of our Saviour may be well applied to such a Person If the light that is in him be darkness how great is that darkness Moreover there is little hope to reform that Man's evil Practises whose persuations make him secure and easie all the while So there is no little difficulty to be met with in trying to undeceive him for Men will hold comfortable Errors as long as they can find the least pretence for it And which is not the least mischief of this Offence though such Errors are not laid down without a great trouble yet they are taken up with much readiness they are apt to spread far and wide And to this I believe the experience of the World agrees viz. That although there are mistakes that lead to trouble of Mind and over-much restraint yet for one that is led away by such mistakes an hundred there are that believe comfortable Lies which either wholly take off the restraints of Religion or in such part as to render them ineffectual 3. Perverse Disputes and an obstinate Maintenance of Error by all the Arts of Sophistry has this lamentable evil commonly attending it that it renders many Persons utterly careless to examine on which side the Truth lies Perhaps they are but few in comparison that are framed to an inquisitive Spirit and they who are not so framed by Nature or by Education must force their Tempers to Patience and take pains with themselves which is an Employment that Men soon grow weary of and commonly they break off pretending it is to no purpose to search any farther but that when there is so much to be said on both sides when there is such an appearance of Reason for and against the same thing it is time for them to give over being Judges for themselves And indeed in things that are either really disputable or of less moment this were not much to be blamed But in matters of high Consequence and Questions that touch the very Vitals of Religion it often happens that Men grow weary of searching Truth and give up themselves wholly to be led by the Authority and Judgment of others after the Controversie is stifly maintain'd for some time on both sides And it were well in this case if it were an even lay whether they choose the true Guide or not But when a Guide is to be chosen and followed with an implicite Faith the false Guide hath this Advantage always that he exceeds in Confidence in lofty Pretences in swelling Titles in positive denouncing Damnation to all that are not of his way and though a Modest Man that speaks justly of things and claims not to be Infallible deserves the most Credit yet 't is great odds that the other has most followers amongst those that understand not the merits of the Cause 4. The same Cause has too often a yet worse Effect and that is to run some Persons into Infidelity and an utter neglect of Religion as if no certainty could be had of the Principles of Religion seeing there is so much Controversie about it And some have said that it will be then time enough for them to believe in God and to worship him when they that pretend to oblige them to it are agreed about it The truth is were it not for that secret impression of his own Being which God hath left upon our Nature it is not improbable but the monstrous Errors that have been obtruded upon a great part of Mankind under the name of Faith and the force and the fraud wherewith they have been maintain'd had let in Atheism like a Deluge upon the World especially considering that there are those in the World who are so full of Zeal for their own way that they have no tenderness for the common Principles of Faith but are rather content that all should sink together than that their own Doctrines should not stand We have been born in hand that no assurance can be had of the truth of Christianity but from the Authority of such and such Men and they that believe upon other Grounds had as good have no Faith at all That if it were possible for them to propound any thing that is false we cannot be certain of any one Article that is true That the same exceptions may be made to the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles that are made against the stories of latter Miracles and finally that by the same Reason that any of their Traditions are rejected the Holy Scriptures may be rejected too and indeed we have lived to see the utmost that can be done by Wit and Learning to diminish the Authority of the Bible Now this I say is a most dreadful Offence and has done infinite mischief in the World that Men who are violently engaged in a wrong way of Religion care not for the most part what they venture in the service of their own Cause for whilest they lay the same stress upon false or at least disputable Points that they do upon the most necessary and acknowledged Principles of Religion and bend all their Wit to shew that no difference ought to be made they give occasion to Men that would fain be Atheists to deceive themselves into what they would be For a very little consideration will serve to satisfie them that something is false which is propounded to them as an Object of their Faith. And they know that they have then leave given them to conclude that nothing is true 5. There is another great mischief of Offences that are given by Errors in Doctrine or Practice and a mischief that often happens in the World which is that of running into a contrary extream The Church found this by sad Experience in the fourth and fifth Ages when men of no small note disputing against one Heresie fell into another of an opposite Nature to the no small trouble of Christendom Truth sometimes as well as Vertue lies in the mean and they that transgress on any one side do not only this mischief to give what Authority they can to the wrong side they are of but they do this mischief too of giving occasion to others to offend on the other extream Thus the abuse of Church-Authority on the one side has bred in some men contempt of all such Authority on the other The scandals that have been given by propagating Opinions by Force and Violence have produced in many a fond persuasion that there ought to be no restraints whatsoever in matters of Religion Superiours have required unlawful things in Divine Service and to be revenged upon that abuse it has been said that they are not to be obeyed in matters of Prudence and Expedience Religion has been made to run out into Shews and Ceremonies and this has begotten prejudices against all appearance of Beauty and Reverence in the external Worship of God. And on the other side the excesses of men in departing from one extream are scandalous to those whom they left and do confirm them
Pretences It is true God sees the Qualities and Dispositions of our Minds with an Infallible Judgment but we not so certainly it is hard for us to tell what degree of Faith or Fear is proper to God's Children is justifying or saving But if in the hardest tryals of thy Obedience thou dost keep God's Commandments then thou art sure that thou fearest God and because God would have thee try thy self by this Rule he was pleased to testifie his own knowledge that Abraham feared him upon Abraham's ready Obedience as if he had not known it before 2. Another point of Instruction and of good use in all Ages of the World is this That God hath some Servants and Worshippers who are not hired to the Profession of serving him by the worldly ease profit and security that Religion brings and who when that expectation fails them will not turn their backs upon him to chuse another Master The Devil insinuated against Job That he served God because God had made an hedge about him and about his House and all that he had on every side because he had blessed the work of his hands and increased his substance in the land but if God would put forth his hand and touch all that he had then he would curse him to his face i. e. That then he would be as prosane as he was before godly in outward appearance But upon tryal it proved otherwise and he retained his Integrity saying shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Job 2.10 Such another instance of this kind was Abraham God had blessed him with great Encrease and Prosperity upon the leaving of his Country and there was nothing wanting to compleat his Desires but an Heir to his Blessings which God had a long time denyed him and at length gave him But it might be hitherto objected against the sincerity of Abraham's fear of God and dependance upon him that he perceiving how much for the better it was that he left his Country at the Call of God and finding now that all things went well with him did therefore make profession of serving the only true God because he found that it was the way to compass all that his heart could desire in the World How therefore should it appear that he behaved himself Religiously out of Conscience of his Duty in an absolute and entire dependance upon God's Soveraign Power Wisdom and Goodness And that was a thing very necessary to be made out for the Credit of Religion in the World and to demonstrate the ingenuity and sincerity of the Righteous There could be no other way so effectual no demonstration so clear as this that Abraham without murmuring and disputing should let go the dearest of all his Possessions in obedience to the Command of God and this was the tryal God made of his sincerity There was nothing that he held more dear to him than his only Son for whose sake it was that he did set a value upon all the rest of his Possessions well therefore might be said upon his ready compliance with this severe Command Now I know that thou fearest God This being as much as to say Now thy sincerity is put beyond all question and all Men must acknowledge that thou art in good earnest what thou hast all along pretended to be one that truly fearest God and who therefore dost that which is good not for worldly and mercinary Ends but because thou art absolutely resolved to depend upon God's Wisdom and Goodness in doing every thing that he requires And we must not think Brethren that this Testimony of Abraham's Faith and Sincerity was given him only for his own sake but for the sake of all good Men that should in any Age of the World tread in the steps of Abraham's Faith viz. That all Religious Men are what they are not for worldly Respects but for Conscience towards God. And therefore the tryal of Abraham's Faith did not only vindicate him but all God's faithful Servants to the end of the World from the charge of Hypocrisie and pretending Religion for worldly Ends Indeed he was tryed in the most extraordinary instance that could be well thought of and there was this reason for it because he was to be the Father of the Faithful the great Example of Faith and Religion And it well became him who was to have so great an Honour conferr'd upon him in all Ages to undergo such a tryal of his Faith as might not only be a standing Example of our Duty but a means to vindicate our Sincerity against the Reproaches of the World though we be not tryed as Abraham was For if Religion in the general be charged with the Hypocrisie of compassing worldly Advantages under a pretext of Conscience we desire them to look to the Example of our Father Abraham and to consider the proof that he gave of his Sincerity and God's Testimony concerning him Now I know that thou fearest God. And this is the temper and disposition of all Abraham's Children that they depend upon God's Providence not because they have a good Estate that they are righteous and just not