miracle though we take but little notice of it that every one of us did not die every day since we were born I say considering the nice and curious frame of our Bodies and the innumerable contingencies and hazards of humane Life which is set in so slippery a place that we still continue in the land of the living we cannot ascribe to any thing but the watchful Providence of Almighty God who holds our soul in life and suffers not our foot to be moved To the same merciful Providence of God we owe that whilst we continue in life we have any comfortable possession and enjoyment of our selves and of that which makes us men I mean our Reason and Understanding That our Imagination is not let loose upon us to haunt and torment us with melancholick freaks and fears That we are not deliver'd up to the horrors of a gloomy and guilty mind That every day we do not fall into frenzy and distraction which next to wickedness and vice is the sorest calamity and saddest disguise of humane Nature I say next to wickedness and vice which is a wilful frenzy a madness not from misfortune but from choice whereas the other proceeds from natural and necessary causes such as are in a great measure out of our power so that we are perpetually liable to it from any secret and sudden disorder of the Brain from the violence of a Disease or the vehement transport of any Passion Now if things were under no government what could hinder so many probable evils from breaking in upon us and from treading upon the heels of one another like the calamities of Job when the hedge which God had set about him and all that he had was broken down and removed So that if there were no God to take care of us we could be secure of no sort no degree of happiness in this World no not for one moment And there would be no other World for us to be happy in and to make amends to us for all the fears and dangers all the troubles and calamities of this present life For God and another World stand and fall together Without Him there can be no Life after this and if our hopes of happiness were only in this Life Man of all other Beings in this lower World would certainly be the most miserable I cannot say that all the Evils which I have mentioned would happen to all if the Providence of God did not rule the World but that every man would be in danger of them all and have nothing to support and comfort him against the fear of that danger For the Nature of Man consider'd by it self is plainly insufficient for its own happiness so that we must necessarily look abroad and seek for it somewhere else And who can shew us that good that is equal to all the wants and necessities all the capacities and desires all the fears and hopes of humane Nature Whatsoever can answer all these must have these following Properties First It must be an All-sufficient good Secondly It must be perfect goodness Thirdly It must be firm and unchangeable in it self Fourthly It must be such a good as none can deprive us of and take away from us Fifthly It must be eternal Sixthly It must be able to support and comfort us in every condition and under all the accidents and adversities of humane Life Lastly It must be such a good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds Nothing that is short of all this can make us happy And no Creature no not the whole Creation can pretend to be all this to us All these Properties meet only in God who is the perfect and supreme Good as I shall endeavour in the following Discourse more particularly to shew and consequently That God is the only happiness of Man First God is an All-sufficient Good And this does import two things Wisdom to contrive our happiness and Power to effect it for neither of these without the other is sufficient and both these in the highest and most eminent degree are in God He is infinitely Wise to design and contrive our happiness because he knows what Happiness is and how to frame us so as to be capable of the happiness he designs for us and how to order and dispose all other things so as that they shall be no hindrance and impediment to it He perfectly understands all the possibilities of things and how to fit means to any end He knows all our wants and how to supply them all our hopes and desires and how to satisfie them He fore-sees all the dangers and evils which threaten us and knows how to prevent or divert them if he think fit or if he permit them to come how to support us under them or to deliver us out of them or to turn them to our greater benefit and advantage in the last issue and result of things His Wisdom cannot be surprized by any accident which he did not fore-see and which he is not sufficiently provided against The wisdom of men is but short and imperfect and liable to infinite errors and mistakes In many cases men know not what is safest and best for them nor whether this or that will conduce most to their happiness Nay it often happens that those very means which the wisest men chuse for their security do prove the occasions of their ruine and they are thrown down by those very ways whereby they thought to raise and to establish themselves Especially if God breathe upon the Counsels of men how are their designs blasted How are they infatuated and foil'd in their deepest contrivances and snared in the work of their own hands When it is of the Lord the wisdom of the greatest Politicians is turned into foolishness For there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. But the Divine Wisdom being founded upon infinite knowledge is thereby secur'd against all possibility of error and mistake God perfectly knows the natures and the powers of all his Creatures and therefore can never be mistaken in the use and application of them to any of his purposes So that none of his designs of love and mercy to the Sons of men can miscarry for want of good contrivance or wise conduct And as he is perfectly wise to contrive our happiness so is he infinitely powerful to effect it and to remove out of the way all the obstacles and impediments of it We may understand many times what would conduce to our happiness but may not be able to compass it but nothing is out of the reach of Omnipotency Many things are difficult to us but nothing is too hard for God Many things are impossible with us but with God all things are possible For He is the Fountain and Original of all Power from whom it is deriv'd and upon whom it depends and to whom it is perfectly subject and subordinate He can do all things at once and in
all things on all sides to bring the thing which the Providence of God intended to a happy issue and effect And we must not here forget the many Worthies of our Nation who did so generously run all hazards of Life and Fortune for the preservation of our Religion and the asserting of our ancient Laws and Liberties These are all strange and unusual means but which is stranger yet the very counsels and methods of our Enemies did prepare the way for all this and perhaps more effectually than any counsel and contrivance of our own could have done it For even the Jesuits those formal Politicians by Book and Rule without any consideration or true knowledge of the temper and interest and other circumstances of the People they were designing upon and had to deal withal and indeed without any care to know them I say the Jesuits who for so long a time and for so little reason have affected the reputation of the deepest and craftiest States-men in the World have upon this great Occasion and when their whole Kingdom of Darkness lay at stake by a more than ordinary infatuation and blindness so outwitted and over-reach'd themselves in their own counsels that they have really contributed as much or more to our Deliverance from the Destruction which they had designed to bring upon us than all our wisest and best Friends could have done And then if we consider further how sudden and surprising it was so that we could hardly believe it when it was accomplish'd and like the Children of Israel when the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dream When all things were driving on furiously and in great haste then God gave an unexpected check to the Designs of men and stopp'd them in their full cariere Who among us could have imagin'd but a few Months ago so happy and so speedy an end of our fears and troubles God hath at once scatter'd all our fears and outdone all our hopes by the greatness and suddenness of our Deliverance O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men And lastly If we consider the cheapness and easiness of this Deliverance All this was done without a Battel and almost without Blood All the danger is lest we should loath it and grow sick of it because it was so very easy Had it come upon harder terms and had we waded to it through a Red Sea of Blood we would have valued it more But this surely is great wantonness and whatever we think of it one of the highest provocations imaginable For there can hardly be a fouler and blacker Ingratitude towards Almighty God than to slight so great a Deliverance only because it came to us so easily and hath cost us so very cheap I will mention but one Circumstance more which may not be altogether unworthy our observation That God seems in this Last Deliverance in some sort to have united and brought together all the great Deliverances which He hath been pleas'd to work for this Nation against all the remarkable attempts of Popery from the beginning of our Reformation Our wonderful Deliverance from the formidable Spanish Invasion design'd against us happen'd in the Year 1588. And now just a hundred years after God was pleased to bring about this last great and most happy Deliverance That horrid Gun-powder Conspiracy without Precedent and without Parallel was design'd to have been executed upon the Fifth Day of November the same Day upon which his Highness the Prince of Orange landed the Forces here in England which he brought hither for our Rescue So that this is a Day every way worthy to be solemnly set apart and joyfully celebrated by this Church and Nation throughout all Generations as the fittest of all other to comprehend and to put us in mind to commemorate all the great Deliverances which God hath wrought for Us from Popery and its inseparable Companion Arbitrary Power And we may then say with the Holy Psalmist This is the Lord 's doing it is marvellous in our eyes This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoice and be glad in it Secondly As the Case in the Text is much like Ours so let us take heed that the Doom and Sentence there be not so too If after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and since God hath punish'd us less than our iniquities did deserve should we again break his Commandments and join in affinity with the People of these Abominations would He not be angry with us till he had consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping What could we in reason expect after all this but utter ruin and destruction We may here apply as St. Paul does God's Dealing with the People of Israel to the Times of the Gospel for he speaks of it as an Example and Admonition to all Ages to the end of the World Now these things says the Apostle were our Examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them c. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of Serpents For the explication of this passage we must have recourse to the History which gives this account of it And the People spake against God and against Moses Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the Wilderness c. impeaching God and his Servant Moses as if by this Deliverance they had put them into a much worse condition than they were in when they were in Egypt And the Lord sent fiery Serpents among the People and they bit the People and much People of Israel died \ But how was this a tempting of Christ Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted that is let not us now under the Gospel tempt our Saviour and Deliverer as the Israelites did theirs by slighting that great Deliverance and by speaking against God and against Moses Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer And how far this may concern Us and all Others to the end of the World who shall tempt Christ the great Patron and Deliverer of his Church and murmur without cause as the Israelites did at the Deliverances which He works for them and against the Instruments of it the Apostle tells us in the next words Now all these things happened unto them for Ensamples or Types and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come Let us not tempt Christ who is now beginning the Glorious Deliverance of his Church from the Tyranny of Antichrist To draw now towards a Conclusion I will comprehend my Advice to you upon the whole matter in as few words as I can Let us use this great Deliverance which God
and that men who are resolv'd to continue in an evil course are glad to be of a Church which will assure Salvation to men upon such terms The great difficulty is for men to believe that things which are so apparently absurd and unreasonable can be true and to persuade themselves that they can impose upon God by such pretences of service and obedience as no wise Prince or Father upon earth is to be deluded withal by his Subjects or Children We ought to have worthier thoughts of God and to consider that He is a great King and will be obey'd and observ'd by his creatures in his own way and make them happy upon his own terms and that obedience to what he commands is better and more acceptable to him than any other sacrifice that we can offer which he hath not required at our hands and likewise that he is infinitely wise and good and therefore that the Laws which he hath given us to live by are much more likely and certain means of our happiness than any inventions and devices of our own Thirdly I observe that even the better and more considerate sort of Christians are not so careful and watchful as they ought to prepare themselves for Death and Judgment whilst the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept Even the Disciples of our Saviour whilst he was yet personally present with them and after a particular charge given them from his own mouth Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation yet did not keep that guard upon themselves as to watch with him for one hour In many things says St. James we offend all even the best of us And who is there that doth not some time or other remit of his vigilancy and care so as to give the Devil an advantage and to lye open to temptation for want of a continual guard upon himself But then the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins was this that tho they both slept yet the wise did not let their Lamps go out they neither quitted their Profession nor did they extinguish it by a bad life and tho when the Bridegroom came suddenly upon them they were not so actually prepar'd to meet him by a continual vigilancy yet they were habitually prepar'd by the good disposition of their minds and the general course of a holy life Their Lamps might burn dim for want of continual trimming but they had Oyl in their Vessels to supply their Lamps which the foolish Virgins had taken no care to provide But surely the greatest wisdom of all is to maintain a continual watchfulness that so we may not be surpriz'd by the coming of the Bridegroom and be in a confusion when Death or Judgment shall overtake us And blessed are those Servants and wise indeed whose Lamps always burn bright and whom the Bridegroom when he comes shall find watching and in a fit posture and preparation to meet Him Fourthly I observe likewise how little is to be done by us to any good purpose in this great work of Preparation when it is deferr'd and put off to the last And thus the foolish Virgins did but what a sad confusion and hurry they were in at the sudden coming of the Bridegroom when they were not only asleep but when after they were awaken'd they found themselves altogether unprovided of that which was necessary to trim their Lamps and to put them in a posture to meet the Bridegroom When they wanted that which was necessary at that very instant but could not be provided in an instant I say what a tumult and confusion they were in being thus surpriz'd the Parable represents to us at large vers 6 7 8 9. and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps that is they went about it as well as they