Church of Rome in this matter is contrary to that of the Christian Church for several of the first Ages of it As for the Ages of the Apostles it hath been already proved out of their Writings That it was not practised in the three first Ages we have the Acknowledgment of Cardinal Perron and others of their learned Writers and they give a very remarkable Reason for it namely Because the Worship and Invocation of Saints and Angels and addressing our Prayers to God by them might have seem'd to have given Countenance to the Heathen Idolatry From whence I cannot forbear by the way to make these two Observations 1. That the Invocation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin and addressing our selves to God by their Mediation was not in those Primitive Ages esteemed a Duty of the Christian Religion because if it had it could not have been omitted for fear of the Scandal consequent upon it And if it was not a Duty then By what Authority or Law can it be made so since 2. That this Practice is very lyable to the Suspicion of Idolatry and surely every Christian cannot but think it fit that the Church of Christ should like a chast Spouse not only be free from the Crime but from all Suspicion of Idolatry And for the next Ages after the Apostles nothing is plainer than that both their Doctrine and Practice were contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the present Church of Rome in this Matter The most ancient Fathers of the Christian Church do constanly define Prayer to be an address to God and therefore it cannot be made to any but God only And after the rise of Arianism they argued for the Divinity of Christ against the Arians from our Praying to him which Argument were of no force if Prayers might be made to any but God and this was in the beginning of the Fourth Age. And we no where find any mention of those Distinctions of Gods by Nature and Gods by Participation as Bellarmin calls the Angels and Saints or of a supream and inferior Religious Worship or of a Mediator of Redemption and a Mediator of Intercession which are so commonly made use of by the Church of Rome in this Controversie And which is as considerable as any of the rest the ancient Fathers were generally of Opinion that the Saints were not admitted to the Beatifick Vision till after the Day of Judgment and this is acknowledged by the most Learned of the Church of Rome But this very Opinion takes away the Foundation of Praying to Saints because the Church of Rome grounds it upon their Reigning with Christ in Heaven and upon the Light and Knowledge which is communicated to them in the Beatifick Vision and if so then they who believed the Saints not yet to be admitted to this Vision could have no Reason or Ground to pray to them And Lastly The ancient Church prayed for Saints departed and for the Blessed Virgin her self and therefore could not pray to them as Intercessors for them in Heaven for whom they themselves interceeded upon Earth And therefore the Church of Rome in complyance with the change which they have made in their Doctrine have changed the Missal in that Point and instead of praying for St. Leo one of their Popes as they were wont to do in their ancient Missal in this form Grant O Lord that this Oblation may be profitable to the Soul of thy Servant Leo the Collect is now changed in the present Roman Missal into this Form Grant O Lord that by the Intercession of Blessed Leo this Offering may be profitable to us And as the Gloss upon the Canon Law observes this change was made in their Missal upon very good Reason because anciently they prayed for Leo but now they pray to him which is an ingenuous Acknowledgement that both the Doctrine and Practice of their Church are plainly changed from what they anciently were in this matter What the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome are in this matter all the World sees and they themselves are so ashamed of them that of late all their endeavours have been to represent them otherwise than in truth they are and to obtrude upon us a new Popery which they think themselves better able to defend than the old which yet they have not shewn that they are so well able to do and therefore now instead of defending the true Doctrines and Practices of their own Church they would fain mince and disguise them and change them into something that comes nearer to the Protestant Doctrine in those Points As if they had no way to defend their own Doctrines but by seeming to desert them and by bringing them as near to ours as possibly they can But take them as they have mollified them and par'd them to render them more plausible and tenable that which still remains of them I mean the solemn Invocation of Saints and Angels as Mediators and Intercessors with God in Heaven for us is plainly contrary both to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Ages of Christianity As for the Age of the Apostles I have already shewn it and the matter is as clear for several of the next following Ages as I shall briefly shew from a few very plain Testimonies In the Age next to the Apostles we have an Epistle of one of the Seven Churches I mean the Church of Smyrna in which in Vindication of themselves from that Calumny which was raised against them by the Jews among the Heathen That if they permitted the Christians to have the body of the martyred Polycarp they would leave Christ to worship Polycarp I say in vindication of themselves from this Calumny they declare themselves thus Not knowing say they that we can neither leave Christ who suffered for the Salvation of the World of those that are saved nor Worship any other or as it is in the old Latin Translation nor offer up the Supplication of Prayer to any other Person for as for Jesus Christ we adore him as being the Son of God but as for the Martyrs we love them as the Disciples and Imitators of the Lord. So that they plainly exclude the Saints from any sort of Religious Worship of which Prayer or Invocation was always esteemed a very considerable part Ireneus likewise tells us l. 2. That the Church doth nothing speaking of the Miracles which were wrought by the Invocatin of Angels nor by Inchantment nor by any other wicked Arts but by Prayers to the Lord who made all things and by calling on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Here all invocation of Angels and by the same or greater Reason of the Saints is excluded And Clemens Alexandrinus delivers it as the Doctrine of the Church That since there is but one good God therefore both we and the Angels pray to him both for the giving and the continuance of good things In the next Age Origen is so full and express
us Satisfaction of the Truth and Divinity of the Doctrine of the Christian Religion which hath had so eminent a Confirmation given to it from Heaven and did at its first setting out so strangely prevail in the World against all Humane Probability not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord. No man can well suppose a Religion in Circumstances of greater Disadvantage and upon all Humane Accounts more unlikely to sustain and bear up it self than the Christian Religion was The first Appearance of it was so mean and its Beginnings so small that no Man but would have thought it would presently have come to nothing and no other account can be given of the strange Success and Prevalency of it but that it was of God and therefore it could not be overthrown II. This Discourse may likewise satisfie us of the Reason why this Miraculous Power which accompanied the Gospel at first is now ceased because there is not the like Reason and Necessity for it which there was at first It was highly Necessary then to introduce the Christian Religion into the World and to be a sensible Evidence to Men of the Divinity of that new Doctrine which was Preached to them but now that the Gospel is generally entertained there is not the same Reason why this Miraculous Power should still be continued Acquisito fine cessant media ad finem when the End is once obtained the Means cease and the Wise God who is never wanting in what is Necessary does not use to be lavish in that which is Superfluous Now that the Christian Religion hath got firm footing in the World God leaves it to be propagated and advanced by its own Rational Force upon the Minds of Men now that the Prejudices of Education in a Contrary Religion are removed and the Powers of the World are reconciled to Christianity there is no need of such violent and extraordinary Means for the continuance of it now that it stands upon equal Advantages with other Religions God hath left it to be carried on in more humane and ordinary ways and such as are more level and accommodate to the Nature of Man That Miracles are long since ceased is acknowledged by the Fathers who lived an Age or two after the ceasing of them particularly by St. Chrysostome who