this he will take as a better expression of our gratitude than if we spent never so many days in verbal praises and acknowledgments of his love and bounty Let us all open our hearts and breasts to receive and entertain this great friend of mankind this glorious lover of our souls and suffer him to take full possession of them and there to place his throne and to reign within us without any rival or competitour and let us humbly beg of him that he would be pleased to finish that work in us which he came into the world about that by his bloud he would cleanse and wash us from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit that he would save us from our sins here and then we need not fear his saving us from everlasting destruction hereafter Which God of his infinite mercy grant to us all for the alone sake of our blessed Lord and Redeemer to whom with the Father c. A SERMON Preached on ASH-WEDNESDAY The Tenth Sermon St. MARK VI. 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent THOUGH repentance be a duty never out of season nay is indeed the work and business of our whole lives all of us being obliged every day to amend yet there are some particular times wherein we are more especially called upon to review our actions to humble our souls in God's presence to bewail our manifold transgressions and to devote our selves afresh to his service such are times of affliction either personal or publick when extraordinary judgments are abroad in the earth or are impendent over us or when we our selves are visited with any sickness or grievous calamity so also before we receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper we are then more strictly to examine our selves and renew our vows and resolutions of living better And to name no more the Church in all ages hath thought fit to set a-part some solemn times to call upon men more earnestly to repent and to seek God's face before it be too late such were the fasting-days before the feast of the resurrection or Easter and accordingly our Church as you have heard in the exhortation this day read to you doth at this time especially move us to earnest and true repentance that we should return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart bewailing and lamenting our sinfull lives acknowledging and confessing our offences and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of penance And such as now seriously set themselves to repent of all the sins they have committed using such abstinence as is necessary for the subduing the flesh to the spirit do certainly keep Lent far better than they who for so long time onely scrupulously abstain from all flesh and call filling themselves with the choicest fish sweet-meats and wine fasting I shall at this time suppose you sufficiently instructed in the nature of repentance it being one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ as the Apostle to the Hebrews calls it Heb. 6.1 and also that you will readily acknowledge the indispensible necessity of it in order to the obtaining the pardon of your sins and eternal life and that which I now design is onely to set before you some if not the main hindrances and impediments that keep men from repentance and to endeavour to remove them and I shall discourse in order of these three of the many that might be mentioned I. Want of consideration II. The unsuccesfulness of some former attempts when men have resolved and begun to reform but have soon found all their good purposes and endeavours blasted and defeated this discourageth them from making any farther trials III. The hopes of long life and some better opportunity of repenting hereafter One of these is commonly the ground and cause of those mens remaining in an impenitent state who yet are convinced of the absolute necessity of repentance in order to their peace and happiness I. Want of consideration For could men but once be persuaded seriously and in good earnest as becometh reasonable creatures to consider their ways and actions patiently to attend to the dictates of their own minds and soberly to weigh the reasons and consequences of things their is no doubt to be made but Religion would every day gain more proselytes vertue and righteousness would prosper and flourish more in the world and men would soon become ashamed and afraid of nothing so much as vice and wickedness Of such infinite moment are the matters of Religion so mighty and strong are the arguments which it propounds to us so clear and convincing are the evidences it gives us of its truth and certainty so agreeable to our minds are all its principles so amiable and excellent its precepts so pleasant and advantageous is the practice of them that there seemeth nothing farther required to make all men in love with it but onely that they would open their eyes to behold its beauty that they would not stop their ears against all its most alluring charms Let men but once throughly ponder the folly and mischief of sin with the benefits and rewards of piety and an holy life let them but compare their several interests together and look sometimes beyond things present unto that state wherein they are to live for ever and use their understandings about these matters as they do about other affairs and it is impossible they should enjoy any tolerable peace or ease without a carefull and strict provision for another world Vice oweth its quiet possession of mens minds onely to their stupidity and inadvertency to their carelesness and inconsideration it reigns undisturbedly onely in ignorant secure unthinking spirits but streight loseth all its force and power when once men begin to look about them and bethink themselves what they are doing and whither they are going Could we but once gain thus much of wicked men to make a stand and pause a little and to cease but a while from the violent pursuit of their pleasures and fairly reflect upon their lives and see what is the fruit of all their past follies and consider the end and issue of these things could we I say but obtain thus much we might spare most of our pains spent in persuading them to repent their own thoughts would never suffer them to be in quiet till they had done it Let us but once begin to deliberate and examine and we are sure on which side the advantage will lie sin and wickedness can never stand a trial let our own reasons be but judges it hates nothing so much as to be brought to the light A vitious man however he may brave it in the world yet can never justify or approve himself to his own free thoughts and however he may plead for sin before others yet he can never answer the objections his own conscience would bring against it would he but once dare impartially to consider them But the misery of wicked men is that they
judgment could be too great or sharp to vindicate our Saviour's most excellent institution from such impious contempt But now this is by no means to be extended to every little failure or omission in this duty or in our preparation for it as if that did render us such unworthy receivers as these Corinthians were or streight consign us over to the same punishment Those scandalous irregularities and excuses are here called eating and drinking unworthily which were heard of onely in the first ages of the Church when the Sacrament was always joined with these Love-feasts which were therefore in process of time wholly abrogated and to prevent that intemperance and abuse they had introduced it generally prevailed to receive this Sacrament fasting But whatever faults may be found now amongst our Communicants yet they cannot be charged with these mentioned in this Chapter The worst of men if they do communicate at all doe it with greater reverence and more suitable deportment than these Corinthians did So that neither the fault here reproved nor the punishment denounced hath place now amongst us What reason then is there why this text of Scripture should fright any people from the Sacrament whenas there is neither the same fault committed nor the same punishment inflicted Though this be the just meaning of the words yet because this plea of unworthiness to receive is often insisted upon to excuse our neglect of this Sacrament I shall farther and more largely consider it by proceeding to the third thing I propounded to discourse of III. How far this danger of receiving unworthily may reasonably scare and fright people from coming to this Sacrament And here I shall offer these few things to the thoughts of all such as are seriously disposed 1. In a strict sense we are none of us all worthy of so great a favour and such an high privilege as to be admitted to this Sacrament or of such excellent benefits as are conferred upon us in it After all our care after all our preparation to make our selves fit yet still we must acknowledge our selves unworthy but to pick up the crums that fall from our master's table much more to sit and feast at it If we are not to receive this Sacrament till we can account our selves really worthy the best of men the more holy and humble they are the more averse would they be from this duty 2. This unworthiness is no bar or hindrance to our receiving this Sacrament We are not worthy of the least mercy either spiritual or temporal which we enjoy must we therefore starve our selves or go naked because we deserve not our food or rayment We are not worthy so much as to cast up our eyes towards heaven the habitation of God's holiness but what then Shall we never make our humble addresses to the throne of God's grace because we are not worthy to ask or to have our petitions heard and granted by him Shall we refuse any favours the kindness of Heaven offers to us because they are beyond our merits or more than we could challenge or expect It is not said here in the Text he that is unworthy to eat and drink of this Sacrament if he doth it eateth and drinketh damnation to himself if it were then indeed we might all be justly afraid of coming to this royal feast but he that eateth and drinketh unworthily now there is a great deal of difference between these two things between a man's being unworthy to receive this Sacrament and his receiving it unworthily which I shall thus illustrate He for example who hath grosly wrong'd malitiously slander'd or without any provocation of mine treated me very ill is as ye will all grant utterly unworthy of any kindness or favour from me But now if notwithstanding this unworthiness I doe him some considerable kindness and offer him some favour his unworthiness is no let or hindrance to his receiving it and if he accepts it with a due sense and a gratefull mind and by it is moved to lay aside all his former enmity and animosity and heartily repents him of his former ill-will against me and studies how to requite this courtesie it is then plain that though he were unworthy of the favour yet he hath now received it worthily that is after a due manner as he ought to have done and that it hath had its right effect upon him So we are all unworthy to partake of this holy banquet but being invited and admitted we may behave our selves as becometh us in such a presence at such a solemnity And if by it we thankfully commemorate the death of our Lord and renounce all our sins and former evil ways and there give up our selves to be governed by him and vow better obedience and are affected with a true sense of his love then though unworthy of so great a favour yet we have worthily that is after a right manner as to God's acceptance received this blessed Sacrament But if now unworthy of so great honour and favour we also receive it unworthily after a prophane disorderly manner not at an minding the end use or design of it without any repentance for sins past or resolutions of amendment for the future and without any gratefull affection of love towards our Saviour dying for us we do by this means indeed highly provoke God Almighty and justly incur his most grievous displeasure 3. Those who are unworthy and are truly sensible of their own unworthiness are the very persons for whom this Sacrament was appointed and for whose benefit it was instituted Were we not all sinners we had no need of such means of grace as Sacraments are nor of such instruments of Religion Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance They that are whole need not the physician but they that are sick Now it is an idle thing for a man to be afraid to receive an aims because he is miserably poor or to be loth to take physick because he is dangerously sick If we are truly sensible of our unworthiness and as we ought to be duly affected with it this is a great argument and motive to engage us not any longer to delay the use of these means but to hasten to the Sacrament there to receive supplies and assistances suitable and proportioned to our wants and necessities the more unworthy we find our selves the more we stand in need of this holy Sacrament whereby our good resolutions may be strengthened and confirmed and divine power and grace communicated to us to enable us by degrees to subdue all our lusts and passions and to resist all temptations and so by often receiving this Sacrament we shall every time become less unworthy to partake of it There hath been a great dispute in the world whether the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be a converting ordinance or no as prayer and hearing of the word of God read or preached are allowed to be and many there are that have
