with what is false and light 'T is also probity of mind they want who being licentiously given and no great friends to any Religion or Truth either which may lay any restraint upon them in their opinions or practices gladly take any advantages against them That men look upon all professing Religion and Conscience to be Ignorant Superstitious or Cunning so that their Example or Reason are of no Authority with them Neither doth this humour stop among this sort of men but it is soon conveyed into the vulgar too who soon learn to contemn Religion and the Priest especially in times of liberty Wherefore it is to be advised and sincerely Religious men wise and honest who heartily desire the Advancement of true Religion will so do that we be first assured of the truth of our belief and opinions in Religion and be now carefull and just to appear for nothing but what is so and for that reason And when we cannot fairly maintain any thing to be such tho' it appear never so much for the honour and interest of Religion as many very false and forged things have let it rest and go as it is till time may further discover And as for the vulgar it is surely their safest way to rely upon the Conduct of such wise and honest Men though they may be even exhorted to see with their own Eyes too if they can For it is much more easie for them to know who are such than to judge themselves of the truth and falshood Universal conveniencies and inconveniencâ—es of things to know who are the best Guides than to guide themselves This plain dealing without fraud or force will surely much advance the just Esteem of Religion and its Ministers and consequently its influence and efficacy We have but too much proof of this Cause of Infidelity from experience We have seen some Men and that of the first rank who have taught us such a God and that out of his own Books which others judge to be an absolute impossibility And yet after all they will be the only Orthodox and reprobate all those who will not be of their opinion Many also are those who have made the Holy Scriptures the most excellent Collection of Writings which were ever extant to speak such things which hath caused others not brooking their Interpretations nor being sufficient to find out better themselves to have mean and injurious thoughts of them And yet if any pious Man with the sincerest intentions and endeavours to preserve and vindicate their due honour by salving difficulties which seem to check Reason do advance any thing inconsistent with their settled Opinions and Systems he is presently irreligious and a severe Atheist too severe Censures whatever their mistakes may be But they are much more numerous still who have made up such an Hotch-potch in Religion by their Additions to the Holy Scriptures from pretended or enthusiastical Revelations forged or false Miracles Traditions Ecclesiastical Authority and Infallibility as first to turn men's Stomachs against it and at last to cause a great many quite to discharge themselves of it altogether But of these and such like I shall say no more at present But go on to the next general Head 2ly To propose some remedies proper to prevent or repress the influences of these Causes of Infidelity whereof some are more general some more particularly relating to some Causes and Circumstances The first of these is 1st To advise and assist Men to improve and advance their Knowledge to the highest Degree they are capable of For it seems just to deal so uprightly and plainly with the World as not to make use of mere Authority instead of understanding and reason where men are truly capable and honest though where they are ignorant but yet conceited self-willed or dishonest in things of importance and consequence Authority must be allowed to interpose for their own and the publick good which otherwise would greatly suffer Let therefore Men know as much as they can and examine these great verities with the greatest severity Assuredly the more they know the more reason they will see to believe them seriously and resolutely to live according to them Search the Scriptures saith our Saviour to the unbelieving Jews John 5. 39. to convince them that he was the promised Messias and the Person to whom all his Characters there did agree So say we Search the Scriptures Nature it self and Reason too for they bear witness of all these great Truths But then search them throughly examine them to the bottom see clearly reason carefully and justly weigh all things with indifferency and impartiality which will be presently a direction by it self Otherwise as the Jews did erroneously interpret the Holy Scriptures and conclude from them So may Men here through want of patience and attention and apprehension err and mistake in their Conclusion concerning the great Truths of Morality and all Religions We heartily desire that men's Faith and Belief may be the effect of a plain serious and deliberate Conviction more than of Custom where it may be And truly then as well as when it is wrought in the heart by the grace of God which is another Cause mentioned in the Scripture great is its Power and forcible its Operation and life it self is at its devotion and service Such was the effect of it in all the Apostles and particularly such is the Faith in Jesus Christ mentioned of Saint Thomas and Saint Peter when one cries out my Lord and my God and the other Lord whither should we go thou hast the word of Eternal Life Let that then be the first remedy against Infidelity viz. the utmost improvement and best exercise