Doctrines both Christ and his Apostles continually appealed Here is the firm reasonable Foundation of the Christian certainty The truths we believed are confirmed by Miracles than which there can be no greater evidence But now the Roman Church destroys this ground of certainty by a multitude of lying wonders which they impudently obtrude upon the belief of the people for proof and confirmation of their false and corrupt Religion the immediate consequence of which is a suspicion thereby brought upon the true Miracles and here is way made for Scepticism and uncertainty in the greatest and most Sacred Christian Doctrines And besides the Church of Rome having introduced among these many doubtful uncertain and many certainly false opinions and imposed them upon the faith of its votaries under the same obligations as it doth the most fundamental Articles what can be the consequence but that those who discover the errour or uncertainty of some of those pretended propositions of Faith should doubt all the rest And indeed since the main assurance is placed in the Infallibility of that Church for which there is so no reason and so much plain evidence to the contrary Since themselves cannot tell where that boasted Infallibility is whether in Pope or Council if we should allow them any such it follows that their Faith is precarious and hath no foundation at all In like manner the Sects among us resolve all their assurance either into a bare belief or the testimony of a private Spirit for their ground of crediting the Scriptures is but this Testimony and consequently whatever they receive from hence bottoms here The Papists believe the Scripture on the Testimony of the Church and these believe them on the Testimony of the Spirit that is in earnest the suggestions and resolutions of their own viz. they believe because they will believe and they find themselves inclin'd unto it And upon the same reason when the imagination and humour alters they may cease to believe or believe the contrary And there is not any thing in the world more various and uncertain than the suggestions and impulses of a private Spirit Besides the Sects also have vastly multiplied Articles of Faith and made all their private opinions sacred calling them Gospel truths precious truths saving truths and the like when they are but uncertainties at the best and usually false and sensless imaginations by which way also they expose the whole body of Christian Principles to suspicion and so weaken the Faith of some and destroy the Faith of others But the Church of England secures the certainty of our Faith by resolving it into the Scriptures the true seats of Infallibility and the belief of that into the Testimony of the Spirit in the true sense viz. that Testimony that God gave by his Spirit to Christ and his Apostles in those miraculous works he enabled them to perform They did not only bear witness of themselves that as our Saviour argues with the Jews Luk. 11. 48. would not have signified much The Father bore witness with them John 15. 8. and the works they performed by his power were the sure testimony Believe me for the works sake saith our Saviour Here is the ground of certainty And the Church of England entertains no Articles of Faith but those principles that have been so confirm'd that is none but what are evidently contain'd in the Holy Scriptures Whereas the Roman Church to mention no other have made the absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation sacred though it is not only not contained in Scripture but contrary to the reason and even to the sound senses of mankind And if neither reason nor so much as our senses may be believ'd what assurance can we have of any thing A ground is here laid for everlasting Scepticism and uncertainty And the Sects have laid the same in their numerous silly tenents that are contrary to some of the most fundamental principles of Reason Nothing of which can with any shew be objected against this Church 6. The Faith delivered to the Saints was Catholick 'T was deliver'd to all the Saints entertain'd by all and was not only the opinion and belief of a prevailing Faction or of particular men in Corners The Commission given the Disciples was to go and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature and accordingly it was widely diffused and all that profest the name of Christ were instructed in his Faith and Religion in all the articles and duties of it that were essential and necessary In these they joyn'd in holy love and communion till Sects came among them that introduced damnable Heresies contrary to the doctrine they had received These divided from the Unity of the pure Catholick Church and separated themselves from it gathering into select companies of their own under pretence of more Truth and Holiness After this manner the Church of Rome which had for some ages been eminent in the Catholick Church did at last corrupt and introduce divers unsound doctrines and usages unknown to the Ancient Catholicks and being great and powerful it assumed the name of the Catholick Church to it self and condemn'd all other Christians as Hereticks when it was it self but a grand Sect against whose depraved doctrines and ways there was a Church in all ages that did protest For the Greek Churches which are of as large extent as theirs never assented to them and divers other Christians in all times bore Testimony against those errours and depravations This Sect was large and numerous indeed but 't is not the number but the principles make the Catholick Principles conformable to those that were deliver'd to the Saints From these they have departed And the lesser Sects among us have done the same by the many vain additions that they have made to the Faith and their unjust Separation from that Church which retains the whole body of Catholick Doctrines and main Practices without the mixture of any thing Heretical or unlawful A Church that doth not damn all the world besides her own members as the Roman Church and divers of the Sects do but extends her Charity to all Christians though many of them are under great mistakes and so is truly Catholick both in her Principles and Affections I mean the Church of England as now established by Law which God preserve in its purity Amen FINIS A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M r. Jos Glanvil Late Rector of BATH and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Who dyed at his Rectory of Bath the fourth of November 1680. and was Buried there the Ninth of the same Month. By Jos Pleydell Arch-Deacon of Chichester LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and the White Hart in Westminster-Hall 1681. REVEL XIV Ver. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their
purest times those of the first three hundred nay six hundred years which assertions I have in this place particularly and largely made good and divers of our Learned Divines have in their writings fully proved it Nor is there any one thing which we condemn in the Roman belief or practice but what hath arose by the corruption of times long since the beginning and indeed in the the Church of Rome there is an eternal fountain of Innovations in the authority they assume of declaring that is in good earnest in making new Articles of Faith So that their people can never know when they have all new things may still be obtruded as necessary and essential without end On the other side the Character of Antiquity condemns the Sects also Among them there are some old Heresies received but their principles and practices as opposite to those of our Church of England were not in the first best times Presbytery Independency Anabaptism Quakerism may have been here and there of old in the brains of some particular conceited men but never were in any general practice any where the eldest not two hundred years ago and some have arose in our own time Their ways they pretend to be contain'd in the holy Scriptures and if so we would presently acknowledge them to be Primitive But they are in the Scriptures only as those are interpreted by their private Spirits that is not there but in the fancies of the Innovators and these being their guide in interpreting Lo here also is a fountain of perpetual novellizing And as long as the imaginations of men can frame novelties we shall never be at