that prospect above which is the last bound of the very eyes of our Bodies how much more ought it to be the last object of the eyes of our minds And if that life that honor shall be at the bottom of all your hearts shall be the beginning and end of all your pains and studies if by Righteousness and Mercy you shall aspire towards them you cannot come short of them This way you shall find as near and as sure a passage to Heaven from the midst of your earthly business and worldly Employments conscientiously and piously righteously and mercifully managed as any other man has reason to expect from the greatest retirement of a solitary Devotion I speak this on good authority For thus the holy Scripture it self dispenses the joys of Heaven In the whole course of the Gospel eternal glory is as much at least as much ensured to the just and charitable virtues and graces of an active life and of a publick station in this world as to any other part of all contemplative or practical Religion Whatever imaginations some men may have concerning the true way and gate that leads to celestial happiness which men have been always too ready to open to themselves and to those of their own parties and opinions too quick in shutting it upon all others too many usurping an authority of brandishing the terrors of Gods Justice and of scattering the assurances of his Mercy when and where they please which were neither of them ever committed to their distribution yet whatever claim such men may make to the joys of Heaven some pretending to them only by the free Grace without regarding the precepts of the Gospel some only by relying on single Faith and vilifying of Charity some by great scruples in little things and far less care of great things some by censuring of other mens lives and putting as many as they can under a state of Damnation by being more against other mens Religions than for their own yet undoubtedly none of these is the way These are all mistaken unrighteous unmerciful ways The only true way to Heaven which God himself has traced out which Christ himself does often point at though it be narrow yet it is a direct not a cross way though it be strait yet it is passable and has a gate always open And what is this way what this gate It is not a disputing contentious comparing censorious but a mild peaceable righteous merciful way And this it is By the mercy of God the Father Christ made to us Righteousness and that Mercy and this Righteousness made effectual to us men by the assistance and consolations of God the Holy Ghost and that received by men with a lively efficacious Faith and that evidenc'd to be in men by such effects as most resemble their Divine Original such as respect both God and man Which are true Righteousness and Mercy of men to one another accompanied with unfeigned piety towards God Is there still behind in my Text any more reward promised to the man who follows after Righteousness and Mercy Indeed can there be any more than mortal life and honor life and honor immortal yes there is still more And it is that you see which is the cause of all the other Rewards It is Righteousness it self He that followeth after Righteousness and Mercy findeth life righteousness and honor which now if you please may be thus briefly paraphrased He that lives righteously and mercifully towards men if he shall practise these virtues humbly and constantly if he shall perform them so as not at all to rely on their merit for salvation if still he shall find the want and believe the efficacy and lay hold on the benefit of our dear Redeemers more precious Righteousness he shall then partake of the fruits and enjoy the happiness that is promised indeed to our righteousness and mercy but was purchas'd only by our Saviours Righteousness and bestow'd only by Gods mercy I am now arrived at the other more Evangelical signification of the word Righteousness But I come to it so late that I cannot treat of it at large And it is better to say nothing of it than too little Only from this and the rest of my discourse I beg leave to present you farther with one short observation which perhaps will not be unseasonable by me to be mention'd with all Submission by you to be received with favorable Interpretation You may perceive that the true Doctrine and Practice of Righteousness and Mercy of mens righteousness and mercy to one another of Gods righteousness and mercy to men had the same Divine Author and example at first the same course and progress afterwards and they are all along in Scripture represented under the same or very like expressions Righteousness and Mercy are the sum of the Law in one sense they are the substance of the Gospel in another The only possible means and instrument to secure and preserve the one of these is Civil Government The only way to teach and maintain the other is Religion What now may be fairly concluded from all this Certainly that as these two most admirable things have themselves so long so well agreed in matter and words in growth and increase as they are both the best things in this world so the means and instruments of preserving them both are both most nearly united in interest and ought to be so in mutual affections and assistance Certainly when God himself chose his first Law-giver and his first High-Priest out of the same Family when he appointed Moses and Aaron two Brethren of the same house to be his principal Ministers of Justice and Piety it was not by chance it was not for want of choice But there was even then some mystical intention and that was even then a happy presage that between the true Righteousness and the true Religion there should in all succeeding Ages be nourish'd a perpetual League and Alliance offensive and defensive that as God himself expresses it Aaron might be to Moses instead of a mouth Moses to Aaron instead of God And is there not still the same reason for the same entire union between both these things among us as there was then among Gods own people have they not both the same strengths and dangers the same hopes and fears the same friends and enemies the same friends in Heaven and Earth the same enemies in Earth and Hell The common adversaries of both may begin against Religion as God knows in most of our memories they did But did not then and will not always the ruine of Righteousness suddenly follow the overthrow of Religion In all or most of the seditious practices tumults and confusions among us the false cause of God has been first pretended the true cause of God first struck at and next to that immediately a false Justice has been made a colour to supplant the true Justice The Church has been always attempted first to be removed that they might come at the State the more easily Can there be then a more powerful argument to unite us all in preventing the like mischiefs than our common danger Can there be a better guide to admonish us all how to prevent them than our common experience I profess I speak this not only as a necessary caution for the time to come but as well in just acknowledgment of what is past For as we have reason to thank the enemies of our Religion on all sides when they upbraid us as they often do that ours is a meer State-Religion because the interest of our Church has been always ever since its Reformation inseparable from that of the Civil Government Which we freely grant and must always assert as that by which we shall stand or fall nay by which through the blessing of God we shall always stand so we must declare to all the world that next to the Scripture it self and the genuine Interpretation of it by the ancient Christian Writers and the uninterrupted use of the best and purest Ages of Christianity next these the great Establishment and Strength of the Church of England is the protection of the Crown and the stability of our Civil Government and Laws And thus far we confess ours is a State-Religion Our Church was Reform'd by Authority of the State and above all its enemies it best provides for the security of the State Wherefore in the name of God as the best way to frustrate all our enemies hopes against our Church and State which will be the most solid answer to all their little objections let us all unanimously persevere in our several stations to pray for and obey to strengthen and defend one of the most moderate the wisest the most pious frames of Religion that ever Christians enjoy'd since the Primitive Age one of the best the freest the most happy constitutions of Civil Government that ever mankind enjoy'd since the Creation May we all agree in this undeniable truth that whoever would subvert the State they are mortal enemies to Religion whoever would destroy Religion they are equally enemies to the State To both let us be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake And the more for Conscience sake because so very little or no wrath so much of Justice and Mercy is to be found in them both May therefore Iustice and Piety Mercy and Truth meet together that Glory may dwell in our Land may Righteousness and Peace always kis each other among us May the Counsels an persons that advance and protect both in th Nation be inviolably united in Righteousnes and Mercy may they for ever prosper with Lif and Honor. AMEN FINIS Eccles. vii 16. S. James ii 13. S. James ii 13. Psal. cvi 45. S. Mat. ix 13. S. Luke vi 36. Ps. cxlv 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c S. Mat. vii 7. I Kings iii. Rom. xii 21 Psalm xxxvii 25. Rom. xiii
himself who is the sole Author of all Truth and Justice the only Donor of it to us His infinite understanding is the only cause and measure of all Truth His unerring will is the only Fountain and unalterable Standard of all Righteousness As therefore this will of God is display'd in several manifestations to mankind so according to the resemblance of our wills and actions to his will thus manifested there may and ought to be various kinds of righteousness amongst men As the will of God expresses it self to our own hearts in the dictates of rectify'd nature and right reason so an observance of that will is natural and moral Righteousness As the will of God is declared in his written Word so a submission to that Will is Religious Righteousness As the will of God appears in the images and representatives of Gods power on earth so an obedience to their Laws is Political nay it is Religious Righteousness too as far as those Laws do not transgress the higher principles of Gods Natural Moral or Divine Laws This seems to be the nature of Righteousness in general And this three-fold declaration of Gods will either written in our own Hearts or spoken in his Word or pronounced in the Voice of lawful Anthority is the most certain if not the only Foundation of that distinction between right and wrong equity and injury by which all mankind is to be directed in all conditions either as Superiors Equals or Inferiors And now that this most commendable vertue may not pass among any of us as it has with too many in our days only for an Old Testament Duty rather belonging to a moral man than to a Christian give me leave to put you in mind how essential it is to Christianity it self what commendations and privileges the Holy Scripture ascribes to it what high rank and dignity it holds in Gods Statute-Book as well as in mens and that not only in the Law but in the Gospel and not only spiritual Righteousness but natural and political Righteousness too If we shall reflect on the whole progress and all the revolutions of Gods dispensations to mankind we may easily observe he has always proceeded with us not only according to the unaccountable purposes of his own secret will whose Judgments are unsearchable and its ways past finding out But he has dealt with us as after the manner of a God by his infinite mercy so as I may say after the manner of men too by a standing plain declared written Rule of Justice and Righteousness by truth of Contract by Covenant a double Covenant in which we might know what is his what ours by his gift a Covenant in which we might understand our work and if we perform it well may claim our recompence Thus the great Creator of Heaven and Earth who has an unlimited Dominion and Sovereignty over the works of his hands is yet so much delighted to have mankind govern'd by known Laws that he himself was pleas'd if I may so speak with reverence to bound and circumscribe that part of his own Omnipotence by the like method And in the first most public appearance of Gods presence to the world as soon as he had chosen to himself a peculiar people when he began to establish a setled Religion did not then his care of common Justice and civil Rights keep an equal pace with his provision for his own Worship were his first Laws to the Jews Ceremonial and Ritual only relating to his own Service alone were they not Judicial and Moral also respecting as well the peace and prosperity of Humane Society of all which Laws did not God himself seem to give the advantage to this latter kind he did in this at least that his own Ceremonial Law which he then prescrib'd was sometime to be abolish'd but his Moral Law never For upon his second more perfect and last Revelation of Religion in the Gospel the way of his own Divine Service was indeed much alter'd but not any one common Rule of Human Justice no abrogation of any one precept of Righteousness or Honesty followed upon the great reformation from Judaism to Christianity but rather a new addition of more strength and authority to them all Whoever shall recollect the whole matter and design of our Blessed Saviours Preaching can he possibly think otherwise Does not the whole sum of his Divine Doctrine seem well nigh calculated and fitted as much to establish and direct the Courts of Legislators and the Seats of Justice as for the Temple and the Pulpit Were not all his Sermons especially his great Sermon on the Mount a perfect Comment on the ancient precepts of Righteousness and Mercy Does he not there free them all one by one from gross corruptions Does he not vindicate them all by most genuine interpretations Does he not establish them all by severer punishments and more glorious rewards Especially did he not exemplifie them all by his own most innocent just unblamable and merciful life Thus confirm'd thus advanc'd did our Blessed Saviour deliver down the common Rules of Right and Justice and thus the same Rules have continued unchangeable in all successions of the Christian Church never hindring the great design of Christianity but exceedingly promoting it and being themselves incorporated into it So that all along the same do as you would be done to the same definitions of Reason and Righteousness the same general precepts of Honesty in Commerce and Judicial Proceedings the same Laws of Ruling and Obeying have been common to Christians with the wisest Heathen Nations or wherever there was any difference the Christian Laws of this kind were the stricter and the practice of them too amongst Christians for many ages was as their Principles require it ever to be far more exact Whatever our new Saints that are only so of their own making have devised was it ever so much as question'd amongst the Apostles and Primitive Saints whether the new Law of the Gospel tho that be stiled in Scripture the Royal Law of Liberty whether that did infranchise and set any man loose from the precepts of internal Virtue and Goodness or of external Submission to Civil Government and internal too A question indeed there was concerning the Ceremonial Law Whether that were to be extinguish'd and that carried in the Affirmative a question there was also concerning the Moral Law and legal Righteousness Whether that alone could justifie a Christian and that determin'd in the Negative But never did any sober Christian doubt whether the Moral Law did oblige under the Gospel or no. Certainly till after a thousand years the Romish Tyranny prevailed over weak Princes and blind People never did any Church of Christ or pretended Head of any take to it self a prerogative to exempt the Christian Church from due Obedience to the Temporal Power much less to set up a Spiritual Power above the Temporal nay with a pretended right to Advance or Depose the Temporal
must triumph over and rejoyce against judgment Righteousness is a virtue unblamable Mercy is a grace most lovely and honorable Righteousness obliges us to yield to other men their own Mercy inclines us to give them our own too and what can be more Righteousness makes you not to be enemies to others unjustly Mercy makes you not to be enemies to your enemies nay to be their Friends their Benefactors even their Gods Most certainly as he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy so God will require Mercy with the greatest Mercy for he will requite even Righteousness with Mercy Of all the Divine Attributes God is delighted to exercise his mercy to men more than any nay than all the rest and therefore he cannot but esteem mercy in men above all other humane endowments So essential so dear is Mercy to God himself that in his own inexpressibly-Divine Nature he seems to give it some special preeminence over all his other perfections though no doubt they are in themselves all equally Divine and Infinite For the sake of his Mercy God seems willing to change his own eternal mind which is undoubtedly immutable It is said He repented according to the multitude of his mercies When he injoyns it us he prefers it before his own Worship He says I will have mercy and not sacrifice His Mercy may be said to sweeten his Holiness to moderate his Power to delay to stop his Revenge to enlarge beyond all proportion his distributive and after all provocations to restrain his vindicative Justice His Mercy God often employs without any the least mixture of his severe Attributes But he seldom or never exercises any of them in this world so as utterly irreparably to exclude his Mercy In the midst of judgments he remembers mercy The two great Attributes by which God condescends to govern all humane affairs are his Power or his Mercy But an Almighty Power alone had been rather dreadful than auspicious to mankind It might have fill'd mens minds with fear and terror and have frighted them into a servile compliance 'T is only mercy added to power that brings authority with it and charms mens hearts into a willing obedience Which of these two God himself prefers can we have a clearer instance than in the persons and administrations of Moses and our Blessed Saviour Moses the Vice-gerent of Gods Power our Saviour of his Mercy Moses the Servant of God our Saviour the Son of God nay God himself During the Ministry of Moses we read much of Countries laid wast of Nations plagued of the First-born cut off of Kingdoms and Armies over-whelm'd and destroy'd Then Religion seem'd rather inclined to terrifie the world than to pardon it to inforce a Law than to persuade it to subdue enemies than to make friends But at the appearance of our Blessed Saviour Religion seemed on a sudden reconciled to the whole world and not only to require by its Divinity but to deserve by its Clemency the love and reverence of all mankind For in our Saviours works though there were undeniable Testimonies of his unlimited Power yet there were more of his boundless Mercy though both in him were infinite yet his Mercy was most apparent Such is Mercy so wonderful adorable and universal in the first great example and most perfect Original of it God himself 'T is well for us that it is so And such in truth of imitation should be the imperfect Copies that we take of it from him Though we cannot come near that Mercy in any measure of equality yet we should all strive to resemble it if we would partake of it To be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful As he is merciful Yes As his mercy is over all his own works and above all our sins So should our mercy be in our weak degree of proportion above all our own good works to other men above all other mens ill works and offences against us This is the only way for us frail and sinful creatures to be like our heavenly Father in that very thing in which he is most our Father most our heavenly Father These then are the two great Duties here recommended both the principal things in Heaven and Earth Nothing brings Heaven down so near to Earth nothing raises Earth so much toward Heaven What then can be done better on Earth What more worthy of Heaven than to follow after them both and what is it to follow after them in a right manner in a true Scripture sense which is my second Head proposed We read it according to the Hebrew He that followeth after Righteousness and Mercy The Septuagint render it The way of Righteousness and Mercy shall find Indeed whoever would rightly pursue these or any other graces they must do it in a way not by secret shifts and turnings not in by-paths or indirectly not after any private fancy or spirit but by a trodden direct lawful Rule Let me say it in the Kings High-way Thus every man ought to be righteous to all men equally and indifferently not only to his own Friends or Sect or Party We may 't is true be merciful to some men more than to others according to our opportunities or obligations or discretion But then still we should be exceedingly careful that we be not unmerciful to any man Thus to follow after these things is to set about their performance speedily zelously indefatigably with the whole man in all our thoughts words and actions especially the men of this world as Christian men of this world plainly and sincerely to set your minds your tongues your hands your feet to the work with the clearest conviction of your understandings that they ought to be practis'd but chiefly with the most ardent and unwearied affections of your hearts in the practice For it is the heart it is practice that God most regards And to follow after both these graces aright is to practice them both in their seasons and proportions never to divide two such things which God himself has so nearly joyn'd in his Commands in his own incomprehensible Godhead has indissolubly united them so we to conjoyn and mingle them both together never to omit either of them on a pretence that it is for the sake of the other but with the most charitable and harmonious mixture of both in one to season to strengthen to justify all our mercy with Righteousness to qualifie to allay to sweeten all our righteousness with Mercy And thus really to follow after both these things in Scripture-Language is really to obtain them So gracious and benign are the expressions of the Holy Ghost in these matters that your unfeigned labor and well-directed industry in the ways of grace and goodness brings with it an infallible success Your very endeavours after them if uncounterfeit and persevering are often here taken for the effect it self So gently so compassionately does our good and only wise
charm is over we may see and must confess that all wickedness is followed close by some very great notorious temporal punishment and disadvantage Some bring loss of credit contempt infamy hatred as dishonesty cruelty corruption oppression inordinate ambition which very commonly fails of that vain honor it unduly grasps at and loses that quiet life of which before it was calmly possest Some bring loss of health decay of bodily strength and pleasure which they only seem to consult As Luxury and Riot bring sickness and diseases they make men most unfit for death and yet most hasten it Some bring loss of earthly riches as Prodigality and Intemperance which Poverty pursues as an armed man so that men often lose their hopes of another world not so much as for the good things of this world but even by throwing away their share in this world too Nay Covetousness does the same by a greediness of getting more it deprives it self of the true ends of getting it loses the use and enjoyment of what it had got Thus every Vice has its dark shadow some evil genius haunting it in this world its satisfactions are short and uncertain its calamities most certain most durable Whilst on the other side every Virtue has its good Angle is surrounded with some visible luster some worldly advantage Some bring health some wealth some power some fame some contentment a good at least equal to any of the other But Righteousness and Mercy united bring them all together You see they freely offer to your possession they will plentifully shower into your bosoms all the sweetness and tranquillity of life all the splendor and abundance of a life that is honorable All this they are here enabled to do by the gift of a Divine Promise This in truth for the most part they cannot but do by natural effect and consequence For towards a secure and happy life Righteousness does very much Mercy perfects what the other leaves undone Righteousness makes few or no foes none worth making friends Mercy makes or deserves to make all friends friends even of foes Righteousness always commends you to good men often defends you against wicked men never justly provokes wicked men against you Mercy moves melts reconciles conquers even the wicked by the most powerful kind of victory overcomes evil with good What then in all humane probability may be reasonably expected from such inoffensive justice such charming such diffusive benignity and compassion what but the justice nay more the thanks the good will and good offices of those who shall be righted by your justice what but the Prayers the hearts the lives if need be of those who shall be preserv'd by your mercy or forgiven by your pity All this from without Besides the comfortable assurance and testimony of a clear and serene conscience within which only is able to make life sweet honor not a burden nay it is able to make undeserv'd disgrace a comfort and death it self happy And certainly all this is life and honor this is praise and glory if there be any true life above a sensual carnal life if there be any substantial lasting honor above the perishing shadows of it if there be not only any Religion towards God but if there be any thing true and just and honest and lovely and of good report if there be any virtue any praise amongst men if that be glory which the very Heathens have defined to be the concurring esteem and commendation of the wise and the good bestow'd on great men not only nor indeed chiefly for their riches or power but rather for their clemency and beneficence perfections most proper to the upper part of mankind And they can never do mischief to the lower part nay they can never be employ'd but in doing good to the lower part of the world God himself has said that Great men are Gods yet it is not greatness alone but mercy joyn'd with greatness and strengthen'd with Righteousness that can make them so Yet because it may so happen by the secret disposal of the all-wise Governor of all things that Righteousness and Mercy may sometimes fail of a Temporal Reward because that may come to pass which yet David professes never to have seen from his youth to his old age that the righteous man may be forsaken and his seed beg their bread or want an easie subsistence of life nay because the merciful man may come short of his just recompence of honor here below therefore there is still behind a sufficient reserve an unmeasurable compensation in the other more heavenly sense of the words life and honor which as sure as God is true will be are the undoubted portion of the righteous and merciful man That life that honor which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor hath it enter'd into the tongue of man to express or heart to conceive that is the most worthy subject of all our thoughts that ought to be the chief end of all our designs Else our designs may be speciously honorable they may be for life in a low sense rather indeed for livelihood than life only to support a life that is but for a moment supportable But they can never else promote our true life they can never else be truly profitable much less truly honorable Our gracious God indeed permits nay he encourages you all in the prosecution of the life and honors of this world His Laws have very many precepts of true humility but no levelling principles in them no more than yours have Distinctions of dignity different advantages of life degrees of honor do very well agree with the greatest purity strictness and simplicity of the Gospel no doubt therefore they must be consistent with the freeness and largeness and generosity of Christianity God suffers mankind to be provok'd and excited to Virtue by all manner of arguments by secular as well as by spiritual promises by temporal as well as by eternal hopes He allows you all the sober pursuit of the moderate delights and plenty of this life They are his gift if you obtain them He is no doubt well pleas'd with your earnest endeavours after excellency in any kind of wise counsel or useful knowledg or worthy action The honors you reap thereby he confers upon you of the good you do thereby you your selves have the principal advantage Give me leave therefore to add All these our other designs should so be proportion'd that being good in themselves they be not made ill by their abuse or excess all our thoughts of this worlds life and honors should be so order'd as neither to depress our minds too much by the cares of this life nor to raise them too high by the honors of this world rather they should be employ'd to assist our souls and give them wings in rising higher to supernatural expectations to a life to honor immortal to carry up our contemplations to fix our affections on Heaven on