as ever we had done formerly to that of our Lusts By stemming the Torrent of Profaneness and Impiety and endeavouring with all our might to promote Goodness in the World Particularly by being eminently conspicuous in those Virtues which are most directly contrary to the Vices we formerly indulged and by our active indefatigable Charity to the Souls of our Brethren giving Testimony how just a value we set upon the deliverance of our Own in our mighty care to rescue Theirs Thus far St. Peter's Example leads us But even when we have followed it thus far we may not suppose that our Pardon and good Acceptance are due to any Desert of our own Good Works Or that our deepest Sorrow can properly speaking have in it any thing of Satisfaction For as * Luke XXII 32. St. Peter's Faith did therefore not fail because Christ prayed that it might not so our Restoration and the Essicacy of our Repentance is entirely the Effect of the Merits and Intercession of the same kind Saviour He only could take up this quarrel between offended God and sinful Man and therefore when we find God most easy of Access and are suffered to draw so near as even to be mystically united to him and fed by him let us not forget to beg that the intolerable Burden of our Sins may be removed not in Presumption of our own Righteousness but in confidence of his manifold and great Mercies humbly beseeching him That for his Son our Lord Jesus Christ's Sake he would forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever heareafter serve and please Him In newness of Life To the honour and glory of his holy Name through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen SERMON VII THE CERTAINTY AND Nature of Regeneration St. John III. 8. The Wind bloweth where it lifteth and thou hearest the Sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit WHEN we read of Nicodemus adventuring to Visit Jesus and acknowledging the Conviction his Miracles had wrought upon some of the Beholders that they concluded from hence his Mission and Authority to be Divine it is plain somewhat more than mere Curiosity drew him to this Conference Desires he had though as yet but imperfect of better Instruction but such as they were our Saviour did not disdain to gratify them in entring upon a Discourse concerning the Kingdom of God That Kingdom which it was his design to bring men to the Kingdom of that God from whom he came a Teacher Whether Nicodemus had enquired into the Qualifications requisite to prepare Men for and admit them into this Kingdom we know not or whether Christ of his own accord fell upon This as a Point the most improving the most necessary to be first understood and most pertinent to the purpose of stealing this Visit Nor was it material for St. John to acquaint us That which is of much greater Consequence is that he makes a Man's being born again the indispensable Condition of seeing that Kingdom V. 3. And This deserves the Greater Attention because a Master in Israel mistook it As if God had intended the Impossibility or at least our Saviour were so absurd to propose it of going through the Course of a Natural Birth the second time V. 4. From that wild Misconstruction our Lord delivers himself and explains the Nature of Regeneration That Water and the Spirit the Washing of Baptism outwardly and the inward Sanctifications of the Holy Ghost are the Principles by which it is effected V. 5. That Could it be compassed in that gross way Nicodemus misapprehended yet that would be of no Efficacy no Advantage at all in this Case For since in all Productions the thing born receives the Nature and Resemblance of That whence it s Being was derived Flesh could only produce Flesh But the new Creature which God requires consists in the Mind and therefore to bring forth a new Spirit it is necessary that the Vital Principle should be a Spirit V. 6. And however he might find some difficulty in assenting to this because neither the Cause nor the manner of its Operation fall under the notice of the Bodily Senses yet is not that any just Exception against the Reality of the Fact A very familiar Instance whereof he alledges in the Words of my Text which are thus introduced by the seventh Verse Marvel not that I said unto thee Ye must be born again The Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the Sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit The Words plainly consist of two parts A Similitude and The Application and my Discourse upon them shall accordingly distribute it self into these Two Heads First From the Similitude I shall draw some general Conclusions which may direct us in our Contemplation of Divine Truths and especially That of Regeneration which is the Subject Matter of our Lord's Argument with Nicodemus Secondly From the Application I shall consider how far the properties of the Wind mentioned here will give us any just ground to judge of the Holy Spirit 's workings upon the Souls of Men. I. I begin with some General Conclusions drawn from the Similitude it self such as may direct us in our Contemplation of Divine Truths and more especially in That of Regeneration which is the subject Matter of our Lord's Argument with Nicodemus And these Conclusions are as follow 1. First A man may have sufficient Reason to assure himself that a Thing really is without being able to give an account how it came to be For the Cause of a Thing is indeed one and a very satisfactory way of coming to the distinct Knowledge of its Nature But this is but One way of Many and Some things which we cannot come at this way may be so certain to us that it would be the Extremity of an Obstinate Singularity to deny them For as things have Causes so have they likewise Effects and Properties and other Characters by which they may be distinguished And it is enough in all Conscience if any of these give Evidence of their existing For we are every whit as sure that what hath no Being of its own cannot have Properties and Effects as we are that it could never have been without a Cause And therefore when we are able to assign any such Properties or Effects that is a Demonstration of the Reality of the Thing For instance Very Few if Any of the most Learned have been able to give a satisfactory Account of the Original of Winds but the Hypothesis of one Philosopher is disliked and exploded by another Now though these Curious Searchers into Nature cannot agree whence they come and whither they go yet herein they all agree that come and go they do This they know without any search And the unlettered part of the World who have neither Capacity
