over let us say Peace be within thee For the House of the Lord our God for the sake of our Holy Religion and of that excellent Church whereof we all are or ought to be Members let every one of us say I will seek thy good And what greater good can we do to the best Religion how can we better serve the interest of it in all parts of the World than by being at peace and unity among our selves here in England upon whom the eyes of all the Protestants abroad are fixed as the Glory of the Reformation and the great bulwark and support of it That so under the Providence of Almighty God and the conduct of two such excellent Princes as He hath now bless'd us withal The One so brave and valiant and Both of them so wise so good so religious we may at last arrive at a firm establishment and become like mount Zion that cannot be moved the perfection of Beauty and Strength and the admiration and joy of the whole Earth which God of his infinite goodness grant for his mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power thanksgiving and praise both now and ever Amen A Conscience void of Offence towards God and Men. IN A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL February the 27 th 1690 1. A Conscience void of Offence towards God and Men. ACTS xxiv 16 And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men THese words are part of the Defence which St. Paul made for himself before Faelix the Roman Governour In which he first of all vindicates himself from the charge of Sedition ver 12. They neither found me in the Temple disputing with any man neither raising up the People neither in the Synagogue nor in the City that is they could not charge him with making any disturbance either in Church or State After this he makes a free and open profession of his Religion ver 14. But this I confess that after the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Here he declares the Scriptures to be the Rule of his Faith in opposition to the Oral Tradition of the Pharisees More particularly he asserts the Doctrine of the Resurrection which was a principal Article both of the Jewish and the Christian Religion ver 15. And I have hope also towards God that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and the unjust And having made this declaration of his Faith he gives an account of his Life in the words of the Text ver 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in this work do I employ my self or as others render it in the mean time whilst I am in this World or as others I think most probably for this cause and reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this reason because I believe a Resurrection therefore have I a conscientious care of my life and all the actions of it The Discourse I intend to make upon these words shall be comprized in these following Particulars I. Here is the extent of a good man's pious practice to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men II. Here is his constancy and perseverance in this course to have always a conscience void of offence III. Here is his earnest care and endeavour to this purpose I exercise my self IV. Here is the principle and immediate Guide of his Actions which St. Paul here tells us was his Conscience V. I shall lay down some Rules and Directions for the keeping of a good Conscience VI. Here is the great motive and encouragement to this which St. Paul tells us was the belief of a Resurrection and of a future State of Rewards and Punishments consequent upon it for this cause because I hope for a Resurrection both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men I shall speak but briefly to the three first of these Particulars that I may be larger in the rest I. Here is the extent of a good man's pious practice It hath regard to the whole compass of his Duty as it respects God and Man I exercise my self says St. Paul to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men And this distribution of our Duty under these two general Heads is very frequent in Scripture The Decalogue refers our Duty to these two Heads And accordingly our Saviour comprehends the whole Duty of Man in those two great Commandments the love of God and of our Neighbour Matth. 22.38 Vpon these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets that is all the Moral Precepts which are dispers'd up and down in the Law and the Prophets may be referr'd to these two general Heads II. Here is his constancy and perseverance in this course St. Paul says that he exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continually at all times in the whole course of his life We must not only make conscience of our ways by fits and starts but in the general course and tenour of our lives and actions without any balks and intermissions There are some that will refrain from grosser Sins and be very strict at some Seasons as during the Time of a Solemn Repentance and for some days before they receive the Sacrament and perhaps for a little while after it And when these devout Seasons are over they let themselves loose again to their former lewd and vitious course But Religion should be a constant frame and temper of mind discovering it self in the habitual course of our lives and actions III. Here is likewise a very earnest care and endeavour to this purpose Herein do I exercise my self says St. Paul The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here render'd exercise is a word of a very intense signification and does denote that St. Paul applied himself to this business with all his care and might and that he made it his earnest study and endeavour And so must we we must take great care to understand our duty and to be rightly informed concerning good and evil that we may not mistake the nature of things and call good evil and evil good We must apply our minds in good earnest to be thoroughly instructed in all the parts of our Duty that so we may not be at a loss what to do when we are call'd to the practice of it And when we know our Duty we must be true and honest to our selves and very careful and conscientious in the discharge and performance of it I proceed in the IV th