gives the same Reason for it which I have just now assigned But the Church of Rome would still bear us in hand that this Miraculous Power does still continue in their Church and according to Bellarmine must always continue because he makes it an inseparable Property and Mark of the True Church But we pretend to no such Power nor have we any Reason so to do because all the Doctrines of our Religion are the Ancient Doctrines of Christianity delivered by our Saviour and by his Apostles publisht to the World and these are sufficiently confirmed already by the Miracles which our Saviour and his Apostles wrought in the Primitive Times of Christianity But the Church of Rome hath great Occasion and Need of New Miracles to confirm their New Doctrines and therefore as they have Reason they usually apply them to the Confirmation of their New Doctrines some to confirm Purgatory and to give countenance to Indulgences others to encourage the Worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints others to confirm that which all the Miracles in the World are not sufficient to confirm I mean the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which because it overthrows the certainty of Sense is in the Nature of it peculiarly incapable of being confirmed by a Miracle III. and Lastly The Consideration of what hath been said does justly upbraid us that this Religion which was so powerful at first and hath such Characters of Divinity upon it coming down to us confirmed by so many Miracles should yet have so little Effect upon most of us who call our selves Christians We have all the Advantages of the Christian Religion having been educated and brought up in it and yet it hath less Effect upon us than it had upon those whose Minds were prejudiced and whose Manners were depraved by the Principles of a false Religion for those who were reduced from Paganism to Christianity did on the sudden become better Men and were more Holy and Virtuous in their Lives than the greatest part of us who have been instructed and trained up all our lives in the Doctrine of Christianity The true Reason of which is that many of us are Christians upon the same account that they were at first Heathens because it was the Religion of their Country and they were born and bred up in it but Christianity was the Religion of their Choice and there were no Motives to perswade them to the Profession of that Religion but what were as powerful to oblige them to the Practice of it Let us also be Christians not only by Custom but by Choice and then we shall live according to our Religion He that takes up a Religion for any other Reason than to obey and practice it does not choose a Religion but only counterfeits the Choice of it We have beyond Comparison the best and most reasonable Religion in the World a Religion that hath the greatest Evidence of its Truth that contains the best Precepts and gives men the greatest Assurance of a future Happiness and directs them to the surest Way of attaining it Now the better our Religion is the worse are we if we be not made good by it The Philosophy of the Heathen made some virtuous and there were many eminent Saints under the Imperfection of the Jewish Institution What Degrees then of Holiness and Virtue may be expected from us upon whom the Glorious Light of the Gospel shineth so brightly I will conclude all with the Words of the Apostle Heb. 2.1 2 3 4. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to his own will SERMON VI. The Nature Office and Employment of Good Angels Preached on the Feast of St. Michael HEB. 1.14 Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation THis is spoken of Good Angels whose Existence as well as that of Evil Spirits the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament do every where take for granted no less than they do the Being of God and the Immortality of the Soul And well they may since they are all founded upon the general Consent of all Ages VOL. II. derived down to
of all Holiness and Virtue Great Reason there is therefore why all Christians should follow their Faith and make their Coversation more especially the Patterns of their Lives The want of a due regard to these Fountains of Christian Doctrine and the first and best Patterns of Christian Practice hath been the great Cause of that foul degeneracy of the Romish Church both in the Doctrine and Practice of Christianity They do not follow the Faith of the Apostles the first Fathers and Teachers of Christianity but of the Fathers of the Council of Lateran and Trent Thus have they forsaken the Fountain of living waters the Holy Scriptures and have hewn to themselves broken Cisterns that will hold no water the Doctrines and Traditions of Men. Nay they have stopt up this Fountain of living waters from the People and forbid them to come to it and forced them to drink of those impure and pudled Streams which they let out to them and instead of the Lives of the holy Apostles and those eminent Graces and Virtues which shined forth in them they represent to them the Patterns of new Saints some of which neither they nor their Fathers knew and indeed never were in being as St. Almanach and St. Synoris and several others many of them so far from being Saints that they may be reckoned among the worst of Men for instance our Countryman Thomas a Becket who for Pride and Rebellion may almost vye with Lucifer himself and yet this ill Man and worst of Subjects was Canonized to that height as for Two hundred Years together to engross the Worship of these Western Parts of the World and to impoverish the Shrines of all other Saints even of the Blessed Virgin her self others such Ideots or hot-headed Fanaticks that he that reads their Lives would take them to be Fools and Mad-men rather than Saints as Francis and Dominick and Ignatius Loyola and several others of the same stamp and many the very best of them so disguised by their Legends that instead of the substantial Virtues of a Good Life their story is made up of false and fantastical Miracles and ridiculous Freaks of Superstition All which considered there is great Reason why we should have recourse to the Primitive Patterns of Faith and Holiness and be followers of them who we are sure were followers of Christ I proceed to the Second Thing I proposed namely wherein we should imitate these Patterns And the Apostle expresseth it in one word in their Faith Whose faith follow And the word Faith is frequently in the New Testament used so largely as to comprehend the whole Condition of the Gospel a firm Belief of the Doctrine of it and the Fruit and Effect of this Belief in a good Conversation And that Faith here in the Text takes in a holy Life is evident from what follows Whose faith follow considering the end of their Conversation from whence it is evident that the Apostle speaks of such a Faith as shews forth it self in a good Conversation So that we may very well suppose the Apostle here to recommend the Primitive Faith to our imitation in these Four respects 1. In regard of the Sincerity and Purity of it 2. In regard of the Firmness and Stability of it 3. Of their Constancy and Perseverance in it 4. Of the Efficacy and Fruitfulness of it in a good Conversation All these may be collected from the Expressions and Circumstances of the Text. 1. We are to imitate these Primitive Patterns in the Sincerity and Purity of their Faith I mean that the Faith which we profess be the sincere Doctrine of Christianity and the pure Word of God free from all mixture of Humane Additions and Inventions and not made up as the Faith of the Pharisees was among the Jews and theirs of the Church of Rome is at this day of the Word of God and the Doctrines and Traditions of Men not like the Creed of Pope Pius the IV. which is now the Standard of the Roman Faith consisting of the 12 Old Aricles of the Christian Faith delivered to us by Christ and his Apostles and as many new ones coined and stampt by their later Councils This is not to follow the Faith of the Apostles and first Patterns of Christianity the Faith once delivered to the Saints as St. Jude calls it This is to have our Faith stand upon the Authority of Men and not on the Word of God whereas we are to follow the Faith of the first Guides of the Christian Church who spake unto them the Word of God as the Apostle expresly chargeth here in the Text. 2. We are to imitate them in the Stability and Firmness of our Faith and not suffer our selves to be shaken and removed from it by every wind of new Doctrine the Faith of Christ being unchangeable as Christ himself And that by following the Faith of the Primitive Guides and Teachers of Christianity the Apostle here means that we should be stedfast and unmoveable in it is plain from what follows immediately after the Text Whose faith follow considering the End of their Conversation Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Be