call for all our Faith and Patience all our Courage and Constancy Nunc animis opus Aenea nunc pectore firmo When it comes to this Trial we had need to gird up the loins of our minds to summon all our forces and to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand fast in an evil day and when we have done all to stand And now my Brethren to use the words of St. Peter I testify unto you that this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand The Protestant Reformed Religion which we in this Nation profess is the very Gospel of Christ the true ancient Christianity And for God's sake since in this hour of Temptation when our Religion is in so apparent hazard we pretend to love it to that degree as to be contented to part with any thing for it let us resolve to practise it and to testify our love to it in the same way that our Saviour would have us shew our love to Him by keeping his commandments I will conclude all with the Apostle's Exhortation so very proper for this purpose and to this present Time Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ that is chiefly and above all take care to lead lives suitable to the Christian Religion And then as it follows stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your Adversaries which to them is an evident token of perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Now unto Him that is able to stablish you in the Gospel and to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy To the only wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power both now and ever Amen A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Our Deliverance by the P. of Orange Preached at Lincolns-Inn-Chappel January 31. 1688. To the Worshipful the Masters of the BENCH And the rest of the GENTLEMEN Of the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn THough I was at first very unwilling to Expose to the Publick a Sermon made upon so little Warning and so great an Occasion yet upon second thoughts I could not think it fit to resist the Unanimous and Earnest Request of so many Worthy Persons as the Masters of the Bench of this Honourable Society to whom I stand so much indebted for your great and continued respects to me and kind acceptance of my Labours among you for now above the space of Five and Twenty Years In a most grateful acknowledgment whereof this Discourse such as it is in mere Obedience to your Commands is now humbly presented to you by Your most Obliged and Faithful Servant JOHN TILLOTSON Feb. 28. 1688 9. A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Our Deliverance by the P. of Orange EZRA ix 13 14. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the people of these Abominations wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping I Am sufficiently aware that the particular occasion of these Words is in several respects very different from the Occasion of this Day 's Solemnity For these Words were spoken by Ezra at a time appointed for Publick and Solemn Humiliation But I shall not now consider them in that relation but rather as they refer to that Great Deliverance which God had so lately wrought for them and as they are a Caution to take heed of abusing great mercies received from God and so they are very proper and pertinent to the great Occasion of this Day Nay these Words even in their saddest aspect are not so unsuitable to it For we find in Scripture upon the most solemn Occasions of Humiliation that good Men have always testified a thankful sense of the goodness of God to them And indeed the Mercy of God doth then appear above measure merciful when the Sinner is most deeply sensible of his own Vileness and Unworthiness And so Ezra here in the depth of their sorrow and Humiliation hath so great a sense of the greatness of their Deliverance that he hardly knew how to express it And hast given us such a Deliverance as this And on the other hand we find that good Men in their most solem Praises and Thanksgivings have made very serious reflections upon their own unworthiness And surely the best way to make Men truly thankful is first to make them very humble When David makes his most solemn acknowledgments to God for his great Mercies to him how doth he abase himself before Him But who am I and what is my people And so likewise after he had summoned all the powers and faculties of his Soul to join in the praises of God he interposeth this seasonable meditation He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities The greater and more lively sense we have of the goodness of God to us the more we shall abhor our selves in dust and ashes nothing being more apt to melt us into tears of Repentance than the consideration of great and undeserved Mercies vouchsafed to us The goodness of God doth naturally lead to repentance Having thus reconciled the Text to the present Occasion I shall for the more distinct handling of the Words take notice of these two Parts in them First Here is a Case supposed should we after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and since God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandments Secondly Here is a sentence and determination in the Case Wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consum'd us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping This is not spoken doubtfully though it be put by way of question but is the more vehemently positive the more peremptorily affirmative as if he had said it cannot otherwise be in reason expected but that after such repeated provocations God should be angry with us till he had consumed us First Here is a Case supposed should we after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and since God hath punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break his commandments and join in affinity with the People of these abominations In which Words these following Propositions seem to be involv'd which I shall but just mention and pass to the Second Part of the Text. 1. That Sin is the cause of all our sufferings after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for
our great trespass Our evil deeds bring all other evils upon us 2. That great Sins have usually a proportionable punishment after all that is come upon us there is the greatness of our punishment for our evil deeds and for our great trespass there is the greatness of our Sin But when I say that great Sins have a proportionable Punishment I do not mean that any temporal Punishments are proportionable to the great evil of Sin but that God doth usually observe a proportion in the temporal punishments of Sin so that although no temporal punishment be proportionable to Sin yet the temporal punishment of one Sin holds a proportion to the punishment of another and consequently lesser and greater Sins have proportionably a lesser and greater Punishment 3. That all the Punishments which God inflicts in this Life do fall short of the demerit of our Sins and seeing thou our God hast punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve In the Hebrew it is and hast kept down our iniquities that is that they should not rise up against us The LXX expresseth it very emphatically thou hast eased us of our sins that is thou hast not let the whole weight of them fall upon us Were it not for the restraints which God puts upon his anger and the merciful mitigations of it the Sinner would not be able to bear it but must sink under it Indeed it is only said in the Text that the punishment which God inflicted upon the Jews though it was a long Captivity was beneath the desert of their Sins But yet it is universally true and Ezra perhaps might intend to insinuate so much that all temporal Punishments though never so severe are always less than our iniquities deserve 4. That God many times works very great Deliverances for those who are very unworthy of them and hast given us such a Deliverance as this notwithstanding our evil deeds and notwithstanding our great Trespass 5. That we are but too apt even after great Judgments and after great Mercies to relapse into our former Sins should we again break thy Commandments Ezra insinuates that there was great reason to fear this especially considering the strange temper of that People who when God multiply'd his blessings upon them were so apt to wax fat and kick against Him and tho he had cast them several times into the furnace of Affliction though they were melted for the present yet they were many times but the harder for it afterwards 6. That it is good to take notice of those particular Sins which have brought the Judgments of God upon us So Ezra does here after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and should we again join in affinity with the People of these abominations Secondly Here is a Sentence and determination in the Case wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Which Question as I said before doth imply a strong and peremptory affirmative as if he had said after such a provocation there is great reason to conclude that God would be angry with us till he had consumed us From whence the Observation contained in this part of the Text will be this That it is a fearful aggravation of Sin and a sad presage of ruin to a People after great Judgments and great Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Hear how passionately Ezra expresses himself in this Case verse 6. I am ashamed O my God and blush to lift up mine eyes to thee my God Why what was the cause of this great shame and confusion of face He tells us verse 9. for we were bondmen yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended his mercy to us to give us a reviving to set up the House of our God and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a Wall in Judah and in Jerusalem that is to restore to them the free and safe exercise of their Religion Here was great Mercy and a mighty Deliverance indeed and yet after this they presently relapsed into a very great sin verse 10. And now O our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy Commandments In the handling of this Observation I shall do these two things First I shall endeavour to shew that this is a very heavy aggravation of Sin and Secondly That it is a fatal presage of ruin to a People First It is a heavy aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and after signal Mercies and Deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again Here are three things to be distinctly spoken to 1. That it is a great aggravation of Sin to return to it after great Judgments 2. To do this after great Mercies and Deliverances 3. After both to return to the same Sins again 1. It is a great aggravation of Sin after great Judgments have been upon us to return to an evil course Because this is an Argument of great obstinacy in evil The longer Pharaoh resisted the Judgments of God the more was his wicked heart hardned till at last he arriv'd at a monstrous degree of hardness having been as the Text tells us hardned under ten plagues And we find that after God had threaten'd the People of Israel with several Judgments he tells them that if they will not be reformed by all these things he will punish them seven times more for their sins And if the just God will in such a case punish seven times more we may conclude that the Sin is Seven times greater What sad complaints doth the Prophet make of the People of Israel growing worse for Judgments Ah! sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity children that have been corrupters a seed of evil doers He can hardly find words enough to express how great Sinners they were and he adds the reason in the next verse Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more They were but the worse for Judgments This renders them a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity And again The People turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts therefore his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And the same Prophet further complains to the same purpose When thy hand is lifted up they will not see There is a particular brand set upon King Ahaz because affliction made him worse This is that King Ahaz that is that grievous and notorious Sinner And what was it that rendr'd him so In the time of his distress he sinned yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz who is said to have provoked the Lord above all the Kings of Israel which were before him 2. It is likewise a sore aggravation of Sin when it is committed after great Mercies and Deliverances
