Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A67828
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen at Guild-Hall Chappel, February 4, 1682 by Edward Young ...
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Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing Y67; ESTC R34113
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12,981
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31
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Pritchard Mayor Martis vi die Februarii 1682. Annoque Regis Caroli Secund. Angl. c. xxxvi THis Court doth desire Mr. Young to Print his Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at the Guild-Hall Chappel on Sunday Morning last Wagstaffe A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND ALDERMEN AT Guild-Hall Chappel February 4. 1682. By Edward Young Fellow of the College near Winchester LONDON Printed by I. Wallis for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1683. A SERMON Preach'd before the LORD MAYOR ON S. Matthew Chap. v. vers 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven THE Christian State that is a Holy Life is frequently exprest in the Scriptures by the Metaphor of a Building and the Metaphor may suggest thus much unto us That there is a certain Order to be observed in raising the Moral Structure as well as the Mechanical There are some Virtues proper for the Foundation upon which all the rest must be built and without which they cannot stand such are all those that tend to the humbling of our minds as a true knowledge of our selves and a conviction of our unworthiness and a just abhorrency of our natural corrupt desires There are others proper for the superstructure and finishing of the work such are all those that tend to the raising of our Affections as Love Joy Hope and Confidence in God Now whosoever in his Building shall neglect this Order and intend the raising of his Affections before the humbling of his Mind he that shall affect the Love of God before the Mortification of Nature a Zeal for Religion before the condescentions of Charity a sort of spiritual Saintship before a moral Change such a one is like that foolish builder mentioned by our Saviour in the close of this his Sermon on the Mount he may make a fair shew of a house but he bottoms it upon the sand and when wind and storm and flood that is when any searching temptation shall come and assault it it will certainly fall It was not therefore casually or without a particular design that our Saviour began his holy institution with this Duty of the Text and recommended Poverty of Spirit to his Disciples before all other The very Order it bears imports no less than this That Poverty of Spirit is a Duty that requires the beginning of our care and the first of our applications because that so long as we are without it it is impossible for us to make any holding progress into the state of Christianity Which truth will farther appear from the explication of the words In order to which I shall determine these two Questions First Who are meant by the poor in Spirit Secondly What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven to which the poor in Spirit are here intitled As to the First I take these words Blessed are the poor in Spirit to bear a parallel sense to those we meet with Psal. 15. where the Psalmist having put the question Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle and who shall rest upon thy holy Hill He answers ver 4. He that is lowly in his own eyes In which expression we know that by Eyes is meant the inward sight of Imagination that faculty of the Soul wherein we form our Images and conceptions of Things and value them accordingly So that by Lowly in his own Eyes is meant a Man little in his own Conceit and esteem Now the word Spirit as it relates to Man is taken indifferently to signifie either the whole Soul or any of its faculties and I presume that in the Text it is taken to signifie this particular faculty of Imagination and so Poor in Spirit and Lowly in his own Eyes appear to be expressions of the same importance they carry in them the same notion and thought and denote a person that is Little in his own conceit or esteem that is in a word an Humble Man I confess that the word Spirit is most frequently used to signifie the Irascible or passionate part of the Soul and so Poor in Spirit might naturally be interpreted of such a one as is little in Passion calm in Resenting slow to Anger but then this Beatitude would fall to be the same with that at the 5th v. viz. Blessed are the Meek which as we cannot easily guess to have been intended so we must reasonably conclude that by Poor in Spirit in the Text is meant no other than the Humble Man I come to the second Question viz. What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven to which the poor in Spirit are intitled It is evident from many passages in Scripture that this Phrase The Kingdom of Heaven does signifie not only the Future blessed State where the Faithful are said to reign with Christ in a full participation of Immortality and Glory but it likewise signifies the present Christian state where Christ is said to reign over the Faithful by the influences of his Grace and the discipline of his Gospel Thus the holy Spirit hath thought fit to signifie Man's Happiness and his Duty by the very same expression Whether First To suggest one principal point of Wisdom that is That we should never think of our Happiness but we should at the same time think of our Duty too and the necessary dependance that the one hath upon the other Or Secondly To intimate that the Kingdom of Heaven both here and hereafter that is the two states of a Christian in this Life and in the next though they differ in Circumstances yet in the main Essential they are but one and the same For Example It is but an accidental Circumstance to a Christian that he be either a Traveller or a Citizen that he be either Militant or Triumphant but it is an everlasting Essential to him that he be Holy and in this both states must agree As therefore the Kingdom of Heaven may justly ravish our thoughts with the notion it bears of the Beatifick presence of God of the Company of Angels of Glory Pleafures and Joys that are unmixt and eternal so it may as justly serve to awaken our Care and diligence and strict Inspection of our selves to consider that this very Kingdom must be begun within us we must Here lead the Heavenly Life we must Here conform in Saintship to the Blessed that are above and all the Graces that they have in Perfection we must here have in Degrees and all aspiring towards perfection 'T is the Kingdom so begun that shall have its consummation in bliss But if the Spirit of this Kingdom do not work in us and change us Here if our corrupt inclinations do not dye before us but we continue Filthy the Future State can never change us By subduction of the Means by incapacity of the Subject by irreversible Doom we must be Filthy still The Kingdom of Heaven bearing these two different significations of Grace and Glory the Question
