Constitution in the State of Innocency And for Reveal'd Truth that fits and supplies Man in his lapsed State Every Man that knows his State feels want in himself of Health and Strength And Reveal'd Truth is that which doth supply this Want And is that which he would have wish'd for from God In this he hath Terms proposed to him of Pardon and Reconciliation upon Repentance and returning to God Never did Patient and Physician meet more happily Disease and Physick than Man in a lapsed Condition and the Proposals that are through the Grace of God in the Gospel In the one there is Man full of Misery in the other the Grace of God for Mercy and Forgiveness Man's Language in that State is O wretched Man who shall deliver me from this Body of Death The Grace of the Gospel puts these Words into his Mouth I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord that he hath deliver'd me And he is bid to have no evil Heart of unbelief There is a State of Guilt on the one side a State of Justification on the other A State of Sin and a State of Holiness Fear of eternal Death And a Promise of eternal Life So that the Grace of the Gospel is fitted to Man in his lapsed State and Condition in order to his Restoration and Recovery The fifth and last Argument is the Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of what God hath done in the Way of Divine Truth For God sends not his Truth into the World alone But having done one thing will also do another to make the former effectual Now they that have not the Divine Spirit want the great Commentator upon Divine Truth in the World And therefore let such Men look after it For this is a great and a certain Truth that God in his Grace and Goodness will give his Spirit to guide and teach and assure the Minds of good Men Tho' none know it but those that feel him But they who have the Spirit of God know nothing more certain For they have Satisfaction and inward Peace and Joy in believing They perceive such Operations of God in themselves whereof the World cannot receive any Account The Divine Spirit doth open their Understandings as it did the Apostles brings Things to their Remembrance mekes them consider the Inwards of Things and calls them to Advertency and Consideration The great Work of the Divine Spirit is to lead Men into right Apprehensions and stay a Man's Thoughts in Consideration till the Principles do receive Admittance and become a Temper and Constitution till they infuse and instil themselves and make a lasting Impression Tho' for my part I do believe that the Scripture is clear and full of Light as to all Matters of Conscience as to all Rules of Life as to all necessary Matters of Faith So that any well-minded Man that takes up the Bible and reads may come to Understanding and Satisfaction And hence it is that we have Sufficiency from God to preserve us from Cheats of all sorts So that a well-minded Man that hath this Instrument of God need not be mistaken in any necessary Matters of Faith For the Bible is sufficient and intelligible in the Way of Religion and for all the Purposes thereof as any other Book for the Learning of any other Art or Science And upon this Account God hath done that which will justifie him and at our Peril be it if we be found ignorant or have been deceived For we needed not ever have been ignorant or mistaken in any thing that is vital in Religion and to this Purpose there is also the Divine Spirit still to attend upon this Instrument of God So that they who do acknowledge God and pray unto him for his Help and Assistance have the Advantage of being taught by the Spirit and by Means thereof are in a sure Way of Knowledge with the consequent Effects of Holiness and Goodness By these Five Arguments a Man may be resolved against the Atheism Infidelity and Prophaneness of the World And from this Discourse about which I have been long I do infer That Atheism and Infidelity are the most unaccountable Things in the World and inexcusable The Athiest must be every where self-condemned And the Infidel within the Pale of the Church There is nothing that God hath done more in any way whatsoever than he hath done for the Security of Men against Atheism For I dare say if any Man do but think and use Reason he may know all Natural Truth And what can a Man do less How is he a Man if he do not either of these Doth any Man know any thing but by Thinking and Considering Yea perhaps this is all that we pretend to For we are born to nothing else All Habits and Dispositions all actual Knowledge is our own Acquisition with respect to the Grace of God No Man is born to any actual Knowledge in the World or to speak a Word or understand a Notion But all Habits and Dispositions are acquired And therefore an Atheist shall be self-condemned as one that never used his Reason nor so much as exercised his own Thoughts And for the Infidel within the Pale of the Church If he will but search and consider he may find that which will beget Faith and Belief And therefore the Athiest and the Infidel are the most unaccountable and unexcusable Persons in the World For they have done nothing themselves They have not so much as thought or consider'd they have not seen with their own Eyes If a Man living in the World or in the Church be either an Atheist or an Infidel he hath been an idle Person in the World and a Sluggard His Understanding hath received no Culture or Care he hath made no Improvement of himself nor done any thing worthy of a Man SERMON II. ROMANS I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ For it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek I Have declared several Assurances we have of Divine Truth Natural and Reveal'd in Scripture against Atheists Infidels and the Prophane As 1. The great Acknowledgement it hath met with in the several Ages of the World 2. The Representation that is hereby made of God * which is agreeable to what Man is made to know The Proposals made to us by God the Invitations made by him the Prohibitions Commands and Promises all these testifie of God and declare worthily concerning him 3. The ingenuous Effects and Operations of Divine Truth upon Mens Spirits and in their Lives 4. The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in his State of Institution and of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed State in order to his Restitution and Recovery 5. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance Now if * this be so we may concur in Sence and Resolution with the Apostle I am not ashamed of the Gospel c. I
They are such as are possible through the Grace and Assistance of God So that there is nothing in the whole World that we have more Reason to desire and pray for than that they be verified fulfilled and accomplished in us There are no two things more inward to us than Satisfaction to our Reason that we may be at quiet and the settling of our Minds in Frame and Temper that we may enjoy our selves In these two the Life of Man consists and these depend on the Knowledge of the Gospel * Now the Matter of the Gospel is * also a Vital Principle as it is a byass upon our Spirits an Habitual Temper and Disposition constantly affecting us and inclining us God-ward and to ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth For it is inwardly received so as to dye and colour the Soul so as to settle a Temper and Constitution and so it is restorative to our Natures That which we do but indifferently by our Ability we are able to do dexterously and easily by Custom Through the Divine Grace and Assistance we are both able and freely willing The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ frees us from the Law of Sin and Death The Principles of the Christian Religion do not only controul intemperate and exorbitant Acts but regulate the inward Frame and Temper of Mind the Inclinations elicit Acts and first Motions As Christ said to God not my Will but thy Will so we must through Participation of Christ be let into a Temper of Meekness and Gentleness to our fellow-Creatures and a submissive self-denying Frame in respect of God Hence our Lives and Manners are of another fashion By the Spirit of the Gospel we are transformed into another Nature Life and Temper Neither do I terminate the Ultimate Issue of Christ in the happy Effects of Renovation in our selves and Reconciliation to God tho' these are Benefits transcendent to all worldly Wealth Greatness and Power but it doth not now appear neither can we now bear the thought of it what we may be when God shall be all in all and all Enmity subdued These are two things and very different what Man may come to by the Improvement of himself in the right use of himself his natural Power and Faculties directing himself by his ordinary Rules * as he is God's Creature and may attain his Natural State and End and what Man may come to as he is indued with Power from above as he is assumed into a Relation to God by Jesus Christ as he is a Member of that Body whereof Christ is the Head as the Adoption of God by Jesus Christ and as he is so enliven'd by the Divine Spirit as did not belong to Man in the State of Innocency But these are not things of our present State for even Adam as he was made was not fit For Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God The Application now only remains Having made appear to you that the Doctrine of the Gospel both in respect of its proper Vertue and Efficiency as also in respect of Divine Intention is effectual to the bringing of Men to Salvation then are you First to acquaint your selves throughly with the Terms of the Gospel to pass * Judgment upon it to consider well all the Circumstances that make up the case Our contracted Impotency and great Deformity by our Fall the Necessity of Recovery and Restoration The Efficacy and the Freeness of the Grace of God to Conversion So that we may resolve our Minds tho' our Case be very forlorn because of our Defection and Apostacy from the Innocency of our Creation and self-contracted Misery yet nothing is desperate nothing is impossible in the Case but our Recovery through the Grace of God is fairly easie And being thus prepar'd by such Knowledge and Apprehensions pursue the Intent of the Gospel in your own Spirits and in Conjunction of your selves with others by free Communication in Converse For this is certain and found by Experience that the only way to do a Man's self good in Intellectuals and Spirituals is to do good to others No Man gains so much as by Teaching No Man so improves in Intellectuals as by Communication which doth much commend Intellectuals that they increase by expence If a Man hath brought himself to some Perfection by Consideration he will make himself much more by free Communication and in free Communication you will have another suggest that which it may be you did not think of So he will put you upon further Consideration or else preserve you from Presumption None are of such modest Spirits as * they who live in free Communication and Converse This I subjoyn for the improving of a Man's self in the way of the Gospel and answering the vigorous Spirit of the Gospel be communicative And this is the Purpose of all our Meetings free Communication to answer every Man's Doubts to give every one Satisfaction It is the highest Service and greatest Courtesie we can do one another freely to tell what we have conceiv'd and we do our selves most effectual Good when we carry on others with us when we do Good unto others The first thing in Religion is to teach a Man 's own Mind to satisfie a Man's self in the Reason of things to look to the Grounds and Assurance that a Man hath for his Thoughts Apprehensions and Perswasions But then it is prodigious and monstrous if that wherein my Reason is resolv'd and satisfied should not have such an Influence upon my Mind as to establish me in Life accordingly and to be a Rule both in Temper and Practice That which we call in Morals against the Order of Reason is so much more horrid unnatural and prodigious than in inferiour Nature for Sensitives to go against the Guidance of Sense * or for Inanimates against the Force of Nature * it is I say so much more unnatural as Intelligent Agents transcend in Perfection Sensitives and Inanimates Reason being as proportionable to its Effects as any Principle in inferiour Nature There are two Orders or Ranks of Creatures in this visible World the Order of Sensitives and of Inanimates The World of Sensitives they are true and infallible they are true to that which is their predominant Principle that is sence and they never vary And Inanimates they certainly tend according to their Nature Now the Principle in the higher Order of Creatures viz. of Rational and Intelligent Agents is Apprehension of the Reason of things Now the Reasons of things are Eternal they are not subject to any Power we practice not upon them It is our Wisdom to observe them and our Goodness to comply with them but they are as much our Rule as Sense to Sensitives and the Impetus of Nature to Inanimates Now you would think it Monstrous Prodigious and Unnatural for the Sun to give over shining for heavy things to ascend for light things to descend for Fire not to burn yet it is
Vileness out of the Sense of his own Nature because he hath done that that is contrary to the Light of Reason and Conscience he will not blush out of Respect and Reverence to God The Ingredients that are requisite and necessary to the Qualification of that Man that would render himself valuable are these First A Constancy immoveable so as always to be found the same A great many differ one Day and another more from themselves than any two Men do Many Men do so little govern themselves that those that are acquainted with them do not know how Reason may take with them if they be out of Temper A Man shou'd take care to be always the same I know there is some Difficulty in this because of our Bodies Every Man is sollicited by his Body And our Bodies are over-ruled by the * very Temper and Variation of the Air And no Man can overcome his bodily Temper but by great Wisdom Yet this is attainable For if Reason were as it ought to be the settled Law of Life and Action it wou'd be then easie For Reason is regular uniform and always self-consistent It is Humour that is various and unconstant and that drives a Man from himself Secondly A Patience invincible so as never to be disturbed by things that are without us A Man doth not do himself right if he do not live from within but from without For what are the Things without a Man in Comparison with his Self-enjoyment which lies in the Serenity of his Mind the Calmness and good Composure of his Spirit the Peace and Quiet of his Conscience And this good Composure of our Spirit is attainable if we be resolv'd that neither the partial and incompetent Opinion and Sense of By-standers and uncapable Judges nor the Change of Things which are mutable and uncertain nor the various Accidents of this uncertain World that none of these drive a Man from himself For a Man is a little World to himself And may enjoy himself within If things * there be right and streight however disturbed they are without Thirdly A Composure of Mind and Evenness of Temper So as not to be sometimes up sometimes down sometimes high sometimes low This is to be one day a Man another day no Body One while more than himself another while less than any Body Who would be so unlike himself Certainly every Man in his Reason will conclude that this is unbecoming and unsatisfactory to be sometimes triumphant and full of Confidence and other whiles to be drown'd * sunk unactive and deficient Fourthly Such a Gesture and Carriage as may no ways argue a Spirit either over-eager or forward And truly if a Man consider that there is a bitter-sweet in all the Things of this World a Shortness and an Unsatisfactoriness in all our Enjoyments he will then find that it is fit he shou'd maintain an Indifferency towards them and an Independency upon them There is that in them that doth abate the Content and Satisfaction that any Man can have in them For they are limited and restrained good-Things And therefore it is mainly requisite for a Man of Reason and Religion to retain an Indifferency towards them and an Independency upon them To express this I will repeat a Character * of one in a former Age one of whom it was said that he had A Constancy immoveable A Modesty so well behaving it self an Evenness so marvellous that he spoke not one Word higher than another nor us'd any Gesture which might argue a Spirit over-eager or forward These Four Things I propose as Things whereof this gallant Temper doth consist as Principles of it or as Ingredients with it Now to recommend all that I have said I shall show you several eminent Advantages which attend upon this I call Gravity Sobriety c. First These prepare the Mind for Learning and Knowledge For nothing is to be fasten'd upon a light and airy Temper Without these a Man will not be capable of Culture Instruction and Education They are the true Companions of Wisdom Wisdom walks with such Attendants in such an Equipage These are the proper Retinues of Wisdom None are truly wise but those that are competently at least furnished with these There is that which we call Wit and that which we call Wisdom Wit in compare with Wisdom is a Fit a Flash a Vapour of no Continuance But Wisdom is conjoyn'd with Prudence and Discretion They dispose the Mind to all Vertue In this rich and fruitful SOIL for such is a Mind thus qualified and govern'd all the Seeds of universal Goodness being sown will grow apace For Goodness is really Knowledge digested concocted entertain'd submitted to consented to They procure from others Veneration an Esteem It hath been shew'd you that Men render themselves despicable Men are slighted and neglected because they show their own Weakness Emptiness Vanity and Folly They uphold Mens Superiority Dignity and Authority Whereas Frothiness and Vanity of Spirit Rudeness and Lightness of Behaviour level Persons of * greatest Difference and Distinction They raise Mens Thoughts to the Consideration of Things that are excellent They represent the Divine Majesty and Presence Acquaintance with such Men as these Men of Gravity of Seriousness and Sobriety doth discharge us of that Levity Rudeness and Irreverence that else is apt to follow us and accompany us in our Approaches and Addresses unto God For he that doth use to play the Fool will be a Fool in every Company And they who by Disposition and Tempet and by long Custom and Practice have brought themselves into a Habit of Vanity and Lightness they are in a great Aversation and Indisposition to Gravity and Seriousness at all times and in every Presence So that even the Sense of * the Divine Majesty of Heaven and Earth and the Consideration of his Greatness awes them not neither can prevail with them to discharge their Minds of their habitual Rudeness and Levity These are the Considerations whereby this Moral Perfection of Staidness of Mind Soberness of Spirit Gravity Seemlyness of Behaviour good Carriage and Self-government stands recommended unto you Whatsoever Things are JUST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our English Translation is a little too short for the Greek The Words in the Greek do comprehend Two Things that in our English Language we call Just and Equal Justice and Equity I know oft-times are indifferently used for the self-same thing But if we speak strictly and exactly then they are to be distinguish'd For whatsoever either Reason or Law will admit that may pass for Just. But Equity will take all Things into Consideration that do accompany the Case And if the Case require Equity will abate of what strict Right will afford Therefore that that we call Equity is to moderate strict Right And indeed strict Right may be down-right Injury and Wrong Strict Right is not to be stood upon by Persons of Reason and Conscience where Equity calls for another
