calm and fixt Valour 2. I appeal to Experience for the Truth of this Did ever greater Courage and Contempt of Death appear in all Ages and Sexes and Conditions of Men than in the primitive Martyrs Were any of the Heathen Souldiers comparable to the Christian Legion for Resolution and Courage even the Heathens themselves being Judges The Religion of Mahomet seems to be contrived to inspire Men with Fierceness and Desperateness of Resolution and yet I do not find but that generally where there hath been any equality for Number the Christians have been superiour to them in Valour and have given greater Instances of Resolution and Courage than the Turks have done So that I wonder upon what Grounds this Objection hath been taken up against Christianity when there is nothing either in the Nature of this Religion or from the Experience of the World to give any tolerable Countenance to it And surely the best way to know what Effect any Religion is likely to have upon the Minds of Men is to consider what Effects it hath had in the constant Experience of Mankind There remains the other two Objections which I mention'd but I must reserve them to another Opportunity SERMON III. The Prejudices against Jesus and his Religion consider'd MATTH XI 6. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me FROM these Words I proposed to consider these Two Things I. The Prejudices and Objections which the World at first had and many still have against our Blessed Saviour and his Religion II. That it is a great Happiness to escape the common Prejudices which Men are apt to entertain against Religion I have considered those Objections which the Jews and Heathen Philosophers made against our Saviour and his Religion And II. Those which at this Day are insisted upon by the secret and open Enemies of our Religion And I mentioned seven the two last of which I shall now speak to Sixthly It is objected That there are many Divisions and Factions among Christians This I confess is a great Reproach and Scandal to our Religion but no sufficient Argument against it And 1. To lessen and abate the Force of this Objection it is to be consider'd that a very great part of the Divisions that are among those that are call'd Christians are about things that do not concern the Essentials of Christianity and therefore they are no Argument that Christianity is not true because they bring no Suspicion of Doubt and Uncertainty upon the Fundamentals of Christianity which all agree in though they differ in other things 'T is true indeed they are very undecent and contrary to the Nature and Precepts of the Christian Religion which above any Religion in the World does strictly require Love and Unity They take off much from the Strength and Beauty of our Religion but do by no means destroy the Truth of it 2. How many and great soever they may be yet they can with no Colour of Reason be imputed to the Christian Religion as giving any Cause and Encouragement to them however by Accident it may be the Occasion of them For no Man doubts but that the best thing in the World may be perverted by bad Men and made an Occasion of a great deal of Mischief in the World and yet be very innocent of all that Mischief No Man can deny but that Christianity does strictly enjoyn Love and Peace and Unity among all the Members of that Profession and so far as Christians are factious and unpeaceable so far they are no Christians So that a Man may as well except against Philosophy because of the Differences that were among the Philosophers and say there was no Truth among them because they were not all agreed in all Things as call the Truth of Christianity in question for the differences that are among Christians Nay a Man might every whit as well except against Laws and Government because notwithstanding them there are frequent Seditions and Rebellions infinite Suits and Controversies occasion'd even by the very Laws But no Man was ever so unreasonable as to think this a good Reason against Laws and Government 3. The Divisions of Christians are so far from being an Argument against Christianity that on the contrary they are an Argument that Men should embrace Christianity more heartily and make more Conscience of obeying the Precepts of it And if they did this the greatest part of those Contentions and uncharitable Animosities which are among them would presently cease If the Christian Religion were truly entertained and Men did seriously mind the Precepts of it and give up themselves to the Obedience of its Laws Differences would not be easily commenced nor so vehemently prosecuted nor so pertinaciously continued in as they are Men would not upon every slight Reason and little doubt and Scruple rend and tear the Body of Christ in pieces and separate themselves from the Communion of the Church they live in and in which they were baptized and received their Christianity If Men seriously consider'd and truly understood what they do when they divide the Church of Christ upon little Scruples and Pretences they would hardly be able to think themselves Christians whilst they continued in these unchristian and uncharitable Practices If Men would but be or do what Christianity requires there would be no occasion for this Objection and if Men will not Christian Religion is not to be blamed for it but those that act so contrary to the plain Precepts and Directions of it I proceed to the Seventh and last Objection The vicious and wicked Lives of a great part of the Professors of Christianity This is a heavy Objection indeed and such an one that tho' we may justly be ashamed to own the Truth of it yet can we not have the face to deny it 'T is so sad a Truth that it is enough to confound us and to fill all our Faces with Shame and Blushing But yet it is an Objection not so strong against Christianity as it is shameful to Christians And notwithstanding the utmost Force of it we have no cause to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ but the Gospel of Christ may justly be ashamed of us For whatever we be The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto Salvation The Natural Tendency of it is to reform and save Men and the wrath of God is therein revealed against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of Men however they may detain the Truths of God in Vnrighteousness and not suffer them to have their due and proper Influence upon their Hearts and Lives But that I may give a more clear and particular Answer to it I desire you to attend to these following Considerations 1. It cannot be denyed but that Christianity hath had once very great and marvellous Effects upon the Hearts and Lives of Men. And for this I appeal to the Lives and Manners of the Primitive Christians for which we have not only the Testimony of our
the Sincerity of their Repentance and Conversion whereby they are put into a state of Grace and become the Children of God and Heirs of everlasting Life and being once truly so they can never fall from that State so as finally to miscarry Lastly Others venture all upon a Death-bed Repentance and their Import unity with God to receive them to Mercy at the last I shall briefly go over these particulars which are the several ways whereby Men seek to enter into Heaven and hope to get thither at last and shall shew the Insufficiency of them and that there is something beyond all this necessary to be done for the attainment of Everlasting Salvation 1st Some trust to the mere external Profession of the true Religion and think it enough to call Christ Lord Lord to be baptized in his Name and thereby to be admitted Members of the Christian Church What the Apostle says of the Profession of the Jewish Religion and the outward Badge of it Circumcision may be applyed to the Profession of Christianity made in Baptism Rom. 2. 17 25 28 29. Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made Vncircumcision For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter The Case is the same of those who make only an outward Profession of Christianity Baptism verily profitteth if we perform the Condition of that Covenant which we entred into by Baptism but if we do not our Baptism is no Baptism For he is not a Christian which is one outwardly nor is that Baptism which is outward in the Flesh but he is a Christian which is one inwardly and Baptism is of the Heart in the Spirit and not in Water only So St. Peter tells us 1 Pet. 3. 21. that Baptism is not only the washing of the Body with Water and the putting away of the Filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God The Promise of eternal Life and Happiness is not made to the external Profession of Religion without the sincere and real Practice of it Why call ye me Lord Lord says our Saviour and do not the things which I say The Scripture hath no where said he that is baptised shall be saved but he that believeth and is baptised he that repenteth and is baptised shall be saved This deserves to be seriously considered by a great many Christians who have nothing to shew for their Christianity but their Names whose best Title to Heaven is their Baptism an Engagement entred into by others in their Name but never confirmed and made good by any Act of their own a thing which was done before they remember and which hath no other effect upon their Hearts and Lives than if it were quite forgotten 2dly There are others who have attained to a good degree of Knowledge in Religion and they hope that will save them But if our Knowledge in Religion though never so clear and great do not descend into our Hearts and Lives and govern our Actions all our hopes of Heaven are built upon a false and sandy Foundation So our Saviour tells us Matth. 7. 26. Every one that heareth these Sayings of mine and doth them not shall be likened unto a foolish Man which built his House upon the Sand. And John 13. 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them There is not a greater Cheat in Religion nothing wherein Men do more grosly impose upon themselves than in this matter as if the Knowledge of Religion without the Practice of it would bring Men to Heaven How diligent are many in reading and hearing the Word of God who yet take no care to practise it in their Lives Like those in the Prophet Ezek. 33. 31. of whom God complains They come unto thee as the People cometh and they sit before thee as my People and they hear my Words but they will not do them None do so foolishly and yet so deservedly miss of Happiness as those who are very careful to learn the way to Heaven and when they have done will take no pains at all to get thither 3dly There are others who find themselves much affected with the Word of God and the Preaching of it and this they take for a very good Sign that it hath its due effect upon them And this happens very frequently that the Word of God makes considerable Impressions upon Men for the present and they are greatly affected with it and troubled for their Sins and afraid of the Judgments of God and the terrible Vengeance of another World and upon this they take up some Resolutions of a better Course which after a little while vanish and come to nothing This was the Temper of the People of Israel they delighted to hear the Prophet speak to them in the Name of God Ezek. 33. 32. And loe thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant Voice and can play well upon an Instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not Mark 6. 20. it is said that Herod had a great reverence for John the Baptist that he observed him and heard him gladly but yet for all that he continued the same cruel and bad Man that he was before And in the Parable of the Sower Matth. 13. 20. there are one sort of Hearers mention'd who when they heard the word received it with joy but having no root in themselves they endured but for a while and when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth because of the Word presently they are offended There are many Men who have sudden Motions in Religion and are mightily affected for the present but it must be a rooted and fixt Principle that will endure and hold out against great Difficulties and Opposition Acts 24. 25. it is said that when St. Paul reasoned of Righteousness and Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled and nothing is more frequent than for Men to be mightily strartled at the Preaching of the Word when their Judgments are convinced and born down and their Consciences touched to the quick a lively representation of the Evil of Sin and the infinite Danger of a sinful Course may stir up the Passions of Grief and Fear and dart such stings into the Consciences of Men as may make them extremely restless and unquiet and work some good Thoughts and Inclinations in them towards a better Course and yet like Metals when the heat is over they may be the harder for having been melted down 4thly Others shew great Strictness and Devotion in the Worship of God and this they hope will be accepted and can not fail to bring them to Heaven
appeared once in the Conclusion of the Ages to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself 3. He did appear at that Time in which the World stood most in need of him when the whole World both Jews and Gentiles were sunk into the greatest Degeneracy both in Opinion and Practice and the Condition of Mankind seemed to be even desperate and past Remedy This was the needful time when it was most seasonable for this great Physician to come and show his Pity and Skill in our Recovery God could have sent his Son many Ages before but he thought fit to try other ways first and to reserve this powerful Remedy to the last last of all he sent his Son 4. The Time of our Saviour's Appearing was of all Ages of the World the fittest Season for his Coming Whether we consider 1. That the World was at that Time best prepared and disposed for receiving the Christian Religion Or 2. That this was the fittest Season that ever had been for the easie diffusing and propagating of this Religion I assign these Reasons as tending to give Men some Satisfaction why this great Blessing was delay'd so long it being rather an Argument of Wisdom and Goodness than of the want of either to defer Things to that time in which they are most likely to have their effect Not but that perhaps other and better Reasons may be given To be sure God had very good Reasons for this Dispensation whether we can hit upon them or not In the mean Time these seem not to be altogether inconsiderable 1. That the World was at that time best prepared and disposed for receiving the Christian Religion All the while our Saviour's Coming was delay'd God's Providence was disposing things for it and training up Mankind for the entertaining of this great Blessing The Jewish Religion was always very burdensom but much more so towards the Expiration of the Jewish State partly by the Intolerable Multitude of external Observances which were daily multiplyed upon them under Pretence of Traditions from their Fathers and partly by reason of their Subjection to the Romans which made the Exercise of their Religion in many Respects more difficult And the Heathen World was in a very good Measure prepared for Christianity by being civilized About the time of our Saviour's coming into the World Philosophy and Learning had been so diffused by the Roman Conquests as had brought a great part of the World from Barbarism to Civility Besides that their Philosophy had this Effect upon Men to refine their Reason and in a good Degree to detect the Follies of the Heathen Idolatry and Superstition 'T is true indeed Learning and Philosophy flourisht a great while before in the Time of the Grecian Empire and perhaps before that in some other Nations and the Conquests of the Grecians were very speedy and of vast Extent But yet they were neither so Universal nor so well settled nor did they propagate their Philosophy and Civility together with their Conquests as the Romans did So that there was no Age of the World wherein Mankind were so generally prepared and disposed for the receiving of the Gospel as that wherein our Saviour appeared 2. This was likewise the fittest Season for the easie diffusing and propagating of the Christian Religion The Romans together with their Conquests did very much propagate their Language which made the ways of Communication far more easie And by the long and frequent Correspondence of the several Parts of that Empire one with another the ways of Travel and Passage from one Country to another were more ready and open So that no Age can be instanc'd in all Respects so convenient for the speedy propagating of a new Religion as that wherein our Saviour appear'd viz. when the Roman Empire was at its height And it was very agreeable to the Goodness and Wisdom of the Divine Providence that the bravest and most virtuous People in the World infinitely beyond either the Persians or Grecians should be chosen by God as one of the chiefest Means for the spreading of the best and most perfect Revelation that ever God made to the World Thirdly It is objected that we have not now sufficient Evidence of the Truth of Christianity the main Arguments for it relying upon matters of Fact of which at this Distance we have not nor can be suppos'd to have sufficient Assurance To this I answer 1. That Men not only may have but have an undoubted Assurance of matters of Fact ancienter than these we are speaking of and the distance of them from our Times creates no manner of Scruple in the Minds of Men concerning them That there was such a Man as Alexander the Great and that he conquer'd Darius and the Persians That Julius Caesar invaded our Nation and in some measure subdued it and that he overcame Pompey in the Battel of Pharsalia and innumerable other Things which I might instance in that were done before our Saviour's Time are firmly believed without any manner of Doubt and Scruple by Mankind notwithstanding they were done so long ago So that ancient matters of Fact are capable of clear Evidence and we may have sufficient Assurance of them And where there is equal Evidence if we do not give equal Belief the fault is not in the Argument but in the Passion or Prejudice of those to whom it is proposed 2. We have every whit as great Assurance nay greater if it can or needed to be of the matters upon which the proof of Christianity relies as of those which I have mentioned The matters of Fact upon which the Truth of Christianity relies are that there was such a Person as Jesus Christ that he wrought such Miracles that he was put to death at Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate that he rose again from the dead and was visibly taken up into Heaven that he bestowed miraculous Gifts and Powers upon the Apostles to make them competent Witnesses of his Resurrection and of the Truth of that Doctrine which they publisht in his Name that accordingly they preached the Gospel to the World and in a short space without any Human Advantages did propagate it and gain Entertainment for it in most parts of the then known World Now these matters of Fact have the same Testimony of Histories wrote in those Times and conveyed down to us by as general and uncontroled a Tradition as the Conquests of Alexander and Julius Caesar So that if we do not afford equal Belief to them it is a sign that we have some Prejudice or Interest against the one more than against the other though the Evidence for both be equal Nay I go further that the Evidence for these things which are the Foundation of Christianity is so much the greater because that which depended upon it was of far greater Concernment to the World and consequently Mankind were more obliged to search more narrowly into it For our Saviour's Life and Death and Resurrection we have the
Testimony of a great number of Eye-witnesses who have wrote the History of these things And though they were truly extraordinary Persons and gave Testimony to themselves by Miracles yet at present I desire no more but that they be looked upon as knowing and honest Relators of what they heard and saw and that the same Credit be given to them which we give to Livy and Arian and Q. Curtius for plain Events and matters of Fact But yet I must add withal that besides the Miracles which they wrought they gave greater Testimony of their Integrity than any Historian in the World ever did For they willingly suffer'd the greatest Persecution and Torment yea and Death it self in Confirmation of the Truth of what they deliver'd And for the propagating of the Christian Religion through so great a part of the World it is evident by the Effect beyond all Denyal So that for the matters of Fact upon which the Truth of Christianity does depend here is greater and more advantagious Evidence of History than for any other Matter of equal Antiquity whatsoever 3. As to the substance of these matters of Fact we have the concurring Testimony of the greatest Enemies of the Christian Religion That there were such Persons as our Saviour and his Apostles that they preached such a Doctrine that they wrought such Miracles for this we have the Acknowledgment of the Jews and the Testimony of the Heathen Historians and particularly of Celsus and Porphyry and Julian who were the particular and most learned Adversaries of the Christian Religion So that as to the Matters of Fact there is no Objection against them whatever use we may make of them or whatever Consequences we may draw from them And I presume it agreed by all Objectors that if these matters of Fact be true they are a sufficient Foundation of the Truth of our Religion and we are very unequal to our Religion if we make a doubt of these things which the greatest Enemies of Christianity never had the Face to deny 4. And besides all this to recompence the Disadvantage which we have of those who saw the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles we have the Testimonium rei the Evidence of the Effects of these things to confirm our Belief of them and this is an Advantage which the first Ages of Christianity could not have We see our Saviour's Predictions of the Success of his Religion in the World in the propagating and establishing of it fully accomplisht notwithstanding the fierce Opposition and Resistance that was made against it by the greatest Powers of the World We see the Dispersion of the Jews in all Nations and the Misery and Contempt which they every where suffer and that now for above Sixteen Hundred Years they have continued a distinct People and a Spectacle of the Divine Justice and Severity for rejecting and crucifying the Son of God and for a lasting and standing Testimony of the Truth of our Saviour's Prediction and of the Christian Religion So that though we live at this distance from the first rise and beginning of Christianity yet we have the Relation of those Things which give Confirmation to it conveyed down to us in as credible a manner as any ancient matter of Fact ever was and the Effects of things remaining to this day do give Testimony to the Truth of it Fourthly It is objected that the terms of Christianity seem very hard and to lay too great Restraints upon Human Nature It commands us to mortifie our Lusts and subdue our Passions and deny Vngodliness and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World to be holy in all manner of Conversation to have respect to whatever things are honest and true and just and virtuous and of good report and to deny our selves and to part with the dearest Enjoyments of this Life yea and with Life it self for the sake of Christ and his Gospel Now these seem to be very hard Terms to forego all the present Pleasures and Enjoyments of this Life in hopes of a future Happiness which we are less assur'd of To this I answer 1. That this is a greater Objection against Religion in general than the Christian Religion For Natural Religion requires of us all the main Duties that Christianity does and gives us far less Assurance of the Reward of our Obedience Natural Religion requires Piety and Justice and Charity the due Government of our Appetites and Passions as well as Christianity does but does not discover to us the Rewards of another World by many Degrees so clearly as our Lord and Saviour who hath brought Life and Immortality to Light by the Gospel and by his Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven hath given us full Assurance of another Life after this and of a glorious Immortality So that tho' we have not nor can have the Evidence of Sense for a Future State yet we have all the Rational Evidence for it that can be wisht or expected and much more than Men have for those Adventures of their Lives and Fortunes which they frequently make in this World and think themselves reasonable in so doing 2. The Restraints which Christianity lays upon Men are in the judgment of Mankind so far from being an Objection against it that they are highly to the Commendation of it Nay it were the greatest Objection that could be against our Religion if it did set us at Liberty from those Restraints What can be more to the credit of any Religion than to command Men to be just and charitable and peaceable And what more to the Advantage of the Professors of it And on the contrary what can reflect more upon any Religion than to indulge and allow Men in any Vice contrary to these It shews Men are glad to make any thing an Objection against Christianity when they lay hold of that which if it had been otherwise they would have made ten times more Clamour against it for the contrary 3. As for most of those Restraints which Christianity lays upon us they are of that Nature so much both for our Private and Publick Advantage that setting aside all Considerations of Religion and of the Rewards and Punishments of another Life they are really good for us and if God had not laid them upon us we ought in Reason in order to our Temporal Benefit and Advantage to have laid them upon our selves If there were no Religion I know Men would not have such strong and forcible Obligations to these Duties but yet I say though there were no Religion it were good for Men in order to Temporal Ends to their Health and Quiet and Reputation and Safety and in a word to the private and publick Prosperity of Mankind that Men should be temperate and chast and just and peaceable and charitable and kind and obliging to one another rather than the contrary So that Religion does not create those Restraints arbitrarily but requires those things
