this be a good way then we do and must call in the assistance of reason for the proof of our Religion 4. Let it be considered farther that the highest commendations that are given in Scripture to any ones Faith are given upon account of the reasonableness of it Abraham's Faith is famous and made a pattern to all generations because he reasoned himself into it notwithstanding the objections to the contrary and he did not blindly break through these objections and wink hard at them but he look'd them in the face and gave himself reasonable satisfaction concerning them The Centurian's Faith is commended by our Saviour Math. 8. 11. Because when his Servant was sick he did not desire him to come to his house but to speak the word only and his Servant should be healed For he reasoned thus I am a man under authority having Souldiers under me and I say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my Servant do this and he doth it Now if he that was himself under authority could thus command those that were under him much more could he that had a divine Power and Commission do what he pleased by his word And our Saviour is so far from reprehending him for reasoning himself into this belief that he admires his Faith so much the more for the reasonableness of it v. 10. When Jesus heard this he marvelled and said to them that followed him verily I say unto you I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel Inlike manner our Saviour commends the Woman of Canaan's Faith because she enforc't it so reasonably Matthew 15. 22. She sued to him to help her Daughter but he answered her not a word and when his Disciples could not prevail with him to mind her yet still the prest him saying Lord help me and when he repulsed her with this severe answer It is not meet to take the Childrens bread and cast it to dogs she made this quick and modest reply truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their Masters Table She acknowledgeth her own unworthiness but yet believes his goodness to be such that he will not utterly reject those who humbly seek to him upon which he gives her this testimony O woman great is thy faith The Apostles were divinely inspired and yet the Bereans are commended because they enquired and satisfied themselves in the reasons of their belief before they assented to the doctrine which was delivered to them even by Teachers that certainly were Infallible 5. None are reproved in Scripture for their unbelief but where sufficient reason and evidence was offered to them The Israelites are generally blamed for their Infidelity but then it was after such mighty wonders had been wrought for their Conviction The Jews in our Saviours time are not condemned simply for their unbelief but for not believing when there was such clear evidence offered to them So our Saviour himself says If I had not done amongst them the works which no other man did they had not had sin Thomas indeed is blamed for the perverseness of his unbelief because he would believe nothing but what he himself saw Lastly To shew this yet more plainly let us consider the great inconvenience and absurdity of declining the use of Reason in matters of Religion There can be no greater prejudice to Religion than to decline this tryal To say we have no Reason for our Religion is to say it is unreasonable Indeed it is Reason enough for any Article of our Faith that God hath revealed it because this is one of the strongest and most cogent reasons for the belief of any thing But when we say God hath revealed any thing we must be ready to prove it or else we say nothing If we turn off Reason here we level the best Religion in the World with the wildest and most absurd Enthusiams And it does not alter the case much to give Reason ill names to call it blind and carnal Reason Our best reason is but very short and imperfect But since it is no better we must make use of it as it is and make the best of it Before I pass from this Argument I cannot but observe that both the extremes of those who differ from our Church are generally great Declamers against the use of Reason in matters of Faith If they find their account in it 't is well for our parts we apprehend no manner of inconvenience in having Reason on our side nor need we to desire a better evidence that any Man is in the wrong than to hear him declare against Reason and thereby to acknowledge that reason is against him Men may vilifie Reason as much as they please and tho being reviled she reviles not again yet in a more still and gentle way she commonly hath her full revenge upon all those that rail at her I have often wonder'd that people can with patience endure to hear their Teachers and Guides talk against Reason and not only so but they pay them the greater submission and veneration for it One would think this but an odd way to gain authority over the minds of Men but some skilful and designing men have found by experience that it is a very good way to recommend them to the ignorant as Nurses use to endear themselves to Children by perpetual noise and nonsense III. I observe that God obligeth no Man to believe plain and evident Contradictions as matters of Faith Abraham could not reasonably have believed this second revelation to have been from God if he had not found some way to reconcile it with the first For tho a Man were never so much disposed to submit his Reason to divine Revelation yet it is not possible for any Man to believe God against God himself Some Men seem to think that they oblige God mightily by believing plain contradictions But the matter is quite otherwise He that made Man a reasonable Creature cannot take it kindly from any Man to debase his workmanship by making himself unreasonable And therefore as no service or obedience so no Faith is acceptable unto God but what is reasonable if it be not so it may be confidence or presumption but it is not Faith for he that can believe plain contradictions may believe any thing how absurd soever because nothing can be more absurd than the belief of a plain contradiction and he that can believe any thing believes nothing upon good grounds because to him Truth and Falsehood are all one 4. I observe that the great cause of the defect of Mens obedience is the weakness of their Faith Did we believe the commands of God in the Gospel and his promises and threatnings as firmly as Abraham believed God in this case what should we not be ready to do or suffer in obedience to him If our Faith were but as strong and vigorous as his was the effects of it would be as
not staggered so as to call this Revelation of God in question Secondly The grievous scandal that might seem almost unavoidably to follow upon it was another great objection against it the report of such an action would in all appearance blemish the reputation even of so good a Man amongst all sober and considerate persons who could hardly forbear to censure him as a wicked and unnatural Man And this was a hard case for a Man to be put to Sacrifice at once two of the dearest things in the world his Reputation and his Son nor could he have easily defended himself from this imputation by alledging an express Revelation and Command of God for it for who would give credit to it A Revelation to another Man is nothing to me unless I be assured that he had such a Revelation which I cannot be but either by another immediate revelation or by some Miracle to confirm it The act had an appearance of so much horrour that it was not easily credible that God should command it and if every Mans confident pretence to revelation be admitted the worst actions may plead this in their excuse So that this pretence would have been so far from excusing his fault that it must rather have been esteemed a high aggravation of it by adding the boldest Impiety to the most barbarous Inhumanity But Abraham was not stumbled at this nor at the advantage which the Enemies of his Religion would make of such an occasion who would be ready to say Here is your excellent good Man and likely to be a Friend of God who was so cruel an Enemy to his own Son All this 't is probable he might consider but it did not move him being resolved to obey God and to leave it to his Wisdom to provide against all the inconveniencies that might follow upon it Thirdly The strongest Objection of all was the horrible consequence of the thing which seemed to clash with former Revelations and to make void the promise which God had before made to Abraham That in his Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed which promise was expresly limited to Isaac and his Posterity who had then no Son And of this difficulty the Apostle takes express notice in the Text that he that had received the promises that is was persuaded of the truth and faithfulness of them offered up his only begotten Son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called And this Objection is really so strong that if Abraham could not have given himself satisfaction about it he might justly have questioned the truth of the Revelation for no Man can possibly entertain two contradictory Revelations as from God but he must of necessity question one or both of them but so strong was Abraham's Faith as not to be shaken by the seeming contradiction of these two Revelations II. We will consider the constancy of his Resolution to obey God notwithstanding the harshness and difficulty of the thing Tho Abraham were firmly persuaded that this Command to kill his Son was really from God yet it is no easie matter for a Man to bring himself to obey God in so difficult a case and out of meer reverence to the Divine Authority to divest himself of his Nature and to thwart the strongest inclinations of it a Man would be very apt to confer with flesh and blood in such a case Let but any Man that knows what it is to be a Father lay his hand upon his heart and consider his own Bowels and he will be astonished at Abraham's Obedience as well as his Faith To take his Son his only Son his Son whom he loved and in whom he placed all his hopes of a happy Posterity and with his own hands to destroy him and all his hopes together it must be a strong Faith that will engage a Man to Obedience in so difficult an instance There is one circumstance more especially which renders Abraham's Obedience very remarkable The deliberateness of the action It had not been so much if so soon as he had received this Command from God he had upon a suddain impulse and transport of zeal done this But that his Obedience might be the more glorious and have all the circumstances of advantage given to it God would have it done deliberately and upon full consideration and therefore he bad him go to the Mountain three daies Journey from the place where he was and there to offer up his Son It is in acts of Virtue and Obedience as in acts of Sin and Vice the more deliberate the Sin is and the more calm and sedate temper the Man is in when he commits it the greater is the fault whereas what is done by surprize in the heat of Temptation or transport of Passion hath some excuse from the suddainness and indeliberateness of it So is it in acts of Virtue and Obedience especially if they be attended with considerable difficulty the more deliberately they are done the more virtuous they are and the greater praise is due to them Now that Abraham's Obedience might want nothing to highten it God seems on purpose to have put so long a space betwixt the Command and the performance of it he gives him time to cool upon it to weigh the command and to look on every side of this difficult duty he gives scope for his reason to argue and debate the case and opportunity for natural affection to play its part and for flesh and blood to raise all its batteries against the resolution which he had taken up And now we may easily imagin what conflict this good Man had within himself during those three daies that he was travelling to the Mountain in Moriah and how his heart was ready to be rent in pieces betwixt his duty to God and his affection to his Child so that every step of this unwelcome and wearisome journey he did as it were lay violent hands upon himself He was to offer up his Son but once but he Sacrificed himself and his own Will every moment for three days together and when he came thither and all things were ready the Altar the Wood and the Fire and the Knife it must needs be a stabbing Question and wound him to the Heart which his Innocent Son so innocently askt him Where is the Lamb for a Burnt-Offering It must be a strong Faith indeed and a mighty Resolution that could make him to hold out three days against the violent Assaults of his own Nature and the charming Presence of his Son enough to melt his Heart as often as he cast his Eyes upon him and yet nothing of all this made him to stagger in his Duty but being strong in Faith he gave glory to God by one of the most miraculous acts of Obedience that ever was exacted from any of the Sons of Men. III. In the Third and last place I come to consider the Reasonableness of his Faith in that he was able
great and conspicuous were we verily persuaded that all the Precepts of our Religion are the express Laws of God and that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel will one day be verified and made good What manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness How would the lively thoughts of another world raise us above the vanities of this present life and set us out of the reach of the most powerful temptations that this world can assault us withall and make us to do all things with regard to Eternity and to that solemn and dreadful account which we must one day make to God the Judge of all It is nothing but the want of a firm and steady belief of these things that makes our Devotion so dead and heartless and our resolutions of doing better so weak and inconsistent This it is that makes us so easie a prey to every temptation and the things of this world to look so much bigger than they are the enjoyments of it more tempting and the evils of it more terrible than in truth they are And in all disputes betwixt our Conscience and our Interest to hold the balance so unequally and to put our foot upon the lighter Scale that it may seem to weigh down the other In a word in proportion to the strength or weakness of our Faith our obedience to God will be more or less constant uniform and perfect because Faith is the great source and spring of all the Virtues of a good life 5. We have great reason to submit to the ordinary strokes of God's Providence upon our selves or near relations or any thing that is dear to us Most of these are easily compared with Abraham's case it requires a prodigious strength of Faith to perform so miraculous an act of obedience 6. And lastly We are utterly inexcusable if we disobey the easie Precepts of the Gospel The yoke of Christ is easie and his burden light in comparison of God's former dispensations This was a grievous Commandment which God gave to Abraham to sacrifice his only Son It was a hard saying indeed and which of us could have been able to hear it But if God think fit to call us to the more difficult duties of self-denial and suffering for his truth and righteousness sake we must after the example of faithful Abraham not think much to deny or part with any thing for him no not life it self But even this which is the hardest part of Religion is easier than what God put upon Abraham For it doth not offer near the violence to nature to lay down our life in a good cause as it would do to put a Child to death with our own hands Besides the consideration of the extraordinary comfort and support and the glorious rewards that are expresly promised to our obedience and self denial in such a case encouragement enough to make a very difficult duty easie And whilst I am perswading you and my self to resolution and constancy in our Holy Religion notwithstanding all hazards and hardships that may attend it I have a just sense of the frailty of humane nature and of humane resolution But with all a most firm persuasion of the goodness of God that he will not suffer those who sincerely love him and his Truth to be tempted above what they are able I will add but one consideration more to shew the difference betwixt Abraham's case and ours God commanded him to do the hardest thing in the world to sacrifice his only Son but he hath given us an easie commandment and that he might effectually oblige us to our duty he hath done that for us which he required Abraham to do for him he hath not spared his own Son his only Son but hath given him up to death for us all And hereby we know that he loveth us that he hath given his Son for us What God required of Abraham he did not intend should be executed but one great design of it was to be a Type and Figure of that immense love and kindness which he intended to all mankind in the Sacrifice of his Son as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world And as the most clear and express promise of the Messias was made to Abraham so the most express and lively Type of the Messias that we meet with in all the old Testament was Abraham's offering up his Son And as St. Hierom tells us from an ancient and constant Tradition of the Jews the Mountain in Moriah where Abraham was commanded to Sacrifice Isaac was Mount Calvary where our Lord also was Crucified and offered up that by this one sacrifice of himself once offered he might perfect for ever them that are sanctified and obtain eternal redemption for us Now to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb that was slain to God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead to the Prince of the Kings of the Earth to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood to him be Glory and honour thanksgiving and power now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVII Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI 24 25. By Faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season THE Text sets before us a great pattern of self-denial for our better understanding whereof I will give a brief account of the History of Moses to which our Apostle in this passage doth refer When Moses was born his Parents for fear of the cruel law which Pharaoh had made That all the male Children of the Hebrews so soon as they were born should be put to death after they had hid him three months did at last expose him in an Ark of Bulrushes upon the River Nile and committed him to the providence of God whom they despair'd to conceal any longer by their own care Pharaoh's Daughter coming by the River side espied him and had compassion on him and guessing him to be one of the Hebrew Children called for an Hebrew Nurse to take care of him who as the Prviodence of God had ordered it proved to be the Child 's own Mother As he grew up Pharaoh's Daughter took care of his Education in all Princely qualities and adopted him for her Son and Pharaoh as Josephus tells us being without Son designed him Heir of his Kingdom Moses refused this great offer But why did he refuse it when it seem'd to be presented to him by the providence of God and was brought about in so strange a manner and when by this means he might probably have had it in his power to have eased the Israelites of their cruel bondage and perhaps have had the oportunity of reducing that great Kingdom from the worship of Idols to the true God
