are made it should be at their Peril if they transgressed them supposing Magistrates did their Duty And all this we say is very consistent with that Tenderness and Charity that all Christians and even Magistrates themselves in their private Capacity do owe to mis-perswaded erroneous Consciciences And then Secondly it is to be remembred that that Kindness and Tenderness to mistaken Zealots which we are speaking of from the Text is not to be expressed to all alike but to some more to some less to some perhaps in no degree at all according as the nature and quality of their Errors are and according as the Men that are guilty of them may more or less or not at all be thought to have a real Zeal of God and to act out of Principles of Conscience Thus for instance In the First place Those that set up for Patrons of Atheism or Epicurism that make it their business in their Conversation to expose all Religion and to bring it into contempt that ridicule the Professors of it as a company of easie credulous Men that make no Conscience of blaspheming God and all things Sacred as occasion is given them Why these Men may have Zeal enough for their Opinions and we find that they often have a great deal too much But are such to be treated with that sort of Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of No by no means For they are quite out of the bounds of my Text They have a Zeal indeed but it is not a Zeal for God but for the Devil and the Interests of his Kingdom And if one were to measure the greatness of Crimes by the mischief they do to humane Society I should think that this sort of People were not to expect so much favour and respect from Mankind as some other Malefactors that yet by our Laws are to pay for their offences at no less a rate than their Lives Again Secondly If there be any Men that under a pretence of Religion do teach or encourage or promote any sort of Vice or Immorality or whose Principles do necessarily lead to debauch Mens Manners in the plain matters of Sobriety Chastity Truth or Justice and the like such kind of People are by no means Objects of that Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of For the Laws of Nature as to moral Virtue and Vice are so plainly writ in every Man's heart that he must be supposed to be an Ill Man that can easily entertain any Principle let it come never so much recommended under the Name of Religion that contradicts them And whatever allowance may in charity be made for a Man's mistakes there is no reason that much should be made for his Wickedness Again Thirdly If there be any Men that whilst they express a great Zeal for the Purity of Religion and exclaim against the Corruptions of it as they term them which are introduced into the Publick Establishment and turn every stone to have all things setled in another Method yet all this while God and their own Hearts know that all this Concernment and Zeal of theirs for Religion though it make a great shew is only pretended and that there is another thing that lies at the bottom that is to say Worldly Interest and Dominion and Power which they hope to compass by such a Regulation of Matters as they desire I say if there be any such Men they are likewise no way concerned in that Compassion my Text speaks of For though they may be very Zealous yet it is a Zeal for their own secular advantages that acts them and not a Zeal of God If such Men could be known instead of being kindly and charitably thought of for their Zeal in Religion the Virtuous part of Mankind would look upon them as the worst of Hypocrites But since God only knows the Hearts of Men all such pretenders to Zeal for Religion must till we know them also be treated according to the Merits of the cause they pretend to be Zealous for But then Fourthly and Lastly All that I have now said is with respect to those that are out of the limits of my Text such as have no Zeal of God though some of them may pretend it But then as for those that really act out of Principles of Conscience and have a real Zeal of God though in a wrong way These are true Objects of our Tenderness and Compassion though yet in different degrees For according as their Principles and Practices do more or less injure our common Christianity or are more or less dangerous to our Government and Constitution in the same proportion the greater or less Tenderness and Indulgence is to be expressed towards them But most of what concerns this matter being already setled by Law I will not be so bold as to meddle in it and therefore I proceed to the Third Head of my Discourse III. The Third thing I told you we might observe from this Text was this The Apostle's tacit Reprehension of the Jewish Zeal upon this account that it was not according to Knowledge The Use I make of this is that from hence we may be able to gather to our selves a true Rule for the governing our Zeal in matters of Religion and likewise for the judging in others what Zeal is commendable and what is not For be our Zeal of God never so great yet if it be not a zeal according to knowledge it is not the right Christian Zeal And though we see others never so fervent and vehement in pursuing a Religious Cause and that too out of Conscience yet if this Zeal of theirs be not according to knowledge it is a Zeal that justly deserves to be reproved And though both we and they may for our sincerity in Gods Cause expect some Allowances both from God and Man yet neither they nor we can justifie it either to God or Man that we are thus foolishly and ignorantly Zealous I wish this mark of right Zeal that it ought to be according to knowledge were more considered For it seems not often to be thought on by those that are most zealous in their way of what perswasion soever they be This same business of Knowledge is a thing that is most commonly forgot to be taken in as an ingredient or Companion of Zeal in most sort of Professors For as the World goes those Men are generally found to be the greatest Zealots who are most notoriously Ignorant Whereas true Zeal should not only proceed from true Knowledge but should also be always accompanied with it and governed by it But what is it to have a Zeal according to Knowledge What doth this Character of justifiable right Zeal contain in it I answer it must at least contain in it these five following things First To have a Zeal according to Knowledge doth import that we be not mistaken as to the matter of our Zeal that it be a good Cause that we are zealous about And
prosper their Government and direct all their Affairs that all their Subjects might lead quiet and peaceable lives under them in all Godliness and Honesty But when in a Revolution a Prince was advanced to the Throne that they looked upon to be a good Man and an Encourager of the True Religion in that case they did not only readily submit to him but acknowledged it as the great Blessing of God to them that he had raised up such a Man to rule over them This was the Notion and this was the Practice of the Primitive Christians as to this matter I may indeed say of the Christians in all Ages And whatever you may have heard to the contrary I doubt not to say that this is the very Doctrine of the Church of England Let me therefore exhort all of you to be followers of Peace to premote publick Unity and Concord as much as is possible to study to be quiet and mind your own business to be more concerned for your Country and Nation than the Interest of any single Man in it heartily to submit to the Government and not only so but to thank God for the Blessings you enjoy under it and most earnestly to pray for the Continuance of them Lastly Never to espouse any Party or Faction against the Government nor ever to be driven away from the Communion of the Church of which you have always professed your selves Members by any of the pretences which some warm Men may suggest to you This I dare venture to say how uneasie soever some of you now may be in joining with our Prayers you will at last be ten times more uneasie in separating from us For Faction has no bounds and God knows whither it will lead a Man at last Were there nothing else but the Heat and Turbulency the Passion and Peevishness the bitter Zeal and Uncharitableness that the being of a Party doth naturally ingage Men in I say were there nothing else but this No Man that consults the peace of his own mind would for any consideration leave the publick Communion and espouse the cause of a separate Interest But there are worse Consequences than these and I pray God we may never feel them And now I have done with my Exhortation And I have spoke my thoughts very freely to you And I hope you will receive what I have said with the same kindness that I meant it And truly I have no reason to doubt of it after so long an experience as I have had of your Civility and Candor Indeed during all the time I have been among you which hath been now near sixteen Years I have been so kindly treated by you and have received so many Testimonies of your Good-will that I cannot but take this Opportunity of publickly acknowledging my Obligations to you and returning you my Solemn Thanks for Them I cannot indeed say that I have done my Duty as I ought and I heartily beg of God to forgive all my Defects But I have this satisfaction that I have sincerely endeavoured in all my Preaching to instruct you in the true Doctrine of the Gospel and to teach you the right way that leads to Salvation And I am so certain that I have not been mistaken my self nor mis-led you in that matter that I dare with Confidence address my self to you in some of the words of the Apostle which do immediately follow after my Text Viz. Those things which you have learned and received and heard from me do and the God of Peace shall be with you I shall ever bless God for that Providence of his which placed me among you and as I shall always and do earnestly desire all your Prayers for me so I shall always heartily pray for you that God would guide and prosper you that his good Providence would always watch over you for good that he would bestow upon you and your Children after you all sorts of Blessings needful and convenient for you and especially that he would deliver you from every evil work and preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom This God of his infinite Mercy grant c. SERMON X. Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal IN THE Abbey-Church at Westminster On the 5th of November 1691. Rom. x. 2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge THese are St. Paul's words and he spoke them of the Jews those unbelieving Jews that were so tenacious of the Traditions of their Fathers and so utterly averse to any Reformation of Religion That though it appeared by undeniable evidence that Christ Jesus was by God sent into to the World for that purpose yet did they to the last stand out in their opposition of him and his Gospel even to the final rejection of their Nation To these People doth St. Paul in this Chapter express a great Compassion heartily wishing and praying for their Conversion Brethren saith he in the first verse my hearty desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved That is that they may come to the knowledge of the Truth in Christ Jesus and by that means obtain everlasting Salvation And one reason why he was thus concerned for them he gives in the words following which are the words I have read unto you For I bear them Record saith he that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge It was a great motive to him to be concerned for their happiness that they were Zealous for Religion though he knew at the same time that the Religion they were then so Zealous of was not the right Religion nor did the Zeal they shewed for it proceed from right Principles According to the account I have now given of this Passage Three things we may take notice of from it viz. I. The Apostles approving and tacitly commending that Zeal which his Country-men expressed for Religion II. His meek and charitable behaviour towards them even when their Zeal for Religion was very faulty and blameable III. His discovery of the faultiness of their Zeal which lay in this that it was not according to knowledge These Three things I shall take for the Heads of my following Discourse upon this Text and shall afterwards make such Application of it as the Business of this Day calls for I. First I desire it may be observed That Zeal of God in general that is a hearty and passionate concernment for Religion The Apostle here finds no fault with On the contrary he approves it as a commendable thing For you see he represents it as a piece of virtue in his Country-men and speaks it to their commendation that they had a zeal of God I bear them record saith he that they have a zeal of God As much as to say that he owned they had that good quality and they were to be commended for it and for that reason he both wisheth them well and affectionately prayeth for them That which
to be so by the natural Notices of Mankind or which the Laws of our Holy Religion do forbid I say in all such Instances we are Transgressors And though our Cause be very good and our Ends very allowable yet since the Means by which we would accomplish those Ends are unwarrantable the whole Action though proceeding from never so much Zeal for God is very Bad For true Zeal as it always supposeth a right Information of Judgment as to the matter of it so likewise it supposeth that a Man should act in honest ways and endeavour to attain his ends by lawful means And thus have I laid before you the Properties and Characters of that Zeal which is according to knowledge which was the third and last thing I proposed upon this Text and I pray God we may always remember them whenever we have occasion to express a Zeal for any thing especially in matters of Religion All that remains now is to make some brief Application of my Text with reference to the business of the Day These words as I told you were spoke of the Jews But the Character here given of them doth so well fit a sort of Men whose fiery Zeal for God and their Religion gave occasion to the Solemnity of this Day that it looks as if it were made for them It is the Bigots of the Church of Rome that I mean to whom we must do the same right that St. Paul here did his Countrymen We must bear them Record that they have a Zeal of God but not according to Knowledge Zealous they are sufficiently as the Jews were no body doubts of it But as for their Zeals being according to knowledge there is great reason to doubt they are as faulty in that point as St. Paul's Countrymen were Indeed if you were to draw the comparison between the Jewish and Popish Zealots as to all the several particulars that our Saviour and St. Paul take notice of as Instances of blind Zeal in the former You would find in all those particulars both their Zeals to be much of a piece not only as to the Fervour but as the Blindness of them Was it an instance of Ignorant Zeal in the Jews that they set up their Traditions to the disparagement of the Law of God I pray who are those that disparage the Holy Scriptures by setting their Traditions upon an equal foot with them Were the Jews to be blamed for that they were so zealous for their old Religion as to oppose that Reformation of it which our Lord Jesus endeavoured to introduce among them because they thought it was an Innovation I pray who are those who upon that very ground oppose all Reformation at this Day though yet the wisest and best Men among themselves are sufficiently sensible that there are great Corruptions both in their Doctrine and Worship Was it a fault in the Jewish Zeal that it placed Religion too much in Ceremonies and Formalities in washing Cups and Platters in tithing Mint and Cummin and the like to the neglect of the weightier matters of the Law Justice and Mercy and Faith I pray wherein is Image-worship Invocation of Saints Penances Pilgrimages the use of Reliques Holy Water c. I say wherein are these things better than those And yet we know who they are that lay so great a stress upon these and such other things that it may be truly said a great part of their Religion is made up of them It would not be difficult to run the parallel between the Zeals of the two Religions through several more Instances But it is an unpleasant Argument and therefore I will pursue it no farther Only one instance more of the Jewish Zeal I must not pass by because it comes up so fully to the business of this Day So zealous were they for their Religion that they did not care what sort of means they made use of for the promoting of it were they never so wicked and unnatural Our Saviour they hunted to Death with false Witnesses Stephen they stoned out of pure zeal in a popular tumult Forty of them solemnly bound themselves under a Curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed St. Paul But all this and a great deal more our Saviour had foretold they would do when he told his Apostles that the time would come when whosoever killed them should think that he did God good service A Blessed way of doing God service this is to act such wicked inhumane things as these But such inhumane things as these doth a Blind Zeal for Religion sometimes put Men upon And that it doth so we cannot have a greater proof except what I have already mentioned than the practices of the zealous Men of the Church of Rome How many unlawful Arts have they used to subject all the Christian World to their Lord and Master How many Forgeries for this purpose have they been the Authors of and maintained them afterwards How many disturbances have they given to the Peace of Christendom in the most unjust and unnatural ways for the Advancement of the Papal Cause It was out of Zeal for Gods Service and the Interest of Holy Church that so many Princes have been Excommunicated and Deposed that so many Tumults and Rebellions have been raised that so many Crusados for the extirpating Hereticks have been sent out By which and such like means it may justly be computed that as much Christian Blood has been shed for the establishing Popery as it now stands nay and a great deal more than ever was during all the times of the Heathen Persecutions for the supporting of Paganism But if there were no other instance extant in the World to shew what is to be expected from a blind Zeal especially a blind Popish Zeal for Religion that instance which the deliverance of this Day doth give us occasion to mention would be alone sufficient to inform us When for no other end but for the Advancement of Popery and the rooting out that Pestilent Heresie of the Reformation which infested these Northern Climates a Company of Popish Zealots entered upon the most Barbarous and Inhumane Project that ever was undertaken by Men even neither better nor worse than the destroying the King and Parliament at one blow and had put all things in such a readiness in order thereunto that they certainly had effected it as on this Day had not their Conspiracy been detected in a wonderful manner But thanks be to God their designs then and ever since have been defeated and some of them even miraculously and we trust in the Mercies of God that they will ever be so God hath been wonderfully Gracious to us in the Preservation of our Church and Religion from Popish attempts to destroy it ever since it was setled among us How many Plots and Conspiracies were laid in the time of the Glorious Q. Elizabeth to put an end to her Life and with it to our reformed establishment
Article of Faith and every Man that doth not believe just as he doth must streight be a Heretick for not doing so How can it be expected but we must wrangle eternally It were heartily to be wished that Christians would consider that the Articles of Faith those things that God hath made necessary by every one to be believed in order to his Salvation are but very few and they are all of them so plainly and clearly set down in the Scripture that it is impossible for any sincere honest-minded Man to miss of the true sense of them And they have farther this Badge to distinguish them from all other Truths that they have an immediate influence upon Men's Lives a direct Tendency to make Men Better whereas most of those things that make the matter of our Controversies and about which we make such a noise and clamour and for which we so bitterly censure and Anathematize one another are quite of another nature They are neither so clearly revealed or propounded in the Scripture but that even good Men through the great difference of their Parts Learning and Education may after their best Endeavours vary in their Sentiments about them Nor do they at all concern a Christian Life but are matters of pure Notion and Speculation So that it cannot with any reason be pretended that they are Points upon which Men's Salvation doth depend It cannot be thought that God will be offended with any Man for his Ignorance or Mistakes concerning them And if not if a Man may be a good Christian and go to Heaven whether he holds the right or the wrong side in these matters for God's sake why should we be angry with any one for having