the end of new Sects We have seen the rise of some in our late times of confusions and if ever we should be so unhappy as to see such again which God forbid in all likelihood from the same Source other new yet unheard of Sects and Heresies would arise to the further dividing of the Chncurh ad scandal of Religion There is nothing so pregnant with Novelties as imagination and the Sectarian private Spirit is no better nor worse than Fancy I deny not but these all sorts of them do retain some of the Primitive Doctrines as the Roman Church also doth but their opinions and ways that are opposite to the Church of England are not such This our Church without fondness or overweening I may say doth profess and teach the Ancient Apostolical Primitive Christianity and hath admitted no new things that are contrary to it It was reformed according to the Scriptures the Scriptures as they are interpreted by the first General Councils and Fathers those next the Apostles who we ought to believe understood best what were their doctrines and ways This Church in its constitutions is therefore truly ancient so in every main every considerable thing and truly Protestant protesting both against Roman and Sectarian Innovations 2. Another Character of the Faith delivered to the ancient Saints is that it was pure 'T was delivered to the Saints and it made them such The wisdom that is from above is first pure It teacheth and produceth Purity Holiness and real Goodness in Heart and Life The business of it is to conform us unto God and to make us like him And the Lord our God is holy And by this Character also is Popery condemn'd For this teacheth some direct impieties and immoralities and by the consequence of some other of its Doctrines the necessity of Reformation of life is quite taken away the Reins are laid on mens necks and Gods Laws are made void by their traditions Of the first sort are their Idolatries and Invocation of Saints and Angels which God both in the Old Testament and the New hath so earnestly declared against as the highest dishonour to his Majesty and affront to his Glory and which he stigmatizeth as the greatest impurities and frequently calls Fornication and Whoredome they are spiritually so Likewise their doctrines and practices of deposing and murdering of Princes and absolving the people from their Allegiance their dispensing with Perjuries Rebellions and other sorts of wickedness are highest immoralities and most Antichristian that is most contrary to the Spirit Genius and designs of the holy Jesus which were to redeem unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Besides which direct and point blank oppositions to the Christian principles and Rules they strike at the root and main design of Christianity by those their doctrines that render repentance and change of life unnecessary For according to them the favour of God and eternal Salvation may be had upon easier terms Crossings Pilgrimages Ave Maries Whippings Fastings with Confession and Absolution will do the business There is no need of cutting off right hands of plucking out of right eyes and mortifying the body in our Saviours spiritual sence that is of subduing and rescinding all inordinate appetites and affections which are the great difficulties of Religion the bodily exercises will suffice we may be safe and Sainted without obedience to those hard sayings Or if the other things should be omitted 't is but going to Purgatory at last and if you have money to leave for Masses and Dirge's you are secure of being pray'd out thence So that here the greatest design of the Gospel which is real inward holiness and purity is destroyed And without holiness 't is here made possible to see God And this is the worst thing that any thing that pretends to Religion can be guilty of On the other hand the Sects whatever purity and spirituality they pretend do many most of them teach doctrines and walk in ways that are contrary to the purity of heart and life that becomes a Christian The Gnosticks who were some of the first Fanaticks in the Christian Church pretended that they were the spiritual the pure people and that all things to them were pure on which account they gave themselves up to all Immorality and filthiness Sensual saith the Apostle having not the Spirit They denyed there was any moral good and evils in the nature of things and estimate of God And this Heresie is received among some of our Sects God they think and say sees no sin in them his elect people He loves not for the sake of holiness and vertue but freely that is for no reason but meer unaccountable will and if so 't is in vain to amend our lives to live soberly righteously and godly in order to our acceptance with him Though we are the quite contrary in all manner of evil conversation we may yet be his beloved his chosen This hath the malignity of the worst of Popery or Heathenism And such a Principle is among some of the Sects I accuse not all others that do not affirm so much as this do in a manner make good works unnecessary Faith their airy Faith that prescinds from moral goodness is all All is believing receiving trusting relying which are great duties parts of Faith but this as
justifying implys more viz. an entire obedience to the Gospel Such a Faith as this is that which St. James writes so earnestly against as dead and unsignifying of it self alone to the purpose of Justification and acceptance with God Again the imputed Righteousness of Christ is a great truth rightly understood but by divers Sectaries 't is abused to this false notion that all Righteousness that Christ wrought is formally and properly ours as if we had done it So that we may be holy and vertuous by his holiness though we have none of our own contrary to that of St. John Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. But these fancy they are righteous without doing Righteousness if they can lay hold on Christ roll upon him as they phrase it and firmly believe that he is theirs they are then compleatly righteous by the imputation of his though they have none of their own which Solifidian Antinomian Notions that are lately spread among the Sects place Religion in the fancy as the Popish Doctrines do in some external services and as effectually as theirs take away the necessity of real reformation and true goodness I might add a great deal more under this head as their Doctrines of Infirmities by which they excuse themselves in their Spiritual sins their decrying morality as a dull low graceless thing the immoral practices of Schism Disobedience c. that they indulge and defend themselves in These are impurities that are contrary to that Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints But now the Church of England teacheth all the duties we owe to God our Neighbour and our selves in the just latitude and extent of them It hath no shifts or evasions of Repentance and Reformation It allows no hopes of Salvation but upon those terms It teacheth no practice that is impious or immoral nor indulgeth any whoever is an evil man in this Church knows he is so by his own Principles he is condemn'd and hath no hopes of Salvation but what are grounded on effectual Repentance and Reformation 3. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints is peaceable Those Saints were so Sheep Lambs Doves Such was their Lord the Prince of Peace and his Religion the wisdome from above pure and peaceable By this Character also Popery is confuted which tends to the destruction both of Ecclesiastical and civil peace The former the peace of the Church they pretend to have best provided for by the Supremacy and Infallibility they have erected in theirs And by these all Controversies in Religion are they tell us quickly ended But the misery on 't is that that which should end the Controversies is it self one and the greatest They have an effectual Engine for Union but they themselves are not agreed where it is and they are incurably divided about this their ground of uniting For some place the Supremacy and Infallibility in the Pope some in the Council some in both and this hath not been only the opposition of petty Doctors and Disputers but Church is against Church The French and the German for one and the Spaniard and the Italian for another Yea Pope hath decreed against Pope in this matter and Pope and General Council against Pope and General Council Lo here is the Catholick Union the certain and infallible way of ending Controversies in Religion A way they have but they cannot find it Yea they are together by the ears about that Infallible way of ending all strife And notwithstanding this rare receipt that is in their hands the disease the great differences and disputes of their several disorders remains still uncured And indeed that Church hath laid a foundation for everlasting differences and disagreements by bringing numerary speculative and doubtful Tenents into their Creeds an Engine for endless divisions There is no possible uniting but upon the few main certain Articles contain'd in the Primitive Creeds Additions to these are the chief grounds of the Divisions of Christendome So that the Roman Church provides not for Ecclesiastical Peace but destroys it by its disputable Articles of Faith and further so by its other intollerable terms of Communion the various Idolatries and Superstitions it imposeth by which they drive the best and most intelligent Christians from them And so are themselves the Schismaticks They make the breaches in the Church they complain of And for civil peace 't is clear in all Histories that the Popes and their Agents and Emissaries especially the Jesuites have been the great embroylers and Incendiaries of Christendome The combustions and troubles of every nation in it can sadly witness this The fore-mention'd Doctrines of Deposing Kings and absolving the people from their Allegiance are principles of everlasting Rebellions and disturbance But let us look on the other side How is it with the Sects in respect of peaceableness why they may say unto strife Thou art our Mother and to Feuds and Animosities you have brought us into the world Unpeaceabless of principles and temper breed and maintain them They are broken from the Church and divided each from other and amongst themselves subdivided minc't almost into Atoms There is nothing but endless divisions animosities jarrings disputes among them The ways of peace they have not known they will not know They have causlesly separated from the Communion of the Church of England and for the same reasons must have left the Fellowship of the Saints mention'd in the Text and of all the Christians of the Primitive times to whom both in doctrine and many practices they are most unlike And upon the same principles new Sects grow out of them that divided first and more evils spring from those others from time to time to the worlds end I deny not but that there are diverse misled abused persons of peaceable and quiet Spirits drawn in among them and we are to pray and to endeavour that such may be regain'd and if the Government should think fit to abate some lesser things in consideration of such to satisfie and recover them it would be charity and kindness that I know not who would dislike But those that are of the right Sectarian stamp and temper will never rest or settle any where nor be satisfied with any concession God Almighty may change their hearts and minds by his power but nothing less can and all that we can do is to pray to him for them Nothing less than their whole wills and an entire subjection to their fancies will content them and if those were granted we could not be assured they would please them long nothing useth to do so They are Clouds carried about with winds Jude v. 12. Let the wind be where it will to day no one can say from what point it will blow to morrow They are acted by a private Spirit that is as little certain The opinions it suggests are numerous and all accounted divine and sacred Gods truth Gospel
ways they must not be parted with or silenc't no all Laws and Constitutions of Government must be thwarted overthrown rather Love and Peace and all must be sacrificed to the Idols which being so what quietness can there be from hence what peace or temper among such principles These perpetually annoy and disturb the Church and to know what they do in the State let us consider Germany Scotland and 't is to be hoped though we have frail memories on this side we shall not forget how peaceable the Sectaries have been in England or not observe how quiet they are at this day Remember I hope we shall for Caution I urge no other remembrance I wish they themselves did not remember them so well as we find they do by many of the same actions and discourses That Kings hold from the people are only Trustees for them and may be resisted and deposed when they fail in that trust are Politicks that do not much tend to civil peace and we know whose Principles those were and we have no great reason to think they have quitted them I can give but brief hints of things that would afford matter enough to fill Volumes as both Popish and Sectarian disloyalty Rebellions and disturbances would do But into these mens secrets let not our Souls come The Church that we some of us at least profess our selves to be members of teacheth no unpeaceable doctrines is guilty of no such practices It imposeth no Articles on our belief as necessary to our Salvation but the Ancient Creeds no terms of Communion but such reasonable orders and decencies as are free from all appearance of Idolatry and Superstition or any thing else that is unlawful as will appear to any rational man that shall take the pains to consider and will judge impartially nothing that is more burthensome or grievous than the Rites and usages of the Primitive Christian Church were which assertions I have in this place lately proved and divers of our Divines in their books have fully done it to the shame of Fanatical Gainsayers As to the concerns of civil peace our Church with Christ and his Apostles teacheth active chearful conscientious obedience to the King and subordinate Rulers in all lawful things and quiet submission to the penalties of not obeying when the things required are unlawful plainly certainly so And that we are not in this nor in any case to resist Suitable to this have been the practices of the people of this peaceable Church Among whom there hath not yet been found a Rebel We never heard of a Church of England-man in the late wars against the King nor of a Sectary for him But 4. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints was a reasonable Faith the understanding of man is the Candle of the Lord Prov. 20. 27. The light of Reason is his light with this The true light hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world Joh. 1. 9. and one light is not contrary to another there is difference in degree but no opposition of Nature Faith and Reason accord Yea Faith is an act of Reason 't is the highest reason to believe in God and the belief of our reason is an act of Faith viz. Faith in the truth and goodness of God that would not give us faculties to delude and deceive us when we rightly exercise and employ them By Faith Reason is further enlightned and by the use of Reason Faith is applyed Religion and Reason sweetly agree and nothing can be Religious that is unreasonable Religion is a reasonable service And by this Character Popery is disproved also For that imposeth on the practice and minds of men things that are extreamly unreasonable and absurd as Articles of Religion Such are the worship of invisible beings by Images of Wood or Stone and especially the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is full of Contradictions as that the same body can be in a thousand places at once that at the same time it may be bigger and less than it self that it may move towards and from it self That it may be divided not into parts but wholes These and numerous other absurdities and contradictions to the reason of mankind are contain'd in the sensless mystery of Popish Transubstantiation To defend which the Doctors of that Church are put upon this miserable shift of denying all reason in Religion even the greatest and most fundamental Article of it That the same thing can be and not be which some of them say is the only method to confute Hereticks And while Reason and our Faculties are acknowledg'd we cannot entertain their non-sence nor be answer'd in our just oppositions of their gross absurdities On the other side the Character of a reasonable Faith condemns the Sects the greatest part of whose Divinity is made up of sensless absurd notions set forth in