of our knowledge and reason 2ly Possess we our minds with a sincere and zealous Honesty and Probity By which I mean a strong habitual propension and inclination to that which is right and just This will have three Effects very proper to beget or confirm a right belief of the Truth and to preserve us in it The First A fervent love of the Truth The Second A free and ingenuous acknowledgment of it where-ever we discover it be it for us or be it against us Thirdly A desire to act suitable and live according to it I say a sincere and resolute Probity hath these effects For surely never any honest man doubted whether it was material more fit and just of better effect for a good man who will make good use of his knowledge to be knowing rather than ignorant or to believe the truth rather than a lye in order to direct him in all his inward Motions and outward Actions Without the first we shall not trouble our selves to search or find the truth Without the second when we know it we shall either not believe or deny it if possible or if by the clearness and evidence we cannot do that yet we shall turn our minds away from it Finally without the third we shall little esteem or
rarely comes before we arrive at an Age thought fit to manage an Estate and it is well if we then see it So that we have been under the power of Examples and are formed usually by them before we are capable of the Discipline of an Instructor or Tutor Whence it is that men seldom much change the Inclinations they have contracted to that time and generally if by good example and government we are well season'd and temper'd to that Age or some few years beyond we seldom prove at least very bad Although by long and frequent ill company and example too great a part may be undone again and sometimes all spoiled which is very rare because it is very difficult to obliterate those early characters and impressions so often repeated Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of Darkness but rather reprove them saith the Apostle in that excellent Epistle Eph. 5. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. From the good you 'll learn good among the bad you 'll surely grow worse like to that of the Wise man Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise but the companion of fools shall be destroyed Aspice quid faciunt commercia venerat obses The Youth once was very innocent behold what he is now how strangely changed by lewd company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Associate not thy self to a wicked man These and such like are the Sayings of the Scripture and the wiser sort of men which do but remind us of the efficacy of examples upon our manners and that far beyond the power and force of all Precepts Instructions and Directions Nor do I yet know how this prevalency of example may be prevented or remedied but either 1. by a more than ordinary felicity of temper from the birth whereby we are enclined to use our Reason more than our Senses and are capable of giving Precepts and Examples too or 2. by the providence and grace of God which may happily order the condition of our lives or even immediately work upon our minds and particularly by afflictions or finally which is most in our own power by some considerable retirement from too frequent and tumultuous conversation and accustoming our selves to Reading and Thinking That be spoken to the First General viz. the Reasons of the Efficacy of Examples against Precept II. The Second is the Reasons of the prevailing influence of bad Examples against good ones Why ill Examples do so much more harm than good ones do good we may observe these among others 1. Evil examples are infinitely more numerous We can hardly light upon a good one we can hardly miss a bad one Good ones we can hardly see any bad ones we cannot but see many The High and the Low the Rich and the Poor and the Middle too It hath been thought indeed that this last sort of men are generally the most Sober and Religious because great and rich men think themselves above God and Religion poor men below it The one behave themselves as if God Almighty dared not to take notice of them the other as if he would not both equally mistaken But suppose it so yet Bad examples far out-number the Good among all ranks and conditions of men though of different vices according to their respective temptations of different particular Vices but the same general want of the sense of Vertue of Conscience and the fear of God in all And now if the number of Good Examples be so small in proportion to Bad ones how much greater will the influence of these certainly be For if we observe 't is frequency and repetition of thoughts and affections and actions which form our Manners Those Objects which we most frequently and generally converse withall which possess our thoughts have the command of our affections and consequently our inclinations and actions We seldom think or talk of love hate desire delight in any but them And this is the reason why in a Family small or great and in Palaces themselves the single example even of one or two of the greatest in it though deservedly honour'd and beloved too doth so little good upon all the rest though it would otherwise be far worse It is because they are very many against one And how much less is it to be expected that in a place consisting of many scores or hundreds of Families the example of one or two whose business it should be to back their instructions with good ones should have any visible good effect unless their number be