could and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out At midnight there was a cry made that is at the most dismal and unseasonable time of all other when they were fast asleep and suddenly awaken'd in great terror when they could not on the sudden recollect themselves and consider what to do when the summons was so very short that they had neither time to consider what was fit to be done nor time to do it in And such is the Case of those who put off their Repentance and Preparation for another World till they are surpriz'd by Death or Judgment for it comes all to one in the issue which of them it be The Parable indeed seems more particularly to point at our Lord 's coming to Judgment but the case is much the same as to those who are surpriz'd by sudden Death such as gives them but little or not sufficient time for so great a work because such as Death leaves them Judgment will certainly find them And what a miserable confusion must they needs be in who are thus surpriz'd either by the one or the other How unfit should we be if the general Judgment of the World should come upon us on the sudden to meet that great Judge at his coming if we have made no preparation for it before that time What shall we then be able to do in that great and universal consternation when the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory when the Sun shall be darken'd and the Moon turned into blood and all the powers of Heaven shall be shaken when all Nature shall feel such violent pangs and convulsions and the whole World shall be in a combustion flaming and cracking about our ears When the Heavens shall be shrivel'd up as a Scroll when it is roll'd together and the Earth shall be toss'd from its Center and every Mountain and Island shall be removed What thoughts can the wisest men then have about them in the midst of so much noise and terror Or if they could have any what time will there then be to put them in execution when they shall see the Angel that standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifting up his hand to Heaven and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever that Time shall be no longer as this dreadful Day is described Rev. 10.5 6. and chap. 6.15 where Sinners are represented at the Appearance of this Great Judge not as flying to God in hopes of mercy but as flying from Him in utter despair of finding mercy with Him The Kings of the Earth and the Great Men and the Mighty Men and the Rich Men and the Great Captains hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Earth and said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the Great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The biggest and the boldest Sinners
our great trespass Our evil deeds bring all other evils upon us 2. That great Sins have usually a proportionable punishment after all that is come upon us there is the greatness of our punishment for our evil deeds and for our great trespass there is the greatness of our Sin But when I say that great Sins have a proportionable Punishment I do not mean that any temporal Punishments are proportionable to the great evil of Sin but that God doth usually observe a proportion in the temporal punishments of Sin so that although no temporal punishment be proportionable to Sin yet the temporal punishment of one Sin holds a proportion to the punishment of another and consequently lesser and greater Sins have proportionably a lesser and greater Punishment 3. That all the Punishments which God inflicts in this Life do fall short of the demerit of our Sins and seeing thou our God hast punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve In the Hebrew it is and hast kept down our iniquities that is that they should not rise up against us The LXX expresseth it very emphatically thou hast eased us of our sins that is thou hast not let the whole weight of them fall upon us Were it not for the restraints which God puts upon his anger and the merciful mitigations of it the Sinner would not be able to bear it but must sink under it Indeed it is only said in the Text that the punishment which God inflicted upon the Jews though it was a long Captivity was beneath the desert of their Sins But yet it is universally true and Ezra perhaps might intend to insinuate so much that all temporal Punishments though never so severe are always less than our iniquities deserve 4. That God many times works very great Deliverances for those who are very unworthy of them and hast given us such a Deliverance as this notwithstanding our evil deeds and notwithstanding our great Trespass 5. That we are but too apt even after great Judgments and after great Mercies to relapse into our former Sins should we again break thy Commandments Ezra insinuates that there was great reason to fear this especially considering the strange temper of that People who when God multiply'd his blessings upon them were so apt to wax fat and kick against Him and tho he had cast them several times into the furnace of Affliction though they were melted for the present yet they were many times but the harder for it afterwards 6. That it is good to take notice of those particular Sins which have brought the Judgments of God upon us So Ezra does here after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and should we again join in affinity with the People of these abominations Secondly Here is a Sentence and determination in the Case wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Which Question as I said before doth imply a strong and peremptory affirmative as if he had said after such a provocation there is great reason to conclude that God would be angry with us till he had consumed us From whence the Observation contained in this part of the Text will be this That it is a fearful aggravation of Sin and a sad presage of ruin to a People after great Judgments and great Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Hear how passionately Ezra expresses himself in this Case verse 6. I am ashamed O my God and blush to lift up mine eyes to thee my God Why what was the cause of this great shame and confusion of face He tells us verse 9. for we were bondmen yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended his mercy to us to give us a reviving to set up the House of our God and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a Wall in Judah and in Jerusalem that is to restore to them the free and safe exercise of their Religion Here was great Mercy and a mighty Deliverance indeed and yet after this they presently relapsed into a very great sin verse 10. And now O our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy Commandments In the handling of this Observation I shall do these two things First I shall endeavour to shew that this is a very heavy aggravation of Sin and Secondly That it is a fatal presage of ruin to a People First It is a heavy aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and after signal Mercies and Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Here are three things to be distinctly spoken to 1. That it is a great aggravation of Sin to return to it after great Judgments 2. To do this after great Mercies and Deliverances 3. After both to return to the same Sins again 1. It is a great aggravation of Sin after great Judgments have been upon us to return to an evil course Because this is an Argument of great obstinacy in evil The longer Pharaoh resisted the Judgments of God the more was his wicked heart hardned till at last he arriv'd at a monstrous degree of hardness having been as the Text tells us hardned under ten plagues And we find that after God had threaten'd the People of Israel with several Judgments he tells them that if they will not be reformed by all these things he will punish them seven times more for their sins And if the just God will in such a case punish seven times more we may conclude that the Sin is Seven times greater What sad complaints doth the Prophet make of the People of Israel growing worse for Judgments Ah! sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity children that have been corrupters a seed of evil doers He can hardly find words enough to express how great Sinners they were and he adds the reason in the next verse Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more They were but the worse for Judgments This renders them a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity And again The People turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts therefore his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And the same Prophet further complains to the same purpose When thy hand is lifted up they will not see There is a particular brand set upon King Ahaz because affliction made him worse This is that King Ahaz that is that grievous and notorious Sinner And what was it that rendr'd him so In the time of his distress he sinned yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz who is said to have provoked the Lord above all the Kings of Israel which were before him 2. It is likewise a sore aggravation of Sin when it is committed after great Mercies and Deliverances
vouchsafed to us Because this is an argument of great ingratitude And this we find recorded as a heavy charge upon the People of Israel that they remembred not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side neither shewed they kindness to the House of Jerubbaal namely Gideon who had been their Deliverer according to all the goodness which he had shewed to Israel God we see takes it very ill at our hands when we are ungrateful to the Instruments of our Deliverance but much more when we are unthankful to Him the Author of it And how severely does Nathan the Prophet reproach David upon this account Thus said the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul c. And if this had been too little I would moreover have done such and such things Wherefore hast thou despis'd the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight God here reckons up his manifold mercies and deliverances and aggravates David's Sin upon this account And he was very angry likewise with Solomon for the same reason because he had turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appear'd to him twice However we may slight the mercies of God he keeps a punctual and strict account of them It is particularly noted as a great blot upon Hezekiah that he returned not again according to the benefits done unto him God takes very severe notice of all the unkind and unworthy returns that are made to Him for his Goodness Ingratitude to God is so unnatural and monstrous that we find Him appealing against us for it to the inanimate Creatures Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourish'd and brought up Children but they have rebelled against me And then he goes on and upbraids them with the Brute Creatures as being more grateful to men than men are to God The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass her Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider And in the same Prophet there is the like complaint Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but the shall see and be ashamed They that will not acknowledge the Mercies of God's Providence shall feel the strokes of his Justice There is no greater evidence in the World of an intractable disposition than not to be wrought upon by kindness not to be melted by mercies not to be obliged by benefits not to be tamed by gentle usage Nay God expects that his mercies should lay so great an obligation upon us that even a Miracle should not tempt us to be unthankful If there arise among you a Prophet says Moses to the People of Israel or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder cometh to pass whereof he spake to thee saying let us go after other Gods and serve them thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet And he gives the reason because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord God of Israel which brought you out of the Land of Egypt and delivered you out of the House of Bondage 3. It is a greater aggravation yet after gteat Mercies and Judgments to return to the same Sins Because this can hardly be without our sinning against knowledge and after we are convinced how evil and bitter the Sin is which we were guilty of and have been so sorely punish'd for before This is an argument of a very perverse and incorrigible temper and that which made the Sin of the People of Israel so above measure sinful that after so many signal Deliverances and so many terrible Judgments they fell into the same Sin of murmuring ten times murmuring against God the Author and against Moses the glorious Instrument of their Deliverance out of Egypt which was one of the two great Types of the Old Testament both of temporal and spiritual Oppression and Tyranny Hear with what resentment God speaks of the ill returns which they made to him for that great Mercy and Deliverance Because all these men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the Wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkned unto my voice surely they shall not see the Land which I sware to their Fathers And after he had brought them into the promised Land and wrought great Deliverances for them several times how does he upbraid them with their proneness to fall again into the same Sin of Idolatry And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the Children of Ammon and from the Philistins The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and Maonites did oppress you and ye cryed unto me and I delivered you out of their hand yet you have forsaken me and served other Gods wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the Gods which ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation This incensed God so highly against them that they still relaps'd into the same Sin of Idolatry after so many afflictions and so many deliverances Upon such an occasion well might the Prophet say Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy sins shall reprove thee know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God It is hardly possible but we should know that the wickedness for which we have been so severely corrected is an evil and bitter thing Thus much for the first part of the Observation namely that it is a fearful aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and great deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again I proceed to the Second part namely That this is a fatal presage of ruin to a People Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the People of these abominations wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping And so God threatens the People of Israel in the Text which I cited before wherefore I will deliver you no more Wherefore that is because they would neither be reform'd by the Afflictions wherewith God had exercised them nor by the many wonderful Deliverances which he had wrought for them And there is great reason why God should deal thus with a People that continues impenitent both under the Judgments and Mercies of God 1. Because this doth ripen the Sins of a Nation and it is time for God to put in his Sickle when a People are ripe for ruin When the
