was but meant all that he promised and at that time verily believed that he should be as good as his word whilest Judas was at that Minute bent to betray him But this honest Man wanted experience of himself and presumed too fast upon his own Ability and therefore our Lord took this Occasion to lay a Foundation in him of a better understanding of himself for he said unto him Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake Verily I say unto thee the Cock shall not crow till thou hast denyed me thrice A seasonable intimation it was that his Master in the very heighth of his confidence should tell him That he would thrice deny him before the next day was well begun And this forewarning together with the experience of his own infirmity afterward no doubt served to make him ever after a more considerate and watchful man and tended to add modesty and humility to his other good qualities 2. If we go a little farther we find him sleeping with the rest of the Disciples though our Lord had left them to pray that they might not enter into temptation And that when Jesus came and found them asleep he said unto Peter who had undertaken so much before What could ye not watch with me one hour watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak By which words he gave him fully to understand that he was not acquainted with his own Infirmities and had not that sense of the necessity of watchfulness and prayer which he ought to have had at that time 3. It was but a little while after that Judas conducted the Officers and Soldiers that were sent by the High-Priest to take Jesus and when they had laid hands on him Peter's forward spirit led him into another mistake He drew his sword and struck a Servant of the High-Priest and smote off his ear Which though well meant in zeal for his Master was yet an undutiful resistance of Authority and betrayed a rash anger But neither did our Saviour leave him here without that admonition which was necessary to make him wiser and better Then said Jesus unto him Put up thy sword again into its place for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than twelve Legions of Angels But how then will the Scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be 4. That tryal of him that followed immediately almost at the High-Priest's Hall shewed him to be as yet a very imperfect man and one that wanted that resolution which he thought himself a Master of Indeed he shewed a little more courage than the rest of his Brethren inasmuch as they fled upon their Master's being apprehended but he followed at a distance to observe the event but this served only to entangle him in a more shameful fault than theirs that ran clear away even to the denying of his Lord thrice and the last time with imprecations he that had so forwardly confessed in the Name of the rest that Jesus was the Son of God he that but a few hours before had so vehemently declared that he would rather die with his Master than deny him when now he saw him brought like a Criminal into the High-Priest's Hall altered from what he was before and his Faith began to fail It is not improbable that he had some hope his Master would deliver himself out of their hands by some Miracle because he sat among the servants to see the end But yet the danger was so apparent that he wanted courage to own him till the end was come and so denyed him And while he spake his last words of denyal the Cock crew And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter Luke 22.61 Not throwing off all farther care of him notwithstanding so foul a miscarriage And Peter remembred the words of the Lord how he had said to him Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice And he went out and wept bitterly That which I have been driving at all this time is to shew a notable example of the weakness of the flesh in a man very apt to be confident of himself and withal of the watchful care of our Saviour to correct him and set him right and that because he had a willing spirit an honest and sincere disposition void of malice and falshood and was ever desirous to know the truth and to do his duty Therefore said our Saviour to him just before his last conflict Luk. 22.31 32. Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may fift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not For the Tempter understood Peter's composition how much chaff was mingled with the wheat and what were the inconveniences of his temper and desired nothing more than full liberty to make use of them for the overturning of all his good qualities But said Jesus I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted streng then thy brethren i. e. When thou art satisfied what a great many things are to be mended in thy self and that those infirmities of thine which at present thou art not aware of had like to have been thy utter ruin but withal that thou hast escaped through the Grace of God when thou art grown wiser and more established in all kind of goodness then do thou strengthen thy Brethren be careful of all sincere persons that labour under Infirmities as I have been of thee take care to improve that which is good in them and to secure them all thou canst against all their Infirmities Thus much concerning the great advantage of sincerity that it doth entitle a man to the special favour and protection of God and so what we are to learn by all is to lay this Foundation of well-doing which our Saviour acknowledged and commended in his Apostles that is a willing mind and an honest disposition for then we are in a condition to be watched over by the Divine Grace But having shewn how valuable in the sight of God is a willing spirit and an honest mind I proceed in the Second place to urge our Saviour's exhortation and that is notwithstanding this to watch and to pray that we enter not into temptation for though the spirit be willing yet the flesh is weak For if sincerity could of it self support a man without any farther care and help we had never heard of the drunkenness of Noah and Lot the murder and adultery of David and the fall of Peter we had never met with any instances of the weakness of human Nature in men very honestly disposed whose examples shew us the necessity of watchfulness and prayer the means we are directed by our Saviour to use and if we do use these means if we do set the advantage of care and prayer against the inconvenience of
