Phrase may justly be understood of the Publick Worship of God nay any sort of Divine Worship whereby we intend to express our respect to God whether Publick or Private and that want of Reconciliation in case we have offered a signal Injury to our fellow Christians either in Word or Deed renders the Gift or Devotion we offer unpleasing or unacceptable will appear from the following Considerations 1. Because the Devotion is offered from an impure Heart want of Reconciliation I mean a wilful want or neglect of it supposes a Heart full of Rancour and Malice and secret Grudges against the Person whom we are at Variance with or whom we have offended and in this case David's saying holds true If I regard Iniquity in my Heart the Lord will not leave me Psal. lxvi 18 Shall God whose Purity is great and astonishing and infinite accept of an Oblation which hath so impure a Foundation Can we imagine God is so fond of Services as not to regard the Heart which is and ought to be the principal Agent in the Service He that scorned the Blind and the Lame offered to him in Sacrifice will he be pleased with such blind and lame Devotion It is not the bare Flower as beautiful as it's Colours may seem to be that God is delighted with if the Soil on which it grows be a Dung-hill No Let 's not flatter our selves that the Building we erect will be taking in the Eyes of the great Architect while the Foundation is rotten A Heart that cherishes Malice is the impure Root that sheds poyson on the Plant it produces and that can cause no odoriferous Scent in Heaven He that hath protested that an evil Heart is abomination to him will he relish the Water which comes from that bitter Spring He that hath told us that the pure in heart shall see him and none but they will he admit that Devotion into his gracious Presence which comes from a bottom where Toads and Serpents crawl He that delights in nothing so much as in a Heart sincere and upright will he be fond of Hypocrisy What is Hypocrisy Is it not seeming to be good when we are not And is not Devotion coming from a Heart unwilling to be reconciled to our fellow Christian an appearance of Goodness while love to our Brethren the principal Ingredient which must make it so is wanting 2. Such Devotion is a perfect Contradiction The Soul that is a Stranger or an Enemy to Reconciliation and yet offers Services of Devotion to God pretends to obey him by those Services and yet at the same time disobeys him by being unwilling to be reconciled Doth a Fountain at the same place send forth bitter water and sweet saith St. James ch iii. 11 Of the Samaritans we read 1 Kings xvii 33 That they feared the Lord and served their own Gods They sacrificed to the Great Jehovah and to Devils and their Worship was divided betwixt God and Belial betwixt Dagon and the Ark betwixt the Temple of God and Idols And is not Devotion from a Heart unwilling to be reconciled a Worship much like theirs At once to obey God and to disobey him at once to honour and to affront him at once to worship and to blaspheme him To build with one hand and to pull down with another At the same time to please God and to offend him to please him with Devotion and to offend him with neglect of Charity Is God a God of Order and will he be pleased with Contradictions May it not justly be said to such among you as Elijah to the Israelites 1 Kings xviii 21 How long halt you between two Opinions If the Lord be God then follow him but if Baal then follow him But to think to oblige both is to reconcile Fire and Water Light and Darkness Heaven and Hell and things that have the greatest Antipathy one to another 3. God is the God of Love and will he accept of a Devotion coming from a Heart that hath no Love Can there be Love there where there is no Reconciliation Can Charity be there where the Man will not be Friends with his offended Brother It was indeed said in Commendation of that Roman that having lived so many years with his Mother he was never reconciled to her but the meaning was that they had never quarrelled never fallen out so there was no need of any Reconciliation But here we speak of Offences given and taken and a wilful neglect of Reconciliation must necessarily argue want of Love and can God love that Service in which there is nothing agreeable to his Nature Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity saith David Psal. cxxxiii 1 It is pleasant to Men and pleasant to God He loves to see it there is harmony in it and can that Devotion make Musick in Heaven which runs upon jarring and Discord and Animosities and Dissentions God is Love and where should Love dwell but in a Heart that loves A Heart that doth not is no Seat no Place no Mansion no Habitation no Tabernacle for the God of Love to rest in The Spirit of love flees from such a House There must be a similitude of Tempers For God to dwell in a Heart where Hatred lodges would be as unseemly a thing as for a King to chuse a Dungeon for his Habitation I love them that love me saith the Eternal Wisdom Prov. viii 17 He that is unwilling to be reconciled to his offended Neighbour cannot love God and God cannot love him nor his Service for if the Man doth not love his Brother whom he hath seen how shall be love God whom he hath not seen 1 John iv 20 4. Such Devotion coming from a Heart loath to be reconciled is a plain attempt to put a cheat upon the great God of Heaven for such a Man hopes God will be so dazled with his Devotion that he will over-look the Malice that 's glowing in his Heart He hopes that God will be so taken with the external Service he lays at his feet as not to take notice of the abomination that lurks within Will you put out the Eyes of these Men said Corah and Dathan Numb xvi 14 And may it not be said to such Will you put out the Eyes of Almighty God Do you think to blind him that sees by Night as well as by Day Do you hope to deceive him that searches the Hearts and the Reins Is it a small thing to you to affront him and would you cheat him too Do you think to lull him asleep with your Devotion that he may not mind the Leprosy which infects your Souls Is he a Man that you think to impose upon him Or a Being so weak that it 's possible to gull him into approbation of your Services See what Absurdities Men run into when they hope that some external Acts of their Piety will cover the multitude of their Sins Strange
that hated them and attended those when sick who a little before had plotted against their Lives Acts free from Interest and Design Acts which shew nothing could put us upon them but Religion and Conscience Acts frequent too and continued without weariness of well-doing These even fix the Eyes of the most stupid Creatures upon the Person that performs them and indeed nothing is sooner taken notice of than such Acts as these because there is Divinity in them and such stroaks of the Goodness of Heaven appear in them that Men behold them almost whether they will or not 3. Great Temperance in Cloathing Eating Drinking and Recreations In these most People who are Rich and Great or abound in worldly Goods are very apt to exceed even those who seem to be no ill Christians And therefore where self-denyal appears in all these and a Person who hath both Ability and Opportunity and Temptations to go beyond the Rules of Modesty and Gravity and Sobriety in all or any of these gives Demonstration that something unseen bears the sway within and that he commands his Appetite and keeps under his Body and brings it into Subjection This as it is an Argument of self-Conquest so Men will certainly take notice of it 4. Great Modesty and Sobriety in Discourse when our Speech is always with Grace season'd with Salt when none hears us speak ill of others when no corrupt Communication proceeds out of our Mouths but that which is Good to the use of edifying that it may minister Grace unto the Hearers When nothing drops from our Lips that looks like filthy Talking or foolish and obscene Jesting but on the contrary we take care to let something fall whereby others who are present may be built up in their most Holy Faith this is so remarkable a thing that Men will be sure to take notice of it 5. An unshaken steady and even Piety which changes not with the changes of Conditions and is the same at Sea and on the Shore abroad and at home in the Camp and in the City in a fair and in a cloudy Day in a word which neither the Humour of the Age nor the Example of our Friends nor all the Revolutions of publick Affairs can alter or destroy As all things unusual attract the Eyes of Spectators to the Piety we speak of being a thing out of the common Road there is no question to be made of it but Men will take notice of it 6. Joy in Tribulation To see Men with the Apostles depart from the Council rejoycing because they were counted worthy to suffer Shame for the Name of the Lord Jesus to see them rejoyce when they fall into divers Temptations to see that neither a miserable Life nor a dreadful Death approaching can make them forbear rejoycing in their God and in the hopes of Eternal Life to see them flourish like Palm-trees and that all the weight which Providence lays upon them cannot crush their Hope and Confidence and Rejoycing in him who is altogether lovely This is too bright too shining a Vertue not to be taken notice of by understanding Men. And these are the Noble the Great the Generous Heroick Acts which will make Men take notice of you and say that God is among you indeed Let others be known by their Liveries and Coaches and Pages and Lacquies you who are Christians must be known by such Acts as these I do not deny but most of you do some outward overt Acts of Religion such as coming to Church and kneeling and hearing and joyning with the Congregation but let me tell you that one Act of self-denial will go farther than all these external Services which God knows are too often no more than Formalities Little sprinklings of Devotion mingled with much Rubbish of Sin and Vanity are lost in that Croud and will make no great Impressions on the Eyes and Hearts of those who behold you But such Acts as these shine bright and spread abroad their Lustre and will even force men to confess That the Love of God is shed abroad in your Hearts Indeed this must be the great end in letting the Light of your good Works shine before Men that others may glorifie God which puts us in mind of the fourth Proposition IV. The great end we must propose to our selves in letting the Light of our good Works shine before Men must be this to endear Religion to others and to make those that see them glorifie God That others may see your good Works and glorifie your Father Men glorifie God by seeing our good Works when 1. They are converted by that sight when those good Works work upon them and work their Hearts into consideration of their ways and work so powerfully upon them that they can resist the motives to Repentance and a serious change of Life no longer So it was with those who beheld the good Works of our Saviour John x. 42 John xi 41 And so it was with those Husbands who were won by the chast and meek and quiet Behaviour and Conversation of the female Sex 1 Pet. iii. 2 In this not only appears the wonderful power of God who makes our good Works subservient to the subduing of the Fortresses of Iniquity in others but when those who before dishonoured abused despised and undervalued the Author of their Being and well-being now come to esteem and love and admire him and esteem his Precepts above thousands of Gold and Silver What is this but glorifying God 2. When by our good Works which shine before Men others take occasion to praise and bless God for the Grace they beheld shining in us as the Disciples did when they heard that the Gentiles had receiv'd the Gift of Repentance unto Life Acts xi 18 And as those Strangers did St. Paul speaks of 2 Cor. ix 13 who glorified God for the professed Subjection unto the Gospel of Christ which they beheld in the Corinthian Christians For as it is by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we do bring forth fruits meet for Repentance so when that Grace which works so powerfully in us produces Praise of Gods Glory in those who behold it it cannot be otherwise but God is glorified by our good Works 3. When others are by what they see in us encouraged to praise God for their own Mercies The good Works which shine in us are not only Treasures which enrich our own Souls but Remembrancers too to put others in mind of what God hath done for them and of the Mercies they enjoy and of the Graces of Gods Spirit which are bestowed on them and animate them to a holy fruitfulness Other Mens Defects and Blemishes such as Blindness Lameness Crookedness Poverty Misery c. are to put us in mind of our Mercies much more the Mercies which others enjoy as well as we And when the spiritual Blessings we enjoy prove a Glass in which others behold the same Blessings Gods bountiful hand hath bestowed on
