and use and that 's the best thing which serves the best end and purpose and the more necessary any thing is to such an end the better it is So that the best knowledge is that which is of greatest use and necessity to us in order to our great end which is eternal happiness and the salvation of our Souls Curious speculations and the contemplation of things that are impertinent to us and do not concern us nor serve to promote our happiness are but a more specious and ingenious sort of idleness a more pardonable and creditable kind of Ignorance That Man that doth not know those things which are of use and necessity for him to know is but an ignorant man whatever he may know besides Now the knowledge of God and of Christ and of our duty is of the greatest usefulness and necessity to us in order to our happiness It 's of absolute necessity that we should know God and Christ in order to our being happy This is life eternal that is Joh. 17.3 the onely way to it to know thee the onely true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ It is necessary also in order to our happiness to know our duty because 't is necessary for us to do it and it is impossible to do it except we know it So that whatsoever other knowledge a man may be endued withall he is but an ignorant person who doth not know God the Author of his being the preserver and protector of his life his Soveraign and his Judge the giver of every good and perfect gift his surest refuge in trouble his best friend or worst enemy the present support of his life his hopes in death his future happiness and his portion for ever who does not know his relation to God the duty that he owes him and the way to please him who can make him happy or miserable for ever who doth not know the Lord Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life If a man by a vast and imperious mind and a heart large as the sand upon the Sea-shore as it is said of Solomon could command all the knowledge of Nature and Art of words and things could attain to a mastery in all Languages and sound the depths of all Arts and Sciences measure the earth and the heavens and tell the stars and declare their order and motions could discourse of the interests of all States the intrigues of all Courts the reason of all Civil laws and constitutions and give an account of the History of all ages could speak of trees from the Cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the Hysop that springs out of the wall and of beasts also and of fowls and of creeping things and of fishes and yet should in the mean time be destitute of the knowledge of God and Christ and his duty all this would be but an impertinent vanity and a more glittering kind of Ignorance and such a man like the Philosopher who whilst he was gazing upon the stars fell into the ditch would but sapienter descendere in infernum be undone with all this knowledge and with a great deal of wisdom go down to Hell 2. Secondly That to be religious is the truest wisdom and that likewise upon two accounts 1. Because it is to be wise for our selves 2. It is to be wise as to our main interest and concernment 1. 'T is to be wise for our selves There 's an expression Job 22.21 He that is wise is profitable to himself and Prov. 9.12 If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self intimating that wisdom regards a man 's own interest and advantage and that he is not a wise man that doth not take care of himself and his own concernments according to that of Old Ennius nequicquam sapere sapientem qui sibi ipsi prodesse non quiret That man hath but an empty title of Wisdom and is not really vvise vvho is not wise for himself As self-preservation is the first principle of Nature so care of our selves and our ovvn interest is the first part of wisdom He that is wise in the affairs and concernments of other men but careless and negligent of his own that man may be said to be busie but he is not wise he is employed indeed but not so as a wise man should be Now this is the Wisdom of Religion that it directs a man to a care of his own proper interest and concernment 2. It is to be wise as to our main interest Our chief end and highest interest is happiness And this is happiness to be freed from all if it may however from the greatest evils and to enjoy if it may be all good however the chiefest To be happy is not onely to be freed from the pains and diseases of the body but from anxiety and vexation of spirit not onely to enjoy the pleasures of sense but peace of Conscience and tranquillity of mind To be happy is not onely to be so for a little while but as long as may be and if it be possible for ever Now Religion designs our greatest and longest happiness it aims at a freedom from the greatest evils and to bring us to the possession and enjoyment of the greatest good For Religion wisely considers that men have immortal spirits which as they are spirits are capable of a pleasure and happiness distinct from that of our bodies and our senses and because they are immortal are capable of an everlasting happiness Now our souls being the best part of our selves and eternity being infinitely the most considerable duration the greatest wisdom is to secure the interest of our souls and of eternity though it be with loss and to the prejudice of our temporal and inferior Interests Therefore Religion directs us rather to secure inward peace than outward ease to be more carefull to avoid everlasting and intolerable torment than short and light afflictions which are but for a moment to court the favour of God more than the friendship of the world and not so much to fear them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do as him who after he hath kill'd can destroy both body and soul in hell In a word our main interest is to be as happy as we can and as long as is possible and if we be cast into such circumstances that we must be either in part and for a time or else wholly and always miserable the best wisdom is to chuse the greatest and most lasting happiness but the least and shortest misery Upon this account Religion prefers those pleasures which flow from the presence of God for evermore infinitely before the transitory pleasures of this world and is much more carefull to avoid eternal misery than present sufferings This is the wisdom of Religion that upon consideration of the whole and casting up all things together it does advise and lead us to our best interest
His Grace John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury SERMONS PREACH'D Upon several Occasions By His Grace JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The First Volume The Eighth Edition Corrected LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil and William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1694. To the Worshipfull the Masters of the Bench and the rest of the Members of the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn Gentlemen WHen I resolv'd to publish these Sermons there could be no dispute to whom I should dedicate them They do of right belong to you being most of them first preach'd among you besides my great obligation to you for your constant respects to me both in the favourable acceptance and in the generous encouragement of my labours ever since I had the honour and happiness to be related to you In a thankfull acknowledgment whereof I humbly present this small part of them to you hoping that by the blessing of God they may be of some use for the promoting of true piety and vertue which is the sincere wish and aim of Your most obliged and faithfull Servant John Cant. The Preface I Shall neither trouble the Reader nor my self with any apology for the publishing of these Sermons For if they be in any measure truly serviceable to the end for which they are design'd to establish men in the Principles of Religion and to recommend to them the practice of it with any considerable advantage I do not see what Apology is necessary and if they be not so I am sure none can be sufficient However if there need any the common heads of excuse in these cases are very well known and I hope I have an equal right to them with other men I shall chuse rather in this Preface to give a short account of the following Discourses and as briefly as I can to vindicate a single passage in the first of them from the Exceptions of a Gentleman who hath been pleas'd to honour it so far as to write a whole Book against it The Design of these Discourses is fourfold First To shew the unreasonableness of Atheism and of scoffing at Religion which I am sorry is so necessary to be done in this Age. This I have endeavour'd in the two first of these Discourses Secondly To recommend Religion to men from the great and manifold advantages which it brings both to publick Society and to particular persons And this is the argument of the third and fourth Thirdly To represent the excellency more particularly of the Christian Religion and to vindicate the practise of it from the suspicion of those grievous troubles and difficulties which many imagine it to be attended withall And this is the subject of the fifth and sixth Fourthly To perswade men to the practice of this holy Religion from the great obligation which the profession of Christianity lays upon men to that purpose and more particularly from the glorious rewards of another life which is the design of the two last Discourses Having given this short account of the following Discourses I crave leave of the Reader to detain him a little longer whilst I vindicate a passage in the first of these Sermons from the assaults of a whole Book purposely writ against it The Title of the Book is Faith vindicated from the possibility of Falshood The Author Mr. J. S. the famous Author of Sure footing He hath indeed in this last Book of his to my great amazement quitted that glorious Title Not that I dare assume to my self to have put him out of conceit with it by having convinc'd him of the phantasticalness of it No I despair to convince that man of any thing who after so fair an admonition does still persist to maintain * Letter of Thanks p. 24 c. that first and self-evident Principles not onely may but are fit to be demonstrated and †Ibid. p. 11. that those ridiculous identical Propositions that Faith is Faith and a Rule is a Rule are first Principle in this Controversie◠of the Rule of Faith without which nothing can be solidly concluded either about Rule or Faith But there was another reason for his quitting of that Title and a prudent one indeed He had forsaken the defence of Sure footing and then it became convenient to lay aside that Title for fear of putting people any more in mind of that Book I expected indeed after his Letter of Thanks in which he * P. 14. tells us he intended to throw aside the rubbish of my Book that in his Answer he might the better lay open the Fabrick of my Discourse and have nothing there to doe but to speak to solid Points I say after this I expected a full Answer to the solid Points as he is pleased to call them of my Book and that according to his excellent method of removing the rubbish in order to the pulling down of a building the Fabrick of my Book would long since have been demolish'd and laid even with the ground But especially when in the conclusion of that most civil and obliging Letter he threatn'd never to leave following on his blow till he had either brought Dr. Still and me to lay Principles that would bear the test or it was made evident to all the world that we had none I began as I had reason to be in a terrible fear of him and to look upon my self as a dead man And indeed who can think himself so considerable as not to dread this mighty man of Demonstration this Prince of Controvertists this great Lord and Possessour of First Principles But I perceive that great minds are mercifull and do sometimes content themselves to threaten when they could destroy For instead of returning a full Answer to my Book he according to their new mode of confuting Books manfully falls a nibbling at one single passage in it pag. 118. wherein he makes me to say for I say no such thing that the Rule of Christian Faith and consequently Faith it self is possible to be false Nay in his Letter of Thanks * P. 13. he says it is an avow'd Position in that place that Faith is possible to be false And to give the more countenance to this calumny he chargeth the same Position in equivalent terms of the possible falshood of Faith and that as to the chiefest and most fundamental Point the Tenet of a Deity upon the forementioned Sermon But because he knew in his conscience that I had avow'd no such Position he durst not cite the words either of my Book or Sermon lest the Reader should have discover'd the notorious falshood and groundlesness of this Calumny Nay he durst not so much as refer to any particular place in my Sermon where such a passage might be found And yet this is the Man that has the face to charge others with false citations to which charge before I have done I shall say something
reason spoils his understanding and helps to make himself a fool whereas he that conquers his passions and keeps them under doth thereby preserve and improve his understanding Freedom from irregular passions doth not onely signifie that a man is wise but really contributes to the making of him such 2. Religion tends to the ease and pleasure the peace and tranquillity of our minds wherein happiness chiefly consists and which all the wisdom and Philosophy of the world did always aim at as the utmost felicity of this life And that this is the natural fruit of a religious and vertuous course of life the Scripture declares to us in these Texts Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Great peace have all they that love thy Law Psal 119.165 and nothing shall offend them Her ways are ways of pleasantness Pro. 3.17 and all her paths are peace Isa 32.17 The fruit of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever The plain sense of which Texts is that pleasure and peace do naturally result from a holy and good life When a man hath once engag'd himself in a Religious course and is habituated to piety and holiness all the exercises of Religion and devotion all acts of goodness and vertue are delightfull to him To honour and worship God to pray to him and to praise him to study his will to meditate upon him and to love him all these bring great pleasure and peace along with them What greater contentment and satisfaction can there be to the mind of man when it is once purifi'd and refin'd from the dregs of sensual pleasures and delights and rais'd to its true height and pitch than to contemplate and admire the infinite excellencies and perfections of God to adore his greatness and to love his goodness How can the thoughts of God be troublesome to any one who lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world No man that loves goodness and righteous ness hath any reason to be afraid of God or to be disquieted with the thoughts of him There is nothing in God that is terrible to a good man but all the apprehensions which we naturally have of him speak comfort and promise happiness to such a one The consideration of his attributes is so far from being a trouble to him that it is his recreation and delight It is for wicked men to dread God and to endeavour to banish the thoughts of him out of their minds but a holy and vertuous man may have quiet and undisturb'd thoughts even of the justice of God because the terrour of it doth not concern him Now Religion doth contribute to the peace and quiet of our minds these two ways First By allaying those passions which are apt to ruffle and discompose our spirits Malice and hatred wrath and revenge are very fretting and vexatious and apt to make our minds sore and uneasie but he that can moderate these affections will find a strange ease and pleasure in his own spirit Secondly by freeing us from the anxieties of guilt and the fears of divine wrath and displeasure than which nothing is more stinging and tormenting and renders the life of man more miserable and unquiet And whaâ— a spring of peace and joy must it needs be to apprehend upon good grounds that God is reconcil'd to us and become our friend that all our sins are perfectly forgiven and shall never more be remembred against us What unexpressible comfort does overflow the pious and devout soul from the remembrance of a holy and well-spent life and a conscience of its own innocency and integrity And nothing but the practice of Religion and Vertue can give this ease and satisfaction to the mind of man For there is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds and consequently to our happiness and that is holiness and goodness which as it is the perfection so is it likewise the happiness of the Divine nature And on the contrary the chief part of the misery of wicked men and of those accursed spirits the Devils is this that they are of a disposition contrary to God they are envious and malicious and cruel and of such a temper as is naturally a torment and disquiet to it self And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of mens minds and till this be cur'd which can onely be done by Religion it is as impossible for a man to be happy that is pleas'd and contented within himself as it is for a sick man to be at ease Because such a man hath that within him which torments him and he cannot be at ease till that be remov'd The man's spirit is out of order and off the hinges and till that be put into its right frame he will be perpetually disquieted and can find no rest within himself The Prophet very fitly describes to us the unquiet condition of wicked men Isa 57.10.21 The wicked is like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked So long as sin and corruption abound in our hearts they will be restlesly working like wine which will be in a perpetual motion and agitation till it have purg'd it self of its dregs and foulness Secondly Religion does likewise tend to the happiness of the outward man Now the blessings of this kind are such as either respect our health or estate or reputation or relations and in respect of all these Religion is highly advantageous to us 1. As to our health a Religious and vertuous life doth eminently conduce to that and to long life as a consequent of it And in this sense I understand these following Texts Prov. 3.1 2. My Son forget not my Law but let thy heart keep my Commandments for length of days and long life shall they add to thee and v. 7 and 8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones and v. 16. among the temporal advantages of wisdom or Religion this is mention'd as the first and principal length of days is in her right hand and v. 18. she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and again Whoso findeth me findeth life but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8.35 36. that is injurious to his own life all they that hate me love death all which is undoubtedly true in a spiritual sense but is certainly meant by Solomon in the natural sense And these promises of the blessings of health and long life to good men are not only declaratory of the good pleasure and intention of God towards them but likewise of the natural tendency of the thing For Religion doth oblige men to the practice of those vertues which do in their
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his Childrens Children Prov. 14.26 and again In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his Children shall have a place of refuge But the wicked derives a curse upon all that is related to him he is said to trouble his own house and again Prov. 11.29 The wicked are overthrown and are not Prov. 12.7 but the house of the righteous shall stand But setting aside the consideration of God's Providence Religion doth likewise in its own nature tend to the welfare of those who are related to us because it lays the strictest obligations upon men to take care of their Families and Relations and to make the best provision both for their comfortable subsistance here in this world and their salvation in the next And those who neglect those duties the Scripture is so far from esteeming them Christians that it accounts them worse than Heathens and Infidels 1 Tim. 5.8 He that provideth not for his own especially those of his own house is worse than an Infidel and hath deny'd the faith This I know is spoken in respect of temporal provision but it holds à fortiori as to the care of their souls Besides it is many times seen that the posterity of holy and good men especially of such as have evidenc'd their piety towards God by bounty and charity to men have met with unusual kindness and respect from others and have by a strange and secret disposition of Divine providence been unexpectedly car'd and provided for and that as they have all the reason in the world to believe upon the account and for the sake of the piety and charity of their Parents This David tells us from his own particular observation Ps 37 2◠I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread And that by the righteous is here meant the good and mercifull man appears from the description of him in the next words Ver. 26. He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed And on the contrary the posterity of the wicked do many times inherit the fruit of their fathers sins and vices and that not onely by a just judgment of God but from the natural course and consequence of things And in this sense that expression in Job is often verifi'd that God lays up the iniquity of wicked men for their Children Job 21.19 And doth not experience testifie that the intemperate and unjust do many times transmit their bodily infirmities and diseases to their Children and entail a secret curse upon their estates which does either insensibly waste and consume it or eat out the heart and comfort of it Thus you see how Religion in all respects conduces to the happiness of this life II. Religion and Vertue do likewise most certainly and directly tend to the eternal happiness and salvation of men in the other world And this is incomparably the greatest advantage that redounds to men by being Religious in comparison of which all temporal considerations are less than nothing and vanity The worldly advantages that Religion brings to men in this present life are a sensible recommendation of Religion even to the lowest and meanest spirits But to those who are rais'd above sense and aspire after immortality who believe the perpetual duration of their souls and the resurrection of their bodies to those who are throughly convinc'd of the inconsiderableness of this short dying life and of all the concernments of it in comparison of that eternal state which remains for us in another life to these I say the consideration of a future happiness and of those unspeakable and everlasting rewards which shall then be given to holiness and vertue is certainly the most powerfull motive and the most likely to prevail upon them For those who are perswaded that they shall continue for ever cannot chuse but aspire after a happiness commensurate to their duration nor can any thing that is conscious to its self of its own immortality be satisfyed and contented with any thing less than the hopes of an endless felicity And this hope Religion alone gives men and the Christian Religion onely can settle men in a firm and unshaken assurance of it But because all men who have entertain'd any Religion have consented to these principles of the immortality of the soul and the recompences of another world and have always promis'd to themselves some rewards of piety and vertue after this life and because I did more particularly design from this Text to speak of the temporal benefits and adavantages which redound to men from Religion therefore I shall content my self to shew very briefly how a religious and vertuous life doth conduce to our future happiness And that upon these two accounts from the promise of God and from the nature of the thing 1. From the promise of God 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness saith the Apostle hath the promise of the life that is to come God hath all along in the Scripture suspended the promise of eternal life upon this condition He hath peremptorily declar'd that without obedience and holiness of life no man shall ever see the Lord. And this very thing that it is the constitution and appointment of God might be argument enough to us if there were no other to convince us of the necessity of obeying the Laws of God in order to our happiness and to perswade us thereunto For eternal life is the gift of God and he may do what he will with his own He is master of his own favours and may dispense them upon what terms and conditions he pleases But it is no hard condition that he hath imposed upon us If Religion brought no advantages to us in this world yet the happiness of heaven is so great as will abundantly recompence all our pains and endeavours there is temptation enough in the reward to engage any man in the work Had God thought fit to have impos'd the most grievous and difficult things upon us ought we not to have submitted to them and to have undertaken them with cheerfulness upon such great and glorious encouragements As Naaman's servants said to him in another case Had he bid thee doe some great thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had said that without poverty and actual martyrdom no man shall see the Lord would not any man that believes heaven and hell and understands what these words signifie and what it is to escape extream and eternal misery and to enjoy unspeakable and endless glory have been willing to accept these conditions How much more when he hath onely said wash and be clean and Let every man that hath this hope in Him purifie himself as he is pure But God hath not dealt thus with us nor is the imposing of this condition of eternal life a meer arbitrary constitution therefore I shall endeavour to shew 2dly That a