of this will not be sufficient to give us solid Content and Satisfaction at that time nor be a Foundation for our Faith to rest upon Those words that we have read that the Wages of Sin is Death will then run in our Minds and we shall be then ready to say Art thou come to call our Sins to remembrance Tho' Men in a hurry of Business do not now consider yet then assurance of Pardon of Sin will of all things be most satisfactory to our Minds and the want of it will be the most afflicting Consideration imaginable 2 dly Being well-resolv'd and assur'd of the Way that God will pardon Sin let us always have it in our eye and put it in practice Let us be sure that we heartily repent of our Sins turn to God make Application to him and come under the Terms of the Covenant of Grace that so our Faith and Hope may finally rest in God as the Apostle speaks All that is reveal'd to us concerning Christ and the Gospel is for this End and Purpose and there is nothing in the World that is so well secur'd as the Pardon of our Sins and Everlasting Safety in the way of the Faith of the Gospel For upon these Terms it hath Settlement from the Perfection of the Divine Nature who is the first and chiefest Goodness and who cannot fail to commiserate every compassionable Case And I declare to you that the Case of a Creature finite and fallible if he do repent and turn to God is sorry for what he hath done amiss and return to his Duty is compassionable And this we are assur'd of not only from the Nature of God but from the Revelation of his Mind and Will For as is his Nature such are the Resolutions of his Mind and Will That SIN is pardonable is the Foundation of all our Religion and Application to God Fundamental to Faith and to all Affiance Trust and Confidence in God For tho' the Act of a Creature may be aggravated in respect of the Person against whom it is committed yet in themselves they are but Acts of Weakness And I shall shew you that they are so in God's account and esteem and therefore God doth not charge us so deeply for them as he might nor so much aggravate the Affronts against his own Majesty but considers and allows for the Weakness of the Creature So Psalm 103. 14. For he knoweth our Frame and remembereth that we are Dust. Therefore God doth not so highten our Failings and Neglect of him as he might do from the Height and Excellency of his own Majesty but he doth look upon them as the Failings and Miscarriages of weak and frail Creatures So Isa. 57. 16. These places of Scripture show that God doth consider what we are and gives allowance for our Shortness Weakness and Infirmity being the Condition in which we were made He considers that we are but finite and fallible and consist of different Materials a Divine and Heavenly Spirit and a Gross Body He knows that we have a great Government the ruling of sundry Appetites and must subordinate all the Motions of Sense to the Dictates of Reason and Understanding which is the greatest Performance in the World Yet this Humane Nature is put upon and herein we have a greater Province to administer than even the Angels themselves they not having so gross a Body as we have nor expos'd to so much Evil as we are But God he knoweth our FRAME and upon that account is not extream to mark what is done amiss A Creature as a Creature is finite and fallible and yet we are not the most perfect of God's Creation Now for Fallible to fail is no more than for Frail to be broken and for Mortal to die Where there is Finite and Limited Perfection there is not only a Possibility but a Contingency to Fail to Err to be Mistaken not to know and to be deceiv'd And where the Agent is such there is place for Repentance Repentance is that which makes a Finite Being failing capable of Compassion If Repentance did not take effect it would be too hazardous for a Creature to come into Being If upon a Laps an Error or Mistake we should be undone to Eternity without all hope of Recovery Who would willingly enter upon this State These are Matters fit for Consideration and very satisfactory to considerate Minds and to awaken'd Consciences Then 3 dly Let us entertain right Notions and Apprehensions of God and conclude that he is of his own Nature placable and reconcileable It is consequent upon Sin to commit a further Evil to delight in it to love it and to live in it and from hence to fear and hate God who is offended by it For this is certain where Men are affraid they do not love and where they hate for their own Preservation if they could they would dissable such as are Formidable and in a Capacity to do them Harm Now if we look upon God as our Enemy as we shall do if we sin against him and do not repent we shall fear and dread him and so Hate him not Love and Delight in him For this is certain we always suspect that the wrong'd Person will revenge himself and take all advantage to do himself Right unless we make our Peace with him And were God like unto us there were just cause for this Suspicion But we may satisfie our selves from what God hath declar'd that there is no cause to fear in the way of Repentance and Faith for as much as God will perform the Terms of his own Gracious Dispensation which is to pardon all such as sincerely repent and believe the Gospel 4 thly It this be true that we cannot be rid of Sin save only by some Act of God then let us not do that which is so much to our own Prejudice upon such easie Terms as commonly * to offend since it is not in our power to undo it For Sin committed cannot be avoided unless by God's Pardon as well as our Repentance And our Repentance is but our Qualification for Pardon Pardon it self is the Act of God and depends upon the use of his Power God hath Power over his own Right and may abate of it what he pleaseth Now if a Man once sin farewel for ever the Righteousness of Innocency this is that which can never be attain'd for it can never be made that what hath been done was not done or that every sinful Act did not deserve Punishment In this State of Sin we are only made whole recover'd and restor'd and this Relief we have by the Divine Grace So that we cannot in any Reason allow our selves to commit Iniquity for the time to come or to return to Folly for this were to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness and to abuse the Divine Benignity and Compassion and to make void the Effect thereof and to do what in us lyes that the
Spirit than he that taketh a City He that doth subdue the Motion of irregular Passion doth a greater Matter than he who conquers Nations or beats down Walls and Bulwarks Therefore give me the Man of whom I may * say This is the Person who in the true Use of REASON the Perfection of Humane Nature who in the Practice and Exercise of VERTUE its Accomplishment hath brought himself into such a Temper as is con-natural to those Principles and warranted thereby Of all other Men I may say that they have neglected their chief Business and have forgot the great Work that was in their hand and what ought chiefly to be done in the World For the greatest thing that lies upon every one to do is the Regulating of his own Mind and Spirit And he that hath not done this hath been in the World to little purpose For this is the Business of Life to inform our Understandings to refine our Spirits and then to regulate the Actions of our Lives to settle * I say such a Temper of Mind as is agreeable to the Dictates of sober Reason and constituted by the Graces of the Divine Spirit Now that I may give you an account of this * in the Text this MEEK and quiet Spirit I must do it by looking into the State and Operation of it Through MEEKNESS a Man hath always fair Weather within Through MEEKNESS he gives no manner of Offence or Disturbance any where abroad And in particular I may say these * several things of the Meek and quiet Spirit First There is no ungrounded Passion no boisterous Motion no Exorbitancy nothing of Fury No Perplexity of Mind nor Over-thoughtfulness Men that are thus * disquieted know not what to do can give no answer nor can resolve on any thing No Confusion of Thought for that is Darkness within and brings Men into such * Disorder that they know not what is before them No Eagerness of Desire no Impetuousity They do not say with her * in the Scripture Give me Children or else I die No Respect to God or Man will quiet or moderate such Spirits if they have not what they are bent upon No Inordinacy of Appetite but * so as always * to be governed according to the Measures and Rules of Reason and Vertue No Partiality or Self-flattery * One of a meek Spirit does not over-value himself * Those of the contrary Temper are always putting themselves into a Fool 's Paradise conceiting above what there is Sense or Reason for No impotent Self-will He that gives way to Self-will is an Enemy to his own Peace and is the great Disturber of the World He is an Anti-God imposeth upon God himself and is within no Law * And in the last place No fond Self-Love All these are Verities of this MEEK and quiet Spirit And these are great things and tend to Happiness are suitable to our State becoming the Relation we stand in to God and to one another The Meek in Temper are freed from all those internal Dispositions that cause a great deal of Unquietness in the World For as mischievous as the World either is or is thought to be our Sufferings from abroad all the Injuries that we meet with from without are neither so great nor so frequent as the Annoyances that arise from the Discomposure of our own Minds and from inward Malignity I say that they who complain * so much of the Times and of the World * may learn this that the Sufferings from injurious Dealings from any without us are nothing in comparison to those we find from within For this inward Malady doth altogether disable the Fences and Succours of Reason This is a constant Malady and * by this Self-enjoyment is * made very uncertain This is the First thing that through MEEKNESS OF SPIRIT we are always in a Calm have fair Weather within our own Breasts and do arrive to a good State of Health and Settlement Secondly Through this MEEKNESS OF SPIRIT there is good Carriage and Behaviour towards others The Meek are never injurious or censorious but are ready to take in good part and make the best Construction that the Case will bear They will account other Mens Faults rather their Infirmity than their Crime and they look upon the Harm done them by others to be rather Inadvertency than Design rather contingent ill Accidents than bad Meaning The Meek Man is a good Neighbour a good Friend a Credit to Religion one that governs himself according to Reason makes no Injury by any Misconstruction and in case of any Wrong done sits down with easie Satisfaction How much do Men differ upon account of Moderation Meekness and Fairness We find upon our ordinary Application to some Persons that they will admit any reasonable and fair Proposal be ready to hear and take in good part are of easie Access fair conditioned easie to be intreated but others * there are of so bad a Condition that you may come twenty times to them before you find them in a good Mood or fit to be dealt withal They are seldom in so good a Disposition that an indifferent Proposal may be made to them But * for those that are of Meek and quiet Spirits I may say of such Persons either that they are very ready to grant what is desired or else if they do deny it shall be upon such Grounds of Reason as will satisfie But because things are best known by their Contraries I will shew you WHO those Persons are of whom it cannot be said that they are OF MEEK AND QUIET SPIRITS to wit the Proud the Arrogant Insolent Haughty Presumptuous Self-confident and Assuming For these are Boisterous Stormy Tempestuous Clamorous These Persons wil put themselves and others as much as they can into a Flame These are the Disturbers of Mankind and their Neighbours are rid of a Burthen when they are removed What Storms and Tempests are in the World Natural these are in the World Moral Earthquakes Storms and Tempests do not lie more heavy upon the World Natural than these Men do upon the World of Mankind But Meekness doth so qualifie the Soil where it is that all the Moral Vertues will * there thrive and prosper such as Humility Modesty Patience Ingenuity Candour But Malice and Envy are the worst of Vices being the greatest Degeneracy and Participation of the Devilish Nature These have no place in this Meek and quiet Spirit Lastly I add that an ILL-NATURED Person is altogether uncapable of Happiness If therefore it hath been any one's Lot either to have been born or bred to an Ill-nature I say in this case He is more concerned to apply a Remedy than he that hath received a Deadly Wound or is Bodily Sick hath to apply himself to the Chyrurgion or to the Physician least his Wound or Disease should prove Mortal For these inward Maladies will otherwise prove fatal to his Soul and the only Remedy to be applyed is
ill of any Man as that he has not by experience found any of these Affections in himself and consequently that he believes none of them to be in others But in the place of other Affections or good Inclinations of whatever kind this Author has substituted only one Master-Passion Fear which has in effect devour'd all the rest and left room only for that infinite Passion towards Power after Power Natural as he affirms to All Men and never ceasing but in Death So much less Good-nature has he left with Mankind than what he allows the worst of Beasts Having allotted to us in the way of our Nature such mischievous Passions as are unknown to them and not so much as allow'd us any Degree of their Good ones such as they All are known to have and are never wanting to exert towards their own Kind By which Excellency of Nature so little reckon'd upon in the Case of Mankind their common Interest is duly serv'd and their Species propagated and maintain'd Had not the Poyson of these Immoral and in reality Atheistical Principles been diffused more than 't is easie to imagine at that time especially when Dr. Whichcot appear'd we should perhaps where Morality was concern'd have heard less of Terror and Punishment and more of Moral Rectitude and Good-nature At least it should not have grown customary to explode Good-nature and detract from that Good which is ascrib'd to Natural Temper and is accounted Natural Affection as having Ground and Foundation in Meer NATURE On the contrary it would have been the Business of those who had manag'd the Cause of Religion to have contended for these better Dispositions and to have shewn how deep a Root and Foundation they had in Human Nature and not just contrary-wise to have built on the Ruine of these For with some people this was then become a Method to prove Christianity Revelation was to owe its Establishment to the Depression and Lowering of such Principles as these in the Nature of Man And the Weakness of these was made the Strength of Religion As if Good-nature and Religion were Enemies A Thing indeed so unthought of amongst the Heathens that PIETY which was their best Word to signifie Religion had more than half its Sence in Natural and Good Affection and stood not only for the Adoration and Worship of God but for the Natural Affections of Parents to their Children and of Children to their Parents of Men to their Native Country and indeed of all Men in their several Relations one to another It must be confess'd that it has been the Reproach of some Sects of Christians amongst us that their Religion appear'd to be in a manner opposite to Good-nature and founded in Moroseness Selfishness and Ill-will to Mankind Things not easily reconcileable with a Christian Spirit But certainly it may be said of the Church of England if of any Church in the World that this is not Her Spirit But it is by Characters and Features just contrary to these that this Church shews Herself above all others most worthily and nobly Christian. It is certain that there is nothing more contended for by those who would not willingly admit a Deity nor is there any thing of greater Use to them in their Way of Reasoning than to have it pass as current that there are in Man no Natural Principles inclining him to Society nothing that moves him to what is Moral Just and Honest except a Prospect of some different Good some Advantage of a different Sort from what attends the Actions themselves Nor is it strange that they who have brought themselves off from so much as believing the Reality of any Ingenuous Action perform'd by any of Mankind meerly through Good Affection and a Rectitude of Temper should be backward to apprehend any Goodness of that sort in a Higher Nature than that of Man But it is strange to conceive how Men who pretend a Notion and Belief of a Supream Power acting with the greatest Goodness and without any Inducement but that of Love and Good-will should think it unsuitable to a Rational Creature derived from Him to act after His Example and to find Pleasure and Contentment in Works of Goodness and Bounty without other Prospect But what is yet more unaccountable is that Men who profess a Religion where Love is chiefly enjoyn'd where the Heart is expresly call'd for and the outward Action without that is disregarded where Charity or Kindness is made all in all that Men of this Perswasion should combine to degrade the Principle of Good-nature and refer all to Reward which being made the only Motive in Mens Actions must exclude all worthy and generous Disposition all that Love Charity and Affection which the Scripture enjoyns and without which no Action is Lovely in the Sight of God or Man or in it self deserving of Notice or kind Reward But perhaps one Reason of this Misfortune has been that some Men who have meant sincerely well to Religion and Vertue have been afraid least by advancing the Principle of Good-nature and laying too great a Stress upon it the apparent Need of Sacred Revelation a Thing so highly Important to Mankind should be in some Measure taken away So that they were forced in a Manner to wound VERTUE and give way to the Imputation of being Mercenary and of Acting in a slavish Spirit in Ways of Religion rather than admit a sort of Rival in their Sense to the Faith of Divine Revelation Seeing that Christianity they thought would by this Means be made less necessary to Mankind if it should be allow'd that Men could find any Happiness in Vertue but what is in Reversion Thus one Party of Men fearing the Consequences which may be drawn from the Acknowledgment of Moral and Social Principles in Human-kind to the Proof a Deity 's Existence and another Party fearing as much from thence to the Prejudice of Revelation Each have in their turns made War if I may say so even on Vertue it self Having exploded the Principle of Good-nature all Enjoyment or Satisfaction in Acts of Kindness and Love all Notion of Happiness in temperate Courses and moderate Desires and in short all Vertue or Foundation of Vertue unless that perhaps be call'd Merit or Vertue which is left remaining when all Generosity free Inclination Publick-spiritedness and every thing else besides private Regard is taken away If this may be said to be our Case under this Dispute and that true Religion it self which is Love be thus endanger'd and Morality so ill treated between two such different and distant Parties if each of these notwithstanding their vast Disagreement do yet in this Matter so fatally agree to decry Human Nature and destroy the Belief of any immediate Good or Happiness in Vertue as a Thing any way suitable to our Make and Constitution there is then so much the more Need of some great and known Man to oppose this Current And here it is that
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
