instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven who are like 13. Mat. 52. unto a man that is an housholder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old The Priests lips must preserve Knowledge but we must first have it before we can teach it others and since none of us now pretend to immediate Inspirations this is a work 〈◊〉 difficulty and labour and requires as much faithfulness in our Studies as in the Pulpit It is no argument of Faithfulness whatever it may be of Diligence to run like Ahimaaz without 2 Sam. 18. 22. Tidings to vent some crude and indigested thoughts for the Oracles of God 2. Faithfulness requires us to preach nothing for the Will of God but what we are sure to be so to deliver no Message but what we have received in Commission not to indulge our own private conjectures and fancies nor think to mend and sublimate Religion by Philosophical Speculations but to content our selves with the simplicity of the Gospel to Preach Christ Jesus and him crucified Nothing has done greater mischief to Religion than when the very Teachers of it have been ambitious to be Wise above what is written All the Articles of the Christian Faith as distinguisht from the Principles of Natural Religion can be known only by Revelation and therefore there is no reasoning about them any farther than to know what is revealed and what is not revealed for whatever is more than this is so uncertain and so useless that it is not worth the knowing Since we preach in the Name and by the Authority of Christ we ought not to instruct our People in any thing but what we have his Authority for for this is to exceed our Commission Other nice Speculations may entertain us in private Conversation but when we preach in the Name of Christ let us onely preach his Gospel and teach them to observe and do whatsoever he hath commanded us 3. Faithfulness requires that we preach the whole Will of God that we instruct men in all the Articles of the Christian Faith especially where there is any apparent and present danger of a mistake and that we teach them every part of their Duty to God and men especially such Duties as they are most unwilling to learn and most averse to practice This is an essential part of Faithfulness and requires no small courage too There are no times so bad no hearers so captious but they will very well bear some general commendations of Religion or some common Topicks about Virtue or Vice which are of great use too especially in such a scepâ—…cal and unbelieving Age as this But a faithful discharge of our Ministry requires somewhat more a particular application to the Consciences of men according to their wants and necessities not so much to consult what will please them as what will do them good It mightily concerns a Gospel-Minister as far as he can to maintain a fair reputation in the world but a good name is nothing worth when we can do no good by it when we cannot get or maintain a good name without neglecting our Duty or betraying the Souls of men I had a thousand times rather that men should reproach and revile me for instructing them in such Duties as they cannot with patience hear of than that they should commend me for my silence It is hard to live in any Age wherein there are not some popular Errors or some popular Vices to be corrected and it is a very dangerous thing to meddle with any thing that is popular But what is danger to that man who is in a greater danger by the neglect of his Duty Shall any man call himself a Minister of the Gospel and a Servant of Jesus Christ and in such an Age as we now live in be ashamed or afraid to censure or confute the Errors of Popery or Fanaticism or to reprove Schism and Faction because they are very popular Vices Let a man so account 1 Cor. 4. 1 2 3. of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment as St. Paul speaks When we leave out several Flocks it will be infinite satisfaction to us to be able to say as St. Paul did to the Asian Bishops I 20. Acts 26 27. take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God Secondly Prudence is as necessary in a Gospel-Minister as Faithfulness is By Prudence I do not mean Cunning and Subtilty artificial Insinuations and Addresses which are more like the Arts of Seducers than of Gospel-Ministers Who by good words and faiâ—… 16. Rom. 18. speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Prudence will not allow us in the neglect of any part of our Duty whateâ—…er the event be but we must renounce 2 Cor. 4. 2. â—…he hidden things of dishonesty not walkâ—…ng in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of â—…he truth commending our selves to eveâ—…y mans conscience in the sight of God Wisdom and Prudence as it is conâ—…istent with Faithfulness and Honesty â—…n the discharge of our Trust can signify no more but this To instruct Exhort Perswade and perform all the parts and offices of a Gospel-Minister in such a manner as may render our â—…nstructions and perswasions most effectual to take the most convenient seasons when men are most apt to be wrought on to teach them such things as are of most present use to them to use such Arguments as are most likely to prevail to avoid all unnecessary provocations when the Duty it self which we are to teach them is not the matter of the provocation for if men will be provoked with hearing of their Duty there is no help for that Prudence never dispences with any part of our Duty but directs to the best way of doing it a Faithful Servant does what he is commanded and a Wise Servant does it in the most effectual manner III. The last part of my Text concerns the great Rewards of such Faithful and Wise Servants Blessed is that servant What this Reward is we are not here particularly told All good men we know shall be very blessed and happy in the other World and we may reasonably presume that Christ who is the great Judge of the World has reserved some peculiar marks of honour for his immediate Servants This he plainly intimates to us in that distinction he makes between the reward of a Prophet and of a righteous man He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a 10. Mat. 41. prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward Our reward in
are the Foundations of all Religion and as certain as any thing in Religion all other Arguments without this belief cannot support us and there are no Sufferings too great for a man to bear who is throughly possessed with a firm belief and vigorous sense of these Can we our selves or the kindest â—…riend in the World chuse better for â—…s than God Do we suspect his Wisdom or his Goodness Can he mistake our Condition who knows our Frame Can he be wanting in his care of us or in good will to us who made us What is it we desire but to be happy and if God intends our happiness in his severest Corrections why should we complain Religion teaches us that the care of our Souls is of much greater concernment to us than bodily Ease or Pleasure and if God sees Pain and Sickness Poverty and Disgrace necessary to cure or restrain our vicious and distempered Passions or to improve and exercise our Graces have we any reason to complain that God takes such severe methods to save our Souls Had we rather be miserable for ever than suffer some present want and pain The Soul is the best part of Man and to take care of a man is to improve his better Part and this is the Design of God's Providence towards particular men to train them up to Virtue by such methods of Kindness or Severity as he sees them want This I confess may be very grievous and afflicting at present but then we have the hopes of Immortal Life to support us and can that man be miserable can he sink under present Sufferings who has the hope of Immortal Life as the Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast To believe that all things at present are intended for our good and shall work together for our good if we love God and that when we have out-rid the Storms of this World by Faith and Patience and Hope These light afflictions which are but for a moment shall work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory This if any thing will make all the Sufferings of this Life easie if natural Courage or natural Reason fail the Spirit of a man supported by Religion will sustain his Infirmity Thirdly Let us now consider what is meant by a wounded Spirit This is a metaphorical Expression and signifies a Spirit which suffers pain and trouble A wound in the Body is a Division of one part from another which is always painful and though a Spirit cannot be thus divided yet because a Wound causes Pain a Spirit which is disordered and suffers pain is said to be wounded As for instance Some mens Spirits are wounded with the disorders and violence of their own Passions they love or hope or fear or desire or grieve immoderately and all Passions are very painful when they are in excess Upon this account the Wicked are said to be like a troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Other mens Spirits are wounded with a sense of Guilt their own Consciences reproach and shame them and threaten the Vengeance of God against them they have gratified their Lust or Revenge their Ambition or Covetousness and dreamt of nothing but ease and pleasure the Temptation was very charming as it came towards them but now the heat and impetus is allay'd and the enjoyment over they can't review what they have done without horror their affrighted Consciences draw the most amazing scenes of Judgment and paint their Fancies with all the blackest Images of Terror The Sinners of Sion are afraid fear hath surpriz'd the Hypocrites Who shall dwell with devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings 4thly This is the wounded Spirit and such a wounded Spirit who can bear This is Matter of Sense and therefore for the Proof of it we must appeal to the Sense of Mankind and there is no danger in this Appeal for though some Men may scorn to confess what they feel yet if all Mens Minds be of a make we can feel in our selves what other Men feel And then we all know that Anger when it grows immoderate and encreases into Rage and Fury worries the Mind and sharpens it self into such a keeness as cuts deep into our own Souls that an immoderate love of Riches or Honours or Pleasures creates us infinite Trouble torments with an impatient Thirst with restless and uneasy Expectations distracts us between Hopes and Fears kills with Delays and Disappointments and there are but few Men who can long dissemble their inward pain and uneasiness but confess it in their Looks and Words and Behaviour by external and visible Symptoms of Frenzy and Distraction And yet all this is nothing to the Agonies of a guilty Mind as any Man â—…ust confess who knows what it is to â—…e Self-condemned and to live under â—…he Apprehensions of God's Wrath and â—…he terrible Expectations of endless Torments for with what Courage and Patience can any Man bear such a Thought as this That he must be miserable for ever Some Men may laugh away the Thoughts of Hell but it is certain that no Man who believes in good earnest that there is a Hell and that he himself is in the most apparent danger of falling into it can bear this Thought The many sad Examples of despairing Sinners who at the last moment groan out their Souls in Agonies and Horrors are an undeniable Proof of this Men who do not believe a Hell may laugh at it till they feel it but for experiments sake let them only suppose that there were a Hell and that Hell were to be their Portion and then let them tell me how they can bear such a Thought This is sufficient to satisfy us how unsupportable a wounded Spirit is but to give us a deeper and more lasting Sense of it I shall further observe that a wounded Spirit has no refuge or retreat has nothing left to support it self with The Spirit of a Man can bear his Infirmities but when the Spirit it self is wounded there is nothing to support that this wounds our Courage our Reason makes all external Comforts tastless and deprives us of all the Comforts of Religion For 1st What Courage can any Man have against Himself against the Wounds and Disorders of his own Mind Courage is nothing else but a firmness of Mind to govern its own Resentments and Passions to suffer Pain and Reproach and other Evils without immoderate Grief and to encounter dangers without an amazing fear but when the Mind it self is oppressed with Grief and Fears and Cares the Disease which Courage should prevent has already seized the Spirits Courage fortifies us against external Evils to keep them at a distance from wounding our Spirits but the Disorders of our own Passions are inward Wounds which we must feel and languish under When our own Consciences reproach chide and threaten us the good Opinion and
is vain and fruitless for there is no Medium to unite in The only way to Peace is to silence all these Disputes as matters which Mankind will never agree about and wherein Religion is no more concerned than the Government of Kingdoms or States and on which the Salvation of our Souls no more depends than the conduct of our Secular Affairs or the preservation of this Mortal Life For the dispute about Decrees Predestination God's Power over our Wills how God and Creatures produce the same Effect what belongs to God and what belongs to the Creature in every Action since in him we live and move concerns every thing else as well as Religion and yet in all other cases men let Philosophers dispute these Points and quietly go about their Business and do what is fit to be done as if there were no Controversy about these matters and I cannot imagine why they should not do so in Religion too Believe what is plainly taught and do what is commanded use the greatest Wisdom and our utmost diligence in doing good and depend upon the succours of the Divine Grace and leave these Disputes to be decided at the day of Judgment and that will decide them all By this means I am sure most of the Disputes among Protestants which have given the greatest Disturbance to the Church would be for ever silenced and Christian Religion would not be clogged nor reproached with such Philosophical Controversies 2ly The Unity of Communion and that consists in our worshipping God together when we resort to the same Church to offer up our united Prayers and Thanksgivings to God and to partake of that holy Supper which is the Sacrament and Symbol of our Union to Christ and to each other and this indeed is true Church-Unity and it is greatly to be lamented that men who profess the same Faith and agree in all the Essentials of Worship should divide Communion and refuse to Pray together and to Feast at the same holy Table of our Lord. We cannot indeed Communicate with the Church of Rome because they have corrupted the very Essentials of Christian Worship Most men do not understand their Prayers and therefore cannot joyn in Prayer with them they worship Images and Pictures which is expresly forbidden by the second Commandment Instead of praying to God in the Name of our only Mediator and Advocate Jesus Christ they have joyned other Intercessors with him pray to Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary to pray for them and help them They worship the Host which we believe to be nothing but Bread and Wine as to the substance and therefore no Object of Worship and turn the Sacramental Feast of Christ's Body and Blood into a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead Such a Worship as this we dare not joyn in because it is Sinful and Idolatrous But the case is quite different among Protestants they pray to the same God in the only Name of the same Lord Jesus Christ put up the same Petitions offer the same Thanksgivings and Praises observe the same Divine Institutions without any essential change and alteration and yet cannot worship God together as if it were an impious thing to put up the same Prayers and to offer the same Praises to God in a pious and grave and well-composed Form of Words which others do it may be not so well and decently in their conceived Prayers as if the Devotion of the Communicant in receiving so inestimable a Blessing as the Sacramental Body and Blood of Christ upon his knees were a prophanation of that Holy Feast as if a white Linnen-Garment which never underwent any Religious Conjurations and is used only as a decent Habit without any opinion of its Virtue or Sanctity were a just reason to drive men out of the Church from the Christian Communion of Prayers and Sacraments These would be surprizing stories to any Christians in the World who had never heard before of such Disputes among us Pray give me leave to speak my mind freely upon this occasion Upon the best and most impartial Inquiries and Observations I can make I do in my Conscience believe the Church of England to be the most Apostolical and best Reformed Church in the World I see no reason from the nature of things to make any material Alterations in her Doctrine or Worship and therefore I confess it has given me very just Resentments to hear our Church charged with such unjust Imputations of Popery Superstition Idolatry Will-worship and what not and to see a blind and furious Zeal ready to raze up the very Foundations of it It has often grieved me to see such a Church as this rent and torn by Schisms which a man of ordinary prudence might easily foresee would give great advantage to the common Enemy of the Protestant Faith This and the care of mens Souls and of their temporal Fortunes too moved several Divines of this Church when the Government thought fit to re-enforce the Laws of Uniformity to examine and answer all the Arguments of our Dissenting Brethren which they performed with that good Temper with that perswasiveness and strength of Argument as will be a Vindication of our Church to future Ages and I wish it may upon second thoughts have yet a better effect upon those who were not then perswaded and this I suppose will not be called Persecution much less can the many kind Offices they did in keeping off Ecclesiastical Censures be called a Persecution And yet after all when it is so apparent that Prejudices are grown as obstinate as they are unreasonable when not the reason of the thing but the weakness of some and the ill designs of others require some compliance and condescension we have reason to hope that the CHURCH of ENGLAND which at the beginning of the Reformation took such prudent are not to offend the Papist by going farther from them than was necessary will whenever it is likely to do good condescend a great deal farther than it is necessary to Reform to meet the Dissenter for while the external Decency Gravity and Solemnity of Worship is secured no wise and good Man will think much to change a changeable Ceremony when it will heal the Breaches and Divisions of the Church and let us all heartily Pray to GOD that there may be this good and peaceable Disposition of Mind in all Conformists and Non-conformists towards a happy Re-union and all considering Men will think it time to lay aside such little Disputes when it is not merely the Church of England nor any particular Sect of Protestants whose Ruin is aimed at but the whole Protestant FAITH 3ly Another kind of Unity is Love and Charity and a mutual forbearance This I confess is a very difficult thing when the Dispute runs so high as to divide Christian Communion for it seems in effect to declare Men to be Heathens and Publicans when we refuse to Worship GOD with them and few Men can
