by a vigorous resolution and an unwearied diligence and a patient continuance in well doing might win and wear a more glorious Crown and be fit to receive a more ample reward from his bounty and goodness yea in some sense I may say from his justice For God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour and love He will fully consider all the pains that any of us take in his service and all the difficulties that we struggle with out of love to God and clashing of our duty with our inclination is I hope fully answered Since God hath provided so powerfull and effectual a remedy against our natural impotency and infirmity by the Grace of the Gospel And though to those who have wilfully contracted vicious habits a religious and vertuous course of life be very difficult yet the main difficulty lyes in our first entrance upon it And when that is over the ways of goodness are as easy as it is sit any thing should be that is so excellent and that hath the encouragement of so glorious a reward Custome will reconcile men almost to any thing but there are those charms in the ways of wisedom and vertue that a little acquaintance and conversation with them will soon make them more delightfull than any other course And who would grudge any pains and trouble to bring himself into so safe and happy a condition After we have tryed both courses of Religion and Profaneness of Vertue and Vice we shall certainly find that nothing is so wise so easie and so comfortable as to be vertuous we are inwardly convinced we ought to do Nor would I desire more of any man in this matter than to follow the soberest convictions of his own mind and to do that which upon the most serious consideration at all times in prosperity and affliction in sickness and health in the time of life and at the hour of death he judgeth wisest and safest for him to do I proceed to the Branch of the Objection that the Laws of Religion and particularly of the Christian Religion are a heavy yoke laying too great a restraint upon humane nature and entrenching too much upon the pleasures and liberty of it There was I confess some pretence for this Objection against the Jewish Religion which by the multitude of its positive Institutions and external observances must needs have been very burthensome And the same Objection lyes against the Church of Rome who as they have handled Christianity by the unreasonable number of their needless and senseless Ceremonies have made the yoke of Christ heavier than that of Moses and the Gospel a more carnal Commandment than the Law So that Christianity is lost among them in the trappings and accoutrements of it with which instead of adorning Religion they have strangely disguised it and quite stifled it in the crowd of external Rites and Ceremonies But the pure Christian Religion as it was delivered by our Saviour hath hardly any thing in it that is positive except the two Sacraments which are not very troublesome neither but very much for our comfort and advantage because they convey and confirm to us the great blessings and privileges of our Religion In other things Christianity hath hardly imposed any other Laws upon us but what are enacted in our Natures or are agreeable to the prime and fundamental Laws of it nothing but what every man's reason either dictates to him to be necessary or approves as highly fit and reasonable But we do most grosly mistake the nature of pleasure and liberty if we promise them to our selves in any evil and wicked course For upon due search and tryal it will be found that true pleasure and perfect freedom are no where to be found but in the practice of vertue and in the service of God The Laws of Religion do not abridge us of any pleasure that a wise man can desire and safely enjoy I mean without a greater evil and trouble consequent upon it The pleasure of commanding our appetites and governing our passions by the rules of Reason which are the Laws of God is infinitely to be preferred before any sensual pleasure whatsoever Because it is the pleasure of wifedom and discretion and gives us the satisfaction of having done that which is best and fittest for reasonable Creatures to do Who would not rather chuse to govern himself as Scipio did amidst all the temptations and opportunities of sensual pleasure which his power and victories presented to him than to wallow in all the delights of sense Nothing is more certain in reason and experience than that every inordinate appetite and affection is a punishment to it self and is perpetually crossing its own pleasure and defeating its own satisfaction by over-shooting the mark it aims at For instance Intemperance in eating and drinking instead of delighting and satisfying nature doth but load and cloy it and instead of quenching a natural thirst which it is extremely pleasant to do creates an unnatural one which is troublesome and endless The pleasure of Revenge as soon as it is executed turns into grief and pity guilt and remorse and a thousand melancholy wishes that we had retrained our selves from so unreasonable an Act. And the same is as evident in other sensual excesses not so fit to be dedescribed We may trust Epicurus for this that there can be no true pleasure without temperance in the use of pleasure And God and Reason have set us no other bounds concerning the use of sensual pleasures but that we take care not to be injurious to our selves or others in the kind or degree of them And it is very visible that all sensual excess is naturally attended with a double inconvenience As it goes beyond the limits of nature it begets bodily pains and diseases As it transgresseth the rules of Reason and Religion it breeds guilt and remorse in the mind And these are beyond comparison the two greatest evils in this world a diseased body and a discontented mind And in this I am sure I speak to the inward feeling and experience of men and say nothing but what every vicious man finds and hath a more lively sense of than is to be expressed by words When all is done there is no pleasure comparable to that of Innocency and freedom from the stings of a guilty conscience This is a pure and spiritual pleasure much above any sensual delight And yet among all the delights of sense that of health which is the natural consequent of a sober and chaâ—te and regular life is a sensual pleasure far beyond that of any Vice For it is the life of life and that which gives a gratefull relish to all our other enjoyments It is not indeed so violent and transporting a pleasure but it is pure and even and lasting and hath no guilt and regret no sorrow and trouble in it or after it which is a worm that infallibly breeds in all vicious and unlawfull pleasures and
and mediation of Jesus Christ as he hath given us Commandment because there is but one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus If it seem evil unto you to have the liberty to serve God in a Language you can understand and to have the free use of the Holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto Salvation and to have the Sacraments of our Religion entirely administred to us as our Lord did institute and appoint And on the other hand if it seem good to us to put our necks once more under that yoke which our Fathers were not able to bear If it be really a Preferment to a Prince to hold the Pope's Stirrup and a Privilege to be deposed by him at his pleasure and a courtesie to be kill'd at his command If to pray without Understanding and to obey without Reason and to believe against Sense if Ignorance and implicit Faith and an Inquisition be in good earnest such charming and desirable things Then welcome Popery which wherever thou comest dost infallibly bring all these wonderfull Privileges and Blessings along with thee But the Question is not now about the choice but the change of our Religion after we have been so long settled in the quiet possession and enjoyment of it Men are very loth to change even a false Religion Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods And surely there is much more reason why we should be tenacious of the Truth and hold fast that which is good We have the best Religion in the World the very same which the Son of God revealed which the Apostles planted and confirmed by Miracles and which the noble Army of Martyrs sealed with their Blood And we have retrench'd from it all false Doctrines and superstitious Practices which have been added since And I think we may without immodesty say That upon the plain square of Scripture and Reason of the Tradition and Practice of the first and best Ages of the Christian Church we have fully justified Our Religion and made it evident to the World that our Adversaries are put to very hard shifts and upon a perpetual disadvantage in the defence of Theirs I wish it were as easie for us to justifie our Lives as our Religion I do not mean in comparison of our Adversaries for that as bad as we are I hope we are yet able to do but in comparison of the Rules of our holy Religion from which we are infinitely swerv'd which I would to God we all did seriously consider and lay to heart I say in comparison of the Rules of our Holy Religion which teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World in expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. JOSHUA XXIV 15. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve THese words as I have already declared in the former Discourse are the last counsel and advice which Joshua gave to the People of Israel after he had safely conducted them into the Land of Canaan And that he might more effectually perswade them to continue stedfast in the worship of the true God by an eloquent kind of insinuation he doth as it were once more set them at liberty and leave them to their own choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve The plain sense of which Words may be resolved into this Proposition That notwithstanding all the prejudices and objections against the true Religion yet it hath those real advantages on its side that it may safely be referred to any impartial and considerate man's choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord intimating that to some persons and upon some accounts it may seem so but when the matter is throughly examined the resolution and choice cannot be difficult nor require any long deliberation Chuse you this day whom you will serve The true Religion hath always layn under some prejudices with partial arid inconsiderate men arising chiefly from these two Causes the prepossessions of a false Religion and the contrariety of the true Religion to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice First From the prepossessions of a false Religion which hath always been wont to lay claim to Antiquity and Vniversality and to charge the true Religion with Novelty and Singularity And both these are intimated before the Text Put away the Gods whom your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood and in Egypt and chuse you this day whom you will serve It was pretended that the worship of Idols was the ancient Religion of the world of those great Nations the Egyptians and Chaldeans and of all the Nations round about them But this hath already been considered at large Secondly There are another sort of prejudices against Religion more apt to stick with men of better sense and reason and these arise principally from the contrariety of the true Religion to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice It is pretended that Religion is a heavy yoke and lays too great a restraint upon humane Nature and that the Laws of it bear too hard upon the general inclinations of mankind I shall not at present meddle with the speculative Objections against Religion upon account of the pretended unreasonableness of many things in point of Belief because the contrariety of the true Religion to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice is that which in truth lies at the bottom of Atheism and Insidelity and raises all that animosity which is in the minds of bad men against Religion and exasperates them to oppose it with all their wit and malice Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil And if this prejudice were but once removed and men were in some measure reconciled to the practice of Religion the speculative Objections against it would almost vanish of themselves for there wants little else to enable a man to answer them but a willingness of mind to have them answered and that we have no interest and inclination to the contrary And therefore I shall at present wholly apply my self to remove this prejudice against Religion from the contrariety of it to the inclinations of men and the uneasiness of it in point of practice And there are two parts of this Objection 1st That a great part of the Laws of Religion do thwart the natural inclinations of men which may reasonably be supposed to be from God And 2ly That all of them together are a heavy yoke and do lay too great a restraint upon humane Nature intrenching too much upon the pleasures and liberty of it I.
That a great part of the Laws of Religion do thwart the natural inclinations of men which may reasonably be supposed to be from God So that God seems to have set our nature and our duty at variance to have given us appetites and inclinations one way and Laws another which if it were true must needs render the practice of Religion very grievous and uneasie The force of this Objection is very smartly expressed in those celebrated Verses of a Noble Poet of our own which are so frequently in the mouths of many who are thought to bear no good will to Religion O wearisome condition of Humanity Born under one Law to another bound Vainly begot and yet forbidden Vanity Created sick commanded to be sound If Nature did not take delight in blood She would have made more easie ways to good So that this Objection would sain charge the sins of men upon God first upon account of the evil inclinations of our Nature and then of the contrariety of our duty to those inclinations And from the beginning man hath always been apt to lay the blame of his faults where it can least lye upon goodness and perfection it self The very first sin that ever man was guilty of he endeavoured to throw upon God The woman whom thou gavest me saith Adam she gave me of the tree and I did eat And his posterity are still apt to excuse themselves the same way But to return a particular answer to this Objection 1. We will acknowledge so much of it as is true That there is a great degeneracy and corruption of humane Nature from what it was originally framed when it came out of God's hands of which the Scripture gives us this account that it was occasioned by the voluntary transgression of a plain and easy Command given by God to our first Parents And this weakness contracted by the fall of our first Parents naturally descends upon us their Posterity and visibly discovers it self in our inclinations to evil and impotence to that which is good And of this the heathen Philosophers from the light of nature and their own experience and observation of themselves and others were very sensible that humane Nature was very much declined from its primitive rectitude and sunk into a weak and drooping and sickly State which they called a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the moulting of the wings of the soul But yet they were so just and reasonable as not to charge this upon God but upon some corruption and impurity contracted by the Soul in a former State before its union with the Body For the descent of the Soul into these gross earthly Bodies they looked upon as partly the punishment of faults committed in a former State and partly as the opportunity of a new tryal in order to its purgation and recovery And this was the best account they were able to give of this matter without the Light of Divine Revelation So that the degeneracy of humane Nature is universally acknowledged and God acquitted from being the cause of it But however the posterity of Adam do all partake of the weakness contracted by his fall and do still labour under the miseries and inconveniences of it But then this degeneracy is not total For though our faculties be much weakned and disordered yet they are not destroyed nor wholly perverted Our natural Judgment and Conscience doth still direct to us what is good and what we ought to do and the impressions of the natural Law as to the great lines of our duty are still legible upon our hearts So that the Law written in God's Word is not contrary to the Law written upon our hearts And therefore it is not truly said that we are born under one Law and bound to another But the great disorder is that our infeririour faculties our sensitive appetite and passions are broke loose and have got head of our Reason and are upon all occasions apt to rebel I against it but our Judgment still dictates the very same things which the Law of God doth enjoyn It is likewise very visible that the sad effects of this degeneracy do not appear equally and alike in all whether from the better or worse temper of our Bodies or from some other more secret cause I shall not determine because I know not But that there is a difference is evident for though a proneness to evil and some seeds of it be in all yet we may plainly discover in many very early and forward inclinations to some kinds of vertue and goodness which being cultivated by Education may under the ordinary influence of God's grace be carried on with great case to great perfection And there are others who are not so strongly bent to that which is evil but that by good instruction and example in their tender years they may be swayed the other way and without great difficulty formed to goodness There are some indeed which is the hardest case in whom there do very early appear strong propensions and inclinations to evil especially to some particular kinds of vice But the case of these is not desperate though greater attention and care and a much more prudent management is required in the education of such persons to correct their evil tempers and by degrees to bend their inclinations the right way and if the seeds of piety and vertue be but carefully sown at first very much may be done by this means even in the most depraved Natures towards the altering and changing of them however to the checking and controuling of their vicious inclinations And if these persons when they come to riper years would pursue these advantages of education and take some pains with themselves and earnestly seek the assistance of God's grace I doubt not but even these persons by degrees might at last get the mastery of their unhappy tempers For next to the Being and perfections of God and the immortality of our own Souls there is no Principle of Religion that I do more firmly believe than this that God hath that love for men that if we do heartily beg his assistance and be not wanting to our selves he will afford it to every one of us in proportion to our need of it that he is always before hand with us and prevents every man with the gracious offers of his help And I doubt not but many very perverse Natures have thus been reclaimed For God who is the Lover of Souls as the Son of Sirach calls him though he may put some men under more difficult circumstances of becoming good than others yet he leaves no man under a fatal necessity of being wicked and perishing everlastingly He tenderly considers every man's case and circumstances and it is we that pull destruction upon our selves with the works of our own hands But as sure as God is good and just no man in the world is ruined for want of having sufficient help and aid afforded to him by God for his recovery
