Principles and went astray from the center of his Happiness No doubt Antiquity is venerable but it must be in a good Cause and where Truth and that join together the Argument is perswasive and may be call'd invincible But a thing is not therefore true because it is antient nor doth it command Assent because of its uncommon Pedigree Sin and Error lose little of their Deformity by appealing to antient Times and an Error is so much the worse by how much it defends it self by the Practice of former Ages Idolatry and all the Vices in the World may shelter themselves under this Roof and there is no Villany so great but Men may find a President two or three thousand Years ago The Priests of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus called the Wicker-image of that Goddess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen down from Jupiter meerly because it was antient and the Temple having been seven times ruin'd and built up again and this Image still preserved was to them an Argument that this Worship must be lawful Indeed at this rate a Man might even defend Sodomy with the Romish Archbishop Joannes Casa because it was practised in the Cities which God destroyed with Fire and Brimstone and the Jews would have had a good Plea for their Adoration of the Queen of Heaven because their Fathers had been used to it This very Argument makes the Allegations of the Roman Church from Antiquity ridiculous and they might as well espouse the Heresies of Ebian and Cerinthus because they lived in and about the Age of the holy Apostles When God hath given a Standard of Truth that must be the Rule whereby Truth and Error must be concluded and when that saith a thing is true it is not its being revived or taught but Yesterday that can make it false and whatever is contrary to that Form of sound Words must be Erroneous and False though it were as old as the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram The Worship of Images is not therefore lawful because Irene a superstitious Woman 900 Years ago got a company of illiterate and passionate Men together who decreed it in a Council nor is Sedition and Disobedience to Magistrates therefore justifiable because Gregory II. Pope of Rome in the eighth Century shook off the Authority of Leo Isaurus his Emperor And therefore let none of you plead for any Sin because it is the fashion nor allow themselves in Actions offensive to God's Holiness because it hath been the Custom of the Country to do so for many Ages This will be but a poor defence in the last Day to alledge that you follow'd the sinful Practices of your Ancestors or to say it was unmannerly to depart from that which was done before you for many Generations To be sure Men were good before they were bad and there was a Golden Age before that of Iron took place in the World and therefore if Antiquity be a motive nothing can challenge your Embraces more than Righteousness and dominion over your Appetite and Passions for that was in the World before Mankind knew what it was to depart from the living God Murder is as antient as the time of Cain yet no civiliz'd Nation under the cope of Heaven will allow of it because of its Antiquity So far from it that in all Countries it is order'd to be punish'd with the Death of the insolent Creature Which calls me to the II. Observation That Murder is a Crime which a Magistrate must by no means suffer to go unpunished for it hath been said Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment The Substance of this hath been said by Almighty God as well as by them of old time and so far as God hath said it it is a Law unalterable Murder is a truly crying Sin for the Voice of thy Brother's Blood crys unto me from the ground saith God Gen. IV. 10 This is a Crime which Nature it self trembles at and yet we see there are Wretches and Monsters who can steel and harden their Consciences against the Horror of it But God thunders against it from Heaven and because the Crime is so great he hath made a Law and given it to all Mankind That whoso sheds Mans Blood by Man i. e. by the Magistrates shall his Blood be shed Gen. ix 6 Nay if a wild Beast tears a Man who is going about his lawful Occasions in pieces though an irrational Creature God will strike that Beast dead because it kill'd Sanctius his Animal a nobler and more sacred Fabrick So tender is God of the Life of Man nor would he suffer his Tabernacle or Sanctuary to be a refuge for such a barbarous Wretch The Horns of the Altar could not save the Offender and from the very Temple he was to be dragg'd to the Gallows or place of Execution The whole Country comes to be defiled by the horrid Crime where it goes unpunish'd and that Magistrate makes his Soul black with Guilt that connives at the inhumane Action or out of respect to Greatness or Rank or Quality pardons the intollerable Extravagance Where this remains unpunish'd when known a Nation falls under the Curse of God and whatever Judgments befal them an Ounce of the unpunish'd Murder as the Jews say of the Sin of the Golden Calf may be said to be an Ingredient of their Calamity We have a Distinction in our Law betwixt Mans-Slaughter and Murder A Distinction which I wish did not too often cover that Bloody Crime which ought to be avenged by publick Justice The Word of God knows no such Distinction and tho' it provides for Chance-medly and gives pardon to the Man that unawares and without any intent to kill proves the occasion of another's Death yet this is nothing to that Act which Wrath and Anger whether sudden or premeditate