Zeal and some assiduity in the publick Exercises of Religion Lastly it is believed by many that God requires nothing else of Men but Confidence and that if they are in that Disposition they cannot come short of Salvation They think that in order to Salvation it is enough to acknowledge that they are miserable Sinners and to trust in he Divine Mercy and in the Merits of Jesus Christ This last Prejudice which reduces Religion to Acts of Confidence is perhaps the commonest of all And yet if we were to determine which of these Three viz. Knowledge Profession and Confidence is the least essential to Religion we must say that it is Confidence It is a thing unconceiveable and contradictory that a Man should be a Christian without Knowing and without making publick Profession of his Religion But a Man may be a Christian and a good Man too and yet want Confidence For as it frequently happens that a bad Man is animated with a false Confidence so a good Man may have a timorous Conscience and be possessed with groundless Fears Sometimes Melancholy or a want of Knowledge or of force of Mind or even Constitution may throw good Men into a State in which they feel no comfort But without insisting upon this it is visibly an Error as common as it is pernicious for Men to pretend that Knowledge Profession or Confidence are sufficient to Salvation when they are separated from the practice of Holiness It may perhaps be objected That no Man has these Opinions and that every Body acknowledges that Religion obliges Men to be Holy I grant that no Man does expresly exclude Holiness it is Confessed by all that the practice of it is necessary But yet I maintain that it is look'd upon as the least necessary thing in Religion And to prove this I need but alledge the difference which is made between Knowledge Profession and Confidence and the practice of good Works The Three first are generally pressed and recomended in another manner than the last As to Knowledge it is not without Reason represented as absolutely necessary it is said that a Man must know and believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith and whoever denies any one of them is excluded from Salvation This necessity are extended to many Doctrines which is not of the same importance with Fundamental Truths many Questions are determined and all these Decisions are made Articles of Faith If any one raises any Doubt about them he is treated as a Heretick and People cry out as if Religion was upon the brink of Ruin So that upon this Head extreme severity is used every Fault is Capital and no allowance is made for Humane Infirmity As to outward Profession the necessity of it is openly maintained and not without just Cause In this Point Man's Duty and the Precepts of the Gospel are rigorously pressed The least dissembling of a Man's Belief the least Act of unlawful Worship is called Apostacy It is declared that Men are bound upon pain of Damnation to forsake and suffer all rather than do any thing against their Conscience In relation to this nothing is remitted or softned and the weak and timorous are no ways indulg'd As to Confidence it is spoken of in such a manner as makes People conceive that it is the more effectual to Salvation the firmer it is and the more removed from doubt The greatest Sinner relies boldly upon the Mercy of God and does not question but that he has a Right to apply to himself all the Promises of the Gospel provided he believe that is to say as it is meant so he has but Confidence enough But when the practice of good Works is Discoursed of the Declarations of the Gospel are not pressed with the same rigor That Zeal which upon all other Heads hearkens to no Accommodation becomes here very tractable and a great deal of remisness appears as to this Article The Doctrines are pressed Publick Profession is strictly enforced and Confidence is highly recommended But it is said That Moral Duties must not be so severely urged and that something is to be allowed for Humane Frailty And yet it seems that as the Scripture inculcates nothing so much as the necessity of a good Life so it were necessary to insist as much at least upon this Point as upon any other and that it should not be rank'd as it is in the lowest Degree and among the least necessary Things One would think likewise that the pressing Sanctification is to require nothing of Men but what is as easy if not more than certain other Duties which are absolutely imposed on them upon pain of Damnation such as the forsaking all that is dear to them in this World and the suffering of Death in time of Persecution But without enlarging upon this Subject it is evident that the generality of Christians do not believe that Holiness is so essential a part of Religion as it really is and that they do not well understand the nature of Christianity from whence it necessarily follows that they must neglect the practice of Holiness But there are some Prejudices which do yet more directly attack Piety and they are those which People entertain concerning Piety and Morality it self I shall instance this first in the Opinion of those who pretend that Morality is not of such great Moment in Religion who speak of it with Contempt and cry it down and who unreasonably setting Faith in opposition to Good-works maintain that it is enough to believe and that