considerable and allow it self in the breach or neglect of the rest no nor with observing the Duties of one Table of the Law if it overlook the other no nor with obedience to all the Commandments of God one only excepted St. James puts this case and determines That he that keeps the whole Law saving that he offends in one point is guilty of all that is is not sincere in his obedience to the rest and therefore we must take great heed that we do not set the Commandments of God at odds and dash the two Tables of the Law against one another lest as St. James says we break the whole Law And yet I fear this is too common a fault even amongst those who make a great profession of Piety that they are not sufficiently sensible of the obligation and necessity of the Duties of the second Table and of the excellency of those Graces and Vertues which respect our Carriage and Conversation with one another Men do not seem to consider that God did not give Laws to us for his own sake but ours and therefore that he did not only design that we should Honour him but that we should be happy in one another for which reason he joyns with our humble and dutiful Deportment towards himself the Offices of Justice and Charity towards others Mich. 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And 1 John 4. 21. This Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also And yet it is too visible that many who make a great profession of Piety towards God are very defective in Moral Duties very unpeaceable and turbulent in their Spirits very peevish and passionate very conceited and censorious as if their profession of Godliness did exempt them from the care and practice of Christian Vertues But we must not so fix our eye upon Heaven as to forget that we walk upon the Earth and to neglect the ordering of our steps and Conversation among Men lest while we are gazing upon the Stars we fall into the Ditch of gross and foul Immorality It is very possible that Men may be devout and zealous in Religion very nice and scrupulous about the Worship and Service of God and yet because of their palpable defect in points of Justice and Honesty of Meekness and Humility of Peace and Charity may be gross and odious Hypocrites for Men must not think for some acts either of outward or inward Piety to compound with God for the neglect of Mercy and Judgment or to demand it as a right from Men to be excused from the great Duties and Vertues of Humane Conversation or pretend to be above them because they relate chiefly to this World and to the temporal happiness of Men as if it were the priviledge of great Devotion to give a license to Men to be peevish and froward sower and morose supercilious and censorious in their behaviour towards others Men must have a great care that they be not intent upon the outward parts of Religion to the prejudice of inward and real goodness and that they do not so use the means of Religion as to neglect and lose the main end of it that they do not place all Religion in Fasting and outward Mortification for though these things be very useful and necessary in their place if they be discreetly managed and made subservient to the great ends of Religion yet it is often seen that Men have so unequal a respect to the several parts of their Duty that Fasting and Corporal severity those meager and lean Duties of Piety in comparison do like Pharaoh's lean kine devour and eat up almost all the goodly and well-favoured the great and substantial Duties of the Christian Life and therefore Men must take great heed lest whilst they are so intent upon mortifying themselves they do not mortifie Vertue and good Nature Humility and Meekness and Charity things highly valuable in themselves and amiable in the eyes of Men and in the sight of God of great price For the neglect of the Moral Duties of the second Table is not only a mighty scandal to Religion but of pernicious consequence many other ways A fierce and ill governed an ignorant and injudicious Zeal for the Honour of God and something or other belonging necessarily as they think to his true Worship and Service hath made many Men do many unreasonable immoral and impious things of which History will furnish us with innumerable instances in the practice of the Jesuits and other Zealots of the Church of Rome and there are not wanting too many examples of this kind amongst our selves for Men that are not sober and considerate in their Religion but give themselves up to the conduct of blind prejudice and furious zeal do easily perswade themselves that any thing is lawful which they strongly fancy to tend to the Honour of God and to the advancement of the cause of Religion hence some have proceeded to that height of absurdity in their Zeal for their Religion and Church as to think it not only lawful but highly commendable and meritorious to equivocate upon Oath and break Faith with Hereticks and to destroy all those that differ from them as if it were Piety in some cases to lie for the Truth and to kill Men for God's sake So that if we would approve the integrity of our hearts to God and evidence to our selves the sincerity of our Obedience we ought impartially to regard all the Laws of God and every part of our Duty and if we do not our heart is not upright with God 'T is observable that sincerity in Scripture is often call'd by the name of Integrity and Perfection because it is integrated and made up of all the parts of our Duty 6. The last evidence I shall mention of the sincerity of our Religion is if it hold out against persecution and endure the fiery tryal this is the utmost proof of our integrity when we are called to bear the Cross to be willing then to expose all our worldly interest and even life it self for the Cause of God and Religion this is a tryal which God doth not always call his faithful Servants to but they are always to be prepared for it in the purpose and resolution of their minds this our Saviour makes the great mark of a true Disciple if any man saith he will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me this is a certain sign that Men have received the word into good ground and are well rooted in their Religion when they are not shaken by these fierce assaults for many as our Saviour tells us hear the word and with joy receive it but having not root in themselves they endure but for a while and when persecution or tribulation ariseth because of