human frailty we shall never fall For it was not only for the instruction of St. Peter that our Lord gave the exhortation of the Text to watch and pray but for the instruction of all the rest of the Apostles and not for their instruction only but it was for ours also in all Ages that he left this direction with them They were not always to expect that the special Grace of God would attend them and either keep them from great faults or set them right again after their miscarryings while they neglected to acquaint themselves with their own hearts and to take care of their actions and to seek the assistance of God's Spirit And we much less who have been longer under the guidance of God's Grace than they had been even from our infancy ever since we were baptized and taken into the Covenant of Grace who have also had the instructions of their examples and the use and benefit of our Lord's admonitions to them and have been guilty of more neglects and miscarryings than they were who moreover have been educated to a more perfect understanding of the Doctrine and Nature of Christianity than as yet they had attained to under these circumstances we are not to expect the watchful care of God's Spirit over us to lead us out of temptation and to deliver us from evil if we do not watch our selves and to watchfulness add prayer that we enter not into temptation We are not to trust to our general good purposes and honest ways but to remember the weakness of our flesh i. e. the unsteadiness of our purposes the mutability of our affections the deceitfulness of our hearts and therefore to supply all our defects with what diligence and circumspection we can and in doing all this to be very earnest in our Prayers that God would crown all with his Grace This is the way to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And we are undoubtedly safe if we continually keep our selves under the wings of his Grace and put our selves under his protection by watchfulness and prayer For the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much It availeth much for another much more for himself it availeth much for the procuring of temporal blessings much more for spiritual and eternal God does not always crown the industry of a man in his labouring for the good things of this World with desired success and sometimes he sends them to the lazy and bestows them upon those that never pray But the most necessary things a good mind the best wisdom the improvements of the Soul he ever gives to the diligent and to those that depend upon him by Prayer and never otherwise And this is a plain conviction that if we are barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of God if we make no progress in Virtue nor move at all towards Perfection it is our own fault who have so ready a way to gain that help from God which will not fail to better our Natures and to strengthen us in every good work and to deliver us from temptation I have already told you how vain a thing it is to plead frailty and infirmity for not watching and praying since for that very reason our Saviour directs us to watchfulness and prayer because altho' the spirit is willing yet the flesh is weak And it is to as little purpose to make the same plea for those miscarriages that are the effects of our infirmity since there is this to make them the effects of wilfulness too that we have neglected to consider our own weakness and to go to God for help And what should be more easie and natural than for a frail Creature to have recourse to the Fountain of his being and the Author of all good the God of Power and Mercy for a supply of his own defects We are not therefore excusable if we do it not constantly and earnestly when so much depends upon it I have but one Motive more to lay before you but that methinks a very prevailing one and that is that our blessed Master himself in whom there was no sin nor sinful infirmity he I say himself who so little needed any other strength but his own practised that Advice which he gave to his Disciples he watched and prayed when the hour of temptation was coming on whilst his Disciples threw away their time and we see the different effects of their different behaviour Our Lord witnessed a good Confession but his slothful Disciples fled away shamefully and Peter the most forward of all a little before miscarryed the most shamefully of all and denyed his Master A very instructing example to shew us how much depends upon Prayer and how unreasonable a thing it is to complain of the Infirmities of our Natures and the difficulty of standing against temptations when we have so ready but withal so necessary a means of relief that Jesus himself made use of it And surely one main reason why he he did so was that we might be instructed by his examples how we ought to fortifie our selves against the temptations of the World He was tempted for us because we also were to be tempted and he prayed under his temptation for our sakes too that we might learn of him the way to overcome temptations and to be always prepared against them Let us therefore my Brethren remember the words of our Lord Jesus Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation let us also remember the example of our Lord who himself watched and prayed though he of all men that ever lived least needed any assistance against temptation Let us enter into the Church and frequent the Publick Prayers and let us enter into our Closets and never omit our Prayers to God in secret For by every such omission we loose an opportunity for our Souls we weaken our dependance upon God we lie more open to danger from within and from without and have made one step more backward and are farther from the Grace of God. In a word let us purge our selves from all insincerity and hypocrisie and be sure that we do not suffer the guilt of any wilful sin to lie upon us and ever keep our selves from presumptuous sin and to this general habit of honesty let us add a jealousie over our selves doing like those that depend upon the Grace and Providence of God for if we continue thus doing we shall not fall and that because God is our help who is not wanting to prevent us by his Grace and will therefore never fail to follow us with it whilst we walk in his ways and study to please him in all things and humbly depend upon him for our Safety in this World and our Salvation in the World to come The Fifth Sermon MATTH IV. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve HERE are two Rules to be observed I. To worship and serve God. II. To
