Doctrines both Christ and his Apostles continually appealed Here is the firm reasonable Foundation of the Christian certainty The truths we believed are confirmed by Miracles than which there can be no greater evidence But now the Roman Church destroys this ground of certainty by a multitude of lying wonders which they impudently obtrude upon the belief of the people for proof and confirmation of their false and corrupt Religion the immediate consequence of which is a suspicion thereby brought upon the true Miracles and here is way made for Scepticism and uncertainty in the greatest and most Sacred Christian Doctrines And besides the Church of Rome having introduced among these many doubtful uncertain and many certainly false opinions and imposed them upon the faith of its votaries under the same obligations as it doth the most fundamental Articles what can be the consequence but that those who discover the errour or uncertainty of some of those pretended propositions of Faith should doubt all the rest And indeed since the main assurance is placed in the Infallibility of that Church for which there is so no reason and so much plain evidence to the contrary Since themselves cannot tell where that boasted Infallibility is whether in Pope or Council if we should allow them any such it follows that their Faith is precarious and hath no foundation at all In like manner the Sects among us resolve all their assurance either into a bare belief or the testimony of a private Spirit for their ground of crediting the Scriptures is but this Testimony and consequently whatever they receive from hence bottoms here The Papists believe the Scripture on the Testimony of the Church and these believe them on the Testimony of the Spirit that is in earnest the suggestions and resolutions of their own viz. they believe because they will believe and they find themselves inclin'd unto it And upon the same reason when the imagination and humour alters they may cease to believe or believe the contrary And there is not any thing in the world more various and uncertain than the suggestions and impulses of a private Spirit Besides the Sects also have vastly multiplied Articles of Faith and made all their private opinions sacred calling them Gospel truths precious truths saving truths and the like when they are but uncertainties at the best and usually false and sensless imaginations by which way also they expose the whole body of Christian Principles to suspicion and so weaken the Faith of some and destroy the Faith of others But the Church of England secures the certainty of our Faith by resolving it into the Scriptures the true seats of Infallibility and the belief of that into the Testimony of the Spirit in the true sense viz. that Testimony that God gave by his Spirit to Christ and his Apostles in those miraculous works he enabled them to perform They did not only bear witness of themselves that as our Saviour argues with the Jews Luk. 11. 48. would not have signified much The Father bore witness with them John 15. 8. and the works they performed by his power were the sure testimony Believe me for the works sake saith our Saviour Here is the ground of certainty And the Church of England entertains no Articles of Faith but those principles that have been so confirm'd that is none but what are evidently contain'd in the Holy Scriptures Whereas the Roman Church to mention no other have made the absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation sacred though it is not only not contained in Scripture but contrary to the reason and even to the sound senses of mankind And if neither reason nor so much as our senses may be believ'd what assurance can we have of any thing A ground is here laid for everlasting Scepticism and uncertainty And the Sects have laid the same in their numerous silly tenents that are contrary to some of the most fundamental principles of Reason Nothing of which can with any shew be objected against this Church 6. The Faith delivered to the Saints was Catholick 'T was deliver'd to all the Saints entertain'd by all and was not only the opinion and belief of a prevailing Faction or of particular men in Corners The Commission given the Disciples was to go and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature and accordingly it was widely diffused and all that profest the name of Christ were instructed in his Faith and Religion in all the articles and duties of it that were essential and necessary In these they joyn'd in holy love and communion till Sects came among them that introduced damnable Heresies contrary to the doctrine they had received These divided from the Unity of the pure Catholick Church and separated themselves from it gathering into select companies of their own under pretence of more Truth and Holiness After this manner the Church of Rome which had for some ages been eminent in the Catholick Church did at last corrupt and introduce divers unsound doctrines and usages unknown to the Ancient Catholicks and being great and powerful it assumed the name of the Catholick Church to it self and condemn'd all other Christians as Hereticks when it was it self but a grand Sect against whose depraved doctrines and ways there was a Church in all ages that did protest For the Greek Churches which are of as large extent as theirs never assented to them and divers other Christians in all times bore Testimony against those errours and depravations This Sect was large and numerous indeed but 't is not the number but the principles make the Catholick Principles conformable to those that were deliver'd to the Saints From these they have departed And the lesser Sects among us have done the same by the many vain additions that they have made to the Faith and their unjust Separation from that Church which retains the whole body of Catholick Doctrines and main Practices without the mixture of any thing Heretical or unlawful A Church that doth not damn all the world besides her own members as the Roman Church and divers of the Sects do but extends her Charity to all Christians though many of them are under great mistakes and so is truly Catholick both in her Principles and Affections I mean the Church of England as now established by Law which God preserve in its purity Amen FINIS A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M r. Jos Glanvil Late Rector of BATH and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Who dyed at his Rectory of Bath the fourth of November 1680. and was Buried there the Ninth of the same Month. By Jos Pleydell Arch-Deacon of Chichester LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and the White Hart in Westminster-Hall 1681. REVEL XIV Ver. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their
SOME DISCOURSES SERMONS AND REMAINS Of the Reverend M r. Jos Glanvil Late Rector of BATHE and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Collected into one Volume and published BY ANT. HORNECK Preacher at the SAVOY Together with a SERMON Preached at his FUNERAL by Joseph Pleydell Arch-Deacon of CHICHESTER LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and James Collins at his Shop under the Temple Church 1681. THE PREFACE TO THE READER TO recommend these Sermons to the World were to write a Panegyrick upon Light and to attempt to make that amiable to the Spectator which challenges acceptance by its own brightness The Oriental Pearl needs not the flattering praises of the greedy Jeweller nor the Stone that is digg'd out of the Mines of Golconda the faint Encomium's of the crafty Merchant The Author of these Discourses as his Wit lay out of the common road so this genuine off-spring of his fertile brain soars above the common level of Ecclesiastical Orations Death seemed to envy the vast parts of so great a man and in the ascent of his Age snatch't him away when the learned world expected some of his greatest attempts and enterprizes As he valued no notions that were mean and trivial so those he hath sent abroad savour of a more than ordinary genius His Soul seemed to be spun of a finer thread than those of other mortals and things look'd with another face when they passed through the quicker fire of his Laboratory Some curious Artists though their work is materially the same with that of meaner Artificers yet the shape they give it and the neatness of the Fabrick makes it seem a thing composed of different ingredients Even the most obvious truths when coming from our Author received a greater Lustre and that meat which familiarity made in a manner nauseous to some nicer Pallats when dress'd with his Sauce became more pungent and consequently more acceptable And though I am not able to bring in a list of the persons who have been effectually wrought upon by his Sermons and become eminent Saints under his Ministry Yet Charity bids us believe that not a few by his means turned Proselytes of Righteousness though if his pains had proved unsuccessful it could have been no disparagement to his glory Providence is sometimes pleased for reasons best known to it self to cast mens lots in places where