restraints of fear and shame are taken off and every breath of a temptation is strong enough to overthrow the Carnally minded The purest and noblest Chastity is from a principle of Duty within not constrain'd by the apprehension of discovery and severity 4. The Continuance of the temptation she spake to him day by day Her Complexion was lust and impudence and his repeated denials were ineffectual to quench her incensed desires the black fire that darkned her mind She caught him by the garment saying Lye with me she was ready to prostitute her self and ravish him 5. The Person tempted Joseph in the flower of his age the season of sensuality when innumerable by the force and swing of tâ—eir vicious appetites are impell'd to break the holy Law of God 6. His Repulse of the temptation was strong and pereâ—â—tory How can I do this great wickedness He felt no sympathy nâ— sensual tenderness but exprest an impossibility of consenting to her guilty desire We have in Joseph exemplified that property of the Regenerate He that is born of God cannot sin by a sacred potent instinct in his brest he is preserved not only from the consummate acts but recoils from the first offers to it 7. The Reasons are specified of his rejecting her polluting motion Behold my Master knows not what is with me in the House and he hath committed all that he hath to my Hands there is none greater in his House than I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou art his Wife How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God 'T was a complicated crime of injustice and uncleanness a most injurious violation of the strongest tyes of duty and gratitude to his Master and of the sacred marriage Covenant to her Husband and the foulest blot to their persons Therefore how can I commit a sin so contrary to natural Conscience and supernatural grace and provoke God Thus I have briefly considered the narrative of Josephs temptation and that Divine grace preserved him unspotted from that contagious fire may be resembled to the miraculous preserving the three Hebrew Martyrs unsinged in the midst of the flaming furnace The patience of Job and the Chastity of Joseph are transmitted by the Secretaries of the Holy Ghost in Scripture to be in perpetual remembrance and admiration From this singular instance of Joseph who was neither seduced by the allurements of his Mistriss nor terrified by the rage of her despis'd affection to sin against God I shall observe two general Points I. That temptations to sin how alluring soever or terrifying ought to be rejected with abhorrenc II. That the fear of God is a sure defence and guard against the strongest temptation I will explain and prove the first and only speak a little of the second in a branch of the Application I. That temptations to sin how alluring soever or terrifying are to be rejected with abhorrence There will be Convincing proof of this by considering two Things 1. That sin in its Nature prescinding from the train of woful effects is the greatest Evil. 2. That Relatively to us it is the most pernicious destructive Evil. 1. That sin considered in it self is the greatest Evil. This will be evident by considering the general Nature of it as directly opposite to God the supreme good The definition of sin expresses its essential Evil 't is the transgression of the Divine Law and consequently opposes the rights of Gods Throne and obscures the Glory of his Attributes that are exercis'd in the Moral Government of the World God as Creator is our King our Lawgiver and Judge From his propriety in us arises his just title to Sovereign Power over us Psal 100. Know ye that the Lord he is God 't is he that made us not we our selves we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture The Creatures of a lower order are uncapable of distinguishing between Moral Good and Evil and are determin'd by the weight of Nature to what is merely sensible and therefore are uncapable of a Law to regulate their choice But Man who is endowed with the powers of Understanding and Election to conceive and choose what is Good and reject what is Evil is govern'd by a Law the declared will of his Maker accordingly a Law the rule of his Obedience was written in his Heart Now sin the transgression of this Law contains many great Evils 1. Sin is a Rebellion against the Sovereign Majesty of God that gives the life of Authority to the Law Therefore Divine Precepts are enforced with the most proper and binding motives to obedience I am the Lord. He that with purpose and pleasure commits sin implicitly renounces his dependance upon God as his Maker and Governor over-rules the Law and arrogates an irresponsible license to do his own will This is exprest by those Atheistical designers who said Psal i2 4 With our Tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us The Language of Actions that is more natural and convincing than of Words declares that sinful Men despise the Commands of God as if they were not his Creatures and Subjects What a dishonour what a displeasure is it to the God of glory that proud dust should fly in his Face and controule his Authority Daniel 7.10 Psal 103.20 He has ten thousand times ten thousand Angels that are high in dignity and excel in strength waiting in a posture of reverence and observance about his Throne ready to do his will How provoking is it for a despicable Worm to contravene his Law and lift his Hand against him It will be no excuse to plead the Commands of Men for sin for as much as God is more glorious than Men so much more are his Commands to be respected and obeyed than Mens When there is an evident opposition between the Laws of Men and of God we must disobey our Superiours tho' we displease them and obey our Supreme Ruler He that does what is forbidden or neglects to do what is Commanded by the Divine Law to please Men tho' invested with the highest Sovereignty on Earth is guilty of double wickedness of impiety in debasing God and idolatry in deifying Men. It is an extreme aggravation of this Evil in that sin as it is a disclaiming our homage to God so 't is in true account a yielding subjection to the Devil For sin is in the strictest propriety his work The original rebellion in Paradise was by his temptation and all the actual and habitual sins of Men since the fall are by his efficacious influence He darkens the carnal mind 2 Cor. 4.4 and sways the polluted will he excites and inflames the vicious affections Ephes 2.2 and imperiously rules in the Children of disobedience He is therefore stiled the Prince and god of this World And what more contumelious indignity can there be than the preferring to the glorious Creator of Heaven
Favour of God he is eminently precious Who can break the Constraints of such Love If there be a spark of reason or a grain of unfeigned Faith in us We must judge that if one died for all then all were dead and those that live should live to his Glory who died for their Salvation Add to this that in the Sufferings of Christ there is the clearest Demonstration of the Evil of 〈◊〉 and how hateful it is to God if we consider the Dignity of his Person the Greatness of his Sufferings and the innocent recoilings of his humane Nature from such fearful Sufferings He was the eternal Son of God the Heir of his Fathers Love and Glory the Lord of Angels he suffered in his Body the most ignominious and painful Death being nail'd to the Cross in the sight of the World The Sufferings of his Soul were incomparably more afflicting For though heavenly Meek he indured the Derision and cruel Violence of his Enemies with a silent Patience yet in the dark Eclipse of his Fathers Countenance in the desolate state of his Soul the Lamb of God opened his Mouth in that mournful Complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His innocent Nature did so recoil from those fearful Sufferings that with repeated ardency of Affection he deprecated that bitter Cup Abba Father all things are possible to thee let this cup pass from me He address'd to the Divine Power and Love the Attributes that relieve the Miserable yet he drank off the dregs of the Cup of Gods Wrath. Now we may from hence conclude how great an Evil Sin is that could not be expiated by a meaner Sacrifice then the offering up the Soul of Christ to atone incensed Justice and no lower a Price than the Blood of the Son of God the most unvaluable Treasure could Ransom Men who were devoted to Destruction 4. The consideration of the evil of sin in it self and to us should excite us with a holy circumspection to keep our selves from being defiled with it 'T is our indispensable duty our transcendent interest to obey the Divine Law entirely and constantly The tempter cannot present any motives that to a rectified mind are sufficient to induce a consent to sin and offend God Let the scales be even and put into one all the delights of the senses all the pleasures and honours of the World which are the Elements of carnal felicity how light are they against the enjoyment of the blessed God in glory Will the gain of this perishing World compensate the loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between empty deluding vanities and celestial happiness the choice would be more difficult and the mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the comparison so that to commit the least sin that makes us liable to the forfeiture of Heaven for the pleasures of sin that are but for a season is madness in that degree that no words can express Suppose the tempter inspires his Rage into his Slaves and tries to constrain us to Sin by Persecution how unreasonable is it to be dismayed at the Threatnings of Men who must dye and who can only touch the Body and to despise the terrors of the Lord who lives for ever and can punish for ever Methinks we should look upon the perverted raging World as a swarm of angry Flies that may disquiet but cannot hurt us Socrates when unrighteously prosecuted to Death said of his Enemies with a Courage becoming the Breast of a Christian They may Kill me but cannot Hurt me How should these Considerations raise in us an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against the Tempter in all his Approaches and Addresses to us And that we may so resist him as to cause his flight from us let us imitate the excellent Saint whose Example is set before us 1. By possessing the Soul with a lively and solemn Sense of Gods Presence who is the Inspector and Judge of all our Actions Joseph repell'd the Temptation with this powerful Thought How shall I sin against God The fear of the Lord is clean 't is a watchful Sentinel that resists Temptations without and suppresses Corruptions within 'T is like the Cherubim plac'd with a flaming Sword in Paradise to prevent the Re-entry of Adam when guilty and polluted For this end we must by frequent and serious Considerations represent the Divine Being and Glory in our Minds that there may be a gracious Constitution of Soul this will be our Preservative from Sin for although the habitual thoughts of God are not always in act yet upon a Temptation they are presently excited and appear in the view of Conscience and are effectual to make us reject the Tempter with Defiance and Indignation This holy Fear is not a meer judicial Impression that restrains from Sin for the dreadful Punishment that follows for that servile affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the Eruption of a Lust into the gross act yet it does not renew the Nature and make us Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct affection to it Besides a meer servile Fear is repugnant to Nature and will be expell'd if possible Therefore that we may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long we must regard him in his endearing Attributes his Love his Goodness and Compassion his rewarding Mercy and this will produce a filial Fear of Reverence and Caution lest we should offend so gracious a God As the natural Life is preserved by grateful Food not by Aloes and Wormwood which are useful Medicines so the Spiritual Life is maintained by the comfortable Apprehensions of God as the Rewarder of our Fidelity in all our Trials 2. Strip Sin of its Disguises wash off its flattering Colours that you may see its native Ugliness Joseph's reply to the Tempter How shall I do this great wickedness Illusion and Concupiscence are the Inducements to Sin When a Lust represents the Temptation as very alluring and hinders the Reflection of the mind upon the intrinsick and consequential Evil of Sin 't is like the putting Poison into the Glass but when it has so far corrupted the mind that Sin is esteemed a small Evil Poison is thrown into the Fountain If we consider the Majesty of the Law-giver there is no Law small nor Sin small that is the Transgression of it Yet the most are secure in an evil course by conceits that their Sins are small 'T is true there is a vast difference between Sins in their nature and Circumstances there are insensible Omissions and accusing Acts but the least is Damnable Besides the allowance and number of Sins reputed small will involve under intolerable Guilt What is lighter than a grain of Sand you may blow away a hundred with a Breath and what is heavier than a heap of Sand condenst together 'T is our Wisdom and Duty to consider the Evil of Sin
the World shall see that in due time he will overturn them all That yea that throne shall have fellowship with God which doth punish mischief by a Law We have had for some considerable time a great deal of discourse about Penal Laws and men have been much divided in their sentiments and apprehensions concerning them for my part I think that Nation is extreamly deficient which is altogether without them the Hedge of it is taken away the Wall of it is broken and it will easily be troden down But I heartily wish and pray that all Penal Laws may be framed according to the mind of the Supream Law-giver Let the ax be whetted as sharp as it should be so that its edge be once turn'd and always kept the right way Spare neither odious Idolatry nor unsociable Popery nor damnable Heresy nor destructive prophaneness but under your shadow let Religion Truth and the Power of godliness live and a Scriptural Reformation grow and be carried on towards its perfection Fourthly Let righteous and good Laws that are made have their free course and the Sword of Justice be drawn and not suffered to lye rusting in the Scabbard as it will certainly do when put into the hand of a careless Gallio or of persons that allow themselves in the Commission of those sins which the Law condemns or in the hand of those that have not something of courage and a greatness of Spirit Justice at all times is not to be expected from a wicked and debauched Person or a Coward A fearful Magistrate or Civil Officer in a City Town or Countrey is as bad and as great an absurdity as a timorous and white-liver'd Souldier in the Field for as the one will fly before a Bullet so will the other fall before a frown and so while his heart fails him the hand of justice grows feeble His fear will sometimes keep him from doing of that which is right and at other times it will put him upon the doing of that which is wrong This was the cause of Pilates miscarriage and made way for the unjust condemnation and Crucifixion of the best and holiest the greatest and most glorious person in the World our dear Lord Jesus The Jews indeed were madly set for his death but Pilates wife sent him this message Have thou nothing to do with that just man He himself said that he found no fault in him which he thrice repeated and when he saw the Jews were resolved he took water and washed his hands before the multitude if that would have done saying I am innocent of the blood of this just Man But when the people cried out If thou let this man go thou art not Caesars Friend he was afraid and delivered him up to sufferings But I am guilty of digressing That which we were speaking of is the execution of righteous Laws For to what purpose are they made Surely not only to be read or talked of and lye by or be set up as meer scare-crows in Trees to keep Birds from Cherries but to be made use of as occasion requires There must be not only speaking against sin but striking at it else it will not down In Rom. 13.4 The Apostle tells us that Rulers bear not the Sword in vain By the Sword he means that of Authority and Power good Laws together with all the means and instruments of punishment and they are not to bear this Sword in vain It must be brandished wielded and sheathed in the bowels of sin What are the best Laws but a Company of dead things unless Magistrates put life into them by a vigorous Execution And it is very sad at any time when there is cause given of saying there is a Law against prophaning of the Lords day a Law against Swearing a Law against Drunkenness and Whoredom but where is the man that doth put these Laws in Execution There are many wretches that break the Laws but where are those that will make them feel the Penalty This is the honour of a City and the comfort of a People when it may be said here is a good Law against such a vice and such a vice and here is a good Mayor a good Justice of Peace a good Constable that will execute it Good Laws without good Magistrates and Officers will never make a people happy But further As there must be an execution of righteous Laws so an impartiality in that execution Judgment should run down as Water and righteousness as a mighty stream Amos 5.24 In a constant current without interruption bearing down all before it all private and little considerations that would break it off As to those Justice ought to be blind not seeing nor taking notice of them And Laws ought not to be cobwebs that catch the little flies and let the great ones make their way thorough The greater the person is that offends the greater and more heinous upon that very account is the offence which he commits His greatness is an aggravation and renders his sin of a much deeper dye The nearer the offender is to the Magistrate the greater is the Magistrates honour in punishing him It was the honour of Levi and as such it is set and left upon record Deut. 33.9 That he said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his Brethren nor knew his own Children for they have observed thy word and kept thy Covenant This refers to that Execution which had been by them done upon those who had worshipped the Golden Calf And as this is a great honour to the Magistrate so will it strike a great terrour upon by-standers Whereas that Officer who is known to pardon a Malefactor upon this or that or the other by-respect will not himself know how to punish it in another The very remembrance of that remissness and neglect would make his hand tremble when he draws his Warrant or makes his Mittimus Psal 106.3 Blessed are they that keep Judgment and he that doth righteousness at all times Non abreptus affectibus periculis spe lucri c. Not byast nor diverted by affections fear of danger hope of gain or any thing of like nature Fiat justitia ruat coelum Let who will be displeased and what will follow justice ought to be done For want of this prophaneness and all manner of abominations will greatly increase and abound according to that in Eccl. 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil They grow audacious and desperate they are resolved upon their way they go on with a full sail to the Commission of sin And if the meer deferring of judgment will produce so bad an effect what will not the total neglect of it or partiality in it do Fifthly An excellent way therefore for the attainment of this excellent end the suppression of prophaneness is the putting of the
