might be useful wherein both had a right No man is made for himself And therefore the fact is animadverted on and punisht as far as is possible in what remains of the offendor in his posterity from whom his goods are confiscate in his name which bears a mark of infamy and is made a publick reproach How unspeakably greater is the wrong done to the common Ruler of the whole world when a soul destroys it self loses its possibility of praising and glorifying him eternally in the participation and communion of his eternal glory How great to the glorious society of Saints and Angels From whom he factiously withdraws himself and who tho' that loss be recompenc't to them by their satisfaction in the just vengeance which the offended God takes upon the disloyal apostate Wretch were to have pleas'd and solac't themselves in his joint felicity with their own So that he hath done what in him lay to make them miserable and even to turn Heaven into a place of mourning and lamentation The Supreme primary Law under which we all are obliges us to be happy For it binds us to take the Lord only for our God To love him with all our hearts and minds and souls and strength And so to love him is to enjoy him to delight and acquiesce finally and ultimately in him and satisfie our selves for ever in his fulness So that every man is rebellious in being miserable and that even against the first and most deeply fundamental Law of his Creation Nor can he love God in obedience to that Law without loving himself aright Which love to himself is then to be the measure of the love he is to bear to other men And so most truly it is said that Charity begins at home Every man ought to seek his own true felicity and then to desire anothers as his own But now consider what we are to compare herewith Rejoycing in the sins of other men how contrary is it to the most inward nature to the pure Essence how directly doth it strike at the very heart and soul the life and spirit of Charity For sin is the greatest and highest infelicity of the Creature Depraves the soul within it self vitiates its powers deforms its beauty extinguisheth its light corrupts its purity darkens its glory disturbs its tranquillity and peace violates its harmonious joyful state and order and destroys its very life It disaffects it to God severs it from him engages his Justice and inflames his wrath against it What is it now to rejoyce in another man's sin Think what it is and how impossible it is to be where the love of God hath any place What to be glad that such a one is turning a man into a Devil A reasonable immortal soul capable of Heaven into a Fiend of Hell To be glad that such a soul is tearing it self off from God is blasting its own eternal hopes and destroying all its possibilities of a future well-being Blessed God! How repugnant is this to Charity For let us consider what it is that we can set in directest opposition to it Let Charity be the loving of another as I ought to do my self its opposite must be the hating of another as I should not and cannot sustain to do my self As loving another therefore includes my desire of his felicity and whatsoever is requisite to it till it be attained and my joy for it when it is loathness of his future and grief for his present infelicity as if the case were my own So hating another must equally and most essentially include aversion to his future good and grief for his present which is the precise notion of Envy the desire of his infelicity and whatsoever will infer it till it be brought about and joy when it is or when I behold what is certainly conjunct with it Which is the very wickedness the Text animadverts on as most contrary to Charity The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which not only the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures but the very Philosophy of Pagans doth most highly decry and declaim against Which is of the same family you see with Envy And no other way differs from it than as the objects are variously posâ—â—ed Let the harm and evil of my Brother be remote from him and his good be present I envy it Let his good be remote and any harm or mischief be present and urgent upon him I rejoyce in it Both are rooted in hatred the directest violation of the Royal law of loving my neighbour as my self Jam. 2. 8. And it is that sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath most of horror and the very malignity of Hell in it As the sin of another wherein this joy is taken is an evil against the great God which there will be occasion more directly to consider hereafter as well as to him that commits it a wrong to the former and an hurt to the latter Whereas other infelicities are evils to him only whom they befal 2. Consider Charity in relation to its Original and Exemplar And so it is immediately from God and his very image God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. And what sort of love is this which is made so identical and the same thing with the very Being and Nature of God Not a turbid and tumultuous not a mean and ignoble not an imprudent rash and violent least of all an impure polluted passion But a most calm wise majestick holy will to do good to his creatures upon terms truly worthy of God Good Will most conjunct with the other inseparable perfections of the Godhead Whence with expressions of the most benign propensions towards his Creatures he still conjoyns declarations of his hatred of sin upon all occasions That he is not a God that takes pleasure in wickedness nor can evil dwell with him That sin is the abominable thing which his soul loaths That he is of purer eyes than to look on iniquity What can now be more contrary to the pure and holy love which shall resemble and be the image of his than to rejoyce in iniquity For as God while he loves the person hates the sin men do in this case love the sin and hate the person And while this horrid impure malignity is not from God or like him far be the thought from us from whom doth it derive Whom doth it resemble We read but of Two general fathers whose children are specified and distinguished even by this very thing or its contrary in a forementioned Text 1 Joh. 3. 10. where when both the fathers and their children are set in opposition to one another this of not loving ones brother is given at once both as the separating note of them who are not of Gods family and off-spring not of him as the expression is having nothing of his holy blessed image and nature in them and who consequently must fetch their
