Place to consider the principle and immediate Guide of our Actions which St. Paul here tells us was his Conscience I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence By which he does not only mean a resolution to follow the dictate and direction of his Conscience but likewise a due care to inform his Conscience aright that he might not in any thing transgress the Law of God and his Duty Conscience is the great Principle of moral Actions and our Guide in matter of Sin and Duty It is not the Law and Rule of our Actions that the Law of God only is but it is our immediate Guide and Directour telling us what is the Law of God and our Duty But because Conscience is a word of a very large and various signification I shall endeavour very briefly to give you the true notion of it Now in common speech concerning Conscience every man is represented as having a kind of Court and Tribunal in his own breast where he tries himself and all his Actions And Conscience under one Notion or other sustains all parts in this Tryal The Court is call'd the Court of a man's Conscience and the Barr at which the Sinner stands impleaded is call'd the Barr of Conscience Conscience also is the Accuser and it is the Record and Register of our Crimes in which the memory of them is preserv'd And it is the Witness which gives testimony for or against us hence are those expressions of the testimony of our Consciences and that a man 's own Conscience is to him instead of a thousand Witnesses And it is likewise the Judge which declares the Law and what we ought or ought not to have done in such or such a Case and accordingly passeth Sentence upon us by acquitting or condemning us Thus according to common use of Speech Conscience sustains all imaginable parts in this Spiritual Court It is the Court and the Bench and the Barr the Accuser and Witness and Register and all But I shall only at present consider Conscience in the most common and famous Notion of it as it is the Principle or Faculty whereby we judge of moral Good and Evil and do accordingly direct and govern our Actions So that in short Conscience is nothing else but the Judgment of a man 's own mind concerning the morality of his actions that is the Good or Evil or Indifferency of them telling us what things are commanded by God and consequently are our Duty what things are forbidden by Him and consequently are sinful what things are neither commanded nor forbidden and consequently are indifferent I proceed in the V th Place to give some Rules and Directions for the keeping of a conscience void of offence And they shall be these following First Never in any case to act contrary to the persuasion and conviction of our Conscience For that certainly is a great Sin and that which properly offends the Conscience and renders us guilty guilt being nothing else but trouble arising in our minds from a consciousness of having done contrary to what we are verily persuaded was our Duty And though perhaps this persuasion is not always well grounded yet the guilt is the same so long as this persuasion continues because every man's Conscience is a kind of God to him and accuseth or absolves him according to the present persuasion of it And therefore we ought to take great care not to offend against the light and conviction of our own mind Secondly We should be very careful to inform our Consciences aright that we may not mistake concerning our Duty or if we do that our errour and mistake may not be grosly wilful and faulty And this Rule is the more necessary to be consider'd and regarded by us because generally men are apt to think it a sufficient excuse for any thing that they did it according to their Conscience But this will appear to be a dangerous mistake and of very pernicious consequence to the Souls of men if we consider these two things 1 st That men may be guilty of the most heinous Sins in following an erroneous Conscience 2 ly And these Sins may prove damnable without a particular repentance for them 1 st That men may be guilty of the most heinous Sins in following an erroneous Conscience Men may neglect and abuse themselves so far as to do some of the worst and wickedest things in the World with a persuasion that they do well Our Saviour tells his Disciples that the time should come when the Jews should put them to death thinking they did God good service Nay the Jews murthered the Son of God himself through ignorance and a false perswasion of mind Father forgive them says our Blessed Lord when he was breathing out his Soul upon the Cross for they know not what they do And St. Peter after he had charged the Jews with killing the Prince of Life he presently adds I wote that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers And St. Paul in mitigation of that great Crime says Had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of life and glory And concerning himself he tells us That he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth And yet notwithstanding that he acted herein according to the persuasion of his Conscience he tells us that he had been a blasphemer and a persecutour and injurious and a murtherer and in a word the greatest of Sinners So that Men may be guilty of the greatest Sins in following an erroneous Conscience And 2ly These Sins may prove damnable without a particular repentance for them Where the ignorance and mistake is not grosly wilful there God will accept of a general repentance but where it is grosly wilful great Sins committed upon it are not pardon'd without a particular Repentance for them And an errour which proceeds from want of ordinary human care and due Government of a man's self is in a great degree wilful As when it proceeds from an unreasonable and obstinate prejudice from great pride and self-self-conceit and contempt of counsel and instruction or from a visible byass of self-interest or when it is accompanied with a furious passion and zeal prompting men to cruel and horrible things contrary to the light of nature and the common sense of humanity An errour proceeding from such causes and producing such effects is wilful in so high a degree that whatever evil is done in vertue of it is almost equally faulty with a direct and wilful violation of the Law of God The ignorance and mistake doth indeed make the person so mistaken more capable of forgiveness which is the ground of our Saviour's Prayer for his Murtherers Father forgive them for they know not what they do St. Paul likewise tells us that he found mercy upon this account Nevertheless says he I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in
our great trespass Our evil deeds bring all other evils upon us 2. That great Sins have usually a proportionable punishment after all that is come upon us there is the greatness of our punishment for our evil deeds and for our great trespass there is the greatness of our Sin But when I say that great Sins have a proportionable Punishment I do not mean that any temporal Punishments are proportionable to the great evil of Sin but that God doth usually observe a proportion in the temporal punishments of Sin so that although no temporal punishment be proportionable to Sin yet the temporal punishment of one Sin holds a proportion to the punishment of another and consequently lesser and greater Sins have proportionably a lesser and greater Punishment 3. That all the Punishments which God inflicts in this Life do fall short of the demerit of our Sins and seeing thou our God hast punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve In the Hebrew it is and hast kept down our iniquities that is that they should not rise up against us The LXX expresseth it very emphatically thou hast eased us of our sins that is thou hast not let the whole weight of them fall upon us Were it not for the restraints which God puts upon his anger and the merciful mitigations of it the Sinner would not be able to bear it but must sink under it Indeed it is only said in the Text that the punishment which God inflicted upon the Jews though it was a long Captivity was beneath the desert of their Sins But yet it is universally true and Ezra perhaps might intend to insinuate so much that all temporal Punishments though never so severe are always less than our iniquities deserve 4. That God many times works very great Deliverances for those who are very unworthy of them and hast given us such a Deliverance as this notwithstanding our evil deeds and notwithstanding our great Trespass 5. That we are but too apt even after great Judgments and after great Mercies to relapse into our former Sins should we again break thy Commandments Ezra insinuates that there was great reason to fear this especially considering the strange temper of that People who when God multiply'd his blessings upon them were so apt to wax fat and kick against Him and tho he had cast them several times into the furnace of Affliction though they were melted for the present yet they were many times but the harder for it afterwards 6. That it is good to take notice of those particular Sins which have brought the Judgments of God upon us So Ezra does here after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and should we again join in affinity with the People of these abominations Secondly Here is a Sentence and determination in the Case wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Which Question as I said before doth imply a strong and peremptory affirmative as if he had said after such a provocation there is great reason to conclude that God would be angry with us till he had consumed us From whence the Observation contained in this part of the Text will be this That it is a fearful aggravation of Sin and a sad presage of ruin to a People after great Judgments and great Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Hear how passionately Ezra expresses himself in this Case verse 6. I am ashamed O my God and blush to lift up mine eyes to thee my God Why what was the cause of this great shame and confusion of face He tells us verse 9. for we were bondmen yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended his mercy to us to give us a reviving to set up the House of our God and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a Wall in Judah and in Jerusalem that is to restore to them the free and safe exercise of their Religion Here was great Mercy and a mighty Deliverance indeed and yet after this they presently relapsed into a very great sin verse 10. And now O our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy Commandments In the handling of this Observation I shall do these two things First I shall endeavour to shew that this is a very heavy aggravation of Sin and Secondly That it is a fatal presage of ruin to a People First It is a heavy aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and after signal Mercies and Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Here are three things to be distinctly spoken to 1. That it is a great aggravation of Sin to return to it after great Judgments 2. To do this after great Mercies and Deliverances 3. After both to return to the same Sins again 1. It is a great aggravation of Sin after great Judgments have been upon us to return to an evil course Because this is an Argument of great obstinacy in evil The longer Pharaoh resisted the Judgments of God the more was his wicked heart hardned till at last he arriv'd at a monstrous degree of hardness having been as the Text tells us hardned under ten plagues And we find that after God had threaten'd the People of Israel with several Judgments he tells them that if they will not be reformed by all these things he will punish them seven times more for their sins And if the just God will in such a case punish seven times more we may conclude that the Sin is Seven times greater What sad complaints doth the Prophet make of the People of Israel growing worse for Judgments Ah! sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity children that have been corrupters a seed of evil doers He can hardly find words enough to express how great Sinners they were and he adds the reason in the next verse Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more They were but the worse for Judgments This renders them a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity And again The People turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts therefore his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And the same Prophet further complains to the same purpose When thy hand is lifted up they will not see There is a particular brand set upon King Ahaz because affliction made him worse This is that King Ahaz that is that grievous and notorious Sinner And what was it that rendr'd him so In the time of his distress he sinned yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz who is said to have provoked the Lord above all the Kings of Israel which were before him 2. It is likewise a sore aggravation of Sin when it is committed after great Mercies and Deliverances
