prosper their Government and direct all their Affairs that all their Subjects might lead quiet and peaceable lives under them in all Godliness and Honesty But when in a Revolution a Prince was advanced to the Throne that they looked upon to be a good Man and an Encourager of the True Religion in that case they did not only readily submit to him but acknowledged it as the great Blessing of God to them that he had raised up such a Man to rule over them This was the Notion and this was the Practice of the Primitive Christians as to this matter I may indeed say of the Christians in all Ages And whatever you may have heard to the contrary I doubt not to say that this is the very Doctrine of the Church of England Let me therefore exhort all of you to be followers of Peace to premote publick Unity and Concord as much as is possible to study to be quiet and mind your own business to be more concerned for your Country and Nation than the Interest of any single Man in it heartily to submit to the Government and not only so but to thank God for the Blessings you enjoy under it and most earnestly to pray for the Continuance of them Lastly Never to espouse any Party or Faction against the Government nor ever to be driven away from the Communion of the Church of which you have always professed your selves Members by any of the pretences which some warm Men may suggest to you This I dare venture to say how uneasie soever some of you now may be in joining with our Prayers you will at last be ten times more uneasie in separating from us For Faction has no bounds and God knows whither it will lead a Man at last Were there nothing else but the Heat and Turbulency the Passion and Peevishness the bitter Zeal and Uncharitableness that the being of a Party doth naturally ingage Men in I say were there nothing else but this No Man that consults the peace of his own mind would for any consideration leave the publick Communion and espouse the cause of a separate Interest But there are worse Consequences than these and I pray God we may never feel them And now I have done with my Exhortation And I have spoke my thoughts very freely to you And I hope you will receive what I have said with the same kindness that I meant it And truly I have no reason to doubt of it after so long an experience as I have had of your Civility and Candor Indeed during all the time I have been among you which hath been now near sixteen Years I have been so kindly treated by you and have received so many Testimonies of your Good-will that I cannot but take this Opportunity of publickly acknowledging my Obligations to you and returning you my Solemn Thanks for Them I cannot indeed say that I have done my Duty as I ought and I heartily beg of God to forgive all my Defects But I have this satisfaction that I have sincerely endeavoured in all my Preaching to instruct you in the true Doctrine of the Gospel and to teach you the right way that leads to Salvation And I am so certain that I have not been mistaken my self nor mis-led you in that matter that I dare with Confidence address my self to you in some of the words of the Apostle which do immediately follow after my Text Viz. Those things which you have learned and received and heard from me do and the God of Peace shall be with you I shall ever bless God for that Providence of his which placed me among you and as I shall always and do earnestly desire all your Prayers for me so I shall always heartily pray for you that God would guide and prosper you that his good Providence would always watch over you for good that he would bestow upon you and your Children after you all sorts of Blessings needful and convenient for you and especially that he would deliver you from every evil work and preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom This God of his infinite Mercy grant c. SERMON X. Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal IN THE Abbey-Church at Westminster On the 5th of November 1691. Rom. x. 2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge THese are St. Paul's words and he spoke them of the Jews those unbelieving Jews that were so tenacious of the Traditions of their Fathers and so utterly averse to any Reformation of Religion That though it appeared by undeniable evidence that Christ Jesus was by God sent into to the World for that purpose yet did they to the last stand out in their opposition of him and his Gospel even to the final rejection of their Nation To these People doth St. Paul in this Chapter express a great Compassion heartily wishing and praying for their Conversion Brethren saith he in the first verse my hearty desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved That is that they may come to the knowledge of the Truth in Christ Jesus and by that means obtain everlasting Salvation And one reason why he was thus concerned for them he gives in the words following which are the words I have read unto you For I bear them Record saith he that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge It was a great motive to him to be concerned for their happiness that they were Zealous for Religion though he knew at the same time that the Religion they were then so Zealous of was not the right Religion nor did the Zeal they shewed for it proceed from right Principles According to the account I have now given of this Passage Three things we may take notice of from it viz. I. The Apostles approving and tacitly commending that Zeal which his Country-men expressed for Religion II. His meek and charitable behaviour towards them even when their Zeal for Religion was very faulty and blameable III. His discovery of the faultiness of their Zeal which lay in this that it was not according to knowledge These Three things I shall take for the Heads of my following Discourse upon this Text and shall afterwards make such Application of it as the Business of this Day calls for I. First I desire it may be observed That Zeal of God in general that is a hearty and passionate concernment for Religion The Apostle here finds no fault with On the contrary he approves it as a commendable thing For you see he represents it as a piece of virtue in his Country-men and speaks it to their commendation that they had a zeal of God I bear them record saith he that they have a zeal of God As much as to say that he owned they had that good quality and they were to be commended for it and for that reason he both wisheth them well and affectionately prayeth for them That which
are made it should be at their Peril if they transgressed them supposing Magistrates did their Duty And all this we say is very consistent with that Tenderness and Charity that all Christians and even Magistrates themselves in their private Capacity do owe to mis-perswaded erroneous Consciciences And then Secondly it is to be remembred that that Kindness and Tenderness to mistaken Zealots which we are speaking of from the Text is not to be expressed to all alike but to some more to some less to some perhaps in no degree at all according as the nature and quality of their Errors are and according as the Men that are guilty of them may more or less or not at all be thought to have a real Zeal of God and to act out of Principles of Conscience Thus for instance In the First place Those that set up for Patrons of Atheism or Epicurism that make it their business in their Conversation to expose all Religion and to bring it into contempt that ridicule the Professors of it as a company of easie credulous Men that make no Conscience of blaspheming God and all things Sacred as occasion is given them Why these Men may have Zeal enough for their Opinions and we find that they often have a great deal too much But are such to be treated with that sort of Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of No by no means For they are quite out of the bounds of my Text They have a Zeal indeed but it is not a Zeal for God but for the Devil and the Interests of his Kingdom And if one were to measure the greatness of Crimes by the mischief they do to humane Society I should think that this sort of People were not to expect so much favour and respect from Mankind as some other Malefactors that yet by our Laws are to pay for their offences at no less a rate than their Lives Again Secondly If there be any Men that under a pretence of Religion do teach or encourage or promote any sort of Vice or Immorality or whose Principles do necessarily lead to debauch Mens Manners in the plain matters of Sobriety Chastity Truth or Justice and the like such kind of People are by no means Objects of that Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of For the Laws of Nature as to moral Virtue and Vice are so plainly writ in every Man's heart that he must be supposed to be an Ill Man that can easily entertain any Principle let it come never so much recommended under the Name of Religion that contradicts them And whatever allowance may in charity be made for a Man's mistakes there is no reason that much should be made for his Wickedness Again Thirdly If there be any Men that whilst they express a great Zeal for the Purity of Religion and exclaim against the Corruptions of it as they term them which are introduced into the Publick Establishment and turn every stone to have all things setled in another Method yet all this while God and their own Hearts know that all this Concernment and Zeal of theirs for Religion though it make a great shew is only pretended and that there is another thing that lies at the bottom that is to say Worldly Interest and Dominion and Power which they hope to compass by such a Regulation of Matters as they desire I say if there be any such Men they are likewise no way concerned in that Compassion my Text speaks of For though they may be very Zealous yet it is a Zeal for their own secular advantages that acts them and not a Zeal of God If such Men could be known instead of being kindly and charitably thought of for their Zeal in Religion the Virtuous part of Mankind would look upon them as the worst of Hypocrites But since God only knows the Hearts of Men all such pretenders to Zeal for Religion must till we know them also be treated according to the Merits of the cause they pretend to be Zealous for But then Fourthly and Lastly All that I have now said is with respect to those that are out of the limits of my Text such as have no Zeal of God though some of them may pretend it But then as for those that really act out of Principles of Conscience and have a real Zeal of God though in a wrong way These are true Objects of our Tenderness and Compassion though yet in different degrees For according as their Principles and Practices do more or less injure our common Christianity or are more or less dangerous to our Government and Constitution in the same proportion the greater or less Tenderness and Indulgence is to be expressed towards them But most of what concerns this matter being already setled by Law I will not be so bold as to meddle in it and therefore I proceed to the Third Head of my Discourse III. The Third thing I told you we might observe from this Text was this The Apostle's tacit Reprehension of the Jewish Zeal upon this account that it was not according to Knowledge The Use I make of this is that from hence we may be able to gather to our selves a true Rule for the governing our Zeal in matters of Religion and likewise for the judging in others what Zeal is commendable and what is not For be our Zeal of God never so great yet if it be not a zeal according to knowledge it is not the right Christian Zeal And though we see others never so fervent and vehement in pursuing a Religious Cause and that too out of Conscience yet if this Zeal of theirs be not according to knowledge it is a Zeal that justly deserves to be reproved And though both we and they may for our sincerity in Gods Cause expect some Allowances both from God and Man yet neither they nor we can justifie it either to God or Man that we are thus foolishly and ignorantly Zealous I wish this mark of right Zeal that it ought to be according to knowledge were more considered For it seems not often to be thought on by those that are most zealous in their way of what perswasion soever they be This same business of Knowledge is a thing that is most commonly forgot to be taken in as an ingredient or Companion of Zeal in most sort of Professors For as the World goes those Men are generally found to be the greatest Zealots who are most notoriously Ignorant Whereas true Zeal should not only proceed from true Knowledge but should also be always accompanied with it and governed by it But what is it to have a Zeal according to Knowledge What doth this Character of justifiable right Zeal contain in it I answer it must at least contain in it these five following things First To have a Zeal according to Knowledge doth import that we be not mistaken as to the matter of our Zeal that it be a good Cause that we are zealous about And
since it is Zeal for God that we are here speaking of it must be something wherein our Duty is concerned that must be the object of our Zeal So that a right Zeal of God implies that we do so well inform our selves of the Nature of our Religion as not to pretend a Religious Zeal for any thing that is not a part of our Religion If our Zeal for God be as it should be it must certainly express it self in matters that are good about such objects as God hath made to be our Duty It is good saith St. Paul to be always zealously affected in a good matter But if we mistake in our Cause if we take that for good which is evil or that for evil which is good here our Zeal is not according to Knowledge Secondly as the object of our Zeal must be according to Knowledge so also the Principle from whence our Zeal proceeds must be according to Knowledge also That is to say We must have solid and rational grounds to proceed upon in our concernment for any thing such as will not only satisfie our selves but all others that are unbyassed In a word such as we can justifie to all the World If it be every Man's Duty as St. Peter tells us it is to be ready to give an Answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him Then I am sure it is much more every Man's Duty to be able to give a reason of the Zeal that is in him Because this business of a Man's Zeal doth more affect the Publick and is of greater Concernment to it than what a Man 's private Faith or Hope is But yet how little is this considered by many zealous Men among us Some are zealous for a point to serve an Interest or a Faction But this is not to be owned as the ground and reason of Zeal for indeed if it should it would not be allowed of Others are zealous for no other reason but because they find their Teachers or those they most converse with are so They follow the common Cry and examine no more of the matter Others indeed have a Principle of Zeal beyond all this For they are â—â—ved from within to stand up for this or the other Cause they have Impulses upon their minds which they cannot resist But that in truth is no more a justifiable ground of any Man's Zeal than either of the former For if these Motions and Impulses that they speak of be from God there will certainly be conveyed along with them such Reasons and Arguments for the thing that they are to be zealous about as will if they be declared satisfie and convince all other reasonable Men as well as themselves For it is a ridiculous thing to imagine that God at this day doth move or impel Men in any other way than what is agreeable to the Reason of Mankind and the Rule of his holy Word And if the Man's Zeal can be justified by either of these there is no need of vouching Inspirations for it Thirdly As the Zeal which is according to knowledge hath a good matter for its object and proceeds from a right Principle So it is also regular as to the Measures of it He that hath it is careful that it do not exceed its due Bounds as the Ignorant Zeal often doth but he distinguisheth between the several objects he is zealous for and allows every one of them just so great a Concernment as the thing is worth and no more If the thing be but a small matter he is but in a small measure concerned for it If it be of greater moment he believes he may be allowed to be the more earnest about it But he looks upon it as a rash and foolish thing and an effect of great ignorance or weakness to be hot and eager for all things alike We should account him not many degrees removed from a Child or an Ideot that upon the cut of a Finger should as passionately complain and cry out for help as if he had broken a Limb. Why just the same Folly and Childishness it is to make a mighty bustle about small matters which are of no consequence in which neither Religion nor the Publick Peace are much concerned as if indeed our Lives and Souls were in danger It therefore becomes all prudent and sober Men to take care that their Zeal do not spend it self in little things that they be not too passionate and earnest and vehement for things that are not worth much contending for If we lay a greater weight upon a Cause than it will bear and shew as much warmth and passion for small matters as if the Fundamentals of our Faith were at stake we are zealous indeed but not according to Knowledge Fourthly The Zeal that is according to knowledge is always attended with hearty Charity It is not that bitter Zeal which the Apostle speaks of which is accompanied with Hatred and Envy and perverse Disputings But it is kind and sociable and meek even to Gainsayers It is that Wisdom which is from above that is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated It is a Zeal that loves God and his Truth heartily and would do all that is possible to bring Honour and Advancement to them But at the same time it loveth all Men. And therefore in all things where it expresses it self it purely consults the Merits of the Cause before it but lets the Persons of Men alone It is a certain Argument of an Ignorant and ungoverned Zeal when a Man leaves his Cause and his Concernment for God's Glory and turns his Heat upon those that he has to deal with when he is peevish and angry with Men that differ from him When he is not contented to oppose Arguments to Arguments and to endeavour to gain his point by calm Reasoning but he flies out into Rage and Fury and when he is once transported herewith he cares not what undecent bitter Reflections he makes upon all those that have the Fortune to be of a different side But in these Cases Men would do well to remember that the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God as the Apostle expresses it All this kind of behaviour favours of the Wisdom of this World which is Earthly and Sensual and Devilish Fifthly and lastly Another inseparable Property of Zeal according to Knowledge is That it must pursue lawful Ends by lawful Means must never do an Ill thing for the carrying the best Cause This St. Paul hath laid down as a Rule to be eternally observed among Christians when in the third of the Romans he declares that their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Be therefore our Point never so good or never so weighty yet if we use any dishonest unlawful Arts for the gaining of it that is to say If we do any thing which is either in it self Evil and appears
