Porphery tells us that the first Rise of the Sacrifice of Animals was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain Occasions requiring that a Soul should be offered up for a Soul that is the Life of a Beast for the Life of a Man for it was the constant Opinion that the more worthy the Sacrifice which they offered the more effectual it was to appease their offended Divinities And hence in many Places the ordinary Sacrifice of Attonement which they offered was the Lives of Men and though this indeed was most used in the most barbarous Countries yet in Cases of great Danger and Extremity the Greeks and Romans themselves did frequently Sacrifice humane Lives to their Gods for so it is recorded of the Romans that when their City was in great Danger of being taken by Hanibal they sacrificed a Man to their Tutelar God And Servius tells us of the Massilians that in Time of Pestilence one of the poorer sort was wont to offer himself to be sacrificed for the whole City who being for a whole Year nourished with the purest Meat was then led about the City adorned with sacred Vestments and Cathartick Herbs the People following him making solemn Execrations that the Plague might be removed from the City and fall upon his Head which done they offered him up in a Sacrifice And in other Places they offered up pure Virgins of the noblest Families to propitiate their angry Gods and elsewhere as Servius tells us they were wont to cast a Man into the Sea with this Imprecation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is be thou our Purgament or Redemption So also it is said of the Athenians that they maintained some of the most unprofitable and ignoble of their People that so when any great Calamity befell the City they might offer them up in Sacrifice to appease their Gods And that Passage of Caesar concerning the Gallic Nation is very observable that in Cases of great Danger and Calamity they either devoted themselves to the Altar or else offered up some Man in their Stead quod pro vita hominis nisi hominis vita reddatur non posse Deorum immortalium Numen placari arbitrantur that is thinking that the immortal God's would never be appeased unless they offered up to them the Life of a Man for the Life of a Man All which is an Evidence that they not only thought Sacrifices necessary to appease God but that they also believed the better the Sacrifice was the more effectually it did appease him Nor did they think it less necessary that there should be some Intercessor between them and the Supream Divinity to Solicite their Cause and render Sin propitious to their Desires And hence it was the general Doctrin of their Divines that 't was great Prophaneness for any thing that was earthly and sinful immediately to approach that Pure and Divine Being but that the Demons were to be the Mediators and Agents between him and mortal Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato in his Sympos expresses it that is God is not approached by Men but all the Commerse and Intercourse between him and us is performed by the Mediation of Demons So that howsoever they came by this Principle it is apparent that they generally believed both Sacrifices and a Mediator to be necessary Means to reconcile them to God and that without these they could not satisfy themselves that God would be propitious to them no not upon their Repentance and Reformation Some good Hopes they might have and it is apparent they had from the Goodness and Benignity of the Divine Nature that if they forsook their Sins God would not be inexorable to them at least they could not tell but they might find Mercy but yet they durst not absolutely trust to this without devoting some other to suffer in their Stead and engaging some other to intercede in their Behalf And therefore we see that when the King of Nineveh upon Jonah's Preaching obliged his People to Fasting and Repentance the utmost Encouragement he could give them was only this Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Jonah iii. 9 Wherefore to give us the highest Assurance of Pardon if we repent God hath been so infinitely good to us as to choose that very Method of reconciling us to himself which we had chalked out to him and to meet with us in our own Way thereby to give us a fuller Assurance of his most gracious and merciful Intentions to us for how could he have better satisfied the Anxiousness and Jealousy of our guilty Minds than in granting us our Pardon in that very Way wherein we did so universally hope for and expect it Good God! How indulgent hast thou been to thy poor Creatures that wast not only so ready to pardon them upon their Repentance but so careful to give them the most effectual Assurance of it that so thou might'st remove all discouragements out of the Way to our Amendment and Happiness For doubtless the Reason why he took this Way of Pardoning us more than another was not only because it was best in it self and most for the Interest of his own Government but also because of all others it was the most effectual to satisfy our guilty Fears and assure us of his merciful Intentions to receive us into Favour again upon our Repentance and Amendment For when Mankind were so unanimously agreed in this Belief that without a Sacrifice and a Mediator he would not be appeased how could he more effectually have convinced our Mistrust of his Mercy than by sending his own Son to be our Sacrifice and Mediator to die for our Sins upon Earth and intercede for our Pardon in Heaven So that if now we will heartily repent of our Sins and forsake them we have all the security of Mercy that we can desire our God being attoned by the noblest Sacrifice that ever was and interceded with on our Behalf by the most powerful and prevailing Mediator Having therefore such an High Priest over the House of God we may safely draw near with a true Heart in full assurance of Faith as the Apostle expresses it Heb. x. 21 22. Thus you see how good and gracious God hath been to us in the Way and Method which he hath prescribed of pardoning our Sins and releasing us from the obligation of Punishment for ever which is so wise and good and every way God-like that I think had I no other Reason to believe the Christian Religion but only this wondrous Contrivance of pardoning Sinners revealed in the Gospel this would have been enough to persuade me that none but a God could be the Author and Contriver of it And now I shall conclude this Argument with a few Inferences 1. From hence I infer what a very great Evil Sin is seeing it is such an Evil as binds us over to perish for ever and such as nothing can make Expiation for but only
For he that hath Heaven for his Haven must be infinitely peevish if he quarrels at a rough Sea and doth nor bless the Storms and Winds that are driving him thither And thus I have proved to you at large that the Commands of God are not grievous and that both because they are easie in their own Nature and are made much more easie by our Blessed Lord and Saviour But after all that hath been said I do foresee a material Objection that will be made against this Discourse and that is this That it contradicts the universal Experience of Mankind For do not the Generality of those Men that have attempted a religious Life find by Experience a great deal of difficulty Are they not forced to strive and wrastle with themselves and to do the greatest Violence to their own Inclinations Are they not forced to keep themselves under a severe Discipline to pray earnestly and watch diligently to prevent the Surprises and Incursions of those Temptations that continually way-lay them wheresoever they are and whatsoever they are about And do they not many times find the difficulties so great as that they are quite beaten off and utterly disheartned by them All this I confess is very true and may very well be so without any Prejudice to the Argument in hand for we have not been discoursing of what Religion may accidentally be but of what it really is in it self The Light in it self is pleasant to the Eye but yet it may accidentally be grievous if the Eye be sore or weak and not able to endure its Splendor And so Religion though in its self extremely easie yet it may and often doth become accidentally difficult to us by Reason of those sinful Prejudices against it which we do too often contract in the Course of a sinful Life But 't is an unreasonable Thing for Men to measure the Easiness of God's Laws not by their own intrinsick Nature but by the Reluctancy and Opposition which they find in their own Hearts against them For to a Man in a Fever every Thing is bitter but yet the Bitterness is not in the Honey he tasts but in the Gall that overflows his own Palate And so to a vicious Man every Virtue is a Burthen but the Burthensomness is not so much in the Virtue as in his own Repugnancy to bear it For I have already proved at large that Religion is every way agreeable to humane Nature and therefore there can be no other Reason why it should not agree with us unless it be that we disagree with our selves We spoil our own Natures and do degenerate from the humane Nature into the brutal or diabolical and what wonder is it that the Religion of a Man should be a Burthen to the Nature of a Beast or a Devil But if we would take but a little Pains to retrieve our selves and weed out those unnatural Habits with which our Nature is over-grown we should find that our Religion and That would very well accord and then that which is our Burthen would become our Recreation I confess before this can be accomplished we must take a great deal of Pains with our selves we must watch and pray and strive and contend and undergo the severe Discipline of a sorrowful Repentance if ever we mean to recover our Natures again But for God's sake consider Sirs there is now no Remedy for this and you may thank your selves for it for you must undergo great Difficulties take which side you please If you resolve to continue as you are you must be most wretched Slaves to your own Lusts you must tamely submit to all their tyrannical Commands and run and go on every Errand they send you and though they countermand each other and one sends you this Way and another the quite contrary though Sloth pulls you back and Ambition thrusts you forwards and Covetousness bids you save and Sensuality bids you spend though Pride bids you strut and Flattery bids you cringe and there is as great a Confusion in their Wills and Commands as there was in the Language of the Brick-layers of Babel and though in such a Huddle of Inconsistencies you are frequently at your Wits end and know not what to do yet you must be contented to endure the Hurry and if you cannot do all at once you must do what you can and when you have done so 't is a thousand to one but there will be as many of your Lusts dissatisfied as satisfied And in the mean time while you are thus hurried about in the Crowd of your own sinful Desires your wretched Conscience will ever and anon be alarming you with its ill-boding Horrors and griping and twinging you with many an uneasie Reflection Thus like miserable Gally-Slaves you must tug at the Oar work against Wind and Tyde and row through the Storms and Tempests of your own Conscience and all this to run your selves upon a Rock and invade your own Damnation So that considering all I dare say the Toil of being wicked is much more insupportable than that of a holy Life and which is sad to consider it hath no other Issue but eternal Ruin for the wages of Sin saith the Apostle is death Rom. vi 23 And methinks it should be very uncomfortable for a Man to work so hard for nothing but Misery and even to earn his Damnation with the sweat of his Brows especially considering that the Toil and Drudgery of a sinful Life hath no End For though Custom and Habit renders all other Things easie yet by accustoming our selves to do Evil we add to our Toil and render those cruel Taskmasters our Lusts more tyrannical and imposing for still the more we gratify them the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denyal and so by working for them we shall but increase our own Toil and still acquire new Degrees of Labour and Drudgery But as for the main Difficulty of Religion it chiefly lies in the Entry to it for there we must shake hands with all our darling Lusts and bid them adieu for ever and to persuade our selves throughly to this is the main Difficulty of all for then to be sure they will cling fastest about us and use their utmost Oratory to stagger our Resolution and the old Love we have born them and the dear Remembrance of the Pleasures which they have administred to us will make our Hearts relent and our Bowels yearn towards them But if with all those mighty Arguments wherewith our Religion and our Reason furnishes us and all those divine Assistances which we are encouraged to ask and if we do are assured to obtain we can but conquer our Reluctancies and heartily persuade our selves to part with them this is the sharpest Brunt in all our spiritual Warfare for now if we do but keep the ground that we have gotten and maintain our Resolution against the Temptations that assault it our Lusts will every day grow weaker and