this be a good way then we do and must call in the assistance of reason for the proof of our Religion 4. Let it be considered farther that the highest commendations that are given in Scripture to any ones Faith are given upon account of the reasonableness of it Abraham's Faith is famous and made a pattern to all generations because he reasoned himself into it notwithstanding the objections to the contrary and he did not blindly break through these objections and wink hard at them but he look'd them in the face and gave himself reasonable satisfaction concerning them The Centurian's Faith is commended by our Saviour Math. 8. 11. Because when his Servant was sick he did not desire him to come to his house but to speak the word only and his Servant should be healed For he reasoned thus I am a man under authority having Souldiers under me and I say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my Servant do this and he doth it Now if he that was himself under authority could thus command those that were under him much more could he that had a divine Power and Commission do what he pleased by his word And our Saviour is so far from reprehending him for reasoning himself into this belief that he admires his Faith so much the more for the reasonableness of it v. 10. When Jesus heard this he marvelled and said to them that followed him verily I say unto you I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel Inlike manner our Saviour commends the Woman of Canaan's Faith because she enforc't it so reasonably Matthew 15. 22. She sued to him to help her Daughter but he answered her not a word and when his Disciples could not prevail with him to mind her yet still the prest him saying Lord help me and when he repulsed her with this severe answer It is not meet to take the Childrens bread and cast it to dogs she made this quick and modest reply truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their Masters Table She acknowledgeth her own unworthiness but yet believes his goodness to be such that he will not utterly reject those who humbly seek to him upon which he gives her this testimony O woman great is thy faith The Apostles were divinely inspired and yet the Bereans are commended because they enquired and satisfied themselves in the reasons of their belief before they assented to the doctrine which was delivered to them even by Teachers that certainly were Infallible 5. None are reproved in Scripture for their unbelief but where sufficient reason and evidence was offered to them The Israelites are generally blamed for their Infidelity but then it was after such mighty wonders had been wrought for their Conviction The Jews in our Saviours time are not condemned simply for their unbelief but for not believing when there was such clear evidence offered to them So our Saviour himself says If I had not done amongst them the works which no other man did they had not had sin Thomas indeed is blamed for the perverseness of his unbelief because he would believe nothing but what he himself saw Lastly To shew this yet more plainly let us consider the great inconvenience and absurdity of declining the use of Reason in matters of Religion There can be no greater prejudice to Religion than to decline this tryal To say we have no Reason for our Religion is to say it is unreasonable Indeed it is Reason enough for any Article of our Faith that God hath revealed it because this is one of the strongest and most cogent reasons for the belief of any thing But when we say God hath revealed any thing we must be ready to prove it or else we say nothing If we turn off Reason here we level the best Religion in the World with the wildest and most absurd Enthusiams And it does not alter the case much to give Reason ill names to call it blind and carnal Reason Our best reason is but very short and imperfect But since it is no better we must make use of it as it is and make the best of it Before I pass from this Argument I cannot but observe that both the extremes of those who differ from our Church are generally great Declamers against the use of Reason in matters of Faith If they find their account in it 't is well for our parts we apprehend no manner of inconvenience in having Reason on our side nor need we to desire a better evidence that any Man is in the wrong than to hear him declare against Reason and thereby to acknowledge that reason is against him Men may vilifie Reason as much as they please and tho being reviled she reviles not again yet in a more still and gentle way she commonly hath her full revenge upon all those that rail at her I have often wonder'd that people can with patience endure to hear their Teachers and Guides talk against Reason and not only so but they pay them the greater submission and veneration for it One would think this but an odd way to gain authority over the minds of Men but some skilful and designing men have found by experience that it is a very good way to recommend them to the ignorant as Nurses use to endear themselves to Children by perpetual noise and nonsense III. I observe that God obligeth no Man to believe plain and evident Contradictions as matters of Faith Abraham could not reasonably have believed this second revelation to have been from God if he had not found some way to reconcile it with the first For tho a Man were never so much disposed to submit his Reason to divine Revelation yet it is not possible for any Man to believe God against God himself Some Men seem to think that they oblige God mightily by believing plain contradictions But the matter is quite otherwise He that made Man a reasonable Creature cannot take it kindly from any Man to debase his workmanship by making himself unreasonable And therefore as no service or obedience so no Faith is acceptable unto God but what is reasonable if it be not so it may be confidence or presumption but it is not Faith for he that can believe plain contradictions may believe any thing how absurd soever because nothing can be more absurd than the belief of a plain contradiction and he that can believe any thing believes nothing upon good grounds because to him Truth and Falsehood are all one 4. I observe that the great cause of the defect of Mens obedience is the weakness of their Faith Did we believe the commands of God in the Gospel and his promises and threatnings as firmly as Abraham believed God in this case what should we not be ready to do or suffer in obedience to him If our Faith were but as strong and vigorous as his was the effects of it would be as
great and conspicuous were we verily persuaded that all the Precepts of our Religion are the express Laws of God and that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel will one day be verified and made good What manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness How would the lively thoughts of another world raise us above the vanities of this present life and set us out of the reach of the most powerful temptations that this world can assault us withall and make us to do all things with regard to Eternity and to that solemn and dreadful account which we must one day make to God the Judge of all It is nothing but the want of a firm and steady belief of these things that makes our Devotion so dead and heartless and our resolutions of doing better so weak and inconsistent This it is that makes us so easie a prey to every temptation and the things of this world to look so much bigger than they are the enjoyments of it more tempting and the evils of it more terrible than in truth they are And in all disputes betwixt our Conscience and our Interest to hold the balance so unequally and to put our foot upon the lighter Scale that it may seem to weigh down the other In a word in proportion to the strength or weakness of our Faith our obedience to God will be more or less constant uniform and perfect because Faith is the great source and spring of all the Virtues of a good life 5. We have great reason to submit to the ordinary