Repenting implies that it was their own Fault they did not which yet could not be unless God had first put it into them power to Repent but this it is plain he did not if nothing less than Irresistible Grace could have brought them to Repentance Now this Consideration that the Means of Grace are Resistible should make us extreamly cautious of driving off our Repentance and Amendment of Life in expectation of some mighty irresistible Act of God to save us the labour of turning our selves to him There is no doubt but God can over-rule the most stubborn and inflexible Wills of Men and bear them down in spight of all their Reluctancies into the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel And had hepromised them so to do they might safely have depended upon him But since he has made no such Promise and does every day permit Incorrigible Sinners to resist his Holy Spirit and withstand the Gospel till they have sinned beyond the possibility of Repentance How should this awaken those that have any purposes of Repenting at all to put themselves beyond the danger of miscarrying for ever by a ready and immediate execution of them The last care that God will ever take of the Salvation of Men is long since discovered to them in the Gospel And by an experience of many hundred years it is evident in all Churches that the Gospel does not carry an Irresistible Force along with it It gives men all the Reason and Assures them of all the Help and Assistance that can be reasonably desired to persuade them into a compliance with it and there it leaves them i. e. it leaves them to their choice to accept or refuse its Proposals and so to be Happy or Miserable as they please So that if men will not take any pains with themselves to understand their Everlasting Interest and to stoop their minds to the Obedience of the Gospel but wait to see what God will do with them they will find that he will not drive them into Heaven against their Wills 2. Hence it folows that the Impenitency of men under the Gospel is to be ascribed to their own wilful and incorrigible Temple and not to any weakness or insufficiency in the Gospel to reform and sanctifie them The Gospel has sufficiently verified what it speaks of it self that it is the Power of God to Salvation The Conversions it has wrought in the World from all kinds of Superstition Wickedness and Impiety abundantly testifie the Divine Virtue and Efficacy of it And what is all along supposed in this Discourse the Good Spirit of God is always ready to bless the Means of his own Appointment and to make them effectual to his own Gracious Ends and Purposes without respect of Persons where men do not distinguish themselves by their wilful neglect or perverse and peremptory Opposition to them This being the case there can be no other reason why the Gospel at any time fails of its Blessed Effect but the stupid and inflexible Temper of those that live unprofitably under the mighty influences of it And hence St. Paul imputes the Impenitency of such men to their Despising the Goodness and Forbearance of God Rom. 2.4 and not knwoing that the Goodness of God leadeth to Repentance Which surely he would not have done had he known the While that God was not so Good unto them as to furnish them with sufficient Grace to Repent withal Considering then what Different Effects the ministration of the Gospel has upon the Hearts and Lives of Men and the reason why some are hardned while others are inllightned and renewed in the Spirit of their Minds we see there lies a great deal upon our endeavours to dispose and qualifie our Hearts lest the Word should not profit us which is able to save our Souls The Best Means of Grace the most Powerful Preaching in the World seconded by the mighty Operations of the Spirit will not soften our Hearts will not melt them into Repentance while we suffer them to be heardned by the Deceitfulness of Sin And there fore neither our Saviour nor his Apostles ever pretended to convert all that heard them or that saw them doing Miracles by the Finger of God There is a certain good Temper and ingenuity of Mind disposing us to be just to our selves and to the Truths we hear which is requisite to our Edification by them Judas heard as Good Preaching and certainly got as little Good by it as ever any man did His eager desire of Wealth and Worldly Gains which seem to have been his Aim in keeping close to our Saviour hoping according to the Common Opinion that he would have proved a Great Temporal Monarch had so perverted his Mind that the Best Instructions and the most Absolute Example of Virtue and Piety that ever the World had could not prevail with him to be Virtuous and Good We should therefore be very cautious lest the same Word which is a Savour of Life to others should prove a Sentence of Death and Condemnation to our Selves But I hasten to the third and last Observation viz. 3d. Obser Than the final condition of those that reject the Gospel and continue impenitent under the ministration of it will be more grievous and intolerable than theirs that were never called to Repentance by it So our Saviour told the Cities of Corazin and Bethsaida It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judg than for you i.e. they that have only resisted the Light of Nature shall then receive a milder