conspicuous never triumphs so gloriously over the Powers of Satan as when it revives wretched Offenders from the Death of Sin unto the Life of Righteousness And the grievous Miscarriages of Good Men are often so ordered as to turn to their mighty Advantage For These have a natural Tendency to awaken their care they make them more sensible of their own Weakness and Danger and more vigilant to prevent it for the time to come than otherwise they would have been if their own Experience had not taught them upon what slippery Ground they stand They dispose them to be more tender and compassionate to their Brethren more gentle and sparing in their Censures more ready to forgive what is done amiss more diligent to contribute their endeavours for the rescuing and restoring such in the Spirit of Meekness when they reflect how easy it is to be overtaken and how prone All even the Best Men are to offend And they kindle in such Penitents a vigorous and active Zeal to make amends for the scandal of a bad Example by a stricter Holiness and brighter Virtues for the time to come So little reason is there that we should be delivered from all Temptation or be secured from sinning when we are tempted when the Consequences both of the One and the Other may be and often are so managed by the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence as not only not to destroy or impair the Piety of private Men but with the Increase of That to become Instruments of Greater Good More effectual to our own Salvation More serviceable to the Glory of God and his Grace and More beneficial to Religion in general than if Good Men had never been tempted or never fallen at all 2. Secondly As St. Peter's Fall confutes the Errour of Those who hold that men who once have true Grace cannot lose it so St. Peter's Rising again proves that such as have had the Unhappiness to lose Grace may be restored and recover it again And this overthrows the Novatian Heresy which consisted in affirming that there is no remission to be had for Sins committed after Baptism and against which the Sixteenth Article of our Religion is directly levelled An Errour in all Appearance chiefly owing to the mistaken Interpretation of two Texts to the Hebrews which have created great perplexity to ignorant and unwary Souls The first is that in Heb. VI. 4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost And have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance The other Heb. X. 26 27. If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Now for a right Understanding of these Passages we are to observe these Three things 1. First That the Scripture often expresses that by Impossible which is extreamly difficult Or which is impossible for humane Strength only but not so to Nature assisted by Divine Grace And thus our Blessed Saviour explains himself concerning Rich * Matth. XIX 26. Mens entring into the Kingdom of God by saying that though this be impossible with regard to the Corruptions and Temptations of such Persons and any Power of their own to resist and vanquish them yet * Luke XVIII 27. the things that are impossible with Men are possible with God He may by the prevailing influencces of his Grace wean their hearts from the World and effectually dispose them to accept such Terms of Salvation as of themselves they would never incline or submit to And thus though men who reject and quench the Holy Spirit by wilful Sin cannot renew themselves yet God can give them the Heart and Power of Repentance and Renovation 2. Secondly The Apostle addressing himself to Jews speaks with allusion to the Law of Moses which though it allowed of Sacrifices for the Expiation of Involuntary Sins such as proceeded from Ignorance or Infirmity yet did not make the like Provision for wilful and deliberate and presumptuous Offences But that This is not to be so strictly taken as if the Christian Dispensation had made no Provision for even such neither is evident from that Argument * Act. XIII 38 39. whereby the same Apostle proves the Excellence of Ours above the Levitical Institution Be it known unto you that through this man Jesus Christ is preached unto you Forgiveness of Sins And by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Laws of Moses If therefore men might even by the Law of Moses be justified from those Sins which were not wilful and if by Faith in Christ men may be justified from all things which by the Law of Moses they could not be justified from It follows that by the Evangelical Covenant even Wilful Sins are capable of a pardon in them that believe I say in them that believe for to remove this Difficulty effectually we must observe 3. Thirdly That those Texts to the Hebrews are meant not of every sort of wilful Offenders but of such as revolt and fly off entirely from the Faith and Profession of the Gospel For which reason they are branded with the Titles * Heb. X. 27 29. of Adversaries and such as crucify the Son of God afresh trample him under foot count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and do despight to the Spirit of Grace And these men to be sure it is impossible to renew while they continue in their Apostacy Because they have cast off their only Remedy For Faith is the indispensable Condition of Pardon All that believe are justified says St. Paul But this Faith They have renounced and disclaimed and consequently are not within the Covenant nor under the Influence of Grace or the Possibility of Benefit from the Sacrifice of that Blood which they esteem Common and no Sacrifice at all But the Case is far otherwise with Them who are engaged in a sinful Course and yet have not thrown off the Foundation of Christianity They may see their Folly and acknowledge the merit of their Saviour's Atonement They may comply with the good motions of that Spirit which they too long have quenched and resisted though they have not formally disavowed and done publick despight to him There is a mighty difference between walking unworthy of the Christian Faith and being formal and open Adversaries to it Between a Conversation unbecoming the Gospel and Principles that professedly overthrow the Gospel And consequently Those Passages of Scripture which strike at the One of these and declare it incapable of Forgiveness need not must not be so applyed to the Other as to exclude from all Hope and Comfort a Case so very distant from the former Thus much however must be