one body so also is Christ v. 12. This principle refined rectifi'd recovered out of its state of degeneracy and now obtaining in the soul as a part of the new creature or the new man which is after God as it hath man for its object more especially and more or less according to what there appears of divine in him is the charity here spoken of Now of this Divine Charity it is said which we are to consider 2. In the second place it rejoyces not in iniquity Hereof it cannot be needful to say much by way of Explication The thing carries a prodigious appearance with it and it might even amaze one to think that on this side Hell or short of that state wherein the malignity of wickedness attains its highest pitch any appearance should be found of it Yet we cannot think but these Elogies of Charity do imply reprehensions and tacitely insinuate too great a proneness to this worst sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rejoycing in evil The Gnosticks or the Sect afterwards known by that Name gave already too great occasion for many more express and sharp reproofs of this temper which were not thrown into the Air or meant to no body The Scripture saith not in vain the spirit which is in us lusteth to envy With which what affinity this disposition hath we shall have occasion to note anon Rejoycing in iniquity may be taken if we abstract from limiting circumstances two ways Either in reference to our own sins Or to other mens Our own when we take pleasure in the design or in the commission or in the review and after-contemplation of them Converse in that impure Region as in our Native Element drink it in like water find it sweet in the mouth and hide it under the tongue c. Other mens when 't is counted a grateful sight becomes matter of mirth and sport to see another stab at once the Christian name and his own soul. The scope and series of the Apostles discourse doth here plainly determine it this latter way For as Charity the Subject of his whole discourse respects other men so must this contrary Disposition also De iniquitate procul dubio aliena c. saith Cajetan upon this place 'T is without doubt unapt to rejoyce in the sins of other men for neither can it endure ones own And this aptness to rejoice in the iniquity of others may be upon several accounts It may either proceed From an affection to their sins From an undue self love Or From an excessive dis-affection to the persons offending 1. From a great affection and inclination unto the same kind of sins which they observe in others Whereupon they are glad of their Patronage and do therefore not only do such things but take pleasure in them that do them Rom. 1. Men are too prone to justifie themselves by the example of others against their common rule Others take their liberty and why may not I And so they go as Seneca says sheep do non quà eundum est sed quà itur the way which is trodden not which ought to be 2. From an undue and over-indulgent love of themselves Whence it is that as the case may be they take pleasure to think there are some men that perhaps outdo them in wickedness and offend in some grosser kind than they have done And so they have they count a grateful occasion not only to justify themselves that they are not worse than other men but to magnify themselves that they are not so bad as the Pharisee in his pompous hypocritical devotion God I thank thee that attribution to God being only made a colour of arrogating more plausibly to himself that I am not as other men extortioners unjust adulterers c. Luke 18. 11. whereby the hypocrite while he would extol doth but the more notoriously stigmatize himself 3. From a dis-affection they bare to the offenders whence they are glad of an advantage against them That they have occasion to glory in their flesh and insult over their weakness It must be that rejoycing in other mens sins which is most contrary to Charity that is here more especially meant And that is manifestly the last of these such as proceeds from ill will to the person that offends Whereupon we are glad of his halting which perhaps we watched for before and when his foot sâ—ippeth magnify our selves against him Now rejoycing at the sins of other men upon this account may be either 1. Secret when only the heart feels an inward complacency and is sensibly gratified thereby Or 2. Open when that inward pleasure breaks forth into external expressions of triumph and insultation into derision scoffs and sarcasms II. And how inconsistent this is with the Charity which our Apostle so highly magnifies it is now our next business to shew And it will appear by comparing this rejoycing in other mens sins 1. With Charity it self 2. With what it is ever in most certain connexion with 1. With Charity it self and so we shall consider it 1. In its own nature abstractly and absolutely 2. In relation to its Original and exemplary Cause And shall compare this rejoycing in the sins of other men with it both ways 1. Consider Charity in its own nature And so it is the loving one another as my self so as to desire his welfare and felicity as my own Where