Flock what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee 3. The Sins of the People amongst whom there is almost an universal corruption and depravation of Manners insomuch that Impiety and Vice seem to have over-spread the face of the Nation so that we may take up that sad complaint of the Prophet concerning the People of Israel and apply it to our selves that we are a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity a seed of evil-doers that the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint and that from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in us but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores We may justly stand amaz'd to consider how the God of all patience is provok'd by us every day to think how long he hath born with us and suffered our manners our open Profaneness and Infidelity our great Immoralities and gross Hypocrisy our insolent contempt of Religion and our ill-favour'd counterfeiting of it for low and sordid ends And which is the most melancholy consideration of all the rest we seem to be degenerated to that degree that it is very much to be fear'd there is hardly integrity enough left amongst us to save us And then if we consider further our most uncharitable and unchristian Divisions to the endangering both of our Reformed Religion and of the Civil Rights and Liberties of the Nation Our incorrigibleness under the Judgments of God which we have seen abroad in the Earth and which have in a very severe and terrible manner been inflicted upon these Kingdoms that the Inhabitants thereof might learn righteousness Our insensibleness of the Hand of God so visible in his late Providences towards us and in the many merciful and wonderful Deliverances which from time to time He hath wrought for us And lastly if we reflect upon our horrible Ingratitude to God our Saviour and mighty Deliverer and to Them likewise whom He hath so signally honour'd in making them the happy Means and Instruments of our Deliverance And this not only express'd by a bold contempt of their Authority but by a most unnatural Conspiracy against Them with the greatest Enemies not only to the Peace of the Nation but likewise to the Reformed Religion therein profess'd and by Law established and to the interest of it all the World over So that we may say with Ezra And now O our God what shall we say unto thee after this And may not God likewise say to us as He did more than once to the Jews Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Thirdly We should likewise upon this Day earnestly deprecate God's displeasure and make our humble Supplications to Him that He would be graciously pleas'd to avert those terrible Judgments which hang over us and which we have just cause to fear may fall upon us and that He would be entreated by us at last to be appeas'd towards us and to turn from the fierceness of his Anger This we find the People of God were wont to do upon their Solemn days of Fasting and Prayer and this God expressly enjoyns Blow the Trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly gather the People sanctifie the Congregation assemble the Elders c. Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach that the Heathen should rule over them Wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God And to this earnest deprecation of his Judgments God promiseth a gracious answer for so it immediately follows Then will the Lord be jealous for his Land and pity his People And thus likewise Daniel when he set his face to seek the Lord God by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes does in a most humble and earnest manner deprecate the displeasure of God towards his People and beg of Him to remove his Judgments and to turn away his Anger from them O Lord according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy City Jerusalem thy Holy Mountain Because for our sins and for the iniquity of our Fathers Jerusalem and thy People are become a reproach to all that are about us Now therefore O God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplication and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary which is desolate for the Lord's sake O my God incline thine ear and hear open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the City which is called by thy Name For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness but for thy great mercy O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do deferr not for thine own sake O my God for thy City and thy People are called by thy Name And thus also should We upon this Solemn Occasion cry mightily unto God and with the greatest importunity deprecate those terrible Judgments which we so righteously have deserv'd and to which the great and crying Sins of the whole Nation have so justly exposed us Humbly beseeching Him not for our Righteousness but for his great Mercy for his own Name 's sake and because we are his People and are called by his Name and because his Holy Truth and Religion are profess'd amongst us that He would be pleas'd to hear the Prayers of his Servants and their Supplications which they have made before him this Day for the Lord's sake Fourthly We should likewise upon this Day pour out our most earnest Supplications to Almighty God for the preservation of Their Majesties Sacred Persons and for the prosperity and establishment of Their Government and for the good Success of Their Arms and Forces by Sea and Land And more especially since His Majesty with so many Confederate Princes and States of Europe is engaged in so necessary an Undertaking for the Common good of Christendom and for the mutual preservation and recovery of Their respective Rights We should earnestly implore the favour and assistance of Almighty God in so just and glorious a Cause against the common Invader and Oppressor of the Rights and Liberties of Mankind And that of his infinite Goodness He would be graciously pleased to take the Person of our Sovereign Lord the King into the particular care and protection of his Providence That He would secure his precious Life from all secret Attempts and from open Violence That He would give his Angels charge over him and cover his Head in the day of Battel and crown it with Victory over his Enemies and restore Him to us again in safety And that He would likewise preserve and direct the Queen's Majesty in whose hands the Administration of the Government is at present so happily plac'd That He would give Her Wisdom and Resolution for such a Time as
and that men who are resolv'd to continue in an evil course are glad to be of a Church which will assure Salvation to men upon such terms The great difficulty is for men to believe that things which are so apparently absurd and unreasonable can be true and to persuade themselves that they can impose upon God by such pretences of service and obedience as no wise Prince or Father upon earth is to be deluded withal by his Subjects or Children We ought to have worthier thoughts of God and to consider that He is a great King and will be obey'd and observ'd by his creatures in his own way and make them happy upon his own terms and that obedience to what he commands is better and more acceptable to him than any other sacrifice that we can offer which he hath not required at our hands and likewise that he is infinitely wise and good and therefore that the Laws which he hath given us to live by are much more likely and certain means of our happiness than any inventions and devices of our own Thirdly I observe that even the better and more considerate sort of Christians are not so careful and watchful as they ought to prepare themselves for Death and Judgment whilst the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept Even the Disciples of our Saviour whilst he was yet personally present with them and after a particular charge given them from his own mouth Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation yet did not keep that guard upon themselves as to watch with him for one hour In many things says St. James we offend all even the best of us And who is there that doth not some time or other remit of his vigilancy and care so as to give the Devil an advantage and to lye open to temptation for want of a continual guard upon himself But then the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins was this that tho they both slept yet the wise did not let their Lamps go out they neither quitted their Profession nor did they extinguish it by a bad life and tho when the Bridegroom came suddenly upon them they were not so actually prepar'd to meet him by a continual vigilancy yet they were habitually prepar'd by the good disposition of their minds and the general course of a holy life Their Lamps might burn dim for want of continual trimming but they had Oyl in their Vessels to supply their Lamps which the foolish Virgins had taken no care to provide But surely the greatest wisdom of all is to maintain a continual watchfulness that so we may not be surpriz'd by the coming of the Bridegroom and be in a confusion when Death or Judgment shall overtake us And blessed are those Servants and wise indeed whose Lamps always burn bright and whom the Bridegroom when he comes shall find watching and in a fit posture and preparation to meet Him Fourthly I observe likewise how little is to be done by us to any good purpose in this great work of Preparation when it is deferr'd and put off to the last And thus the foolish Virgins did but what a sad confusion and hurry they were in at the sudden coming of the Bridegroom when they were not only asleep but when after they were awaken'd they found themselves altogether unprovided of that which was necessary to trim their Lamps and to put them in a posture to meet the Bridegroom When they wanted that which was necessary at that very instant but could not be provided in an instant I say what a tumult and confusion they were in being thus surpriz'd the Parable represents to us at large vers 6 7 8 9. and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps that is they went about it as well as they could and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out At midnight there was a cry made that is at the most dismal and unseasonable time of all other when they were fast asleep and suddenly awaken'd in great terror when they could not on the sudden recollect themselves and consider what to do when the summons was so very short that they had neither time to consider what was fit to be done nor time to do it in And such is the Case of those who put off their Repentance and Preparation for another World till they are surpriz'd by Death or Judgment for it comes all to one in the issue which of them it be The Parable indeed seems more particularly to point at our Lord 's coming to Judgment but the case is much the same as to those who are surpriz'd by sudden Death such as gives them but little or not sufficient time for so great a work because such as Death leaves them Judgment will certainly find them And what a miserable confusion must they needs be in who are thus surpriz'd either by the one or the other How unfit should we be if the general Judgment of the World should come upon us on the sudden to meet that great Judge at his coming if we have made no preparation for it before that time What shall we then be able to do in that great and universal consternation when the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory when the Sun shall be darken'd and the Moon turned into blood and all the powers of Heaven shall be shaken when all Nature shall feel such violent pangs and convulsions and the whole World shall be in a combustion flaming and cracking about our ears When the Heavens shall be shrivel'd up as a Scroll when it is roll'd together and the Earth shall be toss'd from its Center and every Mountain and Island shall be removed What thoughts can the wisest men then have about them in the midst of so much noise and terror Or if they could have any what time will there then be to put them in execution when they shall see the Angel that standeth upon the Sea and upon the Earth lifting up his hand to Heaven and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever that Time shall be no longer as this dreadful Day is described Rev. 10.5 6. and chap. 6.15 where Sinners are represented at the Appearance of this Great Judge not as flying to God in hopes of mercy but as flying from Him in utter despair of finding mercy with Him The Kings of the Earth and the Great Men and the Mighty Men and the Rich Men and the Great Captains hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Earth and said to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the Great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The biggest and the boldest Sinners