unintelligible Fantastical Phrases and these they account the heights of spirituality and mystery upon which they value and boast themselves as the only knowing the only spiritual people When there is nothing in all their pretended heights and spiritualities but vain imagination and dreaming and in v. 8. of this Epistle they are described by this Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dreamers And as the light of Sense and Reason dispels the vain Images of Dreams so these admitted would cure Fanatical impostures and delusions For which cause there is nothing they so vehemently declaim against as Reason under the notion of carnal and as an enemy to the Spirit and the things of it There is indeed a carnal Reason that is enmity to truth and goodness but that is not the reason of our minds but the reason of our appetite passion and corrupt interest which is not reason truly so called no more than an Ape is a man But for want of thus distinguishing the things that so differ Enthusiasts rail violently against all Reason as the grand adversary of the truths and mysteries of the Gospel Their Tenents that she calls so will not bear that light But the Church of England teacheth no opinions no mysteries that need such a desperate course to defend them Its Articles of Faith are all contain'd in the Ancient Christian Creeds which are no way opposite to Reason in any Article yea Reason either proves or defends them all So that we never give out at this weapon but are ready to use it upon all occasions against Atheists and Infidels of all sorts The Church of England owns no Religion but what is reasonable 5. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints was certain it was deliver'd to them by those that had it from the holy Spirit of God in the way of immediate inspiration Those holy men spake as they were inspired And that they were really so was no fond imagination or bold presumption but a truth assured by those mighty miracles they were enabled to perform Those are Gods Seal and the grand confirmation of a commission from him and to this proof of their
and perhaps despiseth these under the notion of Morality and so presuming that he is a Saint too soon he never comes to be one at all such are the Seekers that shall not be able to enter Their seeking imports some striving but 't is such as though it be specious yet it is imperfect and will not succeed And hence the Third Proposition ariseth that I proposed to discourse III. THat there is a sort of Striving that will not procure an entrance implyed in these words For many will seek to enter in and shall not be able 'T is a dangerous thing to be flattered into a false peace and to take up with imperfect Godliness to reconcile the hopes of Heaven to our beloved sins and to judge our condition safe upon insufficient grounds This multitudes do and 't is the great danger of our days Men cannot be contented without doing something in Religion but they are contented with a little And then they reckon themselves godly before they are vertuous and take themselves to be Saints upon such things as will not distinguish a good man from a bad We seek after Marks of Godliness and would be glad to know how we might try our state The thing is of great importance and if the Signs we judge by are either false or imperfect we are deceived to our undoing Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions do no great hurt but errour in the Marks and Measures of Religion is deadly Now there are sundry things commonly taken for signs of Godliness which though they are something yet they are not enough They are hopeful for beginnings but nothing worth when they are our end and rest They are a kind of seeking and imperfect striving but not such as overcometh the difficulties of the way or will procure us an entrance at the Gate Therefore to disable the flattering insufficient Marks of Godliness I shall discover in pursuance of the Third Proposition How far a man may strive in the exercises of Religion and yet be found at last among those seekers that shall not be able to enter And though I have intimated something of this in the general before yet I shall now more particularly shew it in the instances that follow And in these I shall discover a Religion that may be called Animal to which the natural man may attain 1. A Man may believe the Truths of the Gospel and assent heartily to all the Articles of the Creed and if he proceeds not he is no further by this than the faith of Devils Jam. 2. 19. 2. He may go on and have a great thirst to be more acquainted with Truth he may seek it diligently in Scripture and Sermons and good Books and knowing Company And yet do this by the motion of no higher Principle than an inbred Curiosity and desire of Knowledge and many times this earnestness after Truth proceeds from a proud affectation to be wiser than our Neighbours that we may pity their darkness or the itch of a disputing humour that we may out-talk them or a design to carry on or make a party that we may be called Rabbi or serve an Interest and the zeal for Truth that is set on work by such motives is a spark of that fire that is from beneath 'T is dangerous to a mans self and to the publick Weal of the Church and mankind but the man proceeds and is 3. Very much concern'd to defend and propagate his Faith and the Pharisees were so in relation to theirs Mat. 23. 15. and so have been many Professors of all the Religions that are or ever were Men naturally love their own Tenents and are ambitious to mould others judgements according to theirs There is glory in being an Instructor of other men and turning them to our ways and opinions So that here is nothing yet above Nature nothing but what may be found in many that seek and are shut out 4. Faith works greater effects than these and Men offer themselves to Martyrdom for it This one would think should be the greatest height and an argument that all the difficulties of the way are overcome by one that is so resolved and that the Gate cannot but be opened to him And so no doubt it is when all things else are sutable But otherwise these consequences by no means follow S. Paul supposeth that a man may give his Body to be burned and not have Charity without which his Martyrdom will not profit 1 Cor. 13. For one to deny his Religion or what he believes to be certain and of greatest consequence is dishonourable and base and some out of principles of meer natural bravery will die rather than they will do it and yet upon other accounts be far enough from being heroically vertuous Besides the desire of the glory of Martyrdom and Saintship after it may in some be stronger than the terrours of Death and we see frequently that men will sacrifice their lives to their Honour and Reputation yea to the most contemptible shadows of it And there is no passion in us so weak no lust so impotent but hath in many instances prevail'd over the fear of dying Every Appetite hath had its Martyrs and all Religions theirs and though a man give his Body to be burnt for the best and have not Charity viz. Prevalent love to God and Men it will not signifie So that Martyrdom is no infallible mark nor will it avail any thing except sincere endeavour to overcome the greater difficulties have gone before it Thus far Faith may go without effect and yet one step further 5. Men may confidently rely upon Christ for Salvation and be firmly perswaded that he hath justified and will make them happy They may appropriate him to themselves and be pleased mightily in the opinion of his being theirs And yet notwithstanding this confidence may be in the number of those seekers that shall not enter For Christ is the Author of Eternal life only to those that obey him Heb. 5. 9. and to obey him is to strive vigorously and constantly to overcome all our sinful Inclinations and Habits And those that trust he will save them though they have never seriously set about this work deceive themselves by vain presumption and in effect say that he will dissolve or dispense with his Laws in their favour For he requires us to deny our selves Mar. 8. 34. To mortifie the body Rom. 8. 13. To love enemies Mat. 5. 44. To be meek Mat. 11. 29. and patient Jam. 5. 8. and humble 1 Pet. 5. 7. and just Mat. 7. 12. and charitable Heb. 13. 16. and holy as he that called us is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. And he hath promised to save upon no other terms For all these are included in Faith when 't is taken in the justifying sense and this is the Way of Happiness and Salvation If we walk not in this but in the paths of our own choosing our relying upon Christ is a mockery and will deceive
