not their Humours Wills Pleasures But where Men judge according to the Rule of Right their Sense is considerable and their Commendation valuable * Now he that is prais'd for something worthy useful or taking with Men hath Acceptance is attended upon with Expectation and may make good Advantage of this Whereas if he be not regarded nor consider'd he will have no Opportunity to do Men good And where Men are forestall'd prepossess'd prejudiced a Man loses his Labour with them Wherefore Men do well to stand upon their Credit and this for their own better Security * in Vertue as well as for their further Advantage to do others Good He that despises Shame despises Sin cares not what he does will do any thing 'T is a sharp Reproof a pungent Argument in few words Are you not ashamed Upon this account it is preservative soveraign and very conducive to the Safety of Persons in * a vertuous way that Men of Place and Worth either declare a good Opinion or at least good Hopes and Expectations of those within their Government It tends to engage and encourage to Proficiency in Vertue If a Man have lost his Credit he will grow desperate 'T is an irreparable Evil to take away another's Fame 'T is to take away his second Security to Goodness * as Conscience is * his first Commendation * therefore is of use both to encourage Good-behaviour and further settle the Well-resolved And he who hath the advantage of Repute and Credit may more easily perswade to ways of Goodness and Sobriety Wherefore if the good Word of others may be gain'd upon Terms of Truth and Righteousness It is a very good purchase as tending to our own better Security and Settlement in Vertue and to the enabling us to deal effectually with others for their Good Think these things REASONABLE So it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apply to them the Reason of your own Minds In the Use of your Reason Mind and Understanding in the exercise of your Natural Faculties charge your self with these things It is not barely have them in your Thoughts but in the use of your Reason recommend all these things to your self Think that you do not acquit your self that you do not that that becomes you that you do not raise a connatural Superstructure to the Foundation of Nature if you do not in the Reason of your Mind think all these things worthy of you This is the Sense of the words Religion exercises teaches satisfies that which is the Height and Excellency of our Nature Our Reason is not confounded by our Religion but awaken'd excited employ'd directed and improved For this is the Faculty whereby we are capable of God apprehensive of him receptive from him whereby we can make Acknowledgments to him make Returns upon him The first Operation of Religion is Mental and Intellectual They begin at the wrong end who set not themselves here first to work so are not likely to bring any thing to Perfection For the Mind's Resolution and Satisfaction is first and principal If we leap over this we shall be ever after lame in our way Credulity is but Impotency The Simple believeth every word but the prudent Man looks well to what he admits Man is not well settled or confirm'd in his Religion until his Religion become the Reason of his Mind 'T is Lowness and Imperfection in Religion to drudge therein to take up Duties as Burdens to do them as Tasks barely to satisfie Conscience that Conscience may not trouble vex condemn They who are come to any growth in Religion are free-spirited in it act with inward Satisfaction Pleasure Content They understand it is for our Good desireable of it self and therefore act with Delight Religion till then is not our own is not settled in the Subject is not secured till then Men will not be friendly to it will not make it their Adoption or Choice but rather look upon it as their Exacter Controuler of Liberty and Will * and look upon God * as an Egyptian Task-Master They will carry it as a Burden which they wou'd throw off if they might have their Minds * But I dare undertake to shew that all true Reason is for Religion and nothing of Truth against it Religion doth us the greatest Service and Courtesie To our Minds it does Good directly and immediately to our Bodies by the good Consequents on the Mind's Government It relieves us in case of the greatest inward Evils Guiltiness Malignity Rancour Malice which if not removed we must be most miserable and it possesses us of truest inward Good In this Sense is that verified which Solomon says of Wisdom Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace SERMON II. ACTS XIII 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you Forgiveness of Sin THAT we may the better estimate of what Consequence this is to us and how much we are beholden to the Divine Goodness for this great Benefit of Pardon and Forgiveness let us look into the Evil that we are rid and discharg'd of by this Act of God let us look into the Nature and Quality of Sin SIN as it reflects upon God is an Act either of Neglect or Contempt And how shall we answer it if we be guilty upon either account if either we neglect our bounden Duty or cast Contempt and Scorn upon our Sovereign by whose Power we are raised out of nothing into Being at whose Pleasure we are continued in Being and at whose Appointment we shall go out of these Beings that now we have and it will not be in our Power to withhold our Souls from him one moment tho' the State and Welfare of them to all Eternity did depend thereupon Let us also consider what SIN is in it self It is a Violation of the Rule of Righteousness the Law of Heaven from which God himself who is cloathed with Omnipotency in whom is the Fulness of Power and Liberty never did vary from Eternity nor will to Eternity for the Throne of God is established in Righteousness What then do we think it is for us sorry Creatures to take upon us to controul the immutable and unalterable Law of everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth upon which the Universe depends Then again SIN in respect of By-standers is a thing of very bad consequence and of ill Influence because of the Prejudice of Example For we are more apt to follow Example than to live by Rule and nothing is more frequent than for Men to pretend Use Custom and Practice even against an establish'd Law and we justifie our selves as we think by doing as others do and that we are not singular and alone in what we say and Practice That which we call Moral Evil is a thing of the greatest Ugliness and Deformity in the World The Filthiness of Sin is express'd in Scripture under the names of those things
of Reason and Righteousness But certainly the Ways of God are most accountable of any thing to Rules of Righteousness These are injurious Apprehensions of God and dishonourable to him and are discaimed by him every where in Scripture and God owns no such Power neither doth he look upon it as a Priviledge nor doth he cloath himself with such a Prerogative Here is the Truth of the Case Misery doth arise out of our selves and Misery and Iniquity have the same Foundation Hell for the main of it is our Guiltiness and Conscience of it So that a Sinner is in a self-condemned State without Relief These two are the Ingredients of the Hellish State Self-condemnation from the Guilt of a Man's Conscience that is not removed by Repentance and God's Refusal upon a righteous Cause because the Sinner would not come within the Latitude of a Compassionate Case SERMON III. ROMANS I. 18. For the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness TO proceed to the Declaration of this great and horrid Sin which gives God that high Offence alienates us from him exposes us to his Displeasure * and against which he doth thus declare This holding Truth in Unrighteousness it doth admit of several degrees 1 st Where Knowledge doth not go forth into Act Where * it doth not attain the Effect of Goodness For bare Knowledge doth not sanctifie No Man is renew'd by his Knowledge only It is said of the degenerate Spirits the Devils that they know and tremble The Effect is Fear and Astonishment because there is not the Product of Goodness 2 dly Not attaining due Growth For there will be Growth where there is not Violence or some ill Accident Where Nature begins it goes on towards Perfection and it is in the State of Increase till it come to the State of Consistency Growth in Bulk or Maturity as in Nature so in Grace The Apostle tells us of the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ. 3 dly Eluding one 's own Judgment By an Evasion unsound Distinction pretending to Difference when there is none doing that under one notion which a Man 's own Judgment will not let him do under another when the Case is much the same * Thus when things are under a disguise when Intemperance is called Good-fellowship or when any Man is Conceited or of a Turbulent Spirit in Religion for him to please himself with a notion of Zeal for Truth We should be very careful and exact to observe the Difference of Moral Good and Evil. Herein we should be severe and impartial not giving our selves leave to comply with our * own Humours for as to the great Notices of Reason and Nature the Measures of Vertue and Vice the Grand Instances of Morality there can be no Allowance no Variation because they are Matters unalterable unchangeable indispensible Laws of themselves without Sanction by Will but by the Reason of the thing In the great Matters of Righteousness there is no Variation but in Positives and Institutes there is a Latitude of Sense Interpretation Time and Observance Instistitutes were never intended to be in Compensation or Recompence for Failure in Morals but for their better Security 4 thly Not following Truth fully but as Herod He heard John gladly c. Our Saviour doth mightily accuse the Pharises because they did pick and chuse singling out one Precept and in the Observance of that being exact and this to make a Compensation for the rest Zealous in one thing loose in others they are charg'd therefore with Hypocrisie Not following Truth fully is when all Worldly things do not vail to Religion but Worldly Conveniencies are unduly consider'd for Truth is so noble and generous a thing that it will not submit to a Compremise with its opposite 5 thly The high degree of Sin To go against a Man's own Judgment and Conscience by violent and unnatural Practice to contract Reprobacy of Mind Seardness of Conscience Hardness of Heart This Men will do when Lust is strong and high Persons of unsubdu'd and unmortified Affections they are exposed to such horrid and unnatural use of themselves and so come to be prodigiously naught For no Man is suddenly most desperately wicked but no Man knows when he is a going how far he shall go For the breaking in of Sin is as the Inundation of Water This by way of Explication Two Observations from these words the Wrath of God is reveal'd 1. Men have wrong and injurious Apprehensions of God 2. All those that are condemn'd for Sinners are first self-condemn'd For every one that in Scripture-Sense is a Sinner is self-condemn'd 1 st The wrong Apprehensions that Men have of God that Sinners have no Warning that they are surprized by God's Judgments and taken unawares This is without all ground since the Wrath of God is declared by his Word and by his Works besides the Sense of Mens Minds the Guilt of their Consciences and their own Heart misgiving them for no Man is true to himself if he be ill employ'd for he that is employ'd in an Evil Work is always possess'd with Fear and he is not certain that he shall be true to himself Wherefore let the Declaration of God in Scripture be acknowledg'd as true Thy Destruction is of thy self Why will ye die O ye Sinners Righteous art thou O Lord and true are all thy Judgments For God of his great Goodness and Compassion to Men doth graciously begin but we often find Men wilful obstinate and rebellious God is ready to pursue his Good Beginning and if they answer his Call further to carry them on for you have an express Promise To him that hath shall be given All Grace is help and where God is there is Strength Therefore cannot any one say his Miscarriage is of God It is not want on God's part but failure on ours It is not that God fails in what is becoming him in the relation he stands to us as Creatures but we are wanting to our selves What is all the Misery that befalls Sinners in their most forlorn Condition but the Fruit of their own Sins Not any thing that proceeds from God's Arbitrary Will and Power But they contract Guiltiness of Conscience Impenitence of Mind Hardness of Heart and an Incapacity to act God-ward or to receive from God 2 dly The Scripture doth suppose that ungodly Men are self-condemn'd For this super-addition Who hold the Truth in unrighteousness is as rendring an Account not making a Distinction As â—endring an Account how it comes to pass notwithstanding all God's Endeavours and Declarations that Men continue ungodly Persons The Reason is Because they offer Violence to Truth go contrary to their Light and neglect the Declarations of God Not as if it distinguish'd between ungodly and unrighteous Persons All that in any Scripture are branded for Sinners they are Men that sin against
who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity cannot be pleas'd with any thing that may pretend by way of recompence for any impure filthy immoral Acts. So Isaiah 1. 11 12 13 c. these things were instituted by God and required under great Penalties What work doth this Prophet make to cry down all Religion among them If he lived in our days he would cry down a great deal of Formality yea things really Good if in Conjunction with Immorality If Men be immoral in any way whatsoever if they consent to any Iniquity if they allow themselves in any evil Practice if they admit any such thing it doth spoil all their Religion We may conclude concerning all our Devotions and all those things that are but the Ministries and Instruments of Piety which are good in their right use if they are performed to be glorified in to be boasted of it is but as magnifying the Name of God and not departing from Iniquity If there be any Act of Unrighteousness it doth not only blemish but marr and spoil all And is it not plainly said the Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord as also Mich. 6. 6 7 8. Wherefore Thankfulness and Obedience that is the true Sacrifice that is what is worthy of the Creature to the Creator and that which God will certainly accept But it is most certain that the Zeal of any Institution tho' it be Divine Institution is to God unacceptable if in Conjunction with Immorality THANKSGIVING is an eminent piece of that Worship we call Invocation of God Three things are proper Prayer-Matter * and if Men confine themselves to these keep to proper Prayer-Matter and avoid unnecessary Repetitions none can be too long but if Men take liberty in Prayer to declare and to tell God Stories then I do not know when or where it will end 1 st Confession of Sin with desire of Pardon And as for that if Men live Christian Lives they will not have the same Sins to confess the second time For Christian Religion is not to Sin and Pray and Pray and Sin You may indeed acknowledge you have done it before but to confess it as practised again and again this doth declare that you are not Religious but Prophane 2 dly Acknowledgment of the Perfections of the Divine Being of his Superiority and of our Dependance upon God with a sence of our Insufficiency and Weakness and Desire of Divine Grace Influence and Assistance This is always to be in Prayer and this is a great Matter of Prayer Because tho' we are in a growing Condition yet we may say in this State that we have not attained Therefore to come to God in sence of our Insufficiency and of the Necessity of God's Influencing and Co-operating Grace this is work for us every day 3 dly Resentments of God's Goodness and Faithfulness to us and thankful Apprehensions and Expressions * of this And whatsoever is not comprehended in or referred to in these is Heterogenial to Prayer is Exorbitant and is not Prayer By the two former we daily fetch from God we obtain Pardon of Sin through Christ we obtain Guidance Aid and Assistance By the last we bring to him and this is our only Return Grateful Resentments and Apprehensions of the various Effects of the Divine Providence over us for averting of Evils from us and conferring of Good as they express our Ingenuity of Spirit towards God so they are the best things in our hands for God * the best Returns to God Galen the famous Physician having occasion to observe the Curiosity that is in the Make of Man's Body doth make a Hymn to God This * says he is the truest Worship of God the Creator and this is far more acceptable and better in it self than if I were able to bring a thousand Sacrifices or should offer the choicest Incense and Perfumes if I my self be sensible acknowledge and upon occasion exhibit and represent the Power of the Creator the Wisdom of the Creator and his Goodness His Power * and Wisdom for that he hath contrived in Mode and Figure so many Fitnesses and his Goodness in that he hath so fully communicated himself For what are Creatures but Divine Communications and this do I understand to be the best Worship of God and transcendent of that Sacrifice which may consist of Hecatombs of Beasts and of the purest Incense One thing we have and but one thing which we may call our own I mean the Consent of our Minds and that must be ours or else it is not our Consent it is not what it is unless it be our own And yet we must acknowledge the Grace of God that it is our own by Divine Concurrence Now let us by our own voluntary Act addict and determine our selves to God Let us afford him the Consent of our Minds i. e. make him our Delight and our Choice take Pleasure Content and Satisfaction in him This is the fullest way of Thankfulness to God out of sence of his Excellency and Goodness to reckon all our Happiness to consist in our Enjoyment of him our being and living in Communion and Acquaintance with him So that we have where-withal to sacrifice to God We have the Consent of our Minds We have this from God to be our own Act. We may make him our Choice breath after Interest in him and Communion with * him This is the best Expression of Thankfulness and this is the Christian 's Free-will Offering * Thus I * have made Explication of Unthankfulness We owe Thankfulness to God because we live by his Influence It is most natural to make Acknowledgment and to make thankful Returns to God Their Accusation is that they did not glorifie him as God and were unthankful The Argument of Conviction and the Aggravation of the Fault is because God made them capable of knowing that God is and that willingly and knowingly they were thus wanting and so did transgress That Person is altogether unexcusable * and self-condemned who knowing that he hath a Creator that is of infinite Power Goodness and Wisdom and having Sense and Knowledge that there is a God as God hath made Man to have doth not adore him fulfil his Will is not observant of him not affected toward him doth not rejoyce and delight in him * So that Irreligion is the most unnatural thing in the World Truth is a seminal Principle with which the Mind of Man being impregnated ought to bring forth and in this case * there should be neither Barrenness nor Abortions For Rational Nature is as sufficient and proportionable to its Effects as any vital Principle besides in the World If hurting a Woman with Child so as Mischief followeth be so punishable Exod. 21. 23. what is this case of Destroying the Seed of God in Man's Minds For so it is called 1 John 3. 9. Seed is accounted lost when * being sown in the Ground it never comes up So are
