them When ye have lift up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am He. And this in some measure mitigates and excuseth the present ignorance of the Apostles that they had not yet seen the completion of the last and greatest Acts of Christ particularly his Resurrection Lastly To say no more the extraordinary Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost were not yet poured forth Of these Gifts none of the least was a due preparation of Will and penetration of Judgment to conceive rightly the sence and meaning of all Divine Revelations and Mysteries This was afterwards plentifully poured down upon the Apostles as upon this Day but before that time was not conferred on them That the want of this extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost was a main cause of their Ignorance is plainly insinuated by all those Texts wherein Christ promiseth to the Apostles the Mission of the Holy Spirit to dispel their Ignorance and enlighten their understandings as in the words of the Text and John XV. 26. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall Testify of me and when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all Truth The ordinary assistance of the Divine Spirit had indeed all along accompanyed the Apostles which had been abundantly sufficient when added to the Motives of Faith and advantages of Instruction which they received from Christ to inform them in all things necessary considered as private Persons if they had removed all prejudices and used due attention and reason but the extraordinary Inspiration of the Holy Ghost being not necessary was not yet conferred on them For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified St. John VII 39. These were the principal causes of that Ignorance of the Apostles which we proposed to inquire into of that misapprehension of the Nature of our Saviours Office and Design which so eminently appears in the context as we before explained it which disabled them from considering the consequence of his Miracles For their heart was hardned Mark VI. 52. by reason of which They understood none of these things his Passion and Resurrection and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken Luc. XVIII 34. which caused the words of the women relating to the Resurrection of Christ to seem to them as idle Tales and incredible Fables Luc. XXIV 11. and the indignation of which drew from Christ that sharp Exprobration O ye of little faith Mattâ—… VIII 26. That this Ignorance ought not in the least to surprize us or induce us to entertain any thoughts prejudicial to Christianity it self appears from the Reasons which I have already assigned to it but will more fully be manifested in considering the second Head proposed which was To shew That the permission of this Ignorance till the sending of the Holy Ghost was not in the least repugnant to the Divine Wisdom or the design of the Gospel This will evidently appear from these two Considerations I. That it would be incongruous to the Divine Wisdom to use any extraordinary methods in removing the Ignorance of the Apostles and perfectly informing their Understandings until such Information not being possible to be obtained by the ordinary methods of Instruction should become absolutely necessary to the being of the Church II. That such a perfect and plenary Information was not necessary to the Apostles till after the Ascension of Christ. The first of these Propositions naturally follows from that known truth and received principle that God never worketh Miracles without necessity nor recurreth to extraordinary causes while natural and ordinary will suffice However fully to evince this matter and clear all remaining doubts I will consider all the possible methods of perfectly instructing the Apostles before the Ascension of Christ when the natural and ordinary means failed and demonstrate that God could not use any one of them without being injurious to his Wisdom and Honour These extraordinary methods may be reduced to these three Heads First God by his Almighty power might have over-ruled their understanding and without expecting the assent of the Will violently imprinted a perfect knowledge of his Revelations in it or even forced the Will to assent to it although it had not yet discoverd the truth of it But nothing can be imagined more injurious to the honour of God than a proceeding of this kind to prepare the way for Religion by violating those Priviledges of reasoning and free will which he at first conferred on them which were in truth to make Mankind happy by destroying their Nature Secondly our Saviour having already abundantly convinced the Apostles of the Divinity of his Mission and consequently of his Infallibity might have plainly and openly revealed to them all the Mysteries of his Religion and future Actions to be yet performed and required their immediate Assent to them without taking care to satisfie them at the same time of the truth and reasonableness of such Revelations by their Conformity to all precedent Revelations or the Law of Nature but this also was irrational in it self and consequently unworthy of the Divine Wisdom and might justly have been esteemed unsatisfactory by the Apostles For as they were fully convinced that our Saviour was a Divine Person so were they no less that all the precedent Revelations were delivered by inspired men and consequently deserved the same degree of Assent which his could do So that if the least repugnance between the Doctrine or Life of Christ and the ancient Prophesies could have been difcovered they were not in the least obliged to assent unto them Nay to a full and unexceptionable Proof of the truth of his Revelations it was not only necessary that no repugnance between them and the predictions of the Old Testament were discovered but also that an entire Conformity should appear Since the true Messias was by God designed to the Jews under those two Characters of extraordinary Miracles and perfect agreement of Life Actions and Doctrine to the precedent Predictions and Revelations and consequently could not be evidently distinguished without the concurrence of both those Proofs And indeed such an arbitrary Command of a blind Assent to any Revelations confirmed by Miracles without a previous Examination of the truth of them is so absurd and repugnant to the Laws of reasoning that it could not be used by Christ himself even in respect of Heathens For such a resignation of the Understanding could rationally be made to no other Authority than an Authority founded upon Arguments of greater Credibility than can be found in any other Case But such is not the Authority derived from Miracles for all objects of Sense and necessary Deductions from reason include at least an equal many a greater degree of Credibility I mean not hereby that any truths whatsoever can have a greater certainty than
those which are revealed by God supposing them to have been indeed revealed but only that any such Revelation is really made can appear no otherwise than by Arguments of probability Thirdly a perfect knowledge of all the Mysteries of Religion might have been extraordinarily obtained by the Apostles before the Ascension of our Saviour by conferring on them the same Gifts of the Holy Ghost as were afterwards poured on them on the day of Pentecost But neither was this convenient to the design of the Gospel nor the Wisdom of God Not to the former For the plentiful Effusion and Mission of the Holy Ghost was an Act of the Regal power of Christ which he commenced not till after his Ascension when he first began to exercise that Authority which he had obtained to himself by the obedience of Death And therefore our Saviour tells the Apostles S. Joh. XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And in another place this is assigned as the Reason why the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified The Wisdom of God also was no less engaged which might justly have been arraigned if he had used so wonderful and signal a Miracle as was the Mission of the Holy Ghost for the extraordinary instruction of the Apostles before the Ascension of our Lord since no such Instruction was yet necessary which was the second Point I proposed to prove Namely II. That a perfect and infallible Information of the Apostles was not absolutely necessary till after the Ascension of Christ. For this was required in the Apostles for no other cause than that they might thereby be inabled to