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A61811
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A sermon preached at the assizes held at Chester, September XX. 1681 by N. Stratford ...
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Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S5939; ESTC R33811
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14,271
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40
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against their Brother Levit. 19. 17 18. And can we in reason think that our Blessed Saviour who came not to Evacuate the Law but to Fulfill it who expects that all his Disciples should by their exemplary Virtues become the Salt of the Earth and the Lights of the World and in order thereunto hath more fully reveal'd our Duty and brought Life and Immortality to light the more powerfully to engage us to the performance of it can we I say think that he made us any Abatements If we will but impartially consult his Sermon in the Mount we shall soon be resolv'd in this Matter We shall there find that he hath laid his Prohibition against the Murder of the Tongue and of the Heart as well as of the Hand that rather than knowingly to Do he hath commanded us patiently to Suffer an Injury and instead of returning evil for evil that on the contrary we recompence evil with good And because if there be any persons in the World that we may be allow'd to do a mischief to they may well be suppos'd to be those who for Christ's sake are our Enemies and therefore His Enemies more than Ours so far is our Saviour from giving us a License to do the least Hurt to such as these that he peremptorily commands us to return them all manner of Good for all manner of Evil To bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them who for his sake despitefully use us and persecute us Mat. 5. 44. And that he might effectually oblige us to the observation of these his Laws he transcrib'd them to the Life in his own Practice As while he lived he continually went about doing Good to an ungrateful World and at last freely gave his Life for those who with violent hands took it away so together with his Blood he also pour'd out his Heart in an ardent Prayer to his Father to forgive them Luke 22. 34. This is the Example we profess to follow and these are the Precepts we pretend to obey yea which we have solemnly vow'd to conform to And if we are tied by such strong Bonds to be kind and courteous and good and gracious and that to those who if any Men in the World deserve the quite contrary from us how much more to be just and honest that is as good as Turks and Heathens I know no greater obligations we can have to any Duty than these already mentioned if we are able to break these Bonds none will be found strong enough to hold us I therefore proceed to the second part of St. Paul's Sermon namely Temperance This contains our Duty to our selves as the former that we owe to our Neighbour The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes Power and Dominion over a Man's self and tho it may be extended to a due command of all our inordinate Affections and Appetites of what kind soever yet 't is here to be limited to the Government of those especially to the Tyranny of which Felix was most enslav'd that is to the Lusts of the Flesh as they are distinguish'd by St. John from the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life And therefore I see no necessity of mending our Translation if we take Temperance as comprehensive both of Sobriety and Chastity as giving Laws to all our exorbitant fleshly Lusts and bringing them into subjection to the Empire of Reason and Religion Now so apparently reasonable is this Duty that there is no Man so bruitish who may not easily reason himself into a sence of his obligation to it For whether we consider our Body Soul or Spirit whether we consult our Sense our Reason or our Religion we shall be furnished with store of Arguments to oblige and of Motives to induce us to the practice of it First Our very Flesh it self which alone rebells against it were it capable of reasoning would become its Advocate Tho the sensitive Appetite be absolutely necessary to the well being of the Body yet when it once swells too big and stretches beyond those Bounds that Nature hath assign'd it nothing is more destructive to the Parent that breeds it and nothing more highly advantageous both to the health and pleasure of the Flesh than to retrench the Extravagancies of its own Appetites For 1. Indulgence to Sensuality is a most deadly Enemy to our bodily Health without which the Flesh must needs be very ill at ease The Glutton swallows a Disease in every intemperate Morsel and the Wanton fills his Bones with Rottenness as fast as he empties them of Marrow and by every sort of Intemperance the Sensualist either begets or nurses up some Viper that will prey upon and devour his beloved Flesh 'T would be endless to descend to particulars In general such numerous Armies of Diseases are raised and maintained by this Vice alone as are able to overthrow the strongest Constitution in the World And therefore Diogenes deservedly laugh'd at those Sots who took care to be Embalm'd after they were dead and in the mean time did their endeavour to stink and rot while they were alive 2. Moderation of our fleshly Appetites 't is a great advantage to the Pleasures of the Flesh it gives them a higher and more generous Taste and makes them much more Delicious than otherwise they would be For by restraint our Appetites are quickened our Perceptions are render'd more clear and brisk and by how much the keener our Senses are by so much the more is the Pleasure heighten'd Whereas Prov. 27. 7. the full Soul loatheth the Honey-Comb to the hungry Soul every bitter thing is sweet a Crust of dry Bread and a Sup of cold Water when sawc'd with Hunger and Thirst are more delicious than the Banquets of Cleopatra to a gorg'd Stomach For when the Appetite is let loose 't is soon tired by its own Extravagancy 't is cloy'd and glutted by immoderate Enjoyment and then the most exquisite Entertainments of Lust become not only Unsavoury but Fulsom So foolish and sottish is the Voluptuous for Pleasure's sake he abandons the greater and pursues the less he forsakes a Fountain of living Water and runs to a dirty Puddle to quench his Thirst And if Intemperance be so great an Enemy to the Body then certainly much more In the second place doth it War against the Spirit to the nature working and improvement of which nothing in the World can be more directly opposite It darkens the Mind and enslaves the Will it dethrones Reason and exalts Passion it softens debases and impoverishes the Spirit and renders us wholly unfit for manly Undertakings it throws down all our Defences and exposes us naked to all the Mischiefs that a benighted Understanding an ungovernable Appetite and unbridled Passions can betray us to Whoredom and Wine and new Wine saith the Prophet take away the Heart Hos 4. 11. and in Solomon's reckoning a
