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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A64352 Concerning holy resolution a sermon preach'd before the King at Kensington, Decemb. 30, 1694 / by His Grace Thomas Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Elect. Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715. 1695 (1695) Wing T690; ESTC T31087 8,931 18

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Concerning Holy Resolution A SERMON PREACH'D before the KING AT Kensington Decemb. 30 1694. PRALM 119. 106. Old Translation I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments New Translation I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments By his Grace THOMAS Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Elect. LONDON Printed and Sold by H. Hills in Black-fryars near the Water-side For the Benefit of the Poor PSALM 119. 106. Old Translation I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments New Translation I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments THESE are the Words of King David and and the Saying is the more remarkable by reason of the Condition of the Speaker For the more power opportunity temptation there is to break God's Commandments the greater is the vertue of religiously observing them This Prince was a Debtor to the Law as one who had entred into a Covenant with the God of Israel he renew'd this Obligation as often as by the hand of the Sacrificer he presented an Offering to him When he came to the Throne he understood no doubt from the Book of God to which he was no Stranger that it was his Duty to write out a Copy of God's Law and to keep it by him and to read in it at convenient Seasons all the days of his Life Deut. 17. 18 19. in order to his better observing the Contents of it He was in many troubles Psal 132. 1 c. and those troubles both Publick and Private were also exceeding great and he made many solemn Promises to that God who could alone support comfort and deliver him and by these he strengthened his Obedience Of such Holy Resolutions he hath given some account in the Words of the Text Saying I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments In this Pious Declaration are contained four thing well worthy our notice First Herein is taken for granted a possibility o● keeping the Law of God That is according to the measures of a sincere Man and by the assistance o● God's grace for without him we can do nothing David was a Man of better Understanding then to take an impossibility upon him and of greater Piety then to assume to himself a power of doing that which was righteous and in its nature possible without the help of his God Secondly We have here supposed the eternal Equity of God's Commands which are called Righteous Judgments they being the Results not of the Arbitrariness but the Counsel of his Will Thirdly Here is further suggested the Rule by which Wise and Pious Men go in making Vows They do not rashly oblige themselves to things either doubtful or unlawful or if lawful inexpedient But they proceed upon sure grounds vowing and resolving to perform such things as God himself has enjoyned in his Righteous Judgments or Statutes Fourtbly The Royal Psalmist does here expresly set forth a most serious and fixed Resolution of obeying these possible these just and reasonable Laws of that God whose Wisdom and Clemency are equal to his Power I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy Righteous Judgments I have chosen the last of these four Points for my present Subject designing to discourse by God's Assistance concerning Holy Resolution and the strengthning our by it in our religious Duty And In the first place I shall enquire into the Nature of Resolution Then Secondly I shall shew how useful how necessary a stedfast Holy Purpose is in the Course of our Lives Thirdly I shall conclude with a hearty exhortation to this Practice endeavouring so to move you to it that you being true to your Religious Obligations may finally obtain the Fruit of the exceeding great and precious Promises of that God and that Sun of Righteousness with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turni●g First For the Nature of Resolution it may be describ'd as an an Act or Habit of the Mind as determined with strength vigour and steddiness towards some Object concerning which it was formerly doubtful or towards which it was either indifferent or a verse It is the application of the Will to Business in the Opinion of some Moralists It is the bent of the Mind which setteth on work the other Powers It is as it were the Seal of the Inclination St. Peter seems to describe it as the fortifying of the Soul in these Words Forasmuch ●s Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh Arm your likewise with the same mind 1 Pet. 4. 1. or with the like force of Holy Resolution Resolution consider'd in it self is neither good nor evil but it is either according to the matter and the degree of it It is of a like Nature with Zeal which so long as it is exercis'd in a good matter and with due temper is very commendable and useful but in a bad Cause it is a most pernicious Instrument and like Fire in an undue place the more it rageth it is the more destructive The Resolution which I am to recommend hath Religion for its Object and Discretion for its Temper To be peremptory in a Trisle is great folly and weakness to be resolute in any Brutal way is hight Impiety To be moved by the Reason of the Case is just complaince To be stedfast and unmoveable in our Duty to God and others and our is Resolution truly and properly so called To such a sort of Resolution there are several Distempers in the Mind Will and Affections which oppose themselves The first is Slightness Carelesness and indifferency of temper which causeth so little regard to be had to Persons or things even those of the greatest moment that it neither setteth the Heart upon them or against them Such was the disposition of Gallio the Deputy of Achaia Acts 18. 17. Though he was a Man in Authority and acquainted with the Riot of which the Greeks were guilty in the Case of Sosthenes yet he cared for none of these things The Second is Hoesitancic and doutfulness of Mind a kind of halting betwixt God and Baal a Spirit not wrought up to that pitch of Resolution to which the Prophet Elijah would have the purpose to rise in his Expostulation with the double minded Men of his time how long halt ye between two Opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him 1 Kin. 18. 21. A Third opposite is Fickleness and Instability an humour which abounds where the Imagination governs that beinp pleas'd not so much with things that are really good as with those which are new Thus some of the Israelites affected Novelty in Worship more than the Heathen themselves This mov'd the Prophet to upbraid them on this manner hath a Nation changed their Gods which are yet no Gods but my People hath changed their Glory for that which doth not profit Jerem. 2. 11. A Fourth Distemper is easiness of