we must note that love to our selves is the measure of the love we owe to others But yet are also to consider that this measure it self is to be measured For we are not to measure our love to others by the love we bear to our selves otherwise than as that also agrees with our superior rule which obliges us so to love our selves as to design and seek our own true felicity and best good To lay hold on eternal life to work out our own salvation If in other Instances we were not so to understand the matter since the particular precepts extend no farther than the general one any man might without transgression destroy another mans goods when he hath learn't to be prodigal of what he is Master of himself and might make himself Master of another mans life whensoever he cares not for his own And so by how much more profligately wicked any man is he should be so much the less a transgressor We are not so absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or so much our own that we may do what we will with our selves We are accountable to him that made us for our usage of our selves And in making our selves miserable make our selves deeply guilty also We were made with a possibility of being happy He that made us with souls capable of a blessed state will exact an account of us what we have done with his creature He that commits a felony upon his own life injures his Prince and the Community to which he belongs The one is rob'd of a subject the other of a member that
Pedigree from Hell and acknowledg themselves spawn'd of the Devil and as a Summary of all unrighteousness as it is being taken as often for the duty of the second Table or as a very noted part of it taken in its utmost latitude Agreeably to that of our Saviour Joh. 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil he was a murderer from the beginning as every one is said to be that hateth his brother 1 Joh. 2. 15. If therefore we can reconcile God and the Devil together Heaven and Hell we may also Charity and rejoycing at other mens sins 2. The inconsistency of these Two will further appear by comparing this monstrous dis-affection of mind with the Inseparable concomitants of Charity or such things as are in connection with it And the argument thence will be also strong and enforcing if that concomitancy shall be found to be certain and the connection firm between those things and Charity I shall only give instance in four things which every one that examines will acknowledg to be so connected Viz. Wisdom and Prudence Piety and sincere devotedness to God and the Redeemer Purity Humility Moralists generally acknowledg a concatenation of the Vertues Those that are truly Christian are not the less connected but the more strongly and surely Which connexion of these now mentioned with Charity we shall see as to each of them severally and at the same time their inconsistency with this vile temper and practice 1. For Wisdom or Prudence it is so nearly ally'd to Charity that it is mentioned by the same name Jam. 3. 17. The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaccable gentle c. The foregoing words v. 16. shew Love is meant These words represent the heavenly descent and the true nature of it both together That it is called Wisdom shews its affinity with it and that it partakes of its nature dwells in a calm sedate mind void of disquieting passions and perturbations which it is the work of Wisdom to repress and expel Indeed the name is manifestly intended to express generally the temper the genius the spirit of one that is born from above and is tending thither The contrary temper a disposition to strise envy or grief for the good of another which naturally turns into joy for his evil when his case alters is called Wisdom too but with sufficiently distinguishing and disgracing additions It is said vers 15. not to be from above but earthly sensual devilish And to have the contrary effects where envying and strise is there is confusion Tumult the word signifies or disorder unquietness disagreement of a man with himself as if his soul were pluckt asunder torn from it self and every evil work vers 16. There can be no charity towards another as hath been noted where there is not first a true love to a mans own soul which is the immediate measure of it Nor that where there is not prudence to discern his own best good and what means are to be used to attain it His true good he is not to expect apart by himself but as a member of the Christian community Not of this or that party but the whole animated body of Christ. In which capacity he shares in the common felicity of the whole and affects to draw as many as he can into the communion and participation of it So he enjoys as a member of that body a tranquillity and repose within himself But is undone in himself while he bears a disaffected mind to the true interest and welfare of the body Wherefore to rejoyce in what is prejudicial to it is contrary to prudence and charity both at once Put on saith the Apostle as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness bumbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectness And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body Implying no true peace or satisfaction can be had but in vital union with the body Is he a wise or is he not a mad man that rejoyces he hath an unsound hand or foot or an ulcerated finger or toe rotting off from him or that is glad a Fire or the Plague is broken out in the Neighbourhood that equally endangers his own house and family yea and his own life 2. Piety and devotedness to God and the Redeemer is most conjunct with true charity By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God c. 1 Joh. 5. 