Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A43138
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A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, January XVI, 1675/6 by Roger Hayward.
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Hayward, Roger, 1639-1680.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing H1236; ESTC R25424
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15,953
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38
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the frequent and solemn proclamation of his Will and invocation of his Name are but as the dead Records of a Chronicle or Calendar which will no better keep up the Honour of the Creator than they do the Wonders of the Creation Soon would the incursions of worldly vanities seconded with our own sensual lusts bear down that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. that natural inclination we have to God and all the Characters he hath left of Himself in our Conscience or in the Creation if they were not often quickened and refreshed by the most devout remembrances and that deep forgetfulness of God which we call Atheism is not born with nor suddenly seizes upon any but creeps upon them insensibly by the disuse of his Service 2. But supposing we could preserve the Reverence of God without it yet neither can this or any other Principle make us good without his assistance to make it present and powerful This is a Truth which the Conscience of the worst Men seals for why else do they flye to Nature Necessity and Impossibility to be their Compurgators And the Confessions of the best do avow who finding the greatest difficulty to be rooted in themselves cry out with the Apostle Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are who shall deliver us Yea and those that never heard of the mighty Wind on Pentecoste yet would not grant that any could be excellent sine afflatu divino so the Orator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Hierocles And however Men may pride themselves in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and think their Souls can mend themselves when they list yet they dare not trust their Bodies when sick and languishing to the weak remains of life and strength to effect their own recovery Arise take up thy bed and walk would be a scornful taunt from any Mouth but our Makers some new Spirits and Succours they are forc'd to flye to to joyn with and reinforce their poor baffled powers for what can they do when they themselves are opprest and out of order There is indeed an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-moving power in the Soul which can never be lost there is an Elatery a motus restitutionis an endeavour to Goodness in the Conscience which cannot be extinguished but when this power is corrupted when this spring is rusted and a mighty weight lyes upon it what weak effects are we to expect from it When the light within us is darkness when reason it self the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath tamely given up its Sovereignty to be led captive by divers lusts how can it alone bring about its restauration And now if the one necessity of the Divine Assistance be admitted I know not how the other of humble applications to Him can modestly be denied Gods Grace descends not like the common Blessings of the Light and Showers whether Men desire it or no it were not grace but force not assistance but violence were it not earnestly and humbly sought Mat. 7.7 Ask and ye shall have seek and ye shall find And of the success of this there can be no doubt if we consider in the next place 3. The direct propriety our Worship of God hath to make us good There are but two ways without miracle whereby we may ever hope it by being clearly instructed and sufficiently obliged and encouraged to it whatsoever doth these doth edifie all else is but empty noise and rituality Now what clearer accompts of Goodness can we desire than those we have from the Laws and Life of Goodness it self which took a Body and dwelt among us and what stronger bonds could Wisdom and Love heve knit than those of Duty and Interest of Gratitude and Hope of Assistance and Success where our Maker intreats our Saviour bleeds his Spirit and our Consciences contend with us where his terrours do beset us his bowels of compassion yern towards us and the Heavens are open'd before us how is it possible we break through all to our ruin These are the engagements God lays on us in his Worship but we are not meerly passive there we come not to be enchanted and chained but to bind all these upon our selves by our own act and deed when we confess we do not tell a sad story but abjure our iniquities before God his Holy Angels and Men when we pray we do not plead or argue with God but we humbly declare our purposes and our requests if they are serious become our vows when we praise him we cause not our voices to be heard on high but we humbly breath out our hearts to him having no greater present for his Love Lastly when we receive the Holy Communion we devote our selves to Him with all the solemnities of fealty and friendship and how stupendious soever a misery some have made of that Act of Worship by straining the holy Expressions of the Fathers into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it yet in this our plain despis'd notion 't is an excellent Instrument of uniting us to the Holy Jesus in spirit and if we believe