Heart's Ease Quiet Content and Satisfaction The Grace of the Gospel whereby we hope to be saved doth not only give Continuance Help real Furtherance and Assistance to Natural Truth which lost much by Man's Apostacy from God and so needed a hand to help it up but it also doth its own proper work by emptying the Mind of Man of Wilfulness Presumption and Self-conceit which is incident to his Nature and so making room for the help of Grace and Divine Assistance and Forgiveness But to pursue this Argument a little further A gospel-Gospel-Spirit doth excel in Meekness Gentleness Modesty Humility Patience Forbearance and these are eminent Endowments and mightily qualify Men to live in the World This is that which makes Men bear universal Love and Good-will and over-comes Evil with Good This I dare say had we a Man among us that we could produce that did live an exact Gospel-Life were the Gospel a Life a Soul and a Spirit to him as Principles upon Moral Considerations are this Man for every thing that is excellent and worthy and useful would be miraculous and extraordinary in the Eyes of all Men in the World Christianity would be recommended to the World by his Spirit Were a Man sincere honest and true in the way of his Religion he would not be grievous intollerable or unsufferable to any Body but he would command due Honour and draw unto himself Love and Esteem For the true Gospel-Spirit is transcendently and eminently remarkable every way for those things that are Lovely in the Eyes of Men for Ingenuity Modesty Humility Gravity Patience Meekness Charity Kindness c. And for all this that I have said I will refer you but to that of the Apostle where he doth set out the fruits of the Spirit and the works of the Flesh He tells you that the works of the Flesh are Hatred Malice Emulation Strife Sedition and such like All of a kind and all of them do speak Hell broke-loose and come in upon us in the World For these are from Hell and tend to Hell and represent to us in this World the Hellish State that we dread to meet with hereafter But on the other side the fruits of the Divine-Spirit in Men they are Love Joy Patience Long-suffering Meekness Gentleness and such like And all of these are such lovely things that they make Heaven in a degree where they are found * Whereas the former turn the World into a kind of Hell Such is the Nature of Religion that it keeps the Mind in a good Frame and Temper it establishes a healthful Complexion of Soul and makes it fit to discharge it self duly in all its Offices towards God with its self and with Men. Whereas the Mind of a wicked and profane Man is a very Wilderness where Lust and exorbitant Passions bear down all before them and are more fierce and cruel than Wolves and Tygers So the Prophet Isaiah 57. 20. The Wicked is like the Raging Sea always casting forth Mire and Dirt and Prov. 17. ver 12. One had better meet a Bear robbed of her Whelps than a Fool in his Folly and you all know who is Solomon's Fool even every wicked Man The Heavenly State consists in the Mind's Freedom from these kind of things It doth clear the Mind from all impotent and unsatiable Desires which do abuse a Man's Soul and make it restless and unquiet It sets a Man free from eager impetuous Loves from vain and disappointing Hopes from lawless and exorbitant Appetites from frothy and empty Joys from dismal presaging Fears and anxious Cares from inward Heart-burnings from Self-eating Envy from swelling Pride and Ambition from dull and black Melancholly from boyling Anger and rageing Fury from a gnawing aking Conscience from Arbitrary Presumption from rigid Sowerness and Severity of Spirit for these make the Man that is not byass'd and principled with Religion inwardly to boyl to be Hot with the Fervours of Hell and like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up Mire and Dirt. But on the other side Things that are con-natural in the way of Religion the Illapses and Breakin gs in of God upon us these require a Mind that is not subject to Passion but in a serene and quiet Posture where there is no tumult of Imagination It is observed among the Rabins that if a Prophet fall into a Rage and Passion the Spirit of Prophesie leaves him They say that Moses did not prophesie after the Spirit of Passion moved him But sure it is there is no genuine and proper effect of Religion where the Mind of Man is not composed Sedate and calm I find among the Philosophers that they never had expectation of any Noble Truth from any Man that was under the Power of Lust or under the Command of Fancy and Imagination or that lived in the Common Spirit of the World They thought that God did not communicate himself to such But this is certain that no Man that is immers'd in a sensual Brutish Life can have any true Notion of Heaven or of Glory These things must signifie no more to him than a Local Happiness and sensual Enjoyment than the highest and greatest Gratification of the Animal Principle all that he can think of Heaven is that it is a Place of great Enjoyment some Local Glory something that is suitable to the sensual Mind For we cannot ascend higher in our Actings than we are in our Beings and Understandings And these Men that think our Happiness lyes in the sensual Objects of Delight are not capable of understanding either the Reason or Necessity of Mortification inward Renewal and Regeneration in order to admittance into Heaven For they do not look upon Heaven as a State and Temper of Mind which is requisite to be reconciled to the Nature of God and to be according to his Mind and Will But Religion is the Introduction of the Divine Life into the Soul of Man and Men cannot possibly be really happy in the separate State but by these things by having a Divine Love ruling in their Hearts by Self-resignation and Submission to the Divine Will and by being like unto God Things are very well known what they are in being by what they are in working what the Principle of them is by the effect that flows from them Now I may say of Divine Truth whether Natural or Reveal'd that these do satisfie the Mind of Man and keep him from being barbarous cruel and inhumane Raligion doth give such Evidence and Assurance of it self that if you put it in competition with any thing that any Natural Man whether Atheist or Infidel doth ever rest upon it will appear to have a greater Foundation in Nature and * on the Grounds and Principles of common Reason Equity and Justice than any thing which can be set up against it to counterballance it And Reveal'd Truth super-added to Natural doth not only give assurance to it and helps to recover
am not ashamed This intimates that there is some where Matter of Shame within the Compass of the Business Now here Man's Apostacy and Sin these are shameful Things Which was the Occasion of the Gospel-Revelation The Grace of the Gospel which comes to repair and to restore puts us in mind of our ruinous and necessitous Condition So that there is cause of Shame in the Case tho' Cause of Glory and Triumph in the Grace of God It is the Power of God unto Salvation POWER not strictly as limiting to one Perfection But eminently to attribute to the Efficacy of Divine Grace * these two Things viz. Regeneration Nativity from above which is the Salvation of this State Glorification and consummating us in Holiness which is the Salvation of the Future To advance this Grace and to raise our Apprehensions of it consider the Author of it it is the Effect of the Divine Wisdom the Fruit of the Divine Love What it is in it self And of what Benefit to us There must be Greatness of Power to erect such a Fabrick and Structure as the World is and Excellency of Wisdom to administer the Affairs of it in all Variety of Cases Now it is pitty any should do the like that cannot also recover and restore if Necessity require For so should finite and fallible as we are if in any Error or Mistake be under an Impossibility of Redemption It is according to Nature's Sence rather never to have been than for ever to be irrecoverably miserable Wherefore if I believe God made me I will also believe God can restore me Nothing is clearer in Reason nothing is fuller in Scripture than that God is the first and chiefest Good In respect of his Relation to his Creatures earthly Parents do but resemble him John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. It must be attributed to his Goodness and Compassion because it was that which we cannot say he was at all bound to do It was that which he could not be constrain'd to do It was that which he was no Gainer by for our Righteousness is not profitable to him The Gospel of Christ is no Invention of Humane Reason Man neither prevented God nor recompenced him after Only the Necessity of Man's State required it and God's Goodness afforded it the Excellencies of Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power are display'd in it It 's not a Mystery now tho' formerly it was hid from Ages and Generations But now it is the Council of God's Will declared He that darkens words without Knowledge brings us back again to the Infancy of the World It was the Imperfection and Shortness of the Mosaical Dispensation that it was Tipical Mystical Ceremonial Symbolical full of Shadows things that did vail and darkly represent Obscurity is Imperfection as Darkness in comparison with Light Life and Immortality and all * the Principles of it are brought to Light through the Gospel The Gospel is admirable Speculation excellent Matter of Knowledge for here is the Revocation of an insolent bold Act of Usurpation upon God by Christ's full Submission and intire Self-resignation A Prince and a Saviour is raised up by God sent into the World not to make Havock to ruine and destroy not as it is 2 Sam. 12. 31. where the People were put under Saws and Harrows of Iron made to pass thorough Brickilns a thing intolerable to behold dreadful to read of tho' in this impotent incompetent World many great Warriours are made famous for such things even in unjustifiable War but he came to give Repentance and Forgiveness of Sin He came to seek and to save that which was lost The Gospel is a Vital Principle not of Natural Life but Divine as it satisfies the Reason of our Minds by Removal of Fears and Doubts by the Life of Faith Affiance and Trust in God and as it reforms our Spirits and Lives as conveying and communicating Principles of Goodness and Righteousness * by which we are made Partakers of the Divine Nature The Substance of the Gospel is Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. These do go together and encourage each other in as much as no Man repents who doth not believe nor can any believe who doth not repent To believe there is requisite an internal Disposition and Preparation of the Subject as well as a Divine Promise to build upon John 5. 44. Can you believe who receive Honour one of another and seek not Honour from God The same is in all Cases of Inordinacy and Sin Repentance and Faith in the Gospel are indifferently used He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life John 3. 36. Now he doth not really believe who doth not truly intend to do answerably The Scripture calls believing on Christ receiving of him If we receive him then we receive him such as he is and to such Effects and Purposes as God sent him for Now God sent him to bless us in turning us from our Iniquities The Scripture useth Synecdoches Sometimes Believing is put for the whole of Religion sometimes Repenting sometimes Fearing sometimes Love If we would not be partial nor deceive our selves we must always take in all concomitant Acts. Scripture as the Rule of Faith is not one single Text which may be short and intend another thing but the fulness of Scripture In all other cases he that believes doth according as he thinks Faith includes an Intention of new Obedience I may with great Reason say that the Matter of the Gospel is a Vital Principle as it satisfies the Reason of our Mind * and so sets us as Rest and Quietness within our selves as thereby seeing and knowing that we are out of danger In the intellectual Nature a Principle of Knowledge as to the Understanding is Vital as well as an habitual Disposition as to the Will What more Satisfaction can there be to the Reason of our Minds * what more tending to the Quiet of our Consciences than to be assured in a Matter of such Importance to us that God to whom we are so obnoxious by Transgression and Sin is most placable and reconcileable of himself through the Perfection of his own Nature and that he is absolutely resolv'd and engaged by his voluntary Determination and Promise to pardon Sin in and through Christ to all who repent and believe the Gospel and this and nothing less than this is the Matter of the Gospel This is to be accepted in and through Christ and is the real Explication of Justification by imputed Righteousness For this being suppos'd and proving true We are sure of God We know his Terms The Terms are fair and equal in themselves fit and just for should not an Offender do what is in him to undo what he hath done amiss The Terms are good for us for we cannot be happy by God in a way of opposition to God but by Submission and Reconciliation to him
according to the Difference of Good and Evil to do the one and to avoid the other Which are not positive and arbitrary Impositions but they arise from Conveniences and from Inconveniences of our Natures States and Relations So that the Sinner is a Person of violent Practice and one who doth unnatural Acts. And an Impenitent is one of a senceless and stupid Mind The Things that are the Bane of Mankind and that do alienate us from God are Sensuality Worldly-mindedness and Wickedness The two former of these do sink the Creation of God below it self so that it doth not continue the same that God made it A Man by these is render'd utterly unfit for Converse and Communication with God For by these he sinks himself below his Kind and makes himself equal to the Beast that perishes And by the latter * viz. Wickedness Man passeth into a clean contrary Nature becomes an Enemy to God and makes God an Enemy to him Against Sensuality and Worldliness I propose for Remedy the Application of the Principles of Reason and Vertue and the applying of our highest Faculties to their End and Object For while the Mind is employ'd in Heavenly Meditation or in extracting Spiritual Notions from material Things it is employ'd worthy of Intelectual Nature And our proper Business is to be thus employ'd By which the Concerns of the Body will be either laid aside or moderately engaged in and regarded Whereas this Power of our Souls is as it were lost where Men use themselves as if they had no Spirits but were altogether Body or as if the Body were the principal or governing Part. And in such a Condition are they who cannot understand what we mean when we bid them lift up their Hearts to God For the Candle of God's lighting within them whereby they are qualified to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways either it burns so dim that they cannot see by it or it is quite put out For it is found by Experience that the Malignity of the Heart doth blind the Understanding And true Wisdom will never abide in a malicious and wicked Soul There are indeed Souls that are * so active and so well acquainted with Heavenly Meditation that they very well know what is the Food of Souls and have the fore-taste of the Delight and Pleasure of the other World And certainly these Men have the greatest Satisfaction in their Lives of any other Persons For there is more of Satisfaction in Meditation in Reading in Conference about Divine Things in Application to God by Prayer and other holy Exercises than in any bodily Pleasure whatsoever For all bodily Exercise comes off with disquiet of Spirit Whereas in the other Way there is Refreshment every Moment There is new Acquisition For if there be any thing like Infinite in the Creation under God it is in Invention and the Power of Thinking This is the Advantage of Intelectual Exercise above Bodily Exercise The one works inwardly is still on the getting hand and is still in use for what this Man gets he hath still in store and that which is got in this way of Intelectual Employment will still improve by Use and what we get we always keep for Knowledge is no burden Whereas in things of the Body Use and Want Spend and be ever after without But it is no wonder that they who never acquainted themselves with retiring from the World know not what these Things mean Who mind only Worldly Things and know no more than what belongs to the Animal Life But on the other side if a Man make Application to God he acts with all his Might he recollects himself and gathers himself into himself that he may receive from God what God hath to communicate And the Things that God hath and doth offer are so great and glorious that our narrow Vessels had need be wholly emptied to make room for them Therefore the Minds Substraction from the World is necessary by way of Preparation and holy Meditation to beget in us such a Disposition by which we may receive from God A Man that can enjoy himself alone by Consideration and exercising his Faculties may run through as it were all times For a Man may live before he lives and after in this way He may by Reading acquaint himself with what was in former Times and by what Things are he may guess what are to come If he reflect upon Things past and view Things that are present and take a Prospect of Things to come as the Effect of Causes that are in being in this way Rational Faculties have sufficient Employment Whereas they that are always drudging in the Affairs of the World and never enjoy themselves alone will find little Satisfaction in these Things It is the proper Work of Reason in Man to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways It is the proper Employment of our intelectual Faculties to be conversant about God to conceive aright of him and then to resemble and imitate him Religion is an Obligation upon us to God The first Motion of Religion is to understand what is true of God And the second is to express it in our Lives and to copy it out in our Works The Former is our Wisdom And the Latter is our Goodness In these Two consist the Health and Pulchritude of our Minds For Health to the Body is not more than Vertue is to the Mind A deprav'd and vicious Mind is as really the Sickness and Deformity thereof as any foul and loathsome Disease is to the Body And as really as these tend to the Death and Dissolution of the Soul and Body so the Vices of the Mind tend to the Separation of God and the Soul What is short and inferior to Converse with God doth require a Recess from Worldly Business and Employment A Man can hardly compose an ordinary Poem without this But for the noblest Employment receiving from God and making Acknowledgment to him is a Man fit for this in the Hurry of Business and Confusion of Things It is also observed that this Life of Privacy and Retirement is either the best or the worst Life For in it we do as God doth or we imitate the Devil He who can be alone to his own Content in Measure and Degree is as God is For what other Employment had God from Eternity but satisfying himself in his own Goodness But as * this may be * the best so it may be the worst Life For a Man may be employ'd in contriving Mischief as the Devil is whose Work is said to be to bring Men into Condemnation If therefore * we are alone to ill Purposes and Designs then Solitariness and Retirement do make the worst Life * But if * Man be retired and alone and not intelectually employ'd then through Stupidity and Dulness he sinks down into the State of a Beast For take it for a certain Truth to be