2. For the true reason of our love to the one is fetcht from the other as hath been shewn And how absurd were it to pretend love to a Christian upon Christs account and for his sake while there is no love to Christ himself But can it consist with such love and devotedness to God to be glad at his being affronted by the sin of any man Or to Christ whose design it was to redeem us from all iniquity and to bless us in turning us away from our iniquities to rejoyce in the iniquity that obstructs and tends to frustrate his design Do we not know he was for this end manifested to destroy the works of the Devil And that the works of wickedness are his works Do we not know the great God is in and by our Redeemer maintaining a War against the Devil and the subjects of his Kingdom in which Warfare what are the Weapons on the Devils part but sins Who but sinners his Souldiers And who is there of us but professes to be on Gods part in this War Can it stand with our duty fidelity to him to be glad that any are foiled who profess to fight under the same Banner What would be thought of him who in battel rejoyceth to see those of his own side fall here one and there one He would surely be counted either treacherous or mad 3. Charity of the right kind is most certainly connected with Purity The end or perfection of the commandment or of all our commanded obedience is Charity out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5. Sincere Christians are such as have purify'd their souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren and must see that they love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 1. Pagans have â—aught there is no such thing as true friendly love but among good men But how consists it with such purity to take pleasure in other mens impurities or make their sin the matter of jest and raillery 4. A further inseparable concomitant of Charity is deep humility We find them joyn'd and are required to put them on together in the already mentioned Context Put on kindness humbleness of mind above all put on Charity Col. 3. And do find it
among these celebrations of Charity that it vaunteth not it self and is not puffed up v. 4. Nor can we ever with due Charity compassionate the wants and infirmities of others if we feel not our own Which if we do though we are not ourselves guilty of hainous wickednesses we shall so entirely ascribe it to Divine preserving mercy as to be in little disposition to rejoyce that others are USE We may then upon the whole learn hence how we are to demean our selves in reference to the sins of other men So no doubt as Charity doth command and require At least so as it doth allow or not forbid We are manifestly concern'd not to offer violence to so sacred a thing and shall be secure from doing it both these ways We may therefore under these two Heads take direction for our behaviour upon such occasions viz. the actual sins of others or their more observable inclinations thereto 1. We should faithfully practice as to this case such things as Charity and the very law of love doth expresly require and oblige us to As we are 1. To take heed of tempting their inclinations and of inducing others to sin whether by word or example We are otherwise obliged to avoid doing so and this greatly increases the Obligation What we are not to rejoyce in upon the account of Charity we are upon the same account much less to procure Especially take heed of contributing to other mens sins by the example of your own The power whereof though it be silent and insensible is most efficacious in all mens Experiencc A man would perhaps hear the verbal proposal of that Wickedness with horror and detestation which he is gradually and with little reluctance drawn into by observing it in other mens practice A downright Exhortation to it would startle him But the conversation of such as familiarly practise it gently insinuates and by flower degrees alters the Habit of his Mind secretly conveys and Infection like a Pestilential Disease so that the man is mortally seized before he feels and when he suspects no danger Most of all let them take heed of mischieving others by their Sins who are men of more knowledg and pretend to more strictness than others Perhaps some such may think of taking their Liberty more safely They understand how to take up the business more easily and compound the matter with God An horrid Imagination and direct Blasphemy against the holy Gospel of our Lord If it were true and God should do what is so little to be hoped mercifully give them the Repentance whereof they most wickedly presume who knows but others may by that example be hardned in wickedness and never repent Yea If thy greater knowledg should prompt thee to do unnecessarily that which really and abstracting from circumstances is not a sin but which another took to be so and thence takes a liberty to do other things that are certainly sinful yet walkest thou not charitably Through thy Knowledg shall a weak Brother perish and be destroyed for whom Christ died Rom. 14. 15. with 1 Cor. 8. 