from a Blasphemer to the Faith to Holiness and to be a Preacher of that Doctrine which before he persecuted from City to City and was exceeding mad against Such force have these Prayers for our Enemies especially if coming from the Heart Nor must we content our selves with Prayers for our Enemies in general but Intercessions and Groans unutterable must be particularly for that Enemy that Man or Woman who hath persecuted and despitefully used us loaded us with the blackest Calumnies and offer'd the greatest violence to our Persons These must be named and specified in our Prayers both Publick and Private and for the Person who hath been Injurious to us our Supplications must be put up not only once and twice but often and importunately and for ought we know he that went out from us an Enemy may come home a Friend a Friend to God and to Religion a Friend to our Persons and Concerns a Friend to all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus And having thus represented to you the Commands of your Master I may justly expect you should all with one Heart and with one Voice say as the Israelites at the hearing of the Conditions of the Covenant All that the Lord our God hath said we will do If this be not the effect remember you go home Enemies of God and of Christ Jesus There is no medium you must either be God's Friends or his Enemies If you are Friends you 'll stick at nothing he Commands you Christ himself saith so Joh. xv 14 If his Commands be nauseous or grievous or a burthen to you most certainly you love him not and therefore are not his Friends and if not his Friends what remains but being his Enemies and can you sit down quietly under such a fearful Character especially when you read and consider what you read Luke xix 27 As for those mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me But how is all this to be done We live in an Age wherein Men do scarce love their Friends much less their Enemies Such Lovers are very rare very few Examples appear and what encouragement is there to venture upon a Duty so unpleasing so distasteful to Flesh and Blood However the Duty looks fair and lovely and Reason says it is a Perfection which deserves our Ambition and Endeavour But how is this excellent Temper to be attain'd Why easily enough if you are not averse from wholsome Counsel if besides the tempting Reward that is before you you are willing to be govern'd by the following Directions 1. Represent not an Enemy to your selves in those black Characters you usually do There are fairer and finer Colours in which he may be drawn and make use of these 1. When ever a Person doth you an Injury look higher and believe and perswade your selves the Almighty sent him and Providence order'd it and an All seeing God had a hand in it David did so when Shimei cursed him and it quieted him He look'd off from Shimei and saw God in the Calumny not as the Author of it but as one that made use of it He regarded Shimei as God's Executioner as the Instrument of his Displeasure and the Rod of his Anger and what a Calm did this Consideration produce in his Soul while Abishai's Fingers itch'd to take off his Head 2. Look upon the Enemy as thy Physician He is intended to bring Salvation to thy House He is sent to cure thy Soul and it will certainly appear and prove so if thou make his Wrongs and Malice an opportunity to reflect upon the Wrongs and Injuries done to thy God and repentest of them and mak'st thy Peace with him The Enemy is a preacher of Patience a teacher of Submission a School-master that is to instruct thee in the Art of Humility and resisting Temptations If thou improve his Snarlings and rude Assaults mak'st them occasions and incentives to Prayer to do good to his Soul and Body thy Soul will thrive and thy Spirit grow healthy and his Injuries will become Gems and Jewels and Pretious Stones as that Holy Man said whereby the Foe pelts and drives thy Soul to Heaven 3. Look upon the Enemy as blind blind with Rage and Fury and Envy and Malice and this will incline thy Heart to pity him Who doth not commiserate a blind Man And which is the greater blindness Corporal or Spiritual The poor Wretch sees not how sweet and how gracious the Lord is nor what the hope of his Calling is nor what the Riches of his Grace are He hath no sence of the height and breadth and depth and length of the Love of Jesus Christ. He sees not the mighty Obligations that lie upon him to Love his Neighbour as himself and therefore he is Blind and and if Blind he is miserable and if miserable will you add Misery to Misery and hate him who is already in a deplorable Condition Nay if he be miserable doth not he deserve your Prayers your Alms and your Charity 4. May be his Nature is not changed he is not Converted knows nothing of Regeneration nothing of the Sanctifying Grace of God and wilt thou be angry with him for acting according to his Nature Why art not thou angry with the Fire for barning the Stuff that 's thrown into it An unconverted Man acts according to his Temper and Interest and Passion according to his Nature as much as the Sun and Rain and Wind. These move not thine Anger or thy Rage let them blow and scorch and wet and why should the others acting according to his Nature stir up thy Wrath and Indignation 2. There is a Promise and a Promise which if believed and rely'd upon will very much animate and encourage us to these acts of Love It is Prov. xvi 7 If a Man's ways please the Lord he will make his very Enemies to be at Peace with him we have no more to do but still to be followers of that which is good and God will turn and wind things for our advantage and make an alteration even in the Hearts of our Enemies as great as we see in Esau who before had threatned Jacob with Death and on a sudden by a secret invisible Hand is forced to fall into his Brother's Embraces and though this may not always happen yet the Promise will certainly be fulfill'd in something greater and better than is hinted in the letter 3. Oblige your selves to this Love in the Holy Sacrament of Christ's Supper the fittest Time and Place to engage your selves to this Work Though before we come to this Ordinance our endeavours must be strong and vigorous after the Qualifications of the Text yet the Sacrament of the Eucharist is both an excellent Motive and a very considerable help to fix and establish this Love to our Enemies Talk what you will it is not Philosophy nor conversing with Men of this Age nor being at Court nor seeing
such as Fasting Severities doing things irksome troublesome and uneasie to the Body great self-denials in Dyet in Apparel in Company in Talking in Mirth and Recreation large Alms doing much good c. These strangely advance a spiritual Life especially if joined with those I call gentler Means and as painful as this may seem to Flesh and Blood at first the Discipline will become sweet and easie when the Soul perceives the glorious Effects of it And O! that you would but try and venture upon this severe Course There are Treasures in it of Joy of Comfort and Satisfaction and you will find how your Sins will abate how your Corruptions will decrease and your evil Inclinations will become less troublesome you 'll find how everything will thrive under it and what a strengthening it will be to your Faith and Hope and Love and Charity and how all these Graces will grow and swell and become large and fruitful Some of you I am confident have been striving against Lust and other Sins you have pray'd you have resolved you have meditated c. Yet you find you fall into the same Sins again Here must be some fault either your Prayers are not fervent or your Resolutions are not strong enough or some more painful Discipline must be used some Austerities whereby the Body is subjugated and made obedient to the Spirit for the more the Body is pinch'd and denied in its Satisfactions the better doth the Soul thrive I grant these Austerities have been abused by Pharisees and by some Votaries of the Church of Rome into Superstition so is Wine and stronger Spirits which make some drunk but are a Cordial to others but a modest and humble use of them cannot but be very beneficial in order to the Life we speak of This is a very tempting Subject and I could dwell upon it a little longer but that I have something more to explain viz. the III. Proposition That to avoid or to be rid of unlawful Lust or adulterous and impure Desires Wishes and Inclinations a Christian must not give the least Encouragement to the Sin by Actions which will feed it nor cherish any thing that will provoke to it And of this Nature is the right Eye in the Text and the right Hand the one by looking the other by touch or contrectation These must be forborn and totally abandoned where they are apt to cause the least disorder in the Mind for these are the Fewel that feed the impure Fire and it stands to reason the Youngster that feeds his Eyes with the charming Looks of the Minion or Idol he adores and puts his Hand