Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A43137
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A sermon preacht before the King at Whitehall, November the XXX, 1673 by Roger Hayward.
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Hayward, Roger, 1639-1680.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing H1235; ESTC R25423
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16,545
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35
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A SERMON Preacht before the KING At Whitehall November the XXX 1673. By Roger Hayward D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY By His Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the Sign of the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1673. 2 Epistle to the Thessalonians 2 Chap. 10 11. Vers Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they may believe a Lye THough the words do relate to a Prophecy yet I need not be so bold as to rifle into the doubtful contents of it to find out the plain sense of them Whatsoever Age or Place of Christendome this dreadful Comet foreseen by the Apostle directly hung over yet that it hath an evil Aspect more or less upon all is evident from the evil influence it hath every where scatter'd and we are not free from which is describ'd in the words that I have read Wherein we have these two things considerable 1. The sad condition of some men God shall send them strong delusion that they may believe a lye 2. The reason of it because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And whatever offence the phrase of Gods sending may give us as if Darkness could flow from him who is Light the reason assign'd for it will easily remove VVhat the strong delusion here threatn'd is the verse before my Text tells us The coming of Sathan with powers and signs and lying wonders such as our blessed Saviour foretold with this accompt of them They would deceive if it were possible the very Elect. Divers and deep have been the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the methods of imposture in Religion but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s utmost effort and choise master-piece hath been the counterfeiting those Credentials which God hath ever given to his immediate Messengers Power and Holiness it being contrary to his Perfections and an invincible bar to all belief for him to send a weak or wicked person on his extraordinary Errand How far the first of these hath been forg'd as by Simon Magus the person suppos'd by some to be primarily meant here Apollonius Tyanaeus and others we are told by History But the Devil hath long since at least among us laid by that old Engine as being unfit to ensnare an inquisitive Age But pretence of Holiness will never be out-dated the Sheeps cloathing will be a fresh and fashionable disguise to the end of the world yet neither of these delusions ever have been or can be so strong or subtile as to elude all means of discovery For though a lying wonder may be Mechanism or Conspiracy be so perform'd as to puzzle a very curious enquiry into the matter of fact only and a Sanctimonious vizor may be so accurately made as to startle an unwary admirer that gazes only on the outside of it yet a careful search into the integrity charity and humility of the person will certainly discover the forgery counterfeit power and purity tast alwayes very strong of malice and pride But thanks be to God we cannot pretend the danger nor plead the excuse of such temptations such is the honest genius of our Religion that it dazzles not our Eyes with any strange feats nor deafs our Ears with unintelligible sounds nor amuses our Minds with uncouth severities nor offers any other Proofs for it self then those its great Master hath left it save only the strange success of them against the will and interest of the greatest power and policy in the world VVe are then safe from this first evil unless we will be so humorous as to cheat our selves into the belief of lyes which is the second part of their sad condition To rake up the ashes of old Heretiques would be here as useless as unsavory and to rake into the wounds of our own Church to seek the Lye would be as barbarous Some Balsom we rather take from the words for the healing of the sore of the Daughter of Israel if it be not yet incurable viz Every false Perswasion doth not amount to this emphasis of error nor must we write on it the doom in my Text lest we fall under our own condemnation A small mistake may indeed as 't is menag'd grow up to the dimensions of a gross error let the vehicle be never so innocent the ingredients make it a deadly poyson But a lye is an error which carries its contradiction in its face not at the end of a long chain of consequences hookt artificially together which is so thick and palpable that not Faith and Philosophy onely but even Humanity checks at it as being repugnant to that sense or testimony which is current through the whole world And of this nature there are too many extant I will not search into this or the other sect or communion for them onely lay down some general undeniable Characters and whatsoever Doctrines or Propositions answer them I hope 't will be no rudeness or affront to leave the lye at their doors 1. Those that deny the being or providence of God cannot justly be angry at that reproach which they roundly put upon the whole world All men Jews and Heathens yea their very Idols and Altars and the whole Creation do with one consent condemn these yea so far do they contradict themselves that they give the making and menagement of the whole world to such a blind Power which they dare not trust with the care of that little pittance of it they call their own And however sportive men may in the transports of their pleasures be with God yet this argues the denial of him to be the greatest falsity that it needs so much confidence and wildness and contempt of all things that are venerable amongst men to support it Again 2. Such Opinions as do violate his Perfections or charge any thing that is evil on him that advance any Creature to his glories or degrade him to its likeness cannot escape this evil name Those that of old invaded his honour and gave it to others are said by the Prophet to hold a lye in their right hand and by the Apostle to change the truth of God into a lye And those that represent him as cruel or unjust as peevish and easie to be provok't and yet easie to be flatter'd are not the Idea of the true God but the meer Figments and Idols of their own devising or whether their own Images which they set up in pomp and then fall down and worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil men since they must have a God will have the making of him and then no doubt he shall be such an one as shall best serve their own purposes a meer imaginary Creature of their own 3. VVhatever destroys the evidence of sense in those things that fall properly under its cognizance or the sufficiency of moral motives