been brought to believe that it is a duty incumbent on or rather a privilege belonging to none but great and exemplary Saints to strong and well-grounded Christians that this Sacrament is not food proper for babes and novices for those who often fail in their duty who are still onely wrestling with their lusts but have not yet got the mastery or victory over them that we ought first to be fully assured of our salvation before we come to this holy table that this ordinance serves onely to strengthen and confirm our faith and repentance and all other Christian graces and vertues but not to beget any of them in us Now here thus much must be granted that this Sacrament doth belong onely to those that are within the pale of the visible Church onely to baptised Christians that do publickly own their faith and Christian profession that it is no means of converting Jews or Infidels and that even Christians by notorious evil lives whereby they become scandalous to their brethren and incur the censures of the Church may justly forfeit all their right and title to this Sacrament and farther that it is a bold prophanation of our Saviour's institution for any wicked person resolved to continue such to presume to bless God for that mercy and love of a Redeemer which he doth not in the least value Thus far we are on all hands agreed but not now to engage in any matter of controversie I shall onely say that I can see no reason why to one that is really sensible of his sins and miscarriages contrary to his baptismal vow and profession and maketh some kind of resolution to forsake them why I say this Sacrament as well as prayer or any other duties of Religion may not be reckoned as a means of begetting true repentance in him of turning him from sin to righteousness from the power of Satan to God and for this I shall offer onely this one plain argument which is obvious to every man that if the death of Christ it self his bitter passion his whole gratious undertaking for us was amongst other reasons designed by God also to convince us of the evil and danger of sin to bring us out of love with it and to engage us to a new and better life surely then the consideration of the same things represented to us in the Sacrament the commemoration of his death and passion there made may also serve for the same great ends and purposes If Christ died that we should die unto sin certainly then the memory of his death may justly be accounted a proper means of killing sin in us nay what in the nature of the thing can be imagined a more likely instrument to turn us from a life of sin to the practice of holiness than the frequent consideration of what our blessed Lord hath done and suffered for us and if so it cannot be necessary that this change should be completely wrought in us before we ever solemnly commemorate his bloudy passion for that were to suppose it necessary that the end should be obtained before we use the means It is not therefore absolutely necessary that we should be fully assured that we are in a state of grace and in God's favour and have repented enough and truly forsaken all our sins before we venture on this Sacrament it is sufficient that we heartily and sincerely resolve against them that we approach the Lord's table with honest and devout minds that we be really willing and desirous to use all means to become better and if thus disposed we come to the Sacrament I doubt not but we shall find it a most effectual means for the enabling us to leave our sins and to lead a better life It is not our unworthiness but our resolving to continue in that state that makes us unqualified for this Sacrament 4. If therefore by your unworthiness you mean that you live in sin and are resolved to doe so and therefore dare not come to the Sacrament for fear you should farther provoke God almighty I will suppose that in this you act prudently and warily but then I would advise you for the same reason and on the same account to leave off all other duties of Religion as well as this if you would act upon the same grounds you ought to reckon it the safest way never to pray to God any more nor ever again to appear in any religious assemblies nor to join in any part of God's solemn worship for God hath often declared that he doth far more abominate all such formal whining cringing hypocrites and will more severely punish them than the open and bold contemners of his authority and laws The prayer of the wicked man is an abomination to the Lord. He hates the addresses of those who call him father and master and in words acknowledge him but yet continually doe the things that are displeasing in his sight His soul loaths and nauseates all the services of impure worshippers You do but mock God basely fawn upon and impudently flatter him when you present your selves before him as his people and servants and yet secretly hate him and wish him out of the world nay for the same reason for which you forbear the Sacrament e'en lay aside your whole Christian profession openly renounce your Baptism deny your Saviour disown his Religion for that is the safest course whilst you resolve to continue in sin and disobedience for God's wrath shall be in the first place revealed against wicked Christians and better will it be in the last day for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorra than for those who were called by Christ's name and yet did not depart from iniquity If this pretence be true that you go out of the Church when the Sacrament is to be administred lest you should farther provoke God by unworthy receiving it by the same reason keep from the Church altogether lest you as highly provoke God by being present at those prayers you do not heartily join in nor ever intend to live according to Or rather to speak yet more fully what is the true consequence of this you now know your selves unworthy and are resolved yet at least for some time to continue such alas what need such as you be afraid of this Text In this case it ought to seem indifferent to you whether you receive or not Damnation here threatned cannot be supposed reasonably to scare him from the Sacrament who runs the constant hazard of it by living in known sin This can be no such terrible word to an habitual and resolved sinner He that can swear and talk prophanely and live intemperately and loosely and without any fear or regret commit mortal sin in vain pretends fear of damnation for not doing that which is indeed his duty for it is a most odd and ridiculous thing to be afraid of doing what our Saviour hath commanded us whilst we are not in the least afraid every day of doing what he
conceptions and apprehensions of things is impossible and no more to be expected in this life than that all mens faces and complexions should be alike As long as there are some places of Scripture hard to be understood several things pertaining to Religion which are not fundamental and therefore not plainly determin'd but remain doubtfull as long as men have different educations tempers constitutions of body inclinations of mind and several interests to serve as long as there are different degrees of knowledge and understanding in men in a word as long as ignorance and confidence continue in the world so long there will be disputes and controversies about matters of Religion even amongst those who yet agree in the same faith and profession Nor hath our Christianity provided any infallible way or means of silencing or putting an end to such differences about less matters and speculative points We have indeed plainly propounded to us whatever is necessary for us to know or practise in order to salvation and for the understanding of this nothing else is requisite but an honest mind and sincere desire of learning As for other things which are not of so great moment and are more obscure it is sufficient that in all cases we be modest and humble teachable and governable that we preserve peace order and charity and I doubt not but God will pardon the errours of those who are upright and well-minded What horrible presumption therefore is it in us to judge despise condemn our brethren for those mistakes if they be so which God will overlook and pass by What devilish pride is this I cannot speak too earnestly in the case to endeavour like the old Tyrant to stretch or cramp up every man to the proportion of my bed to presume that God will judge and count with men just by the rate and measure of my understanding and damn every one that hath either more or less wit than I have for either of these may be the occasion of his differing from me It is the greatest oppression and usurpation imaginable to assault or try to overcome the reason of another by any thing else but reason and this is the uncharitable spirit that so eminently discovers it self in the Roman Church which pretending to infallibility and an unerring authority over Christians condemns and persecutes all who will not submit to her determinations and believe as she doth And with the same spirit many that hate Popery enough are too much leavened I mean those who appropriate the glorious names of the godly people of God orthodox Christians onely to their own paltry Sect or Conventicle and reprobate all that have not arrived to the same skill in their Dutch Divinity with themselves Many divisions and subdivisions there are now amongst us and God onely knows when they will be at an end but if you would know from whence they arise it is easie to tell you in the words of Solomon onely of pride cometh contention or of St. James Whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even from your lusts Self-conceit and self-self-love whatever is pretended is the great and principal root of all our religious quarrels and debates whilst men too highly value their own private judgments in things doubtfull and indifferent think meanly of the determinations of their superiours and care not though they sacrifice peace and charity to the promoting of any trifling opinion they happen to be fond of I find it quoted as one of the Reverend Hooker's ordinary sayings that the Scriptures were not writ to beget disputations and pride and scruples and opposition to government but charity humility moderation obedience to authority and peace to mankind of which vertues as he always added no man ever repented himself at his death-bed And if ever unity and Christian concord and peace and brotherly love be again recovered and prevail again amongst us it must be by these means and principles It is a vain thing to think to bring all men to one mind but yet one would hope it not impossible to persuade Christians to a mean opinion of themselves that in lowliness of mind each should esteem others before himself to a dutifull subjection to their betters in things under their charge and ordering and to a mutual forbearance and charity where they cannot presently agree and this would doe every whit as well as if we were all of one mind Several expedients have been propounded for the uniting us and reconciling our differences some are for toleration others for comprehension others for the strict execution of penal laws but alas neither these nor any other are likely to have any effect upon us till we learn humility and modesty till pride and self-conceit and all imperious affectation of imposing our own singularities upon others be rooted out of the world till we learn to submit to our betters and in indifferent things not to oppose our private opinions to the publick determinations of the Church This one vertue of humility would go farther towards the putting an end to all our terms of distinction and unchristian Separations than all the Writings or Disputings all the Laws and Proclamations about the Church have hitherto done Whatever is the cause of the errour pride is always the cause of the quarrel that makes the breach and forms the party Let but all amongst us agree together in common to mortify our pride and arrogance and conceited esteem of our selves and base contempt of others and the simple truth will prevail in the world or at least there will be no more of these unchristian Separations and Schisms but peace and unity will be established and secured amongst us To sum up all I have said Be not wise in your own conceits Affect not things above your skill and reach Meddle not with what is beyond your capacity or out of your sphere small abilities and great confidence ordinarily make the most inconsiderable and ridiculous creature in nature Think it no diminution in some things to confess your ignorance in all weighty business to ask for counsel and advice trust not too much to your own judgments and discretions Think that your Governours and Teachers may be wiser and know better what is for the publick good and what is fit and decent than you can possibly do Give other men leave to understand as well as you and make not your selves the standard of wisedom nor take upon your selves to bear down all mankind or to command in all companies nor expect that every one should yield to your humours and deny their own inclinations that they may gratify yours Do not pertinaciously pursue any thing wherein you are singular examine all things even those things you may have long believed to be true with diffidence of your selves and suspicion of your own judgments hear calmly debate soberly and rationally and allow other men their turn to speak and attend to what is said against you with as eager
