that disables us from casting our care upon him In God there is strong confidence but if our confidence in him be not strong it is not because his Providence and Wisdom and Power and Truth will not bear it but because our Guilt will not bear it our evil Conscience our love of this present World or something or other that estrangeth us from God And 't is the Character of wicked men that they live without God in the world not only because they live without respect to his Laws but also because they live without any relief or benefit by his promises and because they live in this World without loving and fearing God they sustain the present punishment of living in this World without putting their trust in him i. e. without the greatest comfort of life to which the whole World cannot afford the like Wherefore Beloved let us remember upon whom this blessedness cometh and be careful not to lose our part in it To which end we must look back upon our past sins to repent of them and look forward upon the remaining part of our life with an unalterable Resolution not to forfeit our Interest in the special Grace and Providence of God for the obtaining of any worldly Good or the avoiding of any worldly Evil which to do were the greater folly and madness because we know that if we love God and are called according to purpose i. e. as I explain'd it are true to our Profession of Christianity then all things shall work together for our good Let us Brethren lay these things to heart for the more we think of them the more we shall be confirm'd in a hearty belief of them They will be a direction and a comfort to us as long as we live nay and they will support us in the hour of death and then they have done all our work for us for the last enemy that is to be destroyed is death and death it self shall work the greatest good of all for us in delivering of us from this evil body which our Saviour will change into the likeness of his glorious body according to his wonderful working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Wherefore my beloved be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. The Seventh Sermon A SERMON Preached at COURT ECCLES III. 15. That which hath been is now and that which is to be already hath been and God requireth that which is past THE former part of the Text That which hath been now is and that which is to be hath already been is in sense the same with v. 9. ch 1. There is no new thing under the Sun that is as the Ages of the World go on the same Events come about again The latter part of it God repuireth that which is past seems to have this meaning that God still requireth the same behaviour from us that he hath ever required of those that have been before us Which two Considerations being intended to promote the general end of the whole Book i. e. to make men fear God and keep his Commandments I intend to illustrate both and to shew how useful they are for that purpose Now these sayings are to be understood as many other Moral and Proverbial sayings are where what is universally affirmed is to be understood as to the greater part The meaning cannot be this that there is no Diversity of Events to be seen in the several passages of mens lives or in the several Ages of the World for as the wise man observes in the beginning of this Chapter To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven A time to be born and a time to die a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted c. Nor can the meaning be that nothing happens in one Age of the World but it hath happened in every Age. For sometimes God createth a new thing The Son of God was to come in our Nature but once before the end of the World There have been Ages of Miracles but we have seen none for many Ages together Such rare and extraordinary cases as these are not intended and as to all the rest the meaning is this That if we consider the diversity of Events which befal Mankind and the Vicissitudes of good and evil which they undergo these varieties are still so repeated in the several Ages of the World that the difference is not so considerable as the agreement in the main they are the fame though the circumstances be diverse Just as the seasons of the Year are the same in which nevertheless there may be great diversity of Weather not always the like Sun-shine or Rain fair or foul Weather barren or fruitful Seasons yet still the same Spring Summer Winter and Autum do return in their course And as the case of all Ages is much alike as to the Events that befal men so 't is not much different as to the Duties required of them For in all times from the beginning to the end of the World the Moral part of Religion is the same viz. to fear God to be Just and Charitable to men and to govern our Passions by Reason by the reverence of our Maker and the expectation of a final account And God has once for all required some Duties by a particular Revelation by which we are obliged to the end of the World Nay and the Circumstances which make the doing of these things more or less difficult are not new since the same or the like have frequently returned heretofore and when we are gone will be repeated again So that still God requireth that which is past Now because as I told you these Considerations are of great use that they may have the stronger impression I shall try to shew that it must needs be so that it cannot be otherwise if we take one thing with another but that that which hath been should be now and that which is to be already should have been 1. From the beginning of the World to the end of it they are the same things of which the good or evil of Mankind is compounded The welfare of the world always did and ever will consist in such things as these In a just and wise Government in constant obedience to it in peace and security in prosperous undertakings in having good Parents and good Children and good Relations in a good name in competent maintenance in liberty and health and in agreeable conversation There are no new sorts of happiness peculiar to one Age which are not as desirable by another nor any kind of misery that one has suffer'd but another must feel the same uneasiness and pain under it when it happens And therefore because it is the good and the evil that happens to men which makes up a great part of the History
