him draw off and flie It is not strange to find him siding with a natural Inclination with the bent of Constitution still presenting Objects laying Opportunities throwing in Examples and all sorts of Invitation always pressing so that when a man hath strugled long he does grow weary of the service not enduring to be thus upon his guard perpetually watching a weak heart with strong inclinations busie Devils do lay siege to and so growing slack and careless he is presently surprised Or else despairing that he shall be always able to hold out lays hold upon a tempting opportunity and yields by the most unreasonable and basest cowardise that can be yields for fear of yielding lest he should not hold out he will not but gives up and puts himself into that very Mischief which he would avoid meerly for fear of coming into it For which fear there is no reason neither For 't is not here as in our other Sieges where if it be close continuance must reduce men to necessity of yielding Strengths and Ammunitions will decay Provisions fail and if the Enemy cannot their own Hunger will break through their Walls and make avenues for Conquest time alone will take them but in these Spiritual Sieges one Repulse inables for another and the more we have resisted the Temptation is not onely so much flatter and more weak and baffled but the inward Man is stronger Victory does give new forces and is sure to get in fresh and still sufficient supplies For God giveth more grace saith S. James And they shall have abundance saith our Saviour So that where the Devil after several repulses still comes on with fresh assaults we may be sure he does discern there is some treacherous inclination that sides with him And although the man refuse himself the satisfaction of the sin the Devil sees he hath a mind to it his refusals are but faint not hearty though he seem afraid to come within the quarters of the Vice he keeps it may be correspondence with the incentives to it entertains the opportunities plays with the Objects or at best he does not fortifie against him Now this gives the Tempter hopes and invites his assaults and does expose the person to be taken by him But where he sees he is resisted heartily his offers are received with an abhorrency discerns Men are in earnest watch to avoid all opportunities and occasions and prepare and fortifie and arm against him there he will not stay to be the triumph of their Vertue We may know thâ—â— by his Agents those that work under the Devil whom he hath instructed in the mysteries of waging his Temptations Where they are not like to speed and as to this they have discerning spirits they avoid and hate and come not near but study spite and mischief onely there The intemperate men are most uneasie with a person whom they are not able to engage in the debauch the rudeness and brutality of their excesses are not so offensive to the sober man as his staid Vertue is to them they do not more avoid the crude egestions shameful spewings of their overtaken fellows Riot then they do the shame and the reproach that such a man's strict Conversation casts on them which does in earnest make them look more foul and nasty to themselves In fine every Sinner shuns the Company of those whom he believes Religious in earnest 't is an awe and check to them they are afraid and out at it as their Great Master also is who when he is resisted must be overcome And as they that are beaten have their own fears also for their Enemies which are sure to charge close put to slight chase and pursue them so it seems he also is afraid of a sincere and hearty Christian for he flies him So he did from Christ Matth. iv verse 11. and so the Text assures If you resist him he will flie from you And now although we all did once renounce the Devil and his works were listed Soldiers against him took a Sacrament upon it and our Souls the immortality of life or misery depend upon our being true and faithful to our selves and Oaths or otherwise nor is there more required of us but resolution and fidelity onely not to be consenting to our Enemies Conquest of us not to will Captivity and Servitude Yet as if in meer defiance of our Vows and Interests we not onely will'd the ruine but would fight for it we may find instead of this resisting of the Devil most men do resist the Holy Ghost quench not the fiery darts of Satan but the Spirit and his flames by which he would enkindle love of God and Vertue in them If he take advantage of some warm occasion to inflame their courage against former follies heat them into resolutions of a change as soon as that occasion goes off they put out those flames and choak these heats until they die If he come in his soft whispers speak close to the heart suggest and call them to those joys of which himself is earnest to all these they shut their ears can hear no whispers are not sensible of any sounds of things at such a distance sounds to which they give no more regard than to things of the same extravagance with the Musick of the Spheres Nay if he come with his more active methods as the Angels came to Lot send mercy to allure and take them by the hand as they did to invite and lead them out of Sodom if that will not Judgments then to thrust them out as they did also come with fire and brimstone to affright them they not onely like the men of Sodom do attempt a violence and Rape upon those very Angels but they really ally debauch the Mercies and profane the Judgment having blinded their own Eyes that they might see no hand of God in either using thus unkindly all his blessed methods of reclaiming them till they have grieved him so that he forsake and leave them utterly As if they had not heard that when the Holy Spirit is thus forc'd away the evil spirit takes his place 1 Sam xvi 14. As if they knew not that to those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the Holy Spirit 's motions till they are grown dull of hearing and blind to them God does send a spirit of slumber that they should not see nor hear and that for this dire reason that they may not be converted nor be saved Five times he affirms it in the Scripture Yea once more in words of a sad Emphasis 2. Thess. ii 12 13. He sends them strong delusions that they may believe a lye that they all may be damn'd who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness And that because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Blessed God! Is it so easie for such Sinners to believe and be converted that thy self shouldst
and throwing great stones from his knâ—e as from an Engine say his followers which yet could not scare the Souldiers neither did the Roman Eagles which were true-bred fear those flames he spate but destroyed some millions of them Now 't is evident by the comparison of the several signs that Christ and this Barchocab wrought the onely reasons that gave efficacy to that sleight imposture and did make it over-power Christs mighty works was their earthly desires and affections which Christs severe Doctrines could not gratifie and therefore they receiving not the love of the truth but having pleasure in unrighteousness gave themselves up to delusions to believe a lie yet still those delusions went for reason with them Once more Tertullian challenging the Heathen says Produce before your judgment-seats some whom you will of those who are inspired by any of your Gods when gaping ore the Altar they have in its fumes according to their custom taken in the Deity 'till they are great with it ructando conantur while they are in travel with him as it were have belching throws that they burst almost 'till they are delivered of the inspiration while it is thus let but any Christian adjure them by the name of Christ and if the spirits that they are possest with do not presently confess that they are Devils ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite let the sawcy petulant Christian lose his life He speaks of this as a known frequent trial And Minutius Felix says their chiefest Gods have been forced out of their Votaries and acknowledged they were evil spirits Now here was reason and experience the miracle was so evident that Tertullian braging says do not believe it if your eyes and ears can suffer you and the reason was more pressing then the fact Nec enim Divinitas deputanda est quae fubdita esthomini it being most impossible that that should be a God which a man could rule and triumph over so imperiously manage him as with a bare command to force him from his hold and make him shame himself so villainously before both his adorers and his enemies as to say He was a Devil Yet the Heathens still found colours to do out all this conviction and their old acquaintance with their Gods together with the Custom of their vicious Worships had more force with them then miracle and reason And while the Christian dispossest their Deities he was himself turned out of all his own possessions and although he made their God confess himself a Devil yet still poor he was made to suffer as a malefactour And 't is not strange if men now stick as closely to their vices as those did to the Gods that patronized them and it be as hard to exorcise the Devil out of their affections and practices as it was then out of Heathen Votaries or Temples They are as fierce against the Christian Religion for their lusts sake as those for their Venus and the very same account that made those Heathen Customs or the lying wonders of false Christs or Pharaoh's Magicians sings be more persuasive then the other more real miracles namely because they sided with their inclinations and interests This very account makes little difficulties which Almighty God hath left in our Religion as he suffered signs and lying wonders heretofore for trials yea makes cavils mere exceptions pass for reasons most invincible be disputed urg'd with great concern and passion against all those methods of conviction which God hath afforded Christianity Now if this be to receive Religion as a little Child 't is with the frowardness of Children when they are displeas'd or ill at ease who resist and quarrel with the thing that is to make them well or please them and return the Parents cares to ease and quiet them with little outrages and vexing And do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32. 6 7. Now have Children any other way to know their Parents then to let their Father shew them and their Elders tell them Or should we cast off the relation and renounce all the obedience due to it because we are not sure of it our selves For ought we know those may not be our Parents we have only testimony for it Thus we serve our God on that account and yet Hath he not made thee and established thee As he began us so did he not nurse and bear us in his arms and carry us in all our weakness and difficulties 'till he brought us up to a full strength 'Till by a miraculous and signal providence he had establisht settled us and after all these cares bestowed upon us do we prove a generation of vipers onely such as do requite the bowels that did bear and nourish them by preying on them and consuming them Or like the of-spring of a Spider who when he hath spent himself with weaving nets and working of them into labyrinths to be the granaries and the defences of his brood to catch them prey and to secure them then the strongest of his young ones when he is by these his cares establisht and grown ripe to destroy makes those threads fatal to his parent which he spun out of his bowels to be thread of life to him And shall we be such Children to our Father that establisht us Make all his plenties turn to poison in us and invenome us against himself make his miraculous mercies furnish us for the abuse and provocation of him His blest Providence serve only to afford us arguments against it self help to confute it self because it hath so prospered doth still suffer us but after all this is he not thy Father that hath bought thee who to all his titles to us his endearing obligations notwithstanding our despites and provocations of them yet did give the life of his own Son to purchase o're again the same relation to us that we might have right to the inheritance of his Kingdom And then however we have hitherto affronted let us be content now to be bought and hir'd to receive that Kingdom of God as his Children for if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ who died to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father To whom be glory c. A SERMON PREACH'D IN St PETER's WESTMINSTER ON SUNDAY January vi 1660. AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE Right Reverend Fathers in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of Bristol EDWARD Lord Bishop of Norwich NICHOLAS Lord Bishop of Hereford WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Glocester By RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and one of His Majesties Chaplains LONDON Printed by John Playford in the Year 1683. Right Reverend Father in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of London and Dean of His Majesties Chappel
