something of this Heresy has been kept on foot maintain'd and improv'd with all the force and subtelty of Wit and Learning but the Truth which it opposeth is of so great moment that the main stress of the Gospel lies upon it for what does that word import but the glad tidings of Salvation purchased for us by CHRIST JESUS who had he not been the True and Eternal Son of the Living God could not have made a full Attonement or Satisfaction for our sins neither could we justify our selves in paying him that worship and adoration which the Scriptures do declare and the Church of God hath ever taught to be due to him It is a very great Argument to confirm us that we are in the Right and we may justly glory in it though it be but of little force to convince our Adversaries namely that our belief of these Fundamental Truths is not only grounded upon clear and express words of Scripture frequently repeated but it hath also been the Doctrine of the Church in all Ages and Places so that if this Gospel be hid to us in our sense and interpretation of it it hath been hid likewise to all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs but it would be the greatest impiety to suppose this if we draw as we must do the Apostles inference then they which are fallen asleep in JESUS they who have lay'd down their lives for him are all perish'd But notwithstanding the blindness or rather the willfulness and craft of our Adversaries the True and Heavenly Wisdom ever has been and ever will be justify'd by her Children But Secondly The Gospel may be said to be hid in respect of its Power By the Power of the Gospel I mean its Efficacy to work in us that Holiness which is necessary to fit us for the benefit of its Promises Thus the Gospel is call'd by St. Paul the Power of God unto Salvation Epist to the Rom. chap. 1. v. 16. This being the end and design of it to purge our Consciences from dead works that we might serve the Living God The power of doing this consists in the means by which it is effected such are the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our Souls the Grace of Repentance the Efficacy of the Sacraments a stedfast Faith in God from which there flows a dread of his Threatnings and a lively hope of his Promises he who contemns and rejects these means and causes of a Holy Life and becomes barren and unfruitful in his Duty be he never so well skill'd in the Mind and Interpretation of God's Word yet the Scripture pronounceth that he is blind and that he knoweth nothing as he ought to know For the Kingdom of God which signifies the Gospel the Apostle tells us doth not consist in Word but in Power 1 Epist to the Cor. chap. 4. v. 20. There is that Force that Conviction of Truth in it that it is impossible it should be really receiv'd where it is not obey'd but it is not as many imagine by Knowledge that we receive this Power of the Gospel but by Faith for Knowledge of Divine as well as Natural Truths may serve only to puff men up with Pride and Vanity A natural Man may discern his Duty in the Scripture and acknowledge it for Truth but as one who seeth his Face in the Glass knows his likeness whilst he looks upon it but when he goes from thence he presently forgets what manner of Person he is so Knowledge will force assent to Truth whilst our minds are upon it but if we turn away our thoughts immediately we forget our Duty but Faith is such an Evidence of things not seen that the impressions from it are deep and lasting 't is too strong a principle for the hopes of pleasures here or the fear of dangers to overcome it it makes Heaven and Hell as it were present to our View which is the best Guard against Temptations and the strongest motive to Obedience Experience shews us what great difference there is between Faith and Knowledge of the Scriptures they often times arise from quite different ends and motives Ambition or Avarice may set men to understand the Gospel but only a Conscience that is or would be void of offence can encourage them to Believe it The influence also of these two Principles are as different for there are many men who understand their Duty so well that they perfectly comprehend its whole connexion they are able to demonstrate each part of it by reducing it to some Principle in Natural Reason but yet their lives are Vicious and Profane whereas there are many others who neither can demonstrate any thing at all of this neither do they pretend to it only they Believe that what God has said is True and what he has commanded is to be Obey'd and upon that Principle alone they firmly adhere to their Duty no Argument of the subtilest Disputant can shake their Integrity no temptation of the World can seduce them from it but they will persevere to do Justice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with their God But if a Covetous or an Ambitious Person a Drunkard or a Whoremonger will hear or read the Gospel and is not so convinced of the hainousness and danger of his sin as to be touch'd in Conscience for it and be resolv'd to forsake it the Gospel may truly be said to be hidden from