Providence Now this our Saviour did not go about to correct neither but rather confirmed them in it that God's Hand was in all that happened as themselves should find it too if they repented not So that whether evil comes by the free will of others as it did upon the Galileans whose Blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices or by such means as seem to be meerly casual as it did upon the eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell in both cases the Providence of God doth interpose attending the whole Affair regulating and ordering and with exact knowledge of each circumstance permitting that which happens and the means by which it happens A very instructing Consideration which we should lay up in our Minds heartily believing it and frequently entertaining our selves with it that we may be directed by it in our Prosperity and comforted with it in our Adversity for it will give us in our better state the best direction how to secure it and to all other methods and ways which we use to keep off evil it will make us add that which is best of all to secure by well-doing an Interest in the Favour of God It is a great defect of Wisdom as well as of true Religion to be so nice as we often are in weighing the means of our welfare with the causes of danger and this with respect only to second causes forgetting all the while that which ought in the first and chiefest place to be remembred the supreme Mover and Orderer even of those Causes and of the whole Matter But if we laid to heart what we all believe that it is an unseen Hand that governs all undoubtedly we should be more afraid of our Sins than of all other miseries and more concerned to be strong in the Favour of God than in the Arm of Flesh This consideration is equally good to comfort us under Adversity if that happens because God sends it for tho' there may be good reason to take evil in evil part from Men who seldom mean well to us when they trouble and grieve us yet there is this to make us patient that it is of God's sending too who means us no harm and will convert it to good which is the true reason of that excellent saying of Job ch 2. v. 10. Shall we receive good from the hand of God and shall we not receive evil For the Emphasis lies in these Words From the hand of God For we rank him in effect with Men if we cannot be pleased with him but when he gives us what we desire When good comes to us it is welcome from what hand soever it comes but this is one part of the singular Worship we pay to God that from him we can receive evil too without suspecting either the Goodness of his Intention or the Wisdom of his Counsel These are the two Points which lie at the bottom of this Discourse of our Saviour viz. That Punishment belongs to Sin and That the Evils which happen in this World do not happen without the Providence of God attending upon all the Circumstances thereof I proceed now to those points which are the direct purpose of this place whereof the 1. Is That they who suffer very great Evils are not always greater Sinners than those who in the mean time suffer nothing That is the plain Doctrine of our Saviour expressed in these Questions Suppose ye that these were greater sinners than all the Galileans and these than all that dwell at Jerusalem They indeed that heard him being Jews were ready enough so to suppose but this was that Error of theirs which he in the first place designed to correct and it was necessary for them to be set right in this matter by some great Authority because it was an Error so easie for them to slide into by reason of the Temper and Constitution of their Law which to them that kept it promised all the good things of this Life and threatned all the evils of Life to them that broke it But the time was now coming when these considerations should not be so much regarded and God would establish a Covenant upon promises of an higher nature than those of the Law of Moses and upon more terrible Penalties than those were threatned by that Law And therefore this plain Doctrine of our Saviour which no doubt was something surprizing to his Hearers was very seasonable to be delivered just when that Law was expiring and a better was to take place The time was coming when all that would live godly in Christ Jesus should suffer Persecution when his Disciples should be hated of all men for his names sake and delver'd up to be beaten and scourged and put to death Which when they should see they would have reason to remember that he had told them upon a particular occasion that they were not to call them the greatest Sinners who suffered such things as so many together never endured before but there was a notorious Provocation of divine Justice to deserve it Now there were greater designs in hand than to keep a small nation in comparison to the observation of a Law that required abundance of Ceremony and was content with the outward Work which served to an happy Life in this World The true Rules of Righteousness and Charity were now to be laid down and Men were to learn to live above the World and to be brought to the practice of Piety by the Promises of Immortality in a future State to reward them for any thing they should lose or suffer for it in this It would therefore be expedient that the power of this Faith should be sometimes demonstrated to the Glory of God and the Instruction of Man and that by Examples of Constancy in suffering for Righteousness it would also be expedient that the Profession of so holy a Faith should not be dishonoured by the continual scandals of Men whose Conversation is quite contrary to their Profession and therefore that God should purifie his Church in the Furnace of Affliction and sometimes separate the Sincere from the Hypocrite by bringing them to the Test of Persecution that those who hang loosely upon the Christian Communion might be shaken off and none but good Examples left in it to bring greater Credit to the Gospel and more Proselytes to it than it had before Since therefore the time was coming when Men should suffer not at all as Sinners or Evil doers but for a good Cause and with a good Conscience most certainly it was a seasonable Instruction that the greatest Sufferers were not to be accounted the greatest Sinners But this I confess is a Reason that doth not reach the full Intention of our Saviour in the Doctrine he laid down upon this occasion mentioned in the Text for his true Disciples in suffering for their Faith and Profession cannot be said to suffer for their Sins but his words considered with all the circumstances wherewith they are to