but the Fewel of it is the Guiltiness of Mens Consciences and God's withdrawing because the Person is uncapable of his Communication Sin is an Act of Violence in it self The Sinner doth force himself and stirs up Strife within himself and in a Sinner there is that within which doth reluctate and condemn him in the inward Court of his own Conscience For if our Hearts did not condemn us all without might be avoided all else would fail if this Internal Guilt and Self-Condemnation might be removed But this Naughtiness of Disposition and Incapacity of Repentance is that which continues the Subject in Misery Hell * therefore is not a Positive Infliction but doth naturally follow upon Guiltiness and a spightful devilish naughty Disposition unto God and Goodness There is something in every Man upon which we may work to which we may apply to wit the Light of Reason and Conscience to which the Difference of Good and Evil may be made appear If we therefore declare Godliness Righteousness and Truth Men have a Voice to give Testimony and Conscience in Men will yield notwithstanding the power Lust hath over them If Reason may not command it will condemn Lastly Here you may have an account what it is that gives a Check and a Stop to the Motion of the Divine Spirit There is an Error in the first Concoction which is hardly remedied which is want of Advertency and Consideration Men do not awaken their Principles but give themselves leave to do what they cannot justifie themselves in Now there is no place for the further Motion of the Divine Grace where the former Grace is neglected and * render'd ineffectual It is self-neglect and voluntary allowing of our selves in Evil which brings us to Misery For there is no Invincible Ignorance in respect of things good in themselves and necessary No Ignorance excuses Immorality in any Instance whatsoever but invincible Ignorance doth excuse Infidelity in the chiefest Point The Reason is because the high Points of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance God hath made every Man to know but for the Resolutions of his Will Man must be perswaded of God and if God do not make Application to him where he doth not give he doth not require Take notice then of the Boldness and Presumption of these obstinate rebellious and contumacious Sinners who having this Proclamation from the Majesty of Heaven that the Wrath of God c. yet will dare to continue in Practices of Unrighteousness and assume to themselves power to controul the establish'd Laws of everlasting Goodness Righteousness and Truth and to vary from tâ—e Reason of things to gratifie their own Sence and to please their own Humours and to serve their own Ends and take upon them to over-rule all things that are holy settled and establish'd from Eternity What shall a Man say to such Persons Yet the Atheistical and Prophane are guilty of this Contumacy But as the Apostle says Their Condemnation is just and their Judgment lingers not We seem agriev'd at God's Plagues and Judgments which do so much disturb our Peace and Settlement in the World but we do greater Acts of Violence For we imprison Truth and give God true cause of Offence and take upon us to controul the Establish'd Laws of Heaven and to do other things than the reason of things dictates to us and directs us to do For the Text tells us that those that are obnoxious to God's Wrath are Persons of ungodly Practice so that they are of themselves condemn'd They cannot give an account to the reason of their own Minds nor satisfie their own Consciences but are hurried on and transported by furious and violent Lusts holding the Truth in Unrighteousness they are self-condemn'd before they be condemn'd of God BECAUSE THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM FOR GOD HATH SHEWED IT Uâ—TO THEM The Apostle doth here take upon him and thinks fit in this great Affair of Life and Death to shew and prove by Reason From hence we may learn three things 1 st That here is a Check and Controul to the forward and presumptuous Imposers that take upon them to dectate and determine and are angry with all Persons that are not concluded by their Sence These Persons take upon them more than the Apostle did 2 dly That Religion stands upon the Grounds of truest Reason for the Apostle here after he hath asserted proves by Reason 3 dly God's Ways and Dealings with his Creatures are accountable in a way of Reason But some think that God uses Arbitrary Power and that they might escape without Punishment if he would and that it is nothing but his Will and Pleasure In the 17th Verse he hath declared the way of Life and Salvation and in the 18th the way of Misery and Death Therefore the Ways of God are accountable in Reason If this were not the Way of God a Way worthy of Truth we might ask why this Apostle may not refer us to his publick Authority who might if any * one because of his extraordinary Conversion and Commission from Heaven but he declines that and proves by Reason But this great Truth is hereby hinted that the way of Reason is the way most accomodate to Humane Nature Therefore let us lay aside imposing one upon another or to use any canting in Religion Let us talk Sense and Reason for the Apostle doth here shew and prove by Reason And God himself who hath all Priviledge he says he will draw them with the Cords of Men and what is that but Arguments satisfactory to the Mind of Men and in the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah shew your selves to be Men that is awaken your rational and intelectual Faculties and take things into serious and impartial Consideration and I will convince you It is an Apology for any finite fallible Creature when he is mistaken if he had some Reason for his Mistake and if he can but shew why he did so think you have him excused 'T is a high Advantage and Double Security to any Teacher or Instructer to have in readiness to shew that what he saith is not his private Imagination but is in Conjunction with the Reason of Things or the Principles of God's Creation and of Divine Revelation if it be a Matter of Faith This but by way of Observation Because the Apostle doth decline his Commission of Apostleship and doth prove by common Reason That which is the Apostle's Argument is that all those who in the Language of Scripture are Sinners all that are ungodly impious towards God and unrighteous in his Family they sin against their Light go against the Principles of natural Conscience imprison Truth and sin against their Knowledge The Argument is because God made Men to know that he himself IS and his natural Perfections This is here plainly attested in this Verse It is shortly spoken to But because it is a Matter of great Weight it is spoken more fully
he hates nothing that he hath made He is good to all His tender Mercies are over all his Works A mild and gentle Spirit governs the World loving to Mankind It 's not to glorifie God to think that God hath imposed a Law upon himself or any way limited or disabled himself to commiserate in all compassionable Cases to think that he is not perfectly free in all Futurity of time to do that which is just and fit merciful and gracious friendly benign and kind becoming Infinite Goodness sutable to his relation to his Creatures * It is not to glorifie God to say that of him which may discountenance Application to him by any of his Creatures in any Case of Necessity and Misery For God is known to us by Good And there is no true Notion of God unless the full Form Essence and Substance of Good be fully in it For there is no absolute Perfection but in Conjunction with Goodness wherefore God magnifies his Mercy Goodness Righteousness fair compassionate equal Dealing above all other his names But those that are of malignant spightful envious naughty Dispositions they think it is the Excellency of God to be revengeful and to drive Designs of Ill upon his Creatures Psal. 50. 21. Thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self And really do we find Men of narrow Spirits that are ready to malign the Good of their Neighbour you may be confident what Apprehensions they have of God a hundred to one but the Excellency of these Mens Divinity is Soveraignty to ruin a great part of his Creation to show his Power But nothing is more certain than that Infinite Goodness doth to the full what is Good Nothing more certain than that God doth answer the Relation he stands in to his Creation and where we see Indulgency of Fathers this Goodness of Disposition in them is but a Communication from God a Resemblance of his Affection to his Creatures in some measure for is there any thing of Perfection in all the World that doth not derive from him who is the first and chiefest Good When you have done all you can the best Notion you can have of Deity is Goodness God and Good are best known by one another He that came from God came to seek and to save It is therefore not a Divine Work to make havock and spoil This is the first thing in Religion to have true Suppositions concerning God And if we have not these we may dread and fear him as an Enemy but * not love him we shall withdraw from God yea hate him and seek Happiness other-where 3 dly For Men to assume to themselves Power and Authority to assign a Mode of Divine Worship to make some material thing a Representation of God to us or exhibitive of his Influence to make an Instrument in Divine Worship without warrant from God or * as accountable in way of Reason This is not to glorifie God as God For this is to limit and confine him This hath been done presumptuously in the Heathen World And this is that which God took so much Offence at in the Jewish State And there is the same thing in the use of the Roman Worship In former times God did make some material things a Testimony of himself as the Temple was the place of Shecinah or Divine Habitation There should be no Shecinah but by Divine Assignation God may do what he pleases but for us to take upon us is to change the Glory of the incorruptable God into an Image c. and to turn the Truth of God into a Lye and serve the Creature more than the Creator This the Israelites did For when they made a Calf they would have something of Divine Representation which tho' the Text so calls in contempt yet they by the name of the Angel And this is also in Popish-Church Images It is not reasonable to imagine the Heathen World did otherwise The Idolatry of the World hath been about the Medium of Worship not about the Object Can any one think the Jews were so stupid and sottish as to think that what they made did make them or that their Calf did bring them out of Egypt The Calf was Loco Mosis non Dei These * things are prohibited in the second Commandment the Reason of which is moral and perpetual 4 thly Men do not glorifie God when they do degenerate into the clean contrary Nature as in the 30 and 31 st Verse degenerating into all sorts of Naughtiness living in Contradicton to the Nature of God and his Laws the Rules of Righteousness and Dictates of Reason It is expected and nothing is more natural to us than that we should govern our selves by the Laws and Dictates of our Nature and that we should write after God's Copy and that we should endeavour to be in our measure and proportion what God is in his Height and Excellency If this be to adore him to think that all the Ways of God are Truth Righteousness and Goodness then it is Religion in us to bring forth the Fruits of Truth Righteousness and Goodness We glorifie God therefore in the fullest and highest measure when we do so adore the Divine Perfections and are so taken with them that we affect an Imitation of them and a Participation according to our Capacity and when this is Final and Ultimate in us Therefore they do not glorifie him as God who do not set themselves in a way of Subordination to God to act for his Glory and in their Places and Spheres of Action do not serve these glorious Ends of Goodness Righteousness and Truth They glorified him not as God NEITHER WERE THANKFUL 5 thly Unthankfulness To be devoid of Sence of God's Goodness and Kindness in the many Fruits of his Love and Faithfulness to us * This is not to glorifie God What have we that we have not received Can we sacrifice to God of any thing that is our own But this is our own * to be thankful and he that is truly thankful to God will certainly glorifie him as God Since we are so much beholden to the Divine Goodness and are so unable to make Recompence there is all the Reason in the World we should be sensible and make due Acknowledgments And indeed Thankfulness and Obedience are our truest Sacrifices acceptable to God and available in our behalf Whoso offereth Praise glorifies me Psal. 50. 23. otherwise Oblations are insignificant Therefore see Isa. 66. 3 4. There things of Divine Institution and choice things are represented as things most infamous and abominable How comes this to pass Because they have chosen their own Ways and their Souls delight in their own Abominations So that it is Thankfulness and Obedience that are things of a Nature that cannot be corrupted Sacrifice and Things external may be vitiated and corrupted they may be in an ill Conjunction and they will be looked upon as Bribes to satisfie God for Immorality That God
who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity cannot be pleas'd with any thing that may pretend by way of recompence for any impure filthy immoral Acts. So Isaiah 1. 11 12 13 c. these things were instituted by God and required under great Penalties What work doth this Prophet make to cry down all Religion among them If he lived in our days he would cry down a great deal of Formality yea things really Good if in Conjunction with Immorality If Men be immoral in any way whatsoever if they consent to any Iniquity if they allow themselves in any evil Practice if they admit any such thing it doth spoil all their Religion We may conclude concerning all our Devotions and all those things that are but the Ministries and Instruments of Piety which are good in their right use if they are performed to be glorified in to be boasted of it is but as magnifying the Name of God and not departing from Iniquity If there be any Act of Unrighteousness it doth not only blemish but marr and spoil all And is it not plainly said the Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord as also Mich. 6. 6 7 8. Wherefore Thankfulness and Obedience that is the true Sacrifice that is what is worthy of the Creature to the Creator and that which God will certainly accept But it is most certain that the Zeal of any Institution tho' it be Divine Institution is to God unacceptable if in Conjunction with Immorality THANKSGIVING is an eminent piece of that Worship we call Invocation of God Three things are proper Prayer-Matter * and if Men confine themselves to these keep to proper Prayer-Matter and avoid unnecessary Repetitions none can be too long but if Men take liberty in Prayer to declare and to tell God Stories then I do not know when or where it will end 1 st Confession of Sin with desire of Pardon And as for that if Men live Christian Lives they will not have the same Sins to confess the second time For Christian Religion is not to Sin and Pray and Pray and Sin You may indeed acknowledge you have done it before but to confess it as practised again and again this doth declare that you are not Religious but Prophane 2 dly Acknowledgment of the Perfections of the Divine Being of his Superiority and of our Dependance upon God with a sence of our Insufficiency and Weakness and Desire of Divine Grace Influence and Assistance This is always to be in Prayer and this is a great Matter of Prayer Because tho' we are in a growing Condition yet we may say in this State that we have not attained Therefore to come to God in sence of our Insufficiency and of the Necessity of God's Influencing and Co-operating Grace this is work for us every day 3 dly Resentments of God's Goodness and Faithfulness to us and thankful Apprehensions and Expressions * of this And whatsoever is not comprehended in or referred to in these is Heterogenial to Prayer is Exorbitant and is not Prayer By the two former we daily fetch from God we obtain Pardon of Sin through Christ we obtain Guidance Aid and Assistance By the last we bring to him and this is our only Return Grateful Resentments and Apprehensions of the various Effects of the Divine Providence over us for averting of Evils from us and conferring of Good as they express our Ingenuity of Spirit towards God so they are the best things in our hands for God * the best Returns to God Galen the famous Physician having occasion to observe the Curiosity that is in the Make of Man's Body doth make a Hymn to God This * says he is the truest Worship of God the Creator and this is far more acceptable and better in it self than if I were able to bring a thousand Sacrifices or should offer the choicest Incense and Perfumes if I my self be sensible acknowledge and upon occasion exhibit and represent the Power of the Creator the Wisdom of the Creator and his Goodness His Power * and Wisdom for that he hath contrived in Mode and Figure so many Fitnesses and his Goodness in that he hath so fully communicated himself For what are Creatures but Divine Communications and this do I understand to be the best Worship of God and transcendent of that Sacrifice which may consist of Hecatombs of Beasts and of the purest Incense One thing we have and but one thing which we may call our own I mean the Consent of our Minds and that must be ours or else it is not our Consent it is not what it is unless it be our own And yet we must acknowledge the Grace of God that it is our own by Divine Concurrence Now let us by our own voluntary Act addict and determine our selves to God Let us afford him the Consent of our Minds i. e. make him our Delight and our Choice take Pleasure Content and Satisfaction in him This is the fullest way of Thankfulness to God out of sence of his Excellency and Goodness to reckon all our Happiness to consist in our Enjoyment of him our being and living in Communion and Acquaintance with him So that we have where-withal to sacrifice to God We have the Consent of our Minds We have this from God to be our own Act. We may make him our Choice breath after Interest in him and Communion with * him This is the best Expression of Thankfulness and this is the Christian 's Free-will Offering * Thus I * have made Explication of Unthankfulness We owe Thankfulness to God because we live by his Influence It is most natural to make Acknowledgment and to make thankful Returns to God Their Accusation is that they did not glorifie him as God and were unthankful The Argument of Conviction and the Aggravation of the Fault is because God made them capable of knowing that God is and that willingly and knowingly they were thus wanting and so did transgress That Person is altogether unexcusable * and self-condemned who knowing that he hath a Creator that is of infinite Power Goodness and Wisdom and having Sense and Knowledge that there is a God as God hath made Man to have doth not adore him fulfil his Will is not observant of him not affected toward him doth not rejoyce and delight in him * So that Irreligion is the most unnatural thing in the World Truth is a seminal Principle with which the Mind of Man being impregnated ought to bring forth and in this case * there should be neither Barrenness nor Abortions For Rational Nature is as sufficient and proportionable to its Effects as any vital Principle besides in the World If hurting a Woman with Child so as Mischief followeth be so punishable Exod. 21. 23. what is this case of Destroying the Seed of God in Man's Minds For so it is called 1 John 3. 9. Seed is accounted lost when * being sown in the Ground it never comes up So are
Men will be fill'd with the Fruit of their own Ways and they cannot think that things will finally prove otherwise if they at any time of their Lives think with Reason But if Men presume and be regardless and disorderly and do not consider Consequents by their Antecedents they may flatter themselves and go on in a State of Stupidity But if ever a Man be Rational in his Religion if he do use Reason at all worthy his Make he will foresee future Mischief in a wicked and naughty Course of Life In this Case every one hath within himself what will foretel and what will forewarn what doth daily reprove and condemn him He carries Arguments in his Breast contrary to his Suppositions No Husband-man expects a Crop in Harvest but according as he sows his Seed No Man that is in a Spirit opposite to God Goodness Holiness and Truth that lives in a State of Inconsistency to Religion can expect to be Happy in any Enjoyment of God in a future State unless he can believe Impossibilities and Absurdities * And as hereby we may have Foresight of the future State of Men so hence also is the Account how it comes to pass that some Men are of a most tortured distracted confounded Condition at least at Times and Seasons in this Life having Hell kindled in their Consciences Hell-fire flashing in their Faces Hell on this side Hell So it is with Sinners They are compounded of Inconsistencies They have more Knowledge of God than Love and Affection for him They have more Light in their Minds than Goodness in their Souls By Knowledge they are one way by Affection another way And these Men when they are apart out of worldly Distraction they must be in a tortured and in a confounded Condition When they consider they conceive within themselves things that are monstrous violent and unnatural things which are Upstarts Traytors to Humane Nature Lust Humour Will Passion have dethroned REASON Man's Natural Soveraign and have usurped the Government of Man Where These are not subordinate to Reason and Judgment where These have dispossest the natural inbred Soveraign where These have usurp'd the Government and dethroned Reason what a State is it No Society so distemper'd and confounded For none of these Four were made to govern but they were to be regulated Where Men will have their Will and live by their Humour and in Passion and Lust hath Dominion over them they must needs be in a State of great Confusion because there is so much of Disorder within them The Dictates of Reason calmly guide us But Will Humour Lust and Passion are Incendiary Principles We see the very best of many Men by what is outward who put a good Face on it when they come abroad but are very ill welcomed when they come to their inward home Therefore Persons of bad Lives and evil Consciences love not to be alone They had rather be in any Employment than that of Self-reflection and considering themselves Few Men would envy these Mens Conditions notwithstanding they have some worldly good Circumstances notwithstanding they make a good Show in the World if they were acquainted with their inward Aches Tortures Wrackings and Vexations It is observ'd by Tacitus concerning Tiberius the Emperor that being conscious to himself of horrid