they cannot boast of many converts made by their Preaching and I have been acquainted with some who have spoke it with Sorrow that in ten years time they could not say that any of their constant hearers had come to them to beg directions how to perfect holiness in the fear of God One would admire that men of that life and power as I have known some to be should work no greater wonders and yet we have not a few parallel examples in the Gospel and when the Son of God himself could make no impression upon the men of Capernaum we need not marvel if his servants meet sometimes with the like repulses but this doth not lessen their reward no more than the ineffectual attempts of Ezechiel made him shine with less brightness in the Firmament of Heaven And where such labours are lost they do indeed aggravate the hearers guilt but do not frustrate the Labourer of his recompence To continue barren under such Thunders is to prepare for the scourge of Scorpions and where men remain unmoved under sound and affectionate teaching they make way for their greater Agonies His Sermons as they were very solid so they were which is the grace and life of them pathetick and by his zeal and fervour one might guess how big his desire unto God for Israel was that they might be saved Though he met sometimes with disappointments yet he remembred he was a Christian And as he was not without his crosses so he carried himself under them like a true Philosopher His mind seemed to be serene when things went most contrary to his wishes and whatever storm the inconstancy and sickleness of sublunary objects threw upon him within still he felt a calm beyond that of Socrates when the ungrateful Athenians sent him the fatal draught to drink his death and ruine He had a mind fitted for Contemplation and his thoughts could dwell on a Divine Object till he had suck't out the Cream and Marrow His Divinity like his Philosophy was free from Dogmatizing and while he tyed himself to no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he arrived to a clearer apprehension of truth and errour The Divine Plato was somewhat dearer to him than the subtiler Aristotle and it cannot be otherwise where souls long to be transformed into the Image of the Deity Nothing seemed to ingross his desire so much as the reformation of an unbelieving world and indeed there were few men fitter for that enterprize God having blessed him with a considerable stock both of Reason and Eloquence To a clarified mind the gross Atheistical surmises of Modern Wits must needs be exceeding fulsome and no marvel if Souls so fine break forth sometimes into very severe Satyrs to lash this petulant humour If any thing could raise his passion it was the non-sensical discourses of DEISTS and Christian Infidels and he thought he might be justly angry with such wretches that like the Giants of old durst make War with Tremendous Omnipotence He loved not to invelop Theological Doctrines in mysterious phrases and ever thought that Divinity best agreed with the mind of the Holy Ghost that was expressed in rational and intelligible propositions He was never any great Admirer of our Modern Illuminati and he counted that discourse but little better than Nonsense which affected to recommend it self to the admiration of the hearer by its not being understood Where his Reason tyred and could give him no direction he was willing to take Faith for his Guide and though he confessed that not a few things in Scripture were altogether unaccountable to his understanding yet he doubted not but they would all be made clear in that State where we shall know even as we are known This puts me in mind of the Motto which a Friend of the Ingenious Mr. Culverwell hath added to his Sermons and which may serve as an Epilogue to this Preface What this we shall know as we are known may be The Author could not tell He is gone to see Anthony Horneck SERMON I. THE Way of Happiness The Fourth Edition SERMON I. LUKE 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able WHEN I consider the goodness of God and the merits of his Son our Saviour and the Influences of the Holy Spirit and all the advantages of the Gospel The certainty of its Principles the reasonableness of its duties the greatness of its ends the suitableness of its means the glory of its Rewards and the Terrour of its punishments I
and perhaps despiseth these under the notion of Morality and so presuming that he is a Saint too soon he never comes to be one at all such are the Seekers that shall not be able to enter Their seeking imports some striving but 't is such as though it be specious yet it is imperfect and will not succeed And hence the Third Proposition ariseth that I proposed to discourse III. THat there is a sort of Striving that will not procure an entrance implyed in these words For many will seek to enter in and shall not be able 'T is a dangerous thing to be flattered into a false peace and to take up with imperfect Godliness to reconcile the hopes of Heaven to our beloved sins and to judge our condition safe upon insufficient grounds This multitudes do and 't is the great danger of our days Men cannot be contented without doing something in Religion but they are contented with a little And then they reckon themselves godly before they are vertuous and take themselves to be Saints upon such things as will not distinguish a good man from a bad We seek after Marks of Godliness and would be glad to know how we might try our state The thing is of great importance and if the Signs we judge by are either false or imperfect we are deceived to our undoing Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions do no great hurt but errour in the Marks and Measures of Religion is deadly Now there are sundry things commonly taken for signs of Godliness which though they are something yet they are not enough They are hopeful for beginnings but nothing worth when they are our end and rest They are a kind of seeking and imperfect striving but not such as overcometh the difficulties of the way or will procure us an entrance at the Gate Therefore to disable the flattering insufficient Marks of Godliness I shall discover in pursuance of the Third Proposition How far a man may strive in the exercises of Religion and yet be found at last among those seekers that shall not be able to enter And though I have intimated something of this in the general before yet I shall now more particularly shew it in the instances that follow And in these I shall discover a Religion that may be called Animal to which the natural man may attain 1. A Man may believe the Truths of the Gospel and assent heartily to all the Articles of the Creed and if he proceeds not he is no further by this than the faith of Devils Jam. 2. 19. 2. He may go on and have a great thirst to be more acquainted with Truth he may seek it diligently in Scripture and Sermons and good Books and knowing Company And yet do this by the motion of no higher Principle than an inbred Curiosity and desire of Knowledge and many times this earnestness after Truth proceeds from a proud affectation to be wiser than our Neighbours that we may pity their darkness or the itch of a disputing humour that we may out-talk them or a design to carry on or make a party that we may be called Rabbi or serve an Interest and the zeal for Truth that is set on work by such motives is a spark of that fire that is from beneath 'T is dangerous to a mans self and to the publick Weal of the Church and mankind but the man proceeds and is 3. Very much concern'd to defend and propagate his Faith and the Pharisees were so in relation to theirs Mat. 23. 15. and so have been many Professors of all the Religions that are or ever were Men naturally love their own Tenents and are ambitious to mould others judgements according to theirs There is glory in being an Instructor of other men and turning them to our ways and opinions So that here is nothing yet above Nature nothing but what may be found in many that seek and are shut out 4. Faith works greater effects than these and Men offer themselves to Martyrdom for it This one would think should be the greatest height and an argument that all the difficulties of the way are overcome by one that is so resolved and that the Gate cannot but be opened to him And so no doubt it is when all things else are sutable But otherwise these consequences by no means follow S. Paul supposeth that a man may give his Body to be burned and not have Charity without which his Martyrdom will not profit 1 Cor. 13. For one to deny his Religion or what he believes to be certain and of greatest consequence is dishonourable and base and some out of principles of meer natural bravery will die rather than they will do it and yet upon other accounts be far enough from being heroically vertuous Besides the desire of the glory of Martyrdom and Saintship after it may in some be stronger than the terrours of Death and we see frequently that men will sacrifice their lives to their Honour and Reputation yea to the most contemptible shadows of it And there is no passion in us so weak no lust so impotent but hath in many instances prevail'd over the fear of dying Every Appetite hath had its Martyrs and all Religions theirs and though a man give his Body to be burnt for the best and have not Charity viz. Prevalent love to God and Men it will not signifie So that Martyrdom is no infallible mark nor will it avail any thing except sincere endeavour to overcome the greater difficulties have gone before it Thus far Faith may go without effect and yet one step further 5. Men may confidently rely upon Christ for Salvation and be firmly perswaded that he hath justified and will make them happy They may appropriate him to themselves and be pleased mightily in the opinion of his being theirs And yet notwithstanding this confidence may be in the number of those seekers that shall not enter For Christ is the Author of Eternal life only to those that obey him Heb. 5. 