doth produce to the Horror of the Creation Neither doth the Law of the Gospel nor the Law of Moses in this case before us reverse the Law of Nature and God is so resolute that the Magistrate shall punish such Offenders with Death that where they do not himself sometimes takes the Sword in hand and executes the presumptuous Destroyer of his Image Nay many times makes the Wretch that did the Fact and escapes the Magistrates Sword his own Executioner Alphonsus Diazius a Spaniard and a Roman Catholick having kill'd his own Natural Brother for turning Protestant for which he receiv'd the Praises and Applauses of considerable Men in the Church of Rome haunted and hunted at last by the Furies of his own Conscience desperately hang'd himself at Trent de callo Mulae suae saith the Historian upon the Neck of his own Mule It 's true there are those who guilty of such Crimes do yet escape the revenging Arm of God and Man here but the more terrible will be their Cup of trembling hereafter and God lets some like stall'd Oxen grow fat on this side the Grave that
Connection And therefore I conceive the antient Expositors of the Law contracted what Moses had said into this Motto Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment 2. What is said here of Killing is meant of killing a Man and hath respect to the sixth Commandment Thou shalt do no Murder By which Law as the killing of Beasts for Man's use could not be intended nor destroying venomous and noxious Animals nor executing of Malefactors by order of the Magistrate nor depriving Men of their Lives in a just and lawful War but an unjust depriving a Man of his Life so there was a punishment suitable annex'd to the breach of that Law which Punishment was to be ordered and inflicted by the Magistrate and so far as the Law of God given by Moses went all was right and just and reasonable but here the Masters of Tradition had made a Distinction that if a Man had hired another to kill his Neighbour or had let loose a wild Beast upon him whereby he died the Magistrate was not to inflict the Punishment of Death upon him but he was to be left to the extraordinary Judgment of God but if he killed him in Person either by a Sword or by a Stone or by some other Weapon then the Magistrate was to execute the Penalty appointed by the Law of Moses upon him but this was not all for they taught moreover that though a Person who killed another was liable to capital Punishments yet the Wrath the Anger and the Malice that prompted him to it was a thing that deserved no Punishment and therefore this was not a thing to be feared and here came in Tradition which mis-interpreted the Law of Moses though it stands to Reason that he who forbids a Sin at the same time doth forbid the occasion of it and all such things as do naturally lead to the Commission of it 3. Our Saviour to shew that Wrath and Anger and Malice and reproachful Language were liable to Punishment as well as Murder and that God would certainly lash them as well as the greater Enormities takes notice of several degrees of unjust Wrath and Anger The first is a sudden Effervescence or Boyling up of the Blood or some violent Agitation and Commotion of the Passions upon a frivolous occasion and therefore adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without sufficient Cause which though it be not in some Copies yet must necessarily be understood here not denying but that Anger in some Cases may be lawful but shewing withal that if the occasion of the Anger be slight and trivial and the Anger even in a lawful Cause be excessive and going beyond its just Bounds it provokes God's heavy Displeasure But then if this secret Anger within or the first boyling over of the Blood proceeeds farther to contemptuous Words and that a Man in Wrath and Malice gives his Neighbour reproachful Language despising and undervaluing him by using Expressions and Names which wound his Reputation intimated by the Word Rakah i. e. vile and worthless Wretch though I am apt to believe that an angry and threatning noise and posture is chiefly meant by that Word in this Case the Sin rises higher and becomes greater and consequently deserves a severer Judgment but then if this Anger mounts higher yet and from an angry threatning Posture and Noise which betrays Wrath and Indignation it proceeds to the calling our Neighbour Fool i. e. wicked and reprobate Wretch deserving the eternal Anger both of God and all good Men which is the meaning of the Word Fool in the Proverbs of Solomon as the Sin becomes more heinous by this Aggravation so the Punishment of it in the other World will be greater yet 4. What our Saviour saith here of a certain Gradation of Punishments due to the several Lusts and degrees of Wrath and Anger Judgment Council Hell Fire must be understood of Penalties in the next World yet with allusion to the degrees of Punishment among the Jews in this Life Now among the Jews there were three degrees of publick Infamy according to the nature of the Punishment inflicted on Men for their Crimes and the more publick the Punishment was the greater was the Infamy If an Offender were brought before the Court of Three and twenty which was an inferiour Court of Judicature called here being guilty of the Judgment and there condemn'd he was infamous and a great Disgrace it was to him but in a lower degree If he were brought before the Sanedrin or the Great Council of the Nation consisting of LXX Elders in the nature of our Parliament and by them adjudged to Death the Infamy and Disgrace was greater Yet