2. The Particulars of the first Sect. 3. The dreadful Nature of the second Sect. 4. It s Heighth or Complement Sect. 5. The Sum of all on this Head § 1. HAving now seen by what means and in what method Godliness comes to have Power over men as also when it may be said to have its due Power namely wheresoever it directs and sways our Practice and by that means alters and new molds our Hearts And having before in general so opened Denying the Power of Godliness as that it plainly appears to be a course of acting oppressive of and destructive to the Power of Godliness and therefore most contrary to that Divine Life but now delineated we may by what has been said easily collect its kinds and particulars which will be deduced by a little Reflection First if there be any practices by which men may obstruct or stop those ways and passages whereby the Principles of Godliness come at mens Hearts and get power over their Souls those certainly make up one kind or method of Denying the Power of Godliness Secondly being that in the present state of things Godliness doth not usually get its due power over men in an instant or by one single effort but by degrees If therefore there be any other practices that may suppress the beginning energy or operations which such Principles having a little by surprise or besides mens Intentions and Wills gotten entrance unto natural Conscience have attained upon mens Spirits and so choak and extinguish all holy warmth or Life those also will constitute another accursed method of effecting the same Of both no doubt there may be assigned Instances But because it cannot I presume be well conceived how the Power of Godliness can be injured but either by hindring its entrance and prevalence on the heart or by suppressing and overbearing it where it has got some room or interest already therefore I think all instances of Denying the Power of Godliness assignable may be reduced to these two heads More closely then I say men are guilty of what the Apostle means by Denying the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having denyed the Power of Godliness when though they make an outward profession of Religion yet they take course to stop all ways by which true Religion may come inwardly to affect their Hearts Or in case it has already made some entrance and impressions yea and had some considerable alterative effects upon them yet they overbear and stifle all dictates and as far as they can all concernments from it so that in the issue their Lives are the same as mens that have no Religion at all and too often only one or two removes from Barbarity Civil they may be but as little as well can be conceived considering them civilised of Natural virtue to be found in them Such God knows is too great a part of the Christian World § 2. But particularly as to the former general way of denying the Power of Godliness If we reflect upon these gradations by which it was said Godliness obtains power over men we may soon see by what practices that Power is obstructed It obtains upon us by our understanding its Principles by our seeing and yielding to its evidences that is believing the Christian Doctrine and by our attending thereto in the particulars of our Life Therefore it is by us obstructed by all Voluntary Ignorance Voluntary Vnbelief and Voluntary Incogitancy or Non-attention to what we know and believe Voluntary I have said for what is so is only an Humane Act properly and what is not so is more our Misery though but justly than our Crime But of each of these as voluntary I shall observe two degrees which though they are both if persisted in certainly destructive yet not of equal guilt and being to speak 1. As to voluntary Ignorance I must take the liberty to say in the beginning that supposing Men not to be Ideots or Naturals there can be little or no gross Ignorance in point of Religion amongst us which is not voluntary I will readily confess and I heartily mourn for it before God it is scarce conceivable it is at least incredible to such who have not personally inquired into the common sort how profoundly ignorant a multitude of those who yet frequent our publick Assemblies are especially in those things which are purely points of Faith and I must be so bold as to call even this Ignorance destructive For though we should suppose the generality tolerably to understand the most necessary Duties and consequently to know what is more grosly sinful yet they being in the mean while ignorant of the Nature and Properties of God of his Omniscience Power Justice and Goodness and very much of the Immortality of their own Souls of the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the transcendency or exceeding greatness of the Rewards and dreadfulness of the Punishments in that other world c. which I say are all purely points of Faith want all the great motives and incentives which should make the knowledge they have in points of Practice effectual to living well that is which should give Godliness any considerable Power over them And of such points of Faith as these I say the Vulgar and I could wish only those who some account the Vulgar are ignorant too commonly even to stupidity I do not say allways God forbid For saepe etiam sub sordido pallio sapientia Many a poor man in rags has some plain notions and a plain honest heart But the complaint commonly and in a very great amplitude is juster than any but the Devil and his Agents would wish it were And if this be true of so many of those who attend the means of Knowledge what may we say of those who totally neglect them But be this Ignorance in which sort soever admitting my former supposition that the persons in whom it is found have their Intellectuals I say amongst us it must be voluntary in some degree or other First Admit it proceed only from their neglegence idleness not caring for these things They perhaps mind their Ease enjoy themselves and as they speak Live If their outward man fare but well enough they are resolved to trust God with their Souls and trouble not themselves with that concern or whether they be resolved so or no 't is sure they do so Suppose I say these men ignorant this their Ignorance is voluntary For the negligence or sloth whence it proceeds is of their own choice and therefore must its several consequents and fruits be such also of which Ignorance is one of the most immediate instances assignable But there is a more affected and resolute sort of Ignorance in the world than this which I can call no better than downright Atheism or Irreligion that I mean which is to be found in some who considering that Christianity is an enemy to a sensual voluptuous lewd life and that Conscience is an uneasie portage to a