to be so by the natural Notices of Mankind or which the Laws of our Holy Religion do forbid I say in all such Instances we are Transgressors And though our Cause be very good and our Ends very allowable yet since the Means by which we would accomplish those Ends are unwarrantable the whole Action though proceeding from never so much Zeal for God is very Bad For true Zeal as it always supposeth a right Information of Judgment as to the matter of it so likewise it supposeth that a Man should act in honest ways and endeavour to attain his ends by lawful means And thus have I laid before you the Properties and Characters of that Zeal which is according to knowledge which was the third and last thing I proposed upon this Text and I pray God we may always remember them whenever we have occasion to express a Zeal for any thing especially in matters of Religion All that remains now is to make some brief Application of my Text with reference to the business of the Day These words as I told you were spoke of the Jews But the Character here given of them doth so well fit a sort of Men whose fiery Zeal for God and their Religion gave occasion to the Solemnity of this Day that it looks as if it were made for them It is the Bigots of the Church of Rome that I mean to whom we must do the same right that St. Paul here did his Countrymen We must bear them Record that they have a Zeal of God but not according to Knowledge Zealous they are sufficiently as the Jews were no body doubts of it But as for their Zeals being according to knowledge there is great reason to doubt they are as faulty in that point as St. Paul's Countrymen were Indeed if you were to draw the comparison between the Jewish and Popish Zealots as to all the several particulars that our Saviour and St. Paul take notice of as Instances of blind Zeal in the former You would find in all those particulars both their Zeals to be much of a piece not only as to the Fervour but as the Blindness of them Was it an instance of Ignorant Zeal in the Jews that they set up their Traditions to the disparagement of the Law of God I pray who are those that disparage the Holy Scriptures by setting their Traditions upon an equal foot with them Were the Jews to be blamed for that they were so zealous for their old Religion as to oppose that Reformation of it which our Lord Jesus endeavoured to introduce among them because they thought it was an Innovation I pray who are those who upon that very ground oppose all Reformation at this Day though yet the wisest and best Men among themselves are sufficiently sensible that there are great Corruptions both in their Doctrine and Worship Was it a fault in the Jewish Zeal that it placed Religion too much in Ceremonies and Formalities in washing Cups and Platters in tithing Mint and Cummin and the like to the neglect of the weightier matters of the Law Justice and Mercy and Faith I pray wherein is Image-worship Invocation of Saints Penances Pilgrimages the use of Reliques Holy Water c. I say wherein are these things better than those And yet we know who they are that lay so great a stress upon these and such other things that it may be truly said a great part of their Religion is made up of them It would not be difficult to run the parallel between the Zeals of the two Religions through several more Instances But it is an unpleasant Argument and therefore I will pursue it no farther Only one instance more of the Jewish Zeal I must not pass by because it comes up so fully to the business of this Day So zealous were they for their Religion that they did not care what sort of means they made use of for the promoting of it were they never so wicked and unnatural Our Saviour they hunted to Death with false Witnesses Stephen they stoned out of pure zeal in a popular tumult Forty of them solemnly bound themselves under a Curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed St. Paul But all this and a great deal more our Saviour had foretold they would do when he told his Apostles that the time would come when whosoever killed them should think that he did God good service A Blessed way of doing God service this is to act such wicked inhumane things as these But such inhumane things as these doth a Blind Zeal for Religion sometimes put Men upon And that it doth so we cannot have a greater proof except what I have already mentioned than the practices of the zealous Men of the Church of Rome How many unlawful Arts have they used to subject all the Christian World to their Lord and Master How many Forgeries for this purpose have they been the Authors of and maintained them afterwards How many disturbances have they given to the Peace of Christendom in the most unjust and unnatural ways for the Advancement of the Papal Cause It was out of Zeal for Gods Service and the Interest of Holy Church that so many Princes have been Excommunicated and Deposed that so many Tumults and Rebellions have been raised that so many Crusados for the extirpating Hereticks have been sent out By which and such like means it may justly be computed that as much Christian Blood has been shed for the establishing Popery as it now stands nay and a great deal more than ever was during all the times of the Heathen Persecutions for the supporting of Paganism But if there were no other instance extant in the World to shew what is to be expected from a blind Zeal especially a blind Popish Zeal for Religion that instance which the deliverance of this Day doth give us occasion to mention would be alone sufficient to inform us When for no other end but for the Advancement of Popery and the rooting out that Pestilent Heresie of the Reformation which infested these Northern Climates a Company of Popish Zealots entered upon the most Barbarous and Inhumane Project that ever was undertaken by Men even neither better nor worse than the destroying the King and Parliament at one blow and had put all things in such a readiness in order thereunto that they certainly had effected it as on this Day had not their Conspiracy been detected in a wonderful manner But thanks be to God their designs then and ever since have been defeated and some of them even miraculously and we trust in the Mercies of God that they will ever be so God hath been wonderfully Gracious to us in the Preservation of our Church and Religion from Popish attempts to destroy it ever since it was setled among us How many Plots and Conspiracies were laid in the time of the Glorious Q. Elizabeth to put an end to her Life and with it to our reformed establishment
Article of Faith and every Man that doth not believe just as he doth must streight be a Heretick for not doing so How can it be expected but we must wrangle eternally It were heartily to be wished that Christians would consider that the Articles of Faith those things that God hath made necessary by every one to be believed in order to his Salvation are but very few and they are all of them so plainly and clearly set down in the Scripture that it is impossible for any sincere honest-minded Man to miss of the true sense of them And they have farther this Badge to distinguish them from all other Truths that they have an immediate influence upon Men's Lives a direct Tendency to make Men Better whereas most of those things that make the matter of our Controversies and about which we make such a noise and clamour and for which we so bitterly censure and Anathematize one another are quite of another nature They are neither so clearly revealed or propounded in the Scripture but that even good Men through the great difference of their Parts Learning and Education may after their best Endeavours vary in their Sentiments about them Nor do they at all concern a Christian Life but are matters of pure Notion and Speculation So that it cannot with any reason be pretended that they are Points upon which Men's Salvation doth depend It cannot be thought that God will be offended with any Man for his Ignorance or Mistakes concerning them And if not if a Man may be a good Christian and go to Heaven whether he holds the right or the wrong side in these matters for God's sake why should we be angry with any one for having other Opinions about them than we have Why should we not rather permit Men to use their Vnderstandings as well as they can and where they fail of the Truth to bear with them as God himself without question will than by stickling for every unnecessary Truth destroy that Peace and Love and Amity that ought to be among Christians The second thing I would recommend is a great Simplicity and Purity of Intention in the pursuit of Truth and at no hand to let Passion or Interest or any Self-end be ingredient into our Religion The practice of this would not more conduce to the discovery of Truth than it would to the promoting of Peace For it is easie to observe that it is not always a pure Concernment for the Truth in the Points in Controversie that makes us so zealous so fierce and so obstinate in our Disputes for or against them but something of which that is only the Mask and Pretence some By-ends that must be served some Secular Interest that we have espoused which must be carried on We have either engaged our selves to some Party and so its Interests right or wrong must be promoted Or we have taken up an Opinion inconsiderately at the first and appeared in the favour of it and afterward our own Credit doth oblige us to defend it Or we have received some Slight or Disappointment from the Men of one Way and so in pure pet and revenge we pass over to their Adversaries Or it is for our gain and advantage that the Differences among us be still kept on foot Or we desire to get our selves a Name by some great Atchievements in the Noble Science of Controversies Or we are possessed with the Spirit of Contradiction Or we delight in Novelties Or we love to be singular These are the things that too often both give birth to our Controversies and also nourish and foment them If we would but cast these Beams out of our eyes we should both see more clearly and certainly live more peaceably But whilst we pursue base and sordid Ends under the pretence of maintaining Truth we shall always be in Errour and always in Contention Let us therefore quit our selves of all our prepossessions let us mortifie all our Pride and Vain-glory our Passion and Emulation our Covetuousness and Revenge and bring nothing in the World to our Debates about Religion but only the pure Love of Truth and then our Controversies will not be so long and they will be more calmly and peaceably managed and they will redound to the greater good of all Parties And this I dare say farther to encourage you to labour after this Temper of Mind That he that comes thus qualified to the Study of Religion though he may not have the luck always to light on the Truth yet with all his Errours be they what they will he is more acceptable to God than the Man that hath Truth on his side yet takes it up or maintains it to serve a turn He that believes a Falshood after he hath used his sincere endeavours to find the Truth is not half so much a Heretick as he that professeth a Truth out of evil Principles and prostituteth it to unworthy Ends. The third Rule is Never to quarrel about Words and Phrases but so long as other Men mean much-what the same that we do let us be content though they have not the luck to express themselves so well I do not know how it comes to pass whether through too much heat and eagerness of disputing that we do not mind one another's Sense or whether through too much love to our own manner of Thinking or Speaking that we will not endure any thing but what is conveyed to us in our own Methods But really it often happens that most bitter Quarrels do commence not so much from the different Sense of the contending Parties concerning the things they contend about as from the different Terms they use to express the same Sense and the different Grounds they proceed upon or Arguments they make use of for the proof of it For my part I verily believe that this is the Case of several of those Disputes in which we Protestants do often engage at this day I do not think in many Points our Differences are near so wide as they are sometimes represented but that they might easily be made up with a little allowance to Men's Words and Phrases and the different Methods of deducing their Notions It would be perhaps no hard matter to make this appear in those Controversies that are so much agitated among us concerning Faith and Justification and the necessity of good Works to Salvation and Imputed Righteousness and the difference between Vertue and Grace with some others if this were a fit place for it The Difference that is among us as to these Points is possibly not much greater than this That some Men in these Matters speak more clearly and fully others more imperfectly and obscurely Some Men convey their sense in plain and proper words others delight in Metaphors and do perhaps too far extend the Figurative Expressions of Scripture Some reason more closely and upon more certain Principles others possibly may proceed upon weaker Grounds and misapply Texts of Scripture and discourse
more loosly But both Parties especially the more moderate of both seem to drive at much-what the same thing though by different ways as appears from this That being interrogated concerning the Consequences of their several Opinions they generally agree in admitting or rejecting the same But Fourthly Another thing that would make for Peace is this Never to charge upon Men the Consequences of their Opinions when they expresly disown them This is another thing that doth hugely tend to widen our Differences and to exasperate Men's Spirits one against another when having examin'd some Opipinion of a Man or Party of Men and finding very great Absurdities and evil Consequences necessarily to flow from it we presently throw all those into the Dish of them that hold the Opinion as if they could not own the one but they must necessarily own the other Whereas indeed the Men we thus charge may be so innocent in this matter that they do not in the least dream of such Consequences or if they did they would be so far from owning them that they would abhor the Opinion for their sakes To give you an Instance or two in this matter It is a Doctrine maintained by some That God's Will is the Rule of Justice or That every thing is therefore just or good because God wills it Those that are concerned to oppose this Doctrine do contend that if this Doctrine be true it will necessarily follow that no Man can have any Certainty of the Truth of any one Proposition that God hath revealed in Scripture because say they his Eternal Faithfulness and Veracity are by this Doctrine made Arbitrary Things Granting now that this can by just consequence be made out yet I dare say those that hold the aforesaid Doctrine would be very angry and had good reason so to be if they were told that they did not no nor could not upon their Principles certainly believe the Scripture Some Men think that they can with demonstrative Evidence make out that the Doctrine of God's Irrespective Decrees doth in its Consequences overthrow the whole Gospel that it doth destroy the nature of Rewards and Punishments cuts the very Sinews of Men's Endeavours after Vertue makes all Laws Promises Exhortations perfectly idle and insignificant things and renders God the most unlovely Being in the World Now supposing all this to be true yet it would be a most unjust and uncharitable thing to affirm of any that believe that Doctrine many of whom are certainly pious and good Men that they do maintain any such impious and blasphemous Opinions as those that are now mentioned The Sum of all is that a Man may believe a Proposition and not believe all that follows from it Not but that all the Deductions from a Proposition are equally true and equally credible with the Proposition from whence they are deduced But a Man may not so clearly see through the Proposition as to discern that such Consequences are really deducible from it So that we are at no hand to charge them upon him unless he do explicitely own them If this Rule was observ'd our Differences would not make so great a noise nor would the Errours and Heterodoxes maintained among us appear so monstrous and extravagant and we should spare a great many hard words and odious appellations which we now too prodigally bestow upon those that differ from us The Fifth Rule is To abstract Men's Persons from their Opinions and in examining or opposing these never to make any reflections upon those This is a thing so highly reasonable that methinks no Pretender to Ingenuity should ever need to be called upon to observe it For it seems very absurd and ridiculous in any Argument to meddle with that that nothing concerns the Question But what do Personal Reflections concern the Cause of Religion Whatever it may be to the Reputation of an Opinion I am sure it is nothing to the Truth of it that such or such a Man holds it And truly if Men would leave this Impertinence we might hope for a better Issue of our Religious Debates But whilst Men will forsake the Merits of the Cause and unmanly fall to railing and disparaging Men's Persons and scraping together all the ill that can be said of them they blow the Coals of Contention they so imbitter and envenom the Dispute that it rankles into incurable Distastes and Heart-burnings Christians would do well to consider that these mean Arts of exposing Men's Persons to discredit their Opinions are very much unworthy the Dignity of their Profession and most of all mis-becoming the Sacredness and Venerableness of the Truth they contend for And besides no Cause stands in need of them but such an one as is extremely bassled and desperate and even then they are the worst Arguments in the World to support it for quick-sighted Men will easily see through the Dust we endeavour to raise and those that are duller will be apt to suspect from our being so angry and so waspish that we have but a bad Matter to manage We should consider that Men's Persons are sacred things that whatever power we have to judge of their Opinions we have no Authority to judge or censure Them That to bring Them upon the Stage and there throw Dirt on them is highly rude and uncivil and an Affront to Humane Society and the most contrary thing in the World to Christian Charity which is so far from enduring Reproaches and Evil-speaking that it obliges us to cover as much as we can all the Faults and even the very Indiscretions of others The Sixth and last thing I shall recommend to you as an Expedient of Peace is a vigorous Pursuit of Holiness Do but seriously set your selves to be good do but get your Hearts deeply affected with Religion as well as your Heads and then there is no fear but you will be all the Sons of Peace We may talk what we will but really it is our not practising our Religion that makes us so Contentious and Disputatious about it It is our Emptiness of the Divine Life that makes us so full of Speculation and Controversie Was but That once firmly rooted in us these Weeds and Excrescencies of Religion would presently dry up and wither we should loath any longer to feed upon such Husks after we once came to have a Relish of that Bread Ah! How little Satisfaction can all our pretty Notions and fine-spun Controversies yield to a Soul that truly hungers and thirsts after Righteousness How pitifully flatly and insipidly will they taste in comparison of the Divine Entertainments of the Spiritual Life Were we but seriously taken up with the Substantials of our Religion we should not have leisure for the Talking Disputing Divinity we should have greater matters to take up our Thoughts and more profitable Arguments to furnish out our Discourses So long as we could busie our selves in working out our Salvation and furthering the Salvation of others we should think it