any other Science such particularly as Learned Mens differing in their Judgment about some difficult Points of it This is but too plain a Discovery that something else is cast into the Scale besides the real Merits of the Cause And that such People cavil at Religion not because they have Reason to think it is not true but because they wish it were not and apprehend it for their Ease and Interest that it should not be true 3. Lastly I cannot upon this occasion forbid my self addressing to you the Members of our established Church in particular most earnestly beseeching you to consider the Privileges you enjoy and to make a right Improvement of them You have not the Word of Truth lock'd up from you in an unknown Tongue nor are prohibited to use it freely You are permitted entreated commanded to peruse it diligently And we are very sure the more you do so the more ready you will be to give a reason of the hope that is in you and the less liable to be driven about by every blast of Doctrine Let me only beg that along with this Diligence you would bring Meekness and Modesty an honest Disposition and godly Fear That you would reflect very seriously upon the End for which God hath thus imparted his Will to Mankind which is not to entertain so much as to edify men to make them wise indeed but wise unto Salvation And consequently that keeping constantly this end in view and avoiding intricate and unseasonable Questions which the Apostle tells us do but ingender strife and perplex the minds of the unwary stick close to those plain profitable passages which may stand you in good stead at the last great Day of Account Such as may excite your Piety enflame your Devotion reform your Manners and render you useful and exemplary in your respective Stations and Capacities Such as may bring advantage to the Publick by reducing and mortifying all those unruly Passions and Affections which obstruct Peace and Order Charity and Justice For be very confident that He who lives best does in the Christian Sense know most And every one of competent Parts and Industry may know enough for these purposes * Micah VI. 8. God hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is a short and a plain Lesson and yet even this well learnt would not fail to bring us all to Heaven I shut up all with two memorable Passages of Moses and the Son of Sirach to this purpose The Former in the XXIXth of Deuteronomy at the last Verse Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and unto our Children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law The Latter in Ecclus. III. 21 c. Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee neither search the things that are above thy strength But what is commanded thee think thereupon with Reverence for it is not needful for thee to see with thine Eyes the things that be in secret Be not curious in unnecessary matters for more things are shewed unto thee than Men understand For many are deceived by their own vain opinion and an evil Suspicion hath overthrown their Judgment Without Eyes thou shalt want light profess not therefore the knowledge that thou hast not This wholsome Advice God gives us all the Grace to follow that we may receive the Truth in the Spirit of Meekness and obey it in the Love thereof for Jesus Christ his Sake To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit Three Persons and One God be all Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen SERMON II. THE HOLINESS Required in a Christian's Conversation Ephes V. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness GREAT part of this Epistle and particularly this Chapter is employ'd in urging the Advantages these Ephesian's had receiv'd by being converted to Christianity and the Improvements it was expected they should make of them To this purpose the Apostle advises them * Vers 8 9 10. to walk as Children of Light To prove what is the good and acceptable Will of the Lord and in order to their doing so to shake hands with their old Corruptions and have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness In treating of these Words I design to speak to these four following Particulars I. I will shew What those things are which the Apostle here commands us to avoid under this detestable Title The Works of Darkness II. What it is to have no fellowship with them III. I shall press the Reason for avoiding those Works which the Text hath couched by calling them unfruitful and then IV. I shall apply my self from the whole to the persuading every one of us to act like men duly convinc'd of the former Heads and the Engagements that lie upon us with regard to them I. I shall shew What those things are which the Apostle here commands us to avoid under the detestable Title The works of Darkness And here it is fit I put you in mind that all sins indeed of what nature or Quality soever are such Works and that we are absolutely forbidden any kindness for and Intimacy with them all For whether by Darkness we understand Ignorance and Error or whether those Regions of horrour inhabited by Devils and damned Spirits the Title will very properly belong to them in both respects Every Sin is owing in some measure to a defect in the mind and wrong Apprehensions of things Every one leads to those dismal Regions of Death Every one derives it self from the Prince of Darkness and is originally his Work But because even of sins there are differences to be made both as to the degree and as to the malignity of them since some do more manifestly carry the Character and Features of that old Serpent whose Spawn they are I will just mention some few which seem by way of Eminence to challenge this Title Now Of These Some were more peculiar to the Pagan World and such as St. Paul had an immediate respect to in this Chapter particularly that Idolatrous and Polluted Worship and all those vain Superstitions which even the wisest and most Learned Heathens had submitted themselves to And Others of them are such as do even now notwithstanding all the Light and Advantages of Christianity endanger mens Souls and draw them into a Resemblance of the Devil whose qualities they are Such especially are Pride and Ambition Envy and Malice Lying and Dissimulation Faction and Treachery and the Tempting others to Sin For under these Qualities the Devil is represented in Scripture and the Devilish Nature of these Vices is sufficiently manifested as soon as they are named So that without further enlarging upon so odious a Subject I shall think my self now at liberty to descend to my II. Second Particular
which was designed to enquire What it is to have no fellowship with these works of Darkness And here I can by no means think it proper to put the avoiding the Commission of the grossest Sins much less contracting the habits of them into this account For to call the Insolent and Haughty the Uncharitable and Censorious the Contentious and the Slanderer the man that repines at Good and triumphs in misery and mischief that disguises himself and deceives and betrays others to call Him I say only a Partaker in Wickedness To allow the zealous Advocates for Sin and busy Factors of the Devil them who make it their Business to put Vertue and Religion out of Countenance to corrupt all they converse with and carry on his Trade here upon Earth I say To allow such Wretches as these so gentle a Name as men that have Fellowship with Works of Darkness is to shew a great deal more Civility to Vice than becomes us This were to give too much Reputation to Sin by softning the worst of Practices and representing them to the World under such extenuating Terms It is necessary the Works of Darkness shou'd have no Veil drawn before them but be expos'd to the View of Mankind in their true Colours and that every one shou'd be made throughly sensible whose business he carries on and what he is doing and how great a guilt he contracts when he indulges himself in any of those Abominations And therefore I shall now proceed to tell you what other Instances of forsasaking such Corruptions the Apostle must in all reason be acknowledged to require here and that none of us can answer the Character of Children of Light unless to the avoiding the Pollution of such Lusts in our own Persons we do likewise add these following Particulars 1. First The declining as much as may be the Acquaintance and intimate Conversation of notorious and scandalously wicked men The Infection of Sin is so rank and spreading and we in so constant a Disposition to receive it that no Caution when prudently us'd can