the end of these men How thou didst set them in slippery places c. This satisfied him that when-ever the secret design of God's Providence should be unfolded whether in this World or the other how strange and cross soever things might seem to be at present yet in the issue and conclusion it would appear that neither are bad men so happy nor good men so miserable as at present they may seem to be So that upon a full debate of this matter the Psalmist concludes that these Objections against Providence do spring from our ignorance and short and imperfect view of things whereas if we saw the whole design from beginning to end it would appear to be very reasonable and regular Thus my heart was grieved so foolish was I and ignorant and as a beast before thee And in regard to himself he tells us that he saw great reason to acknowledge God's tender care over him in particular and that he could find no security or comfort for himself but in God alone Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by thy right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory as if he had said I am sensible of thy constant presence with me and care of me and do entirely depend upon thy guidance and direction not doubting but that my present troubles and afflictions will have a happy and glorious issue And at last he breaks out into a kind of exultation and triumph for the mighty consolation which he found in the firm belief of the Being and Providence of God as the great stay and support of his Soul in the worst condition that could befall him in the words of the Text Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee If a man were to chuse a happiness for himself and were to ransack Heaven and Earth for it after all his search and enquiry he would at last fix upon God as the chief happiness of man and the true and only rest and center of our Souls This then is the plain meaning of the Text That nothing in the world but God can make man happy Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee That Man of himself is not sufficient for his own happiness is evident upon many accounts Because he is liable to so many evils and calamities which he can neither prevent nor remedy He is full of wants which he cannot supply compassed about with infirmities which he can only complain of but is not able to redress He is obnoxious to dangers which he must always fear because he can never sufficiently provide against them Consider Man by himself and from under the conduct and protection of a superior and more powerful Being and he is in a most disconsolate and forlorn condition Secure of nothing that he enjoys and liable to be disappointed of every thing that he hopes for He is apt to grieve for what he cannot help and perhaps the justest cause of his grief is that he cannot help it for if he could instead of grieving for it he would help it He cannot refrain from desiring a great many things which he would fain have but is never likely to obtain because they are out of his power and it troubles him both that they are so and that he cannot help his being troubled at it Thus man walketh in a vain shew and disquieteth himself in vain courting happiness in a thousand shapes and the faster he follows it the swifter it flies from him Almost every thing promiseth happiness to us at a distance such a step of Honour such a pitch of Estate such a Fortune or Match for a Child But when we come nearer to it either we fall short of it or it falls short of our expectation and it is hard to say which of these is the greatest disappointment Our hopes are usually bigger than enjoyment can satisfie and an evil long fear'd besides that it may never come is many times more painful and troublesome than the evil it self when it comes In a word man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards He comes into the world naked and unarm'd and from himself more destitute of the natural means of his security and support than any other Creature whatsoever as it were on purpose to shew that he is more peculiarly the care of a Superior Providence And as man of all the Creatures of this lower World is only made to own and acknowledge a Deity so God in great Wisdom hath so order'd things that none of the other Creatures should have so much need of Him and so much reason to acknowledge their necessary dependance upon him So that the words of David are the very sense and voice of Nature declaring to us that Mankind is born into the World upon terms of greater dependence upon the Providence of God than other Creatures Thou art he says David there to God that tookest me out of the womb thou madest me to hope or thou didst keep me in safety when I was upon my mother's breasts I was cast upon thee from the womb thou art my God from my mother's belly Be not far from me for trouble is near Trouble is always near to us and therefore it is happy for us that God is never far from any of us For in Him we live and move and have our being And when we are grown up we are liable to a great many mischiefs and dangers every moment of our lives and without the Providence of God continually insecure not only of the good things of this life but even of life it self So that when we come to be men we cannot but wonder how ever we arriv'd at that state and how we have continued in it so long considering the infinite difficulties and dangers which have continually attended us That in running the gantlope of a long life when so many hands have been lifted up against us and so many strokes levell'd at us we have escaped so free and with so few marks and scars upon us That when we are besieged with so many dangers and so many arrows of death are perpetually flying about us to which we do so many ways lie open we should yet hold out twenty forty sixty years and some of us perhaps longer and do still stand at the mark untouch'd at least not dangerously wounded by any of them And considering likewise this fearful and wonderful frame of a humane Body this infinitely complicated Engine in which to the due performance of the several functions and offices of life so many strings and springs so many receptacles and channels are necessary and all in their right frame and order and in which besides the infinite imperceptible and secret ways of mortality there are so many sluces and flood-gates to let Death in and Life out that it is next to a
and that men who are resolv'd to continue in an evil course are glad to be of a Church which will assure Salvation to men upon such terms The great difficulty is for men to believe that things which are so apparently absurd and unreasonable can be true and to persuade themselves that they can impose upon God by such pretences of service and obedience as no wise Prince or Father upon earth is to be deluded withal by his Subjects or Children We ought to have worthier thoughts of God and to consider that He is a great King and will be obey'd and observ'd by his creatures in his own way and make them happy upon his own terms and that obedience to what he commands is better and more acceptable to him than any other sacrifice that we can offer which he hath not required at our hands and likewise that he is infinitely wise and good and therefore that the Laws which he hath given us to live by are much more likely and certain means of our happiness than any inventions and devices of our own Thirdly I observe that even the better and more considerate sort of Christians are not so careful and watchful as they ought to prepare themselves for Death and Judgment whilst the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept Even the Disciples of our Saviour whilst he was yet personally present with them and after a particular charge given them from his own mouth Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation yet did not keep