Wickednesses and unnatural Practices he could have no Quiet of Mind notwithstanding his Divertisements And he writes That if all the Deities should conspire to make him miserable they could not torment him half so much as the Torment of his own Mind Inward Perplexities Confusion of Mind and Thoughts occasion'd by Guilt of Conscience and Naughtiness of Mind these transcend all the Tortures of the Gout or Stone of which Men have such dreadful Apprehensions For the Spirit of a Man can bear his Infirmity But a wounded Spirit who can bear Who hath a Man to direct comfort or uphold him if he hath not the Reason of his own Mind Therefore tho' ignorant Persons represent the Ways of Religion and Conscience as Melancholy because Men are kept within the Compass of Reason and Sobriety it is the greatest Mistake in the World Because in Religion are joyful Apprehensions Men fear not God slavishly They do not think he will do them any harm But if a Man be in a malignant Disposition and have Naughtiness of Mind he is upon all Self-reflection troubled with inward Vexations and Fears The wicked are like the troubled Sea As Violence in the World Natural is attended with Conflagration so in the World Moral it is attended with Exasperation of Mind and with Fury * In the next place then observe That we are to have God excused in respect of the sharpest of all his Judgments There are Sins of Men * that are far higher in the Rank of Sins than any Judgments of God in this State are great in order of Punishment For there are Sins in this World of which we have Reason to think that they must necessarily go before-hand into Judgment upon account of God's Honour and the Necessity of Righteousness Also they who lie under the greatest Violence in this World Men of profligate Lives and debauched Spirits suffer less by the Judgment of God than from within themselves It is intolerable to suffer as a guilty Person and Malefactor It is intolerable for a Man to suffer the Torments of his own Breast because he is guilty of his own Iniquity If I suffer under a Power that cannot be resisted * and for no Fault I suffer either as a Martyr for a good Cause or under an unavoidable Necessity being under no Demerit or Contradiction to the Reason of my Mind And then I have all the Strength of my Reason all the Courage that is in my Nature to support me But if I suffer as a guilty Person I am not then true to my self I shall have the Reason of my own Mind against me For Guilt is the Sting of Punishment Judgments are to awaken sleepy Consciences Those that are guilty are very shye apprehensive and sensible till by Use Practice and Custom seardness be contracted So that the Judgments of God are little if Men be not guilty For Self-condemnation is founded in Man's Guiltiness and Faultiness So true is it thy Destruction is of thy self and that the Judgments of God in this World in the Order of Judgments are not so great as some Sins are in the Rank of Sins Wherefore O Man whosoever thou art that sufferest wouldst thou effectually ease thy Condition put thy self upon Examination and the Motion of Repentance This will alter the Case And all the World cannot give thee Heart's-Ease save in this way Lastly This Text is to be read in the Ears of Atheists wherein are Two Things for them to consider What it affirms as proved by Effects that God made Man to know that he is and his essential Perfections so that his Opinion is against his very Make And how it describes
Evils We and We alone cause Guilt in our Consciences We and We alone do deform and deprave our Minds We and We alone are the Causes of Diseases and the marring of our Bodies when * we are intemperate Further to prove that MISERY IS OF OUR SELVES I shall take Two Grounds from the Apostle 1 st Man is a Law to himself That is the Effect and Purport of the Law is written in his Heart So that Man is felfcondemned if he transgress he himself being Judge And Self-condemnation is the Life of Hell What the Apostle saith of the Word of Faith of After-Revelation We need not ask who shall ascend c. But the Word of Faith which we preach is nigh thee even in thy Heart the same also may we say of the Principles of God's Creation in us which belongs to our very Make. For Man by Vertue of his Nature and Principles is as sufficient and proportionable to Acts of Reason and Understanding as any inferiour Nature is to Acts Homogenial and Con-natural And we observe that inferiour Nature fails not if it meets not with Foreign Disturbance and Impediment Man therefore out of the Way of right Reason is a Monster a Prodigy in a State of Delinquency and Deformity and he returns not to himself but by Revocation of what is unduly done and renewal by Repentance Otherwise he remains under Self-condemnation So cannot but be miserable 2 dly Great Sinners leave natural Use. Now the Propensions and Inclinations of the Powers and Faculties of our Natures are not controuled without great Violence to our selves and Affront given to God As to instance it is horrid monstrous degenerate and unnatural to live without God in the World because Mind and Understanding are God's peculiar Reserve in Man given to be employed about him So that it is Alienation and Sacriledge to divert them from him It is unnatural to be Intemperate The Desires of Nature are Modest and within Bounds and Compass And all Excess is burthensome It is Devilish to be Spiteful and Revengeful For Man by Nature is Sociable and wishes well to them in whose Company he takes delight This must be understood of Nature before it be abused by unnatural Acts ill Use Custom and Practice For the better any thing is in its Constitution and Integrity the worse it is in its Degeneracy and Depravation I infer Four Things from * hence 1. If Man's Misery be from within * and from Man's self then no Imputation lies upon God of hard Usage of his Creatures Let us therefore resolve with Elihu to give all Honour to our Maker and ascribe Righteousness to him and not entertain such Thoughts and Apprehensions of God as will not recommend him to us nor encourage our Applications to him For it is the leading Point in Religion to have in our Minds right Suppositions of God 2. If this were duly considered Men would not allow themselves to be Lawless Arbitrary Licentious Exorbitant tho' they might avoid the Danger of Divine and Human Laws For Misery arising from within Sinners would be miserable and unhappy tho' God and Man should let them alone 3. If this were duly considered Men would not be agrieved at the Shews and Appearances of this vain World so as to envy the Condition of the Fond and Foolish who intoxicate themselves with Fancies and are Self-flatterers The seeming Prosperity of the Wicked hath been a Stumbling-block to good Men in * all Ages to David Job Jeremiah till they have bethought themselves examin'd and considered But that is well which ends well The Tempter abuses credulous Persons suggesting the Day of Vengeance to be a long time hence Whereas the Sins of Men do not stay for all their Punishment till the Day of Judgment But whether external Punishment be sooner or later Wickedness carries Misery in its own Bowels Were we but at times to see the Torture and Anguish that Guiltiness gives occasion to the Unquietness of naughty malicious Minds the Perplexities and Vexations of the Envious a Man of Poverty if of Innocency and Integrity would not change Conditions with them notwithstanding their worldly Accommodations and gay Out-sides 4. This effectually recommends to us Principles of Reason and Religion as things fit to rule and govern in the Life of Man as things Soveraign to Nature * as the Law of Mens Apprehensions and the Rule of Mens Actions They moderate Mens Passions compose Mens Spirits quiet Mens Minds keep Men in their Wits suffer no abuse to their Bodies A discomposed Mind doth disaffect the Body and a distemper'd Body doth disturb the Mind There is more Satisfaction in good SELF-GOVERNMENT than in all the forced Jollities and Pleasures in the World * Therefore to obtain this Composedness of Spirit and in order to this great Work of Self-Government First I propose that we do not attempt to compound and make things stand together that are of a contrary Nature and Quality as Worldly Policy and Divine Wisdom These two things are as distinct as any things in the World the one is for compassing Ends by all Ways and Arts the other is for all Ways of Righteousness Peaceableness and Universal Good-will * Thus for a Man to resolve to get an Estate by any Ways or Means to haste to be rich and with this to retain Innocency Uprightness and Integrity than which nothing is more impossible For a Man to compound inordinate Self-love with the Love of God and his Neighbour For a Man to make * it the Employment of Mind and Understanding to gratifie Sense and serve Brutish Lusts and yet think that he may * be acted and guided by the good Spirit of God These * things will not consist together Secondly I propose that in all the Variety Difficulties and Uncertainties of this World which is subject to so many and various Changes a Man resolve to be himself as to the great things of Humane Life Let him be the same in respect of his End both intermediate and ultimate the next and the last that is let his immediate End be warrantable and lawful and the ultimate End be that which is universally good as the Observance of God and his own Happiness For these are the same and concur together Let him be the same in respect of his Aims Designs and Intentions Let these be always worthy and let him hold to them Let him be the same in respect of his Rule and Principle of Living and of Acting Tho' he fail in a particular Action yet let him hold to his Rule and as soon as he can recover himself to his Rule and Law Let him be the same in respect of his Contentment and Satisfaction Let not a Man take up and applaud himself in any Attainment or Acquisition that is short of that which will finally accomplish a Man and make him happy Let a Man always be himself in respect of his Engagements and Undertakings Let a Man conjoin with his Natural Powers
than a Joint Concurrence of worldly things internal Peace Ease and Satisfaction of Mind Rational Apprehensions calm and quiet Thoughts a serene Heaven within which are the true Ingredients of Self-Enjoyment There is no Man Free unless he be Wise and there is no Man Wise who hath not the Government of himself For this Man is a Slave Solomon hath told us that he who ruleth his Spirit is greater than he that taketh a City And he that doth not this doth not enjoy himself Wherefore let us have clear Perceptions of the Reason of Things and Power within our selves without Distraction to do and resolve accordingly And then I account a Man a good Man a wise Man and well accomplish'd And he that arrives not to this lives at Peradventure and acts like a Fool He doth nothing worthy his own Species or the Rank and Order of a rational and intelligent Being For we are bound by Vertue of our Creation to act out of a Fore-sight of the Reason of Things as inferior Beings act according to their Con-natural Qualities And it is monstrous and horrid if they do not In like manner it is ugly and degenerate for Man that is indued with Reason to act at Hap-hazard and not out of Fore-sight of the Reason of Things This is as monstrous as it is for the Sun not to shine and to fill the Air with Stench and Putrifaction The Irreligious * therefore leave natural Use which till Nature be put out of Course and by Custom habituated to the contrary cannot but be grievous Things easily go on in Nature's way but being interrupted for a while at least strive to return to their natural Course Nothing doth well under Force and Violence The World hath an ill Opinion of Religion But if we will believe our Saviour His Yoke is easie and his Burthen is light His Commandments are not grievous David found high Content in them And Solomon all else to be Vanity It sometimes comes to pass through the Grace of God that some after a wild Course run if Incorrigibleness and invincible Hardness be not contracted by unnatural Practice upon Reflection and After-consideration greatly condemn themselves in what they have done and return to Ways of Sobriety and Religion and hold better to it because of former costly Experience Such an Instance is a great Condemnation to licentious and exorbitant Practices and a Testimony from Persons of double Experience of the better Ways of Vertue SERMON VI. ROMANS I. 29. Being filled with all Unrighteousness Fornication Wickedness Covetousness Maliciousness full of Envy Murder Debate Deceit Malignity Whisperers c. IN these words you have the ultimate Issue of the horrid monstrous degenerate State of Mortals This Catalogue of Vice is enough to startle and awaken any one make him considerate and apprehensive of his Danger * so as to betake himself to Religion and to come within the Confines of it that he may be delivered from such Abominations One would wonder that Humane Nature should so degenerate that these Villanies should ever be reported of any who by their Institution are Intelligent Agents Of this Catalogue I have singled out one and that is COVETOUSNESS which because it is a subtle Evil and very mischievous I shall endeavour to discover it There is nothing in all the Scripture that is put in worse Company than this for it is reckon'd with all the horrid Effects of Degeneracy and Apostacy Yet Covetousness shelters it self under honest Names It is sometimes thought to be Diligence Prudence and Forecast Good-Husbandry Cautiousness Weariness So often do Men ruine themselves by entertaining this Viper under gilded Names Tho' I cannot discover it in all its Practices and Degrees yet I shall do you some Service in discovering that which is in any degree gross destructive to Religion and against Reason and Conscience Covetousness is much branded and spoken very ill of in Scripture It is put in adequate opposition to all Religion It is a Principle of the basest Practice for it hardens it self to any purpose Through Covetousness Men make Merchandize of the Word of God and * it is amongst the things that defile a Man The Covetous God abhors The Apostle saith it is Idolatry Nothing is more threatned in the Bible We are specially warned against it and told it is the root of all Evil. But it is a cunning subtle Sin No Man doth so justifie himself or is so hardly brought to repent as he that hath a touch of Covetousness I am of opinion that our Saviour hath in his Beatitudes ONE that he doth direct expresly against the Sin of Covetousness tho' it hath been alienated from the Sence by the generality of Interpreters viz. Blessed are the poor in Spirit for that which the Interpreters do fasten upon this hath place otherwhere and * therefore if it be here it is supernumerary They understand by it Dejection Humility of Mind and Contempt of our selves so they make it to comply with these Scriptures the Lord is nigh to the broken Heart and contrite Spirit To him will I look who is of a poor and contrite Spirit I heartily close with their Sence but find it in another place for that which they call Poverty of Spirit viz. Humility may be referred to another Beatitude Blessed are the Meek which doth not only import Gentleness Affability and Sweetness of Behaviour towards Men but also every degree of Humility and Subjection to God And for poor in Spirit thus I interpret it He may be poor in Spirit tho' he hath an abundance of Wealth and Honour who is a Man of moderate Desires and is satisfied with those things which God hath given him and may be poorer in this respect than the lowest Beggar * who hath unsatiable Desires of Riches and an Affectation of Power Command and Wealth for he is poor in Spirit tho' he hath an Affluent Estate and can command the World if his Mind stand right and he be loose to it and above it as to any Trust and Confidence in it And he that hath but from Hand to Mouth yet if he hath inordinate Desires tho' he be a Beggar he is covetous By Poverty of Spirit I do understand a kind of want of Affection to the World A Disposition of Mind spiritually steered so as not to decline to the Wealth and Pomp of the World looking upon them as Means and not giving them the Honour nor at all placing them in the room of Ends. So that if a Man hath the World's Goods and yet in his Heart he doth not lean to them and if having them not he doth not thirst after them nor hath inordinate Desires to them he is poor in Spirit He may be rich in outward Wealth and poor in Spirit if he love them not and he may be poor in outward Estate and yet covetous if he desire them Poor he may be and have but little in the World
and yet not poor in Spirit not poor with a holy Will Those that are poor in Spirit are so upon Consideration having considered that few of these things are necessary in Life that the Happiness of Man consists not in the abundance of these things and that these have but the place of Means not of Ends and therefore will not be under the Power to them For no good or wise Man will be subject to any thing but what hath the rank and order of an End * I say it again He that hath the World's Goods in his hand and doth abound in Wealth Honour Power and Authority as a Mean in order to an End this Man tho' he be rich may be poor in Spirit And another tho' poor is covetous if he maintain greedy Appetites and do not acquiesce in the Providence of God For it is not a Man 's external Condition that makes him righteous or wicked but the Temper of his Mind and the Complexion of his Soul He that hath inwardly in his Soul and Will concluded that Riches and Honours are but superfluous Accomplishments so far as they are beyond Accommodations or the Notion of Instruments * He who hath in his Soul the Sence our Saviour expresses that the Life of Man consists not in the abundance of things to be enjoy'd this is the Man that is poor in Spirit So that whereas Covetousness is commonly cast upon Men of Estates yet we find upon Examination that the lowest sort of Men are as apt to fail and miscarry as Men of Estates For it lies in the Temper of a Man's Mind and in the Frame and Disposition of his Spirit He that hath in his Soul a Sence that the Happiness of Man consists not in what he possesses and considers that Nature is content with moderate things and that these things are but Means and Instruments to an End and that the Virtue of an Instrument lies in the Use and Exercise of it therefore Desires to have neither Poverty nor Riches this Man is not Covetous But this we may observe that sometimes upon Discontent Men that are under the Power of Covetousness will pretend to high Nobleness and Generosity when the World offends them and sometimes in haste bid defiance to the World So Charles the Vth. Emperor of Germany who had done mighty things and won many famous Battels But when by attempting many things he had plunged himself into Multitudes of Inconveniencies and brought himself into a Maze which he knew not how to get out * of then he resolves to resign up all which he doth The Empire to his Brother and the Kingdom of Spain with the Netherlands to his Son and to a Monastry he goes In such case We forsake not the World but the World rather forsakes us The great Power of renouncing the World being loose to the World being above the World is shewn when Men do it voluntarily upon Consideration not in Anger not in the Spirit of Revenge If we would approve our selves to be poor in Spirit and out of Love with the World let us do it while the World follows us and as it were courts us not when it 's grown froward and turns its Back upon us The Church of Rome perswade Men that they enter into a State of Perfection who enter into Religious Orders by making a triple Vow one is of Poverty but how little of choice is it One of their Authors calls it the terrible Vow of Poverty * Now he who dedicates himself to God must in Heart leave the World and pass through Combates and Temptations and must not cast a languishing favourable Eye upon Wealth Honour and Preferment External things do very differently and uncertainly affect the Minds of Men. No Man knows what may be the Effect of worldly Prosperity or Adversity No Man knows whether if he should be rich he should be merciful or if he should be afflicted whether he should be patient Worldly Prosperity or Adversity each of them will comply with the Contraries Happiness and Misery As they are us'd they either tend to one or the other but the Operation of them is very uncertain Therefore let us value things equally according to their degrees of Goodness It is true indeed Worldly Prosperity hath an Advantage because he that is rich hath great Opportunities of glorifying God and doing Good having Tools to work with if God give him a Heart But if he hath not a Heart to improve this Advantage he is not regenerated and sanctified he is not led into a Divine Spirit by it And he that is in a State of Adversity and expos'd to Necessity is subject to be envious base and sordid But if Adversity and a streight Condition in the World make a Man patient humble and modest it 's well His Poverty will end much to his advantage So that you see both of the one and the other the Operation is very uncertain Therefore let no Man make himself a Slave to that which is no part of his Happiness But Men are thought to talk of strange Riddles that tell Men they must not have inordinate Desires to Wealth they must not estimate and value themselves by it nor by State Dignity Place and Power He that talks thus will be in danger to be looked upon as Lot by his Sons in Law to speak as one that mocked * He who finds in himself Inclinations towards the World Desires to grow rich to raise himself in Honour and Preferment let him suspect himself It is great Wisdom in matters of Danger to fear even things that are safe For it is a good Rule Casuists go upon in the Court of Conscience that it is safer for Men to suppose a Fault than no Fault In the Court of Conscience censure and search the Passages and Inclinations of the Heart Riches are often mentioned in Scripture but seldom spoke well of Nor ever * do we find that the Rich are declared to be Blessed but that they hardly enter into the Kingdom which if we did consider would make us suspect and look about us Scripture warns us not to trust to uncertain Riches not to heap up superfluous parts of them but to lay a good Foundation that our Hearts be not over-charged with the Cares of this Life St. Austin says That if it had been Happiness to have loved the the World and the things of it That Man would have loved them who was the Son of God But our Saviour's worldly Circumstances may make us * think the worse of secular Pomp and Bravery * For that he was in such Circumstances was not by Chance but Choice We find that the Apostles writ after his Copy For what one Act of theirs did discover looking towards the World excepting only * as to Provision for necessary Maintenance The Heathen Philosophers profess'd and greatly practis'd Contempt of the World * Now it is a horrible Reproach and Condemnation to us if the Faith of the Gospel should
