of Reason and Righteousness But certainly the Ways of God are most accountable of any thing to Rules of Righteousness These are injurious Apprehensions of God and dishonourable to him and are discaimed by him every where in Scripture and God owns no such Power neither doth he look upon it as a Priviledge nor doth he cloath himself with such a Prerogative Here is the Truth of the Case Misery doth arise out of our selves and Misery and Iniquity have the same Foundation Hell for the main of it is our Guiltiness and Conscience of it So that a Sinner is in a self-condemned State without Relief These two are the Ingredients of the Hellish State Self-condemnation from the Guilt of a Man's Conscience that is not removed by Repentance and God's Refusal upon a righteous Cause because the Sinner would not come within the Latitude of a Compassionate Case SERMON III. ROMANS I. 18. For the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness TO proceed to the Declaration of this great and horrid Sin which gives God that high Offence alienates us from him exposes us to his Displeasure * and against which he doth thus declare This holding Truth in Unrighteousness it doth admit of several degrees 1 st Where Knowledge doth not go forth into Act Where * it doth not attain the Effect of Goodness For bare Knowledge doth not sanctifie No Man is renew'd by his Knowledge only It is said of the degenerate Spirits the Devils that they know and tremble The Effect is Fear and Astonishment because there is not the Product of Goodness 2 dly Not attaining due Growth For there will be Growth where there is not Violence or some ill Accident Where Nature begins it goes on towards Perfection and it is in the State of Increase till it come to the State of Consistency Growth in Bulk or Maturity as in Nature so in Grace The Apostle tells us of the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ. 3 dly Eluding one 's own Judgment By an Evasion unsound Distinction pretending to Difference when there is none doing that under one notion which a Man 's own Judgment will not let him do under another when the Case is much the same * Thus when things are under a disguise when Intemperance is called Good-fellowship or when any Man is Conceited or of a Turbulent Spirit in Religion for him to please himself with a notion of Zeal for Truth We should be very careful and exact to observe the Difference of Moral Good and Evil. Herein we should be severe and impartial not giving our selves leave to comply with our * own Humours for as to the great Notices of Reason and Nature the Measures of Vertue and Vice the Grand Instances of Morality there can be no Allowance no Variation because they are Matters unalterable unchangeable indispensible Laws of themselves without Sanction by Will but by the Reason of the thing In the great Matters of Righteousness there is no Variation but in Positives and Institutes there is a Latitude of Sense Interpretation Time and Observance Instistitutes were never intended to be in Compensation or Recompence for Failure in Morals but for their better Security 4 thly Not following Truth fully but as Herod He heard John gladly c. Our Saviour doth mightily accuse the Pharises because they did pick and chuse singling out one Precept and in the Observance of that being exact and this to make a Compensation for the rest Zealous in one thing loose in others they are charg'd therefore with Hypocrisie Not following Truth fully is when all Worldly things do not vail to Religion but Worldly Conveniencies are unduly consider'd for Truth is so noble and generous a thing that it will not submit to a Compremise with its opposite 5 thly The high degree of Sin To go against a Man's own Judgment and Conscience by violent and unnatural Practice to contract Reprobacy of Mind Seardness of Conscience Hardness of Heart This Men will do when Lust is strong and high Persons of unsubdu'd and unmortified Affections they are exposed to such horrid and unnatural use of themselves and so come to be prodigiously naught For no Man is suddenly most desperately wicked but no Man knows when he is a going how far he shall go For the breaking in of Sin is as the Inundation of Water This by way of Explication Two Observations from these words the Wrath of God is reveal'd 1. Men have wrong and injurious Apprehensions of God 2. All those that are condemn'd for Sinners are first self-condemn'd For every one that in Scripture-Sense is a Sinner is self-condemn'd 1 st The wrong Apprehensions that Men have of God that Sinners have no Warning that they are surprized by God's Judgments and taken unawares This is without all ground since the Wrath of God is declared by his Word and by his Works besides the Sense of Mens Minds the Guilt of their Consciences and their own Heart misgiving them for no Man is true to himself if he be ill employ'd for he that is employ'd in an Evil Work is always possess'd with Fear and he is not certain that he shall be true to himself Wherefore let the Declaration of God in Scripture be acknowledg'd as true Thy Destruction is of thy self Why will ye die O ye Sinners Righteous art thou O Lord and true are all thy Judgments For God of his great Goodness and Compassion to Men doth graciously begin but we often find Men wilful obstinate and rebellious God is ready to pursue his Good Beginning and if they answer his Call further to carry them on for you have an express Promise To him that hath shall be given All Grace is help and where God is there is Strength Therefore cannot any one say his Miscarriage is of God It is not want on God's part but failure on ours It is not that God fails in what is becoming him in the relation he stands to us as Creatures but we are wanting to our selves What is all the Misery that befalls Sinners in their most forlorn Condition but the Fruit of their own Sins Not any thing that proceeds from God's Arbitrary Will and Power But they contract Guiltiness of Conscience Impenitence of Mind Hardness of Heart and an Incapacity to act God-ward or to receive from God 2 dly The Scripture doth suppose that ungodly Men are self-condemn'd For this super-addition Who hold the Truth in unrighteousness is as rendring an Account not making a Distinction As â—endring an Account how it comes to pass notwithstanding all God's Endeavours and Declarations that Men continue ungodly Persons The Reason is Because they offer Violence to Truth go contrary to their Light and neglect the Declarations of God Not as if it distinguish'd between ungodly and unrighteous Persons All that in any Scripture are branded for Sinners they are Men that sin against
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
Beniamin Whichcot S. S. T. Professor Select Sermons OF D r WHICHCOT In TWO PARTS MAT. XI 15. He that hath Ears to hear let him hear LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row MDCXCVIII THE PREFACE AMongst those many Things which are made Publick it may be thought perhaps of Sermons that they are of any other the least wanted and for the future least likely to be found wanting since to that rich and inexhaustible Store with which the Learned and Orthodox Divines of England have already furnished us there is daily fresh addition from worthy and able Hands Neither have we cause to fear a Cessation in this kind or that so great a Blessing is likely to fail us for the future having such security not only from the unwearied Zeal of present Divines of whom we may always hope a worthy Succession but from the just esteem which the Publick never fails to shew for such pious Discourses Upon which account we find that many of these are every day made Publick and as it were forced into the World notwithstanding the great Modesty of their Authors whose Humble Thoughts and devoutly resigned Affections lead them not towards Eminence and Advancement in the World It may seem strange therefore that in such an Age as this any one should be so officious as to search after and publish the Sermons of a Man long since dead who himself never meant to Publish any or thought so highly of himself as that he could benefit the World by such a Publication It is certain that we must not ever imagine nor can it enter into a Mind truly Christian that because we see not an apparent Change for the better in the Lives of Christian Professors that therefore all Preaching is ineffectual or that here in England the Labours of the most Eminent Divines that perhaps the World ever afforded have been of no use at all It might be said with the same reason tho' very prophanely and wickedly that because the Christians are not reported to exceed the other Nations of the World in Probity and Good Living but are said to be rather inferior in this respect to the Civilized People whether Pagan or Mahometan lying round them that therefore the Christian Religion is of no effect at all nor any ways operative upon the Lives of its Professors But if we consider this as becomes us and not perversely as many do it will be found that we are even in this sense the most highly indebted to Christianity and should look upon It as the greatest Blessing imaginable not only for its spiritual Advantages which are Unspeakable but for its Temporal Benefits and Securities inasmuch as that Mankind being so inclinable to Ill we should have a Religion so full of all good Precepts and so enforcing with respect to all the Duties of Morality and Justice So that our Amazement ought rather to be how Men with such a Religion should lead such Lives and how Malice Hatred or Division should have place in such Societies as these which we might expect to see distinguished from all others rather by a perfect Harmony and Agreement than by the fiercest Quarrels Contentions and Animosities And indeed when we consider the Nature of Preaching how excellent an Order and Establishment it is how highly raised and magnified in the Christian World When we consider Numbers of Holy Men set apart for this great Work having all advantages given them the better to set forth those Glorious Truths of Revelation and to create a Reverence of Religion in the Minds of Men when we consider the Solemnity of a Church-Assembly and the awful Presence and Authority of the Christian Orator we may be apt to wonder perhaps why we see not greater and more happy Effects hereof in the World However we must of Necessity conclude That this Institution being undoubtedly so powerful a support of our Religion if such Assemblies as these were not upheld if such Authority as this did not subsist the consequence would be that as in a little time there would be no more Christianity left in the World so neither any Morality since notwithstanding all the Helps of Preaching and the Assistance and Support which Virtue receives from hence the Lives of Men are still so far from being Reform'd and the World so little Improved in these latter Ages But how reverently soever we have cause to think concerning this Institution and the undoubted good Effects of it upon Mankind and whatever high Opinion and Esteem we may justly have of their Performance in whose Hands this Power is placed it seems not wholly impossible but that there may be some Defect in this great Affair and that the Causes of ill Success may not lye altogether in the Depravity Perverseness or Stupidity of Mankind who are the Hearers and Readers of these Doctrines In some Countries and amongst some sorts of Christians we have seen that the Whole of this Institution has not been appropriated to Spirituals but that a great part of those Divine Exhortations have had something in common with the Policies of the World and the Affairs of Government And of whatsoever Benefit this may have been to Mankind or to the Peace of the Christian World it must be own'd that Preaching it self will be so much the less apt to make any happy Revolution in Manners as it has at any time been serviceable to Revolutions in State or to the support of any other Interest than that of Christ's Kingdom Nor do we find since the Arts of Government and Mysteries of Religion have been thus suited together that either has been much advantag'd by the Union it having never yet appear'd that Divinity has been greatly better'd by Policy or that Policy has been any where mended by Divinity Amongst those Writers who have been forward in making this Unprosperous Alliance and Building a Political Christianity there has been * one of our Nation in the Time wherein our Author liv'd who whether he may have been serviceable any way to the Civil Government or Christian Church it may be concluded at least that he has done but very ill Service in the Moral World And however other parts of Philosophy may be obliged to him Ethicks will appear to have no great share in the Obligation He has indeed with great Zeal and Learning been oppos'd by all the eminent and worthy Divines of the Church of England And had the same Industry been applied to the Correction of his Moral Principles as has been bestow'd in refuting some other of his Errours it might perhaps have been of more Service to Religion in the Main This is He who reckoning up the Passions or Affections by which Men are held together in Society live in Peace or have any Correspondence one with another forgot to mention Kindness Friendship Sociableness Love of Company and Converse Natural Affection or any thing of this kind I say Forgot because I can scarcely think so
the Margin r. Mat. 18. p. 363. in the Margin r. 1 John 4. 18. p. 366. l. 16. r. Imprudence p. 394. l. 11. r. Impetuosity p. 446. l. 10. r. Members SERMON I. JOHN VII 46. Never Man spake like this Man BEcause there are amongst us those who are bold to call into question DEITY those who dispute against the main and principal Matters of Christian Faith under pretence of Reason the Excellency of God's Creation by which I will be concluded therefore I make choice of these Words to deal with them with their own Instrument Never any Man spake as our Lord and Saviour I will not lay the Stress of my Argument upon the Credit of those who spake these Words for they were I know not whom And I will make no more Advantage than I will give to the Devil himself who is related to speak many things that are â—â—â—orted in Scripture But I will found my Argument on the Quality of the Matter Yet it is considerable that they who are engaged in the contrary * Party are declared Enemies and have a contrary Interest that even they are over-born and so far subdued as to make an Acknowledgment There are among us Persons that are Sensual and out-right Brutish that put off Human Nature and discharge themselves of Principles of Reason and Understanding I think no Man doubts of this It seems to be evident and undeniable Yea they themselves are self-condemn'd in what they do And Men that do distemper themselves and put themselves out of the Use of their Reason when they do recover they wish they could do otherwise But then there are those that pretend to dispute against Deity and under Excuse of Reason pretend to be Atheists These make a great Bluster and Noise in the World and undertake to defend themselves with Show and Colour of Reason and Argument And again There are those who will admit of Principles of Reason to the full and all the immediate necessary Results and unavoidable Deductions from it and yet they sâ—ick at Reveal'd Truth pretending Want of Evidence and a Failure in point of Assurance and of infallible Conviction and Confirmation These Men avoid Atheism But stick in Infidelity * Now with him that pretends to Atheism or * who if he doth acknowledge Deity is an Infidel and sticks at Reveal'd Truth these two last I will deal with from this Scripture For * as for the first sort they being self-condemn'd are easily convinc'd Among other Excellencies of Divine Truth this is none of the smallest Weight that when it is declared it doth recommend it self to and satisfies the Mind of Man concerning its Reality and Usefulness Men are wanting to themselves that they do not see with their own Eyes that they do not make a particular Search that they do not examine that they do not consider or in a word that they do not use the Judgment of discerning For we that are of the Reform'd Religion who deny the infallible visible Judge we do allow to every Christian a private Judgment of discerning not * only as his Priviledge that God hath granted him * but as his Charge Where People are of no Education have no Liberty or Advantage in respect of Leisure or other Opportunities we do advise them to use Modesty and Humility and to be rather Learners than forward to Teach For it is good Councel and it is that which is done in all other Affairs Whosoever he be that hath not the Opportunity to acquaint himself with the Mystery it is safer for him to make use of other Expedients than for him to be peremptory in a Resolution But this for certain Men are wanting to themselves if they do not see with their own Eyes if they do not search and use a Judgment of discerning For Men attain to no settled State in Religion no Heights or Excellency of Spirit who do not make a Discernment by their Judgments But they run away with Presumptions Suppositions with conceited Imaginations with received Dictates are Light of Faith credulous do comply with others in Sence in Judgment in Practice And it is their Necessity so to do if they will not make Matters of Knowledge their Business There cannot be receiving of Truth in the Love of it and consequently in the certain Obedience of it where there is not receiving of Truth in the particular Judgment of the certain Verity of it and the Sence of the Goodness of it This Advantage Truth hath It hath so much of Self-evidence it is so satisfactory to the Reason of an ingenuous Mind that it will prevail unless there be an Indisposition in the Receiver This I take for the certainest Matter of Experience All things are according to the Disposition of the Receiver one Man will interpret into a Courtesie that which another turns into an Injury According as Men are in Preparation and Disposition of Mind so will things be entertain'd that are offered to Consideration and proposed But Truth if it doth appear if it be represented and fairly proposed it will find Entertainment in a Man's Mind if a Man's Mind be not by contrary Indisposition made in an Incapacity Truth is the Soul's Health and Strength natural and true Perfection As increated Wisdom speaks to God Prov. 8. 30. so Truth speaks the same Language to Man's Soul I was by him as one brought up with him I was daily his Delight Truth is so near to the Soul * so much the very Image and Form of it that it may be said of Truth that as the Soul is by Derivation from God so Truth by Communication No sooner doth the Truth of God come to our Souls sight but our Soul knows her as her first and old Acquaintance Which tho' they have been by some Accident unhappily parted a great while yet having now through the Divine Providence happily met they greet one another and renew their Acquaintance as those that were first and ancient Friends Truth is of a different Emanation for I cannot distinguish Truth in it self but in way of descent to us Truth either of first Inscription or of after Revelation from God The Truth of first Inscription is Connatural to Man it is the Light of God's Creation and it flows from the Principles of which Man doth consist in his very first Make This is the Soul's Complexion And Truth of after Revelation is the Soul's Cure the Remedy for the Mind's Ease and Relief The great Expectation of Souls is the Promise of God's Messiah They wait for the Consolation of Israel For this hath been the State of the World Man in Degeneracy and Apostacy disabled himself prejudiced his Interest in God Losing his Interest by his Degeneracy and Apostacy he is in Hope and Expectation of some Revelation from God concerning Terms of Reconciliation and Recovery And when these did appear then * was it said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace Here comes Truth of after Revelation for the Recovery
of Man when he was Apostatized from the Truth of first Inscription The former of these is of things necessary in themselves in their Nature and Quality so immutable and indispensible The latter is the voluntary Results and Determinations of the Divine Will Things that are of an immutable and indispensible Nature we have Knowledge of them by the Light of first Impression The voluntary Results of the Divine Will we have by Revelation from God Man's Observance of God in all Instances of Morality these are Truths of first Inscription and these have a deeper Foundation greater Ground for them than that God gave the Law on Mount Sinai or that he did after ingrave it on Tables of Stone or that we find the Ten Commandments in the Bible For God made Man to them and did write them upon the Heart of Man before he did declare them upon Mount Sinai before he ingraved them upon the Tables of Stone or before they were writ in our Bibles God made Man to them and wrought his Law upon Mens Hearts and as it were interwove it into the Principles of our Reason and the things thereof are the very Sence of Man's Soul and the Image of his Mind So that a Man doth undo his own Being departs from himself and unmakes himself confounds his own Principles when he is disobedient and unconformable to them and must necessarily be self-condemn'd The Law externally given was to revive awaken Man after his Apostacy and Sin and to call him to Remembrance Advertency and Consideration And indeed had there not been a Law written in the Heart of Man a Law without him could be to no Purpose For had we not Principles that are Concreated did we not know something no Man could prove any thing * For he that knows nothing grants nothing Whosoever finds not within himself Principles sutable to the Moral Law whence with Choice he doth comply with it he hath departed from himself and lost the natural Perfection of his Being And to be conformable to this is the Restitution to his State Things of Natural Knowledge or of first Inscription in the Heart of Man by God these are known to be true as soon as ever they are proposed And he hath abused himself and forc'd himself from his Nature and deformed the Creation of God in him whosoever doth not take Acquaintance with subscribe to make acknowledgement of these great Things The great Principles of Reverence of Deity Of Sobriety in the Government of a Man 's own Person Moderate use of the Pleasures and Contentments of this Life The great Instances of Righteousness and Justice in Mens Transactions one with another For they are Connatural to Man Then for Truth of Gospel-Revelation that speaks for it self recommends it self and shews it self to be of God In this Case we may say as the Samaritans to the Woman They were brought to take Cognizance of our Saviour by the credible Report of the Woman But after they had had converse with him Now say they we believe in him not for thy Words but we credited thee so far forth as to come and see him but because we have seen and heard Such are the Declarations of Faith in God by Jesus Christ of Remission of Sins of God's accepting of Sinners upon Repentance that any Man that is awake to any true Apprehensions of God he will readily believe them and embrace them when they are declared to him by any Instrument The great Things of Reveal'd Truth tho' they be not of Reason's Invention yet they are of the prepar'd Mind readily entertain'd and receiv'd As for Instance Remission of Sins to them that repent and deprecate God's Displeasure it is the most credible Thing in the World For God made us Creatures fallible at the best Now here is finite and fallible failing and miscarrying repenting and reforming upon a Declaration from God So false is it that the Matter of our Faith is unaccountable or that there is any thing unreasonable in Religion that there is no such Matter of Credit in the World as the Matters of Faith nothing more intelligible It was a Mystery before God in Christ reconciling the World Now all the World is taken into a Possibility of receiving Benefits hereby Tho' there be nothing of Merit on the Creature 's side nothing that we can do that can deserve yet it is a Matter of very fair Belief that the Original of all Beings the Father of all our Spirits the Fountain of all Good will one way or other pardon Sin and do what behoves him for the Recovery of his laps'd Creation And any probable Narration made in the Name of God of the Way and Means and the particular Circumstances whereby God will do it will fairly induce Belief with sober serious and considerate Minds And what have we to do with others upon the Account of Religion If they be not serious and considerate they are not in a Disposition towards Religion That Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head God hath been speaking this out further and further by his various Revelations in the several Successions of Time He has represented it in divers Shapes But now we have it expounded For the Seed of the Woman is God manifested in the Flesh And breaking the Serpent's Head is destroying the Work of the Devil The Anti-type doth exactly answer the Variety of the Types All foretold of our Saviour was fulfill'd in him We have many things in prophane Stories in several Ages that give Testimony and Light to Parts of Reveal'd Truth Many of their Stories are in Imitation of Scripture History As Nisus's Hair in Imitation of Sampson's Deucalion's Floud in Imitation of Noah's Hercules in Imitation of Joshua c. Many of the Heathens that were not corrupted by Education or Interest or the Strain of the Time do relate many things that are consistent with those that are in the Bible St. Austin tells us he found the Beginning of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel among the Platonists Eusebius read in the Commentaries of the Heathens those Circumstances and Matters of Fact that the Evangelists do mention and also the Signs at our Saviour's Crucifying as the Eclipse of the Sun and an Earthquake and other Accidents Tertullian speaks of sundry things which Pilate writ to Tiberius sutable to what the Evangelists relate concerning our Saviour Yea Mahomet himself who is the last great Impostor doth mention the Souldiers apprehending our Saviour with an Intention to put him to Death Acknowledging him to be a great Prophet but he tells us when those Souldiers were stricken down God took him away and they lighted upon another something like him and crucify'd him Plutarch an Eminent Author gives us an Account of Pan the great Daemon of the Heathens who was heard greatly to complain that a Hebrew Child was born and they never heard him after all the Oracles then ceasing Porphiry tho' of no great Credit
says that after one whom they called Jesus came to be worshipp'd they never could receive any more Benefits by any of their Gods One of the Roman Emperors was so possess'd with what was related concerning a Kingly Race among the Jews and was so startled with the Credibleness of the Report that he set himself to destroy all of the Family Publius Lentulus gives the Senate an Account that he saw himself and was an Eye-witness of the Man Jesus among the Jews who cured all Diseases and raised from the Dead Insomuch that Tertullian bids the Heathen Emperor search their Records For your own Kalender * says he recites the Things that are done by our Saviour This in the Days of Julian who was turn'd off by the Feuds and Exasperations by the Factions and Divisions among those that were call'd Christians Insomuch that he hated Christianity but otherwise a Man of eminent Justice and Good to the Common-wealth One who was a Philosopher gives an Account of the Christian Religion The Christian Religion says he consisting in Spiritual Worship and Devotion to God Purity of Mind holy and unblameable Conversation of all things that are call'd Religion it is the most Entire most Pure but only mightily hurt by some who have fill'd it with superstitious Things So that we may resolve that the Difficulty of Faith arises from the wicked State of the Subject rather than from the Incredibility of the Object It is hard to act otherwise than the State from within doth dispose a Man It is not imaginable that any Man can believe contrary to the Life he lives in When he lives in the State of eternal Death to believe eternal Life Or to believe the Pardon of Sin when he lives in it and slights the Sin he lives in For our Saviour says You cannot believe because of your wicked Hearts It cannot stand together To live in Sin and to look for Pardon of Sin For God doth not give to any one that is impenitent the Power of Faith Be not conform'd to this wicked World but be ye transform'd by the renewing of your Mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable Will of God Intimating that if a Man lead a wicked and ungodly Life if a Man in respect of State Complexion and Constitution of Soul be in Contradiction to the Principles of Religion the Principles of God's Creation he cannot prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God They that were in a Religious Disposition did readily believe and entertain our Saviour and acknowledge him to be the Messiah that was promis'd of old But those that were perfectly obstinate in the Pharisaick Disposition they rejected him And this is clearly true that Men cannot believe while they live in Sin and are in Impenitency and are under the Commands of their Lusts. For we find that an ingenuous Mind and one that is a true Penitent he doth with more Difficulty forgive himself than God doth He that is truly affected and cordially turns to God he is truly sensible of the Deformity and Impurity of Sin Though Repentance give Heart's Ease and Satisfaction and tend to the Quiet of his Mind yet he doth more hardly excuse himself than God doth But a Man that is wedded to the World that is under the Power of his Lusts that applauds and magnifies himself in Self-will is given up to the Affectation Arrogancy and Self-assuming how can this Man give himself Satisfaction concerning Pardon of Sin when he is in a contrary Spirit in a contrary Disposition He cannot believe that God will pardon Sin because he himself doth not pardon any other Offender God's Goodness well consider'd speaks him to be propitious and inclinable to Compassion But Impenitency speaks a Man's Incapacity of being pardon'd This is the Sum. All Divine Truth is of one of these two Emanations Either it flows from God in the first Instant and Moment of God's Creation and then it is the Light of that Candle which God set up in Man to light him and that which by this Light he may discover are all the Instances of Morality of good Affection and Submission towards God the Instances of Justice and Righteousness of Men and Temperance to himself Or else it is of an after Revelation and Discovery Man being out of the Way of his Creation by his Defection from God is recover'd by this Revelation Upon this Consideration that Man was never better than finite and fallible and considering that we have given an Offence and * considering the Relation that God stands in to his Creatures and that he is the first and chiefest Goodness it is * what may be fairly supposed that God will recover his Creation one way or other Wherefore that which the New Testament doth discover is that which was in general Expectation Now the Terms of the new Covenant are possible to Sinners They are Just and Fit Reasonable and Equal They are to us who are departed from Truth Restorative They are satisfactory to our Mind and quieting to our Conscience For if I have offended against the Rule of Right I ought to repent of it confess it be sorry for it and do my endeavour to commit it no more And there is Reason to think that God can pardon For every ones Right is in his own Power Every one doth dispose of his Right in that way which he will Since therefore it is God's Right upon the Failure of Obedience to reduce the Creature by Punishment it is in his Power to abate of Punishment if he pleases or to remit it And it is most reasonable to think that God should be allow'd to do this in what way he would Therefore we conclude that all the Instances of Christian Doctrine either they are fairly knowable if we use our Faculties and Understanding * and these are the great Instances of Morality and Principles of Reason or else if we do consider those Things that are considerable in the Case the Things of Reveal'd Truth are of fair and easie Belief The former of these the great Principles of Reason they are * by awakened Minds easily and readily found out The latter are * by prepar'd Minds fairly admitted and entertained This I say against the Atheism of the prophane World and those that do affect to be Infidels because they pretend they have not the Assurance of former Times * nor of powerful Miracles I will now instance in those Assurances that we have to settle us in the Entertainment of Divine Truth And they are these Five I. They are concurrent with the Sence of the Heathens and Strangers who do agree with us in all the Instances of Morality in these we cannot speak beyond them they speak and act so as to shame us For how many of us do act below them in these Particulars and as to many Things of the New Testament concerning Christ we have great Testimony from them as was shew'd II. The Representation
