a false Ground To be governed by Private Regards and turn upon secular Interest is a Sign of a narrow and ungenerous Mind Such Persons who engage only to serve a Turn must have cold Notions of Justice and very slender affections for the Public Good 'T is true such a provident Projector may oblige a Cause and do Service to his Country and make a creditable Figure but then it must be said the Good which he does has neither Principle nor Merit For how glorious soever his pretences may be his Business is to serve Himself And tho he may deceive others yet if he has any Inclination to look within he will soon discover how much the World and possibly Himself in some Measure has been mistaken in his Character A short perusal of his Thoughts will inform him that Interest has the Ascendent over all his Designs That he pretends to Religion no longer then it affords a Prospect of Gain and is Loyal only to his own Sovereign self I confess he who exposes himself to hazards and makes a profession of Constancy ought not to be hardly interpreted and censured as if he acted out of ignoble Ends because this is oftentimes condemning without Evidence But tho' a Man ought not to be charged with such Imputations by others yet without question it concerns him to examine himself whether his Actions proceed from a defensible Cause whether Duty and Religion have a just preference allowed them In the mean time t is not denyed but that we may lawfully have a Regard to private Advantage provided it be subordinate and duly proportioned But then we should take care not to over-rate our selves we should not be so unreasonably partial as to think our own Interest ought to overballance that of States and Kingdoms We should not presume our selves independent of Law and above the Regulations of Religion As if the Names of Virtue and Conscience were invented only to disguise our Ambition and to be regarded no farther then they served our purpose Besides this Motive of Interest is not only irreligious but wavering and inconstant He that serves a good Cause out of a mercenary View will engage in an ill one when he believes it in the same thriving Condition He who is thus affected will be sure to observe which way the weight of Affairs enclines to criticize upon the Health and Complexion of his Party and give it over when he finds it languishing and consumptive If we are governed by such mean Considerations we shall be apt to Tack upon every Accident of Moment and desert the Relations of Duty and Freindship when they stand in most need of being supported 2. To abet a suffering Cause upon the score of Affection and personal Regard is another short and insufficient Motive I confess to be strongly affected with the Misfortunes of our Freinds or Superiors because we have been obliged by their Temper or enriched by their Bounty is not only lawful but commendable To stand by those who can neither reward nor protect who are hated by the Many and oppressed by the Mighty is a sign of a generous and disinterested Spirit To attend an abandon'd Interest upon Principles of esteem when 't is neither allow'd to assist or scarcely to wish well to it when Sympathy is marked and meer good Nature made Criminal To embark with the unfortunate and continue our Regards under such Disadvantages These are handsom proofs of Humanity and Gratitude and proceed from a Nobleness of Temper This showes that a Man scorns to make his affection mercenary to turn upon the inconstancy of Fortune and to court none but the happy and succesful But then those who lay the main stress upon Freindship and Inclination carry the Matter too far the other way To follow a mans Fortune and second his Pretension meerly because we like Him is no better then plain Partiality 'T is in effect to declare that we Idolize our own Humour are governed more by Obstinacy then Reason We must have very good Luck if such a blind Officiousness does not sometimes entangle us in dangerous Engagements make us firm to Conspiracys and true to Falshood and give us a share in the Practice of Violence and Punishment of Treason 'T is granted when the Justice of the Cause is secured and we are convinced our Freinds are in the right then our affections may seasonably exert themselves Then we may be allowed to reason ourselves into Sympathy and Concern To Regard and Love and Condole as much as we please Then 't will be both decent and proper to raise our Esteem and quicken our Gratitude from all the Motives of Station Merit and Misfortune These are good Expedients to fortify our Reason and awaken our Generosity and make our Freindship Masculine and Significant 3. To make the vulgar Notion of Honour the chief Ground of Suffering is a wrong Principle Some People distinguish so far between Conscience and Honour as if they had no Resemblance or Relation to each other Never considering that to do the wisest Things and to please the best Judges and to be in Favour with the greatest Beings are the truest Signs and noblest Instances of Honour Now nothing of all this can be done without Religion If this Remark was thought on and Honour rightly stated if 't was fixed upon a Basis of Morality and believed to be a Christian Virtue if Mens Apprehensions were true in this point they would not tell us that 't is not so much Religion which hinders them from making their Affairs easy No! They could satisfie their Conscience without difficulty and accommodate the Matter with God Almighty well enough Their only Fear is that if they should shift their Sails and come up to any remarkable Variation their Reputation would suffer by it For how can we