godly life because there are many men of clear and active thoughts and conversant in the study of Religion that do not live by Faith for as the Faith of such men cannot in reason be thought to be a confused and indeterminate persuasion so it is too plain by experience that some such do retain the Faith but make shipwrack of a good conscience And therefore let us consider the third thing wherein the power of Faith consists viz. 3. The permanence of it upon the mind or a constancy of frequent consideration upon what we believe That is to say let us suppose a man that doth not only believe all matters of Faith that are needful and apprehend them distinctly and particularly and with application to himself but likewise by very much consideration of these things hath made them present and habitual to himself and of such a man I say That he is under the whole power of Faith and he it is that overcomes the world For such a Believer has two advantages which cannot fail to make him a good man 1. His Persuasion or his Faith is present to his mind when he most needs it i.e. upon all occasions of temptation so that he will be ready in the strength of it to say with Joseph How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God But now though one believes all the awakening Doctrines of Religion yet if he does not think of them nor lay them to heart when the Devil the World and the Flesh are busy with him t is all one with him at the time as if he had never heard of the Articles of Christian Faith and for the present he is as much without the Operation of Faith as if he had none at all It is with him as it is with a man in a swooning fit there is indeed life in him but it is without sense and motion and for the time he differs not from one that is dead or rather as there is a principle of sense and motion in the one without any act of either so is there indeed in the other a Principle of Faith but no Act of it and it is therefore as if it were not at all Distinct and particular application of what we believe will do much towards the restraining of a man's lusts and this is properly Faith but then that Faith which once was and now is not can do nothing at present which is the case of too many persons professing Christianity That their belief of Divine Truth is oftner absent than present because they do not think of those things which should govern them and assist them under Temptations but by chance or when they cannot help it their business is to put those things out of their minds and not to fix them there And this is the first advantage of one that is constant in his consideration of the Truths whereof he is convinced that they are present to him when he stands in need of their help and indeed never at any great distance from him The 2d Is this and that is the greatest of all That he hath a true and lively sense of these things as often as they return to his mind and he always believes them as he should do under a vigorous apprehension of his own great concernment in them To believe that there is a God and a Life to come and that the Son of God came to be our Saviour and will come to be our Judge that through the Infinite Mercy of God and through the Death and Passion of our Saviour we may obtain Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life to believe these things I say according to their nature and our concernment in them is to have a due sense of them and to be justly affected with them more than with all other interests whatsoever because these indeed are the greatest of all Now it is by a Constancy of Believing i. e. of Considering these things and making them present to us that we come to that Faith which consists in a right apprehension and a just sense of them Nor will any other means do without this and indeed all means of Grace are ineffectual without it and they are then effectual when they bring us to this degree of Faith The Prayers that we make are unprofitable if they do not help to fix our minds upon God and Divine Truth and by their frequent returns make a sense of Religion natural and familiar to us Our reading the Scriptures and hearing good Doctrine and Exhortation and our assembling for the worship of God is unprofitable to Godliness otherwise than by accustoming of us to think as we should do that is to be affected with the Doctrines of our most holy Faith Good education and good examples do no otherwise promote the work of God in our minds than by awakening our consideration of that Truth which is to renew us in the spirit of our minds Afflictions and Judgments the Fears and Apprehensions of Death the amazing Calls of God's Providence cannot of themselves work the reformation of an evil heart and life if they do it it is by beginning to bring men to that Consideration which they continue afterwards till they come to a Faith that answers the nature of the things they believe which consists in a just sense and apprehension of them but this is not to be gained but by a constant Consideration because they are spiritual things or future things after this life which are the main Objects of our Faith If a sick man believes that he shall gain his health by such a method or a poor man that he shall get an estate or a prisoner that he shall recover his liberty or any man that he shall come to his end in this world by such a course of means there is no need of much Consideration to persuade himself to try it because without any pains taken with himself he is naturally possest with a lively persuasion of his concernment in things of this nature But in Religion it is otherwise tho the interest be great nay the greatest of all yet it is not a sensible nor a present interest in comparison and so our Faith must be renewed day by day that we may be affected with it as reasonable creatures ought to be and by much thinking of it i. e. by many Acts of Faith arrive to such a sense of God and our interest in Religion as the nature of the thing deserves And this is that Faith which overcomes the world which purifies the heart and makes a man a new creature I deny not That wicked men believe and do contrary to a sense of their duty and of their obligations to God I acknowledge that they have so much Faith as makes them uneasie under their guilt somewhat loth to commit sin and ashamed and afraid when it is committed I grant that they have Faith truly so called but then they want Faith too that Faith which is properly
