credulous Fools and to think themselves the only wise Men in the World to be wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own Sight This indeed perfects all the rest and there is no help for it for if they will contradict all Mankind they must think either themselves or all the rest of Mankind to be Fools Now I believe those who are at all acquainted with the Passions of Human Nature cannot think this is a very easie thing to despise the general Sense of Mankind which at least looks more like the Sense of Nature than the private Opinions of some few Philosophers or to scorn all Men for Fools and Ideots who ever believed a God and a Providence the moral Differences of Good and Evil Revelation Prophecy and Miracles Nothing but absolute Demonstration can reasonably harden a Man against such an universal Consent and it is enough to make any Man to suspect even Demonstration it self to have all the World against him For we can never think that all Mankind should conspire to resist Demonstration and yet by what I have already said you may easily perceive that they are far enough from demonstrating the Principles of Atheism and Infidelity But besides the general Sense of Mankind which they may despise as an unthinking Multitude though the less of Thought and Design the more there appears of Nature in such a general Consent but I say besides this they should consider how many very wise thinking Men and great Philosophers have in these Points thought as the Multitude do I will not name Moses and the Prophets nor Christ and his Apostles for whom I know they have little Reverence but what think they of Pythagoras and Plato and Tully and Seneca and Epictetus and many other such Men Were they all Fools too and yet they were neither Atheists nor Infidels and were zealous Preachers of moral Vertue And as for the Unthinking Multitude as they call them it is worth considering that the greatest Numbers of them are as wicked as they themselves are or could wish them to be that it is sufficiently their interest to be Atheists and Infidels too and yet Nature is too strong for their Fears and they believe a God and the Difference of Good and Evil though they believe and tremble as the Devils do It is wonderful what should give these Men such Confidence to despise all the World and I can think of no other Reason for it but that they find it necessary and the only way they have to be even with the World that since all Mankind despise them they will despise all Mankind But they find this a very unequal Match and are very uneasie under it For the Judgment of all Mankind is a perswasive Argument of the Sense of Nature their despising Mankind is only a Sign of Folly and Impudence I shall make some few Observations on what I have said and so conclude I. I observe how the Love of Sin will corrupt Mens natural Sense and Notions of Things and blind and stupifie their Minds Nothing else but this can make an Atheist or an Infidel That there wants no Proof of the Being of God is evident from the general Belief of Mankind and there is nothing in the Notion of a God which should make any Man averse to the Belief of a God but only his Justice in punishing Sinners and that can make no Man afraid of believing a God but those who resolve to live in Sin There is no other Exception Men can take against the Gospel of Christ which promises Forgiveness of Sins to those who repent of their Sins and reform their Lives but that Repentance and Reformation are made the Gospel Terms of Forgivness and Hell-fire is denounced against impenitent Sinners If we consider this before-hand it may convince us how unnatural Sin is and how foolish Sinners are Sin can never be reconciled to the Principles of Nature and Sinners are so foolish as to put out the Light of Nature that they may transgress the Laws of Nature which is a very foolish Design to put out the Light that we may sin and not know it till we feel our selves eternally damned for it 2dly This may satisfie us how difficult a thing it is to sin with security much more difficult than to obey the Laws of God It is a much easier thing to conquer and subdue our sensual Lusts and Appetites by the Arguments and Motives of Religion by the Fear of God and the Rewards and Punishments of the next Life than it is to deliver our selves from the Notions of Good and Evil from the Belief of a God and of the Gospel of Christ that if we consult our own Ease and Satisfaction it is much easier to be a good Man and to be saved than to live in Sin without the Fears of Damnation 3dly I observe how vain a thing it is to be wicked upon Principles Men of Honour when they know they do such things as the World accounts infamous think themselves in Reputation bound to justifie them but those Principles whereby they pretend to justifie their Vices are more infamous than their Vices themselves as an Atheist or Infidel in the Opinion of the VVorld is a more contemptible Creature than a common Sinner All Men who are liable to Temptations themselves have a great Compassion for the VVeakness of Human Nature but when Men will justifie their Vices and justifie them by renouncing God and all Religion this strikes those who otherwise it may be are as bad themselves with Horror and Indignation makes wise Men despise them and good Men abhor them and I wish this general Contempt of them were more publick and visible which would either cure their Atheism and Infidelity or make them more modest that they should not appear so wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight 4thly I observe the irrecoverable Condition of these Men who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight they have hardened themselves beyond the ordinary Methods of God's Grace and therefore must unavoidably fall under this VVo For when Men have wilfully put out their Eyes and stifled all the natural Notions of their Minds you may as well think of converting bruit Beasts as of converting them This is a miserable hopeless State VVhich God of his infinite Mercy deliver us all from through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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of Earthly Rivals yet it fires at great Examples and is ashamed to be out-done by Equals in love to God or Men especially when the Honour of the Church whereof they are Members and the Religion which they profess is concerned It is well known how many pious and charitable Foundations are owing to Popish Superstition they hoped to expiate their Sins and to merit Heaven by their good Works and in this hope and this perswasion they did a very great many We understand better than to think of meriting any thing of God much less of purchasing a liberty of sinning by Acts of Charity but if those great Rewards which are promised to Charity and which we profess to believe will not make us charitable without the Opinion of Merit and Satisfaction Charity is so great and excellent a Vertue and so very useful to Mankind that at least thus far Popery will be thought the better Religion and therefore as the Apostle argues As ye abound in every thing in faith and utterance and knowledge and all diligence and in your love to us see that ye abound in this grace also As we have a more Orthodox Faith a clearer and a distincter Knowledge and a purer Worship than the Church of Rome let us excel in Charity too and convince the World that to renounce Popery is not to renounce good Works SERMON X. Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor and Court of Aldermen at Guild-hall Chappel on Sunday April 25. 1697. Coloss. II. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the Rudiments of the world and not after Christ. HAD St. Paul lived in our Age it would have required little less than the Courage and Bravery of the Spirit of Martyrdom to have said this And nothing but the Authority of so great an Apostle which though some Men do not much value yet they dare not openly despise can skreen those who venture to say iâ—… after him What some Men call Philosophy and Reason and there is nothing so foolish and absurd which some Men will not call so is the only thing which those Men adore who would either have no God or a God and a Religion of their own making And what Attempts some have made to undermine all Religion and others to corrupt and transform the whole Frame of the Christian Religion upon a Pretence of its contradicting Natural Reason and Philosophy is too well known to need a Proof That thus it was in his days and that thus it was likely to be in future Ages St. Paul was very sensible when he gave this Caution to his Colossians and I 'm sure it is as proper a Caution for us as ever it was for any Age since the writing of this Epistle for this vain Pretence to Reason and Philosophy never more prevailed and never did more mischief to the World It is an endless and fruitless Task to go about to confute all the absurd Hypotheses and wild inconsistent Reasonings wherewith Men abuse themselves and others The Experience of so â—…ny Ages wherein Philosophy was in all 〈◊〉 Glory and the several Sects disputed â—…d wrangled eternally without ending â—…y one Controversie gives no great Enâ—…uragement to hope for much this way 〈◊〉 least it can never be expected that â—…dinary Christians should be better â—…structed and confirm'd in the Faith by â—…hilosophical Disputes The Christian Religion has from â—…e very Beginning been corrupted by 〈◊〉 mixture of Philosophy Thus it was 〈◊〉 the Apostles days and thus it has â—…een more or less in all Ages of the Church to this day and the direction the Apostle gives for the security of the Christian Faith is Not to dispute such Matters but to distinguish between Philosophical Disputes and Matters of Revelation and to reject all the Pretences of Philosophy when it does or seems to contradict the Faith of Christ or would make any corrupt Additions to it Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make a Prey or to carry away as a Prey that is to seduce them from the Christian Faith or from the Pâ—…rity and Simplicity of it Through Philosophy and vain deceit that is through the vain deceit of Philosophy which cheats Men with a flattering but empty appearance may unsettle weak Minds but cannot lay a sure and solid foundation of Faith may cheat Men out of their Faith but when that is done can give them nothing certain in the room of it For it is but after the traditions of men and after the rudiments of this world Some of these Doctrines may possibly plead Prescription as having been so long received that no Man knows their Original or if they have the Authority of some Great Name yet it is but a Human Authority and they are but the traditions of men and of Men who at best had no better Information than from the visible appearances of Nature and their own imperfect Observations and corrupt or defective Reasonings after the rudiments of this world And is this an Authority to oppose against the Faith of Christ which both wants that Divine Confirmation which he gave to his Doctrines and contradicts them For they are not after Christ neither taught by Christ nor consonant to what he taught These Words might afford great Variety of Discourse but I shall confine my self to what is most Usefull and reduce that into as narrow a compass as I can by shewing I. What great need there is of this Caution To beware lest any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit II. What great reason we have to rejectall these vain Pretences to Philosophy when they are opposed to the Authority of a Divine Revelation I. As for the first of these Whoever considers what an Enemy these vain Pretences to Philosophy have always been to Religion will see need enough for this Caution True Reason and the true Knowledge of Nature which is true Philosophy would certainly direct us to the Acknowledgment and Worship of that Supreme Being who made the World And yet we know that there never was an Athiest without some Pretence to Philosophy and generally such loud noisy Pretences too as make ignorant people think them very notable Philosophers and that tempts some vain empty Persons to affect Atheism that they may be thought Philosophers That this is vain deceit all Men must own who believe there is a God And if it be possible to pretend Philosophy for Atheism it self it is no great wonder if it be made to patronize Infidelity and Heresy But this plainly shews of what dangerous Consequence it is to admit Philosophical Disputes into Religion which if at any time they may do any service to Religion much oftner greatly corrupt it and shake the very Foundations of it of which more anon At present I shall only shew you how the Matter of Fact stands That most of the Disputes in Religion
