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A66338
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A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, April 2, 1690 being the fifth Wednesday in Lent / by William Wake.
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Wake, William, 1657-1737.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing W264; ESTC R24588
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17,349
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40
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his own wants by stealing or defrauding his neighbour of his Goods And especially 3dly If he not only in general advises him to do this but in particular points out to him a fair occasion to put his advice in execution As if for instance he should not only counsel him in General to steal but should moreover tell him where a good Booty was to be had How he might get into his Neighbours House What time would be the most proper for it And in what part of the House he should find what he went for Nay but 4thly Tho a man should not go so far as this nor be at all guilty of helping or advising his neighbour to do Evil yet If he gives his Consent to it If he encourage him in the Performance and approves his doing of it He does even by this render himself partaker of the Guilt of it 'T is upon this account that St. Austin charges St. Paul with the Death of the Blessed Steven He was none of the Witnesses against him nor did he throw one Stone at him But he was standing by and consenting unto his death and he kept the raiment of them that slew him And by doing of this he rendred himself no less Guilty than the most zealous of those that appeared against him Others cast the Stones at him but St. Paul slew him by their hands The Sum of this Second Remark is in short this That whatsoever the Means be by which any one assists another in his Wickedness if he knows the thing to be Evil and yet still goes on to promote and encourage the Execution of it He sins thereby against his own Soul and shall render an Account to God for every such Crime as any Other shall have committed by his Help and Assistance But I must go yet farther For Thirdly A Man may be adjudged by God to be the occasion of other mens Sins and as such to partake in them tho' he do's not thus directly contribute to the Execution of them And that especially by these two ways * By his wicked Doctrine and * By the Scandal and Influence of a bad Example And by either of which if another be led into Sin we find the Person who conduced but even thus far towards it nevertheless charged by God as Partaker of it First He that advances any wicked Doctrine whereby either to deceive Men into the commission of Sin or to strengthen them in it do's thereby render himself Partaker of their Evil-doings It was a sad Complaint which God once made against the Prophets of old Ezek. xiii That they prophesied falsly in his Name and seduced his people by palliating their Vices and sowing Pillows under their Arms and not suffering them to see their Danger saying still Peace peace and there was no Peace But God denounces a terrible Judgment against them for their so doing at the third and following Verses Thus saith the LORD Wo unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing Who say The LORD saith and the Lord hath not sent them Therefore thus saith the LORD God My hand shall be upon the Prophets that see Vanity and that divine Lies and I will accomplish my Wrath upon them to wit upon the Prophets of Israel which prophesie concerning Jerusalem and see Visions of Peace for her and there is no Peace saith the LORD God It would I fear be a melancholy Reflection to consider how many of these kind of Prophets there are at this time among us who by false Principles and mistaken Notions of Christianity that I do not add and by their open Profaneness too by their new Systems both of Faith and Morality fall under the same Censure and thereby involve their Souls in a greater Destruction But indeed What Other Account can we give of all those Principles and Doctrines whereby some extenuate the Danger others cover over the very Nature of Sin Some lead men ignorantly into it by teaching them that what is indeed unlawful may innocently be done by them Others let them see and know what they do but then tell them they run no great hazard in the doing of it A little Sorrow and Confession at the last and all is secure Or should the worst that can happen yet alas Hell is no such dreadful Place as 't is commonly misapprehended to be It being unreasonable to think that God should punish a few Temporary Sins with Everlasting Torments In short That 't is but to die and perish and enjoy nothing and why then should a man trouble himself with the dull Formality of Religion now when he has so little to apprehend and be afraid of hereafter But let such Men as these know that it is not a light Offence that they commit in all this There is a time coming when they shall render a severe Account for these their Delusions And undergo a Punishment not only proportionable to their own Sins but to all that Deluge of Evil which by such Principles as these has broke in upon the World in these latter days It was one of those great Evils for which God pronounced that severe Denuntiation against the Jews heretofore Isaiah v. 20. That they call'd Evil Good and Good Evil they put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter that is they confounded the Natures of Things destroyd all Distinction betwixt Good and Evil Vertue and Vice they ran down Piety as a vain Practice and recommended Profaneness as true Gallantry and Bravery Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust because they have cast away the Law of the LORD of Hosts and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel Secondly A Man may become the Occasion and so partake of Other mens Sins not only by his Evil Doctrine but by the Scandal and Influence of a Bad Example And that not only if he thereby designs to lead them into Sin but tho' he should not have the least desire much less intention so to do For Sin being always scandalous and apt to give offence He who do's any thing that he ought not and thereby leads his Brother from his Duty must answer to God not only for the Evil that he did but for all the Consequences of it to the deceiving of any Other into the like Offence And thus the Holy Scripture not only condemns Jeroboam for making Israel to sin upon the account of the Calves that he set up in Dan and Bethel on purpose to draw them away from the true Worship of God 1 Kings xii 28. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem Behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt But represents St. Peter to us as Guilty of leading the Gentile Converts into Error tho' by complying as he did