10 11. Suppose the process be as from sitting in an Idols Temple to Idolatry so from needless sitting in a Tavern to Drunkenness or other consequent debaucheries But if the thing be in its first instance unquestionably sinful of how horrid consequences are the enormities of such as have been taken to be men of sanctity beyond the common rate What a stumbling block to multitudes How much better might it have been for many that are of the Christian profession if such had never been Christians And most probably for themselves also No doubt it had been more for the honour of the Christian name How many may be tempted to infidelity and atheism by one such instance And whereas those scandaliz'd persons do often afterwards incur this fearful guilt of rejoycing in the iniquity of such even that also they have to answer for with all the rest 2. Charity requires not only that we do not procure but that we labour as much as is possible to prevent the sin of others What in this kind we are not to rejoyce at we should hinder And indeed what we do not hinder if it be in our power we cause 3. We should not be over-forward to believe ill of others Charity will while things are doubtful at least suspend See how immediately conjunct these two things are It thinketh no evil rejoyceth not iniquity v. 5 6. It is not imaginative or surmising And in the following verse on the better part it must be understood it believeth all things hopeth all things i. e. briefly it is unapt to believe ill without ground and hopes well as long as there is any But it is not so blindly partial as to shut its eyes against apparent truth of which more in its place 4. Much less should we report thing◠at random to the prejudice of others That character of an inhabitant in the holy hill must not be forgotten that taketh not up a reproach against his neighbour 5. If the matter particularly concern our selves and circumstances comply we must have recourse first to the supposed offendor himself and as our Saviour directs tell him his fault between him and thee alone Mat. 18. 15. 6. We ought to compassionate his case Not rejoycing in iniquity may have in it a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More may be meant we are sure more is elsewhere enjoined solemn mourning and the omission severely blamed Ye are pussed up 1 Cor. 5. 2. not perhaps so much with pride as vanity and lightness of spirit as a bladder swoln with air which is the significancy of that word and have not rather mourned Perhaps he is burdened with grief and shame A Christian heart cannot be hard towards such a one in that case We are to bear one anothers burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. Gal. 6. 2. 7. We should as our capacity and circumstances invite or allow at least by our prayers endeavour his recovery And therein use all the gentleness which the case admits and which is suitable to a due sense of common humane frailty Take the instruction in the Apostles own words Gal. 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted 8. We must take heed upon one mans account of censuring others for such as we know to be faulty those that for ought we know and therefore ought to hope are innocent A practice most absurd and unrighteous contrary to common reason and justice as well as charity Yet that whereto some are apt to assume a license upon so slender and sensless a pretence i. e. Because some that have under a shew of piety hidden the impurities of a secretly vicious life Others that are openly profane and lead notoriously lewd and flagitious lives who tho' bad enough are so far the honester men do
the Christian Religion that it may be vindicated and reseued from reproach as much as in us lies It ought to be very grievous to us when the reproach of our Religion cannot be rolled away without being rolled upon this or that man if especially otherwise valuable But what Reputation ought to be of that value with us as his that bought us with his Blood The great God is our Example who refuses the fellowship of Apostate Persons yea and Churches Departs and withdraws his affronted Glory It is pure and declines all taint When high Indignities are offered it takes just offence and with a Majestick Shyness retires None have been so openly own'd by the Lord of Glory as that he will countenance them in wickedness Though Coniah he tells us expressing a contempt by curtling his name were the Signet on his right hand yet would he pluck him thence Yea and our Saviour directs If our right-hand it self prove offensive we must cast it from us Mat. 5. 30. And to the same purpose Chap. 18 in the next words after he had said Wo to the world because of offences it must be that offences will come but wo to him by whom the offence câ—meth Wherefore if thy hand offend c. ver 7 8. It must be done as to an hand a limb of our body with great tenderness Sympathy and sense of smart and pain but it must be done Dilectionem audio non Communicacationem I hear of Love not Communion saith an Ancient upon this occasion 6. We must take heed of Despondency by reason of the sins of others or of being discouraged in the way of Godliness much more of being diverted from it Indeed the greatest Temptation which this case gives hereunto is to this purpose very inconsiderable and contemptible i. e. that by reason of the lascivious ways of some as that word signifies and is fittest to be read referred to the Impurities of the Gnosticks as they came to be called the way of truth i. e. Christianity it self is evil spoken of But this ought to be heard in respect of the scoffers themselves with great pity but in respect of their design to put serious Christians out of their way with disdain And with as little regard or commotion of mind as would be occasion'd so one well expresses it to a Traveller intent upon his journey by the mowes and grimasses of Monkeys or Baboons Shall I be disquieted grow weary and forsake my way because an unwary person stumbles and falls in it and one ten times worse and more a fool than he laughs at him for it We must in such cases mourn indeed for both but not faint And if we mourn upon a true account we shall easily apprehend it in its cause very separable from fainting and despondency It is a discouraging thing for any party to be stigmatiz'd and have an ill mark put upon them from the defection of this or that person among them that was perhaps what he seemed not or was little thought to be But if we be more concern'd for the honour of the Christian name than of any one party in the world our mourning will not be principally upon so private an account All wise and good men that understand the matter will heartily