likely the Peace of others also They are brought no whit nearer each other in their Judgements but put at a much greater distance in their Affections Whereas by the other method of calm proceeding all these evils are avoided 'T is true we are commanded to contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. But the Faith there meant doth not consist in points of doubtful disputation but in the Fundamental Article That Christ Jesus is the Messias joyn'd with a vertuous and holy conversation and the persons against whom those primitive Christians were to contend were Ungodly Men that denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ ver 5. For these Essential matters we may and we ought to be earnest but Contention about lesser things is called by the Apostle Perverse-Disputing and reckoned as the effect of pride and ignorance 1 Tim. 6. 5. And hence I pass to a Third Caution which is this III. Beware of Zeal about Opinions by which I mean all the Propositions of less certainty or consequence About these we may no doubt be inquisitive and thoughtful and our search will be commendable while we manage it with modesty and caution in order to the gaining more Motives and directions for a vertuous Practice But to be eager in them and to disturb the peace of Societies for their sakes this is a vitious and dangerous excess destructive to Christian Charity and the publick weal and order There is nothing hath done the world more mischief than indiscreet unseasonable Zeal for Truths while men have not made a difference between those that are necessary to be believed and known and those others which may safely be doubted and denied 'T is a great and dangerous mistake to think that we ought to publish and propagate all the Truth we know For every man thinks his own Opinions about Religion Gods Truth and nature inclines men to desire to beget their own image upon other mens minds and if this be made a Duty too every man will be a Teacher of all the rest and no man will let his brother be at quiet This man is ready to burst till he hath given himself vent and the other is as impatient till he hath contradicted what he hath said Both are zealous to Proselyte each other and neither can be contented with a single conquest till the publick be disturbed These are some of the effects of opinionative zeal and we know it by a dear experience Here is the source of all Divisions and Sects Gods Truth is the pretence of every Party and being enlightned themselves they all think they ought to enlighten all others and these Lights meeting and being infinitely reflected beget a flame between them in which all of them are scorched and Charity and Peace are consumed If therefore we are friends to Christian Love let us avoid and oppose this its most fatal enemy and consider That we need not be zealous for more truth than what God hath made necessary and ought not to be zealous for more than what Scripture and Reason have made certain That the Necessary and certain things are very few and the remoter doctrines difficult and deep That we may easily be deceived in speculative points where so much acuteness and freedom and care and diligence is needful That the greatest part imbrace Shadows and their Zeal is for folly and falshood That our brethren may be good men though they understand not many things that we know or err in many in which we judge aright That the benefits of an Opinion if true will not make amends for the trouble and disturbance that is made to promote it and That Charity is more valuable than Knowledge 1 Cor. 8. 1. 1 Cor. 13. If we thus Consider we shall be contented with the satisfactions of our own minds and not be Angry with others because they will not take us for their Guides we shall exercise our Zeal upon the necessary certain things and our Charity about the rest we shall inform our brother who needs or desires it and let him alone when it may do him or others hurt to disturb him we shall propose our Opinions seasonably and modestly and be willing that men should receive them as they can we shall not be concerned at any mans Mistake that doth not minister to Vice and when it doth we shall prudently and calmly endeavour to rectifie his thoughts we shall converse indifferently with all Perswasions without wrangling and discord and exercise our Charity and Good Will towards the Good men of any sort Thus our Zeal will be rightly tempered and directed and Charity promoted And yet further in order to it I propose this last Caution IV. Beware of censuring and affixing odious Names and consequences upon the persons or opinions of Dissenters He that Censures another in part Hates him and wants many degrees of that Charity the Apostle commends and describes 1 Cor. 13. 4 5 6 7. which beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things endureth all things He that Rails at his Neighbour for his Opinion wants only power to Persecute him for it yea even this is a kind of Persecution for there is a persecution of the Tongue as well as of the Hand and He that Injures his Brother in his Name is a Persecutor as well as the other that hurts him in his Body or Estate Let us take heed then lest we become guilty by fastning names of Reproach upon those of different Judgement and imposing the odious consequences that we our selves make upon our Neighbour as his Opinion Both these are very common and the Spight and Injustice of them do exceedingly exasperate our Spirits and enflame our Disagreements By this way Truth is exposed to contempt and scorn as well as Falshood and there is none so Sacred but its Adversaries have made it a deformed Vizard to bring it under the Hatred and Reproaches of the Ignorant and that which hath an Ugly Face is more than half condemned among the generality of men who cannot distinguish the true complexion from the dirt that is thrown upon it This the Zealots of all Parties very well understand when they run down many things by a Vile name which they cannot Confute by Argument 'T is but raising the Cry of Arminianism Socinianism Popery Pelagianism and such like upon them and all other Refutation is Superfluous These I mention not out of Favour but for Instance and 't is the like in many other cases Thus apt are men to be frighted by Bugbear Names from Truth and Charity And this is Superstition in the true sense to be afraid of things in which there is no hurt and it is promoted by the Uncharitable fastning of our own consequences upon our brothers Opinion This we think follows and then make no Scruple to say 't is his Opinion when he hates and disowns it and would quit his Tenent if he thought any such thing were a
appearance Not that it is sufficient for a Minister of the Gospel to be thus negatively righteous no besides other considerations we have a great charge upon us which will require a very active piety And therefore 3. We must take heed also that we are not negligent in the great business of our noble Calling That business is so worthy and so necessary that it requires the chief of our thoughts the flower of our time and the vigour of our endeavours to bestow less upon it is to neglect it and every neglect of that deserves a degree of contempt upon our selves Give thy self wholly to these things was the instruction of the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 15. and our whole is little enough for who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. and when we have done all we are unprofitable Servants Luke 17. 10. 