Night as their Guide and an Angel for their Safeguard and yet the Israelites will be tempting provoking and murmuring Let one come and do the works which never man did give sight to the Blind feet to the Lame health to the Sick life to the Dead Let the Sun be darkned the Rocks rend the Graves be opened and the Dead appear Nay let him that did all this and for whose sake it was done rise again from the Dead and visibly ascend into Heaven yet the obstinate Jew will be incredulous Let a Ghost appear and preach over the despised Doctrines of the Soul's Immortality and the reality of a Future State and of a Judgment to come and reinforce it from his own Knowledge and Experience and verify all this by his return from the Dead And yet the Sinner the customary Sinner is not to be reclaimed who like the deaf Adder stops his ears against the voice of the charmer charm he never so powerfully and wisely Psal. 58. 5. It 's then all one whether it be Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles Revelation or the Resurrection of one from the Dead when the Temper is otherwise inclined And if the Honours Profits Advantages and Pleasures of the world do render the one they will also render the other ineffectual So true is that Wisd. 4. 12. that wickedness by bewitching obscureth the things that are good and will disarm all Arguments can be produced of their Force and Efficacy 2. I might further prove this by considering the reasons why Men don't believe and repent and the Excuses they make for delays in it which will as well frustrate the Testimony and Persuasions of one from the Dead as it doth the Arguments of Divine Revelation 1. The reasons have been partly shewed already and they are the prevalency of Corrupt Inclinations the Presence of Temptations the Habits of Vice or a Worldly Interest which are the usual Obstructions to Repentance and have a greater power over Men to detain them in Sin than all the Arguments of the Gospel and the Convictions of their own Minds have to reclaim them from it We see that though they have Line upon Line the most powerful Motives in the World such threatnings as make them at some times with Foelix to tremble Such comfortable Doctrines as make them at other times with Herod to hear gladly Such moving and awakening considerations as bring them with Balaam to desire to dye and further than him to a desire to live the life of the Righteous yet they soon fail of their force and the Foelix was the Foelix that left his Preacher Paul in bonds And the Balaam was the Balaam that as well took as he loved the wages of unrighteousness And the Herod was the Herod that beheaded John Baptist whom he observed and heard with pleasure For all these Passions are like Qualms that soon pass off and prevail not so far as to alter the Temper And where persons are thus under the power of their Lusts they will continue in the same state if one came from the Dead to warn and reprove them And therefore if John B. had rose from the Dead as Herod once imagined and believed it would no more have made him a true Penitent than the Preaching of that Holy Man did when alive as long as Herodias was by him to seduce him and he was contented to be seduced 2. The case is the same with persons in delaying heir Repentance and if the Excuse against the present necessity of it prevail in one case they will also prevail in the other So that he that will not be persuaded to a present Repentance by the Arguments of the Gospel will not be persuaded by the Testimony and Admonition of one from the Dead And upon the whole the Question is Whether a person may not reason the same way and as much to his own Delusion against the Testimony and Persuasions of one from the Dead as against the Authority and Arguments of Scripture and at last be as far from Repentance and a present Repentance And whether there is not reason to conclude That if these and the like Excuses prove sufficient to detain men in impenitency notwithstanding all the Arguments to the contrary contained in Scripture the same will not be of as much force and have as much influence upon the Sinner if one should come from the Dead to admonish him I am confident that this is not to be gainsaid And so the Proposition before laid down remains good That the reasons for which persons give no heed to or are not persuaded by the Authority and Arguments of Scripture to believe and repent will keep them from giving heed to and being persuaded by the coming of one from the Dead But this is a case I shall not further prosecute for it needs Consideration rather than Proof I shall therefore close all with Three or Four Inferences 1. From hence I infer That there is no absolute need of any other course to be taken for the Conviction and Conversion of Sinners than what is already taken or that extraordinary means should be used where the ordinary are sufficient If there be a Revelation which is believed certainly to be Divine and the Arguments contained in that Revelation are sufficient to persuade men to believe and repent Then there is no need of Miracles nor of a Voice from Heaven nor the Resurrection of one from the Dead If there be impenitency with reason and proof sufficient to convince and persuade men there will be impenitency still with such proof as is more than sufficient These things are written that ye might believe Joh. 20. 