vouchsafed to us Because this is an argument of great ingratitude And this we find recorded as a heavy charge upon the People of Israel that they remembred not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side neither shewed they kindness to the House of Jerubbaal namely Gideon who had been their Deliverer according to all the goodness which he had shewed to Israel God we see takes it very ill at our hands when we are ungrateful to the Instruments of our Deliverance but much more when we are unthankful to Him the Author of it And how severely does Nathan the Prophet reproach David upon this account Thus said the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul c. And if this had been too little I would moreover have done such and such things Wherefore hast thou despis'd the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight God here reckons up his manifold mercies and deliverances and aggravates David's Sin upon this account And he was very angry likewise with Solomon for the same reason because he had turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appear'd to him twice However we may slight the mercies of God he keeps a punctual and strict account of them It is particularly noted as a great blot upon Hezekiah that he returned not again according to the benefits done unto him God takes very severe notice of all the unkind and unworthy returns that are made to Him for his Goodness Ingratitude to God is so unnatural and monstrous that we find Him appealing against us for it to the inanimate Creatures Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourish'd and brought up Children but they have rebelled against me And then he goes on and upbraids them with the Brute Creatures as being more grateful to men than men are to God The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass her Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider And in the same Prophet there is the like complaint Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but the shall see and be ashamed They that will not acknowledge the Mercies of God's Providence shall feel the strokes of his Justice There is no greater evidence in the World of an intractable disposition than not to be wrought upon by kindness not to be melted by mercies not to be obliged by benefits not to be tamed by gentle usage Nay God expects that his mercies should lay so great an obligation upon us that even a Miracle should not tempt us to be unthankful If there arise among you a Prophet says Moses to the People of Israel or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder cometh to pass whereof he spake to thee saying let us go after other Gods and serve them thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet And he gives the reason because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord God of Israel which brought you out of the Land of Egypt and delivered you out of the House of Bondage 3. It is a greater aggravation yet after gteat Mercies and Judgments to return to the same Sins Because this can hardly be without our sinning against knowledge and after we are convinced how evil and bitter the Sin is which we were guilty of and have been so sorely punish'd for before This is an argument of a very perverse and incorrigible temper and that which made the Sin of the People of Israel so above measure sinful that after so many signal Deliverances and so many terrible Judgments they fell into the same Sin of murmuring ten times murmuring against God the Author and against Moses the glorious Instrument of their Deliverance out of Egypt which was one of the two great Types of the Old Testament both of temporal and spiritual Oppression and Tyranny Hear with what resentment God speaks of the ill returns which they made to him for that great Mercy and Deliverance Because all these men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the Wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkned unto my voice surely they shall not see the Land which I sware to their Fathers And after he had brought them into the promised Land and wrought great Deliverances for them several times how does he upbraid them with their proneness to fall again into the same Sin of Idolatry And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the Children of Ammon and from the Philistins The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and Maonites did oppress you and ye cryed unto me and I delivered you out of their hand yet you have forsaken me and served other Gods wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the Gods which ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation This incensed God so highly against them that they still relaps'd into the same Sin of Idolatry after so many afflictions and so many deliverances Upon such an occasion well might the Prophet say Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy sins shall reprove thee know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God It is hardly possible but we should know that the wickedness for which we have been so severely corrected is an evil and bitter thing Thus much for the first part of the Observation namely that it is a fearful aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and great deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again I proceed to the Second part namely That this is a fatal presage of ruin to a People Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the People of these abominations wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping And so God threatens the People of Israel in the Text which I cited before wherefore I will deliver you no more Wherefore that is because they would neither be reform'd by the Afflictions wherewith God had exercised them nor by the many wonderful Deliverances which he had wrought for them And there is great reason why God should deal thus with a People that continues impenitent both under the Judgments and Mercies of God 1. Because this doth ripen the Sins of a Nation and it is time for God to put in his Sickle when a People are ripe for ruin When the
measure of their Sins is full it is no wonder if the Cup of his indignation begin to overflow It is said of the Amorites four hundred years before God brought that fearful ruin upon them that God deferr'd the extirpation of them because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full When neither the Mercies nor the Judgments of God will bring us to repentance we are then fit for destruction according to that of the Apostle What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction They who are not wrought upon neither by the patience of God's Mercies nor by the patience of his Judgments seem to be fitted and prepared to be ripe and ready for destruction 2. Because this incorrigible temper shews the Case of such persons to be desperate and incurable Why should they be smitten any more says God of the People of Israel they will revolt more and more How often would I have gathered you says our B. Saviour to the Jews even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left to you desolate that is ye shall be utterly destroyed as it hapned forty years after to Jerusalem and to the whole Jewish Nation When God sees that all the means which he can use do prove ineffectual and to no purpose he will then give over a People as Physicians do their Patients when they see that nature is spent and their case past remedy When men will not be the better for the best means that Heaven can use God will then leave them to reap the fruit of their own doings and abandom them to the demerit of their Sin That which now remains is to apply this to our selves and to the solemn Occasion of this Day And if this be our Case let us take heed that this be not also our Doom and Sentence First The Case in the Text doth very much resemble Ours And that in three respects God hath sent great Judgments upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses He hath punish'd us less than our iniquities have deserv'd And hath given us a very great and wonderful Deliverance 1. God hath inflicted great Judgments upon us for our evil deeds and for our great Trespasses Great Judgments both for the quality and for the continuance of them It shall suffice only to mention those which are of a more ancient Date Scarce hath any Nation been more calamitous than this of Ours both in respect of the Invasions and Conquests of Foreigners and of our own Civil and intestine Divisions Four times we have been Conquer'd By the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans And our intestine Divisions have likewise been great and of long continuance Witness the Barons Wars and that long and cruel Contest between the two Houses of York and Lancaster But to come nearer to our own Times What fearful Judgments and Calamities of War and Pestilence and Fire have many of us seen And how close did they follow one another What terrible havock did the Sword make amongst us for many years And this not the Sword of a Forreign Enemy but of a Civil War the mischiefs whereof were all terminated upon our selves and have given deep wounds and left broad scars upon the most considerable Families in the Nation Alta manent civilis vulnera dextrae This War was drawn out to a great length and had a Tragical end in the Murther of an excellent King and in the Banishment of his Children into a strange Countrey whereby they were exposed to the Arts and Practices of those of another Religion the mischievous Consequences whereof we have ever since sadly labour'd under and do feel them at this day And when God was pleas'd in great mercy at last to put an end to the miserable Distractions and Confusions of almost twenty years by the happy Restoration of the Royal Family and our ancient Government which seem'd to promise to us a lasting settlement and all the felicities we could wish yet how soon was this bright and glorious morning overcast by the restless and black Designs of that sure and inveterate Enemy of ours the Church of Rome for the restoring of their Religion amongst us And there was too much encouragement given to this Design by those who had power in their hands and had brought home with them a secret good will to it For this great Trespass and for our many other Sins God was angry with us and sent among us the most raging Pestilence that ever was known in this Nation which in the space of eight or nine Months swept away near a third part of the Inhabitants of this vast and populous City and of the Suburbs thereof besides a great many thousands more in several parts of the Nation But we did not return to the Lord nor seek him for all this And therefore the very next year after God sent a terrible and devouring Fire which in less than three days time laid the greatest part of this great City in ashes And there is too much reason to believe that the Enemy did this that perpetual and implacable Enemy of the peace and happiness of this Nation And even since the time of that dreadful Calamity which is now above twenty years agone we have been in a continual fear of the cruel Designs of that Party which had hitherto been incessantly working under ground but now began to shew themselves more openly and especially since a Prince of that Religion succeeded to the Crown our eyes have been ready to fail us for fear and for looking after those dreadful things that were coming upon us and seem'd to be even at the door A fear which this Nation could easily have rid it self of because they that caused it were but a handful in comparison of us and could have done nothing without a foreign force and assistance had not the Principles of Humanity and of our Religion too restrain'd us from violence and cruelty and from every thing which had the appearance of undutifulness to the Government which the Providence of God had set over us An instance of the like patience under the like provocations for so long a time and after such visible and open attempts upon them when they had the Laws so plainly on their side I challenge any Nation or Church in the World from the very foundation of it to produce Insomuch that if God had not put it into the hearts of our kind Neighbours and of that incomparable Prince who laid and conducted that great Design with so much skill and secrecy to have appear'd so seasonably for our rescue our Patience had infallibly without a Miracle been our ruine And I am sure if our Enemies had ever had the like Opportunity in their hands and had overbalanced us in numbers but half so much as we did them they would never have
