and Man All our Expressions must answer our Intentions when we treat one with another We are not in the Truth unless we speak what we mean It is necessary to the Truth of a Treaty that the Materials which make the Case be fully declared For it is no Agreement if any part of the Matter be unknown For a Case is made up of all Circumstances Do but diversify one Circumstance and it is another thing They that treat together are to take care that they understand and mean the same Things and not * make it a Practice for one who is more comprehensive than another to make use of his Wit to over-reach And if they find they did not mean the same things they are to release one another For no Man is obliged further than he did mean What is meant in the Treaty is after to be stood to No After-shifts Men must not after use Wit or practise upon the Doubtfulness and Uncertainty of Words and Phrases thereby to make an escape What we have engaged we must perform unless we can obtain a release from the Party with whom we engage though it prove inconvenient and worse to us than is imagined This is Truth between Man and Man And whosoever faileth in these forfeiteth his Truth And thus I have shewed you wherein a Man may put a Lye upon God upon Himself upon his Neighbour and by this you may understand this Charge of the Apostle Whatsoever Things are True Upon the whole Matter now let us take up a Lamentation For if that which I have said be true how miserable and deform'd is the World That that is the principal Thing Wit Reason and Understanding is made ill use of to serve particular Interests Ends and Purposes How much counterfeit Ware every-where is to be found How much over-reaching in Bargains and Treaties So that now a Man had need to be universally skill'd to have Right in the World Things are generally done for the Vender's Gain only and not for the Buyer's Service Whereas every Profession doth imply a Trust for the Service of the Publick And every Man in the Way of his Profession ought to do things Truly For a Man to be false in his own Trade is a double Iniquity For the Artist's Skill ought to be the Buyer's Security Every Man ought to be ready to render a Reason to any Man as in Christianity so every-where else He that is ignorant may demand the Help of another's Skill And if he makes use of his Skill to his Prejudice he deals falsly It is not competent to any Person to be universally knowing Wherefore are sundry Trades and several Professions but for the Good of Mankind because no Man is more than particularly skill'd This Departure from Simplicity and Sincerity in Profession is a thing unaccountable But this is nothing in Comparison with the Cheats Frauds and Cozenage in Religion What think ye now of Divinity methodized to sink the People down and gain Pomp to the Clergy Religion accommodate to Ends and Purposes The infinite Gain that comes from one Doctrine The Pope's Power to pardon Sin the Priest's Power to absolve Sinners Now these Cheats these Cozenages are of greater Importance because the Consequences are greater * To conclude Truth hath always God to maintain it Truth hath Defence in it self For Great is Truth and it will prevail It may be overborn for a while but it will recover Truth hath Goodness to accompany it Therefore none need fear Shame or Cause to repent Truth hath Liberty consequent to it The Truth shall make you free He that is in the Truth is not thoughtful But a Lyar had need carry about him a good Memory Truth is Con-natural to our Principles For a Man forceth himself when he departs from it Truth is the Foundation of all Order All things will be in Confusion if not order'd united and govern'd by Truth For Falshood puts every thing out of its place Truth is the Ground of Human Converse No Man is sure of another neither knows where to have him if he abide not in the Truth It is the Bond of Union Where Men agree in the Truth they are Friendly meet and harmonize one with another and great Sympathy is between them But out of the Ways of Truth Men run counter cross and contradict one another every-where This we are to know that God's Super-intendency over Human Affairs aims at this that Truth and Righteousness may obtain an universal Empire in the World And this is an Explication of that great Phrase God's doing all for his own Glory For it is an unexplicable Form of Words to say That God doth all for himself particularly as if God were a particular Agent and sought his own particular Interest But * the Sense is that God super-intends the World for this That Truth Righteousness and Goodness might take place every-where in the World And for the Advancement of this every Man in his Sphere of Activity and within his Compass ought to endeavour And this is for us to do to the Glory of God Whatsoever Things are Honest. So the Translation But I rather keep to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever things are VENERABLE Which Word is put in the Margin Neither do I forsake the Word