word with joy and endure for a while but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they are offended not that they did not believe the Word but their Faith had taken no deep root and therefore it withered The weakness and wavering of Mens Faith makes them unstable and inconstant in their course because they are not of one mind but divided betwixt two interests that of this world and the other and the double minded man as St. James tells us is unstable in all his ways It is generally a true rule so much wavering as we see in the actions and lives of Men so much weakness there is in their Faith and therefore he that would know what any Man firmly believes let him attend to his actions more than to his professions If any Man live so as no Man that heartily believes the Christian Religion can live it is not credible that such a Man doth firmly believe the Christian Religion He says he does but there is a greater evidence in the case than words there is Testimonium rei the Man's actions are to the contrary and they do best declare the inward sense of the Man Did Men firmly believe that there is a God that governs the world and that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge it in righteousnes and that all mankind shall shortly appear before him and give an account of themselves and all their actions to him and that those who have kept the Faith and a good Conscience and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world shall be unspeakably and eternally happy but the fearful and unbelieving those who out of fear or interest have deserted the Faith or lived wicked lives shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone I say were Men firmly persuaded of these things it is hardly credible that any Man should make a wrong choice and forsake the ways of Truth and Righteousness upon any temptation whatsoever Faith even in temporal matters is a mighty principle of action and will make Men to attempt and undergo strange and difficult things The Faith of the Gospel ought to be much more operative and powerful because the Objects of Hope and Fear which it presents to us are far greater and more considerable than any thing that this world can tempt or terrifie us withall Would we but by Faith make present to our minds the invisible things of another world the happiness of Heaven and the terrors of Hell and were we as verily persuaded of them as if they were in our view how should we despise all the pleasures and terrors of this world And with what ease should we resist and repel all those temptations which would seduce us from our duty or draw us into sin A firm and unshaken belief of these things would effectually remove all those mountains of difficulty and discouragement which Men fancy to themselves in the ways of Religion To him that believeth all things are possible and most things would be easie 2. Another reason of this wrong choice is want of consideration for this would strengthen our Faith and make it more vigorous and powerful And indeed a Faith which is well rooted and establishould doth suppose a wise and deep consideration of things and the want of this is a great cause of the fatal miscarriage of Men that they do not sit down and consider with themselves seriously how much Religion is their interest and how much it will cost them to be true to it and to persevere in it to the end We suffer our selves to be governed by sense and to be transported with present things but do not consider our future and lasting interest and the whole duration of an immortal Soul And this is the reason why so many men are hurried away by the present and sensible delights of this world because they will not take time to think of what will be hereafter For it is not to be imagined but that the Man who hath seriously considered what sin is the shortness of its pleasure and the eternity of its punishment should resolve to forsake sin and to live a holy and virtuous life To conclude this whole Discourse If Men did but seriously believe the great principles of Religion the Being and the Providence of God the immortality of their Souls the glorious rewards and the dreadful punishments of another world they could not possibly make so imprudent a choice as we see a great part of mankind to do they could not be induced to forsake God and Religion for any temporal interest and advantage to renounce the favour of Heaven and all their hopes of happiness in another world for any thing that this world can afford nay not for the whole world if it were offered to them For as our Saviour reasons in this very case of forsaking our Religion for any temporal interest or consideration what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul When ever any of us are tempted in this kind let that solemn declaration of our Saviour and our Judge be continually in our minds he that confesseth me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven but whosever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels And we have great cause to thank God to see so many in this day of tryal and hour of temptation to adhere with so much resolution and constancy to their Holy Religion and to prefer the keeping of Faith and a good Conscience to all earthly considerations and advantages And this very thing that so many hold their Religion so fast and are so loth to part with it gives great hopes that they intend to make good use of it and to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it which alone can give us peace whilst we live and comfort when we come to die and after death secure to us the possession of a happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls To which God of his Infinite Goodness bring us all for his mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THE main Scope and design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to persuade the Jews who were newly converted to Christianity to continue stedfast in the profession of that Holy and Excellent Religion which they had embraced and not to be removed from it either by the subtile insinuations of their Brethren the Jews who pretended that they were in possession
them under an Inconvenience when they shall come at Age. And can we think them of discretion sufficient at that time to do a thing of the greatest Moment and Consequence of all other and which will concern them to all Eternity namely to chuse their Religion There is indeed one Part of one Religion which we all know which Children at Seven Years of Age are fit I do not say to judge of but to be as fond of and to practise to as good purpose as those of riper Years and that is to worship Images to tell their Beads to say their Prayers and to be present at the Service of God in an unknown Tongue and this they are more likely to chuse at that Age than those who are of riper and more improv'd Understandings and if they do not chuse it at that time it is ten to one they will not chuse it afterwards I shall say no more of this but that it is a very extraordinary Law and such as perhaps was never thought of before from the beginning of the World Thus much for Children As for grown Persons who are of a very low and mean capacity of Understanding and either by reason of the weakness of their Faculties or other Disadvantages which they lye under are in little or no probability of improving themselves These are always to be considered as in the condition of Children and Learners and therefore must of necessity in things which are not plain and obvious to the meanest Capacities trust and rely upon the Judgment of others And it is really much wiser and safer for them so to do than to depend upon their own Judgments and to lean to their own Understandings and such Persons if they be modest and humble and pray earnestly to God for his Assistance and Direction and are careful to practise what they know and to live up to the best Light and Knowledge which they have shall not miscarry meerly for want of those farther degrees of Knowledge which they had no Capacity nor Opportunity to attain because their Ignorance is unavoidable and God will require no more of them than he hath given them and will not call them to account for the improvement of those Talents which he never committed to them And if they be led into any dangerous Error by the negligence or ill conduct of those under whose Care and Instruction the Providence of God permitted them to be placed God will not impute it to them as a Fault Because in the Circumstances in which they were they took the best and wisest course that they could to come to the knowledge of the Truth by being willing to learn what they could of those whom they took to be wiser than themselves But for such Persons who by the maturity of their Age and by the natural strength and clearness of their Understandings or by the due exercise and improvement of them are capable of enquiring into and understanding the Grounds of their Religion and discerning the difference betwixt Truth and Error I do not mean in unnecessary Points and matters of deepest Learning and Speculation but in matters necessary to Salvation it is certainly very reasonable that such Persons should examine their Religion and understand the Reasons and Grounds of it And this must either be granted to be reasonable or else every man must continue in that Religion in which he happens to be fixt by Education or for any other Reason to pitch upon when he comes to Years and makes his free Choice For if this be a good Principle that no Man is to examine his Religion but take it as it is and to believe it and rest satisfied with it Then every Man is to remain in the Religion which he first lights upon whether by Choice or the Chance of his Education For he ought not to change but upon Reason and Reason he can have none unless he be allowed to examine his Religion and to compare it with others that by the Comparison he may discern which is best and ought in reason to be preferred in his Choice For to him that will not or is not permitted to search into the Grounds of any Religion all Religions are alike as all things are of the same Colour to him that is always kept in the dark or if he happens to come into the Light dares not open his Eyes and make use of them to discern the different Colours of things But this is evidently and at first sight unreasonable because at this rate every Man that hath once entertained an Errour and a false Religion must forever continue in it For if he be not allowed to examine it he can never have Reason to change and to make a change without Reason is certainly unreasonable and mere Vanity and Inconstancy And yet for ought I can see this is the Principle which the Church of Rome doth with great Zeal and Earnestness inculcate upon their People discouraging all Doubts and Inquiries about their Religion as Temptations of the Devil and all Examinations of the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion as an inclination and dangerous step towards Heresie For what else can they mean by taking the Scriptures out of the hands of the People and locking them up from them in an unknown Tongue by requiring them absolutely to submit their Judgments and to resign them up to that which they are pleased to call the Catholick Church and Implicitly to believe as She believes tho they know not what that is This is in Truth to believe as their Priest tells them for that is all the teaching Part of the Church and all the Rule of Faith that the common People are acquainted with And it is not sufficient to say in this matter that when Men are in the Truth and of the right Religion and in the Bosom of the true Church they ought to rest satisfied and to examine and enquire no farther For this is manifestly unreasonable and that upon these Three accounts 1. Because this is a plain and shameful begging of the thing in Question and that which every Church and every Religion doth almost with equal Confidence pretend to That Theirs is the only right Religion and the only true Church And these Pretences are all alike reasonable to him that never examined the Grounds of any of them nor hath compar'd them together And therefore it is the vainest thing in the World for the Church of Rome to pretend that all Religions in the World ought to be examined but Theirs Because Theirs and none else is the true Religion For this which they say so confidently of it That it is the true Religion no Man can know till he have examined it and searched into the Grounds of it and hath considered the Objections which are against it So that it is fond Partiality to say that Their Religion is not to be examined by the people that profess it but that all other Religions ought to be examined or
them by Faith for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen And he resumes the same Argument again at the beginning of this Chapter for we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens that is we are firmly perswaded that when we die we shall but exchange these Earthly and Perishing Bodies these Houses of Clay for a Heavenly Mansion which will never decay nor come to ruine from whence he concludes Verse 6. Therefore we are always confident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore what ever happens to us we are always of good courage and see no reason to be afraid of Death knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord that is since our continuance in the Body is to our disadvantage and while we live we are absent from our Happiness and when we die we shall then enter upon the Possession of it That which gives us this confidence and good courage is our Faith for tho' we be not actually possest of this Happiness which we speak of yet we have a firm perswasion of the reality of it which is enough to support our Spirits and keep up our Courage under all afflictions and adversities whatsoever Verse 7. for we walk by Faith not by Sight These words come in by way of Parenthesis in which the Apostle declares in general what is the swaying and governing Principle of a Christian life not only in case of persecution and affliction but under all events and in every condition of Humane life and that is Faith in opposition to Sight and present Enjoyment we walk by Faith and not by Sight We walk by Faith what ever Principle sways and governs a Mans life and actions he is said to walk and live by it And as here a Christian is said to walk by Faith so elsewhere the just is said to live by Faith Faith is the Principle which animates all his resolutions and actions And not by Sight The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the thing it self in present view and possession in opposition to a firm perswasion of things future and invisible Sight is the thing in Hand and Faith the thing only in Hope and Expectation Sight is a clear view and apprehension of things present and near to us Faith an obscure discovery and apprehension of things at a distance So the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 13. 12. Now we see through a Glass darkly this is Faith but then face to face this is present sight as one Man sees another face to face and thus likewise the same Apostle distinguisheth betwixt Hope and Sight Rom. 8. 24. 