unbelief that is through a false persuasion of mind not believing it to be a Sin And yet he did not obtain this mercy without a particular conviction of his fault and repentance for it And St. Peter after he had convinced the Jews of their great Sin in crucifying Christ though they did it ignorantly yet he exhorts them to a particular and deep repentance for it as necessary to the pardon and forgiveness of it And therefore after he had said I wote that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers he immediately adds Repent ye therefore and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out So that it highly concerns men to consider what opinions they embrace in order to practice and not to suffer themselves to be hurried away by an unreasonable prejudice and a heady passion without a due and calm examination of things nor to be over-born by pride or humour or partiality or interest or by a furious and extravagant zeal Because proportionably to the voluntariness of our Errour will be the guilt of our practice pursuant to that Errour Indeed where our Errour is involuntary and morally invincible God will consider it and make allowance for it but where it is voluntary and occasioned by our own gross fault and neglect we are bound to consider and to rectifie our mistake For what-ever we do contrary to the Law of God and our Duty in vertue of that false persuasion we do it at our utmost peril and must be answerable to God for it notwithstanding we did it according to the dictate of our Conscience A Third Rule is this that in all doubts of Conscience we endeavour to be equal and impartial and do not lay all the weight of our doubts on one side when there is perhaps as much or greater reason of doubting on the other And consequently that we be as tractable and easie to receive satisfaction of our doubts in one kind as in another and be equally contented to have them over-ruled in cases that are equal I mean where our passions and interests are not concern'd as well as where they are And if we do not do this it is a sign that we are partial in our pretences of Conscience and that we do not aim meerly at the peace and satisfaction of our own minds but have some other interest and design For it is a very suspicious thing when men's doubts and scruples bear all on one side especially if it be on that side which is against charity and peace and obedience to Government whether Ecclesiastical or Civil In this case I think that a meer doubt and much more a scruple may nay ought in reason to be over-ruled by the Command of Authority by the opinion and judgment of wise and good men and in consideration of the publick peace and of the unity and edification of the Church Not that a man is in any case to go against the clear persuasion and conviction of his own mind but when there is only a meer doubt concerning the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a thing it seems to me in that case very reasonable that a man should suffer a mere doubt or scruple to be over-rul'd by any of those weighty considerations which I mentioned before The Fourth Rule is that all pretences of Conscience are vehemently to be suspected which are accompanied with turbulent passion and a furious zeal It is an hundred to one but such a man's Conscience is in the wrong It is an excellent saying of St. James The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God that is the fierce passions of men are no proper instruments to promote Religion and to accomplish any thing that is good And therefore if any man be transported with a wild zeal and pretend conscience for his fury it is great odds but he is in an errour None are so likely to judge amiss as they whose minds are clouded and blinded by their passions Nubila mens est Haec ubi regnant And if men would carefully observe themselves they might almost certainly know when they act upon Reason and a true Principle of Conscience A good Conscience is easie to it self and pleased with its own doings but when a man's passion and discontent are a weight upon his judgment and do as it were bear down his Conscience to a compliance no wonder if this puts a man's mind into a very unnatural and uneasie state There can hardly be a broader sign that a man is in the wrong than to rage and be confident Because this plainly shews that the man's Conscience is not setled upon clear reason but that he hath brought over his Conscience to his interest or to his humour and discontent And though such a man may be so far blinded by his passion as not to see what is right yet methinks he should feel himself to be in the wrong by his being so very hot and impatient Art thou sure thou art in the right thou art a happy man and hast reason to be pleased What cause then what need is there of being angry Hath a man Reason on his side What would he have more Why then does he fly out into passion which as it gives no strength to a bad argument so I could never yet see that it was any grace and advantage to a good one Of the great evil and the perpetual mistake of this furious kind of Zeal the Jews are a lively and a lamentable Example in their carriage towards our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles And more particularly St. Paul when he persecuted the Christians from a false and erroneous persuasion of his Conscience Hear how St. Paul describes himself and his own doings whilst he was acted by an