'T is little we can do God knows to make the world wiser or better it is too wise in conceit to be taught and too bad in practice to be amended by us However we must labour and ply the Oar though the tyde be never so strong against us 'T is part of the patience of the Gospel to work even there where our labour for the present is in vain It will not be so always 1 Cor. 15. no it shall be rewarded by plentiful Glory hereafter though it were not incouraged by any visible success here Those rewards we publish and expect and for us to do the work of the Lord negligently is to put a slight upon them and upon Religion our selves and to invite contempt from others And there is none certainly that more justly deserves the extreamest degrees of it than he that loiters in the Lords Vineyard and is negligent in the Ministry of Souls I have exprest these cautions in a negative way but hope it will be understood that the positive duties are included When I say we are not to be Pharisaical in our Religion I intend also that we are to be very plain sober and sincere in it When I caution against immoral lives I imply that ours ought to be very virtuous and religious When I give the rule against negligence I have taken care to be understood to mean likewise that the greatest sedulity and diligence is our duty To have run out into full Comments upon these would have taken up more than my whole time I descend to the Second Head in the Apostle's Rule 2. We ought to take heed to our Doctrine if we would not deserve contempt We live in a ticklish Age for this also an Age of itching ears and curious palats men were never so eritical upon their teaching though 't is likewise sadly true that they were never so little careful to practise according to it In the variety and oppositions of opinions phancies humours and capacities an Angel from Heaven could not please all and as things are those that are not pleased with the Doctrine will contemn the Preacher So that avoid contempt we cannot but we shall not deserve it if our Doctrine be guided by our end and that is the Glory of God in the Salvation of those that hear us The business of Preaching is to instruct men in what they are to believe and do in order to their serving God and being happy This is the great Rule this the measure And the Discourses that are not directed by it may be witty Orations and learned entertainments but they are not good Sermons For every thing is to be judg'd by its fitness for its end If our Doctrines and publique instructions are squar'd by that we shall approve our selves unto God and Conscience though vain and phantastick men despise us and so we are to speak not as pleasing men but God 1 Thes 2. 4. There is nothing by which some Preachers have more exposed Religion and themselves than by propounding other ends and such mean ones as the gaining the reputation of being Witty Eloquent or Learned for when they miss their aim as they do always with the wise they fall under extream contempt with them The affectations of words and Metaphors and Cadencies andâ— ends of Greek and Latin are now the scorn oâ— the judicious and as much despis'd and almost as generally as they deserve They are banifh'd from conversation and are not endured in common matters for shame then let us not retain them in our Pulpits and defile sacred Subjects with them Let us leave those sorts of fooling when none but the ignorant can be deceiv'd by them into a good opinion of us and by their use we shall deceive our selves into the derision and Contempt of all that have either wit or judgement and which is infinitely worse into the displeasure and wrath of God 1. Our business in Preaching is the greatest and most important and therefore we should be very grave and serious in it to be slight flashy or affected in so solemn an affair is to shew our selves vain and contemptible triflers 2. We are to instruct all sorts the most ignorant as well as the more knowing in the matters of Faith and practice and therefore should design and endeavour to be as plain as we can both in our Doctrines and Expressions avoiding hard words and senseless phrases and speaking in the proper natural easie way which is most profitable for the ignorant and most acceptable with the wise 3. And for the accommodation of the memories as well as the understandings of the generality of hearers our Discourses should be in clear facile and distinct methods not involv'd in confusions nor spun out into nice divisions or numerous particulars 4. And because the main work is to perswade and direct an holy life our Sermons should mostly be practical and affectionate Not but that we may labour to explain establish and defend the great principles of Faith and practice especially in an Age in which such Shipwrack is made of both but then we must take care that those we teach are such indeed and that we vent not speculative notions and opinions as fundamentals of Religion We are not to be concern'd for any Doctrines in our Pulpits but for the great and certain Articles of Faith and Life As for our opinions this is not the place for them For it is not our business to make people in all points Orthodox and Knowing but to endeavour that they may be sincere and good which is wisdom to salvation These I take to be proper measures for Preaching and if he that directs himself by them be despised for his Doctrine he will have this comfort that the contempt he suffers is none of his fault I have done with what I intended for my Brethren of the Clergy namely for the younger sort for I presume not to instruct the elder and graver men I Am II. to apply the advice of this general Use to the people who yet profess themselves of our Church You see the contempt that is upon it and I beseech you
are their true selves And therefore the Conclusion our Saviour went about to prove was that There is another Life which the Sadducees deny'd and endeavour'd by this Question though very weakly to overthrow And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies standing up and implies Living again simply not the Resurrection of the Body except where the Body is exprest or the necessary sense doth otherwise inforce it So that though it be a truth that the body shall rise and demonstrable from many other places yet it is not meant here but the thing intended to be prov'd is a Life to come without determining whether in our bodies or without them This was undertaken and this was perform'd for the Sadducees were put to silence ver 34. That they were convinc'd we do not hear Arguments from Faith or Reason prevail little against corrupt interests and affections But yet 't is something to stop the mouths of Gainsayers for others may be fortified in their Faith by the confutation of the enemies of it Would to God we could say There was no need of endeavours of this sort in our days and that this subject were quite out of date But alas we see Sadducism reviv'd after Light and Immortality hath been brought to light through the Gospel and the Holy Jesus hath given sensible assurance of it by his own Resurrection from the dead Yea the Heresie is improv'd in our time to a great and more dangerous height and almost to Atheism it self We are faln into an Age wherein among some and those not a few 't is a piece of Gallantry to be an Infidel and Heroically great to have out-grown the panick terrours of another world We have liv'd to see the Doctrine of Spirits professedly and openly derided and that of Living again esteem'd equally vain and ridiculous The wantonness of some hath disputed all the Articles of the Christian Creed and the lusts of others have taken advantage thence boldly to deny them So that 't is not unseasonable in such a world as this to labour in the proof of a future Being For besides those that openly oppose this Principle of our Faith the vileness and debauchery of our days are too sad an argument that many others do not believe it Men could not be so impious did they believe themselves immortal nor live so much like Beasts did they not think also that they should die as such Now as our Saviour dealing with the Jewish Sadducees did not make use of the proofs that were most obvious and direct but of that which was most sutable not of the plain and clear places in the other Scriptures of which the Sadducees made no account but of this from the Books of Moses whose Authority they granted In like manner while we treat with the modern Sadducees we must not offer Arguments from the Testimony of these or other Scriptures which they value not but reckon with them from the principles of Reason which they cannot but acknowledge And the Arguments I shall now use to prove a Future Life shall be of this latter sort and those not taken from Philosophick heights and remote Speculations but from moral Considerations improving things obvious and taking ground from matters of common observation And though