9. and to obey him is to strive vigorously and constantly to overcome all our sinful Inclinations and Habits And those that trust he will save them though they have never seriously set about this work deceive themselves by vain presumption and in effect say that he will dissolve or dispense with his Laws in their favour For he requires us to deny our selves Mar. 8. 34. To mortifie the body Rom. 8. 13. To love enemies Mat. 5. 44. To be meek Mat. 11. 29. and patient Jam. 5. 8. and humble 1 Pet. 5. 7. and just Mat. 7. 12. and charitable Heb. 13. 16. and holy as he that called us is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. And he hath promised to save upon no other terms For all these are included in Faith when 't is taken in the justifying sense and this is the Way of Happiness and Salvation If we walk not in this but in the paths of our own choosing our relying upon Christ is a mockery and will deceive
different from that Charity which thinketh no Evil 1 Cor. 13. that it thinks nothing else concerning those of a differing Judgement but that their Vertues are dull Morality and their Piety Hypocritical Pretensions or what-ever Worse Ill-will can Invent and Rage can say They will not believe that to be a Jewel which they find among so much supposed Rubbish But let us take Care that we deny not God the Honour of his Gifts and Graces or proudly fancy that he hath given us the Monopoly This is contrary to that Charity which is not puffed up and doth not behave it self unseemly Or if we could modestly suppose that there is nothing but Ignorance and mistake among all those who are not of our Opinion yet however their Vertues ought to be acknowledg'd The Son of God was to be Worshipped even when he lay in the Stable and the Ark to be owned when among the Philistins 'T is a sign that we love God for himself if we Love him every where And indeed that Worth is more to be admired that grows up in an uncultivated Soyl and among the Weeds of Errour and false Principles To find a Rose or Tulip in a Garden is a common thing and merits less of our regard but to meet with them in the High-way or open Fields this ingageth our nearer Notice and recommends the Flowers to our more particular Kindness Thus Vertue though in all men excellent yet 't is no more than is expected to be in Persons of Knowledge and right Judgement But in the Ignorant and Mistaken it thrives under Disadvantages and deserves more to be Cherish'd and Incourag'd And now if 't were possible to bring the divided World to these Ingenuous Acknowledgements men would find their Spirits compos'd and their Animosities qualified They would see they have Friends even in the Tents of their Enemies and this Apprehended and Own'd mutually would be a very hopeful way to endear and reconcile us II. Be much in the Contemplation of the Love of God He that knows how much God hath Loved him hath a mighty Reason to Love his Brother The Apostle urgeth the Argument 1 John 4. 11. If God so Loved us we ought also to Love one another and he that considers cannot choose for he must needs find himself sweetly Ingaged to Love God of whose Love he is sensible and he that loves Him loves all things in him For all things are his and he tenders every thing he hath made The Love of God doth not confine us to his single abstracted Essence but requires our Kindness to all that bear his Image yea and produceth it Seraphick Love will be Catholick It doth not burn like a Lamp in a Sepulchre but 't is like the Stars of Heaven that impart themselves to all things And as the Planets that receive their Light from the Sun do not suck it in and ingross it but disperse and shed it abroad upon the most distant Bodies in like manner a Christian Soul that is warmed and lightned by Divine Love doth not keep it within it self but communicates its benign Influences to all the Objects that are within its reach The Love of God in its proper Nature is diffusive and very opposite to Envy and Animosity It Dispels the Clouds and Allays the Tempests that arise from the Body and its Appetites and composeth the Soul to the Sweetest and most even Temper It Inlarges our Minds and Softens our Affections and Calms our Passions and Smooths the Ruggedness of our Natures It destroys our Pride and Selfishness and so strikes up the Roots of Enmity and Divisions and thus disposeth us to the most Generous and Comprehensive Charity III. Make the great Design of Religion yours and know that the Intent of that is not to fill our heads with Notion or to teach us Systems of Opinion to resolve us a Body of Difficult Points or to Inable us to talk plausibly for lesser Truths But to furnish our minds with incouragements of Virtue and instances of Duty to direct us to govern our Passions and subdue our appetites and self-wills in order to the glory of God the good of Societies and our own present and eternal Interests And if Christians would take this to be their business and conscientiously apply themselves unto it they would find work enough in their own hearts to imploy them and neither have time nor occasion to pry into the Infirmities of others nor inclination to quarrel with them they would see how unwise it is to be seeking and making Enemies when they have so many within themselves and how dangerous to be diverted to a needless and unjust forein War while a deadly domestick Foe is strengthned by it And methinks 't is wonderful and 't is sad that we should be so mild and indulgent to the Enemies that we are bound to engage against by our Duty to God and to our selves by his Laws and our own Reasons by the precepts and examples of his Son our Saviour by his Sacraments and by his Blood by all things in Religion and all things in Interest and at the same time be so eager against those whom we ought to consider as Friends upon the account of our relation to God and the tie of common nature and the obligations of Divine Commands and the interests of Societies and the practice of the best times past and the hopes of a future happiness This is lamentable in it self and yet the more so for being common And it seems to me such a kind of madness as if a man should be picking causless quarrels with his Neighbours about a chip of Wood or a broken Hedge when a Fire in his house is consuming his Goods and Children Such Frenzies and much greater are our mutual enmities and oppositions while we quietly sit down in our unmortified Affections And we should know them to be so did we understand our Danger or our Duty and seriously mind either the one or other We should find then that a Christian hath no such enemies as the Flesh the world and the Devil that these will require all our care and imploy all our strength and diligence and he that knows this and considers and acts suitably will find too much in himself to censure and oppose and too little to admire himself for above other men He will see sufficient reason to incline him to pardon his erring brother and be the more easily induced to exercise charity which himself so many ways needs The last Direction is this IV. Study the moderate pacifick ways and principles and run not in extremes both Truth and Love are in the middle Extremes are dangerous After all the swaggering and confidence of Disputers there will be uncertainty in lesser matters and when we travel in uncertain Roads 't is safest to choose the Middle In this though we should miss a lesser truth which yet is not very likely we shall meet with Charity and our gain will be greater than our loss
