So manifest is the Advantage of applying our selves to this part of Religion in which a Christian 's proper Business lies So possible so certain that all who do so shall effectually improve by their Endeavours So unalterable that Promise of him who came to direct us in the right Way to Happiness that * John VII 17. If any man will do his will he shall not fail to know of the Doctrine whether it be of God II. Secondly My next Argument against indulging nice and curious Speculations of this kind is taken from the Vnprofitableness of them Our Lord had he so pleased could have informed St. Peter what should become of this beloved Disciple But he reproves his enquiring into it because no Benefit was to be had by such Information For so we may very reasonably interpret that Passage If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee How wilt thou be the better if I should tell thee what this Man shall do What Furtherance can it prove to thy Preparation for following Me to know whether he shall be required to tread in the same Steps And I cannot but think it would puzzle the wisest Man alive to give a satisfactory account what ends of Consequence to our Everlasting Happiness would be served by being let into a clear and distinct View of all those dark mysterious Truths which are now in so great a degree lockt up from us or how Religion would upon those Terms be in a better State than now it is Let us put the Case in one or two of these Instances already mentioned that the Trinity of Persons in Unity of the Divine Essence and the Incarnation of the Son of God were fully understood by us I desire to know now whether this would at all promote our Zeal in the Love and Service of God or what one Argument we should then have which at present we have not for being better Men or more thankful Christians The true ground of our Reverence and Fear our Love and Trust in God is a due Sense of his Holiness and Wisdom his Power and Justice and Goodness And what dependence I beseech you have our Notions of these Attributes upon our knowing how God is Three in One The proper Motives to a Christian Life are Gratitude and a just Regard to the adorable Mystery of Man's Redemption the Mercy of having our Sins pardoned and satisfied for the Rewards proposed to our sincere Obedience the terrible Punishments of obstinate Offenders and the little Reason we have to flatter our selves with hopes of escaping Heb. II. 3. if we neglect so great Salvation Now these Affections spring from our considering the infinite Kindness and Condescention of the Son of God who humbled himself to do so many wonderful and to suffer so many bitter things for our Sakes But the Mercy of his doing and enduring these things in Nature will not touch our hearts one whit the more tenderly for discerning how this Nature of Ours was united to his Divine Nature It is the thing 's being done and not the particular manner by which it was done that must have this Effect upon us So likewise for the rest The Influences of Divine Grace would not be more prevalent nor is Their Condemnation who stifle and resist them less deserved because we see not all the Springs by which the Holy Spirit moves and bends us It is sufficient that he acts as he does to render both our Obedience possible and our Obstinacy inexcusable The Considerations fitted to contain men in their Duty are the Greatness and the Certainty of the Punishments threatned to wicked Livers As on the other hand the powerful Incentives to doing and suffering with Constancy what God appoints us to are the Excellence and the Assurance of a future Recompence But if the being warn'd in so solemn and express a manner as we are that Torments everlasting and extream remain for the Ungodly will not restrain us from being such our selves neither would we be restrained though God had told us whether that Torment be material Fire or whether it be such as for the exquisite and insupportable Anguish of it was thought convenient to be represented to us by Everlasting Burnings If we will not be perswaded to live and die unto the Lord by these supporting Reflections that Rom. VIII 18. the Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us and that it neither hath entred nor can enter 1 Cor. II. 9. into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him What additional Force could these Reflections possibly receive by our being acquainted wherein each Excellence of that Glory and these Joys consists For still the same Temptations to Sin and Infidelity would continue And They who refuse to take God's Word for the Greatness and the Certainty of future Rewards and Punishments which are the only Qualifications necessary to quicken us in our Duty would not have wanted any one Objection which they now pretend to urge against whatever God should have revealed concerning the Nature and Quality of those Rewards and Punishments If men shall be Happy or Miserable for ever and as Happy or Miserable as they are capable of being it matters not much after what manner they shall be so That they shall be so at all depends upon the Will of God that they believe they shall be so is from an Assent to the Word of God declaring that Will. And if the Revelation of God find no Credit as to these things in general there is but little appearance that it would have gained more Credit had he described the whole Process and descended to every Circumstance of these things For the Truth and Declaration of God being the only Motive of Assent common to both these Cases it unavoidably follows that there would be the same reason for witholding it in the One that there can possibly be in the Other Nay shall I carry this Point a little higher I may do it and dare appeal to all that hear me whether in the Judgment of every considerate and unprejudic'd Christian it be not for the Dignity and Advantage of Religion that some Articles of it exceed the largest humane Comprehension Whether we should entertain the same awful Impressions of the Divine Majesty if the Perfections of his Nature and Operations were such only as we could see to the end of and in every respect account to our Reason for Whether it do not raise the value of Man's Redemption to have been brought about by Miracles of Mercy not only without Example but even beyond our present Understanding Had all these things been less we should have known them better but so much as you abate of them to bring them nearer to Mens Capacity so much you weaken the Power of them upon their Affections And the influencing mens Affections is