and insensible degrees of a pious and vertuous education These indeed are freed from a great deal of pains and difficulty which others who are reclaim'd from a bad course of life must expect to undergo They are in a great measure excused from the pangs of the new birth from the pains of a sudden and violent change from the terrours of an affrighted mind and from the deep and piercing sorrows of a more solemn repentance Whereas those who have lived wickedly before must look to meet with a great deal more trouble because they are put upon changing the whole course of their life at once and must contend with inveterate habits and offer no small violence to themselves in plucking up those vices which have been rooted in them by long custome and continuance This indeed is grievous and must needs be sensibly painfull like the plucking out of a right eye or the cutting off a right hand For in this case a man must strive against the very bent and inclination of his strongest appetites against the tyranny of custome and the mighty power of a second nature But this is no just reflection upon religion because this does not proceed from the nature of God's laws but from an accidental indisposition in our selves which Religion is apt to remove And if we will but allow some time of trouble and uneasiness for the cure when that is once wrought the commands of God will be more easie and delightfull to us than ever our sins and lusts were III. Nor does this exclude our after care and diligence For when the Apostle says that the commandments of God are not grievous he does by no means intend to insinuate that they are calculated for slothfull and lazy persons that they are so easy as to require no industry and endeavour on our part he onely aims to prevent a tacit objection which lies at the bottom of many mens hearts as if Religion were a most grievous and intolerable burthen and there were more trouble and less pleasure in it than in any other action of humane life This he utterly denies but does not hereby intend to exclude such diligence and industry as men use about other matters And if I should tell you that the business of Religion does not require a very vigorous prosecution and great earnestness of endeavour I shall speak quite besides the holy Scriptures which so frequently command seeking and striving and labouring besides many other such phrases that import diligence and earnestness And indeed it were unfit that so excellent and glorious a reward as the Gospel promises should stoop down like fruit upon a full-laden bough to be pluck'd by every idle and wanton hand that Heaven should be prostituted to the lazy desires and faint wishes to the cheap and ordinary endeavours of slothfull men God will not so much disparage eternal life and happiness as to bestow it upon those who have conceived so low an opinion of it as not to think it worth the labouring for And surely this is sufficient to recommend Religion to any considerate man if the advantages of it be much greater than of any worldly design that we can propound to our selves and the difficulties of it not greater If the same seriousness and industry of endeavour which men commonly use to raise a fortune and advance themselves in the world will serve to make a man a good man and to bring him to Heaven what reason hath any man to complain of the hard terms of Religion And I think I may truly say that usually less than this does it For God considers our condition in this world and the pressing necessities of this life that we are flesh as well as spirit and that we have great need of these things and therefore he allows us to be very sedulous and industrious about them However this I am sure of that if men would be as serious to save their immortal souls as they are to support these dying bodies if they would but provide for eternity with the same sollicitude and real care as they do for this life if they would but seek Heaven with the same ardour of affection and vigour of prosecution as they seek earthly things if they would but love God as much as many men do the World and mind godliness as much as men usually do gain if they would but go to Church with as good a will as men ordinarily do to their Markets and Fairs and be in as good earnest at their devotions as men commonly are in driving a bargain if they would but endure some troubles and inconveniences in the ways of Religion with the same patience and constancy as they can do storms and foul ways and mischances when they are travelling about their worldly occasions If they would but avoid bad company as men use to do cheaters and reject the temptations of the devil and the world as they would do the kind words and insinuations of a man whom they verily believe to have a design to over-reach them I am confident that such a one could not fail of Heaven and would be much surer of it upon these terms than any man that doth all the other things could be of getting an estate or of attaining any thing in this world And cannot every man do thus much All that I have said signifies no more but that men should use their sincere endeavours and this surely every man can do For to use our sincere endeavours is nothing else but to do as much as we can and it is non-sense for any man to deny that he can do as much as he can And if we would do thus much we are sure of God's grace and assistance which is never wanting to the sincere endeavours of men But men expect that Religion should cost them no pains that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavour on their part and that after they have done what they please while they live God should snatch them up to Heaven when they dye But though the commandments of God be not grievous yet it is sit to let men know that they are not thus easie IV. All the difficulties of Religion are very much allay'd and sweeten'd by hope and by love By the hopes of a mighty reward so great as is enough to raise us above our selves and to make us break through all difficulties and discouragements And by the love of God who hath taken all imaginable ways to endear himself to us He gave us our beings and when we were fallen from that happiness to which at first we were design'd he was pleas'd to restore us to a new capacity of it by sending his onely Son into the world to die for us So that if we have any sense of kindness we cannot but love him who hath done so much to oblige us and if we love him entirely nothing that he commands will be grievous to us nay so far from that that
the knowledge of our Creator and of the duty we owe to him the wisdom of pleasing God by doing what he commands and avoiding what he forbids This Knowledge and Wisdom may be attained by man and is sufficient to make him happy And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding These words consist of two Propositions which are not distinct in sense but one and the same thing variously express'd For wisedom and understanding are synonymous words here and though sometimes they have different notions yet in the Poetical Books of Scripture they are most frequently used as words equivalent and do both of them indifferently signifie either a speculative knowledge of things or a practical skill about them according to the exigency of the matter or thing spoken of And so likewise the fear of the Lord and departure from evil are phrases of a very near sense and like importance and therefore we find them several times put together in Scripture Pro. 3.7 Pr. 16.6 Fear the Lord and depart from evil By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil So that they differ onely as cause and effect which by a Metonymie usual in all sorts of Authors are frequently put one for another Now to fear the Lord and to depart from evil are phrases which the Scripture useth in a very great latitude to express to us the sum of Religion and the whole of our duty And because the large usage of these phrases is to be the foundation of my following discourse I shall for the farther clearing of this matter endeavour to shew these two things 1. That 't is very usual in the Language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by these and such like phrases 2. The particular fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion I. It is very usual in the Language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by some eminent principle or part of Religion The great Principles of Religion are knowledge faith remembrance love and fear by all which the Scripture useth to express the whole duty of man In the Old Testament by the knowledge remembrance and fear of God Religion is called The knowledge of the holy Prov. 30.3 Jer. 10.25 And wicked men are described to be such as know not God So likewise by the fear of the Lord frequently in this Book of Job and in the Psalms and Proverbs And Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another And the fear of God is expresly said to be the sum of Religion Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of man And on the contrary the wicked are described to be such as have not the fear of God before their eyes Ps 36.1 And so likewise by the remembrance of God Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth Eccl. 12.1 that is enter upon a religious course betimes And on the contrary the character of the wicked is that they forget God The wicked shall be turned into Hell Ps 9.17 and all the Nations that forget God In the New Testament Religion is usually expressed by faith in God and Christ and the love of them Hence it is that true Christians are so frequently called believers and wicked and ungodly men unbelievers And that good men are described to be such as love God all things shall work together for good to them that love God Ro. 8.28 Eph. 6.24 and such as love the Lord Iesus Christ Now the reason why these are put for the whole of Religion is because the belief and knowledge and remembrance and love and fear of God are such powerfull principles and have so great an influence upon men to make them Religious that where any one of these really is all the rest together with the true and genuine effects of them are supposed to be And so likewise the sum of all Religion is often expressed by some eminent part of it which will explain the second phrase here in the Text departing from evil The worship of God is an eminent part of Religion and Prayer which is often in Scripture expressed by seeking God and calling upon his Name is a chief part of Religious worship Hence Religion is described by seeking God Heb. 11.6 He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and by calling upon his name Acts 2.21 Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved And so by coming to God and by departing from evil In this fallen state of man Religion begins with repentance and conversion the two opposite terms of which are God and Sin Hence it is that Religion is described sometimes by coming to God Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that he is that is no man can be religious unless he believe there is a God Is 59.15 sometimes by departing from sin And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey that is such was the bad state of those times of which the Prophet there complains that no man could be religious but he was in danger of being persecuted II. For the fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion 1. For the first the fear of the Lord The fitness of this phrase will appear if we consider how great an influence the fear of God hath upon men to make them religious Fear is a passion that is most deeply rooted in our natures and flows immediately from that Principle of self-preservation which God hath planted in every man Every one desires his own preservation and happiness and therefore hath a natural dread and horrour of every thing that can destroy his Being or endanger his happiness And the greatest danger is from the greatest power and that is omnipotency So that the fear of God is an inward acknowledgment of a holy and just Being which is armed with an almighty and irresistible power God having hid in every Man's Conscience a secret awe and dread of his infinite power and eternal justice Now fear being so intimate to our natures it is the strongest bond of Laws and the great security of our duty There are two bridles or restraints which God hath put upon humane nature shame and fear Shame is the weaker and hath place onely in those in whom there are some remainders of vertue Fear is the stronger and works upon all who love themselves and desire their own preservation Therefore in this degenerate state of mankind fear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us and by which God and his Laws take the surest hold of us Our desire and love and hope are not so apt to be wrought upon by the representation of vertue and the promises of reward and happiness as our fear is from the apprehensions of Divine displeasure For though we have lost in a great measure the gust and relish of true happiness yet we
II. The Second way of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to shew the ignorance and folly of irreligion Now all that are irreligious are so upon one of these two accounts Either First because they do not believe the foundations and principles of Religion as the existence of God the immortality of the soul and future rewards or else Secondly because though they do in some sort believe these things yet they live contrary to this their belief and of this kind are the far greatest part of wicked men The first sort are guilty of that which we call speculative the other of practicall Atheism I shall endeavour to shew the Ignorance and Folly of both these First Speculative Atheism is unreasonable and that upon these Five accounts 1. Because it gives no tolerable account of the existence of the world 2. Nor does it give any reasonable account of the universal consent of mankind in this apprehension That there is a God 3. It requires more evidence for things than they are capable of 4. The Atheist pretends to know that which no man can know 5. Atheism contradicts it self I. Because it gives no tolerable account of the existence of the world One of the greatest difficulties that lies in the Atheist's way is upon his own supposition that there is no God to give a likely account of the existence of the world We see this vast frame of the World and an innumerable multitude of creatures in it all which we who believe a God attribute to him as the Author of them For a being suppos'd of infinite goodness and wisedom and power is a very likely cause of these things What more likely to make this vast world to stretch forth the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and to form these and all things in them of nothing than infinite power What more likely to communicate Being and so many degrees of happiness to so many several sorts of creatures than infinite goodness What more likely to contrive this admirable frame of the Universe and all the creatures in it each of them so perfect in their kind and all of them so fitted to each other and to the whole than infinite counsel and wisedom This seems to be no unreasonable account But let us see now what account the Atheist gives of these things If there be no God there are but these two ways imaginable for the world to be Either it must be said That not onely the Matter but also the Frame of this world is eternal and that as to the main things always were as they are without any first cause of their being which is the way of the Aristotelian Atheist those I mean who proceed upon Aristotle's supposition of the eternity of the world but yet deny it to be from God which he expresly asserts Or else the matter of the world being supposed to be eternal and of it self the original of this vast and beautifull frame must be ascribed morely to chance and the casual concourse of the parts of matter which is the way of the Epicurean Atheist But neither of these ways gives a tolerable account of the existence of the world 1. I shall first consider the Hypothesis of those whom for distinction sake I call the Aristotelian Atheists which is this That not only the matter but also the frame of the world is eternal and that as to the main it was always as it is of it self and that there hath been from all eternity a succession of men and other creatures without any first cause of their being It seems to be very hard and if that would do any good might be just matter of complaint that we are fallen into so prophane and sceptical an age which takes a pleasure and a pride in unravilling almost all the received principles both of Religion and Reason So that we are put many times to prove those things which can hardly be made plainer than they are of themselves And such almost are these Principles That God is and That all things were made by him which by reason of the bold cavils of perverse and unreasonable men we are now a-days put to defend That something is of it self is evident because we see things are And the things that we see must either have had some first cause of their being or have been always and of themselves One of these two is unavoidable So that the controversie between us and this sort of Atheist comes to this Which is the more credible opinion that the world was never made nor had a beginning but always was as it is and that there hath been from all eternity a succession of men and other creatures without any first cause of their being or that there was from all eternity such a being as we conceive God to be infinite in power goodness and wisedom which made us and all other things The first of these opinions I shall shew to be altogether incredible and the latter to have all the credibility and evidence of which a thing of that nature is capable and such evidence as is sufficient to convince any impartial and considerate man Now in comparing the probabilities of things that we may know on which side the advantage lies these two considerations are of great moment What the arguments are on each side and what the difficulties For if there be fair proofs on the one side and none at all on the other and if the most pressing difficulties be on that side on which there are no proofs this is sufficient to render one opinion very credible and the other altogether incredible These two things therefore I shall endeavour to make good in the matter that is now under our consideration First That there are fair proofs on our side and as convincing as the nature of the things is capable of but that there is no pretence of proof on the other And Secondly That the side on which there is no proof is incumbred with the greatest difficulties First That there are fair proofs on our side and as convincing as the nature of the thing is capable of but that there is no pretence of proof on the other This Question Whether the world was created and had a beginning or not is a question concerning an ancient matter of fact which can onely be decided these two ways by testimony and by probabilities of reason Testimony is the principal argument in a matter of this nature and if fair probabilities of reason concur with it this argument hath all the strength it can have Now both these are clearly on the affirmative side of the question viz. That the world was created and had a beginning 1. Testimony of which there be two kinds Divine and Humane Divine testimony as such is not proper to be us'd in this cause considering the occasion of the present debate For that would be to beg the first and main question now in controversie which is Whether there be a God
apprehension of a God doth spring from an infinite jealousie in the mind of man and an endless fear of the worst that may happen according to that divine saying of the Poet which he can never sufficiently admire Primum in orle Deos fecit timor Fear first made Gods So that it is granted on both sides that the fear of a Deity doth universally possess the minds of men Now the question is whether it be more likely that the existence of a God should be the cause of this fear or that this fear should be the cause why men imagine there is a God if there be a God who hath impressed this image of himself upon the mind of Man there 's great reason why all men should stand in awe of him But if there be no God it is not easie to conceive how fear should create an universal confidence and assurance in men that there is one For whence should this fear come It must be either from without from the suggestion of others who first tell us there is such a being and then our fear believes it or else it must arise from within from the nature of man which is apt to fansie dreadfull and terrible things If from the suggestion of others who tell us so the question returns who told them so and will never be satisfied till the first Author of this report be found out So that this account of fear resolves it self into tradition which shall spoken to in its proper place But if it be said that this fear ariseth from within from the nature of man which is apt to imagine dreadfull things this likewise is liable to inexplicable difficulties For First The proper object of fear is something that is dreadfull that is something that threatens men with harm or danger and that in God must either be power or justice and such an object as this fear indeed may create But Goodness and Mercy are essential to the notion of a God as well as power and justice now how should fear put men upon fansying a being that is infinitely good and merciful No man hath reason to be afraid of such a being as such So that the Atheist must joyn another cause to fear viz. hope to enable men to create this imagination of a God And what would the product of these two contrary passions be the imagination of a being which we should fear would do us as much harm as we could hope it would do us good which would be quid pro quo and which our reason would oblige us to lay aside so soon as we have fansied it because it would signifie just nothing But Secondly suppose fear alone could do it how comes the mind of man to be subject to such groundless and unreasonable fears The Aristotelian Atheist will say it always was so But this is to affirm and not to give any account of a thing The Epicurean Atheist if he will speak consonantly to himself must say that there happened in the original constitution of the first men such a contexture of Atomes as doth naturally dispose men to these panick fears unless he will say that the first men when they grew out of the earth and afterwards broke loose from their root finding themselves weak and naked and unarmed and meeting with several fierce Creatures stronger than themselves they were put into such a fright as did a little distemper their understandings and let loose their imaginations to endless suspicions and unbounded jealousies which did at last settle in the conceit of an invisible being infinitely powerful and able to do them harm and being fully possest with this apprehension nothing being more ordinary than for crazed persons to believe their own fancies they became religious and afterwards when mankind began to be propagated in the way of generation then Religion obliged them to instill these Principles into their Children in their tender years that so they might make the greater impression upon them and this course having been continued ever since the notion of a God hath been kept up in the world This is very suitable to Epicurus his Hypothesis of the original of men But if any man think fit to say thus I cannot think it fit to confute him Thirdly whether men were from all eternity such timorous and fancifull Creatures or hapned to be made so in the first constitution of things it seems however that this fear of a Deity hath a foundation in nature And if it be natural ought we not rather to conclude that there is some ground and reason for these fears and that nature hath not planted them in us to no purpose than that they are vain and groundless There is no principle that Aristotle the great assertor of the eternity of the world doth more frequently inculcate than this That nature doeth nothing in vain and the Atheist himself is forc'd to acknowledge and so every man must who attentively considers the frame of the world That although things were made by chance yet they have happen'd as well as if the greatest wisedom had the ordering and contriving of them And surely wisedom would never have planted such a vain principle as the fear of a Deity in the nature of man if there had not been a God in the world Secondly If fear be not a sufficient account of this universal consent the Atheist thinks it may very probably be resolved into universal Tradition But this likewise is liable to great exception For whence came this Tradition It must begin some time it must have its original from some body and it were very well worth our knowing who that man was that first raised this spirit which all the reason of mankind could never conjure down since Where did he live and when In what Countrey and in what Age of the world What was his name or his sons name that we may know him This the Atheist can give no punctual account of only he imagines it not improbable that some body long ago no body knows when beyond the memory of all Ages did start such a notion in the world and that it hath past for current ever since But if this Tradition be granted so very ancient as to have been before all Books and to be elder than any History it may for any thing any body can tell have been from the beginning and then it is much more likely to be a notion which was bred in the mind of man and born with him than a Tradition transmitted from hand to hand through all Generations especially if we consider how many rude and barbarous Nations there are in the world which consent in the opinion of a God and yet have scarce any certain Tradition of any thing that was done among them but two or three Ages before Thirdly But if neither of these be satisfactory he hath one way more which although it signifie little to men of sober and severe Reason yet it very unhappily hits
the jealous and suspicious humour of the generality of men who from the experience they have had of themselves and others are very apt to suspect that every body but especially their Superiours and Governours have a design to impose upon them for their own ends In short it is this that this noise about a God is a mere State-Engine and a Politick device invented at first by some great Prince or Minister of State to keep People in awe and order And if so from hence saith the Atheist we may easily apprehend how from such an original it might be generally propagated and become universally current having the stamp of publick authority upon it Besides that people have always been found easie to comply with the inclinations of their Prince And from hence likewise we may see the reason why this notion had continued so long For being found by experience to be so excellent an instrument of government we may be sure it would always be cherished and kept up And now he triumphs and thinks the business is very clear Thus it was some time or other most probably towards the beginning of the world if it had a beginning when all mankind was under one universal Monarch some great Nebuchadnezzar set up this Image of a Deity and commanded all people and Nations to fall down and worship it And this being found a successful device to awe people into obedience to government it hath been continued to this day and is like to last to the end of the world To this fine Conjecture I have these four things to say 1. That all this is mere conjecture and supposition he cannot bring the least shadow of proof or evidence for any one tittle of it 2. This supposition grants the opinion of a God to conduce very much to the support of government and order in the world and consequently to be very beneficial to mankind So that the Atheist cannot but acknowledge that it is great pity that it should not be true and that it is the common interest of mankind if there were but probable Arguments for it not to admit of any slight reasons against it and to punish all those who would seduce men to Atheism as the great disturbers of the world and pests of humane Society 3. This supposition can have nothing of certainty in it unless this be true that whoever makes a politick advantage of other mens principles ought to be presumed to contrive those principles into them Whereas it is much more common because more easie for men to serve their own ends of those principles or opinions which they do not put into men but find there So that if the question of a God were to be decided by the probability of this conjecture which the Atheist applauds himself most in it would be concluded in the affirmative It being much more likely since Politicians reap the advantages of obedience and a more ready submission to government from mens believing that there is a God that they found the minds of men prepossessed to their hands with the notion of a God than that they planted it there 4. We have as much evidence of the contrary to this supposition as such a thing is capable of viz. that it was not an arcanum imperii a secret of government to propagate the belief of a God among the people when the Governours themselves knew it to be a cheat For we find in the Histories of all Ages of which we have any records and of other Ages we cannot possibly judge that Princes have not been more secure from troubles of conscience and the fears of Religion and the terrors of another world nay many of them more subject to these than other men as I could give many instances and those no mean ones What made Caligula creep under the bed when it thunder'd What made Tiberius that great Master of the crafts of government complain so much of the grievous stings and lashes he felt in his Conscience What made Cardinal Woolsey that great Minister of State in our own Nation to pour forth his soul in those sad words Had I been as diligent to please my God as I have been to please my King he would not have forsaken me now in my gray hairs What reason for such actions and speeches if these great men had known that Religion was but a cheat But if they knew nothing of this secret I think we may safely conclude that the notion of a God did not come from the Court that it was not the invention of Politicians and a juggle of State to cozen the people into obedience And now from all this that hath been said it seems to be very evident that the general consent of mankind in this apprehension that there is a God must in all reason be ascribed to some more certain and universal cause than fear or tradition or State-policy viz. to this that God himself hath wrought this image of himself upon the mind of man and so woven it into the very frame of his being that like Phidias his Picture in Minerva's Shield it can never totally be defaced without the ruine of humane nature I know but one Objection that this discourse is liable to which is this That the universal consent of mankind in the apprehension of a God is no more an Argument that He really is than the general agreement of so many Nations for so many Ages in the worship of many Gods is an Argument that there are many To this I answer i. That the generality of the Philosophers and wise men of all Nations and Ages did dissent from the multitude in these things They believed but one Supreme Deity which with respect to the various benefits men received from him had several titles bestowed upon him And although they did servilely comply with the people in worshipping God by sensible images and representations yet it appears by their writings that they despised this way of worship as superstitious and unsuitable to the nature of God So that Polytheism and Idolatry are far from being able to pretend to universal consent from their having had the vote of the multitude in most Nations for several Ages together Because the opinion of the vulgar separated from the consent and approbation of the wise signifies no more than a great many Cyphers would do without figures 2. The gross ignorance and mistakes of the Heathen about God and his worship are a good argument that there is a God because they shew that men sunk into the most degenerate condition into the greatest blindness and darkness imaginable do yet retain some sense and awe of a Deity that Religion is a property of our natures and that the notion of a Deity is intimate to our understandings and sticks close to them seeing men will rather have any God than none and rather than want a Deity they will worship any thing 3. That there have been so many false Gods devis'd is rather