those who insist upon Morals do not apprehend the Nature of the Gospel Now one would think that such Absurd and Unchristian Imaginations should be universally rejected but because whatever gratifies Corruption is usually welcome to Men these Opinions have their Advocates even among Divines as might easily be shewn from the Printed Works of some Authors who seem to have had a design to disparage Good-works and to oppose the necessity of Sanctification This Prejudice overturns the Foundations of Morality by destroying its necessity and rendring it Contemptible I only give here a hint of it because I am to shew in other Places that it is the heighth of Extravagance thus to set up Faith against Morality to ascribe all to the one and to speak but very slightly of the other And yet some People do not stop here They think it is dangerous to insist so much upon Morality nay some have proceeded so far as to say This was one of the Characters of Heresy I confess this Opinion is not very common It ought not to be imputed to the People nor even to the Libertines None but a few Conceited Divines have had the face to maintain it which by the by increases the Scandal that is occasioned by such Propositions I am willing to believe that those who advance them qualify them with some Restrictions and that they are not sensible of the terrible Consequences which flow from them but that they have
have Faith for Faith is a Persuasion to believe is to be persuaded and it is impossible to believe a thing right without Reason or Examination That which is called Faith is commonly nothing else but a confused and general Opinion which makes but very slight Impressions upon the Heart and Mind but true Faith is a greater Rarity among Christians than we are aware of Now as Faith is the only Principle of Piety so a bad Life does chiefly spring from Want of Faith and from Incredulity And there are two sorts of Infidels some deny and reject Divine Truths others do not quite deny them but they doubt and believe but weakly The Infidels who deny the Fundamentals of Religion are not many but the Number of those who doubt and are not well persuaded is very great This discovers to us the Reason why Men who are acquainted with the Divine Truths and profess to believe them do yet act quite contrary to the Dictates of Faith and Religion There seems to be in their Proceeding a manifest Contradiction It is a thing wondered at that People who believe a God and a Religion should live as if there was neither God nor Religion upon this we are apt to say that Sinners are not consistent with themselves and as if it were impossible to reconcile their Practice with their Belief we cry out that the depth of Man's Heart is unsearchable But there is no such wonder in the Case and the proceeding of bad Christians is not always so contradictory as it seems to be I confess that Men Sin sometimes against the Convictions of their own Consciences and that some who want not Knowledge do yet Live very Ill. This may proceed from Inconsideration from the violence of their Passions from too great a regard to their Temporal Interest from the flattering hope of Pardon or some such Principle But for the most part Men act consonantly and suitably to their Belief and it is but seldom that in the Conduct of their Lives they behave themselves contrary to the Sentiments and Principles that possess them We suppose that bad Christians believe the Truths of Religion and in that we are mistaken Many of them want Faith and are not fully convinced of those Truths Is it to be imagined that so many Persons who live in Sin who make Conscience of nothing and who violate every minute the Rules of their Duty should be thoroughly persuaded that there is a God who sees them and to whom they are to give an Account From all this I Conclude That the Ignorance of the General Truths of Religion is one of the principal sources of Corruption Some will say That these Truths need not be proved and that they are of the number of those first Principles which are taken for granted because they are imprinted on the Hearts of all Men. But this Objection is easily answered by what has been said just now I own that the Ideas and Principles of Religion carry in them a Natural Evidence inasmuch as they are demonstrable from Reason and Conscience and because there are Principles in Men by the help of which they may arrive at the Knowledge of the Truths of Religion But these Principles and Ideas have been in some measure stifled in many either thro' ill Education or worldly Business or Vice or some other Cause so that they feel the force and evidence of them but imperfectly and some have no sense at all of them Upon this Account it is necessary to excite and enlighten those Ideas to explain and establish those Principles I acknowledge further That some parts of those Proofs upon which Religion is built lie open to all Mens Eyes but yet the Ignorant and those who are taken up with other Objects do not observe them They should therefore be made to attend to them just as we make stupid and heedless People take notice of the Beauty of a Palace or the Skill of an Artist in some curious Workmanship which would otherwise pass unobserved by them However the Opinion of those who pretend that the General Truths ought not to be proved is contrary to the Holy Scripture