in the Text without very good Reason because the Word Honest doth not import the Emphasis of the Greek And the very Notion of Honest you have afterwards therefore you are not take it here Now the Greek imports whatsoever things are Honourable Grave Venerable Seemly Comely Things that may raise the Esteem of the Person and gain Reverence and Value to a Man * In this Sense there are Two Things requisite Grave Behaviour and Composure of Spirit Light Carriage and an ungovern'd Spirit render any Man mean vile and contemptible A Man lays himself low in the Esteem of others by Misbehaviour And a Man lays himself open by falling into Passion or running out into immoderate Desires Gallantly doth the Poet tell us Remember to reverence thy self There is much of God in every Man If a Man do justly value himself he will not do that that is base though it be in the Dark though no Body sees him A Man ought not to abuse himself or make himself mean or low since he bears the Image of God But if a Man will neither regard God within nor the Workmanship of God without neither have Reverence for himself he will have Cause to find that he hath been wanting to himself when he falls under other Mens and his own Contempt Sin and Wickedness doth equalize those that are therein engaged There is no Man in the Sense of his Mind or in his Judgment hath a Value or Esteem for any one that is naught No Man reverenceth a wicked Man no not a wicked Man himself He is low and base in Esteem And there is no Remedy But some * there are of so comely and grave Behaviour that they awe
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
out of Gentilism and Judaism and in the Composition that he hath made so far as he hath added any thing of his own it is so contemptible to sober Reason and so contrary to those things that he hath taken out of the Old Testament that it is not hard to detect him for a Cheat and an Imposter For devest him but of those things which he stole out of the Bible and that which is his own will appear base vile and contemptible to the Reason of Mankind and most ridiculous Now if God had given Testimony to his Religion it would have been in a way of Reason and most agreeable to the Understandings of Men and not in a way of stupid Ignorance but in such a way as might challenge the greatest Opposers to find any thing contrary to those Prinples of Reason and Understanding which he hath planted in Man's Mind But as to Mahomet History doth declare him to be a Person of a Debauch'd Life and one that had not Credit in the time of his Life As to the great Factions that have been in the several Ages though they have been many Persons yet they have been but one Party and one Party is to be consider'd but as one Opinion for if there be a thousand Men in a Party it is but one Opinion and one single Person is as much as a whole Party All those of a Party are bound up to one Opinion * and to believe as their Party believes Therefore I except against those that have blindly gone on without Consideration For these have not acted by the Guidance of Humane Reason Now I shall give you some Intrinsick Arguments by which I shall convince those of their Wickedness and Folly that affect either Atheism or Infidelity The first is this which is the second Assurance we have of Divine Truth The Representation that Religion makes to the Mind of Man concerning God even such a Representation as the Mind of Man if duly used and well informed would conceive concerning him For God is represented Lovely Amiable and Beautiful in the Eyes of Men and what is said of God is worthy of Him and is consistent with what Man is made to think or know concerning him For this is truly Divine and God-like to do Good to relieve to compassionate and on the contrary it is Diabolical and most opposite to the Divine Nature to destroy to grieve to oppress And what a relation doth the Bible make of God to be Merciful Gracious Long-suffering Full of Compassion So * on the other side how is the Devilish Nature describ'd and represented to us The Devilish Nature is hurtful given to Malice Hatred and Revenge but the Divine Nature is placable and reconcileable ready to forgive full of Compassion and of great Goodness and Kindness This for the Representation that both Old and New Testament make of God and this is agreeable to the Sense of every awaken'd Mind All that the Gospel requires is Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Sum of all that is declared and super-added and nothing in all the World can be declared or required upon Terms of greater Justice Reason and Equity For will not any one acknowledge that if an Inferiour give Offence to a Superiour he ought to humble himself and ask Forgiveness Can any Man's Reason in the World be unsatisfied in this Then for Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is it not very equal and fit that if God will pardon Sin he should do it in what way he thinks fitting that if we go to him for Cure he should take