that guard upon themselves as to watch with him for one hour In many things says St. James we offend all even the best of us And who is there that doth not some time or other remit of his vigilancy and care so as to give the Devil an advantage and to lye open to temptation for want of a continual guard upon himself But then the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins was this that tho they both slept yet the wise did not let their Lamps go out they neither quitted their Profession nor did they extinguish it by a bad life and tho when the Bridegroom came suddenly upon them they were not so actually prepar'd to meet him by a continual vigilancy yet they were habitually prepar'd by the good disposition of their minds and the general course of a holy life Their Lamps might burn dim for want of continual trimming but they had Oyl in their Vessels to supply their Lamps which the foolish Virgins had taken no care to provide But surely the greatest wisdom of all is to maintain a continual watchfulness that so we may not be surpriz'd by the coming of the Bridegroom and be in a confusion when Death or Judgment shall overtake us And blessed are those Servants and wise indeed whose Lamps always burn bright and whom the Bridegroom when he comes shall find watching and in a fit posture and preparation to meet Him Fourthly I observe likewise how little is to be done by us to any good purpose in this great work of Preparation when it is deferr'd and put off to the last And thus the foolish Virgins did but what a sad confusion and hurry they were in at the sudden coming of the Bridegroom when they were not only asleep but when after they were awaken'd they found themselves altogether unprovided of that which was necessary to trim their Lamps and to put them in a posture to meet the Bridegroom When they wanted that which was necessary at that very instant but could not be provided in an instant I say what a tumult and confusion they were in being thus surpriz'd the Parable represents to us at large vers 6 7 8 9. and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps that is they went about it as well as they could and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out At midnight there was a cry made that is at the most dismal and unseasonable time of all other when they were fast asleep and suddenly awaken'd in great terror when they could not on the sudden recollect themselves and consider what to do when the summons was so very short that they had neither time to consider what was fit to be done nor time to do it in And such is the Case of those who put off their Repentance and Preparation for another World till they are surpriz'd by Death or Judgment for it comes all to one in the issue which of them it be The Parable indeed seems more particularly to point at our Lord 's coming to Judgment but the case is much the same as to those who are surpriz'd by sudden Death such as gives them but little or not sufficient time for so great a work because such as Death leaves them Judgment will certainly find them And what a miserable confusion must they needs be in who are thus surpriz'd either by the one or the other How unfit should we be if the general Judgment of the World should come upon us on the sudden to meet that great Judge at his coming if we have made no preparation for it before that time What shall we then be able to do in that great and universal consternation when the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory when the Sun shall be darken'd and the Moon turned into blood and all the powers of Heaven shall be shaken when all Nature shall feel such violent pangs and convulsions and the whole World shall be in a combustion flaming and cracking about our ears When the Heavens shall be shrivel'd up as a Scroll when it is roll'd together and the Earth shall be toss'd from its Center and every Mountain and Island shall be removed What thoughts can the wisest men then have about them in the midst of so much noise and terror Or if they could have any what time will there then be to put them in execution when they shall see the Angel that standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifting up his hand to Heaven and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever that Time shall be no longer as this dreadful Day is described Rev. 10.5 6. and chap. 6.15 where Sinners are represented at the Appearance of this Great Judge not as flying to God in hopes of mercy but as flying from Him in utter despair of finding mercy with Him The Kings of the Earth and the Great Men and the Mighty Men and the Rich Men and the Great Captains hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Earth and said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the Great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The biggest and the boldest Sinners
hath given us such a Deliverance as this from our Enemies and from the Hand of all that hate us not by using Them as they would have done Us had we fallen under their Power with great Insolence and Rage and Cruelty but with great Moderation and Clemency making as few Examples of Severity as will be consistent with our future security from the like Attempts upon our Religion and Laws And even in the Execution of Justice upon the greatest Offenders let us not give so much countenance to the ill Examples which have been set of Extravagant Fines and Punishments as to imitate those Patterns which with so much reason we abhor no not in the Punishment of the Authors of them And let us endeavour for once to be so wise as not to forfeit the fruits of this Deliverance and to hinder our selves of the benefit and advantage of it by Breaches and Divisions among our selves As we have no reason to desire it so I think we can hardly ever hope to understand Popery better and the Cruel Designs of it than we do already both from the long Trial and Experience which we have had of it in this Nation and likewise from that dismal and horrid View which hath of late been given us of the true Spirit and Temper of it in One of our Neighbour Nations which hath long pretended to the Profession of the most refin'd and moderate Popery in the World but hath now at last shewed it self in its true Colours and in the perfection of a persecuting Spirit and have therein given us a most sad and deplorable Instance of a Religion corrupted and degenerated into that which if it be possible is worse than None And since by the undeserved Mercy of God to us we have upon such easy terms in comparison escap'd their Rage and Fury let us now at length resolve never to join in affinity with the People of these Abominations since our Alliances with them by Marriage have had so fatal an Influence both upon the publick Peace and Tranquility of the Nation and upon the Welfare also of private Families I have known Many Instances of this kind but hardly ever yet saw One that prov'd happy but a great many that have been pernicious and ruinous to those Protestant Families in which such unequal and as I think unlawful Matches have been made Not that such Marriages are void in themselves but yet for all that sinful because of the apparent Danger and Temptation to which those of our Church and Religion that enter into them do evidently expose themselves of being seduc'd from their Religion not by the good Arguments which the other can offer to that purpose but by the ill Arts which they have the Confidence and the Conscience to make use of in the making of Proselytes And let us pay our most hearty and thankful Acknowledgments chiefly and in the first place to Almighty God the Blessed Author of this Deliverance and under Him to that happy Instrument whom God hath been pleased in great pity to this sinful and unworthy Nation to raise up on purpose for it his Highness