let it slip but would long since have extirpated us utterly and have made the remembrance of us to have ceas'd from among men And now if you ask me for what Sins more especially God hath sent all these Judgments upon us It will not I think become us to be very particular and positive in such determinations Thus much is certain That we have all sinn'd and contributed to these Judgments every one hath had some hand more or less in pulling down this vengeance upon the Nation But we are all too apt to remove the meritorious cause of God's Judgments as far as we can from our selves and our own Party and upon any slight pretence to lay it upon others Yet I will venture to instance in one or two things which may probably enough have had a more particular and immediate hand in drawing down the Judgments of God upon us Our horrible contempt of Religion on the one hand by our Infidelity and Prophaneness and our shameful abuse of it on the other by our gross Hypocrisy and sheltering great wickedness and immoralities under the cloak and profession of Religion And then great Dissensions and Divisions great uncharitableness and bitterness of Spirit among those of the same Religion so that almost from the beginning of our happy Reformation the Enemy had sown these Tares and by the unwearied Malice and Arts of the Church of Rome the seeds of Dissension were scattered very early amongst us and a sowre humour had been fermenting in the Body of the Nation both upon account of Religion and Civil Interests for a long time before things broke out into a Civil War And more particularly yet That which is call'd the great Trespass here in the Text their joining in affinity with the People of these abominations by whom they had been detain'd in a long Captivity This I say seems to have had both from the nature of the thing and the just Judgment of God no small influence upon a great part of the Miseries and Calamities which have befallen us For had it not been for the countenance which Popery had by the Marriages and Alliances of our Princes for two or three Generations together with those of that Religion it had not probably had a continuance among us to this day Which will I hope now be a good warning to those who have the Authority to do it to make effectual provision by Law for the prevention of the like inconvenience and mischief in this Nation for ever 2. Another Parallel between our Case and that in the Text is That God hath punish'd us less than our iniquities did deserve And this acknowledgment we have as much reason to make for our selves as Ezra had to do it in behalf of the Jews Thou our God hast punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve Thou our God hast punish'd us there is the reason of so much mercy and mitigation It is God and not Man with whom we have to do and therefore it is that we the children of men are not consumed And it is our God likewise to whom we have a more peculiar relation and with whom by virtue of our Profession of Christianity we are in Covenant Thou our God hast punish'd us less than our Iniquities deserve He might justly have pour'd forth all his wrath and have made his jealousie to have smoak'd against us and have blotted out the remembrance of us from under Heaven He might have given us up to the will of our Enemies and into the hands of those whose tender mercies are cruelty He might have brought us into the net which they had spred for us and have laid a terrible load of affliction upon our loins and suffer'd insolent men to ride over our heads and them that hated us with a perfect hatred to have had the rule over us But he was graciously pleas'd to remember mercy in the midst of judgment and to repent himself for his servants when he saw that their power was gone and that things were come to that extremity that we were in all humane probability utterly unable to have wrought out our own Deliverance 3. The last Parallel between our Case and that in the Text is the great and wonderful Deliverance which God hath wrought for us And whilst I am speaking of this God is my witness whom I serve in the Gospel of his Son that I do not say one word upon this Occasion in flattery to men but in true thankfulness to Almighty God and constrain'd thereto from a just sense of his great mercy to us all in this marvellous Deliverance in this mighty Salvation which he wrought for us So that we may say with Ezra Since thou our God hast given us such a Deliverance as THIS So great that we know not how to compare it with any thing but it Self God hath given us this Deliverance And therefore Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be the praise For thou knowest and we are all conscious to our selves that we did in no wise deserve it but quite the contrary God hath given it and it ought to be so much the welcomer to us for coming from such a Hand It is the Lord 's doing and therefore ought to be the more marvellous in our eyes It is a Deliverance full of Mercy and I had almost said full of Miracle The Finger of God was visibly in it and there are plain Signatures and Characters upon it of a more immediate Divine interposition And if we will not wisely consider the Lord's doings we have reason to stand in awe of that Threatning of His Because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up It was a wonderful Deliverance indeed if we consider all the Circumstances of it The Greatness of it and the strangeness of the Means whereby it was brought about and the Suddenness and Easiness of it The Greatness of it it was a great Deliverance from the greatest Fears and from the greatest Dangers the apparent and imminent Danger of the saddest Thraldom and Bondage Civil and Spiritual both of Soul and Body And it was brought about in a very extraordinary manner and by very strange means Whether we consider the greatness and difficulty of the Enterprise or the closeness and secrecy of the Design which must of necessity be communicated at least to the Chief of those who were to assist and engage in it Especially the States of the Vnited Provinces who were then in so much danger themselves and wanted more than their own Forces for their own Defence and Security a kindness never to be forgotten by the English Nation And besides all this the difficulties and disappointments which happen'd after the Design was open and manifest from the uncertainties of Wind and Weather and many other Accidents impossible to be foreseen and prevented And yet in Conclusion a strange concurrence of
Blessed Saviour who knew what was in man better than any man that ever was knowing our great reluctancy and backwardness to the practice of this Duty hath urged it upon us by such forcible and almost violent Arguments that if we have any tenderness for our selves we cannot refuse Obedience to it For he plainly tells us That no Sacrifice that we can offer will appease God towards us so long as we our selves are implacable to Men Verse 23 d. of this Chapter If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first go and be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift To recommend this Duty effectually to us He gives it a preference to all the positive Duties of Religion First go and be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Till this Duty be discharged God will accept of no Service no Sacrifice at our hands And therefore our Liturgy doth with great reason declare it to be a necessary Qualification for our Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament that we be in Love and Charity with our Neighbours because this is a Moral Duty and of eternal Obligation without which no positive part of Religion such as the Sacraments are can be acceptable to GOD especially since in this Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood we expect to have the Forgiveness of our Sins ratified and confirmed to us Which how can we hope for from GOD if we our selves be not ready to forgive one another He shall have judgment without mercy says St. James who hath shewed no mercy And in that excellent Form of Prayer which our Lord himself hath given us He hath taught us so to ask Forgiveness of God as not to expect it from Him if we do not forgive one another So that if we do not practice this Duty as hard as we think it is every time that we put up this Petition to God Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us we send up a terrible Imprecation against our selves and do in effect beg of God not to forgive us And therefore to imprint this matter the deeper upon our minds our Blessed Saviour immediately after the recital of this Prayer hath thought fit to add a very remarkable enforcement of this Petition above all the rest For if says He ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And our Saviour hath likewise in his Gospel represented to us both the reasonableness of this Duty and the Danger of doing contrary to it in a very lively and affecting Parable deliver'd by him to this purpose Concerning a wicked Servant who when his Lord had but just before forgiven him a vast Debt of ten thousand Talents took his poor Fellow-servant by the throat and notwithstanding his humble Submission and earnest Intreaties to be favourable to him haled him to Prison for a trifling Debt of an hundred Pence And the Application which he makes of this Parable at the end of it is very terrible and such as ought never to go out of our minds So likewise says He shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye do not from your hearts forgive every one his brother his trespasses One might be apt to think at first view that this Parable was over done and wanted something of a due Decorum it being hardly credible that a man after he had been so mercifully and generously dealt withal as upon his humble Request to have so huge a Debt so freely forgiven should whilst the memory of so much Mercy was fresh upon him even the very next moment handle his Fellow Servant who had made the same humble submission and request to him which he had done to his Lord with so much roughness and cruelty for so inconsiderable a Sum. This I say would hardly seem credible did we not see in experience how very unreasonable and unmerciful some men are and with what confidence they can ask and expect great mercy from God when they will shew none to Men. The greatness of the Injuries which are done to us is the reason commonly pleaded by us why we cannot forgive them But whoever thou art that makest this an Argument why thou canst not forgive thy Brother lay thine hand upon thy heart and bethink thy self how many more and much greater Offences thou hast been guilty of against God Look up to that Just and Powerful Being that is above and consider well Whether thou dost not both expect and stand in need of more Mercy and Favour from Him than thou canst find in thy heart to shew to thine offending Brother We have all certainly great reason to expect that as we use one another God will likewise deal with us And yet after all this how little is this Duty practis'd among Christians And how hardly are the best of us brought to love our Enemies and to forgive them And this notwithstanding that all our hopes of Mercy and Forgiveness from God do depend upon it How strangely inconsistent is our practice and our hope And what a wide distance is there between our expectations from GOD and our dealings with Men How very partial and unequal are we to hope so easily to be forgiven and yet to be so hard to forgive Would we have GOD for Christ's sake to forgive us those numberless and monstrous provocations which we have been guilty of against His Divine Majesty And shall we not for His sake for whose sake we our selves are forgiven be willing to forgive one another We think it hard to be oblig'd to forgive great Injuries and often repeated and yet Woe be to us all and most miserable shall we be to all Eternity if GOD do not all this to us which we think to be so very hard and unreasonable for us to do to one another I have sometimes wonder'd how it should come to pass that so many persons should be so apt to despair of the Mercy and Forgiveness of GOD to them especially considering what clear and express Declarations GOD hath made of his readiness to forgive our greatest Sins and Provocations upon our sincere Repentance But the wonder will be very much abated when we shall consider with how much difficulty men are brought to remit great Injuries and how hardly we are perswaded to refrain from flying upon those who have given us any considerable provocation So that when men look into themselves and shall carefully observe the motions of their own minds towards those against whom they have been justly exasperated they will see but too much reason to think that Forgiveness is no such easy matter But our comfort in this case is That GOD is not as Man that his ways are not as our ways nor his thoughts