of Fortune by which the wiser among them did understand the Divine Providence Plutarch speaking of the Romans says that Time and Fortune the very same with Solomon's Time and Chance here in the Text did lay the foundation of their Greatness by which he ascribes their success to a remarkable Providence of God concurring with several happy Opportunities And Livy their great Historian hath this remarkable Observation That in all human affairs especially in matters of War Fortune hath a mighty stroke And again No where says he is the event less answerable to expectation than in War and therefore nothing is so slight and inconsiderable which may not turn the Scales in a great matter And Caesar himself who was perhaps the most skilful and prosperous Warriour that ever was makes the same acknowledgment As in all other things says he so particularly in War Fortune hath a huge sway And Plutarch observes That there was no Temple at Rome dedicated to Wisdom or Valour but a most magnificent and stately one to Fortune signifying hereby that they did ascribe their success infinitely more to the Providence of God than to their own Courage and Conduct I proceed now in the Second place to give some reason and account of this Why the Providence of God doth sometimes thus interpose to hinder and defeat the most probable designs of men To bring men to an acknowledgment of his Providence and of their dependance upon Him and subordination to Him and that He is the great Governor of the World and rules in the Kingdoms of men and that all the inhabitants of the Earth are as nothing to Him and the power of Second Causes inconsiderable That He doth according to his will in the Armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none may stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou God hath so order'd things in the administration of the affairs of the World as to encourage the use of means and yet so as to keep men in a continual dependance upon him for the efficacy and success of them To encourage Industry and Prudence God generally permits things to their natural course and to fall out according to the power and probability of second Causes But then lest men should cast off Religion and deny the God that is above lest they should trust in their sword and their bow and say the Lord hath not done this lest men should look upon themselves as the Creators and framers of their own fortune and when they do but a little outstrip others in wisdom or power in the skill and conduct of humane affairs they should grow proud and presumptuous God is pleased sometimes more remarkably to interpose to hide pride from man as the expression is in Job to check the haughtiness and insolence of mens spirits and to keep them within the bounds of modesty and humility to make us to know that we are but men and that the reins of the World are not in our hands but that there is One above who sways and governs all things here below And indeed if we should suppose in the first frame of things which we call Nature an immutable Order to be fix'd and all things to go on in a constant course according to the power and force of second Causes without any interposition of Providence to stop or alter that course upon any occasion In this case the foundation of a great part of Religion but especially of Prayer to God would be quite taken away Upon this Supposition it would be the vainest thing in the World to pray to God for the good success of our undertakings or to acknowledge Him as the Author of it For if God do only look on and permit all things to proceed in a settled and establish'd course then instead of praying to God we ought to ply the means and to make the best provision and preparation we can for the effecting of what we desire and to rely upon that without taking God at all into our counsel and consideration For all application to God by Prayer doth evidently suppose that the Providence of God does frequently interpose to over-rule events besides and beyond the natural and ordinary course of things and to steer them to a quite different Point from that to which in human probability they seem'd to tend So that it is every whit as necessary to Religion to believe the Providence of God and that He governs the World and does when He pleases interpose in the affairs of it as that he made it at first I come now in the Third and last place to make some Inferences suitable to the Occasion of this Day from what hath been said upon this Argument And they shall be these First From hence we may learn not to account Religion and time spent in the Service of God and in Prayer to Him for his blessing upon our endeavours do be any hindrance to our affairs For after we have done all we can the event is still in God's hand and rests upon the disposal of his Providence And did men firmly believe this they would not neglect the duty of Prayer and behave themselves so carelesly and unconcernedly and irreverently in it as we see too many do they would not look upon every hour that is spent in Devotion as lost from their business If men would but take a view of what hath happen'd to them in the course of a long Life I believe most of us would see reason to acknowledge that our prosperity and success in any kind hath depended more upon happy opportunities upon undesign'd and unexpected occurrences than upon our own prudent forecast and conduct And if this were well consider'd by us we should not methinks be so apt to leave God out of our counsels and undertakings as if he were a mere Name and Cypher in the World It is I am sure the advice of one that was much wiser and more experienc'd than any of us will pretend to be I mean Solomon Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil There is no Principle that ought more firmly to be believed by us than this That to live under a constant sense and awe of Almighty God to depend upon his Providence and to seek his favour and blessing upon all our designs being fearful to offend Him and careful to please Him is a much nearer and surer way to success than our own best Prudence and Preparations And therefore at such a time more especially when we are going to War or engaged in it we should break off our sins by repentance and the sincere resolulution of a better course We should earnestly implore the blessing of God upon our undertakings and not only take great care that our Cause be just but likewise that
there be no wicked thing amongst us to drive God out of our Camp no accursed thing that may provoke Him to deliver us into the hands of our Enemies It was a particular Law given by God to the Jews When the Host goeth forth against thine Enemy then keep thy self from every wicked thing then that is more especially at such a time And this is a necessary Caution not only to those who are personally engaged in the War that by the favour of God they may have their heads covered in the day of Battel or if God shall suffer them to fall by the hand of the Enemy that having made their peace beforehand with Him they may not only have the comfort of a good Cause but of a good Conscience void of offence towards God and men But this Caution likewise concerns those who are interested in the success and event of the War as we all are not only in regard of our Lives and Estates but of that which ought to be much dearer to us our Religion and the freedom of our Consciences which are now every whit as much at stake as our Civil interests and Liberties And therefore as we tender any or all of these we should be very careful to keep our selves from every wicked thing that they who fight for us may not for our sins and for our sakes turn their backs in the day of battel and fall by the Sword of the Enemy Secondly From hence we may likewise learn so to use the means as still to depend upon God who can as he pleases bless the Counsels and endeavours of Men or blast them and make them of none effect For as God hath promised nothing but to a wise and diligent use of means so all our prudence and industry and most careful preparations may miscarry if He do not favour our design For without Him nothing is wise nothing is strong nothing is able to reach and attain its end We should indeed use the means as vigorously as if God did nothing and when we have done so we should depend upon God for the success of those means as if we our selves had done nothing but did expect all from his favour and blessing For when all is done we are only safe under his Protection and sure of success from his Blessing For whatever vain and foolish men may say in their hearts There is There is a God that made the World and administers the affairs of it with great Wisdom and Goodness else how came any of us into Being or what do we here Did we not most assuredly believe that there is a God that governs the World and super-intends human affairs the first wish of a Wise man would be to steal out of Being if he could and that the same Chance or Necessity that brought him into the World would take the first opportunity to carry him out For to be every moment liable to present and great and certain Evils and to have no security against the continuance of them or the return of the same or worse Evils nor to have any assurance of a better and more durable state of rest and happiness hereafter is in truth so very melancholy a meditation that I do not know any consideration in the World that is of force and power enough to support the mind of man under it And were there not in the World a Being that is wiser and better and more powerful than our selves and that keeps things from running into endless confusion and disorder a Being that loves us and takes care of us and that will certainly consider and reward all the good that we do and all the evil that we suffer upon his account I do not see what reason any man could have to take any comfort and joy in Being or to wish the continuance of it for one moment Thirdly and lastly The Consideration of what hath been said upon this Argument should keep us from being too sanguine and confident of the most likely designs and undertakings because these do not always answer the probability of second Causes and Means and never less than when we do with the greatest confidence rely upon them when we promise most to our selves from them then are they most likely to deceive us They are as the Prophet compares them like a broken reed which a man may walk with in his hand whilst he lays no great stress upon it but if he trust to it and lean his whole weight on it it will not only fail him but even pierce him through And we cannot do a greater prejudice to our affairs when they are in the most hopeful and likely condition to succeed and do well than to shut God and his Providence out of our counsels and consideration When we pass God by and take no notice of Him but will rely upon our own wisdom and strength we provoke him to leave us in the hands of our own counsel and to let us see what weak and foolish Creatures we are And a man is never in greater danger of drowning than when he clasps his arms closest about himself Besides that God loves to resist the self-confident and presumptuous and to scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts And as in all our concernments we ought to have a great regard to God the Supreme disposer of all things and earnestly to seek his favour and blessing upon all our undertakings so more especially in the affairs of War in which the Providence of God is pleas'd many times in a very peculiar manner to interpose and interest it self And there is great reason to think he does so because all War is as it were an Appeal to God and a reference of those Causes to the decision of his Providence which through the pride and injustice and perverse passions of men can receive no other determination And here God loves to shew himself and in an eminent manner to take part with Right and Justice against those mighty Oppressors of the Earth who like an overflowing flood would bear down all before them In this case the Providence of God is sometimes pleas'd to give a remarkable check to great Power and Violence and to One that vainly gives out himself not unequal to the whole World by very weak and contemptible means and as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it by the things which are not to bring to nought the things that are And to say to Him as God once did to the proud King of Assyria Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the Holy one of Israel Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced Cities into ruinous heaps Therefore their Inhabitants were of small power they were dismayed and confounded c. But I