Him the flesh profiteth nothing John 6.63 Briefly the summ of all that Goodness that can make us acceptable to God to others to our selves is Humility Charity and purity of Spirit For the first Men never see themselves in a true light those especially who have few or none superiour to them upon Earth but when they stand in His Presence there the shadows flye away and they as Job see and abhor themselves in dust and ashes Job 42.5 6. there men of all degrees are found to be lighter than vanity How great improvement Charity gains by it will be the next enquiry But how is it possible that we who live in continual familiarity with the World chiefly those who are under no restraints of want or fear should keep our selves undefiled without those solemn retirements from it whereby we may disintangle our Minds from the Cares and Pleasures of it and by tasting the good things of the world to come correct the keenness of our Appetites to this 'T is to be expected that some should reply to this Discourse Hath the Temple then monopoliz'd all Goodness Is Grace appropriated only to the Priests Lips Can Reason do nothing without those dull Formalities Were not Greece and Rome as fruitful of happy Spirits as the City that was watered with the River of God God forbid 2 Cor. 4.7 that we poor earthen Vessels should ever arrogate any power over the Treasures committed to us And would to God all the Courts of Princes the Seats of Justice and Schools of Learning were holy as the Courts of the Lords House But if many of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the best natural dispositions of the strongest faculties and of the greatest advantages of education and observation do yet fall short of those Virtues that may thence be expected there is no reason to be given for it but their
complain It is in vain to serve God And now upon the whole we may conclude 1. what a necessary connexion there is betwixt the Services of Worship and Obedience I pray it may never happen to these as it hath done to others as near Allies Faith and Good Works Reason and Grace to be put at odds and both to lose by a needless competition and yet our practice bids too fair for putting a doctrinal difference betwixt these why else do we offer God an hour or two's attendance for a whole weeks licentiousness a few bows and Amens for a many high provocations We run deeply in debt to his Justice in confidence that the next time we wait on Him in his House we shall clear all and then as if we had left Him our Debitor we forbear not any thing our lusts do call for Thus we make our Christian Sabboth and Service a rest from our sins but in the worst sense that is only a short pause to take breath and heart to pursue them with a greater resolution Were our God some Topical one as those of the Hills and Valleys of old whose Authority were shut up within their Walls then this might pass for Worship but whatever we call it 't is but a base and scornful Flattery fit for an Idol that is nothing God forbid we should any of us serve our Friend our Benefactor our King as we do our God! that is come and stand demurely in his presence accuse our selves and vow amendment hear all he can promise or threaten to engage us to it and immediately take every trifling occasion to rebel against him If we need not obey Him why are we so foolish to worship Him If we must worship Him why are we so false to disobey Him Is his Being so glorious to deserve that and are his Laws so contemptible to endure this We need not use so much ceremony to be wicked and miserable Let us take heed lest He justly reward us for such daring mockery that is laugh at our calamity Prov. 1.26 27. and mock when our fear cometh as desolation and our destruction as a whirlwind And as our worship without obedience is vain so our obedience without worship is impossible We complain against the corrupt manners of the Age and cry out Is 1.16 From the sole of the feet even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores and what do our complaints but only fret and exasperate what can all our Arts do but only palliate the Evil How shall we be mended whilst our Souls are out of frame and how shall we ever recover our ancient Virtues without that ancient seriousness in Religion which hath ever been observed to be the particular Genius of this Nation yea even then when it fell infinitely short of those great advantages it now enjoys Can Virtue rise out of the dust or Righteousness spring out of the earth or Sobriety and Purity grow out of our corrupt lusts Can knowledge or reasoning alone subdue those evil habits they have been so long used to abet and maintain Mercies have made us wanton and Judgments stupid and we have been too miserable and are yet too happy to be mended without the mighty grace of God This then is the great the fundamental Evil the sourse of all the rest that we neglect or pervert the greatest and only remedy he hath appointed for our cure that we trifle with God in his Service that should procure those succours without which we shall never be better whilst some Men make it their sport others their trade some the matter of their contention and some few the entertainment of their idle time Whilst we thus abuse Gods counsel and assistance what hope can remain for us Were that breath bestowed in hearty prayers that is spent in fruitless murmurings did we use that thoughtfulness in our addresses to God that we lose in our vain contrivances they