since it is Zeal for God that we are here speaking of it must be something wherein our Duty is concerned that must be the object of our Zeal So that a right Zeal of God implies that we do so well inform our selves of the Nature of our Religion as not to pretend a Religious Zeal for any thing that is not a part of our Religion If our Zeal for God be as it should be it must certainly express it self in matters that are good about such objects as God hath made to be our Duty It is good saith St. Paul to be always zealously affected in a good matter But if we mistake in our Cause if we take that for good which is evil or that for evil which is good here our Zeal is not according to Knowledge Secondly as the object of our Zeal must be according to Knowledge so also the Principle from whence our Zeal proceeds must be according to Knowledge also That is to say We must have solid and rational grounds to proceed upon in our concernment for any thing such as will not only satisfie our selves but all others that are unbyassed In a word such as we can justifie to all the World If it be every Man's Duty as St. Peter tells us it is to be ready to give an Answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him Then I am sure it is much more every Man's Duty to be able to give a reason of the Zeal that is in him Because this business of a Man's Zeal doth more affect the Publick and is of greater Concernment to it than what a Man 's private Faith or Hope is But yet how little is this considered by many zealous Men among us Some are zealous for a point to serve an Interest or a Faction But this is not to be owned as the ground and reason of Zeal for indeed if it should it would not be allowed of Others are zealous for no other reason but because they find their Teachers or those they most converse with are so They follow the common Cry and examine no more of the matter Others indeed have a Principle of Zeal beyond all this For they are â—â—ved from within to stand up for this or the other Cause they have Impulses upon their minds which they cannot resist But that in truth is no more a justifiable ground of any Man's Zeal than either of the former For if these Motions and Impulses that they speak of be from God there will certainly be conveyed along with them such Reasons and Arguments for the thing that they are to be zealous about as will if they be declared satisfie and convince all other reasonable Men as well as themselves For it is a ridiculous thing to imagine that God at this day doth move or impel Men in any other way than what is agreeable to the Reason of Mankind and the Rule of his holy Word And if the Man's Zeal can be justified by either of these there is no need of vouching Inspirations for it Thirdly As the Zeal which is according to knowledge hath a good matter for its object and proceeds from a right Principle So it is also regular as to the Measures of it He that hath it is careful that it do not exceed its due Bounds as the Ignorant Zeal often doth but he distinguisheth between the several objects he is zealous for and allows every one of them just so great a Concernment as the thing is worth and no more If the thing be but a small matter he is but in a small measure concerned for it If it be of greater moment he believes he may be allowed to be the more earnest about it But he looks upon it as a rash and foolish thing and an effect of great ignorance or weakness to be hot and eager for all things alike We should account him not many degrees removed from a Child or an Ideot that upon the cut of a Finger should as passionately complain and cry out for help as if he had broken a Limb. Why just the same Folly and Childishness it is to make a mighty bustle about small matters which are of no consequence in which neither Religion nor the Publick Peace are much concerned as if indeed our Lives and Souls were in danger It therefore becomes all prudent and sober Men to take care that their Zeal do not spend it self in little things that they be not too passionate and earnest and vehement for things that are not worth much contending for If we lay a greater weight upon a Cause than it will bear and shew as much warmth and passion for small matters as if the Fundamentals of our Faith were at stake we are zealous indeed but not according to Knowledge Fourthly The Zeal that is according to knowledge is always attended with hearty Charity It is not that bitter Zeal which the Apostle speaks of which is accompanied with Hatred and Envy and perverse Disputings But it is kind and sociable and meek even to Gainsayers It is that Wisdom which is from above that is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated It is a Zeal that loves God and his Truth heartily and would do all that is possible to bring Honour and Advancement to them But at the same time it loveth all Men. And therefore in all things where it expresses it self it purely consults the Merits of the Cause before it but lets the Persons of Men alone It is a certain Argument of an Ignorant and ungoverned Zeal when a Man leaves his Cause and his Concernment for God's Glory and turns his Heat upon those that he has to deal with when he is peevish and angry with Men that differ from him When he is not contented to oppose Arguments to Arguments and to endeavour to gain his point by calm Reasoning but he flies out into Rage and Fury and when he is once transported herewith