Men will be fill'd with the Fruit of their own Ways and they cannot think that things will finally prove otherwise if they at any time of their Lives think with Reason But if Men presume and be regardless and disorderly and do not consider Consequents by their Antecedents they may flatter themselves and go on in a State of Stupidity But if ever a Man be Rational in his Religion if he do use Reason at all worthy his Make he will foresee future Mischief in a wicked and naughty Course of Life In this Case every one hath within himself what will foretel and what will forewarn what doth daily reprove and condemn him He carries Arguments in his Breast contrary to his Suppositions No Husband-man expects a Crop in Harvest but according as he sows his Seed No Man that is in a Spirit opposite to God Goodness Holiness and Truth that lives in a State of Inconsistency to Religion can expect to be Happy in any Enjoyment of God in a future State unless he can believe Impossibilities and Absurdities * And as hereby we may have Foresight of the future State of Men so hence also is the Account how it comes to pass that some Men are of a most tortured distracted confounded Condition at least at Times and Seasons in this Life having Hell kindled in their Consciences Hell-fire flashing in their Faces Hell on this side Hell So it is with Sinners They are compounded of Inconsistencies They have more Knowledge of God than Love and Affection for him They have more Light in their Minds than Goodness in their Souls By Knowledge they are one way by Affection another way And these Men when they are apart out of worldly Distraction they must be in a tortured and in a confounded Condition When they consider they conceive within themselves things that are monstrous violent and unnatural things which are Upstarts Traytors to Humane Nature Lust Humour Will Passion have dethroned REASON Man's Natural Soveraign and have usurped the Government of Man Where These are not subordinate to Reason and Judgment where These have dispossest the natural inbred Soveraign where These have usurp'd the Government and dethroned Reason what a State is it No Society so distemper'd and confounded For none of these Four were made to govern but they were to be regulated Where Men will have their Will and live by their Humour and in Passion and Lust hath Dominion over them they must needs be in a State of great Confusion because there is so much of Disorder within them The Dictates of Reason calmly guide us But Will Humour Lust and Passion are Incendiary Principles We see the very best of many Men by what is outward who put a good Face on it when they come abroad but are very ill welcomed when they come to their inward home Therefore Persons of bad Lives and evil Consciences love not to be alone They had rather be in any Employment than that of Self-reflection and considering themselves Few Men would envy these Mens Conditions notwithstanding they have some worldly good Circumstances notwithstanding they make a good Show in the World if they were acquainted with their inward Aches Tortures Wrackings and Vexations It is observ'd by Tacitus concerning Tiberius the Emperor that being conscious to himself of horrid Wickednesses and unnatural Practices he could have no Quiet of Mind notwithstanding his Divertisements And he writes That if all the Deities should conspire to make him miserable they could not torment him half so much as the Torment of his own Mind Inward Perplexities Confusion of Mind and Thoughts occasion'd by Guilt of Conscience and Naughtiness of Mind these transcend all the Tortures of the Gout or Stone of which Men have such dreadful Apprehensions For the Spirit of a Man can bear his Infirmity But a wounded Spirit who can bear Who hath a Man to direct comfort or uphold him if he hath not the Reason of his own Mind Therefore tho' ignorant Persons represent the Ways of Religion and Conscience as Melancholy because Men are kept within the Compass of Reason and Sobriety it is the greatest Mistake in the World Because in Religion are joyful Apprehensions Men fear not God slavishly They do not think he will do them any harm But if a Man be in a malignant Disposition and have Naughtiness of Mind he is upon all Self-reflection troubled with inward Vexations and Fears The wicked are like the troubled Sea As Violence in the World Natural is attended with Conflagration so in the World Moral it is attended with Exasperation of Mind and with Fury * In the next place then observe That we are to have God excused in respect of the sharpest of all his Judgments There are Sins of Men * that are far higher in the Rank of Sins than any Judgments of God in this State are great in order of Punishment For there are Sins in this World of which we have Reason to think that they must necessarily go before-hand into Judgment upon account of God's Honour and the Necessity of Righteousness Also they who lie under the greatest Violence in this World Men of profligate Lives and debauched Spirits suffer less by the Judgment of God than from within themselves It is intolerable to suffer as a guilty Person and Malefactor It is intolerable for a Man to suffer the Torments of his own Breast because he is guilty of his own Iniquity If I suffer under a Power that cannot be resisted * and for no Fault I suffer either as a Martyr for a good Cause or under an unavoidable Necessity being under no Demerit or Contradiction to the Reason of my Mind And then I have all the Strength of my Reason all the Courage that is in my Nature to support me But if I suffer as a guilty Person I am not then true to my self I shall have the Reason of my own Mind against me For Guilt is the Sting of Punishment Judgments are to awaken sleepy Consciences Those that are guilty are very shye apprehensive and sensible till by Use Practice and Custom seardness be contracted So that the Judgments of God are little if Men be not guilty For Self-condemnation is founded in Man's Guiltiness and Faultiness So true is it thy Destruction is of thy self and that the Judgments of God in this World in the Order of Judgments are not so great as some Sins are in the Rank of Sins Wherefore O Man whosoever thou art that sufferest wouldst thou effectually ease thy Condition put thy self upon Examination and the Motion of Repentance This will alter the Case And all the World cannot give thee Heart's-Ease save in this way Lastly This Text is to be read in the Ears of Atheists wherein are Two Things for them to consider What it affirms as proved by Effects that God made Man to know that he is and his essential Perfections so that his Opinion is against his very Make And how it describes
which hath the Predominancy over all other Inclinations as being the Supream and ultimate End to which all his Designs and Actions must be subservient by a natural Necessity Whereas on the other hand those Rules or Means which are most proper for the attaining of this End about which we have a Liberty of Acting to which Men are to be induc'd in a Moral Way by such kind of Motives or Arguments as are in themselves sufficient to convince the Reason these I call Moral Duties DUTIES as deriving their Obligation from their Conducibility to their promoting of our chief End and MORAL as depending upon Moral Motives So that Self-love and the proposing of Happiness as our chief End tho' it be the Foundation of Duty that Basis or Substratum upon which the Law is founded yet it is not properly a Moral Duty about which Men have a Liberty of Acting They must do so Nor can they do otherwise The most vile and profligate Wretches that are who are most opposite to that which is their true Happiness they are not against Happiness it self but they mistake about it and erroneously substitute something else in the Room of it So that if Men were upon all Accounts firmly convinced that God was their chief Happiness they would almost as necessarily love him as hungry Men do eat or thirsty Men do drink I have enlarg'd the more on this Particular the better to manifest the true Cause or Ground of this Love * to God BEING FILLED WITH ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS c. I will not rake into this Dunghil I will only observe that ILL-WILL is Characterized under no fewer Titles than Twelve Observe here where the Apostle reckons up the horrid and desperate Apostacy of Men that abuse Nature * and live in all Contradiction to Reason Religion and Conscience how many Titles and Places one sort of Iniquity doth take up being filled with all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS Maliciousness full of Envy Murder Debate Malignity Whisperers these are all of a Nature and Quality Backbiters Haters of God Despiteful Inventers of evil Things Implacable Unmerciful so that Two Thirds of these malign Characters lie upon the Want of Charity Love and good Will Humility good Affection doing that which is worthy of Human Nature For this is Con-natural and Inherent to every Species to consult the Good of those that are of the same Kind Hence we may observe how many ways Men sin against Charity The Scripture lays much of the Stress of Religion upon the Principle of GOOD NATURE and the Charitable Disposition I will give Account why Scripture doth so 1 st IT is of principal Use in Subservience to God's Government in the World If this Principle of good Nature and good Will were general there would be no Difficulty in Government The greatest Difficulty of Government either in the Hands of God or of his Instruments is occasion'd from the Perverseness of Men one to another For if there were but a Principle of good Nature and good Will Government would find an easie Discharge 2 dly It is the Expression of our Resentment of God's Compassion and Goodness They that maintain the Principle of good Nature are the Representatives of God in the World These are under the fullest Communications of God And these are in their Measure and Degree what God is in his Height Excellency and Fulness 3 dly Unless we be exercised in the Practice of it here we shall be no ways qualified to become Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem hereafter * And since it is a necessary Preparation and Qualification for the entrance of a Soul in the State of Eternity unto Glory we shall not wonder why the Scripture doth so insist upon it Unless we be discharged of Ill-will unless we be freed from Ill-nature we cannot have Admittance or Entrance into the Heavenly Jerusalem For we should be a Disturbance to that happy Society The Pleasures of Eternity are mental intelectual and satisfactory without Molestation or Contest An uncharitable Christianity unmerciful void of Good-nature is no more Religion than a dark Sun is a Sun or a cold Fire is Fire He only can dwell in God who dwells in LOVE If * we at all resemble God partake of his Nature or are in any degree such as he is we must root out of our Natures all Malignity Envy Malice Rancour Spite Displeasure To be out of Love and Good-will is to be in the Devil's Form and Spirit A Christian must not be an Enemy 'T is not compatible with Christianity to bear Ill-will * or as we say to carry Coals Frowardness Peevishness Male-contentedness are the most dangerous Evils because Men warrant themselves in them supposing that they are justifiable in it * Thus Jonah chap. 4. ver 9. I do well to be angry But oft we find upon after-Consideration not so much cause as upon the suddain we supposed so have reason to unsay and to undo This is frequently the case of ungovern'd Minds and of Cholerick Constitutions In this case I ask these hasty Furious Persons do they consider the Hurt they do to themselves when they * thus dispossess themselves of themselves so as neither to enjoy God nor themselves If we would be secure we must resist the beginnings of this Evil. Scripture give us many Cautions sundry Reasons several Precedents and Examples Prov. 15. 1. and 17. 14. * Thus Jacob's preventing Esau's Revenge Abigail's pacifying David's Rage so as that he blesses God for her What Mischief followed upon Hanun's misrepresenting David's intended Respect What upon Rehoboam's churlish Answer Nothing more discomposes the Mind than its own taking Offence which if it does it is its own fault He that conceives Displeasure in his Breast carries that within him which doth corrode * and torment him It is the Unhappiness of some that they are not born to the * same Good Nature * others are 'T is more their Burden than it is to others to be of * such bad Natures I would rather converse with such as are so tho' that be troublesome enough than have it my self for then it is an Evil without me if I have it my self it is an internal Malady If it were my Disposition from my Infancy I would study nothing but the Moral Vertues till I had subdued it For what is Vertue given for but to rectifie Crookedness of Nature Man hath his Religion to little purpose if by it he doth not mend his Nature and refine his Spirit Such a one only makes a Profession of it takes a Denomination from it There is great Congruity between our Well-being and the Nature of things enjoyned by Religion Thy Law is Truth that is such as it ought to be Submission to the things of Religion is ready kindly regular because our Minds are cast into the same Moulds with them framed into Suitableness and Conformity We worship God best when in our Mind * we are like him when in respect of God's
to fall upon the Just and the Unjust He giveth us Rain from Heaven and fruitful Seasons Wherefore to have God in our sight and to have right Apprehensions of him and a Sense of his Love and Goodness this above all Things tends to the Nobleness Amplitude Freedom and Liberty of our Spirits Secondly I propose something in respect of our selves That is Be not in a worldly Spirit Be not in love with bodily Ease Give not your selves up to the Pleasures of Sense Be not eagerly bent upon Gain But be loose to it For this you may observe Sensuality and Covetousness do narrow the Soul and limit and confine its Reaches and Desires For Sensuality marrs the Understanding And he that hath mean Thoughts hath but poor Performances And Covetousness doth contract to a little and very narrow point So that there can be no Motion in any large Sphere of Action God and Religion and the Concernments thereof are nothing where either a selfish Spirit hath place or a covetous Humour reigns That Rule that is common Every Man for himself and God for us all It is the Effect of the lowest the shallowest the meanest sorriest Spirit that is in the whole Creation of God And that Frame and Temper of Mind doth make a Man uncapable of Self-enjoyment In all Competition of Actions or Objects Man shou'd always prefer that that will do him Good and bring him to Perfection according to his inward Man For a Man is more by his Soul Ten thousand times than he is by his Body Thirdly I propose something in respect of others Suspect no Body before-hand till you have Ground and Cause from some Experience Take up against no Body upon bare report Impute no Evil to any of whom you do not know some And further Make fair Application in an honest Cause to any Person therein concern'd with a Confidence and Expectation that he will do what is fit And let him perceive your good Opinion of him If any thing in the World engage a Man this pre-conceiv'd Opinion and right Supposition will * engage and oblige him But observe the seasonable Time of Speaking And allow to every Man for his Pre-possession for his Anticipation Pre-conception and his Temper This is Christian Prudence and honest Policy And this will gain Advantage and increase Good-will And I dare say both Reason and Religion will allow this Respect of Persons There is another kind of Respect of Persons which we disallow But this Respect of Persons there is good Cause for and it may be used It is a great Piece of Prudence to apply handsomely to Men and to avoid the darker Part of Men and take them at the best And some are very good at it These are the Proposals I make which tend to the enlarging a Man's Soul and amplifying him and qualifying him to be an Instrument to advance and promote the Good of the World * Lastly This is a Challenge to the Corrupt Guise of this World and the degenerate Practice that is in it Do we profess our selves to be Christians Do we do LOVELY Things How is the World apostatized from the Divine Nature and degenerate into the Devilish Nature For commonly our Parts are employed and our Time spent in studying and contriving Defiances one against another In the Creation God made the Second in order to the First And if we answer the Order of our Creation we shou'd be so much the more provided for by how many more there are in the World It should be one Man a God to another But we through our Degeneracy make it to be every Man a Wolf to another For we see Men glory in their Cunning and their Craft And a cunning and crafty Man he is called a wise Man But This is no true Wisdom Whatsoever Things are of GOOD REPORT Things may be of good Report two Ways There are Majora Insigniora Jura The greater the higher more universal famous Rights And there are Minutiora Leviora The lesser more particular and obscurer Rights And there is difference between these two both in respect of the Matter and of the Evidence The former need no external Report no foreign Determination they are above it Loquuntur Res The Things speak themselves And the Voice and Language of Things is more certain and infallible then Sense of Persons liable to Prejudice who may be incompetent to make Report through Impotency or Partiality But the Voice of Things is uniform constant and what cannot be practised upon All Men acknowledge Piety Devotion towards God Justice Righteousness amongst Men Sobriety Temperance as every Man's Measure conducible to his Health conservative of his Life And we may take that to be the Sense of Human Nature wherein all Men agree Who commends not Modesty before Impudency Faithfulness before Treachery Charity before selfishness Mercifulness before Cruelty Moderation before Insolency and Usurpation Sobriety before Intemperance Love and Good-will before Malice and Envy As for the Latter Rights In these the Reason of the Thing is less evident and the Right of the Case * is of more hazardous and uncertain Determination because of Change or Variety of Circumstances There is some what a different account in this Case in respect of the Liberty of the interior Man in Foro interno as we speak and of the exterior Man in foro externo In the former no Creature hath Cognizance therefore doth not intermeddle As concerning the Acts of the external Man not only the Sense of one's private Judgment is to be taken into Consideration but in the Use of our Liberty a just Regard is to be had to others to Government and Authority to the Sense of other People to the maintaining of Charity For Universal Charity is a Thing final in Religion Wherefore the maintaining and enlarging Love and Good-will Order and Peace are to be preferr'd before the Use of Externals in particular Cases Modesty Humility Meekness Charity and such Vertues do sanctifie by their Presence and Operations Which cannot be affirm'd of those Things which belong to the Instrumental part of Religion as Prayer Hearing of Sermons Receiving the Sacraments all which are esteem'd from their Respect to an End and are then crown'd when they attain their Purpose For Scripture tells us * as to those who are immoral that the Prayers of Persons in such Circumstances may be Abomination I put these * Things in Competition with the other not to prejudice these but to prefer the other These are the Means the other the End Our Saviour justifies this Distinction between the greater and lesser Rights Judgment Mercy Faith the weightier Matters these ought ye to have done Tithe of Mint Annise Cummin these ought ye not to have left undone So far as Conscience may be concern'd there is Certainty enough in Things We may have sufficient Assurance from the Reason of Things themselves or their Reference to the End from the clear Report of so
strange Fire before the Lord. One fire to Reason seemed as good as another to offer Sacrifice with But because there was an Institution to the contrary whether they did it wilfully or carelesly they perished by Fire Also let us remember the Bethshemites who being transported with Joy and Affection looked into the Ark a Thing contrary to God's Appointment to the Hazard of their Lives Likewise Uzza in his Zeal when he found the Ark ready to fall as he thought put to his Hand to keep it up and was slain for his Labour it being contrary to God's Institution When we think of these things seriously we shall find cause him abundance thankfully to acknowledge God's Goodness that we are engaged only where the Nature of the thing doth engage and that we are not made liable and obnoxious to god in things that are not Evil in themselves and hurtful for us It is greatly hazardous for a Finite and Fallible Creature to be limited and confined by Will and Pleasure where there is no Reason that the Mind of Man can discern why he should be restrained For we are mightily for Liberty And unless we be satisfied in the Reason of the thing we have a great Desire to look into that which we are prohibited 'T is hard to be subject to Will * as it is Natural to yield to Reason Therefore it is not a thing that we should affect to come into Bondage or be determined more than God hath determined us Let these things be weighed by those Men who love to multiply Positive Institutions and to determine the Liberty of our Minds in Circumstances and Punctilio's in things * where God hath not limited or determined us For my part I will not part with that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And this is one Part of our Liberty I must confess the greatest of all is to free us from the Guilt and Power of our Sins but the next is this to put us out of Danger and free us from the Obligation of Conscience where Reason and the Matter it self doth not oblige us The Moral Part of Religion is indispensably necessary because every piece of * It doth sanctifie by its Presence As * for instance Humility Modesty Righteousness Temperance Reverence of Deity and the like These Things cannot be in any Man's Mind but they make him Holy Whereas the Instrumental Part of Religion doth not sanctifie by Presence For you may pray and hear the Word and receive the Sacrament and be wicked still But every * thing of the Moral Part of Religion doth sanctifie by Presence just as a Remedy or Cordial or Diet doth do a Man good by receiving it * But to speak now * of the great Benefits * that accrue to us by our Saviour's being in our Nature He doth acquire the Right of Redeeming us and makes Satisfaction in that Nature that had trangressed And he doth repair the ruined Nature of Man by dwelling in it and by working Righteousness in it by which means he hath wrought out all Malignity and naughty Habits by contrary Acts the Acts of Sin and Vice by Acts of Vertue and Goodness the Acts of Intemperance by Acts of Sobriety and Temperance Now let us look for the Explication of * this in our selves in our Nativity from above in Mental Transformation and DEIFICATION Do not stumble at the use of the Word For we have Authority for the use of it in Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 4. Being made Partakers of the Divine Nature which is in effect our Deification Also let it appear in our Reconciliation to God to Goodness Righteousness and Truth in our being created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness It was a signal Evidence of a Divine Power in the Disciples of Christ at the first Publication of the Gospel that it wrought so great an Alteration in all those that did receive it The Envious Debauched and Disobedient It made Temperate Sober and Religious Humble and Good-natured It converted the Embracers of it to a Life more suitable to Reason and Nature and all Moral Vertue * We may observe from this that nothing of the Natural State is base or vile Whatsoever hath Foundation in God's Creation or whatsoever the Providence of God calls any Man unto it is not base For our Saviour himself took Flesh and Blood and that is the meaner Part of Humane Nature Whatsoever is Natural hath nothing of Disparagement in it nothing that exposeth a Man to Contempt and Scorn And this may satisfie those that are in the meanest Offices and Employments that there is nothing base that hath place in God's Creation That which is Vile Base and Filthy is unnatural and depends upon unnatural Use and degenerate Practice Also observe here the great Honour put upon Humane Nature when the Son of God came into it when Divine Goodness did take into Consideration the Rise and Advance of Created Nature and to recover and raise It to all possible Perfection He did take to himself a peculiar relation to Humane Nature Then let us take Consolation in this For it cannot be thought that God did so great a thing and of so deep a Consideration as to unite Humane Nature to his own Existence and to set it at his own Right hand to the Admiration of Angels for he saith let all the Angels of God worship him that he did such a thing as this is to beget a Notion or to raise a Talk and make a Wonder in the World and put the Creation into a Gaze and Astonishment God doth nothing for so light an end and especially not his great things such as these which call for Fear and Reverence on our part This we may say is one of the greatest Works * of God This if possible doth transcend the very Creation of God at first for there was nothing * there to resist him but in the Restoration there was Malignity and Sin God did this therefore for the great and unconceivable Good of that Nature that he hath so highly honoured Therefore what Consolation should we have from it what Declaration should we make of it what Thanksgiving for it Having this Knowledge how should we rejoyce in God and be above the World * how should we depress the immoderate Motions of Sense and savour Spiritual things that so we may the better understand this great Mystery by which we are so highly honoured And this is the proper use of this High and Noble Argument Therefore let this be explicated verified and fulfilled in us For this you must understand that Religion is not satisfied in Notions but doth indeed and in reality come to nothing unless it be in us not only Matter of Knowledge and Speculation but doth establish in us a Frame and Temper of Mind and is productive of a holy and vertuous Life Therefore let these things take effect in us in our Spirituality and Heavenly-mindedness in our Conformity to the Divine