the Prince of Orange and to that end did in his All-wise Providence lay the Foundation of our then future Deliverance in that auspicious Match which was concluded here in England about eleven years ago between this Renowned Prince and our Excellent Princess This is that most Illustrious House of Nassau and Orange which God hath so highly honoured above all the Families of the Earth to give a Check to the Two Great aspiring Monarchies of the West and bold Attempters upon the Liberties of Europe To the One in the last Age and to the Other in the present As if the Princes of this Valiant and Victorious Line had been of the Race of Hercules born to rescue Mankind from Oppression and to quell Monsters And lastly let us beseech Almighty God all whose Ways and Works are perfect That he would establish that which he hath wrought and still carry it on to further and greater Perfection Which after such an Earnest of his Favour and Good Will to us we have no reason to doubt but that he is ready to do for us if by our own fickleness and inconstancy disgusting the Deliverance now it is come which we so earnestly desir'd before it came if by our ingrateful Murmurings and Discontents by our own foolish Heats and Animosities kindled and carried on by the ill designs of some working upon the tenderness and scruples of others under the specious pretences of Conscience and Loyalty I say if by some or all these ways we do not refuse the Blessing which God now offers and defeat and frustrate the merciful Design of this wonderful Revolution God will still rejoice over us to do us good and think thoughts of Peace towards us thoughts of good and not of evil to give us an expected end of our long Troubles and Confusions But if we will not know in this our day the things which belong to our Peace our Destruction will then be of our selves and there will be no need that God should be angry with us for we shall be undone by our own Differences and Quarrels about the Way and Means of our being saved and so be angry with one another till we be consumed Which God of his infinite Goodness give us all the Grace and Wisdom to prevent for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Thanksgiving and Praise both now and ever Amen Of Forgiveness of Injuries and against Revenge A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE HALL March 8. 1688 9. Of Forgiveness of Injuries and against Revenge MATTH V. 44 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you THE Gospel hath promised forgiveness of Sins to us upon two Conditions That we sincerely repent of the Sins which we have committed against God and That we heartily forgive to men the injuries and offences which they have been guilty of towards us I shall at this time by God's Assistance treat of the latter of these from the Words which I have recited to you which are part of our Saviour's excellent Sermon upon the Mount In which he doth not only explain but enlarge and perfect the Moral and Natural Law by adding to it Precepts and Prohibitions of greater perfection than either the Law of Moses or the Natural Law in their largest extent did contain He forbids Polygamy and Divorce except only in case of Adultery and likewise Revenge none of which were forbidden either by the Law of Nature or by the Law which was given by Moses And to these Prohibitions our Blessed Saviour adds several new Precepts of greater perfection than any Laws that were extant before But I say unto you love your enemies The Jewish Law commanded them
there be no wicked thing amongst us to drive God out of our Camp no accursed thing that may provoke Him to deliver us into the hands of our Enemies It was a particular Law given by God to the Jews When the Host goeth forth against thine Enemy then keep thy self from every wicked thing then that is more especially at such a time And this is a necessary Caution not only to those who are personally engaged in the War that by the favour of God they may have their heads covered in the day of Battel or if God shall suffer them to fall by the hand of the Enemy that having made their peace beforehand with Him they may not only have the comfort of a good Cause but of a good Conscience void of offence towards God and men But this Caution likewise concerns those who are interested in the success and event of the War as we all are not only in regard of our Lives and Estates but of that which ought to be much dearer to us our Religion and the freedom of our Consciences which are now every whit as much at stake as our Civil interests and Liberties And therefore as we tender any or all of these we should be very careful to keep our selves from every wicked thing that they who fight for us may not for our sins and for our sakes turn their backs in the day of battel and fall by the Sword of the Enemy Secondly From hence we may likewise learn so to use the means as still to depend upon God who can as he pleases bless the Counsels and endeavours of Men or blast them and make them of none effect For as God hath promised nothing but to a wise and diligent use of means so all our prudence and industry and most careful preparations may miscarry if He do not favour our design For without Him nothing is wise nothing is strong nothing is able to reach and attain its end We should indeed use the means as vigorously as if God did nothing and when we have done so we should depend upon God for the success of those means as if we our selves had done nothing but did expect all from his favour and blessing For when all is done we are only safe under his Protection and sure of success from his Blessing For whatever vain and foolish men may say in their hearts There is There is a God that made the World and administers the affairs of it with great Wisdom and Goodness else how came any of us into Being or what do we here Did we not most assuredly believe that there is a God that governs the World and super-intends human affairs the first wish of a Wise man would be to steal out of Being if he could and that the same Chance or Necessity that brought him into the World would take the first opportunity to carry him out For to be every moment liable to present and great and certain Evils and to have no security against the continuance of them or the return of the same or worse Evils nor to have any assurance of a better and more durable state of rest and happiness hereafter is in truth so very melancholy a meditation that I do not know any consideration in the World that is of force and power enough to support the mind of man under it And were there not in the World a Being that is wiser and better and more powerful than our selves and that keeps things from running into endless confusion and disorder a Being that loves us and takes care of us and that will certainly consider and reward all the good that we do and all the evil that we suffer upon his account I do not see what reason any man could have to take any comfort and joy in Being or to wish the continuance of it for one moment Thirdly and lastly The Consideration of what hath been said upon this Argument should keep us from being too sanguine and confident of the most likely designs and undertakings because these do not always answer the probability of second Causes and Means and never less than when we do with the greatest confidence rely upon them when we promise most to our selves from them then are they most likely to deceive us They are as the Prophet compares them like a broken reed which a man may walk with in his hand whilst he lays no great stress upon it but if he trust to it and lean his whole weight on it it will not only fail him but even pierce him through And we cannot do a greater prejudice to our affairs when they are in the most hopeful and likely condition to succeed and do well than to shut God