Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A49848
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A sermon preached at the anniversary meeting of the Eaton-scholars at St. Mary le Bow, on Nov. 22d, 1683 by Joseph Layton.
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Layton, Joseph.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing L760; ESTC R25797
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12,974
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34
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of serving God reasonably and acceptably 2. To excite your Gratitude the more I shall compare your Condition with that of most others whom we may rank under Three Heads 1. The Formal bred and born Christian that makes no use of his Reason 2. The Papist That enslaves it trusting to his implicit Faith 3. The Enthusiast That despises and renounces it 3. Shew that this particular Meeting is a Reasonable Service and that we are to thank him because he has enabled us to be thankful That is to say 1. A Learned Education by refining a Mans Parts elevating his Mind ennobling his Faculties and filling them with rich and worthy Ideas does thereby enable him to have Just and Honourable apprehension of God And this is the first and most important Principle of Religion for such as we suppose God to be such a course shall we take to please him Some have fancied God to be an unactive Being in the World enjoying himself in an Eternal Rest and Retiredness accordingly they abandon themselves to Luxury and Sensuality for how should they dread that Providence that cares for nothing Or that Omnipotence that does Nothing Others confine him to too narrow a Sphear providing but for a little Flock and a small Remnant wronging all his other Attributes to exalt his Sovereignty And they seek private and unaccountable ways to assure themselves of an ungrounded unaccountable favour The Papists that they might give their People a Notion of God dress him up in the similitude of a Man and though they pretend not to paint Essences yet they expose him to every vulgar Eye and every vulgar Conception in such resemblances which he was only pleased for secret Reasons and in Mystical ways to Communicate to his chosen Prophets And they Transcribe Ovid and Propertius to find a style for the loves of Angels and Glorified Spirits above And not a few fancying God to be adorned as they best like seek after a strange and personal Union with him And in this Scene of their Imaginations they pursue him with Effeminate Passions with Longings and Languishments with Extravagant Joys and sudden Despairs as their sick and distemper'd Fancies lead them These are Gross and Carnal Conceptions changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Similitude of a Corruptible Creature Rom. 1.3 But to make him vindicative and Sanguinary and with a Turkish Tyranny to fling away Souls into Eternal Perdition is next to Blasphemy But your Predecessor Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Man addicted to Study and Contemplation when he consider'd the Creation God's Work and consulted with his Reason which is a Beam of God himself He found That to be God is to be most Holy Wise Just Good Merciful In short That which we can conceive to be most Perfect that and infinitely more so is God He Judged of him by reasonable Collections not fanciful Ideas And such an advantage have ye Brethren who having your minds purged from all drossy and low thoughts are enabled by the benefit of your Education to attain to this first and fundamental Principle of Eternal Life Namely To know Thee the Only True God and so to offer him a Worthy Reasonable Service 2. Hereby we come to know the true Nature Excellency and Perfection of Religion For since God is such such also must be the way to Honour and Worship him And if in any of his Commands there be any doubtful Expressions and variety of Interpretations that is to be esteemed most agreeable to God's Will which is most consonant to Reason God Governs us as he has made us so that being neither Engins nor Angels we act not by Instinct nor Intuition but by discourse and rational Progressions If you consider the Articles the Mysteries of our most Holy Faith none but a considering Man will be induc'd to receive them And for the practical Points of our Obedience none but a Brute will reject them There must be wise Consideration and serious Pondering The Beraean Generosity and a full Conviction of the Understanding to make a Man a Christian for Faith is not the Milk of the Nurse nor the Credulity of the Simple nor a point of Honour among Sword-men nor the Sence of the House among Politicians nor a blind Subjection to the Infallible Chair But it is the deliberate Choice of a Prudent Rational Man that without contending for rigorous Demonstrations and Scientifical Surefootings is content to submit to every degree of Truth and entertain every Beam of Light is ready to comply when the motives to belief preponderate tho the things themselves be incomprehensible But Oh the loss the misery of those whose Talent it is to hold the Plough How should they comprehend with all illuminated Saints Eph. 3.18 What is the Breadth and Length and Heigth and Depth and observe the Lines of the Great Mystery of Godliness from so many Points of so vast a Circumference beautifully centring in the Messias How should they with the Wisemen follow his Star or trace the Great Birth the Promised Seed from its first quick'ning in Eve through the long-liv'd Patriarchs through the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law through all the Prophets down to the Midwifry of the Baptist when in the fulness of time it ripned into the Stature of a Man in Christ Jesus What a Glorious Knowledge is this to discourse out of the Scriptures and from them to be able to give a reason of our Faith To Summon in the Antiquities of Nations the Histories of Times the Rites and Religious Solemnities of Priests the Fables of Poets the Results of Philosophers In short to press the whole Creation to make bare every Shoulder for this Service of attesting to the Truth of our Religion and Illustrating the Glory of Jesus These things Brethren ye are called to know that is ye have been put into the way to know them your Fleece like Gideon's has been moist'ned with this Heavenly Dew when so many others has been left dry So that having your hearts filled with these Sacred Truths and your whole Man Transported with Raptures of Love Joy and Admiration ye will find fresh cause to bless God for the benefit of being able to offer him this Reasonable Service 3. It is a great help towards discerning the Spirits that so we may better hold fast the Truth It is a difficult matter among the many Cries Lo here is Christ and there is Christ to distinguish the Voice of God so that 't is necessary to our other Graces to add Knowledge and to have our Sences exercised in Spiritual Matters Is it likely and reasonable that God should entrust one Man with a Spirit of Infallibility for the benefit of his Church and yet no where declare so much Or that it should never be put in Practice or that so Divine a gift should be lodged in a vicious Man and God should liken his Vicegerent to the fallen Angels who with Perfection of Knowledge abound in