of us which our Reason and a Regard to our own Advantage which the Necessity and Conveniency of the Things themselves without any Consideration of Religion would in most Cases urge us to 4. As to the case of Persecution for Religion besides that it does not now happen so frequently as it did in the beginning of Christianity nay very seldom in comparison if all things be consider'd it cannot be thought unreasonable both because Religion offers to us in Consideration of our present Sufferings a Happiness unspeakably greater than that which we forego for the sake of Religion and because when it happens God does extraordinarily enable Men to go through it with Courage and Comfort as we see in the Examples of the primitive Christians who in great Numbers of all Tempers and Ages did voluntarily chuse to give up themselves to these Sufferings when there was no necessity laid upon them but fair terms of Retreat were offer'd to them by their Enemies It is one thing when a Man suffers by the Law and cannot help it and another thing when Men may avoid Suffering In the former Case Men submit to necessity and bear it as well as they can in the latter Case if Men suffer it is a Sign they firmly believe the Reward of it and if they suffer chearfully and with Joy as most of the Martyrs did it is a plain Evidence that God affords them extraordinary Support in their Sufferings and then the Case is not very hard when Religion puts them upon nothing but what it gives them cause and enables them to rejoyce in the doing of it Fifthly It is objected that the Christian Religion is apt to dispirit Men and to break the Courage and Vigour of their Minds by the Precepts of Patience and Humility and Meekness and of forgiving Injuries and the like This Objection hath made a great Noise in the World and hath been urged by Men of great Reputation and a deep insight into the Tempers of Men and the Affairs of the World It is said to be particularly insisted upon by Machiavel and very likely it may tho' I think that elsewhere he is pleased to speak with Terms of Respect not only of Religion in general but likewise of the Christian Religion and which seems very much to contradict the other he says in the first Book of his Discourses upon Livy Ch. 11. That the greatness and Success of Rome is chiefly to be ascribed to their Piety and Religion and that Rome was more indebted to Numa Pompilius for settling Religion among them than to Romulus the Founder of their State and the Reason he gives is much to our present Purpose For says he without Religion there can be no Military Discipline Religion being the Foundation of good Laws and good Discipline And particularly he commends the Samnites who betook themselves to Religion as their last and best Remedy to make Men couragious nothing being more apt to raise Men's Spirits than Religion But howsoever this Objection be I dare appeal both to Reason and Experience for the Confutation of it 1. To Reason and that as to these two things 1. That the Christian Religion is apt to plant in the Minds of Men Principles of the greatest Resolution and truest Courage It teacheth Men upon the best and most rational Grounds to despise Dangers yea and Death it self the greatest and most formidable Evil in this World and this Principle is likely to inspire Men with the greatest Courage for what need he fear any thing in this World who fears not Death after which there is nothing in this World to be feared And this the Christian Religion does by giving Men the assurance of another Life and a Happiness infinitely greater than any is to be enjoyed in this World And in order to the securing of this Happiness it teacheth Men to be holy and just and to exercise a good Conscience both toward God and Man which is the only way to free a Man from all inward and tormenting Fears of what may happen to him after Death This makes the righteous Man to be as Solomon says bold as a Lion Nothing renders a Man more undaunted as to Death and the Consequences of it than the Peace of his own Mind for a Man not to be conscious to himself of having wilfully displeased him who alone can make us happy or miserable in the other World So that a good Man being secure of the Favour of God may upon that Account reasonably hope for a greater Happiness after Death than other Men Whereas a bad Man if he be sober and have his Senses awakned to a serious Consideration of things cannot but be afraid to die and be extremely anxious and solicitous what will become of him in another World And surely it would make the stoutest Man breathing afraid to venture upon Death when he sees Hell beyond it Possibly there may be some Monsters of Men who may have so far supprest the Sense of Religion and stupified their Consciences as in a good Measure to have conquer'd the fears of Death and of the Consequences of it But this happens but to a very few as the Poet tells us in the Person of an Epicurean Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Atque metus omnes inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari There are very few that attain to this Temper and but at some times So that if Vice and Wickedness do generally break the Firmness of Men's Spirits it remains that nothing but Religion can generally give Men Courage against Death And this the Christian Religion does eminently to those who live according to it our blessed Saviour having delivered us from the fear of Death by conquering Death for us and giving us Assurance of the glorious Rewards of another Life 2. Meekness and Patience and Humility and Modesty and such Virtues of Christianity do not in Reason tend to dispirit Men and break their true Courage but only to regulate it and take away the Fierceness and Brutishness of it This we see in Experience that Men of the truest Courage have many times least of Pride and Insolence of Passion and Fierceness Those who are better bred are commonly of more gentle and civil Dispositions But yet they do not therefore want true Courage though they have not the Roughness and Foolhardiness of Men of ruder Breeding So in a true Christian Courage and Greatness of Mind is very consistent with Meekness and Patience and Humility Not that all good Men are very couragious there is much of this in the Natural Tempers of Men which Religion does not quite alter But that which I am concerned to maintain is that Christianity is no hindrance to Mens Courage and that caeteris paribus supposing Men of equal Tempers no Man hath so much Reason to be valiant as he that hath a good Conscience I do not mean a blustering and boisterous and rash Courage but a sober and
own Books and Writers but even of the Adversaries of our Religion What Reformation Christianity at first wrought in the Manners of Men we have clear and full Testimony from what the Apostles wrote concerning the several Churches which they planted in several Parts of the World What hearty Unity and Affection there was among Christians even to that Degree as to make Men bring in their private Estates and Possessions for the common Support of their Brethren we may read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles The City of Corinth by the Account which Strabo gives of it was a very vicious and luxurious place as most in the World and yet we see by St. Paul what a strange Reformation the Christian Religion made in the Lives and Manners of many of them 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor idolaters nor effeminate nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And such were some of you But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And surely it is no small matter to reclaim Men from such a profligate course of Life The Apostle instanceth in Crimes and Vices of the first Rate from which yet he tells us many were cleansed and purified by the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God that is by the Power and Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine together with the Co-operation of Gods Holy Spirit After the Apostles the Ancient Fathers in their Apologies for Christianity give us a large Account of the great Power and Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine upon the Lives and Manners of Men. Tertullian tells the Roman Governours that their Prisons were full of Malefactors committed for several Crimes but they were all Heathens De vestris semper aestuat carcer Their Prisons were thronged with Criminals of their own Religion But there were no Christians to be found committed there for such Crimes Nemo illic Christianus nisi hoc tantùm c. There were no Christians in their Prisons but only upon account of their Religion Or if there were any Malefactors that had been Christians they left their Religion when they fell into those Enormities And afterwards he adds that if Christians were irregular in their Lives they were no longer accounted Christians but were banisht from their Communion as unworthy of it And they appealed to the Heathens what a sudden and strange change Christianity had made in several of the most lewd and vicious and debauched Persons and what a visible Reformation there presently appeared in the Lives of the worst Men after they had once entertained the Christian Doctrine And these Testimonies are so much the stronger because they are Publick Appeals to our Adversaries which it is not likely they who were so persecuted and hated as the Christians were would have had the Confidence to have made if they had not been notoriously true even their Enemies themselves being Judges And that they were so we have the Confession of the Heathen themselves I shall produce two remarkable Testimonies to this Purpose and one of them from the Pen of one of the bitterest Enemies that the Christian Religion ever had Pliny in his Epistle to Trajan the Emperour gives him an Account That having examined the Christians setting aside the Superstition of their way he could find no Fault and that this was the Sum of their Errour that they were wont to meet before Day and sing a Hymn to Christ and to bind themselves by a Solemn Oath or Sacrament not to any wicked Purpose but not to steal nor rob nor commit Adultery nor break their Faith nor detain the Pledge So that it seems the Sum of their Errour was to oblige themselves in the strictest manner against the greatest Vices and Crimes Which methinks is a great Testimony from an Enemy and a Judge one who would have been ready to discover their Faults and had Opportunity of enquiring into them My other Witness is Julian the Emperour and Apostate who in one of his Epistles tells us The Christians did severely punish Sedition and Impiety And afterwards exhorting the Heathen Priests to all Offices of Humanity and especially Alms towards the Poor he tells them they ought to be more careful in this particular and to mend this Fault Because says he the Galileans taking advantage of our Neglect in this kind have very much strengthned their Impiety for so he calls their Religion by being very intent upon these Offices and exemplary in their Charity to the Poor whereby they gained many over to them And in his 49th Epist to Arsacius the High-Priest of Galatia he recommends to him among other Means for the Advancement of Paganism the building of Hospitals and great Liberality to the Poor not only of their own Religion but others For says he it is a Shame that the impious Galileans should not only maintain their own poor but ours also wherefore let us not suffer them to out-do us in this Virtue Nothing but the force of Truth could have extorted so full an Acknowledgment of the great Humanity and Charity of the Christians from so bitter an Enemy of our Religion as Julian was If he owned it we may be sure it was very great and exemplary So that you see that the Christian Religion had a very great Power and Efficacy upon the Lives and Manners of Men when it first appeared in the World And the true Spirit and Genius of any Religion the Force of any Institution is best seen in the primitive Effects of it before it be weakned and dispirited by those Corruptions which in time are apt to insinuate themselves into the best things For all Laws and Institutions are commonly more vigorous and have greater Effects at first than afterwards and the best things are apt in time to degenerate and to contract Soil and Rust And it cannot in Reason be expected otherwise So that though it be a thing to be bewailed and by the greatest Care and Diligence to be resisted yet it is not so extremely to be wonder'd at if Christianity in the space of Sixteen Hundred Years hath abated much of its first Strength and Vigour Especially considering that there were several Circumstances that gave Christianity mighty Advantages at first especially the miraculous Powers which did accompany the first Publication of the Gospel which must needs be full of Conviction to those who saw the wonderful Effects of it The extraordinary Operation of the Spirit of God upon the Minds of Men to dispose them to the receiving of it The persecuted and suffering State that Christians were generally in which made those who embraced the Profession to be generally serious and in good earnest in it and kept up a continual Heat and Zeal in the Minds of Men for that Religion which cost them so dear and for which they suffer'd
the World and conclude from the Inconveniencies of abused Liberty that the best State of things would be that the generality of Mankind should be all Slaves to a few and be perpetually chained to the Oar or condemned to the Mines There are many times as bad Consequences of good things as of bad but yet there is a great difference between good and bad for all that As Knowledge and Liberty so likewise the Christian Religion is a great Happiness to the World in general though some are so unhappy as to be the worse for it not because Religion is bad but because they are so 4. If Religion be a matter of Mens free Choice it is not to be expected that it should necessarily and constantly have its Effect upon Men for it works upon us not by way of Force or natural Necessity but of Moral Perswasion If Religion and the Grace of God which goes along with it did force Men to be good and virtuous and no Man could be so unless he were thus violently forc'd then it would be no Virtue in any Man to be good nor any Crime and Fault to be otherwise For then the Reason why some Men were good would be because they could not help it and others bad because the Grace of God did not make them so whether they would or not But Religion does not thus work upon Men. It directs Men to their Duty by the shortest and plainest Precepts of a good Life it perswades Men to the Obedience of these Precepts by the Promises of Eternal Happiness and the Threatnings of Eternal Misery in case of obstinate Disobedience it offers us the Assistance of Gods Holy Spirit to help our Weakness and enable us to that for which we are not sufficient of our selves But there is nothing of Violence or Necessity in all this After all Men may disobey these Precepts and not be perswaded by these Arguments may not make use of this Grace which God offers may quench and resist the Holy Ghost and reject the Counsel of God against themselves And the Case being thus it is no wonder if the Temptations of this present World prevail upon the vicious Inclinations of Men against their Duty and their true Interest and consequently if the Motiyes and Arguments of the Christiane Religion have not a constant and certain Effect upon a great part of Mankind Not but that Christianity is apt to bring Men to Goodness but some are so obstinately bad as not to be wrought upon by the most powerful Considerations it can offer to them 5. It cannot be denyed but that Christianity is as well framed to make Men good as any Religion can be imagined to be and therefore where-ever the Fault be it cannot be in the Christian Religion that we are not good So that the bad Lives of Christians are no sufficient Objection either against the Truth or Goodness of the Christian Doctrine Besides the Confirmation that was given to it by Miracles the Excellency of the Doctrine and its proper Tendency to make Men holy and virtuous are a plain Evidence of its Divine and Heavenly Original And surely the Goodness of any Religion consists in the sufficiency of its Precepts to direct Men to their Duty in the force of its Arguments to perswade Men to it and the suitableness of its Aids and Helps to enable us to the Discharge and Performance of it And all these Advantages the Christian Religion hath above any Religion or Institution that ever was in the World The reasonable and plain Rules of a good Life are no where so perfectly collected as in the Discourses of our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles No Religion ever gave Men so full Assurance of the mighty Rewards and Punishments of another World nor such gracious Promises of Divine Assistance and such Evidence of it especially in the Piety and Virtue and Patience and Self-denyal of the Primitive Christians as the Doctrine of God our Saviour hath done which teacheth Men to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World in contemplation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie to hiwself a peculiar People zealous of good Works 6. and lastly After all that hath or can be said it must be acknowledged and ought sadly to be lamented by us that the wicked Lives of Christians are a marvellous Scandal and Reproach to our Holy Religion and a great Obstacle to the spreading of it in the World and a real Objection against it to prejudiced Persons with whom it doth justly bring into doubt the Goodness and Efficacy of the Institution it self to see how little Effect it hath upon the Hearts and Lives of Men. It is hard for a Man to maintain the Reputation of an excellent Master in any kind when all the World sees that most of his Scholars prove Dunces Whatever Commendation may be given to any Art or Science Men will question the Truth and Reality of it when they see the greatest part of those who profess it not able to do any thing answerable to it The Christian Religion pretends to be an Art of serving God more decently and devoutly and of living better than other Men but if it be so why do not the Professors of this excellent Religion shew the Force and Virtue of it in their Lives And though I have sufficiently shewn that this is not enough to overthrow the Truth and disparage the Excellency of the Christian Doctrine yet it will certainly go a great way with prejudiced Persons and it cannot be expected otherwise So that we have infinite Reason to be ashamed that there is so plain a contrariety between the Laws of Christianity and the Lives of the greatest part of Christians so notorious and palpable a difference between the Religion that is in the Bible and that which is to be seen and read in the Conversations of Men. Who that looks upon the Manners of the present Age could believe if he did not know it that the holy and pure Doctrine of the Christian Religion had ever been so much as heard much less pretended to be entertained and believed among us Nay among those who seem to make a more serious Profession of Religion when we consider how strangely they allow themselves in Malice and Envy in Passion and Anger and Uncharitable Censures and evil Speaking in fierce Contentions and Animosities who would believe that the great Instrument of these Mens Religion I mean the Holy Bible by which they profess to regulate and govern their Lives were full of plain and strict Precepts of Love and Kindness of Charity and Peace and did a hundred times with all imaginable Severity and under pain of forfeiting the Kingdom of God forbid Malice and Envy and Revenge and evil speaking and rash and uncharitable Censures and
tell us so plainly that the Christian Religion obligeth Men to put off all these and that if any Man seem to be religious and bridleth not his Tongue that Man's Religion is vain Do Men read and hear these Things every day and profess to believe them to be the Truths of God and yet live as if they were verily perswaded they were false What can we conclude from hence but either that this is not Christianity or the greatest part of us are no Christians So that if one of the Apostles or Primitive Christians should rise from the Dead and converse among us how would he wonder to see the Face and Complexion of Christianity alter'd from what it was in their Days and were it not for the Name and Title which we bear would sooner guess us to be any thing than Christians So that upon the whole Matter there is no Way to quit our selves of this Objection and to wash away the Reproach of it but to mend and reform our Lives 'Till this be done it is unavoidable but the vicious Manners of Men will affect our Religion with Obloquy and Reproach and derive an ill Conceit and Opinion of it into the Minds of Men. And I cannot see how Christianity can ever gain much ground in the World 'till it be better adorned and recommended by the Professors of it Nay we have just cause to fear that if God do not raise up some great and eminent Instruments to awaken the World out of this stupid Lethargy that Christianity will every Day decline and the World will in a short Space be overrun with Atheism and Infidelity For Vice and Superstition and Enthusiasm which are the reigning Diseases of Christendom when they have run their Course and sinisht their Circle do all naturally end and meet in Atheism And then it will be time for the great Judge of the World to appear and effectually to convince Men of that which they would not be perswaded to believe by any other Means And of this our Saviour hath given us a terrible and fearful Intimation in that Question of his When the Son of Man comes shall he find Faith upon Earth Our Saviour hath not positively affirmed it and God grant that we may not make it and find it true And thus I have by God's Assistance given the best Satisfaction I could to the most material Exceptions I have met with against our blessed Saviour and his Religion The II. Thing remains briefly to be spoken to viz. How happy a Thing it is to escape the common Prejudices which Men are apt to entertain against Religion Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me And this will appear if we consider these Three or Four Things First That Prejudice does many times sway and biass Men against the plainest and clearest Truths We see in daily Experience what a false Byass Prejudice puts upon Mens Understandings Men that are educated in the grossest Errors and Superstitions how hard it is to convince them that they are in a wrong Way and with what Difficulty are they perswaded of their Mistake Nay they have hardly the Patience to be told they are in an Error much less to consider what may be offer'd against it How do the Passions and Lusts of Men blind them and lead them aside from the Truth and encline them to that side of the Question which is most favourable to their Lusts and Interests How partially do Men lean to that part which makes most for their Advantage though all the Reason in the World lye on the other side Now Ignorance and Mistake are a great Slavery of the Understanding if there were no worse Consequences of our Errors and therefore our Saviour says excellently that the Truth makes Men free Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free Secondly Prejudice does not only by ass Men against the plainest Truths but in Matters of greatest Concernment in things that concern the Honour of God and the Good of others and our own Welfare and Happiness Prejudices against Religion occasion Mistakes of the highest Nature and may lead Men to Superstition and Idolatry and to all manner of Impiety nay many times to Atheism and Infidelity The Prejudices against the Doctrine of our Saviour are of another Concernment than the Prejudices which Men have against the Writers of Natural Philosophy or Eloquence or any other Human Art or Science If a Man's Prejudice make him err in these Matters the Thing is of no great Moment but the business of Religion is a matter of the greatest and weightiest Concernment to Mankind Thirdly The Consequence of Mens Prejudices in these things prove many times fatal and destructive to them Men may upon unreasonable Prejudices reject the Counsel of God against themselves as it is said of the Chief Priests and Pharisees among the Jews Men may oppose the Truth so obstinately and perversly as to be Fighters against God and to bring certain Ruin and swift Destruction upon themselves both in this World and the other as the Jews did who by opposing the Doctrine of the Gospel and persecuting our Saviour and his Disciples fill'd up the measure of their Sins 'till Wrath came upon them to the uttermost It is easie to entertain Prejudices against Religion and by considering only the wrong side of things to fortifie our Prejudices to such a Degree and entrench our selves so strongly in our Errors that the plainest and most convincing Truths shall not be able to have any Access to us or make any Impression upon us but all this while we do in truth undermine our own Happiness and are secretly working our own Ruin and while we think we are opposing an Enemy we are destroying our selves for who hath harden'd himself against God and his Truth and prospered The Principles of Religion are a firm and immoveable Rock against which the more violently we dash our selves the more miserably we shall be split and shatter'd Our Blessed Saviour and his Religion have been to many and are to this day a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of Offence but he himself hath told us what shall be the Fate of those who are offended at him Whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken but upon whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to Powder And therefore well might he say here in the Text blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me Fourthly There are but few in comparison who have the Happiness to escape and overcome the common Prejudices which Men are apt to entertain against Religion Thus to be sure it was when Christianity first appeared in the World And tho' among us the great Prejudice of Education be removed yet there are still many who upon one Account or other are prejudiced against Religion at least so far as not to yield to the Power of it in their Lives Few Men are so impartial in considering things as not to be
unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth But see the strange power of Prejudice to blind the Eyes even of good Men in the plainest matters The Disciples of our Saviour for all they had entertained a new Religion yet they retained the old Pride and Prejudice of their Nation against the rest of the World as if none but themselves had any share in the favour of God or were to have any part in the Salvation of the Messias Our Saviour did so far consider this Prejudice of theirs that he never in his life time acquainted them with this matter so as to make them fully to understand it because they were not able to bear it And it is very probable that this is one of those things which our Saviour meant John 16. 12 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth That is he should lead them into the knowledge of those Truths of which they were not then capable And tho' our Saviour after his Resurrection seems to have declared this sufficiently to them yet by their practice after his Ascension it appears that they understood all this only of the Jews namely that they were to preach the Gospel first to the Jews that were at Jerusalem and in Judea and then to those that were dispersed in other Nations for 't is clear from the History of their first Preaching recorded in the Acts that they preached to none but to the Jews and the Proselytes of the Jewish Religion So strong was their Prejudice that they had not the least suspicion that this Blessing of the Gospel was intended for the Heathen World nor were they convinced to the contrary 'till St. Peter had a special Vision and Revelation to this purpose and the holy Ghost came upon the Gentiles in miraculous gifts as he had done before upon the Jews that were converted to Christianity And thus the Spirit of God led them into this Truth and then they understood this Command of our Saviour's in a larger Sense And to this St. Peter plainly refers Acts 10. 42. where he tells us how that Christ after his Resurrection appeared to them and commanded them to preach unto the People So likewise do Paul and Barnabas Acts 13. 46. where they speak thus to the Jews It was necessary that the word should first he preached to you but seeing you put it from you lo we turn to the Gentiles for so hath the Lord commanded us Now he no where commanded this but in this Commission which he gave them before his Ascension Secondly You have here a particular declaration how they were to manage this work of making Disciples to the Christian Religion 1. By baptizing them into the Christian Faith 2. By instructing them in the Precepts and Practices of a Christian Life 1. By baptizing them into the Christian Faith which is here call'd baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Baptism is a solemn Rite appointed by our Saviour for the initiating of Persons into the Christian Religion But it was a Ceremony in use before both among the Jews and Gentiles The Heathen observed it at the initiating Persons into their Religious Mysteries and the Jews when they admitted Proselytes to their Religion at which time the Males as Maimonides tells us were both circumcised and baptized the Women were only baptized One Circumstance of the Baptism of grown Persons was that standing in the Water up to the Neck they recited several Precepts of the Law And as the Jewish Writers further tell us this Ceremony did not only belong to them that were of grown Years but to the Children of Proselytes if it were desired upon condition that when they came to Years they should continue in that Religion Now tho' this was a religious Ceremony used both by Jews and Gentiles and without any Divine Institution that we know of our blessed Saviour who in none of his Institutions seems to have favour'd unnecessary Innovations was so far from the superstition of declining it upon this account that it had been in religious use both among Jews and Gentiles that he seems the rather to have chosen it for that very reason For seeing it was a common Rite of all Religions and in it self very significant of that Purity which is the great design of all Religion it was the more likely to find the easier Acceptance and to be most suitable to that which he intended to be the universal Religion of the World As for the form of Baptism into the name of the Father of the Son and of the holy Ghost it plainly refers to that short Creed or Profession of Faith which was required of those that were to be baptized answerable to the reciting of the Precepts of the Law at the baptizing of Proselytes among the Jews now the Articles of this Creed were reduced to these three Heads of the Father Son and holy Ghost and contains what was necessary to be believed concerning each of these And this probably is that which the Apostle calls the Doctrine of Baptism Heb. 6. 2. viz. a short Summary of the Christian Faith the Profession whereof was to be made at Baptism of which the most ancient Fathers make so frequent mention calling it the rule of Faith It was a great while indeed before Christians tied themselves strictly to that very form of Words which we now call the Apostles Creed but the Sense was the same tho' every one exprest it in his own Words nay the same Father reciting it upon several Occasions does not confine himself to the very same Expressions A plain indication that they were not then strictly bound up to any form of Words but retaining the sense and substance of the Articles every one exprest them as he pleased So that to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost is to perform this Rite or Sacrament by the Authority of and with special Relation to the three Persons of the blessed Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost as the chief Objects of the Christian Faith whereof solemn Profession was then made So that upon this form in Baptism appointed by our Saviour compared with what is elsewhere said in Scripture concerning the Divinity of the Son and the holy Ghost is principally founded the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity I mean in that simplicity in which the Scripture hath delivered it and not as it hath been since confounded and entangled in the Cobwebs and Niceties of the Schools The Scripture indeed no where calls them Persons but speaks of them as we do of several Persons and therefore that word is not unfitly used to express the difference between them or at least we do not know a fitter word for that purpose By baptizing then
concluded that if he were permitted to go on and work Miracles he would draw all men after him What do we say they for this man doth many Miracles if we let him thus alone all men will believe on him This they said upon occasion of the great Miracle of raising Lazarus from the Dead And in Reason Miracles are the highest Attestation that can be given to the Truth and Divinity of any Doctrine and supposing a Doctrine not to be plainly unworthy of God and contrary to those natural Notions which Men have of God and Religion we can have no greater Evidence of the truth of it than Miracles they are such an argument as in its own nature is apt to perswade and induce belief All Truths do not need Miracles some are of easie belief and are so clear by their own light that they need neither Miracle nor Demonstration to prove them Such are those self-evident Principles which Mankind do generally agree in others which are not so evident by their own light we are content to receive upon clear demonstration of them or very probable Arguments for them without a Miracle And there are some Truths which however they may be sufficiently obscure and uncertain to most Men yet are they so inconsiderable and of so small consequence as not to deserve the attestation of Miracles so that there is no reason to expect that God should interpose by a Miracle to convince Men of them Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus Inciderit But for such Truths as are necessary to be known by us but are not sufficiently evident of themselves nor capable of cogent Evidence especially to prejudiced and interested Persons God is pleased in this Case many times to work Miracles for our Conviction and they are a proper Argument to convince us of a thing that is either in it self obscure and hard to be believed or which we are prejudiced against and hardly brought to believe for they are an Argument à Majori ad Minus they prove a thing which is obscure and hard to be believed by something that is more incredible which yet they cannot deny because they see it done Thus our Saviour proves himself to be an extraordinary Person by doing such things as never man did he convinceth them that they ought to believe what he said because they saw him do those things which were harder to be believed if one had not seen them than what he said Miracles are indeed the greatest external confirmation and evidence that can be given to the truth of any Doctrine and where they are wrought with all the advantages they are capable of they are an unquestionable demonstration of the truth of it and such were our Saviour's Miracles here in the Text to prove that he was the true Messias here are Miracles of all kinds the blind receive their sight and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up For the nature of them they are such as are most likely to be Divine and to come from God for they were healing and beneficial to Mankind Our Saviour here instanceth in those things which are of greatest benefit and advantage and which free Men from the greatest miseries and inconveniencies the restoring of sight to the Blind and hearing to the Deaf soundness and health to the Lame and the Leprous and life to the Dead And then for the number of them they were many not one instance of a kind but several of every kind and great multitudes of most of them and for the manner of their operation they were publick in the sight and view of great multitudes of People to free them from all suspicion of fraud and imposture they were not wrought privately and in corners and given out and noised abroad but before all the People so that every one might see them and judge of them not only among his own Disciples and Followers as the Church of Rome pretends to work theirs but among his Enemies to convince those that did not believe and this not done once and in one place but at several times and in all places where he came and for a long time for three years and a half and after his death he endowed his Disciples and Followers with the same power which lasted for some Ages And then for the quality of them they were Miracles of the greatest magnitude those of them which in themselves might have been performed by natural means as healing the Lame and the Leprous and the Deaf he did in a miraculous manner by a word or a touch yea and many times at a great distance But others were not only in the manner of their operation but in the nature of the thing unquestionably miraculous as giving of sight to those that had been born blind and raising up the dead to life as Lazarus after he had lain in the grave four days and himself afterterwards the third day after he had been buried which if there ever was or can be any unquestionable Miracles in the World ought certainly to be reputed such So that our blessed Saviour had all the Attestation that Miracles can give that he came from God And this is the first Evidence of his being the Messias The Jews acknowledge that the Messias when he comes shall work great Miracles and their own Talmud confesseth that Jesus the Son of Joseph and Mary did work great Miracles and the History of the Gospel does particularly relate more and greater Miracles wrought by him than by Moses and all the Prophets that had been since the World began so that we may still put the same question to the Jews which they did in our Saviour's time to one another when Christ cometh when the Messias whom ye expect comes will he do more Miracles than these which this Man hath done But Secondly this will yet more clearly appear by the correspondency of the things here mentioned with what was foretold by the Prophets concerning the Messias Not to mention innumerable Circumstances of his Birth and Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven together with the success and prevalency of his Doctrine in the World all which are punctually foretold by some or other of the Prophets I shall confine my self to the particulars here in the Text. First It was foretold of the Messias that he should work miraculous Cures Isa 35. 4 5 6. speaking of the Messias he will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstop'd then shall the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing this you see was fulfilled here in the Text. 'T is true indeed the Text mentions another Miracle which is not in the Prophet that he raised the dead but if God did more than he promised and foretold this is no prejudice to the argument if all that he foretold was accomplish'd in him
his own Kingdom 2. They pretended that though he did many great Works yet he gave them no Sign from Heaven Matt. 16. 1. it is said They desired him to shew them a Sign from Heaven It seems they expected that God should give some immediate Testimony to him from Heaven as he did to Elias when Fire came down from Heaven and consumed his Enemies And particularly they expected that when he was upon the Cross if he were the true Messias he should have come down and saved himself And because he did not answer their Expectation in this they concluded him an Impostor Now what could be more unreasonable when he had wrought so many other and great Miracles perversly to insist upon some particular kind of Miracle which they fancied As if God were bound to gratifie the Curiosity of Men and as if our Saviour were not as much declared to be the Son of God by rising again from the Dead as if he had come down from the Cross Fourthly As to his Conversation they had these three Exceptions 1. That he used no severity in his Habit or Diet took too much Freedom as they thought came Eating and Drinking that is he freely used the Creatures of God for the end for which they were given with Temperance and Thanksgiving and did not lay those rigorous Restraints upon himself in these matters which many that were esteemed the most Religious among them used to do But he plainly shews them that this Exception was meerly out of their Prejudice against him For if he had come in the way of Austerity they would have rejected him as well They were resolved to find Fault with him whatever he did Matth. 11. 16. Whereunto shall I liken this Generation John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and they say He hath a Devil He lived in a more austere and melancholy way he came in the way of Righteousness used great Strictness and Severity in his Habit and Diet and this they took Exception at Our Saviour was of a quite contrary Temper and that did not please them neither The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say behold a Wine-bibber and a Glutton So that let our Saviour have done what he would he could not have carried himself so as to have escaped the Censures of Men so peevishly and perversly disposed 2. That he kept Company with Publicans and Sinners To which Exception nothing can be more reasonable than our Saviour's own Answer that he was sent to be a Physician to the World to call Sinners to Repentance and therefore they had no Reason to be angry or think it strange if he conversed with his Patients among whom his proper Imployment lay 3. They objected to him Prophaneness in breaking the Sabbath and that surely was plain that he could not be of God if he kept not the Sabbath-day The Truth was he had healed one on the Sabbath-day To this our Saviour gives a most reasonable and satisfactory Answer that surely it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day that that was but a Positive Institution but works of Mercy are Natural and Moral Duties and God himself had declared that he would have even his own Institutions to give way to those greater Duties that are of natural and eternal Obligation I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And then from the End of the Sabbath The Sabbath was made for the Rest and Refreshment of Man and therefore could not be presumed to be intended to his Prejudice The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath Fifthly Another great Prejudice against him was that Persons of the greatest Knowledge and Authority among them did not embrace his Doctrine John 7. 48. Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him So that here was the infallible Rule and Authority of their Church against him There is no doubt but the Example and Authority of our Guides ought to sway very much with us and over-rule us in doubtful Cases but not against plain and convincing Evidence there we ought to follow and obey God rather than Men. There is sometimes a visible and palpable Corruption in those who are to lead us they may have an Interest to oppose the Truth And thus it was with the Pharisees and Rulers at that Time And so it hath been among Christians in the great Degeneracy of the Roman Church The Christian Religion was never more endangered nor never more corrupted than by those who have been in greatest Authority in that Church who ought to have understood Religion best and have been the principal Support of it Men may err but God cannot So that when God sends a Prophet or by his Word does plainly declare his Will to us Human Example and Authority ceaseth and is of no force The last Prejudice I shall mention which the Jews had against our Saviour and his Doctrine was that it did abolish and supersede their Religion as of no longer Use and Continuance though it was plain it was instituted by God This had been a very specious Pretence indeed had not this been part of their Religion and had not their own Prophets foretold that the Messias should come and perfect what was wanting and defective in their Institution It was expresly said in their Law That God would raise unto them another Prophet like to Moses and that they should hear him when he came So that in Truth it was the Accomplishment of all those Revelations which were made to the Jews and did not reprove the Jewish Religion as false but as imperfect And did not contradict and overthrow but perfect and fulfill the Law and the Prophets And thus I have gone over the chief Exceptions and Offences which the Jews took at our Saviour and his Doctrine and I hope sufficiently shown the Unreasonableness of them I have not now time to proceed to what remains But by what hath been said you may easily see upon what slight and unreasonable Grounds Men may be prejudiced against the best Person and Things and yet be very confident all the while that they are in the Right For so no doubt many of the Jews who opposed our Saviour and his Doctrine thought themselves to be Therefore it concerns us to put on Meekness and Humility and Modesty that we way be able to judge impartially of things and our Minds may be preserved free and indifferent to receive the Truths of God when they are offer'd to us Otherwise Self-Conceit and Passion will so blind our Minds and biass our Judgments that we shall be unable to discern and unwilling to entertain the plainest and most evident Truths We see here by the sad Example of the Jews that by giving way to Passion and cherishing Pride and Self-Conceit Men may be so deeply prejudiced against the Truth as to resist the clearest Light and reject even Salvation it self when it is offer'd to them So that it is not in vain that the Scripture saith
let every Man be swift to hear and slow to Wrath for the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God and exhorts us so earnestly to receive with Meekness the Word of God which is able to save our Souls SERMON II. The Prejudices against Christianity consider'd MATTH XI 6. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me I Have from these Words propounded to consider two things I. Those Prejudices and Objections which the World had against our Saviour and his Religion at their first Appearance as also to enquire into those which Men at this day do more especially insist upon against the Christian Religion and to show the Unreasonableness of them II. How happy a thing it is to escape and overcome the common Prejudices which Men have against Religion I have entred upon the first of these the Prejudices which the World had against our Saviour and his Religion When this great Teacher of Mankind came from God though he gave all imaginable Testimony and Evidence that he was sent from Heaven yet the greatest part of the World both Jews and Gentiles were mightily offended at him and deeply prejudiced against him and his Doctrine but not both upon the same Account I have already given you an Account of the chief Exceptions which the Jews made against our Saviour and his Doctrine and have shewn 〈◊〉 Unreasonableness of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now to consider the 〈…〉 those Exceptions which 〈…〉 and Heathen Philosophers took at our Saviour and his Doctrine I shall mention these four First That Christianity was a great Innovation and contrary to the received Institutions of the World Secondly They objected against the Plainness and Simplicity of the Doctrine Thirdly That it wanted Demonstration Fourthly That the low and suffering Condition of our Saviour was unsuitable to one that pretended to be the Son of God and to be appointed by him for a Teacher and Reformer of the World These are the chief Exceptions which the Heathen and especially their Philosophers took at our Saviour and his Doctrine First That the Christian Religion was a great Innovation and contrary to the received Institutions of the World and consequently that it did condemn the Religion which had been so universally received and establisht in the World by so long a continuance of Time And no wonder if this made a great Impression upon them and raised a mighty Prejudice in the Minds of Men against the Christian Religion no Prejudices being so strong as those that are fix'd in the Minds of Men by Education And of all the Prejudices of Education none so violent and hard to be removed as those about Religion yea though they be never so groundless and unreasonable Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods Intimating to us that Men are very hardly brought off from that Religion which they have been brought up in how absurd soever it be When Christianity was first propounded to the Heathen World had Men been free and indifferent and not prepossest with other Apprehensions of God and Religion it might then have been expected from them that they should have entertained it with a readiness of Mind proportionable to the Reasonableness of it But the Case was quite otherwise the World had for many Ages been brought up to another way of Worship and inur'd to Rites and Superstitions of a quite different Nature And this sways very much with Men Sequimur majores nostros qui feliciter sequuti sunt suos as one of the Heathens said in those Days We follow our Ancestors who happily follow'd theirs Men are hardly brought to condemn those Opinions and Customs in Religion which themselves and their Forefathers have always embraced and followed And Wise Men especially are loth to admit so great a change in a matter of so great Concernment as Religion is So that this must be acknowledged to have been a considerable Prejudice against the Christian Religion at its first Appearance But yet upon a through Examination this will not be found sufficient in Reason to withhold Men from embracing Christianity if we consider these four Things 1. No prudent Person thinks that the Example and Custom of his Forefathers obligeth him to that which is evil in it self and pernicious to him that does it and there is no Evil no Danger equal to that of a false Religion for that tends to the ruin of Men's Souls and their undoing for ever A Man might better alledge the Example of his Forefathers to justifie his Errors and Follies in any other kind than in this which is so infinitely pernicious in the Consequences of it 2. In a great Corruption and Degeneracy it is no sufficient Reason against a Reformation that it makes a Change When Things are amiss it is always fit to amend and reform them and this cannot be done without a Change The wisest among the Heathen did acknowledge that their Religion was mixt with very great Follies and Superstitions and that the Lives and Manners of Men were extremely corrupt and degenerate and they endeavour'd as much as they could and durst to reform these things And therefore there was no Reason to oppose an effectual Reformation for fear of a Change a Change of Things for the better though it be usually hard to be effected being always a thing to be desired and wisht for 3. The Change which Christianity designed was the least liable to Exception that could be being nothing else in the main of it but the reducing of Natural Religion the bringing of Men back to such Apprehensions of God and such a way of worshipping him as was most suitable to the Divine Nature and to the Natural Notions of Men's Minds nothing else but a Design to perswade Men of the one true God Maker of the World that he is a Spirit and to be worshipt in such a manner as is suitable to his Spiritual Nature And then for matters of Practice to bring Men to the Obedience of those Precepts of Temperance and Justice and Charity which had been universally acknowledged even by the Heathens themselves to be the great Duties which Men owe to themselves and others And that this is the main Design of the Christian Religion the Apostle hath told us in most plain and express Words Tit. 2. 11 12. The Grace of God that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which hath appeared to all Men and brings Salvation teacheth us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World And all that the Christian Religion adds beyond this is means and helps for our Direction and Assistance and Encouragement in the Discharge and Performance of these Duties For our Direction God hath sent his Son in our Nature to declare his Will to us and to be a Pattern and Example of Holiness and Virtue For our Assistance he hath promised the Aids of his Holy Spirit and for our Encouragement he offers