move with all facility cheer and expedition in the course of my Duty when thou shalt enlarge my heart Psal cxix 32. And whose heart may be said enlarged if not such persons hearts of whom we have spoken Nor is this at all hyperbolical too great or exceeding truth but there is really a certain connaturalness of Holy practice to such a mans heart For considering the before-mentioned particulars of due Knowledge Belief Heedfulness of and yielding to the substance of Religion there cannot well but be in the usual temper of such a mans mind a composition and happy concurrence of all habitual advantages to an Holy and Pious life such as are a general Seriousness Tenderness and Heavenly-mindedness 1. I say A general seriousness or a grave staid considerative spirit will usually possess such a mans breast What I mean hereby will easily and distinctly be understood by its opposites Now I oppose seriousness not only to Debauchery and Irreligion but to the Aiery vain heedless Humour of the Age to a mind much unfixt light and trivial full of rambles toys and uncertainties The serious man then I take to be one who having first a True sense of things is generally composed enough to make actually a due estimate and choice of each as occasion offers He is of the number of the Poets few Qui dignoscere possunt Vera bona atque illis diversa who know true Goods and value all things as they are so or tend to such And thus much certainly the due knowledge belief and heeding the Principles of Religion must have produced in him These must needs have pois'd and fixt his Soul Now how great an advantage is this and how blessedly prepared for all holy and virtuous practice is a serious mind 2. There will be further in such a person an habitual softness tenderness or cedency of Heart He will have a quick and ready sense of all spiritual things and however there may not be in him at all times an equal warmth of Affections yet there will be a constant Resentment and in some good measure a befitting concernment of mind in all the affairs and business of Religion I know some men will laugh at these terms or pretences but such persons must excuse me if I tell them roundly they are strangers to true Godliness and all real Religion There is undoubtedly such a thing as a spiritual sense tast or relish Doth not the ear try sounds and the mouth tast meats Job xii 1 1. Even so doubtless a Soul naturalized as before to heavenly Goods has a relish for them and all things which conduce more immediately to them Our Lord reprehends the want hereof in St. Peter while yet too much a Novice in the Power of Godliness Mat. xvi 23. Thou savourest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men But the thing it self we may frequently observe in holy men upon Record In Josiah 2 Chron xxxiv 27. Because thy heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me c. In other language He had a ready sense of and was affected with the Divine threatnings as soon as heard In those Disciples Luk. xxiv 32. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures And in the holy Psalmist more generally Psal cxix 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To my Palate as if his Soul had such an Organ yea sweeter than honey to my mouth Many such passages occur in that heavenly Book In plain english A good man whether he is to Pray or Hear or Communicate or even in private to entertain himself in Meditations or good Books has an heart so accommodated and disposed to these employments as that the several parts of each Office make suitable impressions on him and naturally draw forth his Soul towards God in acts of Resignation Humility Faith Hope Joy Love and Gratitude And this Sensibleness Pliantness of mind thus affirmed we cannot imagin but such Attention to and Compliance with the sum of Christianity together with such general giving a mans self up to God to walk before him in the doing all known duty and avoiding all known sin as before said must needs produce For as living in known sin sears mens Consciences and renders their hearts obdurate so by the rule of contraries the endeavouring to have a good Conscience in all things as the Apostle calls the practice we speak of Hebr. xiii 18. must needs soften them and of stony make them hearts of flesh which how great an advantage it is and how far it facilitates indeed much constitutes an holy life I need not speak 3. Upon these must needs also be consequent a general heavenly mindedness a looking above the things of this world above both the smiles and frowns thereof yea even amidst our worldly engagements or converse and a secret longing of Soul for that future unseen blessed estate which we know not yet what it is distinctly but have believed This part we cannot but conceive will be the product of such qualifications and practices as we have before treated of and all together must needs raise and ennoble the Soul and fit it for the divinest life it can be capable of in this state For suppose the Heart habitually serious tender and compliant with all spiritual concerns breathing after and in love with the unseen world What Christian duty is there which such person is not fitted for And as to the assistances of Divine Grace it is sure God is never wanting to those whom by a course of his Grace and their improvements he has thus prepared for the reception of more I think it now apparent by this method of Operations through which we have traced the Power of Godliness that it will bring men to this state and temper And I shall only add That it will engage them also to endeavours of constant maintaining and upholding the same That their Resolutions and Alacrity flag not that their Seriousness Tenderness and Heavenly mindedness decay not in a word That they fall not from this their Love of God and Holiness For it is a command as obligatory and of as great concernment as any can be presum'd to be Prov. iv 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all keeping whatever thou watchest not over be sure to watch over that For out of it are the issues of life Out of the abundance of it proceeds a mans eternal Weal or Wo. § 5. I would here conclude this Head but that I suspect some persons and those haply not ill ones will be apt to think that still this Discourse runs too high and will oppose against it that of Solomon There is no man which sinneth not 2 Chron. vi