would need no farther Motives to persuade them to chuse what he Wills and Commands against all Persuasions to the contrary If I love God above my self I shall certainly chuse his Will before my own If I love him above all my Pleasures I shall chuse his Pleasures before my own and it will be a needless Thing to propose Motives to persuade me to do that which I like best and chuse that which I love above all the World So that whilst a Man hath Need of Motives to persuade him to chuse God and prefer his Will above all Temptations it is apparent he loves him not above all and consequently according to this Doctrine cannot be a good Man in the Judgment of the Law of Sincerity which if it were true I doubt the List of good Men would be reduced to a very small Number Wherefore since loving God above all is a high strain of Piety much above the low Estate of sincere and true Goodness to make it necessary to a good State must needs be very dangerous since it cannot but dishearten beginners in Religion and perplex their Consciences with needless and inextricable Scruples I confess not to love God above all who doth so infinitely exceed all in Degrees of Loveliness and Amability is an Argument of great Imperfection though not of Insincerity but if my Love to him be such as that together with my Hope and Fear excited by the other Motives of Religion it effectually operates on my Will so as to win it to an universal prevalent Consent to the Will of God I know no Reason I have to judge severely of my main State though I should be conscious to my self that my Love singly and apart from those other Motives had not Force enough in it to produce this happy Effect This therefore I conceive is the utmost Degree of Love to God that the Law of Sincerity exacts that we should so love him as by our Love in Concurrence with the other Arguments of Religion to be effectually prevailed on to obey him 3 ly The Law of Sincerity exacts such a Degree of Love of us as together with those other Motives of Christianity is prevalent to sincere Obedience and in this it differs from the Law of Perfection which requires such a Degree of Love of us as together with those other Motives is productive of perfect unsinning Obedience For as I have shewed you the Law of Perfection requires the utmost of our Possibility and consequently that we should love God as much as we can and consider and apply to our selves the other Motives of Religion as well and as closely as we are able and then proceed upon the whole to serve and obey God to the utmost of our Power and Ability which if we do we are perfectly innocent and inculpable unless you suppose that a Man may be blame-worthy for not doing more than he can But should the Law of Sincerity exact thus much of us I doubt it would exclude the best of Men out of the State of Goodness and Salvation for what Man is there that doth always love and obey God to the utmost of his present Possibility Wherefore all that this Law can be supposed to require of us is only such a Degree of Love as is requisite to render it a concurrent Cause of true sincere Obedience that is to say such a Love as in Concurrence with those great Motives of Reward and Punishment produces such an hearty Consent in us to the Will of God as will not suffer us any longer to persist either in carelss or affected Ignorance of it or in known and wilful Disobedience to it and there are no Infirmities or Miscarriages whatsoever inconsistent with such a Degree of Love to God but what are also inconsistent with such a Consent to his heavenly Will If therefore we thus love God to the Purposes of a sincere Obedience the Law of Sincerity acquits us and as for our Sins of Infirmity Surprize or Inadvertency we are accountable for them only to the Law of Perfection 4 thly And lastly The Law of Sincerity requires such a Degree of Love to God as together with those other Motives makes us not only sincere in our Obedience but also careful to improve it to further Degrees of Perfection And indeed this is necessarily included in the former for if our Love of God joyned with the other Arguments of Religion hath so far prevailed upon us as to win us to a sincere Consent to his heavenly Will we shall not only industriously avoid the known and wilful Violations of it but be very careful to correct those Flaws and Imperfections that are intermixed with our Obedience to it 'T is true when there is nothing but slavish Fear at the Bottom of a Mans Obedience that must necessarily contract and shrink up the Sinews of his Care and Endeavours and render him exceeding narrow and stingy in the Discharge of his Duty for having no farther Aim than his own Security he will do no more than what is necessary to avoid the Danger that he stands in Fear of and if he can but escape those known and wilful Sins that layd waste his Conscience and expos'd him to the Wrath of God that is the utmost he desires or aims at but as for those Miscarriages and sinful Imperfections which do only fall under the Cognizance of the Law of Perfection he is not at all concerned about them But when our Fear is intermingled with such a Degree of Love to God as the Law of Sincerity exacts that will make us careful not only to avoid those known and willful Sins that divorse us from the Favour of God but also to indear our selves more and more to him by correcting even those smaller Defects and Imperfections that do still adhere to our Duties and Natures For this is plain that no Man can heartily love God that doth not more and more desire to be beloved by him and that no Man can sincerely desire to be more and more beloved by God that doth not honestly endeavour to render himself more and more lovely in his Eyes that is to reform all those sinful Defects and Imperfections which stain and blemish the Beauty of his Soul Whosoever therefore contents himself with this not to be hated by God did never sincerely love him and whosoever desires more than this will as well be careful to correct those smaller Imperfections which render him less beloved of God as to avoid those known and wilful Sins which do expose him to God's Hatred If therefore our Religion doth not in some Measure improve our Natures if it doth not render us more patient and humble more charitable and heavenly minded it is a certain Sign that it is not acted by Love For if after having a long while continued in a Round of religious Duties we still return to the same Point and are in no Degree better than we were when we first began it is
his divine Prerogatives and clothe his Creatures in them before his Face But against this black Charge Bellarmin hath a very quaint Salvo When we say says he St. Peter have mercy upon me or so we supply the Sense with this mental Construction procure Mercy for me by thy Prayers or Merits which is a plain Confession that the Words are unwholsome in themselves and cannot be safely used without being corrected by a more honest meaning and that if the Votaries of that Church do not take Care to mend their Publick Prayesr with their private Meanings they incur the Guilt or at least the Danger of Idolatry For we cannot address more immediately in any Form of Words to God for any Mercy than they do in these to the Saints and Angels and therefore if they do not actually address to them as Gods 't is because they construe those Forms into a different Sense from their most obvious meaning For when they say Lord have mercy upon me they may mean with as little Force to the Words Procure me Mercy O Lord from St. Peter by thy Prayers and Merits as they do when they say St. Peter have Mercy upon me Procure me Mercy from God O St. Peter by thy Prayers and Merits And what a dreadful Prophanation is it of the divine Majesty to use such Forms of Address to God and St. Peter as do leave our Minds indifferent either to pray to St. Peter to pray to God for us or to pray to God to pray to St. Peter for us Again 't is a common Doctrin of Christianity that our Saviour hath instituted the holy Eucharist to be a Memorial of his Sufferings and a Seal of that everlasting Covenant which he purchased by them upon which the Roman Church hath superstructed that monstrous Doctrin of Transubstantiation which besides the disgrace it doth to our holy Religion by Reason of those ridiculous Absurdities and gross Contradictions it fastens upon it it puts such an extravagant sense upon the first Institution of this holy mystery that if our Saviour had really meant it 't would have been enough to expose him to the general Scorn and Derision of Mankind For if when he first instituted it he had really pretended to convert the Sacramental Elements into the Substance of his own Body and Blood this must have been the Sense of his Words and Actions these outward Elements which but just now were made Bread and Wine are now by my Almighty Benediction converted into the Substance of my Body and Blood this very Body which sits here at the upper End of the Table lies there under those Species of Bread and Wine which you see upon it My Head and Feet and every Part of me are all intirely within every Crumb of that unleavened Bread and yet those several Crumbs which do each contain my whole Body contain not several Bodies and if you divide them into ten thousand Crumbs and distribute them into ten thousand different Places yet in all those different Places I am the same intire and undivided Body And though as I sit here you see I am at least a Foot broad and five or six Foot long yet in those little Crumbs that lie before you I am no bigger than a Pin's Head and yet upon my honest Word I am in all my Parts and Dimensions under the outward Species of every one of them and so am every whit as broad and thick and long in them as I do now appear in this visible Body And as for my Blood which is at least two Gallons though it is all contained within the Veins and Vessels of this Body yet it is all at the same Time within that Cup which I confess is hardly large enough to