of it imperceptible Then every Admonition from the Pulpit Every wholsome Law Every Advice from a Friend or a Parent Every good Book Every pious Example Every Motion and Intention to do well Every Conviction or Check of our own Conscience is a Blowing of this Wind a Call or Impulse from above And as often as any Man refuses to comply with these things so often he resists God and quenches his Spirit within himself Thirdly This shews us what Course men should take in order to get or to grow in Grace For since God works by and with his Ordinances our Business must be to use the Word and Sacraments and other means of Grace diligently to seek him there to put to the Shoulder and do Our Part resolutely and manfully and then not doubt his Assistance For upon these Terms we may depend upon it that He will forward and strengthen our good Intentions and since he creates all our Works in us that he will not fail to finish what he himself hath begun but will perform and continue it until the Day of Christ Jesus and in that day for his Sake and Merits will most assuredly crown Us and our Labours with Everlasting Glory Now to God the Father c. SERMON VIII THE Conditions and Privileges OF THE SECOND BIRTH St. John I. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of Man but of God THE Evangelist after having in the beginning of the Chapter with great Exactness declared the Eternal Divinity of the Word of God and that This was the very Person testified of by the Baptist by which we are assured that this Word is no other than Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnate and having likewise spoken of his coming into the World he mentions here with what different success he did it Some that were more peculiarly obliged and most nearly related to him from whom an honourable Reception might most reasonably be expected gave him no Respect no Entertainment at all And this was the case of the perverse Jews whom God had laid his hand upon and singled out from the rest of Mankind for which reason they are called in the 11th Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper Possession Christ's being refused there was an indignity like that of a Man's being driven or shut out of his Demesnes or Dwelling-house He came to his own and his own received him not The Loss however was not His but Theirs in denying Him they denied their own Happiness which was so great so evident that St. John thought no other expression of their Misery and Punishment was needful than only to describe the Privileges of those who behaved themselves more kindly and dutifully to him And this is done in the Text it self But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God For the right understanding and due Improvement whereof it will be expedient to consider the following Particulars First The Persons who alone are capable of Benefit by Christ's coming into the World They who receive him and believe on his Name Secondly The Nature of that Benefit which they obtain by so doing To them he gives power to become the Sons of God Thirdly The manner how this Sonship is conferred They are born not of blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of man but of God Fourthly The Extent of this Privilege he gives it to as many as receive and believe on him I. The First thing we are concerned to know upon this occasion is Who those Persons are to whom the Advantages of Christianity belong or What that Condition is which must qualify men for the Benefits of Christ's coming into the World This the Text hath expressed in those words who receive him and believe on his Name Now these are Terms explanatory of one another And as the Jews are therefore said not to have received him because they believed him not but rejected his Authority and Doctrine So Faith in what he hath revealed and Obedience to what he hath commanded are the Marks and Means of our receiving him And These consist not in a mere giving him the hearing and forbearing all publick and malicious Opposition to his word but in acknowledging the Truth and the Evidence of it depending upon his Promises expecting Salvation from that Name and no other and diligently endeavouring to perform all that is required on our part All that according to the Covenant of the Gospel can any way contribute to the rendring what he hath done and suffered effectual in our own particular Case That This must needs be the meaning of the Phrase is manifest to any man who will consider it closely For to receive Christ is to receive him as he is to submit to him in all those Capacities which God hath placed him over us in To receive him as our Prophet implies a firm Adherence to the whole of that Message which he hath brought us from Heaven to own his Divine Commission and be instructed by him To receive him as our Priest is to rely upon his most meritorious Sacrifice to confess the Sufficiency of his Atonement and to detest and forsake those Sins for which he hath made so perfect but withal so severe and painful an Expiation To receive him as our King is to own his Legislative Power to pay him strict Fidelity and Allegiance to bring all our Passions and Interests under Subjection to his Will and suffer no rebellious Appetites to raise wicked Seditions or tempt us to Unfaithfulness and Disloyalty against him The same is likewise necessarily consequent upon Believing For since the Object of all Faith is Credible Testimony and that of Religious Faith is Divine Revelation He who acts or entertains Persuasions contrary to or derogating from what God hath declared in Christ cannot properly be called a Believer on his Name If therefore God hath made something else necessary besides a bare Assent of the mind to the Truth of his Doctrines All That must needs come within the compass and be included under the notion of Faith If the Evangelist tell us in one place as he does here particularly that by believing men acquire the Privilege of becoming Sons of God and are born of God and yet our Saviour says positively in another as in the Third of this Gospel at the fifth Verse we find he does that Except a man be born again of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God it is very plain that this Belief must be such as is accompanied with and evidenced by a solemn entring into Covenant with God by Baptism
