a Rock when he remembers that we are but dust There is a natural frailness and inconsistency in our Flesh which makes us always subject to fall away but yet God has given us a Spirit that in some measure is able to support us and where 't is not the Holy Spirit will help us out But they who will contribute nothing towards their own safety must inevitably fall If we let our Spirits languish for want of use refuse to put them upon their trial or to perform that part which God has put into our own Power we have little reason to expect that the Holy Ghost should take upon himself the whole concern and trouble of our Salvation Therefore to comply with the Rule in my Text. Whensoever we find our selves tempted unto Sin and see our Vertue strongly beset from without let us retire within our own Souls Commune with our heart and see what assistance we can fetch from thence Let us deliberate with our selves what will be the consequence of our Sin and impartially examine the present conveniences which we propose in it and the inconveniences which we know must follow from it and having set the one fairly against the other let us prudently weigh the Pleasure against the Pain and see which has the over-balance As for instance we would comply perhaps with some boistrous Passion or gratify some extravagant desire Covetousness or Lust Ambition or Revenge or some such unruly Affection is ever and anon attempting upon our Soul and claiming the precedence of our Vertue And to an unwary Man it cannot fail of many plausible Arguments to plead in its behalf That the desire is natural and the satisfaction great that revenge is pleasant and stollen Waters sweet but that Vertue is a severe melancholy institution an unnatural Discipline an unnecessary restraint that debases our Spirits robs us of the enjoyment of our Youth and is an entertainment proper only for a sedentary decrepit Age. If these perswasions prevail in all likelihood the Man is lost and never lives to that Age when Vertue comes in Fashion But if Vertue were allow'd to speak for it self it would make a very good defence where Vice should be asham'd to shew its Face The time will come when we shall understand the force of Abraham's Argument My Son remember that thou injoyedst thy good things in thy life time and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Then we shall see the difference between Abraham's Bosom and a sumptuous Feast the short tumultuous interrupted Entertainments of the one compar'd with the spiritual Eternal Pleasures of the other Nay that we may not go so high for a comparison we shall find the poor Man that lay begging at the Gate in more happy condition than he that feasted sumptuously at the Table Take him with all his Poverty and Wounds about him yet his Faith and Vertue will make him whole and his Conscience affords him a better Feast than all the rich Mans Estate can purchase An honest faithful heart is a sure Retreat where we may find safety and satisfaction too against all the Calamities of this Life and he that has so good a refuge can never complain that he is destitute and forsaken He carries his Comfort with him in his Breast which can never be taken from him whilst the Sinner carries his torment there and what gaiety soever may be in his outward shew yet at his heart there grows a worm which will never die and in his Entrails he has already kindled that fire which never goeth out With such considerations as these let us fortifie our Vertue in the time of Trial when the tempter comes upon us with all his deceitful Colours and flattering Promises to put us into a state of ease and make us truly happy let us not give credit to his words but Commune with our own hearts whether it be so or not When he tells us as he did Eve before us that we shall not die let us consider which is fittest for us to believe the Father of Lyes or the God of Truth Surely where there is so vast a difference between the Competitours there can be no difficulty in our determination No nicety of Judgment is here requir'd no Grains and Scruples to decide the Cause but the Competition lies between Light and Darkness the Shadow and the Sun all Vanity and Emptiness on the one hand all Glory and Substance on the other So gross and palpable is the difference that we need not spend time to judg Ask but our hearts and our own hearts deceitful as they are cannot chuse but give us a faithful Answer Where the cause is of so great importance and we have so little a way to go for a determination who would think that Man should be so negligent and remiss as to involve himself in dangerous Sins fatal Errours only for want of asking himself one easie Question But perhaps we have no leisure for such inquiries our thoughts may be so taken up and our Minds so full of other matters that either we have not the heart to ask or at least have not the heart to Answer