strokes of God's Providence upon our selves or near relations or any thing that is dear to us Most of these are easily compared with Abraham's case it requires a prodigious strength of Faith to perform so miraculous an act of obedience 6. And lastly We are utterly inexcusable if we disobey the easie Precepts of the Gospel The yoke of Christ is easie and his burden light in comparison of God's former dispensations This was a grievous Commandment which God gave to Abraham to sacrifice his only Son It was a hard saying indeed and which of us could have been able to hear it But if God think fit to call us to the more difficult duties of self-denial and suffering for his truth and righteousness sake we must after the example of faithful Abraham not think much to deny or part with any thing for him no not life it self But even this which is the hardest part of Religion is easier than what God put upon Abraham For it doth not offer near the violence to nature to lay down our life in a good cause as it would do to put a Child to death with our own hands Besides the consideration of the extraordinary comfort and support and the glorious rewards that are expresly promised to our obedience and self denial in such a case encouragement enough to make a very difficult duty easie And whilst I am perswading you and my self to resolution and constancy in our Holy Religion notwithstanding all hazards and hardships that may attend it I have a just sense of the frailty of humane nature and of humane resolution But with all a most firm persuasion of the goodness of God that he will not suffer those who sincerely love him and his Truth to be tempted above what they are able I will add but one consideration more to shew the difference betwixt Abraham's case and ours God commanded him to do the hardest thing in the world to sacrifice his only Son but he hath given us an easie commandment and that he might effectually oblige us to our duty he hath done that for us which he required Abraham to do for him he hath not spared his own Son his only Son but hath given him up to death for us all And hereby we know that he loveth us that he hath given his Son for us What God required of Abraham he did not intend should be executed but one great design of it was to be a Type and Figure of that immense love and kindness which he intended to all mankind in the Sacrifice of his Son as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world And as the most clear and express promise of the Messias was made to Abraham so the most express and lively Type of the Messias that we meet with in all the old Testament was Abraham's offering up his Son And as St. Hierom tells us from an ancient and constant Tradition of the Jews the Mountain in Moriah where Abraham was commanded to Sacrifice Isaac was Mount Calvary where our Lord also was Crucified and offered up that by this one sacrifice of himself once offered he might perfect for ever them that are sanctified and obtain eternal redemption for us Now to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb that was slain to God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead to the Prince of the Kings of the Earth to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood to him be Glory and honour thanksgiving and power now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVII Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI 24 25. By Faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season THE Text sets before us a great pattern of self-denial for our better understanding whereof I will give a brief account of the History of Moses to which our Apostle in this passage doth refer When Moses was born his Parents for fear of the cruel law which Pharaoh had made That all the male Children of the Hebrews so soon as they were born should be put to death after they had hid him three months did at last expose him in an Ark of Bulrushes upon the River Nile and committed him to the providence of God whom they despair'd to conceal any longer by their own care Pharaoh's Daughter coming by the River side espied him and had compassion on him and guessing him to be one of the Hebrew Children called for an Hebrew Nurse to take care of him who as the Prviodence of God had ordered it proved to be the Child 's own Mother As he grew up Pharaoh's Daughter took care of his Education in all Princely qualities and adopted him for her Son and Pharaoh as Josephus tells us being without Son designed him Heir of his Kingdom Moses refused this great offer But why did he refuse it when it seem'd to be presented to him by the providence of God and was brought about in so strange a manner and when by this means he might probably have had it in his power to have eased the Israelites of their cruel bondage and perhaps have had the oportunity of reducing that great Kingdom from the worship of Idols to the true God
malice and cruelty of the world could do unto them And if we would consider all things together and mind the invisible things of another world as well as the things which are seen we should easily discern that he who suffers for God and Religion does not renounce his happiness but put it out to Interest upon terms of greatest advantage and does wisely consider his own best and and most lasting interest This is the First II. This will yet more evidently appear if we consider the temporary injoyments of sin together with the mischiefs and inconveniencies attending and consequent upon them That as to the nature of them they are mixt and imperfect as to the duration of them they are short and but for a season and as to the final issue and consquence of them that they end in misery and sorrow 1. As to the nature of them all the pleasures and enjoyments of sin are mixt and imperfect A wicked Man may make a shew of mirth and pleasure but even in laughter his heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness There can be no true and sincere pleasure in any sinful and vitious course tho it be attended with all the Pomp and Splendor of outward Happiness and Prosperity for where ever sin and vice is there must be guilt and whereever guilt is the mind will be restless and unquiet For there are two very troublesome and tormenting passions which are naturally consequent upon guilt Shame and Fear Shame arising from the apprehension of the danger of being discovered and Fear from the apprehension of the danger of being punisht And these do continually haunt the sinner and fill him with inward horror and confusion in his most secret retirements And if sin were attended with no other trouble but the guilt of it a wise Man would not commit it if it were for no other reason but meerly for the peace and quiet of his own mind 2. The enjoyments of sin as to the duration of them are but short Upon this consideration Moses set no great price and value upon them but preferred affliction and suffering in good company and in a good cause before the temporary enjoyments of sin If the enjoyments of this world were perfect in their nature and had no mixture of trouble and sorrow in them Yet this would be a great abatement of them that they are of so short and uncertain a continuance The pleasure