the Accomplishment by our uneasiness under the Injury Ay but still experience shews that this Patience under Injuries hardens the insolent Man in his Sins We grant it but whose fault is it not ours but of his own impenitent Heart which indeed deserves our Pity and our Prayers but heaps no Guilt upon our Heads Surely we shall not be answerable for other Mens boldness in their Sins nor is our Patience a compliance with their Folly which is not intended to harden but to melt them and if like vitious Stomachs they turn that into Corruption which was intended for their Nourishment they feed indeed but not like Bees that gather Honey from the Flowers they suck but like Toads and Vipers that convert the Juice of wholsome Herbs into Poyson But is this an Argument that I must therefore inflame my Soul with Wrath and Revenge because the other swells with Venom So that all these Objections vanish and that which seem'd impossible appears if view'd without these false Glasses very practicable No doubt it is so and may be made very easie too and if you ask me how the following Rules will give you satisfaction 1. By admiring the praise of God above the praise of Men. It is recorded to the eternal Shame and Disgrace of those chief Men and Rulers among the Jews who believed in Christ yet durst not confess him Cowards as they were that they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God Joh. xii 48 Men in great Places and Dignities this is their Temper this is the Rule they go by let God praise and commend a Vertue never so much if it meet not with the same Applause among Men. If Men do count it disagreeable to the Punctilio's of Honour and the Aire of the Court and the Humour of the Age or if it be not good Manners they carefully shun it and to be sure such Men will never come up to the Rule of the Text. But he that comes to a fixt and steady Resolution of esteeming the praise of God above the praise of Men that 's the Person who is like to triumph over all the Desires of Revenge And O God! why should not we esteem thy Praise thy Commendations and Approbations beyond the Applauses of Mortal Men Are not thy Commendations most rational most weighty most unbyass'd most true and most durable whereas those of poor Mortals how partial are they how subject to Mistakes how uncertain how weak how transitory how short and how unprofitable in that Day when God shall judge the World in Righteousness He that esteems the praise of God more than the praise of Men doth not only act like a true Philosopher but hath this satisfaction in himself that he lives by Faith and not by sight and will be able to Laugh when others shall Howl in outward Darkness so true is that Saying of the Apostle 2 Cor. x. 18 Not he who commends himself and we may add Not he whom Men commend is approv'd but whom the Lord commends 2. By a firm perswasion that without this Patience under Evil or Injuries or Affronts or reviling Language we cannot be and are no Christians I say by a firm Perswasion for most Men have general slight and imperfect Idea's and Notions of the thing but that will do no good A firm Perswasion is convincing our selves thoroughly by suitable powerful Arguments that we bear the name of Christians in vain and play with it and make a meer formality of it except we heartily comply with our Master's Will in this particular And if the Soul be impregnated with this principle and hath a brisk and lusty Sense of it the Danger or rather the Thoughts of it will work through all Obstacles and Impediments and we shall make a shift to resist the importunate desires of Flesh and Blood which tempt us to return Evil for Evil. 3. By fixing the Eyes of our Understandings upon the future Reward and Recompence This is the great Engine whereby our base slavish and worldly Fears must be removed and till we have lively apprehensions of that Reward and are concern'd about it like Men in danger of losing the greatest Blessing the Opinions and Censures of the World will prevail more with us than all that Christ or any Apostle can say Till a Man doth more vehemently desire to be happy in the other World than in this the Vertues which go against the Interest of Flesh and Blood will move very heavily and so will Patience under Affronts and Injuries But the Soul being chafed and heated with brisk and lively thoughts of that Heavenly Country and walking through that Holy City which is above and viewing the Towers and Bullwarks of it will break out into Holy Flames which will consume and burn up the Hay and Straw and Stubble of Carnal Reasons and false Suggestions of the Flesh and the Devil and frown the motions of Revenge into Exile 4. By quickning and raising our Love to God into more than ordinary fervours Love dares do any thing I mean Love that hath Fire in 't and burns clear upon the Altar of the Heart The great Reason why you dare not venture upon these harder Lessons is because your Love to God is weak and faint and like that of green Wood apt to expire The Soul that sets God before her in all his Beauty and Glory and Mercy and Rewards and Promises till she loves him beyond what the Eye doth see and the Hands can handle gets the Victory and this very Command will not seem grievous to her Love made the Lord Jesus give his back to the Smiter and Love will make you give the other Cheek to the striker Love will make you even rejoyce that you have something to lose for God and that you can do something that inclines his Favour to you Love will carry you above all the little Lime-twigs which are apt to catch and intangle your Souls Love will charm your Passions tye up your Tongues and hold your hands that you will not dare to return Evil for Evil. 5. Examples are incouraging things And have not we very illustrious Examples of this Patience under Affronts and Injuries in Moses David St. Paul and of other Apostles and Believers Why should not we do as they did Why should not we free and extricate our selves from the Snares of the World and press toward the Mark as well as they Was the way they walk'd in good and safe and shall we be afraid to tread in their Steps Did they understand the Will of God and can we follow better Patterns We all conclude they were saved by doing as Christ directs in the Text and shall we be fond of finding out a new way to Salvation It 's true they were derided by the World for so doing but have they lost any thing by the Bargain If they have been Gainers why should not we venture upon the reproach of Christ as well as they Did they thrive and
challenges the Jews to tell him wherein he acted against the least tittle of it John viii 46 As to the Ceremonial he was circumcised the eighth day observed the Sabbath eat the Passover kept the Festivals of the Synagogue c. And as to the Judicial none could charge him with breaking of it so far from it that when the Collectors came for Tribute Money for the use of the Temple rather than not obey the Rulers who had sent them he would work a Miracle and ordered Peter to go to Sea and take a Fish where he should find a piece of Money and give it for Peter and himself Matt. xvii 24 2. Not only himself observ'd it but he bid others observe it too Matt. xix 17 when the young Man ask'd him What good thing he should do to inherit Eternal Life he directs him to the Commandements of the Law Nay in the Ceremonial part of it while the Oeconomy of it lasted he advises others to observe it and therefore when he had cleans'd a Leper the next thing he advises him to do is to go and shew himself unto the Priest and to offer the Offering which Moses had Commanded Matt. viii 4 3. Upon all occasions he hath commended the Law and the Prophets and asserted their Divine Original and Consonancy with the Will of God as Matt. vii 12 Matt. xxii 40 Matt. xxiii 23 Add to all this 4. He proved his own Doctrine out of the Law and the Prophets even all that he did Luke xxiv 44 The Resurrection of the dead Luke xx 37 His own Resurrection Luke xxiv 26 27. His Commission to preach the Gospel Luke iv 21 The Truth of his Testimony John viii 17 18. His Divinity John x. 34 35. And surely he that observ'd the Law himself exhorted others to observe it asserted the Divinity of it and proved his own Doctrine out of the Law and the Prophets could not possibly be said to come to destroy the Law and the Prophets But IV. How did Christ fulfil the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil 1. By making it the Rule of his Actions as I have hinted already it 's true he was charged sometimes with breaking the Sabbath and therefore with Violation of the Law but all considerate Men may see this was unjustly imputed to him for the Law though it did forbid all servile Works upon the Sabbath yet it did not prohibit works of Necessity and Charity and such was his healing the Paralytick and the Man whose Hand was wither'd the Blind and the Woman who had had a Spirit of Infirmity eighteen years c. and therefore this could be no breach of the Law 2. The Ceremonial Law particularly he fulfill'd not only by submitting to the Rubrick of it while he lived but by making good what was intended by it The Ceremonial Law was only to bind the Jews while their Republick lasted and perhaps was impos'd upon them by way of punishment for the sin of the Golden Calf Besides it pointed at the Spiritual Worship the Messiah was to teach his Followers which accordingly he did As it enjoyn'd Sacrificing so it represented the Sacrifice himself was to offer to God for the sins of Mankind for these very Jews to whom that Law was given Their Circumcision represented our Baptism their Passover our Eucharist He fulfilled all this by answering God's intent in it So that he did not destroy this Law but the nature of it was such that it could not but fall upon the account of its Imperfection It being all Shadow it ceas'd in course when the Substance was come 3. He fulfilled it not only by rescuing it from the false Glosses their Superstitious Teachers had put upon it but by giving a more perfect Rule of Life That River was swallow'd up in the Sea of Goodness that came along with him He that distils Wine into an excellent Spirit or turns the courser Metal into Gold doth indeed cause the meaner Material to lose it self in a nobler but he doth not properly destroy it no more than a Drop of Water is annihilated by mixing with a rich Cordial What was good and excellent in the Law of Moses he retain'd and what he did retain he resin'd and sublimed and advanced into Rules more excellent and therefore fulfill'd it the rather because the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better Hope did by the which we draw nigh to God Heb. vii 19 4. He fulfilled it by confirming and establishing the principal design of it The end of the Law of Moses was to make Men good for which reason it is called Spiritual Rom. vii 14 for its design was to oblige Men to love God with all their hearts and with all their minds and with all their strength Deut. vi 5 and to love their Neighbours as themselves Levit. xix 18 upon these two Pillars the Law and the Prophets are said to hang Matth. xxii 37 38 39. But whatever the intent of God was in that Law we see very few among the Jews answer'd that end and design for want of sufficient helps which the Messiah was to afford and therefore this was a Schoolmaster to lead them to Christ and a motive to long after him The Law was cloath'd with Terrours and Threatnings which caused the Spirit of Fear but the Messiah was to give them the Spirit of Adoption and accordingly Christ fulfilled it by giving larger supplies whereby they might be able to act according to the intent of it such as offering Pardon for sins past pouring out his Spirit upon men in a more plentiful manner and setting Eternal life before them c. 5. He fulfilled the Prophets particularly by doing and suffering what the Prophets said He as the Messiah was to do and suffer and that 's the reason why when Christ did do or suffer any thing it is so often added that it might be fulfill'd what was spoken by the Prophet In a word There were Four things in the Law and in the Prophets which Christ fulfilled 1. The Promises and Predictions 2. The Precepts of the Moral Law by interpreting them to better purposes 3. The Precepts of the Ceremonial Law by performing what was prefigured by them 4. The Sanctions of the Law by changing Temporal into Eternal punishments and He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets by his Doctrine Practice and Command Inferences I. See here the fate of sincere upright impartial and conscientious Reformers Christ came to reform the Jews who were overrun with Error and Superstition and yet behold they give out that he came to destroy the Law and the Prophets What Christ did was nothing but reducing the Law and the Prophets to their true genuine and ancient lustre and splendor and setting them in their own light yet so ungrateful was that Generation that they nick-name all this destroying the Law and the Prophets This came purely from the Devil's Malice who to put a stop to