himself but yet for all that it does not seem so clearly to satisfy the objection from the disproportion between the fault and the punishment And therefore I shall endeavour to clear if it may be this matter yet a little further by these following Considerations First Let it be consider'd that the measure of Penalties with respect to Crimes is not only nor always to be taken from the quality and degree of the offence much less from the duration and continuance of it but from the ends and reasons of Government which require such penalties as may if it be possible secure the observation of the Law and deterr men from the breach of it And the reason of this is evident because if it were once declar'd that no man should suffer longer for any Crime than according to the proportion of the time in which it was committed the consequence of this would be that sinners would be better husbands of their time and sin so much the faster that they might have the greater bargain of it and might satisfy for their sins by a shorter punishment And it would be unreasonable likewise upon another account because some of the greatest sins may perhaps be committed in the shortest time for instance Murther the act whereof may be over in a moment but the effects of it are perpetual For he that kills a man once kills him for ever The act of Murther may be committed in a trice but the injury is endless and irreparable So that this objection of temporary Crimes being punish'd with so much longer sufferings is plainly of no force Besides that whoever considers how ineffectual the threatning even of eternal torments is to the greatest part of sinners will soon be satisfy'd that a less penalty than that of eternal sufferings would to the far greatest part of mankind have been in all probability of little or no force And therefore if any thing more terrible than eternal vengeance could have been threatned to the workers of iniquity it had not been unreasonable because it would all have been little enough to deterr men effectually from sin So that what proportion Crimes and Penalties ought to bear to each other is not so properly a consideration of Justice as of Wisdom and Prudence in the Lawgiver And the reason of this seems very plain because the measure of Penalties is not taken from any strict proportion betwixt Crimes and Punishments but from one great end and design of Government which is to secure the observation of wholesome and necessary Laws and consequently whatever Penalties are proper and necessary to this end are not unjust And this Consideration I desire may be more especially observed because it strikes at the very foundation of the objection For if the appointing and apportioning of Penalties to Crimes be not so properly a consideration of Justice but rather of Prudence in the Lawgiver then whatever the disproportion may be between temporary Sins and eternal sufferings Justice cannot be said to be concern'd in it Justice indeed is concern'd that the Righteous and the Wicked should not be treated alike and farther yet that greater sins should have a heavier punishment and that mighty sinners should be mightily tormented but all this may be consider'd and adjusted in the degree and the intenseness of the suffering without making any difference in the duration of it The case then in short stands thus Whenever we break the Laws of God we fall into his hands and lye at his mercy and he may without injustice inflict what punishment upon us he pleaseth And consequently to secure his Law from violation he may beforehand threaten what penalties he thinks fit and necessary to deterr men from the Transgression of it And this is not esteemed unjust among men to punish Crimes that are committed in an instant with the perpetual loss of Estate or Liberty or Life Secondly This will yet appear more reasonable when we consider that after all he that threatens hath still the power of execution in his own hands For there is this remarkable difference between Promises and Threatnings that he who promiseth passeth over a right to another and thereby stands obliged to him in Justice and Faithfulness to make good his promise and if he do not the party to whom the promise is made is not only disappointed but injuriously dealt withal But in threatnings it is quite otherwise He that threatens keeps the right of punishing in his own hand and is not obliged to execute what he hath threatned any further than the reasons and ends of Government do require And he may without any injury to the party threatned remit and abate as much as he pleaseth of the punishment that he hath threatned And because in so doing he is not worse but better than his word no body can find fault or complain of any wrong or injustice thereby done to him Nor is this any impeachment of God's truth and faithfulness any more than it is esteem'd among men a piece of falshood not to do what they have threatned God did absolutely threaten the destruction of the City of Niniveh and his peevish Prophet did understand the threatning to be absolute and was very angry with God for employing him in a message that was not made good But God understood his own right and did what he pleas'd notwithstanding the threatning he had denounc'd and for all Jonah was so touch'd in honour that he had rather have dyed himself than that Niniveh should not have been destroy'd only to have verifi'd his message I know it is said in this case that God hath confirm'd these threatnings by an Oath which is a certain sign of the immutability of his counsel and therefore his Truth is concern'd in the strict and rigorous execution of them The Land of Canaan was a Type of Heaven and the Israelites who rebell'd in the Wilderness were also a Type of impenitent Sinners under the Gospel and consequently the Oath of God concerning the rebellious Israelites when he sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest that is into the Land of Canaan doth equally oblige Him to execute his threatning upon all impenitent Sinners under the Gospel that they shall never enter into the Kingdom of God And this is very truly reason'd so far as the threatning extends which if we attend to the plain words of it beyond which threatnings are never to be stretch'd doth not seem to reach any further than to the exclusion of impenitent Sinners out of Heaven and their falling finally short of the Rest and Happiness of the Righteous Which however directly overthrows the Opinion ascrib'd to Origen that the Devils and wicked men shall all be saved at last God having sworn in his wrath that they shall never enter into his rest But then as to the eternal misery and punishment threatned to wicked men in the other World though it be not necessarily comprehended in this Oath that they shall
case for after all He may do what he will as I have clearly shewn But what is fit for us to do and what we have reason to expect if notwithstanding a plain and express threatning of the vengeance of eternal fire we still go on to treasure up to our selves wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and will desperately put it to the hazard whether and how far God will execute his threatnings upon Sinners in another World And therefore there is no need why we should be very sollicitously concern'd for the honour of God's Justice or Goodness in this matter Let us but take care to believe and avoid the Threatnings of God and then how terrible soever they are no harm can come to us And as for God let us not doubt but that he will take care of his own Honour and that He who is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works will do nothing that is repugnant to his eternal Goodness and Righteousness and that He will certainly so manage things at the Judgment of the Great Day as to be justified in his sayings and to be righteous when we are judged For notwithstanding his Threatnings he hath reserved Power enough in his own hands to do right to all his Perfections So that we may rest assur'd that he will judge the world in righteousness and if it be any-wise inconsistent either with Righteousness or Goodness which He knows much better than we do to make Sinners miserable for ever that He will not do it nor is it credible that he would threaten Sinners with a Punishment which he could not justly execute upon them Therefore Sinners ought always to be afraid of it and reckon upon it And always to remember that there is great Goodness and Mercy in the severity of God's Threatnings and that nothing will more justify the infliction of eternal Torments than the foolish presumption of Sinners in venturing upon them notwithstanding such plain and terrible Threatnings This I am sure is a good Argument to all of us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and with all possible care to endeavour the prevention of that misery which is so terribly severe that at present we can hardly tell how to reconcile it with the Justice and Goodness of God This God heartily desires we would do and hath solemnly sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live So that here is all imaginable care taken to prevent our miscarriage and all the assurance that the God of Truth can give us of his unwillingness to bring this misery upon us And both these I am sure are arguments of great Goodness For what can Goodness do more than to warn us of this misery and earnestly to persuade us to prevent it and to threaten us so very terribly on purpose to deterr us from so great a danger And if this will not prevail with us but we will still go on to despise the riches of God's goodness and long suffering and forbearance what in reason remains for us but a fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation to consume us And what almost can Justice or even Goodness it self do less than to inflict that punishment upon us which with eyes open we would wilfully run upon and which no warning no persuasion no importunity could prevail with us to avoid And when as the Apostle says knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death yet for all that we would venture to commit them And therefore whatever we suffer we do but inherit our own choice and have no reason to complain of God who hath set before us Life and Death eternal Happiness and Misery and hath left us to be the Carvers of our own Fortune And if after all this we will obstinately refuse this happiness and wilfully run upon this Misery Wo unto us for we have rewarded evil to our selves You see then by all that hath been said upon this Argument what we have all reason to expect if we will still go on in our Sins and will not be brought to Repentance You have heard what a terrible Punishment the just God hath threatned to the Workers of Iniquity and that in as plain words as can be used to express anything These that is the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Here are Life and Death Happiness and Misery set before us Not this frail and mortal Life which is hardly worth the having were it not in order to a better and happier Life nor a temporal Death to get above the dread whereof should not methinks be difficult to us were it not for the bitter and terrible consequences of it But an eternal Life and an eternal enjoyment of all things which can render Life pleasant and happy and a perpetual Death which will for ever torment us but never make an end of us These God propounds to our choice And if the consideration of them will not prevail with us to leave our sins and to reform our lives what will Weightier Motives cannot be propos'd to the understanding of Man than everlasting Punishment and Life eternal than the greatest and most durable happiness and the most intolerable and lasting misery that human Nature is capable of Now considering in what terms the Threatnings of the Gospel are express'd we have all the reason in the world to believe that the Punishment of Sinners in another world will be everlasting However we cannot be certain of the contrary time enough to prevent it not till we come there and find by experience how it is And if it prove so it will then be too late either to prevent that terrible Doom or to get it revers'd Some comfort themselves with the uncomfortable and uncertain hope of being discharg'd out of Being and reduc'd to their first Nothing at least after the tedious and terrible suffering of the most grievous and exquisite Torments for innumerable Ages And if this should happen to be true good God! how feeble how cold a comfort is this Where is the Reason and Understanding of Men to make this their last Refuge and Hope and to lean upon it as a matter of mighty consolation that they shall be miserable beyond all imagination and beyond all patience for God knows how many Ages Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge No right sense and judgment of things No consideration and care of themselves no concernment for their own lasting Interest and Happiness Origen I know not for what good reason is said to have been of opinion That the punishment of Devils and wicked men after the Day of Judgment will continue but for a thousand years and that after that time they shall all be finally saved I can very hardly persuade my self that so wise