increased which would become the Ecclesiastical and Civil care too or some more be pleased to give their assistance and make up a number 2. But Secondly the Greatness of bad Examples is another cause of their greater influence I do not know but that in proportion to their number there may be as many Religious and Vertuous persons in the Superiour as in the Inferiour Ranks of men and that with more judgment and generosity But still the greatest part of the Great the Potent the Honourable the Rich the more is the pity are of the bad side Though in the whole lump of all sorts of men put together infinitely the Major part in their practices at least should vote for the licentious and vicious side yet it would not have near the influence it now hath were not the Major part of the Great on that side too and of the same Party to head and lead them So that it appears it is not only the number of Voters but also the power and greatness of them that makes ill example go so far and prevail so much Were it the property of the vulgar and inferiour sort only to be Irreligious Immoral and Dissolute we should soon see that Party decrease and generally desert both in inward Principles and outward Practices One excellent example of a great Man would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outweigh a great number of small ones The generality of men far from wise first esteem the Men and then the Manners At least the dignity and height of a vicious man makes that Vice seem little and tolerable if not honourable which were it only seen in those of lower place would be thought contemptible and punishable Alea turpis Turpe adulterium mediocribus haec tamen illi Omnia cùm faciant hilares nitidique vocantur We admire men for their power pomp and wealth and then all that belongs to them leaving not out their very vices too Like as the Pagans of old not only deify'd their Heroes but built Temples and erected Altars to some of their flagitious actions and abominable crimes as Tully somewhere complains On the contrary the poor and mean man's actions according to the Wise-man's little History Eccl. 9. 14. though never so wise and beneficial too for that very reason are not heeded or soon forgotten Indeed it is Truth and Reason and not vulgar opinion only that Power and Greatness Ability to effect and bring to pass
chearfull with others Such then be the second Answer to the plea of the extreme difficulty pains and pain in conversion and reformation in correcting this propension of depraved Nature and quitting the most numerous evil examples Namely that we have the Grace of God to assist us and render it more easie that the difficulty is principally at the beginning and first onset and yet that even there the pleasure and ease far out-weigh the pain and labour and finally that in the suite of a virtuous state of Soul exercises and actions there are pleasures sincere deep constant and durable and but the sample and commencement of infinitely greater still The difficulty and pain will lie on the side of Vice and that it is most true that a sincere and generous good Man may find it more hard and vexatious to him to be brought to do an evil thing than the most bold and accustomed sinner to do a good one Go we on further and 3. Suppose if we please that which is false the utmost difficulty labour and suffering throughout the whole course of a virtuous and conscientious life nay suppose we may lose life itself for their sake and in their cause have we never heard of any thing hereafter or have we satisfied our selves with a demonstration that we are not concern'd in that Will there be no reward for the righteous no vengeance for the wicked had not these very Gentiles themselves their Elysian Fields for the just their Tartara Styx and Acheron and various sorts of never ending punishments for their wicked too Had not the Jews many of whom were infected with the Heathen Manners their Paradise for the Holy and their Gehinnom for sinners if they did not believe the Fable they assuredly did believe the moral of it viz. the happy state of the good and the miserable one of the bad and that everlasting too as might be shown As for Christians do they not know that in the day when God shall judge the World by Jesus Christ he will render to every Man according to his deeds to those who patiently continue in well-doing eternal life and to those who obey unrighteousness indignation wrath tribulation and anguish Hath not Truth itself told them that there is a time when the righteous shall go into everlasting life but the wicked into everlasting punishment we need not stand to reason upon such concessions The case is plain what we ought to do if we have but common sense and understanding Is it not a most contemptible and pitiable condition we are in if we suffer our selves to perish everlastingly because we will not take the pains of a few days to be saved to fall into a state of meanness and misery whence no redemption through mere laziness or cowardice having not the heart to encounter some difficulty or courage to bear some present pains and pain though it were the pulling out of an Eye or cutting off an Hand Oh! where is the wisdom of such who easily swim down in a pleasant stream which runs into a dead Sea or a lake of Fire and Brimstone Where is their reason who forewarned dance on merrily with a jolly croud in a smooth way till at last they tumble altogether into the mouth of a Volcano when they were an hundred times advised and entreated to take a certain path at its entrance indeed