measure of their Sins is full it is no wonder if the Cup of his indignation begin to overflow It is said of the Amorites four hundred years before God brought that fearful ruin upon them that God deferr'd the extirpation of them because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full When neither the Mercies nor the Judgments of God will bring us to repentance we are then fit for destruction according to that of the Apostle What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction They who are not wrought upon neither by the patience of God's Mercies nor by the patience of his Judgments seem to be fitted and prepared to be ripe and ready for destruction 2. Because this incorrigible temper shews the Case of such persons to be desperate and incurable Why should they be smitten any more says God of the People of Israel they will revolt more and more How often would I have gathered you says our B. Saviour to the Jews even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left to you desolate that is ye shall be utterly destroyed as it hapned forty years after to Jerusalem and to the whole Jewish Nation When God sees that all the means which he can use do prove ineffectual and to no purpose he will then give over a People as Physicians do their Patients when they see that nature is spent and their case past remedy When men will not be the better for the best means that Heaven can use God will then leave them to reap the fruit of their own doings and abandom them to the demerit of their Sin That which now remains is to apply this to our selves and to the solemn Occasion of this Day And if this be our Case let us take heed that this be not also our Doom and Sentence First The Case in the Text doth very much resemble Ours And that in three respects God hath sent great Judgments upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses He hath punish'd us less than our iniquities have deserv'd And hath given us a very great and wonderful Deliverance 1. God hath inflicted great Judgments upon us for our evil deeds and for our great Trespasses Great Judgments both for the quality and for the continuance of them It shall suffice only to mention those which are of a more ancient Date Scarce hath any Nation been more calamitous than this of Ours both in respect of the Invasions and Conquests of Foreigners and of our own Civil and intestine Divisions Four times we have been Conquer'd By the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans And our intestine Divisions have likewise been great and of long continuance Witness the Barons Wars and that long and cruel Contest between the two Houses of York and Lancaster But to come nearer to our own Times What fearful Judgments and Calamities of War and Pestilence and Fire have many of us seen And how close did they follow one another What terrible havock did the Sword make amongst us for many years And this not the Sword of a Forreign Enemy but of a Civil War the mischiefs whereof were all terminated upon our selves and have given deep wounds and left broad scars upon the most considerable Families in the Nation Alta manent civilis vulnera dextrae This War was drawn out to a great length and had a Tragical end in the Murther of an excellent King and in the Banishment of his Children into a strange Countrey whereby they were exposed to the Arts and Practices of those of another Religion the mischievous Consequences whereof we have ever since sadly labour'd under and do feel them at this day And when God was pleas'd in great mercy at last to put an end to the miserable Distractions and Confusions of almost twenty years by the happy Restoration of the Royal Family and our ancient Government which seem'd to promise to us a lasting settlement and all the felicities we could wish yet how soon was this bright and glorious morning overcast by the restless and black Designs of that sure and inveterate Enemy of ours the Church of Rome for the restoring of their Religion amongst us And there was too much encouragement given to this Design by those who had power in their hands and had brought home with them a secret good will to it For this great Trespass and for our many other Sins God was angry with us and sent among us the most raging Pestilence that ever was known in this Nation which in the space of eight or nine Months swept away near a third part of the Inhabitants of this vast and populous City and of the Suburbs thereof besides a great many thousands more in several parts of the Nation But we did not return to the Lord nor seek him for all this And therefore the very next year after God sent a terrible and devouring Fire which in less than three days time laid the greatest part of this great City in ashes And there is too much reason to believe that the Enemy did this that perpetual and implacable Enemy of the peace and happiness of this Nation And even since the time of that dreadful Calamity which is now above twenty years agone we have been in a continual fear of the cruel Designs of that Party which had hitherto been incessantly working under ground but now began to shew themselves more openly and especially since a Prince of that Religion succeeded to the Crown our eyes have been ready to fail us for fear and for looking after those dreadful things that were coming upon us and seem'd to be even at the door A fear which this Nation could easily have rid it self of because they that caused it were but a handful in comparison of us and could have done nothing without a foreign force and assistance had not the Principles of Humanity and of our Religion too restrain'd us from violence and cruelty and from every thing which had the appearance of undutifulness to the Government which the Providence of God had set over us An instance of the like patience under the like provocations for so long a time and after such visible and open attempts upon them when they had the Laws so plainly on their side I challenge any Nation or Church in the World from the very foundation of it to produce Insomuch that if God had not put it into the hearts of our kind Neighbours and of that incomparable Prince who laid and conducted that great Design with so much skill and secrecy to have appear'd so seasonably for our rescue our Patience had infallibly without a Miracle been our ruine And I am sure if our Enemies had ever had the like Opportunity in their hands and had overbalanced us in numbers but half so much as we did them they would never have
Blessed Saviour who knew what was in man better than any man that ever was knowing our great reluctancy and backwardness to the practice of this Duty hath urged it upon us by such forcible and almost violent Arguments that if we have any tenderness for our selves we cannot refuse Obedience to it For he plainly tells us That no Sacrifice that we can offer will appease God towards us so long as we our selves are implacable to Men Verse 23 d. of this Chapter If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first go and be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift To recommend this Duty effectually to us He gives it a preference to all the positive Duties of Religion First go and be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Till this Duty be discharged God will accept of no Service no Sacrifice at our hands And therefore our Liturgy doth with great reason declare it to be a necessary Qualification for our Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament that we be in Love and Charity with our Neighbours because this is a Moral Duty and of eternal Obligation without which no positive part of Religion such as the Sacraments are can be acceptable to GOD especially since in this Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood we expect to have the Forgiveness of our Sins ratified and confirmed to us Which how can we hope for from GOD if we our selves be not ready to forgive one another He shall have judgment without mercy says St. James who hath shewed no mercy And in that excellent Form of Prayer which our Lord himself hath given us He hath taught us so to ask Forgiveness of God as not to expect it from Him if we do not forgive one another So that if we do not practice this Duty as hard as we think it is every time that we put up this Petition to God Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us we send up a terrible Imprecation against our selves and do in effect beg of God not to forgive us And therefore to imprint this matter the deeper upon our minds our Blessed Saviour immediately after the recital of this Prayer hath thought fit to add a very remarkable enforcement of this Petition above all the rest For if says He ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And our Saviour hath likewise in his Gospel represented to us both the reasonableness of this Duty and the Danger of doing contrary to it in a very lively and affecting Parable deliver'd by him to this purpose Concerning a wicked Servant who when his Lord had but just before forgiven him a vast Debt of ten thousand Talents took his poor Fellow-servant by the throat and notwithstanding his humble Submission and earnest Intreaties to be favourable to him haled him to Prison for a trifling Debt of an hundred Pence And the Application which he makes of this Parable at the end of it is very terrible and such as ought never to go out of our minds So likewise says He shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye do not from your hearts forgive every one his brother his trespasses One might be apt to think at first view that this Parable was over done and wanted something of a due Decorum it being hardly credible that a man after he had been so mercifully and generously dealt withal as upon his humble Request to have so huge a Debt so freely forgiven should whilst the memory of so much Mercy was fresh upon him even the very next moment handle his Fellow Servant who had made the same humble submission and request to him which he had done to his Lord with so much roughness and cruelty for so inconsiderable a Sum. This I say would hardly seem credible did we not see in experience how very unreasonable and unmerciful some men are and with what confidence they can ask and expect great mercy from God when they will shew none to Men. The greatness of the Injuries which are done to us is the reason commonly pleaded by us why we cannot forgive them But whoever thou art that makest this an Argument why thou canst not forgive thy Brother lay thine hand upon thy heart and bethink thy self how many more and much greater Offences thou hast been guilty of against God Look up to that Just and Powerful Being that is above and consider well Whether thou dost not both expect and stand in need of more Mercy and Favour from Him than thou canst find in thy heart to shew to thine offending Brother We have all certainly great reason to expect that as we use one another God will likewise deal with us And yet after all this how little is this Duty practis'd among Christians And how hardly are the best of us brought to love our Enemies and to forgive them And this notwithstanding that all our hopes of Mercy and Forgiveness from God do depend upon it How strangely inconsistent is our practice and our hope And what a wide distance is there between our expectations from GOD and our dealings with Men How very partial and unequal are we to hope so easily to be forgiven and yet to be so hard to forgive Would we have GOD for Christ's sake to forgive us those numberless and monstrous provocations which we have been guilty of against His Divine Majesty And shall we not for His sake for whose sake we our selves are forgiven be willing to forgive one another We think it hard to be oblig'd to forgive great Injuries and often repeated and yet Woe be to us all and most miserable shall we be to all Eternity if GOD do not all this to us which we think to be so very hard and unreasonable for us to do to one another I have sometimes wonder'd how it should come to pass that so many persons should be so apt to despair of the Mercy and Forgiveness of GOD to them especially considering what clear and express Declarations GOD hath made of his readiness to forgive our greatest Sins and Provocations upon our sincere Repentance But the wonder will be very much abated when we shall consider with how much difficulty men are brought to remit great Injuries and how hardly we are perswaded to refrain from flying upon those who have given us any considerable provocation So that when men look into themselves and shall carefully observe the motions of their own minds towards those against whom they have been justly exasperated they will see but too much reason to think that Forgiveness is no such easy matter But our comfort in this case is That GOD is not as Man that his ways are not as our ways nor his thoughts
That God may be justified in his sayings and appear Righteous when he judgeth And Secondly because the belief of the threatnings of God in their utmost extent is of so great moment to a good Life and so great a discouragement to Sin For the sting of Sin is the terrour of eternal punishment and if men were once set free from the fear and belief of this the most powerful restraint from Sin would be taken away So that in answer to this Objection I shall endeavour to prove these two things First That the eternal punishment of wicked men in another World is plainly threatned in Scripture Secondly That this is not inconsistent either with the Justice or the Goodness of God First That the eternal punishment of wicked men in another World is plainly threatned in Scripture namely in these following Texts Matth. 18.8 It is better for thee to enter into Life halt and maimed than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire And Matth. 25.41 Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And here in the Text these that is the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment And Mark 9. It is there three several times with great vehemency repeated by our Saviour where their worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched And 2 Thes 1.9 speaking of them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son it is said of them who shall be punish'd with everlasting destruction I know very well that great endeavour hath been us'd to avoid the force of these Texts by shewing that the words for ever and everlasting are frequently us'd in Scripture in a more limited sense only for a long duration and continuance Thus for ever doth very often in the Old Testament only signify for a long time and till the end of the Jewish Dispensation And in the Epistle of St. Jude verse 7th The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire that is of a fire that was not extinguish'd till those Cities were utterly consumed And therefore to clear the meaning of the forementioned Texts First I shall readily grant that the words for ever and everlasting do not always in Scripture signify an endless duration and that this is sufficiently proved by the instances alledg'd to this purpose But then Secondly it cannot be denied on the other hand that these words are often in Scripture used in a larger sense and so as necessarily to signify an interminable and endless duration As where Eternity is attributed to God and he is said to live for ever and ever And where eternal happiness in another World is promised to good men and that they shall be for ever with the Lord. Now the very same words and expressions are used concerning the punishment of wicked men in another life and there is great reason why we should understand them in the same extent Both because if God had intended to have told us that the punishment of wicked men shall have no end the Languages wherein the Scriptures are written do hardly afford fuller and more certain words than those that are used in this case whereby to express to us a duration without end And likewise which is almost a peremptory decision of the thing because the duration of the punishment of wicked men is in the very same sentence express'd by the very same word which is us'd for the duration of the happiness of the righteous As is evident from the Text These speaking of the wicked shall go away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into eternal punishment but the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into life eternal I proceed to the Second thing I propos'd namely to shew that this is not inconsistent either with the Justice or the Goodness of God For in this the force of the Objection lies And it hath been attempted to be answered several ways none of which seems to me to give clear and full satisfaction to it First It is said by some that because sin is infinite in respect of the Object against whom it is committed which is God therefore it deserves an infinite punishment But this I doubt will upon examination be found to have more of subtlety than of solidity in it 'T is true indeed that the dignity of the Person against whom any offence is committed is a great aggravation of the fault For which reason all offences against God are certainly the greatest of all other But that crimes should hereby be heighten'd to an infinite degree can by no means be admitted and that for this plain reason because then the evil and demerit of all sins must necessarily be equal for the demerit of no sin can be more than infinite And if the demerit of all sins be equal there can then be no reason for the degrees of punishment in another World But to deny that there are degrees of punishment there is not only contrary to reason but to our Saviour's express assertion that some shall be beaten with many stripes and some with fewer and that it shall be more tolerable for some in the day of judgment than for others Besides that by the same reason that the least sin that is committed against God may be said to be infinite because of its object the least punishment that is inflicted by God may be said to be infinite because of its Author and then all punishments from God as well as all sins against him would be equal which is palpably absurd So that this answer is by no means sufficient to break the force of this Objection Secondly It is said by others that if wicked men lived for ever in this World they would sin for ever and therefore they deserve to be punish'd for ever But this hath neither truth nor reason enough in it to give satisfaction For who can certainly tell that if a man lived never so long he would never repent and grow better Besides that the Justice of God doth only punish the sins which men have committed in this life and not those which they might possibly have committed if they had lived longer Thirdly It is said in the last place that God hath set before men everlasting Happiness and Misery and the sinner hath his choice Here are two things said which seem to bid fairly towards an answer First That the reward which God promiseth to our obedience is equal to the punishment which he threatens to our disobedience But yet this I doubt will not reach the business Because though it be not contrary to Justice to exceed in Rewards that being matter of meer favour yet it may be so to exceed in Punishments Secondly It is further said that the sinner in this case hath nothing to complain of since he hath his own choice This I confess is enough to silence the sinner and to make him to acknowledge that his destruction is of