15 17 18. But the Sin here aimed at lies in the secret Wishes Will Purposes Lust and Desires after Adultery Fornication Uncleanness and forbidden Mixtures And therefore if the Observation of the Jews be true that Ahab and Zedekiah mentioned Jer. xxix 21. were the Persons who attempted the Chastity of Susanna are charged with downright Adultery because they intended it though they could not compass it as we see Jer. xxix 23 And he that purposes to sollicit a Woman to that which God counts Abomination or wishes to enjoy the dangerous Love of the Person which hath no Matrimonial Relation to him or whose Desires Languish because he cannot gratifie his base Lust which his wicked Mind desires or who feeds himself with impure Imaginations with obscene Pictures and Images of the Person upon whom his Heart is set all these are secret Adulterers and Fornicators and must expect the Wrath of God the Anger the Indignation the Fire the Brimstone and the Portion of Misery designed for Adulterers and Fornicators who are outwardly so 3. That this is a very just Sentence and that he is justly charged with the guilt of Adultery and Fornication and Lewdness who Wills or Wishes or Desires it whatever Notion they are represented under is evident from hence because the Will is the principal Agent in the Action so that if the Will consents the Man consents and it is as much as if he had done the unlawful Act which is only impeded or hindred from being executed by certain Circumstances which fall out cross I very much question whether the outward Acts of Fornication and Adultery would be Sins at all if it were not for the Will It 's this gives the Act the tincture of Hell Before the outward Act the Malice and the Turpitude of the Sin is already compleated though the Act be hindred by accidental Causes from being consummated And this is no new Doctrine the very Heathens saw the reasonableness of it and to this purpose several excellent Sayings might be alledged here out of Aristophanes Seneca Juvenal Ovid and others were it necessary and though humane Laws lay no Penalty upon the Will because they are no competent Judges of it nothing falling under the Cognisance of the publick Magistrate but Overt Actions yet with respect to God who sees the Heart the Sin is the same and he that would or hath a mind to commit Adultery Fornication Lewdness whatever Names he may give his Desires and Lusts is the Person who hath committed all these because all that was in his power to do toward it he hath done i. e. his Will Consent and Desire do concur to the Sin though an Opportunity of finishing the Sin outwardly be wanting And God counts such a Person an Adulterer and Fornicator and lewd Man though his Neighbours at the same time who know nothing of his secret Sins may count him Honest and Sober and Innocent The Romans punish'd a Vestal Virgin who had vow'd perpetual Chastity with Death because she did once merrily in Company say that it was a pretty thing to Marry because by saying so she discover'd her Desire and Will to break her Vow I do not justify that piece of Rigor but only mention it to prove that the very Light of Nature discovered to Heathens and Pagans that the Desire and Will to commit a Sin was a complete Sin so far as the inward Man could make it and consequently deserv'd the same Punishment This leads me to discourse of the III d. Particular viz. Whether notwithstanding all this there be not a very great difference betwixt the internal Consent and the outward Act as to the heinousness of the Sin To this the Answer is that Sins as to the Substance may be the same yet Circumstances may make the Sin more heinous than it would have been without those Circumstances He that hates his Brother is a Murtherer saith St. John 1 John iii. 15 Yet there is no doubt be that besides that Hatred doth actually deprive him of Life is a greater Sinner and the Sin becomes more black and dreadful So it is in Adultery and Fornication and Incest and Carnal self-pollutions and other Lewdnesses He that wishes or wills it or purposes it or feeds himself with filthy Images of any of these Sins commits a Sin of the same Nature and Complexion that he doth who to the inward Formation of it adds the outward Act but still the outward Act aggravates it and gives it a deeper Dye because of the Scandal it gives and the greater hurt it doth in that another Person is made a Partner of the Folly and dragg'd with him into Hell and the Sinner goes as far in it as he can So that though as to the degrees of the Heinousness of the Sin there is a difference betwixt the internal Consent and the outward Act yet the Sin is the same in Substance and therefore must be supposed to participate of the same Punishment which is threatned to Adulterers Fornicators c. though according to the degrees of the blackness of the Crime the Punishments in the other World will be proportionable INFERENCES 1. Here we see how necessary Solomon's Rule is Prov. iv 23 Keep thy Heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life The Heart being guarded the whole Man is safe If that be left Defenceless the whole Man lies open to the Devils Power In the Heart or Mind Sin first takes Root and then if not checkt it presently spreads and diffuses it self into the outward Man and brings forth fruit unto Death Keep Sin out of the Heart and you keep it out of the Body for from within from the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Covetousness c. saith our Saviour Marc. vii 21 When Sin first offers it self to the Mind and is rejected as soon as it doth make its first Appearance the purity of the Soul is preserv'd We cannot hinder the Motions and Suggestions of the Devil from approaching or assaulting our Minds and an impure Thought may jog the Mind but if the Mind do immediately oppose the Enemy as soon as it comes before the Gate of the House its Forces are broke and disordered and they can never make head or insinuate into the Affections our Saviour therefore charges us to cleanse the inside of the Dish and Platter that the out-side may be clean also And indeed a Man or Woman cannot be truly said to stand in awe of God that do not watch over their Hearts and resist the first Assaults of Sin and though I will not deny that restraining the outward Act upon the account of it's Odiousness and Danger may be called part of the fear of God yet it is but a very imperfect Fear till the Heart comes to detest the first Suggestions In the Sin of unlawful Lust this is particularly to be observed and he that means to get the Mastery of a lascivious Temptation must be concerned and tremble upon
consider what it means which is the reason why they are frighted with it less than with a Fire in a Chimney but that must be ascribed altogether to the want of thinking which we see makes Men even so brutish here that they venture upon Actions which lead them to the Gallows If Hell be really such a Fire as the Gospel describes it as undoubtedly it is a thinking or considerate Man will dread it infinitely more than cutting off a Limb or pulling out an of Eye the loss of these is Sport to that Fire When Nahash the Ammonite 1 Sam. xi 2 proposed to the Men of Jabesh Gilead that he would take them under his Protection if he might thrust out their right Eyes and lay the Punishment as a Reproach upon Israel the distressed Men if no help had come from above were content to suffer that Pain and Misery to avoid his greater Barbarities and therefore that Man must have no Sense no Reason I am sure no Faith that being in danger of being cast into Hell for want of this Watchfulness should not chuse a lesser Evil before a greater and prefer a momentary Pain before one Endless and Eternal But blessed be God this Watchfulness against Sin is attainable without plucking out the right Eye and cutting off the right Hand in a literal Sense even by great Industry and Courage and striving and taking pains with our selves And yet even this will not take with some of you If this Watchfulness against Sin might be had without Labour without Trouble without searching and trying your ways without Examination without Circumspection without fervent Prayer without meditating on the Love of God and the Charity of our Lord Jesus Christ it s like many of you would be contented to embrace it but these are perfect Impossibilities and Contradictions and when you can hope for a good Crop of Corn from a Field which you never Sowed and look for Fire out of a Flint when you never strike it and expect a rich Return from the Indies when you never ventured any thing In a Word when you can hope for Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles then you may also hope to arrive to this holy Watchfulness without Industry All this I mention to let you see what a Value you are to set upon this Watchfulness against Sin if you do not you will never go about it like Persons concerned for what we do not value we mind not What 's the Reason that so many Thousands rush into Sin as the Horse rushes into the Battle They watch not they have not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it that advertency of Mind which is requisite and they have it not because they do not value it Did you value it you would leave no Stone unturn'd to be Masters of it and that which ought to make you value it is this that God in the Text saith it is of that Consequence that its worth plucking out your right Eye and cutting off your right Hand rather than to continue destitute of it But I hasten to consider the II. Proposition viz. That to attain to a truly Spiritual Life or to root up Habits of Sin if gentler Means will not do a Christian must apply himself to a more painful Discipline This is also very plainly intimated in the Text which though it requires not a real plucking out of the Eyes and cutting off the right Hand yet the Expressions here used do import some painful Labour which is to be done in order to arrive to those excellent Vertues and Qualifications which Christ requires in the preceding Verses This was very wholsome Doctrin in the Primitive Ages when Men entertain'd very high Thoughts of a Spiritual Life and the strange Self-Denials they practised the Mortifications they used and their acting contrary to the Humours Customs and Fashions of the World shews their Belief that such a Life was not to be had without such a Discipline In the Age we live in Men have found another way of Mortifying themselves an easier and softer Way and they hope to mortify their Luxury