erroneous Conscience I persecuted says he this way unto the death binding and delivering into prison both men and women And in another Chapter I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth Here was his erroneous Conscience Let us next see what were the unhappy concomitants and effects of it ver 10 11 Which things says he I also did in Jerusalem and many of the Saints I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them and punish'd them oft in every Synagogue and compell'd them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even to strange Cities When Conscience transports men with such a furious zeal and passion it is hardly ever in the right or if it should happen to be so they who are thus transported by their ungracious way of maintaining the truth and their ill management of a good cause have found out a cunning way to be in the wrong even when they are in the right Fifthly All pretences of Conscience are likewise to be suspected which are not accompanied with modesty and humility and a teachable temper and disposition willing to learn and
Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North That is upon Mount Zion for just so the Psalmist describes it Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole Earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the North. Here the King of Babylon threatens to take Jerusalem and to demolish the Temple where the Congregation of Israel met for the Worship of the true God I will also sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. Much in the same Style with the threatnings of Modern Babylon I will destroy the Reformation I will extirpate the Northern Heresie And then he goes on I will ascend above the height of the clouds I will be like the most High Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave to the sides of the pit They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms that made the World as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof and opened not the House of his Prisoners God seems already to have begun this Work in the late glorious Victory at Sea and I hope he will cut it short in righteousness I have sometimes heretofore wondred Why at the destruction of Modern and Mystical Babylon the Scripture should make so express mention of great wailing and lamentation for the loss of Her Ships and Seamen Little imagining thirty years ago that any of the Kingdoms who had given their power to the Beast would ever have arrived to that mighty Naval Force But the Scripture saith nothing in vain Whether and how far Success is an Argument of a good Cause I shall not now debate But thus much I think may safely be affirmed That the Providence of God doth sometimes without plain and down-right Miracles so visibly shew it self that we cannot without great stupidity and obstinacy refuse to acknowledge it I grant the Cause must first be manifestly just before Success can be made an Argument of God's favour to it and approbation of it And if the Cause of true Religion and the necessary defence of it against a false and Idolatrous Worship be a good Cause Ours is so And I do not here beg the Question we have abundantly proved it to the confusion of our Adversaries If the vindication of the common Liberties of Mankind against Tyranny and Oppression be a good Cause then Ours is so And this needs not to be proved it is so glaringly evident to all the World And as our Cause is not like theirs so neither hath their Rock been like our Rock our Enemies themselves being Judges And yet as bad an Argument as success is of a good Cause I am sorry to say it but I am afraid it is true it is like in the conclusion to prove the best Argument of all other to convince those who have so long pretended Conscience against submission to the present Government Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a good Cause and the most improper to satisfie Conscience And yet we find by experience that in the issue it is the most successful of all other Arguments and does in a very odd but effectual way satisfie the Consciences of a great many men by shewing them their Interest God has of late visibly made bare his Arm in our behalf though some are still so blind and obstinate that they will not see it Like those of whom the Prophet complains Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at thy People Thus have I represented unto you a mighty Monarch who like a fiery Comet hath hung over Europe for many years and by his malignant influence hath made such terrible havock and devastations in this part of the World Let us now turn our View to the other part of the Text And behold a greater than he is here A Prince of a quite different Character who does understand and know God to be the Lord which doth exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And who hath made it the great Study and Endeavour of his life to imitate these Divine Perfections as far as the imperfection of humane Nature in this mortal state will admit I say a greater than he is here who never said or did an insolent thing but instead of despising his Enemies has upon all occasions encounter'd them with an undaunted Spirit and Resolution This is the Man whom God hath honoured to give a Check to this mighty Man of the Earth and to put a hook into the Nostrils of this great Leviathan who has so long had his pastime in the Seas But we will not insult as he once did in a most