into the Bosom of his Mistress may as well hope to cure himself of a Fever by a Draught of cold Water as cure himself of his Lust by that means Though Marriage be the great Remedy against Adultery Fornication and all other unlawful Lusts and Desires of the Flesh and a Remedy prescribed by God himself yet all Persons are not under those Circumstances which may make a Married state fit for them Some though they have not made a Vow yet are resolved or minded to continue in a Virgin State and to imitate the Great Apostle and High Priest of their Profession Christ Jesus as in the Primitive Church thousands of Men and Women made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. that they might attend the Lord without distraction and be able to do more good they denied themselves not only in all sinful Lusts but in Marriage too not out of any ill Opinion of that State but by way of Mortification and voluntary Abstinence and because they thought a single Life spent in the Service of God and in doing good a higher degree of Christian Perfection Others are under the Yoak of Service and tyed by the Law of the Land and their own Indentures and Oaths and Promises not to Marry before the time of their Service be ended Others there are whom Poverty and want of means to maintain a Family keeps from entring into that Condition and others for other Reasons are obliged to abstain from it Now all such Persons may justly be supposed to be liable to Temptations of unlawful Lusts and therefore such may stand in need of Counsel and Advice how to keep themselves Chast and Innocent from the Garment spotted by the Flesh. Nay there is Chastity to be observed in a Married State Adulterous Lusts and Desires are dangerous as the fall of a Thunderbolt and burn into the nethermost Hell And such also fall under the direction of Preservatives These Preservatives are various and they either regard the Mind or the Actions As they have respect to the Mind Consideration I mean that which is serious and attentive must be used and a Christian must take time to ponder and reflect how great how dreadful how heinous how dangerous the Sins of Adultery Fornication Lasciviousness and Uncleanness are for they exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven alienate the Love and Favour of God from the Offender and kindle his Everlasting Wrath and Indignation Galat. v. 19 20 21. Besides he that commits Fornication Sins against his own Body he is injurious to that Body which was purchased and bought for Christ's Service makes a Beth-aven a House of Impiety of that which should be a Bethel a House of God and violates the Sanctity of that Tabernacle which was dedicated to the Worship of him who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity makes the Members of Christ the Members of a Harlot and profanes the Temple of the Holy Ghost for so his Body is and for that use it was intended as we see 1 Cor. vi 17 18. Not to mention how by these Sins of Impurity the Understanding is darken'd the Light of God is obscured and the Life of Religion turned out of doors how Adultery was punish'd with Death by the Law of Moses as much as Murther which shews the heinousness of the Offence and what Judgments have been inflicted on Men and Nations from time to time even in this present Life as fore-runners of greater Plagues in another World such Topicks the Understanding must six upon and except this be done all other Means and Preservatives will be in vain for if these Sins be shun'd it must be upon rational Grounds and its impossible the dread of these Sins should be Rational except the Mind takes these Arguments into Consideration The things that are to be done in order to be rid of these unlawful and forbidden Lusts and joined with these Considerations are these following 1. We know how much Idleness and want of Employment helps to feed these Lusts and therefore this must be watch'd against it was this which precipitated the Inhabitants of Sodom into those Lusts which procured their Ruin and Destruction Ezech. xvi 49 2. Drunkenness and Gluttony and Pampering the Body do manifestly administer Fewel to the Flame and therefore these must be renounced Jer. v. 7 3. Whatsoever feeds the
them to differ Who told you you may observe one and not another Where are the distinguishing Marks to discern which is to be practised and which is not Doth not the same Spirit run through all In a word if you love God to any purpose you will not only dread crying Sins but even those which looser Men make no great matter of and it 's certain that Soul is not yet truly converted that doth not seriously watch against evil Thoughts Desires Passions Affections c. for these are usually counted lesser Sins as well as against greater Abominations And therefore You may easily perceive that we are not to break a Command of our dear Lord and Master because it seems little or because the World esteems it so What hath the World to do with my Religion Doth God govern himself by the Verdict of the World and sensual Men What if Men who have no right Apprehensions of God make nothing of corrupt Communications must I be guided by their Example Can any Commandment that proceeds out of the Mouth of God be termed little Might not we as well say that God spoke in jest If God commands me to follow Righteousness Faith Charity and Peace with all them that call on him out of a pure Heart and to flee youthful Lusts shall I neglect this Command because the World makes a pish of it Hath the Great God of Heaven and Earth thought fit to send his Son into the World to tell me that private Revenge is unlawful and conforming to the World in their Vanities and Fooleries and Revellings and Extravagancies is displeasing to him and my covetous Thoughts and Desires are offensive to his Holiness and have not I all the reason in the World to stand in awe of his Command though a thousand wicked Men say it 's either needless or impracticable How can a Divine Command be little that concerns Mens Immortal Souls Is there any thing greater in this World than the good and welfare of their precious Souls Doth God tell me such a Sin though it seems never so small in the Eyes of the World will help to kill my Soul and is Ingratitude to him in whom I live and move and have my Being and shall I venture upon it God forbid Yea let God be True but every Man a Lyar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and be clear when thou judgest Rom. iii. 4 II. Let none of you wonder at Christ's peremptory Determination here Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven You 'll say What! break but one of these Commandments and one of the least and be damn'd Where then is the Grace of the Gospel What becomes then of the vast Treasures of Mercy which came in with Jesus Christ At this rate our Yoak is heavier than that of the Jews Marvel not my Brethren the greater the Grace is the greater will be the Account the greater the Mercy the greater will be the Reckoning And yet this ought to be no discouragement to any of us for the meaning is not that every surprize or accidental Failing or breaking one of these Commands against our Will or before we are aware or after we have used all possible Watchfulness excludes from the Kingdom of Heaven for then no Flesh could be saved But he that wilfully breaks one and makes a Trade of it knows or hears God's Will in that particular and yet will not be perswaded to do it and teaches others too either by his Discourse or Example neglects such a Command and feels no Remorse knows the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death and not only doth the same but hath pleasure in them that do them as it is said Rom. i. 32 That 's the Man who shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven And do not you think there is a great deal of Justice in all this What! For a Man first to disregard an express Command of Christ and then that he may not think himself obliged to it to call it little and inconsiderable and so to neglect it and after all prompt others to do so too Is not this a manifest contempt of God's Sovereignty and Mercy and Love and Charity in Christ Jesus Doth not this look like Enmity against God Is not this a sign of a secret Hatred and Indignation against the ways of God Is not this an Argument of Obstinacy and Stubbornness Doth not this infer want of Sense and want of Fear And would you have God save a Man that doth not fear him Would you have him receive Men into the Kingdom of Heaven that do not only not think it worth while to obey him in so small a matter small in their own account and therefore surely the easier but encourage others to do the like Doth not this argue a delight in a sinful sensual Life And what Do you think God will let a Man or Woman in at the Gates of Glory that looks upon the Prophet as mad because he bid him do so small a thing Wash in the River Jordan seven times that he may be clean God measures our Actions by our Hearts and if the Heart be averse from