25. Hope that is seen is not Hope for what a Man sees why doth he yet Hope for it but if we Hope for that which we see not then do we with patience wait for it Sight is possession and enjoyment Faith is the firm perswasion and expectation of a thing and this the Apostle tells us was the governing principle of a Christian's life for we walk by Faith and not by Sight from which words I shall observe these Three things I. That Faith is the Governing Principle and that which bears the great sway in the Life and Actions of a Christian we walk by Faith that is we Order and Govern our Lives in the Power and Virtue of this Principle II. Faith is a degree of assent inferiour to that of Sense This is sufficient-intimated in the opposition betwixt Faith and Sight He had said before that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord and gives this as a Reason and Proof of our absence from the Lord for we walk by Faith and not by Sight that is whilst we are in the Body we do not see and enjoy but believe and expect if we were present with the Lord then Faith would cease and be turned into Sight but tho' we have not that assurance of another world which we shall have when we come to see and enjoy these things yet we are firmly perswaded of them III. Notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assurance yet 't is a Principle of sufficient power to govern our Lives we walk by Faith it is such an Assurance as hath an influence upon our Lives I. That Faith is the Governing Principle and that which bears the great sway in the Life and Actions of a Christian We walk by Faith that is we Order and Govern our Lives in the Power and Virtue of this Principle A Christian's Life consists in obedience to the will of God that is in a readiness to do what he commands and in a willingness to suffer what he calls us to and the great Arguments and Incouragements hereto are such things as are the Objects of Faith and not of Sense such things as are absent and future and not present and in possession for Instance the Belief of an invisible God of a secret Power and Providence that Orders and Governs all things that can bless or blast us and all our Designs and Undertakings according as we demean our selves towards him and endeavour to approve our selves to him the Perswasion of a secret aid and influence always ready at hand to keep us from Evil and to strengthen and assist us to that which is good more especially the firm Belief and expectation of the Happiness of Heaven and the glorious Rewards of another world which tho' they be now at a distance and invisible to us yet being grounded upon the Promise of God that cannot lie shall certainly be made good And this Faith this firm Perswasion of absent and invisible things the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us was the great Principle of the Piety and Virtue of good Men from the beginning of the World This he calls Ch. 11. verse 1. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the confident expectation of things hoped for and the proof or evidence of things not seen viz. a firm perswasion of the Being and Providence of God and of the Truth and Faithfulness of his Promises Such was the Faith of Abel he believed that there was a God and that he was a rewarder of those that faithfully serve him Such was the Faith of Noah who being warned of God of things at a great distance and not seen as yet notwithstanding believed the Divine Prediction concerning the Flood and prepared an Ark Such also was the Faith of Abraham concerning a numerous Posterity by Isaac and the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan and such likewise was the Faith of Moses he did as firmly believe the invisible God and the recompence of reward as if he had beheld them with his eyes And of this Recompence of Reward we Christians have
another but Truth is always consistent with it self and needs nothing to help it out it is always near at hand and sits upon our Lips and is ready to drop out before we are aware whereas a Lye is troublesome and sets a Mans invention upon the Rack and one trick needs a great many more to make it good It is like building upon a false Foundation which continually stands in need of props to shoar it up and proves at last more chargable than to have raised a substantial Building at first upon a true and solid Foundation for Sincerity is firm and substantial and there is nothing hollow and unsound in it and because it is plain and open fears no discovery of which the Crafty Man is always in danger and when he thinks he walks in the dark all his pretences are so transparent that he that runs may read them he is the last Man that finds himself to be found out and whilst he takes it for granted that he makes Fools of others he renders himself ridiculous Add to all this that Sincerity is the most compendious Wisdom and an excellent instrument for the speedy dispatch of Business it creates confidence in those we have to deal with saves the labour of many enquiries and brings things to an issue in few words It is like travelling in a plain beaten Road which commonly brings a Man sooner to his Journeys end than By-ways in which Men often lose themselves In a word whatsoever convenience may be thought to be in falshood and dissimulation it is soon over but the inconvenience of it is perpetual because it brings a Man under an everlasting jealousie and suspicion so that he is not believed when he speaks truth nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly When a Man hath once forfeited the reputation of his Integrity he is set fast and nothing will then serve his turn neither Truth nor Falshood And I have often thought that God hath in great Wisdom hid from Men of false and dishonest minds the wonderful advantages of Truth and Integrity to the prosperity even of our worldly Affairs these Men are so blinded by their Covetousness and Ambition that they cannot look beyond a present advantage nor forbear to seize upon it tho by ways never so indirect They cannot see so far as to the remote Consequences of a steady Integrity and the vast benefit and advantages which it will bring a Man at last Were but this sort of Men wise and clear-sighted enough to discern this they would be honest out of very Knavery not out of any love to Honesty and Vertue but with a crafty design to promote and advance more effectually their own Interests and therefore the Justice of the Divine Providence hath hid this truest point of Wisdom from their Eyes that bad men might not be upon equal Terms with the Just and Upright and serve their own wicked Designs by honest and lawful means Indeed if a man were only to deal in the world for a day and should never have occasion to converse more with Mankind never more need their good opinion or good Word it were then no great matter speaking as to the concernments of this world if a man spent his Reputation all at once and ventured it at one throw but if he be to continue in the world and would have the advantage of Conversation whilst he is in it let him make use of Truth and Sincerity in all his Words and Actions for nothing but this will last and hold out to the end all other Arts will fail but Truth and Integrity will carry a man through and bear him out to the last 'T is the Observation of Solomon Prov. 12. 19. The lip of Truth is established for ever but a lying Tongue is but for a moment And the wiser any man is the more clearly will he discern how serviceable Sincerity is to all the great ends and purposes of humane life and that man hath made a good progress and profited much in the School of Wisdom who valueth Truth and Sincerity according to their worth Every man will readily grant them to be great Vertues and Arguments of a generous mind but that there is so much of true Wisdom in them and that they really serve to profit our interest in this World seems a great Paradox to the generality of Men and yet I doubt not but it is undoubtedly true and generally found to be so in the experience of Mankind Lastly Consider that it is not worth our while to dissemble considering the shortness and especially the uncertainty of our Lives To what purpose should we be so cunning when our abode in this world is so short and uncertain Why should any man by dissembling his Judgment or acting contrary to it incur at once the displeasure of God and the discontent of his own mind Especially if we consider that all our Dissimulation shall one day be made manifest and published on the open Theatre of the World before God Angels and Men to our everlasting Shame and Confusion all Disguise and Vizards shall then be pluckt off and every man shall appear in his true Colours For then the Secrets of Men shall be judged and God will bring every Work into Judgment and every secret thing whether it be Good or whether it be Evil. Nothing is now covered which shall not then be revealed nor hid which shall not then be known Let us then be now what we would 〈◊〉 glad to be found in that day when all pretences shall be examined and the closest Hypocrisie of Men shall be laid open and dasht out of Countenance when the Secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed and all the hidden Works of Darkness shall be revealed and all our Thoughts Words and Actions shall be brought to a strict and severe Tryal and be censured by that impartial and infallible Judgment of God which is according to Truth In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVI Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI 17 18 19. By Faith Abraham when he was Tryed offered up Isaac And he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotton Son Of whom it was said That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the Dead From whence also he received him in a Figure THE design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to recommend to them the Christian Religion to which they were but newly Converted and to encourage them to Constancy in the profession of it notwithstanding the Sufferings which attended it He sets before them in this Chapter several examples in the Old Testament of those who tho they were under a much more imperfect dispensation yet by a stedfast belief in God and his promises had performed such wonderful acts of
to give satisfaction to himself in so intricate and perplext a case The constancy of Abraham's Faith was not an obstinate and stubborn Persuasion but the result of the wisest reasoning and soberest consideration So the Text says that he counted the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Reasoned with himself that God was able to raise him up from the Dead so that he debated the matter with himself and gave himself satisfaction concerning the Objections and Difficulties in the case and being fully satisfied that it was a Divine Command he resolved to obey it As for the Objections I have mentioned 1. The horrid appearance of the thing that a Father should Slay his Innocent Son Why should Abraham scruple the doing this at the Command of God who being the Author of Life hath power over it and may resume what he hath given and take away the Life of any of his Creatures when he will and make whom he pleaseth instruments in the execution of his Command It was indeed a hard case considering natural affection and therefore God did not permit it to be executed But the question of God's Right over the lives of Men and of his authority to command any Man to be the instrument of his pleasure in such a case admits of no dispute And the God hath planted strong affections in Parents towards their Children yet he hath written no Law in any Man's heart to the prejudice of his own Soverign Right This is a case alwaies excepted and this takes away the objection of Injustice 2. As to the scandal of it that could be no great objection in those times when the absolute power of Parents over their Children was in it's full force and they might put them to Death without being accountable for it So that then it was no such startling matter to hear of a Father putting his Child to Death nay in much later times we find that in the most ancient Laws of the Romans I mean those of the 12 Tables Children are absolutely put in the power of their Parents to whom is given jus vitae necis a power of Life and Death over them and likewise to sell them for Slaves And tho amongst the Jews this paternal power was limited by the Law of Moses and the judgment of Life and Death was taken out of the Fathers hands except in case of Contumacy and Rebellion and even in that case the Process was to be before the Elders of the City yet it is certain that in elder times the paternal power was more absolute and unaccountable which takes off much from the horror and scandal of the thing as it appears now to us who have no such power And therefore we do not find in the History that this Objection did much stick with Abraham It being then no unusual thing for a Father to put his Child to Death upon a just account And the Command of God who hath absolute Dominion over the Lives of his Creatures is certainly a just reason and no Man can reasonably scruple the doing of that upon the Command of God which he might have done by his own Authority without being accountable for the Action to any but God only 3. As to the Objection from the horrible consequence of the thing Commanded that the Slaying of Isaac seemed to overthrow the Promise which God had made before to Abraham That in Isaac his Seed should be called This seems to him to be the great difficulty and here he makes use of Reason to reconcile the seeming Contradiction of this Command of God to his former Promise So the Text tells us that he offered up his only begotten Son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Reasoning that God was able to raise him up from the Dead So that tho' Isaac were put to Death yet he saw how the Promise of God might still be made good by his being raised from the Dead and living afterwards to have a numerous Posterity There had then indeed been no Instance or Example of any such thing in the World as the Resurrection of one from the Dead which makes Abraham's Faith the more wonderful but he confirmed himself in this Belief by an Example as near the case as might be He Reasoned that God was able to raise him from the Dead from whence also he had received him in a Figure This I know is by Interpreters generally understood of Isaac's being delivered from the Jaws of Death when he was laid upon the Altar and ready to be Slain But the Text seems not to speak of what happend after but of something that had passed before By which Abraham confirmed himself in this peruasion that if he were Slain God would raise him up again And so the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the past time from whence also he had received him in a Figure So that this Expression plainly refers to the miraculous Birth of Isaac when his Parents were past the Age of having Children which was little less than a Resurrection from the Dead And so the Scripture speaks of it Rom. 4. 17. Abraham believed God who quickeneth the Dead and calleth the things which are not as if they were and not being weak in Faith he considered not his own Body which was Dead and a little before the Text speaking of the miraculous Birth of Isaac and therefore sprang there of one and him as good as dead as many as the Stars of Heaven From whence as the Apostle tells us Abraham Reasoned thus That God who gave him Isaac at first in so miraculous a manner was able by another miracle to restore him to life again after he was Dead and to make him the Father of many Nations He Reasoned that God was able to raise him up from the Dead from whence also he had received him in a Figure Thus you see the reasonableness of Abraham's Faith he pitched upon the main difficulty in the Case and he answered it as well as was possible And in his reasoning about this matter he gives the utmost weight to every thing that might tend to vindicate the Truth and faithfulness of God's Promise and to make the Revelations of God consistent with one another and this tho' he had a great Interest and a very tender concernment of his own to have biassed him For he might have argued with great appearance and probability the other way But as every Pious and Good Man should do he reasoned on God's side and favoured that part Rather than disobey a Command of God or believe that his promise should be frustrate he will believe any thing that is credible and possible how improbable soever Thus far Faith will go but no farther From the believing of plain Contradictions and Impossibilities it alwayes desires to be excused Thus much for explication of the Words which I hope hath not been altogether unprofitable because it tends to clear a point which
