upon what is below it The Sun is said to rule the day and the Moon to rule the night but do they not Rule them only by enlightning them Doctrine is that that must prepare men for Discipline and men never go on so chearfully as when they see where they go Nor is the dullness of the Scholar to extinguish but rather to inflame the charity of the Teacher for since it is not in men as in vessels that the smallest capacity is the soonest filled where the labour is doubled the value of the work is enhaunced for it is a sowing where a man never expects to reap any thing but the Comfort and Conscience of having done vertuously And yet we know moreover that God sometimes converts even the dull and the slow turning very Stones into Sons of Abraham where besides that the difficulty of the Conquest advances the Trophee of the Conquerer it often falls out that the backward Learner makes amends another way recompencing Sure for Sudden expiating his want of Docility with a deeper and a more rooted Retention Which alone were argument sufficient to enforce the Apostle's injunction of being instant in season and out of season even upon the highest and most exalted Ruler in the Church He that sits in Moses chair sits there to Instruct as well as to Rule and a General 's office engages him to Lead as well as to Command his Army In the first of Ecclesiastes Solomon represents himself both as Preacher and King of Israel and every soul that a Bishop gains is a new accession to the extent of his Power he preaches his Jurisdiction wider and enlarges his spiritual Diocess as he enlarges mens apprehensions The Teaching part indeed of a Romish Bishop is easie enough whose Grand business is onely to teach men to be Ignorant to instruct them how to know Nothing or which is all one to know upon Trust to believe implicitly and in a word to see with other mens eyes till they come to be lost in their own souls But our Religion is a Religion that dares to be understood that offers it self to the search of the Inquisitive to the inspection of the severest and the most awakened Reason for being secure of her substantial Truth and Purity she knows that for her to be seen and lookt into is to be embraced and admired as there needs no greater argument for men to love the light than to see it It needs no Legends no Service in an unknown tongue no inquisition against Scripture no purging out the heart and sence of Authors no altering or bribing the voice of Antiquity to speak for it it needs none of all these laborious Artifices of ignorance none of all these cloaks and coverings The Romish Faith indeed must be covered or it cannot be kept warm and their Clergy deal with their Religion as with a great Crime if it is discovered they are undone But there is no Bishop of the Church of England but accounts it his Interest as well as his Duty to comply with this Precept of the Apostle Paul to Titus These things teach and exhort Now this Teaching may be effected two ways 1. Immediately by himself 2. Mediately by others And first immediately by himself Where God gives a Talent the Episcopal Robe can be no Napkin to hide it in Change of Condition changes not the abilities of Nature but makes them more illustrious in their exercise and the Episcopal dignity added to a good Preaching faculty is like the erecting of a stately Fountain upon a Spring which still for all that remains as much a Spring as it was before and flows as plentifully onely it flows with the circumstance of greater State and Magnificence Height of place is intended only to stamp the endowments of a private condition with Lustre and Authority And thanks be to God neither the Church's profess'd enemies nor her pretended friends have any cause to asperse her in this respect as having over her such Bishops as are able to silence the Factious no less by their Preaching than by their Authority But then on the other hand let me add also That this is not so absolutely necessary as to be of the vital Constitution of this Function He may teach his Diocess who ceases to be able to preach to it for he may do it by appointing Teachers and by a vigilant exacting from them the care and the instruction of their respective Flocks He is the Spiritual Father of his Diocess and a Father may see his Children taught though he himself does not turn Schoolmaster It is not the gift of every Person nor of every Age to harangue the multitude to Voice it high and loud Dominari in Concionibus And since Experience fits for Government and Age usually brings Experience perhaps the most Governing years are the least Preaching years In the 2. Second place therefore there is a teaching Mediately by the Subordinate ministration of others in which since the Action of the Instrumental agent is upon all grounds of Reason to be ascribed to the Principal He who ordains and furnishes all his Churches with able Preachers is an Universal Teacher he instructs where he cannot be Present he speaks in every mouth of his Diocess and every Congregation of it every Sunday feels his Influence though it hears not his Voice That Master deprives not his Family of their food who orders a faithfull Steward to dispense it Teaching is not a Flow of Words nor the draining of an Hour-glass but an effectual procuring that a man comes to know something which he knew not before or to know it better And therefore Eloquence and Ability of Speech is to a Church-Governour as Tully said it was to a Philosopher Si afferatur non repudianda si absit non magnopere desideranda and to find fault with such an one for not being a Popular Speaker is to blame a Painter for not being a good Musician To Teach indeed must be confess'd his Duty but then there is a Teaching by Example by Authority by restraining Seducers and so removing the Hindrances of knowledge And a Bishop does his Church his Prince and Countrey more Service by ruling other mens Tongues than he can by imploying his own And thus much for the first Branch of the great Work belonging to a Pastor of the Church which was to Teach and to Exhort 2. The second is to Rule Expressed in these words Rebuke with all Authority By which I doubt not but the Apostle principally intends Church-Censures and so the Words are a Metonymy of the Part for the Whole giving an instance in Ecclesiastical Censures instead of all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction A Jurisdiction which in the Essentials of it is as old as Christianity and even in those Circumstantial Additions of secular encouragement with which the Piety and Wisdom of Christian Princes always thought necessary to support it against the Encroachments of the injurious World much Older and more Venerable than
be buried privately But when a man's folly must be spread open before the Angels and all his baseness ript up before those pure Spirits this will be a double Hell to be thrust into utter Darkness only to be punished by it without the benefit of being concealed When Christ shall compare himself who was denied and the thing for which he was denied together and parallel his merits with a lust and lay Eternity in the Balance with a trifle then the folly of the sinners choice shall be the greatest sting of his destruction For a man shall not have the advantage of his former Ignorance and Error to approve his sin Things that appeared amiable by the light of this world will appear of a different odious hue in the clear discoveries of the next As that which appears to be of this colour by a dim candle will be found to be of another look'd upon in the day So when Christ shall have cleared up men's apprehensions about the value of things he will propose that worthy Prize for which he was denyed He will hold it up to open view and call upon Men and Angels Behold look here 's the things here 's that piece of dirt that windy applause that poor transitory pleasure that contemptible danger for which I was dishonoured my Truths disowned and for which Life Eternity and God himself was scorned and trampled upon by this sinner Judge all the world whether what he so despised in the other life he deserves to enjoy in this How will the condemned sinner then crawl forth and appear in his filth and shame before that undefiled Tribunal like a Toad or a Snake in a King's presence Chamber Nothing so irksome as to have ones folly displayed before the Prudent ones impurity before the Pure And all this before that company surrounding him from which he is neither able to look off nor yet to look upon A disgrace put upon a man in company is unsupportable it is heightened according to the greatness and multiplied according to the number of the persons that hear it And now as this circumstance before his Father fully speaks the shame so likewise it speaks the danger of Christ's then denying us For when the accusation is heard and the person stands convict God is immediately lifting up his hand to inflict the eternal blow and when Christ denies to exhibit a ransome to step between the stroak then coming and the sinner it must inevitably fall upon him and sink his guilty soul into that deep and bottomless gulph of endless perdition This therefore is the summ of Christ's denying us before his Father viz. unsupportable shame unavoidable destruction I proceed now to the Uses which may be drawn from the Truths delivered And here Right Honourable not only the present occasion but even the words themselves seem eminently to address an Exhortation to your Honours As for others not to deny Christ is openly to profess him so for you who are invested with Authority not to deny him is to defend him Know therefore that Christ does not only desire but demand your defence and that in a double respect 1. In respect of his Truth 2. Of his Members 1. He requires that you should defend and confess him in his Truth Heresie is a Tare sometimes not to be pulled up but by the Civil Magistrate The word Liberty of Conscience is much abused for the defence of it because not well understood Every man may have Liberty of Conscience to think and judge as he pleases but not to vent what he pleases The reason is because Conscience bounding it self within the thoughts is of private concernment and the cognizance of these belong only to God but when an opinion is published it concerns all that hear it and the publique is endammaged and therefore becomes punishable by the Magistrate to whom the care of the publique is intrusted But there is one truth that concerns both Ministery and Magistracy and all which is opposed by those who affirm That none ought to Govern upon the Earth but Christ in person Absurdly as if the Powers that are destroyed his as if a Deputy were not consistent with a King as if there were any Opposition in Subordination They affirm also that the Wicked have no right to their Estates but only the Faithfull that is themselves ought to possess the Earth And it is not to be questioned but when they come to