teach the Doctrines of our Saviour to the whole world and at last deliver them down in writing to succeeding Ages infallibly and without danger of any intermixed Enrour to the suspicion of which the Christian Religion would ever have been subjected if they had not been indued with such clearness of apprehension concerning every Point of it and attended by such an extraordinary assistance as might secure them from all possible danger of mistaking the Sense of that Doctrine which they were to deliver to the rest of Mankind To create this clear apprehension in the Apostles and convey down this assistance to them was the chief intention of sending the Holy Ghost as upon this day and the principal effect of that Mission at least as far as I am at present concerned So that since the sending of the Holy Ghost was designed purely to enable them to the due execution of their Office of preaching and propagating the Doctrine of Christ to the whole world which Office was not to be commenced till after his Ascension it manifestly follows that an exact and infallible knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion was not absolutely necessary to the Apostles before that time A perfect knowledge would have been useful indeed to them even before that time but useful to them only as private Persons not as bearing the publick Office and Character of Apostles whose Office before the Ascension of our Saviour consisted as we before observed in taking notice of the Actions Sufferings and Miracles of Christ that they might be able afterwards to testifie them to the whole world This Office of observing the Actions of Christ required no exact and perfect knowledge of all the Reasons of his Actions and Mysteries of his Doctrine but might be sufficiently discharged by any Persons who were not devoid of common Sense and Honesty The Mission of the Holy Ghost was necessary upon Reasons of another nature and would have continued necessary although the Apostles had perfectly understood all the Doctrine of our Saviour before his Ascension For however they might then sufficiently understand it nothing less than a perpetual extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost could infallibly secure them from all future Errour in delivering it to others or create such a degree of probability as might deserve the Assent and Belief of Mankind in all future Ages Thus I have shewn the Reasons of that Ignorance of the Apostles which is so remarkable through all the History of the Gospels and for which our Saviour promiseth so extraordinary a remedy in the words of my Text and withal demonstrated that there is nothing in all this Conduct of the Apostles continuing under that Ignorance till the Ascension and of our Saviour permitting it till that time disadvantageous to the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion It remains that I draw some few Conclusions from what hath been said which was the third and last Proposal First then if as we before shewed our Saviour and the Apostles who were unquestionably infallible never set up themselves for infallible Judges nor required from their Hearers a blind Assent to their Dictates if they submitted their Doctrines to the Examination of Scripture and Judgment of all private men in vain do any at this day pretend in vertue of an Authority derived from them to set up themselves for infallible Judges of Controversie from whom lyeth no Appeal either to Scripture or Reason and thereby exercise a Jurisdiction which they never claimed But I wave that Particular and choose rather to insist on some more practical Considerations Of which The first is That if the knowledge of the Christian Religion was so difficult to the Apostles who enjoyed so many and so great advantages under the Instruction and Government of their Divine Master the Author of this Religion if after the sight of his Miracles the Enjoyment of a triennial Conversation and the constant hearing of his Divine Discourses they continued ignorant of the true Spirit and Nature of Christianity this ought to excite us to great diligence in learning and studying the Mysteries of our Religion and enquiring the true Sense of those Revelations which our Saviour conveyed to the world It is indeed the peculiar Excellency and Glory of the Christian Religion that its admirable simplicity hath fited it to the Understandings and Capacity of all men that it is not such an abstruce Science as surmounts the ordinary reach of Mankind and must intirely be confined to the Discipline of the Schools and knowledge of Learned men the acquisition and understanding of it is possible and even easie to all men But then God in proposing this Religion intended not purely to supercede the Labours of men and consult their ease Some Conditions are also necessary on our side that we diligently search the Truth examine the Scriptures hearken to the instruction of our Pastors carefully weigh the Reasons of things and bring a mind ready disposed to assent to any Truths which shall evidently appear to us how contrary soever they may be to our Passions and Inclinations For although we labour not with those prejudices of a temporal Kingdom
into those Mansions of which they had been by him sufficiently inform'd At this Thomas far from acknowledging any suchinformation complains in the 5th verse that they were ignorant both of the place and the way to it Our Saviour answers that the place was no other than the Society of his Father whom they had sufficiently known by conversing with Him This far from removing the mistakes of the Apostles gave occasion to the discovery of a far greater ignorance in them For in the 8th verse Philip desireth him to shew the Father to them thereby manifesting how widely he had hitherto mistaken the Doctrine of Christ and what gross notions of the Father he entertain'd So strange an ignorance drew a sharp expostulation from our Saviour Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not knoâ—…n me Philip ver 9. Thereupon declaring unto him what sufficient means he had already given them of knowing the Father and promising to enable them yet further to a more perfect knowledge of him by sending the Comforter the Spirit of Truth He assureth them of a more clear and express Revelation of this matter at his Resurrection by manifesting himself and consequently the Father to piously disposed Persons who loved him and kept his Commandments Although he intended not to manifest himself in the same degree and manner to the whole World At this Judas Lebbaeus seems to be astonished and in a passionate exclamation which includeth somewhat of despair in it saith unto him ver 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the World as imagining this illustrious manifestation to be no other than taking possession in a solemn and magnificent manner of that Glorious Worldly Kingdom which himself with the other Apostles in vain expected to be founded by their Master Such strange mistakes of which the meanest Christians would be ashamed in the present Constitution of the Church might justly be admired to have proceeded from those who were the familiar attendants of Christ through a Triennial Preaching Acquainted with all his Discourses and honoured with a familiar Conversation if we enquir'd not more narrowly into the causes of things and reasons of the divine dispensation OurSaviour himself seems not in the least to be surprized at it But only after a short answer to Lebbaeus his question hence taketh occasion to renew the promise of that remedy which he had ever design'd and often before promis'd I mean the Mission of the Holy Ghost in these words These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you As if he should say These answers I have briefly given to your doubts and scruples such as the shortness and necessity of the time would permit which still remains to me to be spent in your company I had before sufficiently explained all these Mysteries to you Provided your minds by removal of all prejudices by ordinary endowments of right apprehension and using due diligence had been rightly disposed to receive them But since you still continue ignorant of those great Truths and infinitely mistake my Doctrine And not only so but suffer your selves to be possess'd with terror and amazement at the news of my departure I will not forsake you or leave you destitute of the means either of consolation or better instruction but abundantly provide for both by sending to you after my