I shall observe this following method I. Consider the Duty of Gospel-Bishops and Pastors which is to Feed and to Govern the Houshold of Christ. II. The Qualifications of Gospel-Ministers which are Faithfulness and Prudence a Faithful and Wise servant III. The great rewards of such men Blessed is that servant I. The Duty of Gospel Ministers whether Bishops or others and that consists of two parts 1. To Feed 2. To Govern the Houshold or Church of Christ. They are appointed Rulers of his Houshold to give them meat in due season 1. To Feed the Flock of Christ. This command Christ gave to Peter 20. Acâ—…s 28. and repeated it three times Simon son of Ionas lovest thou me more than 21. John 15 16 17. these then feed my lambs feed my sheep Now to Feed signifies to instruct men in the Knowledge of Christ for Knowledge is the proper food and nourishment of the Soul by which it grows in Spiritual Wisdom and all Vertue and Goodness and is as necessary to 1 Pet 2. 2. our Spiritual Life as natural food is to the Life of our Bodies This is life 17. John 3. eternal saith our Saviour to know Thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent For this reason our Saviour appointed Stewards and Dispensers of the Mysteries of his Kingdom whose whole business it should be to study the Divine Will themselves and to instruct others For this is a knowledge which must be taught Nature may instruct us in the Being of a God and the differences between good and evil and the plain Rules of Morality but the Mysteries of the Kingdom the whole oeconomy of mans Salvation by Jesus Christ is to be known only by Revelation Christ came down from Heaven to reveal this to us and he instructed his Apostles and his Apostles by their Preaching and Writings instructed the Church and have left us a standing Rule of Faith and Manners but yet it is necessary that there should be some Men peculiarly devoted to the Service of Religion the study of the Scriptures and the Work of the Ministry to instruct and teach those who have neither leisure not opportunities for enquiry nor capacity to learn without a Guide which is the case of the generality of Christians especially since Religion has been clogged with such infinite Disputes and there has been so much art used to make the plainest truths difficult obscure and uncertain to corrupt the Christian Faith and to make it comply with mens sensual Lusts or secular Interests A Guide and Instructor is absolutely necessary when there are so many Turnings and Labyrinths wherein men may lose themselves and their way to Heaven But though there were no Disputes in Religion no difficulty in understanding it though all men were agreed about the way to Heaven though the meanest Christian understood the Mysteries of Christianity as well as the greatest Divine yet there would be constant need of a Spiritual Guide while men are apt to be unmindful of their Duty and careless in the Practice of it The work of an Evangelical Pastor is not meerly to instruct the Ignorant but to exhort to reprove to admonish to watch over the Lives and Manners of Christians to make seasonable Applications to their Consciences to administer Comfort to afflicted Spirits to excite and quicken the slothful and to encourage the fearful and timerous and to assist and direct men in their Spiritual Warfare how to obtain a glorious victory over the World and the Flesh. This is to feed the Flock of Christ and to give them Meat in due season to instruct them in those things of which they are ignorant and to put them in mind of those things which they already know that their Faith may be turned into a principle of life and action and this heavenly Food may be digested into Blood and Spirits to the edifying of the Body of Christ in all Christian Graces and Vertues 2. Another part of the Ministerial Office consists in Acts of Discipline and Government Christ has made these Ministers and Servants Rulers over his houshold No Society can be preserved 5. Eph. 23. 10. John 14. without Order and Government which is as absolutely necessary in the Church as in the State Christ is the Head of the Church the Husband the Shepherd the Lord which are all names of Authority and Power and the Church is his Body his Spouse his Flock his Houshold and Family which are names of Subjection and denote a regular and orderly Society but Christ has now left this World and does not visibly appear among us to direct and govern the Affairs of his Church he is ascended into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of God and exerciseth an invisible Power and Providence for the defence and preservation of his Church on Earth He governs us by his Laws and by his Spirit and by his Ministers for when he 4. Eph. 8 11 12 13. ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the Perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. When our Saviour was risen from the dead he tells his Disciples All power is given unto me both in Heaven and in 28. Mat. 18 19 20. Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World This is their Commission to pâ—…ach the Gospel and to govern his Church which was not meerly a personal Commission to the Apostles but extends to all their Successors as appears from Christ's promise to be with them in the discharge of this Ministerial Authority to the end of the World Thus St. Iohn acquaints us that Christ after his Resurrection appeared to his Apostles when they were met together and said unto them Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent 20. John 21 22 23. me so send I you And as he had said this he breathed on them and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained This invested them with Authority but then the actual communication of Power which especially at that time was necessary to the discharge of their Office was reserved for the descent of the Holy Ghost and therefore our Saviour commanded them Not to depart from Ierusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father that is the gift of the Holy Ghost For says
Heaven will bear some proportion to the nature of our Work and to that service we do for God in this World Now we cannot do any more acceptable service than to serve God in the Gospel of his Son to use our utmost endeavours to propagate Religion in the World and to make other men wise and good and happy Our Saviour â—…imself came into the World on this veâ—…y design and was advanc'd to the â—…ght Hand of Glory and Power as a â—…eward of it and those who are workâ—…rs together with him as St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 6. 1. will receive some proportionable reward â—…lso The faithful discharge of this Duty is a work of infinite care and difficulty that it made an Apostle himself cry out Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2 16. It requires the exercise of great care â—…nd great prudence and great patience it is abundantly enough to employ our whole time and thoughts either in studying the Will of God or in attending the publick Ministries of Religion or in private Addresses and Applications to men who want our Advice and Counsel we must contentedly bear all the Affronts and Insolencies of bad men the Frowardness and Peevishness of many profess'd Christians the Gainsayings and Contradictions of sinners We must go on and persevere in our Work though our Persons and our Ministry be despised when we are reviled 1 Cor. 4 12 13. we must bless when persecuted we must suffer when defamed we must entreat yea though we are made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things This is not very pleasing to flesh and blood but the harder the work is the greater will our reward be if we be found faithful and wise Servants Nay there is no Work does so ennoble the Mind as this and qualifie us for an excellent Reward No man can faithfully discharge this Work but it must purge and refine his Mind and set him vastly above this World and the little Concernments of it It gives us a more clear distinct comprehensive knowledge of God and divine things which is an Angelical perfection of the Mind and Understanding and he must be a strange man who can be so constantly employed in the Contemplation of God and the things which relate to another and a better life and not find his Soul ravish'd with those unseen and unspeakable Glories who is so constantly employed in taking care of other mens Souls and takes no care of his own who is so frequent in his Devotions as the very nature of our Work exacts from us and not live a most divine and heavenly life There are indeed some who in the most Divine Employment are no great Examples of such a divine Conversation but I fear they will not be â—…ound in the number of these faithful and wise servants Whoever heartily applies himself to the care of Souls will in the first place take care of his own and the faithful discharge of this Duty will raise us so much above the ordinary Level and Attainments of Christians as will prepare us for a greater Reward and advance us to a more perfect state of Glory Nay that immediate Relation we stand in to Christ who is the Soveraign Lord and Judge of the World if we approve our selves faithful and wise Servants will secure us of a more excellent Reward The Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven is but one Church one Houshold and Family and those whom he has made Rulers of his Houshold here to whom he has committed the greatest places of Trust and Dignity need not fear being degraded in the other World if they adorn their Office and faithfully discharge their Trust here and therefore our Saviour tells his Apostles Verily 19. Mat. 28. I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is that their Reward and Glory in the other World should answer to that place of Trust and Power and Dignity which they had in the Church on Earth and this Promise is no more peculiar to the Apostles than their Office was In a word If we consider what the state of the other World is and who is King there that it is the blessed Jesus our Great High Priest King of Salem or the new Ierusalem and Priest of the most High God how mean and contemptible soever our Office is thought here we need not doubt but the Scene will be mightily chang'd when we come into that Kingdom where the King is a High Priest Let this then beloved Brethren of the Clergy be a mighty Encouragement to us to be very diligent and faithful in the discharge of this great Trust whatever Difficulties we meet with whatever Scorns Reproaches or Sufferings it is but expecting a while and our Lord will come and his Reward is with him and blessed for ever blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when 〈◊〉 cometh shall find so doing Yea blessed for ever blessed as my â—…ext gives us reason to hope is this â—…ur dear Brother whose Remains lie â—…ere before us who when his Lord â—…ame was found thus doing We â—…ay lament the loss of so kind a Relation so true a Friend so faithful a Pastor and Fellow-labourer according to the several interests we had in him but he blessed Soul has fought a good Fight and finished his course and kept the â—…aith and is now gone to receive a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Immortality and Glory He is now gone to that great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls whose Flock he has so carefully and diligently fed and whose wandring and stragling Sheep he has reduced into the Fold To that kind Shepherd who laid down his life for his Sheep and therefore will not fail to reward those who have spent their lives and were ready to have sacrificed them too for the service of Souls When we speak of so great a Man it is below his Character to mention such things as would be thought considerable Attainments in meaner persons though indeed a truly great Man does nothing meanly A great Mind gives a peculiar grace and decency to common Actions as it was easy to observe in his very mirth and freest Humours that he never gave the Reins out of his hands but governed himself by the strictest Rules of Prudence and Religion But I shall confine my self to the subject of my Text and consider him only as a faithful and wise Steward and therefore have very little to add for I doubt not but you who knew him especially you who have enjoyed the benefit of his Ministry and have lived under his Care and Conduct have already applied what I have discoursed on this Argument to your deceased Pastor and would I have Chosen any particular man to have drawn the Character by of a wise and faithful
Steward there are not many men I should sooner have thought on than Dr. Calamy to have been the Pattern That he did take care to give you Meat in due season I need not tell you because you all know it If Preaching in season and out of season if publick Instructions and private Applications where they were needful or desired be feed the Flock of Christ and to give â—…eat to his Houshold and Family this â—…e did and that very faithfully and â—…isely too In the first place he took care â—…o inform himself and to furnish â—…is own Mind with all useful knowâ—…edge and his constant Preaching though without any vain affectation of Learning which serves onely to amuse not to instruct did sufficiently discover â—…oth his natural and acquired Abilities He had a clear and distinct apprehension of things an easy and manly Rhetorick strong Sense conveyed to the mind in familiar words good Reasons inspired with a decent Passion which did not onely teach but move and transport the Hearers and at the same time gave both light and heat for indeed he was a good man which is necessary to make a good Preacher he had an inward vital sense of Religion and that animated his discourses with the same Divine Passions which he felt in himself He did not entertain his Hearers with School Subtilties or a conjectural Divinity with such thin and airy Speculations as can neither be seen nor felt nor understood but his chief care was to explain the great Articles of Faith and Rules of Life what we must believe and how we must live that we may be eternally happy And he did as a faithful Servant ought to do as he declared a little before his death that he never preached any thing but what he himself firmly believed to be true I need not tell you what a troublesome World we have lived in for some years past such Critical times as would try the Principles and Spirits of men when a prevaling Faction threatned both Church and State and the fears of Popery were thought a sufficient Justification of the most illegal and irreligious methods to keep it out when it was scandalous to speak a word either for the King or the Church when cunning men were silent and those who affected Popularity swam with the Stream then this great and good man durst reprove Schism and Faction durst teach men to conform to the Church and to obey and honour the King durst vindicate the despised Church of England and the hated Doctrine of Passive Obedience though the one was thought to favour Popery and the â—…ther to introduce Slavery but he was â—…bove the powerful Charms of Names â—…nd liked Truth never the worse beâ—…ause it was mis-called His publick â—…ermons preached in those days and â—…rinted by publick Authority are â—…asting Proofs of this and yet he was no â—…apist neither but durst reprove the Errors of Popery when some others who made the greatest noise and outâ—…ry about it grew wise and cautious This was like a truly honest and faithâ—…l Servant to oppose the growing Diâ—…tempers of the Age without any regard either to unjust Censures or apparent Danger And yet he did not needlesly provoke any man he gave no hard words but thought it severe enough to confute mens errors without upbraiding or reproaching their persons His Conversation was courteous and affable to all men soft and easy as his Principles were stubborn he could yeild any thing but the Truth and bear with any thing but the Vices of men He would indeed have been the wonder of his Age had he not lived in such an Age as thanks be to God can shew many such wonders and yet in such an Age as this he made an Illustrious Figure though he had his Equals he had not many Superiors Thus he lived and thus this good man died for thus he was found doing when his Lord came The first symptoms of his Distemper seized him just before his last Sermon at White-hall but gave him so much respite as to take his leave of the World in an excellent Discourse of Immortality which he speaks of with such a sensible gust and relish as if his Soul had been then upon the wing and had some fore-taste of those joys it was just a going to possess And indeed he encountered the apprehensions of Death like one who believed and hoped for Immortality he was neither over-fond of living nor afraid to die He received the Supper of our Lord professed his Communion with the Church of England in which he had lived and in which he now died and having recommended his Soul to God he quietly expected how he would dispose of him But I must not forget to tell you that he died like a true and faithful Pastor with a tender care and affection for his Flock When he imposed this unwelcome Office upon me he told me he â—…d not desire any praises of himself but â—…t I would give some good advice to â—…s people who said he are indeed 〈◊〉 very kind and loving people And â—…is was not the first nor the onely time 〈◊〉 have heard him own not onely your â—…nd reception of him at first but the repeated and renewed expressions of your affection which did signally manifest it self in his late Sickness and now accompanies him to the Grave A Character which to your honour I speak it you have now made good for several successions and which I hope you will never forfeit But what that good counsel is he would have me give you he told me not and therefore I can onely guess at his intentions in this Were he now present to speak to you I believe he could not give you better counsel than he has already done and therefore my advice to you is 1. To remember those Counsels and Exhortations which you have heard from your deceased Pastor Though the Sower be removed yet let that immortal Seed that Word of Life which he has sown live and fructifie in your hearts and bring forth the blessed Fruits of Righteousness He has shewed you the plain way to Heaven have a care you do not forget it have a care you do not wander out of it He has recommended the Communion of the Church of England to you He has taught you to be Loyal to your Prince and to be true to your Religion take care then that neither your Religion destroy your Loyalty nor your Loyalty corrupt your Religion remember that beloved person whose Memory is dear and sacred to you was neither a Rebel Papist nor a Fanatick 2. Since you have lost your Guide a faithful and a prudent Guide and the choice of a Successour is in your selves be very careful as the concernment of your Souls requires you should be of your Choice Consider what an Age we live in which requires an experienced and skilful Pilot to steer a secure and steady course Have a care of dividing into Factions and Parties let not meer private
considering what they do I might name many but shall content my self with some few at present which are least observed and which prove Snares to good Men as for instance To impose upon our selves constant Tasks of Religion that we will Read and Pray so much and so often every Day and observe voluntary Fasts and abstain from such innocent Diversions c. which Men commonly resolve in some great Heats and Fits of Devotion which they fancy will continue in the same fervour but never do and then these Tasks grow very uneasie as every thing of Religion does when it grows a Task and then they degenerate into dulness and formality and then Men either leave them off and with that are tempted to leave off Religion it self or they are so very cold that they fancy themselves spiritually dead and fall into Melancholly into Desertions into Despair it self It is a dangerous thing for Men by rash and arbitrary Vows to tye themselves up from doing that which otherwise they might very innocently do and which they will be strongly tempted to do when they have vowed not to do it The Guides of Souls know that this is no imaginary Case but what they so often meet with and see such ill effects of that it is very fit to warn Men of the Snare Were there no other reason against the Monkish Vows of Celibacy Poverty and Obedience I should think this sufficient that considered only as perpetual Vows they are a dangerous State of Temptation and for my own part I would never advise any Man to make a perpetual Vow to do or not to do any thing which it is not perpetually his Duty to do or not to do Thus to marry with Persons of a disagreeable Age or a disagreeable Humour or a contrary Religion is to put our selves into a state of Temptation but such particular Instances would be endless and therefore I forbear If God lead us into Temptation he will give us sufficient strength to resist if we improve his Grace if we lead â—…ur selves into Temptation and God â—…eave us to the power and subtilty of â—…he Tempter the sin and the folly is our own 5thly I observe by what means our Saviour conquered the Devil's Temptations and that was by the Authority and by the Word of God It is written Man shall not live by bread alone It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve These are such Answers as would admit of no Reply for the Authority of God can never be answered And thus we must conquer also if ever we will conquer by a firm Faith in God and Belief of his Word Faith is our Shield and the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit and we have no other sure Defence against all Temptations This ruined our first Parents in Paradise when their Reason and Natural Powers were in their greatest Vigour Perfection and Integrity that instead of insisting on God's Authority they ventured to reason the Case with the Tempter Set aside the Authority of God and the Devil will quickly out-wit and out-reason us he is skilled in all the Arts of Deceit and Methods of Perswasions and without God's Authority our Courage our Resolution our Honour our Reason it self even all the Rants and triumphant Speculations of Philosophy will fail us in the Day of Trial to Tempt is either to deceive or to perswade and there is no other secure defence against either but the Authority and the Word of God The wisest Reasoner may be imposed on by so artificial a Tempter but God can neither deceive nor be deceived and then while we believe God and have regard to his Commands we cannot be deceived neither And what is able to resist all the Terrors and Flatteries of the World and the Flesh but the Authority of that God who is our Maker and our Judge What insignificant Names are Virtue and Vice how weak and feeble is the sense of Decency and Honour and the Dignity of Human Nature and of a Life of Reason after we have read or writ so many Volumes about it when we feel the soft Charms of Pleasure and our Eyes are filled with visible Glories Who would not part with a fine Thought or two with some pretty Notions of Moral Beauty and Intellectual Pleasures for a Happiness which may be seen and felt But the Authority of GOD the firm belief of his Promises and Threatnings the hopes and fears of another World are beyond all other Perswasions unless any thing can perswade a Man to be eternally miserable This may suffice to be spoke in General concerning our Saviour's Temptation We come now to consider II. The particular Temptations wherewith our Saviour was Assaulted and they are Three 1. The first was to relieve his Hunger after his long fasting by working a Miracle And when the Tempter came to him he said If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread This was a very artificial Temptation which it may be none but Christ himself would have been aware of For what hurt was it for the Son of God to work a Miracle What hurt was it for a Man who was Hungry to relieve his Hunger For here was no Temptation to excess but to satisfy the necessities of Nature What hurt was it for him who afterwards fed so many Thousands by Miracles in this great Distress to have wrought a Miracle to satisfy his own Hunger This was very plausible and looked like very charitable Advice but yet there was a secret Snare in it 1st For this was made a Trial whether he were the Son of God or not If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread Now had he complied with this it had argued a distrust of his Relation to God and of the Love of his Father and this was a Temptation to Sin Thus the Tempter dealt with our first Parents made them jealous of God's good Intentions towards them and by that Tempted them to Disobedience The Serpent said unto the Woman Ye shall not surely die For God knoweth that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil That is God envies your Happiness and therefore has forbid you to Eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus the Devil suggested to our Saviour that he had great reason to question whether he were the Son of God because he was destitute of all the Comforts and Supports of Life and after forty Days fasting had nothing in the Wilderness to Eat unless he would turn Stones into Bread And though this part of the Temptation our Saviour takes no notice of in his Answer but scorns it yet we find it makes a very powerful Impression upon other Men who are apt to measure God's Love or Hatred by present things when they
great loss when the Church is encompassed and assaulted with busie and restless Enemies A Man of an exemplary Life and untainted Virtue who shines like a Light in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation who maintains the declining Honour and Reputation of Religion and true Virtue is a mighty loss in a profligate Age when men are grown such Strangers to the sincere practice of Virtue and Religion that they begin to think there is no such thing But I can go on no farther the very mentioning of these things brings the fresh Idea of our deceased Brother to mind and the afflicting Sense of that great loss which we suffer by his Death It becomes us to Reverence and Adore the Wisdom of the divine Providence even when we cannot understand the Reasons of it We are certain God is never wanting in his Care of his Church and yet had we been made Judges of this Case we should have thought it a very ill time to have spared him He was abundantly furnished with all good Learning both for Use and Ornament he was an accomplished Scholar and a well-studied Divine he knew Books and read them and judged of them He was a Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven â—…ho like a Housholder could bring forth â—…ut of his treasure things New and â—…ld 13. Matth. 52. He had carefulâ—…y perus'd the ancient Philosophers â—…rators and Poets to discover what Nature taught which gave him a truer Knowledge and greater Value for the Excellency and Perfection of the Gospel-Revelation He had true and clear Notions of Religion and he was Master of them he knew why he believed any thing and was neither prejudiced nor imposed on by popular Opinions he was a hearty and zealous assertor of the Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline of the Church of England he saw nothing material which could be changed for the better which made him jealous of Innovations as not knowing where they would end He was a Friend to all sincere Christians pitied their Mistakes and bore with their Frowardness but did not think that Christian Charity required him to sacrifice Truth or good Order and Government to the pretences of Peace and Unity He was for several Years a very diligent and constant Preacher to a numerous Auditory till his own Diocesan who knew his Worth and the weakness of his Constitution and was desirous to preserve him for the Service of the Church provided this Place where we now are for his Ease and Health and Retirement where he lived many Years a constant Preacher though his Labours were then diviued between his two Cures which did not lessen his Preaching but made the Benefit of it the more diffusive For indeed he was an admirable Preacher not for Noise and Lungs but for well-digested useful pious Discourses delivered with all that becoming Gravity Seriousness and a commanding Elocution as made them sink deep into the Minds of his Hearers and made them hear This I speak with Assurance and Confidence in this place which was so long blessed with his Labours With what fineness of Thought peâ—…spicuity and easiness of Expression instructing and entertaining Images of Things he expounded the Doctrines and inculcated the Laws of our Saviour how plainly he Taught with what Vehemence and Passion he Exhortâ—…d with what tender Sharpness he Reâ—…roved remember how he used both to Please and Instruct to Chide and Shame you without making you angry â—…ow he has warmed and chafed your Minds into the most pious and serious Resolutions and sent you home from this place wiser and better than you came and if you grew cold and suffered your good Resolutions to die again consider I beseech you what Account you have to give As he grew in Years it was necessary by degrees to ease his Labours he could not Preach so often but yet continued to Preach And yet had he not Preached at all or much less than he did he had not ceased to be a very useful Pastor to the Church for he was a Man of great Experience and great Prudence and Foresight fit for Government and Counsel who knew Men and Things was dexterous in his Applications zealous without Passion or Peevishness steady and resolved without violent Oppositions and needless Provocations who served the Church and the Truth with little Noise and without making many Enemies And I am sure at such a time as this there is more need of such Men and a much greater scarcity of them than of good Preachers But he was not only a good Preacher and a prudent Guide but a very good Man he Preached continually by his Life and Example his Conversation was Innocent Entertaining and Useful he was a true sincere Friend very Courteous Affable Civil to all Men but never pretended Friendship where he had none he was ready to do all good Offices was Liberal Generous and Charitable a Man of a true publick Spirit who scorned to serve himself to the Injury of others who hated little Arts and Tricks mean and servile Compliances he was an open and generous Enemy if we may ever call him an Enemy who never wished never intended any hurt to any Man but my meaning is that when any Dispute and Quarrel happened as such things will sometimes happen he was open and undisguised any Man might know what he disliked and had no reason to fear any thing worse from him than what he would â—…ell them In a Word He was a very â—…ood Christian and that made him â—…ood in all Relations and that Crowned all his other Labours he took care â—…s St. Paul did Lest while he preached to â—…thers he himself should become a cast-away And now he is gone to rest and we â—…ust all shortly follow him God grant â—…hat we may all so run our Race and â—…inish our Course that when we depart â—…his Life we may rest in Him as our â—…ope is this our Brother doth and may â—…eceive that Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge will â—…t that Day bestow on all his faithful Servants and on all those who love his Appearing SERMON VIII â—…each'd at the Temple-Church December 30. 1694. Upon the Sad Occasion of the Death of our Gracious Queen And Published at the Earnest Request of Several Masters of the Bench of Both Societies XXXIX Psalm 9. â—…as dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it THIS may be thought a very improper Text for the Feast of our Saviour's Birth when our â—…ouths ought to be filled with the Praiâ—… of God and sing with the whole â—…ire of Angels Glory be to God in the â—…hest on earth peace good will towards â—…n This indeed is that Peace which â—…e World cannot give and which the World cannot take away whateveâ—… the External Appearances of Providence are here we find a safe retreâ—… and a never-failing Spring of Joy Fâ—… he that spared not his own Son but 〈◊〉 livered him up for us all how shall 〈◊〉 not with
6. Matth. 26 30. Where from God's care of mean Inferior Creatures the Fowls of the Air and the Grass of the Field he more strongly concludes his care of Men and by the same reason from his care of particular men we may more strongly conclude his care of Kingdoms and Nations and therefore of the Lives of Princes who are the great Ministers of his Government and Providence and whose Lives or Deaths make such a mighty Change in the Affairs of the World So that when or by what means soever Princes dye this is God's doings and how severe soever we may feel it We must be dumb and not open our mouths because he has done it which is the 2. Thing to be explained What is meant by being dumb and not opening our mouths For this seems a very hard saying in the strict literal sense that we must not complain of our Sufferings when we feel 'em smart Humane Nature can't bear this we must feel our Sufferings and when we feel them we must complain To have no sense of what we suffer is Stupidity not Submission it is irreverence for the Judgments of God and in some cases the most unpardonable baseness and ingratitude to Men. To be unconcerned for the Death of our dearest Friends or greatest Patrons and Benefactors not to pay Nature's Tribute to their Memories in a Sigh and a Tear not to long after them and send some vain Wishes to call them back not to preserve their Idea fresh in our minds and to think with some uneasiness of those happy hours which their Conversation sweetn d to part with our Friends as if we suffered nothing by their loss and were as well without them is so far from being a Virtue that such a man is uncapable of ever being a Friend and never deserves to have any much more then when we lose a publick Friend and Benefactor the greatest of Friends and Benefactors which is a good Prince Let us briefly consider what we have lost in the loss of our Gracious Queen and try if we can bear the thoughts of it without complaining She was the Glory of her Sex and an Ornament to the Crown she wore made truly Great by Nature Birth and Education She had a large and capacious Mind a quick and lively Apprehension and a piercing and solid Judgment She had a strength and firmness of Mind beyond her Sex and such a dexterity in managing the greatest Affairs as would have become the greatest and most experienced Ministers Never was there greater skill in Government with less fondness for it which she could take up and lay down with the same equality and indifferency of Mind Though I doubt I must unsay that for she was always grieved at the occasion of taking the Government and as glad to resign it Never was Majesty better tempered with easiness and sweetness She knew how to be familiar without making her self cheap and to condescend without meanness She had all the Greatness of Majesty with all the Virtues of Conversation and knew very well what became her Table and what became the Council-Board She understood her Religion and loved it and practised it and was the greatest Example of the Age of a constant regular unaffected Devotion and of all the eminent Vertues of a Christian Life In the midst of all the great Affairs of State she would rather spare time from her sleep than from her Prayers where she always appeared with that great composure and seriousness of Mind as if her Court had been a Nunnery and she had had nothing else to do in the World In all the Ease and Prosperity of Fortune she had that tenderness and compassion for those who suffered which sufferings themselves cannot teach meaner Persons She was Charitable to the utmost of her Power amidst all the Expences of War and Government and when a proper Object was presented to her was always pleased when she could grant their requests and very uneasy to deny In short her greatest and most â—…placable Enemies for Virtue self will meet with Enemies in this â—…orld had no other Fault to â—…arge her with but her Throne â—…hich is the only thing for which â—…ost other Princes are valuable â—…he ascended the Throne indeed â—…efore she desired it but was â—…rust into it not by an hasty â—…mbition but to save a sinking Church and Kingdom and I hope England will always have reason to â—…ay That an empty Throne could â—…ever have been filled with a nobler Pair But though the necessary absence of the King to give check to the Progress of a Powerful and Insulting Monarch engaged her more than she desired in State Affairs yet the promoting of true Religion and the service of the Church of England the greatest and best Nursery of it since the Apostolick Age was her constant and natural Care This her Thoughts were full of and she had formed great and noble Designs had she out-lived the Difficulties and Expences of War and been at leisure to attend the peaceful Arts of Government I have reason to say this from those frequent Intimations I have had from our late admirable Primate who had great Designs Himself to serve the Christian Religion and the Church of England in its truest Interests and had inspired Their Majesties and particularly the Queen who had more leisure for such Thoughts with the same great and pious Designs It may be no Church-man ever had I am sure not more deservedly a greater Interest in his Prince's Favour and the great Use he made of it was to do publick service to Religion and what ever some Men might suspect to the Church of England though it may be not perfectly in their Way And the greatest Fault I know he had was That some envious and ambitious Men could not bear his Greatness which he himself never courted nay which he industriously avoided Before this all England knew and owned his Worth and had it been put to the Poll there had â—…en vast Odds on his side that 〈◊〉 would have been voted into the â—…e of Canterbury for no Man had â—…er a clearer and brighter Reasoâ—… truer Judgment a more easy and â—…ppy Expression nor a more 〈◊〉 fearless Honesty he was a â—…e and hearty Friend and was a â—…e Friend whereever he profâ—…â—…d to be so Though he had maâ—… Enemies at last he took care 〈◊〉 make none He was obliging 〈◊〉 all Men and though he could â—…t easily part with a Friend he â—…uld easily forgive an Enemy 〈◊〉 that Bundle of Libels witnesses â—…hich was found among his other â—…pers with this Inscription These â—…e Libels I pray God forgive them do But I cannot give you the just Character of this Great Man now â—…hat I have already said I conâ—…ss is an Excursion which I hope â—…ou will pardon to the Passion of 〈◊〉 old Friend and learn from Two great Examples That neither â—…e greatest Innocence Virtue or Merit can defend either Crowned or Mitred Heads from the