and his Providence out of our counsels and consideration When we pass God by and take no notice of Him but will rely upon our own wisdom and strength we provoke him to leave us in the hands of our own counsel and to let us see what weak and foolish Creatures we are And a man is never in greater danger of drowning than when he clasps his arms closest about himself Besides that God loves to resist the self-confident and presumptuous and to scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts And as in all our concernments we ought to have a great regard to God the Supreme disposer of all things and earnestly to seek his favour and blessing upon all our undertakings so more especially in the affairs of War in which the Providence of God is pleas'd many times in a very peculiar manner to interpose and interest it self And there is great reason to think he does so because all War is as it were an Appeal to God and a reference of those Causes to the decision of his Providence which through the pride and injustice and perverse passions of men can receive no other determination And here God loves to shew himself and in an eminent manner to take part with Right and Justice against those mighty Oppressors of the Earth who like an overflowing flood would bear down all before them In this case the Providence of God is sometimes pleas'd to give a remarkable check to great Power and Violence and to One that vainly gives out himself not unequal to the whole World by very weak and contemptible means and as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it by the things which are not to bring to nought the things that are And to say to Him as God once did to the proud King of Assyria Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the Holy one of Israel Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced Cities into ruinous heaps Therefore their Inhabitants were of small power they were dismayed and confounded c. But I
cruelties which it occasion'd within the City did force great numbers of them to steal out by night into the Roman Camp where they met with as cruel but a speedier death For Titus in hope to reduce them the sooner by terror order'd all those that came out of the City to be crucified before the Walls Which order was so severely executed that for several days five hundred a day were crucified till there was neither room left to place Crosses in nor wood whereof to make them So that they who once cried out so vehemently against our Saviour Crucify him Crucify him had enough of it at last and by the just and most remarkable judgment of God were paid home in their own kind Behold the sad Fate of a sinful People when God is departed from them Then all evils overtake them at once For as their misery increased so did their Impiety to that degree that the Historian tells us they scorned and mocked at all divine and holy things and derided the Oracles of the Prophets esteeming them no better than Fables and in a word were carried to that extremity of wickedness as not only to prophane their Temple in the highest manner and to break the Laws of their own Religion but even to violate the Laws of Nature and Humanity in the grossest Instances which made their Historian to give that dismal character of them that as he thought no City ever suffer'd such things so no Nation from the beginning of the World did ever so abound in all manner of wickedness and impiety A certain sign that God's Soul was departed from them And the same Historian afterwards upon consideration of the lamentable state into which their Seditions had brought them breaks out into this doleful lamentation over them O miserable City what didst thou suffer from the Romans though at last they set thee on fire to purge thee from thy sins that is to be compar'd with those miseries which thou hast brought upon thy self To such a dismal state did things come at last that as the same Historian relates many of the Jews prayed for the good success of their Enemies to deliver them from their civil Dissensions the Calamity whereof was so great that their final Destruction by the Romans did rather put an end to their misery than increase it En quo discordia Cives Perduxit miseros To conclude this sad Story It was the Jews themselves that by their own folly and dissensions forc'd the Romans to this sorrowful Victory over them for in truth all the remorse and pity was on the Enemies side The Romans were little more than Spectators in this cruel Tragedy the Jews acted it upon themselves And they only who were arriv'd at that prodigious height of Impiety and wickedness were fit to be the executioners of this vengeance of God upon one another As if the Prophet had foretold this when he says Thine own wickedness shall correct thee When Impiety and wickedness are at their highest pitch in a Nation then they themselves are the only proper instruments to punish one another The Romans were by far too good and gentle to inflict a suffering upon the Jews that was equal to the evil of their doings None but their own barbarous Selves who were sunk down into the very lowest degeneracy of humane nature were capable of so much cruelty and inhumanity as was requisite to execute the Judgment of God upon them to that degree which their sins had deserved You see my Brethren by what hath been said upon this Argument what were the Faults and what the Fate of the Jewish Nation Now these things as the Apostle expresly tells us were written for our admonition and to the intent that we upon whom the ends of the World are come might be instructed by them We I say who next to the Jewish Nation seem to be a People highly favoured by God above all the Nations of the Earth We resemble them very much in their many and wonderful Deliverances and a great deal too much in their Faults and Follies But as I intend it not so God forbid that there should be any just ground for a full and exact Parallel between us Yet this I must say that nothing ever came nearer to them than We do in several respects In our fickleness and inconstancy in our murmurings and discontents for we are never pleasâ—d with what God does neither when he brings us into danger nor when he delivers us out of it We resemble them likewise in our horrible prophaneness and infidelity and in our impiety and wickedness of several kinds in our monstrous ingratitude and most unworthy returns to the God of our Salvation and lastly in our Factions and Divisions which were the fatal sign of God's being departed from the Jews and the immediate cause and means of those dismal Calamities which wrought their final Ruin And how can we chuse but dread lest their Fate should overtake us the Example of whose Faults and Follies we do in so many things so nearly resemble That this may not nor any thing like it be our Fate let us apply our selves to the great Duties of this Day a serious and deep Repentance and humiliation of our selves before Almighty God for the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of against His Divine Majesty by our prophaneness and impiety by our lewdness and luxury by our oppression and injustice by our implacable malice and hatred one towards another and by our senseless divisions and animosities one against another without cause and without end By our neglect of God's Worship and prophanation of his Holy Day and by our dreadful abuse of God's great and glorious Name in those horrid Oaths and Curses and Imprecations which are heard almost day and night in the streets of this great City For these and all other our innumerable provocations of the patience and goodness and long-suffering of God towards us let us sadly repent our selves this Day and turn unto the Lord with all our hearts with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent our hearts and not our garments and turn unto the Lord our God For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil And who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall beturned Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously And let us earnestly beg of Him that he would be pleased to prevent those terrible Judgments and Calamities which hang over us and which our Sins have so justly deserved should fall upon us And that He would perfect that wonderful Deliverance which he hath begun for us and establish the thing which he hath wrought That He would bless Them whom he hath set in Authority over us and particularly that He would preserve the Person of the King