because it is the way to thrive that they serve God not because he makes an hedge about all they have and observe the Rules of Religion not merely because they are under no unusual temptations to the contrary and the like but because believing in God and fearing and loving him in good earnest they are perswaded they ought so to demean themselves in expectation of his Favour which is better than Life and of his Rewards in a better World. In short Abraham the Father of the Faithful was therefore tryed in this manner that there might be in him an undeniable instance of the sincerity and ingenuity of true Believers to the end of the World who live in all good Conscience not expecting the profit of this World in recompence of their Piety and Justice and that Religion will secure their Bodies from Sickness their Goods from Rapine their Names from Reproach their Persons from Affronts and their course of Life from common or from unusual Troubles and Afflictions Abraham and his Children do not traffick with Heaven by their Prayers and Charity to secure or encrease their Possessions on Earth And though God hath often blessed good Men as he did Abraham with strange prosperity in this World yet this was not their end nor the reason of their dependance upon God and doing his Will but they were such as they were by Faith By faith they wrought righteousness Heb. 11.33 i. e. They did that thing which God required because they expected an heavenly Country and believed God to be a rewarder of them that diligently seek him though not always with the prosperity of this Life yet without fail with those pure and ravishing Joys of a better World which will shortly begin and never end To conclude this point it hath been very often the Charge
are inferior to none and as to their degree when Enoch lived they were at the height and as I have shown already he had bad Examples enough and probably but very few that were good So that Piety lay under great disadvantage in the common Opinion and likely enough it was a matter of some reproach to observe Rules for that Generation of Men was now began of whom we find in the next Chapter that God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually They set themselves at no time to do any good all their Business was to follow their brutish Appetites from one day to another without restraint the World was hastning apace to that Condition when Enoch lived and yet he lived so piously set so good an Example as if he had never seen any but good ones himself and whilst almost all Men were busy to fill themselves with the excess of sensual Pleasures his only business in comparison was to please God he looked up every day to his Maker out of whose hands so lately came that beautiful Fabrick which was made for Man and instead of surfeiting himself with those delightful entertainments of Sense that were round about him he raised his mind above them to the Contemplation of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God he offered to the Creator of all things the Sacrifices of Praise and Thankfulness he resigned himself wholly to his Will and Pleasure he believed his Promise of a better World and in that Faith he wrought righteousness And what can be said why we who cannot reasonably count our Temptations greater than those he was under why we I say should not also live as he did Why should the Government of our Passions and the ordering of our Conversation by the Rules of Religion be harder to us than it was to him What should hinder us from adoring and praising our Maker every day and from offering our Prayers and Supplications to him Why should not we consider that God is present with us every where and sees us in all that we do that we may always behave our selves as in his Presence May we not with as much advantage as he possibly could have look beyond this World and compare it with immortality in a far better state of things than this and set our affections upon things above and not upon things on the earth Especially since we have not here a continuing place I mean since we do not expect to live hardly the tenth part of that time upon Earth which the Patriarchs did before the Flood but all our days are few and evil and our Life short and troublesome and therefore doth of it self admonish us to look after another and to provide better for our selves hereafter than we can possibly do here Let no man say That the baits of Pleasure and the cares of Life and the multiplicity of his worldly Affairs that the evil manners of others and the snares of Conversation and his unavoidable Engagements in the World will not permit that Justice and Purity that Devotion and Sobriety which Religion requires nor that consideration of God and another Life which is necessary to keep us unspotted from this present world That for this purpose we must retire out of the World and live in Cells or in Houses where there is nothing else to do but to Watch and Pray where the cares of Life cannot follow them where evil Examples and where Temptations cannot find them out All this is but unreasonable and vain pretence For I beseech you what was Enoch and his Profession and Order of Life in the World Was he shut up from any part of common Conversation or eased from any part of the common Cares of this Life No by no means he in all respects of Secular Conversation and civil Relation was in the very same condition that other Men were as you will confess if you look back to verse 21. and so on till you come to the Text And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methusaleh And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methusaleh three hundred years and begat Sons and Daughters and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years And Enoch walked with God c. By which you may see that Enoch who had this Testimony was a married Man and for that Reason engaged as much in the necessary Affairs of Civil Conversation as any other and we do not find that after he begat Methusaleh his eldest Son he left his Wife and his Family and betook himself to any retirement and was from that time forward under Vows of single Life it is expresly said that Enoch walked with God after he begat Methusaleh three hundred years and begat Sons and Daughters So that all this time viz. for three hundred years of which it is said that he walked with God Enoch was the Husband of a Wife the Father of Children the Master of a numerous Family nay he was a Prince in his Generation the Seventh from Adam in the Line of Seth the eldest Son by descent from the eldest house of Seth one therefore who in his time made no little Figure in the World and was deeply engaged in the Affairs of Government beyond all others excepting his Father and Grandfather and the Patriarchs that were yet alive Enoch then differed not from other Men in any respect of Civil Affairs he had such Relations and common Engagements as other Men had and in some respect more being descended from Seth in the Patriarchal Line which some believe was the Regal Line too in one Division of Mankind But tho in these Circumstances he differed not from other Men otherwise than that his Affairs might be more Cumbersom than those of ordinary Persons yet with respect to Religion and Virtue to Faith in God and an holy Life he differed very much from the generality of Mankind for in the midst of all that Business and Conversation which his place in the World engaged him in he walked with God he was a perfect man and grew to that height of Piety and Righteousness that God thought fit to reward so eminent a Person with translating him alive from Earth to Heaven a plain demonstration against the Pretences of the Roman Church That retirement in Monasteries and a single life are not necessary to the highest degree of Piety that the best part of Religion is not to be coop'd up in a Cloyster but to be seen in the World and in the ordinary conversation of Men That the most Excellent part of Devotion that the best and noblest degrees of Faith and Virtue may be attained and exercised and improved in a state of Worldly Relations and Engagements and that these things therefore ought not to be pretended in our excuse for not walking with God as Enoch did Let me therefore add in the 2. Place That we have the
SEVENTEEN SERMONS Preach'd upon Several Occasions Never before Printed By WILLIAM CLAGETT D. D. Late Preacher to the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn and one of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary With the SUMM of a CONFERENCE On February 21 1686 between Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden about the Point of Transubstantiation LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun in Fleet-street over against St. Dunstan's Church 1689. THE PREFACE THere will need no more to recommend the following Discourses to the Reader than only to assure him he is not imposed upon by the Title Page but what is here presented to him as Dr. Claget's Sermons are really so being published from his own Papers and by his own Brother And indeed the Sermons themselves do sufficiently speak their Author for they every where express the Spirit the Judgment and the Reasoning of that Excellent Man tho' some of them perhaps want that Finishing which his Masterly Hand would have given them had he been to have published them himself The first of these Sermons he meant to have Printed if God had given him Life being prevailed upon by the Importunity of several of his Friends who then judged it very seasonable The last in this Collection was the last Sermon he Preached It was preached at St. Martins in the Fields on the day of his Lent-course there And that very Evening he fell into that Sickness which put a period to his Life twelve days after No Man perhaps in this Age of so private a Condition died more lamented For as he had all the amiable charming Qualities to procure the Esteem and Love of every one that knew him So God had bestowed upon him so many great and useful Talents for the doing Service to Religion to the Church to all about him And he so faithfully and industriously employed those Talents to those purposes that he was really a Publick Blessing and he had that Right done him as to be esteemed so He was born at St. Edmunds-Bury Sept. 24. 