he cares not what undecent bitter Reflections he makes upon all those that have the Fortune to be of a different side But in these Cases Men would do well to remember that the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God as the Apostle expresses it All this kind of behaviour favours of the Wisdom of this World which is Earthly and Sensual and Devilish Fifthly and lastly Another inseparable Property of Zeal according to Knowledge is That it must pursue lawful Ends by lawful Means must never do an Ill thing for the carrying the best Cause This St. Paul hath laid down as a Rule to be eternally observed among Christians when in the third of the Romans he declares that their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Be therefore our Point never so good or never so weighty yet if we use any dishonest unlawful Arts for the gaining of it that is to say If we do any thing which is either in it self Evil and appears
prosper their Government and direct all their Affairs that all their Subjects might lead quiet and peaceable lives under them in all Godliness and Honesty But when in a Revolution a Prince was advanced to the Throne that they looked upon to be a good Man and an Encourager of the True Religion in that case they did not only readily submit to him but acknowledged it as the great Blessing of God to them that he had raised up such a Man to rule over them This was the Notion and this was the Practice of the Primitive Christians as to this matter I may indeed say of the Christians in all Ages And whatever you may have heard to the contrary I doubt not to say that this is the very Doctrine of the Church of England Let me therefore exhort all of you to be followers of Peace to premote publick Unity and Concord as much as is possible to study to be quiet and mind your own business to be more concerned for your Country and Nation than the Interest of any single Man in it heartily to submit to the Government and not only so but to thank God for the Blessings you enjoy under it and most earnestly to pray for the Continuance of them Lastly Never to espouse any Party or Faction against the Government nor ever to be driven away from the Communion of the Church of which you have always professed your selves Members by any of the pretences which some warm Men may suggest to you This I dare venture to say how uneasie soever some of you now may be in joining with our Prayers you will at last be ten times more uneasie in separating from us For Faction has no bounds and God knows whither it will lead a Man at last Were there nothing else but the Heat and Turbulency the Passion and Peevishness the bitter Zeal and Uncharitableness that the being of a Party doth naturally ingage Men in I say were there nothing else but this No Man that consults the peace of his own mind would for any consideration leave the publick Communion and espouse the cause of a separate Interest But there are worse Consequences than these and I pray God we may never feel them And now I have done with my Exhortation And I have spoke my thoughts very freely to you And I hope you will receive what I have said with the same kindness that I meant it And truly I have no reason to doubt of it after so long an experience as I have had of your Civility and Candor Indeed during all the time I have been among you which hath been now near sixteen Years I have been so kindly treated by you and have received so many Testimonies of your Good-will that I cannot but take this Opportunity of publickly acknowledging my Obligations to you and returning you my Solemn Thanks for Them I cannot indeed say that I have done my Duty as I ought and I heartily beg of God to forgive all my Defects But I have this satisfaction that I have sincerely endeavoured in all my Preaching to instruct you in the true Doctrine of the Gospel and to teach you the right way that leads to Salvation And I am so certain that I have not been mistaken my self nor mis-led you in that matter that I dare with Confidence address my self to you in some of the words of the Apostle which do immediately follow after my Text Viz. Those things which you have learned and received and heard from me do and the God of Peace shall be with you I shall ever bless God for that Providence of his which placed me among you and as I shall always and do earnestly desire all your Prayers for me so I shall always heartily pray for you that God would guide and prosper you that his good Providence would always watch over you for good that he would bestow upon you and your Children after you all sorts of Blessings needful and convenient for you and especially that he would deliver you from every evil work and preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom This God of his infinite Mercy grant c. SERMON X. Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal IN THE Abbey-Church at Westminster On the 5th of November 1691. Rom. x. 2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge THese are St. Paul's words and he spoke them of the Jews those unbelieving Jews that were so tenacious of the Traditions of their Fathers and so utterly averse to any Reformation of Religion That though it appeared by undeniable evidence that Christ Jesus was by God sent into to the World for that purpose yet did they to the last stand out in their opposition of him and his Gospel even to the final rejection of their Nation To these People doth St. Paul in this Chapter express a great Compassion heartily wishing and praying for their Conversion Brethren saith he in the first verse my hearty desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved That is that they may come to the knowledge of the Truth in Christ Jesus and by that means obtain everlasting Salvation And one reason why he was thus concerned for them he gives in the words following which are the words I have read unto you For I bear them Record saith he that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge It was a great motive to him to be concerned for their happiness that they were Zealous for Religion though he knew at the same time that the Religion they were then so Zealous of was not the right Religion nor did the Zeal they shewed for it proceed from right Principles According to the account I have now given of this Passage Three things we may take notice of from it viz. I. The Apostles approving and tacitly commending that Zeal which his Country-men expressed for Religion II. His meek and charitable behaviour towards them even when their Zeal for Religion was very faulty and blameable III. His discovery of the faultiness of their Zeal which lay in this that it was not according to knowledge These Three things I shall take for the Heads of my following Discourse upon this Text and shall afterwards make such Application of it as the Business of this Day calls for I. First I desire it may be observed That Zeal of God in general that is a hearty and passionate concernment for Religion The Apostle here finds no fault with On the contrary he approves it as a commendable thing For you see he represents it as a piece of virtue in his Country-men and speaks it to their commendation that they had a zeal of God I bear them record saith he that they have a zeal of God As much as to say that he owned they had that good quality and they were to be commended for it and for that reason he both wisheth them well and affectionately prayeth for them That which
are made it should be at their Peril if they transgressed them supposing Magistrates did their Duty And all this we say is very consistent with that Tenderness and Charity that all Christians and even Magistrates themselves in their private Capacity do owe to mis-perswaded erroneous Consciciences And then Secondly it is to be remembred that that Kindness and Tenderness to mistaken Zealots which we are speaking of from the Text is not to be expressed to all alike but to some more to some less to some perhaps in no degree at all according as the nature and quality of their Errors are and according as the Men that are guilty of them may more or less or not at all be thought to have a real Zeal of God and to act out of Principles of Conscience Thus for instance In the First place Those that set up for Patrons of Atheism or Epicurism that make it their business in their Conversation to expose all Religion and to bring it into contempt that ridicule the Professors of it as a company of easie credulous Men that make no Conscience of blaspheming God and all things Sacred as occasion is given them Why these Men may have Zeal enough for their Opinions and we find that they often have a great deal too much But are such to be treated with that sort of Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of No by no means For they are quite out of the bounds of my Text They have a Zeal indeed but it is not a Zeal for God but for the Devil and the Interests of his Kingdom And if one were to measure the greatness of Crimes by the mischief they do to humane Society I should think that this sort of People were not to expect so much favour and respect from Mankind as some other Malefactors that yet by our Laws are to pay for their offences at no less a rate than their Lives Again Secondly If there be any Men that under a pretence of Religion do teach or encourage or promote any sort of Vice or Immorality or whose Principles do necessarily lead to debauch Mens Manners in the plain matters of Sobriety Chastity Truth or Justice and the like such kind of People are by no means Objects of that Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of For the Laws of Nature as to moral Virtue and Vice are so plainly writ in every Man's heart that he must be supposed to be an Ill Man that can easily entertain any Principle let it come never so much recommended under the Name of Religion that contradicts them And whatever allowance may in charity be made for a Man's mistakes there is no reason that much should be made for his Wickedness Again Thirdly If there be any Men that whilst they express a great Zeal for the Purity of Religion and exclaim against the Corruptions of it as they term them which are introduced into the Publick Establishment and turn every stone to have all things setled in another Method yet all this while God and their own Hearts know that all this Concernment and Zeal of theirs for Religion though it make a great shew is only pretended and that there is another thing that lies at the bottom that is to say Worldly Interest and Dominion and Power which they hope to compass by such a Regulation of Matters as they desire I say if there be any such Men they are likewise no way concerned in that Compassion my Text speaks of For though they may be very Zealous yet it is a Zeal for their own secular advantages that acts them and not a Zeal of God If such Men