our lives and call our selves to a strict account for them that where-in-soever we have fail'd of innocency we may make it up by repentance and may get our Consciences clear'd of guilt by pardon and forgiveness And if we do not do this we cannot with confidence rely upon the testimony of our Consciences because many great Sins may slip out of our memories without a particular repentance for them which yet do require and stand in need of a particular repentance Especially we should search our Consciences more narrowly at these more solemn Times of repentance and when we are preparing our selves to receive the Holy Sacrament And if at these Times our hearts do accuse and condemn us for any thing we should not only heartily lament and bewail it before God but sincerely resolve by God's Grace to reform in that particular and from that time to break off that Sin which we have then repented of and have ask'd forgiveness of God for For if after we have repented of it we return to it again we wound our Consciences afresh and involve them in a new guilt In the last place We should reverence our Consciences and stand in awe of them and have a great regard to their testimony and verdict For Conscience is a domestick Judge and a kind of familiar God And therefore next to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth every man should be afraid to offend his own Reason and Conscience which when-ever we knowingly do amiss will beat us with many stripes and handle us more severely than the greatest Enemy we have in the World So that next to the dreadful sentence of the great Day every man hath reason to dread the sentence of his own Conscience God indeed is greater than our hearts and knows all things but under Him we have the greatest reason to fear the judgment of our own Consciences For nothing but that can give us Comfort and nothing can create so much trouble and disquiet to us And though the judgment of our Consciences be not always the judgment of God yet we have great reason to have great regard to it and that upon several Accounts which I shall but briefly mention and so conclude First Because the judgment of our Conscience is free from any compulsion No body can force it from us whether we will or no and make us to pass sentence against our selves whether we see reason for it or not Secondly The sentence of our own Consciences is very likely to be impartial at lest not too hard on the severe side because men naturally love themselves and are too apt to be favourable in their own case All the World cannot bribe a man against himself There is no man whose mind is not either distemper'd by melancholy or deluded by false Principles that is apt to be credulous against himself and his own interest and peace Thirdly The judgment which our Conscience passeth upon our own Actions is upon the most intimate and certain knowledge of them and of their true motives and ends We may easily be deceiv'd in our judgment of the Actions of other men and may think them to be much better or worse than in truth they are Because we cannot certainly tell with what mind they were done and what circumstances there may be to excuse or aggravate them how strong the temptation was or how weak the judgment of him that was seduc'd by it into errour and folly But we are conscious to all the secret springs and motives and circumstances of our own Actions We can descend into our own hearts and dive to the bottom of them and search into the most retired corners of our intentions and ends which none besides our selves but only God can do for excepting Him only none knows the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is in him Fourthly The Sentence of our Conscience is peremptory and inexorable and there is no way to avoid it Thou mayest possibly fly from the wrath of other men to the uttermost parts of the Earth but thou canst not stir one step from thy self In vain shalt thou call upon the mountains and rocks to fall on thee and hide thee from the sight of thine own Conscience Wretched and miserable man when thou hast offended and wounded thy Conscience For whither canst thou go to escape the eye of this Witness the terrour of this Judge the torment of this Executioner A man may as soon get rid of himself and quit his own being as fly from the sharp Accusations and stinging Guilt of his own Conscience which will perpetually haunt him till it be done away by repentance and forgiveness We account it a fearful thing to be haunted by evil Spirits and yet the Spirit of a man which is in him throughly affrighted with its own Guilt may be a more ghastly and amazing Spectacle than all the Devils in Hell There is no such frightful Apparition in the World as a man 's own guilty and terrified Conscience staring him in the face A spirit that is thus wounded who can bear To conclude Let these considerations prevail with us always to live not with regard to the opinion of others which may be grounded upon mistake or may not indeed be their opinion but their flattery but with regard to the judgment of our own Conscience which though it may sometimes be mistaken can never be brib'd and corrupted We may be hypocrites to others and base flatterers but our Consciences when-ever they are throughly awaken'd are always sincere and deal truly with us and speak to us as they think Therefore what-ever we say or do let it be sincere For though hypocrisie may for a while preserve our esteem and reputation with others yet it can signifie nothing to the peace of our own minds And then what will it avail us to conceal any thing from other men when we can hide nothing that we say or do from our own Consciences The Summ of all is this If we would keep a Conscience void of offence let us always be calm and considerate and have the patience to examine things throughly and impartially Let us be humble and willing to learn and never too proud and stiff to be better inform'd Let us do what we can to free our selves from prejudice and passion from self-conceit and self-interest which are often too strong a byass upon the judgments of the best men as we may see every day in very sad and melancholy instances And having taken all due care to inform our Consciences a-right let us follow the judgment of our minds in what we do and then we have done what we can to please God And if we would always take this care to keep a good Conscience we should always be easie and good company to our selves But if we offend our Consciences by doing contrary to the clear dictate and conviction of them we make the unhappiest breach in the World we stir up a