maze and appale the understanding its assent cannot be setled firmly on the truth unless the will cause the understanding to busy and apply it self so to the arguments and motives of its credibility that it find a principle whereon to bottom its perswasion such as that it can compare with and oppose to those objections and find reason to adhere to it against them such as this God hath said it so that altho on one side subtle reasonings seem to commit a rape upon my understanding and against belief almost force my assent yet on the other side God's own autority of which I have no cause to doubt if I advert sincerely to the motives of its credibility for we suppos'd that is of strength sufficient to secure my faith and will never suffer it to faint at such objections as I know arise onely from ignorance and want of principles to judg by and from the incomprehensibility of the Object Now if the will do constantly engage the understanding thus by frequent application to such principles humane reason howsoever apt to be rebellious will be easily subdu'd and brought into captivity to the obedience of faith and our belief will be unshaken so that the will is justly said to have a signal interest in and influence on our faith To make which good I might produce Councils and Schoolmen but it shall suffice me that the Scripture says that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10. 10. and 't is requir'd that man believe with all his heart Acts 8. 37. and it is call'd an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3. 12. and for that reason to believe is amongst God's precepts Faith is strictly commanded and a great blessed reward propos'd to it and Infidelity is threatned with eternal torments Now commands rewards and punishments are such things as cannot be propos'd but to the will and are not at all made to move the understanding which must needs assent exactly as it judges and must judge according to appearances of objects and you may as well desire a stone to fall up to heaven or the Senses to perceive that which they have no sense of as the understanding to believe against its judgment or to judge in contradiction to what appears to it Now this being granted that the heart hath such a vital influence upon our Faith and that the will contributes so much to believing by prevailing with the understanding to contemplate on and frequently converse with and with great advertency attend to those Divine and Heavenly objects and the motives to believe them it does therefore follow Secondly that whatsoever does engage the heart and take the will off so as that they do not cause this application of mind that must needs weaken and enfeeble Faith for it withdraws that that should nourish and give vigor to it and makes way for unbelief Now here alas if I should onely name the several impediments upon this account the avocations of the heart it would be endless But to say nothing of particulars whose state of life either thro the necessities of their condition or the troubles of it or thro a disorderly uneasy temperament of body or diseases tho all or each of these may keep the mind almost in a perpetual disturbance or at least in great inaptitude to such Spiritual application if there be not strict watch kept to seize all lucid intervals But to pass these and onely touch at two Occasions in the general And the First is the understanding which if it be apt to be religiously scrupulous in little things as for the most part scruples rise about such onely whether thro weakness of judgment credulity and either little probabilities that work upon that or the arts of seducing Teachers or else especially which is most consequent upon any close affliction scruples rise thro applications of God's judgements or interpretation of the incomprehensible procedures of his providence if these scruples come to work the understanding so as that it usually entertains the will with no proposals else which happens very frequently and if it does thus even till the will delight it self in these its self-tormentings and engages the whole man in a continual converse with them so that he comes to love to aggravate his fears against himself and wilfully retains them and dwells on them will not be diverted from such thoughts which do not onely with these their invenom'd darts stab and wound the mind perpetually and the poyson of them drinks up his spirits but they wound his Faith As when those scruples are in great measure and grown strong they use to break out into blasphemies and desperation so all less degrees also in their proportion raise doubts in men not as to their own condition onely but God's Attributes and works and dealings with mankind which corrupt and ulcerate and poyson their belief and it becomes languid feeble and unsteady But secondly that which universally takes off the heart or will from causing this so necessary application to the objects and the motives of our Faith is the lower appetite with its passions For in man's life that is so perfectly dramatic and in which the world is always shifting scenes there happens such an infinite variety of either prosperous delightful or cross sad accidents which so goad and stimulate the affections raise such ebullitions in the bloud and such impetuousness in the motions of the appetite that the will is hurried along with them with a blind precipitation and a headlong fury and by consequence it fares so with the faculties upon the satisfactions of those appetites Now in this rout and confusion 't is not possible the understanding can attend to Spiritual applications and if this happen frequently then thus it being frequently diverted and its conversation with affairs of Faith much broken off seldom reflecting on them and so being very unaccustomed to those thoughts all the impressions grow faint languish and decay the motives have no force and consequently the belief it self is loose and scarce hath the assurance of a thin opinion if it were examin'd and of all this the experience is so dreadful that we daily see if men go on so far as to indulge their appetites habitually that their minds being thereby taken altogether off from the other contemplations they come to have no love to them no regard at all cannot well endure to think or hear of them and are therefore given up by God's just judgment such as was foretold long since 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. to strong delusions to believe a lie even a lie of that eternal dismal consequence that virtue and religion and the blessed expectation of it are mere trumpery and renounce those truths whereby they should be saved But I promis'd not to prosecute this to that height it sufficeth we having seen how the heart being by such means engag'd and ceasing to employ the understanding upon heavenly things and on the
that requires strict evidence in things of faith which cannot bear it he that calls for Mathematical demonstration nor will believe on easier terms yet is so credulous and so unwary that he can believe so many things which by the nature and the disposition of mankind I have demonstrated not possible which yet must be true unless these Scriptures be from God 't is plain he does not seek for certainty but for a pretence of not believing would fain have his Infidelity and Atheism look more excusable and is not fit to be disputed with but to be exploded But if these Scriptures be from God then whatsoever they affirm with modesty I may conclude is true And therefore when St Luke Acts 1. 1. declares his former treatise contain'd all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up since Christ before he did ascend taught every thing that was requir'd to be believ'd and don in order to salvation and more too therefore if his Gospel did contain all that he taught and did since it did not contain all absolutly it must needs mean it contained all that was necessary or it must mean nothing And since the same St Luke in the beginning of that Gospel does affirm he wrot it that Theophilus might know the certainty of those things wherein he had bin instructed 'T is plain he avers that the certain knowledg of all those things wherein the having bin instructed made Theophilus a Christian might be had out of the Gospel and when St Paul says here that the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and St John in his 20 chap. v. 31. that tho he had not wrot all the things that Jesus did yet those that he had wrot were written that we might believe that Jesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing we might have life through his name 'T is evident the Scriptures say that what was written was sufficient to work that belief which was sufficient to life and salvation as far as the credenda do concur to it And when St Paul in that verse that succeeds my text in most express particular words sets down the usefulness of Scripture in each several duty of a man of God or Preacher of the Gospel both for Doctrine of faith for reproof or correction of manners and instruction unto righteousness and tells you Gods express end in inspiring it and consequently its ability when so inspir'd was that the man of God might be made perfect throughly furnisht unto every good work that belongs to his whole office 't is most certain that what is sufficient for that office to instruct reprove correct and teach in must needs be sufficient to believe and practise in for all men i. e. what my text affirms they are able to make us wise unto salvation I might call in Tradition universal to bear witness to this truth for holy Scriptures if having once demonstrated that they are Gods word when that does affirm it and bears witness to it there were need of any other And this I dare boldly say that if the Scripture did say as expresly that the Pope had a supremacy or soveraignty over the whole Church or that he or the Roman Church were infallible their definition or the living voice of their present Church a most sure rule of faith as it doth say Scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation those Articles would suffer no dispute it would be blasphemy or sacriledg to limit or explain them by distinctions when those sayings of the perfectness of Scriptures are forc'd to bear many Then we should have no complaints of the obscurity of those books if those articles were either in the Greek or Hebrew they would never say the Bible were not fit to be a Rule of Faith because the Language were unknown to the unlearned and they could not be infallibly secure of the Translation were they there they would account them sure enough who think them plain enough already there and that we must believe them because Thou art Peter Feed my sheep and Tell the Church are there And for him that shall affirm all necessaries that must make us wise unto salvation are not in the Scripture 't is impossible to give a rational account how it should come to pass that some are there the rest are not It must be either on design or else by chance Now 1. That God should design when very many things that were not necessary were to be written that the main and fundamental ones should be omitted and when of the necessaries most he did design for Scripture then He should not suffer the Apostles to write the remainder of them and yet what he would not suffer them to write design'd that the Trent Fathers who I hope have perfected the Catalogue should write all of these since 't is not possible to give a reason 't is not therefore rational to affirm it was upon design But 2. If he shall say it only happen'd so by chance he does affront both Scriptures and Gods Holy Spirit who as they affirm inspir'd them for this very end to bring men to the faith and to salvation But there is no place for chance in those things that are don in order to an end by the design impulse and motion of the infinit wisdom of Gods Holy Spirit He certainly does most unworthily reproch his Maker who can think it possible that what he did design expressly and on that account alone to attain such an end by namely that men should believe and be sav'd and inspire it for that purpose should yet fail not be sufficient for that purpose And sure if it be sufficient it contains all necessaries otherwise it were deficient in the main yea so clearly also as that they for whose salvation they are intended may with use of such methods as are obvious and agreed upon by all men understand them for otherwise they could not be sufficient if men could not be instructed by them in things necessary both to faith and life they could not make them wise unto salvation I must confess the Scripture labors under a great prejudice against this doctrine from the different sense and interpretations that are made of it even in the most fundamental points by them that grant it is the word of God when yet all use the same means to find out the meaning and no doubt they seek sincerely after it But yet I think it evident this happens not from the obscurity of Scripture since it is not only in the most express texts but also if you should suppose the doctrins were as plain set down there as words can express them yet there are such principles assum'd into the faith of different sects as must oblige them to interpret diversly the same plain words I am not so vain as to imagin that no places are obscure in