more solitary rugged and a little toilsome if you please But which in a short time would bring them into a place beyond all imagination delicious furnished with the most agreeable and excellent company eternally secure from any disturbance from within or without Whose part is it now to wonder are the riotous dissolute and vicious to wonder at the folly and weakness as they think of the pious vertuous and well-governed or these at the willfull madness or sottishness of the former These no doubt if all be true that hath been said But some who have the greatest reason to fear will not believe so great severity so they term it of Almighty God to sinners though they are willing to believe his kindness and bounty to the good Men can believe almost what they please and that against the most universal Tradition Reason and Conscience of Mankind But they have some reason what 's that Sinners cannot hurt God and do but enjoy themselves Is this said in earnest or is it only because they will not openly own Infidelity But 1 They would hurt God Almighty if they could and every one else were their power answerable to their will God himself would not be safe or happy Every knowing and willfull Sinner who opposeth or complies not with God's most wise and beneficial Government of the World by his Laws and Decrees by his Commands and Appointments hath the Insolence and doth what he can to make God and all the World besides the Ministers of his Personal pleasures and lusts and is the Enemy of God and all that he hath made And I think such an one deserves the severest punishment and so doth all humane Government judge and act too The very will and purpose alone is a tendency to such mischief it is a partial and inchoative cause and is accordingly to be used of which further reasons may be still given But 2. According to this reasoning God must not reward his faithful Servants who love him for they can as little profit God as the rebellious and malicious hurt him If God accept the will for the deed and reward it too why may he not punish the will for the deed likewise And 3. I do not see but that the Act of will is the only proper Act of a Man and that all external effect is from God when and in what measure he pleaseth So that in proper speaking a sinner hurts no body but wills to do it He is indeed inwardly malicious proud careless of every one but himself or gratifying his own lusts that these have any external effect more or less comes from another hand Lastly he can hardly seem in earnest who asks why vicious Men should be punished so severely only for enjoying themselves Nevertheless because we do not know how childish trifling and foolish Vice may indeed render some Men even in things of the vastest importance we say that to take the three capital and general ones malice pride and sensuality impiety injustice covetousness and an hundred others being only their kinds or instruments the malicious Man delights in mischief and would do nothing else too if God would permit or rather lend him his power for such a purpose The proud Man and the envious which seems compos'd of pride and ill-nature would have every one under his feet and may affect superiority in every thing to such a degree as to permit none to enjoy any good thing but himself if his will and desires were attended by an equal power to execute them The sensualist who seems most intended in this excuse if he will
and the justifier of bad Men and Manners The Answer in few words is this That supposing the whole Course of a conscientious and vertuous Life to be very painfull and grievous which is false yet it is a folly and madness which deserves the greatest wonder and pity for the avoiding of that to lose an everlasting Happiness and to plunge our selves into an eternal Misery which is not Talk only but Truth and Justice if there be any God or Providence in the World To a man of a comprehensive Reason Justice and Generosity may be added further and beyond all the rest A 4. Answer which I must not now insist upon but only in very few words say To please serve and honour God by love and obedience to contribute what we can to the common Good and Happiness by all vertuous Life and Actions Vice is useless or mischievous a common Nuysance is certainly a Duty and an Obligation which no Difficulty Pains or Suffering in this Life can discharge us from I do not understand how all our Duty is derived from our own Interest although I know they are inseparable To serve and please God and to do good to others meerly for our own sakes and to refuse to undergo any thing for theirs when necessary seems neither ingenuous nor reasonable And I am sure it seem'd so to that great Heathen Tully As if such things or rather nothings as we were more to be consider'd than the Infinite God and all the World besides when we may as well weigh a single Atome against the Universe Nor seems there any difference between a good and bad Man in respect of their Will but only of their Understanding if both of them make themselves their entire ultimate End The one takes the right course to be happy the other the Wrong But this last is mistaken only and would have done as the first if he had known better And even the Man of Courage and Generosity would take it for a great Reproach to be told that he fights only for a little Wages or Honour either and would not venture upon a Wound or Death it self to save his Prince and Countrey and to repress an insolent and malicious Enemy who pleaseth himself in the Destruction of all Mankind to gratifie