at once from two of the most dangerous temptations of this world Idleness and Poverty and by degrees reclaim'd them to a vertuous and industrious course of life which enabled them afterwards to live without being beholden to the charity of others And this course so happily devis'd and begun by Mr. Gouge in his own Parish was I think that which gave the first hint to that worthy and usefull Citizen Mr. Thomas Firmin of a much larger design which hath been prosecuted by him for some years with that vigour and good success in this City that many hundeds of poor Children and others who liv'd idle before unprofitable both to themselves and the publick are continually maintain'd at work and taught to earn their own livelihood much in the same way He being by the generous assistance and charity of many worthy and well-dispos'd Persons of all ranks enabled to bear the unavoidable loss and charge of so vast an undertaking and by his own forward inclination to charity and his unwearied diligence and activity extraordinarily fitted to sustain and go through the incredible pains of it But to return to our deceased Friend concerning whom I must content my self to pass over many things worthy to be remembred of him and to speak only of those Vertues of his which were more eminent and remarkable Of his Piety towards God which is the necessary foundation of all other Graces and Vertues I shall only say this That it was great and exemplary but yet very still and quiet without stir and noise and much more in substance and reality Than in shew and ostentation and did not consist in censuring and finding fault with others but in the due care and government of his own life and actions and in exercising himself continually to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men in which he was such a proficient that even after a long acquaintance and familiar conversation with him it was not easie to observe any thing that might deserve blame He particularly excell'd in the more peculiar vertues of conversation in modesty humility meekness cheerfulness and in kindness and charity towards all men So great was his modesty that it never appear'd either by word or action that he put any value upon himself This I have often observ'd in him that the Charities which were procur'd chiefly by his application and industry when he had occasion to give an account of them he would rather impute to any one who had but the least hand and part in the obtaining of them than assume any thing of it to himself Another instance of his modesty was that when he had quitted his Living of S. Sepulchres upon some dissatisfaction about the terms of conformity he willingly forbore preaching saying there was no need of him here in London where there were so many worthy Ministers and that he thought he might do as much or more good in another way which could give no offence Only in the later years of his life being better satisfi'd in some things he had doubted of before He had License from some of the Bishops to preach in Wales in his progress which he was the more willing to do because in some places he saw great need of it and he thought he might do it with greater advantage among the poor People who were the more likely to regard his instructions being recommended by his great charity so well known to them and of which they had so long had the experience and benefit But where there was no such need he was very well contented to hear others perswade men to goodness and to practice it himself He was clothed with humility and had in a most eminent degree that ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which S. Peter says is in the sight of God of so great price So that there was not the least appearance either of Pride or Passion in any of his words or actions He was not only free from anger and bitterness but from all affected gravity and moroseness His conversation was affable and pleasant he had a wonderful serenity of mind and evenness of temper visible in his very countenance he was hardly ever merry but never melancholly and sad and for any thing I could descern after a long and intimate acquaintance with him he was upon all occasions and accidents perpetually the same always cheerfull and always kind of a disposition ready to embrace and oblige all men allowing others to differ from him even in opinions that were very dear to him and provided men did but fear God and work righteousness he lov'd them heartily how distant soever from him in judgment about things less necessary In all which he is very worthy to be a pattern to men of all Perswasions whatsoever But that Vertue which of all other shone brightest in him and was his most proper and peculiar character was his cheerful and unwearied diligence in acts of pious Charity In this he left far behind him all that ever I knew and as I said before had a singular sagacity and prudence in devising the most effectual ways of doing good and in managing and disposing his charity to the best purposes and to the greatest extent always if it were possible making it to serve some end of Piety and Religion as the instruction of poor children in the principles of Religion and furnishing grown persons that were ignora n with the Bible and other good Books strictly obliging those to whom he gave them to a diligent reading of them and when he had opportunity exacting of them an account how they had profited by them In his occasional alms to the poor in which he was very free and bountiful the relief he gave them was always