unprincely manner over a Man much better than himself when he believed Him to have been slain at the Boyne And indeed Death came then as near to him as was possible without killing him But the merciful Providence of God was pleased to step in for his Preservation almost by a Miracle For I do not believe that from the first use of great Guns to that Day any mortal man ever had his shoulder so kindly kiss'd by a Cannon-bullet But I will not trespass any further upon that which is the great Ornament of all his other Vertues though I have said nothing of Him but what all the World does see and must acknowledge He is as much above being flatter'd as it is beneath an honest and a generous mind to flatter Let us then glory in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our Salvation Let us now in the presence of all his People pay our most thankful acknowledgments to him who is worthy to be praised even to the Lord God of Israel who alone doth wondrous things Who giveth Victory unto Kings and hath preserved our David his Servant from the hurtful Sword And let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would long preserve to us the invaluable Blessing of our two Excellent Princes whom the Providence of God hath sent amongst us like two good Angels not to rescue two or three Persons but almost a whole Nation out of Sodom By saving us I hope at last from our Vices as well as at first from that Vengeance which was just ready to have been poured down upon us Two Sovereign Princes reigning together and in the same Throne and yet so intirely one as perhaps no Nation no Age can furnish us with a Parallel Two Princes perfectly united in the same Design of promoting the true Religion and the Publick Welfare by reforming our Manners and as far as is possible by repairing the breaches and healing the Divisions of a miserably distracted Church and Nation In a Word Two Princes who are contented to sacrifice Themselves and their whole Time to the care of the Publick And for the
returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all NEXT to the acknowledgment of God's Being nothing is more essential to Religion than the Belief of his Providence and a constant dependance upon him as the great Governor of the World and the wise disposer of all the affairs and concernments of the children of men And nothing can be a greater argument of Providence than that there is such an order of Causes laid in Nature that in ordinary course every thing does usually attain its end and yet that there is such a mixture of Contingency as that now and then we cannot tell how nor why the most likely causes do deceive us and fail of producing their usual effects For if there be a God and a Providence it is reasonable that things should be thus Because a Providence does suppose all things to have been at first wisely fram'd and with a fitness to attain their end but yet it does also suppose that God hath reserved to himself a power and liberty to interpose and to cross as he pleases the usual course of things to awaken men to the consideration of him and a continual dependance upon him and to teach us to ascribe those things to his wise disposal which if we never saw any change we should be apt to impute to blind necessity And therefore the Wise-man to bring us to an acknowledgment of the Divine Providence tells us that thus he had observed things to be in this World that though they generally happen according to the probability of Second Causes yet sometimes they fall out quite otherwise I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong c. The connexion of which Words with the foregoing Discourse is briefly this Among many other Observations which the Wise Preacher makes in this Sermon of the vanity and uncertainty of all things in this World and of the mistakes of men about them he takes notice here in the Text and in the Verse before it of two Extremes of human Life Some because of the uncertainty of all worldly things cast off all care and diligence and neglect the use of proper and probable means having found by experience that when men have done all they can they many times fail of their end and are disappointed they know not how Others on the contrary rely so much upon their own skill and industry as to promise success to themselves in all their undertakings and presume so much upon second Causes as if no consideration at all were to be had of the First The Wise Preacher reproves both these extremes and shews the folly and vanity of them On the one hand of those who sit still and will use no care and endeavour because it may all happen to be disappointed and to fail of Success Not considering that though prudent care and diligence will not always do the business yet there is nothing to be done without them in the ordinary course of things and that in the order of Second Causes these are the most likely and effectual means to any end And therefore rejecting this lazy Principle he counsels men whatever they propose to themselves to be very diligent and vigorous in the use of proper means for the attainment of it in the Verse immediately before the Text Whatever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might But then he observes also as great a folly and vanity on the other hand that they who manage their affairs with great wisdom and industry are apt to presume and reckon upon the certain success of them without taking