cruelties which it occasion'd within the City did force great numbers of them to steal out by night into the Roman Camp where they met with as cruel but a speedier death For Titus in hope to reduce them the sooner by terror order'd all those that came out of the City to be crucified before the Walls Which order was so severely executed that for several days five hundred a day were crucified till there was neither room left to place Crosses in nor wood whereof to make them So that they who once cried out so vehemently against our Saviour Crucify him Crucify him had enough of it at last and by the just and most remarkable judgment of God were paid home in their own kind Behold the sad Fate of a sinful People when God is departed from them Then all evils overtake them at once For as their misery increased so did their Impiety to that degree that the Historian tells us they scorned and mocked at all divine and holy things and derided the Oracles of the Prophets esteeming them no better than Fables and in a word were carried to that extremity of wickedness as not only to prophane their Temple in the highest manner and to break the Laws of their own Religion but even to violate the Laws of Nature and Humanity in the grossest Instances which made their Historian to give that dismal character of them that as he thought no City ever suffer'd such things so no Nation from the beginning of the World did ever so abound in all manner of wickedness and impiety A certain sign that God's Soul was departed from them And the same Historian afterwards upon consideration of the lamentable state into which their Seditions had brought them breaks out into this doleful lamentation over them O miserable City what didst thou suffer from the Romans though at last they set thee on fire to purge thee from thy sins that is to be compar'd with those miseries which thou hast brought upon thy self To such a dismal state did things come at last that as the same Historian relates many of the Jews prayed for the good success of their Enemies to deliver them from their civil Dissensions the Calamity whereof was so great that their final Destruction by the Romans did rather put an end to their misery than increase it En quo discordia Cives Perduxit miseros To conclude this sad Story It was the Jews themselves that by their own folly and dissensions forc'd the Romans to this sorrowful Victory over them for in truth all the remorse and pity was on the Enemies side The Romans were little more than Spectators in this cruel Tragedy the Jews acted it upon themselves And they only who were arriv'd at that prodigious height of Impiety and wickedness were fit to be the executioners of this vengeance of God upon one another As if the Prophet had foretold this when he says Thine own wickedness shall correct thee When Impiety and wickedness are at their highest pitch in a Nation then they themselves are the only proper instruments to punish one another The Romans were by far too good and gentle to inflict a suffering upon the Jews that was equal to the evil of their doings None but their own barbarous Selves who were sunk down into the very lowest degeneracy of humane nature were capable of so much cruelty and inhumanity as was requisite to execute the Judgment of God upon them to that degree which their sins had deserved You see my Brethren by what hath been said upon this Argument what were the Faults and what the Fate of the Jewish Nation Now these things as the Apostle expresly tells us were written for our admonition and to the intent that we upon whom the ends of the World are come might be instructed by them We I say who next to the Jewish Nation seem to be a People highly favoured by God above all the Nations of the Earth We resemble them very much in their many and wonderful Deliverances and a great deal too much in their Faults and Follies But as I intend it not so God forbid that there should be any just ground for a full and exact Parallel between us Yet this I must say that nothing ever came nearer to them than We do in several respects In our fickleness and inconstancy in our murmurings and discontents for we are never pleasâ—d with what God does neither when he brings us into danger nor when he delivers us out of it We resemble them likewise in our horrible prophaneness and infidelity and in our impiety and wickedness of several kinds in our monstrous ingratitude and most unworthy returns to the God of our Salvation and lastly in our Factions and Divisions which were the fatal sign of God's being departed from the Jews and the immediate cause and means of those dismal Calamities which wrought their final Ruin And how can we chuse but dread lest their Fate should overtake us the Example of whose Faults and Follies we do in so many things so nearly resemble That this may not nor any thing like it be our Fate let us apply our selves to the great Duties of this Day a serious and deep Repentance and humiliation of our selves before Almighty God for the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of against His Divine Majesty by our prophaneness and impiety by our lewdness and luxury by our oppression and injustice by our implacable malice and hatred one towards another and by our senseless divisions and animosities one against another without cause and without end By our neglect of God's Worship and prophanation of his Holy Day and by our dreadful abuse of God's great and glorious Name in those horrid Oaths and Curses and Imprecations which are heard almost day and night in the streets of this great City For these and all other our innumerable provocations of the patience and goodness and long-suffering of God towards us let us sadly repent our selves this Day and turn unto the Lord with all our hearts with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent our hearts and not our garments and turn unto the Lord our God For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil And who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall beturned Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously And let us earnestly beg of Him that he would be pleased to prevent those terrible Judgments and Calamities which hang over us and which our Sins have so justly deserved should fall upon us And that He would perfect that wonderful Deliverance which he hath begun for us and establish the thing which he hath wrought That He would bless Them whom he hath set in Authority over us and particularly that He would preserve the Person of the King
the end of these men How thou didst set them in slippery places c. This satisfied him that when-ever the secret design of God's Providence should be unfolded whether in this World or the other how strange and cross soever things might seem to be at present yet in the issue and conclusion it would appear that neither are bad men so happy nor good men so miserable as at present they may seem to be So that upon a full debate of this matter the Psalmist concludes that these Objections against Providence do spring from our ignorance and short and imperfect view of things whereas if we saw the whole design from beginning to end it would appear to be very reasonable and regular Thus my heart was grieved so foolish was I and ignorant and as a beast before thee And in regard to himself he tells us that he saw great reason to acknowledge God's tender care over him in particular and that he could find no security or comfort for himself but in God alone Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by thy right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory as if he had said I am sensible of thy constant presence with me and care of me and do entirely depend upon thy guidance and direction not doubting but that my present troubles and afflictions will have a happy and glorious issue And at last he breaks out into a kind of exultation and triumph for the mighty consolation which he found in the firm belief of the Being and Providence of God as the great stay and support of his Soul in the worst condition that could befall him in the words of the Text Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee If a man were to chuse a happiness for himself and were to ransack Heaven and Earth for it after all his search and enquiry he would at last fix upon God as the chief happiness of man and the true and only rest and center of our Souls This then is the plain meaning of the Text That nothing in the world but God can make man happy Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee That Man of himself is not sufficient for his own happiness is evident upon many accounts Because he is liable to so many evils and calamities which he can neither prevent nor remedy He is full of wants which he cannot supply compassed about with infirmities which he can only complain of but is not able to redress He is obnoxious to dangers which he must always fear because he can never sufficiently provide against them Consider Man by himself and from under the conduct and protection of a superior and more powerful Being and he is in a most disconsolate and forlorn condition Secure of nothing that he enjoys and liable to be disappointed of every thing that he hopes for He is apt to grieve for what he cannot help and perhaps the justest cause of his grief is that he cannot help it for if he could instead of grieving for it he would help it He cannot refrain from desiring a great many things which he would fain have but is never likely to obtain because they are out of his power and it troubles him both that they are so and that he cannot help his being troubled at it Thus man walketh in a vain shew and disquieteth himself in vain courting happiness in a thousand shapes and the faster he follows it the swifter it flies from him Almost every thing promiseth happiness to us at a distance such a step of Honour such a pitch of Estate such a Fortune or Match for a Child But when we come nearer to it either we fall short of it or it falls short of our expectation and it is hard to say which of these is the greatest disappointment Our hopes are usually bigger than enjoyment can satisfie and an evil long fear'd besides that it may never come is many times more painful and troublesome than the evil it self when it comes In a word man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards He comes into the world naked and unarm'd and from himself more destitute of the natural means of