Means to punish his Enemies and therefore it is in him always Goodness to reprieve and his deferring the Punishment is properly the Patience which is worthy of Praise When Men forbear revenging the Affronts and Injuries that they have received it is very often because they wait for an opportunity which yet they want they are forced to be content for a while because they have not power to revenge and for the most part they would not tarry if they had present means to ease their Minds for this Reason we magnifie the Patience of Men most of all when they forgive whilst it seems that it is in their Power without hurting themselves to punish the Person that hath done them wrong and we do in some measure commend those that frame themselves to Patience when they have no other help But this is the peculiar Character of the Patience of God That it is as easie for him to punish at first as at last and it is never otherwise We can never say he forbears sudden Vengeance because it would be dangerous or he wants Power to take it and we must therefore resolve his Patience into other Causes which are for the Honour of his Goodness It is happy for Men in their Concerns with one another when they who have most Goodness have greatest Power and the great Security of Mankind is this That he only has Almighty Power who is infinitely good and this is that which Sinners should acknowledge to the Praise of God That there is no other Being in Heaven or Earth that can absolutely and irresistably overwhelm them but he only to whose Justice they are most liable and of whose Goodness alone it is that they are not consumed If God with his Omnipotence were as Man and subject to the Passions of Men or if Man with his Passions were in this respect as God is and could follow his anger with effect the Race of Mankind had long since been extinguished and why it is not so the reason is this because God only hath infinite Power he who is infinitely good and delighteth not in Punishment and doth not willingly grieve and afflict the children of men This is the first way of apprehending the perfect Goodness of the divine Patience that he doth not respite and delay the punishment of Sinners at any time for want of Power to take Vengeance of them for with God all things are possible and therefore his forbearance to punish is always because it is his Will to forbear 2. God hath always the same displeasure against Sin and hates it at one time as much as at another and this is also a remarkable illustration of his Patience and shews that his forbearance to punish is purely from his Goodness If we are grieved and offended the sense of the Injury we have recieved is commonly very smart at first but it lessens by degrees and if the wrong-doer escapes our anger while it is hot within us he is not in so much danger of us afterwards we are led by passion to retaliate evil and as that cools we are less forward to do it and in such cases our forbearance is not properly Patience because feeling no grief our selves we are not so desirous that he who once provoked us should feel it now But it is not so with God he is not disturbed with our uneven passions he abhors sin not as if he was a revengeful but because he is a most holy Being and because he is the same holy God to day that ever he was time doth not lessen his Sense nor abate his Hatred of the evil Actions of Men and therefore in him it is all the goodness of Patience to forbear the deserved inflicting of those punishments which he could inflict every moment for he bears with that baseness which he always hates Now since it is neither want of Power nor want of Holiness or hatred of Sin that with-holds the Vengeance of Divine Justice from falling upon Men till their Provocations are grown insufferable it must be the wise Goodness of God that causeth his Patience and Long-sufferance And there are several good Effects to which it tendeth indeed many Reasons that seem to require it 1. If sentence were speedily executed against an evil work and if it seldom happened that a notorious wickedness was not forthwith made remarkable by a following vengeance there would be a little space left for Repentance But God would have all men to repent and to come to the knowledge of the truth And he is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance God's forbearance is necessary that there might be room for other proper means to bring us to amendment he doth not cut us off even when we provoke him daily because he would prevent that last sentence by other remedies by gentle Admonitions and sometimes by sharp Corrections or by making others that are grown incurable the Examples of his Justice and by variety of instructing Providences if by any means we can be perswaded to our Duty Should God proceed to destroy upon every grievous Sin that is committed as in Justice he might then alas our eternal Salvation which depends upon what we do in this short Life would by one single act become almost desperate and we should have but one tryal in this Life in order to our everlasting State But how many have we had and here is the Goodness of God that altho' by wretched Men he is provoked day after day yet he bears with them day after day not being willing that they should perish for he is the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great compassion 2. If God were always sudden in his justice and should crush every wickedness with his hand as soon as ever it appeared in the World this proceeding would bear something hard upon the Liberty of Human nature and be too great a force upon us and it would not be easily seen whether we choose to do what God commands freely and heartily or meerly upon the constraint of a servile Fear God made us to serve him upon ingenuous and manly Principles and hath therefore given us a sense of his Presence and of his Providence with the Knowledge of his Will and the Expectation of being rewarded or punished hereafter But if upon every notorious offence the Malefactor was made an example of notable vengeance the perpetual observation of this would be like a flaming Sword hanging over every Man's head and keeping him in a perpetual apprehension of present Destruction if he should step aside which would indeed be a way to keep Men from being very bad but not to make them truly good their avoiding Vice would be like the honesty of a Man that doth not Steal because his hands are always manacled 3. If God doth not suffer Men to degenerate exceedingly in their Principles and Practices and to grow from bad to
down which are properly Religious that is which accompany and go along with Prayer or Thanksgiving or any acknowledgment of a Divine Perfection We are to give to no other Being in the World that outward Worship which by all the circumstances of it is Religious or a signification of the least Divine Honour Upon these grounds I intend to build and now I shall proceed to shew what those Sins are which manifestly oppose and contradict these Rules and they may I think be reduced to these Two Atheism and Idolatry First Atheism of which there are Two sorts properly so called Either I. Not believing that there is a God Or II. Not worshipping him 1. Not believing a God that is an Invisible Spiritual Being which is the cause of all things and this is that which is commonly understood by Atheism to deny the very Being of a God which as it is the highest stupidity and the greatest corruption imaginable of a man's Understanding so it is fundamentally opposite to all pretences of Religion and Worship which supposes the Being of God of God I say that is of a Spiritual and Invisible Being which knows and understands which can do all things and upon which all other things depend But 2. There is another sort of Atheism truly so called which consists with a Belief of the Being of God or at least doth not stand in a direct denial of his Being and that is not worshipping him He that