1646. being the Son of Mr. Nicholas Claget then Minister there His Vniversity-Education was at Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge His first Publick appearance in the World was at his own Native Town of Bury where he was chosen one of the Preachers Which Office he discharged for several years with so universal a Reputation that it might be truly said as to him That a Prophet had Honour in his own Country From thence at the Instance of some considerable Men of the Long Robe whose Business at the Assizes there gave them Opportunities of being acquainted with his great Worth and Abilities he was prevailed with to remove to Grays-Inn And indeed it was no small Testimony given to his Merits that he was thought worthy by that Honourable Society to succeed the Eminent Dr. Cradock as their Preacher In this Place he continued all the remainder of his Life and he behaved himself worthily in it and the Gentlemen of that House took all Occasions of declaring that he did so by the constant Kindness they expressed to him while he lived and the Respects they paid him at his Death He had indeed at the time of his Death two other Preferments besides that of Grays-Inn The Lord Keeper North his Wives Kinsman had given him a Living in Buckingham-shire but the other Place was that which he himself most valued next to Grays-Inn and that was the Lecture of Bassishaw to which he was chosen by that Parish about two years before his death It was the Lecture which Dr. Calamy had immediately held before him Never was there two greater Men successively Lecturers of one Parish nor ever was any Parish kinder to two Lecturers Dr. Claget dyed of the Small-Pox March 28th and was buried in the Church of St. Michael Bassishaw His Wife Mrs. Thomasin North a most Vertuous and Accomplish'd Woman dyed eighteen days after him of the same Disease and was buried in the same Grave with him There is this little Passage not unfit to be mentioned here The last Sermon Dr. Claget made tho' not the last he preached was that which is the sixteenth in this Collection upon this Text Shall we receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil This Sermon he made upon occasion of the death of a Child of his that happened a little before And he had writ it fairly out I suppose for this end that his Wife might read it And accordingly she did so but upon a much sadder Occasion For it was after his death that she got this Sermon into her hands and then she made it her continual Entert ainment and a seasonable one it was as long as her strength would suffer her But to return to Dr. Claget We owe it to the Society of Grays-Inn that he was brought to this City But after he came hither his own Merits in a little time rendred him sufficiently conspicuous For so innocent and unblameable was his Life such an unaffected Honesty and Simplicity appear'd in all his Conversation so obliging he was in his Temper so sincere in all his Friendships so ready to do all sorts of good Offices that came in his way and withal so Prudent a Man so good a Preacher so dexterous in untying Knots and making hard things plain so happy in treating of common Subjects in an uncommon and yet useful way So able a Champion for the True Religion against all Opposers whatsoever and lastly so ready upon all occasions to Advise to Direct to Encourage any work that was undertaken for the promoting or defending the Cause of God. I say all these Qualities were so eminent in Dr. Claget that it was impossible they should be hid The Town soon took Notice of him and none that intimately knew him could forbear to love and admire him and scarce any that had heard of him to esteem and honour him If the Reader would know more of Doctor Claget let him peruse those Writings of his which he Published himself By them he will in some measure be able to make a Judgment of the Genius and Abilities of the Man. If a Friend can speak without partiality there doth in those Writings appear so strong a Judgment such an admirable Faculty of Reasoning so much Honesty and Candor of Temper so great plainness and perspicuity and withal so much spirit and quickness and in a word all the Qualities that can recommend an Author or render his Books Excellent in their kind That I should not scruple to give Dr. Claget a place among the most Eminent and Celebrated Writers of this Church And if he may be allowed that it is as great an Honour as can be done him For perhaps from the inspired Age to this the World did never see more Accurate and more Judicious Composures in matters of Religion than the Church of England has produced in our days The Discourses writ and published by Dr. Claget are these that follow A Discourse concerning the Operations of
has in store for all honest Minds and that instead of running cross to the Interests of Mankind either here or hereafter it shews an infallible way to single Persons and to Communities to be happy in this World and to all men to be for ever blessed in the World to come We would rather have expected it should have been foretold that no man in any Age would ever set himself to oppose the design of the Gospel either in whole or in part If likewise we observe what clear and undeniable Testimonies of Divine Revelation God approved and owned it by how highly reasonable the Principles thereof are and how those things which could not be known but by Revelation yet being once revealed do satisfie our Reason and approve themselves to it How evident the Design thereof is how plain the Precepts how few the positive Institutions of it are and how significant and profitable they are and how full of Instruction finally how manifest those necessary Doctrines are the belief whereof is necessary to make a man a Christian and what that Mystery of Godliness is which in the Apostles days was confessed and without Controversie If we look upon these things and no farther we should rather have expected that the Doctrine of our Saviour should never have been gainsaid never perverted never mingled with Errour never have given occasion to wrangling and discord and never have become the matter of nice and angry Dispute but onely of an unblamable Faith and Practice The Gospel of Christ is undoubtedly a faithful Saying or Doctrine clearly revealed and standing upon evident Testimonies of Divine Revelation it is also worthy of all acceptation Why then must it needs be that Offences come To which I shall give a plain answer in our Saviour's words to Nicodemus That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3.18 and therefore it must needs be that Offences should come For the Religion of Christ is not sutable to the Spirit of this World and therefore the World hateth it and therefore no wonder if it hath one way or other always sought to obstruct the Progress and Design of it In a word it is not the defect but the exceeding excellence and purity of true Christianity that has given occasion to the World to oppose it to pervert it and to discourage the Profession or Practice of it For it is a Religion too wise and too good for them that have no mind to be wise and good themselves and therefore considering the great corruption of humane Nature which God would not over-bear by an irresistible power but cure by rational means and methods no wonder that Offences have come nay that our Saviour said it must needs be that Offences come To argue more particularly 1. The Doctrine of the Gospel is a Doctrine of Manners lays a severe restraint upon all the unreasonable Lusts of Men and makes a great many Liberties unlawful which they are for the most part violently inclined to take And therefore every carnal man while he so continues carries within himself a terrible prejudice a secret Enemy against the Truth as it is in Jesus and his Heart riseth with as much anger against that Doctrine of God that telleth him it is not lawful for him to pursue his worldly and fleshly desires as he would but to subdue and mortifie them as Herod when he took his Brother's Wife expressed against John the Baptist for saying It is not lawful for thee to have her Man's Nature affecteth a lawless Liberty and cannot endure to be confined it is diseased and cannot endure to be healed and it was therefore likely enough that very many would reject the Physician and be angry with those very Remedies that our Heavenly Father has sent The true and sincere Doctrine of Christ my Brethren if it be believed cannot but make us very uneasie and unquiet while we are conscious of sin and are not willing to be reformed because it reveals to us the Wrath of God against all our unrighteousness and ungodliness it forewarns us of a dreadful Sentence at the last day and of an everlasting Punishment which we are unwilling at the same time to venture in which we are unwilling to part with our sins and to reconcile our selves to God by Repentance And Men that are lovers of Pleasures and lovers of Gain cannot easily admit a Doctrine which gives them as much uneasiness and disturbance as if the point of a Sword were always turned toward their very Hearts For this Reason the Pharisees could not endure the Doctrine of Jesus and this was one Reason why the Heathens opposed it and persecuted it and is one Reason why Christians have corrupted it by finding out other ways to avoid Damnation than by a lively Faith and true Repentance and effectual Reformation and keeping the Commandments of God. It is this that hath made way for satisfactory Commutations Merits of others and the absolute power of the Keys and all those devices which are good for nothing but to reconcile a wicked Life to the hopes of Heaven and to entangle the plain sense of those words of Christ He that heareth these sayings and doth them not I will liken him to a foolish man that built his House upon the Sand and the winds blew and the rain fell and the floods came and beat upon that House and it fell and great was the fall thereof that is it suffered an irreparable Ruin. 2. If we consider the Doctrine of Christ as it is a Doctrine both of Faith and Manners it is no way framed to serve the ends of ambitious and worldly-minded men or to help them in pursuing those ends by a pretence of Religion and therefore it was not to be expected but in process of time it would be by some or others molded for that purpose when Opportunity should serve Our Saviour taught the World no other Principles of Morality no other Articles of Faith than what were equally for the Interest of all parts of Mankind to believe and follow a common good and an equal benefit was intended in them all For let them prevail without corruption and alteration the Honour and Safety of Soveraign Princes is secured and a quiet and peaceable Life to Subjects Neighbour-Nations shall give strength and confidence instead of creating Jealousies to one another the Master shall be better served and the Servant better used the Church by her Doctrine and Spiritual Authority will be a Guard to the State and receive at the same time Protection from it Here was no design in Christianity to set up any Nation or party of Men in opposition and to the disadvantage of all mankind beside but it plainly aimed at a general good and under its Penalties requires all its Professors to aim at the same too and condemns those who are lovers of themselves in opposition to all others amongst the greatest Offenders And this
