the Truth that they might be saved God shall send them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess. 2 10. The forementioned particulars do of themselves lead to the most dangerous errours how much more then must they needs so do when they are backed on with the Divine Vengeance But if honesty and an Obedient temper of Soul will secure from the other causes of errour and seduction it will in so doing secure from this last So that it is manifest that a sincere desire of Righteousness and true Holiness will not fail to help men to a thorow-belief and sufficient understanding of that Book which is onely designed to indue them with it And that nothing can occasion the contrary but a wilful adhering to some one or other immorality and that this hath a very great aptness so to do So that it is not the least matter of wonder to see men of excellent wits and brave accomplishments either fall into gross errours or even into a flat disbelief of the Christian Religion As strange as this may seem to some it appears from our past Discourse that there is not any real cause of admiration in it For other endowments of as excellent use as they may be when accompanied with that of an obedient temper must needs do more hurt than good to the Souls that are adorned and graced with them when separated from it and occasion those vices that may well make way for Heresies And it is certain that an acute wit when it hath not a purified sense going along with it is so far from being a sufficient praerequisite to the right understanding of Evangelical truths that it is as notable an Engine as the Grand Deceiver can desire to make use of in order to the bringing about his mischievous designs upon the person that is Master of it So that indeed it is on the contrary rather matter of wonder that any man that hath a naughty Will should have a good Iudgement in Gospel-truths though both his natural and acquired parts should be ne'r so great And again we may without the least breach of Charity presume that whosoever to whom Christianity is sufficiently made known doth either disbelieve it or any of the Fundamentals of it his Heart is much more in fault than is his Head and that he hath darkened his Discerning faculty and greatly dimmed the Eye of his Soul by entertaining some filthy lust that sends up a thick sog and mist of vapours to it If any man teach otherwise saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 3. and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness he is proud c. not he is weak and cannot but he is wicked and will not understand the Truth And by the way this Discourse may conduce to the no small encouragement of the weaker sort Let such be but heartily solicitous about doing God's Will and having the Design of the Gospel effected in them and they need fear that their weakness will betray them into the wrong way to Blessedness CHAP. XXVII The Last Inference That we are taught by the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth Instances of what kind of things it doth not consist in For what Ends the several Exercises of Piety and Devotion are injoyned How God is Glorified by men and by what means Whom it is our duty to esteem and carry our selves towards as true Christians That by following the Example of Christ and making his Life our Pattern we shall assure our selves that the Design of Christianity is effected in us and that we are indued with the Power of it LAstly We learn from the Doctrine of the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth viz. In a good state and habit of mind in a holy frame and temper of Soul whereby it esteemeth God as the Chiefest good preferreth him and his Son Jesus before all the world and prizeth above all things an interest in the Divine Perfections such as Iustice and Righteousness universal Charity Goodness Mercy and Patience and all kinds of Purity From whence doth naturally proceed a hearty complyance with all the Holy Precepts of the Gospel and sincere endeavours to perform all those actions which are agreeable to them are necessary expressions of those and the like vertues and means for the obtaining and encrease of them and to avoid the Contrary The Kingdom of God or Christianity is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost as Saint Paul tells us Rom. 14. 17. That is it doth not consist in any merely external matters or bodily exercises which elsewhere he saith do profit but little And as not in such as he there meaneth viz. things of a perfectly indifferent nature and neither good nor evil so neither in such as are very good and laudable for the matter of them It is onely their flowing from an inward Principle of Holiness that denominateth any whatsoever Christian actions But such as are onely occasioned by certain external inducements and motives and proceed not from any good temper and disposition of Soul be they never so commendable in themselves bespeak not him that performeth them to be a true and sincere Christian. He is not a Iew saith the same Apostle that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision that is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. That is he onely is a true child of Abraham who in the purity of the heart obeyeth those substantial Laws that are imposed by God upon him And if no one that doth not thus might properly be called a Iew or child of Abraham much less can the name of a Christian and a Disciple of the Holy Iesus be due to him He it is evident is onely so in whom the Design of Christianity is in some measure accomplish'd And it appears from what hath been said that its Design is Primarily and immediately upon the Nature which being rectified and renewed will certainly discover it self so to be throughout the whole life For a good tree will not bring forth corrupt fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit as our Saviour hath said Were it possible as it is not that we should forbear all outward acts of sin and yet our Souls cleave to it we could not but be destitute of the Life and Power of Christianity And should we abound never so much in the exercise of good duties if our design in so doing be to gratifie any lust and serve some carnal interest they will be so far from Christian actions that they may
the first sight assured of the truth of the contents of it For no man in his wits can in the least question the Veracity of him whom even natural light assures us can be no other than Truth it self Secondly Those good Principles that the Heathens by the greatest improvement of their Reason could at best conclude but very probable are made undoubtedly Certain to us Christians by Revelation As First That of the Immortality of our Souls The vulgar sort of Heathens who were apt to believe any thing that was by Tradition handed down to them 't is confessed did not seem to doubt of the truth of this Doctrine but to take it for granted which no question is also to be imputed to the special Providence of God and not merely to their Credulity But the more learned and sagacious that would not easily be imposed on nor believe any farther than they saw cause though by Arguments drawn from the notions they had truly conceived of the Nature of Humane Souls they have diverse of them undertaken to prove them Immortal yet could their Arguments raise the best of them no higher than a great opinion of their Immortality Cato read Plato of the Immortality of the Soul as he lay bleeding to death with great delight but that argues not that he had any more than great hopes of the truth of it Socrates did so believe it that he parted with this life in expectation of another but yet he plainly and ingenuously confessed to his friends that it was not certain Cicero that sometimes expresseth great confidence concerning the truth of it doth for the most part speak so of it that any one may see that he thought the Doctrine no better than probable He discourseth of it in his book de Senectute as that which he rather could not endure to think might be false than as that which he had no doubt of the truth of And after he had there instanced in several Arguments which he thought had weight in them for the proof thereof and expressed a longing to see his Ancestors and the brave men he had once known and which he had heard of read and written of he thus concludes that whole Discourse If I erre in believing the Souls immortality I erre willingly neither so long as I live will I suffer this errour which so much delights me to be wrested from me But if when I am dead I shall be void of all sense as certain little Philosophers think I do not fear to have this errour of mine laught at by dead Philosophers But now the Gospel hath given us the highest assurance possible of the truth of this Doctrine Life and immortality are said to be brought to light by it He who declared himself to be the Son of God with power gave men a sensible demonstration of it in his own person by his Resurrection from the Dead and Ascention into Heaven And both by himself and his Apostles who were also indued with a power of working the greatest of Miracles for the confirmation of the truth of what they said did very frequently and most plainly preach it Secondly The Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments in the life to come which is for substance the same with the former according to our behaviour in this life the learned Heathens did generally declare their belief of which they grounded upon the Justice Holiness and Goodness of the Divine Nature They considered that Good men were often exercised with great calamities and that bad men very frequently were greatly prosperous and abounded with all earthly felicities And therefore thought it very reasonable to believe that God would in another life shew his hatred of Sin and love of Goodness by making a plain discrimination between the conditions of vertuous and wicked persons by punishing these and rewarding those without exception But this though it was in their opinion a very probable argument yet they looked not on it as that which amounted to a Demonstration For they could not but be aware That that Doctrine which was so generally received by them viz. That Vertue is in all conditions a Reward and Vice a Punishment to it self did very much blunt the edge of it And that other very harsh one That all things besides Vertue and Vice are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither good nor evil did render it as the perfect Stoicks did seem too well to understand too too insignificant But I must confess that Hierocles who as hath been said did not admit that notion but in a very qualified sence saith of those that think their Souls mortal and consequently that vertue will hereafter have no reward that when they dispute in the behalf of vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rather talk wittily than truly and in good earnest The excellent Socrutes himself when he was going to drink off the fatal drug thus said to those that were then present with him I am now going to end my days whereas your lives will be prolonged but whether you or I upon this account are the more happy is known to none but God only intimating that he did not look upon it as absolutely certain that he should have any Reward in another world for doing so heroically vertuous an act as chusing Martyrdom for the Doctrine of the Unity of the Godhead But now what is more frequently or clearly declared in the Gospel than that there will be Rewards and Punishments in the world to come sutable to mens actions in this world than that Christ will come a second time to judge the world in righteousness and that all must appear before his Iudgment-seat to receive according to what they have done whether it be good or whether it be evil 2 Cor. 5. 10. Thirdly That mens sins shall be forgiven upon true Repentance from the consideration of the Goodness and Mercy of God the Heathens were likewise perswaded or rather hoped But we Christians have the strongest assurance imaginable given us of it by the most solemn and often reiterated promises of God himself and not onely that some or most but also that all without exception and the most heinous impieties upon condition of their being sincerely forsaken shall in and through Christ be freely forgiven to those that have been guilty of them Fourthly The Doctrine of God's readiness to assist men by his special grace in their endeavours after Vertue could be no more at the best than probable in the judgement of the Heathens but we have in the Gospel the most express promises thereof made to us for our infinitely great encouragement Tully in his Book de Naturâ Deorum saith that their City Rome and Greece had brought forth many singular men of which it is to be believed none arrived to such a height nisi Deo juvante but by the help of God And after he tells us that Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu Divino unquam fuit No excellent man was ever made so
on mens wills to use their utmost endeavour to subdue their lusts and to acquire vertuous habits yet this grace is not such as that there is no possibility of refusing or quenching it Nor is it fit it should seeing mankind is indued with a principle of freedom and that this principle is as Essential as any other to the Humane Nature I will add that this is one immediate cause of the unsuccessfulness of the Gospel to which it is very much to be attributed Namely mens strange and unaccountable mistaking the Design of it Multitudes of those that profess Christianity are so grosly inconsiderate not to say worse as to conceive no better of it than as a Science and a matter of Speculation And take themselves though against the clearest evidences of the contrary imaginable for true and genuine Christians either because they have a general belief of the truth of the Christian Religion and profess themselves the Disciples of Christ Jesus in contradistinction from Iews Mahometans and Pagans and in and through him alone expect salvation Or because they have so far acquainted themselves with the Doctrine of the Gospel as to be able to talk and dispute and to make themselves pass for knowing People Or because they have joyned themselves to that party of Christians which they presume are of the Purest and most Reformed Model and are zealous sticklers for their peculiar forms and discriminating sentiments and as stiff opposers of all other that are contrary to them Now the Gospel must necessarily be as ineffectual to the rectifying of such mens minds and Reformation of their Manners while they have so wretchedly too low an opinion of its Design as if it really had no better And so long as they take it for granted that its main intention is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them Orthodox not Vertuous it cannot be thought that they should be ever the more Holy nay 't is a thousand to one but they will be in one kind or other the more unholy for their Christianity And lastly There are several untoward opinions very unhappily instilled into professors of Christianity which render the Truths of the Gospel they retain a belief of insignificant and unsuccessful as to the bettering either of their hearts or lives as infinitely apt and of as mighty efficacy as they are in themselves for those great purposes 2. Secondly Whereas it was said also that the Generality of Heathens live in diverse respects better lives than do multitudes and even the Generality of those that profess Christianity it is so far from being difficult to give a satisfactory account how this may be without disparaging our excellent Religion that it is to be expected that those people should be even much the worse for it that refuse to be bettered by it It is an old Maxime that Corruptio optimi est pessima The best things being spoiled do prove to be the very worst And according to this nothing less is to be looked for than that degenerated Christians should be the vilest of all persons And it is also certain that the best things when abused do ordinarily serve to the worst purposes of which there may be given innumerable Instances And so it is in this present case S. Paul told the Corinthians that he and the other Apostles were a savour of death unto death as well as of life unto life And our Saviour gave the Pharisees to understand That for judgement he was come into the world that those that see not might see and that those that see might be made blind that is That it would be a certain consequent of his coming not onely that poor ignorant Creatures should be turned from darkness to light but also that those which have the light and shut their eyes against it should be judicially blinded And the forementioned Apostle in the first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans saith of those that held the truth in unrighteousness that would not suffer it to have any good effect upon them through their close adhering to their filthy lusts that God gave them up to the most unnatural villainies permitted them to commit them by withholding all restraints from them and likewise gave them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate mind So that from the just judgment of God it is I say to be expected that depraved Christians should be the most wicked of all people And therefore it is so far from being matter of wonder that those that will not be converted by the Gospel should be so many of them very horribly prophane that it is rather so that all those which having for any considerable time lived under the preaching of it continue disobedient to it should not be such In the purest ages of the Church were degenerated Christians made in this kind most fearful Examples of the Divine Vengeance And so utterly forsaken of God that they became if we may believe Irenaeus Tertullian and others of the Antient Fathers not one whit better than Incarnate Devils Nor were there to be found in the whole world in those days and but rarely since such abominable and most execrable Caytiffs as they were I have sometimes admired that humane nature should be capable of such a monstrous depravation as several stories recorded of them do bespeak them to have contracted But 3. Thirdly If we must needs judge of the efficacy of the Gospel for the making men Holy by its success herein Let us cast our eyes back upon the First ages of Christianity and then we shall find it an easie matter to satisfie our selves concerning it though we should understand no more of Christianity than the effects it produced in those days For though there were then a sort of people that sometimes called themselves Christians that were as was now said the most desperately wicked Creatures that ever the earth bare yet these were esteemed by all others that were known by that name as no whit more of their number than the Pagans and Iews that defied Christ. And their Religion was a motly thing that consisted of Christianity Iudaism and Paganism all blended together and therefore in regard of their mere profession they could be no more truly called Christians than Iews or Pagans Or rather to speak properly they were of no Religion at all but would sometimes comply with the Iews and at other times with the Heathens and joyned readily with both in persecuting the Christians And in short the Samaritans might with less impropriety be called Iews than these Gnostiques Christians 'T is also confessed that the orthodox Christians were calumniated by the Heathens as flat Atheists but their only pretence for so doing was their refusing to worship their false Gods And they likewise accused them of the beastliest and most horrid practices but it is sufficiently evident that they were beholden to the Gnostiques for those accusations who being accounted Christians did by their being notoriously guilty of
them give occasion to the enemies of Christianity to reproach all the professors of it as most silthy and impure creatures I know it is commonly said that those Calumnies proceeded purely from the Heathens malicious invention but it is apparent that those vile Hereticks gave occasion to them But that the Christians were so far from being guilty of such monstrous crimes that they did lead most inoffensive and good lives doth abundantly appear by the Apologies that diverse of the Fathers made to the Heathen Emperors and people in their behalf Iustin Martyr in his Apology to Antoninus Pius hath this saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is our interest that all persons should make a narrow inquisition into our lives and doctrine and to expose them to the view of every one And he afterwards tells that Emperor That his people had nothing to lay to their charge truly but their bare name Christians And again That they which in times past took pleasure in unclean practices do live now that they are become converts to Christianity pure and chast lives They which used magical arts do now consecrate and devote themselves to the eternal and good God They which preferred the incomes of their money and possessions before all things else do now cast them into the common stock and communicate them to any that stand in need They which once hated each other and mutually engaged in bloody battles and according to the custom would not keep a common fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with those that were not of the same tribe now live lovingly and familiarly together with them That now they pray for their very enemies and those which persecute them with unjust hatred they endeavour to win to them by perswasions that they also living according to the honest precepts of Christ may have the same hope and gain the same reward with themselves from the great Governour and Lord of the world Athenagoras in his Apology saith thus to the Emperors Aurelius Antoninus and Aurelius Commodus As very gracious and benign as you are to all others you have no care of us who are called Christians for ye suffer us who commit no evil nay who as shall hereafter appear do behave our selves of all men most piously and justly both towards God and your Government to be vexed to be put to flight from place to place and to be violently dealt with And then he adds some lines after If any of you can convict us of any great or small crime we are ready to bear the most severe punishment that can be inflicted upon us And speaking of the Calumnies that some had fastened upon them he saith If you can find that these things are true spare no age no sex but utterly root us up and destroy us with our wives and children if you can prove that any of us live like to beasts c. And there is very much to the same purpose in Tertullian's Apology Where he tels the Roman Governours That they dealt otherwise with the Christians than with any other whom they accounted Malefactors For whereas they tortured others to make them confess the faults they were accused of they tortured these to make them deny themselves to be Christians And that having no crime besides to lay to their charge which carried the least shew of truth their professing themselves to be no Christians would at at any time procure for them their absolution And to this objection that there are some Christians that do excedere à regula disciplnae depart from the rules of their Religion and live disorderly here turneth this answer Desinunt tamen Christiani haberi penes nos But those that do so are no longer by us accounted Christians And by the way let me recite Rigaltius his short note upon this passage At perseverant hodiè in nomine et numero Christianorum qui vitam omnem vivunt Antichristi But those now adays do retain the name and society of Christians which live altogether Antichristian lives And proceeds he Tolle publicanos c. Take away Publicans and a wretched rabble which he musters together et frigebunt hodiernorum Ecclesiae Christianorum and our present Christian Churches will be lamentably weak small and insignificant things From these few citations out of the Apologies of the forementioned Fathers to which may be added abundance more of the same nature both out of them and others we may judge what rare success the Gospel had in the first ages and what a vast difference there is between the Christians of those and of these daies that is between the Christians that were under persecution and those that since have lived in ease and prosperity When the Christian Religion came to be the Religion of Nations and to be owned and encouraged by Emperors and Rulers then was the whole vast Roman Empire quickly perswaded to march under its Banner and the very worst of men for fashions sake and in expectation of Temporal Advantages came flocking into the Church of Christ. Nay the worse men were and the less of conscience they had the more forward might they then be so to do the more haste they might make to renounce their former Religion and take upon them the Profession of Christianity And no sooner was the Church set in the warm sun-shine of worldly Riches and Honours but it is apparent she was insensibly over-run with those noisome vermine which have bred and multiplyed ever since even for many Centuries of years in her If any shall doubt whether the forementioned Fathers might not give too good a character of the Christians whose cause they pleaded I desire them to consider whether or no it be imaginable that they should so do seeing their enemies to whom they wrote their defences of them could easily they living among them have discovered the falsity of their commendations And we find them frequently appealing to the Heathens own Consciences whether they themselves did not believe that to be no other than the truth which they said of them And moreover we have them ever and anon triumphing over them and provoking them to shew such effects of their Philosophy and way of Religion as they themselves could witness were produced by the Gospel of Christ. Nay and we have their Adversaries themselves giving them a very high Character Tertullian in his forementioned Apology saith that Pliny the second who was a persecutor of Christians wrote thus to the Emperour Trajan from the Province where he ruled under him viz. That Besides their Resolute refusing to offer Sacrifice he could learn nothing concerning their Religion but that they held Meetings before day to sing praises to Christ and God and to engage their Sect in solemn Leagues forbidding Murther Adultery Deceit Disloyalty and all other wickednesses And in a now extant Epistle of his to that Emperor we find him giving him this information viz. That some that had renounced Christianity and now worshipped his
that all that have the conduct of Souls committed to them should do the like S. Paul exhorted Timothy first to take heed to himself and then to the Doctrine and the former advice was of no whit less necessity and importance than was the latter For as woful experience assureth us a Minister of a careless and loose life let his parts and ability in preaching be never so great nay though he should behave himself never so faithfully in the Pulpit and be zealous against the very vices he himself is guilty of which would be very strange if he should must needs do more hurt incomparably than he can do good And though as some of them will tell them it is the Peoples duty to do as they say and not as they do yet is there nothing more impossible than to teach them effectually that Lesson Mankind as we had before occasion to shew is mightily addicted to imitation and Examples especially those of Governors and Teachers have a greater force upon people ordinarily than have Instructions but chiefly bad Examples in regard of their natural proneness to vice than good Instructions Had not the Apostles expressed as great a care of what they did as of what they said how they lived as how they preached Christianity would without doubt have been so far from prevailing and getting ground as it hath done that it could not have long survived its Blessed Author if it had not bid adiue to the world with him Most men do what we can will judge of our Sermons by our Conversations and if they see these bad they will not think those good nor the Doctrines contained in them practicable seeing they have no better effect upon those that preach them And besides no man will be thought to be serious and in good earnest in pressing those duties upon others which he makes no conscience of performing himself Nay every man's judgement in Divine things may warrantably be suspected that is of a wicked and vicious Life And those that are conscious to themselves that they are not able to pass a judgement upon Doctrines may not be blamed if they question their Minister's Orthodoxy while they observe in him any kind of Immorality and see that he lives to the satisfaction of any one Lust. For the promise of knowing the Truth is made onely to such as continue in Christ's words that is that are obedient to his Precepts And I adde that such a one 's talks of Heaven and Hell are like to prevail very little upon his Auditors or to be at all heeded by the greatest part of them while they consider that the Preacher hath a soul to save as well as they And therefore the love that they bear to their lusts with the Devil's help will easily perswade them that either these things are but mere sictions or else that the one may be obtained and the other escaped upon far easier terms than he talks of But as for those few in whom the sense of true Vertue and Piety have made so deep an impression as that they have never the slighter opinion of the necessity thereof in regard of their Minister's wicked Example the prejudice that they cannot but conceive against him renders his discourses insipid and unaffecting to them and so they ordinarily take all opportunities to turn their backs upon him and at length quite forsake him And then if they are not as understanding as well meaning people are too easily drawn away from all other Churches when they have left their own and become a prey to some demure and fairly pretending Sectary And I am very certain from my own observation that no one thing hath so conduced to the prejudice of our Church of England and done the separating parties so much service as the scandalous lives of some that exercise the Ministerial Function in her The late Excellent Bishop of Down and Connar hath this memorable passage in a Sermon he preached to the University at Dublin If ye become burning shining Lights if ye do not detain the Truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrine will be true and that truth will prevail But if you live wickedly scandalously every little Schismalick will put you to shame draw Disciples after him and abuse your flocks and feed them with Coloâ—…ynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the chair appointed for your Religion But to hasten to the dispatch of this unpleasant Topick wicked ministers are of all other ill-livers the most scandalous for they lay the greatest stumbling block of any whatsoever before mens souls and what our Saviour said of the Scribes and Pharisees may in an especial manner be applyed to them viz. that they will neither enter into heaven themselves nor yet suffer them that are entering to go in so far are they from saving themselves and those that hear them But I would to God such would well lay to heart those sad words of our Saviour Luke 17. 1 2. It is impossible but that offences will come but woe unto him through whom they come it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the Sea c. And those words are not more effectual to scare them than are these following of a Heathen viz. Tully concerning vicious Philosophers to shame them into a better life saith he in his Tusculan Questions the second book Quotusquisque Philosophorunâ—… invenitur qui sit ita moratus c. What one of many Philosophers is there who so behaves himself and is of such a mind and life as Reason requireth which accounteth his Doctrine not a boast of Science but a law of life which obeyeth himself and is governed by his own precepts We may see some so light and vain that it would have been better for them to be wholly ignorant and never to have learn d any thing others so covetous of money thirsty of praise and honour and many such slaves to their lusts ut cum eorum vitâ mirabiliter pugnet oratio That their lives do marvellously contradict their Doctrine Quod quidem mihi videtur esse turpissimum c. Which to me seems the most filthy and abominable of all things For as he which professing himself a Grammarian speaks barbarously and who being desirous to be accounted a Musician sings scurvily is so much the more shame-worthy for his being defective in that the knowledge and skill of which he arrogates to himself so a Philosopher in ratione vitae peccans miscarrying in his manners is in this respect the baser and more wretched Creature that in the office of which he will needs be a Master he doth amiss artemque vitae professus delinquit in vitâ and prosessing the art of well-living or of teaching others to live well is faulty and miscarrieth in his own life Could this excellent Heathen thus inveigh against wicked Philosophers what Satyre can be tart and
but will only examine what is so that he may not entertain an erroneous perswasion He will bring his mind to the Gospel and not wrest the Gospel to his mind But vice and sin being allowed and predominant in the soul must needs warp the judgement and clap a heavy byass on it that will draw it to favour as much as may be their interest in all matters it is concerned in And therefore a man of wicked and depraved Affections cannot but be exceeding unapt to study a Book whose Design is such as the Gospel's is But the obediently-disposed will bring free ingenuous and candid spirits to this work and therefore are very fitly prepared to do it with good success Secondly This honest and sincere temper of mind will help a man to evidence for his satisfaction concerning the main Doctrines of the Gospel far excelling any that can arise from mere speculation â—… namely that of sense and Experience The man that is indued with it shall know of the Doctrine that it is of God he shall not onely believe it according to the strict notion of that Phrase There is an inward sweetness in Holy Truths that a Good soul will relish and savour but the vitiated palates of those that are in love with any lust cannot taste it How sweet said David are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey unto my mouth Now naked demonstrations give but very poor and slight satisfaction in comparison of that knowledge that ariseth from sense and Experience and this latter alone will remove from us all doubt and uncertainty Therefore that was so far from being a weak and foolish that it was a most worthy and laudable speech of the honest Martyr Though I cannot dispute I can die