of most sins expires with the act of them and when that is done the delight vanisheth I cannot deny but there are several worldly advantages to be purchased by sin which may perhaps be of a longer continuance as Riches and Honours the common purchase of Covetousness and Ambition and of that long train of inferiour Vices which attend upon them and minister unto them but even these enjoyments are in their own nature of an uncertain continuance and much more uncertain for being purchased by indirect and ill means But if the enjoyment of these things were sure to be of the same date with our lives yet how short a duration is that compared with Eternity make the utmust allowance to these things that can be yet we can but enjoy them whilst we are in this world When we come into the world of spirits it will signifie nothing to us to have been rich or great in this world When we shall stand before that highest Tribunal it will not avail us in the least to have been Princes and great Men and Judges on the Earth the poorest Man that ever lived in this world will then be upon equal terms with the bigest of us all For all mankind shall then stand upon a level and those civil distinctions of rich and poor of base and honourable which seem now so considerable and make such a glaring difference amongst Men in this world shall all then be laid aside and moral differences shall only take place All the distinctions which will then be made will be betwixt the good and the bad the righteous and the wicked and the difference betwixt a good and bad Man will be really much greater than ever it seemed to be betwixt the highest and meanest persons in this world And if this be so why should we value the enjoyments of sin at so high a rate which at the best are only considerable and that only in the imagination of vain Men during our abode in this world but bear no price at all in that Country where we must live for ever Or if they did we cannot carry them along with us The guilt of them indeed will follow us with a vengance the injustice and all the ill arts we have used for the getting or keeping of them especially if at once we have made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience If we have changed our Religion or which is much worse if continuing in the profession of it we have betrayed it and the interest of it for the gaining or securing of any of these things we shall find to our sorrow that tho the enjoyments of sin were but for a season the guilt of it will never leave us nor forsake us but will stick close to us and make us miserable for ever But this belongs to the III. Thing I proposed to speak to namely The final issue and consequence of a sinful course which is misery and sorrow many times in this world but most certainly in the next 1. In this world the very best issue and consequence of a sinful course that we can imagin is Repentance And even this hath a great deal of sensible pain and trouble in it for it is many times especially after great sins and a long continuance in them accompanied with much regret and horror with deep and piercing sorrow with dismal and despairing thoughts of God's mercy and with fearful apprehensions of his wrath and vengeance So that if this were the worst consequence of sin which indeed is the best no Man that considers and calculates things wisely would purchase the pleasure of any sin at the price of so much anguish and sorrow as a true and deep repentance will cost him especially since a true repentance does in many cases oblige Men to the restitution of that which hath been gained by sin if it hath been got by the injury of another And this consideration quite takes away the pleasure and profit of an ill gotten Estate Better never to have had it than to be obliged to refund it A wise Man will forbear the most pleasant meats if he know before-hand that they will make him deadly sick and that he shall never be at ease till he have brought them up again No Man that believes the threatnings of God and the judgment of another world would ever sin but that he hopes to retrieve all again by repentance But it is the greatest folly in the world to commit any sin upon this hope for that is to please ones self for the
word with joy and endure for a while but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they are offended not that they did not believe the Word but their Faith had taken no deep root and therefore it withered The weakness and wavering of Mens Faith makes them unstable and inconstant in their course because they are not of one mind but divided betwixt two interests that of this world and the other and the double minded man as St. James tells us is unstable in all his ways It is generally a true rule so much wavering as we see in the actions and lives of Men so much weakness there is in their Faith and therefore he that would know what any Man firmly believes let him attend to his actions more than to his professions If any Man live so as no Man that heartily believes the Christian Religion can live it is not credible that such a Man doth firmly believe the Christian Religion He says he does but there is a greater evidence in the case than words there is Testimonium rei the Man's actions are to the contrary and they do best declare the inward sense of the Man Did Men firmly believe that there is a God that governs the world and that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge it in righteousnes and that all mankind shall shortly appear before him and give an account of themselves and all their actions to him and that those who have kept the Faith and a good Conscience and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world shall be unspeakably and eternally happy but the fearful and unbelieving those who out of fear or interest have deserted the Faith or lived wicked lives shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone I say were Men firmly persuaded of these things it is hardly credible that any Man should make a wrong choice and forsake the ways of Truth and Righteousness upon any temptation whatsoever Faith even in temporal matters is a mighty principle of action and will make Men to attempt and undergo strange and difficult things The Faith of the Gospel ought to be much more operative and powerful because the Objects of Hope and Fear which it presents to us are far greater and more considerable than any thing that this world can tempt or terrifie us withall Would we but by Faith make present to our minds the invisible things of another world the happiness of Heaven and the terrors of Hell and were we as verily persuaded of them as if they were in our view how should we despise all the pleasures and terrors of this world And with what ease should we resist and repel all those temptations which would seduce us from our duty or draw us into sin A firm and unshaken belief of these things would effectually remove all those mountains of difficulty and discouragement which Men fancy to themselves in the ways of Religion To him that believeth all things are possible and most things would be easie 2. Another reason of this wrong choice is want of consideration for this would strengthen our Faith and make it more