likely the Peace of others also They are brought no whit nearer each other in their Judgements but put at a much greater distance in their Affections Whereas by the other method of calm proceeding all these evils are avoided 'T is true we are commanded to contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. But the Faith there meant doth not consist in points of doubtful disputation but in the Fundamental Article That Christ Jesus is the Messias joyn'd with a vertuous and holy conversation and the persons against whom those primitive Christians were to contend were Ungodly Men that denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ ver 5. For these Essential matters we may and we ought to be earnest but Contention about lesser things is called by the Apostle Perverse-Disputing and reckoned as the effect of pride and ignorance 1 Tim. 6. 5. And hence I pass to a Third Caution which is this III. Beware of Zeal about Opinions by which I mean all the Propositions of less certainty or consequence About these we may no doubt be inquisitive and thoughtful and our search will be commendable while we manage it with modesty and caution in order to the gaining more Motives and directions for a vertuous Practice But to be eager in them and to disturb the peace of Societies for their sakes this is a vitious and dangerous excess destructive to Christian Charity and the publick weal and order There is nothing hath done the world more mischief than indiscreet unseasonable Zeal for Truths while men have not made a difference between those that are necessary to be believed and known and those others which may safely be doubted and denied 'T is a great and dangerous mistake to think that we ought to publish and propagate all the Truth we know For every man thinks his own Opinions about Religion Gods Truth and nature inclines men to desire to beget their own image upon other mens minds and if this be made a Duty too every man will be a Teacher of all the rest and no man will let his brother be at quiet This man is ready to burst till he hath given himself vent and the other is as impatient till he hath contradicted what he hath said Both are zealous to Proselyte each other and neither can be contented with a single conquest till the publick be disturbed These are some of the effects of opinionative zeal and we know it by a dear experience Here is the source of all Divisions and Sects Gods Truth is the pretence of every Party and being enlightned themselves they all think they ought to enlighten all others and these Lights meeting and being infinitely reflected beget a flame between them in which all of them are scorched and Charity and Peace are consumed If therefore we are friends to Christian Love let us avoid and oppose this its most fatal enemy and consider That we need not be zealous for more truth than what God hath made necessary and ought not to be zealous for more than what Scripture and Reason have made certain That the Necessary and certain things are very few and the remoter doctrines difficult and deep That we may easily be deceived in speculative points where so much acuteness and freedom and care and diligence is needful That the greatest part imbrace Shadows and their Zeal is for folly and falshood That our brethren may be good men though they understand not many things that we know or err in many in which we judge aright That the benefits of an Opinion if true will not make amends for the trouble and disturbance that is made to promote it and That Charity is more valuable than Knowledge 1 Cor. 8. 1. 1 Cor. 13. If we thus Consider we shall be contented with the satisfactions of our own minds and not be Angry with others because they will not take us for their Guides we shall exercise our Zeal upon the necessary certain things and our Charity about the rest we shall inform our brother who needs or desires it and let him alone when it may do him or others hurt to disturb him we shall propose our Opinions seasonably and modestly and be willing that men should receive them as they can we shall not be concerned at any mans Mistake that doth not minister to Vice and when it doth we shall prudently and calmly endeavour to rectifie his thoughts we shall converse indifferently with all Perswasions without wrangling and discord and exercise our Charity and Good Will towards the Good men of any sort Thus our Zeal will be rightly tempered and directed and Charity promoted And yet further in order to it I propose this last Caution IV. Beware of censuring and affixing odious Names and consequences upon the persons or opinions of Dissenters He that Censures another in part Hates him and wants many degrees of that Charity the Apostle commends and describes 1 Cor. 13. 4 5 6 7. which beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things endureth all things He that Rails at his Neighbour for his Opinion wants only power to Persecute him for it yea even this is a kind of Persecution for there is a persecution of the Tongue as well as of the Hand and He that Injures his Brother in his Name is a Persecutor as well as the other that hurts him in his Body or Estate Let us take heed then lest we become guilty by fastning names of Reproach upon those of different Judgement and imposing the odious consequences that we our selves make upon our Neighbour as his Opinion Both these are very common and the Spight and Injustice of them do exceedingly exasperate our Spirits and enflame our Disagreements By this way Truth is exposed to contempt and scorn as well as Falshood and there is none so Sacred but its Adversaries have made it a deformed Vizard to bring it under the Hatred and Reproaches of the Ignorant and that which hath an Ugly Face is more than half condemned among the generality of men who cannot distinguish the true complexion from the dirt that is thrown upon it This the Zealots of all Parties very well understand when they run down many things by a Vile name which they cannot Confute by Argument 'T is but raising the Cry of Arminianism Socinianism Popery Pelagianism and such like upon them and all other Refutation is Superfluous These I mention not out of Favour but for Instance and 't is the like in many other cases Thus apt are men to be frighted by Bugbear Names from Truth and Charity And this is Superstition in the true sense to be afraid of things in which there is no hurt and it is promoted by the Uncharitable fastning of our own consequences upon our brothers Opinion This we think follows and then make no Scruple to say 't is his Opinion when he hates and disowns it and would quit his Tenent if he thought any such thing were a
publick places of worship those sacred houses of God deserted as if their walls were infected and exchang'd for private corners Such contempt is pour'd upon this excellent Church and all this reproach it suffers from the spiritual proud who think themselves wiser than the Aged not because they keep but because they break the Laws and phancy they are inlightned enough to be a Law unto themselves without needing the Rules of other Governours than those of their own Imaginations In the last days shall come Scoffers walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. 3. 3. Pharisaical as well Dehauch'd Scoffers who walk after their phantastical as the others do after their carnal lusts and therefore despise and contemn all Laws that should bound and restrain them But the Church suffers contempt also from the other sort the carnal proud have her exceedingly in derision and make mouths at her And we are faln into an Age in which to be a Church and to profess Religion not this or that but any is occasion enough with some and God knows not a few for contempt and scorning The fool in old time said in his heart There no God Psal 14. 1. but that folly hath put off its modesty in ours and vile men now set more than their hearts against the Heavens Psal 73. 9. 'T is wit to deride Religion and modish accomplishment to make merriment of things Sacred As if we were past the dispensation of disputing against God and were so certain that he is not or not to be worshipped that there were no more to be done now but to laugh at the silly belief of his Existence and the vain folly of adoring Him To this height we are come and by it have out-done the impudence of all former times and what we are to expect if this bold impiety be not stopt is very sad but very easie to foresee What are the effects of it at present we know and the Church wofully feels in the extream contempt and scorn that is upon it And by reason of the one sort of proud contemners and the other it may too justly complain in the words of the Jewish Church in the Lamentations I am a derision to all my people and their Song all the day and in the language of the Prophet How do I sit solitary that was full of people my ways mourn because few come to my solemn Feasts my Gates are desolate My Priests sigh and the precious Sons of Sion comparable to fine Gold are esteem'd as earthen pitchers the work of the hands of the Potter My adversaries are the chief my enemies prosper all my persecutors overtake me between the straights They hiss and gnash their teeth and say We have swallowed her up Certainly this is the day we looked for we have found we have seen it This is our case and O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us for none other fighteth for us but only thou O God II. SInce we cannot be secure from contempt let us endeavour not to deserve it nor give occasion to that hatred and scorn which is upon the Church and its members This I shall take liberty to address 1. To my Brethren of the Clergy and 2. To the people that are yet in communion with us 1. As for Vs we are sure to be the first and deepest sharers of the contempt that is upon the Church And how it