which teaches us to Reason upon the Principles of Religion and to search into the Proofs of them where in order to Convince Men that there is an Almighty and Infinitely Good God it proposes to them the Beauties and Wonders which shine in his Works and exhorts them to the Consideration of them This may be seen in the Book of Job In the XIX and CIV Psal Rom. 1.19 20. and in many other Places 3ly It may further be said That the Proof of General Truths is too difficult for the Common People and that the Learned only are capable of such a Discussion I grant that all sorts of Persons are not able to comprehend all that has been Writ upon these Matters And therefore I do not pretend that it is impossible to have a true Faith without entring into the Detail of all these Proofs and without following with the utmost strictness all the deep and abstracted Reasonings which have been used to prove the Existence of God or the Truth of the Christian Religion I think rather those Matters ought to be treated with great Discretion especially in Sermons It would be a great piece of Imprudence to muster up in a Publick Discourse all the Objections of Atheists or the Subtilties of Libertines these ought to be referred to Private Conferences Those who speak to the People must take heed lest by Disputing and Speculating too much they render the Fundamental Truths Problematical and raise Scruples in Mens minds They ought to build upon this Principle That Men are carried by a Common and Natural Inclination to believe the Existence of God to acknowledge a difference betwixt Good and Evil and to own Providence and the other Truths of Religion but for all that it may be very useful and necessary to confirm those Truths to set them in the clearest Light and to Convince the People of them As to what is said That the Proofs of the Principles of Religion are not suitable to the Peoples Capacity I answer That most of those Proofs are such that there is no need of being either Learned or a Divine to be affected with them We ought to suppose here that the more important any Truth is the clearer and the easier the Proofs of it are I do not speak of all Truths there are some that are most certain whose Proofs are difficult and above the reach of common Understandings such are many Metaphysical Truths and Mathematical Demonstrations but at the same time the knowledge of those Truths is not necessary and a Man without danger may be ignorant of them I speak now only of those Truths which it concerns every Person to know and which are of general usefulness and necessity These are always clear and easily proved And this by the by ought on the one hand to make us admire the Wisdom and
Goodness of God who has so well provided for the Necessities of Men and on the other hand to set Bounds to our Curiosity and to fortify our Faith against those Doubts which might start up in our Minds by reason of so many things which we are ignorant of As therefore of all Truths none are of greater Consequence or of a more intire certainty than those which Religion depends upon so the Proof of those Truths ought to be simple evident and suited to all Mens capacity Thus when in order to prove the Being of a God we alledge for instance the State and Order in which the World subsists when we shew that the World cannot be eternal and that things had a beginning when we establish the Inspiration of Scripture by the Prophecies it contains which were undoubtedly written before their accomplishment When we prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the Truth of Matters of Fact and History and demonstrate that if the Facts upon which Religion is founded are not certain there is no such thing as certainty in the World in respect of things that are past and that if the Testimony of the Apostles is rejected there are no Witnesses or Historians who may not be rejected upon better grounds When we confirm the Sacred History by the concurring testimony of Pagan Writers and by the most Ancient and the most unquestionable Monuments which past Ages can afford When we reflect upon the manner in which the Christian Religion was planted in the World and upon the alteration it has made in it When we insist upon the Characters of Truth Sincerity and Divinity which are observable in the Scripture In short when we take Religion to pieces and make Men see and feel that its Doctrines its Precepts its Promises and its Threatnings have nothing in them that is absurd or bad or contrary to our natural apprehensions nothing but what perfectly agrees with sound Reason and the Sentiments of our own Consciences and nothing but what is advantagious to particular Persons and to Societies When I say we urge these Proofs and others like them and have the Art of proposing them in a clear and judicious Method it is certain that they contain nothing that is very difficult These are the clearest and the strongest Proofs that can be used in a Subject of this Nature and the Arguments which are made use of to establish these Proofs are for the most part so natural and so conform to the Ideas of our Minds and to the Principles of Common Sense that there are few even of the Vulgar who may not apprehend them if not perfectly and in their whole extent which is reserved to Men of a larger Capacity yet so far at least as sufficiently to be sensible