this and support and carry Her through all the Difficulties of it And Lastly That He would bless them Both with a long Life and a peacefull and happy Reign over us that under them we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty Fifthly Our Fasting and Humiliation should be accompanied with our Alms and Charity to the poor and needy And we should every one of us according to the counsel given by the Prophet to King Nebuchadnezzar break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity Hereby intimating that if there be any way to prevent or remove the Judgments of God and to prolong the tranquillity and happiness of Prince and People a sincere Repentance and a great Charity to them that are in necessity and distress are most likely to prevail with God not only to respite the ruine of a sinful People but to incline Him to thoughts of peace towards them For so he promiseth to the Jews upon their sincere Repentance and earnest Supplication to Him which are always accompanied with Charity to the Poor For I know the thoughts which I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an unexpected end Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart And I have often thought that the extraordinary Charity of this whole Nation and of our pious Princes who are so ready to every good work and such bright and shining Examples in this kind more than once so seasonably extended to the relief of our distressed Brethren who fled hither for refuge from the Rage and Cruelty of their Persecutors I say I have often thought that this very thing next to the infinite Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God hath had a very particular influence upon our preservation and deliverance from those terrible Calamities which were just ready to rush in upon us And what cause have we to thank God who hath allotted to us this more blessed and merciful part to give and not to receive to be free from Persecution our selves that so we might be in a capacity to give refuge and relief to them that were persecuted There are but few that have the faith to believe it but certainly Charity to the Poor is a great security to us in times of evil So David assures us speaking of the Righteous or Charitable Man He shall not says he be afraid in the evil time and in the days of Dearth he shall be satisfied And so likewise in Times of publick Distress when we are beset with cruel and powerful Enemies who if God were not on our side would swallow us up the publick Charity of a Nation hath many times prov'd its best safeguard and shield It shall fight for thee saith the Son of Sirach speaking of the Charity of Alms against thine Enemy more than a mighty shield and strong spear And of this as I said before I doubt not but We of this Nation by the great Mercy and Goodness of God to us have had happy experience in our late wonderful Deliverance under the Conduct and Valour of one of the best and bravest of Princes to whom by too many among us the most unworthy and unthankful returns have been made for all the unwearied pains he hath undergone and for the many desperate hazards to which he hath exposed himself for our sakes that ever were made to so great and generous a Benefactor To so great a Benefactor I say not only to these Nations but even to all Europe in asserting and maintaining their Liberties against the insolent pride and unjust encroachments of one of the greatest Oppressors the World hath known for many Ages Of whom it may be said as Job doth of the Leviathan Vpon the earth there is not his like I am glad I cannot apply what immediately follows That he is made without fear but surely the next words are apposite enough He beholdeth all high things and is King of all the children of pride And yet He that is higher than the highest even He that sitteth in the Heavens doth laugh at him for He seeth that his Day is coming To conclude this Particular If we would have our Prayers ascend up to Heaven and find acceptance there our Alms must go along with them So the Angel intimates when he says to Cornelius Thy Prayers and thine Alms are gone up for a memorial before God Thy Prayers and thine Alms they must go together if we desire that our Prayers should be effectual And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Fast which God hath chosen and which is acceptable to Him makes Charity and Alms a most essential part of it Is it not says he to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and He shall say Here I am Sixthly and Lastly We should prosecute our Repentance and good Resolutions to the actual Reformation and Amendment of our Lives For in this Repentance doth mainly consist This is the proper fruit and effect of all our Humiliation and good Resolutions to forsake our sins and to become better for the future more pious and devout towards God more sober and chast with regard to our selves more just and charitable more humble and meek towards all men In a word more innocent more useful and more holy in all manner of conversation And without this all our Fasting and Humiliation our most earnest Prayers and Supplications will signifie nothing All our Sorrow and Tears will be but as water spilt upon the ground and will not turn to any account either to save our own Souls or to preserve this untoward Generation this crooked and perverse Nation from ruin and destruction So God tells Solomon that this is the only way to appease and reconcile Him to a sinful People If my People which is called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear in Heaven and forgive their sin and heal their Land And if this were the happy effect of our Prayers and Humiliation this Day to turn us from our wicked ways God would then turn away his anger from us and as he promised to the Jews by the Prophet Zachary He would turn these our Monthly Fasts into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts as he hath in a great measure already done Blessed be his great and glorious Name But if we will not hearken and obey can we expect that God should deliver us from the hands of our
Soul and so long as that remains unwounded the spirit of a man can bear his infirmities God is intimate to our Souls and hath secret ways whereby to convey the joys and comforts of his Holy Spirit into our Hearts under the bitterest afflictions and sharpest sufferings He can enable us by his Grace to possess our souls in patience when all other things are taken from us When there is nothing but trouble about us He can give us peace and joy in believing When we are persecuted afflicted and tormented He can give us that ravishing sight of the Glories of another World that stedfast assurance of a future Blessedness as shall quite extinguish all sense of present sufferings How did many of the primitive Christian Martyrs in the midst of their torments and under the very pangs of death rejoice in the hope of the glory of God There are none of us but may happen to fall into those circumstances of danger and of bodily pains and sufferings as to have no hopes of relief and comfort but from God none in all the World to trust to but Him only And in the greatest Evils that can befall us in this life He is a sure refuge and sanctuary and to repeat the words of the Psalmist after the Text When our heart fails and our strength fails God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Now what would any of us do in such a Case if it were not for God Humane nature is liable to desperate straits and exigencies And he is not happy who is not provided against the worst that may happen It is sad to be reduced to such a condition as to be destitute of all comfort and hope And yet men may be brought to that extremity that if it were not for God they would not know which way to turn themselves or how to entertain their thoughts with any comfortable considerations under their present anguish All men naturally resort to God in extremity and cry out to him for help Even the most profane and Atheistical when they are destitute of all other comfort will run to God and take hold of him and cling about him But God hath no pleasure in fools in those who neglect and despise him in their prosperity though they owe that also entirely to him but when the evil day comes then they lay hold of him as their only refuge When all things go well with them God is not in all their thoughts but in their affliction they will seek him early Then they will cry Lord Lord but he will say to them in that day Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I know you not Here will be the great unhappiness of such persons that God will then appear terrible to them so as they shall not be able when they look up to him to abide his frowns And at the same time that they are forc'd to acknowledge him and to supplicate to him for mercy and forgiveness they shall be ready to despair of it Then those terrible threatnings of God's Word will come to their minds Because I called and ye refused I stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them To which I will add that terrible Passage in the Prophet concerning the perverse and obstinate Jews They are a People of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour And men are miserable Creatures indeed when God their Maker doth abandon them and hath so far hardened his heart against them that he can have no pity and compassion for them Seventhly and Lastly Which is consequent upon all the rest God is such a Good as can give perfect rest and tranquillity to our minds And that which cannot do this though it had all the Properties before mentioned cannot make us happy For he is not happy who does not think himself so what-ever cause he may have to think so Now what in reason can give us disquiet if we do firmly believe that there is a God and that his Providence rules and governs all things for the best and that God is all that to good Men which hath now been said of Him Why should not our minds be in perfect repose when we are secure of the chief Good and have found out that which can make us happy and is willing to make us so if we be not wanting to our selves and by our wilful obstinacy and rebellion against him do not oppose and frustrate this design If a considerate Man were permitted to his own choice to wish the greatest good to himself that he could possibly devise after he had searched Heaven and Earth the result of all his wishes would be that there were just such a Being as we must necessarily conceive God to be Nor would he chuse any other Friend or Benefactor any other Protector for himself or Governor for the whole World than infinite Power conducted and managed by infinite Wisdom and Goodness which is the true Notion of a God After all his enquiry he would come to the Psalmist's conclusion here in the Text Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Vain Man is apt to seek for happiness elsewhere but this proceeds from want of due consideration For when all things are well weigh'd and all accounts rightly cast up and adjusted we shall at last settle in David's resolution of that great Question What is the chief Good of man There be many says he that say Who will shew us any good That is Men are generally inquisitive after happiness but greatly divided in their Opinions about it Most men place it in the present enjoyments of this World but David for his part pitches upon God in whom he was fully convinc'd that the happiness of Man does consist There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and Wine increased The great joy of the men of this World is in a plentiful Harvest and the abundance of the good things of this life But David had