STILL VOICE And as we are not fit to attend upon God nor to enjoy Him so likewise not to enjoy our selves In such a Temper we have not the free Use of our Reason nor any true Content For what is all the World to a troubled and discomposed Mind Therefore give me Serenity of Mind Calmness of Thought For these are better Enjoyments than any thing without us Therefore for these Things will I daily praise God For upholding the Foundation of Reason and Understanding which are so much in Danger by the Distemper of the Mind For continuing me in the Priviledge of Liberty and Freedom for hereby I can present God with a Free-will-Offering and bring unto him the Consent of my Mind * And for giving me Power of Self-enjoyment and of taking Content in my self One may have much in the World as to Right and Title and yet have nothing as to Power of Self-enjoyment * For in the Case of Misgovernment by Lust Passion and Self-will we dispossess our selves of our selves and all that we may call OURS 'T is a sinful Temper to be hard to Please and ready to take Offence It is grievous to those about us And we shall soon suffer for it For Men will soon withdraw from unquiet and turbulent Spirits Solomon hath observed that he that would have a Friend must behave himself Friendly But these Men are unacceptable every-where especially to those that are under them for as for Equals and Superiors they will soon withdraw But every good Man will take Care of those that are under him And upon this Head I shall observe Three or Four Things First That we ought to make the Lives of all those that live with us as happy and comfortable as we can and their Burthens as easie as may be Let our Advantages be never so much above theirs and our Power over them never so great yet we should equally consider Things and do as we would be done unto if in their Circumstances Consider * also that Things may as well be done with Gentleness and by fair Means as otherwise And that Things that are so done are done with Pleasure and Satisfaction and will better hold For Things that are done by Force and with Offence will no longer last than that Force continues There is more Care to please when Men are not Captious Peevish Froward or easie to take Offence Men that are often Angry and for every Triffle in a little time will be little regarded and so loose the Advantage of giving grave Reproof They will say 'T is the Manner of the Person and no one can help it And so these Persons will be less considered when they reprove with Reason Displeasure when there is weighty Reason for it may prove to the Offender a Principle of Reformation and Amendment But hasty and passionate Men are not considered Their Fury is looked upon as a Clap of Thunder And no one will much regard it Take notice what Care God hath taken for the Welfare and Happiness of those that are Inferiors and under the Power of others The Parent must not provoke his Children to wrath Parents that have all Authority over their Children must take Care how they use it The Husband must not be bitter against his Wife He must give her no harsh Language but give Honour to her as the weaker Vessel Masters must render to their Servants that which is Just and Equal Forbearing Threatnings Knowing that they have a Master in Heaven Then for those that labour for us that are but for a Day and are gone again God hath required that their Wages be payed them Otherwise their Cry will come up into the Ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth Then for Strangers that are without Friends Relations or Acquaintance What Care doth God take for them Be not forgetful to entertain Strangers Then for the Widow and the Fatherless Persons that are most helpless What Care hath God taken for them So great that He will be revenged on those that wrong them and on the contrary will reckon those to have pure Religion and undefiled that shall visit the Widows and Fatherless in their Affliction This is the RULE The lower any ones Condition is in the World by so much the more he his pitiable and so much the greater Care should we take to ease him He having Burthen enough upon him without any other Addition to his Misery I will conclude this Discourse with Three Rules Whosoever will do his Work with fair Words I would not have him chid into it I would never blame any one for common Incidencies such as might befal my self or any one else * Nor ever blame any one for not doing that wherein he had not particular Direction You will say these are LOW Things to be spoken in a Pulpit But let them be as Low as they will the Disorder of our Minds many times is occasioned for want of them And great Disquietness is occasioned in many Families for want of that peaceable Temper which my Text speaks of SERMON VI. PSALM XVIII 21 22 23. For I have kept the Ways of the Lord And have not wickedly departed from my God For all his Judgments were before me And I did not put away his Statutes from me I was also upright before him And I kept my self from mine Iniquity I Am now to give you an Account of the Effect and Demonstration of RELIGION in the Subject If we would not be imposed upon let us take just Measures The Text tells us what Judgment we are to make of Religion and Religious Persons * And by it we may learn how to guide our selves with Judgment in a Matter of the highest Nature * viz. if we proceed by the Rule which in the Schools we call a Demonstration by the Effect which I take to be the best As for instance if you come to prove there is a God the best Account is from the Effect Prove the Cause from the Effect Prove the Being of a GOD from the World that he hath made and is his Work so prove RELIGION from its Operation a Religious Person from what he does And this is the Way which our Saviour hath taught us A good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit c. For we are in great Danger of making false Judgment both concerning Persons and Things This we often find that the World esteems a Person of a pleasant Humour and that hath a good * Assurance a good Put-off and value for himself especially if he be a Man of a ready Wit * and that such a Man shall meet with Respect and Reputation much above what there is Ground for and more a great deal than those that are of far greater Worth of higher Improvements and better Spirits Thus are Men esteemed not so much from Integrity and Simplicity not from Pureness of Mind and exact Walking according to the Difference of Good and Evil but as they comply
with several Mens Fancies and Opinions Now I will make use of my Text to describe and lay out a truely GOOD Man one that is real in his Religion one that keeps the ways of the Lord c. and that keeps himself from his Iniquity And the better to explain my self I must observe * to you in the first place a Different State of Men a State of Wickedness and Sin when Evil prevails And a State of Religion when Goodness and Vertue take place And these two differ in degree as Heaven and Hell For it is a great Mistake for us to think that all of Heaven or Hell is hereafter for both the one and the other is in measure and degree begun here For Heaven and Hell are not so much a Place as a State They that are reconciled to God in the Frame and Temper of their Minds and that live according to the Law of Heaven the everlasting and immutable Rules of Goodness Righteousness and Truth may truly be said to have begun Heaven while they are upon Earth But they who confound the Difference of Good and Evil and who care not to approve themselves to God but do without difference or distinction These are Partakers of the Devilish Nature and are in the Hellish State There may be Weaknesses Failings Mistakes Misapprehensions some Errors in Judgment and Opinion there may be false Conceits in some things about Religion and all these within the STATE OF RELIGION where Men are substantially honest and mean GOD Goodness and Truth and live in all good Conscience towards God We read Genesis 20. how God did apologize for Abimelech tho' he was not altogether without fault for he ought to have taken more care But yet he was innocent as to the great Transgression and therefore God saith I know thou didst it in the Integrity of thy Heart So St. Paul doth alleviate his Persecution of the Saints Acts 26. 9. I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth And 1 Tim. 1. 13. he saith he obtain'd Mercy because he did it ignorantly and in Unbelief Therefore we must conclude that none of those things that I have named come within the compass of wickedly departing from God But all those that are sincere in their Religion may yet say I have kept the ways of the Lord c. And thus it is reported of those good Men and Women that are upon Record in Holy Scripture Zechariah and Elizabeth are both said to walk in all the Statutes and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Neither is this particular to them but unto all good Men. This is the Testimony of all the Worthies in the Old Testament that they walked before the Lord in Integrity And this is RELIGION not in the Notion only and in Speculation but in POWER and in TRUTH Wherever it is less or otherwise it is with a double Heart not with a whole Heart as you read Psalm 12. 2. So in St. James we read of a double-minded Man Religion is not satisfied with a bare Profession and partial Reformation This may be for other Ends and Purposes and not out of Love to God and Righteousness But we must harmonize with the Nature Mind and Will of God and find a Displacency and Animosity in our Souls against Evil and this from the Love of Righteousness and Goodness And therefore to bring this home being a matter of the greatest consequence even that by which we must stand or fall I will tell you that this Text is not verified in any of these Cases First In the Case of Fundamental Ignorance Secondly In the Case of great Negligence and Carelesness Thirdly In the Case of voluntary Consent to known Iniquity First It cannot be verified in the Case of Fundamental Ignorance I call it Fundamental IGNORANCE in answer to Fundamental KNOWLEDGE For there is a Knowledge necessary to make a Man good I will not take upon me to determine the least that may be But this is certain there is some degree of Knowledge necessary to make a Man GOOD Therefore to instance in two things that are Fundamentally necessary to Religion and Conscience 1 st To know that there is a GOD and that we all ought to reverence adore and worship Him God hath made Men to know that He is and if they know that He is they must know that they ought to reverence adore and worship Him 2 dly They must have Knowledge of those great Crimes which are against God's Honour which are against the State of a Creature and unworthy in respect of God And this Knowledge I hold Fundamental and indispensable and must be where-ever there is a Capacity And from this I can excuse none but Infants and Idiots that are not come to the Use of Reason or are deprived of it All else may know that there is a God and * may know the great Instances of Evil such as Murder Adultery Blasphemy Perjury and the like I might add a third Instance which yet I do not mention with the like Evidence as the former to wit that there will be Rewards and Punishments in the next World That God will sooner or later judge the World and controul the Wickedness of it and reward eminent Vertue and Goodness Such a Belief as this tho' it be not equally knowable to the other two yet it is knowable and is necessary for the encouraging of Vertue and Discouragement of Vice and Wickedness This is the first thing Those that are ignorant of the things that are Fundamentally necessary to RELIGION cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from God For these have wickedly departed from Him altho' they have no more than Natural Knowledge and those Principles with which at first God created Man For these things are manifest to all Men And all Men are A LAW unto themselves in these Matters And therefore the Apostle saith that God is not far from every one of us And that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World and those things that he hath made So that they who deny his Eternal Power and Godhead are without excuse Secondly They who are greatly careless and neglective of God cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord c. For two things are absolutely necessary to the State of Religion and wherein we ought to take great care to wit Judgment of Right and Conscience to do accordingly The Judgment of what is Right and Wrong True and False Good and Evil do require great Care Diligence and Pains Nay let me ask you what there is in the whole Life of Man that is valuable or worthy but doth require Care Pains Industry and Diligence Go over the several Employments of the World The Husbandman plows and sows and doth every thing necessary to his Land before he expects a Crop Take the Merchant in
the way of his Trade He walks from East to West and sends his Goods far and near for the increase of his Wealth What Diligence and Care do Men take to preserve Life and to maintain themselves in Health and Strength and provide for their Families To get an Estate and to keep it We see in every thing that is to be done for the Concerns of this Life there is Care and Caution to be used And shall there be no Care no Pains no Diligence nor Industry used to govern our FACULTIES to moderate our APPETITES for the several Uses and Purposes of Religion which is of the highest Concernment of all others Wherefore in the first place to THE STATE OF RELIGION and * in order to uphold and maintain the same there must be Care taken to discern the Difference between Good and Evil True and False Right and Wrong For these are the great Points of Religion At the Knowledge of these Religion begins And this is every Body's Charge according to his Capacity Opportunity and Ability And this is as necessary to preserve us from Cheats and Impostures as to know our Liberty Our first Work is to establish in our selves a Throne of Judgment throwly to know and understand our Duty and what is to be done what to be avoided And then in point of Practice and Choice to observe this Difference And if this be not done our Religion is to little purpose For it comes all to one not to make any Difference in things or not to observe that Difference The first thing in Religion is to refine a Man's Temper And the second to govern his Practice If a Man's Religion do not * this his Religion is a poor slender Thing and of little Consideration 'T is then only a naked Profession and fit to give him a Denomination I say such a Man's Religion is but of little value For it hath no Efficacy but falls short of the very Principles of Nature For they do certainly and constantly attain their several Effects The Sun the Moon the Stars Fire Air Earth and Water these never fail to act according to their several Principles and to attain their several Effects The Sun hath not fail'd for Six thousand years insomuch that we are surer of its Rising and Setting than we are of our selves Now shall all the Principles in Inferiour Nature throughout the whole Creation regularly constantly and certainly attain their Effects And shall there be only a Failure in the Principles of Reason and Religion But to proceed Thirdly Whosoever doth voluntarily consent to known Iniquity I am sure this Text cannot be verified of such a Person Men that do wittingly and willingly consent to that which their Judgment tells them at that time is Evil are represented in Scripture as sinning with a high hand and with a stiff neck and to resist the Holy Spirit and to commit the great Transgression Now of these the First * sort never made any entrance into Religion As for the second if they do any thing worthy of Religion 't is rather by chance than of choice As for the third they pass into a clean contrary State The first of these to wit those that are Fundamentally Ignorant they stumble at the very Threshold because Religion in every degree begins at some measure of KNOWLEDGE For can a Blind Man judge of Colours No more can a Man that is Fundamentally Ignorant be said to be Religious And as for those that are greatly Careless and Neglective it is uncertain what they will do that do not act by Rule and upon Consideration But as for the Third sort Those that give their Consent to that which is Evil These pass into the Contrary State and take a course to root out of their Minds the very Seeds of Goodness that were sown For so contrary Acts are apt to do No Habit doth absolutely determine the Act tho' it doth greatly dispose and incline to the Action Yet a HABIT may be utterly lost If a Man do for a long time forbear all Acts of Religion he is wanting to that which should continue the Habit. And if there be Contrary Acts the Contrary Habit will be begun and the more they are the more will the contrary Disposition be increased So that in time the Habit of Vertue shall not only be weakned but wholly wrought out and the contrary * Habit brought in This is the Course of things in Nature Every Habit begun is greatly weakned by a bare Forbearance of Acts For every thing must be conserved in the way it was produced A Disposition is first introduced by some Acts and if you do not introduce Act upon Act the Disposition will fail For things that are not brought to a State of Perfection will return back again if they be not maintain'd in the same way that they were produc'd Therefore the Towardliness of some Persons to Vertue is by Intermission of Acts abated and when they come to put forth contrary Acts it is quite expelled And this is the Ground and Foundation of Achitophel's Counsel to Absalom He bids him do a Lewd Act that he might be confirm'd in his wicked Design he had against his Father Therefore let us close with that Good Advice which Jesus the Son of Syrach gives Ecclesiasticus 21. 2. Flee from Sin as from a Serpent The least that can be expected from Religion and Conscience to God is that by means thereof Men be kept from giving their Consent to known Iniquity and be enabled to escape the Pollutions of the World If the Creation below us by their Natural Instinct always do those things that are Regular and attain their End shall not these higher Principles of Reason and Understanding do the like and always preserve us from known Evil and determine us to that which is Morally Good The Principle of Reason Knowledge and Judgment is the highest Principle and transcendent to all others The Principle by which the Sun doth enlighten the World is not to be put in competition with the Reason of Mind and Understanding To which if we add the Aid of God's Grace which doth never fail for He doth prevent us with his Grace it is a Shame and Reproach to us if we vary from the Rule and Measure of Vertue sin against our own Light and Conscience and do worse when we know better I shall now proceed to declare the Purpose and Intent of RELIGION What It aims at and how It doth affect the Subject And that I will do in these Particulars I will consider Religion in its Motion towards God What it doth in the Person in which it is How it appears * and carries it self towards others even to the whole Creation but more especially towards them with whom we daily converse How Religion stands affected towards the Things that are without us or about us either the Necessaries and Conveniencies or Superfluities of Life * And what Religion doth when it is finally