of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to vindicate Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence And they are chiefly these three 1. Credulity 2. Singularity 3. Making a Foolish Bargain First Credulity Say they the foundation of Religion is the belief of those things for which we have no sufficient reason and consequently of which we can have no good assurance as the belief of a God and of a future state after this life things which we never saw nor did experience nor ever spoke with any body that did Now it seems to argue too great a forwardness and easiness of belief to assent to any thing upon insufficient grounds To this I answer 1. That if there be such a Being as a God and such a thing as a future state after this life it cannot as I said before in reason be expected that we should have the evidence of sense for such things For he that believes a God believes such a Being as hath all perfections among which this is one that he is a spirit and consequently that he is invisible and cannot be seen He likewise that believes another life after this professeth to believe a state of which in this life we have no trial and experience Besides if this were a good objection that no man ever saw these things it strikes at the Atheist as well as us For no man ever saw the World to be from eternity nor Epicurus his Atoms of which notwithstanding he believes the World was made 2. We have the best evidence for these things which they are capable of at present supposing they were 3. Those who deny these principles must be much more credulous that is believe things upon incomparably less evidence of reason The Atheist looks upon all that are religious as a company of credulous fools But he for his part pretends to be wiser than to believe any thing for company he cannot entertain things upon those slight grounds which move other men if you would win his assent to any thing you must give him a clear demonstration for it Now there 's no way to deal with this man of reason this rigid exactor of strict demonstration for things which are not capable of it but by shewing him that he is an hundred times more credulous that he begs more principles takes more things for granted without offering to prove them and assents to more strange conclusions upon weaker grounds than those whom he so much accuseth of credulity And to evidence this I shall briefly give you an account of the Atheist's Creed and present you with a Catalogue of the fundamental Articles of his Faith He believes that there is no God nor possibly can be and consequently that the wise as well as unwise of all ages have been mistaken except himself and a few more He believes that either all the world have been frighted with an apparition of their own fancy or that they have most unnaturally conspired together to cozen themselves or that this notion of a God is a trick of policy though the greatest Princes and Politicians do not at this day know so much nor have done time out of a mind He believes either that the Heavens and the Earth and all things in them had no Original cause of their being or else that they were made by chance and happened he knows not how to be as they are and that in this last shuffling of matter all things have by great good fortune fallen out as happily and as regularly as if the greatest wisedom had contriv'd them but yet he is resolv'd to believe that there was no wisedom in the contrivance of them He believes that matter of it selâ— is utterly void of all sense understanding and liberty but for all that he is of opinion that the parts of matter may know and then happen to be so conveniently dispos'd as to have all these qualities and most dextrously to performe all those fine and free operations which the ignorant attribute to Spirits This is the sum of his belief And it is a wonder that there should be found any person pretending to reason or wit that can assent to such a heap of absurdities which are so gross and palpable that they may be felt So that if every man had his due it will certainly fall to the Atheist's share to be the most credulous person that is to believe things upon the slightest reasons For he does not pretend to prove any thing of all this only he finds himself he knows not why inclin'd to believe so and to laugh at those that do not II. The second imputation is singularity the affectation whereof is unbecoming a wise man To this charge I answer I. If by Religion be meant the belief of the principles of Religion that there is a God and a providence that our souls are immortal and that there are rewa ds to be expected after this life these are so far from being singular opinions that they are and always have been the general opinion of mankind even of the most barbarous Nations Insomuch that the Histories of ancient times do hardly furnish us with the names of above five or six persons who denied a God And Lucretius acknowledgeth that Epicurus was the first who did oppose those great foundations of Religion the providence of God and the immortality of the soul Primum Grajus homo c. meaning Epicurus 2. If by Religion be meant a living up to those principles that is to act conformably to our best reason and understanding and to live as it does become those who do believe a God and a future state this is acknowledged even by those who live otherwise to be the part of every wise man and the contrary to be the very madness of folly and height of distraction Nothing being more ordinary than for men who live wickedly to acknowledge that they ought to do otherwise 3. Though according to the common course and practice of the world it be somewhat singular for men truly and throughly to live up to the principles of their Religion yet singularity in this matter is so far from being a reflexion upon any man's prudence that it is a singular commendation of it In two cases singularity is very commendable 1. When there is a necessity of it in order to a man's greatest interest and happiness I think it to be a reasonable account for any man to give why he does not live as the greatest part of the World do that he has no mind to die as they do and to perish with them he is not disposed to be a fool and to be miserable for company he has no inclination to have his last end like theirs who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son and shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. It is very commendable to be singular in
any excellency and I have shewn that Religion is the greatest excellency to be singular in any thing that is wise and worthy and excellent is not a disparagement but a praise every man would chuse to be thus singular III. The third imputation is that Religion is a foolish bargain because they who are religious hazard the parting with a present and certain happiness for that which is future and uncertain To this I answer 1. Let it be granted that the assurance which we have of future rewards falls short of the evidence of sense For I doubt not but that saying of our Saviour blessed is he who hath believed and not seen and those expressions of the Apostle we walk by faith and not by sight and faith is the evidence of things not seen are intended by way of abatement and diminution to the evidence of Faith and do sign fie that the report and testimony of others is not so great evidence as that of our own senses And though we have sufficient assurance of another state yet not man can think we have so great evidence as if we our selves had been in the other world and seen how all things are there 2. We have sufficient assurance of these things and such as may beget in us a well grounded confidence and frees us from all doubts of the contrary and perswade a reasonable man to venture his greatest interests in this world upon the security that he hath of another For 1. We have as much assurance of these things as things future and at a distance are capable of and he is a very unreasonable man that would desire more Future and invisible things are not capable of the evidence of sense but we have the greatest rational evidence for them and in this every reasonable man ought to rest satisfi'd 2. We have as much as is abundantly sufficient to justifie every man's discretion who for the great and eternal things of another world hazards or parts with the poor and transitory things of this life And for the clearing of this it will be worth our considering that the greatest affairs of this world and the most important concernments of this life are all conducted onely by moral demonstrations Men every day venture their lives and estates onely upon moral assurance For instance men who never were at the east or West-Indies or in Turky or Spain yet do venture their whole estate in traffick thither though they have no Mathematical demonstration but onely moral assurance that there are such places Nay which is more men every day eat and drink though I think no man can demonstrate out of Euclide or Apollonius that his Baker or Brewer or Cook have not conveyed poison into his meat or drink And that man that would be so wise and cautious as not to eat or drink till he could demonstrate this to himself I know no other remedy for him but that in great gravity and wifedom he must die for fear of death And for any man to urge that though men in temporal affairs proceed upon moral assurance yet there is greater assurance required to make men seek Heaven and avoid Hell seems to me to be highly unreasonable For such an assurance of things as will make men circumspect and carefull to avoid a lesser dangér ought in all reason to awaken men much more to the avoiding of a greater such an assurance as will sharpen mens desires and quicken their endeavours for the obtaining of a lesser good ought in all reason to animate men more powerfully and to inspire them with a greater vigour and industry in the pursuit of that which is infinitely greater For why the same assurance should not operate as well in a great danger as in a less in a great good as in a small and inconsiderable one I can see no reason unless men will say that the greatness of an evil danger is an incouragement to men to run upon it and that the greatness of any good and happiness ought in reason to dishearten men from the pursuit of it And now I think I may with reason entreat such as are atheistically inclined to consider these things seriously and impartially and if there be weight in these considerations which I have offered to them to sway with reasonable men I would beg of such that they would not suffer themselves to be byassed by prejudice or passion or the interest of any lust or worldly advantage to a contrary perswasion First I would entreat them seriously and diligently to consider these things because they are of so great moment and concernment to every man If any thing in the world deserve our serious study and consideration these principles of Religion do For what can import us more to be satisfied in than whether there be a God or not whether our Souls shall perish with our bodies or be immortal and shall continue for ever And if so whether in that eternal state which remains for men after this life they shall not be happy or miserable for ever according as they have demeaned themselves in this world If these things be so they are of infinite consequence to us and therefore it highly concerns us to enquire diligently about them and to satisfie our minds concerning them one way or other For these are not matters to be slightly and superficially thought upon much less as the way of atheistical men is to be played and jested withall There is no greater argument of a light and inconsiderate person than prophanely to scoff at Religion It is a sign that that man hath no regard to himself and that he is not touched with a sense of his own interest who loves to be jesting with edg'd tools and to play with life and death This is the very mad-man that Solomon speaks of Prov. 26.18 who casteth fire-brands arrows and death and saith am I not in sport To examine severely and debate seriously the principles of Religion is a thing worthy of a wise man but if any man shall turn Religion into raillery and think to confute it by two or three bold jests this man doth not render Religion but himself ridiculous in the opinion of all considerate men because he sports with his own life If the principles of Religion were doubtfull and uncertain yet they concern us so nearly that we ought to be serious in the examination of them And though they were never so clear and evident yet they may be made ridiculous by vain and frothy men as the gravest and wisest person in the world may be abused by being put into a fools coat and the most noble and excellent Poem may be debased and made vile by being turned into burlesque But of this I shall have occasion to speak more largely in my next discourse So that it concerns every man that would not trifle away his soul and fool himself into irrecoverable misery with the greatest seriousness to enquire into these matters whether
they be so or not and patiently to consider the arguments which are brought for them For many have miscarried about these things not because there is not reason and evidence enough for them but because they have not had patience enough to consider them Secondly Consider these things impartially All wicked men are of a party against Religion Some lust or interest ingageth them against it Hence it comes to pass that they are apt to slight the strongest arguments that can be brought for it and to cry up very weak ones against it Men do generally and without difficulty assent to Mathematical truths because it is no bodies interest to deny them but men are slow to believe moral and divine Truths because by their lusts and interest they are prejudiced against them And therefore you may observe that the more vertuously any man lives and the less he is enslaved to any lust the more ready he is to entertain the principles of Religion Therefore when you are examining these matters do not take into consideration any sensual or worldly interest but deal clearly and impartially with your selves Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a greater and more durable interest Think thus with your selves that you have not the making of things true or false but that the truth and existence of things is already fix'd and setled and that the principles of Religion are already either determinately true or false before you think of them either there is a God or there is not either your Souls are Immortal or they are not one of these is certain and necessary and is not now to be altered the truth of things will not comply with our conceits and bend it self to our interests Therefore do not think what you would have to be but consider impartially what is and if it be will be whether you will or no. Do not reason thus I would fain be wicked and therefore it is my interest that there should be no God nor no life after this and therefore I will endeavour to prove that there is no such thing and will shew all the favour I can to that side of the question I will bend my understanding and wit to strengthen the negative and will study to make it as true as I can This is fond because it is the way to cheat thy self and that we may do as often as we please but the nature of things will not be imposed upon If then thou be as wise as thou oughtest to be thou wilt reason thus with thy self my highest interest is not to be deceived about these matters therefore setting aside all other considerations I will endeavour to know the truth and yield to that And now it is time to draw towards a conclusion of this long discourse And that which I have all this while been endeavouring to convince men of and to perswade them to is no other but what God himself doth particularly recommend to us as proper for humane consideration unto Man he said behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding Whoever pretends to reason and calls himself a man is oblig'd to acknowledge God and to demean himself religiously towards him For God is to the understanding of man as the light of the Sun is to our eyes the first and the plainest and the most glorious object of it He fills Heaven and earth and every thing in them does represent him to us Which way soever we turn our selves we are encountred with clear evidences and sensible demonstrations of a Deity For as the Apostle reasons The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen Rom. 1. being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they are without excuse that is those men that know not God have no apology to make for themselves Or if men do know and believe that there is such a being as God not to consider the proper consequences of such a Principle not to demean our selves towards him as becomes our relation to him and dependance upon him and the duty which we naturally owe him this is great stupidity and inconsiderateness And yet he that considers the lives and actions of the greatest part of men would verily think that they understood nothing of all this Therefore the Scripture represents wicked men as without understanding It is a Nation void of counsel Deut. 32.28 Psal 14.4 neither is there any understanding in them and elsewhere have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge Not that they are destitute of the natural faculty of understanding but they do not use it as they ought they are not blind but they wink they detain the truth of God in unrighteousness and though they know God yet they do not glorifie him as God nor suffer the apprehensions of him to have a due influence upon their hearts and lives Men generally stand very much upon the credit and reputation of their understandings and of all things in the world hate to be accounted fools because it is so great a reproach The best way to avoid this imputation and to bring off the credit of our understandings is to be truly religious to fear the Lord and to depart from evil For certainly there is no such imprudent person as he that neglects God and his soul and is careless and slothful about his everlasting concernments because this man acts contrary to his truest reason and best interest he neglects his own safety and is active to procure his own ruine he flies from happiness and runs away from it as fast as he can but pursues misery and makes haste to be undone Hence it is that Solomon does all along in the Proverbs give the title of fool to a wicked man as if it were his proper name and the fittest character of him because he is so eminently such There is no fool to the sinner who every moment ventures his Soul and lays his everlasting interest at the stake Every time a man provokes God he does the greatest mischief to himself that can be imagined A mad man that cuts himself and tears his own flesh and dashes his head against the stones does not act so unreasonably as he because he is not so sensible of what he does Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy and a chosen distraction and every sinner does wilder and more extravagant things than any man can do that is craz'd and out of his wits onely with this sad difference that he knows better what he does For to them who believe another life after this an eternal state of happiness or misery in another world which is but a reasonable postulatum or demand among Christians there is nothing in Mathematicks more demonstrable than the folly of wicked men for it is not a clearer and more evident principle that the whole is greater than a
part than that eternity and the concernments of it are to be preferred before time I will therefore put the matter into a temporal Case that wicked men who understand any thing of the rules and principles of worldly wisedom may see the imprudence of an irreligious and sinfull course and be convinced that this their way is their folly even themselves being judges Is that man wise as to his body and his health who onely cloaths his hands but leaves his whole body naked who provides onely against the tooth-ach and neglects whole troops of mortal diseases that are ready to rush in upon him Just thus does he who takes care only for this vile body but neglects his precious and immortal soul who is very solicitous to prevent small and temporal inconveniences but takes no care to escape the damnation of hell Is he a prudent man as to his temporal estate that lays designs only for a day without any prospect to or provision for the Remaining part of his life even so does he that provides for the short time of this life but takes no care for all Eternity which is to be wise for a moment but a fool for ever and to act as untowardly and as crosly to the reason of things as can be imagined to regard time as if it were eternity and to neglect eternity as if it were but a short time Do we count him a wise man who is wise in any thing but in his own proper profession and employment wise for every body but himself who is ingenious to contrive his own misery and to do himself a mischief but is dull and stupid as to the designing of any real benefit and advantage to himself Such a one is he who is ingenious in his Calling but a bad Christian for Christianity is more our proper calling and profession than the very trades we live upon and such is every sinner who is wise to do evil but to do good hath no understanding Is it wisedom in any man to neglect and disoblige him who is his best friend and can be his sorest enemy or with one weak troop to go out to meet him that comes against him with thousands of thousands to flie a small danger and run upon a greater Thus does every wicked man that neglects and contemns God who can save or destroy him who strives with his Maker and provoketh the Lord to jealousie and with the small and inconsiderable forces of a man takes the field against the mighty God the Lord of Hosts who fears them that can kill the body but after that have no more that they can do but fears not him who after he hath kill'd can destroy both body and soul in hell and thus does he who for fear of any thing in this world ventures to displease God for in so doing he runs away from men and falls into the hands of the living God he flies from a temporal danger and leaps into Hell Is not he an imprudent man who in matters of greatest moment and concernment neglects opportunities never to be retriev'd who standing upon the shore and seeing the tide making haste towards him apace and that he hath but a few minutes to save himself yet will lay himself to sleep there till the cruel sea rush in upon him and overwhelm him And is he any better who trifles away this day of God's grace and patience and foolishly adjourns the necessary work of repentance and the weighty business of Religion to a dying hour And to put an end to these questions Is he wise who hopes to attain the End without the means nay by means that are quite contrary to it such is every wicked man who hopes to be blessed hereafter without being holy here and to be happy that is to find a pleasure in the enjoyment of God and in the company of holy spirits by rendring himself as unsuitable and unlike to them as he can Wouldst thou then be truly wise Be wise for thy self wise for thy soul wise for eternity Resolve upon a religious course of life Fear God and depart from evil Look beyond things present and sensible unto things which are not seen and are eternal labour to secure the great interests of another world and refer all the actions of this short and dying life to that state which will shortly begin but never have an end and this will approve it self to be wisedom at the last whatever the world judge of it now For not that which is approved of men now but what shall finally be approved by God is true wisedom that which is esteemed so by him who is the fountain and original of all wisedom the first rule and measure the best and most competent judge of it I deny not but that those that are wicked and neglect Religion may think themselves wise and may enjoy this their delusion for a while But there is a time a coming when the most prophane and atheistical who now account it a peice of Gallantry and an argument of a great spirit and of a more than common wit and understanding to slight God and to baffle Religion and to level all the discourses of another world with the Poetical descriptions of the Fairy-land I say there is a day a coming when all these witty fools shall be unhappily undeceived and not being able to enjoy their delusion any longer shall call themselves fools for ever But why should I use so much importunity to perswade men to that which is so excellent so usefull and so necessary The thing it self hath allurements in it beyond all arguments For if Religion be the best knowledge and wisdom I cannot offer any thing beyond this to your understandings to raise your esteem of it I can present nothing beyond this to your affections to excite your love and desire All that can be done is to set the thing before men and to offer it to their choice and if mens natural desire of wisdom and knowledge and happiness will not perswade them to be religious 't is in vain to use arguments if the sight of these beauties will not charm mens affections 't is to no purpose to go about to compell a liking and to urge and push forward a match to the making whereof consent is necessary Religion is matter of our freest choice and if men will obstinately and wilfully set themselves against it there is no remedy Pertinacioe nullum remedium posuit Deus God has provided no remedy for the obstinacy of men but if they will chuse to be fools and to be miserable he will leave them to inherit their own choice and to enjoy the portion of sinners 2 PET. iii. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts KNowing this first In the verse before the Apostle was speaking of a famous prophecy before the accomplishment of which this sort of men whom he calls scoffers should come That ye