not visible to us yet the Fruits are and since those Practices are the Genuine Product of the Influences of the Spirit and cannot be produced from any other Principle to attribute them to Nature or to any thing besides is in effect to say that Grapes may be gathered of Thorns and Figs of Thistles For it is this good Tree alone that can bring forth those good Fruits And if by the Fruits it were not sufficiently to be known our Saviour would never have confirmed nor the Common Sense of Mankind have agreed in making Good and Evil Actions an infallible Character whereby to distinguish the Spirits and Principles from whence they flow And a necessary Consequence of this Particular is That if such Good Practices where they are conspicuous declare that they are wrought by the Spirit and that God hath renewed that Man and did and does still act and dwell in him Then it is no less certain that where the Contrary Vices and Dispositions are predominant those men are not Regenerate nor does the Spirit of God work in them Let no man deceive you says the Apostle * 1 John III. 10. whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother Men may delude themselves and their ignorant Followers with boasting pretences they may have the Impiety even to sanctify their blackest Crimes by fathering them upon Divine Impulse and Inspiration But while we see them turbulent and factious proud and disobedient censorious and bitter unjust and uncharitable can we think that God is the Author of or dwells with these froward Dispositions It were a Contradiction to all Religion to suppose so and however they may be exalted by their own vain Imaginations yet alas they know not themselves nor what Spirit they are of 4. There is yet a Fourth Consideration easy to be gathered from the Similitude before us which is That when once we know all that is needful for our purpose we ought to make the best Improvement of that and not raise Mists and perplex our Minds and neglect our Duty by indulging unprofitable Enquiries after what we cannot or need not know The End of all Knowledge whether Natural or Revealed is not Curiosity but Use And while we want no degree that may be serviceable it is not only Folly but Impiety to dwell upon Niceties and mere Speculations Let us put the Case that a Pilot or a Husbandman were admitted into the dark Caverns of the Earth and saw Vapours there engender into Winds What Benefit would Humane Life receive from any Intelligence he could bring from thence Could such a one swell his Sails or make more way with a Convenient Gale Could he bid the Tempests be still or smooth the face of the Deep for being let into this Secret Could the Farmer secure his Fruits from a Blast any more than he can now The same Methods would still obtain in each Profession and the same degrees of Efficacy they would have Why should it not be so in Religion too The Causes when seen would be the same they are now Our Knowledge could not add new Force and Vigour but they must act neither more nor less than they do unseen Could we distinctly feel and see and make Reflections upon our Second Birth this would profit us no more the want of it can prejudice us no more than it does in the Natural The Infant is perfectly in the dark while he is in the Womb He knows not what is doing when the Embryo is formed and nourished there He comes to Maturity and struggles for Freedom and forces his Passage into the World without being sensible why or how this is done When he arrives at the use of Reason he hath not the least Remembrance of this kind yet Nature keeps her Course and performs her Charge faithfully and with great Exactness and All he can collect is that he is born a Man And This he is infallibly sure of because he lives and moves and acts as a Man In like manner the Children of God know they are born of Him because they govern themselves by a Spiritual and Divine Principle And this they do not one whit the less notwithstanding they cannot enter into the Causes and Methods of this Birth The Efficient Cause they know was the Spirit and could be none else and the Dignity of His Person is the Consideration which must deterr them from resisting his Motions and doing despight to his Grace and quenching that Life he hath given them They can show all the Signs of such a Birth the meek and Dove-like Disposition the pious and Heavenly Conversation which none but They who are of God can have And the Advantages at last will be the same too For as the Husbandman gathers in that Corn which though of his own sowing comes up he knows not how so they who sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life Everlasting Galat. VI. 8. though they understand not all the mysterious ways by which they were enabled to grow in Grace and put forth the precious fruits of righteousness Well were it if these few Considerations were duly weighed and discreetly observed They would restrain that bold and busy temper that insolent licentious arguing which under colour of Reason and free Thinking brings holy Mysteries into Contempt and shipwracks numbers of unwary Souls Those divine Truths above our Comprehension would then be received with Meekness or at least disputed with Modesty For though we cannot fathom this Abyss yet it comes to us confirmed with proper Testimonies and such as How can these things be does by no means confute or weaken This Nicodemus urged to Christ against a Spiritual and Second Birth and yet our Lord did not allow the Objection Nay even this Birth it self hath suffered too and been ill represented by daring Attempts of Men who have undertaken to shew the manner of it and speak very positively where God was silent In Opposition to whose dangerous Errors I shall now come to my II. Second Head and from the Application will consider how far the Properties of the Wind mentioned in this Similitude will give us any just ground to judge of the Holy Spirit 's workings upon the minds of men The Application is contained in the last Clause of the Verse So is every one that is born of the Spirit That is The work of Regeneration carries great Resemblance to what is observed of the Wind for as There we gather its Blowing from the Sound and other Effects though we do not see the Blast nor its Rise and Passage nor are acquainted with the Cause that sets it on So may a Child of God know he is such by the Effects and Characters of that Relation though he do not see the Spirit that renews him though the Operations by which he is renewed be such as fall not under the Observation of his outward Senses nor is perhaps his own mind conscious to many things by