would no doubt turn to a better accompt than they do When we have wearied our selves with our loud complaints and our little remedies we may find at length that 't is as impossible to mend as to make a World or a Soul without God And however in the days of our prosperity we trifle with Him as an useless thing without whom we can shift well enough Prov. 7.28 yet when distress and anguish cometh upon us we shall with much more earnestness but as little success call upon him but he will not answer seek him early but shall not find him Luk. 16.19 as the tormented Glutton in Hell where there is a faith though trembling a devotion though despairing begg'd one drop of refreshment but it could not be granted him What help then are we to expect from these who talk at the rate of those in the Text I mean not the wild Enthusiasts only whose zeal is as keen against Courts as Churches were they not better guarded but those that would be the Restorers of Reason the Defenders of the Liberties of Nature who would free the Countrey from the impostures of those wily Craftsmen who cry up this their Diana to get them utterance for their shrines Whosoever he be that makes Gods Worship an Engin to keep up his own 2 Thess 2.4 8. whoever he be that sits in the Temple of God to exalt himself above all that is called God we pray as the Apostle prophesieth that God would destroy them with the spirit of his mouth But sure all Scripture is not Bell and the Dragon nor all houses of prayer become dens of thieves were there any close mysteries any secret adyta any pretences to inspirations or miraculous powers in our Worship then they might suspect some juggling but when every part and passage is plain and open as the Book that contains it to the meanest Worshipper what is it they can be jealous of And would they would consider e're they cry down with it even to the ground whither Schools and Colledges and Courts do not lean on the same Foundation Were the Names of Virtue and Goodness were Mens own Nature and the Happiness of the World truly dear to them the Names of the Great God the Maker of the World Father of Spirits and Fountain of Goodness and of the Holy Jesus the Restorer and Saviour of them would be highly venerable to them and all the Offices of Adoration to them would be the most wise and serious actions of their life How much then do they deserve the care and love of us all those especially who have not only the Government of Men but the highest the tenderest Trust imaginable greater than that of Durandus his Angels committed to their charge Bak. Chron. Canutus who though they cannot with their foot stop the swelling Tide yet by their hands and tongue may check the Land-flood of profaneness and barbarism and by Gods blessing say Thou shalt go no further and so help to save an Age of Souls which else must perish at their charge whose Examples are able to retort all the Arguments of Irreligion upon its own breast whose very countenance and behaviour is able to demonstrate far more effectually than all our faint breath that 'T is not in vain to serve God To conclude This weak accompt I have given of the usefulness of Religious Worship hath no other desire than to remove that ugly vizor that hath disfigured not only the Faces of the Votaries but even that of Religion it self and made it look like a dismal and chagrene thing and so hath it disguised its native loveliness that some enjoyn it most look upon it as a meer penance and to be sad and devout to be religious and ghastly are grown the same so those in the Text make the Service of God consist in walking mournfully before him which whether it relate to their gate look habit or temper or Ezra's fasting 't was nothing that God required of them the Good God never intended his Service should waste any Mans spirits damp their hearts drein their estates or disturb the World if any therefore be sick be poor be dispirited or contentious 't is not this that hath made them so There are indeed in Religion some sharp Medicines and if these put Men to pain and sorrow they are to blame their intemperance that hath made them necessary and to call in the hopes of health to make them tolerable and yet there is not any the least bodily necessity the meanest worldly advantage no nor the vilest lust but puts Men to more torment and slavery forces them to bow to watch to pray to kiss the dust more than the most painful addresses of the humblest Suppliant and Penitent under the first and purest Discipline of the Church Did God require some hard and heavy things of us Josh 9.23 were our Service in the Church as tiresome as that of the Gibeonites in the Temple 1 Kings 18.28 29. or as cruel as that of Baals Votaries and to as little purpose then might we say as they do ch 1.13 What a weariness is it But since He asks no more than that we rest from our labours and come together into his presence that we worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker that we laud and love his Name that we confess and forsake our sins which have no other fruit but sorrow and shame and that we hear and obey his Laws that our Souls may live let us never repine to give Him this reasonable Service which will so abundantly reward us enrich our Souls with goodness unite our hearts in love and prepare us for the service and joys of Angels and perfected Spirits by the Merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Worship and Obedience given world without end AMEN FINIS