doth not worship GOD before men is an Atheist to the World and he that worships him not at all is an Atheist before the World and in the sight of God too and there is no reason to question but he that is the one is the other too Every wicked man though he professeth Religion and worships God may indeed be called a Practical Atheist because he lives as if there were no God But he that is grown to that degree of Impiety as to make no acknowledgment of him by appearing in his Worship is much more so and doth in effect renounce his Maker before the World and it cannot be more truly said of any one than of such a man that he lives without God in the world And therefore although the Epicurean Sect acknowledged the Being of a God yet because they denied his Providence and took away all the Foundations of worshipping him they were by all men of sense called Atheists This however is also directly opposite to the Rule we are upon Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God But 3. Idolatry is opposed to it likewise and this is that Impiety which the Rule was chiefly designed against Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Idolatry is a Term in Religion or Divinity to which we must give that sense in which the Scripture uses it and I think all are agreed this to be the sense of it there That it is the giving of any Divine Worship to a Creature i. e. any part of that Worship which is due to God only and therefore these words are a Rule against all Idolatry whatsoever Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God c. Now 1. All Honour which is done to any Invisible Being besides God by formal Invocation of it or calling upon it must therefore necessarily be Idolatry because it ascribes in the very Nature of the Act Omnipresence to it which is a Divine Perfection 2. All the external Honours done to any such Beings which refer to that Service are also Idolatrous because they are significations of Divine Honour also and therefore dedicating Churches and Altars to them Bowing Kneeling Prostrating burning Incense and the like Religious Rites performed to them are Idolatry 3. Any Service paid to a created Being that is either visible or invisible see nor not seen present or absent which Service doth imply that thing to be God or ascribes any Divine Attribute to it or much more that Service which in all circumstances is the very same with what is given to God himself this also must necessarily be an Idolatrous Service 4. The Worship of an Image or any visible Representation of any thing whatsoever must be Idolatrous for if it be worshipped as the Representation of a Creature it cannot ' scape being so if there were no more in it than that Religious Worship is not to be given to the Original But if it be the pretended Image of the Deity the Worship of it is Idolatrous Worship and the reason is plain because it is set there to receive that external Worship at least which is due to that Invisible Being whom it is said to represent But the Worship of God is to be given to him and to none but him I pass by two material things one is That the Image-Worship of the People is known to be attended with expectation of receiving benefit from the Image it self which makes the Idolatry to be very gross in them but inasmuch as Images are made the Object of outward Acts of Divine Honour by all that worship them they give to the Image that Worship which is to be paid to God only Another is this That to pretend to make an Image of God is one of the grossest Dishonours that can be possibly done to him because that supposes the Godhead to be like unto wood or to stone and the work of mens hands and tends to corrupt the Notion of God in all that are made to believe that they are his Images or Representations but I do not place Idolatry in that though it be a great aggravation of it but in the actual worshipping of it and that because we are to worship the Lord our God and serve him only but to worship Images is not to worship him for God is one thing and a pretended Image of him is another All this I make bold to lay down peremptorily being well assured that these kinds of Worship are prohibited in this Rule of serving God only and that these prohibited Worships are in the Scripture called Idolatry which I shall now more particularly prove against a certain pretence That the true and only Notion of Idolatry is this and that it is neither more nor less than this viz. The Worship of the Heavenly Bodies the Sun the Moon and the Stars or any other visible and corporeal Deity as the Supreme God so as to exclude all sense and apprehension of a spiritual and invisible Godhead The plain English of which is this That no man can be an Idolater that is not such a Sot as to take something which he knows can neither understand any thing nor chuse one thing before another to be the Supreme God and as such to worship it as for instance he must take something which hath no more of a spiritual Nature in it than a Piece of Stone or a Log of Wood and exclude all reference that it can have to any thing that hath a spiritual Nature and he must fall down upon his knees to
Bible and yet they modestly attended upon their Spiritual Guides for farther Instruction out of the Bible And therefore if some Men in later Ages have grosly Misinterpreted the Scriptures and would not be set right by those that had more skill to interpret them this doth not prove that the reading of the Scriptures makes the People ungovernable for then it must always have been so which is notoriously false and whereas it is said that almost all Heresies have come of Mis-interpreting Scripture this doth not prove that Christian People must not Read the Scriptures for it cannot be denied that those Heresies which have given any considerable disturbance to the Church of God were begun not by Laicks or illeterate Persons but by such Men as the objectors do allow to have a right of reading and studying the Scriptures i. e. by Bishops or Priests Wherefore In the last place The Arguing of these Men against the common use of the Bible concludes against the Priest as strongly as against the People For if to prevent Heresie the Scriptures are to be kept from Lay-men who may bring Heresie into the Church by misinterpreting the Scriptures then for the same reason Men in Orders should not be suffered to read them since they have actually been the Founders of Heresie nay the reason is something stronger since the wresting of the holy Text by Men of Office or Learning will be of greater Authority and do more mischief than the mistakes of private and unlearned Persons But if the danger of perverting difficult places be a good reason to deprive Men of all use of the Bible this reason hath a particular force upon some Men that they should never look upon a Bible more For the best way to judge how the Scriptures are likely to be used by any sort of Men is to consider how they have constantly used them heretofore and let any indifferent Man judge of them by these following instances because God said Let us make man after our own Image therefore it is lawful to fall down before an Image of Wood or Stone Because Christ said to Peter Feed my Sheep Therefore his pretended Successors have power to depose Heretical Princes