diligence and add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity And then tells them in the two following verses that if these things be in them and abound they will make them that they shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ that is that they should not be idle empty formal Professors of the Gospel but true Christians indeed who evidence and justifie their profession by their conversation and on the other hand that he that lacketh these things hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins that is his Christianity notwithstanding his having been baptized and his having received the Gospel does him no good stands him in no stead nor so much as serves to distinguish him from other common men from ordinary Heathens but leaves him as it found him still in his sins and then v. 10. presses the practice of these things as the onely way to make their calling and election sure Before I go to treat particularly of these three several Vertues or Graces here recommended to us give me leave to give you some account of them first in the General partly from the Context as they are reckon'd up with other graces and partly from the Text it self as they depend upon and cohere with one another In the whole Context the Apostle hath set down as you have heard no less than eight distinct characters or qualifications requisite to constitute and denominate a man a sincere Christian one truly Religious to wit Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity as the Complement and Consummation of all From whence I draw this Corollary That true Religion is in its nature an Accumulative and Comprehensive thing that doth not consist in any one single Act or simple Habit but requires a Complex of Vertues a Constellation of Graces In the Text it self we find three of these Vertues or Graces in a more indearing manner joyn'd together Godliness Brotherly Kindness and Charity Hence I gather this Remark That Godliness that is Piety towards God is not a morose ill-natured and humorous principle as too many peradventure have taken it to be but that which requires to be accompanied with acts of Kindness and works of Charity to our Brethren and fellow-members especially those who stand in some nearer relation to us to whom therefore we have more particular obligations I. First for the Context that Religion is a thing of an Accumulative and Comprehensive nature appears by the Apostles reckoning up several Ingredients and Integral parts for the making up the Body of it I shall not dare to say that it was S. Peter's designe in this place to make an exact and compleat Enumeration of those Vertues which are to make up the truth of Religion as may be made out by those other Lists and Catalogues which his Brother S. Paul has given us Gal. V. 22 23. and elsewhere in which we shall find some of these here named by him omitted and others mentioned by him here not taken notice of It was enough for the ones and the others purpose to lay down some of the principal wherein the main of Religion lies However this is evident and plainly appears from them both that there is cumulus virtutum an accumulation of Virtues an aggregation of good things requisite to intitle a man to the truth of Religion to make him deserve the name of one truly Religious And thus is it in common Morality where they tell us that all the virtues are so inseparably linked together that where any one is wanting there is really no one of them Nay even in the performance of any single act of any one vertue there is that complex consideration of all the circumstances according to the Philosophers definition of them that it be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that manner and at such time and according to such proportions as it ought to be done to make it a vertuous act This also founded upon a general Maxim or Rule among the Moralists that Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quovis defectu that any Good action must proceed from an intire cause and that the defect of any one circumstance spoils the action and makes it to become Evil. If it be so in meer Moral practices much more is it so in Religious concerns since Religion is the Improvement and Perfection of Morality as Faith is the Directer and Accomplisher of Reason It is not then any one simple Habit any one single Act can intitle any one to the truth of Religion any more than to Morality which are either of them to be made up of a complex of Virtues that are as the Poets fancied of the Graces to go hand in hand and to keep their orderly rounds and to give their mutual assistances in the conduct and management of Humane or Christian life It is true he who hath Faith who believes Gospel-mysteries and professes this belief has upon that bare account a title to Christianity as to the external priviledge of it but that is not enough to denominate him a true Christian unless he go on and add to his faith vertue And he who is Vertuous who orders his conversation vertuously may in some sense be called an honest Good man but then he must add to his vertue knowledge And he who is a knowing man and has gotten a competent Theory of the Credenda and Agenda things to be believed and things to be done of the mysteries and duties of Religion may be said to be a Wise understanding man but then he must add to his knowledge temperance or else his knowledge will be no more than what the Gnosticks boasted of a sort of Hereticks who though so named from their pretended knowledge yet lived in all kind of impurities Again he who is Temperate and restrains his natural desires may so far be looked upon as a Sober person but then he must add to his temperance patience for the indurance of afflictions as well as the forbearance of pleasures And he who is Patient and humbly submits to the divine will in his chastisements or trials may be very well taken to be a Meek man which is one of the chief marks of a right Christian spirit but then he must add to his patience godliness Now he that is Godly that fears God and often comes before him in his private and publick addresses frequents his Church and Ordinances and orderly performs the duties of family and closet he surely has made a fair advance in Religion and may and must be thought a Pious man but then to his godliness he must add brotherly kindness And he that has a love for the Brotherhood is courteous and gentle and mild in his converse and well-meaning to all of the same Society may not improperly be