not carryed about with divers and strange doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be establisht with grace that is in the Doctrine of the Gospel which is frequently called the grace of God 3. We are to imitate them in the Constancy and Perseverance of their Faith and that notwithstanding all the Discountenance and Opposition the Persecution and Suffering which attend the Profession of this Faith which the Apostle sufficiently intimates in this Epistle to have been the Condition of those Christians to whom he wrote and therefore he proposeth so many Examples to them of constant and patient Suffering for God and his Truth and it is probable enough that the Apostle here recommends the Example of those who were the Primitive Martyrs as well as Teachers of Christianity He had before proposed to them the living Examples of those who were under actual Persecution and Sufferings for the Gospel v. 3. Remember those that are in bonds and those that suffer adversity and here in the 7. v. he seems to propose the Pattern of those who had laid down their Lives and dyed for the Faith Remember those who have been your Guides and have spoken to you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the End of their Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be rendr'd the last act of their Lives the manner of their going out of the World perhaps by Martyrdom as if had said Imitate them in their Constancy and Perseverance in the Faith even to the last in laying down their Lives for it And thus we should be ready to do if God calls us to it However it is certain the Aopstle meant their Constancy and Perseverance in the Faith to the last and their dying in if not for the Faith of Christ And this is
him King and spat upon him and under a pretence of rejoycing for his Birth to crucifie to our selves afresh the Lord of life and glory and to put him to an open shame I will conclude all with the Apostle's Exhortation Rom. 13.12 13 14. Let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the Armour of Light Let us walk decently as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christy and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Now to our most gracious and merciful God the great Friend and Lover of Souls who regarded us in our low and lost Condition and cast an Eye of pity upon us when we were in our Blood and no other Eye pityed us and when we had lost and ruined our selves was pleased in tender compassion to Mankind to send his only begotten Son into the World to seek and save us and by the Purity of his Doctrine and the Pattern of his Life and the Sacrifice of his Death to purchase Eternal Life for us and to direct and lead us in the way to it And to him also the Blessed Saviour and Redeemer of Mankind who came down from Heaven that he might carry us thither and took Human Nature upon him that we thereby might be made Partakers of a Divine Nature and humbled himself to Death even the Death of the Cross that he might exalt us to Glory and Honour and whilst we were bitter Enemies to him gave such a Demonstration of his Love to us as never any Man did to his best Friend Vnto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain to God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the kings of the Earth to him who hath loved us Serm. II. and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and honour dominion and power now and for ever Amen SERMON II. Christ Jesus the only Mediator between God and Men. Preached at St. Peter's Cornhill ON THE Feast of the Annunciation 1691. 1 Tim. II. 5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all THESE Words contain in them these four Propositions three of them express and the fourth of them sufficiently implyed in the Text. I. That there is one God VOL. II. II. That there is one Mediator between God and men Christ Jesus III. That he gave himself a ransom for all IV. That the Mediation or Intercession of Jesus Christ is founded in the Redemption of Mankind For this seems to be the Reason why it is added that he gave himself a ransom for all to signifie to us that because he gave himself a ransom for all therefore he interceeds for all In virtue of that Sacrifice which he offered to God for the Salvation of Men he offers up our Prayers to God and therefore it is acceptable to him that we should pray for all men This seems to be the true connexion of the Apostle's Discourse and the force of his Reasoning about our putting up publick Prayers for all men I have in a former Discourse handled the first of these See a Sermon concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature Printed in the year 1693. I proceed now to the II. That there is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus One Mediator that is But one for the expression is the very same concerning one God and one Mediator and therefore if the Apostle when he says there is one God certainly means that there is but one God it is equally certain that when he says there is one Mediator between God and men he means there is but one Mediator viz. Christ Jesus He is the only Mediator between God and Men. In the handling of this Argument I shall proceed in this Method 1. I shall endeavour to shew That God hath appointed but one Mediator or Advocate or Intercessor in Heaven for us in whose Name and by whose Mediation and Intercession we are to offer up our Prayers and Services to God 2. That this is most agreeable to one main End and Design of the Christian Religion and of our Saviour's coming into the World 3. That it is likewise evident from the Nature and Reason of the thing it self That there is but one Mediator and Intercessor in Heaven for us to offer up our Prayers to God and that there can be no more And then 4. and Lastly I shall endeavour to shew how contrary to the Doctrine of the Christian Religion concerning one Mediator and Intercessor in Heaven for us the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome in this matter is in their Invocation of Angels and the Blessed Virgin and the Saints and making use of their Mediation and Intercession with God for Sinners as likewise how contrary it is to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Christian Church And then I shall answer their several Pretences for this Doctrine and Practice and shew that this Practice is not only needless but useless and unprofitable and not only so but very dangerous and impious First I shall endeavour to shew That God hath appointed but one Mediator or Advocate or Intercessor in Heaven for us in whose Name and by whose Intercession we are to offer up all our Prayers and Services to God Besides that it is expresly said here in the Text there is but one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus and that the Scripture no where mentions any other I say besides this we are constantly directed to offer up our Prayers and Thanksgivings and to perform all Acts of Worship in his Name and no other and with a Promise that the Prayers and Services which we offer in his Name will be graciously answered and accepted John 14.13 14. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it And Ch. 16.23 24. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be be full In that day that is when I have left the World and am gone to my Father as he explains it at the 28th verse In that day ye shall ask me nothing but whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you That is You shall not need to address your Prayers to me but to my Father in my Name And ver 26 27. At that day ye shall ask in my name that is from the time