him or from the ways of Righteousness Is such a Person fit to sing with Angels to triumph with Martyrs and to sit and rejoice with Souls that loved God with all their Hearts and with all their Minds Ay but to break one of these least Commandments and to teach another to do so What great Matter is there in that My Friends He that breaks one will break another and is in a Disposition to offend against more He will never stop there one Sin engages him into the Practice of another and if he propagates the Evil too and like a rotten Sheep infects others doth not that one Folly discover a Heart that hath no Desire no Inclination to take Christ's Yoak upon him and loath unwilling backward to entertain Christ upon his own Terms and is this following him in the Regeneration And he that doth not follow him in the Regeneration How shall he be able to sit with him in his Throne And this puts me in mind of another Observation III. That he that lives ill teaches another to live ill too He that shall break one of these least Commandments and teach Men so c. In order to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven it is not necessary a Man should get into a Pulpit and there proclaim that it is lawful to lie to cheat to defraud to sing filthy Songs to break obscene Jests to hate our Neighbour or to return Evil for Evil this needs not Thy Actions Christian spread the Poison and teach the next Man thou meetest withal to do as thou doest for in breaking such a known Command of the Gospel and being unconcerned What can thy fellow Christian think
with greater Terrour they may fall a Sacrifice when they die to hellish Furies Nor can Duels and single Combats upon an Affront receiv'd and Challenging one another to fight be excused from sharing in the Heinousness of this Guilt for whatever fine Names and plausible Descriptions the Law of Honour may have made of such Actions he that kills another in a Duel though he gets a Pardon of his Prince will be Arraign'd in the last day among the Murtherers who shall have their Portion in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone I do not deny but that in the dark Times of Popery such Combats have been allow'd of and publick Prayers have been said for success in such Duels but what Credit can a Cause receive from Ages in which to understand Greek was a Crime and Hebrew next to Heresie We need not wonder that Babylon the Mother of Harlots should permit such things whose Garments have been died Red with the Blood of the Saints of God and which hath Tricks and Ways to Canonize Assassins to consecrate Murther and to Christen Massacres Services of Religion To call upon you to take heed of having a hand in Blood were to discourage you from drowning or poisoning your selves or running a Sword into your own Bowels for indeed this is no better and whatever varnish may be put upon it it is precipitating your selves headlong into the Gulf of Perdition There is in this Sin all that can aggravate a Deed it is to raise a Hell in your Bosom and the thing it self speaks so much abomination that to name the Sin is to give you a thousand Arguments against it But then that ye may not be under any temptation to this Sin let bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you with all Malice which leads me to the third Proposition III. That Wrath and Anger without a just Cause have their Degrees and according to them the Punishment in the next Life will be proportionable For whosoever shall be angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire That some anger is lawful is evident from hence because Christ himself was angry and very angry sometimes and so were the Apostles and we are permitted to be so but with this Caution be angry and sin not i. e. so as not to Sin Eph. iv 26 So that all Anger is not a mark of Damnation But then when the Author and Captain of our Salvation Christ Jesus and his Holy Apostles were angry it was only against Sin and out of a Zeal to Vertue and when Men were obstinate and would not be perswaded to do their Duty and a Sense of God's Glory kindled the fire of their Passion in which Case to be angry is a Perfection and to be passionate a Christian accomplishment provided still that the bounds of that Anger be observed and it's heat do not turn into Wild-fire that it be not attended with unseemly Expressions nor accompanied with furious Gestures and Actions I do not deny but a Man may be angry with his Servant a Father with his Children and a Master with his Scholars and proceed even to Correction but then it must be because they neglect their Duty or will not hearken to wholsome Admonitions and when gentler Addresses will do no good and the Anger must be more upon the account of their Sin than out of any Desire to revenge and it must be an Anger mingled with Pity and Compassion and which ends in Prayer for the Offenders and it must be free from Fury and reviling Language And being kept within these Bounds I find no fault with this Anger But this is not the Anger my Text speaks of and against which Christ levels his Commination here for that 's Anger without sufficient Cause even Anger because our worldly Interest is not promoted as we expected or because our Honour and Reputation is touch'd or because something which gratifies our Lusts is with-held from us or because our vain Desires are not cocker'd and flatter'd or because such a Person hath not given us the Title and Respect we look'd for or because we cannot digest a Reproof or because we are cross'd in our Designs or because such a Man is not of our Opinion or because he will not conform to our Humour These are the things which commonly provoke to Passion and this Anger the farther it goes the worse it grows if from Thoughts and secret Grudges it proceeds to contumelious reproachful and reviling Language to calling the party ill Names Fool and Rogue and Villain and Rascal and Knave and Cheat and Hypocrite and such other Titles as Modesty will not suffer us to Name it becomes greater and if from Words and Expressions it goes farther yet even to Actions of Revenge and settles in Hatred in Rancour and inveterate Malice it then shuts out the Righteousness of God and lets in the Devil and invites evil Spirits to come and Lodge in that House and the last Estate of that Man grows worse than the first And is not this the Case of abundance of you Do not you see something in this Glass that 's very like you and resembles your Temper And do but consider what weakness what impotency of Reason and Spirit you betray and discover by such doings Is not this an inlet to confusion and every evil work Jam. iii. 16 Is this the Christian Spirit Is this to know what manner of Spirit you are of Is this treading in your Masters steps Is this following his Example Who when he was reviled reviled not again Dare you appear before the Son of Man in the last day with such a Disposition of Soul never yet seriously repented of Is this to resist the Devil Is this to purifie your Hearts Have you so learned Christ Is this to be Children in Malice as you are bound to be by your Profession Is this to crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts upon the least Provocation presently to be in a huff presently to let your Tongues loose and to break forth against your Brethren in Language fitter for Turks and Indians than for Christians Is this to be meek as Doves Is this to Love one another with a pure Heart fervently Is Hell-fire nothing but painted Flames Hath our great Master threatned it and do we make light of it Can you seriously reflect upon this Commination and be unconcerned And is not this threatning a Call to Repentance What a Mercy is it that God will accept of a sincere Repentance after such Provocations But how can you repent of your Passion if you do not mortifie it How can you mortifie it if you do not conquer it How can you conquer it if you do not strive How can you strive if you do not use the proper means and weapons