be too great in this Particular * Ecclus. XIII 1. The Scriptures have compared vicious Company to Pitch upon the Clothes and Prov. VI. 27. Fire in the Bosom And the general Censures even of men discreet and tender are apt to bring the Keepers of it under an odious Character Which abundantly justifies the Comparisons and argues the universal consent of Reason in the extream danger of such Conversation The same Discoveries of our Love and Hatred which Nature and Passion put us upon in Other Cases must be the Work of Reason and Religion in This. And they who industriously place themselves in the way of Temptation seem to have but a very imperfect Sense of their own Frailties or else not to have weaned their Inclinations sufficiently from the Lusts they affect such Familiarity with For when we cannot be personally intimate with the Devil himself the next degree of Friendship we can possibly shew for him is to be fond of conversing with those who are most like him themselves and whose Examples naturally tend to make others like him too What Philosophers tell us of some Creatures that they frequently change their Colour according to the Stones or Plants their Bodies rest upon must always be admitted by thinking Persons to be a very lively Emblem of the minds of men For these ever receive a strong Tincture from the Persons they frequent and are insensibly form'd into Their Appetites and Opinions Their Language and Their Manners And therefore such persons must not think they are ill used if both God and Good Men condemn those approaches to Sin as sure Arguments of a secret kindness for it and sad Presages of a dying Zeal for the Honour of Religion and their own Safety Mistake me not I beseech you I am not here recommending such a surpercilious Pride as we find the Pharisees upon all Occasions guilty of such as shou'd teach men to distinguish themselves from the rest of the World with a Stand off I am holier than Thou No The Detestation of other People's Vices must always be so temper'd as not to produce a disdain for their persons nor may we so far consider them as Sinners as to forget that they are Men. All that I am now advising is only the necessary Care for our own Preservation And where the Offices of Charity and the Courtesies of the World do not endanger our own Souls as indeed they very seldom do if managed with any competent degree of discretion there we have a pattern in our Blessed Saviour himself who for the sake of doing good was content to eat and to drink with Harlots and Publicanes and Sinners But still That Example of His and All that can be said to support and countenance the frequenting of bad Company will never be able to persuade holy and considering men that they ought to mingle Friendships with all indifferently and to keep no guard at all upon themselves in the midst of a very crooked and perverse Generation It gives too much encouragement to Vice to make it no part of our Aversion and puts our own welfare upon too desperate a hazard to court that distemper which if once caught may end in Death eternal It shews that we think very little of the horror of Sin or the deadly creeping Qualities by which it steals into our Souls when we are loath to be kept at a distance from it and upon such poor pretences as either the Forms of Civility or a false Confidence in our own Strength and Wisdom are us'd to furnish us with delight to dwell within the reach of its Infection This is in effect to throw dry Stubble into the Fire to commit a Body full of ill Humours to the mercy of a raging Pestilence For such in truth is the Venemous nature of all Vice and in such constant readiness are our hearts to catch and suck it in But yet the same Apostle who forbids all fellowship with the works of darkness here and all scandalous Conversation in the Vth of his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians was so sensible of the universal Corruption of that time and People that he acknowledges to avoid vicious Company altogether a Man must even go out of the World And therefore since the Tares and Wheat must stand together till the general Harvest and the condition of the present Life does of necessity inferr a mixture of Good and bad men in the same common Field of the Church After the due Care already mention'd to preserve our selves from being tainted by this mixture The Next thing I presume necessary and imply'd in St. Paul's Command here is This 2. Secondly That those persons who cannot be wholly declin'd may never be approved or have their wickedness favoured by us After a long Description of the Abominations of the Heathen World this is added as a very high Aggravation of all the rest * Rom. I. 32.
be parallel II. Secondly That admitting we should come up to his Repentance so far as it is imitable by us yet none of us all can have the same Assurance of being pardoned and accepted But which is worst of all III. Thirdly That it is equally Possible nay indeed much more Probable that when we come to die His Case may not be Ours no not even in the very Disposition to repent I. First It deserves to be very attentively considered That there are some Circumstances in the Case of this Penitent Thief to which the Condition of no other man but especially of no Christian who deferrs his Repentance to a sick or dying Bed can possibly be parallel Now in examining any of the surprising and unusual Acts of the Divine Mercy we must be sure always to bring this Rule along with us That Almighty God in the instances of his Love and Compassion is perfectly void of all that byass of Humour and Passion and Partial Fondness which oftentimes are a Blemish to the Proceedings of easy and good-natur'd Men that He constantly acts with such steadiness as becomes Infinite Goodness regulated and duly tempered with Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Justice And consequently that all his Dealings are strictly agreeable to Equity and Reason Even those of them which we are not able to enter so far into the Grounds of as to account for them in every particular to Our selves or to Others Nor can it seem strange that we should not be able to account for Many matters of this Nature when we reflect that the most equitable rule of proceeding both with God and Man is to regard the Intentions and Dispositions of the Persons concerned Now these are things that lye too deep for any but the Searcher of Hearts to have a distinct sight and entire knowledge of And therefore we ought always to conclude that He to whose view these things lie open hath sufficient motives which induce him to make a difference in favour of Some above Others And such difference so far as we can judge is made as oft as They who in all appearance have done less are made equal to those who in all appearance have done more For though God in the riches of his mercy may give Every good man a greater reward than is due to his work yet his Justice requires that Each of these good men be considered in proportion to his work And though the best of us all cannot in rigour deserve Remission of Sins and Acceptance of our Labours yet we may have such Qualifications as will not fail to dispose him to pass by our Faults and to receive us graciously Again The Worth and Efficacy of such Qualifications is not always to be measured by the Length of Time or by the number of Acts produced by them Because it may happen that a very Few or but One single Instance may be so circumstantiated as to give testimony of a man's