to Religion Religion is against them and therefore they set themselves against Religion The principles of Religion and the doctrines of the holy Scriptures are terrible enemies to wicked men they are continnually flying in their faces and galling their consciences And this is that which makes them kick against Religion and spurn at the doctrines of that holy Book And this may probably be one reason why many men who are observed to be sufficiently dull in other matters yet can talk prophanely and speak against Religion with some kind of salt and smartness because Religion is the thing that frets them and as in other things so in this vexatio dat intellectum the inward trouble and vexation of their minds gives them some kind of wit and sharpness in rallying upon Religion Their consciences are galled by it and this makes them winch and fling as if they had some metal For let men pretend what they will there is no ease and comfort of mind to be had from atheistical principles 'T is found by experience that none are more apprehensive of danger or more fearfull of death than this sort of men Even when they are in prosperity they ever and anon feel many inward stings and lashes but when any great affliction or calamity overtakes them they are the most poor spirited creatures in the whole world The sum is the true reason why any man is an Atheist is because he is a wicked man Religion would curb him in his lusts and therefore he casts it off and puts all the scorn upon it he can Besides that men think it some kind of apology for their vices that they do not act contrary to any principle they profess Their practice is agreeable to what they pretend to believe and so they think to vindicate themselves and their own practices by laughing at those for fools who believe any thing to the contrary III. The third thing I propounded was to represent to you the heinousness and the aggravations of this vice And to make this out we will make these three suppositions which are as many as the thing will bear 1. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false 2. Suppose the matter were doubtfull and the arguments equal on both sides 3. Suppose it certain that there is a God and that the principles of Religion are true Put the case how we will I shall shew that the humour is intolerable I. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false Not that there is any reason for such a supposition but onely to shew the unreasonableness of this humour Put the case that these men were in the right in denying the principles of Religion and that all that they pretend were true yet so long as the generality of mankind believes the contrary it is certainly a great rudeness or incivility at least to deride and scoff at these things Indeed upon this supposition there could be no such thing as sin but yet it would be a great offence against the laws of civil conversation Suppose then the Atheist were wiser than all the world and that he did upon good grounds know that all mankind besides himself and two or three more were mistaken about the matters of Religion yet if he were either so wise or so civil as he should be he would keep all this to himself and not affront other men about these things I remember that that Law which God gave to the people of Israel Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy people is rendred by Josephus in a very different sense What other nations account Gods let no man blaspheme And this is not so different from the Hebrew as at first sight one would imagine for the same Hebrew word signifies both Gods and Rulers But whether this be the meaning of that Law or not there is a great deal of reason in the thing For though every man have a right in dispute against a false Religion and to urge it with all its absurd and ridiculous consequences as the Ancient Fathers did in their disputes with the Heathen yet it is a barbarous incivility for any man scurrilously to make sport with that which others account Religion not with any design to convince their reason but onely to provoke their rage But now the Atheist can pretend no obligation of conscience why he should so much as dispute against the principles of Religion much less deride them He that pretends to any Religion may pretend conscience for opposing a contrary Religion But he that denies all Religion can pretend no conscience for any thing A man may be obliged indeed in reason and common humanity to free his neighbour from a hurtfull error but supposing there were no God this notion of a Deity and the Principles of Religion have taken such deep root in the mind of man that either they are not to be extinguished or if they be it would be no kindness to any man to endeavour it for him because it is not to be done but with so much trouble and violence that the remedy would be worse than the disease For if this notion of a Deity be founded in a natural fear it is in vain to attempt to expell it for whatever violence may be offer'd to nature by endeavouring to reason men into a contrary perswasion nature will still recoil and at last return to it self and then the fear will be augmented from the apprehension of the dangerous consequences of such an impiety So that nothing can create more trouble to a man than to endeavour to dispossess him of this conceit because nature is but irritated by the contest and the man's fears will be doubled upon him But if we suppose this apprehension of a Deity to have no foundation in nature but to have had its rise from tradition which hath been confirmed in the world by the prejudice of education the difficulty of removing it will almost be as great as if it were natural that which men take in by education being next to that which is natural And if it could be extinguish't yet the advantage of it will not recompence the trouble of the cure For except the avoiding of persecution for Religion there is no advantage that the principles of Atheism if they could be quietly setled in a man's mind can give him The advantage indeed that men make of them is to give themselves the liberty to do what they please to be more sensual and more unjust than other men that is they have the priviledge to surfeit themselves and to be sick oftner than other men and to malte mankind their enemy by their unjust and dishonest actions and consequently to live more uneasily in the world than other men So that the principles of Religion the belief of a God and another life by obliging men to be vertuous do really promote their temporal happiness And all the priviledge that Atheism pretends
to is to let men loose to vice which is naturally attended with temporal inconveniences And if this be true then the Atheist cannot pretend this Reason of charity to mankind which is the onely one I can think of to dispute against Religion much less to rally upon it For it is plain that it would be no kindness to any man to be undeceived in these principles of Religion supposing they were false Because the principles of Religion are so far from hindering that they promote a man's happiness even in this world and as to the other world there can be no inconvenience in the mistake for when a man is not it will be no trouble to him that he was once deceived about these matters And where no obligation of conscience nor of reason can be pretended there certally the laws of civility ought to take place Now men do profess to believe that there is a God and that the common principles of Religion are true and to have a great veneration for these things Can there then be a greater insolence than for a man when he comes into company to rally and fall soul upon those things for which he knows the company have a reverence Can one man offer a greater affront to another than to expose to scorn him whom he owns and declares to be his best friend the patron of his life and the greatest benefactor he hath in the world And doth not every man that owns a God say this of him But when the generality of Mankind are of the same opinion the rudeness is still the greater So that whoever doth openly contemn God and Religion does delinquere in majestatem populi humani generis ' he does offend against the majesty of the People and that reverence which is due to the common apprehensions of Mankind whether they be true or not which is the greatest incivility that can be imagin'd This is the first consideration and it is the least that I have to urge in this matter But yet I have insisted the longer upon it because it is such a one as ought especially to prevail upon those whom I am afraid are too often guilty of this vice I mean those who are of better breeding because they pretend to understand the laws of behaviour and the decencies of conversation better than other men 2. Supposing it were doubtful whether there be a God or not and whether the Principles of Religion were true or not and that the Arguments were equal on both Sides yet it would be a great folly to deride these things And here I suppose as much as the Atheist can with any colour of reason pretend to For no man ever yet pretended to demonstrate that there is no God nor no life after this For these being pure negatives are capable of no proof unless a man could shew them to be plainly impossible The utmost that is pretended is that the arguments that are brought for these things are not sufficient to convince But if they were onely probable so long as no arguments are produced to the contrary that cannot in reason be denied to be a great advantage But I will for the present suppose the probabilities equal on both sides And upon this supposition I doubt not to make it appear to be a monstrous folly to deride these things Because though the arguments on both sides were equal yet the danger and hazard is infinitely unequal If it prove true that there is no God the religious man may be as happy in this world as the atheist nay the principles of Religion and Vertue do in their own nature tend to make him happier Because they give satisfaction to his mind and his conscience by this means is freed from many fearful girds and twinges which the Atheist feels Besides that the practice of Religion and vertue doth naturally promote our temporal felicity It is more for a man's health and more for his reputation and more for his advantage in all other worldly respects to lead a vertuous than a vitious course of life And for the other world if there be no God the case of the religious man and the Atheist will be alike because they will both be extinguisht by death and insensible of any farther happiness or misery But then if the contrary opinion should prove true that there is a God and that the souls of men are transmitted out of this world into the other there to receive the just reward of their actions Then it is plain to every man at first sight that the case of the religious man and the Atheist must be vastly different Then where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear And what think we shall be the portion of those who have affronted God and derided his word and made a mock of every thing that is sacred and religious What can they expect but to be rejected by him whom they have renounced and to feel the terrible effects of that power and Justice which they have despised So that though the arguments on both sides were equal yet the danger is not so On the one side there is none at all but 't is infinite on the other And consequently it must be a monstrous folly for any man to make a mock of those things which he knows not whether they be or not and if they be of all things in the world they are no jesting matters 3. Suppose there be a God and that the principles of Religion are true then is it not onely a heinous impiety but a perfect madness to scoff at these things And that there is a God and that the Principles of Religion are true I have already in my former discourse endeavoured to prove both from the things which are made and from the general consent of mankind in these principles of which universal consent no sufficient Reason can be given unless they were true And supposing they are so it is not onely the utmost pitch of impiety but the highest flight of folly that can be imagined to deride these things To be disobedient to the commands of God is a great contempt but to deny his Being and to make sport with his word and to endeavour to render it ridiculous by turning the wise and weighty sayings of that Holy Book into raillery is a most direct affront to the God that is above Thus the Psalmist describes these atheistical persons as levelling their blasphemies immediately against the majesty of heaven They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth they do mischief among men but the affront is immediately to God Besides that this prophane spirit is an argument of a most incorrigible temper The Wise man every where speaks of the scorner as one of the worst sort of sinners and hardest to be reclaimed because he despiseth instruction and mocks at all the means whereby he should be reformed And then is it not a most black and horrid ingratitude
thus to use the Authour of our Beings and the Patron of our Lives to make a scorn of him that made us and to live in an open defiance of him in whom we live move and have our beings But this is not all As it is a most heinous so it is a most dangerous impiety to despise him that can destroy us and to oppose him who is infinitely more powerful than we are Will ye says the Apostle provoke the Lord to jealousie are ye stronger than he What Gamaliel said to the Jews in another case may with a little change be applied to this sort of men If there be a God and the principles of Religion be true ye cannot overthrow them therefore refrain from speaking against these things lest ye be found fighters against God I will but add one thing more to shew the folly of this prophane temper And that is this that as it is the greatest of all other sins so there is in truth the least temptation to it When the Devil tempts men with riches or honour to ruin themselves he offers them some kind of consideration but the prophane person serves the Devil for nought and sins only for sin's sake suffers himself to be tempted to the greatest sins and into the greatest dangers for no other reward but the slender reputation of seeming to say that wittily which no wise man would say And what a folly is this for a man to offend his conscience to please his humour and onely for his jest to lose two of the best Friends he hath in the world God and his own soul I have done with the three things I propounded to speak to upon this Argument And now I beg your patience to apply what I have said to these three purposes 1. To take men off from this impious and dangerous folly of prophaneness which by some is miscalled wit 2. To caution men not to think the worse of Religion because some are so bold as to despise and deride it 3. To perswade men to employ that reason and wit which God hath given them to better and nobler purposes in the service and to the glory of that God who hath bestowed these gifts on men 1. To take men off from this impious and dangerous folly I know not how it comes to pass that some men have the fortune to be esteemed Wits onely for jesting out of the common road and for making bold to scoff at those things which the greatest part of mankind reverence As if a man should be accounted a Wit for reviling those in Authority which is no more an argument of any man's wit than it is of his discretion A wise man would not speak contemptuously of a great Prince though he were out of his Dominions because he remembers that Kings have long hands and that their power and influence does many times reach a great way farther than their direct Authority But God is a great King and in his hand are all the corners of the earth we can go no whither from his Spirit nor can we flee from his presence where-ever we are his eye sees us and his right hand can reach us If men did truly consult the interest either of their safety or reputation they would never exercise their wit in dangerous matters Wit is a very commendable quality but then a wise man should always have the keeping of it It is a sharp weapon as apt for mischief as for good purposes if it be not well manag'd The proper use of it is to season conversation to represent what is praise-worthy to the greatest advantage and to expose the vices and follies of men such things as are in themselves truly ridiculous But if it be applied to the abuse of the gravest and most serious matters it then loses its commendation If any man think he abounds in this quality and hath wit to spare there is scope enough for it within the bounds of Religion and decency and when it transgresseth these it degenerates into insolence and impiety All wit which borders upon prophaneness and makes bold with those things to which the greatest reverence is due deserves to be branded for folly And if we would preserve our selves from the infection of this vice we must take heed how we scoff at Religion under any form lest insensibly we derive some contempt upon Religion it self And we must likewise take heed how we accustom our selves to a slight and irreverent use of the Name of God and of the phrases and expressions of the Holy Bible which ought not to be applied upon every light occasion Men will easily slide into the highest degree of prophaneness who are not careful to preserve a due reverence of the great and glorious Name of God and an awfull regard to the Holy Scriptures None so nearly disposed to scoffing at Religion as those who have accustomed themselves to swear upon trifling occasions For it is just with God to permit those who allow themselves in one degree of prophaneness to proceed to another till at last they come to that height of impiety as to contemn all Religion 2. Let no man think the worse of Religion because some are so bold as to despise and deride it For 't is no disparagement to any person or thing to be laught at but to deserve to be so The most grave and serious matters in the whole world are liable to be abus'd It is a known saying of Epictetus that every thing hath two handles By which he means that there is nothing so bad but a man may lay hold of something or other about it that will afford matter of excuse and extenuation nor nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it A sharp wit may find something in the wisest man whereby to expose him to the contempt of injudicious people The gravest book that ever was written may be made ridiculous by applying the sayings of it to a foolish purpose For a jest may be obtruded upon any thing And therefore no man ought to have the less reverence for the principles of Religion or for the holy Scriptures because idle and prophane Wits can break jests upon them Nothing is so easie as to take particular phrases and expressions out of the best Book in the world and to abuse them by forcing an odd and ridiculous sense upon them But no wise man will think a good Book foolish for this reason but the man that abuses it nor will he esteem that to which every thing is liable to be a just exception against any thing At this rate we must despise all things but surely the better and the shorter way is to contemn those who would bring any thing that is worthy into contempt 3. And lastly to perswade men to employ that reason and wit which God hath given them to better and nobler purposes in the service and to the glory of that God who hath
bestowed these gifts on men as Aholiab and Bezaleel did their mechanical skill in the adorning and beautifying of God's Tabernacle For this is the perfection of every thing to attain its true and propor end and the end of all those gifts and endowments which God hath given us is to glorifie the giver Here is subject enough to exercise the wit of men and angels To praise that infinite goodness and almighty power and exquisite wisedom which made us and all things and to admire what we can never sufficiently praise To vindicate the wise and just providence of God in the government of the world and to endeavour as well as we can upon an imperfect view of things to make out the beauty and harmony of all the seeming discords and irregularities of the Divine administrations To explain the oracles of the holy Scriptures and to adore that great mystery of Divine love which the Angels better and nobler Creatures than we are desire to pry into God's sending his onely Son into the world to save sinners and to give his life a ransom for them These would be noble exercises inded for the tongues and pens of the greatest Wits And subjects of this nature are the best trials of our ability in this kind Satyr and invective are the easiest kind of wit Almost any degree of it will serve to abuse and find fault For wit is a keen instrument and every one can cut and gash with it but to carve a beautiful image and to polish it requires great art and dexterity To praise any thing well is an argument of much more wit than to abuse A little wit and a great deal of ill nature will furnish a man for Satyr but the greatest instance of wit is to commend well And perhaps the best things are the hardest to be duly commended For though there be a great deal of matter to work upon yet there is great judgment required to make choice and where the subject is great and excellent it is hard not to sink below the dignity of it This I say on purpose to recommend to men a nobler exercise for their wits and if it be possible to put them out of conceit with that scoffing humour which is so easie and so ill natur'd and is not onely an enemy to Religion but to every thing else that is wise and worthy And I am very much mistaken if the State as well as the Church the civil government as well as Religion do not in a short space find the intolerable inconvenience of this humour But I confine my self to the consideration of Religion And it is sad indeed that in a Nation professing Christianity so horrid an impiety should dare to appear But the Scripture hath foretold us that this sort of men should arise in the Gospel-age and they did appear even in the Apostles days That which is more sad and strange is that we should persist in this prophaneness notwithstanding the terrible judgments of God which have been abroad in this Nation God hath of late years manifested himself in a very dreadful manner as if it were on purpose to give a check to this insolent impiety And now that those judgments have done no good upon us we may justly fear that he will appear once for all And 't is time for him to shew himself when his very Being is call'd in question and to come and judge the world when men begin to doubt whether he made it The Scripture mentions two things as the fore-runners and reasons of his coming to judgment infidelity and prophane scoffing at Religion Luke 18.8 When the Son of man comes shall he find faith on the earth And St. Jude out of an ancient prophecy of Enoch expresly mentions this as one reason of the coming of the Lord to convince ungodly sinners of all their hard speeches which they had spoken against him Jude 15. ver And if these things be a sign and reason of his coming I wish that we in this Age had not too much cause to apprehend the Judge to be at the door This impiety did fore-run the destruction of Jerusalem and the utter ruine of the Jewish Nation and if it hold on amongst us may not we have reason to fear that either the end of all things is at hand or that some very dismal calamity greater than any our eyes have yet seen does hang over us But I would fain hope that God hath mercy still for us and that men will pity themselves and repent and give glory to God and know in this their day the things that belong to their peace Which God of his infinite mercy grant for the sake of Christ To whom with the Father c. PROV xiv 34. Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is the reproach of any people ONE of the first principles that is planted in the nature of man and which lies at the very root and foundation of his being is the desire of his own preservation and happiness Hence it is that every man is led by interest and does love or hate chuse or refuse things according as he apprehends them to conduce to this end or to contradict it And because the happiness of this life is most present and sensible therefore humane nature which in this degenerate state is extremely sunk down into sense is most powerfully affected with sensible and temporal things And consequently there cannot be a greater prejudice raised against any thing than to have it represented as inconvenient and hurtfull to our temporal interests Upon this account it is that Religion hath extremely suffer'd in the opinion of many as if it were opposite to our present welfare and did rob men of the greatest advantages and conveniences of life So that he that would do right to Religion and make a ready way for the entertainment of it among men cannot take a more effectual course than by reconciling it with the happiness of mankind and by giving satisfaction to our reason that it is so far from being an enemy that it is the greatest friend to our temporal interests and that it doth not onely tend to make every man happy consider'd singly and in a private capacity but is excellently fitted for the benefit of humane society How much Religion tends even to the temporal advantage of private persons I shall not now consider because my Text leads me to discourse of the other namely to shew how advantageous Religion and Vertue are to the publick prosperity of a Nation which I take to be the meaning of this Aphorism of Solomon Righteousness exalteth a Nation c. And here I shall not restrain righteousness to the particular vertue of justice though in this sense also this saying is most true but enlarge it according to the genius and strain of the Book of the Proverbs in which the words wisdom and righteousness are commonly used very comprehensively so as to signifie all Religion and Vertue And that