Religion as Machiavel well observed was not calculated for the inspiring of Men with great Designs such I suppose as his Caesar Borgia aimed at It was too plain too Philosophical too Innocent and Charitable to raise an ambitious heat or to serve it And therefore it was very likely in process of time that it should be helped out by other Principles and Doctrines that would bring in the swelling of worldly Pride into the Church as the African Fathers in their Epistle to Celestine called it and advance one part of it to the depressing of all the rest But because true Christianity serves no such Design therefore was our Saviour opposed by the Rulers of the Jews his Doctrine did not tend at all that way viz. to make Hierusalem the Mistress of the World and that all should depend upon her it did not minister to their ambitious and worldly Hopes and therefore was not for their turn 3. If we look upon Christianity as a Rule of Worship it will still hold true that Offences must needs come because the Worship it prescribes is a Worship of great simplicity that has but two or three positive Institutions of Divine Authority viz. the two Sacraments and the Invocation of God through the Name and Mediation of his Holy Son Jesus Now this was not likely to be acceptable to the generality of Mankind who love rather a pompous number of Ceremonies and nice Observations than a grave and decent administration of Worship For the former does amuze the Senses and entertain the Imagination the latter does that but very little in Comparison and rather satisfies our Reason But most People are more apt to be affected with things that touch their Fancy than their Judgment And therefore it was hardly to be expected but in time their would grow very great excesses in this kind as there did even in St. Austin's days who complain'd of it not a little in his Epistle to Januarius Neither could it be doubted but such excesses would be accompanied with false Notions of Religion and of the way to please God For whereas the excellent design of our Saviour in appointing so small a number of external Observations leaving the necessary Rules of Decency to be determined by the Church was this to take Men off from all pretence of placing the weight of Religion in outward Ceremonies and by their very Worship to instruct them in Piety and Vertue and to shew them that God will not be pleased without those things whereas he did hereby effectually declare that God who is a Spirit would be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth that is with the Affections of a pious Heart and the Obedience that is expressed in a good Life The corrupt Nature of Man is as averse from this as 't is fond of the other and desires to please God by so easie a Religion as that which runs out into a world of Mysteries and Shews and Observations and seems to save them the labour of subduing their Lusts and Passions and of serving God by a righteous and holy Life And this was one thing that made the Primitive Christians contemptible and odious to the Heathens that they had so few Rites and Ceremonies so plain and simple a Form of Divine Service but one Altar but one Mediator no Tutelar Deities and Patrons no throngs of petty Gods but one or two Mysteries and those too plain and instructing without Pomp and Amuzement for such causes as these they reckoned the Christians little better than Atheists believing that a Religion which made no stately shew to be as good as none at all 'T is true that God himself appointed a Form of Divine Service to the Israelites that consisted of a vast number of Ceremonies but besides this that they were to be the Types to discover the Messias when he should appear There was another end of Divine Providence observable in that Constitution which was this that they having a stately and Mystical Form of Worship of their own might be less under a Temptation of learning of the Idolatrous Nations round about them whose numerous and gaudy Ceremonies in their Worship would have bewitched the Jews ten times more than they did if they had not been able to vye with them But God by his Prophet said That he gave them Statutes that were not good to be sure not the best in themselves but considering the time the best for them For when God sent his Son into the World who was to teach all mankind to Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth and to convert the Nations from Idolatry the Scheme of the Mosaic Worship was taken down and the Church was furnished with nothing but Prayers and Praises two Sacraments and one Mediator But by all this it appears that the design of the Gospel in this matter runs counter to the fond and foolish inclinations of mankind and therefore that Offences were ready to come upon this account also So that considering the temper and design of the Gospel it was a Religion too good for a wicked World too wise for a vain and foolish World I mean it was too good and too wise to escape Opposition and all change the World would either try to keep it out or when that was in vain to attempt any longer to square and form it better to its own purposes and inclinations It was upon this account viz. of the design of the Gospel which was exalted above a worldly Spirit that a peculiar temper was required by our Saviour in order to the embracing of his Doctrine A Spirit of Honesty and Sincerity of Humility and Teachableness love of the Truth willingness to learn patience of Reproof and the like without which Dispositions the common prejudices against Christianity would certainly hinder the efficacy of those Arguments and Motives by which it was recommended And therefore since God did not intend by an irresistible act upon the minds of Men to over-rule them into a compliance with the Gospel it was not to be expected but that it should be first of all greatly opposed as it was and afterwards insincerely handled as it hath been And this although the Doctrine of the Gospel is peculiarly furnished with means to infuse a wise and honest disposition into them that want it For those means are consistent with the liberty of Humane Nature and after all men may be the worse and not the better for them Nothing could in its own Nature be more fit to awaken Men to Consideration and to lead them to Honesty and Wisdom and to conquer all worldly and carnal prejudices than the promise of Eternal Life and the warning of a day of Judgment to come It is in this that the great power of the Gospel to mend the tempers of Men consists But when all is done in this kind that can be done Men may choose their Portion in this World because they will not hearken and consider And it well became Divine Providence
resolve well and to fix their Resolution not upon a sudden heat only not meerly upon the general disposition of an Honest Mind but upon a deliberate Judgment what they must lose and what they should get by doing as became them Finally he would have them to maintain a constant sense of these things upon their minds that they might not be at a loss and be found unprovided on the sudden All this is implied in watching a Work which the Disciples were bidden more strictly to attend because the Lord had told them that the hour was at hand when a terrible Tryal would befall them and therefore upon their neglect to do accordingly he justly upbraided them afterward What could ye not watch with me one hour And all this was to be drawn into consequence for the Instruction of all his Disciples to the end of the World not only upon extraordinary Occasions but in the ordinary course of their Lives that is that we should be possessed with a sense of God and our Duty of the danger we are in by the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil of the fearful consequence of yielding to these Temptations and that we should maintain a lively sense of these things upon our Minds by being conversant in the Word of God and by making the main Principles of Religion present to our Minds by a frequent consideration of them This I say is incumbent upon us all since our Saviour thought it needful for all for says he What I say unto you I say to all Watch Mark 13.37 But to Watchfulness our Lord Commands us to add Prayer Watch and Pray And Prayer implies these two things 1. A just sense of our own insufficiency that if God he absent from us our Purposes are uncertain our Resolutions wavering and inconstant and our wills and Affections alterable by every blast of Temptation though we may be provided with very good Reasons of Constancy in doing well God hath not left us meerly to depend upon the strength of Arguments and Motives though they are necessary but hath promised moreover the supernatural help of his Grace and we are not to depend meerly upon the former but knowing that we need farther assistance we should daily apply our selves to him by Prayer for it 2. It implies not only a consciousness of our inability to do the thing that God requires but moreover a steady belief of and trust in the grace of God which he hath promised that it is sufficient for us and that he will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him that he who is good to all will be ready to help them especially that call upon him in sincerity and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able Such is the meaning of that part of the Exhortation which concerns the means Watch and Pray Now 2. The end of Watchfulness and Prayer is that we may not enter into Temptation The meaning of which Phrase is plainly this that we may not fall by Temptation not as the words at first hearing seem to import that no Temptation may befall us for as to that Temptation which required the Vigilance and Devotion of our Lord's Disciples at this time he plainly told them it would happen and therefore by entring into temptation must be meant falling into that sin to which the Temptation is an inducement and so the Exhortation runs as if our Saviour had said You are very confident that you shall do as you ought as if it were one of the easiest things in the World but I tell you before-hand that this Confidence of yours is a dangerous Presumption and you will find your selves deceived when it comes to the Tryal if you take no more care than you are now disposed to take I Advise you therefore to consider what will happen better than you have done and to call together all those Instructions you have heard from me and make them present to your minds and be so affected with them as to betake your selves to Prayer that being thus armed not with an hasty but a prudent Resolution and with dependence upon God you may overcome the Temptation when it happens This seems to be the Natural meaning of the Exhortation Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation I proceed next to explain the Reason which our Saviour adds to enforce the Exhortation The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak And now I doubt when we hear or read these words we are too apt to interpret them as if Jesus had meant to excuse the sluggishness of his Disciples and had indeed spoken to them in this manner It were well if you would Watch and Pray that you may not fall by Temptation but the truth is though you are willing so to do yet you are not very much to be blamed but in some part to be excused if you do not and that because of the frailty and weakness of Humane Nature But I beseech you not to be fond of this way of expounding these words for it is by no means true nor in the least worthy of our Saviour's Wisdom nor agreeable to the scope of his Doctrine Let us not think so meanly of our Lord as if he gave his Disciples necessary Directions and in the same breath excused them whether they fulfilled his Directions or not These words I say do not contain an excuse of their neglect to watch and pray but a Reason why they should do both and such a Reason too as left them without all Excuse if they failed in either For thus they may be supposed to run Watch and Pray that ye enter not into Temptation for though the Spirit is willing yet the Flesh is weak and so it is absolutely necessary that ye Watch and Pray Which Interpretation as it holds forth a worthy and excellent meaning of it self so it is clearly warranted by the circumstances and scope of the place and by the condition of those Persons at present to whom these words were used and by what befel them afterwards And this will be very evident if we examine the meaning of the words by these Rules For then you will see 1. That by a willing spirit we are not to understand a forwardness to Watch and Pray but a present Resolution to overcome Temptations and that a sincere Resolution too such a Resolution as is accompanied with a strong persuasion that we shall do so and that was the case of the Disciples For if we look back in this Chapter we shall find that upon their Master's fore-warning them what occasion of Offence they would meet with that very Night St. Peter briskly steps forward in the Name of all the rest of the Apostles all agreeing to what he said v. 33. Though all men says he shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended Thus the willingness of the Spirit shewed it self that is a forwardness to do all that