if lastly a Man were condemn'd to be burnt in the Valley of Hinnon or Tophet where all the Trash and Filth of the City of Jerusalem the Garbage and dead Carcasses were burnt and where antiently they offered their Children to Moloch and where a perpetual Fire was kept to consume all things that were offensive and nauseous and which by the Jews themselves was look'd upon as an Emblem of Hell Fire the Infamy was greatest of all According to these degrees of Infamy here on Earth Christ shews there will be degrees of Punishment for the several degrees of unjust and unlawful Anger in the other World for most certainly this Threatning cannot be understood with respect to this Life there being no such thing inflicted upon Men for Anger and reproachful Names on this side the Grave and whereas the Jews were generally afraid chiefly of Punishments in this Life Christ thought sit to acquaint them and us that we had far greater reason to be afraid of the Punishments in the next as more dreadful and more grievous than any they could fear here on Earth And this is the meaning of the Commination in the Text Whosoever c. From the Words thus explained arise these following Truths I. Antiquity is no warrant for erroneous Doctrines and Practices II. Murder is a Crime which the Magistrate must by no means suffer to go unpunish'd III. Wrath and Anger without a just Cause hath its degrees and according to the degrees of the Sin the Punishment in the next World will be proportionable 1. Antiquity is no warrant for erroenous Doctrines and Practices The Scribes and Pharisees here pretended that what they taught and practis'd concerning the sixth Commandment was deliver'd to them by them of old Time But our Saviour shews that this pretence could be of no use to them but rather betray'd than cover'd their Nakedness Error pleads Antiquity as well as Truth and though nothing be more antient than Truth for it is from Eternity and before ever Error appear'd in the World Truth had the universal Monarchy yet Error is as ancient as the Fall As soon as the Apostate Angels forsook their Habitation and Integrity together Error began to shew it self which soon spread it self through the habitable World when Man tempted by the Devil consented to his false
Sin must be removed and of this Nature are immodest and obscene Discourses and Communications against which the Ears must be stopt or the Company avoided where such Discourses are familiar and frequent Eph. v. 3 4. Add to all this reading obscene Books and Pamphlets Books of Love Tricks such as Romances Plays and other Fooleries which are nothing but Incentives to Lust and so are your promiscuous Dancings and Revelings after luxurious Meals and seeing of Stage-plays where these Lusts are represented in taking shapes and all other things which the Enemy of Mankind hath invented to drown Men in Perdition But after all our Saviour's Rule in the Text must be conscientiously observed Look off from the Object that is apt to shoot an evil Desire into your Minds or hath done it several times when your Eyes have taken Liberty to behold such things Avoid the sight of them as you would do the Eyes of a Basilisk Let your Eyes be as useless that way as if they were pluck't out as if you had none as if you were blind and could not see Do not touch do not handle do not lay your Hands upon those parts which are apt to raise the Spirit of Uncleanness in you Let your Hands be as useless to you in that point as if they were cut off The same may be said of your Feet Come not near the House of the Person who is apt to bewitch your Souls keep out of her Company that 's like to delude you and may give occasion to dangerous Thoughts and Desires Let your Feet be as useless to you in going to such Places as if they were cut off If after all this the Lust be stubborn and will not yield to the Obedience of Christ the antient Severities and Austerities I mentioned in the preceding Proposition must be made use of and the Body must be used coursely not only in Diet but in Cloaths and Apparel and by other Punishments voluntarily inflicted upon your selves whereof I could give you such Instances out of Antiquity as would possibly exceed your Belief though I doubt not but there is Truth in them And when the Fewel is withdrawn the Fire will go out St. Chrysostom takes notice that our Saviour's Command here is easie It would have been more severe if so be he had commanded us to stand near the Fire and take heed we be not singed or burnt to keep Company with incentives to Lust and yet to feel no disorderly Motions in the Soul Indeed what he enjoins here is so far from being unreasonable that he commands nothing but what the Light of Nature hath taught the very Heathens to observe And if after all the danger of being cast into Hell can make no Impressions upon us or make us forbear what our Master saith will be the undoing of us most certainly we know not what that Punishment is and will not know it nor indeed do we believe it I confess I would have you do what Christ says is necessary upon a Principle of Love but if your Tempers are so stubborn that Love cannot melt you into a cheerful Compliance with your Masters Will you have reason to fright your selves with the danger of that Fire which shall never be quenched In a word do any thing to save your selves from this untoward Generation Sins as dear as the right Eye as precious as the right Hand will fall and die if they be brought to feel that Fire I mean by attentive Thinking and Meditation I doubt not but the unhappy Creatures