lashâ—… of spiteful and envenomed Tongueâ—… But what a Loss has Religion and the Church of England in such a critical Time in the Death of such a Queen and such a Prelate I pray God make up this Loss In a word That great Passion which afflicts and oppresses our good King gives an unexceptionable Testimony to the incomparable Worth of our deceased Queen The too severe and visible Effects of it shew that it is not an ordinary nor a dissembled Passion Nor is it an ordinary thing for a Prince of so great a Mind who can look the most formidable Dangers and Death it self in the face without fear whom all the Powers of France cannot make look pale or tremble to sink and faint and to feel all the Agonies of Death in the dying Looks of a Beloved Consort All Story cannot furnish us with many Examples of such soft and tender Passions in such a warlike and fearless Mind and what but a mighty Vertue could so charm a Prince as to forget his natural Constancy and Resolution I 'm sure though we â—…y very dear for the Experiment 〈◊〉 the loss of an excellent Queen â—…e have so much the more reason 〈◊〉 think our selves happy in a â—…ng for a due mixture and tempeâ—…ment of such fearless Courage and â—…avery and such tender Passions is â—…e most perfect Composition of an exâ—…ellent Prince And now it may be you will tell â—…e that I have taken great pains 〈◊〉 confute my Text and that I â—…ave done it effectually for we â—…ght not to be dumb but may â—…ery justly complain of such a loss â—…s this This I readily grant That we â—…ay complain of such a loss but â—…his is no confutation of my Text. â—…e may complain and give Ease â—…nd Vent to our Sorrows by such Complaints while we do not complain against God and accuse him foolishly To submit to the Will of God which is here exprest by being Dumb and not opening our Mouths does not signify not to feel our Losses and Sufferings or not to complain of them but not to reproach the Divine Providence noâ—… to cast off our Hope and Trust in God Iob felt his Sufferings and complained of them in as moving and tragical Expressions as any other Man could and yet is proposed to us as an Example of admirable Patience because he did not charge God foolishly nor cast off his hope in him This we never can have any reason for for whatever we suffer it is a wise and merciful Providence which inflicts it But yet Mankind are very apt when they suffer hard things either to deny a Providence or which is more absurd and unreasonable to reproach it for if there be a God he is Wise and Good and Merciful and Just which is the Notion all Mankind have of God and if this God governs the World all Events are ordered with Wisdom Justice and Goodness and all thinking Men in cool and sober Thoughts will be ashamed to quarrel with such a Providence But yet we are very apt to ask Questions which we cannot easily answer and then to make our own igâ—…rance an Objection against the Diâ—…ne Providence As in the Case before us the â—…dden and untimely Death of an â—…cellent Princess who had Strength â—…d Vigor of Age which promised 〈◊〉 much longer Life and who â—…ould certainly have done great â—…ood to the World as long as she â—…ad lived but is cut off in the â—…igor and Strength of Age and all â—…er Thoughts even all her great â—…d excellent Designs of doing Good 〈◊〉 the World perish with her â—…hile Tyrants and Oppressors live â—…o be the Plagues and Scourges of Mankind Now though we do not know â—…he particular Reasons of such Proâ—…idences yet it is easy to frame some general Answers which may â—…atisfy all the Friends of Providence If the Objection relates to our selves who suffer by this Loss there is a very plain Answer to it but a very terrible one That God is Angry with us and by the untimely Death of an excellent Princess who made it her whole Study and Design to do us Good threatens his Judgments against us if we do not take Care to prevent them by a timely Repentance If the Objection relates only to the untimely Death of an excellent Princess that she should so suddenly be snatched away from the Joys and Pleasures of a Throne this is no Objection at all at least not aâ—… Objection fit for Christians to make For can we think that the greatest and most happy Monarch loses any thing by the Exchange if he be translated from Earth to Heaven That the Joys of Paradise are not greater than a Crown Our good Queen did not think so who knew what an Earthly Crown meant but was willing to part with it for Heaven who saw Death approaching without fear and prepared to receive its Stroke with that calmness and sedateness of Mind as nothing could give but an innocent Conscience and much greater Hopes But as for our selves though we must acknowledge that we have reâ—…eived a very great Loss in the â—…eath of an excellent Queen yet we â—…ave no reason to quarrel at Proâ—…idence while God preserves our â—…ing to go in and out before us â—…e had indeed perpetual Day and â—…o sooner was one Sun withdrawn â—…ut another ascended our Horizon â—…ith equal Lustre and Brightness â—…his was a peculiar Happiness â—…hich we never had before and â—…hich the Necessities of our Affairs â—…equired now but though God has â—…ut us short in this we have a King still the Terror of France â—…nd the Protector of Europe a King whom Affection as well as Blood has Naturalized to us who loves our Nation and our Church which he has once delivered and God grant â—…e may live long to settle and proâ—…ect both We have no reason to fear our Enemies either at home or abroad while a Prince is at the Helm who wants neither Counsel nor Courage especially if we follow that noble Example which the Two Houses of Parliament have set us to give him such fresh Assurances of our Fidelity as may strengthen his Hands against his and our Enemies Abroad and make him easy and safe at Home To conclude This is God's doing and it becomes us to be dumb and not to open our Mouths because he has done it He is the Sovereign and Unaccountable Lord of the World who shall say unto him What dosâ—… thou Life and Death are in his hands the Fates of Princes and Kingdoms That he has done it should be a sufficient Reason to us to submit because though he does things great and wonderful and beyond our Understanding yet he never does any thing but what is wise and good This I 'm sure is the most effectual way to turn even the severest Judgments into Blessings to reverence God and to humble our selves under his mighty hand and implore his Mercy to repair those Breaches he has made upon us We must not complain of
Providence but we may make our Complaints to God and be the more importunate in our Prayers for the Preservation of our King The Death of our excellent Queen both calls for and will justify and recommend such humble Importunities and the preservation of our King will in a great measure make up this Loss to us Which God of his infinite Mercy grant through our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Honour Glory and Power now and for ever Amen SERMON IX Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen at the Parish-Church of St. Bridget on Tuesday in Easter-Week April 6. 1697. 2 Cor. VIII 12. For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not THE Occasion of these Words was this The Christians of Iudaea were at this time in great Want by reason of a general Dearth which was foretold by Agabus at Antioch Acts II. 28. And there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the spirit That there should be great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Upon this Notice the Disciples every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the Brethren which dwelt in Iudaea This is that Contribution for the Saints which St. Paul directs them about at the Conclusion of his first Epistle to them Ch. 16. and this is what he inculcates on them in this and the following Chapter but with so much Art and Insinuation that though he uses the most powerful Arguments yet he would not seem to persuade nor to think that they needed any Persuasion for it is not Honourable for Christians whose Religion is Charity to need such Persuasions and Importunities They may be directed in their Charity and put in Mind of such particular Charities as are of the greatest Necessity or the most present use or have the most general Influence or do the greatest Reputation and Service to Religion or their Charity may be heightened inflamed and enlarged by the proper Arguments and Motives of Liberality but their Religion teaches them to be Charitable and the Name and Profession of a Christian is a Reproach to them without it And this is all the Apostle aims at even in his soft and tender way of Persuasion not merely to persuade them to contribute to the Necessities of the Saints which he knew they were willing â—…o do but that they should contriâ—…ute liberally with a free and chearful Heart and open Hand which is the â—…um of all his Arguments as I shall â—…hew you in the Conclusion if Time permit But the great Difficulty concerns the proper Measures of a liberal and overflowing Charity Our Saviour has prescribed no set Bounds and Proportions to our Charity and it is thought as possible to be imprudent and excessive as too frugal and sparing We have many other Obligations upon us besides CHARITY to provide for our own comfortable Subsistence to take Care of our Wives and Children and to discharge all other Duties and Offices according to our Station and Character in the World All which ought to set Bounds to our Charity But what these Bounds are is thought the great Question which is not easily answered This is true nor can any certain Measures be prescribed nor does the Apostle pretend to it But though there is a great Latitude in true Christian Charity which does not consist in a Point but admits of different degrees and Proportions yet the Apostle in my Text directs us to such a Principle as is much better and safer than any stated Rules because it will be sure never to sink below the just Proportions of Charity and will render all we do be it more or less very acceptable to God For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not In which Words I shall observe Three Things which are expressed or necessarily implied in them First That a great readiness and Forwardness of Mind to do Good is the true Spirit of Charity which gives Value and Acceptation to all we do Secondly That this readiness of Mind to do Good to Relieve the Necessities of those who want will observe the just Proportions of Giving will give according to what a man hath as is necessarily implied in the Words for if a willing Mind be accepted according to what a man hath it is because it gives according to what a man hath Thirdly That where there is this Willing Mind with a fitting Proportion according to our Abilities whether it be more or less which we give it is equally acceptable to God Such a Man is accepted according to what â—…e hath not according to what he hath â—…ot I shall speak as briefly as I can to each of these that I may not be prevented in such an Application as is proper to this Solemnity First That a great Readiness and Forwardness of Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to do Good to relieve the Necessities of those in Want is the true Spirit of Charity and gives Value and Acceptation to all we do Such a Willingness of Mind when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the Principle and first Mover in all our Charitable Actions is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very acceptable to God This I think I may take for granted for what is the Grace and Vertue of Charity but a Charitable Inclination Disposition Temper Habit of Mind And what is this but a Readiness and Forwardness to do Good Our Inclinations and Passions are the Principles of Action and therefore have a natural Tendency towards their proper Acts and Objects and will act when they have the Power and Opportunity of Action Charity is Love the Love of Pity and Compassion to the Miseries and Sufferings and Wants of our Brethren and Love in all other Instances is a very restless active Principle and so will our Love to the Poor and Miserable be if it be Inclination and Habit. There is no man but will pretend to be very ready and willing to do Good though he never does any For to have no Inclination to do Good is so Infamous that those who do no good are ashamed to own it but to do no good is a plain Evidence against them when nothing can hinder them from doing Good but the want of Will and Inclination to do it when God has furnished them with the means of doing Good and there are thousands of Objects to exercise their Charity and to move their Pity if they had any The Will is accepted for the Deed both by God and Men when it is not in our Power to do that Good which we sincerely desire to do and which we would certainly do were it in our Power but it is to mock both God and Men to pretend a Willingness when â—…t is
Brutes who love Money only to look on or to count their Bags and Securities without suffering themselves or any body else to use it they are not fit to be named For I can hardly reckon them among reasonable Creatures But men's Care of themselves and of their Wives and Children not to descend at present to other Relations which may come within the compass of Charity though of a nearer and more sacred Obligation is thought a very Prudent and Reasonable Consideration in this Case and indeed is so for there is a great deal of Truth and Reason in that common Saying rightly understood That Charity begins at Home The great Controversy then is between our Love to our Selves our Wives and Children and Charity to the Poor Now there is no Dispute but the First must have the Preference but yet Charity to the Poor must have its Place also And then the only Question is In what Proportion this must be And that is a very hard Question if you put it in Arithmetick for I can name no Proportion nor has our Saviour thought fit to name any But as I observed to you before True Charity will assign a just Proportion to it self For a true Charitable Mind will spare what it reasonably can and never below the Proportion of Charity and will spare more or less according to the Degrees of its Charity I must be forced to represent this in short to you that I may not be tedious That Love we have for our selves and for our Natural Dependents will generally secure us against exceeding the Proportions of Charity that there is seldom any Danger on that side On the other hand if we have a true Charitable Mind and a sincere Compassion for the Sufferings of others we shall certainly do what we our selves considering our Circumstances and what all Charitable men who know our Circumstances will call Charity But then the more Intense and Fervent our Charity is this will still increase the Proportion and sometimes to such Heights as can hardly escape the â—…ensure of Affectation and Folly And â—…ere it not for the Interposition of the â—…ivine Providence might sometimes â—…rove very fatal to themselves and their â—…amilies As to give you the Account â—…f this in short There are Two things â—…bsolutely necessary to dispose men to â—…ive Liberally A just Sense of the Miseries of others and a true Judgment of our own Abilities As for the First A Charitable Mind is very easy to receive the Impressions of Charity and the more charitably it is disposed still the more easy Every pitiable Object moves and affects such men and they are no more able to resist the Silent Oratory of meager Looks naked Backs and hungry Bellies were they not sometimes harden'd by Cheats and Vagabonds than to deny themselves what is Necessary to Life Much less can they deny any known and unquestioned Charity for since Charitable they are and Acts of Charity they will do they are very glad to know how to dispose of their Charity to do that Good which they intend by it A soft and tender Mind which feels the Sufferings of others and suffers with them is the true Temper and Spirit of Charity and Nature prompts us to ease those Sufferings which we feel This makes us so ready to supply our own Wants because we have a quick and smart Sense of them and the Christian Sympathy and fellow-feeling of Charity will proportionably incline us to relieve our Suffering Brethren when we feel in our selves what it is they suffer An inward Principle is more powerful than all external Arguments and Sense and Feeling is this Principle and Charity is this Sense Thus as for Proportions a Charitable Mind sets no other Bounds to its Charity but only Ability that the only Question is Whether we can spare any thing from our selves and Families and what we can spare Now when Charity is the judge of this it is always a favourable Judge on the side of the Poor and Miserable and always the more favourable Judge the greater the Charity is It will teach us to think That we want less and consequently can spare more when we consider how much others want At least it will teach us to abate of what we do not want of all Idle and Superfluous Expences of all needless Pomp and Ceremony which is more than our Station and Character requires and it is incredible to think what an inexhausted Fund this would be for Charity Did we truly estimate our own Wants rectify our Expences and set just Bounds to our Desires many of us would soon find that we have a great deal to spare And nothing will so effectually do this as Charity and therefore Charity is the best Rule and Measure to it self So that there is no great occasion to dispute Proportions let us learn to be Charitable and Charity will teach us what to give Every man can tell when another is Charitable and a Charitable man can tell when he himself is so and as our Charity increases so we shall abound in the Fruits of Charity for the more we love the more liberally we shall give This is not to leave what we will give to Charitable Uses to our own free Choice as a Trial of our Ingenuity as some represent it For had this been the Case there should have been some Proportion fixt less than which we should not give though we might give as much more as we pleased for otherwise nothing is matter of strict Duty but all is left to Ingenuity which is so far from being true that there is not a more necessary Duty in all Religion than Charity and even the greatest Degrees and Heights of Charity are all Duty For we are commanded to be Charitable and to aim at the highest Degrees of Charity and the Proportion of giving is referred to the Principle and included in the Degrees of Charity such a Proportion as such a Degree of Charity will give is as much a strict Duty as such a Degree of Charity is The very nature of Charity proves that thus it is and that it can't be otherwise For meerly to give or not to give to give more or less is no certain proof of a charitable or uncharitable Man how liberally soever we give we are not charitable unless we give from a Principle of Charity and our Charity be as great as our Gift So that had God prescribed how much every Man must give to the Poor they might have observed this proportion of Giving without any Charity and then such Gifts as these had been no acts of Charity when the Gift and the Charity was parted But a Charitable Man will give and will give in proportion to the degrees of his Charity and therefore Charity and the encrease of Charity is the only proper object of Command for he will give liberally who loves much and the proportion of giving is commanded in the degrees of Charity which alone can prescribe and
