the Incorporation of the Church into the Civil State by a Constitution of Government in it self so Excellently Contriv'd as to reserve to the Apostles Successors all their Divine Right and Primitive Authority in Matters purely Ecclesiastical and yet in a due Subordination to the Civil Magistrate shou'd by our Divisions be brought to this that they shall now act rather as Members of the State than as Governours of the Church And that the Addition of Temporal Laws in a Kingdom of Christians which were design'd to give strength to her Censures shou'd by this means come to have a quite contrary Effect to swallow them all up and Resolve them almost wholly into Civil Power Insomuch that she hath only her Doctrine left for Ornament but little of that Original Power of Defending her self and Excluding all Impudent Impiety Profaness and Irreligion out of the Fold of Christ So that there were generally better Christians in the Church when it was among Infidels than now that there are so many Infidels suffer'd to be profest and actual Members of the Church We must both I say acknowledge that these open and scandalous Sins of profest Christians are the dismal Consequences of our Divisions and therefore that there is a heavy and unsupportable Load of Guilt where-ever the just and true Cause of them lies And that it will lie either on their side or ours is so plain a Truth that we can neither of us avoid it I am not now going to dispute where But it follows from hence that it is matter of infinite Concern to each of us to be very well Assur'd that it doth not lie at our Door There is not any thing in the world that we ought to be better resolv'd in For if there be not such a manifest violation of the known positive Laws of GOD requir'd amongst us that they cannot communicate with us without plainly transgressing of them then all their Zeal for Purer Worship will never be accounted a Zeal for the sake of GOD. And if the Constitution of our Church doth oblige them to the committal of one Sin contrary to the known positive Laws of God and the Interest of Practical Holiness then we must take all that load of Guilt upon our selves Sure I am on which side soever the Cause lies that our Uniting in the Worship of God and Celebration of the Sacraments wou'd be the most effectual means of Suppressing all this insolent and hardened Impiety and nothing else can do it intirely and lastingly And since we are all United In the main Interest of Practical Holiness what then remains toward the perfecting our Concord but that in all these things which do not relate to Practical Holiness we in all Humility submit to the Wisdom of our Superiors Who as is confessed require us to be guilty of nothing which is contrary to it And therefore I hope all People are now convinced that they may joyn with us without committing a Sin And if so this Inference is very plain That it is a Sin not to joyn with us And since we are so happily agreed in all those things that are great and valuable why should we break Communion for those that are not so O! that GOD would put it into the Hearts of our Dissenting Brethren to weigh these heavy Consequences in the Ballance against those few small Differences in Opinion or Practice for which we yet differ that what remains might no way obstruct our Joynt Communion and hinder us any longer from going into the House of GOD as Friends together This wou'd strike an Awe upon bold and hardened Sinners and then wou'd the Reformation of these Scandalous Vices we now set our selves against begin where our Corruption did before And thus by becoming an United we shou'd become a Flourishing and Happy People GOD grant that our United Endeavours for the Prosecution of Vice and Wickedness may be a happy Means of Uniting us not only in our Affections to one another but in the Publick Worship of GOD and Celebration of his Sacraments which is the Necessary Condition of that Unity which alone will render us one Church and People in the sight of GOD. III. The Third thing observable from this Passage is That our Zeal for the cause of God in all instances whatsoever should contain it self within those bounds prescrib'd by himself As it must be against things plainly contrary to the Laws of God so the manner of expressing it must be agreeable to them too Phinehas is not commended here because he was too hasty to expect a legal Process for the Command was positive that they should not stay for it but for the speedy execution of an express Law with the hazard of his life and because he took it upon him when no one else dar'd to do it And therefore that must needs be a blind and preposterous Zeal which sets up for reformation either of Manners or Discipline by methods unwarrantable either by the Laws of God or Man The Zealots among the Jews were very good and useful in their first original and therefore in great veneration while they kept within the just and prescrib'd limits of the Law But afterwards they became a most dangerous and