know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this But more especially in vindication of his oppressed Truth and Religion and in the great and signal Deliverances of his Church and People God is wont to take the conduct of affairs into his own hands and not to proceed by humane rules and measures He then bids second Causes to stand by that his own Arm may be seen and his Salvation may appear He raiseth the spirits of men above their natural pitch and giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength as the Prophet expresseth it Thus hath the Providence of God very visibly appear'd in our late Deliverance in such a manner as I know not whether He ever did for any other Nation except the People of Israel when He delivered them from the House of Bondage by so mighty a hand and so outstretched an arm And yet too many among us I speak it this day to our shame do not seem to have the least sense of this great Deliverance or of the hand of God which was so visible in it but like the Children of Israel when they were brought out of Egypt we are full of murmurings and discontent against God the Author and his Servant the happy Instrument under God of this our Deliverance What the Prophet says of that People may I fear be too justly apply'd to us Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord Lord When thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed And I hope I may add that which follows in the next verse Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us What God hath already done for our deliverance is I hope an earnest that He will carry it on to a perfect peace and settlement and this notwithstanding our high provocations and horrible ingratitude to the God of our Life and of our Salvation And when ever the Providence of God thinks fit thus to interpose in humane affairs the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong For which reason their Majesties in their great Piety and Wisdom and from a just sense of the Providence of Almighty God which rules in the Kingdoms of men have thought fit to set apart this Day for solemn repentance and humiliation That the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of and which are of all other our greatest and most dangerous Enemies may not separate between God and us and hinder good things from us and cover us with confusion in the day of our danger and distress And likewise earnestly to implore the favour and blessing of Almighty God upon their Majesties Forces and Preparations by Sea and Land And more particularly for the preservation of his Majesties sacred Person upon whom so much depends and who is contented again to hazard Himself to save us To conclude There is no such way to engage the Providence of God for us as by real Repentance and Reformation and by doing all we can in our several Places from the highest to the lowest by the provision of wise and effectual Laws for the discountenancing and suppressing of Profaneness and Vice and by the careful and due execution of them and by the more kindly and powerful influence of a good Example to retrieve the ancient Piety and Virtue of the Nation For without this whatever we may think of the firmness of our present settlement we cannot long be upon good terms with Almighty God upon whose favour depends the prosperity and stability of the present and future Times I have but one thing more to mind you of and that is to stir up your charity towards the poor which is likewise a great part of the Duty of this Day and which ought always to accompany our Prayers and Fastings Thy Prayers and thine Alms saith the Angel to Cornelius are come up before God And therefore if we desire that our Prayers should reach Heaven and receive a gracious answer from God we must send up our Alms along with them And instead of all other arguments to this purpose I shall only recite to you the plain and perswasive words of God Himself in which He declares what kind of Fast is acceptable to Him Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his soul Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen To loose the bands of wickedness and to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily thy righteousness or thine Alms shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Then shalt thou call and I will answer thee thou shalt cry and He shall say here I am Now to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Vnto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen And the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen The way to prevent the Ruin of a Sinful People A FAST-SERMON Preached before the LORD-MAYOR c. ON Wednesday June the 18th 1690. Pilkington Mayor Mercurii xviii Junii 1690. Annoque Regis Reginae Willelmi Mariae Angliae c. Secundo THis Court doth desire Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls to Print his Sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of London at St. Mary-le-Bow Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable
cruelties which it occasion'd within the City did force great numbers of them to steal out by night into the Roman Camp where they met with as cruel but a speedier death For Titus in hope to reduce them the sooner by terror order'd all those that came out of the City to be crucified before the Walls Which order was so severely executed that for several days five hundred a day were crucified till there was neither room left to place Crosses in nor wood whereof to make them So that they who once cried out so vehemently against our Saviour Crucify him Crucify him had enough of it at last and by the just and most remarkable judgment of God were paid home in their own kind Behold the sad Fate of a sinful People when God is departed from them Then all evils overtake them at once For as their misery increased so did their Impiety to that degree that the Historian tells us they scorned and mocked at all divine and holy things and derided the Oracles of the Prophets esteeming them no better than Fables and in a word were carried to that extremity of wickedness as not only to prophane their Temple in the highest manner and to break the Laws of their own Religion but even to violate the Laws of Nature and Humanity in the grossest Instances which made their Historian to give that dismal character of them that as he thought no City ever suffer'd such things so no Nation from the beginning of the World did ever so abound in all manner of wickedness and impiety A certain sign that God's Soul was departed from them And the same Historian afterwards upon consideration of the lamentable state into which their Seditions had brought them breaks out into this doleful lamentation over them O miserable City what didst thou suffer from the Romans though at last they set thee on fire to purge thee from thy sins that is to be compar'd with those miseries which thou hast brought upon thy self To such a dismal state did things come at last that as the same Historian relates many of the Jews prayed for the good success of their Enemies to deliver them from their civil Dissensions the Calamity whereof was so great that their final Destruction by the Romans did rather put an end to their misery than increase it En quo discordia Cives Perduxit miseros To conclude this sad Story It was the Jews themselves that by their own folly and dissensions forc'd the Romans to this sorrowful Victory over them for in truth all the remorse and pity was on the Enemies side The Romans were little more than Spectators in this cruel Tragedy the Jews acted it upon themselves And they only who were arriv'd at that prodigious height of Impiety and wickedness were fit to be the executioners of this vengeance of God upon one another As if the Prophet had foretold this when he says Thine own wickedness shall correct thee When Impiety and wickedness are at their highest pitch in a Nation then they themselves are the only proper instruments to punish one another The Romans were by far too good and gentle to inflict a suffering upon the Jews that was equal to the evil of their doings None but their own barbarous Selves who were sunk down into the very lowest degeneracy of humane nature were capable of so much cruelty and inhumanity as was requisite to execute the Judgment of God upon them to that degree which their sins had deserved You see my Brethren by what hath been said upon this Argument what were the Faults and what the Fate of the Jewish Nation Now these things as the Apostle expresly tells us were written for our admonition and to the intent that we upon whom the ends of the World are come might be instructed by them We I say who next to the Jewish Nation seem to be a People highly favoured by God above all the Nations of the Earth We resemble them very much in their many and wonderful Deliverances and a great deal too much in their Faults and Follies But as I intend it not so God forbid that there should be any just ground for a full and exact Parallel between us Yet this I must say that nothing ever came nearer to them than We do in several respects In our fickleness and inconstancy in our murmurings and discontents for we are never pleasâ—d with what God does neither when he brings us into danger nor when he delivers us out of it We resemble them likewise in our horrible prophaneness and infidelity and in our impiety and wickedness of several kinds in our monstrous ingratitude and most unworthy returns to the God of our Salvation and lastly in our Factions and Divisions which were the fatal sign of God's being departed from the Jews and the immediate cause and means of those dismal Calamities which wrought their final Ruin And how can we chuse but dread lest their Fate should overtake us the Example of whose Faults and Follies we do in so many things so nearly resemble That this may not nor any thing like it be our Fate let us apply our selves to the great Duties of this Day a serious and deep Repentance and humiliation of our selves before Almighty God for the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of against His Divine Majesty by our prophaneness and impiety by our lewdness and luxury by our oppression and injustice by our implacable malice and hatred one towards another and by our senseless divisions and animosities one against another without cause and without end By our neglect of God's Worship and prophanation of his Holy Day and by our dreadful abuse of God's great and glorious Name in those horrid Oaths and Curses and Imprecations which are heard almost day and night in the streets of this great City For these and all other our innumerable provocations of the patience and goodness and long-suffering of God towards us let us sadly repent our selves this Day and turn unto the Lord with all our hearts with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent our hearts and not our garments and turn unto the Lord our God For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil And who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall beturned Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously And let us earnestly beg of Him that he would be pleased to prevent those terrible Judgments and Calamities which hang over us and which our Sins have so justly deserved should fall upon us And that He would perfect that wonderful Deliverance which he hath begun for us and establish the thing which he hath wrought That He would bless Them whom he hath set in Authority over us and particularly that He would preserve the Person of the King
over let us say Peace be within thee For the House of the Lord our God for the sake of our Holy Religion and of that excellent Church whereof we all are or ought to be Members let every one of us say I will seek thy good And what greater good can we do to the best Religion how can we better serve the interest of it in all parts of the World than by being at peace and unity among our selves here in England upon whom the eyes of all the Protestants abroad are fixed as the Glory of the Reformation and the great bulwark and support of it That so under the Providence of Almighty God and the conduct of two such excellent Princes as He hath now bless'd us withal The One so brave and valiant and Both of them so wise so good so religious we may at last arrive at a firm establishment and become like mount Zion that cannot be moved the perfection of Beauty and Strength and the admiration and joy of the whole Earth which God of his infinite goodness grant for his mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power thanksgiving and praise both now and ever Amen A Conscience void of Offence towards God and Men. IN A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL February the 27 th 1690 1. A Conscience void of Offence towards God and Men. ACTS xxiv 16 And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men THese words are part of the Defence which St. Paul made for himself before Faelix the Roman Governour In which he first of all vindicates himself from the charge of Sedition ver 12. They neither found me in the Temple disputing with any man neither raising up the People neither in the Synagogue nor in the City that is they could not charge him with making any disturbance either in Church or State After this he makes a free and open profession of his Religion ver 14. But this I confess that after the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Here he declares the Scriptures to be the Rule of his Faith in opposition to the Oral Tradition of the Pharisees More particularly he asserts the Doctrine of the Resurrection which was a principal Article both of the Jewish and the Christian Religion ver 15. And I have hope also towards God that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and the unjust And having made this declaration of his Faith he gives an account of his Life in the words of the Text ver 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in this work do I employ my self or as others render it in the mean time whilst I am in this World or as others I think most probably for this cause and reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this reason because I believe a Resurrection therefore have I a conscientious care of my life and all the actions of it The Discourse I intend to make upon these words shall be comprized in these following Particulars I. Here is the extent of a good man's pious practice to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men II. Here is his constancy and perseverance in this course to have always a conscience void of offence III. Here is his earnest care and endeavour to this purpose I exercise my self IV. Here is the principle and immediate Guide of his Actions which St. Paul here tells us was his Conscience V. I shall lay down some Rules and Directions for the keeping of a good Conscience VI. Here is the great motive and encouragement to this which St. Paul tells us was the belief of a Resurrection and of a future State of Rewards and Punishments consequent upon it for this cause because I hope for a Resurrection both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men I shall speak but briefly to the three first of these Particulars that I may be larger in the rest I. Here is the extent of a good man's pious practice It hath regard to the whole compass of his Duty as it respects God and Man I exercise my self says St. Paul to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men And this distribution of our Duty under these two general Heads is very frequent in Scripture The Decalogue refers our Duty to these two Heads And accordingly our Saviour comprehends the whole Duty of Man in those two great Commandments the love of God and of our Neighbour Matth. 