Indeed there is nothing so apt to fill as Vanity and no Man is more busie than he that has least to do And yet one would think that amidst all the Croud of trifling Imaginations which flock about us there might be room left for one serious thought But if not if our Minds are so unfortunately prepossess'd so deeply engag'd that we find it difficult to draw them off then we must apply the Last rule in my Text we must retire into our Chamber and be still There we may learn to compose our thoughts and bring our selves to a better temper give our Passions time to cool and then our Affections quickly will be chang'd There we may see our Sins stript of all their deceitful Garniture the Vanity all worn off and nothing but the vexation left and so ghastly a Figure will our Vices make that to abstain from them will hardly appear a Vertue There is nothing like solitude and retirement to recollect our thoughts and make us come unto our selves after we have been seduced by conversation and enchanted by the multitude Whilst we are in the World we must expect a whole torrent of evil Customs and corrupted Manners to come upon us and shall be in danger to be carried away with the tide With such a violent force does it overwhelm our Vertue and over-power our Reason that 't is very difficult to bear up against it But if we would have our hearts at our own command we must retire out of the Croud enter into our Closets and sometimes give our own sedate thoughts leave to play their parts There may be Seeds of Vertue and Honour in us which we know not of that have lain stifled all this while under the rubbige of the World and choakt by other Mens inclinations against our own
convers'd with Men Face to Face that he might instruct them in his holy Will by his own Presence and teach them Vertue from the original For this it was that he appointed all the Sacrifices under the Law namely to purge his People from their Sins till they had learnt the art of retaining their sins in spite of all their Sacrifices and then God cryed out Bring me no more vain oblations Then came our Saviour to shew us a more excellent way and therefore this was the only design of the publication of the Gospel too not to indulge our sloathful Vices and give us a lazy Inheritance in the Kingdom of God but by a severe Repentance to attone for our sins past and by an active Faith to preserve us from them for the time to come that we might improve our Vertue by the preaching of his Word and by the power of Prayer might bring it to some perfection Without this improvement all the attempts of the Gospel are but thrown away upon us our Faith is dead and our Repentance vain the preaching of God's Word is ineffectual and our Prayers can have no return As we increase in Knowledge we do but increase our Sorrow and the Sacraments themselves those means of Grace which have been so often administer'd to us will prove but so many aggravations of our Sins So far as we have amended our Lives so far are we advanc'd in Christianity but to expect Salvation upon any other terms is imposing upon our selves and mocking of our God To think with some that a superficial attendance at the Altar an outward compliance with the formalities of Religion will serve our turn is such a slight Notion of religious Duty as would disparage the worship of a Heathen Idol To fansie with others that an implicite Faith will make us whole and that we shall be saved by believing as the Church believes is making our Religion to be we know not what and expecting to be sav'd we know not why Nay to suppose that any Faith whatsoever can do us good but only that which works a Reformation to imagine that a strong presumption can make us Saints in spite of all our sins is like the rest an absurd Opinion devis'd by wicked Men to delude the World with a shew of Godliness and under that colour to disguise a wicked Life St. Peter tells us There is none other name under Heaven given unto man whereby we must be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ And St. Paul assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but only a new Creature It is not holding with this or the other Church neither the using nor the forbearing of any Rites or Ceremonies though it be by Gods own appointment that can entitle us to the benefits of the Gospel without the Concurrence of an industrious Vertue and an obedient Life He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is our duty here lies the main stress of our Religion for this it was that God spake in times past to our Fathers by the Prophets for this it was that he sent at last his own Son into the World and by this test we must know whether we are his Disciples for whatever Doctrine does not naturally lead us to newness of Life is not the Wisdom of God from above but the vain suggestion of our own Lust or the false insinuation of the Devil Thus we