contain the eighth Part of it And though you Twelve shall every one drink his share of it yet every one shall drink it all that is out of this one Cup of my Blood which at most contains but a Quart each Man of you Twelve shall drink the whole two Gallons But let not these Things astonish you for now I am doing yet stranger Things than these and first I take my self it being supposed both by Papists and Protestants that Christ himself first eat and drank those sacred Elements that is I take my Hands into my own Hands and put my Mouth into my own Mouth and swallow down my Hands and Mouth and Throat and Stomach through my own Throat into my own Stomach so that now my whole Body is intirely within my Stomach though the whole you see except my Stomach is still intirely without it And having thus eaten and drank up my self in the next Place I give my self to be eat and drank by every one of you And now while I am wholly buried within each of your Stomachs and my own I shall begin a sacred Hymn and conclude with my Farewel Sermon This supposing our Saviour had intended a real Transubstantiation had been the natural Sense or rather Nonsense of his Words and Actions in the first Institution of this sacred Mystery And what a most shameful Disgrace is it to the most righteous Religion that ever was to fasten such wild Extravagancies upon its great and blessed Author Certainly had Men set their Wits at work to burlesque the most sacred Thing and dress it up for Laughter and Derision they could never have invented a more ridiculous Disguise for it than this of Transubstantiation Besides all which it introduces two notorious Pieces of Unrighteousness the first of which is a most gross and barbarous Piece of Idolatry viz. their adoring the consecrated Bread with the highest Species of divine Worship which if it be not Transubstantiated into the Body of Christ as we are sure it is not unless our Senses lie and Contradictions be true they themselves confess is as gross Idoatry as the Laplander's worshiping a red Cloth hung upon the Top of a Spear Now what monstrous Unrighteousness is this for Men to rob God of his Honour and vest a senseless Piece of Bread with it to advance the Workmanship of a Baker into an Equality with God and then adore and then devour it The second Piece of Unrighteousness which this monstrous Figment introduces is the Half-Communion in which the Christian World is most unjustly robbed of one half of that Legacy which Christ bequeathed to us in his last Will and Testament which as Bellarmin tells us was done out of Reverence to the Transubstantiated Wine lest any Drop of it sticking upon Lay-mens Beards should be spilt and prophaned But this Inconvenience by the Cardinal's Leave might have otherwise been easily prevented by prohibiting all Lay-men as they do their Priests to receive the Sacrament with their Beards on For I am apt to think there is no good Christian but would have been better contented to lose all his Beard than half the Sacrament So that this Doctrin of Transubstantiation you see hath a most unrighteous Tendency both as it
Commandments what an Immodesty is it in us to pretend to love him while we chuse to disobey him 4. And lastly If we love God sincerely we shall be ready chearfully to undergo any Thing for his sake be it never so hard and difficult For Love is a bold and vigorous Passion it makes weak Things strong and turns Cowards into Heroes and warms and animates the Heart with such a generous Fire as disdains all Opposition and courageously out-braves the greatest Dangers and Difficulties For he that loves heartily would do any Thing for the sake of his Beloved and then measuring his Strength by the Greatness of his Desires he thinks himself able to do whatsoever he will So strongly doth this Passion transport Nature beyond the Bounds of its Abilities inspiring it with such Force and Vigour as that scarce any thing is able to withstand it If therefore we love God sincerely and heartily our Love must necessarily resolve into Obedience to his Will be it never so hard and difficult For our Love will so enliven and animate our Endeavours of serving him and carry us with such Spirit and Alacrity through all the weary Stages of our Duty that it will be our Meat and Drink to do his Will and there is no Instance of Obedience be it never so hard and difficult but our Love will smother and render it not only easy but delightful For what I do for him whom I love I do for my self his Pleasures being mine and our Wills and Ends and Interests being involved in one another So that if my Love be in any Measure intense and cordial I shall do his Pleasure and perform his Will with the same Complacency and Delight as if I were doing my own and whatsoever Difficulties I meet with in serving him I shall encounter them with Joy that I am furnished with Opportunities of expressing the Zeal and Sincerity of my Love to him So that to pretend to love God and yet to boggle at the Difficulties of obeying him is the most shameful Hypocrisy in nature for if we did as highly love him as we pretend our Wills would be so swallowed up in his that it would be our Joy and Recreation to serve him and the very Thought that we are doing what is pleasing and grateful to him would level all the Mountains of Difficulties in our way and render them not only accessible but easy He therefore that stumbles at every Straw and startles at every Difficulty in Religion must be a notorious Hypocrite if he pretend to the Love of God for where true Love is Difficulty is so far from daunting it that that animates and encourages it and instead of blunting its Activity whets and renders it more keen and vigorous because the greater the Difficulty is the greater is its Opportunity of manifesting its own Sincerity and thereby of recommending it self to it s Beloved the Joy of which not only ballances but endears all its Pains and Trouble Hence the Apostle tells us that there is no fear in love and that perfect love casteth out fear 1 John iv 18 It inspires us with such Bravery and Courage that there is no Difficulty in our Obedience to him whom we love that can daunt or terrify us Wherefore since this is a necessary Property of the Love of God to make us ready to undergo any Thing for his sake this also must necessarily resolve into the keeping his Commandments for if we are willing to do any thing for God we shall surely be willing to obey him and though our Obedience in some Instances may be difficult yet our Love if it be real will conquer its way through them all And thus you see how all the essential Properties of the Love of God do finally resolve into Obedience from whence it is evident that wheresoever the Love of God is it will most certainly prove a Principle of Obedience II. I proceed now to the second Head of Discourse which was to shew that the Love of God is it self the most perfect Principle of Obedience Not that I think all other Principles in their own nature bad for God himself hath proposed other Principles of Action to us besides this of Love he hath denounced his fearful Threatnings against us to alarm our Fear that by that we may be moved to obey him and propounded his glorious Promises to us to excite our Hope that that may be a Spring and Principle of Obedience in us And certainly that can be no bad Principle which is excited in us by divine Motives but yet it is most certain that there is no Principle whatsoever can be acceptable to God that is quite separated from Love to him for that which makes it acceptable is this that it is a Principle of Vniversal Obedience But now the Love of God being the greatest Instance of our Obedience that can be no Principle of universal Obedience that is wholly separated from it 'T is true the Religion of most Men begins upon a Principle either of Hope or Fear and it cannot be denied but they are very good Beginners but yet till by these we are induced to love God as well as to practise all other Duties we are by no means pleasing and acceptable to him So that though the Fear of Punishment and the Hope of Reward are good Ingredients in the Principle of our Obedience yet till they have some Intermixtures of Love with them they can make no Claim to the divine Acceptation There may be indeed and at first there generally is much less of Love in this Principle of Obedience than of Hope and Fear whilst yet the whole Composition is very acceptable to God for the lowest Degree of cordial Love intermixed with our Hope and Fear will leaven and consecrate them into an acceptable Principle of Obedience but still the less Love there is in it the more weak and languid and imperfect it is and in all its Progresses towards Perfection its Maturity is to be measured by the Degrees of Love that are in it and till our Love is arrived unto that Degree of Ardency as to become the predominant Motive and Master-Ingredient in it our State in Goodness is very slow and imperfect So that in short the Principle of our Obedience is more and more perfect the more of Love there is in it and the less of Hope and Fear and when Hope and Fear are all swallowed up in Love and that is the sole Spring of Action within us then it is the Principle of Heaven and the Soul that acts and animates the Religion of the Spirits of just men made perfect But to convince you how much our Obedience is perfected by Love I shall briefly give you these following Instances of it 1. It rendereth our Obedience universal and unconfined 2. Spritely and chearful 3. Natural and easy 4. Constant and steady 1. Love renders our Obedience universal and unconfined When Men are acted only by a Principle of Fear
generally hate those whom they fear and even whilst they are fawning and cringing to their imperious Masters had much rather cut their Throats if they could do it with safety so when Men are acted in their Obedience to God meerly by a slavish Dread of his Vengeance they generally hate him whilst they obey him and if it were in their power would rather ungod him and pull him down from his Throne than render him those Homages which they dare not with-hold Now is it possible that he who knows the Hearts of Men and sees the inmost Workings of their Minds should ever be pleased with such a base and sordid Religion a Religion that is conjoyned with such an inveterate Hatred to his Person and Government and restrains Men only by the Fear of Punishment from flying in his Face a Religion that is wholly founded in Passion that causes us to hate him as well as to fawn upon him that carries in it a secret Antipathy to his Nature and his Laws and would much rather vent it self in an open Rebellion than in a forced Submission had it but Power enough to defend it self from his Fury And yet this is the best Religion that Mankind is capable of without the Love of God So that if ever we intend to keep up a generous Religion in our Souls such as becomes free-born Minds to offer to the great Sovereign of the World we must be sure to purge out all those sower and rigid Notions of God that represent him any ways unlovely to us 2 ly Hence I infer how miserably those Men are mistaken that make any Thing a Sign of their Love to God but what tends to their keeping his Commandments There are too many Persons that are apt to measure their Affection to God and Christ by the meer Impressions of sensitive Passion because upon some moving and affecting Representations of those amiable Objects they feel in themselves the same sensitive Emotions as they are wont to do when they fall in Love with other Things that is if they feel their Spirits soothing and