of bearing Evil from the hand of God is that which is meant by receiving it at his hand Particularly 1. We are to receive Evil with the same honourable thoughts of God wherewith we are to receive Good from him We must abate nothing of our esteem of his Righteousness or of our belief of his Wisdom and Goodness The sense of misery is indeed apt to breed hard thoughts of all those by whose means it comes if they have knowingly contributed towards it and designed what we suffer But let us remember Brethren that this is a case always to be excepted God knows and sees all the troubles that befall us nay and it is his Will that they should happen to us and yet we must not think the worse of him for it And though we take it ill of any man that can easily help us when we are in distress and yet refuses to do it yet we ought not to be so affected towards God and whilst we complain of that grief from which 't is true he could deliver us in one moment we must at no hand complain of him nor entertain the least unworthy thought of him for seeing us in pain and suffering us to continue under it 2. We are to receive Evil with the same constancy of serveing and obeying him as if we received nothing but good We are not to grow weary of Religion nor to give over Praying nor to depart from Justice or Charity or any duty incumbent on us The truth is they must be great strangers to the spirit and design of Christianity who can be tempted to count their Prayers and their Repentance and Righteousness unprofitable when they do not save them from the calamities of this World. Under the Law indeed the promises whereof were Temporal we may observe the temptation prevail'd upon some good Men. Verily said Asaph I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in Innocence For all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning Psal 73.13 14. But then he recover'd a better mind ver 21 22. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins so foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee It was this that Job's Wife bad him do i.e. to throw off all pretence to serve God who had thus forsaken him said she Curse God and dye scorn to serve him any longer and make an end of thy life But said he Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh what shall we receive Good at the hand of God and shall we not receive Evil Nay 3. We are to receive evil from God with thankfulness for the good things we have enjoyed for those which remain and for those which we expect and above all for the hope of Eternal Life We must thank him for the care he takes of us and therefore for all his dealings with us for sending us that which he sees is most expedient for us yea for those very Trials and Chastisements which we complain of though for the present they are grievous And thus Job received Evil. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord. These I confess seem to be hard lessons but they are such as we must learn and how hard soever they may be yet let us be assured that they are not unreasonable and that is the second point I was to shew and what I chiefly designed to insist upon at present Therefore 1. We should consider that we have not deserved the Good that we receive from the hand of God but the Evil which we receive that we have abundantly deserved All indeed do not deserve Evil from God equally but all deserve it more or less And as for meriting good from him that no man must pretend to how Righteous and Godly soever he be For if God should be severe to mark what is amiss who could stand before him If he should enter into Judgment with his Servants no flesh living would be justified Now if Job who was a perfect and upright Man a Man of extraordinary Piety and Virtue received Evil from God as he ought how much more should we do so that fall short of his perfection When we suffer affliction our hearts must justifie God in all because they condemn us in so many things Our own Consciences are enough to stop our mouths or rather to make us confess that we have sinned but that God is Righteous Especially since all the good that we ever enjoyed and do now enjoy is from a holy and just God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity For if we who are obnoxious to his Purity and Justice have yet received innumerable benefits from him it is hard and unreasonable to complain of him though but in our thoughts that he sometimes lets us feel a little of his anger and puts us in mind of our sins and of his own Justice and that as he is a gracious and a bountiful so he is withal a Holy God. Which consideration should prevail the more because 2. God has absolute Authority over us and so is every way just in correcting us for our offences not only because we have done that which deserves Punishment but because also he has a just and rightful Power to punish us for it Tho a Man knows that he has done ill yet every body must not take upon him to give him correction A Servant will submit to his Master and a Child to his Father and a Subject to the Magistrate when they will not bear Punishment from every hand as there is no reason that they should How much more should we submit to the Chastisement of the Almighty who is the Father of Spirits and our Soveraign Lord upon whom we absolutely depend because he made us out of nothing and sustains us every moment that we live When we were born we brought nothing with us into the World but have lived ever since upon the good things which God of his bounty hath lent us for our use And if he for good reasons takes them away he does us no wrong for they are not ours otherwise than by his continual Gift Which consideration disposed Job to submit when he was divested of all Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither To the Earth from whence I was taken The Lord gave c. Let us remember that no Lord has that right over his Servant nor Parent in his Child which God has in us all and that since there is no obligation like to that which we have to God that made us nor any Authority that one can have over another equal to that which he has over us there is great Reason why we should meekly submit to his Chastisements and be content to receive not only that good which we have not deserved but that evil also which we have deserved at his Hand But this is not all For 3. To