vigorous and powerful And indeed a Faith which is well rooted and establishould doth suppose a wise and deep consideration of things and the want of this is a great cause of the fatal miscarriage of Men that they do not sit down and consider with themselves seriously how much Religion is their interest and how much it will cost them to be true to it and to persevere in it to the end We suffer our selves to be governed by sense and to be transported with present things but do not consider our future and lasting interest and the whole duration of an immortal Soul And this is the reason why so many men are hurried away by the present and sensible delights of this world because they will not take time to think of what will be hereafter For it is not to be imagined but that the Man who hath seriously considered what sin is the shortness of its pleasure and the eternity of its punishment should resolve to forsake sin and to live a holy and virtuous life To conclude this whole Discourse If Men did but seriously believe the great principles of Religion the Being and the Providence of God the immortality of their Souls the glorious rewards and the dreadful punishments of another world they could not possibly make so imprudent a choice as we see a great part of mankind to do they could not be induced to forsake God and Religion for any temporal interest and advantage to renounce the favour of Heaven and all their hopes of happiness in another world for any thing that this world can afford nay not for the whole world if it were offered to them For as our Saviour reasons in this very case of forsaking our Religion for any temporal interest or consideration what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul When ever any of us are tempted in this kind let that solemn declaration of our Saviour and our Judge be continually in our minds he that confesseth me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven but whosever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels And we have great cause to thank God to see so many in this day of tryal and hour of temptation to adhere with so much resolution and constancy to their Holy Religion and to prefer the keeping of Faith and a good Conscience to all earthly considerations and advantages And this very thing that so many hold their Religion so fast and are so loth to part with it gives great hopes that they intend to make good use of it and to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it which alone can give us peace whilst we live and comfort when we come to die and after death secure to us the possession of a happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls To which God of his Infinite Goodness bring us all for his mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THE main Scope and design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to persuade the Jews who were newly converted to Christianity to continue stedfast in the profession of that Holy and Excellent Religion which they had embraced and not to be removed from it either by the subtile insinuations of their Brethren the Jews who pretended that they were in possession
is faithful that promised I Have already made entrance into these Words which I told you do contain in them I. An Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto because he is Faithful that promised If we continue stedfast and faithful to God we shall find him faithful to us in making good all the Promises which he hath made to us whether of Aid and Support or of Recompence and Reward of our Fidelity to him I have begun to handle the First part of the Text viz. The Apoostles Exhortation to Christians to be constant and steady in their Religion Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render without wavering signifies inflexible and unmovable not apt to waver and to be shaken with every Wind of contrary Doctrine nor by the Blasts and Storms of Persecution And that we might the better comprehend the full and true meaning of this Exhortation I propounded to do these Two things 1. To shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist And 2. To shew Positively what is implied and intended here by the Apostle in holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering 1. To shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and the Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist This I spake to the last Day and shewed at large that there are Two things which are not contained and intended in this Exhortation 1. That Men should not have the Liberty to examine their Religion and to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it Such I mean as are capable of this examination and enquiry which some I shewed are not as Children who while they are in that state are only fit to learn and believe what is taught them by their Parents and Teachers And likewise such grown Persons as either by the natural Weakness of their Faculties or by some great Disadvantage of Education are of a very low and mean Capacity and Improvement of Understanding These are to be considered as in the condition of Children and Learners and therefore must of necessity trust and rely upon the Judgment of others 2. This holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering does not imply that when Men upon examination and enquiry are settled as they think and verily believe in the true Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offer'd againg them Both these Principles I shew'd to be unreasonable and Arguments of a bad Cause and Religion I shall now proceed to explain the meaning of this Exhortation To hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering by shewing in the Second place what it is that is implied in the constant and steady Profession of the true Faith and Religion namely That when upon due search and examination we are fully satisfied that it is the true Religion which we have embraced or as St. Peter expresses it 1st Epistle 5. 12. That this is the true Grace of God wherein we stand that then we should adhere stedfastly to it and hold it fast and not suffer it to be wrested from us nor our selves to be moved from it by any Pretences or Insinuations or Temptations whatsoever For there is a great deal of difference between the Confidence and Stedfastness of an Ignorant Man who hath never considered Things and enquired into the Grounds of them and the Assurance and Settlement of one who hath been well instructed in his Religion and hath taken pains to search and examine to the bottom the Grounds and Reasons of what he holds and professeth to believe The first is meer Wilfulness and Obstinacy A Man hath entertained and drank in such Principles of Religion by Education or hath taken them up by Chance but he hath no Reason for them and yet however he came by them he is resolved to hold them fast and not to part with them The other is the Resolution and Constancy of a Wise Man He hath embraced his Religion upon good Grounds and he sees no Reason to alter it and therefore is resolved to stick to it and to hold fast the Profession of it stedfastly to the end And to this purpose there are many Exhortations and Cautions scattered up and down the