an Angel of Light yet certainly docendi causd doctrinally we may distinguish betwixt negligent loose Professors of Christian Religion at large and starch'd designing Counterfeits I take it to be the former sort the Apostle chiefly deciphers and condemns but I must not exclude the later What the Power of Godliness means we may collect easily by the Opposition it bears to the Form The Form is the imperfect Image and Shew the Power is that Energy Force Virtue and Efficacy which the Principles of Godliness understood and believed are apt to have upon mens Hearts and Lives In those men in whom a serious devout and self-denying temper a just and holy Life is found in those I say and in those alone the Power of Godliness takes place and appears Now as to the Phrase of Denying the Power of Godliness it is only an Hebraism a verbis ad facta ducta translatione applying that way of speech to things which properly belongs to words or verbal Assertions When we agree not to or when we oppose and gainsay any thing that is avowed to us we are said to deny it In like manner when we yield not to or oppose that force and efficacy which the Doctrine of Godliness in its own nature is apt to have upon us we are in the Apostles Language said to deny the Power of Godliness So that the general sense of these terms Denying the Power of Godliness is to obstruct and suppress that influence which the Christian Faith and Law believed and received would naturally have upon us The sum then of this part of the Apostles Prediction is that in the later Ages of Christianity there should be a multitude in the Christian Church who should retain only some knowledg usages and outward shew of Christianity and so the name of Christians but as to the Christian spirit and temper this they should oppress and destroy by wicked and abominable Lives § 4. Now I charge this Character upon the generality of Christians in the present age It is I say a sad truth and ought to be matter of deep and daily Lamentation that after so long enjoyment of the noon day light of the Gospel after so many amazing Blessings and awakening Judgments after our having been toffed and as it were emptied from vessel to vessel Jer. 24. 11. after so many pretended endeavors and perhaps real struglings towards the purest Reformation all that there is of Religion visible in the Christian Commonalty is only some superficial Knowledg of and a bold claim to Christianity some outside Formalities of Divine Worship and customary Devotions but as to a true sense of Piety and the real Fear of God as to a cordial Belief of the Gospel of Christ Jesus influencing and changing mens hearts and lives how rarely is it to be found How difficult to be effected Good God! In what a strange Latitude must the Name Christian be taken that we who at present live may in any proportion be truly denominated Christians § 5. Nor is this Charge at all extravagant or unreasonable it will be sadly made good by particulars I say then 1. The great business of the generality of men in the matter of Religion is fairly to raise and maintain a Form of Godliness And 2. The gaining and keeping a true Christian Spirit or Temper and living conform to the Christian Law or Rule is the care and exercise of very few That is to put both Propositions into one the generality amongst us in the Apostles Language Have a Form but Deny the Power of Godliness And this shall be made good by a particular examination of mens practices § 6. As to the former Branch the Pretences Claims and Practices which amongst men pass into a Form of Godliness are as various as their Conditions Educations Humour and Genius's I will enumerate here such as are most frequent amongst us And I must first mention what has been already suggested out of Rom. ii 20. Some measure of Knowledge and understanding in the Doctrine of Christianity is that upon which many set up for Religious and perhaps are reputed so both by themselves and others I send no man to censure others but let each man turn his eyes inward and see if that most of the Religion he has lie not in a Collection of Notions and Speculations treasured up in his Brain Some people would be content to call this Faith but it is too frequently only a Ferrumination or paltry stock of Opinions and though a man may have very much of Religious Knowledge and yet deny the Power of Godliness otherwise there could be no wicked men but Ignorants yet it is scarce conceivable that any man can be born or bred up and converse amongst Christians but he shall thereby become furnish'd with Knowledg which will suffice to a Form of Godliness There were a sort of men amongst the Jews which seem an exact Parallel of the Formal Christians of this Age I will therefore generally illustrate each particular with that pattern I mean the Scribes and Pharisees They were sensible there could be but two sorts of men in the world good and bad religious and irreligious Now what Stile had they for them John vii 49. This people who know not the Law are cursed Knowing or not knowing the Law with them constituted a man religious or irreligious I would not here be mistaken I am not decrying Knowledg but if Faith without Works be dead Knowledg or an empty pretence thereto when a man shall value himself solely thereupon in the matter of Religion must necessarily be a fallacious ground of Confidence and a meer Form of Godliness 2. Others there be who to their real or pretended Knowledg add a popular and specious Profession of believing the Religious Doctrines they are supposed to understand A Profession of Faith indeed all amongst us whether knowing or ignorant daily make or maintain And thus far none within the pale of the Church generally can be well imagined not to have a Form of Godliness But some are content to go along with the Herd and are as much unconcerned in their very Profession as in the Practice of Christianity If in common custom they are present at our Congregations and stand up at the Creed by that posture perhaps without Knowledg signifying their assent 't is in a manner as much Profession as can be perceived they make But others there are into whose company you cannot come though upon common business or civility but they will presently by head and shoulders fetch Religion into Discourse and tell you their concernments at the Atheism and Vices of the times Nay haply their very Looks Habit Gesture and Carriage of their Body are so managed that a man who converses not with them but only sees them pass by may easily espy therein the symptoms of a Religious Profession Far be it from me here to condemn Gravity serious or holy Discourse much less to censure the Confession or Profession of
man designing such life resolve never to trouble their heads with the understanding or comprehending such Doctrines which so much disturb them and as they will tell you embroil the world These men study Ignorance for the sake of a stupid Quiet and designedly abandon and defie all means of Religious Knowledge A desperate sort of blind men indeed Now there is no doubt but both and all these our Church ignorants and our Outlying-ignorants and that whether through supine negligence and sloth or through resolute design and obstinacy all of them I say Deny the Power of Godliness whatsoever they may have or retain of the Form For they stop the very first passage by which Godliness can come at their hearts or ever have any power over them namely they suffer it not to enter into their Vnderstandings 2. Men obstruct and so deny the Power of Godliness by voluntary Vnbelief And I must here say the same of the Vnbelief of this Age which I did just now of its Ignorance There is speaking only of such who have their Senses little or no grose Vnbelief to be found amongst us which is not voluntary it being generally matter of mens choice either in it self directly or indirectly in its causes If men affect Ignorance and so