their sin ver 10. accepted of their punishment and called upon God ver 15. They put away their strange gods and served the Lord then the Soul of God was grieved for their misery and he delivered them ver 16. A parallel you have in Niniveh the charge given by the King Jon. â— 8 9. which was complyed with was Let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand then they conclude a possibility of escape according to the tacit reserve in the Prophets message Who can tell if God will turn away from his fierce anger and we perish not 2. But yet further The Repentance in these acts must be for National Sins If it be for other Sins and not for the Sins of the Land it will not warrant our expectations of National Mercies God will have Men direct their Repentance to that which his Wrath is kindled for and which his Testimony is against It 's not enough that you bewail your own personal private sins but these publick faults People are loathest to own bewail and leave these National Offences Custom fixeth them they are commonly reputable and by the generality of Transgressours thought innocent they are supported by lnterest and Power there 's danger by Repenting thereof If you reform as to these there 's oft a loss of Places Men are subject to shame by leaving faults in fashion or the reproach of having long offended in those things and how backward are our proud Hearts to acknowledge we have been in an error But let it be never so hard the Arrow of God is levelled against these very sins and even these shall be bewailed and forsaken or he will proceed to embitter them People may think to commute with God and amend in other matters but this is a vain attempt Mic. 6.15 16. to their own delusion and ruine Thou shalt sow but shalt not reap for the statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Ahab and ye walk in their counsels that I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof an hissing Therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people This leads me to answer one Objection Object How may we know which be the National Sins Answ If the same particular Sins be universal Consider the carriage of a people in general and compare it with the Word National Sins are too gross not to be seen when the rule of a Peoples walking is set before us But if you would know which are more eminently the National Sins observe what Sins have the greatest influence in Corrupting the Land which cleaveth fastest to a people and most especially leading persons are guilty of which have been longest continued in and in their Nature and Consequences are most grievous which seem the Judgments of God most directed against what sins do the best Ministers and People witness most against By these Rules you may discern what are those National Sins which the Nation agree in the commission of or connivance at But if the National Sins be by accumulation of several sorts of sins according to the different state of people who constitute that Community You then must distinguish a Nation into its constituent or remarkably differing parties as Magistrates and Subjects Ministers and People Rich and Poor Infidels and Believers c. Compare the frame and carriage of each of these with that which God hath made their peculiar Duty and adding the former helps those National Sins will appear which are made up by complication though the same individual Crimes are not entertained by the several parties in a Nation 3. The Repentance must usually be National I do not mean that every individual must repent but the generality or at least some very considerable number and those of such Men that most represent and influence the Body A small number of private Penitents may save themselves but seldom secure a Nation I confess here I must be wary considering how graciously God is pleased to admit sometimes a few to personate a Body and give in Blessings for many on their mediation Phineas his Zeal turns away Wrath from all his people Num. 25.11 Ezek. 22.30 God seems to conclude the unavoidableness of Israels woe from the want of one man to divert it I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it but I found none This the desolate Church complains of Isa 64.7 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee But though Sovereignty admits a very few Penitents to profit many Transgressors yet we are not usually to expect this what ever in extremity we may hope for want of better grounds usually a few are called none as to this effect No man repented him of his wickedness Jer. 8.6 Isa 66.4 and 59.16 I called and none did answer he wondered there was no intercessor There were the Prophets themselves and some others that Repented yet so few were as good as none to secure the good which multitudes concurred to remove His Call is to the generality to return and on that he promiseth favour Hear ye the word of the Lord all ye of Judah Jer. 7.2 3. Thus saith the Lord Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place And the failure by the refusal he affixeth to the body of them ver 28. Thou shalt say This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord nor receiveth correction c. We can hardly look for good to a Land unless the repenting persons be numerous enough to vindicate the Glory of God and influence the Land to Reformation Joel 1.14 15. Jon. 3.5 6. The assembly of Penitents must be solemn How general was the Repentance of Niniveh from the greatest to the least from the King and Nobles to the most abject Some farther light may arise from the next head 4. The Repentance should be suited to the different Condition and Circumstances of those that make up a Nation Each must repent of the sins common to all yea the gross trespasses of each sort must be bewailed by every sort But yet there is a Repentance peculiar to each which ought eminently to appear or at least really to be and this exerted according to their respective abilities Magistrates ought to mourn for the sins of the People and also to repent of their own ill Examples bad Laws c. And they must express their Repentance by exerting that Power which they have above others They should enact good Laws restrain and punish Sin command days of Humiliation appoint good Ministers c. So Ezra did Ezra 10.8 9. Neh. 13. The same did Nehemiah Magistrates do not repent if they do not so and a Land may perish for their neglect Suppose a Land divideable into Unbelievers and Believers These Believers must
are above us a Love of Condescention and forbearance to those that are below us and a Love of hearty Good-will and Kindness to those that are equal to us for Aquinas well saith that that Concord which is the Effect of Charity is the union of Affections not of Opinions There may be the same Love in the Heart where there are not the same Notions in the Head and this will keep the strong Christian from despising the weak and this will keep the weak Christian from censuring and judging the strong They may be of the same Heart who are not every way of the same Mind or else there could scarce be real Affection between any two Persons in the World Pax non est consensio ingeniorum sed conjunctio animorum sentire in omnibus tecum nunc quidem non possum sed amare debeo as Naeranus well said This is that more excellent way which the Apostle doth so divinely describe and advance 1 Cor. 13. throughout a whole Chapter But yet this Method is Hard and very rare and that chiefly by reason of our Pride Most men thinking too well of themselves and consequently of their Opinion and Practice and thereupon vilifying all others that differ from them Every man would be a Law-giver a God to another would prescribe to them and quarrel with them for their Dissent insomuch as the Wise man affirms Prov. 13.10 that Only by Pride comes contention If we had but that lowliness of mind whereby to esteem others better than our selves then nothing would be done through strife or vain-glory which the Holy Ghost doth earnestly require Philip. 2.3 But we are as apt to be fond of our own Notions as of our own Children and as rarely to value others as if we were the only People and Wisdom must dye with us and all others must strike sail unto us And from this root springs Passion and distemper of spirit and then perit Judicium cùm res transit in Affectum when mens Passions are once kindled then Wrath and Revenge manage the Controversie and one Christian is ready to bite and devour another But certainly it should not be thus Religious Differences should be managed religiously that is piously and charitably This may be 't is possible for it is prescrib'd and press'd Rom. 14.13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more And why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother and ver 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace And this should be for Charity is a Grace of an universal extent we owe it to all to the weak to the ignorant to the peevish to the proud to the good and to the bad Rom. 13.8 Owe no man any thing but to love one another And it is of that necessary Connexion with other saving Graces that we can neither have Faith nor Hope unless we have Charity yea the greatest of these is Charity 1 Cor. 13.13 And herein the true Church of Christ hath ever excelled The Fathers of old in their dealing wit the Donatists would account them their Brethren when they could not prevail with them for a Reciprocation And it is a Golden saying of Bernard Adhaerebo vobis etiamsi nolitis adhaerebo vobis etsi nolim ipse cum turbatis ero pacificus dabo locum â—rae ne diabolo dem I 'le cleave to you against your Will I will cleave to you even against my own Will when ye are moved I will be quiet I 'le give place to anger that I may not give place to the Devil And there is great Reason for such a Temper for every Difference in Religion creates not a different Religion While Men do hold the Head they must needs be of the Body Where the same substantial Doctrine is avowed accidental variety is very tolerable especially where the Peace of God's Church is not infringed It was worthy Bishop Reynolds's Conclusion Where the same straight road to Heaven is kept a small difference of paths hinders not Travellers from coming to the same Inn at night So neither should they bitterly contest about the next way who steadily own the same Guide the same Rule the same End only every one hath not so clear an Eye nor such opportunity to know the more obscure Points pertaining to the Christian Religion which others have Therefore in these things Luther's Motto is best In quo aliquid Christi video illum diligo where there is any thing of Christ there I love And this Love will cover not one or two but a multitude of sins and infirmities Propos 3. These Dissentions are Vncharitable when Persons bite and devour one another The spring of all this Poyson is in the Heart for out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh and the Hand acts There 's a Defect of real and fervent Love and an Excess of Selfishness within Self-opinion Self-will and Self-interest And this Arrogance breeds Insolence and all the biting and devouring mentioned in this place Now if these two Expressions do bear a distinct signification then 1. Men do Bite one another by keen and venomous Words When Men do whet their Tongues like a Sword and bend their bows to shoot their Arrows even bitter words Psal 64.3 The Tongue unbridled is a fire a world of Iniquity it sets on fire the course of Nature and it is set on fire of Hell Jam. 3.6 What flames of Strife have the Tongues and Pens of Men kindled and continued in the World Sometimes by Censuring their Brethren they are time-servers proud covetous superstitious or they are conceited peevish factious Especially if any one be really scandalous by imputing it presently to all his Party as if they were all such which is the most Unjust and Uncharitable Inference imaginable for what Party of Men is there on Earth wherein there are none that are foolish false and wicked In short there is no Vice more common and mischievous not only among different Parties but with all sorts of People than in their ordinary Conversation to let fly their censorious Arrows against others insomuch as it 's very rare to speak of any one behind their back without some reflection upon them which is not only a biting but a back-biting one another and so the more base and mischievous Sometimes Men Bite one another by plain Slandering one another charging them with Crimes which they abhorr thus One Party reckons all their Opposites to be presently Enemies to the King and to the Church who on the Other side are as ready to count them Enemies to God and to his People monopolizing Godliness to One Party and Loyalty to Another Nay each is ready to appropriate all Religion and good Conscience to themselves and to unsanctifie and vilifie all of the contrary mind A common course of Hypocrites first to degrade a godly Man into ungodliness that so they may have room to hate him Though the same Law and
be admitted as a foregoing condition of our Justification for the Reasons above given yet it must be acknowledged to be a condition in the Heirs of Salvation for without holiness no Man shall see God And rightly understood Holiness is such a thing with which we shall be saved Heb. 12.14 and to be sure without which we shall not be saved The Heathens made the way to the Temple of Honour thro the Temple of Virtue And amongst Christians Grace is the way to Glory that is walking in the way of God's Commandments brings us to the place where God is which way is as necessary to be walk'd in by all those that will go to God at last as a path that leads to a Town or place must be gone in by all that will come thither 'T is true good Works do not go before Justification but follow after for being sanctified also when we are justified we are created unto good works in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.10 Till we have a Being we cannot act and till the Root be made good the Fruit cannot be good Amongst the Moralists it may still be a Rule Bona agendo sumus boni By doing good we become good but this must not be so strictly urged in Divinity where the Fountain must be cleansed before the Stream can run pure indeed after Conversion and Regeneration nothing increases the habits of Grace more than the actings of Grace and in this natural and infused Habits do agree they are both strengthned by acting of them Whatsoever Grace you would have strong and lively in the Soul let it be conscienciously and frequently exercised and it will become so This hath many a probatum est amongst the Children of God The consideration of these things do give us a true account why in Scripture we shall find good Works and Holiness so much magnified on the one hand and yet sometimes on the other hand so debased Not to make proof of the former the extolling good works which deservedly is every where in Scripture Yet withall we shall find them very diminutively spoken of in Scripture as where it is said That Our righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and also where the Apostle says Isa 64.6 That he accounts his blamelesness and righteousness which is in the Law but loss nay dung That is to say when good Works are considered with any relation to Justification or when they are compared with the Righteousness of Christ we cannot think or speak too meanly of them But when Holiness is considered as a Fruit of the Spirit always accompanying Justification and a requisite preparative for Glory and an Ornament to our Profession in the mean while we cannot too much extoll it nor be too zealous and earnest in the acquiring and practising of it especially considering that 3. Holiness is indispensibly necessary unto all justified Persons Holiness is indispensably cessary to justified Ones Departing from Iniquity is the Duty of all that name the Name of Christ As it was necessary that Christ should take upon him our Flesh so it is as necessary that we should receive from him his Spirit he must become Flesh of our flesh and Bone of our bone that he might pay our debt in the same nature which contracted it so we must partake of his Spirit that we may be capacitated to receive the Fruit of his Redemption and be one with him Nay all Promises the very Covenant of Grace its self is thus to be understood viz. That the Beneficiaries or they that receive benefit by them should be holy otherwise they might not without presumption hope for any good from them And tho we do not meet with this always express'd yet it is alwayes to be understood Jer. 22.24 God expresly declaring that tho Coniah a wicked Person was as a Signet upon his right hand yet he would pluck him thence And when God engageth to continue his Favour unto any he engageth to continue them in a fit disposition to receive his Favour Thus to the Posterity of David Psal 89.32 which in a Type were the Representatives of the spiritual Seed that should be raised to our Elder Brother-Christ Jesus whom David typified it was promised that they should endure for ever but then in case of forsaking of God's Law he would visit their Transgressions with a Rod Vers 29. or he would use such means tho irksome for him to do and grievous for them to bear as might bring them back unto himself by Repentance Nay were the Promise of God never so plain and full in any case unto any Person yet there is always a Subintelligitur of such a demeanour as may be fit to receive the mercy promised as we may see in the case of Eli and his Family which God doth acknowledge that he had promised the Priesthood to and yet upon the provocations of Eli and his Sons 1 Sam. 2.30 God says Be it far from me that I should perform it Neither is God unrighteous or his Veracity to be excepted against for so long as we have to do with so Holâ— a God all Covenants are to be understood so as may agree with his Holiness and not otherwise Thou sayest But they are but vain words that thou hast such Mercies promised unto thee and treasured up for thee whereas unless thou beest sanctified and born again thou canst not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3.3 or so much as see the Kingdom of God or be benefited by any promise that God hath made As 't is storyed of one who was very debauched and wicked and taking up a Bible which by his Religion he had not been acquainted with being a Papist he confessed that whatsoever Book that was it made against him So unless thou dost sincerely labour after holiness there is never a word in all the Book of God that speaks any comfort unto thee none of the Fruit that grows upon the Tree of Life can be tasted by thee This might be more evinc'd if we fix our mind on these following Reasons 1. Reason From the Nature of God 1. The first may be taken from the Nature of God I mean the Essential Holiness of this Nature by which he cannot have communion with any one that is unholy no more than Light can have fellowship with Darkness but he indispensibly hates and opposes all wickedness and hath declared his Enmity against it As fire cannot but devour stubble Isa 5.24 so God's Holiness will not suffer him to spare any whom he finds sin and guilt upon hence so many threatnings and denunciations of Judgments against it which do not linger whatsoever the Sinner may think neither can the Gospel change God's Nature or make him less to abhorr sin It is indeed a Declaration of the way and means which God hath ordained to exalt his Grace and Mercy to the Sinner by but it is in saving of him from his sin and not with it