them into Sin let us by our good Example both teach them what they ought to do and if possible make them in love with it And let us look upon our selves to lie under the same Engagement to God for one another that Judah once took upon himself for his Brother Benjamin Gen. 43. 9. Of my hand shalt thou require him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee then let me bear the blame for ever I am sensible that I am now exhorting you to a Duty but very little if at all consider'd by most Men. We think it to be enough for us to search out our own Souls and account with God for our own Miscarriages And may perhaps be ready to complain of this as some new Contrivance against your Liberty to call upon you to repent for other Men's sins But if the Case be indeed so as the Text plainly implies and as I think I may presume to say I have in some measure made it appear to be If there be many waies by which we may and by some or other of which it is probable the very best of us have rendred our selves partakers of other Mens sins Then I am sure it must remain that we have a concern to look beyond our own particular Offences and to enquire to how many sins of others we may have contributed by any of these means I have before mentioned and the less we have been wont to do this heretofore it will argue the greater not lesser necessity for us to set very seriously about it now It is indeed an amazing Reflection to sit down and think How much more Guilt we may possibly contract by every sin that we commit than we are any of us willing to believe or it may be able to comprehend For not to say any thing at all of those common Aggravations which we are every where taught to examine our selves about Such as sinning against Knowledg against the Checks of our own Consciences and the Motions of God's Holy Spirit to the contrary sinning against often repeated Promises against the most serious Resolutions against the most solemn and sacred Vows of Obedience In a word sinning against many providential Admonitions such as Trouble Afflictions Losses Sickness and the like sent by God on purpose to reclaim us Let us consider only this one thing now before us How many Men our sinning may be the Ruine of How many souls may for ought we know perish by our means And what a desperate increase this must add to our own Guilt For if he who converts a sinner from the Error of his way and so is instrumental to the saving but of one soul from death shall for that cover a multitude of his own sins O! then how fatally must we multiply evil against our selves when by our neglect of our duty we lead perhaps Multitudes into error and involve their souls in everlasting Destruction If we have therefore hitherto neglected so serious a Consideration If our Repentance has been only for the sins we our selves have committed without any regard to the Mischief we may have done our Brother by them Let us now at least be perswaded to think that we have yet one great part of our Humiliation still behind to deprecate God's Wrath not only for our selves but for others too and implore his Forgiveness of all those sins which have ever by our means been committed by any in the world and that he would not impute them either to their or our Damnation This if we do with that affectionate earnestness as becomes so great an Aggravation I am perswaded we shall not only very much increase our Contrition and so perfect our Repentance for what is past but may also by the Grace of God establish our selves the better against returning to our Evil Waies for the Time to come And our desires not to partake in other Men's sins be improved into one Motive more to keep us from continuing in our own I shall conclude this Discourse after the same manner and almost in the same Words that S. Basil once did his Canonical Epistle to Amphilochius upon the occasion of that very Reflection we have now been making Let us saies he consider the terrible Judgment of God and the day of his Appearing and let us fear lest we perish in other men's Sins Let us call to mind the Admonitions of God to us What Evils we have been exposed to What Calamities we have suffered And let these convince us That for the Iniquities of our Lives we have been forsaken by him Our People have been led into Captivity our Brethren dispersed far and near Because those who profess the Name of Christ have yet lived so contrary to their Profession But if after all this Men will not understand That for these Causes the Wrath of God is come upon us wherefore should we after this have any thing more to do with them Nevertheless let us not cease Day nor Night in Publick and in Private to intreat and beseech them to consider these things but let us not be drawn away with their Wickedness Let us wish and pray That if it shall please God we may yet gain them at the last and deliver them out of the Snares of the Devil but if this we cannot do yet at least let us save our own Souls thô we cannot theirs and not partake with them in their sins lest we also partake with them in their Destruction Now to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb be ascribed as is most due Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Honour and Power and Might for ever and ever Amen FINIS 1 Tim. iii. 15. 2 Cor. ii 6. Chrys. Hom. xv in 1. Tim. Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. iii. 5. Marc. Ant. l. viii Sect. 53. â—d Com. Ezek. xviii 2 Sam. xi 15 17. 2 Sam. xii 9. 10. 11 12. 13. Psal. li. 14. Inst. l. iv Tit. 1. Sect Interdum Serm. de Sanctis i iv v. Acts xxii 20. Ezek. xiii 3. c. Isaiah v. 2â— Isaiah v. 24. Gal. ii 12. 13. 14. 11. 14. Exod. xxi 33. 34. 1 Kings xiii 34. Isâ—er ad Dem. â— 30. Chrysost. in Rom. Hom. V. pag. 46 47. 1 Kings xxi 4. 9. 10. 11. 15. 16. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocyl Mat. v. 28. 22. 2 Ep. Jo. 7. 1â— 2 Ep. Jo. 11. James v. 19 20. Bevereg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tom II. p. 367.