accomplishments gives both the Capacity and the Application and the Success That to the attainment of all Moral Perfections gives both the Power and the Will and the Deed 'T is He that first establish'd the Relation that all Causes bear to their Effects and in his particular Providence does either continue or enlarge or controul or suspend their influence according to his pleasure So that Nature is no other than God's Ordinary method of acting as Miracle is his Extraordinary and Fortune his Secret method And therefore those Effects which proceed from the working of Natural Causes and the deliberate use of Means those Effects which we pretend to as Ours are as much from God as those whose productions are either Supernatural or Fortuitous to which we do not pretend For Instance In the Widdow of Saâ—epta's Oyl that part which grew on her Tree was as much from God as that which grew in her Cruise In Solomon's wisdom that Measure that directed his Choice in the Temple was as much from God as that which was superadded by reason of his Choice In Israels Victories their beating the Amalekites by dint of Sword was as much from God as their demolishing the Walls of Iericho with the blast of a Ram's-horn No Man's Riches or Grandeur can be more his Own than Nebuchadnezzar's was his and yet for but assuming thus much unto himself for this reason expresly he was debas'd and unman'd and thrown out among the Beasts No Man's Wit or Eloquence can be more his own than Herod's was his and yet for assuming this glory to himself he was given up to be devoured by Worms And if these Talents are still God's in Property tho' they are Ours in Possession as it appears by these Instances they are much more are all Moral Perfections so towards the attainment of which our faculties and dispositions are much weaker The holy Scriptures teach us nothing more frequently nothing more instantly than this That Every good and every perfect gift cometh from above That Of our selves we can do nothing That All our sufficiency is from God Passages to this purpose are very numerous as if the holy Spirit were more than ordinarily Jealous of our Incredulity in this Point And why now is all this Why does God rather dispense good things to us than suffer us to acquire them to our selves Why are all our Perfections Gifts And why does God so frequently and so instantly put us in mind that they are so We may learn the reason of all from the fore-mentioned place of the Apostle 1 Cor. iv 7. where he adds Why then dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received We receive for this very purpose that we should be Humble For to Receive and to glory to be obliged and yet to be proud is pure absurdity as absurd as it were for a man to think himself rich only because he has borrow'd a Sum. So long therefore as we keep our minds possest of this Truth That all the good that belongs unto us is of God's Free Grace and arbitrary disposal so long as we thereby retain the just measure of our own littleness and worthlesness and want so long we are properly dispos'd to give God the glory due unto his Name that is the acknowledgment and praise and retribution of that which he has given us But as for Pride whatsoever stock it grows upon it is an Imagination that exalts it self against the Interest of God It is express Sacrilege for it always robs God of so much honour as it places upon our selves And hence I pass to my second Head which is To shew the influence and usefulness and necessity of being Humble in order to the attainment of the Christian State Which State the Apostle has expressed very fully and distinctly in these three words Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification or Holiness 1 Cor. i. 30. these are the three Integral parts of Christianity and for Methods sake I shall shew how Humility is subservient to each of these And first to Wisdom Wisdom is that perfection that is necessary to the Christians understanding and it consists in the Knowledge and approbation of Divine Truths Now there is no access unto Truth in divine things but only through Faith Faith is all the security we have against deception And what is Faith but the Humbling of Reason the beating down of Imagination the bringing of thoughts into Captivity A profest Enemy to the Opinionative and the Disputer and utterly inconsistent with the Pride of Understanding So that we cannot so much as approach unto Truth but under the conduct of Humility But this is not all For such is the nature of Truth that after we have embrac'd it we can never give it a fixed entertainment nor ever be secure of not starting from it again unless we continue under the same influence of Humility For Truth though it want not beauty yet it is plain and simple uniform and always alike Its first and strictest obligation to all its Followers is that Advice of the Apostle To be of the same mind To walk by the same Rule to speak the same thing So that he that will fix upon Truth must necessarily be humble in this respect that is He must content himself to think as others do to agree with the vulgar notion and to go in the common track Truth cannot put on those various Modes and shapes that please the levity of humane affections Truth cannot start any thing novel and strange to take the multitude which admires nothing so much as Monsters Truth can make no room for the pleasure of singularity none for the itch of contradicting none for the Glory of Heading or the Interest of siding with a Sect All these are the Rights and Privileges of Errour insomuch that it is impossible for a man unless he be absolutely humble to resist the temptation of catching at Errour though he has Truth already in his hand And to this purpose it might easily appear from the particular History of all Errours and Heresies that ever sprung up to the disturbance of the Church and the World that not one of a hundred of them did ever spring from Invincible Ignorance and want of Light but from Affected mistake and want of Humility Either Ambition of Greatness or the Thirst of Glory or Impatience of a Defeat or some other designing Intrigue of humane Pride will appear to have been at the bottom of every Dissention So that All the different Opinions which obtain in the World and the various mists that are cast upon the face of Truth and the clamorous Pretences that are laid to Her by several sides which 't is certain can never be but on One All these I say do no way argue either the failure or Limitation of God's promise to his Church That he would send his Holy Spirit to guide her into all Truth They only argue this That Men are Arrogant and Opinionative and therefore will not stick upon