Sense so they import that no Faculties of our own no Desires of Sense no Principles of Reason and Morality can rise so high there must be Divine Grace or there can be no Child of God The thing is true in both Interpretations and all the Enlargement I shall make upon it is only to set before you the Reasonableness of this being represented to us under the notion of Regeneration or a Second Birth and then to describe the Manner of it's being brought about as the Scripture hath instructed us in it By Natural Birth and Generation it is plain we come to have a Life which we had not before We have a Principle of Motion imparted to us and from dead senseless Matter are enabled to perform all the Functions that are proper to Humane Nature Another Creature is produced of the same kind with those from whence it sprung and grows up by degrees to the same use of Sense the same Reason the same Understanding the same Desires of what is not convenient and the same Aversions and Fears of what is hurtful and destructive to it And in all these Circumstances men are very properly said to be born again upon their Conversion to and believing in Christ The Condition they were in before is a State of utter Inactivity and for this reason we find them styled * Ephes II. 1. dead in trespasses and sins and said to be quickned by the Grace and Spirit of God They were imprisoned and confined and the utmost Efforts they were capable of making are but like the faint Struggles of an Embryo in the Womb. But this coming to the Birth gives them liberty to exert themselves and lets them into a new and different Scene of Action It produces a New Creature as the Scripture terms it that is Such a Newness as a Soul is capable of New Notions and Dispositions and consequent to these a New Conversation proceeding from them So that every such Person is quite another Man from what he was before And this Alteration conforms us to the Image of him that begot us Every thing is pure and Godlike and expresses a Resemblance to his Essential Holiness It gives a fresh turn to our Thoughts and Affections so that we are not acted as before by the same carnal Apprehensions nor the same sensual Inclinations It imprints a new Character upon our Understandings and gives us a true Sense of Good and Evil and it puts a quite different Bent upon our Will such as disposes us to love what is truly Good and Spiritual and Heavenly and to despise and detest what is Worldly and Wicked This is that Likeness of Species which justifies the Metaphor The greatest that can possibly happen to a Soul the greatest that a Moral Principle is capable of and so great as to render it very significant and proper to say of every such Person that he is born again But we know that by being born men become part of a Family and have a Right to a Child's Share in the Division of the Estate And This is another good Reason for mens being said to be born of God because by that means they are let into New Relations and acquire New Titles Thus St. Paul tells Christians that * Gal. IV. they receive the Spirit of Adoption and by it have a right to call God Father that they are Sons and not only Sons but heirs heirs of God and coheirs with Christ That they are from thenceforth allied to the whole Family that is named of God both in Heaven and Earth And from Aliens and Strangers and Enemies come not only to be admitted into a strict Alliance with but to obtain the most honourable and most advantagious Post in the Houshold And since these Prerogatives among Men are the Effect of Birth and Blood the same conferred with regard to our Spiritual Kindred and Divine Inheritance is very fitly represented by being born of God For as Foreigners though the dearest Friends are not legally qualified for them in Settlements of this World except in default of Issue and where the Race is extinct So here none who is not of the Family can inherit and they who are most worthy of it are first made capable of it by becoming Children And for this reason it is that this Title is so often made use of and so highly extolled in Scripture because whatever Privileges the Rest may imply yet None can minister that Comfort and Confidence None can assure our Inheritance or give us A Pretence to the Glory and Kingdom of Heaven but this of Sons only Now for the Manner of working this Change in us which was the Other Consideration propounded under this Head That also carries so great a Similitude to a natural Birth that no Figure in the World could give us a clearer Idea of the thing The Act of Generation and Birth gives Being once for all and at the instant of coming into the World the Child the Heir is born to all the Rights of his Quality and Family So likewise in the Sacrament of Baptism we have the Spirit of God conferred upon us which as it is a Spirit of Grace is a Principle of new Life to us and as it is a Spirit of Adoption it instates us in all the Privileges that can belong to Children of such a Father And for this reason our Church immediately after the Covenant is struck gives thanks to Almighty God and acknowledges him a most merciful Father for that it hath pleased him to regenerate the Persons then newly baptized with his holy Spirit to receive them for his own Children by Adoption and to incorporate them into his holy Church As also she most wisely and truly declares at the beginning of her excellent Catechism that in Baptism we are made Members of Christ Children of God and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven But a Member must be cut off if it be mortified Children may provoke their Parents to put them by their Birth-right and an Heir under Age is such in Reversion and Hope only The Natural Parent gives a Principle of Life but it is such a one as will soon perish and go out again if due care be not taken to preserve it And so it is here The Spirit of God quickens us upon his first Infusions but we are to cherish the kindly warmth God is our Father in the sustaining and nourishing as well as in the Enlivening part He knows the Life that is in us is subject to perpetual decays and therefore the same natural Affection that occasioned our being born His does likewise engage and assure us of all necessary Supplies to continue His provided we use what he gives and employ that Principle of Spiritual Self-preservation Grace therefore though it be given at first yet is not given all at first There is that proportion given which makes us Children but we are commanded * 1 Pet. II. 2. to feed upon the sincere milk of the