other Opinions about them than we have Why should we not rather permit Men to use their Vnderstandings as well as they can and where they fail of the Truth to bear with them as God himself without question will than by stickling for every unnecessary Truth destroy that Peace and Love and Amity that ought to be among Christians The second thing I would recommend is a great Simplicity and Purity of Intention in the pursuit of Truth and at no hand to let Passion or Interest or any Self-end be ingredient into our Religion The practice of this would not more conduce to the discovery of Truth than it would to the promoting of Peace For it is easie to observe that it is not always a pure Concernment for the Truth in the Points in Controversie that makes us so zealous so fierce and so obstinate in our Disputes for or against them but something of which that is only the Mask and Pretence some By-ends that must be served some Secular Interest that we have espoused which must be carried on We have either engaged our selves to some Party and so its Interests right or wrong must be promoted Or we have taken up an Opinion inconsiderately at the first and appeared in the favour of it and afterward our own Credit doth oblige us to defend it Or we have received some Slight or Disappointment from the Men of one Way and so in pure pet and revenge we pass over to their Adversaries Or it is for our gain and advantage that the Differences among us be still kept on foot Or we desire to get our selves a Name by some great Atchievements in the Noble Science of Controversies Or we are possessed with the Spirit of Contradiction Or we delight in Novelties Or we love to be singular These are the things that too often both give birth to our Controversies and also nourish and foment them If we would but cast these Beams out of our eyes we should both see more clearly and certainly live more peaceably But whilst we pursue base and sordid Ends under the pretence of maintaining Truth we shall always be in Errour and always in Contention Let us therefore quit our selves of all our prepossessions let us mortifie all our Pride and Vain-glory our Passion and Emulation our Covetuousness and Revenge and bring nothing in the World to our Debates about Religion but only the pure Love of Truth and then our Controversies will not be so long and they will be more calmly and peaceably managed and they will redound to the greater good of all Parties And this I dare say farther to encourage you to labour after this Temper of Mind That he that comes thus qualified to the Study of Religion though he may not have the luck always to light on the Truth yet with all his Errours be they what they will he is more acceptable to God than the Man that hath Truth on his side yet takes it up or maintains it to serve a turn He that believes a Falshood after he hath used his sincere endeavours to find the Truth is not half so much a Heretick as he that professeth a Truth out of evil Principles and prostituteth it to unworthy Ends. The third Rule is Never to quarrel about Words and Phrases but so long as other Men mean much-what the same that we do let us be content though they have not the luck to express themselves so well I do not know how it comes to pass whether through too much heat and eagerness of disputing that we do not mind one another's Sense or whether through too much love to our own manner of Thinking or Speaking that we will not endure any thing but what is conveyed to us in our own Methods But really it often happens that most bitter Quarrels do commence not so much from the different Sense of the contending Parties concerning the things they contend about as from the different Terms they use to express the same Sense and the different Grounds they proceed upon or Arguments they make use of for the proof of it For my part I verily believe that this is the Case of several of those Disputes in which we Protestants do often engage at this day I do not think in many Points our Differences are near so wide as they are sometimes represented but that they might easily be made up with a little allowance to Men's Words and Phrases and the different Methods of deducing their Notions It would be perhaps no hard matter to make this appear in those Controversies that are so much agitated among us concerning Faith and Justification and the necessity of good Works to Salvation and Imputed Righteousness and the difference between Vertue and Grace with some others if this were a fit place for it The Difference that is among us as to these Points is possibly not much greater than this That some Men in these Matters speak more clearly and fully others more imperfectly and obscurely Some Men convey their sense in plain and proper words others delight in Metaphors and do perhaps too far extend the Figurative Expressions of Scripture Some reason more closely and upon more certain Principles others possibly may proceed upon weaker Grounds and misapply Texts of Scripture and discourse
great things and in which way soever of them we lay out our selves we serve excellent ends of Charity But there is another point of useful publick Charity which though the occasion of this meeting hath nothing to do with it yet the present necessity of the thing doth oblige me seriously to recommend to you There are few I believe in this City either ignorant or insensible of the extreme numerousness of Beggars in our Streets and unless care be taken their number is likely to increase for this seems to be a growing evil I dare not lay the fault of this upon the defectiveness of our Laws nor dare I say that the provisions made for the Poor are incompetent or disproportionable to the number of them for perhaps the usual publick Taxes and private Free-will Offerings discreetly managed would go a great way towards the curing this evil supposing the richer Parishes to contribute to the maintaining the poorer But here is the misery we do not sufficiently distinguish between our poor nor take care to make provisions for them according to their respective necessities There are some that by reason either of old age or evil accidents are perfectly unable to earn a livelihood for themselves or to be any way useful to the publick except by their Prayers and their good examples and to see such go a begging is a shame to our Christianity and a reproach to our Government There are others that are fit to labour and might prove useful Members of the Common-wealth many ways if they were rightly managed now the True Charity to these is not to relieve them to the encouragement of their idleness but to employ them to put them into such a way that they may both maintain themselves and help towards the maintaining of others and if they refuse this let them suffer for their folly for there is no reason that those should eat that will not work if they be able A necessity therefore there is if ever this scandalous publick nusance of common begging be redressed that these four things be taken care of 1. That those that cannot work be maintained without begging 2. That those that can work and are willing have such publick provisions made that they may be employed in one way or other according as they are capable and every one receive fruits of his labour proportionable to his industry 3. That those that can work and will not be prosecuted according to the Laws as Rogues and Vagrants and Pests of the Kingdom And lastly after such publick provisions are made for the maintaining both sorts of Poor that are objects of Charity that is the helpless and those that endeavour to help themselves that all persons be exhorted and directed to put their private Charity in the right Channel wholly withdrawing it from the lazy and the lusty Beggars lest they be thereby encouraged in their infamous course of life and giving it to those who by publick order shall be recommended to them These things I hope I may without offence recommend to the Wisdom and Care of the Government of this Honourable City since there are both Heads enough to contrive the particular ways of curing these evils and Hands enough that will be open to contribute what is needful to so useful a work Certain it is the thing is practicable since it hath been and is practised in some Towns of this Nation and in several beyond the Seas And that it is needful there is none that hath any true sense of Charity which consists as much in taking care to prevent the miseries and necessities of Mankind as in relieving them there is none that hath any regard to the Reputation of our Religion or the Honour and good Government of this City or Kingdom but must needs acknowledge It is one of the great Glories of this City that as they have been always faithful and prudent in the management of those Publick Charities that they have been entrusted with so have they been very ready to encrease and to add to them And God without doubt hath blessed them the more for this very thing as indeed the best atonement that any people can make for the many sins that the place is guilty of is the Sacrifice of Alms and Charity And I hope that which condemned Sodom to wit that there were not ten righteous men found in it that is Men that were of a Publick Spirit that were truly Liberal and Bountiful and Charitable for that is an usual Notion of Righteousness in the Old Testament and there are some passages in this History which make it probable that it may be the notion of it here I say that very thing it is to be hoped hath and will preserve this City of ours because as far as we can gather there are in it many times ten such Righteous persons In truth if there were not several good Men among us that by the exemplarity of their lives and their Charity do stand in the gap between the reigning sins of the times and the Judgments of God that threaten us for them it would be a melancholy thing to think what would become of us But so long as God is pleased to continue to us a succession of those that fear God and hate covetousness that make it their business to do good and to serve their generation there is hopes that he will yet continue to bless us And so gracious hath God been to our City and Kingdom in this respect that to the glory of his name be it spoken whatever boasts they of the Church of Rome are wont to make of the Charitableness of their Religion in opposition to the penuriousness of ours and reproach us with the bounty and munificence of our Popish Ancestors and the barrenness of their Protestant Successors yet we may safely affirm that there have been more publick works of Charity done in this City and Kingdom since the Reformation than can be proved to have been done in the same compass of years during all the time that Popery prevailed among us O therefore let us go on to do this Honour to our Religion let us go on by our good works to adorn the doctrine of God that we profess Let us not only equal but labour to exceed the Piety and the Publick-spiritedness of our Forefathers Let every one both Magistrates and People in their several capacities be zealous and vigorous both in consulting in contriving and in acting for the publick good as much as is possible And for your greater incouragement thus to do let it be remembred in the last place that besides the outward advantages both publick and private that we reap by being charitable this is the best course we can take to secure our everlasting Happiness in the World to come For to do good with our Wealth to be rich in good works to be ready to distribute willing to communicate is as the Apostle in the Text tells us the way to lay