that way to recover us which he thinks best So that these * Terms which are super-added to the Principles of God's Creation are such that there were never more equal fit and reasonable proposed to Men neither is this all but they are satisfactory to the Reason of our Mind For this is found to be true upon experience that the Mind of an Impenitent cannot receive Satisfaction nor Consolation in any other way Should all the Men in the World or an Angel from Heaven speak * Pardon to an Impenitent the Sense of Repentance would be better Satisfaction to his Mind beyond any Foreign Testimony whatsoever Though God should tell me my Sins were pardon'd I could not believe it unless I repent and deprecate God's Displeasure For Repentance is satisfactory to the Reason of my Mind is necessary to quiet my Conscience and I should not be rational or intelligent in Religion unless I satisfied my Mind which is to do what I can to revoke what I have done amiss and to deprecate God's Displeasure and then apply to him for his Grace in that way which he has declared Therefore these * Terms are not only just and equal in themselves but tend to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Mind * and are Restorative to our Natures Now the Representation that is made to us by Divine Truth either natural or reveal'd is that which is satisfactory and consonant to the Reason of our Mind it is that which doth justly represent God as he stands in opposition to the Cruel Devilish and Apostate Nature as being Placable Compassionate and Reconciling and so in the use of true Reason a Man would have thought and imagin'd concerning him that he would not be wanting to afford unto Men fitting Aid and Assistance for their Recovery And thus is God represented Lovely Beautiful and Amiable in the Eyes of the whole Creation * Another Intrinsick Argument which is the Third Assurance of Divine Truth is the ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth both Natural and Reveal'd hath upon the Mind and Understanding of Man For these Truths call Creatures to Self-resignation to commit themselves to God to depend upon him And how doth this tend to the Heart's Ease * and to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Soul For we know by Experience that even the best and wisest of us are oft times transcended by our Occasions and at a loss The Affairs of the World do transcend the Capacities of our Mind and Understanding Now Religion both Natural and Reveal'd doth teach us that in respect of God we are but Instruments assumed determin'd and limitted and it is no Disparagement to an Instrument if it fail that we are but Creatures and have our Dependence upon him And how doth this tend to the Satisfaction of our Minds because we know that God is wiser than we and that he is greater and every way better than we * So that if any thing succeed ill which either the Honour of God or the Good of his Creatures * seem'd to require then we being but God's Instruments and subservient to him * may know that we should not have failed unless God would Thus our Religion teaches us Submission to God Acknowledgment of him Dependence upon him It assignes to Man his proper place respectively to his true Center and so lays a Foundation of
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
is Darkness Confusion and inward Torture All proves contrary to God's Design Justin in his History reports concerning the ancient Scythians That they had neither Houses nor Enclosure of Ground yet Justice had Honour among them not from Positive Laws but the GOOD NATURE of the People A thing to be admired that Nature should bestow that on the Scythians which the Grecians long instructed by Precepts of Philosophers had not attain'd that formed Manners should be transcended by uneducated Barbarity Hence it appears that the Condition of Humane Nature is not so very rude as some report since so much is found in the uncivilized parts of the World Nature is Sovereign to them that use it well in respect of that Modesty and Averseness to that which is not fair and handsom till Men pervert and abuse Nature's Temper by ill Use Custom and Practice Goodness and Vertue are more suitable to Nature's Sence than Wickedness and Vice Vice is contrary to the Nature of Man because contrary to the Order of Reason which is Man's highest Perfection Vice is grievous to Nature witness Irreverence to Deity Intemperance Fury and Cruelty every one feels it so in himself and judges so in others Man forces himself at first before he can at all satisfie himself in any of these In this Sense I understand Heb. 10. 