reasonable so it is a safe Rule upon this account that if it be followed it will secure us from the greatest Offences as those Opinions and Practices are which are evidently contrary to God's Word 2. Let us keep close to the Ancient Creeds which our Church faithfully delivers for no Man has yet been so bold as to offer the least doubt against that nay all that we are challenged for is that we do not receive those additions to the Creed which in comparison were but of Yesterday These Ancient Forms of confessing the Faith shew what Articles of meer Belief were thought by the Primitive Church necessary to be known and held by all And because the Faith was at once delivered to the Saints no more can be necessary now than was then Now if we observe that the Profession of this Faith is sufficient to make a Christian or a Member of the Church we shall be the better guarded against all erroneous Doctrines which are propounded to us by any Party under the Notion of Necessary Truths For whilst we are sure we profess all that was thought necessary at first we shall be at ease and feel no disturbance in examining what is moreover propounded and determining to receive it if it has Authority from the Scriptures and to reject it if it has none much more if it be contrary thereunto Which Rule I hope you perceive is to take place in judging what you are to believe not in judging whatsoever is to be done for even in the Worship of God there are several things of an indifferent Nature for which there is no particular Precept in the Scripture and in which we may be and ought to be concluded by the Custom of our Church and the Will of our Superiours And he cannot miscarry greatly but is in great measure secured from the mischief of Offences who in matters of Faith will be determined by nothing less than Divine Authority and who in matters of external Order which are no way determined by the Authority of the Scriptures is still ready to be concluded by the Authority of Man. But then 3. Let us keep our selves always in the proper disposition and preparation to judge and conclude aright for our selves i. e. by Sincerity which consists chiefly in a vehement desire to understand the Truth and to do our Duty We must lay our Hands upon this that we will be honest and good and then we shall use all good Rules well to be sure we shall not be a whit the more inclined to embrace Doctrines for our Belief or Practice because they make for our worldly and carnal Interests And this goes a great way to enable men to distinguish between Truth and Error Good and Evil. Offences from without would not stumble us if we were not weakned and blinded by the Offence of a vitious disposition within our selves And therefore our Saviour having given warning against the former in the words of the Text doth in the very next words proceed to direct us how to secure our selves against them and that by preventing the latter Wherefore says he if thy right hand or foot offend thee cut them off And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee That is subdue thy dearest Lusts and if there be any one that is harder to part with than the rest and is grown a part of thy self though it cost thee as much pain to divide thy self from it as it would to cut off thine hand or pull out thine eye for that very reason do thou mortifie it in the first place For when the World will be full of Offences i. e. encouragements to Sin and of deceitful Errors if thou also art an Offence to thy self for want of a sincere and honest heart and purifying thy mind from worldly and carnal Lusts thou wilt not be able to withstand the Arts and Force of outward Temptations Now the way to gain this Honest Mind is to fix our thoughts steadfastly upon the Life to come which is the means our Saviour directs to the use of in this place too And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out for it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than to be cast into Hell-fire Lastly Let all our other care be begun continued and ended in earnest Prayer to God that he would enlighten the eyes of our minds and purifie our intentions and lead us in the right way and keep us in it by his Grace For the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much for another but much more for himself and most of all when he asketh the best things when he asketh those things that please God best a Mind purified from worldly Lusts and an Understanding enlightned with the knowledge of the Truth He that doth these things shall never fall The Fourth Sermon MATTH XXVI 41. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak IN these words are contained an Exhortation to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation and a Reason upon which the Exhortation is made The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak In the Exhortation we may observe a Direction to the use of means watch and pray and then the end why we should do so That we enter not into temptation As to the means watching and praying the use of them both supposes a great concern for the event For if I am not only to be careful my self but to get all the help I can nay if I am to go to the God of Heaven and Earth for his help and to seek it constantly to be sure as the end I aim at ought not to be in it self trivial so neither ought I to be trivially affected with it A great concern for the end is supposed in the use of such means as Watchfulness and Prayer But more particularly as to watching That signifies such a care of our selves as supposes danger and that was the case of the Disciples to whom the Exhortation was immediately given Our Saviour was now preparing them for his approaching Passion he would therefore have them consider before-hand what a terrible Temptation it would be to see their own Master forsaken and contemned and almost every body ashamed or afraid to own him he would have them reflect upon their own Infirmities and examine their own Hearts and to consider whether they were likely to hold out against such a Temptation as was coming upon them He would have them furnish their minds with all the Powers of Faith with all the Reasons of Constancy which they might infer from the Holy Doctrine he had taught them they were now to consider the value of their Souls the vanity of the World the promise of Everlasting Life and what-ever they had learnt from Jesus which was proper to confirm them in that good mind they were in at present he would have them to