Sin must be removed and of this Nature are immodest and obscene Discourses and Communications against which the Ears must be stopt or the Company avoided where such Discourses are familiar and frequent Eph. v. 3 4. Add to all this reading obscene Books and Pamphlets Books of Love Tricks such as Romances Plays and other Fooleries which are nothing but Incentives to Lust and so are your promiscuous Dancings and Revelings after luxurious Meals and seeing of Stage-plays where these Lusts are represented in taking shapes and all other things which the Enemy of Mankind hath invented to drown Men in Perdition But after all our Saviour's Rule in the Text must be conscientiously observed Look off from the Object that is apt to shoot an evil Desire into your Minds or hath done it several times when your Eyes have taken Liberty to behold such things Avoid the sight of them as you would do the Eyes of a Basilisk Let your Eyes be as useless that way as if they were pluck't out as if you had none as if you were blind and could not see Do not touch do not handle do not lay your Hands upon those parts which are apt to raise the Spirit of Uncleanness in you Let your Hands be as useless to you in that point as if they were cut off The same may be said of your Feet Come not near the House of the Person who is apt to bewitch your Souls keep out of her Company that 's like to delude you and may give occasion to dangerous Thoughts and Desires Let your Feet be as useless to you in going to such Places as if they were cut off If after all this the Lust be stubborn and will not yield to the Obedience of Christ the antient Severities and Austerities I mentioned in the preceding Proposition must be made use of and the Body must be used coursely not only in Diet but in Cloaths and Apparel and by other Punishments voluntarily inflicted upon your selves whereof I could give you such Instances out of Antiquity as would possibly exceed your Belief though I doubt not but there is Truth in them And when the Fewel is withdrawn the Fire will go out St. Chrysostom takes notice that our Saviour's Command here is easie It would have been more severe if so be he had commanded us to stand near the Fire and take heed we be not singed or burnt to keep Company with incentives to Lust and yet to feel no disorderly Motions in the Soul Indeed what he enjoins here is so far from being unreasonable that he commands nothing but what the Light of Nature hath taught the very Heathens to observe And if after all the danger of being cast into Hell can make no Impressions upon us or make us forbear what our Master saith will be the undoing of us most certainly we know not what that Punishment is and will not know it nor indeed do we believe it I confess I would have you do what Christ says is necessary upon a Principle of Love but if your Tempers are so stubborn that Love cannot melt you into a cheerful Compliance with your Masters Will you have reason to fright your selves with the danger of that Fire which shall never be quenched In a word do any thing to save your selves from this untoward Generation Sins as dear as the right Eye as precious as the right Hand will fall and die if they be brought to feel that Fire I mean by attentive Thinking and Meditation I doubt not but the unhappy Creatures to whose share the future Torment falls wish and will wish that they had pluckt out their right Eye and cut off their right Hand rather than have come into that place of Torment Oh! how they will curse the Day the Time the Place when and where they committed their Lewdness and Impurities nay the Eye that deceived them into those Lusts and the Hand that tempted them to Sin and would God be so kind as to free them from the Prison they groan in upon condition that they should pluck out both their Eyes and cut off both their Hands they would thank him for the Favour and think their Judge wonderfully Merciful to agree to such soft and reasonable Terms The present Satisfaction is the Lime-twig that keeps People under the power of Sin and Satan But were that Hell we speak of set out in its native Colours and compared with that Satisfaction you would scorn it as much as you do the most loathsome Animals To enjoy the present Satisfaction of Sin and yet to escape Hell are things inconsistent and in Divinity impossible therefore that Satisfaction must be quitted or if Death should arrest you in that Satisfaction the other will certainly take place All which makes our Saviour's Discourse here very rational and equitable If thy right Eye offend thee pluck it out c. SERMON XXVII St. Matt. Ch. v. Ver. 31 32. It hath been said whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a Writing of Divorcement But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causes her to commit Adultery and whosoever Marries her that is Divorced commits Adultery WHEN Christ the Son of Righteousness appeared in this Vale of Misery the World was so corrupt that the attempt to reform c. would have frighted the wisest the most valiant any Society of Men any Man but him who had Omnipotence to back him To say nothing of the Heathen Nations who had been suffered to walk in their own ways and therefore no wonder if they sunk into all the dreadful Vices mentioned Rom. i. The Jews to whom pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenant and the Promises and the giving of the Law whose were the Fathers and of whom Christ came after the Flesh and of whom one would have expected a Purity answerable to their Mercies and Encouragement These though they had made a shift to renounce Idolatry yet had so vitiated and polluted all the Articles of Divinity and all the Rules of Morality that it required a strength greater than that of Hercules to purge that Augaean Stable You have seen already their various Violations of things Sacred and Divine and the ill favoured Interpretations they put upon the Law against Murther and the other against Adultery The same Liberty or Licentiousness they practised or made use of in the matter of Divorces or putting away their Wives and in doing so they grounded themselves upon a Text of the Law of Moses Deut. xxiv 1 2. where Moses permits Men in certain cases to separate themselves from their Wives and in order thereunto to give them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bill to certifie that Separation or a Writing of Divorcement which Text our Saviour alledges and admits of doth not deny that such a thing was permitted under the Law but partly to shew that they wilfully depraved and perverted the Sense and Design of that Law
ensue upon the perpetuity of the Obligation But they that know what the Popes have done in these Cases especially here in England with respect to our Kings and Queens must needs conclude they intend something more by this Absolving than a bare Declaration for the Stile of their Bulls is Magisterial and Authoritative and they attribute the Fact to the plenitude of their Power and as if the sole Power were lodged by God in them a Pride so great and intolerable that one would wonder Princes of a Refin'd Understanding as some are nay of common Sagacity do not see the Cheat and lash their Arrogancy into better manners I do not doubt but an Oath of Allegiance may in some Cases cease to oblige if either there be an impossibility to perform it or if the Prince dies or resigns his Crown or runs away and puts himself into an incapacity to Govern and to protect the Subject or leaves the Subjects in a State of Anarchy and Confusion or to the Mercy of a Conqueror because in these Cases the state of Things is new and far different from that Men were in at their Swearing this Oath of Allegiance but set aside these extraordinary Occurrences which alter the Obligation to think that any Man can absolve from the Obligation of an Oath of Allegiance is to suppose a visible God here on Earth which Title though given to the Pope sometimes by the Canonists yet every one may see what fulsome Flattery it is and if not downright yet next to Blasphemy II. An Oath being so Solemn so Sacred so Serious so Religious an Obligation we may justly wonder how so Holy a Thing comes to be Profaned as it is in common Discourse and ordinary Communications Indeed this Swearing in common Discourse is a Sin that would puzzle a wise Man to give any thing like a reason for how a Sin so unreasonable so unprofitable and so horrid withal should yet be so much espoused by Men and Christians and become so very familiar that Men play with Oaths as Boys do with Cherry-stones or Marbles We can give some account of Covetousness and guess at the reason of Leachery and declare the Motives to Ambition but why Men should delight in so great a Profanation and make so light of Oaths whereby the greatest wrong is done to God and no good no Advantage accrues to themselves nay which themselves seem to have some veneration for in a Court of Judicature this I say is a Mystery and one of the Depths of Satan as the Phrase is Rev. 11.24 Whether Men think that an Oath sets off their Passion better and makes it more terrible and impressive or whether they fancy that their Words and Sentences have not their due Accents and Cadences without an Oath or whether they believe that their Mirth and Jollity is not modish enough except it be accompanied with some Oath or other or something like it or whether it be meerly Custom and a Sin they play with for Companies sake as they will drink a Glass more than ordinary to satisfie the Importunities of Friends No Sin hath been or is more common or more frequently committed than this it hath been so heretofore St. Chrysostom complains of it among the People of Antioch and we have reason to take up the same Complaint other Sins have had their Ebbings and have sometimes abated of their violent Motion but this hath been and is still kept up to the Grief of all Men who are concern'd for the Affliction of Joseph This shews what a mighty Power the Devil hath yet among the Children of Men and how