ver 4. He sheweth favour and lendeth ver 5. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor ver 9. Now the Blessedness of such a Man as this as to this Life is describ'd in the five instances following The first of which is A great and happy Posterity thus ver 2. His seed shall be mighty upon earth the generation of the Vpright shall be blessed The second is A Plentiful and an Ample Fortune thus in the third verse Riches and Plenteousness shall be in his house The third is A lasting Fame and Reputation thus again in the third verse His Righteousness remaineth for ever and likewise in the sixth verse He shall be had in everlasting remembrance The fourth is Honour and Power and Dignity even such as shall excite the Envy of the Wicked thus in the ninth verse His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and shall be grieved c. The fifth is Great Safety and Peace in the midst of Dangerous and Troublesome times thus in the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness i. e. Light in the greatest Straits and Difficulties for that is the meaning of Darkness in this place Times of Darkness in the Scripture Language are Evil and Difficult and Dangerous times Now upon account of this Light that ariseth to the Vpright Man in Evil times it comes to pass as it followeth v. 6 7 8. that such a one shall not be moved for ever neither shall he be afraid of evil tidings for his heart is established and he shall not shrink until he see his desire upon his Enemies Or as the Chaldee perhaps better renders it until he see redemption in distress This is the just Analysis of the whole Psalm Now of these several Characters whereby the Pious Man is describ'd I have pitch'd upon that of his Vprightness to give an account of and to recommend to you at this time And of the several Instances of the Blessedness of such a Man I have pitch't upon that of Safety and Peace in the midst of Perillous and Troublesome times These two points I have chosen to entertain you upon as judging them most suitable to the present occasion and to our present circumstances And we find them both join'd together in the words of the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness Here then we have Two things to consider First The Person to whom the Promise here made or the Blessedness here mentioned doth belong It is the Vpright Man Secondly The Promise or the Blessedness it self It is Light in times of Darkness I begin with the Character of the Person to whom this Promise is made He is the Vpright Man or as in our more common Language we express him the Honest Man the Man of Integrity We all know so well what is meant by these words that it would render the thing more difficult to offer Critically to give Light to them As all those General Terms whereby a Man 's whole Duty is exprest in Scripture have their several respects and considerations which difference them one from the other though they be all equally Comprehensive So hath this term of Vprightness That which it immediately and particularly respects is the Goodness of a Man's Principles and the suitableness of his Actions to them Or thus The Conformity of a Man's Mind to the Eternal Rules of Righteousness and the Conformity of his Actions to the Principles of his Mind This is that upon account of which any person is denominated Upright and contrary to this is all Hypocritical and Partial dealings in matters of our Duty So that if we would give the definition of an Vpright Man it should be in such terms as these He is a Man that in all things follows the Dictates of his Conscience Or he is One that makes his Duty the Rule of his Actions Or he is One that always proposeth to himself Righteous Ends and pursues those Ends in Righteous Ways This is the general description of the Vpright Man But for the more lively display of him and the rendring him as more Amiable so more Imitable it will be fit that we represent him a little more particularly under those several Respects and Capacities in which his Uprightness is principally seen and exprest And here we must consider him with respect to God and with respect to Men. Under the former Consideration we are to view his Religion under the latter his Civil Conversation And none ought to be surpriz'd that in the Character of an Vpright Man we take notice of his Religious Carriage towards God For in truth that is a point which is Essentially necessary to Uprightness He saith Solomon that walketh in Vprightness feareth the Lord. Prov. 14.2 Indeed take away Religion and the Fear of God and the Foundation of Vprightness is destroy'd For all the Principles of Conscience and all the Obligation to live up to those Principles is thereby taken away He that hath no sense of God and Religion can never think himself bound to observe any Rules in his Actions and Behaviour but what are subservient to the carrying on his private sensual worldly Interest And consequently whatever is Inconsistent with that be it never so base and vile and injurious he cannot take himself in point of Duty oblig'd to stick at it when he hath the least temptation to it The result of which is That he may commit all the villanies in the World and yet think himself as Innocent and his Actions as Commendable as if he had been never so Honest and Vertuous He therefore that is an Vpright Man hath a serious and hearty sense of God and Religion upon his Spirit and is above all things careful to preserve and increase that sense But then his conduct in this affair is much different from that of ordinary pretenders to Religion For he is a Man that doth not content himself with a mere speculative belief or an outward profession of the Truths of Religion but doth so far impress them on his Heart that they influence his whole Life and Conversation He doth not think it sufficient to be Orthodox in his Opinions or to be a Member of a True Church or to be zealous in maintaining and promoting the right way But he takes care to live as he believes to practise suitably to the prefession he makes As he holds fast the Form of Godliness so he never fails to express the power of it in an Innocent and a Vertuous Life He is a Man that in the whole Conduct of his Religious affairs minds Conscience more than any selfish consideration He takes not up his Principles either out of Humour or Passion to advance his Interest or to please a Party But he believes a thing because it is True and Professeth it because it is his Duty In matters of Religion he hath the indifference of a Traveller whose great concernment is to arrive at his Journeys end but
and assuring them of Eternal Rewards if they would repent I say If they were Witnesses of these things I will appeal to all the World whether they had not greater Means of Conviction offered to them than if any Ghost had appeared to them from the Dead or any particular Miracle had been vouchsafed them for the bringing them over to Vertue and Sobriety But I believe no Body will much doubt of this for indeed the matter will not bear a dispute But here is the Question Whether we that live at this distance from our Saviour have the same Means of Conviction and Whether one now appearing from the dead to us would not be of greater force to persuade us than the standing Revelation of the Gospel as we have it now conveyed to us This therefore leads me to my second Proposition upon this Head which if it can be made out will wholly take away all Controversie in this Matter And it is this That we at this day have as great Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Christ's Revelation and consequently as great Motives from thence to persuade us to reform our Evil Lives as those that Lived in the Times of our Saviour It is true indeed we want the Evidence of Sense in these Matters which they had and upon that account it must be acknowledged that they have the Advantage of us But this we say notwithstanding that if we take all things together and weigh them Impartially we shall find that that Want is abundantly supplied to us in other respects For first of all Our Saviour's Gospel and all the Evidences of it I have been now speaking of were timely and faithfully recorded and are as faithfully transmitted down to us So that though we did not see or hear those things yet we have a certain and exact Account of them and such an Account as was never yet questioned by any Adversaries that lived in those Times when such a Question was most reasonably to be made and such an Account as appears by all the Evidences that a thing of that Nature is capable of to have been written by Eye-witnesses and such Witnesses as were honest undesigning Men and not only so but they sealed with their Blood the Truth of what they reported And this same Account was religiously received by all Christians in all Places without Contradiction in those very Times and was shortly after translated into a Multitude of Languages so that it is scarce possible it should in any Considerable Matter be corrupted And from that Time to this in a continual Succession there have been Men that have suffer'd Martyrdom for the Attestation of it and in the first Ages after Christ when they had the best Opportunities of Examining the Truth of these things many thousands did so Now I say Though acccording to the Ordinary Proverb Seeing be Believing Yet next to Seeing an universal well-grounded Tradition which hath visible Effects attending it hath the most force to gain belief Nay I do not know whether there be so much Difference between the Evidence of the one and the other as one would think at first Sure