an erring Conscience this when it is such strongly the man does not so much as doubt of his opinion and while he does not doubt what temtation can he have to think of rectifying especially if men are perswaded that their Conscience is directed by such Guides as cannot err We cannot but remember how the violation of all Laws and of all rights sacred and secular sedition and rebellion and such other dreadful consequents as we must not remember being dictated by conscience undertaken on account of Religion were esteem'd the characteristics of a godly side nor are we suffer'd to forget how the same things undertaken on account of holy Church make Saints and Martyrs for let not men pretend these are not Doctrines or directions of the Chuch of Rome There is no one of the rebellious parties but it may with much more truth and modesty affirm they are not theirs since they have not declar'd them so authentically and if we are not sure these are their doctrines 't is impossible to know that they have any for none of their doctrines have a greater attestation If som few declaring their opinion to the contrary shall against the declarations of the Tenets of their Scholes and the directions of much greater numbers their Casuists the rules and practice of their whole law the determinations of particular and general Councils make them not to be their doctrine then no Church hath any doctrines Now if as one side of these pretend some to a Divine Light within themselves some to the Divine Spirit speaking in the Scriptures for their Guide so the other plead the public Spirit of the Church speaking at least in the Assemblies of their general Council most infallibly and consequently all of them must judg it is impossible their Guide can err how is it possible to prescribe means to rectify the errors of such Consciences But should I pass these guilts of the first magnitude to which 't is wonderful a Conscience can be debaucht and err into them should I mention one that 's common to all of them violating the Laws disturbing the Peace of the Government unhinging the constitution of it by illegal meetings to disseminate their principles and make more errors and more separation wider breaches I shall not tell these that the Church no where gives a privilege to any to assemble not for Gods own worship from whose principles or practices the State hath reason to expect commotions or sedition the diminishing their secular Powers or endangering their persons and on that account forbids them Sure I am there is no one word in the Gospel for it and I leave all the mentioned parties Popish or the other to consider whether they have bin so innocent as not to be suspected justly and would onely ask each party of them whether it alone have right to act according to its conscience thus and otherwise against the Laws so that all others what sincerity so'ere they act with have no privilege or whether it be the Christians birth-right and due to all others If any party say that it alone hath right besides that all the rest will never grant this nor have reason for it and so all must quarrel yet if they do say so sure there 's nothing else but truth or confidence of having it can make them judg so but since every the most erring conscience does and must beleive the truth is with him he hath the same reason so contentions must be endless this state of conscience is just the Leviathans state of war besides that this pretence of any single party for it self makes war with the hypothesis it self of liberty of conscience But if they grant all other Sects to have just right to act according to their conscience then those that really believe the doctrine of their Church is true their ways blameless and the statutes which restrain the liberties of the Recusants and the Dissenters are all just those of them also that have sworn obedience to these statutes and those Magistrates and Governors too that are bound by oath to the execution of them and to take care of the peace of their Subjects and hold that as 't is a duty and an obligation in conscience on them these I say have just right too to act according to their conscience also and by consequence to execute the Laws upon those others and then I am sure in conscience and according to the very rules of all these men of liberty those have a right to take away their wild and dangerous liberties and by the very Principles of all these Dissenters are as much bound in conscience to restrain them as they think themselves bound to use those liberties according to their conscience Yea these are bound in conscience to suffer all their Governors to put restraints upon them because to do so is for them to act according to their conscience or if they think as 't is not strange if they think contradictions that they have a right in conscience to contend for this with Governors who yet they acknowledg to have a right too to restrain their liberties since all as themselves have granted have the same right there must needs be endless quarrels and contentions both with Governors and with themselves and just of all sides in which each hath right which is another contradiction also and so still this state of conscience will be the Leviathans state of war and must dissolve all Government as being inconsistent with it Whether any consequents in prospect or design can make this state of things allow'd and eligible or how far Governments can properly secure themselves if it be allow'd which yet 't is certain that they have a right to do against the clamorous pretences of all conscience whatsoever as to Church Laws yet how far they can I say secure themselves against such sorts of men 〈◊〉 side who declare that their Government it self is sinful or 〈◊〉 t'other side a sort of men who not onely here in this Nation after the most dire and hateful treason ever hatch'd or thought of were not nor are suffer'd by the Guides of their conscience by their Pastors neither their Supreme one nor their particular Confessors to give assurance of their civil obedience and allegiance to their own Prince But in France after the murder of two Kings by them both of their Religion when as Lewis the 13th did design and ask the advice of his Parliament to make provision for his own safety and assurance of the Loialty of his Subjects by an Oath a thing by Gods own People since 't was a Kingdom practic'd all the Clergy those Directors of the consciences of that Nation were so far from suffering it that they made the King to cause the Parliament to raze out what of it was drawn and registred in their Journals professing to his face that they would excommunicate all as Heretics that were against that Proposition that the Pope could depose Kings But
those that hold the truth in unrighteousness the one sort of these have some checks at sin they doubt and they demur the other sort sin merely because they would please God and offend out of zeal but the other sin because they will sin If actions lawful otherwise will make up an indictment to our condemnation don but with a doubting mind what guilt and what damnation is there in those that are undertaken against known command and present full conviction that muster up and recollect all the forementioned guilts which when they were divided did make actions so ruining at once they defy God and their own heart if he that doubts is damn'd if he eat tho what he eat were lawful to him what will become of him that eats to surfetting and knows that such things call for condemnation with what face can he blast a deceiv'd honest Heathen with his Gods who in the face of God and of all Laws in view of a believ'd hell and in despite of heaven and of his own conscience that suggests all these to him yet by frequent intemperances makes his belly his god and by uncleaness that new testament idolatry sets up as many idols as his foul heats find objects and by dishonesty and frauds serves covetousness which is idolatry They who defy their conscience thus are in the ready way to a reprobate sense the last offence that I will name When the heart gives a false judgment of things calls evil good and good evil in the Prophets words 't is not uneasy to deduce how arrive at this There is no pains bestow'd upon the education of their childhood they are made indeed to renounce the Devil the evil Spirit is exorcis'd out of that hold he had of them on the account of being born children of wrath but no provision for the Holy Spirit taken care of rather all that 's possible is don to grieve him thence and so the evil one returns finds the house emty and takes to him seven spirits worse than himself and they dwell there or to speak out of parable there are no principles of virtue planted in them no labor us'd to make impressions of Religion and the fear of God the sense of duty aversation to all vice but as far as conversation with example of all lewdness can have influence they are bred and fitted for the Temter and when they and temtations are grown up it is no wonder if they tast then swallow down the bait and so are taken then they get to themselves principles that may stop the mouth of natural conscience either Religion do's not mean so strictly or against the strictness they oppose the custome of the age or honor or the like and these together with the conversations of sin do clean take off the aversation and so by degrees the sense the mind first leaves to be afraid and startle at it and then leaves to check at it and having don this long the custome stupifies the conscience and makes the sins seem necessary to them and they cannot be without them and the absolute necessity makes them conceit them little sins and in a while no sins at all stick not to say those terrors Clergy-men do talk of are but Mormo's but religious spectres We have this daily experience that loosness in practice quickly grows into irreligion in heart that they who with all might and main do long resist the power of Godliness do at last proceed to cast off even the very form and they who would not receive the love of the truth but did prefer the satisfaction of their humors prejudices passions lusts before the doctrine of piety and virtue tho it came with the greatest evidence of reasonableness that such I say are given over to strong delusions to believe lies even lies of so eternal unhappy a consequence as this that virtue and religion are but emty names that conscience is but prejudice such are those St Paul describes 1 Tim. 4. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of branded consciences Now we use to account that person infamous that 's branded onely in his hand or forehead but these are men of stigmatiz'd hearts there is a brand upon their soul and conscience and you will find some other characters upon them there they depart from the faith they give heed to seducing Spirits lay out for a Religion that will give them hopes of safety tho they sin on and to doctrines of Devils fit Scholars for such Tutors seeds of a blessed education they have that have such Instructors and such they have whose consciences are branded and the whole progress of their wickedness you will find Rom. 1. from v. 18. because they hold the truth in unrighteousness join'd impious lives with the profession of the true Religion were vicious in despite of their own understandings which told them they should not be so upon which great proficiency in guilt v. 24. God withdrew his grace left them to the pursuit of all their foul desires permetted them to break out into all reproachfull villanies sins that were violences contumelies to their nature yea v. 28. because they acted perfectly against all notions they had of God he gave them up to that abominable state of mind to have no sense of guilt to have a judgment so perverted as not to think things of the most forbidden and most detestable nature to be foul and then see what a shole of consequents break in from v. 29. feind vices things that do not onely merit hell but possess enjoy and make the place These are the entertainments of those Regions but none more essential than those v. 32. they not onely commit those things but have pleasure in those that do them do not onely favor themselves in the transgressions for to that men may have some temtation from the flesh but to evince their understandings are debauch'd their consciences corrupted and that they are of a reprobate mind they take pleasure in others committing them from which they have no pleasure can enjoy nothing but the villany of being glad that others are debauch'd and vitiated this recommends men to them And truly now I have no words for them they do outgo expression I may apply that which the Psalmist saith of the fool in his heart there is no God I am sure there is none in theirs that will not let his Deputy be there not suffer conscience his Vicegerent to be within them and it were well if they could exclude it for ever But alas when their sins and pleasures shall begin to die then conscience will revive and be their worm that never dies however they have stupifi'd it here then it will gnaw eternally then oh that they could have no conscience no sting no lash but it will be an immortal feind to them and that which they so much trample on now will then be their great hell And now I can prescribe no exercise will remove this offence when