I hope there are none of those Infidels in this place yet I suppose it may not be wholly unprofitable to you to be minded of the reasons of your Faith in days wherein so many make Shipwrack of it This then I shall endeavour viz. 1. To shew some moral Arguments to enforce the belief of a Future Life 2. The causes and occasions of unbelief in this Article 3. What this Infidelity infers in the just reasoning and consequence of it For the First I prove a Life to Come 1. From some OBSERVABLES in the great world And 2. From the FRAME and CONSTITUTION of our own Natures The Phaenomena or observables I argue from are 1. The Miseries of this state And 2. The unequal distribution of good and evil here I begin with the Miseries of this Life In the description of which I shall take liberty to enlarge a little that we may have such a sense of it as may dispose us to feel the force of the Argument Let us consider then That In whatever condition we look on this poor thing we call man there is nothing but misery before us Prosperity is temptation to wantonness and excess Adversity to murmuring and impatience Riches are anxiety and care and poverty a complicated misery Labour is pain and idleness as uneasie as employment Wisdom affords cutting senses of the evils we encounter and folly exposeth us to the edge of cross events He that increaseth knowledge increaseth trouble Eccl. 1. 18. and the soul without it is not good Prov. 19. 2. Our enjoyments satiate and weary us and disappointments are smart afflictions so that we want both when we have and when we have not and are miserable both in successful issues and in defeatures we complain of our misfortunes and seek rest and ease in the shifting of our condition but in a short time we find as many other evils as those we shun'd and are convinc'd that the change of our state yields no happiness but a different kind of misery Like men in a Fever we toss from side to side and find rest no where but in the Grave If we have a pleasant moment we pay severely for it in the next and a short happiness is a torment We are devour'd by our eager appetites and torn piece-meal by the contrariety of desires and inclinations We carry all the beasts of prey within us There 's a fire in our breasts that consumes us and we die by the same flame by which we live Nor is the condition of our bodies less sad and tragical We are scorch'd by Fevers melted in Catarrhs burn and freeze in Agues are rack'd by Gouts maim'd by Gangrenes and rent asunder by violent pains within our bowels At last we are made the food of worms except a Consumption deceive them and send away our flesh before us The best of our condition is that we can die and mingle with insensible rottenness and corruption The Grave is the best bed we find till we turn to ashes and the silent darkness of the house of worms and bones is better than the light of the Sun and comfort of the Elements Such is the condition of this mortal Life This is our portion and our lot is this And these miseries of the present state afford us the comfort of the Conclusion That there is another and that this is not all the Life of man For God hath made us and not we our selves And he is infinitely good and infinitely powerful Absolutely perfect and perfection it self and of his fulness he communicates to his creatures and takes infinite pleasure in so doing This our Reasons and the common notions of mankind teach us concerning God And hence it follows that he hath
jollity and good humour ye damp our joyes and put bitterness into the sweetest draught of pleasure Therefore away to Cloysters and Cells and dwell there among the superstitious and the ignorant but leave us the liberty of our thoughts and the satisfaction of our enjoyments This is the reasoning if not the language of the Sadducee He is not willing that there should be another Life and therefore perswades himself that there is not any He would not meet himself again nor have such a restraint upon his appetites as the dread of an after-reckoning The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psal 14. 1. it follows They are become abominable Vice is at the root of Atheism and unbelief Sensuality drowns all the noble conceptions of the Soul and fills it with foul and bestial imaginations It ties mens thoughts down to present and sensible things and hinders their prospect into the Regions of Immortality It makes them like to the objects of their pleasures and renders them unable to resent future and spiritual satisfactions they can form no Idea of any thing agreeable to them in the other world all things there are uneasie and unrelishing at the best and the worst is not to be endured So that they bend their force to erase all impressions of so ungrateful a Doctrine in which at last through the power of their endeavours and the co-operation of Satan they effectually prevail and cast off all belief and expectation of any future Being Another cause of which is 2. Vain-glory and a proud affectation to be something extraordinary Vain men would be Wits and soar above the height of other mortals Their Eagle-sight is sharp and piercing and they espy the deceits and impostures that the rest of mankind are too dull to descry They despise the common Doctrines and proudly pity or laugh at the easiness of others who suffer themselves to be sway'd by them and by how much the more sacred the truths are which they reject by so much greater they reckon is the honour of their own sagacity in finding out the deceit by which so many have been abus'd and misled These are Wits in an instant at the top before they have taken the first step and perfect in knowledge as soon and some of them before they have begun If their accomplishments be measur'd by their confidence and their scorn they are the greatest Wits among men but if by their judgement and real knowledge they of any have not the least pretence to that title For though they may gain the glory among their easie companions by opposing the great acknowledgements of Religion and particularly this yet they will never by such ways obtain it from those who are really that which they affect to be thought It is the known observation of one who held a high place among the Wits of his Age That a little Philosophy and knowledge inclines men to be Infidels and Atheists but the greater measures set the mind right in Religion and secure it from the danger of those impieties So that who takes this way to be accounted a Wit makes himself a Fool to the wise without gaining the reputation of being wise among other Fools besides those of his own sort Or if he could attain the height of that ambition 't would prove a very dear credit that is purchased upon such terms as are the ruine of his soul the destruction of his best hopes and the degrading of his noble nature 3. Another main occasion of Infidelity in this Article is Enthusiasm or the entertainment of Principles of Faith upon the credit of phancies Dangerous is the case of Religion when Reason is thrown by and detested and the whole stress laid upon warm imaginations These indeed will hold up the mind for a while in great confidence of another world and fill it with a thousand extravagant images and chimaera's about it which will be all taken for clear light and solemn certainties while the wind sits right But then alas anon the scene alters and a change in the habit of the body disposeth the man to other thoughts and so all is flung away as delusion and the Enthusiast is strongly carried down by the over-bearing of his melancholy into the doleful conceit of his mortality and the belief that he shall die like the Beasts that perish And that that humour disposeth men naturally to such apprehensions we may see in Job who spake in the trouble of his spirit and in the bitterness of his mind he said There is hope of a Tree if it be cut down that it will sprout and the branches thereof will not cease But man is sick and dieth and man perisheth and where is he Job 14. He seems to speak in this and other passages like an Epicurean or a Sadducee and the question looks comfortless and discouraging ver 14. If a man die shall be live again The good man was under the disorder of a great and just sadness and that represented all things as dark and dismal to his wounded phancy and seem'd sometimes to deprive him of the only remaining