of their Force If then Difficulties and Obscurities are to be met with in the Discussion of the Principles of Religion it is because this Matter is neglected and the People are little Informed But if the same Care had been taken to Instruct Christians in the Fundamental Truths of Religion which was bestowed upon Explaining and Clearing Particular ones they would have another kind of persuasion than they have of the Truth of their Religion These great and sublime Truths have without comparison more suitableness and affinity with the Nature of Men and the Sentiments of their Hearts than many obscure difficult and less necessary things which yet have been effectually taught them 4ly But against this Experience may possibly be Objected It may be said that there are Christians who most certainly have Piety and yet did never meditate much upon the Foundations of Christianity I. Answer That it is not conceivable how a Man should be a pious Christian without being persuaded of the Truth of his Religion For at this rate Piety would be but mere Conceit and Enthusiasm and we must say notwithstanding all that Scripture and Reason tell us to the contrary that Men are Christians without Knowledge or Reason It cannot be otherwise but that good Men must have been convinced of the Truths of the Gospel and have had a lively sense that these are the most certain and the most important of all Truths If we enquire what Principle it is which produces Piety in the Hearts of the most simple People we shall find it is an unmovable Persuasion that there is a God a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell which Persuasion is necessarily founded upon some of the Proofs I have hinted at I grant which no doubt will be Objected to me that in many this Persuasion is not clear enough and that it is not the result of a particular examination but this does not lessen the force of my Argument For though the Persuasion of Good Men should not be so clear and so well grounded as it might be yet it does not follow but that it is sincere a Man may be convinced of a Truth tho' he does not discover all the certainty and all the Proofs of it and tho' he is not able to answer all the Objections against it So that still it is true that there is no Religion without the belief of the General Truths of it After all we must acknowledge that there are Good Men who are not so well instructed upon this Head as it were to be wished And this defect of Instruction this imperfection of their Faith is one of the main Causes of the defects and imperfections of their Piety Thus we may frequently observe in their Conduct such Weaknesses and Opinions as do not agree with the pure Light of Faith and with the exactness of the Rules of the Gospel This is part of the Unhappiness we lament and of that Corruption of which we seek the Causes But no Man will dispute but that if the same Persons had more instruction they would carry Virtue much farther than they do The degree of Piety does ordinarily follow the degree of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no Piety and where Faith is weak and faint Piety is â—anguid and defective This is the geneâ—al State and Character of Christians at this time either downright Impiety or 〈◊〉 Piety that is both feeble and imperfect 5ly In the last place some will perhaps Object here that Incredulity is the effect â—ather than the Cause of Corruption and that Atheism does not produce Corâ—uption but Corruption Atheism To this 〈◊〉 say that these two things do mutually uphold and support each other Many fall into Infidelity because their Hearts are vitiated their licentious way of living takes them off from enquiring into Religion and hinders their believing of Divine Truths But it is not less certain â—hat one of the great Causes of the Disâ—rders of Christians is that either they do â—ot believe at all or that they believe weakly and confusedly and this cannot â—e reasonably contested II. Here is then the first and the prinâ—ipal Defect That Men are not sufficiently â—â—structed in the general Truths and Prinâ—iples of
namely that when the Scripture says that Faith is sufficient to Salvation we are to understand by the word Faith in this Proposition that true Faith which the Gospel requires Now if we ask what that Faith is and by what Marks it may be known All the Apostles will unanimously tell us that true Faith produces a Holy Life and that it discovers it self by all manner of Good Works They assign Good Works as the essential Mark and Character that distinguishes a saving from an Hypocritical Faith By that very thing therefore that the Gospel requires Faith it does likewise require Good Works since Faith cannot be without Works And by consequence the Opinion of those who fancy that Faith is sufficient without Works is evidently absurd and contrary to the Gospel and to the Nature of Faith it self But to set this matter still in a clearer light it is necessary to take notice here of two Mistakes which Men are apt to run into when they speak of Faith and Good Works The first is that they separate Faith from Works they look upon Faith as a thing quite different from Works and which supplies the want of them or rather they oppose Faith to Works as if these two things were contrary to each other A Corrupt Man will say I confess that I have not Good Works