resolve well and to fix their Resolution not upon a sudden heat only not meerly upon the general disposition of an Honest Mind but upon a deliberate Judgment what they must lose and what they should get by doing as became them Finally he would have them to maintain a constant sense of these things upon their minds that they might not be at a loss and be found unprovided on the sudden All this is implied in watching a Work which the Disciples were bidden more strictly to attend because the Lord had told them that the hour was at hand when a terrible Tryal would befall them and therefore upon their neglect to do accordingly he justly upbraided them afterward What could ye not watch with me one hour And all this was to be drawn into consequence for the Instruction of all his Disciples to the end of the World not only upon extraordinary Occasions but in the ordinary course of their Lives that is that we should be possessed with a sense of God and our Duty of the danger we are in by the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil of the fearful consequence of yielding to these Temptations and that we should maintain a lively sense of these things upon our Minds by being conversant in the Word of God and by making the main Principles of Religion present to our Minds by a frequent consideration of them This I say is incumbent upon us all since our Saviour thought it needful for all for says he What I say unto you I say to all Watch Mark 13.37 But to Watchfulness our Lord Commands us to add Prayer Watch and Pray And Prayer implies these two things 1. A just sense of our own insufficiency that if God he absent from us our Purposes are uncertain our Resolutions wavering and inconstant and our wills and Affections alterable by every blast of Temptation though we may be provided with very good Reasons of Constancy in doing well God hath not left us meerly to depend upon the strength of Arguments and Motives though they are necessary but hath promised moreover the supernatural help of his Grace and we are not to depend meerly upon the former but knowing that we need farther assistance we should daily apply our selves to him by Prayer for it 2. It implies not only a consciousness of our inability to do the thing that God requires but moreover a steady belief of and trust in the grace of God which he hath promised that it is sufficient for us and that he will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him that he who is good to all will be ready to help them especially that call upon him in sincerity and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able Such is the meaning of that part of the Exhortation which concerns the means Watch and Pray Now 2. The end of Watchfulness and Prayer is that we may not enter into Temptation The meaning of which Phrase is plainly this that we may not fall by Temptation not as the words at first hearing seem to import that no Temptation may befall us for as to that Temptation which required the Vigilance and Devotion of our Lord's Disciples at this time he plainly told them it would happen and therefore by entring into temptation must be meant falling into that sin to which the Temptation is an inducement and so the Exhortation runs as if our Saviour had said You are very confident that you shall do as you ought as if it were one of the easiest things in the World but I tell you before-hand that this Confidence of yours is a dangerous Presumption and you will find your selves deceived when it comes to the Tryal if you take no more care than you are now disposed to take I Advise you therefore to consider what will happen better than you have done and to call together all those Instructions you have heard from me and make them present to your minds and be so affected with them as to betake your selves to Prayer that being thus armed not with an hasty but a prudent Resolution and with dependence upon God you may overcome the Temptation when it happens This seems to be the Natural meaning of the Exhortation Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation I proceed next to explain the Reason which our Saviour adds to enforce the Exhortation The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak And now I doubt when we hear or read these words we are too apt to interpret them as if Jesus had meant to excuse the sluggishness of his Disciples and had indeed spoken to them in this manner It were well if you would Watch and Pray that you may not fall by Temptation but the truth is though you are willing so to do yet you are not very much to be blamed but in some part to be excused if you do not and that because of the frailty and weakness of Humane Nature But I beseech you not to be fond of this way of expounding these words for it is by no means true nor in the least worthy of our Saviour's Wisdom nor agreeable to the scope of his Doctrine Let us not think so meanly of our Lord as if he gave his Disciples necessary Directions and in the same breath excused them whether they fulfilled his Directions or not These words I say do not contain an excuse of their neglect to watch and pray but a Reason why they should do both and such a Reason too as left them without all Excuse if they failed in either For thus they may be supposed to run Watch and Pray that ye enter not into Temptation for though the Spirit is willing yet the Flesh is weak and so it is absolutely necessary that ye Watch and Pray Which Interpretation as it holds forth a worthy and excellent meaning of it self so it is clearly warranted by the circumstances and scope of the place and by the condition of those Persons at present to whom these words were used and by what befel them afterwards And this will be very evident if we examine the meaning of the words by these Rules For then you will see 1. That by a willing spirit we are not to understand a forwardness to Watch and Pray but a present Resolution to overcome Temptations and that a sincere Resolution too such a Resolution as is accompanied with a strong persuasion that we shall do so and that was the case of the Disciples For if we look back in this Chapter we shall find that upon their Master's fore-warning them what occasion of Offence they would meet with that very Night St. Peter briskly steps forward in the Name of all the rest of the Apostles all agreeing to what he said v. 33. Though all men says he shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended Thus the willingness of the Spirit shewed it self that is a forwardness to do all that