ravishing their Hearts and their Hearts diffusing and opening themselves to let in those soft and amorous Spirits they conclude themselves presently infinitely in love with God and with their Saviour Whereas many times all this is meerly the Effect of an amorous Complection tinctured and inflamed with Religious Ideas and is commonly as remote from the Virtue of Love as Light is from Darkness or Heaven from Hell For as there are many Men who are sincerely good that yet cannot raise their sensitive Passions in their Religious Exercises that are heartily sorry for their Sins and yet cannot weep for them and do entirely love God and delight in his Service and yet cannot move their Blood and Spirits into the ravishing Passions of sensitive Love and Joy So on the other hand there are many gross Hypocrites that have not one Dram of true Piety in them who yet in their Religious Exercises can put themselves into wonderous Transports of bodily Passion who can pour out their Confessions in Floods of Tears and cause their Hearts to dilate into Raptures of sensitive Love and their Spirits to tickle them into Extasies of Joy Which is purely to be resolved into the different Tempers of Mens Bodies some Tempers being naturally so calm and sedate as that they are scarce capable of being disturbed into a Passion others again so soft and tender and impressible that the most frivolous Fancy is able to raise a Commotion in them And hence we see that some People can weep most heartily at the Misfortunes of Lovers in Plays and Romances and as heartily rejoyce at their good Successes though they know that both are but Fictions and mere Ideas of Fancy whereas others can scarce shed a Tear or raise a sensitive Joy at the real Calamities or Prosperities of a Friend whom yet they love a great deal better than others can be supposed to do their feigned and Romantick Hero's And yet because of these sensitive Transports which Men do sometimes feel in themselves when their Fancies have been chafed a while with a pathetical Description of God they presently vote themselves his Friends and Lovers whereas in Truth that which commonly moves their Affection is not any thing real either in God or in Christ but some sensual Beauty attributed to them in fanciful Descriptions that smites their carnalized Fancies For generally we find that it is a Metaphorical God and Christ that such Men fall in love with they set up an Idol of God and Christ in their Fancies and dress it in such carnal Metaphors and Allusions as their sensual Minds are most apt to be taken with and then imagin that it smiles on them and kisses and caresses them with all the pretty endearments of a doating Lover whereupon they grow so extreamly fond of it that they are not able to forbear hugging and dandling it But alas poor Men they hug the Cloud instead of the Godess and while they think they have God and Christ in their Arms embrace nothing but a Specter of their own Fancies For let but any other Person though it were only the Hero of a Romance or the Lover of a Play be but described to them in the same Language and the same glistering Allusions and they shall experience in themselves the same Passion for them as they have for their God and their Saviour Thus in the Roman Nunneries and Monasteries we generally find the Monks fall in Love with the Virgin Mary whilst the Nuns are all enamoured with Jesus Christ that is they chuse the Objects of their Love according to the different Inclinations of their Sexes and the Reason why they chuse so differently is no other than this that they both frame to themselves such different carnal Ideas of the different Objects of their Love as are most suitable and agreeable to their carnal Inclinations but very commonly neither the Monk loves the Virgin Mary nor the Nun Jesus Christ but they both meerly doat upon the different Images of their own Fancies which do not at all represent those divine Beauties for which those sacred Persons do so well deserve to be beloved And thus it is too commonly among our selves when yet we pretend to be zealous Lovers of God Wherefore unless we have a mind to deceive our selves let us no longer depend on such fallacious Evidences as these but let us try our Love of God by his own Touch-stone and that is our Obedience to his heavenly Will If any man love me saith our Saviour he will keep my Words Jo. xiv 23 and ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you for this saith St. John is Love that ye walk after his Commandments Eph. ii 6 For the Love of God and of Christ being a rational Love is only to be valued by those rational Effects it produces in us if it transform us into the Image of God and makes us
at it so that we cannot run from any Duty into any Sin without leaving a Benefit for a Mischief and leaping out of some Degree of Happiness into some Degree of Misery When things I say are thus as it is apparent they are with what Conscience can we complain that our Duty is burthensome and uneasie This therefore is one great Reason why God's Commands cannot be grievous because they require nothing but what is beneficial and forbid nothing but what is hurtful and injurious to us And sure no Man can have Reason to complain that is forbid Poyson and commanded to eat nothing but what is wholsome and nourishing 2 ly Another Thing that facilitates the Commands of God is this That they are highly agreeable to our reasonable Natures And hence the Apostle calls the whole of our Religion a reasonable Service Rom. xii 1 And for the Truth of this I dare appeal to any considering Man in the World whether those Virtues which God hath enjoyned be not in their own Nature far more reasonable than any of the Contrary Vices whether supposing there be a God that made and governs the World and from whom we derive our Beings and all the Blessings we enjoy or expect it be not much more reasonable in the Nature of the Thing that we should worship and revere and love and honour and obey him than that we should neglect and despise blaspheme and rebel against him or whether we can behave our selves so unworthily to One that hath deserved so well at our hands without doing the greatest Violence to our own Reason whether since we are all of us reasonable Beings and our Reason is the noblest Ingredient of our Natures it doth not much better become us to subject our blind Passions and Appetites to those eternal Rules of Temperance which Right Reason prescribes than to let loose the Reins to them and suffer them to run headlong into all Excesses and Riots whether since we are incorporated into the great Society of Mankind it be not much more conducive to the Good of the Whole to behave our selves justly and honestly charitably and obliging one towards another than to defraud and oppress malign and persecute one another I dare appeal to any Man that hath ever thought twice of these Matters whether in point of Reasonableness the Advantage is not wholly on the side of Virtue yea and whether the opposite Vices compared with these Virtues seem not as extravagant as the wildest Freaks of a Mad-man compared with the wise Managements of a Minister of State But I need not appeal to particular Men in this Matter since all the reasonable World is agreed in the point and the Men of all Ages and Nations and Religions how much soever in other points they have dissented from one another yet in this have still been unanimous That Virtue is the wisest and most reasonable Thing in the World and Vice the most absurd and irrational and this not only in the general but in all those particular Instances of Virtue and Vice which Christianity commands and forbids For excepting the two Sacraments and believing in Jesus Christ and the Observation of the Lord's Day which are the instituted Means of our Religion there is nothing made Matter of Duty to us but what all the wise World had long before pronounced most highly fit and reasonable This therefore must needs render the Commands of God very easie to us that they do so perfectly agree with our reasonable Natures and require nothing of us either to be done or avoided but what the Reason of every wise Man would have obliged him to whether God had commanded it or no. So that now to facilitate our Duty we have the full Concurrence of our Reason which upon due and impartial Consideration cannot but approve and recommend it to us as the most reasonable Thing in the World and if it be so how is it possible that it should be in its own Nature grievous Is it so hard a Matter for Men to act like Men and not to live their own Reverse and Antipodes Is it such a mighty Burthen to comply with the most genuine Inclinations of our Nature and to swim with the full Tide and Current of our Reason in obeying those Commands which are so far from offering any Violence to our Faculties that they have their full Consent and Approbation Let Men say and teach what they please 't is as apparent as the Sun that the Difficulties of Religion commence not so much upon the Stock of Nature as of Education and evil Habits and Customs for in all other Instances that which is natural is always facile and easie and if Reason be the Nature of a Man Religion must be either natural or unreasonable So that Religion disagrees with us upon no other Account but only because we disagree with our selves and it just so far crosses us as we do the Current of our own rational Natures We have sophisticated our Natures with the Intermixtures of sensual and devilish Habits and they are these that the Commands of God do agrieve and so 't is not the Man that is so burthened with Religion but 't is either the Beast or the Devil that is in him 3 ly Another Thing that facilitates God's Commands is this That they are mightily furthered and promoted by all the natural Instincts and Passions of human Nature There are certain Propensions in human Nature antecedent to all Reason and Discourse that seem to be implanted in us by the wise Author of our Beings for no other End but only to minister to Virtue and Religion such in particular are Self-Love the Love of Truth and of Pleasure Commiseration and Gratitude and Affectation of Praise all which do discover themselves in us in our early Infancy before we are capable of discoursing our selves into them For even in young Infants you may observe a great Inclination to defend themselves and to repel Injuries which proceeds from the Principle of Self-love that is in them a vehement Desire of what seems good to them and a great Displeasure when they perceive themselves deceived the later of which must proceed from their Love of Truth as the former from their Love of Goodness Again when they see a miserable Object or one whom they think so they presently bemoan it and express by their Actions a very earnest Desire to defend and relieve it which proceeds from that natural Commiseration that is in them Again as soon as they are able to distinguish Faces and Persons we see they express the greatest Love and Fondness to those that tend and feed them and do them most good which is a plain Expression of their natural Gratitude And as soon as they understand the Meaning of Words or Actions they shew themselves highly pleased when they are commended and applauded and much grieved and ashamed when they are derided and exposed which plainly discovers their natural Affectation of Praise These
