since it is Zeal for God that we are here speaking of it must be something wherein our Duty is concerned that must be the object of our Zeal So that a right Zeal of God implies that we do so well inform our selves of the Nature of our Religion as not to pretend a Religious Zeal for any thing that is not a part of our Religion If our Zeal for God be as it should be it must certainly express it self in matters that are good about such objects as God hath made to be our Duty It is good saith St. Paul to be always zealously affected in a good matter But if we mistake in our Cause if we take that for good which is evil or that for evil which is good here our Zeal is not according to Knowledge Secondly as the object of our Zeal must be according to Knowledge so also the Principle from whence our Zeal proceeds must be according to Knowledge also That is to say We must have solid and rational grounds to proceed upon in our concernment for any thing such as will not only satisfie our selves but all others that are unbyassed In a word such as we can justifie to all the World If it be every Man's Duty as St. Peter tells us it is to be ready to give an Answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him Then I am sure it is much more every Man's Duty to be able to give a reason of the Zeal that is in him Because this business of a Man's Zeal doth more affect the Publick and is of greater Concernment to it than what a Man 's private Faith or Hope is But yet how little is this considered by many zealous Men among us Some are zealous for a point to serve an Interest or a Faction But this is not to be owned as the ground and reason of Zeal for indeed if it should it would not be allowed of Others are zealous for no other reason but because they find their Teachers or those they most converse with are so They follow the common Cry and examine no more of the matter Others indeed have a Principle of Zeal beyond all this For they are â—â—ved from within to stand up for this or the other Cause they have Impulses upon their minds which they cannot resist But that in truth is no more a justifiable ground of any Man's Zeal than either of the former For if these Motions and Impulses that they speak of be from God there will certainly be conveyed along with them such Reasons and Arguments for the thing that they are to be zealous about as will if they be declared satisfie and convince all other reasonable Men as well as themselves For it is a ridiculous thing to imagine that God at this day doth move or impel Men in any other way than what is agreeable to the Reason of Mankind and the Rule of his holy Word And if the Man's Zeal can be justified by either of these there is no need of vouching Inspirations for it Thirdly As the Zeal which is according to knowledge hath a good matter for its object and proceeds from a right Principle So it is also regular as to the Measures of it He that hath it is careful that it do not exceed its due Bounds as the Ignorant Zeal often doth but he distinguisheth between the several objects he is zealous for and allows every one of them just so great a Concernment as the thing is worth and no more If the thing be but a small matter he is but in a small measure concerned for it If it be of greater moment he believes he may be allowed to be the more earnest about it But he looks upon it as a rash and foolish thing and an effect of great ignorance or weakness to be hot and eager for all things alike We should account him not many degrees removed from a Child or an Ideot that upon the cut of a Finger should as passionately complain and cry out for help as if he had broken a Limb. Why just the same Folly and Childishness it is to make a mighty bustle about small matters which are of no consequence in which neither Religion nor the Publick Peace are much concerned as if indeed our Lives and Souls were in danger It therefore becomes all prudent and sober Men to take care that their Zeal do not spend it self in little things that they be not too passionate and earnest and vehement for things that are not worth much contending for If we lay a greater weight upon a Cause than it will bear and shew as much warmth and passion for small matters as if the Fundamentals of our Faith were at stake we are zealous indeed but not according to Knowledge Fourthly The Zeal that is according to knowledge is always attended with hearty Charity It is not that bitter Zeal which the Apostle speaks of which is accompanied with Hatred and Envy and perverse Disputings But it is kind and sociable and meek even to Gainsayers It is that Wisdom which is from above that is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated It is a Zeal that loves God and his Truth heartily and would do all that is possible to bring Honour and Advancement to them But at the same time it loveth all Men. And therefore in all things where it expresses it self it purely consults the Merits of the Cause before it but lets the Persons of Men alone It is a certain Argument of an Ignorant and ungoverned Zeal when a Man leaves his Cause and his Concernment for God's Glory and turns his Heat upon those that he has to deal with when he is peevish and angry with Men that differ from him When he is not contented to oppose Arguments to Arguments and to endeavour to gain his point by calm Reasoning but he flies out into Rage and Fury and when he is once transported herewith he cares not what undecent bitter Reflections he makes upon all those that have the Fortune to be of a different side But in these Cases Men would do well to remember that the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God as the Apostle expresses it All this kind of behaviour favours of the Wisdom of this World which is Earthly and Sensual and Devilish Fifthly and lastly Another inseparable Property of Zeal according to Knowledge is That it must pursue lawful Ends by lawful Means must never do an Ill thing for the carrying the best Cause This St. Paul hath laid down as a Rule to be eternally observed among Christians when in the third of the Romans he declares that their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Be therefore our Point never so good or never so weighty yet if we use any dishonest unlawful Arts for the gaining of it that is to say If we do any thing which is either in it self Evil and appears
Opinions so long as we keep them to our selves cannot possibly cause any disturbance in or do any injury to Society But a Power in the latter sense is absolutely necessary for if Men may be allowed to vent and publish whatever fancies come into their head and the Church have no Authority to impose silence upon them it cannot be avoided but she will be over-run with Heresies and embroiled in insinite Quarrels and Controversies to the destruction of her publick Peace The fourth Proposition is That we can have no just cause of withdrawing our Communion from the Church whereof we are Members but when we cannot communicate with it without the Commission of a Sin For if we are bound to Communicate with the Church when we can lawfully do so as hath been before proved it is plain we are bound so long to continue our Communion with the Church till it be unlawful to continue in it any longer But it cannot be unlawful to continue in her Communion till she require something as a Condition of her Communion that is a Sin So that there are but Two cases wherein it can be lawful to withdraw our Communion from a Church because there are but two cases wherein Communion with her can be sinful One is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion an Acknowledgment and Profession of that for a Truth which is an Errour The other is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion the joyning with her in some practices which are against the Laws of God In these two Cases to withdraw our Obedience to the Church is so far from being a Sin that it is a necessary Duty because we have an obligation to the Laws of God antecedent to that we have to those of the Church and we are bound to obey these no farther than they are consonant or agreeable to those But now from this discourse it will appear how insufficient those Causes how unwarrantable those Grounds are upon which many among us have proceeded to Separation from our Church For first If what I have laid down be true it cannot be true that Vnscriptural Impositions are a warrantable cause of Separation from a Church supposing that by Vnscriptural be meant no more than only what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Scriptures For the Actions required by these Vnscriptural Impositions are either in themselves lawful to be done or not lawful to be done If they be in themselves unlawful to be done then they do not fall under that notion of Vnscriptural we here speak of they are downright Sins and so either particularly or in the general forbid in the Scripture If they be in themselves lawful to be done then it cannot be imagined how their being commanded can make them unlawful So that in this case there is no Sin in yielding obedience to the Church and consequently no cause of withdrawing our Communion from it Neither secondly can it be true that Errours in a Church as to matter of Doctrines or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errours and Corruptions are only suffered but not imposed can be a sufficient cause of Separation the reason is because these things are not Sins in us so long as we do not joyn with the Church in them So that so long as we can Communicate with a Church without either professing her Errours or partaking in her sinful Practices as in the present case it is supposed we may do so long we are bound upon the Principle before laid down not to separate from her Neither in the third and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministery or living under a more pure Discipline in a separate Congregation a just Cause of forsaking the Communion of the Church of which we are Members And the reason is because we are not to commit a Sin for the promoting a good end Now as we have said it is a Sin to forsake the Communion of the Church whereof we are Members so long as her Communion is not sinful But the enjoyment of a less profitable Ministery or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministery or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful Thus have I as briefly as I could represented to you the Particulars of that Duty we owe to our common Mother in the preservation of her Vnity and Communion And I hope I have not been so zealous for Peace as to have been at all injurious to Truth I am confident I have said nothing but what is very agreeable to Scripture and Reason and the Sense of the Best and Antientest Christians And I am certain I have not intrenched upon any of those Grounds upon which our Ancestors proceeded to the Reformation of Religion among us And for most of the things here delivered we have also the Suffrage of several and those the most learned and moderate of our dissenting Brethren And now if after this any one be offended as indeed these kind of Discourses are seldom very acceptable all I can say is this That the Truths here delivered are really of so great importance to Religion and the publick Peace that they ought not to be dissembled or suppressed for any bad Reception they may meet with from some Men But as for the manner of delivering them I have taken all the care I could not to give offence to any I now pass on to the second part of my Task upon this Head which is to consider the Duty recommended in the Text with relation to particular Christians our Brethren And here my Business is to direct you to the Pursuit of those things that make for Peace as Peace signifies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Strife and Bitterness and Contentions The things that make for Peace in this sense are more especially these that follow which I shall deliver by way of Rules and Advices The first Rule is to distinguish carefully between matters of Faith and matters of Opinion and as to these latter to be willing that every one should enjoy the liberty of judging for himself This is one thing that would help very much to the extinguishing of those unnatural Heats and Animosities which have long been the Reproach of Christians If Men would set no greater value upon their Notions and Opinions than they do deserve if they would make a difference between necessary Points and those that are not so and in those things that are not necessary would not rigorously tie up others to their measures but would allow every Man to abound in his own sense so long as the Church's Peace is not hereby injured we should not have so many bitter Quarrels and Heart-burnings among us But alas whilst every one will frame a System of Divinity of his own head and every puny Notion of that System must be Christen'd by the name of an
Article of Faith and every Man that doth not believe just as he doth must streight be a Heretick for not doing so How can it be expected but we must wrangle eternally It were heartily to be wished that Christians would consider that the Articles of Faith those things that God hath made necessary by every one to be believed in order to his Salvation are but very few and they are all of them so plainly and clearly set down in the Scripture that it is impossible for any sincere honest-minded Man to miss of the true sense of them And they have farther this Badge to distinguish them from all other Truths that they have an immediate influence upon Men's Lives a direct Tendency to make Men Better whereas most of those things that make the matter of our Controversies and about which we make such a noise and clamour and for which we so bitterly censure and Anathematize one another are quite of another nature They are neither so clearly revealed or propounded in the Scripture but that even good Men through the great difference of their Parts Learning and Education may after their best Endeavours vary in their Sentiments about them Nor do they at all concern a Christian Life but are matters of pure Notion and Speculation So that it cannot with any reason be pretended that they are Points upon which Men's Salvation doth depend It cannot be thought that God will be offended with any Man for his Ignorance or Mistakes concerning them And if not if a Man may be a good Christian and go to Heaven whether he holds the right or the wrong side in these matters for God's sake why should we be angry with any one for having other Opinions about them than we have Why should we not rather permit Men to use their Vnderstandings as well as they can and where they fail of the Truth to bear with them as God himself without question will than by stickling for every unnecessary Truth destroy that Peace and Love and Amity that ought to be among Christians The second thing I would recommend is a great Simplicity and Purity of Intention in the pursuit of Truth and at no hand to let Passion or Interest or any Self-end be ingredient into our Religion The practice of this would not more conduce to the discovery of Truth than it would to the promoting of Peace For it is easie to observe that it is not always a pure Concernment for the Truth in the Points in Controversie that makes us so zealous so fierce and so obstinate in our Disputes for or against them but something of which that is only the Mask and Pretence some By-ends that must be served some Secular Interest that we have espoused which must be carried on We have either engaged our selves to some Party and so its Interests right or wrong must be promoted Or we have taken up an Opinion inconsiderately at the first and appeared in the favour of it and afterward our own Credit doth oblige us to defend it Or we have received some Slight or Disappointment from the Men of one Way and so in pure pet and revenge we pass over to their Adversaries Or it is for our gain and advantage that the Differences among us be still kept on foot Or we desire to get our selves a Name by some great Atchievements in the Noble Science of Controversies Or we are possessed with the Spirit of Contradiction Or we delight in Novelties Or we love to be singular These are the things that too often both give birth to our Controversies and also nourish and foment them If we would but cast these Beams out of our eyes we should both see more clearly and certainly live more peaceably But whilst we pursue base and sordid Ends under the pretence of maintaining Truth we shall always be in Errour and always in Contention Let us therefore quit our selves of all our prepossessions let us mortifie all our Pride and Vain-glory our Passion and Emulation our Covetuousness and Revenge and bring nothing in the World to our Debates about Religion but only the pure Love of Truth and then our Controversies will not be so long and they will be more calmly and peaceably managed and they will redound to the greater good of all Parties And this I dare say farther to encourage you to labour after this Temper of Mind That he that comes thus qualified to the Study of Religion though he may not have the luck always to light on the Truth yet with all his Errours be they what they will he is more acceptable to God than the Man that hath Truth on his side yet takes it up or maintains it to serve a turn He that believes a Falshood after he hath used his sincere endeavours to find the Truth is not half so much a Heretick as he that professeth a Truth out of evil Principles and prostituteth it to unworthy Ends. The third Rule is Never to quarrel about Words and Phrases but so long as other Men mean much-what the same that we do let us be content though they have not the luck to express themselves so well I do not know how it comes to pass whether through too much heat and eagerness of disputing that we do not mind one another's Sense or whether through too much love to our own manner of Thinking or Speaking that we will not endure any thing but what is conveyed to us in our own Methods But really it often happens that most bitter Quarrels do commence not so much from the different Sense of the contending Parties concerning the things they contend about as from the different Terms they use to express the same Sense and the different Grounds they proceed upon or Arguments they make use of for the proof of it For my part I verily believe that this is the Case of several of those Disputes in which we Protestants do often engage at this day I do not think in many Points our Differences are near so wide as they are sometimes represented but that they might easily be made up with a little allowance to Men's Words and Phrases and the different Methods of deducing their Notions It would be perhaps no hard matter to make this appear in those Controversies that are so much agitated among us concerning Faith and Justification and the necessity of good Works to Salvation and Imputed Righteousness and the difference between Vertue and Grace with some others if this were a fit place for it The Difference that is among us as to these Points is possibly not much greater than this That some Men in these Matters speak more clearly and fully others more imperfectly and obscurely Some Men convey their sense in plain and proper words others delight in Metaphors and do perhaps too far extend the Figurative Expressions of Scripture Some reason more closely and upon more certain Principles others possibly may proceed upon weaker Grounds and misapply Texts of Scripture and discourse
ver 4. He sheweth favour and lendeth ver 5. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor ver 9. Now the Blessedness of such a Man as this as to this Life is describ'd in the five instances following The first of which is A great and happy Posterity thus ver 2. His seed shall be mighty upon earth the generation of the Vpright shall be blessed The second is A Plentiful and an Ample Fortune thus in the third verse Riches and Plenteousness shall be in his house The third is A lasting Fame and Reputation thus again in the third verse His Righteousness remaineth for ever and likewise in the sixth verse He shall be had in everlasting remembrance The fourth is Honour and Power and Dignity even such as shall excite the Envy of the Wicked thus in the ninth verse His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and shall be grieved c. The fifth is Great Safety and Peace in the midst of Dangerous and Troublesome times thus in the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness i. e. Light in the greatest Straits and Difficulties for that is the meaning of Darkness in this place Times of Darkness in the Scripture Language are Evil and Difficult and Dangerous times Now upon account of this Light that ariseth to the Vpright Man in Evil times it comes to pass as it followeth v. 6 7 8. that such a one shall not be moved for ever neither shall he be afraid of evil tidings for his heart is established and he shall not shrink until he see his desire upon his Enemies Or as the Chaldee perhaps better renders it until he see redemption in distress This is the just Analysis of the whole Psalm Now of these several Characters whereby the Pious Man is describ'd I have pitch'd upon that of his Vprightness to give an account of and to recommend to you at this time And of the several Instances of the Blessedness of such a Man I have pitch't upon that of Safety and Peace in the midst of Perillous and Troublesome times These two points I have chosen to entertain you upon as judging them most suitable to the present occasion and to our present circumstances And we find them both join'd together in the words of the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness Here then we have Two things to consider First The Person to whom the Promise here made or the Blessedness here mentioned doth belong It is the Vpright Man Secondly The Promise or the Blessedness it self It is Light in times of Darkness I begin with the Character of the Person to whom this Promise is made He is the Vpright Man or as in our more common Language we express him the Honest Man the Man of Integrity We all know so well what is meant by these words that it would render the thing more difficult to offer Critically to give Light to them As all those General Terms whereby a Man 's whole Duty is exprest in Scripture have their several respects and considerations which difference them one from the other though they be all equally Comprehensive So hath this term of Vprightness That which it immediately and particularly respects is the Goodness of a Man's Principles and the suitableness of his Actions to them Or thus The Conformity of a Man's Mind to the Eternal Rules of Righteousness and the Conformity of his Actions to the Principles of his Mind This is that upon account of which any person is denominated Upright and contrary to this is all Hypocritical and Partial dealings in matters of our Duty So that if we would give the definition of an Vpright Man it should be in such terms as these He is a Man that in all things follows the Dictates of his Conscience Or he is One that makes his Duty the Rule of his Actions Or he is One that always proposeth to himself Righteous Ends and pursues those Ends in Righteous Ways This is the general description of the Vpright Man But for the more lively display of him and the rendring him as more Amiable so more Imitable it will be fit that we represent him a little more particularly under those several Respects and Capacities in which his Uprightness is principally seen and exprest And here we must consider him with respect to God and with respect to Men. Under the former Consideration we are to view his Religion under the latter his Civil Conversation And none ought to be surpriz'd that in the Character of an Vpright Man we take notice of his Religious Carriage towards God For in truth that is a point which is Essentially necessary to Uprightness He saith Solomon that walketh in Vprightness feareth the Lord. Prov. 14.2 Indeed take away Religion and the Fear of God and the Foundation of Vprightness is destroy'd For all the Principles of Conscience and all the Obligation to live up to those Principles is thereby taken away He that hath no sense of God and Religion can never think himself bound to observe any Rules in his Actions and Behaviour but what are subservient to the carrying on his private sensual worldly Interest And consequently whatever is Inconsistent with that be it never so base and vile and injurious he cannot take himself in point of Duty oblig'd to stick at it when he hath the least temptation to it The result of which is That he may commit all the villanies in the World and yet think himself as Innocent and his Actions as Commendable as if he had been never so Honest and Vertuous He therefore that is an Vpright Man hath a serious and hearty sense of God and Religion upon his Spirit and is above all things careful to preserve and increase that sense But then his conduct in this affair is much different from that of ordinary pretenders to Religion For he is a Man that doth not content himself with a mere speculative belief or an outward profession of the Truths of Religion but doth so far impress them on his Heart that they influence his whole Life and Conversation He doth not think it sufficient to be Orthodox in his Opinions or to be a Member of a True Church or to be zealous in maintaining and promoting the right way But he takes care to live as he believes to practise suitably to the prefession he makes As he holds fast the Form of Godliness so he never fails to express the power of it in an Innocent and a Vertuous Life He is a Man that in the whole Conduct of his Religious affairs minds Conscience more than any selfish consideration He takes not up his Principles either out of Humour or Passion to advance his Interest or to please a Party But he believes a thing because it is True and Professeth it because it is his Duty In matters of Religion he hath the indifference of a Traveller whose great concernment is to arrive at his Journeys end but