22.38 Vpon these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets that is all the Moral Precepts which are dispers'd up and down in the Law and the Prophets may be referr'd to these two general Heads II. Here is his constancy and perseverance in this course St. Paul says that he exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continually at all times in the whole course of his life We must not only make conscience of our ways by fits and starts but in the general course and tenour of our lives and actions without any balks and intermissions There are some that will refrain from grosser Sins and be very strict at some Seasons as during the Time of a Solemn Repentance and for some days before they receive the Sacrament and perhaps for a little while after it And when these devout Seasons are over they let themselves loose again to their former lewd and vitious course But Religion should be a constant frame and temper of mind discovering it self in the habitual course of our lives and actions III. Here is likewise a very earnest care and endeavour to this purpose Herein do I exercise my self says St. Paul The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here render'd exercise is a word of a very intense signification and does denote that St. Paul applied himself to this business with all his care and might and that he made it his earnest study and endeavour And so must we we must take great care to understand our duty and to be rightly informed concerning good and evil that we may not mistake the nature of things and call good evil and evil good We must apply our minds in good earnest to be thoroughly instructed in all the parts of our Duty that so we may not be at a loss what to do when we are call'd to the practice of it And when we know our Duty we must be true and honest to our selves and very careful and conscientious in the discharge and performance of it I proceed in the IV th
quarrel in our own breasts and arm our own minds against our selves we create an enemy to our selves in our own bosoms and fall out with the best and most inseparable Companion of our lives And on the contrary a good Conscience will be a continual Feast and will give us that comfort and courage in an evil day which nothing else can And then whatever happen to us we may commit our souls to God in well-doing as into the hands of a faithful Creatour To whom with our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer and the Holy Ghost the Comforter be all honour and glory now and ever Amen How to keep a truly Religious Fast IN A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL September the 16 th 1691. How to keep a truly Religious Fast ZECH. vij V. Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years DID YE AT ALL FAST UNTO ME EVEN UNTO ME IN the beginning of this Chapter the People of the Jews who were then rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem and had already far advanced the work though it was not perfectly finish'd till about two years after send to the Priests and the Prophets to enquire of them whether they should still continue the Fast of the fifth Month which they had begun in Babylon and continued to observe during the seventy Years of their Captivity in a sad remembrance of the destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem or should not now rather turn it into a Day of feasting and gladness To this enquiry God by his Prophet returns an Answer in this and the following Chapter And first he expostulates with them concerning those their monthly Fasts whether they did indeed deserve that name and were not rather a mere shew and pretence of a Religious Fast verses 4 5. Then came the word of the Lord of Hosts unto me saying Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me The enquiry was particularly concerning the Fast of the fifth Month because the occasion of that was more considerable than of all the other but the Answer of God mentions the Fasts of the fifth and seventh Months these two being probably observ'd with greater solemnity than the other But for our clearer understanding of this it will be requisite to consider the original and occasion of all their monthly Fasts which as appears from other places of Scripture in short was this When the Jews were carried away Captive into Babylon in a deep sense of this great Judgment of God upon them for their Sins and of the heavy affliction which they lay under they appointed four annual Fasts which they observed during their seventy years Captivity viz. the Fast of the fourth Month in remembrance of the Enemies breaking through the Wall of Jerusalem which we find mention'd Jer. 52.6 7. The Fast of the fifth Month in memory of the destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem verses 12 13. The Fast of the seventh Month in remembrance of the slaying of Gedaliah upon which followed the dispersion of the Jews of which we have an account Jer. 42.1 2. And the Fast of the tenth Month in memory of the beginning of the Siege of Jerusalem of which we find mention 2 Kings 25.1 In this order we find these four Annual Fasts mention'd Zechar. 8.19 not according to the order of the Events but of the Months of the several Years in which these Events happened And there likewise God gives a full Answer to this Enquiry concerning the continuance of these annual Fasts namely That they should for the future be turned into solemn Days of joy and gladness And the word of the Lord of Hosts came unto me saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the Fast of the fourth Month and the Fast of the fifth and the Fast of the seventh and the Fast of the tenth shall be to the House of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts I return now to the Text Did ye at all fast unto me even unto me that is did these Fasts truly serve to any Religious end and purpose Did not the People content themselves with a mere external shew and performance without any inward affliction and humiliation of their Souls in order to a real repentance Did they not still go on in their sins nay and add to them upon these Occasions fasting for strife and debate and oppression In a word were they not worse rather than better for them And therefore God had no regard to them as it follows in this Chapter Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts saying Execute judgment and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother and oppress not the widows nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine mischief against his brother in your heart But they refused to hearken and pull'd away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear yea they made their heart as an Adamant-stone lest they should bear the Law and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent by his spirit in the former Prophets Therefore came great wrath from the Lord of Hosts Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts So that notwithstanding these outward Solemnities of Fasting and Prayer here was nothing of a Religious Fast did ye at all fast unto me even unto me They were sensible of the Judgments of God which were broken in upon them but they did not turn from their sins but persisted still in their obstinacy and disobedience And what God here by the Prophet Zechary calls fasting unto Him even unto Him the Prophet Isaiah calls the Fast which God hath chosen and an acceptable day to the Lord. Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou takest no knowledge Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable day to the Lord Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer c. From all which
in execution As against the profanation of the Lord's Day by secular business by vain sports and pastimes which by the very nature of them are apt to dissolve the minds of men into mirth and pleasure and to carry them off from all serious thoughts of God and Religion and from the Meditations of another World and to give the Devil an advantage and an opportunity which be never fails to take to steal the good seed the Word of God which they have heard that Day out of their hearts and to make it of none effect And which is yet worse by lewd and sinful practices which are unlawful at any time but upon that Day are a double breach and violation of God's Law And likewise by neglecting to put in execution the Laws against profane Swearing and Cursing for which the Land mourns and against Drunkenness and Adultery and Fornication which are so common and so impudently committed amongst us whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws and it is hard to say which of them are most remisly executed And to mention no more by neglecting to prosecute that horrible Sin of Murther so frequently now committed in our Streets beyond the example of former Ages with that severity and impartiality which is necessary to free the Nation from the guilt of that crying Sin which calls so loud to Heaven for Vengeance And all this notwithstanding the Magistrates are under the Oath of God to put the Laws in due execution against all these Crimes so far as they come to their knowledge and fall under their cognisance 2. The Sins of the Ministers who serve at God's Altar and watch over the Souls of men whose bloud will be required at their hands if any of them perish through their fault and neglect There is no reason to doubt but that there are a good number of faithful Shepherds in the Land who watch over their Flocks with great care and conscience remembring the dreadful Account which they must one Day make to Him who shall judge the quick and dead of the Souls committed to their charge But yet how grosly do many of us fail of the faithful discharge of the substantial parts of this high Office wanting a just sense of the inestimable worth and value of the Souls of men for whom Christ died taking little or no care to instruct them in the good knowledge of the Lord and to lead them in the way to eternal happiness by an exemplary conversation Nay too many among us demean themselves so scandalously as perfectly to undermine the credit and effect of their Doctrine by leading lives so directly contrary to it and to alienate their People from the Church and to make them to abhorr the Sacrifice and Service of the Lord by their wicked and unhallowed Conversations hereby exposing them to the craft of Seducers and rendring them an easie prey to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome or to any other Sect and Faction that pretends a greater zeal for Religion or makes a better shew of a strict and unblameable life For who will regard or believe those Teachers who give all the evidence that can be by their lives and actions that they do not believe themselves and their own Doctrines When all is said the life and manners of the Preacher are the best eloquence and have that dint and power of persuasion in them which no words no art can equal Who so lives as he speaks does as it is said of our Blessed Saviour Speaks as one that hath authority and not as the Scribes Not as the Scribes whose words notwithstanding all the formality and gravity with which they were deliver'd did therefore want weight and force because as our Saviour tells us of them they said but did not their Lives were not answerable to their Doctrines Whereas our Blessed Saviour therefore spoke as never man spake because he liv'd as never man liv'd so innocent so useful so exemplary a life He was holy harmless and undefil'd He did no sin neither was guile found in his lips He fulfilled all righteousness and went about doing good This was that which made Him so powerful a Preacher of Righteousness and we must necessarily fall so much short of Him in the authority and efficacy of our Sermons as we do in the holiness and goodness of our Lives Such a Preacher and such a practice as that of our Blessed Saviour was is every way fitted to reprove and persuade and reform Mankind We now live in an Age and Church wherein they who are called to be the Teachers and Guides of Souls ought to take great heed both to their Doctrine and their Lives that the Name of God may not be blasphem'd and his holy Religion be brought into contempt by those who above all others are most nearly concern'd to preserve and support the credit and honour of it And we cannot but see how our Religion and Church are beset and endanger'd on every side by the rude assaults of Infidelity and by the cunning Arts of seducing Spirits and by our own intestine Heats and Divisions And it can never be sufficiently lamented no though it were with tears of bloud that we whose particular charge and employment it is to build up the Souls of Men in a holy Faith and in the resolution of a good Life should for want of due instruction and by the dissolute and profligate lives of too many among us and by inflaming our needless Differences about lesser things have so great a hand in pulling down Religion and in betraying the Souls of Men either to downright Infidelity or to a careless neglect and profane contempt of all Religion May not God justly expostulate this matter with us as he did of old with the People of the Jews A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets prophesy falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my People love to have it so and what will ye doe in the end thereof When they who are the Pastors and Guides of Souls have by their ill conduct and management brought matters to that pass that the generality of the People sit down contented with the worst state of things and are become almost indifferent whether they have any Religion or not what can the end of these things be but that the Kingdom of God will be taken from us and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits of it If ever there be a publick Reformation among us it must begin at the House of God and they who are the Ministers of Religion must lead on this work and be more careful and conscientious in the discharge of that high and holy Office which is committed to them by the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls Else what shall we say when God shall challenge us as he once did the Pastors of the Jewish Church by his Prophet saying Where is the Flock that was given thee thy beautiful