Charge Holding the truth of God in unrighteousness or as in the next verse to the Text 't is phras'd not believing in the truth but having pleasure in unrighteousness as if that pleasure were flat without the resistance of Truth to keen the appetite as if the wayes to death were not plain enough without the light of the Gospel to direct them thither and 't were a glorious conquest through all the forces of Light and Love Mercy and Vengeance to do violence to the Kingdom of Darkness and storm Hell and Damnation This is the Charge and how it fits men for this doom and prepares them for the grossest errors I am next to shew The clearest Principles of Faith and Reason are not so convincing as the Doctrines of a holy life which as the light bring their own evidence with them and approve themselves at first sight to be holy just and good And the grossest errors cannot be press't with such palpable absurdities as any great and wilful wickedness which the conscience confutes not by formal argument but with pain and shame and confusion of face and leaves it no evasion or defence but that which amounts to a denial extenuation He therefore that is grown so hardy as to resist the strongest convictions of his own conscience and to baffle the painful conflicts of his own spirit who can hear and feel and despise his own condemnation how easie a conquest will he make over the weaker perswasions of his mind The strongest sense we have implanted by Nature or renew'd by Grace in our Souls is That of Good and Evil which because 't is the Guardian of our Innocence and Safety therefore hath God made it so quick and apprehensive The sense of True and False is much more weak and languid like the last faint returns of a dying eccho If that therefore be grown stupid how can this continue in its vigour When once a man is grown so sensless as to lay by all reverence and pitty of himself and to endure his own torments and reproaches he may easily despise the weaker chastisements of the sharpest demonstrations Besides there is no great sin but is attended with some proper mischiefs which touch the evil man in those parts wherein he is far more sensible and tender then in any the faculties of his Soul with which either his Body or his Credit or his Substance are weary and heavy laden And can we think the Articles of such a mans Faith can be dearer to him then his Health his Honour or his Estate which he so readily sacrifices to his Sins or That a contradiction should trouble his mind who hath no compassion left for these Can the harshest discords give any offence to those Ears that have been tun'd onely to cursing and calumny or the most ill-shapt unproportion'd objects to those Eyes that have delighted in the ugliest deformities of their own natures No more offence can the most inconsistent untruths give him who being past feeling hath given himself over to work all uncleanness with greediness Thus doth wickedness harden and enure the mind for the grossest errors and the more 2. Because it exposes a man to all temptations and makes him a ready prey for any belief that comes arm'd with the same weapons he hath been so often worsted with If Pleasure Honour and Profit can make a man a Beast a Villain or a Knave they may as easily where they stand for it make him an Infidel or Apostate If the smiles of a friend can strip a man of his Humanity they will shake his Creed which sits not so close to him He who abandons his Innocency for a little Railery would sure be quickly storm'd out of his Faith But what speak I of temptation He that persists in his wickedness in defiance to truth needs no Tempter being of himself propense to invent or imbrace the grossest lies For 3. There are two great depths of darkness whence all those Mists that be-night mens Understandings do arise an evil conscience and evil affections both which have their rise and growth from an evil life and do beguile men with a subtler sophistry then all outward imposture which borrows all its force from them 1. The evil Conscience works thus To the native delicate sense of the Soul the evil of guilt is very afflictive The remembrances of Blood Rapine Oppression Cozenage and the like are not onely frightful sights but cruel furies to a man Something then must be done for his ease he cannot live on this wheel nor lie down with this fire in his bosome nor can he shift off these Tortures that stick as close to him as the knowledge of himself does The common diversions of noise jollity and business will not alwayes last he must sometimes be alone and then the Tormenters return Thus like the evil Spirit in the Gospel He goes about seeking rest and can find none The onely sure and Catholick Remedy of Repentance from dead works which by the Blood of Jesus and the Promise of the Spirit we are assur'd will be successful is harsh and severe and requires cutting off the gangrend Hand and pulling out the enflam'd Eye and other rigours he can no more endure then the distemper 't is a long and heavy way to the City of Refuge and when one is there 't is but an imprisonment In this distress some Witchcraft must be sought to some easier arts found out to palliate the evil and asswage the pain And for this he hath heard much talk of a goodly and cheap Robe of Righteousness and a choice fucus of Faith with which he may so cover and beautifie the monsters that the all-seeing Eye of the most holy God shall not see sin in them In this disguise he presently puts them and having thus conceal'd them he apprehends no terror in them Thus thousands swallow this enthusiastick lye for indeed 't is very delicious and gives a great deal of ease to the vilest Sinner without the least trouble or distur bance to his Sin But if the man be frighted out of this phancy into a thoughtful mood and being arrested with the sense of God sees his nakedness through these Figleaves and feels that for all his finery he is yet in pain and something must be done besides this mummery for his ease he next casts about for what is easie not sure And being told that a slight exposing the evil by a short confession a very little attrition and a round satisfaction to the Church by the help of a few omnipotent words and in the close of all a little healing unction will infallibly effect the cure and lay these terrors Having so venerable authority for it he takes the opiate which lulls him into a pleasant slumber and giddiness and now he cryes Soul take thy ease and lust take thy liberty and whensoever the terrors do return 't is but repeating the remedy Toties quoties and all will be well But