Soul and so long as that remains unwounded the spirit of a man can bear his infirmities God is intimate to our Souls and hath secret ways whereby to convey the joys and comforts of his Holy Spirit into our Hearts under the bitterest afflictions and sharpest sufferings He can enable us by his Grace to possess our souls in patience when all other things are taken from us When there is nothing but trouble about us He can give us peace and joy in believing When we are persecuted afflicted and tormented He can give us that ravishing sight of the Glories of another World that stedfast assurance of a future Blessedness as shall quite extinguish all sense of present sufferings How did many of the primitive Christian Martyrs in the midst of their torments and under the very pangs of death rejoice in the hope of the glory of God There are none of us but may happen to fall into those circumstances of danger and of bodily pains and sufferings as to have no hopes of relief and comfort but from God none in all the World to trust to but Him only And in the greatest Evils that can befall us in this life He is a sure refuge and sanctuary and to repeat the words of the Psalmist after the Text When our heart fails and our strength fails God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Now what would any of us do in such a Case if it were not for God Humane nature is liable to desperate straits and exigencies And he is not happy who is not provided against the worst that may happen It is sad to be reduced to such a condition as to be destitute of all comfort and hope And yet men may be brought to that extremity that if it were not for God they would not know which way to turn themselves or how to entertain their thoughts with any comfortable considerations under their present anguish All men naturally resort to God in extremity and cry out to him for help Even the most profane and Atheistical when they are destitute of all other comfort will run to God and take hold of him and cling about him But God hath no pleasure in fools in those who neglect and despise him in their prosperity though they owe that also entirely to him but when the evil day comes then they lay hold of him as their only refuge When all things go well with them God is not in all their thoughts but in their affliction they will seek him early Then they will cry Lord Lord but he will say to them in that day Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I know you not Here will be the great unhappiness of such persons that God will then appear terrible to them so as they shall not be able when they look up to him to abide his frowns And at the same time that they are forc'd to acknowledge him and to supplicate to him for mercy and forgiveness they shall be ready to despair of it Then those terrible threatnings of God's Word will come to their minds Because I called and ye refused I stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them To which I will add that terrible Passage in the Prophet concerning the perverse and obstinate Jews They are a People of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour And men are miserable Creatures indeed when God their Maker doth abandon them and hath so far hardened his heart against them that he can have no pity and compassion for them Seventhly and Lastly Which is consequent upon all the rest God is such a Good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds And that which cannot do this though it had all the Properties before mentioned cannot make us happy For he is not happy who does not think himself so what-ever cause he may have to think so Now what in reason can give us disquiet if we do firmly believe that there is a God and that his Providence rules and governs all things for the best and that God is all that to good Men which hath now been said of Him Why should not our minds be in perfect repose when we are secure of the chief Good and have found out that which can make us happy and is willing to make us so if we be not wanting to our selves and by our wilful obstinacy and rebellion against him do not oppose and frustrate this design If a considerate Man were permitted to his own choice to wish the greatest good to himself that he could possibly devise after he had searched Heaven and Earth the result of all his wishes would be that there were just such a Being as we must necessarily conceive God to be Nor would he chuse any other Friend or Benefactor any other Protector for himself or Governor for the whole World than infinite Power conducted and managed by infinite Wisdom and Goodness which is the true Notion of a God After all his enquiry he would come to the Psalmist's conclusion here in the Text Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Vain Man is apt to seek for happiness elsewhere but this proceeds from want of due consideration For when all things are well weigh'd and all accounts rightly cast up and adjusted we shall at last settle in David's resolution of that great Question What is the chief Good of man There be many says he that say Who will shew us any good That is Men are generally inquisitive after happiness but greatly divided in their Opinions about it Most men place it in the present enjoyments of this World but David for his part pitches upon God in whom he was fully convinc'd that the happiness of Man does consist There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and Wine increased The great joy of the men of this World is in a plentiful Harvest and the abundance of the good things of this life But David had
indeed fain palliate this matter by telling us that by these direct and immediate Addresses to Angels and Saints to bestow Grace and eternal Life upon them they mean no more but only to pray to them that they would be pleased to intercede with God for these Blessings to be bestowed upon them by their Mediation But if they mean no mean why do they say more than they mean Why do they use such expressions as to the common sense and understanding of Mankind do signifie a great deal more than they say they mean such expressions as they themselves do acknowledge if they be understood according to the most obvious sence of the words would render them guilty of flat Idolatry Especially when they know that they are charged with Idolatry upon this account and since to clear themselves of it they will not alter their Prayers they justly lie under the suspicion of it And yet admitting what they say in this matter to be true and that by these expressions in their Prayers they intend no more but the solemn Invocation of Angels and Saints that they would intercede with God to bestow these Blessings upon them for the sake of their Merits and upon their Mediation Yet this surely is a great deal too much and cannot be done without a high entrenchment upon the Office of the only Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus But let them not deceive themselves God is not mocked The Lord our God is a jealous God and He will not give his Glory to another I have not yet instanced in the grossest part of their Superstition not to say downright Idolatry in this kind I mean in their extravagant Worship of the blessed Virgin and Mother of our Lord whom they blasphemously call the Queen of Heaven and whom by a new style unknown to the Scriptures and Primitive Antiquity they think to dignifie with the modish Title of our Lady as if that could be any addition of honour to Her whom the Angel declared to be blessed among Women Who if she know any thing of the follies of Her Worshippers here below with what disdain and indignation do we think She hears those infinite Prayers that are made to Her and that Sacrilegious Worship which is given Her in that Church and which makes both pages of their Religion and which for the frequency of it both in their publick and private Devotions is very much beyond what they give to God and Christ As if there were none in Heaven but She nor any thing upon Earth to be worshipped in comparison of Her Image Nay so far have they carried this extravagant Folly and how much farther they would have carried it had not the Reformation given a check to it God only knows So far I say have they proceeded in this Folly as in that famous Book of their Devotions called Our Lady's Psalter not only to apply to Her some part of this Psalm out of which I have taken my Text beginning