Beniamin Whichcot S. S. T. Professor Select Sermons OF D r WHICHCOT In TWO PARTS MAT. XI 15. He that hath Ears to hear let him hear LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row MDCXCVIII THE PREFACE AMongst those many Things which are made Publick it may be thought perhaps of Sermons that they are of any other the least wanted and for the future least likely to be found wanting since to that rich and inexhaustible Store with which the Learned and Orthodox Divines of England have already furnished us there is daily fresh addition from worthy and able Hands Neither have we cause to fear a Cessation in this kind or that so great a Blessing is likely to fail us for the future having such security not only from the unwearied Zeal of present Divines of whom we may always hope a worthy Succession but from the just esteem which the Publick never fails to shew for such pious Discourses Upon which account we find that many of these are every day made Publick and as it were forced into the World notwithstanding the great Modesty of their Authors whose Humble Thoughts and devoutly resigned Affections lead them not towards Eminence and Advancement in the World It may seem strange therefore that in such an Age as this any one should be so officious as to search after and publish the Sermons of a Man long since dead who himself never meant to Publish any or thought so highly of himself as that he could benefit the World by such a Publication It is certain that we must not ever imagine nor can it enter into a Mind truly Christian that because we see not an apparent Change for the better in the Lives of Christian Professors that therefore all Preaching is ineffectual or that here in England the Labours of the most Eminent Divines that perhaps the World ever afforded have been of no use at all It might be said with the same reason tho' very prophanely and wickedly that because the Christians are not reported to exceed the other Nations of the World in Probity and Good Living but are said to be rather inferior in this respect to the Civilized People whether Pagan or Mahometan lying round them that therefore the Christian Religion is of no effect at all nor any ways operative upon the Lives of its Professors But if we consider this as becomes us and not perversely as many do it will be found that we are even in this sense the most highly indebted to Christianity and should look upon It as the greatest Blessing imaginable not only for its spiritual Advantages which are Unspeakable but for its Temporal Benefits and Securities inasmuch as that Mankind being so inclinable to Ill we should have a Religion so full of all good Precepts and so enforcing with respect to all the Duties of Morality and Justice So that our Amazement ought rather to be how Men with such a Religion should lead such Lives and how Malice Hatred or Division should have place in such Societies as these which we might expect to see distinguished from all others rather by a perfect Harmony and Agreement than by the fiercest Quarrels Contentions and Animosities And indeed when we consider the Nature of Preaching how excellent an Order and Establishment it is how highly raised and magnified in the Christian World When we consider Numbers of Holy Men set apart for this great Work having all advantages given them the better to set forth those Glorious Truths of Revelation and to create a Reverence of Religion in the Minds of Men when we consider the Solemnity of a Church-Assembly and the awful Presence and Authority of the Christian Orator we may be apt to wonder perhaps why we see not greater and more happy Effects hereof in the World However we must of Necessity conclude That this Institution being undoubtedly so powerful a support of our Religion if such Assemblies as these were not upheld if such Authority as this did not subsist the consequence would be that as in a little time there would be no more Christianity left in the World so neither any Morality since notwithstanding all the Helps of Preaching and the Assistance and Support which Virtue receives from hence the Lives of Men are still so far from being Reform'd and the World so little Improved in these latter Ages But how reverently soever we have cause to think concerning this Institution and the undoubted good Effects of it upon Mankind and whatever high Opinion and Esteem we may justly have of their Performance in whose Hands this Power is placed it seems not wholly impossible but that there may be some Defect in this great Affair and that the Causes of ill Success may not lye altogether in the Depravity Perverseness or Stupidity of Mankind who are the Hearers and Readers of these Doctrines In some Countries and amongst some sorts of Christians we have seen that the Whole of this Institution has not been appropriated to Spirituals but that a great part of those Divine Exhortations have had something in common with the Policies of the World and the Affairs of Government And of whatsoever Benefit this may have been to Mankind or to the Peace of the Christian World it must be own'd that Preaching it self will be so much the less apt to make any happy Revolution in Manners as it has at any time been serviceable to Revolutions in State or to the support of any other Interest than that of Christ's Kingdom Nor do we find since the Arts of Government and Mysteries of Religion have been thus suited together that either has been much advantag'd by the Union it having never yet appear'd that Divinity has been greatly better'd by Policy or that Policy has been any where mended by Divinity Amongst those Writers who have been forward in making this Unprosperous Alliance and Building a Political Christianity there has been * one of our Nation in the Time wherein our Author liv'd who whether he may have been serviceable any way to the Civil Government or Christian Church it may be concluded at least that he has done but very ill Service in the Moral World And however other parts of Philosophy may be obliged to him Ethicks will appear to have no great share in the Obligation He has indeed with great Zeal and Learning been oppos'd by all the eminent and worthy Divines of the Church of England And had the same Industry been applied to the Correction of his Moral Principles as has been bestow'd in refuting some other of his Errours it might perhaps have been of more Service to Religion in the Main This is He who reckoning up the Passions or Affections by which Men are held together in Society live in Peace or have any Correspondence one with another forgot to mention Kindness Friendship Sociableness Love of Company and Converse Natural Affection or any thing of this kind I say Forgot because I can scarcely think so
ill of any Man as that he has not by experience found any of these Affections in himself and consequently that he believes none of them to be in others But in the place of other Affections or good Inclinations of whatever kind this Author has substituted only one Master-Passion Fear which has in effect devour'd all the rest and left room only for that infinite Passion towards Power after Power Natural as he affirms to All Men and never ceasing but in Death So much less Good-nature has he left with Mankind than what he allows the worst of Beasts Having allotted to us in the way of our Nature such mischievous Passions as are unknown to them and not so much as allow'd us any Degree of their Good ones such as they All are known to have and are never wanting to exert towards their own Kind By which Excellency of Nature so little reckon'd upon in the Case of Mankind their common Interest is duly serv'd and their Species propagated and maintain'd Had not the Poyson of these Immoral and in reality Atheistical Principles been diffused more than 't is easie to imagine at that time especially when Dr. Whichcot appear'd we should perhaps where Morality was concern'd have heard less of Terror and Punishment and more of Moral Rectitude and Good-nature At least it should not have grown customary to explode Good-nature and detract from that Good which is ascrib'd to Natural Temper and is accounted Natural Affection as having Ground and Foundation in Meer NATURE On the contrary it would have been the Business of those who had manag'd the Cause of Religion to have contended for these better Dispositions and to have shewn how deep a Root and Foundation they had in Human Nature and not just contrary-wise to have built on the Ruine of these For with some people this was then become a Method to prove Christianity Revelation was to owe its Establishment to the Depression and Lowering of such Principles as these in the Nature of Man And the Weakness of these was made the Strength of Religion As if Good-nature and Religion were Enemies A Thing indeed so unthought of amongst the Heathens that PIETY which was their best Word to signifie Religion had more than half its Sence in Natural and Good Affection and stood not only for the Adoration and Worship of God but for the Natural Affections of Parents to their Children and of Children to their Parents of Men to their Native Country and indeed of all Men in their several Relations one to another It must be confess'd that it has been the Reproach of some Sects of Christians amongst us that their Religion appear'd to be in a manner opposite to Good-nature and founded in Moroseness Selfishness and Ill-will to Mankind Things not easily reconcileable with a Christian Spirit But certainly it may be said of the Church of England if of any Church in the World that this is not Her Spirit But it is by Characters and Features just contrary to these that this Church shews Herself above all others most worthily and nobly Christian. It is certain that there is nothing more contended for by those who would not willingly admit a Deity nor is there any thing of greater Use to them in their Way of Reasoning than to have it pass as current that there are in Man no Natural Principles inclining him to Society nothing that moves him to what is Moral Just and Honest except a Prospect of some different Good some Advantage of a different Sort from what attends the Actions themselves Nor is it strange that they who have brought themselves off from so much as believing the Reality of any Ingenuous Action perform'd by any of Mankind meerly through Good Affection and a Rectitude of Temper should be backward to apprehend any Goodness of that sort in a Higher Nature than that of Man But it is strange to conceive how Men who pretend a Notion and Belief of a Supream Power acting with the greatest Goodness and without any Inducement but that of Love and Good-will should think it unsuitable to a Rational Creature derived from Him to act after His Example and to find Pleasure and Contentment in Works of Goodness and Bounty without other Prospect But what is yet more unaccountable is that Men who profess a Religion where Love is chiefly enjoyn'd where the Heart is expresly call'd for and the outward Action without that is disregarded where Charity or Kindness is made all in all that Men of this Perswasion should combine to degrade the Principle of Good-nature and refer all to Reward which being made the only Motive in Mens Actions must exclude all worthy and generous Disposition all that Love Charity and Affection which the Scripture enjoyns and without which no Action is Lovely in the Sight of God or Man or in it self deserving of Notice or kind Reward But perhaps one Reason of this Misfortune has been that some Men who have meant sincerely well to Religion and Vertue have been afraid least by advancing the Principle of Good-nature and laying too great a Stress upon it the apparent Need of Sacred Revelation a Thing so highly Important to Mankind should be in some Measure taken away So that they were forced in a Manner to wound VERTUE and give way to the Imputation of being Mercenary and of Acting in a slavish Spirit in Ways of Religion rather than admit a sort of Rival in their Sense to the Faith of Divine Revelation Seeing that Christianity they thought would by this Means be made less necessary to Mankind if it should be allow'd that Men could find any Happiness in Vertue but what is in Reversion Thus one Party of Men fearing the Consequences which may be drawn from the Acknowledgment of Moral and Social Principles in Human-kind to the Proof a Deity 's Existence and another Party fearing as much from thence to the Prejudice of Revelation Each have in their turns made War if I may say so even on Vertue it self Having exploded the Principle of Good-nature all Enjoyment or Satisfaction in Acts of Kindness and Love all Notion of Happiness in temperate Courses and moderate Desires and in short all Vertue or Foundation of Vertue unless that perhaps be call'd Merit or Vertue which is left remaining when all Generosity free Inclination Publick-spiritedness and every thing else besides private Regard is taken away If this may be said to be our Case under this Dispute and that true Religion it self which is Love be thus endanger'd and Morality so ill treated between two such different and distant Parties if each of these notwithstanding their vast Disagreement do yet in this Matter so fatally agree to decry Human Nature and destroy the Belief of any immediate Good or Happiness in Vertue as a Thing any way suitable to our Make and Constitution there is then so much the more Need of some great and known Man to oppose this Current And here it is that
our Author has appear'd so signally Whatsoever says he some have said Man's Nature is not so untoward a Thing unless it be abused but that there is a secret Sympathy in Human Nature with Vertue and Honesty which gives a Man an Interest even in bad Men. God in infinite Wisdom has so contrived that if an Intellectual Being sink it self into Sensuality or any way defile and pollute it self then Miseries and Torments should befall it in this State VERTUE and VICE says he are the Foundations of Peace and Happiness or Sorrow and Misery There is inherent Punishment belonging to all Vice and no Power can divide or separate them For tho' God should not in a positive Way inflict Punishment or any Instrument of God punish a Sinner yet he would punish Himself his Misery and Unhappiness would arise from Himself Thus speaks our excellent Divine and truly Christian Philosopher whom for his appearing thus in Defence of Natural Goodness we may call the Preacher of Good-nature This is what he insists on every-where and to make this evident is in a Manner the Scope of all his Discourses And in conclusion of all this 't is hop'd that what has been here suggested may be sufficient to justifie the Printing of these Sermons As for our Author himself what his Life was how great an Example of that happy Temper and God-like Disposition which he labour'd to inspire how much he was for the Excellency of his Life and admirable Temper esteem'd and belov'd of all and even in the worst of Times when Feuds and Animosities on the Account of Religion were highest during the Time of the late great Troubles how his Character and Behaviour drew to him the Respect of all Parties so as to make him be remarkably distinguished how much in Esteem he was with the greatest Men and how many constant Hearers he had of the best Rank and greatest Note even of the most eminent Divines themselves this is sufficiently known And the Testimony which the late Arch-bishop Tillotson has given of him tho' it be in a Funeral Sermon is known to be in nothing superiour to his Desert The Sermons whieh are here Printed have been selected out of Numbers of others less perfect there being not any of our Author 's extant but such as were written after him at Church He having used no other than very short Notes not very legible Tho' these have been of great Use to the Publisher in whose Hands they have been The unpolish'd Style and Phrase of our Author who drew more from a College than a Court and who was more used to School-Learning and the Language of an University than to the Conversation of the fashionable World may possibly but ill recommend his Sense to the Generality of Readers And since none of these Discourses were ever design'd for the World in any other Manner than as he once for all pronounc'd them from the Pulpit they must of Necessity appear to have a Roughness in them which is not found in other Sermons more accurately penn'd by their Authors For tho' the Publisher has sometimes supplied him out of himself by transferring to a defective Place that which he found in some other Discourse where the same Subject was treated yet so great a Regard was had to the very Text and Letter of his Author that he would not offer to alter the least Word And wheresoever he has added any Thing to correct the most apparent Omission or Fault of the Pen-man he has taken Care to have it mark'd in different Characters That nothing might appear as our Author 's own which was not perfectly His. Tho' some others in the World have been very far from this Caution Since of late some things have been set out in our Author's Name which his best Friends disown to be his and which any one who studies him in his Genuine Works will easily know to be unworthy of him And now when these Disadvantages which have been mentioned are considered since they are no more than what sensible People will easily make Allowance for 't is presum'd there may be in the World some Persons who will notwithstanding think these Sermons to be of Worth and may perhaps discover in them some peculiar Beauties such as are not to be despised for want of that Ornament which might have accompany'd them I know that there are now growing up in the World too many who are prejudic'd against all Pulpit-Discourses and who in this prophane Age are led to think not only the Institution of Preaching but even the Gospel it self and our Holy Religion to be a Fraud But notwithstanding all the Prejudice of this kind 't is to be hop'd that even some of these Persons if they have any Candour left may be induced to applaud some Things that they may meet with here So as from hence perhaps to like Christianity the better This we may with Assurance say that were there besides ours any Religion Ancient or Modern that had so Divine a Man as this to shew these very Men would admire and reverence him and tho' a Priest of that Religion and bound to comply with establish'd Superstition would praise his Vertue and perhaps be the forwardest to extol his Sentences and Works in Opposition to our Sacred Religion But this is hard that even Heathen Religion and Paganism can be more mildly treated and cause less Aversion than Christianity To such Men as these I can say nothing further But if they who are thus set against Christianity cannot be won over by any Thing that they may find here yet we may assure our selves at least of this good Effect from hence that the excellent Spirit which is shewn here and that Vein of Goodness and Humanity which appears throughout these Discourses will make such as are already Christians to prize and value Christianity the more And the Fairness Ingenuity and Impartiality which they may learn from hence will be a Security to them against the contrary Temper of those other irreconcileable Enemies to our Holy Faith NOTE THAT whatever has been added by way of Suppliment to any defective Place whether it be one single Word or Particle is mark'd in different Characters with this Mark * prefix'd The Sermons are divided into Two Parts In the First Part the Foundations of Natural and Reveal'd Religion are laid and Christianity proved These being Sermons which properly succeed one another in this Order and were thus preach'd The Second Part contains several Sermons preach'd at several Times without Relation one to another on different Subjects of Religion and Morality ERRATA PAge 53. line 14. read sets us at p. 61. l. 10. r. Spiritual p. 92. l. 29. r. all but. p. 196. l. 13. r. Wariness p. 211. l. 14. r. hard p. 226. in the Margin r. John 18. p. 247. l. 21. r. Temper p. 271. l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 278. l. 19. r. Sheepishness p. 324. l. 4. r. disable p. 325. in