contribute nothing But this I say supposing the vertuous Man in equal circumstances with others supposing him to stand upon the same level and to enjoy the same fortuitous hits and external concurrences that they do and he â—hall by many odds have the advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thriving and improving in â—he World in any condition of life whatsoever So that so far as the getting of Riches depends upon Humane endeavours so far as it is an Art and falls under Precepts and Directions no Man alive can propose a better expedient in order thereto than a serious practice of Religion To make this good let it be considered that as to the means that do in a more direct and immediate manner influence upon the getting or improving an Estate I speak of general means such as are of use in all conditions of life for to meddle with the Mysteries of any Particular Art or Trade is not my purpose as indeed it is beyond my skill as to such means as these I say none can prescribe more effectual than these four 1. Prudence in administring our Affairs 2. Diligence in that Vocation wherein God hath placed us 3. Thrift and good Husbandry 4. Keeping a good Correspondence with those in whose power it is to hinder or promote our Affairs If now it do appear that Godliness doth highly improve a Man in all these four respects if it can be shewed that all these Fruits naturally grow and thrive better in a Religious Soil than any other it will evidently follow that supposing these above named means do indeed contribute to the making of a Fortune and if they do not no Man knows what doth and we strangely abuse our Friends and our Children when upon that account we recommend them to them it follows I say that a life of Godliness is a mighty advantage to a Man for the purposes I am speaking of And first of all it will be easie to shew that Godliness doth above all things tend to make a man wise and prudent skilful and dexterous in the management of his Affairs of what nature soever For it doth very much clear and improve a Mans understanding not only by a certain natural efficacy it hath as I shall shew hereafter to purifie the Blood and Spirits upon which the perfection of our Intellectual Operations doth exceedingly much depend but also by dispelling those adventitious clouds that arise in the discerning faculty from the noisome Fumes of Lust and Passion All Vice in the very nature of it depraves and distorts a mans judgment fills our minds with Prejudices and false Apprehensions of things and no Man that is under the dominion of it can possibly have such a free use of his Reason as otherwise he might for he will commonly see things not as they are in themselves but in those disguises and false colours which his Passion puts upon them Upon which account he cannot avoid but he will be often imposed upon and commit a thousand errours in the management of his Affairs which the vertuous Man whose Reason is pure and untinctur'd is secured from It cannot be imagined that either he should foresee events so clearly or spy opportunities so sagaciously or weigh things so impartially or deliberate so calmly or transact so cautiously as the Man that is free from those manifold prepossessions which his mind is fraught with We see this every day verified in Men of all Ranks and Conditions of all Callings and Employments What a multitude of inconveniences as to matter of dealing between Man and Man doth an intemperate Appetite betray Men to How silly and foolish is the most shrewd Man when Wine hath gotten into his head There is none so simple in his Company but supposing him to be sober and to have designs upon him he shall be able to over-reach him What a World of Advantages doth the Angry Man give to him he deals with by the hastiness and impatience of his Spirit How often doth a Man do that in the fury and expectancies of a Lust for which when his Ardours are over he is ready to bite his Nails for very vexation It is thus more or less with all kind of Vices they craze a Man's head and cast a mist before his Eyes and make him often lose himself in those very ways wherein he pretends to be most skilful So that it cannot be denied that Vertue is of a singular use in all matters wherein we have occasion to make use of our Reason and doth secure us from a multitude of indiscretions which without it we should unavoidably commit But secondly Godliness is also an excellent means to secure a man's diligence in the discharge of his Calling and Employment which is also a matter of very great consequence in order to our thriving in the World for it is the diligent hand that maketh rich and the man that is diligent in his business that shall stand before Kings as Solomon tells us Now the Obligations that Religion layeth upon us to be careful in this point are far stronger than what can arise from any other respect or consideration soever for it obligeth us to mind our Business not only for our own but for God's sake It chargeth the matter upon our Consciences and represents it to us as a part of that service we owe to our Creator and upon the due performance of which no loss than the everlasting welfare of our Souls doth depend for it assures us that he that will call us to account for every idle Word will much more do so for the idle expence of our Time and the abuse and not improvement of those Talents that he hath entrusted us with So that though we had no worldly inducement to make us diligent in our Callings though we were sure we should suffer no prejudice in our Temporal Affairs by Idleness and the neglect of our Business the fear of which yet is the only principle that puts Worldly Men upon action nevertheless we were infinitely concerned not to be slack or negligent in this matter in regard it is a point that will be so severely exacted of us in the other World I know but one Objection that can be made against this Discourse and it is this that what engagements soever Religion lays upon us to the careful spending of our time yet it s own Exercises Prayer and Reading and Meditation take up so great a portion of it which might be spent in the works of our ordinary Employment that in effect it rather hinders our attendance on our Business than promotes it But to this it is easily answered that there is no Man so engaged in the World but may if he please make both his Business and his Devotions consist together without prejudicing of either They have very false Apprehensions of Religion that think it obliges us to be always upon our Knees or always poring upon some good Book No we do as truly serve God and perform acts
day render for so doing Thirdly Mens Religion and Christianity are also deeply concerned in this point Works of Charity are so essential to all Religion and more especially to that which we call Christian that without them it is but an empty name in whosoever professes it Let Men pretend what they will let them be never so Orthodox in their belief or regular in their conversation or strict in the performance of those Duties that relate to the worship of God yet if they be hard hearted and uncharitable if God hath given them Wealth and they have not Hearts to do good with it they have no true piety towards God They may have a name to live but they are really dead An unmerciful Christian or a Religious covetous Man are terms that imply a contradiction For the satisfying you of this I shall but need to put these following questions Can that Man be accounted Religious that neither loves God nor his Neighbour Sure he cannot for these two things are the whole of Religion as the Holy Scripture often assures us but now the Covetous Man neither doth the one nor the other His Neighbours he doth not love that is certain for if he did they would find some fruits of it unless this be to be accounted Love James 2.14 c. to give them good words to say to a Brother or a Sister that is naked and destitute of daily food depart in peace be ye warmed and filled when notwithstanding they give them not those things that be needful for the Body But this kind of Love S. James hath long ago declared not to be worth any thing And as for the Love of God another Apostle hath put it out of doubt that the uncharitable Man hath no such thing in him 1 John 3.17 Whoso saith S. John hath this World's good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him cap. 4.20 For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Can he be thought a Religious Man or a true Christian that wants the two main qualifications that go to the making up a Disciple of Christ that is to say Faith and Repentance yet this doth he that is rich in this World but is not rich in good works Good works are the very soul of Faith and it is no more alive without them than the Body is without the Spirit as S. James has expresly told us Jam. 2.26 If we mean that our Faith should avail us any thing it must work or be made perfect by Charity Gal. 5.6 saith S. Paul for though a Man have all faith so that he could remove mountains i. e. though he be so heartily persuaded of the truth of Christ's Religion as in the strength of his belief to be able to work Miracles as was usual in the first times of Christianity yet if he have not charity his Faith is nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 If it be said that the Charity that S. Paul makes so necessary to effectual Faith is not giving Alms but quite another thing for according to him a Man may give all his goods to feed the poor and yet want the Charity that he speaks of I answer it is true a Man may give Alms and very largely and yet want that Charity that S. Paul here so much recommends but then on the other side none can have that Charity that he speaks of but they will certainly express it in Alms and Bounty as they have ability and opportunity So that for all this suggestion Alms and Bounty are absolutely necessary to the Efficacy of Faith if there be opportunity of doing them The plain account of this matter is this S. Paul speaks of Charity with respect to its inward principle in the heart which consists in an universal kindness and good-will to the whole Creation of God and we speak of it with respect to the outward fruits of it in the Life and Conversation which are all sorts of good works especially works of Mercy and Bounty But both these come to the same thing as to our purpose for the one always follows the other whereever there is Charity in the heart it must of necessity shew it self in these kind of actions as there is occasion otherwise the Charity is not true but only pretended for as S. John hath told us He that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth must love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in work and in deed And then as for Repentance Charity and Alms-giving is a necessary ingredient into that also Luke 3.10 11. When S. John Baptist came preaching Repentance unto Israel the people asked him saying what shall we do meaning in what manner they should express their Repentance his answer was this He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do so likewise and suitable to this was the Prophet's advice to the King of Babylon when he exhorteth him to Repentance Dan. 4.27 break off thy sins saith he by righteousness and thy iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor that is evidence thy Repentance by thy Alms-giving and Charity Furthermore can he be either a good Man or a good Christian that lives in the habitual neglect of that which of all other Vertues God in Scripture seems to set the greatest value upon and contrariwise practiseth that which God hath most particularly declared his hatred and aversion to Yet thus doth he that is not charitable with what he hath So highly acceptable to God are works of Mercy and Charity that they are declared to be the sacrifices with which he is well pleased Heb 13.8 the things in which he doth delight Jerem. 9.24 and blessed and happy are they pronounced that do them Pro. 22.9 cap. 14.21 for hereby Men become the children of God Luke 6.35 and entitled to his more especial care and protection Ps 41.1 c. nay so dear do they render a Man to his Maker that the wise Son of Sirach scrupled not to recommend the practice of them in these terms Be thou saith he a Father to the Fatherless Ecclus. 4.10 and instead of a Husband unto their Mother so shalt thou be as the Son of the Most High and he shall love thee more than thy own Mother doth On the other side if we will believe the Scripture there is nothing more odious to God than the contrary qualities and practises The love of money which is the foundation of all uncharitableness 1 Tim. 6.10 is in Scripture called the root of all evil as certainly the greatest evils and mischeifs in the World do often take their beginning from thence Those that are covetous are styled by the name of Idolaters Eph. 5.5 than which no more hateful appellation can be given to a Man in the Sacred Language It is said
great things and in which way soever of them we lay out our selves we serve excellent ends of Charity But there is another point of useful publick Charity which though the occasion of this meeting hath nothing to do with it yet the present necessity of the thing doth oblige me seriously to recommend to you There are few I believe in this City either ignorant or insensible of the extreme numerousness of Beggars in our Streets and unless care be taken their number is likely to increase for this seems to be a growing evil I dare not lay the fault of this upon the defectiveness of our Laws nor dare I say that the provisions made for the Poor are incompetent or disproportionable to the number of them for perhaps the usual publick Taxes and private Free-will Offerings discreetly managed would go a great way towards the curing this evil supposing the richer Parishes to contribute to the maintaining the poorer But here is the misery we do not sufficiently distinguish between our poor nor take care to make provisions for them according to their respective necessities There are some that by reason either of old age or evil accidents are perfectly unable to earn a livelihood for themselves or to be any way useful to the publick except by their Prayers and their good examples and to see such go a begging is a shame to our Christianity and a reproach to our Government There are others that are fit to labour and might prove useful Members of the Common-wealth many ways if they were rightly managed now the True Charity to these is not to relieve them to the encouragement of their idleness but to employ them to put them into such a way that they may both maintain themselves and help towards the maintaining of others and if they refuse this let them suffer for their folly for there is no reason that those should eat that will not work if they be able A necessity therefore there is if ever this scandalous publick nusance of common begging be redressed that these four things be taken care of 1. That those that cannot work be maintained without begging 2. That those that can work and are willing have such publick provisions made that they may be employed in one way or other according as they are capable and every one receive fruits of his labour proportionable to his industry 3. That those that can work and will not be prosecuted according to the Laws as Rogues and Vagrants and Pests of the Kingdom And lastly after such publick provisions are made for the maintaining both sorts of Poor that are objects of Charity that is the helpless and those that endeavour to help themselves that all persons be exhorted and directed to put their private Charity in the right Channel wholly withdrawing it from the lazy and the lusty Beggars lest they be thereby encouraged in their infamous course of life and giving it to those who by publick order shall be recommended to them These things I hope I may without offence recommend to the Wisdom and Care of the Government of this Honourable City since there are both Heads enough to contrive the particular ways of curing these evils and Hands enough that will be open to contribute what is needful to so useful a work Certain it is the thing is practicable since it hath been and is practised in some Towns of this Nation and in several beyond the Seas And that it is needful there is none that hath any true sense of Charity which consists as much in taking care to prevent the miseries and necessities of Mankind as in relieving them there is none that hath any regard to the Reputation of our Religion or the Honour and good Government of this City or Kingdom but must needs acknowledge It is one of the great Glories of this City that as they have been always faithful and prudent in the management of those Publick Charities that they have been entrusted with so have they been very ready to encrease and to add to them And God without doubt hath blessed them the more for this very thing as indeed the best atonement that any people can make for the many sins that the place is guilty of is the Sacrifice of Alms and Charity And I hope that which condemned Sodom to wit that there were not ten righteous men found in it that is Men that were of a Publick Spirit that were truly Liberal and Bountiful and Charitable for that is an usual Notion of Righteousness in the Old Testament and there are some passages in this History which make it probable that it may be the notion of it here I say that very thing it is to be hoped hath and will preserve this City of ours because as far as we can gather there are in it many times ten such Righteous persons In truth if there were not several good Men among us that by the exemplarity of their lives and their Charity do stand in the gap between the reigning sins of the times and the Judgments of God that threaten us for them it would be a melancholy thing to think what would become of us But so long as God is pleased to continue to us a succession of those that fear God and hate covetousness that make it their business to do good and to serve their generation there is hopes that he will yet continue to bless us And so gracious hath God been to our City and Kingdom in this respect that to the glory of his name be it spoken whatever boasts they of the Church of Rome are wont to make of the Charitableness of their Religion in opposition to the penuriousness of ours and reproach us with the bounty and munificence of our Popish Ancestors and the barrenness of their Protestant Successors yet we may safely affirm that there have been more publick works of Charity done in this City and Kingdom since the Reformation than can be proved to have been done in the same compass of years during all the time that Popery prevailed among us O therefore let us go on to do this Honour to our Religion let us go on by our good works to adorn the doctrine of God that we profess Let us not only equal but labour to exceed the Piety and the Publick-spiritedness of our Forefathers Let every one both Magistrates and People in their several capacities be zealous and vigorous both in consulting in contriving and in acting for the publick good as much as is possible And for your greater incouragement thus to do let it be remembred in the last place that besides the outward advantages both publick and private that we reap by being charitable this is the best course we can take to secure our everlasting Happiness in the World to come For to do good with our Wealth to be rich in good works to be ready to distribute willing to communicate is as the Apostle in the Text tells us the way to lay