could be known instead of being kindly and charitably thought of for their Zeal in Religion the Virtuous part of Mankind would look upon them as the worst of Hypocrites But since God only knows the Hearts of Men all such pretenders to Zeal for Religion must till we know them also be treated according to the Merits of the cause they pretend to be Zealous for But then Fourthly and Lastly All that I have now said is with respect to those that are out of the limits of my Text such as have no Zeal of God though some of them may pretend it But then as for those that really act out of Principles of Conscience and have a real Zeal of God though in a wrong way These are true Objects of our Tenderness and Compassion though yet in different degrees For according as their Principles and Practices do more or less injure our common Christianity or are more or less dangerous to our Government and Constitution in the same proportion the greater or less Tenderness and Indulgence is to be expressed towards them But most of what concerns this matter being already setled by Law I will not be so bold as to meddle in it and therefore I proceed to the Third Head of my Discourse III. The Third thing I told you we might observe from this Text was this The Apostle's tacit Reprehension of the Jewish Zeal upon this account that it was not according to Knowledge The Use I make of this is that from hence we may be able to gather to our selves a true Rule for the governing our Zeal in matters of Religion and likewise for the judging in others what Zeal is commendable and what is not For be our Zeal of God never so great yet if it be not a zeal according to knowledge it is not the right Christian Zeal And though we see others never so fervent and vehement in pursuing a Religious Cause and that too out of Conscience yet if this Zeal of theirs be not according to knowledge it is a Zeal that justly deserves to be reproved And though both we and they may for our sincerity in Gods Cause expect some Allowances both from God and Man yet neither they nor we can justifie it either to God or Man that we are thus foolishly and ignorantly Zealous I wish this mark of right Zeal that it ought to be according to knowledge were more considered For it seems not often to be thought on by those that are most zealous in their way of what perswasion soever they be This same business of Knowledge is a thing that is most commonly forgot to be taken in as an ingredient or Companion of Zeal in most sort of Professors For as the World goes those Men are generally found to be the greatest Zealots who are most notoriously Ignorant Whereas true Zeal should not only proceed from true Knowledge but should also be always accompanied with it and governed by it But what is it to have a Zeal according to Knowledge What doth this Character of justifiable right Zeal contain in it I answer it must at least contain in it these five following things First To have a Zeal according to Knowledge doth import that we be not mistaken as to the matter of our Zeal that it be a good Cause that we are zealous about And
Opinions so long as we keep them to our selves cannot possibly cause any disturbance in or do any injury to Society But a Power in the latter sense is absolutely necessary for if Men may be allowed to vent and publish whatever fancies come into their head and the Church have no Authority to impose silence upon them it cannot be avoided but she will be over-run with Heresies and embroiled in insinite Quarrels and Controversies to the destruction of her publick Peace The fourth Proposition is That we can have no just cause of withdrawing our Communion from the Church whereof we are Members but when we cannot communicate with it without the Commission of a Sin For if we are bound to Communicate with the Church when we can lawfully do so as hath been before proved it is plain we are bound so long to continue our Communion with the Church till it be unlawful to continue in it any longer But it cannot be unlawful to continue in her Communion till she require something as a Condition of her Communion that is a Sin So that there are but Two cases wherein it can be lawful to withdraw our Communion from a Church because there are but two cases wherein Communion with her can be sinful One is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion an Acknowledgment and Profession of that for a Truth which is an Errour The other is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion the joyning with her in some practices which are against the Laws of God In these two Cases to withdraw our Obedience to the Church is so far from being a Sin that it is a necessary Duty because we have an obligation to the Laws of God antecedent to that we have to those of the Church and we are bound to obey these no farther than they are consonant or agreeable to those But now from this discourse it will appear how insufficient those Causes how unwarrantable those Grounds are upon which many among us have proceeded to Separation from our Church For first If what I have laid down be true it cannot be true that Vnscriptural Impositions are a warrantable cause of Separation from a Church supposing that by Vnscriptural be meant no more than only what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Scriptures For the Actions required by these Vnscriptural Impositions are either in themselves lawful to be done or not lawful