way as is most agreeable to his Nature The Head which is the governing part in the Organical Body may move most uniformly with Members of the same nature 7 Deut. 18.15 who have the irrefregable Authority of God's Word to back them wherein they speak for God to stubborn ones and tho' the Treasure is presented in Earthen Vessels 8 2 Cor. 4.7 yet the excellency of the Power is of God 9 1 Cor. 1.17 Converse with good Angels is a Dignity which our present state in the Body cannot well bear and therefore it is rare There is indeed a Story related in Bodin * Lib. 1. de Magorum cum Satana commercio of one who had desired much the guidance and assistance of an Angel and from the thirty seventh year of his Age he said he had a Spirit that assisted and followed him to his Death He would knock and awake him early in the morning if he spake unwary words he would reprove him for it by a Dream in the night if he was reading a bad Book the Angel would strike oâ— the Book for him to leave it and give some pre-notice to him in a Dream when some accident was like to befall him c. This is related from the Man as matter of Fact But it concerns us to be wary and not to be wise above that which is written 10 1 Cor. 4.6 If we are not satisfy'd with the infallible Testimony of God himself how should the coming of a Creature in a strange way give us satisfaction The Father of Lies may impose on our simplicity and deceive us in the Habit of an Angel of Light 11 2 Cor. 11.14 Too many easie People have been impos'd on by the Popish Legends Luther * In Genes c. 22. being acquainted with such Impostures said Satan indeed hath often tempted me even as Augustine who deprecated that an Angel might not appear to him that I might ask a Sign of God But far be it from me that I should hearken to this temptation The Martyrs without the apparition of Angels confirm'd by the Word alone did meet Death for the name of Christ and why should not we acquiesce in the same 'T is said when once he had kept a day of Humiliation and Prayer he had a Vision of Christ when he said Away away In Cap. 37 Gen. pactum feci cum Domino Deo meo c. I know no picture of Christ but the Scripture And elsewhere I have made a Covenant with the Lord my God that he may not send me Visions or Dreams or Angels for I am content with this Gift that I have the Holy Scripture which doth abundantly teach and supply all things that are necessary both to this and a future Life Let us all then content our selves with the ordinary means of Grace which are more successful for Conversion to carry it on from first to last rather than expect persons from Heaven or Hell to acquaint us what is done there Except If some rare instance should be alledg'd of some Atheisttical Persons who having been intimate Companions in wickedness had agreed that when either of them should depart this World and find a joyful Heaven or dreadful Hell he would if possible acquaint the Survivor with it And thereupon some Spectre or Voice hath been heard or seen or fancied to be so upon such a Discovery there hath been an inclination to return to God and an amendment of Life Answ I fear such an inclination and amendment have been but some temporary emotions upon such a prodigious occurrence and have soon evanish'd like a blush or have occasion'd only some fainter Essays towards amendment of Life which have not come to a thorow change only to be an Almost Christian as Agrippa and not such an Altogether Christian as Paul himself was when Converted 10 Acts 26.27 upon the Call of Christ by whom God spake to him 11 Gal. 1.1 Heb. 1.2 having ordained to reveal himself by the Word but we do not now find the revelation by Angels or the Spirits of those who are departed this Life to be any stated Ordinance of God for man's Conversion as the Scriptures be For should we suppose Bad Angels to come to us they are Enemies to man's Conversion Good ones as God's Ministers would confirm his Word should we suppose wandring Spirits or Spectres from the Dead according to Dives his Conceit to be Monitors of the living we must reckon them to be either the Souls of Believers or Vnbelievers If of Believers they will after the example of Christ their Head send us to the Holy Scriptures as Agustine thought he heard a voice saying Take and Read Take and Read They will say with God the Father concerning his Son and our Saviour Hear ye him 15 Mat. 17.5 If the Souls of Unbelievers and wicked Miscreants Who would hearken to them or give credit to what they Say Further what these supposed ones say do either agree with the Written Word or are contrary to it If the former they are received not because they are believed by them but because contained in the Word of God which hath been found a successful means of God's own appointment for man's Conversion If the latter i. e. They be contrary to the Word they ought by no means to be receiv'd Should we suppose that which is not possible an Angel from Heaven should speak to them But I fear I am become tedious yet I beg your Patience a little longer whiles I touch upon III. Some short Applâ—cation of this stated Case that The ordinary means of Grace are more certainly successful for Conversion than if some Persons from Heaven or Hell should tell us what is done there And it shall be for 1. The Reproof of those who disvalue the Sciptures and discourage such as would search them in the language they understand according to our Saviours injunction to search the Scriptures 11 John 5.39 which we find to be Authentical from God himself as hath been evidenc'd and might be further by other Arguments which have been urg'd by others * See Grotius Mornaeus Mr. Baxters Saints Rest Sir Charles Wolsey Mr. White c. The truth is if God himself were not the Author of the Bible it must be some Creature either Good or Bad. If Bad why forbids he evil so rigorously and commands good so expresly aiming at nothing but Gods glory and Mans happiness If Good why doth he challenge to himself that which is proper to God alone As to make Laws for the heart to punish and reward eternally If no Creature God himself must be the Author 'T is highly blame-worthy then to have low thoughts of Gods own Book Yet such is the corruption of faln Man that even the generality of those who make some profession of the truth are too apt to set light by Moses and the Prophets which Paul stiles the Oracles of God 12
Rom. 3.2 The Heathens were exceeding fond of their Oracles which were but Riddles and Cheats but many under the Christian name do disregard the lively and true Oracles of God I mean not only those who of old look'd upon the Old Testament as not endited by the Spirit Manichees Weigelians Papists or of later days as out of date under the New Testament and all of it but as a dead letter and those who forbid the reading of it to the Laity But such as sleight and do not consult these infallible Oracles which really passed Gods own hands having his Signature upon them and being able to make us wise unto Salvation 13 2 Tim. 3.15 yea are there not to be found those who tho' they professedly renounce Popery do yet droll upon the Holy Scriptures Burlesque them and make a ridicule of them and such would deal so with Monitors from the dead wherein if we would indeed exercise our Spiritual senses to discern we might see the face of God and live Alas How does the speech of many bewray them 14 Matth. 27.73 because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks to have little value for the Divine Oracles Sith they in all their talk seldom if ever discourse of them with reverence Which would indeed dispose one to fear that some under the name of Protestants have in reality no more value for the Oracles of God than the Popes of Rome who put their own Canons and Decrees not only in the same rank with the Canonical Scriptures but above them * Honoratus l. 2. Epist 16. 2. We should not any of us tempt God in hankering after new Revelations or extraordinary discoveries but adhere to God in the ordinary means he hath appointed and allow'd to us for conversion and confirmation 'T is true as a great Man †Mirand de fid ord cred hath well observ'd All Religion doth depend or is presumed to depend upon Revelations from above Flesh and blood saith Christ 15 Matth. 16.17 hath not revealed it but my Father which is in Heaven But then when this is consign'd in a sufficient and clear Canon undoubtedly attested with an exclusion of additionals under dreadful Plagues 16 Rev. 22.18 we should rest satisfied and not be reaching after novelties yea and we should heartily acknowledge our gratitude to our gracious God for his true light which doth perpetually cast out his rays and as Polybius * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Of truth it self doth by it self prevail and pulls down all the falshood that perks up its head against it Oh how thankful should we be for the Liberty we do enjoy for the good of our precious Souls to worship God as he hath prescribed in his Word of eternal Truth Heartily waiting as dependents upon him Matth. 11.25 26. that he would open our Eyes to see the wonderful things contained in his Law 17 Psal 119.18 We should be well contented with the proposals that God himself makes to us in his unerring Word and not expect to have our curiosities gratified with strange Relations from the Dead If the House of God amongst us be built upon the foundation of the true Prophets and Apostles We shall not need as a Learned Man saith * Dr. Spencer of Proph. daubing with such spurious Visions and Prophecies as the Romanists brag of Luther vext with their Impositions writes †In Gen. c. 22. Ego soleo Deum precari c. I am wont to pray God daily that He may not send any Angel to me for any cause if any should be offer'd I would not hear unless he should signifie somewhat of political necessity even as pleasant dreams and glad tidings are sometimes wont to chear us up in civil matters and yet I know not whether even in such a case I would harken to him and believe him But in Spiritual things we do not desire Angels The ordinary means of grace which I have been discoursing of as being ordain'd of God do discover what he would have us to do and what he will do for us is that which the Holy Spirit joins himself to and makes more effectual usually to a saving change of the heart than prodigious and sensible Alarms which uneasie Souls desire to pry into when as the Holy Angels desire to peep into the mysteries revealed to the Church and made known by the manifold or embroidered Wisdom of God 8 1 Pet. 1.12 Ephes 3.10 3. There should be no seeking to familiar Spirits or consulting of Conjurers and cunning Men as they would be thought to be who converse with Satan sith we are called to the Law and to the Testimonies If any pretenders to new lights or discoveries from the other World which speak not according to this Rule that is already revealed and sealed 't is because there is no light in them 19 Isa 8.20 See Engl. Annotat some expound it If they be otherwise minded than they have from God been advised and will resolve to run after Witches and Wizards there shall no day-light of prosperity befal them but all darkness of affliction and misery shall betide them God allows not a going to the Witch at Endor having written Laws by which he will Rule and Judge the World His people of old were not to hearken unto the word of those false Prophets that gave a sign or a wonder 20 Deut. 13.1 2 3. 2 Thes 2.9 tho' God permitted it to come to pass for their trial when pretended to be an attestation to that which God abhorr'd But they were to harken unto the Prophet whom God would send even Jesus Christ 21 Deut 18.15 22. Matth. 17.5 unto whom the true Prophets under the Old Testament did refer and who hath silenc'd all lying Oracles Which the true Oracles do caution us to take heed we be not deceived with 22 Mat. 10.16 24.23 24 1 Tim. 4.1 2. 2 Thes 2.9 10 Christs Apostles brought the Conjurers by the power of Gods Word to confess their delusions and bring their Books to be burned openly 23 Acts 19.18 19. which were of the same kind in effect with some Prognostications about future contingencies that there can be no true foundation for in genuine Astrology though that be pretended to the prejudice of the Divine Oracles To which who ever refuseth to give entire credit upon due deliberation he gives ground of suspicion that he hath none of the Spirâ—â— of Christ 24 1 Cor. 12.3 neither would he ever believe Christ himself returning in the flesh and all the Angels or those from the dead Hence we may take notice how the wonderful boldness of Satan bewrays it self Beza as well as the incredulity of Men in receiving the Truth and their credulity in embracing of Fables For how many are there who account for such those things concerning eternal punishment which are declared by the Son of God And
things which we comprehend not III. That which makes believing so difficult is the seeming contradictory acts of Faith it seems not to consist with it self Here I take Faith more generally as it has for its Object the whole Word of God the Law and the Gospel the special Object of Faith as Saving is the Promise Saving Faith seeks Life which is not to be found in Commandments and Threats but in a Promise of Mercy Faith acting upon the whole Word of God seems to contradict it self for Faith believes a Sinner is to die according to the Law and that he shall live according to the Gospel Faith has the Word of God for both both for the Death and Life of a Sinner and both are true the Law must be executed and the Promise must be performed but how to reconcile this is not so obvious and easie to every one Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid Gal. 3.21 't is impossible both should be accomplished in the Person of a Sinner he cannot die eternally and live eternally yet both are wonderfully brought about by Jesus Christ according to the manifold Wisdom of God without any Derogation to his Law and Justice God and his Law are satisfy'd and the Promise of Salvation made good to the Sinner and so both Law and Gospel have their ends not a tittle of either falls to the ground Heaven and Earth may sooner pass away than this can be O what a mistery is Christ Flesh and blood can't reveal this to us every believer assents to the truth of the Law as well as the Gospel he knows that both must have their full course the Law is fulfilled in inflicting Death the Gospel in giving Life the Law contributes nothing to the eternal Life of a sinner but kills him and leaves him weltering in his blood is no more concerned about him for ever if God will bring this dead sinner to life again he may dispose of him as he please the Law has done its utmost against him so the Law did against Christ spared him not but killed him out-right and left him for a time under the power of Death but having slain a Man who was God as well as Man Death was too weak to hold him he swallows up Death in victory he whom the Law slew as Man rises as God by the power of his godhead the Law contributed nothing to his Resurrection the Law had the chief hand in his Death but none in his Resurrection And here begins our eternal Life in the Resurrection of him who dies no more and is the Resurrection and Life to all who believe in him IV. The reigning unbelief that is among the generality of Men even among those who are of greatest reputation for Wisdom and Learning Ay and among those who carry the vogue for Zeal and Religion are counted the Head and Pillars of the Church Some pretending to Infallibility others set up themselves and are cryed up by many as such competent Judges in all matters of Faith that their judgment is not to be questioned but readily complied with by all who would not be counted singular and Schismatical So 't was in our Saviours time the Jews who had been the only Professors of the true Religion for many ages in opposition to all Idolatry and false Worship they stumble at the Gospel the Greeks who were the more Learned sort of the Heathen World they counted it foolishness And thus was the whole World set against Christ here was the greatest outward hinderance of the belief of the Gospel that could be imagined and add to this the indefatigable pains and industry of the Devil to keep out the light of the Gospel from shining in upon us he blinds the Eyes of Men by a cursed influence upon their corrupt minds that they should not believe Is it not a hard matter under all these discouragements to embrace the Gospel and declare our belief of it Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who know not the Law John 7.48 49. Why should any regard what a company of poor illiterate people do Their following Christ is rather an argument why we should not follow him they are all but fools and ideots that do so A cursed sort of people This is the judgement the Men of the World have of believers There is nothing among too many self-conceited Scepticks lies under a greater imputation of folly and madness than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ O what a pass are things come too that after so many hundred years profession of Christianity we should grow weary of Christ and the Gospel V. The notorious Apostacy of many Professors this day who have made Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 may convince you all that 't is no easie matter to believe so to believe as to persevere in the Faith VI. Believers themselves find it a difficult matter to act their Faith if their Lives lie upon it they cannot act it at their pleasure without the special aid and assistance of the Spirit 't is God must work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Believers are hardly put to it great is the labour and travel of their Souls in believing they meet with much opposition from flesh and blood in every act of Faith they put forth they are forced to cry out for help in the midst of an act of Faith lest they should fail in it I helieve Lord help my unbelief q. d. I am now under some light and power of Faith but I see I can't hold it if thou dost not help me I feel flesh and blood rising up against my Faith I begin to stagger already Lord help me that I may not be run down by my carnal Heart Temptations shake our Faith many times there is a perpetual conflict between Faith and Diffidence yet Faith fails not utterly there 't is still Psal 31.22 23. Psal 42.6 9. Faith upholds the Heart still Psal 116.7 Unbelievers they tremble and turn away from God but true believers in their greatest frights and fears do run to God Psal 56.3 make towards him still Were it an easie matter to believe such suddain fits of unbelief would not come so strongly upon believers themselves Secondly The Reson why many Professors count it an easie thing to Believe The main Reason is this and I will insist upon no other viz. Because they mistake a formal Profession of Faith for real believing this undo's thousands who because they are qualified as National Protestants for all worldly preferments here they rest and make no other use of their Religion as if the Articles of their Faith obliged them to nothing A formal Profession is general takes up Religion in gross but is not concerned in any one point of it But real Believing is particular brings down every Gospel Truth to our selves shews us our concernments in it Save thy self saith
