and Efficacy to prevail with GOD in all likelihood was Either because he was one of the greatest Quality of those that were guilty and therefore influenc'd many Others by his Example Or else which is not improbable because this Couragious Action of his in beginning the Execution gave occasion to the rest of the Youth to follow his Example and clear the whole Camp of Israel of the Offenders And without doubt this was the reason why Phinehas was afterwards sent Commander of the Army against the Midianites because GOD was likelier to bless that Hand with Success which had thus led the way and signaliz'd it self by such an Act of Exemplary Justice This same Method of GOD's Dealing by whole Nations according to that visible Appearance of Piety and Open Face of Religion that is among them is very discernable in the whole Series of GODs Dispensations to the Jews And if we could see the Secret Hand that manages all the Affairs of this World we should find this to be at the bottom of them all as the main Spring by which all Nations and Governments all Cities and Communities undergo that great variety of Changes and Revolutions Now the Wisdom and the Justice of GOD in this is very Accountable by us notwithstanding that the Good are promiscuously involv'd in the same Calamities with the Wicked For 1. Since good and bad People according to our Saviour's Similitude grow together like the Tares and the Wheat they must therefore undergo all the several Changes of Weather in common let the Cause be what it will His Sun must shine and his Rain descend upon both alike So that He hath no other way of dealing with whole Communities but by sending Temporal Blessings or Judgments upon all together And that GOD might appear Just and True in all his Dealings by the Children of Men the Cause of these things must be something that is common to them both and that can be only this general Appearance of Goodness or open Permission of Scandalous Vices For Secret Piety and Sincerity is proper only to the Good and Rewardable in another World And therefore as the Eternal Welfare of Men hereafter depends upon their own Secret Piety so the Prosperity of whole Nations proceeds from the Open Profession of Religion and Morality So that in great Strictness Men are in all senses the true Cause of all the Misfortunes that befal them either in this World or the next GOD hath no other way I say of Dealing with whole Nations and Societies of Men now so as to proceed without all Exception and preserve his Attributes inviolable But when these little Ties and Temporary Obligations which Unite Men into Bodies here shall be Dissolv'd and Mankind New Model'd into two Great and Opposite Parties never to mix again then there will be full scope for the Exercise of all the Goodness of GOD upon the one and of his just Vengeance upon the other 2. The Judgments of GOD may very Justly come upon the Good for want of a Zealous Endeavour of Suppressing those Scandalous Vices in others Persons may be truly Vertuous and Holy in themselves and yet be without a good measure of Indignation at Open Impiety and Lewdness so that they deserve to share in the Consequences of that Impiety they did not use their utmost Endeavours to suppress And accordingly no question but the Plague swept away many of those who were not guilty of the Sin that caus'd it and would have destroy'd many more even of those that were innocent if this speedy Suppression of those Vices had not prevented it Nay thô we shou'd suppose no want of Zeal in those that are Innocent yet there is no Injustice in their Suffering for the Sins of others First Because there are no Temporal Judgments can befal them but what are the due Reward of their own Sins and Secondly Because thô they were not but that they suffered wrongfully yet this may be design'd by GOD in order to an ample Recompence hereafter Whereas if the Bad should fail of a Reward in this Life there is no room left for it in another World 3. Another Reason why bare-fac'd Impiety and open Profaness have such a Tendency to bring down Judgments upon all in Common is Because they are a direct Affront and Challenging of GOD. Publick Scandalous Sins when they grow general become a National Quarrel with him and therefore lay a sort of Necessity upon GOD to vindicate his Honour and visit a Nation while it is such for those bold and open Defiances of Heaven since there can be no opportunity for this hereafter Besides This of openly expressing the inward corruptness of Mens Souls seems to be accidental to the guilt for 't is no more than proclaiming and giving vent to what was hidden before and therefore we can't conceive how it can have so direct an Influence upon Mens Future State For their greatest Misery will then be the Natural Result of their inward Depravation of Mind and Conscience and therefore the other seems necessarily to require some Punishment in this Life thô the many Evil Consequences of Scandalous Sins may hereafter be punisht by a positive Act of Justice And therefore 't is those Open Sins which are not to be conceal'd from the knowledge of Men such as Cursing Swearing and Adultery c. for which a Land is said to mourn Hypocricy thô it is a base and detestable thing yet it seems to have some sense of GOD and Goodness left thô it preposterously Act contrary to them both It is commendable in this that t is asham'd of its own Deformity and the wearing the Mask of Religion is a tacite Acknowledgment they wou'd be sincerely good if this cou'd be had with the same Ease And it shews they wou'd hide their Wickedness from GOD too as well as from Men if it were possible But open Debauchery and profest Impiety renounces