into consideration that which in all human affairs is most considerable the favour and blessing of that almighty and wise Providence which rules the World I returned says he and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong c. I returned and saw that is having consider'd on the one hand the folly of sloth and carelessness I turned mine eyes the other way and saw as great an error on the other hand in mens presuming too much upon their own diligence and conduct without taking notice of the Providence of God For I have found says Solomon by manifold observation That the success of things does not always answer the probability of second causes and means So that the sum of the Preacher's advice is this When thou propoundest any end to thy self be diligent and vigorous in the use of means and when thou hast done all look above and beyond these to a Superior Cause which over-rules and steers and stops as he pleases all the motions and activity of second Causes And be not confident that all things are ever so wisely and firmly laid that they cannot fail of success For the Providence of God doth many times step in to divert the most probable event of things and to turn it quite another way And whenever he pleaseth to do so the most strong and likely means do fall lame or stumble or by some accident or other come short of their end I returned and saw under the sun that is here below in this inferior World That the race is not to the swift This the Chaldee Paraphrast does understand with relation to warlike affairs I beheld says he and saw that they who are swift as eagles do not always escape in the day of battel But I chuse rather to understand the Words in their more obvious sense that in a Race many things may happen to hinder him that is swiftest from winning it Nor the battel to the strong That is victory and success in war do not always attend the greatest force and preparations nor doth that side which in humane estimation is strongest always prevail and get the better Nor yet bread to the wise Neque doctorum panem esse so some render the Words that learned men are not always secured against poverty and want Nor yet riches to men of understanding for so some Interpreters translate the Words Neque industriis divitias esse that those who take most pains do not always get the greatest estates Nor yet favour to men of skill that is to those who understand men and business and how to apply themselves dextrously to the inclinations and interests of Princes and Great men Others interpret these Words more generally Neque peritorum artificum esse gratiam that those who excel most in their several Arts and Professions do not always meet with fuitable encouragement But because the Word which is here render'd favour is so frequently us'd by Solomon for the favour of Princes the former sense seems to be more easy and natural But time and chance happeneth to them all that is saith Aben Ezra there
know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this But more especially in vindication of his oppressed Truth and Religion and in the great and signal Deliverances of his Church and People God is wont to take the conduct of affairs into his own hands and not to proceed by humane rules and measures He then bids second Causes to stand by that his own Arm may be seen and his Salvation may appear He raiseth the spirits of men above their natural pitch and giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength as the Prophet expresseth it Thus hath the Providence of God very visibly appear'd in our late Deliverance in such a manner as I know not whether He ever did for any other Nation except the People of Israel when He delivered them from the House of Bondage by so mighty a hand and so outstretched an arm And yet too many among us I speak it this day to our shame do not seem to have the least sense of this great Deliverance or of the hand of God which was so visible in it but like the Children of Israel when they were brought out of Egypt we are full of murmurings and discontent against God the Author and his Servant the happy Instrument under God of this our Deliverance What the Prophet says of that People may I fear be too justly apply'd to us Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord Lord When thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed And I hope I may add that which follows in the next verse Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us What God hath already done for our deliverance is I hope an earnest that He will carry it on to a perfect peace and settlement and this notwithstanding our high provocations and horrible ingratitude to the God of our Life and of our Salvation And when ever the Providence of God thinks fit thus to interpose in humane affairs the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong For which reason their Majesties in their great Piety and Wisdom and from a just sense of the Providence of Almighty God which rules in the Kingdoms of men have thought fit to set apart this Day for solemn repentance and humiliation That the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of and which are of all other our greatest and most dangerous Enemies may not separate between God and us and hinder good things from us and cover us with confusion in the day of our danger and distress And likewise earnestly to implore the favour and blessing of Almighty God upon their