in the midst of all the variety of Dishes which can tempt a lawless Appetite and they hope to mortify their Pride by allowing themselves in all the vain Dresses the World doth invent and to mortify their Anger by resenting the least Affront or Injury that 's offer'd them and to mortify their Wantonness by pampering their Bodies and giving themselves all manner of Liberty in Talking Jesting Fooling and to mortify their Covetousness by grasping as much as they can and their Love to the World by making the vainest Persons their Patterns and they hope after all to arrive to purity of Heart by sitting in Ale-houses and Taverns an admirable way to a truly Spiritual Life St. Paul took a quite different Method for he arrived to it by Weariness by Painfulness by Watchings often by Fasting often by Hunger and Thirst by Cold and Nakedness 2 Cor. xi 27 By keeping under his Body and bringing it into subjection 1 Cor. ix 27 By much Patience in Afflictions in Distresses in Tumults in Imprisonments by Knowledge by Long-suffering by Kindness by the Holy Ghost by going through good Report and evil Report by Honour and Dishonour c. 2 Cor. vi 4 5 6 7. And though all this seems a painful Way yet Love made it easy Love to the Lord Jesus a mighty Love a fervent Love a Love which made him count all things Dross and Dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. To root up a Habit of Sin whether of Anger or Pride or Covetousness or Love of the World or Intemperance c. is not to be done by cold Wishes or a spiritless customary Devotion and to get the Soul refined into the Life of God a Life of Meekness and Patience and Zeal and Courage and rellishing things Spiritual and delighting in them there is required great curbing of Affections and Self-Denials in things which Custom Fashion and a sickly Age counts Harmless and Innocent In Persons who are come up to a Habit of a Spiritual Life the gentler Means such as Prayer Resolution a conscientious use of the means of Grace Meditation Consideration c. may serve to maintain and preserve what with some Labour they have attained to And some excellent Tempers there are which by a secret influence of Gods Spirit are naturally inclin'd to Goodness and in such the gentler Means may do much But such happy Tempers are not very common Some there are so fickle so inconstant and so unsteddy that whatever good Desires they may have the next Temptation carries them off again makes them relapse and their Goodness proves a Morning Dew And such certainly stand in need of stronger Corroboratives And Experience teaches us how Habits of Sin the Effects of Custom and the Practice of many years mock all tender touches and therefore certainly here some more painful Discipline must be used
is guilty of that Adultery and therefore causes her that is put away to commit Adultery VIII How he that Marries her that is put away commits Adultery 1. In saying so our Great Master confirms the antient Law of God Deut. xxiv 3 where the Wife put away by her Husband is peremptorily forbid to return to the Husband that did give her a Bill of Divorce and put her away She had Liberty indeed to Marry another but if after his Death or during his Life her former Husband should be desirous to Marry her again this God saith there is Abomination and Christ calls it Adultery So that the words of the Text whosoever shall Marry her that 's put away commits Adultery do establish and ratifie what God said of old to the Jewish People He that puts away his Wife may not afterward when another Man hath known her Marry her again if he doth he commits Adultery 2. He that puts away his Wife for a less or meaner cause than Adultery doth not by that means or voluntary Divorce cancel the Marriage Bond and the legal Contract betwixt him and her That Bond continues firm and indissoluble notwithstanding that Dismission and therefore he that Marries such a Person that is unjustly put away Marries another Man's Wife and consequently commits Adultery Under the Law he that Married the Woman put away by her Husband for Causes God then allow'd of did not Sin except the High Priest who was forbid to Marry any Woman that was Divorced And under the Gospel he that Marries her that 's put away legally for Causes the Gospel allows of cannot be said to commit an Offence especially if the Rules we mentioned before be observed But he that Marries her that's justly put away or divorced for Causes frivolous or not allowed of by the Gospel and so Marries her he hath no power no right to Marry even a Person who notwithstanding the Divorce is still the Wife of him that put her away he certainly commits Adultery INFERENCES Having thus resolved the Queries suggested by the Text it 's time I should after all add some wholesom Directions whereby such Divorces and all Desires after them may be prevented I. There is no better Antidote against such Mischiefs than Love mutual Love a true Conjugal Love a Love grounded not upon a bare satisfying the desires of the Flesh for that will be of no long continuance but establish'd upon the lasting Principles of Duty and fed by Pious Considerations And they who think that no less Authority hath joined them together than God himself and intended that this Union should be great and withstand all Temptations of Dissolution except that of Death and thought fit to represent by it the Love of Christ to his Church They who make these Considerations the Foundation of their Love will not be easily moved to the desire of Separation Love in a married State being grounded only upon Beauty and Riches and other external things when these fade Love will fade Vertue and the Fear of God and the Oath that is betwixt them these must tye their Hearts together and where they do so their Love like a treble Cord is not easily broken Love is the great Preservative of Happiness in a Married State where that reigns no desires of Divorcement can find Entertainment But then it must be such Love as the Apostle describes 1 Cor. xiii 4 5 6 7. that suffers long and is kind that envies not that vaunts not it self that is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeks not her own is not easily provoked thinks no Evil rejoices not in Iniquity but rejoices in the Truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endureth all things This Charity we owe to all that are of the Houshold of Faith more or less much more to Persons of so near a Relation who besides the general Obligations as Christians have bound themselves Vowed and Promised before God and the Elect Angels and the Congregation to love one another with a pure Heart fervently Love is an Universal Medicine If the Infirmities of one Party be invincible Love will bear with them if vincible Love will endeavour to reform them If Crosses happen Love will administer Comfort if Prosperity comes flowing in Love will exhort to Thankfulness if Disputes arise Love will appease them if Quarrels are broacht Love will quench that Fire If Misconstructions be made Love will rectify them if Suspicions disturb the Mind Love will reject them if Failings appear Love will cover them and whatever things are amiss in a Family Love will endeavour to cure them Where this Love decays there the Good Angel that should guard the House prepares for his departure Where this Love is not maintain'd Temptations prevail and Quarrels come and Differences arise and Persons are let loose and ill Thoughts do enter and reproachful Language flies about and the Parties become uneasy and Divorces are thought of and being difficult to compose according to Law they are wished for and desired and if they cannot be had there Adulteries and Fornications and a thousand Evils are entertain'd as woful Experience shews and thus the married State becomes bitter as Wormwood which if Love had had the Management of it might have been sweet as the Morning Rose fragrant as the Balm of Gilead refreshing as Evening Showers II. As unequal Yoakings are very often the causes of great Contentions so where they may be they ought to be carefully shun'd and prevented By being unequally Yoaked I do not mean only Inequality of Age of Temper of Rank and Fortune but marrying Persons of a different Persuasion in Matters of Religion for if one of the Parties be Zealous for the Religion he professes he will think himself bound in Conscience to draw the Partner of his Bed into a Partnership of his Religion and if the other will not yield there arise such Flames of Discord sometimes that Divorces and Separations are not only desired but unjustly Endeavour'd and Practised and one party contrary to Law and Reason and Conscience and Modesty leaves the other Of this we have too many Examples not only where Protestants have married Papists but where Protestants have joined themselves to Protestants of different Sentiments not that the Differences among Protestants are of any great Consequence but where Pride Passion Ignorance or Prejudice turns disputable Questions into Articles of Faith and makes them Balls of Contention they shed a bad influence even upon a married State Indeed where both Parties are of a gentle and charitable Temper there is no great danger of falling out about Religion but as such Tempers are somewhat rare so where they are found they may be Influenced by external Causes and Motives which may alter them and though Promises are often made before Marriage not to molest one another in point of Religion yet false Persuasion afterward that it is their Duty to convert them who are so nearly related to them
at the Heart though they do not or will not perceive it or take notice of it so that their Heart hath a secret Aversion from an entire conformity to Gods will 3. It is an Argument that an evil Custom prevails more with them than their Duty and a vain humour of the Age they live in hath the ascendant of their Piety And consequently these Asseverations whether Oaths or Solemn Protestations in their ordinary Discourses savouring of so much Evil they cannot but be sinful and odious to God and the plain Affirmations and Negations in our Speeches Answers and Promises must be necessary and tending to the Peace and Satisfaction of our Consciences II. If we enquire into the Causes that make Men act contrary to this Rule we shall find them many and various but I shall confine my self to these two as the chief and principal 1. Imaginary Danger Men fansie abundance of Dangers which they pretend they shall incur by their nice watchfulness over their Words and a precise confining themselves to plain Affirmations and Negations One cries Men will not believe me if I do not Protest and Vow and use some such Expressions which may give weight to what I say A miserable shift if they will not believe thee surely they suppose thee to be a very ill Man or they do not take thee to be honest or thou dost give them occasion and they have reason to think that thou art a Person light and frothy and vain and perfidious and in this case the best way to convince them of the contrary is a blameless Life If they will not believe thee let thy inoffensive Conversation shew that thy Principles are good and pious and serious and be sure upon all occasions to perform what thou promisest and they 'll see there is no reason to suspect thy Fidelity Speak nothing but the Truth and what thou art very well assured of and experience and the event of things will witness for thee that thou art an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile and if after all they will not believe thee thou hast this comfort that thou hast acted according to the Will of God than which there is no greater comfort on this side Heaven Another cries Men will think it humor in me and what if they do think so where lies the hurt as long as thou art satisfied in thy Conscience that it is the fear of God that keeps thee within the bounds of Christian Simplicity He that observes the wind shall not sow and he that regards the Clouds shall not reap saith the Wise Man Eccles. xi 4 He that nicely regards the Opinions of Men will never become a good Man A plain Text of Scripture must prevail with a Man more than a thousand censures of his Neighbours if not He 'll be