at this day For this teacheth us what manner of Worship we owe to God Rational and Spiritual the Product of the most excellent faculties of our Soul instructs us in the Purity and Spirituality of his Nature That he dwells not in Temples made with Hands but in the Hearts and Souls of Men that the Worship we offer to him ought to consist not in External shew and observation but in the affections and intention of the Mind Lastly reminds us of the affinity of our Souls to his Nature by partaking in the spirituality of it and thereby convinceth us that the Soul as far exceeds the Body in its excellency and real interest as God doth all Finite Creatures The last Attribute of God mentioned in my Text is his Wisdom the only wise God which may respect either the extent or the supreme excellency of his Knowledge either that he knoweth all things the most secret Transactions and Thoughts of Men or that he best of all knoweth the Causes of things and the tendency of means to their proper ends what is most fit in it self what is most convenient for us In either sense we must acknowledge God to be most worthy of our Adoration If God indeed seeth all our actions and the most inward recesses of our Soul if the most private motion of our Heart cannot escape his knowledge this not only describes him to be of Infinite Capacity and thereby worthy of the highest Veneration but also encourageth to Adore and Worship him Since we are sure that our Piety altho never so secretly performed cannot pass unregarded by him that it will not be thrown away and become ineffectual Whereas if we neglect to pay this Tribute of Honour and Glory we cannot flatter our selves with the hopes of secrecy and concealing it from the knowledge of God This of all other Attributes ought to create in us the most lively concern and diligence to consider that God is always present as a Witness with us to observe our demeanour and note every Action of our Life And if so we may be assured that no Action of Praise or Thanksgiving will miscarry or fall short of its intended end to procure the Favour of God In the next place God not only vieweth all the parts of the Creation and is conscious of every motion whether of the Soul or Body but directeth all things to their best and most proper ends fore-seeth all effects knoweth the force and efficacy of all Causes and ordereth all his designs in the most wise and perfect method And that we may not esteem our selves unconcerned in all this he hath chosen to employ his Wisdom most Illustriously in favour of Mankind Thus the whole Fabrick of the World doth in some measure tend to the Service and Happiness of Man whom he Constituted Lord of all the Visible World and most wisely contrived it for his Convenience as well as Pleasure This our Senses teach us this we cannot doubt if we view the several parts of the Universe and consider in what a Beautiful and Harmonious Frame they are united and conspire to the use of Man The Methods of Divine Providence in relation to the Government of the World are more unsearchable yet such as manifest a most compleat Wisdom and tender regard of our Happiness But above all his Wisdom as well as Love to Mankind appears most eminently in contriving the Redemption of lost and sinful Man in a method wherein Pardon is offered to Sinners without doing injury to the Divine Justice wherein Relief is afforded and Mercy granted to the infirmity of our Natures yet Diligence and Vigilance required as necessary wherein none are excluded none can justly either presume or despair The Consideration of these illustrious Instances of the Divine Wisdom cannot but create in us a Submission to his Laws and Acquiescence in his Decrees convince us of the Justice of his Proceedings and induce us to resign up our Wills and Passions wholly to his Conduct and Direction which is the most noble Testimony of giving Honour and Glory to God that the Soul of Man is capable of most pleasing to God and agreeable to his Nature For if we reflect upon the Quality of the Divine Attributes and Perfections we shall easily discover how justly the Apostle inferrs from them all that to God the Possessor of them ought to be ascribed Honour and Glory for ever and ever We find that from all these Perfections God hath a right to our Praise and Adoration this is the natural result of true Conceptions of them and cannot in Justice be denied ought not in Duty to be neglected To return Honour and Glory to God is the highest Effort of Gratitude which we can aim at and indeed the utmost which God requires of us It had been but a mean and unworthy Acknowledgment of those infinite Perfections to represent them upon Earth by costly Images and magnificent Pageants to erect stately Temples in remembrance of them or acknowledge the deference due to them by elaborate and pompous Ceremonies Actions indeed wherein the greatest part of the World have always expressed their religious Sentiments yet Expressions far beneath the Dignity of that infinite Object to which they were directed The perfections of God are spiritual and as such require a spiritual Acknowledgment an inward Worship that we ever preserve Noble thoughts of God in our Souls that we maintain an awful remembrance of our Obligation that we own him to be the Lord of Life and Death our King and Governour from whom we receive our Being and in whose sight we are Dust and Ashes that we cautiously fear to offend him studiously endeavour to satisfie those ends for which we were sent into the World and in all our Actions manifest that we are sensible of our Subjection to him Thus may we render Honour and Glory to him for ever and ever in the words