pernicious Sect to the whole polity of the Jews they committed all manner of Villanies under pretence of Reformation and put to death many of the chief and worthiest men of the Nation And therefore men can't be too cautious in this point for whenever our Zeal prompts us to act in opposition to any of the Laws of God or the innocent Laws of Men 't is all madness and fury Our Zeal may carry us beyond the Commands of God but not contrary to any one of them as in this action of Phinehas it was more than his duty to slay one of another Tribe but it was however according to the express Command for otherwise it had been an act of Murder Our Zeal in many instances may prompt us to do more than God requires of us but never to do any thing that he forbids for this will be reforming the sins of Men by others in our Selves Now as to your observance of human Laws in the management of your Zeal against Offenders I need say but little they are a Fence to themselves and they regard every Man hath to his own quiet and safety will oblige him in prudence not to come under the lash of them by taking any course of Fraud or Violence that is unwarrantable But as to the Laws of GOD the most effectual way of keeping within due Bounds in this Undertaking is by a Preservation of your Sincerity and Humility 1. And first as to your Sincerity in this good Work you must take care that you are prompted to it out of a true Concern for the Glory of GOD and Veneration for his Laws together with a Concern for the good of your Country a tender Regard for the Souls of other Men and the discharging of a good
and Efficacy to prevail with GOD in all likelihood was Either because he was one of the greatest Quality of those that were guilty and therefore influenc'd many Others by his Example Or else which is not improbable because this Couragious Action of his in beginning the Execution gave occasion to the rest of the Youth to follow his Example and clear the whole Camp of Israel of the Offenders And without doubt this was the reason why Phinehas was afterwards sent Commander of the Army against the Midianites because GOD was likelier to bless that Hand with Success which had thus led the way and signaliz'd it self by such an Act of Exemplary Justice This same Method of GOD's Dealing by whole Nations according to that visible Appearance of Piety and Open Face of Religion that is among them is very discernable in the whole Series of GODs Dispensations to the Jews And if we could see the Secret Hand that manages all the Affairs of this World we should find this to be at the bottom of them all as the main Spring by which all Nations and Governments all Cities and Communities undergo that great variety of Changes and Revolutions Now the Wisdom and the Justice of GOD in this is very Accountable by us notwithstanding that the Good are promiscuously involv'd in the same Calamities with the Wicked For 1. Since good and bad People according to our Saviour's Similitude grow together like the Tares and the Wheat they must therefore undergo all the several Changes of Weather in common let the Cause be what it will His Sun must shine and his Rain descend upon both alike So that He hath no other way of dealing with whole Communities but by sending Temporal Blessings or Judgments upon all together And that GOD might appear Just and True in all his Dealings by the Children of Men the Cause of these things must be something that is common to them both and that can be only this general Appearance of Goodness or open Permission of Scandalous Vices For Secret Piety and Sincerity is proper only to the Good and Rewardable in another World And therefore as the Eternal Welfare of Men hereafter depends upon their own Secret Piety so the Prosperity of whole Nations proceeds from the Open Profession of Religion and Morality So that in great Strictness Men are in all senses the true Cause of all the Misfortunes that befal them either in this World or the next GOD hath no other way I say of Dealing with whole Nations and Societies of Men now so as to proceed without all Exception and preserve his Attributes inviolable But when these little Ties and Temporary Obligations which Unite Men into Bodies here shall be Dissolv'd and Mankind New Model'd into two Great and Opposite Parties never to mix again then there will be full scope for the Exercise of all the Goodness of GOD upon the one and of his just Vengeance upon the other 2. The Judgments of GOD may very Justly come upon the Good for want of a Zealous Endeavour of Suppressing those Scandalous Vices in others Persons may be truly Vertuous and Holy in themselves and yet be without a good measure of Indignation at Open Impiety and Lewdness so that they deserve to share in the Consequences of that Impiety they did not use their utmost Endeavours to suppress And accordingly no question but the Plague swept away many of those who were not guilty of the Sin that caus'd it and would have destroy'd many more even of those that were