concur with us and count themselves oblig'd to do so None that are such or any man that hath the least pretence to reason justice or common sense will ever allow themselves to turn the faults of this or that particular person that are discountenanc't as soon as they are known to the reproach of a Party For others that are aptest to do so men of debauch't minds and manners With whom not being of this or that party but Religion it self is a reproach I would advise all serious and sober-minded Christians of whatsoever way or persuasion if they be twitted with the wickedness of any that seem'd to be such and were not to tell the revilers They are more akin to you than to us and were more of your party howsoever they disguised themselves than of any other we know of And if yet after all this any will give themselves the liberty to rejoyce at the sins of other men and make them the matter of their sport and divertisement or take any the least pleasure in observing them I have but these two things in the general to say to them You have no reason to rejoyce You have great reason for the contrary You have first no reason to rejoyce For produce your cause let us hear your strong Reasons 1. Is it that such are like you and as bad men as your selves But 1. What if they be not like you Every one perhaps is not at whose sins real or supposed you at a venture take liberty to rejoyce What if your guilt be real theirs but imagined Somtimes through your too much haste it may prove so and then your Jest is spoiled and you are found to laugh only at your own shadow At least you cannot many times so certainly know anothers guilt as you may your own and so run the hazard which a wise man would not of making your selves the ridicule And supposing your guess in any part hit right What if those others sin by Surprize you by Design They in an act you in a course They in one kind of lowdness you in every kind They sin and are penitent you sin and are obdurate They return you persevere They are ashamed you glory These are great differences if they are really to be found in any such case But 2. If they be not found and those others be like you throughout every whit as bad as your selves This is sure no great matter of glorying That I am not the very worst thing in all the world the vilest creature that ever God made Should it be a solace to me also that there are Devils who may perhaps be somewhat worse than they or I Nor tho' they fall in never so intirely with you in all points of wickedness will that much mend your matter Can their wit added to yours prove there will be no Judgment-day Or that there is no God Or if that performance fail can their power and yours defend you against the Almighty Tho' hand join in hand the wicked will not go unpunished Or again 2. Suppose you are not of the debauch't Crew Is this your reason why you at least think you may indulge your self some inward pleasure that wickedness you observe breaks out among them who are of a distinct party from you which you count may signifie somewhat to the better reputation of your own But are you then of a Party of which you are sure there are no ill men There are too many faults among all Parties but God knows it is fitter for us all to mend than to recriminate Yea but the Party we are of professes not so much strictness No What Party should you be of that professes less strictness What more
lax rule of Morals have you than other Christians Do you not profess subjection to the known rules of the Bible concerning Christian and civil conversation You do not sure profess Rebellion and hostility against the Lord that bought you Doth not your Baptismal Covenant which you are supposed to avow bind you to as much strictness as any other Christian And can there be any other more sacred bond But if in other things than matters of civil conversation such delinquent persons were of a stricter profession suppose it be in matters of Religion and Worship doth that delinquency prove that in those other things you are in the right and they are in the wrong Doth the wickedness of any person against the Rules of the common as well as his own stricter profession prove the profession he is of to be false Then wherein the profession of Protestants is stricter than of other Christians the notorious sins of wicked Protestants will conclude against the whole profession And the wickedness of a Christian because Christianity is a stricter profession than Paganism will prove the Christian Religion to be false Who doubts but there may be found of the Roman Communion better men than some Protestants And of Pagans better men than some Christians But then they are better only in respect of some things wherein all Christians or all men do agree in their sentiments not in respect of the things wherein they differ And the others are worse in things that have no connexion with the matter of difference Enough is to be found to this purpose in some of the Ancients writing on the behalf of Christians which we need not in so plain a case Nor can it be thought that men of any understanding and sobriety will make this any argument one way or other Or think them at all justifiable that glory in other mens wickedness upon this or any other account For such therefore as are of so ill a mind and think being of a different party gives them license they ought to know they make themselves of the same party and that upon a worse account than any difference in the Rituals of Religion can amount to Upon the whole your Reason then alledg what you will is no Reason and argues nothing but shortness of discourse and want of reason or that you would fain say something to excuse an ill practice when you have nothing to say But I must add 2. That you have much reason to the contrary both upon the common account and your own 1. Upon