30. And consequently what is Written is sufficient to persuade us to a belief of what is Written 2. God is not bound to give nor can men in reason desire or expect that he should use an extraordinary course where the ordinary is sufficient and that one should rise from the Dead for their Conviction who have Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles It was the Temper of Thomas Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Joh. 20. 25. This was the Temper of the incredulous Jews Let him come down from the cross and we will believe Matt. 27. 42. So Celsus the Heathen will have it If Christ were the Son of God that he should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Sun and the miserable person here would have one rise from the dead There will be no end if once we exceed the ordinary bounds and expect evidence beyond what is sufficient For then men may require to be rapt up into Paradise as St. Paul was or to see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God as did St. Stephen Nay they may be as impertinent as Philip and say Shew us the Father
and it sufficeth 3. We are bound to believe what we have sufficient evidence for and to repent when the Reasons and Motives to it are sufficient though we have not all the Evidence that may be given and that 't is possible for God to give 'T is possible for God to send a Lazarus from the Dead to testify unto the impenitent concerning the certainty of a place of torment in the other World And 't is possible though not very probable as I have shew'd that may be a means to awaken such and bring Them to repentance whom the Doctrine of Divine Revelation and the Arguments of Scripture could not prevail upon But that doth not lessen the Obligation of believing and doing according to Revelation and which without such further evidence is of it self sufficient for their Conversion 4. Those that have the Evidence of Divine Revelation and yet do not believe and repent according to that Revelation are wholly inexcusable They have Moses and the Prophets saith our Saviour let them hear them for that was sufficient and all that was necessary to bring them to Repentance here and Salvation hereafter And if they that had Moses and the Prophets only were inexcusable what can those plead who have not only Moses and the Prophets but Christ and the Apostles who have brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel And who must therefore have so many more reasons against them as there are more for the confirmation of the Truth of our Religion and for the conviction of Unbelievers than there were under the Law And therefore if any continue in a state of Unbelief and Impenitence under the Gospel it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for them If such do perish 't is wholly from themselves If such do perish 't is not through want of Information sufficient to direct them not through want of Arguments powerful enough to convince them not through want of Authority sufficient to oblige them not through want of sufficient Grace to enable them not through want of Mercy in God or Merit in a Saviour or a Will Desire or Endeavour in both to save them but from themselves And how just will then the Sentence of Condemnation be to such How will all Pleas then be prevented And how miserable must his case be that is Condemned by himself before he is Condemned by God! To conclude Here is Life and Death set before us in the most pressing Arguments the most powerful Motives the most persuasive invitations to Repentance We have here proposed to us all that Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles have said to convince us And we have still through the Merciful Providence of God means to assist us in it and time and opportunity for the performance of it But the time is coming and will most certainly come when if we have not before believed and repented Neither Moses nor the Prophets neither Abraham nor one greater than Abraham will or can relieve us And therefore how necessary is it for all now to hearken to Moses and the Prophets to Christ and the Apostles in this their Day For if they now hear them not they can no more hereafter be saved than they would have been persuaded though one had rose from the dead FINIS Irenaeus Origen Cyril Hierom think it not a Parable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 15. 27. Matt. 22. 23. Acts 23. 8. * Vos quaeritis an Immortales animae sint Ego jam sciam †Si quid Explorasset circumiturum amicos indicaturum qui esset animarum status De Tranquil c. 14. * Plus ut puto haberet fidei apud to si quis revixisset in morte nihil mali esse narraret Expertus Epist. 30. De Rep. l. 10. Exod. 7. 8 9 10. Deut. 1. 32. Psal. 78. 22. 32. 56. 106. 24. Nehem. 9. 16. Mat. 12. 13. Mark 4. 19. 1 Cor. 10. 4. Acts 24. 25. Mark 6. 20. Numb 23. 10. Acts 24. 27. Numb 31. 16. 2 Pet. 2. 15. Matt. 14. 2. Origen l. 2. 2 Cor. 12. 4. Acts 7. 56. John 14. 8.