Sentence than you that have Guides and Instructors from Heaven that have had the Son of God among you that have rejected his Doctrine disregarded his Miracles and refused the Greatest Salvation that was ever offered to men Now that this Wo belongs to all that obey not the Gospel preached to them tho they never heard a syllable from Christ himself or saw the least of those Mighty Works with which he upbraids the Galileans in the Text will appear if we consider that God has provided as well for the Faith of the Church in this and all future Ages as he did for that of the Jews that lived in the days of our Saviour And if there be as much reason now to believe the Gospel as there was in our Saviour's time 't is certain there is as much reason to fear th Threatnings denounced in it against Impenitent Sinners I know we are apt to fansie that the Hearers of Christ's Doctrine and the Spectators of his Miracles stood in much better light to discern the Divinity of them than we do at this day But wherein does the great difference lie They saw Christ in the Flesh Isa 53.2 3. but they saw no Beauty in him that they should Dosire him yea they saw him in so humble a Guise and Habit as raised their Contempt more than their Admiration of him They had but the same Prophesies concerning his comeing and the Quality
And that there is and always will be such a Family in the Earth is as evident as the Covenant which God made with Abraham when the Church was impaled in his little Family and ten Promise of our Saviour to His That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And therefore they that are and know that they are sincere have no reason to value the Censures of Men. 'T is enough that they seek to please God and that he Knows their Integrity for God is infinitely and if we are sincere he cannot Judge otherwise of us and then we are safe our Reward is sure and will be great in Heaven We need not ask leave of Men to be what we are or stand to their Courtesy to bring us into Favour with him that Judgeth Righteously 'T is enough in all reason That God and our Consciences are Ready to Acquit us 4. Lastly The success of this Tryal should Inspire us with Zeal and Resolution to serve and please God in all instances of Obedience to him There is no Duty too hard for a vigorous and Lively Faith There is none but what the Servants of God have discharged before us And when we reflect upon what our great Examples have done and consider how nobly they have acquitted themselves in the same Race that is set before us why should we not aspire to be as brave and Resolute as they were and to break through the Discouragements which could not hinder them from Running and finishing their Course with Joy Did they Climb over the highest Difficulties And may not we be ashamed to couch under the ordinary hardships in Religion Did they depend upon God when nothing but Miracles could Relieve their hopes in him And shall we distrust his goodness and Protection while we actually enjoy them and he is pleas'd to continue so many Visible Tokens of his Favour and Concernment for us Did they leave their Country at God's Command And shall we think it too much but to leave the Vices of ours which have long threatned to turn us out of Possession of it Again did they stick at nothing to please God not so much as at the Offering of an Only Son And shall we that have Better Promises than they had Refuse him so Reasonable a Service as to offer up our Souls and Bodies in holy Flames of Devotion and Love which is the perfect and indisputable Will of God and therefore must be extreamly acceptable to him 'T is ture That without Faith it is Impossible to please God But sure it is not Impossible to Believe and so by vertue of our Faith to obey and please him For this is the Argument of the whole Discourse in this Chapter which out of the Sacred Annals of the Primitive Church presents us with a Catalogue of many Eminent Believers who became the favourites of God by their Faith and Obedience to him And what is the Natural consequence of this But that we who have the same and in some Respects much greater Advantages than they had should endeavour to shew the same greatness of Mind and Invincible Resolution in Gods Service To Conclude we have an Incomparable Pattern of Faith and Piety in the Text Abraham the Friend of God laying himself at his Foot and his Son upon his Altar in Obedience to his Soveraign Will and Pleasure How much more should we at Gods Command Sacrifice our Darling Lusts that would destroy our Souls since one of the two must dye And this is a Sacrifice much cheaper and no less Acceptable to God than Abrahams Oblation was Micah 6.7 8. More grateful to him than thouthousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl Than if thou gavest thy First-born for thy Transgression the Fruit of thy Body for the sin of thy Soul Offer this as the First fruits of thy Faith without which thy very Prayers will be turned into sin Then shalt thou have favour in the sight of God through the meritorious Sacrifice of his only Son and by walking before him as Abraham did may'st assuredly hope after a short Tryal of thy Faith and Patience in this World to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Faithful in the Kingdom of God Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant we may all do through the Merits and Mediation of his Son Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be Ascribed all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen Sermon II. ON The Danger of a Mis-inform'd Conscience or mistaken Principles in Religion Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self That I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth THESE Words are part of the Confession of an Eminent Convert to the Christian Religion A man of Learning and Zeal and Conscience that had the Benefits of a Religious Education and of great natural Endowments and that made a more than an ordinary figure both in the Jewish and Christian Church In the former he was a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Pharisees A Sect which perhaps till the Days of Ignatius Loyola never had its equal in the World And as the Pharisees of any party among the Jews were known to be the keenest against the Christians so he owns himself to have been as errant a Pharisee as hearty and as eager a Persecutor as any of his Order ver 10.11 He was the Man by his own Confession that shut up many of the Saints in Prison and when they were put to Death for their Religion he gave his Voice against them Others he Punisht often in the Synagogues and compell'd them to Blaspheme i.e. to Renounce their Faith in Christ Plin. Ep. Tra. de Christian and to Curse him Using the same Cruelty towards them which the Heathen Governours afterwards did and those that refused this horrid Treachery to their Lord he Persecuted into strange that is Heathen Cities These things were contracy in deed and one would think should be always so esteem'd to the Name of Jesus But there is one thing in St. Pauls Confession which appears to be stranger than all this And that is that it was his Judgment and Conscience that made him thus severe to the Christians and his Zeal to God and Religion that rais'd the Persecution against them It was it seems the prevailing sense of his Mind a Case he had determined within himself that he ought to run down the Religion of Jesus So he tells the King and Court in these Words I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth A hearty Champion you see he had been against the Christian Religion But how came he to fall into an Opinion and to Espouse a Principle that the worst Religion might well be ashamed of The true account of it is St. Paul had been a Right-bred Pharisee Acts 23.6 having suckt in the Principles of that Superstitious
Sect in his Childhood and lived till he became a Christian exactly according to them as he tells King Agrippa in the hearing of the Jews at the fifth Verse of this Chapter And therefore what he charges himself with we are not to look upon as his own private perswasion only but rather as an instance of the general sentiment of the Men of his way and indeed as the Natural brood and Issue of Pharisaical Superstition By Superstition I mean a groundless Apprehension of pleasing God by doing things which he never commanded or forbearing those which he hath no where Forbidden And this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great and leading Error of the Pharisees They added to the written Word of God and made more Duties and sins than ever the Law had made Their Traditions which had nothing to recommend them but the Custom of their Fathers they esteemed equal at least to the Divine Commandments Nay our Saviour expresly tells us They made the Commandments of God of no effect by their Traditions as if they thought to please him better in their own way than in His And Reckon'd they advanc'd themselves above others by what they did over and above their Duty as much in his asthey did in their own Opinion And hence Conformity to their Traditional Rites was their measure of Improvement and Perfection in Religion as appears by St. Pauls Character of himself Gal. 1.14 I profited in the Jews Religion above many of my Equals in my own Nation being more exceedingly Zealous of the Tradition of my Fathers Which words if we observe their connexion with those immediately before them seem to come in as the Reason why beyond measure as he there tells us he Persecuted the Church of God and wasted it i.e. His mighty Zeal for the Unscriptural Doctrines of the Pharisees was the true ground of his Bitter and furious Zeal against the Professors of the True Religion And this is the rather to be noted because it shews us the Spirit and Genius of that Sect that had the chief hand in bringing our Saviour to his Cross and first conspired the ruine of Christianity From the Words thus explained the matter I would crave leave to Propose to your serious considerations is this That the Consciences of Men may be so far mis-guided by Erroneous Principles and an Affectation of things in which Religion does not consist as to encourage them to the fiercest opposition to the express Revelations of God and the truths of Jesus Or more briefly thus That Christianity is liable to the sharpest Opposition from Men under the highest Pretence of Zeal and Conscience towards God and Religion In speaking to this Subject my Design is 1. To confirm the truth of this Observation 2. To shew whence it is that Men are liable to be thus Misguided by Erroneous Principles and transported with this Extravagant and