Flock what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee 3. The Sins of the People amongst whom there is almost an universal corruption and depravation of Manners insomuch that Impiety and Vice seem to have over-spread the face of the Nation so that we may take up that sad complaint of the Prophet concerning the People of Israel and apply it to our selves that we are a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity a seed of evil-doers that the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint and that from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in us but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores We may justly stand amaz'd to consider how the God of all patience is provok'd by us every day to think how long he hath born with us and suffered our manners our open Profaneness and Infidelity our great Immoralities and gross Hypocrisy our insolent contempt of Religion and our ill-favour'd counterfeiting of it for low and sordid ends And which is the most melancholy consideration of all the rest we seem to be degenerated to that degree that it is very much to be fear'd there is hardly integrity enough left amongst us to save us And then if we consider further our most uncharitable and unchristian Divisions to the endangering both of our Reformed Religion and of the Civil Rights and Liberties of the Nation Our incorrigibleness under the Judgments of God which we have seen abroad in the Earth and which have in a very severe and terrible manner been inflicted upon these Kingdoms that the Inhabitants thereof might learn righteousness Our insensibleness of the Hand of God so visible in his late Providences towards us and in the many merciful and wonderful Deliverances which from time to time He hath wrought for us And lastly if we reflect upon our horrible Ingratitude to God our Saviour and mighty Deliverer and to Them likewise whom He hath so signally honour'd in making them the happy Means and Instruments of our Deliverance And this not only express'd by a bold contempt of their Authority but by a most unnatural Conspiracy against Them with the greatest Enemies not only to the Peace of the Nation but likewise to the Reformed Religion therein profess'd and by Law established and to the interest of it all the World over So that we may say with Ezra And now O our God what shall we say unto thee after this And may not God likewise say to us as He did more than once to the Jews Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Thirdly We should likewise upon this Day earnestly deprecate God's displeasure and make our humble Supplications to Him that He would be graciously pleas'd to avert those terrible Judgments which hang over us and which we have just cause to fear may fall upon us and that He would be entreated by us at last to be appeas'd towards us and to turn from the fierceness of his Anger This we find the People of God were wont to do upon their Solemn days of Fasting and Prayer and this God expressly enjoyns Blow the Trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly gather the People sanctifie the Congregation assemble the Elders c. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them Wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God And to this earnest deprecation of his Judgments God promiseth a gracious answer for so it immediately follows Then will the Lord be jealous for his Land and pity his People And thus likewise Daniel when he set his face to seek the Lord God by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes does in a most humble and earnest manner deprecate the displeasure of God towards his People and beg of Him to remove his Judgments and to turn away his Anger from them O Lord according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy City Jerusalem thy Holy Mountain Because for our sins and for the iniquity of our Fathers Jerusalem and thy People are become a reproach to all that are about us Now therefore O God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplication and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary which is desolate for the Lord's sake O my God incline thine ear and hear open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the City which is called by thy Name For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness but for thy great mercy O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do deferr not for thine own sake O my God for thy City and thy People are called by thy Name And thus also should We upon this Solemn Occasion cry mightily unto God and with the greatest importunity deprecate those terrible Judgments which we so righteously have deserv'd and to which the great and crying Sins of the whole Nation have so justly exposed us Humbly beseeching Him not for our Righteousness but for his great Mercy for his own Name 's sake and because we are his People and are called by his Name and because his Holy Truth and Religion are profess'd amongst us that He would be pleas'd to hear the Prayers of his Servants and their Supplications which they have made before him this Day for the Lord's sake Fourthly We should likewise upon this Day pour out our most earnest Supplications to Almighty God for the preservation of Their Majesties Sacred Persons and for the prosperity and establishment of Their Government and for the good Success of Their Arms and Forces by Sea and Land And more especially since His Majesty with so many Confederate Princes and States of Europe is engaged in so necessary an Undertaking for the Common good of Christendom and for the mutual preservation and recovery of Their respective Rights We should earnestly implore the favour and assistance of Almighty God in so just and glorious a Cause against the common Invader and Oppressor of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind And that of his infinite Goodness He would be graciously pleased to take the Person of our Sovereign Lord the King into the particular care and protection of his Providence That He would secure his precious Life from all secret Attempts and from open Violence That He would give his Angels charge over him and cover his Head in the day of Battel and crown it with Victory over his Enemies and restore Him to us again in safety And that He would likewise preserve and direct the Queen's Majesty in whose hands the Administration of the Government is at present so happily plac'd That He would give Her Wisdom and Resolution for such a Time as
Soul and so long as that remains unwounded the spirit of a man can bear his infirmities God is intimate to our Souls and hath secret ways whereby to convey the joys and comforts of his Holy Spirit into our Hearts under the bitterest afflictions and sharpest sufferings He can enable us by his Grace to possess our souls in patience when all other things are taken from us When there is nothing but trouble about us He can give us peace and joy in believing When we are persecuted afflicted and tormented He can give us that ravishing sight of the Glories of another World that stedfast assurance of a future Blessedness as shall quite extinguish all sense of present sufferings How did many of the primitive Christian Martyrs in the midst of their torments and under the very pangs of death rejoice in the hope of the glory of God There are none of us but may happen to fall into those circumstances of danger and of bodily pains and sufferings as to have no hopes of relief and comfort but from God none in all the World to trust to but Him only And in the greatest Evils that can befall us in this life He is a sure refuge and sanctuary and to repeat the words of the Psalmist after the Text When our heart fails and our strength fails God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Now what would any of us do in such a Case if it were not for God Humane nature is liable to desperate straits and exigencies And he is not happy who is not provided against the worst that may happen It is sad to be reduced to such a condition as to be destitute of all comfort and hope And yet men may be brought to that extremity that if it were not for God they would not know which way to turn themselves or how to entertain their thoughts with any comfortable considerations under their present anguish All men naturally resort to God in extremity and cry out to him for help Even the most profane and Atheistical when they are destitute of all other comfort will run to God and take hold of him and cling about him But God hath no pleasure in fools in those who neglect and despise him in their prosperity though they owe that also entirely to him but when the evil day comes then they lay hold of him as their only refuge When all things go well with them God is not in all their thoughts but in their affliction they will seek him early Then they will cry Lord Lord but he will say to them in that day Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I know you not Here will be the great unhappiness of such persons that God will then appear terrible to them so as they shall not be able when they look up to him to abide his frowns And at the same time that they are forc'd to acknowledge him and to supplicate to him for mercy and forgiveness they shall be ready to despair of it Then those terrible threatnings of God's Word will come to their minds Because I called and ye refused I stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them To which I will add that terrible Passage in the Prophet concerning the perverse and obstinate Jews They are a People of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour And men are miserable Creatures indeed when God their Maker doth abandon them and hath so far hardened his heart against them that he can have no pity and compassion for them Seventhly and Lastly Which is consequent upon all the rest God is such a Good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds And that which cannot do this though it had all the Properties before mentioned cannot make us happy For he is not happy who does not think himself so what-ever cause he may have to think so Now what in reason can give us disquiet if we do firmly believe that there is a God and that his Providence rules and governs all things for the best and that God is all that to good Men which hath now been said of Him Why should not our minds be in perfect repose when we are secure of the chief Good and have found out that which can make us happy and is willing to make us so if we be not wanting to our selves and by our wilful obstinacy and rebellion against him do not oppose and frustrate this design If a considerate Man were permitted to his own choice to wish the greatest good to himself that he could possibly devise after he had searched Heaven and Earth the result of all his wishes would be that there were just such a Being as we must necessarily conceive God to be Nor would he chuse any other Friend or Benefactor any other Protector for himself or Governor for the whole World than infinite Power conducted and managed by infinite Wisdom and Goodness which is the true Notion of a God After all his enquiry he would come to the Psalmist's conclusion here in the Text Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Vain Man is apt to seek for happiness elsewhere but this proceeds from want of due consideration For when all things are well weigh'd and all accounts rightly cast up and adjusted we shall at last settle in David's resolution of that great Question What is the chief Good of man There be many says he that say Who will shew us any good That is Men are generally inquisitive after happiness but greatly divided in their Opinions about it Most men place it in the present enjoyments of this World but David for his part pitches upon God in whom he was fully convinc'd that the happiness of Man does consist There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and Wine increased The great joy of the men of this World is in a plentiful Harvest and the abundance of the good things of this life But David had
found that which gave more joy and gladness to his heart the favour of God and the light of his countenance This gave perfect rest and tranquillity to his mind so that he needed not to enquire any further For so it follows in the next words I will both lay me down in peace and rest for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety The Hebrew word signifies confidence or security Here and no-where else his mind found rest and was in perfect ease and security I shall now only make two or three Inferences from this Discourse and so conclude First This plainly shews us the great unreasonableness and folly of Atheism which would banish the belief of God and his Providence out of the World Which as it is most impious in respect of God so is it most malicious to Men because it strikes at the very foundation of our happiness and perfectly undermines it For if there were no God Man would evidently be the most unhappy of all other Beings here below because his unhappiness would be laid in the very frame of his nature in that which distinguishes him from all other Beings below him I mean in his Reason and Understanding And he would be so much more miserable than the Beasts by how much he hath a farther reach and a larger prospect of future evils a quicker apprehension and a deeper and more lasting resentment of them So that if any man could see reason to stagger his belief of a God or of his Providence as I am sure there is infinite reason to the contrary yet the belief of these things is so much for the interest and comfort and happiness of Mankind that a Wise man would be heartily troubled to part with a Principle so favourable to his quiet and that does so exactly answer all the natural desires and hopes and fears of Men and is so equally calculated both for our comfort in this World and for our happiness in the other For when a man's thoughts have ranged and wandered as far as they can his mind can find no rest no probable foundation of happiness but God only no other reasonable no nor tolerable Hypothesis and Scheme of things for a Wise man to rely upon and to live and die by For no other Principle but this firmly believed and truly lived up to by an answerable practice was ever able to support the generality of Mankind and to minister true consolation to them under the calamities of life and the pangs of death And if there were not something real in the Principles of Religion it is impossible that they should have so remarkable and so regular an effect to support our minds in every condition upon so great a number of persons of different degrees of understanding of all ranks and conditions young and old learned and unlearned in so many distant Places and in all Ages of the World the Records whereof are come down to us I say so real and so frequent and so regular an effect as this is cannot with any colour of reason be ascribed either to blind Chance or meer Imagination but must have a real and regular and uniform cause proportionable to so great and general an effect I remember that Grotius in his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion hath this observation That God did not intend that the Principles of Religion should have the utmost evidence that any thing is capable of and such as is sufficient to answer and bear down all sorts of captious Cavils and Objections against it but so much as is abundantly sufficient to satisfie a sober and impartial Enquirer after Truth one that hath no other interest but to find out Truth and when he hath found it to yield to it If it were otherwise and the Principles of Religion were as glaring and evident as the Sun shining at Noon-day as there could hardly be any vertue in such a Faith so Infidelity would be next to an impossibility All that I would expect from any man that shall say that he cannot see sufficient reason to believe the Being and the Providence of God is this That he would offer some other Principles that he would advance any other Hypothesis and Scheme of things that is more agreeable to the common and natural Notions of Men and to all Appearances of things in the World and that does bid more fairly for the comfort and happiness of Mankind than these Principles of the Being of a God and of his watchful Providence over the children of men do plainly do And till this be clearly done the Principles of Religion which have generally been received by Mankind and have obtain'd in the World in all Ages cannot fairly be discarded and ought not to be disturbed and put out of Possession And this I think puts this whole matter upon a very fair and reasonable Issue and that nothing more needs to be said concerning it Secondly From what hath been said in the foregoing Discourse it naturally follows That God is the only Object of our trust and confidence and therefore to him alone and to no other we ought to address all our Prayers and Supplications for mercy and grace to help in time of need But now according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome the Psalmist here puts a very odd and strange Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee To which they must give a quite different answer from what the Psalmist plainly intended namely that God was the sole Object of his hope and trust and that upon Him alone he relied as his only comfort and happiness But to this Assertion of the Psalmist the Church of Rome can by no means agree They understand this matter much better than the Psalmist did namely that besides God there are in Heaven innumerable Angels and Saints in whom we are to repose great trust and confidence and to whom also we are to address solemn Prayers and Supplications not only for temporal good things but for the pardon of our Sins for the increase of our Graces and for eternal Life That there are in Heaven particular Advocates and Patrons for all exigencies and occasions against all sorts of dangers and diseases for all Graces and Vertues and in a word for all temporal spiritual and eternal Blessings to whom we may apply our selves without troubling God and our Blessed Saviour who also is God blessed for evermore by presuming upon every occasion to make our immediate Addresses to Him For as they would make us believe though Abraham was ignorant of it and David knew it not the blessed Spirits above both Angels and Saints do not only intercede with God for us for all sorts of Blessings but we may make direct and immediate Addresses to them to bestow these Blessings upon us For so they do in the Church of Rome as is evident beyond all denial from several of their Prayers in their most publick and authentick Liturgies They would