believe not either because they understand not the Doctrines to be believed or see not the Evidences which perswade them who shall say that Unbelief is not chosen when the Ignorance whence it derives is apparently such But if any who both understand the Christian Doctrine and are acquainted with the Evidences upon which it is pretended to be believed do yet withstand and cavil at those Evidences endeavouring to find or make flaws in them whereas in truth there are none and then dispute touching their insufficiency exposing them and demanding Evidences either impossible that is such which the nature of the Cause admits not or unreasonable if I say any men in these circumstances and thus acting believe not it is plain such mens Vnbelief is matter of Industry Endeavour and Design and so not only of deliberate but obstinate choice Now such perverse spirits may be found now adays too rife as well as those more lazy Vnbelievers before mentioned And both sorts undoubtedly deny the Power of Godliness for both obstruct the perswasion of its reality in their hearts without which persuasion it is plain Religion must be but an insignificant pretence of no prevalence or force Lastly men may hinder and so deny the Power of Godliness by a voluntary Heedlesness It will look somewhat hard perhaps in the judgment of most to call all the Inadvertencies and Incogitancies which in common conversation betray men into sin voluntary ones inasmuch as many seem meerly casual others after a sort necessary and natural Infirmities And again on the other side men ordinarily give themselves so great a loose and even the best so much remit that holy Sollicitude and Watch which they ought constantly to maintain over themselves that it will be difficult most times to say touching this or that particular inadvertent fit it is not at all voluntary I would be understood to speak of men awake and in their Senses Health and the like that is as in the former cases neither chosen in its self nor cause In plain terms we so far abandon our Minds and Hearts to the World and Vanity or we indulge our Pleasures and Appetites so much that these draw and strangely detain or enslave our Thoughts And while we so intently and constantly pursue such Objects if unawares and inadvertently we are surprised with sinful concernments passions and engagements about them who can avow that inadvertency no whit voluntary when the indulgence which drew it on was plainly so But this may seem less culpable in these our days and perhaps to some very venial and excusable For alas how few are there who in this particular are not guilty more or less of denying the Power of Godliness As therefore we complained before of a designed Ignorance and Unbelief so must we here of such a thoughtless unconcerned temper which is matter of some mens study and endeavour To be ever Airy and free from any intent thought void of all sollicitudes and what they call easie to a mans self but especially to be above all religious apprehensions and concernments that is in plain English to put little or no difference between what we call moral good or evil some men look upon as a great pitch of happiness Whereas therefore thoughtfulness does breed concernment and bring men to put a difference betwixt Actions they endeavour by all means they well can to hinder the Entrance of thought into them They take care not to be alone nor in serious thoughtful company They divert themselves to other business or rather possibly to Jollity or Madness they say to Conscience when about to dictate to them Duty or forbid them Sin as Felix to St. Paul Act. xxiv 25. Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee This is indeed an heinous sort of obstructing the Power of Godliness Such resolute heedlesness as this may seem rather a suppressing the Power of Godliness already partly in possession than an obstructing the passages by which it is to enter But let it be stiled how or ranked under what ever head it shall it is surely a practice very common and a dangerous well nigh desperate method of denying the Power of Godliness § 3. But there is yet another kind more dreadful and which exceeds all the former as well in Guilt as in audacious or daring Violence namely when men though they have not been able to keep out of their minds all notices and belief of Religion nor it may be are able though they do endeavour as those before to suppress exterminate or banish the frequent recurring dictates of awakened Conscience this possible so haunting them that they hear its voice whether they will or no shall yet notwithstanding all for the love of some longcourted Pleasure or Profit control all these Dictates and in a resolved course of sin overbear all opposition from them They stand in their own hearts convinced haply both of the nature and obligation of their Duty so as to have nothing of sound Reason to object against it They want not Arguments or Motives to recommend their Duty or dissuade their beloved Sin but the plain Truth is they are unwilling to part with their Sin and so no Argument will move them For they have long heard of the Wrath of God revealed and to be revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of men who hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. which means has been effectual to assert Godliness into its due power in others and even these men themselves whether they will or no cannot very oft but give credit to these Doctrines yea they run in their minds more than they desire they should Yet
means which God hath appointed as well for the implanting as growth of Grace in our Hearts Those means are well known to be Prayer the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments to which we must join Meditation All these I said we must use 1. Constantly that is without omission or neglect of them in their due season 2. Devoutly always endeavouring to come to them with due temper and then engaging our Hearts in them And 3. Wisely remembering our Christian wants and applying these as the outward means which God has put in our power and whereby he has commanded us to address our selves to him for all Grace and Aids we can want But it may not be amiss to touch in a word or two upon each particularly First As to Prayer both publick and private As we would either bring or keep our Hearts under the Power of Godliness let none of the stated opportunities of it be neglected And when we come thereto let us before we open our Mouths set God before the Eyes of our Soul as then more especially present and take care we seek to him with our Souls and all that is within us Now to the end we may manage this spiritual help and office wisely let us because we apply it at present as a way or means to the Power of Godliness let us I say remember in what of the particulars so often mentioned we are deficient or whether not in all Do we want Knowledge of what we are to believe or do in order to Salvation Let us earnestly supplicate to God that he will inlighten our minds strengthen our powers assist and bless our endeavours after the Knowledg of the Holy He giveth Wisdom liberally to all who ask and upbraideth none Jam. 1. 