Constitution in the State of Innocency And for Reveal'd Truth that fits and supplies Man in his lapsed State Every Man that knows his State feels want in himself of Health and Strength And Reveal'd Truth is that which doth supply this Want And is that which he would have wish'd for from God In this he hath Terms proposed to him of Pardon and Reconciliation upon Repentance and returning to God Never did Patient and Physician meet more happily Disease and Physick than Man in a lapsed Condition and the Proposals that are through the Grace of God in the Gospel In the one there is Man full of Misery in the other the Grace of God for Mercy and Forgiveness Man's Language in that State is O wretched Man who shall deliver me from this Body of Death The Grace of the Gospel puts these Words into his Mouth I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord that he hath deliver'd me And he is bid to have no evil Heart of unbelief There is a State of Guilt on the one side a State of Justification on the other A State of Sin and a State of Holiness Fear of eternal Death And a Promise of eternal Life So that the Grace of the Gospel is fitted to Man in his lapsed State and Condition in order to his Restoration and Recovery The fifth and last Argument is the Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of what God hath done in the Way of Divine Truth For God sends not his Truth into the World alone But having done one thing will also do another to make the former effectual Now they that have not the Divine Spirit want the great Commentator upon Divine Truth in the World And therefore let such Men look after it For this is a great and a certain Truth that God in his Grace and Goodness will give his Spirit to guide and teach and assure the Minds of good Men Tho' none know it but those that feel him But they who have the Spirit of God know nothing more certain For they have Satisfaction and inward Peace and Joy in believing They perceive such Operations of God in themselves whereof the World cannot receive any Account The Divine Spirit doth open their Understandings as it did the Apostles brings Things to their Remembrance mekes them consider the Inwards of Things and calls them to Advertency and Consideration The great Work of the Divine Spirit is to lead Men into right Apprehensions and stay a Man's Thoughts in Consideration till the Principles do receive Admittance and become a Temper and Constitution till they infuse and instil themselves and make a lasting Impression Tho' for my part I do believe that the Scripture is clear and full of Light as to all Matters of Conscience as to all Rules of Life as to all necessary Matters of Faith So that any well-minded Man that takes up the Bible and reads may come to Understanding and Satisfaction And hence it is that we have Sufficiency from God to preserve us from Cheats of all sorts So that a well-minded Man that hath this Instrument of God need not be mistaken in any necessary Matters of Faith For the Bible is sufficient and intelligible in the Way of Religion and for all the Purposes thereof as any other Book for the Learning of any other Art or Science And upon this Account God hath done that which will justifie him and at our Peril be it if we be found ignorant or have been deceived For we needed not ever have been ignorant or mistaken in any thing that is vital in Religion and to this Purpose there is also the Divine Spirit still to attend upon this Instrument of God So that they who do acknowledge God and pray unto him for his Help and Assistance have the Advantage of being taught by the Spirit and by Means thereof are in a sure Way of Knowledge with the consequent Effects of Holiness and Goodness By these Five Arguments a Man may be resolved against the Atheism Infidelity and Prophaneness of the World And from this Discourse about which I have been long I do infer That Atheism and Infidelity are the most unaccountable Things in the World and inexcusable The Athiest must be every where self-condemned And the Infidel within the Pale of the Church There is nothing that God hath done more in any way whatsoever than he hath done for the Security of Men against Atheism For I dare say if any Man do but think and use Reason he may know all Natural Truth And what can a Man do less How is he a Man if he do not either of these Doth any Man know any thing but by Thinking and Considering Yea perhaps this is all that we pretend to For we are born to nothing else All Habits and Dispositions all actual Knowledge is our own Acquisition with respect to the Grace of God No Man is born to any actual Knowledge in the World or to speak a Word or understand a Notion But all Habits and Dispositions are acquired And therefore an Atheist shall be self-condemned as one that never used his Reason nor so much as exercised his own Thoughts And for the Infidel within the Pale of the Church If he will but search and consider he may find that which will beget Faith and Belief And therefore the Athiest and the Infidel are the most unaccountable and unexcusable Persons in the World For they have done nothing themselves They have not so much as thought or consider'd they have not seen with their own Eyes If a Man living in the World or in the Church be either an Atheist or an Infidel he hath been an idle Person in the World and a Sluggard His Understanding hath received no Culture or Care he hath made no Improvement of himself nor done any thing worthy of a Man SERMON II. ROMANS I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ For it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek I Have declared several Assurances we have of Divine Truth Natural and Reveal'd in Scripture against Atheists Infidels and the Prophane As 1. The great Acknowledgement it hath met with in the several Ages of the World 2. The Representation that is hereby made of God * which is agreeable to what Man is made to know The Proposals made to us by God the Invitations made by him the Prohibitions Commands and Promises all these testifie of God and declare worthily concerning him 3. The ingenuous Effects and Operations of Divine Truth upon Mens Spirits and in their Lives 4. The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in his State of Institution and of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed State in order to his Restitution and Recovery 5. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance Now if * this be so we may concur in Sence and Resolution with the Apostle I am not ashamed of the Gospel c. I
but the Fewel of it is the Guiltiness of Mens Consciences and God's withdrawing because the Person is uncapable of his Communication Sin is an Act of Violence in it self The Sinner doth force himself and stirs up Strife within himself and in a Sinner there is that within which doth reluctate and condemn him in the inward Court of his own Conscience For if our Hearts did not condemn us all without might be avoided all else would fail if this Internal Guilt and Self-Condemnation might be removed But this Naughtiness of Disposition and Incapacity of Repentance is that which continues the Subject in Misery Hell * therefore is not a Positive Infliction but doth naturally follow upon Guiltiness and a spightful devilish naughty Disposition unto God and Goodness There is something in every Man upon which we may work to which we may apply to wit the Light of Reason and Conscience to which the Difference of Good and Evil may be made appear If we therefore declare Godliness Righteousness and Truth Men have a Voice to give Testimony and Conscience in Men will yield notwithstanding the power Lust hath over them If Reason may not command it will condemn Lastly Here you may have an account what it is that gives a Check and a Stop to the Motion of the Divine Spirit There is an Error in the first Concoction which is hardly remedied which is want of Advertency and Consideration Men do not awaken their Principles but give themselves leave to do what they cannot justifie themselves in Now there is no place for the further Motion of the Divine Grace where the former Grace is neglected and * render'd ineffectual It is self-neglect and voluntary allowing of our selves in Evil which brings us to Misery For there is no Invincible Ignorance in respect of things good in themselves and necessary No Ignorance excuses Immorality in any Instance whatsoever but invincible Ignorance doth excuse Infidelity in the chiefest Point The Reason is because the high Points of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance God hath made every Man to know but for the Resolutions of his Will Man must be perswaded of God and if God do not make Application to him where he doth not give he doth not require Take notice then of the Boldness and Presumption of these obstinate rebellious and contumacious Sinners who having this Proclamation from the Majesty of Heaven that the Wrath of God c. yet will dare to continue in Practices of Unrighteousness and assume to themselves power to controul the establish'd Laws of everlasting Goodness Righteousness and Truth and to vary from tâ—e Reason of things to gratifie their own Sence and to please their own Humours and to serve their own Ends and take upon them to over-rule all things that are holy settled and establish'd from Eternity What shall a Man say to such Persons Yet the Atheistical and Prophane are guilty of this Contumacy But as the Apostle says Their Condemnation is just and their Judgment lingers not We seem agriev'd at God's Plagues and Judgments which do so much disturb our Peace and Settlement in the World but we do greater Acts of Violence For we imprison Truth and give God true cause of Offence and take upon us to controul the Establish'd Laws of Heaven and to do other things than the reason of things dictates to us and directs us to do For the Text tells us that those that are obnoxious to God's Wrath are Persons of ungodly Practice so that they are of themselves condemn'd They cannot give an account to the reason of their own Minds nor satisfie their own Consciences but are hurried on and transported by furious and violent Lusts holding the Truth in Unrighteousness they are self-condemn'd before they be condemn'd of God BECAUSE THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM FOR GOD HATH SHEWED IT Uâ—TO THEM The Apostle doth here take upon him and thinks fit in this great Affair of Life and Death to shew and prove by Reason From hence we may learn three things 1 st That here is a Check and Controul to the forward and presumptuous Imposers that take upon them to dectate and determine and are angry with all Persons that are not concluded by their Sence These Persons take upon them more than the Apostle did 2 dly That Religion stands upon the Grounds of truest Reason for the Apostle here after he hath asserted proves by Reason 3 dly God's Ways and Dealings with his Creatures are accountable in a way of Reason But some think that God uses Arbitrary Power and that they might escape without Punishment if he would and that it is nothing but his Will and Pleasure In the 17th Verse he hath declared the way of Life and Salvation and in the 18th the way of Misery and Death Therefore the Ways of God are accountable in Reason If this were not the Way of God a Way worthy of Truth we might ask why this Apostle may not refer us to his publick Authority who might if any * one because of his extraordinary Conversion and Commission from Heaven but he declines that and proves by Reason But this great Truth is hereby hinted that the way of Reason is the way most accomodate to Humane Nature Therefore let us lay aside imposing one upon another or to use any canting in Religion Let us talk Sense and Reason for the Apostle doth here shew and prove by Reason And God himself who hath all Priviledge he says he will draw them with the Cords of Men and what is that but Arguments satisfactory to the Mind of Men and in the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah shew your selves to be Men that is awaken your rational and intelectual Faculties and take things into serious and impartial Consideration and I will convince you It is an Apology for any finite fallible Creature when he is mistaken if he had some Reason for his Mistake and if he can but shew why he did so think you have him excused 'T is a high Advantage and Double Security to any Teacher or Instructer to have in readiness to shew that what he saith is not his private Imagination but is in Conjunction with the Reason of Things or the Principles of God's Creation and of Divine Revelation if it be a Matter of Faith This but by way of Observation Because the Apostle doth decline his Commission of Apostleship and doth prove by common Reason That which is the Apostle's Argument is that all those who in the Language of Scripture are Sinners all that are ungodly impious towards God and unrighteous in his Family they sin against their Light go against the Principles of natural Conscience imprison Truth and sin against their Knowledge The Argument is because God made Men to know that he himself IS and his natural Perfections This is here plainly attested in this Verse It is shortly spoken to But because it is a Matter of great Weight it is spoken more fully
Notions of things in Minds in respect of their Acts and Vertues Truth received into the Mind by Knowledge is to the Soul as Leaven put into the Meal It is as natural that Will should follow as that Understanding should go first We first receive from God by mental Illumination there Judgment passes into Victory God enlightens the World by the Sun in reference to Actions of several Creatures He doth not illuminate the intellectual World of Spirits viz. Angels and Souls by the Influence and Communication of himself to less purpose Wheresoever God who is the Father of Light and God of Truth sends his Rays and Beams into the Souls of Men there he expects the Mind to be purified as well as enlightned And in case of failure he will severely challenge the Impediment The imprisoning and controuling of Truth is an Action of the highest Injury and Offence to God that a Man can commit beyond what we can easily imagine For whosoever hath received any thing from God by Mental Illumination if he doth not pursue it to the Refinement of his Spirit he doth counter-work God He who stifles or goes against his Knowledge doth in effect give a Check to God's working in him For us thus to do would be to reject God where we most find and feel him to strike at the Image of God in our selves What would not this naughty Disposition of Heart against Heart carry Man out to if he had Power and Opportunity against God For doth it not declare a Displacency and Antipathy against God for Man to run from that in himself which immediately comes from God beares his Image hath his Stamp upon it Where the Truth of God is inwardly disgusted disrelished so as not to be concocted and turned into Spiritual Nourishment is not there an exasperated and implacable Spirit against God Truth is connatural to a Man's Soul and in Conjunction with it becomes the Mind's Temper Complexion Constitution therefore must be kindly used What Health and Strength are to the Body that Truth is to the Mind and Understanding The former makes Men strong vigorous Bodily active the latter clears the Sight cures all Infirmities of the Mind What Obstructions are in the Body which are mischievous to Operations of Nature that violent Detensions of Notices and Principles of Action or Contradictions to the Reason of the Mind are in intelectual Life What we eat and drink if it be not first subdued by the power of Nature and then convey'd to the several parts of the Body for their Sustenance and Nutriment becomes matter of Disease and Sickness Knowledge is the Mind 's * Sustenance and Nutriment therefore is not ultimately to rest in Understanding but in Will and Affections should become Goodness and in Conversation and Actions of Life produce Obedience and is the same thing under several Denominations and in respect to different Habitudes and distinct Functions and Purposes as the Sea which is one and the same is one-where called the Mediterranean in another place the German Ocean and the like The Understanding is not enlightned finally for it self but * is as the Eye * which receives Light for the Use and Service Guidance and Direction of the Body In intelectual Nature first the Understanding satisfies it self in the Reason of things then the Will gives consent and the Notion forthwith becomes matter of Action Life and Practice The Understanding in the Perfection of Knowledge and the Will not in a Disposition of Goodness makes no Harmony but are vastly disproportionable As it is the most unsafe so it is the most uneasie Condition to any Person to KNOW and not to BE to know and not to do to have Judgment of Right and Conscience of Iniquity And were I to tell Men what is Hell on this side Hell I should * after that manner describe it A refractory Will exorbitant Lusts and strong Passions and Affections are unruly things under the single command of Judgment Men were as good to be exposed to the Fury of wild Horses Elihu speaks of the Notions of the Mind as things which do elevate and transport The hollow Earth inclosing Wind or Air without Vent is as easily kept from the Motion of Trepidation or Earth-quake as the guilty Conscience from Anxiety and Confusion It is as easie for a Man to carry Fire in his Breast as to offer Violence to Truth within one's self and not to be in a State of Self-condemnation I now come to make Inquiry since such a thing is so deformed and ugly so horrid and monstrous so unnatural and violent how comes it to pass that such a thing is found in the Common-wealth of Mankind who is made and constituted by God the Governour of this World whereas there is nothing of this in inferiour Nature But all inferior Nature keeps its Order * To give Account of this in Four Particulars 1 st The least that is be said in the Case is a great part of Men live in a Hurry and are seldom at leisure to consider or attend There are Avocations Distractions and other Employments that make Men * of no Ability as to the Judgment or discerning of Truth For its a true Maxim A Man's Parts and Wit is where 't is used and employ'd A neglected Faculty may shrivel up to nothing But to be nobly and generously employ'd and to use the Faculties of God's Creation in us according to the Intention for which they were given this is both conservative to our Nature and agreeable to Truth We give too little Attendance to Truth entertain it too slightly to have it at command We live in a fleshly and worldly Spirit and at the World's Call hurried on by every Lust being distemper'd and disaffected within disturbed and interrupted from without We are not at leisure to attend upon Truth to receive it to obey it Men drudge in the World debase their Faculties make their intelectual Faculties very Gibeonites employ them about base mean and worldly Employments They are not in a Disposition to receive and entertain Truth Men have abused themselves brought themselves by unnatural Practice into an unnatural State so * they disgust and disrelish Truth Men give themselves up to worldly Drudgery the mean Avocations and Distractions of the World So they are never at leisure to mind these things And no Man is valuable sufficient or competent to give a Judgment to make a Report wherein he is not exercised wherein he is not greatly considerative Man unless he sometimes take himself out of the World by Self-reflection and Retirement he will be little himself in the World and in danger of losing himself He will have very poor Enjoyment of himself and little Use of his Powers and Faculties especially as to Spiritual Acts wherein he is most concerned and most perfected This is out Temptation and hereby we come to be deceived because things severally consider'd are within the Compass of lawful Imployment therefore we little doubt
explicates and declares the Atheist's State and Temper viz. Vain in their Imaginations Nothing is sincere and true that he thinks He is a Fool and hath wrought himself into Darkness pretending to Policy and Wit to release himself from all Obligations to Reason and Conscience that he may be loose to the World and free to his Lust A Fetch of prophane Wit and no Product of Wisdom but what in the Issue will prove Madness and Folly As there is the fullest Satisfaction in the World in the inward Sence and Feeling of Reconciliation with God and a frame of Mind tinctured with Goodness so there is the greatest Unquietness of Mind where there is an internal Displacency and Offence at the Being of God and a Desire to believe that he is not and to think all things alike for the former thinks he hath all Strength for him and that he that is well able takes all care of him The latter doubts and fears uncertainly suspects there is one that hath made and governs the World and fears that Power to be engaged against him And if all things be not alike subject to Will and Power he knows not what will become of him who hath taken upon him to remove Landmarks to controul the most famous Rights that are fundamental to the Safety of the Universe Irreverence and Disrespect towards that Being on which we depend for what we are and have is an ununiform incongruous unequal disproportion'd Carriage Now follow the dismal and sad Consequents BUT BECAME VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS Where there is not honest Entertainment of the great Truths of Religion and Conscience hearty Compliance with and Obedience to them but a failure in the main and principal Points of Life and Practice as where Men knowing there is a God do not glorifie him as God do not like to retain God in their Knowledge which is the Atheist's Temper do things which are filthy and take pleasure in them that do so which is the Atheist's Practice there Mens Pretences and Professions are subject to evaporate turn to a miserable account and come to nothing Become vain in their Imaginations their foolish Heart is darkned professing to be wise c. The ingenuous use of Truth is a great matter To receive it in the Love of it out of Judgment and Satisfaction of its Conveniency and Fitness to bring Humane Nature to Perfection to act out of Love to Righteousness not as the unjust Judge not to lay other Designs not to practice upon it for other Ends not to place it in the place of a Mean but of an End not to make Godliness a Trade Traffick and Device for Gain Hence so much so ridiculous contemptible and unreasonable stuff passes for Religion in so many parts of the World Men looking not after Rational Satisfaction It is very strange that any thing should be admitted for Religion in the World which for its Shallowness Emptiness and Insignificancy falls under just Reproof and Conviction of Reason Religion which makes us less Men Religion unintelligible not able to give Satisfaction to the noble Principles of God's Creation Such have been the cruel and impure Rites of Heathenism dissatisfactory to true Reason * and such are the Superadditions of Popery founded neither in Nature nor Grace How hath the World been scandalized by things pretended to be matters of Faith which are Contradictions to Reason if Reason be able to tell us any thing that is true Were I to take an Estimate of Christianity from hence I should be tempted to say with Averroes Sit anima mea cum Philosophis What rational Man almost is not tempted to say after him rather than so to sin against his Nature as to admit things of such Disproportion to all his Faculties Can we think we shall prevail with Men to put out their Eyes to disbelieve their Senses that they may become Christians The Turkish History relates a King of Persia's Inclination to Christianity * who was diverted by such like Reasons When as how well are Men satisfied in the great Materials of Religion which are entertain'd with Reverence and high Regard * As for instance To live soberly righteously and godly and * where Men fail to repent and ask God Forgiveness in the name of Christ * that is to say for all those that have heard of it These * Matters have general Consent but great Neglect And Mens Zeal is employ'd in Usages Modes and Rites of Parties By these Men are constituted and denominated Christians and rank'd in Order and File It is recorded that the Strifes and Contentions and Complaints of Christians have irritated some of the so Heathenish Persecutions The ill Lives of Christians and their absurd Opinions have kept Nations off from becoming Christian. Whereas in the true Christian Religion there is nothing which may not be represented lovely in the Eyes of all who have Principles of Reason for their Rule The State of Religion speaks the Mind's Freedom from impotent and unsatiable Desires from eager violent and impetuous Lusts from all those infinite Passions foul Fiends unruly Devils in Mens Souls which makes the Minds of evil Men to boyle within them as with the Fire and Pitchy Fumes of Hell There is a Harmony between the Principles of Reason and Christianity the latter acknowledges the former reinforces them advances and highly improves them secures the common Instincts of Good and Just and polishes Humane Nature This may be undertaken and easily perform'd notwithstanding the hard Conceits Men who are not experienc'd have of Religion The Knowledge of God * which Man is made to which fairly lies before him and he may easily attain to is by Men neglected unemploy'd not improved whereupon as in the Text Men run into ways of fond Imagination Folly and Self-conceit misrepresenting God to themselves dishonour him in the Worship they pretend to abuse themselves run into all Excess and unnatural use of themselves grow into malign and naughty Dispositions as is exprest Ver. 29 30 31. All this Loss Ruin Havock and Mischief breaks in upon the Nature of Man through his being wanting to the Principles of God's Creation within himself The free noble and generous Notions of Divine and Heaven-born Truth will not stay and abide with Men where * there is gross Neglect or Abuse There is strange Confusion where Judgment is further enlightned than the Mind refined and amended As where there is not Judgment and Knowledge of Right there can be no Expectation at all so where there is no Conscience in pursuance of Knowledge there what is done may be worse than if nothing were done as the Case of the Text expresses It is not so much the Disability of Mens Natures as their Neglect and Abuse that Men are not good Where Men sink down into Sensuality or become light-headed being intoxicated with vain Perswasions or lay asleep the noble Powers of Humane Nature or contradict them by violent and unnatural Practice there
is Darkness Confusion and inward Torture All proves contrary to God's Design Justin in his History reports concerning the ancient Scythians That they had neither Houses nor Enclosure of Ground yet Justice had Honour among them not from Positive Laws but the GOOD NATURE of the People A thing to be admired that Nature should bestow that on the Scythians which the Grecians long instructed by Precepts of Philosophers had not attain'd that formed Manners should be transcended by uneducated Barbarity Hence it appears that the Condition of Humane Nature is not so very rude as some report since so much is found in the uncivilized parts of the World Nature is Sovereign to them that use it well in respect of that Modesty and Averseness to that which is not fair and handsom till Men pervert and abuse Nature's Temper by ill Use Custom and Practice Goodness and Vertue are more suitable to Nature's Sence than Wickedness and Vice Vice is contrary to the Nature of Man because contrary to the Order of Reason which is Man's highest Perfection Vice is grievous to Nature witness Irreverence to Deity Intemperance Fury and Cruelty every one feels it so in himself and judges so in others Man forces himself at first before he can at all satisfie himself in any of these In this Sense I understand Heb. 10. 16. I will put my Laws into their Hearts I will write them in their Minds * This is to be understood in respect of Spiritual Precepts founded in Reason and in the Law of the Creation concerning which we need not that one should teach another as in the carnal Institutions of the Law which being foreign to Nature and so many we have need to ask what next what in such a case Men may work themselves out of Nature's Sence out of Judgment of Truth by ill Use Custom and Practice They will not long continue to think * well after once they are come to affect and to do otherwise These two in Conjunction viz. the Affection of the Mind and Practice will bear up with too great a force against Judgment alone Wherefore unless Persons love Goodness and live well we have no hold of them tho' now they seem to think and speak well See the case of Hasael his present Sence and Words Am I a Dog c. but he did so Single Judgment and Understanding will not long hold out against habitual Inclination and Disposition Men unduly practice upon their own Judgments that they may not be disturbed and disquieted in pursuit of their Lusts but if Judgment be once corrupted there is nothing left to make any resistance Evil comes on a main Men go on with full sail Hence Men are Shipwrackt in their Fortunes within themselves broken and come to naught Wherefore in the state of Religion Two things are indispensibly necessary indivisible inseparable Care that Judgment be informed by Truth * and that Heart and Life be reformed by Tincture of it and by Practice And this is Religion PROFESSING THEMSELVES WISE THEY BECOME FOOLS This is said of Persons out of the way of true Reason and Religion These Words may be considered absolutely or in relation to their Conjunction with words which go before or follow after In the former way they afford this Observation That these that think themselves wise are least so for they know not themselves to fail in many things It is the Direction of Wisdom to acknowledge God in all thy ways and not to lean to thy own Understanding For he who trusteth to his own Heart is a Fool. SELF-CONCEIT intoxicates Men and makes them neglective of the Means of Knowledge They who are conceited are Self-Flatterers and towards others Importune grievous troublesom Whosoever falls into the hands of a Self-conceited Person who always is a Dictator and an Imposer upon others to him the Beauty and Excellency of the Divine Vertues Modesty and Sobriety are abundantly testified and recommended The Conceited have lightly considered the Uncertainty of things Variety of Temptations the Representations which are made to Man and our Disparity and Insufficiency to act or determine wisely in several Occasions of Life These are full of themselves but indeed are empty and shallow He knows not himself who thinks himself able enough for his own defence Wise enough to direct himself or who is Good enough to his own Satisfaction The Words taken in a Conjunction with what follows afford this Observation That it is not the Wisdom of Men but their Headiness Presumption and Folly to do in Religion without Reason or otherwise than as they have Direction from God There is no grosser Folly in the World no greater Wrong to one's self than upon account of Religion to come under Obligation to any thing in point of Judgment and Conscience which is not materially true as verified in Reason or Scripture All such is the Persons Superstition which tho' it be not imputed as a Crime to the Person who means well yet is not a Foundation of reward Builders with Hay Stubble suffer loss so far forth tho' themselves stand on the Foundation Man enslaves himself parts with his Liberty which is a dear and choice thing * when he subjects himself to that which made him not to that which is not soveraign to him as Reason is which is his natural Perfection his Home-informer and Monitor within his Breast neither is restorative to him in his Lapsed State as the Principles of Religion are He lays stress upon that which will bear no weight therefore will deceive him As the Superstitious imagines so things are to him but things attain not Effects according to our Fancies but their own Existencies and what they are in Truth and Vertue This other where is accounted Weakness * and Shallowness Nothing betrays Men more than lying Refuges and false Confidencies Religion is that which attains real Effects worthy what we mean by Religion viz. it makes Men humble not conceited Mild gentle not revengeful Good-natured not all for Self Loving not hard-hearted Kind not harsh or cruel Patient not furious not wrathful Courteous affable and sociable not morose soure or dogged Governable not turbulent ready to forgive not implacable favourable in making best Interpretations fair Constructions of Words and Actions not making Men Offenders for a Word ready to commiserate tender-hearted like the Samaritan not as the Jews who would not converse with them If this be in Men then shall the World be sensible of the Good of Religion and find themselves the better for it Lastly let us not run on in a Mistake We see how the Apostle goes on He begins at the Gospel of Christ See how he pursues it He treats of * the Natural Knowledge of God and Fatal Issue of ineffectual Entertainment of it They do preach Christ tho' they do not name him in every Sentence or Period who contend for all Effects of real Goodness and decry Wickedness For
as doth become him a due Acknowledgment of God in respect of whatsoever Ability or Sufficiency he hath Let him duly acknowledge God and be apprehensive that he derives from him and therefore ought to submit to him and depend upon him and finally refer to him For a Life that is not acted govern'd and over-ruled by a determinate End and carried on by a certain Purpose it is both exorbitant weak and inconsistent Such Men live by chance and do what is next and not what they should and ought such Men live as if their Body had swallow'd up their Soul These Mens Lives are very uncertain things They live a kind of Lottery the Rules and Methods whereof no Body is acquainted with but things are as they fall out Such Men are guided by nothing else but a confused multitude of Fancies jumbled together as the things of this World were at the first Creation of them And this is true of all those whose Lives and Conversations are not made steady and directed by a right intended End and a true Purpose of Life In the third place I propose that we consider this that we are not to depend on Things without us as worldly Spirited Men do If we have as many of these things as are for use and as the Necessities of Life require we have enough For what are these things out of their use or beyond their use what are they then but Burthen and Cumber or at least the Gratification of Fancy and Imagination Now for a Man to affect a multitude of things and all Varieties it is but to discompose his own Mind For as we multiply Objects we multiply Thoughts and have more things to manage and order we multiply our Care which makes us less our selves and less free to Self-enjoyment This is the Temper of some Men Psal. 4. 6. who will shew us any Good it matters not who is the Agent * they are wholly undetermin'd as to Choice and undirected as to the Object This is the Voice of a Man in Confusion a Man without Notion and Principles a Man that hath not thought studied and considered But the good Man is determined Worldly things soon surfeit and cloy us they make a thick and gross Apprehension Their Variety doth occasion Distraction to the Mind and their Emptiness and Penury doth occasion Dissatisfaction In pursuit of worldly things there is certain Care and very uncertain Success No one that is in pursuit of Earthly things can assure himself of Success And if he be in pursuit and do not prevail Disappointments will break him Nothing is more grievous than Disappointment Fourthly I propose that we awaken in our selves an intelectual Sence of Divine and Spiritual Things which as they are in nearer relation to our Souls so they are more fitting and satisfactory Nothing is so satisfactory to the Mind which is improved or any way polished as the letting in of Light and the Communication of Truth This is more pleasant to such a Mind than any Pleasure of Sence whatsoever There is great Satisfaction in the Enjoyment of Mental * things By this means our Thoughts will stay at Home but if a Man wander from Home he shows his own Weakness Extravagant Appetites shew inward Poverty He that knows Better hath no Greediness after that which is Worse These are the things I propose to you for the obtaining of this Unity of Mind and Composedness of Spirit * Without this we shall have very little Enjoyment of our selves None think they are themselves when they are in Confusion of Thought Perplexity of Mind doubtful in Resolution and under sad Apprehensions * Without this there will be no Ability for the Discharge of our Duty in the World Till a Man hath well reformed his own ill-govern'd House till he hath cooled and calmed his heated and disturbed Fancy till he hath recovered himself from Mind-confounding and darkening Thoughts he will be in no Capacity or Disposition to act Abroad Is he fit to act in the World to direct and govern others that hath nothing but Darkness and Confusion Disorder and Distemper in his own Breast All his Faculties in conspiracy one against another Is this Man fit to act Abroad that hath not done his work within himself * Therefore let every Body take himself to task watch over himself and think that his best Discharge of Government is of himself and that there he ought to begin * And that a Man keep himself in Temper and the better govern his Thoughts and Apprehensions let him have a Sence of the Majesty of God The Moralist gave this for a Rule to set some great and worthy Person before a Man if he would do worthily Think saith one of Cato a Man that was exact according to the Moralist's Rule He thought that if a Man did but think of such a Person as that was it would keep him from consenting to Iniquity But how much more then the thinking of the Divine Majesty We never do any thing so secretly but in the presence of two Witnesses GOD and OUR OWN CONSCIENCE * Lastly to add more to your Thoughts concerning the necessity of SELF-GOVERNMENT It is * but little to say that I am placed in Authority or that I can command either Legions or Regions unless I have Free dispose of my self Tho' a Man could say of himself as the Centurion did I am a Man in Authority and I have Servants under me and to this Man I say go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh c. yet he is not a FREE Man unless he be Master of himself Unless I can bid my self do this and I do it without Difficulty Interruption or Disturbance my Command of others is insignificant unless I am intirely my self and can keep out all foreign Violence and Opposition from a hand without To have Thoughts imposed things injected when they are wholly inexpedient and we our selves otherwise better employ'd to have Suggestions thrust upon us neither to be refused nor commanded to have a Fire in our Breast which we cannot put out to be at every Beck and Call to have a Mind disquieted and discomposed and Meditation confounded or interrupted to have Thoughts running madly or snatched away from us If this be our case then I add * that for any seeming Glory from without or any vain Applause to compensate this home-bred Mischief a Man may as well be eased of the Pain of the Gout or Stone by being laid in a Bed of Down or of the Fit of a Burning-Feaver by the cool Air fanning him as he may be relieved in this internal Discomposure of Mind by worldly Application The true Remedy ariseth from within Admit Principles of Reason sow in thy Mind Seeds of Vertue be not through thine own Indisposition Tinder to every Temptation as he that is not settled in the habit of Vertue For Happiness is not from without To the chearful Spirit must be a richer Contribution
communicable Perfections Holiness Righteousness and Goodness we imitate and resemble him If we would be happy as He is we are to be holy as he is in our Measure Degree and Proportion SERMONS OF D R WHICHCOT PART II. LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill MDCXCVIII SERMON I. PHILIPPIANS IV. 8. Finally Brethren Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things A Weightier Scripture more summary and comprehensive of all Perfection I do not find any where It shews how compleat and well furnish'd the Man of God shou'd be one who professeth himself a Christian names Christ and pretends to the Faith of the Gospel Whatsoever is Good in its Nature and Quality shou'd be well known to him shou'd be his Ornament and Accomplishment endow his Mind and qualifie his Spirit Whatsoever Things are TRUE And here we must take up Pilate's Question What is Truth Truth is first in Things then in our Apprehensions For the First the Truth of Things lies in this that Things do exist of their own Principles Now this Truth of Things is no Charge of ours it is God's Charge it is the Effect of God's Creation For he hath made all Things True and therefore Things must be True For God cannot fail either through Impotency or want of Power or through Error of Judgment This is Truth metaphysically But then that that we are concern'd in is the Truth of our Apprehensions And our Apprehensions are then True when they agree with the Truth and Existence of Things when we conceive of Things as they are And if we think otherwise then there is a Lye in our Understanding And here is the Occasion of all the Evil that breaks in upon Mortals that we do not conceive of Things as they are but that all Men except some few either worship the Idol of particular Imagination or the Idol of Popular Superstition They either follow private Imagination of their own or general Mistakes And he is a Man of a thousand that can rise up and quit himself of these two Idols Solomon observes that the Simple or the Fool believes every thing that is represented But the State of Things is determined fixed by God in the Moment of Creation And our Judgments and Apprehensions are to be conformable to the Reality and Existence of Things And when our Affections and Actions are suitable to such a Judgment and Sense of our Minds we are then in the Truth and never else The first belongs to a Man's Understanding and that speaks him an able Man a Man of Judgment a Man of Sense and Experience The latter speaks him a good Man And indeed if Mens Actions comply not with the Sense of their Judgments there will be Self-condemnation and no Peace within The next Distinction is the Truth of Things either upon a natural Consideration to know Things in their Natures and Qualities and this is * Natural Philosophy and is of great Use in the Life of Man and tends to the enlarging Man's Understanding But this is not the Concernment of Religion and Conscience Or else it is Truth upon a Moral Consideration And this only is the Concernment of Conscience And here we do enquire whether Things be right or wrong good or evil and accordingly charge our selves We are to be in Reconciliation with Things that are good and to have a Displacency against Things that are impure unholy and contrary to the Mind and Will of God And this is the Concernment of Conscience and the Business of Religion and is every Body's Charge For both a good State here and a future good State hereafter depends upon it Now Man's Obligation to Truth viz. That Truth should be in all his Actions and Apprehensions it is grounded upon the State and Principles of his Creation Man's Capacity Man's proper Employment Man's true End Man's Relation Of which there has been mention elsewhere I will * now give you certain Instances by which I will first show you when there is Truth on our part respectively to God And if I discover when we are said to Lye to God I shall by the same shew you when there is Truth towards God Now we put a Lye upon him in these * several ways To profess and not to believe this is high Dissimulation and a horrible Indignity put upon God This represents God as if he might be mistaken or imposed upon To believe and not to do and this is to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Which in Scripture is look'd upon to be an Act of the greatest Violence Deformity and Malignity To begin and not to persevere To pretend God and mean a Man's self or the World To make God a Mean and the World an End I dread to have to do with any Man that will make Use of his Religion to gain him Credit and to make a Bargain Of such a Man one had need take double Security * Lastly to name the Name of God and not to depart from Evil. In these Cases we do not abide in the Truth But we put a Lye upon God In the second place As there is a Lye to God so a Man may put a Lye upon himself * viz. Either to gratifie his Lust for Lust is a false Principle Lusts are Exorbitances and Irregularities They are false Births They have not true Existence Or to give way to found Imagination It is also to put a Lye upon a Man's self to live after Temper For this is below Reason and short of Vertue And hence it is that every petty Astrologer pretends to tell Fools their Fortunes * There is no Man that is wise but he is more than Temper A Man by Wisdom doth govern himself and over-rule all Fate and Destiny whatsoever For Man under God hath a kind of Sovereignty over himself A Man hath Power to use Diligence that he may attain to right Apprehensions of Things And then he hath Power to execute and perform according to his Apprehensions This also is to put a Lye upon a Man's self to perswade ones self in any thing without warrant of Reason or Scripture To settle in an Opinion without warrant of Reason or credible Testimony is Impotency and Fondness CREDULITY is a Stranger to Wisdom and the very Nurse of Superstition * Also a Man puts a Lye upon himself if he have his Will for his Rule For Will is no Rule at all Will signifies nothing unless it be that Will which is in Conjunction with infallible Understanding which is the Will of God Some Men think it is the highest Perfection to be Arbitrary But really if they do consider it is a Piece of the greatest Impotency and foulest Deformity In these Cases a Man puts a Lye on himself In the Third place To give an Account of Truth between Man