and such like Instincts and Propensions there are found in human Nature which being well managed and improved by our Reason prove excellent Instruments of Virtue and Religion and do very much facilitate and further our Practice of them For this our natural Self-love being guided by our Reason doth strongly incline us to serve and obey God who being the most powerful Agent in the World can do us the greatest Good if we please him and the greatest Hurt if we affront and provoke him so that as we love our selves it concerns us to use all reasonable Ways to endear and reconcile our selves to him Thus our natural Desire of Good if conducted by our Reason will incline us to do the best Actions since from these the greatest Good will necessarily redound to us and our Love of Truth by good Management may be easily improved into Honesty and Sincerity and an universal Abhorrence of Vice upon the Account of those notorious Cheats and Impostures that are in it Thus also by the Bias of our natural Commiseration we are strongly inclined to Charity and Beneficence and universal Love and by its own innate Gratitude our Nature is propense to the Love of God who is our Sovereign Benefactor to honour and obey our Parents and do all the Acts and Offices of a noble and generous Friendship And to name no more thus by our natural Affectation of Praise we are strongly inclined to do praise-worthy Things and consequently to exercise our selves in all those amiable Virtues which by common Consent are lookt upon as the Graces and Ornaments of human Nature Thus by all those Instincts that God hath implanted in our Natures we are inclined to Virtue and Obedience to his Will And for this Reason chiefly hath he implanted them in us because they are excellent Instruments of Religion having in them such a natural Aptitude and Proneness to facilitate our Duty by inclining us to it and to farther us in Holiness and Virtue I confess there are none of these Instincts but may be improved into Vices nor is there any Thing so good but what may be perverted to very bad Purposes And if Men will abuse themselves and willfully deboach the Instincts of their Nature there is no Remedy for their Folly and they must thank themselves when they feel the dismal Effects of it But this I think is plain that there are no Propensions in human Nature but what are much more improvable into Virtue than into Vice and if Men would but use themselves well and as it becomes reasonable Creatures to do they would doubtless find themselves very much farthered in their Duty by the natural Instincts which God hath implanted within them And this is a mighty Advantage on Virtues side that it is thus aided and assisted with all the Instincts of our Natures which like obedient Handmaids are most readily inclined to execute its Commands and minister to its Pleasure and Interest How then is it possible that Religion in it self should be burthensome and grievous to us when the Propensions of our Nature do so fairly comply with it and it is helped forwards and promoted by all their united Force and Influence 'T is difficult indeed for a Man to go against the Grain but to act according to Nature to follow our own Propensions and to do what we are inclined to by natural Instinct is doubtless the easiest Thing in the World 4 ly Another Thing that makes those Virtues which God Commands to be easie is this that they are all so inseparably connected to one another that they mutually promote and help forward each other For all the Virtues are so mutually concatenated that the stirring of any one Link moves the whole Chain Thus for Instance the true Knowledge of God naturally inflames the Soul with the Love of him and then the Love of him insensibly transforms her into the Image of his beloved Goodness for he that loves God must needs be inamoured with that divine Goodness which is the Root of his Love And while he is ravished with the Sweetness of his Good Will the Undeservedness of his Grace and the Clemency of his Pardon an heavenly Spirit steals into his Soul and he loves and becomes like God so both at once that like a Wedg of Steel he is transformed into the Likeness of the Fire that heats him and is all inflamed and inlightened at the same Moment And as he burns with Love so he resembles the Goodness that set him on Fire and becomes pure as that is pure and holy as that is holy and just and merciful as that heavenly Original is which he copies and transcribes Thus wheresoever the Love of God is it hath all the god-like Virtues attending it and that being the first Link in the heavenly Chain whensoever it moves it communicates Motion to all the rest For he that heartily loves God will love those whom God loves and so the Love of God will draw Brotherly-Charity after it and he who loves those whom God loves will be just and righteous in his Dealings and Deportment towards them and so Brotherly-charity will draw Righteousness after it And he that demeans himself justly and righteously towards others will neither undervalue them nor overvalue himself and so Righteousness will draw Humility after it And he that doth not over-value himself is fairly disposed to be sober in all his Passions and so Humility draws Temperance and Sobriety and Meekness after it Thus one Virtue smoothens the Way to another and makes it not only possible but easie for there is such a near Neighbourhood between these heavenly Sisters that when we are arrived at one we pass insensibly to the next and so on by Degrees till we are gone round with them all For though there be not an immediate Dependence of every Virtue upon every one Virtue so as to make it necessary for a Man to have all Virtues in every Moment that he hath one for a Man may be charitable and yet not presently humble as he may be just and yet not immediately temperate Yet there is so near a Dependence between them that one always disposes the Mind for another this Virtue always makes way for its next Neighbour and that for its next and so on all around the whole Circle of Virtues Thus Humility naturally disposes the Mind to Meekness Meekness to Charity Charity to Justice Justice to Devotion which is giving God his Due and Devotion to Heavenly-mindedness and Contempt of the World and so all along there is a gentle and easie Transition from one to t' other Now this must needs mightily facilitate the Virtues of Religion that they are so nearly confederated to each other and so do naturally contribute to each others Assistance For whereas if it were not for this there would still be the same Difficulty in practising the second Virtue as there is in practising the first and in practising the third as there is in practising
may be sure that his own which is the great Standard and Pattern of all reasonable Natures is infinitely loving and prone to do good And thus you see what mighty unanswerable Instances there are of the Goodness of God in the Works of his Creation Wherefore to conclude this Argument From hence we see what mighty Obligations we are under to serve and obey so far as we are able the great and good Author of our Beings who hath not only created us but created us in a vast Capacity of Happiness and furnished us with sufficient Means and Abilities to attain it Wherefore since all our Powers and Abilities are from him we are bound in Justice to imploy them in his Service and since by giving us those Abilities he hath done us so much good and rendred us capable of such immense degrees of Happiness we are obliged in Gratitude not to imploy them in doing any Thing that is any ways displeasing or dishonourable to him For what can be more just or reasonable than that God should have the Use of those Powers which he gave us and in which he still retains an unalienable Right and Property That the Temples which he hath built should be forever dedicated to his Service and not turned into Dens of Thievs or made Stables of Filth and Vncleanness So that for us to withdraw our selves from his Service or to imploy our Powers to any wicked Purposes is to commit a Robbery upon the Author of our Beings and most unjustly to desseise him of his own Goods wherein he hath a far more absolute Propriety than we pretend to have in the Cloths on our Backs And in every bad Action we do steal Gods own Powers and Faculties from him and with extreme Injustice imploy them against himself Now what a monstrous Thing is it that we who think our selves so highly affronted when any one charges us with Robbery and Injustice should make no more Conscience of robbing God and alienating from him those Faculties and Powers of Action in which he hath a far more undoubted Propriety than any Creature can have in any Good it enjoys but when he hath been so good a Creator to us as to create in us such an ample Capacity of being happy and furnished us with such abundant Means and Abilities of attaining thereunto then to eloigne our selves from his Service and to pervert those Powers of Action to sinful Purposes by which he hath enabled us to be happy is not only unjust but barbarously ungrateful For now in sinning against God we fight against him with his own Mercies and arm the Effects of his Bounty against his Sovereignty and as if we were resolved to revenge our selves upon him for making us so good and raising us up into such an excellent State of Nature we shamefully dishonour him with his own Blessings and take all Advantages we can to grieve and offend him from the very Means and Abilities which he hath given us to be happy He gave us Reason and Vnderstanding to discern what is good for our selves and Liberty of Will to choose and imbrace it and we like ungrateful Wretches imploy that Reason and Liberty in contriving and choosing the highest Treason against him He gave us Powers and Abilities of Action that so we might not only discern and choose what is best for us but might also pursue and obtain it but we like base Caitiffs exert those Abilities in grieving and offending our most gracious Benefactor Wherefore be astonished O ye Heavens and be horribly affraid O all ye Works of God! For whilst you are all obedient to the Laws of your Maker and never swerve from those Lines of Motion he hath prescribed you we whom he hath advanced into the highest Class of Beings and endowed with the largest Capacities and Abilities of being happy are become so base and so shameless as to injure him with his own Gifts and to convert his very Blessings into Weapons of Rebellion against him Wherefore unless we are ambitious of rendring our selves the most absolute Monsters both of Injustice and Ingratitude unless we have a Fancy to aspire to a Perfection in Baseness and to rival the Devils themselves in the most infamous and ignominious Degrees of Wickedness let us imploy all our Faculties and Abilities for Action in the Service of him from whom we received them and exercise his Gifts in a perpetual Acknowledgment of his Goodness PSALM CXIX 68 Thou art good and thou dost good I Have already handled two of those four Topicks from whence I intended to demonstrate the Goodness of God viz. his Nature and the Works of his Creation of the First of which I discoursed upon the former Part of the Words Thou art good Of the Second upon the later Thou dost good But now because the Doings or Operations of God include his Providence as well as his Creation and God doth good in that as well as in this no doubt but the Psalmist in these Words had a respect to the one as well as the other I proceed therefore to the Third Topick from whence it doth most evidently appear and that is his Providence Thou dost good i. e. thou dost good in the great Works of thy Providence and thereby thou dost manifest the Goodness of thy Nature in that as thou didst create a World to great and good Purposes so thou dost still continue to do good to it in upholding and governing it by a most gracious Providence Now in the Managment of this Argument I shall do these two things 1. Give you some general and comprehensive Instances of Gods doing good in the Works of his Providence 2. That though there may be some Things in the World that to us seem to be very ill and hurtful yet it is infinitely unreasonable for us to suspect the Goodness and Beneficence of the divine Providence First I shall give you some general and comprehensive Instances of Gods doing good in the Works of his Providence and they are these Four 1. His upholding Things in that good Course and Order wherein he first created them excepting only when the publick Good of his Creatures requires him to interpose 2. His continuing Mankind under an awful sense of Religion notwithstanding the great Degeneracies of human Nature 3. His supporting of Government in the World notwithstanding the violent Tendency of our corrupt Nature to Anarchy and Confusion 4. His contributing to the Invention and Improvement of all those useful Arts and Sciences that are in the World 1. His upholding Things in that good Course and Order wherein he first created them excepting only when the publick Good of his Creatures requires him to interpose That that Order and Course of Things which God first established in his Creation was exceeding good and beneficial to it I have proved at large in my former Discourse and that God still continues the same good Will to us is apparent since he still continues things in the same