ver 4. He sheweth favour and lendeth ver 5. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor ver 9. Now the Blessedness of such a Man as this as to this Life is describ'd in the five instances following The first of which is A great and happy Posterity thus ver 2. His seed shall be mighty upon earth the generation of the Vpright shall be blessed The second is A Plentiful and an Ample Fortune thus in the third verse Riches and Plenteousness shall be in his house The third is A lasting Fame and Reputation thus again in the third verse His Righteousness remaineth for ever and likewise in the sixth verse He shall be had in everlasting remembrance The fourth is Honour and Power and Dignity even such as shall excite the Envy of the Wicked thus in the ninth verse His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and shall be grieved c. The fifth is Great Safety and Peace in the midst of Dangerous and Troublesome times thus in the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness i. e. Light in the greatest Straits and Difficulties for that is the meaning of Darkness in this place Times of Darkness in the Scripture Language are Evil and Difficult and Dangerous times Now upon account of this Light that ariseth to the Vpright Man in Evil times it comes to pass as it followeth v. 6 7 8. that such a one shall not be moved for ever neither shall he be afraid of evil tidings for his heart is established and he shall not shrink until he see his desire upon his Enemies Or as the Chaldee perhaps better renders it until he see redemption in distress This is the just Analysis of the whole Psalm Now of these several Characters whereby the Pious Man is describ'd I have pitch'd upon that of his Vprightness to give an account of and to recommend to you at this time And of the several Instances of the Blessedness of such a Man I have pitch't upon that of Safety and Peace in the midst of Perillous and Troublesome times These two points I have chosen to entertain you upon as judging them most suitable to the present occasion and to our present circumstances And we find them both join'd together in the words of the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness Here then we have Two things to consider First The Person to whom the Promise here made or the Blessedness here mentioned doth belong It is the Vpright Man Secondly The Promise or the Blessedness it self It is Light in times of Darkness I begin with the Character of the Person to whom this Promise is made He is the Vpright Man or as in our more common Language we express him the Honest Man the Man of Integrity We all know so well what is meant by these words that it would render the thing more difficult to offer Critically to give Light to them As all those General Terms whereby a Man 's whole Duty is exprest in Scripture have their several respects and considerations which difference them one from the other though they be all equally Comprehensive So hath this term of Vprightness That which it immediately and particularly respects is the Goodness of a Man's Principles and the suitableness of his Actions to them Or thus The Conformity of a Man's Mind to the Eternal Rules of Righteousness and the Conformity of his Actions to the Principles of his Mind This is that upon account of which any person is denominated Upright and contrary to this is all Hypocritical and Partial dealings in matters of our Duty So that if we would give the definition of an Vpright Man it should be in such terms as these He is a Man that in all things follows the Dictates of his Conscience Or he is One that makes his Duty the Rule of his Actions Or he is One that always proposeth to himself Righteous Ends and pursues those Ends in Righteous Ways This is the general description of the Vpright Man But for the more lively display of him and the rendring him as more Amiable so more Imitable it will be fit that we represent him a little more particularly under those several Respects and Capacities in which his Uprightness is principally seen and exprest And here we must consider him with respect to God and with respect to Men. Under the former Consideration we are to view his Religion under the latter his Civil Conversation And none ought to be surpriz'd that in the Character of an Vpright Man we take notice of his Religious Carriage towards God For in truth that is a point which is Essentially necessary to Uprightness He saith Solomon that walketh in Vprightness feareth the Lord. Prov. 14.2 Indeed take away Religion and the Fear of God and the Foundation of Vprightness is destroy'd For all the Principles of Conscience and all the Obligation to live up to those Principles is thereby taken away He that hath no sense of God and Religion can never think himself bound to observe any Rules in his Actions and Behaviour but what are subservient to the carrying on his private sensual worldly Interest And consequently whatever is Inconsistent with that be it never so base and vile and injurious he cannot take himself in point of Duty oblig'd to stick at it when he hath the least temptation to it The result of which is That he may commit all the villanies in the World and yet think himself as Innocent and his Actions as Commendable as if he had been never so Honest and Vertuous He therefore that is an Vpright Man hath a serious and hearty sense of God and Religion upon his Spirit and is above all things careful to preserve and increase that sense But then his conduct in this affair is much different from that of ordinary pretenders to Religion For he is a Man that doth not content himself with a mere speculative belief or an outward profession of the Truths of Religion but doth so far impress them on his Heart that they influence his whole Life and Conversation He doth not think it sufficient to be Orthodox in his Opinions or to be a Member of a True Church or to be zealous in maintaining and promoting the right way But he takes care to live as he believes to practise suitably to the prefession he makes As he holds fast the Form of Godliness so he never fails to express the power of it in an Innocent and a Vertuous Life He is a Man that in the whole Conduct of his Religious affairs minds Conscience more than any selfish consideration He takes not up his Principles either out of Humour or Passion to advance his Interest or to please a Party But he believes a thing because it is True and Professeth it because it is his Duty In matters of Religion he hath the indifference of a Traveller whose great concernment is to arrive at his Journeys end but
and assuring them of Eternal Rewards if they would repent I say If they were Witnesses of these things I will appeal to all the World whether they had not greater Means of Conviction offered to them than if any Ghost had appeared to them from the Dead or any particular Miracle had been vouchsafed them for the bringing them over to Vertue and Sobriety But I believe no Body will much doubt of this for indeed the matter will not bear a dispute But here is the Question Whether we that live at this distance from our Saviour have the same Means of Conviction and Whether one now appearing from the dead to us would not be of greater force to persuade us than the standing Revelation of the Gospel as we have it now conveyed to us This therefore leads me to my second Proposition upon this Head which if it can be made out will wholly take away all Controversie in this Matter And it is this That we at this day have as great Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Christ's Revelation and consequently as great Motives from thence to persuade us to reform our Evil Lives as those that Lived in the Times of our Saviour It is true indeed we want the Evidence of Sense in these Matters which they had and upon that account it must be acknowledged that they have the Advantage of us But this we say notwithstanding that if we take all things together and weigh them Impartially we shall find that that Want is abundantly supplied to us in other respects For first of all Our Saviour's Gospel and all the Evidences of it I have been now speaking of were timely and faithfully recorded and are as faithfully transmitted down to us So that though we did not see or hear those things yet we have a certain and exact Account of them and such an Account as was never yet questioned by any Adversaries that lived in those Times when such a Question was most reasonably to be made and such an Account as appears by all the Evidences that a thing of that Nature is capable of to have been written by Eye-witnesses and such Witnesses as were honest undesigning Men and not only so but they sealed with their Blood the Truth of what they reported And this same Account was religiously received by all Christians in all Places without Contradiction in those very Times and was shortly after translated into a Multitude of Languages so that it is scarce possible it should in any Considerable Matter be corrupted And from that Time to this in a continual Succession there have been Men that have suffer'd Martyrdom for the Attestation of it and in the first Ages after Christ when they had the best Opportunities of Examining the Truth of these things many thousands did so Now I say Though acccording to the Ordinary Proverb Seeing be Believing Yet next to Seeing an universal well-grounded Tradition which hath visible Effects attending it hath the most force to gain belief Nay I do not know whether there be so much Difference between the Evidence of the one and the other as one would think at first Sure I am there are many Cases in which we do as firmly believe Matters of Fact upon the Credit of Tradition and the permanent Effects that do accompany it as if we our selves had been present and seen them with our Eyes Which of us for Instance doth make any more doubt of the Story of William the Conquerour his subduing this Kingdom or of Henry the Eighth his casting off the Pope's Supremacy than he doth of the Revolutions that have happned in his own time And yet these Matters of Fact are no better attested than the History of our Saviour and his Miracles and Doctrines But Secondly Though those that lived in our Saviour's time had Evidence of Sense for the Truth of what they believed concerning him and his Doctrine which we have not Yet this is to be considered that they laboured under far greater Prejudices against his Religion than we now do And consequently all that sensible Proof which they had of the Truth of it would not be more effectual for the convincing of them than that Proof we now have though it be less ought in reason to be for the convincing of us They that were the Hearers and Spectators of what our Saviour said and did had mighty and inveterate Prepossessions to struggle with They were educated in a quite Different Religion and so must be supposed to have entertained several Notions and Principles which would very difficultly be rooted out and indeed for the effecting of it there needed little less than an Almighty Power But it is not so with us we by our Education are already disposed and prepared for the receiving Christianity We have no praevious Engagements to alienate our Minds from it nay it is our Interest to be of that Religion rather than any other So that certainly a less Evidence for the Truth of it will be as convincing to us as a much greater would have been to those to whom our Saviour first Preached Nay I am very confident that this thing being duely considered it will appear that our Arguments for Christianity drawn from Tradition will be more convincing to thinking Men among us than those Arguments they had from Sense and Experience could be to them But Thirdly If to what hath been said we add the several Arguments for the Credibility of the Christian Religion which we now have at this distance that they had not nor could have that were our Saviour's Immediate Disciples we shall be satisfied that in point of Evidence we have indeed much the advantage of them We have now several standing proofs of our Religion which they could not have and which are so strong and conclusive that they do more than compensate for the want of that Evidence of Sense which they had and we have not I breifly Instance in these three following First The strange Propagation and Success of our Religion throughout the World and the Means by which it was Effected That a poor despised crucified Person should in a few Years draw all the Roman Empire after him and that without any visible Means except the Goodness of his Cause and the Reasonableness of his Doctrine and the Sincerity and Constancy of his Disciples not in fighting for their Master but in laying down their Lives for him And this against all the Power and all the Arts and Stratagems that the Devil or the Princes of this World could invent to stifle and suppress his Name This is so strong an Argument that this Cause was the Cause of God and that his Providence was particularly concerned in the promoting of it that he must seem little to be sensible either of God or Providence that is not convinced by it If Christianity had been of the same strain that the Religion of Mahomet is had been as well calculated for Mens Lusts and Worldly Interests as that
Pranks have been plaid to serve a Turn or promote a good Cause And whereas his Reason might tell him that this could not be so seeing the Person that appeared to him had both the Countenance and the Voice of his Friend yet that he would get over the Imposture was cunningly carried on and the Surprise and Fright it put him into did so disorder his Judgment that he was not able to distinguish between the True and the Counterfeit But supposing he be convinced that here was no Juggle in the matter but what appeared was a true Spirit or a Ghost if there be any such Yet how shall he know that it was the Ghost of his Friend If he was sure it was he he would give credit to what he reported because of the former experience he had had of his integrity But this he cannot any way be certain of For any thing he knows to the contrary it may be one of those ill-natured Inhabitants of the Air that are so much talked of that make it their Business to disturb the Rest and Quiet of Mankind and take a pleasure in filling their Heads with Fears and Scruples and drawing them to all kind of Superstition He hath heard and read of such And there is no Man of any Persuasion or Religion Jew Turk or Heathen nay all the several sorts of Heathens at this day which are to be found either in the East or the Western Indies and Christians too of all Communions There is none of these but have Stories to tell of Apparitions and Visions for the confirmation of their several Doctrines and Tenents Now that all these Apparitions are to have Credit given to them is absurd because they contradict one another in their Discoveries How therefore can he tell whether this particular Apparition that is made to him ought to be credited or no as to what it declares concerning Religion and the State of the other World In plain English rather than such a Man as we are speaking of will be prevailed upon to quit his dearly-beloved Lusts and Vices he will find Excuses and Reasons a great many why he ought not to believe any thing that is conveyed to him in such a manner as we now suppose Especially if we consider in the Third place What Advantages he will make for his purpose from that very Way that we now think would be most effectual to convert him that is One coming from the Dead Here is an Apparition pretends to be sent upon a particular Message to him from the other World to persuade him to embrace such a Religion and to change his way of Living and threatens him with horrible Punishments of he doth not The very unusualness of the thing will put some Apprehensions into him especially considering his concernment to find out all the ways that can be to elude the Force of the Argument that it is not so convincing doth not carry in it so great Evidence as at first sight there seemed to appear For what Imaginable Reason can be given why he should be dealt with in a way so different from that that the rest of Mankind are The Particularity of the Miracle will give