Destructive Zeal 3. To make some Inferences that may be Useful to our felves 1. For the confirmation of this Truth That the Consciences of Men may be thus Misguided and their Spirits Inflamed by Erroneous Principles against the Truth may appear from our Saviours Character of his and his Churches Enemies and from many plain and undeniable Instances Parallel to this of the Confessor in the Text. 1. From our Saviours Character of His and his Churches Enemies Our Blessed Lord fore-seeing what a zealous Opposition his Church and Doctrine would assuredly meet withal after his decease takes occasion a little before his Passion to fore-warn his Disciples of it He had often told them in the general That they must look for Troulbe and Persecution from Men. Now the time of Tryal drawing on to prevent the damp of a Surprisal he Describes the temper and Spirit of their Enemies and shews them what hard measure they and their Followers must expect from them They shall put you out of the Synagogues i.e. excommunicate and curse you for Hereticks yea the time cometh That whosoever Killeth you will think that he doth God service John 16.2 It seems to kill a Disciple for his Religion was in the judgment of these Men like the Worshiping of God by Sacrifice They shall think by it saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perform a grateful Service or Sacrisice to God As if they knew no better way of pleasing him than by takeing a Lamb out of his own Flock and making it an Oblation to him Now this is certainly a very strange way of servig God and such as men would never have thought of if they had not Deify'd something more than him and changed the Glory of the Holy and Merciful God into a direful Image of their own Temper and Complexion whom they Worship instead of him And as I doubt not but the Jews were primarily intended in this Prophecy so to the Infinite Scandal of Christianity there is unanswerable Reason to think that many that shelter themselves under the Sacred Profession of it are very deeply concerned in it sure I am that all the Marks of this Prophecy the same Religious zeal exprest by the same rage rancour and cruelty are very fresh and easie to be seen upon them 2. By many plain and Undeniable Instances Parallel to that we meet with in the Text. The Apostles Confession was indeed a sinular thing But for the Crimes which he taxeth himself with he might as justly have charged his Nation with them the main Body of the Jewish Church especially the governing part of it being strangely Leavened with this Sowre and Destructive zeal They had a zeal for God as St. Paul himself Testifies of them but not according to knowledge for they knew not his Immence Goodness and Benignity to Mankind nor his only begotten Son when he was amongst them They had a zeal for the Law but so they presumed to call what ever they had made Law by their Glosses and Traditions and directed it against those that had a zeal against them And a very fierce and fatal zeal it was A zeal that Crucifyed the Lord of Life That threw the Apostles into Prisons That cleared the Synagogues of them and their Disciples That Crampt and Loaded them with Chains and Fetters and for a good work gave forty Stripes save one A zeal that suborned Witnesses and breathed out Threatnings and slaughter against Men of whom the World was not worthy a zeal that listed Men into Conspiracies and bound them under an Oath to Kill an Innocent Person An outragious zeal it was that made Men exceedingly Mad as one that had too much experience of it tells us v. 11th of this Chapter so mad as to think they ought to d many things contrary to the clearest Revelations of God and the Name of Jesus Nor is this kind of Zeal Peculiar to the temper of the Jewish Nation There are those in the World that would be thought the only Good Christians who roundly Excommunicate all other Churches for not complying with their
excited to amend them And this will make us more humble more sensible of our Dependence upon god and more importunate with him for a greater measure of his Spirit to preserve us from the like Miscarriages for the future This will send us to his Mercy-seat covered with shame and sorrow for the pardon of our sins And the bitterness of them will call to mind the Pleasure and satisfaction we formerly enjoyed in the sense of his Favour through the Faithful Discharge of our Duty to him And this will fire our Hearts with a holy indignation against our selves for the dishonour we have done to God and our Redeemer the waste we have made of our Inward Peace and the opportunities we have lost of doing Great and Glorious Things for our selves of establishing our Peace with God and insuring our Election to Eternal Life All which do naturally tend to provoke us to the greatest care to approve our selves to God for the time to come which is a steady and Universal Principle of true Virtue and Holiness 7. Lastly Serious and Frequent Contemplation upon the Joys and Glories of the Heavenly State will surely cast our Minds into a more Spiritual Frame Refine our Conversations and Improve our Graces 'T is true an exact Idea of Heaven is not to be attained at this distance from it But did we often consider what we have read and believe of that Glorious Place we should certainly feel our selves inspired with Nobler