it thus How good is God to Israel to them that worship his Blessed Mother But they have likewise profanely burlesqued I cannot afford it a better term this whole Book of Psalms applying to Her almost the highest things that are there said concerning God and our Blessed Saviour Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth and be ye horribly astonished to see the best and wisest Religion in the World transform'd into Superstition and Folly and to see the most learned Persons in that Communion set themselves in good earnest to justifie all these follies and absurdities by a grave and groundless pretence to Infallibility Thirdly and Lastly This shews us how necessary the favour of God is to every man's happiness And there is but one way to gain his friendship and favour by becoming holy and good as He is Then may we rejoice and glory in God as the Psalmist here does and say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee A wicked Man dreads God above all things in the World and he has great reason to do so For he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity When by sin we depart from God we forsake our own happiness Salvation is far from the wicked says David And again a little after the Text They that are far from thee shall perish but it is good for me to draw near to God Now by Holiness and Goodness we draw near to Him who alone can make us happy It is certainly the common interest of mankind there should be a God because we cannot possibly be happy without Him But then it is no man's interest to be wicked because thereby we make Him our Enemy in whose favour is life and upon whom all our hopes of happiness do depend To conclude If we would have God for our Happiness we must be sure to make Him our Friend and then we may promise to our selves all those advantages which the Friendship of so great and powerful a Patron can give us And there is but one way to establish a firm Friendship between God and us and that is by doing his Will and living in obedience to his Laws Ye are my friends saith our Blessed Lord if ye do whatsoever I command you This is the love of God saith St. John that we keep his commandments And to love God is the way to be made partakers of those glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love Him Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man Which God of his infinite Goodness grant we may all at last be made partakers of for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power both now and for ever Amen A Thanksgiving-Sermon for the late Victory at Sea IN A SERMON Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL Octob. the 27 th 1692. A Thanksgiving-Sermon for the late Victory at Sea JER ix 23 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. THese words are a message from God sent by his Prophet to the People of the Jews who trusted in their own Wisdom and Might and Riches for their safety and preservation from that Destruction which in the former part of this Chapter God had threaten'd to bring upon them by the King of Babylon To take them off from this vain confidence is this Message sent to them Thus saith the Lord
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. In the handling of these Words I shall abstract from the particular Occasion of them and only consider the general Truth contained in them Which I shall do under these two Heads First What we are not to glory in Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches Secondly What it is that is matter of true glory But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righousness in the Earth I. What we are not to glory in The Text instanceth in three things which are the great Idols of mankind and in which they are very apt to pride themselves and to place their confidence namely Wisdom and Might and Riches I shall consider these severally and shew how little reason there is to glory in any of them 1. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom This may comprehend both humane Knowledge and likewise prudence in the management of affairs We will suppose both these to be intended here by the name of Wisdom Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom that is neither in the largeness and compass of his Knowledge and Understanding nor in his skill and dexterity in the contrivance and conduct of humane Affairs and that for these two reasons First Because the highest pitch of humane Knowledge and Wisdom is very imperfect Secondly Because when Knowledge and Wisdom are with much difficulty in any competent measure attained how easily are they lost First The highest pitch of humane knowledge and wisdom is very imperfect Our Ignorance doth vastly exceed our Knowledge at the best Wisdom in any tolerable degree is difficult to be attain'd but perfection in it utterly to be despair'd of Where is there to be found so strong and found a Head as hath no soft place so perfect so clear an understanding as hath no flaw no dark Water in it How hard a matter is it to be truly wise And yet there are so many pretenders to wisdom as would almost tempt a man to think that nothing is easier Men do frequently murmur and repine at the unequal distribution of other things as of health and strength of power and riches But if we will trust the judgment of most men concerning themselves nothing is more equally shar'd among mankind than a good degree of wisdom and understanding Many will grant others to be superiour to them in other gifts of Nature as in bodily strength and stature and in the gifts of Fortune as in riches and honour because the difference between one man and another in these qualities is many times so gross and palpable that no body hath the face to deny it But very few in comparison unless it be in mere complement and civility will yield others to be wiser than themselves and yet the difference in this also is for the most part very visible to every body but themselves So that true Wisdom is a thing very extraordinary Happy are they that have it And next to them not those many that think they have it but those few that are sensible of their own defects and imperfections and know that they have it not And among all the kinds of Wisdom none is more nice and difficult and meers with more frequent disappointments than that which men are most apt to pride themselves in I mean Political wisdom and prudence because it depends upon so many contingent Causes any one of which failing the best laid design breaks and falls in pieces It depends upon the uncertain wills and fickle humours the mistaken and mutable interests of men which are perpetually shifting from one point to another so that no body knows where to find them Besides an unaccountable mixture of that which the Heathen call'd Fortune but we Christians by its true name the Providence of God which does frequently interpose in humane Affairs and loves to confound the wisdom of the wise and to turn their counsels into foolishness Of this we have a most remarkable Example in Achitophel of whose wisdom the Scripture gives this extraordinary Testimony That the counsel which he counselled in those days was as if one had enquired at the Oracle of God Such was all the counsel of Achitophel both with David and with Absalom It seems he gave very good counsel also to Absalom and because he would not follow it was discontented to that degree as to lay violent hands upon himself And now who would pride himself in being so very wise as to be able to give the best counsel in the world and yet so very weak as to make away himself because he to whom it was given was not wise enough to take it The like miscarriages often happen in point of Military skill and prudence A great Prince or General is sometimes so very cautious and wary that nothing can provoke him to a Battel and then at another