all the intrinsick worth of Religion 't is a direct Affront to Heaven and a Daring of GOD And therefore when he is thus Challenged he is constrain'd to Punish for the Justification of his Honour But when on the contrary they appear outwardly to be Holy the Honour of GOD is however preserv'd and the dangerous Consequences prevented Thô they have nothing of true Religion at the heart yet it shews some Veneration for Him and his Laws which thô it be that of Slaves and Vassals and not of True Subjects yet 't is not left without a Recompence proper for it A meer form of Godliness and empty pretence of Piety often meets with a suitable Recompence so that what our Saviour says of particular Hypocrites is true of greater Bodies and Communities of them That they have their Reward A famous instance of this is not out of the Memory of some yet alive a time when all solid Vertue and moral Honesty was drein'd from Christianity and nothing left but the outside of it yet this was proof against all the
sutable Punishments in this life But now the inward purity of our Souls is requir'd and nothing can make Men afraid of sinning in their Minds but a clear revelation of Hell and a full prospect of eternal damnation and therefore these are the only tertors of the Lord now In the first times of the Gospel indeed death was inflicted upon malicious obstinate Offenders by a supernatural power but this with all the other acts of God's extraordinary dispensations have ceased so that all such mighty impulses pretended now adays are only from the Devil The Gospel proposes no temporal Punishments for the sins of Men but such as follow the nature of the Sins themselves And therefore the severest Ecclesiastical Censures are the Exposing Men to shame and Cutting them off from the Body of the Church and so consigning them over unto the judgment of the Great Day But thô it be now utterly unlawful in us to punish Vice in others unless where we have Authority our selves or derive it from the Laws of the Land Yet thus much is very evident from this action of Phineas and those other instances of Zeal consequent to it that all Men may and ought to shew their Zeal for the glory of God and discouragment of Vice by all those means which are permitted by the Gospel And there are several ways of doing this As by shewing our dislike to it at all times and in all persons by reproving the sins of others whenever it is proper and seasonable and that we have any hopes our Reproofs will do good and lastly by doing all that in us lies to promote the Execution of those good and wholsom Laws which are Enacted against impudent Profaness and Impiety And that which makes this last way of shewing our Zeal so necessary now is because multitudes who go by the name of Christians have cast off all fear of any thing else but Temporal Laws all the Methods of the Church against such Scandalous Offenders have quite lost their force There was a time and O! that we might see it in our days when Men knew the strength of Ecclesiastical Censures when they were sensible that God was with his Church in all its Judiciary Proceedings ratifying all its just Sentences binding of them in Heaven and recording of them there to be produc'd at the great Day of Accounts But now they regard nothing but what they feel so that there is no way left of dealing with them but by those Human Laws which they dread more than Damnation and the Power of the Civil Magistrate which they fear more then that God who is a Consuming Fire II. The second thing I shall observe from these words is That the nature of a true Zeal consists in our Indignation at what is plainly against the Laws of God and evidently sinful That instance we have of a true Zeal here was against Adultery Fornication and the Idolatrous worship of Baal Pehor which as one observes from the signification of the name was an Idol purposely contrived to excite People to Lewdness and Impurity by the sight of it and therefore his Zeal was approved by God in these words while he was zealous for my sake among them This of being incens'd at the known and uncontested sins of Men is the being truly zealous for the sake of God and not when People are transported against things dubious and of no great moment when they lay out all their Zeal against Circumstances and things in their own nature lawful or indifferent There is more requir'd in order to a true Zeal than meer heat of our Blood and a great indignation of mind People may be thus far zealous in a bad as well as a good Cause For the Midianites were no doubt very zealous against the Israelites when they prostituted their Women of greatest Quality to destroy them So that being levell'd at things which are plainly against the Laws of God is the only distinguishing mark of a true Zeal And it is more or less true according to the evidence and plainess of those Precepts of God against which the sins are committed When the things against which we are zealous are dubious our Zeal if violent is blamable if the things are of no great moment or indifferent then our Zeal is trifling and frivolous if the things are in their own nature lawful then our Zeal is downright sinful Now Fornication and Adultery Cursing and Swearing Blasphemy and Profaness Drunkenness and Gluttony Unjust Gain and Oppression Rebellion and Disobedience to Laws and Government Breaking of Amity among Christians and Dissolving of Unity in the Worship of GOD These and such-like are openly and palpably against the express Commands of GOD and therefore these are the things against which our Zeal shou'd be levell'd For otherwise we have just cause to suspect that it proceeds from Natural Temper or