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. In the handling of these Words I shall abstract from the particular Occasion of them and only consider the general Truth contained in them Which I shall do under these two Heads First What we are not to glory in Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches Secondly What it is that is matter of true glory But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righousness in the Earth I. What we are not to glory in The Text instanceth in three things which are the great Idols of mankind and in which they are very apt to pride themselves and to place their confidence namely Wisdom and Might and Riches I shall consider these severally and shew how little reason there is to glory in any of them 1. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom This may comprehend both humane Knowledge and likewise prudence in the management of affairs We will suppose both these to be intended here by the name of Wisdom Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom that is neither in the largeness and compass of his Knowledge and Understanding nor in his skill and dexterity in the contrivance and conduct of humane Affairs and that for these two reasons First Because the highest pitch of humane Knowledge and Wisdom is very imperfect Secondly Because when Knowledge and Wisdom are with much difficulty in any competent measure attained how easily are they lost First The highest pitch of humane knowledge and wisdom is very imperfect Our Ignorance doth vastly exceed our Knowledge at the best Wisdom in any tolerable degree is difficult to be attain'd but perfection in it utterly to be despair'd of Where is there to be found so strong and found a Head as hath no soft place so perfect so clear an understanding as hath no flaw no dark Water in it How hard a matter is it to be truly wise And yet there are so many pretenders to wisdom as would almost tempt a man to think that nothing is easier Men do frequently murmur and repine at the unequal distribution of other things as of health and strength of power and riches But if we will trust the judgment of most men concerning themselves nothing is more equally shar'd among mankind than a good degree of wisdom and understanding Many will grant others to be superiour to them in other gifts of Nature as in bodily strength and stature and in the gifts of Fortune as in riches and honour because the difference between one man and another in these qualities is many times so gross and palpable that no body hath the face to deny it But very few in comparison unless it be in mere complement and civility will yield others to be wiser than themselves and yet the difference in this also is for the most part very visible to every body but themselves So that true Wisdom is a thing very extraordinary Happy are they that have it And next to them not those many that think they have it but those few that are sensible of their own defects and imperfections and know that they have it not And among all the kinds of Wisdom none is more nice and difficult and meers with more frequent disappointments than that which men are most apt to pride themselves in I mean Political wisdom and prudence because it depends upon so many contingent Causes any one of which failing the best laid design breaks and falls in pieces It depends upon the uncertain wills and fickle humours the mistaken and mutable interests of men which are perpetually shifting from one point to another so that no body knows where to find them Besides an unaccountable mixture of that which the Heathen call'd Fortune but we Christians by its true name the Providence of God which does frequently interpose in humane Affairs and loves to confound the wisdom of the wise and to turn their counsels into foolishness Of this we have a most remarkable Example in Achitophel of whose wisdom the Scripture gives this extraordinary Testimony That the counsel which he counselled in those days was as if one had enquired at the Oracle of God Such was all the counsel of Achitophel both with David and with Absalom It seems he gave very good counsel also to Absalom and because he would not follow it was discontented to that degree as to lay violent hands upon himself And now who would pride himself in being so very wise as to be able to give the best counsel in the world and yet so very weak as to make away himself because he to whom it was given was not wise enough to take it The like miscarriages often happen in point of Military skill and prudence A great Prince or General is sometimes so very cautious and wary that nothing can provoke him to a Battel and then at another time and perhaps in another Element so rash and wilful that nothing can hinder him from fighting and being beaten As if the two Elements made the difference and caution were great wisdom at Land and confidence and presumption great prudence at Sea But the true reason of these things lies much deeper in the secret Providence of Almighty God who when he pleases can so govern and over-rule both the understandings and the wills of men as shall best serve his own wise purpose and design And as the highest pitch of humane Wisdom is very imperfect in it self so is it much more so in comparison with the Divine knowledge and wisdom Compar'd with this it is mere folly and less than the understanding and wisdom of a child to that of the wisest man The foolishness of God says St. Paul is wiser than men that is the least grain of Divine wisdom is infinitely beyond all the wisdom of men But in opposition to the wisdom of God the wisdom of men is less than nothing and vanity Let men design things never so prudently and make them never so sure even to the Popish and French degree of infallibility let them reckon upon it as a Blow that cannot fail Yet after all the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and he will do all his pleasure for there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. And now we may ask the Question which Job does Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding And we must answer it as he does It is not to be found in
the land of the living unless it be that one infallible Point of Wisdom to which God directs every man and of which every man is capable viz. Religion and the Fear of God Vnto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Secondly When knowledge and wisdom are with great difficulty in any competent measure attain'd how easily are they lost By a disease by a blow upon the head by a sudden and violent passion which may disorder the strongest Brain and confound the clearest Understanding in a moment Nay even the excess of knowledge and wisdom especially if attended with pride as too often it is is very dangerous and does many times border upon distraction and run into madness Like an Athletick constitution and perfect state of health which is observ'd by Physicians to verge upon some dangerous disease and to be a forerunner of it And when a man's Understanding is once craz'd and shatter'd how are the finest notions and thoughts of the wisest man blunder'd and broken perplex'd and entangled like a puzled lump of silk so that the man cannot draw out a thought to any length but is forc'd to break it off and to begin at another end Upon all which and many more accounts Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom which is so very imperfect so hard to be attain'd and yet so easie to be lost 2. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might Which whether it be meant of natural strength of body or of military force and power how weak and imperfect is it and how frequently foil'd by an unequal strength If we understand it of the natural strength of men's bodies how little reason is there to glory in that in which so many of the Creatures below us do by so many degrees excell us In that which may so many ways be lost by sickness by a maime and by many other external Accidents and which however will decay of it self and by Age sink into infirmity and weakness And how little reason is there to glory in that which is so frequently foil'd by an unequal strength of which Goliah is a famous Instance When he defied the Host of Israel and would needs have the matter decided by single Combate God inspired David to accept the Challenge who though he was no wise comparable to him in strength and would have been nothing in his hands in close fight yet God directed him to assail him at a distance by a weapon that was too hard for him a stone out of a sling which struck the Giant in the forehead and brought his unwieldy bulk down to the Earth Or if by might we understand military force and power how little likewise is that to be gloried in considering the uncertain events of War and how very often and remarkably the Providence of God doth interpose to cast the Victory on the unlikely Side It is Solomon's observation that such are the interpositions of Divine Providences in humane Affairs that the Event of things is many times not at all answerable to the power and probability of second Causes I returned says he and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong And one way among many others whereby the Providence of God doth often interpose to decide the Events of War is by a remarkable change of the Seasons and Weather in favour of one Side As by sending great Snows or violent Rains to hinder the early motion and march of a powerful Army to the disappointment or prejudice of some great Design By remarkable Winds and Storms at Sea to prevent the Conjunction of a powerful Fleet And by governing all these for a long time together so visibly to the Advantage of one Side us utterly to defeat the well laid design of the other Of all which by the great mercy and goodness of God to us we have had the happy experience in all our late signal Deliverances and Victories And here I cannot but take notice of a passage to this purpose in the Book of Job Which may deserve our more attentive regard and consideration because I take this Book to be incomparably the most ancient of all other and much elder than Moses And yet it is written with as lively a sense of the Providence of God and as noble Figures and Flights of Eloquence as perhaps any Book extant in the World The Passage I mean is where God to convince Job of his ignorance in the secrets of Nature and Providence poseth him with many hard Questions and with this amongst the rest Hast thou entred into the treasures of the Snow hast thou seen the treasures of the Hail which I have reserv'd against the time of trouble against the Day of Battel and War The meaning of which is that the Providence of God doth sometimes interpose to determine the Events of War by governing the Seasons and the Weather and by making the Snows and Rains the Winds and Storms to fulfil his word and to execute his pleasure Of this we have a remarkable Instance in the defeat of Sisera's mighty Army against whom in the Song of Deborah the Stars are said to have fought in their courses The expression is Poetical but the plain meaning of it is that by mighty and sudden Rains which the common Opinion did ascribe to a special influence of the Planets the River of Kishon near which Sisera's Army lay was so raised and swoln as to drown the greatest part of that huge Host For so Deborah explains the fighting of the Stars in their courses against Sisera They fought says she from Heaven the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera the River of Kishon swept them away As if the Stars which were supposed by their influence to have caused those sudden and extraordinary Rains had set themselves in Battel-array against Sisera and his Army Therefore let not the mighty man glory in his might which is so small in it self but in opposition to God is weakness and nothing The weakness of God says St. Paul is stronger than men All power to do mischief is but impotence and therefore no matter of boasting Why boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou art able to do mischief the goodness of God endureth continually The goodness of God is too hard for the pride and malice of man and will last and hold out when that has tir'd and spent it self Thirdly Let not the rich man glory in his riches In these men are apt to pride themselves even the meanest and poorest spirits who have nothing to be proud of but their money when they have got good store of that together how will they swell and strut as if because they are rich and increased in goods they wanted nothing But we may do well to consider that Riches are things without us not the real Excellencies of our Nature but
Throne above the Stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North That is upon Mount Zion for just so the Psalmist describes it Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole Earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the North. Here the King of Babylon threatens to take Jerusalem and to demolish the Temple where the Congregation of Israel met for the Worship of the true God I will also sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. Much in the same Style with the threatnings of Modern Babylon I will destroy the Reformation I will extirpate the Northern Heresie And then he goes on I will ascend above the height of the clouds I will be like the most High Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave to the sides of the pit They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying Is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms that made the World as a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof and opened not the House of his Prisoners God seems already to have begun this Work in the late glorious Victory at Sea and I hope he will cut it short in righteousness I have sometimes heretofore wondred Why at the destruction of Modern and Mystical Babylon the Scripture should make so express mention of great wailing and lamentation for the loss of Her Ships and Seamen Little imagining thirty years ago that any of the Kingdoms who had given their power to the Beast would ever have arrived to that mighty Naval Force But the Scripture saith nothing in vain Whether and how far Success is an Argument of a good Cause I shall not now debate But thus much I think may safely be affirmed That the Providence of God doth sometimes without plain and down-right Miracles so visibly shew it self that we cannot without great stupidity and obstinacy refuse to acknowledge it I grant the Cause must first be manifestly just before Success can be made an Argument of God's favour to it and approbation of it And if the Cause of true Religion and the necessary defence of it against a false and Idolatrous Worship be a good Cause Ours is so And I do not here beg the Question we have abundantly proved it to the confusion of our Adversaries If the vindication of the common Liberties of Mankind against Tyranny and Oppression be a good Cause then Ours is so And this needs not to be proved it is so glaringly evident to all the World And as our Cause is not like theirs so neither hath their Rock been like our Rock our Enemies themselves being Judges And yet as bad an Argument as success is of a good Cause I am sorry to say it but I am afraid it is true it is like in the conclusion to prove the best Argument of all other to convince those who have so long