strangely his Kingdom lasts Indeed this is the only satisfactory Reason why Men dare venture upon Oaths in common Discourse The Devil reigns in them and the Evil Spirit possesses their Souls else they durst not they could not be guilty of so great a Profanation The Guilt would stare into their Faces and fright them like a Ghost or Spectre its shape is so monstrous were it not that the God of this World blinds their Eyes and darkens their Understanding they durst not make God thus subservient to the Devil Do not they do so when in their sinful Anger or Mirth or Jollity they bring in the Oath of God and the Wounds and Death of Jesus to make their Sin more dreadful There cannot be the least Dram of Grace where this Custom prevails nothing of the Spirit of God no sense of God no Regeneration no Conversion no Repentance no Change of Life can be supposed in such a Man Here Darkness hath its Empire and Egyptian Night dwells here In vain do such Men plead Custom An ill Custom may and if you will be happy must be changed There is no Impossibility whatever difficulty may be in it if you will but observe the same Method you do in your Trades and Professions A Man cannot naturally Dance upon a Rope yet by use and taking Pains and forcing his Body and trying often he learns to walk upon 't as steddily as other Men do in their Chambers Men are not born Carpenters and Painters and Joiners and Carvers yet what is difficult at first becomes easie by use and why should it not be as easie to alter the Custom of Swearing and to change it into a facility of forbearing an Oath if you who are guilty of this Crime were resolute and shew'd your selves Men and Christians and would but do that in Religion which you do in your ordinary Apprenticeships Do but resolve to forbear a Meals-Meat or two do but tye your selves to give a Shilling or Half a Crown to the Poor every time an Oath slips from you Do but bind your selves in a solemn Vow to go five or six Miles on Foot Do but speak to your Friends and beg of them to reprove you as often as you Swear Do any thing that 's irksome to the Flesh and punish your selves whenever you take the Name of God in vain and sollicit the Grace of God and pray earnestly for its assistance and the Conquest will be easie But if you will do nothing toward the abolishing of this Instance or fancy it will leave you of its own accord you refuse to be healed and your Damnation is just As ye loved Cursing and Swearing so shall it come unto you as you delighted not in Blessing so shall it be far from you As you cloathed your selves with Cursing and Swearing like as with a Garment so shall it come into your Bowels like Water and like Oyl into your Bones Psal. cix 17 18. And the time will come when God will swear in his wrath if he hath not done it already that ye shall not enter into his rest III. A Sacrament is as much as an Oath and we have two standing Sacraments in the Church Baptism and the Lord's-Supper in which we take a Military Oath to our General to our God to our Saviour to fight his Battels to War against Sin to wrestle with Temptations
Powers Ordain'd of God and Whoever resists that Power resists the Ordinance of God Rom. xiii 1 2 3. 5. There is no place in all the New Testament which forbids a Christian to be a Magistrate nay we have several Examples of Men who were Magistrates actually and converted to Christianity and yet neither quitted nor were they requir'd to quit that Office after their Conversion such were Nicodemus Joseph of Arimathea Both the Centurions Matth. viii and Act. x. and Sergius Paulus the Proconsul Acts xiii even the Soldiers in St. John the Baptist's Time Men who are the great Instruments of that Justice which the Magistrate sometimes executes were not oblig'd to lay down their Military Girdle or to forsake their Station and Employment 6. We are expresly commanded to pray for Kings and those who are in Authority 1 Tim. ii 1 2 3. and the Reason is given because God would have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth which shews that we are therefore to pray for Magistrates especially if Infidels or Idolaters that they may be Converted and that under them we may lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty which End could not be obtain'd if immediately upon their turning Christians they were oblig'd to lay down or divest themselves from their Office 7. The Office of the Magistrate doth not at all clash or interfere with the Genius or Temper of the Gospel For what is the Office of a Magistrate but to make wholesome Laws for Governing the People under their Power with suitable Sanctions and to defend their Subjects from Wrong Violence and Mischief Neither of which acts are contrary to our Religion not making Laws for governing the People under their Charge for the Gospel as well as the Law of Nature permits every Master of a Family to make good Orders for those over whom God hath set him and it would be strange if Masters of a greater Family might not have this privilege God even in the New-Testament hath declar'd himself to be a God of Order and protests against Confusion and since without Magistrates and Laws and Sanctions it would be impossible to prevent Confusion He that allows of the End must needs be supposed to allow of the Means conducive to that End In a word without these Helps Cities and Common-wealths would be Dens of Thieves and Pest-Houses rather than civiliz'd Societies nor is defending their Subjects from Wrongs and Injuries contrary to the nature of the Gospel which prescribes Justice and Charity and who sees not that the defence of the Subject from Wrongs and Injuries is founded upon these two Cardinal Vertues Even inflicting Penalties upon the stubborn and obstinate rests upon these Principles so that the Office of the Magistrate must necessarily be lawful and commendable I grant were the whole World Christian and did all Christians live up strictly to the Rules of the Gospel there would be no Quarrels no Dissentions no Wrongs no Injuries and consequently there would be no need of Magistrates but such a blessed State we do not look for till we come to Heaven and till then there must be Magistrates Nor doth St. Paul 1 Cor. vi 1 2 3 4 5. find fault with the Office of the Magistrate but with those who upon every light occasion quarrel'd one with another and accused one another to the Magistrate and particularly to the Heathen Governors Nay the Apostle is so far from condemning the Office that he seems to advise them to erect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tribunals of Judgment among themselves to decide Controversies and Quarrels betwixt Man and Man thereby to avoid running to the Heathen Magistrates whereby Christianity was like to become contemptible So that all these Particulars being laid together since God cannot be supposed to contradict himself this Precept of our Saviour must concern only Private Christians and must be intended to direct them how they are to behave themselves one toward another in their Conversation but is not level'd against the Power of Magistrates in a Christian Common-wealth not but that even a Magistrate may Sin against this Precept of our Master if private Revenge guides him in the execution of Judgment and Justice but where he doth the Duty of a Magistrate out of Love to the Publick Good there this Command cannot be suppos'd to interfere with his Power and Authority II. Since the Precept of the Text is the standing Rule whereby Christ's Disciples are to govern themselves it is very necessary I should press it upon you who came hither on purpose not only to hear but I hope to do what the Lord your God requires of you viz. Not to return Evil for Evil. Not to run in lesser Injuries such as a Blow or smiting on the Cheek to the Magistrate in order to have the Offender punish'd And Rather than return Evil for Evil to suffer a greater Evil or a greater Injury But I foresee an Objection which is like to dash all that I can say or alledge in order to persuade you to a conscientious Observance of these Rules of Holy Living Why should you urge this will some say for the thing is impracticable Not practicable Sirs It 's strange our great Master in whom are all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge should prescribe a thing that is not Practicable What did not he know our Frames Was he ignorant of what our Shoulders would bear Did not he consider the state and condition of our Souls I grant it is not practicable by Men who will not step out of the common Road of their carnal Interest and Lusts and sinful Inclinations I grant it is not practicable by Persons who will not make use of the Means and Motives and Enforcives and Helps which God affords to raise corrupted Nature into a nobler Temper I grant it is not practicable by Persons who will do nothing toward their own Happiness that will be Naked and Poor and Blind wretched and miserable in despight of all the Collyriums and Eye-salves and Medicines and Remedies which are offer'd and tender'd to them for their Cure But when there are a Thousand Moral Arguments before you and the Spirit of God and the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ are ready to give Life to those Arguments in your Souls when Heaven is willing to assist and Omnipotence offers to help you to raise you from the Ground and to inspire you with Courage and Valour suitable there to talk of the unpracticableness of these Rules is to blaspheme the Goodness of God and with that unprofitable Servant to accuse your Master That he gathers where he hath not strow'd and reaps where he hath not sown What should make it unpracticable What because Flesh and Blood saith it is so Is not Flesh and Blood that which you are oblig'd to fight against What are all the Arguments that are brought against the practicableness of it but what are borrow'd from the Opinion of the World