Sincerity and Zeal equivalent to a Multitude of others And this is what I need not labour either to prove or to apply in the present Question For all men must allow that He who in Consideration of Repentance and Faith at his last hour is received presently into Paradise does like the Labourers of the Eleventh hour attain an equal reward with Them who by a long painful and constant Obedience have born the burden and heat of the Day And They who interpret that Parable in favour of such a Repentance alledge that God accepts the dying Penitent for his Integrity and Zeal that he looks upon what the man would have done as if it had been actually done and judges him according to the Desires and good Dispositions he had and not according to the Opportunities he had not From these things thus premised it plainly appears that in order to a right understanding and fair Application of the Example now before us it will be necessary to enquire very diligently into those good Dispositions of the Thief upon the Cross which might reasonably be supposed to recommend him to Mercy at his Death notwithstanding the grievous Offences of his past wicked Life And to any person who shall set himself seriously to consider this matter this Relation of St. Luke and the Case as now stated will sufficiently intimate these Two especially 1. First Great Ingenuity of Temper and Readiness of Mind to embrace the Faith of Christ so soon as sufficient means of Conviction were afforded him 'T is highly probable this man had never known any thing of Jesus before otherwise than by common fame And if St. Chrysostom's and St. Jerome's conjectures be just he was prepossessed against him as an Impostour If so the greater still was his Vertue to overcome those Prejudices so soon and suffer the Meekness and Patience the Charity and Piety of our Lord 's miraculous Death to disabuse him This is so far from making him a late Penitent that it gives him the Glory of an early Convert One whose heart was open to the first Impressions of Grace and wanted not so much the Inclination as the Opportunity of being brought over to the Truth before And which is yet more for his Commendation 2. Secondly We may discern in him a most vigorous and noble Faith * Chrysost Tom. 5. Orat. 7. Pag. 26. Edit Eton. Such as confess'd our Lord in his lowest most afflicted and most ignominious Condition When his hardned Companion reviled him When the Enemies of Jesus mocked and insulted over him When his own Disciples had forsaken and were afraid to own him Such as took sanctuary in a dying and universally despised Man Such as published his Innocence to the face and in despight of triumphant Malice and through the thickest cloud of Shame and Sufferings that ever intercepted the Glories of the Son of God discovered his Divine Power and placed his hope in a Spiritual Kingdom which Flesh and Blood and Humane Reasoning could never have discovered A Kingdom which no Eye but that of Faith could have the least glimpse of which even They who had enjoyed the honour and advantage of a Three-Year's Instruction and inseparable Conversation never yet perfectly understood and now utterly despaired of This was to come in no whit behind nay it was in some respects to out-strip the very Chiefest Apostles This was a Confession so resolute so singular so illustrious that no Preacher no Martyr ever came up to all the heightning commendations of it None gave so ample a Testimony to the Blessed Jesus because None had this peculiar Excellence of giving it under so many disadvantagious and discouraging Circumstances And now with what * Chrysost Tom. 5. Orat. 7. Forehead with what Colour can any Late or Death-bed Penitent pretend to draw this Example into a Precedent for his own Support and Advantage What Affinity what Shadow of Resemblance is there between a man submitting to the first Impression and One who hath wilfully and industriously hardned his heart
to make their Calling and Election sure Which implies that without their own diligence these things will not be secured to them And indeed as the Commentator I just now mentioned observes Because God is so very kind and bountiful in doing His part and Men so very negligent and insensible in Theirs He bids but they who are bidden are not worthy this is the true reason why so many are called and yet so few are chosen I discharge my self of this Subject with that eminent passage of the Son of Sirach very apposite to our present purpose Ecclus XV 11. 12. 14. 15. 17. 20. Say not thou It is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth Say not thou He hath caused me to err for he hath no need of the sinful man God made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his Counsel If thou wilt to keep the Commandments and to perform acceptable Righteousness Before man is Life and Death and whether him liketh that shall be given him But the Lord hath commanded no man to do wickedly neither hath be given any man license to sin Now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be all Honour and Glory for evermore Amen SERMON XI WORLDLY HINDRANCES NO EXCUSE For the Neglect of Religious Duties St. Luke XIV V. 23 24. And the Lord said unto the Servant Go out into the High-ways and Hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my Supper THE Divine Discourses V. 1. with which our Lord entertained the Company while dining with one of the chief Pharisees made such impression upon them that a certain Person then at meat with him broke out into these words V. 15. Blessed is He that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Hereupon our Saviour takes occasion to shew that this Blessedness great as it is was not however embraced with that eagerness and satisfaction nor sought with all that industry which it most justly deserved And for the Illustration of this sad Truth the Successes of the Gospel and the different Reception it found among Men are represented under the Figure of a Great Supper prepared V. 16. and the Behaviour of the Guests invited to it Some absenting themselves upon frivolous pretences Others rudely refusing the Civility And the Master of the Feast by this means driven to furnish his Table with strangers of a meaner Quality and full of just Indignation and Resentment against those unworthy People who denied to grace his House with their presence and put such a slight upon his kindness This is the Substance of the Parable and the Applications of it are various For whether we respect the First eminent discrimination made between the Jews and the Gentiles Or whether That more continuing one of the several Degrees and Qualifications of Men in all Ages and Countries It sets before our Eyes a lively Image of Both and is in Either sense capable of great Use for our Instruction and Improvement Concerning the Former of These wherein the Jews and Gentiles are concerned I have * Serm. IX x. already spoken so largely that it will be needless again to insist upon it And therefore the only Reflection I shall make at present upon this sense of the Parable regards one expression peculiar to this place Which is That those Gentiles fetched from the High-ways and Hedges are said here to be Compelled to come in Not from any external or irresistible Necessity made use of to reduce them But by the Evidence of Miracles By the powerful Convictions of Truth By the strength of Arguments By repeated Messages By all the prevailing Arts of a holy Importunity Which subdued their Wills and brought over