occasion to him to suspect the Truth of what it discovers If his Neighbours and Friends were thus haunted he might think he had reason to be alarmed and to apprehend some danger in that Course of Life he is so much disuaded from But since none in the place where he lives is thus exercised besides himself he cannot satisfie his Reason as to this way of proceeding with him If this Means of Conviction was rational and strong without doubt others would have it afforded to them and be convinced by it as well as he But since no such thing appears as the Apparition it self is unaccountable so are the Arguments and Motives it offers unaccountable also And till he be convinced in the same way and by the same Reasons that other Men are he will continue as he is I represent these things not to shew the weakness or invalidity of such an Argument as we are speaking of but to shew how easily those that have espoused Interests inconsistent with Religion and Christianity may find out Expedients for the avoiding the Force of it But Fourthly and Lastly Let all this go for nothing Let us suppose the Man to be very well satisfied in his own Mind both concerning the matter of Fact and the cogency of the Argument he hath from thence to live after another rate than he hath hitherto done Nay as often as he thinks of this Vision or is asked concerning it he hath the same Sense and makes the same Judgment of it that he did at first though it be many Years after I say supposing all this yet doth it from hence follow That such a Man will be effectually brought over to Vertue and Religion after he hath long pursued a course of sin and resisted the Arguments of the Gospel Alas it is very unlikely How much alarmed soever he was at first yet it is a hundred to one if he be such a Person as we speak of but in time and by degrees the Impressions will wear off and Nature return to its first Course It was the newness and surprizingness of the thing that first wrought upon him but that will not last always After he hath once got over the first Transports and is come again to his usual temper and to his Business and to his Company the Argument though it have the same Force that it had at first yet it grows flat and unaffecting and will have no more effect upon him than the standing Motives of Christianity formerly had Notwithstanding all his first Convictions he will live as tamely under the Bondage and Tyranny of his old reigning Lusts though perhaps not without some checks of Conscience now and then as those that never had such kind of means vouchsafed them for their Conversion And it must needs be thus for when all is done Arguments will still be but Arguments They can persuade but they cannot compel The efficacy of them doth in a great Measure depend upon our Will and Choice especially where they are to combate with strong Passions and Prepossessions Are there not a thousand Persons in our days that are as fully convinced of the Truth of the Christian Revelation and the Necessity of a Holy Religious Life in order to the going to Heaven or avoiding the Pains of Hell as they would be if one should come to them from the Dead Nay more fully perhaps than they would have been by the Testimony of such an Apparition had they wanted the Scriptures And have not the Consciences of these Persons at several times by several means been severely awakened And have they not at these seasons in the most serious manner imaginable made Vows and Resolutions to live a Holy Christian Life And yet we see they continue still unreformed still they are the same sensual
their Judgment or Immoral in their Lives What will these Men be able to say for themselves when they come to appear before the Judge of the World at the great Day of Accounts Will they pretend there was not force enough in the Gospel-evidence to convince them or weight enough in its Motives to reclaim them Ah their own Hearts will give them the Lye They can no longer be able to deceive themselves There will be no Unbelievers no seared Consciences in the other State They will then be clearly convinced that God for his part did all that was necessary nay all that was fit to be done in order to their Salvation but they were resolved to shut their Eyes and harden their Hearts against the gracious Means that were tendred them Oh how will the Rich Man and his five Brethren in Hell rise up in Judgment against these Men For they only refused to hear Moses and the Prophets But these besides them have obstinately refused to hear Christ and his Apostles who brought abundantly greater Light into the World than the former did Much more How will the poor ignorant Heathens rise up in Judgment against them Who were destitute both of Moses and Christ and yet to the shame of Christians it may be spoken have several of them lived better Lives than many of us do May not we justly and sadly apply that Woe which our Saviour pronounced of Chorazin and Bethsaida to Thousands among us Woe unto you Unbelievers Woe unto you O obstinate and irreclaimable Sinners for if the mighty Means of Grace the mighty Evidence of Truth had been afforded to Tyre and Sidon to Sodom and Gomorrha to Mahometans and Pagans that have been afforded unto you they would long ago have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for all these in the day of Judgment than for you God Almighty give us all Grace seriously to consider these things that we may by a timely and hearty closing with his Methods and Designs for our Salvation prevent the dismal Consequences of Infidelity and a Vicious Life that so it may not be our Condemnation at the last day That Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light SERMON VII PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL On the 11th of April 1690. Gal. v. 13. Vse not Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh ANY one that useth to make reflexions upon his own Actions cannot but observe That one of the great occasions of the sins he is guilty of in the course of his Life is the too free use of his lawful Liberty I do not say that any Man doth commit sin by using his lawful Liberty for that would be a kind of contradiction But I say the using our Liberty to the utmost pitch and extent of that which we call lawful is the occasion of a great many sins that would otherwise not have been committed If one should offer to tempt a Man that hath any Sense of Vertue or Religion to do a thing that at the first sight appears sinful or wicked it would certainly be rejected Every one that has any regard to God or Goodness would start at such a Proposal But here is our infelicity A Temptation comes on by degrees And at the first we are ingaged in nothing but what is lawful and honest and accordingly we use that Liberty which Nature and Religion allows us and so we proceed on insensibly in the use of that Liberty till at last we become uncertain whether we have not exceeded the bounds of what is lawful And by this means we are often caught Nay indeed nothing but this could betray well-meaning Persons and such as are vertuously disposed into sin Licitis perimus oumes said a devout Man It is by lawful things that we commonly miscarry With great reason therefore doth St. Paul give this advice in the Text Brethren saith he ye have been called unto Liberty only use not Liberty for an occasion to to the Flesh There is no doubt but the Apostle writ these words upon occasion of and with reference to the great Controversy that was then on foot among Christians touching the Obligation of the Jewish Law Some then thought themselves bound in Conscience to observe all the Precepts of Moses his Law Other Christians thought they were freed by the coming of Christ from all legal Observances The Apostle determines the Case in Favour of these latter and declares that by the Gospel they were called unto Liberty and were free from all the Mosaical Impositions But yet nevertheless he tells them they ought to be careful in the exercise of that Liberty that they do not use it for an occasion to the Flesh That is to say that this Liberty to which they were called should not Minister to any sin That they should not so use it as to be a snare either to themselves or others To themselves by running into licentiousness and taking unlawful Liberties To others either by affrighting the unbelieving Jews from the embracing Christianity or discouraging those that already believed the Gospel in the profession of it This is the strict Sense of the Apostle's words as they come in here in the Text and as they do relate to that occasion upon which he writ them But that sense with reference to that occasion is now out of doors among us Though the general Advice that is here given will eternally be good and useful Nay and always needful to be insisted on in all Ages of the World We have none now that use their Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh as to the point of the Judaical Ceremonies But we have abundance that do use it so as to other Matters Nay as I said before this too free use of our Liberty in lawful things is one of the great Sources and Fountains from whence most of our irregularities do proceed And therefore I do not know how I can entertain you more usefully upon this Text than by endeavouring to give you the best Rules I can for the reducing the Apostle's Exhortation into practice as it doth concern us at this day But that you may see plainly what I drive at I will yet state the Matter a little more particularly Our Case in this World is this The Laws of Vertue and Religion do allow Men all reasonable Liberties in the gratification of their natural Passions and Appetites and in the use and enjoyment of all the good things of this Life But all unreasonable gratifications all excesses and immoderate Liberties are forbidden by Religion and therefore are sinful and criminal If now in all Cases a Man could readily and certainly fix the precise bounds and land-marks of what is reasonable and moderate and what is unreasonable and excessive in the use of his Liberty so as that upon all occasions and in all emergencies he could say within his own Mind Thus far I may lawfully and innocently go in the
of this Probity this Purity of Mind and Heart it would better instruct us in the use of our Liberty and teach us to distinguish between good and evil what is sit to be done and what ought not to be done in all cases and emergencies we are concerned in than all the dry Rules of Casuistical Learning be they never so carefully and accurately laid down When a Man is once arrived to that holy temper of Mind that he heartily loves God and his Neighbour and has such a lively sense of the truth and the excellency of Christ's Religion that he is resolved that that shall influence and govern the whole course of his Life and that he will do all his Actions as much as he can for the honour of our Lord and the advancement of his service in the World There can hardly any particular case occur to such a Man in which he will not have rules and measures ready at hand to steer and direct him in his proceedings Nay this general Principle alone of doing all his actions to the glory of God that is to say to the honour of his Religion and the edification of his Neighbour I say this alone will afford him sufficient light and direction for the government of his Actions in all Contingencies Because there is no Action he can be ingaged in but it is at the first sight discernable whether the doing of it or the not doing of it doth more tend to the honour of his Religion or the good of others That which makes the conduct of a Man's self in this World so nice and difficult a matter and has given occasion to the discussion of so many Cases of Concience about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Actions is this That Men are not throughly honest but halt between God and the World They have a great mind to serve their pleasure and their ambition and their secular ends and yet to serve God too and this puts them upon tampering and trying to reconcile these interests together Whence it comes to pass that the usual Questions that arise about their Actions are not what is best to be done or what is most agreeable to their Duty in this or the other ease But how far they may go in the gratification of such an Appetite or Passion without trangressing the Laws of God How far they may satisfie their covetuous desires without being unjust Whether they may use such arts or tricks in getting or saving without being knavish How far they may drink and not be drunk How far they may gratifie their humour of decking and adorning themselves and yet do no unlawful thing How far they may indulge wantonness and yet be chast Now as I said before such Questions as these are not easy to be resolved nor indeed is the Gospel of Christ so contrived as if it had taken much care whether they were resolved or no. But they are really Cases and Problems that require both Judgment and Learning and likewise the consideration of abundance of particular circumstances to have a good account given of them But now the Man that doth intirely give up himself to the conduct of the Spirit and proposeth nothing to himself in all his Actions but the pure glory of God Such a Man having none of these Worldly sensual designs to serve in his Actions can rarely be supposed to have any of these Questions to put to himself And consequently he can never be at a loss or uncertainty how he is to act for want of a resolution of them much less can he be in danger of transgressing the bounds that God hath fixed to his Actions All the point that such a one hath to consider in any Action is whether will his doing or not doing such an Action better serve the ends of Religion Which will tend most to his own spiritual benefit and the profit of his Neighbour to pursue this design or to let it alone Whether will be more conducive to the Honour of his Lord to gratifie such an Appetite or to deny it satisfaction This I say is the only Question that such a Man has to put to himself and there is no difficulty in giving an Answer to it For there is scarce any case to be put concerning an Action but it is very obvious without an Instructer to find out which side of the case if it be chosen will most minister to the ends of Vertue and Religion and Charity Or if it be not obvious then it is very certain the Man needs not much deliberate about it but may chuse either side indifferently It is a very hard matter oftentimes to determine concerning the Necessity and Obligation of Actions that is whether a Man be bound to do them or no. It is likewise often a hard matter to determine concerning the lawfulness of Actions whether a Man may do them or no. But it is a very easy matter in most cases to determine concerning the expedience of Actions that is to say whether it be best and fittest for a Man to do them or no. Now this last I say is the point that a throughly good Man will consider and steer himself by in all his Actions Thus for Instance It may perhaps bear a dispute Whether a Man be precisely bound by God's Law to pray solemnly twice a day so as that he sins if he do not But it will bear no dispute that it is much better and more acceptable to God and beneficial to our selves to pray at least thus often than to pray seldomer And therefore such a Person as I am speaking of will upon this consideration put it in practice nay and pray oftner too as he has occasion without concerning himself whether he be strictly bound so to do or no. It may bear a dispute among some Persons whether painting the Face be not allowable to Christian Women But it can bear no dispute among any that it is more agreeable to the Sobriety and Modesty and Chastity of a Disciple of Jesus Christ and better serves the ends of Religion to forbear all such suspicious Ornaments There being rarely any good end to be served by them but abundance of evil often arising from them Now this consideration alone is enough to set the Heart of every serious Christian against those practices and to make them wholly to refrain them Thus again it is argued both ways about Play or Gaming whether it be lawful or no especially when sums of Money are played for and the thing becomes rather an avaritious Contention than a Recreation and Divertisement some believing that it is innocent others that it is a grievous sin But there is no Man even of those that use it most but will readily acknowledge that it exposeth a Man to great and Dangerous Temptations of sundry kinds that it is the occasion of abundance of Sin and abundance of Mischief and that it seldom fails to produce intolerable consequences both as to Men's Souls and Estates