nothing How much righter apprehensions had the Heathen of the Divine Nature which they looked upon as so benign and beneficial to mankind that as Tully admirably says Dii immortales ad usum hominum fabrefacti penè videantur The nature of the immortal Gods may almost seem to be exactly framed for the benefit and advantage of men And as for Religion they always spake of it as the great band of humane Society and the foundation of truth and fidelity and justice among men But when Religion once comes to supplant moral Righteousness and to teach men the absurdest things in the world to lye for the truth and to kill men for God's sake when it serves to no other purpose but to be a bond of conspiracy to inflame the tempers of men to a greater fierceness and to set a keener edge upon their spirits and to make them ten times more the children of wrath and Cruelty than they were by nature then surely it loses its nature and ceases to be Religion For let any man say worse of Atheism and Infidelity if he can And for God's sake what is Religion good for but to reform the manners and dispositions of men to restrain humane nature from violence and cruelty from falshood and treachery from Sedition and Rebellion Better it were there were no revealed Religion and that humane nature were left to the conduct of its own principles and inclinations which are much more mild and merciful much more for the peace and happiness of humane Society than to be acted by a Religion that inspires men with so wild a fury and prompts them to commit such outrages and is continually supplanting Government and undermining the welfare of mankind in short such a Religion as teaches men to propagate and advance it self by means so evidently contrary to the very nature and end of all Religion And this if it be well considered will appear to be a very convincing way of reasoning by shewing the last result and consequence of such Principles and of such a Train of Propositions to be a most gross and palpable absurdity For example We will at present admit Popery to be the true Religion and their Doctrines of extirpating Hereticks of the lawfulness of deposing Kings and subverting Government by all the cruel and wicked ways that can be thought of to be as in truth they are the Doctrines of this Religion In this Case I would not trouble my self to debate particulars but if in the gross and upon the whole matter it be evident that such a Religion as this is as bad or worse than Infidelity and no Religion this is conviction enough to a wise man and as good as a Demonstration that this is not the true Religion and that it cannot be from God How much better Teachers of Religion were the old Heathen Philosophers In all whose Books and Writings there is not one Principle to be found of Treachery or Rebellion nothing that gives the least countenance to an Association or a Massacre to the betraying of ones Native Country or the cutting of his Neighbours throat for difference in opinion I speak it with grief and shame because the credit of our common Christianity is somewhat concerned in it that Panaetius and Antipater and Diogenes the Stoick Tully and Plutarch and Seneca were much honester and more Christian Casuists than the Jesuits are or the generality of the Casuists of any other Order that I know of in the Church of Rome I come now in the Third and last place to make some Application of this Discourse 1. Let not Religion suffer for those faults and miscarriages which really proceed from the ignorance of Religion and from the want of it That under colour and pretence of Religion very bad things are done is no argument that Religion it self is not good Because the best things are liable to be perverted and abused to very ill purposes nay the corruption of them is commonly the worst as they say the richest and noblest Wines make the sharpest Vinegar If the light that is in you saith our Saviour be darkness how great is that darkness 2. Let us beware of that Church which countenanceth this unchristian spirit here condemned by our Saviour and which teaches such Doctrines and warrants such Practices as are consonant thereto You all know without my saying so that I mean the Church of Rome in which are taught such Doctrines as these That Hereticks that is all who differ from them in matters of Faith are to be extirpated by fire and sword which was decreed in the third and fourth Lateran Councils where all Christians are strictly charged to endeavour this to the uttermost of their power Sicut reputari cupiunt haberi fideles as they desire to be esteemed and accounted Christians Next their Doctrines of deposing Kings and of absolving their subjects from obedience to them which were not only universally believed but practised by the Popes and Roman Church for several Ages Indeed this Doctrine hath not been at all times alike frankly and openly avowed but it is undoubtedly theirs and hath frequently been put in execution though they have not thought it so convenient at all turns to make profession of it It is a certain kind of Engine which is to be screw'd up or let down as occasion serves and is commonly kept like Goliah's Sword in the Sanctuary behind the Ephod but yet so that the High-Priest can lend it out upon an extraordinary occasion And for Practices consonant to these Doctrines I shall go no further than the horrid and bloody Design of this Day Such a Mystery of Iniquity as had been hid from ages and generations Such a Master-piece of Villany as eye had not seen nor ear heard nor ever before entred into the heart of man So prodigiously Barbarous both in the substance and circumstances of it as is not to be parallell'd in all the voluminous Records of Time from the foundation of the World Of late years our Adversaries for so they have made themselves without any provocation of ours have almost had the impudence to deny so plain a matter of fact but I wish they have not taken an effectual course by fresh Conspiracies of equal or greater horror to confirm the belief of it with a witness But I shall not anticipate what will be more proper for another Day but confine my self to the present Occasion I will not trouble you with the particular Narrative of this dark Conspiracy nor the obscure manner of its discovery which Bellarmin himself acknowledges not to have been without a Miracle Let us thank God that it was so happily discovered and disappointed as I hope their present design will be by the same wonderful and merciful providence of God towards a most unworthy People And may the lameness and halting of Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits never depart from that Order but be a Fate continually attending all their villanous Plots and Contrivances
that is this That there is some way to discern mere pretenders to Inspiration from those who are truly and Divinely inspired And this is necessarily implied in the Apostles bidding us to try the Spirits whether they are of God For it were in vain to make any trial if there be no way to discern between pretended and real Inspirations Now the handling of this will give occasion to two very material Enquiries and useful to be resolved I. How we may discern between true and counterfeit Doctrines those which really are from God and those which only pretend to be so II. To whom this judgement of discerning doth appertain I. How we may discern between true and counterfeit Doctrines and Revelations for the clearing of this I shall lay down these following Propositions I. That Reason is the faculty whereby Revelations are to be discerned or to use the phrase in the text it is that whereby we are to judge what Spirits are of God and what not For all Revelation from God supposeth us to be men and to be indued with Reason and therefore it does not create new Faculties in us but propounds new Objects to that Faculty which was in us before Whatever Doctrines God reveals to men are propounded to their Understandings and by this Faculty we are to examine all Doctrines which pretend to be from God and upon on examination to judge whether there be reason to receive them as Divine or to reject them as Impostures 2. All supernatural Revelation supposeth the truth of the Principles of Natural Religion We must first be assured that there is a God before we can know that he hath made any Revelation of himself and we must know that his Words are true otherwise there were no sufficient reason to believe the Revelations which he makes to us and we must believe his Authority over us and that he will reward our obedience to his Laws and punish our breach of them otherwise there would neither be sufficient obligation nor encouragement to Obedience These and many other things are supposed to be true and naturally known to us antecedently to all supernatural Revelation otherwise the Revelations of God would signifie nothing to us nor be of any force with us 3. All Reasonings about Divine Revelations must necessarily be governed by the Principles of Natural Religion that is by those apprehensions which men naturally have of the Divine perfections and by the clear Notions of good and evil which are imprinted upon our Natures Because we have no other way to judge what is worthy of God and credible to be revealed by him and what not but by the natural notions which we have of God and of his essential perfections which because we know him to be immutable we have reason to believe he will never contradict And by these Principles likewise we are to interpret what God hath revealed and when any doubt ariseth concerning the meaning of any divine Revelation as that of the Holy Scriptures we are to govern our selves in the interpretation of it by what is most agreeable to those natural Notions which we have of God and we have all the reason