and Man All our Expressions must answer our Intentions when we treat one with another We are not in the Truth unless we speak what we mean It is necessary to the Truth of a Treaty that the Materials which make the Case be fully declared For it is no Agreement if any part of the Matter be unknown For a Case is made up of all Circumstances Do but diversify one Circumstance and it is another thing They that treat together are to take care that they understand and mean the same Things and not * make it a Practice for one who is more comprehensive than another to make use of his Wit to over-reach And if they find they did not mean the same things they are to release one another For no Man is obliged further than he did mean What is meant in the Treaty is after to be stood to No After-shifts Men must not after use Wit or practise upon the Doubtfulness and Uncertainty of Words and Phrases thereby to make an escape What we have engaged we must perform unless we can obtain a release from the Party with whom we engage though it prove inconvenient and worse to us than is imagined This is Truth between Man and Man And whosoever faileth in these forfeiteth his Truth And thus I have shewed you wherein a Man may put a Lye upon God upon Himself upon his Neighbour and by this you may understand this Charge of the Apostle Whatsoever Things are True Upon the whole Matter now let us take up a Lamentation For if that which I have said be true how miserable and deform'd is the World That that is the principal Thing Wit Reason and Understanding is made ill use of to serve particular Interests Ends and Purposes How much counterfeit Ware every-where is to be found How much over-reaching in Bargains and Treaties So that now a Man had need to be universally skill'd to have Right in the World Things are generally done for the Vender's Gain only and not for the Buyer's Service Whereas every Profession doth imply a Trust for the Service of the Publick And every Man in the Way of his Profession ought to do things Truly For a Man to be false in his own Trade is a double Iniquity For the Artist's Skill ought to be the Buyer's Security Every Man ought to be ready to render a Reason to any Man as in Christianity so every-where else He that is ignorant may demand the Help of another's Skill And if he makes use of his Skill to his Prejudice he deals falsly It is not competent to any Person to be universally knowing Wherefore are sundry Trades and several Professions but for the Good of Mankind because no Man is more than particularly skill'd This Departure from Simplicity and Sincerity in Profession is a thing unaccountable But this is nothing in Comparison with the Cheats Frauds and Cozenage in Religion What think ye now of Divinity methodized to sink the People down and gain Pomp to the Clergy Religion accommodate to Ends and Purposes The infinite Gain that comes from one Doctrine The Pope's Power to pardon Sin the Priest's Power to absolve Sinners Now these Cheats these Cozenages are of greater Importance because the Consequences are greater * To conclude Truth hath always God to maintain it Truth hath Defence in it self For Great is Truth and it will prevail It may be overborn for a while but it will recover Truth hath Goodness to accompany it Therefore none need fear Shame or Cause to repent Truth hath Liberty consequent to it The Truth shall make you free He that is in the Truth is not thoughtful But a Lyar had need carry about him a good Memory Truth is Con-natural to our Principles For a Man forceth himself when he departs from it Truth is the Foundation of all Order All things will be in Confusion if not order'd united and govern'd by Truth For Falshood puts every thing out of its place Truth is the Ground of Human Converse No Man is sure of another neither knows where to have him if he abide not in the Truth It is the Bond of Union Where Men agree in the Truth they are Friendly meet and harmonize one with another and great Sympathy is between them But out of the Ways of Truth Men run counter cross and contradict one another every-where This we are to know that God's Super-intendency over Human Affairs aims at this that Truth and Righteousness may obtain an universal Empire in the World And this is an Explication of that great Phrase God's doing all for his own Glory For it is an unexplicable Form of Words to say That God doth all for himself particularly as if God were a particular Agent and sought his own particular Interest But * the Sense is that God super-intends the World for this That Truth Righteousness and Goodness might take place every-where in the World And for the Advancement of this every Man in his Sphere of Activity and within his Compass ought to endeavour And this is for us to do to the Glory of God Whatsoever Things are Honest. So the Translation But I rather keep to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever things are VENERABLE Which Word is put in the Margin Neither do I forsake the Word in the Text without very good Reason because the Word Honest doth not import the Emphasis of the Greek And the very Notion of Honest you have afterwards therefore you are not take it here Now the Greek imports whatsoever things are Honourable Grave Venerable Seemly Comely Things that may raise the Esteem of the Person and gain Reverence and Value to a Man * In this Sense there are Two Things requisite Grave Behaviour and Composure of Spirit Light Carriage and an ungovern'd Spirit render any Man mean vile and contemptible A Man lays himself low in the Esteem of others by Misbehaviour And a Man lays himself open by falling into Passion or running out into immoderate Desires Gallantly doth the Poet tell us Remember to reverence thy self There is much of God in every Man If a Man do justly value himself he will not do that that is base though it be in the Dark though no Body sees him A Man ought not to abuse himself or make himself mean or low since he bears the Image of God But if a Man will neither regard God within nor the Workmanship of God without neither have Reverence for himself he will have Cause to find that he hath been wanting to himself when he falls under other Mens and his own Contempt Sin and Wickedness doth equalize those that are therein engaged There is no Man in the Sense of his Mind or in his Judgment hath a Value or Esteem for any one that is naught No Man reverenceth a wicked Man no not a wicked Man himself He is low and base in Esteem And there is no Remedy But some * there are of so comely and grave Behaviour that they awe
creditable an Instrument as the Bible from the Sense of Human Nature from the joint Report and Agreement of all who have not neglected or abused their Faculties who are as Euripides says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that That hath but little or no place in Religion and is very mean and low which is doubtful and uncertain which is not of unquestionable good Report Wherefore it argues Carelessness and neglective Indifferency to be unresolved undetermined in Matters of any Weight in Religion For we may fetch most of it out of our selves Awaken Intelectual Faculties search consider examine Principles of God's Creation All but what is properly reveal'd Truth may be found out All Offices of Piety Devotion towards God all Acts of Righteousness all Ways of Moderation Kindness Benevolence towards Fellow-Creatures Subordination of Sense to Reason within thy self Wherefore it lies upon us to excel in these great Instances of Morality gain Repute and Esteem in Minds of Men by exact Conscience in them In these greater Things we should be resolved and peremptory against the evil Suggestions and Provocations of a profane degenerate World In the lesser Things where common Sense * and Opinion is contrary * to Private suspend a while for thy own sake forbear for thy Brother's General good Report is considerable and by particular Persons to be weigh'd in foro interno ' Twou'd make a Man jealous of himself suspicious of his own Reason so far as to make him examine further enquire and not be too peremptory In foro externo common Sense * and Opinion is a very great Abridgment Limitation Restriction upon our Liberty Our Credit may not be euough to defend us from Censure Or * on the other hand it may be consider'd too much so as to lead others to practise without Judgment of their own * We shou'd consider also our Uncertainty Fallibility Partiality where we are affected or have a Mind So that it is safe and prudent to see also with other Mens Eyes In Multitude of Counsellours is Safety 'T is a Thing very desirable to have the World be as smooth and calm as quiet and tolerable as may be Offences amongst Men are apt enough to arise Where we cannot yield internal Assent for want of Evidence and assurance in Things external Obedience and Compliance with Sense of others may be yielded for the maintaining of Peace Love and Good-will If there be any VERTUE Can any thing come after so many Excellencies * after so many Universals such transcendent Accomplishments this shou'd seem needless For what can be more or further * But the Apostle doth not say * here that there is any thing beyond any thing distinct any thing further to be added to what he had said before It is not positive For it is but if any Vertue He seems to suppose he might not think of all But intimates that * whatever were wanting he wou'd add that also if it did occur and leaves us to supply the Defect by Parity of Reason His Mind is that a Christian shou'd be very compleat The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict and peculiar Sense signifies Warlike Valour or Courage in a common and ordinary Sense any Perfection in a Philosophical Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * as contrary to Vice and Wickedness This is also the Theological Sense and so is used by another Apostle twice * But St. Paul never uses this Word but in this place Tho' he oft insists on all the Christian Graces and Fruits of the Divine Spirit All which are Vertues as * consider'd in us and * are call'd Graces as from God To guess therefore at what the Apostle may mean here This is explicable in these Particulars In the Skill of several Mysteries of Arts and Sciences of Tongues and Languages of Trades and Professions in the Use of Gifts whether ordinary and acquired by our own Industry and Study or extraordinary as 1 Cor. 12. c. These are divers Ways in which Human Nature may be perfected and in which it may be employed The Apostle * therefore would not have Christians wanting * in any thing or think any piece of Morality below them be it as low as * meerly Civility Affability Courtesie The Apostle may be understood to have respect to the Peculiarities of Persons * There is that which is peculiar to each Sex The proper Excellence of one Sex is Modesty and loving Affection The proper Excellence of the other Sex is Judgment of the Reason of Things Courage and Resolution Some People besides their general Goodness Integrity and Uprightness as honest Men and good Christians are singularly good and useful in some particular Way and to some special Purpose Some are dexterous to put off an Abuse by innocent Wit and so prevent falling out Some are dexterous to put another out of a Fit of Passion without either speaking Untruth or Hurt to the Person who was the Cause of the Provocation Thus Abigal 1 Sam. 25. Some to put by ill Counsel and so to prevent Mischief as Hushai 2 Sam. 17. some to prevent Mistakes * in Conversation having Wit at Hand for better Construction than the Person concern'd was ready to make Some are good at Peace-making excellent Arbitrators Referrees ingenious at finding out Tempers and Terms of Accommodation Some are very good Company * able to relieve and recreate oppress'd drooping Spirits Some can handsomely bring another off when unhappily engaged These are good Effects of Nimbleness of Wit and Quickness of Apprehension which are oft found to prevent Mischief These several distinct Excellencies and Perfections are the Ornaments and Endowments of Human Nature and not all usually meeting in the same Person But divided and dispersed amongst Men. They are so many Rays and Beams of the Infiniteness of the Divine Knowledge and Wisdom the Flourishes of God's liberal and bountiful Creation These also recommend us one to another as needing each other in several Ways and to different Purposes * For by a joint Contribution of our several divided Perfections we make one Body compleat Whereas an Absoluteness and Self-sufficiency is not found in any Particular I conclude What is useful grateful beneficial tho' we cannot say it falls under particular Command is here recommended to us under the Name of VERTUE If there be any PRAISE PRAISE is a Note of Vertue and a Piece of its Reward It follows Vertue as Shadow a Body It accompanies worthy Action and is an Incentive and Spur to it 'T is true Vertue is in our Power praise not But that * Commendation which is from Persons not competent and who are themselves unworthy that which follows not good Action is not Praise or Honour Truth is great It may be oppress'd a while but will at last prevail When Men are incompetent to judge through their Insufficiency or are engaged in an evil Way we are then to approve our selves to their Consciences
not their Humours Wills Pleasures But where Men judge according to the Rule of Right their Sense is considerable and their Commendation valuable * Now he that is prais'd for something worthy useful or taking with Men hath Acceptance is attended upon with Expectation and may make good Advantage of this Whereas if he be not regarded nor consider'd he will have no Opportunity to do Men good And where Men are forestall'd prepossess'd prejudiced a Man loses his Labour with them Wherefore Men do well to stand upon their Credit and this for their own better Security * in Vertue as well as for their further Advantage to do others Good He that despises Shame despises Sin cares not what he does will do any thing 'T is a sharp Reproof a pungent Argument in few words Are you not ashamed Upon this account it is preservative soveraign and very conducive to the Safety of Persons in * a vertuous way that Men of Place and Worth either declare a good Opinion or at least good Hopes and Expectations of those within their Government It tends to engage and encourage to Proficiency in Vertue If a Man have lost his Credit he will grow desperate 'T is an irreparable Evil to take away another's Fame 'T is to take away his second Security to Goodness * as Conscience is * his first Commendation * therefore is of use both to encourage Good-behaviour and further settle the Well-resolved And he who hath the advantage of Repute and Credit may more easily perswade to ways of Goodness and Sobriety Wherefore if the good Word of others may be gain'd upon Terms of Truth and Righteousness It is a very good purchase as tending to our own better Security and Settlement in Vertue and to the enabling us to deal effectually with others for their Good Think these things REASONABLE So it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apply to them the Reason of your own Minds In the Use of your Reason Mind and Understanding in the exercise of your Natural Faculties charge your self with these things It is not barely have them in your Thoughts but in the use of your Reason recommend all these things to your self Think that you do not acquit your self that you do not that that becomes you that you do not raise a connatural Superstructure to the Foundation of Nature if you do not in the Reason of your Mind think all these things worthy of you This is the Sense of the words Religion exercises teaches satisfies that which is the Height and Excellency of our Nature Our Reason is not confounded by our Religion but awaken'd excited employ'd directed and improved For this is the Faculty whereby we are capable of God apprehensive of him receptive from him whereby we can make Acknowledgments to him make Returns upon him The first Operation of Religion is Mental and Intellectual They begin at the wrong end who set not themselves here first to work so are not likely to bring any thing to Perfection For the Mind's Resolution and Satisfaction is first and principal If we leap over this we shall be ever after lame in our way Credulity is but Impotency The Simple believeth every word but the prudent Man looks well to what he admits Man is not well settled or confirm'd in his Religion until his Religion become the Reason of his Mind 'T is Lowness and Imperfection in Religion to drudge therein to take up Duties as Burdens to do them as Tasks barely to satisfie Conscience that Conscience may not trouble vex condemn They who are come to any growth in Religion are free-spirited in it act with inward Satisfaction Pleasure Content They understand it is for our Good desireable of it self and therefore act with Delight Religion till then is not our own is not settled in the Subject is not secured till then Men will not be friendly to it will not make it their Adoption or Choice but rather look upon it as their Exacter Controuler of Liberty and Will * and look upon God * as an Egyptian Task-Master They will carry it as a Burden which they wou'd throw off if they might have their Minds * But I dare undertake to shew that all true Reason is for Religion and nothing of Truth against it Religion doth us the greatest Service and Courtesie To our Minds it does Good directly and immediately to our Bodies by the good Consequents on the Mind's Government It relieves us in case of the greatest inward Evils Guiltiness Malignity Rancour Malice which if not removed we must be most miserable and it possesses us of truest inward Good In this Sense is that verified which Solomon says of Wisdom Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace SERMON II. ACTS XIII 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you Forgiveness of Sin THAT we may the better estimate of what Consequence this is to us and how much we are beholden to the Divine Goodness for this great Benefit of Pardon and Forgiveness let us look into the Evil that we are rid and discharg'd of by this Act of God let us look into the Nature and Quality of Sin SIN as it reflects upon God is an Act either of Neglect or Contempt And how shall we answer it if we be guilty upon either account if either we neglect our bounden Duty or cast Contempt and Scorn upon our Sovereign by whose Power we are raised out of nothing into Being at whose Pleasure we are continued in Being and at whose Appointment we shall go out of these Beings that now we have and it will not be in our Power to withhold our Souls from him one moment tho' the State and Welfare of them to all Eternity did depend thereupon Let us also consider what SIN is in it self It is a Violation of the Rule of Righteousness the Law of Heaven from which God himself who is cloathed with Omnipotency in whom is the Fulness of Power and Liberty never did vary from Eternity nor will to Eternity for the Throne of God is established in Righteousness What then do we think it is for us sorry Creatures to take upon us to controul the immutable and unalterable Law of everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth upon which the Universe depends Then again SIN in respect of By-standers is a thing of very bad consequence and of ill Influence because of the Prejudice of Example For we are more apt to follow Example than to live by Rule and nothing is more frequent than for Men to pretend Use Custom and Practice even against an establish'd Law and we justifie our selves as we think by doing as others do and that we are not singular and alone in what we say and Practice That which we call Moral Evil is a thing of the greatest Ugliness and Deformity in the World The Filthiness of Sin is express'd in Scripture under the names of those things
strange Fire before the Lord. One fire to Reason seemed as good as another to offer Sacrifice with But because there was an Institution to the contrary whether they did it wilfully or carelesly they perished by Fire Also let us remember the Bethshemites who being transported with Joy and Affection looked into the Ark a Thing contrary to God's Appointment to the Hazard of their Lives Likewise Uzza in his Zeal when he found the Ark ready to fall as he thought put to his Hand to keep it up and was slain for his Labour it being contrary to God's Institution When we think of these things seriously we shall find cause him abundance thankfully to acknowledge God's Goodness that we are engaged only where the Nature of the thing doth engage and that we are not made liable and obnoxious to god in things that are not Evil in themselves and hurtful for us It is greatly hazardous for a Finite and Fallible Creature to be limited and confined by Will and Pleasure where there is no Reason that the Mind of Man can discern why he should be restrained For we are mightily for Liberty And unless we be satisfied in the Reason of the thing we have a great Desire to look into that which we are prohibited 'T is hard to be subject to Will * as it is Natural to yield to Reason Therefore it is not a thing that we should affect to come into Bondage or be determined more than God hath determined us Let these things be weighed by those Men who love to multiply Positive Institutions and to determine the Liberty of our Minds in Circumstances and Punctilio's in things * where God hath not limited or determined us For my part I will not part with that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And this is one Part of our Liberty I must confess the greatest of all is to free us from the Guilt and Power of our Sins but the next is this to put us out of Danger and free us from the Obligation of Conscience where Reason and the Matter it self doth not oblige us The Moral Part of Religion is indispensably necessary because every piece of * It doth sanctifie by its Presence As * for instance Humility Modesty Righteousness Temperance Reverence of Deity and the like These Things cannot be in any Man's Mind but they make him Holy Whereas the Instrumental Part of Religion doth not sanctifie by Presence For you may pray and hear the Word and receive the Sacrament and be wicked still But every * thing of the Moral Part of Religion doth sanctifie by Presence just as a Remedy or Cordial or Diet doth do a Man good by receiving it * But to speak now * of the great Benefits * that accrue to us by our Saviour's being in our Nature He doth acquire the Right of Redeeming us and makes Satisfaction in that Nature that had trangressed And he doth repair the ruined Nature of Man by dwelling in it and by working Righteousness in it by which means he hath wrought out all Malignity and naughty Habits by contrary Acts the Acts of Sin and Vice by Acts of Vertue and Goodness the Acts of Intemperance by Acts of Sobriety and Temperance Now let us look for the Explication of * this in our selves in our Nativity from above in Mental Transformation and DEIFICATION Do not stumble at the use of the Word For we have Authority for the use of it in Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 4. Being made Partakers of the Divine Nature which is in effect our Deification Also let it appear in our Reconciliation to God to Goodness Righteousness and Truth in our being created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness It was a signal Evidence of a Divine Power in the Disciples of Christ at the first Publication of the Gospel that it wrought so great an Alteration in all those that did receive it The Envious Debauched and Disobedient It made Temperate Sober and Religious Humble and Good-natured It converted the Embracers of it to a Life more suitable to Reason and Nature and all Moral Vertue * We may observe from this that nothing of the Natural State is base or vile Whatsoever hath Foundation in God's Creation or whatsoever the Providence of God calls any Man unto it is not base For our Saviour himself took Flesh and Blood and that is the meaner Part of Humane Nature Whatsoever is Natural hath nothing of Disparagement in it nothing that exposeth a Man to Contempt and Scorn And this may satisfie those that are in the meanest Offices and Employments that there is nothing base that hath place in God's Creation That which is Vile Base and Filthy is unnatural and depends upon unnatural Use and degenerate Practice Also observe here the great Honour put upon Humane Nature when the Son of God came into it when Divine Goodness did take into Consideration the Rise and Advance of Created Nature and to recover and raise It to all possible Perfection He did take to himself a peculiar relation to Humane Nature Then let us take Consolation in this For it cannot be thought that God did so great a thing and of so deep a Consideration as to unite Humane Nature to his own Existence and to set it at his own Right hand to the Admiration of Angels for he saith let all the Angels of God worship him that he did such a thing as this is to beget a Notion or to raise a Talk and make a Wonder in the World and put the Creation into a Gaze and Astonishment God doth nothing for so light an end and especially not his great things such as these which call for Fear and Reverence on our part This we may say is one of the greatest Works * of God This if possible doth transcend the very Creation of God at first for there was nothing * there to resist him but in the Restoration there was Malignity and Sin God did this therefore for the great and unconceivable Good of that Nature that he hath so highly honoured Therefore what Consolation should we have from it what Declaration should we make of it what Thanksgiving for it Having this Knowledge how should we rejoyce in God and be above the World * how should we depress the immoderate Motions of Sense and savour Spiritual things that so we may the better understand this great Mystery by which we are so highly honoured And this is the proper use of this High and Noble Argument Therefore let this be explicated verified and fulfilled in us For this you must understand that Religion is not satisfied in Notions but doth indeed and in reality come to nothing unless it be in us not only Matter of Knowledge and Speculation but doth establish in us a Frame and Temper of Mind and is productive of a holy and vertuous Life Therefore let these things take effect in us in our Spirituality and Heavenly-mindedness in our Conformity to the Divine
Compassion 'T is that which was required in all Times in all Cases of all Men Never any Dispensation in this Matter Never any Allowance to the contrary 'T is a Matter of full Resolution and required with a general Non-obstante And this cannot be said of very many Points in Divinity * Now this Disposition is requisite for our own Ease and Safety A Man would live in Love if it were but for his own Peace and Quiet For that Man is at Hearts ease that neither is nor hath an Enemy Whereas he that is an Enemy is never quiet if he carry Displeasure in his Breast so if he have justly made an Enemy he looseth the Liberty of his own Thoughts the Freedom of his own Mind he feareth and is feared So that the Peace Quiet and Security of our selves depend upon the Composure of our own Minds If a Man live in Love he is devoid of Fear for there is no Fear in Love whereas Fear hath Torment But perfect Love casteth out Fear If a Man hath an Enemy he is either meditating Revenge or Defence and a Man had better be asleep in his Bed than thus employed In a due Consideration of one another we shou'd live in hearty Love and Good-will For such is the Condition of Man in this World that we stand in need of one another's Help For we are all of us very weak and exposed to many Evils from within and from without and every Man finds that he hath enough to do to govern his own Spirit and to bear his own Burden Let us not add to it by Offence and mutual Provocation of one another It may be did we but know and were acquainted with the Condition of others we our selves would think it very hard measure to add to their Sorrow and we would rather help to bear their Burdens 'T is but a just Allowance for the Frailty of the present State For no Man's Bodily Constitution is the Matter of his own Choice or within his own Power If it be Choler that exposeth a Man to Rashness and Fury if Melancholly to Sourness and Severity if Flegmatick that exposeth a Man to Dullness Heaviness and Sleep if Blood to Frowardness Petulancy and Wantonness And our Minds are tempted to comply with Bodily-Temper 'T is only by Vertue that a Man doth bear up against Bodily-Temper and Constitution It is very apparent that the Material Part of Vertue and Vice have a Foundation in Bodily-Temper * tho' it * be neither Vertue nor Vice as it is the effect thereof but Vertue and Vice are constituted by the Consent of the Mind Yet this I say that our Souls pay the dearest Rent in the World for their Habitation in these Bodies Therefore to pass this He is little sensible of the Frailty of Humane Nature who doth not make fair Allowance and candid Construction who doth not easily incline to the better part who cannot over-look Mistakes and have Patience with Men a-while till they recover themselves out of Passion And much more unmindful are they and forgetful of the Incidencies belonging to this State who set themselves to exasperate inflame and further to provoke by unkind Returns and Misconstructions beyond and against a Man's Meaning and Intention But I see there is one thing that will rise up with a colourable Pretence against all that I have said if it be not removed and that is in case of different Apprehension in some things about Religion in which case Men say it is Zeal of God for Truth and that they ought to be zealous for the Truth and think they may prosecute their Brother upon that account because he is not of their Judgment he is in an Error they say and therefore they think they ought to bear him down upon this account Therefore this Pretence must be examin'd To which end I shall suggest these several Considerations First It cannot be avoided but that Men must think as they find cause For this is most certain that no Man is Master of his own Apprehensions but he must think and cannot avoid it according as he finds cause Secondly It is no Offence to another that any Man hath the Freedom of his own Thoughts By this he doth his Neighbour no Wrong For Thoughts make no Alteration abroad nor make any Disturbance and a wise Man will enjoy these and not expose them in a disorderly manner For a generous Notion is not to be prostituted Truth is too noble a thing to be * exposed in case of Mens Dullness and Incapacity in case of Indisposition and Prudence Men may be unqualified for hearing Truth as I Cor. 3. 3. where there is Envying Strife and Division He is a conceited Fool that cannot enjoy his own Thoughts and keep them from such as are not capable to receive them This was the Notion of the Philosophers who distinguished between the Truths that were fit to be communicated to those without and to those that were prepared They would not cast their Pearls before Swine But Thirdly Serious and considerate Persons * such as are real and sincere in their Religion do not greatly differ to wit not in those things wherein the Honour of God or the Safety of Mens Souls are concerned for these are the substantial things in Religion neither do they see that that follows which one that doth dissent from them doth infer to the Prejudice of either Yea they are so far from admitting any such Consequence that they will much rather renounce their Opinion than hold any thing that is either prejudicial to God's Honour or the Safety of Mens Souls This I dare undertake is really true of all that are sincere and hearty in their Profession of Religion And therefore to these there is due Patience and Charity I am much of his Mind that did thus apologize for those that did dissent tho' they were in an Error They do not err in their Affection to God Religion and Goodness tho' perhaps they are mistaken in their Choice But then 't is far better for Men to have some Mistakes in their way than to be devoid of Religion 'T is better for Men to be in some Mistakes about Religion than wholly to neglect it These very things argue that the Persons are awake and are in search after Truth even there where they have not attained to it Fourthly Whatever private Apprehensions are in other Matters wise and good Men do observe the Measures of Peace and Order in foro externo For they go by this Rule that Peace and Good-will among Men is of greater consequence than any private Apprehension Therefore wise and good Men do so moderate themselves that they will observe the Rules of Peace and Order Zeal in defence of Truth Conscience in observation thereof are high Titles Things of great Name But greatest Mischief follows when Passion and Interest are so cloath'd The Priests and Pharisees were our Saviour's Accusers The Zealots were the Destruction of the City and Temple as
with several Mens Fancies and Opinions Now I will make use of my Text to describe and lay out a truely GOOD Man one that is real in his Religion one that keeps the ways of the Lord c. and that keeps himself from his Iniquity And the better to explain my self I must observe * to you in the first place a Different State of Men a State of Wickedness and Sin when Evil prevails And a State of Religion when Goodness and Vertue take place And these two differ in degree as Heaven and Hell For it is a great Mistake for us to think that all of Heaven or Hell is hereafter for both the one and the other is in measure and degree begun here For Heaven and Hell are not so much a Place as a State They that are reconciled to God in the Frame and Temper of their Minds and that live according to the Law of Heaven the everlasting and immutable Rules of Goodness Righteousness and Truth may truly be said to have begun Heaven while they are upon Earth But they who confound the Difference of Good and Evil and who care not to approve themselves to God but do without difference or distinction These are Partakers of the Devilish Nature and are in the Hellish State There may be Weaknesses Failings Mistakes Misapprehensions some Errors in Judgment and Opinion there may be false Conceits in some things about Religion and all these within the STATE OF RELIGION where Men are substantially honest and mean GOD Goodness and Truth and live in all good Conscience towards God We read Genesis 20. how God did apologize for Abimelech tho' he was not altogether without fault for he ought to have taken more care But yet he was innocent as to the great Transgression and therefore God saith I know thou didst it in the Integrity of thy Heart So St. Paul doth alleviate his Persecution of the Saints Acts 26. 9. I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth And 1 Tim. 1. 13. he saith he obtain'd Mercy because he did it ignorantly and in Unbelief Therefore we must conclude that none of those things that I have named come within the compass of wickedly departing from God But all those that are sincere in their Religion may yet say I have kept the ways of the Lord c. And thus it is reported of those good Men and Women that are upon Record in Holy Scripture Zechariah and Elizabeth are both said to walk in all the Statutes and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Neither is this particular to them but unto all good Men. This is the Testimony of all the Worthies in the Old Testament that they walked before the Lord in Integrity And this is RELIGION not in the Notion only and in Speculation but in POWER and in TRUTH Wherever it is less or otherwise it is with a double Heart not with a whole Heart as you read Psalm 12. 2. So in St. James we read of a double-minded Man Religion is not satisfied with a bare Profession and partial Reformation This may be for other Ends and Purposes and not out of Love to God and Righteousness But we must harmonize with the Nature Mind and Will of God and find a Displacency and Animosity in our Souls against Evil and this from the Love of Righteousness and Goodness And therefore to bring this home being a matter of the greatest consequence even that by which we must stand or fall I will tell you that this Text is not verified in any of these Cases First In the Case of Fundamental Ignorance Secondly In the Case of great Negligence and Carelesness Thirdly In the Case of voluntary Consent to known Iniquity First It cannot be verified in the Case of Fundamental Ignorance I call it Fundamental IGNORANCE in answer to Fundamental KNOWLEDGE For there is a Knowledge necessary to make a Man good I will not take upon me to determine the least that may be But this is certain there is some degree of Knowledge necessary to make a Man GOOD Therefore to instance in two things that are Fundamentally necessary to Religion and Conscience 1 st To know that there is a GOD and that we all ought to reverence adore and worship Him God hath made Men to know that He is and if they know that He is they must know that they ought to reverence adore and worship Him 2 dly They must have Knowledge of those great Crimes which are against God's Honour which are against the State of a Creature and unworthy in respect of God And this Knowledge I hold Fundamental and indispensable and must be where-ever there is a Capacity And from this I can excuse none but Infants and Idiots that are not come to the Use of Reason or are deprived of it All else may know that there is a God and * may know the great Instances of Evil such as Murder Adultery Blasphemy Perjury and the like I might add a third Instance which yet I do not mention with the like Evidence as the former to wit that there will be Rewards and Punishments in the next World That God will sooner or later judge the World and controul the Wickedness of it and reward eminent Vertue and Goodness Such a Belief as this tho' it be not equally knowable to the other two yet it is knowable and is necessary for the encouraging of Vertue and Discouragement of Vice and Wickedness This is the first thing Those that are ignorant of the things that are Fundamentally necessary to RELIGION cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from God For these have wickedly departed from Him altho' they have no more than Natural Knowledge and those Principles with which at first God created Man For these things are manifest to all Men And all Men are A LAW unto themselves in these Matters And therefore the Apostle saith that God is not far from every one of us And that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World and those things that he hath made So that they who deny his Eternal Power and Godhead are without excuse Secondly They who are greatly careless and neglective of God cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord c. For two things are absolutely necessary to the State of Religion and wherein we ought to take great care to wit Judgment of Right and Conscience to do accordingly The Judgment of what is Right and Wrong True and False Good and Evil do require great Care Diligence and Pains Nay let me ask you what there is in the whole Life of Man that is valuable or worthy but doth require Care Pains Industry and Diligence Go over the several Employments of the World The Husbandman plows and sows and doth every thing necessary to his Land before he expects a Crop Take the Merchant in
who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity cannot be pleas'd with any thing that may pretend by way of recompence for any impure filthy immoral Acts. So Isaiah 1. 11 12 13 c. these things were instituted by God and required under great Penalties What work doth this Prophet make to cry down all Religion among them If he lived in our days he would cry down a great deal of Formality yea things really Good if in Conjunction with Immorality If Men be immoral in any way whatsoever if they consent to any Iniquity if they allow themselves in any evil Practice if they admit any such thing it doth spoil all their Religion We may conclude concerning all our Devotions and all those things that are but the Ministries and Instruments of Piety which are good in their right use if they are performed to be glorified in to be boasted of it is but as magnifying the Name of God and not departing from Iniquity If there be any Act of Unrighteousness it doth not only blemish but marr and spoil all And is it not plainly said the Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord as also Mich. 6. 6 7 8. Wherefore Thankfulness and Obedience that is the true Sacrifice that is what is worthy of the Creature to the Creator and that which God will certainly accept But it is most certain that the Zeal of any Institution tho' it be Divine Institution is to God unacceptable if in Conjunction with Immorality THANKSGIVING is an eminent piece of that Worship we call Invocation of God Three things are proper Prayer-Matter * and if Men confine themselves to these keep to proper Prayer-Matter and avoid unnecessary Repetitions none can be too long but if Men take liberty in Prayer to declare and to tell God Stories then I do not know when or where it will end 1 st Confession of Sin with desire of Pardon And as for that if Men live Christian Lives they will not have the same Sins to confess the second time For Christian Religion is not to Sin and Pray and Pray and Sin You may indeed acknowledge you have done it before but to confess it as practised again and again this doth declare that you are not Religious but Prophane 2 dly Acknowledgment of the Perfections of the Divine Being of his Superiority and of our Dependance upon God with a sence of our Insufficiency and Weakness and Desire of Divine Grace Influence and Assistance This is always to be in Prayer and this is a great Matter of Prayer Because tho' we are in a growing Condition yet we may say in this State that we have not attained Therefore to come to God in sence of our Insufficiency and of the Necessity of God's Influencing and Co-operating Grace this is work for us every day 3 dly Resentments of God's Goodness and Faithfulness to us and thankful Apprehensions and Expressions * of this And whatsoever is not comprehended in or referred to in these is Heterogenial to Prayer is Exorbitant and is not Prayer By the two former we daily fetch from God we obtain Pardon of Sin through Christ we obtain Guidance Aid and Assistance By the last we bring to him and this is our only Return Grateful Resentments and Apprehensions of the various Effects of the Divine Providence over us for averting of Evils from us and conferring of Good as they express our Ingenuity of Spirit towards God so they are the best things in our hands for God * the best Returns to God Galen the famous Physician having occasion to observe the Curiosity that is in the Make of Man's Body doth make a Hymn to God This * says he is the truest Worship of God the Creator and this is far more acceptable and better in it self than if I were able to bring a thousand Sacrifices or should offer the choicest Incense and Perfumes if I my self be sensible acknowledge and upon occasion exhibit and represent the Power of the Creator the Wisdom of the Creator and his Goodness His Power * and Wisdom for that he hath contrived in Mode and Figure so many Fitnesses and his Goodness in that he hath so fully communicated himself For what are Creatures but Divine Communications and this do I understand to be the best Worship of God and transcendent of that Sacrifice which may consist of Hecatombs of Beasts and of the purest Incense One thing we have and but one thing which we may call our own I mean the Consent of our Minds and that must be ours or else it is not our Consent it is not what it is unless it be our own And yet we must acknowledge the Grace of God that it is our own by Divine Concurrence Now let us by our own voluntary Act addict and determine our selves to God Let us afford him the Consent of our Minds i. e. make him our Delight and our Choice take Pleasure Content and Satisfaction in him This is the fullest way of Thankfulness to God out of sence of his Excellency and Goodness to reckon all our Happiness to consist in our Enjoyment of him our being and living in Communion and Acquaintance with him So that we have where-withal to sacrifice to God We have the Consent of our Minds We have this from God to be our own Act. We may make him our Choice breath after Interest in him and Communion with * him This is the best Expression of Thankfulness and this is the Christian 's Free-will Offering * Thus I * have made Explication of Unthankfulness We owe Thankfulness to God because we live by his Influence It is most natural to make Acknowledgment and to make thankful Returns to God Their Accusation is that they did not glorifie him as God and were unthankful The Argument of Conviction and the Aggravation of the Fault is because God made them capable of knowing that God is and that willingly and knowingly they were thus wanting and so did transgress That Person is altogether unexcusable * and self-condemned who knowing that he hath a Creator that is of infinite Power Goodness and Wisdom and having Sense and Knowledge that there is a God as God hath made Man to have doth not adore him fulfil his Will is not observant of him not affected toward him doth not rejoyce and delight in him * So that Irreligion is the most unnatural thing in the World Truth is a seminal Principle with which the Mind of Man being impregnated ought to bring forth and in this case * there should be neither Barrenness nor Abortions For Rational Nature is as sufficient and proportionable to its Effects as any vital Principle besides in the World If hurting a Woman with Child so as Mischief followeth be so punishable Exod. 21. 23. what is this case of Destroying the Seed of God in Man's Minds For so it is called 1 John 3. 9. Seed is accounted lost when * being sown in the Ground it never comes up So are