5. Do we know enough but find it difficult to believe Faith is the Gift of God Let us beseech him he will both furnish us with more pressing Evidences of his Truth than haply are yet to come to our knowledge and more deeply affect our Hearts with those we have that being truly persuaded in our whole Christianity our Faith may never fail Do we want attentive and heedful Minds Let us beg of him that he will both set and keep his Law ever before us and write it in the Tables of our Hearts Do we want Diligence Resolution and Christian Strength for endeavouring to do what we see and believe we are obliged to Let us beseech our heavenly Father to quicken us by the Fear and Love of himself and to enable us by his Power from above that we may walk before him with a perfect Heart having respect unto all his Commandments Finally do we want the Christian temper above described Seeing it is God who turneth as he pleases and fashioneth the Heart of man within him let us never forget daily to importune him that he would both create and establish in us a right Spirit even such which may be according to his own Heart Thus used we shall certainly find Prayer a most admirable and effectual means to the setting up and maintaining the Power of Godliness in our Souls 2. Of the Ministry of the Word I have already spoken in part and as it is a means of Knowledge and Faith particularly The constant devout and discreet attendance thereon will also certainly mightily operate to a considerative heedful state of mind to honest resolutions and Endeavours of Integrity or walking in all good Conscience before God and in a word to the due Christian temper Hereof the CXIX Psalm is in a manner throughout an ample proof And 3. No less must I say of the Sacraments Reflecting upon our own Baptismal Vow when we are present at the Baptism of others and frequent renewing it at the Lords Table as it leads us to a more strict solemn and mature examination of our selves so certainly above all other means strengthens the Interest of Godliness in our Hearts I may confidently say one great reason of the Christian multitudes not living in better Conscience towards God is their having been accustomed to so much neglect of the Lords Supper The Bloud of Christ would both warm and aw mens Hearts 4. But we cannot always pray hear or communicate think or meditate we may oftener And this ought to go in conjunction generally with all those other Duties A man never prays as he should except he spend some thoughts before-hand in examining his Conscience the same may I say much more of receiving the Lords Supper this undoubtedly requires more thoughts foregoing And very little will be our Benefit by hearing except afterwards we recollect and by some Meditation endeavour to fix upon our Spirits what we have heard most touching our own condition I may not stand here to discourse that Meditation is either occasional or solemn Both of them certainly in their season ought to exercise every Christian as he is able to employ himself therein But occasional and transient thought as we may be oftner at walking travelling busied about outward affairs in the world so it will concern us more frequently to apply as a means to quicken the Power of Godliness in our Hearts We know who makes it a part of the godly mans Character as it is indeed his great preservative against both the Counsels of the ungodly and the Way of sinners that he meditates in the Law of the Lord day and night It was accordingly very much Davids own practice as we may observe through the whole Book of Psalms many of which were certainly composed in part or in whole by him upon his Bed by night as well as others by day And it were very well if more of the waking part of our repose were spent in communing with our own Hearts and God upon our Bed Then generally we are or may be still and free from outward disturbances But as men that are wise in this Generation employ and catch all seasons of getting so should those who are or would be Children of Light all opportunities for holy thought as being singularly serviceable to the Power of Godliness And thus as to the private Directory part both particular and general § 4. Something may be done as to the Publick and for propagating the Power of Godliness in others by Magistrates Ministers Parents or Heads of Families First All these sorts of men might happily join in promoting the due Observation of the Lords day Magistrates in awing and driving Idlers or such whose Devotion leads them not to Church Morning and Evening Ministers in being diligent and zealous in the discharge of their Duty discreetly suiting both their Sermons and Catechisings to this end of affecting mens Hearts with the Power of Godliness and as they see fit complying with such methods as those above propounded thereto Parents and Masters of Families in being aiding and assistant to the Magistrate and Minister in seeing their Children and Servants duely and orderly frequent the Church come as required to Catechism or the Sacrament
or in case they do not first warning reproving and as need requires threatning them but where this is in vain calling in the Magistrates help to punish such Offenders If this course do not suit all places by reason of the thinness of Magistrates in lesser Parishes the Ministers and Churchwardens conscientious discharge of their Duty in giving warning to the negligent that if they reform not they must present them to the Ordinary which would suddenly redress what some so much complain of the want of Discipline in our Church and in case they do not reform actually presenting them would undoubtedly much contribute to the remedying the publick evils we tax For by these means all sorts of persons would be brought to the publick means of Grace Knowledg would be encreased and thereby the Power of Godliness would insinuate it self into the Hearts of a multitude who live now as without God in the world Thus as to what these Orders of men may do jointly Severally also no little advance in this design may each of these in their places make I will suppose I need not tell the Ministers what they may do as well by a discreet and conscientious diligence in their Duty generally as especially 1. By conscientious Catechising the young openly in the Church as required by Law and so in the hearing of the aged Under the name of Catechising I comprehend the practical explaining and applying to the capacities of the meanest the Principles of Christian Religion out of and according to the Catechism 2. By private Visits and Admonitions 3. In taking care all of their own Family be respectively examples to others And as to Parents and Masters of Families 1. The setting up and maintaining the daily Worship of God in the Family as it would otherwise derive a Blessing upon the Family so it would certainly by degrees