are nothing else but the Disputes of Philosophy and therefore according to the Apostolical Command to be wholly flung out of Religion and not suffered to affect our Faith one way or other To be a Philosopher and a Christian to Dispute and to Believe are two very different things and yet it is very evident that most of the Arguments against Revelation in general and most of the Disputes about the particular Doctrines of Christianity are no better than this vain deceit of Philosophy that were the Matters of Faith and the Disputes of Philosophy truly distinguished this alone would be sufficient to settle the Faith of Christians and restore Peace and Unity at least in the great Fundamentals of Religion to the Christian World 1. As to begin with Revelation in general The Books of Moses are the most Ancient and that considered the best attested History in the World the whole Nation of the Iews whose History he writes pay the greatest veneration to him and if we believe the Matters of Fact which he relates he was certainly an Inspired Man who could neither deceive nor be deceived And it is impossible to have greater Evidence for the Truth and Authenticalness of any Writings at such a distance of time than we have for the Writings of the New Testament and indeed the Infidels of our Age have very little to say purely against the Credibility of the History and then one would think that all their other Objections should come too late unless they will justifie Pharaoh in disbelieving Moses and the Scribes and Pharisees in disbelieving our Saviour after all the Miracles they did For if they will disbelieve Moses and Christ though they have nothing material to object against the Truth of these Histories nothing which they would allow to be good Objections against any other History they must by the same reason have disbelieved them though they had seen them do all those great Works which are reported of them in such Credible Histories But whatever the Authority of these Books are they think they may securely reject them if they contain any thing which contradicts their Reason and Philosophy and they find a great many such things to quarrel with They think Moses's History of the Creation very unphilosophical That the Story of Eve and the Serpent is an incredible Fiction That the Universal Deluge is absolutely impossible and irreconcileable with the Principles of Philosophy and it does not become Philosophers to have recourse to Miracles That what we call Miracles are not the effects of a Divine Power but may be resolved into Natural Causes That Inspiration and Prophesy is nothing but natural Enthusiasm and all the Pretences to Revelation a Cheat and Imposture That Nature teaches us all that we need to know That there is no other certain knowledge but this That we are not bound to believe any thing which our own reason cannot grasp and comprehend and therefore Revelation is perfectly useless and God himself cannot oblige us to believe any thing which does not agree with the Reason of our own Minds and the Philosophy of Nature Those who understand the Mystery of Modern Infidelity know that these and such like are the wise Reasons for which they reject and ridicule all Revealed Religion and endeavour to rob and spoil men of one of the greatest Blessings in the World a Divine Revelation So that Infidelity is resolved into these vain Pretences to Philosophy that Men will understand how to make destroy and govern the World better than God 2. As these Men oppose Reason and Philosophy to Revelation so others either deny the fundamental Articles of Christianity for the sake of some Philosophical Difficulties or corrupt the Doctrines of Christianity by a mixture of Philosophy The Gospel of our Saviour is the plainest Revelation of the Will of God that ever was made to the World all its Doctrines are easily understood without Art and Subtilty and yet there is not a more nice intricate perplext thing in the World than what some Men have made the Christian Faith All the Subtil Disputes of Philosophy are brought into the Church and Plato and Aristotle are become as great Apostles as St. Peter or St. Paul As to give some few Instances of it for time will not permit me to discourse it at large What are the Arian Socinian Pelagian Controversies but meer Philosophical Disputes with which these Hereticks corrupted the Catholick Faith There is nothing more plain and express in Scripture than the Faith of Father Son and Holy Ghost or the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and that great Art and Subtilty which has been used and to so little purpose to pervert those Texts of Scripture wherein this Doctrine is contained is an evident proof That this is the plain natural obvious sense of those Texts since it requires so much Art and Criticism to put any other sense on them and that will not do neither till men are resolved rather to make any thing of Scripture than to find a real Trinity there If then this Faith be so plainly contained in Scripture what makes all this dispute about it What makes those who profess to believe the Scripture so obstinate against this Faith Truly that which makes some men Infidels makes others Hereticks that is a vain Pretence to Philosophy The first Philosophical Dispute is about the Divine Unity We all own with the Scripture that there is but one God but we say further as the Scripture teaches us That there are Three Father Son and Holy Ghost each of which is true and perfect God This they say is a Contradiction and if it be so there is an end of this Faith for both parts of a Contradiction can't be true But to be Three and One upon different accounts and in different senses is no Contradiction for thus three may be One and One Three and this is all the Scripture teaches or that we profess to believe whatever the Mystery of this Distinction and Unity be But this will not satisfie these Philosophical Wits unless they can comprehend how Father Son and Holy Ghost are really and distinctly Three and essentially One the manner of which the Scripture gives no account of and therefore this is no dispute in Faith but only in Philosophy Another objection concerns the Divine Generation how God can beget a Son of his own Substance which the Arians thought inferred a Division of the Divine Substance And a Third Objection concerns an Eternal Generation how it is possible that the Father should beget an Eternal Son that the Son should be begotten without any beginning of Being and that the Father should not be at least some few moments before the Son and consequently the Son not Eternal Now we all grant that we can give no Philosophical account of this no more than we can of the simple Divine Essence or of Eternity it self but we may believe that God has an Eternal Son as we do that there is