his security and support than any other Creature whatsoever as it were on purpose to shew that he is more peculiarly the care of a Superior Providence And as man of all the Creatures of this lower World is only made to own and acknowledge a Deity so God in great Wisdom hath so order'd things that none of the other Creatures should have so much need of Him and so much reason to acknowledge their necessary dependance upon him So that the words of David are the very sense and voice of Nature declaring to us that Mankind is born into the World upon terms of greater dependence upon the Providence of God than other Creatures Thou art he says David there to God that tookest me out of the womb thou madest me to hope or thou didst keep me in safety when I was upon my mother's breasts I was cast upon thee from the womb thou art my God from my mother's belly Be not far from me for trouble is near Trouble is always near to us and therefore it is happy for us that God is never far from any of us For in Him we live and move and have our being And when we are grown up we are liable to a great many mischiefs and dangers every moment of our lives and without the Providence of God continually insecure not only of the good things of this life but even of life it self So that when we come to be men we cannot but wonder how ever we arriv'd at that state and how we have continued in it so long considering the infinite difficulties and dangers which have continually attended us That in running the gantlope of a long life when so many hands have been lifted up against us and so many strokes levell'd at us we have escaped so free and with so few marks and scars upon us That when we are besieged with so many dangers and so many arrows of death are perpetually flying about us to which we do so many ways lie open we should yet hold out twenty forty sixty years and some of us perhaps longer and do still stand at the mark untouch'd at least not dangerously wounded by any of them And considering likewise this fearful and wonderful frame of a humane Body this infinitely complicated Engine in which to the due performance of the several functions and offices of life so many strings and springs so many receptacles and channels are necessary and all in their right frame and order and in which besides the infinite imperceptible and secret ways of mortality there are so many sluces and flood-gates to let Death in and Life out that it is next to a
miracle though we take but little notice of it that every one of us did not die every day since we were born I say considering the nice and curious frame of our Bodies and the innumerable contingencies and hazards of humane Life which is set in so slippery a place that we still continue in the land of the living we cannot ascribe to any thing but the watchful Providence of Almighty God who holds our soul in life and suffers not our foot to be moved To the same merciful Providence of God we owe that whilst we continue in life we have any comfortable possession and enjoyment of our selves and of that which makes us men I mean our Reason and Understanding That our Imagination is not let loose upon us to haunt and torment us with melancholick freaks and fears That we are not deliver'd up to the horrors of a gloomy and guilty mind That every day we do not fall into frenzy and distraction which next to wickedness and vice is the sorest calamity and saddest disguise of humane Nature I say next to wickedness and vice which is a wilful frenzy a madness not from misfortune but from choice whereas the other proceeds from natural and necessary causes such as are in a great measure out of our power so that we are perpetually liable to it from any secret and sudden disorder of the Brain from the violence of a Disease or the vehement transport of any Passion Now if things were under no government what could hinder so many probable evils from breaking in upon us and from treading upon the heels of one another like the calamities of Job when the hedge which God had set about him and all that he had was broken down and removed So that if there were no God to take care of us we could be secure of no sort no degree of happiness in this World no not for one moment And there would be no other World for us to be happy in and to make amends to us for all the fears and dangers all the troubles and calamities of this present life For God and another World stand and fall together Without Him there can be no Life after this and if our hopes of happiness were only in this Life Man of all other Beings in this lower World would certainly be the most miserable I cannot say that all the Evils which I have mentioned would happen to all if the Providence of God did not rule the World but that every man would be in danger of them all and have nothing to support and comfort him against the fear of that danger For the Nature of Man consider'd by it self is plainly insufficient for its own happiness so that we must necessarily look abroad and seek for it somewhere else And who can shew us that good that is equal to all the wants and necessities all the capacities and desires all the fears and hopes of humane Nature Whatsoever can answer all these must have these following Properties First It must be an All-sufficient good Secondly It must be perfect goodness Thirdly It must be firm and unchangeable in it self Fourthly It must be such a good as none can deprive us of and take away from us Fifthly It must be eternal Sixthly It must be able to support and comfort us in every condition and under all the accidents and adversities of humane Life Lastly It must be such a good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds Nothing that is short of all this can make us happy And no Creature no not the whole Creation can pretend to be all this to us All these Properties meet only in God who is the perfect and supreme Good as I shall endeavour in the following Discourse more particularly to shew and consequently That God is the only happiness of Man First God is an All-sufficient Good And this does import two things Wisdom to contrive our happiness and Power to effect it for neither of these without the other is sufficient and both these in the highest and most eminent degree are in God He is infinitely Wise to design and contrive our happiness because he knows what Happiness is and how to frame us so as to be capable of the happiness he designs for us and how to order and dispose all other things so as that they shall be no hindrance and impediment to it He perfectly understands all the possibilities of things and how to fit means to any end He knows all our wants and how to supply them all our hopes and desires and how to satisfie them He fore-sees all the dangers and evils which threaten us and knows how to prevent or divert them if he think fit or if he permit them to come how to support us under them or to deliver us out of them or to turn them to our greater benefit and advantage in the last issue and result of things His Wisdom cannot be surprized by any accident which he did not fore-see and which he is not sufficiently provided against The wisdom of men is but short and imperfect and liable to infinite errors and mistakes In many cases men know not what is safest and best for them nor whether this or that will conduce most to their happiness Nay it often happens that those very means which the wisest men chuse for their security do prove the occasions of their ruine and they are thrown down by those very ways whereby they thought to raise and to establish themselves Especially if God breathe upon the Counsels of men how are their designs blasted How are they infatuated and foil'd in their deepest contrivances and snared in the work of their own hands When it is of the Lord the wisdom of the greatest Politicians is turned into foolishness For there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. But the Divine Wisdom being founded upon infinite knowledge is thereby secur'd against all possibility of error and mistake God perfectly knows the natures and the powers of all his Creatures and therefore can never be mistaken in the use and application of them to any of his purposes So that none of his designs of love and mercy to the Sons of men can miscarry for want of good contrivance or wise conduct And as he is perfectly wise to contrive our happiness so is he infinitely powerful to effect it and to remove out of the way all the obstacles and impediments of it We may understand many times what would conduce to our happiness but may not be able to compass it but nothing is out of the reach of Omnipotency Many things are difficult to us but nothing is too hard for God Many things are impossible with us but with God all things are possible For He is the Fountain and Original of all Power from whom it is deriv'd and upon whom it depends and to whom it is perfectly subject and subordinate He can do all things at once and in
found that which gave more joy and gladness to his heart the favour of God and the light of his countenance This gave perfect rest and tranquillity to his mind so that he needed not to enquire any further For so it follows in the next words I will both lay me down in peace and rest for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety The Hebrew word signifies confidence or security Here and no-where else his mind found rest and was in perfect ease and security I shall now only make two or three Inferences from this Discourse and so conclude First This plainly shews us the great unreasonableness and folly of Atheism which would banish the belief of God and his Providence out of the World Which as it is most impious in respect of God so is it most malicious to Men because it strikes at the very foundation of our happiness and perfectly undermines it For if there were no God Man would evidently be the most unhappy of all other Beings here below because his unhappiness would be laid in the very frame of his nature in that which distinguishes him from all other Beings below him I mean in his Reason and Understanding And he would be so much more miserable than the Beasts by how much he hath a farther reach and a larger prospect of future evils a quicker apprehension and a deeper and more lasting resentment of them So that if any man could see reason to stagger his belief of a God or of his Providence as I am sure there is infinite reason to the contrary yet the belief of these things is so much for the interest and comfort and happiness of Mankind that a Wise man would be heartily troubled to part with a Principle so favourable to his quiet and that does so exactly answer all the natural desires and hopes and fears of Men and is so equally calculated both for our comfort in this World and for our happiness in the other For when a man's thoughts have ranged and wandered as far as they can his mind can find no rest no probable foundation of happiness but God only no other reasonable no nor tolerable Hypothesis and Scheme of things for a Wise man to rely upon and to live and die by For no other Principle but this firmly believed and truly lived up to by an answerable practice was ever able to support the generality of Mankind and to minister true consolation to them under the calamities of life and the pangs of death And if there were not something real in the Principles of Religion it is impossible that they should have so remarkable and so regular an effect to support our minds in every condition upon so great a number of persons of different degrees of understanding of all ranks and conditions young and old learned and unlearned in so many distant Places and in all Ages of the World the Records whereof are come down to us I say so real and so frequent and so regular an effect as this is cannot with any colour of reason be ascribed either to blind Chance or meer Imagination but must have a real and regular and uniform cause proportionable to so great and general an effect I remember that Grotius in his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion hath this observation That God did not intend that the Principles of Religion should have the utmost evidence that any thing is capable of and such as is sufficient to answer and bear down all sorts of captious Cavils and Objections against it but so much as is abundantly sufficient to satisfie a sober and impartial Enquirer after Truth one that hath no other interest but to find out Truth and when he hath found it to yield to it If it were otherwise and the Principles of Religion were as glaring and evident as the Sun shining at Noon-day as there could hardly be any vertue in such a Faith so Infidelity would be next to an impossibility All that I would expect from any man that shall say that he cannot see sufficient reason to believe the Being and the Providence of God is this That he would offer some other Principles that he would advance any other Hypothesis and Scheme of things that is more agreeable to the common and natural Notions of Men and to all Appearances of things in the World and that does bid more fairly for the comfort and happiness of Mankind than these Principles of the Being of a God and of his watchful Providence over the children of men do plainly do And till this be clearly done the Principles of Religion which have generally been received by Mankind and have obtain'd in the World in all Ages cannot fairly be discarded and ought not to be disturbed and put out of Possession And this I think puts this whole matter upon a very fair and reasonable Issue and that nothing more needs to be said concerning it Secondly From what hath been said in the foregoing Discourse it naturally follows That God is the only Object of our trust and confidence and therefore to him alone and to no other we ought to address all our Prayers and Supplications for mercy and grace to help in time of need But now according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome the Psalmist here puts a very odd and strange Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee To which they must give a quite different answer from what the Psalmist plainly intended namely that God was the sole Object of his hope and trust and that upon Him alone he relied as his only comfort and happiness But to this Assertion of the Psalmist the Church of Rome can by no means agree They understand this matter much better than the Psalmist did namely that besides God there are in Heaven innumerable Angels and Saints in whom we are to repose great trust and confidence and to whom also we are to address solemn Prayers and Supplications not only for temporal good things but for the pardon of our Sins for the increase of our Graces and for eternal Life That there are in Heaven particular Advocates and Patrons for all exigencies and occasions against all sorts of dangers and diseases for all Graces and Vertues and in a word for all temporal spiritual and eternal Blessings to whom we may apply our selves without troubling God and our Blessed Saviour who also is God blessed for evermore by presuming upon every occasion to make our immediate Addresses to Him For as they would make us believe though Abraham was ignorant of it and David knew it not the blessed Spirits above both Angels and Saints do not only intercede with God for us for all sorts of Blessings but we may make direct and immediate Addresses to them to bestow these Blessings upon us For so they do in the Church of Rome as is evident beyond all denial from several of their Prayers in their most publick and authentick Liturgies They would
the accidental Ornaments of our Fortune If they descend upon us they are the Privilege of our Birth not the effect of our wisdom and industry and those things in the procurement whereof we had no hand we can hardly call our own And if they be the fruit of our own prudent industry that is no such matter of glorying because men of much slower understandings do commonly out-do others in diligence and drudging their minds lying more level to the low design of being rich At the best Riches are uncertain Charge them says St. Paul that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches Men have little reason to pride themselves or to place their confidence in that which is uncertain and even next to that which is not So the wise man speaks of Riches Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings and fly as an Eagle towards heaven He expresses it in such a manner as if a rich man sate brooding over an Estate till it was fledg'd and had gotten it self wings to fly away But that which is the most stinging consideration of all is that many men have an evil eye upon a good Estate so that instead of being the means of our happiness it may prove the occasion of our ruin So the same Wise man observes There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt And it is not without example that a very rich man hath been excepted out of a general Pardon both as to Life and Estate for no other visible reason but his vast and over-grown Fortune So Solomon observes to us again Such are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain which taketh away the life of the owners thereof And why should any man be proud of his danger of that which one time or other may be the certain and only cause of his ruin A man may be too rich to be forgiven a fault which would never have been prosecuted against a man of a middle Fortune For these reasons and a great many more Let not the rich man glory in his riches II. I proceed to consider What it is that is matter of true glory But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. That he understandeth and knoweth me Here are two words used to express the thing more fully understanding and knowledge which seem not only to import right apprehensions of the Being and Providence and Perfections of God but likewise a lively sense of these things and affections suitable to these apprehensions That he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord that is the Creator and the Sovereign Governor of the World Which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth The best Knowledge of Religion and that which is the foundation of all the rest is the Knowledge of the Divine Nature and Perfections especially of those which are most proper for our imitation and such are those mentioned in the Text loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness which we may distinguish thus Loving-kindness comprehends God's milder Attributes his Goodness and Mercy and Patience Judgment signifies his severer dealings with men whether in the chastisement of his People or in the remarkable Punishment of great Offenders for example and warning to others Righteousness seems to be a word of a larger signification and to denote that universal Rectitude of the Divine Nature which appears in all the Administrations of his Providence here below for the Text speaks of the Exercise of these Perfections in this World which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth Several of the Perfections of the Divine Nature are incommunicable to a Creature and therefore cannot be thought to be proposed to us for a Pattern as self-existence independence and all-sufficiency the eternity and the immensity of the Divine Being to be the original Cause of all other things and the Sovereign Governour of the whole World For God only is sufficient for that and to be a Match for all the World a nec pluribus impar is not a Motto fit for a mortal man A Creature may swell with pride till it burst before it can stretch it self to this pitch of Power and Greatness It is an insufferable Presumption and a sottish Ignorance of the necessary Bounds and Limits of our Being to think to resemble God in these Perfections This was the Ambition of Lucifer to ascend into Heaven and to be like the most High In our imitation of God we must still keep within the station of Creatures not affecting an independency and sovereignty like God and to be omnipotent as he is Hast thou an arm like God and canst thou thunder with a voice like Him as God himself argues with Job For in these things I delight saith the Lord. God takes pleasure to exercise these Perfections himself and to see them imitated by us and the imitation of these Divine Perfections is our perfection and glory in comparison of which all humane wisdom and power and riches are so far from being matter of glory that they are very despicable and pitiful things Knowledge and Skill to devise mischief and power to effect it are the true Nature and Character of the Devil and his Angels those Apostate and accursed Spirits who in temper and disposition are most contrary to God who is the Rule and Pattern of all perfection I shall only make two Observations or Inferences from what hath been said and then apply the whole Discourse to the great Occasion of this Day And they are these First That the wisest and surest Reasonings in Religion are grounded upon the unquestionable Perfections of the Divine Nature Secondly That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness First That the wisest and surest Reasonings in Religion are grounded upon the unquestionable Perfections of the Divine Nature Upon those more especially which to us are most easie and intelligible such as are those mentioned in the Text. And this makes the Knowledge of God and of these Perfections to be so useful and so valuable Because all Religion is founded in right Notions of God and of his Perfections Insomuch that Divine Revelation it self does suppose these for its foundation and can signify nothing to us unless these be first known and believed For unless we be first firmly persuaded of the Providence of God and of his particular care of Mankind why should we suppose that he makes any Revelation of his Will to us Unless it be first naturally known that God is a God of Truth what ground is there for the belief of his Word So that the Principles of Natural Religion are
Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North That is upon Mount Zion for just so the Psalmist describes it Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole Earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the North. Here the King of Babylon threatens to take Jerusalem and to demolish the Temple where the Congregation of Israel met for the Worship of the true God I will also sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. Much in the same Style with the threatnings of Modern Babylon I will destroy the Reformation I will extirpate the Northern Heresie And then he goes on I will ascend above the height of the clouds I will be like the most High Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave to the sides of the pit They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms that made the World as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof and opened not the House of his Prisoners God seems already to have begun this Work in the late glorious Victory at Sea and I hope he will cut it short in righteousness I have sometimes heretofore wondred Why at the destruction of Modern and Mystical Babylon the Scripture should make so express mention of great wailing and lamentation for the loss of Her Ships and Seamen Little imagining thirty years ago that any of the Kingdoms who had given their power to the Beast would ever have arrived to that mighty Naval Force But the Scripture saith nothing in vain Whether and how far Success is an Argument of a good Cause I shall not now debate But thus much I think may safely be affirmed That the Providence of God doth sometimes without plain and down-right Miracles so visibly shew it self that we cannot without great stupidity and obstinacy refuse to acknowledge it I grant the Cause must first be manifestly just before Success can be made an Argument of God's favour to it and approbation of it And if the Cause of true Religion and the necessary defence of it against a false and Idolatrous Worship be a good Cause Ours is so And I do not here beg the Question we have abundantly proved it to the confusion