which hath the Predominancy over all other Inclinations as being the Supream and ultimate End to which all his Designs and Actions must be subservient by a natural Necessity Whereas on the other hand those Rules or Means which are most proper for the attaining of this End about which we have a Liberty of Acting to which Men are to be induc'd in a Moral Way by such kind of Motives or Arguments as are in themselves sufficient to convince the Reason these I call Moral Duties DUTIES as deriving their Obligation from their Conducibility to their promoting of our chief End and MORAL as depending upon Moral Motives So that Self-love and the proposing of Happiness as our chief End tho' it be the Foundation of Duty that Basis or Substratum upon which the Law is founded yet it is not properly a Moral Duty about which Men have a Liberty of Acting They must do so Nor can they do otherwise The most vile and profligate Wretches that are who are most opposite to that which is their true Happiness they are not against Happiness it self but they mistake about it and erroneously substitute something else in the Room of it So that if Men were upon all Accounts firmly convinced that God was their chief Happiness they would almost as necessarily love him as hungry Men do eat or thirsty Men do drink I have enlarg'd the more on this Particular the better to manifest the true Cause or Ground of this Love * to God BEING FILLED WITH ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS c. I will not rake into this Dunghil I will only observe that ILL-WILL is Characterized under no fewer Titles than Twelve Observe here where the Apostle reckons up the horrid and desperate Apostacy of Men that abuse Nature * and live in all Contradiction to Reason Religion and Conscience how many Titles and Places one sort of Iniquity doth take up being filled with all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS Maliciousness full of Envy Murder Debate Malignity Whisperers these are all of a Nature and Quality Backbiters Haters of God Despiteful Inventers of evil Things Implacable Unmerciful so that Two Thirds of these malign Characters lie upon the Want of Charity Love and good Will Humility good Affection doing that which is worthy of Human Nature For this is Con-natural and Inherent to every Species to consult the Good of those that are of the same Kind Hence we may observe how many ways Men sin against Charity The Scripture lays much of the Stress of Religion upon the Principle of GOOD NATURE and the Charitable Disposition I will give Account why Scripture doth so 1 st IT is of principal Use in Subservience to God's Government in the World If this Principle of good Nature and good Will were general there would be no Difficulty in Government The greatest Difficulty of Government either in the Hands of God or of his Instruments is occasion'd from the Perverseness of Men one to another For if there were but a Principle of good Nature and good Will Government would find an easie Discharge 2 dly It is the Expression of our Resentment of God's Compassion and Goodness They that maintain the Principle of good Nature are the Representatives of God in the World These are under the fullest Communications of God And these are in their Measure and Degree what God is in his Height Excellency and Fulness 3 dly Unless we be exercised in the Practice of it here we shall be no ways qualified to become Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem hereafter * And since it is a necessary Preparation and Qualification for the entrance of a Soul in the State of Eternity unto Glory we shall not wonder why the Scripture doth so insist upon it Unless we be discharged of Ill-will unless we be freed from Ill-nature we cannot have Admittance or Entrance into the Heavenly Jerusalem For we should be a Disturbance to that happy Society The Pleasures of Eternity are mental intelectual and satisfactory without Molestation or Contest An uncharitable Christianity unmerciful void of Good-nature is no more Religion than a dark Sun is a Sun or a cold Fire is Fire He only can dwell in God who dwells in LOVE If * we at all resemble God partake of his Nature or are in any degree such as he is we must root out of our Natures all Malignity Envy Malice Rancour Spite Displeasure To be out of Love and Good-will is to be in the Devil's Form and Spirit A Christian must not be an Enemy 'T is not compatible with Christianity to bear Ill-will * or as we say to carry Coals Frowardness Peevishness Male-contentedness are the most dangerous Evils because Men warrant themselves in them supposing that they are justifiable in it * Thus Jonah chap. 4. ver 9. I do well to be angry But oft we find upon after-Consideration not so much cause as upon the suddain we supposed so have reason to unsay and to undo This is frequently the case of ungovern'd Minds and of Cholerick Constitutions In this case I ask these hasty Furious Persons do they consider the Hurt they do to themselves when they * thus dispossess themselves of themselves so as neither to enjoy God nor themselves If we would be secure we must resist the beginnings of this Evil. Scripture give us many Cautions sundry Reasons several Precedents and Examples Prov. 15. 1. and 17. 14. * Thus Jacob's preventing Esau's Revenge Abigail's pacifying David's Rage so as that he blesses God for her What Mischief followed upon Hanun's misrepresenting David's intended Respect What upon Rehoboam's churlish Answer Nothing more discomposes the Mind than its own taking Offence which if it does it is its own fault He that conceives Displeasure in his Breast carries that within him which doth corrode * and torment him It is the Unhappiness of some that they are not born to the * same Good Nature * others are 'T is more their Burden than it is to others to be of * such bad Natures I would rather converse with such as are so tho' that be troublesome enough than have it my self for then it is an Evil without me if I have it my self it is an internal Malady If it were my Disposition from my Infancy I would study nothing but the Moral Vertues till I had subdued it For what is Vertue given for but to rectifie Crookedness of Nature Man hath his Religion to little purpose if by it he doth not mend his Nature and refine his Spirit Such a one only makes a Profession of it takes a Denomination from it There is great Congruity between our Well-being and the Nature of things enjoyned by Religion Thy Law is Truth that is such as it ought to be Submission to the things of Religion is ready kindly regular because our Minds are cast into the same Moulds with them framed into Suitableness and Conformity We worship God best when in our Mind * we are like him when in respect of God's
creditable an Instrument as the Bible from the Sense of Human Nature from the joint Report and Agreement of all who have not neglected or abused their Faculties who are as Euripides says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that That hath but little or no place in Religion and is very mean and low which is doubtful and uncertain which is not of unquestionable good Report Wherefore it argues Carelessness and neglective Indifferency to be unresolved undetermined in Matters of any Weight in Religion For we may fetch most of it out of our selves Awaken Intelectual Faculties search consider examine Principles of God's Creation All but what is properly reveal'd Truth may be found out All Offices of Piety Devotion towards God all Acts of Righteousness all Ways of Moderation Kindness Benevolence towards Fellow-Creatures Subordination of Sense to Reason within thy self Wherefore it lies upon us to excel in these great Instances of Morality gain Repute and Esteem in Minds of Men by exact Conscience in them In these greater Things we should be resolved and peremptory against the evil Suggestions and Provocations of a profane degenerate World In the lesser Things where common Sense * and Opinion is contrary * to Private suspend a while for thy own sake forbear for thy Brother's General good Report is considerable and by particular Persons to be weigh'd in foro interno ' Twou'd make a Man jealous of himself suspicious of his own Reason so far as to make him examine further enquire and not be too peremptory In foro externo common Sense * and Opinion is a very great Abridgment Limitation Restriction upon our Liberty Our Credit may not be euough to defend us from Censure Or * on the other hand it may be consider'd too much so as to lead others to practise without Judgment of their own * We shou'd consider also our Uncertainty Fallibility Partiality where we are affected or have a Mind So that it is safe and prudent to see also with other Mens Eyes In Multitude of Counsellours is Safety 'T is a Thing very desirable to have the World be as smooth and calm as quiet and tolerable as may be Offences amongst Men are apt enough to arise Where we cannot yield internal Assent for want of Evidence and assurance in Things external Obedience and Compliance with Sense of others may be yielded for the maintaining of Peace Love and Good-will If there be any VERTUE Can any thing come after so many Excellencies * after so many Universals such transcendent Accomplishments this shou'd seem needless For what can be more or further * But the Apostle doth not say * here that there is any thing beyond any thing distinct any thing further to be added to what he had said before It is not positive For it is but if any Vertue He seems to suppose he might not think of all But intimates that * whatever were wanting he wou'd add that also if it did occur and leaves us to supply the Defect by Parity of Reason His Mind is that a Christian shou'd be very compleat The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict and peculiar Sense signifies Warlike Valour or Courage in a common and ordinary Sense any Perfection in a Philosophical Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * as contrary to Vice and Wickedness This is also the Theological Sense and so is used by another Apostle twice * But St. Paul never uses this Word but in this place Tho' he oft insists on all the Christian Graces and Fruits of the Divine Spirit All which are Vertues as * consider'd in us and * are call'd Graces as from God To guess therefore at what the Apostle may mean here This is explicable in these Particulars In the Skill of several Mysteries of Arts and Sciences of Tongues and Languages of Trades and Professions in the Use of Gifts whether ordinary and acquired by our own Industry and Study or extraordinary as 1 Cor. 12. c. These are divers Ways in which Human Nature may be perfected and in which it may be employed The Apostle * therefore would not have Christians wanting * in any thing or think any piece of Morality below them be it as low as * meerly Civility Affability Courtesie The Apostle may be understood to have respect to the Peculiarities of Persons * There is that which is peculiar to each Sex The proper Excellence of one Sex is Modesty and loving Affection The proper Excellence of the other Sex is Judgment of the Reason of Things Courage and Resolution Some People besides their general Goodness Integrity and Uprightness as honest Men and good Christians are singularly good and useful in some particular Way and to some special Purpose Some are dexterous to put off an Abuse by innocent Wit and so prevent falling out Some are dexterous to put another out of a Fit of Passion without either speaking Untruth or Hurt to the Person who was the Cause of the Provocation Thus Abigal 1 Sam. 25. Some to put by ill Counsel and so to prevent Mischief as Hushai 2 Sam. 17. some to prevent Mistakes * in Conversation having Wit at Hand for better Construction than the Person concern'd was ready to make Some are good at Peace-making excellent Arbitrators Referrees ingenious at finding out Tempers and Terms of Accommodation Some are very good Company * able to relieve and recreate oppress'd drooping Spirits Some can handsomely bring another off when unhappily engaged These are good Effects of Nimbleness of Wit and Quickness of Apprehension which are oft found to prevent Mischief These several distinct Excellencies and Perfections are the Ornaments and Endowments of Human Nature and not all usually meeting in the same Person But divided and dispersed amongst Men. They are so many Rays and Beams of the Infiniteness of the Divine Knowledge and Wisdom the Flourishes of God's liberal and bountiful Creation These also recommend us one to another as needing each other in several Ways and to different Purposes * For by a joint Contribution of our several divided Perfections we make one Body compleat Whereas an Absoluteness and Self-sufficiency is not found in any Particular I conclude What is useful grateful beneficial tho' we cannot say it falls under particular Command is here recommended to us under the Name of VERTUE If there be any PRAISE PRAISE is a Note of Vertue and a Piece of its Reward It follows Vertue as Shadow a Body It accompanies worthy Action and is an Incentive and Spur to it 'T is true Vertue is in our Power praise not But that * Commendation which is from Persons not competent and who are themselves unworthy that which follows not good Action is not Praise or Honour Truth is great It may be oppress'd a while but will at last prevail When Men are incompetent to judge through their Insufficiency or are engaged in an evil Way we are then to approve our selves to their Consciences
Christian Religion It is to make the World less tolerable habitable and passable than it is of it self For do we the best we can the World is bad enough And we shall contribute to make Times and Places worse if we do not discharge our selves in mutual good Offices one towards another or at least if we be grievous one to another From this which I have now superadded to all that went before you may understand that it is with very great reason that the Apostle doth call upon us to be kind full of Bowels and Compassion read to gratifie and forgive that so we may be mutually helpful one to another and by the Comfort that we afford to each other make the Times and Places we live in the better Now could I perswade to this It wou'd be as New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven and the very Angels descending among us Even those Blessed Spirits that give God Thanks for his Grace and Goodness towards Men and cry continually Glory to God on high Peace on Earth Good-will to the Sons of Men. O Blessed Spirits that are free from that Canker of Envy and Malice Who tho' they see Man's Nature advanced above theirs in the Person of our Saviour yet they are not agriev'd at it but rejoyce and bless God for his Goodness to Mankind It is Divine Heavenly and Angelical to take delight in the Good of others Certainly we are not well settled in our Judgments as to this Point of Religion which makes us so negligent in our Duty It is too much the Practice of the World every Man to be for himself and to leave God to be for us all We generally practice so weakly and uncertainly in this Matter as if we had not consider'd the Obligation that Christianity lays upon us to this Duty Whereas it is absolutely and indispensibly necessary that whosoever professeth the Faith of the Gospel * should live in universal Love and Good-will And if any Man find himself averse hereto and hard to be satisfied in case of Offence and Provocation I will yet further superadd three great Mischiefs that will follow upon it First We do not at all express our Participation of the Goodness of God in Christ. Secondly If we carry in our Breasts any Ill-will Malice or Displeasure against any one it is an Argument that we our selves are not forgiven of God For did we believe that we our selves were forgiven of God we shou'd afford to do the like and to forgive our Brother Thirdly By this means we do unqualifie and indispose our selves for Forgiveness and to believe the Pardon of our Sins at the Hand of God For that which the Psalmist saith Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self proves often among Men. And that which a Man approves and allows in himself he will attribute and ascribe unto God No ill-natured People think well of God If a Man allow himself to live in Ill-will and to entertain Displeasure and Thoughts and Purposes of Revenge he will think that God having all Power and being more offended by us than we are by one another will certainly be avenged of us And I will never believe that an ill-natur'd Man one that lives in Malice and Displeasure one that hath Thoughts of Revenge and one that aggravates Injuries can think that God will pardon HIM For if we do believe that God hath pardon'd us it will engage us to pardon one another And further Let it be considered that we that are sometimes prejudiced by others may at other times do a Prejudice our selves accidentally if not designedly And as we wou'd desire that a Man shou'd either wholly forgive or set down with moderate Satisfaction in like manner shou'd we deal with our Brother that hath offended us For who is it that hath not at some time or other transgress'd and given an Offence Therefore let us not too long insist upon an Injury nor too long remember it The noble Philosopher saith 'T is a more generous thing to overlook and take no notice of an Injury than to pardon it And if we wou'd secure our selves it is best so to do for if we seem to resent an Injury we make a Person our Enemy whereas if we overlook it or turn it off by a candid Construction we shall win and engage him and he will think that we are better natur'd than himself Nay further yet By Candid Construction or by overlooking an Injury we shall frustrate the Ill Design of him that intended us ill Such a Man must think with himself how base a thing it is to design Harm towards so innocent so harmless and worthy a Person that will by his Ingenuity and Candour interpret an Injury into a Kindness Whereas if we be too quick in our Resentments we may make that an Injury which was none and so disturb our selves when we might have been quiet For certainly if a Man consult his own Ease Quiet and Satisfaction and will keep himself in a God-like Frame and Temper he will not live in Malice and Ill-will nor continue Displeasure And thus I have done with this great Argument Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger c. be put away And be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you SERMON V. 1 PETER III. 4. The Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price I HAVE spent a great deal of time in Erecting a fair and beautiful Fabrick a Superstructure of Love and Good-will of Christian Charity That I may not loose my Labour I now return and look a little after the better Settlement of the Foundation For this purpose I have made choice of these Words All depends upon a good Frame and Temper of Mind a MEEK and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price a Thing highly pleasing and acceptable unto him We find it is in vain for any one to attempt to purge the Stream unless he first cleanse the Fountain You must begin at the Spring-head The Heart is the Principle of Action Life begins there and Motion is from thence It is that which first lives and last dies Our Saviour tells us that what proceeds out of the Mouth comes from THE HEART and so defiles a Man For from thence come evil Thoughts Murders Blasphemies c. And Matthew 5. 28. our Saviour tells us of the Adultery of the Heart And Matthew 12. 34. Out of the abundance of the Heart c. And Verse 35. A good Man out of the good Treasury of his Heart bringeth forth good things c. Men shew their Spirits by their Words and Actions and these are as they are meant and intended The greatest Performance in the Life of Man is the Government of his Spirit So Proverbs 16. 32. He that is slow to Anger is better than the Mighty and he that ruleth his own