in the World to reject that sense which is contrary thereto For instance when God is represented in Scripture as having a humane shape eyes ears and hands the Notions which men naturally have of the Divine Nature and Perfections do sufficiently direct us to interptet these expressions in a sense worthy of God and agreeable to his Perfection And therefore it is reasonable to understand them as rather spoken to our capacity and in a Figure than to be literally intended And this will proportionably hold in many other cases 4. Nothing ought to be received as a Revelation from God which plainly contradicts the Principles of Natural Religion or overthrows the certainty of them For instance it were in vain to pretend a Revelation from God That there is no God because this is a contradiction in terms So likewise to pretend a command from God That we are to hate and despise him because it is not credible that God should require any thing of Reasonable Creatures so unsuitable to their Natures and to their Obligations to him Besides that such a Law as this does tacitly involve a contradiction because upon such a supposition to despise God would be to obey him and yet to obey him is certainly to honour him So that in this case to honour God and to despise him would be the same thing and equal contempts of him In like manner it would be vain to pretend any Revelation from God That there is no life after this nor rewards and punishments in another World because this is contrary to those natural apprehensions which have generally possest mankind and would take away the main force and sanction of the divine Laws The like may be said concerning any pretended Revelation from God which evidently contradicts those natural Notions which men have of good and evil as That God should command or allow Sedition and Rebellion Perfidiousness and Perjury because the practise of these would be apparently destructive of the peace and happiness of Mankind and would naturally bring confusion into the World But God is not the God of Confusion but of Order which St. Paul appeals to as a Principle naturally knowu Upon the same account nothing ought to be entertained as a Divine Revelation which overthrows the certainty of the Principles of natural Religion because that would take away the certainty of Divine Revelation it self which supposeth the truth of those Principles For instance whoever pretends any Revelation that brings the Providence of God into question does by that very thing make such a Revelation questionable For if God take no care of the World have no concernment for humane affairs why should we believe that he makes any Revelation of his Will to men And by this Principle Moses will have false Prophets to be tried Deut. 13.1 If there arise among you a Prophet and giveth thee a sign or wonder and the signor the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet And he gives the reason of this ver 5. Because he hath spoken unto you to turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the Land of Egypt Here is a case wherein a false Prophet is supposed to work a true Miracle to give credit to his Doctrine which in other cases the Scripture makes the sign of a true Prophet but yet in this case he is to be rejected as an Impostor Because the Doctrine he teacheth would draw men off from the worship of the true God who is naturally known and had manifested himself to the people of Israel in so miraculous a manner by bringing them out of the Land of Egypt So that a Miracle is not enough to give credit to a
and clear enough That there is a God and That his Providence governs the World and That there is another Life after this though neither Pope nor Council had ever declared any thing about these matters And for Revealed Doctrines we may be certain enough of all that is necessary if it be true which the Fathers tell us That all things necessary are plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures Fourthly An infallible Judge if there were one is no certain way to end Controversies and to preserve the unity of the Church unless it were likewise infallibly certain That there is such a Judge and Who he is For till men were sure of both these there would still be a Controversy whether there be an infallible Judge and who he is And if it be true which they tell us That without an infallible Judge Controversies cannot be ended then a Controversie concerning an infallible Judge can never be ended And there are two Controversies actually on foot about an infallible Judge One Whether there be an infallible Judge or not which is a Controversie between Us and the Church of Rome and the other Who this infallible Judge is which is a Controversie among themselves which could never yet be decided And yet till it be decided Infallibility if they had it would be of no use to them for the ending of Controversies Fifthly There is no such absolute need as is pretended of determining all Controversies in Religion If men would devest themselves of prejudice and interest as they ought in matters of Religion the necessary things of Religion are plain enough and men would generally agree well enough about them But if men will suffer themselves to be by assed by these they would not hearken to an infallible Judge if there were one or they would find out some way or other to call his Infallibility into question And as for doubtful and lesser matters in Religion charity and mutual forbearance among Christians would make the Church as peaceable and happy as perhaps it was ever design'd to be in this World without absolute unity in Opinion Sixthly and Lastly Whatever may be the inconveniences of mens judging for themselves in Religion yet taking this Principle with the Cautions I have given I doubt not to make it appear that the inconveniences are far the least on that side The present condition of humane Nature doth not admit of any constitution of things whether in Religion or Civil matters which is free from all kind of exception and inconvenience That is the best state of things which is liable to the least and fewest If men be modest and humble and willing to learn God hath done that which is sufficient for the assurance of our Faith and for the peace of his Church without an infallible Judge And if men will not be so I cannot tell what would be sufficient I am sure there were Heresies and Schisms in the Apostles Times when Those who governed the Church were certainly guided by an infallible Spirit God hath appointed Guides and Teachers for us in matters of Religion and if we will be contented to be instructed by them in those necessary Articles and Duties of Religion which are plainly contained in Scripture and to be counselled and directed by them in things that are more doubtful and difficult I do not see why we might hot do well enough without any infallible Judge or Guide But still it will be said Who shall judge what things are plain and what doubtful The answer to this in my opinion is not difficult For if there be any thing plain in Religion every man that hath been duly instructed in the Principles of Religtion can judge of it or else it is not plain But there are some things in Religion so very plain that no Guide or Judge can in reason claim that Authority over men as to oblige them to believe or do the contrary no though he pretend to Infallibility no though he were an Apostle though he were an Angel from heaven S. Paul puts the case so high Gal. 1.8 Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than what you have received let him be accursed which plainly supposeth that Christians may and can judge when Doctrines are contrary to the Gospel What not believe an Apostle nor an Angel from heaven if he should teach any thing evidently contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Gospel If he should determine Vertue to be Vice and Vice to be Vertue No not an Apostle nor an Angel because such a Doctrine as this would confound and overturn all things in Religion And yet Bellarmin puts this very Case and says If the Pope should so determine we were bound to believe him unless we would sin against Conscience I will conclude this Discourse by putting a very plain and familiar Case by which it will appear what credit and authority is fit to be given to a Guide and what not Suppose I came a Stranger into England and landing at Dover took a Guide there to conduct me in my way to York which I knew before by the Mapp to lie North of Dover having committed my self to him if he lead me for two or three days together out of any plain Road and many times over hedge and ditch I cannot but think it strange that in a civil and well inhabited Country there should be no High-ways from one part of it to another Yet thus far I submit to him though not without some regret and impatience But then if after this for two or three days more he lead me directly South and with my face full upon the Sun at noon day and at last bring me back again to Dover Pere and still bids me follow him Then certainly no modesty do's oblige a man not to dispute with his Guide and to tell him surely that can be no way because it is Sea Now though he set never so bold a face upon the matter and tell me with all the gravity and authority in the world That it is not the Sea but dry Land under the species and appearance of Water and that whatever my eyes tell me having once committed my self to his guidance I must not trust my own senses in the case it being one of the most dangerous sorts of Infidelity for a man to believe his own eyes rather than his faithful and infallible Guide All this moves me not but I begin to expostulate roundly with him and to let him understand that if I must not believe what I see he is like to be of no farther use to me because I shall not be able at this rate to know whether I have a Guide and whether I follow him or not In short I tell him plainly that when I took him for my Guide I did not take him to tell me the difference between North and South between a Hedge and a High-way between Sea and dry Land all this I knew before as well as he