implies the consent of our wills and they then become greatly sinfull in us Though we did not at first willingly conjure up these evil spirits yet if we like their company and bid them welcome and provide lodging for them that they may continue with us this comes well-nigh to the same as if we had at first invited them in Nay when such enemies have invaded our minds if we do not presently raise all the forces we can against them put a sudden check and stop to them labour with all our power to quell and root them out we are reasonably presumed to be of their party and to join with them My meaning is plainly this that though evil thoughts at first enter without our leave and consent yet if afterwards we knowingly indulge them nay if we do not streight upon our reflexion upon them reject them with utter hatred and indignation and by all means strive to divert our thoughts to more innocent objects we then stand truly guilty of the evil and malice of them which some have used to express thus that though we cannot hinder the birds from flying over our heads ye we may prevent their making of nests in our hair The sum of all I have said is this That evil thoughts are no farther sinfull in us than they are voluntary or than they may be helped and avoided whenever therefore we give manifest occasion to them by allowing our selves in such practices as are apt to incite evil thoughts or when we do not before-hand duely watch against them or when if they do at any time arise in our minds we fail to stifle and crush them as soon and as far as we are able then they are reckoned to us as sins and are to be repented of as well as actual transgressions II. Having thus briefly shewn you when we are in fault and to be blamed if our thoughts be evil I proceed now secondly to give some account of the nature and kinds of evil thoughts And here you must not expect that I should give you a particular enumeration of the several sorts of them for that would be an impossible thing Who can tell how oft he offendeth who can declare all the several thoughts that come into a man's mind but in one day or one hour which yet he would blush to have made known to those he converses with Our thoughts are very quick and sudden nimble and volatile can wander in a moment to the utmost ends of the earth can leap streight from one pole to the other are as various as the several objects of our senses and the infinitely different ways whereby they may be disposed united or blended together And if we should be at a loss for external objects to think of the mind can easily frame objects to it self and a thousand frenzies and extravagances and mad whimsies and giddy conceits are the monstrous issues of mens brains I shall therefore onely give some few instances of thoughts undoubtedly evil and sinfull Such are 1. Which I shall insist most upon the representing and acting over sins in our minds and thoughts when we erect a stage in our fancies and on it with strange complacence imagine those satisfactions and filthinesses which yet we dare not which we have not opportunity to bring into outward act This is by some called speculative wickedness the dreams of men awake When we gratify our covetous impure desires and lusts with the pictures and feigned representation of those enjoyments and pleasures and sensual contentments we have a mind to Now such kind of thoughts may be considered with respect to the time present past or to come 1. If we consider these lewd imaginations as to the present time there is no sin or wickedness so vile and heinous but a man may become truly guilty of it in the sight of God onely by imagining it done in his mind and taking pleasure in such a thought Thus the revengefull person who perhaps hath hardly heart and courage so much as to handle his sword or to look his enemy in the face yet in his thoughts can fight him and subdue him imagine him under his power lying at his mercy and exercise all manner of spite and cruelty towards him put him to extreme pain and misery fansie him undone and ruin'd and then rejoice in his own mind that he is thus even with him and by this means may become guilty of the sins of murther and revenge though he hath not done his enemy the least mischief all this while Thus again modesty shame fear of discredit or some other temporal consideration may prevail with a man so far as that he shall never attempt a woman's chastity but yet if in his thoughts he fansies her present with him and embraces that image of her which is painted in his mind with a phantastick love if the devil of lust be stirred up in him and he enjoys the cloud the creature of his own brain this is the adultery of the heart our mind then becomes a stews and is polluted and defiled and though the actual sin be a sign of greater impudence and more untamed lust yet this argues the same kind of wickedness and uncleanness And this was the Doctrine of the Philosophers of old fecit quisque quantum voluit every one may well be supposed to have done that which he wanted not will or mind to but onely opportunity of doing So Seneca latro est etiam antequam manus inquinet He is a thief that covets though he never rifles another man's goods if in his imagination onely he possesses them nay a man may thus contract the guilt of greater and more sins than ever he can possibly act It is but a very little in reality that the most griping ravenous oppressour can grasp to himself or defraud other men of but in his thoughts he may swallow Empires and plunder whole Towns and Cities Thus a man even whilst in this place may stal another though in Turkey he may ravish every beautifull woman he sees rob every man he meets with and in the twinckling of an eye like Caligula murther whole Societies and Kingdoms For this I take for an undoubted truth that they who allow themselves in evil thoughts and imaginations who give way to their ambitious covetous or lustfull fancies are not restrained by the fear of God from the actual commission of those sins they love to think of it is some other bye consideration some temporal respect that hinders them not the sense of their duty and Religion and this I believe every one that faithfully examines his own mind will yield that if he could as freely and as safely and secretly commit any sin as he can think of it with pleasure and delight he should not stick as often as he had any inclination or temptation thereto to doe all those things he thinks of with so much joy Could the angry revengefull person whose mind boils and ferments with
nor are ever like to be 4. Another rule I would give is this that we should live under the due awe of God's continual presence with us and bear this always in our minds that the pure and holy God the judge of the world before whose impartial tribunal we must all shortly stand is conscious to every secret thought and imagination that passes through our minds and that he knows them altogether that God is in us all Ephes 4.6 One God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all that he is present in the most inward corners and recesses of our hearts and knows every one of those things that come into our minds Now who of us is there but must confess that if his thoughts were all known and open to other men if his parents his friends his neighbours or enemies could have certain cognizance of them he should be infinitely more carefull about them than he is should not allow himself that liberty and freedom which he now takes should be as watchfull that his thoughts should appear to other men orderly rational and vertuous as he is now that his words and actions may be such and while we profess to believe that the transcendent Majesty of Heaven and earth is acquainted with all our private conceits is privy to all our wishes desires and purposes observes and takes notice of all the motions of our minds and that at the last day he will bring every secret thing into judgment are we not ashamed of shewing in his sight such folly of committing such wickedness in his presence should we blush and be confounded to have but a mortal man certainly know all the childish vain wanton lustfull thoughts that possess our minds and is it nothing to us that the great God of Heaven and earth beholds and sees them all Consider this then O vain man who pleasest thy self in thy own foolish conceits with thinking how finely thou dost cheat the world by a mask of Religion and godliness consider I say that there is not an evil thought that ever thou takest any pleasure and delight in not an evil device or imagination of thy heart but what is perfectly naked and open to that God with whom we have to doe That he is with thee in the silent and dark night when no other eye seeth thee when thou thinkest thy self safe from all discovery and that thou mayst then securely indulge thy own wicked appetites and corrupt inclinations for the light and darkness are both alike unto God he compasseth thy path and thy bed he is acquainted with all thy ways And the frequent consideration of these things would certainly produce a mighty awe in us and a suitable care not willingly to entertain or cherish any such thoughts as we should be ashamed to have known to all the world nor ever to suffer any other thoughts to take place or remain in our minds than such as we should not blush to have written in our foreheads 5. For the right government of your thoughts let me recommend to you above all things serious devotion especially humble and hearty prayer to God Almighty Man is compounded of two natures a rational and spiritual and a bodily by our bodies we are joined to the visible corporeal world by our souls we are allied to the immaterial invisible world now as by our outward senses the intercourse and correspondence is maintained between us and the corporeal world so by our devotions chiefly our acquaintance is begot and kept up with the spiritual world when we lay aside all thoughts of this lower world and the concerns of this life and apply our selves to the Father of spirits and make our humble addresses to him we then more especially converse with him as far as this state will admit of and the more frequently and constantly we doe this the more we shall abstract our minds from these inferiour objects which are so apt to entangle our hearts and take up all our thoughts and shall make the things of the other world become more familiar to us for when we betake our selves seriously to our prayers we do then bid adieu to all that is visible and sublunary and for that time endeavour to employ our minds wholly on what relates to another life and therefore consequently the oftner we doe this and the more hearty and serious we are in it the more our minds will be used and accustomed to divine thoughts and pious meditations and weaned from present sensible objects Every devout exercise conscientiously performed will season our spirits and leave a good tincture upon them and dispose us for worthy and excellent thoughts it is like keeping of good company a man is by degrees moulded and fashioned into some likeness unto them and on the other side the intermission neglect or formal and perfunctory performance of our devotion will soon breed in us a forgetfulness of God and heavenly things as omitting to speak of an absent or dead friend or neglecting to call him to our mind by degrees wears him quite out of our thoughts and memory so that you see a due sense of God upon our minds and of those things that belong to our greatest interests is by nothing so well maintained as by our constant devotion this is like seeing our friends often or conversing with them every day it preserves acquaintance with them it cherishes our love and kindness towards them I end all with that excellent Collect of our Church Almighty God unto whom all hearts be open all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy holy spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnifie thy holy name through Christ our Lord. Amen A SERMON Preached at the Anniversary Meeting OF THE GENTLEMEN Educated at St. Paul's SCHOOL The Sixth Sermon 1 COR. XIII 4 5 6 7. Charity suffereth long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up c. THE chief and most laudable design of this and other the like Anniversary Meetings being to promote love kindness and friendship amongst men from the consideration of some particular relations by which over and above what doth belong to us in common with all men and Christians we are more nearly united and linked one to the other I thought I could not entertain you with any thing more proper to this Solemnity than a discourse upon these words wherein I intend I. To describe unto you wherein this amicable friendly temper and mutual love which we are to further amongst our selves this day doth consist And II. To recommend it especially to your care and practice who have had the advantage of a liberal and ingenuous education I. To shew you wherein true and undissembled love doth consist which I shall do onely by paraphrasing or commenting as briefly as I can upon this most excellent description of Charity given us