with regard to the Sacrifice of Expiation He tells the Hebrews ‖ Heb. II. 9. that Jesus was made a little lower than the Angels that He by the Grace of God should tast death for every man The Design is not less universal because the Effect is not so For St. Peter * 2 Pet. II 1. upbraids the men who brought in damnable Heresies with denying the Lord that bought them and so bringing upon themselves destruction And the Apostle to the Romans enlarges most admirably to shew the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence in converting the Obstinacy of the Jews into an occasion of bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles that so the Conversion of the Gentiles might be also an occasion of softening the Jews by working them up to a holy Emulation of that Happiness and Obedience which those despised Nations had so surprisingly outstripped them in Some Persons indeed there are who deny the force of this Reason and pretend that God never intended that those who stood out should ever have come in that he hardned their hearts and made it impossible for them to hearken to or comply with his Calls But I add notwithstanding Fourthly That God was very serious in these Invitations and that the Parable gives us ground sufficient to believe so It is true Among Men many things are done merely out of Ceremony and Form Many proffers made in hopes of being refused Many Civilities shewn where nothing less is intended And what the World calls Complaisance and good Breeding is frequently not so much the Language as the Disguise of the mind And hard it is to know whether it proceed from real Friendship or be the Effect of Formality or Flattery or Dissimulation or Fear But This cannot possibly be the Case here For to suppose Almighty God guilty of such mean Arts is to think most unworthily and most inconsistently of him With Him is no Deceivableness no Deceit A thing so vile and confessedly base that They who practice it most are always ashamed to own it and therefore use their utmost industry to mask it well Though Few in comparison are sincere yet every Man is ambitious and labours to be thought sincere And what the very Worst of sinful Mortals detests is sure a Character not to be ascribed to the Best and Holiest Being Again As the Nature of God is not capable of any indirect or double Dealing or false and flattering Pretences so is there no imaginable Reason from without that should incline him to make use of them He cannot contract an Obligation from his own Creatures nor can he stand in Awe of their Displeasure What then should move him to profess Kindness where none is due What where he cannot suffer by with-holding it What indeed but his own Infinite and Essential Goodness Can the Great God of Heaven and Earth gain any advantage by insinuating himself into the Affections and courting the good Opinion of poor Worms who can never profit him by the best of their polluted and imperfect Services He stands not in need of any Returns our Gratitude can make Nor is his Happiness defective without them And Common Sense tells us that were Our State independent upon the Favour or Friendship of one another there would not be such a thing as a Flatterer or Dissembler in the World If then this King in the Parable did not design his Invitations should be accepted why did he ever make them at all But at least when men refused them why did he not take them at their word A Complement that is merely such is easily dropp'd And when men are well enough pleased to be deny'd they are usually content to spare the trouble of pressing But is This at all agreeable to the Methods used here for bringing in Guests to the Marriage If the First Bidding would bear so vile an Interpretation yet sure the Importunities of a Second and Third Call will by no means endure it And yet least of all will that Indignation for being so unworthily rejected The New Commissions issued out to his Servants The mighty Care of picking up other Guests And the severe Revenge upon Those who received his gracious Offers with Disdain In all appearance the doing what God all along intended men should do nay what he made it necessary for them to do ought not to have bred so irreconcilable a Quarrel We acknowledge indeed that the Counsels of Almighty God are a vast and dark Depth and think it very unbecoming poor feeble Mortals too busily to intrude into or peremptorily to pronounce concerning them But there are some plain Principles so obvious that all contending Parties cannot but agree in them That the Judge of all the Earth cannot but do right is a Truth universally confess'd And though Justice in God may proceed upon Measures not understood by Us and be perfect above what we are able to comprehend yet since Just and Unjust Good and Evil are not arbitrary and unalterable things we have no reason to suppose that Justice and Goodness in God are contrary to what we esteem Just and Good among Men. And therefore Men may be excused if they think that all the Caution and Jealousy due to the Honour of God's Justice and Goodness have not been observed by Some who out of honest Zeal perhaps have set up a secret Will in the Divine Decrees which seems plainly repugnant to the Known Will of his Precepts and Revelations For if God will that Any should hear and receive and obey his Gospel and enjoyns this upon pain of Damnation and hath in most solemn manner declared this to be his Will and yet at the same time hath another Will to us unknown which controuls and over-rules all this and will not suffer such to receive and obey his Word though they would never so fain and then punishes and damns them eternally for not doing so Let Them who maintain this Doctrine tell us how we shall deliver it from such Reflections upon the Honour the Justice the Goodness the Truth and if I may be allowed so to speak the Sincerity and Common Honesty of the Divine Nature as Reverence to so Great a Majesty will not suffer me to name In Matters of so high a Nature great Allowances may be made for unaffected Mistakes and Difference in Opinion But it can be no just matter of blame to dissent from those Doctrines the Consequences of which even They that advance them profess to abhor and yet have not shewn us how they can be avoided For so far as yet appears if This be the case our Preaching is vain and your Faith is also vain And therefore we have great Reason to conclude that God does not obstruct mens honest Endeavours in the use of Outward Means but leaves them in their full Power and that his Decrees are such as consist very well with the Temper of his Covenants his Exhortations his Promises his Threatnings his vehement and affectionate Expostulations his laying
I hope too that what I shall say will be able to support the honest and the feeble-minded Christians that though they are sadly sensible of some remains of Vnbelief in their Souls which need to be helped yet the Case is not so bad with them neither but that they may without Vanity that Profession in the beginning of my Text and say very truly Lord I believe This is my intention but the nature of the Subject will not so well bear to have the Argument branched out to these Two different sorts of Persons distinctly For the same Reasons which prove that No man arrives at an absolute Perfection in Faith do likewise prove That No man ought to despair because he discovers some Imperfections of Faith in himself Since at that rate Every ones Circumstances would be desperate and there could be no such thing as a worthy and true Believer in the World I must therefore content my self with handling this matter in the General and that which seems to me at present the best method for doing it effectually is to insist on these Three Heads I. First To assign some reasons for the weakness of mens Faith And these shall be such as every one of us will find himself more or less concerned in II. Secondly To shew that those things which Many People are apt to suspect as signs of Vnbelief or that they have not True Faith are not in reality any such Signs And III. Thirdly To lay down some Rules whereby the weakness of Faith may be distinguish'd from the Want of it And here I will shew how any man by examining his own Conscience carefully may discern whether his Belief be consistent with the Terms of Salvation or not I begin with the 1st And here