to build and now I shall proceed to shew what those sins are which manifestly oppose and contradict these Rules and they may I think be reduced to these two Atheism and Idolatry First Atheism of which there are two sorts properly so called Either I. Not believing that there is a God Or II. Not worshipping him 1. Not believing a God that is an invisible Spiritual Being which is the cause of all things and this is that which is commonly understood by Atheism to deny the very Being of a God which as it is the highest stupidity and the greatest corruption imaginable of a Man's Understanding so it is fundamentally opposite to all pretences of Religion and Worship which supposes the Being of God of God I say that is of a spiritual and invisible Being which knows and understands which can do all things and upon which all other things depend But 2. There is another sort of Atheism truly so called which consists with a Belief of the being of God or at least doth not stand in a direct denial of his Being and that is not worshipping him He that doth not worship God before Men is an Atheist to the World and he that worships him not at all is an Atheist before the World and in the sight of God too and there is no reason to question but he that is the one is the other too Every wicked Man though he professeth Religion and worships God may indeed be called a Practical Atheist because he lives as if there were no God. But he that is grown to that degree of impiety as to make no acknowledgment of him by appearing in his Worship is much more so and doth in effect renounce his Maker before the World and it cannot be more truly said of any one than of such a Man that he lives without God in the World. And therefore although the Epicurean Sect acknowledged the Being of a God yet because they denyed his Providence and took away all the Foundations of worshipping him they were by all men of sense called Atheists This however is also directly opposite to the Rule we are upon Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. But 2. Idolatry is opposed to it likewise and this is that impiety which the Rule was chiefly designed against Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Idolatry is a Term in Religion or Divinity to which we must give that sense in which the Scripture uses it and I think all are agreed this to be the sense of it there That it is the giving of any Divine Worship to a Creature i. e. any part of that Worship which is due to God only and therefore these words are a Rule against all Idolatry whatsoever Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God c. Now 1. All honour which is done to any invisible Being besides God by formal Invocation of it or calling upon it must therefore necessarily be Idolatry because it ascribes in the very Nature of the Act Omnipresence to it which is a Divine Perfection 2. All the external Honours done to any such Beings which refer to that Service are also Idolatrous because they are significations of Divine Honour also and therefore Dedicating Churches and Altars to them Bowing Kneeling Prostrating burning Incense and the like Religious Rites performed to them are Idolatry 3. Any Service paid to a created Being that is either visible or invisible seen or not seen present or absent which Service doth imply that thing to be God or ascribes any Divine Attribute to it or much more that Service which in all circumstances is the very same with what is given to God himself this also must necessarily be an Idolatrous Service 4. The Worship of an Image or any visible Representation of any thing whatsoever must be Idolatrous for if it be worshipped as the Representation of a Creature it cannot ' scape being so if there were no more in it than that Religious Worship is not to be given to the Original But if it be the pretended Image of the Deity the Worship of it is Idolatrous Worship and the reason is plain because it is set there to receive that external Worship at least which is due to that invisible Being whom it is said to represent But the Worship of God is to be given to him and to none but him I pass by two material things one is That the Image-Worship of the People is known to be attended with expectation of receiving benefit from the Image itself which makes the Idolatry to be very gross in them but inasmuch as Images are made the Object of outward Acts of Divine Honour by all that worship them they give to the Image that Worship which is to be paid to God only Another is this That to pretend to make an Image of God is one of the grossest dishonours that can be possibly done to him because that supposes the Godhead to be like unto wood or to stone and the work of mens hands and tends to corrupt the Notion of God in all that are made to believe that they are his Images or Representations but I do not place Idolatry in that though it be a great aggravation of it but in the actual worshipping of it and that because we are to worship the Lord our God and serve him only but to worship Images is not to worship him for God is one thing and a pretended Image of him is another All this I make bold to lay down peremptorily being well assured that these kinds of Worship are prohibited in this Rule of serving God only and that these prohibited Worships are in the Scripture called Idolatry which I shall now more particularly prove against a certain pretence That the true and only Notion of Idolatry is this and that it is neither more nor less than this viz. The Worship of the heavenly Bodies the Sun the Moon and the Stars or any other visible and corporeal Deity as the Supreme God so as to exclude all sense and apprehension of a spiritual and invisible Godhead The plain English of which is this That no Man can be an Idolater that is not such a Sot as to take something which he knows can neither understand any thing nor chuse one thing before another to be the Supreme God and as such to worship it as for instance he must take something which hath no more of a spiritual Nature in it than a piece of stone or a log of wood and exclude all reference that it can have to any thing that hath a spiritual nature and he must fall down upon his knees to it and speak to it and desire it to bless him and believe that it will do so and he must withal take it for his Supreme Deity and then he shall be allowed to pass for an Idolater nay more for one that is not fit to live upon the Earth but to be cut off from the People as those Israelites were
Divine Worship whatsoever any Honour due to God only giving that I say to any other Being how excellent soever although they that do so do believe and worship the Supreme God the Maker of Heaven and Earth all the while For by Idolatry they could understand nothing but what went for Idolatry under the Law seeing the Notion of it was not in the least altered but it continued just the same that it was before as these very words do witness Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve But as I entered upon this Argument by distinguishing between Atheism and Idolatry so I shall now close it by comparing them together Idolatry is indeed a very heinous sin because it gives away the Glory of God to another but Atheism is a worse because that is a renouncing of the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Creator of the World they who do not serve the Lord only are guilty of great impiety but they who do not serve and worship him at all are guilty of a greater impiety To worship God and to worship Angels to pray to God and to pray to Saints to adore Jesus Christ and to adore the Virgin is in part to forsake God and our Saviour but neither to worship or pray to Saints and Angels no nor to God himself this is utterly to forsake him and to live without God in the World Which I do not say to extenuate the Crime of Idolatry but to give every thing its due and to leave this impression upon our mind that by how much more we inveigh against the Idolatry of others because it is no less than giving some of God's Glory to his Creature by so much the more we oblige our selves to be constant and devout and in very good earnest in the Worship of the only true God least by degrees we fall into a Spirit of Irreligion and Atheism and be wholly estranged from God which is a worse case than Solomon's was who falling into the Idolatry of his Neighbours fell under this Character That his heart was not perfect with the Lord and he went not fully after him To conclude since through the Grace of God it is our Happiness to worship the Lord our God and to serve him only let us have a care that we go on to worship God only and to be sure let us remember that we worship him that we be not slothful in Religion but earnest and fervent least we forsake God by a Spirit of Irreligion which is every whit as damnable as Idolatry Let it appear by our whole Conversation that we do indeed worship the God that made Heaven and Earth who only hath power to bless us to protect and keep us in this Life and to reward us with the enjoyment of himself forever The Sixth Sermon GEN. XXII 12. Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me IN these words we may observe two things I. God's Testimony concerning Abraham Now I know that thou fearest God. II. The Fact upon which this Testimony of God concerning him was grounded which was his offering his Son Isaac to God Because thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me 1. The Testimony of God concerning him I know that thou fearest God this I say was God's Testimony concerning him For whereas it is said That the Angel of the Lord called to him out of Heaven it seems plain that the Angel of the Lord was no other than the Angel of the Covenant the Son of God himself who did sometimes appear to the Patriarchs for the words are Seeing thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me i. e. from God it was God that spake to him and who said Now I know that thou fearest God. The matter God testified of him was That he feared God that is that he believed in God that he was fully perswaded of his Infinite Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness and all his Infinite Perfections and that he was affected sutably thereunto This is the meaning of the Fear of God in the Scripture which is a phrase used to comprehend all pious Affections towards him and is therefore of the same latitude with Faith the Praise whereof is ascribed to Abraham by the Author to the Hehrews The only thing to be added is this That we must remember that to fear God is to fear him as God that is before and above all other things and consequently to love him and to trust in him and to rely upon him incomparably and infinitely more than upon all the World besides inasmuch as the perfections of all others are finite God only is infinite in all perfections Now this was that which God testified of Abraham in saying of him that he feared God and in the understanding of this there is no difficulty at all But it may seem strange that God