just to the same effect and with them I shall conclude The first is that of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews where having spoken most severe things and denounced no less than Hell fire against the false Brethren among them yet thus he comforts the Church to whom he writes Heb. 6.9 But beloved saith he we are persuaded better things of you and things that do accompany Salvation though we thus speak And what I pray is the reason he is thus persuaded Verily this ver 11. for God saith he is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed to his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and yet do minister It was purely their Charity to the Brethren that made him have these good hopes of them that they were in a state of Salvation Though that Church as to other things was in a very degenerate condition yet considering they had been laborious and diligent in the exercise of Charity and still continued so to be God would not forget them nay he was not so unrighteous as to forget them And then that which follows in the next verse is very observable verse 11. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to wit in the practice of Charity to the full assurance of hope unto the end If they would have their hopes of a future life assured to them the way to do it was to persevere in their diligent attendence to works of Mercy and Kindness and Charity The second passage is that of St. John Hereby saith he perceive we the love of God towards us 1 John 3. 16. c. because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren But whoso hath this World's good and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him My little Children let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him I pray mind that by our charitable disposition and doing good to our Brethren by this we know we are true Disciples of Jesus Christ and this is that that will assure our hearts will give us confidence to appear before God at the last day when he comes to judge the World And this is a point that the Apostle thinks so considerable that he goes over with it again in the next verse Beloved if our hearts condemn us not i. e. condemn us not as to this point of Love and Charity then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight The last Text to this purpose that I defire may be taken notice of is that of St. Peter Above all things my Brethren 1 Pet. 4.8 have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins O how comfortable are these words there is none of us even the best but hath a multitude of sins to answer for by what means now must we obtain that these sins shall be covered that is shall be forgiven Psal 33.1 for covering of sins is the forgiveness of them in the Scripture-language Why the Apostle hath directed us to the method above all things put on Charity for it is Charity that shall cover the multitude of sins Charity is of that power with God that it alone is able to overcome the malignity of many of our sins and frailties that would otherwise do us mischief If any thing can make atonement for the carelesness and the many failings of our lives and prevent the punishment that is due to them it is to be very charitable and to do much good Charity covers a multitude of sins in this life A great many temporal judgments that would otherwise have fallen upon us for our sins are hereby prevented and that not only private ones but publick too And I think it no Popery to affirm that Charity will cover a multitude of sins in the other life also That is whoever is of a truly charitable disposition and doth a great deal of good in his generation though he may have a great many infirmities and miscarriages to answer for yet if he be sincerely vertuous in the main and so capable of the rewards of the other world his other failings will be overlooked they will be buried in his good deeds and the Man shall be rewarded notwithstanding Or if he be a vitious person and so must of necessity fall short of the glory that shall be revealed yet still in proportion the good he hath done in his life will cover the multitude of sins Though it will not be available for the making him happy because he is not capable of being so yet it will be for the lessening his punishment He shall be in a much more supportable condition among the miserable than those that have been unmerciful or cruel or uncharitable in their lives O therefore what remains but that considering all these things we should be stedfast 1 Cor. 25.18 unmoveable always abounding in these works of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 2 Pet. 1.5 c. Giving all diligence to add to 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 verse 1â— By our good works making our calling and election sure so some Copies have the 10th verse of 1 Pet. 1. that doing these things we may never fall but an entrance may be ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ SERMON V. PREACHED AT BOW-CHURCH On the 29th of September 1680. Psalm cxij. 4. To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness GOdliness saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 4.8 hath the promise of this life as well as of that which is to come Of this Proposition of his the Psalm we have now before us may seem to be an Explication or Paraphrase For in this Psalm Two things are designed a description of the Pious Man and a description of his Blessedness in this Life each of which is done in five instances or particulars The terms wherein the Pious Man is here discrib'd are these following First He is one that Feareth God and greatly delighteth in his Commandments v. 1. Secondly He is one that is Righteous and Vpright in his Conversation ver 4. and 6. Thirdly He is one that is Prudent and Discreet in the managing of his Affairs verse 5. He guideth his affairs with discretion Fourthly He it one whose Heart is fixed trusting in the Lord v. 7. Lastly He is one that is extreamly Charitable He is gracious and full of Compassion