16. I will put my Laws into their Hearts I will write them in their Minds * This is to be understood in respect of Spiritual Precepts founded in Reason and in the Law of the Creation concerning which we need not that one should teach another as in the carnal Institutions of the Law which being foreign to Nature and so many we have need to ask what next what in such a case Men may work themselves out of Nature's Sence out of Judgment of Truth by ill Use Custom and Practice They will not long continue to think * well after once they are come to affect and to do otherwise These two in Conjunction viz. the Affection of the Mind and Practice will bear up with too great a force against Judgment alone Wherefore unless Persons love Goodness and live well we have no hold of them tho' now they seem to think and speak well See the case of Hasael his present Sence and Words Am I a Dog c. but he did so Single Judgment and Understanding will not long hold out against habitual Inclination and Disposition Men unduly practice upon their own Judgments that they may not be disturbed and disquieted in pursuit of their Lusts but if Judgment be once corrupted there is nothing left to make any resistance Evil comes on a main Men go on with full sail Hence Men are Shipwrackt in their Fortunes within themselves broken and come to naught Wherefore in the state of Religion Two things are indispensibly necessary indivisible inseparable Care that Judgment be informed by Truth * and that Heart and Life be reformed by Tincture of it and by Practice And this is Religion PROFESSING THEMSELVES WISE THEY BECOME FOOLS This is said of Persons out of the way of true Reason and Religion These Words may be considered absolutely or in relation to their Conjunction with words which go before or follow after In the former way they afford this Observation That these that think themselves wise are least so for they know not themselves to fail in many things It is the Direction of Wisdom to acknowledge God in all thy ways and not to lean to thy own Understanding For he who trusteth to his own Heart is a Fool. SELF-CONCEIT intoxicates Men and makes them neglective of the Means of Knowledge They who are conceited are Self-Flatterers and towards others Importune grievous troublesom Whosoever falls into the hands of a Self-conceited Person who always is a Dictator and an Imposer upon others to him the Beauty and Excellency of the Divine Vertues Modesty and Sobriety are abundantly testified and recommended The Conceited have lightly considered the Uncertainty of things Variety of Temptations the Representations which are made to Man and our Disparity and Insufficiency to act or determine wisely in several Occasions of Life These are full of themselves but indeed are empty and shallow He knows not himself who thinks himself able enough for his own defence Wise enough to direct himself or who is Good enough to his own Satisfaction The Words taken in a Conjunction with what follows afford this Observation That it is not the Wisdom of Men but their Headiness Presumption and Folly to do in Religion without Reason or otherwise than as they have Direction from God There is no grosser Folly in the World no greater Wrong to one's self than upon account of Religion to come under Obligation to any thing in point of Judgment and Conscience which is not materially true as verified in Reason or Scripture All such is the Persons Superstition which tho' it be not imputed as a Crime to the Person who means well yet is not a Foundation of reward Builders with Hay Stubble suffer loss so far forth tho' themselves stand on the Foundation Man enslaves himself parts with his Liberty which is a dear and choice thing * when he subjects himself to that which made him not to that which is not soveraign to him as Reason is which is his natural Perfection his Home-informer and Monitor within his Breast neither is restorative to him in his Lapsed State as the Principles of Religion are He lays stress upon that which will bear no weight therefore will deceive him As the Superstitious imagines so things are to him but things attain not Effects according to our Fancies but their own Existencies and what they are in Truth and Vertue This other where is accounted Weakness * and Shallowness Nothing betrays Men more than lying Refuges and false Confidencies Religion is that which attains real Effects worthy what we mean by Religion viz. it makes Men humble not conceited Mild gentle not revengeful Good-natured not all for Self Loving not hard-hearted Kind not harsh or cruel Patient not furious not wrathful Courteous affable and sociable not morose soure or dogged Governable not turbulent ready to forgive not implacable favourable in making best Interpretations fair Constructions of Words and Actions not making Men Offenders for a Word ready to commiserate tender-hearted like the Samaritan not as the Jews who would not converse with them If this be in Men then shall the World be sensible of the Good of Religion and find themselves the better for it Lastly let us not run on in a Mistake We see how the Apostle goes on He begins at the Gospel of Christ See how he pursues it He treats of * the Natural Knowledge of God and Fatal Issue of ineffectual Entertainment of it They do preach Christ tho' they do not name him in every Sentence or Period who contend for all Effects of real Goodness and decry Wickedness For