the land of the living unless it be that one infallible Point of Wisdom to which God directs every man and of which every man is capable viz. Religion and the Fear of God Vnto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Secondly When knowledge and wisdom are with great difficulty in any competent measure attain'd how easily are they lost By a disease by a blow upon the head by a sudden and violent passion which may disorder the strongest Brain and confound the clearest Understanding in a moment Nay even the excess of knowledge and wisdom especially if attended with pride as too often it is is very dangerous and does many times border upon distraction and run into madness Like an Athletick constitution and perfect state of health which is observ'd by Physicians to verge upon some dangerous disease and to be a forerunner of it And when a man's Understanding is once craz'd and shatter'd how are the finest notions and thoughts of the wisest man blunder'd and broken perplex'd and entangled like a puzled lump of silk so that the man cannot draw out a thought to any length but is forc'd to break it off and to begin at another end Upon all which and many more accounts Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom which is so very imperfect so hard to be attain'd and yet so easie to be lost 2. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might Which whether it be meant of natural strength of body or of military force and power how weak and imperfect is it and how frequently foil'd by an unequal strength If we understand it of the natural strength of men's bodies how little reason is there to glory in that in which so many of the Creatures below us do by so many degrees excell us In that which may so many ways be lost by sickness by a maime and by many other external Accidents and which however will decay of it self and by Age sink into infirmity and weakness And how little reason is there to glory in that which is so frequently foil'd by an unequal strength of which Goliah is a famous Instance When he defied the Host of Israel and would needs have the matter decided by single Combate God inspired David to accept the Challenge who though he was no wise comparable to him in strength and would have been nothing in his hands in close fight yet God directed him to assail him at a distance by a weapon that was too hard for him a stone out of a sling which struck the Giant in the forehead and brought his unwieldy bulk down to the Earth Or if by might we understand military force and power how little likewise is that to be gloried in considering the uncertain events of War and how very often and remarkably the Providence of God doth interpose to cast the Victory on the unlikely Side It is Solomon's observation that such are the interpositions of Divine Providences in humane Affairs that the Event of things is many times not at all answerable to the power and probability of second Causes I returned says he and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong And one way among many others whereby the Providence of God doth often interpose to decide the Events of War is by a remarkable change of the Seasons and Weather in favour of one Side As by sending great Snows or violent Rains to hinder the early motion and march of a powerful Army to the disappointment or prejudice of some great Design By remarkable Winds and Storms at Sea to prevent the Conjunction of a powerful Fleet And by governing all these for a long time together so visibly to the Advantage of one Side us utterly to defeat the well laid design of the other Of all which by the great mercy and goodness of God to us we have had the happy experience in all our late signal Deliverances and Victories And here I cannot but take notice of a passage to this purpose in the Book of Job Which may deserve our more attentive regard and consideration because I take this Book to be incomparably the most ancient of all other and much elder than Moses And yet it is written with as lively a sense of the Providence of God and as noble Figures and Flights of Eloquence as perhaps any Book extant in the World The Passage I mean is where God to convince Job of his ignorance in the secrets of Nature and Providence poseth him with many hard Questions and with this amongst the rest Hast thou entred into the treasures of the Snow hast thou seen the treasures of the Hail which I have reserv'd against the time of trouble against the Day of Battel and War The meaning of which is that the Providence of God doth sometimes interpose to determine the Events of War by governing the Seasons and the Weather and by making the Snows and Rains the Winds and Storms to fulfil his word and to execute his pleasure Of this we have a remarkable Instance in the defeat of Sisera's mighty Army against whom in the Song of Deborah the Stars are said to have fought in their courses The expression is Poetical but the plain meaning of it is that by mighty and sudden Rains which the common Opinion did ascribe to a special influence of the Planets the River of Kishon near which Sisera's Army lay was so raised and swoln as to drown the greatest part of that huge Host For so Deborah explains the fighting of the Stars in their courses against Sisera They fought says she from Heaven the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera the River of Kishon swept them away As if the Stars which were supposed by their influence to have caused those sudden and extraordinary Rains had set themselves in Battel-array against Sisera and his Army Therefore let not the mighty man glory in his might which is so small in it self but in opposition to God is weakness and nothing The weakness of God says St. Paul is stronger than men All power to do mischief is but impotence and therefore no matter of boasting Why boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou art able to do mischief the goodness of God endureth continually The goodness of God is too hard for the pride and malice of man and will last and hold out when that has tir'd and spent it self Thirdly Let not the rich man glory in his riches In these men are apt to pride themselves even the meanest and poorest spirits who have nothing to be proud of but their money when they have got good store of that together how will they swell and strut as if because they are rich and increased in goods they wanted nothing But we may do well to consider that Riches are things without us not the real Excellencies of our Nature but
the foundation of that which is reveal'd And therefore nothing can in Reason be admitted to be a Revelation from God which does plainly contradict his essential Perfections Upon this Principle a great many Doctrines are without more a-do to be rejected because they do plainly and at first sight contradict the Divine Nature and Perfections I will give a few Instances instead of many that might be given In vertue of this Principle I cannot believe upon the pretended Authority or Infallibility of any Person or Church that Force is a fit Argument to produce Faith No man shall ever persuade me no not the Bishop of Meaux with all his Eloquence that Prisons and Tortures Dragoons and the Galleys are proper means to convince the Understanding and either Christian or Humane Methods of converting men to the true Religion For the same Reason I cannot believe that God would not have men to understand their publick Prayers nor the Lessons of Scripture which are read to them Because a Lesson is something that is to be learnt and therefore a Lesson that is not to be understood is nonsense for if it be not understood how can it be learnt As little can I believe that God who caused the Holy Scriptures to be written for the instruction of mankind did ever intend that they should be lock'd up and concealed from the People in an unknown Tongue Least of all can I believe that Doctrine of the Council of Trent That the saving Efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest that administers them Which is to say that though the People believe and live never so well yet they may be damn'd by shoals and whole Parishes together at the pleasure of the Priest And this for no other reason but because the Priest is so cross and so cruel that he will not intend to save them Now can any man believe this that hath any tolerable Notion either of the Goodness or Justice of God May we not appeal to God in this as Abraham did in another Case Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked That be far from thee to do after this manner Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Much more to destroy the righteous for the wicked and that righteous and innocent People should lie at the mercy and will of a wicked and perverse Priest to be sav'd or damn'd by him as he thinks fit That be far from thee Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right For to drive the argument to the head if this be to do right there is no possibility of doing wrong Thus in things which are more obscure we should govern all our Reasonings concerning God and Religion by that which is clear and unquestionable and should with Moses lay down this for a certain Principle All his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He And say with St. Paul Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid And again We know that the Judgment of God is according to truth 2 ly The other Inference is this That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness And therefore nothing but our conformity to it can make us happy And for this reason to understand and know God is our great excellency and glory because it is necessary to our imitation of Him who is the best and happiest Being And so far as we are from resembling God so far are we distant from Happiness and the true temper of the Blessed For Goodness is an essential ingredient of Happiness and as without Goodness there can be no true Majesty and Greatness so neither any true Felicity and Blessedness Now Goodness is a generous disposition of mind to diffuse and communicate it self by making others to partake of our Happiness in such degrees as they are capable For no Being is so happy as it might be that hath not the power and the pleasure to make others happy This surely is the highest pleasure I had almost said pride of a great Mind In vain therefore do we dream of Happiness in any thing without us Happiness must be within us the foundation of it must be laid in the inward frame and disposition of our spirits And the very same causes and ingredients which make up the Happiness of God must be found in us though in a much inferiour degree or we cannot be happy They understand not the Nature of Happiness who hope for it upon any other terms He who is the Authour and Fountain of Happiness cannot convey it to us by any other way than by planting in us such dispositions of mind as are in truth a kind of participation of the Divine Nature and by enduing us with such qualities as are the necessary Materials of Happiness And a man may assoon be well without Health as happy without Goodness If a wicked man were taken up into Heaven yet if he still continue the same bad man that he was before coelum non animum mutavit he may have chang'd the Climate and be gone into a far Country but because he carries himself still along with him he will still be miserable from himself Because the man's mind is not chang'd all the while which would signifie a thousand times more to his happiness than change of place or of any outward circumstances whatsoever For a bad man hath a Fiend in his own Breast and the fewel of Hell in his guilty Conscience There is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary and essential to Happiness and that is Holiness and Goodness which is the very Nature of God and so far as any man departs from this temper so far he removes himself and runs away from happiness And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of a man 's own mind which is naturally a torment to it self And till this be cur'd it is as impossible for him to be happy as for a Limb that is out of joint to be at ease because the man's Spirit is out of order and off the hinges and as it were toss'd from its Center and till that be set right and restored to its proper and natural state the man will be perpetually unquiet and can have no rest and peace within himself The wicked saith the Prophet is like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest There is no peace saith my God to the wicked No peace with God no peace with his own mind for a bad man is at perpetual Discord and Wars within himself And hence as St. James tells us come Wars and Fightings without us even from our Lusts which warr in our members And now that I have mention'd Wars and Fightings without us this cannot but bring to mind the great and glorious Occasion of this Day Which gives us manifold Cause of Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God For several wonderful Mercies and Deliverances and
