HIS GRACE The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's SERMON BEFORE THE QUEEN March 20 th 1691 2. A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL March the XX th 1691 2. By JOHN Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Published by Her Majesty's special Command LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCII PSALM Lxxiii 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee THE design of this Psalm is to vindicate the goodness and justice of the Divine Providence notwithstanding the prosperous estate of the wicked and the afflicted condition of good men many times in this World And in the first place the Psalmist whoever he was whether David or Asaph lays down this for a most certain Truth that God is good to good men Of a truth God is good to Israel to such as are of a clean heart And yet for all this he tells us that at some times he was under no small temptation to question the truth of this Principle when he beheld the promiscuous dispensation of things here below that the wicked are often prosperous and good men exposed to great calamities in this life as if God either neglected human affairs or had a greater kindness for the workers of iniquity than for pious and good men As for me my foot had well nigh slipp'd for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked This he says was a very great stumbling block to good men and tempted them to doubt of the Providence of God Therefore his People return hither and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them and they say doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High This Sentence is somewhat obscurely rendred in our Translation so as to make the sense of it difficult which is plainly this Therefore his people return hither that is therefore good men come to this in the greatness of their affliction and in the bitterness of their soul to question God's knowledg and care of human affairs Behold say they these are the ungodly and yet they are the prosperous in the world they increase in riches To what purpose then is it for any man to be Religious and vertuous Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency In vain have I endeavoured after purity of heart and innocency of life since so little good comes of it nay so far from that that I have been in continual trouble and affliction All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning Such thoughts as these often came into his mind and gave him great trouble and disquiet But he presently corrects himself If I say I will speak thus I should offend against the generation of thy Children that is I should go against the sense of all pious and good men who have always believed the Providence of God notwithstanding this Objection Which at last he tells us he had raised on purpose to try if he could find the solution of it I thought to know this which was grievous in mine eyes And then he resolves all into the unsearchable wisdom of the Divine Providence which if we fully understood from first to last we should see good reason to be satisfied with the equity of it When I go into the Sanctuary of God then shall I understand the end of these men How thou didst set them in slippery places c. This satisfied him that whenever the secret design of God's Providence should be unfolded whether in this World or the other how strange and cross soever things might seem to be at present yet in the issue and conclusion it would appear that neither are bad men so happy nor good men so miserable as at present they may seem to be So that upon a full debate of this matter the Psalmist concludes that these Objections against Providence do spring from our ignorance and short and imperfect view of things whereas if we saw the whole design from beginning to end it would appear to be very reasonable and regular Thus my heart was grieved so foolish was I and ignorant and as a beast before thee And in regard to himself he tells us that he saw great reason to acknowledge God's tender care over him in particular and that he could find no security or comfort for himself but in God alone Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by thy right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory as if he had said I am sensible of thy constant presence with me and care of me and do entirely depend upon thy guidance and direction not doubting but that my present troubles and afflictions will have a happy and glorious issue And at last he breaks out into a kind of exultation and triumph for the mighty consolation which he found in the firm belief of the Being and Providence of God as the great stay and support of his soul in the worst condition that could befall him in the words of the Text Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee If a man were to chuse a happiness for himself and were to ransack Heaven and Earth for it after all his search and enquiry he would at last fix upon God as the chief happiness of man and the true and only rest and center of our souls This then is the plain meaning of the Text That nothing in the world but God can make man happy Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee That man of himself is not sufficient for his own happiness is evident upon many accounts Because he is liable to so many evils and calamities which he can neither prevent nor remedy He is full of wants which he cannot supply compassed about with infirmities which he can only complain of but is not able to redress He is obnoxious to dangers which he must always fear because he can never sufficiently provide against them Consider man by himself and from under the conduct and protection of a superior and more powerful Being and he is in a most disconsolate and forlorn condition Secure of nothing that he enjoys and liable to be disappointed of every thing that he hopes for He is apt to grieve for what he cannot help and perhaps the justest cause of his grief is that he cannot help it for if he could instead of grieving for it he would help it He cannot refrain from desiring a great many things which he would fain have but is never likely to obtain because they are out of his power and it troubles him both that they are so and that he cannot help his being
of and such as is sufficient to answer and bear down all sorts of captious Cavils and Objections against it but so much as is abundantly sufficient to satisfie a sober and impartial Enquirer after Truth one that hath no other interest but to find out Truth and when he hath found it to yield to it If it were otherwise and the Principles of Religion were as glaring and evident as the Sun shining at Noon-day as there could hardly be any vertue in such a Faith so Infidelity would be next to an impossibility All that I would expect from any man that shall say that he cannot see sufficient reason to believe the Being and the Providence of God is this that he would offer some other Principles that he would advance any other Hypothesis and Scheme of things that is more agreeable to the common and natural Notions of men and to all Appearances of things in the World and that does bid more fairly for the comfort and happiness of Mankind than these Principles of the Being of a God and of his watchfull Providence over the children of men do plainly do And till this be clearly done the Principles of Religion which have generally been received by Mankind and have obtain'd in the World in all Ages cannot fairly be discarded and ought not to be disturbed and put out of Possession And this I think puts this whole matter upon a very fair and