never have done never can do enough Serm. XII XIII XIV Instead of following their honest Affairs and indulging their unavoidable Infirmities they sink under the Burden of Both and imagine that they are lost because not sufficiently Spiritualized Their Frailties and Imperfections they look upon as Marks of wanting true Grace and saving Faith And for ministring that Ease and Encouragement due to Persons thus disposed I have considered at large the Case of a Weak and Imperfect Faith and the Scruples which are most usually observed to arise from it Serm. XV. Lastly Since in despight of all the Declarations to be found in Scripture of the Contrary and of all the Reasons resulting from the Natural Tendency of the Thing Affliction is by some weak or carnal Minds reputed a constant Mark of God's Displeasure and a Hindrance rather than any Help to a Christian's Obedience I shut up this Volume with a View of our Blessed Lord's Resignation to his Heavenly Father's Will and such Reflections drawn from thence as may be both our Comfort and Direction under any Calamities which it shall please God to lay upon us This short Account is what I thought a seasonable Introduction that the Reader might come a little prepared and know beforehand what he is to expect In which if after all he find himself at any time disappointed I beg him to remember that he himself also is a Man and that my Desire is rather to profit than to please all into whose Hands these Papers shall come If they who peruse them are made better Christians my Purpose is answered and my Pains rewarded effectually And to this best of all Effects I most humbly beg of God to render my poor Labours in some degree Succesful THE CONTENTS SERMON I. Against unnecessary Curiosity in Religion St. JOHN XXI 22. JEsus saith unto him if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee Follow thou me 1 SERM. II. The Holiness required in a Christian's Conversation EPHES. V. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness 31 SERM. III. The Mercy and Justice of God in distributing Gospel-Advantages St. MATTH XX. 9 10. When they came that were hired about the Eleventh Hour they received every man a Penny But when the First came they supposed that They should have received more and They likewise received every man a Penny 65 SERM. IV. The Penitent Thief no Encouragement for a Death-bed Repentance St. LUKE XXIII 42 43. And he said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom And Jesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise 98 SERM. V VI. St. PETER's Fall and Repentance St. MARK XIV 72. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him Before the Cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice And when he thought thereon he wept 128 156 SERM. VII The Certainty and Nature of Regeneration St. JOHN III. 8. The Wind bloweth where it lifteth and thou hearest the Sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit 192 SERM. VIII The Conditions and Privileges of the Second Birth St. JOHN I. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of Blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of Man but of God 224 SERM. IX X. The Nature of the Christian's Calling and Election Stated from the Parable of the Marriage Feast St. MATTH XXII 14. For Many are called but Few are chosen 252 276 SERM. XI Worldly Hindrances no Excuse for the Neglect of Religious Duties St. LUKE XIV 23 24. And the Lord said unto the Servant Go out into the High-ways and Hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled For I say unto you that none of those Men which were hidden shall taste of my Supper 309 SERM. XII XIII XIV The Case of a Weak and Imperfect Faith and the Scruples about it consider'd St. MARK IX 24. Lattâ—r Part. Lord I believe help thou my Unbelief 344 371 400 SERM. XV. Christ's Resignation to his Father 's Will. St. LUKE XXII 42. Father If thou be Willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not My Will but Thine be done 432 The Reader is desired to correct these following Errors of the Press PAG. 6. l. 8. read convince p. 8. l. 5. dele put p. 11. l. 5. r. Our Nature p. 13. l. 17. after general put l. 18. aft appearance put p. 18. l. 11. aft alone del p. 22. l. 1. r. mighty l. 7. for every r. very p. 23. l. 6. for we r. ye p. 24. l. 29. r. same Arts. p. 80. l. 29. r. bred p. 99. ult r. then p. 106. l. 5. r. the Case p. 123. l. 7. aft under dele p. 124. l. 17. r. permit p. 126. l. 6. r. of it l. 9. r. Advice p. 129. l. 7. aft God put l. 14. r. for it p. 140. l. 16. r. might have happened d. 145. l. 6. r. and to engage p. 146. l. 8. for and enable r. enables us p. 150. l. 14. for this r. His. p. 180. l. 21. r. the most distant p. 187. l. 16. r. deliver our selves p. 213. l. 14. r. grounded p. 217. l. 17. r. come p. 236. l. 30. for put p. 242. l. 9. r. not to conceive l. 14. r. begets p. 243. l. 16. dele not p. 283. in Margin r. Serm. VII p. 298. l. 26. for even r. ever p. 320. l. 7. dele may p. 321. l. 1. r. makes p. 329. l. 19. r. swallow up p. 333. l. 30. r. were not under p. 349. l. 19. r. as are necessary p. 353. l. 3. dele they l. 26. r. comes p. 360. l. 20. for early r. only p. 367. l. 6. dele too p. 395. l. 28. for it r. us p. 396. l. 1. for given r. even p. 400. l. 1. for XIII r. XIV p. 408. l. 18. r Perseverance p. 413. l. 10. aft besides dele l. 11. r. Ordinance p. 434. l. 2. aft only dele p. 446. l. 2. r. do not SERMON I. AGAINST Unnecessary Curiosity IN Matters of Religion St. John XXI 22. Jesus saith unto him if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee Follow thou me OUR Blessed Saviour at the Eighteenth Verse had signified to St. Peter by what particular sort of Death he should glorify God He upon hearing his own Fate determin'd enquires concerning St. John the Author of this Gospel how Christ intended to dispose of Him But our Lord not thinking fit to gratify his Curiosity in this Point makes the Reply contained in my Text Jesus saith unto him If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee Follow thou me The natural Importance of which Answer is no doubt a Reproof to St. Peter's unnecessary Inquisitiveness into a
