that Sovereign Prerogative the Power of Covering Sin It is Her Nature to be comprehensive of and abounding in many Duties and therefore is it Her Reward also to be a Skreen for many Failings Charity is said in Scripture to establish a True Friendship and to create a Real Likeness between God and Man God passes by the Faults therefore of the Charitable as a Friend does those of his Friend and the Great Resemblance of the Divine Nature that shines out in him hides all Lesser Unlikenesses and makes 'em not to be discern'd 'T is difficult to stop on so Noble a Subject and yet more difficult to express ones self becomingly and well The Tongues of Men and Angels as they are said to be a Worthless Gift in comparison of Charity so are They not All able to set out Half the Worth and Excellence of it St. Paul has done something towards it in the XIIIth of the Ist. to the Corinthians and to Him I refer You. IV. It remains now that I should make Those Few Inferences I intended from the Whole and then direct All that has been said particularly upon the Occasion of this Present Assembly And First The Truth we have been upon suggests to us One Argument against Their Opinion who hold Iustification and all the Graces of the Gospel to be conveyed to us by Faith alone in such a sense as excludes any manner of Regard to be had to our Works in it For if Justification be a putting a Man into a state of Favour with God by remission of Sin and Acts of Charity be Works then do Works contribute to Justification This Point goes generally for a Speculative Nicety not worth insisting upon But sure They who think it so have not well consider'd what Influence it has experimentally had upon Practice and a Good Life in many of its Assertors Some Spiritual Libertines of the Antinomian Way have by it undermin'd the very Design of the Gospel and set us free from the Necessity of being Pious Just or Good in any other Principle but that of pure Gratitude onely And in Those who do not go to these Mad Heighths yet the Perswasions They have about Justifying Faith are observ'd mightily to lessen their Esteem for Good Works and from esteeming them less to come to practice 'em less God knows is a very Easie step and almost an unavoidable One Witness the Celebrated Institutions of a Great Divine where Faith is the solemn Subject of every Page but Charity scarce mention'd at all never insisted on And accordingly as Charity is little mention'd there so are the Rules of it little observ'd which do not I think at all consist with a bitter invective way of Writing Which leads me to a Second Inference also That if a Spirit of Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins then may we assure our selves that the contrary Temper a Spirit of Hatred Malignity and Ill Will shall cover a multitude of Vertues i.e. They shall be no Vertues to Him that has 'em Neither God nor Man shall regard 'em as such if Charity does not Crown ' em Charity covers many Sins because it is so noble and so excellent a Vertue What Vertue then beyond this can there be found of price enough to cover the Sin of Uncharitableness Thirdly From the Promise made in the Text We may learn the wondrous Goodness and Condescention of God He has a right to all the highest Instances and Degrees of Vertue that it is possible for us to put on and when we have practis'd 'em to the utmost we have done but what we were strictly oblig'd to do And yet so far he is pleas'd to abate of this Right as to accept the Performance of One Great Duty in lieu of the Omission of many Others An Act of Grace and Kindness which is enhans'd to Us by considering that Reason never did or could make this known to the Heathen World although the Gospel has now Reveal'd it to Us. Nay remarkable it is as I observ'd to you before that this Great Duty which is to compensate as it were for all Our Failings is the most pleasant and delightful Employment that belongs to us the most agreeable to our Nature and the most useful to our Fellow-Creatures Let us not complain therefore of the strictness of the Rule we are to walk by and of the Hardships which in our Christian Warfare we are to undergo The Rule is strict indeed but then as Great Helps and Assistances are given us to live up to it so great Abatements and Allowances we see are made at last if we do not There are indeed Difficulties to be undergone But sure the Labour of Love is none of ' em That as it makes a kind of Atonement to God for all the Faults we commit so does it make an Amends to Us for all the Troubles we are at in every other part of our Duty It gives an Easiness to that Yoke and a Lightness to that Burthen which is laid upon us Fourthly and Lastly If the Doctrine laid down be good then have we in it the plainest and most quickning Motive in the World to the Exercise of this great Duty of Charity such an One as exceeds the United Force