as far from the Kingdom of God when he comes to die as he was in his vigorous State of Life Another cries I shall be counted a Fanatick or a Quaker But as to that I am sorry that so pitiful a Sect that turns Religion into Non-sense should have so much as the Name and Reputation of coming nearer to the Rules of the Gospel in this particular than we who have Divinity and the Articles of the Christian Faith and the Duties of the Gospel so plainly so distinctly so orderly delivered to us But see how Men fright themselves with Bugbears Suppose a Jew or a Turk or a Heathen should have something that 's good in his Religion what should hinder me from following it if it be agreeable to the Word of God Is it not our bounden Duty to think of and to do whatever things are True and Just and Honest and Lovely and of a good Report Phil. iv 8 And let these things be found among the Brahmins and Indians and People that never heard of the Gospel they may and ought to be Adopted into our Practice as long as they are conformable to the Holy Ghost Others are afraid of losing their profit their Credit and their Interest if they should not do in this particular as the rest of their Neighbours do But this is as Precarious a Principle as any of the rest and he will have but little reason to believe that he belongs to Christ or hath any share in the benefits of his Redemption that loves the praise of Men more than of God or prefers his Interest before the Safety of his Immortal Soul especially when Christ hath so seriously told us if any Man come to me and hates not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple Luke xiv 26 So that 2. The true cause is this Men are unwilling to be true Christians or Christians altogether Half-Christians they are and with Agrippa almost perswaded but they will not go through with the Work They love to play about the Out-works and about the suburbs of Religion but they care not for entring too far into the Holy Discipline So much of Christianity as is consistent with the Lusts of their Flesh they are willing to embrace but farther they dare not they will not go and therefore when Religion comes to clash with an evil Custom they have got and which the World counts harmless and which makes them good Company and Acceptable to Men they bid Religion farewell or they will not see nor understand that that part of Religion which crosses that evil Custom is their Duty Inferences I. What I have said relates not only to downright Oaths in common Discourses Speeches Answers Promises but to all mincings of Oaths and to those vulgar Expressions I Vow I Swear I Protest I 'll take my Oath on 't as I hope to be Saved c. and to all gilding or abbreviating of such Expressions and turning them to a more tolerable found especially in matters frivolous and vain and impertinent What do we think Are things of this nature fit do they deserve to be confirmed with such Religious Affirmations How can we use them with what Conscience can we venture on them when the Text is so plain But let your Communication be yea yea and nay nay for what is more than these comes of evil Will you plead that you mean no evil by it How doth that excuse you might not a Papist say I mean no Idolatry by Worshipping Saints and Angels It is not what you intend but what is against the Will of God that is to be regarded in this case Christ assures you What is more than these comes of Evil. As harmless as these Asseverations seem they are Branches of an Evil Tree suckers of an Evil Root They betray a love to Evil in the Soul They discover a Heart ignorant of the Nature of the Gospel of Christ and therefore they must be left and shun'd and watch'd against for they are sinful and forbid and contrary to the mind of God There is a fondness in most Men
Gain if they lead us to secure the everlasting Inheritance The Precepts of our great Master are so order'd and so laid that the Love of this World may be rooted out of our Hearts and if this Love be truly mortify'd we are greater Gainers than if we gained the whole World and lost our own Souls It is true we would fain keep this present World and all the enjoyments of it and enjoy the bliss of the next too but he that goes by that principle reckons without his Host and will find himself miserably mistaken when he comes to set his Accounts even with the Sovereign Judge of the World To meet with ungrateful and unreasonable Men is no more than what our Master and his Disciples have met withal and to think we must fare better in this World than they is to mistake the end of our Vocation Let us do good and rejoyce in the doing of it and be confident we shall be no losers in the end He is faithful who hath promised and he will perform it too It is but a little while that we are to continue here and the great Question in the last Day will be not how Rich or how great we have been here but whether we have made Conscience of the Rules our Master hath left us Blessed are those Servants whom their Master when he comes shall find so doing Prosperity is so far from being a sign of God's Children or of our Reconciliation to God that a Christian who enjoys much of it hath very great reason to question his Spiritual Condition and Interest in Christ Jesus Not but that it 's possible to be prosperous and a true Servant of God but where there is one that is so there are multitudes that drown themselves in Destruction and Perdition I shall conclude with St. Paul's Saying 1 Tim. vi 17 18. Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the Living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good Works ready to Distribute willing to Communicate SERMON XXXIV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 43. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy FOR the right understanding of this Passage these following things will deserve Consideration I. By whom it was said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy II. How agreeable this principle is to corrupt Nature III. How contrary to the Principles of Reason and the design of Christianity IV. What is the true import of love to our Neighbour V. Whether in some sense it may not be a Duty to love our Neighbour and hate our Enemy I. By whom it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And most certainly 1. It hath not been said so by Almighty God in the Old Law we have indeed a Command Levit. xix 18 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self but we read no where Thou shalt hate thine Enemy so far from it that there are express Precepts against it as Exod. xxiii 4 5. When thou seest thine Enemies Oxe or Ass going astray thou shalt freely bring him back to him again and if thou shalt see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Besides the Law God gave the Jews was never intended as a contradiction to the Law of Nature it was to be a help to the better Observance of it but never design'd to reverse it or any part of it and we are certain the Law of Nature enjoyns no such thing but Mercy rather than Hatred to an Enemy and this is evident from hence not only because the Law of Nature bids us imitate God who is kind to the Unthankful and to the Evil but because we find that the very Heathens from the dictates of this Law of Nature have shewn Mercy even to their greatest Foes not only by giving them decent Burial after Death as Hannibal and others but also by exercising acts of Charity toward them while they were alive and therefore God it could not be that said so Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And therefore 2. If God did not say so then the Men that said and taught so must be the same Men who had corrupted several other Laws of God mention'd in this Chapter and detorted them from their original Intent and Design to accommodate them to the sinful Humours of Men and to the interest of the Flesh even the Scribes and Pharisees and their Ancestors the ancient Masters of the Oral Law who by their Traditions rendred the Law of God of none effect I have observ'd often in the preceding Discourses what false Glosses and Interpretations these Men did put upon the Sixth and Seventh Commandment and the Law of Divorces and Retaliation In like manner this Precept of loving their Neighbour could not escape their Sacrilegious Hands for as their business was to make the Moral Law of God as easie to the Flesh as they could and as they had made several Experiments of that Nature in others so they dealt with this excellent Precept Indeed many of them in Christ's Days made no great Account of this Duty for when they spoke of the summ of the Law of God they repeated part of the sixth Chapter of Deut. Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Might This they said taking no notice of the Precept of loving their Neighbour was the summ of the Law of God and this they inscrib'd and writ upon their Philacteries or Parchments they tyed to their Wrists and Foreheads Which shews that the Lawyer who came to Christ to enquire of him What he must do to inherit eternal Life Luke x. 27 was more rational than the rest for when Christ asked him how readest thou he answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self Upon which our Saviour tells him That he had answer'd right or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Mark hath it Mark xii 34 So that set aside some few judicious thinking Persons the Scribes and Pharisees in general pretending warrant from Tradition had very slight and slender Notions of loving their Neighbour and though they granted it was a Command of God and confessed their Obligation to obey it yet they had made so many restrictions of it that in effect they had render'd it very insignificant For 1. By the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Neighbour they understood a Friend or a Person that was kind to them or had obliged them the largest signification they would allow of was that of a Jew or a Person of the same Tribe and Kindred and
to prove what I intend that we are not to hate an Enemy because the Kindnesses we owe him relate only to this present Life And to this may be added that the injurious acts of an Enemy bear no proportion to the acts of Enmity we are guilty of against God and we would not have God hate us notwithstanding those Acts it follows that there is no reason for our hating an Enemy upon the account of the Injuries he doth or hath done us But this we shall have occasion to discuss more largely in the following Verses Let 's go on and IV. Enquire What is the true import of loving our Neighbour And 1. As by a Neighbour in Scripture is meant every Man that stands in need of our Help and Assistance and of whose Help and Assistance we may stand in need as appears from the Parable of the wounded Man Luk. x. 30 so Love to our Neighbour imports a faithful discharge of all the Duties of the second Table which is the reason that St. Paul affirms of this Love that it is the fulfilling of the Law because love works no ill to his Neighbour no ill to Princes no ill to Magistrates no ill to Parents or Relations no ill to High or Low Rich or Poor no not to the meanest or poorest Creature Rom. xiii 8 9 10. 