this word is so to be taken in the Text may appear farther from the opposition of it to sin or vice in general Righteousness exalteth a Nation but Sin is the reproach of any People You see then what will be the subject of my present discourse namely that Religion and Vertue are the great causes of publick happiness and prosperity And though the truth of this hath been universally acknowledged and long enough experienced in the world yet because the fashion of the age is to call every thing into question it will be requisite to satisfie mens reason about it To which end I shall do these two things 1. Endeavour to give an account of this Truth 2. To vindicate it from the pretences and insinuations of atheistical persons I. shall give you this two-fold account of it 1. From the justice of the Divine providence 2. From the natural tendency of the thing 1. From the justice of the Divine providence Indeed as to particular persons the providences of God are many times promiscuously administred in this world so that no man can certainly conclude God's love or hatred to any person by any thing that befalls him in this life But God do's not deal thus with Nations Because publick bodies and communities of men as such can onely be rewarded and punished in this world For in the next all those publick societies and combinations wherein men are now link'd together under several Governments shall be dissolved God will not then reward or punish Nations as Nations But every man shall then give an account of himself to God and receive his own reward and bear his own burthen For although God account it no disparagement to his justice to let particular good men suffer in this world and pass through many tribulations into the kingdom of God because there is another day a coming which will be a more proper season of reward yet in the usual course of his providence he recompenseth religious and vertuous Nations with temporal blessings and prosperity For which reason St. Austin tells us that the mighty success and long prosperity of the Romans was a reward given them by God for their eminent justice and temperance and other vertues And on the other hand God many times suffers the most grievous sins of particular persons to go unpunished in this world because he knows that his justice will have another and better opportunity to meet and reckon with them But the general and crying sins of a Nation cannot hope to escape publick judgments unless they be prevented by a general repentance God may defer his judgments for a time and give a People a longer space of repentance he may stay till the iniquities of a Nation be full but sooner or later they have reason to expect his vengeance And usually the longer punishment is delay'd it is the heavier when it comes Now all this is very reasonable becauses this world is the onely season for National punishments And indeed they are in a great degree necessary for the present vindication of the honour and majesty of the Divine Laws and to give some check to the overflowing of wickedness Publick judgments are the banks and shores upon which God breaks the insolency of sinners and stays their proud waves And though among men the multitude of offenders be many times a cause of impunity because of the weakness of humane Governments which are glad to spare where they are not strong enough to punish yet in the government of God things are quite otherwise No combination of sinners is too hard for him and the greater and more numerous the offenders are the more his justice is concern'd to vindicate the affront However God may pass by single sinners in this world yet when a Nation combines against him when hand joyns in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished This the Scripture declares to be the settled course of God's providence That a righteous Nation shall be happy The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effects of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever And on the other hand that he useth to shower down his judgments upon a wicked people he turneth a fruitfull land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein And the experience of all ages hath made this good All along the History of the Old Testament we find the interchangeable providences of God towards the People of Israel always suited to their manners They were constantly prosperous or afflicted according as piety and vertue flourished or declined amongst them And God did not onely exercise this providence towards his own People but he dealt thus also with other Nations The Roman Empire whilst the vertue of that people remained firm was strong as iron as 't is represented in the Prophesie of Daniel But upon the dissolution of their manners the iron began to be mixt with miry clay and the feet upon which that Empire stood to be broken And though God in the administration of his justice be not tied to precedents and we cannot argue from Scripture examples that the providences of God towards other Nations shall in all circumstances be conformable to his dealings with the People of Israel yet thus much may with great probability be collected from them that as God always blessed that People while they were obedient to him and followed them with his judgments when they rebelled against him so he will also deal with other Nations Because the reason of those dispensations as to the main and substance of them seems to be perpetual and founded in that which can never change the justice of the Divine providence 2dly The truth of this farther appears from the natural tendency of the thing For Religion in general and every particular vertue doth in its own nature conduce to the publick Interest Religion where-ever it is truly planted is certainly the greatest obligation upon conscience to all civil offices and moral duties Chastity and temperance and industry do in their own nature tend to health and plenty Truth and fidelity in all our dealings do create mutual love and good-will and confidence among men which are the great bands of peace And on the contrary wickedness doth in its own nature produce many publick mischiefs For as sins are link'd together and draw on one another so almost every vice hath some temporal inconvenience annexed to it and naturally following it Intemperance and lust breed infirmities and diseases which being propagated spoil the strain of a Nation Idleness and luxury bring forth poverty and want and this tempts men to injustice and that causeth enmity and animosities and these bring on strife and confusion and every evil work This Philosophical account of publick troubles and confusions St. James gives us Jam. 4.1 whence come wars and fightings among you are they not hence even from your lusts that war in your members But I shall shew more particularly that Religion and vertue do naturally tend
to the good order and more easie government of humane Society because they have a good influence both upon Magistrates and Subjects 1. Upon Magistrates Religion teacheth them to rule over men in the fear of God because though they be Gods on earth yet they are subjects of Heaven and accountable to Him who is higher than the highest in this world Religion in a Magistrate strengthens his authority because it procures veneration and gains a reputation to it And in all the affairs of this world so much reputation is really so much power We see that piety and Vertue where they are found among men of lower degree will command some reverence and respect But in persons of eminent place and dignity they are seated to a great advantage so as to cast a lustre upon their very Place and by a strong reflexion to double the beams of Majesty Whereas impiety and vice do strangely lessen greatness and do secretly and unavoidably derive some weakness upon authority it self Of this the Scripture gives us a remarkable instance in David For among other things which made the Sons of Zurviah too hard for him this probably was none of the least that they were particularly conscious to his crimes 2. Religion hath a good influence upon the People to make them obedient to Government and peaceable one towards another 1. To make them obedient to Government and conformable to Laws and that not onely for wrath and out of fear of the Magistrates power which is but a weak and loofe principle of obedience and will cease when ever men can rebel with safety and to advantage but out of Conscience which is a firm and constant and lasting principle and will hold a man fast when all other obligations will break He that hath entertain'd the true principles of Christianity is not to be tempted from his obedience and subjection by any worldly considerations because he believes that whatsoever resisteth authority resisteth the ordinance of God and that they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation 2. Religion tends to make men peaceable one towards another For it endeavours to plant all those qualities and dispositions in men which tend to peace and unity and to fill men with a spirit of universal love and good will It endeavours likewise to secure every man's interest by commanding the observation of that great rule of equity Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them by enjoyning that truth and fidelity be inviolably observed in all our words promises and contracts And in order hereunto it requires the extirpation of all those passions and vices which render men unsociable and troublesome to one another as pride covetousness and injustice hatred and revenge and cruelty and those likewise which are not so commonly reputed vices as self-conceit and peremptoriness in a man 's own opinion and all peevishness and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent And that these are the proper effects of true piety the doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles every where teacheth us Now if this be the design of Religion to bring us to this temper thus to heal the natures of men and to sweeten their spirits to correct their passions and to mortifie all those lusts which are the causes of enmity and division then it is evident that in its own nature it tends to the peace and happiness of humane society and that if men would but live as Religion requires they should do the world would be a quiet habitation a most lovely and desirable place in comparison of what now it is And indeed the true reason why the societies of men are so full of tumult and disorder so troublesome and tempestuous is because there is so little of true Religion among men so that were it not for some small remainders of piety and vertue which are yet left scatter'd among mankind humane society would in a short space disband and run into confusion the earth would grow wild and become a great forest and mankind would become beasts of prey one towards another And if this discourse hold true surely then one would think that vertue should find it self a seat where-ever humane societies are and that Religion should be owned and encouraged in the world until men cease to be governed by reason II. I come to vindicate this truth from the insinuations and pretences of atheistical persons I shall mention two 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God and a state of rewards and punishments after this life 2. That as for vertue and vice they are arbitrary things 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God or a state of rewards and punishments after this life And this the Atheist does and must assert otherwise he is by his own confession a declared enemy to Government and unfit to live in humane society For answer to this I will not deny but that though the generality of men did not believe any superior Being nor any rewards and punishments after this life yet notwithstanding this there might be some kind of Government kept up in the world For supposing men to have reason the necessities of humane nature and the mischiefs of confusion would probably compel them into some kind of order But then I say withall that if these principles were banished out of the world Government would be far more difficult than now it is because it would want its firmest Basis and foundation there would be infinitely more disorders in the world if men were restrained from injustice and violence onely by humane laws and not by principles of conscience and the dread of another world Therefore Magistrates have always thought themselves concerned to cherish Religion and to maintain in the minds of men the belief of a God and another life Nay that common suggestion of atheistical persons that Religion was at first a politick device and is still kept up in the world as a State-engine to awe men into obedience is a clear acknowledgment of the usefulness of it to the ends of Government and does as fully contradict that pretence of theirs which I am now confuting as any thing that can be said 2. That vertue and vice are arbitrary things founded onely in the imaginations of men and in the constitutions and customs of the world but not in the nature of the things themselves and that that is vertue or vice good or evil which the Supream Authority of a Nation declares to be so And this is frequently and confidently asserted by the ingenious Author of a very bad Book I mean the Leviathan Now the proper way of answering any thing that is confidently asserted is to shew the contrary namely That there are some things that have a natural evil and deformity in them as perjury perfidiousness unrighteousness and ingratitude which are things not onely condemned by the positive laws and constitutions of
particular Nations and Governments but by the general verdict of humane nature And that the vertues contrary to these have a natural goodness and comeliness in them and are suitable to the common priciples and sentiments of humanity And this will most evidently appear by putting this supposition Suppose the reverse of all that which we now call vertue were solemnly enacted and the practice of fraud and rapine and perjury and falseness to a man's word and all manner of vice and wickedness were established by a Law I ask now if the case between vertue and vice were thus alter'd would that which we now call vice in process of time gain the reputation of vertue and that which we now call vertue grow odious and contemptible to humane nature If it would not then is there something in the nature of good and evil of vertue and vice which does not depend upon the pleasure of Authority nor is subject to any arbitrary Constitution But that it would not be thus I am very certain because no Government could subsist upon these terms For the very enjoyning of fraud and rapine and perjury and breach of trust doth apparently destroy the greatest end of Government which is to preserve men in their rights against the encroachments of fraud and violence And this end being destroyed humane societies would presently fly in pieces and men would necessarily fall into a state of war Which plainly shews that vertue and vice are not arbitrary things but that there is a natural and immutable and eternal reason for that which we call goodness and vertue and against that which we call vice and wickedness Thus I have endeavoured to evidence and vindicate this truth I shall onely draw an Inference or two from this discourse and so conclude 1. If this discourse be true then those who are in place of power and authority are peculiarly concerned to maintain the honour of Religion 2. It concerns every one to live in the practice of it 1. Magistrates are concerned to maintain the honour of Religion which doth not onely tend to every man's future happiness but is the best instrument of Civil Government and of the temporal prosperity of a Nation For the whole design of it is to procure the private and publick happiness of mankind and to restrain men from all those things which would make them miserable and guilty to themselves unpeaceable and troublesome to the world Religion hath so great an influence upon the felicity of men that it ought to be upheld and the veneration of it maintained not onely out of a just dread of the Divine vengeance in another world but out of regard to the temporal peace and prosperity of men It will requite all the kindness and honour we can do it by the advantages it will bring to Civil Government and by the blessings it will draw down upon it God hath promised that those that honour him he will honour and in the common course of his providence he usually makes this good so that the civil Authority ought to be very tender of the honour of God and Religion if for no other reason yet out of reason of State It were to be wisht that all men were so piously disposed that Religion by its own authority and the reasonable force of it might be sufficient to establish its Empire in the minds of men But the corruptions of men will always make a strong opposition against it And therefore at the first planting of the Christian Religion in the world God was pleased to accompany it with a miraculous power But after it was planted this extraordinary power ceased and God hath now left it to be maintained and supported by more ordinary and humane ways by the countenance of Authority and the assistance of Laws which were never more necessary than in this degenerate age which is prodigiously sunk into Atheism and prophaneness and is running head-long into an humour of scoffing at God and Religion and every thing that is sacred For some ages before the Reformation Atheism was consined to Italy and had its chief residence at Rome All the mention that is of it in the History of those times that Papists themselves give us in the lives of their own Popes and Cardinals excepting two or three small Philosophers that were retainers to that Court. So that this Atheistical humour among Christians was the spawn of the gross superstitious and corrupt manners of the Romish Church and Court And indeed nothing is more natural than for extreames in Religion to beget one another like the vibrations of a pendulum which the more violently you swing it one way the farther it will return the other But in the last age Atheism travel'd over the Alpes and infected France and now of late it hath crossed the Seas and invaded our Nation and hath prevailed to amazement For I do not think that there are any people in the World that are generally more indisposed to it and can worse brook it seriousness and zeal in Religion bing almost the natural temper of the English So that nothing is to me matter of greater wonder than that in a grave and sober Nation prophaneness should ever come to gain so much ground and the best and the wisest Religion in the world to be made the scorn of fools For besides the prophane and atheistical discourses about God and Religion and the bold and sensless abuses of this sacred Book the great instruments of our salvation which are so frequent in the publick places of resort I say besides these I speak it knowingly a man can hardly pass the streets without having his ears grated and pierced with such horrid and blasphemous oaths and curses as are enough if we were guilty of no other sin to sink a Nation And this not onely from the Tribe that wear Liveries but from those that go before them and should give better example Is it not then high time that the Laws should provide by the most prudent and effectual means to curb these bold and insolent defiers of Heaven who take a pride in being monsters and boast themselves in the follies and deformities of humane nature The Heathens would never suffer their Gods to be reviled which yet were no Gods And shall it among the professors of the true Religion be allowed to any man to make a mock of Him that made Heaven and Earth and to breath out blasphemies against Him who gives us life and breath and all things I doubt not but hypocrisie is a great wickedness and very odious to God but by no means of so pernicious example as open prophaneness Hypocrisie is a more modest way of sinning it shews some reverence to Religion and does so far own the worth and excellency of it as to acknowledge that it deserves to be counterfeited Whereas prophaneness declares openly against it and endeavours to make a party to drive it out of the world 2. It concerns every one to live
own nature conduce to the preservation of our health and the lengthning of our days such as temperance and chastity and moderation of our passions And the contrary vices to these do apparently tend to the impairing of mens health and the shortning of their days How many have wasted and consum'd their bodies by lust and brought grievous pains and mortal diseases upon themselves See how the wise man describes the sad consequences of this sin He goes as an Oxe to the slaughter till a dart strike through his Liver Prov. 7.22 23. as a Bird hasteneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life and v. 25 26 27. Let not thy heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths for she hath cast down many wounded yea many young men hath been slain by her her house is the way to Hell that is to the grave going down to the chambers of death How many have been ruin'd by intemperance and excess and most unnaturally have perverted those blessings which God hath given for the support of nature to the overthrow and destruction of it How often hath mens malice and envy and discontent against others terminated in a cruel revenge upon themselves How many by the wild fury and extravagancy of their own passions have put their bodies into a combustion and fir'd their spirits and by stirring up their rage and choler against others have arm'd that fierce humour against themselves 2. As to our estates Religion is likewise a mighty advantage to men in that respect Not only in regard of God's more especial providence and peculiar blessing which usually attends good men in their undertakings and crowns them with good success but also from the nature of the thing And this I doubt not is the meaning of those expressions of the Wise man concerning the temporal benefits and advantages of wisedom or Religion Pro. 3.16 In her left hand are riches and honour Pro. 8.21 They that love me shall inherit substance and I will fill their treasures and this Religion principally does by charging men with truth and fidelity and justice in their dealings which are a sure way of thriving and will hold out when all fraudulent arts and devices will fail And this also Solomon observes to us He that walketh uprightly walketh surely Pro. 10.9 but he that perverteth his way shall be known his indirect dealing will be discover'd one time or other and then loses his reputation and his interest sinks Falshood and deceit onely serve a present turn and the consequence of them is pernicious but truth and fidelity are of lasting advantage Pro. 10.5 The righteous hath an everlasting foundation Prov. 12.19 The lip of truth is established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a moment And Religion does likewise engage men to diligence and industry in their Callings and how much this conduces to the advancement of mens fortunes daily experience teaches and the Wise-man hath told us The diligent hand makes rich Prov. 10.4 and again Seest thou a man diligent in business he shall stand before Princes Prov. 22.19 he shall not stand before mean persons And where men by reason of the difficult circumstances of their condition cannot arrive to any eminency of estate yet Religion makes a compensation for this by teaching men to be contented with that moderate and competent fortune which God hath given them For the shortest way to be rich is not by enlarging our estates but by contracting our desires What Seneca says of Philosophy is much more true of Religion praestat opes sapientia quas cuicunque fecit supervacuas dedit it makes all those rich to whom it makes riches superfluous and they are so to those who are taught by Religion to be contented with such a portion of them as God's Providence hath thought fit to allot to them 3. As to our reputation There is nothing gives a man a more firm and establish'd reputation among wise and serious persons whose judgment is onely valuable than a prudent and substantial Piety This doth many times command reverence and esteem from the worser sort of men and such as are no great friends to Religion and sometimes the force of truth will extort an acknowledgment of its excellency even from its greatest enemies I know very well that good men may and often do blemish the reputation of their piety by over-acting some things in Religion by an indiscreet zeal about things wherein Religion is not concerned by an ungratefull austerity and sowerness which Religion doth not require by little affectations and an imprudent oftentation of devotion but a substantial and solid a discreet and unaffected piety which makes no great noise and show but expresses it self in a constant and serious devotion and is accompanied with the fruits of goodness and kindness and righteousness towards men will not onely give a man a credit and value among the sober and the vertuous but even among the vicious and more degenerate sort of men Upon this account it is that the Apostle adviseth Christians if they would recommend themselves to the esteem of God and men earnestly to mind the weighty and substantial parts of Religion Let not then your good be evil spoken of for the Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men It is true indeed there are some persons of so profligate a temper and of such an inveterate enmity to all goodness as to scorn and reproach even Religion and Vertue it self But the reproach of such persons does not really wound a man's reputation For why should any man be troubled at the contumelies of those whose judgment deserves not to be valued who despise goodness and good men out of malice and ignorance If these reproaches which they cast upon them were the censures of wise and sober men a man's reputation might be concern'd in them but they are the rash words of inconsiderate and injudicious men the extravagant speeches of those who are unexperienc'd in the things they speak against and therefore no wise man will be troubl'd at them or think either Religion or himself disparaged by them 4. As to our Relations Religion also conduceth to the happiness of these as it derives a large and extensive blessing upon all that belongs to us the goodness of God being so diffusive as to scatter his blessings round about the habitations of the just and to shew mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments So David tells us Psal 112.1 2 3. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his Commandments His seed shall be mighty upon earth The generation of the upright shall be blessed Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endureth for ever Prov. 13.22 And so Solomon
Religious and Holy life doth from the very nature and reason of the thing conduce to our future happiness by way of necessary disposition and preparation of us for it We cannot be otherwise happy but by our conformity to God without this we cannot possibly love him nor find any pleasure or happiness in communion with him For we cannot love a nature contrary to our own nor delight to converse with it Therefore Religion in order to the fitting of us for the happiness of the next life does design to mortifie our lusts and passions and to restrain us from the inordinate love of the gross and sensual delights of this world to call off our minds from these inferiour things and to raise them to higher and more spiritual objects that we may be disposed for the happiness of the other world and taught not to relish the delights of it whereas should we set our hearts onely upon these things and be able to taste no pleasure in any thing but what is sensual and earthly we must needs be extremely miserable when we come into the other world because we should meet with nothing to entertain our selves withall no employment suitable to our disposition no pleasure that would agree with our deprav'd appetites and vicious inclinations All that Heaven and Happiness signifies is unsuitable to a wicked man and therefore could be no felicity to him But this I shall have occasion to speak more fully to in my last Discourse From all that hath been said the reasonableness of Religion clearly appears which tends so directly to the happiness of men and is upon all accounts calculated for our benefit Let but all things be truly considered and cast up and it will be found that there is no advantage to any man from an irreligious and vicious course of life I challenge any one to instance in any real benefit that ever came to him this way Let the sinner declare what he hath found by experience Hath lewdness and intemperance been more for his health than if he had liv'd chastly and soberly Hath falsehood and injustice prov'd at the long run more for the advancement and security of his estate than truth and honesty would have done Hath any vice that he hath lived in made him more true friends and gain'd him a better reputation in the world than the practice of holiness and vertue would have done Hath he found that peace and satisfaction of mind in an evil course and that quiet enjoyment of himself and comfortable assurance of God's favour and good hopes of his future condition which a religious and vertuous life would have not some of his vices weaken'd his body and broken his health have not others dissipated his estate and reduc'd him to want What notorious vice is there that doth not blemish a man's reputation and make him either hated or despis'd and that not only by the wise and the vertuous but even by the generality of men But was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience and the torment of a restless and uneasie mind from the secret dread of Divine displeasure and of the vengeance of another world Let the sinner freely speak the very inward sense of his soul in this matter and spare not and I doubt not if he will deal clearly and impartially but that he will acknowledge all this to be true and is able to confirm it from his own sad experience For this is the natural fruit of sin and the present revenge which it takes upon sinners besides that fearful punishment which shall be inflicted on them in another life What reason then can any man pretend against Religion when it is so apparently for the benefit not onely of humane society but of every particular person when there is no real interest of this world but may ordinarily be as effectually promoted and pursued no as great advantage nay usually to far greater by a man that lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world than by any one that leads the contrary course of life Let no man then say with those prophane persons whom the Prophet speaks of Mal. 3.14 It is in vain to serve the Lord and what profit is it that we have kept his Commandments God has not been so hard a master to us that we have reason thus to complain of him He hath given us no Laws but what are for our good nay so gracious hath he been to us as to link together our duty and our interest and to make those very things the instances of our obedience which are the natural means and causes of our happiness The Devil was so far in the right when he charg'd Job that he did not serve God for nought 'T is he himself that is the hard master and makes men serve him for nought who rewards his drudges and slaves with nothing but shame and sorrow and misery But God requires no man's service upon hard and unreasonable terms The greatest part of our work is a present reward to it self and for whatever else we do or suffer for him he offers us abundant consideration And if men did but truly and wisely love themselves they would upon this very ground if there were no other become Religious For when all is done there is no man can serve his own interest better than by serving God Religion conduceth both to our present and future happiness and when the Gospel chargeth us with piety towards God and justice and charity towards men and temperance and chastity in reference to our selves the true interpretation of these Laws is this God requires of men in order to their eternal happiness that they should do those things which tend to their temporal welfare that is in plainer words he promises to make us happy for ever upon condition that we will but do that which is best for our selves in this world To conclude Religion is founded in the interest of men rightly apprehended So that if the God of this world and the lusts of men did not blind their eyes so as to render them unfit to discern their true interest it would be impossible so long as men love themse ves and desire their own happiness to keep them from being religious for they could not but conclude that to be their interest and being so convinc'd they would resolve to pursue it and stick to it PHIL. III. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. IN the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle makes a comparison between the Jewish and the Christian Religion and shews the Christian to be in truth and substance what the Jewish was onely in type and shadow v. 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit And then he enumerates the several priviledges he was partaker of by virtue of his being born in the Jewish Church v. 4 5 6. Though I might
