Righteousness for Tribulation works patience and Patience experience and Experience hope and Hope makes not ashamed But this is not all Behold also in this similitude the Nature of your future Joys when the Child is born the Woman for Joy forgers her anguish so when your Fruit is ripe it shall be laid up in the granary of Heaven and when you shall put off this Body of Flesh and Sin for the Joy that will crown your Temples you 'll forget all the former anguish you labour'd under God will comfort you and your Eyes shall see it the Lord Jesus will call to you and your Ears shall hear it Enter you into the Joy of your Master Heaven is the vast Store-house of all Comforts there where-ever you cast your Eye you 'll behold nothing but Comfort Comfort in the Spirits of Men made perfect Comfort in the general Assembly of the first born which are written in Heaven Comfort in the innumerable Company of Angels Comfort in the Hallelujah's of Cherubin and Seraphin Comfort above you Comfort within you Comfort round about you There your Heart will break no more there your Understandings will be clouded no more there no storms no enemies will discompose you any more there all that can make Men sad will be removed from your sight for sin will be gone and Devils will tempt no more there you will lie incircled in the everlasting Arms and Rivers of Joy will flow round about you your present April Showers will produce a glorious May and after your gloomy Night the Son of Righteousness will shine upon you with healing under his Wings and as one hour changed Joseph's Fetters into a Chain of Gold his Rags into shining Robes his Stocks into a Chariot his Prison into a Palace his Water into Wine so in that moment that your Souls shall enter into the Regions of endless Comfort your mourning will be changed into dancing your tears into laughter your sackcloth into silks your ashes into garlands your thorns into lawrels your fasts into festivals and your unutterable sighs and groans into unspeakable joys SERMON V. St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 5. Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth THIS Blessedness or Beatitude in some Latin Copies of the New Testament is the second but in the Original and in the Syriack and Arabick Versions it is the third and these as the most authentick our Translation follows what is said of Meekness here is taken out of Psal. XXXVII 11. where we read as it is in the Text The Meek shall inherit the Earth Christ came not to reverse the Morals under the Law but to ratifie and confirm and to refine them into greater perfection and to enforce them with new Motives and Arguments Moral Vertue hath been the same in all Ages and being founded on the Law of Nature must needs be unalterable The encouragements for the practice of it are greater in the Christian Religion than in any other whatfoever and the lines of the Duty are here drawn in livelier Colours but the Vertue it self like the Nature of that God from whom it flows receives no changes In the explication of the Text we are to consider as in the preceding Sentences I. What Meekness is and who the Meek are and what their Character is II. Wherein their Blessedness consists III. How they shall inherit the Earth I. What Meekness is 1. To be meek is not to be mealy-mouth'd or gentle or calm when it is our Duty to be angry and it is our Duty to be so partly with our selves when we sin against Heaven and in the presence of an Omnipotent God and that is the anger or indignation spoken of 2 Cor. VII 11. partly with others when they do notoriously affront the Divine Majesty and wrong their Consciences Gall. III. 1 2. particularly 1. With those who are under our Command and Power and Jurisdiction such as Children Servants and other Relations or Persons whose Masters Governours Guardians Teachers or Tutours we are when they prove incorrigible in their sins Gen. XLIX 6 7. 2. Even with others of our Acquaintance and Persons whom we converse with when they profane the Name of God or run out into licentiousness and will not be reclaim'd by softer means Gal. V. 12. Moses though one of the meekest Men in the World yet his anger justly wax'd hot when he saw the Israelites commit Idolatry Exod. XXXII 19. And our Saviour himself tho' the Pattern of Meekness yet could not behold the profanation of the Temple without anger John II. 15 17. and St. Paul and Barnabas though Preachers of this Christian Meekness yet were obliged to break out into Passion when they saw the Priest of Jupiter bringing Oxen and Garlands to do Sacrifice to them Acts XIV 14 15. Elis Meekness to his Children prov'd his folly and his Calmness is a Cause where God was dishonour'd pulled down God's Vengeance upon his Posterity A soft Expostulation here was altogether unseasonable and instead of saying to his Sons why do you do so he should have severely punish'd them when their stubbornness baffled all the gentler means of their Reformation Meekness properly relates to injuries done to our selves where the injury is directly offer'd to God our Meekness must turn into Zeal in all sins against our Neighbours and our own Souls God is wrong'd because all sin is a Transgression and dishonouring of the Law of God but some sins are more immediately levell'd against God yet even in God's cause where the anger is just and lawfull discretion must guide the Passion in a good Cause men may be too hot and where the anger turns into fury it becomes madness and instead of advancing diminishes and darkens the glory of Religion There is a rational anger which with some warmth and heat pleads and argues for God's Honour but runs not out into unseemly Behaviour or into reviling Language And this is that anger we are to shew when God is dishonoured when we dishonour him and when others do so So that Meekness doth not exclude all anger for as all Meekness is not lawfull so all Anger is not sinfull Be ye angry and sin not saith St. Paul Eph. IV. 26. which shews that some sort of anger is innocent And it is so when it is 1. In God's cause and from a sense of his Glory which we see dishonour'd by the sin or by the wrong our Neighbours do either to God or to their fellow Christians for though it be lawfull sometimes to be angry at a fault we see in our Brethren yet the anger must be more upon the account of the indignity offer'd to God by the offence than upon the Account of the wrong or prejudice we our selves suffer by it 2. It must be kept within due bounds and limits must not turn into rage and throwing about Coals and Fire-brands and odious and offensive Names Nor 3. Must it turn into malice and hatred but must still be follow'd with Acts
formerly lived in and was constantly there a day or two in a Week besides his other occasional times on purpose to attend upon those poor and afflicted and scrupulous People that resorted thither for help and advice He did very often stay all night in that place that he might be in a readiness to assist those that expected him there His Prebend of Exeter lying at a great distance from him he expressed an inclination to resign it and he did so the next year The present Bishop of Bath and Wells had a small Prebend which that year became void little better as to the annual Rent than that of Exeter but then it had a Corps of some value and two lives were gone It required no Residence and if it had it was much nearer to him than Exeter The Bishop made him an offer of it hoping that he might receive some Fine for the better support of his Family He was admitted to it upon Sept. 28. 1694. He enjoyed it to the day of his death but I fear he made no advantage of it his charges considered or if he did it was very small He was offered indeed a Fine and considering his small income a considerable Summ but yet not above one half of the real value 'T was supposed I presume that he would have greedily laid hold of the present advantage and gain as too many have done without considering what was decent and becoming with respect to the Church and to his Successor But they that thought so were deceived in their Man He generously refused the offer and left the Lives to be filled up by his Successor But it having a Vicarage annexed in his gift he went and preached to the People and gave out good Rules in his Visitation for the good of the Souls in the Peculiar under his Jurisdiction In this Journey of his he happened to meet with the Lessee of the Corps from whom alone he might expect a Fine Instead of minding his own gain and addressing to the Lessee with art and complaisance in order to make a wordly advantage he plainly reproved the Lessee of Immorality which others were prone enough to spread abroud but perhaps no other had the courage to reprove He chose rather to lose his Fine as he did than omit his Duty Upon this occasion I cannot but add that he had in great measure the Spirit and Courage of John the Baptist. He durst reprove a great Man and perhaps that man lived not that was more conscientious in this matter I very well knew a great Man and Peer of the Realm from whom he had just expectations of Preferment but this was so far from stopping his Mouth that he reproved him to his Face and that too in a matter that few men besides would have adventured on He missed of his Preferment indeed but saved his own Soul He could not fawn or flatter cringe and comply for his own gain and worldly advantage Upon this consideration his Acquaintance and Friendship were very desirable by every good man that would be better He would in him be very sure of a Friend that would not suffer sin upon him I may say of him what Pliny says of Corellius Rufus whose death he laments amisi vitae meae testem c. I have lost a faithfull witness of my Life and may add what he said upon that occasion to his Friend Calvisius Vereor ne negligentiùs vivam i. e. I am afraid says he lest for the time to come I should live more carelesly Certain I am that his Friends and Familiars have a great loss upon this account They have lost a great Pattern of Vertue and a very faithfull Monitor and Reprover of Vice and Folly A faithfull Reprover is a very great help in our Christian Course He is to be valued above the greatest treasure He that would be safe says one of the Ancients must have a faithfull Friend or a bitter Enemy that he may fly from Vice by the Monitions of the one or Invectives of the other We need one of these to set us right We read that the Grandees of Japan do each of them maintain in their several houses one or two persons whose office and business is to observe the actions of their Masters and freely to admonish them when they do any thing imprudently or wickedly 'T is worthy of our imitation and highly expedient Great men are followed and corrupted by Flatterers they have but few Friends who have Courage and Honesty enough to tell them of their faults But this may be thought too great a Digression I therefore return to give a farther account of this excellent Man He was now in better circumstances as to the world than he had been but not less diligent and laborious He went on in his Master's work with most unwearied labour and spent his whole time and strength in it And it was his delight and his choice Indeed those who were about him thought he did more than he was able long to bear He grew soon after this very infirm and sickly He fell into dangerous fits of the Stone made very little and that a bloody Water He walked with difficulty and could hardly bear a Coach I have often told him that he could not long continue under the labour which he underwent and I plainly saw that he declined and would do so more and more unless he did remit his very great labours I convinc'd him abundantly of the truth of what I observed of him He was sensible of it and seem'd very inclinable to retire from the multiplicity of business with which he was almost overwhelm'd He went on in his accustomed labours to Christmas 1696. Then his work increased upon him and whereas other men's labours are then intermitted his were augmented For at that time he had more frequent Communions besides an incredible number of Applications from poor People who then expect relief and assistance which gave him great diversion and trouble He nevertheless went through all this labour and trouble with as great chearfulness as was possible But not long after I found a plain alteration in him for the worse On the 23d of January I was much concern'd for him He was to preach the next day at the Savoy and I was of opinion that it was not safe for him to do it I was very earnest with him to spare himself that day but could not prevail He preached there and it was the last Sermon that he preached In the Evening I found him to my great sorrow in great disorder From that time his illness encreased upon him His Urine upon the matter totally stopped he was in pain and greatly indisposed all that Week And yet when I ask'd him which I frequently did if he were not in great pain all the answer that I could get from him was that the pain he felt was tolerable There was nothing wanting that could be thought of towards giving him ease