quit a Principle so solemnly avowed without a Mark of Inconstancy And does not Inconstancy suppose either our Head or our Heart defective That we either wanted Discretion to make a proper Choice or Resolution to maintain it If we desert a Friendship in time of Tryal and renounce an establish'd Belief when it grows uneasie may it not be justly said That we have surrender'd our Understandings to our Interests That we may be frighted out or into any thing and dare neither pretend to Reason or Honesty any longer than the Majority will give us leave And can there be a more infamous State of Servitude than to lye thus at the Mercy of the Crowd to say that which we don't believe and do that which we don't like and that not in trivial Cases but in Matters of the highest Importance In short To quit an Opinion or an Engagement when the Stream goes against it is so unbecoming a Man of Honour so cowardly and ungenerous a Practice that we cannot reconcile our selves to it To this I answer That I have no Intention to argue against the Principle of Honour Let Men think as magnanimously as they please provided
with Socinians Jews and Mahometans upon occasion For here the true God is worshipped and many Points of Morality are taught If this Liberty is too large then we must stand off in the present Case for here both the Meeting and the Matter are unlawful The Meeting because Schismatical The Matter for the Reasons above mentioned For if Deposing of Kings and Dispensing with Oaths and resolving Conscience into Public Good that is Convenience are not Tenents of a flaming Malignity the distinctions of Right and Wrong are unintelligible And to cut off all Excuse the Evil is as throughly incorporated and as Solemnly avow'd in the latter Case as in the other and therefore it must be equally impossible to make a Separation However I am loath to leave my Church You say well But can you expect to find the Church where its peculiar Doctrins are disown'd where its Authority is opposed and betrayed to the Secular Power Does the Being of a Church consist in Brick and Stone what would you do if Jupiter was worshipped there I hope the Chiming of the Bells would not draw you to the Service of the Idol If 't is urged that we may be so planted as to want the Advantage of an Orthodox Pastor what is to be done in such Circumstances must we Pray alone without the Assistance of Preist or Congregation To this Question after what has been said I think the Proverb a sufficient Return Better be alone then in ill Company If 't is farther objected that by this Principle we may lose the Benefit of the Blessed Sacrament To this I answer 1. That this Objection is oftentimes no more then Pretence For if People would take that Pains which the Regard to the Institution requires it seldom happens but they might receive it from proper Hands But 2. I answer that breaking the Unity of the Church by Schismatical Communion and making our selves partakers of other mens Sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. is a bad Preparation for the Sacrament To break a Moral Law for a Positive Ordinance tho never so valuable looks like robbing in order to Sacrifice And therefore when the Case is truly put a pious Desire of Receiving will be Equivalent to the Thing This being an allowed Rule in Instances of Necessity So that we can't be said to lose the Benefit of the Blessed Sacrament tho' we are not so happy as to partake in the Administration I confess this Branch of Modern Conformity has it's Advantages It keeps a Mars Honesty oftentimes from breaking out to his Prejudice 'T is a Pass-port to Business and a Protection to Trade And therefore 't is well if there is not something besides Religion at the Bottom However let the Intention be never so Sincere 't is no Warrant for an unlawful Practice Well! Tho' we are barr'd the usual Place yet we are not discharged from the Worship Let us not live like Independent Beings as if there was no Duty owing to God Almighty no Benefit in public Communion nor any effect of our Saviour's Promise to his Church Who the Apostle tells us gave Apostles and Pastors and Teachers For the Perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministery and for the edifying of the Body of Christ. Let us take Care we don't overlook their Mission and loose the Advantage of their Office Always remembring that those who refuse the Means must fail of the End God grant none of our Freinds Mismanage these Church Distractions That they don't make their Orthodoxy a Colour for their Profaneness nor pretend an aversion to the Churches that they may go no whither with the better Grace As if it was a desirable Condition to be quit of the Fatigue of Prayers and deliver'd from the Discipline of the Pulpit and enfranchized from the Servitude of Religion To have our Time and our Conscience and our Sins to our selves without the least interruption or Reproof These are sad Privileges both in the quality and consequence and serve only to lay Men asleep in a fatal Security till they awake in those Flames which burn for ever Let us therefore be governed by the Apostles Advice and not forsake the Assembling our selves as the manner of some is I am sure the Occasion calls for the best Appearance of Religion for all the Aids of Union and Solemnity We see in what a Tempest the Nation is tossed What a Torrent overbears all Regards both Human and Divine Neither Nature nor Obligation Crown nor Mitre Law nor Gospel can stand before it No moral Difficulty can stop its Passage It breaks through all the Oppositions of Blood Heights of Station and Defences of Right