The Vnreasonableness of Infidelity A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields April 6. 1696. BEING THE Fourth of the LECTURE For this Present YEAR Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By JOHN WILLIAMS D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and Tho. Cockerill At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey MDCXCVI LUKE XVI 31. And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead FROM the 19th Verse of this Chapter to the end under the Parable of if I may so call it the Rich man and Lazarus there is a way proposed by which we may best judge of the wisdom and folly the happiness and misery of Mankind And it is as if our Saviour had said Suppose we a man as happy as the world can make him abounding in Prosperity Wealth Ease and Luxury that wanted nothing for his Vanity for he was in a condition honourable and splendid was cloathed in Purple and fiue Linen and Silk nothing for his Appetite for he fared sumptuously every day And when he died was buried with Ceremony and Pomp agreable to his Quality Suppose we on the other hand a person as miserable as this world can make him poor so as to beg full of Sores and Ulcers so as not able to help himself destitute of Friends so as to be cast at the Rich man's gate hunger-starved so as to need the very crumbs which fell from the other's table contemned so as not to be regarded though lying at the gate in the passage and view of all or if taken notice of yet so as not to be relieved naked so as not to have wherewith to cover his Body or to defend his sores from the cold and that found more pity among the dogs than men while alive for they came and licked his sores and when dead through want pain and anguish found as little charity to bury him Thus far we find them as unlike as can be in their present condition But now let us follow them beyond the Grave and see what becomes of them in the other world There we find the poor Lazarus that once pitiful contemptible necessitous wretched Creature that wanted what the dogs had here the crumbs of the Table taken care of at his death by the Holy Angels and carried by them into a place of safety and rest comfort and happiness where Abraham was and there preferr'd to a place of honour and kindness for he lay in Abraham's Bosom having no poverty nor sores nor contempt nor any of the evil things he received in his Life-time here This he had because of his afflictions that he endured and bore with admirable patience because of his steady dependance upon God and an humble submission to him in the most deplorable condition On the other hand the Rich man when he died went to Hell where he had none of the Ease and Luxury the Respect and Honour none of the good things he received in his life-time but was tormented in a flame wanting water there as much to cool his tongue and quench his insatiable thirst as Lazarus did before the crumbs which fell from his Table to satisfy his hunger There he was and there he was to abide for there was a great Gulph fixed that rendred him as uncapable of receiving relief in the other world as he was neglectful and unwilling to give it to such as needed in this This he had for his Pride and Unmercifulness for his Contempt of God and of others better than himself This he was too late sensible of as to himself he lift up his eyes but he was in torments he cried to his Father Abraham but he proves inexorable he calls for mercy but is minded of his former ingratitude to God and his uncharitableness to others and is put to silence with a Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things ver 25. When he could not prevail for himself he then turns his thoughts towards his Five brethren whom he left behind that were as careless and so likely at last to be as miserable as himself and intreats Abraham that Lazarus might be sent to testify unto them how it was with him and how it would also be with them unless they repented ver 27. To which Abraham replies ver 29. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But that doth not satisfy him and he urges further Nay Father Abraham but if one went from the dead they will repent ver 30. This he speaks from his own Experience who had Moses and the Prophets as well as they and yet he was as secure and careless as if he had never heard or knew what they Taught and therefore unless some other Expedient be thought of or some other means used they are like in the conclusion to be as miserable as himself and surely that if any would prevent it if one went from the dead But to this Abraham replies in the Text If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead that is if they give no Credit nor regard to what is contained in their Writings concerning a Future State of rewards and punishments they are incurable neither will they be persuaded to repent as it is ver 30. though one rise from the dead That there is a Future State of Happiness or Misery in which the Souls of men do live after a separation from their Bodies has been in all Ages universally received But yet was not so convincingly to be proved from the sole light of Reason but that a fuller evidence of it was very desirable For which there are but two ways Either that of Divine Revelation by persons Divinely Inspired Or by the return of one from the Dead who was before known to the Living And these are the ways taken here into consideration by our Saviour in the case before us Where there may be three sorts of persons concerned 1. Those that had not Moses and the Prophets and were wholly without a Revelation as was the case of the Heathens And how shall they believe who have not heard Rom. 10. 14. 2. Those that had Moses and the Prophets and yet were incredulous and did not believe what Moses and the Prophets relate concerning a Future State Such were the Sadducees who held there was no resurrection angel nor spirit existing out of a Body 3. Those that had Moses and the Prophets and did believe what was therein revealed concerning the Soul's Immortality and a Future Life but were not thereby persuaded to repent Such were the Pharisees who professed to believe what the Sadducees denied And of this sort were the Rich man here spoken of and his Five Brethren supposed to be Now toward the conviction of each of these it might