of our Adversaries If the vindication of the common Liberties of Mankind against Tyranny and Oppression be a good Cause then Ours is so And this needs not to be proved it is so glaringly evident to all the World And as our Cause is not like theirs so neither hath their Rock been like our Rock our Enemies themselves being Judges And yet as bad an Argument as success is of a good Cause I am sorry to say it but I am afraid it is true it is like in the conclusion to prove the best Argument of all other to convince those who have so long pretended Conscience against submission to the present Government Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a good Cause and the most improper to satisfie Conscience And yet we find by experience that in the issue it is the most successful of all other Arguments and does in a very odd but effectual way satisfie the Consciences of a great many men by shewing them their Interest God has of late visibly made bare his Arm in our behalf though some are still so blind and obstinate that they will not see it Like those of whom the Prophet complains Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at thy People Thus have I represented unto you a mighty Monarch who like a fiery Comet hath hung over Europe for many years and by his malignant influence hath made such terrible havock and devastations in this part of the World Let us now turn our View to the other part of the Text And behold a greater than he is here A Prince of a quite different Character who does understand and know God to be the Lord which doth exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And who hath made it the great Study and Endeavour of his life to imitate these Divine Perfections as far as the imperfection of humane Nature in this mortal state will admit I say a greater than he is here who never said or did an insolent thing but instead of despising his Enemies has upon all occasions encounter'd them with an undaunted Spirit and Resolution This is the Man whom God hath honoured to give a Check to this mighty Man of the Earth and to put a hook into the Nostrils of this great Leviathan who has so long had his pastime in the Seas But we will not insult as he once did in a most unprincely manner over a Man much better than himself when he believed Him to have been slain at the Boyne And indeed Death came then as near to him as was possible without killing him But the merciful Providence of God was pleased to step in for his Preservation almost by a Miracle For I do not believe that from the first use of great Guns to that Day any mortal man ever had his shoulder so kindly kiss'd by a Cannon-bullet But I will not trespass any further upon that which is the great Ornament of all his other Vertues though I have said nothing of Him but what all the World does see and must acknowledge He is as much above being flatter'd as it is beneath an honest and a generous mind to flatter Let us then glory in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our Salvation Let us now in the presence of all his People pay our most thankful acknowledgments to him who is worthy to be praised even to the Lord God of Israel who alone doth wondrous things Who giveth Victory unto Kings and hath preserved our David his Servant from the hurtful Sword And let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would long preserve to us the invaluable Blessing of our two Excellent Princes whom the Providence of God hath sent amongst us like two good Angels not to rescue two or three Persons but almost a whole Nation out of Sodom By saving us I hope at last from our Vices as well as at first from that Vengeance which was just ready to have been poured down upon us Two Sovereign Princes reigning together and in the same Throne and yet so intirely one as perhaps no Nation no Age can furnish us with a Parallel Two Princes perfectly united in the same Design of promoting the true Religion and the Publick Welfare by reforming our Manners and as far as is possible by repairing the breaches and healing the Divisions of a miserably distracted Church and Nation In a Word Two Princes who are contented to sacrifice Themselves and their whole Time to the care of the Publick And for the
very fit and reasonable The Question is In what Cases by the general Rules of Scripture and right Reason we are warranted to say the evil of others that is true In general we are not to do this without great reason and necessity as for the prevention of some great evil or the procuring of some considerable good to our selves or others And this I take to be the meaning of that advice of the Son of Sirach Whether it be to a friend or a foe talk not of other men's lives and if thou canst without offence reveal them not that is if without hurt to any body thou canst conceal them divulge them not But because this may not be direction sufficient I shall instance in some of the principal Cases wherein men are warranted to speak evil of others and yet in so doing do not offend against this Prohibition in the Text. First It is not only lawful but very commendable and many times our duty to do this in order to the probable amendment of the person of whom evil is spoken In such a case we may tell a man of his faults privately or where it may not be so fit for us to use that boldness and freedom we may reveal his faults to one who is more fit and proper to reprove him and will probably make no other use of this discovery but in order to his amendment And this is so far from being a breach of Charity that it is one of the best testimonies of it For perhaps the party may not be guilty of what hath been reported of him and then it is a kindness to give him the opportunity of vindicating himself Or if he be guilty perhaps being privately and prudently told of it he may reform In this Case the Son of Sirach adviseth to reveal men's faults Admonish a friend says he it may be he hath not done it and if he have done it that he do it no more Admonish a friend it may be he hath not said it and if he have that he speak it not again Admonish a friend for many times it is a slander and believe not every tale But then we must take care that this be done out of kindness and that nothing of our own passion be mingled with it and that under pretence of reproving and reforming men we do not reproach and revile them and tell them of their faults in such a manner as if we did it to shew our authority rather than our charity It requires a great deal of address and gentle application so to manage the business of Reproof as not to irritate and exasperate the person whom we reprove instead of curing him Secondly This likewise is not only lawful but our duty when we are legally called to bear witness concerning the fault and crime of another A good man would not be an accuser unless the publick good or the prevention of some great evil should require it And then the plain reason of the thing will sufficiently justifie a voluntary accusation otherwise it hath always among well-manner'd People been esteemed very odious for a man to be officious in this kind and a forward Informer concerning the misdemeanours of others Magistrates may sometimes think it fit to give encouragement to such persons and to set one bad man to catch another because such men are fittest for such dirty work But they can never inwardly approve them nor will they ever make them their friends and confidents But when a man is call'd to give testimony in this kind in obedience to the Laws and out of reverence to the Oath taken in such Cases he is so far from deserving blame for so doing that it would be an unpardonable fault in him to conceal the truth or any part of it Thirdly It is lawful to publish the faults of others in our own necessary defence and vindication When a man cannot conceal another's faults without betraying his own innocency no charity requires a man to suffer himself to be defamed to save the reputation of another man Charity begins at home and though a man had never so much goodness he would first secure his own good name and then be concern'd for other men's We are to love our neighbour as our selves so that the love of our selves is the Rule and Measure of our love to our neighbour And therefore first otherwise it could not be the Rule And it would be very well for the World if our Charity would rise thus high and no man would hurt another man's reputation but where his own is in real danger Fourthly This also is lawful for caution and warning to a third person that is in danger to be infected by the company or ill example of another or may be greatly prejudiced by reposing too much confidence in him having no knowledge or suspicion of his bad qualities But even in this case we ought to take great care that the ill character we give of any man be spread no further than is necessary to the good end we designed in it Besides these more obvious and remarkable Cases this Prohibition doth not I think hinder but that in ordinary conversation men may mention that ill of others which is already made as publick as it well can be Or that one friend may not in freedom speak to another of the miscarriage of a third person where he is secure no ill use will be made of it and that it will go no further to his prejudice Provided always that we take no delight in hearing or speaking ill of others And the less we do it though without any malice or design of harm still the better because this shews that we do not feed upon ill reports and take pleasure in them These are the usual Cases in which it may be necessary for us to speak evil of other men And these are so evidently reasonable that the Prohibition in the Text cannot with reason be extended to them And if no man would allow himself to say any thing to the prejudice of another man's good name but in these and the like Cases the tongues of men would be very innocent and the World would be very quiet I proceed in the III d place to consider the evil of this Practice both in the Causes and the Consequences of it First We will consider the Causes of it And it commonly springs from one or more of these evil Roots First One of the deepest and most common Causes of evil-speaking is ill-nature and cruelty of disposition And by a general mistake Ill-nature passeth for Wit as Cunning doth for Wisdom though in truth they are nothing a-kin to one another but as far distant as Vice and Vertue And there is no greater evidence of the bad temper of Mankind than the general proneness of men to this Vice For as our Saviour says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And therefore men do commonly incline to the censorious and