Ascension another Comforter Even the Holy Ghost whom the Father at my Intercession and for my sake will send unto you He shall erect your drooping Spirits and remove your grief by administring consolation to you And dispel your Ignorance by enlightning your minds with clear notions and true Interpretations of whatsoever I have Taught unto you and recalling into your mind all those Doctrines and Lessons of mine which you may have forgotten These words being thus explained represent to us I. The promise of sending a Comforter II. The Person to be sent the Holy Ghost III The Office to be performed by the Holy Ghost when sent Which however various is perfectly included Either in the diverse significations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Comforter which may be taken as an Advocate a Monitor or a Consolator Or in the annexed action of Teaching thâ—…m all things and bringing all things into their remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them At present I shall consider no more than the latter branch of the Third Point that is the Office of Teaching the Apostles which was to be performed by the Holy Ghost And in handling this I shall in the first place inquire what were the Causes and Reasons of this prodigious Ignorance of the Apostles after so long and so excellent Instruction Secondly I shall prove that the permission of this Ignorance till the sending of the Holy Ghost was not in the least repugnant to the Divine Wisdom or the design of the Gospel Thirdly I shall draw some few conclusions from both First then the Causes and Reasons of this so long continued Ignorance of the Apostles Of these I take the chief and most fundamental one to have been their Ignorance of the true sense of Scripture For the better explaining of this Cause I will premise some few Observations As 1. The Conformity of the Life and Actions of Christ to the Prophesies of the Old Testament was to the Jews the best and principal Argument of the Divinity of Christ of his Divine Mission and the Truth of his Revelations Miracles indeed might create a great probability of the truth of these Articles But such a conformity alone could demonstrate it since Miracles were common to inferâ—…our Prophets and sometimes even to false Prophets But an intire agreement of the precedent Prophesies was appropriated to the sole Person of the true Messias This appears from the nature of the Old Testament and end of writing it which taken in all its parts is chiefly designed to point out the future Messias by certain plain Notes and Indications whereby he might easily be discover'd to the Jews The Historical Books are imployed in describing his Genealogy The Psalms and Prophets in foretelling the time of his coming the manner of his Life his Passion Resurrection and Doctrine Now it would be highly injurious to the Wisdom of God that he should professedly cause so many Books to be written chiefly to design the Messias And yet design him by such Characters as should not be proper to him alone but might be common to other Persons So that the agreement of those Prophesies to the Person of Jesus Christ was to the Jews a most demonstrative proof that he was the true Messias Miracles indeed were in their respect also necessary to him But that chiefly because it was before Prophesied of the Messias that great and
Antient predictions of the Prophets concerning the Messias And if so then it was not necessary that Christ should carefully instruct his Disciples before his Ascension in the true sense of Scripture and the antient Prophecies concerning him or elaborately explain to them the Mysteries of his Incarnation Passion and Ascension Since this conduced not directly to the end before mentioned and might more conveniently be effected when it should become necessary after his Ascension by the Descent of the Holy Ghost And accordingly we find not our Saviour in all his private Discourses and Instructions to his Apostles professedly explaining the Scriptures to them before his Resurrection He frequently admonished them of the dangers and afflictions they should undergo in executing their Mission of the Courage Patience and other Vertues wherewith they ought to be endued and the perpetual assistance which they might expect from him but seldom inculcated the consideration of those Prophesies which might bring them to a right apprehension of the nature and design of his coming into the World Or if at any time he mentioned and explained such Prophesies to them it was only by way of proposal without any such extraordinary illumination of mind and infused capacity of understanding them as was afterwards bestowed on them by the Mission of the Holy Ghost He never denyed to them indeed that ordinary Grace and Assistance which he is wont to give to all well disposed Persons who rightly ask it but the efficacy of that ordinary assistance was overthrown and stifled by the more potent resistance of inveterate prejudices and false preconceived Opinions concerning the Messias But if the Apostles received no extraordinary Instructions of the Holy Scripture from their Master before his Resurrection we cannot hope that they should obtain any competent knowledge of it by their natuâ—…al Strength or acquired Learning Mâ—…ny reasons had induced our Saviour to choose to him Disciples rather out of the meanest of the People than from the Learned Doctors and Expositors of the Law And at that time in the Jewish Church by an iâ—…tollerable corruption of Discipline the common People were by their Doctors and Teachers Studiously deprived of the means of an exact and accurate knowledge of Scripture They were deterred from a diligent search of Scripture by many artifices and pretences by amplifying the difficulty of their undertaking the obscurity of those Oracles and rashness of inquiring into those sacred Mysteries with unwashen Hands that is as themselves explained it without a tedious preparation of Learning and Education By these arguments the Scribes and Pharisees had engrossed the Study of Scripture to themselves and taking away the Key of Knowledge had suffered none to enter into a disquisition and examination of those sacred Prophesies Upon account of this Ignorance in the common people the Scribes and Pharisees in the VI. St. John ver 39. pretended that they were no competent Judges of the true Messias who could be known no otherwise than from Scripture But this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed We cannot imagine the Apostles to have been exempt from this common calamity but rather more deeply engaged in it than others if we consider the meanness of their condition the nature of their employments their gross and perpetual mistakes of our Saviours Doctrine and till the reception of the Holy Ghost their insuperable slowness of understanding If then a right knowledge of Scripture was absolutely necessary to a perfect understanding of the Nature and Office of the Messias if the Apostles were naturally devoid of this knowledge and not extraordinarily endued with it by Christ before the descent of the Holy Ghost all which we have already proved it must needs follow that the Apostles before the reception of that extraordinary knowledge were ignorant of the Mysteries and Designs of their Masters Mission And accordingly if we look into the History of the Gospel we shall find their ignorance of Scripture to be assigned as the chief cause of their mistakes in all other points So that what our Saviour said to the Jews Ye err not knowing the Scriptures was perfectly true of them Thus John XI 22. Our Saviour promising to raise up the Temple of his Body in three Days if it should be dissolved his Apostles understood not the true meaning of his words but when he was risen from the Dead then they at last remembred that he had said this unto them and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said They before even from their Infancy believed the Scripture in general that it was the Word of God and divinely inspir'd but now they understood and believed the true sense of Scripture the Ignorance of which had before caused them to fall into Errour Again S. John XII 16. These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified that is after his Ascension Then remembred they that these things were written of him and that they had done these things unto him Here the promise made in the Text is fully accomplished by a twofold Operation of the Holy Ghost the one recalling into the