him but how is it hid not in the Letter but in the Power of it for men may hear and not understand they may understand and yet not believe and the Author to the Hebrews tells us chap. 4. v. 2. That the Word Preached did not proffit the Israelites being not mix'd with Faith in them that heard it As for those to whom the Gospel is thus hid in respect of its Power their numbers are too great out of all parties in Religion the Subject is too melancholy to insist upon Strange it is that men should shew their heat and zeal only for those Opinions and speculative Notions wherein they differ from each other many of which are of little moment to the great business of Religion and are so regardless of that the necessity of which they are all agreed in namely the practice of Virtue and Holiness I know 't is so common a Topick and has ever been so for men to declaim against the Vices of the Age they live in as if every one 's own times were the worst that it is lookt upon as a thing of course and custom and seldom does any good towards a Reformation yet I may safely affirm that the Characters of the Vices of this present Age have something peculiar in them to make us conclude that we live not only in the worst but in the last of times which should make men that have any disposition towards goodness or concern for their safety to take heed least they perish in the common ruin The ground of our complaint is not only what
has ever been in all Ages and Places that Religion is neglected its Holy Precepts violated its Threats and Promises disregarded but what is most of all infamous and deplorable 't is made the common subject of Wit and Buffoonery men are not content to disobey it but they would expose and banish it out of the World it will not suffice them to be Brutes themselves but they would take away the great Priviledge of Humane Nature and make every body else so Are not these then such Scoffers as St. Peter foretold would come in the last daies And is it not high time for God to lay to his hand when his long-suffering has brought his Authority and whatever belongs to him into contempt The second particular I proposed was to inquire into the Justice of their Condemnation to whom the Gospel is hid the Text tells us They are lost And that they are deservedly so needs no other proof than to shew that their blindness is owing wholly to themselves 't is willful obstinate and ungrateful God having done all that could be expected on his part towards their conviction which will appear from these following Considerations First That God has given sufficient Proof and Evidence for the Gospel that it is his Word Secondly That to those who are satisfy'd of the Divine Authority of the Gospel there is sufficient light and clearness in it to teach them what is necessary both to be believ'd and practised Thirdly As to those who own the Authority of the Gospel and are instructed in its Revelations there is so much of the goodness of God discover'd in it such gracious offers made to them that if its Power be hid from them God must be justify'd in his saying and all the World must own that their damnation is just First God has given sufficient Evidence for the Gospel that it is his Word no reasonable Man can dispute this and of these who pretend to do it it may be demanded whether if they had lived in our Saviours time and had seen the Miracles which he wrought they would have believ'd his Doctrine if they say they would not have believ'd it it is in vain to discourse any farther with them for how should Reason convince those whom Miracles could not But if they would have believ'd upon such Evidence it may be easily made out that there is more Reason to believe now than there could be then for at that time there might have been some doubt whether those Miracles were real or not for it is not a very easy thing to distinguish between true Miracles and false ones as we see at this day how grosly many in the Church of Rome are imposed upon in this matter and a Wise Man would not pass his judgment about Miracles till he be satisfy'd both as to the reputation of him that works them and the end for which they are wrought but those who were Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Miracles could not have that full satisfaction in either of those particulars which we have now his Authority having been very much Establish'd by the Predictions that were fulfill'd at and since his Death and his own Resurrection being that great Miracle which confirm'd the rest and whereby he was declared to be the Son of God with Power 'T is plain that before this notwithstanding the many and mighty works which our Saviour wrought the Reputation of his party was very low there were scarce any of Note or Credit that came into it And will any Modern Sceptick pretend that those Miracles would have made him more forward than the Jews at that time were But after our Lord's Resurrection the Evidence for his Religion was so strong that the greatest and wisest men soon embraced it and as an Argument that they did so upon the fullest conviction they parted