in some Cases by quitting our Right we prejudice the right of others but this cannot be said of so small a thing as a Coat which is a Man 's own to a Proverb or a Cloak or something like it 2. This is to shew a good Example to others and to teach them what they should do Our Actions are the best School-Masters and as we see Men learn from ill Example so they may I am sure ought to learn from good ones By not hearkening to a Temptation of Injustice by not defrauding a Child or ignorant Person by not speaking Evil of him that speaks ill of me by being Conscientious in my Duty I teach another and direct him how he is to govern himself This was the Method our great Master took He taught nothing but what he practis'd himself And indeed all the Oratory which a Man uses to another to persuade him to a Virtue is insignificant except his own Conscientiousness in the thing leads the way He that would sue us at Law for our Coat if rather than fall into a Passion with him we let him have our Cloak too we instruct him how he is to behave himself to others if the like should happen to him It 's true he may not be so considerate as to learn his Duty from our Example yet still our Intention in the Self-denial was good and commendable and shall not go without a Recompence and the Person who would not learn his Duty from what he saw in us shall give an Account to God for his Untractableness and Indocility 3. This is an excellent way to prevent great Vexation both in our selves and others The Rage of the Enemy will not only be restrain'd by it but hereby our own quiet and ease will be promoted To fill our Souls with Rage and Disorder upon such a force offer'd to us is to punish our selves for another Man's Weakness and Folly and to increase the Trouble and Affliction which befalls us The loss of the Cloak or Coat was outward only but if together with that loss I join the loss of quietness and calmness of Mind I increase it and become my own Tormentor and to the Injury that another doth me I add doing Injury to my self which is highly Irrational 4. Hereby we do certainly glorifie God who is ever best glorified by our Obedience and conforming to his Will Whatever the loss or inconvenience may be that may happen to us upon the account of that Obedience This is to glorify him in our Souls and Bodies according to the Rule 1 Cor. vi 20 i. e. in our Thoughts and Actions For this is a manifest sign that my Spirit stands in awe of the Supream Being that his Law is in my Heart and that my Mind is govern'd by his Will By resigning actually my Cloak to him that would take away my Coat here is an Action that brings Glory to God and declares that God is in me and gives me Strength and Power to overcome the Flesh and the sinful Motions of it And from hence arise not only Thanksgivings in my self but all good Men who see it will glorifie God for my professed Subjection to the Gospel of Christ 2 Cor. ix 12 13. 5. And this must needs endear God to us and move him to have kind Thoughts of us Not that we deserve his Love by such an Act but so gracious and condescending he is that upon decessions from our right for his Honour and Glory he is willing to look upon us with a very favourable Aspect This is Goodness that hath some Substance in it This looks like imitation of his Goodness who in his Dispensations decedes infinitely from his own right for our good What was the giving of his Son but a miraculous deceding from his own right of punishing us according to our Deserts And indeed there is not an act of Mercy to poor Sinners but God decedes from his Right even from the right of his Justice And when he who parts with his Cloak to him that would by force of Law deprive him of his Coat doth express the goodness of God in so lively a manner that God so great in Goodness cannot but say as he did to his People under Nebuchadnezzar Jer. xxix 11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you thoughts of Peace and not of Evil. But you will say may not a Man go to Law for his own and may not a Man justly defend himself by Law when he is wrong'd by another which leads me to the II. Query Whether it be in no case lawful for a Christian to go to Law with his Brother or defend his Right by Law when wrong'd by another Man 1. It is certain that Humane Laws permit a great many things which a Pious Christian cannot in Conscience make use of and which do not become him as he is a profess'd Disciple of such an humble self-denying Master as Christ Jesus Humane Laws to prevent greater Evils in a Common-wealth permit several things which a Christian who is chiefly to be guided by the Law of Christ doth wave as having a greater Law in his Heart And therefore though Humane Laws or the Laws of the Land permit you to go to Law with a Man that wrongs you yet that 's not the strict measure of your Actions Not that a Christian can safely disobey the Laws of the Land he inhabits when they do not clash with the Law of God But there is a great difference betwixt disobeying the Law of the Land and not making use of it upon all occasions 2. Our Saviour consider'd and all reasonable Men must grant it what Wrath what Malice what Abusing Slandering Disparaging of our Neighbours what Partiality what base Arts what Tricks are made use of by Persons who implead one another How Law-Suits are prolong'd to the loss of our Time and Quiet and better Employments What needless Charges Men involve themselves in to their own Vexation and Discontent And what a lasting Hatred is settled in the Hearts of Antagonists by such Doings And therefore to prevent the occasions of Evil he forbids going to Law And that Person that takes no care to shun the occasions of Evil can never be fit for the Kingdom of God So that 3. In lesser Injuries such as Mens taking or offering to take from us by force a Cloak or upper Garment a thing which we can spare without any great damage to our selves he doth absolutely forbid this Remedy which is indeed more than the Disease Insomuch that he who delights in going to Law upon every trifling occasion a small Summ of Money or a thing amounting to the Value of a Cloak or Coat most certainly knows not understands not the Principles of that Religion he professes but acts against them and hath no sense of the Love Christ Jesus bore to him and which ought to constrain him to forbear any thing he hath forbid 4. Going to Law in any case is forbid and
great Men by the Examples of good Men by the Examples of my ordinary Neighbours and shall the greatest Example the Example of God the Example of Christ Jesus make no impression upon me How easie a matter were it to draw such Inferences from what we believe and what a damp would this be to our Hatred And yet to see how careless how regardless we are of it and in despight of this great Example which we commend and magnifie justifie our Animosities against those whom we look upon to be our Enemies would make a Rational Man conclude and very justly too that whatever we pretend or talk of we do not believe that Christ died for us when we were God's Enemies What believe it and have no sence of it or if we have a sence of it not to gather our Duty from it Would any Man think that we are of the number of those Believers we read of Heb. xi Their Belief affected and wrought upon their Hearts and put them upon Heroick Actions and as God had done by them so they did by others This puts me in mind of the Justice of that Expostulation and the Proceedings we read of Matth. xviii 32 33 34. Then his Lord after he had called him said unto him O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that Debt because thou desiredst me Shouldst not thou also have had Compassion on thy Fellow-Servant even as I had pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and deliver'd him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Do you make the Application II. Though the Law of Moses enjoyn'd this Precept To love our Neighbour as our selves yet the Gospel presses it much more and in greater Instances too As by our Neighbours in the Gospel are meant not only our nearest Friends