see that the great business and concern of Man is to preserve himself from Sin and yet against sin we have no Antidote but in Religion How Religion comes to work this Cure upon us is the Second thing observable in my Text. That we may learn not to sin it teaches us to stand in awe We have already seen what a powerful influence our Passions have upon us how they lead us into Vanity and drive us into Sin and do so tyrannize over our Reason that we have no remedy left but to combate one Passion with another and by a Religious Fear to overcome the extravagance of a sensless Joy We cannot chuse also but perceive how subtily Lust insinuates itself into our affections and by degrees gets the dominion over us how artificially it closes in with our Flesh and so overtops our Spirit that we stand in need of some supernatural assistance to subdue it and all the succours of Religion are little enough to cast it out Some may think perhaps that natural Religion it self those notions of a God which are born and bred within us and are so deeply imprinted in the hearts of all Mankind should be sufficient to secure our Vertue and force us to stand in awe But by universal experience we find that these notions are apt to degenerate into superstition and superstition leaves us naked and expos'd only to our fears but takes away all our security Others perhaps may conceive that our own rational fears the necessary sense of our weakness and the natural apprehension of our danger might be a sufficient guard unto us and teach us to avoid those practices which do but weaken and expose us more but what can our nature do when 't is corrupted it self and grown impotent and unable to relieve us Nay what is worse 't is grown obstinate and perverse and most commonly takes part against us For though our reason sometimes keeps us in and confines us to the Rules of Vertue yet how often does Passion break the Chain and turn us loose to our own inventions Others there are who depend upon their own honour for the security of their Vertue and would have us depend upon it too But alas what is the honour of a Man when his Religion is lost it is but the staff of a broken reed that has just strength enough to pierce through our hand but not enough to support our Body In short there is nothing but an awful regard for God and a just respect for his holy Attributes that can effectually put a restraint upon us and over-rule the violence of our Passions and this awe we owe purely to our Religion which for that very reason is call'd the fear of God Gen. 20.11 To what purpose else did God reveal himself to the Patriarchs and Prophets of old but to put this fear of his name into their hearts and what other use but this did they make of those his Revelations We shall surely die says one for we have seen the Lord. Wo is me for I am undone says another for I am a man of unclean Lips and mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts To what purpose did God appoint the Sacrifices under the Law but to give us a dreadful instance that death is the natural consequence of our Sins a necessary tribute which we owe to his Justice though his Mercy allows us to
When we have got our selves in private then is the time to ransack our hearts to throw off all that lumber that has clogg'd our Religion and give our Vertues room to grow This is the only place to rally the scatter'd Forces of our Soul to view all our strength and see what supplies are to be rais'd out of our own Spirits and what recruits are to be begg'd from the Holy Spirit of God 'T is a shameful thing to think how long some Men can live and yet never know themselves How they can be so earnest in prying round about them that they have no leisure to look nearer home so inquisitive after other Mens affairs and so much strangers to their own But the truth is they suspect the poverty of their stock and therefore are loath to look how near it is to the bottom To find out their own faults they think is all irksome ungrateful pains and to search for their own Vertues perhaps is not worth the while And hence it is that they dare not reflect upon their own actions nor so much as venture themselves alone for fear their sins should stare them in the face and for that little knowledge which they have of themselves they are commonly beholden to the standters by But whatever our condition is 't is good to be acquainted with it in time that we may be able to supply what is wanting and reform what we find amiss and to examine the state of our accounts before we come to give them up to an Impartial Judge If therefore we would know our selves and have an exact survey of our own estate we must withdraw from the multitude and stand alone Retire into our Closet and there we may learn to know not our selves only but our God There we have an easie access to Heaven and whilst we commune with our own hearts and in