So that now if ever we may make the Prophets complaint Truth is fallen in the Streets and Equity cannot enter And when this Civil Chaos will Settle He only knows who brings Light out of Darkness and Order from Confusion And a Consideration no less sad then the rest is the Infatuation which lyes upon Mens Spirits How they call Evil Good and Good Evil. How they dote on their Delusion and are enamour'd of their Disease and like those stung with a Tarantula expire in Pleasure And is it not an uncomfortable prospect to see Men seized with such a fatal Eethargy that neither Honour nor Interest Reason nor Sense this World nor the Other can work upon them Since They have so little Care of themselves do they not stand more in need of a Foreign Assistance Let our Charity equalize their Rigours and if 't is possible exceed them Let us intercede for them at the Throne of Grace and joyn in the Church's Devotion That God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived And what Success soever our Charity may have the Office is Christian and Generous Besides we ought to apply for our own Security and lift up our Prayers for the Remnant that is left 2 King 19. 4. Thirdly and Lastly Our Behaviour ought to be remarkable for Resolution and decent Assurance Honesty without Courage is impracticable This Virtue of Fortitude is a Guard to all the rest without which they lye defenceless and exposed He that commands anothers Fears commands his Actions for what won't a Man do to escape an Evil he believes intollerable And as we are obliged to keep our Ground and retain our Integrity so we should do it in a posture of Hope and with an Air of Satisfaction To languish and repine and grow disconsolate looks as if we were weary of well doing it doubles the Misfortune and carrys danger in the Symptom God has given us the Post of Honour are we not to maintain it with a suitable Behaviour To suffer chearfully abates the Anguish and adds Strength and Lustre to the Virtue Let us keep our Thoughts easy our Imagination bright and our Spirits supported with the Justice of the Cause To be able to abide the shock has a great deal of Pleasure as well as Trouble in it
By this means a Man becomes conscious of his own Strength and finds his Virtue harden'd beyond an ordinary Temper which could never have been known without Experiment And must not such a Discovery be extreamly entertaining to a Generous Mind and afford a very relishing Satisfaction These Stroaks of Adversity are like slighter Wounds received in a Breach which have more of Honour than Smart in them 'T is true the Success is chiefly to be attributed to God Almighty It was his Assistance which excited us to the Combat and fortifyed us to maintain it But since the Use of his Grace depends upon our selves a share of the Action is likewise our own Are our Fortunes rifled and our Labours wrested from us Let us with those the Apostle mentions take the spoiling of our Goods joyfully knowing that we have in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance Heb. 10. 34. Must we quit the Expectations of Birth and the just Pretences of our Station Let us remember that nothing can make us Little but our selves that the best Quality consists more in Action than Title in Resolution than in Fortune To continue firm to Conscience to stand by the Oppressed and to be above the Accidents of Life are the most valuable Signs of Nobility Whereas he who wants Courage to practise his Sentiment and maintain his Reason has a vulgar Soul and how much soever his Outside may glitter is no better than a Pageant of Honour Are we hated for our Virtue and exposed for doing our Duty Let us not complain This Usage is commonly the Lot of the best Men in the best Cause Christ and his Apostles met with no kinder Entertainment As we suffer for their Doctrin Let us imitate their Example Let us with them glory in Persecutions and despise Contempt and show our Enemies that we have Greatness to pity as well as Charity to forgive them At the worst we should consider the Proof of our Integrity rises in Proportion to the Tryal The greater our Sufferings are the greater is our Constancy the greater our Resignation the greater our Reward The Storm in all Likelyhood will not last always it may be farther spent already than we are aware of God who helps those to Right who suffer Wrong will arise and maintain his own Cause Psal. 74. 23. He will I question not vindicate his own Establishment and appear in his good Time for the restoring of Order and the Support of Right for the Honour of Parents and the Majesty of Kings However if Life falls short of those happy Days there are Nobler Scenes in the other World than Restaurations And whoever gets once to Heaven will never think he dyed too soon There is no Complaints of Disappointment nor longing for Satisfactions left behind I shall conclude with the Apostles Exhortation inferred from the same Glorious Prospect Wherefore be ye stedfast immoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord inasmuch as ye know your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. The END ERRATA PAge 4. line 4. read for Humen r. Human. p. 4. l. 5 for disincorpat ad r. disincorpated p. 8. l. 23. for preserve r. persevere p. 22. l. 17. for swell r. swells Psal. 101. 2 3. Psal. 19 6. Jame 2. 10. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Rom. 7. 13. Jams 4. 3. Cor. 6. 4. Cor. 5. â—1 1 Kings 19. 18. 2 Cron. cha 13. 1 Kin. 12. 30. Hos. 8. 5. Hos. 11. 12. Socrat. l. 2. c. 38. Theod. Hist. l. 1. c. 22. Cypr. Ep. ad Antâ—n Ambr. Ep. 24. Ephes. â— 11 12 â—ebr â—0 25. â—sa 59. â—4 â—sa