to be done If they be in themselves unlawful to be done then they do not fall under that notion of Vnscriptural we here speak of they are downright Sins and so either particularly or in the general forbid in the Scripture If they be in themselves lawful to be done then it cannot be imagined how their being commanded can make them unlawful So that in this case there is no Sin in yielding obedience to the Church and consequently no cause of withdrawing our Communion from it Neither secondly can it be true that Errours in a Church as to matter of Doctrines or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errours and Corruptions are only suffered but not imposed can be a sufficient cause of Separation the reason is because these things are not Sins in us so long as we do not joyn with the Church in them So that so long as we can Communicate with a Church without either professing her Errours or partaking in her sinful Practices as in the present case it is supposed we may do so long we are bound upon the Principle before laid down not to separate from her Neither in the third and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministery or living under a more pure Discipline in a separate Congregation a just Cause of forsaking the Communion of the Church of which we are Members And the reason is because we are not to commit a Sin for the promoting a good end Now as we have said it is a Sin to forsake the Communion of the Church whereof we are Members so long as her Communion is not sinful But the enjoyment of a less profitable Ministery or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministery or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful Thus have I as briefly as I could represented to you the Particulars of that Duty we owe to our common Mother in the preservation of her Vnity and Communion And I hope I have not been so zealous for Peace as to have been at all injurious to Truth I am confident I have said nothing but what is very agreeable to Scripture and Reason and the Sense of the Best and Antientest Christians And I am certain I have not intrenched upon any of those Grounds upon which our Ancestors proceeded to the Reformation of Religion among us And for most of the things here delivered we have also the Suffrage of several and those the most learned and moderate of our dissenting Brethren And now if after this any one be offended as indeed these kind of Discourses are seldom very acceptable all I can say is this That the Truths here delivered are really of so great importance to Religion and the publick Peace that they ought not to be dissembled or suppressed for any bad Reception they may meet with from some Men But as for the manner of delivering them I have taken all the care I could not to give offence to any I now pass on to the second part of my Task upon this Head which is to consider the Duty recommended in the Text with relation to particular Christians our Brethren And here my Business is to direct you to the Pursuit of those things that make for Peace as Peace signifies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Strife and Bitterness and Contentions The things that make for Peace in this sense are more especially these that follow which I shall deliver by way of Rules and Advices The first Rule is to distinguish carefully between matters of Faith and matters of Opinion and as to these latter to be willing that every one should enjoy the liberty of judging for himself This is one thing that would help very much to the extinguishing of those unnatural Heats and Animosities which have long been the Reproach of Christians If Men would set no greater value upon their Notions and Opinions than they do deserve if they would make a difference between necessary Points and those that are not so and in those things that are not necessary would not rigorously tie up others to their measures but would allow every Man to abound in his own sense so long as the Church's Peace is not hereby injured we should not have so many bitter Quarrels and Heart-burnings among us But alas whilst every one will frame a System of Divinity of his own head and every puny Notion of that System must be Christen'd by the name of an
the most remarkable for indeed it makes up a great part of the Old Testament Now in that History it is worth our taking notice of That every degree of publick Vice and departure from God's Laws was always punished with publick Judgments And on the other side every degree of publick Repentance and Reformation was always rewarded with publick Happiness and Prosperity So that any one that could make a right estimate of the Morals of that Nation and how it stood as to Virtue and Vice might constantly make a judgment likewise how it would fare with them as to their outward temporal affairs I must confess that generally speaking there is little force in those Arguments that are drawn from Examples But in the case I am now upon I think there is a great weight in them For though we cannot argue from God's dealing with one Person that he will just deal in the same manner with another Yet as to Nations and Kingdoms the case is otherwise as I before said For God's Dispensations and Providences to them seem all to proceed upon one immutable Foundation which will be the same in all Ages and Countries namely the expression and vindication of his Justice and Goodness in this World And for my