to us Pardon of Sin in the Blood of his Son and Eternal Life and Happiness in another World This is a short Sum and Abridgment of the Christian Religion and there is nothing of all this that can reasonably be excepted against 4. God considering the Prejudice of the Heathen against Christianity by reason of their Education in a contrary Religion was strong and violent was pleased to give such Evidence of the Truth of Christianity as was of proportionable Strength and Force to remove and conquer this Prejudice He was pleased to give Testimony to the first Founder of this Religion by mighty Miracles and particularly by his Resurrection from the Dead But because the Report of these things was only brought to the Heathen World and they had not seen these things themselves therefore he enabled those who were the Witnesses of these Things to the World to work as great Miracles as he had done And when they saw those who gave Testimony to our Saviour's Miracles do as great and strange things themselves as they testified of him there was no Reason any longer to doubt of the Truth of their Testimony So that though the Prejudice of the Heathen against Christianity was very great yet the Evidence which God gave to it was strong enough to remove it The Doctrine of Christianity was such as might have recommended it self to impartial Men by its own Reasonableness But meeting with violent Prejudices in those to whom it was offer'd God was pleased to give such a Confirmation to it as was sufficient to bear down those Prejudices Secondly Another Objection against Christianity was the Plainness and Simplicity of the Doctrine They expected some deep Speculations in Natural or Moral Philosophy they made full Account a Teacher sent from Heaven would have instructed them in the profoundest Points and discoursed to them about the first Principles of things and the Nature of the Soul and the chief end of Man with a Subtilty and Eloquence infinitely beyond that of their greatest Sophisters and able to bear down all Opposition and Contradiction But instead of this they are told a plain Story of the Life and Miracles of Jesus Christ and of his dying upon the Cross and rising from the Dead and ascending into Heaven and a few plain Precepts of Life and all this deliver'd without any Ornaments of Art or Insinuation of Eloquence to gain the Favour and Applause of those to whom they related these Things But now this truly considered is so far from being any real Objection against the Christian Doctrine that it is one of the greatest Commendations that can be given of it For matter of Fact ought to be related in the most plain and simple and unaffected manner and the less Art and Eloquence is used in the telling of a Story the more likely it is to gain Belief And as for our Saviour's Precepts how plain soever they might be I am sure they are a Collection of the most excellent and reasonable Rules of a good Life and the freest from all Vanity and Folly that are to be met with in any Book in the World And can any thing be more worthy of God and more likely to proceed from him than so plain and useful a Doctrine as this The Language of Law is not wont to be fine and perswasive but short and plain and full of Authority Thus it is among Men And surely it is much fitter for God to speak thus to Men than for Men to one another Thirdly It is objected that the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles wanted Demonstration they seemed to impose too much upon the Understandings of Men and to deliver things too Magisterially not demonstrating Things from Intrinsical Arguments but requiring Belief and Assent without Proof This the Apostle St. Paul readily acknowledgeth that in preaching the Gospel to the World they did not proceed in the way of the Heathen Orators and Philosophers 1 Cor. 4. 4. My Speech and my Preaching was not in the enticing Words of Man's Wisdom but in Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power that is they did not go in the way of Human Eloquence and Demonstration but yet their Doctrine did not want its Evidence and Demonstration though of another kind They did not go about to bewitch Men by Eloquence nor to entangle their Minds by subtil Reasonings the Force of which very few are capable of But they offer'd to Men a sensible Proof and Demonstration of the Truth of what they delivered in those strange and miraculous Operations to which they were enabled by the Holy Ghost And this was a sensible Evidence even to the meanest Capacity of a Divine Assistance going along with them and giving Testimony to them I appeal to any Man whether the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and his Ascending into Heaven be not a clearer Demonstration of another Life after this and more level to the Capacities of all Mankind than the finest and subtilest Arguments that can be drawn from the immaterial Nature of the Soul its power of Reflection upon it self and Independency upon the Body as to some of its Operations which yet are some of the chiefest Arguments that Philosophy affords to prove the Immortality of our Souls Fourthly The Heathens objected that the low and mean Condition of our Saviour was unsuitable to one who pretended to be the Son of God and to be appointed by God to be a Teacher and Reformer of the World This to the Heathen Philosophers did not only appear unreasonable but even ridiculous So St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 1. 23. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks Foolishness To think that a Man who appeared in such mean Circumstances should be fit to reform the World and one who himself was put to Death should be relyed upon for Life and Immortality This Objection I have heretofore considered at large and therefore shall now speak but very briefly to it Besides those excellent Reasons and Ends which the Scripture assigns of our Saviour's Humiliation as that he might be a Teacher and Example to us that he might make Expiation for our Sins that by suffering himself he might learn to commiserate us that by Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and might deliver those who through fear of Death were all their lives subject to Bondage I say besides these it was of great use that he should live in so mean and afflicted Condition to confront the Pride and Vanity and Fantastry of the World and to convince Men of these two great Truths that God may love those whom he afflicts and that Men may be innocent and virtuous and contented in the midst of Poverty and Reproach and Suffering Had our Blessed Saviour been a great Temporal Prince his Influence and Example might possibly have made more Hypocrites and servile Converts but would not have perswaded Men one jot more
to be inwardly good and virtuous The great Arguments that must do that must be fetched not from the Pomp and Prosperity of this World but from the Eternal Happiness and Misery of the other Besides had he appeared in any great Power and Splendor the Christian Religion could not have been so clearly acquitted from the Suspicion of a worldly Interest and Design which would have been a far greater Objection against it than this which I am now speaking to Add to all this that the wisest of the Heathen Philosophers did teach that Worldly Greatness and Power are not to be admired but despised by a truly wise Man that Men may be virtuous and good and dearly beloved of God and yet be liable to great Miseries and Sufferings and whoever suffers unjustly and bears it patiently gives the greatest Testimony to Goodness and does most effectually recommend Virtue to the World That a good Man under the hardest Circumstances of Misery and Reproach and Suffering is the fittest Person of all other to be the Minister and Apostle and Preacher of God to Mankind And surely they who say such things which the Heathen have done had no reason to object to our blessed Saviour his low and suffering Condition As to that part of the Objection that he who promis'd Immortality to others could not save himself from Death and Suffering considering that he who was put to Death rescu'd himself from the Power of the Grave it is so far from being ridiculous that nothing can be more reasonable than to rely upon him for our hopes of Immortality who by rising from the Grave and conquering Death gave a plain demonstration that he was able to make good what he promised I have done with the Exceptions which were made against our Saviour and his Doctrine at their first Appearance in the World I proceed in the II. Place to consider the Prejudices and Objections which Men at this day do more especially insist upon against our Saviour and his Religion And they are many First Some that relate to the Incarnation of our Saviour Secondly To the Time of his Appearance Thirdly That we have not now sufficient Evidence of the Truth of Christianity the main Arguments for it relying upon Matters of Fact of which at this distance we have not nor can expect to have sufficient Assurance Fourthly That the Terms of it seem very hard and to lay too great Restraints upon Human Nature Fifthly That it is apt to dispirit Men and to break the Vigour and Courage of their Minds Sixthly The Divisions and Factions that are among Christians Seventhly The wicked Lives of the greatest part of the Professors of Christianty In answer to all which I do not propose to say all that may be said but as briefly as I can to offer so much as may if not give full Satisfaction yet be sufficient to break the Force of them and to free the Minds of Men from any great Perplexity about them As to the First which relates to the Incarnation of our Saviour and the Second to the Time of his Appearance I know that these and most of the rest I have mention'd were urged by the Heathen against Christianity But they are now more especially insisted upon both by the secret and open Enemies of our Religion The Objections against his Incarnation I have elswhere consider'd And therefore shall proceed to the John 1. 14. Serm. III. next viz. Secondly As to the Time of our Saviour's Appearance it is objected if he be the only Way and Means of Salvation why did he come no sooner into the World but suffer'd Mankind so long without any Hopes or Means of being saved This was objected by Porphyry of old and still sticks in the Minds of Men. To this I answer I. It is not fit for Creatures to call their Creator to too strict an Account of his Actions Goodness is free and may act when and how it pleaseth and as God will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy so he may have Mercy at what Time he pleaseth and is not bound to give us an Account of his Matters This is much like the Objection of the Atheist against the Being of God That if there were such an Infinite and Eternal Being he would surely have made the World sooner and not have been without all Employment for so long a duration Such another Objection is this against our Saviour That if he had been the Son of God he would have begun this great and merciful Work of the Redemption of Mankind sooner and not have delay'd it so long and suffer'd Mankind to perish for four Thousand Years together But it seems in the one as well as the other God took his own time and he best knew what time was fittest The Scripture tells us That in the fulness of Time God sent his Son when things were ripe for it and all Things accomplisht that God thought requisite in order to it In judging of the Actions of our Earthly Governours those who are at a distance from their Councils what Conjectures soever they may make of the Reasons of them will neverthe less if they have that Respect for their Wisdom which they ought believe that how strange soever some of their Actions may seem yet they were done upon good Reason and that they themselves if they knew the Secrets of their Counsels should think so Much more do we owe that Reverence to the infinite Wisdom of God to believe that the Counsels of his Will are grounded upon very good Reason tho' we do not see many Times what it is 2. It is not true that the World was wholly destitute of a Way and Means of Salvation before our Saviour's coming Before the Law of Moses was given Men were capable of being received to the Mercy and Favour of God upon their Obedience to the Law of Nature and their sincere Repentance for the Violation of it by virtue of the Lamb that was slain from the Foundation of the World Men were saved by Christ both before and under the Law without any particular and express Knowledge of him There were Good Men in other Nations as well as among the Jews as Job and his Friends also seem to have been In all Ages of the World and in every Nation they that feared God and wrought Righteousness were accepted of him The Sacrifice of Christ which is the Meritorious Cause of the Salvation of Mankind looks back as well as forward and God was reconcileable to Men and their Sins were pardon'd by Virtue of this great Propitiation that was to be made In which Sense perhaps it is that Christ is said to be the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Heb. 9. 25 26 the Apostle intimates to us that if this Sacrifice which was offer'd in the last Ages of the World had not been available in former Ages Christ must have often suffer'd since the Foundation of the World but now hath he
so much And the fury of their Enemies against it did naturally inflame their Love and Kindness to one another nothing being a greater Endearment among Men than common Sufferings in a common Cause So long as Christians were not corrupted by Secular Interests and by denying all for Christ were free from Covetousness and Ambition the great roots of all Evil The Church of Christ though she was black yet she was comely and terrible as an Army with Banners She was all this while in an excellent Posture to resist the Temptations and fight against the Vices and Corruptions of the World But after the World broke in upon the Church and Christianity was countenanced by the Powers of the World and water'd with Secular Preferments and Encouragements no wonder if the Tares began to grow up with the Wheat Then Iniquity began to abound and the Love of many to grow cold When the Sun of Prosperity began to shine upon the Christian Profession then no wonder if the Vermin bred and swarmed every where When it grew creditable and advantagious for Men to be Christians this must in all Reason make a World of Hypocrites and counterfeit Professors These things I reckon must in Reason make a mighty Difference between the first Ages of Christianity and those which have follow'd since and no wonder if the real Fruits and Effects of Religion in these several States of Christianity be very unequal For Prosperity and Adversity made a wide difference in this Matter The Persecution of any Religion naturally makes the Professors of it real and the Prosperity of it does as naturally allure and draw in Hypocrites Besides that even the best of Men are more corrupted by Prosperity than Affliction But though Christians were best under Persecution yet God did not think fit always to continue them in that State because he would not tempt them and tire them out with perpetual Sufferings and after he had given the World a sufficient Experiment of the Power and Efficacy of the Christian Religion in maintaining and propagating it self in despite of all the Violence and Opposition of the World sufficient for ever to give Reputation to it he then thought good to leave it to be kept up by more Human Ways and such as offer less violence to the Nature of a Man Being once establisht and settled in the World and upon equal Terms of Advantage with other Religions God left it to be supported by more ordinary Means by pious Education and diligent Instruction and good Laws and Government without Miracles and without Persecution and without those extraordinary and overpowring Communications of his Grace and Spirit which he afforded to the first Ages of Christianity I have insisted the longer upon this that Men may see what Effects Christianity hath had upon the Lives of Men by which we may see the proper Nature and Efficacy of it and withal may not wonder so much that it hath not the same Effects now Though it be matter of great Shame to us that they are so vastly disproportionable to what they were at first 2. Tho' the Disproportion be very great between the Effects of Christianity at first and what it hath now upon the Lives of Men yet we ought not to deny but it hath still some good Effects upon Mankind and it is our great Shame and Fault that it hath no better If we will speak justly of things as to the general civility of Life and Manners Freedom from Tyranny and Barbarousness and Cruelty and some other enormous Vices yea and as to the exemplary Piety and Virtue of great Numbers of particular Persons of several Nations there is no Comparison between the general State of Christendom and the Pagan and Mahometan parts of the World Next to Christianity and the Law of Moses which was confined to one Nation Philosophy was the most likely Instrument to reform Mankind that hath been in the World and it had very considerable Effects upon some particular Persons both as to the rectifying of their Opinions and the reforming of their Lives But upon the generality of Mankind it did very little in either of these Respects especially as to the rectifying of the absurd and impious Opinions of the People concerning God and their superstitious Worship of the Deity Whereas the Christian Religion did universally where-ever it came set Men free from those gross Impieties and Superstitions and taught Men to worship the only true God in a right Manner Tho' we must confess to the Eternal Reproach of the Christian Religion that the Western Church hath degenerated so far that it seems to be in a great Measure relapst into the Ignorance and Superstition of Paganism out of which Degeneracy that God hath rescued us as we have infinite Cause to adore his Goodness so we have all the reason in the World to dread and detest a Return into this spiritual Egypt this House of Darkness and Bondage and the bringing of our Necks again under that Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear So that you see that there are still very considerable Effects of the Christian Religion in the World yea and I doubt not but in those places where it is most corrupted and degenerated because they still retain the essential Doctrines of Christianity which have not quite lost their Force notwithstanding the many Errours and Corruptions that are mixt with them And as God knows and every Man sees it that the generality of Christians are very bad notwithstanding all the Influence of that excellent Religion which they profess yet I think it is very evident Men would be much worse without it For though very many who have entertained the Principles of Christianity are very wicked in their Lives yet many are otherwise And those that are bad have this Advantage by their Religion that it is in its Nature apt to reduce and recover Men from a wicked Course and sometimes does whereas the case of those Persons would have been desperate were it not for those Principles of Religion which were implanted in them by Christian Education and though they were long supprest yet did at last awaken them to a Consideration of their Condition and proved the happy Means of their Recovery 3. I will not deny but there are some Persons as bad nay perhaps worse that have been bred up in the Christian Religion than are commonly to be found in the Darkness of Paganism for the Corruption of the best Things is the worst and those who have resisted so great a Light as that of the Gospel is are like to prove the most desperately wicked of all other There is nothing that Men make worse use of than of Light and Liberty two of the best and most pleasant Things in the World Knowledge is many times abused to the worst Purpose and Liberty into Licentiousness and Sedition and yet no Man for all that thinks Ignorance desirable or would wish a perpetual Night and Darkness to
laid the main stress as being a thing that would condemn him by their Law They charged him with this in his life-time as appears by those Words of our Saviour John 10. 36. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God And when he was arraigned before the Chief Priests they accused him of this and he owning this Charge that he call'd himself the Son of God upon this they judge him guilty of Death Matth. 26. 65 66. Then the High-Priest rent his Cloaths and said He hath spoken Blasphemy what further need have we of witness Behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye They answered He is guilty of Death And when Pilate told them that he found no Fault in him they still instance in this as his Crime John 19. 7. We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God Now this being the Crime which was charged upon him and for which he was crucified and put to Death God by raising him up from the dead and taking him up into Heaven gave Testimony to him that he was no Impostor and that he did not vainly arrogate to himself to be the Messias and the Son of God God by raising him from the dead by the Power of the Holy Ghost gave a mighty Demonstration to him that he was the Son of God For which Reason he is said by the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. 16. to be justified by the Spirit The Spirit gave Testimony to him at his Baptism and by the mighty Works that appeared in him in his Life time but he was most eminently and remarkably justified by the Holy Ghost by his Resurrection from the Dead God hereby bearing him Witness that he was unjustly condemned and that he assumed nothing to himself but what of right did belong to him when he said he was the Messias and the Son of God For how could a Man that was condemned to die for calling himself the Son of God be more remarkably vindicated and more clearly proved to be so than by being raised from the dead by the Power of God And 2dly God did consequently hereby give Testimony to the Truth and Divinity of our Saviour's Doctrine Being proved by his Resurrection to be the Son of God this proved him to be a Teacher sent by him and that what he declared to the World was the Mind and Will of God For this none was more likely to know and to report truly to Mankind than the Son of God who came from the Bosom of his Father And because the Resurrection of Christ is so great a Testimony to the Truth of his Doctrine hence it is that St. Paul tells us that the belief of this one Article of Christ's Resurrection is sufficient to a Man's Salvation Rom. 10. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy Heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved The Reason is plain because the Resurrection of Christ confirmed the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine so that the belief of our Saviour's Resurrection does by necessary Consequence infer the belief of his whole Doctrine That God raised him from the dead after he was condemned and put to Death for calling himself the Son of God is a demonstration that he really was the Son of God and if he was the Son of God the Doctrine which he taught was true and from God And thus I have shewn you how the Resurrection of Christ from the dead is a powerful Demonstration that he was the Son of God All that remains is briefly to draw some practical Inferences from the Consideration of our Saviour's Resurrection 1st To confirm and establish our Minds in the belief of the Christian Religion of which the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is so great a Confirmation And therefore I told you that this one Article is mentioned by St. Paul as the Sum and Abridgment of the Christian Faith If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved The belief of our Saviour's Resurrection doth by necessary consequence infer the belief of his whole Doctrine for he who believes that God raised him from the Dead after he was put to death for calling himself the Son of God cannot but believe him to be the Son of God and consequently that the Doctrine which he delivered was from God 2dly The Resurrection of Christ from the Dead assures us of a future Judgment and of the Recompences and Rewards of another World That Christ was raised from the Dead is a demonstration of another Life after this and no man that believes the immortality of our Souls and another Life after this ever doubted of a future Judgment so that by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead God hath given assurance unto all men of a future Judgment and consequently of the Recompences and Rewards of another World The consideration whereof ought to have a mighty influence upon us more especially to these three purposes 1st To raise our minds above the present Enjoyments of this Life Were but men convinced of this great and obvious Truth that there is an infinite difference between Time and Eternity between a few days and everlasting Ages would we but sometimes represent to our selves what thoughts and apprehensions dying Men have of this World how vain and empty a thing it appears to them how like a Pageant and Shadow it looks as it passeth away from them methinks none of these things could be a sufficient temptation to any Man to forget God and his Soul but notwithstanding all the present delights and allurements of Sense we should be strongly intent upon the concernments of another World and almost wholly taken up with the thoughts of the vast Eternity which we are ready to enter into For what is there in this World this vast and howling Wilderness this rude and barbarous Country which we are but to pass through which should detain and entangle our Affections and take off our Thoughts from our Everlasting Habitation from that better and that heavenly Country where we hope to live and to be happy for ever 2dly The Consideration of the Rewards of another World should comfort and support us under the troubles and afflictions of this World The hopes of a blessed Resurrection are a very proper Consideration to bear us up under the evils and pressures of this Life If we hope for so great a Happiness hereafter we may be contented to bear some Afflictions in this World because the Blessedness which we expect will so abundantly recompence and outweigh our present Sufferings So the Apostle assures us Rom. 8. 18. We know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that