their Affections and in a manner extorted their Assent while Lust and Worldly Inclinations perswaded the contrary So that this Expression of Compelling means only an exceeding Care and solicitous Application to win them over And the marvellous Efficacy of those Methods at last notwithstanding the Appetites of corrupt Nature the Prejudices of Education and long Custom and all the Difficulties which the Habits and the Love of Evil could raise in Minds violently bent against any such Compliance And when They had thus accepted the Invitation then follows a severe though most deserved sentence of utter Exclusion upon those other insensible ungrateful Creatures who had provoked this Good Man of the House and affronted his Intentions of favour toward them by the obstinacy and folly of excluding themselves To proceed then The Relation this Parable bears to Persons of several Degrees and Qualifications whether Jews or Gentiles is not less worthy our regard The Event of the Gospel's first setting out so different among the Poor the Unlettered the notorious Sinners from what it was with the Wealthy the Learned the seeming Righteous The Men of splendid Fortunes and eminent Posts deriding its Doctrines of Humility and Meekness Self-denial and Contempt of the World while those of inferior Condition whose Spirits and Tempers were of a size with their Estates submitted gladly to Them The persons of Study and Attainments deluding themselves with vain Sophistry and scorning the sublime Mysteries of its Faith while those of Honester Minds and Less Subtlety subdued their Reason and brought every proud aspiring Thought into Captivity to the Power and Wisdom and Truth of God The pretenders to Sanctity and rigid Observers of Ceremony and Tradition presuming upon their own Merits for Justification while Others of a Conversation more liable to Censure with thanks and joy inexpressible laid hold on the Sacrifice and Propitiation of Another and conscious of the Impotence of Works alone sought Salvation by the Righteousness of Faith So that in each of these respects those who were bidden that is who had received most from God and ought to have been the forwardest in Duty to him stood out And They whose Character was less considerable and less could be expected from were found most ready to express their sense of his Goodness and most desirous to partake of it Once more There is yet Another Interpretation of this Parable accommodated to the Circumstances of those People among whom the Gospel is already profess'd and established For the End of Our Teaching and of Your Believing being Practice as the End of that Practice is the Saving of Men's Souls The Kingdom of Glory hereafter is no less shadowed out by this Feast than the Kingdom of Grace here And consequently All that neglect their Duty and prefer the Business or Enjoyments of This World before their Concern for the Next do refuse the Invitations to this Spiritual Supper and incur the Guilt and the Condemnation implied in the Text As on the Other hand They who notwithstanding all the disadvantages of Person or Fortune conform to the Rules of
Publick employment and enable him to lead and to warn others by becoming a burning and shining Light in his Generation and inspiring his Charge by a pious Example And even in the most private Station as Temptations and Tryals assault a Man so there is more pressing want of Faith And of a greater steadiness and abundance still the thicker those Darts of the Wicked are shot against us and the more furious and fiery they are which this Faith alone can quench The Wisdom of Governours does not think the same preparations necessary in time of Peace as when actually in a State of War But provides against Surprises and is content to defer the Arming or drawing out their Forces till Action calls for them And thus it is sufficient to be assured that upon great Emergencies God's Strength shall be always ready at hand and made perfect in our weakness provided we be diligent and honest that is if we use the Strength we have and do not indulge nor industriously contribute to our own Weakness Let it be allowed then that a Man is not deceived in these Apprehensions of himself And that his Faith do not make any considerable Advance yet if his Condition be such as does not call for any extraordinary Additions the Case is still well enough For as no Man hath need to call his Health in question who feels no indisposition of Body though he do not perceive himself to grow every day stronger So if our Faith be but a preservative from Lapses and Errors and secure us against Spiritual Sickness and Death if we do not Languish and become manifestly cold and feeble in God's Service nor find our Souls infected with Sin and Lust This is a good Argument that our Spiritual Health is good And though a greater Degree and higher perfections may be Desirable perhaps yet still they are not Necessary nor shall we perish for the want of them Besides where all these Blessings depend upon the mere Bounty and free Gift of our Master we ought not to disquiet our selves with Reflections upon what we have not but rejoyce and be thankful for what we have It is enough that we are admitted into his Favour that he snatches us from Ruine and allows us any place at all in his presence and will much better become us to sit down pleased and take the lowest Room than to discontent our selves and lose the comfort of what we Enjoy by repining that we are not taken to sit on his right hand and an his left in his Kingdom 2. But then we are to consider in the next place that our Faith and other Graces do very often increase and we in the mean while perceive it not What our Church in one of her Articles teaches us to confess is most certain Acts XII That Good Works do naturally flow from Faith so that by them a true Faith may be known as evidently as a Tree by its Fruit. The meaning whereof is this that what we call Faith if it produce no good Deeds is no better than Dead and none at all But it is by no means a just Consequence from hence that no Faith is lively and true which is not perpetually exerting it self in New instances any more than that the Tree is Dead which is not always Green and always bearing For our Souls have in some sense their Winters too and the Seasons of sprouting again into Verdancy and Fruitfulness If therefore either want of Opportunities to shew it self keep it hid or the Storms of Affliction suppress and put it back for a while we have no reason to be discouraged or despair of its Life But may conclude that as the Corn lies covered and yet gathers Strength when under Ground so this Faith may grow and flourish and fit it self for great and glorious undertakings even when we have no visible signs nor sensible proofs of its doing so And such indeed is the nature of all Habits whatsoever whose Excellency consists not in perpetual Action but in a Readiness and masterly Disposition to act as becomes them so often only as proper occasions are offered to exercise them Nay farther yet I add that though some things should appear to us which look very suspicious and seem to argue great Decays at least if not absolute Deadness of Faith such as the being sometimes indisposed to the Duties of Religion and feeling our Zeal less warm and vigorous than formerly yet are not these Symptoms of so fatal Consequence that we should conclude against the Reality of our Faith or at all despair of our Spiritual Health and Safety from them Were the Soul