neither they nor their Fathers could bear 3. The Sanction of this Law under so severe a Curse was rigorous Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one c. 4. Therefore their delinquencies could not but be frequent and consequently their just fears great and lasting And for this reason as I conceive the Old Testament usually expresses Religion by the
nulla ratione videre Possunt ac fieri divino numine rentur Lib. 1. p. 6. Humana ante oculos i. e. Epicuri faede cum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub Religione Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat Primum Graius homo Epicurus mortales tollere contra Est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra c. Lib. 3. p. 76. Atque ea nimirum quaecunque Acherunte profundo Prodita sunt esse in vita sunt omnia nobis Nec miser impendens magnum timet aere saxum Tantalus ut fama est cassa formidine torpens Sed magis in vita Divûm metus urget inanis Mortales casumque timet cuicunque ferat fo rs This is the opinion of Ghosts and taking things casual for prognosticks Lib. 1. p. 6. Et quae res nobis vigilantibus obvia mentes Terrificet morbo affectis somnoque sepultis Cernere uti videamur eos audireque coram Morte obita quorum tellus complectitur ossa This is the same opinion of Ghosts or Vmbrae which word Lucretius useth elsewhere and the Leviathan in explication of those Ghosts useth the same word Vmbrae Quippe ita formido mortales continet omnes Idem ibid. Quorum operum causas c. Which the Leviathan in the Chapter of Religion translates in these words A perpetual fear accompanies men in the ignorance of second Causes by which and the like 't is evident the Leviathan did not invent but took up these principles out of Lucretius What Epicurus's design was the same Lucretius tells us Religionum animum nodis exolvere to untwist the bonds and tyes of Religion that kept men in such a slavish fear which evidenceth he thought there was no other Religion but Superstition and therefore those words are us'd indifferently by none but the Epicureans and such as quote their Doctrine that I can observe What Lucretius stiles Religio Tully stiles Superstitio who tells us that Epicurus's grand measure was this Omnium rerum naturâ cognitâ levamur superstitione liberamur mortis metu de Nat. Deor. Lucretius expresseth it thus lib. 2. p. 28. Hic tibi cum rebus timefacto Religiones Effugiunt animo pavidae mortisque timores Tum vacuum pecius linquunt curaque solutum All this is to make good my charge that the Leviathan collected only out of Lucretius the Epicurean More might be added but that it would swell this Sermon too big But lest we that seem so much to dislike these accounts of his may be judg'd unable to give any better of our own agreeable to humane nature and experience I shall briefly in consent to my Doctrine search into the nature of man in this particular for better principles than these which I shall submit to the inward experience of mankind and propound 'em as follows 1. The natural seeds of Religion are laid in that imborn sense which the soul has of a Deity the farther investigation of which Deity is left to the more elaborate Acts of Understanding If men might Act. 17. 27. happily feel after him and find him says St. Paul compared with the first and the second to the Romans 2. To this imborn sense of God in the way of knowledg there is an imborn seed of Love in the way of desire and affection adjoyn'd in the same mind to give vigour to it that it might search out that God to a fuller discovery and be happy in the Contemplations and Love of his Perfections I am confin'd from a thousand things in this Cause therefore briefly in a few words Love is properly an intellectual affection and if by reason of mans sensual part it do degenerate into lust 't is because the soul which cannot for the bodies weight have its proper delight is forc't to take up with such fare as is grateful to its companion But if we scan the true nature of this active Principle which we call Love or Desire in humane kind it will be found a vigorous tendency after satisfactory Good incessantly prompting the soul to search out the summum bonum for this is its proper object this is at the end of all desire and therefore 't is restless till it center here as a magnetick Needle till it point to its pole which accounts for that inquietude that is both on Earth and in Hell This Love is the radical affection of humane nature all other passions as we call 'em are but its off-spring for as hopes are but the wings of Desire and joys are but the triumphs of Love so sorrows are but its mourning-weeds and despair is but Loves giving up the Ghost Fears and jealousies and hatreds are but the Agues the Fevers and Convulsions into which Love is cast through the oppositions it finds in its natural course and if they arise to that malignant extremity which we call Despair 't is the death of the soul because they extinguish this vital principle of Love and Desire If that the affections of the concupiscible faculty are natural to man he cannot be without 'em even Dives in torments was as ardent in desires as flames that Lazarus might relieve him with one drop of water and surely the eternal frustration of this radical affection is Hell enough as its plenary and permanent satisfactions are Heaven But now on the other hand all the passions of the irascible faculty are but casual and accidental as fear jealousie hatred c. They are but intended as seconds to Love to fight its Battels and overcome its opposites where no opposite is there is no occasion for their service therefore mans nature may be wholly without these and shall never be happy till it be This love or radical affection after satisfactory i. e. the greatest Good being thus inseparable from the soul of man by looking always out of it self for satisfaction demonstrates That it 's proper object is without it self For finitude is an empty thing much more a single finite Being and therefore from it self alone ariseth no satisfaction which is the reason that all created appetites and desires look out of themselves God only can be happy in and from himself but 't is not good in any sense for man to be alone Created Love therefore is an hunger and thirst that arises from our finite natures and is in a manner wholly receptive Gods Love is the emanation of an infinite goodness and therefore wholly Communicative The flame of our affections like a Lamp must always be fed with Oyl or it will expire God like the Sun gives out his Rays but takes in none This radical Love this impulsive Desire I speak of it not in the act but in the root and principle was the grand Impression or Signature which Divine goodness stampt upon our nature when he made us in his Image and therefore 't is that Tally which nothing can exactly fit but that by which it was struck as the hollow impressions in the Wax can be