Majesties Forces and Preparations by Sea and Land And more particularly for the preservation of his Majesties sacred Person upon whom so much depends and who is contented again to hazard Himself to save us To conclude There is no such way to engage the Providence of God for us as by real Repentance and Reformation and by doing all we can in our several Places from the highest to the lowest by the provision of wise and effectual Laws for the discountenancing and suppressing of Profaneness and Vice and by the careful and due execution of them and by the more kindly and powerful influence of a good Example to retrieve the ancient Piety and Virtue of the Nation For without this whatever we may think of the firmness of our present settlement we cannot long be upon good terms with Almighty God upon whose favour depends the prosperity and stability of the present and future Times I have but one thing more to mind you of and that is to stir up your charity towards the poor which is likewise a great part of the Duty of this Day and which ought always to accompany our Prayers and Fastings Thy Prayers and thine Alms saith the Angel to Cornelius are come up before God And therefore if we desire that our Prayers should reach Heaven and receive a gracious answer from God we must send up our Alms along with them And instead of all other arguments to this purpose I shall only recite to you the plain and perswasive words of God Himself in which He declares what kind of Fast is acceptable to Him Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his soul Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen To loose the bands of wickedness and to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily thy righteousness or thine Alms shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Then shalt thou call and I will answer thee thou shalt cry and He shall say here I am Now to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Vnto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen And the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen The way to prevent the Ruin of a Sinful People A FAST-SERMON Preached before the LORD-MAYOR c. ON Wednesday June the 18th 1690. Pilkington Mayor Mercurii xviii Junii 1690. Annoque Regis Reginae Willelmi Mariae Angliae c. Secundo THis Court doth desire Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls to Print his Sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of London at St. Mary-le-Bow Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable
the land of the living unless it be that one infallible Point of Wisdom to which God directs every man and of which every man is capable viz. Religion and the Fear of God Vnto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Secondly When knowledge and wisdom are with great difficulty in any competent measure attain'd how easily are they lost By a disease by a blow upon the head by a sudden and violent passion which may disorder the strongest Brain and confound the clearest Understanding in a moment Nay even the excess of knowledge and wisdom especially if attended with pride as too often it is is very dangerous and does many times border upon distraction and run into madness Like an Athletick constitution and perfect state of health which is observ'd by Physicians to verge upon some dangerous disease and to be a forerunner of it And when a man's Understanding is once craz'd and shatter'd how are the finest notions and thoughts of the wisest man blunder'd and broken perplex'd and entangled like a puzled lump of silk so that the man cannot draw out a thought to any length but is forc'd to break it off and to begin at another end Upon all which and many more accounts Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom which is so very imperfect so hard to be attain'd and yet so easie to be lost 2. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might Which whether it be meant of natural strength of body or of military force and power how weak and imperfect is it and how frequently foil'd by an unequal strength If we understand it of the natural strength of men's bodies how little reason is there to glory in that in which so many of the Creatures below us do by so many degrees excell us In that which may so many ways be lost by sickness by a maime and by many other external Accidents and which however will decay of it self and by Age sink into infirmity and weakness And how little reason is there to glory in that which is so frequently foil'd by an unequal strength of which Goliah is a famous Instance When he defied the Host of Israel and would needs have the matter decided by single Combate God inspired David to accept the Challenge who though he was no wise comparable to him in strength and would have been nothing in his hands in close fight yet God directed him to assail him at a distance by a weapon that was too hard for him a stone out of a sling which struck the Giant in the forehead and brought his unwieldy bulk down to the Earth Or if by might we understand military force and power how little likewise is that to be gloried in considering the uncertain events of War and how very often and remarkably the Providence of God doth interpose to cast the Victory on the unlikely Side It is Solomon's observation that such are the interpositions of Divine Providences in humane Affairs that the Event of things is many times not at all