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
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
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
that which we know by the Light of God's Creation which is weakned by Man's Sin and * his Apostacy from God but it doth also do its own proper work and teach a Man to return to his own place to acknowledge God depend upon him and be subservient to him * It teaches him to empty his Mind of all Presumption Pride Arrogance and Self-assuming So that a Man is fit to receive the Grace of Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin together with all Divine Influence Concurrence and Assistance But since I have laid so mighty a weight and so great a stress upon this Acknowledgment in the Text I must needs here prevent an Objection which may be raised and it is this Some may object and say you have no Divine Authority for these words for tho' they are in the Bible they are but here related I confess I have no more Authority from these words being spoken by these Persons of whom they are related than if they were clean the contrary to what they are For I do find concerning our Lord and Saviour that some Persons of like Disposition say that he did do his Miracles by Belzebub the Prince of Devils and if we lay the stress upon the Sayers we must as well credit them as these Therefore I will grant you that I have no Authority for ought I have said from these words materially consider'd or as related and put down here Neither do I lay any weight or stress on the Sense of these Reporters for I will grant that it might be hap-hazard what these Men said for as much as they did not speak out of any purpose or intention or out of any settled Principle and such Men have upon the like occasion given a clean contrary Report Now I will give you a profitable Observation from hence Take care how you quote Scripture for that is Scripture for which you have Divine Authority not that which is barely related in the Text. For you have the Speeches of the Devil and the Advice of the worst or Men related in Scripture Scripture is only consider'd in the truth of Matter of Fact and that these things were done but it doth not follow from hence that they are materially Good No Man must pretend to do as Ehud did because his Action is recorded in Scripture No Man must pretend to borrowing without Intention of paying as the Israelites did for if they had not extraordinary warrant they were * to be condemn'd in their Practice So for us to curse our Enemies as we read in the Psalms the Prophet did not knowing in what Spirit it was done * it is not warrantable for us to do the like from thence Neither must we hate any because the Jews were to hate and to destroy the Seven Nations which they interpreted a Commission to hate all Mankind but themselves Therefore in like case we cannot certainly prove that any thing in the Book of Job is certainly Divine that was spoken by Job's Friends because God himself declares that they had not spoken that which was right concerning him as his Servant Job had done Therefore if you will have Divine Authority see what is said and think it not enough that it is barely related in the Book Neither is it enough to pretend to a single Text nor the Practice or Perswasion of any Man whatsoever nor to any thing accidentally spoken that can amount either to Matter of Faith or Divine Institution it must be express Scripture it must be Scripture in conjunction with Scripture For Scripture as a Rule of Faith is not one Scripture but all And therefore tho' I have taken advantage from these words yet all along I have laid such certain and such infallible Grounds tending to give Satisfaction in the Matters of Reason and Faith as the several Points are capable of And now I proceed to a fourth Argument which is this The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in the State of his Creation And the Suitableness of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed and fallen Condition in order to his Restitution and Recovery And first for the Suitableness of that which we call Natural Religion Natural Religion was the very Temper and Complexion of Man's Soul in the Moment of his Creation It was his natural Temper and the very Disposition of his Mind It was as con-natural to his Soul as Health to any Man's Body So that Man forc'd himself offered Violence to himself and his Principles went against his very make and Constitution when he departed from God And consented to Iniquity It is the same thing in Moral Agents to observe and comply with the Dictates of Reason as it is with inferior Creatures to act according to the Sense and Impetus of their Natures It is the same thing with the World of intelligent and voluntary Agents to do that which right Reason doth demand and require as it is in Sensitives to follow the Guidance of their Sences or in Vegetatives to act according to their Natures It is as natural for a Man in respect of the Principles of God's Creation in him to live in Regard Reverence and Observance of Deity to govern himself according to the Rule of Sobriety and Temperance to live in Love and to carry himself well in God's Family this I say is as natural for him as for a Beast to be guided by his Sences or for the Sun to give light How far therefore are we degenerated and fallen below the State in which God created us since it is so rare a thing for us to comply with the Reason of Things Nothing is more certainly true than that all Vice is unnatural and contrary to the Nature of Man All that we call Sin that which is nought and contrary to the Reason of Things is destructive of Human Nature And a Man forceth himself when he doth it So that to comply with those Principles of natural Light and Knowledge which God did implant in us in the Moment of our Creation and exactly to be obedient to the Ducture of Reason is con-natural to Man in respect of the State of God's Creation And it may be as well expected from an intelligent Agent to observe God and to live righteously and soberly as from any sensitive Agent to follow its Appetite Humility Patience Meekness and such like Vertues they do favour Nature whereas Passion Pride and Envy do waste and destroy Nature Nature's Desires are all moderate and limited But Lust is violent and exorbitant Nature is content with a very few things But if a Man give way to inordinate Desires then there is no Satisfaction to be obtain'd Lust is not a thing that will be satisfied by adding and adding But he that would be satisfied must abate and moderate his Desires and undue Affections It is certain that all Natural Truth all that is founded in Reason and that derives from the Principles of God's Creation that all of these do agree with Man's
of Reason and Righteousness But certainly the Ways of God are most accountable of any thing to Rules of Righteousness These are injurious Apprehensions of God and dishonourable to him and are discaimed by him every where in Scripture and God owns no such Power neither doth he look upon it as a Priviledge nor doth he cloath himself with such a Prerogative Here is the Truth of the Case Misery doth arise out of our selves and Misery and Iniquity have the same Foundation Hell for the main of it is our Guiltiness and Conscience of it So that a Sinner is in a self-condemned State without Relief These two are the Ingredients of the Hellish State Self-condemnation from the Guilt of a Man's Conscience that is not removed by Repentance and God's Refusal upon a righteous Cause because the Sinner would not come within the Latitude of a Compassionate Case SERMON III. ROMANS I. 18. For the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness TO proceed to the Declaration of this great and horrid Sin which gives God that high Offence alienates us from him exposes us to his Displeasure * and against which he doth thus declare This holding Truth in Unrighteousness it doth admit of several degrees 1 st Where Knowledge doth not go forth into Act Where * it doth not attain the Effect of Goodness For bare Knowledge doth not sanctifie No Man is renew'd by his Knowledge only It is said of the degenerate Spirits the Devils that they know and tremble The Effect is Fear and Astonishment because there is not the Product of Goodness 2 dly Not attaining due Growth For there will be Growth where there is not Violence or some ill Accident Where Nature begins it goes on towards Perfection and it is in the State of Increase till it come to the State of Consistency Growth in Bulk or Maturity as in Nature so in Grace The Apostle tells us of the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ. 3 dly Eluding one 's own Judgment By an Evasion unsound Distinction pretending to Difference when there is none doing that under one notion which a Man 's own Judgment will not let him do under another when the Case is much the same * Thus when things are under a disguise when Intemperance is called Good-fellowship or when any Man is Conceited or of a Turbulent Spirit in Religion for him to please himself with a notion of Zeal for Truth We should be very careful and exact to observe the Difference of Moral Good and Evil. Herein we should be severe and impartial not giving our selves leave to comply with our * own Humours for as to the great Notices of Reason and Nature the Measures of Vertue and Vice the Grand Instances of Morality there can be no Allowance no Variation because they are Matters unalterable unchangeable indispensible Laws of themselves without Sanction by Will but by the Reason of the thing In the great Matters of Righteousness there is no Variation but in Positives and Institutes there is a Latitude of Sense Interpretation Time and Observance Instistitutes were never intended to be in Compensation or Recompence for Failure in Morals but for their better Security 4 thly Not following Truth fully but as Herod He heard John gladly c. Our Saviour doth mightily accuse the Pharises because they did pick and chuse singling out one Precept and in the Observance of that being exact and this to make a Compensation for the rest Zealous in one thing loose in others they are charg'd therefore with Hypocrisie Not following Truth fully is when all Worldly things do not vail to Religion but Worldly Conveniencies are unduly consider'd for Truth is so noble and generous a thing that it will not submit to a Compremise with its opposite 5 thly The high degree of Sin To go against a Man's own Judgment and Conscience by violent and unnatural Practice to contract Reprobacy of Mind Seardness of Conscience Hardness of Heart This Men will do when Lust is strong and high Persons of unsubdu'd and unmortified Affections they are exposed to such horrid and unnatural use of themselves and so come to be prodigiously naught For no Man is suddenly most desperately wicked but no Man knows when he is a going how far he shall go For the breaking in of Sin is as the Inundation of Water This by way of Explication Two Observations from these words the Wrath of God is reveal'd 1. Men have wrong and injurious Apprehensions of God 2. All those that are condemn'd for Sinners are first self-condemn'd For every one that in Scripture-Sense is a Sinner is self-condemn'd 1 st The wrong Apprehensions that Men have of God that Sinners have no Warning that they are surprized by God's Judgments and taken unawares This is without all ground since the Wrath of God is declared by his Word and by his Works besides the Sense of Mens Minds the Guilt of their Consciences and their own Heart misgiving them for no Man is true to himself if he be ill employ'd for he that is employ'd in an Evil Work is always possess'd with Fear and he is not certain that he shall be true to himself Wherefore let the Declaration of God in Scripture be acknowledg'd as true Thy Destruction is of thy self Why will ye die O ye Sinners Righteous art thou O Lord and true are all thy Judgments For God of his great Goodness and Compassion to Men doth graciously begin but we often find Men wilful obstinate and rebellious God is ready to pursue his Good Beginning and if they answer his Call further to carry them on for you have an express Promise To him that hath shall be given All Grace is help and where God is there is Strength Therefore cannot any one say his Miscarriage is of God It is not want on God's part but failure on ours It is not that God fails in what is becoming him in the relation he stands to us as Creatures but we are wanting to our selves What is all the Misery that befalls Sinners in their most forlorn Condition but the Fruit of their own Sins Not any thing that proceeds from God's Arbitrary Will and Power But they contract Guiltiness of Conscience Impenitence of Mind Hardness of Heart and an Incapacity to act God-ward or to receive from God 2 dly The Scripture doth suppose that ungodly Men are self-condemn'd For this super-addition Who hold the Truth in unrighteousness is as rendring an Account not making a Distinction As â—endring an Account how it comes to pass notwithstanding all God's Endeavours and Declarations that Men continue ungodly Persons The Reason is Because they offer Violence to Truth go contrary to their Light and neglect the Declarations of God Not as if it distinguish'd between ungodly and unrighteous Persons All that in any Scripture are branded for Sinners they are Men that sin against
their Knowledge imprison the Truth of God and hold it in Unrighteousness In the Language of Scripture none are nominated Sinners but such as now we are representing The Scripture doth never fasten the Title or Denomination upon them that mean well but are in something mistaken who now and then are under an Error having Failings Imperfections and Shortnesses that miscarry upon a violent Temptation or sudden Surprizal You never find these Men are call'd Sinners Neither are the Infirmities of the Regenerate call'd Sin Tho' these are Sins that require God's Forgiveness and are a true Cause for us to be Humble and Modest and to depend upon God But they do not break our Peace with God neither do they havock Conscience or denominate a Person a Sinner The Scripture tells us That those that are born of God do not commit Sin that is in this Sence no one that is regenerate doth pass into the contrary Nature It is unnatural They may have Shortnesses Failings Imperfections But voluntarily to consent to known Iniquity or wilfully to controul the settled Laws of Heaven of Piety to God Justice to Men and Sobriety to our selves this is unnatural These Persons have the Guilt of evil Practice lying upon their Minds They have their own internal Sence reproving them challenging them condemning them For the Cause of all Creatures Misery is rational and accountable and Men do dishonour God and misrepresent him when they say that any Creature falls into Misery by the Use of God's Sovereignty It doth really arise from within us And there is no Danger in respect of God notwithstanding his great Priviledge if Men be innocent and not self-condemn'd Misery and Harm do not proceed from abroad but do arise from within If Omnipotence it self should load me with all Burthens If I am innocent within I shall be able to bear it But if I am guilty I have a Wound within and have nothing within me true to my self All Misery arises out of our selves It is a most gross Mistake and Men are of dull and stupid Spirits who think that that State which we call Hell is an incommodious place only and that God by his Sovereignty throws Men therein For Hell arises out of a Man's self And Hell's Fewel is the Guilt of a Man's Conscience And it is impossible that any should be so miserable as Hell makes a Man and as there a Man is miserable but by his own condemning himself And on the other side when they think that Heaven arises from any Place or any nearness to God or Angels This is not principally * so but * it lies in a refin'd Temper in an internal Reconciliation to the Nature of God and to the Rule of Righteousness So that both Hell and Heaven have their Foundation within Men. Evil knowingly admitted is our Burthen For all Evil is forcible violent and unnatural And a Sinner wrongs his own Principles This might be made appear in respect of God in respect of one another in respect of our selves 1 st In respect of God For consider him as the Father of our Beings and that we are derivatively from him or that our State is Dependency or that we are sinful or that we are under his Love or that he is to be our Judge all these will cause Acts of Piety So that all Acts of Impiety are contrary to the Light of our Reason And whosoever is impious in any Degree or Particular whatsoever he doth hold the Truth in Unrighteousness he confounds his Principles acts contrary to his Nature and contradicts the Principle of God within him * For this is Fundamental to all Religion that Man in the Use of his Reason by Force of Mind and Understanding may as well know that there is a God that governs the World as he may know by the Use of his Eyes there is a Sun For are we not made to know there is a God If we were not made to know that he is we could never know For this we can never be taught For upon whose Credit shall we believe it It is not Divine Faith unless it be grounded on Divine Authority All else is either Reason or Human Perswasion Credulity or Experience We are not capable of Faith unless we know there is a God For if there be Faith in God we must suppose that He is For Faith is a receiving something upon Divine Authority * And if there be not a Natural Knowledge that God is there is no Possibility of any Faith Men know by the Use of their Reason that there is a God And then when a Man receives any Proposition from God's Authority that is Faith Natural Knowledge you see is anticedent and Fundamental to Faith It is as natural and proper for Mind and Understanding to tend towards God as for heavy Things to tend towards their Center For God is the Center of immortal Souls All Understandings seek after God and have a Sence and Feeling of God If Reason did not apprehend God Religion could not be learn'd For there would be nothing in Nature to graft it on Besides we know in Reason that first Principles are self-evident must be seen in their own Light and are perceived by an inward Power of Nature For as we say out of nothing comes nothing so grant nothing and nothing can be proved Wherefore it must be within the Reach of Reason to find that there is a God For upon God's Authority supposing his Being and Veracity we admit and receive all the Results of his Will If God had not made Man to know there is a God there is nothing that God could have demanded of him nothing wherein he might have challenged him nor nothing that he could have expected Man should have received from him Therefore the Make of Man the natural Use of Mind and Understanding this is enough to satisfie any one concerning the Being of God and his essential Perfections And if so whosoever is impious to God whosoever is not subject to all his Commands this Man doth certainly sin against his Conscience and doth practise against his Light and is guilty of holding the Truth in Unrighteousness Thus every one that is Impious Ungodly Prophane or a Despiser of Deity is self-condemn'd sins against his Light and goes against his Conscience goes against his very Make and doth that which is violent horrid and unnatural The second Species of Sin is Unrighteousness Now Righteousness refers to the Duties we mutually owe one another To do as we would be done by To do equally and justly not arbitrarily How doth Violence and Fraud perplex and interrupt Humane Affairs How settledly do Men live where Love and Justice do take place in comparison of Places Arbitrary and Lawless There is a secret Harmony in the Soul with the Rule of Righteousness there is no Displacency Offence or Reluctancy And there is an Antipathy arising at the Appearance of Evil as unnatural to it But a Complacency in Good as the
this is the Effect of Christ and his Business God gave him to bless us How by turning us away from Iniquity It is not Christianity to use the name of Christ as a Charm or Spell or Badge of Profession only as they do who use it unintelligibly irrationally unaccountably insignificantly Christ denotes as * in one sence a Person engaged for us in a way we well understand and give account of so a Nature in us which we very well feel and can express They therefore hold forth Christ who declare him one way or other to either of these Effects or Purposes SERMON V. ROMANS I. 26 27. For this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections c. Receiving in themselves that Recompence of their Error which was meet HAVING given an Account of the dreadful Miscarriage of Apostates who held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness and did not love to retain God in their Knowledge but affected to be Atheists that they might be Arbitrary Lawless and live without Fear or Controul and other Characters of them having been given I now proceed to the Second Part that is their PUNISHMENT You have had an Account of Man's