the Infirmities yet he was free from the Corruption of Humane Nature therefore the Examples of meer Men liable to sin as we are may in many respects be more suitable and accomodate to encourage us to the imitation of those Virtues which are attainable by us in this state of Imperfection for which Reason the Apostle hath thought fit likewise to propose to us the highest Examples of that kind the first Teachers of our Religion for of these he seems to speak here in the Text namely those Apostles or Apostolical Men by whom they had been instructed in the Faith of Christ but who were now departed this life it being very probable that the Apostle here speaks of such as were dead when he says Remember them which have the rule over you or those that have been your Guides who have spoken to you the word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation I say this is very probable because he minds them to remember them which supposeth them to be absent but especially because he minds them to consider the end of their conversation by which surely he means the Blessed State of those Good Men after Death which is elsewhere called the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1.9 So likewise Rom. 6.22 this is said to be the End of a holy Life ye have your fruit unto holiness and the End everlasting life And it very much favours this Interpretation that the Apostle afterwards speaks of the living Guides and Governours of the Church v. 17. Obey them which have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls So that it is highly probable that the Apostle here speaks of such Guides and Governours of the Church as had once been over them but were now departed this Life and therefore he might with more freedom and less envy recommend their Example to them and bid them call to mind their Faith and exemplary Conversation among them and propose it for a Pattern to themselves considering the happy End of it viz. The Blessed State they were now in and the Glorious Reward they were made Partakers of in another Life In the Words thus explained you have I. A Duty enjoyned which is to propose to our selves for our Imitation the Examples of Good Men that have gone before us especially the primitive Patterns of Christianity and the first Teachers of our Religion Remember them which have been your Guides and have spoken to you the Word of God whose Faith follow II. The Motive or Encouragement to it from the Consideration of the Reward of it Considering the End of their Conversation I. The Duty enjoyned which is to propose to our selves for our Imitation the Example of Good Men that have gone before us especially the Primitive Patterns of Christianity and first Teachers of our Religion Remember them that have had the rule over you that have been your Guides and have spoken to you the word of God whose Faith follow In which Words the Apostle bids them call to mind their first Guides and Instructors in Christianity whom they had known and heard and conversed with in this World but who were now rested from their labours and were receiving the Reward of them to remember the Doctrines they heard from them and the Virtues they had seen in them and to embrace the one and imitate the other Thus We cannot remember the Primitive Teachers and Patterns of Christianity the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour became we did not personally know them and converse with them living at the distance of many Ages from their time But we may do that which is equivalent and a kind of Remembrance of them we may commemorate their Faith and the Virtue and Holiness of their Lives and what we hear and read of them we may propose for Patterns to our selves and copy them out in our Lives and Actions And this is our Duty and the same in substance with theirs who had the happiness to know and converse with those excellent Persons to hear them Preach and to see the Rules and Precepts of that Holy Doctrine which they Taught exemplified in their Lives In the handling of this Argument I shall do these Three things First Shew why amongst all the Examples of Good Men we should more especially propose to our Imitation the Primitive Teachers and Patterns of our Religion Secondly Wherein we should Imitate them The Apostle expresseth it in one Word in their Faith whose Faith follow Thirdly The Encouragement to this from the Consideration of the happy State they are in and the glorious Reward they are made Partakers of Considering the End of their Conversation First I shall endeavour to shew why among all the Examples of Good Men we should more especially propose to our Imitation the Primitive Teachers and Patterns of our Religion I mean the holy Apostles of our Lord and Saviour whose Faith we should endeavour to follow and to Imitate the holiness and virtue of their Conversation For These certainly come nearest to that most Perfect and Excellent Pattern of all Goodness our Blessed Saviour and are the fairest Transcripts of that unblemisht Original Hence it is that St. Paul so frequently exhorts Christians to Imitate his Example and the Examples of the other Apostles it being reasonable to presume that They came nearest to the Pattern of our Lord. 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ Phil. 3.17 Brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an Ensample For our Conversation is in Heaven And this is reasonable that the first in every kind should be the Rule and Pattern of the rest and of all that follow after because it is likely to be most perfect In process of Time the best Institutions are apt to decline and by insensible degrees to swerve and depart from the Perfection of their first state and therefore it is a good Rule to preserve things from corruption and degeneracy often to look back to the first Institution and by that to correct those Imperfections and Errors which will almost unavoidably creep in with Time If we would preserve that Purity of Faith and Manners which our Religion requires we should have frequent recourse to the Primitive Teachers and Patterns of Christianity and endeavour to bring our Belief and Lives to as near a Conformity with theirs as is possible Who so likely to deliver the Faith and Doctrine of Christ pure and uncorrupted as the Primitive Teachers of it who received it from our Lord himself and were by an extraordinary assistance of the Holy Spirit secured from Error and Mistake in the delivery of it And who so likely to bring their Lives and Conversations to an exact Conformity with this holy Doctrine as they who were so throughly Instructed in it by the best Master and shewn the Practice of it in the most perfect Example
other terms than of denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and of living soberly righteously and godly in this present world And besides this Consideration we have the best Testimony in the World of their Unblameable Lives viz. the Testimony of their profest Enemies who did not persecute them for any personal Crimes which they charged particular Persons withal but only for their Religion acknowledging them otherwise to be very innocent and good People Particulary Pliny in his Letter to Trajan the Emperor who had given him in Charge to make particular Enquiry concerning the Christians gives this honourable Report of them That there was no fault to be found in them besides their obstinate refusal to Sacrifice to the Gods that at their Religious Meetings it was an essential part of their Worship to oblige themselves by a solemn Sacrament against Murder and Theft and Adultery and all manner of Wickedness and Vice No Christian Historian could have given a better Character of them than this Heathen Writer does But 3. The Success of the Gospel will appear yet more strange if we consider the Weakness and Meanness of the Instruments that were employed in this great Work A company of plain and illiterate Men most of them destitute of the advantages of Education went forth upon this great Design weak and unarmed unassisted by any worldy interest having no Secular Force and Power on their side to give countenance and authority to them and this not only at their first setting out but they remained under these Disadvantages for three Ages together The first Publishers of the Christian Religion offered Violence to no Man did not go about to compel any by Force to entertain the Doctrine which they Preached and to list themselves of their number they were not attended with Legions of armed Men to dispose Men for the reception of their Doctrine by Plunder and Free-Quarter by Violence and Tortures this Modern Method of Conversion was not then thought of nor did they go about to tempt and allure Men to their Way by the Promises of Temporal Rewards and by the Hopes of Riches and Honours nor did they use any artificial insinuations of Wit and Eloquence to gain upon the Minds of Men and steal their Doctrines into them but delivered themselves with the greatest plainness and simplicity and without any studied Ornaments of Speech or fine Arts of Perswasion declared plainly to them the Doctrine and Miracles the Life and Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ promising Life and Immortality to them that did believe and obey his Doctrine and threatning Eternal Wo and Misery in another World to the despisers of it And yet these contemptible Instruments notwithstanding all these disadvantages did their work effectually and by the Power of God going along with them gained numbers every day to their Religion and in a short space drew the world after them Nor did they only win over the Common People but also several Persons considerable for their Dignity and Eminent for their Learning who afterwards became zealous Assertors of Christianity and were not ashamed to be Instructed in the Saving Knowledge of the Gospel by such mean and unlearned Persons as the Apostles were for they saw something in them more Divine and which carried with it a greater Power and Perswasion than Humane Learning and Eloquence 4. We will consider the mighty Opposition that was raised against the Gospel At its first appearance it could not be otherwise but that it must