also have confidence in the flesh if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel c. And yet he tells us he was contented to forgoe all these advantages for Christ and the Christian Religion v. 7. But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ And not onely these but if there were any thing else that men value in this world he was willing to hazard that also upon the same account v. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In which words the Apostle declares the high esteem he had for the Christian Religion which he calls the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord the excellency whereof appear'd so great to him that he valued nothing in comparison of the advantages which he had by the knowledge of it My design at this time from this Text is to represent the excellency of this knowledge of the Christian Religion above that of any other Religion or Institution in the world And here I shall not consider the external evidence which we have of the truth of Christianity and of the Divinity of its doctrine in which respect it hath incomparably the advantage of any other Religion but onely the internal excellencies of the Doctrine it self abstracting from the Divine authority of it And that in these four respects First As it does more clearly reveal to us the nature of God which is the great foundation of all Religion Secondly As it give us a more certain and perfect Law for the government of our lives Thirdly As it propounds to us more powerfull Arguments to perswade men to the obedience of this Law Fourthly As it furnishes us with better motives and considerations to patience and contentedness under the evils and afflictions of this life Now these are the greatest advantages that any Religion can have To give men right apprehensions of God a perfect rule of good â—ife and efficacious arguments to perswade men to be good and patiently to bear the evils and sufferings of this life And these shall be the heads of my following discourse I. The Christian Religion doth more clearly reveal to us the nature of God than any Religion ever did And to have right apprehensions of God is the great foundation of all Religion For according as mens notions of God are such will their Religion be If men have gross and false conceptions of God their Religion will be absurd and superstitious If men fancy God to be an ill-natur'd Being arm'd with infinite power one that delights in the misery and ruine of his creatures and is ready to take all advantages against them they may fear him but they will bate him and they will be apt to be such towards one another as they fancy God to be towards them for all Religion doth naturally incline men to imitate him whom they worship Now the Christian Religion gives us a more perfect and a more lovely character of God than any Religion ever did It represents him to us as a pure spirit which the Heathens did not generally believe and that he is to be worship'd in such a manner as is most suitable to his spiritual nature which not onely the Heathens but even the Jews themselves were extremely mistaken about God is a spirit says our Saviour and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth It is true indeed God himself did command sacrifices to the Jews and all those external and troublesome observances of which their Religion did consist But then it is to be consider'd that he did not institute this way of Worship because it was most suitable to his own nature but because of the carnality of their hearts and the proneness of that people to Idolatry God did not prescribe these things because they were best but because the temper of that People would then admit of nothing better And this the Scripture gives us several intimations of Psal 51.16 Thou desirest not sacrifice thou delightest not in burnt-offerings saith David And elsewhere more expresly to this purpose I spake not unto your Fathers says God by the prophet Jeremiah nor commanded them in the day that I brought them forth out of the Land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices but this thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice A sufficient intimation that God did not primarily intend to appoint this way of worship and to impose it upon them as that which was most proper and agreeable to him but that he condescended to it as most accommodate to their present state and inclination And in this sense also some understand what God says to the same people by the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 20.25 that he gave them statutes that were not good And as the Christian Religion gives a more perfect so a more amiable and lovely character of the Divine nature No Religion that ever was in the world does so fully represent the goodness of God and his tender love to mankind which is the best and most powerfull argument to the love of God The Heathens did generally dread God and looked upon him as fierce and cruel and revengefull and therefore they endeavoured to appease him by the horrid and barbarous sacrifices of men and of their own children And all along in the Old Testament God is generally represented as very strict and severe But there are no where so plain and full declarations of his mercy and love to the sons of men as are made in the Gospel In the Old Testament God is usually styl'd the Lord of Hosts the great and the terrible God But in the New Testament he is represented to us by milder titles the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all consolations the God of all patience the God of love and peace nay he is said to be love it self and to dwell in love And this difference between the style of the Old and New Testament is so remarkable that one of the greatest Sects in the Primitive Church I mean that of the Gnosticks did upon this very ground found their heresie of two Gods the one evil and fierce and cruel whom they call'd the God of the Old Testament the other good and kind and mercifull whom they call'd the God of the New So great a difference is there between the representations which are made of God in the Books of the Jewish and the Christian Religion as to give at least some colour and pretence for an imagination of two Gods II. Christian Religion hath given us a more certain and perfect Law for the government of our lives It hath made our duty more plain and certain in many instances than either the Philosophy of the Heathen or the precepts of Moses had done It commands universal love and kindness and good
will among men a readiness to forgive our greatest enemies to doe good to them that hate us to bless them that curse us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us And does inculcate these precepts more vehemently and forbid malice and hatred and revenge and contention more strictly and peremptorily than any Religion ever did before as will appear to any one that does but attentively read our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount And as Christianity hath given us a more certain so likewise a more perfect Law for the government of our lives All the precepts of it are reasonable and wise requiring such duties of us as are suitable to the light of nature and do approve themselves to the best reason of mankind such as have their foundation in the nature of God and are an imitation of the Divine excellencies such as tend to the persection of humane nature and to raise the minds of men to the highest pitch of goodness and vertue The Laws of our Religion are such as are generally usefull and beneficial to the world as do tend to the outward peace and the health to the inward comfort and contentment and to the universal happiness of mankind They command nothing that is unnecessary and burdensome as were the numerous rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Religion but what is reasonable and usefull and substantial And they omit nothing that may tend to the glory of God or the welfare of men nor do they restrain us in any thing but what is contrary either to the regular inclinations of nature or to our reason and true interest They forbid us nothing but what is base and unworthy to serve our humours and passions to reproach our understandings and to make our selves fools and beasts in a word nothing but what tends either to our private harm and prejudice or to publick disorder and confusion And that this is the tenour of the Laws of the Gospel will appear to any one from our Saviour's Sermons and Discourses particularly that upon the Mount wherein he charges his Disciples and followers to be humble and meek and righteous and patient under sufferings and persecutions and good and kind to all even to those that are evil and injurious to us and to endeavour to excell in all goodness and vertue This will appear likewise from the Writings of the holy Apostles I will instance but in some few passages in them St. Paul represents to us the design of the Christian doctrine in a very few words but of admirable sense and weight Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appear'd to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world The same Apostle makes this the main and fundamental condition of the Covenant of the Gospel on our part 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity St. James describes the Christian doctrine which he calls the wisdom that is from above by these characters It is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie St. Peter calls the Gospel 2 Pet. 1.3 4. the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue whereby saith he are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of a divine nature having escap'd the corruption that is in the world through lust and upon this consideration he exhorts them to give all diligence to add to their faith the several vertues of a good life V. 5 6 7. without which he tells them they are barren and unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ I will conclude with that full and comprehensive paslage of St. Paul to the Philippians Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever things are of venerable esteem whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure or chast whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things But the perfection and the reasonableness of the Laws of Christianity will most plainly appear by taking a brief survey of them And they may all be referr'd to these two general heads They are either such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men singly and personally good or such as tend to the peace and happiness of humane Society First Such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men good singly and personally consider'd And the precepts of this kind may be distributed likewise into two sorts such as enjoyn piety towards God or such as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the enjoyments and pleasures of this life 1. Such as enjoyn Piety towards God All the duties of Christian Religion which respect God are no other but what natural light prompts men to excepting the two Sacraments which are of great use and significancy in the Christian Religion and praying to God in the name and by the mediation of Jesus Christ For the sum of natural Religion as it refers more immediately to God is this That we should inwardly reverence and love God and that we should express our inward reverence and love of him by external worship and adoration and by our readiness to receive and obey all the revelations of his will And that we should testifie our dependence upon him and our confidence of his goodness by constant prayers and supplications to him for mercy and help for our selves and others And that we should acknowledge our obligations to him for the many favours and benefits which every day and every minute we receive from him by continual praises and thanksgivings And that on the contrary we should not entertain any unworthy thoughts of God nor give that honour and reverence which is due to him to any other that we should not worship him in any manner that is either unsuitable to the excellency and perfection of his nature or contrary to his revealed will that we should carefully avoid the prophane and irreverent use of his Name by cursing or customary swearing and take heed of the neglect or contempt of his Worship or any thing belonging to it This is the sum of the first part of natural Religion and these are the general heads of those duties which every man's reason tells him he owes to God And these are the very things which the Christian Religion does expresly require of us as might be evidenc'd from particular Texts in the New Testament So that there is nothing in this part of Christianity but what agrees very well with the reason of mankind 2. Such precepts as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the pleasures and enjoyments of this life Christian Religion
unrighteousness it threatens indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish And this is that which makes the doctrine of the Gospel so powerfull an instrument for the reforming of the world that it proposes to men such glorious rewards and such terrible punishments as no Religion ever did and to make the consideration of them more effectual it gives us far greater assurance of the reality and certainty of these things than ever the world had before This account the Apostle gives us of the success and efficacy of the Gospel upon the minds of men and for this reason he calls it the power of God unto salvation Rom. r. 16.18 because therein the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Before the revelation of the Gospel the wickedness and impenitency of the Heathen-world was a much more excusable thing because they were in a great measure ignorant of the rewards of another life and had generally but very uncertain and obscure apprehensions of those things which urge men most powerfully to forsake their sins and are the most prevalent arguments to a good life So St. Paul tells the Athenians the most knowing among the Heathen Act. 17.30 31. The times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead hath given the world that full assurance of another life after this and of a future Judgment which it never had before for He whom God rais'd from the dead did declare and testifie that it was he who was ordain'd of God to be the Judge of quick and dead Act. 10.42 And the firm belief of a future Judgment which shall render to every man according to his deeds if it be well consider'd is to a reasonable nature the most forcible motive of all other to a good life because it is taken from the consideration of the greatest and most lasting happiness and misery that humane nature is capable of So that the Laws of Christianity have the firmest sanction of any Laws in the world to secure the obedience and observance of them For what can restrain men from sin if the terrours of the Lord and the evident danger of eternal destruction will not What encouragement can be given to goodness beyond the hopes of Heaven and the assurance of an endless felicity IV. The Christian Religion furnisheth us with the best motives and considerations to patience and contentedness under the evils and afflictions of this life This was one great design of Philosophy to support men under the evils and calamities which this life is incident to and to fortifie their spirits against sufferings And to this end the wisest among the Heathens rack'd their wits and cast about every way they advanc'd all sorts of principles and manag'd every little argument and consideration to the utmost advantage And yet after all these attempts they have not been able to give any considerable comfort and ease to the mind of man under any of the great evils and pressures of this life The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon it and the covering narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it All the wise sayings and advices which Philosophers could muster up to this purpose have prov'd ineffectual to the common people and the generality of mankind and have help'd onely to support some few stout and ostbinate minds which without the assistance of Philosophy would have held up pretty well of themselves Some of the Philosophers have run so far back for arguments of comfort against pain as to call every thing into question and to doubt whether there were any such thing as sense or pain And yet for all that when any great evil has been upon them they would certainly sigh and groan as pitifully and cry out as loud as other men Others have sought to ease themselves of all the evil of affliction by disputing subtilly against it and pertinaciously maintaining that afflictions are no real evils but onely in opinion and imagination and therefore a wise man ought not to be troubl'd at them But he must be a very wise man that can forbear being troubl'd at things that are very troublesome And yet thus Possidonius as Tully tells us distinguish'd he could not deny pain to be very troublesome but for all that he was resolv'd never to acknowledge it to be an evil But sure it is a very slender comfort that relies upon this nice distinction between things being troublesome and being evils when all the evil of affliction lies in the trouble it creates to us But when the best that can be is made of this argument it is good for nothing but to be thrown away as a stupid Paradox and against the common sense of mankind Others have endeavoured to delude their trouble by a graver way of reasoning that these things are fatal and necessary and therefore no body ought to be troubled at them it being in vain to be troubled at that which we cannot help And yet perhaps it might as reasonably be said on the other side that this very consideration that a thing cannot be help'd is one of the justest causes of trouble to a wise man For it were some kind of comfort if these evils were to be avoided because then we might be carefull to prevent them another time but if they be necessary then my trouble is as fatal as the calamity that occasions it and though I know it is in vain to be troubled for that which I cannot help yet I cannot chuse but be afflicted It was a smart reply that Augustus made to one that ministred this comfort to him of the fatality of things Hoc ipsum est says he quod me male habet this was so far from giving any ease to his mind that this was the very thing that troubled him Others have try'd to divert and entertain the troubles of other men by pretty and plausible sayings such as this That if evils are long they are but light if sharp I but short and a hundred such like Now am apt to imagine that it is but a very small comfort that a plain and ordinary man lying under a sharp fit of the Stone for a week together receives from this fine Sentence For what pleasure soever men that are at ease and leisure may take in being the Authours of witty sayings I doubt it is but poor consolation that a man under great and stinging afflictions finds from them The best moral argument to patience in my opinion is the advantage of patience it self To bear evils as quietly as we can is the way to make them lighter and easier But to toss and fling and to
be restless is good for nothing but to fret and enrage our pain to gall our sores and to make the burthen that is upon us sit more uneasie But this is properly no consideration of comfort but an art of managing our selves under afflictions so as not to make them more grievous than indeed the are But now the arguments which Christianity propounds to us are such as are a just and reasonable encouragement to men to bear sufferings patiently Our Religion sets before us not the example of a stupid Stoick who had by obstinate principles harden'd himself against all sense of pain beyond the common measures of humanity but an example that lies level to all mankind of a man like our selves that had a tender sense of the least suffering and yet patiently endur'd the greatest of Jesus the Authour and finisher of our faith Heb. 1.22 who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God God thought it expedient that the first Christians should by great hardships and persecutions be train'd up for glory and to animate and encourage them hereto the Captain of our salvation was crown'd by sufferings Heb. 2.10 Much more should the consideration of this pattern arm us with patience against the common and ordinary calamities of this life especially if we consider his example with this advantage that though his sufferings were wholly undeserv'd and not for himself but for us yet he bore them patiently But the main consideration of all is the glory which shall follow our sufferings as the reward of them if they be for God and his cause and if upon any other innocent account as reward of our patience 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Christian Religion hath secur'd us that we shall be infinite gainers by our sufferings And who would not be content to suffer upon terms of such advantage to pass through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God and to endure a short ffliction for an endless happiness The assurance of a future blessedness is a cordial that will revive our spirits more in the day of adversity than all the wise sayings and considerations of Philosophy These are the arguments which Christianity propounds to us and they are firm and sound at the bottom they have strength and substance in them and are apt to work upon humane nature and the most ordinary understanding is capable of the force of them In the strength and vertue of this great example and in contemplation of this glorious reward with what resolution and chearfulness with what courage and patience did vast numbers of all sorts of people in the first Ages of Christianity not only men but women not only those of greater spirit and more generous education but those of the poorest and lowest condition not onely the learned and the wise but the ignorant and illiterate encounter all the rage and malice of the world and embrace torments and death Had the precepts and counsels of Philosophy ever any such effect upon the minds of men I will conclude this with a passage in the life of Lipsius who was a great studier and admirer of the Stoical Philosophy When he lay upon his death-bed and one of his friends who came to visit him told him that he needed not use arguments to perswade him to patience under his pains the Philosophy which he had studied so much would furnish him with motives enough to that purpose he answers him with this ejaculation Domine Jesu da mihi patientiam Christianam Lord Jesus give me Christian patience No patience like to that which the considerations of Christianity are apt to work in us And now I have as briefly and plainly as I could endeavour'd to represent to you the excellency of the Christian Religion both in respect of the clear discoveries which it makes to us of the nature of God which is the great foundation of all Religion and likewise in respect of the perfection of its Laws and the power of its arguments to perswade men both to obey and suffer the will of God By which you may see what the proper tendency and design of this Religion is and what the Laws and precepts of it would make men if they would truly observe them and live according to them substantially Religious towards God chast and temperate patient and contented in reference to themselves and the dispensations of God's providence towards them just and honest kind and peaceable and good natur'd towards all men In a word the Gospel describes God to us in all respects such a one as we would wish him to be gives us such Laws as every man that understands himself would chuse to live by propounds such arguments to perswade to the obedience of these Laws as no man that wisely loves himself and hath any tenderness for his own interest and happiness either in this world or the other can refuse to be mov'd withall And now methinks I may with some confidence challenge any Religion in the world to shew such a compleat body and collection of holy and reasonable Laws establish'd upon such promises and threatnings as the Gospel contains And if any man can produce a Religion that can reasonably pretend to an equal or a greater confirmation than the Gospel hath a Religion the precepts and promises and threatnings whereof are calculated to make men wiser and better more temperate and more chast more meek and more patient more kind and more just than the laws and motives of Christianity are apt to make men if any man can produce such a Religion I am ready to be of it Let but any man shew me any Book in the world the doctrines whereof have the seal of such miracles as the doctrine of the Scriptures hath a Book which contains the heads of our duty so perfectly and without the mixture of any thing that is unreasonable or vicious or any ways unworthy of God that commands us every thing in reason necessary to be done and abridgeth us of no lawfull pleasure without offering us abundant recompence for our present self-denyal a Book the rules whereof if they were practic'd would make men more pious and devout more holy and sober more just and fair in their dealings better friends and better neighbours better magistrates and better subjects and better in all relations and which does offer to the understanding of men more powerfull arguments to perswade them to be all this let any man I say shew me such a Book and I will lay aside the Scripture and preach out of that And do we not all profess to be of this excellent Religion and to study and believe this holy Book of the Scriptures But alas who will believe that we do so that shall look upon the actions and consider the lives
