and perhaps despiseth these under the notion of Morality and so presuming that he is a Saint too soon he never comes to be one at all such are the Seekers that shall not be able to enter Their seeking imports some striving but 't is such as though it be specious yet it is imperfect and will not succeed And hence the Third Proposition ariseth that I proposed to discourse III. THat there is a sort of Striving that will not procure an entrance implyed in these words For many will seek to enter in and shall not be able 'T is a dangerous thing to be flattered into a false peace and to take up with imperfect Godliness to reconcile the hopes of Heaven to our beloved sins and to judge our condition safe upon insufficient grounds This multitudes do and 't is the great danger of our days Men cannot be contented without doing something in Religion but they are contented with a little And then they reckon themselves godly before they are vertuous and take themselves to be Saints upon such things as will not distinguish a good man from a bad We seek after Marks of Godliness and would be glad to know how we might try our state The thing is of great importance and if the Signs we judge by are either false or imperfect we are deceived to our undoing Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions do no great hurt but errour in the Marks and Measures of Religion is deadly Now there are sundry things commonly taken for signs of Godliness which though they are something yet they are not enough They are hopeful for beginnings but nothing worth when they are our end and rest They are a kind of seeking and imperfect striving but not such as overcometh the difficulties of the way or will procure us an entrance at the Gate Therefore to disable the flattering insufficient Marks of Godliness I shall discover in pursuance of the Third Proposition How far a man may strive in the exercises of Religion and yet be found at last among those seekers that shall not be able to enter And though I have intimated something of this in the general before yet I shall now more particularly shew it in the instances that follow And in these I shall discover a Religion that may be called Animal to which the natural man may attain 1. A Man may believe the Truths of the Gospel and assent heartily to all the Articles of the Creed and if he proceeds not he is no further by this than the faith of Devils Jam. 2. 19. 2. He may go on and have a great thirst to be more acquainted with Truth he may seek it diligently in Scripture and Sermons and good Books and knowing Company And yet do this by the motion of no higher Principle than an inbred Curiosity and desire of Knowledge and many times this earnestness after Truth proceeds from a proud affectation to be wiser than our Neighbours that we may pity their darkness or the itch of a disputing humour that we may out-talk them or a design to carry on or make a party that we may be called Rabbi or serve an Interest and the zeal for Truth that is set on work by such motives is a spark of that fire that is from beneath 'T is dangerous to a mans self and to the publick Weal of the Church and mankind but the man proceeds and is 3. Very much concern'd to defend and propagate his Faith and the Pharisees were so in relation to theirs Mat. 23. 15. and so have been many Professors of all the Religions that are or ever were Men naturally love their own Tenents and are ambitious to mould others judgements according to theirs There is glory in being an Instructor of other men and turning them to our ways and opinions So that here is nothing yet above Nature nothing but what may be found in many that seek and are shut out 4. Faith works greater effects than these and Men offer themselves to Martyrdom for it This one would think should be the greatest height and an argument that all the difficulties of the way are overcome by one that is so resolved and that the Gate cannot but be opened to him And so no doubt it is when all things else are sutable But otherwise these consequences by no means follow S. Paul supposeth that a man may give his Body to be burned and not have Charity without which his Martyrdom will not profit 1 Cor. 13. For one to deny his Religion or what he believes to be certain and of greatest consequence is dishonourable and base and some out of principles of meer natural bravery will die rather than they will do it and yet upon other accounts be far enough from being heroically vertuous Besides the desire of the glory of Martyrdom and Saintship after it may in some be stronger than the terrours of Death and we see frequently that men will sacrifice their lives to their Honour and Reputation yea to the most contemptible shadows of it And there is no passion in us so weak no lust so impotent but hath in many instances prevail'd over the fear of dying Every Appetite hath had its Martyrs and all Religions theirs and though a man give his Body to be burnt for the best and have not Charity viz. Prevalent love to God and Men it will not signifie So that Martyrdom is no infallible mark nor will it avail any thing except sincere endeavour to overcome the greater difficulties have gone before it Thus far Faith may go without effect and yet one step further 5. Men may confidently rely upon Christ for Salvation and be firmly perswaded that he hath justified and will make them happy They may appropriate him to themselves and be pleased mightily in the opinion of his being theirs And yet notwithstanding this confidence may be in the number of those seekers that shall not enter For Christ is the Author of Eternal life only to those that obey him Heb. 5. 9. and to obey him is to strive vigorously and constantly to overcome all our sinful Inclinations and Habits And those that trust he will save them though they have never seriously set about this work deceive themselves by vain presumption and in effect say that he will dissolve or dispense with his Laws in their favour For he requires us to deny our selves Mar. 8. 34. To mortifie the body Rom. 8. 13. To love enemies Mat. 5. 44. To be meek Mat. 11. 29. and patient Jam. 5. 8. and humble 1 Pet. 5. 7. and just Mat. 7. 12. and charitable Heb. 13. 16. and holy as he that called us is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. And he hath promised to save upon no other terms For all these are included in Faith when 't is taken in the justifying sense and this is the Way of Happiness and Salvation If we walk not in this but in the paths of our own choosing our relying upon Christ is a mockery and will deceive
of Jonah God hath conveyed some main knowledge of himself to all his world and hath not any where left himself without a Witness his Laws are written upon the hearts of men and all of those we call most Heathen Rom. 2. What is to be known of God is manifest Chapter the first of the same Epistle all the World is his the Souls of men especially so of his Family his Off-spring as it were Bone of his Bone Flesh of his Flesh and he provides for his own they are worse than Infidels that do not He takes care for Oxen for Sparrows for Lillies much more then for the Souls of his Reasonable Creatures the very hairs of our Heads are numbred certainly then the Souls of men are every one considered every one some way or other provided for The Summ is God hath dispersed some Light some glimmerings at least of Light and Truth among universal Mankind and these men of Nineveh had their portion and by that were prepared for more that alone was not sufficient and therefore God sends them a Prophet not an Angel to destroy like those sent to Sodom not a common ordinary Messenger from among themselves their case required more but an extraordinary person one from far when men are prepared for Repentance they shall have the proper means God will not be wanting to his Creatures when the ordinary means will not do they shall have such as are extraordinary and uncommon when the Native Light and convictions are not sufficient they shall have an external Preacher such was Philip to the Aethiopian Eunuch Acts 8. And an Angel sent to Cornelius to direct him to an Apostle Acts 10. Thus was Jonah sent to the Ninevites and doubtless many other good Heathens were so assisted He went though after a Repulse of the divine commission and they were more ready to hear than he to preach in that they both believed the Messenger and the Terrible Message that he brought We alas believe what we like what is grateful and agreeable to us and our Faith is much in our affections but they believe what was dreadful and amazing the truth was most opposite to their corrupt Inclinations and carnal Interest and this their Belief is interpreted as faith in God To believe his Messengers coming in his name and with his Truth is Believing him as our Saviour saith He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me and again He that despiseth you despiseth me he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me The Ninevites did not so by Jonah or his Message consciousness of their own guilt and their Natural Apprehensions of divine justice made them apt to receive Impressions of dread and doubtless they had ill Abodings in their minds before by which they were prepared for such a Message and a Prophet one coming from another Countrey to appear with so much Resolution and to speak with so much Authority and assurance affected them more than if they had been used to such preachers of Errours nor are we to suppose that he only repeated to them these dreadful words Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed No these more likely were but the Summ the Text the Burden of his Sermon which probably he amplified with all those Considerations that were apt to move and awaken and possibly the Mariners that were with him in the Ship and threw him over-board upon the Lot that saw the Fish swallow him and the Tempest quieted upon it might have come into Nineveh before him diverted from their intended voyage by the Storm meeting him again after they had seen him plunged into the Ocean might certifie the people of the Miracle and they thereby assured that he was an extraordinary person and was come to them in an Extraordinary and Divine Errand but whether this were so or not whether they credited the Prophet on these Motives or any other is not certain but this is They believed upon the preaching of Jonah And now As God daily preacheth unto us by his various Messengers so he doth by his Providence by which we are sometimes brought into great straits even to the Brink of Ruine and when it is thus with us when we are in a state of perplexities under present Evil and Fears of greater let us not abuse our selves with false confidences put far from us the evil day and cry Peace Peace when there is no Peace let us not impute our Troubles and disorders to accident and common causes but consider that the Hand of God is in them who is then about to reckon with us for our sins and a voice sounding from thence Repent Repent for your Iniquities will be your Ruine Let us not be deaf and stupid as the careless old world were till the Flood came and swept them away or as those Mockers the Apostle speaks of who scoffingly said where is the promise to them it was threatning of his coming when he was at the door but let us humbly be affected as these poor creatures were who believed upon the preaching of Jonah And what was this Belief of theirs was it cold indifferent unconcerned assent only no it was a Faith powerful and active that wrought a mighty change and produced the blessed Fruits of Repentance and Reformation their Faith had been dead and unsignifying if it had not wrought and wrought this way if they had past a Complement on the Prophet that they believed him and gone on in the same course as before if they had believed God and continued in their provocations of him their Faith had been an aggravation and might justly have heightned and hastened their ruine it had then been a great argument of their Impudence and Obduration but theirs was not a Fanatical Pharisaical Faith without works but a Faith Operative and Fruitful and the Effect of it was Repentance and the expressions of that Repentance Fasting and Prayer and turning from evil ways 1. Fasting This is a Rite of Humiliation and Repentance in which we acknowledge our unworthiness and our vileness that we merit not common mercies but deserve the greatest punishments and this anciently and in all times was also exprest by Sack-cloth and vile cloathing whereby these Ninevites likewise set out their wretchedness and ill deservings God Almighty hath so made us that we are apt and cannot help it to represent our inward Affections by outward Expressions and here is the ground in Nature and in Reason of Sacrifices and all the Rites of External Worship and particularly of this by which the men of Nineveh declared their abasement before God and we have need of some eminent signal way to humble our selves before him in acknowledgement of our greater and more aggravated crimes we have sometimes publick Fasts and days of publick Humiliation But are they such as God hath chosen do we in them afflict our souls with penitence and Godly sorrow do we as much as impose any penance upon our
ways they must not be parted with or silenc't no all Laws and Constitutions of Government must be thwarted overthrown rather Love and Peace and all must be sacrificed to the Idols which being so what quietness can there be from hence what peace or temper among such principles These perpetually annoy and disturb the Church and to know what they do in the State let us consider Germany Scotland and 't is to be hoped though we have frail memories on this side we shall not forget how peaceable the Sectaries have been in England or not observe how quiet they are at this day Remember I hope we shall for Caution I urge no other remembrance I wish they themselves did not remember them so well as we find they do by many of the same actions and discourses That Kings hold from the people are only Trustees for them and may be resisted and deposed when they fail in that trust are Politicks that do not much tend to civil peace and we know whose Principles those were and we have no great reason to think they have quitted them I can give but brief hints of things that would afford matter enough to fill Volumes as both Popish and Sectarian disloyalty Rebellions and disturbances would do But into these mens secrets let not our Souls come The Church that we some of us at least profess our selves to be members of teacheth no unpeaceable doctrines is guilty of no such practices It imposeth no Articles on our belief as necessary to our Salvation but the Ancient Creeds no terms of Communion but such reasonable orders and decencies as are free from all appearance of Idolatry and Superstition or any thing else that is unlawful as will appear to any rational man that shall take the pains to consider and will judge impartially nothing that is more burthensome or grievous than the Rites and usages of the Primitive Christian Church were which assertions I have in this place lately proved and divers of our Divines in their books have fully done it to the shame of Fanatical Gainsayers As to the concerns of civil peace our Church with Christ and his Apostles teacheth active chearful conscientious obedience to the King and subordinate Rulers in all lawful things and quiet submission to the penalties of not obeying when the things required are unlawful plainly certainly so And that we are not in this nor in any case to resist Suitable to this have been the practices of the people of this peaceable Church Among whom there hath not yet been found a Rebel We never heard of a Church of England-man in the late wars against the King nor of a Sectary for him But 4. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints was a reasonable Faith the understanding of man is the Candle of the Lord Prov. 20. 27. The light of Reason is his light with this The true light hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world Joh. 1. 9. and one light is not contrary to another there is difference in degree but no opposition of Nature Faith and Reason accord Yea Faith is an act of Reason 't is the highest reason to believe in God and the belief of our reason is an act of Faith viz. Faith in the truth and goodness of God that would not give us faculties to delude and deceive us when we rightly exercise and employ them By Faith Reason is further enlightned and by the use of Reason Faith is applyed Religion and Reason sweetly agree and nothing can be Religious that is unreasonable Religion is a reasonable service And by this Character Popery is disproved also For that imposeth on the practice and minds of men things that are extreamly unreasonable and absurd as Articles of Religion Such are the worship of invisible beings by Images of Wood or Stone and especially the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is full of Contradictions as that the same body can be in a thousand places at once that at the same time it may be bigger and less than it self that it may move towards and from it self That it may be divided not into parts but wholes These and numerous other absurdities and contradictions to the reason of mankind are contain'd in the sensless mystery of Popish Transubstantiation To defend which the Doctors of that Church are put upon this miserable shift of denying all reason in Religion even the greatest and most fundamental Article of it That the same thing can be and not be which some of them say is the only method to confute Hereticks And while Reason and our Faculties are acknowledg'd we cannot entertain their non-sence nor be answer'd in our just oppositions of their gross absurdities On the other side the Character of a reasonable Faith condemns the Sects the greatest part of whose Divinity is made up of sensless absurd notions set forth in unintelligible Fantastical Phrases and these they account the heights of spirituality and mystery upon which they value and boast themselves as the only knowing the only spiritual people When there is nothing in all their pretended heights and spiritualities but vain imagination and dreaming and in v. 8. of this Epistle they are described by this Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dreamers And as the light of Sense and Reason dispels the vain Images of Dreams so these admitted would cure Fanatical impostures and delusions For which cause there is nothing they so vehemently declaim against as Reason under the notion of carnal and as an enemy to the Spirit and the things of it There is indeed a carnal Reason that is enmity to truth and goodness but that is not the reason of our minds but the reason of our appetite passion and corrupt interest which is not reason truly so called no more than an Ape is a man But for want of thus distinguishing the things that so differ Enthusiasts rail violently against all Reason as the grand adversary of the truths and mysteries of the Gospel Their Tenents that she calls so will not bear that light But the Church of England teacheth no opinions no mysteries that need such a desperate course to defend them Its Articles of Faith are all contain'd in the Ancient Christian Creeds which are no way opposite to Reason in any Article yea Reason either proves or defends them all So that we never give out at this weapon but are ready to use it upon all occasions against Atheists and Infidels of all sorts The Church of England owns no Religion but what is reasonable 5. The Faith deliver'd to the Saints was certain it was deliver'd to them by those that had it from the holy Spirit of God in the way of immediate inspiration Those holy men spake as they were inspired And that they were really so was no fond imagination or bold presumption but a truth assured by those mighty miracles they were enabled to perform Those are Gods Seal and the grand confirmation of a commission from him and to this proof of their
Doctrines both Christ and his Apostles continually appealed Here is the firm reasonable Foundation of the Christian certainty The truths we believed are confirmed by Miracles than which there can be no greater evidence But now the Roman Church destroys this ground of certainty by a multitude of lying wonders which they impudently obtrude upon the belief of the people for proof and confirmation of their false and corrupt Religion the immediate consequence of which is a suspicion thereby brought upon the true Miracles and here is way made for Scepticism and uncertainty in the greatest and most Sacred Christian Doctrines And besides the Church of Rome having introduced among these many doubtful uncertain and many certainly false opinions and imposed them upon the faith of its votaries under the same obligations as it doth the most fundamental Articles what can be the consequence but that those who discover the errour or uncertainty of some of those pretended propositions of Faith should doubt all the rest And indeed since the main assurance is placed in the Infallibility of that Church for which there is so no reason and so much plain evidence to the contrary Since themselves cannot tell where that boasted Infallibility is whether in Pope or Council if we should allow them any such it follows that their Faith is precarious and hath no foundation at all In like manner the Sects among us resolve all their assurance either into a bare belief or the testimony of a private Spirit for their ground of crediting the Scriptures is but this Testimony and consequently whatever they receive from hence bottoms here The Papists believe the Scripture on the Testimony of the Church and these believe them on the Testimony of the Spirit that is in earnest the suggestions and resolutions of their own viz. they believe because they will believe and they find themselves inclin'd unto it And upon the same reason when the imagination and humour alters they may cease to believe or believe the contrary And there is not any thing in the world more various and uncertain than the suggestions and impulses of a private Spirit Besides the Sects also have vastly multiplied Articles of Faith and made all their private opinions sacred calling them Gospel truths precious truths saving truths and the like when they are but uncertainties at the best and usually false and sensless imaginations by which way also they expose the whole body of Christian Principles to suspicion and so weaken the Faith of some and destroy the Faith of others But the Church of England secures the certainty of our Faith by resolving it into the Scriptures the true seats of Infallibility and the belief of that into the Testimony of the Spirit in the true sense viz. that Testimony that God gave by his Spirit to Christ and his Apostles in those miraculous works he enabled them to perform They did not only bear witness of themselves that as our Saviour argues with the Jews Luk. 11. 48. would not have signified much The Father bore witness with them John 15. 8. and the works they performed by his power were the sure testimony Believe me for the works sake saith our Saviour Here is the ground of certainty And the Church of England entertains no Articles of Faith but those principles that have been so confirm'd that is none but what are evidently contain'd in the Holy Scriptures Whereas the Roman Church to mention no other have made the absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation sacred though it is not only not contained in Scripture but contrary to the reason and even to the sound senses of mankind And if neither reason nor so much as our senses may be believ'd what assurance can we have of any thing A ground is here laid for everlasting Scepticism and uncertainty And the Sects have laid the same in their numerous silly tenents that are contrary to some of the most fundamental principles of Reason Nothing of which can with any shew be objected against this Church 6. The Faith delivered to the Saints was Catholick 'T was deliver'd to all the Saints entertain'd by all and was not only the opinion and belief of a prevailing Faction or of particular men in Corners The Commission given the Disciples was to go and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature and accordingly it was widely diffused and all that profest the name of Christ were instructed in his Faith and Religion in all the articles and duties of it that were essential and necessary In these they joyn'd in holy love and communion till Sects came among them that introduced damnable Heresies contrary to the doctrine they had received These divided from the Unity of the pure Catholick Church and separated themselves from it gathering into select companies of their own under pretence of more Truth and Holiness After this manner the Church of Rome which had for some ages been eminent in the Catholick Church did at last corrupt and introduce divers unsound doctrines and usages unknown to the Ancient Catholicks and being great and powerful it assumed the name of the Catholick Church to it self and condemn'd all other Christians as Hereticks when it was it self but a grand Sect against whose depraved doctrines and ways there was a Church in all ages that did protest For the Greek Churches which are of as large extent as theirs never assented to them and divers other Christians in all times bore Testimony against those errours and depravations This Sect was large and numerous indeed but 't is not the number but the principles make the Catholick Principles conformable to those that were deliver'd to the Saints From these they have departed And the lesser Sects among us have done the same by the many vain additions that they have made to the Faith and their unjust Separation from that Church which retains the whole body of Catholick Doctrines and main Practices without the mixture of any thing Heretical or unlawful A Church that doth not damn all the world besides her own members as the Roman Church and divers of the Sects do but extends her Charity to all Christians though many of them are under great mistakes and so is truly Catholick both in her Principles and Affections I mean the Church of England as now established by Law which God preserve in its purity Amen FINIS A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M r. Jos Glanvil Late Rector of BATH and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Who dyed at his Rectory of Bath the fourth of November 1680. and was Buried there the Ninth of the same Month. By Jos Pleydell Arch-Deacon of Chichester LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and the White Hart in Westminster-Hall 1681. REVEL XIV Ver. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their
would suffer a contradiction and become imperfect And that not only for the future but the present by introducing such passions as must needs debase and allay the highest delights So that by being thus secur'd in the possession of our happiness we receive thereby an unspeakable addition to it II. Proceed we next to shew you the Security and Evidence upon which this happiness is promis'd and asserted and whether it bear any proportion to our duty and the Rewards of it for so we are allow'd to call them though not upon the account of merit yet by reason of their necessary connexion with dependance upon and that kind such a one as 't is of proportion they bear to each other There is a two-fold evidence God Almighty has given us for the strengthning of our hope and confirming of our faith in the belief and expectation of the other World The first moral grounded upon the testimony of the Spirit the other I call natural and is grounded in the things themselves 1. The first evidence of our future bliss is the testimony of the Spirit express in the Text Yea saith the Spirit But then we must have a care of what kind of Testimony of the Spirit we understand it for understand it as 't is vulgarly taken for some act or operation wrought in and upon us besides the Enthusiasm of it fain would I be satisfy'd what validity can there be in such a testimony as it self needs something else to confirm it for so this testimony of the Spirit is to be tryed by its concordance and agreement to the word of God nor do I know any other way to distinguish it from a motion or suggestion of the Devil 's besides And though to err thus in this single instance may not be very pernicious for I am not mighty solicitous how it was wrought so there be a firm perswasion in us of this truth yet in other cases I know how dangerous it is nor is it safe in this for it leaves a passage open and unguarded to down-right Atheism By the testimony of the Spirit therefore I understand the word of God or the Scriptures as made known and prov'd to us to be deriv'd from this Divine Spirit which we may call the outward testimony thereof for though St. John knew this by the other way as most certainly all others did who received any Revelation yet never was any other than the person himself assur'd that way Nor do I make degrees of more or less certainty in the way or manner of the Spirit 's revealing a thing for the Apostles were as well assur'd of the infallibility of their doctrine before they wrought any miracles as we are by them but we were not nor could be so But this notwithstanding in respect of us we must admit of such degrees for no body I hope will be so blasphemous to equal such private dictates they have in their own breast to the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures So then I make this to be the moral evidence of future happiness God hath said it in his word And this I call a moral certainty not in opposition to divine and infallible as they are sometimes contradistinguish'd but only to natural for we can desire no greater evidence we cannot have a higher confirmation of any truth than the veracity of Heaven to attest it I do not know any proposition that carries greater self-evidence than this That God ought to be believ'd in what he says and therefore though we may question the truth of the Revelation 't is impossible to do so of any thing we acknowledge to be so revealed So that the stress of this point lyes upon that great and necessary praecognition in our Religion namely the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures Upon which postulate if we proceed there is as great certainty of the truth of this proposition That good men shall enjoy eternal happiness after this life as if we should again hear that Daughter of voice and God himself should sensibly attest it 2. But there is another ground or evidence of our future happiness which I call natural because it depends upon that Intrinsick Relation and consent there is between goodness and it the difference between them being only in degree like the dawning of the Morning to the lustre of the Noon For what is it to be happy but to be united to God and what does unite us to God but Love and what is the love of God but Religion And if you remove but all inward imperfections and all outward impediments there remains no difference at all So that Virtue and Piety do not only dispose and prepare us for Heaven and Salvation but we thereby receive and experience the very beginnings and anticipations of it And though in respect of the mutability of our will and affections toward God and goodness in this world we cannot be infallibly assur'd of it as to our own particulars because every alteration in the one produceth a like answerable effect as to the other Yet in the general we may even from hence be very well assur'd hereof because there is nothing more requir'd to the compleating of our essential happiness than an advance and progression in the same vertuous tract And however it looks in a Divine if we will speak rationally to the thing we must allow the love and hatred of God to be the true natural causes of our salvation and damnation even of their very eternity it being naturally impossible to be other than happy while we love God and contrariwise if we hate him and this is the only instant cause of its continuation through all the durations of Eternity And to remove your astonishment see how in this lower world many stupendous and admirable works are daily produc'd which were mean and unnoted while they lay hid and contain'd in the seminal beginnings after the same wonderful manner by divers minute gradations does this divine Creature grow up from its first formation in our trembling and unstable desires to the stature and perfection of Everlasting Glory And yet there remains less doubt if we take in the Consideration of the Divine nature How else will you vindicate the Justice of God in all the odd and confused occurrences of this World Where 's your infinite goodness and bounty that suffers its servants always to be neglected what will become of an almighty and omniscient Justice if sinners are never call'd to an accompt Or one or t'other cannot be III. 'T is true indeed the compleating of this bliss which brings us to our next head is neither promis'd nor to be had in this life 'T is at Death these rewards become due and payable Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera possit It has been the constant method of Divine providence to cause the most excellent things to follow and arise from the most uncouth and unlikely Thus in the Creation order springs from confusion and