worship and to serve him only And these are Rules of both Testaments and in truth Laws of Nature and therefore they that violate them are without excuse My design is to lay before you some of the principal Duties prescribed in these Rules with the sins that are opposed to them Now in the first place to worship God is to honour him as God which consists chiefly in two things viz. In a right esteem of him and in the expression of it 1. In the esteem i. e. in believing God to be the Soveraign Being infinite in all perfections in duration in wisdom and in power and above all in goodness from hence it is that affections suitable to such an esteem of God are also Worship because they are the most real acknowledgments of the Divine Attributes He that trusts in the wisdom and power of God more than in all the world besides ascribes to him the honour of infinite wisdom and power he that fears his displeasure and trembles at his word gives him the honour of his infinite holiness he that loves him above all things doth thereby effectually confess his infinite goodness By such apprehensions of God and disposition towards him we worship him in our Hearts and Souls 2. As to the outward worship of god it consists in such actions as either by God himself or by the common consent of Mankind or by the nature of the thing are made expressions of Divine Honour and of the worship of the Heart Sacrifices have been ever esteemed marks of Divine Honour given to that Being to whom they were offered and God appropriated them to himself in the Covenant he made with his own People He that sacrificeth unto any God save unto the Lord only he shall be utterly destroyed Exod. 22.20 Whether Sin-offerings or Thank-offerings they were testimonies and declarations of God's Soveraignty that he was Lord of all and the Giver of all to whom all praise and obedience was due For this reason the Christian Worship which knows no Sacrifice for Sin but that which was never to be offered but once and which has taken away the slaying of Beasts and the killing of Birds the Christian Worship it self I say is called a Sacrifice By him says the Apostle i. e. by Christ let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually Heb. 13.15 For though the gross Sacrifices were left off yet there was an incommunicable Worship of God that remained viz. the more spiritual Sacrifices of Prayer and Thanksgiving which were the true meaning of the Sacrifices before Christianity and therefore a more excellent Worship than they For Sacrifices were but the Rites and Ceremonies of Prayer and Thanksgiving a Sacrifice for Sin was but the outward Rite of calling upon God for Mercy a Sacrifice of Praise was but the outwaid Rite of offering Praise and therefore Prayer and Thanksgiving are proper expressions of Divine Honour inasmuch as they are in effect the same with Sacrifices and indeed a more excellent Worship than what was anciently called by that name And there are these two things which make them to be proper expressions of honouring God as God. 1. The matter of Religious Invocation which is either to pray to God of to give him thanks for those things which he only can give and for every thing which we either need or have received and this makes Prayer and Thanksgiving to be an acknowledgment of God's Omnipotence Soveraignty and Infinite Goodness 2. Our calling upon him at all times and in all places which is a clear acknowledgment of his Omnipresence and Infinite Knowledge And hence it is that hearing of Prayer is one of those Titles wherewith the Psalmist addressed himself to God Psalm 65.2 And thou that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For when we speak to an invisible Being we can have no assurance that we are heard but only this assurance that the Being is every-where present and therefore though we see him not yet we know that he is with us and our Prayer is not lost And they are these two things each of which distinguishes that which in Religion we call Prayer and Thanksgiving from asking benefits of one another and giving thanks for benefits received that the latter supposes a limited power the former an absolute power over all things and is expressed very often by desiring such things of God as he only can bestow And again when we ask fit things of one another it is within the lines of civil communication by speaking if present by messages if absent but when we speak to God we speak to an invisible Being whom we therefore acknowledge to be every-where present And in these two things that is in Prayer and Thanksgiving or to include both in one expression in Religious Invocation the Substance of Divine Worship consists and all other instances of it may be reduced to this Thus it is an Act of Divine Worship to dedicate or set apart Places for Prayer and Thanksgiving for the erecting of Houses for the Service of an invisible Being is an acknowledgment of his Omnipresence no less then calling upon him there Thus bodily Adoration Bowing Kneeling or Prostrating are Acts of Divine Worship also when they are paid to an invisible Being because they too suppose the presence of it every-where to receive those outward Honours and to take notice of them And all this together is that which we call the immediate Worship of God because it is all an address or application to him This is what we commonly mean by Religious Worship though in a larger sence all Piety may be so called and he that obeys God in all things worships him because he makes an effectual acknowledgment of all the Divine Attributes 2. Since we know what it is to worship God nothing should be more easie than to understand that other Rule mainly intended in the words of the Text That God only is to be worshipped Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him ONLY shalt thou serve i. e. Infinite Perfection is to be attributed to him only Infinite Knowledge or Power or Goodness or Presence or Dominion is to be ascribed to him only he only is to be loved and reverenced and trusted in above all things and to be absolutely obeyed to him alone we are to perform those Acts of Worship which imply any part of that acknowledgment and therefore to none but him are Religious Supplications and Intercessions with Thanksgivings to be offered besides him no other invisible Being ought to be addressed unto by us To him only we are to pay those bodily Adorations of Kneeling Bowing and Falling-down which are properly Religious that is which accompany and go along with Prayer or Thanksgiving or any acknowledgment of a Divine Perfection we are to give to no other Being in the World that outward Worship which by all the circumstances of it is Religious or a signification of the least Divine Honour Upon these grounds I intend