of the Apostle that is continually and without Intermission For a steady Course of Life fixed upon Principles and Resolutions of Obedience and agreeable to them is a continued Act of honouring God although we cannot always employ our Thoughts in admiring his Perfections or our Tongue in confessing them The Angels indeed are by the Spirituality of their Nature fitted to celebrate the Praises of God without Intermission as being not distracted with the Cares and Necessities of a Body and having a more perfect Comprehension of the Divine Attributes but of Man whose Knowledge in this Life is imperfect whose Temptations are numerous and Distractions continual no more is required than a sincere Endeavour of directing his Life in general by Principles and Rules which arise from Obedience to the Commands and Will of God and ultimately tend to the Honour of his Name And surely we cannot imagine this Condition of Happiness to be any difficult much less any Grievous Matter which is the constant Exercise of Angels now in the Supreme Fruition of their Happiness This Constitutes their
those which are revealed by God supposing them to have been indeed revealed but only that any such Revelation is really made can appear no otherwise than by Arguments of probability Thirdly a perfect knowledge of all the Mysteries of Religion might have been extraordinarily obtained by the Apostles before the Ascension of our Saviour by conferring on them the same Gifts of the Holy Ghost as were afterwards poured on them on the day of Pentecost But neither was this convenient to the design of the Gospel nor the Wisdom of God Not to the former For the plentiful Effusion and Mission of the Holy Ghost was an Act of the Regal power of Christ which he commenced not till after his Ascension when he first began to exercise that Authority which he had obtained to himself by the obedience of Death And therefore our Saviour tells the Apostles S. Joh. XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And in another place this is assigned as the Reason why the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified The Wisdom of God also was no less engaged which might justly have been arraigned if he had used so wonderful and signal a Miracle as was the Mission of the Holy Ghost for the extraordinary instruction of the Apostles before the Ascension of our Lord since no such Instruction was yet necessary which was the second Point I proposed to prove Namely II. That a perfect and infallible Information of the Apostles was not absolutely necessary till after the Ascension of Christ. For this was required in the Apostles for no other cause than that they might thereby be inabled to teach the Doctrines of our Saviour to the whole world and at last deliver them down in writing to succeeding Ages infallibly and without danger of any intermixed Enrour to the suspicion of which the Christian Religion would ever have been subjected if they had not been indued with such clearness of apprehension concerning every Point of it and attended by such an extraordinary assistance as might secure them from all possible danger of mistaking the Sense of that Doctrine which they were to deliver to the rest of Mankind To create this clear apprehension in the Apostles and convey down this assistance to them was the chief intention of sending the Holy Ghost as upon this day and the principal effect of that Mission at least as far as I am at present concerned So that since the sending of the Holy Ghost was designed purely to enable them to the due execution of their Office of preaching and propagating the Doctrine of Christ to the whole world which Office was not to be commenced till after his Ascension it manifestly follows that an exact and infallible knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion was not absolutely necessary to the Apostles before that time A perfect knowledge would have been useful indeed to them even before that time but useful to them only as private Persons not as bearing the publick Office and Character of Apostles whose Office before the Ascension of our Saviour consisted as we before observed in taking notice of the Actions Sufferings and Miracles of Christ that they might be able afterwards to testifie them to the whole world This Office of observing the Actions of Christ required no exact and perfect knowledge of all the Reasons of his Actions and Mysteries of his Doctrine but might be sufficiently discharged by any Persons who were not devoid of common Sense and Honesty The Mission of the Holy Ghost was necessary upon Reasons of another nature and would have continued necessary although the Apostles had perfectly understood all the Doctrine of our Saviour before his Ascension For however they might then sufficiently understand it nothing less than a perpetual extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost could infallibly secure them from all future Errour in delivering it to others or create such a degree of probability as might deserve the Assent and Belief of Mankind in all future Ages Thus I have shewn the Reasons of that Ignorance of the Apostles which is so remarkable through all the History of the Gospels and for which our Saviour promiseth so extraordinary a remedy in the words of my Text and withal demonstrated that there is nothing in all this Conduct of the Apostles continuing under that Ignorance till the Ascension and of our Saviour permitting it till that time disadvantageous to the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion It remains that I draw some few Conclusions from what hath been said which was the third and last Proposal First then