for Christ No one that hath tasted honey can at all doubt of its sweetness though he may want cunning enough to answer the Arguments whereby a Sophister may attempt to prove it bitter We say seeing is believing And the great evidence that our Saviour proved himself to be the Messias by was that of sense By this was Thomas his incredulity as very strong as it was immediately overcome And the Bodily senses are not more infallible than is the purified sense of the Soul Thirdly The aforesaid temper of mind will secure those in whom it is from the causes of errour in those Points of the Gospel that are of weightiest importance It is undoubtedly certain that mistakes about these cannot possibly arise from the obscurity of that Book it being as plain as heart can wish in all matters of absolute necessity as hath been shewn in the Free Discourse Therefore errours that are of a damnable nature must necessarily proceed from vicious causes such as 1. Gross Ignorance But 't is not possible to find this in any soul that is sincerely desirous to obey God 2. A too high opinion of our parts and Reason By which is often occasioned a rejection of whatsoever they are not able to comprehend But the honest soul can have no such conceits of his Reason he knows nothing more undoubtedly than that he is a weak and most shallow Creature He knows that the most contemptible Insect and common Weed are able to pose and put him to a non-plus and that it would therefore be the highest of Arrogances in him to believe nothing revealed to him but what is an adequate object of his understanding This man will submit his Reason to Divine Revelation and not Divine Revelation to his Reason 'T is true he cannot though he would never so fain believe that which doth manifestly contradict the Reason of his mind and the Innate sense of his soul but therefore it is certain that no such things are to be found in the Gospel nor can be a matter of Divine Revelation 3. Proud Affectation of being thought wiser than other folk This was a great thing which made the first Heretiques that the Church of Christ ever knew as appeareth by the Arrogant Title they assumed to themselves and distinguished their Sect by viz. Gnostiques But that temper of mind that makes men unfeignedly desirous of Piety and true Vertue is inconsistent with all such ambitious and aspiring thoughts 4. Liquorish curiosity and wantonness of spirit When people are glutted with those wholesome truths which they have for many years been entertained with and will be hunting after Novelties when they grow weary of their honest Teachers and will be following every Upstart that sets himself in opposition to them it can hardly otherwise be but that they must fall into dangerous errors The Apostle saith 2 Tim. 4. 3. that The time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts will they heap to themselves Teachers But how comes it to pass that they will do thus it followeth having itching Fars But the obedientlyinclined soul will be careful to keep in that good way which by experience he hath found to be so and to avoid all bye-paths Nor will he be running after Seducers but shun them all he can as being conscious of his own weakness and his aptness without the Grace of God to be misled 5. The love of and being wedded to any one lust whatsoever will certainly endanger mens falling into the worst of Heresies When men have some beloved sins or sin which they are resolved they will not part with and are as a Right Eye or Right Hand to them they are easily perswaded to entertain such Principles as will allow them to live in them and to abandon those that will not and therefore to wrest the Scriptures as those the Apostle speaks of 2 Pet. 3. 16. to their own destruction and put them upon the rack to make them speak such things as may consist with the interest of their corrupt affections Quod volumus facilè credimus that which we would have to be true we easily believe is so and what we desire should be false we are with little difficulty perswaded to disbelieve This therefore hath had such a very fearful influence on not a few as to cause them at length to throw away their BIBLES to deny the Immortality of their Souls and disbelieve as much as they can even the Being of a Deity because they are sensible that while they continue in their sins it is infinitely their Interest that the holy Scriptures should be false that there should be no other life and no God But I need not say that the Honest Obedient Person is one that is not devoted to any Lust. 6. The just judgement of God upon these and the like accounts is the last cause I shall mention of mens disbelieving the Gospel and renouncing any of the Essentials of Christianity Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge that is to acknowledge him in their practice God gave them up to a Reprobate or an adulterate corrupted mind Rom. 1. 28. Because they received not the love of
Example as both he and his Apostles have often enough assured us he did were more seriously considered it could not possibly be that the Design of his Gospel and that wherein consists the Power of Godliness and Soul of Christianity should be by so many so very miserably mistaken as we see it is The Conclusion WHat remaineth now but that we sedulously and with the greatest concernedness betake our selves to find that which hath been proved to be the Design of Christanity accomplish'd in our Hearts and Lives That we endeavour above all things in the World to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called and that our Conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ And by that means make it appear to our selves and others that we are not in the number of those wretched Souls on whom the knowledge of the most incomparable Religion is merely thrown away