Because Peter said to Christ Lord here are two Swords therefore they have a Temporal as well as a Spiritual Jurisdiction Because Jacob in Blessing Ephraim and Manasses prayed that his Name might be named on them therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints Because it is said the Disciples met together to break Bread therefore the Laity may be depriv'd of the Cup. Because St. Paul saith of him that prayeth in a Tongue not understood by others Thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified therefore it is in it self good to appoint publick Prayers in a Language unknown to the people that is because he that understands what himself says doth well for himself because he understands therefore he doth well for others that understands not a word and are therefore not edified Because the Apostle saith we must glorifie God with one mouth therefore in all publick Offices of Liturgy there is to be but one and that the Latin Tongue in all places of Christendom Because that many Languages at Babel caused confusion therefore for God to be served in the many vulgar Tongues of Christian Nations would breed Schisms in the Church Because the Beast that touched the mountain was to die and because Christ said Give not that which is Holy to Dogs therefore ordinary People are not to have the Bible These Expositions are not invented but there are good Authorities for them and for a great many more of the like sort I know not what can farther be objected but this That if Priests and Learned Men have been so foully mistaken in the Interpretation of Scripture how much more are the Unlearned in danger of falling into Mistakes which tho' perhaps will never come to be Heresies in the Church may yet prove damnable to themselves as St. Peter plainly saith To which I answer That St. Peter's unlearned Men were such as had not yet attained to the knowledge of the necessary Doctrine of Faith and good Life as appears by his calling them unstable not yet fixt in the Perswasion of the plain Truths and great Ends of the Gospel and such as those whether they were Men of good Parts or not were likely enough to interpret the hard places of St. Paul's Epistles to a sense contrary to the plain and open Truths of the Gospel But if a Man be instructed in the necessary and plain Doctrine of Christianity and moreover furnished with Modesty and a sincere Love of the Truth and willingness to learn Qualities that ought to be common to all he shall be as far from wresting the difficult Scriptures to his own destruction as one that hath vastly greater Abilities Nay I will add one thing which if it be true there is no force at all in the Objection and that is this That the service of a Cause and espousing the Interest of a By-party doth more fatally lead to Misinterpretation of the Scripture than bear weakness of Understanding and there is this plain reason for it because Modesty and love of the Truth will secure a Man of no great Abilities from rash concluding upon the difficult Places of Scripture but Partiality and the Service of a By-cause shall engage a Man of Parts and Learning to trouble the clearest and to pervert the plainest Texts as the forementioned Instances evidently shew so that either the danger of Misinterpreting Scripture is no sufficient reason to prohibit the Laity from reading it or else it were better that no Order of Men were trusted with it at all and if that be true I think it will follow that it had better never have been written at all which no Man will say whatever he thinks But to speak to the thing the Scriptures were written for an universal good and in order thereunto for common use Here are all Divine Truths and Reasons of Christian Faith and Practice that are necessary to be known of every Man plainly exprest for the use of the meanest Capacities Here are also Difficulties and Mysteries of several sizes fit to employ the Industry of the Learned according to the several degrees of their Abilities and to exercise the Modesty the Humility and the Reverence of all But still we confess that they may be perverted and abused and if this be a sufficient Reason to interdict the general use of them then farewel at once to all the Comforts of this Life and to all the Means of Grace in order to a better with every one of which Men in their folly and wickedness may and very often have hurt themselves and others St. Peter was aware of this that some Men wrested those hard things in S. Paul's Epistles and in other Scriptures to their own destruction but did he therefore disswade the Faithful from reading them No but in the
be taken do suppose that when Men suffer for their sins they are not to be accounted greater Sinners meerly for that reason than those who at the same time escape and suffer nothing for when he said that neither should they escape that heard him unless they repented it was implied or at least not denyed that those things happened to the aforesaid Galileans and Jews as a Punishment of their Sins and a plain case it is that in this Life where the Tares and the Wheat grow together that by the same Afflictions God punishes the Sins of some while he manifests the Sincerity of others And in this Case it remains true that those who are punished are not to be accounted greater Sinners than all those that escape of which we need not desire any other Proof than our Saviour's Word for it But in some Cases we have very evident and sensible demonstration of it For sometimes God punishes the Sins of some Men by the Hands of others that are worse than they whom he reserves for far greater Punishments in this Life as the Histories of the Church do abundantly testifie Now by the same reason that it must not be concluded of those that suffer under the Oppressions of others that they are worse than those that oppress them it ought not neither to be concluded of those that do not suffer by them that they are worse than those that do for the former observation is an evident Proof that they do not suffer first who deserve it most Which is a Doctrine that our Saviour thought fit to deliver in his days and will be of constant use while the World lasts to keep Christians at the greatest distance from that Jewish Error That Men may discern God's Love and Hatred by what befals them in this World I will therefore never suffer my self to be run into an ill opinion of any Man or any People by any adversity how great soever it be which happens to them before my Eyes much less will I enter into comparisons I will not conclude from the Affliction I see that there must needs be some great Sin at the bottom which Vengeance has found out And when I see the Sin and cannot forbear acknowledging the Justice of God I will not go on to suppose there is something more than I do see and make him to be a worse Man than he seems to be nor will I conclude that he is worse than those that do not suffer such things And what construction I will forbear to make of a single Person I will much more forbear to make of Multitudes Because I know the Reasons of God's Proceedings with Peoples and Nations and great bodies of Men are by me unsearchable and that time discovers that Wisdom of his Counsels which my Reason cannot fathom In a word I will conclude ill of none