comfort the hope of a better condition in another world The same effects hath melancholy still upon many Euthusiastick tempers on some of which it prevails so far as to fix those impressions on their minds which never are worn off And though Job recover'd quickly by the exercise of his Faculties and the reason that God had given him and expresseth his expectation of a Future Life immediately after the passage of greatest doubt All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Yet those whose principles are fastned only by their phancies and the impulse of present belief are in great danger to be lost in such temptations Thus are some men disposed to Infidelity by their own Enthusiasms and the same too frequently give occasion to others to laugh at the belief of a future Being by representing that state in various shapes and under very odd disguises I Am next to shew III. What the denial of a future Life infers in the reasoning and consequence of it 1. It follows hence that man is but a better beast and those Wits speak agreeably to this principle that whether in earnest or in jest Satyrize humane nature and represent us only as somewhat a more cunning Herd of Cattle For if this Life be all we have the same end and happiness with the bruits and they are happier of the two in that they have lesser cares and fewer disappointments than we Our Reason and Religion upon which we so much value our selves according to this doctrine are but chains of imaginations and those but refined sense and so the soul and principle of action is no other in us than it is in them and we differ but little more than one sort of Beasts doth from another namely than the more stupid doth from those that are more sprightly and sagacious And then farewell the
and spoken to them they had not had sin Their sin had not been so great or so inexcusable nor would it have been charged upon them with such severity of condemnation But now that the Light hath shined in darkness the true Light that enlightens every one that cometh into the world Now since the Son of God is made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil and to turn men from those superstitious and idolatrous vanities to the right worship of God in Spirit and in Truth The plea of ignorance will no longer excuse or extenuate but God commands all men every where to Repent which is inforc'd with the most powerful consideration of the Text He hath appointed a day In which words we have these things 1. The Declaration of a future Judgement Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge 2. The universality of the subject to be Judg'd the World 3. The Person that is to be the judge The man whom He hath ordained 4. The rule and manner of Judgement He will Judge the World in Righteousness I Begin in order with the Decree of a future Judgement Of this the Heathens had some obscure notions as appears among other things by the stories of their fam'd Judges that were to call men to account in the other world But these were but glimmering apprehensions 'T is the Gospel hath brought to light the great Doctrine of a coming Judgement in the solemnity and circumstances of it This hath declared That there is to be a Judgement Day Matth. 10. 15. Jude 6. That Christ Jesus is to be the Judge of the quick and the dead Acts 10. 42. That he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire 2 Thes 1. 8. That he shall come with ten thousand of his Saints Jude 14. That he shall judge the secrets of men according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 16. That the Dead shall be all raised by a General summons 1 Cor. 15. 52. and all shall be judg'd according to their works Rev. 20. 13. The just to eternal life and the wicked to everlasting punishment Matth. 25. 46. So that the belief of a Judgement Day is no panick fear or melancholy dream 'T is no trick of Politicians or Mormo of Priests to fright fools and keep the world in awe but a Truth as certain and undoubted as the Oracles of Truth can make it 'T is plainly declar'd in the most infallible Records yea 't is engraven on the minds of universal mankind who all expect a call to a future Judgement There is therefore no need of further proof of so clear and so acknowledg'd an Article But it may be worth our while to consider what may be the Reasons of this appointment of a Judgement Day And the same will serve as Arguments to confirm and enforce our Faith in it 1. Then 'T is reasonable and fit there should be a General Judgement that Religion may be vindicated and cleared The Gospel was of old to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23. and we know by sad experience how in latter days Religion is expos'd and scorn'd It is made ridiculous by some and laugh'd at by others and which do it the greater mischief Those that put it into contemptible cloathing or those that pour direct contempt upon it is not our present business to conjecture This is certain that there is nothing hath been pretended in so many vile actions and designs Nothing in which mankind have been in any comparison so out of their wits as in what they have abusively call'd by this Sacred Name Religion we have seen it dy'd with humane blood and swoln with spoil and rapine written on the foreheads of tyrannies and usurpations and pleaded as the CAUSE the CAUSE of prosperous Villanies Divided into Atoms of Sects and disputed into Air of opinions Entitled to all the vanities of sick imagination and claim'd by all the follies of zealous ignorance And is it not reasonable there should be a time wherein this over-cast this clouded light should brighten like the Sun at noon and dispel those spots and that scumm which superstition ignorance and hypocrisie have fastned upon its glorious Face Is it not fit that the Gospel should at length appear to have been the power of God and no creature of melancholy or design Ought it not to be at last confest and known that Religion was a great Reality and no cunningly devised Fable No dream of imagination or interest of any lust but as simple as Innocence and as clear as the virgin light And it will be so in the coming day when the light of the other World hath shone in upon the darkness of this In summ 'T is just to expect that Religion will be gloriously celebrated and cleared and reasonable to believe it will be done by the solemnity of a Judgement day 2. A Future Judgement is ordain'd That Providence may be unridled and absolv'd The Judgements of God are a great Deep Psal 36. 6. and His ways past finding out Rom. 11. 33. The affairs of Providence are full of Mystery and Meanders as dark as the midnights of December and as crooked as the paths of the Desart All the Lines of our spinning all our observations and reasonings are too short to lead us to and fro the Labyrinth The world is govern'd by secret methods that are beyond our most improved knowledge How are we puzzl'd when we undertake to gloss on Providence and presume to give the reasons of its most ordinary managements The wicked lift up their heads against Heaven and prosper and the just bow the knee lifting up their hands unto it and are undone Folly succeeds and is applauded and Wisdom is disappointed and contemn'd Clouds and thick darkness encompass the devout and a warm Sun shines upon him that sacrificeth not Eccl. 7. 15. And when vice thrives and folly triumphs Providence is pleaded to credit ignorance and impiety and the success of the actions vouches for the goodness of the Cause God is thought to have own'd what for unknown reasons he hath permitted and to have acted that which in judgement he hath suffer'd On the other hand the best Designs are thought wicked when they prove unprosperous and the whitest Innocence marked with black characters when the cloud is upon it Thus Shimei accused David for a man of blood because of the evils of his House 2 Sam. 16. 7. And Job was concluded as great an instance of sin as he was of misery Job 4. The Barbarians inferr'd from the Viper that St. Paul was a Murderer Acts 28. 3 4. And the unbelieving world from the Cross that the Holy Jesus was a Malefactor Thus do men shoot one another out of this crooked bow and judge the goodness and badness of things by successes not by Rules and thereby traduce and abuse Providence by making it speak the language of their affections and their Interests and serve