incredible swiftness through City and Country for fear the innocent man's justification should over-take it Fifthly Another Cause of evil-speaking is Impertinence and Curiosity an itch of talking and medling in the affairs of other Men which do no wise concern them Some persons love to mingle themselves in all business and are loth to seem ignorant of so important a piece of News as the faults and follies of men or any bad thing that is talk'd of in good Company And therefore they do with great care pick up ill Stories as good matter of discourse in the next Company that is worthy of them And this perhaps not out of any great malice but for want of something better to talk of and because their Parts lie chiefly that way Lastly Men do this many times out of wantonness and for diversion So little do light and vain men consider that a man's Reputation is too great and tender a Concernment to be jested withal and that a slanderous Tongue bites like a Serpent and wounds like a Sword For what can be more barbarous next to sporting with a man's Life than to play with his Honour and Reputation which to some men is dearer to them than their Lives It is a cruel pleasure which some men take in worrying the Reputation of others much better than themselves and this only to divert themselves and the Company Solomon compares this sort of men to distracted persons As a mad-man saith he who casteth fire-brands arrows and death so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour the LXX render it So is the man that defameth his neighbour and saith Am I not in sport Such and so bad are the Causes of this Vice I proceed to consider in the Second place the ordinary but very pernicious Consequences and Effects of it both to Others and to our Selves First To Others the Parties I mean that are slandered To them it is certainly a great injury and commonly a high Provocation but always matter of no small grief and trouble to them It is certainly a great injury and if the evil which we say of them be not true it is an injury beyond imagination and beyond all possible reparation And though we should do our utmost endeavour afterwards towards their Vindication yet that makes but very little amends because the Vindication seldom reacheth so far as the Reproach and because commonly men are neither so forward to spread the Vindication nor is it so easily received after ill impressions are once made The solicitous Vindication of a man's self is at the best but an after-game and for the most part a man had better fit still than to run the hazard of making the matter worse by playing it I will add one thing more That it is an Injury that descends to a man's Children and Posterity because the good or ill Name of the Father is derived down to them and many times the best thing he hath to leave them is the Reputation of his unblemish'd Virtue and Worth And do we make no Conscience to rob his innocent Children of the best part of this small Patrimony and of all the kindness that would have been done them for their Father's sake if his Reputation had not been so undeservedly stain'd Is it no Crime by the breath of our mouth at once to blast a man's Reputation and to ruin his Children perhaps to all Posterity Can we make a jest of so serious a matter Of an Injury so very hard to be repented of as it ought because in such a Case no Repentance will be acceptable without Restitution if it be in our power And perhaps it will undo us in this World to make it and if we do it not will be our Ruin in the other I will put the Case at the best that the matter of the Slander is true yet no man's Reputation is considerably stained though never so deservedly without great harm and damage to him And it is great odds but the matter by passing through several hands is aggravated beyond truth every one out of his bounty being apt to add something to it But besides the Injury it is commonly a very high Provocation And the consequence of that may be as bad as we can imagine and may end in dangerous and desperate Quarrels This reason the wise Son of Sirach gives why we should defame no man Whether it be says he to a friend or a foe talk not of other men's lives For he hath heard and observed thee that is one way or other it will probably come to his knowledge and when the time cometh he will shew his hatred that is he will take the first opportunity to revenge it At the best it is always matter of Grief to the person that is defam'd And Christianity which is the best-natur'd Institution in the World forbids us the doing of those things whereby we may grieve one another A man's good name is a tender thing and a wound there sinks deep into the spirit even of a wise and good man And the more innocent any man is in this kind the more sensible is he of this hard usage because he never treats others so nor is he conscious to himself that he hath deserved it Secondly The Consequences of this Vice are as bad or worse to our selves Whoever is wont to speak evil of others gives a bad character of himself even to those whom he desires to please who if they be wise enough will conclude that he speaks of them to others as he does of others to them And were it not for that fond partiality which men have for themselves no man could be so blind as not to see this And it is very well worthy of our consideration which our Saviour says in this very Case That with what measure we mete to others it shall be measured to us again and that many times heaped up and running over For there is hardly any thing wherein Mankind do use more strict justice and equality than in rendering evil for evil and railing for railing Nay Revenge often goes further than Words A reproachful and slanderous Speech hath cost many a man a Duel and in that the loss of his own Life or the Murther of another perhaps with the loss of his own Soul And I have often wonder'd that among Christians this matter is no more laid to heart And though neither of these great mischiefs should happen to us yet this may be inconvenient enough many other ways For no man knows in the chance of things and the mutability of humane affairs whose kindness and good-will he may come to stand in need of before he dies So that did a man only consult his own safety and quiet he ought to refrain from evil-speaking What man is he saith the Psalmist that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking falshood But there is an infinitely
call for all our Faith and Patience all our Courage and Constancy Nunc animis opus Aenea nunc pectore firmo When it comes to this Trial we had need to gird up the loins of our minds to summon all our forces and to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand fast in an evil day and when we have done all to stand And now my Brethren to use the words of St. Peter I testify unto you that this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand The Protestant Reformed Religion which we in this Nation profess is the very Gospel of Christ the true ancient Christianity And for God's sake since in this hour of Temptation when our Religion is in so apparent hazard we pretend to love it to that degree as to be contented to part with any thing for it let us resolve to practise it and to testify our love to it in the same way that our Saviour would have us shew our love to Him by keeping his commandments I will conclude all with the Apostle's Exhortation so very proper for this purpose and to this present Time Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ that is chiefly and above all take care to lead lives suitable to the Christian Religion And then as it follows stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your Adversaries which to them is an evident token of perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Now unto Him that is able to stablish you in the Gospel and to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy To the only wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power both now and ever Amen A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Our Deliverance by the P. of Orange Preached at Lincolns-Inn-Chappel January 31. 1688. To the Worshipful the Masters of the BENCH And the rest of the GENTLEMEN Of the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn THough I was at first very unwilling to Expose to the Publick a Sermon made upon so little Warning and so great an Occasion yet upon second thoughts I could not think it fit to resist the Unanimous and Earnest Request of so many Worthy Persons as the Masters of the Bench of this Honourable Society to whom I stand so much indebted for your great and continued respects to me and kind acceptance of my Labours among you for now above the space of Five and Twenty Years In a most grateful acknowledgment whereof this Discourse such as it is in mere Obedience to your Commands is now humbly presented to you by Your most Obliged and Faithful Servant JOHN TILLOTSON Feb. 28. 1688 9. A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Our Deliverance by the P. of Orange EZRA ix 13 14. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the people of these Abominations wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping I Am sufficiently aware that the particular occasion of these Words is in several respects very different from the Occasion of this Day 's Solemnity For these Words were spoken by Ezra at a time appointed for Publick and Solemn Humiliation But I shall not now consider them in that relation but rather as they refer to that Great Deliverance which God had so lately wrought for them and as they are a Caution to take heed of abusing great mercies received from God and so they are very proper and pertinent to the great Occasion of this Day Nay these Words even in their saddest aspect are not so unsuitable to it For we find in Scripture upon the most solemn Occasions of Humiliation that good Men have always testified a thankful sense of the goodness of God to them And indeed the Mercy of God doth then appear above measure merciful when the Sinner is most deeply sensible of his own Vileness and Unworthiness And so Ezra here in the depth of their sorrow and Humiliation hath so great a sense of the greatness of their Deliverance that he hardly knew how to express it And hast given us such a Deliverance as this And on the other hand we find that good Men in their most solem Praises and Thanksgivings have made very serious reflections upon their own unworthiness And surely the best way to make Men truly thankful is first to make them very humble When David makes his most solemn acknowledgments to God for his great Mercies to him how doth he abase himself before Him But who am I and what is my people And so likewise after he had summoned all the powers and faculties of his Soul to join in the praises of God he interposeth this seasonable meditation He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities The greater and more lively sense we have of the goodness of God to us the more we shall abhor our selves in dust and ashes nothing being more apt to melt us into tears of Repentance than the consideration of great and undeserved Mercies vouchsafed to us The goodness of God doth naturally lead to repentance Having thus reconciled the Text to the present Occasion I shall for the more distinct handling of the Words take notice of these two Parts in them First Here is a Case supposed should we after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and since God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandments Secondly Here is a sentence and determination in the Case Wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consum'd us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping This is not spoken doubtfully though it be put by way of question but is the more vehemently positive the more peremptorily affirmative as if he had said it cannot otherwise be in reason expected but that after such repeated provocations God should be angry with us till he had consumed us First Here is a Case supposed should we after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and since God hath punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break his commandments and join in affinity with the People of these abominations In which Words these following Propositions seem to be involv'd which I shall but just mention and pass to the Second Part of the Text. 1. That Sin is the cause of all our sufferings after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for