nor Leisure for nice Enquiries believe it as firmly and know it as assuredly as They. In like manner if there be certain Marks by which a Man born of the Spirit is evidently discerned and distinguished from another that is not so born We may from those Marks conclude that such a Man is Regenerate though we could not positively determine from whence this Principle of new Life took its rise Or if we knew as know we may that it could be owing to no other Cause but the Operations of the Holy Ghost we may then where such Marks appear be confident that the sanctifying Operations of the Holy Ghost have passed upon that Person though neither We who were Standers-by nor perhaps the Man himself was conscious of the Manner in which they were begun and carried on in his mind 2. Secondly A thing may be sufficiently perceivable One way which is not at all so in another For in all Objects of Knowledge there is something of Agreement and Proportion betwixt that Object and the Organ or Faculty that is contrived to apprehend it and upon this mutual Suitableness depends the Perception Thus it is with our Bodily Senses Each of them have parts fitted for receiving such Impressions as are proper to their purpose and the Qualities of Bodies are not applied to All these parts indifferently but severally to Each as Each is by Nature accommodated for the entertaining and making a Report of them to the Soul Thus we do not hear Colours nor see Perfumes nor smell Sounds and yet we are as fully satisfied that there are Sounds though we hear them only as if we saw and smelt them too To the same purpose it is that our Saviour argues in the Text. A Man sees not either any Shape or any Motion of the Wind it self All that he knows of this kind is only the motion of other Bodies agitated by it And yet he makes no difficulty to allow that it blows when he hears the sound of it because the Wind is not an Object proportioned to the Eye but the noise of it is to the Ear and therefore he receives the Testimony of that Sense which has a Competent Knowledge without troubling himself that this is not confirmed by the other Senses which are incapable of knowing any thing in the matter This is the force of the Allusion and that which by Parity of Reason arises from it is this That the Case is the same between the Intellectual Faculties and the Sensitive in general with that betwixt One Sense and Another And if we acknowledge a thing 's Reality when we hear the Sound but see no Shape of it because it is in Nature fitted to affect our Hearing but not our Sight There is the same Reason why we should assent to what our Understanding can apprehend though our Senses do not if it be of that kind which may give evidence to the mind and make it self understood though it cannot make it self seen or heard or felt by us Now a Spirit cannot work upon the outward Organs which can never be moved by any other Impressions than those of Body and Matter But if by help of Meditation by laying and comparing things together and considering the Consequences that naturally result from them we find that such a thing there is and such Footsteps there are of its Working we then may and ought to rest satisfied both of the Existence and the Operation of that Spirit Because we have the Evidence proper for the Condition of the thing such as it is capable of And the Intellectual Faculties of the Mind were intended by God for Helps and Instruments of attaining Knowledge no less than the Sensitive Organs of the Body Different Objects require different Perceptions and * 1 Cor. XII St. Paul hath observed it as an Ornament and Excellence rather than any Imperfection of Humane Nature that the several Parts have their several Offices allotted to them 3. Thirdly It is implyed by this Similitude that some things are capable of being known by the Essects which we cannot come to the Knowledge of any other way No man need go far for Proof of This. Intùs habes quod poscis We all are sure that we carry somewhat about us which we call a Soul Somewhat that thinks and deliberates and chuses that imagines and judges and remembers that fears and hopes and loves and hates and desires and refuses and grieves and rejoyces according to the different Apprehensions we receive of the Objects about which we are conversant This we know from our own Feeling and Experience And yet the Wisest of us all do not know the time when or the manner how this Soul was created and united to our Bodies nor a Thousand Difficulties more which might be started but yet stagger not any reasonable Man's assent because he is satisfied that these Effects must have a Cause adequate to them So likewise Our Saviour takes for granted that the noise and Sound was Proof sufficient that the Wind blows the shakings and rattlings of Boughs the raising Storms at Sea the tearing up Trees and rocking of Houses All convince us that the Air is in a Violent Agitation and yet we are not privy to the first beginnings of it We cannot tell what raised this mighty Ferment nor where it set out nor how far it intends nor what becomes of it when it ceases The Mariners are sure they are carried up to the Heaven and down again to the deep they see the Waves boil and foam like a Pot and feel their Vessel stagger like a drunken Man and they doubt not to conclude the Wind is the doer of it without ever disputing how it was able to disturb the face of the Deep or blow up the Waters into such Rage and Tumult And it is here urged to Nicodemus as a thing equally agreeable to Reason that men should submit to the Belief of a Second Birth if the Effects of that Birth appear though the Cause and Progress of it do not For instance St. John says He * 1 John III. 9 10. that doth Righteousness is born of God in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil St. Paul acquaints us That * Gal. V. 6. VI. 15. the New Creature is Faith which worketh by Love †Gal. V. 22. that the Fruits of the Spirit are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance We are likewise told ‖ Phil. II. 13. That it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Now from hence it follows most undeniably that let Moral Duties be never so much disparaged as mean and low and Legal Yet wheresoever we see any Man living Righteously where we find such a mixture of Faith and Charity and all that bright Constellation of Virtues mentioned just now we may and ought to pronounce that Man born of the Spirit For though the Tree be