Humor or Interest or Ignorance and Mistake or from the Delusions of the Devil and our own Imaginations But in things of that gross nature our Zeal is always Safe and Commendable And therefore here by the way I ought not to omit the Just Commendation of the late Zeal of our Dissenting Brethren in their hearty Endeavours and liberal Contributions for carrying on this Design of putting the Laws in Execution against such of those Vices as are made liable to Temporal Punishments Had they begun this Work no one could have said That it was the Factious Design of a Party but a True and Regular Zeal because the Instances are such as are plainly and directly against the Laws of GOD as well as those of the Land and not such as are Dubious and Indifferent in their own nature No we commend them for their hearty Concurrence with us and we hope not to be out-done by them in this good Work But since all this visible Piety and Zeal against Irreligion and Profaness hath first appear'd among the Members of the Establish'd Church it must be Acknowledged that our Constitution and Principles are better Calculated for the Encouragement of all Vertue and Goodness and the Suppression of Vice among them and nothing can possibly be a greater Inducement to all well-disposed People to joyn in its Communion than to see what a Natural Tendency it hath to make People truly Good and Vertuous We must both of us with Sorrow of Heart confess That our Separate Communions have been the immediate Natural Cause of all that Torrent of Profaness and Irreligion Immorality and Lewdness which during the two late Reigns came in upon these Lands with an Irresistable violence which hath so broke the Sinews of all Ecclesiastical Discipline and depriv'd the Church of that Power Originally inherent in it by a Divine Right deriv'd from Christ himself that we are both of us now forc'd to fly to Temporal Laws for the Suppression of such Sinners who having no fear of GOD before their Eyes must necessarily despise the Church And 't is a Melancholly Consideration that
opposition of those who had more of the substance but too little of the outward shew and profession of it This gave them such Success that they overcame all Difficulties till at last Hypocrisy assum'd the Throne ador'd by all its Votaries and reign'd till the Varnish came off the guilded Idol and discovered nothing but Clay and Rottenness all within And now if they had Ears to hear I wou'd speak somthing to those bold and resolute Sinners who are the occasion of all this Trouble and Charge But they are so far past feeling that none of the Terrors of God can touch them and therefore I must leave them to other methods I shall only mind them here if ever they are dispos'd to consider it that besides the proper guilt of their own sins they will in the day of Judgment be accountable for all those Evils upon their Country which have been the consequences of their sins in this life and that thô they may escape the hand of Justice here yet Damnation expects them and they are only Repriev'd till the Judgment of the Great Day V. The last thing I shall observe from hence is That as the Suppression of Scandalous Wickedness diverts the Judgments of God from a People in general so it brings down particular Blessings on the Heads of those which are the Instruments of it For this action of Phinehas Behold says GOD I give him my Covenant of Peace by which Interpreters understand Prosperity and all Temporal Blessings And besides it follows that GOD would give him the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood i. e. confirm it in the same Line to him and his Posterity But Eli afterwards forfeited the Priesthood for the contrary reason because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not A tenderness to his own Children made him disregard the Publick Good and prefer the Ease and Quiet of his Private Family before the Publick Welfare of the Church Whereas Phinehas in all likelihood ran a great hazard of his Life since Zimri and Cosbi were considerable Persons One the Head of a Chief House and the Other a Prince's Daughter of Midian and therefore probably there wanted not People to endeavour a Revenge And the Success must have been very uncertain at a time when their general Lewdness as appears by this action of Zimri's out-brav'd the Laws and Magistrates and therefore as it is Psal 106. This was counted to him for Righteousness thrô all Generations for evermore This was a Rare and Admirable Instance of a truly generous Zeal and Publick Spirit than which nothing is more acceptable to Almighty God because it places Him and his Cause uppermost in our Minds and makes all things subservient to his Will this is the greatest indication of a sincere love of God and is truly the highest pitch of Virtue Even the Heathens had a mighty sence of the excellence of this concern for the common Good as appears from the many Brave and Generous Actions they did for their Superstition And the wise Athenian Lawgiver being ask'd Which was the most effectual means of preserving Justice and Equity in a City answered That those who receive no Injury by unlawful things be equally incens'd as those who suffer by them And gave this as the surest sign of the decay of any Community when every one is eagerly bent upon their own welfare without regard to any thing beyond themselves The Gospel improves and encourages this Excellent Temper and requires such a disposition of heart and mutual Concern for the good of one another in all its Members as if they were but one Family and teaches to prefer the glory of God above all that is near and dear to us The description of our Saviour's Temper in the 