by Faith I understand not only 1. The Assent of the mind to those Truths which God hath revealed in obedience to his Command and dependence on his Truth and Goodness Nor barely 2. An outward and express'd Profession of all such Articles are necessary to be acknowledged in order to make us Christians but also 3. Such a vigorous and lively Assent as may prevail upon men to enter into Covenant with God and may influence their Hearts and Practice powerfully such as may put us upon the performance of our Duty and the making good those Engagements in the whole Course of our Lives which we bring upon our selves when we thus enter Covenant with God For All This is comprehended under Believing and several accounts may be given of our failing in sundry instances of this Faith Particularly These that follow 1. As First One reason of this may be taken from the very Nature of those things which we are commanded to believe For Some of these being very dark and mysterious Truths it cannot be expected that our Minds should adhere to them with the same sort of Assurance that they are used to do in such Other matters as fall within our Comprehension and of which we have a clearer and more distinct knowledge The Attributes and Excellencies of God the Trinity of Persons in the Divine Nature an Eternal State of Bliss or Woe hereafter and the Restoring to us these fleshly Bodies again at the General Resurrection notwithstanding the infinite and unconceivable Changes which Time and Corruption bring upon them in the mean while These and some Others of the like nature are of the first Principles of Christianity the Prime and most necessary Truths to be entertained and firmly embraced But it is manifest withal that These are matters of which one cannot have any just and adequate Notions Because they are not commensurate to the Capacities of mortal men The largest mind is too narrow to receive them the most penetrating Wit cannot sound all their depths nor the most indefatigable Study conquer all the difficulties that may be charged upon them And therefore since Men's Assent is always governed by their Apprehensions the Mind will never find the same Evidence for those things that are far above out of our sight that it does for Others which we see and feel and daily converse with Such as are of the same level with our selves and we are able to give a tolerable good account of by our own serious Thought and nice Enquiry into the Nature of them I do not mean by this that we have not Sufficient Motives for our Belief even of those Truths which we are least able to comprehend For when we are once perswaded of the Being of a God and convinced that these are His Revelations nothing can be more equitable than to submit our own Reasoning to his Declarations This single Reflection that infinite Wisdom cannot be mistaken that Infinite Goodness cannot lead others into mistakes nor perfect Truth lye is a foundation strong enough to Build the firmest Faith upon But still the urging of this Reflection upon our selves must be the work of much application And though we are exceedingly to blame if any Objections which the Obscurity of those Great Important Doctrins is wont to raise in us be suffered to overthrow our Faith or dangerously to shake it yet such is the nature of our minds that where Sense or Demonstration do not represent things to us plainly and beyond all Contradiction there Scruples and Cavils will now and then arise and the Devil will not fail to make use of these Occasions and try by them to loosen and dissettle us from that firmness of perswasion which is due to such a Revelation Even They who struggle most successfully against such attempts of his may yet sometimes find a tendency to doubt or some little disturbance from them But those men will be sure to find a very great deal who over-looking the Credibility of the Testimony and Revelation it self which is Reason's proper Province in these matters they expect their satisfaction from the sight and knowledge of the things Revealed Which is in effect to put their Enquiry upon a wrong Scent to require an Evidence of which the Condition of this Subject is not capable and to destroy the very Essence of Faith which in strict speaking could not be Faith if it were not the Evidence of things unseen Now if such be the Condition of our Faith with regard to the very first Act That of Assenting to the Truths revealed by God We shall find the Difficulties grow upon us in the following parts of it when it comes to influence our Practice and to govern our Affections And this will appear very evidently if we consider 2. Secondly After what manner it is that the Belief of these Truths come to gain a power over our Wills and to command our Actions One would think that to be once throughly convinced of the Truth of Christianity and the Reasonableness and Excellency of the Duties it enjoins were enough to fix a Man all his Life long And perhaps in matters of mere Speculation it is so After any point hath been duly considered and all the Arguments for
only to ruine himself but to be upon his guard against all Hazards of Ruine And it was not a hard but a prudent and needful Commandment which St. Paul has left us 1 Thess V. 22. to abstain from the very appearance of Evil. They who profess to hate the thing it self and to repent of it and to forsake it and yet wou'd fain be doing what looks like it and leads to it cannot escape this Censure at least of being Lovers of pleasure more than Lovers of God This comes from a perpetual hankering after their Lusts and shews that they wou'd fain accommodate the matter between Christ and the Devil They endeavour to divide themselves as equally as may be Not to be wicked for fear of danger but yet to be as near wicked as they can too for Love of Pleasure And like treacherous and poor-spirited men who in a disputed Title act for one Prince to serve their own Ends and are secretly in the Interests of another to humour their Inclination so these men carry it between Vertue and Vice They have a secret Affection for the one and yet they must stifle this Affection because it cannot be to their advantage to own and pursue it publickly But still their hearts are ever treacherous ever bending to the wrong side and the bottom of all their pretended Quarrel with Sin is not so Much for its being a Work of Darkness as for its being an Vnfruitful Work 5. Fifthly and Lastly The thing which contains and which must perfect all the rest is what the Apostle urges in the End of this Verse Reproving those Works I mean by the constant Tenure of a pious and exemplary Conversation For that is the Reproof he means there The exposing them by this means to the World and discovering all the Horrour and Deformity of them The Shortness of our Capacities and the intricate Natures of things make it necessary for us to advance in Knowledge by the help of Comparisons And the quickest way to it is by setting Opposite Qualities before our eyes at once to contemplate both and so to discern the difference between them Now as none are more Contrary so none do more manifestly illustrate each other than Vertue and Vice which are therefore very elegantly represented by the Apostle here under the two most distant and irreconcilable Figures of Light and Darkness But all the Life and Efficacy of this Representation depends upon the Practice It is not a plausible declaiming against the One nor the most elegant Harangue