religious meditations and that even to rapturous excesses He may take these for sweet Communion with God and the joys of the Holy Ghost and the earnest of Glory and be lifted up on high by them and enabled to speak in wonderful ravishing strains and yet notwithstanding be an evil man and in the state of such as shall be shut out For this we may observe That those whose complexion inclines them to devotion are commonly much under the power of melancholy and they that are so are mostly very various in their tempers sometimes merry and pleasant to excess and then plung'd as deep into the other extream of sadness and dejection one while the sweet humours enliven the imagination and present it with all things that are pleasant and agreeable And then the black blood succeeds which begets clouds and darkness and fills the fancy with things frightful and uncomfortable And there are very few but feel such varieties in a degree in themselves Now while the sweet Blood and Humours prevail the person whose complexion inclines him to Religion and who hath arrived to the degrees newly discours'd of though a meer natural man is full of inward delight and satisfaction and fancies at this turn that he is much in the favour of God and a sure Heir of the Kingdom of Glory which must needs excite in him many luscious and pleasant thoughts and these further warm his imagination which by new and taking suggestions still raiseth the affections more and so the man is as it were transported beyond himself and speaks like one dropt from the Clouds His tongue flows with Light and Glories and Communion and Revelations and Incomes and then believes that the Holy Ghost is the Author of all this and that God is in him of a Truth in a special way of Manifestation and Vouchsafement But when melancholick vapours prevail again the Imagination is overcast and the Fancy possest by dismal and uncomfortable thoughts and the man whose head was but just before among the Clouds is now grovelling in the Dust He thinks all is lost and his condition miserable He is a cast-away and undone when in the mean while as to Divine favour he is just where he was before or rather in a better state since 't is better to be humbled with reason than to be lifted up without it Such effects as these do meer natural passions and imaginations produce when they are tinctured and heightned by religious melancholy To deny ones self and to overcome ones passions and to live in a course of a sober Vertue is much more Divine than all this 'T is true indeed and I am far from denying it that holy men feel those joys and communications of the Divine Spirit which are no fancies and the Scripture calls them great peace Psal 119. 165. and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. and the peace of God that passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 7. But then these Divine Vouchsafements are not rapturous or ecstatical They are no sudden flashes that are gone in a moment leaving the Soul in the regions of sorrow and despair but sober lasting comforts that are the rewards and results of vertue the rejoycings of a good Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. and the manifestations of God to those rare souls who have overcome the evils of their natures and the difficulties of the way or are vigorously pressing on towards the mark Phil. 3. 14. But for such as have only the forms of Godliness I have mentioned while the evil inclinations and habits are indulged whatever they may pretend all the sweets they talk of are but the imagery of dreams and the pleasant delusions of their fancies THus I have shewn how far the meer animal Religion may go in imperfect striving And now I must expect to hear 1. That this is very severe uncomfortable Doctrine and if one that shall eventually be shut out may do all this what shall become of the generality of Religious men that never do so much And if all this be short what will be available who then shall be saved To which I Answer That we are not to make the measures of Religion and Happiness our selves but to take those that Christ Jesus hath made for us And he hath told us That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 20. Now the Scribes and Pharisees did things in the way of Religion that were equal to all the particulars I have mentioned yea they went beyond many of our glorious Professors who yet think themselves in an high form of Godliness They believed their Religion firmly and Prayed frequently and servently and Fasted severely They were exact and exceeding strict in the observation of their Sabbaths and hated scandalous and gross sins and were very punctual in all the duties of outward Worship and in many things supererogated and went beyond what was commanded Such zealous people were They and They separated from the conversations and customs of other Jews upon the account of their supposed greater Holiness and Purity These were heights to which the Pharisees arrived and a good Christian must exceed all this And he that lives in a sober course of Piety and Vertue of self Government and humble submission to God of obedience to his Superiors and charity to his Neighbours He doth really exceed it and shall enter when the other shall be shut out So that when our Saviour saith that the Pharisaick Righteousness must be exceeded the meaning is not That a greater degree of every thing the Pharisees did is necessary but we must do that which in the nature and kind of it is better and more acceptable to God viz. That whereas they placed their Religion in strict Fastings and nice observations of Festivals in loud and earnest Prayers and zeal to get Proselytes we should place ours in sincere subjection of our wills to the will of God in imitation of the life of Christ and obedience of his Laws in amending the faults of our natures and lives in subduing our Passions and casting out the habits of evil These are much beyond the Religion of the Fanatick Pharisee not in shew and pomp but in real worth and divine esteem So that upon the whole we have no reason to be discouraged because They that do so much are cast out since though we find not those heats and specious things in our selves which we observe in them yet if we are more meek and modest and patient and charitable and humble and just our case is better and we have the Power of Godliness when theirs is but the Form And we whom They accounted Aliens and Enemies shall enter while they the presumed friends and domesticks shall be shut out But 2. I expect it should be again objected against this severity of Discourse That our Saviour saith Mat. 11. 20. That his yoke is easie and his burden is light which
likely the Peace of others also They are brought no whit nearer each other in their Judgements but put at a much greater distance in their Affections Whereas by the other method of calm proceeding all these evils are avoided 'T is true we are commanded to contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. But the Faith there meant doth not consist in points of doubtful disputation but in the Fundamental Article That Christ Jesus is the Messias joyn'd with a vertuous and holy conversation and the persons against whom those primitive Christians were to contend were Ungodly Men that denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ ver 5. For these Essential matters we may and we ought to be earnest but Contention about lesser things is called by the Apostle Perverse-Disputing and reckoned as the effect of pride and ignorance 1 Tim. 6. 5. And hence I pass to a Third Caution which is this III. Beware of Zeal about Opinions by which I mean all the Propositions of less certainty or consequence About these we may no doubt be inquisitive and thoughtful and our search will be commendable while we manage it with modesty and caution in order to the gaining more Motives and directions for a vertuous Practice But to be eager in them and to disturb the peace of Societies for their sakes this is a vitious and dangerous excess destructive to Christian Charity and the publick weal and order There is nothing hath done the world more mischief than indiscreet unseasonable Zeal for Truths while men have not made a difference between those that are necessary to be believed and known and those others which may safely be doubted and denied 'T is a great and dangerous mistake to think that we ought to publish and propagate all the Truth we know For every man thinks his own Opinions about Religion Gods Truth and nature inclines men to desire to beget their own image upon other mens minds and if this be made a Duty too every man will be a Teacher of all the rest and no man will let his brother be at quiet This man is ready to burst till he hath given himself vent and the other is as impatient till he hath contradicted what he hath said Both are zealous to Proselyte each other and neither can be contented with a single conquest till the publick be disturbed These are some of the effects of opinionative zeal and we know it by a dear experience Here is the source of all Divisions and Sects Gods Truth is the pretence of every Party and being enlightned themselves they all think they ought to enlighten all others and these Lights meeting and being infinitely reflected beget a flame between them in which all of them are scorched and Charity and Peace are consumed If therefore we are friends to Christian Love let us avoid and oppose this its most fatal enemy and consider That we need not be zealous for more truth than what God hath made necessary and ought not to be zealous for more than what Scripture and Reason have made certain That the Necessary and certain things are very few and the remoter doctrines difficult and deep That we may easily be deceived in speculative points where so much acuteness and freedom and care and diligence is needful That the greatest part imbrace Shadows and their Zeal is for folly and falshood That our brethren may be good men though they understand not many things that we know or err in many in which we judge aright That the benefits of an Opinion if true will not make amends for the trouble and disturbance that is made to promote it and That Charity is more valuable than Knowledge 1 Cor. 8. 1. 1 Cor. 13. If we thus Consider we shall be contented with the satisfactions of our own minds and not be Angry with others because they will not take us for their Guides we shall exercise our Zeal upon the necessary certain things and our Charity about the rest we shall inform our brother who needs or desires it and let him alone when it may do him or others hurt to disturb him we shall propose our Opinions seasonably and modestly and be willing that men should receive them as they can we shall not be concerned at any mans Mistake that doth not minister to Vice and when it doth we shall prudently and calmly endeavour to rectifie his thoughts we shall converse indifferently with all Perswasions without wrangling and discord and exercise our Charity and Good Will towards the Good men of any sort Thus our Zeal will be rightly tempered and directed and Charity promoted And yet further in order to it I propose this last Caution IV. Beware of censuring and affixing odious Names and consequences upon the persons or opinions of Dissenters He that Censures another in part Hates him and wants many degrees of that Charity the Apostle commends and describes 1 Cor. 13. 4 5 6 7. which beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things endureth all things He that Rails at his Neighbour for his Opinion wants only power to Persecute him for it yea even this is a kind of Persecution for there is a persecution of the Tongue as well as of the Hand and He that Injures his Brother in his Name is a Persecutor as well as the other that hurts him in his Body or Estate Let us take heed then lest we become guilty by fastning names of Reproach upon those of different Judgement and imposing the odious consequences that we our selves make upon our Neighbour as his Opinion Both these are very common and the Spight and Injustice of them do exceedingly exasperate our Spirits and enflame our Disagreements By this way Truth is exposed to contempt and scorn as well as Falshood and there is none so Sacred but its Adversaries have made it a deformed Vizard to bring it under the Hatred and Reproaches of the Ignorant and that which hath an Ugly Face is more than half condemned among the generality of men who cannot distinguish the true complexion from the dirt that is thrown upon it This the Zealots of all Parties very well understand when they run down many things by a Vile name which they cannot Confute by Argument 'T is but raising the Cry of Arminianism Socinianism Popery Pelagianism and such like upon them and all other Refutation is Superfluous These I mention not out of Favour but for Instance and 't is the like in many other cases Thus apt are men to be frighted by Bugbear Names from Truth and Charity And this is Superstition in the true sense to be afraid of things in which there is no hurt and it is promoted by the Uncharitable fastning of our own consequences upon our brothers Opinion This we think follows and then make no Scruple to say 't is his Opinion when he hates and disowns it and would quit his Tenent if he thought any such thing were a
Prerogatives and dignity of humane nature Man is but a Beast of prey and his use of and dominion over the other creatures is but a proud usurpation over his equals So that this opinion degrades our natures and affronts the whole race of mankind together And 2. In the direct tendency of it it destroyes humane Societies For those cannot subsist without Laws nor Laws without some conscience of good and evil nor would this signifie to any great purpose without the belief of another world Take away this and every thing will be good that is profitable and honest that conduceth to a mans designs That would be mine that I could get by force and I had no right to any thing longer than I had strength to defend it and thus the world would be ipso facto in a state of war and fall into endless confusions and disorders So that the whole Earth would quickly be an Hell intolerable every man would be a Devil to another yea and every man to himself 3. It suppresseth mens private happiness and felicity and even the Rioters of the world have stings and torments from it If a man live in Sensuality and fulness of pleasure what a cutting thought is it to consider that in a little time he must bid adieu to this and to all felicity for ever And if his life be in trouble and discomfort how terrible is it to reflect that he must go from being miserable to be nothing How can those think of parting with their possessions and enjoyments that have nothing else to expect or how can they bear up under the burdens and vexations of this state that cannot relieve themselves by the hopes of a better With what sad pangs of sorrow should we lay our Friends into the Grave if we had cause to be assured that they were lost eternally and how could we reflect upon our own mortality if we were to look for no farther Being The pleasures of the present Life are gone in a moment and leave nothing but dregs and bitterness behind them and if there be no further delights besides these mean and fading satisfactions 't is not worth the while to live but we had better to have been nothing for ever The summ is The Sadducee vilifies Mankind destroyes the peace of Societies and the happiness of every private person and so professeth himself the common enemy of men and a Renegado to humane nature IT will not be needful for me to say much in Applying this Discourse Almost every Sermon we hear is an Application of it for here is the matter and ground of our hopes and hence are taken the great enforcements of our duty I presume there are few or none in this place but who are ready to profess their belief of a Future Life and as I premised I have not insisted on the proof to perswade You of this Article but to shew that the confidence is groundless which affirms There is no reason for the great Doctrines of Religion and to contribute somewhat towards the settlement of the weak against such temptations Now if we believe this great Truth as we say Let us do it to purpose and not content our selves with a cold and customary assent but endeavour to raise our Faith to such an height that it may have an effectual influence upon our lives The general belief that education hath infused is but a dead image in the soul that produceth nothing Let us endeavour by fervent Prayer and frequent Meditation to invigorate and excite ours to that degree that it may be a living representation of eternal things that our Faith may be the certainty and presence of the invisible world The substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. That we may have such an apprehension of it as if the prospect were open and our eyes beheld it that we may fix our thoughts there and fill up our souls with the consideration of that world Such a Faith as this ought to be our aim and if we did so believe the other world what excellent what heroical what happy persons should we be in this Such a Faith would secure us from the flatteries and temptations of this sensual life and excite us to more earnest longings and more vigorous endeavours after the happiness of a better It would inable us to despise this vain world in comparison and to bear all the crosses of it with magnanimity and steadiness of mind It would quiet our solicitudes and answer the objections against providence and the present unequal distribution of good and evil It would make the most difficult services of Religion easie and pleasant to us and fill our lives with sweet hope and delights infinitely more agreeable than the most relishing sensual joys It would afford us satisfaction amid our disappointments and rest amid our anxieties and cares It would raise our designs and thoughts to things generous and noble and make us live like the Inhabitants of an Heavenly Countrey Such blessed effects as these follow this Faith here and unmeasurably unspeakably greater in the other world the vision of God and full enjoyment of His love the perfection of our natures and the compleatment of our happiness in the arms of our Redeemer and amidst the triumphant Songs of Angels and Saints in the exercise of holy love admiration and praise Things too great to be exprest or to be imagin'd For eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath reserved for those that love him To Him be all Glory and humble Adoration henceforth and for ever SERMON VII THE Serious Consideration OF THE Future Iudgement The Second Edition SERMON VII ACTS XVII 31. Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained ALthough it might be well expected that the Laws of God should abundantly prevail by vertue of His Authority and their own native reason and goodness Yet such is the stupidity and perverseness of men that these alone have not usually any considerable effect upon us And therefore God who earnestly desires our Reformation and our happiness hath superadded the greatest Sanctions to enforce His Laws glorious rewards on the one hand and most terrible Penalties on the other and these to be distributed in a most solemn manner represented in such circumstances as are most apt to work upon our Hopes and Fears For He hath appointed a day Which words are part of St. Paul's Speech to the Athenians upon the occasion of their superstitions and Idolatries These in the time of Gentile ignorance God winked at vers 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He took no notice of those sins in comparison He was not so much offended and displeased but consider'd the general ignorance and temptations and made abatements for them As our Saviour said with reference to the Jews Joh. 15. 22. If I had not come