by St. Paul 1. Charity suffereth long is not hasty to return any evil or injury we may have received from others it makes a man patient forgetfull of wrongs and slow to demand satisfaction He that is possessed with this excellent grace of charity will defer righting himself when injured and seem for a great while as if he did not at all observe or take notice of those affronts and treâ—â—asses which the furious and wrathfull would be sure streight to revenge He doth not lie at catch and presently take all advantages against his neighbour and trouble him for every little offence and require strict reparation for every petty damage he may unjustly sustain he doth not take all forfeitures that the rigour of the law would give him or stand with his debtours for a day or streight break off friendship for the first unkindness but he will for a long time bear with the failures and miscarriages of other men as all of us do easily overlook and readily forgive the mistakes or misdemeanours of those whom we entirely love with great patience he waiteth their amendment and silently tarries till of their own accord they make him satisfaction and is always willing to hearken to any fair terms of accommodation and to accept of the least submission and acknowledgment Contrary to all this is the temper of those whom the Apostle calls fierce and Solomon hasty of spirit who when once offended breath forth nothing but utter ruine and slaughter and are for the present destruction of all who stand in their way Thus David in that great fit of impatience 1 Sam. 25. when displeased at Nabal's surly answer resolved streight to murther him and all his houshold and so the Servant in the Parable of our Saviour St. Matthew 18. who though his Lord had forgiven him a vast debt of ten thousand talents yet after this when he met with one of his Fellow-servants who owed him but an hundred pence laid violent hands on him took him by the throat would not tarry one hour for his money notwithstanding the poor man humbly besought him to have patience with him but for a-while and promised him he would honestly pay him all But a truly charitable man suffereth long and forgiveth much and dealeth with others as he hath experienced and yet hopes God will deal with him he giveth them time to recollect and bethink themselves doth not soon despair of their growing better but tries all the arts and methods of patience and kindness and is unwilling to be brought to extremities or to doe any thing that may seem harsh or rigid and in a word had rather suffer an hundred than doe one evil 2. Charity is kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and courteous easie to be treated with is gratious and benign and as far as may be usefull to all Christian charity doth sweeten mens minds and spirits smooths the ruggedness and unevenness of their natures makes them tractable affable and as far as is consistent with their innocency complaisant Contrary to which is that roughness and sourness of disposition and manners which is distastfull to and grates upon every one that falls in its way as it was said of Nabal before-mentioned that he was such a son of Belial that a man could not speak unto him Such were the Pharisees of old grave formal and morose troublesome and uneasie to all who conversed with them sullen and froward And too many such there are in the world who pretend to great and high attainments in Religion and yet are of such techy and fiery dispositions that there is no living quietly by them nothing can please them a man is afraid of having any thing to doe with them they are of such waspish quarrelsome and churlish natures Whereas he in whom Christian charity dwells endeavours to oblige every one and carries himself fairly towards all so as to gain every man's good word and opinion he is calm and mild and friendly in his deportment receiveth every one that addresseth himself to him with civility and respect his demeanour is full of compliance and condescention his carriage and behaviour free candid and ingenuous and indeed there is no greater pleasure in the world than what is to be found in the conversation of those in whom the true Christian temper and spirit rules and prevails No one complains of such an one he is not grievous or offensive to any and if he cannot doe you all that courtesie you desire yet he so civily denies you that you are almost as much pleased as if he had granted your request Charity is kind 3. Charity envieth not the charitable man grudgeth not at another's good doth not mutter and repine because his neighbour thrives better hath a greater trade is of better repute hath got a larger estate or hath arrived to greater dignity and preferment than himself Charity rather rejoyceth and pleaseth it self in other mens doing well it addeth to a charitable man's contentment to see other men satisfied and doth really minister unto and encrease his own happiness to see the happiness of his neighbours and acquaintance He findeth almost as much delight and complacence in their good fortune and success as they themselves do thus making the happiness of every man to become really and truly his own it maketh him better to see other men in health and refresheth his spirits to see others chearfull and pleased No real benefit or advantage happens to any round about him but he comes in for his share and largely partakes of it and the pleasure of it becomes as truly his as it is the persons who is possessed of it Nay as it hath been observed by some here love hath the advantage I enjoy greater pleasure in my neighbour's good success and prosperity than he himself can possibly do for all the content and joy that his prosperity ministers to him I have pure and unmixt without bearing part in those cares and troubles with which it is usually attended Love makes us not apt to take disgust and pet though God should bestow the good things of this life more liberally upon some others than our selves whereas the envious man would not have God doe any good turn for any person without his leave and approbation He would alone engross and monopolize all the blessings of heaven and benefits of the earth or at least if he could have his will none should partake of them but some private friends of his and those he hath a good opinion of He would have God mind no one else in the world nor hear any other prayers besides his own nay he reckons himself ill dealt with and mutinies against heaven if any thing goes beside him or any one enjoys something he is without There is many a man in the world who thinks himself beyond all expression miserable for no other reason but onely because another man is happy the good things his neighbour enjoys eat up his flesh
thus when they have vented a most cursed malitious lye with the woman in the Proverbs they wipe their mouths and say they have done no wickedness and would have you impute it wholly to their zeal and not to their malice This I cannot better represent unto you than by translating the words of an ancient Father who thus describes some in his days There are saith he who shall endeavour to shadow and disguise the malice and ill-will they have conceived against any sort of persons or company of men with the false colour of zeal for the glory of God and sorrow for the wickedness of the times and then looking very sadly and premising a deep sigh with a dejected countenance and dolefull voice they vent their lies and slanders and therefore saith he they doe all this that they may the more easily persuade those who hear them of the truth of what they relate that the story may be the sooner believed and more readily swallowed as seeming to be uttered with an unwilling mind and rather with the affection of one that condoles than any fetch of malice I am grievously sorry for it saith one for I love the man well he is one of excellent parts and hath many things very laudable in him but and then he aggravates this particular sin whether truly or falsly imputed to him it matters not to the highest degree Another tells you I knew so much of him before but it should never have gone farther for me but now seeing the matter is out though perhaps he was the first broacher of it he shakes his head and lifts up his eyes and tells you it is indeed too true he speaks it with grief of heart and then tells it in every company he comes in but adds it is great pity he otherwise excells in many things but in this he cannot be excused Thus far my Authour There is saith Solomon Prov. 12.18 that speaketh like the piercings of a sword and Prov. 18.8 the words of a tale-bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly Curse the whisperer and double tongued for such have destroyed many that were at peace saith the son of Syrach This if any thing is point blank contrary to charity for love covereth all sins Prov. 10.12 Charity hideth all things 11. Yet farther Charity believeth all things hopeth all things It maketh us to believe all the good of others we have the least probable ground for and to hope that which we have no reason to believe We very easily believe those things to be which we before-hand wish were true and therefore charity being a wishing well to all men must needs incline us to believe well also of them this daily experience tells us that where we love there we are very unapt to discern faults though never so plain and obvious to the impartial and disinterested witness the strange blindness men generally have towards their own though never so gross and foolish The judgment of charity is very large and comprehensive it takes in all and believes well of every one who continues within the pale of the Christian Church doth never presume to judge mens hearts or pry into their secret intentions Nay where there is some reason to doubt of a man's truth and sincerity yet charity hopeth the best It despairs of no man's repentance and salvation but entertains some hopes that even the worst of men the most refractory and disobedient will at length amend and grow wiser Whoever sins charity hopes it is out of weakness or surprise or inadvertency and not out of wilfulness or habitual custome whoever mistakes charity hopes the errour proceeds from ignorance onely or unavoidable prejudice or unhappy education and not from a bad and wicked mind or from any worldly sensual interest And in this particular is the charity of our Church much to be commended who contents her self with propounding an undoubted safe way to Heaven without passing any reprobating sentences and anathema's on all other Churches and societies of professours and excluding them from all hope of mercy or possibility of salvation And indeed it concerneth us all to take great care rightly to discharge this office of charity since according as we judge others so shall we our selves be judged it is our interest as well as our duty to be very mild and mercifull in our censures of others and to judge of them with favour and allowance since with what measure we measure unto others it shall be measured unto us again 12. Lastly charity endureth all things never will be wearied or tired out is not fickle and wavering thinks nothing too much to doe nothing too great to undertake nothing too hard to undergo for the good of others Love sticks not at any thing nay makes any duty or labour easie and pleasant as Jacob after his disappointment grudged not to serve the other seven years for the sake of Rachel Love is strong as death many waters cannot quench it nor the flouds drown it nothing can allay the heat of its endeavours or stop its progress it easily surmounts all difficulties and triumphs over all opposition though we meet with great ingratitude contradiction and unworthy returns from those whom we have obliged yet love is not apt to repent of the good it hath done but still perseveres endeavouring to overcome evil with good unkindnesses with courtesies Love doth not invent excuses or seeek delays when a fair occasion of exercising it self is offered it makes us willing for some time to leave our own business though of near concernment to us to expose our selves to heat and cold to wearisome and painfull journies to deny our selves our own ease and pleasure and profit in some measure rather than to forfeit an opportunity of shewing a great kindness Charity endureth all things This now is that affection of love which we ought to bear one towards another this is that kind benign and gratious temper which manifests us to be the children of God and to partake of his nature and to be like unto him who is good and doth good which shews us to be the followers of our Saviour in deed and in truth who went about doing good and which alone can fit us for that Kingdom wherein true love undisturbed peace and universal charity dwells and reigns for evermore To convince you of the necessity of this frame and temper of spirit let me onely put you in mind of what St. Paul saith in the beginning of this Chap. that though a man should be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels had the gift of all languages and could discourse with the greatest eloquence and efficacy yet without this charity he would be but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal Though a man had the gift of prophecy and could foretell things to come were inspired from above and were able to convert others to the Faith and propagate the Christian Religion in