Self-Reflection due Consideration Self-Examination and the Exercise and Practice of Vertue Observe now the Incompetency of the World's Judgment How fond and partial is the World who do applaud the Great Disturbers of Mankind such as make Havock and Desolation in the Family of God bring in Confusion and turn all into Hurly-Burly giving * to such as these Titles of Honour naming them Conquerors and Victorious Persons * How fond I say and partial is the World who do so magnifie the Fame of high-spirited turbulent self-will'd Persons thinking them Men of Courage and Resolution And on the other hand accounting the Innocent and Harmless to be Persons of no Spirit or Activity Whereas the greatest Sign of Power and bravest Performance in the Life of Man is to govern his own Spirit and to subdue his Passions And this if the Scripture may give Judgment is the greatest Ornament belonging to a Man and that which is the most valued by God from whose Judgment there is no Appeal The Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price And good old Jacob when leaving the World when about to bless his Posterity he came to Simeon and Levi remembering their horrid Cruelty * it puts him to a loss O my Soul come not thou into their Secret for Instruments of Cruelty are in their Habitation c. Things are very differently accounted above and below * And by this it appears that the Guise of the World and the Fancy of Men are the most impotent and fond things imaginable * And further yet as to the Judgment of Scripture in this case This is the true Temper of Religion and prophesied of the Gospel-State Our Saviour in his Beatitudes begins with this Spirit And that this is the Temper that shall rule and prevail in the Gospel-State consult these Scriptures Ephesians 4. 2. 1 Timothy 6. 11. A Man cannot speak a good thing without Meekness If he speaks of God of Matters of Reason and Religion he spoiles that which he meddles with if he be not Meek For we must IN MEEKNESS instruct those that oppose themselves No good Notion will take place no good Seed can be sown no Plant will thrive every thing that is Divine and Heavenly will vanish if it be not settled by thiâ— Temper James 3. 13. Who is a wise Man and indued with Knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good Conversation his Works with MEEKNESS OF WISDOM Wisdom is not but in Conjunction with MEEKNESS There is no Religious Disposition or good Conversation where it is not Meekness must accompany all Motions in Religion or else 't is Passion or a Man 's own Interest Without this we are out of God's Way and have not his Blessing and this is that Qualification that makes us capable of the Promises of the Gospel tho' this Temper be accounted by the incompetent World a kind of Sheepishness and such as these are thought to be Persons of no Mettle nor Spirit yet the Holy Spirit reckons otherwise See how the Scripture reckons of Moses Of whom it is said He was the MEEKEST Man upon Earth and yet a Person of great Courage and Resolution How doth he appear to Pharaoh to his Face tho' threatned by Pharoah who was a Man of the greatest Power How did he act in the greatest Dangers Yet of this Moses of whom the greatest Performances are recorded it is said that He was the MEEKEST Man upon Earth We read of the MESSIAS that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Councel and Might With Righteousness he shall judge the Poor and reprove with Equity for the Meek of the Earth These are Acts of Authority and Power and thus is the Messiah declared Consider also that St. Paul useth the MEEKNESS of our Saviour for an Argument to perswade others to that Temper I beseech you by the Meekness and Gentleness of Christ. And Matthew 11. 29. our Saviour saith Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart From all that I have said it doth appear very reasonable that we should appeal from the Judgment and Sentence of Worldly spirited Men who applaud Persons that are of venterous Undertakings of fierce Resolutions of impotent Passions and unreasonable Affections Wherefore let every Man in the first place look after his Home-work what he hath to do at Home to establish in himself a due Frame and Temper of Mind for till this be done he is not fit to walk abroad or to have to do with others When this is done then there will be patient Forbearance and making Allowance This is that which the Apostle adviseth Galatians 6. 1. Brethren if any Man be overtaken in a Fault ye which are Spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self least thou also be tempted If any one do us an Injury and transgress let us make him that Allowance that God makes us let us make him an Abatement for the Weakness of his Nature and for the Multiplicity of his Principles for that Government that he is charged withal It may be he may be at odds with himself and his inferiour Appetites in Rebellion and Confusion and it must be some time before he can recover himself and bring things into order again in his Family God allows for this and we should allow for it in one another 'T is necessary whenever we have to do with one another that there should be given fair Allowance and Consideration of Mens Infirmities Tempers and Constitutions For it is a very hard thing for a Man to work off these The Cholerick are of quick and hasty Apprehension and readily do resent The Flegmatick are more dull and slow and do not so readily consider they must have leisure and time and what is said must be often repeated and * you must represent what you have to say with all advantage Also they that are of Sanguine and Melancholy Constitutions do not fit * each other That which is pleasing to one is grievous to the other The Pleasantness of the one is not suitable to the Seriousness of the other The Melancholy Temper must have time and leisure the Sanguine Temper doth all presently Therefore we must bear with one another in those things wherein we differ if no Moral Evil be there Take every Man at the best and you will find him good for some Purposes Therefore bear with him wherein he is weak 'T is Unmanly to take any one at a Disadvantage and very Unchristian to take any Man at the worst There are incident Offences Sometimes things fall out so crosly that one could not have imagined Tho' the thing might be well intended yet it may happen for the worse * There are ordinary Mistakes sometimes of the Things * in taking one * thing for another sometimes of the Agent 's part and sometimes of the Patient's side We our selves are often
the way of his Trade He walks from East to West and sends his Goods far and near for the increase of his Wealth What Diligence and Care do Men take to preserve Life and to maintain themselves in Health and Strength and provide for their Families To get an Estate and to keep it We see in every thing that is to be done for the Concerns of this Life there is Care and Caution to be used And shall there be no Care no Pains no Diligence nor Industry used to govern our FACULTIES to moderate our APPETITES for the several Uses and Purposes of Religion which is of the highest Concernment of all others Wherefore in the first place to THE STATE OF RELIGION and * in order to uphold and maintain the same there must be Care taken to discern the Difference between Good and Evil True and False Right and Wrong For these are the great Points of Religion At the Knowledge of these Religion begins And this is every Body's Charge according to his Capacity Opportunity and Ability And this is as necessary to preserve us from Cheats and Impostures as to know our Liberty Our first Work is to establish in our selves a Throne of Judgment throwly to know and understand our Duty and what is to be done what to be avoided And then in point of Practice and Choice to observe this Difference And if this be not done our Religion is to little purpose For it comes all to one not to make any Difference in things or not to observe that Difference The first thing in Religion is to refine a Man's Temper And the second to govern his Practice If a Man's Religion do not * this his Religion is a poor slender Thing and of little Consideration 'T is then only a naked Profession and fit to give him a Denomination I say such a Man's Religion is but of little value For it hath no Efficacy but falls short of the very Principles of Nature For they do certainly and constantly attain their several Effects The Sun the Moon the Stars Fire Air Earth and Water these never fail to act according to their several Principles and to attain their several Effects The Sun hath not fail'd for Six thousand years insomuch that we are surer of its Rising and Setting than we are of our selves Now shall all the Principles in Inferiour Nature throughout the whole Creation regularly constantly and certainly attain their Effects And shall there be only a Failure in the Principles of Reason and Religion But to proceed Thirdly Whosoever doth voluntarily consent to known Iniquity I am sure this Text cannot be verified of such a Person Men that do wittingly and willingly consent to that which their Judgment tells them at that time is Evil are represented in Scripture as sinning with a high hand and with a stiff neck and to resist the Holy Spirit and to commit the great Transgression Now of these the First * sort never made any entrance into Religion As for the second if they do any thing worthy of Religion 't is rather by chance than of choice As for the third they pass into a clean contrary State The first of these to wit those that are Fundamentally Ignorant they stumble at the very Threshold because Religion in every degree begins at some measure of KNOWLEDGE For can a Blind Man judge of Colours No more can a Man that is Fundamentally Ignorant be said to be Religious And as for those that are greatly Careless and Neglective it is uncertain what they will do that do not act by Rule and upon Consideration But as for the Third sort Those that give their Consent to that which is Evil These pass into the Contrary State and take a course to root out of their Minds the very Seeds of Goodness that were sown For so contrary Acts are apt to do No Habit doth absolutely determine the Act tho' it doth greatly dispose and incline to the Action Yet a HABIT may be utterly lost If a Man do for a long time forbear all Acts of Religion he is wanting to that which should continue the Habit. And if there be Contrary Acts the Contrary Habit will be begun and the more they are the more will the contrary Disposition be increased So that in time the Habit of Vertue shall not only be weakned but wholly wrought out and the contrary * Habit brought in This is the Course of things in Nature Every Habit begun is greatly weakned by a bare Forbearance of Acts For every thing must be conserved in the way it was produced A Disposition is first introduced by some Acts and if you do not introduce Act upon Act the Disposition will fail For things that are not brought to a State of Perfection will return back again if they be not maintain'd in the same way that they were produc'd Therefore the Towardliness of some Persons to Vertue is by Intermission of Acts abated and when they come to put forth contrary Acts it is quite expelled And this is the Ground and Foundation of Achitophel's Counsel to Absalom He bids him do a Lewd Act that he might be confirm'd in his wicked Design he had against his Father Therefore let us close with that Good Advice which Jesus the Son of Syrach gives Ecclesiasticus 21. 2. Flee from Sin as from a Serpent The least that can be expected from Religion and Conscience to God is that by means thereof Men be kept from giving their Consent to known Iniquity and be enabled to escape the Pollutions of the World If the Creation below us by their Natural Instinct always do those things that are Regular and attain their End shall not these higher Principles of Reason and Understanding do the like and always preserve us from known Evil and determine us to that which is Morally Good The Principle of Reason Knowledge and Judgment is the highest Principle and transcendent to all others The Principle by which the Sun doth enlighten the World is not to be put in competition with the Reason of Mind and Understanding To which if we add the Aid of God's Grace which doth never fail for He doth prevent us with his Grace it is a Shame and Reproach to us if we vary from the Rule and Measure of Vertue sin against our own Light and Conscience and do worse when we know better I shall now proceed to declare the Purpose and Intent of RELIGION What It aims at and how It doth affect the Subject And that I will do in these Particulars I will consider Religion in its Motion towards God What it doth in the Person in which it is How it appears * and carries it self towards others even to the whole Creation but more especially towards them with whom we daily converse How Religion stands affected towards the Things that are without us or about us either the Necessaries and Conveniencies or Superfluities of Life * And what Religion doth when it is finally
Victorious and overcomes the World Of these I shall treat but not severally and distinctly Nor will I undertake to give you a particular account of these in the Order I have now laid them for this would be to make this Text the whole Bible I will therefore speak of them in Conjunction as things offer themselves because these things run one into another RELIGION makes us live up to our Highest Faculties so as becomes Rational Beings that are indued with Intellectual Nature It enables us to live and to act suitably to our Height and Excellency so as to keep up the Grandure of our Being as Those that bear the Image of the Immortal GOD and are exalted above the Inferiour Creation * as Those that represent HIM in the World not only in respect of Intelligence but in respect of Authority and Power to dispose and govern It makes us to scorn all Actions that are base unhandsom or unworthy our State and the Relation we stand in to God To have GOD in our sight and to have right Apprehensions of Him doth above all things tend to the Nobleness Amplitude and Freedom of our Spirits For this we observe that the Greatness of an Object and the Excellency of the Act of any AGENT about a transcendent Object doth mightily tend to the Enlargement and Improvement of HIS Faculties Whereas those who are employ'd in mean Businesses and are conversant about little Objects have nothing in them that is excellent but are of limited and narrow Spirits It hath been observed that Men that have been of mean Parts and ordinary Perfections after they came to be truly RELIGIOUS their Parts have grown upon them and they have appear'd to be other kind of Men. The account of this is easie It is to be imputed to their Application to God who is the noblest Object in the World and to their Attendance upon Him For there is no Motion in the World so generous and tending to the Accomplishing the Agent as the Motions of Religion are By our RELIGION we are preserved from those things that would sink us into the order of Beasts by Sensuality and Carnal-Mindedness or that would transform us into the Likeness of Devils by Pride Presumption and Self-Conceit By Religion we come to imitate the Divine Perfection become God-like in Wisdom Righteousness Goodness Charity Compassion in forgiving Injuries pardoning Enemies and doing Hurt to None but Good to All as we have Ability and Opportunity RELIGION doth restrain the Extravagancy of Mens Passions and Appetites and regulates the Exorbitancy of Mens Wills IT is the most conducive instrument in the whole World to the Pleasure of Mind and Body Our Misery and Infelicity ariseth from our undue and naughty Practice And all that which we call Punishment is let in upon us by Sin Religion permits us the Pleasure of our Body as far as it is for our Health and not destructive of the Tranquility of our Mind nor the Indolency of the Body Religion produceth a sweet and gracious Temper of Mind calm in its self and loving to Men. It causeth a Universal Benevolence and Kindness to Mankind For these are the Things of which it doth consist Love Candour Ingenuity Clemency Patience Mildness Gentleness and all other Instances of GOOD-NATURE It hath such a Quality in it as will make them Good natur'd that it finds bad Religion makes Men Humble Affable Meek and Charitable Modest and Prudent Tender and Compassionate It detests nothing more than * either a Peevish Froward Passionate Furious or Troublesome Temper a Morose or Churlish Disposition RELIGION begets in us a true Liberty Freedom of Spirit and Largeness of Soul It causeth the greatest Serenity and Chearfulness to the Mind and prevents groundless Fears foolish Imaginations needless Suspicions and dastardly Thoughts It takes away from us all bad Thoughts of God or jealous Suspicions of Men. Religion makes us not suspect Evil from God but to look upon Him as the most Gracious and Benign Being that designs nothing more than the Happiness of his Creatures It is not Religion but SUPERSTITION that dreads God Religion makes us reverence him and delight in him It makes us to entertain good Thoughts of God and to conceive aright of him that He doth transact all things with Mankind as a Loving and Tender Father with his Child I further add that RELIGION advanceth the Soul to its just Power and Soveraignty enabling the Mind to govern all Bodily Appetites and Exorbitant Desires and this not only because of the intrinsick Baseness of Brutish and Sensual Lusts in a Nature that is indued with transcendant Faculties but also because of the mischievous Effects that follow upon it Intemperance doth by a natural Necessity weaken our Reason and thwart the very End and Purpose of Religion For Intemperance doth either stupifie or enrage our Spirits We see sometimes that Persons of a good Constitution well inclined to Vertue fair and conversable whose Company is pleasant and delightful that these very Persons are made Cholerick and Ungovernable when they are disorder'd by Intemperance And so they are not what they were but emptied of all those things to which their Constitutions did lead and incline them Our Work therefore in the World is to maintain the just Authority and Soveraignty of Reason against the Assaults of rude intemperate and boisterous Passions And so to tame that rude Beast THE BODY which by the Divine Providence is ty'd to our Souls in this State that it may not prove a constant Temptation and Provocation to our Mind but that it be kept in Subjection I add further that RELIGION is a most lively vigorous and sprightly Thing satisfying to the Subject and putting it upon all good Employment Worldly Men Persons of no Experience may think otherwise As that Religion would make a Man Morose and Soure and fill him with Discontent Whereas Religion drives away sad and gloomy Melancholy and begets in us a rational Confidence and gives a Man great Joy and Pleasure in the Divine Goodness And if any that are Religious think otherwise and are otherwise affected I must tell them that it doth not arise from Principles of Religion but from Bodily Temper in respect of which they are troubled or from some occasion from without And that their Religion is their Relief Of all the the Things in Religion none is so much suspected to tend to Melancholy and Sadness as is the Motion of Repentance So that if I can vindicate this Piece of Religion you will be satisfied for all the rest But to think that this is accompanied with Sadness and Melancholy is the greatest Mistake in the World True indeed Worldly Sorrow as the Apostle saith causeth Death This hath no Life in it because it hath no Respect to God but is rather an Act of Rebellion against him For here the Unquietness comes from Want of Submission to God The Person is discontented because Things are not to his Mind and as