with their Estates and rejoyced to lay down their lives for it and it certainly was a peculiar Providence of Almighty God that the Church should suffer such grievous Persecutions for so long a time after it was first planted that men might be brought to search narrowly into that Religion for which so many were content to suffer and that the succeeding distant Ages from that time might have no pretence to imagine that the Gospel was at first nothing but a cunningly devized Fable every one of the Primitive Martyrs being a true Witness to the contrary and the History of those times has been convey'd down to us not only by the Tradition of the Church but by the particular Histories of several Countries which are lookt upon in other matters to be of undoubted Credit and Authority If it be said all this amounts to no more than Humane Testimony and that is at most but probable and consequently fallible we ackowledge it but is not our Reason are not our Senses fallible likewise This Objection therefore lies not so much against the Authority of the Scriptures as against certainty in general and we may conclude that the Gospel is hid to such men as argue thus for no other Reason but that they are unwilling to obey it Our Saviour tells us in the 7th Chapter of St. John's Cospel v. 17. that If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be from God and Experience shews us that Unbelief and Immorality are seldom separated Secondly To those who are satisfy'd in the Authority of the Gospel there is sufficient light and clearness in it to instruct them in what is to be believ'd and practis'd that is the Gospel is deliver'd with so much plainness that whoever will use but ordinary diligence in applying his mind to it will lay aside all prejudices and will consult with those whose business it is to Study and Interpret it if he has but common capacities and apprehension it is impossible but that he will find out the true meaning and design of it in all things necessary to be understood by him this is what was foretold of the Gospel by the Prophets and it was the mark which our Saviour sent of it to John the Baptist that it was Preach'd to the Poor to those whose circumstances of life had it been dark and intricate could never have afforded them means and opportunities of understanding it But if men will be perverse there are no words so plain of so fix'd and limited a sense but they may turn them to quite another meaning than they were design'd for but as such a practice as this is no excuse for the violation of Human Laws and Covenants so neither can it be so for believing or acting contrary to Divine Revelations but the sin is the more voluntary and consequently the more sinful by as much as it proceeds from and carries with it an appearance of artifice and design and since they who wrest the obscurer passages of Scripture from the tenour and purport of the whole do it as St. Peter tells us to their own destruction much more
dangerous is their case who to form the Scripture to their own notions put a strain'd and forced Interpretation upon those places in it which of themselves are very clear and easy Thirdly The consideration of Gods goodness reveal'd in the Gospel is a farther proof of the Justice of their Condemnation to whom it is hid as to the Power of it for were there no Arguments to prove its Divine Authority yet the Rules and Precepts contain'd in it are so agreeable to our Rational Nature and so fitted for our Welfare in this Life that there is no one that is either sober or prudent but would wish at least that it were from God that all Mankind might be under the strongest tyes and obligations to observe it But if besides the advantages which it brings us in this Life we consider the Discoveries which it makes with regard to the next its gracious Overtures of Peace and Reconciliation with God the allowances it makes for our Infirmities the Grace and Strength it Promises to assist us with and the glorious Rewards which shall Crown our obedience could we possibly have made better Terms for our own Happiness than God is pleased there to offer to us how then can any one hope to escape if he neglects so great Salvation But there are many men who will readily acknowledge that they are justly lost to whom the Power of the Gospel is hid so as that the wickedness of their lives is a disgrace and contradiction to their Profession but they are not of the same opinion as to those who have corrupted the substance of the Christian Faith the most essential parts of its Doctrine and who endeavour as much as lies in them to hide it from others Thus they leave men at large to believe as they think fit or as they pretend they are able and this is lookt upon as a piece of Christian moderation an instance of great Charity and an Evangelick Spirit but 't is certain that the Apostles neither practised nor recommended it they knew what influence a right Faith has upon a right conversation that the Fruit could never be good where the Tree was not so therefore they spared not the False Teachers they never flatter'd or complimented