answerable to the power and probability of second Causes I returned says he and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong And one way among many others whereby the Providence of God doth often interpose to decide the Events of War is by a remarkable change of the Seasons and Weather in favour of one Side As by sending great Snows or violent Rains to hinder the early motion and march of a powerful Army to the disappointment or prejudice of some great Design By remarkable Winds and Storms at Sea to prevent the Conjunction of a powerful Fleet And by governing all these for a long time together so visibly to the Advantage of one Side us utterly to defeat the well laid design of the other Of all which by the great mercy and goodness of God to us we have had the happy experience in all our late signal Deliverances and Victories And here I cannot but take notice of a passage to this purpose in the Book of Job Which may deserve our more attentive regard and consideration because I take this Book to be incomparably the most ancient of all other and much elder than Moses And yet it is written with as lively a sense of the Providence of God and as noble Figures and Flights of Eloquence as perhaps any Book extant in the World The Passage I mean is where God to convince Job of his ignorance in the secrets of Nature and Providence poseth him with many hard Questions and with this amongst the rest Hast thou entred into the treasures of the Snow hast thou seen the treasures of the Hail which I have reserv'd against the time of trouble against the Day of Battel and War The meaning of which is that the Providence of God doth sometimes interpose to determine the Events of War by governing the Seasons and the Weather and by making the Snows and Rains the Winds and Storms to fulfil his word and to execute his pleasure Of this we have a remarkable Instance in the defeat of Sisera's mighty Army against whom in the Song of Deborah the Stars are said to have fought in their courses The expression is Poetical but the plain meaning of it is that by mighty and sudden Rains which the common Opinion did ascribe to a special influence of the Planets the River of Kishon near which Sisera's Army lay was so raised and swoln as to drown the greatest part of that huge Host For so Deborah explains the fighting of the Stars in their courses against Sisera They fought says she from Heaven the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera the River of Kishon swept them away As if the Stars which were supposed by their influence to have caused those sudden and extraordinary Rains had set themselves in Battel-array against Sisera and his Army Therefore let not the mighty man glory in his might which is so small in it self but in opposition to God is weakness and nothing The weakness of God says St. Paul is stronger than men All power to do mischief is but impotence and therefore no matter of boasting Why boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou art able to do mischief the goodness of God endureth continually The goodness of God is too hard for the pride and malice of man and will last and hold out when that has tir'd and spent it self Thirdly Let not the rich man glory in his riches In these men are apt to pride themselves even the meanest and poorest spirits who have nothing to be proud of but their money when they have got good store of that together how will they swell and strut as if because they are rich and increased in goods they wanted nothing But we may do well to consider that Riches are things without us not the real Excellencies of our Nature but
incredible swiftness through City and Country for fear the innocent man's justification should over-take it Fifthly Another Cause of evil-speaking is Impertinence and Curiosity an itch of talking and medling in the affairs of other Men which do no wise concern them Some persons love to mingle themselves in all business and are loth to seem ignorant of so important a piece of News as the faults and follies of men or any bad thing that is talk'd of in good Company And therefore they do with great care pick up ill Stories as good matter of discourse in the next Company that is worthy of them And this perhaps not out of any great malice but for want of something better to talk of and because their Parts lie chiefly that way Lastly Men do this many times out of wantonness and for diversion So little do light and vain men consider that a man's Reputation is too great and tender a Concernment to be jested withal and that a slanderous Tongue bites like a Serpent and wounds like a Sword For what can be more barbarous next to sporting with a man's Life than to play with his Honour and Reputation which to some men is dearer to them than their Lives It is a cruel pleasure which some men take in worrying the Reputation of others much better than themselves and this only to divert themselves and the Company Solomon compares this sort of men to distracted persons As a mad-man saith he who casteth fire-brands arrows and death so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour the LXX render it So is the man that defameth his neighbour and saith Am I not in sport Such and so bad are the Causes of this Vice I proceed to consider in the Second place the ordinary but very pernicious Consequences and Effects of it both to Others and to our Selves First To Others the Parties I mean that