Holiness are Agents indued with Understanding and Liberty They and They only can be the Subjects of Real Holiness Of such Agents there are but Three sorts in the whole World to wit God himself Angels and the Spirits of Men. Holiness being attributed to God doth denote God's Peerless Majesty together with infinite Power and Wisdom as it is in Conjunction with Righteousness and Goodness For if you cou'd divide Almightiness from Goodness you would destroy Holiness For the other are Perfections only as they are in Conjunction with Goodness There is no true Excellence if Goodness be not in Conjunction with it This is Holiness in God Now Holiness in Angels and Men doth import their Deiformity that is their Conformity to God according to their Capacity their being in their Measure Degree and Proportion what God is in his Height Excellence and Fulness And by this Holiness we bear the Image of God Now for RELATIVE Holiness That lies in a Separation a Distinction or an appropriated Use. For Relative Holiness doth not at all alter the Nature and Quality of Things but of the Relation and Use. Whereas Real Holiness mends the Subject and puts it into a sound Constitution It gives an inward Tincture and Colour to the Mind It gives a right Temper Complexion and Constitution to the Soul Things that are altogether uncapable of Real Holiness may be relatively Holy But only Persons indued with Understanding and Reason and priviledged with Liberty and Freedom these only can be the Subjects of Real Holiness To tell you in short that that we call Grace or Vertue for to mâ— they are all one Goodness and Righteousness these are that that we call Real Holiness They sanctifie the Subject by their Presence And wheresoever they are the Person is made good On the other side Vice and Sin which are in themselves impure and unholy Things these do defile the Soul where-ever they are Now Things that are relatively Holy are either by God's own Institution or Assuming or by Man's voluntary Dedication But Real holy Things are by an intrinsick and inward Rectitude and Goodness Relative Holiness doth not depend upon the Quality of the Thing but upon some Arbitrary Act of him that hath Power It wholly depends upon the Will and Pleasure of the Agent And so is mutable and of a dispensible Nature and at the Pleasure of the Superior For God may assume into Relation to himself either Persons or Things God may assume a Thing to signifie something from him it may be God's Instrument and afterwards he may lay it aside and make it common again And Things relatively Holy have been abated and omitted * even where the Things have been under the Command of God and of his Institution and have return'd to their ordinary Use again As for instance The brazen Serpent in the Wilderness It was God's Instrument and by God's Appointment Holy And it was good for the People for a time and of great Use After a while it is deserted of God and returns to be common as it was before It was Brass before and it was a Piece of Brass again Therefore those Things that are relatively Holy that is separate from common and ordinary use their Holiness may be taken off and they return to their ordinary and common use again But real Holiness of Persons their Principles and their Actions that can never be released is never to be dispensed with in no Case to be avoided or discharged Never any Abatement or Relaxation never any Failure to be in this Another Instance In Circumcision that great Ceremony among the Jews It was a holy Rite because it was appointed of God and had its Use and Signification Yet it slept for Forty Years together while the Children of Israel were in the Wilderness It was suspended out of Respect of the Conveniency of their Travel For this had no internal Holiness neither did it make the Persons Pure Only it did make the Persons separate for God Another Instance The Shew-bread was Holy And it was not allowed to the Use of any but to the Priests Yet it is said David and his Men when in Necessity made bold with the Shew-bread And our Saviour justifies it Our Saviour gives another Instance Mat. 12. 5. Have ye not read in the Law how that on the Sabbath-day the Priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless The Nation of the Jews they were a holy Nation and a particular People They were appropriate unto God But they are now in an absolute Parity as to God and as to eternal Life And now all Nations are holy as they And Peter is taught this by a Revelation from Heaven He was in the Narrowness of Spirit He wou'd have nothing to do with the Gentiles But he is reproved and when he comes to understand the Vision he is made to break out into the best Words that ever Man spake a place of Scripture fit to be written with Letters of Gold And thus he expresseth himself Of a Truth I perceive that GOD is no Respector of Persons But in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Such a Person is holy And none but such a Person is holy neither by pretended Descent from Abraham nor by any other Circumstance whatsoever Our Saviour hath expresly told us Mat. 15. 11. Not that which goeth into the Mouth defileth the Man But that which cometh out of the Mouth All Immorality For out of the Heart proceedeth evil Thoughts Murder Adultery Fornications Thefts c. And these are the Things which defile the Man Further The Priestly Office so far as it was Typical ceased It gave way to the everlasting Gospel when the true High Priest the Lord Jesus appeared We have indeed now rational Instruments that are Workers with God Helpers of Mens Faith Preachers of Righteousness to edifie the Church to admonish Men to help Mens Understandings to help Mens Memories to satisfie disturbed Minds to help Men to compare Scripture with Scripture to administer Ordinances c. And by these is the Faith of Men greatly advantaged Now these Persons because of their Employment Office State Function are in order to God and belonging to him and may be said to be Holy with this relative Holiness For we have Things that are also relatively holy now in the Christian Church as this Ministerial Office the Lord's Day the Sacramental Elements these are holy because of their Ends For these are set apart for Purposes Supernatural and therefore are not for common use These are several Instances that shew that Things that are relatively Holy have been dispensed with abated and omited in the Times of the greatest Severity But real Holiness never Wherefore Things relatively Holy have never been equalized with Things really Holy but have always been in order to real Holiness and were intended as subservient to it and for its Security And in Competition have been undervalued
not their Humours Wills Pleasures But where Men judge according to the Rule of Right their Sense is considerable and their Commendation valuable * Now he that is prais'd for something worthy useful or taking with Men hath Acceptance is attended upon with Expectation and may make good Advantage of this Whereas if he be not regarded nor consider'd he will have no Opportunity to do Men good And where Men are forestall'd prepossess'd prejudiced a Man loses his Labour with them Wherefore Men do well to stand upon their Credit and this for their own better Security * in Vertue as well as for their further Advantage to do others Good He that despises Shame despises Sin cares not what he does will do any thing 'T is a sharp Reproof a pungent Argument in few words Are you not ashamed Upon this account it is preservative soveraign and very conducive to the Safety of Persons in * a vertuous way that Men of Place and Worth either declare a good Opinion or at least good Hopes and Expectations of those within their Government It tends to engage and encourage to Proficiency in Vertue If a Man have lost his Credit he will grow desperate 'T is an irreparable Evil to take away another's Fame 'T is to take away his second Security to Goodness * as Conscience is * his first Commendation * therefore is of use both to encourage Good-behaviour and further settle the Well-resolved And he who hath the advantage of Repute and Credit may more easily perswade to ways of Goodness and Sobriety Wherefore if the good Word of others may be gain'd upon Terms of Truth and Righteousness It is a very good purchase as tending to our own better Security and Settlement in Vertue and to the enabling us to deal effectually with others for their Good Think these things REASONABLE So it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apply to them the Reason of your own Minds In the Use of your Reason Mind and Understanding in the exercise of your Natural Faculties charge your self with these things It is not barely have them in your Thoughts but in the use of your Reason recommend all these things to your self Think that you do not acquit your self that you do not that that becomes you that you do not raise a connatural Superstructure to the Foundation of Nature if you do not in the Reason of your Mind think all these things worthy of you This is the Sense of the words Religion exercises teaches satisfies that which is the Height and Excellency of our Nature Our Reason is not confounded by our Religion but awaken'd excited employ'd directed and improved For this is the Faculty whereby we are capable of God apprehensive of him receptive from him whereby we can make Acknowledgments to him make Returns upon him The first Operation of Religion is Mental and Intellectual They begin at the wrong end who set not themselves here first to work so are not likely to bring any thing to Perfection For the Mind's Resolution and Satisfaction is first and principal If we leap over this we shall be ever after lame in our way Credulity is but Impotency The Simple believeth every word but the prudent Man looks well to what he admits Man is not well settled or confirm'd in his Religion until his Religion become the Reason of his Mind 'T