and Families Now to a Man that loves God and hath a tender sense of his Duty this is enough in all Conscience to deter him for ever from the practice of Gaming though it be not made to appear to him that it is expresly and explicitly forbid by any Law of Jesus Christ So that you see that in those points where there are disputes on both sides when the Consideration is concerning the Obligation or the lawfulness of an Action there is no difficulty no dispute at all when the Consideration is only concerning what is best and most fitting to be done concerning what is most agreeable to our Duty and most conducive to the Honour of God and Religion as to that Action That is evident enough in all Cases nor is any Man at a loss for finding it out And that is the Principle which I say every sincere lover of God governs himself by and which I would have us all to propose to our selves for the Rule of our Actions in order to the securing us from those snares and stumbling blocks to which the affinity between Vertue and Vice Lawful and Vnlawful will otherwise expose us Let us not stand upon points with God Almighty as if so much was his and so much was our own as if we were to share our selves between his Service and our own Pleasures and Profits and the like and were resolved not to pay him any more respect or love than what some express Letter of his Law doth exact at our Hands But let us so entirely devote our selves to his Service as to do not only all those things which we are strictly bound to do or else we are Transgressors but all those things that are acceptable to him all those things that are praise worthy and tend to the Perfection of our Nature and the Reputation of Christ's Religion Let us make it the end of our Actions not to seek our selves but his Glory every day to grow better and better and in every Occurrence to consider not what may lawfully be done but what is Most becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ to do In a word what ever is best in any Action what ever most serves the end of piety what ever tends most to the credit of our Religion and the benefit of others let us consider that and act accordingly And thus I am sure to design and act is most suitable to the Nature and Genius of our Christian Religion nay indeed it is the Principal Law and Commandment of it The design of Christianity is not to adjust the precise bounds of Vertue and Vice Lawful and Vnlawful which is that that a great many among us so greedily hanker after For the best that could have come from such a design had been only this that Men by this means might have been fairly instructed how they might have avoided the being bad though they never became very good But the design of Christianity is to make Men as good as they can possibly be as devout as humble as charitable as temperate as contented as heavenly-minded as their Natures will allow of in this World And for the producing this effect the exact distinguishing the limits of the several Vertues and their opposite Vices signifies very little The Laws of our great Master are not like the Civil Municipal Laws of Kingdoms which are therefore wonderfully nice and critical and particular in setting bounds to the practices of Men because they only look at overt Actions so that if a Man do but keep his Actions within the compass of the Letter of the Law he may be accounted a good Subject and is no way obnoxious to the Penalties which the Law threatens If our Religion had been of this strain we should without doubt have had a World of particular Laws and Precepts and directions about our Actions in all emergent Cases more than we now have And we might as easily have known from the Bible what was forbidden unlawful Anger what was excessive drinking what was pride and luxury in Apparel and the like as we now know by the Statute-Book what is Burglary or Murther or Treason But there was no need of these particularities in the institution of Christ Jesus His Religion was to be a Spiritual thing And the design of it was not to make us chast or temperate or humble or charitable in such a degree but to make us as chast and temperate as humble and charitable as pure and holy in all our Conversation as we possibly can be This I say was the design of Christ's Religion It was to be the Highest Philosophy that was ever taught to Mankind It was to make us the most excellent and perfect Creatures as to purity of Mind and Heart that Humane Nature is capable of And therefore it hath not been so accurate and particular in prescribing bounds to our outward Actions because it was abundantly enough for the securing them to oblige us to the highest degree of inward purity And this it hath done above all the Laws and Religions in the World It teacheth us to abhor every thing that is evil or impure in all the kinds of it in all the degrees of it and in all the tendencies towards it And to lay out our selves in the pursuit of every thing that is honest that is lovely that is praise-worthy and of good report among Men. If this now be the design of our Religion and these be the Laws of it I leave it to you to judge of these two things First Whether it doth not highly concern all of us that profess this holy Religion to endeavour in all our Conversation to be as holy and as vertuous as we can and to do as much good as we can and not to content our selves with such a degree of honesty and vertue as is just sufficient to the rendering us not vicious And then secondly Whether if we do thus endeavour we can easily be at a loss in distinguishing between Good and Evil Duty and Sin in any instance And consequently Whether we can be much in danger of ill using our Liberty and so transgressing upon that account I have been longer upon this first Head than I intended but I shall make amends for it by dispatching the two following in so much the fewer words And indeed after so large an account as I have given of the general Rule there is less need of dwelling upon particular ones II. In the second place In order to the right use of our Liberty and so securing our serves from falling into sin through mistaking the measures of Good and Evil This will be a good Rule to propose to our selves namely That in matters of Duty we should rather do too much than too little But in matters of Indifferency we should rather take too little of our Liberty than too much First As to matters of Duty my meaning is this That where the Laws of God have generally and indefinitely commanded a thing but
God Almighty's Service Let none of us be afraid to put reasonable restraints upon our Passions and Appetites Assuredly the thus using our Liberty is the certain way to preserve and encrease it and with it the pleasure and comfort of our Lives and not only so but to render us Everlastingly Happy and Blessed in the other World Which that we may all be God of his infinite Mercy grant c. SERMON IX Preached before the House of Commons AT St. Margaret's Westminster On the 21st of May 1690. Deut. v. 29. O that there were such an Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever THese are the words of God to Moses concerning the Children of Israel And two things may be gathered from them I. His serious desire of their Happiness II. The means whereby that Happiness is to be attained The first of these is imported in that solemn wish into which the Text is framed O that there were such an Heart in them c. that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever The second is imported in the way of connecting the former part of the wish with that which follows O that there were such an heart in them what then That they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always and why so It follows That it might be well with them and with their Children for ever Which plainly implies That the way to have things well with them and with their Children is to fear God and keep all his Commandments always I have but one thing more to observe concerning the Text and that is this That the wish or desire that God here expresses of Israel's Vertue and Happiness doth not so much relate to the Israelites considered singly and as particular Persons though it cannot be denied but it doth extend to them even under that notion but it chiefly relates to the Children of Israel considered collectively that is to say under the notion of a People or Nation God here expresses his care of the whole Nation and seriously wishes they may be a happy People they and their Children after them Two points then we have from this Text very proper to be insisted on upon this Occaasion which therefore I shall make the Heads of my following Discourse First That God is seriously concerned for the good and happiness of Nations and Kingdoms as well as that of particular Persons and more especially of those Nations that profess his true Religion Secondly That the Happiness and Prosperity of Nations is to be attained the same way that any particular Man's happiness is that is to say by fearing God and keeping his Commandments I. I begin with the first That God is seriously concerned for the good and happiness of Nations and Kingdoms as well as that of particular Persons and more especially of those Nations that Profess his true Religion I do not think this is much doubted of by any Christian and therefore I need not insist on a laborious proof of it That God who doth not overlook the meanest and the most inconsiderable Creatures that he hath made but so far concerns himself in taking care of them and providing for them that not so much as a Sparrow if we may believe our Saviour doth fall to the ground without his will Can it be imagined that he is not more concerned for the happiness and well-being of the noblest part of the visible Creation Mankind who bear his own Image and whom he looks upon as his own Children Certainly he is And that God whose Care and Providence doth so particularly extend to every individual Man that as the same our Lord Jesus speaks the very Hairs of our Head are numbered by him Can it be imagined that he doth not still take more care of the greater Bodies and Combinations of Men such as Nations and Kingdoms which are so many ways more considerable than single Men and in whose Fortunes the good or ill of particular Persons is so wholly bound up Certainly he doth And lastly That God who is the Author the Preserver the Protector of all publick Societies by whom Kings Reign and Magistrates decree Justice Can it be imagined that he hath not still a more particular regard to those Nations that he hath been pleased to call by his own Name and hath chosen for his own People such as were the Israelites in my Text of old and such are all those Peoples and Nations now that do profess his true Religion Certainly he hath Thus natural reason will teach us to argue And that it is a right way of arguing Matt. 6.26 30. 1 Cor. 9.9 is confirmed to us by our Saviour and St. Paul both of which we find reasoning after this manner To quote to you all that the Scripture saith upon this Argument would be endless One of the great designs of God's word is to possess us with a hearty Belief that God as he is the Creator so he is also the Governour of the World And that his Providence extends to all the things and Persons in it And that the constant Rule and Measure of that Providence is no other than the good of the World and the good of every Person in it so far as his private good is consistent with the publick And that therefore as God designs all good to every particular Man so doth he more especially design the good of Nations and Kingdoms in all his dispensations of Providence to them Nor is there any thing happens in any Nation or Kingdom but with his approbation Even the severest visitations that come upon Mankind are from him There is no evil happens to a City Amoâ— 3.6 Isa 28 2â— Miâ— 7.18 Latin 3 3â— but the Lord hath done it Though yet Judgment is his strange work And Mercy and Loving kindness is the thing wherein he delights He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. But sometimes it is necessary that Nations should be scourged yet even that is for the greater good of Mankind Isa 26. â— That thus when God's Judgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn righteousness But then as for his own People those upon whom his name is called those that are in Covenant with him and profess his true Religion for them upon all occasions he declares so great a tenderness and concernment that there is hardly any figure of Speech that the most sensible Man can make use of for the expressing his most passionate love to his dearest Friend or Relation though it be his Wife or his Children but the very same figures are made use of by the Holy inspired Writers to set out to us the kindness and concernment that God hath for his own People He is their God their King their Shepherd their Father their Husband They are his chosen ones His Delight his peculiar
you shall do may be for the Glory of God and the good of his Church and the Safety Honour and Wellfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms And we hope all will so come to pass But now on this Day both You and We are to think of other Methods for the procuring Success to our Affairs Namely by having recourse to God Almighty who when we have done all that we can is the Governour of the World and will do what he pleaseth But yet will always do that which is best for Mankind and that too which is best for our Nation if we be capable Objects of his Favour And to make our selves such if it be possible is our business on this Day This is indeed a seasonable Business at all times but at this time it seems absolutely necessary Since we have reason to apprehend the Crisis of our Nation as to Happiness or Ruin to be upon the point of approaching The Judgments of God are now abroad in the World We have not only Rumours of Wars sounding in our Ears but all Europs is now in an actual War and a terrible one And what the Consequences will be we know not Some very great thing God certainly designs to bring to pass in these parts of the World and that very suddenly A Cup he has mingled for all the Nations to drink of Which to some undoubtedly will prove a bitter Potion a Cup of God's Wrath and Fury to others probably a Cup of Salvation But how it will prove to us is yet entirely in the Will of God However this is certain that we of this Nation shall have as much our share in it be it good or bad as any other in Christendom And now after the mention of this Can there be any need to call upon any one to weeping and fasting and mourning and crying mightily to the Lord that he would have mercy upon us and spare us and our Nation and not give his Heritage over to Confusion Why methinks the Circumstances we are in should put us upon so doing without any other Monitors Indeed we have no Humanity no Compassion for our selves or our Country if we do not We should all be of this mind if we did seriously consider how things stand with us We are not that Innocent Virtuous Pious People that may certainly reckon upon God's Favour and think our selves in all Cases sure of his Protection For if the Doctrine I have now been insisting on to you be true Doctrine then we of this Nation can but entertain very small hopes of being Happy and Prosperous Nay we cannot but apprehend Misery and Ruin and Desolation to our selves unless God be abundantly more merciful to us than we deserve And there can be no way to prevail with him to be so but an universal Humiliation and Repentance And this is the Application I desire to make of the Point I have been now treating of If the measure of God's dealing with Nations be always according to the Moral State of them If their good Fortunes be dealt out to them according to their Virtues and Judgments be inflicted upon them according to their provoking God by their Sins as we have said Good Lord What a lamentable Prospect have we of this Kingdom of what may come upon us And what infinite reason have we thereupon immediately to try all the ways that are possible of making our Peace with God that so Iniquity may not be our ruin I beg leave to dwell a little upon this Point because it is the proper Argument of the day I do not say nor do I think that we of this Nation are worse than our Neighbours But this I say considering how long God hath spared us and how long we have enjoyed the Blessings of Peace and Plenty and all sorts of Prosperity though perhaps with many Fears and just Apprehensions of danger whilst most of our Neighbours have been harassed with Wars and exposed to all the Cruelties and Miseries of Persecutions and Devastations And considering the great Priviledges and Advantages we have for many years enjoyed of all the outward means of Grace that could be desired for the Eternal Salvation of our Souls and that above any other Nation under Heaven And withal how unprofitable we have been under these means how unthankful to God for them and what little Effect they have had upon us for the bettering our Manners And lastly Considering how very wicked we generally are what a World of open gross Sins and Impieties do reign among us and what a lewd Prophane Hypocritical Atheistical Spirit seems to have gone out into the Nation and to prevail upon it I say these things considered we cannot make any very comfortable Reflections on our own Condition So far from that that if as I said the measure of God's dealings with Nations be taken from their Behaviours and moral Qualities and be suited to their merits and deserts we have as little to hope for as most Nations under Heaven I take no delight in saying these things on the contrary it is very grievous But if ever one may be allowed to run out into a Declamation against the Vices of the Times it is upon such an occasion as this and before such an Audience as this that the liberty may be challenged For God's sake let us not deceive our selves nor think that we are Favourites of Heaven meerly because we profess the Best Religion and are Members of the Best Church in the World For as good as our Church and Religion is and as zealous as we seem to be for them yet never did Vice and Iniquity of all sorts and indeed every thing that is contrary to our holy Religion more abound in this Nation than at this day Give me leave to speak out upon this occasion and to tell you of some of the Crying Sins that reign among us and that deserve Your Care to put a stop to and which if if they be continued in will certainly bring down the Vengeance of God upon us Where was there ever more Atheism and Insidelity to be seen in a Country that professed the Religion of Jesus Christ than is among us at this day We do not perhaps meet with very many that do openly affirm There is no God For as bad as we are God be thanked we are not yet arrived to such Impudence That is such an affront to the Laws and good Manners that it is not to be born with But we may meet with several every day that do affirm the same thing by consequence asserting such Principles from whence it may be necessarily concluded For my part I account it much the same thing as to the ill effects of the Opinion to deny the Being of God as to deny the Being of Angels and Spirits and Immaterial Souls to deny the Being of particular Providence to deny the natural difference between good and evil to deny another Life after this wherein good Men shall be