is with us at this day by reason of it is easie to see but deplorable to consider I desire not to speak fond or over-weaning things but this I think I may say with justice That no Church in the world enjoyes a more truly learned and sober Clergy than this and with as much truth I may affirm That no Clergy upon earth undergoes so great a burden of contempt The Heathens of all times and places of the world have had reverence for their Priests the Jews and Turks sacred respect for theirs the people of the Greek Churches pay great venerations to the meanest of the Priesthood the Romanists are very respectful to them Yea even the several Classes of Sects among us reverence their Teachers So that the dueness of respect to the Ministers of Religion seems to be the common acknowledgement of mankind grounded upon the Relation they have to God as his Embassadours and Stewards of his Mysteries and the nobleness and importance of the business they are employed in the conducting the souls of men to everlasting happiness But we the Clergy of this Church and only we seem to be cut off from the common acknowledg'd rights of Priesthood as if there were an exception against us in the general Rule and all the Ministers of Religion were to be honour'd except those of the Church of England In all cases else greatness of Relation and dignity of employment give title to respect But in this where the Relation is to the highest and the business is about things most worthy and most necessary the practice is quite otherwise and we are exposed by our character and employment to disesteem and neglect 'T is true we are guilty of many sins and imperfections that may occasion disrespect but I hope not in proportion to the contempt that is upon us In judging of all others men make abatements in consideration of the weakness of humane nature But we are under the Law I mean as to mens censures and are judg'd by the strictest severities there is no mitigation no pardon for us and it will not be considered that we are but dust Yea every Mote in our eye is made a beam every infirmity is blown up to an height of villany and every vice of which any person among us is guilty is reflected upon the whole Order So that were it not for the right we expect at a juster Bar than that of mans judgement we were of all men the most miserable for we are treated here as if we had no claim to the civility and good nature of mankind but were either another race of creatures or out laws of this The Apostle suppos'd it reasonable we should be counted worthy of double honour but the world thinks single respect too much for us and treble contempt scarce enough We are gone over as the stones in the street by the carnal proud and reckon'd as the dirt of it by the spiritual Scorners Yea there are scarce any whose condition is so bad or so low but think themselves good enough and great enough to despise us We look not for the great honours and venerations of the world and 't is not fit we should but yet there is no man that is not stupid but would be sensible of such treatment and I think we ought to resent it since the ground of our reproach is contempt upon Religion if not upon the Author of it Abstract us from our relation to that and our Order may without boasting pretend to as much wisdom and knowledge ingenuity and vertue as other men Our
to consider whether its pretended friends have not been and are not still great occasions of it The greatest part of Christians are incapable of judging concerning the truth or goodness of any Church or Constitution of Religion but are inclin'd in their opinion and affection by the general temper and practice of its professors and adherents Now 't is an almost universal principle among men that Religion and the Worship of God require the greatest seriousness and zeal where these are observ'd in peoples carriage to their particular Church the most are usually inclin'd to have respect for that on the other side when the members of any Church are cold and unconcern'd or wanton and irreverent in their Religion such a temper when it comes to be general draws popular contempt upon that Church and way This at present is the sad case of ours and I doubt it may be too truly said that there are no retainers to any Church in the world who are so little concern'd for it and the worship of God in it as the pretenders to the Church of England If we survey our several Congregations and consider our people we shall find but very few that carry themselves as if they had any conscientious affection to the Religion they profess If the Estimate be taken from those that are constant or frequent at the publick Prayers in Cathedrals or other Churches certainly the number must be acknowledg'd to be very small and if we reckon only such that carry but the appearance of serious Devotion it will be yet less so that the Church may almost be tempted to say with him There is not one godly man left the righteous are minished from among the children of men There are indeed multitudes who will tell us they are of this Church when they give us no ground but their bare word to believe they are of any While they talk of owning and adhering to the Church they will not afford the solemn worship of it as much as their bodily presence as long as the Devil and their Lusts have employment for them elsewhere They carry themselves to it as to a matter of the greatest indifference will go to Church now and then when time lies upon their hands and they are in the humour for it and then again never think of Religion or Worship till another accident excites them And when they come to such Sacred places as this with what rude boldness do they enter Gods house and how much carelesness and irreverence do they express in their very looks and garb Confident negligence seems at present to be a fashion and the whole carriage after is sutable to this ill beginning What toying talking gazing laughing and other rude follies may we observe in the midst of the most solemn parts of worship and how much slightness and playsomness in speaking of serving God being devout saying prayers and such like serious things after it Now when these carriages are observ'd not to mention worse in those that say they are of the Church of England how readily doth it dispose the generality of men who judge by bare appearance to think amiss of the Church that is ordinarily thus treated by its members and to suppose most others that profess it to be of the same sort or not very different and so to despise the Church and all that adhere unto it This certainly is a very great occasion of her present contempt and if you would not be accessary to its increase and growth if it be capable of any more beware of this carelesness and irreverence to the Religion you profess If Religion be a real thing and not a meer imagination as nothing is more certain it then requires our greatest zeal and venerations and the most serious exercise of our faculties and endeavours no prostrations can be too low in the adoration of the God of Heaven no ingagement of soul too intense in praying for his blessing and praising him for his bounty no attention too serious in hearing of His Word no deportment too awful in His eye and special presence Let us all consider this and demean our selves in our worship as those that are in earnest Let the light of our zeal and devotion so shine before men that they seeing our works may glorifie God reverence the Church and vindicate it and us from the scorning of those that are at ease and the contempt of the proud Let us endeavour so to worship that the fervour of our piety may equal the truth of our profession and our actions in Religion may have some sutableness to our expectations from it And then though the Church and we are filled with contempt yet we shall be clear from any imputation of the guilt and our souls may be at ease though we are scorn'd by the Proud Preach'd at a Visitation SERMON VI. MORAL EVIDENCE OF A Life to Come The Second Edition SERMON VI. MATTH XXII 32. God is not the God of the dead but of the living NOtwithstanding the manifold and immediate Transactions of God with the people of the Jews yet were they a dull and stupid generation addicted very much to the matters of sense and indisposed to things of spiritual and invisible nature Yea there was a great and famous Sect among them that denied a Life to come and the Existence of immaterial beings For the Sadducees say there is no Resurrection neither Angels nor Spirit Acts 23. 8. These put the Question here to our Saviour in a case of a woman who successively had seven Husbands whose Wife she should be at the Resurrection from ver 22. to the 28. which captious Query they intended for an Argument against the Doctrine of another Life Christ answers directly to the objection by telling them their mistake of the state and condition of that Life since they neither marry nor are given in marriage that have attain'd unto it but are like the Angels of God ver 30. and then takes occasion to prove the Resurrection or Living again of the dead out of the writings of Moses the only Scripture the Sadducees allow'd ver 31 32. But as touching the Resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living The former clause of the verse cites the Scripture which is the ground of the Argument the latter is a principle of Reason and both together infer That there is a Resurrection Now the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection of the dead undertaken to be shewn was not the Resurrection of the body though that be a great truth also since the argument doth not reach this For one who believes that the soul lives after death may say That God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob though the body doth not rise for they are living in their souls which
