Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A65982
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A sermon preached before the King and Queen at White-hall, on Sunday, Jan. 8, 1692/3 by William Wigan ...
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Wigan, William, d. 1700.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing W2099; ESTC R39394
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11,810
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30
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A SERMON PREACHED Before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL On Sunday Jan. 8. 1692 3. By WILLIAM WIGAN Chaplain to Their MAJESTIES Published by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. A SERMON Preached before the King and Queen MATTHEW vi 34. latter part The morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof OUR Blessed Saviour who knew that inordinate thoughtfulness for the things of this Life was a very common and great hindrance of our Salvation in this Chapter useth many and powerful Arguments against it He shews ver 25. That his Disciples ought not to take thought for their Life what they shall eat or what they shall drink nor yet for the body what they shall put on because the life is more than meat and the body than rayment That is He who before we had knowledge of wants gave to Man Being Sense and Understanding which are of greater value and shew more power in Him and goodness towards Us will not deny us the means of Food and Clothing which are more easie for him to grant as He knows they are necessary for us to obtain Which we may the rather believe because He hath taken care as our Lord teacheth 26 27 to the 30th of the Fowl of the air and the Grass of the field and therefore will surely be more mindful of them whom he hath made after his own Image Christ in the 32. v. shews how fruitless also this thoughtfulness will prove which cannot add an inch to our Stature or a minute to our Age. And in the 32. v. that the Gentiles They who have no hope but in this Life and who are concern'd there should be no other They place all their happiness in making provision for their stay here But this sollicitousness ill becomes them who believe they have a Father in Heaven who knows their wants and who if They seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness hath assured them that All these things shall be added unto them Since then all Christians have a higher object of their care the Eternal state of their Souls of which if they are chiefly mindful God is ingaged to supply what their bodies truly require No Christian can justly complain that the necessities of his Life are not supplyed unless he have first practis'd all that which Christ commands and if any one hath not first sought the Kingdom of God he hath not yet a title to this Promise But there is little cause to fear any such complaints They that have first serv'd God uprightly have not wanted leisure for their just occasions and also have had a special blessing on their labours Godliness hath been profitable for this life and as it hath ingaged men more conscientiously and steadily to follow their callings so it hath produc'd excellent fruits to the industrious Christian For the honesty and fidelity which our Holy Faith teacheth us to observe in our duty towards man in our respective professions as part of our Religion are virtues of such importance that they seldom fail to earn more than daily Bread For if as the Gospel enjoyns we are sober and temperate meek and inoffensive just and charitable If we are not as Eye-servants in our Callings but servants of the Living All-seeing God if we possess our vessels in Sanctification and our Souls in patience waiting for the coming of our Lord Can we believe that we shall want either Bread or esteem or protection in this Life Are these so cheap Virtues that there is no need of them in any Family or Country Are the opposite practices of Vice of Sloth of Treachery and Injustice so valued and so truly profitable to Mankind that they will procure if universally followed a far surer livelihood than the duties which Christ enjoyns his followers to observe Or doth it appear that Epicures and sensual Persons such as have made their belly their God and have valued neither Right nor Wrong Faith nor Promise Heaven nor Hell have generally speaking been better regarded and their actions and examples been recommended by Parents and Law-givers rather than theirs who looking for a Life to come have chiefly strove to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man God indeed is pleased to suffer some wicked persons to prosper by their sins but how few are they in respect of the vast numbers of such as laying aside all care of their Souls abandoning themselves to voluptuousness and idleness to rapine and iniquity have fallen into poverty and come to miserable untimely Deaths And how few are they who by Prayer recommending their virtuous endeavours to God have not found his Providence a sufficient Inheritance Therefore in order to a more ready dependance on his Promise As God hath appointed us an uncertain and it may be a very short stay here so he hath not made it necessary to have abundance That we may be the better at leisure for his Worship and our preparation for Eternity He hath so ordered it that our Natures do not require such vast provisions as Covetousness or the fashion of the World provoke us to seek after Therefore Food and Rayment convenient are to be had of the growth of all Countries But they who will fare deliciously and sumptuously and be cloathed to the heighth of their own or their neighbours Vanity They who set not their hearts upon what their health requires but what others do or wear They are pierc'd through with many cares They must run great dangers must make shipwreck of their Consciences must be slaves to other mens Vices in order to content their own And after all find that Luxury and Pride and an Evil Eye are never to be satisfied And these are the Men who when their expectation is not answered rave against God's Providence and question his Love to Mankind for not giving what they neither truly wanted nor He ever promised to bestow upon them Therefore since the Health of the Body and the Content of the Mind are best promoted by Simplicity of Diet and Moderation in our Desires And since the observation of Christ's Precepts tends to the advancement of Peace Charity and mutual support of Christians in lawful Vocations justly may our Saviour require all who believe in him after they have doen their duty to Take no thought for the morrow And yet after all these Motives he useth Two farther Arguments I. The morrow shall take thought for the things of it self II. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof By these Two Considerations our Lord strengthens his Prohibition given 25 and 31 verses and repeated in this verse whereby we are not to understand that we are to be wholly unconcern'd for the future as resolved Beggars are or they who take upon them the Vow of Poverty and Laziness the pests of Commonwealths and burthens of other Christians