rewarded and wicked Men punished to deny the liberty of Humane Actions and to say that all things which we do we do by a fatal necessity and we cannot do otherwise And yet we may every day meet with Men of these Principles nay and that laugh at all those that maintain the contrary But then as for the business of Jesus Christ and that which we call the Christian Religion what a very little do a great many among us make of that To talk of Christ's being sent for the Saviour of the World and that he died to procure the Pardon of our Sins and that we must believe all the Scripture-Doctrines concerning him and worship him as a God why what stuff is this to a great many of the resined Spirits of our Age It is very well if they can so far prevail with themselves as to own the Being of God and to acknowledge their obligation to the Duties of moral Honesty and Justice which natural Religion teacheth But as for Jesus Christ and the Trinity and the Sacraments and all revealed Religion they beg your Pardon for these things they are too nice and subtil for them to meddle with Not but that they are good Christians all the while For they can come to our Churches and to our Sacraments too if there be occasion Because indeed they will always be of the Religion of the Country where they live But at the same time they do this they do no more really believe or expect any Spiritual Benefit in our Religion nor look for any more Salvation from Christ Jesus than they would expect from Mahomet if they should live in Turky But this is not all Even among those that do believe in Jesus Christ and own his Religion yet what little regard have they generally speaking to his Worship and Service It is very well if they now and then afford their presence on Sundays at the publick Religious Assemblies I will not examine with what designs and for what ends they come thither nor how devoutly and religiously their hearts are affected during the time they are there I say it is very well that they are there at all But even of those that do come thither and do once a Week seem to have a sense of publick Religion I say how few are there of them that take any care of worshipping God either in their Families or in their Closets Why if a Man was truly Religious he could not pass a day without solemn Addresses to his Maker and to his Redeemer He would pray in his Closet constantly and if he had a Family he would Pray with them constantly And if he had no Family he would constantly resort to those places where he might pay his Tribute of publick Prayer and Praises to God unless he had urgent business to hinder him But is there any thing of this to be seen among us except in some few Persons here and there Are there not twenty Families for one that live without so much as the shew of any Devotion Without any sort of Prayer or Worship of God in their Houses Nay and I am afraid I may say there are twenty for one even of Private Persons that live without Devotion in their Closets that never call upon God never renew their Vows to their Saviour never pay him any Homage except perhaps once a Week in a formal way when the Custom of the Country obliges them to resort to the Church The truth is so little sense have most of us of Religion and Devotion so little regard of our Duty to God and our depenance upon him and expressing that dependance either in Private or in our Families That were it not for that Happy Institution of the Lord's day on the which we are obliged by the Laws of God and Man to meet together for the Worship of God we should hardly see any Face of Religon among us and in a little time should scarce be distinguished from Heathens But yet this is not the worst of our Case Our gross Immoralities that Horrid Lewdness and Debauchery that is every where to be observed in our days doth still increase our Guilt and cry to Heaven for Judgment upon our Nation It would make a Man's heart ake that has any sense of God or Religion to think of the Riots the Drunkenness the continued course of spending our Time and our Parts and our Substance in Revelling and Gaming and all manner of such excesses that is daily practised among us And yet at the same time the Men that thus live think themselves very honest Men all the while It would really amaze a Man and put him upon admiring God's Patience that he doth not presently confound the World if he did seriously reflect on the many filthy lewd Speeches and Actions the numerous wicked intrigues of Lust the Infamous Whoredoms and Adulteries that are without any sense of shame daily carried on and acted among us and that by Persons too that have the Face to shew themselves at our Holy Assemblies Especially if to these be added the infinite Lyes and Cheats and Perjuries which our Land groans under The Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations the Damn me 's and Sink me's the Horrid Profanations of the Name of God and all things Sacred that are in every place in every street where we pass belched out in contempt of the Almighty and his Laws by all sorts of Persons of all sorts of Qualities from the Beggar in the street to the Man of Honour and that for no other reason in the World but because it is their Humour or their Custom And lastly to fill up the measure of our iniquities to our other reigning Vices we have added that of Hypocrisie too which one would think should not often be found among so much Profaneness How many of us make a mighty noise with Religion and are zealous even to Bigottry in the defence of it and yet have not one grain of inward sense of what it obligeth them to Nay so far from that that if Religion be but in their Mouths If they do but appear Zealous enough for the Protestant Cause If they can but cry loue enough The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in the Prophet They matter not how coutradictory their Actions are to the Precepts of that Religion they do Profess Their Zeal for so good a Cause will sanctifie all the other Actions be they never so wicked and unjust But if this be not Hypocrisie there is no such thing in the World Sure I am it was this sort of Carriage that God so often reproves the Jews for by his Prophets and upon account of which they are so often reproached as a Generation of Hypocrites and for which he threatens them with utter destruction O my Brethren what have we to say to these things If the Case be thus with us as I am afraid it is What plea have we to put in for our selves If
are true c. Here are a great many things recommended by the Apostle to our thoughts and pursuit If we would make a distribution of them I believe they will all naturally enough full under these Four Heads For the things here recommended are not so many as the words by which they are express'd there being several Words used in this Enumeration that are of the same importance and seem to express much the same thing The Four Heads I would reduce them to are these I. A constant Adherence to the true Religion II. Honesty and Justice in our Dealings III. A Life of Strict Purity in opposition to Sensuality and Lewdness IV. The adorning the Doctrine of God we do profess by the constant Practice of every other thing that is Virtuous or Commendable or well thought of by Mankind This as I take it is a fair account of the Parts of this Text and these I shall make the Heads of my following Exhortation I begin with the first Finally my Brethren whatsoever things are true think on those things The Truths that St. Paul here exhorts them to think on are undoubtedly the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he had delivered to them These he would have them to think upon and persist in and never to be prevailed upon by any Temptation to depart from them Let me now apply this Advice of his to you It is the particular Blessing of God to this Kingdom and an inestimable Blessing it is that he has not only vouchsafed us the Light of his Gospel for many years but he has also taken Care that the Truths of it should be delivered to us with greater Purity and Sincerity and freer from the mixtures of Errour than to most I was going to say than to any other People in the World If it lay in your way to make observations concerning the State of Religion in other Countries nay or but to read the Accounts that are given of it I am sure you would be convinced how exceedingly happy we of this Church are above all the Churches in Christendom O therefore let us all firmly adhere to the Truths we have been taught to the Truths we have hitherto made Profession of And let us firmly adhere to that Church which hath held forth these Truths to us and taught us this Profession We do not pretend that any Church is Infallible and therefore not ours But this we dare say and we can justifie that if we take our measures concerning the Truths of Religion from the Rules of the Holy Scriptures and the Platform of the Primitive Churches the Church of England is undoubtedly both as to Doctrine and Worship the Purest Church that is at this day in the World the most Orthodox in Faith and the â—â—â—est on the one hand from Idolatry and Superstition and on the other hand from Freakishness and Enthusiasm of any now extant Nay I do farther say with great seriousness and as one that expects to be called to account at the dreadful Tribunal of God for what I now say if I do not speak in sincerity That I do in my Conscience believe that if the Religion of Jesus Christ as it is delivered in the New Testament be the true Religion as I am certain it is Then the Communion of the Church of England is a safe way to Salvation and the safest of any I know in the World And therefore I do exhort you all in the Name of God steadfastly to hold and to persevere in this Communion Here you have the Things that are true Think of them and embrace them heartily and Live and Die in the Profession of them This is the Doctrine I have always Taught you and by the Grace of God I mean to Practise accordingly II. The next thing I have to recommend to you from these words of the Apostle is Universal Honesty and Justice and Righteousness in your Conversation Whatsoever things saith he are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just think on these things You see I join these two words Honest and Just together as importing the same thing Though yet I am aware that the word we here render Honest is often used in another signification that is to say for Grave or Venerable But since that other signification falls in most properly under my last Head I wave it here and take the word as our Translation renders it Indeed it is in vain to expect any advantage from our profession of the Truth if we be not sincerely Just and Honest in our Actions Whosoever can allow himself in the practice of any dishonest knavish indirect Dealing let that Man be never so Orthodox in his Belief and Opinions yet I am sure he is no true Christian O therefore let me exhort you all whatever Interests you have to serve whatever Dealing you are to engage in to be always strictly Just and Vpright in your Conversation Use no Tricks practise no ill Arts for the serving your ends but in all your transactions with Men deal with that Simplicity and Integrity and good Conscience that becomes those who would be accounted the Disciples of Him who was the most Innocent the most Sincere and the least Intrigueing Person in the World Assure your selves no dishonesty can prosper long Whatever turns you may serve by it at present yet you will bitterly repent of it sometime or other But Righteousness and Justice doth establish a Man's ways And the upright Man though he is not always the richest yet always walketh most surely And as for the final event of things Remember this that God Almighty has pronounced that no Vnrighteous men no Covetous no Lyars no Extortioners shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But to go on III. The next thing I have to exhort you to from the words of my Text is the Practice of Purity For after the Apostle hath recommended the pursuit of things that are true and the things that are honest and just he next adds the things that are pure Meaning hereby that we should study to be pure and chast and temperate both in our Hearts and Lives avoiding all Excesses and Lewdness and Sensuality And if he thought it convenient in that Age of strictness and severity and devotion to put the Christians in mind of this I am sure it is not only convenient but necessary to do it in this Age of ours when Luxury and Debauchery when Whoredom and Drunkenness and all sorts of Vice that are contrary to Purity are grown to that height among us that we seem to defie God Almighty by our impudent Practice of them and provoke Him to give us up to Destruction I pray God make the whole Nation deeply sensible of the Folly and Wickedness as well as of the Danger and dreadful Cousequences of these Practices And as for you who are here present let me bespeak you in the Words of the Apostle Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims to
Religious posture of mind but upon the plain natural frame and temper of your Souls as they constantly stand inclined to Virtue and Goodness A Man that seriously endeavours to live honestly and religiously may come to the Sacrament at an hour's warning and be a Worthy Receiver On the other side a Man that lives a careless or a sensual Life may set apart a whole Week or a whole Month for the exercising Repentance and preparing himself for the Communion and yet not be so worthy a Receiver as the other And yet he may be a worthy Receiver too provided he be really honest and sincere in the matter he goes about and provided that he remember his Vows afterward and do not sink again into his former state of carelesness and sensuality But to return to my point I do verily think that most of the doubts and fears and scruples that are commonly entertained among us about receiving the Sacrament are without ground or reason and that every well disposed Person that hath no other design in that action but to do his Duty to God and to express his belief and hopes in Jesus Christ and his thankfulness to God for him may as safely at any time come to the Lord's Table as he may come to Church to say his Prayers And if the case be so as I believe it is then of what a mighty privilege and benefit do they deprive themselves who when they have so many opportunities do so seldom join in that solemn Institution of our Lord which as I said was designed for no other purpose but to be the means of our growing in Grace and Virtue in Love to God and to all the Word O therefore my Brethren let me beg of you not to be strangers at the Lord's Table But I need not beg it of you for I am sure you will not whensoever it shall please God to put it into your hearts seriously to mind the concernments of your Souls and to be heartily sensible of the need you stand in of the Grace of Christ for the leading a holy and pure Life I have but one thing more in the Sixth place to leave with you and I have done It is not indeed of the nature of those things I have last recommended to you that is a means or instrument of growing more Virtuous But it is a principal Virtue it self And I do therefore recommend it to you because it is at all times useful at all times seasonable but more especially it seems to be so now And that is That you would walk in Love and study Peace and Unity and live in all dutiful subjection to those whom God hath set over you and endeavour in your publick stations to promote the publick Happiness and Tranquillity as much as is possible But by no means upon any pretence whatsoever to disturb the publick Peace or to be any way concerned with them that do by no means ever to ingage in any Party oâ— Faction and least of all any Faction in Religion which is grounded upon a State-point I am sorry the posture of things among us gives me occasion to mention this matter but it is too visible to what a height our animosities and discontents are grown and what the consequences of them may be unless there be a timely stop put to them I tremble to think With Mens differences as to their notions about the Politicks I am not concerned let Men frame what Hypotheses they please about Government though I do not like them yet I do not think my self bound to Preach against them But when these differences are come to that pass that they threaten both the Civil and Ecclesiastical Peace there I think no Minister should be silent Church-Divisions God knows we have and have always had too many but it is very grievous that those who have always declared themselves the Friends of our Church and Enemies to Schism should at this time of Day set a helping hand to promote a Separation And yet it seems to this height are our differences come Some People among us that formerly were very zealous for the Established Worship of the Church are now all of a sudden so distasted with it that they make a scruple of being present at our Service Nay some have proceeded so far as to declare I know not upon what grounds open War against us and set up Separate Congregations in opposition to the Publick What is the meaning of this Hath Schism and Separation from the established Worship which heretofore was branded as so heinous a sin and deservedly too so changed its nature all of a sudden that it is become not only innocent but a Duty Have we not the same Government both in Church and State that we formerly had Have we not the same Articles and Doctrines of Religion publickly owned and professed and taught without the least alteration Have we not the same Liturgy the same Offices and Prayers used every day that have always been What is there then to ground a Separation upon Yes But the names in the Prayers are changed and we cannot Pray for those that are now in Authority as we could for those that were heretofore But how unreasoanble is this when St. Paul has bid us to put up Prayers and Supplications and Intercessions for all Men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority Doth he make any restriction any distinction what Kings or what persons in Authority we are to pray for and what not Doth he not expresly say we must pray for all Men and for all that are in Authority And doth not the the reason of his exhortation imply as much if his words did not Namely that we may lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty But I pray consider what this Doctrine leads to If this Principle be admitted to be good Divinity then farewell all the Obligations to Ecclesiastical Communion among Christians For what Government is there in the World that will not meet with such Subjects as are not satisfied with it And if that dissatisfaction be a just reason to break Communion with the Established Church what Ligaments have we to tye Christians together What will become of holding the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace What is the consequence of this but endless Schisms and Separations But further I wish these Persons would consider what an unaccountable humour it is to make a Rent and Schism in the Church upon a meer point of State Great Revolutions have happened in all Ages and in all Countries and we have frequent instances of them in story But I believe it will not be easily found that ever any Christians separated from the Church upon account of them Still they kept unanimously to their Doctrine and their Worship and never concerned themselves farther in the Turns of State how great soever they were than peaceably to submit to the Powers in being and heartily to pray to God so to