eateth up both Truth and Love For such contentions are rather for Victory than Truth Now passion doth nothing well which made one Emperor say over his Alphabet to get the Dominion over his anger Ahasuerus fann'd himself in his Garden Esth 7.7 and he in Plutarch would not smite his Servant because he was angry Passionated persecution makes only Hypocrites become Proselites and in their Breasts also lodge such a revenge as will be satisfied one time or another upon them who have made them offer violence to their Consciences Religion is a free choice upon judgment or 't is not Religion therefore it gets in by perswasion not persecution Yet 't is strangely true they who are so tender of their own Wills that God must not touch them unless by Argument yet laxate themselves to Club Law with their Brethren not content with a moral swasion 2. Loving converse taketh off those prejudices which hinder Mens minds from a true knowledge of others Principles and Practices which at a distance seem horrid and monstrous Opinions and Practices when as a little free converse with them breedeth quite other apprehensions The Papists picture the Protestants as bruits with Tails as Devils with Horns to terrifie the Vulgar but knowing Merchants dare trust them So some Protestants have represented the Puritans as Pestilent and Seditious persons as Mad and having a Devil as the Scribes and Pharisees did John Baptist and Christ but the plain hearted people saw thorough those pious frauds and tricks and were astonished at their Doctrin and Life when they healed Souls and Bodies on the Sabbath day 3. Sincere love and converse breedeth a good opinion of persons who differ from us they can taste humility meekness and kindness better than the more speculative Principles of Religion These get into Mens affections and so bore away into their judgments and cause them to alter their minds Two Heads like two Globes touch but in one point the whole Bodies at a distance but two Hearts touch in plano and fall in with each other in all points Love openeth the Heart and Ear to cooler consideration and second thoughts The Spirit of God directed Elijah 1 Kings 19.12 not in the strong Wind which rent Rocks and Mountains nor in the Earthquake or Fire but in the silent whisper or tranquil voice Vse of Instruction How to carry our selves towards them who are weak in the Faith in these days and doubtless it is a sickly season when there are so many feverish heats among us I will not say what once a Romanist said to me That these are the spuria vitulamina the Bastard frisks of our Reformation in Henry the Eighths days But I rather think the violent endeavours after External Uniformity without the Inward the smothering of the industrious Bees in one Hive was a great cause of their castling into several Swarms Threshing the Corn hath driven it out of the Floor and the grasping so hard the Granes all into the Hands and Power of some hath made them creep out through their Fingers Rigid Impositions and violent Prosecutions and Exactions of Conformity to things extra Scriptural and Divine Institution and without any manifest tendency to Edification have and will make fractions without end As D. W. said Till Men be Infallible and the World Immutable moderation becometh every Man who is in his senses and considereth himself 1. There are some who have all Faith believe incredibly as that Katharina Senensis praying for a new Heart she had her real Heart cut out of her Body and after some days had a new Heart formed by Christ put into her That making a cross on the Body with a Finger driveth the Devil away That a Priest by these words this is my Body transubstantiateth the Bread into the Body of Christ and so he offereth that Sacrifice to deliver Souls out of Prison and then by his Dirges conducteth them to Paradise 2. Others have no Faith at all as that Infallible one who said What vast Wealth hath this Fable of Christ acquired to the Church So when some had Disputed about the Immortality of the Soul most gravely determined in a Verse Et redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil That which is nothing must needs come to nothing And I fear there are more Atheists than Papists who seem to believe all on the Stage nothing in their retiring thoughts We are not bound to receive such into our Bosoms or Communion lest we sting our own Breasts out of charity to our Souls we must take heed of receiving such 3. But there are others who seem seriously to believe the Doctrin of the Gospel yet have a weakness in their judgments about little things These we must receive and instruct them Rom. 14.17 That the Kingdom of God is not in Meat or Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Shew them all kindness pity them pray for them and let them see Col. 2.5 Nothing but your order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ 1. Stand fast and fix'd in the good Word of God which is setled for ever in Heaven Psal 119.89 as the Copy of the Divine Nature and Law Stand having your Loins girt about with Truth Ephes 6.14 and having on the Breastplate of Righteousness This is the grand and perfect rule of Faith Worship and Life Keep within these Trenches and you have an assurance of protection I know no other method possible to Peace but in an universal resolution to impose nothing upon others but what Christ himself hath imposed what Scripture commands Matth. 28.20 Teach Men to observe whatever I have commanded you and then I am with you to the end of the World This is a Minister of Christs Commission and he cannot look for Christ to be with him if he go either coâ—trary to beyond or not according to his instructions Let this be first done and then Men may consider whether any thing further be necessary or convenient Let us therefore in the Name of God beg his holy Spirit whom Christ hath promised and that he shall lead us into all Truth John 16.13 He is the only infallible Interpreter of Gods mind He shall take of mine says our Saviour and shew it unto you vers 14. Then read the Scriptures as Christ himself did Luke 4.16 his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read and when the Book of God was delivered to him he read the 61 of Isaiah a Prophesie of himself and so he closed the Book and gave it to the Minister then he expounded and applied it to the present circumstances That he came to preach to the poor heal the broken hearted give deliverance to the captives open the Eyes of the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised Oh blessed pattern for every Minister of Christ to follow And sing the Psalms or Hymns as we read he also did Matth. 26.30 and the Ancient Christians
as Euscbius and Pliny also saith Vsed early to sing Psalms and Praise to Christ Administer the Sacraments in the very words of Christ But guard the Door that the grosly ignorant and profane may not come in 1 Cor. 5.11 If any degenerate so as first and second admonition reclaim not shut the Door upon him Let him be to you as an Heathen or a Publican for so is the rule of Christ Matth. 18.17 Every Natural Body and Civil Body or Society hath a power to take in or cast out such as are for the Benefit or Damage of the Community to Infranchise or Disfranchise when there is just cause The Church is Christs Body and a Society of visible Saints Most Epistles to the Churches in Scripture were directed to the Saints at Rome Rom. 1.7 at Corinth 1 Epist 1.2 and so on Now if out of Custom carnal Policy Flattery or other ill motive the whole World must come into the Church and the Church and the World which lieth in wickedness 1 John 5.19 are one thing then in cometh also the god of this World too And will Christ have fellowship with Devils If Swearers Drunkards and Unclean persons come in it may be a Market-house or House for Merchants but not the Lords-house John 2.16 A Drunken Saint an Unclean Saint a Swearing Saint if they be not contradictions yet they sound very harshly No sin hath less tentation of gain or pleasure than Swearing and Cursing and no sin more debaucheth the Conscience and strips it even to Atheism of all reverence and for Men to have no more pity on them than to let them cram damnation down their Throats as soon as they have made the imprecation on themselves is dreadful I remember an Ear-witness told me he heard Dr. Ham. preach before King Charles the First at Oxford when his Affairs were at a low ebb and he told him While God-dam-me led the Van and the Devil confound me brought up the Rear he would be routed in all his designs And they are very unlikely to be good Subjects to Princes who are open Rebels to the Laws of God and Men and their own reason But let us keep to the Rule the Principles of Christs Kingdom are Rock and Steel not calculated for the soft Meridians of this World but can abide and stand in all times the same they need not load the secular Arm to hold them up Let us be faithful Executors of our Lords Will not Law-makers or Testament-makers for untempered Morter will be always falling and fowling them who daub it up Let us therefore stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he and his Truth only can make us free from all Errors and mistakes John 8.36 Let us be of the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 then nothing will be done out of contention or vain-glory But God will make good his own Promise all his shall have one Heart and one way Jer. 32.39 then our Lords Prayer shall be answered Joh. 17.21 That all his may be one as he and his Father are One. One in the World that is impossible but let them be one in us in our appointments and then the World will believe that thou hast sent me otherwise Divisions will breed such tentations as if Christianity was no reality Now what can any Man say against this method Who are they that make Divisions but they that make more Duties in Religion and Worship than Christ hath made They who build upright on the foundations or they who will jet over and drop upon their Neighbours 2. As we should keep to our rule so practise accordingly let the one Foot of the Compass keep the Center and the other walk the rounds let us live so as M. Felix says Non magna loquimur sed vivimus We do not talk great things but live them Exact walking would be as a miracle in this loose age to confirm the Faith we do profess Catechize your Children and Servants as Abraham did Gen. 18.19 to walk in the way of the Lord so most excellent Theophilus was Cathechized and instructed in the things of Christ Luke 1.4 Pray in your Families dayly bread you have twice at least then you are directed to dayly prayer for it If Nations and Kingdoms have Gods wrath poured out upon them that call not on his Name Psal 79.6 then surely Families much less can escape We and our Families need dayly Grace dayly Pardon as well as dayly Bread therefore unless we dare die in our Sins we should dayly pray for in Gods hands is our breath and his are all our ways Dan. 7.23 who then dare breath a day without compassing him about with Prayer and Praises And let us adorn our Profession of Godliness with honesty Tit. 2.10 1 Tim. 2.2 Labour to think as near to the truth of things and actions as you can and as they are in themselves Job 26.3 then speak and declare the thing as it is in your mind Jos 14.7 then do as you speak Psal 15.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simplifie your self in Epictetus's phrase from all composition of Frauds Policies and Hypocrisie then besure you be just and do as you would have others do to you the grand skale of Righteousness if Men would but weigh their Thoughts Words and Actions by this standard of equity Matth. 7.12 how would this make Ministers Lawyers Physicians and all others take as much care of Peoples Souls Bodies and Estates as of their own then would come that golden age wherein they would have if not so many dirty Fees yet a cleaner and a greater reward of Peace of Conscience and joy in God Let us all be humble meek and patient as our Lord modest in Apparel and all civil Conversation as those that resolve to walk in Christ as they have received him Col. 2.6 and to wear him as they have put him on Rom. 13.14 1 Tim. 2.9 This Primitive simplicity would revive charity which is frozen to pieces in this cold Age this being the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 All the commands of God must needs be broken by the very want of it When all is done live so accurately Ephes 5.15 as if you were to be justified by your works and then as unprofitable Servants cast your selves wholly on Free-grace in Christ Luke 17.10 least by the conceit of any merit when you have anointed our Saviours feet you fling the box at his Head and rob him of his Priestly Office and Crown As for disputing of Controversies let your discourses be rather in private than before others that you argue in Love to the Souls of your Brethren not for Victory and Triumphing over their infirmities The Jewish Rabbins say He deserveth Hell-fire who putteth his Brother to the blush Therefore in meekness of Wisdom argue with your week Brethren that Christ was faithful in Gods House or Church Heb. 3.2 in commanding all things necessary for Salvation and the Worshiping of
to observe and require an account of all their Actions The radical cause of this Hatred is from the Opposition of the sinful polluted Wills of Men to the Holiness of God for that attribute excites his Justice and Power and Wrath to punish Sinners Therefore the Apostle saith They are enemies to God in their minds through wicked works The naked representing of this Impiety that a reasonable Creature should hate the blessed Creator for his most Divine Perfections cannot but strike with Horror O the Sinfulness of Sin 4. Sin is the Contempt and Abuse of his excellent Goodness This Argument is as vast as God's innumerable Mercies whereby he allures and obliges us to Obedience I shall restrain my Discourse of it to three things wherein the Divine Goodness is very Conspicuous and most ungratefully despised by Sinners 1. His Creating Goodness 'T is clear without the lea st shadow of Doubt that nothing can give the first being to it self for this were to be before it was which is a direct Contradiction and 't is evident that God is the sole Author of our Beings Our Parents afforded the gross matter of our compounded Nature but the Variety and Union the Beauty and Usefulness of the several Parts which is so Wonderful that the Body is composed of as many Miracles as Members was the Design of his Wisdom and the Work of his Hands The lively Idea and perfect Exemplar of that regular Fabrick was modell'd in the Divine Mind This affected the Psalmist with Admiration I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139.14 15 16. marvellous are thy works and that my soul knows right well Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them And Job observes Thy hands have made me and fashioned me round about Job 10.8 The Soul our principal Part is of a celestial Original inspired from the father of Spirits The faculties of Understanding and Election are the indelible Characters of our Dignity above the Brutes and make us capable to please and glorifie and enjoy him This first and fundamental Benefit upon which all other Favours and Benefits are the Superstructure was the Effect from an eternal Cause his most free Decree that ordained our Birth in the spaces of time The Fountain was his pure Goodness there was no necessity determining his Will he did not want external declarative Glory being infinitely happy in himself and there could be no superior Power to constrain him And that which renders our Maker's Goodness more free and obliging is the consideration he might have created Millions of Men and left us in our Native Nothing and as I may so speak lost and buried in perpetual Darkness Now what was Gods end in Making us Certainly it was becoming his infinite Understanding that is to communicate of his own Divine Fullness and to be actively glorified by intelligent Creatures Accordingly 't is the solemn Acknowledgement of the Representative Church Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they were created Who is so void of rational Sentiments Rev. 4.11 as not to acknowledge 't is our indispensable Duty Our reasonable service to offer up our selves an intire living Sacrifice to his glory What is more natural according to the Laws of uncorrupt Natures I might say and of corrupt Nature for the Heathens practised it than that Love should correspond with Love as the one descends in Benefits the other should ascend in Thankfulness As a polish'd Looking-glass of Steel strongly reverberates the Beams of the Sun shining upon it without losing a spark of light thus the understanding Soul should reflect the Affection of Love upon our blessed Maker in Reverence and Praise and Thankfulness Now Sin breaks all those Sacred Bands of Grace and Gratitude that engage us to love and obey God He is the just Lord of all our Faculties Intellectual and Sensitive and the Sinner employs them as Weapons of Unrighteousness against him He preserves us by his powerful gracious Providence which is a renewed Creation every Moment and the Goodness he uses to us the Sinner abuses against him This is the most unworthy shameful and monstrous Ingratitude This makes forgetful and unthankful Men more brutish than the dull Ox and the stupid Ass who serve those that feed them nay sinks them below the insensible part of the Creation that invariably observes the Law and order prescribed by the Creator Astonishing Degeneracy Hear O Heavens give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up Childen and they have rebelled against me was the Complaint of God himself The considerate Review of this will melt us into Tears of Confusion 2. 'T was the unvaluable goodness of God to give his Law to Man for his rule both in respect of the matter of the Law and his end in giving it 1. The matter of the Law this as is forecited from the Apostle is holy just and good It contains all things that are honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report whatsoever are vertuous and praise-worthy In obedience to it the innocence and perfection of the reasonable creature consists This I do but glance upon having been consider'd before 2. The end of giving the Law God was pleas'd upon Mans creation by an illustrious revelation to shew him his duty to write his Law in his Heart that he might not take one step out of the circle of its precepts and immediately sin and perish His gracious design was to keep Man in his love that from the obedience of the reasonable creature the divine goodness might take its rise to reward him This unfeined and excellent goodness the sinner outragiously despises for what greater contempt can be exprest against a written Law than the tearing it in pieces and trampling it underfoot And this constructively the sinner does to the Law of God which contempt extends to the gracious giver of it Rom. 7.10 Thus the Commandment that was ordain'd unto Life by sin was found unto Death 3. Sin is an extreme vilifying of Gods goodness in preferring carnal pleasures to his favour and Communion with him wherein the life the felicity the heaven of the reasonable creature consists God is infinite in all possible perfections all-sufficient to make us compleatly and eternally happy he disdains to have any competitour and requires to be supreme in our esteem and affections the reason of this is so evident by Divine and Natural light that 't is needless to spend many words about it 'T is an observation of St. Austin * Omnes Deos colendos esse sapienti Cur ergo a numero caeterorum ille rejectus est nihil restat ut dicant cur hujus Dei sacra recipere noluerint nisi quia solum se coli voluerit Aug. de Consens Evang. c. 17. That