been a thing evil in it self and forbidden by the Law of Nature would not have been done Secondly Another undeniable Argument from the Text of the lawfulness of Oaths is that God himself in condescension to the Custome of men who use to confirm and give credit to what they say by an Oath is represented by the Apostle as confirming his promise to us by an Oath verse 13. When God made the promise to Abraham because he could swear by none greater he swears by himself For men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath which he certainly would not have done had an oath been unlawful in it self For that had been to comply with men in an evil practice and by his own example to give countenance to it in the highest manner But though God condescend to represent himself to us after the manner of men he never does it in any thing that is in its own nature evil and sinful Thirdly From the great Usefulness of Oaths in humane affairs to give credit and confirmation to our word and to put an end to Contestations Now that which serves to such excellent purposes and is so convenient for humane society and for mutual security and confidence among men ought not easily to be presumed unlawful till it be plainly proved to be so And if we consider the nature of an oath and every thing belonging to it there is nothing that hath the least appearance of evil in it There is surely no evil in it as it is an act of Religion nor as it is an Appeal to God as a witness and avenger in case we swear falsly nor as it is a confirmation of a doubtful matter nor as it puts an end to strife and controversie And these are all the essential ingredients of an Oath and the ends of it and they are all so good that they rather commend it than give the least colour of ground to condemn it I proceed in the Second place to shew the weakness and insufficiency of the grounds of the contrary opinion whether from Reason or from Scripture First from Reason They say the necessity of an Oath is occasioned by the want of truth and fidelity among men And that every man ought to demean himself with that faithfulness and integrity as may give credit and confirmation to his word and then Oaths will be needless This pretence will be fully answered if we consider these two things 1. That in matters of great importance no other obligation besides that of an oath hath been thought sufficient amongst the best and wisest of men to assert their fidelity to one another Even the best men to use the words of a great Author have not trusted the best men without it As we see in very remarkable instances where Oaths have pass'd between those who might be thought to have the greatest confidence in one another As between Abraham and his old faithful servant Eliezer concerning the choice of a Wife for his Son Between Father and Son Jacob and Joseph concerning the burial of his Father in the Land of Canaan Between two of the dearest and most intimate Friends David and Jonathan to assure their friendship to one another and it had its effect long after Jonathans death in the saving of Mephibosheth when reason of State and the security of his Throne seem'd to move David strongly to the contrary for it is expresly said 2 Sam. 21.7 that David spared Mephibosheth Jonathan's Son because of the oath of the Lord that was between them implying that had it not been for his Oath other considerations might probably have prevail'd with him to have permitted him to have been cut off with the rest of Saul's Children 2. This Reason which is alledged against Oaths among men is much stronger against God's confirming his promises to us by an Oath For he who is truth it self is surely of all other most to be credited upon his bare word and his oath needless to give confirmation to it and yet he condescends to add his oath to his word and therefore that reason is evidently of no force Secondly From Scripture Our Saviour seems altogether to forbid swearing in any case Matth. 5.33 34. Ye have heard that it hath been said to them of old time thou shalt not forswear thy self but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven c. But let your communication be yea yea and nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil And this Law St. James recites chap. 5. vers 12. as that which Christians ought to have a very particular and principal regard to above all things my brethren swear not And he makes the breach of this Law a damning sin lest ye fall into condemnation But the authority of our Saviour alone is sufficient and therefore I shall only consider that Text. And because here lies the main strength of this opinion of the unlawfulness of Oaths it is very fit that this Text be fully consider'd and that it be made very evident that it was not our Saviour's meaning by this prohibition wholly to forbid the use of Oaths But before I enter upon this matter I will readily grant that there is scarce any Errour whatsoever that hath a more plausible colour from Scripture than this which makes the case of those who are seduced into it the more pityable But then it ought to be consider'd how much this Doctrine of the unlawfulness of oaths reflects upon the Christian Religion since it is so evidently prejudicial both to humane Society in general and particularly to those persons that entertain it neither of which ought rashly to be supposed and taken for granted concerning any Law delivered by our Saviour Because upon these terms it will be very hard for us to vindicate the divine wisdom of our Saviour's Doctrine and the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion Of the inconvenience of this Doctrine to humane Society I have spoken already But besides this it is very prejudicial to them that hold it It renders them suspected to Government and in many cases incapable of the common benefits of Justice and other privileges of humane Society and exposeth them to great penalties as the constitution of all Laws and Governments at present is and it is not easie to imagine how they should be otherwise And which is very considerable in this matter it sets those who refuse Oaths upon very unequal terms with the rest of Mankind if where the estates and lives of men are equally concern'd their bare testimonies shall be admitted without an Oath and others shall be obliged to speak upon Oath Nothing being more certain in experience than that many men will lie for their interest when they will not be perjured God having planted in the natural Consciences of
do well remember them And superadd this O Lord to all the grace and favour which thou hast shewn us all along in life not to remove us hence but with all advantage for Eternity when we shall be in a due preparation of mind in a holy constitution of soul in a perfect renunciation of the guise of this mad and sinful world when we shall be intirely resigned up to thee when we shall have clear acts of faith in God by Jesus Christ high and reverential thoughts of thee in our minds inlarged and inflamed affections towards thee c. And whensoever we shall come to leave this world which will be when thou shalt appoint for the issues of life and death are in thy hands afford us such a mighty power and presence of thy good Spirit that we may have solid consolation in believing and avoid all consternation of mind all doubtfulness and uncertainty concerning our everlasting condition and at length depart in the faith of God's Elect c. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Thus you have the short History of the life and death of this eminent Person whose just Character cannot be given in few words and time will not allow me to use many To be able to describe him aright it were necessary one should be like him for which reason I must content my self with a very imperfect draught of him I shall not insist upon his exemplary piety and devotion towards God of which his whole life was one continued Testimony Nor will I praise his profound Learning for which he was justy had in so great reputation The moral improvements of his mind a Godlike temper and disposition as he was wont to call it he chiefly valued and aspired after that universal charity and goodness which he did continually preach and practise His Conversation was exceeding kind and assable grave and winning prudent and profitable He was slow to declare his judgment and modest in delivering it Never passionate never peremptory so far from imposing upon others that he was rather apt to yeild And though he had a most profound and well-poized judgment yet was he of all men I ever knew the most patient to hear others differ from him and the most easie to be convinced when good Reason was offered and which is seldom seen more apt to be favourable to another man's Reason than his own Studious and inquisitive men commonly at such an age at forty or fifty at the utmost have fixed and setled their Judgments in most Points and as it were made their last understanding supposing they have thought or read or heard what can be said on all sides of things and after that they grow positive and impatient of contradiction thinking it a disparagement to them to alter their judgment But our deceased Friend was so wise as to be willing to learn to the last knowing that no man can grow wiser without some change of his mind without gaining some knowledge which he had not or correcting some errour which he had before He had attained so perfect a mastery of his Passions that for the latter and greatest part of his life he was hardly ever seen to be transported with Anger and as he was extremely carefull not to provoke