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A43703
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A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-hall, on Sunday the 26th of October, 1690 by Charles Hickman.
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Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing H1900; ESTC R11429
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12,291
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29
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convers'd with Men Face to Face that he might instruct them in his holy Will by his own Presence and teach them Vertue from the original For this it was that he appointed all the Sacrifices under the Law namely to purge his People from their Sins till they had learnt the art of retaining their sins in spite of all their Sacrifices and then God cryed out Bring me no more vain oblations Then came our Saviour to shew us a more excellent way and therefore this was the only design of the publication of the Gospel too not to indulge our sloathful Vices and give us a lazy Inheritance in the Kingdom of God but by a severe Repentance to attone for our sins past and by an active Faith to preserve us from them for the time to come that we might improve our Vertue by the preaching of his Word and by the power of Prayer might bring it to some perfection Without this improvement all the attempts of the Gospel are but thrown away upon us our Faith is dead and our Repentance vain the preaching of God's Word is ineffectual and our Prayers can have no return As we increase in Knowledge we do but increase our Sorrow and the Sacraments themselves those means of Grace which have been so often administer'd to us will prove but so many aggravations of our Sins So far as we have amended our Lives so far are we advanc'd in Christianity but to expect Salvation upon any other terms is imposing upon our selves and mocking of our God To think with some that a superficial attendance at the Altar an outward compliance with the formalities of Religion will serve our turn is such a slight Notion of religious Duty as would disparage the worship of a Heathen Idol To fansie with others that an implicite Faith will make us whole and that we shall be saved by believing as the Church believes is making our Religion to be we know not what and expecting to be sav'd we know not why Nay to suppose that any Faith whatsoever can do us good but only that which works a Reformation to imagine that a strong presumption can make us Saints in spite of all our sins is like the rest an absurd Opinion devis'd by wicked Men to delude the World with a shew of Godliness and under that colour to disguise a wicked Life St. Peter tells us There is none other name under Heaven given unto man whereby we must be saved but only the name of Jesus Christ And St. Paul assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but only a new Creature It is not holding with this or the other Church neither the using nor the forbearing of any Rites or Ceremonies though it be by Gods own appointment that can entitle us to the benefits of the Gospel without the Concurrence of an industrious Vertue and an obedient Life He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is our duty here lies the main stress of our Religion for this it was that God spake in times past to our Fathers by the Prophets for this it was that he sent at last his own Son into the World and by this test we must know whether we are his Disciples for whatever Doctrine does not naturally lead us to newness of Life is not the Wisdom of God from above but the vain suggestion of our own Lust or the false insinuation of the Devil Thus we see that the great business and concern of Man is to preserve himself from Sin and yet against sin we have no Antidote but in Religion How Religion comes to work this Cure upon us is the Second thing observable in my Text. That we may learn not to sin it teaches us to stand in awe We have already seen what a powerful influence our Passions have upon us how they lead us into Vanity and drive us into Sin and do so tyrannize over our Reason that we have no remedy left but to combate one Passion with another and by a Religious Fear to overcome the extravagance of a sensless Joy We cannot chuse also but perceive how subtily Lust insinuates itself into our affections and by degrees gets the dominion over us how artificially it closes in with our Flesh and so overtops our Spirit that we stand in need of some supernatural assistance to subdue it and all the succours of Religion are little enough to cast it out Some may think perhaps that natural Religion it self those notions of a God which are born and bred within us and are so deeply imprinted in the hearts of all Mankind should be sufficient to secure our Vertue and force us to stand in awe But by universal experience we find that these notions are apt to degenerate into superstition and superstition leaves us naked and expos'd only to our fears but takes away all our security Others perhaps may conceive that our own rational fears the necessary sense of our weakness and the natural apprehension of our danger might be a sufficient guard unto us and teach us to avoid those practices which do but weaken and expose us more but what can our nature do when 't is corrupted it self and grown impotent and unable to relieve us Nay what is worse 't is grown obstinate and perverse and most commonly takes part against us For though our reason sometimes keeps us in and confines us to the Rules of Vertue yet how often does Passion break the Chain and turn us loose to our own inventions Others there are who depend upon their own honour for the security of their Vertue and would have us depend upon it too But alas what is the honour of a Man when his Religion is lost it is but the staff of a broken reed that has just strength enough to pierce through our hand but not enough to support our Body In short there is nothing but an awful regard for God and a just respect for his holy Attributes that can effectually put a restraint upon us and over-rule the violence of our Passions and this awe we owe purely to our Religion which for that very reason is call'd the fear of God Gen. 20.11 To what purpose else did God reveal himself to the Patriarchs and Prophets of old but to put this fear of his name into their hearts and what other use but this did they make of those his Revelations We shall surely die says one for we have seen the Lord. Wo is me for I am undone says another for I am a man of unclean Lips and mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts To what purpose did God appoint the Sacrifices under the Law but to give us a dreadful instance that death is the natural consequence of our Sins a necessary tribute which we owe to his Justice though his Mercy allows us to