in its essential Malignity which implies no less than that God was neither wise nor good in making his Law and that he is not just and powerful to vindicate it And when tempted to any pleasant Sin to consider the due Aggravations of it as Joseph did which will controle the Efficacy of the Temptation I shall only add that when a Man has mortified the lusts of the flesh he has overcom the main part of the infernal Army that Wars against the Soul Sensual objects do powerfully and pleasantly insinuate into carnal Men and the affections are very unwillingly restrain'd from them To undertake the cure of those whose Disease is their pleasure is almost a vain attempt for they do not judge it an evil to be regarded and will not accept distastful remedies 3. Fly all tempting occasions of sin Joseph would not be alone with his Mistriss There is no vertue so confirmed and in that degree of eminence but if one be frequently ingaged in vicious Society 't is in danger of being eclipst and controul'd by the opposite vice If the Ermins will associate with the Swine they must lie in the mire if the Sheep with Wolves they must learn to bite and devour if Doves with Vultures they must learn to live on the prey Our surest guard is to keep at a distance from all engaging snares He that from carelessness or confidence ventures into temptations makes himself an easie prey to the tempter And let us dayly pray for the Divine Assistance to keep us from the evil of the World without which all our resolutions will be as ineffectual as ropes of sand to bind us to our duty 5. The consideration of the evil of sin is a powerful motive to our solemn and speedy Repentance The remembrance of our original and actual sins will convince us that we are born for repentance There are innumerable silent sins that are unobserved and do not Alarm the Conscience and altho a true Saint will neither hide any sin nor suffer sin to hide it self in his brest yet the most holy Men in the World have great reason with the Psalmist to say with melting affections who can understand his errors O clense me from my secret sins discover them to me by the light of the Word and cover them in the blood of the Redeemer There are sins of infirmity and dayly incursion from which none can be perfectly freed in this mortal state these should excite our watchfulness and be lamented with true tears There are crying sins of a crimson guilt which are to be confest with heart-breaking sorrow confounding shame and implacable antipathy against them and to be forsaken for ever Of these some are of a deep die in their nature and some from the circumstances in committing them some are of a heynous nature and more directly and expresly renounce our duty and more immediately obstruct our Communion with God As a mud-wall intercepts the light of the Sun from shining upon us 2. Some derive a greater guilt from the circumstances in the commission Such are 1. Sins against knowledge for according to the ingrediency of the will in sin the guilt arises Now when Conscience interposes between the carnal Heart and the temptation and represents the evil of sin and deters from compliance and yet Men will venture to break the Divine Law this exceedingly aggravates the offence for such sins are committed with a fuller consent atd are justly called rebellion against the light And the clearer the light is the more it will increase the disconsolate fearful darkness in Hell 2. Sins committed against the Love as well as the Law of God are exceedingly aggravated To pervert the benefits we receive from God to his dishonour to turn them into occasions of sin which were designed to endear obedience to us to sin licentiously and securely in hopes of an easie pardon at last is intensive of our guilt in a high degree This is to poison the antidote and make it deadly There is a Sacrifice to reconcile offended Justice but if Men obstinately continue in sin and abuse the Grace of the Gospel there is no Sacrifice to appease exasperated Mercy 3. Sins committed against solemn promises and engagements to forsake them have a deeper die for perfidiousness is joyn'd with this disobedience The Divine Law strictly binds us to our duty antecedently to our consent but when we promise to obey it we increase our obligations and by sinning break double chains In short any habitual allowed sin induces a heavy guilt for it argues a deeper root and foundation of sin in the Heart a stronger inclination to it from whence the repeated acts proceed which are new provocations to the pure Eyes of God Accordingly in repenting reflections our sorrow should be most afflicting our humiliation deeper our self-condemnation most severe for those sins which have been most dishonourable to God and defiling to us Not that we can make any satisfaction for our sins tho we should fill the Air with our sighs and Heaven with our tears but it becomes us to have our sorrows inlarged in some proportion to our unworthiness And this mournful disposition prepares us for the grace of God The Law does not allow repentance but exacts entire obedience 't is the privilege of the Gospel that repenting sinners are assur'd of forgiveness without this qualification 't is inconsistent with the Majesty Purity and Justice of God to extend pardoning Mercy to Sinners for they will never value nor humbly and ardently seek for Mercy till they feel the woful effects of sin in their Conscience only the stung Israelite would look to the brazen Serpent and this is requisite to prevent our relapsing into sin for the dominion of sin being founded in the love of pleasure the proper means to extinguish it is by a bitter repentance the Heart is first broken for sin and then from it To Conclude Let us renew our repentance every-day let not the wounds of our Spirits putrifie let not the Sun go down upon Gods wrath let us always renew the applications of Christs blood that alone can cleanse us from Sin The Case or Question which comes to be spoken unto this morning is Quest How may Private Christians be most helpful to promote the entertainment of the Gospel SERMON XII Colossians IV. 5. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without YE have heard the Question And as I conceive a due attendance unto the words read may lead us far toward the Resolution of it And for that reason was this Text chosen I design not therefore to frame a set Discourse upon it but only to lay it as a ground-work to support that which I have to offer toward the Answering of the Question propounded We have before us then a serious Exhortation Walk in wisdom toward them that are without And therein we may observe 1. The Persons to whom the Apostle doth direct it And they are private Christians This is apparent
up in manifold and mighty clusters What can we mention or fix our thoughts upon that may not kindle and increase this flame of Love and its Eruptions in Good Works The things which we might pertinently and copiously insist upon might be reduced to these Heads 1. The Objects of this Central Grace or Principle 1. Things in Heaven as God Christ the Spirit Angels the Spirits of Just Men there made perfect the glorious Furniture Laws and Orders the Visions Services Ministrations and Fruitions of that State all the Perfections Prerogatives and Employments of that blessed World above with all the accomplishments and accommodations which relate immediately thereto and all the Satisfactions and Advantages that result therefrom 2. Things from Heaven God manifest in the flesh i Tim. iii. 16. the Spirit Works and Word of God the great Provisions and Engagements of Divine Providence for us all that we are or have or meet with express of God's merciful regards to us and his compassionate concernedness for our universal welfare 3. Things for Heaven The Spirit of Grace the Word of Grace all the Ministers and means of Grace with all the Discipline and Encouragements which Providence sensibly affords us the Good and Evil things of time as ordered by God to fit us for and help us to the Glory which we look for The very Sons of men themselves considered in the relations which they bear to God and their expressiveness of his indearing Name and all those marks and notices which they bear and give us in the frame capacity and management of humane Nature of God's incomprehensible Wisdom Power Goodness c. O who can think hereon and yet be unprovoked to Love and to Good Works when as God is so eminently and endearingly discernible in all for God by all this courts our love And should I speak of the Sons of God and Heirs of Glory that Divine Workmanship which is in them and upon them the Impressions Reflections and Refractions of the Divine Nature and Life their capacity of growing up to all the fulness of God and to be eternally the beautiful and delightsome Temple of the Holy Ghost all their relations to the Holy Trinity with all their obligations to him their interest in him their business with him and for him and all their imitations and resemblances of him in their actual and possible motions and advances towards him and their Great Expectations from him Should I insist upon their membership with all the duties and advantages and pleasures which arise there from and pertinently illustrate and apply as I could easily and quickly do what doth so copiously occur in Eph. iv 4. 6. as the Central articles and holding bonds of Union and Endearments would you and I consider all these things and all the loveliness that would then be communicable or observable could our love want its provocation 2. The formal nature of this love 't is fit to be a provocation to itself i Joh. iv 16-21 7-12 This is the beauty health strength pleasure safety and renown of humane nature love is the aim and scope Knowledge the end of faith the Spirit of hope the life of practice and devotion and the bond of perfectness and the true transformation of the Soul into the image of its God No pleasing thoughts of God Christ Heaven or heavenly things no chearful motions towards eternity no foretasts of the highest bliss no warrantable claims thereto nor confident expectations of unseen realities No true and lasting bonds of friendliness in service and affections without this Spirit and state of love this only faces God in his own beautiful and delightful image this only turns the notions of divinity into substantial realities and so exalts the man above the pageantries of meer formal outside service and devotions and the truth is all that we say and do for God or with him and all our expectations from him are but the tricks and forgeries of deceitful and deceived fools and the most provoking Prophanation of the tremendous holy name of God and an abuse of holy things 3. The services which love must do and the fruits it must produce to God to Christ unto the Spirit unto our selves and others God himself must be reverenced addrest unto served and entertained like himself and walked with in all required and fit imitations of himself And all these cannot be without just valuings of and complacency in his eminent perfections near relations and the admirable constitutions and administrations of his Kingdom Christ must be duly thought on heartily entertained gratefully acknowledged and cheerfully obeyed submitted and improved unto the great and gracious purposes of his appearances performances and Kingdom and minded most delightfully in all the Grandeurs of his Grace and Throne the Holy Spirit must possess his Temple to his full Satisfaction and have the pure incense of his graces in their fragrant liberal and continual ascents Praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. And be feasted with the growthful and constant productions of his graces both in their blossoms and full fruits and we must be continually sowing to him if we hope to reap eternal life of him in Gal. vi 8. We must possess our selves in God and for him in our full devotedness and resignations of our entire selves to him pleasing our selves in this that we are not by far so much and so delightfully our own as his and that we cannot love our selves so well as when we find God infinitely dearer to us than we are to our selves And as for others much must we chearfully do and bear and be to bring poor Renegadoes back again to God to testify our great respects unto and pleasure in the grace of God in our fellow Christians to accommodate our selves to their edification concerns and to make our best advantage of every thing discernible in them Helping our selves and them in spirit speech and practice And can these things be brought to pass or our selves reconciled suited to all our Christian duties and interests without provoked love And for the solemnities transactions and results of the approaching day what is that day to those who have no love or very great declensions of it For all that come with Christ from Heaven come in the flames of love to God to godliness and Godly Ones and a Cold Heart will no way be endured there And as to fellow Christians the Duties and Counsels of the Text consideration adhering to the Assembling of our selves together mutual exhortations in the encouraging and quickning Prospect of this day can these things be without love III. The management of these provoking things And here let us follow the method of the Text it self Where we have these Topicks to insist upon 1. Persons must be considered each other and our selves 2. We are not to desert the Assemblings of our selves together as the manner of some is 3. We must exhort each other And so what one proposes the other must Consider