the Peace and Communion of the Church by a course of Penance such as was prescribed in the ancient Church to great Offenders and then they understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Natural but a Moral Impossibility that which cannot be done according to the Orders and Constitutions of the Church that is the Church did refuse to admit Apostates and some other great Offenders as Murderers and Adulterers to a course of Penance in order to their Reconciliation with the Church This Tertullian tells us was the strictness of the Church in his time Neque Idololatriae neque Sanguini pax ab Ecclesiâ redditur they admitted neither Idolaters nor Murderers to the reconciliation of the Church Though they were never so penitent and shed never so many tears yet he says they were jejunae pacis lacrimae their tears were in vain to reconcile them to the Peace and Communion of the Church He says indeed they did not absolutely pronounce their case desperate in respect of God's Pardon and Forgiveness sed de veniâ Deo reservamus for that they referr'd them to God but they were never to be admitted again into the Church so strict were many Churches and that upon the Authority of this Text though the Church of Rome was more moderate in this matter and for that Reason call'd the Authority of this Book into question But I see no reason why these Words should primarily be understood of restoring Men to the Communion of the Church by Penance but they seem to be meant of restoring Men to the Favour of God by Repentance of which indeed their being restored to the Communion of the Church was a good sign This the Apostle says was very difficult for those who after Baptism and the several benefits of it did apostatize from Christianity to be recover'd again to Repentance Seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame This is spoken by way of Aggravation of the crime of Apostacy that they who fall off from Christianity in effect and by interpretation do crucifie the Son of God over again and expose him to shame and reproach as the Jews did for by denying and renouncing of him they declare him to be an Impostor and consequently worthy of that death which he suffered and that Ignominy which he was exposed to and therefore in account of God they are said to do that which by their actions they do approve so that it is made a Crime of the highest Nature as if they should crucifie the Son of God and use him in the most ignominious manner even tread under foot the Son of God as the expression is to the same purpose Ch. 10 29. Thus I have endeavour'd as briefly and clearly I could to explain to you the true meaning and importance of the several Phrases and Expressions in the Text the sense whereof amounts to this that if those who are baptized and by Baptism have received Remission of Sins and do believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Promises of it and are endow'd with the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost if such persons as these shall after all this apostatize from Christianity it is very hard and next to an impossibility to imagine how such Persons should recover again by Repentance seeing they are guilty of as great a Crime as if in their own Persons they had put to Death and ignominiously used the Son of God because by rejecting of him they declare to the World that he suffered deservedly Having thus explained the words in order to the further vindication of them from the mistakes and misapprehensions which have been about them I shall endeavour to make out these five things 1st That the Sin here mention'd is not the Sin against the Holy Ghost 2dly That the Apostle does not declare it to be absolutely impossible but only that those who are guilty of it are recover'd to Repentance with great difficulty 3dly That it is not a partial Apostacy from the Christian Religion by any particular vicious Practice 4thly That it is a total Apostacy from the Christian Religion and more especially to the Heathen Idolatry which the Apostle here speaks of 5thly The Reason of the difficulty of the recovery of those who fall into this Sin 1st That the Sin here mention'd is not the Sin against the Holy Ghost which I have heretofore discoursed of and shewn wherein the particular Nature of it does consist There are three things which do remarkably distinguish the Sin here spoken of in the Text from the Sin against the Holy Ghost described by our Saviour 1st The Persons that are guilty of this Sin here in the Text are evidently such as had embraced Christianity and had taken upon them the Profession of it whereas those whom our Saviour chargeth with the Sin against the Holy Ghost are such as constantly opposed his Doctrine and resisted the Evidence he offer'd for it 2dly The particular nature of the Sin against the Holy Ghost consisted in blaspheming the Spirit whereby our Saviour wrought his Miracles and saying he did not do those things by the Spirit of God but by the assistance of the Devil in that malicious and unreasonable imputing of the plain Effects of the Holy Ghost to the Power of the Devil and consequently in an obstinate refusal to be convinced by the Miracles that he wrought but here is nothing of all this so much as intimated by the Apostle in this place 3dly The Sin against the Holy Ghost is declared to be absolutely unpardonable both in this World and in that which is to come but this is not declared to be absolutely unpardonable which brings me to the 2d Thing namely That this Sin here spoken of by the Apostle is not said to be absolutely unpardonable It is not the Sin against the Holy Ghost and whatever else it be it is not out of the compass of God's Pardon and Forgiveness So our Saviour hath told us that all manner of Sin whatsoever that men have committed is capable of pardon excepting only the Sin against the Holy Ghost And though the Apostle here uses a very severe Expression that if such persons fall away it is impossible to renew them again to Repentance yet I have shewn that there is no necessity of understanding this Phrase in the strictest sense of the word impossible but as it is elsewhere used for that which is extreamly difficult Nor indeed will our Saviour's Declaration which I mention'd before that all Sins whatsoever are pardonable except the Sin against the Holy Ghost suffer us to understand these words in the most rigorous Sense 3dly The Sin here spoken of is not a partial Apostacy from the Christian Religion by any particular vicious Practice Whosoever lives in the habitual practice of any Sin plainly forbidden by the Christian Law may be said so far to have apostatized from Christianity but this is not the falling away which the Apostle
here speaks of This may be bad enough and the greater Sins any Man who professeth himself a Christian lives in the more notoriously he contradicts his Profession and falls off from Christianity and the nearer he approacheth to the Sin in the Text and the danger there threatned but yet for all that this is not that which the Apostle speaks of 4thly But it is a total Apostacy from the Christian Religion more especially to the Heathen Idolatry the renouncing of the true God and our Saviour and the Worship of false Gods which the Apostle here speaks of And this will be evident if we consider the occasion and main scope of this Epistle And that was to confirm the Jews who had newly embraced Christianity in the profession of that Religion and to keep them from apostatizing from it because of the Persecutions and Sufferings which attended that Profession It pleased God when Christianity first appeared in the World to permit the Powers of the World to raise a vehement Persecution against the Professors of it by reason whereof many out of base fear did apostatize from it and in testimony of their renouncing it were forced to Sacrifice to the Heathen Idols This is that which the Apostle endeavours to caution and arm Men against throughout this Epistle Ch. 2. 1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should fall away And Chap. 3. 12. it is call'd an evil heart of Vnbelief to apostatize from the living God Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of Vnbelief to depart from the living God that is to fall from the Worship of the true God to Idolatry And Chap. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of our selves together that is not declining the Assemblies of Christians for fear of Persecution and v. 26. it is call'd a sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth and v. 39. a drawing back to Perdition And Ch. 12. it is call'd by way of Eminency the Sin which so easily besets the Sin which in those times of Persecution they were so liable to And I doubt not but this is the Sin which St. John speaks of and calls the Sin unto Death and does not require Christians to pray for those who fall into it with any assurance that it shall be forgiven 1 John 5. 16. There is a Sin unto Death I do not say that he shall pray for it All Vnrighteousness is Sin and there is a Sin not unto Death We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not that is does not fall into the Sin of Apostacy from Christianity to that of the Heathen Idolatry But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not And then v. 21. he adds this Caution Little Chrildren keep your selves from Idols Which sufficiently shews what that Sin was which he was speaking of before So that this being the Sin which the Apostle design'd to caution Men against throughout this Epistle it is very evident what falling away it is he here speaks of namely a total Apostacy from Christianity and more especially to the Heathen Idolatry 5thly We will consider the Reason of the difficulty of Recovering such Persons by Repentance If they fall away it is extremely difficult to renew them again to Repentance and that for these three Reasons 1. Because of the greatness and heinousness of the Sin 2. Because it renounceth and casteth off the means of Recovery 3. Because it is so high a Provocation of God to withdraw his Grace from such Persons 1. Because of the greatness and heinousness of the Sin both in the Nature and Circumstances of it It is a downright Apostacy from God a direct renouncing of him and rejecting of his Truth after Men have owned it and been inwardly perswaded and convinced of it and so the Apostle expresseth it in this Epistle calling it an Apostacy from the living God a sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth It hath all the Aggravations that a Crime is capable of being against the clearest Light and Knowledge and the fullest Conviction of a Man's Mind concerning the Truth and Goodness of that Religion which he renounceth against the greatest Obligations laid upon him by the Grace and Mercy of the Gospel after the free Pardon of Sins and the Grace and Assistance of God's Spirit received and a miraculous Power conferr'd for a Witness and Testimony to themselves of the undoubted Truth of that Religion which they have embraced It is the highest Affront to the Son of God who revealed this Religion to the World and sealed it with his Blood and in effect an expression of as high Malice to the Author of this Religion as the Jews were guilty of when they put him to so cruel and shameful a Death Now a Sin of this heinous Nature is apt naturally either to plunge Men into hardness and impenitency or to drive them to despair and either of these Conditions are effectual Barrs to their Recovery And both these Dangers the Apostle warns Men of in this Epistle Ch. 3. 12 13. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of Vnbelief to apostatize from the living God but exhort one another daily whilst it is call'd to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of Sin Or else the Reflection upon so horrid a Crime is apt to drive a Man to Despair as it did Judas who after he had betray'd the Son of God could find no ease but by making away himself the guilt of so great a Sin fill'd him with such Terrors that he was glad to flye to Death for Refuge and to lay violent hands upon himself And this likewise was the Case of Spira whose Apostacy though it was not total from the Christian Religion but only from the Purity and Reformation of it brought him to that desperation of Mind which was a kind of Hell upon Earth And of this danger likewise the Apostle admonisheth Ch. 12. 15. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God or as it is in the Margine lest any Man fall from the Grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and then he compares the Case of such Persons to Esau who when he had renounced his Birth-right to which the Blessing was annex'd was afterwards when he would have inherited the Blessing rejected and found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with Tears 2dly Those who are guilty of this Sin do renounce and cast off the means of their Recovery and therefore it becomes extreamly difficult to renew them again to Repentance They reject the Gospel which affords the best Arguments and Means to Repentance and renounce the only way of Pardon and Forgiveness And certainly that Man is in
a very sad and desperate Condition the very nature of whose Disease is to reject the Remedy that should cure him And this the Apostle tells us was the Condition of those who apostatized from the Gospel Chap. 10. 26 27. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary The great Sacrifice and Propitiation for Sin was the Son of God and they who renounce him what way of Expiation can they hope for afterward what can they expect but to fall into his Hands as a Judge whom they have rejected as a Sacrifice and a Saviour And then 3dly Those who are guilty of this Sin provoke God in the highest manner to withdraw his Grace and Holy Spirit from them by the Power and Efficacy whereof they should be brought to Repentance so that it can hardly otherwise be expected but that God should leave those to themselves who have so unworthily forsaken him and wholly withdraw his Grace and Spirit from such Persons as have so notoriously offer'd despite to the Spirit of Grace I do not say that God always does this he is sometimes better to such Persons than they have deserved from him and saves those who have done what they can to undo themselves and mercifully puts forth his Hand to recover them who were drawing back to Perdition especially if they were suddenly surprized by the violence of Temptation and yielded to it not deliberately and out of choice but merely through weakness and infirmity and so soon as they reflected upon themselves did return and repent This was the case of St. Peter who being surprized with a sudden fear denied Christ but being admonish'd of his Sin by the signal which our Saviour had given him he was recovered by a speedy and hearty Repentance And so likewise several of the Primitive Christians who were at first overcome by fear to renounce their Religion did afterwards recover themselves and died resolute Martyrs but it is a very dangerous State out of which but few recover and with great difficulty And thus I have done with the five things I propounded to make out for the clearing of this Text from the mistakes and misapprehensions which have been about it I shall now draw some useful Inferences from hence by way of Application that we may see how far this doth concern our selves and they shall be these 1st From the Supposition here in the Text that such Persons as are there described namely those who have been baptized and by Baptism have received remission of Sins and did firmly believe the Gospel and the Promises of it and were endowed with miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost that these may fall away this should caution us all against Confidence and Security when those that have gone thus far may fall let him that standeth take heed Some are of opinion that those whom the Apostle here describes are true and sincere Christians and that when he says it is impossible if they fall away to renew them again to Repentance he means that they cannot fall away totally so as to stand in need of being renewed again to Repentance But this is directly contrary to the Apostle's design which was to caution Christians against Apostacy because if they did fall away their recovery would be so exceeding difficult which Argument does plainly suppose that they might fall away On the other hand there are others who think the Persons here described by the Apostle to be Hypocritical Christians who for some base ends had entertained Christianity and put on the Profession of it but not being sincere and in good earnest would forsake it when Persecution came But besides that this is contrary to the description which the Apostle makes of these Persons who are said to have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and to have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost by which if we understand Justification and Remission of Sins and the Sanctifying Virtue of the Holy Ghost which in all probability is the meaning of these Phrases these are Blessings which did not belong to Hypocrites and which God does not bestow upon them I say besides this there is no reason to imagine that the Apostle intended such Persons when it is likely that there were very few Hypocrites in those times of Persecution for what should tempt Men to dissemble Christianity when it was so dangerous a Profession or what Worldly Ends could Men have in taking that Profession upon them which was so directly contrary to their Worldly Interests So that upon the whole matter I doubt not but the Apostle here means those who are real in the Profession of Christianity and that such might fall away For we may easily imagine that Men might be convinced of the Truth and Goodness of the Christian Doctrine and in good earnest embrace the Profession of it and yet not be so perfectly weaned from the World and so firmly rooted and established in that Perswasion as when it came to the Tryal to be able to quit all for it and to bear up against all the Terrors and Assaults of Persecution so that they might be real Christians and no Hypocrites though they were not so perfectly established and confirmed and so sincerely resolved as many others They were not like St. Paul and those tryed Persons whom he speaks of Rom. 8. 35 37. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerours They had been try'd by all these and yet had held out upon which he breaks out into those triumphant Expressions I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. They might not I say be like those and yet for all that be real in their Profession of Christianity and no Hypocrites In short I take them to be such as our Saviour describes him to be who received the seed into stony places namely he that heareth the word and anon with joy receceiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended This is no description of a Hypocrite but of one that was real as far as he went for he is said to receive the word with joy but was not well rooted and come to such a confirmed State as resolutely to withstand the assaults of Persecution So that tho' we have truly embraced Christianity and are in a good degree sincere in the Profession of it yet there is great Reason why we should neither be secure nor confident
in our selves Not secure because there is great danger that our Resolution may be born down one time or other by the Assaults of Temptation if we be not continually vigilant and upon our Guard Not confident in our selves because we stand by Faith and Faith is the gift of God therefore as the Apostle infers we should not be high minded but fear Men may have gone a great way in Christianity and have been sincere in the Profession of it and yet afterwards may apostatize in the foulest manner not only fall off to a vicious Life but even desert the Profession of their Religion I would to God the Experience of the World did not give us too much Reason to believe the Possibility of this When we see so many revolt from the Profession of the reformed Religion to the Corruptions and Superstitions of Rome And others from a religious and sober Life to plunge themselves into all kind of Lewdness and Debauchery and it is to be feared into Atheism and Infidelity Can we doubt any longer whether it be possible for Christians to fall away I wish we were as certain of the possibility of their Recovery as we are of their Falling and that we had as many Examples of the one as of the other Let us then be very vigilant over our selves and according to the Apostle's Exhortation 2 Pet. 3. 17. Seeing we know these things before beware lest we also being led away with the Error of the wicked fall from our own stedfastness 2dly This shews us how great an Aggravation it is for Men to Sin against the Means of Knowledge which the Gospel affords and the Mercies which it offers unto them That which aggravated the Sin of these Persons was that after they were once enlightned that is at their Baptism were instructed in the Christian Doctrine the clearest and most perfect Revelation that ever was made of God's Will to Mankind that after they were justified freely by God's Grace and had received Remission of Sins and had many other Benefits conferred upon them that after all this they should fall off from this Holy Religion This was that which did so heighten and enflame their Guilt and made their Case so near desperate The two great aggravations of Crimes are Wilfulness and Ingratitude if a Crime be wilfully committed and committed against one that hath obliged us by the greatest Favours and Benefits Now he commits a fault wilfully who does it against the clear knowledge of his Duty Ignorance excuseth for so far as a Man is ignorant of the Evil he does so far the Action is involuntary but knowledge makes it to be a wilful Fault And this is a more peculiar Aggravation of the Sins of Christians because God hath afforded them the greatest means and opportunities of Knowledge that Revelation which God hath made of his Will to the World by our Blessed Saviour is the clearest Light that ever Mankind had and the mercies which the Gospel brings are the greatest that ever were offer'd to the Sons of Men the free Pardon and Remission of all our Sins and the assistance of God's Grace and Holy Spirit to help the weakness of our Nature and enable us to do what God requires of us So that we who sin after Baptism after the knowledge of Christianity and those great Blessings which the Gospel bestows on Mankind are of all Persons in the World the most inexcusable The Sins of Heathens bear no proportion to ours because they never enjoyed those means of Knowledge never had those Blessings conferred upon them which Christians are Partakers of so that we may apply to our selves those severe words of the Apostle in this Epistle How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Hear how our Saviour aggravates the Faults of Men upon this account of the wilfulness of them and their being committed against the express Knowledge of God's Will Luke 12. 47 48. The Servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom Men have committed much of him they will ask the more The Means and Mercies of the Gospel are so many Talents committed to our Trust of the neglect whereof a severe Account will be taken at the Day of Judgment If we be wilful Offenders there is no Excuse for us and little hopes of Pardon If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth says the Apostle in this Epistle there remains no more sacrifice for sin I know the Apostle speaks this particularly of the Sin of Apostacy from Christianity but it is in proportion true of all other Sins which those who have received the Knowledge of the Truth are guilty of They who after they have entertained Christianity and made some progress in it and been in some measure reformed by it do again relapse into any vicious course do thereby render their Condition very dangerous So St. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them Therefore we may do well to consider seriously what we do when under the Means and Opportunities of Knowledge which the Gospel affords us and the inestimable Blessings and Favours which it confers upon us we live in any wicked and vicious course Our Sins are not of a common rate when they have so much of Wilfulness and Unworthiness in them If Men shall be severely punish'd for living against the Light of Nature what vengeance shall be poured on those who offend against the Glorious Light of the Gospel This is the Condemnation that Light is come c. 3dly The Consideration of what hath been said is Matter of Comfort to those who upon every Failing and Infirmity are afraid they have committed the unpardonable Sin and that it is impossible for them to be restor'd by Repentance There are many who being of a dark and melancholy Temper are apt to represent things worse to themselves than there is reason for and do many times fancy themselves guilty of great Crimes in the doing or neglecting of those things which in their nature are indifferent and are apt to aggravate and blow up every little Infirmity into an unpardonable Sin Most Men are apt to extenuate their Sins and not to be sensible enough of the Evil and Heinousness of them but it is the peculiar Infelicity of Melancholy Persons to look upon their Faults as blacker and greater than in truth they are and whatsoever they hear and read in Scripture that is spoken against the grossest and