they are briefly these 1. It was to imitate the Eternal Father that at divers times and in divers manners spake to the Fathers of old He gave his Law to the Jewish People on Mount Sinai Exod. XIX II. The Son being to give a Law to the Christian World begins the Promulgation of it on a Mountain too and in doing so discover'd his Divine Authority and it was an Item that the same God that spoke on Mount Sinai spoke in this Mountain too only here lay the difference the Law on Mount Sinai was publish'd in the Midst of Thunder and Lightning for which reason we find it call'd a Fiery Law Deut. XXXIII 2. The Law of the Gospel was deliver'd in a sweet and still Voice to represent the Nature and Temper of it to express the Calmness of Mind the secret Satisfaction the spiritual Joy it causes and the Rest it leads to both Temporal and Eternal 2. He thought fit to deliver this comprehensive Sermon on a Mountain to shew the Sublimity and Grandeur of his Doctrine and Precepts that the Law he intended to give transcended the Laws of all Nations in the World in wholsomeness and excellency that the Laws which had hitherto govern'd Mankind were low creeping things to what he was going to publish and what an Excellent and Heroick Spirit Obedience to his Precepts would give to his true Followers raise them above the World make them despise sublunary Vanities advance them above the common level of Philosophical Vertues and fit them for dwelling at last on the everlasting Hills on the Mount where God is seen and will be seen to Eternal Ages even the Kingdom that fades not away But I must go on and take notice of another Circumstance here mention'd and that is IV. Christ's sitting down on the Mount Even this Posture hath some Mystery in it For 1. In doing so Christ asserted the Greatness and Majesty of his Person even in sitting down to speak while the Multitude and the Disciples stood round about him This may be call'd an Early Act of his Royalty as Kings do sit while their Subjects of all sorts and degrees stand about them Sitting among the Jews was a Posture denoting liberty and freedom from slavery which was the reason why the Synagogue chang'd the Posture of standing at the Passover a Posture or sign of Servitude into sitting or leaning and with very good reason might Christ sit down here when he taught the People whose business it was to proclaim liberty to the Captives to free the World from the bondage of sin and to rescue them from the Tyranny of the Devil But 2. In sitting down to teach we may add Christ imitated the Jewish Custom which was that the Teachers sat and the Hearers stood Unto this St. Luke alludes Ch. IV. 20. where speaking of Christ teaching in the Synagogue he says He closed the Book and gave it again to the Minister and sat down and the Eyes of all that were in the Synagogue were fastened upon him In these Synagogues which were in the Nature of our Parish-Churches there was a Seat whereon the Teacher sat and the Auditours stood at his Feet which gave occasion to that proverbial Phrase That such a one had been brought up at the Feet of such a Teacher as St. Paul saith of himself That he had been brought up at the Feet of Gamaliel Acts XXII 3. And of this Nature was the other Expression the Jews made use of viz. To wallow or roll in the Dust of such a Master's Feet whereby they noted the Humility that the Auditour ought to shew to him that teaches him But V. One circumstance more must here be consider'd and this relates to the Disciples that came unto him The following Sermon being directed to them it concerns us to know who these Disciples were And 1. They were the Twelve Apostles who are call'd so by way of Eminency as being the Chief the principal Disciples of Christ by whose Life and Doctrine men were to conclude and learn the Nature of Christ's Kingdom The word Disciple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talmid in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mathetes in the Greek is one that is taught by another and puts himself under his Tuition and Discipline following his Doctrine and way of living And so did the Holy Apostles with respect to Christ and though Judas proved a Devil and an Apostate afterward yet at first without all peradventure he shew'd the same Zeal that the rest did and was true to his Master's interest These Twelve Christ chose as Patriarchs of the Christian Common-wealth in imitation of the Twelve Sons of Jacob which were the Pillars and Foundation of the Jewish Republick and these Apostles trod exactly in their Master's Steps the Son of Perdition excepted and therefore call'd Disciples 2. Not only these Twelve who were Christ's Domesticks were call'd so but all such of the Multitude that believ'd in the Great Jesus and took him for the Messiah or Saviour of the World for to such also the Name of Disciples is given Luke VI. 13. Acts IX 26. Acts XI 26. John VI. So that all that have given their Names to Christ Jesus resign'd themselves to the Rules of his Discipline and profess his Religion are concern'd in this Sermon Every one that names the Name of Christ The Lessons here given reach all such whether high or low whether Princes or Subjects whether rich or poor whether Nobles or Peasants Christ in the following Sermon lays down one way for all nor must any Man be so foolish as to hope to be excused from the Obligation of the following Commands upon the Account of his Rank and Condition and as impossible as the Practice of some of the following Precepts particularly that of forbearing private Revenge doing good to them that hate them c. may seem to Gentlemen and Persons of Quality yet Christ considered Men here not as Gentlemen or Noblemen but as Christians if Christians they must be his Servants if Servants they must do what their Master bids them do if not the bare Name will never save them Inferences 1. Christ seeing the Multitudes and touch'd with compassion to their Souls went up into a Mountain to teach them A Man in whom the Spirit of Christ is cannot but be touch'd with the same compassion to behold the great Numbers of People that go astray from the way to Salvation Ah! how many Thousands do we see ride Post to everlasting Misery It 's true all the Rhetorick in the World cannot make them believe so much but so it is and if without such and such Qualifications there is no inheriting the Kingdom of God what must we think of so many Millions who never have so much as a sad or melancholy Thought about these Qualifications and is not this making haste to be miserable And can a Man that hath a Sense of the Veracity of God in the Gospel behold such Numbers without being griev'd or concern'd
watchfull and sober at least live in-offensive and without scandal and the ground upon which this piece of Humility rises is partly the secret defects the humble Man finds in himself and which he hath a greater sense of than of the faults of others and which really appear greater to him than the offences of other Men partly the secret Gifts and latent Vertues that may be for ought he knows in another Man Upon this Account the humble Person is to think of others better than of himself yet with this caution so to think of others better than of himself as not to run into despair nor to conceal or hide the Grace of God bestow'd upon him when the Edification of others requires a declaration of it as is evident from Psal. LXVI 16. and 1 Cor. XV. 10. And from hence flows 5. A holy Contentedness in the mean Condition God hath placed us in Humility is particularly seen in outward Poverty and he whom Providence hath brought to a very mean and low Estate in the World and who is contentedly poor is truly humble For he humbles himself under the mighty hand of God submits to his Will and bears it chearfully because he is confident it will work for his good The same is to be applied to other outward Afflictions The humble Man gives his back to the smiter and when he suffers he threatens not only from a sense of the Demerit of his sins which he knows have deserv'd worse Usages but from consideration of the mighty alteration of his condition when the Lord Jesus shall appear from Heaven to be admired in all his Saints Humility is more seen in bearing Afflictions and Reproaches and Injuries than any where In these cases for our thoughts to work downward and to strike the Soul into an humble Sense and to quiet her as a weaned Child this looks like the Humility of a Disciple of Christ 1 Pet. II. 19 20 21. But 6. And lastly This Humility is not complete without a chearfull and humble Submission to what God requires to be done Pride is the cause of Disobedience and because Men insolently oppose their Wills to God's Will They walk in the imagination of their hearts Hence we read Jer. XIII 15. Hear this and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken To shew that Pride causes Men to turn their backs to the wholsome Commands and Admonitions of the Lord And if this be the Nature of Pride it must necessarily be the Temper of Christian Humility chearfully and humbly to take Christ's Yoak upon us and let the Commands of the Gospel be never so contrary to the interest of Flesh and Blood where Humility reigns there none of those Commands will be grievous 1 John V. 3. This as near as I can guess is the true Idea of Christian Humility commanded in the Text for though it be no formal Command yet a Blessing being entailed upon the Vertue which Blessing is not to be had without the qualification it must be Tantamount to a Command But Why is this Humility call'd poverty in Spirit I answer Poverty it 's call'd 1. Because the humble Man hath no good thing of his own He carefully distinguishes what is God's and what is his own He is sensible that all the Evil he hath is his own and if what he may call his own be consider'd he will appear a very poor miserable Wretch destitute of Mercy and Favour