mingled with good counsel and as great a tenderness and compassion for their souls as bodies which very often attain'd the good effect it was likely to have the one making way for the other with so much advantage and men being very apt to follow the good advice of those who give them in hand so sensible a pledge and testimony of their good will to them This kind of charity must needs be very expensive to him but he had a plentiful estate settled upon him and left him by his Father and he laid it out as liberally in the most prudent and effectual ways of charity he could think of and upon such persons as all circumstances considered he judg'd to be the fittest and most proper objects of it For about nine or ten years last past he did as is well known to many here present almost wholly apply his charity to Wales because there he judg'd was most occasion for it And because this was a very great work he did not only lay out upon it whatever he could spare out of his own estate but employ'd his whole time and pains to excite and engage the charity of others for his assistance in it And in this he had two
excellent designs One to have poor children brought up to reade and write and to be carefully instructed in the principles of Religion The other to furnish persons of grown age the poor especially with the necessary helps and means of knowledge as the Bible and other Books of piety and devotion in their own Language to which end he procur'd the Church-Catechism the Practice of Piety and that best of Books the Whole Duty of Man besides several other pious and useful Treatises some of them to be translated into the Welch Tongue and great numbers of all them to be printed and sent down to the chief Towns in Wales to be sold at easie rates to those that were able to buy them and to be freely given to those that were not And in both these designs through the blessing of God upon his unwearied endeavours he found very great success For by the large and bountiful contributions which chiefly by his industry and prudent application were obtain'd from charitable Persons of all Ranks and conditions from the Nobility and Gentry of Wales and the neighbouring Counties and several of that Quality in and about London from divers of the Right Reverend Bishops and of the Clergy and from that perpetual fountain of charity the City of London led on and encourag'd by the most bountifull example of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen to all which he constantly added two Thirds of his own estate which as I have been credibly inform'd was two hundred pounds a year I say by all these together there were every year eight hundred sometimes a thousand poor children educated as I said before and by this example several of the most considerable Towns of Wales were excited to bring up at their own charge the like number of poor children in the like manner and under his inspection and care He likewise gave very great numbers of the Books above mention'd both in the Welch and English Tongues to the poorer sort so many as were unable to buy them and willing to reade them But which was the greatest work of all and amounted indeed to a mighty charge he procured a new and very fair impression of the Bible and Liturgy of the Church of England in the Welch Tongue the former Impression being spent and hardly twenty of them to be had in all London to the number of eight thousand one thousand whereof were freely given to the poor and the rest sent to the principal Cities and Towns in Wales to be sold to the rich at very reasonable and low rates viz. at four shillings a piece well bound and clasped which was much cheaper than any English Bible was ever sold that was of so fair a print and paper A work of that charge that it was not likely to have been done any other way And for which this Age and perhaps the next will have great cause to thank God oh his behalf In these Good works he employed all his time and care and pains and his whole heart was in them so that he was very little affected with any thing else and seldom either minded or knew any thing of the strange occurrences of this troublesome and busie Age such as I think are hardly to be parallel'd in any other Or if he did mind them he scarce ever spoke any thing about them For this was the business he laid to heart and knowing it to be so much and so certainly the Will of his heavenly Father it was his meat and drink to be doing of it and the good success he had in it was a continual feast to him and gave him a perpetual serenity both of mind and countenance His great love and zeal for this work made all the pains and difficulties of it seem nothing to him He would rise early and sit up late and continued the same diligence and industry to the last though he was in the threescore and seventeenth year of his Age. And that he might manage the distribution of this great charity with his own hands and see the good effect of it with his own eyes he always once but usually twice a year at his own charge travelled over a great part of Wales none of the best Countries to travel in But for the love of God and men he endured all that together with the extremity of heat and cold which in their several seasons are both very great there not onely with patience but with pleasure So that all things considered there have not since the primitive times of Christianity been many among the sons of men to whom that glorious character of the Son of God might be better applied that he went about doing good And Wales