cometh of evil i. e. whatsoever is more than bare affirming or denying any thing that is still in our communication in our ordinary talk and discourse is from evil from mens so commonly breaking of promises and speaking of falsities from whence that lewd custome of adding oaths proceeds because they cannot be believed without them Now therefore since our Saviour is here directing us how to govern our common discourse and conversation together the prohibition also in the beginning must be restrained to the same matter and so the full sense of the words seems to me to be this In your communication familiari sermone in your common talk use no swearing not so much as by any creature but let it suffice barely to affirm or deny and be always so true to your words that nothing farther need be desired or expected from you all other confirmation in such ordinary affairs is practised onely by such as are used to lie and dissemble and intend to impose upon others 3. That our Saviour did not here forbid all swearing whatever cause there might be for it as a thing in it self unlawfull we are fully satisfied from the example of St. Paul who certainly understood his Master's mind in this particular Now it is a very unreasonable thing to imagine that he should so often swear and that by the name of God too that such his oaths should be recorded in the Scriptures and that there should not be the least intimation of his sinning in so doing if all swearing was utterly prohibited by his Lord and Master I shall propound two or three eminent instances to shew that in serious and great matters of mighty concernment he made no scruple of adding the confirmation of an oath Gal. 1.20 Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not He bears witness to the truth of his writings by an express oath Rom. 1.9 For God is my witness whom I serve that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers It was of great moment that in the beginning of his Epistle he should persuade those to whom he did address himself of his good-will toward them How well therefore he did wish them he calls God to witness which is the formal essence of an oath Thus again to name no more 2 Cor. 11.31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not which is a plain appeal to God's testimony So that when the glory of God and the publick good was engaged he thought it not unlawfull to invoke God's holy name and to call his Majesty for a witness of his truth or the avenger of his falshood Thus our blessed Saviour himself when he stood before the High-priest of the Jews did not refuse to answer upon oath Matth. 26.63 The High-priest said unto him I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God which amongst the Jews was the form of giving an oath to which our Saviour answered Thou hast said that is upon my oath it is as thou sayst Nay to make all sure that there is no evil in swearing when it is done gravely and seriously and upon an important occasion that requires it we find that God himself hath been pleased to give us his oath Though it were impossible for him to lye yet that we might have strong consolation and full assurance to shew the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel he confirmed it by an oath and when he could not swear by a greater he swore by himself Heb. 6.13 And therefore it must be very absurd to deny amongst Christians the lawfulness of doing that though upon never so great reason which St. Paul so often did nay which God Almighty who is truth it self did yet vouchsafe out of condescension to our weakness to doe more than once Not now to mention Baptism and the Lord's Supper both of which have in them the nature of oaths and are therefore called Sacraments 4. We are to consider that swearing rightly circumstanced is so far from being a thing in it self evil and so universally forbidden that it is indeed a most eminent part of religious worship and divine adoration by which we do most signally own and recognize God Almighty to be the great Sovereign Lord and Governour of the world the highest and supremest Power to which the last and final appeal is in all cases to be made By it we acknowledge the immensity of his presence his exact knowledge and continual care of humane affairs and all things that happen here below his all-seeing eye that he searcheth into the depth of our hearts and is conscious to our most inward thoughts and secret meanings We do by it avow him as the grand Patron of truth and innocence as the severe punisher and avenger of deceit and perfidiousness And therefore doth God often in holy Scripture appropriate this to himself Him onely shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave and shalt swear by his name And if this be done with that consideration and solemnity which doth become such a special part of devotion upon an occasion that doth deserve and that will in some measure excuse our engaging the divine Majesty as a witness in it I say if it be performed with due awe and reverence with hearty intention for a considerable good we do thus calling upon God when we swear by him honour and glorify his great and holy name as well as by prayer or praises or any other act of religious worship whatever 5. Add to this the necessity of taking oaths in order to civil government publick administration of justice and the maintaining of good order and peace in Societies And therefore the Apostle tells us Heb. 6.16 That an oath for confirmation to men is the end of all strife and that not by particular customs and laws prevailing in some places onely but from the appointment of God the reasonableness and fitness of the thing it self and the constant practice of all the world in all ages for as far and wide as the sense of a Deity hath spread it self hath also the religion of an oath and the final determination of matters in difference by calling to witness the Lord and Maker of all things this being the utmost assurance and the surest pledge any can give of their faith and sincerity For nothing can be imagined sufficient or effectual to engage men to speak truth or to be faithfull and constant to their promises if an oath doth not He must surely renounce all sense and fear of God all conscience of duty or regard to the Almighty's love and favour who can with open face call him to testify to a lye or challenge him to punish him if he speaks not true when yet at that very time he knows he does not This is the greatest security men can give of their honesty and
to perform or if he be afraid of this crying sin of perjury and be put in mind of what by his needless oath he had obliged himself unto how many inconveniencies will his rashness continually expose him unto You all know how Herod was loth for his honours sake before all his Court to violate his hasty oath and how that cost the head of the greatest Prophet that ever was By customary using of God's sacred name men come to vent it when they think not of it without any fore-thought or consideration and by it swear to things impossible or romantick to their own fictions and dreams which they neither believe themselves nor yet intend to deceive others into a belief of and oftentimes transported by anger or rage they swear to things they repent of when they are calm and sober and are then quite of another mind so that false swearing is the certain never-failing effect of much swearing nay indeed it is onely chance or luck in such as every time in the hurry of their discourse call upon God's name that they do not not onely vainly swear but also impiously forswear themselves for whilst they thus back almost every affirmation with an oath how idle uncertain or doubtfull soever the matter be without making any difference or at all weighing what they say or being satisfied concerning the truth of it or knowing their own minds about it they cannot be freed from the guilt of the sin of perjury though what they say should happen not to be false or they should be as good as their word it being by fortune onely that it doth prove so And he that swears to a thing that chances to be true if he knew it not certainly or did not consider it whether it were so or no but unadvisedly sealed it with an oath though it be as he did swear yet must be presumed guilty of this crime of perjury in the sight of God and then I leave it to your selves to judge how often by this vile custome of swearing men do forswear themselves 3. From hence it follows that this sin of vain and rash swearing in our ordinary discourse is of very bad influence to the publick state nothing is so pernicious to the government nay nothing is so destructive of our liberties and properties of which we are so fond and for which we are so zealous as this wicked practice of swearing upon all occasions as it makes oaths become cheap and vile so it derogates from their sacredness and authority for what reason can there be to believe that he who makes no conscience of those many oaths that he daily belches forth upon the slightest provocations should be of another opinion and look on himself as more strictly tied up by them when he swears allegiance to his Prince or gives his testimony in a Court of Judicature why should he be more afraid or concerned for calling God to witness in a cause wherein his neighbour's estate good name or life is engaged than he is in his private conversation of invoking the Majesty of Heaven an hundred times in a day The fear of the penalty which the laws have appointed for perjury may indeed move him in such cases wherein there is danger of his being discovered and there is likewise a little more solemnity in such publick swearing before a Magistrate but yet what is that to one who hath cast off all sense and fear of God and every hour dares openly reproach and despise him So that the publick laws ought to provide against this piece of debauchery as the bane of all society and we cannot answer it in prudence to have any intercourse to hold any correspondence or transactions with or in any case to trust or rely on his word who feareth not an oath for 4. This practice of swearing in our ordinary discourse doth highly detract from the credit of the person that useth it it renders justly suspicious every word he says and confirms with an unnecessary oath for if the thing be true and certain and the person of unblemished faith what need can there be of an oath to vouch it but if he swears to it he declares himself not to be worthy of belief that his word ought in no case to be taken since in the most indifferent matters he chuses still to warrant it with an oath and by thus doing most deservedly forfeits all credit and repute among considering persons A truly honest man is so well assured of his own veracity that he counts it wholly needless and useless to offer an oath as a pledge or pawn of the truth of what he affirms but if upon every word I am apt to swear to it this is an undoubted sign that either I intend to deceive in that particular or else that I am so used to lie that I cannot expect to be believed without an oath 5. This is a vice most distastefull and ungratefull to all the rest of mankind most strangely offensive to those we converse with The talk of him that sweareth much saith a wise man maketh the hair to stand upright and their brawls make one stop his ears If men harden themselves against other arguments taken from the wickedness and irreligion of this practice yet this methinks ought to prevail something with those that pretend to honour and gentile carriage viz. that this is the most uncivil and the rudest thing that can be offered to other men it rankly favours of ill manners and want of breeding for them to be continually defying of that Being which all other men adore and spitting out their venom against that God whom the rest of mankind profess to love and honour above all things Should one of our hectoring swearers come into a company the greatest part of which he knew highly valued and prized an absent friend never mentioned him but with all the kindness and respect imaginable called him their patron professed mighty obligations to him and believed him one of the best of men would it pass for a thing tolerably becoming or decent for him every word when no occasion was offered to fall abespattering and vilifying this person so dear to the company and to speak of him with the greatest contempt and despight now such is God to the greatest part of the world they own all that they have or are to be from him alone that he is their great benefactour and Saviour that they are infinitely engaged to him that they desire his love and favour above all this world how is it sufferable then in men of fashion and repute especially as is the common practice of too many when they meet with persons that are more than others concerned for the honour of God to be ever and anon with their profane talk pelting this holy being polluting his name with their filthy speech outbraving his Majesty chusing to doe that which they know grates most harshly upon other men and which they hate above any thing in