in Praise of the Other that can sufficiently recommend This or condemn That Because though the Characters be never so just yet Words are but matter of form and may be employed upon any subject for private respects contrary to the inward and real Sense of the Speaker But the Esteem which comes to Religion by a good Life cannot be counterfeit These Actions of a Man prove themselves and shew the power of Godliness upon the Soul And in such a Case none is so blind but he sees the Beauties of Holiness how it shines and sheds its Rays like the Sun not only to the delight but the benefit and warmth of all that are within the Sphere of its Activity What a foil the contrary Vices are to it how black and dismal how ugly and crooked they look when brought to this Light and set against the streight and uniform the sweet and charming Excellencies of Religion This comes home to the meanest Understandings and supplies the place of all the Eloquence in the World It convinces where nothing else can enter It is a sort of mechanical Reason without the studied Methods of Rhetorick and Argument and will not fail to draw where those cannot so much as move This is therefore the peculiar advantage of a holy Life to check and discountenance Sin to shew it in its true and worst Colours and not only to receive Lustre from but to reflect it back again upon Vertue and Religion From what has been delivered in these Particulars we see the true extent of the Apostle's Command and our Duty with regard to it How false those men are to God and Religion who content themselves with avoiding the grossest and foulest Offences if in the mean while they indulge their Lusts and expose their Souls to the Snares of evil Company If they retain any secret Fondness for Sin and can so much as with ease or patience see or hear what is so If they are so tame and cold in the Cause of God and Religion as not boldly and sharply to rebuke Vice where that can be prudently and seasonably done If they still halt between Vertue and Vice and are so fond of the thing as to sport upon the very confines of it and shew that their proceeding no further is more the effect of Interest and Necessity than sincere Piety and Choice and lastly If their Example do any way countenance it and not rather display its Deformity and deceitful Disguises and by representing Godliness in all its Lustre render that more inviting and lovely and Sin more odious to the World Those who do not endeavour all this are not entirely devoted to Christ nor true Children of Light but have still a Tenderness for and hold a private Correspondence with the Works of Darkness And how destructive such double dealing will be in the End how reasonable our Aversions to those Works are and all even the most severe proofs that can be required to demonstrate the truth of our Hatred and to make good our Engagements against them I hope will soon appear to you by a brief consideration of my Third Particular viz. III. The reason of avoiding these works of Darkness which the Text hath couched here by calling them Vnfruitful It is not without great Elegance and particular good reasons that the Lusts and Practices of Sinners are so frequently in Scripture styl'd Works for This implies the Toil and Drudgery of them and intimates to us what sad experience wou'd teach too late that no man can be very wicked without much Labour and great Vexation The distracting Cares and Interests of Ambition and Covetousness the Violence and Tyranny of raging Passions and inordinate Desires which hurry men into Anger and Revenge and Injustice and Uncleanness and all manner of Excess cannot but be inconsistent with ease and pleasure For they impose more merciless Tasks upon a man and put him upon more dangerous and more extravagant Attempts than the most arbitrary Tyrant or the Cruelest Enemy cou'd invent for his Captive or his Slave And he that has once resign'd up the Government of himself to the furious and wild Suggestions of the Tempter and his own rebellious Appetites must make no more Pretensions to Freedom and Satisfaction He has bid adieu to all that can give him any and does in the highest sense of the words verify our Lord's observation * Joh. VIII 34. Whosoever committeth Sin is the Servant of
once made sufficient tenders of Salvation and we have neglected them if we perish the Fault is our own But if notwithstanding our Backwardness and unprepared hearts those Offers be repeated to us again and again This is not Debt but Favour not an act of Justice but the free Effect of his unspeakable and exuberant Goodness Thus much however must in reason be allowed that the more Opportunities of this kind have been formerly let go and the more voluntary those Neglects have been the greater must the Condemnation of those men needs be who have stood out against them or not put themselves in the way of them before And the greater is the Mercy which admits such into Grace at the last Call and passes by all their former Contempts And yet This will most assuredly be done upon their Complyance even then For God does by no means intend to mock men by any of his Invitations He makes them with a kind intent He considers more exactly than we are capable of doing what advantages each person hath had and what he hath wanted what Hindrances have kept him off so long and why One Call is more successful than Another We may say then with great Truth concerning these Spiritual Dispensations what David did of God's Providence in our Temporal Affairs that Psal XXXVI 6. his Goodness standeth like the strong Mountains This is highly exalted and eminently visible to all the world but his Judgments are like the great Deep Vast and Dark and such as Mortal Eyes cannot see through Yet is not this Depth so absolutely impenetrable neither but that we may enter so far into it as is necessary for our present purpose We may know enough to justify God in his Dealings though we cannot go to the bottom of his infinitely Wise and Mysterious Counsels And therefore having shewed the Mercy of God's receiving any manner of men into his Vineyard and Pay II. I come now to consider the Justice of his making Them equal in the wages who are thus unequally received into the Work Which indeed is the only Difficulty in the Case For we do not find the Goodness of this Housholder ever brought in question So far from That that the Excess of it was reckoned injurious And the First Labourers thought their Master evil and hard upon Them because he was so bountiful so seemingly Over-good to those who came into the Vineyard last Now in order to our better discerning this matter we will briefly state the Difference between these sorts of Labourers in the Parable according to the Applications usually made of it and then examine what account can be given of this surprising distribution of Rewards in their several Cases The Jews bear proportion to Labourers hired early for They had long submitted to a Religion instituted by God a Law clogg'd with rigorous Ordinances and very troublesome Observations In this respect they might truly be said to Vers 12. have born the burden and heat of the Day But the Gentiles had wrought their own Wills lived all along in Ignorance and Idolatry Luxury and Lasciviousness and yet These too had the tenders of the Gospel and Eternal Life made to them And as many as embraced those Offers were vested in a Title to the Kingdom of Heaven A Title equal with those Jews who had