explain this principle by putting it into execution there will be but few that have estates at present but will be either found or made Wicked I shall not be so urgent to press you to confess Christ by asserting and owning the Truth contrary to this since it does not only oppose Truth but Property and here to deny Christ would be to deny your Selves in a sence which none is like to doe 2. Christ requires you to own and defend him in his members and amongst these the chief of them and such as most fall in your way the Ministers I say that despised abject oppressed sort of men the Ministers whom the world would make Antichristian and so deprive them of Heaven and also strip them of that poor remainder of their Maintenance and so allow them no portion upon the Earth You may now spare that distinction of Scandalous Ministers when it is even made Scandalous to be a Minister And as for their discouragement in the Courts of the Law I shall onely note This that for these many years last past it has been the constant observation of all That if a Minister had a Cause depending in the Court it was ten to one but it went against him I cannot believe your Law justles out the Gospel but if it be thus used to undermine Christ in his Servants beware that such Judgments passed upon them doe not fetch down God's Judgments upon the Land and that for such abuse of the Law Christ does not in anger deprive both you and us of its use My Lords I make no doubt but you will meet with many suits in your course in which the persons we speak of are concerned as it is easie to prognosticate from those many worthy Petitions preferred against them for which the well-afficted Petitioners will one day receive but small Thanks from the Court of Heaven But however their Causes speed in your Tribunals know that Christ himself will recognize them at a greater And then what a different face will be put upon things When the usurping devouring Nimrods of the world shall be cast with scorn on the left hand And Christ himself in that great consistory shall daign to step down from his Throne and single out a poor despised Minister and as it were taking him by the hand present him to and openly thus confess him before his Father Father here is a poor servant of mine who for doing his duty impartially for keeping a good conscience and testifying my truths in an Hypocritical pretending age
it so 2. The reason of the assertion why and whence it is so 1. For the truth of it It is abundantly evinced from all Records both of Divine and Prophane History in which he that runs may read the ruine of the State in the destruction of the Church and that not only portended by it as its Sign but also inferred from it as its Cause 2. For the Reason of the point it may be drawn 1. From the Judicial proceeding of God the great King of Kings and supreme Ruler of the Universe who for his commands is indeed carefull but for his Worship Jealous And therefore in States notoriously irreligious by a secret and irresistible power countermands their deepest projects splits their Counsels and smites their most refined Policies with frustration and a curse being resolved that the Kingdoms of the world shall fall down before him either in his Adoration or their own confusion 2. The reason of the doctrine may be drawn from the necessary dependence of the very Principles of government upon Religion And this I shall pursue more fully The great business of government is to procure obedience and keep off disobedience the great springs upon which those two move are Rewards and Punishments answering the two ruling affections of man's mind Hope and Fear For since there is a natural opposition between the Judgment and the Appetite the former respecting what is honest the latter what is pleasing which two qualifications seldom concurr in the same thing and withall man's design in every Action is delight therefore to render things honest also practicable they must be first represented desirable which cannot be but by Proposing honesty cloathed with pleasure and since it presents no pleasure to the sense it must be fetcht from the apprehension of a future Reward For questionless duty moves not so much upon command as promise Now therefore that which proposes the greatest and most sutable rewards to obedience and the greatest terrors and punishments to disobedience doubtless is the most likely to enforce one and prevent the other But it is Religion that does this which to happiness and misery joyns Eternity And these supposing the Immortality of the soul which Philosophy indeed conjectures but only Religion proves or which is as good perswades I say these two things eternal happiness and eternal misery meeting with a perswasion that the Soul is immortal are without controversie of all others the first the most desirable and the latter the most horrible to humane apprehension Were it not for these Civil government were not able to stand before the prevailing swing of corrupt nature which would know no Honesty but Advantage no duty but in Pleasure nor any Law but its own Will Were not these frequently thundred into the understandings of men the Magistrate might enact order and proclaim Proclamations might be hung upon Walls and Posts and there they might hang seen and despised more like Malefactors than Laws But when Religion binds them upon the Conscience Conscience will either perswade or terrifie men into their practice For put the case a man knew and that upon sure grounds that he might do an advantageous murder or Robbery and not be discovered what humane laws could hinder him which he knows cannot inflict any penalty where they can make no discovery But Religion assures him that no sin though concealed from humane eyes can either escape God's sight in this world or his vengeance in the other Put the case also that men looked upon Death without fear in which sence it is nothing or at most very little ceasing while it is endured and pobably without Pain for it seizes upon the Vitals and benumbs the senses and where there is no sense there can be no pain I say if while a man is acting his will towards sin he should also thus act his reason to despise death where would be the terror of the magistrate who can neither threaten or inflict any more Hence an old Malefactor in his Execution at the Gallows made no other confession but this That he had very jocundly passed over his life in such courses and he that would not for fifty years pleasure endure half an hours pain deserved to die a worse death than himself questionless this man was not ignorant before that there were such things as Laws Assizes and Gallows but had he considered and believed the Terrors of another world he might probably have found a fairer passage out of this If there was not a Minister in every Parish you would quickly find cause to encrease the number of Constables And if the Churches were not imployed to be places to hear God's law there would be need of them to be prisons for the breakers of the laws of men Hence 't is observable that the Tribe of Levi had not one place or portion together like the rest of the Tribes but because it was their office to dispence Religion they were diffused over all the Tribes that they might be continually preaching to the rest their duty to God which is the most effectual way to dispose them to Obedience to man for he that truly fears God cannot despise the Magistrate Yea so near is the connexion between the Civil state and Religious that heretofore if you look upon well regulated civilized heathen Nations you will find the Government and the Priesthood united in the same person Anius Rex idem hominum Phaebique Sacerdos Virg. 3. AEn If under the true worship of God Melchisedech king of Salem and Priest of the most high God Heb. 7.1 And afterwards Moses whom as we acknowledge a pious so Atheists themselves will confess to have been a Wise Prince he when he took the Kingly government upon himself by his own choice seconded by Divine institution vested the Priesthood in his brother Aaron both whose concernments were so coupled that if Nature had not yet their Religious nay their civil Interests would have made them brothers And it was once the design of the Emperour of Germany Maximilian the first to have joyned the Popedom and the Empire together and to have got himself chosen Pope and by that means derived the Papacy to his succeeding Emperors Had he effected it doubtless there would not have been such scuffles between them and the Bishop of Rome the civil interest of the State would not have been undermined by an Adverse Interest mannaged by the specious and potent pretences of Religion And to see even amongst us how these two are united how the former is upheld by the latter The Magistrate sometimes cannot do his own office dexterously but by acting the Minister hence it is that Judges of Assizes find it necessary in their Charges to use pathetical discourses of Conscience and if it were not for the sway of this they would often lose the best Evidence in the world against Malefactors which is Confession for no man would confess and be Hanged here but to avoid being Damned hereafter Thus
low and sordid So that the use of the word Minister is brought down to the literal signification of it a Servant for now to serve and to minister servile and ministerial are terms equivalent But in the Old Testament the same word signifies a Priest and a Prince or chief Ruler hence though we translate it Priest of On Gen. 41.45 and Priest of Midian Exod. 3.1 and as it is with the people so with the Priest Esa. 24.2 Iunius and Tremellius render all these places not by Sacerdos Priest but by Praeses that is a Prince or at least a Chief Councellour or Minister of State And it is strange that the Name should be the same when the Nature of the thing is so exceeding different The like also may be observed in other Languages that the most Illustrious Titles are derived from things Sacred and belonging to the Worship of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the Title of the Christian Caesars correspondent to the Latine Augustus and it is derived from the same word that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cultus res sacra or sacrificium And it is usual in our Language to make Sacred an Epithete to Majesty there was a certain Royalty in things Sacred Hence the Apostle who I think was no Enemy to the simplicity of the Gospel speaks of a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 which shews at least that there is no contradiction or impiety in those terms In Old time before the placing this Office only in the Line of Aaron the Head of the Family and the First-born offered Sacrifice for the rest that is was their Priest And we know that such Rule and Dignity belonged at first to the Masters of Families that they had jus vitae necis jurisdiction and power of Life and Death in their own Family and