The Vsefulness of the worshipping Assemblies of Saints and Christians to this great and needful provocation must quicken us unto and keep us in these Courts of God Psal .xcii. 13. 15. Exod. xx 24. There God commands the blessing even Life for evermore Psal cxxxiii 3. There you have the openings of the Gospel Teasury there are these golden Candlesticks which bear the burning shining Tapers whose light and heat diffuse themselves through all within their reach who are receptive of them The Gifts and Graces the Affections and Experiences of Gospel Ministers are in their Communicative Exercises there God the Father sets and keeps his Heart and Eye there the Lord Redeemer walks by and amongst his Commissionated Officers and Representatives dispensing warmth and vigour through their Ministry to Hearts presented to him at his Altar There doth the Holy Spirit fill Heads with Knowledge Hearts with Grace and all our Faculties and Christian Principles with Vigour There Mysteries are unfolded Precepts explained and enforced Promises fulfilled in Soul improvements Incense is offered up in golden Censers and foederal concernments are solemnly transacted and confirmed in open Court And there through the Angel of the Covenant his moving upon the Waters of the Sanctuary are Soul distempers and Consumptions healed And there you are informed acquainted with and confirmed in what may instruct you in and encourage you unto this Provocation to Love and to good works And there Prayer gets fuel and gives vent to Love drawing forth all the Energies of Souls and Thoughts towards God And thus fervent Prayers and love quickning returns thereto are like the Angels of God ascending and descending from and upon the Heart while the deserters hereof grow cold thereto and starve their Love and practical Godliness thereby All there is known obtained and exercised There you may fill your Heads with Knowledge your Hearts with Grace your Mouths with Arguments your Lives with Fruitfulness your Consciences with Consolations and your whole selves with those experiences of Divine regards to Soul concerns which may inflame your Hearts with Love to God and Christ to Holiness and Heaven and fit you both to kindle and increase this holy flame both in your selves and in each other And indeed what greater advantages can be derived into our Souls to make our Altars burn than what our Christian Assemblies duly managed will entertain us with What understanding do the Inspirations of the Almighty here afford Such curious Explications of the Name and Counsels of your God Such large and full accounts of all the endearing Grace of Christ Such Critical dissections and anatomizings of the state of Souls Such over-shâ—dowings of the Spirit of God Such clear and full descriptions and accounts of the Divine Life and Nature in all their Strength and Glory How are desires invigorated and twisted to make them more effectual to our selves and others This Sanctuary Love is like the best wine going down sweetly and causing the Lips even of those that are asleep to speak Keep then to these Assemblies that you may duly know whom what how and why to Love and how to suit your selves in spirit speech and practice towards God your selves and towards each other unto this generous and noble Principle Thus will you grow exceedingly both in the knowledge and savour of what is most considerable and most deservingly affecting both as to Things and Persons for Christianity is contrived for Love and Godliness in all its Doctrines Laws and Ordinances and in assemblies you have the Explications and Enforcements of those Truths which will compleat the Man of God as to his Principles Disposition and Behaviour Here you may know your most holy Faith as to it's matter evidences and designs upon you and it 's improvableness by you to it 's determined and declared ends and services That Faith which is to illuminate your Eyes to exercise your thoughts to fix your holy purposes to form and cherish expectations to raise desires to embolden prayer to fire your affections and regulate them as to their Objects Ends and Measures and Expressions And when you there attend you are in the way of Blessings How oft and evidently are Divine Truths there sensibly sharpened and succeeded by the God of Truth Rom. i. 16. Paul and Barnabas so spake as that a Multitude believed of Jews and Gentiles Act. xiv 1. And thither must you and I resort and there attend for Doctrine Exhortation and Instruction in Righteousness The Priests Lips must preserve Knowledge how to speak of God with him and for him there Gospel luminaries are to diffuse their Light and there must we receive it and know what is considerable eligible practicable and encouraging to love and to good Works Why then should we forsake that 3. But let us exhort each other â—or consideration and attendance on Assemblies are for our own and others good for personal and mutual quickenings to Love to good works I know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used more largely for any pleading of and pressing home a thing pursuant to it's import and design whether by Counsel Comfort or sometimes it imports Consolation or Encouragement This is too well seen and known to need its Scriptural Instances and Quotations That which is here intended I offer in this Paraphrase Draw forth all the Spirit and Strength of what you know and have advisedly considered as to your selves and others of what you have seen and heard in your Assembling of your selves together concerning your obligations to attend them their fitness to advantage you and all the benefit derived or deriveable therefrom Draw forth the vigour of all your received Discoveries Directions Assistances and Inducements to do and be what is required and expected from you professed by you and of eternal Consequence and Concernment to you Plead this throughly with your selves and one another that so your Christian love be not extinguisht or abated but wrought and kept up to its genuine and just pitch of fervour and effectual Operations and Eruptions in Good works Drive home upon your selves by deep and serious thoughts and pertinent applications of them to your selves and warm debates about them with your selves the things which God hath manifested and proposed to you as credible acceptable and practically Improveable He that expects this flame upon his heart must be a thoughtful man severely contemplative and sollicitous about the things of the Kingdom of God and the Name and Interest and Servants of the Lord Redeemer How can that man be warm and active or zealous of Good works whose knowledge is not actuated by self-awakening Meditations and whose furniture Principles and Spirit are commonly neglected by himself What! are divine Truths Laws Promises and Institutions only to be with us or in us as empty Speculations or thin Notions Have Divine Revelations and Endearings no Errand to our Hearts and Consciences and no business there and no practical Vigours to
of Christ in himself and in the world Such an one as valued carnal things above spiritual earthly above heavenly and a small fleshly enjoyment above so great and advantageous a priviledge as the Primogeniture Secondly Prophaneness is attributed to things Thus in 1 Tim. 4.7 Refuse prophane and old Wives Fables by which we are according to learned men to understand either the absurd Jewish stories or some superstitious persons forbidding to marry and the use of sundry sorts of meats or those idle and foolish Doctrines which place the worship of God in such low and pittiful things as external sapless Rites and Ceremonies Forms Modes and Gestures But further those things are plainly and notoriously prophane which are sinful and wicked Debauchery is prophaneness in Grain a wicked life is a prophane life To Lye and Swear and Curse and Whore are acts of prophaneness for people to drive on their worldly Trades to buy and sell in Houses Shops or Streets upon the Sabbath-day are acts of prophaneness This is a prophaning of that day which God hath separated from the rest of the days and sanctified and set apart for holy use his own worship and service and the good of Souls In short all that which is contrary to the Divine Law those excellent and blessed Rules which God hath been pleased in his Word to give out unto us for the right management of our selves and ordering of our Lives and Conversations in the World all that I say is prophaneness whether it be Impiety or Immorality Our second work is to enquire what we are to understand by the suppressing of prophaneness To this I answer in general the suppressing of it doth signify the keeping of it under If prophaneness be not carefully look'd to but let alone it will quickly grow to an head and soon over-spread and over-top all It must therefore be kept down and if through the negligence of some and the impudence of others it be got to an height it must be knockt down Such tough humours in the body Politick need and call for strong Purges and Civil Magistrates who are the State-Physicians cannot be better imployed than about such works as that More particularly I shall mention two things which the suppression of prophaneness doth carry in it A prevention of 1. The acts of prophaneness 2. The growth of it First There must be a prevention of the Acts of prophaneness Prophane principles in the heart of a man lying still and as it were dormant not breaking forth are out of the reach of others Neither the Magistrates Sword be it never so long nor the Ministers Word if alone and unaccompanied with the Divine Spirit can reach it or prevail against it That is the mighty and glorious work of the great Jehovah who alone knoweth the Heart and searcheth it and can change alter and mend it None but he that made the heart at first can mould it anew None but he can cast Salt into that Spring none but he can graft such holy principles as to make a corrupt tree good But wicked and prophane practices in the lives of men as are the wretched products fruits and issues of base and cursed principles may be curb'd restrain'd and prevented So that though the wickedness of the wicked will not depart from him yet it shall not be committed with that frequency and boldness and openness as it hath been and to this very day is With shame and sorrow be it spoken In the Heb 12.15 Look diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you You may understand it both of unsound doctrine abominable practices but I am now only to deal with the latter Sin lust corruption in the heart is a root of bitterness yielding that which is bitter to God his Soul hates and abhors it And it is bitter to man in the sad direful consequences and effects of it which when the foolish self-humouring sinner comes to tast he will certainly find worse than Gall. Sin is his dainties he rolls it as a delicious morsel under his tongue but it will prove the poison of Aspes within him Now it nearly concerns every one to endeavour the pulling up of this root in his own heart let him set both his hands to the work let him lay the axe to it and call God in to his assistance It is ten thousand thousand times more desireable to have in you that root of the matter which holy Job spake of than to have this root of bitterness in you But then it ought to be the care of all specially Governours both in Families Churches Kingdoms and Nations they should look diligently to it that this root do not pullulare spring up if at any time it begins to peep and shew its head oppose it with might and main trample upon it with the foot of just indignation never suffer it to shoot up bud and bring forth Though men will not be so good as they should do not give them leave to be as bad as they would It is not in your power to dry up the fountain but it is a part of your duty to dam up the streams and though you cannot eradicate mens vitious habits yet you must restrain their outward acts 1 Timothy 1.20 Of whom are Hymeneus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme A strange way of cure to prevent sin by giving men up to the Devil yet such as God prescrib'd and prosper'd After the same manner let flagitious Persons be delivered up to punishment that so though they will not virtutis amore for the love of virtue yet formidine poenae for fear of punishment they may learn to bridle themselves and not to do any more so wickedly as they have done One great end of punishment being the reclaiming and amending the offender if he be not past hope Secondly There must be a suppression of the growth and spreading of prophaneness I shall hereafter shew you a little more fully how that sin is like some unhappy weeds that if once they get into a ground and be not timely dealt with will in a little while run far and near and overspread the whole they do not need any encouragement it is enough for them to be let alone Of all Weeds this wickedness is the worst and most diffusive of itself a prophane wretch is like one that hath the plague he is indeed a pest or common plague in the place where he is his very breath and touch his discourses and actions are infectious he goeth up and down tainting those with whom he doth converse who are not of healthful constitutions of Souls and well antidoted with the fear and awe of God And this was one reason that the Apostle Paul gives in the forementioned Heb. 12. why he would have such special care taken to prevent the springing up of any root of bitterness lest thereby many
not only called the Ministers of God but because they are in so great place and set about so good work God hath been pleased to put upon them his own Name as we find in sundry places of Scripture Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of thy People Where the latter Expression the Ruler of thy People Is Exegetical and Explanative of the former the Gods and accordingly the Chaldee Translation renders it the Judges So again Psalm 82.1 God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty and judgeth among the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By which some indeed understand the Angels as 1 Sam. 28.13 When the Witch had raised up the Devil a fallen Angel in the shape of Samuel she said to Saul I saw Gods ascending out of the Earth And so Psalm 86.8 Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord. Though the holy Angels are noble Creatures excellent in Wisdom and mighty in Strength yet among that innumerable company not one can be found like God But others better understand hereby Princes Judges and civil Magistrates And not only David a good man a King called them by this Name but Jehovah himself hath given it them he hath vouchsafed to honour them with this Name Psalm 82.6 I have said Ye are Gods and all of you are the Children of the most High You are my Commissioners you do Locum tenere hold my place with my leave and by my appointment Your Throne is the Throne of God and your Tribunal the Tribunal of God I have given you an inviolable Authority take heed how you use it I have made it your work to do Justice and to distribute Rewards and Punishments see that you do it Now what shall we infer from hence Certainly thus much That Magistrates being Gods Vicegerents they ought to Act like him and according to his will Having their Commission from him they should study it and conform to it bearing his Name they should be expressive of his Nature Being cloathed with his Power they ought to imploy it for his Honour and the promoting of his Interest and against his Enemies of whom Sin is the worst for men are said to be Enemies in their Minds through wicked works Are they Children of the most High And as such admitted to a part of his judiciary Power Then it becomes them to be followers of him as dear Children and as well as they can to imitate him in the discharge of that trust which they have received from him Who is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him the foolish shall not stand in his sight for he hateth all the workers of Iniquity Psalm 5.4 5. But let us pursue this a little further Secondly We have seen what is the place of Magistrates it is very high and honourable but not supreme there is one in Heaven that is higher than they great men in Authority are still as the good Centurion said under Authority Their place is a Vicegerency Now let us but specially let them consider and remember what is the work and business of their place For that they ought to do endeavouring to stand compleat in all the Will of God as Men as Christistians and as Magistrates or Men in Office It will by no means be found enough for men to hold such or such a place in Church or State but it ought to be their desire and endeavour to fill up the place they hold Which if men would seriously think upon there would not be that seeking of and hunting after places as there generally is Places then would rather seek men than men Places And as Persons in Authority and Power do and will and justly may expect and require that honour revenue and salary which doth of right belong to them upon the account of their place The Prince will not part with his Crown Scepter and Throne so long as He can hold them Nor the Lord Mayor with his Sword and Mace no nor the Constable with his Staff which is the badge of his Office So they and all others ought to fill up as I said their places with the performance of that Duty which is inseparably annexed to them A man had a great deal better never have been advanced to a place of trust than to be careless negligent and remiss in it He that so advanced is not a publick good is no better than a common nusance Honos and Onus go together Honour and Burden and He doth not deserve to meddle with the Honour who is not willing to take up the Burden Well these places carry great work along with them and that work must be done Now if the Question be What is that work to the doing whereof Magistrates are by their places obliged I answer To appear for God and to act for God As God is the Author of their Power so his Interest and Honour ought to be the matter of their designs and the end of their Government This that good King Jehoshaphat did full well understand accordingly when he had set Judges in the Land through all the fenced Cities of Judah City by City he spake thus unto them 2 Chron. 19.6 Take heed what ye do for ye rule not for men but for the Lord who is with you in the Judgment An excellent speech it was a charge fit to be given to Judges when to go their Circuits Judges yea and others too as well as they had need be very Cautious and Wary men exceeding prudent and circumspect it concerns them to ponder and weigh actions how they carry what Laws they make how they execute them what Judgments they give and what Sentences they pass But what is the reason hereof Because they Judge not for men but for the Lord and so they rule not for men but the Lord and when they meet in Parliament they should consult not for men but for the Lord. Though indeed they do manage all most prudently for men when they act most faithfully for the Lord. And it is certain it is not Officers own advancement and inrichment not their own Honour and Grandeur at which they should level and direct their Actions none of these is the end of Government or of their being called to any part or share of it but the Honour of God and his Glory as Supreme and the good of men as subordinate And let not that be forgotten which Jehoshaphat added The Lord is with you in the Judgment When you do well and act according to the Law of Righteousness God is with you to own you to justifie you to stand by you to comfort and encourage you to protect and defend you to reward and bless you as Persons that have been faithful And you may be sure He is at all times with you in the Throne and in the Senate and upon the Bench and elsewhere curiously to observe and take notice of that which you do for by