lived under a severe confinement and born the heavy Yoke of the Mosaick Institution So again The Apostles and first Christians came in to the Gospel at their utmost peril and expence Their Fortunes their Fame their Liberties their Lives were the purchase paid for their Faith And yet the same Kingdom of Heaven is opened for sincere Believers of all After-ages though the times they live in be peaceable the Encouragements to Christianity secular and all the heat of publick Persecution extinct and over Thus as to particular Persons Some are trained up from Children Prov. XXII 6. in the way they should go and when they are old they do not depart from it They conquer and quench the irregular heats of Youth and Passion betimes and as much as the frailty of humane nature will allow Jam. I. 27. do keep themselves unspotted from the world Eccles XI 9. XII 1. Others rejoyce and let their heart chear them in their Youth they walk in the ways of their own heart and in the sight of their own Eyes till the Evil days come and the Years in which they can no longer have pleasure and yet if even then they remember their Creator he shews himself Joel II. 12. merciful and gracious slow to anger and of great Goodness And though it be late yet if it be sincerely and effectually that they come back to their duty he opens his arms wide to embrace the returning Prodigals pardons their long disobedience saves their Souls and bestows upon them a Glorious and Eternal Recompence And lastly which proceeds upon the same measures They who have their Days shortned and are cut off in the midst of their Age if they dye in Innocence or in early and promifing Vertue are entitled to Happiness in common with Others who live long and glorify God by much Labour and Suffering and through severe Tryals and great Hardships enter at last into the Kingdom of Heaven These several Cases the Importance of the Parable may very reasonably be extended to and I must try now to reconcile those Doubts which so great a Disproportion of Persons and Circumstances may be apt to suggest to us and must shew if I can that whatever we may think of the matter still the Judge of all the Earth in giving this penny to each of them does nothing but right And throughout this whole Disquisition I shall make use chiefly if not altogether of such Arguments as the Parable it self furnishes either plain ground for or at least very fair Intimations of 1. Now First of all We may observe some difference taken notice of in the Parable between these Labourers themselves and that partly before and partly after their work The First drove a positive bargain and agreed expresly for a Vers 2. Penny a Day They who came later were content to stand to their Master's Courtesy and undertook the work upon this general Promise that Vers 4. 7. whatsoever was right that they should receive And again when the Toil and Duty was over These Last received their Pay with Thankfulness and Decency but the Former with Murmurings and sawcy Expostulations envying their Brethren's good Acceptance and boldly arraigning their Lord's Justice The same is to be said of those Persons to whom this Parable is generally supposed to refer and many Qualifications are observable in Them which might move God to govern his Distributions by the same Measures here too The Jews were under the constant direction of his Laws but then they were of a slavish and mercenary Disposition Grot. in loc Driven by present Punishments and encouraged by Temporal Blessings Prosperous
Commander will needs march up as it were to the mouth of a loaded Cannon by turning their own Tempters This is not Courage but Fool-hardiness And whatever Expectations these Men may cherish of God's Assistance in such Cases they are not the Effects of a vigorous Faith and well grounded Trust but of a blind and hot-headed Presumption For all the Promises of Grace and our Belief of them suppose the Use of proper Means And of those means the First and Best is To prevent our danger And as no Man in his Senses would venture the breaking a Leg or an Arm in Confidence of his Chirurgeon's Skill to set it again So neither will any considerate Christian lay himself open to Sin or make needless Approaches toward it because he knows that God is more powerful to preserve than the Devil can be to destroy For it is not the Power of God that is our Security but the Knowing that he will exert that Power on our Behalf And this we cannot know but rather the direct contrary when the Temptation is our own act and deed For the dangers which We chuse have no right to his Protection and it is a righteous thing with Him to suffer such men as wantonly set their Souls at stake to eat the bitter fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own foolish devices 3. Thirdly The Wariness I have been advising to keep aloof from Temptation may yet be farther inforced by considering from this Instance of the Apostle before us how the Commission of one Sin draws us on to more and greater Thus He after One denyal proceeded to a Second and a Third and did not stick to strengthen them with false Oaths and horrid Curses And thus in Other cases when men have once let go their hold they are carried as it were down the stream and let themselves drive till at last they sink into the grossest Impieties This is the natural effect of sinful Acts that they quickly grow into Habits weaken and waste the Conscience harden men by Custom and by degrees destroy their very Principles But especially when they suffer themselves to do an ill thing for the escaping some present Inconvenience if then they feel their Danger continue or increase they imagine themselves under a necessity of growing bolder as they are more press'd And having gone too far to retreat with Honour or Safety endeavour to disengage themselves by more grievous and obstinate degrees of Sin There is not in the whole World a more abandoned Wretch than He that is forced to drudge on in a Course of Wickedness by the difficulty and the shame of retracting his former Errours No man knows what such an embroyled State will grow to or where the Man will stop That Principle which should have preserved him is given up and when the Reproaches of his own mind are broken through he lies at the mercy of every fresh Temptation and wants only opportunities of becoming every day worse and more profligate And This is very observable as in all other cases so particularly in the case of Lying which comes nearest to St. Peter's in my Text. How confidently men will stand in defence of Falshood and what pains they often take to gain Credit by repeating and confirming what they have said or done amiss and how quickly this settles into a habit of Falshood till they seem at last to have lost and laid aside all regard to Honesty and Truth the Checks of Conscience or the Vengeance of Almighty God And yet the Event at last is like that of St. Peter's Denials here to entangle themselves faster in the snare and the more they struggle to get quit of their Difficulties the more to aggravate their Sin and expose their Reputations So that after all the wisest and safest as well as the shortest Course is to stick fast to our Duty For Truth and Honesty will carry us through where all the Shifts and Shufflings of wicked Craft will forsake and betray us And it were well if Servants and Children and such as are under Authority or indeed Any who lie under the fears of danger or displeasure