to whose share the future Torment falls wish and will wish that they had pluckt out their right Eye and cut off their right Hand rather than have come into that place of Torment Oh! how they will curse the Day the Time the Place when and where they committed their Lewdness and Impurities nay the Eye that deceived them into those Lusts and the Hand that tempted them to Sin and would God be so kind as to free them from the Prison they groan in upon condition that they should pluck out both their Eyes and cut off both their Hands they would thank him for the Favour and think their Judge wonderfully Merciful to agree to such soft and reasonable Terms The present Satisfaction is the Lime-twig that keeps People under the power of Sin and Satan But were that Hell we speak of set out in its native Colours and compared with that Satisfaction you would scorn it as much as you do the most loathsome Animals To enjoy the present Satisfaction of Sin and yet to escape Hell are things inconsistent and in Divinity impossible therefore that Satisfaction must be quitted or if Death should arrest you in that Satisfaction the other will certainly take place All which makes our Saviour's Discourse here very rational and equitable If thy right Eye offend thee pluck it out c. SERMON XXVII St. Matt. Ch. v. Ver. 31 32. It hath been said whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a Writing of Divorcement But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causes her to commit Adultery and whosoever Marries her that is Divorced commits Adultery WHEN Christ the Son of Righteousness appeared in this Vale of Misery the World was so corrupt that the attempt to reform c. would have frighted the wisest the most valiant any Society of Men any Man but him who had Omnipotence to back him To say nothing of the Heathen Nations who had been suffered to walk in their own ways and therefore no wonder if they sunk into all the dreadful Vices mentioned Rom. i. The Jews to whom pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenant and the Promises and the giving of the Law whose were the Fathers and of whom Christ came after the Flesh and of whom one would have expected a Purity answerable to their Mercies and Encouragement These though they had made a shift to renounce Idolatry yet had so vitiated and polluted all the Articles of Divinity and all the Rules of Morality that it required a strength greater than that of Hercules to purge that Augaean Stable You have seen already their various Violations of things Sacred and Divine and the ill favoured Interpretations they put upon the Law against Murther and the other against Adultery The same Liberty or Licentiousness they practised or made use of in the matter of Divorces or putting away their Wives and in doing so they grounded themselves upon a Text of the Law of Moses Deut. xxiv 1 2. where Moses permits Men in certain cases to separate themselves from their Wives and in order thereunto to give them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bill to certifie that Separation or a Writing of Divorcement which Text our Saviour alledges and admits of doth not deny that such a thing was permitted under the Law but partly to shew that they wilfully depraved and perverted the Sense and Design of that Law
kindness O Lord toward them that fear thee and put their trust in thee before the Sons of Men They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasure for with thee is the Fountain of Life and in thy Light we shall see Light This must needs be a very comfortable Consideration to all that by patient continuance in Well-doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Rain and Sun-shine and the common Blessings of this Life are not the proper Rewards God intends you These are Mercies design'd chiefly for his Slaves and meaner Servants They are greater richer and nobler Blessings that are appointed for his Friends and Children Eye hath not seen and Ear hath not heard and Heart cannot conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him Grieve not ye in whom the fruits of the Spirit do appear that God doth not give you the Blessings of his Left-hand the Blessings of Men who have their portion in this Life If he should put you off with these you would be miserable The Joys above the triumphs of Paradise the felicity of Angels the festivals of Heaven the eternal Enjoyments of God the everlasting rest the endless beatitude in your Father's House These are the Portions of his Children This World indeed is inhabited by his Friends but the greater part of those who dwell in the Earth are his Enemies Among these good Men live as Strangers and Pilgrims but they are higher larger and loftier Mansions that are prepared for them and when their Earthly House of this Tabernacle shall be dissolv'd there will fall to their share a building of God a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens SERMON XXXVII St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 46 47. For if you love them which love you what Reward have you Do not even the Publicans the same And if ye salute your Brethren only what do you more than others Do not even the Publicans so LAws are best understood by the Preamble because that gives an account of the occasion to these Words by the preceding Among the Rules of Holy Living prescrib'd by our Saviour to his Disciples in this Chapter that of loving our Enemies blessing them that curse us and doing good to them that hate us and praying for them which despitefully use us is most remarkable He was