will observe a just proportion Let no Man then enquire how much he must give the proper enquiry is how much he must love Let no man satisfy himself with some small trifling Presents which bear no proportion to what he has upon pretence that God has prescribed no proportion of giving but let him ask himself Whether in his own Conscience what he gives bears any proportion to that love and charity to the poor and miserable which God requires and let him remember that though God has not fixt the proportions of giving he requires great degrees of Charity and though Men may give liberally without Charity yet not to give in some due proportion is a certain sign of want of Charity when there wants no ability to give Give me leave to observe by the way that what I have now said of Charity is true of all other Christian Graces and Virtues that it is the principle which both must and will give laws and measures to the external acts of such Graces and Virtues As to instance at present only in the Acts of Religious Worship the measures and proportions of which are as much disputed and no more determined and limited by the Laws of our Saviour than those of Charity We are commanded to fast and pray and to communicate at the Lord's Table and to read and meditate on the Holy Scriptures and such other acts of Religion but we are not told how often we must fast and pray and receive the Lord's Supper nor how much time we must spend in our publick or private Devotions for though all the publick Exercises of Religion must be regulated by the publick Authority of the Church which as to time and place and other external circumstances is the safest rule yet our private Devotions are free and both publick and private Devotions have a great latitude and thus as it is in the case of Charity some men think they can never spend time enough in the publick and private â—…xercises of Religion and others â—…hink a very little will serve the turn â—…nd any trifling pretence is sufficient to â—…xcuse them from their Closets or the Church and especially from the Lord's Table And the resolution of this is the same â—…s in the case of Charity We are commanded to be devout Worshippers of God and the true spirit of Devotion â—…aturally prescribes the external meaâ—…ures and proportions Devout minds who have a true sense of God and of their constant dependance on him That they owe all temporal and spiritual Blessings to him and daily need the pardon of their Sins the ptotection of his Providence and the supplies of his Grace will never fail to worship God whom they inwardly reverence and adore and as our devout sense of God encreases in strength and vigour the external expressions of devotion will be more frequent more lively and affecting for nature will exert it self and will exert it self in proportion to its strength and vigour But to return 3. The third thing I proposed I must at present wave that where there is a willing mind with a fit proportion according to our abilities which as you have heard there will be where there is a truly willing and charitable mind whether it be more or less that we give it is equally acceptable to God Such a man is accepted according to what he hath not according to what he hath not and indeed there is no great occasion to insist on it for it is self-evident that God will not exact that from us which we have not Only we must observe that this does not excuse any man from Charity though he have nothing to give he must have a willing charitable mind to make him accepted nor does it excuse those from Charity who have but little to give for they must give according to what they have nor does it excuse those who have nothing to give from other acts of Charity which require the giving nothing and a great many such acts of real charity there are which poor people may do for each other though they have not a penny in their purse But it is time now to turn my Discourse to the proper business of this great Solemnity Publick Charities are always reckoned amongst the greatest Ornaments of any Country and make up the most lovely and charming part of their Characters Stately and magnificent Buildings shew great Art and great Riches and a gallant and noble Genius but great Charities have something divine and strike the Mind with a Religious Veneration There may be much more magnificent Shows than this Day 's Procession but none which affect wise and good Men with a sincerer Pleasure To follow a great number of Orphans in the mean but decent Dress of Charity singing the Praises of God and praying for their Benefactors is beyond all the Roman Triumphs however adorned with a pompous Equipage and great numbers of Royal Slaves These present us with nothing but the miserable Spectacles of Spoil and Rapine the uncertain Changes and Viâ—…issitudes of Fortune the lamentable Fate of conquered Princes and People and the Pride and Insolence of Conquerors but here are the Triumphs of a generous Goodness and divine Charity Triumphs without Blood and Spoil without Slaves and Captives unless redeem'd Slaves rescued from the Jaws of Poverty and all the Injuries and Miseries of a ruined Fortune That to me this great City and this honourable Train never looks greater than in this humble Pomp. A Pomp not for Vanity and Ostentation but to endear and recommend Charity by shewing the visible and blessed Fruits of it and to the same End I must give you an account of the present State of these publick Charities The Report was here Read THAT these are all great Charities I need not tell you indeed all so great that it is hard to know to which to give the Preference and what occasion all these Charities have of fresh liberal and constant Supplies the Report acquaints you But I cannot pass over one thing I observe in this Report and which I fear many necessitous People feel that there have been no Orphans taken into Christ's Hospital this Year nor as I remember for two Years last past I do not mention this by way of Reflection as any fault in the administration and government but to put you in mind how much that excellent Foundation needs your Supply and though I do not love to compare Charities they being all of great use and necessity in their kind yet I think this Foundation has something to plead for it self beyond any other A helpless Age destitute of Friends â—…nd all means of Support will plead â—…or it self without saying any thing â—…t is a pitiable Sight to see poor â—…nnocent Children turned helpless inâ—…o the wide World to starve or beg or steal or to suffer all imaginable Difficulties and Necessities at home without Education without Government or Discipline without being used â—…o labour or taught any honest
of Earthly Rivals yet it fires at great Examples and is ashamed to be out-done by Equals in love to God or Men especially when the Honour of the Church whereof they are Members and the Religion which they profess is concerned It is well known how many pious and charitable Foundations are owing to Popish Superstition they hoped to expiate their Sins and to merit Heaven by their good Works and in this hope and this perswasion they did a very great many We understand better than to think of meriting any thing of God much less of purchasing a liberty of sinning by Acts of Charity but if those great Rewards which are promised to Charity and which we profess to believe will not make us charitable without the Opinion of Merit and Satisfaction Charity is so great and excellent a Vertue and so very useful to Mankind that at least thus far Popery will be thought the better Religion and therefore as the Apostle argues As ye abound in every thing in faith and utterance and knowledge and all diligence and in your love to us see that ye abound in this grace also As we have a more Orthodox Faith a clearer and a distincter Knowledge and a purer Worship than the Church of Rome let us excel in Charity too and convince the World that to renounce Popery is not to renounce good Works SERMON X. Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor and Court of Aldermen at Guild-hall Chappel on Sunday April 25. 1697. Coloss. II. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the Rudiments of the world and not after Christ. HAD St. Paul lived in our Age it would have required little less than the Courage and Bravery of the Spirit of Martyrdom to have said this And nothing but the Authority of so great an Apostle which though some Men do not much value yet they dare not openly despise can skreen those who venture to say iâ—… after him What some Men call Philosophy and Reason and there is nothing so foolish and absurd which some Men will not call so is the only thing which those Men adore who would either have no God or a God and a Religion of their own making And what Attempts some have made to undermine all Religion and others to corrupt and transform the whole Frame of the Christian Religion upon a Pretence of its contradicting Natural Reason and Philosophy is too well known to need a Proof That thus it was in his days and that thus it was likely to be in future Ages St. Paul was very sensible when he gave this Caution to his Colossians and I 'm sure it is as proper a Caution for us as ever it was for any Age since the writing of this Epistle for this vain Pretence to Reason and Philosophy never more prevailed and never did more mischief to the World It is an endless and fruitless Task to go about to confute all the absurd Hypotheses and wild inconsistent Reasonings wherewith Men abuse themselves and others The Experience of so â—…ny Ages wherein Philosophy was in all 〈◊〉 Glory and the several Sects disputed â—…d wrangled eternally without ending â—…y one Controversie gives no great Enâ—…uragement to hope for much this way 〈◊〉 least it can never be expected that â—…dinary Christians should be better â—…structed and confirm'd in the Faith by â—…hilosophical Disputes The Christian Religion has from â—…e very Beginning been corrupted by 〈◊〉 mixture of Philosophy Thus it was 〈◊〉 the Apostles days and thus it has â—…een more or less in all Ages of the Church to this day and the direction the Apostle gives for the security of the Christian Faith is Not to dispute such Matters but to distinguish between Philosophical Disputes and Matters of Revelation and to reject all the Pretences of Philosophy when it does or seems to contradict the Faith of Christ or would make any corrupt Additions to it Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make a Prey or to carry away as a Prey that is to seduce them from the Christian Faith or from the Pâ—…rity and Simplicity of it Through Philosophy and vain deceit that is through the vain deceit of Philosophy which cheats Men with a flattering but empty appearance may unsettle weak Minds but cannot lay a sure and solid foundation of Faith may cheat Men out of their Faith but when that is done can give them nothing certain in the room of it For it is but after the traditions of men and after the rudiments of this world Some of these Doctrines may possibly plead Prescription as having been so long received that no Man knows their Original or if they have the Authority of some Great Name yet it is but a Human Authority and they are but the traditions of men and of Men who at best had no better Information than from the visible appearances of Nature and their own imperfect Observations and corrupt or defective Reasonings after the rudiments of this world And is this an Authority to oppose against the Faith of Christ which both wants that Divine Confirmation which he gave to his Doctrines and contradicts them For they are not after Christ neither taught by Christ nor consonant to what he taught These Words might afford great Variety of Discourse but I shall confine my self to what is most Usefull and reduce that into as narrow a compass as I can by shewing I. What great need there is of this Caution To beware lest any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit II. What great reason we have to rejectall these vain Pretences to Philosophy when they are opposed to the Authority of a Divine Revelation I. As for the first of these Whoever considers what an Enemy these vain Pretences to Philosophy have always been to Religion will see need enough for this Caution True Reason and the true Knowledge of Nature which is true Philosophy would certainly direct us to the Acknowledgment and Worship of that Supreme Being who made the World And yet we know that there never was an Athiest without some Pretence to Philosophy and generally such loud noisy Pretences too as make ignorant people think them very notable Philosophers and that tempts some vain empty Persons to affect Atheism that they may be thought Philosophers That this is vain deceit all Men must own who believe there is a God And if it be possible to pretend Philosophy for Atheism it self it is no great wonder if it be made to patronize Infidelity and Heresy But this plainly shews of what dangerous Consequence it is to admit Philosophical Disputes into Religion which if at any time they may do any service to Religion much oftner greatly corrupt it and shake the very Foundations of it of which more anon At present I shall only shew you how the Matter of Fact stands That most of the Disputes in Religion
are nothing else but the Disputes of Philosophy and therefore according to the Apostolical Command to be wholly flung out of Religion and not suffered to affect our Faith one way or other To be a Philosopher and a Christian to Dispute and to Believe are two very different things and yet it is very evident that most of the Arguments against Revelation in general and most of the Disputes about the particular Doctrines of Christianity are no better than this vain deceit of Philosophy that were the Matters of Faith and the Disputes of Philosophy truly distinguished this alone would be sufficient to settle the Faith of Christians and restore Peace and Unity at least in the great Fundamentals of Religion to the Christian World 1. As to begin with Revelation in general The Books of Moses are the most Ancient and that considered the best attested History in the World the whole Nation of the Iews whose History he writes pay the greatest veneration to him and if we believe the Matters of Fact which he relates he was certainly an Inspired Man who could neither deceive nor be deceived And it is impossible to have greater Evidence for the Truth and Authenticalness of any Writings at such a distance of time than we have for the Writings of the New Testament and indeed the Infidels of our Age have very little to say purely against the Credibility of the History and then one would think that all their other Objections should come too late unless they will justifie Pharaoh in disbelieving Moses and the Scribes and Pharisees in disbelieving our Saviour after all the Miracles they did For if they will disbelieve Moses and Christ though they have nothing material to object against the Truth of these Histories nothing which they would allow to be good Objections against any other History they must by the same reason have disbelieved them though they had seen them do all those great Works which are reported of them in such Credible Histories But whatever the Authority of these Books are they think they may securely reject them if they contain any thing which contradicts their Reason and Philosophy and they find a great many such things to quarrel with They think Moses's History of the Creation very unphilosophical That the Story of Eve and the Serpent is an incredible Fiction That the Universal Deluge is absolutely impossible and irreconcileable with the Principles of Philosophy and it does not become Philosophers to have recourse to Miracles That what we call Miracles are not the effects of a Divine Power but may be resolved into Natural Causes That Inspiration and Prophesy is nothing but natural Enthusiasm and all the Pretences to Revelation a Cheat and Imposture That Nature teaches us all that we need to know That there is no other certain knowledge but this That we are not bound to believe any thing which our own reason cannot grasp and comprehend and therefore Revelation is perfectly useless and God himself cannot oblige us to believe any thing which does not agree with