Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A67828
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen at Guild-Hall Chappel, February 4, 1682 by Edward Young ...
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Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing Y67; ESTC R34113
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12,981
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31
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Pritchard Mayor Martis vi die Februarii 1682. Annoque Regis Caroli Secund. Angl. c. xxxvi THis Court doth desire Mr. Young to Print his Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at the Guild-Hall Chappel on Sunday Morning last Wagstaffe A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND ALDERMEN AT Guild-Hall Chappel February 4. 1682. By Edward Young Fellow of the College near Winchester LONDON Printed by I. Wallis for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1683. A SERMON Preach'd before the LORD MAYOR ON S. Matthew Chap. v. vers 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven THE Christian State that is a Holy Life is frequently exprest in the Scriptures by the Metaphor of a Building and the Metaphor may suggest thus much unto us That there is a certain Order to be observed in raising the Moral Structure as well as the Mechanical There are some Virtues proper for the Foundation upon which all the rest must be built and without which they cannot stand such are all those that tend to the humbling of our minds as a true knowledge of our selves and a conviction of our unworthiness and a just abhorrency of our natural corrupt desires There are others proper for the superstructure and finishing of the work such are all those that tend to the raising of our Affections as Love Joy Hope and Confidence in God Now whosoever in his Building shall neglect this Order and intend the raising of his Affections before the humbling of his Mind he that shall affect the Love of God before the Mortification of Nature a Zeal for Religion before the condescentions of Charity a sort of spiritual Saintship before a moral Change such a one is like that foolish builder mentioned by our Saviour in the close of this his Sermon on the Mount he may make a fair shew of a house but he bottoms it upon the sand and when wind and storm and flood that is when any searching temptation shall come and assault it it will certainly fall It was not therefore casually or without a particular design that our Saviour began his holy institution with this Duty of the Text and recommended Poverty of Spirit to his Disciples before all other The very Order it bears imports no less than this That Poverty of Spirit is a Duty that requires the beginning of our care and the first of our applications because that so long as we are without it it is impossible for us to make any holding progress into the state of Christianity Which truth will farther appear from the explication of the words In order to which I shall determine these two Questions First Who are meant by the poor in Spirit Secondly What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven to which the poor in Spirit are here intitled As to the First I take these words Blessed are the poor in Spirit to bear a parallel sense to those we meet with Psal. 15. where the Psalmist having put the question Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle and who shall rest upon thy holy Hill He answers ver 4. He that is lowly in his own eyes In which expression we know that by Eyes is meant the inward sight of Imagination that faculty of the Soul wherein we form our Images and conceptions of Things and value them accordingly So that by Lowly in his own Eyes is meant a Man little in his own Conceit and esteem Now the word Spirit as it relates to Man is taken indifferently to signifie either the whole Soul or any of its faculties and I presume that in the Text it is taken to signifie this particular faculty of Imagination and so Poor in Spirit and Lowly in his own Eyes appear to be expressions of the same importance they carry in them the same notion and thought and denote a person that is Little in his own conceit or esteem that is in a word an Humble Man I confess that the word Spirit is most frequently used to signifie the Irascible or passionate part of the Soul and so Poor in Spirit might naturally be interpreted of such a one as is little in Passion calm in Resenting slow to Anger but then this Beatitude would fall to be the same with that at the 5th v. viz. Blessed are the Meek which as we cannot easily guess to have been intended so we must reasonably conclude that by Poor in Spirit in the Text is meant no other than the Humble Man I come to the second Question viz. What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven to which the poor in Spirit are intitled It is evident from many passages in Scripture that this Phrase The Kingdom of Heaven does signifie not only the Future blessed State where the Faithful are said to reign with Christ in a full participation of Immortality and Glory but it likewise signifies the present Christian state where Christ is said to reign over the Faithful