Testimony is assur'd and certain so far they must grant the Faith we give that that writing is the Rule must be assur'd and certain And since all the means and kinds of their Tradition make that very Testimony and Conveyance of that Book therefore all that certainty and that infallibility their faith can have from those grounds the same certainty and infallibility the faith we give to that Book must needs have too on their own grounds But it hath more for since the ground of all faith must be testimony and by consequence none but Divine Testimony can be ground sufficient for Divine Faith and that Testimony was I shew'd you Miracles wrought by the Publisher to confirm the Doctrine both which are in this Rule of ours Therefore altho that universal Testimony all their Tradition for it which is merely humane may be a sufficient method of conveyance to derive all notice as the first men's eyes and ears that saw the Miracles and heard Christ tho they be but humane senses were sufficient to them also they suffice not yet to a Divine Belief they cannot ground that Faith which must be given to Divine supernatural Doctrines upon a Divine Testimony which Tradition is not but our Rule hath So that the resolution of our Faith is made by a Divine Rule such as theirs pretends not to be made by and the mere conveyance of that Rule to us hath all that certainty and that infallibility that they pretend their Rule it self to have and so we may have Faith and may be Christians But we are never the nearer however for if the Rule of Faith if true must be a means to make our assent more infallible than Science upon Demonstration and there can be no other such Rule besides the living voice and present practice of that Church which does and always did resolve her Faith into it by this Principle not to believe or teach or practise any thing as of Faith but what they did receive from their immediate Forefathers as of Faith and saw their practice of which most undeniably renders their Faith impossible to be erroneous therefore we that owne neither such a resolution rule or principle can neither have true rule nor Faith But yet how fine soever and self-evident this Principle and Resolution appear to them as speculators if it were practically enquir'd into it would appear the weakest of all other For first I might evince that ever since the first beginnings of Religion and mankind while either they had no other rule at all but this of oral practical tradition as in the first times before the Law was given and Scripture wrote their faith and practice grew all false and diabolical or when they had another rule so far as they made use of this rule thereby that they did make void their own Faith and God's Laws as the Pharisees among the Jews or lastly when they had not an entire rule written as in the first Age of Christianity while the Scriptures were not spread amongst Believers but they had the living and inspir'd voice of the Apostles to resolve their Faith into and by that Rule and Principle of oral practical Tradition most perfectly yet then the most execrable Heresies that ever infested the Church had their rise and growth Secondly I might demonstrate their Church did not always so resolve their Faith and by that Principle Look thro their Councils all from the beginning where their Church sometimes the whole Church met together either to confirm the true Faith or confound the false and you shall find no footsteps of this oral practical Tradition but of doctrinal enough The Sayings of the Fathers and Decrees of Former Councils and the Texts of Scripture these they call their Demonstrations Thirdly where there is most need still of a certain rule and resolution there this is unpracticable wholly namely in all great divisions of the Church in points of Faith To instance in the Arrian contentions where the World was against St Athanasius and St Athanasius against the World and the Pope himself Liberius was then Arrian who could then hear and distinguish the living voice of the Church When the whole East was so universally and bloudily divided in the matter of Images one Greek Council defining against them and another for it and the West as much the French Italian German Bishops presently in a great Synod declaring against them and the British Church particularly Now I will not ask how it was possible the greater parts of the whole Church should so at once have laid aside their infallible self-evident Rule and chanc'd together to forget it should not once bethink themselves whether they had seen their Forefathers practise that Worship or no and heard them teaching that they had received it too from their Forefathers nor ask how it was possible their Enimies should not mind them of it if it were the Churches rule and had bin generally taught and practised and assure them by their Principle how impossible that it should be erroneous But there is not a word of this in the whole two Nicene Councils but some Texts of Scripture and some Sayings of the Fathers which no more evince the practice than Tentordin steeple does cause Goodwin Sands But I will ask how in the noise and the confusion of both States and Churches while wars and Anathemas thunder'd in the quarrel how it was possible poor souls could hear and distinguish what the living voice and present practice of that Age was which was so extremely various and contradictory Those that were then to be instructed in the Faith what could they hearken to How could they guide themselves by that Rule when as in their Doctrines they condemn'd each other in their practice murder'd one another And when each party pleaded that theirs was the Faith deliver'd to them which should they believe The major party How should they know infallibly which was How be assured the major party is requir'd Why truth must be on that side where the most are What self-evident Rule had they to judge of these by Surely none Accordingly it was not by this Rule but by being overpower'd they receiv'd that Faith and practice Fourthly that it may appear in no case useful in the calmest Sun-shine of the Church and when if ever they were all of one mind namely before Luther when if ever there were any Article that the Latin Church was possessed of an explicit belief of it was that of Purgatory as it is now held amongst them there was all expresses of an oral practical Tradition for it and if there were not 't is impossible to know when any Doctrine is receiv'd upon that Principle so that the Rule is frivolous as to practice yet as if that Principle had ow'd the very Founder of it a great spight he must go write a Book against that Purgatory which stood by his own Principle for which he is under censure by his own Church But least
Orator Men have their shifts of conscience as of clothes their dress is carefuller and their rules stricter much abroad in public then when at home or out of sight As for the conscience of compliance many do not only do things which they have dislike to out of compliance but satisfy themselves because they do them with reluctancy against their inclination to avoid the being singular or offensive For the mode too Men learn to interpret God's laws also by the practice of the age live and judge by imitation and example The man's conscience tho it boggle at first sight of dangerous uncomely liberties yet conversation with them as it takes away the horror of them so he thinks it do's the danger and ill influence And as fashion makes all dresses to be mode and not look uncomely so the custom of these things makes them seem indifferent A Conscience also for the interests of a Profession as in trade for example and in Corporations of it it thinks their combinations for the better keeping up the Company fair and honest and therewithal make tricks and exactions lawful And in single traders such another principle makes Princes Laws be broken their dues stoln without any check of Conscience and I verily believe that many think these are not inconsistent with a good mind I might have instanc'd in other professions particularly in that which satisfies it self in the defending manifestly wrongful and in right causes in protracting suits to mens great molestation and the ruin of just rights But in truth this is paltry trifling with religion having false weights and mesures of what 's lawful and unlawful things that God abhors and indeed these frauds will in the end return upon their authors and the unhappy artist will most certainly deceive his own soul. For he never can arrive at life whom he that is the way do's not lead thither Christ and his rules only can introduce us into the mansions of Eternity 'T is true there may be doubts somtimes about the way of duty for 't is that I speak to in applying general rules for circumstances may perplex vary cases obligations seem to clash and quarrel so that one may be uncertain which to follow what means he should take to attain his great end 2. Now in case of such uncertainty as to the means the Child of this world do's observe a Rule of Prudence better then the Christian for he takes advice For who intends to purchase an inheritance but he goes to Counsel and if there be the least appearance of uncertainty in the Title spares no charge to have it searcht and to be sure The least indisposition drives the man that aims at life to his Physician In every difficulty of a voiage where there 's any apprehension of a shelf or rock the Merchant and the Master will consult the Pilot. But in the voiage towards heaven how many make shipwrack of a good conscience because they will not commit themselves to any conduct How often do they shake their Title to God's inheritance because they will not take advice of him at whose mouth God commanded they should seek the Law And who do's go to the Physician of Souls to prevent death Eternal I do not say men should betake themselves to a director in each action of their lives For who goes to a Doctor to know whether he should eat stones or poison or who asks a Lawyer whether he should keep or burn his evidences Now for the most part what I ought to do what to forbear is every jot as clear as those except where circumstances trouble or else seeming cross obligations a muse our judgment and then for a man not to ask direction in his way to heaven is unanswerable folly in a man that will inquire the way to the next village 't is nothing but a wretchless stupid carelesness in the Eternal interests of his own Soul When he that takes the best directions he can get with this sincere intent that he may not transgress may quiet his own mind in this that he hath don his utmost faithfully towards duty and in doing that with our good God shall be interpreted to have don his duty if he also faithfully pursue the means directed the 3d. property of Wisdom which does set the man upon the use of those means which he must attain his end by the last thing I am to speak too Now as to this I must confess the Child of this world wiser and give up the cause Whoever does resolvedly intend his profit pleasure honor or whatever state in this life 't is the business of his parts his study and his whole life to pursue it and it is so while the appetite of any carnal end is eager in him Anger hate revenge c. And I cannot say it is so with the Christian as to his end But the worldly man besides the zeal in using all means in pursuit of his end he observs two Rules that wisdom dictates with more carefulness 1. Be circumspect then wary both prescrib'd us by St. Paul Ephes. 