upon our Nature so it was never so totally defac'd but that a mere natural Man by a considerate reflexion upon himself might easily read it Witness Aristotle Isocrates and many more Diog. Laert. l. 5. in vita Aristot Isocrat Orat. ad Demon. conducted only by the light of Reason who own'd themselves oblig'd to the observation of it before the Laws of Christ were publish'd to the World Yea so indelibly is it engraven in our Consciences that those who live in a constant defiance to it are not able to expunge it for however they transgress it in their dealing with others yet when their own Rights are concern'd they always expect that others should observe it toward themselves Let us now reflect and commune a while with our own Hearts Are we willing to be wrong'd our selves Are we content to fall a Sacrifice to another Man's Revenge or Ambition Do we desire to be trampled in the Dirt by those that are greater and stronger than we are Would we be fraudulently circumvented in our Contracts Would we be blacken'd by false defamatory Reports Would we take it well to have our innocent Words and Actions wrested to a mischievous construction In a word would we have our own Rights in any kind invaded by others If not with what face can we assault the Body or undermine the Estate or either openly or secretly wound the Reputation of our Neighbour With what reason can we take that Liberty to our selves which we deny to others who may lay as good a claim to it as we can As if we our selves only were free from all Duty to others and all others in Bonds to us Nor are we more tyed to Justice by the Law of our Nature than we are 2. By our Interest which if rightly understood is a Law too 'T is but reason that that should most sway us which all things consider'd is most beneficial to us now would we contrive our own advantage how can we do it more effectually than by an exact observation of the Rules of Righteousness That we are hereby raised to a conformity to God himself whose Image mainly consists in Righteousness and true Holiness and that by the contrary we degenerate not only into Beasts of Prey but become like the very Devil who was a Cheater a Lyar and a Murderer from the beginning will I suppose be deny'd by none And doubtless so much the more happy we shall be by how much the more we resemble the most blessed Being so much the more miserable by how much the nearer we approach to the most accursed But in case we are sunk so far below our Original selves have so much forgotten our Divine Extraction as to place our happiness in the poor little sensual enjoyments of this World yet nothing certainly is more highly conducible thereunto than the exercise of Justice Were we in the Leviathan state of Nature in which every Man's hand would be against every Man should one Man blow up our Credits another seize upon our Estates a third make an assault upon our Lives how calamitous and deplorable would our condition be And yet there is no Man that offers these or any other injury to another but he thereby provokes and invites another to do the like to himself For what reason have we to expect that others should not mete that measure to us that we have meted to them before 'T is true we should do to others not as they do but as we would were we in their circumstances they should do to us But the daily practice of the World assures us That the generality of Mankind make our dealing with them the Standard of their carriage towards us again And therefore when we injure our Neighbours we do in effect but wrong our selves because the wrong we do to them 't is likely they will return into our own Bosoms And on the contrary by every good office we do to others we engage them to do the like to us and in case they be persons but of an ordinary Ingenuity they will not fail as they have opportunity to recompense us But besides the obligation this lays upon others to requite us in the same kind 't is a thing in it self highly venerable and amiable that makes a Man's face to shine and commends him to the Esteem of his greatest Enemies I might also shew how Righteousness exalteth a Nation Prov. 14. 34. in the prosperity of which the welfare of every private person is bound up how Societies are firmly cemented and establish'd by it and by the contrary would soon be broken into pieces and sink into dissolution But I pass to a third Consideration namely the near Relation we stand in one to another 'T was in Moses's account a good Argument Sirs ye are Brethren why do ye wrong one to another Acts 7 Which also the Prophet Malachi urged to the same purpose Have we not all one Father Hath not one God created us Why then do we deal treacherously every Man against his Brother Mat. 2. 10. And St. Paul thought us sufficiently obliged to speak the truth every one to his Neighbour because we are Members one of another Eph. 4. 26. The Learned and the Ignorant the Rich and the Poor the Base and the Honourable they are all of the same ancient Family derive their Pedigree from the same common Parents What tho one be a younger another an elder Brother Tho one hath a more liberal another a more scant Portion of this World's Goods Yet should we not still remember that we are Brethren and be mutually serviceable to each other's good Nor are we more closely tied together by Nature than we are by Religion Eph. 4. 2 3 4. As Christians we are all Members of one Body are all animated by one Spirit and call'd in one hope of our Calling And for those who are so many ways one and the same both by Nature and Religion is it not as monstrous for them to be injurious one to another as 't is for a Man to be cruel to himself and to hate his own Flesh But if these Reasons should be of little force with any Man there is one Argument still behind that will undoubtedly be prevalent with all those who are not so absurd as plainly to contradict their Profession by their Practice For fourthly What doth the Lord in his written Word more expresly require more vehemently inculcate than to do justly and to love Mercy Micah 6. 9. Isa 1. 17 18. These things he accounts not the Lighter but the Weightier Matters of his Law Mat. 23. 23. and sets so high a value upon them that he values nothing where these are wanting And tho the Jews were generally so disingenuous and ill-natur'd that God in some Cases meerly for the hardness of their Hearts made them some Allowances yet he expresly forbad them not only to Hurt but also to Hate or so much as bear a Grudge