from hence was derived the beginning of Kingly Government a King being only a Civil Head or Master of a Politick Family the whole People so that we see the same was the foundation of the Royal and Sacerdotal Dignity As for the Dignity of this Office among the Jews it is so pregnantly set forth in Holy Writ that it is Unquestionable Kings and Priests are still mentioned together Lamen 2.6 The Lord hath despised in the indignation of his Anger the King and the Priest Hosea 5.2 Hear O Priests and give ear O house of the King Deut. 17.12 And the man that doth presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth there to minister before the Lord thy God or unto the Iudge even that man shall die Hence Paul together with a blow received this Reprehension Act. 5.4 Revilest thou God's High-Priest And Paul in the next verse does not defend himself by pleading an extraordinary Motion of the Spirit or that he was sent to Reform the Church and might therefore lawfully vilifie the Priesthood and all Sacred Orders but in the 5th v. he makes an excuse and that from Ignorance the only thing that could take away the fault namely that he knew not that he was the High-Priest and subjoins a reason which further advances the Truth here defended For it is written thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people To Holy Writ we might add the Testimony of Iosephus of next Authority to it in things concerning the Jews who in sundry places of his History sets forth the Dignity of the Priests and in his second Book against Appion the Grammarian has these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priests were constituted Judges of all doubtfull causes Hence Iustin also in his 36th Book has this Semper apud Iudaeos mos fuit ut Eosdem Reges Sacerdotes haberent though this is false that they were always so yet it argues that they were so frequently and that the distance between them was not great To the Jews we may joyn the Egyptians the first Masters of Learning and Philosophy Synesius in his 57. Epist. having shewn the general practice of Antiquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives an instance in the Jews and Egyptians who for many Ages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had no other Kings but Priests Next we may take a view of the Practice of the Romans Numa Pompilius that civilized the fierce Romans is reported in the first Book of Livy sometimes to have performed the Priests office himself Tum Sacerdotibus creandis animum adjecit quanquà m ipse plurima sacra obibat but when he made Priests he gave them a dignity almost the same with himself And this honour continued together with the Valour and Prudence of that Nation For the Success of the Romans did not extirpate their Religion The College of the Priests being in many things exempted even from the Jurisdiction of the Senate afterwards the Supreme Power Hence Iuvenal in his 2. Sat. mentions the Priesthood of Mars as one of the most honourable places in Rome And Iul. Caesar who was chosen Priest in his private Condition thought it not below him to continue the same Office when he was Created absolute Governour of Rome under the name of Perpetual Dictator Add to these the practice of the Gauls mentioned by Caesar in his 6. Book de Bello Gallico where he says of the Druides who where their Priests that they did judge de omnibus ferè controversiis publicis privatisque See also Homer in the 1. Book of his Iliads representing Chryses Priest of Apollo with his Golden Scepter as well as his Golden Censer But why have I produced all these examples of the Heathens Is it to make these a ground of our imitation No but to shew that the giving honour to the Priesthood was a custom Universal amongst all civilized Nations And whatsoever is Universal is also Natural as not being founded upon compact or the particular humours of men but flowing from the Native Results of Reason And that which is Natural neither does nor can oppose Religion But you will say this concerns not us who have an express Rule and Word revealed Christ was himself poor and despised and withall has instituted such a Ministery To the first part of this plea I answer That Christ came to suffer yet the sufferings and miseries of Christ doe not oblige all Christians to undertake the like For the second That the Ministery of Christ was low and despised by his institution I utterly deny It was so indeed by the malice and persecution of the Heathen Princes but what does this argue or inferr for a low dejected Ministery in a flourishing State which professes to encourage Christianity But to dash this cavil read but the practice of Christian Emperours and Kings all along down from the time of Constantine in what respect what honour and splendour they treated the Ministers and then let our Adversaries produce their puny pitifull Arguments for the contrary against the general clear undoubted vogue and current of all Antiquity As for two or three little Countries about us the Learned and Impartial will not
this That nothing can be a reasonable Ground of Despising a man but some Fault or other chargeable upon him and nothing can be a Fault that is not Naturally in a man's power to prevent otherwise it is a man's Unhappiness his Mischance or Calamity but not his Fault Nothing can justly be Despised that cannot justly be Blamed and it is a most certain Rule in Reason and moral Philosophy That where there is no Choice there can be no Blame This premised we may take notice of two usual grounds of the Contempt men cast upon the Clergy and yet for which no man ought to think himself at all the more worthy to be Contemned 1. The first is their very Profession it self Concerning which it is a sad but an experimented Truth that the Names derived from it in the refined Language of the present Age are made but the Appellatives of Scorn This is not charged Universally upon all but experience will affirm or rather proclaim it of much the greater part of the World and men must perswade us that we have lost our Hearing and our common Sence before we can believe the Contrary But surely the Bottom and Foundation of this Behaviour towards Persons set apart for the Service of God that this very Relation should entitle them to such a peculiar Scorn can be nothing else but Atheism the growing rampant Sin of the Times For call a man Oppressor Griping Covetous or Over-reaching person and the Word indeed being ill befriended by Custom perhaps sounds not well but generally in the apprehension of the Hearer it signifies no more than that such an one is a Wise and a Thriving or in the common Phrase a Notable man which will certainly procure him a Respect And say of another that he is an Epicure a Loose or a Vicious man and it leaves in men no other Opinion of him than that he is a Merry Pleasant and a Gentile Person and that he that taxes him is but a Pedant an unexperienced and a Morose fellow one that does not know men nor understand what it is to Eat and Drink well But call a man Priest or Parson and you set him in some mens Esteem ten degrees below his own Servant But let us not be Discouraged or Displeased either with our Selves or our Profession upon this account Let the Vertuoso's Mock Insult and Despise on yet after all they shall never be able to Droll away the Nature of things to trample a Pearl into a Pebble nor to make Sacred things Contemptible any more than themselves by such speeches Honourable 2. Another groundless Cause of some mens despising the Governours of our Church is their loss of that former Grandeur and Privilege that they enjoyed But it is no real Disgrace to the Church merely to lose her privileges but to forfeit them by her Fault or Misdemeanor of which she is not conscious Whatsoever she injoyed in this kind she readily acknowledges to have streamed from the Royal Munificence and the favours of the Civil power shining upon the Spiritual which Favours the same power may retract and gather back into it self when it pleases And we envy not the Greatness and Lustre of the Romish Clergy neither their Scarlet Gowns nor their Scarlet Sins If our Church cannot be Great which is better she can be Humble and content to be Reformed into as low a Condition as men for their own private Advantage would have her who wisely tell her that it is best and safest for her to be without any power or Temporal advantage like the good Physician who out of tenderness to his Patient lest he should hurt himself by Drinking was so kind as to rob him of his silver Cup. The Church of England Glories in nothing more than that she is the truest Friend to Kings and to Kingly Government of any other Church in the World that they were the same Hands and Principles that took the Crown from the King's Head and the Mitre from the Bishop's It is indeed the Happiness of some Professions and Callings that they can equally square themselves to and thrive under all Revolutions of Government but the Clergy of England neither know nor affect that Happiness and are willing to be Despised for not doing so And so far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil power as some who are Backfriends to both would maliciously insinuate that were it stript of the very Remainder of its Privileges and made as like the primitive Church for its Bareness as it is already for its purity it could Cheerfully and what is more Loyally want all such Privileges and in the want of them pray heartily that the Civil power may flourish as much and stand as secure from the Assaults of Fanatick Antimonarchical principles grown to such a dreadful height during the Churches late Confusions as it stood while the Church enjoyed those privileges And thus much for the two groundless Causes upon which Church Rulers are frequently Despised I descend now to the 3. And last thing which is to show those just Causes that would render them or indeed any other Rulers worthy to be Despised Many might be Assigned but I shall pitch only upon Four in Discoursing of which rather the Time than the Subject will force me to be very Brief 1. And the first is Ignorance We know how great an Absurdity our Saviour accounted it for the Blind to lead the Blind and to put him that cannot so much as See to discharge the Office of a Watch. Nothing more exposes to Contempt than Ignorance When Sampson's eyes were out of a publick Magistrate he was made a publick Sport And when Eli was blind we know how well he Govern'd his Sons and how well they Govern'd the Church under him But now the Blindness of the Understanding is Greater and more Scandalous especially in such a seeing Age as Ours in which the very Knowledge of former times passes but for Ignorance in a better Dress an Age that flies at all Learning and enquires into every thing but especially into Faults and Defects Ignorance indeed so far as it may be Resolved into Natural inability is as to men at least Inculpable and consequently not the Object of Scorn but Pity but in a Governour it cannot be without the Conjunction of the highest Impudence For who bid such an one aspire to Teach and to Govern A blind man sitting in the Chimney corner is pardonable enough but sitting at the Helm he is Intolerable If men will be Ignorant and Illiterate let them be so in Private and to themselves and not set their Defects in an high place to make them Visible and Conspicuous If Owls will not be hooted at let them keep close within the Tree and not perch upon the upper Boughs 2. A Second thing that makes a Governour justly despised is Viciousness and ill Morals Vertue is that which must tip the preacher's Tongue and the Ruler's Scepter with Authority And therefore with