may as worthily boast of this truly Apostolical man as of their famous St. David who was also very probably a good man as those times of ignorance and superstition went But his goodness is so disguised by their fabulous Legends and stories which give us the account of him that it is not easie to discover it Indeed ridiculous miracles in abundance are reported of him as that upon occasion of a great number of people reforming from all parts to hear him preach for the greater advantage of his being heard a mountain all on a sudden rose up miraculously under his feet and his voice was extended to that degree that he might be distinctly heard for two or three miles round about Such phantastical miracles as these make up a great part of his History And admitting all these to be true which a wise man would be loth to do our departed Friend had that which is much greater and more excellent than all these a fervent charity to God and men which is more than to speak as they would make us believe S. David did with the Tongue of men and Angels more than to raise or remove mountains And now methinks it is pity so good a design so happily prosecuted should fall and die with this good man And it is now under deliberation if possible still to continue and carry it on and a very worthy and charitable person pitched upon for that purpose who is willing to undertake that part which he that is gone performed so well But this will depend upon the continuance of the former Charities and the concurrence of those worthy and well-disposed persons in Wales to contribute their part as formerly which I perswade my self they will cheerfully do I will add but one thing more concerning our deceased Brother that though he meddled not at all in our present heats and differences as a Party having much better things to mind yet as a looker on he did very sadly lament them and for several of the last years of his life he continued in the Communion of our Church and as he himself told me thought himself obliged in conscience so to do He died in the 77th year of his age Octob. 29th 1681. It so pleased God that his death
Consider it as an Argument ad hominem and shew the fitness and force of it to convince those with whom our Saviour disputed Secondly I shall enquire Whether it be more than an Argument ad hominem And if it be wherein the real and absolute force of it doth consist And then I shall apply this Doctrine of the Resurrection to the present Occasion I. First We will consider it as an Argument ad hominem and shew the fitness and force of it to convince those with whom our Saviour disputed And this will appear if we carefully consider these four things 1. What our Saviour intended directly and immediately to prove by this Argument 2. The extraordinary veneration which the Jews in general had for the Writings of Moses above any other Books of the Old Testament 3. The peculiar notion which the Jews had concerning the use of this Phrase or expression of God's being any one 's God 4. The great respect which the Jews had for these three Fathers of their Nation Abraham Isaac and Jacoh For each of these make our Saviour's Argument more forcible against those with whom he disputed First We will consider what our Saviour intended directly and immediately to prove by this Argument And that was this That there is another state after this life wherein men shall be happy or miserable according as they have lived in this world And this doth not only suppose the immortality of the Soul but forasmuch as the Body is an essential part of man doth by consequence infer the resurrection of the Body because otherwise the man would not be happy or misererable in the other world But I cannot see any sufficient ground to believe that our Saviour intended by this Argument directly and immediately to prove the resurrection of the Body but only by consequence and as it follows from the admission of a future state wherein men shall be rewarded or punished For that Reason of our Saviour that God is not a God of the dead but of the living if it did directly prove the resurrection of the Body it would prove that the Bodies of Abraham Isaac and Jacob were raised to life again at or before that time when God spake to Moses and called himself the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob But we do not believe this and therefore ought not to suppose that it was the intention of our Saviour directly and immediately to prove the resurrection of the Body but only as I said before a future state And that this was all our Saviour intended will more plainly appear if we consider what that Errour of the Sadduces was which our Saviour here confutes And Josephus who very well understood the difference of the Sects among the Jews and gives a particular account of them makes not the least mention of any Controversie between the Pharisees and the Sadduces about the resurrection of the Body All that he says is this That the Pharisees hold the Immortality of the Soul and that there are Rewards and Punishments in another world But the Sadduces denied all this and that there was any other state after this life And this is the very same account with that which is given of them in the New Testament vers 27. of this Chapt. The Sadduces who deny that there is any resurrection The meaning of which is more fully declared Act. 23.8 The Sadduces say that there is no resurrection neither angel nor spirit but the Pharisees confess both That is the Sadduces denied that there was any other state of men