any man so not to be provoked by any using to say if I provoke a man he is the worse for my company and if I suffer my self to be provoked by him I shall be the worse for his He very seldom reproved any person in company otherwise than by silence or some sign of uneasiness or some very soft and gentle word which yet from the respect men generally bore to him did often prove effectual For he understood humane nature very well and how to apply himself to it in the most easie and effectual ways He was a great encourager and kind directour of young Divines and one of the most candid hearers of Sermons I think that ever was So that though all men did mightily reverence his Judgment yet no man had reason to fear his Censure He never spake well of himself nor ill of others making good that saying of Pansa in Tully neminem alterius qui suae consideret virtuti invidere that no man is apt to envy the worth and vertues of another that hath any of his own to trust to In a word he had all those vertues and in a high degree which an excellent temper great consideration long care and watchfulness over himself together with the assistance of God's grace which he continually implored and mightily relied upon are apt to produce Particularly he excelled in the vertues of Conversation humanity and gentleness and humility a prudent and peaceable and reconciling temper And God knows we could very ill at this time have spared such a Man and have lost from among us as it were so much balm for the healing of the Nation which is now so miserably rent and torn by those wounds which we madly give our selves But since God hath thought good to deprive us of him let his vertues live in our memory and his example in our lives Let us endeavour to be what he was and we shall one day be what he now is of blessed memory on Earth and happy for ever in Heaven And now methinks the consideration of the Argument I have been upon and of that great Example that is before us should raise our minds above this world and six them upon the glory and happiness of the other Let us then begin heaven here in the frame and temper of our minds in our heavenly affections and conversation in a due preparation for and in carnest desires and breathings after that blessed state which we firmly believe and assuredly hope to be one day possessed of when we shall be removed out of this sink of sin and sorrows into the Regions of bliss and immortality where we shall meet all those worthy and excellent persons who are gone before us and whose conversation was so delightfull to us in this world and will be much more so to us in the other when the spirits of just men shall be made perfect and shall be quit of all those infirmities which did attend and lessen them in this mortal state when we shall meet again with our dear Brother and all those good men whom we knew in this world and with the Saints and excellent persons of all Ages to enjoy their blessed friendship and society for ever in the presence of the blessed God where is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore In a firm persuasion of this happy state let us every one of us say with David and with the same ardency of affection that he did As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God O when shall I come and appear before God That so
manifold Errors and Corruptions which the Reformation hath happily cut off and cast away So that though our Reformation was as late as Luther our Religion is as ancient as Christianity it self For when the Additions which the Church of Rome hath made to the ancient Christian Faith and their Innovations in practice are pared off that which remains of their Religion is ours and this they canot deny to be every tittle of it the ancient Christianity And what other Answer than this could the Jews have given to the like Question if it had been put to them by the ancient Idolaters of the World Where was your Religion before Abraham but the very same in substance which we now give to the Church of Rome That for many Ages the Worship of the one true God had been corrupted and the Worship of Idols had prevailed in a great part of the World that Abraham was raised up by God to reform Religion and to reduce the Worship of God to its first Institution in the doing whereof he necessarily separated Himself and his Family from the Communion of those Idolaters So that though the Reformation which Abraham began was new yet his Religion was truly ancient as old as that of Noah and Enoch and Adam Which is the same in substance that we say and with the same and equal reason And if they will still complain of the Newness of our Reformation so do we too and are heartily sorry it began no sooner but however better late than never Besides it ought to be considered that this Objection of Novelty lies against all Reformation whatsoever though never so necessary and though things be never so much amiss And it is in effect to say that if things be once bad they must never be better but must always remain as they are for they cannot be better without being reformed and a Reformation must begin sometime and whenever it begins it is certainly new So that if a real Reformation be made the thing justifies it self and no Objection of Novelty ought to take place against that which upon all accounts was so fit and necessary to be done And if they of the Church of Rome would but speak their mind out in this matter they are not so much displeased at the Reformation which we have made because it is new as because it is a Reformation It was the humour of Babylon of old as the Prophet tells us that she woud not be healed Jer. 51.9 and this is still the temper of the Church of Rome they hate to he reformed and rather than acknowledge themselves to have been once in an Error they will continue in it for ever And this is that which at first made and still continues the breach and Separation between us of which we are no-wise guilty who have onely reformed what was amiss but they who obstinately persist in their errors and will needs impose them upon us and will not let us be of their Communion unless we will say they are no Errors II. The other Prejudice against the true Religion is the contrariety of it to the vicious inclinations and practices of Men. It is too heavy a yoke and lays too great a restraint upon humane Nature And this is that which in truth lies at the bottom of all Objections against Religion Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil But this Argument will require a Discourse by it self and therefore I shall not now enter upon it onely crave your patience a little longer whilst I make some Reflections upon what hath been already delivered You see what are the Exceptions which Idolatry and Superstition have always made and do at this day still make against the true Religion and how slight and insignificant they are But do we then charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry Our Church most certainly does so and hath always done it from the beginning of the Reformation in her Homilies and Liturgy and Canons and in the Writings of her best and ablest Champions And though I have as impartially as I could consider'd what hath been said on both sides in this Controversy yet I must confess I could never yet see any tolerable defence made by them against this heavy charge And they themselves acknowledge themselves to be greatly under the suspicion of it by saying as Cardinal Perron and others do that the Primitive Christians for some Ages did neither worship Images nor pray to Saints for fear of being thought to approach too near the Heathen Idolatry And which is yet more divers of their most learned men do confess that if Transubstantiation be not true they are as gross Idolaters as any in the World And I hope they do not expect it from us that in complement to them and to acquit them from the charge of Idolatry we should presently deny our senses and believe Transubstantiation and if we do not believe this they grant we have Reason to charge them with Idolatry But we own them to be a true Church which they cannot be if they be guilty of Idolatry This they often urge us withall and there seems at first sight to be something in it And for that reason I shall endeavour to give so clear and satisfactory an answer to it as that we may never more be troubled with it The truth is we would fain hope because they still retain the Essentials of Christianity and profess to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith that notwithstanding their Corruptions they may still retain the true Essence of a Church as a man may be truly and really a man though he have the plague upon him and for that reason be fit to be avoided by all that wish well to themselves But if this will not do we cannot help it Therefore to push the matter home Are they sure that this is a firm and good consequence That if they be Idolaters they cannot be a true Church Then let them look to it It is they I take it that are concerned to prove themselves a true Church and not we to prove it for them And if they will not understand it of themselves it is fit they should be told that there is a great difference between Concessions of Charity and of Necessity and that a very different use ought to be made of them We are willing to think the best of them but if they dislike our Charity in this point nothing against the hair 〈◊〉 they will forgive us this Injury we will not offend them any more But rather than have any farther difference with them about this matter we will for quietness sake compound it thus That till they can clearly acquit themselves from being Idolaters they shall never more against their wills be esteemed a true Church And now to draw to a Conclusion If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord and to worship him only to pray to him alone and that only in the name