that no leisure can be found for the Concerns of Eternity Shall sinful Delights nay shall important Affairs draw you off What is this but to indulge your Bodies or to feed your Families while something nearer to you than both these is suffered to lye and perish for Hunger without any seeming Concern But farther yet Remember who it is that invites you Your Father your Friend your King your God And is there no respect due to these Characters It is your Christ that calls he who hungered and thirsted and wept and bled and dy'd for you He calls you to that health and happiness which you could never have had unless he had in mercy condescended to do and suffer all this for you He earnestly intreats you in this Sacrament to accept the pledges of his future and the tokens of his past Love to strengthen your Faith in the One by these lively remembrances of the Other And not refuse to be found by one who hath taken so much pains to seek and to save you when you were lost How can you then so rudely so unworthily absent your selves How unpardonable is this Coldness this Refusal this Contempt of so great a Mystery and your own Mercy Is this a suitable return for so much Kindness And would you forgive your selves for using any Patron upon Earth so ungratefully But you want no inclination if Business and troublesome Engagements would permit you to come Alas vain Man Your Fields and Yoke of Oxen the following your Employment and providing for your Children will not discharge you from attending here If these things ought to be done yet the other ought least of all to be left undone Nor hath God so ordered the matter but that Both may very well be done and each in their due place will be highly acceptable to him But if our necessities were truly considered this is the much more necessary For hither we come to find Cure for our Sins Food for our inward Strength Comfort for our Sorrows a Sanctified use of our Enjoyments a Blessing upon our honest Labours and which is more worth than all the rest a Fore-tast of Heavenly Bliss in peace of Conscience pure Devotion and an intimate Union with our dear Redeemer These are the Benefits of worthy Communicating and They who will consent to be thus happy here shall by these means be happy for ever hereafter Do not then turn the deaf Ear to so kind so advantagious offers nor let Gods empty Tables any more reproach you Defraud not thus your Souls whose dangerous Sickness is want of Appetite to this Spiritual Food And that Inappetence is caused by too long abstinence Frequent and devour approaches will quicken your desires will heal your distempers will refresh all your Languishings And believe me it highly concerns you to make up for past neglects while you have time For fear these precious opportunities rise up in Judgment and draw on that Sentence of my Text That They who will not taste this Supper here shall not be suffered to partake in Heaven of That which this represents even the Glorious Presence of the King of Saints the Company of Angels and Blessed Spirits the everlasting Festival of the Faithful and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb of God Which Condemnation God give us all Grace to escape for the sake of that Lamb the blessed Holy Jesus who takes away the sin of the World and to whom with God the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen SERMON XII THE CASE OF A Weak and Imperfect FAITH St. Mark IX 24. Latter part Lord I believe help thou my Vnbelief WHILE our Saviour was discovering his Glory to some of the Disciples in his Transfiguration on the Mount a Person in grief for his Son who was grievously vexed with a Devil brings him to the remainder of those Disciples left behind to have the evil Spirit dispossest Providence in great Wisdom had so ordered the matter that They were not able to effect this Cure which gave occasion to the Scribes to attack them And in the Heat of that Dispute our Saviour returns * Vers 1. to 14. to inquire into the Cause of their Controversy †Ver. 16. and is answered by the Party concerned that he had made Tryal of the Disciples in Vain which gave him some distrust of their Master too For so it is manifest it had by that doubtful form in which he begs his assistance V. 22. But if thou canst do any thing have compassion on us and help us Our Saviour hereupon gives him to understand that even the Power of working Miracles was under some confinements and not to be exerted except in favour of such Persons as met it with a ready Faith But where it found Men duly qualify'd nothing was or should be wanting on God's part Jesus said unto him If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth V. 23. The Father of the Child full of concern for his Son sadly sensible of his own Defects and desirous of greater perfection replies with a very moving earnestness and an over-flowing of Tears Lord I believe help thou my unbelief This manner of Address plainly speaks the State of the Man's Mind and shews he wanted a full and absolute perswasion and such an entire confidence in the Power and Goodness of Christ as he wished and ought to have had Nay such as we find several instances of in the History of our Saviour's Life and Actions But though he had not all Faith yet it seems he had Enough for his purpose He did not come up to the highest and foremost Rank but he was accepted and thought worthy of Compassion though not of Commendation Accordingly the following Verses declare the success of this imperfect condition of Soul for our Lord commanded the dumb and deaf Spirit and wrought the Cure though with some pain and difficulty to the Patient A difficulty which seems to have born proportion to the Father's Faith * Ver. 26. For the Spirit cried and rent him sore and he was as one dead But however the Command was too mighty to be disobey'd for the Spirit came out of him and as St. Matthew adds in his relation of this Passage the Child was cured from that very Hour My design from hence is to apply this instance at large by enquiring into the nature of a Weak and Imperfect Faith and that chiefly for these two Reasons First For the Humiliation of those who imagine themselves more perfect than really they are And Secondly for the Comfort of Them who are in reality Better men than they imagine themselves to be And I do not doubt before I have done but to convince the most exalted Christian that though he may truly say with this person in my Text Lord I believe yet there is need enough still of joyning in the latter part of the Verse and of praying as he did Lord help my Vnbelief And