if as we before shewed our Saviour and the Apostles who were unquestionably infallible never set up themselves for infallible Judges nor required from their Hearers a blind Assent to their Dictates if they submitted their Doctrines to the Examination of Scripture and Judgment of all private men in vain do any at this day pretend in vertue of an Authority derived from them to set up themselves for infallible Judges of Controversie from whom lyeth no Appeal either to Scripture or Reason and thereby exercise a Jurisdiction which they never claimed But I wave that Particular and choose rather to insist on some more practical Considerations Of which The first is That if the knowledge of the Christian Religion was so difficult to the Apostles who enjoyed so many and so great advantages under the Instruction and Government of their Divine Master the Author of this Religion if after the sight of his Miracles the Enjoyment of a triennial Conversation and the constant hearing of his Divine Discourses they continued ignorant of the true Spirit and Nature of Christianity this ought to excite us to great diligence in learning and studying the Mysteries of our Religion and enquiring the true Sense of those Revelations which our Saviour conveyed to the world It is indeed the peculiar Excellency and Glory of the Christian Religion that its admirable simplicity hath fited it to the Understandings and Capacity of all men that it is not such an abstruce Science as surmounts the ordinary reach of Mankind and must intirely be confined to the Discipline of the Schools and knowledge of Learned men the acquisition and understanding of it is possible and even easie to all men But then God in proposing this Religion intended not purely to supercede the Labours of men and consult their ease Some Conditions are also necessary on our side that we diligently search the Truth examine the Scriptures hearken to the instruction of our Pastors carefully weigh the Reasons of things and bring a mind ready disposed to assent to any Truths which shall evidently appear to us how contrary soever they may be to our Passions and Inclinations For although we labour not with those prejudices of a temporal Kingdom
we may do it those first and chief Disciples have enabled us by giving us large Accounts of the Actions and Life of our Saviour in the Holy Gospels Himself tell us John XV. 8. If ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples and then Ver. 10. explains their bearing much Fruit by imitating his obedience to the Divine Commands If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love So that if we desire to retain the name of a Disciple and thereby preserve our Relation to Christ we must perform the Duty of a Disciple by religiously following the Example of our Lord and Master But then in the next place to imitate the Life and Actions of our Saviour is not only our Duty but our Happiness We may be sure that while the Blessed Jesus lived on Earth he pursued the true ends of Happiness and cultivated those Vertues which were most conducive to the perfection of his Nature and the Dignity of his Office What Honour then must it needs be to us mortal Men to be made like unto the Son of God in the Practice of the same Vertues in pursuing the same Methods of Happiness and in an intire Conformity of Actions It was the highest Ambition of the more generous among the Heathens to imitate the Lives of their antient Heroes and be thought like unto them And shall not we ardently desire to resemble our most Blessed Redeemer by a similitude of Holiness and Vertue Their Ambition was misplac't and therefore the occasion of their Unhappiness ours is directed to the right Object and therefore cannot be too great It must needs be an infinite Satisfaction to every pious Soul to be employed about the same Duties wherein the Blessed Jesus spent his Life to exercise the same Offices of Piety Charity and Devotion to be inspired with the same Principles of Humility Meekness and Patience This Consideration will dispel all weariness will add Vigour to our Souls and remove the fear of all temporal Evils which may attend the performance of our Duty This will support us under all outward Calamities alleviate our Sorrows and calm our Tempests to remember That our Lord endured the same Afflictions upon the same account If he was content to undergo the Malice of men and fury of Devils shall we hope to be exempted from the Attempts of the same Enemies If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you John XV. 18. And shall we refuse to undergo the same Fortunes with our Lord and Master No surely Only let us take care that the Hatred and Persecution of Men be brought upon us for no other Cause than they were on him that is not through any fault of ours but only for the sake of God and our obedience to his Commands So shall we imitate him as well in the most happy tranquility of Mind under all Afflictons as in the Afflictions themselves and the Causes of them Lastly The constant imitation of our Lords Example will be our Comfort and Satisfaction in the whole course of our Lives which will remove all Doubts and Difficulties and give us the best assurance that we have performed the whole Duty of Man If only Precepts of a good Life had been given to us we might have been daily distracted with Doubts and Scruples concerning the meaning extent and Application of them they might have been perverted by the errour and craft of Men and rendred useless by false Glosses and Interpretations whereas the Example of our Saviour hath taken away all these Scruples and placed every Precept in its full light If we truly imitate his Example we are infallibly assured That we have in all things done our Duty even as he performed the whole Will of God and more than once obtained that Testimony from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So much greater assurance may we have by following his Example than by respecting his Precepts only And therefore St. Paul after so many Rules and Precepts given to his Converts still adviseth them to be Followers of him but then no farther than he followed Christ. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. r Cor. XI 1. By this also we shall be inabled to give a satisfactory Reason of all our Actions and put to silence the Gainsaying of foolish Men without the assistance of any profound knowledge or deep Speculation If they deride our Christian Vertues and scoffe at the Duties of Humility Self-denial and Mortification it will be sufficient to answer That in practising them we imitate the Example of the Son of God the eternal Wisdom of the Father Let them please themselves with their Mirth and false supposal of a more refined knowledge We follow an infallible Guide and Pattern who if he hath not placed the Wisdom of his Precepts in so clear a light as the Sun in Heaven hath at least recommended them by his Practice and can assert them by his Power Such are the Obligations of all Christians to imitate the Example of their Saviour and such are the Benefits which result from it Let us by an earnest endeavour to follow this most excellent Example fullfil the Obligations and obtain the Benefits that as we have been on Earth made like unto him in Vertue and Holiness so we may hereafter in Heaven be made yet more like unto him in Glory and Immortality The Third SERMON PREACH'D October 1688. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Pet. III. 15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear THE most Wise God hath so contrived that most Holy and excellent Religion which he intended as the most perfect and ultimate Revelation of his Will to the World that it tendeth equally to manifest his own infinite Wisdom and Goodness and to procure the Salvation of Mankind His Wisdom appeareth in the Excellency and Simplicity of those Rules which it proposeth in its immediate tendency to beget and establish due Notions and Apprehensions of the Deity in the reasonableness of its Constitution and admirable Congruity to the nature of Mankind His Goodness is conspicuous not only in those infinite Rewards which he hath affixed to the performance of it in the Free Pardon of rebellious Sinners and liberal distribution of his Graces but which more directly comes under our present Consideration in adapting that Religion which he intended for the benefit of all to the Capacity of all and thereby rendring it no less easie than advantageous And in this the Christian Religion infinitely exceeds all other Systems of Religion whether true or false Among the Heathens many great and learned Persons had imployed their Wits in refining the Superstitions of their Countrey and assigning Reasons for that way of Worship which obtained among them But their Notions were abstruse and mystical their
from their Conceptions so he had chose to reveal the Mystery of it in a method contrary to that which they used in the Propagation of their several Sects which occafroned the preaching of the Cross to be accounted foolishness Verse 18. Although if Men would have laid aside their unjust Prejudices they had sufficient reason to be convinced of the Reasonableness of this proceeding The truth of this the Apostle manifesteth not only by appealing to the Conscience of those who were perswaded of it and the secret Effects of that perswasion in the minds of Men but unto us which are saved it is the power of God but also by other external Arguments which by any considering Man cannot be rejected As that it was foretold by the antient Prophets particularly by Isaiah in XXIX Chapter Verse 4. For it is there written I will destroy the wisdom of the Wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent that it is abundantly justified by its admirable Success in the world to have been the best and most wise manner of proceeding being entertained by great numbers of Persons and going on apace in procuring its designed end the Reformation and instruction of Mankind whereas the Philosophy of the Gentiles and the elaborate Interpretations of the Mosaick Law made by the great Doctors of it gained no considerable Progress in the world and being confined to some small number of Sectaries and Disciples only manifested by their Unsuccessfulness that they were never designed by the infallible Wisdom of God for the universal Discipline or Religion of Mankind Where therefore is the Wise as the Apostle triumphantly upbraids them Ver. 20. Wheâ—…e is the scribe where is the disputer of this world who after all their laborious Searches missed of the Truth and could never propagate their Doctrines with Success Hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this world Baffling all the elaborate Schemes of these opinionated Men and confounding their glorious Pretences of Wisdom in appointing a quite different method for procuring the Happiness of Mankind from what they had imagined and proposing it Successfully by means in their Esteem Contemptible by Persons illiterate and devoid of all Philosophy and curious Learning And that we may not conceive this way of procedure to be either unjust or unreasonable the Apostle proceeds in the 21. Verse to declare the Reason and Occasion of it For after that in the Wisdom of God the world by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe Since