by the influences of his Grace and the discipline of his Gospel Thus the holy Spirit hath thought fit to signifie Man's Happiness and his Duty by the very same expression Whether First To suggest one principal point of Wisdom that is That we should never think of our Happiness but we should at the same time think of our Duty too and the necessary dependance that the one hath upon the other Or Secondly To intimate that the Kingdom of Heaven both here and hereafter that is the two states of a Christian in this Life and in the next though they differ in Circumstances yet in the main Essential they are but one and the same For Example It is but an accidental Circumstance to a Christian that he be either a Traveller or a Citizen that he be either Militant or Triumphant but it is an everlasting Essential to him that he be Holy and in this both states must agree As therefore the Kingdom of Heaven may justly ravish our thoughts with the notion it bears of the Beatifick presence of God of the Company of Angels of Glory Pleafures and Joys that are unmixt and eternal so it may as justly serve to awaken our Care and diligence and strict Inspection of our selves to consider that this very Kingdom must be begun within us we must Here lead the Heavenly Life we must Here conform in Saintship to the Blessed that are above and all the Graces that they have in Perfection we must here have in Degrees and all aspiring towards perfection 'T is the Kingdom so begun that shall have its consummation in bliss But if the Spirit of this Kingdom do not work in us and change us Here if our corrupt inclinations do not dye before us but we continue Filthy the Future State can never change us By subduction of the Means by incapacity of the Subject by irreversible Doom we must be Filthy still The Kingdom of Heaven bearing these two different significations of Grace and Glory the Question
Humble Man is always guarded against the Surprize of his Passion And though Religion be the fairest Pretence and that which does most Speciously engage Men in what is most contrary to Religion publick disturbance yet the Humble Man is always aware of the Cheat For he knows how to distinguish between the movements of his Passion and of his Conscience The one only make a Man Firm the other make him Violent which the Humble Man never is He knows it is his duty to contend earnestly for the Faith but never Mutinously He knows it may be his Duty to Dye for Religion but never to Quarrel for Religion for that is as absurd a Pretence as if a Man should draw his Sword to maintain the Unlawfulness of Duels And this brings me to the last and finishing perfection of the Christian state that is Holiness Which is the Christians Conversation with God his Spiritual Life consisting in the exercise of those Offices that are purely Religious I come to shew the Influence of Humility upon These The Apostle that sometimes compares our Body to a House because of its natural Inhabitant the Soul does likewise sometimes compare it to a Temple by reason of its Divine Guest of the Holy Spirit of God And if ever we will be Temples indeed 't is Humility must make the Consecration 't is Humility that first distinguishes us from an Unhallowed Pile that conciliates the Presence of God and determines his Abode with us For the High and Holy One that inhabiteth Eternity decleares that he has but two Residences I dwell says he in the high and holy Place with him also that is of an Humble and Contrite spirit Whereof if we enquire the reason we shall find it to be this Because Humility is the sole Foundation of Commerce betwixt God and the Soul For first As Humility implies in its notion a due sense of our want and insufficiency so it carries in it the whole Reason of Prayer and Application and Dependance upon God 'T is the thirsty panting Hart that flies to the water brooks 'T is the empty voided Soul that flames out into desire and therefore God is said to Give grace unto the Humble because of the necessary Tye that is betwixt Humility and Devotion Whereas any greater thought of Worth and Sufficiency in our selves must necessarily in proportion supersede our addresses to God and reduce our Devotion first to Formality and then to Neglect Secondly As Humility implies in its notion a just sense of the Divine bounty from whence come all our supplies so it carries in it the whole Reason of Praise and Thanksgiving the which is the Christian Sacrifice Whereas the Proud Man who naturally imputes the Success of things either to Fortune that so he may seem obliged to none or else to Skill that so he may seem obliged to himself in the first case he offers no Sacrifice at all and in the second all that he offers is to his own Dragge In a word as Humility implies in its notion a sense of our Own Unworthiness so it is the same in effect with the Fear of God as it implies a due sense of our Distance so it is the same in effect with the Honour of God as it implies a due sense of our Obligation so it is the same in effect with the love of God Of such extent is the influence and power of Humility that let a man but take care not to check the conduct of this single Vertue and it shall naturally and easily