5. 15. See that ye walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumspectly not as fools but wise as we translate it and the Vulgar caute warily with caution Now the first of these two Circumspection signifies the looking every way about him to discern or if he can foresee whatever may obstruct him in his progress give him any hindrance in whatever shape it is likely to attemt it whether it do threaten with inconvenience or do flatter with the deceitful appearances of being useful come with treachery or open opposition as a false Friend or a known Enemy and the other Caution sets him upon all the care he can make use of to avoi'd or rid himself of such impediments of what kind soever Now t is evident the man of this world in whatever occupation trade profession or place he may be from the lowest to the highest who proposes any one thing to himself and does not live ex tempore and follow ends and objects as the boy 's do Crows but hath at least some one design so far as he does so looks round him that he may shun every thing that would defeat divert or but disturb him in it and endeavors to move every stone which he may stumble at in his pursuit whatever may be an impediment to his attainments Now the Child of Light hath warning given him by the wise man also My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul for temtation There are those that will attemt to break his progress in pursuit of any such designment His enemy the Devil like a roaring Lyon his false friend the Flesh and a third that will assault him under both appearances the World somtimes by reproches taunts and insolent scorn by turning piety and virtue into raillery discouraging men from the pursuit somtimes by vexatious molesting injuring oppressing good men that they think will bear it making
not good and I am sure of my own heart that if I thought it were so I would not do it here is no chusing of a sin not with the least degree of inclination 'T is this secures the Physitian who cannot possibly be assur'd there may not something lurk in his Patient's body for whose dark and unwholsome closets he hath no prospective to which the physic he prescribes may be pernicious yet because God hath revel'd no certain grounds for guidance in this case therefore he upon diligent search and grounds of art which are the best God hath allow'd us prescribing what he really believes will do him good satisfies a good conscience Upon the same account the Pilot satisfies himself where he adventures his ship and fraight upon shelfs and shallows and the Captain when he leads his men upon he canon's mouth and other desperat attemts of war Shall I make more familiar instances to you some have doubted whether celebrating Christ's Nativity be not will-worship because 't is not commanded in Scripture other have doubted of the use of Garments prescribed Ministers from the same ground and from their being significant Now as to these not to shew the unreasonableness of these doubts tho I could easily do it for in God's name why is it to set apart a day to thank God for the Redemtion of mankind will-worship and yet to set apart a day for the deliverance of a Nation from a temporal plague not will-worship Is the fifth of November in the Scripture any more than the twenty fifth of December Or is it the infinitely greater mercy of Christ's Birth-day that makes it more unlawful than the Gunpowder-Treason day and therefore 't is not lawful because 't is more fit And for the Garments of the Clergy I would they were all significant but that that is an argument against them in these daies It is true Scripture prescribes them not and by that rule they should wear none for it prescribes none but pray tell me will not any of these doubting men seek a Pulpit to preach in or now a daies a bason to baptize with never looking whether they have a warrant in Scripture to command it Just so rational and sensible men select a particular habit for a Priest whereby his words and exhortations may be receiv'd with greater respect and authority and this without any written precept for as where Scripture commands it renders every thing necessary so where it is silent it renders nothing unlawful in such circumstantials So a prescribed way of Praier is boggled at and why that more unlawful than a limited way of praising God They had effusions of those in the first times why do not we as well pretend to the one as to the other Or why should it be less faulty to have set forms of singing Psalms than have set forms of Liturgy in which too people might communicate as they do also join in praises or indeed would that Rhyme and tune become unlawful should the Magistrate command them too But passing over this and to speak in short of the whole matter If the man that doubts bids his conscience stand aside and because of legal penalties muffles himself and resolvedly goes on notwithstanding his speculative irresolution with desperat boldness judging it better to trust God with his soul than the Law with his estate or liberty if he fears to consider or enquire least he should get conviction that suits not with his interest and thinks it easier to doubt than to be certain because he 's certainly determin'd to do what is enjoin'd tho it be never so unlawful This is a profligate state of mind that wants nothing but occasion to engage upon the greatest villanies and close with Apostacy it self when recommended by impunity But if this doubting makes another scheme of reasoning and performs what is enjoind because the Magistrate's command is certain but its unlawfulness is only dubious and the safest course is ever the most innocent because it is the most prudent then the obligation to suspend the going on to act in case of doubting is superseded by another obligation actually to obey the undoubted injunction of Superiors and the good Subject will not fail to be a good Christian too But alas why should I busy my self in picking cases which here I hope are not useful when as upon this very Proposition we are now upon other things do apply themselves to most mens hearts of a more strong concern and of more daily practice If an action otherwise lawful will make up an indictment to our condemnation if don with a doubting conscience what guilt and damnation is there in those actions that are don against present full perswasion of conscience Truly my Brethren I have no aggravation for sins don against knowledg that being the worst that can be said of sin and I shall only add that they who so defie their conscience are in the ready way to have no conscience the sad estate of whom my last did display to you and in short 't is no wonder if God's Vicegerent do depart when he is so affronted There is a great and sad example of this procedure Rom. 1. 18 19 20. For the wrath of God is reveled from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and God-head so that they are without excuse There is no plea for such because they did not use their knowledg to his service but sin'd against it and by their deeds of darkness put out that light which was vouchsafed them by God yea indeed did commit those deeds of darkness in the face of light I have to what I have already said one word to add for the scrupulous conscience Scruples are little suspicions in things of small concern or indifferency and where there is but little ground for otherwise they swell into that we call doubts and which denominates a doubting conscience Now scruples which are small particles of dust do indeed cast dust into the eies which dim the sight and make the eies to roule and fret and grieve and so do these the mind they disturb duty wonderfully by taking up the heart and making it restless and unquiet and so quite discompos'd for duty for the heart is still call'd aside wandring about that which troubles it And indeed these quite take off the edge of the mind for while scruples arise I am unsatisfied in every thing I do and then with what heart can I do them I am in fear of every performance and such a fear exceedingly damps love and quashes all endeavors I have no cheerfulness in my actions and consequently never can be eager and forward but cold and slack
coersively as a King with his Iron Rod to execute his threats on the rebellious those that will not have him reign over them This coming also was considered in my Text for in the parallel place of S. Matth. it is said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand for this is he of whom it was spoken by the Prophet Isaias saying the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare yet the way of the Lord. For each of these in order I shall shew you what prepares his way beginning with the first His coming as a Prophet appearing in the World to reveal his Fathers ' Will the Gospel Now the Preparative for this Appearance is discovered easily we find both in this Chapter and the parallel places that John came to make way for it by the Baptism and Preaching of Repentance and it was Prophecied of him that he should go before him in the Spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the Fathers with the Children and the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just to the minding of just things so to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke i. 17. And this is a preparative so necessary that the Nation of the Jews affirm it is meerly for the want of this that he does yet defer his coming And though the appointed time for it be past yet because of their sinfulness and impenitence he does not appear adding If Israel Repent but one day presently the Messias cometh And it is thus far true that though it hindred not his coming yet it hindred his receiving although it did not make him stay it made him be refus'd I may lay all down in this Proposition Where there is not the preparation of Repentance where there are not inclinations and desires for Virtue if Christ come with the glad tidings of the Gospel He is sure to be rejected his Religion disbeliev'd If the Word of the Son of God might be taken in his own case this would be soon evinc'd for when He came unto his own they were so far from preparing his way that they received him not but did reject and would not entertain him as one sent from God of all this he onely gives this account that he found no other opposition but from vicious humours John viii 43 44 45. Why do ye not understand my speech even because ye cannot hear my Word Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do and because I tell you the truth ye believe me not As if he should have said the reason why you do not regard me or my Doctrine but reject us both is not because my Doctrine hath not means to convince your understandings but 't is not agreeable to your inclinations The Works that I have done to make my person be received and my Words credible are such as no heart how hard or blind soever can withstand but the Doctrine I bring along is most unwelcome ye cannot abide to hear it Now as he that shuts his Eyes or turns away his Face because he hates to look upon an object may not see it though it be all cloath'd with day as visible as Sunshine so your blindness proceeds hence that ye hate the light because your deeds are evil Neither do you love to hear that which you have no mind to practise and you will not be persuaded to believe that is your necessary duty which you are not willing to perform but will rather choose to think I do my Works by a confederacy with Belzebub the Prince of Devils although it be apparent that those Lusts which you will do and which my Works and Doctrine come to drive out of the World they are Lusts of the Devil and I because I tell you the truth truth I confess somewhat severe and not so agreeable therefore you will not believe me And is it not strange when nothing can be acceptable to the Understanding but as it hath appearance of Truth and when Truth comes with evidence and demonstration though it be but speculative useless truth yet it does seize and force aslent that yet Christ's truths which did not want conviction for they came to them with that infallibility