Writings of the holy Apostles as that we should be stedfast and unmoveable established in the Truth rooted and grounded in the Faith and that we should hold fast that which is good and not suffer our selves to be carried to and fro with every wind of Doctrine through the slight of Men and the cunning craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive that we should not be removed from him that hath called us unto the grace of Christ unto another Gospel that we should stand fast in one Spirit and one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and be â—n nothing terrifled by our Adversaries and that if occasion be we should contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints and here in the Text That we should hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering For the explaining of this I shall do two Things 1. Consider what it is that we are to hold fast namely the profession of our Faith And 2. How we are to hold it fast or what is implied in holding fast the profession of our Faith without wavering 1. What it is that we are to hold fast namely the profession of our Faith i. e. of the Christian Faith or Religion For I told you before that this Profession or Confession of our Faith or Hope as the word properly signifies is an Allusion to that Profession of Faith which was made by all those who were admitted Members of the Christian Church by Baptism of which the Apostle makes mention immediately before the Text when he says Let us draw near in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure Water And then it follows Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering The Profession of Faith which we made in our Baptisms and which by the Ancient Fathers is call'd the Rule of Faith and which is now contain'd in that which we call the Apostles Creed and which is called by St. Paul Rom. 6. 17. the Form of Doctrine which was delivered to them i. e. to all Christians and 2 Tim. 1. 13. the Form of sound Words Hold fast saith he the Form of sound Words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus and by St. Jude The Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints So that it is the first and ancient Faith of the Christian Church delivered to them by Christ and his Apostles which we are here exhorted to hold fast the necessary and fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith
we have reason to be satisfied that the Church of Rome is a Church in the Communion whereof a Man may be safe But till that be made out they have done nothing to perswade any Man that understands himself that it is safe much less necessary to be of their Communion But if particular Points must be discussed and cleared before a Man can be satisfied in the Enquiry after the True Church then they must allow their intended Convert to be a Judge likewise of particular Points and if he be sufficient for that too before he comes into their Church I do not see of what use the Infallibility of the Church will be to him when he is in it A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised I Have already made a considerable Progress in my Discourse upon these Words in which I told you there is an Exhortation to hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering and an Argument or Encouragement thereto because he is faithful that promised I am yet upon the First of these the Exhortation to hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering by which I told you the Apostle doth not intend that those who are capable of examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion should not have the Liberty to do it nor that when upon due Enquiry they are as they verily believe established in the true Faith and Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that is fairly offered against their present Persuasion And then I proceeded to shew positively First What it is that we are here exhorted to hold fast viz. The Confession or Profession of our Faith the ancient Christian Faith of which every Christian makes Profession in his Baptism For it is of that the Apostle here speaks as appears plainly by the Context Secondly How we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith And of this I gave Account in these following Particulars 1. We should hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men contrary to plain Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind of which I gave you particular Instances 3. Against all the Temptations and Terrors of the World 4. Against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion I am now upon the 5. And Last Particular I mentioned namely That we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busie and disputing Men whose Design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion and to make Proselytes to their Party and Faction I have already mentioned some of the Arts which they use I mean particularly them of the Church of Rome in making Proselytes to their Religion and I have shewn the Absurdity and Unreasonableness of them As First In allowing Men to be very competent and sufficient Judges for themselves in the Choice of their Religion i. e. which is the True Church and Religion in which alone Salvation is to be had and yet telling them at the same time that they are utterly incapable of judging of particular Doctrines and Points of Faith As for these they must rely upon the Judgment of an Infallible Church and if they do not they will certainly run into damnable Errors and Mistakes And they must of necessity allow them the first a sufficient Ability to judge for themselves in the Choice of their Religion Otherwise in vain do they offer them Arguments to perswade them to Theirs if they cannot judge of the Force of them But now after this to deny them all Ability to judge of particular Doctrines and Points of Faith is a very absurd and inconsistent Pretence Secondly Another Art they use in order to their making a right Choice of their Religion is earnestly to perswade them to hear and read only the Arguments and Books on Their side Which is just as if one should go about to persuade a Judge in order to the better understanding and clearer Decision of a Cause to hear only the Council on one side Thirdly They tell them that the only thing they are to enquire into is which is the True Church the one Catholick Church mentioned in the Creed out of which there is no Salvation and when they have found that they are to rely upon the Authority of that Church which is Infallible for all other things And this Method they wisely take to avoid particular Disputes about the Innovations and Errors which we charge them withal But I have shewn at large that this cannot be the First Enquiry Because it is not the true Church that makes the true Christian Faith and Doctrine but the Profession of the true Christian Faith and Doctrine which makes the true Church Besides their way of proving Their Church to be the only true Church being by the Marks and Properties of the true Church of which the Chief is The Conformity of their Doctrines and Practices with the Primitive and Apostolical Church this unavoidably draws on an Examination of their particular Doctrines and Practices