those who corrupted their Gospel but rebuked them with sharpness without admiring their knowledge or making any allowances for their pretended morality whoever he were though an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven that should Preach any other Gospel than that St. Paul Preached he has no respect for his Character but says he Let him be accursed Ep. to the Gal. chap. 1. v. 8. which he repeats again in the next verse to make the deeper impression I say let him be accursed and v. 7. he tells us that by another Gospel he did not mean any new Revelation that should be set up in opposition to that which they had from God but that which deserved the Curse was the misconstruing his Gospel the perverting the Gospel of CHRIST But say some is not this very severe is it not contrary to the Temper and Spirit of the Gospel to pronounce men accursed for that which it is not in their Power to help Must they perish everlastingly and not be able to prevent it To be honest in ones dealings to be sober to be merciful in a word to be good say they is in every ones Power and they who are otherwise do justly bear the blame and the punishment of their folly But the Faith which we so earnestly contend for is out of their reach if there be any blame in their want of it it must lye at his door who made them for their parts they have spared no pains to search out the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures they have weary'd their Reason and their Judgment in that labour would we have them renounce them If therefore the Gospel be hidden to them in Misteries 't is none of their faults 't is at most but their unhappiness and God will excuse them But granting that no one is lost but by his own fault let such men be examin'd more narrowly and there will certainly appear other causes of their unbelief than what they are willing to alledge for it for sometimes God sends a Spirit of delusion upon men as a punishment of their lust or former disobedience as it is seen by experience that many a one who has been bred up in the true Faith after a long course of wickedness has turn'd Atheist or Infidel But allowing that these men are as free as others are from any open enormous Crimes yet Pride and Self-conceit will as effectually blind the understanding as the God of this World could do and is it not a most notorious sign of Pride that where God requires Faith they set up for knowledge and must have other reasons to ground their belief upon than those of his Will Should God require of us to comprehend the Mysteries that are above our Reason to damn men for not doing it would be inconsistent both with his goodness and his justice for that would be all one as to damn them by fatal necessity but when he commands us only to believe those things where is the difficulty of believing that what God saies is true Or indeed is it possible for any one that seriously considers it to deny his assent to that Proposition If it be not then neither can he deny his assent to such other Truths as have a necessary connexion with it We know that there are Misteries in Nature and in Philosophy which we cannot comprehend and the Controversies about them can never be decided by us for instance whether space be finite or infinite who can determine but suppose God should declare that it is infinite would it not be true and must not we believe it to be so yet our Reason could never comprehend this nor be able to Answer such difficulties as might be brought against it Wherefore as for those deep things of God those mysterious Truths which are most clearly reveal'd in Scripture though the nature of them be such that they must needs surpass our understanding yet there is that connexion between them and many of our Christian Duties that it is as necessary to believe the one as it is to perform the other if any doubt or scruples arise concerning them we ought to follow the example of the Apostles Luke chap. 17. v. 5. and pray to our Lord that he would increase our Faith Those men take quite a wrong method who puzzle themselves to Know what is only to be Believ'd and Faith being the gift of God Prayer is the proper means of obtaining it A late Philosopher tells us that Male-branche Traité de Morale cap. 5. §. 4. Study and Attention are a natural Prayer to God for Knowledge if so 't is only for natural Knowledge but Faith is a supernatural gift and for such Study and Attention cannot be sufficient but Prayer must be offered up for them in the name and through the merits and according to the Prescription of him who purchased those gifts for us Let us therefore offer up such Prayers to Almighty God and be ready to receive his Holy Word with the modesty and submission of little Children let us endeavour to keep our understanding as free and unprejudic'd and our wills as innocent as theirs and so we may be fully assur'd that our gracious God will neither hide his Gospel from us in this World nor his Ever-blessed presence in the World to come Here followed the Commemoration of BENEFACTORS To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS