of Man when he was Apostatized from the Truth of first Inscription The former of these is of things necessary in themselves in their Nature and Quality so immutable and indispensible The latter is the voluntary Results and Determinations of the Divine Will Things that are of an immutable and indispensible Nature we have Knowledge of them by the Light of first Impression The voluntary Results of the Divine Will we have by Revelation from God Man's Observance of God in all Instances of Morality these are Truths of first Inscription and these have a deeper Foundation greater Ground for them than that God gave the Law on Mount Sinai or that he did after ingrave it on Tables of Stone or that we find the Ten Commandments in the Bible For God made Man to them and did write them upon the Heart of Man before he did declare them upon Mount Sinai before he ingraved them upon the Tables of Stone or before they were writ in our Bibles God made Man to them and wrought his Law upon Mens Hearts and as it were interwove it into the Principles of our Reason and the things thereof are the very Sence of Man's Soul and the Image of his Mind So that a Man doth undo his own Being departs from himself and unmakes himself confounds his own Principles when he is disobedient and unconformable to them and must necessarily be self-condemn'd The Law externally given was to revive awaken Man after his Apostacy and Sin and to call him to Remembrance Advertency and Consideration And indeed had there not been a Law written in the Heart of Man a Law without him could be to no Purpose For had we not Principles that are Concreated did we not know something no Man could prove any thing * For he that knows nothing grants nothing Whosoever finds not within himself Principles sutable to the Moral Law whence with Choice he doth comply with it he hath departed from himself and lost the natural Perfection of his Being And to be conformable to this is the Restitution to his State Things of Natural Knowledge or of first Inscription in the Heart of Man by God these are known to be true as soon as ever they are proposed And he hath abused himself and forc'd himself from his Nature and deformed the Creation of God in him whosoever doth not take Acquaintance with subscribe to make acknowledgement of these great Things The great Principles of Reverence of Deity Of Sobriety in the Government of a Man 's own Person Moderate use of the Pleasures and Contentments of this Life The great Instances of Righteousness and Justice in Mens Transactions one with another For they are Connatural to Man Then for Truth of Gospel-Revelation that speaks for it self recommends it self and shews it self to be of God In this Case we may say as the Samaritans to the Woman They were brought to take Cognizance of our Saviour by the credible Report of the Woman But after they had had converse with him Now say they we believe in him not for thy Words but we credited thee so far forth as to come and see him but because we have seen and heard Such are the Declarations of Faith in God by Jesus Christ of Remission of Sins of God's accepting of Sinners upon Repentance that any Man that is awake to any true Apprehensions of God he will readily believe them and embrace them when they are declared to him by any Instrument The great Things of Reveal'd Truth tho' they be not of Reason's Invention yet they are of the prepar'd Mind readily entertain'd and receiv'd As for Instance Remission of Sins to them that repent and deprecate God's Displeasure it is the most credible Thing in the World For God made us Creatures fallible at the best Now here is finite and fallible failing and miscarrying repenting and reforming upon a Declaration from God So false is it that the Matter of our Faith is unaccountable or that there is any thing unreasonable in Religion that there is no such Matter of Credit in the World as the Matters of Faith nothing more intelligible It was a Mystery before God in Christ reconciling the World Now all the World is taken into a Possibility of receiving Benefits hereby Tho' there be nothing of Merit on the Creature 's side nothing that we can do that can deserve yet it is a Matter of very fair Belief that the Original of all Beings the Father of all our Spirits the Fountain of all Good will one way or other pardon Sin and do what behoves him for the Recovery of his laps'd Creation And any probable Narration made in the Name of God of the Way and Means and the particular Circumstances whereby God will do it will fairly induce Belief with sober serious and considerate Minds And what have we to do with others upon the Account of Religion If they be not serious and considerate they are not in a Disposition towards Religion That Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head God hath been speaking this out further and further by his various Revelations in the several Successions of Time He has represented it in divers Shapes But now we have it expounded For the Seed of the Woman is God manifested in the Flesh And breaking the Serpent's Head is destroying the Work of the Devil The Anti-type doth exactly answer the Variety of the Types All foretold of our Saviour was fulfill'd in him We have many things in prophane Stories in several Ages that give Testimony and Light to Parts of Reveal'd Truth Many of their Stories are in Imitation of Scripture History As Nisus's Hair in Imitation of Sampson's Deucalion's Floud in Imitation of Noah's Hercules in Imitation of Joshua c. Many of the Heathens that were not corrupted by Education or Interest or the Strain of the Time do relate many things that are consistent with those that are in the Bible St. Austin tells us he found the Beginning of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel among the Platonists Eusebius read in the Commentaries of the Heathens those Circumstances and Matters of Fact that the Evangelists do mention and also the Signs at our Saviour's Crucifying as the Eclipse of the Sun and an Earthquake and other Accidents Tertullian speaks of sundry things which Pilate writ to Tiberius sutable to what the Evangelists relate concerning our Saviour Yea Mahomet himself who is the last great Impostor doth mention the Souldiers apprehending our Saviour with an Intention to put him to Death Acknowledging him to be a great Prophet but he tells us when those Souldiers were stricken down God took him away and they lighted upon another something like him and crucify'd him Plutarch an Eminent Author gives us an Account of Pan the great Daemon of the Heathens who was heard greatly to complain that a Hebrew Child was born and they never heard him after all the Oracles then ceasing Porphiry tho' of no great Credit
says that after one whom they called Jesus came to be worshipp'd they never could receive any more Benefits by any of their Gods One of the Roman Emperors was so possess'd with what was related concerning a Kingly Race among the Jews and was so startled with the Credibleness of the Report that he set himself to destroy all of the Family Publius Lentulus gives the Senate an Account that he saw himself and was an Eye-witness of the Man Jesus among the Jews who cured all Diseases and raised from the Dead Insomuch that Tertullian bids the Heathen Emperor search their Records For your own Kalender * says he recites the Things that are done by our Saviour This in the Days of Julian who was turn'd off by the Feuds and Exasperations by the Factions and Divisions among those that were call'd Christians Insomuch that he hated Christianity but otherwise a Man of eminent Justice and Good to the Common-wealth One who was a Philosopher gives an Account of the Christian Religion The Christian Religion says he consisting in Spiritual Worship and Devotion to God Purity of Mind holy and unblameable Conversation of all things that are call'd Religion it is the most Entire most Pure but only mightily hurt by some who have fill'd it with superstitious Things So that we may resolve that the Difficulty of Faith arises from the wicked State of the Subject rather than from the Incredibility of the Object It is hard to act otherwise than the State from within doth dispose a Man It is not imaginable that any Man can believe contrary to the Life he lives in When he lives in the State of eternal Death to believe eternal Life Or to believe the Pardon of Sin when he lives in it and slights the Sin he lives in For our Saviour says You cannot believe because of your wicked Hearts It cannot stand together To live in Sin and to look for Pardon of Sin For God doth not give to any one that is impenitent the Power of Faith Be not conform'd to this wicked World but be ye transform'd by the renewing of your Mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable Will of God Intimating that if a Man lead a wicked and ungodly Life if a Man in respect of State Complexion and Constitution of Soul be in Contradiction to the Principles of Religion the Principles of God's Creation he cannot prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God They that were in a Religious Disposition did readily believe and entertain our Saviour and acknowledge him to be the Messiah that was promis'd of old But those that were perfectly obstinate in the Pharisaick Disposition they rejected him And this is clearly true that Men cannot believe while they live in Sin and are in Impenitency and are under the Commands of their Lusts. For we find that an ingenuous Mind and one that is a true Penitent he doth with more Difficulty forgive himself than God doth He that is truly affected and cordially turns to God he is truly sensible of the Deformity and Impurity of Sin Though Repentance give Heart's Ease and Satisfaction and tend to the Quiet of his Mind yet he doth more hardly excuse himself than God doth But a Man that is wedded to the World that is under the Power of his Lusts that applauds and magnifies himself in Self-will is given up to the Affectation Arrogancy and Self-assuming how can this Man give himself Satisfaction concerning Pardon of Sin when he is in a contrary Spirit in a contrary Disposition He cannot believe that God will pardon Sin because he himself doth not pardon any other Offender God's Goodness well consider'd speaks him to be propitious and inclinable to Compassion But Impenitency speaks a Man's Incapacity of being pardon'd This is the Sum. All Divine Truth is of one of these two Emanations Either it flows from God in the first Instant and Moment of God's Creation and then it is the Light of that Candle which God set up in Man to light him and that which by this Light he may discover are all the Instances of Morality of good Affection and Submission towards God the Instances of Justice and Righteousness of Men and Temperance to himself Or else it is of an after Revelation and Discovery Man being out of the Way of his Creation by his Defection from God is recover'd by this Revelation Upon this Consideration that Man was never better than finite and fallible and considering that we have given an Offence and * considering the Relation that God stands in to his Creatures and that he is the first and chiefest Goodness it is * what may be fairly supposed that God will recover his Creation one way or other Wherefore that which the New Testament doth discover is that which was in general Expectation Now the Terms of the new Covenant are possible to Sinners They are Just and Fit Reasonable and Equal They are to us who are departed from Truth Restorative They are satisfactory to our Mind and quieting to our Conscience For if I have offended against the Rule of Right I ought to repent of it confess it be sorry for it and do my endeavour to commit it no more And there is Reason to think that God can pardon For every ones Right is in his own Power Every one doth dispose of his Right in that way which he will Since therefore it is God's Right upon the Failure of Obedience to reduce the Creature by Punishment it is in his Power to abate of Punishment if he pleases or to remit it And it is most reasonable to think that God should be allow'd to do this in what way he would Therefore we conclude that all the Instances of Christian Doctrine either they are fairly knowable if we use our Faculties and Understanding * and these are the great Instances of Morality and Principles of Reason or else if we do consider those Things that are considerable in the Case the Things of Reveal'd Truth are of fair and easie Belief The former of these the great Principles of Reason they are * by awakened Minds easily and readily found out The latter are * by prepar'd Minds fairly admitted and entertained This I say against the Atheism of the prophane World and those that do affect to be Infidels because they pretend they have not the Assurance of former Times * nor of powerful Miracles I will now instance in those Assurances that we have to settle us in the Entertainment of Divine Truth And they are these Five I. They are concurrent with the Sence of the Heathens and Strangers who do agree with us in all the Instances of Morality in these we cannot speak beyond them they speak and act so as to shame us For how many of us do act below them in these Particulars and as to many Things of the New Testament concerning Christ we have great Testimony from them as was shew'd II. The Representation
the Margin r. Mat. 18. p. 363. in the Margin r. 1 John 4. 18. p. 366. l. 16. r. Imprudence p. 394. l. 11. r. Impetuosity p. 446. l. 10. r. Members SERMON I. JOHN VII 46. Never Man spake like this Man BEcause there are amongst us those who are bold to call into question DEITY those who dispute against the main and principal Matters of Christian Faith under pretence of Reason the Excellency of God's Creation by which I will be concluded therefore I make choice of these Words to deal with them with their own Instrument Never any Man spake as our Lord and Saviour I will not lay the Stress of my Argument upon the Credit of those who spake these Words for they were I know not whom And I will make no more Advantage than I will give to the Devil himself who is related to speak many things that are â—â—â—orted in Scripture But I will found my Argument on the Quality of the Matter Yet it is considerable that they who are engaged in the contrary * Party are declared Enemies and have a contrary Interest that even they are over-born and so far subdued as to make an Acknowledgment There are among us Persons that are Sensual and out-right Brutish that put off Human Nature and discharge themselves of Principles of Reason and Understanding I think no Man doubts of this It seems to be evident and undeniable Yea they themselves are self-condemn'd in what they do And Men that do distemper themselves and put themselves out of the Use of their Reason when they do recover they wish they could do otherwise But then there are those that pretend to dispute against Deity and under Excuse of Reason pretend to be Atheists These make a great Bluster and Noise in the World and undertake to defend themselves with Show and Colour of Reason and Argument And again There are those who will admit of Principles of Reason to the full and all the immediate necessary Results and unavoidable Deductions from it and yet they sâ—ick at Reveal'd Truth pretending Want of Evidence and a Failure in point of Assurance and of infallible Conviction and Confirmation These Men avoid Atheism But stick in Infidelity * Now with him that pretends to Atheism or * who if he doth acknowledge Deity is an Infidel and sticks at Reveal'd Truth these two last I will deal with from this Scripture For * as for the first sort they being self-condemn'd are easily convinc'd Among other Excellencies of Divine Truth this is none of the smallest Weight that when it is declared it doth recommend it self to and satisfies the Mind of Man concerning its Reality and Usefulness Men are wanting to themselves that they do not see with their own Eyes that they do not make a particular Search that they do not examine that they do not consider or in a word that they do not use the Judgment of discerning For we that are of the Reform'd Religion who deny the infallible visible Judge we do allow to every Christian a private Judgment of discerning not * only as his Priviledge that God hath granted him * but as his Charge Where People are of no Education have no Liberty or Advantage in respect of Leisure or other Opportunities we do advise them to use Modesty and Humility and to be rather Learners than forward to Teach For it is good Councel and it is that which is done in all other Affairs Whosoever he be that hath not the Opportunity to acquaint himself with the Mystery it is safer for him to make use of other Expedients than for him to be peremptory in a Resolution But this for certain Men are wanting to themselves if they do not see with their own Eyes if they do not search and use a Judgment of discerning For Men attain to no settled State in Religion no Heights or Excellency of Spirit who do not make a Discernment by their Judgments But they run away with Presumptions Suppositions with conceited Imaginations with received Dictates are Light of Faith credulous do comply with others in Sence in Judgment in Practice And it is their Necessity so to do if they will not make Matters of Knowledge their Business There cannot be receiving of Truth in the Love of it and consequently in the certain Obedience of it where there is not receiving of Truth in the particular Judgment of the certain Verity of it and the Sence of the Goodness of it This Advantage Truth hath It hath so much of Self-evidence it is so satisfactory to the Reason of an ingenuous Mind that it will prevail unless there be an Indisposition in the Receiver This I take for the certainest Matter of Experience All things are according to the Disposition of the Receiver one Man will interpret into a Courtesie that which another turns into an Injury According as Men are in Preparation and Disposition of Mind so will things be entertain'd that are offered to Consideration and proposed But Truth if it doth appear if it be represented and fairly proposed it will find Entertainment in a Man's Mind if a Man's Mind be not by contrary Indisposition made in an Incapacity Truth is the Soul's Health and Strength natural and true Perfection As increated Wisdom speaks to God Prov. 8. 30. so Truth speaks the same Language to Man's Soul I was by him as one brought up with him I was daily his Delight Truth is so near to the Soul * so much the very Image and Form of it that it may be said of Truth that as the Soul is by Derivation from God so Truth by Communication No sooner doth the Truth of God come to our Souls sight but our Soul knows her as her first and old Acquaintance Which tho' they have been by some Accident unhappily parted a great while yet having now through the Divine Providence happily met they greet one another and renew their Acquaintance as those that were first and ancient Friends Truth is of a different Emanation for I cannot distinguish Truth in it self but in way of descent to us Truth either of first Inscription or of after Revelation from God The Truth of first Inscription is Connatural to Man it is the Light of God's Creation and it flows from the Principles of which Man doth consist in his very first Make This is the Soul's Complexion And Truth of after Revelation is the Soul's Cure the Remedy for the Mind's Ease and Relief The great Expectation of Souls is the Promise of God's Messiah They wait for the Consolation of Israel For this hath been the State of the World Man in Degeneracy and Apostacy disabled himself prejudiced his Interest in God Losing his Interest by his Degeneracy and Apostacy he is in Hope and Expectation of some Revelation from God concerning Terms of Reconciliation and Recovery And when these did appear then * was it said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace Here comes Truth of after Revelation for the Recovery
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
out of Gentilism and Judaism and in the Composition that he hath made so far as he hath added any thing of his own it is so contemptible to sober Reason and so contrary to those things that he hath taken out of the Old Testament that it is not hard to detect him for a Cheat and an Imposter For devest him but of those things which he stole out of the Bible and that which is his own will appear base vile and contemptible to the Reason of Mankind and most ridiculous Now if God had given Testimony to his Religion it would have been in a way of Reason and most agreeable to the Understandings of Men and not in a way of stupid Ignorance but in such a way as might challenge the greatest Opposers to find any thing contrary to those Prinples of Reason and Understanding which he hath planted in Man's Mind But as to Mahomet History doth declare him to be a Person of a Debauch'd Life and one that had not Credit in the time of his Life As to the great Factions that have been in the several Ages though they have been many Persons yet they have been but one Party and one Party is to be consider'd but as one Opinion for if there be a thousand Men in a Party it is but one Opinion and one single Person is as much as a whole Party All those of a Party are bound up to one Opinion * and to believe as their Party believes Therefore I except against those that have blindly gone on without Consideration For these have not acted by the Guidance of Humane Reason Now I shall give you some Intrinsick Arguments by which I shall convince those of their Wickedness and Folly that affect either Atheism or Infidelity The first is this which is the second Assurance we have of Divine Truth The Representation that Religion makes to the Mind of Man concerning God even such a Representation as the Mind of Man if duly used and well informed would conceive concerning him For God is represented Lovely Amiable and Beautiful in the Eyes of Men and what is said of God is worthy of Him and is consistent with what Man is made to think or know concerning him For this is truly Divine and God-like to do Good to relieve to compassionate and on the contrary it is Diabolical and most opposite to the Divine Nature to destroy to grieve to oppress And what a relation doth the Bible make of God to be Merciful Gracious Long-suffering Full of Compassion So * on the other side how is the Devilish Nature describ'd and represented to us The Devilish Nature is hurtful given to Malice Hatred and Revenge but the Divine Nature is placable and reconcileable ready to forgive full of Compassion and of great Goodness and Kindness This for the Representation that both Old and New Testament make of God and this is agreeable to the Sense of every awaken'd Mind All that the Gospel requires is Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Sum of all that is declared and super-added and nothing in all the World can be declared or required upon Terms of greater Justice Reason and Equity For will not any one acknowledge that if an Inferiour give Offence to a Superiour he ought to humble himself and ask Forgiveness Can any Man's Reason in the World be unsatisfied in this Then for Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is it not very equal and fit that if God will pardon Sin he should do it in what way he thinks fitting that if we go to him for Cure he should take that way to recover us which he thinks best So that these * Terms which are super-added to the Principles of God's Creation are such that there were never more equal fit and reasonable proposed to Men neither is this all but they are satisfactory to the Reason of our Mind For this is found to be true upon experience that the Mind of an Impenitent cannot receive Satisfaction nor Consolation in any other way Should all the Men in the World or an Angel from Heaven speak * Pardon to an Impenitent the Sense of Repentance would be better Satisfaction to his Mind beyond any Foreign Testimony whatsoever Though God should tell me my Sins were pardon'd I could not believe it unless I repent and deprecate God's Displeasure For Repentance is satisfactory to the Reason of my Mind is necessary to quiet my Conscience and I should not be rational or intelligent in Religion unless I satisfied my Mind which is to do what I can to revoke what I have done amiss and to deprecate God's Displeasure and then apply to him for his Grace in that way which he has declared Therefore these * Terms are not only just and equal in themselves but tend to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Mind * and are Restorative to our Natures Now the Representation that is made to us by Divine Truth either natural or reveal'd is that which is satisfactory and consonant to the Reason of our Mind it is that which doth justly represent God as he stands in opposition to the Cruel Devilish and Apostate Nature as being Placable Compassionate and Reconciling and so in the use of true Reason a Man would have thought and imagin'd concerning him that he would not be wanting to afford unto Men fitting Aid and Assistance for their Recovery And thus is God represented Lovely Beautiful and Amiable in the Eyes of the whole Creation * Another Intrinsick Argument which is the Third Assurance of Divine Truth is the ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth both Natural and Reveal'd hath upon the Mind and Understanding of Man For these Truths call Creatures to Self-resignation to commit themselves to God to depend upon him And how doth this tend to the Heart's Ease * and to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Soul For we know by Experience that even the best and wisest of us are oft times transcended by our Occasions and at a loss The Affairs of the World do transcend the Capacities of our Mind and Understanding Now Religion both Natural and Reveal'd doth teach us that in respect of God we are but Instruments assumed determin'd and limitted and it is no Disparagement to an Instrument if it fail that we are but Creatures and have our Dependence upon him And how doth this tend to the Satisfaction of our Minds because we know that God is wiser than we and that he is greater and every way better than we * So that if any thing succeed ill which either the Honour of God or the Good of his Creatures * seem'd to require then we being but God's Instruments and subservient to him * may know that we should not have failed unless God would Thus our Religion teaches us Submission to God Acknowledgment of him Dependence upon him It assignes to Man his proper place respectively to his true Center and so lays a Foundation of
that which we know by the Light of God's Creation which is weakned by Man's Sin and * his Apostacy from God but it doth also do its own proper work and teach a Man to return to his own place to acknowledge God depend upon him and be subservient to him * It teaches him to empty his Mind of all Presumption Pride Arrogance and Self-assuming So that a Man is fit to receive the Grace of Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin together with all Divine Influence Concurrence and Assistance But since I have laid so mighty a weight and so great a stress upon this Acknowledgment in the Text I must needs here prevent an Objection which may be raised and it is this Some may object and say you have no Divine Authority for these words for tho' they are in the Bible they are but here related I confess I have no more Authority from these words being spoken by these Persons of whom they are related than if they were clean the contrary to what they are For I do find concerning our Lord and Saviour that some Persons of like Disposition say that he did do his Miracles by Belzebub the Prince of Devils and if we lay the stress upon the Sayers we must as well credit them as these Therefore I will grant you that I have no Authority for ought I have said from these words materially consider'd or as related and put down here Neither do I lay any weight or stress on the Sense of these Reporters for I will grant that it might be hap-hazard what these Men said for as much as they did not speak out of any purpose or intention or out of any settled Principle and such Men have upon the like occasion given a clean contrary Report Now I will give you a profitable Observation from hence Take care how you quote Scripture for that is Scripture for which you have Divine Authority not that which is barely related in the Text. For you have the Speeches of the Devil and the Advice of the worst or Men related in Scripture Scripture is only consider'd in the truth of Matter of Fact and that these things were done but it doth not follow from hence that they are materially Good No Man must pretend to do as Ehud did because his Action is recorded in Scripture No Man must pretend to borrowing without Intention of paying as the Israelites did for if they had not extraordinary warrant they were * to be condemn'd in their Practice So for us to curse our Enemies as we read in the Psalms the Prophet did not knowing in what Spirit it was done * it is not warrantable for us to do the like from thence Neither must we hate any because the Jews were to hate and to destroy the Seven Nations which they interpreted a Commission to hate all Mankind but themselves Therefore in like case we cannot certainly prove that any thing in the Book of Job is certainly Divine that was spoken by Job's Friends because God himself declares that they had not spoken that which was right concerning him as his Servant Job had done Therefore if you will have Divine Authority see what is said and think it not enough that it is barely related in the Book Neither is it enough to pretend to a single Text nor the Practice or Perswasion of any Man whatsoever nor to any thing accidentally spoken that can amount either to Matter of Faith or Divine Institution it must be express Scripture it must be Scripture in conjunction with Scripture For Scripture as a Rule of Faith is not one Scripture but all And therefore tho' I have taken advantage from these words yet all along I have laid such certain and such infallible Grounds tending to give Satisfaction in the Matters of Reason and Faith as the several Points are capable of And now I proceed to a fourth Argument which is this The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in the State of his Creation And the Suitableness of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed and fallen Condition in order to his Restitution and Recovery And first for the Suitableness of that which we call Natural Religion Natural Religion was the very Temper and Complexion of Man's Soul in the Moment of his Creation It was his natural Temper and the very Disposition of his Mind It was as con-natural to his Soul as Health to any Man's Body So that Man forc'd himself offered Violence to himself and his Principles went against his very make and Constitution when he departed from God And consented to Iniquity It is the same thing in Moral Agents to observe and comply with the Dictates of Reason as it is with inferior Creatures to act according to the Sense and Impetus of their Natures It is the same thing with the World of intelligent and voluntary Agents to do that which right Reason doth demand and require as it is in Sensitives to follow the Guidance of their Sences or in Vegetatives to act according to their Natures It is as natural for a Man in respect of the Principles of God's Creation in him to live in Regard Reverence and Observance of Deity to govern himself according to the Rule of Sobriety and Temperance to live in Love and to carry himself well in God's Family this I say is as natural for him as for a Beast to be guided by his Sences or for the Sun to give light How far therefore are we degenerated and fallen below the State in which God created us since it is so rare a thing for us to comply with the Reason of Things Nothing is more certainly true than that all Vice is unnatural and contrary to the Nature of Man All that we call Sin that which is nought and contrary to the Reason of Things is destructive of Human Nature And a Man forceth himself when he doth it So that to comply with those Principles of natural Light and Knowledge which God did implant in us in the Moment of our Creation and exactly to be obedient to the Ducture of Reason is con-natural to Man in respect of the State of God's Creation And it may be as well expected from an intelligent Agent to observe God and to live righteously and soberly as from any sensitive Agent to follow its Appetite Humility Patience Meekness and such like Vertues they do favour Nature whereas Passion Pride and Envy do waste and destroy Nature Nature's Desires are all moderate and limited But Lust is violent and exorbitant Nature is content with a very few things But if a Man give way to inordinate Desires then there is no Satisfaction to be obtain'd Lust is not a thing that will be satisfied by adding and adding But he that would be satisfied must abate and moderate his Desires and undue Affections It is certain that all Natural Truth all that is founded in Reason and that derives from the Principles of God's Creation that all of these do agree with Man's
Constitution in the State of Innocency And for Reveal'd Truth that fits and supplies Man in his lapsed State Every Man that knows his State feels want in himself of Health and Strength And Reveal'd Truth is that which doth supply this Want And is that which he would have wish'd for from God In this he hath Terms proposed to him of Pardon and Reconciliation upon Repentance and returning to God Never did Patient and Physician meet more happily Disease and Physick than Man in a lapsed Condition and the Proposals that are through the Grace of God in the Gospel In the one there is Man full of Misery in the other the Grace of God for Mercy and Forgiveness Man's Language in that State is O wretched Man who shall deliver me from this Body of Death The Grace of the Gospel puts these Words into his Mouth I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord that he hath deliver'd me And he is bid to have no evil Heart of unbelief There is a State of Guilt on the one side a State of Justification on the other A State of Sin and a State of Holiness Fear of eternal Death And a Promise of eternal Life So that the Grace of the Gospel is fitted to Man in his lapsed State and Condition in order to his Restoration and Recovery The fifth and last Argument is the Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of what God hath done in the Way of Divine Truth For God sends not his Truth into the World alone But having done one thing will also do another to make the former effectual Now they that have not the Divine Spirit want the great Commentator upon Divine Truth in the World And therefore let such Men look after it For this is a great and a certain Truth that God in his Grace and Goodness will give his Spirit to guide and teach and assure the Minds of good Men Tho' none know it but those that feel him But they who have the Spirit of God know nothing more certain For they have Satisfaction and inward Peace and Joy in believing They perceive such Operations of God in themselves whereof the World cannot receive any Account The Divine Spirit doth open their Understandings as it did the Apostles brings Things to their Remembrance mekes them consider the Inwards of Things and calls them to Advertency and Consideration The great Work of the Divine Spirit is to lead Men into right Apprehensions and stay a Man's Thoughts in Consideration till the Principles do receive Admittance and become a Temper and Constitution till they infuse and instil themselves and make a lasting Impression Tho' for my part I do believe that the Scripture is clear and full of Light as to all Matters of Conscience as to all Rules of Life as to all necessary Matters of Faith So that any well-minded Man that takes up the Bible and reads may come to Understanding and Satisfaction And hence it is that we have Sufficiency from God to preserve us from Cheats of all sorts So that a well-minded Man that hath this Instrument of God need not be mistaken in any necessary Matters of Faith For the Bible is sufficient and intelligible in the Way of Religion and for all the Purposes thereof as any other Book for the Learning of any other Art or Science And upon this Account God hath done that which will justifie him and at our Peril be it if we be found ignorant or have been deceived For we needed not ever have been ignorant or mistaken in any thing that is vital in Religion and to this Purpose there is also the Divine Spirit still to attend upon this Instrument of God So that they who do acknowledge God and pray unto him for his Help and Assistance have the Advantage of being taught by the Spirit and by Means thereof are in a sure Way of Knowledge with the consequent Effects of Holiness and Goodness By these Five Arguments a Man may be resolved against the Atheism Infidelity and Prophaneness of the World And from this Discourse about which I have been long I do infer That Atheism and Infidelity are the most unaccountable Things in the World and inexcusable The Athiest must be every where self-condemned And the Infidel within the Pale of the Church There is nothing that God hath done more in any way whatsoever than he hath done for the Security of Men against Atheism For I dare say if any Man do but think and use Reason he may know all Natural Truth And what can a Man do less How is he a Man if he do not either of these Doth any Man know any thing but by Thinking and Considering Yea perhaps this is all that we pretend to For we are born to nothing else All Habits and Dispositions all actual Knowledge is our own Acquisition with respect to the Grace of God No Man is born to any actual Knowledge in the World or to speak a Word or understand a Notion But all Habits and Dispositions are acquired And therefore an Atheist shall be self-condemned as one that never used his Reason nor so much as exercised his own Thoughts And for the Infidel within the Pale of the Church If he will but search and consider he may find that which will beget Faith and Belief And therefore the Athiest and the Infidel are the most unaccountable and unexcusable Persons in the World For they have done nothing themselves They have not so much as thought or consider'd they have not seen with their own Eyes If a Man living in the World or in the Church be either an Atheist or an Infidel he hath been an idle Person in the World and a Sluggard His Understanding hath received no Culture or Care he hath made no Improvement of himself nor done any thing worthy of a Man SERMON II. ROMANS I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ For it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek I Have declared several Assurances we have of Divine Truth Natural and Reveal'd in Scripture against Atheists Infidels and the Prophane As 1. The great Acknowledgement it hath met with in the several Ages of the World 2. The Representation that is hereby made of God * which is agreeable to what Man is made to know The Proposals made to us by God the Invitations made by him the Prohibitions Commands and Promises all these testifie of God and declare worthily concerning him 3. The ingenuous Effects and Operations of Divine Truth upon Mens Spirits and in their Lives 4. The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in his State of Institution and of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed State in order to his Restitution and Recovery 5. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance Now if * this be so we may concur in Sence and Resolution with the Apostle I am not ashamed of the Gospel c. I
of Reason and Righteousness But certainly the Ways of God are most accountable of any thing to Rules of Righteousness These are injurious Apprehensions of God and dishonourable to him and are discaimed by him every where in Scripture and God owns no such Power neither doth he look upon it as a Priviledge nor doth he cloath himself with such a Prerogative Here is the Truth of the Case Misery doth arise out of our selves and Misery and Iniquity have the same Foundation Hell for the main of it is our Guiltiness and Conscience of it So that a Sinner is in a self-condemned State without Relief These two are the Ingredients of the Hellish State Self-condemnation from the Guilt of a Man's Conscience that is not removed by Repentance and God's Refusal upon a righteous Cause because the Sinner would not come within the Latitude of a Compassionate Case SERMON III. ROMANS I. 18. For the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness TO proceed to the Declaration of this great and horrid Sin which gives God that high Offence alienates us from him exposes us to his Displeasure * and against which he doth thus declare This holding Truth in Unrighteousness it doth admit of several degrees 1 st Where Knowledge doth not go forth into Act Where * it doth not attain the Effect of Goodness For bare Knowledge doth not sanctifie No Man is renew'd by his Knowledge only It is said of the degenerate Spirits the Devils that they know and tremble The Effect is Fear and Astonishment because there is not the Product of Goodness 2 dly Not attaining due Growth For there will be Growth where there is not Violence or some ill Accident Where Nature begins it goes on towards Perfection and it is in the State of Increase till it come to the State of Consistency Growth in Bulk or Maturity as in Nature so in Grace The Apostle tells us of the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ. 3 dly Eluding one 's own Judgment By an Evasion unsound Distinction pretending to Difference when there is none doing that under one notion which a Man 's own Judgment will not let him do under another when the Case is much the same * Thus when things are under a disguise when Intemperance is called Good-fellowship or when any Man is Conceited or of a Turbulent Spirit in Religion for him to please himself with a notion of Zeal for Truth We should be very careful and exact to observe the Difference of Moral Good and Evil. Herein we should be severe and impartial not giving our selves leave to comply with our * own Humours for as to the great Notices of Reason and Nature the Measures of Vertue and Vice the Grand Instances of Morality there can be no Allowance no Variation because they are Matters unalterable unchangeable indispensible Laws of themselves without Sanction by Will but by the Reason of the thing In the great Matters of Righteousness there is no Variation but in Positives and Institutes there is a Latitude of Sense Interpretation Time and Observance Instistitutes were never intended to be in Compensation or Recompence for Failure in Morals but for their better Security 4 thly Not following Truth fully but as Herod He heard John gladly c. Our Saviour doth mightily accuse the Pharises because they did pick and chuse singling out one Precept and in the Observance of that being exact and this to make a Compensation for the rest Zealous in one thing loose in others they are charg'd therefore with Hypocrisie Not following Truth fully is when all Worldly things do not vail to Religion but Worldly Conveniencies are unduly consider'd for Truth is so noble and generous a thing that it will not submit to a Compremise with its opposite 5 thly The high degree of Sin To go against a Man's own Judgment and Conscience by violent and unnatural Practice to contract Reprobacy of Mind Seardness of Conscience Hardness of Heart This Men will do when Lust is strong and high Persons of unsubdu'd and unmortified Affections they are exposed to such horrid and unnatural use of themselves and so come to be prodigiously naught For no Man is suddenly most desperately wicked but no Man knows when he is a going how far he shall go For the breaking in of Sin is as the Inundation of Water This by way of Explication Two Observations from these words the Wrath of God is reveal'd 1. Men have wrong and injurious Apprehensions of God 2. All those that are condemn'd for Sinners are first self-condemn'd For every one that in Scripture-Sense is a Sinner is self-condemn'd 1 st The wrong Apprehensions that Men have of God that Sinners have no Warning that they are surprized by God's Judgments and taken unawares This is without all ground since the Wrath of God is declared by his Word and by his Works besides the Sense of Mens Minds the Guilt of their Consciences and their own Heart misgiving them for no Man is true to himself if he be ill employ'd for he that is employ'd in an Evil Work is always possess'd with Fear and he is not certain that he shall be true to himself Wherefore let the Declaration of God in Scripture be acknowledg'd as true Thy Destruction is of thy self Why will ye die O ye Sinners Righteous art thou O Lord and true are all thy Judgments For God of his great Goodness and Compassion to Men doth graciously begin but we often find Men wilful obstinate and rebellious God is ready to pursue his Good Beginning and if they answer his Call further to carry them on for you have an express Promise To him that hath shall be given All Grace is help and where God is there is Strength Therefore cannot any one say his Miscarriage is of God It is not want on God's part but failure on ours It is not that God fails in what is becoming him in the relation he stands to us as Creatures but we are wanting to our selves What is all the Misery that befalls Sinners in their most forlorn Condition but the Fruit of their own Sins Not any thing that proceeds from God's Arbitrary Will and Power But they contract Guiltiness of Conscience Impenitence of Mind Hardness of Heart and an Incapacity to act God-ward or to receive from God 2 dly The Scripture doth suppose that ungodly Men are self-condemn'd For this super-addition Who hold the Truth in unrighteousness is as rendring an Account not making a Distinction As â—endring an Account how it comes to pass notwithstanding all God's Endeavours and Declarations that Men continue ungodly Persons The Reason is Because they offer Violence to Truth go contrary to their Light and neglect the Declarations of God Not as if it distinguish'd between ungodly and unrighteous Persons All that in any Scripture are branded for Sinners they are Men that sin against
their Knowledge imprison the Truth of God and hold it in Unrighteousness In the Language of Scripture none are nominated Sinners but such as now we are representing The Scripture doth never fasten the Title or Denomination upon them that mean well but are in something mistaken who now and then are under an Error having Failings Imperfections and Shortnesses that miscarry upon a violent Temptation or sudden Surprizal You never find these Men are call'd Sinners Neither are the Infirmities of the Regenerate call'd Sin Tho' these are Sins that require God's Forgiveness and are a true Cause for us to be Humble and Modest and to depend upon God But they do not break our Peace with God neither do they havock Conscience or denominate a Person a Sinner The Scripture tells us That those that are born of God do not commit Sin that is in this Sence no one that is regenerate doth pass into the contrary Nature It is unnatural They may have Shortnesses Failings Imperfections But voluntarily to consent to known Iniquity or wilfully to controul the settled Laws of Heaven of Piety to God Justice to Men and Sobriety to our selves this is unnatural These Persons have the Guilt of evil Practice lying upon their Minds They have their own internal Sence reproving them challenging them condemning them For the Cause of all Creatures Misery is rational and accountable and Men do dishonour God and misrepresent him when they say that any Creature falls into Misery by the Use of God's Sovereignty It doth really arise from within us And there is no Danger in respect of God notwithstanding his great Priviledge if Men be innocent and not self-condemn'd Misery and Harm do not proceed from abroad but do arise from within If Omnipotence it self should load me with all Burthens If I am innocent within I shall be able to bear it But if I am guilty I have a Wound within and have nothing within me true to my self All Misery arises out of our selves It is a most gross Mistake and Men are of dull and stupid Spirits who think that that State which we call Hell is an incommodious place only and that God by his Sovereignty throws Men therein For Hell arises out of a Man's self And Hell's Fewel is the Guilt of a Man's Conscience And it is impossible that any should be so miserable as Hell makes a Man and as there a Man is miserable but by his own condemning himself And on the other side when they think that Heaven arises from any Place or any nearness to God or Angels This is not principally * so but * it lies in a refin'd Temper in an internal Reconciliation to the Nature of God and to the Rule of Righteousness So that both Hell and Heaven have their Foundation within Men. Evil knowingly admitted is our Burthen For all Evil is forcible violent and unnatural And a Sinner wrongs his own Principles This might be made appear in respect of God in respect of one another in respect of our selves 1 st In respect of God For consider him as the Father of our Beings and that we are derivatively from him or that our State is Dependency or that we are sinful or that we are under his Love or that he is to be our Judge all these will cause Acts of Piety So that all Acts of Impiety are contrary to the Light of our Reason And whosoever is impious in any Degree or Particular whatsoever he doth hold the Truth in Unrighteousness he confounds his Principles acts contrary to his Nature and contradicts the Principle of God within him * For this is Fundamental to all Religion that Man in the Use of his Reason by Force of Mind and Understanding may as well know that there is a God that governs the World as he may know by the Use of his Eyes there is a Sun For are we not made to know there is a God If we were not made to know that he is we could never know For this we can never be taught For upon whose Credit shall we believe it It is not Divine Faith unless it be grounded on Divine Authority All else is either Reason or Human Perswasion Credulity or Experience We are not capable of Faith unless we know there is a God For if there be Faith in God we must suppose that He is For Faith is a receiving something upon Divine Authority * And if there be not a Natural Knowledge that God is there is no Possibility of any Faith Men know by the Use of their Reason that there is a God And then when a Man receives any Proposition from God's Authority that is Faith Natural Knowledge you see is anticedent and Fundamental to Faith It is as natural and proper for Mind and Understanding to tend towards God as for heavy Things to tend towards their Center For God is the Center of immortal Souls All Understandings seek after God and have a Sence and Feeling of God If Reason did not apprehend God Religion could not be learn'd For there would be nothing in Nature to graft it on Besides we know in Reason that first Principles are self-evident must be seen in their own Light and are perceived by an inward Power of Nature For as we say out of nothing comes nothing so grant nothing and nothing can be proved Wherefore it must be within the Reach of Reason to find that there is a God For upon God's Authority supposing his Being and Veracity we admit and receive all the Results of his Will If God had not made Man to know there is a God there is nothing that God could have demanded of him nothing wherein he might have challenged him nor nothing that he could have expected Man should have received from him Therefore the Make of Man the natural Use of Mind and Understanding this is enough to satisfie any one concerning the Being of God and his essential Perfections And if so whosoever is impious to God whosoever is not subject to all his Commands this Man doth certainly sin against his Conscience and doth practise against his Light and is guilty of holding the Truth in Unrighteousness Thus every one that is Impious Ungodly Prophane or a Despiser of Deity is self-condemn'd sins against his Light and goes against his Conscience goes against his very Make and doth that which is violent horrid and unnatural The second Species of Sin is Unrighteousness Now Righteousness refers to the Duties we mutually owe one another To do as we would be done by To do equally and justly not arbitrarily How doth Violence and Fraud perplex and interrupt Humane Affairs How settledly do Men live where Love and Justice do take place in comparison of Places Arbitrary and Lawless There is a secret Harmony in the Soul with the Rule of Righteousness there is no Displacency Offence or Reluctancy And there is an Antipathy arising at the Appearance of Evil as unnatural to it But a Complacency in Good as the
eldest and first Acquaintance So Gen. 39. 9. How can I do this Wickedness We see that the Mind of a good Man takes Offence at Evil is grieved at it not at all fitted to it There arises a Displacency as in all Force and Contra-natural Impression Iniquity and Sin in the Conscience are of * the most mischievous Nature and Quality Should all the World agree and concur to sink a Man into a State of Lowness Beggary and Misery it would not be brought about so effectually by any other Means as by Sin and Guilt Where there is a pure Mind and an upright Conscience Innocency and Integrity there consequently are internal Peace Satisfaction Composure But on the other side if a Man have Sence of Guilt on his Mind where a Man knows himself faulty he fears uncertainly infinitely He fears every thing that appears yea that which doth not appear as the Poet expresses it for Guilt is always Prophetical of what is mischievous A Man may better apply here in this Case the Words of Ahab Kings 22. ver 8. than he did to the Prophet He always prophesies Evil concerning me 3 dly In respect of our selves As we consist of two Parts of Spirit and of Body so we shall fall under a double Obligation as to our selves And if we do our selves right we are under Obligation to our Minds doubly To inform our Understandings and to refine our Spirits by moral Principles The Mind is to be inform'd with Knowledge and refin'd with moral Vertue Ignorance and Improbity are mental Diseases And it is worse for a Man to have an ill affected Mind than an ill dispos'd Body It is so much the worse as the Mind of Man is better than his Body We find that Nature hath given Faculties And Industry and Study acquires Habits A neglected Mind is according to Solomon's Observation A Sluggard's Field grown over with Thistles and Thorns We may say of such a Man that he hath his Mind only for Salt But can any Man that is rational or sober think that God gave him an immortal Spirit but as Salt to keep his Body from Stench and Putrifaction The Mind being Superiour is not to be subjected to the Body nor to the things of the Body neither ought there to be an unequal Distribution of Attendance but according to the Proportion of the Worth and Value We ought to improve our Minds so far as much over and above as our Minds do transcend the Body Whosoever is proud and conceited whosoever is intemperate lascivious or wanton he doth hold the Truth in Unrighteousness For these things have Foundation and are grounded in Man * viz. Sobriety Modesty and an humble Sense the Desires of Nature are moderate and do keep within bounds So that in whatsoever Miscarriages Men do fall in all these they do go against their Light and hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Therefore Vertue in every kind is according to the Sense of Humane Nature the Dictates of Reason and Understanding and the Sense of Man's Mind And Vice in every kind is grievous monstrous and unnatural A Man forces himself when he is vicious and a Man kindly uses himself when he acts according to the Rules of Vertue And this is so true that all those that have abused themselves all but habituated Sinners understand that Vertue is conservative to the Nature of Man and that all Evil Practices destroy it Vertue is conservative to the Reason of Man's Mind by Sobriety and Modesty for these keep Men in their Wits And then it preserves the Health and the Strength of our Bodies by Chastity and by Temperance Thus have I shewn you the three Fundamentals of Religion the three great Materials of Conscience which are immutable unalterable and indispensible that are settled in the very Foundation of God's Creation I have also shew'd you that Vertue is connatural and well-founded and * that Vice is unnatural and destructive to the Nature of Man So that there is no Man hath internal Peace that is either neglective of his Duty to God or that is unrighteous or that is intemperate as to the use of the things of the Body or intoxicated by fond Conceits in the Sense of his Mind For as it is requisite and comely that Sobriety be the Mind's Temper so * it is that there be a moderate and sober use of the things of the Body For Nature is content with a few things That which is violent is unnatural That Excess which is unhealthy for the Body doth also stupifie the Mind So that upon this account also Vice is unnatural * What is contrary to the Order of Reason is contrary to the State of Nature in Intellectuals Those that are ungodly or unrighteous in these three great Instances that bear no Reverence to God that do not act towards their fellow-Creatures according to the Rules of Justice that abuse their Bodies do not govern their Minds * neither improve them in Knowledge nor refine them by Vertue All these do controul their Natural Light and are self-condemn'd Now if the Unrighteous and Ungodly are self-condemn'd can it be imputed to God as Severity to condemn them That Judge will be excused from all Severity who passes Sentence of Execution upon a Malefactor * whom his own Conscience accuses This will be the World's Condemnation that where Men either did know or might know they go against their Light that Men put out the Candle of God in them that they may do Evil without Check or Controul that Men take upon them to controul the settled and immutable Laws of Everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth which is the Law of Heaven that Men are bold to confound Order and Government in God's Family for so the World is that Men do Evil knowingly in the use of their Liberty and Freedom whereas God himself in whom there is the Fulness of all Liberty doth declare of himself that all his Ways are Ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth And can God by Power or Priviledge do that which is not just Is there any Unrighteousness in God God forbid Yet those that have Liberty but by Participation pretending the Use of Liberty do that which is not fit to be done This will be the World's Condemnation In the case of Sin there is internal Guilt a Man doth wrong the Principles of his Mind he breaks his Internal Peace and will rue it to Eternity The Judgment of God at the last day will be easie for there will be none to be condemn'd but what were condemn'd before For Man's Misery arises out of himself and is not by Positive Infliction Men run upon Mistakes the Wicked and Prophane think that if God would they may please themselves and no harm done and that it is the Will of God only that limits and restrains them and they think that they were out of Danger if God would forbear a Positive Infliction This is the Grand Mistake Hell is not a Positive Infliction
but the Fewel of it is the Guiltiness of Mens Consciences and God's withdrawing because the Person is uncapable of his Communication Sin is an Act of Violence in it self The Sinner doth force himself and stirs up Strife within himself and in a Sinner there is that within which doth reluctate and condemn him in the inward Court of his own Conscience For if our Hearts did not condemn us all without might be avoided all else would fail if this Internal Guilt and Self-Condemnation might be removed But this Naughtiness of Disposition and Incapacity of Repentance is that which continues the Subject in Misery Hell * therefore is not a Positive Infliction but doth naturally follow upon Guiltiness and a spightful devilish naughty Disposition unto God and Goodness There is something in every Man upon which we may work to which we may apply to wit the Light of Reason and Conscience to which the Difference of Good and Evil may be made appear If we therefore declare Godliness Righteousness and Truth Men have a Voice to give Testimony and Conscience in Men will yield notwithstanding the power Lust hath over them If Reason may not command it will condemn Lastly Here you may have an account what it is that gives a Check and a Stop to the Motion of the Divine Spirit There is an Error in the first Concoction which is hardly remedied which is want of Advertency and Consideration Men do not awaken their Principles but give themselves leave to do what they cannot justifie themselves in Now there is no place for the further Motion of the Divine Grace where the former Grace is neglected and * render'd ineffectual It is self-neglect and voluntary allowing of our selves in Evil which brings us to Misery For there is no Invincible Ignorance in respect of things good in themselves and necessary No Ignorance excuses Immorality in any Instance whatsoever but invincible Ignorance doth excuse Infidelity in the chiefest Point The Reason is because the high Points of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance God hath made every Man to know but for the Resolutions of his Will Man must be perswaded of God and if God do not make Application to him where he doth not give he doth not require Take notice then of the Boldness and Presumption of these obstinate rebellious and contumacious Sinners who having this Proclamation from the Majesty of Heaven that the Wrath of God c. yet will dare to continue in Practices of Unrighteousness and assume to themselves power to controul the establish'd Laws of everlasting Goodness Righteousness and Truth and to vary from tâ—e Reason of things to gratifie their own Sence and to please their own Humours and to serve their own Ends and take upon them to over-rule all things that are holy settled and establish'd from Eternity What shall a Man say to such Persons Yet the Atheistical and Prophane are guilty of this Contumacy But as the Apostle says Their Condemnation is just and their Judgment lingers not We seem agriev'd at God's Plagues and Judgments which do so much disturb our Peace and Settlement in the World but we do greater Acts of Violence For we imprison Truth and give God true cause of Offence and take upon us to controul the Establish'd Laws of Heaven and to do other things than the reason of things dictates to us and directs us to do For the Text tells us that those that are obnoxious to God's Wrath are Persons of ungodly Practice so that they are of themselves condemn'd They cannot give an account to the reason of their own Minds nor satisfie their own Consciences but are hurried on and transported by furious and violent Lusts holding the Truth in Unrighteousness they are self-condemn'd before they be condemn'd of God BECAUSE THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM FOR GOD HATH SHEWED IT Uâ—TO THEM The Apostle doth here take upon him and thinks fit in this great Affair of Life and Death to shew and prove by Reason From hence we may learn three things 1 st That here is a Check and Controul to the forward and presumptuous Imposers that take upon them to dectate and determine and are angry with all Persons that are not concluded by their Sence These Persons take upon them more than the Apostle did 2 dly That Religion stands upon the Grounds of truest Reason for the Apostle here after he hath asserted proves by Reason 3 dly God's Ways and Dealings with his Creatures are accountable in a way of Reason But some think that God uses Arbitrary Power and that they might escape without Punishment if he would and that it is nothing but his Will and Pleasure In the 17th Verse he hath declared the way of Life and Salvation and in the 18th the way of Misery and Death Therefore the Ways of God are accountable in Reason If this were not the Way of God a Way worthy of Truth we might ask why this Apostle may not refer us to his publick Authority who might if any * one because of his extraordinary Conversion and Commission from Heaven but he declines that and proves by Reason But this great Truth is hereby hinted that the way of Reason is the way most accomodate to Humane Nature Therefore let us lay aside imposing one upon another or to use any canting in Religion Let us talk Sense and Reason for the Apostle doth here shew and prove by Reason And God himself who hath all Priviledge he says he will draw them with the Cords of Men and what is that but Arguments satisfactory to the Mind of Men and in the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah shew your selves to be Men that is awaken your rational and intelectual Faculties and take things into serious and impartial Consideration and I will convince you It is an Apology for any finite fallible Creature when he is mistaken if he had some Reason for his Mistake and if he can but shew why he did so think you have him excused 'T is a high Advantage and Double Security to any Teacher or Instructer to have in readiness to shew that what he saith is not his private Imagination but is in Conjunction with the Reason of Things or the Principles of God's Creation and of Divine Revelation if it be a Matter of Faith This but by way of Observation Because the Apostle doth decline his Commission of Apostleship and doth prove by common Reason That which is the Apostle's Argument is that all those who in the Language of Scripture are Sinners all that are ungodly impious towards God and unrighteous in his Family they sin against their Light go against the Principles of natural Conscience imprison Truth and sin against their Knowledge The Argument is because God made Men to know that he himself IS and his natural Perfections This is here plainly attested in this Verse It is shortly spoken to But because it is a Matter of great Weight it is spoken more fully
Notions of things in Minds in respect of their Acts and Vertues Truth received into the Mind by Knowledge is to the Soul as Leaven put into the Meal It is as natural that Will should follow as that Understanding should go first We first receive from God by mental Illumination there Judgment passes into Victory God enlightens the World by the Sun in reference to Actions of several Creatures He doth not illuminate the intellectual World of Spirits viz. Angels and Souls by the Influence and Communication of himself to less purpose Wheresoever God who is the Father of Light and God of Truth sends his Rays and Beams into the Souls of Men there he expects the Mind to be purified as well as enlightned And in case of failure he will severely challenge the Impediment The imprisoning and controuling of Truth is an Action of the highest Injury and Offence to God that a Man can commit beyond what we can easily imagine For whosoever hath received any thing from God by Mental Illumination if he doth not pursue it to the Refinement of his Spirit he doth counter-work God He who stifles or goes against his Knowledge doth in effect give a Check to God's working in him For us thus to do would be to reject God where we most find and feel him to strike at the Image of God in our selves What would not this naughty Disposition of Heart against Heart carry Man out to if he had Power and Opportunity against God For doth it not declare a Displacency and Antipathy against God for Man to run from that in himself which immediately comes from God beares his Image hath his Stamp upon it Where the Truth of God is inwardly disgusted disrelished so as not to be concocted and turned into Spiritual Nourishment is not there an exasperated and implacable Spirit against God Truth is connatural to a Man's Soul and in Conjunction with it becomes the Mind's Temper Complexion Constitution therefore must be kindly used What Health and Strength are to the Body that Truth is to the Mind and Understanding The former makes Men strong vigorous Bodily active the latter clears the Sight cures all Infirmities of the Mind What Obstructions are in the Body which are mischievous to Operations of Nature that violent Detensions of Notices and Principles of Action or Contradictions to the Reason of the Mind are in intelectual Life What we eat and drink if it be not first subdued by the power of Nature and then convey'd to the several parts of the Body for their Sustenance and Nutriment becomes matter of Disease and Sickness Knowledge is the Mind 's * Sustenance and Nutriment therefore is not ultimately to rest in Understanding but in Will and Affections should become Goodness and in Conversation and Actions of Life produce Obedience and is the same thing under several Denominations and in respect to different Habitudes and distinct Functions and Purposes as the Sea which is one and the same is one-where called the Mediterranean in another place the German Ocean and the like The Understanding is not enlightned finally for it self but * is as the Eye * which receives Light for the Use and Service Guidance and Direction of the Body In intelectual Nature first the Understanding satisfies it self in the Reason of things then the Will gives consent and the Notion forthwith becomes matter of Action Life and Practice The Understanding in the Perfection of Knowledge and the Will not in a Disposition of Goodness makes no Harmony but are vastly disproportionable As it is the most unsafe so it is the most uneasie Condition to any Person to KNOW and not to BE to know and not to do to have Judgment of Right and Conscience of Iniquity And were I to tell Men what is Hell on this side Hell I should * after that manner describe it A refractory Will exorbitant Lusts and strong Passions and Affections are unruly things under the single command of Judgment Men were as good to be exposed to the Fury of wild Horses Elihu speaks of the Notions of the Mind as things which do elevate and transport The hollow Earth inclosing Wind or Air without Vent is as easily kept from the Motion of Trepidation or Earth-quake as the guilty Conscience from Anxiety and Confusion It is as easie for a Man to carry Fire in his Breast as to offer Violence to Truth within one's self and not to be in a State of Self-condemnation I now come to make Inquiry since such a thing is so deformed and ugly so horrid and monstrous so unnatural and violent how comes it to pass that such a thing is found in the Common-wealth of Mankind who is made and constituted by God the Governour of this World whereas there is nothing of this in inferiour Nature But all inferior Nature keeps its Order * To give Account of this in Four Particulars 1 st The least that is be said in the Case is a great part of Men live in a Hurry and are seldom at leisure to consider or attend There are Avocations Distractions and other Employments that make Men * of no Ability as to the Judgment or discerning of Truth For its a true Maxim A Man's Parts and Wit is where 't is used and employ'd A neglected Faculty may shrivel up to nothing But to be nobly and generously employ'd and to use the Faculties of God's Creation in us according to the Intention for which they were given this is both conservative to our Nature and agreeable to Truth We give too little Attendance to Truth entertain it too slightly to have it at command We live in a fleshly and worldly Spirit and at the World's Call hurried on by every Lust being distemper'd and disaffected within disturbed and interrupted from without We are not at leisure to attend upon Truth to receive it to obey it Men drudge in the World debase their Faculties make their intelectual Faculties very Gibeonites employ them about base mean and worldly Employments They are not in a Disposition to receive and entertain Truth Men have abused themselves brought themselves by unnatural Practice into an unnatural State so * they disgust and disrelish Truth Men give themselves up to worldly Drudgery the mean Avocations and Distractions of the World So they are never at leisure to mind these things And no Man is valuable sufficient or competent to give a Judgment to make a Report wherein he is not exercised wherein he is not greatly considerative Man unless he sometimes take himself out of the World by Self-reflection and Retirement he will be little himself in the World and in danger of losing himself He will have very poor Enjoyment of himself and little Use of his Powers and Faculties especially as to Spiritual Acts wherein he is most concerned and most perfected This is out Temptation and hereby we come to be deceived because things severally consider'd are within the Compass of lawful Imployment therefore we little doubt
or fear Whereas altogether they rob us of our selves and snatch us from what is Main and Principal We are apt to be troubled about many things while we omit the one thing necessary Men of any * sort of Religion think it necessary to observe the Difference of Good and Evil and therefore they will not be employ'd in that which is not Honest But there is something further Let Men consider that things of lawful Employment if too many may snatch a Man away from himself and keep him from attending upon God by which he may be happy Therefore we should not too much charge our selves nor be over busie in the World 2 dly Men are apt in the first place to save themselves harmless in this hurtful and dangerous World * It was St. Peter's Advice Master save thy self this Evil shall not befal thee who might have undone himself and all the World besides if his Councel had been followed A great Man of our Nation hath observ'd in History and it is so in this Case he that follows Truth close at the Heels may chance to have his Teeth struck out As the World may go to hold forth Truth impartially and severely to keep to the Practice of it may prove the difficultest and costliest Service Truth may carry us into Contests where other Mens Principles clash and interfere with ours Truth allows not base Compliance with Fancy Lust Will Humour but requires us to keep in the Way and to walk in it with all Simplicity Integrity Sincerity Plainness and Open-heartedness We must neither desert nor betray Truth to expedite our selves out of Difficulties or to open a Way to escape Man must walk in his Integrity through the World and must maintain his Truth and Uprightness as Job did his Righteousness So that By-standers may rectifie themselves by comparing with him and so find out how much they have departed from Rectitude Plutarch distinguisheth between a Friend and a Flatterer The former stands as steady as an Oak and he doth not at all yield to humour Will or Fancy so that the other when he returns from his Exorbitancy by comparing himself and finding where he left him may know how far he hath departed from his Integrity Whereas the Flatterer accomodates himself to Humour and Fancy applauds all Deeds and Sayings will do every thing to gratifie and will admire whatever is said But a true Friend hath Truth for a Rule to his Life and Spirit But as the World goes a Man of impartial Truth and Uprightness shall be laid aside as not conversible but as Morose and Cynical But here I superadd for Explication that all that I have said of adhering to Truth is to be understood of the undoubted Principles of Piety Sobriety and Righteousness For saving in these Cases to please every Body to give every one Satisfaction to go as far as you can with Men to live in a Universal Reconciliation if it be possible with the whole Creation of God this is Evangelical and Divine This is not to be limited but with Conscience to the great Rights of Sobriety Temperance and Justice 3 dly Men gratifie their Sences steep themselves in Worldly Delights and Pleasures Sensuality makes the Pallate of the Soul so dull and gross that it cannot perceive that which is sincere and true Wisdom is not in the Way of Epicurism but in the Way of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance For Knowledge will not be relished till the Soul be purified by Abstinence by Mortification by Abstraction from gross Matter and by Separation from Sense 1 Tim. 5. 6. Jam. 5. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 4. Titus 3. 3. Heb. 11. 25. These places represent the State when Men become brutish and sottish and fail in the Species of intelligent Agents go downward grow less by steeping themselves in worldly brutish and carnal Pleasures The Sensualist is no capable Recipient nor meet Discerner of Divine and Spiritual Truth 4 thly By long abuse of themselves Men come into a Temper that is wholly unnatural to Truth He that doth Evil hates the Light comes not to it least his Deeds be reproved This is most certain universally We have our selves as we use our selves He that doth accustom himself to Divine Meditation and Contemplation and to Thoughts of God raises his Soul and doth daily more and more ennoble his Faculties But he that lives wickedly the longer he lives the more limited and confined his Soul will be Every Man is for his Intelectuals and for his Principles according as he doth accustom himself according as he is in use Sui cuique mores fingunt fortunam This is most true of internal Endowments as well as of other things No Man knows what he may be brought unto by ill Use Custom and Practice Innocence is a Safe-guard and gives Protection The first base Act is against the Hair And as Saul forced himself to offer Sacrifice so the Sinner at first forces himself he doth it at first with Dissatisfaction he apprehends he doth himself Wrong A Man that hath been brought up vertuously ingenuously and hath maintain'd the Tenderness of his Soul and his Innocency he will stick at a base Proposal and abhor it Had many Men imagined when they began how far they should have gone on where Sin would have carried them they would have consider'd better of it But the breaking in of Sin is like a Torrent of Water which is easily stopt before the Way over the Banks be found But if once it hath found the Way over it bears all before it There is a Modesty belongs to our Nature till a Man hath prostituted it But when once a Man hath done a base Act he hath lost that which would restrain him Therefore we observe that no Man comes to be outragiously bad all on the suddain But he brings himself to it by havocking Conscience by confounding his Principles and putting away the Ingenuity of his Nature Thus have I shewn you how it comes to pass that Men do live so unanswerably to their Knowledge * Now to make some Observations from the whole We see the Course of this World and in it we may foresee the State of Men in the other World Can they look God in the Face hereafter with any Comfort who here like not to retain God in their Minds Will not the Issue of holding Truth in Unrighteousness of contradicting the Reason of our Minds of forcing our own Judgments of making Havock of Conscience be Confusion and Astonishmont What can a Man look for when he is not true to himself when he hath every thing rising up against him his Conscience condemning him This cannot but end in Confusion and Astonishment For things hold a Proportion one to another Force in one way brings on Force in another Consequents answer foregoing Principles So that the Business of the Day of Judgment may be plainly foreseen * It may be here accounted for by the Things of this State
is Darkness Confusion and inward Torture All proves contrary to God's Design Justin in his History reports concerning the ancient Scythians That they had neither Houses nor Enclosure of Ground yet Justice had Honour among them not from Positive Laws but the GOOD NATURE of the People A thing to be admired that Nature should bestow that on the Scythians which the Grecians long instructed by Precepts of Philosophers had not attain'd that formed Manners should be transcended by uneducated Barbarity Hence it appears that the Condition of Humane Nature is not so very rude as some report since so much is found in the uncivilized parts of the World Nature is Sovereign to them that use it well in respect of that Modesty and Averseness to that which is not fair and handsom till Men pervert and abuse Nature's Temper by ill Use Custom and Practice Goodness and Vertue are more suitable to Nature's Sence than Wickedness and Vice Vice is contrary to the Nature of Man because contrary to the Order of Reason which is Man's highest Perfection Vice is grievous to Nature witness Irreverence to Deity Intemperance Fury and Cruelty every one feels it so in himself and judges so in others Man forces himself at first before he can at all satisfie himself in any of these In this Sense I understand Heb. 10. 16. I will put my Laws into their Hearts I will write them in their Minds * This is to be understood in respect of Spiritual Precepts founded in Reason and in the Law of the Creation concerning which we need not that one should teach another as in the carnal Institutions of the Law which being foreign to Nature and so many we have need to ask what next what in such a case Men may work themselves out of Nature's Sence out of Judgment of Truth by ill Use Custom and Practice They will not long continue to think * well after once they are come to affect and to do otherwise These two in Conjunction viz. the Affection of the Mind and Practice will bear up with too great a force against Judgment alone Wherefore unless Persons love Goodness and live well we have no hold of them tho' now they seem to think and speak well See the case of Hasael his present Sence and Words Am I a Dog c. but he did so Single Judgment and Understanding will not long hold out against habitual Inclination and Disposition Men unduly practice upon their own Judgments that they may not be disturbed and disquieted in pursuit of their Lusts but if Judgment be once corrupted there is nothing left to make any resistance Evil comes on a main Men go on with full sail Hence Men are Shipwrackt in their Fortunes within themselves broken and come to naught Wherefore in the state of Religion Two things are indispensibly necessary indivisible inseparable Care that Judgment be informed by Truth * and that Heart and Life be reformed by Tincture of it and by Practice And this is Religion PROFESSING THEMSELVES WISE THEY BECOME FOOLS This is said of Persons out of the way of true Reason and Religion These Words may be considered absolutely or in relation to their Conjunction with words which go before or follow after In the former way they afford this Observation That these that think themselves wise are least so for they know not themselves to fail in many things It is the Direction of Wisdom to acknowledge God in all thy ways and not to lean to thy own Understanding For he who trusteth to his own Heart is a Fool. SELF-CONCEIT intoxicates Men and makes them neglective of the Means of Knowledge They who are conceited are Self-Flatterers and towards others Importune grievous troublesom Whosoever falls into the hands of a Self-conceited Person who always is a Dictator and an Imposer upon others to him the Beauty and Excellency of the Divine Vertues Modesty and Sobriety are abundantly testified and recommended The Conceited have lightly considered the Uncertainty of things Variety of Temptations the Representations which are made to Man and our Disparity and Insufficiency to act or determine wisely in several Occasions of Life These are full of themselves but indeed are empty and shallow He knows not himself who thinks himself able enough for his own defence Wise enough to direct himself or who is Good enough to his own Satisfaction The Words taken in a Conjunction with what follows afford this Observation That it is not the Wisdom of Men but their Headiness Presumption and Folly to do in Religion without Reason or otherwise than as they have Direction from God There is no grosser Folly in the World no greater Wrong to one's self than upon account of Religion to come under Obligation to any thing in point of Judgment and Conscience which is not materially true as verified in Reason or Scripture All such is the Persons Superstition which tho' it be not imputed as a Crime to the Person who means well yet is not a Foundation of reward Builders with Hay Stubble suffer loss so far forth tho' themselves stand on the Foundation Man enslaves himself parts with his Liberty which is a dear and choice thing * when he subjects himself to that which made him not to that which is not soveraign to him as Reason is which is his natural Perfection his Home-informer and Monitor within his Breast neither is restorative to him in his Lapsed State as the Principles of Religion are He lays stress upon that which will bear no weight therefore will deceive him As the Superstitious imagines so things are to him but things attain not Effects according to our Fancies but their own Existencies and what they are in Truth and Vertue This other where is accounted Weakness * and Shallowness Nothing betrays Men more than lying Refuges and false Confidencies Religion is that which attains real Effects worthy what we mean by Religion viz. it makes Men humble not conceited Mild gentle not revengeful Good-natured not all for Self Loving not hard-hearted Kind not harsh or cruel Patient not furious not wrathful Courteous affable and sociable not morose soure or dogged Governable not turbulent ready to forgive not implacable favourable in making best Interpretations fair Constructions of Words and Actions not making Men Offenders for a Word ready to commiserate tender-hearted like the Samaritan not as the Jews who would not converse with them If this be in Men then shall the World be sensible of the Good of Religion and find themselves the better for it Lastly let us not run on in a Mistake We see how the Apostle goes on He begins at the Gospel of Christ See how he pursues it He treats of * the Natural Knowledge of God and Fatal Issue of ineffectual Entertainment of it They do preach Christ tho' they do not name him in every Sentence or Period who contend for all Effects of real Goodness and decry Wickedness For
communicable Perfections Holiness Righteousness and Goodness we imitate and resemble him If we would be happy as He is we are to be holy as he is in our Measure Degree and Proportion SERMONS OF D R WHICHCOT PART II. LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill MDCXCVIII SERMON I. PHILIPPIANS IV. 8. Finally Brethren Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things A Weightier Scripture more summary and comprehensive of all Perfection I do not find any where It shews how compleat and well furnish'd the Man of God shou'd be one who professeth himself a Christian names Christ and pretends to the Faith of the Gospel Whatsoever is Good in its Nature and Quality shou'd be well known to him shou'd be his Ornament and Accomplishment endow his Mind and qualifie his Spirit Whatsoever Things are TRUE And here we must take up Pilate's Question What is Truth Truth is first in Things then in our Apprehensions For the First the Truth of Things lies in this that Things do exist of their own Principles Now this Truth of Things is no Charge of ours it is God's Charge it is the Effect of God's Creation For he hath made all Things True and therefore Things must be True For God cannot fail either through Impotency or want of Power or through Error of Judgment This is Truth metaphysically But then that that we are concern'd in is the Truth of our Apprehensions And our Apprehensions are then True when they agree with the Truth and Existence of Things when we conceive of Things as they are And if we think otherwise then there is a Lye in our Understanding And here is the Occasion of all the Evil that breaks in upon Mortals that we do not conceive of Things as they are but that all Men except some few either worship the Idol of particular Imagination or the Idol of Popular Superstition They either follow private Imagination of their own or general Mistakes And he is a Man of a thousand that can rise up and quit himself of these two Idols Solomon observes that the Simple or the Fool believes every thing that is represented But the State of Things is determined fixed by God in the Moment of Creation And our Judgments and Apprehensions are to be conformable to the Reality and Existence of Things And when our Affections and Actions are suitable to such a Judgment and Sense of our Minds we are then in the Truth and never else The first belongs to a Man's Understanding and that speaks him an able Man a Man of Judgment a Man of Sense and Experience The latter speaks him a good Man And indeed if Mens Actions comply not with the Sense of their Judgments there will be Self-condemnation and no Peace within The next Distinction is the Truth of Things either upon a natural Consideration to know Things in their Natures and Qualities and this is * Natural Philosophy and is of great Use in the Life of Man and tends to the enlarging Man's Understanding But this is not the Concernment of Religion and Conscience Or else it is Truth upon a Moral Consideration And this only is the Concernment of Conscience And here we do enquire whether Things be right or wrong good or evil and accordingly charge our selves We are to be in Reconciliation with Things that are good and to have a Displacency against Things that are impure unholy and contrary to the Mind and Will of God And this is the Concernment of Conscience and the Business of Religion and is every Body's Charge For both a good State here and a future good State hereafter depends upon it Now Man's Obligation to Truth viz. That Truth should be in all his Actions and Apprehensions it is grounded upon the State and Principles of his Creation Man's Capacity Man's proper Employment Man's true End Man's Relation Of which there has been mention elsewhere I will * now give you certain Instances by which I will first show you when there is Truth on our part respectively to God And if I discover when we are said to Lye to God I shall by the same shew you when there is Truth towards God Now we put a Lye upon him in these * several ways To profess and not to believe this is high Dissimulation and a horrible Indignity put upon God This represents God as if he might be mistaken or imposed upon To believe and not to do and this is to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Which in Scripture is look'd upon to be an Act of the greatest Violence Deformity and Malignity To begin and not to persevere To pretend God and mean a Man's self or the World To make God a Mean and the World an End I dread to have to do with any Man that will make Use of his Religion to gain him Credit and to make a Bargain Of such a Man one had need take double Security * Lastly to name the Name of God and not to depart from Evil. In these Cases we do not abide in the Truth But we put a Lye upon God In the second place As there is a Lye to God so a Man may put a Lye upon himself * viz. Either to gratifie his Lust for Lust is a false Principle Lusts are Exorbitances and Irregularities They are false Births They have not true Existence Or to give way to found Imagination It is also to put a Lye upon a Man's self to live after Temper For this is below Reason and short of Vertue And hence it is that every petty Astrologer pretends to tell Fools their Fortunes * There is no Man that is wise but he is more than Temper A Man by Wisdom doth govern himself and over-rule all Fate and Destiny whatsoever For Man under God hath a kind of Sovereignty over himself A Man hath Power to use Diligence that he may attain to right Apprehensions of Things And then he hath Power to execute and perform according to his Apprehensions This also is to put a Lye upon a Man's self to perswade ones self in any thing without warrant of Reason or Scripture To settle in an Opinion without warrant of Reason or credible Testimony is Impotency and Fondness CREDULITY is a Stranger to Wisdom and the very Nurse of Superstition * Also a Man puts a Lye upon himself if he have his Will for his Rule For Will is no Rule at all Will signifies nothing unless it be that Will which is in Conjunction with infallible Understanding which is the Will of God Some Men think it is the highest Perfection to be Arbitrary But really if they do consider it is a Piece of the greatest Impotency and foulest Deformity In these Cases a Man puts a Lye on himself In the Third place To give an Account of Truth between Man
creditable an Instrument as the Bible from the Sense of Human Nature from the joint Report and Agreement of all who have not neglected or abused their Faculties who are as Euripides says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that That hath but little or no place in Religion and is very mean and low which is doubtful and uncertain which is not of unquestionable good Report Wherefore it argues Carelessness and neglective Indifferency to be unresolved undetermined in Matters of any Weight in Religion For we may fetch most of it out of our selves Awaken Intelectual Faculties search consider examine Principles of God's Creation All but what is properly reveal'd Truth may be found out All Offices of Piety Devotion towards God all Acts of Righteousness all Ways of Moderation Kindness Benevolence towards Fellow-Creatures Subordination of Sense to Reason within thy self Wherefore it lies upon us to excel in these great Instances of Morality gain Repute and Esteem in Minds of Men by exact Conscience in them In these greater Things we should be resolved and peremptory against the evil Suggestions and Provocations of a profane degenerate World In the lesser Things where common Sense * and Opinion is contrary * to Private suspend a while for thy own sake forbear for thy Brother's General good Report is considerable and by particular Persons to be weigh'd in foro interno ' Twou'd make a Man jealous of himself suspicious of his own Reason so far as to make him examine further enquire and not be too peremptory In foro externo common Sense * and Opinion is a very great Abridgment Limitation Restriction upon our Liberty Our Credit may not be euough to defend us from Censure Or * on the other hand it may be consider'd too much so as to lead others to practise without Judgment of their own * We shou'd consider also our Uncertainty Fallibility Partiality where we are affected or have a Mind So that it is safe and prudent to see also with other Mens Eyes In Multitude of Counsellours is Safety 'T is a Thing very desirable to have the World be as smooth and calm as quiet and tolerable as may be Offences amongst Men are apt enough to arise Where we cannot yield internal Assent for want of Evidence and assurance in Things external Obedience and Compliance with Sense of others may be yielded for the maintaining of Peace Love and Good-will If there be any VERTUE Can any thing come after so many Excellencies * after so many Universals such transcendent Accomplishments this shou'd seem needless For what can be more or further * But the Apostle doth not say * here that there is any thing beyond any thing distinct any thing further to be added to what he had said before It is not positive For it is but if any Vertue He seems to suppose he might not think of all But intimates that * whatever were wanting he wou'd add that also if it did occur and leaves us to supply the Defect by Parity of Reason His Mind is that a Christian shou'd be very compleat The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict and peculiar Sense signifies Warlike Valour or Courage in a common and ordinary Sense any Perfection in a Philosophical Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * as contrary to Vice and Wickedness This is also the Theological Sense and so is used by another Apostle twice * But St. Paul never uses this Word but in this place Tho' he oft insists on all the Christian Graces and Fruits of the Divine Spirit All which are Vertues as * consider'd in us and * are call'd Graces as from God To guess therefore at what the Apostle may mean here This is explicable in these Particulars In the Skill of several Mysteries of Arts and Sciences of Tongues and Languages of Trades and Professions in the Use of Gifts whether ordinary and acquired by our own Industry and Study or extraordinary as 1 Cor. 12. c. These are divers Ways in which Human Nature may be perfected and in which it may be employed The Apostle * therefore would not have Christians wanting * in any thing or think any piece of Morality below them be it as low as * meerly Civility Affability Courtesie The Apostle may be understood to have respect to the Peculiarities of Persons * There is that which is peculiar to each Sex The proper Excellence of one Sex is Modesty and loving Affection The proper Excellence of the other Sex is Judgment of the Reason of Things Courage and Resolution Some People besides their general Goodness Integrity and Uprightness as honest Men and good Christians are singularly good and useful in some particular Way and to some special Purpose Some are dexterous to put off an Abuse by innocent Wit and so prevent falling out Some are dexterous to put another out of a Fit of Passion without either speaking Untruth or Hurt to the Person who was the Cause of the Provocation Thus Abigal 1 Sam. 25. Some to put by ill Counsel and so to prevent Mischief as Hushai 2 Sam. 17. some to prevent Mistakes * in Conversation having Wit at Hand for better Construction than the Person concern'd was ready to make Some are good at Peace-making excellent Arbitrators Referrees ingenious at finding out Tempers and Terms of Accommodation Some are very good Company * able to relieve and recreate oppress'd drooping Spirits Some can handsomely bring another off when unhappily engaged These are good Effects of Nimbleness of Wit and Quickness of Apprehension which are oft found to prevent Mischief These several distinct Excellencies and Perfections are the Ornaments and Endowments of Human Nature and not all usually meeting in the same Person But divided and dispersed amongst Men. They are so many Rays and Beams of the Infiniteness of the Divine Knowledge and Wisdom the Flourishes of God's liberal and bountiful Creation These also recommend us one to another as needing each other in several Ways and to different Purposes * For by a joint Contribution of our several divided Perfections we make one Body compleat Whereas an Absoluteness and Self-sufficiency is not found in any Particular I conclude What is useful grateful beneficial tho' we cannot say it falls under particular Command is here recommended to us under the Name of VERTUE If there be any PRAISE PRAISE is a Note of Vertue and a Piece of its Reward It follows Vertue as Shadow a Body It accompanies worthy Action and is an Incentive and Spur to it 'T is true Vertue is in our Power praise not But that * Commendation which is from Persons not competent and who are themselves unworthy that which follows not good Action is not Praise or Honour Truth is great It may be oppress'd a while but will at last prevail When Men are incompetent to judge through their Insufficiency or are engaged in an evil Way we are then to approve our selves to their Consciences
not their Humours Wills Pleasures But where Men judge according to the Rule of Right their Sense is considerable and their Commendation valuable * Now he that is prais'd for something worthy useful or taking with Men hath Acceptance is attended upon with Expectation and may make good Advantage of this Whereas if he be not regarded nor consider'd he will have no Opportunity to do Men good And where Men are forestall'd prepossess'd prejudiced a Man loses his Labour with them Wherefore Men do well to stand upon their Credit and this for their own better Security * in Vertue as well as for their further Advantage to do others Good He that despises Shame despises Sin cares not what he does will do any thing 'T is a sharp Reproof a pungent Argument in few words Are you not ashamed Upon this account it is preservative soveraign and very conducive to the Safety of Persons in * a vertuous way that Men of Place and Worth either declare a good Opinion or at least good Hopes and Expectations of those within their Government It tends to engage and encourage to Proficiency in Vertue If a Man have lost his Credit he will grow desperate 'T is an irreparable Evil to take away another's Fame 'T is to take away his second Security to Goodness * as Conscience is * his first Commendation * therefore is of use both to encourage Good-behaviour and further settle the Well-resolved And he who hath the advantage of Repute and Credit may more easily perswade to ways of Goodness and Sobriety Wherefore if the good Word of others may be gain'd upon Terms of Truth and Righteousness It is a very good purchase as tending to our own better Security and Settlement in Vertue and to the enabling us to deal effectually with others for their Good Think these things REASONABLE So it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apply to them the Reason of your own Minds In the Use of your Reason Mind and Understanding in the exercise of your Natural Faculties charge your self with these things It is not barely have them in your Thoughts but in the use of your Reason recommend all these things to your self Think that you do not acquit your self that you do not that that becomes you that you do not raise a connatural Superstructure to the Foundation of Nature if you do not in the Reason of your Mind think all these things worthy of you This is the Sense of the words Religion exercises teaches satisfies that which is the Height and Excellency of our Nature Our Reason is not confounded by our Religion but awaken'd excited employ'd directed and improved For this is the Faculty whereby we are capable of God apprehensive of him receptive from him whereby we can make Acknowledgments to him make Returns upon him The first Operation of Religion is Mental and Intellectual They begin at the wrong end who set not themselves here first to work so are not likely to bring any thing to Perfection For the Mind's Resolution and Satisfaction is first and principal If we leap over this we shall be ever after lame in our way Credulity is but Impotency The Simple believeth every word but the prudent Man looks well to what he admits Man is not well settled or confirm'd in his Religion until his Religion become the Reason of his Mind 'T is Lowness and Imperfection in Religion to drudge therein to take up Duties as Burdens to do them as Tasks barely to satisfie Conscience that Conscience may not trouble vex condemn They who are come to any growth in Religion are free-spirited in it act with inward Satisfaction Pleasure Content They understand it is for our Good desireable of it self and therefore act with Delight Religion till then is not our own is not settled in the Subject is not secured till then Men will not be friendly to it will not make it their Adoption or Choice but rather look upon it as their Exacter Controuler of Liberty and Will * and look upon God * as an Egyptian Task-Master They will carry it as a Burden which they wou'd throw off if they might have their Minds * But I dare undertake to shew that all true Reason is for Religion and nothing of Truth against it Religion doth us the greatest Service and Courtesie To our Minds it does Good directly and immediately to our Bodies by the good Consequents on the Mind's Government It relieves us in case of the greatest inward Evils Guiltiness Malignity Rancour Malice which if not removed we must be most miserable and it possesses us of truest inward Good In this Sense is that verified which Solomon says of Wisdom Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace SERMON II. ACTS XIII 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you Forgiveness of Sin THAT we may the better estimate of what Consequence this is to us and how much we are beholden to the Divine Goodness for this great Benefit of Pardon and Forgiveness let us look into the Evil that we are rid and discharg'd of by this Act of God let us look into the Nature and Quality of Sin SIN as it reflects upon God is an Act either of Neglect or Contempt And how shall we answer it if we be guilty upon either account if either we neglect our bounden Duty or cast Contempt and Scorn upon our Sovereign by whose Power we are raised out of nothing into Being at whose Pleasure we are continued in Being and at whose Appointment we shall go out of these Beings that now we have and it will not be in our Power to withhold our Souls from him one moment tho' the State and Welfare of them to all Eternity did depend thereupon Let us also consider what SIN is in it self It is a Violation of the Rule of Righteousness the Law of Heaven from which God himself who is cloathed with Omnipotency in whom is the Fulness of Power and Liberty never did vary from Eternity nor will to Eternity for the Throne of God is established in Righteousness What then do we think it is for us sorry Creatures to take upon us to controul the immutable and unalterable Law of everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth upon which the Universe depends Then again SIN in respect of By-standers is a thing of very bad consequence and of ill Influence because of the Prejudice of Example For we are more apt to follow Example than to live by Rule and nothing is more frequent than for Men to pretend Use Custom and Practice even against an establish'd Law and we justifie our selves as we think by doing as others do and that we are not singular and alone in what we say and Practice That which we call Moral Evil is a thing of the greatest Ugliness and Deformity in the World The Filthiness of Sin is express'd in Scripture under the names of those things
Nature and Nativity from above For whosoever professes that he believes the Truth of these things and wants the Operation of them upon his Spirit and Life he doth in fact make void and frustrate what he doth declare as his Belief and so he doth receive the Grace of God in vain unless this Principle and Belief doth descend into his Heart and establish a good Frame and Temper of Mind and govern in all the Actions of his Life and Conversation RELIGION is not a particular Good only as Meat against Hunger or Drink against Thirst or Cloaths against Cold but it is Universally Good a Good without Limitation or Restraint * For Holiness and Purity of Mind is the self same thing to the Mind that Health and Strength is to the Body It is good * also in point of Satisfaction to the Judgment For no Man that useth Reason can otherwise sit down contented unless he be in Reconciliation with God unless there be fair Terms between God and him It is good * also upon the account of Peace and Settlement of Conscience upon which the greatest Good of Man doth depend for want of which nothing without him can make any Compensation Now to shew it in Particulars RELIGION which is in substance our Imitation of God in his Moral Perfections and Excellency of Goodness Righteousness and Truth * is that wherein our Happiness doth consist And we then relish the truest Pleasure and Satisfaction when we find * our selves reconciled to God by Participation of his Nature They who have not * this Sence of God may have a Religion to talk of and profess * a Religion to give them a Denomination but they are not at all in the true State and Spirit of Religion nor have they any real Benefit by it nor are they any whit enabled by it nor have they the more Peace and Satisfaction from it But when our Minds are transformed by Religion then we feel at least at times strong and vigorous Inclinations towards God And with these Motions * our Minds are best pleas'd and satisfied because these are most suitable to Nature and the highest Use and Employment that Humane Nature is capable of Upon this account it is that there is more Pleasure and Satisfaction in Contemplation than in any of the Pleasures of Sense and that those Men that live a-part from the World and are taken up in Meditation and Contemplation their Pleasures are more intense and solid than those * of the Licentious and * of such as please themselves in all the Gratifications of Sense There is no Heart's-ease like to that which riseth from Sence of Reconciliation to God and walking in Ways of Righteousness For in these Ways Mens Hearts never check them nor occasion them any Disquiet For let the World say what they will to be challenged by the Reason of a Man's Mind goes nearer to a Man's Heart than the Censure of all the World besides To act contrary to the Reason of * one 's own Mind is to do a thing most unnatural and cruel it is to offer Violence to a Man's self and to act against a Man's truest Use and Interest For all manner of Wickedness is a Burthen to the Mind and every Man that doth amiss doth abuse himself For it is not possible for any Man to run away from himself or to forget what he hath done He must stand to the Bargain that he hath made and abide by the Choice that he hath taken And in the whole World there is nothing so grievous for a Man to think of as that when he did amiss and made a mad Choice he went against the Sense of his own Mind For in this Case he is not Heart-whole There is no Man who knows himself but knows what I now speak is true Tho' I know it is common in the World for Men to do against Reason and to live by Chance and not to pursue any true Intention or follow any worthy Design But as it happens and as Company and Occasion leads them so they act be it better or worse Not considering that what Matter of Disease is to the Body which many times is very grievous and so indisposes a Man as to put him quite out of Self-enjoyment * the same Is Malignancy in the Mind Guilt in the Conscience Nay I may say that These are much more troublesome and grievous to be born than any malignant Matter of Disease can be to the Body They make not true Judgment of Religion that take it to be a Limitation and Restraint upon Man's Liberty Yet some are so foolish as to think that if God would we might have lived as we list and have been released from those many Obligations that Religion seems to lay upon us Whereas this is as great a Lye as ever the Father of Lyes could invent For Religion is not a burthensome and troublesome Thing which if God had not commanded might have been forborn and all Things have been as well No There is nothing in real and true Religion that is of that Nature And this I dare defend against the whole World that there is no one thing in all that Religion which is of God's making that any sober Man in the true Use of his Reason would be released from tho' he might have it under the Seal of Heaven For such a Dispensation would be greatly to his Loss and Prejudice As much as if the Physician instead of giving wholsome Physick to his Patient should give Poyson For all Things in real Religion tend either to conserve or * restore the Soundness and Perfection of our Minds and to continue God's Creation in the true State of Liberty and Freedom So that if a Man did understand himself and were put to his Choice he would rather choose to part with the Health and Soundness of his Body than with the Purity and Integrity of his Mind For as much as the one is his far greater Concern And he had much better live with a distempered crazy Body than with a troubled disquiet Mind and guilty Conscience But * on this Subject I have many Things to say and therefore will digest them into Five Heads First Man by his Nature and Constitution as God made him at first being an intelligent Agent hath Sense of Good and Evil upon a Moral account All inferior Beings have Sense of Convenience or Inconvenience in a natural Way And * accordingly all inferior Creatures do chuse or refuse For you cannot get a meer Animal either to eat or drink that which is not good and agreeable to its Nature And whereas we call this Instinct it is most certain that in intelligent Agents this * other is INSTINCT at least And for this Reason Man is faulty when either he is found in a naughty Temper or any bad Practice For he hath Judgment and Power of Discerning He is made to know the Difference * of Things And he acts * as a mad Man that
Vigour which we ought and should dave done or as we have done our Sensual Appetites But have suffered our noble Faculties to be interrupted by Bodily Indisposition or Worldly Pleasure Whence they become untoward to Things Spiritual Whereas if * these Faculties had been inured as they should have been we should have found more and more that Heavenly Acts were become suitable con-natural and easie Just as in Persons that live a Contemplative Life and delight in Reading and Meditation to these Men it is Ten thousand times more Satisfaction to be alone or in Company that will improve their Understanding than in any other Business whatsoever And of such Men it may be said that they are never less alone than when alone This is the great Priviledge of Men that lead Contemplative Lives that they never want Employment When other Men that sink down into Sensuality or that violate the Peace of their own Minds and Consciences are fain to seek the worst of Company that they may drive away their Time But if we did exert our Minds and Understandings about God and Heavenly Things our Souls would be so habituated that upon all Occasions they would with great Delight and Freedom without any Aversation or Backwardness exercise themselves in Heavenly Medication For Heavenly Things are the greatest Truths and Realities in the World And our Life is in them Whereas they that are drown'd in Sensual Pleasures are dead whilst they live This I account That in Morality we are as sure as in Mathematicks GOD in infinite Reason and Wisdom hath so contrived that if an Intelectual Being sink it self into Sensuality Love of this outward World or any way defile and pollute it self then Miseries and Torments Afflictions and Vexations should befal it in this State This being the surest Way to rescue and recover a lapsing and delcining Soul And so I have given you an account of the * several Particulars whereby you may understand that this which the Psalmist saith is a true Representation of the State of Religion FINIS Leviathan pag. 47. †Expression of Dr. Whichcot's Joh. 4. 42. Am. Ma. Rom. 12. 2. * Gal. 5. 20. * Gal. 5. 22. * Isa. 57. 20. * Rom. 7. 24. * Col. 1. 26. * John 1. 12. Mat 3. 11. * Eph. 4. 13. Mark 6. 20. Hos. 13. 9. Ez. 18. 31 Psal. 19 .9 Mat. 13. 12. 2 Chrou 18. 7. 1 John 3. 20. 2 Pet. 2. 3. Vers. 19. Isa. 46. 8. Vers. 20. * Isa. 6. 10. Psal. 19. 1. Psal. 19. 6. Acts 17. 27. Ps. 145. 9. Isa. 66. 3. Prov. 15. 8. Mat. 12. 20 Job 32. 18. Pro. 18. 14. Isa. 57. 20. 1 Tim. 5. 24. V. 21. V. 28. V. 32. Luke 18. 2. 2 Kings 8. 13. 1 Tim. 6. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Tit. 1. 15. Ver. 22. Prov. 3. 5 6 Prov. 28. 26. 1 Cor. 3. 15. Ver. 16. Ver. 19. Acts 3. 26. Vers. 24. 26. Ver. 28. Vers. 27. Mat. 3. 15. Mark 4. 12. Luk. 8. 10. Joh. 12. 40. Act. 28. 27. Rom. 11. 8. Rom. 9. 14. Gen. 18. 25. Act. 17. 31. Psa. 96. 13. Job 8. 3. Hos. 13. 9. Jam. 4. 6. Prov. 14. 14. Prov. 1. 31. Jam. 1. 13. Vers. 27. Ezek. 18. 2. Rom. 3. 4. Hos. 13. 9. Prov. 4. 30. Prov. 3. 16. Rom. 2. 14. Rom. 10. 6. Vers. 27. Job 36. 3. Pro. 28. 22. Mat. 8. 9. Prov. 16. 32. Vers. 27. 2 Pet. 2. 3. Mark 7. 22. Psal. 10. 3. Jer. 51. 13. 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. Mat. 5. 3. Ps. 34. 18. Isa. 57. 15. Gen. 19. 14. Mat. 19. 23. Psa. 78. 18. 1 Tim. 5. 8. Pro. 28. 20. Psal. 73. 25 Vers. 29. 1 John 4. 16. Gen. 32. 1 Sam. 25. 2 Sam. 10. 1 Kings 12. Ps. 119. 142. Joh. 81. 38. * See the first Sermons of Part 1. Rom. 1. 18. Joh. 8. 32. Prov. 10. 19. 17 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 18 23. Rom. 14. 14. Tit. 1 15. Job 8. 6. Prov. 20. 9. Prov. 21. 8. Mic. 6. 11. Jam. 1. 27. Mat. 23. 27 Mat. 15. 8. Heb. 7. 26. 2 Cor. 6. 17. 1 Tim. 5. 22 Jer. 2. 3. 1 Thes. 4. 7. 1 Cor. 7. 34. John 5. 5. 1 Sam. 21. 6. Mat. 12. 4. Act. 10. 34. Hos. 6. 6. Mic. 6. 6. Isa 1. 11. Isa. 66. 3. Eurip. Med. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gaudia pelle Pelle timorem c. Nubila mens est Vinctaque fraenis Haec ubi regnant Simplicius Mat. 22. 20 Prov. 12. 10. 1 Joh. 4. 16. 1 Cor. 13. Ver. 4. V. 5. V. 8. V. 7. V. 13. V. 8. Ps. 103. 13. Isa. 49. 15. 2 Sam. 9. 8. Mat. 5. 45. Luke 7. 5. Luke 10. 33. 2 Sam. 1. 26. 1 Sam. 20. 2 Sam. 11. 8. 11. Neh. 5. 14. Gen. 50. Acts 7. 60. 2 Chron. 24. 22. Heb. 11. 25. Mat. 8. 17. Rom. 5. 10. Mat. 5. 29. Gal. 6. 2. Job 19. 1 Cor. 8. 1. Mat. 5. 45. Acts 14. 17. Prov. 15. 8. Prov. 21. 27 Isa. 1. 11. Isa. 66. 3. Jer. 6. 20. Amos 5. 22 Mat. 23. 23 Act. 17. 27. Prov. 12. 14. 2 Pet. 1. 3. and ver 5. Pro. 14. 15. Prov. 3. 17. Rom. 6. 33. John 3. 16. Acts 5. 31. 1 Cor. 5. 19. Eph. 3. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude 6. Job 39. 14. ver 17. Isa. 28. 21. Iam. 3. 33. Rom. 6. 23. 1 Kings 17. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 21. Ps. 103. 14. Jude 4. Mat. 18. Psal. 49. 8. Psa. 5. 4. Mat. 5. 45. 18. 33. Psal. 50. 21. Gen. 3. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 8. Ver. 22. Ps. 49. 7 8. Luke 22. 19. Luke 22. 1 Cor. 11. 29 Prov. 15. 8. Psal. 66. 18. Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 6. 12. Mat. 11. 15 Gen. 3. 6. Numb 3. 4. 1 Sam. 6. 19. 2 Sam. 6. 7. Eph. 4. 2. Heb. 1. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 1. I Joh. 4. 8. Mal. 3. 16. Heb. 10. 25 Pro. 31. 29. 2 Pet. 2. 5. Jam. 3. 8. Mat. 12. 34. Rom. 14. 4. Luk. 12. 45 Eccl. 4. 10. Acts 17. 26. Ps. 50. 21. Mat. 15. 18. Pro. 25. 28. Gen. 30. 1. Gen. 49. 5 6. Isa. 11. 6. 65. 25. Matt. 5. 2 Tim. 2. 25. Jam. 1. 21. 1 Pet. 3. 15. Psal. 25. 9. Num. 12. 3. Isa. 11. 2. 61. 1. 2 Cor. 10. 1. 1 Joh. 4. 8. V. 16. 1 Kings 19. 11. Pro. 18. 24 Eph. 6. 4. 1 Pet. 3. 7. Eph. 6. 9. Jam. 5. 4. Heb. 13. 2. Exod. 22. 22 23 24. Jam. 1. 27. Mat. 7. 17. Psal. 19. 13. Lake 1. 6. Jam. 4. 8. See the first Sermons of Part 1. Act. 17. 27. Rom. 1 20. Jer. 17. 23. Acts 7. 51. Psal. 19. 13. 2 Sam. 16. 23. Mal. 3. 17. 2 Cor. 7. 10 Jon. 4. 9. 2 Cor. 7. 10 Eccl. 2. 2. Rom. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 6. 12 Gen. 30. 1. Hab. 1. 13. 2 Kin. 8. 13 Rom. 1. 18. Prov. 1. 26. Jam 4. 1. Pro. 20. 27. Isa. 57. 20.