our Church even to those who are without especially be persuaded to join all your endeavours against this vice by keeping a strict guard against it in your selves by keeping from all appearance of it by not suffering it in your inferiours or those that have any dependance upon you by mildly and seasonably warning and reproving those of your neighbours and acquaintance that are guilty of this folly In a word let us all observe such exact truth in all our chat and discourse be so constant to our promises that at any time our word may pass without any farther engagement that we may never think it necessary to assure our credit or faith by an oath Amongst the Romans the Priest of Jupiter was in no case permitted to swear because it was not handsome that he who was so nearly related to their great God and charged with such divine matters as the care of Religion should be distrusted about small things And we know amongst our selves solemn formal oaths are not in many cases required from persons of honour their word upon their honour hath equal credit with the express oath of inferiour persons Now such would our blessed Saviour have all his disciples to be so true and faithfull that there should be no need of oaths to confirm their speeches but that the holiness and strictness of their lives should give such undoubted testimony to and command so firm a belief of all they say as that no farther asseveration should be able to vouch it more I conclude all with those sayings of the wise Son of Sirach Ecclus. 23.9 10 11 12 13. Accustome not thy mouth to swearing neither use thy self to the naming of the Holy one For as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a blue mark so he that sweareth and nameth God continually shall not be faultless A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house If he shall offend his sin shall be upon him and if he acknowledge not his sin he maketh a double offence And if he swear in vain he shall not be innocent but his house shall be full of calamities There is a word that is clothed about with death God grant that it be not found in the heritage of Jacob for all such things shall be far from the godly and they shall not wallow in their sins Vse not thy mouth to intemperate swearing for therein is the word of sin But I say unto you swear not at all A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Ninth Sermon St. MATTH I. 21. And thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins THAT the appearance of the ever blessed Son of God in our mortal nature was upon some very great and most important design not otherwise at all or at least not so happily by any other means to be accomplished every one must needs grant at first hearing It could not be any indifferent trivial errand or business that a person of such infinite honour and dignity was employed about which brought down God himself from the regions or glory and light inaccessible to dwell in an earthly tabernacle and to veil the splendour of his Majesty with a body of flesh This was such a surprizing condescension of him that had lived from all eternity in the bosome of his Almighty Father this signified such wonderfull love and regard to that humane nature he assumed that all men cannot but reasonably promise themselves the greatest advantages imaginable from such a gratious undertaking That our forlorn nature should be thus highly honoured and exalted as to be after such an unspeakable manner united to the divine doth evidently assure us of God's good-will towards sinfull men that he yet entertained thoughts of mercy towards us and was loth that the folly of his creatures should prove their irrecoverable ruine Had God sent a message to us by the meanest servant in his heavenly Court it had been a favour too great for us to have expected and for which we could never have been enough thankfull Had he commanded an host of illustrious Angels to have flown all over the earth and loudly to have proclaim'd God's willingness to have been reconciled to men should we not all with mighty joy and wonder have regarded and adored such stupendous grace and goodness crying out Lord what is man that thou art thus mindfull of him or the son of man that thou thus visitest him But that God himself should descend from his heavenly habitation to be clothed with our rags that he who thought it no robbery to be equal with God should take on him the form of a servant and be found in the fashion and likeness of sinfull flesh this astonishes not onely men but Angels themselves for he took not on himself the nature of Angels nor appeared for their rescue and deliverance who had left their first mansions of glory but was pleased so far to humble himself as to undertake the cause and patronage of us vile worms sinfull dust and ashes even whilst we were enemies traytours and rebels to his divine Majesty and utterly unworthy of the least gratious look from him though we had never so earnestly besought it in our behalf it was that he did mediate and intercede he stepp'd in between guilty wretched us and God's justice perfected our redemption procured our liberty and purchased eternal life and happiness for all men on the easie and pleasant conditions of the Gospel And thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins In my discourse on these words I shall onely I. Shew you how or by what means the Son of God became our Jesus or did save men from their sins II. Draw some plain inferences from it I. How or by what means the Son of God became our Jesus or did save men from their sins Now in order to the salvation of sinners the great end of our Saviour's Incarnation these two things were necessary to be done one of which principally respects God the other sinners themselves 1. In order to the salvation of sinners it was necessary to obtain and purchase the pardon of their sins and reconciliation with God 2. It was farther necessary that sinners themselves should be reform'd and turned from their sins to the love and practice of true righteousness and goodness that so they might be in some measure qualified and disposed for God's grace and mercy 1. In order to the salvation of sinners it was necessary to obtain and purchase the pardon of their sins and reconciliation with God It is true indeed that God Almighty by the unlimited goodness and compassionateness of his own nature is infinitely inclin'd to all acts of favour and pity and he might without wrong to any one if he had seen it fit absolutely have pardoned the sins of mankind without any other consideration than their repentance but out
save to the utmost all that come unto God by him Thus this Jesus hath saved us from our sins in the first sense that is obtained and purchased the pardon of them and made God placable to us But this is not all 2. In order to the salvation of sinners it is farther necessary that men should be freed from the power of sin and from their evil natures and become really good and holy It is not enough that God should be made willing to forgive our sins unless we also are made willing to forsake them Christ came not to save us from the evil consequences of our sins whilst we loved them and delighted our selves in them He did not purchase for us an indulgence or licence to sin without punishment That indeed had been an employment unworthy of the Son of God nay an impossible task to have reconciled God to unhallow'd and impure minds The reformation of the world the reparation of our natures the purifying our minds the implanting the divine nature in men were as much the design of his incarnation as the vindication of the divine justice to which all the world was obnoxious and pardon me if I say it he is more our Saviour by freeing us from the dominion of sin than from the penalty Our blessed Lord had not been so kind and gratious to us had he obtained Heaven for us could such a thing possibly have been whilst we continued impenitent and utterly unlike to God Now there are these two things absolutely necessary for the recovery of mankind and making us really happy repentance for sins past and sincere obedience for the future and to effect both these no means so likely as this appearance of the Son of God in our nature 1. As for repentance for sins past what in the world can be imagined more effectual for the working in men an ingenuous shame and sorrow for what they have done amiss than these tender offers of God's pardon and acceptance upon our submission and returning to a better mind We have now all possible assurance given us that mercy is to be had for the most grievous offenders Nothing can exclude or exempt us from this act of grace but onely our own wilfull and obstinate refusal of life and happiness All men are in the condition of the prodigal Son in the Parable of our Saviour Luke 15. They have gone astray from their Father's house after their own inventions promising themselves indeed great pleasures and full satisfactions in a licentious riotous course of life but soon wearied with such painfull drudgeries and many woefull disappointments at last they begin to recollect themselves to remember that plenty they had enjoy'd of all good things in their Father's house how easily and happily they lived whilst they continued under his mild and gratious government and to think of returning thither again but the sense of their horrid guilt and unworthiness flying in their faces fills them with dismal fears and anxious despair so that they cannot hope for any kind reception or entertainment after such an ungratefull rebellion Now let us suppose this Parable thus continued that the Father who was so highly provoked had nevertheless sent his other Son who had never offended him into a far Countrey exposed to many difficulties and hazards to seek and find out his lost Brother to beseech him to be reconciled to promise him that he should be dealt with as if he had never displeased him Would not such condescension and unparallel'd goodness have melted and dissolved the poor Prodigal 's heart what joy would soon have o'erspread his face with what gladness would he have hearken'd to such an overture what haste would he have made home Could he after this have doubted of his Father's love and kindness to him This therefore is the greatest encouragement that can be given to our repentance that God hath now by his Son declared himself exorable and placable more willing to forgive than we can be to ask it of him and can we desire pardon and peace upon more equal and easie terms Can any thing be conceived more reasonable than that before our sins be forgiven we should humbly acknowledge our faults and with full purpose of heart resolve to doe so no more and if such love and kindness of Heaven towards us will not beget some relenting and remorse in us if such powerfull arguments will not prevail with us to grow wise and considerate it is impossible that any should 2. As for sincere obedience for the future without which we can never be accepted by God nor be made happy this also our Saviour hath most sufficiently engaged us to by his doctrine clearly revealing God's mind and will to us setting before us his own most excellent example promising us all needfull help and assistence and propounding eternal rewards and punishments as the motives of our obedience 1. He hath clearly revealed to us God's nature and his whole mind and will concerning our salvation He came into the world a Preacher of righteousness plainly to instruct mankind in all their duty towards God themselves and one another He freed men from the intolerable yoke of many burthensome and costly ceremonies and brought in a rational service an everlasting righteousness consisting in purity humility and charity all his commands being such as are most becoming God to require and most reasonable for us to perform They are most agreeable to our best understandings perfective of our natures fitted to our necessities and capacities the best provision that can be made for the peace of our minds quiet of our lives and mutual happiness even in this world they are easie and benign humane and mercifull institutions and all his laws such as we should chuse to govern our selves by were we but true to our selves and faithfull to our own interest He hath not denied us the use or enjoyment of any thing but what is really evil and hurtfull to us he hath considered our infirmities and manifold temptations maketh allowances for our wandrings and daily failings and accepteth of sincerity instead of absolute perfection so that the advantages and excellency of his laws are as great an argument to oblige us to the observance of them as the divine authority by which they were enacted 2. Our Saviour propounded himself an example of all that he required of us the better to direct us in our duty and to encourage us to the performance of it since nothing is expected from us but what the Son of God himself was pleased to submit unto He conversed therefore publickly in the world in most instances that occur in humane life giving us a pattern of an innocent and usefull conversation thereby to recommend his Religion to us and to oblige us to tread in his steps and to follow him as the leader and great Captain of our salvation 3. He hath promised and doth continually afford the mighty assistences of his holy Spirit to all