and Comfort and fit only to fall a Prey to the rage of the Devil What good he hath or finds in himself he ascribes to the true cause God blessed for evermore Not I but the grace of God which was in me I Cor. XV. 10. He freely and feelingly acknowledges that he is nothing hath nothing and can do nothing that 's good without the power and influence of God He sees nothing in himself that can help or save or secure him All his riches hope life and power and strength and vertue is in Christ Jesus And having nothing of his own that he can boast of he may trâ—ly be call'd poor 2. Poor because he is always in want always in want of God's grace and goodness to guide him to lead him to conduct him to strengthen him to keep him to preserve him He is always begging always imploring the Divine goodness to remember him Begging is his Trade and Profession I mean begging the Mercy and Charity of the Father of Mercy and he gives not over begging till his Prayers be turn'd into everlasting Praises But he is not only poor but poor in Spirit 1. Because Humility must take up its chief Residence in his Spirit and inward Man Outward prostrations humiliations cringings bowings raggs a sordid habit sackcloath and the course cloath he wears signify nothing except the Soul or the Mind be lowly If that be so the outward Man will be truly so if the inward Man be a stranger to this Humility the leathern Girdle and the Garment of Camel's-hair without will soon be seen thorough And therefore the young Man in Cassian for all his frequent aggravations of his sins and wonderfull semblances of an humble mind discover'd his Hypocrisie when he could not endure a reproof from Serapion Lucian makes himself very merry with a Cynick a Man who pretended to more than ordinary Humility and Austerity of life A friend of his searching his Pockets and thinking to find there some old Raggs and mouldy Bread and the Parings of Cheese or some such stuff to his surprize found there a Bale of Dice a Box of Perfume and the Picture of his Mistriss A very fit Emblem of a Person who makes a shew of Humility without but within is self-conceited and an admirer of his own worth The heart must feel the power of this Virtue That 's the Garden where the Flower must grow and there it must take root if not it 's not a Plant of our heavenly Father's planting and a Christian may easily perceive that it is lodged in his inward Parts by the lowly and humble Thoughts he cherishes within It was from what he felt within that the Martyr said Lord I am Hell Thou art Heaven and another I am the most hypocritical Wretch not worthy that the Earth should bear me and a third I am the unfittest Man for so high an Honour as suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it and a fourth writing to his Friend that was going to be burnt at the Stake for the Gospel of Christ O that my life and a thousand such Wretches lives might go for yours Why doth he suffer me and such other Caterpillars to live who can-do nothing but consume the Alms of the Church and take you away a mighty Workman and Labourer in his Vineyard The inward Humility sanctified these Expressions and whatever indiscretion might be in such Speeches the humble Sense of their own vileness within made them rational and elegant 2. Poverty in Spirit because this Humility is an
there is comfort in it for Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Three things will deserve our consideration I. Whether all mourners are blessed and if not who they be that are so II. Wherein their Blessedness consists III. How and when they shall be comforted I. Whether all mourners are blessed and if not who they be that are so 1. There is a natural Sorrow or mourning for the Loss of Parents or Children or other Relatives or Friends or Goods or Necessaries or outward Accommodations This Sorrow even the best of Men are subject to and if it be moderate not long not violent not excessive not bordering upon despair as if all our happiness were gone not join'd with mistrust of God's Providence but sweetened and qualified with thoughts of the Will of God and our own Demerits and God's holy and wise Designs it is allowable and there is no hurt in it but still this cannot make a Man blessed for at the best it is but a natural Infirmity and that 's no ingredient of Blessedness Excessive mourning for outward Losses or an impatient Sorrow is a downright Sin and I need not tell you that this is incapable of making a Man blessed And of this Nature is sorrow or mourning because we cannot accomplish our wicked Design or because we cannot revenge our selves upon an Adversary as we would or because we cannot have that Plenty and Estate and Fortune and Prosperity which other voluptuous Men enjoy All such mourning is offensive to God and makes Men miserable and therefore cannot make them blessed There is besides all this a sorrow proceeding from melancholy which makes People lament and mourn and take on and sigh and look sad and they cannot tell why This must needs be the effect of a Distemper and therefore can be no part of Blessedness or true Happiness And therefore 2. The mourners who are pronounced blessed here must be mourners of another sort And they are 1. Such as mourn for their sins Such a mourner was David whom Sin and a due Sense of it made even roar by reason of the disquietness of his heart Psal. XXXVIII 8. Such a mourner was Peter who after the denial of his Master went out and wept bitterly Matth. XXVI 75. Such a mourner was Mary Magdalen or whoever the Woman was that wash'd our Saviour's Feet with her Tears Luke VII 38. The mourners that are said to be blessed here are Persons that deny themselves mourn not for such things as the World mourns for but such as sensual Men take no notice of There is no self denial in mourning for outward Losses even Children can do that but in mourning for his sins a Man must go contrary to the stream of natural inclination and offer a kind of violence to himself and that makes it a pleasing Sacrifice and he mourns happily that takes on because he is sensible how evil a thing and how bitter it is to forsake the LORD and that his fear hath not been in him as it is said Jer. II. 19. Repentance cannot but make a Man happy and the Nature of it is said to consist in this in looking at that Jesus that Saviour that Redeemer whom we have pierc'd by our Sins and whose Love and Blood we have affronted and to mourn as one that mourns for his only Son Zachar. XII 10. 2. Such as mourn for other Men's sins whether publick or private such a mourner was the Royal Prophet Rivers of Tears ran down his Eyes because other Men did not keep God's Laws Psal. CXIX 136. Such a mourner was Jeremiah whom we hear wishing Jer. IX 1 2. O that my head were Water and mine eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night because my People are Adulterers an assembly of treacherous Men. Such mourners were those pious Men we read of Ezek. IX 4. Who cried for the abominations of the House of Israel and lastly such were the faithfull Corinthians who sorrow'd after a Godly sort for having given the incestuous Person too much incouragement to come into their Congregations a sorrow upon which St. Paul makes this remark 2 Cor. VII II. What carefulness hath it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Such mourners are Persons of true Christian compassion their sorrow is noble and generous and like the sorrow of God Ezek. VI. 9. I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me 3. Such as mourn for the loss or absence of God's spiritual Blessings I say Spiritual because there is a favour of God which relates to the gay and great things of the World such as Riches Plenty and outward Prosperity a favour bestow'd even upon the worst of Men and to mourn for the loss or absence of this favour makes no Man happy that which makes us so is mourning for the loss or absence of God's spiritual Blessings such as being deprived of the use of God's publick Ordinances a remarkable instance where of we have in David when forced during Saul's persecution to wander in Deserts and Wildernesses among Heathens and Infidels where he had no opportunity of visiting the House of God and participating of the Prayers and Praises of God's People a lively Description of which mourning he gives us Psal. XLII 3 4. My tears have been my meat day and night while they say daily unto me where is thy God When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with the multitude which keeps holy-day How this afflicted him he expresses more fully Vers. 5. where he talks of his Soul being cast down and disquieted within him And of this nature is the mourning of many pious Christians who have sometime felt great peace great joy great satisfaction in the practice of Religion but find the light of God's countenance withdrawn terrour dwells in their minds and horrour fills their Souls they find not that chearfulness that fervour that alacrity in God's service which once they felt and for this they mourn blessed are these mourners 4. Such as mourn because they cannot as yet perfectly overcome the corruptions which do so easily beset them Indeed the Reign the Tyrannizing Power the Dominion of sin is broken in them but as it was with the seven Nations after that their Empire was destroyed some of the Enemies here and there remain'd to exercise the Courage of the Israelites so in good Men after they have shaken off the Yoak of the Devil some reliques of their old sins remain against which they fight they strive they labour they watch they pray that their Pride their desire of vain-glory their passion their hastiness of Spirit their pusillanimity and cowardice in speaking for God their timorousness in reproving their Neighbours their mistrust of God's mercy their
of the mourning makes the difference you have mourn'd for such a sin but how Is the sin gone is it vanish'd is it dead is it mortified is it likely to die upon this mourning do you act like Men that are resolv'd to subdue and master it I grant some sins are not so easily vanquish'd as others are The secret sins of the Soul such as pride passion vanity of mind love of the World backwardness to self-denial irresoluteness impatience peevishness c. and such are not easily taken notice of without a diligent search are not so soon beaten down as gross outward sins such as drunkenness keeping ill company swearing cursing fornication extortion c. yet let the conquest be more facile or more difficult if you mourn for such a sin some good effect will appear Doth your mourning put you in a striving or wrestling condition do you swim against the stream do you cut the hair as soon as it grows again do you give the sin no quarter when you see it appear again do you allow the dangerous Guest no harbour do you hugg it embrace it caress it no more If your mourning produces not such effects as these it 's nought and they are counterfeit Tears you shed If your mourning does not make you groan and long to be rid of your sins if it doth not make you watchfull against Temptations if it doth not make you cry out with the Apostle Who shall deliver me from the body of this death If you smile upon these Children of Hell again after you have mourned if you grow careless and admit them into your Bosom again you betray the falshood and hypocrisie of your sorrow and God will answer you as he did the Jews Zech. VII 5. When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month did you at all fast unto me even unto me If your