meet with a great deal of difficulty and opposition from the Lusts and Vices of Men which it did so plainly and so severely declare against and likewise from the Prejudices of Men that had been brought up in a contrary Religion no Prejudice being so strong as that which is founded in Education and of all Prejudices of Education none so obstinate and hard to be removed as those about Religion yea tho' they be never so absurd and unreasonable Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods Men are very hardly brought off from the Religion which they have been brought up in how little Ground and Reason soever there be for it the being trained up in it and having a reverence for it implanted in them in their tender Years supplies all other defects Had Men been free and indifferent in Religion when Christianity first appeared in the World and had they not had their Minds prepossest with other apprehensions of God and Religion and been inured to Rites and Superstitions of a quite different Nature from the Christian Religion or had they at that time been weary of the Superstitions of their Idolatrous Worship and been enquiring after a better way of Religion then indeed the Christian Religion had appeared with great advantage and would in all probability have been entertained with a readiness of Mind proportionable to the Reasonableness of it But this was not the Case When the Doctrine of the Gospel was first Publisht in the World the whole World both Jews and Gentiles were violently prejudiced against it and fixt in their several Religions The Jews indeed in former times had been very prone to relinquish the Worship of the True God and to fall into the Heathen Idolatry But after God had Punisht them severely for that Sin by a long Captivity they continued ever after very strict and firm to the Worship of the True God and never were they more tenacious of their Religion and Law than at that very time when our Saviour appeared in the World And though He was foretold in their Law and most particularly described in the authentick Books of their Religion the Prophets of the Old Testament yet by reason of certain groundless Traditions which they had received from the Interpreters of their Law That their Messias was to be a great Temporal Prince they conceived an invincible Prejudice against our Saviour upon account of the Mean Circumstances in which he appeared and upon this Prejudice they rejected him and put him to death and persecuted his Followers And though their Religion was much nearer to the Christian than any of the Heathen Idolatries yet upon this account of our Saviour's Mean Appearance they were much more averse to the Entertainment of it than the grossest Idolaters among the Nations Not but that their Prejudice also was very great the common People being strongly addicted to the Idolatry and Superstitions of their several Countries and the Wiser and more Learned whom they call'd their Philosophers were so puft up with a conceit of their own Knowledge and Eloquence that they despised the rudeness and simplicity of the Apostles and look'd upon their Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour as ridiculous and the Story of his Resurrection from the dead as absurd and impossible So St. Paul tells us that the Cross of Christ was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness But besides the Opposition which the Gospel met withal from the Lusts and Prejudices of Men
of any Religion that ever yet appeared in the World And this is a great Advantage indeed But by this alone it could never have been able to have broken through all that mighty Opposition and Resistance which was made against it and therefore that it might be able to encounter this with Success 2. God was pleased to accompany the first Preaching of it with a mighty and sensible Presence and Power of his Spirit And this brings me to the Second Part of the Text the Reason of the wonderful Efficacy and Success which the Apostles had in the Preaching of the Gospel the Lord wrought with them and confirmed the Word with signs following Which words express to us that Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost which accompanied the first Preaching of the Gospel by which I do not intend to exclude the inward Operation of God's Holy Spirit upon the Minds of Men secretly moving and inclining those to whom the Gospel was Preached to embrace and entertain it which the Scripture elsewhere speaks frequently of and may possibly be intended in the first of these Expressions the Lord working with them and the latter may only be meant of the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit with regard to which God is said to confirm the Word with signs following or accompanying it But I rather think they are both intended to express the same thing and that the latter is only added by way of explication of the former to shew more particularly how the Lord wrought with them namely by giving Confirmation to their Doctrine by those miraculous Gifts and Powers of the Spirit which they were endowed withal the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following that is with those Miracles which accompanied the first Preaching of the Gospel For these words do plainly refer to the Promise of the Spirit at the 17th verse and these signs shall follow them that believe which is the Reason why they are here call'd signs following that is Miracles which accompanied the Word that was Preached And that this is the full meaning of this Text will appear by comparing it with one or two more Rom. 15.18 19. where St. Paul speaking of the things which Christ had wrought by him to make the Gentiles obedient to the Gospel he says they were done through mighty signs and wonders by the Power of the Spirit of God which is the same with that which is said here in the Text of the Lord 's working with the Apostles and confirming the Word with signs following So likewise Heb. 2.3 4. the Apostle there tells us that the Gospel which was first spoken by the Lord was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost So that the great Confirmation which is said here to be given to the Gospel was by the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit which were poured forth upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians In speaking of which I shall briefly do these Two things I. Give an account of the Nature of these Gifts and of the Vse and End to which they served And then shew in the II. Place how the Gospel was Confirmed by them I. For the Nature of these Gifts and the Vse and End to which they were designed They are those Miraculous Powers which by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost the Apostles were endowed withall to qualifie them to Publish the Gospel with more speed and success Such was the Gift of speaking divers Languages and the Gift of Interpreting things spoken in divers Languages And these Two Gifts were not necessarily united in the same Person for the Apostle tells us that some had the one and some the others the Gift of Prophecy and foretelling things to come which was always a sign of a Person Divinely Inspired the Miraculous Powers of Healing Diseases of Raising the Dead and of Casting out Devils a Power of inflicting Corporal Diseases and Punishments upon scandalous and obstinate Christians who would not submit to the Apostles Authority and Government which is in Scripture call'd a delivering up to Satan for the destruction or tormenting of the Body that the Soul may be saved nay in some cases this Power extended to the inflicting of Death it self as in the case of Ananias and Saphira Not that all these Miraculous Powers were given to every one of the Apostles or that they could exercise them at all times some were bestowed upon one and some upon another according to God's good pleasure and as was most expedient for the Vse and Benefit of the Church and most subservient to those Ends for which God gave them only we find that all the Apostles had the Gift of Tongues and that the Power of Casting out Devils in the name of Christ was common to every Christian and continued in the Church for a long time after the other Gifts were ceased as Tertul. Arnob. and Min. Felix do testifie even of their own times But II. I shall briefly shew how the Gospel was Confirmed by these Miraculous Gifts Now besides the particular Vses and Ends of those Miraculous Gifts as the Gift of Tongues did evidently serve for the more speedy Planting and Propagating of the Christian Religion in the World and the Power of inflicting Corporeal Punishments in a Miraculous manner upon Scandalous and Disobedient Christians did maintain the Power and Authority of the Apostles and was instead of an ordinary Magistratical Power which Christians were destitute of whilst the Roman Empire continued Heathen I say besides the particular Ends and Vses of all these Miraculous Gifts they did all in general as they were Miracles serve for the Confirmation of the Gospel The Apostles delivered the Doctrine of Christ and were Witnesses of his Resurrection from the dead as the great Miracle whereby his Doctrine was confirmed now there was all the Reason in the World to believe them whom God was pleased to give such a Testimony from Heaven for who could make any doubt of the Truth of Their Testimony concerning the Resurrection of Christ who were enabled to raise others from the dead and by many other wonderful things which they did gave such clear Testimony that God was with them Never had any Religion fewer worldly Advantages to recommend it and so little temporal Countenance and Assistance to carry it on but what it wanted from Men it had from God for he gave witness to it with signs and wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost God seems on purpose to have stript it of all Secular Advantages that the Christian Religion might be perfectly free from all suspition of Worldly Interest and Design and that it might not owe its Establishment in the World to the Wisdom and Contrivance of Men but to the Arm and Power of God The Inferences I shall at present make from this Discourse shall be these I. To give