remembrance of the Apostles the Actions and Sufferings of Christ of which they had been witnesses in his Life time the other clearly proposing to them the intire conformity between those Actions and the precedent Prophesies which were written of him In like manner our Saviour reproving the Disciples of Emmaus for their amazement and despair of their Masters Resurrection upbraids to them their Ignorance of Scripture O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Luc. XXIV 25 26. They doubted not of the Truth of those Prophesies but affixing false interpretations to them had perverted their sense and thereby in believing them assented not to the true Prophefies but to the fictions of their own Brains and thereby were hindred from understanding the necessity of Christs Suffering these things and entring into his glory I have now dispatched the first and chief reason of the A postles Ignorance I proceed to assign some other causes of it and among these the false notions and prejudices which they had received by their Education deserve more especially to be considered The Jews had ever even from the time of Moses lived in expectation of a glorious Messias who should be the Author of the most Illustrious benefits to their Nation rescue them from their afflictions and settle them in an exte nal State of Happiness This was typified by all their Rites and Ceremonies foretold by their Prophets and Celebrated in their publick Offices in the firm expectation of this their forefathers died and themselves continued their hopes under their greatest afflictions But then by false Interpretations of the Antient Prophesies the Doctors of the Jewish Law had long before the coming of our Saviour entertain'd and propagated mean and unworthy thoughts
of the Messias They had formed to themselves mighty expectations of an external pomp and secular greatness wherewith their Messias should enter upon his Office and which he should communicate to the whole Nation They thought not of spiritual Blessings reformation of Manners removal of Errors proposal of a pure and rational Religion and assurance of a spiritual Happiness in another Life but mighty Armies and continual Triumphs wide Conquests and inesâ—…imable Spoils They expected to be freed from the Roman Yoke by the Victorious Arms of the Messias and by an uninterrupted success at last be inabled to give Laws to the whole World These fond conceits were now entertained by the whole Jewish Nation and tenaciously maintained by the Apostles who all along believed indeed their Master to be the true and great Messias but withal even to his Ascension continued to believe that he had not yet entered upon the execution of this glorious Office Not all the premonitions of his future Sufferings not the experience of his present Poverty and Disgrace or the sight of his Crucifixion and Burial could remove this inveterate Error from their minds or create in them a right apprehension of our Saviours Doctrine and Office But after all when he was ready to Ascend up into Heaven they asked him by common consent Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel Wilt thou now commence that glorious Reign which we have so long expected The want of this external Pomp and appearance in a State of such extraordinary humility totally hindred his Brethren that is his Kindred from believing on him as is expressed St. John VII 5. and could not divert the Apostles who believed him to be the Messias from nourishing vain hopes of a future greatness in this World Insomuch as immediately after Christ had foretold them in the X. of St. Mark that he should be betrayed delivered to the Gentiles Buffeted Scourged and Crucified the two Sons of Zebedee not discouraged by all these calamities which they imagined to be the entrance into a greater Temporal glory requested of him That One might fit on his right hand the other on his left in his Kingdom And the Disciples of Emmaus far from considering the past sufferings of Christ and reflecting on the circumstances of his Passion and precedent admonitions of it which might justly have refuted and defeated their foolish expectations began to suspect this was not the true Messias since he had not brought the hoped for external redemption to the Jews We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel but those hopes are vanished and he yet continues in his Grave Since then the Apostles continued to retain these prejudices preconceived Errors and were thereby hindred from conceiving the spirituality of Christs Kingdom which is the first and greatest principle of the Christian Religion it was impossible they should rightly understand the Doctrine of Christ until these prejudices were removed and true Notions of the nature of his Kingdom introduced Till then they could not but grosly mistake the meaning of all those many Revelations which he imparted to them and constantly wrested them to their own false notions and apprehensions This not only disabled them from understanding the true sense of what Christ was pleased to reveal to them but also hindred them while continuing in that State from receiving any more clear and express Revelation This our Saviour plainly tells them John XVI 12 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth I have yet greater Mysteries to reveal to you and which will seem more astonishing to you but the indisposition of your understanding at present clouded with Prejudices and Errours would defeat the benefit of them These therefore I leave to be revealed by the Holy Ghost whom I shall send unto you who by an extraordinary operation assisting your understanding will prepare it for a ready reception of all those Truths A Third reason of this Ignorance of the Apostles at that time when our Saviour spoke these words of my Text to them may be that the greatest and most Illustrious Actions of our Saviours Life the Mysteries of which created in them the greatest perplexity remained yet to be performed I mean his Crucifixion Resurrection and Ascension Before they saw these things effected they could not imagine that he whom they had represented to themselves as a Triumphant Messias and Earthly King should undergo them and therefore all our Saviours premonitions concerning them were no less dark and obscure than surprizing to them but afterwards the real performance of them awakened their attention and gave them occasion to reflect more seriously upon the reasons of these things They then plainly perceived the true meaning of every prediction of Christ when they saw the event of the thing foretold and viewing the circumstances of all these Actions could not but discover that they were all manifestly foretold of the Messias by the Prophets and were consequently to be necessarily perform'd by him Not to say that the Resurrection being the far greatest and most Illustrious Miracle might reasonably be supposed to have produced a greater effect upon their minds than any precedent Action And how the subsequent performance of Actions and Mysteries foretold by Christ contributed in the Apostles to a right understanding of the predictions and Mysteries themselves appears from the whole History of the Gospel more especially from those two passages which I before produced John II. 22. When therefore he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them and they believed the Scriptures and again John XII 16. These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they that these things â—…ere written of him Nay so much did Christ himself attribute to the cogency of the proof which might be drawn from the Miracle of his Resurrection that to the Jews desiring a convictive proof of his divine Mission he assigned no other than that as Jonas was in the Whales Belly three Days and three Nights so the Son of Man should continue no longer a space of time in the Heart of the Earth And however his other Miracles and the Testimony of the Prophets abundantly demonstrated the Divinity of his Mission to unprejudiced Persons yet in some places he seems willing to pardon their suspension of assent till they should see this grand and final Miracle performed Thus in the words preceding my Text assuring his Apostles that though he departed for a while he should Live again He tells them that at that Day the Day of his Resurrection ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you And John VIII 28. Disputing with the incredulous Jews and not being able to convince their obstinate stupidity he saith unto