after this life and that there was any such thing as an immortal Spirit either Angels or the Souls of men surviving their Bodies And as Dr. Hammond hath judiciously observed this is the true importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. a future or another state unless in such Texts where the Context does restrain it to the raising again of the Body or where some word that denotes the body as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to it Secondly The force of this Argument against those with whom our Saviour disputed will further appear if we consider the great veneration which the Jews in general had for the Writings of Moses above any other Books of the Old Testament which they especially the Sadduces looked upon only as Explications and Comments upon the Law of Moses But they esteemed nothing as a necessary Article of Faith which had not some foundation in the Writings of Moses And this seems to me to be the true Reason why our Saviour chose to confute them out of Moses rather than any other part of the Old Testament And not as many learned men have imagined because the Sadduces did not receive any part of the Old Testament but only the five Books of M ses so that it was in vain to argue against them out of any other This I know hath been a general opinion grounded I think upon the mistake of a passage in Josephus who says the Sadduces only received the written Law But if We carefully consider that passage we shall find that Josephus doth not there oppose the Law to the other Bâ—â—ks of the Old Testament which were also written but to Oral Tradition For he says expresly that the Sadduces only received the written Law but the Pharisees over and besides what was written received the Oral which they call Tradition I deny not but that in the later Prophets there are more express Texts for the proof of a future state than any are to be found in the Books of Moses As Daniel 12.2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake s me to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt And indeed it seems very plain that holy men among the Jews towards the expiration of the Legal dispensation had still clearer and more express apprehensions concerning a future state than are to be met with in the Writings of Moses or of any of the Prophets The Law given by Moses did suppose the Immortality of the Souls of men and the expectation of another life after this as Principles of Religion in some degree naturally known but made no new and express Revelation of these things Nor was there any occasion for it the Law of Moses being a Political Law not intended for the Government of mankind but of one particular Nation and therefore was establish'd as Political Laws are upon temporal promises and threatnings promising temporal prosperity to the observation of its precepts and threatning the breach of them with temporal judgments and calamities And this I take to be the true reason why arguments fetch'd from another world are so obscurely insisted upon under that Dispensation not but that another life after this was always suppos'd and was undoubtedly the hope and expectation of good men under the Law but the clear discovery of it was reserv'd for the Times of the Messias And therefore as
were the great Doctors among the Jews the Teachers and Interpreters of the Law of God And because many of them were of the Sect of the Pharisees which above all others pretended to skill and knowledge in the Law therefore it is that our blessed Saviour do's so often put the Scribes and Pharisees together And these were the men of chief Authority in the Jewish Church who equalled their own unwritten word and traditions with the Law of God Nay our Saviour tells us they made the Commandments of God of none effect by their traditions They did in effect assume to themselves infallibility and all that opposed and contradicted them they branded with the odious name of Hereticks Against these our Saviour denounced this Woe here in the Text Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men c. All the difficulty in the words is what is here meant by shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men St. Luke expresseth it more plainly ye have taken away the key of knowledge ye entred not in your selves and them that were entring in ye hindered By putting these two expressions together we shall the more easily come at the meaning of the Text. Ye have taken away the key of knowledge and have shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. This Metaphor of the key of knowledge is undoubtedly an allusion to that known custome among the Jews in the admission of their Doctors For to whomsoever they gave Authority to interpret the Law and the Prophets they were solemnly admitted into that office by delivering to them a Key and a Table-book So that by the key of knowledge is here meant the interpretation and understanding of the Scriptures and by taking away the key of knowledge not onely that they arrogated to themselves alone the understanding of the Scriptures but likewise that they had conveyed away this key of knowledge and as it were hid it out of the way neither using it themselves as they ought nor suffering others to make use of it And thus they shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men which is very fitly said of those who have locked the door against them that were going in and have taken away the key By all which it appears that the plain meaning of our Saviour in these Metaphorical