necessary if we expect the Crown of Life and hope for the same happy End which they had for none but they that continue to the end shall be saved 4. We should imitate them in the efficacy and fruitfulness of their Faith in the Practice and Virtues of a good Life Whose faith follow considering the end of their Conversation that is their Perseverance in a holy Course to the end And these must never be separated a sound Faith and a good Life Without this our Faith is barren and dead as St. James tells us ch 2. v. 17. Our Knowledge and Belief of the Christian Doctrine must manifest it self in a good Conversation Who is a wise man says the same St. James ch 3. v. 13. Who is a wise man and endowed with knowledge amongst you Let him shew-out of a good conversation his works This is a faithful saying saith St. Paul to Titus ch 3. v. 8. and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God be careful to maintain good works And herein the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour were eminent Examples They lived as they Taught and Practised the Doctrine which they Preached So St. Paul strictly chargeth Timothy 1 Tim. 4.12 Be thou an example of the Believers in word in conversation in charity in faith in purity And our Saviour tells us that hereby chiefly false Prophets and Teachers might be known from the true Apostles of Christ Matth. 7.20 By their fruits ye shall know them And indeed we do not follow the faith of those Excellent Persons if we do not abound in all the fruits of righteousness which by Jesus Christ are to the praise and glory of God I come now to the Third and Last Thing I Proposed viz. the Encouragement to this from the Consideration of the happy state of those Persons who are proposed to us for Patterns and the glorious Reward which they are made Partakers of in another World Considering the end of their Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their egress or departure out of this Life into a Blessed and Glorious State where they have received the Crown and Reward of their Faith and Patience and Pious Conversation in this World or else which comes much to one considering the conclusion of their Lives with what Patience and Comfort they left the World and with what joyful Assurance of the happy Condition they were going to and were to continue in for ever And this is a great encouragement to Constancy and Perseverance in Faith and Holiness to see with what Chearfulness and Comfort good Men die and with what a firm and steady Perswasion of the Happiness they are entring upon For who would not be glad to leave the World in that Calmness and Serenity of Mind and comfortable Assurance of a Blessed Eternity Bad Men wish this and are ready to say with Balaam Let me die the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his But if we would have the Comfort of such a Death we must live such Lives and imitate the Faith and good Conversation of those whom we desire to resemble in the manner of their Death and to go into the same Happy State that they are in after Death If we do not make their Lives our Pattern we must not expect to be conformable to to them in the happy Manner of their Death When we hear of the Death of an eminent good Man we do not doubt but he is happy and are confident that he will meet with the Reward of his Piety and Goodness in another World If we believe this of him let us endeavour to be like him that we may attain the same Happiness which we believe him to be possest of and as the Apostle exhorts ch 6.12 Let us not be slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Let us shew the same Diligence that they did that we may have the same full Assurance of Hope unto the End which they had The Inference from this Discourse which I have made upon this Argument is to shew what Use we ought to make of these excellent Examples which are set before us of the first Founders and Teachers of our Religion and what is the proper Honour and Respect which we ought to pay to their Memory Not Invocation and Adoration but a zealous Imitation of their Faith and good Conversation The greatest Honour we can do them the most acceptable to God the most grateful to them and the most beneficial to our selves is to endeavour to be like them Not to make any Images and Likeness of them to fall down before them and worship them but to Form the Image of their Faith and Virtues upon our Hearts and Lives Not to Pray to them but to Praise God for such bright and glorious Examples and to endeavour with all our Might to imitate their Faith and Patience and Piety and Humility and Meekness and Charity and all those other Virtues which were so resplendent in them And this is to remember the Founders of our Religion as we ought to follow their Faith and to consider the end of their Conversation Had the Christian Religion required or intended any such thing as of latter Times hath been practised in the World it had been as easy for the Apostle to have said Remember them that have been your Guids and have spoken to you the Word of God to erect Images to them and to worship them with due Veneration and to pray to them and make use of their Intercession But no such thing is said or the least Intimation given of it either in this Text or any other in the whole Bible but very much to the contrary Their Example indeed is frequently recommended to us for our Imitation and Encouragement and for this Reason the Providence of God hath taken particular Care that the Memory of the Apostles and so many primitive Christians and Martyrs should be transmitted to Posterity that Christians in all succeeding Ages might propound these Patterns to themselves and have perpetually before their Eyes the Piety and Virtue of their Lives and their patient and constant Sufferings for the Truth that when God shall please to call us to the like Tryal we may not be wearied and faint in our Minds but being compassed about with such a Cloud of Witnesses having so many Examples in our Eye of those who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises and do now as it were look down from their happy State upon us here below who are combating with manifold Temptations to see how we behave and acquit our selves in our Christian Course we may take encouragement to our selves from such Examples and such Spectators to run with Patience the Race which is set before us I know indeed that other Use than this hath been and is at this Day made of the Memory of the Saints and Martyrs of former Ages very dishonourable to God and