beneficial Course and Order wherein he first created them For we see the Heaven and the Elements still as kind to us as ever the Sun Moon and Stars do still run the same Courses and still they cherish and refresh us with the same benign Influences and though for six Thousand years together they have been perpetually visiting us and spending the liberal Alms of their great Creator upon us yet to this Day they are neither wearied nor exhausted but still continue to do us good with the same Freedom and Vigour as when they first danced round the World and sang together for Joy The Fire and Air and Earth and Water are still as liberal to us as ever and do supply us with the same Necessaries of Life as they did from the first Moment of their Being and though for so many Ages we and innumerable other Animals have been liberally maintained out of these vast Store-houses of Nature yet still we find them replenished with an inexhaustible Fulness So that still not only the Earth but all the other Elements are full of the Goodness of the Lord yea and though in their Qualities they are quite contrary to one another yet are their Animosities so tempered by the gracious Providence of Heaven that they all live together like Brethren in unity and the Dryness of this drinks not up the Moisture of that nor doth the Cold of the one quench the Heat of the other The Fire invades not the Air nor the Water the Earth but every one keeps within its proper Bounds and though in sundry Places the Water be above the Earth yet contrary to its own Nature which is to flow and expatiate it self it doth only overlook its Banks but doth not overflow them being bounded by that merciful Providence which in mere Pity to the Inhabitants of the Earth says to its proud Waves hitherto shall ye go and no further So that in short the Continuation of the regular Motions of the Heavens of the Vicissitudes of Seasons and alternate Mutation of Bodies of the safety of the whole Vniverse notwithstanding the rude Clashings of turbulent Matter and of the exact Symmetry of all the Parts of it in Despite of the frequent Rencounters of so many contrary Principles shews not only the Power and Presence of some great Mind but is also a plain Evidence of the Continuation of his Care and good Will to the World And as he hath continued the inanimate World in that most excellent Course and Order wherein he first created it so he hath still preserved all those innumerable Species of Animals which he first gave Being to so that in so many Ages and among so many Chances there is not one Kind of them hath either failed or perished or become less capable of Happiness or less furnished with Means and Abilities of obtaining it So that his Providence is nothing else but a constant Repetition of the Goodness of his Creation and all the Difference between them is only this that in the one he made all Things Good in the other he continues them so 'T is true God hath left himself at Liberty when Occasion requires immediately to interpose in the Course of Nature and to vary from the Order of his Creation And indeed unless he had done so he would in a great Measure have tyed up his own Hands and incapacitated himself from Governing the World but yet he never makes Use of this Liberty but for very good Reason to serve some very great and excellent End of his Government either to punish some notorious Sinner or some very sinful People that so by their Example others may be warned from treading in their Footsteps or to deliver or preserve some eminently virtuous Person or Nation that thereby others may be incouraged to imitate and transcribe their Virtues or lastly to confirm and ratify by some miraculous Effects some necessary Revelations of his Will to the World Unless I say it be to serve some such excellent Ends as these he never interposes by his absolute Power to make the least Interruption in the established Course and Order of the Vniverse And as soon as ever he hath obtained the good Ends that he aims at he withdraws his Hand and immediately remits Things to their primitive Course and Order So that if Gods Creation be good as I have largely proved it is his Providence must needs be so too because it continues the Course and Order of the Creation and never interrupts or varies it unless it be to do some great Good to the World Thus God in his Providence doth continually spread forth the mighty Wings of his Goodness over all his Creation and thereby reaches out Perseverance to the Being and the Happiness of every Creature 2. Another Instance of his doing good in this great Work of his Providence is his continuing Mankind under an awful Sense of Religion notwithstanding the great Degeneracies of human Nature It is very strange to consider how this heavenly Spark hath been kept alive in the midst of such a vast Ocean of Impiety as hath over-spread the World for considering into what monstrous Barbarism Mankind have immersed themselves how miserably they have defaced their own Nature and blotted out their Reason insomuch that in several Ages and several Parts of the World they have had scarce any other Remains of Humanity in them but only their Language and their Shape I say considering these Things it is impossible but all Sense of Religion must long e're now have been extinguished in us had not the divine Providence from Time to Time been exceeding careful to cherish and revive it And this it hath done by very strange and extraordinary Methods sometimes by inflicting strange and amazing Judgments upon great and notorious Offenders sometimes by showering down miraculous Blessings and Deliverances upon virtuous and good Men sometimes by raising up eminent Examples and Preachers of Righteousness such as the Patriarchs among the Jews and the Philosophers among the Gentiles sometimes by making immediate Revelations from Heaven and confirming the Truth of them by miraculous Effects and sometimes by permitting evil Spirits to appear to possess the Bodies of their Enthusiasts and to deliver Oracles by them which though it sometimes tended to promote false Religions among Mankind yet did always prove instrumental to cherish and enliven the Sense and Belief of a Divinity By these and such like powerful Methods hath the good Providence of Heaven from time to time revived in us the dying Sense of Religion and in Despite of our selves continually kept us under its Aw and Restraints which if it had not done we should have immediately run headlong into the most deplorable Confusions and Disorders For not only our eternal but our temporal Interest too is bound up in Religion for this is the Foundation of all human Society and of all the Blessings that redound from it 't is this that gives Life and Security to all those Pacts
into the Flames of Hell So careful hath the good God been to plot and contrive for the Welfare of his Creatures that he would not so much as pardon them when they had offended him but in such a Way as was most for their Security and Good 3 dly His consenting that his own Son should submit himself to this Suffering is another great Instance of his Goodness towards us in this method of pardoning us That he should not only admit of a Sacrifice to bear our Transgressions and suffer in our Stead but that himself should provide one for us and such a one too as his own most dear and precious Son is such a Miracle of Love and Goodness as the whole Creation cannot parallel For though Mankind had provoked him to that Height that none but a God of infinite Patience could have born it yet such was his Unwillingness to inflict that direful Punishment upon them which he had justly threatned and they had justly deserved that notwithstanding all their Demerits he was still vehemently inclined to be propitious to them But then how to save them and at the same Time so to manifest his Severity against their Sins as was needful to preserve the Authority and Honour of his Laws that had threatned Destruction to them was the great Difficulty for should he have wholly omitted the Punishment he would have very much undervalued the Authority of his Laws in the Esteem of his Subjects the main security of their Authority being the Punishment annexed to them but on the contrary should he have exacted the utmost of the Punishment he must have destroyed the whole Race of Men we being all Offenders in his Sight In this Extremity therefore that he might pardon such a World of Sinners with safety to his Government it was highly necessary for him to exhibit to the World some dreadful Example of his Severity against them such as might be sufficient to prevent Offenders from taking any Encouragement from his pardoning them to offend again But to make a Sinner such a great Example of his Severity against the Sins of others was impossible because his own Sins may deserve the utmost Severity that God can inflict upon him and therefore among our selves who were all Sinners there was no Person could be found fit to be made such an Example of his Severity against the Sins of the whole World And if an innocent Angel should have freely offered up himself to bear our Punishment and Suffer in our Stead his Suffering in our Room would not have so sufficiently expressed Gods Severity against the Sins of a whole World of Sinners as was convenient for what great Severity would it have been to have exacted the suffering of one innocent Angel in lieu of that eternal Punishment that was due to a whole World of Men Wherefore it being highly convenient that the Dignity of the Person who suffered for us should be such as might render his Suffering in some Degree proportionable to the Punishment due to our Sins that so his Suffering in our stead might be as exemplary to the World as if we our selves had suffered to the utmost of our Desert and there being no Creature of that Dignity either in Heaven or Earth in this Extremity the eternal Son of God himself interposes and freely offers to unite himself to our Natures and therein to suffer in our Stead upon Condition that on our unfeigned Repentance