mourning be right it will make you hunger and breath after God God's favour will be better than life to you you will look upon sin as the greatest evil you will be griev'd for the sins of others and for the effects of other Men's sins under which good Men groan you will run to Heaven with Prayers and Confessions in your Mouths if you have wronged any Man you will make him restitution or satisfaction It will moderate your sorrow for losses Temporal prevent needless sorrows in a word it will work an Universal Reformation II. Carnal mirth is not such a happiness as some imagine Paul in his Chains is happier than Dives in his Purple Mourners are far happier Men in Christ's Account and Peter in a Prison is in a better State than Herod on a Throne By carnal Mirth I do not mean a natural Joy or Complectional which is a modest well-composed rejoycing in the Blessings God bestows upon us and our Neighbours this is both lawfull and a Duty but by carnal Mirth I mean sinfull Mirth such as rejoycing in iniquity laughing at our Neighbour's infirmities being glad at the misfortunes of our fellow Christians making a mock of offending God taking pleasure in the follies and extravagancies of others being merry with ill company breaking Jests upon Religion and being pleased and tickled with any thing that favours of wantonness lightness frothiness of mind abusing of our Neighbours Voluptuousness or unlawfull Sports and Recreations or Luxury c. Such merry Men the World counts happy strange Happiness which God frowns upon and is abomination in his purer Eyes such Mirth makes a David weep and what good Man can forbear mourning that beholds Men making sport with Fire-brands The mourners at this are infinitely happier than such Players and though he can rejoyce in little but Trifles may for a while pass for a blessed Man among Fools and Sots and Persons as very Beasts as himself yet Men whose Senses are exercised to distinguish betwixt Good and Evil must ever look upon him as a very miserable Man for his Joys are false deluding Joys which will end in sorrow and such sorrow as will grieve all the Veins of his Heart To such Joy a Man may truly say as Solomon did Thou art mad or rather as Christ Luke VI. 25. Woe to you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep as if he had said Woe to you for you have your reward you desired a merry Life and you have it but when that is done you must give God leave to fulfil his Threatnings to be as good as his word and to bring that black and dismal Cloud upon you which fell upon and crusht the jolly Man in the Gospel that cloathed himself in Purple and far'd deliciously every Day Son remember that in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke XVI 25. III. But these are not the Men that I am at present concern'd to speak to They are the mourners I am to comfort and therefore step forth ye mourners of Sion you that either mourn for your own sins or for the sins of the Nation or for the sins of your wicked Neighbours and Relatives or mourn for the absence of God's joyfull Communications or mourn under your Corruptions and Temptations because you cannot yet totally subdue them or mourn because your Graces are not stronger or because you must sojourn so long in this Valley of Tears Fear not ye of little Faith for ye shall be comforted The Son of God assures you of it Believe not a lying Devil that would break your Confidence and dissuade you from laying hold on this gracious Promise It must stand it must come to pass Comfort is promised you and Comfort shall be your Portion Search your Hearts consult your Experience and see what God hath done for you already Look back and reflect what Comforts you have felt formerly what Joys in the midst of Tears what refreshments in your Sorrows what Gales of Peace what Characters of God's Goodness what Marks of his Favour These are Item's that a more plentifull Harvest is to follow Verily verily I say unto you that you shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce and you shall be sorrowfull but your sorrow shall be turned into joy saith Christ John XVI 20 And he adds immediately this Comparison A Woman when she is in Travail hath sorrow because her hour is come but assoon as she is deliver'd of the Child she remembers no more the anguish for the joy that a man is born into the World This admirably expresses both the Nature of your sorrow for sin and the Nature of your Joy which will be the Consequence of it A Woman in Travail hath pain so your mourning for sin or for the absence of Spiritual blessings causes throes and pangs and anguish but your sorrow is usefull and profitable As a Woman in Travail brings forth a Man-child that 's the effect or result of her sorrow so your mourning produces the Fruits of
the Fortune of Religion depended upon it or as if those different Points were so many different Religions 2. That the differing Parties do not damn one another for those differences there being nothing that hath done Religion more hurt than Men's damning one another for things which Christ and his Apostles have affixed no Damnation to 3. That notwithstanding the little differences that are among them they make one Church and endeavour after the Welfare and Prosperity of it and join together in publick Prayer and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist which is the Badge and Symbol of Fraternity and Amity 4. That one Party be not presently jealous and suspicious of the other as if the opinion which one Party espouses were embraced or maintain'd in a Humour or for worldly Ends but that they charitably believe it 's Conscience that puts them upon it at least till either the Party espousing that opinion confesses that conscience is not at the bottom of it or that it appear by undeniable Evidences that a worldly or sinister design is the foundation of it 5. That the differing Parties do not multiply the controversies which are amongst them make them neither more numerous nor greater than really they are and that they do not interpret an accidental unwary expression that may drop from the Pen or mouth of one party as a new controversie 6. That one party do not charge the other with consequences which they do not own nor with Doctrines and Positions which they detest from their hearts 7. That each party defending or proving their opinion do it with great modesty without provoking or exasperating or approbrious Language and revilings or bitter reflections on the other 8. That of these differing parties none do vye with the other except it be in living up to the Precepts of the Gospel particularly those of patience long-suffering and charity These rules I apprehend to be the foundation of Peace and Concord of Protestant Churches that differ in points of no great concernment and were these Maxims once put in practice the particular controversies might soon be compromised To this purpose is that saying of the Apostle Nevertheless where to we have already attained let 's walk by the same rule let 's mind the same things and if any be otherwise minded God will even reveal that unto you Phil. III. 15 16. But however II. If we cannot mend the publick let 's endeavour to reform particular Persons It is a sad sight to see Christians divided among themselves but it is as dismal a spectacle to see so many of us at war with God This I know will hardly be believed by the guilty and because they do not blaspheme God or do not trouble their heads much about God or Religion they know nothing to the contrary but that they are at peace with God and that they and God are very good Friends This is true stupidity and were the stupidity invincible as it is in Beasts such Men would be safe safe as the wild Ass or the Dromedary in the Wilderness safe I say from the Danger of God's Wrath. But this cannot be the case of any of you that live in a Country where the Gospel is preach'd where you are told that not to love God is to hate him and that not to delight in his ways is to incurr his displeasure that to live in those sins which exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven is to bid defiance to him that to be neglectfull of his Will is to wage war with him that to slight the admonitions and entreaties of his Messengers is to be at enmity with him and that to mind the World more than his Service or to seek to please Men more than him is to provoke him to anger And hath not this been the temper and is not this the complexion of many of you How many years have some of you born Arms against God Your wilfull sins are the Weapons whereby you fight against him and though like the Giants in the Fable you do not heap Mountain upon Mountain to pull him out of his Throne yet by espousing that life which is odious to him you affront his Sovereignty and by living contrary to the Gospel you despise and dishonour him who hath the greatest right to command you And is it not high time to make peace with him If God be not at peace with you here he will never be at peace with you hereafter What peace while the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many said Jehu 2 Kings IX 22. So here what peace can there be betwixt God and you while you continue in that pride and vanity and intemperance and other sins against which the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven Do you think you are at peace with God because you thrive and prosper in the World Do not the wickedest of Men do so and is that an Argument that God is their Friend Will you make his patience a sign of his being reconciled to you when it is only a motive to a reconciliation There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked Isa. LVII 20. Let them be never so potent never so rich never so wealthy their impiety takes away all peace betwixt God and them He hath declared so much and will not you believe him Will you give no credit to his word till with Dives you lift up your Eyes in Hell and see that God is not your friend If you do thrive and prosper in the World cannot those Blessings move you to be at peace with him Do you believe he is kind to you and shall his kindness provoke you to be his Enemies Nothing can settle a peace betwixt God and you till you change your lives and make conscience of your ways and abhorr that which is evil and cleave to that which is good Then indeed were your sins as crimson they shall be as wool were they of a scarlet Dye they shall be as white as snow but till then your sin like that of Judah is written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond as it is said Jer. XVII 1. and you do as good as say to God with those Desperadoes in Job Chap. XXI 14. Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Till then you can never be at peace with your own consciences carnal security you may have but peace of conscience is another thing for this can never be at rest while it hath reason to believe God frowns upon it but being sure of the light of his loving kindness a Man walks in Paradise and dwells in the Garden of God But III. When Christ in the Text professes and declares how pleasing and acceptable a peaceable and peace-making Temper is to God would not one think that every one that believes the Gospel should be ambitious of those qualifications which God not only approves of but promises to reward with the highest Honour and Dignity