he remains faithful who hath threatned and cannot deny himself This is matter of great Terror and seriously to be thought upon by those who are tempted to deny Christ and his Truth either by the hope of worldly Advantage or the fear of temporal Sufferings What worldly Advantage can we propose to our selves by quitting our Religion which can be thought an equal Price for the loss of our immortal Souls and of the Happiness of all Eternity Suppose the whole World were offered us in consideration yet what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul as our Saviour Reasons Matt. 16.26 And on the other hand if the fear of Temporal Suffering be such a Terror to Men as to shake their Constancy in Religion and to tempt them to renounce it the fear of Eternal Torments ought to be much more Powerful to keep them stedfast to their Religion and to deter them from the denial of it If Fear will move us then in all Reason that which is most Terrible ought to prevail most with us and the greatest Danger should be most dreaded by us according to our Saviour's most Friendly and Reasonable Advice Luke 12.4 5. I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him If there can be no doubt which of them is most to be dreaded there can be no doubt what we are to do in case of such a Temptation I shall now draw some Inferences from this Discourse by way of Application First If this be a faithful saying that if we be dead with Christ we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him but if we deny him he will also deny us The Belief of it ought to have a mighty influence upon us to make us stedfast and unmoveable in the Profession and Practice of our Holy Religion This Inference the Apostle makes from the Doctrine of a Blessed Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.58 Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. If any thing will fix Men in the Profession of their Religion and make them serious in the Practice of it the Belief of a Glorious Resurrection and of the Reward which God will then give to his Faithful Servants must needs have a very powerful Influence upon them to this purpose Upon the same ground the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts them to hold fast the Profession of their Faith without wavering because he is faithful that hath promised If we be constant in the Profession and Practice of our Holy Religion God will be faithful to the Promise which he hath made of Eternal Life to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality If under the dark and imperfect Dispensation of the Law Good Men shewed so much Courage and Constancy for God and Religion as we read in that long Catalogue of Heroes Heb. 11. How much more should Christians whose Faith is supported much more strongly than theirs was by a much clearer Evidence of another Life and a Blessed Immortality than they had by more express Promises of Divine Comfort and Assistance under Sufferings than were made to them and by the most Divine and Encouraging Example of the greatest Patience under the greatest Sufferings that the World ever had in the Death and Passion of the Son of God who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God! When we consider this Glorious Example of Suffering and the Glorious Reward of it how can we be weary and faint in our minds If the Saints and Apostles of the Old Testament did such great things by Virtue of a Faith which relyed chiefly upon the Attributes and Providence of God what should not we do who have the Security of God's express Promise for our Comfort and Encouragement We certainly have much greater Reason to take up our Cross more chearfully and to bear it more patiently than they did Secondly We should always be Prepared in the Resolution of our Minds to Suffer for the Testimony of God's Truth and a good Conscience if it should please God at any time to call us to it This our Saviour hath made a necessary Condition of his Religion and a Qualification of a true Disciple If any man will be my disciple let him take up his Cross and follow me so that we are to reckon upon it and to prepare for it that if it comes we may not be surprized as if some strange thing had happened to us and may not be unresolved what to do in such a case And God knows when we may be called to it However it is wise to forecast it in our Minds and to be always in a Preparation and Readiness to entertain the worst that may happen that if it come we may be able to stand out in an evil day and if it does not come God will accept the Resolution of our Minds and reward it according to the Sincerity of it He that knows what we would have done will consider it as if we had done it Thirdly The less we are called to suffer for God the more we should think our selves obliged to do for him the less God is pleased to exercise our Patience we should abound so much the more in the active Virtues of a good Life and our Obedience to God should be so much the more chearful and we more fruitful in every good work If there be no need of sealing the Truth with our Blood we should be sure to adorn and recommend it by our Lives Fourthly and Lastly If the hopes of Immortality will bear Men up under the extremity of Suffering and Torments and give Men Courage and Resolution against all the Terrours of the World they ought much more to make us victorious over the Temptations and Allurements of it For certainly it is in Reason much easier to foregoe Pleasure than to endure Pain to refuse or lay down a good Place for the Testimony of a good Conscience than to lay down our lives upon that Account And in vain does any Man pretend that he will be a Martyr for his Religion when he will not rule an Appetite nor restrain a Lust nor subdue a Passion nor cross his Covetousness and Ambition for the sake of it and in hope of that eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised He that refuseth to do the less is not like to do the greater It is very improbable that a Man will die
that their works shall be rewarded but that they shall go along with them and that they are blessed upon this Account and this implies that they shall receive a sure Reward For as the Apostle Reasons God is not unrighteous to forget our Work and Labour of Love Verily there is a Reward for the righteous as sure as there is a God that judgeth in the Earth But how Great and Glorious that shall be I am not in any measure able to declare to you It may suffice that the Scripture hath assured us in general that God is the Rewarder of Good Men and that he will make them Happy not according to what can now enter into our narrow Thoughts but according to the exceeding greatness of his Power and Goodness If we are to receive our Reward from God we need not doubt but it will be very large and such as is every way worthy of him to bestow For he is a great King and of great Goodness and we may safely refer our selves to him in confidence that he will consider us not according to the Meanness of our Service but according to the Vastness of his Treasures and the Infinite Bounty of his Mind If he hath promised to make us Happy tho' he have not particularly declared to us wherein this Happiness shall consist yet we may trust him that made us to find out ways to make us happy and may believe that he who made us without our Knowledge or desire is able to make us Happy beyond them both Only for the greater Encouragement of our Holiness and Obedience tho' he hath promised to Reward every Good Man far beyond the Proportion of any Good he hath or can do yet he hath declared that these Rewards shall be proportionably greater or less according to the degree of every Man's Piety and Virtue So our Saviour tell us that they who are persecuted for righteousness sake great shall be their reward in heaven Matt. 5.12 That there will be a difference between the Reward of a righteous Man and a Prophet that is of one who is more publickly and eminently useful for the Salvation of others And among those who are Teachers of others they that are more industrious and consequently more likely to be successful in this Work shall have a more Glorious Reward as we are told by the Angel Dan. 12.3 And they that be Wise or as it is in the Margin rendred they that be Teachers shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever So likewise we find in the Parable of the Talents that he that improv'd his Talent to Ten was made Ruler over Ten Cities And St. Paul 2 Cor. 9.6 speaking of the Degrees of Mens Charity and Liberality towards the Poor says expresly He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly but he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully which by Proportion of Reason may be extended to the Exercise of all other Graces and Virtues 1 Cor. 15.41 42. The Apostle there represents the different Degrees of Glory which Good Men shall be invested with at the Resurrection by the different Glory and Splendor of the Heavenly Luminaries There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in glory So also is the Resurrection of the dead So that the more any Man suffers for God and the more Patiently he Suffers the more Holily and Virtuously the more Charitably and Usefully he lives in this World the more good Works will accompany him into the next and the Greater and more Glorious Reward he may hope to receive there which as the Apostle Reasons in the Conclusion of that Chapter concerning the Doctrine of the Resurrection ought to be a mighty Encouragement to every one of us not only to be stedfast and unmoveable that is fix'd and resolute in the Profession and Practice of our Religion but abounding likewise in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Every Degree of Diligence and Industry in the Work and Service of God will most certainly one day turn to a happy Account Having therefore such Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God The more perfectly holy we are here on Earth the more perfectly happy