but however I have Faith Those who speak thus suppose that they may have Faith tho' they have not Works but St. James has directly confuted this Imagination †Jam. II. What does it profit my Brethren though a man say he has Faith and have not Works can Faith save him If Faith have not Works it is dead being alone Who can after this separate saving Faith from Good Works Can we separate that from Faith which God has declared to be inseparable from it It shews that Men are strangely blinded With Ignorance and Prejudice when at this time of day we are fain to prove things so plain and questionable The Second Illusion is that Men place Faith in Confidence alone and many define it by that They fancy that to have Faith is nothing else but to believe that God is merciful and to rely upon the Merits of Christ because Faith embraces the Promises of the Gospel the natural effect of which Promise is to fill the Heart with assurance and tranquility It is beyond all doubt that for the most part true Faith is attended with Confidence But Confidence is not the Whole of Faith and I cannot Imagine what part of God's Word countenances that Notion which places the Essence of Faith in Confidence alone The Faith which the Gospel speaks of consists in believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and the Saviour of the World in embracing his Doctrine as true and in making Profession of it in doing his Commandments and hoping for Salvation from him But the resolving all Faith and Religion into Acts of Confidence is the most extravagant Conceit that can enter into a Man's Head If this Notion was true it would follow from it that in order to be saved it is enough fore Man to believe that he shall be saved Which is the same thing as to say that whoever would have a right to confide in God needs do no more in order to that than actually to trust in him and that is a most ridiculous Thought which turns all Religion into a strong Fancy Before we believe a thing we ought to know why we should believe it and have good reason and solid Grounds for our Belief Before we trust in God we ought to satisfy our selves that we have a Right to confide in him for can a Man be saved only because without any ground or reason he fancies that he shall We ought not to rely upon God but according to his Promise Now God has promised nothing to those who live and are hardned in Sin far from promising any thing to them he threatens them with inevitable ruin What claim or title then can an obdurate Sinner have to the Mercy of God What Confidence can he repose in God's Promises as long as he continues impenitent None at all except we suppose in God a general Decree to save indifferently all sorts of Persons It must not be said that these Considerations are apt to Alarm and Disturb the Peace of Men's Consciences for they will Alarm none of those who are animated with true Faith and sincere Piety And as to others we do them a great piece of service when we awaken and terrify them out of that false Quiet into which a groundless Confidence has betraied them On the other hand it is a dangerous thing to teach that Confidence is the most essential thing to Faith for by this we may alarm some good Men who either through Melancholy or want of Instruction are destitute of Confidence and inward Peace And it has certainly happened that several Pious Persons are fallen into black Thoughts and sad Scruples concerning their Salvation and that they have in some measure desponded because they did not find Confidence and a sense of the love of God in themselves From all these Reflections it does evidently appear that Faith never ought nor can be separated from Good Works and that Christians are as much obliged to aply themselves to Good Works as they are to believe and to have Faith But now if it be asked why St. Paul â—hen opposes Faith to Works and why he excludes Works when he treats of Justification I answer that the Apostle â—ins at two things by this His design â—s to shew 1. That Works are not the Cause and Foundation of Men's Salvation â—ut that it flows from the pure Mercy of God through Jesus Christ This he proves with respect both to the Heathens and the Jews in the first Chapters of his Epistle â—o the Romans But he did not mean to say â—hat Good Works are not necessary under â—he Covenant of Grace His expressions are too clear to leave the least Room for any doubt about this matter To reâ—eject the meritoriousness of Good Works â—s one thing and to deny their necessity is â—nother But 2ly because it may be obâ—ected that St. Paul does intirely exclude Works and that he uses expression which implie that Christians are no longer obliged to the practice of them and that they have no influence on Men's Salvation either as Causes or Conditions but on the contrary are opposed to Faith Therefore I add that he speaks thus with relation to the Works of the ceremonial Law and especially to Circumcision There were many in St. Paul's time who asserted that Christians were bound to observe those Legal Ordinances It was about the Question that the Apostles met a Jerusalem and determined * Acts. XV. that Christians 〈◊〉 justified by Faith only and that the yoke of Mosaical Ordinances ought not to be laid up on them The same Conroverly is handled by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians where