I hope too that what I shall say will be able to support the honest and the feeble-minded Christians that though they are sadly sensible of some remains of Vnbelief in their Souls which need to be helped yet the Case is not so bad with them neither but that they may without Vanity that Profession in the beginning of my Text and say very truly Lord I believe This is my intention but the nature of the Subject will not so well bear to have the Argument branched out to these Two different sorts of Persons distinctly For the same Reasons which prove that No man arrives at an absolute Perfection in Faith do likewise prove That No man ought to despair because he discovers some Imperfections of Faith in himself Since at that rate Every ones Circumstances would be desperate and there could be no such thing as a worthy and true Believer in the World I must therefore content my self with handling this matter in the General and that which seems to me at present the best method for doing it effectually is to insist on these Three Heads I. First To assign some reasons for the weakness of mens Faith And these shall be such as every one of us will find himself more or less concerned in II. Secondly To shew that those things which Many People are apt to suspect as signs of Vnbelief or that they have not True Faith are not in reality any such Signs And III. Thirdly To lay down some Rules whereby the weakness of Faith may be distinguish'd from the Want of it And here I will shew how any man by examining his own Conscience carefully may discern whether his Belief be consistent with the Terms of Salvation or not I begin with the 1st And here by Faith I understand not only 1. The Assent of the mind to those Truths which God hath revealed in obedience to his Command and dependence on his Truth and Goodness Nor barely 2. An outward and express'd Profession of all such Articles are necessary to be acknowledged in order to make us Christians but also 3. Such a vigorous and lively Assent as may prevail upon men to enter into Covenant with God and may influence their Hearts and Practice powerfully such as may put us upon the performance of our Duty and the making good those Engagements in the whole Course of our Lives which we bring upon our selves when we thus enter Covenant with God For All This is comprehended under Believing and several accounts may be given of our failing in sundry instances of this Faith Particularly These that follow 1. As First One reason of this may be taken from the very Nature of those things which we are commanded to believe For Some of these being very dark and mysterious Truths it cannot be expected that our Minds should adhere to them with the same sort of Assurance that they are used to do in such Other matters as fall within our Comprehension and of which we have a clearer and more distinct knowledge The Attributes and Excellencies of God the Trinity of Persons in the Divine Nature an Eternal State of Bliss or Woe hereafter and the Restoring to us these fleshly Bodies again at the General Resurrection notwithstanding the infinite and unconceivable Changes which Time and Corruption bring upon them in the mean while These and some Others of the like nature are of the first Principles of Christianity the Prime and most necessary Truths to be entertained and firmly embraced But it is manifest withal that These are matters of which one cannot have any just and adequate Notions Because they are not commensurate to the Capacities of mortal men The largest mind is too narrow to receive them the most penetrating Wit cannot sound all their depths nor the most indefatigable Study conquer all the difficulties that may be charged upon them And therefore since Men's Assent is always governed by their Apprehensions the Mind will never find the same Evidence for those things that are far above out of our sight that it does for Others which we see and feel and daily converse with Such as are of the same level with our selves and we are able to give a tolerable good account of by our own serious Thought and nice Enquiry into the Nature of them I do not mean by this that we have not Sufficient Motives for our Belief even of those Truths which we are least able to comprehend For when we are once perswaded of the Being of a God and convinced that these are His Revelations nothing can be more equitable than to submit our own Reasoning to his Declarations This single Reflection that infinite Wisdom cannot be mistaken that Infinite Goodness cannot lead others into mistakes nor perfect Truth lye is a foundation strong enough to Build the firmest Faith upon But still the urging of this Reflection upon our selves must be the work of much application And though we are exceedingly to blame if any Objections which the Obscurity of those Great Important Doctrins is wont to raise in us be suffered to overthrow our Faith or dangerously to shake it yet such is the nature of our minds that where Sense or Demonstration do not represent things to us plainly and beyond all Contradiction there Scruples and Cavils will now and then arise and the Devil will not fail to make use of these Occasions and try by them to loosen and dissettle us from that firmness of perswasion which is due to such a Revelation Even They who struggle most successfully against such attempts of his may yet sometimes find a tendency to doubt or some little disturbance from them But those men will be sure to find a very great deal who over-looking the Credibility of the Testimony and Revelation it self which is Reason's proper Province in these matters they expect their satisfaction from the sight and knowledge of the things Revealed Which is in effect to put their Enquiry upon a wrong Scent to require an Evidence of which the Condition of this Subject is not capable and to destroy the very Essence of Faith which in strict speaking could not be Faith if it were not the Evidence of things unseen Now if such be the Condition of our Faith with regard to the very first Act That of Assenting to the Truths revealed by God We shall find the Difficulties grow upon us in the following parts of it when it comes to influence our Practice and to govern our Affections And this will appear very evidently if we consider 2. Secondly After what manner it is that the Belief of these Truths come to gain a power over our Wills and to command our Actions One would think that to be once throughly convinced of the Truth of Christianity and the Reasonableness and Excellency of the Duties it enjoins were enough to fix a Man all his Life long And perhaps in matters of mere Speculation it is so After any point hath been duly considered and all the Arguments for
Matter which it no way concern'd him to know And an Intimation withal that the great and only thing he ought to be solicitous for was to prepare himself for the Discharge of his own Duty And as Providence intended to liken him to his Master in the manner of his Death so his Thoughts should be employed in taking good heed to be like him in a meek and patient and constant suffering of the Tryals appointed for himself Now the Rebuke applyed here to one particular Instance I shall so treat of at this time as to render it an Admonition of general Use and Benefit For such no doubt it may prove to every Christian if we from this Example take the hint of forbearing to indulge all needless Curiosities in Matters of Religion And bending our Studies to those Objects which have a direct Tendency to Practice and a good Life lay aside such aiery Speculations as deservedly fall under this Reprehension of our Saviour If it be thus or thus what is that to thee Now I would fain hope That even in this busy and pretending Age of Ours men might be prevailed upon thus far to consult their own Ease and Benefit would they but seriously consider these Three Arguments 1. First That Many if not Most of the abstruse Points of Religion are beset with such Difficulties as they cannot receive any positive and full Satisfaction in 2. Secondly That could they go to the bottom of all these Difficulties yet such Knowledge would be of little or no real use to them 3. Thirdly That the employing their Thoughts in such intricate Questions is not only fruitless but dangerous and many times of very fatal Consequence to themselves to others and to Religion in general This I shall endeavour to convince you is ordinarily the Case of those nice and curious Persons who spend their time and pains in the speculative Parts of Religion And not only so but I shall urge withal that the Study of the Practical and necessary Duties is the very Reverse of all this That these are very possible to be attain'd exceeding profitable when understood and that all the Hours and Industry laid out upon them turn to the truest the best account both for our Selves and for the Publick I. My first Discouragement against curious Speculations in Matters of Religion consists in this that they are entangled with such Difficulties as men cannot receive any positive and particular Satisfaction in And would not one choose of the two rather to sit still and be idle than to travel through Briars and Thorns and after infinite Toil and Trouble give out at last heartily tired with one's Journey but still as far from the End as when he first set out And yet this is the Consequence of those sublime Notions and subtle Distinctions which have taken up the Thoughts and employed the Pens and swell'd the Volumes of a great many Learned Men in almost all but especially in these later Ages of the Church The Mysterious Union of the Blessed Trinity and that of two Natures in the Person of our Saviour Christ The Secrets of Providence and the Methods of Divine Grace the State of Souls departed and the particular Nature and Quality of those Rewards and Punishments which await men in the next World These and abundance more such Points there are in which the Scriptures have given us some general Insight as much as is necessary for our present purpose But when men not content to be wise according to that which is written plunge themselves into Controversies about the particular Modes and Circumstances of them the farther they wade the more they are carried out of their Depth And how should it be otherwise indeed For when all is said and done these are Subjects not of a size with us our own Understanding is not qualified to fathom them The Light from above is our only safe Guide in these matters So far then as this leads us we may go on boldly and stand upon sure and firm ground but where that Light forsakes us all the Discoveries pretended to beyond must needs be very fanciful and precarious and weak So full of Delusion are those very profound Contemplations which lose the Mind in matters too high for it so liable to that Reproach of St. Paul * Rom. I. 21 22. though in another Signification of the words for These men too becoming vain in their Imaginations their foolish heart is darkned and professing themselves to be wise they become Fools But now the most important part of Religion is of a quite different kind For those things which the Gospel commands to be believed or done in order to Salvation lie level to every ordinary Capacity Thus for Belief It asks no mighty Depth for a Man to convice himself that what the God of Truth hath revealed ought readily to be embraced that He who was pleased to declare his Will to Mankind did certainly do it with a design to be understood that therefore we ought to take his word in its plain and natural Sense except where there appears manifest Reason to the contrary That its containing some things which we cannot perfectly comprehend especially when treating of God's own Nature and Operations is no good Argument of any Necessity to take him otherwise Because our Reason tells us that God is infinite and yet it tells us at the same time too that infinite he could not be if a finite Mind could fully comprehend him In a word it requires Modesty and Integrity rather than Acuteness and Skill to be satisfied that the true and proper Foundation of Faith is not the Quality or Perspicuity of the things revealed but the Authority and Testimony of the Party revealing These are matters that lie sufficiently fair and open to every considerate Person and They who come to the Scriptures with these Impressions will find no difficulty in assenting to what they meet with there nor any occasion for flying to wretched Criticisms as an Expedient for bringing down the loftiest Doctrines to their own narrow Apprehensions So again for the Moral Precepts of Piety and Justice and Charity and Purity and Meekness and Patience and Perseverance and the like These are so suited to our natural Notions of God and Goodness that if a Man hath but once thrown off the dead weight of his own Prejudices and corrupt Inclinations they cannot but cast the Scale against the contrary Vices Nor must I upon this occasion forget to put put you in mind that the Practice of Religion is a mighty Help to our more compleat Knowledge of it It is so as it engages our diligent Attention and fervent Love to that which is good It is so as it secures Probity of Mind a teachable and impartial Disposition It is so as it entitles us to the Blesling of God upon our Studies Whose Goodness will never suffer those who serve and seek him with their whole Heart to continue in dangerous and fatal Mistakes
of it imperceptible Then every Admonition from the Pulpit Every wholsome Law Every Advice from a Friend or a Parent Every good Book Every pious Example Every Motion and Intention to do well Every Conviction or Check of our own Conscience is a Blowing of this Wind a Call or Impulse from above And as often as any Man refuses to comply with these things so often he resists God and quenches his Spirit within himself Thirdly This shews us what Course men should take in order to get or to grow in Grace For since God works by and with his Ordinances our Business must be to use the Word and Sacraments and other means of Grace diligently to seek him there to put to the Shoulder and do Our Part resolutely and manfully and then not doubt his Assistance For upon these Terms we may depend upon it that He will forward and strengthen our good Intentions and since he creates all our Works in us that he will not fail to finish what he himself hath begun but will perform and continue it until the Day of Christ Jesus and in that day for his Sake and Merits will most assuredly crown Us and our Labours with Everlasting Glory Now to God the Father c. SERMON VIII THE Conditions and Privileges OF THE SECOND BIRTH St. John I. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of Man but of God THE Evangelist after having in the beginning of the Chapter with great Exactness declared the Eternal Divinity of the Word of God and that This was the very Person testified of by the Baptist by which we are assured that this Word is no other than Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnate and having likewise spoken of his coming into the World he mentions here with what different success he did it Some that were more peculiarly obliged and most nearly related to him from whom an honourable Reception might most reasonably be expected gave him no Respect no Entertainment at all And this was the case of the perverse Jews whom God had laid his hand upon and singled out from the rest of Mankind for which reason they are called in the 11th Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper Possession Christ's being refused there was an indignity like that of a Man's being driven or shut out of his Demesnes or Dwelling-house He came to his own and his own received him not The Loss however was not His but Theirs in denying Him they denied their own Happiness which was so great so evident that St. John thought no other expression of their Misery and Punishment was needful than only to describe the Privileges of those who behaved themselves more kindly and dutifully to him And this is done in the Text it self But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God For the right understanding and due Improvement whereof it will be expedient to consider the following Particulars First The Persons who alone are capable of Benefit by Christ's coming into the World They who receive him and believe on his Name Secondly The Nature of that Benefit which they obtain by so doing To them he gives power to become the Sons of God Thirdly The manner how this Sonship is conferred They are born not of blood nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of man but of God Fourthly The Extent of this Privilege he gives it to as many as receive and believe on him I. The First thing we are concerned to know upon this occasion is Who those Persons are to whom the Advantages of Christianity belong or What that Condition is which must qualify men for the Benefits of Christ's coming into the World This the Text hath expressed in those words who receive him and believe on his Name Now these are Terms explanatory of one another And as the Jews are therefore said not to have received him because they believed him not but rejected his Authority and Doctrine So Faith in what he hath revealed and Obedience to what he hath commanded are the Marks and Means of our receiving him And These consist not in a mere giving him the hearing and forbearing all publick and malicious Opposition to his word but in acknowledging the Truth and the Evidence of it depending upon his Promises expecting Salvation from that Name and no other and diligently endeavouring to perform all that is required on our part All that according to the Covenant of the Gospel can any way contribute to the rendring what he hath done and suffered effectual in our own particular Case That This must needs be the meaning of the Phrase is manifest to any man who will consider it closely For to receive Christ is to receive him as he is to submit to him in all those Capacities which God hath placed him over us in To receive him as our Prophet implies a firm Adherence to the whole of that Message which he hath brought us from Heaven to own his Divine Commission and be instructed by him To receive him as our Priest is to rely upon his most meritorious Sacrifice to confess the Sufficiency of his Atonement and to detest and forsake those Sins for which he hath made so perfect but withal so severe and painful an Expiation To receive him as our King is to own his Legislative Power to pay him strict Fidelity and Allegiance to bring all our Passions and Interests under Subjection to his Will and suffer no rebellious Appetites to raise wicked Seditions or tempt us to Unfaithfulness and Disloyalty against him The same is likewise necessarily consequent upon Believing For since the Object of all Faith is Credible Testimony and that of Religious Faith is Divine Revelation He who acts or entertains Persuasions contrary to or derogating from what God hath declared in Christ cannot properly be called a Believer on his Name If therefore God hath made something else necessary besides a bare Assent of the mind to the Truth of his Doctrines All That must needs come within the compass and be included under the notion of Faith If the Evangelist tell us in one place as he does here particularly that by believing men acquire the Privilege of becoming Sons of God and are born of God and yet our Saviour says positively in another as in the Third of this Gospel at the fifth Verse we find he does that Except a man be born again of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God it is very plain that this Belief must be such as is accompanied with and evidenced by a solemn entring into Covenant with God by Baptism
Because it keeps Men sensible of their Diseases and Wants and best qualified to receive a Cure for them Whereas Pride on the Contrary not only makes Men Fools but keeps them so It fills them full of themselves alone and never looks but through the Magnifying part of the Perspective It renders them deaf to all manner of Admonition because it never suffers them to suppose they want any And instead of growing wiser and better they are only exasperated and hardened the more in their Folly In short take Faith in its utmost Latitude and you will find in every Instance the same Event with that which our Saviour hath described in the Parable * Luke 18. 9. of the Pharisee and the Publican He that descends into his own Breast and sadly reflects on his Unworthiness and Deficiencies that laments and condemns himself with a God be merciful to me a Sinner or as in the Text cries out with Tears Lord help my Vnbelief is likely enough to go down to his House justified †Psal 25. 9. The Meek will God guide in Judgment and the Humble will he teach his Way But when once a Man is come to a God I thank thee that I am not as Other Men are when he is blind to his Own Failings and rips up those of Others to shelter and excuse his Own This Man's Unbelief is not through Weakness but through Perverseness and Choice He continues ignorant and wicked because he will not learn And there is no Remedy but continue so he must because he thinks himself too wise and too good to be taught and admonished His desperate Condition is well observed by Solomon * Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a Man wise he might have said holy too in his own conceit there is more hope of a Fool or of a profligate Sinner than of him The One labours under a more raging and a more scandalous Distemper indeed but the Other is poison'd secretly and so fond of his Disease that he hates his Antidote and obstructs all the Methods of Recovery But Thirdly The Weakness of Faith and Defects in Practice are known to be consistent with Safety or otherwise by the Vse or the Neglect of proper Means to strengthen it For it is not enough that we have not wilfully contributed to our past Failings nor yet that we lament or are seriously concerned for our present unless to both these we add Vigilance and care to prevent those that we are subject to for the future He that feels himself perplexed with Doubts and Difficulties in Religion must ask Wisdom of God and labour after it with Meekness and Diligence He that finds his Faith weak in influencing his Practice must take all Opportunities of fastening good Principles on his Mind and continually quicken and rouse himself up by Holy Motions and Remembrances and drive the Impressions deeper that they may be ever present and ever vigorous to draw out into use and ward off every Temptation that besets him The Man that languishes in his Devotion must raise and inflame his Zeal by all necessary Preparations to Prayer by sequestring himself from Business and Care as much as Conveniently he may fixing his Mind with Reverent Apprehensions of the Majesty he kneels before and the infinite Importance of the Blessings he prays for He that repents and thinks his Regret for past Offences less afflicting than it ought must work himself into as deep Remorse as possibly he can And express his Sincerity and the Sense of his Soul by sorrowing in Proportion for his Sin as Nature determines him to do upon Other Occasions of Grief and Sadness And so of the Rest of the Cases mentioned heretofore For tho' God make Allowances for Nature and unavoidable Infirmities yet he expects we should not improve these into Wilful Transgressions and Habits of Vice But on the contrary that we withstand and strive against them and proceed as far as we can toward the correcting and curing of them He does not expect that every Man should be equally Knowing or equally Considerate or equally Devout or Contrite But he requires that Every one should know as much as he can and make his Belief as practical and effectual as he can and Pray as fervently and do Good as delightfully and Mourn for his Wickedness as affectionately as he is able For This is the only Mark of our Integrity and that which will take off all the Mischief of corrupt Nature not to make our Misfortunes a Pretence for real Faults nor from the necessary Imperfections to which we all are liable to take occasion of Transgressing perversely and covering our own Carelesness and wilful Neglects And to all these things we must add a Fourth Sign which is Frequent and earnest Applications for Strength and Grace to Him who is able to support and perfect us To our Lord therefore we should come And if we be Sincere we shall come like Him in the Text with strong Cries and vehement Contention of Heart and Voice We shall beg his Assistance against our Failings and his Comforts against our Sorrows and sad Misgivings of Heart that he would protect us in our Dangers and Temptations and give us a right Judgment of his Dealings with us that he would scatter our Doubts and Distractions and dispell those Clouds which intercept the joyful Light of his Countenance from us And in all these and in all other Instances of a weak Faith Lord we believe thou canst and therefore we pray that thou of thy Goodness wilt help our Vnbelief stablish strengthen settle us in thy Truth Yea We beseech thee good Lord that it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand and to comfort and help the Weak-hearted and to raise up them that fall and finally to beat down Satan under our Feet Amen SERMON XV. CHRIST's RESIGNATION TO HIS Father's Will St. LUKE XXII 42. Father If thou be Willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not My Will but Thine be done THE several Circumstances of our Blessed Saviour's Passion are related by the Evangelists in so particular so moving a Manner as must needs argue those Men extreamly stupid and insensible upon whom they do not make a very lively and vigorous Impression Now the Purposes this Account is design'd to serve are principally these Two To excite our Thankfulness and Love to Him who submitted to undergo such bitter things for us And to work us up to an irreconcilable Aversion against Sin the wretched Cause of all his Sufferings And What can kindle our Love and enflame our Hearts with Zeal and Gratitude if the Contemplation of his Agonies and Pains the Tortures of his Body and the Amazement and exceeding Sorrows of his Soul will not to which he voluntarily exposed himself by accepting the Punishment of our Offences What can present us with a more frightful Image of the Wrath of God and the Horrors of a self-condemning Conscience than those Sweats of Blood that Heaviness
unseasonable Officiousness placed him in the way of a Danger which by his Absence might have been avoided But even after his first Denial he is said ‖ Vers 68. to have gone out and to have heard the Cock crow without any manner of Impression So far from this that he returns again and mingles with the same Company Fearing probably that withdrawing might increase their Suspicion and chusing rather to intangle himself in the same snare a second time and to gain credit by fresh and more obstinate denials than to leave any Jealousy of his having said an Untruth before And thus One Lye was added for a Confirmation to a former and Each repeated with greater eagerness and vehemence and in Terms more express and peremptory till Three distinct denials had left him past the excuse of Slips in memory or Inadvertency or the Suddeness of a Surprise which a single Denial might have received some Mitigation from Nay 4. Fourthly Which is yet a more grievous degree of Guilt St. Peter bound these denials upon himself with voluntary Oaths and Curses and used such Forms and such Solemnity to get a most notorious Falshood believed as were not lawful for him to have recourse to in Confirmation of the Truth it self And what could be more dreadful than thus to call God as a Witness and to imprecate his Judgment upon his own head in a thing so utterly false A thing which he should have been so far from delivering himself from the Suspicion of that he ought to have esteemed it his Honour and greatest Advantage and to have owned his Discipleship to Christ even at the utmost hazard even at the certain expence of his very Life Such were the sad Circumstances of this Apostle's Fall So unworthy a Person of St. Peter's Eminence Provoked by so slight an occasion in comparison of what might happened to him So obstinately false the Renouncings of his Master so impious and blasphemous his Perjuries against him All which I have thus represented before you as the Evangelists themselves have done to the whole World not with any envvious design of lessening your Esteem for this glorious Saint or any malicious Satisfaction that some People are apt to take when they show the actions of others in their worst Light but that by seeing this Action in its blackest Colours we may profit by his Sin be instructed by his Danger and stand the faster for his Fall To which purpose the Remainder of this Discourse shall be spent in such useful Reflections and Inferences as the former Particulars when rightly considered give us great ground for and plain Intimations of And They are such as follow First We read this Passage to very little Purpose if it do not convince us of the miserable Frailty even of the Best Men and effectually overthrow all those vain Confidences which are apt to rise in our hearts from our own supposed Strength and Virtue For What a lamentable instance is there now before our Eyes of one of the Greatest men that ever was falling in the most scandalous manner Who shall hereafter dare to depend upon the highest degree of Knowledge when One so wise so perfectly satisfied in the Christian Truth was yet in despight of the fullest Convictions of his own Conscience driven to deny and abjure the Lord that taught the Lord that bought him Who may presume upon his best Resolutions when He who declared so firm a purpose of adhering to Jesus notwithstanding any Terrours or Afflictions that could possibly befall him for such Perseverance did yet within a few hours so premptorily so solemnly disown that very Person for whom he so lately was ready to lay down his Life and so did that very thing which he but just before was disposed rather to die than to do I say was ready and disposed For there is no doubt but St. Peter at that time spoke the very Sense of his Soul that he had an honest and sincere mind and was stedfastly determined in his own Breast and thought himself sufficient to make good to the uttermost what he with so much Piety and Affection intended and professed But here was the Errour Here the Misfortune that St. Peter over-lookt the infirmities of humane Nature and in the warmth of his Zeal promised more than he was able to perform He relyed upon his own Integrity and thought that good resolutions were an impregnable defence against the most violent Temptations But when the Assault was made and that danger drew up close to him which he at a distance despised then the Event proved that how willing and well resolved soever the Spirit might be yet the Flesh alas is but weak at the best exceeding frail and weak And if this Great Champion so soon gave ground How shall We be able to stand in the Battel We who are Men as well as He nay who are Men not near so well appointed as He for this Spiritual Combat For We have all the same Principle of Corruption to betray us the same Passions to bear us down but very Few of Us it is to be feared have the same Knowledge and Wisdom the same Courage and Resolution the same Zeal and entire Love for our Master that He had to oppose against the Tryals which make head against us But Few of Us I doubt have the Grace even in cold blood to resolve that we would die with Christ rather than deny him in any wise And yet even those that are never so serious and sincere in such purposes know not what will become of them when they are brought to the proof We are it may be apt to blame or to pity this Apostle and may fancy how much more valiantly we should have acquitted our selves under the like Difficulties But how extreamly vain all such Despisings of Others or the Preferring our own Virtue before Theirs are this sad Experiment instructs us For He who declared that though all should be offended yet would not He fell more shamefully than any of the rest whose Constancy he suspected and engaged so far to excel That very Argument he went upon proved his ruine and the Opinion of his own Strength was the true Reason why he was so scandalously weak So very dangerous it is to think our selves Something when in truth we are Nothing So fatal to lean to our own Understanding and be Wise and Good and Safe in our own conceits when in reallity all our Sufficiency all our Safety is entirely of God So much do even our Excellencies expose us and such cruel Advantages does the Tempter take from our best Dispositions and Actions if we grow too sensible of them too well pleased with them proud or careless upon their account If we impute them to our selves if we ascribe the Success and Improvements we have formerly attained to our own Virtue and rely upon the Stedfastness of our own minds for a Security against future Tryals So different a thing it is to defy Difficulties
any Circumstances of humane Life Or so far to presume upon our former Virtues as to think our selves incapable even of the blackest Vices if God should withdraw his Grace from us and leave us to our own poor Powers and unwary Measures They awaken our Care mortify our Vanity and remind us of our Dependance upon a Higher Power and to give Him the Acknowledgments due for all the Good we do and for all the Evil we do not And as they admonish so do they comfort us too by shewing that God does not utterly cast off his Servants no not when they offend very grievously and scandalously That we need not ought not to despair though our Transgressions be very many very heinous since there is still Room left for second and better Thoughts And provided Men return and endeavour to make amends for their past Offences they shall be kindly received and freely pardoned And therefore when we read This and the like Passages we must be sure not to stop in the midst but take in the whole Relation and observe the Character throughout For St. Peter's Fall will minister just ground of Comfort to None but such as are careful to rise with him again His Sin indeed is a Warning to us but his Repentance is no less a Pattern They that blame his Sin will do well to observe his Sorrow and if they abhor the One they will not perhaps find it so easy to imitate the Other Let us remember that there are several ways of denying God and Christ and St. Paul expresly says They do it in works and in effect who do not live according to what they believe This I am afraid Few if Any of us can purge our selves wholly of and therefore since our guilt is not far from St. Peter's but only doing the same thing after another fashion it will be necessary that our Concern and Reformation should come up as near to His as the nature of the Fault does In order whereunto My second Head proposes to treat of St. Peter's Repentance And that God willing shall be the Business of my next Discourse SERMON VI. St. Peter's Repentance St. Mark XIV 72. And Peter called to mind the Word that Jesus said unto him Before the Cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice And when he thought thereon he wept FROM these Words I proposed to treat of Two General Heads I. First St. Peter 's Fall which is implyed and referred to in the Text and II. Secondly His Repentance which is expresly contained in it Concerning the Former of these I have already spoken at large And shall now proceed to the Latter St. Peter's Repentance And here I shall observe the same method as before Considering carefully the several Steps and Parts of this Repentance in the first place and then drawing from this Example such Reflections as are proper to the Occasion and may be useful to all Christians in general More especially to Such whose unhappy Engagements in a sinful Course have rendred a very deep and solemn Repentance necessary for restoring them to the Favour of an offended God 1. First then Let us consider this Repentance so far as St. Peter himself was concerned in it And here it may be convenient to take notice of the Four following Particulars Which though not all expressed in the words before us yet are to be gathered plainly from the Relations which the other Evangelists have left us concerning this Matter 1. Now the First thing observable here is That which gave the occasion to this Change And This we are told by all the Evangelists was the Crowing of the Cock But St. Mark hath informed us * Vers 68. particularly that St. Peter had heard him Crow once before without any manner of Impression And therefore St. Luke gives us a very good Intimation how the Repeating it a Second time came to be more effectual than the First For this Evangelist is singular in one Circumstance mentioned Ch. XXII 61. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter And Peter then remembred the word of the Lord c. So that this Glance of our Lord upon St. Peter falling in so seasonably with that Crowing of the Cock awakened his mind and made him attend to that Signal of his Duty that Remembrancer of the fault our Lord had foretold and He had so sadly fulfilled This then so backed so sent home to his Conscience put him upon the Second thing remarkable 2. Which is His own Recollection He remembred the word that Jesus had said and found by comparing his own Behaviour with it how shamefully he had fallen from his boasted Courage and Constancy How frail and unstable his strongest Resolutions had proved How much better our Lord understood him than he understood himself How very quickly and easily he had been betrayed into a Crime of which he could not believe himself capable How base he had been to so kind a Master How false to his own purposes How regardless of Truth How peremptory in a most notorious Falshood How profane in the Oaths and Curses by which he had bound it upon his Conscience For by this Remembrance and Thought no doubt is intended a Representing to himsslf the Offence he had committed in its blackest Colours and loading it with all the dreadful Aggravations which of right belonged to it All which when set before him proved so frightful a Spectacle that he could no longer refrain from Tears for that is the 3. Third Circumstance observable in his Behaviour When he thought thereon he wept or as some understand it he burst out into Tears immediately Intimating hereby both the Suddenness and the Extremity of his Grief Such as sought a convenient place to give it self free vent in and therefore he went 〈◊〉 and wept bitterly Without entring into the Dispute what may be the properest Interpretation of those words by which St. Mark * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath described this Action it is sufficiently manifest that St. Peter's Reflection upon what he had done produced in him this Sorrow and that his Sorrow was very serious and hearty The inward Horrours of his mind expressing themselves by the abundance of his Tears and all other Marks of bitter Remorse which we can suppose his Condition to require or be capable of And This must needs have been more than can be easy for us to conceive For the Anguish of a wounded Spirit is no more to be described than it is to be born And in St. Peter every thing conspired to increase this Confusion For besides the many particular Circumstances that heightned his Guilt and embittered the Remembrance of so foul an Offence the very Kindness of his Master who in the midst of Contumelies and Sufferings seem'd to forget himself a while and had a Compassionate Look in reserve to reclaim Him must needs have added a great deal to his Astonishment and Concern There being nothing more apt to soften and melt a Man's heart down
consider That Other of such as do entertain and profess but yet are not saved by it For This answers to the Person who did come and yet was afterwards thrust out for want of a Wedding-Garment What this Garment signifies seems not very hard to be understood Most Interpreters agree it to be Good Works in general to which I would only beg leave to add such works done out of a Principle of sincere Obedience For since the want of this Garment does not appear to have been discovered till the Master came in to see and examine the Guests though the Circumstances in Parables are not to be too curiously insisted upon yet I presume it is not amiss to take in Inward Holiness here in opposition to a dissembled formal Shew of Religion Now This is what may be so nicely wrought that no humane Eye shall be able to distinguish it But God will be sure to unmask the Hypocrite He sees through all our Disguises and will one day sever not only between the openly Righteous and the Wicked but between Him that is Righteous in reality and Him that is so in Affectation and Appearance only This then is a seasonable warning to all of us Phil. I. 27. Ephes IV. 23 24. 1 Pet. III. 15. Ephes VI. 6. that our Conversation be such as becomes the Gospel of Christ that we take care to be renewed in the Spirit of our Mind and to put on the Inward Man which after God is formed according to Righteousness and true Holiness that we sanctifie the Lord God in and Do his will from our Hearts This proves that our being received into the Number and Congregation of the Faithful partaking in the same Proviledges and the same Instructions joyning in the same Prayers and the same Sacraments doing some outward acts of Piety and Charity that All this I say will avail us nothing if our hearts be rotten at the bottom if we be not sincere and stedfast and uniform in our Duty Such Men may impose upon the World and by degrees upon Themselves too but Be not deceived there is a stricter Search to come and God is not cannot be â—ocked A Man may lie within Christ's fold and yet be no better than a Wolf in Sheeps Clothing But the Shepberd will be sure to find him out and to deal with him accordingly In a word it is not the Form but the Power of Godliness that must save us This unworthy Comer did no more eat of the Feast than They who came not at all And at the Last day the matter will come much to one whether we be reckoned among Hypocrites or Vnbelievers since the Great Judge hath already declared that the Portion of both shall be in a Matth. XXIV 51. place of darkness and weeping and gnashing of Teeth Luk. XII 46. Now that this walking unworthy our Christian Profession as well as not professing Christ at all is from our own fault I need not after what hath been said already take any pains to prove It may suffice to refer my Reader back to the former Considerstions since the very same Advantages and Assistances afforded Meâ— for disposing them to believe the Truth are at least as plentifully afforded 〈◊〉 disposing them to practise it whâ—… they do believe it And the very saâ—… Indispositions and vicious Qualitiâ—… which hinder men from entertaining the Christian Doctrine do likewise obstruct the conforming their lives in good earnest to the Doctrines they entertain The same is farther manifest from this Person 's punishment here and from his being Speechless struck dumb with Guilt and Confusion Which fairly intimates to us what is most certainly true That of all Men living They who pretend to be Christians will have least to say in their own excuse if they lead wicked lives since This is in effect to profess one Rule and act by another and to live not only in opposition to God and his Laws but under a perpetual upbraiding of their own Breasts and in a perfect and constant contradiction to themselves Now All this tends directly to the End I chiefly aimed at in the Choice of this Subject Which is to remove mose discouragements to Repentance and a Good Life which some weak Minds may labour under from a mistaken Notion that these things will either be done without us or not effectually attain'd even by our most laborious and conscientious Endeavours And though may be objected that Parables afford but little matter for solid Argument yet the Cause I have undertaken will not be much weakned by that pretence if it be remembred thaat we may and ought to argue from Parables so far as the Reason and plain Design of them leads us And that nothing here hath been advanced beyond that which is not I hope sufficiently evinced by other express Texts of Scripture Let us not then flatter our selves with little Shifts and take Sanctuary in the dark excuses of absolute Reprobation and Election For be assured that at the General Day of Account a new and different Scene of things shall open And what Cloaks soever Men may contrive to cover their shame in the mean while every mouth shall then be laid in the dust All flesh shall not only be but acknowledge it self to be guilty before God And He be justified in all his Doings and clear when he is judged The Sum then of what hath been said upon the matter is This That God calls freely whom and when and how he pleases that every body is Called to whom the Word of Salvation is sent and Called in such a manner that if They who live under the dispensation of the Gospel do not hear and receive and profit by it the Fault and the Punishment will be Theirs That this hearing and receiving or which is the same thing coming when Called implies not only a Belief of what our Saviour hath taught but living in agreement to the Principles Christians profess to believe That They who wilfully fail in either of these Points cannot be of the Number of God's Chosen They may be Called and not Come they may Come and yet be thrust out as unworthy And none are the Chosen but such as partake of the Feast From whence we may infer that the Election of God proceeds upon certain Terms and Qualifications And although Men are Called by an Act of Mercy purely arbitrary and without any respect to their Behaviour yet they are not Chosen so Freely indeed they are because not for any desert or real worth of their Best Works but conditionally still because not without Good Works So that these Works though incapable of being the Meritorious are yet the Instrumental Cause of our Election and Salvation Hence Theophylect says Theoph. in loc That we are Called is entirely Gids act but whether we be Chosen or no will depend upon our Selves Hence a much more incontestable Authority than His warns Christians 2 Pet. I. 10. that they give diligence
which are wont to rise from the Failings we feel or fancy in our selves Those that proceed from the expectation of such easy and peaceful Resentments of Mind as are imagined always to attend Piety and true Faith shall be considered God willing in another Discourse SERMON XIII THE CASE OF A Weak and Imperfect FAITH The Scruples about it consider'd St. Mark IX 24. Latter part Lord I believe help thou my Vnbelief MY design from these Words was to treat of a Weak and Imperfect Faith and in pursuance of that Design I have already assigned some Reasons for the weakness of Faith such and so general that all People will find themselves more or less concerned in them which was my First Head My Second proposed to satisfy the Scruples of many well-meaning Persons upon this occasion by shewing that those things which are frequently suspected as signs of their having no True Faith are really not so Now These being of Two sorts Some that proceed from a sight or an imagination of some Failings in Men's own selves and Others from the want of such easiness and peace of mind as are supposed constantly to attend true Piety and Faith The Former of these Kinds have been already consider'd particularly and the Latter come now under our Examination viz. Those Dissatisfactions which are apt to arise from the want of such easy and peaceful Resentments of Mind as true Faith and that Piety which God accepts are always supposed to produce Now of These I commonly meet with Two which seem most to deserve our Consideration And they are First Mens doubting of their particular Election and Salvation and Secondly The want of those inward Joys and that present constant peace of heart which Religion is so often said in Scripture to cheer our Spirits with and to recommend it self to us by First then I shall endeavour to satisfy you that for Men to doubt of their own particular Election and Salvation as that Phrase is commonly used is not any Argument that they want true Faith Nor indeed could it ever have been thought one if a sort of Vain Men had not led their Followers away with a strange deluding imagination that it was One necessary part and Character of a true Belief in Christ to perswade themselves of their own personal Election and that it was impossible they should ever miscarry So that not to rest asselves of their own Eternal Salvation is as they represent the matter a Distrust of Christ's mercy and of the Faithfulness of God to his promises since his gifts and his calling are without Repentance and whom he once loveth he loveth them unto the end Now when people are told in so very confident and peremptory terms that This is the Faith by which they must be saved and that to question their own Eternal Happiness is an undeniable proof that no such thing belongs to them And when at the same time upon examination of their own breasts and an humble sight of their many Failings and Infirmities they cannot rest in all that fulness of assurance but find some little Misgivings and Fears mixed with their Hopes We are not to wonder if they lye under sad anxieties and dissatisfactions so long as they believe themselves wanting in a Condition absolutely necessary to Salvation But Such is not this positive Assurance whatever is pretended nor in truth can it be as I hope to convince you in few words and by so doing most offectually to put and End to all those Scruples and Disquiets that are owing merely to this false presumption of its being so and that there can be no true Faith without it To believe that God out of a gracious design to save Mankind from Hell and everlasting Destruction sent his Son into the World to dye for them And that All such as Believe and obey the Gospel shall most certainly by His merits have their Obedience accepted and their Souls made eternally happy This indeed is a true and a necessary Belief And to question This is to distrust and dishonour God It is to contradict his word and to blaspheme his Truth But for You or Me in particular to believe that We are of this happy number This can never be required of us as a positive Duty Nor hath the Gospel enjoin'd it any farther than by the Testimony of our own Consciences and the word of God we find our selves within those General terms by which the Gospel promises Salvation to Mankind at large And you will I think agree that even in very Good men it cannot be expected This should amount to a positive assurance when you have considered the following Arguments As First It is not possible I conceive to reconcile such an absolute assurance with Fear And yet the Gospel plainly propounds this as a proper and very powerful motive to a Christian's Obedience For however that may have been run down as a Spirit contrary to the Genius of the New Covenant and the New Creature * Ps cxi 10. yet it is not plainer that the Old Testament places the * Phil. II. 12 13. beginning of Religious Wisdom in the Fear of the Lord than it is that the New attributes the very finishing and Excellence of it to the same Affection of mind and makes the very Mercies of God in Christ a foundation for it For so St. Paul advises the Corinthians 2 Ep. Chap. VII v. 1. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Where it is plain he spoke not to Novices or to such as were to make their first feeble Essays by the help of this and then pass on to some Nobler Motive but he expects that they should complete their Duty and become perfect by That A Vertue so far from being inconsistent with Gospel-mercies that they are exhorted to fear for that reason because they had such gracious promises to depend upon The same Apostle commands his Philippians * Phil. II. 12 13. to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling that is in an awe of God's Justice constantly upon their minds a constant Dread of his Vengeance and from thence an Anxious Care to please him And yet all this is not a Spirit of Bondage for That could not stand with having received the Spirit of Adoption as these Philippians had who are accordingly encouraged to this diligence in the next verse from the consideration of God's Grace whereby he works in men both to will and to do of his good pleasure Nor may we say as some fondly do that the Love of God is cooled by such a principle since our Blessed Saviour himself hath recommended the highest Act of Love that men are capable of no less than suffering Martyrdom it self and laying down our lives for his sake from the same motive Thus he hath chosen to do to his beloved ones Luke XII 4. 5. I say unto you