which Miracles can give should be therefore not believ'd because they were truths not strange at all for his truths were not for their turns nor humours And therefore he says to them Mat. xxi 32. Ye repented not that ye might believe them As if they assented not with their Understandings but their Appetites And we our selves have seen too much unhappy evidence of men whom Libertinism hath made Antimonians whom a desire of being loose from duty hath made Solifidians of them whom sensuality hath made Atheists men that become Proselytes to their Lusts the converts of their base affections And we cannot expect it should be otherwise For certainly that men who are averse to the duties of Christianity and cannot bend their minds to the observance of that which Christs commands should not care to believe they are his Precepts or their duty is but very natural they were unwise should they do otherwise it being far more reasonable to deny the duty and obligation than granting both to trample on that obligation which they do acknowledg and to renounce that Duty which they do confess Is it not far more prudent to believe that there is not a God that does regard our foolish actions here below which are not more worthy or more likely to enter into his considerations than the buzzings of flies into the notices and observations of a Statesman than if we do believe one does severely mark will take a strict account of execute a vengeance for them yet not incline our minds to leave them if we did suffer this belief to creep into our minds to lie close unto our hearts sure it would fret off our aversness to Piety and inclinations to sin we durst not entertain them both together these thoughts would prove very ill company they would distract and tear the mind our Souls would tremble and disjoint and we be sure to put one of them off Covetous and Adulterous Felix when he began to think that S. Paul's Sermon of a Judgment to come might be true straight be began to shake and then immediately to turn the Sermon off bid S. Paul depart till another time Nor can there any other reason be assigned for this for in the Systeme of Christs Religion there is not any thing but is so suited to the very Constitution of a natural being that the Soul would instantly imbrace and suck in if the prepossessions of Vices which the mind will not resolve to part with and repent of did not infect taint the Palate with prejudices did not keep out the belief For the morality which it injoyns did long before the birth of this Religion make its way into the Tenents and the Faith of every Sect of whole
Mankind it broke through all the oppositions of corrupted Nature and deprav'd Habits nor could all the Devils arts who then govern'd the World stifle or quench the Light of Reason which through all that darkness did discover such deformity in Vice such strict agreement betwixt that which we call Virtue and a rational Creature that they accounted it and truly the essential duty of his nature he that was wicked was reputed false to his own being as great an aberration from and contradiction to Nature as an Animal that were insensible or as cold fire In this all the most distant Factions conspir'd in despite of Principles The Stoick who by fettering all Events all Consultations and Designs in the lines of inexorable Destiny does seem to make all Virtue worthless all endeavours towards it useless yet requires it with as strict necessity as his Fate prescribes with his reasons are as ineluctable as her Laws Nay he does seem to break his Adamantine Chain to make way for this Chain of Virtues though his Jupiter were bound by that yet for the sake of these he leaves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our appetites and actions in our power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so there may be place for doing well while it is in our choice and we are free to do it And on the other side the greatest enemies to their necessity and to choice too the Sect that made all actions and things in the whole World to be not effects of any Agent that intended them but meerly sports of Chance and matter who taught that their own souls were but the concretion of some Atoms casually met together without any direction and to no end yet the great Master of it in his Ethicks would not suffer any of this blind Contingency to have to do in Humane actions regulating them by strictest Rules and Laws and in plain contradiction to his Tenents from which our Age derives the most of their impiety although he held there was no God look'd on nor after-life attended none that did see or would reward or punish any of his actions yet requires highest Virtue yea and liv'd such too they say In a word many of them rais'd Morality to such a pitch as if it had arriv'd at the same heights from whence our Christian Revelation did pretend to come And there is nothing so peculiar to Christs Doctrine in the points of Morality but you may find it recommended by the Heathen as a thing which no external obligation did impose but the Law of their making did prescribe which they read in themselves and Christian Morality is but a fairer and more perfect Copy of the impressions of Reason on our Soul clear'd from the blurs and defects which they had been tainted with but Naturales Tabulae Natures Decalogue wrote by the Finger of the Lord So that to quarrel with Christ for requiring it is the same thing as to be angry with our Saviour because the nature of the Fire is such as does require that it should burn Nay many of them were so sensible of the unhappy state of their Corruption found so great pressures in themselves from the weights of their vicious inclinations discerned so perfect an antipathy betwixt their being and their actions that when with all the arts of Reason and the practice of their Philosophy they could not ease themselves they went to Sorcery and Magick for a Cure receiv'd Catharticks and a discipline of purity from Hell the Region of uncleanness the Devil making them believe he would assist in casting out himself Such were the stress the restlesness the groans the cry of Nature to be rid of its impurity These poor Souls were mistaken in their Method but if the Devil by those worships of his which they were us'd to had not stop'd the avenues sure one would judg they had prepar'd the way for Christianity there being no obstuction to it nothing that can hinder its acceptance but the low esteem and aversation of Virtue For if men believe the Moral truths they have no reason in the world to doubt the Supernatural these being intended for the most part as encouragements to those other as God's last attempts to kindle in us love of Virtue by such strong incentives that that wherein Philosophy was ignorant and the Law weak as having neither Promises nor Terrors equal to the force of our Corruptions that the Gospel might effect as having both to the utmost possibility of Divine Contrivance Now this requires us to believe those Supernaturals mostly for this reason by believing them to make us perform what it enjoyns And it is apparent that because men would not do this therefore they will not believe those Shew me but any one that is sincere and strict in Christian duties that does doubt the Principles if there be such an one be cannot doubt them long not onely for Christ's Promise sake If any man will do my Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God he will soon know that Doctrine is from God that does prescribe such Godlike lives nor onely for the Churches judgment which did make Synesius a Christian Bishop before he did believe the Resurrection upon that confidence they had of him by reason of his Piety But in reason why should he that does embrace the Piety disbelieve that which was propos'd to his belief only to urge him to embrace only to crown that Piety Indeed he that accounts his Vices but sleight tricks of wit or folly onely pleasant satisfactions to the desires of his Nature for he understands no nature but his carnal one he hath no reason to believe there was a Passion of the Son of God by making him a Sacrifice for sin so to condemn sin in the flesh is not prepar'd to think that there is an Eternal weight of Indignation due and ready for it He that hath but mean thoughts of Virtue counts it onely pedantry or as it were the Flatus of the Mind making the Soul Hypocondriack it is impossible that he should think God was Incarnated and died to teach it by his Doctrine and Example and to purchase graces to enable us to live it or that there is a Resurrection to reward it a Trinity engag'd in working out Salvation for it I must confess I would believe that men persuade themselves that the reason of their disbelief is onely this that these things are not testified sufficiently because I find the Man in Hell would have one sent to his Brethren from the Dead to testifie unto them of that place of Torments Luke xvi 28. as if those Truths did want witnessing But this is not because enough hath not been done for their conviction in the truth of Christ's Religion for there is hardly any thing besides in the whole World that men believe but they believe upon less grounds The whole World was convinc'd in such a manner as that millions chose to die rather than not confess it
Commandments And when their fears of the Lords Judgments stare them in the face they quickly tremble into the terrours and the agonies of Penitence For who dares sin and who does not repent upon his Death-bed he sinks at the remembrance of his former draughts when he does apprehend his next is like to be in the Infernal Lake he hath the frost of the Grave on him when he but thinks of his lascivious heats and does think too that his hot lustful Bed will turn him off straight into Tophet And then if Lazarus could raise these apprehensions in them sure they would repent 'T is plain these were the grounds our Rich Man built this his request upon I do not lay them as infallible I make no question but that men are able to defie their knowledg and charge through their own belief to sin and to destruction but commonly men do not lay things deep enough to their heart to be throughly convinc'd in earnest and thus he believed for had Abraham granted his desire and sent Lazarus to testifie the Glories he had tasted in himself and the Torments he had seen their Brother in all he could hope from this was but to make them more believe the one and other therefore he thought for want of this they would miscarry and this alone would do it so that wâ— may conclude that in the judgment of one that dy'd without Repentance having resisted all God's Methods and knew upon what score he did it and suffered the deserved pains of so doing the reason why men do not repent is because they are not sufficiently convinc'd of the next Life and of its two Eternities of Joy and Torment they do not credit them but notwithstanding all that God hath done his truths want witnessing for if one went unto them from the Dead one that could testifie they would Repent I should now make reflections on this and our selves together and truly all this would bespatter fouly such as go on in a Vice for it does conclude concerning them that they do not believe Gods Truths but in the midst of their professions of Religion are Infidels 't is plain they are so in the aknowledgments of one of their own Tribe who in the anguish of his Torments does confess this of them from his own experience But worse things will appear when we have seen that God hath done all this to us with more advantage than this man in Hell did think sufficient or indeed desire which was my next undertaking and I shall manage it in the same order First If one went unto them from the dead says he they will Repent And now to answer that Christ is come from the dead an Article this is that made its way through all the Swords and all the Racks and torturing Engines that the powerful witty malice of a whole World could find out and execute And shall it find its death among the softs and glories of its own victorious profession when it was instant Ruine to ackowledg the belief of it then Myriads ran into the flames at once to own and to partake Christs Resurrection but now they that profess it are so well here in this Life that in defiance of their own profession they will not think there is another Life It is not out of Principle they doubt as it were easie to demonstrate but out of improbity They have an aversion to severe Piety and are uneasie under any thing that does engage to it and must therefore work themselves out and here they storm Unkind men to themselves not onely in imprudence who adventure all upon such