two 1. The general belief and acknowledgement of another Life 2. The common desire of Memory after death 1. For the first the Doctrine of a Life to Come hath not been the opinion only of concern'd Priests or designing Politicians of melancholy Superstitionists or distracted Enthusiasts It hath not been the conceit of a single Age nor confin'd within the limits of one Country or Region but is as general as the Light and spread as far as the utmost bounds of the reasonable nature For those that are strangers to one another Laws and Customs and as different in their natures as they are distant in their Climes yet all alike concur in the expectation and belief of a future Being The cold Russian and scorch'd Moor the barbarous American and spruce Graecian the soft Chinese and the rough Tartar though vastly different in all other things yet they agree in this That there is another world and that we are immortal And 't is the observation of Pliny that those barbarous people that have neither Cloathes to cover their nakedness nor Laws for a common security that live by the Rules of ferity and lust and differ from the Beasts seemingly in little else but external shape that have neither Towns nor Houses and but just reason enough to provide for the necessities of nature yet these live in expectation and belief of a Life after this And the latter improvements of Navigation and remote discoveries confirm the same in the farthest darkest parts of the habitable Earth Now this general effect must have some general cause which cannot be any general deception For it is not morally possible that those who are at so vast a distance in place and nature and all other circumstances should agree in a common deceit and jump in the same imposture It must arise then either from some universal explicite Revelation or an universal Instinct or voice of nature If the former be granted 't is full proof of the assertion or if that be not 't is the other which seems most probable viz. that God hath inserted it into our reasonable natures or by his providence hath conveyed it into the minds of all men which is Tantamont unto it And so we are carried to this belief as the Lamb is to the Dugg or other creatures to the food or work of their particular natures On this account Aristotle sets it down for a Rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Cicero saith the same Quod omnibus videtur est That which seems to all is For what ever is so universal is from God who cannot deceive or be mistaken 2. The desire of Memory after death is an Instinct in mankind and whether the former be so properly or not this is certainly such All way have been taken to perpetuate mens Names and Memories Children and great Houses and noble Deeds and Books and Monuments yea and as if Earth wanted things sufficiently lasting to satisfie this appetite of Immortality men have placed themselves in the regions of incorruption and have called the Stars by their own names Now this universal thirst after such an imaginary Immortality is an inducement to believe there is a real one Since did we cease to be assoon as we die and disappear to this world such an appetite would be unreasonable and ridiculous For why should we desire a precarious being in a name and memory if our true selves were so shortly to be nothing Of what concernment is it to us to be remembred if in a few days all things should be forgotten for ever and we were to go into an eternal silence and oblivion What would a Stone be the better for being accounted one of the Ancient Pillars of Seth or a piece of wood in beeing esteemed a Sacred Relique of the Cross The summ is Mankind hath an appetite of posthumous Memory which would be senseless and to no purpose if there be no Life but this Now God implants no Instincts in his creatures that are futilous and in vain and therefore hence also we may conclude that there is a Future Being I have now done with the Arguments on which I intended to insist After all I cannot say that each of them is an absolute demonstration or that the evidence of every one is such as is impossible to be avoided there are few proofs of that nature But this I do that all of them together will I think make a cord hardly to be broken And these considerations in conjunction may amount to a moral demonstration and have force enough to obtain assent from those that are not stupid or unreasonable But yet the strongest proofs are those from the Scripture and all the Arguments that demonstrate the Truth of Christianity prove also the certainly of a Life after this For one of the great designs of the Holy Jesus was to bring Immortality to light and as I noted before he gave visible evidence of a future existence by his own Resurrection So that those that could not reason and dispute and see truth at distance in principles might however be convinced by a Demonstration to the Sense and those that could not be fully assured by the reasonings of Philosophers which many of them were very deep and many uncertain and many unsound and false might yet be perswaded by the miracles which were wrought by Christ and his Apostles to confirm those Doctrines which they taught of rewards and punishments in another Life And that there are such every thing in the whole Gospel either supposeth or proves These I say are the clearest and best evidence but they are such as are obvious to every understanding and cannot receive more light than what they have at first fight in themselves I therefore omit that sort of proof as not needed by those that embrace the Scripture and for others that believe it not the Reasons taken thence will be of no force with such men I have also designedly omitted the Arguments that arise from the nature of the Soul Philosophically consider'd for the reason mention'd in the beginning viz. because they are speculative and nice and so not proper for such discourses as this nor are they usually of much force upon the mind I Come II. to shew the Causes and Occasions of mens not believing a future state The chief are such as these 1. The Wickedness and Debauchery of the Unbelievers the horrid sins of their present lives make them afraid of another They are resolv'd on the course of vanity and folly while they live and would have all to end here They will crown themselves with Rosebuds and leave tokens of their mirth in every place they 'l let no Flower of the Spring pass by them nor lose any part of voluptuousness and this they would have to be their whole portion and their only lot to be this Away then ye melancholick dreams and troublesome fancies of another world ye are an offence unto us and savour not the things that are of
jollity and good humour ye damp our joyes and put bitterness into the sweetest draught of pleasure Therefore away to Cloysters and Cells and dwell there among the superstitious and the ignorant but leave us the liberty of our thoughts and the satisfaction of our enjoyments This is the reasoning if not the language of the Sadducee He is not willing that there should be another Life and therefore perswades himself that there is not any He would not meet himself again nor have such a restraint upon his appetites as the dread of an after-reckoning The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psal 14. 