Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A46799
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Practical discourses upon the morality of the Gospel
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Jenks, Sylvester, 1656?-1714.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing J630D; ESTC R220354
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63,738
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198
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Cases in which one would be glad to have so much Vertue as to deny one's self For my own part if ever I have need of a Friend I only wish and pray I may fall into the Hands of a good Christian a Friend of God's own Making Chusing and Appointing Let him be only able to assist me I am very sure the better Christian he is the better Friend he 'll shew himself He 'll act by Nobler and Diviner Principles than all the Humane Ties of Gratitude and Kindness And will be sure to do a great deal more for God's sake than any Body else will ever do for mine I grant there are but few of these but the fewer there are the more 's the pity And I am very much afraid 't is partly our own fault that the World is not good enough to have more of them 3. As there is nothing so Wise and Charitable so there is nothing so Perfectly and Universally Just as Christian Prudence Altho' it necessarily presupposes Faith and Hope yet the chief ground of it is Charity by which we Love God above all things and look upon all things else as nothing in Comparison of Him A Man whose Mind and Heart are throughly Enlightned and Enflam'd with this Coelestial Love lays up his Treasure in Heaven where his Heart is He gives to God what 's due to God he Adores and Serves him only he renders to him his whole Being his Soul his Heart and all that is within him He despises all the Treasures upon Earth where Moth and Rust do Corrupt and Thieves break through and Steal Eternity is his great Aim and therefore he scorns to quarrel about any Temporal Concerns but easily and readily makes even Reckonings with all the World by giving to Caesar what is due to Caesar and to his Friends and Neighbours what is due to all of them We never are Unjust to Caesar to a Friend or Neighbour but when we are strongly tempted to it by an eager desire of something or other relating to our Honour Profit or Pleasure And these are the very things which a good Christian Undervalues and Despises When our Saviour said to the Pharisees Shew me the Tribute-Money and when he askt them Whose is this Image and Superscription He was not ignorant of either But was willing to let them understand how little he valued these Money-matters which were the least part of his Care A Christian is a Man of another World and all the while he is in this he chiefly minds his way to the next He knows that his good Actions are the only things which have a Current Value there And as for the Riches of this World he does not covet to be loaded with them but only to have a little about him as much as may suffice to pay his share by the way He considers that the way is short and therefore is easily satisfied with any thing If he Lodge uneasily and Fare a little hardly in his Journey 't is only the common Fate of Travellers he cheerfully makes the best of it and comforts himself with thinking how plentifully he shall Feast for ever when he comes to his Eternal Home O God who art the only Refuge of Sinners the only Strength of the Weak and only Author of all Piety incline thy Ears of Pity and Compassion to the Pious Prayers of thy Church forgive our past Offences all our Folly Malice and Injustice direct us in the ways of thy own Wisdom Charity and Righteousness and never cease to assist us with thy Grace that what by thy Encouragement we confidently ask we may effectually obtain Thro' Christ our Lord. Amen Discourse V. Of Christian Humility JEsus went into the House of one of the Chief Pharisees to eat Bread on the Sabbath-day and they watched him And behold there was a certain Man before him which had the Dropsie And Jesus answering spake unto the Lawyers and Pharisees saying Is it Lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day But they held their Peace And he took him and healed him and let him go And answer'd them saying Which of you shall have an Ass or an Ox fallen into a Pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day And they could not answer him to these things And he told a Parable to those who were Invited observing how they chose out the chief places saying unto them When thou art Invited to a Wedding sit not down in the highest place lest perhaps a more honourable Man than thou be Invited by him and he who Invited thee and him come and say to thee Give place to this Man and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place But when thou art Invited go and sit down in the lowest place That when he comes who Invited thee he may say unto thee Friend go up higher Then shalt thou have honour in presence of those who sit with thee For whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Luk. 14. v. 1. to 12. This Gospel presents to our Consideration the Best of Moral Vertues Humility exercised by the Best of Mankind Jesus Christ true God as well as Man and deliver'd by the Best of Oracles Truth it self Incarnate Learn of me says he because I am humble of Heart His whole Life was a constant Lesson of Humility He taught it us not only by word but by example And that we may the better learn our Lesson I shall endeavour to shew according to the order of the Gospel 1. How He Practised this great Vertue 2. How he Preach'd it I. 'T is the nature of Charity to make us Humble and Humility is also a natural Disposition towards being Charitable If we consider Charity in order to God we plainly see that a Man who truly Loves Him above all things cannot but undervalue all the fading Glories of this World The Gaudy Scene of all its Vanity makes little or no Impression upon him He easily discerns how false its Lustre is He sees quite through it and sees Eternity beyond it If we consider the same Charity in order to our Neighbour whom we Love for God's sake as being Made to the same Divine Image Ransom'd by the same Infinite Price and thereby Entitled to the same Grace here as well as the same Eternal Glory hereafter These great and glorious Motives shine so bright that all those heaps of Honour which the World is able to Accumulate upon us are no better than so many Dunghils in comparison of these inestimable Jewels A Man who chiefly Loves himself and his Neighbour upon these accounts can have no longing passion for any preference on Earth He cannot but disdain all these inferiour Excellencies Dignities and Praises because the Treasure of his Mind and Heart is infinitely greater and all these Trifles are as much below his Thoughts as Heaven is above them Thus we see how Charity inclines us to be Humble and 't is as easie to