expressions is that the Scribes and Teachers of the Law under a pretence of interpreting the Scriptures had perverted them and kept the true knowledge of them from the People Especially those Prophecies of the Old Testament which concerned the Messias And by this means the Kingdom of Heaven was shut against men And they not only rejected the truth themselves but by keeping men in ignorance of the true meaning of the Scriptures they hindered many from embracing our Saviour's Doctrine and entering into the Kingdom of Heaven who were otherwise well enough disposed for it Having thus explained the words I shall from the main scope and design of them observe to you these two things 1. The Necessity of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures in order to our eternal Salvation It is called by our Saviour the key of knowledge that which lets men into the Kingdom of Heaven 2. The great and inexcusable fault of those who deprive the People of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures They hut the kingdom of heaven against men and do what in them lies to hinder their eternal Salvation and therefore our Saviour denounceth so heavy a woe against them I shall speak briefly to these two Observations and then apply them to those who are principally concerned in them I. First I observe hence the Necessity of the knowledge of the holy Scriptures in order to our eternal Salvation This is by our Saviour called the key of knowledge that which lets men into the Kingdom of Heaven Knowledge is necessary to Religion It is necessary to the Being of it and necessary to the life and practice of it Without Faith says the Apostle it is impossible to please God Because Faith is an act of the understanding and do's necessarily suppose some knowledge and apprehension of what we believe To all acts of Religion there is necessarily required some act of the Understanding so that without knowledge there can be no devotion in the service of God no obedience to his Laws Religion begins in the Understanding and from thence descends upon the heart and life If ye know these things says our Saviour happy are ye if ye do them We must first know God before we can worship him and understand what is his will before we can do it This is so very evident that one would think there needed no discourse about it And yet there are some in the World that cry up Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion And to shew that we do not wrong them in this matter Mr. Rushworth in his Dialogues a Book in great vogue among the Papists here in England does expresly reckon up Ignorance among the Parents of Religion And can any thing be said more absurdly and more to the disparagement of Religion than to derive the pedegree of the most excellent thing in the world from so obscure and ignoble an Original and to make that which the Scripture calls the beginning of wisdom and the excellency of knowledge to be the Off-spring of Ignorance and a Child of darkness Ignorance indeed may be the cause of wonder and admiration and the mother of folly and superstition But surely Religion is of a nobler Extraction and is the issue and result of the best wisdom and knowledge and descends from above from the giver of every good and perfect gift even the father of lights And as knowledge in general is necessary to Religion so more particularly the knowledge of the holy Scriptures is necessary to our eternal Salvation Because these are the great and standing Revelation of God to mankind wherein the Nature of God and his Will concerning our duty and the terms and conditions of our eternal happiness in another World are fully and plainly declared to us The Scriptures are the Word of God and from whence can we learn the will of God so well as from his own mouth They are the great instrument of our Salvation and should not every man be acquainted with that which alone can perfectly instruct him what he must believe and what he must do that he may be saved This is the testimony which the Scripture gives of it self that it is able to make men wise unto salvation And is it not very fit that every man should have this wisdom and in order thereunto the free use of that Book from whence this wisdom is to be learned II. Secondly I observe the great and inexcusable fault of those who keep men in Ignorance of Religion and take away from them so excellent and necessary a means of divine knowledge as the H. Scriptures are This our Saviour calls taking away the
time I have purposely reserved this for the last place because it is their last refuge and if this fail them they are gone To shew the weakness of this pretence we will if they please take it for granted that the Governours of the Church have in no Age more power than the Apostles had in theirs Now St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 10.8 that the Authority which the Apostles had given them from the Lord was only for edification but not for destruction And the same St. Paul makes it the business of a whole Chapter to shew that the performing the publick service of God and particularly Praying in an unknown Tongue are contrary to edification from which premisses the conclusion is plain That the Apostles themselves had no Authority to appoint the service of God to be performed in an unknown Tongue and surely it is Arrogance for the Church in any Age to pretend to greater Authority than the Apostles had This is the summ of what our Adversaries say in justification of themselves in these points And there is no