and this their Understanding could not apply to if it were diverted and took off by their Will and their Will would be sure to divert and take it off being wholly possessed and governed by their Covetousness and Ambition which perfectly abhorr'd the Precepts of such a Doctrine And this is the very Account that our Saviour himself gives of this matter in Iohn 5.44 How can ye believe says he who receive honour One of Another He lookt upon it as a thing morally impossible for Persons infinitely Proud and Ambitious to frame their minds to an Impartial unbyassed Consideration of a Religion that taught nothing but Self-denial and the Cross That Humility was honour and that the Higher men Climb'd the further they were from Heaven They could not with patience so much as think of it and therefore you may be sure would never assent to it And again when Christ discoursed to them of Alms and a pious distribution of the goods and riches of this World in Luke 16. it is said in the 14. v. That the Pharisees who were Covetous heard all those things and derided him Charity and Liberality is a Paradox to the Covetous The Doctrine that teaches Alms and the Persons that need them are by such equally sent packing Tell a Miser of Bounty to a friend or Mercy to the Poor and point him out his Duty with an Evidence as bright and piercing as the Light yet he will not understand it but shuts his Eyes as close as he does his hands and resolves not to be Convinced In both these Cases there is an Incurable Blindness caused by a Resolution not to see And to all intents and purposes he who will not open his eyes is for the present as Blind as he that cannot And thus I have done with the third thing proposed and shown what was the true Cause of the Pharisees disbelief of Christ's Doctrine It was the Predominance of those two great Vices over their Will their Covetousness and Ambition Pass we now to the Fourth and Last Which is to shew That a Pious and well disposed Mind attended with a readiness to obey the known will of God is the surest and best Means to enlighten the Understanding to a belief of Christianity That it is so will appear upon a double Account First upon the Account of God's goodness and the method of its dealing with the Souls of men which is to reward every degree of sincere obedience to his will with a further discovery of it I understand more than the Ancients says David Psalm 119.100 verse But how did he attain to such an Excellency of understanding was it by longer Study or a greater quickness and felicity of Parts than was in those before him No he gives the Reason in the next Words It was because I keep thy Statutes He got the start of them in point of Obedience and thereby out stript them at length in point of Knowledge And who in old time were the men of Extraordinary Revelations but those who were also men of Extraordinary Piety who were made Privy to the Secrets of Heaven and the Hidden will of the Almighty but such as performed his Revealed will at an higher rate of Strictness than the rest of the World They were the Enochs the Abrahams the Elijahs and the Daniels such as the Scripture remarkably testifies of that they walked with God And surely he that walks with Another is in a likelier way to know and understand his mind than He that follows him at a distance Upon which account the Learned Jews still made this one of the Ingredients that went to Constitute a Prophet that he should be perfectus in moralibus A Person of exact Morals and unblameable in his Life The gift of Prophecy being a Ray of such a light as never darts it self upon a Dunghill And what I here observe occasionally of extraordinary Revelation and Prophecy will by Analogy and due Proportion extend even to those Communications of God's Will that are requisite to mens Salvation An honest hearty simplicity and proneness to do all that a man knows of God's Will is the ready certain and infallible way to know more of it For I am sure it may be said of the practical knowledge of Religion that to him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly I dare not I confess joyn in that bold Assertion of some that Facienti quod in se est Deus nec debet nec potest denegare Gratiam Which indeed is no less than a direct contradiction in the very Terms for if Deus debet then id quod debetur non est gratia there being a perfect inconsistency between that which is of Debt and that which is of free Gift And therefore leaving the non debet and the non potest to those that can bind and loose the Almighty at their pleasure so much I think we may pronounce safely in this matter That the goodness and mercy of God is such that he never deserts a sincere Person nor suffers any one that shall live even according to these measures of sincerity up to what he knows to perish for want of any Knowledge necessary and what is more sufficient to save him If any one should here say Were there then none living up to these measures of sincerity amongst the Heathen and if there were did the goodness of God afford such persons Knowledge enough to save them My answer is according to that of St. Paul I judge not those that are without the Church they stand or fall to their own Master I have nothing to say of them Secret things belong to God it becomes us to be thankfull to God and charitable to Men. Secondly A pious and well-disposed Will is the readiest means to enlighten the Understanding to a Knowledge of the Truth of Christianity upon the account of a Natural Efficiency for as much as a Will so disposed will be sure to engage the mind in a severe Search into the great and concerning Truths of Religion nor will it only engage the mind in such a Search but it will also accompany that Search with two Dispositions directly tending to and principally productive of the Discoveries of Truth namely Diligence and Impartiality And 1. for the Diligence of the Search Diligence is the great Harbinger of Truth which rarely takes up in any mind till that has gone before and made room for it It is a steady constant and pertinacious Study that naturally leads the Soul into the Knowledge of that which at first seemed lockt up from it For this keeps the Understanding long in Converse with an object and long Converse brings Acquaintance Frequent Consideration of a Thing wears off the strangeness of it and shews it in its several lights and various ways of Appearance to the View of the Mind Truth is a great Strong-hold barr'd and fortified by God and Nature and Diligence is properly the Understanding's laying siege to it So
fly to several stale trite pitifull Objections and Cavils some against Religion in general and some against Christianity in particular and some against the very first Principles of Morality to give them some poor Credit and Countenance in the pursuit of their bruitish Courses Few practical Errors in the world are embraced upon the Stock of Conviction but Inclination For though indeed the judgment may err upon the account of Weakness yet where there is one Error that enters in at this door ten are lett into it through the Will That for the most part being set upon those things which Truth is a direct obstacle to the Enjoyment of and where both cannot be had a man will be sure to buy his Enjoyment though he pays down Truth for the purchase For in this case the further from Truth the further from Trouble Since Truth shows such an one what he is unwilling to see and tells him what he hates to hear They are the same beams that shine and enlighten and are apt to scorch too and it is impossible for a man engaged in any wicked way to have a clear understanding of it and a quiet mind in it together But these Sons of Epicurus both for Voluptuousness and Irreligion also as it is hard to support the former without the latter these I say rest not here but if you will take them at their word they must also pass for the only Wits of the Age though greater Arguments I am sure may be produced against this than any they can alledge against the most improbable Article of Christianity But heretofore the Rate and Standard of Wit was very different from what it is now-a-days No man was then accounted a Wit for speaking such things as deserved to have the Tongue cut out that spake them Nor did any man pass for a Philosopher or a man of depth for talking atheistically or a man of Parts for imploying them against that God that gave them For then the World was generally better enclined Vertue was in so much Reputation as to be pretended to at least And Vertue whether in a Christian or in an Infidel can have no Interest to be served either by Atheism or Infidelity For which Cause could we but prevail with the greatest Debauchees amongst us to change their Lives we should find it no very hard matter to change their Judgments For notwithstanding all their talk of Reason and Philosophy which God knows they are deplorably strangers to and those unanswerable Doubts and Difficulties which over their Cups or their Coffee they pretend to have against Christianity persuade but the Covetous man not to deifie his money the Proud man not to adore himself the Lascivious man to throw off his lewd amours the Intemperate man to abandon his revels and so for any other vice that is apt to abuse and pervert the mind of man and I dare undertake that all their Giant-like objections against Christian Religion shall presently vanish and quit the field For he that is a good man is three quarters of his way towards the being a good Christian wheresoever he lives or whatsoever he is called Secondly In the next place we learn from hence the most effectual way and means of proficiency and growth in the Knowledge of the great and profound Truths of Religion and how to make us all not only good Christians but also expert Divines It is a knowledge that men are not so much to study as to live themselves into A knowledge that passes into the Head through the Heart I have heard of some that in their latter years through the feebleness of their Limbs have been forced to study upon their knees and I think it might well become the youngest and the strongest to doe so too Let them daily and incessantly pray to God for his Grace and