a parallel Passage which makes that necessary which in the Text seems only providential It is St. Paul's saying 2 Tim. III. 12. All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution What Can none be called Godly but those that are persecuted for righteousness sake and is there no getting an interest in Christ Jesus but by being harrass'd and teaz'd and evil entreated for his Name Are all Hypocrites tho' never so pious that have not suffer'd as the Apostles did Or must all be accounted reprobates that walk softly all their days and never felt the rage of Tyrants and sworn Enemies of the Gospel I answer 1. This saying was certainly true of the Apostle's days and the time when St. Paul writ this Epistle to Timothy There was then no living Godly without being persecuted To obey the rules of the Gospel was to draw the rage of turbulent Men upon their Backs To profess Christ was to become a Prey to Jews and Heathens To be a Disciple of a Crucified God was look'd upon to be as bad as to be an Enemy to the State and he went in danger of his life that said there was another King one Jesus The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles the Apostles writ to comfort the believers in their fiery Trials are evidences to prove all this and this lasted the greatest part of three hundred Years after Christ during which time happen'd the ten famous or rather infamous Persecutions under Nero Domitian Trajan Severus Commodus Maximinus Decius Valerianus Aurelianus Dioclesian in the last of which it was death to have a Bible in their Houses 2. This saying is still true of our days and true it will be to the World's end and so it is all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution if not from Men yet from the Devil who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. V. 8. The Temptations a Christian meets and must meet with and without which his Faith can never be tried what are they but Persecutions the Soul at least is persecuted and tho' these Persecutions of the Devil appear stronger and more fiery in some than in others especially in Persons to whose minds their former sins are represented in very dreadfull Colours with the wrath of God flaming out against them breathing nothing but despair and destruction yet be they more or less still they are Persecutions and though abundance of Christians that take up of Religion just so much as is consistent with their ease and profit and pleasure are not very sensible of these Persecutions yet where Men attempt to mortifie their dear lust crucifie their flesh are resolv'd to do more than Heathens and Pharisees and do truly swim against the strong current of corrupt Nature they will find there are fiery Darts thrown at them and though they are not visible yet it s enough that they are felt and indeed on some these Persecutions lie so heavy that they are ready to despair ready to throw off all and even to betake themselves to a sensual course of living as their Neighbours do Thus Persecution is still the lot of good Christians insomuch that he who is not persecuted in this Sense cannot be supposed to live Godly in Christ Jesus for having sworn in Baptism to fight against the Devil is it possible if he makes good his promise when he grows up the Devil will not fight against him tempt him to evil discourage him from goodness fright him from the strait way provoke him to sin throw stumbling-blocks in his way suggest impediments and excuses and entice him to prefer an easie form before the power of Godliness and is not this Persecution 3. Those that will live Godly live so among wicked Men in wicked Families in wicked Societies will not fail of suffering Persecution For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or what fellowship is there betwixt Christ and Belial Wicked men cannot endure a man that is Precise and Godly and Conscientious and reproves them and therefore will be his Enemies despise him deride him abuse him and do him an injury if they may do it with safety to themselves and what is this but Persecution 4. The evil Works which he that lives Godly in Christ Jesus sees and beholds are a Persecution to him as it is said of Lot 2 Pet. II. 7 8. That dwelling in Sodom in seeing and hearing vex'd his righteous Soul from day to day with their unlawfull Deeds and filthy Conversation and to this purpose are those Expressions we meet with Ps. CXIX Horrour hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked which forsake thy Law v. 53. I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word v. 158. so that there is no need of having recourse to the ordinary Afflictions which befall good men as if they were meant by Persecution in these words The thing is true with respect to the Particulars I have mention'd and to this day it cannot be otherwise but those that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecutisn And yet II. Though Persecution like the Trojan Horse carries innumerable Evils in its Bowels yet we must not think it unbecoming the Divine Providence to see Righteousness persecuted Ever since the fatal enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent hath been proclaimed Gen. iii. 15. it hath been so it began very early and they were scarce got out of Paradise but Cain persecuted his Brother Abel and pursu'd him to death for asserting saith the Chaldee Paraphrast the Rewards and Punishments of the World to come And this hath been the fate of abundance of righteous Men and Women in all Ages more signally since Christ Jesus appear'd in the World and taught mankind a more perfect and stricter way of Righteousness than the World was acquainted with before And what was our Saviour's life but a continual persecution from his Cradle to his Cross And when it was so with the Master we cannot think his Apostles and Disciples should escape these uncivil and barbarous usages Accordingly Stephen was stoned James beheaded Timon one of the seven Deacons burnt Thomas slain with a Dart Simon Zelotes crucified Jude slain in a tumult raised by the people Mark the Evangelist burnt Bartholomew beaten to death with Staves Andrew crucified Matthew stoned and beheaded Philip crucified and beheaded Peter crucified with his head downward and Paul after a thousand sufferings beheaded Indeed considering what love and esteem God professes to Righteousness and the cruelties that have been exercis'd upon righteous men Flesh and Blood will be apt to wonder how God could suffer it for some had their Brains breaten out with Mauls some were cast to the Swine some to the Lions to be devour'd some were hang'd up by the middle some tormented to death with Trees a Hand or an Arm being tyed to one Tree and a Leg to another some were scrap'd to
death with Shells some were burnt with their Entrails torn out some broyl'd upon Grid-irons some roasted alive against the Fire some Women had their Breasts some Men their Legs and Thighs sear'd with hot Irons some were tost to death upon Bulls-horns some hang'd by the Neck and Heels some were burnt in a Furnace some fry'd in an Iron Chair some had their Bones broken with Batts some were beaten with Cudgels some had sharp points thrust in under their Nails some were put in Vessels of boyling Oyl some dragg'd through the Streets and Kennels some had their Tongues cut out some had their Eyes bor'd out some were sawn asunder some flead alive some torn in pieces with wild Horses some kill'd with Famine some suffer'd to perish in Frost and Snow Where was God where was the Lord Jesus all the while will some say why he was there he was with them in all their Torments gave them Courage to endure all this Strength to bear up under all their Miseries Here the Power of God appear'd more than it would have done in their greatest Prosperity This made the World to gaze and stare and think they must be more than Men that suffer'd with so much Patience This gave Reputation to Religion By this means the Name of the Lord Jesus came to be glorified This converted Heathens wrought upon Infidels pull'd down Idolatry chased the Devil from his Throne This made Men come in to Christ in multitudes This made them forsake the Devil and the World this made them part with their Sins and Lusts and lay force upon the Kingdom of Heaven And thus the World was overcome and Scepters and Crowns were made to stoop to the Cross of Christ and it 's hard to say whether more were converted by Miracles or by these patient and heroick Sufferings of Christians their Sufferings forc'd people into a belief of a future Reward and the Torments they endur'd made God amiable that thousands did embrace him And yet III. As in other things so even in matter of Persecution great mistakes may be committed and therefore in judging of Persecution we must ever attend and look to the cause for which men are said to be persecuted This caution is very necessary that we may not wrongfully accuse men whose office it is to punish Offenders nor flatter our selves with the satisfaction of a good work when we have done nothing less Persecuting for righteousness sake is a very great sin a sin that cries for Vengeance which is the reason why God even in this present life hath poured out his Wrath upon persons guilty of this crime Nero was thrown down from the Imperial Throne proscrib'd by the Senate as an Enemy of mankind and at last forc'd to kill himself Domitian was slain in his Chamber not without the consent of his Wife and all his Images and Statues thrown down by order of the Senate Decius was kill'd in Battle and depriv'd of the common Honour of Burial Valerianus was taken by the Persians and put in a Cage and at last flead and his Skin hung up for a Trophy in one of the Persian Temples Aurelianus in the very beginning of his Persecution dies miserably and wallows in his own blood Galerius a prodigious and unusual Sickness seizes him a sore rising in the nether part of his Belly which bred such a swarm of Worms as made him stink above Ground Maxentius was vanquish'd by Constantine the Great and his body thrown into the River Tiber not to mention any more Instances of this nature And I wish that this trade of persecuting had been confined to Heathens but here it stay'd not After that the World turn'd Christian it was not long before one Party began to persecute another The Arrians were the first that began it and the Church of Rome soon learn'd this art beginning with the Novatians but practised it afterwards with greater cruelty upon the Waldenses and Albigenses and all those whom she is please to style Hereticks The Greek Church when she had Power and Princes that favour'd her Interest hath run too often upon the same Rock And I know this very Church we are Members of hath been often charged by our dissenting Brethren with a persecuting Spirit I shall not now enquire into the truth or falshood of this charge being willing to forget what is past even the shadow of it the rather because the Point will require examining various circumstances which either heighten or very much qualify the pretended sin but whatever Errors Rudenesses or Insolencies have been committed by officers of Justice in executing the Law upon Dissenters which must not be presently charg'd upon the Doctrine and Temper of the Church Blessed be God there is at this time in our Church a general Inclination to Tenderness Compassion and Mildness to the moderate sort of those who differ from the Sentiments of the Church and to hearken to a reasonable Accommodation of Matters to the satisfaction of those who look upon themselves as Sufferers That which I chiefly aim at in this Discourse is that we must not rashly charge every thing that looks like Punishment with