of the greatest part of Christians How grosly and openly do many of us contradict the plain precepts of the Gospel by our ungodliness and worldly lusts by living intemperately or unjustly or prophanely in this present world As if the grace of God which brings salvation had never appear'd to us as if we had never hear'd of Heaven or Hell or believ'd not one word that the Scripture says concerning them as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him but will come in flaming sire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us not then deceive our selves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord if we do not frame our lives according to it For though we know these things never so well yet we are not happy unless we do them Nay we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not Therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives If not all the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will rise up in judgment against us and the Articles of our Faith will be so many Articles of Accusation and the great weight of our charge will be this that we did not obey that Gospel which we profess'd to believe that we made confession of the Christian Faith but liv'd like Heathens Not to believe the Christian Religion after so great evidence and confirmation as God hath given to it is very unreasonable but to believe it to be true and yet to live as if it were false is the greatest repugnancy and contradiction that can be He that does not believe Christianity either hath or thinks he hath some reason for with-holding his assent from it But he that believes it and yet lives contrary to it knows that he hath no reason for what he does and is convinc'd that he ought to do otherwise And he is a miserable man indeed that does those things for the doing of which he continually stands condemn'd by his own mind and accordingly God will deal more severely with such persons He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings if they do not proceed from gross carelesness and neglect of our selves but the faults of our wills have no excuse because we knew to do better and were convinc'd in our minds that we ought not to have done so Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and dost thou still allow thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Art thou convinc'd that without holiness no man shall see the Lord and dost thou still persist in a wicked course Art thou fully perswaded that no whoremonger nor adulterer nor covetous nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ and dost thou for all that continue to practise these vices What canst thou say man why it should not be to thee according to thy faith If it so fall out that thou art miserable and undone for ever thou hast no reason to be surpriz'd as if some unexpected thing had happen'd to thee It is but with thee just as thou believ'dst it would be when thou didst these things For how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own Conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better and chose to make our selves miserable when we understood the way to have been happy To conclude we Christians have certainly the best and the holiest the wisest and most reasonable Religion in the world but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind if the best Religion in the world do not make us good 1 JOHN 5.3 And his commandments are not grievous ONE of the great prejudices which men have entertain'd against the Christian Religion is this that it lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born that the Laws of it are very strict and severe difficult to be kept and yet dangerous to be broken That it requires us to govern and keep under our passions and to contradict many times our strongest inclinations and desires to cut off our right hand and to pluck out our right eye to love cur enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us to forgive the greatest injuries that are done to us and to make reparation for the least that we do to others to be contented with our condition patient under sufferings and ready to sacrifice our dearest interests in this world and even our very lives in the cause of God and Religion All these seem to be hard sayings and grievous commandments For the removal of this prejudice I have chosen these words of the Apostle which expresly tells us the contrary that the commandments of God are not grievous And though this be a great truth if it be impartially consider'd yet it is also a great paradox to men of corrupt minds and vicious practices who are prejudic'd against Religion and the holy Laws of God by their interest and their lusts This seems a strange proposition to those who look upon Religion at a distance and never try'd the experiment of a holy life who measure the Laws of God not by the intrinsecal goodness and equity of them but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts against them Upon this account it will be requisite to take some pains to satisfie the reason of men concerning this truth and if it be possible to make it so evident that those who are unwilling to own it may yet be asham'd to deny it And methinks I have this peculiar advantage in the argument I have now undertaken that every reasonable man cannot chuse but wish me success in this attempt because I undertake the proof of that which it is every man's interest that it should be true And if I can make it out this pretence against Religion will not onely be baffled but we shall gain a new and forcible argument to perswade men over to it Now the easiness or difficulty of the observation of any Laws or commands depends chiefly upon these three things First Upon the Nature of
present in order to our future disquiet but if we resist and conquer them we lay the foundation of perpetual peace and tranquillity in our minds If we govern our selves in the use of sensual delights by the Laws of God and reason we shall find our selves more at ease than if we should let loose the reins to our appetites and lusts For the more we gratifie our lusts the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denial Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops every lust is a kind of hydropick distemper and the more we drink the more we shall thirst So that by retrenching our inordinate desires we do not rob our selves of any true pleasure but onely prevent the pain and trouble of farther dissatisfaction Humility though it may seem to expose a man to some contempt yet it is truly the readiest way to honour as on the contrary pride is a most improper and absurd means for the accomplishing of the end it aims at All other vices do in some measure attain their end covetousness does usually raise an estate and ambitious endeavours do often advance men to high places but pride and insolence and contempt of others do infallibly defeat their own design They aim at respect and esteem but never attain it for all mankind do naturally hate and slight a proud man What more reasonable than patience and contentedness and that we should in all things resign up our selves to the will of God who loves us as well as we do our selves and knows what is good for us better than we do our selves this certainly is the best way to prevent anxiety and perplexity of mind and to make the worst condition as tolerable as it can be and much more easie than it would be otherwise As for that peculiar Law of Christianity which forbids revenge and commands us to forgive injuries and to love our enemies no man can think it grievous who considers the pleasure and sweetness of love and the glorious victory of overcoming evil with good and then compares these with the restless torment and perpetual tumults of a malicious and revengeful spirit And lastly Self-denyal for the cause of God and Religion this is neither unreasonable nor to our disadvantage If we consider our infinite obligations to God we have no reason to think much to sacrifice to him our dearest interests in this world especially if we consider withall how disproportionably great the reward of our sufferings shall be in another world Besides that the interest of Religion is of so great concernment to the happiness of mankind that every man is bound for that reason to assert the truth of it with the hazard of any thing that is most valuable to him in this world II. We are not destitute of sufficient power and strength for the performing of God's commands Had God given us Laws but no power to keep them his commandments would then indeed have been grievous 'T is true we have contracted a great deal of weakness and impotency by our wilfull degeneracy from goodness but that grace which the Gospel offers to us for our assistance is sufficient for us And this seems to be the particular reason why the Apostle says here in the Text that his commandments are not grievous because he offers us an assistance proportionable to the difficulty of his commands and the necessity of our condition for it follows immediately after the Text for whosoever is born of God overcometh the world Therefore the commandments of God are not grievous because every Child of God that is every Christian is endued with a power whereby he is enabled to resist and conquer the temptations of the world The same Apostle elsewhere encourages Christians upon the same consideration greater is he that is in you 1 Joh. 4.4 than he that is in the world Though we be encompass'd with many and potent enemies who make it their business to tempt and to deter us from our duty yet our case is not hard so long as we have a greater strength on our side And this the Apostle tells us is the case of every Christian greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world Are there legions of Devils who are continually designing and working our ruine there are also myriads of good Angels who are more chearfull and officious to do us good For I doubt not but as those who are bent to do wickedly will never want tempters to urge them on and to push them forward in an evil course so on the other hand those who apply themselves seriously to the business of Religion and yield themselves tractable to good motions will find the good spirit of God more ready and active to encourage them than the Devil can be to pull them back unless we think that God hath given a greater power and a larger commission to the Devil to do men mischief than to his holy Spirits and his holy Angels for our assistance and encouragement But then we are to understand that this assistance is onely offer'd to men and not forc'd upon them whether they will or no. For if we beg God's grace but neglect to make use of it if we implore his assistance for the mortifying of our lusts but will not contribute our own endeavours God will withdraw his grace and take away his holy Spirit from us Nay if after we have begun well we do notoriously slacken our endeavours we forfeit the Divine assistance If when by God's grace we have in a good measure conquer'd the first difficulties of Religion and gain'd some habitual strength against sin if after this we grow careless and remiss and neglect our guard and lay our selves open to temptations God's Spirit will not always strive with us Notwithstanding all the promises of the Gospel and the mighty assistances there offer'd to us if we love any lust and will with Sampson lay our head in Dalilah's lap we shall be insensibly robb'd of our strength and become like other men III. We have the greatest encouragement to the observance of God's commands Two things make any course of life easie present pleasure and the assurance of a future reward Religion gives part of its reward in hand the present comfort and satisfaction of having done our duty and for the rest it offers us the best security that Heaven can give Now these two must needs make our duty very easie a considerable reward in hand and not onely the hopes but the assurance of a far greater recompence hereafter 1. Present peace and satisfaction of mind and unexpressible joy and pleasure flowing from the testimony of a good conscience This is present payment besides that it is the earnest of a future and greater happiness And this does naturally spring up in the mind of a good man great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them All Acts of piety and vertue are not onely delightful for the
present but they leave peace and contentment behind them a peace that no outward violence can interrupt or take from us The pleasures of a holy life have moreover this peculiar advantage of all worldly joys that we shall never be weary of them we cannot be cloy'd by the frequent repetition of these pleasures nor by the long enjoyment of them I know that some vices pretend to bring great pleasure along with them and that the delights of a sensual and voluptuous life make a glorious show and are attended with much pomp and noise like the sports of children and fools which are loud and clamorous or as Solomon elegantly compares them like the crackling of thorns under a pot which makes a little noise and a sudden blaze that is presently over But the serious and the manly pleasures the solid and substantial joys are onely to be found in the ways of Religion and Vertue The most sensual man that ever was in the world never felt his heart touch'd with so delicious and lasting a pleasure as that is which springs from a clear conscience and a mind fully satisfied with its own actions 2. But the great encouragement of all is the assurance of a future reward The firm perswasion whereof is enough to raise us above any thing in this world and to animate us with courage and resolution against the greatest difficulties So the Apostle reasons His commandments are not grievous for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith The belief of a future happiness and glory was that which made the primitive Christians so victorious over the world and gave them the courage to resist all the pleasures and terrors of Sense It cannot be deny'd but that a religious course of life is liable to be incumbred with many difficulties which are naturally grievous to flesh and blood But a Christian is able to comfort himself under all these with the thoughts of his end which is everlasting life He considers the goodness of God which he believes would not deny him the free enjoyment of the things of this world were it not that he hath such joys and pleasures in store for him as will abundantly recompence his present self denial and sufferings Let us now put both these together the pleasures of Religion and the rewards of it and they cannot but appear to be a mighty encouragement With what pleasures does a man that lives a holy and a vertuous life despise the pleasures of sin and notwithstanding all the allurements of sense persist resolutely in his course And how is such a man confirm'd in his purpose and animated in his holy resolution when he finds that God and his own conscience do applaud his choice when all along in the course of Religion and a vertuous life in his conflicts with sin and resistance of temptations he hath for his present reward the two great pleasures of innocence and of victory and for his future encouragement the joyful hopes of a Crown and a Kingdom A recompence so great as is sufficient to make a lame man walk enough to make any one willing to offer violence to his strongest passions and inclinations A man would be content to strive with himself and to conflict with great difficulties in hopes of a mighty reward What poor man would not cheerfully carry a great burthen of gold and silver that were assur'd to have the greatest share of it for his pains and thereby to be made a man for ever Whatever difficulties Religion is attended withall they are all sweeten'd and made easie by the proposal of a great and eternal reward But are there no difficulties then in Religion Is every thing so plain and easie Are all the ways of vertue so smooth and even as we have here represented them Hath not our Saviour told us Mat 7.14 that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it Act. 14.22 Does not the Apostle say that through much tributation we must enter into the Kingdom of God 2 Tim 3.12 And that all that will live Godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution And does not the Scripture every where speak of striving and wrestling and running and fighting of labouring and watching and giving all diligence And is there nothing grievous in all this This is a very material objection and therefore I shall be the more carefull to give a satisfactory answer to it And that I may do it the more distinctly be pleas'd to consider these six things 1. That the suffering of persecution for Religion is an extraordinary case which did chiefly concern the first Ages of Christianity 2. That this discourse concerning the easiness of God's commands does all along suppose and acknowledge the difficulties of the entrance upon a Religious course 3. Nor is there any reason it should exclude our after care and diligence 4. All the difficulties of Religion are very much mitigated and allayed by hope and by love 5. There is incomparably more difficulty and trouble in the ways of sin and vice than in the ways of Religion and Vertue 6. If we do but put vertue and vice a religious and a wicked course of life in equal circumstances if we will but suppose a man as much accustom'd and inur'd to the one as he has been to the other then I shall not doubt to pronounce that the advantages of ease and pleasure will be found to be on the side of Religion I. The suffering of persecution for Religion is an extraordinary case and did chiefly concern the first Ages of Christianity And therefore the general sayings of our Saviour and his Apostles concerning the persecuted state of Christians are to be limited as doubtless they were intended principally to those first times and by no means to be equally extended to all Ages of the Church At first indeed whoever embrac'd the profession of Christianity did thereby expose themselves to all the sufferings which the power and malice of the world could afflict them withall But since the Kingdoms of the Earth became the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and the Governours of the world began to be Patrons of the Church 't is so far from being universally true that every Christian hath suffer'd the violence of persecution that it hath been a rare case and happen'd onely in some few ages and to some persons So that this is accidental to a state of Religion and therefore ought not to be reckon'd among the ordinary difficulties of it And when it happens God gives extraordinary supports and promises mighty rewards to make it tolerable II. This discourse concerning the easiness of God's commands does all along suppose and acknowledge the difficulties of the first entrance upon a religious course except onely in those persons who have had the happiness to be train'd up to Religion by the easie
the greatest pleasure we are capable of will be to please him For nothing is difficult to love It will make a man deny himself and cross his own inclinations to pleasure them whom he loves It is a passion of a strange power where it reigns and will cause a man to submit to those things with delight which in other circumstances would seem grievous to him Jacob serv'd for Rachel seven years and after that seven years more and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her Did but the love of God rule in our hearts and had we as real an affection for him as some men have for their friends there are no such difficulties in Religion but what love would conquer and the severest parts of it would become easie when they were once undertaken by a willing mind V. There is incomparably more trouble in the ways of sin and vice than in those of Religion and Vertue Every notorious sin is naturally attended with some inconvenience of harm or danger or disgrace which the sinner seldom considers till the sin be committed and then he is in a labyrinth and in seeking the way out of a present inconvenience he intangles himself in more He is glad to make use of indirect arts and laborious crafts to avoid the consequence of his faults and many times is fain to cover one sin with another and the more he strives to disentangle himself the more is he snar'd in the work of his own hands Into what perplexities did David's sin bring him such as by all his power and arts he could not free himself from He was glad to commit a greater crime to avoid the shame of a less and could find no other way to conceal his adultery but by plunging himself into the guilt of murther And thus it is proportionably in all other vices The ways of sin are crooked paths full of windings and turnings but the way of holiness and vertue is a high way Isa 35.8 and lies so plain before us that wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein There needs no skill to keep a mans self true and honest if we will but resolve to deal justly and to speak the truth to our neighbour nothing in the whole world is easier For there is nothing of artifice and reach required to enable a man to speak as he thinks and to do to others as he would be dealt withal himself And as the ways of sin are full of intricacy and perplexities so likewise of trouble and disquiet There is no man that wilfully commits any sin but his conscience smites him for it and his guilty mind is frequently gall'd with the remembrance of it but the reflection upon honest and vertuous actions hath nothing of regret and disquiet in it No man's conscience ever troubled him for not being honest no man's reason ever challeng'd him for not being drunk no man ever broke his sleep or was haunted with fears of divine vengeance because he was conscious to himself that he had liv'd soberly and righteously and godly in the world But with the ungodly it is not so There is no man that is knowingly wicked but he is guilty to himself and there is no man that carries guilt about him but he hath received a sting into his Soul which makes him restless so that he can never have any perfect case and pleasure in his mind I might have descended to particular Instances and have shewn how much more troublesome the practice of every sin and vice is than the exercise of the contrary grace and vertue but that would be too large a Subject to be brought within the limits of a single discourse VI. Let but vertue and vice a religious and wicked course of life be put in equal circumstances do but suppose a man to be as much accustom'd and snur'd to the one as he has been to the other and then I doubt not but the advantages of ease and pleasure will be found to be on the side of Religion and if we do not put the case thus we make an unequal comparison For there is no man but when he first begins a wicked course feels a great deal of regret in his mind the terrours of his conscience and the fears of damnation are very troublesom to him It is possible that by degrees a man may harden his conscience and by a long custome of his conscience and by a long custome of sinning may in a great measure wear off that tender sense of good and evil which makes sin so uneasie But then if in the practice of a holy life a man may by the same degrees arrive to far greater peace and tranquillity of mind than ever any wicked man found in a sinful course if by custome vertue will come to be more pleasant than ever vice was then the advantage is plainly on the side of Religion And this is truly the case It is troublesom at first for a man to begin any new course and to do contrary to what he hath been accustom'd to but let a man but habituate himself to a religious and vertuous life and the trouble will go off by degrees and unspeakable pleasure succeed in the room of it It is an excellent rule which Pythagoras gave to his Scholars optimum vitae genus eligito nam consuetudo faciet jâ—cundissmum pitch upon the best course of life resolve always to do that which is most reasonable and vertuous and custom will soon render it the most easie There is nothing of difficulty in a good life but what may be conquer'd by custome as well as the difficulties of any other course and when a man is once us'd to it the pleasure of it will be greater than of any other course Let no man then decline or forsake Religion for the pretended difficulties of it and lay aside all cares of God's commandments upon this suggestion that they are impossible to be kept For you see they are not only possible but easie And those who upon pretence of the trouble and difficulties of Religion abandon themselves to a wicked course of life may easily be convinc'd that they take more pains to make themselves miserable than would serve to bring them to happiness There is no man that is a servant of sin and a slave to any base lust but might if he pleas'd get to Heaven with less trouble than he goes to Hell So that upon consideration of the whole matter there is no reason why any man should be deterr'd from a holy and vertuous life for fear of the labour and pains of it Because every one that is wicked takes more pains in another way and is more industrious onely to a worse purpose Now he that can travel in deep and foul ways ought not to say that he cannot walk in fair He that ventures to run upon a precipice when every step he takes is with danger of his life and his soul
Rom. 1.16 18. because therein the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that if we call our selves Christians we profess to embrace the holy doctrine of the Christian Religion which is perfectly opposite to all impiety and wickedness of life We profess to be governed by those laws which do strictly enjoyn holiness and vertue We profess to be perswaded that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel are true which offer such great and glorious rewards to obedience and threaten transgression and disobedience with such dreadfull punishments And if so we are obliged both by our reason and our interest to live accordingly 2. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to live in the imitation of Christ's example and to follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Son of God came into the world not onely by his Doctrine to instruct us in the way to happiness and by his death to make expiation of sin but by his life to be an example to us of holiness and vertue Therefore in Scripture we find several Titles given him which import his exemplariness as of a Prince and a Captain a Master and a Guide Now if he be our pattern we should endeavour to be like him to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to walk in love as he also hath loved us and given himself for us We should aspire after the highest degree of holiness make it our constant and sincere endeavour to please God and do his will and to fulfill all righteousness as he did Does any man profess himself a Christian and yet abandons himself to intemperance and filthy lusts is this like our Saviour Are we cruel and unmercifull is this like the High Priest of our profession Are we proud and passionate malicious and revengefull is this to be like-minded with Christ who was meek and lowly in Spirit who prayed for his enemies and offer'd up his blood to God on the behalf of them that shed it If we call our selves Christians we profess to have the life of Christ continually before us and to be always correcting and reforming our lives by that pattern 3. He that calls himself a Christian hath solemnly engaged himself to renounce all sin and to live a holy life By Baptism we have solemnly taken upon us the profession of Christianity and engaged our selves to renounce the Devil and all his works and obediently to keep God's commandments Anciently those who were baptized put off their garments which signified the putting off the body of sin and were immers'd and buried in the water to represent their death of sin and then did rise up again out of the water to signifie their enterance upon a new life And to these customs the Apostle alludes when he says How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 6. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we might not serve sin So that by Baptism we profess to be entered into a new state and to be endued with a new nature to have put off the old man with his deeds to have quitted our former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And therefore Baptism is called the putting on of Christ Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now if we profess to have put on Christ we must quit and renounce our lusts because these are inconsistent as appears by the opposition which the Apostle makes between them Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 And as we did solemnly covenant with God to this purpose in Baptism so we do solemnly renew this obligation so often as we receive the blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood Therefore the cup in the Sacrament is called the new Covenant in his Blood that is this represents the shedding of Christ's blood by which rite the covenant between God and man is ratified And as by this God doth confirm his promises to us so we do oblige our selves to be faithfull and obedient to him and if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is after we are become Christians we account the blood of the Covenant a common thing that is we make nothing of the solemnest rite that ever was used in the world for confirmation of any covenant the shedding of the blood of the son of God And that this was always understood to be the meaning of this holy Sacrament to renew our Covenant with God and solemnly to confirm our resolutions of a holy life is very plain from that account which Pliny * Plin. Epist L. 10. Epist 97. gives us of the worship of the Christians in a Letter to Trajan the Emperour in which he tells him that they assembled early in the morning before day to sing a Hymn to Christ as God and then saith he they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves by a sacrament or oath not to rob or steal or commit adultery not to break their word or falsisie their trust and after they have eaten together they depart home Which is plainly an account of the Christians celebrating of the holy Sacrament which it seems was then look'd upon as an oath whereby Christians did solemnly covenant and engage themselves against all wickedness and vice Thus you see what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon us to holiness of life From all which it is evident that the Gospel requires something on our part For the Covenant between God and us is a mutual engagement and as there are blessings promised on his part so there are conditions to be performed on ours And if we live wicked and unholy lives if we neglect our duty towords God we have no title at all to the blessings of this Covenant The contrary doctrine to this hath been greedily entertained to the vast prejudice of Christianity as if in this new Covenant of the Gospel God took all upon himself and required nothing or as good as nothing of us that it would be a disparagement to the freedom of God's grace to think he expects any thing