is Lowness and Imperfection in Religion to drudge therein to take up Duties as Burdens to do them as Tasks barely to satisfie Conscience that Conscience may not trouble vex condemn They who are come to any growth in Religion are free-spirited in it act with inward Satisfaction Pleasure Content They understand it is for our Good desireable of it self and therefore act with Delight Religion till then is not our own is not settled in the Subject is not secured till then Men will not be friendly to it will not make it their Adoption or Choice but rather look upon it as their Exacter Controuler of Liberty and Will * and look upon God * as an Egyptian Task-Master They will carry it as a Burden which they wou'd throw off if they might have their Minds * But I dare undertake to shew that all true Reason is for Religion and nothing of Truth against it Religion doth us the greatest Service and Courtesie To our Minds it does Good directly and immediately to our Bodies by the good Consequents on the Mind's Government It relieves us in case of the greatest inward Evils Guiltiness Malignity Rancour Malice which if not removed we must be most miserable and it possesses us of truest inward Good In this Sense is that verified which Solomon says of Wisdom Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace SERMON II. ACTS XIII 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you Forgiveness of Sin THAT we may the better estimate of what Consequence this is to us and how much we are beholden to the Divine Goodness for this great Benefit of Pardon and Forgiveness let us look into the Evil that we are rid and discharg'd of by this Act of God let us look into the Nature and Quality of Sin SIN as it reflects upon God is an Act either of Neglect or Contempt And how shall we answer it if we be guilty upon either account if either we neglect our bounden Duty or cast Contempt and Scorn upon our Sovereign by whose Power we are raised out of nothing into Being at whose Pleasure we are continued in Being and at whose Appointment we shall go out of these Beings that now we have and it will not be in our Power to withhold our Souls from him one moment tho' the State and Welfare of them to all Eternity did depend thereupon Let us also consider what SIN is in it self It is a Violation of the Rule of Righteousness the Law of Heaven from which God himself who is cloathed with Omnipotency in whom is the Fulness of Power and Liberty never did vary from Eternity nor will to Eternity for the Throne of God is established in Righteousness What then do we think it is for us sorry Creatures to take upon us to controul the immutable and unalterable Law of everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth upon which the Universe depends Then again SIN in respect of By-standers is a thing of very bad consequence and of ill Influence because of the Prejudice of Example For we are more apt to follow Example than to live by Rule and nothing is more frequent than for Men to pretend Use Custom and Practice even against an establish'd Law and we justifie our selves as we think by doing as others do and that we are not singular and alone in what we say and Practice That which we call Moral Evil is a thing of the greatest Ugliness and Deformity in the World The Filthiness of Sin is express'd in Scripture under the names of those things
strange Fire before the Lord. One fire to Reason seemed as good as another to offer Sacrifice with But because there was an Institution to the contrary whether they did it wilfully or carelesly they perished by Fire Also let us remember the Bethshemites who being transported with Joy and Affection looked into the Ark a Thing contrary to God's Appointment to the Hazard of their Lives Likewise Uzza in his Zeal when he found the Ark ready to fall as he thought put to his Hand to keep it up and was slain for his Labour it being contrary to God's Institution When we think of these things seriously we shall find cause him abundance thankfully to acknowledge God's Goodness that we are engaged only where the Nature of the thing doth engage and that we are not made liable and obnoxious to god in things that are not Evil in themselves and hurtful for us It is greatly hazardous for a Finite and Fallible Creature to be limited and confined by Will and Pleasure where there is no Reason that the Mind of Man can discern why he should be restrained For we are mightily for Liberty And unless we be satisfied in the Reason of the thing we have a great Desire to look into that which we are prohibited 'T is hard to be subject to Will * as it is Natural to yield to Reason Therefore it is not a thing that we should affect to come into Bondage or be determined more than God hath determined us Let these things be weighed by those Men who love to multiply Positive Institutions and to determine the Liberty of our Minds in Circumstances and Punctilio's in things * where God hath not limited or determined us For my part I will not