out of Gentilism and Judaism and in the Composition that he hath made so far as he hath added any thing of his own it is so contemptible to sober Reason and so contrary to those things that he hath taken out of the Old Testament that it is not hard to detect him for a Cheat and an Imposter For devest him but of those things which he stole out of the Bible and that which is his own will appear base vile and contemptible to the Reason of Mankind and most ridiculous Now if God had given Testimony to his Religion it would have been in a way of Reason and most agreeable to the Understandings of Men and not in a way of stupid Ignorance but in such a way as might challenge the greatest Opposers to find any thing contrary to those Prinples of Reason and Understanding which he hath planted in Man's Mind But as to Mahomet History doth declare him to be a Person of a Debauch'd Life and one that had not Credit in the time of his Life As to the great Factions that have been in the several Ages though they have been many Persons yet they have been but one Party and one Party is to be consider'd but as one Opinion for if there be a thousand Men in a Party it is but one Opinion and one single Person is as much as a whole Party All those of a Party are bound up to one Opinion * and to believe as their Party believes Therefore I except against those that have blindly gone on without Consideration For these have not acted by the Guidance of Humane Reason Now I shall give you some Intrinsick Arguments by which I shall convince those of their Wickedness and Folly that affect either Atheism or Infidelity The first is this which is the second Assurance we have of Divine Truth The Representation that Religion makes to the Mind of Man concerning God even such a Representation as the Mind of Man if duly used and well informed would conceive concerning him For God is represented Lovely Amiable and Beautiful in the Eyes of Men and what is said of God is worthy of Him and is consistent with what Man is made to think or know concerning him For this is truly Divine and God-like to do Good to relieve to compassionate and on the contrary it is Diabolical and most opposite to the Divine Nature to destroy to grieve to oppress And what a relation doth the Bible make of God to be Merciful Gracious Long-suffering Full of Compassion So * on the other side how is the Devilish Nature describ'd and represented to us The Devilish Nature is hurtful given to Malice Hatred and Revenge but the Divine Nature is placable and reconcileable ready to forgive full of Compassion and of great Goodness and Kindness This for the Representation that both Old and New Testament make of God and this is agreeable to the Sense of every awaken'd Mind All that the Gospel requires is Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Sum of all that is declared and super-added and nothing in all the World can be declared or required upon Terms of greater Justice Reason and Equity For will not any one acknowledge that if an Inferiour give Offence to a Superiour he ought to humble himself and ask Forgiveness Can any Man's Reason in the World be unsatisfied in this Then for Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is it not very equal and fit that if God will pardon Sin he should do it in what way he thinks fitting that if we go to him for Cure he should take that way to recover us which he thinks best So that these * Terms which are super-added to the Principles of God's Creation are such that there were never more equal fit and reasonable proposed to Men neither is this all but they are satisfactory to the Reason of our Mind For this is found to be true upon experience that the Mind of an Impenitent cannot receive Satisfaction nor Consolation in any other way Should all the Men in the World or an Angel from Heaven speak * Pardon to an Impenitent the Sense of Repentance would be better Satisfaction to his Mind beyond any Foreign Testimony whatsoever Though God should tell me my Sins were pardon'd I could not believe it unless I repent and deprecate God's Displeasure For Repentance is satisfactory to the Reason of my Mind is necessary to quiet my Conscience and I should not be rational or intelligent in Religion unless I satisfied my Mind which is to do what I can to revoke what I have done amiss and to deprecate God's Displeasure and then apply to him for his Grace in that way which he has declared Therefore these * Terms are not only just and equal in themselves but tend to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Mind * and are Restorative to our Natures Now the Representation that is made to us by Divine Truth either natural or reveal'd is that which is satisfactory and consonant to the Reason of our Mind it is that which doth justly represent God as he stands in opposition to the Cruel Devilish and Apostate Nature as being Placable Compassionate and Reconciling and so in the use of true Reason a Man would have thought and imagin'd concerning him that he would not be wanting to afford unto Men fitting Aid and Assistance for their Recovery And thus is God represented Lovely Beautiful and Amiable in the Eyes of the whole Creation * Another Intrinsick Argument which is the Third Assurance of Divine Truth is the ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth both Natural and Reveal'd hath upon the Mind and Understanding of Man For these Truths call Creatures to Self-resignation to commit themselves to God to depend upon him And how doth this tend to the Heart's Ease * and to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Soul For we know by Experience that even the best and wisest of us are oft times transcended by our Occasions and at a loss The Affairs of the World do transcend the Capacities of our Mind and Understanding Now Religion both Natural and Reveal'd doth teach us that in respect of God we are but Instruments assumed determin'd and limitted and it is no Disparagement to an Instrument if it fail that we are but Creatures and have our Dependence upon him And how doth this tend to the Satisfaction of our Minds because we know that God is wiser than we and that he is greater and every way better than we * So that if any thing succeed ill which either the Honour of God or the Good of his Creatures * seem'd to require then we being but God's Instruments and subservient to him * may know that we should not have failed unless God would Thus our Religion teaches us Submission to God Acknowledgment of him Dependence upon him It assignes to Man his proper place respectively to his true Center and so lays a Foundation of
eldest and first Acquaintance So Gen. 39. 9. How can I do this Wickedness We see that the Mind of a good Man takes Offence at Evil is grieved at it not at all fitted to it There arises a Displacency as in all Force and Contra-natural Impression Iniquity and Sin in the Conscience are of * the most mischievous Nature and Quality Should all the World agree and concur to sink a Man into a State of Lowness Beggary and Misery it would not be brought about so effectually by any other Means as by Sin and Guilt Where there is a pure Mind and an upright Conscience Innocency and Integrity there consequently are internal Peace Satisfaction Composure But on the other side if a Man have Sence of Guilt on his Mind where a Man knows himself faulty he fears uncertainly infinitely He fears every thing that appears yea that which doth not appear as the Poet expresses it for Guilt is always Prophetical of what is mischievous A Man may better apply here in this Case the Words of Ahab Kings 22. ver 8. than he did to the Prophet He always prophesies Evil concerning me 3 dly In respect of our selves As we consist of two Parts of Spirit and of Body so we shall fall under a double Obligation as to our selves And if we do our selves right we are under Obligation to our Minds doubly To inform our Understandings and to refine our Spirits by moral Principles The Mind is to be inform'd with Knowledge and refin'd with moral Vertue Ignorance and Improbity are mental Diseases And it is worse for a Man to have an ill affected Mind than an ill dispos'd Body It is so much the worse as the Mind of Man is better than his Body We find that Nature hath given Faculties And Industry and Study acquires Habits A neglected Mind is according to Solomon's Observation A Sluggard's Field grown over with Thistles and Thorns We may say of such a Man that he hath his Mind only for Salt But can any Man that is rational or sober think that God gave him an immortal Spirit but as Salt to keep his Body from Stench and Putrifaction The Mind being Superiour is not to be subjected to the Body nor to the things of the Body neither ought there to be an unequal Distribution of Attendance but according to the Proportion of the Worth and Value We ought to improve our Minds so far as much over and above as our Minds do transcend the Body Whosoever is proud and conceited whosoever is intemperate lascivious or wanton he doth hold the Truth in Unrighteousness For these things have Foundation and are grounded in Man * viz. Sobriety Modesty and an humble Sense the Desires of Nature are moderate and do keep within bounds So that in whatsoever Miscarriages Men do fall in all these they do go against their Light and hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Therefore Vertue in every kind is according to the Sense of Humane Nature the Dictates of Reason and Understanding and the Sense of Man's Mind And Vice in every kind is grievous monstrous and unnatural A Man forces himself when he is vicious and a Man kindly uses himself when he acts according to the Rules of Vertue And this is so true that all those that have abused themselves all but habituated Sinners understand that Vertue is conservative to the Nature of Man and that all Evil Practices destroy it Vertue is conservative to the Reason of Man's Mind by Sobriety and Modesty for these keep Men in their Wits And then it preserves the Health and the Strength of our Bodies by Chastity and by Temperance Thus have I shewn you the three Fundamentals of Religion the three great Materials of Conscience which are immutable unalterable and indispensible that are settled in the very Foundation of God's Creation I have also shew'd you that Vertue is connatural and well-founded and * that Vice is unnatural and destructive to the Nature of Man So that there is no Man hath internal Peace that is either neglective of his Duty to God or that is unrighteous or that is intemperate as to the use of the things of the Body or intoxicated by fond Conceits in the Sense of his Mind For as it is requisite and comely that Sobriety be the Mind's Temper so * it is that there be a moderate and sober use of the things of the Body For Nature is content with a few things That which is violent is unnatural That Excess which is unhealthy for the Body doth also stupifie the Mind So that upon this account also Vice is unnatural * What is contrary to the Order of Reason is contrary to the State of Nature in Intellectuals Those that are ungodly or unrighteous in these three great Instances that bear no Reverence to God that do not act towards their fellow-Creatures according to the Rules of Justice that abuse their Bodies do not govern their Minds * neither improve them in Knowledge nor refine them by Vertue All these do controul their Natural Light and are self-condemn'd Now if the Unrighteous and Ungodly are self-condemn'd can it be imputed to God as Severity to condemn them That Judge will be excused from all Severity who passes Sentence of Execution upon a Malefactor * whom his own Conscience accuses This will be the World's Condemnation that where Men either did know or might know they go against their Light that Men put out the Candle of God in them that they may do Evil without Check or Controul that Men take upon them to controul the settled and immutable Laws of Everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth which is the Law of Heaven that Men are bold to confound Order and Government in God's Family for so the World is that Men do Evil knowingly in the use of their Liberty and Freedom whereas God himself in whom there is the Fulness of all Liberty doth declare of himself that all his Ways are Ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth And can God by Power or Priviledge do that which is not just Is there any Unrighteousness in God God forbid Yet those that have Liberty but by Participation pretending the Use of Liberty do that which is not fit to be done This will be the World's Condemnation In the case of Sin there is internal Guilt a Man doth wrong the Principles of his Mind he breaks his Internal Peace and will rue it to Eternity The Judgment of God at the last day will be easie for there will be none to be condemn'd but what were condemn'd before For Man's Misery arises out of himself and is not by Positive Infliction Men run upon Mistakes the Wicked and Prophane think that if God would they may please themselves and no harm done and that it is the Will of God only that limits and restrains them and they think that they were out of Danger if God would forbear a Positive Infliction This is the Grand Mistake Hell is not a Positive Infliction
Juice or Glebe of Earth should produce such Variety of Colours We say in Natural Philosophy we know not the Modes of any thing No Man knoweth the Mode how his Soul and Body are united How the several Particles of Matter meet We are puzzled to know what Motion is We can give no Account of these Things Now there being an Amplitude and Fulness of Being in God he is the more intelligible He hath all Being perfectly in him He is therefore more knowable than Creatures that are of limited confin'd narrow Beings The divided separated scatter'd Perfections of the whole Creation are united in God and with that Advance and Improvement extended to infinite Perfection 2 dly The Ways of our knowing do more truly hold of God than of any thing else * There are two Ways of coming to the Knowledge of Things The Way of Perfection and the Way of Negation By these two Ways we come to a more full Knowledge 1. In the Way of Perfection we cannot exceed we need not fear to add to much If you speak of Man's Soul you may say too much But speaking of God you cannot transcend Divine Existence in the Enumeration of any Perfections If we would express a Notion of our Maker we should employ our Mind and Understanding to find out what is best and what is most perfect and then attribute and ascribe it to God And this is the best Way to come to the Knowledge of God 2. In the Way of Negation we are also certain For we cannot remove Imperfection Contraction Limitation far enough from him Therefore we say that Words and Phrases are all to be purg'd and purified from their Contraction and Limitation before we can ascribe them to God Therefore where in Scripture God is represented by the Eyes or other Parts of our Body we must not understand these things formally but in a Way of Perfection So that our Ways of knowing do more truly hold of God than of any thing else For in the Way of adding Perfection we cannot do too much And in the Way of Limitation we cannot take away too much 3 dly Our Relation to God We stand nearer related to God than we do to any thing in the World Our Souls and Bodies are not nearer related than our Souls to God God is more inward to us than our very Souls In him we live move and have our Being God is nearer to us than what is most our selves Also it is the natural and proper Employment of Mind and Understanding to make Search and Enquiry after God The wise Man says God is known by the Fitness and Proportion of one thing to another Mind and Understanding in Man is given on purpose that Man should search after God and acknowledge him So that there is a greater Propriety of Man's Rational Faculties to God than there is of his Eye to Light or his Ear to Sound And it is of greater Deformity for a Man to be void of Sence of Deity than for any Man to be blind so as not to see 4 thly Our Dependance upon God his Conservation of us and his Co-operation with us this leads us to know him Universal and general Causes have ready Acknowledgment Because to them so many things are beholding Aristotle well observes the Sun which is the universal Cause doth concur with every particular Cause to every Production So the Psalmist Nothing is hid from the Heat of it For tho' the Earth be not perceptive of the Light of the Sun because of its Grossness and Opacity yet it hath the Vertue of it So God is acknowledg'd God's concerning himself in our Affairs and our Dependance upon him hath a kind of Universal Acknowledgment Take any Man of any Sobriety of Mind if he relate any thing that befals him he will interpose as God would have it If he escape any Danger he will say as God put it into my Mind and give God the chief Place Thus in several Cases As in Distress O God! our Undertakings in the Name of God Our Protestations in the Presence of God Tho these in the Mouths of many be but Words of course spoken without inward Sence of God in the Mind yet the Custom of them proceeds from a good Original They carry Reason in them and shew Nature's Sence What is without Ground is not of any long Continuance But these meet with no Reproof gain Credit give Assurance find Acceptance and become Religious Persons when us'd in weighty Cases and with serious Minds and due Intention Since therefore there is such a Dependance of our Souls upon God it is impossible but that we should know him They who are in any degree Spiritual or Intelectual and are not altogether sunk down into a brutish Spirit and sensual Affection find and feel within themselves Divine Suggestions Motions and Inspirations Any Man that hath obtain'd any Degree of the Perfection of Reason that doth follow the Divine Governour of Man's Life Reason he doth find that there are Suggestions and Inspirations and that many times when he was resolv'd another way there comes a Light into his Mind a still Voice he hears and he is better directed Except the Atheistical and Prophane and those that are Diabolical all others feel God in his Motions and Suggestions Thus is God most knowable of any thing in the World Here you have an Account of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion The Natural Knowledge of God And the Knowledge of the Revelation of his Will The Natural Knowledge of God that is the very Issue Effect and Product of Reason Revelation is the other part of Religion And Reason is the Recipient What doth God give his Commands to or his Councels but to the intelligent Agent and the Reason of Man So that Reason hath great place in Religion For Reason is the Recipient of whatsoever God declares And those things that are according to the Nature of God the Reason of Man can discover It is either the Efficient or the Recipient of all that is call'd Religion of all that is communicated from God to Man The Natural Knowledge of God is the Product of Reason The Resolutions of his Will for our further Direction are proposed and communicated to Reason and * in both these ways we are taught of God In the former we are made to know And in the latter we are call'd to be made Partakers of God's Councel By the former we know what God is his Nature that he is By the latter what God would have us to do So here you see the Use of Mind and Understanding in the Way of Religion God teaches us in his Creation in giving us such Faculties he teaches us further in the Resolution of his Will because he satisfies us in what he doth impose upon us Therefore the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion is so far from doing any Harm to Religion that it is the proper Preparatory for Men to look out to God
explicates and declares the Atheist's State and Temper viz. Vain in their Imaginations Nothing is sincere and true that he thinks He is a Fool and hath wrought himself into Darkness pretending to Policy and Wit to release himself from all Obligations to Reason and Conscience that he may be loose to the World and free to his Lust A Fetch of prophane Wit and no Product of Wisdom but what in the Issue will prove Madness and Folly As there is the fullest Satisfaction in the World in the inward Sence and Feeling of Reconciliation with God and a frame of Mind tinctured with Goodness so there is the greatest Unquietness of Mind where there is an internal Displacency and Offence at the Being of God and a Desire to believe that he is not and to think all things alike for the former thinks he hath all Strength for him and that he that is well able takes all care of him The latter doubts and fears uncertainly suspects there is one that hath made and governs the World and fears that Power to be engaged against him And if all things be not alike subject to Will and Power he knows not what will become of him who hath taken upon him to remove Landmarks to controul the most famous Rights that are fundamental to the Safety of the Universe Irreverence and Disrespect towards that Being on which we depend for what we are and have is an ununiform incongruous unequal disproportion'd Carriage Now follow the dismal and sad Consequents BUT BECAME VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS Where there is not honest Entertainment of the great Truths of Religion and Conscience hearty Compliance with and Obedience to them but a failure in the main and principal Points of Life and Practice as where Men knowing there is a God do not glorifie him as God do not like to retain God in their Knowledge which is the Atheist's Temper do things which are filthy and take pleasure in them that do so which is the Atheist's Practice there Mens Pretences and Professions are subject to evaporate turn to a miserable account and come to nothing Become vain in their Imaginations their foolish Heart is darkned professing to be wise c. The ingenuous use of Truth is a great matter To receive it in the Love of it out of Judgment and Satisfaction of its Conveniency and Fitness to bring Humane Nature to Perfection to act out of Love to Righteousness not as the unjust Judge not to lay other Designs not to practice upon it for other Ends not to place it in the place of a Mean but of an End not to make Godliness a Trade Traffick and Device for Gain Hence so much so ridiculous contemptible and unreasonable stuff passes for Religion in so many parts of the World Men looking not after Rational Satisfaction It is very strange that any thing should be admitted for Religion in the World which for its Shallowness Emptiness and Insignificancy falls under just Reproof and Conviction of Reason Religion which makes us less Men Religion unintelligible not able to give Satisfaction to the noble Principles of God's Creation Such have been the cruel and impure Rites of Heathenism dissatisfactory to true Reason * and such are the Superadditions of Popery founded neither in Nature nor Grace How hath the World been scandalized by things pretended to be matters of Faith which are Contradictions to Reason if Reason be able to tell us any thing that is true Were I to take an Estimate of Christianity from hence I should be tempted to say with Averroes Sit anima mea cum Philosophis What rational Man almost is not tempted to say after him rather than so to sin against his Nature as to admit things of such Disproportion to all his Faculties Can we think we shall prevail with Men to put out their Eyes to disbelieve their Senses that they may become Christians The Turkish History relates a King of Persia's Inclination to Christianity * who was diverted by such like Reasons When as how well are Men satisfied in the great Materials of Religion which are entertain'd with Reverence and high Regard * As for instance To live soberly righteously and godly and * where Men fail to repent and ask God Forgiveness in the name of Christ * that is to say for all those that have heard of it These * Matters have general Consent but great Neglect And Mens Zeal is employ'd in Usages Modes and Rites of Parties By these Men are constituted and denominated Christians and rank'd in Order and File It is recorded that the Strifes and Contentions and Complaints of Christians have irritated some of the so Heathenish Persecutions The ill Lives of Christians and their absurd Opinions have kept Nations off from becoming Christian. Whereas in the true Christian Religion there is nothing which may not be represented lovely in the Eyes of all who have Principles of Reason for their Rule The State of Religion speaks the Mind's Freedom from impotent and unsatiable Desires from eager violent and impetuous Lusts from all those infinite Passions foul Fiends unruly Devils in Mens Souls which makes the Minds of evil Men to boyle within them as with the Fire and Pitchy Fumes of Hell There is a Harmony between the Principles of Reason and Christianity the latter acknowledges the former reinforces them advances and highly improves them secures the common Instincts of Good and Just and polishes Humane Nature This may be undertaken and easily perform'd notwithstanding the hard Conceits Men who are not experienc'd have of Religion The Knowledge of God * which Man is made to which fairly lies before him and he may easily attain to is by Men neglected unemploy'd not improved whereupon as in the Text Men run into ways of fond Imagination Folly and Self-conceit misrepresenting God to themselves dishonour him in the Worship they pretend to abuse themselves run into all Excess and unnatural use of themselves grow into malign and naughty Dispositions as is exprest Ver. 29 30 31. All this Loss Ruin Havock and Mischief breaks in upon the Nature of Man through his being wanting to the Principles of God's Creation within himself The free noble and generous Notions of Divine and Heaven-born Truth will not stay and abide with Men where * there is gross Neglect or Abuse There is strange Confusion where Judgment is further enlightned than the Mind refined and amended As where there is not Judgment and Knowledge of Right there can be no Expectation at all so where there is no Conscience in pursuance of Knowledge there what is done may be worse than if nothing were done as the Case of the Text expresses It is not so much the Disability of Mens Natures as their Neglect and Abuse that Men are not good Where Men sink down into Sensuality or become light-headed being intoxicated with vain Perswasions or lay asleep the noble Powers of Humane Nature or contradict them by violent and unnatural Practice there