I am there are many Cases in which we do as firmly believe Matters of Fact upon the Credit of Tradition and the permanent Effects that do accompany it as if we our selves had been present and seen them with our Eyes Which of us for Instance doth make any more doubt of the Story of William the Conquerour his subduing this Kingdom or of Henry the Eighth his casting off the Pope's Supremacy than he doth of the Revolutions that have happned in his own time And yet these Matters of Fact are no better attested than the History of our Saviour and his Miracles and Doctrines But Secondly Though those that lived in our Saviour's time had Evidence of Sense for the Truth of what they believed concerning him and his Doctrine which we have not Yet this is to be considered that they laboured under far greater Prejudices against his Religion than we now do And consequently all that sensible Proof which they had of the Truth of it would not be more effectual for the convincing of them than that Proof we now have though it be less ought in reason to be for the convincing of us They that were the Hearers and Spectators of what our Saviour said and did had mighty and inveterate Prepossessions to struggle with They were educated in a quite Different Religion and so must be supposed to have entertained several Notions and Principles which would very difficultly be rooted out and indeed for the effecting of it there needed little less than an Almighty Power But it is not so with us we by our Education are already disposed and prepared for the receiving Christianity We have no praevious Engagements to alienate our Minds from it nay it is our Interest to be of that Religion rather than any other So that certainly a less Evidence for the Truth of it will be as convincing to us as a much greater would have been to those to whom our Saviour first Preached Nay I am very confident that this thing being duely considered it will appear that our Arguments for Christianity drawn from Tradition will be more convincing to thinking Men among us than those Arguments they had from Sense and Experience could be to them But Thirdly If to what hath been said we add the several Arguments for the Credibility of the Christian Religion which we now have at this distance that they had not nor could have that were our Saviour's Immediate Disciples we shall be satisfied that in point of Evidence we have indeed much the advantage of them We have now several standing proofs of our Religion which they could not have and which are so strong and conclusive that they do more than compensate for the want of that Evidence of Sense which they had and we have not I breifly Instance in these three following First The strange Propagation and Success of our Religion throughout the World and the Means by which it was Effected That a poor despised crucified Person should in a few Years draw all the Roman Empire after him and that without any visible Means except the Goodness of his Cause and the Reasonableness of his Doctrine and the Sincerity and Constancy of his Disciples not in fighting for their Master but in laying down their Lives for him And this against all the Power and all the Arts and Stratagems that the Devil or the Princes of this World could invent to stifle and suppress his Name This is so strong an Argument that this Cause was the Cause of God and that his Providence was particularly concerned in the promoting of it that he must seem little to be sensible either of God or Providence that is not convinced by it If Christianity had been of the same strain that the Religion of Mahomet is had been as well calculated for Mens Lusts and Worldly Interests as that
relish of Pride or Vanity or Affectation It is high time rather to abate something of our sumptuousness in these things than to proceed any farther And thus lastly in matters of Equity and Justice when we first begin to have a suspicion that such a practice is an indirect or knavish trick or that we are too severe and hard upon a Man upon whom we have got an advantage Why this suspition alone is enough in reason to check us in our cariere and to put us upon more fair and moderate courses This is a Rule that will for ever be fit for us to practice for it is grounded upon Eternal Reason Indeed it is as old as Morality Quod dubitas ne feceris Do nothing that you doubt of is a maxim that obtain'd among the Heathens as well as among us Christians I dare not indeed say that this Rule holds universally in all Cases For Cases do sometimes happen wherein it will be advisable for a Man to act even against his doubts But in such Matters as I am now speaking of Matters wherein a Man is at perfect Liberty to act or not to act In all such Cases it will always without exception be a true and a safe and a wise Rule And I am sure if Men would seriously charge themselves with the practice of it they would hereby prevent a Multitude of Sins and Transgressions with which they usually inflame their Accounts against the day of Judgment And thus much of the Rules I had to propose as to the use of our Liberty in such Cases where a Man is at a loss in finding out the Measures and bounds of Duty and Sin and upon that account is in danger of Transgressing I have only two things more to add upon this Argument by way of Application and I have done The one as a Caution to prevent the misapplying these Rules the other as an encouragement to put them in practice That which I have to say by way of Caution is this That what I have been now recommending especially under the two last Heads is not intended to be a Rule or direction to any Hypochondriack or Melancholy Persons or such as are apt to be over-scrupulous about their Actions For indeed to such Persons it is the worst advice that can be given For they are apt to doubt and boggle at every thing be it never so innocent and free from blame They dare not eat a hearty Meal for fear of being Intemperate And for fear of not being devout enough they exhaust their Spirits and spoil their Health through the continual intention of their Minds to serious things Now Persons that are of this temper are rather to be encouraged to take more Liberties than they do than to abate any that they make use of But their Case is of another Consideration and foreign to my present purpose and therefore I here say no more about it It being sufficient to have given this intimation to such People that they do not make an ill use of any thing that I have now represented for assuredly what hath been now said doth not much concern them 2. The other thing I have to say and that by way of Encouragement is this I doubt not but some will be apt to think that the Rules I have now given about the Exercise of our Liberty are much too strict and severe and that if they must be tied up to such Measures then farewel all the joy and pleasure and comfort of their lives But to such People I would crave leave to say that they have very wrong notions of this Matter The using of their Liberty in such a manner as I have been recommending would not rob them of one true pleasure or comfort that this World affords So far from that that I am very sure whoever frames his Life according to these Measures shall live a hundred times a happier Life and shall enjoy the World and all the pleasures and advantages of it much more to his own content and satisfaction than if he put no check to the craving of his Appetites but always indulged and gratified them in every thing and as much as they desired Assure your selves Vertue and Religion will never hinder you from enjoying any pleasure or satisfaction that is natural On the contrary there is great Reason to believe that the practice thereof will extreamly heighten and advance the satisfactions you can receive from your Worldly Enjoyments I doubt not in the least but to a sincerely pious and Vertuous Man and that hath a Regard to God in all his Actions even the very pleasures and comforts of this Life are more gratifying and affecting than to any sensual or wicked Man For such a one as he is more capable of enjoying them so do they come to him likewise without the mixtures of those uneasy troublesome bitter Reflexions that other Men feel in the very best of their Enjoyments Let no Man therefore apprehend any loss of his pleasures by entirely devoting himself to God's Service and using his liberty in that careful way I have been recommending Let him not think that he shall hereby be too much straitned and confined For certainly this is the true means not only to keep him for ever from being a Slave to any thing but also mightily to improve and encrease his Liberty For by thus exercising himself all the Powers of his Soul will be vastly enlarged and he will hereby attain both leisure and will to employ all his rational Faculties about the best and the noblest objects in the World which will yield him the greatest pleasure that is to be had on this side Heaven Whereas if he had given up himself to be govern'd by any of his sensual Appetites he had been a poor narrow confined Creature indeed not capable of any greater satisfactions or pleasures than what the Brutes do enjoy as well as himself but with less uneasiness and fewer disturbances It is true indeed a sensual Man hath no notion of this kind of pleasures no more than a Beast hath of the pleasures of a Man And therefore it is no wonder that such Men entertain all talk about them as little better than meer Cant and Jargon But I seriously appeal to all Men that have ever made any trials in the way of Religion and Vertue whether the Contentments and Satisfactions they have received from the rational use of their Liberty and the thoughts and reflexions that hereby they do approve themselves to God and live in hopes of his Favour and have a fair prospect of a glorious Immortal Sate in another world I say Whether they do not find the pleasures and contentments that arise from hence to be infinitely more solid and substantial and durable than any of those that they receive from the gratification of their sensual Appetites in a vitious unreasonable Manner Oh therefore Let none of us make any scruple of devoting our selves entirely and without reserve to