been so which is notoriously false And whereas it is said that almost all Heresies have come of Mis-interpreting Scripture this doth not prove that Christian People must not read the Scriptures for it cannot be denied that those Heresies which have given any considerable disturbance to the Church of God were begun not by Laicks or illiterate Persons but by such men as the objectors do allow to have a right of reading and studying the Scriptures i. e. by Bishops or Priests Wherefore In the last place The Arguing of these men against the common use of the Bible concludes against the Priest as strongly as against the People For if to prevent Heresie the Scriptures are to be kept from Lay men who may bring Heresie into the Church by Misinterpreting the Scriptures then for the same reason men in Orders should not be suffered to read them since they have actually been the founders of Heresie Nay the reason is something stronger since the wresting of the Holy Text by men of Office or Learning will be of greater Authority and do more mischief than the mistakes of private and unlearned Persons But if the danger of perverting difficult places be a good reason to deprive men of all use of the Bible this reason hath a particular force upon some men that they should never look upon a Bible more For the best way to Judge how the Scriptures are likely to be used by any sort of men is to consider how they have constantly used them heretofore and let any indifferent man judge of them by these following instances Because God said Let us make man after our own Image therefore it is lawful to fall down before an Image of Wood or Stone Because Christ said to Peter Feed my sheep Therefore his pretended Successors have power to depose Heretical Princes Because Peter said to Christ Lord here are two Swords therefore they have a Temporal as well as a Spiritual jurisdiction Because Jacob in Blessing Ephraim and Manasses prayed that his Name might be Named on them Therefore it is lawful to pray to Saints Because it is said the Disciples met together to break Bread therefore the Laity may be deprived of the Cup. Because St. Paul saith of him that prayeth in a Tongue not understood by others Thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not edified therefore it is in it self good to appoint publick Prayers in a Language unknown to the People that is Because he that understands what himself says doth well for himself because he understands therefore he doth well for others that understand not a word and are therefore not edified Because the Apostle saith we must Glorifie God with one mouth therefore in all publick Offices of Liturgy there is to be but one and that the Latin Tongue in all places of Christendome Because that many Languages at Babel caused confusion therefore for God to be served in the many Vulgar Tongues of Christian Nations would breed Schisms in the Church Because the Beast that touched the Mountain was to die and because Christ said Give not that which is Holy to Dogs therefore ordinary People are not to have the Bible These expositions are not invented but there are good Authorities for them and for a great many more of the like sort I know not what can farther be objected but this That if Priests and Learned men have been so foully mistaken in the Interpretation of Scripture how much more are the Unlearned in danger of falling into mistakes which though perhaps will never come to be Heresies in the Church may yet prove damnable to themselves as St. Peter plainly saith To which I answer That St. Peter's Vnlearned Men were such as had not yet attained to the knowledg of the necessary Doctrine of Faith and good Life as appears by his calling them unstable not yet fixt in a persuasion of the plain truths and great ends of the Gospel and such as those whether they were men of good parts or not were likely enough to Interpret the hard places of St. Paul's Epistles to a sense conttary to the plain and open truths of the Gospel But if a man be instructed in the necessary and plain Doctrine of Christianity and moreover furnished with Modesty and a sincere Love of the Truth and willingness to learn qualities that ought to be common to all he shall be as far from wresting the difficult Scriptures to his own destruction as one that hath vastly greater abilities Nay I will add one thing which if it be true there is no force at all in the objection and that is this That the service of a Cause and espousing the Interest of a by-Party doth more fatally lead to Misinterpretation of the Scripture than bare weakness of understanding and there is this plain reason for it because Modesty and Love of the truth will secure a man of no great abilities from rash concluding upon the difficult Places of Scripture but Partiality and the service of a by cause shall engage a man of parts and learning to trouble the clearest and to pervert the plainest Texts as the forementioned instances evidently shew So that either the danger of Misinterpreting Scripture is no sufficient reason to prohibit the Laity from reading it or else it were better that no Order of Men were trusted with it at all and if that be true I think it will follow that it had better never have been written at all which no man will say whatever he thinks But to speak to the thing the Scriptures were written for an universal good and in order thereunto for common use Here are all Divine truths and reasons of Christian Faith and Practice that are necessary to be known of every man plainly exprest for the use of the meanest Capacities Here are also difficulties and mysteries of several sizes fit to imploy the Industry of the Learned according to the several degrees of their abilities and to exercise the Modesty the Humility and the Reverence of all But still we confess that they may be perverted and abused and if this be a sufficient reason to Interdict the general use of them then farewel at once to all the Comforts of this Life and to all the means of grace in order to a better with every one of which men in their folly and wickedness may and very often have hurt themselves and others St. Peter was aware of this that some men wrested those hard things in St. Paul's Epistles and in other Scriptures to their own destruction but did he therefore dissuade the Faithful from reading them No but in the very same Epistle he commends them all for taking heed to the words of Prophecy of the Old Testament in which there were some things as hard to be sure as any are in St. Paul's Writings and I hope St. Peter was as Wise a Man in this point as any that have come after him And now I beseech you let us not say That we