whether they be conformable to those of the Primitive and Apostolical Church before their great Enquiry Which is the True Church can be brought to any Issue which it is plain it can never be without entring into the Ocean of particular Disputes which they desire above all things to avoid So that they are never the nearer by this Method they can neither shorten their Work by it nor keep off the Examination of their particular Errors and Corruptions which are a very sore place and they cannot endure we should touch it I shall now proceed to discover some other Arts and Methods which they use in seducing People to Their Church and Religion and shall be as brief in them as I can Fourthly They pretend that the Roman Church is the Catholick Church i. e. the Visible Society of all Christians united to the Bishop of Rome as the Supream Pastor and Visible Head of Christ's Church upon Earth from whence it clearly follows That it is necessary to all Christians to joyn themselves to the Communion of the Roman Church otherwise they cannot be Members of the Catholick Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation We grant the Consequence That if the Roman Church be the Catholick Church it is necessary to be of that Communion because out of the Catholick Church there is ordinarily no Salvation to be had But how do they prove that the Roman Church is the Catholick Church They would fain have us so civil as to take this for granted because if we do not they do not well know how to go about to prove it And indeed some things are obstinate and
was discovered 3. The Decretal Epistles of the Ancient Popes a large Volume of Forgeries compiled by Isidore Mercator to countenance the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and of which the Church of Rome made great use for several Ages and pertinaciously defended the Authority of them till the Learned Men of their own Church have at last been forced for very shame to disclaim them and to confess the Imposture of them A like instance whereto is not I hope to be shewn in any Christian Church This is that which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slight of Men such as Gamesters use at Dice for to alledge false and forged Authors in this case is to play with false Dice when the Salvation of Mens Souls lie at stake 11. Our Religion hath this mighty advantage that it doth not decline Tryal and Examination which to any Man of ingenuity must needs appear a very good Sign of an honest Cause but if any Church be shy of having her Religion Examined and her Doctrines and Practices brought into the open light this gives just ground of Suspicion that she hath some distrust of them for Truth doth not seek corners nor shun the light Our Saviour hath told us who they are that love darkness rather than light viz. they whose deeds are Evil for every one saith he that doth Evil hateth the light neither cometh he to the light lest his deeds should be reproved and made manifest There needs no more to render a Religion suspected to a wise Man than to see those who profess it and make such proud boasts of the Truth and Goodness of it so fearful that it should be examin'd and lookt into and that their People should take the liberty to hear and read what can be said against it 12. We perswade Men to our Reliligion by Human and Christian ways such as our Saviour and his Apostles used by urging Men with the Authority of God and with Arguments fetcht from another World The promise of Eternal Life and Happiness and the threatning of Eternal death and Misery which are the proper Arguments of Religion and which alone are fitted to work upon the Minds and Consciences of Men the terror and torture of death may make Men Hypocrites and awe them to profess with their Mouths what they do not believe in their Hearts but this is no proper means of converting the Soul and convincing the Minds and Consciences of Men and these violent and cruel ways cannot be denyed to have been Practised in the Church of Rome and set on foot by the Authority of Councils and greatly countenanced and encouraged by Popes themselves Witness the many Croisades for the extirpation of Hereticks the standing Cruelties of their Inquisition their occasional Massacres and Persecutions of which we have fresh Instances in every Age. But these Methods of Conversion are a certain Sign that they either disturst the Truth and Goodness of their Cause or else that they think Truth and the Arguments for it are of no force when Dragoons are their Ratio ultima the last Reason which their Cause relies upon and the best and most effectual it can afford Again we hold no Doctrines in defiance of the Senses of all Mankind such as is that of Transubstantiation which is now declared in the Church of Rome to be a Necessary Article of Faith so that a Man cannot be of that Religion unless he will renounce his Senses and believe against the clear Verdict of them in a plain sensible matter but after this I do not understand how a Man can believe any thing because by this very thing he destroys and takes away the Foundation of all Certainty if any Man forbid me to believe what I see I forbid him to believe any thing upon better and surer Evidence St. Paul saith that Faith cometh by hearing but if I cannot rely upon the certainty of Sense then the means whereby Faith is conveyed is uncertain and we may say as St. Paul doth in another case Then is our Preaching vain and your Faith also is vain Lastly To mention no more particulars as to several things used and Practised in the Church of Rome we are on the much safer side if we should happen to be mistaken about them than they are if they should be mistaken for it is certainly Lawful to read the Scriptures and Lawful to permit to the People the use of the Scriptures in a known Tongue Otherwise we must condemn the Apostles and the Primitive Church for allowing this Liberty It is certainly Lawful to have the publick Prayers and Service of God celebrated in a Language which all that joyn in it can understand It is certainly Lawful to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to the People in both kinds otherwise the Christian Church would not have done it for a Thousand Years It is certainly Lawful not to Worship Images not to pray to Angels or Saints or the Blessed Virgin otherwise the Primitive Church would not have forborn these Practices for Three Hundred Years as is acknowledged by those of the Church of Rome Suppose a Man should pray to God only and offer up all his Prayers to him only by Jesus Christ without making mention of any other Mediator or Intercessor with God for us relying herein upon what the Apostle says concerning our High Priest Jesus the Son of God Heb. 7 25. That he is able to save them to the utmost who come unto God by him i. e. by his Mediation and Intercession since he ever liveth to make Intercession for them might not a Man reasonably hope to obtain of God all the Blessings he stands in need of by Addressing himself only to him in the Name and by the Intercession of that one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus Nay why may not a Man reasonably think that this is both a shorter and more effectual way to obtain our requests than by turning our selves to the Angels and Saints and importuning them to solicite God for us especially if we should order the matter so as to make ten times more frequent Addresses to these than we do to God and our Blessed Saviour and in comparison of the other to neglect these we cannot certainly think any more able to help us and do us good than the great God of Heaven and Earth the God as St. Paul styles him that heareth Prayers and therefore unto him should all flesh come We cannot certainly think any Intercessor so powerful and prevalent with God as his only and dearly beloved Son offering up our Prayers to God in Heaven by vertue of that most acceptable and invaluable Sacrifice which he offered to him on Earth we cannot surely think that there is so much Goodness any where as in God that in any of the Angels or Saints or even in the Blessed Mother of our Lord there is more Mercy and Compassion for Sinners and a tenderer sense of our Infirmities