indeed single by it self and in a Condition to exert its own Powers without any Lett or Contradiction then we might expect that it should be steddy and uniform in all its Operations But here the Wise-Man's Observation takes place That * Wisd IX 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the corruptible body presseth down the Soul and the Earthly tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things or as the word might properly enough be render'd the mind encumbred with many cares And This in truth is Our Case We are Subject to all the Necessities and detain'd by all the Clogs and Hindrances of a Body Exposed to all the Trouble of supplying its Wants and by that means to all the Uncertainties and all the Anxieties of the World subject to all its Disorders and Infirmities forced to act by as well as with it and so liable to be obstructed and diverted by its Passions and Pleasures its Pains and its Diseases This is the very Reason Not only why One Man differs so vastly from Another but why the Same Man differs sometimes so strangely from Himself that he scarce appears to be the Same And since the very same Affections are the Springs of our Actions and Resentments in Religious Matters which are in all Other Affairs it must needs follow that as those Springs are differently set and we differently moved by them the alterations we feel in point of Duty and Devotion as they belong to the same Causes so they will vary in like proportions as in our common and worldly Concerns So that as we have differing Constitutions given us at first or as any Accidents afterwards change those we have it ought not to seem strange much less to create us any great Trouble or Disquiet if the Temper of our Minds and our Dispositions to God and Goodness shall happen to vary accordingly The Cold and Phlegmatick will not find all those sprightly Emotions of Heart as the Sanguine and Airy Man Nor will This Man again feel the same Depth of Godly Sorrow and sad Remorse nor the like complacency in the Austerities and Mortifications of a penitent State with one of a blacker and more heavy Blood Thus Fear and Love of God and a stedfast Affiance in him and Charity and Kindness to one another though they be general Duties such as All are
not happen to him Are not the Merits of those Sufferings to be measured by the Constancy and Chearfulness with which they were undergone And since we have undoubted Testimonies of several Martyrs who even rejoiced in their Tortures does not this shrinking back and these earnest Desires of escaping them argue in Christ a greater Irresolution and Weakness of Mind than even some of his Servants discovered in the Confirmation of that Truth which they gladly Sealed with their Blood He took upon him our Flesh and in marvelous Condescention came into the World on purpose that he might dye for Our Benefit and in Our stead And is his Love now so abated and his Resolution so wavering that when it comes to the Point he should decline Death and by praying to be excused from it defeat the very end of his being made Mortal These are Difficulties which with some colour of Argument may be started from the Behaviour of our Lord in his Agonies and the Request made here to his Father And fit it is that they should be removed and this Action set in its true Light which if I mistake not will effectually be done by attending carefully to these following Particulars 1. First In regard our Blessed Saviour had the Divine and Humane Nature both united in One Person great Caution must be used in observing his Actions that we do not mistake in appropriating any of them to that Principle to which they do not properly belong For as those Works of Wonder which exceeded or controuled all Powers of Created Nature must be attributed to a Principle Omnipotent and Divine So in those Others which relate to Subjection and Suffering he must be understood to proceed upon a Principle purely Humane Now praying to a Superior Being is a Mark of Dependance and Subjection And undergoing Pain and Death implies Suffering Neither of which God as such is capable of And therefore if the Person who was God and Man both did Either of these it is plain he could do them but in One of those Capacities The Faculties of the Divine Nature were totally suspended upon such Occasions and He proceeded in them not in any Degree as God but entirely as a mere and real Man 2. Secondly The Efficacy and Mystery of Man's Redemption consisting in this Union it was necessary that there should be clear and undoubted Demonstration given of the Reality of both these Natures in Christ And this had not been done unless as our Lord's Miracles evidenced him to be Very God so all the essential and inseparable Properties and Affections of our Nature had so manifestly appeared in him as to leave no just Suspicion behind whether he was Very Man And since the distinguishing Marks of this Nature lye principally in the Soul it follows from thence that sufficient Proof of our Saviour's perfect Humanity could not be given either by his Death or by any Bodily Sufferings except his Mind were besides so affected with These as might convince the World that he bore an exact Resemblance to us in all the Natural Passions and Inclinations of our Souls 3. Now Thirdly In this Soul of Ours it is easy to observe a Two-fold Principle which we call Reason and Sense And without entangling our selves in the Subtleties of Philosophers or Schoolmen about this Matter Experience which is of more Weight than Ten thousand nice Distinctions and a little serious Reflection upon our Selves will plainly convince us that we entertain different sorts of Notions take different Measures and aim at different Ends as we are moved by the One or other of these Principles That which we call Sense catches greedily at the Present pursues Ease and Pleasure and Safety and consults the Preservation and Advantage of the Body The Other which we call Reason enlarges our Prospect takes into Consideration distant and future Objects and perswades the foregoing some present Satisfactions running some Hazards enduring some Difficulties and Pains for the Discharge of our Duty and in Expectation of some greater Good in Reversion which will make us ample amends for what we now lose or undergo upon its Account The Former is the Principle of Animals the Latter of Men and Christians Under That are comprehended all our Natural Passions which are the secret Springs that move us in all we do under This are Understanding and Judgment which direct and regulate and bound and over-rule those Passions But still Both these are Constituent Parts of the Humane Soul And to suppose a Man void of Passions or in no degree influenced by them is as absolute a Chimaera and Contradiction in Nature as to suppose him without Reason For These Two Principles are as necessary to make One perfect Soul as the Rational Soul and Humane Body are to make One perfect Man From whence we may argue 4. Fourthly That The Weakness or Corruption of our Nature as it stands now depraved with Sin and Lust does not consist in being very tenderly and sensibly touched with Fear of present Evil or strong Inclinations to present Good but in permitting those Fears and Desires to prevail and take place against the Dictates of Reason and Duty Aversion to Pain and Death and the like are Affections interwoven with our Original Frame and Constitution Adam felt them in the State of Innocency Otherwise it had been vain to threaten his