the odious name of Persecution for Righteousness sake neither in the persons that inflict Punishment nor in those that suffer it And indeed a person that suffers or is like to suffer for an Opinion or Practice of his own had need consider well before he suffers what he is going to suffer for and whether the thing he is ready to suffer for is worth it To suffer for any Catholick Doctrine receiv'd in all Ages by all Churches or for a known Article of Faith or for a thing expresly commanded or forbid by the Gospel is great and noble and Christian-like but to suffer for an Invention of our own or for things which have no solid Foundation in Scripture hath nothing of Glory or Christian Magnanimity in it nor will God give us any thanks for it and in this case a Christian had a thousand times better endeavour to rectify his Judgment especially when no substantial Doctrine or Duty is prejudiced by it and comply with the Will and Desire of the Magistrate than suffer for a thing for which he hath no good Authority from the word of God I might apply this to some particular differences but I forbear and though I do believe that many who have suffer'd for such things which are not plainly deliver'd in Scripture may have found very great comfort in their Sufferings yet whether that comfort was a sign that they were persecuted for Righteousness sake I very much question However if such persons do suffer wrongfully they shall lose nothing by their sufferings for God is not unrighteous to forget our Work and labour of love and the time will come when God will bring forth our Righteousness as the Light and our Judgment as the Noon-day The truth is Men's understandings being of various capacities and sizes and apt to be by ass'd by various
which I mention to let you see that there are too many and too sad Instances of Men guilty of the Sin mention'd in the Text viz. Reviling and speaking Evil of Christians who sincerely believe in Christ. But II. What can be the Motive to all this What it is that makes Men so base and wicked 1. A preposterous and unhappy Education Where Men have been bred and born in a false Religion they imbibe great Prejudices against those that would inform and teach them better Education rivets Errors into the Mind as well as Truths and an Error being taken for a fundamental Truth whatever crosses it is look'd upon as dangerous and heretical and therefore abominable and unthinking Persons having no convenient Means to satisfy themselves as to the Truth of the opposite Doctrine they speak as they are taught and talk bitterly against those that would undeceive them according to the Idea's imprinted on their Mind by ill Men and deluded Teachers This was the Case of the Jews who had been taught that out of Galilee could arise nothing that was good and that no Prophet could come out of Galilee John I. 46. John VII 52. And that was the Reason why they cast so many Reproaches upon Christ who was reported to be a Native of Galilee The same may be said of the Opinion they had suck'd in with their Mother's Milk That the Messiah was to be a Temporal Prince and appear with outward Splendor which being wanting in Jesus of Nazareth they despised and reviled him 2. Another Reason is a blind Zeal the effect of an unhappy Education This blind Zeal appears chiefly in passionate and cholerick Men who being bred up in a false Religion are not only able to do but do a world of Mischief their Tongues being set on fire of Hell with the Fool in the Proverbs will throw about Swords and Arrows and Firebrands and spit Flames against those who contradict their darling and perhaps profitable Principles Thus it was in a great measure with St. Paul before his Passion was sanctified and himself converted his Zeal was blind and violent and that made him not only blaspheme Christ and his Saints but think it his Duty to do so as himself confesses 1 Tim. I. 13. 3. Another is Pride A proud Man is naturally tempted to slandering and abusing those who do not please him His Pride makes him undervalue the Person that opposes his Insolence and that undervaluing provokes him to bitter Words and abusive Language The Pharisees were monstrously proud swelled with a mighty Conceit of their Holiness and Strictness and this was the Cause of the horrid Language they gave to the Saviour of Mankind calling him Samaritan a Devil and an Impostor and the People that follow'd him Cursed John VII 49. 4. A fourth Reason is Malice and Envy bitter Roots which produce very bitter Fruit even bitter Language Malice is a Soil which evil Spirits do delight in and they dictate this hellish Rhetorick Malice will make Faults where it finds none and misinterpret harmless Actions as unpardonable Crimes It turns accidental Reports into Verities the shadow of a Sin into a real Crime and idle Peoples Talk into Demonstration and Evidence And in this Art the High Priest that sat Judg in Christ's Cause seem'd to be very well skill'd who could spell Blasphemy out of Christ's Confession That he was the Son of God Matth. XXVI 63. 5. Another Reason is Want of a sedate even serious and attentive Consideration of the Cause of such innocent Christians From a precipitate Judgment a Man can expect little but inconsiderate Speeches and Expressions and where Men do inspect a thing hastily survey it only superficially and will not take time to weigh the Circumstances of it we need not wonder if they take the Cause by the wrong Handle and when that appears dreadful to them which upon a deliberate View would be found harmless and tolerable and very rational rash Censures and ill Language will be the Effects and Consequences of it as we see in the Proceedings of the Jews in St. Paul's Case Acts XXII 27 28 29. They had seen one Trophimus an Ephesian with him in the Streets without any Examination of the matter they suppose he must be his Companion in the Temple too whereupon they raise a Cry That he had brought Greeks into the Temple and profaned that holy place More Reasons might here be drawn from Profit and Interest and worldly Advantages from the Company Men keep and from the high Places and Stations they possess in the World and the Figure they make in a Commonwealth all which very often tempt them to revile those whom in their own Consciences they think innocent but what hath been said may serve for a Taste But let 's go on and see III. How that which is a Sin to one can be a Blessing to another Reviling and speaking Evil falsly of good men being a great Sin how this can make the Persons who are unjustly reviled blessed 1. A very ill thing may be the Occasion of a very good one It 's true a corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit nor do Men look for Grapes from Thorns nor for Olive-berries from a Bramble nor for sweet Water from salt Springs but tho' a bad Thing cannot be the proper efficient Cause of a good one yet it may prove the Occasion of it as we see Mens dissolute and disorderly Actions are Occasions of very excellent Laws And as the Man whom History speaks of his Enemy who struck him with an Intent to kill broke the Imposthume in his Body which proved his Health and Recovery so the Devil 's accusing the Brethren before God day and night is the Occasion of their steddy Protection After the same manner from wicked Mens reviling Conscientious Christians God takes Occasion to reward them with Love and tender Mercies turns those Revilings into Blessings as Joseph's being sold into Egypt and turned out of Potiphar's House with Infamy and Disgrace and his Imprisonment into Grandeur and Royalty 2. Not so much the Revilings of wicked Men make such Persons blessed as their Innocence under those Revilings God that sees them wrongfully abused and reproach'd takes their part An ordinary Judg is bound in Conscience to plead the Cause of him whom he knows to be unjustly arraign'd much more the righteous Judge of the World may be supposed to take notice of the Innocence of his Servants whom Men unjustly calumniate and to take them into his Protection Shall not the Judg of the whole World judge righteous Judgment saith the Patriarch Gen. XVIII 24. And this makes them blessed 3. It 's not these Revilings so much that makes them blessed as their Behaviour and Deportment under them even their Patience and Meekness and Calmness and committing themselves to him that judges righteously Should he that is unjustly reviled render railing for railing or reviling for reviling in doing so he would spoil his Blessedness but bearing
the Reproach of Christ and esteeming it greater Riches than the Treasures of the World without recriminating this is it that makes him blessed the rather because this is to be a Disciple of Christ Jesus 1 Pet. II. 21 22. 4. That which makes them blessed is the Cause for which they are reviled and therefore it is said for my sake In our worldly Concerns to be unjustly traduced hath something of Blessedness in it because we have the Testimony of our Conscience that we have done what is lawful and right much more when we are evil spoken of falsly for Christ's sake because we adhere close to the Gospel of Christ because we obey our Master's Will and because we will not dishonour him by doing things which he hath forbid This makes the Blessedness great as the Person is for whom we suffer So that tho' as I said before these Revilings may occasion their Blessedness yet the Particulars I have mention'd are properly the ministerial Causes that make them blessed and consequently it 's no Absurdity to say That a thing which is a Sin to one is a Blessing to another no more than we count it a Solecism to say that what is one Man's Meat is another Man's Poison Inferences I. Without my telling you you may gather from the Premises That every Man who is reviled is not therefore blessed A Man's Life and Actions may be so bad that he deserves to be evil spoken of but that 's no reviling but speaking the Truth I grant a Man may speak Truth of another with an ill Intent which may make it Sin to him but if he have a Call to it and his Intent be good speaking of another what he is really guilty of can be no reviling to be sure no unjust reviling Christ spoke very ill things of the Scribes and Pharisees but their insolent Behaviour both justified and required such Corrosives We are not to flatter Men in their Sins nor to applaud their evil Actions we must not call an Adulterer chaste nor a Cholerick Person meek nor a Person given to Tipling and Drinking sober nor must he be stiled a good Man who walks directly contrary to the Rules of the Gospel Therefore Christian if thou wouldst not be ill spoken of do that which is true and just and good and honest and lovely and of a good Report and Who will harm you if you be Followers of that which is good saith S. Peter 1 Pet. III. 13. If thy Lewdness or dishonest Actions open Peoples Mouths against thee thy Misfortune is of thine own making God denounces a dreadful Woe against those that call evil good and good evil that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa. V. 20. And tho' Charity believes the best yet it believes with Discretion it doth not neither indeed is it bound to believe blindly that Black is White or that Stones are Bread Blessed be God we are not come to that extravagant Belief which Bellarmine asserts to be necessary that if the Pope should so far err as to make Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue the whole Church would be bound to obey him This is Bedlam Talk and we see what Absurdities