imprint a Reverence and Sense of Religion on the minds even of the youngest as they grow up 2. The taking care not only that all who are young but all who are ignorant learn their Catechism the keeping them some part of the Lords day and great Festivals out of Church time in reading the Bible or other good Books or else in attending to such as can read and if possible the taking account of their Behaviour Attention or Proficiency at Church would be more beneficial in this behalf than easily imaginable A very deplorable thing it is that a Family should have nothing of religious Offices amongst them but only what they have in common with the rest of the Parish one hour or two in a week at Church yet God knows how many thousand Families there are amongst us that have not and this no doubt is one reason why the Power of Godliness thrives no better I have thus briefly and familiarly set down what I think fit to say here as to those obvious methods by which the Power of Godliness may be promoted publickly or amongst the multitude § 5. But publick or Ecclesiastico-political methods were not the design of these Papers which as is plain by their Contents were calculated for mens private selves to be an help whereby each man might be able to see whether he has any thing of real Religion in himself and if he have not how he might arrive thereat And this certainly is one of the most likely and incomparably the best way to the Reformation of the Christian world that each should amend one namely himself For when many particular persons have done that all virtue being diffusive and Religion which is the greatest most so their own Hearts will naturally prompt them by all sober means to instill into all within their sphere that spiritual sense and life they feel in themselves There will be less Pragmaticalness Pride Ostentation Calumny and ill Nature in the world more of real Seriousness Peaceableness Humility Charity and conscientious exercising our selves to good works that is to say the true Power of Godliness will more prevail And the Good God make this plain hearty Discourse in some measure effectual to to the blessed end it pretends and was cordially by its Author design'd for AMEN Some ADVICE to such as own the Power of Godliness subjoyned to the foregoing Discourse about § 1. Spiritual Wickednesses § 2. Ostentation § 3. Yet Keeping a Decorum § 4. Murmuring § 5. Fears and Jealoufies § 6. Busie-bodies § 7. Giving Offence § 8. Vncharitable Opinionativeness § 9. Charitable catholick Comprehension HAving look'd over the foregoing Papers though I find many defects therein which my design of Brevity permitted not to supply yet there is one of such importance that I judged I could not discharge that Faith which I ow to the Age if I should wholly let it pass or be silent in a case in which I have here so fair an occasion to speak and in which it is so needful somebody should speak The case is this There are great numbers amongst us who pretend or own themselves and undoubtedly many of them are acted for the main by the Power of Godliness who yet by divers imprudent and inconsistent Practices to say no worse much disgrace it to whom therefore it is high time as the world goes that some very particular Advices and Admonitions adhomines should be given which Office though I am sensible my self to be very insufficient for yet having taken upon me to speak so roundly hitherto I will desire the following Supplement may be taken as proceeding from the same well-meaning with the rest of these Papers § First then I earnestly conjure all who pretend to the Power of Godliness to be with all good Conscience as before God careful that while they profess and live in an abhorrence of more gross and scandalous sins they do not allow themselves in spiritual Wickednesses Gross and scandalous Sins I call Profaneness Perjurys Treasons Oppressions Dishonesty or Injustice Vncleanness Drunkenness and the like Spiritual Wickednesses I reckon secret Pride Censoriousness Peevishness Revengefulness habitual Discontent Partiality Dissemblings Falseness and such other too frequent evils Divers of this later sort men otherwise very strict in their Lives are apt to overlook and it is well if they do not allow at least tolerate and judge tolerable in themselves But let all seriously consider the God with whom we have to do is The Searcher of Hearts and requireth Truth in the inward parts He will no more endure a conceited puff'd up waspish and uncharitable Soul than he does approve the Practices of the most profligate and debauched wretch It is the Preeminence of Christianity above all other Religions and Disciplines to purge the Heart to induce a sweet easie and humble Temper such Spirit is amiable before God and man such we are strictly obliged to as we would be blessed or like our Master and supposing we profess the Christian Faith as we do we shame the Gospel of Christ and expose the Power of Godliness if we wear not such § 2. Let all
especially those of the Character I speak to beware of Ostentation or any thing that savors of Vain glory Let them speak or do nothing with design or any appearance of design to be seen of men or to get themselves the repute and notice of the world as being more godly than their Christian Brethren If a generally-holy harmless and devout Life gain them such repute if the shadow of its own accord follow Virtue so be it let them go on as not regarding it or looking back thereon Surely let 'em not by a commonly-affected vein of Discourse by any strained Carriage Deportment Look Garb or other like Singularity give the world occasion to think they desire to be cryed up for the Godly men of the Age such Behaviour is very nauseous to all sober observers and is too often exposed and ridicul'd by persons of a vain or as they would rather have it called of a more free facetious and ingenious Conversation The world is apt to censure all pretences to more Zeal and Sanctity than ordinary of Hypocrifie or Self-conceit and though they may sin in so doing yet we ought as far as we are able to avoid putting a stumbling block before them I mean giving them any occasion of imploying their uncharitable Faculty of judging Besides it is a great felicity to approve a mans self to God in secret to be able to reflect on many hidden treasures of good works Their unobservedness inhances the Joy they administer And we know who tells us that that Generation who sought Honour of Men and not of God only even in those things wherein they seemed to have done well lost their Reward § 3. Yet let us notwithstanding remember these Precepts of the Apostles Provide things honest in the sight of all men Romans xii 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forecasting all may be handsome And again Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest or venerable whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue if there be any Praise think on these things Phil. iv 8. Though we must avoid whatever looks like