hath something of difficulty and obscurity in it and to vindicate the Holy Scripture and the Divine Revelation therein contained from one of the most specious Objections of Infidelity But I had a farther design in this Text And that is to make some Observations and Inferences from it that may be of use to us As First That Humane Nature is capable of clear and full satisfaction concerning a Divine Revelation for if Abraham had not been fully and past all doubt assured that this was a Command from God he would certainly have spared his Son And nothing is more reasonable than to believe that those to whom God is pleased to make immediate Revelations of his Will are some way or other assured that they are Divine otherwise they would be in vain and to no purpose But how Men are assured concerning Divine Revelations made to them is not so easy to make out to others Only these two things we are sure of 1. That God can work in the Mind of Man a firm persuasion of the Truth of what he Reveals and that such a Revelation is from him This no Man can doubt of that considers the great power and influence which God who made us and perfectly knows our Frame must needs have upon our Minds and Understandings 2. That God never offers any thing to any Man's belief that plainly contradicts the Natural and Essential Notions of his Mind Because this would be for God to destroy his own Workmanship and to impose that upon the understanding of Man which whilst it remains what it is it cannot possibly admit For instance We cannot imagin that God should Reveal to any Man any thing that plainly contradicts the Essential Perfections of the Divine Nature for such a Revelation can no more be supposed to be from God than a Revelation from God that there is no God which is a downright Contradiction Now to apply this to the Revelation which God made to Abraham concerning the Sacrificing of his Son This was made to him by an audible Voice and he was fully satisfied by the Evidence which it carried along with it that it was from God For this was not the first of many Revelations that had been made to him so that he knew the manner of them and had found by manifold experience that he was not deceived and upon this experience was grown to a great Confidence in the Truth and Goodness of God And it is very probable the first time God appeared to Abraham because it was a new thing that to make way for the credit of future Revelations God did shew himself to him in so glorious a manner as was abundantly to his Conviction And this St. Stephen does seem to intimate Acts 7. 2. The God of glory appeared to our Father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia Now by this glorious Appearance of God to him at first he was so prepared for the Entertainment of after Revelations that he was not staggered even at this concerning the Sacrificing of his Son being both by the manner of it and the assurance that accompanied it fully satisfied that it was from God Secondly I observe from hence the great and necessary use of Reason in matters of Faith For we see here that Abraham's Reason was a mighty strengthning and help to his Faith Here were two Revelations made to Abraham which seemed to clash with one another and if Abraham's Reason could not have reconciled the Repugnancy of them he could not possibly have believed them both to be from God because this natural Notion or Principle that God cannot contradict himself every Man does first and more firmly believe than any Revelation whatsoever Now Abraham's Reason relieved him in this strait so the Text expresly tells us that he reasoned with himself that God was able to raise him from the Dead And this being admitted the Command of God concerning the Slaying of Isaac was very well consistent with his former Promise That in Isaac his Seed should be called I know there hath a very rude clamour been raised by some persons but of more Zeal I think than Judgment against the use of Reason in matters of Faith but how very unreasonable this is will appear to any one that will but have patience to consider these following particulars 1. The nature of Divine Revelation That it doth not endow Men with new Faculties but propoundeth new Objects to the Faculties which they had before Reason is the Faculty whereby Revelation is to be discerned for when God reveals any thing to us he reveals it to our Understanding and by that we are to judge of it Therefore St. John cautions us 1 Jo. 4. 1. Not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world That is there are many that falsly pretend to Inspiration but how can these pretenders be tryed and discerned from those that are truly inspired but by using our Reason in comparing the evidence for the one and the other 2. This will farther appear if we consider the nature of Faith Faith as we are now speaking of it is an assent of the Mind to something as revealed by God Now all assent must be grounded upon evidence that is no Man can believe any thing unless he have or thinks he hath some reason to do so For to be confident of a thing without reason is not Faith but a presumptuous persuasion and obstinacy of mind 3. This will yet be more evident if we consider the method that must of necessity be used to convince any Man of the truth of Religion Suppose we had to deal with one that is a Stranger and Enemy to Christianity What means are proper to be used to gain him over to it The most natural method surely were this to acquaint him with the Holy Scriptures which are the Rule of our Faith and Practice He would ask us why we believe that Book The proper answer would be because it is the Word of God this he could not but acknowledge to be a very good reason if it were true But then he would ask Why we believed it to be the Word of God rather than Mâ—homet ' s Alchoran which pretends no less to be of divine Inspiration If any Man now should answer that he could give no reason why he believed it to be the word of God only he believed it to be so and so every man else ought to do without enquiring after any further reason because reason is to be laid a side in matters of Faith would not the Man presently reply that he had just as much reason as this comes to to believe the Alchoran or any thing else that is none at all But certainly the better way would be to satisfie this Man's reason by proper arguments that the Scriptures are a divine Revelation and that no other Book in the world can with equal reason pretend to be so and if
be carried about with every Wind of Doctrine by the slight of Men and the cunning Craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive For when he is attempted he will either defend his Religion or not If he undertake the Defence of it before he hath examined the Grounds of it he makes himself an easie Prey to every crafty man that will set upon him he exposeth at once himself to Danger and his Religion to Disgrace If he decline the defence of it he must be forced to take Sanctuary in that Ignorant and Obstinate Principle that because he is of an Infallible Church and sure that he is in the right therefore he never did nor will examine whether he be so or not But how is he or can he be sure that he is in the right if he have no other Reason for it but his Confidence and his being wiser in his own conceit than Seven men that can render a Reason It is a shameful thing in a wise man who is able to give a good Reason of all other Actions and parts of his Life to be able to say nothing for his Religion which concerns him more than all the rest 2. To examine and understand the Grounds of our Religion will be a good means by the assistance of Gods Grace to keep us constant to it even under the fiery Tryal When it comes to this that a man must suffer for his Religion he had need to be well established in the Belief of it which no man can so well be as he that in some good measure understands the Grounds and Reasons of his Belief A man would be well assured of the Truth and Goodness of that for which he would lay down hīs Life otherwise he dies as a Fool dies he knows not for what A man would be loth to set such a Seal to a Blank I mean to that which he hath no sufficient Ground and Reason to believe to be true which whether he hath or not no man that hath not examined the Grounds of his Religion can be well assured of This St. Peter prescribes as the best Preparative for suffering for Righteousness sake the 1st Ep. of Peter 3. 14 15. But if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye And be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts that is make him the great Object of your Dread and Trust and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you 2. The holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering doth not imply that Men should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason against that Religion which they have embraced and think to be the true Religion As Men should examine before they chuse so after they have chosen they should be ready to be better informed if better Reason can be offered No Man ought to think himself so infallible as to be priviledged from hearing Reason and from having his Doctrines and Dictates tryed by that Test. Our Blessed Saviour himself the most Infallible Person that ever was in the World and who declared the Truth which he had heard of God yet He offered himself and his Doctrine to this Tryal John 8. 46. Which of you convinceth me of sin that is of Falsehood and Error And if I speak the truth why do ye not believe me He was sure he spake the Truth and yet for all that if they could convince him of Error and Mistake he was ready to hear any Reason they could bring to that purpose Though a Man be never so sure that he is in the true Religion and never so resolved to continue constant and stedfast in it yet Reason is always to be heard when it is fairly offered And as we ought always to be ready to give an Answer to those who ask a Reason of the Hope and Faith that is in us so ought we likewise to be ready to hear the Reasons which others do fairly offer against our Opinion and Persuasion in Religion and to debate the matter with them that if we be in the right and they in the wrong we may rectifie their Mistakes and instruct them in meekness if God peradventure may give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth We are not only to examine our Religion before we peremptorily fix upon it but after we are as we think upon the best Reason establisht and settled in it Tho we ought not to doubt and waver in our Religion upon every slight and trifling Objection that can be brought against it yet we ought always to have an Ear open to hear Reason and consider any thing of Weight and Moment that can be offered to us about it For it is a great Disparagement to Truth and argues a distrust of the Goodness of our Cause and Religion to be afraid to hear what can be said against it As if Truth were so weak that in every Conflict it were in danger to be baffled and run down and go by the worst and as if the Reasons that could be brought against it were too hard for it and not to be encounter'd by those Forces which Truth has on its side We have that honest Confidence of the Goodness of our Cause and Religion that we do not fear what can be said against it And therefore we do not forbid our people to examine the Objections of our Adversaries and to read the best Books they can write against it But the Church of Rome are so wise in their Generation that they will not permit those of their Communion to hear or read what can be said against them Nay they will not permit the people the use of the Holy Scriptures which they with us acknowledge to be at least an Essential Part of the Rule of Faith They tell their people that after they are once of their Church and Religion they ought not to hear any Reasons against it and though they be never so strong they ought not to entertain any doubt concerning it because all doubting is a Temptation of the Devil and a Mortal Sin But surely that Church is not to be heard which will not hear Reason nor that Religion to be much admired which will not allow those that have once embrac'd it to hear it ever after debated and examined This is a very suspicious Business and argues that either they have not Truth on their side or that Truth is a weak and pitiful and sneaking Thing and not able to make its party good against Error I should now have proceeded in the Second place to shew Positively what is implied in holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering and then to have considered the Argument and Encouragement hereto because he is faithful that promised But I shall proceed no farther at this time A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he
is faithful that promised I Have already made entrance into these Words which I told you do contain in them I. An Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto because he is Faithful that promised If we continue stedfast and faithful to God we shall find him faithful to us in making good all the Promises which he hath made to us whether of Aid and Support or of Recompence and Reward of our Fidelity to him I have begun to handle the First part of the Text viz. The Apoostles Exhortation to Christians to be constant and steady in their Religion Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render without wavering signifies inflexible and unmovable not apt to waver and to be shaken with every Wind of contrary Doctrine nor by the Blasts and Storms of Persecution And that we might the better comprehend the full and true meaning of this Exhortation I propounded to do these Two things 1. To shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist And 2. To shew Positively what is implied and intended here by the Apostle in holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering 1. To shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and the Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist This I spake to the last Day and shewed at large that there are Two things which are not contained and intended in this Exhortation 1. That Men should not have the Liberty to examine their Religion and to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it Such I mean as are capable of this examination and enquiry which some I shewed are not as Children who while they are in that state are only fit to learn and believe what is taught them by their Parents and Teachers And likewise such grown Persons as either by the natural Weakness of their Faculties or by some great Disadvantage of Education are of a very low and mean Capacity and Improvement of Understanding These are to be considered as in the condition of Children and Learners and therefore must of necessity trust and rely upon the Judgment of others 2. This holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering does not imply that when Men upon examination and enquiry are settled as they think and verily believe in the true Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offer'd againg them Both these Principles I shew'd to be unreasonable and Arguments of a bad Cause and Religion I shall now proceed to explain the meaning of this Exhortation To hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering by shewing in the Second place what it is that is implied in the constant and steady Profession of the true Faith and Religion namely That when upon due search and examination we are fully satisfied that it is the true Religion which we have embraced or as St. Peter expresses it 1st Epistle 5. 12. That this is the true Grace of God wherein we stand that then we should adhere stedfastly to it and hold it fast and not suffer it to be wrested from us nor our selves to be moved from it by any Pretences or Insinuations or Temptations whatsoever For there is a great deal of difference between the Confidence and Stedfastness of an Ignorant Man who hath never considered Things and enquired into the Grounds of them and the Assurance and Settlement of one who hath been well instructed in his Religion and hath taken pains to search and examine to the bottom the Grounds and Reasons of what he holds and professeth to believe The first is meer Wilfulness and Obstinacy A Man hath entertained and drank in such Principles of Religion by Education or hath taken them up by Chance but he hath no Reason for them and yet however he came by them he is resolved to hold them fast and not to part with them The other is the Resolution and Constancy of a Wise Man He hath embraced his Religion upon good Grounds and he sees no Reason to alter it and therefore is resolved to stick to it and to hold fast the Profession of it stedfastly to the end And to this purpose there are many Exhortations and Cautions scattered up and down the Writings of the holy Apostles as that we should be stedfast and unmoveable established in the Truth rooted and grounded in the Faith and that we should hold fast that which is good and not suffer our selves to be carried to and fro with every wind of Doctrine through the slight of Men and the cunning craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive that we should not be removed from him that hath called us unto the grace of Christ unto another Gospel that we should stand fast in one Spirit and one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and be â—n nothing terrifled by our Adversaries and that if occasion be we should contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints and here in the Text That we should hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering For the explaining of this I shall do two Things 1. Consider what it is that we are to hold fast namely the profession of our Faith And 2. How we are to hold it fast or what is implied in holding fast the profession of our Faith without wavering 1. What it is that we are to hold fast namely the profession of our Faith i. e. of the Christian Faith or Religion For I told you before that this Profession or Confession of our Faith or Hope as the word properly signifies is an Allusion to that Profession of Faith which was made by all those who were admitted Members of the Christian Church by Baptism of which the Apostle makes mention immediately before the Text when he says Let us draw near in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure Water And then it follows Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering The Profession of Faith which we made in our Baptisms and which by the Ancient Fathers is call'd the Rule of Faith and which is now contain'd in that which we call the Apostles Creed and which is called by St. Paul Rom. 6. 17. the Form of Doctrine which was delivered to them i. e. to all Christians and 2 Tim. 1. 13. the Form of sound Words Hold fast saith he the Form of sound Words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus and by St. Jude The Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints So that it is the first and ancient Faith of the Christian Church delivered to them by Christ and his Apostles which we are here exhorted to hold fast the necessary and fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith
small Dust upon the Balance What Temptation of this World can stand against that Argument of our Saviour if it be seriously weighed and considered What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul If we would consider Things impartially and weigh them in a just and equal Balance the Things which concern our Bodies and this present Life are of no Consideration in comparison of the great and vast Concernments of our immortal Souls and the happy or miserable Condition of our Bodies and Souls to all Eternity And Religion is a Matter of this vast Concernment and therefore not to be bargained away and parted with by us for the greatest Things this World can offer There is no greater Sign of a sordid Spirit than to put a high Value upon Things of little Worth and no greater Mark of Folly than to make an unequal Bargain to part with Things of greatest Price for a slender and trifling Consideration As if a Man of great Fortune and Estate should sell the Inheritance of it for a Picture which when he hath it will not perhaps yield so much as will maintain him for one Year The Folly is so much the greater in Things of infinitely greater Value as for a Man to quit God and Religion to sell the Truth and his Soul and to part with his Everlasting Inheritance for a convenient Service for a good Customer and some present Advantage in his Trade and Profession or indeed for any Condition which the foolish Language of this World cal's a high Place or a great Preferment The Things which these Men part with upon these cheap Terms God and his Truth and Religion are to those who understand themselves and the just Value of their Immortal Souls Things of inestimable Worth and not to be parted with by a considerate Man for any Price that this World can bid And those who are to be bought out of their Religion upon such low Terms and so easily parted from it 't is much to be feared that they have little or no Religion to hold fast 2. As we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering against the Temptations and Allurements of this World so likewise against the Terrors of it Fear is a Passion of great force and if Men be not very resolute and constant will be apt to stagger them and to move them from their stedfastness And therefore when the Case of Suffering and Persecution for the Truth happens we had need to hold fast the Profession of our Faith Our Saviour in the Parable of the Sower tells us that there were many that heard the Word and with joy received it but when Persecution and Tribulation arose because of the Word presently they were offended And though blessed be God this be not now our Case yet there was a Time when it was the general Case of Christians in the first beginning of Christianity and for several Ages after though with some Intermission and Intervals of Ease It was then a general Rule and the common Expectation of Christians That through many Tribulations they must enter into the Kingdom of God and that if any Man will live Godly in Christ Jesus he must suffer Persecution And in several Ages since those Primitive Times the sincere Professors of Religion have in divers places been exposed to most grievous Sufferings and Persecutions for the Truth And even at this day in several Places the faithful Servants of God are exercised with the sharpest and sorest Tryals that perhaps were ever heard of in any Age and for the sake of God and the constant Profession of his true Religion are tormented and killed all the day long and are accounted as Sheep for the slaughter It is Their hard Lot to be called to these cruel and bitter Sufferings and Our happy Opportunity to be call'd upon for their Relief Those of them I mean that have escaped that terrible Storm and Tempest and have taken Refuge and Sanctuary here among us and out of His Majesty's great Humanity and Goodness are by his Publick Letters recommended to the Charity of the whole Nation by the Name of Distressed Protestants Let us consider how much easier Our Lot and Our Duty is than Theirs as much as it is easier to compassionate the Sufferings and to relieve the Distresses of Others than to be such Sufferers and in such Distress Our Selves Let us make Their Case our Own and then we our selves will be the best Judges how it is fit for us to demean our selves towards them and to what degree we ought to extend our Charity and Compassion to them Let us put on their Case and Circumstances and suppose that We were the Sufferers and had fled to Them for Refuge the same Pity and Commiseration the same tender Regard and Consideration of our sad Case the same liberal and effectual Relief that we should desire and expect and be glad to have shewn and afforded to our selves let us give to them and then I am sure they will want no fitting Comfort and Support from us We enjoy blessed be the Goodness of God to us great Peace and Plenty and Freedom from Evil and Suffering And surely one of the best Means to have these Blessings continued to us and our Tranquility prolonged is to consider and relieve those who want the Blessings which we enjoy and the readiest way to provoke God to deprive us of these Blessings is to shut up the Bowels of our Compassion from our Distressed Brethren God can easily change the Scene and make our Sufferings if not in the same kind yet in one kind or other equal to theirs and then we shall remember the Afflictions of Joseph and say as his Brethren did when they fell into Trouble We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this Distress come upon us God alone knows what Storms the Devil may yet raise in the World before the End of it And therefore it concerns all Christians in all Times and Places who have taken upon them the Profession of Christ's Religion to consider well before-hand and to calculate the Dangers and Sufferings it may expose them to and to arm our selves with Resolution and Patience against the fiercest Assaults of Temptation considering the Shortness of all Temporal Afflictions and Sufferings in comparison of the Eternal and Glorious Reward of them and the Lightness of them too in comparison of the endless and intolerable Torments of another World to which every Man exposeth himself who forsakes God and renounceth his Truth and wounds his Conscience to avoid Temporal Sufferings And though Fear in many Cases especially if it be of Death and extream Suffering be a great Excuse for several Actions because it may Cadere in constantem virum happen to a resolute Man Yet in
this case of Renouncing our Religion unless it be very sudden and surprizing out of which a Man recovers himself when he comes to himself as St. Peter did or the Suffering be so extream as to put a Man besides himself for the time so as to make him say or do any thing I say in this case of Renouncing God and his Truth God will not admit Fear for a just excuse of our Apostacy which if it be unrepented of and the Scripture speaks of Repentance in that case as very difficult will be our Ruin And the Reason is because God has given us such fair Warning of it that we may be prepared for it in the Resolution of our Minds And we enter into Religion upon these Terms with a professed Expectation of Suffering and a firm Purpose to lay down our Lives for the Truth if God shall call us to it If any Man will be my Disciple says our Lord let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me And again He that loveth Life it self more than me is not worthy of me And if any Man be ashamed of me and of my Words in this unfaithful Generation of him will I be ashamed before my Father and the Holy Angels And therefore to master and subdue this Fear our Saviour hath propounded great Objects of Terror to us and a Danger infinitely more to be dreaded which every Man runs himself wilfully upon who shall quit the Profession of his Religion to avoid Temporal Sufferings Luke 12. 4 5. Fear not them that can kill the Body but after that have nothing that they can do But I will tell you whom you shall fear Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Yea I say unto you Fear him And to this dreadful Hazard every Man exposeth himself who for the Fear of Men ventures thus to offend God These are the Fearful and Vnbelievers spoken of by St. John Who shall have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Thus you see how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering against all Temptations and Terrors of this World I should now have proceeded to the next Particular namely that we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion But this I shall not now enter upon A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised IN these Words I have told you are contained these Two Parts I. An Exhortation To hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto Because he is faithful that hath promised I am yet upon the First of these the Exhortation to Christians to be Constant and Steady in the Profession of their Religion Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And that we might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this Exhortation I shewed I. Negatively what is not meant and intended by it And I mentioned these Two Particulars 1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend that those who are capable of enquiring into and examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion should not have the liberty to do it Nor 2. That when upon due Enquiry and Examination Men are settled as they think and verily believe in the True Faith and Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offered against their present Persuasion for Reason when it is fairly offered is always to be heard I proceeded in the Second Place Positively to explain the Meaning of this Exhortation And to this purpose I proposed to consider 1. What it is that we are to hold fast viz. the Confession or Profession of our Faith The Ancient Christian Faith which every Christian makes Profession of in his Baptism Not the Doubtful and Uncertain Traditions of Men nor the Imperious Dictates and Doctrines of any Church which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures imposed upon the Christian World though with never so confident a Pretence of the Antiquity of the Doctrines or of the Infallibility of the Proposers of them And then I proceded in the Second Place to shew how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And I mentioned these following Particulars as probably implied and comprehended in the Apostles Exhortation 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men contrary to plain Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind under both which Heads I gave several Instances of Doctrines and Practices imposed with great Confidence upon the World some without and others plainly against Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind 3. Against all the Temptations and and Terrours of the World the Temptations of Fashion and Example and of worldly Interest and Advantage and against the Terrours of Persecution and Suffering for the Truth Thus far I have gone I shall now proceed to the Two other Particulars which remain to be spoken to 4. We are to hold fast the profession of our Faith against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion God hath plainly declared to us in the holy Scriptures upon what Terms and Conditions we may obtain Eternal Life and Happiness and what will certainly exclude us from it That except we repent i. e. without true Contrition for our Sins and forsaking of them we shall perish That without Holiness no man shall see the Lord That no Fornicator or Adulterer or Idolater or Covetous Person nor any one that lives in the practice of such sins shall have any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God or Christ. There is as great and unpassable a Gulf fixt between Heaven and a wicked Man as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell And when Men have done all they can to debauch and corrupt the Christian Doctrine it is impossible to reconcile a wicked Life with any reasonable and well-grounded Hopes of Happiness in another World No Church hath that Priviledge to save a Man upon any other Terms than those which our Blessed Saviour hath declared in his holy Gospel All Religions are equal in this That a bad Man can be Saved in none of them The Church of Rome pretends their Church and Religion to be the only safe and sure way to Salvation and yet if their Doctrine be true concerning the Intention of the Priest and if it be not they are much to blame in making it an Article of their Faith I say if it be true that the Intention
of the Rule of Faith I know that the Council of Trent declares it for the Rule they intend to proceed upon and make use of for the Confirmation and Proof of their following Determinations and Decrees But did any of the ancient Councils of the Christian Church lay down this Rule and proceed upon it Did not Constantine the Emperour at the opening of the First General Council lay the Bible before them as the only Rule according to which they were to proceed and this with the Approbation of all those Holy Fathers that were assembled in that Council And did not following Councils proceed upon the same Rule Do any of the ancient Fathers ever mention any Rule of Christian Faith and Practice besides the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Creed which because it is an Abridgment of the necessary Articles of Christian Faith contained in the Holy Scriptures is by them frequently called the Rule of Faith Do not the same Fathers frequently and expresly say That the Scriptures are a perfect Rule and that all things are plainly contained in them which concern Faith and Life and that whatever cannot be proved by Testimony of Scripture is to be rejected All this I am sure I can make good by innumerable express Testimonies of the ancient Fathers which are well known to those that are versed in them By what Authority then hath the Council of Trent set up this new Rule unknown to the Christian Church for 1500 Years and who gave them this Authority The plain truth is the necessity of it for the Defence of the Errors and Corruptions which they had embraced and were resolved not to part with forced them to lengthen out the Rule the old Rule of the Holy Scriptures being too short for their purpose Thirdly Whereas they pretend that Holy Scripture as expounded by a private Spirit may not seem so favourable to some of their Doctrines and Practices yet as interpreted by Tradition which can only give the true Sense of Scripture it agrees very well with them I suppose they mean that whereas a private Spirit would be apt to understand some Texts of Scripture as if People were to search and read the Scripture Tradition interprets those Texts in a quite other Sense that People are not to be permitted to read the Holy Scriptures A private Spirit would be apt to understand St. Paul's Discourse in the 14th of the 1st to the Corinthians to be against Celebrating Prayer and the Service of God in an unknown Tongue as being contrary to Edification and indeed to common Sense For he says If one should come and find them speaking and praying in an unknown Tongue will they not say Ye are mad But now Tradition which only knows how to give the true Sense can reconcile this Discourse of St. Paul very easily with the Practice of the Church of Rome in this matter And so likewise the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians with the Worship of Angels and the Epistle to the Hebrews with offering the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass a Thousand times every Day And to give but one Instance more Whereas a Man by his private Spirit would be very apt to understand the Second Commandment to forbid all Worship of Images Tradition discovers the meaning of this Commandment to be that due Veneration is to be given to them So that at this rate of interpreting Scripture by Tradition it is impossible to fix any Objection from Scripture upon any Doctrine or Practice which they have a mind to maintain Fourthly Whereas they pretend the Tradition of their Church delivered from the Mouth of Christ or dictated by the Holy Spirit and brought down to them and preserved by continnal Succession in the Church to be of equal Authority with the Word of God for so the Council of Trent says That the Holy Synod doth receive and venerate these Traditions with equal pious Affection and Reverence as they do the written Word of God This we must declare against as unreasonable in it self to make Tradition conveyed by Word of Mouth from one to another through so many Ages and liable to so many Mistakes and Miscarriages to be at the distance of 1500 Years of equal Certainty and Authority with the Holy Scriptures carefully preserved and transmitted down to us because this as I said before is to make common Rumor and Report of equal Authority and Certainty with a written Record And not only so but hereby they make the Scriptures an imperfect Rule contrary to the declared Judgment of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Christian Church and so in truth they set up a new Rule of Faith whereby they change the Christian Religion For a new Rule of Faith and Religion makes a new Faith and Religion This we charge the Church of Rome with and do challenge them to shew this new Rule of Faith before the Council of Trent and consequently where their Religion was before that Council to shew a Religion consisting of all those Articles which are defined by the Council of Trent as necessary to Salvation and established upon this new Rule professed by any Christian Church in the World before that time And as they have pitch'd upon a new Rule of Faith so it is easie to see to what End For take Pope Pius IV. his Creed and we may see where the Old and New Religion parts even at the end of the Twelve Articles of the Aplostles Creed which was the ancient Christian Faith to which are added in Pope Pius his Creed Twelve Articles more defined in the Council of Trent and supported only by Tradition So that as the Scripture answers for the Twelve old Articles which are plainly contained there so Tradition is to answer for the Twelve new ones And therefore the matter was calculated very exactly when they make Tradition just of equal Authority with the Scriptures because as many Articles of Their Faith were to be made good by it and rely upon it as those which are proved by the Authority of Scripture But that Tradition is of equal Authority with the Scriptures we have nothing in the whole World for it but the bare Assertion of the Council of Trent I should now have added some other Considerations tending to confirm and establish us in our Religion against the Pretences and Insinuations of Seducing Spirits But I shall proceed no farther at present The Tenth Sermon as number'd follows THere is a mistake in Numbering of these Sermons The Tenth should be called the Ninth and so on to the end For there are but Fifteen Sermons in this Volume and should be no more A SERMON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THESE words contain an Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering and an Argument or Encouragement thereto because he is faithful that hath promised By the Exhortation to hold fast the