of all the Arguments that ever were offer'd in this Case and of whose Power if a Man can be insensible all Other Motives will doubtless be lost upon him The wise Son of Syrach thought he had made a reasonable Plea for Charity when he said Lay up Thy Treasure according to the Commandments of the most High and it shall bring Thee more Profit than Gold Shut up Alms in thy Storehouses and it shall deliver Thee from All Affliction It shall fight for Thee against Thine Enemies better than a mighty Shield or a strong Spear But how Flat and Cold and Unmoving is All This when compar'd with the Life and Energy that is in Those Few Words It shall cover a multitude of Sins This Motive indeed has been carry'd too far and abus'd to ill Purposes by Men of another Communion who by the Help of it have made the most Impure and Profligate Wretches hope for a General Forgiveness of all Their Sins so They were but Liberal enough to the Church in their Wills and setled such a Revenue upon it as should make a Good Number of Holy Fathers think it worth their while to say Daily Masses for the Soul of the Depatred And how Gross a way soever This is of Expounding the Text it has prov'd a very Gainful One to Those who made use of it For perhaps half the Wealth of the C. of R. may justly be attributed to it A strong Perswasion of the Truth of this Exposition seems to have been that very Foundation-Stone on which a very Great Part of Her Charitable Buildings have been Erected The Ministers of the Reform'd Church indeed dare not go so far in inviting You to Works of Charity and Mercy But This They dare and do
an exalted Love of God and our Neighbour will make us industrious in procuring Glory to the One by the Salvation of the Other It will create a mighty Zeal for the Interests of Vertue and the Honour of the Gospel and the Good of Souls and it will run through all the Difficulties that lie in the way towards so good an End with Readiness and Pleasure It will not be frighten'd from making Attempts even on Those of the first Rank in Wickedness the Worst and most Hardned of Men because it knows that Their Revolt from Sin to Vertue if it can be compass'd will be of mighty Consequence to Religion and will probably draw whole Troops of Common Sinners along with it The Sense They have of their Own Sins being cover'd will make Them also eager in their Turn to cover those of Other Men. This is a very Good and Pious Sense of the Words but I believe it will be allowed me no very Easie and Natural One They must be rack'd before they can be brought to confess This Meaning However it was what That Judicious Person was led into by a Former Explication He had made of a Parallel Place in St. Iames which I shall crave leave to produce at length and to comment upon because I take it to be the Key of the Text which easily and readily lets us into its True Meaning Brethren says St. Iames at the Conclusion of his Epistle f any One of You do Err from the Truth and One Convert him let him know that he which converteh a Sinner from the Errour of his ways shall save a Soul from Death and shall hide a Multitude of Sins He intended to shut up his Epistle with recommending to 'em One of the most important and useful Vertues That of endeavouring the Conversion and Reformation of Men. And He intended also to stir 'em up to the Exercise of That Vertue by the most powerful Motives he could think of What are They Why first That He who converteth a Sinner from the Errour of his way should consider that he saveth a Soul from Death and then secondly and chiefly That he shall also cover a multitude of Sins Whose Sins What those of the Converted Persons Nay but That is already express'd and much more than that in the foregoing Motive He shall save a Soul from Death for surely the saving a Soul from Death necessarily includes and presupposes the Remission of its Sins It must then be meant of His Sins who makes and not of His who becomes the Convert And Thus indeed this Last Clause carries a New Motive in it distinct from That of the Former and such an One as rises above it and touches those more nearly to whom it is address'd and was therefore sit to be propos'd in the Last place and to be left as a sting in the Minds of Those to whom the Epistle was written As if he had said at length Let Him know that He shall by This Means not onely save a Soul from Death though This it self be a very Great and Desirable Thing but shall also which more nearly concerns him secure to himself on this account the Pardon of many Sins Now the Words here of St. Iames are exactly the same with Those of St. Peter in my Text and the Occasion upon which They are introduc'd and their Dependence on the Context is much the same in both Places except only that They are used in my Text as a Motive to Charity in general but in St. Iames with regard only to One main and eminent Branch