would observe this matter duly For besides the great Offence which lying Excuses are to Almighty God every Master or Person with whom we have to deal cannot but think the Fault and Provocation doubled by this means And no Man of Reason or common Sense can suppose himself secure of our Faithfulness to his Service or Interest if he discover in us a disposition upon every slight occasion to deal indirectly that we make no bones of sacrificing Truth to Respect and being unfaithful to the Witness within our own Breasts and our great Lord and Master in Heaven 4. Fourthly From hence we may be able to satisfy our selves of the Wisdom and Goodness of God in causing the Faults and Infirmities of his Saints to be recorded in Holy Scripture and the Use we ought to make of their Failings and Temptations Not to flatter our selves in any manner of Evil as if We might notwithstanding be dear and acceptable to God For these men were so upon the account of their Eminent Virtues and their as Eminent Repentance where they did amiss Otherwise the Threatning in Ezekiel had been their Portion Ezek. XVIII 24. All their former Righteousness should not have been mentioned in the Day of Account but in the trespass and the Sin which they have sinned in these they should have died But This was done for a seasoable Warning and to be an effectual Humiliation to all future Ages by letting us see that the most Perfect of Men are still but Men Subject to mighty Blemishes and Imperfections and that the highest and most purified State we can possibly arrive at in this World is no Security from Danger This should make us very tender how we judge and despise our Brethren Whose Faults how severely soever we may think fit to censure it is highly probable would be our own were Their Circumstances and Their Temptations Ours This also confutes the Imagination of Some who teach that They who have true Faith and true Grace can never fall from it An Opinion extreamly false and groundless For What is true Faith and true Grace if that Confession of St. Peter did not shew it which our Lord so highly commended declared he would build his Church upon and pronounced him Blessed for And What is Falling from such Grace and Faith if the obstinate repeated denying and abjuring of Christ be not These Instances therefore of such Worthies miscarrying so grosly ring in our Ears those Admonitions of St. Paul Rom. XI 20. 1 Cor. X. 12. Gal. VI. 1. Be not high-minded but fear and Let Him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and If a man be overtaken in a Fault restore such a one with the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted They forbid us to promise our selves Safety and Freedom from Temptation in
to make their Calling and Election sure Which implies that without their own diligence these things will not be secured to them And indeed as the Commentator I just now mentioned observes Because God is so very kind and bountiful in doing His part and Men so very negligent and insensible in Theirs He bids but they who are bidden are not worthy this is the true reason why so many are called and yet so few are chosen I discharge my self of this Subject with that eminent passage of the Son of Sirach very apposite to our present purpose Ecclus XV 11. 12. 14. 15. 17. 20. Say not thou It is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth Say not thou He hath caused me to err for he hath no need of the sinful man God made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his Counsel If thou wilt to keep the Commandments and to perform acceptable Righteousness Before man is Life and Death and whether him liketh that shall be given him But the Lord hath commanded no man to do wickedly neither hath be given any man license to sin Now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be all Honour and Glory for evermore Amen SERMON XI WORLDLY HINDRANCES NO EXCUSE For the Neglect of Religious Duties St. Luke XIV V. 23 24. And the Lord said unto the Servant Go out into the High-ways and Hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my Supper THE Divine Discourses V. 1. with which our Lord entertained the Company while dining with one of the chief Pharisees made such impression upon them that a certain Person then at meat with him broke out into these words V. 15. Blessed is He that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Hereupon our Saviour takes occasion to shew that this Blessedness great as it is was not however embraced with that eagerness and satisfaction nor sought with all that industry which it most justly deserved And for the Illustration of this sad Truth the Successes of the Gospel and the different Reception it found among Men are represented under the Figure of a Great Supper prepared V. 16. and the Behaviour of the Guests invited to it Some absenting themselves upon frivolous pretences Others rudely refusing the Civility And the Master of the Feast by this means driven to furnish his Table with strangers of a meaner Quality and full of just Indignation and Resentment against those unworthy People who denied to grace his House with their presence and put such a slight upon his kindness This is the Substance of the Parable and the Applications of it are various For whether we respect the First eminent discrimination made between the Jews and the Gentiles Or whether That more continuing one of the several Degrees and Qualifications of Men in all Ages and Countries It sets before our Eyes a lively Image of Both and is in Either sense capable of great Use for our Instruction and Improvement Concerning the Former of These wherein the Jews and Gentiles are concerned I have * Serm. IX x. already spoken so largely that it will be needless again to insist upon it And therefore the only Reflection I shall make at present upon this sense of the Parable regards one expression peculiar to this place Which is That those Gentiles fetched from the High-ways and Hedges are said here to be Compelled to come in Not from any external or irresistible Necessity made use of to reduce them But by the Evidence of Miracles By the powerful Convictions of Truth By the strength of Arguments By repeated Messages By all the prevailing Arts of a holy Importunity Which subdued their Wills and brought over their Affections and in a manner extorted their Assent while Lust and Worldly Inclinations perswaded the contrary So that this Expression of Compelling means only an exceeding Care and solicitous Application to win them over And the marvellous Efficacy of those Methods at last notwithstanding the Appetites of corrupt Nature the Prejudices of Education and long Custom and all the Difficulties which the Habits and the Love of Evil could raise in Minds violently bent against any such Compliance And when They had thus accepted the Invitation then follows a severe though most deserved sentence of utter Exclusion upon those other insensible ungrateful Creatures who had provoked this Good Man of the House and affronted his Intentions of favour toward them by the obstinacy and folly of excluding themselves To proceed then The Relation this Parable bears to Persons of several Degrees and Qualifications whether Jews or Gentiles is not less worthy our regard The Event of the Gospel's first setting out so different among the Poor the Unlettered the notorious Sinners from what it was with the Wealthy the Learned the seeming Righteous The Men of splendid Fortunes