2. The measure of this Love is set down by God himself Lev. xix 18 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self which properly denotes not the same degree of Love but the same Sincerity and that we are to make our Love to our selves the Rule and Standard whereby we are to Love others according to the several degrees of their Relations and the several degrees of Goodness which appear in them for no doubt we are to be kinder to a Father than to a Stranger and more officious to a good Man than to a bad one yet so that neither the greatest Strangers nor the worst of Men be altogether excluded from our Kindness or such acts of Kindness which we might rationally expect under the same Circumstances 3. This Love to our Neighbour implies not only abstinence from Wrongs and Injuries from dishonouring our Parents from Murther from Adultery from Stealing Lying bearing False-witness and from Coveting our Neighbour's Goods but all those positive acts of Charity mention'd in 1 Cor. xiii 4 5 6 7. and 1 Pet. xi 8 9 10. and Matth. xxv 35 36. And these acts must flow from inward Compassion For as the Spirit of Man is the principle of all Moral and Spiritual Acts so whatever acts of Love we exercise toward our Neighbour they must come from the Heart and from a sence of our Duty and of the Love of God and these acts must be so managed that they become not accessary to other Mens Sins for it 's no Love to Love another into Sin or sinful Compliances which is the reason that the Apostle pressing this Peace and Love to our Neighbour makes Holiness its inseparable Companion Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14 And this Love is called the Royal Law Jam. ii 8 not because the King of Kings gave it but because this Love to our Neighbour is the Queen of all Graces and he that excels in it Reigns and Rules over a Thousand Lusts and Temptations But V. May it not be in some sence a Duty to love our Neighbour and to hate an Enemy That which makes me take notice of this Point is an Observation of Origen who saith This is very good Divinity if by the Enemy we understand the Devil Though its certain that our Saviour in these words doth not directly aim at this yet it must be confessed that in this sence that loose Principle of the Pharisees may bear a very good construction Indeed the Devil is the greatest Enemy we are to hate We have renounc'd him in our Baptism and we are sworn to that Hatred Against him let 's boldly vent our Hatred even against all his Works and all his evil Suggestions which way soever they are presented to us whether by the Flesh or by the World or by Evil Men. Here we need move no Scruples no Cases of Conscience how far we may lawfully hate the Devil We are to hate him with a perfect Hatred and express it by Trembling and by abhorrency of all that 's pleasing to him or offensive to God It 's true we see not the Devil but we feel him and whatever Evil Thought or Desire or Motion appears in our Minds let 's firmly conclude it comes either directly or indirectly from that Enemy To this Enemy no kindness is to be shewn No League no Peace no Confederacy no not so much as a Truce is to be made with him with him we are to wage War continually He is no Subject capable of making Peace with for Peace with him is Enmity against God wounding our own Soul destroying the peace of our Consciences and descending into the Chambers of Hell Inferences 1. If we take a view of the Manners of Men in the Age we live in one would think that the Pharisees are still alive and instill the same Principle into them that they did into their Disciples in Christ's Days viz. Love your Friends and hate your Enemies For the Actions of Men are so exactly conformable to this Rule that if a Man were to measure Christ's Religion by the Practices of his Followers he might go near to inferr that Christ taught this Doctrine as well as the Pharisees To hate an Enemy we look upon to be a very just and reasonable thing and do him all the ill Offices as we have occasion to speak Evil of him to Reproach him to Calumniate him to invent Lyes of him and to Report them too we generally make so light of that we wonder at the Man that offers to exhort us to better Principles Among Heathens and Infidels this would not look very strange among Men who never heard of a Jesus or of the Gospel this might pass though there is something even in the voice of Nature which might teach them better things but among Christians who talk and sing and speak every Day of God's loving them when they were his Enemies this is a huge Paradox Christ exercised the greatest acts of Love toward us in dying for us when we were Enemies we confess it and our Churches ring of these glad Tidings How easie would be the Inference Hath God loved me when I was his Enemy and shall I hate my Fellow-Christian because I look upon him as mine Enemy Is this my acknowledgement of God's Love Is this to express my gratitude for his Goodness Had God Compassion on me when I was his Enemy and shall I have none on mine Was God's Love to me intended as a Pattern for me to follow and shall I overlook the Design and please my self in my Hatred and Ill-nature I am moved by the Examples of
great Men by the Examples of good Men by the Examples of my ordinary Neighbours and shall the greatest Example the Example of God the Example of Christ Jesus make no impression upon me How easie a matter were it to draw such Inferences from what we believe and what a damp would this be to our Hatred And yet to see how careless how regardless we are of it and in despight of this great Example which we commend and magnifie justifie our Animosities against those whom we look upon to be our Enemies would make a Rational Man conclude and very justly too that whatever we pretend or talk of we do not believe that Christ died for us when we were God's Enemies What believe it and have no sence of it or if we have a sence of it not to gather our Duty from it Would any Man think that we are of the number of those Believers we read of Heb. xi Their Belief affected and wrought upon their Hearts and put them upon Heroick Actions and as God had done by them so they did by others This puts me in mind of the Justice of that Expostulation and the Proceedings we read of Matth. xviii 32 33 34. Then his Lord after he had called him said unto him O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that Debt because thou desiredst me Shouldst not thou also have had Compassion on thy Fellow-Servant even as I had pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and deliver'd him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Do you make the Application II. Though the Law of Moses enjoyn'd this Precept To love our Neighbour as our selves yet the Gospel presses it much more and in greater Instances too As by our Neighbours in the Gospel are meant not only our nearest Friends and Relatives not only those who dwell near us and about us not only those of the same Church and Religion with us but all our Fellow Christians and all Persons who were redeemed with the Blood of Jesus so our Love is to extend to all these and especially to them of the Houshold of Faith To this purpose St. Peter Honour all Men Love the Brotherhood Indeed this Love to our Fellow Christians the Apostles press with more than ordinary Fervour They lay the stress of Religion upon it and when they would describe Christians who thrive under the Showers and Irrigations of the Gospel they say That their Faith grows exceedingly and the Charity of every one toward each other abounds 2 Thess. i. 3 This was the distinguishing Character of the Primitive Believers and their Love one to another their dear their tender their affectionate Love one to another was taken notice of beyond any other Vertue whatsoever They called themselves Brethren and Sisters and by the Brotherhood or Fraternity they meant the Christian Church as appears from Clemens Romanus Their Hospitality their Candour their Veracity their Beneficence were the wonder of all Spectators Their tenderness to the Afflicted to Prisoners to Captives to the Sick and the Lame to the Ignorant and to their very Enemies was unspeakable insomuch that Julian the Apostate saw there was no way to propagate Heathenism like that of imitating Christians in their Works and Labours of Love and Charity Hereby shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another and so it was in those purer Ages and they were known more by their mutual Love than by their talking of Christ Jesus How is this Character inverted at this Day and one may say Hereby do all Men know who are Christians even by their hating one another I know not which is the harder Task whether Love to God or to our Neighbour Sure I am that many who pretend great love to God are strangely defective in their love to their Neighbours What a stir do many Men make about Religion and yet make nothing of Slandering Abusing Deriding Undervaluing their Neighbours My Brethren Doth a Fountain at the same place send forth bitter Water and sweet Indeed none is so fit to love God dearly as he that doth exercise himself very much in Love to his Neighbour It 's true one must help the other and Love to God must Influence that to our Neighbours but still great acts of Love to our Neighbours are the best Preparatives for high degrees of Love to God The Branches of this Love to our Neighbours are many and various and he who abounds in these acts of Love gets a Holy assurance that he is neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord How do we confine our Love to little Sects and Parties and from hence comes that bitterness of Spirit of one Party against another and how hard is it to find a Christian of a truly Catholick Love and Charity When shall we be wiser When shall that pristine Unity and Purity return When shall that admirable Spirit which shined so bright in the primitive Believers revive again Lord When shall thy Kingdom come that the whole Multitude which Believe shall be of one Heart and of one Soul The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that hears say Come Come thou God of Love thou Prince of Peace thou lover of Concord and Unity Come Amen even so come Lord Jesu SERMON XXXV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you MArcellinus writing to St. Austin tells him That the great Stumbling-Blocks which lay in the way of the Heathens of his Time especially of the wittier sort and hindred them from embracing Christianity were chiefly these three the Incarnation of our Lord the meanness of his Miracles which they thought those of Apollonius Tyanaeus did equal and the Prescriptions of the Text Love your Enemies bless them that curse you c. Not to meddle with their first and second Head this last particularly they could not digest they look'd upon 't as obliging Men to work Miracles and thought it in a manner as easie to snatch a Man from the Embraces of the Grave as to receive an Enemy into their own What! Love an Enemy He might as well have bid us swallow Poyson and take Toads and Vipers into our Bosoms What! Love a Man that hath sought my Life Caress a Wretch that hath attempted to ravish the pledges of my Love Take him into my Arms that hath endeavour'd to snatch from me the dearest Blessings I enjoy He might as well have bid us pull up Mountains by the Roots transplant Islands touch the Sun with our Fingers and empty the Waters of the Ocean Indeed this seems to be the highest step of Christianity and he that is arrived to an habitual observance of this Rule may not unfitly be said to be come to the top of the Mount of God But still whatever noise be