hazards but in disparaging themselves who being men of reason and that set it up to such an height as to make it contend with God and dispute out his Power of raising them again yet can think such a reasoning Soul was given them for no other end but to procure for and to animate the Organs of their sensuality But this is dash'd if Christ be risen because His Resurrection did make Faith that he would Judg the World in Righteousness on purpose to make them Repent Acts xvii 20 21. So that this his first expectation is most fully answered to us But Secondly if Lazarus would go one out of Abraham's Bosom then they would Repent And hath there not a greater than Lazarus been with us one not out of Abraham's but Gods Bosom even the Son of his Bosom one that himself prepar'd those Joys for them that would believe him and obey him one that from all Eternity enjoy'd them in the Bosom of the Divinity And who could better reveal them to us than the Author and the God of them who knew them more than he that did create them and possess them Yea when this Son of God would be Incarnate and take Flesh and was to carry it through all the Miseries that Sin deserv'd and God's Wrath could inflict he thought these Joys encouragement enough to do it willingly these Pleasures were worth Agonies which none but a God could suffer Heb. xii 2. Now sure he that prepar'd these Joys did understand them and he that is the Word of God knew best how to reveal them too And now how poor a wish was that of our Rich Man Let Lazarus go tell them why a Person of the Trinity hath told us indeed how could God do more than come himself to reveal the truth of them and himself die for them to reveal the greatness of them Good God! that no body could serve thy turn to tell us of the pleasures of thy Bosom but the Son of thy Bosom that thou shouldst think it worth an Incarnation to reveal them and we not think it worth a little Reformation to have them that he should part with Blood and give his Life for those Joys and we not be content to forsake a Custom to give away the pleasures of a Lust the neither pleasures nor profits of an Oath the sick delights of an Excess nor the vexations of a Passion in exchange for them what will Hell say to us when one there said if Lazarus will go they will repent If Lazarus Thirdly one that saw me in Hell and so can testifie the Torments of this place yet God hath out done this too Our Creed will tell us who descended into Hell and the Psalmish saying concerning him God should not leave his Soul in Hell S. Austin asks Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse Christum apud inferos 'T were easie for me to produce enough besides that say so Clem. Alex Origen Hier. Greg. Naz. Fulgent Euseb. Emissenus Caesarius Anastas Jobius Damâ—scenus Oecumenius c. But because we are not agreed what he did there I 'll take a surer medium That no Lazarus can decipher the condition of a Sinner after the pleasures of his iniquity have left him to the recompences of it so well as Christ who not onely did prepare the Plagues and therefore can describe them but also himself
believes with And it is most evident that because men do not love the Precepts of Religion would not have them be their duty therefore they would have the Doctrines of it not be truths and in this they are the Disciples onely of their Lusts and because they cannot resolve to be otherwise therefore they resolve not to be Christ's Disciples but reject him for his holy Doctrines sake And so this Child is for the fall of many But it were strange if upon this account Christ should be for the fall of any of us who have learn'd a trick to reconcile his severe Doctines and our Sins together Where Vice most abounds though it be wilful and men persevere in it they are so far from finding any reason to fall off from him or from his Gospel for this that they therefore take the faster hold of it rely upon Him with the bolder stronger confidence As if good old Simeon were mistaken when he thought because men would not leave those sins which Christ so threatned therefore they would leave him Because they could not bear those his hard sayings to pull our the lust and the Eye too cast away the treasures of unrighteousness and the right hand that receives them also therefore they would cast off him For for this reason they betake themselves to him more eagerly devolve and cast themselves upon him with assurance 'T is possible indeed that the new Christian'd Indians might believe themselves oblig'd to lead their lives according to the Vow that they had made in Baptism knew not how to live a contradiction to be Christian Pagans therefore they thought it absolutely necessary to renounce the one and to reject Christ and his strict Religion was easier they thought Our Saviour also might suppose that when he brought Light into the World men would not receive that Light because their deeds were evil But our modern wickednesses that are of the true Eagle kind are educated bred up to endure and to defie the Light Our deeds of Night have learn'd to face both Sun and Men yea and face the Sun of Righteousness and the light of those flames that are to receive them Our Saviour told the Pharisees indeed that they repented not that they might believe for thinking it impossible they could assent to what he did affirm except they would consent to what he did Command He therefore thought they were not abel to believe because they would not purpose to amend But there is nothing difficult in this to us who at the same time are so perfectly resolv'd that every threat of Gospel is so Divine truth as that we assure our selves that we could be content to die Martyrs to the truth of them rather than enounce one little of them yet even then are Martyrs to those Lusts and Passions which those Threats belong to Who at once believe this Book of God that says except ye repent ye shall all perish and believe also that notwithstanding we do not Repent yet by Believing we shall scape not perish but be saved And is not this directly to believe our selves into Damnation the third and the geat fall which this Child is set for 3. This Child is for the fall of many to wit of all those who on these or any other grounds do not believe in or do not obey him who shall not obey him who shall therefore fall into Eternal Ruin this our Saviour does affirm S. John iii. 19. This is the Condemnation that Light came into the World c. This does aggravate the guilt and Sentence We were fal'n before indeed in Adam And I dare not undertake to be so learned to say whether to determine with some men that was but a fall form Paradise into the Grave and we were forfeit to Death onely But I may adventure to affirm that in the second Adam Sinners finally impenitent shall fall much farther than we did in the first Adam Now their pit shall have no bottom but this light that came to lighten them shall be to them consuming fire and everlasting burnings And all reason in the world For upon that fall of ours in Adam help was offer'd us an easie way not onely to repair those ruines but to better infinitely that estate which we were fal'n from and a way that cost God dear to purchase cost him not this Incarnation onely but the Death and Passion of his Son and divers other blessed methods of Salvation Now if we refuse the mercy of all this and scorn these miracles of condescending goodness and defie those methods that he makes use of to raise us form our Fall it is apparent we provoke and choose deeper ruine this refusal hath in it such desperate malignity as to poison this great mercy of the Incarnation and all the rest 'T is but a small thing to say that they who Stumble at this Rock of their Salvation spurning at it by their wilful disobedience that these make an infinite mass of loving-kindness to be lost upon them so as that Salvation cannot save them for alas Salvation ruines them the deeper and this Child is for their fall The condition they were forfeit to before by reason of their breach of the first Covenant was advantage comfortable in comparison of that which Christ does put them in This is the Condemnation that he came into the World And it had been infinitely better for them that this Child too had never been born The unreformed have the least reason in the world to solemnize this Festival they do but cecebrate the birth of thie own Ruin bow down and do reverence to their Fall Had it not been for this they had not gone to so severe an Hell So that they do but entertain the great occasion of their greater Condemnation Such it proves to them and that it might be so He was fore-ordained for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Child is set for the fall of many which does lead me to Gods Counsel in all this My next Part. This Child is set for the fall of many even by Gods direct appointment for saith Grotius Accedo its qui putant non nudum eventum sed consilium Dei significari I am of their opinion who understand not the success alone but the design of this Child 's coming and Gods Counsel in it is intended here And without disputing of Gods antecedent Will and consequent this is safely said God design'd this Child should be such an one that they who had no inclinations for Virtue would not entertain the love of it but counted it a mean pedantick thing and all its Rules and Laws unreasonable servitude these loose men would certainly reject Him and his Doctrines which were so severe and strict That those who did pretend friendship for Vertue and a service for Religion but withal must be allowed to maintain correspondence with the World seek the Honours and advantages of Earth and will trespass on Religion where it interferes
in conscience to that superior to depart from their own Judgment and to yield and sign their assent to his determinations Witness the matter of Jansenius Yea their great Cardinal is positive that If the Pope could err so far as to call evil good good evil to prohibit vertues or command vices the Church were bound in conscience to believe those vices good and honest and those vertues evil So far he Indeed if that Church be the Mother and Nurse of all Christians 't is from her breasts only they must seek the sincere Milk of the word Now that she is so they must take her word as Children do their Parents words that they are so And indeed this is properly to receive the Doctrine as a little Child not judge nor reason not examin but believe it And such legendary doctrines as well as Histories which they deliver are most fit to be receiv'd by such as Children Yet as if this had been the proper method among Christians always in S. Austin's time we find the Manichees derided Christianity that discipline of Faith because by that men were commanded to believe and were not taught how to distinguish truth from falshood by clear reason and again that it requires us to assent before we have a reason for it And long before that Celsus did advise the Christians to receive no doctrines but on the account of reason credulity being the inlet to deceit saying they that without grounds believe are like those that admire and â—e satisfied with juglers and take appearances and sleight of hand for truth adding many of the Christians neither would receive nor give a reason of their faith but us'd to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not you examin but believe 't is your faith shall save you and as if from the beginning it were so we cannot but have heard the story of that man that reading Genesis where Moses says In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth And he said let there be light and there was light c. Swore at him saying this Barbarian only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if Argument and Reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the inâ—titutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the Oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not Children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a Man and a Child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an Act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unless he satisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so and were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor Rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the World so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such Childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rational grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgment also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infalliable as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examin ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesom mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish and so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tâ—bula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impress Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signs and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent and Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself profess that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his