sensible Flesh and Blood would raise Objections against this Duty and therefore he backs it with Arguments great and powerful to let us see how equitable and reasonable it is In the preceding Verse he sets before us the Example of God who receives greater Affronts and Injuries and Abuses from sinful Men than one Man can possible receive from another And yet as ill as that Supream Being is used he lets his Sun rise upon the Evil and the Good and sends Rain upon the Just and Unjust The next Motive is taken from the nature of the Christian Discipline which transcends all other Religions in the World and whose very design it is to raise Men above the common level of Nature and Education and consequently requires greater degrees of Love and Goodness to Men than natural Men Heathens and Sinners and Publicans usually pay for if ye love them which love you what Reward have ye do not even the Publicans the same and if ye salute your Brethren only what do ye more than others do not even the Publicans so The Publicans here mention'd were Persons that sate at the receipt of Custom or receiv'd the Customs due to the Roman Emperors in Palestinae from Commodities Imported or Exported Such a one was Matthew the Writer of this Gospel Matth. ix 9 and Zachaeus Luk. xix 2 i. e. before they were Converted for though Tertullian will not allow that any Jews were Custom-House Men or would suffer themselves to be employ'd in the receipt of Customs yet that in this Point he is under a very great Mistake is evident from the Examples of Matthew and Zacchaeus who were both Jews and of the Stock of Abraham Mar. ii 14 Luk. xix 9 It 's possible there might not be so many Jews of that Profession as there were Greeks or Romans yet that even the Jews did sometimes court and accept of these Employments and personally discharg'd them what has been alledg'd is as good as Demonstration These Publicans were properly Gatherers or Receivers of the Customs or a kind of Under-farmers For the Roman Government under which the Jews at this Time were used to let the Customs of the several Countries under their Dominion to Farm or to be farmed by the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen of Rome These undertook to pay the Government a certain Summ for the Customs of such a Country And these Farmers had Officers under them who either farmed the Customs of them again or were at the trouble of Gathering and Receiving them whereby they had great Opportunities and were under very great Temptations to Cheat and Exact upon the Merchants and others they had to deal with and such were the Publicans in the Text. And therefore they were commonly look'd upon as Extortioners Unjust Unrighteous and Oppressors and among the Jews particularly they had so ill a name that they were called Sinners by way of eminency and a Heathen and a Publican were with them convertible Terms Nay the Pharisees seem'd to exclude them from all hopes of Salvation which was one great reason I suppose why many of them I mean of these Publicans did so readily close and join with Christ when he preach'd to them Repentance and offer'd them the Kingdom of Heaven But though they were guilty of great Oppression and Extortion and false Accusation and lived by it and by that means lay expos'd to other Vices as one Sin seldom goes alone yet they were not so bad those who were Jews especially as to neglect the common Duties of Religion or the ordinary Offices of Civility and Humanity which makes our Saviour say and affirm that they loved those who were loving and friendly to them and saluted those who were their Brethren and Acquaintance and were civil to Men of their own Religion This being premised the Observations the Text affords may be reduc'd to these three Propositions I. Even wicked Men do and may perform the common Duties of Religion and Morality II. Those who would be Christians indeed must do more than Carnal Men in Matters of Religion and Morality III. If they do not they have no Reward I begin with the first which imports that even wicked Men do and may perform the common Duties of Religion and Morality a truth plainly intimated in the Text for the Publicans were Men wicked and scandalous who got their Livelihood by Cheating Lying Defrauding False-accusation c. It 's true there lay no necessity upon them to do so for St. John the Baptist told some of them who came to him for Advice that they might continue in their Calling provided they
this mean Spirit of theirs as being contrary to this natural Principle of loving those who love us 3. The same may be said of all Persons who have been signally oblig'd by others and yet can hardly afford a good Word to those from whom they have receiv'd such signal Kindness but carried away by Faction or Interest speak Evil of them and Revile them would to God such Persons were as rare among us as African Monsters are but even of such ungrateful Wretches the Age we live in gives us too many Instances David complained of them long ago Yea mine own familiar Friend in whom I trusted and who did eat of my Bread hath lift up his Heel against me Psal. xxi 9 and could any thing be more base or barbarous than for Herod to go about to kill Christ who had purged his Country of Devils and Diseases Luke xiii 31 And was it not a most Inhumane Attempt for those very Soldiers whose Lives St. Paul preserv'd from Shipwrack to consult to kill him with the rest of the Prisoners Acts xxvii 42 43. And it seems this wicked Generation doth last still And what shall I say more we cannot without Grief behold the many