2. It is likewise to be considered that God did not design to create man in the full possession of happiness at first but to train him up to it by the tryal of his obedience But there could be no tryal of our obedience without some difficulty in our duty Either by reason of powerfull temptations from without or of cross and perverse inclinations from within Our first Parents in their state of innocency had only the tryal of temptation without to which they yielded and were overcome having only a natural power to have resisted the temptation without any aid of supernatural grace And that weakness to good and proneness to evil which they by wilfull transgression contracted is naturally derived to us and we necessarily partake of the bitterness and impurity of the Fountain from whence we spring So that we now labour under a double difficulty being assaulted by temptations from without and incited by evil inclinations from within But then to balance these we have a double advantage that a greater reward is proposed to us than for ought we know would have been conferred on our first parents had they continued innocent and that we are endued with a supernatural power to conflict with these difficulties So that according to the mercifull dispensation of God all this conflict between our inclination and our duty does only serve to give a fairer opportunity for the fitting tryal of our obedience and for the more glorious reward of it 3. God hath provided an universal remedy for this degeneracy and weakness of humane Nature So that what we lost by the first Adam is abundantly repaired to us by the second This St. Paul tells us at large Rom. 5. that as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin so the Grace of God hath abounded to all men by Jesus Christ And that to such a degree as effectually to countervall the ill effects of original sin and really to enable men if they be not wanting to themselves to master and subdue all the bad inclinations of nature even in those who seem to be naturally most corrupt and depraved And if this be true we may without any reflexion upon God acknowledge that though he did not at first create man sick and weak yet he having made himself so his posterity are born so But then God hath not left us helpless in this weak and miserable State into which by wilfull transgression mankind is fallen But as he commands us to be sound so he affords us sufficient aids of his grace by Jesus Christ for our recovery And though there is a Law in our Members warring against the Law of our Minds and captivating us to the Law of Sin and Death i. e. though our sensitive appetite and passions are apt to rebell against the reason of our minds and the dictates of our natural Concience yet every Christian may say with St. Paul thanks be to God who hath given its the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ i. e. hath not left us destitute of a sufficient aid and strength to enable us to conquer the rebellious motions of sin by the powerfull assistance of that grace which is so plentifully offered to us in the Gospel And this is the case of all those who live under the Gospel As for others as their case is best known to God so we have no reason to doubt but that his infinite goodness and mercy takes that care of them which becomes a mercifull Creatour Though both the measures and the methods of his mercy towards them are Secret and unknown to us 4. The hardest contest between man's inclination and duty is in those who have wilfully contracted vicious habits and by that means rendred their duty much more difficult to themselves having greatly improved the evil inclinations of nature by wicked practice and custom For the Scripture plainly supposeth that men may debauch even corrupt nature and make themselves ten fold more the Children of wrath and of the Devil than they were by Nature This is a case sadly to be deplored but yet not utterly to be despaired of And therefore those who by a long progress in an evil course are plunged into this sad condition ought to consider that they are not to be rescued out of it by an ordinary resolution and a common grace of God Their case plainly requires an extraordinary remedy For he that is deeply engaged in vice is like a man laid fast in a bogg who by a faint and lazy struggling to get out does but spend his strength to no purpose and sinks himself the deeper into it The only way is by a resolute and vigorous effort to spring out if possible at once And therefore in this case to a vigorous resolution there must be joyned an earnest application to God for his powerfull grace and assistance to help us out of this miserable State And if we be truly sensible of the desperate danger of our condition the pressing necessity of our case will be apt to inspire us with a mighty resolution For power and necessity are neighbours and never dwell far asunder When men are sorely urged and pressed they find a power in themselves which they thought they had not Like a coward driven up to a wall who in the extremity of distress and despair will fight terribly and perform wonders or like a man lame of the Gout who being assaulted by a present and terrible danger forgets his Disease and will find his legs rather than lose his life And in this I do not speak above the rate of humane Nature and what men throughly roused and awakened to a sense of their danger by a mighty resolution may morally do through that Divine grace and assistance which is ever ready to be afforded to well resolved minds and such as are sincerely bent to return to God and their Duty More than this I cannot say for the encouragement of those who have proceeded far in an evil course And they who have made their case so very desperate ought to be very thankfull to God that there is any remedy left for them 5. From all that hath been said it evidently appears how malicious a suggestion it is that God seeks the destruction of men and hath made his Laws on purpose so difficult and cross to our inclinations that he might have an advantage to ruine us for our disobedience to them Alas we are so absolutely under the Power of God and so unable to withstand it that he may destroy us when he pleaseth without seeking pretences for it For who hath resisted his will If goodness were not his nature he hath power enough to bear out whatever he hath a mind to do to us But our destruction is plainly of our selves and God is free from the bloud of all men And he hath not made the way to Eternal Life so difficult to any of us with a design to make us miserable but that we
urge and encourage them to a vigorous resolution of a better course And this accompanied with a powerfull assistance of God's grace which when sincerely sought is never to be despaired of may prove effectual to bring back even the greatest of sinners 1. There is left even in the worst of men a natural sense of the evil and unreasonableness of sin which can hardly be ever totally extinguished in humane nature For though the habits of great vices are very apt to harden and stupifie men so that they have seldom a just sense of their evil ways yet these persons are sometimes under strong convictions and their consciences do severely check and rebuke them for their faults They are also by fits under great apprehension of the danger of their condition and that the course which they are in if they continue in it will prove fatal to them and ruine them at last Especially when their consciences are throughly awakened by some great affliction or the near approach of death and a lively sense of another World And the apprehension of a mighty danger will make men to look about them and to use the best means to avoid it 2. Very bad men when they have any thoughts of becoming better are apt to conceive some good hopes of God's grace and mercy For though they find all the causes and reasons of despair in themselves yet the consideration of the boundless goodness and compassions of God how undeserved soever on their part is apt to kindle some sparks of hope even in the most desponding mind His wonderfull patience in the midst of our manifold provocations cannot but be a good sign to us that he hath no mind that we should perish but rather that we should come to repentance and if we do repent we are assured by his promise that we shall be forgiven He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 3. Who knows what men throughly rouzed and startled may resolve and do And a mighty resolution will break through difficulties which seem insuperable Though we be weak and pitifull Creatures yet nature when it is mightily irritated and stir'd will do strange things The resolutions of men upon the brink of despair have been of an incredible force and the Soul of man in nothing more discovers its divine power and original than in that spring which is in it whereby it recovers it self when it is mightily urged and prest There is a sort of resolution which is in a manner invincible and hardly any difficulty can resist it or stand before it Of this there have been great instances in several kinds Some by an obstinate resolution and taking incredible pains with themselves have mastered great natural vices and defects As Socrates and Demosthenes who almost exceeded all mankind in those two things for which by nature they seemed to be least made and most unfit One in governing of his passions and the other in the mighty force and power of his eloquence Some that by intemperance have brought themselves to a dropsie which hath just set them upon the brink of the grave by a bold and steady purpose to abstain wholly from drink for a long time together have rescued themselves from the jaws of death Some that had almost ruined themselves by a careless and dissolute life and having run themselves out of