are slandered To them it is certainly a great injury and commonly a high Provocation but always matter of no small grief and trouble to them It is certainly a great injury and if the evil which we say of them be not true it is an injury beyond imagination and beyond all possible reparation And though we should do our utmost endeavour afterwards towards their Vindication yet that makes but very little amends because the Vindication seldom reacheth so far as the Reproach and because commonly men are neither so forward to spread the Vindication nor is it so easily received after ill impressions are once made The solicitous Vindication of a man's self is at the best but an after-game and for the most part a man had better fit still than to run the hazard of making the matter worse by playing it I will add one thing more That it is an Injury that descends to a man's Children and Posterity because the good or ill Name of the Father is derived down to them and many times the best thing he hath to leave them is the Reputation of his unblemish'd Virtue and Worth And do we make no Conscience to rob his innocent Children of the best part of this small Patrimony and of all the kindness that would have been done them for their Father's sake if his Reputation had not been so undeservedly stain'd Is it no Crime by the breath of our mouth at once to blast a man's Reputation and to ruin his Children perhaps to all Posterity Can we make a jest of so serious a matter Of an Injury so very hard to be repented of as it ought because in such a Case no Repentance will be acceptable without Restitution if it be in our power And perhaps it will undo us in this World to make it and if we do it not will be our Ruin in the other I will put the Case at the best that the matter of the Slander is true yet no man's Reputation is considerably stained though never so deservedly without great harm and damage to him And it is great odds but the matter by passing through several hands is aggravated beyond truth every one out of his bounty being apt to add something to it But besides the Injury it is commonly a very high Provocation And the consequence of that may be as bad as we can imagine and may end in dangerous and desperate Quarrels This reason the wise Son of Sirach gives why we should defame no man Whether it be says he to a friend or a foe talk not of other men's lives For he hath heard and observed thee that is one way or other it will probably come to his knowledge and when the time cometh he will shew his hatred that is he will take the first opportunity to revenge it At the best it is always matter of Grief to the person that is defam'd And Christianity which is the best-natur'd Institution in the World forbids us the doing of those things whereby we may grieve one another A man's good name is a tender thing and a wound there sinks deep into the spirit even of a wise and good man And the more innocent any man is in this kind the more sensible is he of this hard usage because he never treats others so nor is he conscious to himself that he hath deserved it Secondly The Consequences of this Vice are as bad or worse to our selves Whoever is wont to speak evil of others gives a bad character of himself even to those whom he desires to please who if they be wise enough will conclude that he speaks of them to others as he does of others to them And were it not for that fond partiality which men have for themselves no man could be so blind as not to see this And it is very well worthy of our consideration which our Saviour says in this very Case That with what measure we mete to others it shall be measured to us again and that many times heaped up and running over For there is hardly any thing wherein Mankind do use more strict justice and equality than in rendering evil for evil and railing for railing Nay Revenge often goes further than Words A reproachful and slanderous Speech hath cost many a man a Duel and in that the loss of his own Life or the Murther of another perhaps with the loss of his own Soul And I have often wonder'd that among Christians this matter is no more laid to heart And though neither of these great mischiefs should happen to us yet this may be inconvenient enough many other ways For no man knows in the chance of things and the mutability of humane affairs whose kindness and good-will he may come to stand in need of before he dies So that did a man only consult his own safety and quiet he ought to refrain from evil-speaking What man is he saith the Psalmist that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking falshood But there is an infinitely