be supposed that if one rose from the dead the former would be persuaded to believe and the latter to repent Thus the Heathens reasoned who had no Revelation As that Excellent person Canus Julus that Seneca speaks of who just before his Execution said to his Friends Ye are inquisitive to know whether the Souls are Immortal I shall now know And he promised If he found it so that he would go about among his Friends and would inform themwhat was the state of departed Souls And the same Seneca when discoursing to Lucilius about the behaviour of Bassus Aufidius how dying he spake of Death as a Friend and what a confirmation this gave to the Doctrine of the Souls Immortality he adds But I suppose you would more firmly believe it if one should return to life again and should declare that he found no evil in death To this they gladly repaired as an evidence where they found it And therefore Plato produceth the instance of Erus Armenius that after he had been dead Twelve days revived and gave much such an account of the other State as we have in this Parable But 't is the case of Revelation we Christians are more immediately concerned in and which our Saviour here speaks to and prefers before the Testimony of one rising from the dead The way here proposed concerning the coming of one from the dead has somewhat of common Experience on its side For we see that notwithstanding the clear Revelation of another state in Scripture and the belief that men have of it yet generally they are but little affected with these Arguments though allowed to be of the greatest importance because they lie dead in a Book and are proposed to them by such as have no more personal Experience of these things than themselves having never been out of this world nor had any sight of or conversation with the other But now if a special Messenger should be sent from the other world a Lazarus who was known to them when alive and known by them to be dead one that had been an ocular witness of the things he spoke of and related and should tell them that as there is a state of Happiness for good men so a state of Misery for the wicked a state of Misery without ease respit or hope of deliverance and confirmed all by his appearance surely this would move them Surely no heart so hard but this must penetrate no mind so stupâ—d but this must awaken no Sinner so incorrigible but this must reclaim And it may be left to every one to judge Whether if there were such an Apparition that should come upon this terrible Errand any one could see and hear it with the same calmness and indifference as he hears a Sermon or reads a Chapter in the Bible upon this serious Argument So that the advantage seems to be much on the side of the Apparition and the Proposal here made agreeable to the Common sense of Mankind But how probable a course soever this seems to be yet our Saviour here determines on the contrary If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither c. Which Answer may be resolved into these Two parts 1. That the Arguments contained in the Scriptures are sufficient to persuade men to repent 2. When men disregard the Holy Scriptures the ordinary means of Salvation so as not to be persuaded to repent by the Arguments therein contained they will not be persuaded by means extraordinary and though for example one should rise from the dead The first of these viz. That the Arguments contained c. is supposed ver 29. when Abraham saith they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And this the other doth not deny Now the chief Arguments relating to this Subject are briefly touched upon in this Parable which are these 1. That the Souls of men are Immortal This is implied when the Rich man and Lazarus are said to be in Being after they were dead ver 22. 2. That the state into which the Souls of men are disposed after death is a state of recompence Abraham saith ver 25. He is comforted and thou art tormented 3. That that state of recompence is a state of unchangeable happiness to some and of endless misery to others ver 26. Between us and you there is a great gulph fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you to relieve you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence for relief 4. That men are disposed to happiness or misery there according to their behaviour in this world ver 25. saith Abraham Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented These are Considerations of such force and consequence that this miserable person desires not that Lazarus should be sent to argue upon them with his Five Brethren but to testify concerning their reality Arguments they are of such force that he that will not by these be persuaded to repent will never be persuaded by any other But though this be all granted to be true as it 's supposed yet in his opinion as the case would admit further evidence so it seemed to need it and therefore if this extraordinary course were taken of sending one from the dead they would in his opinion certainly repent who with the ordinary means continue impenitent This brings to the 2d General 2. When men disregard the ordinary means of Salvation and are not to be persuaded to repent by the Arguments revealed in holy Scripture they will not be persuaded by means extraordinary and though one should come from the dead to persuade them For the resolving of which point we are to consider what are the reasons why the ordinary means of Salvation such as the holy Scriptures are prove ineffectual which cannot be from the want of proper and forcible Arguments for whatever one from the dead can say to move or persuade is as plainly deliver'd in Scripture He cannot more expresly tell them that there is a God that the Souls of men are Immortal that there is a Heaven and a Hell than the Scripture doth And therefore if what is thus revealed and believed upon such Revelation should not prove as effectual as what is reported by a special Messenger from the dead it must be from some reasons which belong to the one and not to the other but that there is no ground for and therefore from whence can this proceed but from the excessive love to the things of this Life and the indulgence men give to themselves in the enjoyments of it Whence should this proceed but from the power of those Lusts and Vicious Habits they have contracted And where these and the like causes are a Messenger from the other world will make no stronger an impression nor will an impression thereby made be of any longer continuance than in the