the Reason of our own Minds and the Philosophy of Nature Those who understand the Mystery of Modern Infidelity know that these and such like are the wise Reasons for which they reject and ridicule all Revealed Religion and endeavour to rob and spoil men of one of the greatest Blessings in the World a Divine Revelation So that Infidelity is resolved into these vain Pretences to Philosophy that Men will understand how to make destroy and govern the World better than God 2. As these Men oppose Reason and Philosophy to Revelation so others either deny the fundamental Articles of Christianity for the sake of some Philosophical Difficulties or corrupt the Doctrines of Christianity by a mixture of Philosophy The Gospel of our Saviour is the plainest Revelation of the Will of God that ever was made to the World all its Doctrines are easily understood without Art and Subtilty and yet there is not a more nice intricate perplext thing in the World than what some Men have made the Christian Faith All the Subtil Disputes of Philosophy are brought into the Church and Plato and Aristotle are become as great Apostles as St. Peter or St. Paul As to give some few Instances of it for time will not permit me to discourse it at large What are the Arian Socinian Pelagian Controversies but meer Philosophical Disputes with which these Hereticks corrupted the Catholick Faith There is nothing more plain and express in Scripture than the Faith of Father Son and Holy Ghost or the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and that great Art and Subtilty which has been used and to so little purpose to pervert those Texts of Scripture wherein this Doctrine is contained is an evident proof That this is the plain natural obvious sense of those Texts since it requires so much Art and Criticism to put any other sense on them and that will not do neither till men are resolved rather to make any thing of Scripture than to find a real Trinity there If then this Faith be so plainly contained in Scripture what makes all this dispute about it What makes those who profess to believe the Scripture so obstinate against this Faith Truly that which makes some men Infidels makes others Hereticks that is a vain Pretence to Philosophy The first Philosophical Dispute is about the Divine Unity We all own with the Scripture that there is but one God but we say further as the Scripture teaches us That there are Three Father Son and Holy Ghost each of which is true and perfect God This they say is a Contradiction and if it be so there is an end of this Faith for both parts of a Contradiction can't be true But to be Three and One upon different accounts and in different senses is no Contradiction for thus three may be One and One Three and this is all the Scripture teaches or that we profess to believe whatever the Mystery of this Distinction and Unity be But this will not satisfie these Philosophical Wits unless they can comprehend how Father Son and Holy Ghost are really and distinctly Three and essentially One the manner of which the Scripture gives no account of and therefore this is no dispute in Faith but only in Philosophy Another objection concerns the Divine Generation how God can beget a Son of his own Substance which the Arians thought inferred a Division of the Divine Substance And a Third Objection concerns an Eternal Generation how it is possible that the Father should beget an Eternal Son that the Son should be begotten without any beginning of Being and that the Father should not be at least some few moments before the Son and consequently the Son not Eternal Now we all grant that we can give no Philosophical account of this no more than we can of the simple Divine Essence or of Eternity it self but we may believe that God has an Eternal Son as we do that there is
that we cannot hear them because Sounds are not the Objects of Sight nor Colours of Hearing Now no man pretends that the pure Natures and Essences of things or their Essential Reasons Properties Unions Operations are the Objects of Humane Reason for no man living knows any thing about them And yet this is all the Incomprehensibility men have to complain of in the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation That they cannot comprehend how God can beget an Eternal Son nor how Three Divine Persons should be so united as to be essentially One God nor how the Divine and Humane Nature can be united into one Person God-man All which concern the Essence and Essential Properties Operations Unions Relations of the Deity which a modest man might allow to be incomprehensible if God be Infinite though he could comprehend the Natures Essences and Essential Reasons and Properties of Created Beings but when all Created Nature is such a Mystery to us that we know not the pure Nature and Essence of any one thing in the World is it an affront to our Reason that we cannot comprehend the Divine Nature Such Matters as these are neither without Reason nor against Reason nor contrary to Reason because Reason has nothing to do with them and can take no cognizance of them They belong not to Reason but to that Infinite Mind which comprehends it Self and the Ideas of all possible Beings A perfect comprehensive Knowledge of Nature belongs only to the Maker of all things for it is not only to know what things are but how to make them which would be a vain Curiosity and useless Knowledge to those who have not a Making and Creating Power This is to know things à priori with an Intuitive Ideal Knowledge which is infinitely more superiour to Reason â—…an Reason is to Sense And it is the â—…ffectation of this Intuitive making Knowledge which makes some Men Atheists and others Hereticks 2dly Another great Objection against such a Revelation as contains matters which Natural Reason cannot comprehend is To what purpose such â—…a Revelation serves What Merit there can be in believing such Doctrines And of what good use such a Faith can be to us Now I confess I cannot think it meritorious merely to believe things which are incomprehensible or that God any more intended to puzzle our Faith with revealed Mysteries than to puzzle our Reason in making a Mysterious World Whether we receive our information from Sense or Natural Reason or Revelation it is certain we must believe Mysteries if we believe any thing for all things have something mysterious and incomprehensible in their natures what natural Reason cannot account for and what God never intended we should understand For God never intended to teach us how to make the World nor how every Creature was made and therefore we cannot and are not concerned to know the internal Frame and Constitution of Nature But though neither Natural nor Revealed Knowledge extends to the Reasons and Causes of Nature and of essential Properties and Operations yet both natural and revealed Knowledge is of as much use to us as if we did perfectly understand all the secret and incomprehensible Mysteries of the nature of God or of the Natures of Creatures Both natural and revealed Knowledge are alike upon this account That they only acquaint us what things are and what ends they serve and then we know what use to make of them without understanding the secret Mysteries of Nature Is this World or any thing in it the less useful to us because we cannot conceive how God created all things of nothing Or because we do not understand the Nature of Matter nor how the several parts of Matter came by their different Virtues and Qualities Is Corn or Fruit or Herbs the less nourishing or refreshing because we know not how they grow Does it require any Philosophy to know how to eat and drink and sleep Will not our Food nourish us â—…less we understand how it is concoctâ—… and turned into Chile and Blood â—…d Spirits Nay is it of no use to â—…ow that God is an Eternal Omnipoâ—…nt Omniscient Omnipresent Being â—…less we can conceive how any Being â—…n be Eternal without a Cause and â—…ithout a Beginning Or can compreâ—…end how he can do and know all things â—…d be present in all places at once â—…ithout Extension and without Parts â—…e may make all the use that can be â—…ade of this World and of every thing 〈◊〉 it without understanding the essential â—…easons and Causes or internal Nature â—…f any thing and we must do so if we will make any use of it and we know God to all the ends and purposes for which Creatures ought to know God â—…hough his Nature be incomprehensible And thus it is in matters of pure Revelation such as the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation how unaccountable soever the Mystery of a Trinity in Unity the Eternal Generation and the Incarnation of the Son of God be yet it is the most useful Knowledge in the World Though we know not how the Eternal Father begat an Eternal Son of his own Substance nor how this Eternal Son in time became Man yet it is the most desireable Knowledge in the world to Sinners to know That God has an Eternal Son and that he so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for the redemption of mankind that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and that this Eternal Son of God became Man lived a poor necessitous laborious Life and died an accursed Death for the Salvation of Sinners and to know That the Holy Spirit which proceeds from Father and Son dwells in the Christian Church and quickens and animates the whole Body of Christ. If this be true as we must suppose in this Argument all Mankind must confess that this is a very useful Knowledge and never the less useful because a Trinity in Unity and the Eternal Generation and the Incarnation of the Son of God are great and unconceivable Mysteries Could we give a Rational and Philosophical Account of the Eternal Generation and of the Incarnation we should know more than we now do but Faith makes it as useful to all the purposes of Religion as the most perfect intuitive Knowledge could do This is a sufficient Answer to that Objection against the Usefulness of such Mysteries as have something incomprehensible and unconceivable in their Natures Which is an equal Objection against all created Nature which is but one great Mystery and yet the World is a very useful World and we know in some good degree what use to make of it And the Knowledge of those Gospel Mysteries which are the Subject of our present Dispute are manifestly of infinite use to us if the certain knowledge of the Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life by the Obedience and Sufferings and Death and Intercession of the Son of God Incarnate be of any use and
therefore it became the wisdom and Goodness of God to reveal these Mysteries of Salvation to us Especially if we add to this That the lapsed state of Humane Nature makes Supernatural Knowledge necessary Natural Knowledge we grant was sufficient for a state of Nature though no man would have had reason to complain had God in a state of Innocence by a more familiar intercourse with Man or by the frequent Conversation of Angels improved his Knowledge beyond the meer attainments of his Natural Faculties and it is not improbable but this might have been I am sure there is an impatient thirst after knowledge in Humane Nature and such a great curiosity for secret and hidden Mysteries that it looks very unnatural for Men to complain that God reveals more to them than Nature teaches But yet I say Natural Knowledge must be allowed sufficient to all the ends of Humane Life while Man continued Innocent for that is the Original state of Human Nature as all men must grant who believe that Man was made by God But when man sinned he forfeited the Favour of God and a natural Immortality and whether he should be restored or not and by what means he should be restored depended wholly on the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God And therefore the Light of Nature though it could direct an Innocent Man how to Please and Worship God and to preserve himself Immortal it could not teach Sinners how to make attonement for Sin nor give them any certain hopes that God would forgive Sins and bestow immortal Life on them which makes it necessary that the Religion of a Sinner be a revealed Religion And if God in infinite Goodness is not only pleased to restore Sinners to Grace and Favour but to advance them to a supernatural state of Perfection and Happiness both of Soul and Body in the next World this must be done by supernatural Means and therefore requires a supernatural Knowledge for the Light of Nature can neither raise us above Nature nor discover supernatural Truths to us and this makes it necessary to know and believe such things as we have no natural Notion or Idea of Such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive If Nature can't save us it can't discover to us the way of Salvation neither and if we must be saved by a supernatural Grace and Power it must be supernaturally revealed and what is Supernatural is the Object of Faith not of natural Knowledge This seems to me to give a plain account why God thinks fit to reveal such Mysteries to us as Nature cannot teach and as we have no natural Notion of because our lapsed state has made such Supernatural Revelations necessary to the recovery of Mankind and when we are fallen below the relief of Nature and of Natural Knowledge we ought to be very thankful to our good God for Supernatural Knowledge and supernatural Means of Salvation To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons one Eternal God be Honour Glory and Power now and for ever Amen SERMON XI THE Folly and Unreasonableness OF DEISM Preach'd before the King at Hampton-Court Iune 16. 1700 John xiv 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me I Shall not consider these Words as they relate to what follows but only observe in them that our Saâ—…iour not only requires his Disciples to â—…elieve in God but that they should believe also in him that is to believe that he came from God and hath revealed his Will to the World And from hence I shall take occasion to consider the Case of Deists who pretend to own that there is a God and to pay such Worship to him and to obey such Laws as meer Nature teaches but reject all Revealed Religions even the Gospel of Christ it self as no better than Cheats and Impostors This Profession of Deism is grown very fashionable among our great Pretenders to Wit and Philosophy and I am very glad that such Men are ashamed of the Name of Atheists and hope that a serious Consideration of the Folly and Unreasonableness of Deism that is to believe a God and to deny all Revealed Religion may dispose them to an impartial Inquiry into the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Faith I. The Folly of Deism I will begin with this to make Men consider a little what they intend by it or what wise End it will serve Every one sees what Men intend by Atheism to deliver themselves from the Fears of invisible Powers that they may follow their own Inclinations and do what they like best themselves without any Awe of God or Reproofs and Terrors of Conscience or the dismal Apprehensions of unknown and endless Punishments in the next World And this is the wisest Course Men can take who resolve to be wicked that they may sin with Ease and Pleasure without the bitter Allays of Shame and Fear But now if a Deist really is what he pretends to be that is if he does really believe that there is a God and that the Soul is Immortal and that Good Men shall be rewarded and Bad Men punished in the next World he believes a great deal too much to sin with Security and a great deal too little to have any comfortable Hopes of a better Life That this is certainly the most hopeless State that a Man can be in in this World it has all the Restraints and Fears of Religion but none of the Supports and Comforts of it As to shew this briefly 1. He who does heartily believe that there is a God who will punish Men for their Sins not only in this World but in the next believes too much to sin with Security though he believes nothing at all of Revelation For if Nature as they grant teaches Men that there is a Holy and Just Governour of the World who observes what we do and will punish Wickedness Natural Conscience also will accuse and terrifie and condemn wicked Men. Thus St. Paul assures us it was with the Heathen World before they had any Revelation of God's Will For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another 2 Rom. 14 15. And the same is attested by all the Heathen Orators Philosophers and Poets And those natural Terrors of Conscience and Fears of Vengeance were in those Days before Men had ever heard of the Gospel of our Saviour so very unsupportable to bad Men that they took Refuge in Atheism against them as Lucretius does very honestly confess and admires his Master Epicurus for his brave and bold Attempt in delivering the World from the Fears of God and of Religion So that whoever believe a