is Darkness Confusion and inward Torture All proves contrary to God's Design Justin in his History reports concerning the ancient Scythians That they had neither Houses nor Enclosure of Ground yet Justice had Honour among them not from Positive Laws but the GOOD NATURE of the People A thing to be admired that Nature should bestow that on the Scythians which the Grecians long instructed by Precepts of Philosophers had not attain'd that formed Manners should be transcended by uneducated Barbarity Hence it appears that the Condition of Humane Nature is not so very rude as some report since so much is found in the uncivilized parts of the World Nature is Sovereign to them that use it well in respect of that Modesty and Averseness to that which is not fair and handsom till Men pervert and abuse Nature's Temper by ill Use Custom and Practice Goodness and Vertue are more suitable to Nature's Sence than Wickedness and Vice Vice is contrary to the Nature of Man because contrary to the Order of Reason which is Man's highest Perfection Vice is grievous to Nature witness Irreverence to Deity Intemperance Fury and Cruelty every one feels it so in himself and judges so in others Man forces himself at first before he can at all satisfie himself in any of these In this Sense I understand Heb. 10. 16. I will put my Laws into their Hearts I will write them in their Minds * This is to be understood in respect of Spiritual Precepts founded in Reason and in the Law of the Creation concerning which we need not that one should teach another as in the carnal Institutions of the Law which being foreign to Nature and so many we have need to ask what next what in such a case Men may work themselves out of Nature's Sence out of Judgment of Truth by ill Use Custom and Practice They will not long continue to think * well after once they are come to affect and to do otherwise These two in Conjunction viz. the Affection of the Mind and Practice will bear up with too great a force against Judgment alone Wherefore unless Persons love Goodness and live well we have no hold of them tho' now they seem to think and speak well See the case of Hasael his present Sence and Words Am I a Dog c. but he did so Single Judgment and Understanding will not long hold out against habitual Inclination and Disposition Men unduly practice upon their own Judgments that they may not be disturbed and disquieted in pursuit of their Lusts but if Judgment be once corrupted there is nothing left to make any resistance Evil comes on a main Men go on with full sail Hence Men are Shipwrackt in their Fortunes within themselves broken and come to naught Wherefore in the state of Religion Two things are indispensibly necessary indivisible inseparable Care that Judgment be informed by Truth * and that Heart and Life be reformed by Tincture of it and by Practice And this is Religion PROFESSING THEMSELVES WISE THEY BECOME FOOLS This is said of Persons out of the way of true Reason and Religion These Words may be considered absolutely or in relation to their Conjunction with words which go before or follow after In the former way they afford this Observation That these that think themselves wise are least so for they know not themselves to fail in many things It is the Direction of Wisdom to acknowledge God in all thy ways and not to lean to thy own Understanding For he who trusteth to his own Heart is a Fool. SELF-CONCEIT intoxicates Men and makes them neglective of the Means of Knowledge They who are conceited are Self-Flatterers and towards others Importune grievous troublesom Whosoever falls into the hands of a Self-conceited Person who always is a Dictator and an Imposer upon others to him the Beauty and Excellency of the Divine Vertues Modesty and Sobriety are abundantly testified and recommended The Conceited have lightly considered the Uncertainty of things Variety of Temptations the Representations which are made to Man and our Disparity and Insufficiency to act or determine wisely in several Occasions of Life These are full of themselves but indeed are empty and shallow He knows not himself who thinks himself able enough for his own defence Wise enough to direct himself or who is Good enough to his own Satisfaction The Words taken in a Conjunction with what follows afford this Observation That it is not the Wisdom of Men but their Headiness Presumption and Folly to do in Religion without Reason or otherwise than as they have Direction from God There is no grosser Folly in the World no greater Wrong to one's self than upon account of Religion to come under Obligation to any thing in point of Judgment and Conscience which is not materially true as verified in Reason or Scripture All such is the Persons Superstition which tho' it be not imputed as a Crime to the Person who means well yet is not a Foundation of reward Builders with Hay Stubble suffer loss so far forth tho' themselves stand on the Foundation Man enslaves himself parts with his Liberty which is a dear and choice thing * when he subjects himself to that which made him not to that which is not soveraign to him as Reason is which is his natural Perfection his Home-informer and Monitor within his Breast neither is restorative to him in his Lapsed State as the Principles of Religion are He lays stress upon that which will bear no weight therefore will deceive him As the Superstitious imagines so things are to him but things attain not Effects according to our Fancies but their own Existencies and what they are in Truth and Vertue This other where is accounted Weakness * and Shallowness Nothing betrays Men more than lying Refuges and false Confidencies Religion is that which attains real Effects worthy what we mean by Religion viz. it makes Men humble not conceited Mild gentle not revengeful Good-natured not all for Self Loving not hard-hearted Kind not harsh or cruel Patient not furious not wrathful Courteous affable and sociable not morose soure or dogged Governable not turbulent ready to forgive not implacable favourable in making best Interpretations fair Constructions of Words and Actions not making Men Offenders for a Word ready to commiserate tender-hearted like the Samaritan not as the Jews who would not converse with them If this be in Men then shall the World be sensible of the Good of Religion and find themselves the better for it Lastly let us not run on in a Mistake We see how the Apostle goes on He begins at the Gospel of Christ See how he pursues it He treats of * the Natural Knowledge of God and Fatal Issue of ineffectual Entertainment of it They do preach Christ tho' they do not name him in every Sentence or Period who contend for all Effects of real Goodness and decry Wickedness For
the Places where they live as being Disturbers of the Quiet of Persons with whom they have their Habitation For their internal Rancour and Naughtiness of Mind still puts them upon plotting and contriving Mischief and makes them greedy of Opportunity to practise it * Now This Malignity and Naughtiness of Disposition is moral Pravity Deformity and Privation And therefore it cannot be natural but must be acquired For this is a certain Rule nothing Moral can be by Generation but must be by Acts Use Custom and Practice Nothing but what is purely natural can be in a Man by Traduction and Propagation We are not born with Habits but born only with Faculties This is so far true that any bodily Disposition or Inclination which is not acquired tho' it be to Good or to Evil it is neither a Vice if it be a Tendency to Evil nor a Vertue if it be a Tendency to Good For nothing is Vertue but what is the Product of a Mind actually considering and a Man's Choice upon Deliberation and Consideration And so nothing amounts unto the Degree of Vice * but in the same manner Only a Man may be wicked by Failure and Neglect Because a Man is to use the Principles of God's Creation he is to consider and he is to make use of his Reason and that is first to be set on work to discover the Way and to discern the Difference of Things It is most true in respect of every Man 's internal State every Man hath himself for Temper for Disposition for Complexion and Constitution of Soul according as he hath considered examined and used himself Now if a Man hath himself as he uses himself then whosoever is in Perverseness and Malignity of Mind he hath brought himself into it by abuse of himself Whosoever is in a naughty and malignant Disposition of Mind there is no Creature under Heaven nor nothing that is in being that brought him into that Temper but either his gross Self-neglect or voluntary Self-abuse And if there be gross Self-neglect he hath not acted according to his Principles That which is not of a Man's self it may be his Burden but never his Fault nor never is charged upon him on a moral Account 3 dly A sickly and distemper'd Body * This hath made work for the Physician and uncouth Remedies and hath prevented the natural Pleasure of temperate Eating Drinking Sleeping For in Nature's Way only is Health and Strength * Now I grant a Man may have a weak Body and unhappy Constitution without his own Fault whence some die so soon and others are so sickly But there are things which are in our Power that are mischievous to the Body I shall instance in three kinds of Vices in respect of which we may say with the Apostle These Men sin against their own Bodies 1 st Pride Envy and Malice These * carry Discontent which doth macerate the Body and melancholize the Blood Now * as the World is a very uncertain and unequal thing so * it affords frequent Matter of Offence to this * Temper If a Man will be offended he shall be offended every day The Proud and Conceited Man never hath Respect enough he is not valued by others according as he esteems himself No Man thinks so well of him as he thinks of himself And therefore he is necessarily agrieved at every Man and he lives in Discontent He is seldom satisfied but apt to interpret every Man's Carriage towards him Neglect at least if not Affront You have all this verified in the Temper of Haman to Mordecai who is dispossest of all his Enjoyments because Mordecai offends him so is in perpetual Discontent And if a Man is in Discontent he doth not only marr the Temper of his Mind but hurts his Body The Envious and Malicious are agrieved at every Body's Good They cannot enjoy the Comforts they might enjoy because others have the same Now whosoever he is that leads a grumbling repining Life as all envious Men do his very Life is a lingring pining Death Envy is the Rottenness of the Bones But the sound Heart is the Life of the Flesh. One * in whom Principles that are solid and sincere do govern he that is in the Use of sober Reason and Understanding this Man is of a sound Heart We have not more Sense of any thing in this World than that to live in Love and Good Will is to live at Hearts-ease * What great Content have they that live in Universal Love In Reconciliation with God and his whole Creation They are offended at no Body they rejoyce at any thing that happens well to any Creature whatsoever What should bear the Infirmities of the Body but the Courage and Resolution of the Mind If Men thro' Pride Envy and Malice do their Bodies Mischief is it to be imputed to God No But to themselves 2 dly Intemperance and Wantonness These bring our Bodies to noisom filthy loathsom Diseases sometimes even to Rottenness while our Souls inform them Those that live in these Vices sin against their own Bodies Dishonour themselves Make themselves vile and their Bodies unfit Tabernacles for their Souls to dwell in They alienate their Bodies from their proper Use. For what is the proper Use of the Body but to be * as the Tool and Instrument of our Mind in the Engagement * and Service of Vertue The Poet livelily describes the Effect of Drunkenness Aches in the Head Nauseousness in the Stomach Drought in the Throat Langour in the Parts Folly and Fury in the Mind a Feaver in the whole Now all these are avoided where there is due Self-government and where Men take upon them to order their Affairs according to the Dictates of true and sober Reason But if Men lay Reason aside and give themselves up to absurd Compliance if once they transgress the Principles of Reason and abuse the Principles of their Minds they abuse and spoil their Bodies 3 dly By Idleness and Sloth which are also our Bodies Enemies they come to putrifie as Water in Ponds by Stagnancy The Security of the natural State and Perfection of every thing is by Motion and Action By Lasiness and Sloth our Bodies come to be vitiated For they are deprived of their great Security And Nature's Remedy the All-preserving insensible Transpiration is advanced and maintained by Motion Whereas on the other side Vertue which is the Mind 's due Complexion is Soveraign to the Body And all the genuine and kindly Operations of Vertue and Religion are benign and favourable to our Bodies and * are our great Security Length of Days are secured by complying with the Principles of Religion Sobriety Reason and Understanding But in every Deviation from and Contradiction to Reason the contrary viz. Short Life and Diseases are founded and our Bodies spoiled and marred Thus you see God is not to be charged with that which we our selves are the sole Cause of We bring upon our selves the great
than a Joint Concurrence of worldly things internal Peace Ease and Satisfaction of Mind Rational Apprehensions calm and quiet Thoughts a serene Heaven within which are the true Ingredients of Self-Enjoyment There is no Man Free unless he be Wise and there is no Man Wise who hath not the Government of himself For this Man is a Slave Solomon hath told us that he who ruleth his Spirit is greater than he that taketh a City And he that doth not this doth not enjoy himself Wherefore let us have clear Perceptions of the Reason of Things and Power within our selves without Distraction to do and resolve accordingly And then I account a Man a good Man a wise Man and well accomplish'd And he that arrives not to this lives at Peradventure and acts like a Fool He doth nothing worthy his own Species or the Rank and Order of a rational and intelligent Being For we are bound by Vertue of our Creation to act out of a Fore-sight of the Reason of Things as inferior Beings act according to their Con-natural Qualities And it is monstrous and horrid if they do not In like manner it is ugly and degenerate for Man that is indued with Reason to act at Hap-hazard and not out of Fore-sight of the Reason of Things This is as monstrous as it is for the Sun not to shine and to fill the Air with Stench and Putrifaction The Irreligious * therefore leave natural Use which till Nature be put out of Course and by Custom habituated to the contrary cannot but be grievous Things easily go on in Nature's way but being interrupted for a while at least strive to return to their natural Course Nothing doth well under Force and Violence The World hath an ill Opinion of Religion But if we will believe our Saviour His Yoke is easie and his Burthen is light His Commandments are not grievous David found high Content in them And Solomon all else to be Vanity It sometimes comes to pass through the Grace of God that some after a wild Course run if Incorrigibleness and invincible Hardness be not contracted by unnatural Practice upon Reflection and After-consideration greatly condemn themselves in what they have done and return to Ways of Sobriety and Religion and hold better to it because of former costly Experience Such an Instance is a great Condemnation to licentious and exorbitant Practices and a Testimony from Persons of double Experience of the better Ways of Vertue SERMON VI. ROMANS I. 29. Being filled with all Unrighteousness Fornication Wickedness Covetousness Maliciousness full of Envy Murder Debate Deceit Malignity Whisperers c. IN these words you have the ultimate Issue of the horrid monstrous degenerate State of Mortals This Catalogue of Vice is enough to startle and awaken any one make him considerate and apprehensive of his Danger * so as to betake himself to Religion and to come within the Confines of it that he may be delivered from such Abominations One would wonder that Humane Nature should so degenerate that these Villanies should ever be reported of any who by their Institution are Intelligent Agents Of this Catalogue I have singled out one and that is COVETOUSNESS which because it is a subtle Evil and very mischievous I shall endeavour to discover it There is nothing in all the Scripture that is put in worse Company than this for it is reckon'd with all the horrid Effects of Degeneracy and Apostacy Yet Covetousness shelters it self under honest Names It is sometimes thought to be Diligence Prudence and Forecast Good-Husbandry Cautiousness Weariness So often do Men ruine themselves by entertaining this Viper under gilded Names Tho' I cannot discover it in all its Practices and Degrees yet I shall do you some Service in discovering that which is in any degree gross destructive to Religion and against Reason and Conscience Covetousness is much branded and spoken very ill of in Scripture It is put in adequate opposition to all Religion It is a Principle of the basest Practice for it hardens it self to any purpose Through Covetousness Men make Merchandize of the Word of God and * it is amongst the things that defile a Man The Covetous God abhors The Apostle saith it is Idolatry Nothing is more threatned in the Bible We are specially warned against it and told it is the root of all Evil. But it is a cunning subtle Sin No Man doth so justifie himself or is so hardly brought to repent as he that hath a touch of Covetousness I am of opinion that our Saviour hath in his Beatitudes ONE that he doth direct expresly against the Sin of Covetousness tho' it hath been alienated from the Sence by the generality of Interpreters viz. Blessed are the poor in Spirit for that which the Interpreters do fasten upon this hath place otherwhere and * therefore if it be here it is supernumerary They understand by it Dejection Humility of Mind and Contempt of our selves so they make it to comply with these Scriptures the Lord is nigh to the broken Heart and contrite Spirit To him will I look who is of a poor and contrite Spirit I heartily close with their Sence but find it in another place for that which they call Poverty of Spirit viz. Humility may be referred to another Beatitude Blessed are the Meek which doth not only import Gentleness Affability and Sweetness of Behaviour towards Men but also every degree of Humility and Subjection to God And for poor in Spirit thus I interpret it He may be poor in Spirit tho' he hath an abundance of Wealth and Honour who is a Man of moderate Desires and is satisfied with those things which God hath given him and may be poorer in this respect than the lowest Beggar * who hath unsatiable Desires of Riches and an Affectation of Power Command and Wealth for he is poor in Spirit tho' he hath an Affluent Estate and can command the World if his Mind stand right and he be loose to it and above it as to any Trust and Confidence in it And he that hath but from Hand to Mouth yet if he hath inordinate Desires tho' he be a Beggar he is covetous By Poverty of Spirit I do understand a kind of want of Affection to the World A Disposition of Mind spiritually steered so as not to decline to the Wealth and Pomp of the World looking upon them as Means and not giving them the Honour nor at all placing them in the room of Ends. So that if a Man hath the World's Goods and yet in his Heart he doth not lean to them and if having them not he doth not thirst after them nor hath inordinate Desires to them he is poor in Spirit He may be rich in outward Wealth and poor in Spirit if he love them not and he may be poor in outward Estate and yet covetous if he desire them Poor he may be and have but little in the World