Transgression with Death For every Threatning of Punishment denounce something terrible such as the Person is supposed to be under dreadful Apprehensions of and will think himself concerned to avoid And therefore it is no just Reflection upon the Second Adam that He too felt the same Aversion to Dying and Torment and Shame Infirmities indeed these Aversions may be called in Comparison of those Perfections which belong to God and unbodied Spirits But then they are such Infirmities as All who partake of Bodies must have And if these things had been perfectly indifferent to our Blessed Saviour he could not have been our Saviour that is he could not have been a True Man This is what I think a just and faithful Account of the Matter Much to be preferred before that Resolution which some have given of it as if the Vehemence of our Saviour's Passion had made him forget himself and utter things in the Heat and Transport of his Mind which he presently checkt and corrected upon better Recollection We indeed too often do so but he never ceased to be Master of himself and it seems too great a Dishonour to represent him thus rash and inconsiderate which are the Effects of Corrupt Nature though he thought it none to be like us in all the inseparable Frailties of our Original and real Nature 5. Now Fifthly If Christ as Man could not be altogether indifferent and unconcerned at these severe Tryals which he already felt in part and saw coming upon him with great Violence Then sure it could not misbecome him to use all possible Means for declining them and consequently not to express
his Concern by praying against them with such Reserves and Limitations as he does here in the Text. It was no disparagement of his Love to Mankind to detest Death and Sufferings but in truth a higher Commendation of it That notwithstanding so quick a Sense and so passionate a Regret he offered himself to Sufferings so ungrateful to Humane Nature in general so exceeding harsh and bitter to Him in particular It enhanced the Vertue of his Obedience that he was content to give Proof of it in so very tender and trying an Instance and the more vehemently he wish'd for a Release the more Meritorious was his Submission For God does not expect that Men should have no unwillingness at all to do or to suffer what he appoints for them but that they should conquer their Unwillingness and bring themselves so to acquiesce in His Choice as to make it their Own St. Paul hath truly observed * Heb. 12. 11. that no suffering for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous And therefore Suffering is never chosen for its own sake but upon some other Consideration which may over-balance the Grievousness of it Were it Eligible in it self there could be no Vertue in Choosing it For the Vertue consists in conquering and denying our selves that we may please God And the stronger our own Aversions are the more we renounce our own Wills and the more acceptable is our Complyance with the Divine Will All Which may give us a worthy Notion of the 4. Fourth and Last Thing remarkable in this Prayer Namely Our Lord 's free and entire Resignation of himself to his Father's Disposal in case his Wisdom should see fit not to grant this Request And that is contained in the last Clause of the Verse Nevertheless not My Will but Thine be done And here again we are assaulted with another Objection concerning the Contrariety of Christ's Humane Will by which he declined Sufferings and Death to his Divine Will which was the same with his Father's and both accepted and decreed those Sufferings And This if admitted would destroy our Saviour's Innocence and argue him guilty of Sin Since the very Essence and Guilt of Sin consists in a setting up our own Will in Opposition to the Will of God concerning us Now though it be true that the Blessed Jesus as partaking of Two Natures had Two distinct Wills proper to each of them yet is it not by any means to be allowed that Either of These were contrary to the Other A Diversity of Inclinations indeed there was in Him according to the different Motions and Tendencies of the Sensitive and Rational Appetite and This as was explained before is no more than Every Man feels in himself Such particularly as we exercise in all those which are called Mixt Actions When a Man submits to take an unpalatable Medicine in order to his Recovery from Sickness or cuts off a Limb to prevent a Mortification Nature starts back and would be gladly excused from such severe Methods But when all Circumstances are laid together and we come to be thoroughly convinced of the Benefit and Necessity of such Applications we then prevail upon our selves to comply with them and the Rational overcomes the Sensitive Principle in us Now all this is the Act of One and the Same Will moved by different Respects and determined at last by That which upon the whole Matter appears the rather to be chosen tho' at the Expence of some Difficulty and Trouble to us Thus our Blessed Saviour according to the Natural Principle of Sense desired a Deliverance from his approaching Pains but according to the Principle of Reason which was equally natural to him as Man he accepted those Pains and conformed his Humane to the Divine Will But That which clears him from all Repugnance to the Will of his Father is that he proceeded upon different Motives The Natural Aversion to Suffering disposed him to avoid it but the Sense of his Duty and the Prospect how Necessary and Beneficial that Suffering would be made him entirely satisfied with it and got the better of that Aversion And consequently though there was in this Action a Diversity yet is there no Contrariety of Wills because these Dispositions to suffer and not to suffer did not proceed from the same Principle nor were opposed in the same Respect The Schools have a Distinction which may perhaps help to illustrate this Matter yet a little more fully They tell us of a General and of a Definite or Determinate Will of God All our Natural Inclinations and Aversions of what Kind soever are aagreeable to the General Will of God For he endued us with them and ordered all those Motions by which we feel our selves affected from them But now the Determinate Will of God hath imposed upon us certain Laws and Conditions and Restraints against and beyond which those Inclinations must not be indulged in some particular Cases Now from hence it follows that None of our Natural Inclinations and Aversions are offensive to God or contrary to his Will generally speaking and in their own Nature And that they are so Then only when we suffer them to take Place against his particular Will which hath confined them within some certain Rules and upon special Emergencies From hence it follows again That even in such Reserved Cases These Motions are not sinful provided we take Care to keep them within due Bounds and in a constant Subordination to Reason and God's Commands For the Design of Almighty God is not to extinguish our Natural Appetites and make us cease to be Men but to reduce those Appetites to Obedience and so make us Good Men. And this is done effectually when Sense is subjected to Reason and both our Sensitive and Rational Mind are subject to the Appointments of God notwithstanding all the Byass of Infirm Nature which draws so strongly the other Way And consequently the Blessed Jesus in the Words now before us did not correct any thing amisse in the former part of his Prayer Nor was that Request of having this bitter Cup removed from him the Effect of Rashness or unthinking Passion But it had all the Perfection requisite for his own unblemish'd Innocence and for a Pattern to all his Followers under any sort of Difficulties and Tryals Because it was tempered with that no less essential Branch of the same Prayer and this last Resolution makes one most uniform Act of the same Humane Choice Nevertheless not My Will but Thine be done II. I now pass to the Second Thing propounded from my Text and shall raise from hence some Observations for our Practice But these are so Plain and Obvious that after what hath been said I cannot And indeed if what hath been said be duly attended to I need not do any more than just to mention them 1. First From our Saviour's using that Title of Father in the extream Anguish and Bitterness of his Soul We may be admonished what