we shall be in Heaven and continue so to all Eternity I have now done with the Two Reasons which are here given in the Text of the Happiness that Good Men such as die in the Lord shall be made Partatakers of in another Life because they rest from their labours and their works accompany them they are freed from all the Evils which they suffer'd and shall receive the Reward of all the Good they have done in this Life I should now have proceeded to make some Inferences from this Discourse But those I will reserve for another Discourse on this Subject All that I shall add at present as the Application of what I have already said is That this should stir us up to a careful and zealous Imitation of those Blessed Persons described in the Text who are dead in the Lord and are at rest from their Labours and whose works do accompany them Let us Imitate them in their Faith and Patience in their Piety and Good Works and in their Constancy to God and his Truth which was dearer to them than their Lives Thus their Virtues and Sufferings are described in the Visions of this Book Chap. 13.10 Here is the Patience and the Faith of the Saints and Chap. 14.12 Here is the Patience of the Saints Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus and Chap. 12.11 And they overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their Testimony and they loved not their Lives unto the Death In this Way and by these Steps all the Saints and Martyrs of all Ages have ascended up to Heaven and attained to that Blessed State which they are now Possessed of after all the Evils which they Suffered in this World They are now at rest from their labours and all the good Works which they have done are gon along with them and they are now and shall for ever be receiving the Comfort and Reward of them And if we tread in their Steps by a zealous Imitation of the Piety and Holiness of their Lives and of the Constancy and Patience of their Sufferings we shall one Day be Translated into their Blessed Society and made Partakers with them of the same Glorious Reward If we have our Fruit unto Holiness our end shall be everlasting life If we be faithful unto death we shall receive a Crown of Life Let us then as the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts Chap. 6.11 12. Every one of us shew the same Diligence to the full assurance
By what Marks and Characters we may know that zeal which here and elsewhere in Scripture is condemned as not being according to knowledge III. How far the doing of any thing out of a zeal for God doth mitigate and extenuate the Evil of it For when the Apostle here testifies concerning the Jews that they had a zeal of God he speaks this in favour of them and by way of mitigation of their Faults When I have handled these Three Particulars I shall apply my Discourse to the present Occasion of this day I. What are the Qualifications and Properties of a zeal according to knowledge I shall mention these Three 1. That our Zeal be right in respect of its Object 2. That the Measure and Degree of it be proportioned to the Good or Evil of things about which it is conversant 3. That we pursue it by lawful ways and means 1. That our Zeal be right in respect of its Object I mean that those things which we are zealous for be certainly and considerably Good and that those things which we are zealous against be certainly and considerably Evil. A mistake in any of these quite marrs our Zeal and spoils the Virtue of it And tho' it be never so much intended for God it is not at all pleasing and acceptable to him because it is a blind and ignorant and mistaken Zeal And the hotter the worse it is not an heavenly fire that comes down from above but it is like the fire of Hell Heat without Light If we mistake Good and Evil and be zealously concerned against that which is Good or for that which is Evil the greater our Zeal is the greater is our Fault and instead of doing God and Religion Service and Credit we do the greatest Mischief and Dishonour we can to them both Or if the thing about which our Zeal is conversant be of a doubtful and uncertain nature this is not properly an Object of Zeal Men should never be earnest for or against any thing but upon clear and certain Grounds that what we contend so earnestly for is undoubtedly Good and that which we are so violent against is undoubtedly Evil If it be not we are zealous for we know not what and that I am sure is a zeal not according to knowledge And if the thing be certainly Good or Evil which we are so concerned about it must also be considerably so otherwise it will not warrant our being zealous about it All Truth is Good and all Error Bad but there are many Truths so inconsiderable and which have so small an influence upon Practice that they do not deserve our Zeal and earnest Contention about them and so likewise are there many Errors and Mistakes of so slight and inconsiderarable a Nature that it were better Men should be let alone in them than provok'd to Quarrel and Contend about them Thus that great Heat that was in the Christian Church about the Time of observing Easter was in my Opinion a Zeal not according to knowledge They were on both sides agreed in the main which was to celebrate the Memory of our Saviour's Resurrection But there were different Customs about the Time which was a matter of no such consideration as to deserve so much Heat and Zeal about it especially considering the uncharitable and mischievous Consequences of that difference 2. That our Zeal may be according to knowledge the Measure and Degree of it must be proportioned to the Good or Evil of things about which it is conversant That is an ignorant Zeal which is conversant about lesser things and unconcerned for greater Such was the Zeal of the Scribes and Pharises who were mightily concerned about external and lesser Matters but took little or no care of inward Purity and real and substantial Goodness they were very careful not to eat with unwasht hands and to make clean the outside of the cup and platter but then they were full of extortion and all unrighteousness they pay'd tythe of mint and anise and cumin but omitted the weightier things judgment mercy and fidelity or as St. Luke expresseth it they past over Judgment and the love of God A zealous strictness about external Rites and Matters of difference where there is a visible neglect of the substantial Duties of Religion and the great Virtues of a good life is either a gross Ignorance of the true Nature of Religion or a fulsome Hypocrisie And so likewise is a loud and zealous out-cry against Rites and Ceremonies and the Imposition of indifferent things in Religion when Men can release themselves from the Obligation of Natural and Moral Duties and pass over mercy and justice and charity 3. A Zeal that is is according to knowledge must be pursued and prosecuted by Lawful and Warantable Means No Zeal for God and his Glory for his true Church and Religion will justifie the doing of that which is morally and in it self evil Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him We do not know what belongs to the Honour of God and Religion if we think to promote his Glory by means so dishonourable and offensive to him The Apostle pronounceth it a Damnable Sin for any to charge this Doctrine upon Christianity that evil may be done for a good end and to promote the glory of God Rom. 3.8 As we he slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just And yet nothing is more frequent than for a Man out of a Zeal for God and Religion to over-look the Evil and Unlawfulness of the Means they use for the advancing so good an End This is that which hath sanctified those refined Arts of Lying and Perjury by Equivocation and Mental Reservation those seditious ways of disturbing the Peace of Kingdoms by Treason and Rebellion by the Excommunicating and Disposing of Princes upon pre tence of Heresie of Extirpating those whom they please to call Hereticks by Inquisitions and Croisado's and Massacres and this not only in the opinion of private Persons but in the judgment of Popes and of General Councils I proceed in the II. Place to shew by what Marks and Characters we may know the contrary Zeal that which is not according to knowledge which is condemned here in the Text and very frequently in other Places of Scripture And tho' this may be sufficiently known by the contrary Marks and Properties which I shall but briefly mention yet to discover it more fully I shall add One or Two more very gross and sensible signs and instances of it 1. It is a zeal without knowledge that is mistaken in the proper Object of it that calls good evil and evil good a Zeal for gross Errors and Superstitions plainly contrary either to the revelation of God's Word or the light of Reason or to common Sense any or all of these cannot be a zeal according to knowledge A Zeal for the Worship of Images for praying