lead him through all the Offices of a Religious life But on the contrary what mischiefs Pride will bring upon Religion we need not go far to inform our selves For as the Son of Sirach Eccl. vii 3. tells us of Pride in reference to particular practice That it makes a Man Eat up his Leaves and lose his Fruit and leave himself as a dry Tree so we may say of it in reference to the publick profession of Religion That it eats up its Order and loses its Substance and leaves Christianity an empty Name 'T is owing to the influence of this Vice that instead of one Faith and one Consent in Religion we see so many different Religions set on foot and the greatest part of Professors overlook the main Offices of Self-denyal and whatsoever is burdensom in the Cross of Christ and take up with a Religion that consists only in a notional zeal and presumptuous Claims to God Almighty 't is owing to the influence of this Vice that we see many Zealots advanced above the use of Ordinances and Sacraments into a pretence of Illuminations and Transports and more intimate Communions with the Deity Give me leave to make one more particular instance of the mischief of Pride in reference to the Office of Prayer Pride in Prayer sounds indeed like a mighty solecism for what possible consistency can we imagine between two such opposite dispositions of the mind Prayer the display of our wants the imploring of succour the humbling of our Selves as Dust and Ashes before the Lord our Maker and our Judge What Agreement what Room for Pride in this Holy Office And yet even here Pride has iufinuated its Poyson and made that Office which ought to be the Bond of Unity the Badge of Dissention For Example Few of us can be ignorant of the expedience of publick Liturgyes or of the constant Usage of them in all Ages of the Church or of the particular Excellency of ours of the Church of England than which what Prayers can be more Piously conceiv'd or more sensibly exprest or more wisely accommodated to all humane exigencies And yet this notwithstanding we see it come to pass that the joyning in these Prayers is not only neglected by multitudes of people but it is counted a sort of abomination and made a matter of Schism And now whence comes all this mischief but only from the Pride of those Men who were resolv'd to withdraw all respect from the publique Prayers that they might transfer it upon their own Gifts Those who imagin'd that there were more Charms in their own Conceptions than the Publick and that the use of such a borrowed Form would bring a Scandal upon their own Affluence as Naaman the Leâ—per thought that his washing in Iordan would be an affront to Abana and Pharpar All which is no other than a meer phrensie of Pride But what Are we still of the Lamian Fashion have we never our Eyes open at home Can we not see our own faults or have we not sufficiently heard of the Pride of the Church of England We have heard of it and we have likewise heard of an old Rancounter betwixt two Philosophers not a little resembling the Case The Cynick Diogenes meeting one day with the Excellent Plato habited as he usually was in the decent Garbe of the Court snatches his Mantoe from his shoulders and treads it into the dirt and cries out Thus I trample upon Plato's Pride Plato gently takes up his Garment again making only this Reply 'T is true Diogenes thou hast trampled upon my Pride but surely with a greater Pride of thine own I shall not run the Parallel so far as the Instance would bear I shall only say this by way of Reflection upon it That if Decency be a Crime as we see that it has sometimes been accounted one Our Church is not ashamed of the Guilt and if Cynical and Malicious treatment be Humility her Adversaries want not their share To disown the Pride of Men of whatsoever Constitution were Pride it self as much as it were to disown their Peccability But I hope it will appear to the Indifferent that the Church of England has not so much Pride as her Accusers nor did ever shew either so much Insolence in Authority or so much stomach against Authority as they have done However I have but one Wish for all and that is this That whatsoever measures of Humility are wanting in any of us may by God's Grace and our own application timely be supply'd Humility being the only Expedient to Christian Union as it is the only Moral Disposition to the Kingdom of Heaven and as it is the most certain Indication of real worth where-ever we find it For Opinion of our selves is like the Casting of a Shadow which is always longest when the Sun is at the greatest distance but by the degrees that the Sun approaches the the Shadow still shortens and under the direct Meridian Light it becomes none at all 'T is so with our Opinion of our selves while the good influences of God are at the greatest distance from us 't is then always that we Conceive best of our selves but still as God approaches the Conceit lessens till such time as we receive the fuller measures of his Graces and then we become absolutely voided pure Nothing in our own Conceit and God appears to be as really he is All in all To whom c. FINIS * See the Advices of the Cardinals to Pope Adrian in Father Paul's History