Conceptions dark and unaccountable above the understanding and capacity of the common People fitted only for the Contemplation of Philosophers and after all no other than the products of a volatile Fancy So little adapted to the understanding of the vulgar or indeed intended for their benefit that they were studiously concealed under the venerable Name of Mysteries and imparted only to Confidents Among the Jews all imaginable Care was taken to instruct the People in all necessary Duties relating to God Themselves and their Neighbours But even the more Learned of them knew not the Reasons of those many Ceremonies and Legal Observations imposed on them They knew in general that many of them typified the coming of a future Messias who should institute a more excellent Religion and be the Author of signal Benefits to their Nation But alas this knowledge was lame and imperfect in its own Nature and infinitely unsatisfactory to them who desired to know somewhat more certain yet still continued to wander in the dark without any certain guide This appears from the Writings of those Learned Jews who lived about the time of our Saviour's coming These employed their Labours in finding out the hidden meaning of the Mosaick Law and discovering the Reasons of all those Ceremonial Institutions but so unsuccessfully that they plainly mistook the design of their Divine Lawgiver and by turning all his Ritual Precepts into Allegories and obscure Mysteries defeated their Institution and corrupted the truth of their Religion with false Notions and Interpretations And no wonder indeed for the veil was not yet taken from them nor to be removed but by the coming of the Messias who was to be the Sun of righteousness dispersing the dark Clouds of ignorance and giving light unto the World He alone hath made a full Discovery of the Will of God rendred the knowledge of it easie to all and thereby made the Ignorance of necessary Truths to be inexcusable herein compleating the Covenant which God made with the House of Israel in the Prophet Jeremy XXXI 33 34. After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord. For they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord. Yet must we not imagine that in proposing this plain and easie Religion God intended to supercede all Labours of Mankind and imprint the knowledge of it even violently upon our Minds He hath dealt with us as rational Creatures proposed the truth clearly to us enforced it with the most perswasive Arguments fitted it to our Capacity and afforded us easie means of obtaining a perfect knowledge of it After such abundant Provision for the free Entertainment of it in our Minds he leaves it to the Liberty of our Will whether we will embrace or reject it To deal otherwise with us were to suppose us meer Brutes and Machines not capable of entertaining any Religion and unfit to receive either Rewards or Punishments It was not only the Precept of our Saviour but the Wisdom of all Ages Not to cast holy things before Dogs nor Pearls before Swine to create a knowledge of Divine Truths in persons insensible of the Benefit conferred upon Mankind in the Revelation of them and who make no advancement towards their Reception The Divine Wisdom hath chosen to propose those eternal Truths in such a method as that a perfect Acquisition of the knowledge of them might exercise the diligence and obedience of Mankind We must bring Minds freed from all Prejudices and Passions use due attention search the Scriptures weigh the Reasons and Arguments which perswade their Divinity and being once convinced of that acquiesce in them and in a word use all means which God hath abundantly provided for our Instruction We must not satisfie our selves with an Historical knowledge but inquire into the Reasons of the Divine Oeconomy reflect upon the reasonableness of it and make it the Subject of our Meditations A Subject than which none can be more worthy the Dignity of our Nature or more necessary to the being of a Christian. By this we shall be convinced That the performance of all Christian Duties is not only enforced by the revealed Will of God but also commanded by the Law of Nature that the constant Practice of them is our greatest Perfection and would be our utmost Happiness although attended with no Rewards Every increase of knowledge will augment the force of our Obligation and bring some perswasive Argument to the Exercise of our Duty But then if we consider what the Revelation of Christianity hath added to those imperfect Discoveries made by the light of Nature the Mysteries of our Redemption the Sacrifice of the Cross the Free Pardon of our sins the hopes of eternal Life and those Foederal Rites the Sacraments by which we are intitled to these Benefits we shall be able more perfectly to comprehend the Wisdom and Goodness of God and the Greatness of our Obligation to him These advantages naturally flow from a perfect knowledge of our Faith However the Apostle in giving this Precept more immediately respects the Conviction of those Persons who spoke evil of the Christians as of evil doers as appears from the following Verse For when Christianity first appeared in the World teaching the Worship of one only God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Commanding all men every where to repent and enjoyning them upon the severest Penalties to live godlily holily and righteously in this present world Men decried it as leading to Atheism and the Extirpation of Divine Worship because forbidding any Worship to be given to those false Gods who were the universal Objects of Adoration at that time and changing all pompous external Ceremonies into a spiritual and internal Worship They traduced it as irrational and debasing the Dignity of Mankind because not proposed with the usual Ostentation of worldly Wisdom and Philosophy and requiring men to deny their Lusts conquer their Desires and sorfake their most darling Passions Lastly they rejected it as impious and execrable as an unheâ—…rd of Superstition and a fond Credulity because they knew not those Arguments upon which it was founded nor considered the demonstrative Proofs which recommended it To convince the Folly and Ignorance of these men the Apostle requires all Christians to be ready always to give an answer to every man of the reason of the hope that is in them that so whereas they speak of them as evil doers they may be convinced that neither the Doctrine of Christians leads to Immorality nor their Practice favours it For the knowledge of Christianity was not intended to be a Speculative Science meerly to inform the Judgment and not Correct our Errours But as an operative knowledge which might visibly exert it self in all our Duties to God and Man The Divinity
we consider with how great Zeal and Vehemency both the Magistrates and Philosophers of those times opposed it and undertook the Extirpation of it They applied themselves to this design with the utmost Diligence and Fervour and left no stone unturned whereby they might either discover any Imposture in it or stop the Progress of it But the Evidence of its truth assisted with the Divine Providence bore down all opposition The blood of the Martyrs became the seed of the Church and its learned Adversaries were forced to Confess its Doctrines to be Divine and the Founder of it an extraordinary Person Lastly that the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists were the same which we now possess under their Names and were conveyed uncorrupted through all Ages appears not only from the constant Tradition of Christians and their great care to preserve those sacred Monuments intire and uncorrupted in which their eternal welfare was so nearly concerned But also from the several Translations made of them immediately after the times of the Apostles some of which are now extant from written Copies preserved even to this day written not long after the Apostolick times and from the Citations of antient Writers in all Ages Thus I have briefly proposed to you the Proofs upon which the Christian Religion depends to which I might have added many more as the exact Completion of all our Saviours Prophesies more particularly in that remarkable Destruction of Jerusalem within the time prefixed by him the Constancy Resolution and Number of Christian Martyrs in those ancient times when they had certain means of infallibly knowing the truth of these Matters the Conquest which under so many disadvantages it made over the feircest opposition of the Roman Empire and Heathen Philosophy and those many extraordinary Interpositions of Divine Providence in favour of it which have signally appeared in all Ages of the Church but these shall at present suffice The Fourth SERMON PREACH'D November 1688. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Pet. III. 15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear IN Discoursing on these Words I did propose to insist on these two Heads I. That the Christian Religion is agreeable to the Principles of Reason and carrieth sufficient Evidence along with it II. That it is the Duty of every Christian not wanting the means of sufficient Instruction to enable himself to give a Reason of his Faith The former of these I dispatched in the foregoing Sermon I now proceed to the Second Head of Discourse Namely II. That it is the Duty of every Christian not wanting the means of sufficient Instruction to enable himself to give a Reason of his Faith That this not the constant resolution of professing the Faith at all times without Fear or Cowardice was the Primary intent of the Apostolick Precept in my Text appeareth in that the Apostle willeth us to do this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators have not so exactly rendred by way of Apology or in Confutation of the Calumnies and Objections brought against our Religion by the Adversaries of it I will not say that such a perfect and compleat knowledge is absolutely the Duty of every private Christian so that he cannot be saved without it God requireth of no Man any thing beyond his natural strength or capacity or which he had no Opportunities nor means to attain unto We know how great a part of the Christian Church over-run with Tyranny and Oppression hath insensibly fallen into a deplorable Ignorance These we cannot in Reason condemn as wanting all means of better Instruction but rather applaud their Constancy and pray for their Delivery We know also how great a Society of Christians labours under miserable Ignorance and the consequence of its gross Erroâ—…s by the artifice and contrivance of their Guides who deny to them the use of the Seriptures and teach them to content themselves with an implieit Faith These also we will not in Charity condemn To their own Master they either stand or fall Lastly we are not insensible how many Members of our own Communion either through want of leisute or natural imbecillity of understanding through default of Education or other accidental defects un-foreseen and unprovided for are but meanly instructed in the Mysteries of the Christian Faith But to us who want neither means of Instruction nor Capacity of receiving them no excuse is left if we do not improve them to a full Comprehension of the Mysteries of our Faith whereby we may both obtain a rational Conviction of the truth of it in our selves and be enabled to vindicate the honour of our Lord and Saviour from the Contradiction of foolish and unreasonable Men. Christianity indeed iâ—… not in our Age opposed with that open and barefac't Confidence wherewith it was in the Apostles time when it was forced to wrestle with Principalities and Powers and spiritual wickedness in high places the united force of a Victorious and learned Empire Yet we want not secret impugners of our most Holy Faith who if by the natural Light of Reason and remorse of Conscience they he restrained from professing their secret Atheism and denying the Existence of a God yet stick not to oppose all revealed Religions and especially Christianity because most contrary to their beloved Lusts in defence of which only they maintain their impious Opinions It is the interest of these Men that Christianity should be false that so the licencious practice of their Lusts and Passions may not be abbridged to them and the Expectation of eternal Punishments imbitter all their Pleasures For to the Honour of Christianity be it said that in these latter Ages it hath had no Enemies but Men of profligate and debauched Lives who either denyed the Being of a God or lived as without God in the world However the Conviction of these Men is far more difficult than antiently of the Heathen Philosophers Of whom many sincerely searched after the Truth which commonly ended in the discovery of it and embracing the Christian Religion whereas these dispute only for the Love of their Lusts and sensual Pleasures are thence transported with violent Prejudices willfully shut their Eyes against the Truth cast the words of Convicton behind them and hate to be reformed To vindicate the Honour of God of Christ and our Religion against the Blasphemies of such men is the Duty of every Christian in his place and station and as opportunities are ministred to him Nor are there wanting those among us who openly and with great excess of apparent Zeal seek to withdraw us from our most Holy Religion endeavouring to impose upon us the belief of pernicious Errours and Superstitions They oppose not directly indeed the Faith of Christ but corrupt it with Errours and false Opinions rend in sunder the Unity of the Church by promoting and perswading a Schifmatical departure from it and openly impugn the
from their Conceptions so he had chose to reveal the Mystery of it in a method contrary to that which they used in the Propagation of their several Sects which occafroned the preaching of the Cross to be accounted foolishness Verse 18. Although if Men would have laid aside their unjust Prejudices they had sufficient reason to be convinced of the Reasonableness of this proceeding The truth of this the Apostle manifesteth not only by appealing to the Conscience of those who were perswaded of it and the secret Effects of that perswasion in the minds of Men but unto us which are saved it is the power of God but also by other external Arguments which by any considering Man cannot be rejected As that it was foretold by the antient Prophets particularly by Isaiah in XXIX Chapter Verse 4. For it is there written I will destroy the wisdom of the Wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent that it is abundantly justified by its admirable Success in the world to have been the best and most wise manner of proceeding being entertained by great numbers of Persons and going on apace in procuring its designed end the Reformation and instruction of Mankind whereas the Philosophy of the Gentiles and the elaborate Interpretations of the Mosaick Law made by the great Doctors of it gained no considerable Progress in the world and being confined to some small number of Sectaries and Disciples only manifested by their Unsuccessfulness that they were never designed by the infallible Wisdom of God for the universal Discipline or Religion of Mankind Where therefore is the Wise as the Apostle triumphantly upbraids them Ver. 20. Wheâ—…e is the scribe where is the disputer of this world who after all their laborious Searches missed of the Truth and could never propagate their Doctrines with Success Hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this world Baffling all the elaborate Schemes of these opinionated Men and confounding their glorious Pretences of Wisdom in appointing a quite different method for procuring the Happiness of Mankind from what they had imagined and proposing it Successfully by means in their Esteem Contemptible by Persons illiterate and devoid of all Philosophy and curious Learning And that we may not conceive this way of procedure to be either unjust or unreasonable the Apostle proceeds in the 21. Verse to declare the Reason and Occasion of it For after that in the Wisdom of God the world by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe Since these Persons who had conceived so great an Opinion of their own Wisdom had apparently failed of discovering by the light of Reason the true God and the natural Duties of Religion owing to him however very easie and possible to them no wonder that the Mysteries of a revealed Religion should appear Foolishness to them and that God should as it were by way of Punishment confound their Arrogance and mortifie their Self-conceit by instructing and saving Mankind by a way directly contrary to their Suppositions namely by Preaching that is by supernatural Revelation not by their own proper Industry and Wit and by the foolishness of preaching and that considered in the matter of the Revelations which having nothing of extraordinary Abstraction or difficult Contemplation in them were in their Judgment