time and perhaps in another Element so rash and wilful that nothing can hinder him from fighting and being beaten As if the two Elements made the difference and caution were great wisdom at Land and confidence and presumption great prudence at Sea But the true reason of these things lies much deeper in the secret Providence of Almighty God who when he pleases can so govern and over-rule both the understandings and the wills of men as shall best serve his own wise purpose and design And as the highest pitch of humane Wisdom is very imperfect in it self so is it much more so in comparison with the Divine knowledge and wisdom Compar'd with this it is mere folly and less than the understanding and wisdom of a child to that of the wisest man The foolishness of God says St. Paul is wiser than men that is the least grain of Divine wisdom is infinitely beyond all the wisdom of men But in opposition to the wisdom of God the wisdom of men is less than nothing and vanity Let men design things never so prudently and make them never so sure even to the Popish and French degree of infallibility let them reckon upon it as a Blow that cannot fail Yet after all the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and he will do all his pleasure for there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. And now we may ask the Question which Job does Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding And we must answer it as he does It is not to be found in
Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North That is upon Mount Zion for just so the Psalmist describes it Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole Earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the North. Here the King of Babylon threatens to take Jerusalem and to demolish the Temple where the Congregation of Israel met for the Worship of the true God I will also sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. Much in the same Style with the threatnings of Modern Babylon I will destroy the Reformation I will extirpate the Northern Heresie And then he goes on I will ascend above the height of the clouds I will be like the most High Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave to the sides of the pit They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms that made the World as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof and opened not the House of his Prisoners God seems already to have begun this Work in the late glorious Victory at Sea and I hope he will cut it short in righteousness I have sometimes heretofore wondred Why at the destruction of Modern and Mystical Babylon the Scripture should make so express mention of great wailing and lamentation for the loss of Her Ships and Seamen Little imagining thirty years ago that any of the Kingdoms who had given their power to the Beast would ever have arrived to that mighty Naval Force But the Scripture saith nothing in vain Whether and how far Success is an Argument of a good Cause I shall not now debate But thus much I think may safely be affirmed That the Providence of God doth sometimes without plain and down-right Miracles so visibly shew it self that we cannot without great stupidity and obstinacy refuse to acknowledge it I grant the Cause must first be manifestly just before Success can be made an Argument of God's favour to it and approbation of it And if the Cause of true Religion and the necessary defence of it against a false and Idolatrous Worship be a good Cause Ours is so And I do not here beg the Question we have abundantly proved it to the confusion of our Adversaries If the vindication of the common Liberties of Mankind against Tyranny and Oppression be a good Cause then Ours is so And this needs not to be proved it is so glaringly evident to all the World And as our Cause is not like theirs so neither hath their Rock been like our Rock our Enemies themselves being Judges And yet as bad an Argument as success is of a good Cause I am sorry to say it but I am afraid it is true it is like in the conclusion to prove the best Argument of all other to convince those who have so long pretended Conscience against submission to the present Government Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a good Cause and the most improper to satisfie Conscience And yet we find by experience that in the issue it is the most successful of all other Arguments and does in a very odd but effectual way satisfie the Consciences of a great many men by shewing them their Interest God has of late visibly made bare his Arm in our behalf though some are still so blind and obstinate that they will not see it Like those of whom the Prophet complains Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at thy People Thus have I represented unto you a mighty Monarch who like a fiery Comet hath hung over Europe for many years and by his malignant influence hath made such terrible havock and devastations in this part of the World Let us now turn our View to the other part of the Text And behold a greater than he is here A Prince of a quite different Character who does understand and know God to be the Lord which doth exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And who hath made it the great Study and Endeavour of his life to imitate these Divine Perfections as far as the imperfection of humane Nature in this mortal state will admit I say a greater than he is here who never said or did an insolent thing but instead of despising his Enemies has upon all occasions encounter'd them with an undaunted Spirit and Resolution This is the Man whom God hath honoured to give a Check to this mighty Man of the Earth and to put a hook into the Nostrils of this great Leviathan who has so long had his pastime in the Seas But we will not insult as he once did in a most unprincely manner over a Man much better than himself when he believed Him to have been slain at the Boyne And indeed Death came then as near to him as was possible without killing him But the merciful Providence of God was pleased to step in for his Preservation almost by a Miracle For I do not believe that from the first use of great Guns to that Day any mortal man ever had his shoulder so kindly kiss'd by a Cannon-bullet But I will not trespass any further upon that which is the great Ornament of all his other Vertues though I have said nothing of Him but what all the World does see and must acknowledge He is as much above being flatter'd as it is beneath an honest and a generous mind to flatter Let us then glory in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our Salvation Let us now in the presence of all his People pay our most thankful acknowledgments to him who is worthy to be praised even to the Lord God of Israel who alone doth wondrous things Who giveth Victory unto Kings and hath preserved our David his Servant from the hurtful Sword And let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would long preserve to us the invaluable Blessing of our two Excellent Princes whom the Providence of God hath sent amongst us like two good Angels not to rescue two or three Persons but almost a whole Nation out of Sodom By saving us I hope at last from our Vices as well as at first from that Vengeance which was just ready to have been poured down upon us Two Sovereign Princes reigning together and in the same Throne and yet so intirely one as perhaps no Nation no Age can furnish us with a Parallel Two Princes perfectly united in the same Design of promoting the true Religion and the Publick Welfare by reforming our Manners and as far as is possible by repairing the breaches and healing the Divisions of a miserably distracted Church and Nation In a Word Two Princes who are contented to sacrifice Themselves and their whole Time to the care of the Publick And for the