innocent if this speedy Suppression of those Vices had not prevented it Nay thô we shou'd suppose no want of Zeal in those that are Innocent yet there is no Injustice in their Suffering for the Sins of others First Because there are no Temporal Judgments can befal them but what are the due Reward of their own Sins and Secondly Because thô they were not but that they suffered wrongfully yet this may be design'd by GOD in order to an ample Recompence hereafter Whereas if the Bad should fail of a Reward in this Life there is no room left for it in another World 3. Another Reason why bare-fac'd Impiety and open Profaness have such a Tendency to bring down Judgments upon all in Common is Because they are a direct Affront and Challenging of GOD. Publick Scandalous Sins when they grow general become a National Quarrel with him and therefore lay a sort of Necessity upon GOD to vindicate his Honour and visit a Nation while it is such for those bold and open Defiances of Heaven since there can be no opportunity for this hereafter Besides This of openly expressing the inward corruptness of Mens Souls seems to be accidental to the guilt for 't is no more than proclaiming and giving vent to what was hidden before and therefore we can't conceive how it can have so direct an Influence upon Mens Future State For their greatest Misery will then be the Natural Result of their inward Depravation of Mind and Conscience and therefore the other seems necessarily to require some Punishment in this Life thô the many Evil Consequences of Scandalous Sins may hereafter be punisht by a positive Act of Justice And therefore 't is those Open Sins which are not to be conceal'd from the knowledge of Men such as Cursing Swearing and Adultery c. for which a Land is said to mourn Hypocricy thô it is a base and detestable thing yet it seems to have some sense of GOD and Goodness left thô it preposterously Act contrary to them both It is commendable in this that t is asham'd of its own Deformity and the wearing the Mask of Religion is a tacite Acknowledgment they wou'd be sincerely good if this cou'd be had with the same Ease And it shews they wou'd hide their Wickedness from GOD too as well as from Men if it were possible But open Debauchery and profest Impiety renounces all the intrinsick worth of Religion 't is a direct Affront to Heaven and a Daring of GOD And therefore when he is thus Challenged he is constrain'd to Punish for the Justification of his Honour But when on the contrary they appear outwardly to be Holy the Honour of GOD is however preserv'd and the dangerous Consequences prevented Thô they have nothing of true Religion at the heart yet it shews some Veneration for Him and his Laws which thô it be that of Slaves and Vassals and not of True Subjects yet 't is not left without a Recompence proper for it A meer form of Godliness and empty pretence of Piety often meets with a suitable Recompence so that what our Saviour says of particular Hypocrites is true of greater Bodies and Communities of them That they have their Reward A famous instance of this is not out of the Memory of some yet alive a time when all solid Vertue and moral Honesty was drein'd from Christianity and nothing left but the outside of it yet this was proof against all the
sutable Punishments in this life But now the inward purity of our Souls is requir'd and nothing can make Men afraid of sinning in their Minds but a clear revelation of Hell and a full prospect of eternal damnation and therefore these are the only tertors of the Lord now In the first times of the Gospel indeed death was inflicted upon malicious obstinate Offenders by a supernatural power but this with all the other acts of God's extraordinary dispensations have ceased so that all such mighty impulses pretended now adays are only from the Devil The Gospel proposes no temporal Punishments for the sins of Men but such as follow the nature of the Sins themselves And therefore the severest Ecclesiastical Censures are the Exposing Men to shame and Cutting them off from the Body of the Church and so consigning them over unto the judgment of the Great Day But thô it be now utterly unlawful in us to punish Vice in others unless where we have Authority our selves or derive it from the Laws of the Land Yet thus much is very evident from this action of Phineas and those other instances of Zeal consequent to it that all Men may and ought to shew their Zeal for the glory of God and discouragment of Vice by all those means which are permitted by the Gospel And there are several ways of doing this As by shewing our dislike to it at all times and in all persons by reproving the sins of others whenever it is proper and seasonable and that we have any hopes our Reproofs will do good and lastly by doing all that in us lies to promote the Execution of those good and wholsom Laws which are Enacted against impudent Profaness and Impiety And that which makes this last way of shewing our Zeal so necessary now is because