the foundation of that which is reveal'd And therefore nothing can in Reason be admitted to be a Revelation from God which does plainly contradict his essential Perfections Upon this Principle a great many Doctrines are without more a-do to be rejected because they do plainly and at first sight contradict the Divine Nature and Perfections I will give a few Instances instead of many that might be given In vertue of this Principle I cannot believe upon the pretended Authority or Infallibility of any Person or Church that Force is a fit Argument to produce Faith No man shall ever persuade me no not the Bishop of Meaux with all his Eloquence that Prisons and Tortures Dragoons and the Galleys are proper means to convince the Understanding and either Christian or Humane Methods of converting men to the true Religion For the same Reason I cannot believe that God would not have men to understand their publick Prayers nor the Lessons of Scripture which are read to them Because a Lesson is something that is to be learnt and therefore a Lesson that is not to be understood is nonsense for if it be not understood how can it be learnt As little can I believe that God who caused the Holy Scriptures to be written for the instruction of mankind did ever intend that they should be lock'd up and concealed from the People in an unknown Tongue Least of all can I believe that Doctrine of the Council of Trent That the saving Efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest that administers them Which is to say that though the People believe and live never so well yet they may be damn'd by shoals and whole Parishes together at the pleasure of the Priest And this for no other reason but because the Priest is so cross and so cruel that he will not intend to save them Now can any man believe this that hath any tolerable Notion either of the Goodness or Justice of God May we not appeal to God in this as Abraham did in another Case Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked That be far from thee to do after this manner Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Much more to destroy the righteous for the wicked and that righteous and innocent People should lie at the mercy and will of a wicked and perverse Priest to be sav'd or damn'd by him as he thinks fit That be far from thee Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right For to drive the argument to the head if this be to do right there is no possibility of doing wrong Thus in things which are more obscure we should govern all our Reasonings concerning God and Religion by that which is clear and unquestionable and should with Moses lay down this for a certain Principle All his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He And say with St. Paul Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid And again We know that the Judgment of God is according to truth 2 ly The other Inference is this That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness And therefore nothing but our conformity to it can make us happy And for this reason to understand and know God is our great excellency and glory because it is necessary to our imitation of Him who is the best and happiest Being And so far as we are from resembling God so far are we distant from Happiness and the true temper of the Blessed For Goodness is an essential ingredient of Happiness and as without Goodness there can be no true Majesty and Greatness so neither any true Felicity and Blessedness Now Goodness is a generous disposition of mind to diffuse and communicate it self by making others to partake of our Happiness in such degrees as they are capable For no Being is so happy as it might be that hath not the power and the pleasure to make others happy This surely is the highest pleasure I had almost said pride of a great Mind In vain therefore do we dream of Happiness in any thing without us Happiness must be within us the foundation of it must be laid in the inward frame and disposition of our spirits And the very same causes and ingredients which make up the Happiness of God must be found in us though in a much inferiour degree or we cannot be happy They understand not the Nature of Happiness who hope for it upon any other terms He who is the Authour and Fountain of Happiness cannot convey it to us by any other way than by planting in us such dispositions of mind as are in truth a kind of participation of the Divine Nature and by enduing us with such qualities as are the necessary Materials of Happiness And a man may assoon be well without Health as happy without Goodness If a wicked man were taken up into Heaven yet if he still continue the same bad man that he was before coelum non animum mutavit he may have chang'd the Climate and be gone into a far Country but because he carries himself still along with him he will still be miserable from himself Because the man's mind is not chang'd all the while which would signifie a thousand times more to his happiness than change of place or of any outward circumstances whatsoever For a bad man hath a Fiend in his own Breast and the fewel of Hell in his guilty Conscience There is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary and essential to Happiness and that is Holiness and Goodness which is the very Nature of God and so far as any man departs from this temper so far he removes himself and runs away from happiness And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of a man 's own mind which is naturally a torment to it self And till this be cur'd it is as impossible for him to be happy as for a Limb that is out of joint to be at ease because the man's Spirit is out of order and off the hinges and as it were toss'd from its Center and till that be set right and restored to its proper and natural state the man will be perpetually unquiet and can have no rest and peace within himself The wicked saith the Prophet is like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest There is no peace saith my God to the wicked No peace with God no peace with his own mind for a bad man is at perpetual Discord and Wars within himself And hence as St. James tells us come Wars and Fightings without us even from our Lusts which warr in our members And now that I have mention'd Wars and Fightings without us this cannot but bring to mind the great and glorious Occasion of this Day Which gives us manifold Cause of Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God For several wonderful Mercies and Deliverances and
more particularly for a most glorious Victory at Sea vouchsafed to Their Majesties Fleet in this last Summer's Expedition For several great Mercies and Deliverances For a wonderful Deliverance indeed from a sudden Invasion design'd upon us by the inveterate and implacable Enemies of our Peace and Religion which by the merciful Providence of God was happily and strangely prevented when it was just upon the point of execution Next for the preservation of our Gracious Sovereign from that horrid and most barbarous Attempt design'd upon his Sacred Person And from those great and manifold Dangers to which he was exposed in his late tedious Expedition And for His safe and most welcome Return to us And lastly For a most glorious Victory at Sea The greatest and the cheapest that ever the Sun saw from his first setting out to run his Course The Opportunity indeed of this Victory was through the rashness and confidence of our Enemies by the wise Providence of God put into our hands But the improvement of this Opportunity into so great and happy a Victory we owe under God to the matchless Conduct and Courage of the Brave Admiral and to the invincible Resolution and Valour of the Captains and Seamen This great Deliverance from the design'd Invasion and this glorious Victory God vouchsaf'd to us at Home whilst His Sacred Majesty was so freely hazarding his Royal Person abroad in the Publick Cause of the Rights and Liberties of almost all Europe And now what may God justly expect from us as a meet return for his Goodness to us What but that we should glorifie Him first by offering praise and thanksgiving and then by ordering our conversation aright that he may still delight to shew us his Salvation God might have stood aloof from us in the Day of our distress and have said to us as he once did to the People of Israel so often have I delivered you from the hands of your Enemies but ye have still provok'd me more and more Wherefore I will deliver you no more He might have said of us as he did of the same People I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be For they are a very froward generation children in whom is no faith Our resolutions and promises of better obedience are not to be trusted all our Repentance and Righteousness are but as the morning cloud and like the early dew which passeth away Nay methinks God seems now to say to us as he did of old to Jerusalem Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited We are here met together this Day to pay our Solemn acknowledgments to the God of our Salvation who hath shewed strength with his Arm and hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart Even to him that exerciseth loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth In Him will we glory as our sure Refuge and Defence as our Mighty Deliverer and the Rock of our Salvation And now I have only to entreat your patience a little longer whilst I apply what hath been discoursed upon this Text a little more closely to the Occasion of this Day I may be tedious but I will not be long And blessed be God for this happy Occasion The greatest England ever had and in the true consequences of it perhaps the greatest that Europe ever had of Praise and Thanksgiving You have heard two sorts of Persons described in the Text by very different Characters The One that glory in their Wisdom and Might and Riches The other that glory in this that they understand and know God to be the Lord which exerciseth loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And we have seen these two Characters exemplified or rather drawn to the Life in this present Age. We who live in this Western part of Christendom have seen a mighty Prince by the just permission of God raised up to be a Terrour and Scourge to all his Neighbours A Prince who had in perfection all the Advantages mentioned in the former part of the Text And who in the opinion of many who had been long dazzled with his Splendour and Greatness hath pass'd for many years for the most Politick and Powerful and Richest Monarch that hath appear'd in these parts of the World for many Ages Who hath govern'd his Affairs by the deepest and steddiest Counsels and the most refin'd Wisdom of this World A Prince mighty and powerful in his Preparations for War formidable for his vast and well disciplin'd Armies and for his great Naval Force And who had brought the Art of War almost to that perfection as to be able to Conquer and do his business without fighting A Mystery hardly known to former Ages and Generations And all this Skill and Strength united under one absolute Will not hamper'd or bound up by any restraints of Law or Conscience A Prince that commands the Estates of all his Subjects and of all his Conquests which hath furnish'd him with an almost inexhaustible Treasure and Revenue And One who if the World doth not greatly mistake him hath sufficiently gloried in all these Advantages and even beyond the rate of a mortal man But not knowing God to be the Lord which exercises loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth How hath the pride of all his Glory been stain'd by Tyranny and Oppression by Injustice and Cruelty by enlarging his Dominions without Right and by making War upon his Neighbours without Reason or even colour of Provocation And this in a more Barbarous manner than the most Barbarous Nations ever did carrying Fire and Desolation wheresoever he went and laying wast many and great Cities without necessity and without pity And now behold what a terrible Rebuke the Providence of God hath given to this mighty Monarch in the full Carrier of his Fortune and Fury The consideration whereof brings to my thoughts those Passages in the Prophet concerning old Babylon that standing and perpetual Type of the great Oppressors and Persecutors of God's true Church and Religion How is the Oppressor ceased the exactor of gold ceased He who smote the People in wrath with a continual stroke he who ruled the Nations in anger is himself persecuted and none hindreth The whole Earth is at rest and is quiet and breaks forth into singing The grave beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee even all the Captains of the Earth it hath raised up from their Thrones all the Kings of the Nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we are art thou also become like unto us how art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning How art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my