of it the Conversion of Souls What therefore St. Iames means by 'em is meant also by St. Peter and therefore That most Obvious and Easie Sense which I mention'd at the Entrance on This Discourse is in all probability the Truest And as such I shall take the Liberty here once again to repeat it It is This That the Vertue of Charity is of so great Value in the sight of God that They who possess and exercise it in any Eminent Manner are peculiarly entit'led to the Divine Favour and Pardon with regard to numberless Slips and Failings in Their Duty which They may be Otherwise guilty of This great Christian Perfection of which They are Masters shall make many Little Imperfections to be over-look'd and unobserv'd It shall cover a multitude of Sins I fear I have been tedious in setling the Sense of the Words but it was no more than was requisite in so important a Point so little insisted on from the Pulpit and which may be thought liable to some Just Exceptions II. These I am now in the second Place to propose and shall endeavour to remove The Doing of which will give me an Occasion of clearing the Sense and limiting the Bounds of this Truth more exactly and fully The Great Exception against This way of Expounding the Text is that it gives too great a Colour to the Roman Catholic Doctrines of Merit and Supererogation and seems to lessen the Worth of That Onely True and Proper Satisfaction for Sin made by our Saviour on the Cross. For at This Rate what need of Remission of Sin in every Case by the Blood of Christ since We our selves are in Good Measure capable of making the Atonement We who have it it seems in our power by the Exercise of a Particular Vertue to secure a Pardon to our selves for Neglecting all the Rest and can blot out the Remembrance of an Ill-spent Life by a few Acts of Charity at the Close of it As if God were so much beholden to us for our Good Deeds as to be bound for Their sakes to forgive us our Ill Ones Or as if the Performance of Our Duty in One Case could make any manner of Amends to Him for our Non-performance of it in Another This say They is very Easie and Comfortable Divinity To take off the Force of This Objection it will be requisite to consider these Two or Three several Things First We must Explain our selves a little more particularly what we mean by that Charity to which the Promise of the Text is made What it is in the Nature and Extent and what in the Intention and Degree of it As to its Nature and Extent it must be understood to signifie not barely Acts of Relief to the Poor and Needy as the Vulgar and Confin'd Use of the Word imports but more largely all the several ways of Universal Benesicene and Kindness by which one Man can be serviceable to another Further it expresses not the Outward Material Act onely but must be suppos'd to take in also the Vital Form of it that Inward Principle of a Sincere Love towards God and Man from whence it regularly slows and separated from which the meer external Act is a Lifeless and Useless Performance And Then even of Charity thus Largely understood it is not a Common Degree that is meant here 'T is to a Fervent Charity to a mighty and extraordinary measure
of it that this mighty and extraordinary Blessing belongs Secondly Even of Charity thus Qualify'd it is not said That it shall cover a multitude of Sins how Gross and Hainous soever The Words of the Text do by no means carry us to assert thus much concerning it but only as You have heard 'em Explain'd to You seem to say that it shall be our Excuse for many Lesser Neglects and Failings in our Duty many Sins of Infirmity Surprize and Daily Incursion In a word for such Offences onely as are consistent with a state of True Charity and sure Those cannot be very Gross and Presumptuous Ones For He who lives in the Perfect Exercise of that Fervent Charity which the Text speaks of abounding Inwardly and Outwardly in all the various Instances and Expressions of it and in those several Vertues and Graces which do naturally and necessarily attend it I say who ever he is that is throughly possest and acted by this Divine Principle of Love he cannot be suppos'd capable of the Grossest Commissions while he is under the Guidance of it And as for Those he had fallen into before the attainment of this Gift They were certainly remitted also and cover'd before the attainment of it else doubtless he had never attained it So that no Great Guilt of any kind can well be thought to harbour in that Breast where true Charity dwells Indeed it is not universally certain that when-ever God remits the Guilt of Sin he remits the Punishment too The Temporal Punishment I mean For Wicked Men upon their Return to Vertue do not seldom find to their Cost that a Sin may be pardon'd and yet all the Ill Consequences of it not prevented and can therefore often trace the Steps of their Former Misdoings in the