and Amendment a free Charter of Pardon might be granted for all our past Provocations So that now an Expedient being proposed by which God might both pardon our Sins and sufficiently manifest his Severity against them to secure the Authority of his Laws and deter us from sinning again though he saw how dear an Expedient it would prove that it would cost him the most precious Blood of his own Son yet such was his tender Pity towards us so great his Unwillingness to ruin us forever that he freely complyed with the Motion and consented that his Son should be sacrificed for the Sins of the World And hence it is said that he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all Rom. viii 32 And the Reason why he deliverd him up as he tells us v. 3 of the same Chapter was to condemn Sin in the Flesh that is to pronounce in the Suffering of his own Son for it what a dreadful Punishment it deserved and how much his Soul was incensed against it that would not pardon it without such a mighty Propitiation How inexpressibly gracious therefore hath God been to us that when for the securing the Authority of his Laws it was so necessary to condemn our Sins rather than condemn them in our own personal Punishment he should chuse to condemn them in the sufferings of his own Son It was a great Instance of his Goodness towards us to admit of another to suffer for us in our stead but to admit of his own Son who is the Darling of Heaven and the Delight of his Soul and not only so but freely to give and deliver him up for us and amidst all the yearnings of his fatherly Bowels towards him not to spare his precious Life when it was to be made the Price of our Redemption is such a Miracle of Love as transcends all Hyperboles 4 ly and lastly his choosing to grant Pardon to us upon the Sufferings of his Son as a Sacrifice for our Sins is also another great Instance of his Goodness to us in this Way of pardoning us For the End of granting Pardon to Sinners upon their Repentance being to encourage them to repent it was highly convenient to grant it to them in such a Way and upon such Reason as might most effectually assure them thereof And considering what was the general Persuasion of Mankind in this Matter there was no such effectual Way to secure them of Pardon upon their Repentance as this of granting Pardon to them upon the Motive of a Sacrifice for their Sins For however it came to pass I know not but it was a Principle generally received by Men of all Nations and Religions that to appease the incensed Divinity it was necessary First that some Sacrifice should be made to him for their Sins and then that some high Favourite of his should intercede with him in their Be half upon which were founded those two great Rights of Propitiatory Sacrifices and worshiping of Demons which made up a great Part of all the Heathenish Religions in the World For as for Propitiatory Sacrifices they were generally used not only by the barbarous but by the most civiliz'd Heathens which Sacrifices they devoted unto God to be their Proxies in Punishment to undergo the Punishment that was due to them for their own Sins And hence is that of the antient Poet Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur Victima pro te When thou thy self art the Offender for what Reason should the Victim die for thee And
Father to Jesus my Redeemer and to the Holy Ghost my constant Comforter and Assistant And what though the State and the Laws and Customs of it be in a great Measure unknown to me Yet what I know is infinitely desirable from whence I may reasonably infer that what I know not is so too and if I have but the Temper of Heaven I am sure I shall easily comply with the heavenly Laws and Customs of it So that in the whole I cannont imagine why any good Man that seriously believes the Doctrine of a blessed Immortality and hath a just well-grounded Hope of being made Partaker of it at the Expiration of this mortal Life should be so loath to leave this wretched World and expire into that blessed Eternity I do not deny but the Circumstances of our Affairs in this Life are many times such as may justly excuse even a good Mans Willingness to die some great Opportunities of doing Good may present themselves and invite him to stay a little longer or his having begun his Repentance late or not having made a competent Provision for his Family may for a Time justify his Unwillingness to depart and render it both excusable and reasonable But unless it be in these excepted Cases methinks I can hardly reconcile our Hopes of Happiness with our Fear of Death For when I am verily persuaded that Death is only a narrow Stream running between Time and Eternity and I see my God and my Saviour with Crowns of Glory in their Hands beckoning to me from the farther Shoar and calling to me to come over and receive those happy Recompences of my Industry and Labour that I like a naked timorous Boy should stand shivering on this Bank of Time as if I were afraid to dip my Foot in that cold Stream of Fate which as soon as I am in I am past and in the Twinkling of an Eye will land me on eternal Bliss is such an extravagant Inconsistency as if I did not feel it in me I should never believe I could be guilty of 4 thly And lastly Hence I infer what a vast deal of Reason we have to be diligent and industrious in Religion since God hath proposed such a vast Reward to us to encourage and animate our Industry How can we account any Work hard of which Heaven is the Wages How can we faint in our Christian Race when we see the Crown of Glory hanging over the Goal Methinks this should be enough to infuse Life and Spirit into the most crest-fallen Souls to make Cripples run and to convert the most sneaking Coward into a bold and magnanimous Hero For how much Pains do we ordinarily take upon far less Hopes in Hope of a little transitory Wealth which we know we shall enjoy but a few years and then part with for ever we thrust our selves into a perpetual Croud and Tumult of Business where with vast Concern and Thoughtfulness with eager and passionate Prosecutions with endless Brauls and Contentions with jostling and rencountring one another we toil and weary our selves and make our Lives a constant Drudgery And shall we flag when Heaven is the Object of our Prosecutions who are so active in the Pursuit of Trifles Whensoever therefore we find our Endeavours in Religion begin to jade and droop let us lift up our Eyes to the Crown of Glory and if we are capable of being moved by Objects of the greatest Value that must infuse new Vigour into us and make us all Life and Spirit and Wing For what though my Way lies up the Hill and leads me along through Thorns and Precipices so that I am fain to sweat at every Step and every Ascent is a Toil to me Yet when I am up I am sure to be entertained with such pleasant Gales and glorious Prospects as will fully recompence all my Toil in climbing thither There with an over-joyed Heart I shall sit down and bless my Labours Blessed be you my bitter Agonies and sharp Conflicts my importunate Prayers and well-spent Tears for now I am fully repaid for you all and do reap ten thousand Times more Joys from you than ever I endured Pains For what are the Pains of a Moment to the Pleasures of an Eternity Wherefore hold out my Faith and Patience yet a little longer and your Work will soon be at an end and after a few laborious Week-days you shall keep an everlasting Sabbath What though my Voyage lie through a stormy Sea yet 't is to the Indies of Happiness and a few Leagues farther lies the blessed Port where I shall be crowned as soon as I am landed Go on therefore O my Soul with thy utmost Courage and Alacrity for let the Winds bluster and the Waves swell never so much yet thou canst not miscarry unless thou wilt Thou art not like other Passengers left to the Mercy of Wind and Weather but thy Fate is in thy own Hands and if thou wilt but have thy Fruit unto Holiness thy End shall be everlasting Life 1 Epist. JOHN IV. 19 We love him because he first loved us I Have shewed you in the former Discourses how indispensably necessary it is that we should love God in Order to our being truly religious and proved to you at large that of all Principles of Religion whatsoever this is the most operative and effectual And then to excite this heavenly Affection in you I have shewn you that the Goodness of God is the principal Motive that engages our Love to him And now that I may more largely explain the Nature and Measures of this Love as it is our Duty and engage you to it by this grand Motive of the divine Goodness I have made choice of this Text We love him because he first loved us The Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may as well be rendered subjunctively to signify what we ought to do as indicatively for what we already do and indeed it seems more suitable to the Context to render it we should or ought to love him than we love him For in the former Verses the Apostle earnestly presses Christians to love one another upon the Consideration of God's great love to them and then considering how naturally their Love to one another would follow upon their mutual Love to God he concludes that the most effectual Course to oblige them to love one another was to excite them to the Love of God upon the Consideration of his great Love to them For saith he Vers. 20. If a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar because Light it self is not more inseparable to the Sun than Brotherly-Love is to the Love of God So that unless we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we should love him as we shall evacuate the Necessity of the Apostles Counsel so we shall disturb the Order and Method of his Argument For if we render it Indicatively We love him it will thence necessarily follow that we shall also
Apollo So that to conclude that we love God from those corporeal Passions is very unsafe and dangerous and we may almost as certainly judge of the Hunger of our Souls after Righteousness by the Hunger of our Bodies after Bread as of the Love of our Souls to God by our bodily Ravishments and Passions For bodily Passion differs according to the Temper of the Body some Tempers are so soft and impressive that the most frivolous Fancy will affect them others so hard and sturdy that the greatest Reason will hardly move them and consequently Persons of this Temper though they should love God much more than the other and have a much higher Esteem of and more rational Complacency in his divine Perfections yet will have much less of corporeal Passion intermingled with it I do not deny but even this sensitive Passion when prudently managed may be of great Advantage to a rational Love for the Passions being soft and easie and apt to follow the Motions of the Soul do naturally intend and quicken them and render them more vigorous and active and we have very much Cause to bless God even for that sensitive Joy and Complacency which accompanies our Love to him since this I doubt not is many times excited by his own blessed Spirit to quicken and invigorate our rational Affection and render it more active and vivacious But that which I aim at is only this if possible to beat Men off from measuring the Strength or Weakness the Truth or Falshood of their Love to God by any corporeal Passion whatsoever since Men may we see and many times have a vehement Passion without any Reason and all those Ticklings and Ravishments of Heart which too many Men mistake for the Love of God are very often nothing else but the necessary Effects of a chafed and overheated Fancy But that