Office of a Magistrate is not superseded by this Command Nor 3. Doth this Law of loving our Enemies forbid us reproving an Enemy for the Sins he involves himself in by hating us much less doth it import that we are to love his Sins and Follies or flatter him in his Undecencies and Insolencies There is no doubt we may lawfully tell him of his Faults in a meek and rational way and seek to reduce him to a better Temper and in doing so we do nothing against that Love we owe him so far from it that it is an Argument of Hatred not to Rebuke him Lev. xix 17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Nor 5. Doth this Command import that we are to make an Enemy our Bosom Friend to whom we are to unburden our selves and make him acquainted with the Secrets of our Souls Friendship in this strict sence is Master of Discretion more than Duty nor is our Love to our Enemies prejudic'd by not making them Friends in this sence Indeed if by the Coals of Fire we heap upon their Heads if by the warmer kindnesses we shew them we melt them into a tractable and docible Temper and then prove occasions of their becoming new Men we may if we see it convenient raise our Love Unto a higher degree even to that of Friendship and make him that was an Enemy as our own Soul but while he is an Enemy he is not a Subject capable of entring into the Bond of Friendship with him except by Friendship we mean the acts of Love hereafter mention'd 6. As an Enemy is a Person who cherisheth a secret Spleen and Malice against us in his Heart and as occasion serves vents and expresses it either in his Words or Actions either by Reviling or Abusing us or doing Unkindnesses or attempting to Betray or Bespatter or to Ruine and Undoe us in which sence even a Husband a Wife and the nearest Relatives may be Enemies so this Love we owe them imports an inward Affection to them even Bowels of Mercy and Compassion and a certain tenderness within The acts whereby our Love to them is to be expressed must have some Root and that Root must be the Heart the true seat of Love and let no Man plead here that Love arising from the agreeableness of the Object it 's impossible there should be any real Love in the Heart toward an Enemy because of the disagreeableness of the Object to our Temper and Contrariety to our Humour and Interest for though there may be no agreeableness with respect to the Wrong he doth or hath done us yet there are other Respects and those more weighty and of greater Concernment in which a likeness and similitude appear and consequently a suitable Foundation for this Love For 1. He is God's Creature and so are we 2. He is a Man and so are we 3. He is a Neighbour still nor doth the Wrong he doth us deprive him of that Relation 4. May be he is a Christian too and professes the same Faith the same God the same Jesus and the same Religion all which Respects make even an Enemy an agreeable Object of our Love Nay his very Enmity doth formally dispose and qualifie him for our Love for the nature of Love is That it is not easily provoked 1 Cor. xiii 5 And I need not tell you that Men are not provoked by Kindnesses but by Injurious Acts and these being the acts of an Enemy Love not being easily provoked by such acts the Enemy must be a very proper object of our Love But let 's go on and consider II. The particular acts of this Love or whereby this Love is to be expressed And the first is 1. Bless them that curse you This is to give good Language for bad kind Answers for Revilings praising the good that is in the Enemy for his denying that there is any in our selves and gracious Wishes for his base and horrid Imprecations The Apostles did so for being reviled we bless being defamed we entreat saith St. Paul 1 Cor. iv 13 This look'd great What a lovely excellent sight was this How pleasing to God how pleasing to Angels how pleasing to all rational and understanding Men Do but take a serious view of it you your selves cannot but like it approve of it and commend it What harmony what beauty what sweetness what evenness what perfection must there be in such a Soul What a command over his Passions must we suppose in such a Person and can any thing look more stately and magnificent And if there be such beauty in it why are not we enamour'd with it Why should we think much of it to cry God bless you when the Enemy cries God damn you Is not the one as easily said as the other and is there not far greater satisfaction in the one than in the other What if the brutish Man do curse us what hurt can his Cursing do us while we do not answer him according to his Folly The Curse may fall on his own Head but cannot singe a Hair of ours His ill Language doth it not look very odious in him and doth it change its Face or Nature if we use it by way of Retaliation Can that be lovely in us which all Men take to be deformity in him Doth not the Enemy sin grievously against God when he doth Revile or Curse us And shall not we be concern'd at his Sin How are we concern'd if we do not mourn for it How do we mourn for it if we do not pity him How do we pity him if we do not endeavour to reform him How shall we reform him except we shew him a good Example How can we shew him a good Example if we do not let him see that there is a better Spirit in us And how shall he be convinc'd of that if we do not return soft Answers for his rough and insolent ones even Blessings for Curses Such Christian returns God blesses sometimes with Conversion of the Enemy and thinks himself concern'd to reward the Self-denial with an extraordinary Providence To this purpose Moschus tells us That three Religious Men Travelling and losing their way and thereupon belated were forc'd to lie down on the Ground the Night coming on and the Sky growing very dark But so it happen'd that ignorantly they laid themselves down at the edge or corner of a Corn-field whereby they pressed a portion of Corn on the Ground Early in the Morning the Owner of the Field coming by and seeing what was done began to be in a Passion and cursed them bitterly saying You Religious Men if you had had the fear of God before you you would not have done so The innocent Men let him run on and then with all gentleness imaginable told him Truly you say right if we had had the fear of God before us we should never have done so
Fashions that will make you Masters of this Love No the School of the Cross teaches this Self-denial and the Sacrament is that School There a Crucify'd Saviour dying for his Enemies is seen and what were all his Prayers and Tears and Agonies but kindnesses to Enemies These we contemplate in this Ordinance at least they come to very little purpose that approach not with this Consideration Here to see his Love and Charity spread and diffuse it self with all the acts of Love my Text speaks of and to believe all this must needs help to melt the Heart and make us willing to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them which despitefully use us Let the Soul walk about the Cross and think Behold the Son of God whom I have promised to follow and to imitate even he who bleeds on the Cross he blessed me that had cursed him did good to me that had hated him and pray'd for me that had despitefully used him If I am not like him how shall I be washed with his Blood The Language of the Gospel is that I must be conformable to his Image and chang'd into it and tread in his Steps if I mean to be partaker of his Merits and shall not I consider the importance of this Truth and contrive that the same Mind may be in me which was also in Christ Jesus Thy Death sweet Jesu must do it Thy Death must kill my Hatred and my Rages Thy Love must burn that dross away and whenever my unruly Passions rise against my Enemy I 'll tâ—row the whole weight of thy Love upon them that they may be crush'd to Death and expire I conclude with a Passage of St. John and the rather because he was the great Preacher of this Love and St. Jerom takes notice that when he was very old and his Disciples came to visit him still he would say My little Children love one another and being ask'd why he did repeat this so often he said This is all Love one another as you ought to do it is enough you need no more I conclude I say with 1 John ii 9 10 11. He that saith he is in the Light and hateth his Brother is in Darkness even until now He that loves his Brother abideth in the Light and there is none occasion of Stumbling in him But he that hateth his Brother is in Darkness and walketh in Darkness and knows not whither he goes because that Darkness hath blinded his Eyes SERMON XXXVI St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 45. That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he makes the Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and Unjust OUR Saviour having in the two foregoing Verses endeavour'd to rectifie the wilful Mistakes of Men the Jews especially about loving their Neighbours and hating their Enemies confuted their false Maxims and Notions establish'd a standing Law among his Followers and charged them as they hop'd for the everlasting Kingdom he promised and proclaim'd to love their Enemies to bless them that curse them to do good to them that hate them c. He lays down some Motives and Arguments in the Text which he thought would prevail with rational and considerate Men and such who had a serious sence of God and another Life prevail I mean if seriously thought of and consider'd and ponder'd in the Heart It 's thinking that puts Men upon Action and we see with what violence and vehemence Men fall to work if they apprehend in it something that 's profitable or pleasant or preservative from Evil and indeed in in so great a work as loving our Enemies and doing good to them that hate us a work so contrary to corrupt Nature and the receiv'd Customs of Men the motives must not be survey'd slightly or superficially but so regarded that no Objection no Temptation of Flesh and Blood may stop or hinder the Votary from doing so Carnal Men may fancy that no Motive can be strong enough to effect it but if it were so our blessed Master would have been under a great Mistake which is impossible yea let God be true and every Man a Lyar. He knew they would prevail and no doubt they will prevail with Men who are ambitious of things unseen ambitious of the invisible future Glory ambitious of being Children of their Father which is in Heaven for so we read That you may be Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he lets the Sun rise upon the Evil and the Good and sendeth Rain upon the Just and Unjust Concerning the Phrases and Expressions of the Text I have only this to observe That for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children some ancient Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like your Father which is in Heaven which it 's probable was at first only a Marginal Note and was afterward by the Transcribers put into the Text. However the sence is the same and to be Children is to be like our Father which is in Heaven In Heaven not that he is confined to that place for he is not far from every one of us Act. xvii 27 and The Heaven even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee saith Solomon 1 Kings viii 27 And whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there if I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost Parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me saith David Psal. cxxxix 7 8 9. yet he is in Heaven because there is his Court his Palace his Throne where he manifests himself in a most signal manner and his Power Goodness Mercy Influences are felt and dispensed there infinitely beyond what is known here on Earth This is all I think necessary to observe concerning the Expressions used here The more material things may be resolv'd into these following Propositions I. Men are made Children of God not born so II. The great design of the Gospel is to make us like God like our Father which is in Heaven III. The greatness and vastness of God's Bounty is to be seen in his letting the Sun rise upon the Evil and the Good and sending Rain upon the Just and Unjust I. Men are not born Children of God but made so That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven which shews there is something to be done that they may become God's Children and come into the World with that Privilege Indeed if we consider God as the Original Cause of all things as in him we all live and move and have our being and as of one Blood he hath made all Nations of Men in that respect he is the Father of us all and all are his Children and born so But I do