of our Church that Men who have no Devotion come only for Musick For Church-Musick can't create Devotion tho' it may improve it where it is But indeed we ought all to be aware that the Musick does not Employ our Thoughts more than our Devotions which it can never do if as Common Sense teaches us it ought to be our Minds be in the first place fix'd and intent upon the Praises of God which are express'd in the Hymn or Anthem which when conveyed unto us in Musical Sounds will give Life and Quickness to our Devotions not first fixed on the Musick which most probably will leave the Devotion of the Anthem behind it Those who find that Musick does not Assist but Stifle their Devotion and many such there may be had much better keep to their Parish-Churches and prefer Devotion before Musick For to come to Church without any Intention to Worship God in his own House or to pretend to Worship him without Devotion are great Affronts to the Divine Majesty In a word Those who profess themselves Lovers of Musick ought to consider what the true End of Musick is and to improve it to the Noblest Purposes The meer Harmony of Sounds is a very pleasant and innocent Entertainment Of all the Delights of Sense this is in it self the least sensual when it is not abused to recommend Vice and to convey impure Images to our Minds But yet meerly to be delighted with Charming and Musical Aires does not answer the true Character of a Lover of Musick For it is the least thing in Musick to please the Ear its proper natural Use and the great Advantage and Pleasure of it relates to our Passions To Compose to Soften to Inflame them and the Diviner Passions it inspires us with the more it is to be admired and valued and then Musick must attain its greatest Glory and Perfection in true Devotion That the Lovers of Musick ought to be very Devout Men if they love Musick for that which is most valuable in it and its last and noblest End To conclude It concerns the Lovers of Musick to vindicate it from all Prophane Abuses not to suffer so Divine a thing to be prostituted to Mens Lusts To discountenance all Lewd Prophane Atheistical Songs how admirable soever the Composition be To preserve Musick in its Virgin Modesty and without confining her always to the Temple make the Praises of God her Chief Employment as it is her greatest Glory Thus have I spoke my Mind very freely shewed you the Use and the Abuses of Musick which was one great Inducement to me to comply with the Desires of those Honourable and Worthy Persons who imposed this Office on me that I might have an Opportunity of Saying that which I thought fit should be said at one time or other and for saying of which there could not be a more proper Occasion than this And I hope this may plead my Excuse with all good Christians if it have drawn my Sermon out to too great a Length and given too long an Interruption to the Entertainment of those the least part of whose Business it was to hear a Sermon To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be Honour Glory and Power now and ever Amen SERMON XV. Preach'd before the QUEEN at White Hall in Lent 2 Tim. iii. ver 1 2. This know also that in the last days perillous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves IS Self-love then so dangerous a thing as to make the Times perillous What Times then can be prosperous and happy What Age produces such Monsters as do not love themselves And where is the Man that would be contented to live in such an Age The Apostle then by the Lovers of their own selves cannot mean all those who are acted by this natural Principle of Self-love to take care of their own Happiness for that is all Mankind in all Ages of the World and cannot be the Character only of the last Days nor the cause of perillous Times Self-love is the very Life and Spirit of the reasonable World which has no other Spring of Motion It unites Men into Societies is the Parent of all Arts and Sciences it makes us take care of our selves and it teaches us to do good to others It is no Vertue it self because it is not Matter of our choice but as necessary as our Being but it is the Seed and Principle of all Moral Vertues as it obliges us to make our selves happy to preserve our Health to encrease our Fortunes to gain the Good-will and good Opinion of our Neighbours to be easie to our selves and to make the World easie to us which requires the Practice of all healthful thriving and sociable Virtues It is Self-love which inspires us with that Divine Principle of Universal Goodness and Charity to do to other Men what we desire they should do to us It is this which makes us soft and tender to all the Impressions of Kindness which makes us feel other Mens Sufferings and other Mens Resentments in our own which makes us relish the Sweetness and Pleasure of doing Good by the Pleasure of receiving it and gives us an Antipathy and Abhorrence of doing Injuries from our natural Aversion to suffer them It is this Self-love which makes Mankind governable and secures the Peace and good Order of Humane Societies Humane Laws would signifie very little without Rewards and Punishments and Rewards and Punishments would signifie as little as Laws without Self-love For could Men be unconcerned for themselves did they neither hope nor fear any thing they could be governed only as Beasts are by external Force It is the love of our selves which makes us delight in Humane Conversation and promote the Publick Good wherein all Mens private Fortunes are involved In a word This Self-love is the Principle of all Religion which teaches us to love and worship God who is eternal and essential Love and Goodness to praise him for our Being for our Preservation for all the Enjoyments of this Life and for the great Hopes and Expectations of the next It teaches us to reverence his Laws to fear his Justice and Power to depend on his Providence to pray for the Supply of our Wants and for the Pardon of our Sins 〈◊〉 It gives Virtue and Efficacy to Faith and Hope which are the great Gospel-Principles of Obedience For what would the belief and expectation of unseen Glories signifie if Men were not concerned to make themselves eternally happy So wild and extravagant is that Enthusiastick Conceit of serving God without respect to the Recompence of Reward which contradicts the whole Scope of the Gospel all the Motives and all the Principles of Evangelical Obedience the Examples of all good Men and of Christ himself who for the Ioy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the Shame and is set down at the Right Hand of God This is sufficient to prove
its Love and Care to its self but a Man who has a truly great and divine mind who loves all Men as himself and loves himself in conjunction with the rest of Mankind can by no means be called a selfish Man or a lover of himself for he has an universal love to Humane Nature which begins with himself but extends to all the World This is a plain and short account what this vicious Self-love is and why it is so called 2dly The Second thing I proposed was to shew how dangerous and perillous such Times must needs be wherein this Self-love Prevails Now those are perillous Times which expose Men to great Dangers and to great Troubles and Calamities and that with respect to their own private Fortunes with respect to the Publick and with respect to the State of Religion and what a malignant influence this vicious Self-love has upon all these great and dear Interests is so visible that methinks it should need no proof and therefore I shall at present only give some brief Hints of it And I shall not here take notice how much such Self-lovers suffer from themselves and from their own Self-love for though this makes themselves â—…iserable it does not make the Times dangerous the Times may be very prosperous and good Men very happy though such Sinners may reap the Fruits of their own Works and be filled with their own Devices though they sacrifice their Honour their Estates their Health their Lives to Intemperance and Lust though Ambition heats their brains into a Distraction and Cares and Disappointments break their Hearts or Guilt disturbs their Consciences and fills them with Rage and furious Despair the World is not much concerned in this let such Self-lovers look to it and thank themselves for what they suffer but then the Times are dangerous with respect to our private and personal Interests when Men are in great danger from one another when they are never secure from private Injuries when they know not whom to trust nor with whom to converse when it is hard to find a Friend and almost impossible to escape an Enemy when the greatest Virtue Innocence Inoffenciveness nay the Divinest Charity and all the charms of an obliging Conversation cannot secure Men from Envy Rapine and Detraction from the Venom of Tongues or from more malicious designs against their Lives and Fortunes such a State as this will make all Good Men wish as David did O that I had wings like a Dove for then would I flie away and be at rest Lo then would I wander far off and remain in the Wilderness I would hasten my Escape from the windy Storm and Tempest 55 Psa. 6 7 8 Verses And this is the very State which Self-love puts Mankind into when it prevails in the World This a late admired Philosopher calls the State of Nature wherein every Man is a Woolf to a Man but in truth it is only the State of this vicious Self-love which is the Corruption and Degeneracy of a reasonable and sociable Nature If Man was made for Society it cannot be his Nature to love no body but himself which is a Contradiction to the Nature and End of Societies He must first put off Nature if that be this Self-love before he can be capable of living in Society which seems very unaccountable that a Creature who was made for Society should not be fit for Society till he change his Nature For Men cannot live together in safety while they are all acted by this Principle Self-love makes every Man his own Center and the Center draws all to it self all that is within its sphaere of activity Pride is Self-love such an esteem for our selves as values no Man's Honour or Reputation but our own and this draws all Honour to it self is not contented unless it can out-shine all others and either by a greater brightness swallow them up or eclipse them by black and misty Vapours by all the Arts of Infamy and Reproach Covetousness is Self-love when Men will be rich whoever be poor and by whatever Arts they can do it and this draws all riches to it self and snatches them from all that come within its reach and what Injustice and Violence Theft Murders Perjuries does this occasion Self-love is the love of the Flesh the love of carnal and sensual Pleasures which will please it self whoever be grieved and injured by it Such brutish Sensualists have no regard to the Honour and Peace of Families to the Modesty of Virgins to the Sacred Vows of Wives to the Stain and Infamy of Posterity nay many times not to the dignity of Humane Nature but gratifie their Lusts in contradiction to them all Where Self-love reigns there is no place for Compassion for Charity for Justice for true Friendship every thing must give way to Self and let any man judge whether such be not perillous Times some such Men there are always in the World and great numbers of them too and we daily feel what mischeifs they do but the more the numbers of them encrease the more this Self-love prevails the more intolerable will Humane Conversation be And if we allow that Pride Ambition Covetousness Sensuality are great Enemies to the Peace and Prosperity to the good Order and Government of any Nation we must grant that Self-love which is the impure Fountain from whence all these corrupt Streams flow is very destructive to Humane Societies too it corrupts publick Justice loosens the reigns of Government softens and emasculates Mens Spirits renders them unfit for Counsel or for Arms makes them contemptible to their Neighbours and brings down the Judgments of God upon them Is any thing so destructive to any State as Divisions and Factions at home and was there ever any State-Faction without Self-love and private Interest at the bottom when great Men will rival one another and are impatient either of Superiours or Equals and prosecute their Private Animosities with the Publick Danger and when common safety requires united Hearts and Counsels will not adjourn their private Quarrels nor sacrifice their private Interests and Resentments to save a Nation It is wonderful to observe that when a Kingdom is divided into Parties and Factions the most threatning dangers are so far from uniting them that they take advantage of Publick Fears and Apprehensions to get ground of their Adversaries tho' they hazard the whole by it and what are such Factions but a Combination of Self-lovers who divide themselves from the Publick Interest unless their Private Humours and Intrigues may take place when a Party will be the Whole and if others will not let them be the Whole let the Whole perish This is the narrow peevish unsociable Spirit of Self-love a temper which generous Heathens had in the greatest abhorrence and till a more publick Spirit revive in the World we must never expect to see easie and happy days The Times will be perillous while men are such Lovers of themselves But how
Bitter what gratifies their bodily Senses that is their Pleasure and Happiness without any regard to Vertue Modesty or Honour what lays Restraints upon their sensual Inclinations that is bitter uneasy and grievous and no wonder that there is a Woe denounced against these Men. 4ly Woe be to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight Where the Prophâ—…t speaks of the same Men still those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter and yet think themselves the only wise Men in the World though they contradict the Sense of all Mankind the natural uncorrupted Sense of their own Minds the Light of Nature and the Word of God This is the just Character of Atheists and Infidels who think themselves the only Wits the only Philosophers and laugh at all the rest of the World as easy credulous unthinking Fools who are under the Tyranny of Custom and popular Opinions which exposes them to all other Cheats They think it an Argument of Wit and profound Thought to contradict all Mankind for there are but few wise Men they say in the World and the most are usually in the wrong which may be allowed as to improved Knowledge which is gained by laborious study and observation but the Folly lies on the other side when Men advance Paradoxes which contradict the universal Sense of Nature for in such Cases the most are likely to be in the right because Natural Productions are more common than Monsters that a wise Man will rather think and judge with the Multitude when they think on Natures side than with the most famed Philosophers against Nature But those who affect to contradict the rest of the World must think themselves the only wise Men if they think at all that we have no more reason to wonder at their Pride and Insolence than at their Atheism and Infidelity 2dly Let us now inquire how these Men come to sink into so degenerate a State as one would think impossible to a reasonable Nature and that is intimated in that order which is observed in my Text that they first call Evil Good and then Good Evil first put Darkness for Light and then Light for Darkness c. As to consider this particularly 1st They begin with calling Evil Good for no Man can begin with calling Good Evil Nature will have the first word and pass the first Judgment on Things and Nature as corrupt as it is till it be depraved and vitiated by evil Customs will call Good good and Evil evil Atheists and Infidels must confess that as wise as they think themselves now there was a time when they were as very fools as the rest of the World that is when they had the same Opinions about Good and Evil which the rest of Mankind still have when they did own a moral difference between Good and Evil and called Good and Evil by their right Names and it is as certain that the only Reason for altering their Opinions and changing the Names of Good and Evil was changing their Manners that they grew very fond of what they themselves as well as the foolish Multitude thought and called Evil and then they began to think and to call it Good and the necessary Consequence of this is to call Good Evil and as unwilling as they are to own this it is demonstrable there can be no other Reason for it Though these Men could prove which they will never be able to do that there is no moral essential immutable difference between Good and Evil between Vertue and Vice yet this is no reason to call Evil Good or Good Evil for though they were neither Sins nor Vertues neither forbid nor commanded by a Divine Law yet they themselves confess as I observed before that what we call Vertues have so much Good in them that they are the best and wisest Rules of Society and Conversation necessary to secure every Mans private Interest and the Peace and good Government of the World and therefore fit to be encouraged and to be made Laws in all civiliz'd Nations and that what we call Sins have so much Evil in them that they are very destructive to Human Societies and deserve to be restrained and punished and then it is certain there never can be any reason to call Evil Good and Good Evil which by their own Confession is a direct contradiction to the Nature of Things it is to call that Evil which they themselves own to be a great and publick Good and that Good which they own to be a publick Mischief which there never can be any reason for So that the Case is plain it is not Reason but Lust which calls Evil Good and Good Evil till Lust prevails above Reason Vertue and Vice Good and Evil keep those Names which God and Nature has given them and such Men offer as much Force and Violence to their Natural Understanding when they call Evil Good and Good Evil as they do to Natural Conscience when they chuse the Evil and refuse the Good This is Answer enough to such Men who would reason or laugh away the distinction between Good and Evil and ought to be a Warning to us all how we engage in a Course of Wickedness for how much soever we despise and abhor these wicked Principles we shall soon think as these Men do if we grow as wicked as they are 2dly These Men first put Darkness for Light and then Light for Darkness Men are not born stark blind but have the Light of Reason to discern the natural differences of Things and to direct their Lives and as weak and defective as meer natural Reason is especially in Matters of Religion and another World it directs us to a safer Guide For Reason it self teaches us to believe God who cannot deceive us and can it self judge of the external and visible Marks of a Revelation that is can judge when God speaks and what we must receive as taught by God This is the Light of Mankind the Light of Reason or Revelation what Nature teaches or what God reveals And all Mankind at first both see and own this Light for no Man is born an Atheist or an Infidel But bad Men who have corrupted their Manners and cannot justifie their Vices nor quiet their Consciences if they attend either to the Light of Nature or Revelation must seek for other Remedies and this makes them espouse the Principles of Atheism and Infidelity and these they call Light which in Truth is a meer Aegyptian Darkness and then they must call Light Darkness reject and scorn both the natural Dictates of Reason and the supernatural Revelation of the Divine Will as Ignorance and Darkness Now whatever Opinion Men have of their Philosophy yet how they should learn what neither Nature nor God teaches them or how they should discover that what all the rest of the