to him did and suffered more for us than any Man ever did for his best Friend If we should be reduced to Poverty and Want let us consider Him Who being Lord of all had not where to lay his head who being rich for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich If it should be our lot to be persecuted for righteousness sake and exercised with Sufferings and Reproaches Let us look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who endured the Cross and despised the shame for our sakes In a Word can we be discontented at any Condition or decline it in a good Cause when we consider how Contented the Son of God was in the meanest and most destitute how Meek and Patient in the most afflicted and suffering Condition how he welcomed all Events and was so perfectly resigned to the Will of his Heavenly Father that whatever pleased God pleased him And surely in no Case is Example more necessary than in this to engage and encourage us in the discharge of so difficult a Duty so contrary to the bent and inclination of Flesh and Blood A bare Precept of Self-denial and a peremptory Command to sacrifice our own Wills our Ease our Pleasure our Reputation yea and Life it self to the Glory of God and the Maintenance of his Truth would have sounded very harsh and severe had not the Practice of all this been mollified and sweetned by a Pattern of so much advantage by One who in all these respects denied himself much more than it is possible for us to do by One who might have insisted upon a greater Right who abased himself and stooped from a greater Hight and Dignity who was not forced into a condition of Meanness and Poverty but chose it for our sakes who submitted to Suffering tho he had never deserved it Here is an Example that hath all the Argument and all the Encouragement that can be to the imitation of it Such an Example is of greater force and authority than any Precept or Law can be So that well might our Lord thus going before us command us to follow him and say If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For if He thus denied himself well may We who have much less to deny but much more Cause and Reason to do it He did it voluntarily and of choice but it is our Duty He did it for our sakes we do it for our own His own Goodness moved him to deny himself for us but Gratitude obligeth us to deny our selves in any thing for him We did not in the least deserve any thing from him but he hath wholly merited all this and infinitely more from us So that such an Example as this is in all the Circumstances of it cannot but be very powerful and effectual to oblige us to the Imitation of it But the Reasonableness of this Precept will yet farther appear if we consider in the Third place That God hath promised to all Sincere Christians all needful Supplies of his Grace to inable them to the discharge of this difficult Duty of Self-denial and to support and comfort them therein For the Spirit of Christ dwells in all Christians and the same Glorious Power that raised up Jesus from the Dead works mightily in them that believe Eph. 1. 19. That ye may know saith St. Paul speaking in general to all Christians what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Of our selves we are very weak and the Temptations and Terrors of the world very powerful but there is a Principle residing in every true Christian able to bear us up against the World and the power of all its Temptations Whatsoever is born of God saith St. John overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Ye are of God little children and have overcome because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world And this Grace and Strength was afforded to the first Christians in a most Extraordinary manner for their Comfort and Support under Sufferings So that they were strengthned with all Might according to God's glorious Power unto all long-suffering with joyfulness as St. Paul prays for the Colossians Ch. 1. 11. And these Consolations of the Spirit of God this Joy in the Holy Ghost was not peculiarly appropriated to the first times of Christianity but is still afforded to all sincere Christians in such degree as is necessary and convenient for them And whenever God exerciseth Good Men with tryals more than humane and such Sufferings as are beyond the ordinary rate of humane Strength and Patience to bear he hath promised to endue them with more than humane Courage and Resolution So St. Paul tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10. 13. He is faithful that hath promised who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it And why should we be daunted at any Suffering if God be pleased to increase our Strength in proportion to the Sharpness of our Sufferings And Blessed be God many of our persecuted Brethren at this day have remarkably found this comfortable Assistance and Support tho many likewise have fallen through fear and weakness as it also hapen'd in the Primitive times But where ever this Promise is not made good it is as I have formerly said by reason of some Fault and Failing on our part Either Men were not Sincere in the profession of the Truth and then no wonder If when Tribulation and Persecution ariseth because of the Word they are offended and fall off Or else they were too Confident to themselves and did not seek God's Grace and Assistance and relie upon it as they ought and thereupon God hath left them to themselves as he did Peter to convince them of their own Frailty and rash Confidence and yet even in that case when there is Truth and Sincerity at the bottom there is no Reason to doubt but that the Goodness of God is such as by some means or other to give to such persons as he did to Peter the oportunity of recovering themselves by Repentance and a more stedfast Resolution afterwards 4. If we consider in the last place that our Saviour hath assured us of a Glorious and Eternal Reward of all our Self-denial and Sufferings for him a Reward Infinitely beyond the proportion of our Sufferings both in the Degree and Duration of it Now the clear discovery of this is peculiarly owing to the Christian Religion and the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And as our Blessed Saviour hath assured us of