and Relatives not only those who dwell near us and about us not only those of the same Church and Religion with us but all our Fellow Christians and all Persons who were redeemed with the Blood of Jesus so our Love is to extend to all these and especially to them of the Houshold of Faith To this purpose St. Peter Honour all Men Love the Brotherhood Indeed this Love to our Fellow Christians the Apostles press with more than ordinary Fervour They lay the stress of Religion upon it and when they would describe Christians who thrive under the Showers and Irrigations of the Gospel they say That their Faith grows exceedingly and the Charity of every one toward each other abounds 2 Thess. i. 3 This was the distinguishing Character of the Primitive Believers and their Love one to another their dear their tender their affectionate Love one to another was taken notice of beyond any other Vertue whatsoever They called themselves Brethren and Sisters and by the Brotherhood or Fraternity they meant the Christian Church as appears from Clemens Romanus Their Hospitality their Candour their Veracity their Beneficence were the wonder of all Spectators Their tenderness to the Afflicted to Prisoners to Captives to the Sick and the Lame to the Ignorant and to their very Enemies was unspeakable insomuch that Julian the Apostate saw there was no way to propagate Heathenism like that of imitating Christians in their Works and Labours of Love and Charity Hereby shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another and so it was in those purer Ages and they were known more by their mutual Love than by their talking of Christ Jesus How is this Character inverted at this Day and one may say Hereby do all Men know who are Christians even by their hating one another I know not which is the harder Task whether Love to God or to our Neighbour Sure I am that many who pretend great love to God are strangely defective in their love to their Neighbours What a stir do many Men make about Religion and yet make nothing of Slandering Abusing Deriding Undervaluing their Neighbours My Brethren Doth a Fountain at the same place send forth bitter Water and sweet Indeed none is so fit to love God dearly as he that doth exercise himself very much in Love to his Neighbour It 's true one must help the other and Love to God must Influence that to our Neighbours but still great acts of Love to our Neighbours are the best Preparatives for high degrees of Love to God The Branches of this Love to our Neighbours are many and various and he who abounds in these acts of Love gets a Holy assurance that he is neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord How do we confine our Love to little Sects and Parties and from hence comes that bitterness of Spirit of one Party against another and how hard is it to find a Christian of a truly Catholick Love and Charity When shall we be wiser When shall that pristine Unity and Purity return When shall that admirable Spirit which shined so bright in the primitive Believers revive again Lord When shall thy Kingdom come that the whole Multitude which Believe shall be of one Heart and of one Soul The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that hears say Come Come thou God of Love thou Prince of Peace thou lover of Concord and Unity Come Amen even so come Lord Jesu SERMON XXXV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you MArcellinus writing to St. Austin tells him That the great Stumbling-Blocks which lay in the way of the Heathens of his Time especially of the wittier sort and hindred them from embracing Christianity were chiefly these three the Incarnation of our Lord the meanness of his Miracles which they thought those of Apollonius Tyanaeus did equal and the Prescriptions of the Text Love your Enemies bless them that curse you c. Not to meddle with their first and second Head this last particularly they could not digest they look'd upon 't as obliging Men to work Miracles and thought it in a manner as easie to snatch a Man from the Embraces of the Grave as to receive an Enemy into their own What! Love an Enemy He might as well have bid us swallow Poyson and take Toads and Vipers into our Bosoms What! Love a Man that hath sought my Life Caress a Wretch that hath attempted to ravish the pledges of my Love Take him into my Arms that hath endeavour'd to snatch from me the dearest Blessings I enjoy He might as well have bid us pull up Mountains by the Roots transplant Islands touch the Sun with our Fingers and empty the Waters of the Ocean Indeed this seems to be the highest step of Christianity and he that is arrived to an habitual observance of this Rule may not unfitly be said to be come to the top of the Mount of God But still whatever noise be
made about it it implies no such Contradiction as the Heathens and sensual Men did or may imagine For 1. Let us grant it's hard but the harder the work is the greater is the Reward He that gave this Command understood what Reward was design'd for the Votary No marvel if Heathens thought it strange who had but imperfect and broken and uncertain Notions of another Life If the Reward be proportion'd to the Difficulty we see Men refuse no Pains What is daily practis'd in Martial or Warlike Exploits is a demonstration of it The recompence Christ designed for those who should chearfully obey this Command doth not only equal but infinitely transcend the difficulty of the Task and he that considers what is promised must confess that the work is not worthy to be compared with the grandeur of the Recompence and therefore there is nothing unreasonable in the Injunction 2. Of all Men those who are in love with any Vice have no reason to talk against this Precept for they practise what they condemn and do things as unnatural as loving an Enemy can be supposed to be Were it not for the lapsed Condition of Man and the depravation of our Faculties Sin would be a very unnatural thing to the Soul The blessed Spirits who have left Mortality and Things below and recover'd their primitive Integrity and Innocence have as great an antipathy to Sin as Men here on Earth can have to a Toad which shews that Sin is an Enemy to a rational Soul and as contrary to right Reason as Darkness is to Light or a Chronical Distemper is to Health and that it is agreeable upon no other account than Cinders and Ashes and Chalk are to some Stomachs because of their Corruption So that a vitious Man really loves his Enemy nay his greatest Enemy He loves the Devil that prompts him to it that Devil whom at other times he doth Abjure and at whose Presence he would tremble he loves Damnation and Eternal Death for so we read Prov. viii 36 And therefore of all Men such Persons have no reason to speak against this Rule as unreasonable 3. What is commanded here hath been done as I shall shew in the sequel How and which way and by what means it hath been done how far the Grace of God must concurr what Industry must be used what Impediments are to be removed and how the whole concern is to be managed I do not now enquire but supposing that it hath been done the Inference is Rational that it may be done again It 's true they were Saints and Holy Men who have done it but since it is very possible to be a Saint and to arrive to a state of Holiness it follows this Precept is practicable and far from being impossible Nay 4. It hath been done with respect to some Acts at least by natural Men and upon the account of Temporal Interest either in a Bravado or out of Generosity or to be talk'd of and to have Glory of Men Examples and Passages of this Nature are frequent in History and if it were possible to do it upon a motive of Temporal Interest why should it be thought impossible to be done upon a greater Motive even Mens eternal welfare It is but changing the Principle which is the spring of Motion and the shining Brass may become Gold the Counterfeit a real Vertue and the Shew may turn into Substance And having thus removed the grand Objection that lies against this Precept I now proceed to explain it I. The general Command Love your Enemies II. The Branches or the Particulars of it Bless them c. I. The general Command Love your Enemies And here I must note 1. That Christ doth not speak here of a publick or professed and open Enemy of our Country or Nation that makes War upon us and seeks the destruction of the Community or a subversion of the Government for though there is an Humanity to be shewn even to a Publick Enemy by what the Prophet Elisha did to the Host of Syria when he had enclosed them in Samaria the King of Israel would have dispatch'd them with the Sword No saith the Man of God Set Bread and Water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their Master 2 Kings vi 22 And we know that even Heathen Nations have allow'd decent Burial to a publick Enemy when slain in Battel yet these are not the Persons Christ directly aims at in these words Christ as he came not to reverse the Laws of Government nor