Behaviour towards God Now take an Account of God's He gives them up to their own Hearts Lusts. To vile Affections To a reprobate Mind To do things which are not convenient And to have God justified They did but receive the Recompence of their Error To vindicate God from having any hand in the Miscarriages of Men or being * the Cause of it I will shew that neither the Evil of Sin nor the Evil of Punishment can be attributed to God For if God be the first and chiefest Good then Evil is not from him it is not that which he hath designed decreed or appointed But it is Consequential Necessary Fatal and by Consequence Inseparable from the Miscarriages of Sinners In the Sixth of Isaiah v. 10. it is said Make the Heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes least they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed Which place is referr'd to six times in the New Testament And the Scripture never represents the forlorn State of Sinners but it refers to this place It is not that God hath such an Intention or that God will have it so But it is Consequential so it comes to pass so it falls out This is the natural Issue of not dealing ingenuously with Truth they are the worse for their Knowledge if Practice be not answerable * Now to give you an Account that Evil is not to be attributed to God Tho' we find Scripture doth frequently * seem to attribute it to him You must understand that the Scripture-Notion is this Because God is the first and general Cause of all things therefore the Scripture doth attribute all things to God but with great Difference and Distinction Some things as his Efficience such as he doth by himself immediately Some things which he doth by commissioning others i. e. by second Causes And some things by his Permission With this Difference we must understand Scripture attributing things to God For certainly we must resolve that God is no Cause of Evil. For nothing is more certain than that Holiness and Righteousness are the Divine Endowments And Holiness and Righteousness make it altogether repugnant and morally impossible for God to have a Hand in Evil such Evil where-to Iniquity and Deformity is annexed Wherefore we will conclude that whatsoever God doth by himself immediately or in Conjunction with any second Cause it is in it self Good and worthy the first and chiefest Goodness And if that be not true let any one give an Account of these places Is there Unrighteousness in God God forbid If he be unrighteous how can he judge the World Can the Judge of all the World do an unrighteous Act God is holy in all his ways c. He will judge the World in Righteousness Not by an Arbitrary Will But he will proceed according to Rule Can God by Power or Priviledge pervert Right Wherefore there is no Principle true from whence this may follow that God is the Author of Evil. * It is most certainly true of God in relation to his Creatures that he doth fully answer the Relation he stands in to his Creation and whatsoever he hath made Isa. 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee He certainly doth what is requisite and due in pursuance of all the Principles of his Creation He is not vain as foolish Mortals are to have Beginnings frustrate He doth whatever becomes infinite Goodness He doth all Good upon the highest fullest and clearest Account of Goodness So that is a most real Truth thy Destruction is of thy self But in me is thy Help Nothing is more injuriously spoken of God than that God is the Cause of the Creatures Sin or of the Sinners Misery by the Absoluteness and Arbitrariness of his Will As if save for God's Will a Sinner might well enjoy himself be at Peace within himself be Happy Whereas Vertue hath Reward arising out of it self So Sin and Wickedness hath Punishment Nothing in the World so draws on another thing as Guilt doth Mischief and Punishment Wickedness is contrary to the Nature of Man Therefore cannot but be vexatious and tormenting No Wounds of Body equal the Torments of the Mind Antecedently to the Being of Evil God doth that which infinite Wisdom doth direct for the preventing of it to wit he doth warn he doth admonish he doth declare against it tho' he doth not absoly hinder by his Almighty Power Subsequentially to the Being of Evil when Evil is done by a defective and malicious Cause God if he pleases turns it into Good when he pleases and as he pleases And in this Sense St. Austin It is very happy that a proud arrogant self-conceited Man fall into a Sin that he may see himself That is if God make such a Sin as shames a Man a Means to humble him Else it is expected that God should resist the Proud and that the Back-slider in Heart be filled with his own Ways This is the Goodness of God when he will bring Good out of Evil and turn that which is a Man's Sin and great Fault to tend to his Advancement * But God is not challengable upon any Account for his not hindring For he would counter-work the Design of his Creation For Man by his Make is a free Agent is both intelligent and voluntary Positus in aequilibrio else could not sin Counterpois'd one way by that which is Honest the other way by Profit and Pleasure The Delightfulness of Sense is corrival to that which is in its Nature just and holy
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