and eminent Posts deriding its Doctrines of Humility and Meekness Self-denial and Contempt of the World while those of inferior Condition whose Spirits and Tempers were of a size with their Estates submitted gladly to Them The persons of Study and Attainments deluding themselves with vain Sophistry and scorning the sublime Mysteries of its Faith while those of Honester Minds and Less Subtlety subdued their Reason and brought every proud aspiring Thought into Captivity to the Power and Wisdom and Truth of God The pretenders to Sanctity and rigid Observers of Ceremony and Tradition presuming upon their own Merits for Justification while Others of a Conversation more liable to Censure with thanks and joy inexpressible laid hold on the Sacrifice and Propitiation of Another and conscious of the Impotence of Works alone sought Salvation by the Righteousness of Faith So that in each of these respects those who were bidden that is who had received most from God and ought to have been the forwardest in Duty to him stood out And They whose Character was less considerable and less could be expected from were found most ready to express their sense of his Goodness and most desirous to partake of it Once more There is yet Another Interpretation of this Parable accommodated to the Circumstances of those People among whom the Gospel is already profess'd and established For the End of Our Teaching and of Your Believing being Practice as the End of that Practice is the Saving of Men's Souls The Kingdom of Glory hereafter is no less shadowed out by this Feast than the Kingdom of Grace here And consequently All that neglect their Duty and prefer the Business or Enjoyments of This World before their Concern for the Next do refuse the Invitations to this Spiritual Supper and incur the Guilt and the Condemnation implied in the Text As on the Other hand They who notwithstanding all the disadvantages of Person or Fortune conform to the Rules of
my friends be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him How often are we called upon * Heb. III. 12. Take heed lest we depart from God Not to be †Rom. XI 20. high-minded but to fear lest the branches of the Olive be cut off after they have been grafted in and others be taken in their stead and to beware of temptation lest he ‖ 1 Cor. X. 12. who thinketh he standeth and trusts too much to his own bottom happen at last to fall Now if any Man can discern how such a Fear as this can agree with a full and undoubted perswasion of ones own particular Election and Salvation then he may allow every Misgiving of this kind to be a Want of Faith But if being afraid and being certain of the self same thing at the same time If trembling for fear we should miscarry and offend and knowing that we cannot possibly miscarry If taking heed lest we fall and yet being obliged to believe that God can as soon cease to stand as We If these things I say be not Contradictions to all Experience and Common Sense I must own I do not know any thing that is And then it follows that the Gospel which commands such an awful dread of God and fear of our own Safety as we have seen cannot command such an assurance as is inconsistent with that fear and must needs destroy it Consequently then those doubts which prove the want of such an absolute assurance do not prove that the Person who labours under them wants true Faith or any qualification requisite for a Christian Life here and Heaven hereafter Let it be considered Secondly That Such a positive Perswasion as This cannot be required as a necessary act of saving Faith because the Promises of Salvation are themselves Conditional and one of those Conditions is Perseverance The marks which St. John hath given to judge our State by are such as these * 1 John III. 3. He that hath this hope in himself that is the hope of seeing God as he is and enjoying his blessed presence for ever in Heaven purifieth himself even as he is pure †1 John III. 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil He that doth not righteousness is not of God And the same Apostle declares in the First of that Epistle that though he wrote to them on purpose that * 1 John I. 4 6. their joy might be full yet all the comfort he could give them was this that if we say we have fellowship with him i. e. with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth Our Life we know is a Condition of Discipline and Tryal and what Difficulties and Temptations may still await us none of us all can tell A good man may look back upon that part already spent with great Comfort and a Holy Trust But when the Best of Men look forward all they can do is only to hope well and resolve well for the time to come And alas How many of our most likely Hopes have been defeated How many of the Purposes which we made in the Sincerity of our hearts have been broken and baffled heretofore And can we then be certain where all we can do is to pray and to intend and to endeavour well that is to do again what we have done perhaps a thousand times already without Success If our Resolutions indeed be stedfast if our good Intentions be accomplish'd upon this Condition we are infallibly sure But can we be infallibly sure of the Condition it self Dare we depend upon our own hearts which we have found treacherous so often before and not doubt our frail nature or remember our many infirmities This sure were strange Stupidity strange Considence strange Forgetfulness In a word Undoubting assurance is only for Them that have finished their warfare and come to receive their Crown But in those who are still in heat of action and have many sharp conflicts yet to undergo many difficult Passes and Ambushes to fight their way thro' it is too great a boldness too great a folly to sing Songs of Triumph to themselves before the danger of the Day be over It is encouragement enough to strive lawfully that in God's due time we shall be sure * Gal. VI. 9. to reap if we faint not And if some fears of loosing the Prize be mingled with our Hopes these will but quicken our Care the more But He that demands to have his Wages made over to him irrevocably before his Services have given him a Title to them is an Insolent Servant He it is to be suspected does not ask a Security to support him in the Hardships of his Duty but rather to indulge Carelesness and cherish Presumption But to silence all Scruples in one Word I observe Thirdly That such an assurance as we have been treating of not only is not but that it cannot possibly be that Necessary Christian Faith commanded in the Gospel For we are told times without number that by Faith we are saved and consequently whatever Faith is till we have it we cannot be in a Condition of being saved But now if this Faith consist in a peremptory perswasion and full assurance of our own personal Salvation then it follows that we must believe and be assured that we are in a State of Salvation before we are really so Now this is manifestly absurd and makes what such Men call Faith to be in Effect no other than Ignorance and Presumption And on the other hand If a thing must actually be before we can be assured that it is then we must be in a State of Salvation before we can be assured that we are so and consequently That Faith which puts us into that State cannot be a full and undoubted perswasion of our being in it already And then I am sure there is no reason to disquiet our minds for any such Doubts or Misgivings as proceed not from any distrust of God but of our selves such as fear always because they always dread an angry justice and the danger of offending a good and a Holy God These Doubts may argue Modesty and Humility but are by no means to be lookt upon as a constant mark of Infidelity or such a Defect in Faith as should endanger our Souls or give them any disturbance with regard to their Condition in the next World merely upon this Account There remains yet One Objection more to be satisfied which Men are apt sometimes to make against the reality of their own Faith and This is derived from the want of those inward Joys and that present peace of heart which a true Piety such as God