pretended Conscience against submission to the present Government Meer Success is certainly one of the worst Arguments in the World of a good Cause and the most improper to satisfie Conscience And yet we find by experience that in the issue it is the most successful of all other Arguments and does in a very odd but effectual way satisfie the Consciences of a great many men by shewing them their Interest God has of late visibly made bare his Arm in our behalf though some are still so blind and obstinate that they will not see it Like those of whom the Prophet complains Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at thy People Thus have I represented unto you a mighty Monarch who like a fiery Comet hath hung over Europe for many years and by his malignant influence hath made such terrible havock and devastations in this part of the World Let us now turn our View to the other part of the Text And behold a greater than he is here A Prince of a quite different Character who does understand and know God to be the Lord which doth exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And who hath made it the great Study and Endeavour of his life to imitate these Divine Perfections as far as the imperfection of humane Nature in this mortal state will admit I say a greater than he is here who never said or did an insolent thing but instead of despising his Enemies has upon all occasions encounter'd them with an undaunted Spirit and Resolution This is the Man whom God hath honoured to give a Check to this mighty Man of the Earth and to put a hook into the Nostrils of this great Leviathan who has so long had his pastime in the Seas But we will not insult as he once did in a most unprincely manner over a Man much better than himself when he believed Him to have been slain at the Boyne And indeed Death came then as near to him as was possible without killing him But the merciful Providence of God was pleased to step in for his Preservation almost by a Miracle For I do not believe that from the first use of great Guns to that Day any mortal man ever had his shoulder so kindly kiss'd by a Cannon-bullet But I will not trespass any further upon that which is the great Ornament of all his other Vertues though I have said nothing of Him but what all the World does see and must acknowledge He is as much above being flatter'd as it is beneath an honest and a generous mind to flatter Let us then glory in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our Salvation Let us now in the presence of all his People pay our most thankful acknowledgments to him who is worthy to be praised even to the Lord God of Israel who alone doth wondrous things Who giveth Victory unto Kings and hath preserved our David his Servant from the hurtful Sword And let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would long preserve to us the invaluable Blessing of our two Excellent Princes whom the Providence of God hath sent amongst us like two good Angels not to rescue two or three Persons but almost a whole Nation out of Sodom By saving us I hope at last from our Vices as well as at first from that Vengeance which was just ready to have been poured down upon us Two Sovereign Princes reigning together and in the same Throne and yet so intirely one as perhaps no Nation no Age can furnish us with a Parallel Two Princes perfectly united in the same Design of promoting the true Religion and the Publick Welfare by reforming our Manners and as far as is possible by repairing the breaches and healing the Divisions of a miserably distracted Church and Nation In a Word Two Princes who are contented to sacrifice Themselves and their whole Time to the care of the Publick And for the
a great deal more in Innocence And the more any man considers this the truer he will find it and when-ever we are serious we our selves cannot but acknowledge it When a man examines himself impartially before the Sacrament or is put in mind upon a Death-bed to make reparation for Injuries done in this kind he will then certainly be of this mind and wish he had not done them For this certainly is one necessary qualification for the Blessed Sacrament that we be in love and charity with our neighbours with which temper of mind this quality is utterly inconsistent Thirdly There is yet a more specious Plea than either of the former that men will be encouraged to do ill if they can escape the tongues of men as they would do if this Doctrine did effectually take place Because by this means one great restraint from doing evil would be taken away which these good men who are so bent upon reforming the World think would be great pity For many who will venture upon the displeasure of God will yet abstain from doing bad things for fear of reproach from Men Besides that this seems the most proper punishment of many Faults which the Laws of Men can take no notice of Admitting all this to be true yet it does not seem so good and laudable a way to punish one Fault by another But let no man encourage himself in an evil way with this hope that he shall escape the censure of men When I have said all I can there will I fear be evil-speaking enough in the World to chastise them that do ill And though we should hold our peace there will be bad tongues enow to reproach men with their evil-doings I wish we could but be persuaded to make the Experiment for a little while whether men would not be sufficiently lash'd for their Faults though we sate by and said nothing So that there is no need at all that good Men should be concern'd in this odious Work There will always be Offenders and Malefactors enow to be the Executioners to inflict this punishment upon one another Therefore let no man presume upon Impunity on the one hand and on the other let no man despair but that this business will be sufficiently done one way or other I am very much mistaken if we may not safely trust an ill-natur'd World that there will be no failure of Justice in this kind And here if I durst I would fain have said a word or two concerning that more publick sort of Obloquy by Lampoons and Libels so much in fashion in this witty Age. But I have no mind to provoke a very terrible sort of men Yet thus much I hope may be said without offence that how much soever men are pleas'd to see others abused in this kind yet it is always grievous when it comes to their own turn However I cannot but hope that every man that impartially considers must own it to be a fault of a very high nature to revile those whom God hath placed in Authority over us and to slander the footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed Especially since it is so expressly written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy People Having represented the great evil of this Vice it might not now be improper to say something to those who suffer by it Are we guilty of the evil said of us Let us reform and cut off all occasions for the future and so turn the malice of our Enemies to our own advantage and defeat their ill intentions by making so good an use of it And then it will be well for us to have been evil spoken of Are we innocent We may so much the better bear it patiently imitating herein the Pattern of our Blessed Saviour Who when he was reviled reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously We may consider likewise that though it be a misfortune to be evil-spoken of it is their fault that do it and not ours and therefore should not put us into Passion because another man's being injurious to me is no good reason why I should be uneasie to my self We should not revenge the injuries done to us no not upon them that do them much less upon our selves Let no man's Provocation make thee to lose thy Patience Be not such a fool as to part with any one Virtue because some men are so malicious as to endeavour to rob thee of the Reputation of all the rest When men speak ill of thee do as Plato said he would do in that case Live so as that no body may believe them All that now remains is to reflect upon what hath been said and to urge you and my self to do accordingly For all is nothing if we do not practise what we so plainly see to be our Duty Many are so taken up with the deep Points and Mysteries of Religion that they never think of the common Duties and Offices of humane Life But Faith and a good Life are so far from clashing with one another that the Christian Religion hath made them inseparable True Faith is necessary in order to a good Life and a good Life is the genuine product of a right Belief and therefore the one never ought to be press'd to the prejudice of the other I foresee what will be said because I have heard it so often said in the like case that there is not one word of Jesus Christ in all this No more is there in the Text. And yet I hope that Jesus Christ is truly preach'd when-ever his Will and Laws and the Duties injoyn'd by the Christian Religion are inculcated upon us But some men are pleased to say that this is mere Morality I answer that this is Scripture-Morality and Christian-Morality and who hath any thing to say against that Nay I will go yet further that no man ought to pretend to believe the Christian Religion who lives in the neglect of so plain a Duty and in the practice of a Sin so clearly condemn'd by it as this of evil-speaking is But because the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword yea sharper than Calumny it self and pierceth the very Hearts and Consciences of men laying us open to our selves and convincing us of our more secret as well as our more visible Faults I shall therefore at one view represent to you what is dispersedly said concerning this Sin in the Holy Word of God And I have purposely reserved this to the last because it is more persuasive and penetrating than any Humane Discourse And to this end be pleas'd to consider in what company the Holy Ghost doth usually mention this Sin There is scarce any black Catalogue of Sins in the Bible but we find this among them in the company of the very worst Actions and most irregular Passions of men Out of the heart says our Saviour proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications false-witness
evil-speakings And the Apostle ranks backbiters with fornicators and murderers and haters of God and with those of whom it is expressly said that they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And when he enumerates the Sins of the last times Men says he shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters evil-speakers without natural affection perfidious false accusers c. And which is the strangest of all they who are said to be guilty of these great Vices and Enormities are noted by the Apostle to be great pretenders to Religion for so it follows in the next words Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof So that it is no new thing for men to make a more than ordinary profession of Christianity and yet at the same time to live in a most palpable contradiction to the Precepts of that Holy Religion As if any pretence to Mystery and I know not what extraordinary attainments in the knowledge of Christ could exempt men from obedience to his Laws and set them above the Vertues of a good Life And now after all this do we hardly think that to be a Sin which is in Scripture so frequently rank'd with Murther and Adultery and the blackest Crimes such as are inconsistent with the life and power of Religion and will certainly shut men out of the Kingdom of God Do we believe the Bible to be the Word of God and can we allow our selves in the common practice of a Sin than which there is hardly any Fault of men's Lives more frequently mention'd more severely reprov'd and more odiously branded in that Holy Book Consider seriously these Texts Who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy Hill He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour Have ye never heard what our Saviour says that of every idle word we must give an account in the day of Judgment that by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd What can be more severe than that of St. James If any man among you seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue that man's Religion is vain To conclude The Sin which I have now warned men against is plainly condemn'd by the Word of God and the Duty which I have now been persuading you to is easie for every man to understand not hard for any man that can but resolve to keep a good guard upon himself for some time by the grace of God to practice and most reasonable for all Men but especially for all Christians to observe It is as easie as a resolute silence upon just occasion as reasonable as prudence and justice and charity and the preservation of peace and good-will among men can make it and of as necessary and indispensible an obligation as the Authority of God can render any thing Upon all which Considerations let us every one of us be persuaded to take up David's deliberate Resolution I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue And I do verily believe that would we but heartily endeavour to amend this one Fault we should soon be better Men in our whole lives I mean that the correcting of this Vice together with those that are nearly allied to it and may at the same time and almost with the same resolution and care be corrected would make us Owners of a great many considerable Vertues and carry us on a good way towards perfection it being hardly to be imagin'd that a man that makes conscience of his Words should not take an equal or a greater care of his Actions And this I take to be both the true meaning and the true reason of that saying of St. James and with which I shall conclude If any man offend not in Word the same is a perfect man Now the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good word and work to do his will working in you always that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be glory for ever Amen FINIS V. 8 9 10 11 12. V. 8. V. 9. V. 10. V. 8. V. 9. V. 13. 1 Pet. 5.12 Philip. 1.27 1 Chron. 29.4 Psal 103.10 Lev. 26.13 Isaiah 1.4 Verse 5. Isaiah 9.13 Isaiah 26.11 2 Chron. 28.22 Judges 8.34 35. 1 Kings 11.9 2 Chron. 32.25 Isaiah 1.2 Verse 3. Isaiah 26.10 Deut 13.1 2. Verse 5. Numb 14.32 Judges 10.11 12 13 14. Jer. 2.19 Judges 10.13 Gen. 15.16 Rom. 9.22 Isaiah 1.5 Matth. 23.37 38. Psal 28.5 Psal 118.23 24. 1 Cor. 10.6 7 9 10 11. Numb 2.5 6. V. 11. Dr. Barrow Dr. Barrow Prov. 14.29 Eccl. 7.9 Prov. 16.32 Verse 45. Eph. 4.32 chap. 5.1 Luke 17.3 4. Rom. 12.17 V. 18. Matth. 6.14 15. Matth. 18.23 V. 35. M. Aur. Antoni lib. 7. Eccl. 23 1 2 3 4. Heb. 11.6 Joh. 17.3 Matth. 5.3 4 c. Matth. 7.21 V. 24. V. 26 27. John 13 17. Luke 6.46 1 Joh. 5.3 1 Joh. 2.4 John 14.15 V. 21. 1 Joh. 3.7 V. 10. Gen. 3.7 Isa 3.10 11. Matth. 19.17 Matth. 6.31 33. * Ita me Dij Deaeque omnes pejus perdant quà m bodiè perire me sentio c. Rev. 20.14 Wisd of Solomon ch 1. ver 12 13 16. 2 Chron. 14.11 Ps 33.16 Psal 44 6. Prov. 21.30 31. Prov. 3.5 6. Deut. 23.9 Isa 37.23 26 27 28 29 32. Isa 26.10 11. Isa 58.5 6 c. Jer. 15.2 Hos 9.12 Gen. 7.1 1 Cor. 10.11 Jer. 4.14 Jer. 13.27 Hos 11.8 9. Jonah 4.11 Psal 78. * Lib. 1. c. 3. Lib. 4. c. 5. Lib. 7. c. 1. Lib. 5. c. 2. Lib. 6. c. 11. Lib. 7. c. 1. Jer. 2.19 Psal 122. John 16.2 Luke 23.34 Acts 3.17 Acts 26.9 1 Tim. 1.13 Acts 3.19 Jam. 1.20 Boeth Acts 22.4 Acts 26.9 John 7.17 1 Cor. 4.4 Job 25.5 6. 1 Joh. 3.21 Prov. 14.32 Ps 37.37 Acts 23.1 John 17.4 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Zech. 8.18 19. Verse 9 10 11 12 13. 1 Kings 8.37 38 39 40. Jer. 8.6 Jer. 13.17 Psal 119.36 v. 53. v. 158. Dan. 9.5 7 8. Ezr. 9.6 7. Jer. 5.30 31. Jer. 13.20 21. Isai 1.4 5. Ezra 9.6 Joel 2.15 16 17. Ver. 18. Dan. 9 3â— Ver. 16 17 18 19. Dan. 4.27 Jer. 29.11 12 13. Job 41.33 34. Acts 10.4 Isa 58.7 9. 2 Chron. 7.14 Zech. 8.19 Ezek. 33.31 Ver. 1. Ver. 2. Ver. 10. Ver. 12. Ver. 13. Ver. 14. Ver. 15. Ver. 16. Ver. 17 18. Ver. 21. Ver. 23. Psal 22.9 10 11. Rom. 8.35 v. 38 39. Prov. 1.24 25 c. Isa 27.11 Psal 4.6 7 8. Psal 119. 1 Cor. 1.25 Job 28.12 Ch. 28.12 Job 28.28 Eccl. 9.11 â—â— 38.22 23. Psal 52.1 Prov. 23.5 Eccl. 5.13 Prov. 1.18 Job 40.9 Judg. 10.13 Deut. 32.20 Jer. 6.8 Isa 14. Psal 48.2 Rev. 18.17 Isa 26.11 Ecclus 19.16 James 3.2 Jam. 1.26 Eccl. 19.8 Ecclus. 19.13 14 15. Matth. 24.12 Ecclus. 19.8 9. Matth. 7. Psal 34.12 13. Jam. 1.26 1 Cor. 6.10 Wisdom of Solomon c. 1. v. 11. Ecclus. 19.10 Psal 34.12 13. Matth. 15.19 Rom. 1.29 1 Cor. 6.10 2 Tim. 3.2 3. Psal 15.1 Psal 31.1