who is Solicitous for this World may easily deceive himself in this Matter He may Esteem God a great deal more and yet Love him a great deal less The Disciples had a great Esteem of our Saviour and thought they loved him better than their Lives They All declared they would rather die with him than deny him And yet immediately after the Chief of them denied him and all the rest forsook him When they look'd upon the time of Trial at a distance they had a great Opinion of their Strength But when the Occasion was present they soon discover'd their Weakness This was once their Case And God only knows how often it has been ours Their Case you 'll say was different because they were Guilty of a great Presumption But pray consider a little Are not we as guilty as they Do we not presume as much Are we not as confident of our own Strength We know very well that the Love of this World is a Mortal Enemy to the Love of God And therefore if we do not daily watch the Motions of this Enemy oppose its Progress and cut off all Communications which may any way Fortifie it if on the contrary we daily furnish it with all Provisions Ammunitions and Arms against us if we thus despise the Strength of our Enemy is it not Visible that we too much confide in in our own And if we commonly neglect those daily Considerations Exercises and Endeavours which are necessary to Encrease and Fortifie the Love of God is not this a downright Presumption in our own Sufficiency as if we already loved him enough Remember the Fall of the Apostles Remember how grievously they were mistaken Remember that not only their Doctrines but even their Failings ought to be an Instruction to us Never let us confide in our present Love of God but let us daily endeavour to Improve it Never let us despise the Strength of our Worldly Love but let us daily endeavour to abate it If we could serve two Masters we might be Solicitous for both But since we can only serve One 't is a dangerous thing to be Solicitous for any Other You cannot serve God and Mammon says our Saviour therefore I say unto you Be not Solicitous for this Life III. We have seen how Dangerous it is to be Solicitous for any thing in this World The rest of the Gospel shews us that his Solicitude is altogether needless If there were any necessity of it our Saviour would not forbid it The Words are plain Be not Solicitous for your Life And indeed if we seek first the Kingdom of God if the Service of God be truly and sincerely our first and principal Concern 't is evidently needless to be Solicitous for our Life He made us for himself and for his own sake he takes care of us Not that he is any way the better for us but because he naturally takes delight in doing good to All who do not wilfully oppose the overflowing of his Goodness He gave us our Life that if we please we may be Happy by employing it entirely in his Service And as long as we serve the Master who gave us this Life our Self-preservation is in better Hands than our own All the Malice of Men and Devils put together can never take away our Life without our Master's order or his leave And therefore whensoever either by his leave or by his order the appointed Hour of our Death approaches we may be assur'd our Master has no more occasion for our Service and therefore we have no Pretensions to Live longer There is only One thing Necessary in this World and that 's our Duty to our Master And whensoever our Duty stands in Competition with our Life if we are true and faithful Servants we shall always readily and cheerfully conclude Our Duty is Necessary but our Life is not When things are in this posture 't is evident that the Observance of this Duty is the last Piece of Service which our Master requires at our Hands And since our Service is the End for which our Life was given us if we wish to out-live our Service we are every jot as unreasonable as if we wish'd to out-live the End of our Life You 'll tell me perhaps you are very willing to Die when God pleases But you are afraid of wanting the Necessary Conveniences of Humane Life and therefore you are justly Solicitous for fear of being Miserable whilst you Live And truly you are partly in the right You have all the Reason in the World to be willing that God should chuse the Hour and appoint the Moment of your Death because He only knows what Time is best and fittest for us But since we are willing to trust him with our Life why should we not as willingly trust him with all things else belonging to it He has promis'd to take Care of us He knows better than we do what is good for us He loves us better than we love our selves His Power is boundless and cannot be obstructed Is not this enough to secure us He is infinitely Powerful He is able says S. Paul to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think He is infinitely Good He cannot but Delight in being so to those that serve him He is infinitely Wise He cannot commit the least mistake in our Concerns In a Word his Wisdom his Goodness and his Power all concurr to Ensure the Blessings of his Providence which by a Solemn Promise is engaged for ever to be favourable to us Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and All these things shall be added to you 'T is the Voice of Truth it self Truth cannot tell a Lie His Promise cannot fail Is it not the First Article of our Creed to believe in God the Father Almighty Does not the First of all our Petitions begin with these comfortable Words Our Father who art in Heaven If we believe him to be Our Father ought we not to believe that he will certainly be careful of his Children And if we really believe He is always careful of us what need we at any time be Over-careful and Solicitous for our selves Therefore I say unto you says our Saviour Be not Solicitous for your Life what you shall eat nor yet for your Body what you shall put on He only forbids our being Solicitous He does not forbid us to Work and Labour for an Honest Livelyhood Our Heavenly Father does not encourage Idleness in his Children He expects that we should be industrious in doing of our part And when we have done that He 's always ready to supply the rest And to satisfie us concerning this matter our Saviour is not contented to give us his bare Word for it but uses several Arguments in order to convince us Is not the Life more than Meat says he and the Body more than Clothing He who freely and frankly bestows upon us what is more will he deny us