term'd a Good-natured man a thing which is so far from being a disadvantage or disparagement that it is a great ornament to Religion but then he must to brotherly kindness add charity And now we are come to the very topstone of this spiritual edifice to the very pitch of perfection Charity being the fulfilling of the Law both Moral and Christian. Here you find that to Faith is to be added Vertue to Vertue Knowledge and so on which rationally infers that not any one or more of these will serve turn without the other So then it is not enough to be a Believer to be Virtuous to be Knowing to be Temperate to be Patient to be Godly to be Brotherly kind to be Charitable I say it is not sufficient for a man to be any one of these but he must be all these if he will be a good Christian and mean to deserve the name of one truly Religious Thus much of the first general head the second is that which more nearly and immediately concerns us which is gathered out of the Text it self that 2. Inasmuch as the Apostle here requires Brotherly Kindness and Charity to be superadded to Godliness that Godliness is not a morose humorous ill-natured much less a cruel mischievous and bloudy principle but must to make it a true genuine godliness be attended with acts of Kindness and works of Charity So S. Peter himself in his 1 Ep. ch 2. v. 17. Love the Brotherhood Fear God and then Honour the King as Gods Vicegerent and Lord of the Community As if there could be no right fear of God without love of the brotherhood and neither one nor other without a due honour to the King the Head of the brotherhood In like manner S. Paul resolves all Religion into Faith and Love faith toward the Lord Jesus and love toward the Saints which make up his mystical body whereof we are all fellow-members for in this sense we profess to believe the communion of Saints And so the beloved Disciple tells us that this is Gods commandment that we should believe in the Lord Iesus and love one another Thus Christ himself hath stated the business of his Religion If ye continue in my Word that is keep my commandments then are ye my disciples indeed And how 's that in another place he says it over in these words By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another It seems then that our loving one another is the same thing as continuing in his Word as keeping his Commandments and hereupon it is said that love is the fulfilling of the law This was that new commandment Christ brought into the world that we should love one another This the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tryal of our love to God of our godliness it self that we love the brethren as he tells us For saies he he who loves not his brother whom he hath seen how can he pretend to love God whom he hath not seen Nor is this so a new commandment as himself acknowledges but that it was an old one too For our Saviour's Ancestor David in his short Catechism Psal. 15. has given much-what the same account of Religion Lord saies he who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill i. e. who has a right to the priviledges of the Church militant who has assurance of an everlasting possession in the Church triumphant He answers this question in the four following verses He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour and so on Which are all or most part of them expresses of brotherly kindness and charity and then in the close he tells us that He which doth these things shall never fall So then we are to love God with all our heart and strength that 's Godliness and our neighbour as our selves that 's Brotherly kindness and Charity as Christ himself hath summ'd up the duties of the Law And many other such passages there are in Scripture to evince this truth had I time to insist on them If this be so what shall we say to those who take up Godliness on other terms as if their strictness and zeal to God's service to his worship right or wrong excused them from all offices of love to their fellow-men their fellow-christians nay obliged them to be Vnkind to be Vncharitable and to persecute even to death those who not out of any evil meaning to them will not but out of conscience to God dare not comply with sinful conditions of communion with them This was foretold by our blessed Lord should be the lot of his followers that some such zealots there would be who would turn them out of the Synagogue excommunicate them for Hereticks and then kill them and yet by their so doing would think they did God good service Blessed Iesu where have these men who take thy holy Name in vain these Fellows of thine for so they stile themselves learnt of thee such principles such practices as these that it is lawful so cruelly and treacherously to deal with men who live quietly by them with S. Paul's Sword to destroy them from off the face of the earth and with S. Peter's Keys to lock the gates of Heaven against them to murder them in this world and to damn them in the next This Evangelium armatum this Sanguinary doctrine was no Gospel of thy making no doctrine of thy teaching Thy doctrine was sealed with no bloud but that of thy own who wast the teacher of it and that of thy Apostles and Martyrs who were the propagators of it and though thou saidst thou camest not to send peace but a sword yet that sword was not design'd to fight with but to suffer by it was a sword of a passive not of an active persecution as to thy Disciples by which they were to fall victims themselves and not to sacrifice the lives of others How contrary to thine and their meek innocent methods of converting souls are the traiterous contrivances and hellish conspiracies of those who for the advantage of Holy Church plot the murder of Kings the slaughter of Subjects and the ruine of States and rare Masters of Christianity as they are think it glorious to Proselyte whole Nations by baptizing them in their bloud May God ever preserve his gracious Majesty and Us the sinful people of this Land from such villanous Attempts of his and our Enemies I know the like Bigotries and Outrages are charged upon our Sectaries even at this time and that with great vehemence I am heartily sorry that any who delight to wear the name of Protestants as I think most of those people do should give a just occasion for such a charge But if it be so if