Affectation Vain glory or Hypocrisie yet we must be careful to maintain such a Decorum to express in our Discourse Actions such Gravity Prudence and sense of Religion accompanied with a sweetness of Courtesie and Affability that we may give good examples win others to the love of our persons and so of holy Practice and our very Conversation may be a kind of check or aw upon the vain Spirits of some yet together obliging unto all The world is so prejudiced against all Austerities of Religion and yet so apt to find or make faults in the Lives of all religious men rejoycing and insulting if they can catch persons of such note peecant or misbehaving in any thing encouraging themselves in their own Vices as thinking good mens slips authorise their crimes that there is need of all possible care so to menage our selves in our converse between Severity and Complacence that the Gospel of Christ be not through us evil spoken of If we are reserved we are cryed out of as proud morose or hypocritical if open and frank that shall be interpreted Loosness in us which in others would be esteemed but innocent Fredom that Sin gross and scandalous here which elsewhere passes for trivial or is scarce observ'd I confess the case is difficult and will sometimes try the skill of men of most Temper and Conduct But it is sure there is nothing but our habitual well-doing can put to silence the Ignorance of foolish and wicked men if yet this will effect it The consideration therefore hereof should excite all serious persons to a diligent watch over their several more formed thoughts words and actions there being on all hands so many that watch for their halting and the Devil and his Agents still making such advantages thereof § 4. As a thing generally of ill report let any godly men who are guilty lay aside that uneasie querelous and too often murmuring humour which is gone abroad in these Nations and for which a sort of men whom I could name are grown notorious Various are the Subjects people find to complain of sometimes of their own Sufferings sometimes of others of their Friends c. I will not here speak how some men magnifie both without considering that themselves are the Authors of them or might with good Conscience by a little more Prudence and Temper than they have exercised easily have prevented them I pray God make us all one or all easie to one another That which I shall rather tax and dissuade is those other common Themes which many use to declaim upon the Manners of the Age Want of good Government and of the Execution of some wholsome Laws c. It is indeed a great truth the Age is very corrupt and too many Magistrates negligent but does our unquiet discourse hereof amend things Is speaking evil of Dignities a Christian method of Reformation Does it not much more concern and 〈…〉 to amend what is amiss in ourselves and where we are 〈◊〉 â—â—provers to reprove what we see deserves it in others where we are not silently to reprove it by our own better and universal-holy Life secretly besides mourning over all before God Does not I say this Practice much more become the Power of Godliness than filling all things with our fruitless outcries of the publick Sins Surely it is a guilty commutation instead of mourning to murmer nor can we find a more contemptible pitiful way of expressing our Zeal than still to be finding something to exclaim against This generally is not the effect of Holiness but of Weakness and some men will tell us if we persist herein that we are only a silly sort of people who know not what we would have yet are ever dissatisfied that we have not our own Will § 5. Much akin hereto is another Quality very frequent amongst such men as I am now addressing to and indeed very uneasie to others as well as themselves that though they are under no such present pressure as may justly provoke them to complain yet they are ever surmising and presaging both to themselves and the publick most dreadful dangers as now iminent and at hand Fears and Jealousies have gone fair now a long time to have ruined this Nation and extinguish'd our Church only God hath hitherto still miraculously retrieved both But when we have so long found by sad experience whither these methods lead shall we still persist in the same road Are we resolved on our own Destruction and so fond of it that we will create our selves and others perpetual anxieties perplexity and pain rather than not effect it Or does it become those who are in so many places taught by our Lord Christ and his Apostles not to take care for the morrow to cast all our care upon one who surely careth for us to commit our selves to him
in ways of well-doing does it become I say such to be ever boding the worst that can come You 'l say perhaps Yes our Sins deserve it But is not the Reply as obvious as that Answer Why do we not rather reform them than still fondly pretend we dread their Punishment Nay is not this pretended dread one of our Sins If it be only pretended 't is Falseness and Hypocrisie If it be real it is an injury to our selves in putting our selves in a perpetual Little-ease to others privately in communicating to them the same inquietude to the publick in sowing and somenting Discontents It is besides a Dishonour to God in not trusting him and quieting our minds by such trust and finally a part of great uncharitableness if no further reflection to our Governours and those who have the management of affairs We are apt sometimes highly to extol and admire as our greatest interest here on earth the Life of Faith What becomes of this Life while we indulge in our selves and possess others with such restless and it is to be hoped unreasonable fears or can we say we commit our souls into the hands of God for their future state but dare not trust him for the present with our Bodies Estates and Families In a word if we will not abandon this unworthy temper we must be told we hereby only express the want of the Power of Godliness which most certainly would work us to an intire resignation of our selves to his holy Pleasure and to a cheerful dependance upon him as knowing he governs the World He will be exalted upon the earth and bring to pass his own Counsels both in purging and in preserving his Church nor does he need we should step out of our way to help him § 6. I presume now the Advice may be taken which I have formerly and often given some people to no purpose let none who pretend to the Power of Godliness busie themselves and interpose in things that belong not to them especially supposing them private men not in modelling agitating much less controlling and counterworking the affairs and concerns of State Our Province is Godliness What has that to do with State politicks The Scripture often reproves Busie-bodies and by warning us that we take heed we suffer not as Busie-bodies suggests to us that it is neither easie for us to avoid suffering in one kind or other if we will be such nor creditable to suffer as such 1 Pet. iv 15. There is nothing