most enormous Offenders they apply to themselves and when they hear of the Sin against the Holy Ghost and the Sin unto Death or read this Text which I am now treating of they presently conclude that they are guilty of these Sins and that this is a description of their Case Whereas the Sin against the holy Ghost is of that nature that probably none but those that saw our Saviour's Miracles are capable of committing it and excepting that there is no Sin whatsoever that is unpardonable As for the Sin unto Death and that here spoken of in the Text I have shewn that they are a total Apostacy from the Christian Religion more especially to the Heathen Idolatry which these Persons I am speaking of have no reason to imagine themselves guilty of And though great and notorious Crimes committed by Christians may come near to this and it may be very hard for those who are guilty of them to recover themselves again to Repentance yet to be sure for the common Frailties and Infirmities of Human Nature there is an open way of Pardon in the Gospel and they are many times forgiven to us upon a General Repentance so that upon account of these which is commonly the case of the Persons I am speaking of there is not the least ground of Despair and though it be hard many times for such Persons to receive Comfort yet it is easie to give it and that upon sure Grounds and as clear Evidence of Scripture as there is for any thing so that the first thing that such Persons who are so apt to judge thus hardly of themselves are to be convinced of if possible is this that they ought rather to trust the Judgment of others concerning themselves than their own Imagination which is so distemper'd that it cannot make a true Representation of things I know that where Melancholy does mightily prevail it is hard to perswade People of this but 'till they be perswaded of it I am sure all the Reason in the World will signifie nothing to them 4thly This should make Men afraid of great and presumptuous Sins which come near Apostacy from Christianity such as deliberate Murder Adultery gross Fraud and Oppression or notorious and habitual Intemperance For what great difference is there whether Men renounce Christianity or professing to believe it do in their Works deny it Some of these Sins which I have mention'd particularly Murder and Adultery were ranked in the same degree with Apostacy by the Ancient Church and so severe was the Discipline of many Churches that Persons guilty of these Crimes were never admitted to the Peace and Communion of the Church again whatever Testimony they gave of their Repentance I will not say but this was too rigorous but this shews how inconsistent with Christianity these Crimes and others of the like degree of heinousness were in those days thought to be They did not indeed as Tertullian tells us think such Persons absolutely incapable of the Mercy of God but after such a Fall so notorious a Contradiction to their Christian Profession they thought it unfit afterwards that they should ever be reckon'd in the number of Christians 5thly It may be useful for us upon this Occasion to reflect a little upon the ancient Discipline of the Church which in some places as I have told you was so severe as in case of some great Crimes after Baptism as Apostacy to the Heathen Idolatry Murder and Adultery never to admit those that were guilty of them to the Peace and Communion of the Church but in all Churches was so strict as not to admit those who fell after Baptism into great and notorious Crimes to Reconciliation with the Church but after a long and tedious course of Penance after the greatest and most publick Testimonies of Sorrow and Repentance after long Fasting and Tears and the greatest signs of Humiliation that can be imagined In case of the greatest Offences they were seldom reconciled till they came to lye upon their Death-beds And in case of other scandalous Sins not 'till after the Humiliation of many Years This perhaps may be thought too great Severity but I am sure we are as much too remiss now as they were over rigorous then but were the Ancient Discipline of the Church in any degree put in practice now what case would the generality of Christians be in In what Herds and Shoals would Men be driven out of the Communion of the Church 'T is true the prodigious Degeneracy and Corruption of Christians hath long since broke these Bounds and 't is morally impossible to revive the strictness of the ancient Discipline in any measure till the World grow better but yet we ought to reflect with shame and confusion of Face upon the purer Ages of the Church and sadly to consider how few among us would in those Days have been accounted Christians and upon this Consideration to be provoked to an Emulation of those Better Times and to a Reformation of those Faults and Miscarriages which in the best days of Christianity were reckon'd inconsistent with the Christian Profession and to remember that though the Discipline of the Church be not now the same it was then yet the Judgment and Severity of God is and that those who live in any vicious course of Life though they continue in the Communion of the Church yet they shall be shut out of the Kingdom of God We are sure that the Judgment of God will be according to Truth against them which commit such things 6thly and lastly The Consideration of what hath been said should confirm and establish us in the Profession of our Holy Religion 'T is true we are not now in danger of apostatizing from Christianity to the Heathen Idolatry but we have too many sad Examples of those who apostatize from the Profession of the Gospel which they have taken upon them in Baptism to Atheism and Infidelity to all manner of Impiety and Lewdness There are many who daily fall off from the Profession of the Reformed Religion to the gross Errors and Superstitions of the Roman Church which in many things does too nearly resemble the old Pagan Idolatry And what the Apostle here says of the Apostates of his time is proportionably true of those of our days that they who thus fall away it is extreamly difficult to renew them again to Repentance And it ought to be remembred that the guilt of this kind of Apostacy hath driven some to Despair as in the Case of Spira who for resisting the Light and Convictions of his Mind was cast into those Agonies and fill'd with such Terrors as if the very pains of Hell had taken hold of him and in that fearful Despair and in the midst of those Horrors he breathed out his Soul Let us then hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering and let us take heed how we contradict the Profession of our Faith by any Impiety and Wickedness in our
save to the utmost all those that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us By these Qualifications our High Priest is described in this Epistle and by these he is every way suited to all our Defects and Infirmities all our Wants and Necessities to instruct our Ignorance by his Doctrine and to lead us in the Path of Righteousness by his most Holy and most Exemplary Life to expiate the guilt of our Sins by his Death and to procure Grace and Assistance for us by his prevalent Intercession on our behalf By all these ways and in all these respects he is said to be the Author of Eternal Salvation 1st By the Holiness and Purity of his Doctrine whereby we are perfectly instructed in the Will of God and our Duty and powerfully excited and perswaded to the Practice of it The Rules and Directions of a holy Life were very obscure before and the Motives and Encouragements to Virtue but weak and ineffectual in comparison of what they are now render'd by the Revelation of the Gospel The general corruption of Mankind and the vicious Practice of the World had in a great measure blurr'd and defac'd the Natural Law so that the Heathen World for many Ages had but a very dark and doubtful knowledge of their Duty especially as to several instances of it The Custom of several Vices had so prevail'd among Mankind as almost quite to extinguish the natural Sense of their Evil and Deformity And the Jews who enjoy'd a considerable degree of Divine Revelation had no strict regard to the Morality of their Actions and contenting themselves with some kind of outward Conformity to the bare Letter of the Ten Commandments were almost wholly taken up with little Ceremonies and Observances in which they placed the main of their Religion almost wholly neglecting the greater Duties and weightier matters of the Law And therefore our Blessed Saviour to free Mankind from these wandrings and uncertainties about the Will of God revealed the Moral Law and explained the full force and meaning of it clearing all doubts and supplying all the defects of it by a more particular and explicite Declaration of the several parts of our Duty and by Precepts of greater Perfection than the World was sufficiently acquainted withal before of greater Humility and more Universal Charity of abstaining from Revenge and forgiving Injuries and returning to our Enemies Good for Evil and Love for ill-will and Blessings and Prayers for Curses and Persecutions These Virtues indeed were sometimes and yet but very rarely recommended before in the Counsels of wise Men but either not in that degree of Perfection or not under that degree of Necessity and as having the force of Laws and laying an universal obligation of indispensable Duty upon all Mankind And as our blessed Saviour hath given a greater clearness and Certainty and Perfection to the rule of our Duty so he hath reveal'd and brought into a clearer Light more powerful Motives and Encouragements to the constant and careful Practice of it for Life and Immortality are brought to light by the Gospel the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead being a plain and convincing Demonstration of the Immortality of our Souls and another Life after this and an Evidence to us both of his Power and of the fidelity of his promise to raise us from the Dead Not but that Mankind had some obscure Apprehensions of these things before Good Men had always good hopes of another Life and future Rewards in another World and the worst of Men were not without some fears of the Judgment and Vengeance of another World but Men had disputed themselves into great doubts and uncertainties about these things and as Men that are in doubt are almost indifferent which way they go so the uncertain apprehensions which Men had of a future State and of the Rewards and Punishments of another World had but a very faint influence upon the minds of Men and wanted that pressing and determining force to Virtue and a good Life which a firm Belief and clear Conviction of these things would have infused into them But now the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ hath scatter'd all these Clouds and chased away that gross Darkness which hid the other World from our sight and hath removed all doubts concerning the Immortality of Mens Souls and their future State and now the Kingdom of Heaven with all its Treasures of Life and Happiness and Glory lies open to our view and Hell is also naked before us and Destruction hath no covering So that the hopes and fears of Men are now perfectly awakened and all sorts of Considerations that may serve to quicken and encourage our Obedience and to deter and affright Men from a wicked Life are exposed to the view of all Men and do stare every Man's Conscience in the face And this is that which renders the Gospel so admirable and powerful an Instrument for the reforming of Mankind and as the Apostle calls it the mighty power of God unto Salvation because therein Life and Immortality are set before us as the certain and glorious Reward of our Obedience and therein also the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that considering the perfection of our Rule and the powerful enforcements of it upon the Consciences of Men by the clear discovery and firm assurance of the Eternal Recompence of another World nothing can be imagined better suited to its end than the Doctrine of the Gospel is to make Men wise and holy and good unto Salvation both by instructing them perfectly in their Duty and urging them powerfully to the practice of it 2dly The Example of our Saviour's life is likewise another excellent Means to this End The Law lays an Obligation upon us but a pattern gives life and encouragement and renders our Duty more easie and practicable and familiar to us for here we see obedience to the Divine Law practised in our own Nature and performed by a Man like our selves in all things like unto us Sin only excepted 'T is true indeed this exception makes a great difference and seems to take off very much from the encouraging Force and Virtue of this Example No wonder if he that was without Sin and was God as well as Man performed all Righteousness and therefore where is the encouragement of this example That our Nature pure and uncorrupted supported and assisted by the Divinity to which it was united should be perfectly conformed to the Law of God as it is no strange thing so neither doth it seem to have that force and encouragement in it which an Example more suited to our weakness might have had But then this cannot be deny'd that it hath the advantage of perfection which a Pattern ought to have and to which though we can never attain yet we may always be aspiring towards it and certainly we cannot better learn
Obedience and good Works Chap. 3. 8. This is is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God be careful to maintain good Works All that now remains is to make some useful Inferences from what hath been said upon this Argument and so to conclude this Discourse First of all To convince us that an empty Profession of the Christian Religion how specious and glorious soever it be if it be destitute of the fruits of Obedience and a holy Life will by no means avail to bring us to Heaven No profession of Faith in Christ no Subjection to him tho' we be baptized in his Name and list our selves in the number of his Disciples and Followers tho' we have made a constant Profession of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and have performed all the external parts and duties of Religion have gone constantly to Church and frequented the Service of God and have joined in publick Prayers to God with great appearance of Devotion and have heard his Word with great Reverence and Attention and received the blessed Sacrament with all imaginable expressions of Love and Gratitude to our blessed Redeemer nay tho' we had heard our blessed Saviour himself teach in our streets and had eaten and drunken in his presence yet if all this while we have not done the will of God and obeyed his Laws none of all these will things signifie any thing to bring us to Heaven and make us Partakers of that Salvation which he hath purchased for Mankind But we cannot plead so much for our selves as those did of whom our Saviour speaks None of us shall be able to alledge for our selves at the great day that we had prophesyed in his Name and in his name had cast out Devils and in his name had done many wonderful Works and yet if we could alledge all this it would do us no good All that such can say for themselves is that they have call'd him Lord Lord that is they have made profession of his Religion and been call'd by his Name that they have paid an outward Honour and Respect to him and declared a mighty Love and Affection for him but they have not done his will but have hated to be reformed and have cast his Commandments behind their backs they have only born the Leaves of an outward Profession but have brought forth no fruit unto Holiness and therefore can have no reasonable expectation that their End should be everlasting Life So that when these Men shall appear before the great and terrible Judge of the World they shall have nothing to say but those vain Words Lord Lord to which our Saviour will answer in that Day why call ye me Lord Lord when ye would not do the things which I said Notwithstanding all your profession of Faith in me and subjection to me ye have been workers of Iniquity therefore depart from me I know ye not whence ye are Secondly The Consideration of what hath been said should stir us up to a thankful acknowledgment of what the Author of our Salvation hath done for us and there is great reason for thankfulness whether we consider the greatness of the Benefit conferred upon us or the way and manner in which it was purchased or the easie and reasonable terms upon which it may be obtained 1st If we consider the greatness of the Benefit conferred upon us and that is Salvation eternal Salvation which comprehends in it all the Blessings and Benefits of the Gospel both the Means and the End our Happiness and the Way to it by saving us from our Sins from the guilt of them by our Justification in the Blood of Christ and from the Power and Dominion of them by the sanctifying grace and virtue of the Holy Ghost And it comprehends the End our Deliverance from Hell and the Wrath to come and the bestowing of Happiness upon us a great and lasting Happiness great as our Wishes and immortal as our Souls all this is comprehended in eternal Salvation 2dly If we consider the way and manner in which this great Benefit was purchased and procured for us in a way of infinite Kindness and Condescension in the lowest Humiliation and the unparallel'd Sufferings of the Son of God for never was there any sorrow like unto his sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce Anger in his taking upon him the form of a Servant and the person of a Sinner and his becoming obedient to death even the death of the Cross which was the Punishment of the vilest Slaves and the most hainous Malefactors The Son of God came down from Heaven from the highest pitch of Glory and Happiness into this lower World this Vale of Tears and sink of Sin and Sorrow and was contented himself to suffer to save us from eternal Ruin to be the most despicable and the most miserable Man that ever was that he might raise us to Glory and Honour and advance us to a state of the greatest Happiness that Humane Nature is capable of 3dly If we consider the easie and reasonable Terms upon which we may be made Partakers of this unspeakable Benefit and that is by a constant and sincere and universal Obedience to the Laws of God which supposeth Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as the Root and Principle of all the Virtues of a good Life that is by doing that which best becomes us and which is most agreeable to the original Frame of our Nature and to the dictates of our Reason and which setting aside the consideration of the Reward is really best for our present Benefit and Advantage our Comfort and Happiness even in this World for God in giving Laws to us hath imposed nothing upon us but what in all reason ought to have been our choice if he had not imposed it nothing but what is for our good and is in its own nature necessary to make us capable of that Happiness which he hath promised to us And what can be more gracious than to make one Benefit the Condition of a greater Than to promise to make us happy for ever if we will but do that which upon all accounts is really best and most for our Advantage in this present Life Thirdly Here is abundant Encouragement given to our Obedience we have the divine Assistance promised to us to enable us to the performance of the most difficult parts of our Duty we have the holy Spirit of God to help our Infirmities to excite us to that which is good and to help and strengthen us in the doing of it For our further Encouragement we are assured of the divine Acceptance in case of our sincere Obedience notwithstanding the manifold Failings and Imperfections of it for the sake of the perfect Righteousness and Obedience and the meritorious Sufferings of our blessed Saviour And tho' when we have done all that we can do
6. 5. those miraculous Powers which accompanied the first preaching of the Gospel are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Powers of the World to come that is of the Gospel Age. So that this last Age of the Gospel is that which the Scripture by way of Eminency calls the Age those that went before are constantly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ages in the plural number So we find Eph. 3. 9. the Gospel is call'd the dispensation of the Mystery that was hid in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Ages and you have the same Phrase Col. 1. 26. Upon the same account the expiration of the Jewish State is in Scripture called the last times and the last days Heb. 1. 2. But in these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son 1 Cor. 10. 11. These things are written for our Admonition upon whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ends of the Ages are come In the same Sense the Apostle Heb. 9. 26. speaking of Christ says that he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of the Ages to take away Sin that is at the Conclusion of the Ages which had gone before in the last Age. So that if we will be governed in the Interpretation of this Text by the constant use of this Phrase in Scripture the Letter of this Promise will extend to the end of the World 2. But however this be it is certain that the Reason of this Promise does extend to all those that should succeed the Apostles in their Ministry to the end of the World I will suppose now to give our Adversaries their utmost scope that which we have no reason to grant that the Letter of this Promise reacheth only to the Apostles and their Age and that our Saviour's meaning was no more but this that he would send down the holy Ghost upon them in miraculous Gifts to qualifie and inable them for the speedy planting and propagating of the Gospel in the World and that he would be with them 'till this Work was done Now supposing there were nothing more than this intended in the letter of it this ought not much to trouble us so long as it is certain that the Reason of it does extend to the Successors of the Apostles in all Ages of the World I do not mean that the Reason of this Promise does give us sufficient Assurance that God will assist the Teachers and Governours of his Church in all Ages in the same extraordinary manner as he did the Apostles because there is not the like reason and necessity for it but that we have sufficient Assurance from the Reason of this Promise that God will not be wanting to us in such fitting and necessary Assistance as the state of Religion and the welfare of it in every Age shall require For can we imagine that God would use such extraordinary means to plant a Religion in the World and take no care of it afterwards That he who had begun so good a Work so great and glorious a Design would let it fall to the ground for want of any thing that was necessary to the Support of it This is reasonable in it self but we are not also without good ground for thus extending the general reason of particular Promises beyond the Letter of them The Apostle hath gone before us in this for Heb. 13. 5 6. he there extends two particular Promises of the Old Testament to all Christians Let your Conversation says he be without Cove tousness and be content with such things as ye have For he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And again The Lord is my helper I will not fear what Man can do unto me These Promises were made to particulur Persons the first of them to Joshua and the other to David but yet the Apostle applies them to all Christians and to good Men in all Ages because the general Ground and Reason of them extended so far He who gave Joshua and David this encouragement to their Duty will certainly be as good to us if we do ours And thus I have done with the first Controverâ—ie about the Sense of these Words which concerns the Circumstance of time mentioned in this Promise always to the end of the World and have plainly shewn that both the Letter and the Reason of this Promise does extend further than the Persons of the Apostles and the continuance of that Age even to all that should succeed them in their Ministry to the end of the World I come now to consider Secondly The Substance of the Promise it self namely what is meant by our Saviour's being with them And here our Adversaries of the Church of Rome would fain perswade us that this Promise is made to the Church of Rome and that the meaning of it is that that Church should always be infallible and never err in the Faith But as there is no mention of the Church of Rome in this Promise nor any where else in Scripture upon the like Occasion whereby we might be directed to understand this Promise to be made to that Church so to any unprejudiced Person the plain and obvious Sense of this Promise can be no other than this that our Saviour having commissionated the Apostles to go and preach the Christian Religion in the World he promises to assist them in this work and those that should succeed them in it to the end of the World But how any Man can construe this Promise so as to make it signifie the perpetual Infallibility of the Roman Church I cannot for my life devise and yet this is one of the main Texts upon which they build that old and tottering Fabrick of their Infallibility Here is a general Promise of Assistance to the Pastors and Governours of the Church in all Ages to the end of the World but that this Assistance shall always be to the degree of Infallibility as it was to the Apostles can neither be concluded from the letter of this Promise nor from the Reason of it much less can it be from hence concluded that the Assistance here promised if it were to the degree of Infallibility is to be limited and confined to the supream Pastor and Governor of the Roman Church That the Assistance here promised shall always be to the degree of Infallibility can by no means be concluded from the Letter of this Promise Indeed there is no Pretence or Colour for it he must have a very peculiar Sagacity that can find out in these words I am with you always a promise of infallible Assistance Is not the Promise which God made to Joshua and which the Apostle to the Hebrews applies to all Christians and to all Good Men in all Ages I will never leave thee nor forsake thee the very same in sense with this I will be with you always and yet surely no Man did ever imagine that by virtue of this Promise every Christian and every