Thoughts and Brisker Resolutions in relation to it we should not santer up and down after earthly Vanities nor give way to every Petty Discouragement and Mean Temptation and so make our Journey more heavy and tedious than we need as if we were afraid of coming too soon to our Happiness The Glories which are above were we better acquainted with them would darken all these inferiour Beauties which captivate our Souls the smile of Pleasures the shine of Riches and the lustre of Honours Did we six our minds where true Joys and Felicities are to be found the gloss of worldly excellencies would vanish and disappear as lesser Lights lose their Brightness at the appearance of the Greater There would be little danger of Loitering in the Way or falling short of the end of our Hope if we would but keep our Eye upon those Happy Regions above and consider what Mighty Joys are there what Massie Crowns are laid up for the Lovers of God and Goodness We should be all Life and Spirit even in those very Duties which now go off so heavily with us we should cut through all Difficulties and soar above all Temptations from this lower World if the other was always in our view and our Hearts were filled with the expectation of it This would raise our Spirits and elevate our Souls till we should even touch and feel the Pleasures of the Heavenly State And indeed the only way for those that are in a languishing state of Grace to recover into a healthful and thriving temper is to strengthen their Appetite to Heavenly things by livelier apprehensions of the Glory and Reality of them By this they will quickly come to loath the Husks and Trash of this World and retrieve the strength and vigour they have lost by their eagerness after them 3. The third thing propounded was to warn you of the great Hinderances and Obstructions to your Spiritual Growth 'T is evident that Remisness in any of the former Duties will defeat the Design and Efficacy of them And therefore every Neglect and Error in the use of those Means is to be carefully avoided as an obstruction to the end of Growing better Besides which I shall briefly remind you of these three Impediments 1. False and mistaken Notions in matters of Religion Some think they were Reprobated from Eternity and therefore never were in a State of Grace and then to what purpose should they think of Growing in it Others that they cannot fall from Grace because they were absolutely Elected And the same Persons are commonly of Opinion that every degree of Grace is wrought in them by the immediate Operation of the Spirit tho they freely acknowledge the use of Means This I confess is a very Ingenuous acknowledgment because it is undoubtedly true that they ought to use Means and it is apparently against themselves when they speak against the immediate workings of the Spirit But I the rather think that their Opinions are not true because they manifestly tend to check and stifle their endeavours after Grace and Holiness tho I verily believe they have not this effect upon some very serious Persons through their Happy Ignorance of the consequences of them If we are sure that we are absolutely elected to Eternal Life Phil. 2.12 I cannot see why we should work out our Salvation as St. Paul exhorts us with fear and Trembling because there can be no Fear that an Absolute Decree should fail And then to what purpose is it to make use of means if the Operations of the Spirit do immediately produce their Effects For if they do so there would be no room left for the use of Means unless there can be an immediate Cause that works its Effect by Means i. e. that does not work it immediately And what is this but to render all the Means of Increasing Holiness in us utterly vain and ineffectual 2. Want of Vigilancy over the Faults and Weaknesses of our Natural Tempers When men first turn their Thoughts to Religion and their Eyes inwards they are deeply sensible of their more hainous and provoking sins and extreamly cautious of any Temptations to them but are seldom very watchful over the lesser Faults and Errors which are deeply rooted in their Constitutions and grow up from their Infancy with them These they are very apt to overlook and indulge as if they had a Right of Protection from them till they suffer them to shade and overtop their Graces There is no man of so clear a Disposition but he has some Flaws and Infirmities with his Excellent Temper And some Natures are so very bad that without a mighty care to manage and improve them nothing that is good will ever come to any Ripeness or Perfection in them And if it be rightly considered the want of this care is the manifest reason of the miscarriage of Men otherwise Virtuous and Good who are often transported into Great Disorders and Indecences by an unguarded Humour or unhappy disposition which they brought into the World with them and without long care and watchsulness is like to send them halting to their Graves 3. Spiritual Pride I mean Pride of Understanding in matters of Religion and an over weening conceit of more than ordinary Attainments in Holiness This alone is enough to blast the most hopeful beginnings in Virtue and Piety This is Root of every new Sect which brings forth the Bitter Fruits of Self-will Schism Error Envy and Animosity And I was going to say whatever obstructs