if God gives grace they may be sure that knowledge will not stay long behind Since it is the same Spirit and Principle that purifies the Heart and clarifies the Understanding Let all their Enquiries into the deep and mysterious points of Theology be begun and carried on with fervent Petitions to God that he would dispose their minds to direct all their Skill and Knowledge to the Promotion of a good life both in themselves and others that he would use all their Noblest Speculations and most Refined Notions only as Instruments to move and set a Work the great Principles of Actions the Will and the Affections that he would convince them of the Infinite Vanity and uselessness of all that Learning that makes not the Possessor of it a Better man that He would keep them from those Sins that may grieve and provoke his holy Spirit the fountain of all true light and knowledge to withdraw from them and so seal them up under Darkness Blindness and Stupidity of mind For where the Heart is bent upon and held under the power of any vicious Course though Christ himself should take the contrary Vertue for his Doctrine and doe a miracle before such an ones Eyes for its Application yet he would not Practically gain his Assent but the Result of all would end in a non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris Few Consider what a Degree of Sottishness and Confirmed Ignorance men may sin themselves into This was the case of the Pharisees And no doubt but this very Consideration also gives us the true Reason and full Explication of that notable and strange passage of Scripture in Luke 16. and the last verse That if men will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the Dead That is where a strong inveterate Love of Sin has made any Doctrine or Proposition wholly unsutable to the Heart no Argument or Demonstration no nor miracle whatsoever shall be able to bring the Heart cordially to close with and receive it Whereas on the Contrary if the Heart be piously disposed the Natural goodness of any Doctrine is enough to vouch for the Truth of it for the Sutableness of it will endear it to the Will and by endearing it to the Will will naturally slide it into the Assent also For in Morals as well as in Metaphysicks there is nothing really good but has a Truth Commensurate to its Goodness The Truths of Christ crucified are the Christians Philosophy and a good life is the Christians Logick that great Instrumental introductive Art that must guide the mind into the former And where a long Course of Piety and close Communion with God has purged the Heart and rectified the Will and made all things ready for the Reception of God's Spirit Knowledge will break in upon such a Soul like the Sun shining in his full might with such a Victorious light that nothing shall be able to resist it If now at length some should object here that from what has been delivered it will follow That the most Pious men are still the most Knowing which yet seems contrary to common
and sacred Majesty they use to treat and converse with there They find the same Holy consternation upon themselves that Iacob did at his Consecrated Bethel which he called the Gate of Heaven And if such places are so then surely a daily expectation at the Gate is the readiest way to gain admittance into the House It has been the advice of some Spiritual Persons that such as were able should set apart some certain place in their dwellings for their private Devotions only which if they constantly performed there and nothing else their very entrance into it would tell them what they were to doe in it and quickly make their Chamber-thoughts their Table-thoughts and their jolly worldly but much more their sinfull thoughts and purposes fly out of their hearts For is there any man whose heart has not shook off all sense of what is Sacred who finds himself no otherwise affected when he enters into a Church than when he enters into his Parlour or his Chamber if he does for ought I know he is fitter to be there always than in a Church The mind of man even in Spirituals Acts with a Corporeal Dependance and so is help'd or hinder'd in its Operations according to the different Quality of External Objects that incurr into the Senses And perhaps sometimes the sight of the Altar and those Decent preparations for the work of Devotion may compose and recover the wandring mind much more effectually than a Sermon or a rational Discourse For these things in a manner preach to the Eye when the Ear is dull and will not hear and the Eye dictates to the Imagination and that at last moves the Affections And if these little impulses set the great Wheels of Devotion on work the largeness and height of that shall not at all be prejudiced by the smalness of its occasion If the fire burns bright and vigorously it is no matter by what means it was at first kindled there is the same force and the same refreshing vertue in it kindled by a spark from a flint as if it were kindled by a Beam from the Sun I am far from thinking that these External things are either parts of our Devotion or by any strength in themselves direct causes of it but the grace of God is pleased to move us by ways sutable to our Nature and so Sanctify these sensible inferiour helps to greater and higher purposes And since God has placed the Soul in a Body where it receives all things by the Ministry of the outward Senses he would have us secure these Cinque-ports as I may so call them against the Invasion of vain thoughts by suggesting to them such Objects as may prepossess them with the contrary For God knows how hard a lesson Devotion is if the senses prompt one thing when the heart is to utter another And therefore let no man presume to think that he may present God with as acceptable a Prayer in his shop and much less in an Alehouse or a Tavern as he may in a Church or in his Closet unless he can rationally promise himself which is impossible that he shall find the same Devout motions and impresses upon his Spirit there that he may here What says David in Psalm 77.13 Thy way O God is in the Sanctuary It is no doubt but that Holy Person continued a strict and most Pious communion with God during his wandrings upon the Mountains and in the Wilderness but still he found in himself that he had not those kindly warm meltings upon his heart those raptures and ravishing transports of Affection that he used to have in the fix'd and Solemn place of God's Worship See the two first verses of the 63 Psalm Entituled a Psalm of David when he was in the Wilderness of Iudah How Emphatically and Divinely does every word proclaim the truth that I have been speaking of O God says he thou art my God early will I seek Thee My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is to see thy Power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Much different was his wish from that of our Non-conforming Zealots now-a-days which expresses it self in another kind of Dialect as When shall I enjoy God as I used to do at a Conventicle When shall I meet with those blessed breathings those Heavenly Hummings and Hawings that I used to hear at a private meeting and at the end of a Table In all our worshippings of God we return him but what he first gives us and therefore he preferrs the service offered him in the Sanctuary because there he usually vouchsafes more helps to the Piously disposed person for the discharge of it As we value the same kind of Fruit growing under one Climate more than under another because under one it has a directer and a warmer influence from the Sun than under the other which gives it both a better Savour and a greater worth And perhaps I should not want a further Argument for the confirmation of the truth discours'd of if I should appeal to the experience of many in this Nation who having been long bred to the Decent way of Divine Service in the Cathedrals of the Church of England were afterwards driven into foreign Countries where though they brought with them the same Sincerity to Church yet perhaps they could not find the same enlargements and flowings out of spirit which they were wont to find here Especially in some Countries where their very Religion smelt of the Shop and their Ruder and Courser methods of Divine Service seemed only adapted to the Genius of Trade and the Designs of Parsimony though one would think that Parsimony in God's Worship were the worst husbandry in the World for fear God should proportion his Blessings to such Devotions 2. The other Reason why God preferrs a Worship paid him in places solemnly Dedicated and set apart for that purpose is because in such places it is a more direct service and testification of our Homage to him For surely If I should have something to ask of a great Person it were a greater respect to wait upon him with my Petition at his own House than to desire him to come and receive it at mine Set Places and Set Hours for Divine Worship as much as the Laws of Necessity and Charity permit us to observe them are but parts of that due Reverence that we owe it for he that is strict in observing these declares to the World that he accounts his attendance upon God his greatest and most important Business and surely it is infinitely more reasonable that we should wait upon God than God upon us We shall still find that when God was pleased to vouchsafe his people a meeting he himself would prescribe the Place When he commanded Abraham to Sacrifice his Only and Beloved Isaac the place of the Offering was not left undetermined and to the Offerer's Discretion