doubt but that men of wit and confidence will alwaies make a shift to say something for any thing and some way or other blanch over the blackest and most absurd things in the world But I leave it to the judgment of mankind whether any thing be more unreasonable than to tell men in effect that it is fit they should understand as little of Religion as is possible that God hath published a very dangerous Book with which it is not safe for the people to be familiarly acquainted that our blessed Saviour and his Apostles and the ancient Christian Church for more than six hundred years were not wise managers of Religion nor prudent dispensers of the Scriptures but like fond and foolish Fathers put a knife and a sword into the hands of their Children with which they might easily have foreseen what mischief they would do to themselves and others And who would not chuse to be of such a Church which is provided of such excellent and effectual means of Ignorance such wise and infallible methods for the prevention of knowledge in the people and such variety of close shutters to keep out the light I have chosen to insist upon this Argument because it is so very plain that the most ordinary capacity may judge of this usage and dealing with the souls of men which is so very gross that every man must needs be sensible of it because it toucheth men in the common rights of humane nature which belong to them as much as the light of heaven and the air we breath in It requires no subtilty of wit no skill in Antiquity to understand these Controversies between Us and the Church of Rome For there are no Fathers to be pretended on both sides in these Questions They yield we have Antiquity on ours And we refer it to the common sense of Mankind which Church that of Rome or Ours hath all the right and reason in the world on her side in these debates And who they are that tyrannize over Christians the Governours of their Church or ours who use the people like sons and freemen and who like slaves who feed the flock of Christ committed to them and who take the Childrens bread from them Who they are that when their Children ask bread for bread give them a stone and for an egg a serpent I mean the Legends of their Saints instead of the holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto salvation And who they are that lie most justly under the suspicion of Errours and Corruptions they who bring their Doctrine and Practices into the open light and are willing to have them tryed by the true touchstone the Word of God or they who shun the light and decline all manner of tryal and examination and who are most likely to carry on a worldly design they who drive a trade of such mighty gain and advantage under pretence of Religion and make such markets of the ignorance and sins of the people or we whom malice it self cannot charge with serving any worldly design by any allowed Doctrine or Practice of our Religion For we make no money of the mistakes of the people nor do we fill their heads with vain fears of new places of torment to make them willing to empty their purses in a vainer hope of being delivered out of them We do not like them pretend a mighty bank and treasure of Merits in the Church which they sell to the people for ready money giving them bills of Exchange from the Pope to Purgatory when they who grant them have no reason to believe they will avail them or be accepted in the other World For our parts we have no fear that our people should understand Religion too well We could wish with Moses that all the Lord's people were Prophets We should be heartily glad the people would read the holy Scriptures more diligently being sufficiently assured that it is their own fault if they learn any thing but what is good from thence We have no Doctrines or Practices contrary to Scripture and consequently no occasion to keep it close from the sight of the people or to hide any of the Commandments of God from them We leave these mean arts to those who stand in need of them In a word there is nothing which God hath said to men which we desire should be concealed from them Nay we are willing the people should examine what we teach and bring all our Doctrines to the Law and to the Testimony that if they be not according to this Rule they may neither believe them nor us 'T is onely things false and adulterate which shun the light and sear the touchstone We have that security of the truth of our Religion and of the agreeableness of it to the word of God that honest confidence of the goodness of our Cause that we do not forbid the people to read the best Books our Adversaries can write against it And now let any impartial man judge whether this be not a better argument of a good Cause to leave men at liberty to try the grounds of their Religion than the courses which are taken in the Church of Rome to awe men with an Inquisition and as much as is possible to keep the common people in Ignorance not onely of what their late Adversaries the Protestants but their chief and ancient Adversary the Scriptures have to say against them A man had need of more than common security of the skill and integrity of those to whom he perfectly resigns his understanding this is too great a Trust to be reposed in humane frailty and too strong a temptation to others to impose upon us to abuse our blindness and to make their own ends of our voluntary Ignorance and easie credulity This is such a folly as if a rich man should make his Physician his heir which is to tempt him either to destroy