more of the same Therefore our Business in time is to get the Victory over those unreasonable Passions which annoy us that so we may readily ascend into the State of Intelectual Beings * Our Business here is to qualifie our Souls by Holiness and Vertue for the Happiness of Heaven and to separate our Minds from the Dregs of Matter and Bodily-Sense Which will not be till the Mind get the Victory and the Soul become God-like and in some Measure partake of the Divine Nature But here I might lose my self and yet can speak but little of the Happiness of that State Let it be our Care at present to cleanse our selves from all Pollutions of Flesh and Spirit For can we be so blind as to think that a contrary Way will bring us to our intended End We do observe that Things are in Men according to their Temper What is Food tho' never so wholesome if a Person be sick Or Musick to those that are Melancholy What is Exercise or Recreation to Men that are weak and feeble What are the Things of the World to him that hath no Power to enjoy them So it is in this Case They that take no delight in the Exercise of Vertue in this State if after this Life God should remove them into Local Heaven they would take little Satisfaction in the Place because of an unsuitable Frame of Spirit For Men must be suitable to the Object in the Enjoyment of which they receive Satisfaction Therefore suppose tho' it is impossible that a Man * being unregenerate and not renew'd in his Spirit nor refined in his Temper that God by Power should remove such a Man into Heaven when he came thither he would not be satisfied either in the Persons or in the Employment of that Place Because all these would be contrary unto him Tho' when we speak of Heaven we understand rather a State than a Place A Frame and Temper Within rather than any thing Without Therefore it is absolutely necessary that we should by Goodness here qualifie and prepare our selves for Happiness hereafter For there is no Happiness in the Meeting of Things that are Unlike Thus now I have given you an Account of the State of Religion and its Operation upon the Body and the Mind in this State and the other And this is enough to recommend Religion and to make us to look upon it not as an Arbitrary Exaction but as a Thing highly pleasurable and most desirable as that which is effectual to purifie our Natures and to raise our Minds as that which is the Health and Strength and good Temper of our Minds For as a Man knows that he is in Health when the Offices of Nature are well performed and discharged * So is he sure of his Mind's Health and Strength when all the several Offices and Duties of Life are easily and well perform'd They are very little acquainted with Religion that look upon it as a Burthen as that which puts too great a Restraint upon Human Nature and upon Liberty And therefore the Poet wrote his Book to release the Minds of Men from the Obligation of Religion I confefs he might well do so * as to that which he call'd Religion For that was to release the Minds of Men from those UNNATURAL Obligations their Religion laid upon them But no such Thing can be said of that Religion which we profess For the Work of our Religion is to teach Men to avoid Evil and to do Good And this doth no more confine Mens Liberty than for Men to confine themselves within the Measures of Sobriety and Temperance and to avoid those Things which would do them Hurt and Prejudice No Man thinks he is under Restraint if he be confin'd to eat and drink only those Things that will do him Good For if this were Liberty and Perfection to do one thing as well as another Evil as well as Good without Difference or Distinction then let me ask you Where is GOD's Liberty From hence it would follow that of all the World God is most tied and bound that HE in whom there is Fulness of Liberty having all Power is most limited For God saith of himself that he cannot do Evil that he doth banish it from his Throne and that he is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity I conclude therefore 't is not Power but Weakness not Perfection but Deformity for any one to be able to do otherwise than what is right and fit to be done For this cannot be said of God himself For all the Ways of God are Ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth Now the better to inforce what hath been said about Religion I will balance the two opposite States that which is founded in Religion and that which is founded in Evil and Sin That by comparing both together you may understand the one and the other For Contraries are tâ—â— best Comments one upon another And to this purpose I will take into Consideration these Particulars First It doth not deserve the honourable Title of RELIGION or to be taken for the Effect of Respect to God or Conscience to Right which doth not refine Mens Spirits rectifie their Apprehensions and regulate their Actions Even Nature's Sense as depraved as it is doth startle at any vile Practice For nothing is more true than that all Evil is against the NATURE of Man till it is marr'd and spoil'd by consenting to Iniquity For witness hereof take Hazael as an Instance Who startled at the Mention of those Sins which the Prophet told him of Insomuch that he saith Is thy Servant a Dog that he should do such Things For Impudency Immodesty and Cruelty are not primarily in the Nature of Man but they are contracted by base Use Custom and Practice Of Wickedness there is no Account to be given either of its Self or of the Degree of it For it is contrary to Reason And when the Rule of Right is once broken and violated no Man knows where a Person will stay Let us consider the open Declarations that are from God agaiâ—â—â— Wickedness both by Denunciation and Execution 'T is true God oftentimes hath long Patience with a wicked World But it is in order to their Repentance Tho' Men are very apt to mis-understand this Compassion of God towards Sinners For it is observed Ecclesiastes 8. 11. That because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the Hearts of the Sons of Men are set to do Mischief But yet there is a present Recompence of Evil For all Inordinacy of Mind carries with it it s own Punishment All Wickedness carries with it Uneasiness of Spirit and Dissatisfaction Another Thing that I would offer to your Consideration is the malign Nature of Evil and the dismal Consequenence thereof For it is that which poysons the Nature of Man and turns Angels into Devils MAN which by Nature is a loving mild and gentle Creature it makes fierce and cruel
strange Fire before the Lord. One fire to Reason seemed as good as another to offer Sacrifice with But because there was an Institution to the contrary whether they did it wilfully or carelesly they perished by Fire Also let us remember the Bethshemites who being transported with Joy and Affection looked into the Ark a Thing contrary to God's Appointment to the Hazard of their Lives Likewise Uzza in his Zeal when he found the Ark ready to fall as he thought put to his Hand to keep it up and was slain for his Labour it being contrary to God's Institution When we think of these things seriously we shall find cause him abundance thankfully to acknowledge God's Goodness that we are engaged only where the Nature of the thing doth engage and that we are not made liable and obnoxious to god in things that are not Evil in themselves and hurtful for us It is greatly hazardous for a Finite and Fallible Creature to be limited and confined by Will and Pleasure where there is no Reason that the Mind of Man can discern why he should be restrained For we are mightily for Liberty And unless we be satisfied in the Reason of the thing we have a great Desire to look into that which we are prohibited 'T is hard to be subject to Will * as it is Natural to yield to Reason Therefore it is not a thing that we should affect to come into Bondage or be determined more than God hath determined us Let these things be weighed by those Men who love to multiply Positive Institutions and to determine the Liberty of our Minds in Circumstances and Punctilio's in things * where God hath not limited or determined us For my part I will not part with that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And this is one Part of our Liberty I must confess the greatest of all is to free us from the Guilt and Power of our Sins but the next is this to put us out of Danger and free us from the Obligation of Conscience where Reason and the Matter it self doth not oblige us The Moral Part of Religion is indispensably necessary because every piece of * It doth sanctifie by its Presence As * for instance Humility Modesty Righteousness Temperance Reverence of Deity and the like These Things cannot be in any Man's Mind but they make him Holy Whereas the Instrumental Part of Religion doth not sanctifie by Presence For you may pray and hear the Word and receive the Sacrament and be wicked still But every * thing of the Moral Part of Religion doth sanctifie by Presence just as a Remedy or Cordial or Diet doth do a Man good by receiving it * But to speak now * of the great Benefits * that accrue to us by our Saviour's being in our Nature He doth acquire the Right of Redeeming us and makes Satisfaction in that Nature that had trangressed And he doth repair the ruined Nature of Man by dwelling in it and by working Righteousness in it by which means he hath wrought out all Malignity and naughty Habits by contrary Acts the Acts of Sin and Vice by Acts of Vertue and Goodness the Acts of Intemperance by Acts of Sobriety and Temperance Now let us look for the Explication of * this in our selves in our Nativity from above in Mental Transformation and DEIFICATION Do not stumble at the use of the Word For we have Authority for the use of it in Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 4. Being made Partakers of the Divine Nature which is in effect our Deification Also let it appear in our Reconciliation to God to Goodness Righteousness and Truth in our being created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness It was a signal Evidence of a Divine Power in the Disciples of Christ at the first Publication of the Gospel that it wrought so great an Alteration in all those that did receive it The Envious Debauched and Disobedient It made Temperate Sober and Religious Humble and Good-natured It converted the Embracers of it to a Life more suitable to Reason and Nature and all Moral Vertue * We may observe from this that nothing of the Natural State is base or vile Whatsoever hath Foundation in God's Creation or whatsoever the Providence of God calls any Man unto it is not base For our Saviour himself took Flesh and Blood and that is the meaner Part of Humane Nature Whatsoever is Natural hath nothing of Disparagement in it nothing that exposeth a Man to Contempt and Scorn And this may satisfie those that are in the meanest Offices and Employments that there is nothing base that hath place in God's Creation That which is Vile Base and Filthy is unnatural and depends upon unnatural Use and degenerate Practice Also observe here the great Honour put upon Humane Nature when the Son of God came into it when Divine Goodness did take into Consideration the Rise and Advance of Created Nature and to recover and raise It to all possible Perfection He did take to himself a peculiar relation to Humane Nature Then let us take Consolation in this For it cannot be thought that God did so great a thing and of so deep a Consideration as to unite Humane Nature to his own Existence and to set it at his own Right hand to the Admiration of Angels for he saith let all the Angels of God worship him that he did such a thing as this is to beget a Notion or to raise a Talk and make a Wonder in the World and put the Creation into a Gaze and Astonishment God doth nothing for so light an end and especially not his great things such as these which call for Fear and Reverence on our part This we may say is one of the greatest Works * of God This if possible doth transcend the very Creation of God at first for there was nothing * there to resist him but in the Restoration there was Malignity and Sin God did this therefore for the great and unconceivable Good of that Nature that he hath so highly honoured Therefore what Consolation should we have from it what Declaration should we make of it what Thanksgiving for it Having this Knowledge how should we rejoyce in God and be above the World * how should we depress the immoderate Motions of Sense and savour Spiritual things that so we may the better understand this great Mystery by which we are so highly honoured And this is the proper use of this High and Noble Argument Therefore let this be explicated verified and fulfilled in us For this you must understand that Religion is not satisfied in Notions but doth indeed and in reality come to nothing unless it be in us not only Matter of Knowledge and Speculation but doth establish in us a Frame and Temper of Mind and is productive of a holy and vertuous Life Therefore let these things take effect in us in our Spirituality and Heavenly-mindedness in our Conformity to the Divine
Nature and Nativity from above For whosoever professes that he believes the Truth of these things and wants the Operation of them upon his Spirit and Life he doth in fact make void and frustrate what he doth declare as his Belief and so he doth receive the Grace of God in vain unless this Principle and Belief doth descend into his Heart and establish a good Frame and Temper of Mind and govern in all the Actions of his Life and Conversation RELIGION is not a particular Good only as Meat against Hunger or Drink against Thirst or Cloaths against Cold but it is Universally Good a Good without Limitation or Restraint * For Holiness and Purity of Mind is the self same thing to the Mind that Health and Strength is to the Body It is good * also in point of Satisfaction to the Judgment For no Man that useth Reason can otherwise sit down contented unless he be in Reconciliation with God unless there be fair Terms between God and him It is good * also upon the account of Peace and Settlement of Conscience upon which the greatest Good of Man doth depend for want of which nothing without him can make any Compensation Now to shew it in Particulars RELIGION which is in substance our Imitation of God in his Moral Perfections and Excellency of Goodness Righteousness and Truth * is that wherein our Happiness doth consist And we then relish the truest Pleasure and Satisfaction when we find * our selves reconciled to God by Participation of his Nature They who have not * this Sence of God may have a Religion to talk of and profess * a Religion to give them a Denomination but they are not at all in the true State and Spirit of Religion nor have they any real Benefit by it nor are they any whit enabled by it nor have they the more Peace and Satisfaction from it But when our Minds are transformed by Religion then we feel at least at times strong and vigorous Inclinations towards God And with these Motions * our Minds are best pleas'd and satisfied because these are most suitable to Nature and the highest Use and Employment that Humane Nature is capable of Upon this account it is that there is more Pleasure and Satisfaction in Contemplation than in any of the Pleasures of Sense and that those Men that live a-part from the World and are taken up in Meditation and Contemplation their Pleasures are more intense and solid than those * of the Licentious and * of such as please themselves in all the Gratifications of Sense There is no Heart's-ease like to that which riseth from Sence of Reconciliation to God and walking in Ways of Righteousness For in these Ways Mens Hearts never check them nor occasion them any Disquiet For let the World say what they will to be challenged by the Reason of a Man's Mind goes nearer to a Man's Heart than the Censure of all the World besides To act contrary to the Reason of * one 's own Mind is to do a thing most unnatural and cruel it is to offer Violence to a Man's self and to act against a Man's truest Use and Interest For all manner of Wickedness is a Burthen to the Mind and every Man that doth amiss doth abuse himself For it is not possible for any Man to run away from himself or to forget what he hath done He must stand to the Bargain that he hath made and abide by the Choice that he hath taken And in the whole World there is nothing so grievous for a Man to think of as that when he did amiss and made a mad Choice he went against the Sense of his own Mind For in this Case he is not Heart-whole There is no Man who knows himself but knows what I now speak is true Tho' I know it is common in the World for Men to do against Reason and to live by Chance and not to pursue any true Intention or follow any worthy Design But as it happens and as Company and Occasion leads them so they act be it better or worse Not considering that what Matter of Disease is to the Body which many times is very grievous and so indisposes a Man as to put him quite out of Self-enjoyment * the same Is Malignancy in the Mind Guilt in the Conscience Nay I may say that These are much more troublesome and grievous to be born than any malignant Matter of Disease can be to the Body They make not true Judgment of Religion that take it to be a Limitation and Restraint upon Man's Liberty Yet some are so foolish as to think that if God would we might have lived as we list and have been released from those many Obligations that Religion seems to lay upon us Whereas this is as great a Lye as ever the Father of Lyes could invent For Religion is not a burthensome and troublesome Thing which if God had not commanded might have been forborn and all Things have been as well No There is nothing in real and true Religion that is of that Nature And this I dare defend against the whole World that there is no one thing in all that Religion which is of God's making that any sober Man in the true Use of his Reason would be released from tho' he might have it under the Seal of Heaven For such a Dispensation would be greatly to his Loss and Prejudice As much as if the Physician instead of giving wholsome Physick to his Patient should give Poyson For all Things in real Religion tend either to conserve or * restore the Soundness and Perfection of our Minds and to continue God's Creation in the true State of Liberty and Freedom So that if a Man did understand himself and were put to his Choice he would rather choose to part with the Health and Soundness of his Body than with the Purity and Integrity of his Mind For as much as the one is his far greater Concern And he had much better live with a distempered crazy Body than with a troubled disquiet Mind and guilty Conscience But * on this Subject I have many Things to say and therefore will digest them into Five Heads First Man by his Nature and Constitution as God made him at first being an intelligent Agent hath Sense of Good and Evil upon a Moral account All inferior Beings have Sense of Convenience or Inconvenience in a natural Way And * accordingly all inferior Creatures do chuse or refuse For you cannot get a meer Animal either to eat or drink that which is not good and agreeable to its Nature And whereas we call this Instinct it is most certain that in intelligent Agents this * other is INSTINCT at least And for this Reason Man is faulty when either he is found in a naughty Temper or any bad Practice For he hath Judgment and Power of Discerning He is made to know the Difference * of Things And he acts * as a mad Man that