and Man All our Expressions must answer our Intentions when we treat one with another We are not in the Truth unless we speak what we mean It is necessary to the Truth of a Treaty that the Materials which make the Case be fully declared For it is no Agreement if any part of the Matter be unknown For a Case is made up of all Circumstances Do but diversify one Circumstance and it is another thing They that treat together are to take care that they understand and mean the same Things and not * make it a Practice for one who is more comprehensive than another to make use of his Wit to over-reach And if they find they did not mean the same things they are to release one another For no Man is obliged further than he did mean What is meant in the Treaty is after to be stood to No After-shifts Men must not after use Wit or practise upon the Doubtfulness and Uncertainty of Words and Phrases thereby to make an escape What we have engaged we must perform unless we can obtain a release from the Party with whom we engage though it prove inconvenient and worse to us than is imagined This is Truth between Man and Man And whosoever faileth in these forfeiteth his Truth And thus I have shewed you wherein a Man may put a Lye upon God upon Himself upon his Neighbour and by this you may understand this Charge of the Apostle Whatsoever Things are True Upon the whole Matter now let us take up a Lamentation For if that which I have said be true how miserable and deform'd is the World That that is the principal Thing Wit Reason and Understanding is made ill use of to serve particular Interests Ends and Purposes How much counterfeit Ware every-where is to be found How much over-reaching in Bargains and Treaties So that now a Man had need to be universally skill'd to have Right in the World Things are generally done for the Vender's Gain only and not for the Buyer's Service Whereas every Profession doth imply a Trust for the Service of the Publick And every Man in the Way of his Profession ought to do things Truly For a Man to be false in his own Trade is a double Iniquity For the Artist's Skill ought to be the Buyer's Security Every Man ought to be ready to render a Reason to any Man as in Christianity so every-where else He that is ignorant may demand the Help of another's Skill And if he makes use of his Skill to his Prejudice he deals falsly It is not competent to any Person to be universally knowing Wherefore are sundry Trades and several Professions but for the Good of Mankind because no Man is more than particularly skill'd This Departure from Simplicity and Sincerity in Profession is a thing unaccountable But this is nothing in Comparison with the Cheats Frauds and Cozenage in Religion What think ye now of Divinity methodized to sink the People down and gain Pomp to the Clergy Religion accommodate to Ends and Purposes The infinite Gain that comes from one Doctrine The Pope's Power to pardon Sin the Priest's Power to absolve Sinners Now these Cheats these Cozenages are of greater Importance because the Consequences are greater * To conclude Truth hath always God to maintain it Truth hath Defence in it self For Great is Truth and it will prevail It may be overborn for a while but it will recover Truth hath Goodness to accompany it Therefore none need fear Shame or Cause to repent Truth hath Liberty consequent to it The Truth shall make you free He that is in the Truth is not thoughtful But a Lyar had need carry about him a good Memory Truth is Con-natural to our Principles For a Man forceth himself when he departs from it Truth is the Foundation of all Order All things will be in Confusion if not order'd united and govern'd by Truth For Falshood puts every thing out of its place Truth is the Ground of Human Converse No Man is sure of another neither knows where to have him if he abide not in the Truth It is the Bond of Union Where Men agree in the Truth they are Friendly meet and harmonize one with another and great Sympathy is between them But out of the Ways of Truth Men run counter cross and contradict one another every-where This we are to know that God's Super-intendency over Human Affairs aims at this that Truth and Righteousness may obtain an universal Empire in the World And this is an Explication of that great Phrase God's doing all for his own Glory For it is an unexplicable Form of Words to say That God doth all for himself particularly as if God were a particular Agent and sought his own particular Interest But * the Sense is that God super-intends the World for this That Truth Righteousness and Goodness might take place every-where in the World And for the Advancement of this every Man in his Sphere of Activity and within his Compass ought to endeavour And this is for us to do to the Glory of God Whatsoever Things are Honest. So the Translation But I rather keep to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever things are VENERABLE Which Word is put in the Margin Neither do I forsake the Word in the Text without very good Reason because the Word Honest doth not import the Emphasis of the Greek And the very Notion of Honest you have afterwards therefore you are not take it here Now the Greek imports whatsoever things are Honourable Grave Venerable Seemly Comely Things that may raise the Esteem of the Person and gain Reverence and Value to a Man * In this Sense there are Two Things requisite Grave Behaviour and Composure of Spirit Light Carriage and an ungovern'd Spirit render any Man mean vile and contemptible A Man lays himself low in the Esteem of others by Misbehaviour And a Man lays himself open by falling into Passion or running out into immoderate Desires Gallantly doth the Poet tell us Remember to reverence thy self There is much of God in every Man If a Man do justly value himself he will not do that that is base though it be in the Dark though no Body sees him A Man ought not to abuse himself or make himself mean or low since he bears the Image of God But if a Man will neither regard God within nor the Workmanship of God without neither have Reverence for himself he will have Cause to find that he hath been wanting to himself when he falls under other Mens and his own Contempt Sin and Wickedness doth equalize those that are therein engaged There is no Man in the Sense of his Mind or in his Judgment hath a Value or Esteem for any one that is naught No Man reverenceth a wicked Man no not a wicked Man himself He is low and base in Esteem And there is no Remedy But some * there are of so comely and grave Behaviour that they awe
World been troubl'd about the Circumstance of Time and several other Things about this Sacrament And all without Foundation But there is no warrant for this from the Institution And Charity hath been wanting when Men have gone about to make out Scripture further than what hath been plainly declar'd So that I resolve with my self that GOD * having invested Man with Intelectual Nature and given him that high Priviledge and Prerogative of Reason and Understanding doth expect that he should act according to those Principles And where HE doth not constitute and appoint limit and determine that there He doth refer himself to the rational Determination of that first Principle the Principle of his Creation So that whatsoever is done throughout the Life of Man that there is Reason for it is warranted by God Provided still that a Man doth not vary from any particular and express Institution of God in Scripture And if this were understood we should have the very Foundation of Differences in the Church of God taken away It is but a vain Pretence of Zeal for GOD and doing him Service for US to limit appoint constitute and determine beyond what HE himself hath done 'T is a good Notion universally Let us be as FREE under God as we can and resolve with St. Paul Not to be brought under the Power of any Thing So far as God doth declare we must follow his Direction But it is best for us where he doth not limit and determine to follow the Reason of our own Minds in the free Use of our Liberty God doth so far acknowledge his own Workmanship as to refer himself to the Principles of Creation in Man so far forth as he doth not limit and determine For do but with Reason and you do well There is no Superstition in using Things not commanded of God But in using them as necessary Pieces of Religion they are Superstition and offensive to God I say * there is no Superstition in using Things not commanded by God even in the Worship of God if they be Comely and such as Reason doth allow of But there is Superstition in assuming to our selves Authority to use them as necessary Peices of Religion and as sanctified by Divine Institution when they are not of God's Appointment You see now that in Matters of Weight wherein the Honour of God and the Safety of Mens Souls are concerned Scripture is punctual clear full and particular That our Faith may be better directed and we our selves preserved against Cheats and Impostures But * as to other Matters they are left to Christian Prudence Discretion and Fidelity And God's Love and Goodness appears to us exceedingly in Both these Cases * Both that He is clear full and particular where 't is for our Advantage and Security And also that He doth not unnecessarily resolve or determine us where the Things themselves do not require it In the Former because if we should mistake there it would be to our Loss and great Disadvantage because of the Importance of the Matter whether it relate either to Matter of Faith or Practice In the Latter where the Matter is not so necessary in it self nor our Obligation to the Thing it self nor any intrinsick Value in it here it is God's Goodness to us that he will not limit and determine For it is hazardous to a Man in Minute Things to be obliged in Point of Conscience If the Thing be good in it self I am admonished daily how to act by the Rectitude of my Temper because the Thing is good in its own Nature and Quality But in the other * Case I have nothing but the Security of my Memory This is a great Point of Divinity that God hath left us in the Christian Religion as Free as we may be without Loss or Prejudice to our selves We being only determin'd to Things of Weight and to such Things wherein if we should fail we should greatly hurt our selves For it is a great Priviledge not to be oblig'd without Necessity not to be under Restraint through the Necessity of the Precept where there is no Necessity in the Matter And this I account one of the great Priviledges that we have by the Gospel And here as the Apostle adviseth Gal. 5 1. we should stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And that this is a great Priviledge is clear from Acts 15. 10. where the Apostle calls the Ceremonies and Observances commanded under the Law a Yoak which neither They nor their Fathers were able to bear In this Dispensation there was every Thing punctually determined both for Substance and Circumstance So that they had need of very good Memories to bear them all in Mind Whereas it is a great Security for my Observance of God that I have the Security of the Goodness of my Temper as well as my Memory And thus it is in all Matters of Weight and Moment But if it be a positive Command and that of a Thing wholly Arbitrary and which * if God had pleased might have been omited then I have only the Security of my Memory And this is a choice Notion in Divinity But prepossest Minds will not bear it tho' it be never so much for their Ease and Advantage But let him that hath Ears to hear hear I will say it again There is not in Christian Religion any Obligation upon us but it is either one or other of these Two Either First the Reason of the Thing doth require it And then it is necessary in it self as is Observance of God Reverence of Deity and regardful Apprehensions of him Righteousness and Justice between Man and Man fair and equal Consideration Doing as we would be done unto or Sobriety and Temperance Purity and Chastity in the Government of our selves I say either they are such great Things as These Or else Secondly The Things commanded are Medicinal and Supplemental in Case of Guilt and contracted Impotency by Reason of Sin as going to God by Jesus Christ and the Application of the Benefits that are by our blessed Lord and Saviour the Vertue of his Blood for Pardon of Sin and what he hath done engaging in our behalf And we shall see great Cause thankfully to acknowledge God for this great Benefit if we do but consider the Occasion of Adam's Fall who did not fall upon a Transgression of a Moral Point but in Variation from a positive Institution And for ought I or any Body else know if God had not prohibited him the Tree of Life he might as well have eaten of that as of any other Tree in the Garden For She saw that it was lovely to the Eye and fit for Food And therefore she took of the Fruit of that Tree and did eat and gave unto her Husband Here they had only the Security of their Memories and not of any internal Disposition So it is said of Nadab and Abihu that they were struck dead for offering
Nature and Nativity from above For whosoever professes that he believes the Truth of these things and wants the Operation of them upon his Spirit and Life he doth in fact make void and frustrate what he doth declare as his Belief and so he doth receive the Grace of God in vain unless this Principle and Belief doth descend into his Heart and establish a good Frame and Temper of Mind and govern in all the Actions of his Life and Conversation RELIGION is not a particular Good only as Meat against Hunger or Drink against Thirst or Cloaths against Cold but it is Universally Good a Good without Limitation or Restraint * For Holiness and Purity of Mind is the self same thing to the Mind that Health and Strength is to the Body It is good * also in point of Satisfaction to the Judgment For no Man that useth Reason can otherwise sit down contented unless he be in Reconciliation with God unless there be fair Terms between God and him It is good * also upon the account of Peace and Settlement of Conscience upon which the greatest Good of Man doth depend for want of which nothing without him can make any Compensation Now to shew it in Particulars RELIGION which is in substance our Imitation of God in his Moral Perfections and Excellency of Goodness Righteousness and Truth * is that wherein our Happiness doth consist And we then relish the truest Pleasure and Satisfaction when we find * our selves reconciled to God by Participation of his Nature They who have not * this Sence of God may have a Religion to talk of and profess * a Religion to give them a Denomination but they are not at all in the true State and Spirit of Religion nor have they any real Benefit by it nor are they any whit enabled by it nor have they the more Peace and Satisfaction from it But when our Minds are transformed by Religion then we feel at least at times strong and vigorous Inclinations towards God And with these Motions * our Minds are best pleas'd and satisfied because these are most suitable to Nature and the highest Use and Employment that Humane Nature is capable of Upon this account it is that there is more Pleasure and Satisfaction in Contemplation than in any of the Pleasures of Sense and that those Men that live a-part from the World and are taken up in Meditation and Contemplation their Pleasures are more intense and solid than those * of the Licentious and * of such as please themselves in all the Gratifications of Sense There is no Heart's-ease like to that which riseth from Sence of Reconciliation to God and walking in Ways of Righteousness For in these Ways Mens Hearts never check them nor occasion them any Disquiet For let the World say what they will to be challenged by the Reason of a Man's Mind goes nearer to a Man's Heart than the Censure of all the World besides To act contrary to the Reason of * one 's own Mind is to do a thing most unnatural and cruel it is to offer Violence to a Man's self and to act against a Man's truest Use and Interest For all manner of Wickedness is a Burthen to the Mind and every Man that doth amiss doth abuse himself For it is not possible for any Man to run away from himself or to forget what he hath done He must stand to the Bargain that he hath made and abide by the Choice that he hath taken And in the whole World there is nothing so grievous for a Man to think of as that when he did amiss and made a mad Choice he went against the Sense of his own Mind For in this Case he is not Heart-whole There is no Man who knows himself but knows what I now speak is true Tho' I know it is common in the World for Men to do against Reason and to live by Chance and not to pursue any true Intention or follow any worthy Design But as it happens and as Company and Occasion leads them so they act be it better or worse Not considering that what Matter of Disease is to the Body which many times is very grievous and so indisposes a Man as to put him quite out of Self-enjoyment * the same Is Malignancy in the Mind Guilt in the Conscience Nay I may say that These are much more troublesome and grievous to be born than any malignant Matter of Disease can be to the Body They make not true Judgment of Religion that take it to be a Limitation and Restraint upon Man's Liberty Yet some are so foolish as to think that if God would we might have lived as we list and have been released from those many Obligations that Religion seems to lay upon us Whereas this is as great a Lye as ever the Father of Lyes could invent For Religion is not a burthensome and troublesome Thing which if God had not commanded might have been forborn and all Things have been as well No There is nothing in real and true Religion that is of that Nature And this I dare defend against the whole World that there is no one thing in all that Religion which is of God's making that any sober Man in the true Use of his Reason would be released from tho' he might have it under the Seal of Heaven For such a Dispensation would be greatly to his Loss and Prejudice As much as if the Physician instead of giving wholsome Physick to his Patient should give Poyson For all Things in real Religion tend either to conserve or * restore the Soundness and Perfection of our Minds and to continue God's Creation in the true State of Liberty and Freedom So that if a Man did understand himself and were put to his Choice he would rather choose to part with the Health and Soundness of his Body than with the Purity and Integrity of his Mind For as much as the one is his far greater Concern And he had much better live with a distempered crazy Body than with a troubled disquiet Mind and guilty Conscience But * on this Subject I have many Things to say and therefore will digest them into Five Heads First Man by his Nature and Constitution as God made him at first being an intelligent Agent hath Sense of Good and Evil upon a Moral account All inferior Beings have Sense of Convenience or Inconvenience in a natural Way And * accordingly all inferior Creatures do chuse or refuse For you cannot get a meer Animal either to eat or drink that which is not good and agreeable to its Nature And whereas we call this Instinct it is most certain that in intelligent Agents this * other is INSTINCT at least And for this Reason Man is faulty when either he is found in a naughty Temper or any bad Practice For he hath Judgment and Power of Discerning He is made to know the Difference * of Things And he acts * as a mad Man that
These Things tend to maintain Love and Good-will among Men than which there is nothing more creditable to the Christian Religion nor any thing more subservient to the great End of mutual Edification So that this Argument doth extend it self to all Persons And a Man may be transcendantly charitable as to the most sublime Acts thereof tho' he have not one Penny if he be a Man of a fair Carriage one that affords equal and candid Construction and takes Things in good part is Affable Courteous in all things Accountable and ready to give Satisfaction and one that does all that lies in him to maintain Love and Good-will in the World This Man is of a most Christian Temper and Charitable in the most excellent Sense You see how many Arguments I have suggested to engage Men to Humanity Courtesie and Universal Charity * so as if it were possible to promote a general Reconciliation in the whole Creation of God * Now by Humanity fair Carriage and Suitableness of Disposition a Man doth gain a general Interest and this is an Argument to a Man's self Also * in acting thus he doth act according to the true Genius of Human Nature For there is in Man a secret Genius to Humanity a Bias that inclines him to a Regard of all of his own Kind For whatsoever some have said Man's Nature is not such an untoward Thing unless it be abused but that there is a secret Sympathy in Human Nature with Vertue and Honesty with Fairness and good Behaviour which gives a Man an Interest even in bad Men * and whereby they are even before they are aware inclined to reverence and honour such a Person And tho' through Passion and Interest and bad Custom they are put off from the Practice of It yet they cannot but approve it and them that practise it Upon which account it is observ'd by the wise Man that they who retain their Innocency and live according to the Principles of Humane Nature they are justified in the Judgment of such Persons from whose Humour and Practice they do altogether depart Wherefore we may detest and reject that Doctrine which saith that God made Man in a State of War Undoubtedly Man if he have not abused himself is the mildest Creature under Heaven Man is a sociable Creature delights in Company and Converse and by Conception of Notions and Power of Utterance is fitted for Conversation It is delightful for one Man to see the face of another for a Man sees another self another of the same * kind all being made by the same Exemplar after the Image of God and a Man wou'd not on any terms be in the World with Creatures below him * which wou'd be Presence * but not Converse It is not more pleasurable to see the Sun after a cold dark Night than it is chearing and reviving in the Darkness and Confusion of our Thoughts to refresh our Mind by Presence and Enjoyment of a Person we love * But nothing spoils the Nature of Man as to Converse more than false ZEAL What can we think of the Uncharitable Envious Malicious Spightful Of those who are Quarelsom Contentious Litigious Of those who are Revengeful Implacable Cruel Burdensome Intollerable Selfish who care for no Body besides themselves Given up to Passion Wrathful Furious Traducers Defamers of others Back-biters Who plot contrive to destroy for Religion's sake are Barbarous Inhumane Bloody to serve Ends of Religion Tantum Religio c. Is this the Religion of Christ Is such a Religion worth having Is not Good-nature which Man is born to a better Thing Is not the Vertue Heathens have applauded and practised far more valuable Yet some who pretend to Religion are such But they must change their Nature or lay side the Profession If this be Religion what is worse Common Good-nature makes Men innocent harmless inoffensive conversable If the Party's Religion doth not this at least it is something else in the place of Religion We say * it of some that they are the worse for their Religion otherwise Good-natur'd Persons How strange is it that any shou'd be so mistaken as in pursuit of their Religion to do such things as Reason is against and Nature startles at Now to draw up all in a Conclusion We are all of us in respect of one another free absolute and independent having our own proper Employment and Concernment both for Time and for Eternity and it may be said of us all in this respect we are our own Masters and must stand or fall by our own Actions But we have not liberty to judge and pass Sentence upon our Fellow-servants neither have we ought to do with each other save only to do for one another all the Good we can and to receive from each other what Good we may We have nothing to do to usurp Authority and tyrannize in God's Family or to beat our Fellow-servants Yea our several Relations each to other lay a new Foundation of mutual good Offices and payment of Respect And we may do Good and receive Good from each other more ways than one That is true which God said to Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh Exod. 7. 1. A Man to a Man is in a Sence in the place of God When God made a second it was in his Intention to be a Help to the First We may and ought to be helpful to each other and if we were as we should be we shou'd be the better provided for the more People there were and the more Men we had in the World * As Particularly By Counsel and Advice in case of Ignorance Uncertainty and Inexperience for some have Knowledge in some things and others in other And herein we may be greatly profitable each to other By administring Comfort and Incouragement * to one another in case of Entanglement and Suffering Also in a way of Supplement where we are insufficient either to bear our Burden or discharge our Duty upon which account it is said Woe to him that is alone for if he fall there is none to help him up 'T is well spoken of Seneca in this case A Man is so made for Society and it is so useful for Men to join themselves to each other that there is no Man he says to whom it is not better to be with any Body than always by himself alone But to do one another Harm and to receive Harm from each other in any kind whatsoever I say this It is violent and unnatural in respect of the Purpose and Intention of God's Creation For the Apostle tells us that God made of one Blood all the Nations of the Earth We are as Members of one Family and proceed from one Stock And from hence there is a Foundation laid of mutual good Offices and to do otherwise is violent monstrous and unnatural It is to break through and cast off the superadded Obligation that is laid upon us by the
