Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A59549
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Fifteen sermons preach'd on several occasions the last of which was never before printed / by ... John, Lord Arch-Bishop of York ...
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Sharp, John, 1645-1714.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing S2977; ESTC R4705
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231,778
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Serviceableness to others The first of these challengeth Men's Esteem the other their Love Now both these Qualities Religion and Vertue do eminently possess us of For First The Religious Man is certainly the most Worthy and Excellent Person for he of all others lives most up to the great End for which he was designed which is the natural measure of the Goodness and Worth of Things Whatever External Advantages a Man may have yet if he be not endow'd with Vertuous Qualities he is far from having any true Worth or Excellence and consequently cannot be a fit Object of our Praise and Esteem because he wants that which should make him Perfect and Good in his Kind For it is not a comely Personage or a long Race of Famous Ancestors or a large Revenue or a multitude of Servants or many swelling Titles or any other thing without a Man that speaks him a Compleat Man or makes him to be what he should be But the right use of his Reason the employing his Liberty and Choice to the best purposes the exercising his Powers and Faculties about the fittest Objects and in the most due Measures these are the Things that make him Excellent Now none can be said to do this but only he that is Vertuous Secondly Religion also is that which makes a Man most Vseful and Profitable to others for it effectually secures his performance of all those Duties whereby both the Security and Welfare of the Publick and also the Good and Advantage of particular Persons is most attained It makes Men Lovers of their Country Loyal to their Prince Obedient to Laws It is the surest Bond and Preservative of Society in the World It obliges us to live peaceably and to submit our selves to our Rulers not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake It renders us modest and governable in Prosperity and resolute and couragious to suffer bravely in a good Cause in the worst of Times It teacheth us to endeavour as much as in us lies to promote the Good of every particular Member of the Community to be inflexibly upright to do hurt to none but good Offices to all to be charitable to the Bodies and Souls of Men to do all manner of Kindnesses that lie within our power It takes off the Sowrness and Moroseness of our Spirits and makes us Affable and Courteous Gentle and Obliging and willing to embrace with open Arms and an hearty Love all Sorts and Conditions of Men. In every Relation wherein we can stand to one another it influenceth upon us in order to the making us more useful It makes Parents kind and indulgent and careful of the Education of their Children and Children loving and obedient to their Parents It makes Servants diligent to please their Masters and to do their Work in Singleness of Heart not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but as unto God and it makes Masters gentle and forbearing and careful to make provision for their Family as those that know they have a Master in Heaven that is no Respecter of Persons In a word There is no Condition or Capacity in which Religion will not be signally an Instrument of making us more serviceable to others and of doing more good in the World And if such be the Spirit and Temper of it how is it possible but it must needs acquire a great deal of Respect and Love from all sorts of Men If Obligingness and doing good in one's Generation do not endear a Man to those that know him do not entitle him to their Love and Affections what thing in the World is there that is likely to do it But Secondly True and unaffected Goodness seldom misses of a good Reputation in the World How unjust to Vertue soever Men are in other respects yet in this they generally give it its due where-ever it appears it generally meets with Esteem and Approbation nay it has the good Word of many that otherwise are not over-fond of Religion Though they have not the Grace to be Good themselves yet they rarely have the Confidence not to commend Goodness in others Add to this that no Man ever raised to himself a Good Name in the World but it was upon the score of his Vertues either Real or Pretended Vice hath sometimes got Riches and advanced it self into Preferments but it never was accounted Honourable in any Nation It must be acknowledged indeed that it may and doth sometimes happen that Vicious Men may be had in Esteem but then it is to be considered that it is not for their Vices that they are esteemed but for some good Quality or other they are eminent in And there is no doubt if those Men were without those Vices their Reputation would be so far from being thereby diminished that it would become much more Considerable It must also be acknowledged on the other hand that even Vertuous and Good Men may sometimes fail of that Esteem and Respect that their Vertue seems to merit nay in that degree as to be slighted and despised and to have many Odious Terms and Nick-names put upon them But when we consider the Cases in which this happens it will appear to be of no force at all for the disproving what has been now delivered For First It ought to be considered what kind of Persons those are that treat Vertue and Vertuous Men thus Contemptuously we shall always find them to be the Worst and the Vilest of Mankind such who have debauched the natural Principles of their Minds have lost all the Notions and Distinctions of Good and Evil are fallen below the Dignity of Humane Nature and have nothing to bear up themselves with but Boldness and Confidence Drollery and Scurrility and turning into Ridicule every thing that is grave and serious But it is with these as it is with the Monsters and Extravagances of Nature they are but very Few Few in comparison of the rest of Mankind who have wiser and truer Sentiments of Things But if they were more numerous no Man of Understanding would value what such Men said of him It looks like a Crime to be commended by such Persons and may justly occasion a Man to reflect upon his own Actions and to cry out to himself as He did of old What have I done that these Men speak well of me But Secondly It cannot be denied but that some Persons who are otherwise Vertuous and Religious may be guilty of such Indiscretions as thereby to give others occasion to slight and despise them But then it is to be considered that this is not to be charged upon Vertue and Religion but is the particular Fault of the Persons Every one that is Religious is not Prudent the Meanness of a Man's Vnderstanding or his rash and intemperate Zeal or the Moroseness of his Temper or his too great Scrupulosity about little things may sometimes make his Behaviour Vncouth and Fantastick and betray him to do many Actions which he may think his Religion obliges him