most beloved Servants when he sees this most expedient Profitable for the Tryal and Increase of their Vertue and Patience or any otherwise more for the Eternal Good of their Souls Thus it appears evidently That the Joy of Well-Doing does not always accompany the Action it self Sometimes it is separated from it by God who sends this Anguish and Tribulation of Spirit and consults our Advantage by these unpleasant Methods And sometimes an unhappy Constitution sheds its Venom upon the Mind and imbitters all its Reflections upon it self But however that be since the Pleasures and charming Satisfactions of Holiness may be sometimes missing And since these Ways there are at least of taking them from us the Consequence is undeniable to my present Purpose viz. That those inward Disquiets ought not to drive us to any distrust of Mercy or Despondency of our own Eternal Welfare That Comfort and Safety do not always dwell together and we argue wrong if we make the Want of Peace and Joy in believing a Proof of our not believing at all III. And now at length I am come to my Third and Last Thing proposed from the Text which is To lay down some Rules whereby the Weakness of Faith may be distinguished from the Want of it and how any Man by examining his own Conscience may discern whether his imperfect Belief be consistent with the Terms of Salvation or not The Necessity of having some such distinguishing Characters is very great because what I have said upon the Former Particulars is only designed to prove That the Imperfections of our Faith are not always our Faults but now and then our Misfortunes This was a Support due to the Integrity and honest Endeavours of some Melancholy good Persons But when I urge thus much on Their Behalf my Meaning is not to encourage Others in their Security who ought to be dejected and yet are not Some Cases give Men unnecessary Trouble and scare them with imaginary Dangers Others carry just Fear in them and open all Hell to Men so stupid and blind that that they cannot or will not see it So that it is of mighty Consequence to open the Eyes of both Those sorts of Persons and to set each of their Circumstances in a true Light that the One may be awakened from his frightful Dream the Other from his pleasant deluding One The Sorrowful rejoice in the vanishing of his Sorrows and the Sinner have no less Cause to do so in the timely Sight of his Misery and happy Care to prevent it This were a Work well deserving a larger and more particular treating than I am now able to allow it but however some few General Observations carefully applied and compared with what hath been said on the Two former Heads will be a sufficient Direction to us in this Affair First Such Imperfections in our Faith are very agreeable with our Safety as we our selves have not voluntarily contributed to There is as I said formerly a Defect in Believing which proceeds from the Mysterious Nature of the Doctrines propounded to us and the Shortness of our Understandings which are not large enough to comprehend them And this is such a Defect as Nature and not We are accountable for But there is also Another which Men make this only a Pretence for and That is wholly their Own For though we are not able to conceive every Article of the Christian Religion distinctly and to render a Reason of every Nicety that captious Disputers may load it with yet unless there be some Unfair Dealing of which we are Guilty to the blinding of our own Eyes there is enough to be discovered for the Conviction of our Judgment and bringing us into the Obedience of Faith Now indeed if we first consult Flesh and Blood and take a prejudice to Religion because itabridges us of some Pleasures and claps a severe Restraint upon some Appetites and expects that Humane Discourse should submit to Divine Revelation Upon These Terms the Success of our Study in it is not like to be very great But then the Disappointment is entirely from our selves For when Men thus possest pretend to examine and give off dissatisfied it is because their Minds are bribed and byassed against the Cause they undertake to judge Almighty God does indeed declare Truths of a more elevated kind but the Principles he requires us to proceed upon are the same And he gives Men leave to use all Arguments that they think reasonable in other Cases provided they will but yield their Assent upon equal Terms But if a Man resolve beforehand not to allow that God can be Wiser or Greater than himself if no Authority shall suffice to prove that any thing above the reach of his own Reason ever came from Heaven but all Mankind shall be esteemed Lyars rather than that Idol within his own Brain if he discern beforehand what Engagements these Doctrines when allowed draw him into and cannot away with the Absurdity of a Practice contradicting his Profession and upon that Account will not enslave himself nor tye up his own Hands This alters the Case extreamly These are not Difficulties of Nature's but our Own making God will vindicate his Institution and his Truth in severe Vengeance upon such perverse Wretches and make a just Difference between those that doubt because it is impossible for them to know perfectly and them that dispute and oppose because they are loth to find the Truth slack to consider and unwilling to believe Secondly Another very distinguishing Character of this imperfect Faith whether it be agreeable to the Terms of Salvation or not is the Humility or the Pride of the Man's Heart For where a Person is modest and thinks meanly of himself he will see and bewail and diligently endeavour to redress the Grievances and Infirmities of his own Mind His Ears will be open to Instruction and Reproof his Understanding will not disdain to captivate it self to the Wisdom of God nor blaspheme and rally the Inspirations of the Holy Ghost nor arraign all sober Christians of Credulity and Madness for submitting to a Voice from Heaven the Testimony of Miracles and the united Consent of the Church in all Ages He studies the Scriptures reverently confirms himself in what Reason may attain to and what it cannot he silently adores His Ignorance is not wilful and affected but he is ever desirous of better Information and in the mean while submits quietly to the Determination of his Superiors in disputed Points rather than he will disturb the Peace and Order of the Church for the sake of Contradiction or the Itch of advancing any particular Conceit of his own Such a Temper as This is highly necessary and commendable where no Man can know every Point of Religion perfectly and but very Few have Advantages of examining nicely all that may be known Now an Humble Spirit makes the best amends for such Disabilities in Speculation And indeed for all the Defects in Practice