Article of Faith and every Man that doth not believe just as he doth must streight be a Heretick for not doing so How can it be expected but we must wrangle eternally It were heartily to be wished that Christians would consider that the Articles of Faith those things that God hath made necessary by every one to be believed in order to his Salvation are but very few and they are all of them so plainly and clearly set down in the Scripture that it is impossible for any sincere honest-minded Man to miss of the true sense of them And they have farther this Badge to distinguish them from all other Truths that they have an immediate influence upon Men's Lives a direct Tendency to make Men Better whereas most of those things that make the matter of our Controversies and about which we make such a noise and clamour and for which we so bitterly censure and Anathematize one another are quite of another nature They are neither so clearly revealed or propounded in the Scripture but that even good Men through the great difference of their Parts Learning and Education may after their best Endeavours vary in their Sentiments about them Nor do they at all concern a Christian Life but are matters of pure Notion and Speculation So that it cannot with any reason be pretended that they are Points upon which Men's Salvation doth depend It cannot be thought that God will be offended with any Man for his Ignorance or Mistakes concerning them And if not if a Man may be a good Christian and go to Heaven whether he holds the right or the wrong side in these matters for God's sake why should we be angry with any one for having other Opinions about them than we have Why should we not rather permit Men to use their Vnderstandings as well as they can and where they fail of the Truth to bear with them as God himself without question will than by stickling for every unnecessary Truth destroy that Peace and Love and Amity that ought to be among Christians The second thing I would recommend is a great Simplicity and Purity of Intention in the pursuit of Truth and at no hand to let Passion or Interest or any Self-end be ingredient into our Religion The practice of this would not more conduce to the discovery of Truth than it would to the promoting of Peace For it is easie to observe that it is not always a pure Concernment for the Truth in the Points in Controversie that makes us so zealous so fierce and so obstinate in our Disputes for or against them but something of which that is only the Mask and Pretence some By-ends that must be served some Secular Interest that we have espoused which must be carried on We have either engaged our selves to some Party and so its Interests right or wrong must be promoted Or we have taken up an Opinion inconsiderately at the first and appeared in the favour of it and afterward our own Credit doth oblige us to defend it Or we have received some Slight or Disappointment from the Men of one Way and so in pure pet and revenge we pass over to their Adversaries Or it is for our gain and advantage that the Differences among us be still kept on foot Or we desire to get our selves a Name by some great Atchievements in the Noble Science of Controversies Or we are possessed with the Spirit of Contradiction Or we delight in Novelties Or we love to be singular These are the things that too often both give birth to our Controversies and also nourish and foment them If we would but cast these Beams out of our eyes we should both see more clearly and certainly live more peaceably But whilst we pursue base and sordid Ends under the pretence of maintaining Truth we shall always be in Errour and always in Contention Let us therefore quit our selves of all our prepossessions let us mortifie all our Pride and Vain-glory our Passion and Emulation our Covetuousness and Revenge and bring nothing in the World to our Debates about Religion but only the pure Love of Truth and then our Controversies will not be so long and they will be more calmly and peaceably managed and they will redound to the greater good of all Parties And this I dare say farther to encourage you to labour after this Temper of Mind That he that comes thus qualified to the Study of Religion though he may not have the luck always to light on the Truth yet with all his Errours be they what they will he is more acceptable to God than the Man that hath Truth on his side yet takes it up or maintains it to serve a turn He that believes a Falshood after he hath used his sincere endeavours to find the Truth is not half so much a Heretick as he that professeth a Truth out of evil Principles and prostituteth it to unworthy Ends. The third Rule is Never to quarrel about Words and Phrases but so long as other Men mean much-what the same that we do let us be content though they have not the luck to express themselves so well I do not know how it comes to pass whether through too much heat and eagerness of disputing that we do not mind one another's Sense or whether through too much love to our own manner of Thinking or Speaking that we will not endure any thing but what is conveyed to us in our own Methods But really it often happens that most bitter Quarrels do commence not so much from the different Sense of the contending Parties concerning the things they contend about as from the different Terms they use to express the same Sense and the different Grounds they proceed upon or Arguments they make use of for the proof of it For my part I verily believe that this is the Case of several of those Disputes in which we Protestants do often engage at this day I do not think in many Points our Differences are near so wide as they are sometimes represented but that they might easily be made up with a little allowance to Men's Words and Phrases and the different Methods of deducing their Notions It would be perhaps no hard matter to make this appear in those Controversies that are so much agitated among us concerning Faith and Justification and the necessity of good Works to Salvation and Imputed Righteousness and the difference between Vertue and Grace with some others if this were a fit place for it The Difference that is among us as to these Points is possibly not much greater than this That some Men in these Matters speak more clearly and fully others more imperfectly and obscurely Some Men convey their sense in plain and proper words others delight in Metaphors and do perhaps too far extend the Figurative Expressions of Scripture Some reason more closely and upon more certain Principles others possibly may proceed upon weaker Grounds and misapply Texts of Scripture and discourse