part with that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And this is one Part of our Liberty I must confess the greatest of all is to free us from the Guilt and Power of our Sins but the next is this to put us out of Danger and free us from the Obligation of Conscience where Reason and the Matter it self doth not oblige us The Moral Part of Religion is indispensably necessary because every piece of * It doth sanctifie by its Presence As * for instance Humility Modesty Righteousness Temperance Reverence of Deity and the like These Things cannot be in any Man's Mind but they make him Holy Whereas the Instrumental Part of Religion doth not sanctifie by Presence For you may pray and hear the Word and receive the Sacrament and be wicked still But every * thing of the Moral Part of Religion doth sanctifie by Presence just as a Remedy or Cordial or Diet doth do a Man good by receiving it * But to speak now * of the great Benefits * that accrue to us by our Saviour's being in our Nature He doth acquire the Right of Redeeming us and makes Satisfaction in that Nature that had trangressed And he doth repair the ruined Nature of Man by dwelling in it and by working Righteousness in it by which means he hath wrought out all Malignity and naughty Habits by contrary Acts the Acts of Sin and Vice by Acts of Vertue and Goodness the Acts of Intemperance by Acts of Sobriety and Temperance Now let us look for the Explication of * this in our selves in our Nativity from above in Mental Transformation and DEIFICATION Do not stumble at the use of the Word For we have Authority for the use of it in Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 4. Being made Partakers of the Divine Nature which is in effect our Deification Also let it appear in our Reconciliation to God to Goodness Righteousness and Truth in our being created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness It was a signal Evidence of a Divine Power in the Disciples of Christ at the first Publication of the Gospel that it wrought so great an Alteration in all those that did receive it The Envious Debauched and Disobedient It made Temperate Sober and Religious Humble and Good-natured It converted the Embracers of it to a Life more suitable to Reason and Nature and all Moral Vertue * We may observe from this that nothing of the Natural State is base or vile Whatsoever hath Foundation in God's Creation or whatsoever the Providence of God calls any Man unto it is not base For our Saviour himself took Flesh and Blood and that is the meaner Part of Humane Nature Whatsoever is Natural hath nothing of Disparagement in it nothing that exposeth a Man to Contempt and Scorn And this may satisfie those that are in the meanest Offices and Employments that there is nothing base that hath place in God's Creation That which is Vile Base and Filthy is unnatural and depends upon unnatural Use and degenerate Practice Also observe here the great Honour put upon Humane Nature when the Son of God came into it when Divine Goodness did take into Consideration the Rise and Advance of Created Nature and to recover and raise It to all possible Perfection He did take to himself a peculiar relation to Humane Nature Then let us take Consolation in this For it cannot be thought that God did so great a thing and of so deep a Consideration as to unite Humane Nature to his own Existence and to set it at his own Right hand to the Admiration of Angels for he saith let all the Angels of God worship him that he did such a thing as this is to beget a Notion or to raise a Talk and make a Wonder in the World and put the Creation into a Gaze and Astonishment God doth nothing for so light an end and especially not his great things such as these which call for Fear and Reverence on our part This we may say is one of the greatest Works * of God This if possible doth transcend the very Creation of God at first for there was nothing * there to resist him but in the Restoration there was Malignity and Sin God did this therefore for the great and unconceivable Good of that Nature that he hath so highly honoured Therefore what Consolation should we have from it what Declaration should we make of it what Thanksgiving for it Having this Knowledge how should we rejoyce in God and be above the World * how should we depress the immoderate Motions of Sense and savour Spiritual things that so we may the better understand this great Mystery by which we are so highly honoured And this is the proper use of this High and Noble Argument Therefore let this be explicated verified and fulfilled in us For this you must understand that Religion is not satisfied in Notions but doth indeed and in reality come to nothing unless it be in us not only Matter of Knowledge and Speculation but doth establish in us a Frame and Temper of Mind and is productive of a holy and vertuous Life Therefore let these things take effect in us in our Spirituality and Heavenly-mindedness in our Conformity to the Divine