these Persons who had conceived so great an Opinion of their own Wisdom had apparently failed of discovering by the light of Reason the true God and the natural Duties of Religion owing to him however very easie and possible to them no wonder that the Mysteries of a revealed Religion should appear Foolishness to them and that God should as it were by way of Punishment confound their Arrogance and mortifie their Self-conceit by instructing and saving Mankind by a way directly contrary to their Suppositions namely by Preaching that is by supernatural Revelation not by their own proper Industry and Wit and by the foolishness of preaching and that considered in the matter of the Revelations which having nothing of extraordinary Abstraction or difficult Contemplation in them were in their Judgment accounted foolish or in the manner of proposing these Revelations which being different from their fond Conceptions appeared foolish and absurd to them the Jews requiring a sign that is the constant performance of glorious and pompous Miracles which might secure to them the Fruition and increase of that temporal Felicity which they vainly hoped to receive from the Messias And the Greeks seeking after Wisdom despising all Doctrines which were not recommended with the specious shew of Philosophical Subtilty and Mysterious Niceties or not proposed by Persons in the Opinion of the world Learned or Eloquent After all these preliminary Arguments the Apostle having thereby cleared the way and removed all Objections lays down this Conclusion in the words of my Text But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Gentiles foolishness That is we justly and we boldly do it neither valuing the Derision of the world nor distrusting the Justice of our Cause So then the words thus opened naturally and easily offer to us these two Considerations of which I shall in order Discourse I. The Reasonableness or just cause of believing and professing the Christian Faith notwithstanding its being a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness II. Our Obligation to Preach and openly profess this Faith without being offended with the Contradiction and Opposition of the Jews and Gentiles or being led away with the same Prejudices I. That we have reasonable and just Cause to believe and adhere to the Christian Faith or the Mystery of Christ Crucified notwithstanding the derision of the Gentiles and scandal of the Jews For that by the phrase of Christ Crucified is not so much meant the particular Mystery of the Death and Passion of our Saviour as the whole System of Faith revealed by Christ is manifest from the Context although the Crucifixion of our Lord as it is the grand Mystery of our Faith so was it of all others to the Jews most scandalous and to the Gentiles most ridiculous But the design of the Apostle being to vindicate the Christian Religion in general not this Mystery in particular I shall close with his Design and consider only the more general Prejudices and Objections upon account of which the Faith became a scandal to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles that so by manifesting the unreasonableness and inconclusiveness of them I may manifest the Justice and Reasonableness of our Belief notwithstanding their Opposition These Prejudices and Objections we before observed from the Apostles Discourse preceding my Text and they concern either 1. The matter of those Revelations which are the Object of the Christian Faith Or 2. The manner of revealing them and proposing them to the World In Relation to the first the Spirituality of the Christian Religion was a mighty Objection to the Jews which they could not easily overcome they being inured to gross and corporeal Conceptions of Divine Matters trained up in carnal Ceremonies and Ordinances expecting no other than temporal Rewards and vainly expecting the glorious appearance of a temporal Messias Then as to the manner of the Revelation nothing could be more surprizing to the Jews than to see it performed in an humble and gentle manner not with the voice of Thunder and Lightnings as the Law of Old at Mount Sina not by force of Arms or victorious Success of the Messias not by stupendious Miracles performed as often as the petulancy of a Stiff-necked People should require it nor yet by the Learning and Cunning of their great Doctors and Rabbies but by a few mean inconfiderable disarmed and unlearned Persons
not the part of a Rational Being considers not what distinguisheth him from a Beast the existence of his Soul after death and the capacity of receiving Rewards or Punishments from his Supreme Judge after the dissolution of the Body Beasts are capable of a good or bad Condition while Life is continued to them and if a Man imagins that nothing attends him beyond this Life he doth therein compare or level him-self with the Beasts that perish Yet perhaps it may be imagined that this mistake was pardonable in the Jews to whom our Saviour spoke whose Religion taught them not to expect any Rewards or Punishments beyond the extent of this Life whose Arguments of Obedience were an Earthly Canaan a fruitful Land a long Life and abundance of Temporal Blessings their punishments no other than the loss of these by Captivity Oppression Calamities or sudden Death Their Fathers received no other promises their Law taught no other and therefore it was but natural for them to believe that signal Calamities were the Indications of the Divine displeasure arising from Sin and freedom from Misfortunes Arguments of the continuance of the Divine Favour to particular Persons Thus the Apostles seeing a blind Man presently asked their