do this that if it were possible He might allure and draw others to walk in the same way of Wisdom and Holiness as Himself had chosen but however he would do this that none of them might have his pattern to justifie and embolden any of them in their ways of wickedness Of all Persons Parents in a Family Ministers in the Church and Magistrates in a Kingdom ought to be very careful and curious they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take heed to their way and foot it right For those that do not prove publick pests and mischiefs going up and down to the infecting of many Secondly As such should make it their business to Live prophaneness down so it will be an excellent thing for them to Frown it down Let them not bestow their smiles upon those that Practise it for those smiles are misplaced Princes will do well not to admit them into their Courts nor to make them the objects of their special Favour We find the Lord speaking thus Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel the Iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and the Sin of Samaria I find some Expositors do by Ephraim there understand the Court for certain after the revolt of the ten Tribes from the House of David in the days of Rehoboam Samaria was the Metropolis or Capital City of the Kingdom of Israel This being so we may by warrant of that Text lay down this position If there be Iniquity in Ephraim no man hath any reason to wonder that he finds Wickedness in Samaria Sins in the Court will diffuse themselves and not be kept out of the City no nor the Countrey neither Therefore holy David did not only resolve to take special care of himself though it was his Wisdom to begin there that was beginning at the right end but he did not shut up his care within so narrow bounds He did not limit it to himself but would look about him and have an Eye upon his Domesticks all those that should live with him Psal 101.3 A froward Heart shall depart from me I will not know a wicked Person Assoon as I have discovered such an one and found him to be of an evil Temper and Life He shall away he must depart from me if he be a worker of iniquity I will cast him and turn him out of doors my Palace shall be no place for such vermin I will not know him He shall be none of my acquaintance or retinue And indeed there is very good reason why they should be out of credit at Court who are a discredit to the God they own and the Religion they profess Marks of special favour are at all times and in all places very unhappily bestowed upon such as do by their Leudness and Debauchery deserve the blackest brands of infamy And whatever other abilities and accomplishments they may have I think it is very hard and hazardous to trust them who do not fear God None are before the throne of God in Heaven but holy Angels and the Saints who have washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb Rev. 7.14 Evil shall not dwell with him nor shall the workers of iniquity stand in his sight And then will things be well indeed when none but such are suffered to stand before the Thrones of earthly Princes his Substitutes and Vicegerents The way of prophaneness would not be so beaten a road as it hath been but have far fewer Travellers when all shall see that it doth not lead to preferment To be severe against the wicked is a convincing argument of a Princes wisdom Prov. 20.26 A wise King scattereth the wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them And in this way he doth provide for his own security Prov. 25.5 Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness When Cardinal Julian was commended to Sigismund he answer'd Tamen Romanus est Let such or such a man be commended for never so much if it may be said Tamen profanus est that should be enough for a bar in his way Thirdly Another excellent way for the suppressing of prophaneness is an opposition made to it by severe Laws yea to every sin that falls within the cognizance of the Civil Magistrate runs upon the point of his Sword And by those Laws let punishment be provided for it according to its nature and demerit For all sins are not equal in themselves and therefore there ought to be a diversity in the punishment Let Rulers thunder most terribly against those abominations that have the loudest cry in the Ears of Heaven make the strongest fence against that sin which above all others threatens the Land with an inundation and be sure to spend the most angry and formidable frowns upon the boldest and most daring outrages Let Laws Kingdoms and Common-wealths be sure to look those sins out of Countenance which are of all other most impudent and look men in the face without a blush and walk up and down in our Streets at noon-day This to do is one part of the work belonging to our King and Parliament with whom alone is lodged the Legislative power whose meetings are to be for the publick good with which they are intrusted and for the promoting whereof they were chosen and sent And as they will answer for it to the Holy Righteous and Eternal God who is a Consuming Fire they are strictly obliged and that at their peril to take care that those Laws which they make be not grievous but righteous have not a malignant but benign influence and that by them every mans Property may be secured that Religion which is warranted by Scripture and so pure and undefiled before God and the Father be not Discouraged Punished and first driven into corners and then ferreted out of them but countenanced and promoted and that all that whatsoever it be that is contrary to Godliness and sound Doctrine as well as that which disturbs the publick peace and creates uncivil disorders may be kept down and as far as is possible banished out of a Land We read Psalm 94.20 of a throne of iniquity that frameth mischief by a Law If there never had been such Thrones in the World there would not have been that mention made of them in the Scripture But such there have been That of Jeroboam was one who would not suffer the people according to the divine Command to go up to Jerusalem to worship God who had there placed his name but spread for them that went nets upon Miâ—pahâ— and set snares upon Mount Tabor and such Thrones there have been since too many of them Well Saith the Psalmist shall they have fellowship with thee No no God keeps his distance from them those that we call stinking dunghils are not offensive to God as Thrones of iniquity are which shall neither be approved by him nor secured Stay a while Christians and in patience possess your Souls for
a very considerable power and without doubt they have it not for nothing And as it is given them for good ends so for those ends they ought to imploy it That power is in vain which is not reduced into Act. The Staff which you Constables carry up and down with you is for something more than a bare and empty sign and to tell people what you are and though you do frequently leave your Staff at home yet I pray be sure to carry your eyes and ears along with you to the farthest bounds of your jurisdiction What a great deal of good may be done and what abundance of wickedness may be prevented by one active person And I think I am not mistaken when I reckon upon a curious inquisition as one part of the work of your Office Surely it is not for you to sit still at home till you are alarm'd and called forth by riots and uproars in the Streets or have men come with their complaints rapping at your doors but you should take your walks and make enquiry after evil-doers find out their nests and haunts See what Companies meet in publick houses for entertainment and what they do how they behave themselves when they are together and be sure to dissolve their wicked Clubs and debauched meetings and carry the Persons whom you find so transgressing before those Superiour Magistrates whom you know most hearty and active in their places For verily when there are good and excellent Laws in a Land for the regulating of things and correcting that which is amiss and yet sin grows because of a Male-administration much very much of the guilt will be chargeable upon and lie at the doors of inferiour Officers more than they will be able to answer for Eighthly Let those Officers which are faithful in their places have their due and full encouragement and not be snibb'd and brow-beaten and taken up short and treated with abusive Language and frowns as they have been in the late times when practices of Religion were hated and punished as the worst of Crimes and a Company of wretched Informers that neither had a drachm of honesty nor were worth a Groat were hugg'd and entertain'd with welcom and applause besides their part in the fines which they gaped for as the wages of their unrighteousness Honest vigilant and active Officers who are in the discharge of their duty and proceed no farther than the Law impowers them ought to be commended they that do well deserve to hear well and not be counted or called busy fellows so long as they are imployed about their own business Yea and they ought to be assisted too Where the Constables Staff will not do the work let the Justice of Peace draw his Sword And when they have brought the matter as far as they can let them that have higher power set their hands to it and carry it on further It cannot but be a great discouragement to honest men when they have found out and seized upon Ranting Roaring Debauchees and brought them notwithstanding their Cursing and Storming their heats and huffs before their Superior and then he shall receive them with one Complement and after the speaking a few words of course dismiss them with another Such men as these may be assaulted by a Temptation to grow cold and remiss but I do advise and desire them not to yield to that Temptation for still this may be their comfort that they have not been wanting unto their duty and the other must and shall answer for his neglect possibly to the higher powers below or if not to them yet for certain at last to that God who is higher than the highest and sits in the Throne judging right and from whom every one shall receive according as his work hath been Ninthly An Orthodox and Godly Ministry is a very choice and excellent means for the suppression of prophaneness Surely this ill-favoured Monster though grown up to a gigantick Stature and bigness is most like to fall when it is opposed and set upon by the Magistrate who bears the Sword of Civil power and by the Minister too who bears and draws against it the Sword of the Spirit which hath been by God committed to him and those other weapons with which he is furnished out of the divine armory and which according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 10.6 He hath or ought to have in a readiness for the revenging of all disobedience And therefore I heartily wish that as a learned and so much the better by how much the more learned Ministry may be kept up in the Land both in Cities and Countreys and in order to that sufficient liberal provision made for them So such and only such may be imployed in that high and sacred Function as in the Judgment of rational Charity may be looked upon as being indeed the Ministers of Christ And the two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marks or Characters by which such may be known are the preaching of Christ and his Doctrine their living of Christ and according to his Rules and their doing of both these will conduce and contribute very much to this great end This will be singularly promoted by their preaching of Christ not Ceremonies but Christ not imposed forms of prayer but the power of Godliness not only Morality but true Piety not the Cross in Baptism but crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts not bowing to the name of Jesus but to the Authority and Government and Law of Jesus not a white Garment but the linnen of Saints righteousness and holiness I do not at all deny but Civility and Morality are duties very Goodly Pearls necessary and becoming Oh that there were more of them to be found among us It is beyond all question that they who would be Saints must not be beasts I cannot think any fit matter for a visible Church who are Devils incarnate Nor do I deny but that many useful Sayings good Precepts and Rules may be fetched from Heathen Authors Plato Seneca Tully Plutarch c. But we need not borrow Jewels of Egyptians blessed be God nor go down to the Philistines for the sharpening of our Mattocks It is the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God to Salvation There is no need of quoting a Philosopher when we have a Paul What examples can we produce and propound so exact and curious as is that of Christ who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth He spake so as never man spake and he walked so as never man walk'd What arguments can we find more convincing than those of the Scripture which are mighty for casting down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imaginations Conceits Reasonings of a carnal vain and proud mind What motives more perswasive and alluring than those of the Gospel which are indeed the cords of a man What Thunder-claps can be thought of more terrible or what Terrours more amazing and affrighting than the Terrours of
is in our Streets All that know you may it please your most excellent Majesty know that you have a great deal of important and weighty work continually before you which must necessarily fill your Royal Head with Thoughts and your Heart with Cares that keeps your eyes waking while others sleep without Interruption or Disturbance There is abundant reason for us all to pity your burdens and to pray that you may be counselled by the God of Wisdom and supported by the God of Power and have the Arms of your Hands made strong by the Everlasting Arms of the God of Jacob but no reason for any Protestant among us to envy your Honour and other Prae-eminences which are just though too small recompences for the hazzards you have run and the Kindness you have shewn and the Thoughts Cares and Pains you have taken for the saving of a People looked upon as being within a very few steps of Ruine None knows the weight of a Crown but he that wears it While it glisters it sits heavy yet Great Sir among those other Affairs which do incessantly engage you let the promoting of Morality and Piety the beating down of Ungodliness and Prophaneness put in for and obtain a principal share for they do deserve it And oh that other Magistraâ—â—s would contribute what in them is to the promoting of the true Religion the Power of Godliness and a Scriptural Reformation together with an hearty and vigorous Suppression of Prophaneness remembring that it is the great and Holy God who hath by the hand of his Providence put into your hand the Sword of Justice which ought not to rust there you must not bear it in vain but draw it when and use it as need requires And if the making of good Laws and denouncing of Judgments in the penalties contained in them be not sufficient to curb vice and to keep men within compass lift up your selves as those that know it is your part As the Ministers of God to execute wrath upon them that do evil If menaces will not do there must be a proceeding to Execution and if shaking the Rod over the Head doth not reach the end there must be a laying of it upon the back only be sure that it is indeed upon the back of them that do evil And unto such it doth concern you to be a terrour for that is the Will of God as my Text tells you It must and will be readily granted that a pleasant and smiling aspect is very grateful because lovely and an affable obliging carriage doth exceedingly become and adorn great Ones but sometimes it is needful for them to cloath themselves with terrour that they might make the most stout-hearted Sinners to tremble Magistrates should not be like Jupiters blocks for Vermin to skip upon and play with An undue and foolish lenity will render them contemptible and the wicked more audacious so as to lift up their horn on high and declare their Sin as Sodom When Justice and Mercy are mingled with a judicious and skilful hand they will constitute a Government of a most excellent temper Vse 2. I shall also be free to speak a few words to my Reverend Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry of what Judgment and Perswasion soever they are about those things which have been and are matters of difference and controversie among us You would all of you be received honoured and attended unto as the Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ My request unto you is that you would approve your selves and convince all that you are such by your preaching Christ up and Sin down all manner of Sin all sorts of Filthiness both of the Flesh and of the Spirit Spare none neither small nor great Be sure that what offends you doth offend God as well as you and then bend your Bow and level your Arrows at it But as for the over-grown prophaneness of the Age which you cannot but know doth so greatly abound in the midst of us set your selves with all your might not only to lop off it's luxuriant branches but if possible to pull it up by the very roots Do not in the bowels of love I beseech you do not rend and tare one another do not waste and spend your precious and swiftly flying time your heat and strength about those things which your Consciences tell you are Adiaphorous or Indifferent and some of you have by Word of Mouth and in your writings owned and acknowledged to be so and a zealous contending for them and stiff upholding of them will break the Peace both of Church and State as it hath done ever since the beginning of the Reformation but will never afford you solid Comfort and a well-grounded Peace when you come to lie upon a Death-bed and the King of Terrours with his grim and gastly countenance shall look you in the face But labour with might and main against that root of bitterness prophaneness which if you know any thing as you ought to know you cannot but know is of a damnable Nature and will if not prevented and heartily repented of cast and sink particular Persons into the bottomless pit of Eternal Perdition and also bring ruine upon an whole Nation so that though Noah Samuel and Job should stand before God and plead for them yet his mind could not be toward them Do not you admit to the Table of your Lord filthy Swine that wallow in the Mire of all prophaneness Swearers Drunkards and others of that black guard do not look like guests meet for such a Solemnity not like such as the Holy Jesus will bid welcome Do not you seal to them an Interest in all the Blessings of that Covenant which they wickedly violate nor in the saving benefits of that most precious Blood which was indeed shed for Sinners but is by them trampled under foot as if it were an unholy thing and had purchased for them a lawless Liberty or License to be Unholy Do not you receive them to a distinguishing Ordinance who run with the herd and are not by their lives and actions distinguished from the worst and vilest Remember that old saying and very good one Sancta Sanctis Holy things for holy Persons And consider what our Lord said to the Prophet Jer. 15.19 If thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth He will have his Servants sever the good and the bad giving his Promises and Seals to the former denying them to the latter He will have his Stewards to be faithful feasting his Children with the dainties of his House but not throwing them away to Dogs and those that do so He will own Thus do ye and by so doing you will come forth to the help of the civil Magistrate against those mighty abominations which Domineer and Reign among us Considering the place you are in and that solemn work you have engaged in one would expect that all of you should be holy not only by