prescrib'd a Model or Platform of it but left Governments as he found them supposing them to be agreeable to the Law of Nature and the good of Mankind so by this Precept he did not forbid Christian Kings and Princes entring into a just Defensive War for the Security of their Country nor can it be imagin'd that by this Rule he would oblige Magistrates and Sovereigns so to Love the Publick Enemy as to let him Rage and Ravage and Burn and Plunder without any Opposition This Precept being given to Christians consider'd as they live and converse together we must conclude that by the Enemies who are to be loved are meant Enemies in a more private Capacity such as we meet with in Conversation and in the Places and Stations we are in whether they be High or Low whether Superiors or Equals or Inferiors Nor 2. Must we think that this Precept is given to Magistrates with respect to Malefactors and Publick Offenders as if by Vertue of this Command they were not to punish them This would be manifest Injustice to the Publick Good and we may be very confident Christ would not have us do Evil that Good may come out of it nor obey one Precept at the expence of another Though a Magistrate if he will act Conscientiously ought to behave himself as a Father who loves his Child when he doth Chastise him and therefore Chastiseth him because he loves him so Magistrates are to punish with Pity and Compassion and in private Injuries where their Office is not concern'd they are bound to Forgive and love their Enemies as much as others yet doth not this interfere with the necessary administration of Publick Justice not to mention that it is said in the Text Love your Enemies but a publick Malefactor or Offender is not properly the Magistrates Enemy I mean no Enemy to his Person or Fortune or Relatives but to the Law of the Land and the common Good and therefore if the Magistrate doth punish him he doth not punish him as his Enemy and therefore Sins not against this Precept but as an Enemy of the Common-wealth in general It 's possible the Malefactor may be an Enemy to the Magistrate consider'd in other Circumstances in which case the Magistrate is bound to exercise all the acts of Love here mention'd toward him and notwithstanding these punish him according to Law and the Duty of his Place and Calling So that the
this mean Spirit of theirs as being contrary to this natural Principle of loving those who love us 3. The same may be said of all Persons who have been signally oblig'd by others and yet can hardly afford a good Word to those from whom they have receiv'd such signal Kindness but carried away by Faction or Interest speak Evil of them and Revile them would to God such Persons were as rare among us as African Monsters are but even of such ungrateful Wretches the Age we live in gives us too many Instances David complained of them long ago Yea mine own familiar Friend in whom I trusted and who did eat of my Bread hath lift up his Heel against me Psal. xxi 9 and could any thing be more base or barbarous than for Herod to go about to kill Christ who had purged his Country of Devils and Diseases Luke xiii 31 And was it not a most Inhumane Attempt for those very Soldiers whose Lives St. Paul preserv'd from Shipwrack to consult to kill him with the rest of the Prisoners Acts xxvii 42 43. And it seems this wicked Generation doth last still And what shall I say more we cannot without Grief behold the many bold Offences which are committed daily against this Principle of Nature even in those Relations the very Name of which speaks mutual and reciprocal Kindnesses such as Husband and Wife Brothers and Sisters Masters and Servants c. who would suspect Unkindness among those Relatives to those especially who study and seek their Good and are more than ordinarily concern'd to express their Love and Respect to them and in whose Mouth is the Law of Kindness yet even in this Grass the Serpent lies and the Snake doth hiss After all the Rich and Great offend against this Law such I mean as are Morose and Proud and Self-conceited and do not think a poor Neighbour their Brother in Christ worthy of a civil Salutation a Civility not denied by Heathens and Publicans to the meanest of their Brethren and of this nature are those false Salutations and pretended Civilities of dissembling and Hypocrital Men such as Joab and others whose Words are softer than Butter but War is in their Hearts who seem indeed to love those who love them but it is from the Teeth outward for they hate them within There needs no Gospel to condemn such bold and daring Sinners The light of Nature will serve to do it though it is confess'd that the Gospel under which they live and which teaches them greater and better things will help to aggravate both their Sin and Punishment And this will justifie our third Enquiry III. How Men come to sink so low so much beneath Heathens and Publicans as to act against this natural Principle And 1. They have very weak dull and dark apprehensions of the worth and nature of Christianity and indeed of any Religion some Religion or other they must profess and since Providence lets them stumble upon the Christian they embrace it but cansider not what it imports how holy its Precepts are how rich its Promises how ample its Advantages how clear its Revelations how great its Excellencies and how justly it requires greater Strictnesses than either Judaism or Heathenism or any other Religion in the World This Consideration would make them dread offending against the Law of Nature and make them asham'd to think that they who are bound to do more than others should not do so much as others These things being no Objects of their Thoughts they have a very low Opinion of the Religion they profess and therefore are not concern'd nor frighted if they fall below the Grandeur of it lower than Heathens and Publicans and consequently do not love those who love them 2. Their Lusts are stronger than their Religion This natural Principle of loving those who love them is agreeable enough to their Reason and Speculation but some predominant Lust either Avarice or Ambition or Pride or Envy or Lasciviousness or Delight in vain Company or something their sickly Desires crave and which they fancy their reciprocal Love would hinder them from some such Lust I say reigning and domineering within it damps and drowns that reciprocal Love they owe to those that love them A Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed saith St. James Ch. i. 14 As natural as it is to be kind to those who are so to us yet if a Man gives way to some violent Lust or Desire and le ts that have the upper-hand it will draw and force the Man away from the most easie and most familiar and most rational Duty whatsoever Not to mention that if the Party who is or hath been kind be defective in one Act if after nineteen Kindnesses he fail to do the twentieth This shall be thought by such Persons an Argument sufficient to justifie their want of reciprocal Love and Affection But this shews the disingenuity of their Temper and that an Evil Spirit hath taken Possession of their Hearts and committed a Rape upon the dictates of their Reason and Understanding And thus Men come to act against Principles which even Heathens and Publicans do observe Inferences I. I observe here That Religion is not intended to make Men Clownish and Uncivil For our Saviour in the Text supposes saluting our Brethren to be not only Lawful but a natural Duty which God expects of Men as Men. Indeed he would have us do more than this comes to and extends it even to Enemies and to Persons who have wrong'd affronted and abus'd us but he doth not deny the lawfulness of it but establishes this lower Duty which even Heathens and Publicans count reasonable And therefore that Sect which places Religion in forbearing all external Salutations sins against a natural Duty The Gospel doth not abolish but exalt all natural Duties and sets them in a brighter Light and that therefore if saluting our Brethren or Fellow Christians be a natural Duty it must be much more a Christian Duty so that the Spirit of the Hat seems rather a Spirit of Pride and Delusion than the Spirit of God which inclines the Soul to Assability Courteousness and Civility and Respect to Superiors Nor must the condescention of Superiors to the meanest Capacity or their Humility make us lay aside the Respect we owe them for this is to give occasion that the way of Truth is Evil spoken of and to bring an Evil report upon the good Land It 's true in Christ we are all equal with respect to the Privileges and Advantages that come by Christ they being promised or tender'd to all but that doth not destroy the external Respect Obeisance and Civility we owe to Persons of different Ranks and Qualities or to Men whom Providence hath raised above the common level in Church or State I grant the Men of this World will call that Clownishness when a good Man will not drink with them nor comply with their Sensualities