their Commission if they do sincerely endeavour to gain Men to the Belief and Practice of Christianity Christ hath promised to be with them The performance of this Condition doth primarily concern the chief Governours of the Church and next to them the Ministers of the Gospel in general that they would be diligent and faithful in their respective Stations teaching Men to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded And if we would make this our great Work to instruct our respective Charges in the necessary Doctrines of Faith and the indispensable Duties of a good Life we should have far less trouble with them about other matters And that we may do this Work effectually we must be serious in our Instructions and exemplary in our Lives Serious in our Instructions this certainly the Apostle requires in the highest degree when he chargeth Ministers so to speak as the Oracles of God to which nothing can be more contrary than to trifle with the Word of God and to speak of the weightiest matters in the World the great and everlasting Concernments of the Souls of Men in so slight and indecent a manner as is not only beneath the Gravity of the Pulpit but even of a well regulated Stage Can any thing be more unsuitable than to hear a Minister of God from this solemn place to break Jests upon Sin and to quibble upon the Vices of the Age This is to shoot without a Bullet and as if we had no mind to do Execution but only to make Men smile at the mention of their Faults this is so nauseous a Folly and of so pernicious consequence to Religion that hardly any thing too severe can be said of it And then if we would have our Instructions effectual we must be exemplary in our Lives Aristotle tells us that the manners of the Speaker have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most soveraign power of Perswasion And therefore Cato puts it into the definition of an Orator that he is vir bonus dicendi peritus a good Man and an eloquent Speaker This is true as to all kinds of Perswasion the good Opinion which Men have of the Speaker gives great weight to his Words and does strangely dispose the Minds of Men to entertain his Counsels But the Reputation of Goodness is more especially necessary and useful to those whose proper Work it is to perswade Men to be good and therefore the Apostle when he had charged Titus to put Men in mind of their Duty he immediately adds in all things shewing thy self a Patern of good Works None so fit to teach others their Duty and none so likely to gain Men to it as those who practise it themselves because hereby we convince Men that we are in earnest when they see that we perswade them to nothing but what we chuse to do our selves This is the way to stop the Mouths of Men and to confute their Malice by an exemplary piety and Virtue So St. Peter tells us 1 Pet. 2. 15. For so is the will of God that by well doing ye put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. SERMON IX The Difficulties of a Christian Life consider'd LUKE XIII 24. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able THERE are two great Mistakes about the Nature of Religion equally false and equally pernicious to the Souls of Men and the Devil whose great design it is to keep Men off from Religion by any Means makes use of both these Mistakes to serve his own Purpose and Design upon the several Tempers of Men. Those who are melancholy and serious he disheartens and discourageth from attempting it by the extream trouble and difficulty of it representing it in so horrid and frightful a Shape encumber'd with such Difficulties and attended with such Troubles and Sufferings as are insuperable and intolerable to Human Nature whereby he perswades Men that they had better never attempt it since they may despair to go through with it On the other hand those who are sanguine and full of hopes he possesses with a quite contrary Apprehension that the business of Religion is so short and easie a Work that it may be done at any time and if need be at the last Moment of our Lives tho' it is not so well to put it upon the last hazard and by this means a great part of Mankind are lull'd in security and adjourn the business of Religion from time to time and because it is so easie and so much in their Power they satisfie themselves with an indeterminate Resolution to set about that business some time or other before they die and so to repent and make their Peace with God once for all These Pretences contradict one another and therefore cannot be both true but they may both be false as indeed they are and Truth lies between them Religion being neither so slight and easie a Work as some would have it nor so extreamly difficult and intolerable as others would represent it To confute the false apprehensions which some have of the easiness of it our Saviour tells us there must be some striving and to satisfie us that the difficulties of Religion are not so great and insuperable as some would make them our Saviour tells us that those who strive shall succeed and enter in but those who only seek that is do not vigorously set about the business of Religion but only make some faint Attempts to get to Heaven shall not be able to enter in Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in but shall not be able The occasion of which words of our Blessed Saviour was a Question that was put to him by one of his Disciples concerning the number of those that should be Saved v. 23. One said unto him Lord are there few that be Saved To which curious Question our Saviour according to his manner when such kind of Questions were put to him does not give a direct Answer because it was neither Necessary nor Useful for his Hearers to be Resolved in it it did not concern them to know what Number of Persons should be Saved but what course they should take that they might be of that Number and therefore instead of satisfying their Curiosities he puts them upon their Duty admonishing them instead of concerning themselves what should become of others to take care of themselves And he said unto them Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able He does not say that but few shall be saved as some have presumptuously ventur'd to determine but only few in comparison of those many that shall seek to enter in and shall not be able In these Words we may consider these Two Things First The Duty enjoined Strive to enter in at the strait gate Secondly The Reason or
to persevere in a Holy Course and to bear up against the Opposition of the World and to withstand its Temptations to be harmless and blameless in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation not to be infected with the eminent and frequent Examples of Vice and carryed down with the stream of a corrupt and degenerare Age. So that tho' our Difficulties be not always the same and equal to those which the Primitive Christians encountred yet there is enough to exercise our best Resolution and Care tho' the main Body of the Enemies of Christianity be broken and the Sons of Anak be destroyed out of the Land yet some of the old Inhabitants are still left to be Thorns in our Sides and Pricks in our Eyes that true Religion may always have something to exercise its Force and Vigour upon I have done with the first Point the Difficulties of a Christian Course I proceed to the Second The earnest Endeavour that is to be used on our Part for the conquering of these Difficulties And to the business of Religion if we will set upon it in good earnest these three things are required 1st A mighty Resolution to engage us in a Holy and Christian Course 2dly Great Diligence and Industry to carry us on in it 3dly An invincible Constancy to carry us through it and make us persevere in it to the end 1st A mighty Resolution to engage us in a Holy and Good Course For want of this most Men miscarry and stumble at the very Threshold and never get through the strait Gate never master the Difficulties of the first Entrance Many are well disposed toward Religion and have fits of good Inclination that way especially in their young and tender Years but they want firmness of Resolution to conquer the Difficulties of the first entrance upon a religious and virtuous Life like the young Man that came to our Saviour well inclined to do some good thing that be might inherit eternal Life but when it came to the point he gave back he was divided betwixt Christ and the World and had not Resolution enough to part with all for him Many Men I doubt not have frequent Thoughts and Deliberations about a better Course of Life and are in a good Mind to take up and break off that lewd and riotous Course they are in but they cannot bring themselves to a fixt Purpose and Resolution and yet without this nothing is to be done the double minded Man is unstable in all his ways There must be no Indifferency and Irresoluteness in our Minds if we will be Christians we must not stop at the Gate but resolve to press in We see that Men can take up peremptory Resolutions in other matters to be rich and great in the World and they can be true and stedfast to these Resolutions and why should not Men resolve to be Wise and Happy and stand to these Resolutions and make them good God is more ready to assist and strengthen these kind of resolutions than any other and I am sure no man hath so much reason to resolve upon any thing as to live a Holy and Virtuous Life no other resolution can do a man that good and bring him that comfort and happiness that this will 2dly The business of Religion as it requires a mighty Resolution to engage us in a holy and good course so likewise a great Diligence to carry us on in it When we are got through the strait gate we must account to meet with many difficulties in our way there are in the course of a Christian's Life many Duties to be performed which require great pains and care many Temptations to be resisted which will keep us continually upon our guard a great part of the Way is up Hill and not to be climb'd without Labour and the Scripture frequently calls upon us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that is with great Care and Industry to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure to follow Holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pursue it with great earnestness Nothing of this World that is of value is to be had upon other terms and we have low thoughts of Heaven if we think any pains too much to get thither 3dly The business of Religion requires an invincible Constancy to carry us through it and to make us persevere in it to the End Resolution may make a good entrance but it requires great Constancy and Firmness of Mind to hold out in a good Course A good Resolution may be taken up upon a present heat and may cool again but nothing but a constant and steady temper of Mind will make a man persevere and yet without this no Man shall ever reach Heaven He that continueth to the end shall be saved but if any Man draw back God's Soul will have no pleasure in him God puts this Case by the Prophet and determines it Ezekiel 18. 24. When the righteous Man turneth away from his Righteousness shall he live all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them he shall die nay so far will his Righteousness be from availing him if he do not persevere in it that it will render his Condition much worse to have gone so far towards Heaven and at last to turn his Back upon it So St. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. For if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them I proceed to the Third Point namely That the Difficulties of a Holy and a Christian Life are not so great and insuperable as to be a just ground of discouragement to our Endeavours All that I have said concerning the Difficulties of Religion was with no design to damp but rather to quicken our Industry for upon the whole matter when all things are duly considered it will appear that Christ's yoke is easie and his burthen light that the Commandments of God are not grievous no not this Commandment of striving to enter in at the strait gate which I shall endeavour to make manifest by taking these Four things into consideration 1. The Assistance which the Gospel offers to us God hath there promised to give his holy Spirit to them that ask him and by the assistance of God's Holy Spirit we may be able to conquer all those difficulties Indeed if we were left to our selves to the impotency and weakness of our own Nature we should never be able to cope with these Difficulties every Temptation would be too hard for us every little Opposition would discourage us
but God is with us and there is nothing too hard for him If the Principles of a Holy Life were only the Birth of our own Resolution they would easily be born down but they are from God of a Heavenly Birth and Original and whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World John 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the priviledge to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God God considers the Impotency of Humane Nature in this deprav'd and degenerate state into which we are sunk and therefore he hath not left us to our selves but when he commands us to work out our own Salvation he tells us for our Encouragement that he himself works in us both to will and to do he does not bid us to be strong in our own strength for he knows we have no strength of our own but to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and what may not even a weak Creature do that is so powerfully assisted If we will but make use of this strength nothing can be too hard for us All that God expects from us is That we should comply with the motions of his Spirit and be as sincere in the Use of our own endeavours as he is in the offers of his Grace and assistance 2. Let us consider That the greatest Difficulties are at first 't is but making one manful Onset and sustaining the first Brunt and the Difficulties will abate and grow less and our strength will every day increase and grow more The Gate is strait but when we have once got through it our feet will be set in an open place After some strugling to get through we shall every day find our selves at more Ease and Liberty It will be very hard at first to master our vicious Inclinations to change the habit of our Minds and the course of our Lives and to act contrary to what we have been long accustomed but this Trouble lasts but for a little while these Pangs of the New-Birth tho' they be sharp yet they are not usually of long continuance It does indeed require great Resolution and firmness of Mind to Encounter the first Difficulties of Religion but if we can but stand it out for one brunt our Enemy will give way and the pleasure of Victory will tempt us on It is troublesome to conflict with great Difficulties and Men are loth to be brought to it but when we are engaged it is one of the greatest pleasures in the World to prevail and Conquer Many Men are loth to go to War but after a little Success they are as loth to give over that which was a terrour to them at first turns into a pleasure 3. Consider that Custom will make any course of life tolerable and most things easie Religion and the practice of a Holy Life is difficult at first but after we are once habituated to it the trouble will wear off by degrees and that which was grievous will become easie nay by degrees much more pleasant than ever the contrary practice was We see the daily experience of this in the most difficult and laborious Employments of this World a little pains tires a Man at first but when he is once seasoned and enured to Labour Idleness becomes more tedious and troublesome to him than the hardest work Custom will make any thing easie tho' it be a little unnatural Nothing is more unnatural than Sin 't is not according to our Original Nature and Frame but it is the Corruption and Depravation of it a second Nature superinduced upon us by Custom whereas the practice of Holiness and Virtue is agreeable to our Original and Primitive State and Sin and Vice are the perverting of Nature contrary to our Reason and the design of our Beings and to all Obligations of Duty and Interest But by returning to God and our Duty we return to our Primitive State we act naturally and according to the intention of our Beings and when the force of a contrary Custom is taken off and the Byass clapt on the other side we shall run the ways of God's Commandments with more delight and satisfaction than ever we found in the Ways of Sin For Sin is a violence upon our Natures and that is always uneasie yet it is made more tolerable by Custom but Religion restores Men to their natural State and then we are at ease and rest Religion is at first a yoke and burthen but unless we take this upon us we shall never find rest to our Souls 4thly and lastly consider the Reward that Religion propounds and this must needs sweeten and mitigate all the Troubles and Difficulties that are occasioned by it This strait gate through which we must enter and this craggy way which we are to climb up leads to life and he is a lazy man indeed that will not strive and struggle for Life All that a man can do he will do for his Life for this miserable Life which is so short and uncertain and born to trouble as the sparks fly upward a Life not worth the having nor worth the keeping with any great care and trouble if it were not in order to a better and happier life But 't is not this life which our Saviour means that indeed were not worth all this striving for 'T is Eternal Life a State of Perfect and endless Happiness of joys unspeakable and full of glory And who would not not strive to enter in at that gate which leads to so much Felicity Can a Man possibly take too much pains be at too much trouble for a few Days to be happy for ever So often as I consider what incredible Industry Men use for the Things of this Life and to get a small Portion of this World I am ready to conclude That either Men do not Believe the Rewards of another World or that they do not understand them else they could not think much to be at the same pains for Heaven that they can chearfully bestow for the obtaining of these Corruptible things Can we be so unconscionable as to think God unreasonable when he offers Heaven and Everlasting Happiness to us upon as easie Terms as any thing in this World is ordinarily to be had And are not we very foolish and unwise to put away Eternal Life from us when we may have it upon Terms so infinitely below the true worth and value of it I have now done with the Three Things which I propounded to speak to from the first part of these Words which are so many Arguments to enforce the Exhortation here in the Text to strive to enter in at the strait gate and to give all Diligence by the course of a Holy and Virtuous life to get to Heaven and we may assure our selves
that nothing less than this will bring us thither So our Saviour tells us in the latter part of the Text that many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able I proceed now to the Second part of the Text the Reason or Argument whereby this Exhortation is enforced Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Every seeking to enter in will not gain our admission into Heaven therefore there must be striving For Men may do many things in Religion and make several faint Attempts to get to Heaven and yet at last fall short of it for want of that earnest Contention and Endeavour which is necessary to the attaining of it We must make Religion our business and set about it with all our might and persevere and hold out in it if ever we hope to be admitted to Heaven for many shall seek to enter that shall be shut out Now what this seeking is which is here opposed to striving to enter in at the strait gate our Saviour declares after the Text v. 25. When once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and knock at the door saying Lord Lord open unto us and he shall answer and say unto you I know you not whence ye are Then shall ye begin to say we have eaten and drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our streets but he shall say I tell you I know you not whence ye are depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity St. Matth. mentions some other Pretences which they should make upon which they should lay claim to Heaven Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say unto me in that Day Lord Lord have we not Prophesyed in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity After all their seeking to enter in and notwithstanding all these Pretences they shall be shut out and be for ever banisht from the Presence of God This shall be their doom which will be much the heavier because of the disappointment of their confident expectation and hope So St. Luke tells us v. 28. There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and ye your selves thrust out And they shall come from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God To which St. Matthew adds Chap. 8. v. 12. But the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And then our Saviour concludes Luke 13. 30. Behold there are last that shall be first and first which shall be last From all which it appears with what Confidence many Men upon these false Pretences which our Saviour calls seeking to enter in shall lay claim to Heaven and how strangely they shall be disappointed of their expectation and hope when they shall find themselves cast out of Heaven who they thought had out-done all others in Religion and were the only Members of the true Church and the Children and Heirs of the Kingdom and shall see others whom they thought to be out of the Pale of the true Church and excluded from all terms of Salvation come from all Quarters and find free Admission into Heaven and shall find themselves so grosly and widely mistaken that those very Persons whom they thought to be last and of all others farthest from Salvation shall be first and they themselves whom they took for the Children of the Kingdom and such as should be admitted into Heaven in the first place shall be rejected and cast out So that by seeking to enter we may understand all those things which Men may do in Religion upon which they shall pretend to lay claim to Heaven nay and confidently hope to obtain it and yet shall be shamefully disappointed and fall short of it Whatever Men think and believe and do in Religion what Priviledges soever Men pretend what Ways and Means soever Men endeavour to appease the Deity and to recommend themselves to the Divine Favour and Acceptance all this is but seeking to enter in and is not that striving which our Saviour requires If Men do not do the will of God but are workers of Iniquity it will all signifie nothing to the obtaining of Eternal Happiness Our Saviour here instanceth in Mens Profession of his Religion calling him Lord Lord in their personal Familiarity and Conversation with him by eating and drinking in his Presence and Company in their having heard him preach the Doctrine of Life and Salvation thou hast taught in our streets in their having prophesied and wrought great Miracles in his Name and by his Power Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works These were great and glorious Things which they boasted of and yet nothing of all this will do if Men do not the Will of God notwithstanding all this he will say unto them I know ye not whence ye are depart from me ye workers of Iniquity And by a plain Parity of Reason whatever else Men do in Religion what Attempts soever Men may make to get to Heaven upon what Priviledges or Pretences soever they may lay claim to eternal Life they will certainly fall short of it if they do not do the will of God but are workers of Iniquity My business therefore at this time shall be to discover the several false Claims and Pretences which Men may make to Heaven and yet shall never enter into it And to this purpose I shall instance in several Particulars by one or more of which Men commonly delude themselves and are apt to entertain vain and ill-grounded hopes of eternal Salvation 1st Some trust to the external Profession of the true Religion 2dly Others have attained to a good degree of Knowledge in Religion and they rely much upon that 3dly There are others that find themselves much affected with the Word of God and the Doctrines contained in it 4thly Others are very strict and devout in the external Worship of God 5thly Others confide much in their being Members of the only true Church in which alone Salvation is to be had and in the manifold Priviledges and Advantages which therein they have above others of getting to Heaven 6thly Others think their great Zeal for God and his true Religion will certainly save them 7thly Others go a great way in the real Practice of Religion 8thly Others rely much upon