the Reason which the Learned Men give why the Worship of Images and the Invocation of Angels and Saints departed were not practised in the Primitive Church for the first Three Hundred Years is a plain acknowledgment that these Practices are very liable to the Suspicion of Idolatry for they say that the Christians did then forbear those Practices because they seem'd to come too near to the Pagan Idolatry and lest the Heathen should have taken occasion to have justified themselves if these things had been practised among Christians and they cannot now be Ignorant what Scandal they give by these Practices both to the Jews and Turks and how much they alienate them from Christianity by this Scandal nor can they chuse but be sensible upon how great disadvantage they are in defending these Practices from the Charge of Idolatry and that by all their blind Distinctions with which they raise such a Cloud and Dust they can hardly make any plausible and tollerable Defence of themselves from this Charge Insomuch that to secure their own People from discerning their Guilt in this Matter they have been put upon that shameful shift of leaving out the Second Commandment in their common Catechisms and Manuals lest the People seeing so plain a Law of God against so common a Practice of their Church should upon that Discovery have broken off from them 5. Nor is our Religion incumbered with such an endless number of superstitious and troublesom Observances as theirs infiintely is even beyond the Number of the Jewish Ceremonies to the great Burden and Scandal of the Christian Religion and the diverting of Mens Minds from the spiritual part of Religion and the more weighty and necessary Duties of the Christian Life so that in truth a devout Pastor is so taken up with the external Rites and little Observances of his Religion that he hath little or no time to make himself a good Man and to cultivate and improve his Mind in true Piety and Virtue 6. Our Religion is evidently more Charitable to all Christians that differ from us and particularly to them who by their Uncharitableness to us have done as much as is possible to discharge and damp our Charity towards them And Charity as it is one of the most essential Marks of a true Christian so it is likewise the best Mark and Ornament of a true Church and of all things that can be thought of methinks the want of Charity in any Church should be a Motive to no Man to fall in love with it and to be fond of its Communion 7. Our Religion doth not clash and interfere with any of the great Moral Duties to which all Mankind stand obliged by the Law and Light of Nature as Fidelity Mercy and Truth We do not teach Men to break Faith with Hereticks or Infidels nor to destroy and extirpate those who differ from us with Fire and Sword No such thing as Equivocation or Mental Reservation or any other Artificial way of Falshood is either taught or maintain'd either by the Doctrine or by the Casuists of our Church 8. Our Religion and all the Doctrines of it are perfectly consistent with the Peace of Civil Government and the Welfare of Humane Society We neither exempt the Clergy from Subjection to the Civil Powers nor absolve Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever from allegiance to their Princes both which Points the necessity of the one and the lawfulness of the other have been taught and stifly maintain'd in the Church of Rome not only by private Doctors but by Popes and General Councils 9. The Doctrines of our Religion are perfectly free from all Suspicion of a Worldly Interest and Design whereas the greatest part of the erroneous Doctrines with which we charge the Church of Rome are plainly calculated to promote the end of Worldly Greatness and Dominion The Pope's Kingdom is plainly of this World and the Doctrines and Maximes of it like so many Servants are ready upon all occasion to fight for him For most of them do plainly tend either to the Establishment and Enlargment of his Authority or to the Magnifying of the Priests and the giving them a perfect power over the Conscienees of the People and the keeping them in a slavish subjection and blind obedience to them And to this purpose do plainly tend the Doctrines of exempting the Clergy from the Secular Power and Jurisdiction the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for it must needs make the Priest a great Man in the Opinion of the People to believe that he can make God as they love to express it without all Reason and Reverence Of the like tendency is the Communicating of the Laity only in one kind thereby making it the sole Priviledge of the Priest to receive the Sacrament in both The with-holding the Scripture from the People and celebrating the Service of God in an unknown Tongue The Doctrine of an implicite Faith and absolute Resignation of their Judgments to their Teachers These do all directly tend to keep the People in ignorance and to bring them to a blind Obedience to the dictates of their Teachers So likewise the Necessity of the intention of the Priests to the saving Virtue and Efficacy of the Sacraments by which Doctrine the People do upon the matter depend as much upon the good will of the Priest as upon the Mercy of God for their Salvation but above all their Doctrine of the Necessity of Auricular and private Confession of all Mortal Sins commited after Baptism with all the Circumstances of them to the Priest and this not only for the ease and direction of their Consciences but as a necessary condition of having their Sins pardoned and forgiven by God By which means they make themselves Masters of all the Secrets of the People and keep them in awe by the knowledge of their faults Scire volunt secreta Domus atque inde timeri Or else their Doctrines tend to filthy lucre and the enriching of their Church As their Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences and their Prayers and Masses for the dead and many more Doctrines and Practices of the like kind plainly do 10. Our Religion is free from all disingenuous and dishonest Arts of maintaining and supporting it self such are clipping of ancient Authors nay and even the Authors and Writers of their own Church when they speak too freely of any Point as may be seen in their Indices Expurgatorii which much against their wills have been brought to light To which I shall only add these Three gross Forgeries which lie all at their doors and they cannot deny them to be so 1. The pretended Canon of the Council of Nice in the case of Appeals between the Church of Rome and the African Church Upon which they insisted a great while very confidently till at last they were convinced by Authentick Copies of the Canons of that Council 2. Constantine's Donation to the Pope which they kept a great stir with till the Forgery of it
Virtues doth in its own Nature tend both to the Welfare of Particular Persons and to the Peace and Prosperity of Mankind But that which ought to weigh very much with us is That we have abundantly more Assurance of the Recompence of another World than we have of many things in this World which yet have a greater Influence upon our Actions and govern the Lives of the most prudent and considerate Men. Men generally hazard their Lives and Estates upon Terms of greater Uncertainty than the Assurance which we have of another World Men venture to take Physick upon probable Grounds of the Integrity and Skill of their Physician and yet the want of either of these may hazard their Lives and Men take Physick upon greater Odds for it certainly causeth Pain and Sickness and doth but uncertainly procure and recover Health the Patient is sure to be made sick but not certain to be made well and yet the Danger of being worse if not of dying on the one Hand and the Hope of Success and Recovery on the other make this Hazard and Trouble reasonable Men venture their whole Estates to Places which they never saw and that there are such Places they have only the concurrent Testimony and Agreement of Men nay perhaps have only spoken with them that have spoken with those that have been there No Merchant ever insisted upon the Evidence of a Miracle to be wrought to satisfie him that there were such Places as the East and West-Indies before he would venture to Trade thither And yet this Assurance God hath been pleased to give the World of a state beyond the Grave and of a blessed Immortality in another Life Now what can be the Reason that so slender Evidence so small a degree of Assurance will serve to encourage Men to seek after the things of this World with great Care and Industry and yet a great deal more will not suffice to put them effectually upon looking after the great Concernments of another World which are infinitely more considerable No other Reason of this can be given but that Men are partial in their Affections towards these things It is plain they have not the same Love for God and Religion which they have for this World and the Advantages of it and therefore it is that a less degree of Assurance will engage them to seek after the one than the other and yet the Reason is much stronger on the other side For the greater the Benefit and Good is which is offered to us we should be the more eager to seek after it and should be content to venture upon less Probability Upon excessive Odds a Man would venture upon very small Hopes for a mighty Advantage a Man would be content to run a great Hazard of his Labour and Pains upon little Assurance Where a Man's Life is concern'd every Suspicion of Danger will make a Man careful to avoid it And will nothing affright Men from Hell unless God carry them thither and shew them the place of Torments and the Flames of that Fire which shall never be quenched I do not speak this as if these things had not abundant Evidence I have shewn that they have but to convince Men how unreasonable and cruelly partial they are about the Concernments of their Souls and their Eternal Happiness 2. Supposing these things to be real and certain they are of infinite Concernment to us For what can concern us more than that Eternal and Unchangeable State in which we must be fixt and abide for ever If so vast a Concern will not move us and have no Influence upon the Government of our Lives and Actions we do not deserve the Name of Reasonable Creatures What Consideration can be set before Men who are not touched with the Sense of so great an Interest as that of our Happy or Miserable Being to all Eternity Can we be so solicitous and careful about the Concernment of a few Days and is it nothing to us what becomes of us for ever Are we so tenderly concerned to avoid Poverty and Disgrace Persecution and Suffering in this World and shall we not much more flee from the wrath which is to come and endeavour to escape the damnation of Hell Are the slight and transitory Enjoyments of this World worth so much Thought and Care And is an Eternal Inheritance in the Heavens not worth the looking after As there is no Proportion betwixt the things which are Temporal and the things which are Eternal so we ought in all Reason to be infinitely more concerned for the One than for the Other The proper Inference from all this Discourse is That we would endeavour to strengthen in our selves this great Principle of a Christian Life the Belief of another World by representing to our selves all those Arguments and Considerations which may confirm us in this Perswasion The more reasonable our Faith is and the surer grounds it is built upon the more firm it will abide when it comes to the tryal against all the impressions of temptations and assaults of Persecution If our Faith of another World be only a strong imagination of these things so soon as tribulation ariseth it will wither because it hath no root in it self Upon this account the Apostle so often exhorts Christians to endeavour to be establisht in the Truth to be rooted and grounded in the Faith that when Persecution comes they may continue stedfast and unmovable The firmness of our Belief will have a great influence upon our Lives if we be stedfast and unmovable in our perswasion of these things we shall be abundant in the work of the Lord. The Apostle joins these together 1 Cor. 15. 58. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Stedfast and unmovable in what In the belief of a blessed Resurrection which the more firmly any Man believes the more active and industrious will he be in the Work and Service of God And that our Faith may have a constant and powerful influence upon our Lives we should frequently revolve in our Minds the thoughts of another World and of that vast Eternity which we shall shortly launch into The great disadvantage of the Arguments fetcht from another world is this That these things are at a distance from us and not sensible to us and therefore we are not apt to be so affected with them Present and sensible things weigh down all other Considerations And therefore to balance this disadvantage we should often have these Thoughts in our Minds and inculcate upon our selves the certainty of these things and the infinite concernment of them we should reason thus with our selves if these things be true and will certainly be why should they not be to me as if they were actually present Why should not I always live as if Heaven were open to my view and I saw
it but having no root in themselves they endured but for a while and when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they fall off And there is likewise a partial Apostasie from Christianity when some Fundamental Article of it is denied whereby in effect and by consequence the whole Christian Faith is overthrown Of this Hymeneus and Philetus were guilty of whom the Apostle says that they erred concerning the truth saying that tbe Resurrection was past already and thereby overthrew the faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. That is they turned the Resurrection into an Allegory and did thereby really destroy a most Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion So that to make a man an Apostate it is not necessary that a man should solemnly renounce his Baptism and declare Christianity to be false there are several other ways whereby a man may bring himself under this guilt as by a silent quitting of his Religion and withdrawing himself from the Communion of all that profess it by denying an Essential Doctrine of Christianity by undermining the great End and Design of it by teaching Doctrines which directly tend to encourage Men in impenitence and a wicked course of life nay to Authorise all manner of impiety and vice in telling Men that whatever they do they cannot Sin for which the Primitive Christians did look upon the Gnosticks as no better than Apostates from Christianity and tho they retained the Name of Christians yet not to be truly and really so And there is likewise a partial Apostacy from the Christan Religion of which I shall speak under the II. Head I proposed which was to consider the several sorts and degrees of Apostacy The highest of all is the renouncing and forsaking of Christianity or of some Essential part of it which is a virtual Apostafie from it But there are several tendencies towards this which they who are guilty of are in some degree guilty of this Sin As 1. Indifferency in Religion and want of all sort of Concernment for it when a Man tho he never quitted his Religion yet is so little concerned for it that a very small Occasion or Temptation would make him do it he is contented to be reckoned in the number of those who profess it so long as it is the Fashion and he finds no great Inconvenience by it but is so indifferent in his Mind about it like Gallio who minded none of those things that he can turn himself into any other Shape when his Interest requires it so that tho he never actually deserted it yet he is 2 kind of Apostate in the preparation and disposition of his Mind And to such Persons that Title which Solomon gives to some may fitly enough be applyed they are Backsliders in Heart 2. Another tendency to this Sin and a great degree of it is withdrawing from the Publick Marks and Testimonies of the Profession of Religion by forsaking the Assemblies of Christians for the Worship and Service of God to withdraw our selves from those for fear of Danger or Suffering is a kind of Denyal of our Religion And this was the case of some in the Apostles time when Persecution grew hot and the open Profession of Christianity dangerous to avoid this Danger many appeared not in the Assemblies of Christians for fear of being observed and brought into trouble for it This the Apostle taxeth some for in this Chapter and speaketh of it as a letting go our Profession and a kind of deserting of Christianity v. 23 35. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is He doth not say they had quitted their Profession but they had but a loose hold of it and were silently stealing away from it 3. A light temper of Mind which easily receives Impressions from those who lie in wait to deceive and seduce Men from the Truth When Men are not well rooted and established in Religion they are apt to be inveigled by the crafty Insinuations of Seducers to be moved with every wind of Doctrine and to be easily shaken in Mind by every trifling piece of Sophistry that is confidently obtruded upon them for a weighty Argument Now this is a temper of Mind which disposeth Men to Apostasie and renders them an easie Prey to every one that takes a Pleasure and a Pride in making Proselytes It is true indeed a Man should always have a Mind ready to entertain Truth when it is fairly proposed to him but the main things of Religion are so plainly revealed and lie so obvious to every ordinary capacity that every Man may discern them and when he hath once entertained them ought to be stedfast and unmovable in them and not suffer himself to be whiffled out of them by any insignificant noise about the Infallibility of a Visible Church much less ought he to be moved by any Man's uncharitableness and positiveness in damning all that are not of his Mind There are some things so very plain not only in Scripture but to the common Reason of Mankind that no subtilty of Discourse no pretended Authority or even Infallibility of any Church ought to stagger us in the least about them as that we ought not or cannot believe any thing in direct contradiction to Sense and Reason that the People ought to Read and Study the Holy Scriptures and to serve God and pray to him in a Language which they understand that they ought to receive the Sacrament as our Saviour instituted and appointed it that is in both kinds that it can neither be our Duty nor Lawful to do that which God hath forbidden as he hath done the Worship of Images in the Second Commandment as plainly as words can do it Upon any one of these Points a Man would fix his foot and stand alone against the whole World 4. Another Degree of Apostasie is a departure from the Purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship in a gross and notorious manner This is a partial tho not a total Apostasie from the Christian Religion and there have been and still are some in the World who are justly Charged with this degree of Apostasie from Religion namely such as tho they retain and profess the Belief of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and Worship the only true God and him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ yet have greatly perverted the Christian Religion by superinducing and adding new Articles of Faith and gross Corruptions and Superstitions in Worship and imposing upon Men the Belief and Practice of these as necessary to Salvation And St. Paul is my Warrant for this Censure who chargeth those who added to the Christian Religion the Necessity of Circumcision and observing the Law of Moses and thereby perverted the Gospel of Christ as guilty in some degree of Apostasie from Christianity for he calls it preaching another Gospel Gal. 1. 7 8. There be some that trouble
you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ but tho we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel to you than that which we have preached let him be accursed And those who were seduced by these Teachers he chargeth them with having in some sort quitted the Gospel of Christ and embraced another Gospel V. 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel So that they who thus pervert and corrupt the Christian Doctrine or Worship are plainly guilty of a partial Apostasie from Christianity and they who quit the purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship and go over to the Communion of those who have thus perverted Christianity are in a most dangerous state and in the Judgment of St. Paul are in some sort removed unto another Gospel I shall now proceed in the III. Place to consider the Heinousness of this Sin And it will appear to be very Heinous if we consider what an affront it is to God and how great a contempt of him when God hath revealed his will to Mankind and sent no less Person than his own Son out of his own Bosom to do it and hath given such Testimonies to him from Heaven by signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost when he hath transmitted down to us so Faithful a Record of this Revelation and of the Miracles wrought to confirm it in the Books of the Holy Scriptures and when we our selves have so often declared our firm belief of this Revelation yet after all this to fall from it and deny it or any part of it or to embrace Doctrines and Practices plainly contrary to it This certainly cannot be done without the greatest affront and contempt of the Testimonies of God himself for it is in effect and by interpretation to declare that either we do not believe what God says or that we do not fear what he can do So St. John tells us 1 Ep. 5. 10. He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar because he believeth not the record which God hath given of his Son And all along in this Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle sets himself to aggravate this Sin calling it an Evil Heart of unbelief to depart from the living God Ch. 3 12. And he frequently calls it so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by way of eminency as being of all Sins the greatest and most heinous Ch. 10. 26. If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth That the Apostle here speaks of the Sin of Apostasie is plain from the whole scope of his discourse for having exhorted them before v. 23. to hold fast the Profession of their Faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of themselves together he immediately adds for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth that is if we fall off from Christianity after we have embraced it And Ch. 12 1. let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us that is the great Sin of Apostasie from Religion to which they were then so strongly tempted by that fierce Persecution which attended it and therefore he adds let us run with patience the race which is set before us that is let us arm our selves with patience against the Sufferings we are like to meet with in our Christian course To oppose the Truth and resist the clear Evidence of it is a great Sin and Men are justly condemned for it John 3. 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the World and men loved darkness rather than light But to desert the Truth after we have been convinced of it to fall off from the Profession of it after we have embraced it is a much greater Sin Opposition to the Truth may proceed in a great measure from ignorance and prejudice which is a great extenuation and therefore St. Paul tells us that after all his violent Persecution of Christianity he found Mercy because he did it ignorantly and in unbelief To revolt from the Truth after we have made profession of it after we have known the way of righteousness to turn from the holy commandment this is the great aggravation The Apostle makes wilfulness an usual ingredient into the Sin of Apostasie if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth And as this Sin is one of the greatest affronts to God so it is the highest and most effectual disparagement of Religion for it is not so much considered what the Enemies of Religion speak against it because they speak evil of the things which they know not and of which they have had no Tryal and Experience but he that falls off from Religion after he hath made profession of it declares to the World that he hath tryed it and dislikes it and pretends to leave it because he hath not found that Truth and Goodness in it which he expected and upon long experience of it sees reason to prefer another Religion before it So that nothing can be more despiteful to Religion than this and more likely to bring it into contempt and therefore the Apostle v. 29. of this Chapter calls it a trampling under foot the Son of God and making the Blood of the Covenant a profane thing and offering despite to the Spirit of Grace for we cannot put a greater Scorn upon the Son of God who revealed this Doctrine to the World nor upon his Blood which was shed to confirm and seal the Truth of it and upon the Holy Ghost who came down in miraculous Gifts to give Testimony to it than notwithstanding all this to renounce this Doctrine and to forsake this Religion But we shall yet farther see the heinousness of this Sin in the terrible Punishment it exposeth Men to which was the IV. And Last thing I proposed to consider And this is represented to us in a most terrible manner not only in this Epistle but in other Places of Scripture This Sin is placed in the highest rank of pardonable Sins and next to the Sin against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour declares to be absolutely unpardonable And indeed the Scripture speaks very doubtfully of the pardonableness of this Sin as being near akin to that against the Holy Ghost being said to be an Offering despite to the Spirit of Grace In the 6th Chapter of this Epistle V. 4 5 6. the Apostle speaks in a very severe manner concerning the state of those who had apostatized from Christianity after the solemn Profession of it in Baptism it is impossible for those who were once enlightned that is baptized and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift that is Regeneration and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come that is have been instructed in the Christan Religion and endowed with the miraculous Powers of the Gospel-Age
this Blessed State of Good Men in another World so hath he likewise assur'd us that greater Degrees of this Happiness shall be the Portion of Those who suffer for Him and his Truth Mat. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven And nothing surely can be more Reasonable than to part with things of Small Value for things infinitely Greater and more Considerable to forego the Transient Pleasures and Enjoyments and the Imperfect Felicities of this World for the Solid and Perfect and Perpetual Happiness of a Better Life and to exchange a Short and Miserable Life for Eternal Life and Blessedness in a word to be content to be driven Home to be banisht out of this World into our own Native Country and to be violently thrust out of this Vale of Tears into those Regions of Bliss where are Joys unspeakable and full of Glory This Consideration St. Paul tells us supported the Primitive Christians under their sharpest and heaviest Sufferings 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause says he we faint not because our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal So that our Sufferings bear no more Proportion to the Reward of them than Finite does to Infinite than Temporal to Eternal between which there is no Proportion All that now remains is to draw some useful Inferences from what hath been Discoursed concerning this great and difficult Duty of Self-denial for the sake of Christ and his Religion and they shall be these following 1. To acknowledg the great Goodness of God to us that all these Laws and Commands even the Hardest and Severest of them are so reasonable God as he is our Maker and gave us our Beings hath an Entire and Soveraign Right over us and by virtue of that Right might have imposed very Hard things upon us and this without the giving Account to us of any of his matters and without propounding any Reward to us so vastly disproportionable to our Obedience to him But in giving Laws to us he hath not made use of this Right The most Severe and Rigorous Commands of the Gospel are such that we shall be infinitely Gainers by our Obedience to them If we deny our selves any thing in this World for Christ and his Religion we shall in the next be considered for it to the Utmost not only far beyond what it can Deserve but beyond what we can Conceive or Imagine For this perishing Life and the transitory Trifles and Enjoyments of it we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken an uncorruptible Crown which fadeth not away Eternal in the Heavens For these are Faithful Sayings and we shall Infallibly find them true That if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him if we be persecuted for righteousness sake great shall be our reward in Heaven if we part with our Temporal Life we shall be made Partakers of Eternal Life He that is firmly persuaded of the Happiness of the next World and believes the Glory which shall then be revealed hath no Reason to be so much offended at the Sufferings of this Present time so long as he knows and believes that these Light afflictions which are but for a Moment will work for him a for more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Seeing this is required of every Christian to be always in a Preparation and Disposition of Mind to deny our selves and to take up our Cross if we do in good earnest resolve to be Christians we ought to fit down and consider well with our selves what our Religion will cost us and whether we be content to come up to the Price of it If we value any thing in this World above Christ and his Truth we are not worthy of him If it come to this that we must either renounce Him and his Religion or quit our temporal Interests if we be not ready to forego these nay and to part even with Life it self rather than to forsake Him and his Truth we are not worthy of him These are the Terms of our Christianity and therefore we are required in Baptism solemnly to renounce the World And our Saviour from this very Consideration infers That all who take upon them the Profession of his Religion should consider seriously beforehand and count the cost of it Luke 14. 28. Which of you says he intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Or what King going to war with another King doth not sit down and consult whether with 10000 he be able to meet him that cometh against him with 20000. So likewise whosoever he be that forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my Disciple You see the Terms upon which we are Christians we must always be prepared in the Resolution of our Minds to deny our selves and take up our Cross tho we are not Actually put upon this Tryal 3. What hath been said is matter of great Comfort and Encouragement to all those who deny themselves and suffer upon so good an Account of whom God knows there are too great a Number at this Day in several parts of the World Some under actual Sufferings such as cannot but move Compassion and Horror in all that hear of them Others who are fled hither and into other Countries for Refuge and Shelter from one of the sharpest Persecutions that perhaps ever was if all the Circumstances of it be duly considered But not to enlarge upon so unpleasant a Theam they who suffer for the Truth and Righteousness sake have all the Comfort and Encouragement that the best Example and the greatest and most glorious Promises of God can give They have the best Example in their view Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith who endured the Cross and despised the Shame So that how great and terrible soever their Sufferings be they do but tread in the Steps of the Son of God and of the best and holiest Man that ever was and He who is their great Example in Suffering will likewise be their Support and their exceeding great Reward So that tho Suffering for Christ be accounted great Self-denyal and he is graciously pleased so to accept it because in denying things Present and Sensible for things Future and Invisible we do not only declare our Affection to him but our great Faith and Confidence in him by shewing that we rely upon his Word and venture all upon the Security which he offers us in
