'So simple and plain a religion as ours': a Burnet sermon for the First Sunday in Lent

From a sermon preached by Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, on the First Sunday in Lent, 1695:

It is certain, That the main design and chief effect of Religion, is to Purify our Hearts, to Reform our Natures, to Restrain our Inclinations, our Appetites and Passions, and to spread such an influence through our whole Lives, through all our Powers, and in all our Actions, that the world may from thence, as from the evidentest as well as the powerfullest Argument, be convinc'd both of the beauty and force of this Religion. The Christian Religion in its true Purity, and as it is received among us, is so stript of all those outward appearances of Pompous and Costly, of severe or cruel Performances, that unless it reforms our Natures and our Lives, it has not enough in it to feed and support that false quiet that Superstition may give ...

But as to us and our Religion, What can we expect from it, if it has not a real influence upon our Hearts and Lives? Can we think that for our going sometimes (seldome God knows) to Prayers; our Assisting, that is being present, rather than joining with any Devotion at them; that our giving the Hearing, often a very wandering one, to a few Discourses; and our coming to Sacrament upon some great occasions, in compliance with Law or Custom, rather than out of true Devotion; Can, I say, any man have such high thoughts of such Nothings, such mean and dead Performances, or can he have such low thoughts of God and Religion, as to imagine that any value can be set on them?

It is certain, that so simple and plain a Religion as ours is, which lays so little cost or trouble on us, can be of no value in the sight of God; it has not so much as an outward appearance considerable enough to give a false quiet: so that man who know that his Religion has not its real effects on him, has no reason to flatter himself upon that account. Indeed such a half Religion, as it lets in upon a man the belief of the Principles of it, so it lays him open to all the Checks and Terrors which arise out of these. It is strong enough to teach him his Duty, to make him know his Sins, and to apprehend the terrible Consequences of them; but it does not compleat its Work; it gives him only the Terrors, but lets him not in to the Joys of true Religion.

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laudable Practice

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