ardent Love and Charity set our selves not to seek his own but every man another's good as the Apostle exhorteth 1 Cor. 10.24 Secondly if the doing good be so necessary a duty as hath been represented what must we say of those Men that frame to themselves Models of Christianity without putting this duty into its notion There is a sort of Christianity which hath obtained in the world that is made up of Faith and knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries without any respect to Charity and good works Nay have we not heard of a sort of Christianity the very perfection of which seems to consist in the disparaging this duty of doing Good as much as is possible crying it down as a heathen Vertue a poor blind piece of Morality a thing that will no way further our salvation nay so far from that that it often proves a hindrance to it by taking us off from that full relyance and recumbency that we ought to have on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in order to our Salvation But O how contrary are these Doctrines to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles How widely different a thing do they make Christianity to be from what it will appear if we take our notions of it from their Sermons and Practices Is it possible that he that went about doing Good himself made it his meat and drink the business and employment of his life should set so light by it in us that are his followers Is it possible that they that so often call upon us to do Good 1 Tim. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.8 1 Cor. 13.2.13 to be rich in good works above all things to have fervent charity among our selves telling us that all faith is nothing all knowledge of mysteries is nothing all gifts of Prophecy and Miracles are nothing but that Charity is all in all I say is it possible that they should think doing Good so insignificant so unprofitable nay so dangerous a thing as these I spoke of do represent it But I need not farther reprove these Opinions because I hope they find but few Patrons but this seriously ought to be reproved among us viz. that we do not generally lay that stress upon this duty we are speaking of that we ought to do Many are ready enough to acknowledge their Obligations to do Good and count it a very commendable thing and a work that God will bless them the better for yet they are loth to make it an essential ingredient of their Religion they think they may be Religious and serve God without it If they be but sober in their lives and just in their dealings and come to Church at the usual times they have Religion enough to carry them to Heaven though in the mean time they continue covetous and hard and uncharitable without bowels of pity and compassion and make no use of their wealth or their power and interest or their parts and industry or their other Talents committed to them for the doing good in the World Far be it from any Man to pretend to determine what Vertues or degrees of them are precisely necessary to Salvation and what Vertues or degrees of them a man may safely be without But this is certain that Charity and doing Good are none of those that can be spared The Scripture hath every where declared these qualities to be as necessary in order to our Salvation as any condition of the Gospel Nay if we will consult St. Matth. 25. where the Process of the General Judgment is described we shall find these to be the great points that at the last day Men shall be examined upon and upon which the whole case of their eternal state will turn So that if we take the Scripture for our Guide these Men at last will be found to be much mistaken and to have made a very false judgment both of Religion and of their own condition Thirdly From what hath been said about doing Good we may gather wherein that Perfection of Christianity which we are to aspire after doth consist It has been much disputed which is the most perfect life to live in the World as other Men do and to serve God in following our employments and taking care of our families and doing Good offices to our neighbours and discharging all other Duties that our relation to the publick requires of us or to retire from the World and to quit all our secular concernments and wholly to give up our selves to Prayer and Meditation and those other exercises of Religion properly so called This latter kind of life is so magnified by the Romanists in comparison of the other that it hath engrossed to it self the name of Religious None among them are thought worthy to be stiled Religious persons but those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery But whatever excellence may be pretended in this course of life it certainly falls much short of that which is led in a publick way He serves God best that is most serviceable to his Generation And no Prayers or Fasts or Mortifications are near so acceptable a Sacrifice to our Heavenly Father as to do Good in our lives It is true to keep within doors and to attend our devotions though those that are in appearance most abstracted from the world are not always the most devout persons I say this kind of life is the most easie and the safer A man is not then exposed so much to temptations he may with less difficulty preserve his innocence but where is the praise of such a Vertue Vertue is then most glorious and shall be most rewarded when it meets with most trials and oppositions And as for the bravery of contemning the world and all the Pomps of it which they so magnifie in this kind of life alas it is rather an effect of pusillanimity and love of our ease and a desire to be free from cares and burthens than of any true nobleness of mind If we would live to excellent purpose indeed if we would shew true bravery of Spirit and true piety towards God let us live as our blessed Lord and his Apostles did Let us not fly Temptations but overcome them let us not sit at home amusing our selves with our pleasing contemplations when we may be useful and beneficial abroad Let us so order our devotions towards God that they may be a means of promoting our worldly business and affairs and doing Good among men Let us take our fit times of retirement and abstraction that we may the more freely converse with God and pour out our souls before him but let this be only to the end that we may appear abroad again more brisk and lively in vanquishing the Temptations that come in our way and more prompt and readily disposed to every good work This is to imitate our Lord Jesus to walk as we have him for an example This is a life more suitable to the contrivance and the genius of his Religion