another World yet according to a right Estimate of things and to those who walk by Faith and not by Sight this which we call Self-denyal is in truth and reality but a more commendable sort of Self-love because we do herein most effectually consult and secure and advance our own Happiness 4. And Lastly Since God hath been pleased for so long a time to excuse us from this hardest part of Self-denyal let us not grudge to deny our selves in lesser Matters for the sake of his Truth and Religion to miss a good Place or to quit it upon that account much less let us think much to renounce our Vices and to thwart our evil Inclinations for his sake As Naaman's Servant said to him concerning the means prescribed by the Prophet for his Cure If he had bid thee do some Great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much more when he hath only said Wash and be clean So since God imposeth no harder Terms upon us than Repentance and Reformation of our Lives we should gladly and thankfully submit to them This I know is difficult to some to mortifie their earthly Members to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts of it 't is like cutting off a right Hand and plucking out a right Eye Some are so strongly addicted to their Lusts and Vices that they could with more ease despise Life in many cases than thus Deny themselves But in Truth there is no more of Self-denyal in it than a Man denies himself when he is mortally Sick and Wounded in being content to be Cured and willing to be Well This is not at all to our Temporal Prejudice and Inconvenience and it directly conduceth to our Eternal Happiness for there is no Man that lives a holy and virtuous Life and in Obedience to the Laws of God that can lightly receive any Prejudice by it in this World Since God doth not call us to Suffer we should Do so much the more for him Since he doth not put us to testifie our Love to him by laying down our Lives for him we should shew it by a greater Care to keep his Commandments God was pleased to exercise the first Christians with great Sufferings and to try their Love and Constancy to him and his Truth in a very Extraordinary manner by Severity and Contempt by the spoiling of their Goods and the loss of all things by bonds and imprisonments by cruel mockings and scourgings by the extremity of torments and by resisting even unto blood by being kill'd for his sake all the day long and appointed as Sheep for the slaughter God was pleased to make their way to Heaven very sharp and painful and to hedge it in as it were with thorns on every side so that they could not but through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Thus we ought all to be in a Readiness and Resolution to submit to this Duty if God should think fit at any time of our Lives to call us to it But if he be pleased to excuse us from it and to let this Cup pass from us which may lawfully be our earnest Prayer to God since we have so good a Pattern for it there will be another Duty incumbent upon us which will take up the whole Man and the whole time of our Life and that is to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives A SERMON PREACHED At Whitehall before the Family Nov. 1. 1686. HEB. XI 13. And confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth The whole Verse runs thus These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth THE Apostle having declared at the latter end of the foregoing Chapter that Faith is the great Principle whereby Good Men are acted and whereby they are supported under all the Evils and Sufferings of this Life Verse 38. Now the Just shall live by Faith In this Chapter he makes it his main business to set forth to us at large the Force and Power of Faith and to this Purpose he first tells us what kind of Faith he means viz. a firm Persuasion of things not Present and Visible to Sense but Invisible and Future Ver. 1. Now Faith saith he is the confident expectation of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Faith represents to us the Reality of things which are Invisible to Sense as the Existence of God and his Providence and of things which are at a great distance from us as the Future State of Rewards and Punishments in another World And then he proceeds to shew by particular and famous Instances that the firm Belief and Persuasion of these things was the great Principle of the Piety and Virtue of the Saints and and Good Men in all Ages of the World by this Abel and Enoch and Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob Joseph and Moses and all the Famous Heroes of the Old Testament obtained a good Report and pleased God and did all those eminent Acts of Obedience and Self-denyal which are recorded of them They believed the Being of God and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him They dreaded his Threatnings and relyed upon his Promises of Future and Invisible Good things They lived and died in a full Persuasion and Confidence of the Truth of them tho they did not live to see them actually fulfilled and accomplisht All these saith he speaking of those Eminent Saints which he had instanced in before All these died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them This is spoken with a more particular regard to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to whom the Promises of the Conquest and Possession of a Fruitful Land were made and of a Numerous Offspring among whom should be the Messias in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed These Promises they did not live to see accomplisht and made good in their Days but they heartily believed them and rejoiced in the Hope and Expectation of them as if they had embraced them in their Arms and been put into the actual Possession of them And they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth This Saying and Acknowledgment more particularly and immediately refers to those Sayings of the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob which we find recorded Gen. 23. 4. where Abraham says to the Sons of Heth I am a Stranger and a Sojourner with you And Gen. 47. 9. where Jacob says to Pharaoh The days of the years of my Pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years few and evil have the days of the years of my Life been These Good Men were Strangers and Sojourners in a Land which was promised to be theirs afterwards They dwelt in it themselves as Strangers but
among whom we should shame as Lights The same Argument St. Peter useth 1 Pet. 2. 11 12. I beseech you as Pilgrims and Strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles that is Considering that you are among Strangers and Enemies and therefore ought to be very careful to bring no Scandal upon your Holy Profession among those who will be ready to take all advantages against you Particularly we who pretend to the same Heavenly Country must be kind to one another and whilst we live among Strangers have no Quarrels amongst our Selves In a Strange Country it useth to be a Mighty Endearment of Men to one another that they are of the same Country and Fellow Citizens and this alone is commonly sufficient to unite their Affections and to link their Interests together But how little of this is to be seen among Christians how shamefully do they Quarrel among themselves in the midst of Enemies and Strangers as if they had no Relation to one another and never expected to meet at last in the same Country and there to live together for ever III. Let us be as Patient and Chearful as we can under all the Troubles and Afflictions which we meet with in this Life They who are in Strange Countries must expect to encounter many Injuries and Affronts and to be put to great Difficulties and Hardships Those which are lighter and more tolerable we must bear with Chearfulness Upon a Journey Men use to put on all the Pleasantness they can and to make Sport of all the Inconveniences of the Ways and Weather and little cross Accidents that befall them And thus if we had but the Art and Wisdom to do it many of the lesser Inconveniences of Humane Life might well enough be play'd off and made matter rather of Mirth and Diversion than of Melancholy and serious Trouble But there are some Evils and Calamities of Humane Life that are too heavy and serious to be Jested withal and require the greatest Consideration and a very great degree of Patience to Support us under them and enable us to bear them Decently as the Loss of Friends and dearest Relations as the Loss of an Only Son grown up to be well fixt and settled in a Virtuous Course and promising all the Comfort to his Parents that they themselves can wish These certainly are some of the Greatest Evils of this World and hardest to be born For Men may pretend what they will to Philosophy and Contempt of the World and of the Perishing Comforts and Enjoyments of it to the Extirpation of their Passions and an Insensibility of these things which the weaker and undisciplin'd part of Mankind keep such a Wailing and Lamentation about but when all is done Nature hath framed us as we are and hath planted in our Nature strong Inclinations and Affections to our Friends and Relations and these Affections are as naturally moved upon such Occasions and pluck every String of our Hearts as violently as extream Hunger and Thirst do gnaw upon our Stomachs And therefore it is foolish for any Man to pretend to love things mightily and to rejoyce greatly in the Enjoyment of them and yet to be so easily contented to lose them and to be parted from them This is to separate things which Nature hath strongly linked together Whatever we mightily love does thereby in some sort become part of our Selves and it cannot hand loose to us to be separated and divorced from us without Trouble no more than a Limb that is vitally and by strong Ligaments united to the Body can be dropt off when we please or rent from the Body without Pain And whoever pretends to have a mighty Affection for any thing and yet at the same time does pretend that he can contentedly and without any great Sense or Signification of Pain bear the Loss of it does not talk like a Philosopher but like an Hypocrite and under a grave Pretence of being a Wise is in truth an Ill-natured Man For most certainly in proportion to our Love of any thing will be our Trouble and Grief for the Loss of it So that under these great and heavier Strokes we had need both of Faith and Patience And indeed nothing but the firm Belief of a better Country that is an Heavenly another Life after this and a blessed Immortality in another World is sufficient to support a Man in the few and evil Days of his Pilgrimage and to sustain his Spirit under the great Evils and Calamities of this Life But This fully answers all That the Afflictions and Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Nay that if we bear these Afflictions patiently and with a due Submission to the Will of God especially our Sufferings for his Truth and Cause it will certainly increase our Happiness in the other World and work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory IV. The Consideration of our Present Condition and of our Future Hopes should set us above the Fondness of Life and the slavish Fears of Death For our Minds will never be raised to their true pitch and hight till we have in some good measure conquered these two Passions and made them subject to our Reason As for this present Life and the Enjoyments of it What is it that we see in them that should make us so strangely to dote upon them Quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido This World at the best is but a very Indifferent place and he is the wisest Man that bears himself towards it with the most Indifferent Mind and Affection that is always willing to leave it and yet patient to stay in it as long as God pleaseth And as for Death tho' the Dread of it be natural yet why should the Terrors of it be so very surprising and amazing to us after we have consider'd that to a good and pious Soul it is no other but the Gate of Heaven and an Entrance into Eternal Life We are apt to wonder to see a Man undaunted at the approach of Death and to be not only contented but chearful at the Thoughts of his Departure out of this World this Sink of Sin and Vale of Misery and Sorrow Whereas if all things be duly considered it is a greater Wonder that Men are so patient to Live and that they are not glad of any fair Excuse and Opportunity of getting out of this strange Country and retiring Home and of ridding themselves of the Troubles and Inconveniences of Life For considering the numerous Troubles and Calamities we are liable to in a long Pilgrimage there are really but Three Considerations that I can readily think of that can make this World and our present Condition in it in any good measure tolerable to a wise Man viz. That God governs the World That we are not always to stay in it That there is a Happiness designed
present in hopes to have more trouble afterwards than the pleasure comes to But especially no Man would be guilty of an act of injustice and oppression in hopes to repent of it afterwards because there can be no repentance for such sins without restitution and 't is perfect madness for a Man to run the hazard of his Soul to get an Estate in hopes of restoring it again for so he must do that truly repents of such a sin But 2. In the other world the final issue and consequence of all the pleasures of sin unrepented of will certainly be misery and sorrow How quietly soever a sinner may pass through this world or out of it misery will certainly overtake him in the next unspeakable and eternal misery arising from an apprehension of the greatest loss and a sense of the sharpest pain and those sadly aggravated by the remembrance of past pleasure and the despair of future ease From a sad apprehension and melancholy reflection upon his inestimable loss In the other world the sinner shall be eternally separated from God who is the fountain of happiness This is the first part of that miserable sentence which shall be past upon the wicked depart from me Sinners are not now sensible of the joyes of Heaven and the happiness of that state and therefore are not capable of estimating the greatness of such a loss But this stupidity and insensibleness of sinners continues only during this present state which affords Men variety of objects and pleasures to divert and entertain them But when they are once enter'd upon the other world they will then have nothing else to take up their thoughts but the sad condition into which by their own wilful negligence and folly they have plunged themselves They shall then lift up their eyes and with the rich Man in the parable at once see the happiness of others and feel their own misery and torment But this is not all Besides the apprehension of so great a loss they shall be sensible of the sorest and sharpest pains and how grievous those shall be we may conjecture by what the Scripture says of them in general That they are the effects of a mighty displeasure of Anger and Omnipotence met together far greater than can be described by any pains and sufferings which we are acquainted withall in this world For who knows the power of Gods anger and the utmost of what Omnipotent Justice can do to sinners It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were misery enough and needed no frather aggravation but yet it hath two terrible ones from the remembrance of past pleasures and the despair of any future ease and remedy The remembrance of past pleasure makes present sufferings more sharp and sensible For as nothing commends pleasure more and gives a quicker relish to happiness than precedent pain and suffering for perhaps there is not a greater pleasure in the world than in the suddain ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone so nothing enrageth affliction more and sets a keener edg upon misery than to pass into great pain immediately out of a state of ease and pleasure This was the stinging aggravation of the rich Man's torment That in his life time he had received his good things and had faired so deliciously every day But the greatest aggravation of all is the despair of any future ease and remedy The duration of this misery is set forth to us in Scripture by such expressions as do signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matth. 25. and Mark 9. 43. Where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched And in the Revel it is said that the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever without intermission and without end And this surely is the perfection of misery for a Man to lye under the greatest torments and to be in despair of ever finding the least ease Let us now compare things together on the one hand the sufferings of good Men for a good Conscience and the reward that follows them and on the other hand the enjoyments of sin with the mischief and misery that attends them and will certainly overtake them in this world or the next and then we shall easily discern which of these is to be preferred in a wise Man's choice And indeed the choice is so very plain that a Man must be strangely forsaken of his reason and blinded by sense who does not prefer that course of life which will probably make him happier in this world but most certainly in the next There remains now only the Fourth and last particular to be spoken to viz. Supposing this choice to be reasonable to enquire whence it comes to pass that so many make a quite contrary choice How is it that the greatest part of mankind are so widely mistaken as to prefer the temporary enjoyments of sin before Conscience and Religion especially if it be attended with great afflictions and sufferings And of this I shall give you as brief an account as I can and so conclude this Discourse This wrong choice generally proceeds from one or both of these two causes from want of Faith or from want of consideration or of both 1. One great reason why Men make so imprudent a choice is unbelief either the want of Faith or the weakness of it Either Men do not believe the recompences of another life or they are not so firmly persuaded of the reality of them If Men do not at all believe these things there is no foundation for Religion for he that cometh unto God that is he that thinks of being religious must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as the Apostle reasons in the beginning of this Chapter But I hope there are but few that are or can be Infidels as to these great and fundamental principles of Religion But it is to be feared that the Faith of a great many is but weak and wavering their Faith is rather negative they do not disbelieve these things but they are not firmly persuaded of them their Faith is rather an opinion than a rooted and well grounded persuasion and therefore no wonder if it be not so strong and vigorous a principle of action and like the Faith of Abraham and Moses and other worthies mentioned in this Chapter For where Faith is in its full strength and vigour it will have proportionable effects upon the resolutions and wills of Men But where it is but weak it is of little or no efficacy And this is the true reason why so many forsake Religion and cleave to this present world and when it comes to the push choose rather to sin than to suffer and will rather quit the truth than endure persecution for it These are they whom our Saviour describes who receive receive the