bold Offences which are committed daily against this Principle of Nature even in those Relations the very Name of which speaks mutual and reciprocal Kindnesses such as Husband and Wife Brothers and Sisters Masters and Servants c. who would suspect Unkindness among those Relatives to those especially who study and seek their Good and are more than ordinarily concern'd to express their Love and Respect to them and in whose Mouth is the Law of Kindness yet even in this Grass the Serpent lies and the Snake doth hiss After all the Rich and Great offend against this Law such I mean as are Morose and Proud and Self-conceited and do not think a poor Neighbour their Brother in Christ worthy of a civil Salutation a Civility not denied by Heathens and Publicans to the meanest of their Brethren and of this nature are those false Salutations and pretended Civilities of dissembling and Hypocrital Men such as Joab and others whose Words are softer than Butter but War is in their Hearts who seem indeed to love those who love them but it is from the Teeth outward for they hate them within There needs no Gospel to condemn such bold and daring Sinners The light of Nature will serve to do it though it is confess'd that the Gospel under which they live and which teaches them greater and better things will help to aggravate both their Sin and Punishment And this will justifie our third Enquiry III. How Men come to sink so low so much beneath Heathens and Publicans as to act against this natural Principle And 1. They have very weak dull and dark apprehensions of the worth and nature of Christianity and indeed of any Religion some Religion or other they must profess and since Providence lets them stumble upon the Christian they embrace it but cansider not what it imports how holy its Precepts are how rich its Promises how ample its Advantages how clear its Revelations how great its Excellencies and how justly it requires greater Strictnesses than either Judaism or Heathenism or any other Religion in the World This Consideration would make them dread offending against the Law of Nature and make them asham'd to think that they who are bound to do more than others should not do so much as others These things being no Objects of their Thoughts they have a very low Opinion of the Religion they profess and therefore are not concern'd nor frighted if they fall below the Grandeur of it lower than Heathens and Publicans and consequently do not love those who love them 2. Their Lusts are stronger than their Religion This natural Principle of loving those who love them is agreeable enough to their Reason and Speculation but some predominant Lust either Avarice or Ambition or Pride or Envy or Lasciviousness or Delight in vain Company or something their sickly Desires crave and which they fancy their reciprocal Love would hinder them from some such Lust I say reigning and domineering within it damps and drowns that reciprocal Love they owe to those that love them A Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed saith St. James Ch. i. 14 As natural as it is to be kind to those who are so to us yet if a Man gives way to some violent Lust or Desire and le ts that have the upper-hand it will draw and force the Man away from the most easie and most familiar and most rational Duty whatsoever Not to mention that if the Party who is or hath been kind be defective in one Act if after nineteen Kindnesses he fail to do the twentieth This shall be thought by such Persons an Argument sufficient to justifie their want of reciprocal Love and Affection But this shews the disingenuity of their Temper and that an Evil Spirit hath taken Possession of their Hearts and committed a Rape upon the dictates of their Reason and Understanding And thus Men come to act against Principles which even Heathens and Publicans do observe Inferences I. I observe here That Religion is not intended to make Men Clownish and Uncivil For our Saviour in the Text supposes saluting our Brethren to be not only Lawful but a natural Duty which God expects of Men as Men. Indeed he would have us do more than this comes to and extends it even to Enemies and to Persons who have wrong'd affronted and abus'd us but he doth not deny the lawfulness of it but establishes this lower Duty which even Heathens and Publicans count reasonable And therefore that Sect which places Religion in forbearing all external Salutations sins against a natural Duty The Gospel doth not abolish but exalt all natural Duties and sets them in a brighter Light and that therefore if saluting our Brethren or Fellow Christians be a natural Duty it must be much more a Christian Duty so that the Spirit of the Hat seems rather a Spirit of Pride and Delusion than the Spirit of God which inclines the Soul to Assability Courteousness and Civility and Respect to Superiors Nor must the condescention of Superiors to the meanest Capacity or their Humility make us lay aside the Respect we owe them for this is to give occasion that the way of Truth is Evil spoken of and to bring an Evil report upon the good Land It 's true in Christ we are all equal with respect to the Privileges and Advantages that come by Christ they being promised or tender'd to all but that doth not destroy the external Respect Obeisance and Civility we owe to Persons of different Ranks and Qualities or to Men whom Providence hath raised above the common level in Church or State I grant the Men of this World will call that Clownishness when a good Man will not drink with them nor comply with their Sensualities