should give this testimony of him in that manner wherein we find he did Now know I that thou fearest God Now i. e. now thou hast not with-held thy son thine only son from me For did not God know the integrity of Abraham's heart before Is not God the searcher of hearts and doth he need our outward actions that he may judge of our tempers and intentions by them It is true we have no other way to come to the understanding of one anothers thoughts but by our words and deeds But hath God no other way Yes without all doubt he that knoweth our thoughts afar off even before they are born within us cannot be ignorant of them when they are But why then doth he say Now I know that thou fearest God I answer that this is one of those sayings of God by which he is pleas'd to condescend to the manner of our speaking and conversing with one another For we with great propriety use such expressions as these upon such extraordinary occasions If from my Friend that hath always professed great kindness to me I receive some notable benefit in my distress not without hazard to himself it is very proper for me to say Now I know that he loves me Now I know he is indeed a faithful and sincere Friend though I had great reason to make no doubt of it before yet this is so great a confirmation and strengthening of my belief that in comparison thereto I might be said to know little or nothing of it before In allusion to such expressions it is that God useth these words Now I know that thou fearest God Not in intimation of his having now gained greater assurance of Abraham's integrity than he had before Abraham had been for a long time the Servant of God and had made an open profession of worshipping and obeying him and God saw all along that he was an upright man and this no less before he was bidden to offer his Son Isaac than after he had stretched forth his hand to slay him upon the
come to pass afterwards is fit for them only to believe that can believe that the World was made by a casual hit of Atoms To name these things is enough to confute them 2. All that can be farther desired is to be well assured that these Prophecies were not forged by the followers of Jesus but that they were indeed contained in the Ancient Writings that had been delivered down to the Jews of our Saviour's time by their Ancestors and the constant testimony of the Jews themselves who were most bitter enemies to Jesus and to his Doctrine were enough to satisfie us in this point 4ly And Lastly Whereas these Predictions are said to be a more sure word of Prophecy the meaning is this that they are a more convincing Testimony to Jesus than any other taken by its self they are indeed a more permanent Testimony and withal less liable to Cavil and Objection I cannot stand to shew this by making particular comparisons but shall only observe That Prophecy includes all other Testimonies and adds strength to every one of them It comprehends the Miracles of Jesus and of his Apostles his resurrection and ascension the descent of the Holy Ghost and the excellency of his Doctrine because these were all foretold It includes all other proofs as well as the thing proved and those proofs are the more convincing because they also had been foretold by the Prophets From all this it follows That allowing the Scripture that Tradition which other good Histories have and which they have more of than any other Ancient Writings in the world then the Prophecies of the Old Testament and the accomplishment of them in the New do prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and this without the help of the Churches Authority and well is it for the Christian Religion that the Scriptures may be proved without the Authority of the Church for otherwise Christianity must never look an Infidel in the face since the Church hath no Authority at all till we are assured of the truth of the Scriptures themselves And I will make bold to add That when all those objections against the Authority of the Old Testament from the time wherein it was put into this form of Books from the light oversights of Transcribers from various readings and all the cavils upon any part of it are put together the word of Prophecy which runs through it all will bear all this reckoning and still remain an invincible argument that the first Authors were inspired that the Prophecy came not in Old time by the will of man but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Well therefore might St. Peter commend the Jewish Converts for taking heed to the Word of Prophecy since this was the way to come to a well-grounded Faith indeed and to grow every day to greater assurance and stedfastness therein and for the same reason let us I beseech you be exhorted to like diligence in conversing with the Holy Scriptures that our minds may be more enlightned with the knowledge of Divine truth and that every doubt if any there be that shakes our Faith may be removed And this Exhortation is so needful that I shall shew that there is no good reason in their objection against it who have taken a great deal of pains to exclude all but the Clergy and those that have special license from reading the Scriptures the sum of what they say is this That the promiscuous Liberty of reading the Scriptures leads the People into pride and self-conceit makes them insolent and ungovernable and ready to throw off all Respect to their lawful Guides That almost all Heresies have proceeded from Misinterpretation of Scripture and that there are so many obscure and difficult places in the Old and New Testament that to translate the Bible into Vulgar Tongues and to encourage the People to read it is to betray them into the danger of infinite errors which they are likely enough to fall into by mistaking the sence of the holy Text which therefore is to be kept out of the hands of the Laity as we would keep Children from medling with edged Tools and lay Swords out of mad-men's way Now if this charge be true the Bible is a very dangerous Book if it be not true there is some other reason doubtless why they that pretend this have no kindness for the Bible I shall omit several advantages that may be taken against this flourish because I think it may be shown very briefly that it pretends things that do by no means hang well together that it takes things for granted that are not true and that it concludes as strongly against the Scriptures being read by the Clergy as by the Laity It pretends some things that do not hang well together On the one side they tell us that the liberty of reading the Bible is apt to make the People throw off all dependance upon the Priest as to instruction on the other side that there are obscure and difficult passages in it by mistaking the true sense of which they will be led into Heresie and consequently into the way of Damnation Now indeed the Scriptures say this of themselves that there are diverse things hard to be understood in them which ignorant and unstable men have wrested to their own destruction But if this be true the best way to keep the People in modest dependance upon the instruction of their Spiritual Guides is to lay the Bible before them and not to keep it from them since there cannot be a more convincing Argument of the necessity of attending to their Pastors in order to farther Instruction than the several difficulties that occur in the Scriptures and the warnings that the Scriptures themselves have given of the danger that unlearned and unstable men are in of wresting them to their own destruction If it be said that experience shews the contrary and that neither this nor any other argument can make People modest if they are geneally permitted to have the Scriptures I add 2. That this arguing takes things for granted which are not true in point of fact all the Faithful anciently had the Scriptures but we find little complaint by the Bishops and Clergy then of the Wantonness and Insolence of the People so little in comparison of the frequent and earnest exhortations that all would diligently Read the Scriptures that it may be said to be none at all Christian People that had been trained up in the first Rudiments of the Faith were not only allowed then but required to Read the Bible and yet they modestly attended upon their Spiritual Guides for farther Instruction out of the Bible And therefore if some men in later Ages have grosly Misinterpreted the Scriptures and would not be set right by those that had more skill to Interpret them this doth not prove that the reading of the Scriptures makes the People ungovernable for then it must always have
Prescription and Authority when it hath stood long enough to have some Colour for Antiquity and hath obtained interest enough to pretend to a kind of Vniversality then it will be seen who they are that love God and Truth and Goodness that are not willing to be deceived that will take pains to be rightly informed That prefer Truth before Glorious Names and a good Conscience before Applause and Flattery and Eternal Life before the Ease and Pleasures of this World. God bears long with all the Provocations of Mankind for the same reason that he permits Heresies which is that they who are approved may be made manifest For these and such like reasons as these God in his Wisdom and Goodness bears with Infinite Patience those Provocations for a long time together which he could be avenged of in a Moment and which he utterly abominates which was the first Observation upon the Text. 2. The second was That God is so much the more just in the final destruction of Incurable and Obstinate Sinners when their iniquity is full and ripe for Vengeance For as there was the Patience of God seen for four hundred Years together while the Iniquity of the Amorites was growing from bad to worse so at the end of that Period the Justice of God was seen when their Iniquity was full To grow worse for the forbearance of God is the most Criminal Presumption in the World and when men are come to that pass as quite to forget that there is a God or believing him to be to persuade themselves That he either approves or at least connives at their Impieties then the same Wisdom and Goodness which hitherto had kept off their Punishments will bring them on swiftly and suddenly for as on the one side if the degeneracy and the impudence of Sinners should not be suffered to Flourish long there will be no Tryal of the Faith of Honest men so if it should be suffered to last always the Temptation would at length grow too hard for them God exercises his own Patience that Good men might exercise theirs at length he shows his justice to reward their Patience The Patience of God is a forbearance guided by Wisdom and Goodness and the Justice of God is a Severity that is also guided by Wisdom and Goodness And neither the one nor the other hath any mixture of that Selfishness and Passion which is for the most part the reason why we sometimes are and sometimes are not severe with those that have offended us This is the true Justice of Punishment to respect the Evil that is committed and to Punish for that reason and this appears in no instances more than when God Punishes after long sparing For if he had been a Selfish or a Passionate Being he had never suffered men to go on so long together in the most Provoking ways of Wickedness because he had it in his Power to Punish them long before as he Punishes them at last And therefore that he Punishes them at last is an effect of his