because they suffer but rather well of them if I know no cause to the contrary because it is often God's method to afflict his own best Servants and when he punishes for Sin to begin with those that do not most of all deserve it Shall I conclude for instance that the French Protestants have been the greatest Sinners of all the Protestants in Europe or greater than our selves because they have suffered such things God forbid I speak not of those who to their Glory in this World but alas that is little worth it becomes me to say and you to hear it who to their Praise with God and to the encrease of their Reward hereafter in a better Life have suffered the loss of all things to keep a good Conscience but of those whom the Terrors of this World have prevailed with more than the Terrors of the Lord in whom the desire of ease here hath been too hard for the desire of Salvation hereafter I will not say and we must not say that even these were greater Sinners than our selves who have not fallen into their Temptations Such instances as these Brethren do best explain the intention of our Saviour in these words and will affect us with the true sense of them and the more that we look abroad into the World and consider the unsearchableness of God's Judgments and that his ways are past finding out as we cannot but do if we ask our selves the reason why this and that happens the more sensibly we shall acknowledge the Truth of our Saviour's Doctrine in this place and shall forbear passing Judgment upon the unhappy meerly because they are so But yet to take notice of what God doth of this kind in the World is not an unprofitable observation and that because the second point of the three which I have mentioned is as true as the first and that is this 2. That one reason why the Evils of this Life do not befal all Persons at the same time who are equally Sinners is That while some are visited with the Rod of God others may take warning by it This Proposition I lay down with great confidence not only of the Truth of it in general but also of the pertinence of it to the Text For you may observe that our Saviour upon mention made of the former of the two tragical Stories observes the latter himself and takes occasion from thence to divert his Hearers from censuring those miserable persons as they were ready to do and to imploy them in reflecting upon themselves I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish He imployed them in reflecting upon their own sins for says he except ye repent and upon their own danger except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And now I am sure it will be granted that our Saviour did not wander from the true intent of God's Providence in the things that happened to those Persons nor make an application of them which was not to the purpose and therefore since he gave warning by their examples it remains true as I said that one reason why the Evils of this Life do not befal all Persons at the same time who equally deserve them and I will add who equally need them is this That while some are corrected others may be instructed I rather keep to the case of punishing Sin than trying Virtue because that is the case of the Text tho' I might say too that the reason why all that can bear a tryal are not tryed at the same time is because the tryals of some righteous Men are not only profitable to themselves but the examples of them also are profitable to other good Men to encourage and fortifie them But when God punishes he doth not at one and the same time punish all that deserve it equally but he punishes some that the rest may take warning for if the Sufferings of a few in comparison would instruct all the rest God's end is gained which is that we should learn righteousness when his judgments are abroad in the earth And this is one of those arguments
little Faith in the Earth The World will be in a careless Posture as it was before that the Flood came and took them all away And for the same reason there is but little Faith in the Earth when God enters into Judgment with the World for the Violence and Iniquities of Men and asserts the Cause of Innocence and Rightousness against them for in all such Cases the Temptations to Unbelief and Apostacy are very great and likely to prevail upon many of those that believe so that this is the meaning That in such a wicked Age as calls for the coming of the Son of Man the open Enemies of God which are the greater number will be void of all regard whatsoever to his Word and to his Providence or if they take any notice of it it is that of the Scoffers mentioned by St. Peter Who will say Where is the promise of his coming Many of his professed Servants will be weary of depending upon him and give way to Temptations and depend more upon the arm of Flesh Than upon the Promise of God and the Faith of many good Men will be very much weakned and abated so that when he cometh he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And thus I perswade my self to have given you a true Illustration of these remarkable Words of our blessed Saviour and that upon the two significations of the Son of Man's Coming which seem to be both intended in this Text and indeed it is very hard to know which was principally intended the day of the general Judgment or the Destruction of Jerusalem The day of general Judgment is in it self the principal meaning of Christ's Coming and therefore ought not to be excluded but yet the Parable with the Application of it being manifestly intended to stir up that Generation to pray to God and not to faint and to give a firm Faith to the Promises of God notwithstanding the great troubles they were like to meet with from the unbelieving Jews therefore neither could the coming of the Son of Man to be avenged of these his Enemies and to deliver his Servants be excluded but was as directly intended as the other And now I proceed to observe the two main Points which the Text supposes besides those which it affirms and the considering of them will not a little contribute to a more perfect understanding of this place 1. It is supposed manifestly that after the first Coming of Christ to call the World to repentance and to be offered up for our sins there would yet be degenerate Ages sometimes and a most corrupt state of things before his second personal Coming to judge the World 2. It is also supposed that his Providence would then appear to set all things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church 1. That his first coming would not infallibly prevent the degeneracy and corruption of future Ages For notwithstanding that evidence of Truth which he taught many false prophets would arise and deceive many and notwithstanding the Power of his Doctrine iniquity would abound and the love of many would wax cold And notwithstanding both these advantages yet his own servants would sometimes be reduced to that state that it should be needful to them to cry unto God day and night which is a matter that may cause some wonder if we do not consider the reason of it That the Principles and Manners of Men were so often and so generally corrupted before the Coming of the Son of God into the World is that which might not appear strange at all to those that consider the weakness