those who humbly beg it of him to strengthen them in every good work and to join with and second their faithfull endeavours He will never fail an honest mind nay he doth first strive with men prevent and surprize them by his good motions and suggestions He doth not slight any weak attempts but cherisheth the very first beginnings of vertue and goodness He doth not forsake us at our first refusal but still stands at the door knocking waiting our amendment He is always ready at hand to help and succour us under all temptations or discouragements that we may meet with in our Christian course He hath appointed many excellent means of grace and even to this day hath continued his Ministers and Ambassadors in the world to beseech men in his name to be reconciled to God 4. He hath engaged us to the doing of God's will by most glorious rewards even everlasting pleasures and immortal happiness such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor could it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive and still farther that no means might be omitted likely to work upon reasonable creatures he hath denounced most severe threatnings against all those who refuse to comply with his gratious offers even eternal flames remediless torments and miseries and that they shall be doomed for ever to the company and partake of the fate of Devils and infernal Fiends Thus our blessed Lord hath propounded the most proper object of fear to keep men from sin and also presented the most desireable object of hope to encourage men to be good And to give us the greatest assurance of all this that we can possibly desire he hath confirmed and established his doctrine not onely by those undoubted miracles which he wrought and sufferings he underwent in attestation to its truth and divinity but also by his own resurrection from the dead and visible ascension into Heaven where in our nature he hath taken possession of that eternal joy which he purchased for us and liveth for ever at God's right hand to intercede for us to protect and rule his Church to distribute his gifts and graces to subdue all our enemies and at last to instate all his true disciples in the same glory and eternal life he is now possessed of and so to become their complete Saviour All this is a very imperfect description of but a little part of what our Saviour hath really done towards the reformation and amendment of sinners for indeed there is nothing that could have been done towards the salvation of men which this Jesus hath not done for us And I believe all the world may be challenged to name any one help motive or encouragement to the love and service of God that is suited to the nature of God of Man and of Religion which is not afforded to us by this appearance of the Son of God in our nature to mediate for us By the Gospel it is therefore that Christ saves sinners which is therefore called Rom. 1.16 the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and then to the Greek it being most admirably contrived to the end it was designed for the opening of mens eyes and turning them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God And this the holy Scriptures often declare to us that for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil might redeem us from our vain conversation renew our minds and form them over again and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And all that our Saviour did and suffered for us towards the procuring of our pardon and peace will signify nothing to us will not be in the least available for our benefit unless he first save us from our sins by washing and cleansing our natures and subduing all our lusts and inordinate passions and making us conformable to his own image in true holiness and righteousness 'T will be no advantage to us that he was born into this world unless he be formed in our minds and we become new creatures such as he requires us to be Now in all this our Saviour deals with men according to their natures as rational governable creatures moves them by hopes and fears draws them with the cords of a man and will have heaven and happiness be the reward of their own vertuous choice and free obedience The short of all is this In the Gospel of Jesus Christ which as at this time he came down from Heaven to reveal to men God Almighty out of his infinite compassion to his degenerate creatures hath prescribed such methods appointed such means given such examples encouragements assistences that nothing can be thought fit and likely to promote the salvation of all men but what his goodness and wisedom have therein most abundantly supply'd us with unless we would have him offer violence to the liberty of our will and force us to be vertuous and happy whether we will or no which would be to alter our natures and make us another sort of creatures but such care is taken such provision is made for our happiness that we have nothing left us but onely the power of being miserable if it be our resolved mind notwithstanding all possible obligations to the contrary to be so If men will stop their ears against the voice of the Charmer though he charm never so wisely if they will chuse court and embrace sin and ruine if the strongest arguments will not prevail if the most forcible engagements will not persuade if neither the most glorious promises nor the severest threatnings nor interest nor self-self-love nor any of those considerations by which men are swayed in other affairs will at all move them in matters of greatest moment they must perish and that most deservedly and inrecoverably If after all this sinners will die and be damned even as it were in spite of Heaven maugre all that God or Christ hath done for them they must e'en thank themselves for it and are onely to charge it upon their own wilfull and incurable folly and base contempt of such infinite love and kindness Thus I have briefly shewn you how or by what means the Son of God truly became our Jesus or Saviour by saving his people from their sins II. It onely remaineth that in a few words I draw some conclusions from what I have said 1. Hence we may learn that the honour of the Son of God as Saviour of the world is best secured and exalted by an actual obedience to his laws that we ought not to shift off all duty and work from our selves upon him alone leaving it wholly to him to save us if he pleaseth without any care or trouble of ours nor trust to and relie altogether upon his righteousness and obedience without any of our own since as I have shewn you he must save us from the power of our
fortuitous circumstances who in all things keeps an exact conscience and in all times places and conditions acts by the same unalterable rule of righteousness and steadily pursues what is good and honest whatever he may lose or suffer by it Would you know saith Seneca whom I call a good and perfect man I mean such an one quem malum facere nulla vis nulla necessitas potest Whom no outward force no exigence or turn of affairs neither prospect of advantage nor fear of inconvenience can ever prevail with to doe an evil or base action who can never be swayed by any particular sinister interest to doe that which his own mind inwardly disapproves and condemns A truly honest man considers not what will take best or please most whether it will prove for his credit or profit whether he shall gain or lose friends by it whether it will hinder or further his advancement in the world but in all cases inviolably keeps to what is fit just and reasonable and behaves himself as becomes a good honest man being wholly unconcerned for the success and event of what his conscience tells him he ought to doe he is resolved to please God and to doe his duty and to maintain the peace of his own mind let the world go as it will But on the other side the crafty wise politicians of this world live by no certain law profess believe practise this Religion or that or none at all as may best suit with the present state of things and juncture of affairs or with those particular private designs which they carry on in the world and in all their actions are governed by the giddy and uncertain measures of interest and worldly policy and though sometimes if it happens to be for their interest so to doe they may seem to speak and act as fairly as any men whatever yet to serve a turn to promote their temporal safety and advantage or some other bye and selfish design they shall not refuse to commit the basest and foulest crimes Now that which I would persuade you to from these words is this that in all your actions you would govern your selves by the fixt and immutable principles of conscience and honesty and always stedfastly adhere to your plain duty though never so highly tempted to swerve from it Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live I shall handle these words I. More particularly as they relate to Job by whom they were spoken II. More generally as they may be applied to men in all states and conditions I. As to the particular instance of Job we all know he is propounded to us in holy Scripture as the most eminent example of an invincible resolution and unshaken constancy in maintaining his innocence and integrity in two very different fortunes the one highly prosperous and flourishing the other no less strangely adverse and calamitous both which one after another by God's wise providence did befall him for the more illustrious trial and manifestation of his sincere and disinterested loyalty to God and Religion and it is no easie matter to determine in which of these two states he met with the greater temptations whether he found it the more difficult task to keep a good conscience in that splendid and plentifull condition he was once in or to hold fast his righteousness in that deplorable poverty and want of all things which he was at last reduced unto For without doubt riches and honours and high places and an uninterrupted prosperity are as great snares and as dangerous temptations and often prove as fatal nay I may say are generally more apt to draw men aside from the love of goodness and the care of their souls than the severest afflictions or the most surprizing calamities and outward crosses So that Job perhaps was as much to be admired and as hard to be imitated in his vertue and piety when he was the greatest man in the East as in his submission meekness and patience when he became the miserablest spectacle that eyes ever beheld 1. Job in his most prosperous state held fast his righteousness and would not let it go Though he enjoyed all the pleasures riches and worldly satisfactions that the most ambitious or covetous mind could crave yet he was so strictly religious and temperate that when he was deprived and stripp'd of all and left as bare and as naked as he was when he first came into the world his mind could not reproach nor condemn him for any unworthy or unhandsome carriage for any one notorious failure in his duty that should provoke God to deal so harshly with him His three Friends indeed unadvisedly fell into that fault which is so common amongst us even to this day of judging and censuring men by their outward conditions and by what befalls them in this life they could not imagine that such unheard-of calamities could betide an innocent person when therefore they saw so great a Lord and Prince in so forlorn a plight him whom but a little before all men called blessed and accounted the darling and favourite of Heaven sitting among the ashes and scraping his painfull boils with a piece of a broken pot they presently began to suspect his piety and integrity and to call upon him to confess those grievous sins which had plucked down such terrible vengeance upon his head fondly presuming that he must needs be a greater sinner than others because he was more miserable and unfortunate Which uncharitable censure forced from this excellent person those rhetorical and pathetical vindications of himself and all his actions in the days of his prosperity which you may find scattered up and down in this Book especially in the 31st Chapter Though his Friends were so unkind as to reproach and condemn him as guilty of some notorious crimes whereby he had justly deserved all those evils which God had been pleased to lay upon him yet his own conscience a more impartial judge acquitted him and spoke peace to him He was not afraid or ashamed to have all his life past impartially and thoroughly examined and whatever he had done exposed to publick view and to the knowledge of all the world Nay he durst appeal to God himself the searcher of hearts and call the righteous and impartial judge of the earth to bear witness to his uprightness and sincerity He challenged even his very enemies those who had the least kindness for him to draw up a bill against him and to try if they could find any thing whereof to accuse him He was so just so humble so moderate so charitable when he was in power and prosperity that none either envied his greatness or rejoyced at his fall With such prudence and sobriety with such integrity and temper did he manage a great and magnificent fortune that in the lowest ebb of