their Bibles to be burnt in one Month 17000 were put to death And the Persecution lasted at that rate for ten years time so that in Egypt only it is said there were slain 144000 and 70000 banisht The Laity it seems were allowed Bibles then Or put the case higher in Adrian's or Trajan's time who both lived within an Hundred years of Christ who Martyr'd them 'till weariness slackned the Execution and they gave off onely as it were that so they might cease to persecute themselves and we have the Officers engaged attesting this all which must needs be as notorious as the Light Now Secondly 't is most impossible those so vast multitudes of every Nation should have met together forg'd a Code of Doctrines and agreed so uniformly in professing a Religion and in dying for it for we may as easily believe that there were never any men before this Age we live in but that these began the kind as that those of that Age began the Christian Religion Thirdly 't is as impossible that their immediate Ancestors who lived in the Apostles Age who heard their Preaching received their Writings saw the Miracles they did if they did any and many of them must have seen Christ also after he was risen if it were so yea multitudes of them were themselves parties in the gifts of Tongues and Miracles if there were any and so could not be impos'd on but must necessarily know whether they were truths or forgeries It is as Impossible I say so many should agree together to betray all their Posterity into the profession of a Religion from which they could look for no advantage but the certain total Ruin of themselves and their posterity it was not possible they could have done this if they had not thought all this was true and since they did know whether it were true or not if they thought it was true they did know it was and if they knew it was then it is certain that it was so and these Scriptures and the Doctrines Christians deliver so far as they have not varied since that time from these Authentical Records they have the Seal of God Miracles to attest they come from God I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah which so eminently came to pass in Christ that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine Next Christ's predictions in the New particularly those about Jerusalem which saith Eusebius He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witness and no Christian writes of it or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words But enough hath been said to prove they come from God and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God with perfect resignation of our Souls and submission of our judgments denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties that is receive this word of the Kingdom as a little Child I do not here affirm by saying this that our Religion does disdain or keep distance from the service of any of Mans faculties for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only but as Judges 'T is plain the senses were the first I do not say conveyance onely but Foundation of Faith which was built on the first believers eyes and ears they heard the Doctrine saw the Miracles were sure they saw and heard them and so supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God were certain of their truth without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine And S. John therefore does not onely call in and admit and urge their testimony That which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life that declare we unto you But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most for speaking of the Eucharist he says that which you see is Bread and 't is a Cup it is that very thing which your eyes tell you ' t is Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause And in an instance where their sentencè passes 't is not strange if Reason also take the Chair and do pretend to Judge And truly when the Scripture that does call those Elements Christs Body and his Blood does also call them after Consecration Bread and Wine and since they must be called one of them by a figure for they cannot be in Substance both and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lies hath not expresly said 't is this but in resemblance that in Substance Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties and to which a Trope is not a stranger it can judge of figurative speeches when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body 'T is but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb which they call'd the Body of the Passover though it were but the memorial a figure which was always usual in Sacraments and is indeed essential to Sacraments And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs But if it should resolve it to be Bread and Wine onely in a figure besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence that a man can be nourisht by them which the Romanists dare not deny nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope be nourish't with a figure besides this if reason shall resolve that it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by and judge in contradiction to known Principles and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding which especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly must be most unreasonable yea most impossible to judge that true that is to say believe that thing which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer or receive as a little Child that discerns the Lords Body no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it Or to make another instance when the Scripture says God is a Spirit yet does also give him hands and eyes
that many Ages prov'd but Centuries of Martyrdom unto that Truth all Torments were more eligible than the belief of this Religion which was confirmed so that against all arts and power of Opposition against the Wit and Fury of the World though all the Subtlety and all the Strength of Earth resisted it yet it over-spread the Universe Besides it is most prudent to believe it too for if there be another World what then There was enough done therefore but Corruptions suffer them not to attend to that which hath been done And 't is no wonder they should do so at this distance for they contrasted with Christs Miracles when present and they were so uneasie under the conviction of them that rather than be prest so by the mighty power of his Works they did design to rid themselves of him that wrought them John xi 47. you may find them strugling with his demonstrations to keep off the Evidence What do we for this man doth many Miracles Yea they do conspire against the Miracles themselves and would put Lazarus also to death because he was raised from the dead they could not let the Evidence and the Conviction live but they must murder that too Nay more as if the pertinacy of their prejudices could do mightier Works than Christ and could controul and were above the power of his Miracles it is said to have bound his hands and he could do no mighty Works at Nazareth because of it Mar. vi 6. At least as saith Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could not do them where men were not capable they should be done So that Christ did pronounce from Reason and Experience If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead Such an amazing argument might probably astonish but would not convince unless it met with honest inclinations for after the surprize of it were over and had vanish'd then the corruption that Bosom Sophister would stir and goad and urge incessantly so that to ease himself the Man must find out some cross Scruple to weaken the force of that Evidence and the Conviction would vanish like the Ghost And if we should examine the Experience of our selves and others we should find that just according to the rate of virtuous inclinations and dispositions of heart to part with sin so are men prepar'd for the belief of Christ so are their cares and regards of his Religion He that is honestly inclin'd opens his Soul to Christianity for it speaks to his heart 't is right to the grain of his Soul he looks upon the Promises as made to him and lays them up as Gods encouragements of his inclinations every thing in the Gospel fits the temper of his mind And he that is but pretty well disposed that loves Virtue for the most part but does allow himself some one corruption he always hearkens to Religion where it sets it self against those Vices which he hates but as to his own particular evil inclination there he is a little Infidel cannot persuade himself that God will be so stern against a single pleasure that one petty indulgence should be so considerable that it should provoke to those extremities the Bible threatens and can by no means believe S. James that he that offends in one point thus is guilty of all And they upon whose constitutions there are weights and Plummets that incline them to some vicious courses and by loose Education have those pronenesses of temper pamper'd and by having their inclinations follow'd and indulg'd taught them to crave then to get head and to command and then by conversation with others that mind nothing but satisfaction of those bents of the Brute part that allow themselves all the desires of constitution are come to swill the pleasures profits and the Honours that do wait on those practices Or whosoever by whatever steps arrive at an habit of doing thus and a great liking of them and so to improbity of Heart to utter aversations of the strictnesses of Piety all which they have lived so out of 'T is known that not enduring to be bound up in those narrow paths of Piety and Virtue they burst all the Obligations to them seek little things to cavil at or to deride hoping with those their poison'd Arrows through the skirts and the Extreamer parts to send a Wound into the very Vitals of Religion for they aim at the Heart when they pretend to strike only the out Lap of its Garments and to say all at once grow down-right Atheists And though as once at Corinth now again the World by Wisdom knows no God there being Skill and Manage in this Mystery of Infidelity and it requires Study Wit and Parts yet they proceed just by the Method of King David's Fool first he says in his heart there is no God before he say it in his thoughts and Opinions He wishes it and so comes to believe it the Atheism is rooted in the Seat of the Affections and it branches thence into the Mind at least into the Mouth and finding Hell the greatest check to their Delights which they cannot determine with themselves to leave and to repent of therefore because they will not quench it with their tears they study how to put it out with Arguments And meerly for this reason that they will not live like Men they resolve therefore to believe that they shall die like Beasts But alas they must live for ever with the Devil and his Angels it that Christ whom they reject does not lay hold on them and rescue them from thence as he is in his passage to his Cross the next Way we must prepare for him and my next Part. The Solemn days approaching will discover to you this Way namely the Passage from the Garden in Gethsemane to Golgotha There you will see he does begin his Journey with the Amazements of an Agony and ended it in something like the horrors and the outcrys of Despair he travailed under such a load as made his life gush out through all the parts of his whole Body the weight of it did make his Soul faint by the way and when he was upon the Tree crush'd it out and made it expire sooner than the stress of Nature would have done and forc'd it to burst out away in Prayers and strong Cries that so he might sooner escape from under that sad pressure And then do but consider and look on him under that representation which S. Paul does shew of him how all that time that he was creeping under that dire burden in that dolorous way he was meerly pressing on with all the haste he could to overtake us in our course and rescue us from Ruine For that Journey was a Race and we the Prize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have been laid hold on saith he Phil. iii. 12. laid hold on in the Agonistick sense as in a Race he so expresses it And