Heaven above and blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the Breasts and of the Womb let his blessings prevail above the blessings of all his Progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills let them be upon his head and the head of his dearest Consort For I hope time will make it further evident that He is a singular Instrument raised up by God for the effecting of great and glorious things in the world and for the Church of Christ which hath been in so many Places for so many Years afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted Yea that he is designed for an Avenger to execute wrath upon him and them who have been the Plague of the Christian World and have made it their work and delight to destroy the Earth and their design to erect to themselves a Monument of Glory out of the Ruins of Kingdoms and the Protestant Religion Secondly Let me desire you to facilitate the work of Magistrates and make it as easie to them as you can You that are Masters of Families having Children and Servants under you and understand your work and desire to go through with it find that you have enough to do in your narrow and little spheres your small Cock-boats call for much care and pains We that are Pastors of Churches have a great deal more e'en so much as makes our Heads and Hearts to ake and we cry out with holy Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things People do little think those many thoughts which gracious and faithful Ministers have both day and night the multitude of those cares which they take the burdens which often lie upon their Spirits and the many bitter sighs and groans which upon various accounts they do utter in their private recesses when they are alone with God But yet what is this all this to that load which lieth upon the shoulders of our Sovereign who sits as Pilot at the Helm of so great a Ship and upon whom cometh daily not only the care of Three Kingdoms but as doubtless I may safely add of the whole Protestant Interest which hath been so desperately struck at yea and of all the Churches who have felt the fury of Oppressors that have put yokes of iron upon their necks And not only the King whose Place is highest and Province hardest but others also who are employed by and under him do find they have enough to do The Lord Mayor the Justices of Peace the Petty Constables Beadles Watchmen have enough to do How many avocations have they from their own Callings and particular Affairs which for their own and Families good must be attended to and how many Troubles and Vexations have they in the management of their Places I would therefore prevail with you to pity them and to help them and to take off from their burden all that you can This will be an argument of your being acted by a Spirit truly Christian and it doth very well become all good Subjects When Jethro the father-in-Father-in-Law of Moses came to the Camp of Israel in the Wilderness and saw all that Moses did to the People He spake thus to him Exod. 18.8 Thou wilt surely wear away c. for the thing is too heavy for thee thou art not able to perform it thy self alone So I say Our King will wear away He is but a Man His Strength is not the strength of Stones nor is his Flesh of Brass He is made of flesh and blood as well as others and is subject to the same infirmities decays and strokes that others are and truly his life deserves to be exceeding precious in our eyes He is the breath of our Nostrils and our Life and Peace our Comfort and Happiness is very much bound up in him And therefore we have and I hope we shall more and more see that we have a great deal of reason to contribute all that we can to the lengthening out of his days and making his life comfortable But the weight of Government is too heavy for him I mean as good old Jethro did He is not able to perform it himself alone To deal with England's enraged Enemies abroad and with England's daring Sins at home is too much for him alone nay may I not go farther It is too much for his Privy Council and Parliament too yea and for all inferiour Magistrates and Officers too Take them altogether and it is too much for them alone I do therefore earnestly beseech you all to put your helping hand to the work and yield them all the assistance that you can We have as my Experience and constant Observation tells me a Spirit of discontent and complaining very busie and active though indeed often times not without too much cause And the Lord grant those who are now our Rulers may have such a Spirit of Wisdom and Government plentifully poured out from Heaven upon them that they may never give good Men any that those who have an Interest in God and will certainly be heard at the Throne of Grace may never be constrained to go with their just Complaints But how many are there that do without cause fill their mouths with Complaints and call those faults which are not and throw dirt in the faces of Persons in place But I will ask this one question what do these Complainers do in order to the amending of that which is amiss Our Streets would be clearer than they are if every one would sweep before his own Door And Reformation would happily become Universal if every one would be a Self-Reformer And oh that you would be so Oh that others would be so Oh that all would say what Elihu doth in Job tell us is meet to be said unto God What I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do so no more I shall yet divide this my Exhortation into two branches First I shall speak unto those who are Governours of Families and have Children and Servants under their inspection apply to your Duty there Would you gladly see all things well abroad as far as you can every one of you take care that they be so at home You that are Parents must know and consider that that God who gave you Children hath committed to you the care and charge of their Souls And you that have Apprentices ought likewise to know and consider that the Souls as well as the Bodies of your Apprentices are committed to your care by their Parents or Friends and are your charge likewise And the same is true as to your other menial Servants so long as they shall continue under your Roof as such and accordingly you are under a strict Obligation for looking after them That is not a thing which you may do or leave undone as you please but you are bound to it You ought to be their keepers for you are responsible for them And if thorough your neglect and carelessness any
Duty beforehand that as soon as he came to Capacity of Understanding he should not want for Attractives of his Affection to Convert and Cleave to God And no otherwise doth God deal with you You that know what your Baptism means do know so much Now no sooner do you Understand Consent unto and Profess the Imports of your Baptism but God calls you to his Holy Table There to confirm again and again with great frequency all the foresaid Promises O ye height length bredth and depth of the Divine Munificence and Kindness The Blessing of Abraham and every Iota of it comes on every sincere Convert Gal. 3.13 14. Speak Sirs is God so ill a Master that no offer can perswade you to return unto him Or What is there more than God has offered that you desire Or what further Confirmation and Ratification of his Promises than he gives do you crave Or which is that I listen after will you now straitway turn unto him And here right take on the Spiritual Robe the Ring and the Shoes And make Joy in Heaven and in this Congregation I do hope the Sun shall not go down before some of you are reconciled to God I have heard of a sinful Boy that offered to Convert presently if a Friend of his could make it out to him that he should fare the better for it in his Body and things of this Life Which being done he did Convert and lived and dyed an eminent Saint I am aware there is much of that Boys Spirit in all young People And it likes me to try whether I may so draw you with the Considerations that drew him Hear then what I say to evince that Conversion is a very Friend unto good Health Estate Mirth and Name that the state of Grace is in respect of these like the City Triocala one of Water-springs sweetest Vineyards choicest and Rocks most impregnable That when you once enter into Covenant with God your wants will be of nothing but things worse than nothing and wherever you are lodged the worst of your Wounds will be but Flea bites Or however ye are wounded ye can never be hurt Health is the Salt and sweetest Sawce of Life 'T is Sin Peoples own or their Ancestors or both that ordinarily is the working cause as well as deserving cause of sickness The Spirit and Grace and Service of God every way make for Health Particularly Temperance and good Conscience are the most benâ—gn of all things unto your Blood and Spirits And Converting Grace is not it self without them Go ask Physicians they will tell you Luxury and Lechery do make them an hundred Patients for every one that is made them by Fasting and Prayer No Precept of Christ is for any Duty Fasting it self unto Sickness if his precepts were observed they would prevent more than ever his Miracles healed If a good Man be at any time so weak as to hate his own Flesh he is not led to it by God's Spirit He ought indeed to beat it down and keep it in subjection to Gods Law and from the Usurpation of sinful Lusts But withal 't is those Lusts he is to mortifie and not his Body A Convert's Body is the Holy Ghost's Temple And if so be sure God will be kind unto it and his Servants ought to be duly careful of it An Estate is a very useful Hedge about you to keep off those many Proud that will be trampling upon all that is Poor And nothing raises or keeps up this Hedge like the Grace of God For it spirits you with Diligence which gets Riches with Humility which hates superfluity and saveth what is got with Charity which puts out all to Use and unto that Lord who never pays less than an hundred Fold in this Life it self Sin is this Hedge-breaker Rags are mostly Sins Livery When 't is otherwise and Sin makes you a Hedge it will be full of Snakes and Snares In the fullness of sinful sufficience you will be in straits And 't is odds but the Straits will be long and the Fullness a very little while On the other hand when a Converts Duty to God makes him poor it makes him rather a Martyr than a Beggar For he thereby testifies God's Truth and through the Truth of God to his Covenant he abounds in the middle of his wants For God doth but prune his Vines he burns up none but Thorns By Poverty he may undo Sinners but he still enricheth Saints Do but Convert you can never want what is truly good for you while God has it The first Minute that a great Estate begins to be good for you you shall have it And if you never have a Great one you shall still have a Good one Whereas Unconverts can have but one of these two a vexing Adversity or what is worse a slaying Prosperity One made of thick Clay and deeper Cares Mirth and Comfort are the Hony and Sweetness of your Beings Now Conversion makes exchange but no Robbery of these There is in Africa an Hony lusciously sweet but the Bees gather it from poysonous Weeds and it affects with madness and Frenzy all that eat of it He were no Thief that should take that sort of Hony from you and give the most wholesom to you Conversion deals no otherwise by you Only what it gives is more sweet as more wholsom And the quantity greater as well as the quality better For observe ye God forbids not any one Kind or Degree of pleasures but what is injurious And what your very Nature Reason and Interest do forbid you I deny it not Converts have Valleys of Troubles but then they have doors of Hope They are in Wildernesses but God prepares them Tables therein Dryest Rocks yield them Water and in darkest Dungeons they have shining Lights They receive here their Evil things and have their Hell upon Earth but then 't is a Heaven upon Earth to think this is all the Hell they shall ever endure And as for the Wayes he commandeth Converts to walk in they are all of Pleasantness Mysteriously yet most certainly Godly sorrow is made a sweet thing Every Week almost have I People crying for more of it than I think God allows them O Youth scies cum fies when thou art a Convert thou shalt feel what I tell thee No such Manna falls in Calabria none falls from Heaven like that which feasteth the Camps of sincere Converts The Convert state hath of the Joy as well as of the Purity of Heaven Unthought of Delights Such as don't Dye in the Enjoyment No but be stronger than Death as well as sweeter than Life Such as none of the Busie-bodies of this World ever found in the Mills of their Business or the Circles of their pleasure Gilboa's Mountains had not Rain or Dew Unconvert Youths have not Joy or Peace Madness is theirs Mirth they know not The three Hebrew Martyrs were merrier in the fiery Furnace than their Persecutor was in his
transgress you the commandments of the Lord that ye cannot prosper Were it otherwise Gods Name would not be Sanctified no order in this lower World would be kept But further Impenitence is not onely a Moral Obstacle to good as it provokes God to with-hold it but it s a Natural Obstacle the wickedness of men is efficient of Wo to a People and is in many senses destructive of Mercies and inconsistent therewith Many Enormities of a Nation are its Plagues as bad Laws wickedness in Magistrates a corrupt Ministry Oppression c. It s Iniquity is even materially its Ruin APPLICATION Many Inferences are obvious As How dreadful an Evil is Sin How dangerous to a Land are multitudes of Offenders A Nation is foolish that discountenances Piety and destroyeth the godly Party whereby it strikes at its own Refuge How good and long-suffering is God that calls the vilest Nations to return waits long for their Answer and destroys not till their Repentance be even hopeless What Enemies to themselves Neighbours and Posterity bound up in their doom are an impenitent people What sottish and Atheistical Men are they that guide their hopes and fears of a Nations Welfare by Fancies or second Causes but without regard to Gods Favour or Anger or the influence that Repentance or Impenitence have upon the wayes of God towards a People What a dismal Prospect is a Wicked Nation sporting with their Provocations and Warnings How uncertain a Tenure do most Nations hold their Mercies by But I have not time to insist on these I shall briefly apply the Resolution of the Case to our own Nation We are a Nation we have National Sins Repentance of these Sins is a presage of our future State as well as others I know no exemption or peculiar allowance we can expect at the hands of the righteous Governour of the World Oh that our Hearts were under the Power of this awful Truth that our iniquity may not be our ruin Ezek. 18.30 In order to this 1. I shall insist on some things in order to our Repentance 2. Enquire Whether we may groundedly expect National Mercies from our present Frame 3. Conclude with an Use of Lamentation of our National Impenitency and Dangers In order to our Repentance I shall 1. Represent to you the National Sins we ought to Repent of Hereby you 'l know what we should be humbled for resolve against and reform What a Terror ought it be but to mention our Provocations Oh that a Land of Light should be chargeable with such Enormities and yet be secure and hate to be reformed Where shall I begin the Charge We and our Fathers for some Ages have been guilty of the same sins yet unrepented of Against whom shall I level the Inditement Alass we have all sinned and done wickedly as we could Magistrates and Subjects Ministers and People the Unbelievers and Believers To what sorts of Sins shall I confine my self to Wo is us what Sins did God ever destroy a Land for that are not National with us But that the sound may not appear uncertain I account my self bound in Conscience to be more particular My subject forceth me not any uncharitable design Oh that my own heart were more filled with Zeal for God and deepest sorrows for the Nations Sin whiles I am recording what may offend the guilty though the Charge be too plain to admit a Denial Let us Enquire Is England altogether innocent as to its Laws Do not we see that some of the terms of Conformity are far other than our blessed Lord hath instituted Are they not remote from a tendency to advance real Piety and exclusive of some things that would much conduce thereto Is not a Diocesan Bishop set up whose sole Jurisdiction barrs all the other Ministers from the Exercise of a great part of their Office while the Bishop is utterly unable to perform it through the largeness of his Diocess Is there not more than an Umbrage of Lying and Perjury imposed on all Ministers when they must Assent Subscribe and Swear to what is more than suspicious yea utterly false Are not a heap of Ceremonies and corrupt Usages re-assumed though once cast out to the facilitating of the return of Popery dividing of Protestants and the scandal of the weak who are too apt to place Religion yea all their Religion in those Vanities How many severe Laws were made against Dissenters and severely executed to the ruin of Thousands Was it no provocation to silence Two Thousand Faithful Ministers when their Labours were so necessary and their places were to be filled up with many young Men who have proved fatal to serious Religion The Sacrament is made a Politick Engine to further the Damnation of unworthy Receivers that all such may be kept out whom they suspect any way hazardous to excessive Pomp and Ecclesiastick Pageantry Can the Land be Innocent where Atheism is so professed the most Blasphemous Oathes are fashionable Perjury Uncleanness Drunkenness Malignity against all credible Holiness so common and consistent with Reputation VVas it not among us that the Covenant was burnt by the hands of a Common Hangman and horrid Murthers committed as legal Executions Is not that Christian Nation guilty where prophanation of Sabbaths is so notorious yea pleaded for as warrantable Most Families have nothing of Gods VVorship the plainest Essentials of Religion by few understood the Operations of the Spirit turned into Ridicule and Religion placed in things that bear not a faint resemblance of the very form of it while Sobriety its self is meer matter of Scoff and the Fountains of Learning send forth many more fitted to Infect than Reform the Age Is it to be concealed that Men enter on the Ministry as Apprentices on a Trade and use it as a meer means for a Livelihood How many are Pastors without the peoples Consent And too many preach while unacquainted with the Gospel as a Law of Faith and Rule of the Recovery of Apostate Sinners The Labors of such have no tendency to Convert or Edifie their Hearers yea alass Conversion is judged a Foolish thing to urge All the most Debauched and Prophane are Regenerate if they were Baptized and come to Church Many Souls eternally perish by the influence of this one principle and the Ministry is diverted from its greatest end Have we not seen the Ministry too much laid out to serve the late Governments in designs of enslaving the Nations and ruining the Life of the Protestant Religion Though amazing was the Providence which almost too late opened some Mens Eyes by a close attempt against their own places and so swayed their Minds that they contributed to save the Land from that Ruin which a few more Sermons of Non resistance if believed by the Nation had rendred unavoidable The good Lord continue that impulse least our Miseries become greater by the beginnings of our Deliverance I design not this Account of all our publick Ministers blessed be God