there shall be any danger hereafter on that side as there hath been lately on the other may God in good time discover it as he hath done the other and avert and defeat them both For as I have been speaking my utmost abhorrence of Iesuitical principles so I am very far from pleading the cause of any party of men be they of what denomination soever who act by such principles No nor would I nor can I without injury be so understood that in the scope and drift of this discourse I intended a shelter and defence for Schism as if the sober execution of penal laws upon offenders in Church as well as State were the same thing with that irregular Vnchristian Inhumane persecution I have been declaring against the case being quite different betwixt the wicked efforts of an Usurped pretended power without us and the prudential proceedings of a lawful authority over us Though truly after all it cannot be denied with grief I speak it and so far at least this Charge must be owned that since we have run our selves into these divisions wherein we now stand the pretence of Godliness has almost banished all brotherly kindness and charity from among us II. I have done with the General part I come now to treat of these vertues severally Godliness Brotherly kindness and Charity Godliness in reference to God Brotherly kindness to one another and Charity to all men especially to our Poor 1. GODLINESS in the first place that our Brotherly kindness may be inoffensive and our Charity acceptable Now there are as several sorts of Godliness in vulgar acception of the word as there are of Religions in the world At this rate there are godly Pagans godly Turks godly Papists godly Hereticks and godly Schismaticks Nay upon this account perchance the Devils themselves in some sense are not to be quite exempted from some notion of godliness for they believe and tremble they have a kind of Religion amongst them too and though they do not love God they believe and fear him I make no doubt to believe what our S. Peter hath affirm'd and to say it after him that Now know I of a truth saies he that God is no respecter of persons and that in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness whatever his way of worship be if he does not know or has not the means to know any better is accepted of him This is but the judgment of charity But to think or say that an Infidel as an Infidel a Mahometan as a Mahometan and so of the rest that a Papist a Heretick or a Schismatick as such is in a salvable condition is such a fondness of charity that it can be little better it self than an heretical a damnable opinion I am sure it is not the judgment of discretion as being no where warranted by the Word of God and having been anathematized by our Church in her Articles Godliness then doth not consist in a form in the mode or dress of worship That 's but external and ceremonious yet a form is necessary and it is impossible to serve God otherwise that is without some form or other However as necessary as a Form is to Godliness 't is not essential for which reason it may be supposed our Saviour himself did not think fit to appoint any form but lest it to the prudence of his Apostles in their several districts and provinces and consequently to particular Churches pro hic nunc to determine And herein as I take it lies the nature of Schism for men wilfully to depart from that publick form of worship which the authority of that Church they belong to hath prescribed and so to dismember themselves from their own body And upon this ground we of the Church of England may acquit our selves and justifie our separation from the Church of Rome as the bold British Bishops did when they gave a meeting to Austin the Popes Missionary at a place in our County thence called Austins Oke which Cambden owns but confesses he knows not where to fix where they did with equal truth and bravery disdain the Popes jurisdiction over the British Churches I say we may answer the Romanists when they charge us with Heresie and Schism in S. Paul's words as having no dependance upon the Pope unless we will foolishly inslave our selves that according to that way which they call Heresie we worship the God of our fathers 'T is true some forms are in themselves faulty but the best of forms is not of it self saving sufficient to salvation since the Apostle tells us that some having the form of godliness deny the power thereof If then Godliness doth not consist in a form much less doth it in cant and gibbrish in affected tones and uncouth phrases No Godliness lies in the heart and the life of a Christian there 's the power and the truth of it When the Heart is possest with a reverential aw of the divine power and majesty and justice and with the love of his mercy and goodness and all the affections are exercised upon his adorable perfections And yet still these possessions of heart our good intentions and pious directions of mind are not enough but must be set forth to the life in our lives if we will be truely godly For 't is a godly life that is the life of godliness The Apostle tells us of some that live without God in the world Those are in the strictest sense the ungodly ones and he warns us to deny ungodly lusts That 's right Godliness But then more particularly Godliness is made out in the publick worship of God So 't is said of Enos his time that then began men to call upon the name of the Lord that is to worship him in solemn assemblies and in publick devotions And this godliness when we can once agree in Gods publick worship will beget and confirm brotherly kindness which is the next vertue to be spoken to 2. BROTHERLY KINDNESS Brother in Scripture-use is not always taken in that narrow sense of relation kindred but many times comprehends all mankind as we are all descended of Adam Especially it denotes those of the houshold of faith this being the neerest tye and strictest obligation of brotherhood And O that we who own our selves Christians Protestants might as brethren dwell together in unity that we might go to the house of God in company take sweet counsel together But alas as we stand divided how can we call our selves brethren Such brethren we may be as Esau and Iacob Isaac and Ishmael Cain and Abel were to hate and persecute and ruine one another if occasion were offered Surely surely those who have deserted our Establishments we may and must call them English brethren but how to call them Protestant brethren I do not well know for of them I may say what S. Iohn saies of some in his time that if