his boundless Lusts Which with many other Instances is an Argument that the Soul of Man at present is not uncapable of so great and noble a Quality I am sure our divine Religion hath taught us as much both by Precept and Example when it commands us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves Nor do I see reason to find a Figure in the known Expressions of Moses and St. Paul To such a Greatness of Soul we ought to aspire Notwithstanding we are to know which may be proved even to a Demonstration from the Nature of God and of the Soul that our Duty and Interest our perfection of Nature and Happiness of Life are inseparable except for a Moment or two in this Life for Exercise and Improvement of Vertue or other Ends which vanisheth into nothing compar'd with Eternal Duration It is impossible that the wicked should be happy or not miserable and that the vertuous and good should be miserable or not happy As impossible as that there should be no God at all or that God should not be infinitely powerfull wise and good and consequently distributively just And now I have said all I have at present in Answer to the wonderers and their best reason for vicious Manners Practices Customs and Examples and perhaps the general Heads of all that can be said and what I think cannot be answered again by those who will act like Men and be governed by Truth and Reason But as for those who disclaim or burlesque their own most excellent Nature and will abandon themselves to blind and haughty Self-will Humours Lusts and Passions who will be like the Horse or Mule that wanteth understanding I leave them to other Arts and Methods of Perswasion and to the Mercy of God Almighty which we will not confine All that can be done for them on our parts is to pity and pray for them as we do daily when we say Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done That God may at last rule over and in the Hearts of all the Sons of Men. He can when he pleaseth work most effectually upon the Souls of the most sensless and obdurate Sinners even upon those who scorn all Instruction as a mean and hate understanding as a troublesome thing even upon those who most foolishly take it for a Point of Wisdom and Greatness of Heart to make a Mock at Sin even upon those finally who with the Heathen Idolaters in the Text think it strange that all Men run not with them to the same Excess of Riot speaking Evil of them because they will not SERMON III. PSAL. XXXII 5. I said I will confess my Transgression unto the Lord. I Am a while to treat of a Duty of Religion both revealed and as I think natural which perhaps passeth among the wise and brave of this World for a weak and mean thing and an effect of superstition rather than Religion But to me it seems just contrary so qualified and directed as shall presently be mentioned Confession of Sin to Almighty God hath very evident Arguments of many excellent Qualities For is it not a sign of a just Honour for God and all his Laws made known by Reason or Revelation Is it not a Mark of a generous Love of the Truth and that a Man will own his Faults and Follies tho' to his present Disadvantage and that he is more ashamed to commit a Sin than confess it Is it not a proof of great probity and strength of mind for a man not only to permit but command his Conscience and others too if there be occasion to report to him all the Truth and nothing but the Truth concerning himself to set all his Faults and Infirmities before him and not to conceal excuse or justifie any because he is not willing to mend any or hath no concern for the Health and Ornament of his Nature Are not these and such like Qualities highly laudable On the contrary are not a vulgar Carelesness and Insensibility of our Manners and Actions vain self-conceit arrogance affectation of appearing to ones self and others something worthy rather than being so indeed and above all the contempt of the Word and Commandments of Omnipotent Goodness Wisdom and Sanctity by a weak ignorant and sinfull Creature I say are not these sordid and truly contemptible Nor doth this confession of sin to the Supreme Deity seem to me less a part of natural Religion than Prayers and Praises to him though we have little mention of it among the Heathen Moralists And as this is Truth in it self so we find that the greatest Souls who have had the Knowledge of the true God have always behaved themselves with Truth
beats his Breast and sighs out O Lord be mercifull to me a sinner Our Saviour tells us what was the effect I tell you this man went down rather justified than the other As the Pharisees Self-conceit and Arrogance made him pray in such a manner as he did so his Prayer made him more arrogant still It could not but increase his presumptuous Opinion of himself to reckon up and that before God himself all his Religious Qualities and Actions without taking notice of but one small fault and to have compared himself with one so despicable in his Eyes as the poor Publican It is reasonable to believe he went away bigger and statelier from his Prayers than he came to them On the contrary as the Publican's Behaviour Posture and Prayer proceeded no doubt from a due Sense of his sin and guilt and consequent humility So did it likewise dismiss and send him away with a greater Degree of it He saw that before in himself which made him cry out with shame and indignation against himself Lord be mercifull to me a sinner And doubtless he saw it yet more and with deeper impression upon his heart for having made his short but most