69 Psalm is That the Zeal of Gods House had eaten him up i. e. the Zeal and Concern he had for the glory of GOD and his Church even prey'd upon his Spirits It follows And the Reproaches of them that reproached thee is fallen upon me i. e. I have as quick and feeling a sense of any reproach or dishonour done to Thee as if it were done to my self Let therefore the same Spirit be in us and let us lay to heart the daily Profanations of GOD's holy Name among us the open Reproaches of his Divine Truths and the manifold Transgression of his Laws with a hardy Insolence and Publick Defiance And let us not be wanting to do all that in us lies for the Glory of GOD and the Dignity of his Laws at a time when we have so fair an Opportunity given us of shewing our Zeal for GOD our Indignation at the Vices and Immoralities of the Age and to promote a General Reformation of Life and Manners Why Men shou'd not be as Zealous in the Execution of Laws made against Vice as of those that are made in favour of their Temporal Interests is hard to tell unless it be that they love the World better than they do GOD. And why giving of Evidence in these Cases should be more condemn'd than in any Case of Injustice done to our selves I know not there can be no Reason given but because People are more Tender of their Worldly Concerns than they are of the Glory of GOD. What were these good Laws made for Nay what have we a Religion for Certainly not for meer shew and formality therefore all who had any hand in making these Pious Laws are bound to forward and promote the Execution of them as they will defend us all from the Imputation of a Solemn National Hypocrisie 'T is a shame to see with what Fierceness and great Expence of Time and Money Men will prosecute an Affront done to themselves and yet leave all those Excellent Laws that are made against the Publick Reproaches of GOD's holy Name and his Religion to lie neglected and trampled upon GOD be prais'd there is now a Spirit of Zeal and Fervour answerable to that of Phinehas stirr'd up among us with the true Qualifications and Temper of the Gospel in opposition to that growing Spirit of Irreligion and Infidelity which hath bid open Defiance to GOD and Goodness If we Cherish and Encourage it we may promise our selves the Victory in the End For true Vertue is then only in danger when 't is attack'd with Methods of Treachery and 't is never safer than when it hath declar'd open War with Vice The contest is now with Mens Vices and not with their Opinions 't is not the Interest of a Party but the common Cause of Christianity And 't is a Noble Enterprize for by removing these Immoralities we strike at the very Root of Socinianism which is now grown a many-Headed Monster and improv'd into a strange variety of Profane and Atheistical Principles all which look one way and agree to make a Body against all reveal'd Religion and the Mysteries of the Gospel 'T is a tedious way about to grapple with every one of them singly and by this means we find they multiply upon us But this is to cut them off all at once for make People but truly Moral Men and then 't is easy to make them Good and Believing Christians Let not therefore any of those who are the more immediate Undertakers of this Good Work be discourag'd with any Opposition they meet with they have but Two great Difficulties to struggle with and by the Blessing of God they will overcome them both The Jealousies of good People and the Fury of those that are prosecuted As for the Suspicions and Jealousies of good People they will all wear off by degrees when they consider what have been already the good Effects of your Zeal for GOD Goodness When they consider that face of Piety and Devotion which of late is visible in our Publick Worship in the Congregation the great increase in the number of Communicants in all our Churches the sensible Decrease of Publick and Scandalous Vice in this City c. Let them but lay these things which are a substantial present advantage to our Church and Nation against those groundless surmises of some ill Consequences they know not when nor how Let us but thorowly reform the Vices of this Age and that is the surest way of preventing ill Consequences in the next And indeed what Consequences can be more formidable then that of open Cursing and Swearing Adultery and Whoredom and all that Impudent and Bare-fac'd Impiety which with the Encouragement of the Magistrates and Contributions of good People they may be the happy means of suppressing As to the other Difficulty you are to grapple with you must expect the work will not be very easy for the Rage and Fury of Persons crost and disturb'd in their Vices is very well likened by Solomon to the fierceness of a Bear when she is rob'd of her Whelps But comfort your selves with this that they have no other Objection against you but what the Devils made to our Saviour That you come to torment them before their time Do you however appear as resolute for the Cause of God as they do for that of the Devil The World is come to that pass that it is impossible to be truly Good without Courage and Resolution Let us but remain Undaunted and this Impudent Impiety will loose Ground dayly till the Numbers of its Votaries grow so small that they will be asham'd of it The worst of Men have a secret Awe and Veneration for Vertue and Holiness there is so much of GOD in it that they can no more raze out all Veneration for it in their Minds then they can the Existence of a Deity And there is so much of the innate quality of the Devil in all Vice and Wickedness that if we do resist it manfully it will fly from us and we shall surely be Conquerors in the end FINIS