reasonable Issue and that nothing more needs to be said concerning it Secondly from what hath been said in the foregoing Discourse it naturally follows That God is the only Object of our trust and confidence and therefore to him alone and to no other we ought to address all our Prayers and Supplications for mercy and grace to help in time of need But now according to the Doctrine and Practise of the Church of Rome the Psalmist here puts a very odd and strange Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee To which they give a quite different answer from what the Psalmist plainly intended namely that God was the sole Object of his hope and trust and that upon Him alone he relyed as his onely comfort and happiness But to this Assertion of the Psalmist the Church of Rome can by no means agree They understand this matter much better than the Psalmist did namely that besides God there are in Heaven innumerable Angels and Saints in whom we are to repose great trust and confidence and to whom also we are to address solemn Prayers and Supplications not only for temporal good things but for the pardon of our Sins for the increase of our Graces and for eternal Life That there are in Heaven particular Advocates and Patrons for all exigencies and occasions against all sorts of dangers and diseases for all Graces and Vertues and in a word for all temporal spiritual and eternal Blessings to whom we may apply our selves without troubling God and our Blessed Saviour who also is God blessed for evermore by presuming upon every occasion to make our immediate Addresses to Him For as they would make us believe though Abraham was ignorant of it and David knew it not the blessed Spirits above both Angels and Saints do not onely intercede with God for us for all sorts of Blessings but we may make direct and immediate Addresses to them to bestow these Blessings upon us For so they do in the Church of Rome as is evident beyond all denyal from several of their Prayers in their most publick and authentick Liturgies They would indeed fain palliate this matter by telling us that by these direct immediate Addresses to Angels and Saints to bestow Grace and eternal Life upon them they mean no more but only to pray to them that they would be pleased to intercede with God for these Blessings to be bestowed upon them by their Mediation But if they meane no more why do they say more then they meane Why do they use such expressions as to the common sense and understanding of Mankind do signify a great deal more than they say they mean such expressions as they themselves do acknowledge if they be understood according to the most obvious sense of the words would render them guilty of flat Idolatry Especially when they know that they are charged with Idolatry upon this account and since to cleare themselves of it they will not alter their Prayers they justly lye under the suspition of it And yet admitting what they say in this matter to be true and that by these expressions in their Prayers they intend no more but the solemn Invocation of Angels and Saints that they would intercede with God to bestow these Blessings upon them for the sake of their Merits and upon their Mediation yet this surely is a great deal too much and cannot be done without a high entrenchment upon the Office of the onely Mediatour between God and man the Man Christ Jesus But let them not deceive themselves God is not mocked The Lord our God is a jealous God and He will not give his Glory to another I have not yet instanced in the grossest part of their Superstition not to say downright Idolatry in this kind I mean in their extravagant worship of the blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord whom they blasphemously call the Queen of Heaven and whom by a new style unknown to the Scriptures and Primitive Antiquity they think to dignify with the modish Title of our Lady as if that could be any addition of honour to Her whom the Angel declared to be blessed among Women Who if she know any thing of the follies of Her Worshippers here below with what disdain and indignation do we think She heares those infinite Prayers that are made to Her and that Sacrilegious Worship which is given Her in that Church and which makes both pages of their Religion and which for the frequency of it both in their publick and private Devotions is very much beyond what they give to God and Christ As if there were none in Heaven but She nor any thing upon Earth to be worshipped in comparison of Her Image Nay so far have they carryed this extravagant Folly and how much farther they would have carryed it had not the Reformation given a check to it God only knows so far I say have they proceeded in this Folly as in that famous Book of their Devotions called our Ladyes Psalter not only to apply to Her some part of this Psalm out of which I have taken my Text beginning it thus How good is God to Israel to them that worship his B. Mother But they have likewise profanely burlesqued I cannot afford it a better terme this whole Book of Psalms applying to Her almost the highest things that are there said concerning God and our Blessed Saviour Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth and be ye horribly astonished to see the best and wisest Religion in the World transform'd into Superstition and Folly and to see the most learned Persons in that Communion set themselves in good earnest to justify all these follyes and absurdities by a grave and groundless pretence to Infallibility Thirdly and Lastly This shews us how necessary the favour of God is to every mans happiness And there is but one way to gain his friendship and favour by becoming holy and good as He is Then may we rejoice and glory in God as the Psalmist here does and say Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee A wicked man dreads God above all things in the World and he has great reason to do so For he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity When by sin we depart from God we forsake our own happiness Salvation is far from the wicked says David And againe a little after the Text They that are far from thee shall perish but it is good for me to draw near to God Now by holyness and goodness we draw near to Him who alone can make us happy It is certainly the common interest of mankind there should be a God because we cannot possibly be happy without Him But then it is no mans interest to be wicked because thereby we make Him our Enemy in whose favour is life and upon whom all our hopes of happyness do depend To conclude if we would have God for our Happiness we must be sure to make Him our Friend and then we may promise to our selves all those advantages which the Friendship of so great and powerful a Patron can give us And there is but one way to establish a firm Friendship between God and us and that is by doing his Will and living in obedience to his Laws Ye are my friends saith our Blessed Lord if ye do whatsoever I command you This is the love of God saith St. John that we keep his commandments And to love God is the way to be made partakers of those glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love Him such as eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man Which God of his infinite goodness grant we may all at last be made partakers of for his mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power both now and for ever Amen FINIS V. 1. V. 2. V. 10. V. 12. V. 13. V. 14. V. 15. V. 16. V. 17 18. V. 21. V. 23. Psal. 22. 9 10 11. Rom. 8. 35. v. 38 39. Prov. 1. 24. 25. c. Isa. 27. 11. Ps. 4. 6 7 8. Psal. 119.
upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproofe Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fooles shall destroy them To which I will add that terrible Passage in the Prophet concerning the perverse and obstinate Jews They are a People of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour And men are miserable Creatures indeed when God their Maker doth abandon them and hath so far hardened his heart against them that he can have no pity and compassion for them Seventhly and lastly which is consequent upon all the rest God is such a Good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds And that which cannot do this though it had all the Properties before mentioned cannot make us happy For he is not happy who does not think himself so whatever cause he may have to think so Now what in reason can give us disquiet if we do firmly believe that there is a God and that his Providence rules and governs all things for the best and that God is all that to good Men which hath now been said of Him Why should not our minds be in perfect repose when we are secure of the chief Good and have found out that which can make us happy and is willing to make us so if we be not wanting to our selves and by our wilful obstinacy and rebellion against him do not oppose and frustrate this design If a considerate Man were permitted to his own choice to wish the greatest good to himself that he could possibly devise after he had searched Heaven and Earth the result of all his wishes would be that there were just such a Being as we must necessarily conceive God to be Nor would he chuse any other Friend or Benefactour any other Protectour for himself or Governour for the whole World than infinite Power conducted and managed by infinite Wisdom and Goodness which is the true Notion of a God After all his enquiry he would come to the Psalmist's conclusion here in the Text Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Vain Man is apt to seek for happiness elsewhere but this proceeds from want of due consideration For when all things are well weigh'd and all accounts rightly cast up and adjusted we shall at last settle in David's resolution of that great Question What is the chief Good of man There be many says he that say Who will shew us any good that is men are generally inquisitive after happiness but greatly divided in their Opinions about it most men place it in the present enjoyments of this World but David for his part pitches upon God in whom he was fully convinc'd that the happiness of man does consist There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and Wine increased The great joy of the men of this World is in a plentiful Harvest and the abundance of the good things of this life But David had found that which gave more joy and gladness to his heart the favour of God and the light of his countenance This gave perfect rest and tranquillity to his mind so that he needed not to enquire any further For so it follows in the next words I will both lay me down in peace and rest for thou Lord onely makest me to dwell in safety The Hebrew word signifies confidence or security Here and no where else his mind found rest and was in perfect ease and security I shall now only make two or three Inferences from this Discourse and so conclude First This plainly shews us the great unreasonableness and folly of Atheism which would banish the belief of God and his Providence out of the World Which as it is most impious in respect of God so is it most malicious to Men because it strikes at the very foundation of our happiness and perfectly undermines it For if there were no God man would evidently be the most unhappy of all other Beings here below because his unhappiness would be laid in the very frame of his nature in that which distinguishes him from all other Beings below him I mean in his Reason and Understanding And he would be so much more miserable than the Beasts by how much he hath a farther reach and a larger prospect of future evils a quicker apprehension and a deeper and more lasting resentment of them So that if any man could see reason to stagger his belief of a God or of his Providence as I am sure there is infinite reason to the contrary yet the belief of these things is so much for the interest and comfort and happiness of Mankind that a wise man would be heartily troubled to part with a Principle so favourable to his quiet and that does so exactly answer all the natural desires and hopes and fears of men and is so equally calculated both for our comfort in this World and for our happiness in the other For when a man's thoughts have ranged and wandered as far as they can his mind can find no rest no probable foundation of happiness but God onely no other reasonable no nor tolerable Hypothesis and Scheme of things for a wise man to rely upon and to live and die by For no other Principle but this firmely believed and truly lived up to by an answerable practise was ever able to support the generality of Mankind and to minister true consolation to them under the calamities of life and the pangs of death And if there were not something real in the Principles of Religion it is impossible that they should have so remarkeable and so regular an effect to support our minds in every condition upon so great a number of persons of different degrees of understanding of all ranks and conditions young and old learned and unlearned in so many distant Places and in all Ages of the World the Records whereof are come down to us I say so real and so frequent and so regular an effect as this is cannot with any colour of reason be ascribed either to blind Chance or meer Imagination but must have a real and regular and uniform cause proportionable to so great and general an effect I remember that Grotius in his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion hath this observation That God did not intend that the Principles of Religion should have the utmost evidence that any thing is capable