passionate Confession 4. This confession of sin makes us less censorious and contemptuous of others more backward to publish their Faults or to insult over them We shall not be so ready to censure talk of despise others when we are accustomed to look upon and justly and humbly to acknowledge what is as bad or worse at least bad enough in our selves We are not so forward to reproach others when we permit our own Consciences to reproach our selves We are loth to condemn at least to treat others with Wrath and Contempt when if we are impartial we see too much cause to do the like by our selves No men so ready to proclaim and aggravate other men's Faults as those who take the least notice of their own He who knows his own defects and miscarriages as he pities himself so is he apt to do to others Most men esteem and despise others comparatively or as thy judge them superior or inferior to themselves in worthy and deserving Qualities and Performances We take the Measures of others from our selves Now he that observes most Infirmities and Faults in himself will think himself less above or more under Men than he who though ignorance or self-conceit sees no blemish nor blame in himself The former often despiseth himself comparatively with others the latter foolishly despiseth every one besides himself In the Example just now alledged how haughtily doth the Pharisee hold up his Head and with what Contempt doth he throw his Eye upon the Publican This Publican saith he But we hear no such Language from the Publican who in truth had more reason to have derided the Ignorant and Hypocritical Pharisee 5ly And lastly This confession makes us more sensible of the Divine goodness and disposeth us to greater Gratitude and Love to God The Divine goodness may well be our wonder That the infinite Majesty so provoked hath not yet made us remarkable Examples of his Justice and Displeasure Nay that he hath continued to us Life Health Strength Plenty Power and the like Favours which we ungratefull Wretches have dishonoured him with His lenity and long suffering cannot but be admired by us when we consider that we have grown wanton and proud against him by his own benefits and his bounteous Goodness which should have highly obliged us hath made us careless and presumptuous as if we now wanted him no more and could stand upon our own Legs But that which may justly increase our wonder is that after all this upon our humble confession and actual Change of our Behaviour towards him he is ready to forgive our greatest Crimes and to blot out all our Transgressions So great is his goodness that he is more ready to give us his pardon upon such a Repentance than we are to ask it or by Repentance to render our selves capable of it as if he courted our Friendship and stood in need of our Reconciliation Finally there is something yet more which exceeds wonder and that is that God should be pleased so kindly to accept our late Repentance and Obedience as to take occasion from thence to bestow upon us no less than Eternal life Now the serious and deliberate Confession of our sins giving us a necessary occasion to observe and consider all this so certainly the Truth cannot but deeply affect us with Gratitude and Love to the Authour of such unparallell'd Goodness and Love expressing it self by all ways possible our Words Services whole Lives Of so great and much greater spiritual benefit and profit is a true sincere serious affectionate and free Confession of our sins to Almighty God Which was the fifth Reason for the performance and frequent Exercise of it And now if we put all these Arguments together the just Honour we owe to God and his Laws the Edification and Pleasure of others our own spiritual Comfort and great Benefit one would think they should be sufficient to reasonable Men guided in their opinion and actions by good understanding though we had no Commands from revealed Religion not only to secure this Duty of Religion and Piety from contempt or neglect but especially to recommend it to their frequent and serious Practice from the highest to the lowest For no mortal so high whom it doth not exceedingly become and perhaps better than the meanest For excellent and great Qualities sit best upon the greatest are most amiable in them and most justly expected from them And true Religion the right Knowledge reasonable Worship and Resemblance and Imitation of the Supreme Being and the Universal Parent is the utmost Perfection and Attainment of humane Nature Nor is there any in this Life so holy and innocent take all our Lives together who have not great cause for and abundant need of this confession of sin Thrones and Shrines Crowns and Glories Soveraigns and Saints are with all just Humility to lie at the Foot-stool of the Almighty and most mercifull Father of his Creatures we may altogether send up with one Heart and Voice our common Cries of Confession of Guilt and Petition for Pardon without fear of offending against the Dignity of our Condition or Sanctity of our Profession None too great none too good to say with this great and good Prince I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord that he might forgive the iniquity of my sin For a conclusion of this Discourse it may not be amiss to pick out of it and put together a brief Representation of a true penitent Confessour in some such manner as follows The sincere and deliberate Penitent then is no negligent Person of himself to let all things go at random but is desirous to bring things to a Trial and to keep them in order