and learned a man as Origen was should be positive in an Opinion for which there can be no certain ground in Reason especially for the punctual and precise term of a thousand years and for which there is no ground at all that I know of from Divine Revelation But upon the whole matter however it be be it for a thousand years or be it for a longer and unknown term or be it for ever which is plainly threatned in the Gospel I say however it be this is certain that it is infinitely wiser to take care to avoid it than to dispute it and to run the final hazard of it Put it which way we will especially if we put it at the worst as in all prudence we ought to do it is by all possible means to be provided against So terrible so intolerable is the thought yea the very least suspicion of being miserable for ever And now give me leave to ask You as St. Paul did King Agrippa Do you believe the Scrâ—ptures And I hope I may answer for you my self as he did for Agrippa I know you do believe them And in them these things are clearly revealed and are part of that Creed of which we make a solemn profession every day And yet when we consider how most men live is it credible that they do firmly believe this plain Declaration of our Saviour and our Judge That the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Or if they do in some sort believe it is it credible that they do at all consider it seriously and lay it to heart So that if we have a mind to reconcile our belief with our Actions we must either alter our Bible and our Creed or we must change our Lives Let us then consider and shew our selves men And if we do so can any man to please himself for a little while be contented to be punish'd for ever and for the shadow of a short and imperfect happiness in this life be willing to run the hazard of being really and eternally miserable in the next World Surely this consideration alone of the extreme and endless misery of impenitent Sinners in another World if it were but well wrought into our minds would be sufficient to kill all the temptations of this World and to lay them dead at our feet and to make us deaf to all the Enchantments of Sin and Vice Because they bid us so infinitely to our loss when they offer us the enjoyment of a short Pleasure upon so very hard and unequal a condition as that of being miserable for ever The eternal Rewards and Punishments of another Life which are the great Sanction and Security of God's Laws one would think should be a sufficient weight to cast the Scales against any Pleasure or any Pain that this World can tempt or can threaten us withal And yet after all this will we still go on to do wickedly when we know the terrors of the Lord and that we must one day answer all our bold violations of his Law and contempts of his Authority with the loss of our immortal Souls and by suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire What is it then that can give men the Heart and Courage but I recall that Word because it is not true Courage but fool hardiness thus to out brave the Judgment of God and to set at nought the horrible and amazing consideration of a miserable Eternity How is it possible that men that are awake and in their wits should have any ease in their minds or enjoy so much as one quiet hour whilst so great a danger hangs over their heads and they have taken no tolerable care to prevent it If we have any true and just sense of this danger we cannot fail to shew that we have it by making haste to escape it and by taking that care of our Souls which is due to immortal Spirits that are made to be Happy or Miserable to all Eternity Let us not therefore estimate and measure things as they appear now to our sensual and deluded and deprav'd Judgments but let us open our eyes and look to the last issue and consequence of them Let us often think of these things and consider well with our selves what apprehensions will then probably fill and possess our minds when we shall stand trembling before our Judge in a fearful expectation of that terrible Sentence which is just ready to be pronounced and as soon as ever it is pronounc'd to be executed upon us When we shall have a full and clear sight of the unspeakable Happiness and of the horrible and astonishing Miseries of another World When there shall be no longer any Veil of Flesh and Sense to interpose between them and us and to hide these things from our eyes And in a word when Heaven with all the Glories of it shall be open to our view and as the expression is in Job Hell shall be naked before us and Destruction shall have no covering How shall we then be confounded to find the truth and reality of those things which we will not now be persuaded to believe And how shall we then wish that we had believed the terrors of the Lord and instead of quarrelling with the Principles of Religion and calling them into question we had lived under the constant sense and awe of them Blessed be God that there is yet hope concerning us and that we may yet flee from the wrath to come and that the Miseries of Eternity may yet be prevented in Time And that for this very end and purpose our most Gracious and Merciful God hath so clearly revealed these things to us not with a desire to bring them upon us but that we being warned by his Threatnings might not bring them upon our selves I will conclude all with the Counsel of the Wise Man Seek not Death in the error of your Life and pull not upon your selves destruction with the works of your own hands For God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the Living But ungodly men with their works and words have called it down upon themselves Which that none of us may do God of his infinite Goodness grant for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes A FAST-SERMON Preached before the House of COMMONS ON Wednesday April the 16th 1690. Jovis 17. die April 1690. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls for the Sermon Preached before this House Yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same And that Sir Edmund Jenings do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cler. Dom. Com. Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes Ecclesiastes IX 11 I