several Evils of Life that afterward befall ' em And in This Sense therefore it may be and is probably true that Charity shall cover many Sins even of the first Magnitude i.e. it shall prevent the Temporal Inflictions due to 'em and often even after Pardon obtain'd following upon 'em But it properly removes the Guilt onely of those Frailties and Infirmities of a lesser size which can be thought consistent with a state of Charity And therefore to except against the Doctrine laid down as encouraging the Charitable Man to expect Remission of all manner of Sins how great and how numerous soever is to load it with a Difficulty which does not and cannot belong to it But Thirdly Even as to These slighter Omissions and Failings it is not pretended that They are done away by Acts of Mercy and Charity in any sense but what includes the Application of the Merits of our Saviour's Blood the onely Fountain of Satisfaction for all Kind of Sins for the Least as well as the Greatest It is True indeed that the Blood of Christ is that alone which expiates Sin But This hinders not but that God may make such and such Acts of Ours the Conditions and Grounds as it were of applying the Virtue of that Blood to us And Thus Our Good Works tho' they are not the Meritorious yet may they become if I may so speak the Occasional Cause of Pardon and Grace to us And if This be establishing the R. C. Doctrine of Salvation by Works then has our Saviour Himself I fear establisht it in that Divine Form of Prayer in which he has taught us to say Forgive Vs Our Trespasses as We forgive Those that Trespass against Vs. As We forgive Those i.e. Inasmuch as on That very account among Others because we forgive Those that trespass against Us. Where we see the Exercise of One Great Instance of Charity Forgiveness of Enemies is made the Ground of our asking and expecting Forgiveness from God Fourthly and Lastly It follows not that because so Vast a Recompence is promis'd to a Fervent Charity that therefore the Exercise of it is in the way of Supererogation so that we might have let it alone without Fault or Blame We may be strictly and by the very Letter of the Law oblig'd to it and yet it may include so high a pitch and perfection of Vertue and one so seldom attain'd that God may think fit where-ever it is attain'd mightily to reward it and to encourage us in doing our Duty in some One Great Point by an assurance that in many smaller Ones he will not be Extream to mark what is done amiss by us Our Gracious Master deals with Us in This Case as a Man oftentimes does with his Servant If he be Trusty and Faithful to him in a Business of Great Concern and Moment tho' it be but his Duty to be so yet shall That piece of Eminent Service excuse a Thousand Neglects and Failings upon Other Occasions There is yet a Second Objection tho' indeed so slight an One as after the Former has been remov'd is scarce worth mentioning It is taken from that Saying of our Saviour's That They will Love much to whom much has been forgiven Just contrary to which the Text as expounded by Us seems to say That They who do love much shall have much Forgiven ' em But These Two Truths are easily reconcil'd For it is not hard to understand How That which is the Cause of a Thing in One Respect may be the Effect of it in another And accordingly it may be very true that He who is Forgiven much will for that very reason Love much And it may be as True that He who thus Loveth much because much hath been Forgiven him shall on that very account have much more Forgiven him 'T is just the same Case as between Me and My Friend I may passionately love him because he has pardon'd me the Great and Many Injuries I formerly did him while we were at Enmity And again the Knowledge he has of my Love may incline him to pass over any Future Injuries I may happen to do him III. The Doctrine being thus fix'd at Large and freed from Exception I go on as I propos'd in the Third place to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of this Wondrous Efficacy so particularly attributed to the Exercise of Charity For we read not that God has annexed this Promise to any Other Grace or Vertue of the Christian Life whatsoever but to This onely That it shall cover Sin Of which These several Accounts may with some Probability be given First That This was really a Fitter and Properer Return to be made to Charity than to any Other Vertue because it adjusts and proportions the Reward of Acting to the Act it self and makes the Duty of Man towards God and the Blessing of God upon the Performance of That Duty to have a near Relation and Resemblance to One another I explain my self Thus The Chief Employment the highest Point and Perfection of Charity is to pass by the Offences and Injuries of Men to pardon the Malice of our Enemies and the Ingratitude of our Friends To Him therefore that attains to