Laws The general Consent of all Nations who had no Communication with each other in this Distinction between Vertue and Vice intimates no other Compact but that of a common Nature And not only the wisest Philosophers but the universal Voice of Mankind attribute these Laws to Nature not to Human Institutions And it must appear strange if these Laws had no higher Original than Human Compacts that Mankind for so many Ages should not know any thing of it but should mistake them for the Laws of Nature as after all the Information these Men can give the World the generality of Mankind do to this day But suppose this Distinction between Vertue and Vice and those Laws which command the Exercise of Vertue and forbid Vice were originally framed and enacted by Men was there no Reason in the nature of things why they agreed upon such Laws Yes they will grant that they were necessary for the Peace and good Order and Government of Human Societies to secure private Men from Injuries and Violence and to make them helpful and beneficial to each other and therefore they agreed to make them Laws But why should we think that God and Nature has not made those Laws which have natural and necessary Reasons to make them Laws Can meer Human Compacts and Governments either make or change the Reasons and Necessities of things Can they if they so pleased make Vertue Vice or Vice Vertue and as well consult the Happiness of Mankind and the good Government of the World by doing so If not then meer Human Compacts can neither make nor unmake these Laws God has made these Laws for us by making us such Creatures and giving us such Natures as require such Laws if we will live by Nature and attain our natural Happiness and who then can think that God will not as much exact from us the Observance of these Laws as Men do that he will not punish the Breach of these Laws when Human Governments find it necessary to do so And has God made the Restraints and Punishment of Mens Lusts and Vices necessary and will he not punish them himself especially when the Authority of Human Laws and Human Government is very precarious without the Awe of Religion as those Law-givers were very sensible who to give the greater Veneration to their Laws pretended to receive them from their Gods It is manifest that this very Hypothesis which allows no other Difference between Vertue and Vice but what Human Laws and Human Contracts make leaves every Man at liberty to break these Laws when he can do it safely or will venture the Punishment which is the reason that makes these Men so fond of it and shews how necessary a divine Authority is to enforce the Obligation of these Laws and to secure the very being of Human Societies So that those who reason according to the common Principles of Humane Nature can never get rid of the Notitions of moral Good and Evil nor attribute these Laws to any other Author but that God who made us and fitted our Natures to these Laws and no Man who believes that God hath given us these Laws can doubt whether he will punish the Breach of them But then if to this we add the more certain Revelation of the Gospel wherein the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men this confirms all the Fears of Nature and leaves no possible Hopes for Sinners but Repentance from dead works and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ that it is impossible for Men who know any thing of the Gospel of Christ to sin securely with their Eyes open and therefore 2dly The next step they take is to put out their Eyes or to put out the Light to put darkness for light and light for darkness to reject all the common Principles of Reason and all Divine Revelation as Ignorance Folly and Imposture But what a Task is this to perswade our selves that Darkness is Light and Light Darkness For the common Principles of Reason which Atheists and Infidels must reject before they can deny the Being of God or a Divine Revelation shine as clear and bright in the Mind as the Light of the Sun does in the Heavens and the admired Principles of Atheism and Infidelity put out our Eyes leave no Distinction between things nor any certain Rules of judging as to give some few Instances of this There is nothing lies more easie and obvious in our Minds than the Notion of a first Cause which gave Being to all things else I will not dispute this Point now but alledge it as a first Principle which Mankind naturally assent to as the most reasonable Account of the Origin of all things Now this the Atheist rejects for if they should allow a First Cause they must own a God for the first Cause of all things is a God And this is the wisest Reason they have against it though in truth it is a great Confirmation of the natural Notion of a First Cause because the Belief of a God is as natural and universal as of a First Cause And these two Notions which are both so natural to Mankind do mutually confirm each other But what Account do these Men give of the Origin of all things They either say the World is Eternal and always was what it now is or that Atoms were Eternal and that the World that now is was made by chance But is this the natural Perswasion of Mankind that the World had no Beginning and no Cause or that it was made-by chance Is any thing in the World harder to be believed than this which we can form no possible Notion of Nature teaches nothing of all this and how then should they come to know it when they neither saw the World from Eternity nor saw it made by the fortuitous Jumble of Atoms It is certain these Principles differ as Light and Darkness do To ascribe all things to a First Cause gives a sensible Account how all things were made and how they came to be so wisely made which is Knowledge and Light But to say that the VVorld was Eternal without a Cause or that it was made by chance when we see all things in it so wisely made only confounds and amazes us and leaves us in Darkness Indeed all the Principles of Atheism and Infidelity have nothing natural or enlightning in them but are a Force upon our Understandings and destroy all the true Principles of Knowledge It is very easie and natural to our Minds to believe that something is Eternal for if there ever had been nothing there never could have been any thing But the Question is which is most easie and natural to Human Understandings to say that all things are Eternal without a Cause or to assert one Eternal Being who is the Cause of all things and every Man may feel the difference between these two in his own Mind for the Notion of a First Cause
is as easie and natural as of an Eternal Being and that natural Notion we have of the Relation and Dependance between Causes and Effects necessarily leads us to the Belief of a First Cause for if all things were Eternal without a Cause it is hard to conceive how there should ever after be any natural Relation between them of Causes and Effects and yet destroy the Doctrine of Causes and Effects and there is an end of all Reason and Discourse But then as we have no natural Notion of the Eternity of all things so all the Appearances of Nature contradict it and will not suffer it to lie easie in our Minds We see every day that all Individuals are made Men are born every day and die and one Generation succeeds another and thus it is with Beasts and Birds and all other Animals with Trees and Fruit and Corn and Herbs and is it possible for any Man to believe that any of these things were Eternal when we see that the Individuals of all these several kinds of Beings are daily made for the World consists of Individuals and if they are all made the World was made Necessary Existence is Essential to the Notion of an Eternal Being which has no Beginning nor any Cause and therefore must be always what it is without the least Change that to ascribe Eternity to a World which is subject to perpetual Changes is as great an Absurdity as to assert an Eternal Succession without a Beginning Thus it is very natural to think that the Effect can have nothing but what the Cause can give it and therefore we may learn what the invisible Cause is from visible Effects that if we see any thing wisely made we may conclude it had a wise Cause and therefore nothing can more contradict the natural Sense of our Minds than to ascribe such a World as we now live in which discovers such wonderful Art in its Contrivance to blind and undesigning Chance I do not dispute these Matters now but only consider how unnatural it is to think so and therefore how very difficult it is for any Man in good earnest to espouse these Atheistick Principles Thus as for the Principles of Infidelity how hard is it for any Man to perswade himself that God never revealed himself and his Will to the World any otherwise than by the Works of Creation when all Mankind have believed otherwise and are naturally inclined to believe so and there are great Reasons to think that God will do so and none to think that he will not especially when we have such evident Proof of this in Prophecy and Miracles which so strongly perswade the rest of Mankind For to deny Prophecy and Miracles when the Matter of Fact is plain that there have been true Prophecies or Miracles and no Man besides themselves who believes a God doubts whether he can foretel things to come or exercise a Sovereign Authority over Nature when he pleases can be called by no softer Names than Stupidity or Impudence and whatever they say it is not so easie for them to believe what they say for Prophecy and Miracles carry such a Conviction with them of a Divine Power and give such Authority to the Prophet as is not easily resisted as is evident from hence that some of the wisest of these Men dare not deny the Authority of Prophecy and Miracles could they be assured o the Truth of them but they hear no Prophecies nor see any Miracles now and may be imposed on by fabulous Relations should they be over credulous of such Matters This would have been a good Answer had they only some idle and uncertain Reports of such things but it can never satisfie themselves when they have such an Authentick History as the Bible the Old and New Testament for the Foundation of Faith Can any Man perswade himself to reject the Credit and Authority of all Histories If he can't whatever he may pretend he will find it a very hard matter after all his Criticisms to disbelieve the Gospel which is the best attested and most credible History in the World These are the Difficulties of being an Atheist or Infidel without which Men can never reject or confound the Differences of Good and Evil that all these Principles contradict the natural Ideas of our Minds and destroy all the natural Rules and Measures of Reason that we can no more distinguish between Truth and Falshood than between Good and Evil and if it be possible ever thus to efface the natural Notions of our Minds yet it must be a very uneasie and difficult Task 3dly And yet it is at least as difficult to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Men may bribe their Understandings but our natural Passions are not so easily stifled When the Frame and Constitution of our Natures has annexed Shame and Fear and Remorse to bad Actions which makes them very bitter and grievous in the Review whatever they were in the Act it is not laughing at these Fears as superstitious and owing to Education which will cure them no more than the Stoicks Brags that Pain was no Evil could prevent their feeling Pain What is painful will make us feel it and Atheists and Infidels themselves when they think they have reasoned and laught away all their Fears find that besides their frequent Misgivings and Jealousies when any great or surprizing Occasion sets them free these Passions return on them with such a Fury as all their Philosophy cannot resist Now this endangers all again for natural Shame and Fear and Remorse will make them own an Essential Difference between Good and Evil when they feel it 4thly But let us suppose all these Difficulties conquered they are sensible that there is one still remaining viz. That all the rest of Mankind are against them The Heathen World owned a God and as learned Men have proved one Supream God though they corrupted both the Notion and Worship of God by Polytheism and Idolatry but Atheism was so infamous among them that some Atheistick Philosophers such as Epicurus himself was forced to dissemble it They owned a moral Difference between Good and Evil they owned Revelation and instituted Religions and had them though not from God yet from those evil Spirits whom they worshipped for Gods The whole Iewish Nation own the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and the whole Christian World whom they are most at present concerned with own both the Old and New Testament These are great Authorities against them which one would think should make Men modest and put them a little out of countenance and incline them to suspect that they may be mistaken but they are sensible that Modesty would undo them that to suspect whether they are in the right is as fatal to them as to know that they are in the wrong and therefore they have no way left but to out-face all the World to laugh at all the rest of Mankind as superstitious
Improvement of these Words I shall 1. Enquire what is meant by sustaining Infirmities 2. By what means the spirit of a man can sustain his Infirmities 3. What is meant by a Wounded Spirit 4. How unsupportable a Wounded Spirit is 5. Conclude with some Practical Inferences from the whole 1. What is meant by sustaining Infirmities Now Infirmities in this place being opposed to a Wounded Spirit must signify only external sufferings whatever is grievous and afflicting excepting the disorders and troubles of our own minds And by sustaining Infirmities is not meant that we must â—…ot feel them nor have any afflicting â—…ense of them for the Stoicks themâ—…elves would not say that pain was â—…ot pain for then there would be no need of Patience Non ego dolorem dolorem esse nego cur enâ—…m fortitudo desid raretur sed eum opprimi dico patientia si moâ—…o est aliqua patientia Cicer. â—…o bear it but that Patience â—…f there be any such thing can conquer pain And â—…herefore to sustain Infirmiâ—…ies is to feel but not to sink under the weight of them as that man sustains his burden who can go upright and not stagger at least not fall though he feels the weight of it on his shoulders That is he who can in any measure enjoy himself under suffering does so far sustain it and the more perfectly we can enjoy our selves though the brightness and gaiety of our Spirits may be a little sullied and overcast the more compleat and perfect is our Conquest over all the Calamities of Life 2dly But the great Enquiry is How the spirit of a man can sustain his Infirmities And that is done Three ways 1. By Natural Courage and Strength of Mind 2. By the Powers of Reason 3. By the Diviner Aids and Succours of Religion 1. Natural Courage and Strength of Mind A man of Spirit thinks it a reproach to be easily disturbed and ruffled to be put out of humour by every accident to sink under the common Calamities of life nay to be wholly mastered by the most extraordinary and formidable Events There is an inbred Greatness in human Nature which does not care to confess its own weakness which will not yield or submit or own a Conquest an untaught Courage which supports the rude and illiterate part of mankind even without Reason and Discourse which is improved by a sense of Honour in men of Fortune increases by exercise and discipline by hard labour and difficult trials and is lost by ease and luxury and softness which makes the Mind as tender as the Body to feel all the Vicissitudes of Fortune as a crazy and distempered body does the change of Weather God has put a spirit into man which can bear his Infirmity and if we have it not it is our own fault 2dly The spirit of a man sustains â—…is Infirmities by the Power of Reason which adds to our Natural Courage gives us a more confirmed sense of Deâ—…cency and Honour teaches us the true value of things quiets our Passions undeceives our abused Imaginations convinces us that some fancied evils are none at all others not so great as we thought and that the worst condition has its allays which make it tolerable to a Wise and Good man I am far from thinking That the mere Power of Natural Reason and Moral Arguments is able to support us under all events much less that the Arguments of the Heathen Philosophers though they said a great many wise and good things were sufficient to this purpose but yet it is certain That Reason is the strength of the Mind and it is the Mind which must bear up under external Sufferings and it is as certain that Nature furnishes us with a great many Arguments to bear them easily without fainting As for Instance We must consider the state of the World which is in a continual flux and motion and does not long shew the same face of things that the various Lusts and Passions of men among whom we live will create a great deal of trouble to us and that our mortal bodies are liable to pain and hunger and many Calamities This is the state of all mankind in this world and if after all it be desirable to live to come into and to continue in this world upon these terms we must make the best of our condition and bear our sufferings patiently and not repine if we escape as well as the generality of Mankind In such a state of life we must not promise to our selves a compleat and undisturbed Happiness for then we must be disappointed and be very uneasy and impatient at such a disappointment but we must expect to suffer more or less and that will make us think we escape well when our Sufferings are but light and teach us to arm our selves against those which are greater with courage and patience Thus a Wise man sees through the frightful or flattering Disguises of things and judges by Nature not by Fancy and Opinion and then he finds no mighty reason to be disturbed about many things which are judged and resented as great Calamities by unthinking Men. Reason teaches them that Nature is contented with a little and that poor men enjoy themselves and have their Pleasures and Satisfactions as well as the Rich and therefore Poverty without pressing Wants is not so great an Evil as it is thought by some men and then it can be no intolerable Evil neither to fall from a high and prosperous Fortune to a meaner State Reason teaches them that a good man who is conscious to himself of his own Virtue and Integrity ought not to be concerned for unjust Reproaches which are the effects of Ignorance or Malice That undeserved Honours unjust Praises and Commendations are only the Entertainments of Fools and that unjust Reproaches ought not to put Wise men out of countenance And thus it is in other Cases There is a vast difference between the natures of things and mens Opinions and were our Passions and Resentments governed by Reason and proportioned to the nature of things not to the Opinions of men about them it would make our Condition in this World much more easy and tolerable But I cannot now particularly shew you all the variety of Arguments whereby men may support themselves under several Calamities of Life it is sufficient to my present purpose that Reason gives a new strength and vigour to the spirit of a man to sustain his Infirmities Thirdly But the greatest Supports of all are the Arguments Religion furnishes us with as to name but two at present 1. That whatever we suffer is not the effect of a blind Chance or fatal Necessity but is ordered by a Wise and Good Providence 2. That if we bear our present Sufferings with patience and submission to the Will of God and make a wise use of them to our improvement in Grace and Virtue our very sufferings shall be greatly rewarded in the next World These two Principles