and yet some of the worst of Men have been very eminent for this The Pharisees were the most exact People in the World in matter of external Ceremony and Devotion and yet for all this our Saviour plainly tells them that they were farther from the Kingdom of God than those who seemed to be farthest than Publicans and Harlots and that because they were so very bad under so great a pretence of Devotion therefore they should receive the greater Damnation Not but that External Devotion is a necessary expression of Religion and highly acceptable to God when it proceeds from a pious and devout Mind and when Men are really such in their Hearts and Lives as their external Devotion represents them to be But when the outward Garb of Religion is only made a Cloak for Sin and Wickedness when there is nothing within to answer all the Shew that we see without nothing is more odious and abominable to God These are mere Engins and Puppits in Religion all the Motions we see without proceed from an artificial Contrivance and not from any inward Principle of Life and as no Creature is more ridiculous than an Ape because the Beast makes some pretence to human Shape so nothing is more fulsome than this hypocritical Devotion because it looks like Religion but is the farthest from it of any thing in the World 5thly Others confide very much in their being Members of the only true Church in which alone Salvation is to be had and in the manifold Priviledges and Advantages which they have thereby above others of getting to Heaven Thus the Jews confined Salvation to themselves and looked upon all the rest of the World as excluded from it And not only so but they believed that by one means or other every Israelite should be saved So that they were the Jewish Catholick Church out of which there was no hope of Salvation for any The same Pretence is made by some Christians at this day who engross Salvation to themselves and will allow none to go to Heaven out of the Communion of their Church and have so ordered the matter that hardly any that are in it can miscarry They are Members of an infallible Church which cannot possibly err in Matters of Faith they have not only eat and drunk in Christ's presence but have eat and drunk his very Corporal Presence the natural Substance of his Flesh and Blood they have not only our blessed Saviour but innumerable other Intercessors in Heaven they have not only their own Merits to plead for them but in case they be defective they may have the Merits of others assigned and made over to them out of the infinite Stock and Treasure of the Church upon which they may challenge Eternal Life as of right and due belonging to them and by a due course of Confession and Absolution may quit scores with God for all their Sins from time to time Or if they have neglected all this they may after the most flagitious course of Life upon Attrition that is upon some Trouble for Sin out of fear of Hell and Damnation joyned with Confession and Absolution get to Heaven at last provided the Priest mean honestly and do not for want of Intention deprive them of the saving Benefit and Effect of this Sacrament But is it possible Men can be deluded at this Rate as to think that Confidence of their own good Condition and want of Charity to others will carry them to Heaven That any Church hath the Priviledge to save impenitent Sinners And they are really impenitent who do not exercise such a Repentance as the Gospel plainly requires and if Men die in this state whatever Church they are of the great Judge of the World hath told us that he will not know them but will bid them to depart from him because they have been Workers of Iniquity 6thly Others think that their Zeal for God and his true Religion will certainly save them But Zeal if it be not according to Knowledge if it be mistaken in its Object or be irregular and excessive in the degree is so far from being a Virtue that it may be a great Sin and Fault and tho' it be for the Truth yet if it be destitute of Charity and separated from the Virtues of a good Life it will not avail us So St. Paul tells us that tho' a Man should give his Body to be burnt yet if he have not Charity it is nothing 7thly Others go a great way in the real Practice of Religion and this sure willdo the business And it is very true and certain in experience that Religion may have a considerable Awe and Influence upon Men's Hearts and Lives and yet they may fall short of Happiness Men may in many considerable Instances perform their Duty to God and Man and yet the retaining of one Lust the practice of any one known Sin may hinder them from entring in at the strait Gate Herod did not only hear John gladly but did many things in Obedience to his Doctrine and yet he was a very bad Man The Pharisee thanked God and it may be truly that he was not like other Men an extortioner or unjust or an adulterer and yet the penitent Publican was justified before him The young Man who came to our Saviour to know what he should do to enter into Life and of whom our Saviour testifies that he was not far from the Kingdom of God and that he wanted but one thing yet for want of that he miscarried And St. James assures us that if a Man keep the whole Law and yet fail in one point he is guilty of all If we be workers of Iniquity in any one kind Christ will disown us and bid us depart from him 8thly Others rely upon the Sincerity of their Repentance and Conversion whereby they are put into a state of Grace from whence they can never finally fall They did once very heartily repent of their wicked Lives and did change their Course and were really reformed and continued a great while in that good Course And all this may be certainly true but it is as certain that they are relapsed into their former evil Course And if so the Prophet hath told us their Doom that if the righteous Man forsake his Righteousness his Righteousness shall not be remembred but in the Sin that he hath sinned in that shall he die So that a Righteous Man may turn from his Righteousress and commit Iniquity and dye in it For the Prophet doth not here as some vainly pretend put a case which is impossible in Fact should happen unless they will say that the other Case which he puts together with it of the wicked Mans turning away from his wickedness and doing that which is lawful and right is likewise impossible which God forbid And that Men may fall from a state of Grace is no matter of Discouragement to good Men but a good caution against Security and an Argument
our selves towards one another in the greatest Differences of Religion None sure can be at greater distance than Abraham in Paradise and the Rich Man in Hell and yet our Saviour would not represent them as at terms of Defiance with one another One might have expected that Abraham should have reviled this poor Wretch and disdain'd to have spoken to him But this is not the Temper of Heaven nor ought it to be of good Men upon Earth even towards the worst of Men. How does this condemn our Rudeness and Impatience with one another in our religious Differences We think no Terms bad enough to use towards one another and yet one of the most famous Disputes that we find mentioned in Scripture and that between the most opposite Parties that can be imagined was managed after another Fashion I mean that recorded by St. Jude between Michael the Arch-Angel and the Devil v. 9. Yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring a railing Accusation he durst not allow himself this no not in the heat of Dispute when Persons are most apt to fly out into Passion because it was indecent and would have been displeasing to God this I believe is the true reason why it is said he durst not bring a railing Accusation And yet I may add another which is not improper for our Consideration I am sure it hath a good Moral the Devil would have been too hard for him at railing he was better skill'd at that Weapon and more expert at that kind of Dispute Which Consideration may be a good Argument to us against reviling any Man If we revile the good we are unjust because they deserve it not if we revile the bad we are unwise because we shall get nothing by it I could almost envy the Character which was given of one of the Romans Nescivit quid esset malè dicere he knew not what it was to give bad Language I proceeed Son remember that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things Thy good things those which thou didst value and esteem so highly and didst place thy chief Happiness in as if there had been no other good to be sought after Thy good things and indeed so he used them as if he had been the sole Lord and Proprietor of them and they had not been committed to him as a Steward to be dispensed for his Master's use for the cloathing of the naked and the feeding of the hungry and the relieving of those in distress Ver. 27 28. Then he said I pray thee therefore Father that thou wouldest send him to my Father's house For I have five Brethren that he may testifie unto them lest they also come into this place of Torment Here the Rich Man tho' in Hell is represented as retaining some tenderness for his Relations as solicitous lest they should be involved in the same Misery with himself The last piece of that which commonly remains in Men is natural Affection which is not so much a Virtue as a natural Principle and is common to many brute Beasts When a Man puts off this we may give him up for lost to all manner of Goodness To be without natural Affection is the worst Character can be given of a Man Our Saviour represents this Rich Man in Hell as not so totally degenerate as to be quite destitute of this I think some attribute this Motion of the Rich Man concerning his Brethren to another Cause as if he had desired it not out of kindness to them but out of regard to himself as being afraid that if his Brethren who probably were corrupted by his Example had perisht by that means it would have been an Aggravation of his Torments But this Conjecture is too subtile and without any good ground for every Man carries his Burthen of Guilt with him out of this World and it is not increased by any Consequence of our Actions here For the Crime of a bad Example is the same whether Men follow it or not because he that gives bad Example to others does what in him lies to draw them into Sin and if they do not follow it that is no mitigation of his Fault I have but one Observation more and that is from the mention of his Brethren as his nearest Relations which is a great Aggravation of the Rich-Man's Uncharitableness because he is represented as having no Children to take care for and yet he would not consider the Poor And thus I have as briefly as I could endeavour'd to explain this Parable and have made such Observations from the Circumstances of it as may be useful for Instruction But as I premised at first I will not warrant all these Observations to be certainly intended by our Saviour I know very well that every Circumstance of a Parable is not to be prest too far the Moral Accommodation does chiefly belong to the main Scope of it and many Circumstances are only brought in to fill up the Parable and to make handsomer way for that which is most material and principally intended But so long as the Observations are true and useful and have a fair Colour and Occasion from the Circumstances it is well enough to be sure there is no harm done I proceed to the second sort of Observations namely such as are drawn from the main scope and intent of the Parable which I promised to speak more largely to and they are Six which I shall handle in order First I observe that Uncharitableness and Unmercifulness to the Poor is a great and damning Sin We find no other fault imputed to the Rich Man but this that he took no care out of his Superfluity and Abundance to relieve this poor Man that lay at his Gate He is not charged for want of Justice but of Charity not for having got a great Estate by Fraud or Oppression but that in the midst of this Abundance he had no Consideration and Pity for those that were in want I shall endeavour to make out this Observation by the parts of it 1st That Unmercifulness and Uncharitableness to the Poor is a great Sin 2dly Such a Sin as alone and without any other guilt is sufficient to ruin a Man for ever I shall speak to these severally 1st That Unmercifulness and Uncharitableness to the Poor is a very great Sin It contains in its very Nature two black Crimes Inhumanity and Impiety 1. Inhumanity it is an Argrment of a cruel and savage Disposition not to pity those that are in Want and Misery And he doth not truly pity the Miseries of others that doth not relieve them when he hath Ability and Oportunity in his Hands Tenderness and Compassion for the Sufferings of others is a Virtue so proper to our Nature that it is therefore call'd Humanity as if it were essential to Human Nature and as if without this we did not deserve the Name of Men. To see a Man like
Salvation of his Soul and the increase of his Glory and Happiness in another World as the Actions of a worldly Man and the whole Course of his Life do to the advancing of his worldly Interests The covetous or ambitious Man seldom do any thing to the best of their knowledge that is impertinent to their End much less contrary to it through every thing that they do one may plainly see the End they aim at and that they are always true to it Whereas the best Men do many things which are plainly cross and contrary to their End and a great many more which have no relatioin to it and when they mind it it is rather by fits and starts than in any even course and tenor of Actions And of this we have a famous instance in that worldly and secular Church which now for several hundreds of Years hath more steadily pursued the End of secular Greatness and Dominion than any other Church hath done the Ends of true Religion the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Souls of Men so that there is hardly any Doctrine or Practice peculiar to that Church and differing from our common Christianity but it hath a direct and visible tendency to the promoting of some worldly Interest or other For instance Why do they deny the People the Holy Scriptures and the Service of God in a language which they can understand but that by keeping them in Ignorance they may have them in more perfect Slavery and Subjection to them Why do they forbid their Priests to marry but that they may have no Interest distinct from that of their Church and leave all to it when they die To what end is Auricular Confession but to keep People in awe by the knowledge of their Secrets Why must the Laity only receive the Sacrament in one kind but to draw a greater Reverence to the Priest whose Priviledge it shall be to receive in both And why is the Intention of the Priest necessary to the efficacy of the Sacraments but to perswade the People that notwithstanding the gracious Intention of God toward Mankind they cannot be saved without the good will of the Priest The Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences are a plain device to make their Markets of the Sins and Souls of Men. I might instance in a hundred things more in that Church which are of the same tendency This St. John foretold should be the Character of the Spirit of Antichrist that it should be a worldly Spirit and the Doctrines of it should serve a Secular Interest and Design 1 John 4. 5. They are of the World and they speak from the World and the World hears them What Church is there in the World so true throughout to the interest of Religion as this worldly Church hath been to its own Secular Power and Greatness 2dly The Children of this world are wiser in the choice of Means in order to their End and this is a great part of Wisdom For some Means will bring about an End with less pains and difficulty and expence of Time than others And the Men of the World are very ingenious in discerning the fitness and force of Means to their several Ends. To what a certainty have Men reduced all the ways and arts of Gain and growing rich and of rising to Honour and Preferment What long Trains will Men lay to bring about their desired End What subtil methods have Men divised to insinuate themselves into Court and when they are there to plant themselves in the Eye of their Prince and in the Sunshine of his Favor and then they have as many ways of worming others out as of screwing themselves in But in the Concernments of our souls and the Affairs of another World how dull and injudicious are we and how awkardly and untowardly do we apply Means to Ends as if Men were only wise to do evil but to do good had no understanding as the Prophet complains By what incongruous and irregular Means do many who would seem to be and sometimes perhaps are very zealous in Religion endeavour as they think to promote God's Glory by pious Frauds and counterfeit Miracles and telling officious Lies for God What a compass do many Men fetch to go to Heaven by innumerable devices of will-Worship by voluntary Severities neither pleasing to God nor profitable to Men By tedious Pilgrimages and senseless Ceremonies and innumerable little external Observances of no Virtue and Efficacy in Religion and by wandring through a wilderness of Opinions and the bushes and brakes of unprofitable Questions and Controversies Whereas the way to Heaven lies plain and straight before us consisting in Simplicity of Belief and in Holiness and Innocency of Life Not but that there are great differences in the Church of Rome between the Secular Priests and and the Regular betwen the Jansenists and the Jesuits but they still unite in a common Interest and are subject to Antichrist their common Head They do not separate from one another and excommunicate one another and declare against one another that they are not of the true Church Satan never casts out Satan and tho' he love Divisions among Christians yet he always takes care that his own Kingdom be not divided against it self so as to endanger the Ruin of it And whenever they have any hopeful design for the extirpation of Protestants they can lay aside their Enmities and be reconciled in such a design Then the Pope and the Kings of the Earth take counsel together and like Herod and Pilate when Christ was to be crucified can be made Friends at a days warning Whereas the Divisions of the true Church are pernicious to it and as we see at this Day among our selves our senseless Differences and wild Heats on both sides do contribute to the setting up of Popery and the ruin of the Reformed Religion and yet no Perswasion no Experience can make us wiser 3dly The Children of this world are commonly more diligent in the Use of Means for the obtaining of their End they will sweat and toil and take any Pains rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of Carefulness their thoughts are continually running upon their Business and they catch at every Oportunity of promoting it they will pinch Nature and harass it and rob themselves of their Rest and all the Comfort of their Lives to raise their Fortune and Estate What Drudges were Caesar and Alexander in the way of Fame and Ambition How did they tire themselves and others with long and tedious Marches To what Inconveniences and Dangers did they expose themselves and Thousands more What Havock and Destruction did they make in the World that they might gain to themselves the empty Title of Conquerors of it When the Men of the World engage in any Design how intent are they upon it and with what vigour do they prosecute it They do not counterfeit a Diligence and seen to be more serious and
industrious than in truth they are they are rather Hypocrites the other way and would conceal their Covetousness and Ambition and not seem to aspire after Riches and Honours so much as indeed they do But in the pursuit of better things how cold and remiss are we With what a careless indifference do most Men mind their Souls How negligent and formal and many times Hypocritical are they in the Service of God and the Exercise of Religion With what a pitiful Courage and with what faint Spirits do they resist Sin and encounter the Temptations of it and how often and how easily are they foil'd and baffl'd by them 4thly The Men of the World are more invincibly constant and pertinacious in the pursuit of Earthly things they are not to be birbed or taken off by favour or fair Words not to be daunted by Difficulties or dasht out of Countenance by the Frowns and Reproaches of Men. Offer an Ambitious Man any thing short of his End and Aim to take him off from the prosecution of it he scorns the motion and thinks you go about to fool him out of his Interest Bait a Covetous Man with Temptations of Pleasure to get his Money from him how generously will this mean spirited Man trample upon Pleasure when it would tempt him from his Design of being rich Difficulties do not daunt them but whet their Courage and quicken their Endeavours and set a keener edge upon their Spirits Give an Ambitious Man almost a demonstration of the impossibility of his attempt contrà audentior ibit he will go on so much the more boldly and resolutely In the ways of Religion Men are apt to be discouraged and put out of Countenance by Contempt and Reproach but a Covetous Man is not to be jeer'd and flurted out of his Money and Estate he can be content to be Rich and give leave to those that are not so to laugh at him Populus mihi sibilat at mihi plaudo The Rich Worldling can hug himself and his Bags when the World hisseth at him he can bear to be hated and persecuted and have all manner of Evil spoke against him for Money sake And in the pursuit of these Designs Men will with great Resolution encounter Enmity and Opposition and endure great Sufferings and Persecution How many have been Martyrs to their Lusts and have Sacrificed their Ease and Health and even their Lives in the prosecution of their Ambitious and Covetous and Voluptuous Designs But on the other hand how easily are Men check'd and diverted from a good Course by the Temptations and Advantages of this World How many are cold in their Zeal for Religion by the Favour and Friendship of this World And as their Goods and Estate have grown greater their Devotion hath grown less How apt are they to be terrified at the apprehension of Danger and Sufferings and by their fearful Imagination to make them greater than they are and with the People of Israel to be dishearten'd from all further Attemps of entring into the land of promise because it is full of Giants and the Sons of Anak How easily was Peter frighted into the denyal of his Master And when our Saviour was apprehended how did his Disciples forsake him and flie from him And tho' they were constant afterwards to the Death yet it was a great while before they were perfectly armed and steel'd against the fear of Suffering 5thly The men of the World will make all things stoop and submit to that which is their great End and Design their End rules them and governs them and gives Law to all their Actions they will make an Advantage of every thing and if it will not serve their End one way or other they will have nothing to do with it If an ambitious Man seek Wealth it is but in order to his Design to purchase Friends and strengthen his Interest and make his rising the easier he will lay his whole Estate at the stake rather than miss of his End The covetous Man will quit his Pleasure when it lies cross to his Interest if he have any expensive Lust and chargeable Vice he will turn it off or exchange it for some more frugal and profitable Sin But in the affairs of Religion and the concernments of our Souls how frequently do Men act without a due Regard and consideration of their great End and instead of making other things submit to it they often bow and bend it to their inferiour Interests They make Heaven stoop to Earth and Religion to serve a worldly Design and the glory of God to give way to gain and the great Concernments of their Souls and their eternal Salvation to their Temporal Profit and Advantage The Men of the World are generally true to their great End and pay it that Respect which is due to it and will suffer nothing to take place of it in their Esteem and Affection and if Men were as wise for their Souls and for another World they would bring all things to their great End and make all the Concernments of this Temporal Life to yield and give way to the great Concernments of their Eternal Happiness I proceed in the Second Place to give some Account of this whence it comes to pass that the Children of this World are wiser in their generation than the Children of Light And this I shall do by considering what Advantages the Children of this World have as to the Affairs of this World above what good Men have as to the Concernments of another World I shall instance in four or five of the chief 1st The Things of this World are present and sensible and because of their nearness to us are apt to strike powerfully upon our Senses and to affect us mightily to excite our Desires after them and to work strongly upon our Hopes and Fears but the things of another World being remote from us are lessen'd by their distance and consequently are not apt to work so powerfully upon our Minds they are invisible to us and only discerned by Faith which is a more obscure and less certain Perception of things than we have of those Objects which are presented to our bodily Eyes The things which God hath prepared for them that love him the Glory and Happiness of the next World are things which Eye hath not seen nor ear heard The Children of Light do not see God as the Children of this World see Mammon 2dly The sensual Delights and Enjoyments of this World are better suited and more agreable to the corrupt and degenerate Nature of Men than Spiritual and heavenly things are to those that are regenerate In this lapsed and degenerate state of Mankind Appetite and Sense are apt to prevail above Reason and therefore those things which are most delightful to Sense we savour and mind and love to busie our selves about them because they are most suitable to the animal life which is the governing Principle of corrupt Nature And the