more particularly for a most glorious Victory at Sea vouchsafed to Their Majesties Fleet in this last Summer's Expedition For several great Mercies and Deliverances For a wonderful Deliverance indeed from a sudden Invasion design'd upon us by the inveterate and implacable Enemies of our Peace and Religion which by the merciful Providence of God was happily and strangely prevented when it was just upon the point of execution Next for the preservation of our Gracious Sovereign from that horrid and most barbarous Attempt design'd upon his Sacred Person And from those great and manifold Dangers to which he was exposed in his late tedious Expedition And for His safe and most welcome Return to us And lastly For a most glorious Victory at Sea The greatest and the cheapest that ever the Sun saw from his first setting out to run his Course The Opportunity indeed of this Victory was through the rashness and confidence of our Enemies by the wise Providence of God put into our hands But the improvement of this Opportunity into so great and happy a Victory we owe under God to the matchless Conduct and Courage of the Brave Admiral and to the invincible Resolution and Valour of the Captains and Seamen This great Deliverance from the design'd Invasion and this glorious Victory God vouchsaf'd to us at Home whilst His Sacred Majesty was so freely hazarding his Royal Person abroad in the Publick Cause of the Rights and Liberties of almost all Europe And now what may God justly expect from us as a meet return for his Goodness to us What but that we should glorifie Him first by offering praise and thanksgiving and then by ordering our conversation aright that he may still delight to shew us his Salvation God might have stood aloof from us in the Day of our distress and have said to us as he once did to the People of Israel so often have I delivered you from the hands of your Enemies but ye have still provok'd me more and more Wherefore I will deliver you no more He might have said of us as he did of the same People I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be For they are a very froward generation children in whom is no faith Our resolutions and promises of better obedience are not to be trusted all our Repentance and Righteousness are but as the morning cloud and like the early dew which passeth away Nay methinks God seems now to say to us as he did of old to Jerusalem Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited We are here met together this Day to pay our Solemn acknowledgments to the God of our Salvation who hath shewed strength with his Arm and hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart Even to him that exerciseth loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth In Him will we glory as our sure Refuge and Defence as our Mighty Deliverer and the Rock of our Salvation And now I have only to entreat your patience a little longer whilst I apply what hath been discoursed upon this Text a little more closely to the Occasion of this Day I may be tedious but I will not be long And blessed be God for this happy Occasion The greatest England ever had and in the true consequences of it perhaps the greatest that Europe ever had of Praise and Thanksgiving You have heard two sorts of Persons described in the Text by very different Characters The One that glory in their Wisdom and Might and Riches The other that glory in this that they understand and know God to be the Lord which exerciseth loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth And we have seen these two Characters exemplified or rather drawn to the Life in this present Age. We who live in this Western part of Christendom have seen a mighty Prince by the just permission of God raised up to be a Terrour and Scourge to all his Neighbours A Prince who had in perfection all the Advantages mentioned in the former part of the Text And who in the opinion of many who had been long dazzled with his Splendour and Greatness hath pass'd for many years for the most Politick and Powerful and Richest Monarch that hath appear'd in these parts of the World for many Ages Who hath govern'd his Affairs by the deepest and steddiest Counsels and the most refin'd Wisdom of this World A Prince mighty and powerful in his Preparations for War formidable for his vast and well disciplin'd Armies and for his great Naval Force And who had brought the Art of War almost to that perfection as to be able to Conquer and do his business without fighting A Mystery hardly known to former Ages and Generations And all this Skill and Strength united under one absolute Will not hamper'd or bound up by any restraints of Law or Conscience A Prince that commands the Estates of all his Subjects and of all his Conquests which hath furnish'd him with an almost inexhaustible Treasure and Revenue And One who if the World doth not greatly mistake him hath sufficiently gloried in all these Advantages and even beyond the rate of a mortal man But not knowing God to be the Lord which exercises loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the Earth How hath the pride of all his Glory been stain'd by Tyranny and Oppression by Injustice and Cruelty by enlarging his Dominions without Right and by making War upon his Neighbours without Reason or even colour of Provocation And this in a more Barbarous manner than the most Barbarous Nations ever did carrying Fire and Desolation wheresoever he went and laying wast many and great Cities without necessity and without pity And now behold what a terrible Rebuke the Providence of God hath given to this mighty Monarch in the full Carrier of his Fortune and Fury The consideration whereof brings to my thoughts those Passages in the Prophet concerning old Babylon that standing and perpetual Type of the great Oppressors and Persecutors of God's true Church and Religion How is the Oppressor ceased the exactor of gold ceased He who smote the People in wrath with a continual stroke he who ruled the Nations in anger is himself persecuted and none hindreth The whole Earth is at rest and is quiet and breaks forth into singing The grave beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee even all the Captains of the Earth it hath raised up from their Thrones all the Kings of the Nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we are art thou also become like unto us how art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning How art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my
that ever were upon Earth shall then flee from the face of Him whom they have so often blasphemed and denied and shall so far despair of finding mercy with Him in that Day who would sue to Him for it no sooner that they shall address themselves to the Mountains and Rocks as being more pitiful and exorable than He to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb From the wrath of the Lamb to signify to us that nothing is more terrible than Meekness and Patience when they are throughly provok'd and turn'd into Fury In such dreadful confusion shall all impenitent Sinners be when they shall be surpriz'd by that Great and terrible Day of the Lord And the Case of a dying Sinner who would take no care in the time of his Life and Health to make preparation for another World is not much more hopeful and comfortable For alas how little is it that a sick and dying man can do in such a strait of time in the midst of so much pain and weakness of Body and of such confusion and amazement of Mind With what heart can he set about so great a Work for which there is so little time With what face can he apply himself to God in this extremity whom he hath so disdainfully neglected all the days of his Life And how can he have the confidence to hope that God will hear his cries and regard his tears that are forc'd from him in this day of his necessity when he is conscious to himself that in that long day of God's Grace and Patience he turned a deaf ear to all his merciful invitations and rejected the counsel of God against himself In a word how can he who would not know in that his Day the things which belonged to his peace expect any other but that they should now be for ever hid from his eyes which are ready to be clos'd in utter darkness I will not pronounce any thing concerning the impossibility of a death-bed Repentance But I am sure that it is very difficult and I believe very rare We have but one Example that I know of in the whole Bible of the Repentance of a dying Sinner I mean that of the penitent Thief upon the Cross And the circumstances of his Case are so peculiar and extraordinary that I cannot see that it affords any ground of hope and encouragement to men in ordinary Cases We are not like to suffer in the company of the Son of God and of the Saviour of the World and if we could do so it is not certain that we should behave our selves towards Him so well as the penitent Thief did and make so very good an end of so very bad a Life And the Parable in the Text is so far from giving any encouragement to a Death bed Repentance and Preparation that it rather represents their Case as desperate who put off their Preparation to that Time How ineffectual all that the foolish Virgins could do at that time did in the conclusion prove is set forth to us at large in the Parable They wanted Oyl but could neither borrow nor buy it They would then fain have had it and ran about to get it but it was not to be obtain'd neither by entreaty nor for money First they apply themselves to the wise Virgins for a share in the over-plus of their Graces and Virtues the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out but the wise answered not so lest there be not enough for us and you The wise Virgins it seems knew of none they had to spare And then they are represented as ironically sending the foolish Virgins to some famous Market where this Oyl was pretended to be sold go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves And as dying and desperate persons are apt to catch at every twig and when they can see no hopes of being saved are apt to believe every one that will give them any so these foolish Virgins follow the advice and whilst they went to buy the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut and afterwards came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us but he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not You see how little or rather no encouragement at all there is from any the least circumstance in this Parable for those who have delay'd their Preparation for another World till they be overtaken by Death or Judgment to hope by any thing that they can then do by any importunity which they can then use to gain admission into Heaven Let those consider this with fear and trembling who forget God and neglect Religion all their Life-time and yet feed themselves with vain hopes by some Device or other to be admitted into Heaven at last Fifthly I observe that there is no such thing as Works of Super-erogation that is that no man can do more than needs and than is his duty to do by way of Preparation for another World For when the foolish Virgins would have begg'd of the wise some Oyl for their Lamps the wise answered not so lest there be not enough for us and you It was only the foolish Virgins that in the time of their extremity and when they were conscious that they wanted that which was absolutely necessary to qualify them for admission into Heaven who had entertain'd this idle Conceit that there might be an over-plus of Grace and Merit in others sufficient to supply their want But the wise knew not of any they had to spare but supposed all that they had done or could possibly do to be little enough to qualify them for the glorious Reward of eternal Life Not so say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest at any time that is lest when there should be need and occasion all that we have done or could do should be little enough for our selves And in this Point they had been plainly instructed by the Bridegroom himself But ye when ye have done all say we are unprofitable servants and have done nothing but what was our duty to do And yet this Conceit of the foolish Virgins as absurd as it is hath been taken up in good earnest by a grave Matron who gives out her self to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and the only infallible Oracle of Truth I mean the Church of Rome whose avowed Doctrine it is that there are some Persons so excellently good that they may do more than needs for their own Salvation And therefore when they have done as much for themselves as in strict duty they are bound to do and thereby have paid down a full and valuable consideration for Heaven and as much as in equal justice between God and Man it is worth that then they may go to work again