and bestowed to very ill or to no purpose That we place the Kingdom of God not in Word but in Power and our Christianity not in letting our Tongues loose but in bridling both them and our exorbitant Affections That we make less Noise be less Disputacious and more Obedient That we Talk and Cavil less and Be and Live better As well knowing that an Objecting quarrelsome and wrangling humour serves to no better end than eating out the heart and life of all true Religion Let us Exercise our selves unto Reall and Substantial Godliness and in keeping our Consciences void of offence both towards God and towards men and in Studying the Gospel to inable us not to Discourse or onely to Believe but also and above all things to Do well Let us esteem Christianity a Principle of such Vigour Spriteliness and Activity as to be assured of nothing more than that it cannot possibly Be where it doth not Act and that the lives of those that are indued with it cannot but bear witness to the Force of it Let us do what lyeth in us to Convince our Atheists that the Religion of the Blessed Jesus is no Trick or Device and our Wanton and Loose Christians that it no Notional business or Speculative Science by letting them see most Excellent effects produced in our selves by it By shewing them how Sober and Temperate how Chaste how severely Just how Meek and Peaceable how Humble how Patient and Submissive to the Will of God how Loving and Charitable what Contemners of this World and Confiders in God we are enabled to be by the Power of it Let us declare that we are not mere Professours of Faith in Christ Jesus by doing Acts worthy of such a Faith That we are not barely Relyers on Christ's Righteousness by being Imitatours of it by being righteous as he was righteous That we do truly believe the Christian Doctrine by chearfully complying with the Christian Precepts Hereby let us know that we do indeed know him that we keep his Commandments By our care thus to do shall our minds as hath been shewn be inlightned in all Necessary Truth It was by their care to Do the Will of God that the Primitive Christians obtained the right Knowledge of it And there is no such Method for the acquiring of all useful knowledge as this is By this means shall we also be kept Constant in the True Profession of the Faith The Obedient is the only Christian that is out of danger even of a Total Apostacy nor can there be any sure hold of any one that is not Obedient He whose Great Design it is to keep the Commandments of God and his Son Jesus is the onely Solid Stable and Settled man Our Saviour hath likened him unto a Wise man which built his house upon a Rock which notwithstanding that the rain descended and floods came and the winds blew and all beat upon it fell not because it was founded upon a Rock And on the contrary he hath compared those that hear but do not his sayings to a Foolish man which built his house upon the Sands which when assaulted by a Tempest fell and great was the fall of it 'T is no strange thing to see a very highly Professing if he be not as conscienciously Living a Christian tossed up and down like a wave of the Sea and carried away with every Wind of Doctrine but so will not the Obedient Person be He may 't is confessed alter his opinion in the less weighty and more obscurely delivered Points but those which belong to the main body and substance of Christianity and are plainly revealed as all such are he will inseparably adhere to By this means will our Knowledge be sanctisied and made useful but without the care of Obedience it will be utterly unprofitable nay of very hurtful and mischievous Consequence Whatsoever Christian knowledge is not impregnated with answerable Goodness but is unaccompanied with Christian Practice is not onely an insipid and jejune but also a flatulent thing that in stead of nourishing is apt to swell and extremely puff up the Souls of men I mean to make them proud and highly opinionated of their own worth censorious and contemners of other People and of a conceited and pragmatical a contentious and unpeaceable behaviour And there iâ—…no man but may observe too too many of our great pretenders to Christianity unhappily Exemplifying and demonstrating by their practices this sad truth By this means shall we convince Gain-sayers more than by any Arguments But they are never like to be perswaded that our Iudgements are Orthodox while they perceive our Conversations to be Heretical Wicked men are an infinite discredit to any party they side with and do it mighty disservice I wish we of the Church of England did not know this by very woful Experience And on the other hand a good life cannot but be of exceeding great force to draw Dissenters to the embracing of our Religion We see that mere Pretences to great Sanctity do strangely make Proselytes to several Forms that have nothing besides to set them ofâ—… and commend them And as for obstinate Persons who are peremptorily resolved that they will by no means be prevailed with to come over to us they will however be greatly disabled from reproaching our Religion when they are convinc'd that it hath excellent effects on the Professours of it Or at least neither their Reproaches nor any Attempts whatsoever against it could then ever have success or be able to do any thing to its considerable prejudice Nor would that idle and sensless talk whereby some Hot-headed people endeavour to prove us an Anti-Christian Church be by many if by any listened to could they discern among us more Christian Lives could they be once satisâ—…ied that we esteem it our Principal interest and concernment to make our selves and others really and Substantially good So is the Will of God saith S. Peter that with well-doing ye may put to Silence the Ignorance of foolish men By this means shall we pass