I would from hence take occasion to put you in mind of is this That Indifference and Vnconcernedness for Religion is not to have a place among any ones Virtues and good Qualities it is rather a very great fault howsoever it may sometimes pass for an instance of Wisdom and Prudence If indeed Men had no Passions or had so mortified their Passions that they were rarely earnest or zealous about any thing their unconcernedness for Religion and the things of God might be the less reproveable But when Zeal and Passion is more or less wrought into every Man's temper and the calmest Men may be observed on sundry occasions not to be without it it is an inexcusable fault to have no Passion no Zeal for God and his Cause How can a Man answer it to his own Conscience to be heartily angry when an affront in word or deed is done to himself and yet to be altogether insensible when God is affronted in his Prefence To make a mighty bustle when his own Right and Property is at stake though in never so small a matter and yet to shew no concernment for the Rights and the Honour of that God who made him and by whose savour alone it is that he can call any thing his own that he hath O! What a World of Good might we all do if we had a true Zeal of God How many Occasions and Opportunities are there put into our Hands every Day in what condition or circumstances soever we are which if we were acted by this principle would render us great Benefactors to Mankind by discouraging Vice and Impiety and promoting Virtue and Goodness in the World But perhaps I have set this business of Zeal for God too high Because none are capable of being thus Zealous but those that have attained to a great degree of Virtue and Piety which we cannot suppose of all nor the most But however it will be a shame to all of us if we do not come up to that pitch of Zeal which the unbelieving Jews are here commended for I bear them record saith St. Paul that they have a zeal of God What was this Zeal of theirs Why as I told you and as it plainly appears from the whole Chapter it was an earnest and passionate concernment for the Religion of their Country Sure all Men among us both good and bad may come up to this degree of Zeal for God and it is a reproach to us if we do not Especially confidering that their Religion at that time was not God's Religion but Ours is Indeed the Publick profession of Religion in the right way is as much every Man's Interest and ought to be as much every Man's Care as any the dearest thing he hath in this World Nay to all Men that believe they have Souls to fave it is more valuable than any other Worldly privilege It concerns us all therefore to be Zealous in that matter The Duty we owe to God to our Country and to our Selves doth require it In vain it is to be busie about other things and to neglect this A Man will have but small comfort when he comes to die to reflect that he has been Zealous of the Privileges and Property and Rights of his Country-men but it was indifferent to him how the Service of God and the Affairs of Religion were managed II. The Second thing we observe from this Passage is The Apostle's carriage to the Vnbelieving Israelites who though they were zealous for God yet were in a great mistake as to their Notions of the true Religion He doth not bitterly censure them He is not fierce nor furious against them He doth not excite any person to use force or violence to them But he rather pities them He makes their Zeal that they had of God an Inducement the more heartily to pray for them that God would direct them in the right way that leads to Salvation Though he is far from approving their blind Zeal in so obstinately opposing the Righteousness of God that is that Method which God had prescribed for the attaining of Righteousnes by the Faith of Jesus Christ and setting up a Righteousness of their own which consisted chiefly in observing the Ceremonials of Moses his Law and the Traditions of their Fathers as it follows in the next Verse after my Text Yet he thinks them the more pitiable and the more excusable in that this their Opposition proceeded from their Zeal of God though it was a mis-informed irregular Zeal This practice and carriage of the Apostle towards these Ignorant Zealots ought to be a Rule for us to walk by in the like Cases If Men be of a different way from us as to Religion if they hold other Opinions or though they be of another Communion from us and though too we are sure they are mistaken Nay and dangerously mistaken too yet if they have a Zeal of God if they be serious and sincere in their way if their Errours in Religion be the pure results of a mis-informed Conscience Let us as the Apostle here did take occasion from hence to pity them and to put up hearty Prayers to God for them and to endeavour all we can by gentle methods to reduce them to the right way But by no means to express contempt or hatred of them or to treat them with Violence and Outrage So far as their Zeal is for God let us so far shew Tenderness and Compassion to them and if their Zeal be in such instances as are really commendable let us in such instances not only bear with them but propose them for our Examples This I say was the Apostle's practice and I think it is so agreeable to the Spirit and Temper of our great Lord and Master Christ that it will become us in like cases to act accordingly But then after I have said this These two things are always to be remembred First That our Tenderness to mistaken Zealots must always be so managed as that the true Religion or the Publick Peace suffer no dammage thereby And therefore how kindly and compassionately soever we as private Christians are to treat those that differ from us and pursue a wrong way out of Conscience Yet this doth not hinder but that both wholesome Laws may be made for the restraining the exorbitances of mistaken Zeal and when those Laws are made that they may be put in execution The Consideration of Law-givers and Magistrates is different from that of private Christians Their business is to see Nequid detrimenti respublica capiat that the Government be secured that the common peace be kept that the Laws of God be observed that God's Religion as it is delivered by Jesus Christ be preserved sincere and undefiled and that the solemn Worship of God be purely and decently performed And therefore there is no doubt but that in all these matters the Government may make Fences and Securities against the Insults of intemperate Zealots and when these Fences
What a dreadful one was this of the Gunpowder Treason in the Reign of her Successor How many Dangers have threatned us since that time from that quarter What a horrible storm but of late did we apprehend and justly enough too was impending over us And yet blessed be God who hath never sailed to raise up Deliverers to his People in the day of their Distress that storm is blown over And we are here not only in Peace and Quietness in the full possession of our Native Rights and Liberties and in the Enjoyment of the Free Exercise of our Religion which is one of the most desirable things in the World But such is the deliverance that God hath wrought for us that we also seem to have a fair prospect of the Continuance of these Blessings among us and according to Humane Estimate to be in a good measure out of the danger of our old Inveterate Enemy Popery I mean which one would think had now made its last effort among us Is not this now a great Blessing And must not all sincere Protestants of what perswasions soever they be in other respects necessarily believe so Certainly they must if they think it a Blessing to be delivered out of the hands of our Enemies and to be in a Condition to serve God without fear Let us all therefore own it as such to God Almighty let us thankfully remember all his past Deliverances from Popery and especially let us never forget those of this Day neither the former nor this late one We have reason to believe that God hath a tender Care of his Church and Religion in these Kingdoms not only because he hath so many times so signally and wonderfully appeared for the preservation it But more especially because we know and are convinced that our Religion is according to his Mind and Will being no other than that which his Son Jesus Christ taught unto the World that is to say no other than that which is in the Bible which is our only Rule of Faith It infinitely concerns us all therefore so to behave our selves as to shew that we are neither unthankful for Gods past Mercies nor unqualified for his future Protection And in order to that I know no other way but this that we all firmly adhere to to the Principles of our Religion and that in our Practices we conform our selves to those Principles That is to say In the first place That we sincerely love and fear God and have a hearty sense of his Presence and Goodness and Providence continually abiding in our Minds That we trust in him depend upon him and acknowledge him in all our ways That we be careful of his Worship and Service paying him the constant Tribute of our Prayers and Praises and Thanksgiving both in Publick and Private And then secondly that we be pure and unblameable in our Lives avoiding the Pollutions that are in the World through Lust and exercising Chastity and Modesty Meekness and Humility Temperance and Sobriety amidst the sundry Temptations we have to conflict with And thirdly that we have always a fervent Charity to one another that we Love as Brethren endeavouring to do all the good we can but doing harm to none Using Truth and Justice and a good Conscience in all our dealings with Mankind Living peaceably if it be possible with all Men. And not only so but in our several Places and Stations promoting Peace and Unity and Concord among Christians and contributing what we can to the healing the sad Breaches and Divisions of our Nation And then lastly that we pay all Submission and Duty and Obedience to the King and Queen whom God hath set over us endeavouring in all the ways that are in our Power to render their Government both as easie to themselves and as acceptable to their Subjects and as formidable to their Enemies as is possible If all of us that call our selves Protestants would charge our selves with the Practice of these things how assured might we reâ—… that God would bless us that he would continue his Protection of our Nation our Church our Religion against all Enemies whatsoever and that we might see our Jerusalem still more and more to flourish and Peace to be in all her Borders May God Almighty pour upon us all the Spirit of his Grace and work all these great things in us and for us And in order hereunto may he send down his Blessings upon the King and Queen and so influence and direct all their Councils both Publick and Private that all their Subjects may be happy in their Government and 〈◊〉 peaceably and quiet lives under them in all Godiness and and Honesty And after such a Happy and Peaceable Life here may we all at last arrive to God's Eternal Kingdom and Glory through the Merits of his dear Son To whom c. SERMON XI Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL On CHRISTMAS-DAY 1691. Heb. ix 26. Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself THis Text doth naturally suggest Five things to be insisted on most of them proper for our Meditations on this Day which therefore I shall make the Heads of my following Discourse I. In general the Appearance of our Lord. Now hath he appeared II. The Time of that Appearance In the end of the World III. The End and Design for which he appeared To put away Sin IV. The Means by which he accomplished that End By the Sacrifice of himself V. The Difference of His Sacrifice from the Jewish ones His was but once performed Theirs were every day repeated If his Sacrifice had been like theirs then as you have it in the former part of the verse must he often have suffered since the Foundation of the World But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself This is the just Resolution of the Text into its several particulars of each of which I shall discourse as briefly and practically as I can I. I begin with the first The Appearance of our Lord in general Now hath he appeared Let us here consider first Who it was that appeared And then How he did appear The Person appearing we will consider both as to his Nature and as to his Office He that appeared as to his Nature was God and Man both these Natures were united in him and made one Person He was God with us So the Angel stiles him in the first of St. Matthew He was the Word that was with God and was God and by whom all things were made He was I say that Word made Flesh and dwelling among us So St. John stiles him in the first of his Gospel Lastly He was God manifest in the Flesh so St. Paul stiles him in the first Epistle to Timothy This was the Person that the Text saith Now appeared that is the Son of God in Humane Nature God of
this World so dark and miserable a place that no serious considering man can tolerably enjoy himself in it For here upon the former supposition you are left without Counsel or Advice You have nothing to propose nothing to design in the course of your Lives It is all one how you behave your selves whether honestly or wickedly whether you mind your Business or mind it not for the Even will be the same You are obliged to no body for any Benefits you can complain of no body for any ill usage If you be in ill circumstances you have none to apply to for Remedy and if you be in good ones you may be stript of them without Remedy the next moment for all things are carried on by a whirl of Fate And you are not much better'd by the latter Hypothesis That God hath trusted the Government of the World with Mankind who are endowed with Reason and Understanding For if we consider how Mankind do sometimes use their Reasons it is as good if not better to be exposed to the Hazards of Chance or Necessity as to be subject to their Wills The truth of it is if this Systeme of the World be well consider'd it will appear a more uncomfortable one than the other for it doth not remove from us the Iron Bands of Fate we are still under that Yoke as much as we were before Yet besides these it puts upon us another Yoke the arbitrary Pleasures of those of our own kind which if they be not govern'd by Reason are ten times more unsupportable than the other We are by this Hypothesis as much exposed to Natural Evils as we were before and there is no help for them but over and above we must bear the Indignities and Insolences the Ravages and Cruelty of every one that is stronger than our selves and hath the will to oppress us O hard Lot of Mankind if this was their Constitution better by far were it for them to be Brutes and think of nothing than to be Men upon such Terms as these Happy therefore are the Inhabitants of the Earth happy are the remotest Isles thereof that there is a King that reigns both over Fate and Men. Happy are we that there is a wise and intelligent Being that superintends all our Affairs and so governs both the Powers of Nature and the Powers of Mankind that nothing can be done by either of them but what is designed by and pursuant to his Counsels Upon this Supposition we may live like Men and enjoy our selves with some Comfort in this World We may propose Ends and Designs to our selves and hope that with our diligence and good management they may take effect Upon this Supposition we may and ought to look upon all our good Successes as the Blessings of God to us and particularly that which we are this day met together to thank Him for I mean the wonderful Preservation of His Majesty from all the Dangers to which he hath so often been exposed and his safe Return to us Upon this Supposition we may hope that tho' all things have not succeeded according to our Wishes yet in due time they may since the King of the World hath by the frequent and unexpected Deliverances he hath wrought for us and the strange unusual Providences that have attended our King given us some Encouragement to believe provided we do our parts towards it that He hath reserv'd Vs for better Times and Him for the executing those Glorious Designs which Good Men hope will at last be accomplish'd in the World Lastly Upon this Supposition every Honest Man will find reason enough both to bear contentedly whatever uneasie Circumstances he lyes under and to trust in God's Mercy for the removal of them and in the mean time to possess his own Soul in a cheerful dependance on God's Providence and a hearty Thankfulness for all the innumerable Blessings he hath receiv'd and doth daily receive from his Hands And therefore since the Lord is King let the earth be glad yea let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof Now That the Lord is really thus the King of the World there are all the Arguments to perswade us that can be desir'd It is the Voice of Reason It is the Voice of all Mankind It is the Voice of GOD himself both in His Works and in His Word Give me leave to give you a Specimen in all these ways of Arguing and but a Specimen because it would be rather the Work of a Book than of a Sermon to dilate upon these matters First I say Reason tells us it must be thus For admitting that the World did not make it self but was made by God it will follow that the same God that made it must still govern it For the same Ends and Designs and Motives whatever they were that induced God to make the World at first will oblige Him for ever to take care of it and look after it Unless we suppose God to contrive an act as uncertainly and unstedily and with the same inconstancy and levity of Mind that some of us Mortals here upon Earth do Secondly It is the Voice of all Mankind For otherwise how comes it to pass that among all Nations and in all Ages there has been some Religion or other practised I pray what is the meaning of worshiping God of putting up Prayers and Supplications to Him for the things we need of returning Thanks for the Benefits we have received of appointing Religious Rites and Methods for the expiation of Guilt or the averting of impendent Calamities all which things have been practised in all Nations from the beginning of the World to this day I say what is the meaning of all this unless it was hereby meant to be signified That there is a God which doth concern himself in the Affairs of Mankind and who doth dispense Good or Evil to them as they well or ill behave themselves towards him The Truth is To say that God doth not govern the World is to say that all Religion is a Cheat and that all Mankind except a few debauch'd Wits in the more polite Countries and a few Brutes in the very barbarous ones who are of no Religion at all have been and are a company of credulous Fools For this is certain whatever Argument either Jew or Turk or Pagan or Christian can suggest to himself for the convincing him that it is his Concernment or his Duty to worship God or to be of any Religion at all nay or to make any conscience of any Action he does I say all these Arguments do not only prove but suppose that God both knows and orders the Affairs of the World Thirdly It may likewise be as strongly proved from Effects from the tracks and footsteps of a Divine over-ruling Providence which are to be seen in the Events that happen in the World which is what I call the Voice of God in his Works These are indeed so many and so