Victorious and overcomes the World Of these I shall treat but not severally and distinctly Nor will I undertake to give you a particular account of these in the Order I have now laid them for this would be to make this Text the whole Bible I will therefore speak of them in Conjunction as things offer themselves because these things run one into another RELIGION makes us live up to our Highest Faculties so as becomes Rational Beings that are indued with Intellectual Nature It enables us to live and to act suitably to our Height and Excellency so as to keep up the Grandure of our Being as Those that bear the Image of the Immortal GOD and are exalted above the Inferiour Creation * as Those that represent HIM in the World not only in respect of Intelligence but in respect of Authority and Power to dispose and govern It makes us to scorn all Actions that are base unhandsom or unworthy our State and the Relation we stand in to God To have GOD in our sight and to have right Apprehensions of Him doth above all things tend to the Nobleness Amplitude and Freedom of our Spirits For this we observe that the Greatness of an Object and the Excellency of the Act of any AGENT about a transcendent Object doth mightily tend to the Enlargement and Improvement of HIS Faculties Whereas those who are employ'd in mean Businesses and are conversant about little Objects have nothing in them that is excellent but are of limited and narrow Spirits It hath been observed that Men that have been of mean Parts and ordinary Perfections after they came to be truly RELIGIOUS their Parts have grown upon them and they have appear'd to be other kind of Men. The account of this is easie It is to be imputed to their Application to God who is the noblest Object in the World and to their Attendance upon Him For there is no Motion in the World so generous and tending to the Accomplishing the Agent as the Motions of Religion are By our RELIGION we are preserved from those things that would sink us into the order of Beasts by Sensuality and Carnal-Mindedness or that would transform us into the Likeness of Devils by Pride Presumption and Self-Conceit By Religion we come to imitate the Divine Perfection become God-like in Wisdom Righteousness Goodness Charity Compassion in forgiving Injuries pardoning Enemies and doing Hurt to None but Good to All as we have Ability and Opportunity RELIGION doth restrain the Extravagancy of Mens Passions and Appetites and regulates the Exorbitancy of Mens Wills IT is the most conducive instrument in the whole World to the Pleasure of Mind and Body Our Misery and Infelicity ariseth from our undue and naughty Practice And all that which we call Punishment is let in upon us by Sin Religion permits us the Pleasure of our Body as far as it is for our Health and not destructive of the Tranquility of our Mind nor the Indolency of the Body Religion produceth a sweet and gracious Temper of Mind calm in its self and loving to Men. It causeth a Universal Benevolence and Kindness to Mankind For these are the Things of which it doth consist Love Candour Ingenuity Clemency Patience Mildness Gentleness and all other Instances of GOOD-NATURE It hath such a Quality in it as will make them Good natur'd that it finds bad Religion makes Men Humble Affable Meek and Charitable Modest and Prudent Tender and Compassionate It detests nothing more than * either a Peevish Froward Passionate Furious or Troublesome Temper a Morose or Churlish Disposition RELIGION begets in us a true Liberty Freedom of Spirit and Largeness of Soul It causeth the greatest Serenity and Chearfulness to the Mind and prevents groundless Fears foolish Imaginations needless Suspicions and dastardly Thoughts It takes away from us all bad Thoughts of God or jealous Suspicions of Men. Religion makes us not suspect Evil from God but to look upon Him as the most Gracious and Benign Being that designs nothing more than the Happiness of his Creatures It is not Religion but SUPERSTITION that dreads God Religion makes us reverence him and delight in him It makes us to entertain good Thoughts of God and to conceive aright of him that He doth transact all things with Mankind as a Loving and Tender Father with his Child I further add that RELIGION advanceth the Soul to its just Power and Soveraignty enabling the Mind to govern all Bodily Appetites and Exorbitant Desires and this not only because of the intrinsick Baseness of Brutish and Sensual Lusts in a Nature that is indued with transcendant Faculties but also because of the mischievous Effects that follow upon it Intemperance doth by a natural Necessity weaken our Reason and thwart the very End and Purpose of Religion For Intemperance doth either stupifie or enrage our Spirits We see sometimes that Persons of a good Constitution well inclined to Vertue fair and conversable whose Company is pleasant and delightful that these very Persons are made Cholerick and Ungovernable when they are disorder'd by Intemperance And so they are not what they were but emptied of all those things to which their Constitutions did lead and incline them Our Work therefore in the World is to maintain the just Authority and Soveraignty of Reason against the Assaults of rude intemperate and boisterous Passions And so to tame that rude Beast THE BODY which by the Divine Providence is ty'd to our Souls in this State that it may not prove a constant Temptation and Provocation to our Mind but that it be kept in Subjection I add further that RELIGION is a most lively vigorous and sprightly Thing satisfying to the Subject and putting it upon all good Employment Worldly Men Persons of no Experience may think otherwise As that Religion would make a Man Morose and Soure and fill him with Discontent Whereas Religion drives away sad and gloomy Melancholy and begets in us a rational Confidence and gives a Man great Joy and Pleasure in the Divine Goodness And if any that are Religious think otherwise and are otherwise affected I must tell them that it doth not arise from Principles of Religion but from Bodily Temper in respect of which they are troubled or from some occasion from without And that their Religion is their Relief Of all the the Things in Religion none is so much suspected to tend to Melancholy and Sadness as is the Motion of Repentance So that if I can vindicate this Piece of Religion you will be satisfied for all the rest But to think that this is accompanied with Sadness and Melancholy is the greatest Mistake in the World True indeed Worldly Sorrow as the Apostle saith causeth Death This hath no Life in it because it hath no Respect to God but is rather an Act of Rebellion against him For here the Unquietness comes from Want of Submission to God The Person is discontented because Things are not to his Mind and as
he would have them Such was the Temper of Jonah He was displeased and angry to Death because he was not gratified and had his Will tho' it tended never so much to the Ruin of others But the Ground of SORROW for SIN is the Love of GOD * it is because we have done amiss varied from the Rule of Right and given God an Offence * because we have done that which was base and disingenuous to our loving Father and best Benefactor Now this doth quite alter the Case * and makes a Change which WORLDLY SORROW tho' never so much doth not For if we truly repent we undo the Action and morally disclaim it And upon this God doth pardon But Things without are not altered by Worldly Sorrow But go on as they did in their Course whether the Man be pleas'd or displeas'd But REPENTANCE doth afford us Heart's-ease and removes the Malady that did affect us For by our Repentance and God's Pardon THAT which hath been done is as if it never had been done So that in effect the Penitent may say I that was the Sinner am not the same Person And That which I have done amiss is as if I had never done it This is that Repentance which the Apostle calls Repentance to Salvation never to be repented of For it produceth good Effects Love to God and Thankfulness to Him And in These there is Heart's-ease and Satisfaction I will appeal to the Experience of any Man that hath ingenuously repented if He do not find more Satisfaction Heart's-ease and Pleasure in one Hour that he has spent in this Exercise and in Retirement from the World than ever he found in any Hour of Jollity and intemperate Mirth in all his Life And it must be so For in one Case there is Satisfaction to the Reason of the Mind which is Fundamental to inward Peace But in the other the Pleasure of the Sin is soon over and the Memory of it is grievous and remains All that Pleasure which worldly and ungovern'd Persons take in Sin has no Solidity in it But we may truly say of it as Solomon doth of Laughter it is Madness and of Mirth What doth it But in the Motion of Repentance there is ease to a Man's Heart So that a Man may say of * this Sorrow what the Poet saith of Grief That it is carried out with the Tears I have now spoken of Religion in its Use and Exercise in this State whilst we are here the Advantages that we have by it at present I am now to speak of it in its Issue when it is Victorious and Triumphant what it shall be in Souls when they have made their escape out of Time and finally conquer'd the World And here I shall declare the Effects of Religion partly as to Mens Bodies but chiefly as to their Minds As to Mens Bodies in this State and the Future In this State the greatest Work is Mortification Colossi 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your Members c. And 1 Cor. 9. 27. I beat down my Body And 1 St. John 2. 16. The Apostle saith All that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life must be subdued Then hereafter our Bodies shall be Spiritualized 1 Cor. 15. 44. Nay Tho' it be sown a Natural Body it shall be raised a Spiritual Body Which would pass for Nonsense in the Ears of a Philosopher But he speaks emphatically A Body carried so much higher and to so great a Degree of Perfection as much as a Spirit is a far more excellent Being than an Earthly Body This that I now speak we cannot now fully understand because it is a State in Reversion For we must know that States are not known by Notion and Description but by Sense and Feeling and by being in the * very State * it self Beasts have no Notion of the State of Men Neither have we any certain Notion of the State of Angels because neither they nor we are in that State And as we do not know it because we feel it not so can we do nothing towards this happy Change of the Body otherwise than by the several Vertues and Graces in these Bodies to wit in the Exercise of Sobriety Chastity Temperance together with the moderate Use of the Conveniences and Accommodations of Nature by which we may fit and prepare them for the State of Glory But our main Work in this State is about the inward Man to wit that That be so conformable to the Law of God that it be brought to take Delight in it and to harmonize with it We must take Care that we do not make our highest Faculties to cater for the Flesh. The inferior Faculties are capable of this Employment and good enough for it Our great Care must be to subdue all inordinate Passions and boisterous Lusts which are said to fight against the Soul That gallant Resolution which was taken up by the Apostle must be taken up by us I will not saith he that any of these Things have Authority over me But I will have my Mind free from and above all these Things Let us take Care that all inordinate Appetites and Excesses be restrained such as that was in her who said Give me Children or else I die For WILL without Reason is a blind Man's Motion And WILL against Reason is a mad Man's Motion I add that our Care must be that we be not only Bodily-wise BODY indeed is a heavy Weight But let us bear up as well as we can against it 'T is true that God hath linked our Souls and Bodies together But it was always intended that the governing Part should be THE MIND And a Man by Wisdom and Vertue may overcome Bodily-Temper and Inclination We have had those that have said By my Bodily-Temper and Constitution I am so and so such are my Difficulties and Temptations Yet through the Power of my Mind all these Things are subject to my Reason This is the Creator's Law that all Things in Man should be subject to the Government of REASON which is God's Deputy And this is our Tryal in this State whether by the Weight of Body we will suffer our selves to be depress'd and to sink downward by minding Earthly Things and so take our Portion here and fall short of God or whether by the Reason of our Minds we will mount upwards mind Heavenly Things converse with God by Heavenly Meditation and make choice of the Things that are most excellent Whereby we shall naturalize our selves to the Employment of Eternity For this we observe that we readily and easily do those Things that we have been long accustomed unto Use makes Men ready apt and prompt So that it is no difficult Matter for Men to foresee what they shall approve hereafter by what they savour relish and delight in now By what they take Pleasure and Satisfaction in at present For it will be there
more of the same Therefore our Business in time is to get the Victory over those unreasonable Passions which annoy us that so we may readily ascend into the State of Intelectual Beings * Our Business here is to qualifie our Souls by Holiness and Vertue for the Happiness of Heaven and to separate our Minds from the Dregs of Matter and Bodily-Sense Which will not be till the Mind get the Victory and the Soul become God-like and in some Measure partake of the Divine Nature But here I might lose my self and yet can speak but little of the Happiness of that State Let it be our Care at present to cleanse our selves from all Pollutions of Flesh and Spirit For can we be so blind as to think that a contrary Way will bring us to our intended End We do observe that Things are in Men according to their Temper What is Food tho' never so wholesome if a Person be sick Or Musick to those that are Melancholy What is Exercise or Recreation to Men that are weak and feeble What are the Things of the World to him that hath no Power to enjoy them So it is in this Case They that take no delight in the Exercise of Vertue in this State if after this Life God should remove them into Local Heaven they would take little Satisfaction in the Place because of an unsuitable Frame of Spirit For Men must be suitable to the Object in the Enjoyment of which they receive Satisfaction Therefore suppose tho' it is impossible that a Man * being unregenerate and not renew'd in his Spirit nor refined in his Temper that God by Power should remove such a Man into Heaven when he came thither he would not be satisfied either in the Persons or in the Employment of that Place Because all these would be contrary unto him Tho' when we speak of Heaven we understand rather a State than a Place A Frame and Temper Within rather than any thing Without Therefore it is absolutely necessary that we should by Goodness here qualifie and prepare our selves for Happiness hereafter For there is no Happiness in the Meeting of Things that are Unlike Thus now I have given you an Account of the State of Religion and its Operation upon the Body and the Mind in this State and the other And this is enough to recommend Religion and to make us to look upon it not as an Arbitrary Exaction but as a Thing highly pleasurable and most desirable as that which is effectual to purifie our Natures and to raise our Minds as that which is the Health and Strength and good Temper of our Minds For as a Man knows that he is in Health when the Offices of Nature are well performed and discharged * So is he sure of his Mind's Health and Strength when all the several Offices and Duties of Life are easily and well perform'd They are very little acquainted with Religion that look upon it as a Burthen as that which puts too great a Restraint upon Human Nature and upon Liberty And therefore the Poet wrote his Book to release the Minds of Men from the Obligation of Religion I confefs he might well do so * as to that which he call'd Religion For that was to release the Minds of Men from those UNNATURAL Obligations their Religion laid upon them But no such Thing can be said of that Religion which we profess For the Work of our Religion is to teach Men to avoid Evil and to do Good And this doth no more confine Mens Liberty than for Men to confine themselves within the Measures of Sobriety and Temperance and to avoid those Things which would do them Hurt and Prejudice No Man thinks he is under Restraint if he be confin'd to eat and drink only those Things that will do him Good For if this were Liberty and Perfection to do one thing as well as another Evil as well as Good without Difference or Distinction then let me ask you Where is GOD's Liberty From hence it would follow that of all the World God is most tied and bound that HE in whom there is Fulness of Liberty having all Power is most limited For God saith of himself that he cannot do Evil that he doth banish it from his Throne and that he is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity I conclude therefore 't is not Power but Weakness not Perfection but Deformity for any one to be able to do otherwise than what is right and fit to be done For this cannot be said of God himself For all the Ways of God are Ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth Now the better to inforce what hath been said about Religion I will balance the two opposite States that which is founded in Religion and that which is founded in Evil and Sin That by comparing both together you may understand the one and the other For Contraries are tâ—â— best Comments one upon another And to this purpose I will take into Consideration these Particulars First It doth not deserve the honourable Title of RELIGION or to be taken for the Effect of Respect to God or Conscience to Right which doth not refine Mens Spirits rectifie their Apprehensions and regulate their Actions Even Nature's Sense as depraved as it is doth startle at any vile Practice For nothing is more true than that all Evil is against the NATURE of Man till it is marr'd and spoil'd by consenting to Iniquity For witness hereof take Hazael as an Instance Who startled at the Mention of those Sins which the Prophet told him of Insomuch that he saith Is thy Servant a Dog that he should do such Things For Impudency Immodesty and Cruelty are not primarily in the Nature of Man but they are contracted by base Use Custom and Practice Of Wickedness there is no Account to be given either of its Self or of the Degree of it For it is contrary to Reason And when the Rule of Right is once broken and violated no Man knows where a Person will stay Let us consider the open Declarations that are from God agaiâ—â—â— Wickedness both by Denunciation and Execution 'T is true God oftentimes hath long Patience with a wicked World But it is in order to their Repentance Tho' Men are very apt to mis-understand this Compassion of God towards Sinners For it is observed Ecclesiastes 8. 11. That because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the Hearts of the Sons of Men are set to do Mischief But yet there is a present Recompence of Evil For all Inordinacy of Mind carries with it it s own Punishment All Wickedness carries with it Uneasiness of Spirit and Dissatisfaction Another Thing that I would offer to your Consideration is the malign Nature of Evil and the dismal Consequenence thereof For it is that which poysons the Nature of Man and turns Angels into Devils MAN which by Nature is a loving mild and gentle Creature it makes fierce and cruel