Wisdom and Goodness and a Demonstration that the Common good required it And as there are several good ends to which God's Patience tends in bearing with general Impieties so long as he often doth so there are as many to which his Justice tends in taking Vengeance of them at last For 1. This is a Demonstration that his Providence was not asleep before 2. It is a clear instruction that men ought not to presume upon God's Favour merely because they Prosper in their ways but that they should measure his Love or his Anger by what they do and not by what happens to them since they who do the same wicked things may go Unpunished from one Generation to Another and in this World but one Generation may suffer for them 3. That we should not forget to call our past Sins to remembrance and to humble our selves before God for them since if God Punishes the sins of the Fathers upon the Children in this Life the like cause have we to fear that he will Punish the Sins of our Youth and our Riper Years at the Latter end of our Life 4. That we should make use of the Patience and long suffering of God to our selves to prevent his Anger from Flaming out against us because otherwise we Treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God. The truth is these are the uses we ought to make of both those Considerations that I laid before you from the Text which I shall therefore inculcate again And 1. We have no reason to question either the watchfulness of God's Providence or to be cast into perplexities and doubts whether the way of Truth and the way of Error the way of Virtue and Piety and the way of Hypocrisie and Wickedness are so different from one another as is pretended in Religion we have I say no reason to perplex our selves about these things because for many Generations God hath suffered Deceit and Violence to prevail to spread and to flourish in the World for God is not as a man his ways are above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts when we look abroad into the World and look back upon so many past Ages wherein Religion hath been made a formal Pretence for the Establishing of a Worldly Greatness and Dominion upon Gross and Palpable Errors supported by Fraud and Force it is foolishly done of us to disquiet our selves with doubts whether we are in the way of the Truth or not since it pleased God for so long a Time to suffer the contrary to prevail mightily in the World and for some Ages to baffle all opposition For this is to suppose God to be such a one as our selves impatient of high Indignities and great Provocations ready to kindle upon any notable affront or however unable to bear repeated and long continued injuries No doubt if our opinion had been asked the Luxury of the old World should have been mortified by some amazing Judgments and the Flood should have been spared the Idolatry of the new Race of Mankind had been prevented or at least by some Irresistible Evidence of God's displeasure banished long before the Coming of Christ and Mahomet should either have never appeared or he should have Glared only like a Comet and so gone out instead of founding so vast and so long an Empire as it seems he has done But let us leave God to rule the World and be content that he should Rule us we are too Angry and too Passionate to say how things should have been and never more foolish than when we would from God's Providences make conclusions contrary to his Word It is not for us to say what the God of Wisdom the God of Patience the God of Justice and of Goodness and of Infinite Power should do It is the least Honour we can give him to allow every thing to be best which he doth in the
all such cases the temptations to unbelief and apostacy are very great and likely to prevail upon many of those that believe so that this is the meaning That in such a wicked Age as calls for the coming of the Son of man the open enemies of God which are the greater number will be void of all regard whatsoever to his word and to his Providence or if they take any notice of it it is that of the Scoffers mentioned by St. Peter who will say Where is the promise of his coming Many of his professed Servants will be weary of depending upon him and give way to Temptations and depend more upon the arm of Flesh than upon the promise of God and the Faith of many good men will be very much weakned and abated so that when he cometh he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And thus I persuade my self to have given you a true illustration of these remarkable Words of our Blessed Saviour and that upon the two significations of the Son of man's Coming which seem to be both intended in this Text and indeed it is very hard to know which was principally intended the Day of the General Judgment or the Destruction of Jerusalem The Day of General Judgment is in it self the principal meaning of Christ's Coming and therefore ought not to be excluded but yet the Parable with the Application of it being manifestly intended to stir up that Generation to pray to God and not to faint and to give a firm Faith to the Promises of God notwithstanding the great troubles they were like to meet with from the unbelieving Jews therefore neither could the Coming of the Son of man to be avenged of these his enemies and to deliver his Servants be excluded but was as directly intended as the other And now I proceed to observe the two main Points which the Text supposes besides those which it affirms and the considering of them will not a little contribute to a more perfect understanding of this Place 1. It is supposed manifestly that after the first Coming of Christ to call the World to Repentance and to be offered up for our sins there would yet be degenerate Ages sometimes and a most corrupt state of things before his Second Personal Coming to Judg the World. 2. It is also supposed that his Providence would then appear to set all things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church 1. That his first coming would not infallibly prevent the degeneracy and corruption of future Ages For notwithstanding that evidence of Truth which he taught many false Prophets would arise and deceive many and notwithstanding the Power of his Doctrine iniquity would abound and the love of many would wax cold and notwithstanding both these advantages yet his own servants would sometimes be reduced to that state that it should be needful to them to cry unto God day and night which is a matter that may cause some wonder if we do not consider the reason of it That the Principles and Manners of men were so often and so generally corrupted before the Coming of the Son of God into the World is that which might not appear strange at all to those that consider the weakness and folly of mankind That after the Creation the Earth should so abound with Luxury and Violence that God swept all mankind away with the Flood but Eight Persons That after Noah's Family had peopled the Earth again men should fall into Idolatry so universally that God called Abraham out of his own Countrey and entred into a particular Covenant with him for the maintaining of the true Worship in his Family and Posterity That Pharaoh should oppress the Israelites after his Country had been saved by them That the Israelites should fall to Worship other Gods after that the True God had wrought so many miraculous Deliverances for them That when not without much ado they were cured of Idolatry they should fall into scandalous ways of Hypocrisie and Immorality These and the like things perhaps are not so much to be wondred at because God had not as yet used the last means to instruct mankind and to oblige them to Piety and Virtue but that there should be Times as bad as the worst of those after Christ himself had appeared in the world to die for sinners and to bring the Doctrine of Salvation to mankind with the most convincing Evidence that could be desired and with the most powerful Motives that could be thought of that notwithanding all this Oppression Violence Fraud Hypocrisie Error Superstition Idolatry and scandalous Examples should for some Ages reign no less than before the Times of Christ and to that degree as to shake the Faith even of good men and if it were possible to deceive the very best of all this seems to be an amazing Consideration and tho the noble Examples of Christian Piety and Virtue that have appeared in the World and the affured expectation of a larger Progress that Christianity will make in the earth and of better effects that it will produce may answer the Objection yet that the World that the Church should be so bad under the last means is what may raise some Admiration But you are to consider That when our Lord first came into the world he came not to establish a Religion which should either by its Truth Convince or by its Power Reform Mankind whether they would or no but what was sufficient for both purposes if they would be wise and honest and suffer the concernments of Eternal Life to prevail with them above their worldly Interests and therefore there was as much reason to expect an Universal Reformation as to expect that men would not resist the evidence of Truth in matters of the greatest concern to them in the whole world but to bring them to this the Gospel was furnished with no irresistible means but left them under the natural liberty they had before with a provision of grace that might be resisted and therefore it was in it self likely that the Truth would be opposed by some and corrupted by others and by many held in unrighteousness that several to whom it was propounded would not believe it and several that believed it would not obey it and in time that it would be mixed with Errors and Superstitions and framed to the designs of Ambition and Covetousness nay the better and more Divine a Religion that of the Gospel is the more violently it would be opposed by some and the more certainly corrupted by others So that if we consider the Excellency of the Gospel with the Purpose of God not to overbear the World into the Faith and Obedience of it by forcing the natural Liberty of men it had rather been much more strange if it had escaped opposition and corruption than to have been both opposed and corrupted as it hath Thus our Blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles foretold that it