the Reward of Purple can lead Men into Our Reason was not given us for fashion sake but we are to prove that which is good and to try the Spirits whether they be of God Our Religion bids us walk circumspectly and to take care that we be not evil spoken of is our Duty not only by avoiding Sins scandalous and which make us to be pointed at but by shunning even things which tho' they seem to have no great harm in them yet may give Offence to weaker Brethren There is a great Wisdom to be used in things indifferent and we must deny our selves in speaking and doing things in Postures and Gestures and Dresses which may be a stumbling-block in the way of our Fellow-Christians and may either make them remiss in their Duty or stop them in their Progress in Goodness or tempt them to Apostacy To this purpose is the Exhortation 1 Cor. X. 32. Give no offence neither to the Jews nor to the Greeks nor to the Churches of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved II. As those who are reviled and ill spoken of for a conscientious Believing and Obeying Christ Jesus as these are certainly blessed Men so those who unjustly revile such Persons must needs be in a cursed State Not to meddle at this time with those profane Persons who profess themselves Members of our Church and revile others that will not swear and drink with them or run with them into excess of riot it is a lamentable thing to see some Masters of Families how angry they are with their Servants Apprentices nay sometimes Children too for being devout and serious and cautious of offending God and wronging their Consciences and what reproachful Titles they heap upon them calling them Fools Sots Melancholy Precise Fanaticks Hypocrites and what not nay are angry sometimes even with the Ministers of the Gospel by whose Perswasion they have turned to God! Mad-men these that are angry with the Blessings God sends them strange inconsiderate Creatures Are you angry with the means of your Preservation A religious Servant in a wicked Family helps to preserve that Family from being ruin'd and destroy'd at least keeps off some greater Evils that did hang over their Heads God blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake Gen. XXXIX 5. A religious Servant or Apprentice or Child I mean one that is truly so faithful to God and Man that makes Conscience of discharging the Duty of his Calling and Relation as well as his Duty to God not one that pretends to Religion and neglects his Master's Business but one that hath an equal Respect to the Duties of the first and second Table such a Person is a greater Treasure in a loose Family than his Superiors think for It is for such a Mans sake that God blesses them and withdraws his Wrath and Anger from them or reprieves them who are otherwise ripe for Vengeance And that your Profit and Trade doth not decay it is for such excellent Persons sakes whom God loves and for their Piety God exercises Patience toward you And are you angry with us too who exhort them to be good oblige them to make Restitution when they have wrong'd you and admonish them to be faithful and to please you well in all things when by our Entreaties and Counsel we have driven the evil Spirit out of them are you sorry that we have not let him continue in the House where he had taken up his Residence Cursed Children who are displeas'd with the good Angels God sends into their Houses and who are their Guardians too that defend them from imminent Danger Instead of reviling your Servants or Inferiors for standing in awe of God more than of Men
own Souls must be absolutely necessary Religion exalts Nature and the kindnesses which the Law written upon our Hearts requires of us toward the Bodies of our Neighbours Religion bids us exercise to their Souls which are the nobler substances Religion as it makes us concerned for our own Souls so it raises a desire to do good to the Souls of others Till a Man comes to be concerned about spiritual Affairs he is a Stranger to Religion As things unseen are the proper Object of the Soul so to be truly concerned about things unseen is the proper Character of a Religious Man And as Religion in imitation of its Author is communicative so the Soul of another Man comes to be very dear to us if our care and solicitude be once seriously employ'd about our own and this is the ground of the great Duty pressed here viz. preserving others from Sin and Corruption to which purpose our Saviour tells Peter with respect to his resurrection from his Apostacy when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren Luke XXII 32. And St. Paul in larger terms Exhort one another daily taking heed lest any of you be harden'd through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. III. 13. This being the true import of the similitude used here Let us II. Consider how this Salt comes to lose its Savour And this happens 1. When a Man after he comes to know his Duty either by reading or hearing the Word preached in season and out of season acts contrary to his Profession and enticed or overcome by the Cares Riches and Pleasures of this Life grows sensless of the weighty Concerns of his own and other Mens Souls and willfully and obstinately maugre all the Checks of his Conscience to the contrary continues so We all know that when Salt hath lost its Picquancy and Sharpness and Quickness it is gone and it can be call'd Salt no more Just so it is with a Man that owns himself a Christian if taken with these outward things that please the Flesh and pamper the Body and gratifie his Carnal Interest he boldly neglects exerting his Zeal and Fervour for his own and other Mens Souls which his Religion presses and urges him to he ceases to be a Christian for a Christian is a Person active that acts according to the Rules of his Profession Where it is so that the love of the World doth so blind and intoxicate him that he looks neither after his own Soul nor the Soul of his Neighbour and feels no love to either or if he feels something of it choaks it again with the Bryars and Thorns of this Life he loses the Spirit of Religion and then as the Body without the Soul is dead so his Christianity without this Love becomes dead also Indeed we call the dead Men still but that 's only a Name Properly speaking they are no Men and so it is here he that is a stranger to this Love is no Christian for this Love is as much of the Essence of Christianity as sharpness or quickness is to Salt 2. This Salt loses his Savour When a Man hath been for some time solicitous about his own Soul and the spiritual Concerns of his Neighbours and grows weary of it or for Carnal Reasons quits those hearty Endeavours of preserving others from Sin and Corruption This the Holy Ghost calls departing from the Holy Commandment delivered to us 2 Pet. II. 21. Though losing in Scripture imports sometimes neglecting that which is a Mans greatest interest to mind yet for the most part loss supposes having and that we once had that which is now gone from us and this is an aggravation of the fault and consequently of the Sin mentioned in the Text And he loses his Savour as a Christian i. e. loses his Christianity and Sense of God with a witness that begins in the Spirit and ends in the Flesh runs well for a time and suffers himself to be stopt in his Race hath endeavour'd to do good to the Souls of others and taken care that his Life and Actions might be edifying to those who conversed with him but having laid his hand to the Plough looks back with Lot's Wife who became a Pillar of Salt and of Disgrace and Infamy too Salt is used in Scripture for permanency that 's the reason of the expression Numb XVIII 19. A Covenant of Salt i. e. a lasting Covenant and a Christian that is to be Salt in one sense i. e. preserve others as much as he can from sinning must be Salt in the other sense too i. e. continue patiently in well-doing if he doth not he loses his Savour and Religion and then if the Salt hath lost its Savour wherewith shall it be salted Whether Salt can lose its Savour I leave to Naturalists to enquire and determine if it cannot the possibility of it may however safely be supposed for the instruction of the ignorant as St. Paul supposes an Angels Preaching a new Doctrin If an Angel from Heaven should Preach another Gospel to you than what we have Preach'd unto you let him be accurs'd not that its possible an Angel can do so but such a supposition makes the Argument in hand more powerful and convincing And having considered how the Salt or the Persons represented by Salt lose their Savour le ts go on and consider III. The nature of the Commination here spoken of which is That the Salt after that cannot recover its taste but is cast forth and troden under foot of Men. To explain this 1. As Salt when it hath lost its Sharpness is render'd incapable of recovering that Sharpness there being nothing in Nature that can give it the taste of Salt again so where People will not be perswaded either by good Examples or by other means to endeavour the preservation of others from Sin God very often hardens them and takes away from them a Heart and Will to do it for the future When Men neglect their known Duty or delay applying themselves to it though they have many Motions of God's Spirit to that purpose and hope to do it this time and that time and yet still find Impediments there it is just with God to put them in an incapacity of doing it at all and to take from them that Grace and Power he gave them to preserve others from Corruption or to bring upon them an impossibility of recovering that Grace and Power as much as Salt cannot be Salted again or recover its Sharpness when it hath once lost its Acrimony God cannot endure to see Men play with his Gifts He makes anotherguess account of his Gospel he vouchsafes to Men than the generality do and those who give up their Names to him and will not by the strongest Arguments be prevail'd with to act according to their Profession shall be in danger of being so infatuated that they shall not be salted again with the Salt of Grace and Favour and influences of his Spirit for this is to bury our Talents