has more exposed some people nor perhaps more hindred the Reformation they desired than their inorordinate meddling in publick Affairs and intruding into or carrying on secret political designs And we know it is the ordinary Character of one reputed the great Founder of a certain Sect I will neither name Sect nor Person that he was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man which would concern himself in more Counsels than he was welcome to A strange thing it is that after so many passionate Admonitions given them to the contrary nay after so many Reproaches and Defeats which some men have seen fall upon themselves and Followers they will not be wiser and quieter How justly might the Apostles have been stiled those who turned the world upside down Act. xvii 6. had they acted at the rate that our Gospellers have now long accustomed themselves to But we cannot observe in those certain and antient Saints the least tendency to tampering or drawing the People into Cabals and Mutinies though they endured a thousand times more for Religion than any amongst us Both they and our Lord Jesus suffered the Governments of the world to keep their old Model and run in their former channel were obedient to every Ordinance of Man or humane Polity they were cast under and prescribed the same contenting themselves and both by Example and Doctrine teaching us to content our selves under Authority to lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty We find then no Admonitions to Senates or High Courts of Parliament written no Remonstrances no holy Common-wealths It was not then esteemed a part of Christian Zeal to be undermining and lifting men out of their Rights dictating Conditions of Subjection aiming at the misplacing Ministers of State nominating new ones and in a word practising as if we had more Wit and Right to govern than those whom God in his Providence has set over us I hope all men of any seriousness in Religion will learn at length to lay aside this meddling Humour and that not only in the State but even in other mens private concerns where they are no wise invited or called thereto for there is a more private sort of Pragmaticalness also that they will study to do their own business not taking upon them to be Directors Transactors or Menagers where nothing but their own busie Humour gives them any inducement or incouragement § 7. Let us on all sides forbear and avoid as far as is possible whatever we know is apt to offend or provoke one another As far as is possible I say and by possible I mean as far as we can and may For Id tantum possumus quod jure possumus Our Power ought not to extend beyond our Right Strange and unreasonable are the Practices which some mens Bigotry or Irregularity of Zeal puts them upon What is the meaning of certain peoples crying out of our Liturgy so thoroughly in this behalf reformed under the Terms of the English Mass-book Popery new drest and the like And then how comes that very Doctrine in one mans Mouth or Book to be Pelagianism Socinianism Arminianism Advance towards Popery c. wch in anothers is Orthodox Sound and Godly Nay why is it only an expression of Zeal in one and study of Innovation in the other Again on the side of those who are zealous and that justly for the Liturgy What is the meaning of filling the Peoples Common-Prayer Books with Pictures our Church Books have none How came these into the hands of Protestants at their Devotions How unseasonable in this juncture Our Bibles laid aside both they and Preaching exclaim'd against by some Sundry more such practices as these amongst serious people on both hands might be named which only breed ill Bloud create Jealousies of one another inhance our Feuds and Animosities which God knows we have no need of This kind of Zeal is no effect but an enemy of the Power of Godliness Let in the name of God our Zeal confine it self to its proper Objects things necessary Faith Holiness and Peace And while on one hand we plead for Purity let us not forfeit Sobriety while on the other for Conformity to our Church-Laws let us not prove Nonconformists our selves by going beyond them § 8. Let us give off that uncharitable wicked humour of placing Godliness in Opiniastry or being rigid in some Controversial points How many are there who will by no means allow him capable of the Power of Godliness who is not a strict Calvinist either supralapsarian as perhaps the Master or sublapsarian as his more wary Followers With these men Calvinism is the Standard of Piety nay of Christianity Yet are they again paid off in their coin by Adversaries who shall tell the world no Calvinist can be better than an Hypocrite or Athiest These extremities are very ill and Charity is a more excellent way I confess in dubious questions methinks that part ought to be chosen which most effectually presses Holiness By their Fruits that is the tendencies of the Doctrines shall ye know them viz. the Teachers whether they teach true or false Yet to some men that may seem to press on and further Holy life which in other mens thoughts destroys it In the mean time we ought to remember it is not bad and illogical arguing but bad and immoral living which is incompatible with the Power of Godliness § 9. Lastly therefore I will conclude this Advice with an humble but most earnest Request to all Christian people That they will maintain a large and true catholick Spirit not confining Sanctity and Salvation to their own party but loving and praying for all who any where give evidence of the Fear of God and walk according to the Gospell being ready for Vnion and Accomodation upon whatsoever lawful terms they may Mutual strangeness aversness and antipathies to one another can never flow from nor be reconciled with the Power of Godliness Whether I shall be heard herein I know not or if exposed as I have been and esteemed weak as I am I care not But sure I am Peace and Holiness are such Twins which weep and smile flourish and languish together nor can self-will'd and turbulent Spirits ever vouch themselves to be of God I have thus noted the chief Faults which occur to me in those who pretend on any hand to the Power of Godliness Namely overlooking in themselves spiritual evils Oftentation or making a more specious Profession of Religion than is confistent with modest Sincerity Indiscretion or heedlesness in our Conversation I mean a not imploying our utmost care and prudence that our Behaviour be for the Honour of the Gospel Querelousness or crying out upon the Times or Government unreasonable Fears and Surmises a busie pragmatical Humour both in publick affairs and the private concerns of other men Bigottry or irregular Zeal for a Party placing Sanctity in a scheme of perplex'd and perplexing Opinions and finally Schismatical Vncharitableness More Evils possibly I might have taxed and more Advices given to men of this Character but they occur not Good men I hope will add hereto Bernardus non videt omnia God amend all these in any FINIS