the common account That the Christian world should while it is so barren of serious Christians be so fertile and productive of such Monsters made up of the sacred Christian profession conjoyn'd with even worse than Paganish lives And the more of sanctity any pretend to the more deplorable is the case when the wickedness breaks forth that was concealed before under the vizor of that pretence Is this no matter of lamentation to you Or will you here again say your unrelatedness to their party makes you unconcern'd If it do not justifie your rejoycing it will sure you think excuse your not mourning Will it so indeed Who made you of a distinct party Are you not a Christian Or are you not a Protestant And what do you account that but Reform'd primitive Christianity And so the more it is reform'd the more perfectly it is it self Who put it into your power to make distinguishing additions to the Christian Religion by which to sever your selves from the body of other Christians in the world so as not to be concern'd in the affairs of the body If this or that member say I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body Is it not the Christian Name that is dishonoured by the scandalous lives of them that bear that name Whose Laws are they that are broken the Laws of this or that party or are they not the laws of Christ Will you say you are unrelated to him too or have no concern with Him Can any Party be united within it self by so sacred tyes as all true Christians are with the whole body of Christ I know no way you have to be unconcern'd in such cases as the matter of your humiltation when they occur within your notice but by renouncing your Christianity Nor indeed would that serve the turn For what â—ill you do with your humanity Are you not still a man if you would be no longer a Christian And even that methinks should oblige us to bewail the depravedness dishonour of the nature and order of humane creatures That they who were made for the society of Angels vea and of the blessed God himself should be found delighting and wallowing in worse impurities than those of the Dog or Swine The more strictness in morals they have falsly pretended to the greater is your obligation to lament their violating those sacred rules which you also profess to be subject to and not the less Do I need to tell you that even among Pagans where a profession of greater strictness had once been entred into an apostacy to gross immoralities hath been the matter of very solemn lamentation As in the School or Church should I call it of Pythagoras where when any that had obliged themselves to the observation of his vertuous precepts did afterwards lapse into a vicious course a Funeral and solemn mourning was held for them as if they were dead 2. On your own For when our Saviour saith Wo to that man by whom offence cometh doth he not also say Wo to the world because of offences And who would not fear and lament his share in that Wo Are you proof against all hurt by another's sin What if it encourage you to sin too What if harden you in it How many do some mens sin dispose to Atheism and to think there is nothing in Religion And if you felt in your selves an inclination to rejoyce in them that it self argues the infection hath caught upon you seiz'd your spirits and corrupted your vitals So that you have cause to lament even your having rejoyced To be afficted and mourn and weep to turn your laughter to mourning and your joy to heaviness Jam. 4. One would think them indeed but half men and scarce any Christians that can allow themselves so inhumane and unhallowed a pleasure as rejoycing in another's sin 'T is very unworthy of a man to take pleasure in seeing his fellow-man turning beast There is little in it of the ingenuity that belongs to humane nature to delight in the harms of others much less of the prudence to make sport of a common mischief And would a Christian rejoyce in the disadvantages of his own cause and in the dishonour and reproach of the very name which he himself bears To conclude One would think no more should be needful to repress in any this ill inclination than to consider What sin is wherein they rejoyce And what Charity is which is violated by their doing so What to rejoyce in sin that despites the Creator and hath wrought such Tragedies in the Creation that turned Angels out of Heaven Man out of paradise that hath made the blessed God so much a stranger to our world broken off the intercourse in so great part between Heaven and Earth obstructed the pleasant commerce which had otherwise probably been between Angels and Men So vilely debas't the nature of man and provok't the displeasure of his Maker against him that once over-whelm'd the world in a deluge of water and will again ruin it by as destructive fire To rejoyce in so hateful a thing is to do that mad part to cast about firebrands arrows and death and say Am not I in sport And to do that which so highly offends against Charity so divine a thing the off-spring of God! the birth of Heaven as it is here below among us mortals the beauty and glory of it as it is there above in its natural seat The eternal bond of living union among the blessed spirits that inhabit there and which would make our world did it universally obtain in it another Heaven Consider from whom and from what Region that must proceed which is so contrary to God and Heaven If any will yet in despight of divine love it self laugh on at so foul and frightful a thing as sin is 't is too likely to prove the Sardonian laughter i. e. as some explain that Proverb of them that dye laughing Conclude their lives and their laughter both together and only cease to laugh and to live in the same last breath FINIS Max. Tyr. Dissert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2. 2. Jambl. de vit Pyth.