interpose in behalf of Truth and righteousness when the Faithful seem to fail from among the Children of men While God seems to let the World alone and to suffer all men to go on in their own ways as if he took no notice of them nor were at all concerned what they did he is all the while trying and proving what they are not indeed for his own Information for he knows all things but for the instruction of those that are to come after If he at every turn should interpose when we think it needful we should very seldom know who are sincere and who are Hypocrites It is very fit that it should be sometimes seen whether men are what they pretend to be whether indeed they are concerned for that Truth for which they have once pretended a mighty zeal whether they are Governed by Conscience as they say or by mere Worldly and Politick considerations for such discoveries as these are very instructing and serve for the bringing about of much good in the World and in the Church which we may reasonably presume to be one cause why when the Son of Man comes he will find but little Faith upon the Earth because while he suffers the World to go on as if he minded it not he is trying those that pretend to Faith and upon the Tryal many are discovered not to have it In short Divine Providence is so far from being regardless of the affairs of men that it then most of all shows it self when men are Tempted to think that it regards nothing i. e. when there is but little Faith to be found in the Earth and this will be abundantly demonstrated at the close of all things that is at the Day of Judgment which will be the most convincing act of Providence that ever was in the World and one forerunner of it will be that Question Where is the promise of his coming And now the use of all ought to be that which is the declared intention of our Saviour in the beginning of the Parable And he spake a parable to them to the end that men ought always to pray and not to faint For the true Ground of Prayer is Faith in the Providence and Promises of God and if there be no time when these fail then ought men always to pray and not to faint i. e. they ought always to depend upon God's Providence they ought always to believe his Promises they ought always to be certain that their Prayers are heard and will turn to good account for them that God is gracious to all and much more to them that love and serve him and if they do all this then they will always pray and not faint i. e. and not be discouraged And if they ought always to pray then also when they are most apt to be discouraged and when there is but little Faith to be found upon the Earth nay then most of all because when Temptations to unbelief are greatest we should the most of all strengthen our selves by recourse to God and dependance upon him To this Instance in Prayer there are two things must go 1. A Stedfast resolution to walk in all the ways of God and not to be diverted out of them by any Worldly Interest whatsoever For he can have no Faith to go to God who thinks of taking care for himself without regard to his Duty to God A man is not in a condition to seek the Favour of God or to commend his case to him that contrives how to shift for himself without him 2. A perfect resignation of himself to the Will of God for by this also it is that a man entitles himself to his Favour and Blessing The most effectual way to obtain the particular Blessings we pray for at any time if they are such things as may prove evil as well as good for us is to leave the matter after all to the disposal of Divine Providence for then if we obtain them we get his Blessing with them too if we do not we are sure to get his Blessing without them which is the general thing we pray for always With these dispositions we are in a fit case to present our Prayers to God for Spiritual Blessings for our selves and for the Church of Christ which will assuredly come accompanied with Temporal ones too if it be best for us and if God sees that it is better for his Church to be prosperous than to be afflicted in this world and then it is better so to be when men are sufficiently prepared for it by God's Correction and their own Repentance Men ought therefore always to pray and not to faint for their Prayers thus qualified will not fail of obtaining what they ask which our Saviour thought good to illustrate by an example in the Parable delivered before the Text viz of an unjust Judge that neither feared God nor regarded man who nevertheless upon the importunity of a Widow did what was right in her case much more shall God hear the Prayers of his faithful Servants For 1. He is the Just God and is of himself ready to right those that do at any time suffer wrong 2. He is also the Merciful God that regardeth men and when we desire things of him that are needful he is of himself ready to grant what we ask or at least that which is more needful than what we ask 3. Whereas the Judge in the Parable seem'd to contemn the Poverty and Meanness of that Person that sued to him for Justice for which reason she is represented here to be a Widow one of a destitute Condition that wanted a Patron to assert her Right God who is Just and Good to all is particularly Gracious to his servants and esteems them highly and no circumstances of meanness and distress which he suffers them to fall into can alter his favour towards them for all which Reasons if the Judge in the Parable granted the Widows suit merely because she lay upon him and was troublesome to him much more will God to whom we are never troublesome when we make our requests known to him grant what we ask because he is Righteous and Gracious and loveth and pitieth us as a father doth his children The Fourteenth Sermon AN ASSIZE-SERMON PREACHED at St. Maries in Bury 1678. LEVIT XIX 12. Ye shall not swear by my name falsly THE Religious Use of an Oath depends chiefly upon the Matter and the Discharge The Matter must be worthy of that Obligation which an Oath implies in promising it must not be unlawful that we may Swear in Righteousness it must not be impossible it must not be trivial and in affirming it must be some Fact proveable by our own Testimony that we may Swear in Judgment All which implies That we are not to swear indeliberately passionately or commonly The Discharge of an oath must be answerable to the Obligation which is to Sincerity of Intention Fidelity of Performance and the giving