part I have always been of this mind That there is no other difference between the History of God's dealings with his own People the Jews and that of other Nations but this That in other Nations the publick Events that happened whether good or bad though they were taken notice of yet they passed without any reflection on the true causes from whence they proceeded The Historians did indeed often lay their Fingers rightly upon the immediate visible outward occasions or means or instruments from whence their good or bad Fortune was derived to them But they searched no further They considered only second Causes and took no great notice of the first and principal Cause of all things God Almighty and his influencing humane affairs They left God in a great measure out of their Hypothesis and out of their History But now that the World might be awakened to a more hearty belief and sense of his Providence God took care to single out the Nation of the Jews and in them to give us a true Pattern or Platform of his dealings with all the Nations of the World And for that purpose he ordered that all the great strokes both of their departure from God and of their return to him and likewise both of the good or bad Fortune that did at any time befal that Nation should be faithfully Registred and the true Causes of them faithfully assigned That all Mankind might from thence receive Instruction how they ought to behave themselves towards God and what according to their different behaviours they were to expect To conclude this point By all that hath been said it appears That the State and Condition and Fortune of all Kingdoms and Nations is the very same with that of the Jews as it is represented by Achior the Ammonite in the advice he gave to Holofernes when he came up with an Army against that People You have the passage in Judith 5.17 Whilst saith he these People sinned not before their God they prospered because the God that hateth iniquity was with them But when they departed from the way that he appointed them they were destroyed in many Battels after a nonderful sort and were led Captive into a land that was not theirs But now they are turned to their God and are come up from their Captivity and have again possessed Jerusalem Now therefore my Lord and Governour if there be any fault in this People so that they have sinned against their God let us consider that this shall be their ruin and let us go up that we may overcome them But if there be no iniquity in this People let my Lord pass by lest their Lord defend them and their God be for them and we become a reproach before all the World Thus it is and will be always with all States and Nations if they notoriously sin against their God this will be their ruin But if there be not found iniquity in them it is in vain for any Enemy to set upon them for God will be for them and their Lord will defend them If this which I have said be not sufficient to satisfie any one about the truth of this point I might bring other Proofs for it I might for instance in the third place insist upon this That Virtue and Piety do in their own nature tend to promote the welfare and happiness of Peoples and Nations As on the other hand all Vice and Irreligion is destructive of humane Society And this without respect to any appointment or Decree of God that things should be managed in this way but purely in the very nature of the thing It is obvious That Virtue and Religion lay the surest Foundation for all those Blessings wherein the happiness of a Nation doth consist that is possible both by making Magistrates to govern well and by rendring the People easie to be governed And likewise by furnishing both the Governours and the governed with such kind of Principles and Habits as cannot fail with the Blessing of God to produce both Peace and Plenty and Victory and all other sorts of Prosperity in a Nation As on the other hand all Vice and Wickedness and Profaneness and Impiety do sow the worst Seeds in the World for the dissolving and breaking in pieces all Societies or at least for the so enfeebling them that they shall either be in a very low wretched condition among themselves if they have no Enemies or if they have any become an easie prey to the next Invader But I will not enter upon this Argument because I think the matter needs no further proof And I would spend the rest of my time in making some Application of what hath been said upon this point to the business of our present meeting on this Day WE are here met together for the solemn Humiliation of our selves with Fasting and Prayer before Almighty God In order to the Supplicating his Divine Majesty for the Pardon of our Sins and the Sins of our Nation And the imploring his Blessing and Protection to the King and Kingdom by continuing those Mercies to us we do injoy by averting those Judgments from us we have reason to fear and more particularly by giving a Happy Issue to that dangerous War in which his Majesty with the Kingdom is now engaged And very great reason there is that you the Representatives of the People of England should most seriously and solemnly join in this Religious Office since the Fortunes of the Nation you represent did never more lie at stake than at this present You have hitherto been acting and endeavouring for the Happiness and Security of your Nation by Humane Methods and we all put up our daily Prayers that what you have done and what