their estates into debt and being cast into prison have there taken up a manly resolution to retrieve and recover themselves and by the indefatigable labour and study of some years in that uncomfortable retreat have mastered the knowledge and skill of one of the most difficult Professions in which they have afterwards proved great and eminent And some in the full carriere of a wicked course have by a sudden thought and resolution raised in them and assisted by a mighty grace of God taken up presently and made an immediate change from great wickedness and impiety of life to a very exemplary degree of goodness and vertue The two great encouragements to vertue which Pythagoras gave to his Scholars were these and they were worthy of so great a Philosopher First Chuse always the best course of life and custome will soon make it the most pleasant The other was this that Power aad Necessity are Neighbours and never dwell far from one another When men are prest by a great necessity when nature is spurr'd up and urged to the utmost men discover in themselves a power which they thought they had not and find at last that they can do that which at first they despaired of ever being able to do 4. The grace and assistance of God when sincerely sought is never to be despaired of So that if we do but heartily and in good earnest resolve upon a better course and implore the help of God's grace to this purpose no degree of it that is necessary shall be wanting to us And here is our chief ground of hope For we are weak and unstable as water and when we have taken up good resolutions do easily start from them So that fresh supplies and a continued assistance of God's grace is necessary to keep up the first warmth and vigour of our resolutions till they prove effectual and victorious And this grace God hath promised he will not deny to us when we are thus disposed for it that he will give his H. Spirit to them that ask it that he will hot quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed untill he bring forth judgment unto victory All that now remains is to apply this to our selves And we are all concerned in it For we shall all find our selves comprehended under one of these three Heads Either we are of the number of those few happy Persons who by the influence and advantage of a good education were never engaged in a bad course Or of those who have been drawn into vice but are not yet far gone in it Or of those who have been long accustomed to an evil course and are grown old and stiff in it The first of these having great cause to thank God for this singular felicity that they were never ensnared and intangled in vitious habits that they have not had the trial of their own weakness under this miserable slavery that they never knew what it was to be out of their own power to have lost their liberty and the Government of themselves When we hear of the miserable servitude of the poor Christians in Turkey we are apt as there is great reason to pity them and to think what a blessing of God it is to us that we are not in their condition And yet that slavery is hot comparable to this either for the sad nature or the dismal consequences of it or for the difficulty of being released from it And let such Persons who have been thus happy never
time I have purposely reserved this for the last place because it is their last refuge and if this fail them they are gone To shew the weakness of this pretence we will if they please take it for granted that the Governours of the Church have in no Age more power than the Apostles had in theirs Now St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 10.8 that the Authority which the Apostles had given them from the Lord was only for edification but not for destruction And the same St. Paul makes it the business of a whole Chapter to shew that the performing the publick service of God and particularly Praying in an unknown Tongue are contrary to edification from which premisses the conclusion is plain That the Apostles themselves had no Authority to appoint the service of God to be performed in an unknown Tongue and surely it is Arrogance for the Church in any Age to pretend to greater Authority than the Apostles had This is the summ of what our Adversaries say in justification of themselves in these points And there is no doubt but that men of wit and confidence will alwaies make a shift to say something for any thing and some way or other blanch over the blackest and most absurd things in the world But I leave it to the judgment of mankind whether any thing be more unreasonable than to tell men in effect that it is fit they should understand as little of Religion as is possible that God hath published a very dangerous Book with which it is not safe for the people to be familiarly acquainted that our blessed Saviour and his Apostles and the ancient Christian Church for more than six hundred years were not wise managers of Religion nor prudent dispensers of the Scriptures but like fond and foolish Fathers put a knife and a sword into the hands of their Children with which they might easily have foreseen what mischief they would do to themselves and others And who would not chuse to be of such a Church which is provided of such excellent and effectual means of Ignorance such wise and infallible methods for the prevention of knowledge in the people and such variety of close shutters to keep out the light I have chosen to insist upon this Argument because it is so very plain that the most ordinary capacity may judge of this usage and dealing with the souls of men which is so very gross that every man must needs be sensible of it because it toucheth men in the common rights of humane nature which belong to them as much as the light of heaven and the air we breath in It requires no subtilty of wit no skill in Antiquity to understand these Controversies between Us and the Church of Rome For there are no Fathers to be pretended on both sides in these Questions They yield we have Antiquity on ours And we refer it to the common sense of Mankind which Church that of Rome or Ours hath all the right and reason in the world on her side in these debates And who they are that tyrannize over Christians the Governours of their Church or ours who use the people like sons and freemen and who like slaves who feed the flock of Christ committed to them and who take the Childrens bread from them Who they are that when their Children ask bread for bread give them a stone and for an egg a serpent I mean the Legends of their Saints instead of the holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto salvation And who they are that lie most justly under the suspicion of Errours and Corruptions they who bring their Doctrine and Practices into the open light and are willing to have them tryed by the true touchstone the Word of God or they who shun the light and decline all manner of tryal and examination and who are most likely to carry on a worldly design they who drive a trade of such mighty gain and advantage under pretence of Religion and make such markets of the ignorance and sins of the people or we whom malice it self cannot charge with serving any worldly design by any allowed Doctrine or Practice of our Religion For we make no money of the mistakes of the people nor do we fill their heads with vain fears of new places of torment to make them willing to empty their purses in a vainer hope of being delivered out of them We do not like them pretend a mighty bank and treasure of Merits in the Church which they sell to the people for ready money giving them bills of Exchange from the Pope to Purgatory when they who grant them have no reason to believe they will avail them or be accepted in the other World For our parts we have no fear that our people should understand Religion too well We could wish with Moses that all the Lord's people were Prophets We should be heartily glad the people would read the holy Scriptures more diligently being sufficiently assured that it is their own fault if they learn any thing but what is good from thence We have no Doctrines or Practices contrary to Scripture and consequently no occasion to keep it close from the sight of the people or to hide any of the Commandments of God from them We leave these mean arts to those who stand in need of them In a word there is nothing which God hath said to men which we desire should be concealed from them Nay we are willing the people should examine what we teach and bring all our Doctrines to the Law and to the Testimony that if they be not according to this Rule they may neither believe them nor us 'T is onely things false and adulterate which shun the light and sear the touchstone We have that security of the truth of our Religion and of the agreeableness of it to the word of God that honest confidence of the goodness of our Cause that we do not forbid the people to read the best Books our Adversaries can write against it And now let any impartial man judge whether this be not a better argument of a good Cause to leave men at liberty to try the grounds of their Religion than the courses which are taken in the Church of Rome to awe men with an Inquisition and as much as is possible to keep the common people in Ignorance not onely of what their late Adversaries the Protestants but their chief and ancient Adversary the Scriptures have to say against them A man had need of more than common security of the skill and integrity of those to whom he perfectly resigns his understanding this is too great a Trust to be reposed in humane frailty and too strong a temptation to others to impose upon us to abuse our blindness and to make their own ends of our voluntary Ignorance and easie credulity This is such a folly as if a rich man should make his Physician his heir which is to tempt him either to destroy