accounted foolish or in the manner of proposing these Revelations which being different from their fond Conceptions appeared foolish and absurd to them the Jews requiring a sign that is the constant performance of glorious and pompous Miracles which might secure to them the Fruition and increase of that temporal Felicity which they vainly hoped to receive from the Messias And the Greeks seeking after Wisdom despising all Doctrines which were not recommended with the specious shew of Philosophical Subtilty and Mysterious Niceties or not proposed by Persons in the Opinion of the world Learned or Eloquent After all these preliminary Arguments the Apostle having thereby cleared the way and removed all Objections lays down this Conclusion in the words of my Text But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Gentiles foolishness That is we justly and we boldly do it neither valuing the Derision of the world nor distrusting the Justice of our Cause So then the words thus opened naturally and easily offer to us these two Considerations of which I shall in order Discourse I. The Reasonableness or just cause of believing and professing the Christian Faith notwithstanding its being a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness II. Our Obligation to Preach and openly profess this Faith without being offended with the Contradiction and Opposition of the Jews and Gentiles or being led away with the same Prejudices I. That we have reasonable and just Cause to believe and adhere to the Christian Faith or the Mystery of Christ Crucified notwithstanding the derision of the Gentiles and scandal of the Jews For that by the phrase of Christ Crucified is not so much meant the particular Mystery of the Death and Passion of our Saviour as the whole System of Faith revealed by Christ is manifest from the Context although the Crucifixion of our Lord as it is the grand Mystery of our Faith so was it of all others to the Jews most scandalous and to the Gentiles most ridiculous But the design of the Apostle being to vindicate the Christian Religion in general not this Mystery in particular I shall close with his Design and consider only the more general Prejudices and Objections upon account of which the Faith became a scandal to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles that so by manifesting the unreasonableness and inconclusiveness of them I may manifest the Justice and Reasonableness of our Belief notwithstanding their Opposition These Prejudices and Objections we before observed from the Apostles Discourse preceding my Text and they concern either 1. The matter of those Revelations which are the Object of the Christian Faith Or 2. The manner of revealing them and proposing them to the World In Relation to the first the Spirituality of the Christian Religion was a mighty Objection to the Jews which they could not easily overcome they being inured to gross and corporeal Conceptions of Divine Matters trained up in carnal Ceremonies and Ordinances expecting no other than temporal Rewards and vainly expecting the glorious appearance of a temporal Messias Then as to the manner of the Revelation nothing could be more surprizing to the Jews than to see it performed in an humble and gentle manner not with the voice of Thunder and Lightnings as the Law of Old at Mount Sina not by force of Arms or victorious Success of the Messias not by stupendious Miracles performed as often as the petulancy of a Stiff-necked People should require it nor yet by the Learning and Cunning of their great Doctors and Rabbies but by a few mean inconfiderable disarmed and unlearned Persons
Happiness to enjoy that advantage in a most eminent manner to have the Scriptures translated most exactly into our own Language to read them securely and hear them weekly explained to us Let us manifest that we are not insensible of so great a Benefit by a right use of it least we fall into the Condemnation of those who abuse the Divine Mercy and that Candlestick of which we are not worthy be removed from us It remains that we briefly apply what hath been said And first If our Religion be so excellent and rational attended with such Evidence and Conviction it is our Duty to maintain a firm and constant Profession of it at all times or in the words of my Text To be ready always to give an account of it not to dissemble it for fear or interest much less betray it by a denial of it The great ends of Religion are to secure the Honour of God and advance the Happiness of Mankind By such shameful Cowardize both these ends are defeated the Honour of God is wounded and the hopes of Happiness intirely destroyed Hereby Men renounce all dependence upon God disown him to be their Lord and Master and bid defiance to him Nor may we flatter our selves that this execrable Crime of Apostacy consists only in denying all Christianity and wholly renouncing our Saviour to yield up the least truth which we are convinced to be Divine to assent to the least Errour which we believe to be false to forsake a Communion which we know to be pure and lawful to embrace one which we are perswaded is corrupt and erroneous is no less truly the sin of Apostacy and will undoubtedly meet with the same Punishment The Nature of the sin is the same in both Cases that we willfully recede from the Truth and affront the Divine Majesty by preferring a Lye to his revealed Will. The maintenance of Truth and directing our Conduct by the Dictates of it is the Dignity of Man and perfection of his Soul To betray the most inconsiderable Truth to any temporal Considerations is a plain Confession that we have inverted the order of Nature and subjected our more noble part the Soul to the Lusts and Passions of the Body an Indignity unworthy a rational Being which prostitutes the Honour of his Nature Ranks him among brute Beasts and from being the head of all visible Creatures degrades him into the condition of a Slave to dust and ashes But when Eternity and an Interest infinitely greater than any which can be promoted on Earth by such Apostacy lays at stake when immortality and everlasting Happiness are destroyed by it nay when the utmost Displeasure of an Almighty God and the direful effects of it eternal Torments are the consequences of it to preferr a few trifling Pleasures of this World disclaim all hopes of Happiness in another Life and incurr the Divine Vengeance is a height of Folly which all the Affairs and Examples of this Life cannot equal an Impiety which neither the Art of Men or Devils can exceed When the Interest of Truth is concerned the Honour of God engaged to lay down our Lives in Testimony of the one and Vindication of the other to forego all the Conveniences of this Life to despise all worldly Considerations and with a generous Contempt overlook all the Sollicitations and Threats of men this the Dignity of our Nature requires of us this our Duty to God obliges us to this the Expectation of a future state leads us to For surely we are no longer deserve the Name or Character of men than while we continue rational We deny all Relation to God when we sacrifice his Commands to our Interests and disclaim all Title to a future state when we yield up the Conditions of it for the sake of a present advantage Yet how many Examples of such Apostacy hath the Church deplored in all Ages And I wish our Age afforded none of those who have betrayed the Profession of their Faith I will not say to the fear of Death for so great a Terrour all Spirits cannot overcome And we of this Nation thanks be to God do not suffer but to the fear of Poverty or perhaps to the hopes of continuing or advancing their Preferment in the world A most amazing wickedness that Men should Sell their God at so low a price and exchange their Religion for such mean Considerations Resign to me the hopes of Heaven and I will give you a possession in the Earth give me up your Soul and I will enrich your Body deny your Creator and I will give you Honour among your Fellow-Creatures A Proposal which even a Heathen Philosopher would entertain with Scorn and every sober Christian with a pious Horrour These are the Flatteries of the world and with these the Prince of the world attempted our Saviour All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me But our Saviour immediately rejected such base Proposals with a generous Disdain and with a get thee behind me Satan manifested with how great Indignation he had received them thereby giving us an Example how we ought