third Principle of Revealed Religion the belief whereof is necessary to Godliness and Virtue is That God is ready to assist our endeavours of doing his will Lastly it is possible to be alledged by the natural man That though all these things be true yet he hath no sufficient inducement to Religion and Virtue unless he were assured that all his self-denial his resolution and overcoming his evil Appetites his foregoing the present pleasures of Sin his diligence and constancy in well-doing would be recompenced by obtaining of better things in the room of those advantages he foregoes to please God in the doing of his duty To take away this Plea Almighty God hath moreover revealed unto us that he will bestow a Crown of life immortal of endless glory and happiness upon every one that perseveres in well-doing And the last Principle of revealed Religion the belief whereof is necessary to the doing of those things whereby God is pleased is this That God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Which is the Proposition or Doctrine of Revealed Religion instanced in by the Apostle and that as I told you in behalf of all other Doctrines of Revealed Religion of like necessity to be believed And thus I have shewn you how all those other fundamental Doctrines of Faith without which we cannot do those things that please God are comprehended in and lie between those which are mentioned in the Text viz. the lowest of them That God is and the highest and last of them That he is a rewarder c. Having thus shewn you what Doctrines of Revealed Religion are fundamentally necessary to be believed to encourage men to the practice of Piety and Virtue I shall speak more distinctly and yet briefly to each of them shewing how they are to be understood what grounds we have to believe them and what force and efficacy the belief of them hath to persuade us to Godliness and Virtue And 1. That God will pardon the sins of those that repent Without Revelation we cannot have assurance thereof because it cannot be concluded from mere natural light that God will actually pardon a Sinner The reason is because a Sinner is obnoxious and liable to just punishment and to inflict a just punishment is consistent with Goodness So that we cannot argue merely from the goodness of the Divine Nature which is otherways abundantly expressed to us that God will remit that punishment because 't is not inconsistent with his Goodness not to remit it That God therefore would pardon the sins of men and remit his right to punish them as they deserv'd depended merely upon his own pleasure whether he would or not and consequently it must be a secret to us till he was pleased to manifest it to us by Revelation And we that do believe that God will pardon the sins of those that repent do believe it upon this ground That the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Revelation of God's Will to Mankind in which Gospel it is plainly declared that God will pardon those that repent The great and evident design of the whole Gospel being this to call sinners to repentance upon this motive That they shall obtain remission of sins if they obey that call to repentance which God hath given them by his Son Jesus That which is promised is Pardon the condition upon which it is promised is Repentance both which afford a powerful motive to the practice of those things which please God For that God will pardon a Sinner what doth it signify but this That he will not reckon his former sins to him and that all his future acts of obedience shall be reckon'd to him as if he had never been guilty of any sin Now plain it is that hereby all those Jealousies of the power and severity of God which can dishearten the Sinner from seeking to be reconciled unto him by submission and repentance are utterly removed Hereby he is assured that God is neither inxorable nor implacable his prayers will be heard his repentance will be accepted and there is a certain way opened by which he may return into the favour of God Now he that believes this is under the power of a strong motive to live so as to please God for the future For as nothing doth more deeply ingage men in an obstinate and unreclaimable course of wickedness than the apprehension that they have sinned beyond hope of pardon so nothing is more apt to soften them into dispositions of repentance than the kind and merciful offers of forgiveness which he makes who hath it both in his right and in his power to destroy them This we are sensible of in the carriage of men towards one another and why should we not suffer as kindly impressions from the Gentleness and Charity of God as we do from the good nature of men Certain it is that no one man hath been so rude and ungrateful to another as every Sinner hath been to his Maker and as true it is that no misery can equal that which would befal him from the unappeasedness of God's anger and therefore no Gentleness and Mercy no tenderness and Charity is comparable to that which God hath expressed towards him in proclaiming himself ready to pardon upon repentance 'T is true we see there are such inflexible Natures in the World as are not to be mended by forgiveness and the kindest usage there are men of such incorrigible Tempers that are not at all the better for God's pardon or the Kings but then these are veary hateful persons and deserve not to be pitied But if men are reclaimable by kindness as all men should be what can sooner melt them into thoughts and purposes of amendment than that their great and bountiful Creator against whom no man can sin without being guilty of the greatest baseness because he sins against the greatest goodness against whom no man can sin without exposing himself to the greatest miseries because he sins against the greatest Power that he I say should bear so tender a regard to his lost and undone Creatures as to forbear his right to punish them and allure them to amendment by declaring that he will do so because he delighteth not in the death of a sinner but had rather he should turn and live This if any thing must needs work upon our hearts and humble our wills and dissolve our affections into a disposition of the most ready and dutiful obedience to him for the future Again if we consider the condition upon which this pardon is offered to Sinners in the Gospel the belief thereof must needs be a strong foundation of Godliness and Virtue For that repentance upon the condition whereof pardon is promised is neither more nor less than a real conversion from the love and practice of Sin and Unrighteousness to the love and practice of Virtue and Holiness It is neither made up of confession of sin and sorrow for sin