Wickedness Or where is the Reason of fighting for Faith and Rebelling for Religion Our Saviour refused all force and violence tho he could have call'd in more than twelve Legions to his Assistance But the Saints may do more than the Angels and Reform the Government even of Christ himself We hear The noise of the Whip and the ratling of the Wheels and the Prancing of the Horses The Horseman lifteth up his bright Sword and his glittering Spear Nahum 3.2 3. Every part of Christendom almost is a Stage of War and how narrowly did we escape it And their Pretence is written in their Banners For God and Religion But ye see this is all but Masquery and Disguise And when we come to compare these practices with such Notions of God and Religion as are reasonable and becoming them then do we find the Mercy in these times of deceit and distraction that God has endued us with a Spirit of Understanding and rescued us from the common Errors and Delusions of the Age. 4. It teaches us to give a due Value to every thing and to give due Limits to every Action and choose apt Seasons It moderates Zeal with Knowledge It fortifies Innocence with Prudence It Inspires Meekness with a becoming Fortitude and distinguishes Patience from Pusillanimity It guides the hand of Charity and by a wise observation of fitting Circumstances makes the action Beautiful and Decorous Certainly Religion deserves our utmost care and skill to recommend it dext'rously to the Affections of Men St. Paul has Commanded us to adorn the Gospel and to take heed lest our God be evil spoken of and our most Holy Religion Blasphemed through our means And those that strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel That will rebuke a Servant for Recreating on the Lord's day and entice him from his Calling to take up Arms against the Lords Anointed Those that are Imprudent and Inconsiderate that are rude in their Rebukes and scurrillous in their Language That Reproach Kings to their faces and thereby make Truth odious and offensive do a great disservice to their most Holy Cause by their untutor'd undisciplin'd fierceness But Education makes a Man soft and plyable and like the Learned Apostle to become all things to all Men It makes him watch all Opportunities and wait at all the Avenues of the Soul to gain Entrance to use honest Flatteries and proper Insinuations to do a Man good Were there no other benefit yet this were Considerable that it takes away that brutish Impetus that makes a Man rush like a Horse into the Battle It allays his heat composes his Mind and Countenance modulates his very Tone and Action and gives a Charm to every thing he does besides the Reputation it gives to his Discourses Reputation I say that important bubble which tho it be but noise and vapour yet is the most powerful thing in Nature without which Goodness is but a weak helpless thing Neither is there any fame so considerable as that of a Learned Knowing Man all his Words are Oracles and his Actions Presidents and rul'd Cases Nature affix'd a shame to Ignorance and gives an Authority and Reverence to Learning therefore no impertinent Question Have the Pharisees believ'd in him And St. Paul when he would bespeak the favour and attention of the Athenians he made use of his acquaintance with their own Poets and Philosophers This is another addition to the advantages ye receive by Education 5. It gives a Man courage and boldness in the day of Tryal and at all times a love and hearty concern for his Religion because he understands it You have a late Example of this they were the wise and well disciplin'd Christians that stem'd the Tyde and stopt the Torrent How little does the Scoff of the Atheist or the Cavil of the Heretick or the Sword of Persecution or the Example of the Multitude work upon a mind that is setled and assured in it self I know I am perswaded I am assured I have confidence said the Apostles And in the Virtue of this Strength they could endure all things not only with Patience but Joy not only with Meekness but Magnanimity So little does the two great Vices of the Age the Droll of the Atheist and the Rage of the Religionist signifie to a Soul that is Armed with Syllogism and the Spirit and at all times a concern for it It is true the knowing Soul is naturally calm and quiet and when after a few previous vibrations it is once setled on its Basis there it rests enjoying its self in its own Circle of light and temperate heat While conceited Ignorants are noisy and restless But when once they become sensible of the necessity of their assistance then they afford a hearty generous and lasting Service It is too true That the Affection of many is grown Cold and by shifting off their Duties upon God's and the Magistrates Care for the Church Evil Men had like to have swallowed us up Quick and the noise of Arms would have drown'd the voice of Thanksgiving and Triumphant Fanaticism would have taken away not only the Memorials of our Education but the Places themselves too But among the few that have retain'd their first Love I may well reckon the Sons of Learning the Heirs of Kings Men obliged and instructed by their breeding to undertake this labour of Love None can so well understand the value of our present enjoyments nor foresee the misery of a change nor more timely prevent nor more effectually redress so that ye have a peculiar Call to this Honourable Work of preserving Religion and supporting the Crown and so making as it were some returns to the Piety and Bounty of our Royal Founder 6. Because 't is a Reasonable Service therefore such a Man has a real and solid Satisfaction when he comes to take a Review of his Method Certainly the greatest happiness of this life is a peaceful temperate Alacrity and Tranquility of mind but this is gain'd only by Reason and is the result of Prudence and Conduct Fools that do good by Chance or put on by Example or a fit of good humour are carried into Extravagant Transports their Joys are indecent and freakish Happiness sits not handsomly on them because they laid no Foundation nor went wisely to work It is a delightful thing to stand on the Shore after a long and dangerous Voyage and see others struggling with the contrarieties of the Wind and Waves And it is a noble Applause that the Pilot gives himfelf And it fattens his Soul to consider the success of his skill And in his mind he repeats all the passages what Rocks and what Sands he escap'd where he bore up against the Storm and where he sided and complyed a little And upon the whole to prove and demonstrate his Course by the Rules of his Art Such is the satisfaction of a wise man What the comforts be that God bestows by extraordinary Irradiations upon some Great