and folly of Mankind That after the Creation the Earth should so abound with luxury and violence that God swept all Mankind away with the Flood but eight Persons That after Noah's Family had peopled the Earth again Men should fall into Idolatry so universally that God called Abraham out of his own Country and entred into a particular Covenant with him for the maintaining of the true Worship in his Family and Posterity That Pharaoh should oppress the Israelites after his Country had been saved by them That the Israelites should fall to worship other Gods after that the true God had wrought so many miraculous Deliverances for them That when not without much ado they were cured of Idolatry they should fall into scandalous ways of Hypocrisie and Immorality These and the like things perhaps are not so much to be wondred at because God had not as yet used the last means to instruct Mankind and to oblige them to Piety and Vertue but that there should be Times as bad as the worst of those after Christ himself had appeared in the World to die for Sinners and to bring the Doctrine of Salvation to Mankind with the most convincing Evidence that could be desired and with the most powerful Motives that could be thought of that notwithstanding all this Oppression Violence Fraud Hypocrisie Error Superstition Idolatry and scandalous Examples should for some Ages reign no less than before the times of Christ and to that degree as to shake even the Faith of good Men and if it were possible to deceive the very best of all this seems to be an amazing Consideration and tho' the noble Examples of Christian Piety and Vertue that have appeared in the World and the assured Expectation of a larger Progress that Christianity will make in the Earth and of better Effects that it will produce may answer the Objection yet that the World that the Church should be so bad under the last means is what may raise some admiration But you are to consider That when our Lord first came into the World he came not to establish a Religion which should either by its Truth convince or by its Power reform Mankind whether they will or no but what was sufficient for both purposes if they would be wise and honest and suffer the Concernments of eternal Life to prevail with them above their worldly Interests and therefore there was as much reason to expect an universal Reformation as to expect that Men would not resist the Evidence of Truth in Matters of the greatest concern to them in the whole World but to bring them to this the Gospel was furnished with no irresistible means but left them under the natural liberty they had before with a provision of Grace that might be resisted and therefore it was in it self likely that the Truth would be opposed by some and corrupted by others and by many held in unrighteousness that several to whom it was propounded would not believe it and several that believed it would not obey it and in time that it would be mixed with Errors and Superstitions and framed to the Designs of Ambition and Covetousness nay the better and more Divine a Religion that of the Gospel is the more violently it would be opposed by some and the more certainly corrupted by others So that if we
consider the Excellency of the Gospel with the Purpose of God not to overbear the World into the Faith and Obedience of it by forcing the natural Liberty of Men it had rather been much more strange if it had escaped opposition and corruption than to have been both opposed and corrupted as it hath Thus our blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles foretold that it would be Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many many false Prophets stall arise and deceive many and if any one shall say unto you Lo here is Christ and there is Christ believe it not for there shall arise false Christ's and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect Behold I have told you before Thus he foretold how Christianity should be corrupted by Impostures and Frauds Again says he They shall deliver you up to be afflicted and killed and ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another Thus he foretold the violence that should be used to extinguish the Profession of the Truth Again saith St. Paul 2 Thess 2. There shall be a falling away and the man of sin shall come with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they might all be damned who believe not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Theâ—e he foretels a fearful Apostasie from the Purity and Simplicity of the Christian Profession Again says he 2 Tim. 3.1 2. This know that in the last days perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God There he foretels a terrible corruption of Manners And again 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. The Spirit speaketh expresly says he that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the Truth Now lay all these things together and here is as plain warning as can possibly be given of most corrupt and degenerate Times even after Christ's first coming and so that is expresly foretold which the Text evidently supposes For here would be glorious Pretences to deceive Violence to compel and wicked Examples to offend the Disciples of Christ And what Provision hath our Lord left to secure them from being misled where there is so much danger They are to attend to the Doctrine which he delivered us at first by his Holy Apostles to secure themselves from being deceived they must lay to Heart the Promises of the Gospel to arm themselves against the Temptations of the World and the Power of evil Examples and they are to consider that all these things were foretold by our Lord himself and his Apostles that they might not be scandalized when they should happen nor be tempted to suspect that either Christianity was not of God from the first or at least that our Lord has neglected all care of it since because it doth so little good as yet in the World because it runs out into so many Errors and because the Truth of it is so vehemently opposed for says our Saviour Behold I have told you before But still it is in their power whether they will take warning by such Predictions and whether they will guard themselves against Errors and Evil Examples and therefore a very corrupt state of Things in the Christian World will in all likelihood shake the Faith of many Believers and cause some to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them not regarding the admonitions of Christ and his Apostles before-hand And so when Christ comes he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And this is the Observation which in the first place is unavoidable from the Text That even after Christ there would be degenerate Ages for this is plainly supposed as the cause why there would be but little Faith found when he should come to visit the Earth for the Iniquities and Offences it abounds with The 2. Supposition is That the Providence of our Lord would then appear to set things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church For whereas it is said When the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth It is intimated manifestly that his coming is then to be expected when little Faith is to be found amongst Men and