But in Gen. 22.2 Get thee into the Land of Moriah says God and offer him for a Burnt-offering upon one of the Mountains that I shall tell thee of It was part of his Sacrifice not only What he should Offer but Where When we serve God in his own House his Service as I may so say leads all our other secular affairs in triumph after it They are all made to stoop and bend the Knee to Prayer as that does to the Throne of Grace Thrice a year were the Israelites from all even the remotest parts of Palaestine to go up to Ierusalem there to Worship and pay their Offerings at the Temple The great distance of some places from thence could not excuse the Inhabitants from making their appearance there which the Mosaick Law exacted as indispensable Whether or no they had Coaches to the Temple they must go Nor could it excuse them to plead God's Omniscience that he could equally see and hear them in any place nor yet their own good will and intentions as if the readiness of their Mind to go might forsooth warrant their Bodies to stay at home Nor lastly could the real danger of leaving their Dwellings to go up to the Temple excuse their Journey for they might very plausibly and very rationally have alledged That during their absence their Enemies round about them might take that advantage to invade their Land And therefore to obviate this fear and exception which indeed was built upon so good ground God makes them a promise which certainly is as remarkable as any in the whole Book of God Exod. 34.24 I will cast out the Nations before thee neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in a year While they were appearing in God's House God himself engages to keep and defend theirs and that by little less than a Miracle putting forth an over-powring work and influence upon the very Hearts and Wills of Men that when their Opportunities should induce their Hearts should not serve them to annoy their Neighbours For surely a rich Land guardless and undefended must needs have been a double incitement and such an one as might not only admit but even invite the Enemy It was like a fruitfull Garden or a fair Vineyard without an Hedge that quickens the Appetite to enjoy so tempting and withall so easie a prize But the great God by ruling mens Hearts could by consequence hold their Hands and turn the very desires of Interest and Nature out of their common Channel to comply with the Designs of his Worship But now had not God set a very peculiar value upon the Service paid him in his Temple surely he would not have thus as it were made himself his Peoples Convoy and exerted a supernatural work to secure them in their passage to it And therefore that Eminent Hero in Religion Daniel when in the Land of his Captivity he used to pay his daily Devotions to God not being able to go to the Temple would at least look towards it advance to it in wish and desire and so in a manner bring the Temple to his Prayers when he could not bring his Prayers to that And now what have I to do more but to wish that all this Discourse may have that blessed Effect upon us as to send us both to this and to all other solemn places of Divine Worship with those three excellent Ingredients of Devotion Desire Reverence and Confidence 1. And first for Desire We should come hither as to meet God in a place where he loves to meet us and where as Isaac did to his Sons he gives us Blessings with Embraces Many frequent the Gates of Sion but is it because they love them and not rather because their Interest forces them much against their Inclination to endure them Do they hasten to their Devotions with that ardor and quickness of Mind that they would to a lewd Play or a Masquerade Or do they not rather come hither slowly sit here uneasily and depart desirously all which is but too evident a sign that Men repair to the House of God not as to a place of Fruition but of Task and Trouble not to enjoy but to afflict themselves Secondly We should come full of Reverence to such Sacred Places and where there are Affections of Reverence there will be Postures of Reverence too Within Consecrated Walls we are more directly under God's Eye who looks through and through every one that appears before him and is too jealous a God to be affronted to his Face Thirdly and lastly God's peculiar property in such places should give us a Confidence in our Addresses to him here Reverence and confidence are so far from being inconsistent that they are the most direct and proper qualifications of a Devout and Filial approach to God For where should we be so confident of a Blessing as in the Place and Element of Blessings The place where God both promises and delights to dispense larger proportions of his favour even for this purpose that he may fix a mark of Honour upon his Sanctuary and so recommend and endear it to the Sons of men upon the stock of their own interest as well as his Glory who has declared himself The High and the Lofty one that inhabits Eternity and dwells not in houses made with mens hands yet is pleased to be present in the Assemblies of his Saints To whom be rendred and ascribed as is most due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen A SERMON Preached at WESTMINSTER-ABBEY February 22. 1684 5. PROVERBS XVI 33 The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord. I cannot think myself engaged from these words to discourse of Lots as to their Nature Use and Allowableness and that not only in matters of moment and business but also of Recreation which latter is indeed impugned by some though better defended by others but I shall fix only upon the design of the words which seems to be a declaration of a Divine Perfection by a signal instance a proof of the Exactness and universality of God's Providence from its influence upon a thing of all others the most Casual and fortuitous such as is the Casting of Lots A Lot is properly a Casual Event purposely applyed to the Determination of some doubtfull Thing Some there are who utterly proscribe the Name of Chance as a word of Impious and Profane signification and indeed if it be taken by us in that sence in which it was used by the Heathen so as to make any thing Casual in respect of God himself their Exception ought justly to be admitted But to say a thing is a Chance or Casualty as it relates to Second Causes is not Prophaneness but a great Truth as signifying no more than that there are some Events besides the Knowledge Purpose Expectation and Power of second Agents And for
was a means to bring him up in The AEgyptian Court then the School of all Arts and Policy and so to fit him for that great and arduous Imployment that God designed him to For see upon what little Hinges that great Affair turned For had either the Child been cast out or Pharaoh's Daughter come down to the River but an hour sooner or later or had that little Vessel not been cast by the Parents or carryed by the Water into that very place where it was in all likelyhood the Child must have undergone the common Lot of the other Hebrew Children and been either starved or drowned or however not advanced to such a peculiar height and happiness of Condition That Octavius Caesar should shift his Tent which he had never used to doe before just that very night that it hapned to be took by the Enemy was a mere Casualty yet such an one as preserved a Person who lived to establish a total Alteration of Government in the Imperial City of the World But we need not go far for a Prince preserved by as Strange a Series of little Contingencies as ever were managed by the Art of Providence to so great a purpose There was but an hair's breadth between him and certain Destruction for the space of many days For had the Rebel Forces gone one way rather than another or come but a little sooner to his hiding place or but mistrusted something which they passed over all which things might very easily have happened we had not seen this face of things at this day but Rebellion had been still Enthroned Perjury and Cruelty had Reigned Majesty had been proscribed Religion extinguish'd and both Church and State throughly Reformed and Ruined with Confusions Massacres and a Total Desolation On the contrary when Providence designs Judgment or Destruction to a Prince no body knows by what little unusual unregarded means the fatal blow shall reach him If Ahab be designed for Death though a Souldier in the Enemies Army draws a Bow at a venture yet the sure unerring directions of Providence shall carry it in a direct course to his heart and there lodge the Revenge of Heaven An old Woman shall cast down a Stone from a Wall and God shall send it to the Head of Abimelech and so Sacrifice a King in the very head of his Army How many warnings had Iulius Caesar of the fatal Ides of March whereupon sometimes he resolved not to go to the Senate and sometimes again he would go and when at length he did go in his very passage thither one put into his hand a Note of the whole Conspiracy against him together with all the Names of the Conspirators desiring him to read it forthwith and to remember the Giver of it as long as he lived But continual Salutes and Addresses entertaining him all the way kept him from saving so great a Life but with one glance of his Eye upon the Paper till he came to the fatal place where he was stabb'd and dyed with the very Means of preventing Death in his hand Henry the Second of France by a Splinter unhappily thrust into his Eye at a solemn Justing was dispatch'd and sent out of the world by a sad but very Accidental Death In a word God has many ways to reap down the Grandees of the Earth an Arrow a Bullet a Tile or Stone from an House is enough to do it And besides all these ways sometimes when he intends to bereave the world of a Prince or an Illustrious Person he may cast him upon a bold self-opinion'd Physician worse than his Distemper who shall Dose and Bleed and Kill him secundum artem and make a shift to cure him into his Grave In the last place we will consider this Directing influence of God with reference to private Persons and that as touching things of nearest concernment to them As 1. Their Lives 2. Their Health 3. Their Reputation 4. Their Friendships And 5. And lastly their Employments or Preferments And first for mens Lives Though these are things for which Nature knows no Price or Ransom yet I appeal to universal Experience whether they have not in many men hung oftentimes upon a very slender Thread and the distance between them and Death been very nice and the escape wonderfull There have been some who upon a slight and perhaps groundless occasion have gone out of a Ship or House and the Ship has sunk and the House has fell immediately after their departure He that in a great Wind suspecting the strength of his House betook himself to his Orchard and walking there was knockt on the Head by a Tree falling through the fury of a suddain gust wanted but the advance of one or two steps to have put him out of the way of that mortal Blow He that being subject to an Apoplex used still to carry his remedy about him but upon a time shifting his Cloaths and not taking that with him chanced upon that very day to be surprized with a Fit and to die in it certainly owed his Death to a mere Accident to a little inadvertency and failure of Memory But not to recount too many particulars May not every Souldier that comes alive out of the Battle pass for a living Monument of a benign Chance and an happy Providence For was he not in the nearest Neighbourhood to Death And might not the Bullet that perhaps rased his Cheek have as easily gone into his Head And the Sword that glanced upon his Arm with a little diversion have found the way to his Heart But the workings of Providence are marvellous and the methods secret and untraceable by which it disposes of the Lives of Men. In like manner for Mens Health it is no less wonderfull to consider to what strange Casualties many Sick Persons often-times owe their Recovery Perhaps an unusual Draught or Morsel or some Accidental violence of Motion has removed that Malady that for many years has baffled the Skill of all Physicians So that in effect he is the best Physician that has the best luck he prescribes but it is chance that Cures That Person that being provoked by excessive Pain thrust his Dagger into his Body and thereby instead of reaching his Vitals opened an Imposthume the unknown cause of all his pain and so Stabbed himself into perfect Health and Ease surely had great reason to acknowledge Chance for his Chirurgeon and Providence for the Guider of his Hand And then also for mens Reputation and that either in point of Wisdom or of Wit There is hardly any thing which for the most part falls under a greater Chance If a man succeeds in any attempt though undertook with never so much folly and rashness his success shall vouch him a Politician and good Luck shall pass for deep contrivance For give any one Fortune and he shall be thought a wise man in spite of his Heart nay and of his Head too On the contrary be a design never