you shall do may be for the Glory of God and the good of his Church and the Safety Honour and Wellfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms And we hope all will so come to pass But now on this Day both You and We are to think of other Methods for the procuring Success to our Affairs Namely by having recourse to God Almighty who when we have done all that we can is the Governour of the World and will do what he pleaseth But yet will always do that which is best for Mankind and that too which is best for our Nation if we be capable Objects of his Favour And to make our selves such if it be possible is our business on this Day This is indeed a seasonable Business at all times but at this time it seems absolutely necessary Since we have reason to apprehend the Crisis of our Nation as to Happiness or Ruin to be upon the point of approaching The Judgments of God are now abroad in the World We have not only Rumours of Wars sounding in our Ears but all Europs is now in an actual War and a terrible one And what the Consequences will be we know not Some very great thing God certainly designs to bring to pass in these parts of the World and that very suddenly A Cup he has mingled for all the Nations to drink of Which to some undoubtedly will prove a bitter Potion a Cup of God's Wrath and Fury to others probably a Cup of Salvation But how it will prove to us is yet entirely in the Will of God However this is certain that we of this Nation shall have as much our share in it be it good or bad as any other in Christendom And now after the mention of this Can there be any need to call upon any one to weeping and fasting and mourning and crying mightily to the Lord that he would have mercy upon us and spare us and our Nation and not give his Heritage over to Confusion Why methinks the Circumstances we are in should put us upon so doing without any other Monitors Indeed we have no Humanity no Compassion for our selves or our Country if we do not We should all be of this mind if we did seriously consider how things stand with us We are not that Innocent Virtuous Pious People that may certainly reckon upon God's Favour and think our selves in all Cases sure of his Protection For if the Doctrine I have now been insisting on to you be true Doctrine then we of this Nation can but entertain very small hopes of being Happy and Prosperous Nay we cannot but apprehend Misery and Ruin and Desolation to our selves unless God be abundantly more merciful to us than we deserve And there can be no way to prevail with him to be so but an universal Humiliation and Repentance And this is the Application I desire to make of the Point I have been now treating of If the measure of God's dealing with Nations be always according to the Moral State of them If their good Fortunes be dealt out to them according to their Virtues and Judgments be inflicted upon them according to their provoking God by their Sins as we have said Good Lord What a lamentable Prospect have we of this Kingdom of what may come upon us And what infinite reason have we thereupon immediately to try all the ways that are possible of making our Peace with God that so Iniquity may not be our ruin I beg leave to dwell a little upon this Point because it is the proper Argument of the day I do not say nor do I think that we of this Nation are worse than our Neighbours But this I say considering how long God hath spared us and how long we have enjoyed the Blessings of Peace and Plenty and all sorts of Prosperity though perhaps with many Fears and just Apprehensions of danger whilst most of our Neighbours have been harassed with Wars and exposed to all the Cruelties and Miseries of Persecutions and Devastations And considering the great Priviledges and Advantages we have for many years enjoyed of all the outward means of Grace that could be desired for the Eternal Salvation of our Souls and that above any other Nation under Heaven And withal how unprofitable we have been under these means how unthankful to God for them and what little Effect they have had upon us for the bettering our Manners And lastly Considering how very wicked we generally are what a World of open gross Sins and Impieties do reign among us and what a lewd Prophane Hypocritical Atheistical Spirit seems to have gone out into the Nation and to prevail upon it I say these things considered we cannot make any very comfortable Reflections on our own Condition So far from that that if as I said the measure of God's dealings with Nations be taken from their Behaviours and moral Qualities and be suited to their merits and deserts we have as little to hope for as most Nations under Heaven I take no delight in saying these things on the contrary it is very grievous But if ever one may be allowed to run out into a Declamation against the Vices of the Times it is upon such an occasion as this and before such an Audience as this that the liberty may be challenged For God's sake let us not deceive our selves nor think that we are Favourites of Heaven meerly because we profess the Best Religion and are Members of the Best Church in the World For as good as our Church and Religion is and as zealous as we seem to be for them yet never did Vice and Iniquity of all sorts and indeed every thing that is contrary to our holy Religion more abound in this Nation than at this day Give me leave to speak out upon this occasion and to tell you of some of the Crying Sins that reign among us and that deserve Your Care to put a stop to and which if if they be continued in will certainly bring down the Vengeance of God upon us Where was there ever more Atheism and Insidelity to be seen in a Country that professed the Religion of Jesus Christ than is among us at this day We do not perhaps meet with very many that do openly affirm There is no God For as bad as we are God be thanked we are not yet arrived to such Impudence That is such an affront to the Laws and good Manners that it is not to be born with But we may meet with several every day that do affirm the same thing by consequence asserting such Principles from whence it may be necessarily concluded For my part I account it much the same thing as to the ill effects of the Opinion to deny the Being of God as to deny the Being of Angels and Spirits and Immaterial Souls to deny the Being of particular Providence to deny the natural difference between good and evil to deny another Life after this wherein good Men shall be
rewarded and wicked Men punished to deny the liberty of Humane Actions and to say that all things which we do we do by a fatal necessity and we cannot do otherwise And yet we may every day meet with Men of these Principles nay and that laugh at all those that maintain the contrary But then as for the business of Jesus Christ and that which we call the Christian Religion what a very little do a great many among us make of that To talk of Christ's being sent for the Saviour of the World and that he died to procure the Pardon of our Sins and that we must believe all the Scripture-Doctrines concerning him and worship him as a God why what stuff is this to a great many of the resined Spirits of our Age It is very well if they can so far prevail with themselves as to own the Being of God and to acknowledge their obligation to the Duties of moral Honesty and Justice which natural Religion teacheth But as for Jesus Christ and the Trinity and the Sacraments and all revealed Religion they beg your Pardon for these things they are too nice and subtil for them to meddle with Not but that they are good Christians all the while For they can come to our Churches and to our Sacraments too if there be occasion Because indeed they will always be of the Religion of the Country where they live But at the same time they do this they do no more really believe or expect any Spiritual Benefit in our Religion nor look for any more Salvation from Christ Jesus than they would expect from Mahomet if they should live in Turky But this is not all Even among those that do believe in Jesus Christ and own his Religion yet what little regard have they generally speaking to his Worship and Service It is very well if they now and then afford their presence on Sundays at the publick Religious Assemblies I will not examine with what designs and for what ends they come thither nor how devoutly and religiously their hearts are affected during the time they are there I say it is very well that they are there at all But even of those that do come thither and do once a Week seem to have a sense of publick Religion I say how few are there of them that take any care of worshipping God either in their Families or in their Closets Why if a Man was truly Religious he could not pass a day without solemn Addresses to his Maker and to his Redeemer He would pray in his Closet constantly and if he had a Family he would Pray with them constantly And if he had no Family he would constantly resort to those places where he might pay his Tribute of publick Prayer and Praises to God unless he had urgent business to hinder him But is there any thing of this to be seen among us except in some few Persons here and there Are there not twenty Families for one that live without so much as the shew of any Devotion Without any sort of Prayer or Worship of God in their Houses Nay and I am afraid I may say there are twenty for one even of Private Persons that live without Devotion in their Closets that never call upon God never renew their Vows to their Saviour never pay him any Homage except perhaps once a Week in a formal way when the Custom of the Country obliges them to resort to the Church The truth is so little sense have most of us of Religion and Devotion so little regard of our Duty to God and our depenance upon him and expressing that dependance either in Private or in our Families That were it not for that Happy Institution of the Lord's day on the which we are obliged by the Laws of God and Man to meet together for the Worship of God we should hardly see any Face of Religon among us and in a little time should scarce be distinguished from Heathens But yet this is not the worst of our Case Our gross Immoralities that Horrid Lewdness and Debauchery that is every where to be observed in our days doth still increase our Guilt and cry to Heaven for Judgment upon our Nation It would make a Man's heart ake that has any sense of God or Religion to think of the Riots the Drunkenness the continued course of spending our Time and our Parts and our Substance in Revelling and Gaming and all manner of such excesses that is daily practised among us And yet at the same time the Men that thus live think themselves very honest Men all the while It would really amaze a Man and put him upon admiring God's Patience that he doth not presently confound the World if he did seriously reflect on the many filthy lewd Speeches and Actions the numerous wicked intrigues of Lust the Infamous Whoredoms and Adulteries that are without any sense of shame daily carried on and acted among us and that by Persons too that have the Face to shew themselves at our Holy Assemblies Especially if to these be added the infinite Lyes and Cheats and Perjuries which our Land groans under The Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations the Damn me 's and Sink me's the Horrid Profanations of the Name of God and all things Sacred that are in every place in every street where we pass belched out in contempt of the Almighty and his Laws by all sorts of Persons of all sorts of Qualities from the Beggar in the street to the Man of Honour and that for no other reason in the World but because it is their Humour or their Custom And lastly to fill up the measure of our iniquities to our other reigning Vices we have added that of Hypocrisie too which one would think should not often be found among so much Profaneness How many of us make a mighty noise with Religion and are zealous even to Bigottry in the defence of it and yet have not one grain of inward sense of what it obligeth them to Nay so far from that that if Religion be but in their Mouths If they do but appear Zealous enough for the Protestant Cause If they can but cry loue enough The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in the Prophet They matter not how coutradictory their Actions are to the Precepts of that Religion they do Profess Their Zeal for so good a Cause will sanctifie all the other Actions be they never so wicked and unjust But if this be not Hypocrisie there is no such thing in the World Sure I am it was this sort of Carriage that God so often reproves the Jews for by his Prophets and upon account of which they are so often reproached as a Generation of Hypocrites and for which he threatens them with utter destruction O my Brethren what have we to say to these things If the Case be thus with us as I am afraid it is What plea have we to put in for our selves If
I would from hence take occasion to put you in mind of is this That Indifference and Vnconcernedness for Religion is not to have a place among any ones Virtues and good Qualities it is rather a very great fault howsoever it may sometimes pass for an instance of Wisdom and Prudence If indeed Men had no Passions or had so mortified their Passions that they were rarely earnest or zealous about any thing their unconcernedness for Religion and the things of God might be the less reproveable But when Zeal and Passion is more or less wrought into every Man's temper and the calmest Men may be observed on sundry occasions not to be without it it is an inexcusable fault to have no Passion no Zeal for God and his Cause How can a Man answer it to his own Conscience to be heartily angry when an affront in word or deed is done to himself and yet to be altogether insensible when God is affronted in his Prefence To make a mighty bustle when his own Right and Property is at stake though in never so small a matter and yet to shew no concernment for the Rights and the Honour of that God who made him and by whose savour alone it is that he can call any thing his own that he hath O! What a World of Good might we all do if we had a true Zeal of God How many Occasions and Opportunities are there put into our Hands every Day in what condition or circumstances soever we are which if we were acted by this principle would render us great Benefactors to Mankind by discouraging Vice and Impiety and promoting Virtue and Goodness in the World But perhaps I have set this business of Zeal for God too high Because none are capable of being thus Zealous but those that have attained to a great degree of Virtue and Piety which we cannot suppose of all nor the most But however it will be a shame to all of us if we do not come up to that pitch of Zeal which the unbelieving Jews are here commended for I bear them record saith St. Paul that they have a zeal of God What was this Zeal of theirs Why as I told you and as it plainly appears from the whole Chapter it was an earnest and passionate concernment for the Religion of their Country Sure all Men among us both good and bad may come up to this degree of Zeal for God and it is a reproach to us if we do not Especially confidering that their Religion at that time was not God's Religion but Ours is Indeed the Publick profession of Religion in the right way is as much every Man's Interest and ought to be as much every Man's Care as any the dearest thing he hath in this World Nay to all Men that believe they have Souls to fave it is more valuable than any other Worldly privilege It concerns us all therefore to be Zealous in that matter The Duty we owe to God to our Country and to our Selves doth require it In vain it is to be busie about other things and to neglect this A Man will have but small comfort when he comes to die to reflect that he has been Zealous of the Privileges and Property and Rights of his Country-men but it was indifferent to him how the Service of God and the Affairs of Religion were managed II. The Second thing we observe from this Passage is The Apostle's carriage to the Vnbelieving Israelites who though they were zealous for God yet were in a great mistake as to their Notions of the true Religion He doth not bitterly censure them He is not fierce nor furious against them He doth not excite any person to use force or violence to them But he rather pities them He makes their Zeal that they had of God an Inducement the more heartily to pray for them that God would direct them in the right way that leads to Salvation Though he is far from approving their blind Zeal in so obstinately opposing the Righteousness of God that is that Method which God had prescribed for the attaining of Righteousnes by the Faith of Jesus Christ and setting up a Righteousness of their own which consisted chiefly in observing the Ceremonials of Moses his Law and the Traditions of their Fathers as it follows in the next Verse after my Text Yet he thinks them the more pitiable and the more excusable in that this their Opposition proceeded from their Zeal of God though it was a mis-informed irregular Zeal This practice and carriage of the Apostle towards these Ignorant Zealots ought to be a Rule for us to walk by in the like Cases If Men be of a different way from us as to Religion if they hold other Opinions or though they be of another Communion from us and though too we are sure they are mistaken Nay and dangerously mistaken too yet if they have a Zeal of God if they be serious and sincere in their way if their Errours in Religion be the pure results of a mis-informed Conscience Let us as the Apostle here did take occasion from hence to pity them and to put up hearty Prayers to God for them and to endeavour all we can by gentle methods to reduce them to the right way But by no means to express contempt or hatred of them or to treat them with Violence and Outrage So far as their Zeal is for God let us so far shew Tenderness and Compassion to them and if their Zeal be in such instances as are really commendable let us in such instances not only bear with them but propose them for our Examples This I say was the Apostle's practice and I think it is so agreeable to the Spirit and Temper of our great Lord and Master Christ that it will become us in like cases to act accordingly But then after I have said this These two things are always to be remembred First That our Tenderness to mistaken Zealots must always be so managed as that the true Religion or the Publick Peace suffer no dammage thereby And therefore how kindly and compassionately soever we as private Christians are to treat those that differ from us and pursue a wrong way out of Conscience Yet this doth not hinder but that both wholesome Laws may be made for the restraining the exorbitances of mistaken Zeal and when those Laws are made that they may be put in execution The Consideration of Law-givers and Magistrates is different from that of private Christians Their business is to see Nequid detrimenti respublica capiat that the Government be secured that the common peace be kept that the Laws of God be observed that God's Religion as it is delivered by Jesus Christ be preserved sincere and undefiled and that the solemn Worship of God be purely and decently performed And therefore there is no doubt but that in all these matters the Government may make Fences and Securities against the Insults of intemperate Zealots and when these Fences
Living and for the Dead And none among them dare deny this under pain of an Anathema as the Council of Trent hath ordered the matter Good God! whither will Interest and Faction and Zeal for a Party transport Men But it is not my business to expose them but to put you in mind of what concerns our selves namely as I said that when we come to the Lord's Table we do not approach thither with a belief that our Lord Jesus is there again offered but only with a design to commemorate his Sacrifice that was once offered We come not thither to sacrifice Christ but to be Partakers of his Sacrifice We are not to feast God but God there feasts us and that with the best Food in the World such Food as will nourish us to Eternal Life if we be worthy Guests Only we must not appear before God empty at this Solemnity We must offer to him of our Substance We must offer our Prayers and Supplications not only for our selves but for all the World but more especially for all that are called by the Name of Christ and among those most particularly for our own Church and Kingdom and all Orders and Degrees of Men therein We must offer likewise our selves our Souls and Bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is our reasonable service And lastly to conclude we must offer our most hearty and affectionate Thanks to God Almighty for that incomprehensible Instance of his Love in sending Christ Jesus to us to be our Saviour for his wonderful Birth for his holy Life for his pretious Death for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and for his Intercession for us at the right hand of God And O thou Blessed Saviour that hast done all this for us give us such a lively Sense of thy marvelous Love in leaving thy Glory and taking Humane Flesh upon thee that thou mightest dwell among us and instruct us in our Duty and assist us in the performance of it and encourage us thereto by the glorious Hopes of a never dying Life and at last make thy self an Offering for our Sins O let these things sink so deeply in our Minds and so wholly possess our Hearts that we may entirely give up our selves to thee That we may with our whole Souls embrace all thy Doctrines and Revelations That we may endeavour in all our Actions to conform our selves to thy Example and make it the Business of our Lives to be obedient to thy Precepts to submit to thy Will and to be contented to be disposed of by thee in all the Circumstances of our Lives O let nothing in thy Religion ever be an Offence to us But enable us to hold the Profession of our Faith in thee without wavering in all the Tryals and Difficulties thou shalt think fit to expose us to that so in Faith and Obedience in Patience and Perseverance we may ever wait for and at last obtain that Crown of Righteousness which thou hast laid up for all that love thee and expect thy second and more glorious Appearance To thee O eternal Son of God thou great Lover of Mankind to Thee who tookest upon thee to deliver Man and didst not abhor the Virgins womb to thee who overcamest the sharpness of death and didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers To thee O most dear O most beloved O most adorable Jesus be for ever given by us and by all the Souls whom thou hast redeemed and by all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth all Honour and Glory and Praise all Service and Love and Obedience henceforth and for evermore SERMON XII Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On EASTER-DAY 1692. Philip. iii. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection WE shall easily see the Design of these Words and what use we are to make of them if we look at their Connexion with the Discourse that goes before St. Paul in this Chapter sets himself to shew the Excellency and the great Advantages of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and how inconsiderable how unworthy to be named in comparison therewith all those things were that the Jews his Country-men so much gloried in His Discourse upon this occasion is so very remarkable that it will he worth our while to run over the particulars of it I also saith he in the 4th verse might have considence in the flesh If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the Flesh I more As if he had said Think not O Philippians that I therefore speak lightly of those Priviledges and Advantages which the Jews among you so much boast of upon this account because I have none of them my self No on the contrary if I would value my self upon such outward carnal things I have as much reason as any Nay there is not a Jew among you that perhaps can say so much on his own behalf in this respect as I can For as he goes on in the 5th and 6th verses I was circumcised the eighth day of the Stock of Israel of the Tribe of Penjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the Law a Pharisee concerning Zeal persecuting the Church touching the Righteousness which is by the Law blameless That is to say I have not only the Character of a Son of Abraham upon me being circumcised but I am also of the Race of 〈◊〉 which all the circumcised Children of Abraham are not Nay surther I am an Israelâ—â— of the Tribe of Benjamin that Benjamin which our Father Israel so dearly loved and of that Tribe which together with Judah kept him to the house of David and the true Religion when the other ten Tribes revolted Nay more I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews Not sprung from Proselytes as many among you are but all my Ancestors both by Father and Mother being natural born Jews And then as to my Profession in Religion it was the strictest among the Jews for I was a Pharisee And you all know That Sector all others to be the most eminent for the Reputation of Preciseness and Sanctity Neither did I in my Zeal for the 〈…〉 Moses come short of the strictest 〈…〉 is among you for who was more 〈…〉 eager more violent in persecuting â—…nity than I was And lastly To sum up all As to the Righteousness which is by the Law I am blâ—â—dless So punctual have I always been in observing the Precepts of Moses his Law that 〈◊〉 reprove me in theâ— point but I may truely in the Jewish notion of Righteousness be accounted a Righteous Person But now am I much the better for all these things Have I any great reason to glory upon the account of them No verily as he goes on in the 7th verse but what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ All these outward Advantages my Birth my Profession my Sect my Reputation my strict way of living which might have proved very beneficial to me in
all worldly respects when I once came to the knowledge of the Christian Religion I dispised them all For in truth I found that they were so far from being real Advantages to me that they were rather hindrances in the way of Vertue and Piety Yea doubtless as he goes on in the 8th verse I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ That is to say Not only the above-named priviledges but all other things whatsoever Wealth Greatness Fame Friends and Life it self I account them all very pitiful things if they be compared with the inestimable advantages of being a Christian As I have once so I will again readily forsake all part with all things that the World holds most dear and valuable nay I will trample them under my feet like dirt and dung provided I may obtain the Favour of Christ And as he goes on in the 9th verse that I might be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This passage hath been frequently misunderstood and interpreted to a sense that I believe St. Paul did not think of St. Paul doth not here oppose an inherent Righteousness to an imputed one but an outward natural legal Righteousness to that which is inward and spiritual and wrought in a Man by the Spirit of God The Righteousness which the Apostle here desires to be found in is not the Righteousness of Christ made his or imputed to him but a real Righteousness produced in his Soul by the Faith of Jesus Christ The plain Sense of the Verse seems to be this That which above all things I desire is to be found in Christ i. e. to be found a Disciple of his ingrafted into him by being a Member of his Church not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law i. e. not being content with those outward Priviledges and that outward Obedience which by my own natural Strength I am able to yield to the Precepts of the Law which is that Righteousness in which the Jews place their Confidence and by which they expect to be justified before God But that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that Righteousness which I desire and in which only I shall have the Confidence to appear before God is an inward Principle of Holiness that Spiritual renewed Obedience to God's I aws which he doth require as the condition of his Favour and Acceptance and which I can never attain to but by the Faith of Christ by becoming a Christian This is none of my own Righteousness but God's it being wrought in me by his Spirit accompanying the preaching of the Gospel and as it is his Gift so he will own it and reward it at the last â—ay This is the full importance of that Verse and then it follows by way of Explication of what he now said That I may know him and 〈…〉 Resurrection c. This is the 〈…〉 that I aspire after that I may know Christ nor only by a nâ—â—ional belief of his Doctrines 〈…〉 of his Religion but by a spirituâ—â— experimental Knowledge of him such a Knowledge as â—â—ansformâ—â—â— Spirit and Temper and that 〈…〉 the power of his 〈◊〉 i. e. then 〈◊〉 experience in my self all the good 〈…〉 that his Resurrection 〈◊〉 a power to work in me that I may see the Vertue and Efficacy of it in my daily dying to Sin and rising again to a 〈◊〉 holy and heavenly Life This is that Righteousness I long for and in comparison of which I account all things in the World but as less and as duâ—â— Thus have I given you a full account of the Text and all the Apostle's Discourse that it depends upon I now come to treat more particularly of it with reserence to the solemnity of this Day We all here present do profess to believe the Article of our Saviour's Resurrection and our business at this time is to celebrate the memory of it But we must not rest here We are not to look upon our Lord's Resurrection meerly as a thing to be believed or professed or commemorated or as a matter of Fact that only concerned himself But there is a great deal in it which doth nearly concern us The Apostle tells us there is a great Power in it even a Power of raising us from Sin to a Holy and Vertuous Life It is so ordered as to be capable of being and it ought to be a Principle of now Life in us as it was the beginning of a now Life in our Saviour Now this Vertue this Power this Efficacy of it as it is that which with the Apostle we ought all most earnestly to endeavour the experiencing in our selves so it is that which will be fittest for us at this time to apply our Meditations to My Work therefore at this time shall be to give some Account of the Power of Christ's Resurrection in order to the making Men good which the Apostle here speaks of to shew how or in what respects it doth instuence upon the Lives of Christians Now if we look into the Holy Scriptures we shall find that there is a four-fold Power attributed to it or that it hath an insluence upon our Lives in these four respects That is to say I. As it lays an Obligation upon Christians to Holiness and Vertue II. As it is the Principal Evidence of the Truth of our Religion the Design of which is to make Men Holy and Vertuous III. As it is the great Support of our future Hopes or our Hopes of another Life which indeed is the main Encouragement we have to apply our selves seriously to the business of Holiness and Vertue IV. And Fourthly as to it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Strength by which we are inabled to live Holily and Vertuously Of these four Points I shall Discourse very briesly I. And First of all our Saviour's Resurrection hath an influence upon our Practice as it lays an Obligation upon Christians to lead Holy and Vertuous Lives As it is in it self an incitement to Piety and heavenly-Mindedness This is indeed the lowest instance of its Power but yet we ought not to pass it by because the Writers of the New Testament do frequently insist on it For thus they argue If Christ was crucified for our Sins then ought we to crucifie them in our members And if Christ rose again the third day then are we ingaged in conformity to him to rise again to newness of Life to lead a Spiritual Divine Heavenly Life such a lise as he now lives with God And this in the ancient times was taught every Christian in and by his Baptism Whenever a person was baptized