assistence and charity of others how irksome and uneasie will it be to us to remember how little our bowels were moved at the misfortunes of our poor neighbours and what little compassion we shewed to the miserable and necessitous and how loth we were in our flourishing condition to doe any one a good turn if it put us but to the least expence or trouble However great and prosperous your present condition may be yet often consider it may shortly be otherwise with you daily interpose the thoughts of a change should I lose this honour esteem authority and dignity I am now possessed of how many untoward scars and blemishes will stick upon me should I be reduced to a mean low estate shall I not then blush to be put in mind of that pride vain-glory haughtiness oppression and domineering I was guilty of when I was in place and power and will not the forced remembrance of such our base and unworthy behaviour be more grievous and afflictive to us than any outward loss or pain our consciences which now we stifle and smother will at such a time be even with us and our own wickedness shall reprove us and our iniquity shall correct us as the Prophet expresseth it Learn therefore so to demean your selves in prosperity as that your hearts may acquit you and have nothing to chide and rebuke you for when you come into adversity and so to husband and improve those present advantages and opportunities you have in your hands that when they are withdrawn from you you may be able with great comfort and satisfaction to reflect upon the good you have done with them the sense of which will mightily blunt the edge and mitigate the sharpness of those evils that do at any time befall you this was Job's great comfort and support under all his dismal sufferings when he was fallen from the highest pinacle of wealth and honour almost as low as hell that he had held fast his integrity and that his mind could not reproach him 2. We should never either to prevent or to redeem our selves from any outward evil or calamity doe any thing which our own minds and consciences do disapprove and condemn Though Job had lost all other things that men usually call good yet his righteousness he held fast and would not let it go and indeed the peace of our own minds is more to be valued than any temporal blessing whatever and there is no pain or loss so intolerable as that inward fear regret and shame which sin and guilt create so that whatever external advantage we acquire in the world by wounding our consciences we are certainly great losers by it no real good can ever be obtained by doing ill a guilty conscience being the sorest evil that a man can possibly be afflicted with Herein especially do inward troubles exceed all outward afflictions whatever that can happen to our bodies or estates namely that under all temporal calamities how desperate and remediless soever they be yet we have something to buoy up and support our spirits to keep us in heart and ennable us to bear them the joys of a good conscience the sense or hopes of God's love and favour the inward satisfaction of our own minds and thoughts these things will wonderfully carry us through all those difficulties and adversities which we shall meet with in the world and are able to uphold and chear our hearts under the greatest pressures and hardships but when a man's mind it self is disturbed and disquieted where shall he seek for where can he find any ease or remedy This seems to be the meaning of the Wise-man in the 18th of the Proverbs the 14th Verse the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear It is a saying much like that of our Saviours if the salt hath lost its favour wherewith shall it be salted if that by which we season all other things it self want it by what shall it be seasoned so here the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity i. e. a mind and spirit that is at peace within it self that is conscious of its own innocence and integrity will enable a man to bear with great patience and contentment those chastisements which God may see good to exercise him with in this life but a wounded spirit who can bear i. e. if that spirit or mind which should help us to bear all those evils that betide us be it self wounded and disquieted what is there then left in a man to sustain it when our onely remedy is become our disease when that which alone can support us in all our troubles and distresses is become it self our greatest torment how shall we be able to bear it What dangers soever therefore we are exposed unto let us be sure to preserve a good conscience nay let us rather suffer the greatest evils than doe the least If we always continue faithfull and constant to the dictates of reason and religion our minds will be in peace and the conscience of our having pleased God and done our duty and secured our greatest interest will hugely ease and alleviate our afflictions and sustain us under the most pressing evils we can suffer in this life whereas on the other side the greatest confluence of the good things of this world will not be able to free us from the disturbance and anxiety of an evil conscience or to quiet and settle our minds when harassed and tortured with the sense of guilt And this shall lead me to the second thing I propounded which was II. To consider these words more generally as they may be applied to men in all states and conditions and then they propound to us this rule which we should always live by namely that we should upon no consideration whatever doe any thing that our minds or consciences reprove us for And this is the just character of an honest man and of one fit to be trusted that he will never either out of fear or favour consent to doe any thing that his mind tells him is unfit unworthy or unbecoming or that he cannot answer or justify to himself but in all cases will doe what is right and honest however it may be thought of and relished by other men and resolutely adhere to his plain duty though perhaps it may hinder his preferment and advancement his trade and gain and expose him to many inconveniences in this world I wish you would all with Job in my Text take up this brave resolution My righteousness I will hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live For your encouragement I shall onely crave leave to represent unto you these two things 1. That this is the plainest easiest and most certain rule that we can propound to our selves 2. That it is the wisest and safest rule the best policy all things considered 1. That this is the plainest easiest and
faith is onely an obstinacy in adhering to those things which we were first taught whether true or false and is common to men in all Religions Our understanding is the imperial and governing faculty of our souls It is that which doth engage our wills and affections and so consequently by them move and excite us to action When therefore our understanding doth assent to any truth upon clear and satisfactory evidence being overpowred by the force of reason and argument it must needs propound it with greater strength and authority to the lower faculties and so must have more powerfull influence upon all our affections and actions Otherwise how can we expect but that any little reason should be too hard for and baffle that faith which is grounded on no reason at all or how can we think that those things which we believe but without any sufficient convincing motive or evidence should outweigh those things which we are more certain of which we daily see feel and experience such as are the present sensible pleasures and the visible good and evil things of this life This therefore is one great reason of the inefficacy of mens faith that their belief of these great truths was never well rooted and fixed in their understandings 2. If our understandings are so fully convinced of these truths that we cannot any longer doubt of them and yet this belief is not effectual for our reformation the reason then must be onely because we do not really consider them The understanding hath not such an absolute power over the will as necessarily to determine it always to that which it judges best and fittest but after our understandings have yielded our wills may stubbornly hold out against the siege and batteries of the clearest evidence and strongest reasons if the truths propounded be contrary to our fleshly lusts and worldly interests For the will of man is a kind of middle faculty between the understanding and the bodily inclinations and as it is moved by our understanding to follow and obey its dictates so also it is most importunately solicited by our lower fleshly appetites and lusts craving their several satisfactions and gratifications and by outward objects that continually thrust themselves upon us agreeable to those desires and propensities Hence ariseth a great conflict between those truths of Religion which are propounded by our understandings on the one side and our inferiour sensitive faculties on the other Our lusts being checked and crossed by the hopes and fears of another life make the shrewdest objections against the principles of Religion and do with all their force and power oppose the entertainment of them in our minds and on the success of this contest doth especially depend the efficacy of our faith Thus it was with very many amongst the Jews whilst our blessed Saviour was alive here upon earth They could not resist those undoubted testimonies which he gave of his being the Son of God but yet the love of this world or fear of sufferings had so much greater power over their wills as that they could never prevail with themselves to become his Disciples St. John 12.42 43. Among the chief rulers many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God It is not enough therefore that these truths of Religion have subdued our understanding by the evidence of reason but they must also conquer our will and draw out its affections after them before ever they can have any lasting effect upon our lives For the affections of the will are the most immediate principles of all our actions and therefore till our belief hath powerfully wrought upon these affections of love desire hope fear it can have little or no influence upon our outward actions Now the way and means to obtain this consent of our wills and affections to these truths thus propounded by our understandings is often and most seriously to consider the immense greatness of the happiness offered to us the extremity of the misery threatned how vastly it concerns us what our portion shall be in that eternal state how unspeakably sad and unpitied our condition will be if we foolishly neglect providing for it how infinitely the glory of Heaven doth surpass all the joys and pleasures of this life These things and the like in a lively manner represented unto and fixed in our minds will by degrees so captivate our wills and affections as that we cannot but love and chuse this future happiness as our greatest good fear and fly from this eternal misery as the greatest evil that can possibly betide us Of such infinite moment are the concerns of eternity that if we do but patiently attend to them and exercise our thoughts freely about them if we will not suffer our lust to bribe and byass our judgments or to stifle and choak these principles of Religion they will at last awaken our consciences and prevail above all present temptations And when our faith by the frequent and serious consideration of the mighty importance of these matters and of their consequence to us hath made such a complete conquest over our minds and wills then our actions will of themselves naturally follow For men will live and act agreably to what they love desire hope for or fear most So effectually hath our Christianity provided for the happiness of all men that nothing can make us miserable but either not believing or not considering the great arguments of Religion The different behaviour of men as to the promises of our Saviour concerning another life I shall beg leave to illustrate by this plain similitude Suppose a person of great credit and authority should now appear amongst us and should propound to us that if we would follow him entirely resigning up our selves to be governed by him he would safely conduct us all to a certain Countrey or Island where we should possess all that our hearts could wish should be all Kings and Princes and flow in all manner of wealth and enjoy an uninterrupted health in a word want nothing that men can fansie could contribute any way to their complete satisfaction and contentment and farther that he should give all the security that any reasonable man could expect or demand that this was no vain promise or illusion Now some amongst us will give no heed at all to what this man offers nor be convinced by any reasons or arguments he can give them but being either prejudiced against his person or disliking the conditions streight reject him for a Deceiver and Impostour These are the Atheists and unbelievers Others are indeed convinced that all this is likely to be true they cannot see any sufficient cause to doubt of it but yet they enjoy such conveniences and are so taken with their present circumstances here as that they will not quit them for these hopes These