1. it follows They are become abominable Vice is at the root of Atheism and unbelief Sensuality drowns all the noble conceptions of the Soul and fills it with foul and bestial imaginations It ties mens thoughts down to present and sensible things and hinders their prospect into the Regions of Immortality It makes them like to the objects of their pleasures and renders them unable to resent future and spiritual satisfactions they can form no Idea of any thing agreeable to them in the other world all things there are uneasie and unrelishing at the best and the worst is not to be endured So that they bend their force to erase all impressions of so ungrateful a Doctrine in which at last through the power of their endeavours and the co-operation of Satan they effectually prevail and cast off all belief and expectation of any future Being Another cause of which is 2. Vain-glory and a proud affectation to be something extraordinary Vain men would be Wits and soar above the height of other mortals Their Eagle-sight is sharp and piercing and they espy the deceits and impostures that the rest of mankind are too dull to descry They despise the common Doctrines and proudly pity or laugh at the easiness of others who suffer themselves to be sway'd by them and by how much the more sacred the truths are which they reject by so much greater they reckon is the honour of their own sagacity in finding out the deceit by which so many have been abus'd and misled These are Wits in an instant at the top before they have taken the first step and perfect in knowledge as soon and some of them before they have begun If their accomplishments be measur'd by their confidence and their scorn they are the greatest Wits among men but if by their judgement and real knowledge they of any have not the least pretence to that title For though they may gain the glory among their easie companions by opposing the great acknowledgements of Religion and particularly this yet they will never by such ways obtain it from those who are really that which they affect to be thought It is the known observation of one who held a high place among the Wits of his Age That a little Philosophy and knowledge inclines men to be Infidels and Atheists but the greater measures set the mind right in Religion and secure it from the danger of those impieties So that who takes this way to be accounted a Wit makes himself a Fool to the wise without gaining the reputation of being wise among other Fools besides those of his own sort Or if he could attain the height of that ambition 't would prove a very dear credit that is purchased upon such terms as are the ruine of his soul the destruction of his best hopes and the degrading of his noble nature 3. Another main occasion of Infidelity in this Article is Enthusiasm or the entertainment of Principles of Faith upon the credit of phancies Dangerous is the case of Religion when Reason is thrown by and detested and the whole stress laid upon warm imaginations These indeed will hold up the mind for a while in great confidence of another world and fill it with a thousand extravagant images and chimaera's about it which will be all taken for clear light and solemn certainties while the wind sits right But then alas anon the scene alters and a change in the habit of the body disposeth the man to other thoughts and so all is flung away as delusion and the Enthusiast is strongly carried down by the over-bearing of his melancholy into the doleful conceit of his mortality and the belief that he shall die like the Beasts that perish And that that humour disposeth men naturally to such apprehensions we may see in Job who spake in the trouble of his spirit and in the bitterness of his mind he said There is hope of a Tree if it be cut down that it will sprout and the branches thereof will not cease But man is sick and dieth and man perisheth and where is he Job 14. He seems to speak in this and other passages like an Epicurean or a Sadducee and the question looks comfortless and discouraging ver 14. If a man die shall be live again The good man was under the disorder of a great and just sadness and that represented all things as dark and dismal to his wounded phancy and seem'd sometimes to deprive him of the only remaining comfort the hope of a better condition in another world The same effects hath melancholy still upon many Euthusiastick tempers on some of which it prevails so far as to fix those impressions on their minds which never are worn off And though Job recover'd quickly by the exercise of his Faculties and the reason that God had given him and expresseth his expectation of a Future Life immediately after the passage of greatest doubt All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Yet those whose principles are fastned only by their phancies and the impulse of present belief are in great danger to be lost in such temptations Thus are some men disposed to Infidelity by their own Enthusiasms and the same too frequently give occasion to others to laugh at the belief of a future Being by representing that state in various shapes and under very odd disguises I Am next to shew III. What the denial of a future Life infers in the reasoning and consequence of it 1. It follows hence that man is but a better beast and those Wits speak agreeably to this principle that whether in earnest or in jest Satyrize humane nature and represent us only as somewhat a more cunning Herd of Cattle For if this Life be all we have the same end and happiness with the bruits and they are happier of the two in that they have lesser cares and fewer disappointments than we Our Reason and Religion upon which we so much value our selves according to this doctrine are but chains of imaginations and those but refined sense and so the soul and principle of action is no other in us than it is in them and we differ but little more than one sort of Beasts doth from another namely than the more stupid doth from those that are more sprightly and sagacious And then farewell the
both and then the scuffle grows warm of Pride against Hypocrisie and the self-conceit of one Sect against the Pride of another and all against sobriety and truth and thus is the Church divided the interest of Religion weakned and the world prepared for Atheism But 2. Another instrument and Device Satan useth to imbroil the Church is Fantastick heat under the name and notion of divine zeal Fire is a subtile and powerful Divider and no fire like that which is supposed to come from the Altar though it be but a passionate flame kindled in a fiery temper that is only tinctured with Religion For every thing that is hot and vehement about Religious matters wears the name and Livery of Zeal and Zeal when 't is directed by good Principles to the ends of sobriety and vertue is a noble and generous temper but when 't is actuated by ignorance and evil principles and hurried on by blind impulses to the ends of rage and animosity 't is a dangerous and killing evil And like a fire-brand in a Magazine of powder which destroys without distinction and blows up every thing that resists the fury of its motion This then being fair in its pretence and mischievous in its effects Satan useth in his designs of dividing He kindleth some little Religious warmths in eager and violent Constitutions and blows the Coals till natural passion be concerned and fired So that at last what was at first only a spark of Religion becomes a mighty flame of Rage Then breaks he out upon the Church with this holy Fire destroys that Charity which is the bond of peace and fills all with smoak and vapour darkness and confusion He Christens this Jehu-like fury a Zeal for God and declaims against every thing that is sober and temperate as luke-warmness and indifference He gets into the Populace who have many grains of Rage for one of Judgement and hurries the poor mistaken Bigot together with the proud Pharisaical Dissenter and the silly conceited Schismatick into the same unavoidable ruine to eternal ages From which c. SERMON XI THE ANTIQUITY OF OUR FAITH Stated and Cleared SERMON XI JUDE I. 3. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints OUr Saviour tells us in the Parable that where the Husbandman had sown the good Seed there the enemy scatter'd Tares where God by his Spirit and Messengers hath planted Sacred and Divine truths there Satan sets Errours Heresies and Doctrines not according to Godliness These were early in the Christian Church even in the original Purity and Simplicity of it There were then Deceivers Lying Spirits Seducers who separated themselves from the Communion of the Church crept into houses led captive silly men and silly women privily brought in damnable Heresies even to the denying the Lord that bought them turned many from the faith to follow fables dreams and sensless imaginations Such there were then and St. Paul tells us that there must be Heresies 1 Cor. 11. 