Lord whether for his own sin or for the sin of his Parents that Calamity was inflicted on him And in this Chapter the Jews not partaking with the Galileans in their miserable end immediately concluded that neither had they partaken with them in the guilt which they supposed drew that end upon them Yet notwithstanding all this the Error of the Jews was not excusable Their Religion did not warrant them to make any such conclusions which proposed indeed no other than Temporal Rewards or Punishents to them yet did not Teach that no other were to be expected by them The cause of their mistake was that what God had only promised to the whole Nation of the Jews together they applyed to all the Members of it in particular He engaged by his promise to bestow upon that Nation a Fruitful Land to continue the possession of it to them while his Worship and Obedience to his Laws was publickly and generally maintained to make them fruitful to multiply them and bless them by giving them Fruitful Seasons secure Peace or at least Victory over the disturbers of their Peace He threatned to deprive them of their Possessions to afflict thém with the Sword and Pestilence to deliver them up to the Will of their Enemies and deny the kind influences of Heaven to them if they sorsook his Worship or generally violated his Laws In this general Prosperity and Calamity of the whole Nation the promised Rewards or threatned Punishments of every particular Man were included and no otherwise God no where promiseth to them that he would by an extraordinary interposition preserve the Possessions the Peace and Plenty of a few good Men when the prevailing and almost Universal Apostacy of the Nation did require a general Punishment In that case those few good Men were to share in the common Calamity and retain no advantage beyond the others besides the peace of their own Conscience and the hopes of receiving from God hereafter a Reward of their Obedience Neither did he threaten that he would extraordinarily punish the wickedness of a few Men when the generality of the Nation should continue in Obedience to him They shared in the common Benefits of their Nation and for the punishment of their particular Sins were reserved to a future Judgment We find indeed in the History of the Old Testament that God did oft-times rescue good Men from a general Calamity as Caleb and Josh'ua in the Wilderness Jeremy in the Captivity of Babylon and many others On the other side he sometimes inflicted exemplary punishments upon private Sinners while the whole Body of the Nation preserved intire their Obedience and therefore still enjoyed their Peace as in the case of Achan and Uzziah But these are to be esteemed so many extraordinary Acts of Providence exercised for the vindication of his Justice and Government not in vertue of the Covenant which he made with that People which we find chiefly in the Book of Deuteronomy and therein can discover no other than general threats or promises made not to particular Persons but to the whole Nation taken in Society That the Covenant of God included no more is manisest from the practice of following Times For far be it from us to imagine that God violated his Covenant yet we find that in after Ages the Good were involved in the general Calamities of the Nation and the Bad often escaped unpunished in this World An undeniable proof that the contrary practice was never any part of the Covenant made by God with that People Thus Mordecai and Daniel were carried away in the Captivity thus Jeroboam and Ahab reigned securely The Psalmist complains that the Wicked enjoyed all the satisfactions of Life and came in no misfortunes like other Men while the Good were Persecuted Afflicted and Killed all Day long Whereas if God had promised external Happiness to every good Man of that Church in particular or denounced visible Punishments upon the hainous Sins of every single Sinner it is no more possible any such Conduct should have followed than that God should lye It was therefore no other than a falsé perswasion of the Jews that such sensible Rewards or Punishments were entailed upon every one of them in particular That terrible Calamities were certain Arguments of every hainous Crimes though unknown to Men and that eminent prosperity was a certain mark of the Favour of God was the Opinion of the Jews whom our Saviour here opposeth and before them of the Friends of Job whose Arguments do all proceed upon this Principle and which occasioned all those querulous expostulations with God in the Book of Psalms concerning the prosperity of the Wicked and the afflictions of the Pious Rather the Jews ought to have concluded that since God distinguished not always the Good and Bad by visible Marks of his Favour or Disfavour since he suffered his Prophets and Devout Worshippers to be Stoned to be Sawn asunder to Wander about in misery and suffer all those afflictions which the Author to the Hebrews Elegantly describeth since he permitted the most notorious Sinners to go on still in their wickedness to live in Plenty and dye in Peace themselves had grosly mistaken the Intent of his Promise and the Nature of his Covenant and that a visible Impunity in this Life was no more an Argument of their own Innocence than it was of those prosperous Sinners at whose continued Happiness they murmured and whose impiety at the same time they could not deny A right Notion concerning the manner of the Divine Conduct and distribution of Justice under the Jewish dispensation will contribute much to remove a like prejudice from our Minds with what they entertained For if under the Jewish Law which confined it self wholly