and learned a man as Origen was should be positive in an Opinion for which there can be no certain ground in Reason especially for the punctual and precise term of a thousand years and for which there is no ground at all that I know of from Divine Revelation But upon the whole matter however it be be it for a thousand years or be it for a longer and unknown term or be it for ever which is plainly threatned in the Gospel I say however it be this is certain that it is infinitely wiser to take care to avoid it than to dispute it and to run the final hazard of it Put it which way we will especially if we put it at the worst as in all prudence we ought to do it is by all possible means to be provided against So terrible so intolerable is the thought yea the very least suspicion of being miserable for ever And now give me leave to ask You as St. Paul did King Agrippa Do you believe the Scrâ—ptures And I hope I may answer for you my self as he did for Agrippa I know you do believe them And in them these things are clearly revealed and are part of that Creed of which we make a solemn profession every day And yet when we consider how most men live is it credible that they do firmly believe this plain Declaration of our Saviour and our Judge That the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Or if they do in some sort believe it is it credible that they do at all consider it seriously and lay it to heart So that if we have a mind to reconcile our belief with our Actions we must either alter our Bible and our Creed or we must change our Lives Let us then consider and shew our selves men And if we do so can any man to please himself for a little while be contented to be punish'd for ever and for the shadow of a short and imperfect happiness in this life be willing to run the hazard of being really and eternally miserable in the next World Surely this consideration alone of the extreme and endless misery of impenitent Sinners in another World if it were but well wrought into our minds would be sufficient to kill all the temptations of this World and to lay them dead at our feet and to make us deaf to all the Enchantments of Sin and Vice Because they bid us so infinitely to our loss when they offer us the enjoyment of a short Pleasure upon so very hard and unequal a condition as that of being miserable for ever The eternal Rewards and Punishments of another Life which are the great Sanction and Security of God's Laws one would think should be a sufficient weight to cast the Scales against any Pleasure or any Pain that this World can tempt or can threaten us withal And yet after all this will we still go on to do wickedly when we know the terrors of the Lord and that we must one day answer all our bold violations of his Law and contempts of his Authority with the loss of our immortal Souls and by suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire What is it then that can give men the Heart and Courage but I recall that Word because it is not true Courage but fool hardiness thus to out brave the Judgment of God and to set at nought the horrible and amazing consideration of a miserable Eternity How is it possible that men that are awake and in their wits should have any ease in their minds or enjoy so much as one quiet hour whilst so great a danger hangs over their heads and they have taken no tolerable care to prevent it If we have any true and just sense of this danger we cannot fail to shew that we have it by making haste to escape it and by taking that care of our Souls which is due to immortal Spirits that are made to be Happy or Miserable to all Eternity Let us not therefore estimate and measure things as they appear now to our sensual and deluded and deprav'd Judgments but let us open our eyes and look to the last issue and consequence of them Let us often think of these things and consider well with our selves what apprehensions will then probably fill and possess our minds when we shall stand trembling before our Judge in a fearful expectation of that terrible Sentence which is just ready to be pronounced and as soon as ever it is pronounc'd to be executed upon us When we shall have a full and clear sight of the unspeakable Happiness and of the horrible and astonishing Miseries of another World When there shall be no longer any Veil of Flesh and Sense to interpose between them and us and to hide these things from our eyes And in a word when Heaven with all the Glories of it shall be open to our view and as the expression is in Job Hell shall be naked before us and Destruction shall have no covering How shall we then be confounded to find the truth and reality of those things which we will not now be persuaded to believe And how shall we then wish that we had believed the terrors of the Lord and instead of quarrelling with the Principles of Religion and calling them into question we had lived under the constant sense and awe of them Blessed be God that there is yet hope concerning us and that we may yet flee from the wrath to come and that the Miseries of Eternity may yet be prevented in Time And that for this very end and purpose our most Gracious and Merciful God hath so clearly revealed these things to us not with a desire to bring them upon us but that we being warned by his Threatnings might not bring them upon our selves I will conclude all with the Counsel of the Wise Man Seek not Death in the error of your Life and pull not upon your selves destruction with the works of your own hands For God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the Living But ungodly men with their works and words have called it down upon themselves Which that none of us may do God of his infinite Goodness grant for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes A FAST-SERMON Preached before the House of COMMONS ON Wednesday April the 16th 1690. Jovis 17. die April 1690. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls for the Sermon Preached before this House Yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same And that Sir Edmund Jenings do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cler. Dom. Com. Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes Ecclesiastes IX 11 I