obliged to and may arrive at a competent Degree of yet All will not find it equally easy to practice them But Those Persons will attain to the highest Perfections in these Virtues and exercise them with less Difficulty and a more sensible Delight whom their own natural Complexions have most disposed toward Each of them For Every one hath not the same Proneness in himself to fear or to love to trust or to despond to be good-natured or to be sordid And therefore As the Work must needs be double where Nature must be opposed and over-ruled so no doubt it is half done to our hands where we are already possest with these happy Tendencies when Inclination goes before and directs us in our way to Duty Now what Nature does once for all in forming our Constitutions at first The Accidents of this Life the Distempers of our Bodies and a thousand other Occasional Things do for a time with us That is They give a present turn to our minds and while these Impressions last upon us inspire our Souls with stronger inclinations and aversions than usual and dispose or indispose us more than in our selves and according to our general Temper we are wont to be toward them The Soberest and most Considerate Person cannot always preserve such an Evenness of Spirit that no Provocation no sudden Gusts of Anger or Grief or some other Passion should not sometimes render his Thoughts tumultuous and disorderly Those that seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness first yet must allow some part of their time and pains in an honest search of the less important Conveniencies of this Life And Business and Care though they be so well guarded as not to dissettle yet they will in some measure divert the mind from the One thing necessary A Man thus incumbred cannot return from the World to God all on the sudden with the same fixed and sedate Composure of Mind as if no other thoughts had mingled themselves with his Religious ones But especially The Soul and Body are linked together in so close a band their operations upon one another reciprocally are so very quick and powerful that it is scarce to be conceived how strangely they labour under one anothers infirmities And how great and speedy a change the Soul and all its affections feel by every little Alteration that happens to the Body How the Mind exults and enlarges it self when This is in good health and temper and again how it languishes and is cramped up under every indisposition every accidental disturbance that shakes the fleshly Tabernacle in which it dwells How Age and Sickness do not only waste our Strength and wither our Limbs but enervate our Minds too enfeeble all their Operations and as it were disjoynt all their Powers How mighty a stroke all these things carry and what Changes they make in us Every one who does at all consider and look into himself will quickly find None of us is able at all times alike to maintain the same Easiness of Humour and Freedom in common Conversation None is always equally qualified to think or bend his mind to business but even our Understandings have their Lucid and their Clouded intervals And if That part of our Mind which hath least of all to do with the Body be yet affected with the several Habits of it How much more must those Others the Will and the Desires be subject to them whose business lies chiefly with those Appetites and Inclinations which Flesh and Sense converse with and are moved by How strongly must These determine us in Acts of Piety and Devotion particularly and Inspire Warmth or chill us with Cold when those Affections are the very part chiefly employed All which is the more necessary to be observed that Men may be set right in their judgments of themselves and not rashly pronounce as they frequently do concerning the State of their Souls and the hopes of Eternal Salvation from such things as are not of a Spiritual Relation but proceed merely from Natural and Necessary Causes For Thus in effect it is that the Incomes and Desertions which Some people affect to talk of so much and lay such mighty stress upon are neither the Graces nor the Defects of their mind so much as the present Habit of the Blood and Spirits and the particular Temper and Constitution of their Bodies III. The Next Objection seems to carry much more reason of Dissatisfaction which is when Men apprehend that they are not sufficiently sorry for their past Sins For This is a most necessary Duty and He that does not sorrow enough does it to very little purpose But here again the whole Difficulty lies in determining what is Enough The misfortune of Persons in their Doubts concerning Remorse for sin is that they mistake the Nature of Sorrow upon these Occasions It is supposed by many that this Sorrow does of it self recommend us to God and is for its own sake exceeding acceptable to him That herein chiefly consists the Repentance of a Sinner As appears they tell you from the mournful Complaints of David the bitter Weeping of St. Peter and Other instances of Holy Penitents in Scripture All which are our Patterns and when we fall short of Their Anguish and Grief of Heart it is to be feared that we want Their Faith and Their Sincerity And therefore it is urged that no Man's Soul ought to speak comfort to him without the like Humiliations the like inward perplexities and groanings of Spirit the like watering our Couch with Tears and making our Bed to swim in the Night-Season Now all this is owing as I said to a wrong apprehension of this Godly Sorrow and not distinguishing between the End it is to promote and the Sorrow it self which is but as the Mean and Way to that End St. Paul hath taught us * 2 Cor. VII 10. that this worketh repentance not to be repented of But that which worketh Repentance is plainly a part or an Instrument or a Cause of it only but cannot be the Whole nor the Perfection of the thing it works Repentance is the Change of Heart and Life the coming to a better Sense and acting more wisely for the time to come Where this is done effectually God accepts the Person let the degree of Sorrow that brought him to it have been what it will And where this is not done no proportion of Sorrow is pleasing in his sight Our Good is the thing he desires He delights in the change of our Manners and the correcting of our Wills and no Affliction or Sadness of Heart can give pleasure to a Being so infinitely Kind as God who is Love and Goodness in its utmost Perfection any farther than those Dejections of mind contribute to our substantial Holiness and thorough Reformation It is highly expedient indeed that we should be most heartily concerned for having done amiss because what we are truly sorry for we shall not easily be induced to