the World was first to be sold like a Slave and afterwards to endure a vile Imprisonment every new Misfortune all the while proving a step to his greatness Even wise men do seldom chuse for themselves all the ways of doing well in the World the event is to shew which are the best means because our welfare here depends more upon God's Providence than our own wisdom How often is it seen that a man's best chance that ever he had arose from a disappointment And this after those methods of his own designing which he built confidently upon turned to no account But then all the Adversities of good men will not admit of this answer nor does this way of shewing that all things turn to good for them that love God if it were generally true it does not I say suit so well with the Design and Spirit of the Gospel which does not raise worldly Expectations but takes off our Affections from this World and propounds to us the Rewards of a better for our Contentation Patience and Self-denial And therefore we must in the second place lay our stress upon this That those evils of this World which have no recompence from it and those that have work together for good of another kind and a far better kind to those that love God and that is their Spiritual and Eternal good For the making out of which I need to insist upon no other ground but this That there is no Christian Virtue which is not this way plainly improvable to greater perfection For 1. there are some religious qualities which an absolute prosperity seems to have little use of and therefore for want of exercise they seldom grow under it to great perfection Of this sort we may reckon Trust in God Dependance upon his Providence and Resignation to his Will but most assuredly Contentation Patience and Ingenuity in Religion in opposition to serving God out of a Mercenary hope of this World's Blessings from him are for the most part but little used and cannot be clearly proved till it comes to the trial But 2. whatever Virtues they are that shine forth in a prosperous condition they are capable of being wrought to a higher degree of perfection under the contrary For instance a good man will not fail in thankfulness to God when he is surrounded with all manner of good things But when evil happens to him he will be much more thankful he will more carefully observe what God has left him and make more grateful acknowledgments of his bounty for a part than when he had all together Nay he wisely considers that Afflictions are the Tokens of God's Paternal Love to him and is therefore thankful for that goodness from whence they came Humility towards God and Man is another Ornament of a prosperous state but it is by no means laid aside under the troubles of Life which oblige us more effectually to acknowledge the Sovereign Power and unsearchable Wisdom of God and with Job to humble our selves before him in dust and ashes which also because they level us with those that were once below us do therefore make us see how vain a thing it is to glory in worldly things and to bear up our selves upon the Opinion of those outward advantages we have above others Moreover do we learn Charity and Compassion towards our Brethren by that ability which God gives us to be helpful to them that need I add also that we learn it yet more perfectly by feeling our selves that which in others proves us to be Merciful and Compassionate towards them Nay this is one reason the Apostle gives why our Saviour himself has so great a Compassion for us We have not an high-priest who cannot be touched with a sense of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are Finally if the moderation of our Desires and Temperance in the use of this World 's good things and a quiet expectation of Death may be gained and demonstrated in the fulness of prosperity the declining and abatement of it will not hinder but rather promote these dispositions for by Patience we are yet more disentangled from worldly desires and our sensual Appetites are moderated when they are not so plentifully served and all the Crosses of this Life make us expect Death with more Tranquility and Assurance Now since the evil of this Life does not only raise these Virtues which are very little excited by a confluence of all pleasures but moreover does equally improve all the rest then it is a spiritual good which they work for them that love God and consequently the encrease of their Eternal Reward For it is not to the Great and the Fortunate but to the Meek the Humble and Charitable and to those that hunger and thirst after Righteousness that the Kingdom of Heaven is promised Therefore saith the Apostle God chastneth us for the present that we might be partakers of his holiness now no chastning for the present is joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby And thus much for the kind of good which outward evils may produce let us consider the degree of it Now this I say that if all evils work together for good then I know the degree of that good which is wrought to be greater than the degree of that evil by which it is wrought for if the good were less than the evil then it had been better that I had not been afflicted nay if it were but just equal I had then been troubled only to be where I was before and therefore the good must be greater Wherefore also if the evil be very great the good will be proportionably greater and by consequence the greatest evil that can befal a good man will through the Grace of God and his own Care redound to a good greater than it self All which may be true and yet such a man may not always be sensible of it For 1. the change which is made in a good Christian's mind for the better cannot well be so sensible as the alteration which is made in his outward Correction by any considerable cost or pain Indeed when adversity proves an occasion of turning every one from a plain and gross way of wickedness so great an alteration must needs be felt but the difference between the degrees of Piety and Wisdom is not so sensible as the difference between a state of Virtue on the one hand and of Vice on the other And therefore if a righteous man behaves himself well under any Chastisement he may conclude himself better for it and that the benefit is greater than the evil though he does not feel them both alike especially since the improvement of the mind though in it self not very great is yet a greater good than the pain that caused it is an evil A great bodily affliction is not lost if it has taught us a little more