multitudes who go by the name of Christians have cast off all fear of any thing else but Temporal Laws all the Methods of the Church against such Scandalous Offenders have quite lost their force There was a time and O! that we might see it in our days when Men knew the strength of Ecclesiastical Censures when they were sensible that God was with his Church in all its Judiciary Proceedings ratifying all its just Sentences binding of them in Heaven and recording of them there to be produc'd at the great Day of Accounts But now they regard nothing but what they feel so that there is no way left of dealing with them but by those Human Laws which they dread more than Damnation and the Power of the Civil Magistrate which they fear more then that God who is a Consuming Fire II. The second thing I shall observe from these words is That the nature of a true Zeal consists in our Indignation at what is plainly against the Laws of God and evidently sinful That instance we have of a true Zeal here was against Adultery Fornication and the Idolatrous worship of Baal Pehor which as one observes from the signification of the name was an Idol purposely contrived to excite People to Lewdness and Impurity by the sight of it and therefore his Zeal was approved by God in these words while he was zealous for my sake among them This of being incens'd at the known and uncontested sins of Men is the being truly zealous for the sake of God and not when People are transported against things dubious and of no great moment when they lay out all their Zeal against Circumstances and things in their own nature lawful or indifferent There is more requir'd in order to a true Zeal than meer heat of our Blood and a great indignation of mind People may be thus far zealous in a bad as well as a good Cause For the Midianites were no doubt very zealous against the Israelites when they prostituted their Women of greatest Quality to destroy them So that being levell'd at things which are plainly against the Laws of God is the only distinguishing mark of a true Zeal And it is more or less true according to the evidence and plainess of those Precepts of God against which the sins are committed When the things against which we are zealous are dubious our Zeal if violent is blamable if the things are of no great moment or indifferent then our Zeal is trifling and frivolous if the things are in their own nature lawful then our Zeal is downright sinful Now Fornication and Adultery Cursing and Swearing Blasphemy and Profaness Drunkenness and Gluttony Unjust Gain and Oppression Rebellion and Disobedience to Laws and Government Breaking of Amity among Christians and Dissolving of Unity in the Worship of GOD These and such-like are openly and palpably against the express Commands of GOD and therefore these are the things against which our Zeal shou'd be levell'd For otherwise we have just cause to suspect that it proceeds from Natural Temper or Humor or Interest or Ignorance and Mistake or from the Delusions of the Devil and our own Imaginations But in things of that gross nature our Zeal is always Safe and Commendable And therefore here by the way I ought not to omit the Just Commendation of the late Zeal of our Dissenting Brethren in their hearty Endeavours and liberal Contributions for carrying on this Design of putting the Laws in Execution against such of those Vices as are made liable to Temporal Punishments Had they begun this Work no one could have said That it was the Factious Design of a Party but a True and Regular Zeal because the Instances are such as are plainly and directly against the Laws of GOD as well as those of the Land and not such as are Dubious and Indifferent in their own nature No we commend them for their hearty Concurrence with us and we hope not to be out-done by them in this good Work But since all this visible Piety and Zeal against Irreligion and Profaness hath first appear'd among the Members of the Establish'd Church it must be Acknowledged that our Constitution and Principles are better Calculated for the Encouragement of all Vertue and Goodness and the Suppression of Vice among them and nothing can possibly be a greater Inducement to all well-disposed People to joyn in its Communion than to see what a Natural Tendency it hath to make People truly Good and Vertuous We must both of us with Sorrow of Heart confess That our Separate Communions have been the immediate Natural Cause of all that Torrent of Profaness and Irreligion Immorality and Lewdness which during the two late Reigns came in upon these Lands with an Irresistable violence which hath so broke the Sinews of all Ecclesiastical Discipline and depriv'd the Church of that Power Originally inherent in it by a Divine Right deriv'd from Christ himself that we are both of us now forc'd to fly to Temporal Laws for the Suppression of such Sinners who having no fear of GOD before their Eyes must necessarily despise the Church And 't is a Melancholly Consideration that