from God who is Truth it self and with whom no shadow of Falshood can dwell He that telleth Lyes says David in Psalm 101.7 shall not tarry in my Sight and if not in the Sight of a poor Mortal man who could sometimes lye himself how much less in the Presence of the Infinite and All-knowing God A Wise and Good Prince or Governour will not vouchsafe a Lyar the Countenance of his Eye and much less the Privilege of his Ear. The Spirit of God seems to write this upon the very Gates of Heaven and to state the Condition of Men's Entrance into Glory chiefly upon their Veracity In Psalm 15.1 Who shall ascend into thy Holy Hill says the Psalmist To which it is answered in vers 2. He that worketh Righteousness and that speaketh the Truth from his Heart And on the other side how Emphatically is Hell described in the Two last Chapters of the Revelation by being the great Receptacle and Mansion-house of Lyars whom we shall find there ranged with the vilest and most detestable of all Sinners appointed to have their Portion in that Horrid place Revel 21.8 The Unbelieving and the Abominable and Murderers and Whoremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone And in Revel 22.15 Without are Dogs and Sorcerers c. and whosoever loveth and maketh a Lye Now let those consider this whose Tongue and Heart hold no Correspondence Who look upon it as a Piece of Art and Wisdom and the Master-piece of Conversation to over-reach and deceive and make a Prey of a credulous and well-meaning Honesty What do such Persons think Are Dogs Whoremongers and Sorcerers such desirable Company to take up with for ever Will the Burning Lake be found so tolerable Or will there be any one to drop Refreshment upon the false Tongue when it shall be tormented in those Flames Or do they think that God is a Lyar like themselves and that no such Things shall ever come to pass but that all these fiery Threatnings shall vanish into Smoak and this dreadfull Sentence blow off without Execution Few certainly can lye to their own Hearts so far as to imagine this But Hell is and must be granted to be the Deceiver's Portion not only by the Judgment of God but of his own Conscience too And comparing the Malignity of his Sin with the Nature of the Punishment allotted for him all that can be said of a Lyar lodged in the very Nethermost Hell is this That if the Vengeance of God could prepare any Place or Condition worse than Hell for Sinners Hell it self would be too good for him And now to summ up all in short I have shewn what a Lye is and wherein the Nature of Falshood does consist that it is a Thing absolutely and intrinsecally Evil that it is an Act of Injustice and a Violation of our Neighbour's Right And that the Vileness of its Nature is equalled by the Malignity of its Effects It being this That first brought Sin into the World and is since the Cause of all those Miseries and Calamities that disturb it and further that it tends utterly to dissolve and overthrow Society which is the greatest Temporal Blessing and Support of Mankind and which is yet worst of all that it has a strange and particular Efficacy above all other Sins to indispose the Heart to Religion And lastly That it is as dreadfull in its Punishments as it has been pernicious in its Effects For as much as it deprives a Man of all Credit and Belief and consequently of all Capacity of being usefull in any Station or Condition of Life whatsoever and next that it draws upon him the Just and Universal Hatred and Abhorrence of all Men here and finally subjects him to the Wrath of God and Eternal Damnation hereafter And now if none of all these Considerations can recommend and endear Truth to the Words and Practices of Men and work upon their Double Hearts so far as to convince and make them sensible of the Baseness of the Sin and Greatness of the Guilt that Fraud and Falshood leaves upon the Soul Let them Lye and Cheat on till they receive a fuller and more effectual Conviction of all these Things in that Place of Torment and Confusion prepared for the Devil and his Angels and all his Lying Retinue by the Decree and Sentence of that God who in his Threatnings as well as in his Promises will be True to his Word and cannot Lye To whom be rendred and ascribed as is most due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Newly printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard AThenae Oxonienses or an Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from 1500 to the End of the Year 1690 Representing the Birth Fortune Preferments and Death of all those Authors and Prelates the great Accidents of their Lives the Fate and Character of their Writings The Work being so compleat that no Writer of Note of this Nation for near Two hundred years past is omitted fol. 2 Vol. Dr. Pocock on Ioel. With the rest of his Commentaries A Critical History of the Text and Versions of the New Testament wherein is firmly Establish'd the Truth of those Acts on which the Foundation of Christian Religion is laid By Father Simon of the Oratory Together with a Refutation of such Passages as seem contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England Memoirs of the Court of France by the late famous French Lady The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Roman Emperor Translated out of Greek into English with Notes by Dr. Casaubon To this Edition is added the Life of the said Emperor with an Account of Stoick Philosophy As also Remarks on the Meditations All newly written by the famous Monsieur and Madam Dacier The Works of the Learned or an Historical Account and Impartial Judgment of the Books newly Printed both Foreign and Domestick together with the State of Learning in the World Published Monthly by I. de la Crose a late Author of the Universal Bibliotheque This first Volume beginning in August last is compleated this present April with Indexes to the whole The Bishop of Chester's Charge to his Clergy at his Primary Visitation May 5. 1691. Five Sermons before the King and Queen by Dr. Meggot Dean of Winchestor Mr. Atterbury's Sermon before the Queen May 29. 1692. * In the Parliament 1653 it being put to the Vote whether they should support and encourage A godly and learned Ministery the latter word was rejected and the vote passed for a Godly and Faithful Ministery * A noted Independant Divine when Ol. Cromwel was sick of which sickness he dyed declared that God had Revealed to him that he should recover and live 30 years longer for that God had raised him up for a work which could not be done in less time But Oliver's Death being published two days after the said Divine publickly in Prayer expostulated with God the Defeat of his Prophecy in these words Lord thou hast lyed unto us yea thou hast lyed unto us * Very credibly reported to have been done in an Independant Congregation at Oxon. * Whensoever any Petition was put up to the Parliament in the year 1653. for the Taking away of Tythes the thanks of the House were still returned to them and that by the Name and Elogy of the well-affected Petitioners * U. C. A Colonel of the Army the perfidious cause of Penruddock 's Death and sometime after High-Sheriff of Oxfordshire openly and frequently affirmed the uselessness of the Vniversities and that three Colledges were sufficient to answer the occasions of the Nation for the breeding of men up to Learning so farr as it was either necessary or usefull * Cromwel a lively Copy of Jeroboam did so * Gaspar Streso Cromwell ☜ * Of which last see an Instance in the 13 Session of this Council In which it Decrees with a non obstante to Christ's express Institution of the Blessed Eucharist in both Kinds That the contrary Custom and Practice of receiving it only in one Kind ought to be accounted and observed as a Law and that if the Priest should Administer it otherwise he was to be Excommunicated * Colonel Axtell * He particularly mention'd those of Brooks and Calamy ☞
TWELVE SERMONS Preached upon Several Occasions By ROBERT SOUTH D. D. Six of them never before Printed LONDON Printed by I. H. for Thomas Bennet at the Half Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. To the Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of CLARENDON Lord High Chancellor of England and Chancellor of the University of Oxon and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My Lord THough to prefix so great a Name to so mean a Piece seems like enlarging the Entrance of an House that affords no Reception yet since there is nothing can warrant the Publication of it but what can also command it the Work must think of no other Patronage than the same that adorns and protects its Author Some indeed vouch great Names because they think they deserve but I because I need such and had I not more occasion than many others to see and converse with your Lordship's Candor and Proneness to pardon there is none had greater cause to dread your Iudgment and thereby in some part I venture to commend my own For all know who know your Lordship that in a Nobler respect than either that of Government or Patronage you represent and head the best of Universities and have travelled over too many Nations and Authors to encourage any one that understands himself to appear an Author in your Hands who seldom read any Books to inform your self but only to countenance and credit them But my Lord what is here published pretends no Instruction but only Homage while it teaches many of the World it only describes your Lordship who have made the ways of Labour and Vertue of doing and doing Good your Business and your Recreation your Meat and your Drink and I may add also your Sleep My Lord the Subject here treated of is of that Nature that it would seem but a Chimera and a bold Paradox did it not in the very Front carry an Instance to exemplifie it and so by the Dedication convince the World that the Discourse it self was not impracticable For such ever was and is and will be the Temper of the generality of mankind that while I send men for Pleasure to Religion I cannot but expect that they will look upon me as only having a mind to be pleasant with them my self nor are Men to be Worded into new Tempers or Constitutions and he that thinks that any one can persuade but He that made the World will find that he does not well understand it My Lord I have obeyed your Command for such must I account your Desire and thereby Design not so much the Publication of my Sermon as of my Obedience for next to the Supreme Pleasure described in the ensuing Discourse I enjoy none greater than in having any opportunity to declare my self Your Lordship 's very humble Servant and obliged Chaplain ROBERT SOUTH The Contents of the Sermons SERMON I. PRoverbs III. 17 Her ways are ways of Pleasantness Page 1 SERMON II. Gen. I. 27 So God created man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him p. 53 SERMON III. Matth. X. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven p. 101 SERMON IV. I Kings XIII 33 34. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way but made again of the lowest of the people Priests of the High places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests of the High places And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the Earth p. 155 SERMON V. Titus II. ult These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority Let no man despise thee p. 223 SERMON VI. John VII 17 If any man will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self p. 269 SERMON VII Psalm LXXXVII 2 God hath loved the Gates of Sion more than all the Dwellings of Iacob p. 323 SERMON VIII Prov. XVI 33 The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord. p. 373 SERMON IX 1 Cor. III. 19 For the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with God p. 425 SERMON X. 2 Cor. VIII 12 For if there be first a willing Mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath and not according to that he hath not p. 477 SERMON XI Judges VIII 34 35. And the Children of Israel remembred not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hands of all their Enemies on every side Neither shewed they kindness to the House of Ierubbaal namely Gideon according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel p. 535 SERMON XII Prov. XII 22 Lying Lips are abomination to the Lord. p. 587 A SERMON Preached at COURT c. PROV 3.17 Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness THE Text relating to something going before must carry our Eye back to the 13th verse where we shall find that the thing of which these words are affirmed is Wisdome A Name by which the Spirit of God was here pleased to express to us Religion and thereby to tell the world what before it was not aware of and perhaps will not yet believe that those two great things that so engross the desires and designs of both the Nobler and Ignobler sort of mankind are to be found in Religion namely Wisdom and Pleasure and that the former is the direct way to the latter as Religion is to both That Pleasure is Man's chiefest good because indeed it is the perception of Good that is properly pleasure is an assertion most certainly true though under the common acceptance of it not only false but odious for according to this pleasure and sensuality pass for terms equivalent and therefore he that takes it in this sence alters the Subject of the discourse Sensuality is indeed a part or rather one kind of pleasure such an one as it is For Pleasure in general is the consequent apprehension of a sutable Object sutably applied to a rightly disposed faculty and so must be conversant both about the faculties of the Body and of the Soul respectively as being the result of the fruitions belonging to both Now amongst those many Arguments used to press upon men the exercise of Religion I know none that are like to be so succesful as those that answer and remove the prejudices that generally possess and barr up the Hearts of men against it amongst which there is none so prevalent in Truth though so little owned in Pretence as that it is an Enemy to mens pleasures that it bereaves them of all the sweets of Converse dooms them to an absurd and perpetual Melancholy designing to make the world nothing else but a great Monastery With which notion of Religion Nature and Reason seems to have great cause to be dissatisfied For since God never Created any faculty either in Soul or Body
but withal prepared for it a sutable object and that in order to its gratification can we think that Religion was designed only for a Contradiction to Nature and with the greatest and most irrational Tyranny in the World to tantalize and tie men up from enjoyment in the midst of all the opportunities of enjoyment to place men with the furious affections of hunger and thirst in the very bosome of Plenty and then to tell them that the envy of Providence has sealed up every thing that is sutable under the Character of unlawful For certainly first to frame appetites fit to receive pleasure and then to interdict them with a Touch not tast not can be nothing else than only to give them occasion to devour and prey upon themselves and so to keep men under the perpetual Torment of an unsatisfied Desire a thing hugely contrary to the natural felicity of the Creature and consequently to the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator He therefore that would persuade men to Religion both with Art and efficacy must found the persuasion of it upon this that it interferes not with any rational pleasure that it bids no body quit the enjoyment of any one thing that his Reason can prove to him ought to be enjoyed 'T is confessed when through the cross circumstances of a man's temper or condition the Enjoyment of a pleasure would certainly expose him to a greater inconvenience then Religion bids him quit it that is it bids him prefer the endurance of a lesser evil before a greater and Nature it self does no less Religion therefore entrenches upon none of our Priviledges invades none of our Pleasures it may indeed sometimes command us to change but never totally to abjure them But it is easily foreseen that this Discourse will in the very beginning of it be encountred by an Argument from Experience and therefore not more obvious than strong namely that it cannot but be the greatest trouble in the world for a man thus as it were even to shake off himself and to defie his Nature by a perpetual thwarting of his innate Appetites and Desires which yet is absolutely necessary to a severe and impartial prosecution of a course of Piety nay and we have this asserted also by the Verdict of Christ himself who still makes the Disciplines of self-denial and the Cross those terrible blows to Flesh and Blood the indispensable requisits to the Being of his Disciples All which being so would not he that should be so hardy as to attempt to persuade men to Piety from the pleasures of it be liable to that invective taunt from all Mankind that the Israelites gave to Moses Wilt thou put out the Eyes of this People Wilt thou persuade us out of our first Notions Wilt thou demonstrate that there is any delight in a Cross any Comfort in violent abridgements and which is the greatest Paradox of all that the highest Pleasure is to abstain from it For answer to which it must be confest that all Arguments whatsoever against Experience are fallacious and therefore in order to the Clearing of the Assertion lay'd down I shall premise these two Considerations 1. That Pleasure is in the Nature of it a Relative thing and so imports a peculiar Relation and Correspondence to the state and condition of the Person to whom it is a Pleasure For as those who Discourse of Atoms affirm that there are Atoms of all forms some round some triangular some square and the like all which are continually in motion and never settle till they fall into a fit circumscription or place of the same figure So there are the like great diversities of Minds and Objects whence it is that this Object striking upon a mind thus or thus disposed flies off and rebounds without making any impression but the same luckily hapning upon another of a Disposition as it were framed for it is presently catcht at and greedily clasped into the nearest Unions and Embraces 2. The other thing to be considered is this That the Estate of all men by Nature is more or less different from that estate into which the same persons do or may pass by the exercise of that which the Philosophers called Virtue and into which men are much more effectually and sublimely translated by that which we call Grace that is by the supernatural overpowring operation of God's Spirit The difference of which two estates consists in this that in the former the sensitive appetites rule and domineer in the latter the Supream faculty of the Soul called Reason sways the Scepter and acts the whole man above the irregular demands of Appetite and Affection That the distinction between these two is not a meer figment framed only to serve an Hypothesis in Divinity and that there is no man but is really under one before he is under the other I shall prove by shewing a Reason why it is so or rather indeed why it cannot but be so And it is this Because every man in the beginning of his life for several years is capable only of exercising his sensitive faculties and desires the use of Reason not shewing it self till about the Seventh Year of his Age and then at length but as it were dawning in very imperfect Essays and Discoveries Now it being most undeniably evident that every Faculty and Power grows stronger and stronger by exercise is it any wonder at all when a man for the space of his first six years and those the years of ductility and impression has been wholly ruled by the propensions of sense at that age very eager and impetuous that then after all his Reason beginning to exert and put forth it self finds the man prepossess'd and under another power so that it has much adoe by many little steps and gradual conquests to recover its prerogative from the usurpations of appetite and so to subject the whole man to its Dictates the difficulty of which is not conquered by some men all their Days And this is one true ground of the Difference between a state of Nature and a state of Grace which some are pleased to scoff at in Divinity who think that they confute all that they laugh at not knowing that it may be solidly evinced by meer Reason and Philosophy These two considerations being premised namely That Pleasure implies a proportion and agreement to the respective States and Conditions of men and that the state of men by Nature is vastly different from the estate into which Grace or Vertue transplants them all that Objection levelled against the foregoing Assertion is very easily resolvable For there is no doubt but a man while he resigns himself up to the Brutish guidance of sense and appetite has no relish at all for the Spiritual refined delights of a Soul clarified by Grace and Vertue The pleasures of an Angel can never be the pleasures of a Hog But this is the thing that we contend for that a man having once advanced