this mean Spirit of theirs as being contrary to this natural Principle of loving those who love us 3. The same may be said of all Persons who have been signally oblig'd by others and yet can hardly afford a good Word to those from whom they have receiv'd such signal Kindness but carried away by Faction or Interest speak Evil of them and Revile them would to God such Persons were as rare among us as African Monsters are but even of such ungrateful Wretches the Age we live in gives us too many Instances David complained of them long ago Yea mine own familiar Friend in whom I trusted and who did eat of my Bread hath lift up his Heel against me Psal. xxi 9 and could any thing be more base or barbarous than for Herod to go about to kill Christ who had purged his Country of Devils and Diseases Luke xiii 31 And was it not a most Inhumane Attempt for those very Soldiers whose Lives St. Paul preserv'd from Shipwrack to consult to kill him with the rest of the Prisoners Acts xxvii 42 43. And it seems this wicked Generation doth last still And what shall I say more we cannot without Grief behold the many bold Offences which are committed daily against this Principle of Nature even in those Relations the very Name of which speaks mutual and reciprocal Kindnesses such as Husband and Wife Brothers and Sisters Masters and Servants c. who would suspect Unkindness among those Relatives to those especially who study and seek their Good and are more than ordinarily concern'd to express their Love and Respect to them and in whose Mouth is the Law of Kindness yet even in this Grass the Serpent lies and the Snake doth hiss After all the Rich and Great offend against this Law such I mean as are Morose and Proud and Self-conceited and do not think a poor Neighbour their Brother in Christ worthy of a civil Salutation a Civility not denied by Heathens and Publicans to the meanest of their Brethren and of this nature are those false Salutations and pretended Civilities of dissembling and Hypocrital Men such as Joab and others whose Words are softer than Butter but War is in their Hearts who seem indeed to love those who love them but it is from the Teeth outward for they hate them within There needs no Gospel to condemn such bold and daring Sinners The light of Nature will serve to do it though it is confess'd that the Gospel under which they live and which teaches them greater and better things will help to aggravate both their Sin and Punishment And this will justifie our third Enquiry III. How Men come to sink so low so much beneath Heathens and Publicans as to act against this natural Principle And 1. They have very weak dull and dark apprehensions of the worth and nature of Christianity and indeed of any Religion some Religion or other they must profess and since Providence lets them stumble upon the Christian they embrace it but cansider not what it imports how holy its Precepts are how rich its Promises how ample its Advantages how clear its Revelations how great its Excellencies and how justly it requires greater Strictnesses than either Judaism or Heathenism or any other Religion in the World This Consideration would make them dread offending against the Law of Nature and make them asham'd to think that they who are bound to do more than others should not do so much as others These things being no Objects of their Thoughts they have a very low Opinion of the Religion they profess and therefore are not concern'd nor frighted if they fall below the Grandeur of it lower than Heathens and Publicans and consequently do not love those who love them 2. Their Lusts are stronger than their Religion This natural Principle of loving those who love them is agreeable enough to their Reason and Speculation but some predominant Lust either Avarice or Ambition or Pride or Envy or Lasciviousness or Delight in vain Company or something their sickly Desires crave and which they fancy their reciprocal Love would hinder them from some such Lust I say reigning and domineering within it damps and drowns that reciprocal Love they owe to those that love them A Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed saith St. James Ch. i. 14 As natural as it is to be kind to those who are so to us yet if a Man gives way to some violent Lust or Desire and le ts that have the upper-hand it will draw and force the Man away from the most easie and most familiar and most rational Duty whatsoever Not to mention that if the Party who is or hath been kind be defective in one Act if after nineteen Kindnesses he fail to do the twentieth This shall be thought by such Persons an Argument sufficient to justifie their want of reciprocal Love and Affection But this shews the disingenuity of their Temper and that an Evil Spirit hath taken Possession of their Hearts and committed a Rape upon the dictates of their Reason and Understanding And thus Men come to act against Principles which even Heathens and Publicans do observe Inferences I. I observe here That Religion is not intended to make Men Clownish and Uncivil For our Saviour in the Text supposes saluting our Brethren to be not only Lawful but a natural Duty which God expects of Men as Men. Indeed he would have us do more than this comes to and extends it even to Enemies and to Persons who have wrong'd affronted and abus'd us but he doth not deny the lawfulness of it but establishes this lower Duty which even Heathens and Publicans count reasonable And therefore that Sect which places Religion in forbearing all external Salutations sins against a natural Duty The Gospel doth not abolish but exalt all natural Duties and sets them in a brighter Light and that therefore if saluting our Brethren or Fellow Christians be a natural Duty it must be much more a Christian Duty so that the Spirit of the Hat seems rather a Spirit of Pride and Delusion than the Spirit of God which inclines the Soul to Assability Courteousness and Civility and Respect to Superiors Nor must the condescention of Superiors to the meanest Capacity or their Humility make us lay aside the Respect we owe them for this is to give occasion that the way of Truth is Evil spoken of and to bring an Evil report upon the good Land It 's true in Christ we are all equal with respect to the Privileges and Advantages that come by Christ they being promised or tender'd to all but that doth not destroy the external Respect Obeisance and Civility we owe to Persons of different Ranks and Qualities or to Men whom Providence hath raised above the common level in Church or State I grant the Men of this World will call that Clownishness when a good Man will not drink with them nor comply with their Sensualities
but reproves them either for their Oaths or other Sensualities But that Clownishness if it must be call'd so is a Duty Notwithstanding this we may preserve the respect due to their Places and Elevations in the World as we see in St. Paul who though he did not comply with the Sins of Ananias the High-Priest and of Festus the Governour yet paid them the respect their Stations and the Figure they made in the World requir'd II. The Text teaches us how we are to aggravate our Sins in our confessions to God To commit Sins which the very Heathens and Publicans condemn and abhor must needs be very dreadful in a Christian because he Sins against the very Principles of Nature In the same manner to neglect that which Heathens and Publicans by the light of Nature do find and affirm and observe as necessary must make the omission exceeding black in a Christian because he is without excuse And therefore if any of us have been unkind disobliging ill-nanatur'd cross and surly and morose to those who are kind and loving and tender and charitable to us let 's not make light of the Sin which is so much the greater by how much it is condemn'd by Heathens and Publicans Christians the Gospel obliges you to love your Enemies and will not ye love your Friends Not to love your Enemies will bring the Wrath of God upon you how much more your not loving those who love you The neglect of the more difficult Task will make you miserable and will not neglect of the easier cover your Faces with Confusion Intemperance Drunkenness Cheating Defrauding Lying Extortion Profaneness c. are condemn'd by the very Heathens and will you from whom greater Vertues are expected defile your selves with such Sins as these The brighter the Light is the greater is the Sin and therefore a Christian who lives under a higher Dispensation if he neglects that which the lesser was sufficient to instruct him in Sins with a witness for he Sins in the midst of Sun-shine In our Confessions therefore such Sins must be particularly deplor'd as exceeding others in heinousness And O! let the greatness of the Sin fright us for ever from venturing upon the like again and let 's bless God that there is yet hopes of Mercy and Vertue the Efficacy in the Blood of Jesus to wash away Sins which bring more than ordinary Guilt upon the Soul III. Since it is so unnatural and irrational a thing not to love those who love us behold how irrational and unnatural a thing it must be not to love God who loves us and hath loved us into Miracles and Prodigies Hath not he loved us Dares any say he hath not If he hath not loved us what do our Praises signifie Why do we praise him as it is in our Liturgy for our Creation Preservation and all the Blessings of this Life Why do we publickly and privately praise him above all things for the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ for the means of Grace and for the hope of Glory Are not these signs of Love Can there be greater Characters of his Love Do not we own and confess and acknowledge that these are certain marks of Love But why Christian why art thou so unkind to that God who hath loved thee thus He keeps thee he watches over thee he is thy Sun and thy Shield thy Shade on thy right Hand daily and hourly he showers down Blessings upon thee and all the Evils that befall other Men and which thou art preserved from it 's he that preserves thee from them But why so disrespectful to that God who incircles and crowns thee with loving kindnesses and tender Mercies Art not thou unkind to him when thou sin'st against him Art not thou disrespectful to him when thou wilfully do'st that which he protests in his Word is abomination in his Eyes What Iniquity do'st thou find in him that a God so tender and so kind cannot attract or charm thy Heart into reciprocal Love Why wilt thou suffer that Tongue of thine to vent it self in frothy and corrupt Communications which was given thee to sing his Praises Why wilt thou dishonour him with those Creatures which were intended for thy use and refreshment Why wilt thou make those Members of thy Body Instruments of Unrighteousness which were intended to be Instruments of Holiness Why wilt thou make thy Soul a sink and sty of impure and noisome Lusts which was intended to be a Temple of the Holy Ghost Why wilt thou make those Mercies thou enjoyest Weapons to fight against him which were intended as silken Strings to lead thee to his Banqueting-House the Banner whereof is Love He draws thee with Cords of Love was ever greater gentleness used toward a Child and canst thou find in thy Heart to grieve such Bowels of Compassion Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewn to us that we should be called the Children of God and is this your gratitude to make your selves Children of Hell and Heirs of Damnation There is that in the Love of God which would be an Antidote against all Sins whatsoever had'st thou but Courage to remember that Love and to set it before thee in lively Characters Joseph remembred God lov'd him and he resolutely resists the Charms of his Mistress How can I saith he commit this Wickedness and Sin against God Christian were the Love of God seriously remembred and thought of thou could'st not Sin To offend him would go as much against thee as drinking Poyson or a draught of Gall and Wormwood We talk a thousand great Things of Love what Power it hath to charm rational Souls Sirs God hath given you rational Souls and you are sensible there is no Love so great so amazing so wonderful as the Love of God to your Souls and Bodies I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercies of God by the Love of God by the Charity of our Lord Jesus Christ that you present your Souls and Bodies living Sacrifices Holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service Amen SERMON XXXIX St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 48. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect THat no Man may be offended at this Command of Perfection which some think utterly impossible on this side Heaven and others do as vainly boast of as if they were arrived to it Give me leave to tell you that it 's no unusual thing in Scripture to meet with Exhortations of that Nature It was God's Order to Abraham Gen. xvii 1 Walk before me and be thou perfect and it seems it is the design of the Gospel and of the preaching of it that we may present every one perfect in Christ Jesus Coloss. i. 28 And to this purpose was the Prayer of Euphrates for the same Colossians That they might stand perfect and compleat in all the Will of God Col. iv 12 And accordingly St. Paul entreats treats the