up to our selves in store a good Foundation against the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life And this is the Third thing I am to insist on from the Text. I mean not here to trouble you with the Criticisms about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text by disputing whether it should be render'd Foundation as it is in our Translation though to lay up a Foundation seems an unusual way of speaking we do not lay up Foundations but build upon them or whether the word should be taken to signifie the Bond or the Evidence that God hath given us for the performance of his part of the Covenant as it is used by this Apostle elsewhere where he tells us that the Foundation of God standeth sure having this seal that is to say 2 Tim. 2.19 that Covenant or Indenture that God hath made with Mankind standeth sure and hath this Seal put to it for Men do not put Seals to Foundations but to Covenants Or lastly whether the word should be rendred a Treasure so as to read the Text thus laying up to themselves a good Treasure against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc The original word say the Learned is capable or being translated all these ways and the last seems as natural as any for to lay up Treasure to our selves against the time to come is a proper way of speaking and that which our Saviour frequently useth in that very thing we are here treating of But it matters not much which of them we pitch upon for they all come to one sense and that is this That to be very charitable in this World is a good means to secure to our selves a title to eternal happiness in the next But to prevent all misunderstanding that may happen of this point I desire before I speak directly to it to premise these two things First Though we do maintain with the Ancient Church the efficacy of Charity and good works for the furthering a Man's Salvation yet we utterly reject those Doctrines which the Modern Romanists have advanced in this matter The Popish doctrines about good works are these three following that good works are meritorious do deserve the Favour and the Rewards of God Almighty Again that the surplusage of a Man's good works that is to say the merits of so many of his good deeds as are over and above what is sufficient to save his own soul may by the Church be dispensed out to the benefit of others they being part of the Church's treasure and upon this foundation they ground their Indulgences And lastly that good works i. e. the Alms of dying persons that are given to the Church or Clergy will by the means of the Masses and Diriges that they purchase to be said for them be effectual for the freeing their Souls out of the Torments of Purgatory These are the Popish Doctrines concerning good works which we all justly reject as having no foundation in Scripture or good Antiquity and being apparently contrived for the promoting their secular gain and advantage But then as for the necessity or the conduciveness of good works to a Man's Salvation which is all we here plead for I know no good Protestant but doth as earnestly contend for it as any of that Communion Secondly Whatever efficacy we attribute to works of Charity as a means for the obtaining eternal life we would not be understood hereby to exclude the necessary concurrence of other Vertues and Graces to that end It doth not from hence follow that it is an indifferent matter what Religion a Man is of or what kind of life he leads if he be but mighty bountiful to the Poor and do a great deal of good in his life No how acceptable to God soever the Sacrifice of Alms and Charity be yet we are not to expect it shall be available to our Salvation unless it proceed from a pure Heart and be offered with a lively Faith in Jesus Christ and accompanied with a sincere endeavour to obey all God's Commandments Eternal Happiness is not proposed in the Gospel as a reward of any one single Vertue no not of the greatest but of all of them together if indeed there can be any true Vertue where there is not a conjunction of all I say if there can be for St. James seems to affirm that there cannot Whosoever saith he shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point Jam. 2.10 he is guilty of all But now having said this by way of caution to prevent all occasion that any may take from our so earnestly pressing Charity to undervalue and neglect other Duties It cannot be denyed on the other side that very great effects are by our Saviour and his Apostles ascribed to this vertue with respect to Mens Salvation in the other World Luk. 6.30 35. In the 6. of St. Luke our Lord thus adviseth Love saith he your enemies give to him that asketh do good and lend hoping for nothing again so shall your reward be great and ye shall be the children of the most highest Now sure to be entitled to great rewards and to be the children of the most high doth look farther than this present World Our Saviour without doubt means the same thing here that he expresses upon the same occasion in another place viz. they those that you do good to cannot recompence you Luk. 14.14 but you shall be recompenced at the Resurrection of the just Again Luk. 16. the Parable of the unjust Steward that provided so well for himself against a bad time out of his Master's Goods is wholly designed to this purpose and that the Application of it sufficiently shews for our Saviour having said that the Lord of this Steward commended him for his providence and care of himself he thus applies it to all his Disciples verse 9. Wherefore I say unto you make you friends to your selves of the Mammon of unrighteousness i. e. of these false deceitful riches that when you fail you may be received into everlasting habitations plainly declaring that the best provision that rich Men can make for themselves against the time of their death in order to their reception into the other World must be the charitable actions they do with their Wealth while they live here Lastly Luk. 12.33 In another place our Saviour saith the very same thing in effect that is said in the Text for this is his counsel to all that mean to be happy in the next life viz. that they sell that they have that is when the times are such that it is reasonable so to do that they give alms for thereby they provide to themselves bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth To these three Texts of our Saviour's I shall add three others of three of his Apostles which speak