the foundation of that which is reveal'd And therefore nothing can in Reason be admitted to be a Revelation from God which does plainly contradict his essential Perfections Upon this Principle a great many Doctrines are without more a-do to be rejected because they do plainly and at first sight contradict the Divine Nature and Perfections I will give a few Instances instead of many that might be given In vertue of this Principle I cannot believe upon the pretended Authority or Infallibility of any Person or Church that Force is a fit Argument to produce Faith No man shall ever persuade me no not the Bishop of Meaux with all his Eloquence that Prisons and Tortures Dragoons and the Galleys are proper means to convince the Understanding and either Christian or Humane Methods of converting men to the true Religion For the same Reason I cannot believe that God would not have men to understand their publick Prayers nor the Lessons of Scripture which are read to them Because a Lesson is something that is to be learnt and therefore a Lesson that is not to be understood is nonsense for if it be not understood how can it be learnt As little can I believe that God who caused the Holy Scriptures to be written for the instruction of mankind did ever intend that they should be lock'd up and concealed from the People in an unknown Tongue Least of all can I believe that Doctrine of the Council of Trent That the saving Efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest that administers them Which is to say that though the People believe and live never so well yet they may be damn'd by shoals and whole Parishes together at the pleasure of the Priest And this for no other reason but because the Priest is so cross and so cruel that he will not intend to save them Now can any man believe this that hath any tolerable Notion either of the Goodness or Justice of God May we not appeal to God in this as Abraham did in another Case Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked That be far from thee to do after this manner Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Much more to destroy the righteous for the wicked and that righteous and innocent People should lie at the mercy and will of a wicked and perverse Priest to be sav'd or damn'd by him as he thinks fit That be far from thee Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right For to drive the argument to the head if this be to do right there is no possibility of doing wrong Thus in things which are more obscure we should govern all our Reasonings concerning God and Religion by that which is clear and unquestionable and should with Moses lay down this for a certain Principle All his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He And say with St. Paul Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid And again We know that the Judgment of God is according to truth 2 ly The other Inference is this That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness And therefore nothing but our conformity to it can make us happy And for this reason to understand and know God is our great excellency and glory because it is necessary to our imitation of Him who is the best and happiest Being And so far as we are from resembling God so far are we distant from Happiness and the true temper of the Blessed For Goodness is an essential ingredient of Happiness and as without Goodness there can be no true Majesty and Greatness so neither any true Felicity and Blessedness Now Goodness is a generous disposition of mind to diffuse and communicate it self by making others to partake of our Happiness in such degrees as they are capable For no Being is so happy as it might be that hath not the power and the pleasure to make others happy This surely is the highest pleasure I had almost said pride of a great Mind In vain therefore do we dream of Happiness in any thing without us Happiness must be within us the foundation of it must be laid in the inward frame and disposition of our spirits And the very same causes and ingredients which make up the Happiness of God must be found in us though in a much inferiour degree or we cannot be happy They understand not the Nature of Happiness who hope for it upon any other terms He who is the Authour and Fountain of Happiness cannot convey it to us by any other way than by planting in us such dispositions of mind as are in truth a kind of participation of the Divine Nature and by enduing us with such qualities as are the necessary Materials of Happiness And a man may assoon be well without Health as happy without Goodness If a wicked man were taken up into Heaven yet if he still continue the same bad man that he was before coelum non animum mutavit he may have chang'd the Climate and be gone into a far Country but because he carries himself still along with him he will still be miserable from himself Because the man's mind is not chang'd all the while which would signifie a thousand times more to his happiness than change of place or of any outward circumstances whatsoever For a bad man hath a Fiend in his own Breast and the fewel of Hell in his guilty Conscience There is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary and essential to Happiness and that is Holiness and Goodness which is the very Nature of God and so far as any man departs from this temper so far he removes himself and runs away from happiness And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of a man 's own mind which is naturally a torment to it self And till this be cur'd it is as impossible for him to be happy as for a Limb that is out of joint to be at ease because the man's Spirit is out of order and off the hinges and as it were toss'd from its Center and till that be set right and restored to its proper and natural state the man will be perpetually unquiet and can have no rest and peace within himself The wicked saith the Prophet is like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest There is no peace saith my God to the wicked No peace with God no peace with his own mind for a bad man is at perpetual Discord and Wars within himself And hence as St. James tells us come Wars and Fightings without us even from our Lusts which warr in our members And now that I have mention'd Wars and Fightings without us this cannot but bring to mind the great and glorious Occasion of this Day Which gives us manifold Cause of Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God For several wonderful Mercies and Deliverances and