as the Cloaths we wear do not alter the Complexion or Features of our Body so neither doth the Religion we Profess any more affect the Temper of our Souls We serve our selves in both Cases of the outward Conveniencies that are to be had by them but we are still the same Persons both as to our outward and inward Lineaments But alas this is a very sorry way of being Religious and will do us no great kindness We may perhaps reap some secular advantages by it but yet even the very trouble and pains it puts us to do equal the Conveniencies we have from it The Men that live thus are just served like those that work in rich Mines They are daily imployed about Gold and Silver or Gems and they work hard and they have their days wages for their Labour but they are not a whit the richer for the Treasures that come into their hands Your Religion will never serve you to any extraordinary purposes till your hearts be affected with it as well as your understandings Let me therefore advise you as you love either your Happiness in this World or in the next make it your principal care to get a lively and vigorous Sense of God impressed upon your Minds And look upon it as the greatest Interest you have to carry on the greatest Business you have to do in this World as it really is to approve your selves to this God by a sincere endeavour in all your Conversation to walk as his Son Jesus Christ hath taught you If you do this you will certainly find the Sweet and Comfort of it both here and hereafter When all is said it is a vain thing for any Man to expect a tolerable easie passage thro' this World unless he have the Hopes of God's Favour to support him under the Multitude of evil Accidents which the State of Humane Life will necessarily expose him to And as for the other World without these Hopes he is perfectly lost And to be able to entertain any rational Hopes of God's Blessing and Favour is a very vain thing likewise unless we make it our business with our whole Hearts and Souls to serve and please and obey Him There are a great many Rules and Maxims that we use to give to our Friends or our Children for the making their Fortunes and I cannot deny but they are exceeding good ones Thus for instance we advise them to get a true understanding of their Business and to pursue it diligently to keep out of ill Company to avoid Drinking or Gaming and Lewdness and to study the Tempers and Humours of Mankind and to learn to apply themselves dexterously to those they have occasion to converse with why these and such others are excellent Rules and most worthy of all Men to be studied and practised But still there is one Rule above all these and without which all the other will signifie very little to the making a Man's Life easie and comfortable and that is to preserve a lively sense of God upon our Spirits to have his fear always before our Eyes to love him above all things to value his Favour more than Life and to dread his Displeasure as the worst of Evils If we can but once get our Souls into this frame we have done our Business both for this World and for Eternity All the other particular Rules and Advices will be in a great measure superfluous for he that is possessed of this good Principle will of course naturally fall into the practice of them And besides this Fear and Love of God in our Hearts as it is the most effectual means according to the usual Disposition of the Divine Providence to put us into good Circumstances of Living so it is the only means of making our Circumstances happy to us if they be good or of making them easie and supportable if they be bad I do therefore most earnestly recommend it to you as you desire that either you or yours may prosper nay as you would not be very miserable be not contented with a superficial outside Religion but affect your minds as deeply as is possible with a sense of God and what you owe to him and endeavour to impress the same sense upon your Friends and Children and all that are about you The truth of it is so much doth our present happiness as well as our suture depend upon this belief of God and love to him and hopes of his favour that were it not for this the present World with all the imaginary Pleasures and Glories of it would appear to all wise and good Men not only an empty dull unsatisfactory place but a dismal melancholy Prison If it was supposed that all things here were the effects of blind Chance or fatal Necessity and that there were no Wisdom and Goodness that did preside over the World or took care of Mankind no considering Man could desire to live here The Second thing I would leave with you is this That after you have got into your minds a hearty sence of God and his Providence and his Presence and Goodness so as that you mean to make it the business of your lives to recommend your selves to him you would in the next place take care to keep up that sence by a a constam and daily Worship of him For God's sake and for your own Souls sake do not neglect your Prayers You must never think that God will bless you if you do not make a Conscience of daily paying him your tribute of Honour and Worship Be sure therefore you be constant in your private Devotions As you every day receive the renewed pledges of God's Love and Goodness towards you in a thousand instances So let every day your Affection and Gratitude be expressed to him by hearty Prayer and Thanksgiving This is absolutely necessary to be done as I have often told you if you mean to preserve any hearty sense of Religion in your minds But besides this I have another thing to recommend to all those that have Families They are Heads and Governours of a Society For indeed the first notion of Society is that of a Family Every Family is a little Kingdom and every Kingdom is or ought to be a great Family Now is it natural is it decent that there should be any Society upon Earth wherein God should not be owned and worshipped And yet woe be to us how many thousands of Families are there in this Kingdom nay I am afraid even iâ— about this City wherein God is not so much as named in publick unless perhaps by the way of affront by the way of Cursing or Swearing We deservedly complain of the great Loosness and Profaneness and Irreligion that hath overspread the face of this Nation O! I doubt a great deal of the blame of it lies upon the Housholders the Masters of Families among us If they would take better care of their Children and Servants and let them know what it is