would be Take heed lest no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many and if any one shall say unto you Lo here is Christ and there is Christ believe it not for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect Behold I have told you before Thus he foretold how Christianity should be corrupted by Impostures and Frauds Again says he they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and killed and ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another Thus he foretold the violence that should be used to extinguish the profession of the Truth Again saith St. Paul 2 Thes 2. There shall be a falling away and the man of sin shall come with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they might all be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness There he foretels a fearful Apostacy from the Purity and Simplicity of the Christian Profession Again says he 2 Tim. 3.1 2. This know that in the last days perillous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection trucebreakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady highminded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God There he foretels a terrible corruption of manners And again 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. The Spirit speaketh expresly says he that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their conscience seared with an hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanskgiving of them which believe and know the Truth Now lay all these things together and here is as plain warning as can possibly be given of most corrupt and degenerate Times even after Christ's first coming and so that is expresly foretold which the Text evidently supposes For here would be glorious pretences to deceive violence to compel and wicked examples to offend the Disciples of Christ And what provision hath our Lord left to secure them from being misled where there is so much danger They are to attend to the Doctrine which he delivered us at first by his Holy Apostles to secure themselves from being deceived they must lay to heart the Promises of the Gospel to arm themselves against the Temptations of the World and the power of Evil Examples and they are to consider that all these things were foretold by our Lord himself and his Apostles that they might not be scandalized when they should happen nor be tempted to suspect that either Christianity was not of God from the first or at least that our Lord has neglected all care of it since because it doth so little good as yet in the world because it runs out into so many Errors and because the Truth of it is so vehemently opposed for says our Saviour Behold I have told you before But still it is in their power whether they will take warning by such Predictions and whether they will guard themselves against Errors and Evil Examples and therefore a very corrupt state of things in the Christian World will in all likelyhood shake the Faith of many believers and cause some to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them not regarding the admonitions of Christ and his Apostles before-hand and so when Christ comes he will find but little Faith upon the Earth And this is the observation which in the first place is unavoidable from the Text That even after Christ there would be degenerate Ages for this is plainly supposed as the cause why there would be but little Faith found when he should come to visit the earth for the iniquities and offences it abounds with The 2. Supposition is That the Providence of our Lord would then appear to set things right when there was the greatest need to interpose in behalf of his Church For whereas it is said When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth it is intimated manifestly that his coming is then to be expected when little Faith is to be found amongst men and consequently when scandals and temptations are so strong that it is an hard matter to bear up against them I have said already that the evidence of Christianity doth not make all men receive it and that the Power of Christianity doth not make all that receive it wise and good men and it is not to be denied but that amongst Christians themselves there are as monstrous Errors and leud examples as ever there were in the World before Christianity or as there are now where Christianity is not at all professed Now at this rate should the Lord of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ let things go as they would it would in time come to pass that nothing of Christianity would remain in the World but the name of it and that for no other purpose but to do more hurt with it than could be done without it But how is it that Divine Providence will interpose or according to the expression of the Text that the Son of man will come and will make good his Promise of being with his Church to the end of the World which is never more remarkably fulfilled than when he interposes in those circumstances which make men think that he will not interpose and that he is not at all concerned what becomes of the State of Religion or the affairs of the Church Because our Lord hath not made the Gospel an irresistible means of convincing unbelievers and reforming wicked men therefore it would in time be needful that in order to the keeping up of true Religion and making Christians such as they ought to be that he I say should by his Providence correct his own Disciples and reduce wretched mankind into an unavoidable necessity of consideration that Truth and Righteousness should not utterly fail from among the Children of men When there is the greatest danger of losing the true profession of Christianity our Lord will not be wanting to maintain it When all Flesh had corrupted their ways God came and swept away mankind with a Floud and saved Noah to be the Father of a new and better Generation When their prosperity had corrupted their ways he called Abraham forth to preserve True Religion in him and in his Family and these and the like Providences are pledges of the same care to
Faith they added the Doctrine and Practice of a good life yet they were esteemed Hereticks because they undertook to see with their own eyes and to judg for themselves instead of submitting to the Authority of the Council that had betrayed and murdered the Lord Jesus 2. They were accused of Sedition too as if they designed to make Stirs and Commotions and to alienate the people from their Governours Thus when Paul and Silas had converted a multitude of Devout Greeks and not a few of the Chief Women at Thessalonica the Jews who believed not moved with Envy took unto 'em certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and drew some of the Brethren to the Rulers crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also who do contrary to the decrees of Coesar saying That there is another King one Jesus Acts 17.5 6. And yet they never made one step by word or deed towards deposing Princes and changing Governments Jesus indeed who had commanded them to pay Tribute unto Caesar had also forbidden them to be of the Religion which Caesar was then of and this was drawn into an accusation of Faction and Disloyalty Thus also the same St. Paul being brought before Foelix at Jerusalem the Jews complained by Tertullian their Orator That they had found him a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes Acts 24.5 3. They concluded them under a sentence of Damnation as far as they could do it Indeed they would have it thought so impossible for a Christian to be saved that some of them after being converted to Christianity were strongly perswaded that they still ought to keep the Law of Moses and would have mingled Judaism and Christianity together as if there was no hope of Salvation out of the Synagogue Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved Acts 15.1 4. As 't is usual in such cases to damn first and then to kill they delivered the Disciples of Christ to death and pretended the service of God for it For which we may take those remarkable words of St. Paul describing the temper of the Jews then and what his own once was Says he I was taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers and was zealous toward God as ye are at this day And I persecuted them even unto the death binding and delivering into prisons both men and women Acts 22.3 4. And in chap. 26. v. 10 11. he declares That he persecuted them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them he persecuted them even into strange cities Such was the entertainment they had from the Jews to whom the Word of Salvation was first delivered But when it was carried amongst the Gentiles they condemned it too For 1. It was run down as if it had brought Irreligion and Atheism into the World Insomuch that the Ancient Apologists were fain in good earnest to set themselves against this absurd accusation and to shew that it was not all one to serve God at all and not to serve many Gods That there might be devotion without bowing down to Images and Religion and Worship without Idolatry and better a great deal without these things than with them 2. It was exclaimed against as a late upstart Religion that began but yesterday and was fitter to be hissed than argued out of the World. They used to ask the Christians what sort of men they could name either Greeks or Barbarians that made their Profession and had their Rites and Worship before Jesus appeared You have forsaken say they the Customs of the Fathers that had been observed of Old time in all Cities and Countries you have revolted from a Worship which has had the Tradition of all Ages and the approbation of Kings and People Law makers and Philosophers and by almost all the World till such as you appeared who are but of yesterday 3. They try to overwhelm it with the most gross and palpable untruths they gave it out that the Christians were worshippers of the Sun nay that they adored an Asses-head and sometimes a Cross They did not stick to say That in their solemn Assemblies they killed a Child and committed Incest They also upon no occasion in the world disarm'd them as a seditious and disloyal People and accused them of Treason tho none ever set better examples of Fidelity to their Governors To conclude Our Predecessors of the Primitive Church were now and then condemned to several sorts of deaths and it was often a great deal more safe to be some notorious Malefactor than to be a Christian In a word The Gospel met with that Opposition which no Religion ever did before The Gods of other Nations new Gods every day were admitted into a Temple at Rome with some Formality and without Trouble But when the Disciples of Jesus came to call men to the Worship of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent Jews and Gentiles conspired to extinguish their Religion and to blot out their name for ever insomuch that the Jews at Rome could tell St. Paul As concerning this sect we know that it is every where spoken against Those therefore whom God justifies have been and may be condemned by men Which will not seem strange to any of us if we consider what the Causes of it are For instance 1. That hatred of truth which reigns in a great part of mankind They cannot bear sound Doctrine nor can they therefore bear those that profess and practise it truth is against them and therefore they will be against the truth and all that follow it So long as Pride Lust Avarice Revenge Luxury and such things remain there will be so many causes of condemning that which God approves To which we must add 2. The inflexibleness of true Doctrine and of those that maintain it to the designs of worldly men Christianity was said to be a perfect Scheme of Religion that would suffer no additions or alterations It was stiff and would not bend to the pleasure of Priests or of States-men as all that would which the Heathens called Religion among themselves Whilst it was kept in wise and honest hands and truly represented there was no room for Cheating no Allowances for Pious Frauds no place for convenient Inventions Innovatious could not be brought into the Faith of Christians or the Substance of their Worship but they would be corruptions of both without tampering with it it could not serve the ambition of a few to the prejudice of all others And therefore while it was pure they could not bear it whose gain was their Godliness and who had been used to tell lies in hypocrifie 3. The proneness of mankind to Superstition is another cause of disapproving what God approves The true Disciples of Christ are according to their Religion for a