19. The lusts and various corruptions of men in conjunction with the permissions of God make them unavoidable Some of the first we read of in the Christian Church were the Judaizing Christians who taught the necessity of retaining the Mosaical law the denyers of the Resurrection and the vile Gnosticks who under pretence of more knowledge and higher priviledges abused Christian Liberty to all licentiousness and vileness of living making shipwrack both of Faith and Conscience Against these St. Peter St. James St. John particularly write in their Epistles and this of our Apostle St. Jude is all directed against that Heresie In opposition to which writing of the Common Salvation he saith it was needful to write unto them the true Catholicks and exhort them that they should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints This was needful in his days and 't is certainly as necessary in ours in which all the old Heresies are revived with the addition of new on which account the subject is too seasonable and I chose it at this time as a Preface to the discourses I intend on all the main Principles of the Christian Religion as I have already treated in order on all the Principal heads of the Natural In the words read two main propositions are implyed 1. That there was a Faith anciently deliver'd to the Saints 2. That all Christians are bound to contend and earnestly for that Faith which was deliver'd to those Saints I begin with the First There was a Faith deliver'd to the Saints Now aimidst the great diversity and contrariety of opinions that at present are in the Christian Church each entitling it self to the Faith that was originally deliver'd to the Saints it may seem a matter of difficulty to determine which is the right the true Faith which difficulty doth not arise so much from the nature of the thing as it doth from mens corrupt interests and affections disputing about it And therefore abstracting from these I shall endeavour to set before you the chief Characters of the true Faith by which you may judge what that is and where it is to be found And 1. The Faith we treat of is an Ancient Primitive Faith Quod verum id prius Truth was from the beginning Divers of the Doctrines with which our Saviour hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world were before his personal appearance in it Before Abraham was I am saith He and Abraham saw his day the discovery of his great truths and ways He was the Author and Finisher of our Faith In him it begun and it was consummate in his personal teaching and instructions of his immediate Disciples and Apostles who by the Spirit deliver'd to us what they had received from him Natural Truths are more and more discover'd by time For many go to and fro and Science shall be encreased But those divine verities are most perfect in their fountain and original They contract impurities in their streams and remote derivations and the way to discover the corruptions is to stand upon the old ways and see how it was in the beginning By this Character of the Faith that of the Roman Church is condemn'd For all the Doctrines and usages of that Church that are denyed and opposed by ours are in comparison Novelties and Innovations and whatever Antiquity they pretend to they were not primitive Their Image-Worship Invocation of Saints Half-Communion and Prayer in an unknown tongue are directly palpably contrary to the Holy Scriptures Their pretended Infallibility and Universality their Indulgences Purgatory and Transubstantiation with divers others of their Doctrines and usages are by plain consequence condemn'd by those Sacred Writings which are the repository of the ancient Faith and Practice and both the one and the other were unknown to the first and
would suffer a contradiction and become imperfect And that not only for the future but the present by introducing such passions as must needs debase and allay the highest delights So that by being thus secur'd in the possession of our happiness we receive thereby an unspeakable addition to it II. Proceed we next to shew you the Security and Evidence upon which this happiness is promis'd and asserted and whether it bear any proportion to our duty and the Rewards of it for so we are allow'd to call them though not upon the account of merit yet by reason of their necessary connexion with dependance upon and that kind such a one as 't is of proportion they bear to each other There is a two-fold evidence God Almighty has given us for the strengthning of our hope and confirming of our faith in the belief and expectation of the other World The first moral grounded upon the testimony of the Spirit the other I call natural and is grounded in the things themselves 1. The first evidence of our future bliss is the testimony of the Spirit express in the Text Yea saith the Spirit But then we must have a care of what kind of Testimony of the Spirit we understand it for understand it as 't is vulgarly taken for some act or operation wrought in and upon us besides the Enthusiasm of it fain would I be satisfy'd what validity can there be in such a testimony as it self needs something else to confirm it for so this testimony of the Spirit is to be tryed by its concordance and agreement to the word of God nor do I know any other way to distinguish it from a motion or suggestion of the Devil 's besides And though to err thus in this single instance may not be very pernicious for I am not mighty solicitous how it was wrought so there be a firm perswasion in us of this truth yet in other cases I know how dangerous it is nor is it safe in this for it leaves a passage open and unguarded to down-right Atheism By the testimony of the Spirit therefore I understand the word of God or the Scriptures as made known and prov'd to us to be deriv'd from this Divine Spirit which we may call the outward testimony thereof for though St. John knew this by the other way as most certainly all others did who received any Revelation yet never was any other than the person himself assur'd that way Nor do I make degrees of more or less certainty in the way or manner of the Spirit 's revealing a thing for the Apostles were as well assur'd of the infallibility of their doctrine before they wrought any miracles as we are by them but we were not nor could be so But this notwithstanding in respect of us we must admit of such degrees for no body I hope will be so blasphemous to equal such private dictates they have in their own breast to the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures So then I make this to be the moral evidence of future happiness God hath said it in his word And this I call a moral certainty not in opposition to divine and infallible as they are sometimes contradistinguish'd but only to natural for we can desire no greater evidence we cannot have a higher confirmation of any truth than the veracity of Heaven to attest it I do not know any proposition that carries greater self-evidence than this That God ought to be believ'd in what he says and therefore though we may question the truth of the Revelation 't is impossible to do so of any thing we acknowledge to be so revealed So that the stress of this point lyes upon that great and necessary praecognition in our Religion namely the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures Upon which postulate if we proceed there is as great certainty of the truth of this proposition That good men shall enjoy eternal happiness after this life as if we should again hear that Daughter of voice and God himself should sensibly attest it 2. But there is another ground or evidence of our future happiness which I call natural because it depends upon that Intrinsick Relation and consent there is between goodness and it the difference between them being only in degree like the dawning of the Morning to the lustre of the Noon For what is it to be happy but to be united to God and what does unite us to God but Love and what is the love of God but Religion And if you remove but all inward imperfections and all outward impediments there remains no difference at all So that Virtue and Piety do not only dispose and prepare us for Heaven and Salvation but we thereby receive and experience the very beginnings and anticipations of it And though in respect of the mutability of our will and affections toward God and goodness in this world we cannot be infallibly assur'd of it as to our own particulars because every alteration in the one produceth a like answerable effect as to the other Yet in the general we may even from hence be very well assur'd hereof because there is nothing more requir'd to the compleating of our essential happiness than an advance and progression in the same vertuous tract And however it looks in a Divine if we will speak rationally to the thing we must allow the love and hatred of God to be the true natural causes of our salvation and damnation even of their very eternity it being naturally impossible to be other than happy while we love God and contrariwise if we hate him and this is the only instant cause of its continuation through all the durations of Eternity And to remove your astonishment see how in this lower world many stupendous and admirable works are daily produc'd which were mean and unnoted while they lay hid and contain'd in the seminal beginnings after the same wonderful manner by divers minute gradations does this divine Creature grow up from its first formation in our trembling and unstable desires to the stature and perfection of Everlasting Glory And yet there remains less doubt if we take in the Consideration of the Divine nature How else will you vindicate the Justice of God in all the odd and confused occurrences of this World Where 's your infinite goodness and bounty that suffers its servants always to be neglected what will become of an almighty and omniscient Justice if sinners are never call'd to an accompt Or one or t'other cannot be III. 'T is true indeed the compleating of this bliss which brings us to our next head is neither promis'd nor to be had in this life 'T is at Death these rewards become due and payable Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera possit It has been the constant method of Divine providence to cause the most excellent things to follow and arise from the most uncouth and unlikely Thus in the Creation order springs from confusion and