our Chamber and are still God himself is pleas'd to enter into the Conference with us to assist our Contemplations remove our Doubts and encourage our Endeavours And when we and our own hearts are met together again in his name he will not fail to be in the midst of us For such Conversation as this who would not set aside all the Pomps and Vanities of the World and think it his greatest freedom to be so confin'd his greatest happiness to be banisht into Paradise Here we cannot chuse but look down with scorn upon our former sinful delights and with pity upon those who know no better Recreations When our retirement has wean'd us from that fondness which we had for the common road of practice and our Closet shews us all the actions of Men in their own proper Colours our very inclinations will be alter'd and we our selves shall wonder what pleasure we could ever have in those things whereof upon second upon cooler thoughts we are now asham'd When we have thus prepar'd and qualify'd our selves in private then we may expect that our publick devotion shall be effectual But to come into the House of God with all our vain imaginations and Worldly thoughts about us is invading of his Presence and affronting of his Courts 'T is not only an indecent but a dangerous thing God once set bounds about his holy Mount that Men should not break in upon him and perish Though the bounds are now removed yet the reason of them still remains and so much ceremony we owe him at the least as to make our sins keep a distance not to touch his Ark with polluted hands nor approach his Throne with Unsanctified Hearts That we should deck our Souls also in their best attire when we come to present them before our Maker and recommend our selves to his Acceptance under the Ornament of a meek and vertuous Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price When this is done then is the time to go to the Altar and confirm those pious resolutions which we began at home Then the Word of God will come like good Seed upon a fruitful ground and bring forth a wonderful increase then all our Prayers will make their own way to the Throne of Grace and all bring us a good return To conclude all in one word The Church is the nearest way to Heaven but our Chamber is the only way to Church God grant that we may all follow this way and then no doubt but it will bring us to a happy end FINIS Books Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St Paul's Church-Yard BIshop Overall's Convocation Book MDCVI concerning the Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole World 4 to Dr Falkner's Libertas Ecclesiastica 8 vo 's Vindication of Liturgies 8 vo 's Christian Loyalty 8 vo Dr Scott's Christian Life In three Vol. 8 vo Dr Fowler 's Libertas Evangelica 8 vo Mr W. Allen's Tracts 8 vo Mr Raymond's Pattern of pure and undefiled Religion 8 vo 's Exposition of the Church Catechism Mr Hesketh's Piety the best Rule of Orthodoxy 8 vo 's Serious Exhortation to frequent Communion 8 vo 's Case of eating and drinking unworthily 8 vo Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man 12. The Third Edition Dr Pelling's Sermon before the King and Queen Dec. 8. 1689. 's Vindication of those that have taken the Oath 4 to Mr Lamb's Dialogues between a Minister and his Parishioner about the Lord's Supper 8 vo 's Sermon before the King at Windsor 's Sermon before the Lord Mayor 's Liberty of humane Nature stated discussed and limited 's Sermon before the King and Queen Jan. 19. 1689. Dr Grove's Sermon before the King and Queen June 1. 1690. Mr Jeffery's Religion the Perfection of Man 8 vo Dr Worthington of Resignation 8 vo Dr Kidder's Christian Sufferer supported 8 vo Dr Sharp's Discourse concerning Conscience The first Part wherein an account is given of the Nature and Rule and Obligation of it And the case of those who separate from the Communion of the Church of England as by Law established upon this pretence that it is against their Conscience to join in it is stated and discussed 's Discourse of Conscience The second Part concerning a doubting Conscience 's Fast-Sermon before the House of Commons April 11. 1679. on Revel ii 5. 's Duty and Happiness of doing good in two Sermons the former Preached at the Yorkshire Feast Feb. 17. 1679. on Eccl. iii. 10. the other before the Lord Mayor at the Spittle Apr. 14. 1680. on 1 Tim. vi 17 18 19. 's Sermon at the Election of the Lord Mayor Sept. 29. 1680. on Psal cxii 4. 's Lent-Sermon at Whitehal March 20. 1684. on Luke xvi 31. 's Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall Apr. 11. 1690. on Gal. v. 13. 's Fast-Sermon before the Honourable House of Commons May 21. 1690. on Deut. v. 29. Reflections on a French Testament Printed at Bordeaux An. Dom. MDCLXXXVI Pretended to be Translated out of the Latin into French by the Divines of Louvain By Richard Kidder D. D. and Dean of Peterborough