which is really the Love of God is always founded in a rational Conviction of the Beauty and Goodness of his Nature and proceeds from an high Esteem and profound Veneration of his Perfections For no Man loves God but can give very good Reason why he loves him he is not moved to it by a Musical Tone or a gaudy Metaphor or an unaccountable Impulse of Fancy but by the real Charms and Attractions of the divine Goodness and Perfections which darting through his Mind like the Sun-beams through a Burning-glass have kindled his Affections and made him love with infinite Reason so that 't is his Vnderstanding that inamours his Will and that which makes him a Lover of God is the deep Sense of his Reason how much he deserves to be beloved He hath seriously considered how lovely God is in himself how kind and loving unto all his Creation and what particular Obligation God hath laid upon him to return him Love for Love and this gives Fire to his Love and affects his Will with Delight and Complacency and though perhaps he may not feel those passionate Soothings and Expansions of Heart which sensitive Joy is wont to produce yet he finds himself highly pleased with God and his Will acquiesces in the Thought of his Goodness and Perfections with a Calm and even Complacency And thus his Will is inflamed with the purest Light of his Understanding and his Love is nothing else but the warm Reflection of his Reason Thus Psal. cxvi 1 I love the Lord saith David and then he goes on to enumerate the vast and important Reasons why he loved him because he hath inclined his Ear c. And in the 1 Cor. viii 3 If any Man love God the same i. e. God is known of him intimating that all true Love of God is founded in the Knowledge of him 3 dly The Love of God is a fixed as well as rational Complacency in him by which I distinguish this heavenly Affection from those short and transitory Fits of Love that like Flashes of Lightning come and go appear and vanish in a Moment For thus upon some affecting Providence or passionate Representation of the Divine Goodness it is very ordinary for Men to be chafed into an amorous Fit and touched with very tender Resentments of the Loveliness and Love of God so that at present they seem to be in Raptures of Affection and with the Spouse in the Canticles to be wondrous sick of Love but alas It commonly proves but a sudden Qualm that after a Pang or two goes over and so they are well again immediately for upon their next Encounter with Temptation or Intermixture with secular Affairs their hot Love begins to languish and quickly dies into a cold Indifferency and notwithstanding all the Reasons and Obligations that they have to the contrary their fickle Hearts unwind again and by Degrees decline and sink into their old habitual Aversation to God and Goodness which is a plain Evidence that that which at first lookt like the Love of God in them was only a sudden Blush of Passion and not the true Complexion of their Souls For when once a Man is brought to love God upon Principles of Reason and Consideration 't is much more difficult to extinguish this than any Virtue whatsoever because of all the Virtues of Religion this is founded in the greatest Reason and accompanied with the strongest Pleasure For Love it self consisting in Delight and Complacency where the Object of it is an infinite Good there is not only infinite Reason to Love but infinite Occasion of Pleasure and Complacency When therefore our Love of God is back'd with so much Reason and sweetned with so much Pleasure how is it possible we should extinguish it without doing the greatest Violence to our selves For I am verily persuaded that one of the hardest moral Changes that can be made upon a rational Creature is from a Lover to become an Enemy to God for wheresoever this heavenly Affection is it sweetens and endears it self by its own appendent Pleasures which are in themselves a sufficient Counter-charm against all Temptations to the contrary So that when once it is kindled in the Soul like a subtil Flame 't will by Degrees insinuate farther and farther till it hath eaten into the Center of the Soul and turned it all into its own Substance Wherefore this we may certainly conclude upon that he who can suddenly or easily entertain an Aversation to God and Goodness did never truly Love for Love saith the Wise Man is strong as Death and many Waters cannot quench it Cant. viii 6 7. Wheresoever it lights it clings and can never be torn away again without violent Spasms and Convulsions So that whatsoever Passion we may have for God we can never conclude it to be hearty Love till it fixes and settles in our Souls till our Wills are habitually pleased with God and do entertain the Thoughts of his Love and Loveliness with a constant Complacency and Delight and then we may venture to call it Love and to rejoyce in the Nativity of this heavenly Flame within us 4
Hearts and subdue our stubborn Wills to the Obedience of his most righteous Laws So that the Holy Ghost doth now preside in the Church as the supreme Minister and vicarous Power of our Saviour and is continually imployed even as our Saviour himself was whilst he abode upon Earth in driving on the Interest of Righteousness for hitherto tend all his secret Operations on the Minds of Men this is the Reason why he suggests so many good Thoughts and by repeating them thick upon us keeps our Minds so fix'd upon them that so if possible he may recollect our dispersed Minds that are continually wandring to and fro in this infinite Maze of sensual Vanities and engage them to attend to such Motives of Righteousness as are most apt to excite them to wise and vertuous Resolutions So that as in the Beginnings of Christianity before Christian Motives to Righteousness were believed the Holy Spirit did operate more visibly and miraculously to confirm and demonstrate the Truth of them so now they being believed and thereupon the Necessity of such miraculous Operations superseded his great Work is to object and present them to our Minds and fix our Thoughts upon them till they have effected in us those good Resolutions for which they were designed and intended And how diligently he pursues this Work our own Experience certifies and informs us For how often do we find good Thoughts and Motions injected to us we know not how nor whence and how many times do these unexpected Thoughts kindle holy Desires in us before we are aware Which Desires being fed by a fresh Supply of holy Motions and Suggestions are many times nourished into good Resolutions and these being still back'd with those repeated Motions which do frequently press with strong Importunity upon us are at last perfected into firm and lasting Principles of Action Thus does the Holy Spirit continually knock at the Door of our Souls and sollicit us with the greatest Earnestness to sober and righteous Resolutions and this is his constant Imployment among Men and will be so to the End of the World till Jesus whose Vicegerent he is and whose Absence he supplies returns in Person from Heaven to keep his last and general Assizes upon Earth And can we imagin that God would have all this while imployed his Holy Spirit in the Service of Righteousness to drive on its Interest and sollicit its Cause if it had not been infinitely dearer to him No certainly he sets a greater Value on the Pains of his Son and Spirit than to busy them about a Trifle to imploy them so industriously as he has done in an Affair which he had little or no Regard for If his Heart had not been extremely set upon it he would have found out some other Imployment for those divine and illustrious Persons and not have engaged them so everlastingly as he hath done in the Service and Ministry of Righteousness Having thus explained and proved the Proposition That the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness I shall conclude with some few Inferences drawn from the whole Argument 1. From hence I infer that no Religion or Proposition of Religion can be true that either directly or by true Consequence is an Enemy to Righteousness For all true Religion is from God and therefore to be sure that cannot be true which either directly or indirectly opposes that which God so dearly loves This therefore is a plain Conviction of the notorious Falshood and Imposture of Popery that in all those Doctrins it hath superinduced upon the common Principles of Christianity it is an open Enemy to Righteousness As for Instance it is a common Principle of Christianity that God alone is to be worshiped as the supream Author and Fountain of our Beings upon which the Church of Rome hath superstructed the Invocation of Saints and Angels which they perform in the same Words and with the same Address as they do the Invocation of God himself For though they pretend to pray to them only for their Prayers yet in their Publick Offices they do not only beg their Prayers to God for them but also invocate them as sovereign Gods and independent Disposers of the Mercies they pray for Thus in the Hours of Sarum they implore the Angels to direct their Thoughts and Words and Actions in the way of Salvation that so they may be able to fill up the Number of the Angelical Orders which by the Fall of Lucifer was diminished to protect them from the Devils and comfort them when they are dying Particularly St. Michael they beseech to be their Coat of Mail St. Gabriel to be their Helmet St. Raphael to be their Shield St. Vriel to be their Defender St. Cherubim to be their Health St. Seraphim to be their Truth and all the holy Angels and Arch-angels to keep protect and defend them and bring them to eternal Life And as for Raphael to whom they seem to bear a more particular Affection they stile him the best Physitian both of Body and Soul and pray him to inlighten both their spiritual and carnal Eyes And then as for the Saints they do as immediately address to them in their Forms of Prayer for Sanctification Pardon temporal and eternal Blessings as they can possibly do to God himself particularly the Blessed Virgin they adorn with the most glorious Titles of God and in her Psalter address to her in the same Forms of Invocation which David uses in his Psalms to God they stile Her the Lady Almighty the Author of Mercy the Queen of infinite Majesty and the Hope of all the World praying that her Mercy may lighten upon them as they do put their trust in her and a great deal more to this Purpose And as for Joseph her Husband they stile him the Support of their Lives and the Pillar of the World beseeching him with his Carpenters Ax a Tool fit only to work upon such wooden Souls to hew down their Sins that they may be adopted Timber for the Palace of Heaven In a word in their present Breviary they implore St. Peter to loose them by his Word from the Bonds of Sin and supplicate the Apostles who by their Word if the Prayer lies not do lock and unlock the Gates of Heaven to loose them from all Sin by their Command They humbly intreat St. Genovesa to have pity on those that hope in Her to blot out their Sins and send them Relief and Comfort and implore St. Sebastian to preserve their Country from the Plague to preserve their Bodies and heal their Minds and to win him thereunto assure him that all their Hope is in him These and several other such like Instances there are of their Prayers both to Angels and Saints in which they do as immediately invoke them both for temporal spiritual and eternal Blessings as they can do God himself who is the sole Disposer of them And is not this most palpable Unrighteousness towards God to strip him thus of