and reduce him to an effectual Sense of his own Vileness and Ingratitude than some very undeserved Kindness of a Person whom he hath heinously injured And what greater Indignity could St. Peter put upon his Lord than thus to disown and abjure him What greater Kindness could our Lord shew to this revolting ungrateful Man than by the silent but significant Rebuke of his Eye cast that way so opportunely to call him back to himself And what could cut St. Peter more to the quick than such an Instance of Mercy and Tenderness Such as shewed a greater Concern for his Disciples Sin than for all the Injuries and Insolence of his Enemies to himself Such as declared though that wicked Servant had disclaimed his Master yet that He was so gracious as not even thus to discard and forsake Him This I make no doubt was one of the bitterest Ingredients in St. Peter's Sorrow and that which confirmed him in his Duty ever after as much as any other Consideration whatsoever 4. And this puts me in mind of a Fourth thing very necessary to be observed which though not mentioned here yet is abundantly evident from other Passages of the New Testament and that is the Thorough Change wrought in St. Peter by this Godly Sorrow and the ample Amends he afterwards made for all the Dishonour this Denial of Christ could possibly reflect upon Himself his Master or the Christian Religion For immediately after our Lord's Resurrection we find the same ardent Affection flaming out again as bright as ever This * John XXI 7. once dismayed St. Peter did then cast himself into the Sea out of Impatience to hasten to Jesus upon the Shore He put himself forward †Acts II. 14. on the Day of Pentecost and with undaunted Zeal asserted the Resurrection and Divinity of that Saviour whom he had formerly denied He ‖ Acts IV. 19 20. maintained his Point against the Jewish Rulers despised their Rebukes and angry Menaces and plainly told them that God was to be obeyed rather than Men and therefore whatever it cost him He could not forbid himself publickly declaring the Truths which he had seen and heard He * Acts IV. 23. 1st and 2d Epist strengthened the Brethren by his resolute Behaviour led them on bravely and took all possible care to keep them from shrinking at the Terrours of Persecution He persisted in his preaching and when the Enemies of the Faith were not to be reasoned out of their malice most willingly offered his Person to scourging and Imprisonment * Acts V. 40 41. rejoycing that he was counted worthy to suffer shame for the once abjured Name of Jesus He was the Mark of Envy and Rage singled †Acts XII 4. out by Herod for a Sacrifice that would above all others content the Jews And therefore was intended to gratify their Spight by making his Death add to the Triumphs and solemn Rejoycings of their Passover And though God saw fit to disappoint that Design and reserve him for more and greater Services to the Christian Cause yet did he at last glorify him ‖ John XXI 18 19. by the same kind of Tortures and Death which his Master condescended to undergo nay St. Peter gladly received the notice of this from Christ's own mouth So that St. Peter was not more different from himself when trembling at the Voice of a silly Damsel than the same St. Peter afterwards the Glorious the Invincible Apostle before the Council in Prisons and upon the Cross was from the Cowardly the Infamous Renegade in the High Priests Hall This settled and deliberate Fidelity was a noble Compensation for the Infirmity and Fears and violent Transport of his Fall This shewed what the Man was when perfectly himself and supported by the Grace of God As the Other did what he was when naked and destitute of Heavenly Succours depending upon his own Strength and left in the hand of his Passions This restored him to Favour and hath established his Honour to all Eternity And we should not have done right to St. Peter in handling the Case now before us should these last and Finishing Scenes of his Life have been omitted Because whatever he had done amiss through Frailty and hurry he thus undid again in cool and staid and deliberate Acts. And since Repentance is an Alteration of the Man of his whole Temper and Behaviour I thought my self bound to set before you some of those Instances which the Holy Ghost hath left upon Record of the Efficacy and Sincerity of this Man's Repentance And bound indeed I esteem my self not only in Justice to the Memory of this Eminent Apostle but for Your sakes too in regard of those Uses and Instructions that are capable of being drawn from hence For That is the next thing I am now applying my self to The making some Reflections upon St. Peter's Repentance of which all Christian's may profit themselves who read and consider it with serious and due Attention 1. And First From the Consideration of this Instance before us it will be no hard matter to possess our minds with a right Notion of the Promises of God to Good Men with regard to Temptations He hath not engaged that our Virtue shall never be brought into hazard for This would prevent the Proofs of our Fidelity to him which is chiefly seen in our Constancy under those Tryals that endanger it And therefore in this case we are to support our Spirits with those Assistances of his Grace which may enable us to resist Temptations Nay he hath not assured us we shall always be successful in our Resistance when thus assaulted but thinks it sufficient Encouragement that if through the Infirmity of our Corrupt Nature and the Violence of our Temptations we happen to be overcome and fall into Sin his Grace shall not be wanting to raise us again by Repentance Thus our Lord tells St. Peter * Luke XXII 32. that he had prayed for him that his Faith might not fail that is that he might not fall away finally His Faith we see did fail for a Season for such peremptory Denials of our Lord could not be consistent with that saving Principle But That which received so terrible a damp by this Interruption was not utterly lost and extinguished in his mind The Distemper in its own Nature was Mortal but by the Power and Skill and timely Application of his Spiritual Physician it received a perfect Cure Christ therefore did not pray for the Prevention of his Sin but for his Conversion from and Amendment after it And this was every whit as much for the Benefit of the Patient and the Honour of the Divine Grace as the preserving him in perfect Health and Soundness could possibly have been Nay more indeed both for the One and the Other For the greater the Danger was the more clearly does the Sovereign Virtue and Efficacy of the Remedy appear The Grace of God is never so