consequently when Scandals and Temptations are so strong that it is an hard matter to bear up against them I have said already that the Evidence of Christianity doth not make all Men receive it and that the Power of Christianity doth not make all that receive it wise and good Men and it is not to be denied but that amongst Christians themselves there are as monstrous Errors and leud Examples as ever there were in the World before Christianity or as there are now where Christianity is not at all professed Now at this rate should the Lord of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ let things go as they would it would in time come to pass that nothing of Christianity would remain in the World but the name of it and that for no other purpose but to do more hurt with it than could be done without it But how is it that Divine Providence will interpose or according to the expression of the Text that the Son of man will come and will make good his Promise of being with his Church to the end of the World which is never more remarkably fulfilled than when he interposes in those Circumstances which make Men think that he will not interpose and that he is not at all concerned what becomes of the State of Religion or the Affairs of the Church Because our Lord hath not made the Gospel an irresistable means of convincing Vnbelieuers and reforming wicked Men therefore it would in time be needful that in order to the keeping up of true Religion and making Christians such as they ought to be that he I say should by his Providence correct his own Disciples and reduce wretched Mankind into an unavoidable necessity of consideration that Truth and Righteousness should not utterly fall from among the Children of Men. When there is the greatest danger of losing the true Profession of Christianity our Lord will not be
Conversation of Men That the most excellent part of Devotion that the best and noblest degrees of Faith and Vertue may be attained and exercised and improved in a state of worldly Relations and Engagements and that these things therefore ought not to be pretended in our excuse for not walking with God as Enoch did Let me therefore add in the 2. Place That we have the hope of the same reward to influence us which Enoch had tho' not of being translated alive into a better World yet of going thither by the common passage of death which as to the substance of the Reward is the same thing the other Circumstance so singular in the case of Enoch being not altogether so much for his own sake as for the instruction of others There were but Two Persons that went thus into a better World Enoch one For the instruction of a declining and degenerate Age almost wholly sunk into a worldly Life Elias another for an admonition to a very corrupt Age too the former when all things were running into Licentiousness and disorder amongst the Patriarchs before the Law the latter when the time was as bad under the Law and both these to maintain a sense of God and another World while yet the revelation of a future Life was not so clear and publick as it was made by our Lord Jesus Christ who brought life and immortality to light And since he by his Doctrine and by his Resurrection and his Ascension into Heaven hath given us such evidence and notice of a Life to come that a more clear evidence could not have been reasonably desired there is no need that the World under the Gospel should be admonished by such extraordinary Methods any more Our blessed Lord himself was not translated into Heaven till after his Death and Resurrection he in all things going before us shewing us by his Example not only what our Duty is but what and in what manner our Reward shall be conferred We must die and rise again and then ascend to the Heaven of Heavens for the consummation of our Reward And having this hope let us purifie our selves as he is pure having these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God To conclude We have the same God to serve and obey that Enoch had the same Promises and those more publickly and solemnly made and more strongly confirmed to us than ever they were to the Fathers we have I say the same Promises to excite us that he had and all the same Advantages that he had and in many respects much greater through the Revelation of the Gospel by our Lord Jesus and we are under no greater Temptations and Discouragements than he met with or if we were the grace of God is sufficient for us and therefore let us walk with God as he walked with him that when that time cometh of which Enoch prophesied as St. Jude reporteth v. 14. That the Lord shall come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all their hard Speeches which they have spoken against him we may lift up our heads with joy and find mercy in that day The Sixteenth Sermon Job XI.x. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil THIS was part of Job's Answer to that Saying of his Wife in the former Verse Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse God and die She pretended that his Piety and Virtue were now discerned to be unprofitable and that it was all one whether he blessed or cursed God for if he cursed him he could but dye and it was better to dye than to live in such Misery To which he answered Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil The Idumean Women it is likely were wont to rail at their Gods when any great Adversity befel them and Job told his Wife that she spake like one of them but not like one that knew and worshipped the true God From whom it is reasonable that we should take all in good part not only the good but likewise the evil things of this Life There are two things intimated in the Text besides what the Words express and they are these 1. Our Life here is a mixture of Good and Evil. No Man is wholly deprived of the Comforts nor any Man perfectly exempted from the Troubles of it There is indeed a great variety in the mixture The Afflictions of some being as inconsiderable as the Enjoyments of others But in some proportion all receive Good and Evil nor is any Man's Condition at a perfect stay We change often for the better or the worse Sometimes from the bottom of Adversity we rise to great Happiness and at other times we fall as low which was the case of Job beyond ordinary Examples All which is true as well of Families and Nations as of particular Persons 2. The Good we enjoy and the Evil we suffer are both from the Hand of God For his Providence always attends the working of second Causes either disposing them or permitting them to produce those things that happen in the World When the Air is healthy or infectious when the Seasons are fruitful or unkindly when the Wind makes a Shipwrack or when it brings the Ship safe into the Harbor when we suffer by Malice and Passions of others or when they are taken in their own Net and we escape we are in all these and the like Events to look farther than the immediate Causes of the Good or the Evil and to acknowledge the over-ruling Providence of God Thus although they were the Sabeans and the Caldeans that slew Job's Servants and carried away his Cattel though his Sheep were destroyed by Lightning and his Children by a Tempest that blew down the House upon them yet he omitting or not so much regarding the influence of these second Causes applied himself to the consideration of that Providence under which they all concurred to reduce him to this sad state and he fell down upon the ground and worshipped and said Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. These are the two points intimated in the Text That this present Life is a State of Good and Evil and that both are from the Hand of God But 3. The main scope of the Words is That we are to take all in good part from Divine Providence and to receive Evil from God's Hands as well as Good Which is a Duty necessary to be understood and necessary to be practised by every one of us both for the discharge of a good Conscience and likewise for our own
themselves allow That there shall be a resurrection of the dead And herein do I exercise my self to have a conscience void of offence towards GOD and men St. Paul and such as he believed all things that were written in the Law and the Prophets those very Writings which the Jews themselves acknowledged to be Divine and tho' to this Faith they added the Doctrine and Practice of a good Life yet they were esteemed Hereticks because they undertook to see with their own Eyes and to judge for themselves instead of submitting to the Authority of the Council that had betrayed and murdered the Lord Jesus 2. They were accused of Sedition too as if they designed to make Stirs and Commotions and to alienate the People from theia Governours Thus when Paul and Silas had converted a multitude of Devout Greeks and not a few of the chief Women at Thessalonica the Jews who believed not moved with Envy took unto 'em certain lewd Fellows of the baser sort and drew some of the Brethren to the Rulers crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also who do contrary to the decrees of Coesar saying That there is another King one Jesus Acts 17.5 6. And yet they never made one step by Word or Deed towards deposing Princes and changing Governments Jesus indeed who had commanded them to pay Tribute unto Caesar had also forbidden them to be of the Religion which Caesar was then of and this was drawn into an accusation of Faction and Disloyalty Thus also the same St. Paul being brought before Foelix at Jerusalem the Jews complained by Tertullian their Oratour That they had found him a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes Acts 24.5 3. They concluded them under a sentence of Damnation as far as they could do it Indeed they would have it thought so impossible for a Christian to be saved that some of them after being converted to Christianity were strongly persuaded that they still ought to keep the Law of Moses and would have mingled Judaism and Christianity together as if there was no hope of Salvation out of the Synagogue Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved Acts 15.1 4. As 't is usual in such Cases to damn first and then to kill they delivered the Disciples of Christ to death and pretended the service of God for it For which we may take those remarkable Words of St. Paul describing the Temper of the Jews then and what his own once was Says he I was taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers and was zealous toward God as ye are at this day And I persecuted them even unto the death binding and delivering into prisons both men and women Acts 22.3 4. And in chap. 26. v. 10 11. he declares That he persecuted them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them he persecuted them even into strange cities Such was the entertainment they had from the Jews to whom the Word of Salvation was first delivered But when it was carried amongst the Gentiles they condemned it too For 1. It was run down as if it had brought Irreligion and Atheism into the World insomuch that the ancient Apologists were fain in good earnest to set themselves against this absurd Accusation and to shew that it was not all one to serve God at all and not to serve many Gods That there might be Devotion without bowing down to Images and Religion and Worship without Idolatry and better a great deal without these things than with them It was exclaimed against as a late upstart Religion that began but yesterday and was fitter to be hissed than argued out of the World They used to ask the Christians what sort of Men they could name either Greeks or Barbarians that made their Profession and had their Rites and Worship before Jesus appeared You have forsaken say they the Customs of the Fathers that had been observed of old time in all Cities and Countries you have revolted from a Worship which has had the Tradition of all Ages and the Approbation of Kings and People Law-makers and Philosophers and by almost all the World till such as you appeared who are but of yesterday 3. They try to overwhelm it with the most gross and palpable Untruths they gave it out that the Christians were Worshippers of the Sun nay that they adored an Asses-head and sometimes a Cross They did not stick to say That in their solemn Assemblies they kill'd a Child and committed Incest They also upon no occasion in the World disarm'd them as a seditious and disloyal People and accused them of Treason tho' none ever set better Examples of Fidelity to their Governours To conclude Our Predecessors of the Primitive Church were now and then condemned to several sorts of deaths and it was often a great deal more safe to be some notorious Malefactor than to be a Christian In a word The Gospel met with that Opposition which no Religion ever did before The Gods of other Nations new Gods every day were admitted into a Temple at Rome with some formality and without trouble But when the Disciples of Jesus came to call Men to the Worship of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent Jews and Gentiles conspired to extinguish their Religion and to blot out their name for ever insomuch that the Jews at Rome could tell St. Paul As concerning this Sect we know that it is every where spoken against Those therefore whom God justifies have been and may be condemned by Men Which will not seem strange to any of us if we consider what the Causes of it are For instance 1. That hatred of truth which reigns in a great part of Mankind They cannot bear sound Doctrine nor can they therefore bear those that profess and practice it Truth is against them and therefore they will be against the Truth and all that follow it So long as Pride Lust Avarice Revenge Luxury and such things remain there will be so many Causes of condemning that which God approves To which we must add 2. The inflexibleness of true Doctrine and of those that maintain it to the designs of Worldly Men. Christianity was said to be a perfect Scheme of Religion that would suffer no additions or alterations It was stiff and would not bend to the Pleasure of Priests or of States-men as all that would which the Heathens called Religion among themselves Whilst it was kept in wise and honest hands and truly represented there was no room for Cheating no Allowances for pious Frauds no place for convenient Inventions Innovations could not be brought into the Faith of Christians or the Substance of their Worship but they would be corruptions of both without tampering with it it could not serve the ambition of a