to behave our selves upon such occasions and not to admit even the thoughts of such a Crime For surely in the cause of God even to deliberate with our selves whether we shall betray it or no is a degree of Apostacy in that Case deliberasse est descivisse and the thought of foolishness is sin To put the question to our own Souls is to trifle with the Divine Majesty to dishonour our Religion and degrade our Nature But to decide it in Favour of our Lufts and the petty Temptations of the world is to fill up the measure of our iniquity and in the most reproachful Sense turn the grace of God into wantonness I speak of those who are convinced of the truth of any Religion or Communion at the same time that they forsake it As sor those who may pretend Reasons of Conscience and Conviction of Judgment for their departure from our Church let them seriously consider whether this be not indeed a Pretence and whether they can really answer it to God and their own Consciences Let them examine themselves whether they were not byassed in their Judgments and powerfully prejudiced in Favour of that Communion to which they have revolted by the Temptation of secular interest and advantage in this Case let them know that God will not be mocked and that to force our Understandings is no less Criminal than to force our Consciences God hath proposed sufficient direction to us in the Holy Scripture and will by no means pardon us if we willfully shut our eyes against the Truth We need not go any farther than the words of my Text for this direction The Apostle commands all Christians to be ready to give an answer of the reason of the faith that is in them If then any Society of men discourageth and overthrows the use of reason in private Christians
if it teacheth Doctrines contrary to Reason and refuseth to give any account of them we may infallibly conclude it to be erroneous and to have departed from the true Faith Yet we know a Church that hath wholly evacuated the Apostles Precépt by inhibiting to private Christians the use of Reason in Divine Matters and setting up an infallible Judge to whom all ought blindly to submit that useth her utmost endeavours to disable private Christians from giving a Reason of their Faith by forbidding them to read the Scripture that hath made Christianity irrational by adding to it absurd and contradictive Doctrines For what reason can be given that men should not use their Reason What Reason can be assigned for Transubstantiation which is directly contrary both to Sense and Reason What reason for a blind Submission to a pretended infallible Judge which defeats all use of Reason But these things are too apparent I omit them and pass to the second and last Branch of Application That 2. We ought to adorn this most rational and Holy Religion of our Saviour with a correspondent Holiness and Purity of Life The Apostle draws this inference in the words immediately preceding and following my Text But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and having a good conscience and indeed most naturally For if it be the highest Perverseness to reject the Gospel after so clear a Demonstration of the Divinity of it what a degree of Folly and Impiety must it be in those who are perswaded of the truth of it to contradict the Evidence and Design of it by the wickedness of their Lives and live as if they believed it to be most false The Apostle urgeth it as the utmost Aggravation of the sin of the wiser Heathens that they held the truth in unrighteousness and surely with much more force will the Argument fall upon immoral Christians For the Heathen Sages dissembled their Opinions from the world and so no wonder that they directed not their Actions by them whereas these publickly profess their belief of Christianity and yet live in open Contradiction to it And indeed it is a most astonishing Consideration that rational Creatures should deliberately violate those Laws upon which they acknowledge the hopes of Eternity to depend Do we really believe the Christian Religion to be Divine and yet go on without remorse to trample under foot its Laws and Precepts Are we perswaded that infinite Rewards in another world attend the performance of our Duty in this and yet preferr the Temptations and Pleasures of the World to the Attainment of them Do we profess our Belief of eternal Punishments and yet are not affrighted from the Commission of any pleasing sin by the terror of them However we may pretend a firm Assent to all these Articles yet certainly it will be impossible to perswade a considering Man that the belief of them can be reconciled with the Practice of the contrary And after all if we should be allowed to be what we pretend Believers in Christ Can faith save us No Shew me thy faith by thy works If a sober Heathen should come among us and compare the Rules of Christ with the Lives of Christians the exercise of Piety Temperance and Chastity and all moral Vertues commanded by the one in the higest degree and upon the severest Penalties and Impiety Intemperance Lust and all enormous Vices openly and greedily practised by the other he would be tempted to believe that the Religion of Christ were no more than a pleasing Fable wherewith Christians sometimes entertained themselves An ancient Father who lived in the declining times of Christianity tells us how the Heathens in his Age formed dishonourable thoughts of Christ from the scandalous Lives of his Disciples Quomodo bonus est Magister cujus tam malos videmus Discipulos How can he be a good Lawgiver that hath no better Followers how can his Laws be excellent that do not reform the Lives of their Professours And then proceeds to deplore this Scandal In nobis Christus opprobrium patitur Thus we defame our most excellent Religion dishonour our Saviour and blaspheme him in our Lives Let us live up to the Rules of our Religion and by a Conscientious practice of them manifest that we are perswaded of the truth of it otherwise it will be in vain to be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us This were unanswerably to refute our Arguments by our Practice and add to our own Condemnation Let us demonstrate the Divinity of our Religion by the influence it hath upon our Lives and profess an intire Belief of it by a constant Obedience to it that so we may not fall short of the Promises annexed to it and others seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in heaven The Fifth SERMON PREACH'D December 2d 1688. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Rom. II. 4. Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance THE infinite and wonderful Love of God towards Mankind is in nothing more visible and conspicuous than in the various methods which he makes use of to draw us to himself The Faculties and Passions of our Soul are not more numerous and different than are the means which he hath employed to render us happy and oblige us to the performance of our Duty inducing us by all those Motives and Arguments which in other moral Actions are wont to make impression on us He hath engaged our Understandings by proposing to our belief and practice a reasonable and holy Religion attended with the greatest Evidence and in all things highly agreeable to the Nature of Mankind and first Principles of Reason He hath assured our Wills by presenting such Objects to it as employ every single Passion of it If the desire of obtaining the greatest good can move us he hath allured us by the Promise of an infinite and eternal Happiness If fear of Misery hath any influence upon our minds he hath deterred us from the Violation of his Laws by affixing to it the most severe and terrible Punishments If hope can excite us he hath given to us an infallible assurance of more than we can conceive If Love can affect us he hath obliged us by the greatest Benefits Lastly If reason and the sense of our Duty if Rewards and Punishments if Favours and Benefits can together engage us he hath united all in one most holy and excellent Religion And in this appears the wonderful Goodness of God that whereas any one of these methods were alone sufficient to oblige Mankind to the practice of our Duty he hath chose to employ them all that so that Attribute of Mercy wherein he most delights might be more conspicuous and the impemtence of Mankind in opposition to it might not only become irrational but even monstrous It had been sufficient as to the Obligation of it to have proposed a reasonable Religion without annexing to it