from us That the Gospel is all promises and our part is onely to believe and embrace them that is to be confident that God will perform them if we can but think so though we do nothing else which is an easie condition to fools but the hardest in the world to a wise man who if his salvation depended upon it could never perswade himself to believe that the holy God without any respect at all to his repentance and amendment would bestow upon him forgiveness of sins and eternal life onely because he was confident that God would do so As if any man could think that it were a thing so highly acceptable to God that men should believe of him that he loves to dispense his grace and mercy upon the most unfit and unreasonable terms A Covenant does necessarily imply a mutual obligation and the Scripture plainly tells us what are the terms and conditions of this Covenant both on God's part and ours namely that he will be our God and we shall be his people But he hath no-where said that though we be not his people yet he will be our God The seal of this Covenant hath two inscriptions upon it one on God's part that he will know them that are his and another on our part that we shall depart from iniquity But if we will not submit to this condition God will not know us but will bid us depart from him So our Saviour tells us Mat. 7.23 I will say unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not If we deal falsly in covenant with God and break loose from all our engagements to him we release God from all the promises that he hath made to us If we neglect to perform those conditions upon which he hath suspended the performance of his promises we discharge the obligation on God's part and he remains faithfull though he deny us that happiness which he promised under those conditions which we have neglected II. I come now to the second thing proprounded and that is to perswade those who profess Christianity to answer those obligations to a holy life which their Religion lays upon them We all call our selves Christians and would be very much offended at any man that should deny us this title But let us not cheat our selves with an empty and insignificant name but if we will call our selves Christians let us fill up this great title and make good our profession by a sutitable life and practice And to perswade us hereto I will urge these three considerations 1. The indecency of the contrary 2. The great scandal of it to our blessed Saviour and his holy Religion and 3. The infinite danger of it to our own souls 1. Consider how unbecoming it is for a man to live unsuitably to his profession If we call our selves Christians we profess to entertain the doctrine of the Gospel to be taught and instructed by the best master to be the disciples of the highest and most perfect institution that ever was in the world to have embraced a Religion which contains the most exact rules for the conduct and government of our lives which lays down the plainest precepts sets before us the best patterns and examples of a holy life and offers us the greatest assistances and encouragements to this purpose We profess to be furnished with the best arguments to excite us to holiness and vertue to be awed with the greatest fears and animated with the best hopes of any men in the world Now whoever makes such a profession as this obligeth himself to live answerably to do nothing that shall grosly contradict it Nothing is more absurd than for a man to act contrary to his profession to pretend to great matters and perform nothing of what he pretends to Wise men will not be caught with pretences nor be imposed upon with an empty profession but they will enquire into our lives and actions and by these they will make a judgment of us They cannot see into our hearts nor pry into our understandings to discover what it is that we inwardly believe they cannot discern those secret and supernatural principles that we pretend to be acted by But this they can do they can examine our actions and behold our good or bad works and try whether our lives be indeed answerable to our profession and do really excell the lives of other men who do not pretend to such great things There are a great many sagacious persons who will easily find us out will look under our mask and see through all our fine pretensions and will quickly discern the absurdity of telling the world that we believe one thing when we do the contrary If we profess to believe the Christian Religion we expose our selves to the scorn and contempt of every discerning man if we do not live up to it With what face can any man continue in the practice of any known sin that professeth to believe the holy doctrine of the Gospel which forbids all sin under the highest and severest penalties If we did but believe the history of the Gospel as we do any ordinary credible story and did we but regard the Laws of Christianity as we do the laws of the Land were we but perswaded that fraud and oppression lying and perjury intemperance and uncleanness covetousness and pride malice and revenge the neglect of God and Religion will bring men to hell as certainly as treason and felony will bring a man under the sentence of the Law Had we but the same awe and regard for the threatnings and promises of the Gospel that we have for the frowns and smiles of those who are in power and authority even this would be effectual to keep us from sin And if the Gospel have not this effect upon us it is an argument that we do not believe it 'T is to no purpose to go about to perswade men that we do heartily entertain the doctrine of Christ that doctrine which hath all the characters of piety and justice of holiness and vertue upon it which obligeth men to whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are chast whatsoever things are lovely and of good report if we have no regard to these things in our lives He that would know what a man believes let him attend rather to what he does than to what he talks He that leads a wicked life makes a more credible and effectual profession of infidelity than he who in words onely denies the Gospel It is the hardest thing in the world to imagine that that man believes Christianity who by ungodliness and worldly lusts does deny and renounce it If we profess our selves Christians it may justly be expected from us that we should evidence this by our actions that we should live at another rate than the Heathens did that we who worship a holy and just God should not allow our selves the liberty to sin as those did who
worshipped such Gods as were examples of sin and patrons of their vices Thou who professest thy self a Christian may'st not walk in the lusts of the flesh and of uncleanness as those did who worshipped a lastfull Jupiter and a wanton Venus Thou may'st not be intemperate as those were who worshipped a drunken Bacchus Thou may'st not be cruel and unmerciful as those were who worshipped a fierce Saturn Nor may'st thou steal as those did who worshipped a thievish Mercury Thou must remember that thou art a Christian and when thou art ready to debase thy self to any vile lust consider what title thou bearest by what name thou art called whose disciple thou art and then say to thy self shall I allow my self in any impiety or wickedness of life who pretend to be instructed by that grace of God which teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Shall I cherish any sinful passion who pretend to have mortified all these and to have put off the old man with his deeds It is not being gilded over with the external profession of Christianity that will avail us our Religion must be a vital principle inwardly to change and transform us What the Apostle says concerning Circumcision we may apply to them that are baptized and make an outward profession of Christianity Baptism verily profiteth if we obey the Gospel but if we walk contrary to the precepts of it our Baptism is no Baptism and our Christianity is Heathenism If by our lives and actions we do contradict that Religion which we profess we do by this very thing prove our selves to be counterfeits and hypocrites and that we have onely taken up our Religion for a fashion and received it according to custom we were born in a Countrey where it is reverenced and therefore we are of it And the reason why we are Christians rather than Jews or Turks or Heathens is because Christian Religion had the fortune to come first in our way and to bespeak us at our entrance into the world Are we not ashamed to take up a profession upon such slight grounds and to wear about us such an empty title It should make our blood to rise in our faces to consider what a distance there is between our Religion and our lives I remember Tully upbraids the Philosophers very smartly for living unsuitably to their Doctrines A Philosopher saith he is unpardonable if he miscarry in his life quod in officio cujus magister esse vult labitur artemque vitae professus delinquit in vita because he is faulty in that wherein he pretends to be a master and whilst he professeth an Art of living better than other men he miscarries in this life With how much greater reason may we challenge Christians for the miscarriages of their lives which are so directly contrary to their profession It may justly be suspected that so perfect an institution as the Gospel is which the Son of God came from Heaven on purpose to propagate in the world should make men more strictly holy and vertuous and set the professors of it at a greater distance from all impurity and vice than ever any institution in the world did If a man profess any other Art or Calling it is expected that he should be skilled in it and excell those who do not pretend to it 'T is the greatest disparagement to a Physician that can be to say of him that he is in other respects an excellent man onely he hath no great skill in diseases and the methods of cure because this is his Profession He might be pardon'd for other defects but the proper skill of his Art may justly be expected from him So for a Christian to say of him the worst thing in him is his life he is very orthodox in his opinions but he 's an ill-natur'd man one of very violent passions he will be very frequently drunk he makes no conscience of his dealings he is very uncharitable to all that differ from him This man is faulty in his profession he is defective in that which should be his excellency he may have orthodox opinions in Religion but when all is done there is no such errour and heresie nothing so fundamentally opposite to Religion as a wicked life A Christian does not pretend to have a better wit or a more piercing understanding than a Turk or Heathen but he professeth to live better than they to be more chast and more temperate more just and more charitable more meek and gentle more loving and peaceable than other men If he fail in this where is the Art the man boasts of to what purpose is all this noise and stir about the Gospel and the holy doctrine of Christ If any man profess himself a Christian and do not live better than others he is a mere pretender and Mountebank in Religion he 's a bungler in his own Art and unskill'd in his proper profession This is the first the indecency of the thing 2. Consider how great a scandal this must needs be to our blessed Saviour and his holy Religion The Christian Religion hath undergone many a hard censure for the miscarriages of the professors of it The impieties and vices of those who call themselves Christians have caused many sharp reflexions upon Christianity and made the Son of God and the Blessed Saviour of the world to wear the odious names of deceiver and impostor If a man did design to do the greatest spight to Religion he could not give it a deeper wound he could not take a more effectual course to disparage it than by a lewd and debauched life For this will still be an objection in the minds of those who are strangers and enemies to our Religion If the Gospel were so excellent an institution as it is reported to be surely we should see better effects of it in the lives of those who profess it When we would perswade a Heathen to our Religion and tell him how holy a God we serve what excellent patterns we imitate what spiritual and divine precepts of holiness and vertue our Religion does contain may not he reply would you have me to believe you when I see you do not believe your selves If you believed your Religion you would live according to it For if the Gospel were every word of it false if there were neither a Heaven to be hoped for nor a Hell to be feared after this life how could many Christians live worse than they do As we would not proclaim to the world that the Gospel is an unholy and vicious Institution let us take heed that we bring no scandal upon it by our lives lest the enemies of our Religion say as Salvian tells us they did in his time Si Christus Sancta docuisset Christiani sancte vixissent surely if Christ had taught so holy a doctrine Christians would have lived holier lives Tully tells us that one of the shrewdest arguments that ever was brought against Philosophy was this quosdam
perfectos Philosophos turpiter vivere that some great Philosophers led very filthy lives Celsus and Porphyry Hierocles and Julian among all their witty invectives against Christian Religion have nothing against it that reflects so much upon it as do the wicked lives of so many Christians The greatest enmity to Religion is to profess it and to live unanswerably to it This consideration ought greatly to affect us I am sure the Apostle speaks of it with great passion and vehemency For many walk of whom I have told you often Phil. 3.18 and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things A Jew or a Turk is not so great an enemy to Christianity as a lewd and vitious Christian Therefore let me beseech Christians as they tender the honour of their Saviour and the credit of their Religion that they would conform their lives to the holy precepts of Christianity And if there be any who are resolved to continue in a vitious course to the injury and disparagement of Christianity I could almost entreat of them that they would quit their profession and renounce their Baptism that they would lay aside their title of Christians and initiate themselves in Heathenish rites and superstitions or be circumcised for Jews or Turks For it were really better upon some accounts that such men should abandon their Profession than keep on a vizard which serves to no other purpose but to scare others from Religion 3. And Lastly let us consider the danger we expose our selves to by not living answerably to our Religion And this I hope may prevail upon such as are not moved by the former considerations Hypocrites are instanc'd in Scripture as a sort of sinners that shall have the sharpest torments and the fiercest damnation When our Saviour would set forth the great severity of the Lord towards the evil servant he expresseth it thus Mat. 24.51 he shall cut him in sudden and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites So that the punishment of Hypocrites seems to be made in the measure and standard of the highest punishment Thou professest to believe in Christ and to hope in him for salvation but in the mean time thou livest a wicked and unholy life thou dost not believe but presume on him and wilt find at the great day that this thy confidence will be thy confusion and he whom thou hopest will be thy Advocate and Saviour will prove thy Accuser and thy Judge What our Saviour says to the Jews There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust may very well be applied to false Christians Joh. 5.45 there is one that accuseth you and will condemn you even Jesus in whom ye trust The profession of Christianity and mens having the name of Christ named upon them will be so far from securing them from Hell that it will sink them the deeper into it Many are apt to pity the poor Heathens who never heard of the name of Christ and sadly to condole their case but as our Saviour said upon another occasion Weep not for them weep for your selves There 's no such miserable person in the world as a degenerate Christian because he falls into the greatest misery from the greatest advantages and opportunities of being happy Dost thou lament the condition of Socrates and Cato and Aristides and doubt what shall become of them at the day of Judgment and canst thou who art an impious and prophane Christian think that thou shalt escape the damnation of Hell Dost thou believe that the moral Heathen shall be cast out and canst thou who hast led a wicked life under the profession of Christianity have the impudence to hope that thou shalt sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God No those sins which are committed by Christians under the enjoyment of the Gospel are of deeper dye and clothed with blacker aggravations than the sins of Heathens are capable of A Pagan may live without God in the world and be unjust towards men at a cheaper rate and upon easier terms than thou who art a Christian Better had it been thou hadst never known one syllable of the Gospel never heard of the name of Christ than that having taken it upon thee thou shouldst not depart from iniquity Happy had it been for thee that thou hadst been born a Jew or a Turk or a poor Indian rather than that being bred among Christians and professing thy self of that number thou shouldst lead a vitious and unholy life I have insisted the longer upon these arguments that I might if possible awaken men to a serious consideration of their lives and perswade them to a real reformation of them that I may oblige all those who call themselves Christians to live up to the essential and fundamental Laws of our Religion to love God and to love our neighbour to do to every man as we would have him to do to us to mortifie our lusts and subdue our passions and sincerely to endeavour to grow in every grace and vertue and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God This indeed would become our profession and be honourable to our Religion and would remove one of the greatest obstacles to the progress of the Gospel For how can we expect that the doctrine of God our Saviour should gain any considerable ground in the world so long as by the unworthy lives of so many Christians 't is represented to the world at so great disadvantage If ever we would have Christian Religion effectually recommended it must be by the holy and unblameable lives of those who make profession of it Then indeed it would look with so amiable a countenance as to invite many to it and carry so much majesty and authority in it as to command reverence from its greatest enemies and make men to acknowledge that God is in us of a truth and to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven The good God grant that as we have taken upon us the profession of Christianity so we may be carefull so to live that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things that the grace of God which bringeth salvation may teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. PHIL. III. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven FOR the understanding of which words we need to look back no further than the 18th verse of this Chapter where the Apostle with great vehemency and passion speaks of some among the Philippians who indeed profess'd Christianity but yet would do any thing to
fugitive are they that after all our endeavours to secure them they may break loose from us and in an instant vanish out of our sight riches make to themselves wings and flie like an Eagle intimating to us that riches are often accessary to their own ruin Many times the greatness of a man's estate and nothing else hath been the cause of the loss of it and of taking away the life of the owner thereof The fairness of some mens fortune hath been a temptation to those who have been more powerfull to ravish it from them thus riches make to themselves wings So that he that enjoys the greatest happiness of this world does still want one happiness more to secure to him for the future what he possesses for the persent But the happiness of Heaven is a steady and constant light fixt and unchangeable as the fountain from whence it springs the father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning And if the enjoyments of this life were certain yet they are unsatisfying This is the vanity of vanities that every thing in this world can trouble us but nothing can give us satisfaction I know not how it is but either we or the things of this world or both are so phantastical that we can neither be well with these things nor well without them If we be hungry we are in pain and if we eat to the full we are uneasie If we be poor we think our selves miserable and when we come to be rich we commonly really are so If we are in a low condition we fret and murmur and if we chance to get up and to be rais'd to greatness we are many times farther from contentment than we were before So that we pursue the happiness of this world just as little children chase birds when we think we are come very near it and have it almost in our hands it flies farther from us than it was at first Nay so far are the enjoyments of this world from affording us satisfaction that the sweetest of them are most apt to satiate and cloy us All the pleasures of this world are so contriv'd as to yeild us very little happiness If they go off quickly they signifie nothing and if they stay long we are sick of them After a full draught of any sensual pleasure we presently loath it and hate it as much after the enjoyment as we courted it and long'd for it in the expectation But the delights of the other world as they will give us full satisfaction so we shall never be weary of them Every repetition of them will be accompanied with a new pleasure and contentment In the felicities of Heaven these two things shall be reconcil'd which never met together in any sensual delight long and full enjoyment and yet a fresh and perpetual pleasure As in God's presence there is fulness of joy so at his right hand there shall be pleasures for evermore 2. The happiness of the other life is not onely incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it may be is no great commendation of it but it is very great in it self The happiness of Heaven is usually in Scripture descirb'd to us by such pleasures as are manly and excellent chast and intellectual infinitely more pure and refin'd than those of sense and if the Scripture at any time descend to the metaphors of a feast and a banquet and a marriage it is plainly by way of accommodation to our weakness and condescention to our capacities But the chief ingredients of this happiness so far as the Scripture hath thought fit to reveal it to us are the perfection of our knowledge and the height of our love and the perpetual society and friendship of all the blessed inhabitants of those glorious mansions and the joyfull concurrence of all these in chearfull expressions of gratitude in the incessant praises and admiration of the fountain and author of all this happiness And what can be more delightfull than to have our understandings entertain'd with a clear sight of the best and most perfect Being with the knowledge of all his works and of the wise designs of his providence here in the world than to live in the reviving presence of God and to be continually attending upon him whose favour is life and whose glory is much more above that of any of the Princes of this world than the greatest of them is above the poorest worm The Queen of Sheba thought Solomon's Servants happy in having the opportunity by standing continually before him to hear his wisdom but in the other world it shall be a happiness to Solomon himself and to the wisest and greatest persons that ever were in this world to stand before this great King to admire his wisdom and to behold his glory Not that I imagine the happiness of Heaven to consist in a perpetual gazing upon God and in an idle contemplation of the glories of that place For as by that blessed sight we shall be infinitely transported so the Scripture tells us we shall be also transform'd into the image of the divine perfections we shall see God and we shall be like him and what greater happiness can there be than to be like the happiest and most perfect Being in the world Besides who can tell what employment God may have for us in the next life We need not doubt but that he who is happiness it self and hath promis'd to make us happy can easily find out such employments and delights for us in the other world as will be proper and suitable to that state But then besides the improvement of our knowledge there shall be the most delightfull exercise of love When we come to heaven we shall enter into the society of the blessed Angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect that is freed from all those passions and infirmities which do now render the conversation even of the best men sometimes troublesome to one another We shall then meet with all those excellent Persons those brave Minds those innocent and charitable Souls whom we have seen and heard and read of in this world There we shall meet with many of our dear relations and intimate friends and perhaps with many of our enemies to whom we shall then be perfectly reconcil'd notwithstanding all the warm contests and peevish differences which we had with them in this world even about matters of Religion For Heaven is a state of perfect love and friendship there will be nothing but kindness and good nature there and all the prudent Arts of endearment and wise ways of rendring conversation mutually pleasant to one another And what greater happiness can be imagin'd than to converse freely with so many excellent persons without any thing of folly or disguise of jealousie or design upon one another For then there will be none of those vices and passions of covetousness and ambition of envy and hatred of wrath and peevishness which