find work enough nay by this means you would be helpful to the Ministry and prepare Men for our larger Instructions and fit them for the understanding of our Sermons and that Fire which your pious Counsels have kindled in them we should be able to cherish and increase by our Power and Authority And what if you have seen no great success of your Endeavours to Reform others may be you have exhorted and reproved them but have not shewn them a good Example or may be you have admonish'd them carelesly or in Jest and this is not the way to edifie or while you have Chid them for one sin suppose Swearing or Drinking or keeping Ill Company you have lived in another such as Wrath or Anger or Covetousness and Vncharitableness c. and this must necessarily obstruct their Conversion But suppose your endeavours both by a good Example and gentle Admonitions have proved ineffectual All that can be said is this they have done no good to day or this Week but how do you know but they may prove beneficial to morrow or next day or next year Industrious Men are not discouraged with miscarrying in their business once or twice but fall on again and try again and at last their Wishes are accomplish'd and their Desires fulfilled God gives no success to the first Attempts on purpose to encourage us to make more Be not therefore weary of well-doing Do you but your Duty and leave the Success to God You 'll be no losers by your Endeavours in the last day In the mean while you make good the Title of the Text and have the Peace and Comfort of a good Conscience and if you do any good by one act you bring a great number of Blessings both upon your selves and others For so we read Jam. V. 20. Brethren if any of you err from the Truth and one convert them let him know that he that Converts a Sinner from the Error of his Ways shall save a Soul from Death and cover a multitude of sins SERMON XIV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 14. Ye are the Light of the World IT cannot be denied but that the Titles Christ gives his Followers are magnificent and glorious but then it is not to flatter or to puff them up but to make them know their Duty As he brought the best Religion with him into the World so he would have his Followers distinguish themselves from the rest of Mankind by something extraordinary Those that improve or rather abuse the lofty Names which are given to Christians into self-conceitedness and contempt of others mistake their Masters design and pervert the hopes of his Commendations The Titles do no farther belong to them than they make them good nor doth the Name entitle them to real Happiness while that which is signified by it is wanting It will serve indeed to aggravate their future Misery but cannot contribute any thing to their Salvation God is not taken with outward shews and they may stand knocking at Heaven-gate long enough before the Door is open'd that have nothing to plead for their entring but that they were Abraham's Children Here on Earth Men may be admitted into the Royal Presence because of their Titles of Dukes Earls Marquesses c. but in the Court above Men have no respect shewn them but such as express'd the Elegies and Epithets given them by their Actions This as it is to be observ'd with respect to the Title Christ gives to his Followers in the preceding Verse where he calls them the Salt of the Earth so it is particularly to be applied to that which follows in the Text where Christ reflecting on the Sun and Moon and Stars and all the Lamps of Heaven and considering how beneficial they are to this nether World thinks fit to describe and represent the Manners of his Disciples by that Simile Ye are the Light of the World And that you may see what this Title imports I shall I. Examine the Qualities of Light and then it will easily appear what Duties are implied II. Whether this addition Of the World Ye are the Light of the World hath any thing of Emphasis or Weight in it or imports something more than the bare Title and of these in order I. What the qualities of Light are and here to insist only upon such qualities which fall under the Cognisance of the meanest Capacity 1. Shining is the great quality of Light so a Christian is to shine in Virtues and good Works and what these Virtues and good Works are you may see Gal. V. 22 23. 2 Pet. I. 5 6 7. Rom. XII 8 9. and following Man is naturally in a State of darkness For ye were sometime darkness but now are ye Light in the Lord saith St. Paul Eph. V. 8. Not but that unregenerate Men may be very quick and sagacious in Worldly concerns and things relating to their gain and profit and thriving in the World nay and may be very great Scholars Philosophers and speculative Men in which sense they may be said to have a quick natural Light but with respect to real and substantial goodness they are in a state of darkness and though I doubt not but that in their Baptism they receive some degrees of spiritual Light for which reason they are said to be enlightned Heb. VI. 5. yet that Light as they grow up we see very often drown'd by the Vanities and ill Examples of the World so that they sink into darkness again and sometimes greater darkness than those who never heard of the Gospel labour under But when the Light of God's Grace and the Spirit of the Holy Jesus irradiates their Minds that Light which shines within even in their Understandings doth and will certainly break forth it being impossible to be shut up or imprison'd and shine without upon their Lives and that Shine is nothing but good Works And the Sun does not gild the Earth more than good Works the outward Man These adorn the Christian and are the Splendour of his Life and they transfigure him in a manner as Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor of whom we read Luke IX 29. That his raiment became white and glistering Good Works are a true Christians Raiment and they are glistering too They are so many Stars that spangle that Firmament and though the Kings Daughter be all glorious within Psal. XLV 13. yet that Glory within is of such force that it will shine without and in this sense he is truly changed from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of our God as it is said 2 Cor. III. 18. 2. Light is of an illuminating Nature it enlightens Houses Rooms Caves and Dens and an infinite variety of things so a Christian must make it his business to enlighten other Men those especially who walk in the dark are Children of the Night and live in sin for that is called darkness in Scripture In our Converses Dealings Business Employments we meet very ordinarily with
you who pretend to be enlighten'd by the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in this adulterous and sinful generation Whatever ill examples you behold whatever vain Company you light into whatever viciousness you see abroad that must be nothing to you your Souls must not he defiled nor your Minds darken'd by such Spectacles Your business is to keep your selves pure as Lot in Sodom A multitude that does Evil is no President for you to follow for you have heard that the way which leads to perdition is broad and many there be that walk in it Numbers in sin must be no Motive to do after their ungodly Deeds Among these you are to shine as Lights in the World While you preserve your goodness your Light is preserved and your Candle continues burning when that decays your Light decays and should a Cry be made at midnight Behold the Bridegroom comes in what Condition will you be when your Lamps are gone out The Light that is soon extinguish'd by the circumambient Darkness which surrounds you is a counterfeit Light It comes not from the Father of Lights nor is it a genuine Beam of the Sun of Righteousness for whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin i. e. so as to make a trade of it or to yield to a habit of it for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. III. 9. Ill Examples must make your Light burn the brighter and the greater Wickedness you are incompass'd with the higher must your Zeal rise and by this the World must be taught that there is something in you which is greater than the World and that in despight of all the Miseries which befall good Men in this World Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous IV. Ye are the Light of the World When you behold the Light of the World what should you do but remember your Duty which is to walk as Children of Light Can you complain of want of Remembrancers and Monitors when the Light of every Day puts you in mind what manner of persons you ought to be When you see the Sun shining upon you is not this an Item how you are to warm others by your blameless Conversation When the Light breaks in and displays its Glory in your Chambers in a Morning is not this a silent admonition how you are to deport your selves that day Even like the Children of God without rebuke and to walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envy for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breast-plate of Faith and Love and for a helmet the hope of Salvation 1 Thes. V. 7 8. This is the Wisdom of God to express our Duty by things which incur into our Senses are familiar and obvious and which we daily behold that looking upon those Objects we might remember what we are called to what we are design'd for and what our Master requires at our hands Light must make us reflect upon the Light of Grace and Holiness and put us upon examination what Footsteps of the Grace of God appear in us and upon Resolutions to walk worthy of the Name which is given us and so to guide our Thoughts and Words and Actions that by what we do in the World our Neighbours and those who behold our Conversation may be edified and encouraged to lay hold on Eternal Life V. Ye are the Light of the World And God hath given you a Light to walk by which is his Holy Word for thy Word is a Lamp unto my Feet and a Light unto my Paths saith David Psal. CXIX 105. By this Light you are to try the Spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone out into the World There are Men abroad that teach for Doctrines the Commandments and Traditions of Men Men that will tell you that except you are in Communion with a certain Prelate who exalts himself above all that is called God even above Kings and Princes you cannot be saved Men that will tell you that you must Pray to Saints and implore the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin and hear Mass and believe against Sense and Reason that Bread is Flesh that you must hear Mass and Prayers you understand not and be content to be deprived of the comfortable Cup in the Holy Sacrament There are others that talk much of Religion and yet are great Strangers to the Christian Virtues of Meekness and Charity and not only confine the Favour of God to a certain Party but would straiten yours too and place Religion more in talking against Ceremonies than in the greater and weightier matters of the Law And abundance of other false Teachers and Doctrines you may meet withall abroad for le ts do what we can the Enemy will sow Tares among the Wheat but the way not to be deceived by such false Fires is to examin them by the clear Light of the Word of God To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word there is no Light in them By this Light you may find out not only erroneous Opinions but sinful Works and Practices too not only in others but in your selves also Take but a serious view of your Actions Designs Aims Principles Behaviour and Discourses by this noble Light and those spots and blemishes of your Souls which before you took no notice of will stare in your Faces This will soon tell you what Rocks what Shelves what Sands you are to shun for we have a sure word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a Light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your Hearts 2 Pet. I. 19. VI. Ye are the Light of the World But what is no good Christian in darkness Do we not see many excellent Persons who dread Sin as Hell it self yet see nothing of the Light of God's Countenance It s very true There are such Persons and yet for all this they are Light in the Lord. They have the Light of Holiness in them though they have not the Light of Joy and Gladness They are made partakers of the Divine Nature and therefore must have Light in them and such Light as will at last light them to Heaven But through strong Temptations or some fatal Distempers it comes to pass that the Light they possess is clouded and hindred from going on to a perfect day and they carry it as it were in a dark Lanthorn But all I shall say to such at this time is what God bids the Prophet proclaim in the Ears of Persons under such Circumstances Isa. L. 10. Who is among you that fears the Lord that obeys the Voice of his Servant that walks in darkness and sees no light Let him trust