to take the advantage of his Brothers Weakness and ensnare him into Sin nor of a Modest Man to Glory in his Shame and it should be the pleasure only of the Devil to seduce the Innocent Wherefore let these prostitute Wretches reserve their boasting to the proper time when of it self every Sin shall claim its right Father and each particular Vice of its own accord discover the enticer to it then it will appear how much more innocent Satan himself is than this tempter of his Brother to Wickedness when other Mens Consciences shall accuse and other Mens Sins call for Judgment against him amidst the sad Lamentations of many crying about him I owe more of my Sins unto thee O my Companion who temptedst me and to thee my Friend who didst set me thy Example for my Vices than I do to the worst suggestions and strongest Temptations of the Devil Thou art He to whom I owe my Damnation 3. Let us consider the Advantages and great Comforts of a Vertuous and Pious Conversation There can be no Good more truly beneficial or of greater extent for it is so diffusive that all Men may partake of its Influence without ever lessening the store It diminishes nothing from the Sun that by it all Men are enlightned and all Creatures cherish'd nor from Vertue that others are made better by partaking of it And this Good proceeds from the Good Example of an Holy Life a constant and exemplary Devotion in the Worship of God may by his Blessing contribute to an awful Reverence in the whole Congregation and recommend our Holy Religion to those to whom our Indevotion renders it now contemptible A Life of Exemplary Piety is a standing Rebuke to the Prophane and a constant Curb upon the bold Atheist An Exemplary Vertue will either convert the Sinner or shame him at least into an outward compliance of Holiness and will secure the Innocent if it cannot reclaim the Wicked In short a good Example is of that general prevalency and Influence that it calls to all that see it and invites them in the words of the Apostle Come Be ye Followers of me as I am of Christ And when we shall be call'd at the last Day to give up our Account of all that hath been intrusted to us in this Life we may do it with unspeakable joy in the words of our Blessed Saviour Those that thou gavest me Holy Father I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition Those Servants which thou gavest me Those Children thou hast blessed me with Those Friends thou hast made me happy in Not one of them is lost through want of my endeavours to reclaim them None of them hath my Example led astray or my Conversation Corrupted None of them hath my Connivence encourag'd or my Temptations seduc'd into Sin Not one of them Holy Father but by my goings I have endeavour'd to keep Upright This is the comfort which arises here from our doing this Good and which will meet us hereafter in receiving the Reward For they that turn many to Righteousness shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars of Heaven for ever and ever And they shall Cause Joy in Heaven over every Sinner that Repenteth Lastly to Conclude by applying my self more particularly to you Brethren who are Members of these Societies for the Reformation of Manners I have Chosen this subject of the Necessity and Efficacy of a vertuous and pious Example in your Conversation as the most successful means for your carrying on this good Work And God grant that I my self may be endued with a sufficient portion of his Grace to follow those precepts which I have now deliver'd to you Herein alone will you lay a sure foundation for that structure which you are designing This with the Blessing of God is to be the Corner-Stone of that Vertue Piety and true Religion which you are endeavouring to rear up in these Nations Without it you build on the Sand every Tempest will shake and at last throw it down and great will be the Fall thereof to the Triumph of your Adversaries and discouragement of your Friends I have not time left to give you Rules for that Moderation Integrity and Charity which are necessary qualifications for all such as are Sincere in this Undertaking But I must crave your Leave and Patience whilest I mention one Blot with which all such kind of endeavours for Reformation of Manners justly or unjustly will not fail to be Charg'd by all that are Enemies to it from which all its good purposes have been too Commonly blasted and that is Hypocrisy and Sinfulness in yourselves Some of you I see are Young Men and of an Age most liable to those Temptations which you are to encounter with in others and 't is not impossible that yourselves may take the Infection from your applications to cure the Disease But then consider what the Apostle saith Rom. 2.20 Thou that sayst a Man should not commit Adultery dost thou commit Adultery Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege through you says the Apostle is the Name of God Blasphemed among the Gentiles Not only through them who are openly Prophane and Vicious but through you chiefly who having professedly set yourselves to reform these Vices are guilty of the same Wickedness But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom in the day of Judgment than for you the Publicans and Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you for these Sinners Christ came to call to Repentance but the Hope of the Hypocrite shall perish My Charity would oblige me to hope that there are few or none of your number Brethren upon whom this can be justly charg'd but that experience shews us many will be bad in all Societies of Men whatsoever I must therefore here solemnly adjure you let not that Vzza put forth his band to hold the Ark For in such hands Reformation of Manners becomes the greatest Scorn and the most prevailing encouragement to Vice And not to flatter you the best of Men will find this but a difficult and invidious Work for they must expect that their own Infirmities should be narrowly pried into and all their Failures expos'd nakedly to the World It becomes him therefore to be truly a Good Man himself whoever shall undertake this Office of Reforming and Correcting others For 't is Envy or the love of Gain perhaps or the desire of seeming more Holy than your Brethren but not the love of God and service of Vertue which engages you in this Cause if you indulge yourselves in the same Sins which you condemn and punish in other Men. We must therefore be sure to cast the Beam out of our own Eye before ever we offer to pull out the Mote from our Brothers we must be free from Sin before it can be lawful for us to cast the stone at the Adulterer Fatal to Vertue Piety and true Religion have these Corruptions always prov'd in the most Sanctified Professors and the more holy they have appear'd the more destructive hath been their Hypocrisy For I may with confidence affirm that it hath never yet fail'd of being the bane and ruine of all publick Endeavours which have hitherto prov'd successless towards a true Reformation of Manners and that the scandal arising from such ill practices hath produc'd more avow'd Atheists and profess'd champions in Vice than all the open assaults and batteries of the most Wicked-Men against Religion and Vertue And therefore till it shall please God to correct this in all our Magistrates the People will still Sin on The Magistrate may execute the Good Law given into his Charge but his own Example in Sinning shall encourage more than his Punishment can ever deterr from Vice All manner of Zeal will be accounted as a feintshow in Religion and must be look'd upon as down-right Hypocrisy in him who is not serious sincere and firm himself in the Worship of the true God and Atheism and Prophaneness must prevail under such a Governour who lays all the stress of his Religion only in Reforming others himself being abominably Corrupt The consequence of this cannot but be exceeding mischievous for Reformation of Manners doth indeed principally belong to the Magistrate and to you Brethren only as Volunteers acting Lawfully under him His is the Commission and Yours the assistance of him in the Execution of his Office But from hence the Good Example of your own Lives becomes alike necessary to you both and I have thought it my Duty to shew you both as far as I might presume what your own Qualifications ought to be in the first place before ever you can propose to amend others May God in his Infinite Mercy strengthen the hands and confirm the Souls of all them who are truly Good and Sincerely Conscientious in this great Work that some stop may be given to those Vices and Blasphemies and to that General Corruption of Manners which have defil'd and overspread our Land and as for all those in whom this great trust of Reformation is chiefly Lodg'd the Magistrates and Senators may God give them all Grace to forward this Work by reclaiming themselves first of all and by reforming all of their own Number who are Evil-Doers by making them serious themselves in that Holy Religion of which they are Appointed the Defenders under our Prince by making every one of them sober who forbid Intemperance and Pious who prohibit Swearing and Chast who punish Adultery So and not otherwise shall God prosper this good Work in the hands of the Magistrate and of the People And do thou O Lord thus prosper our handy-work for Jesus Christ his sake To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost Three Persons and one God be ascrib'd as is most due all Honour and Power and Glory Amen FINIS
A DISCOURSE OF The Duty of shewing forth a Good Example in our Lives Deliver'd in a SERMON AT St. Mary le Bow Church March the 28th 1698. By WILLIAM WHITFELD Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Thomas Bennet at the Half Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. TO ALL That are Concern'd in the Societies for Reformation of Manners I Will not make any excuse from the suddeness of the warning given me to Preach this Sermon for the Subject requisite for your Auditory is so Constant a Theme of our Pulpits in our own Parish Churches that there are not any of my Brethren I believe unprepar'd in a less time to give you a Seasonable Discourse suitable to the Occasion of your Meeting I have taken the Liberty to alter the Wording of some very few particulars in my Transcribing it for the Press that it may give the same satisfaction to those of your Number who shall Read it as it seem'd to do to some that heard it Preach'd to the end that it may have its due Effect upon all those that are Sincere and Well-minded in this Vndertaking for their instruction as it will most certainly have upon them that are not for their Condemnation Matt. V. 16. Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your Good Works and Glorify your Father which is in Heaven THese Words are part of our Blessed Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount and the Doctrine deliver'd in them concerns all Christians for as Grotius observes it is a multitude of Disciples to whom Christ here Preaches not only the twelve or the seventy but to Disciples of all Conditions Ages and Sexes 'T is likewise all Christians in general who are exhorted by St. Paul to Shine as Lights in the World amidst a Crooked and Perverse Nation Phil. 2.15 We may understand from hence how far these Words of my Text are suitable to the present occasion of our Meeting They are address'd to an undistinguish'd Assembly of Hearers the Representatives of the whole Body of Christians the force of them therefore reaches to ev'ry individual Member of these Societies whatsoever their Characters and Employments are The Subject of them is to teach all those that are Disciples of Christ what their Conversation ought to be in this World that in order to propagate the Faith and Establish the Precepts of the Gospel they must make themselves the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth which Doctrine is most proper for their Instruction who have engag'd themselves in a work of Reformation of Manners for the promoting Virtue Piety and true Religion Now to be the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth may be understood of having something analogous to their good and useful properties of Enlightning and Seas'ning the Excellency of which Qualities consists in spending themselves not for their own but the great Benefit of others intimating that no Disciple of Christ is born for himself alone 'T is required by his Master that his Life should be a publick and communicable Good and himself that thing of all others which is most eminently visible most useful and diffusive of its Vertue conspicuous as the high situation renders the City built upon an Hill and beneficial as Light and Salt are in their usefulness to Mankind Each of these similitudes is a true and lively pattern of a Christians Conversation in this World and signifies something more than our being meerly harmless retir'd and inoffensive in our Lives for so is the Candle that is put under the Bushel and the Salt that hath lost its Savour But then the Salt is good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under Foot of Men having lost its Virtue of Seasoning and Preserving from Corruption and the Light is hid which is not set on a Candlestick that it may give Light to all that are in the House it is useless when it doth not so shine before Men that they may see our Good Works and Glorify our Father which is in Heaven In which Precept I will only observe in short some few things that have been the Subject of another Discourse about the manner of our Light Shining and so pass on to the Substance of what I intend at present to speak to 1. Our Light is to Shine before Men. Men who cannot know the secrets of the Heart and intention of the Mind This Light therefore is to consist in Things done outwardly which they can see and know 2. Our Light is to Shine in Works which may be seen and will remain and not in Works which are to be heard only and vanish 3. This is to be done for the Glory of God and not for our own Vain-Glory Each of these Particulars do immediately respect you Brethren who are of these Societies wherein I may presume that you are so well inclin'd of yourselves and have been so Faithfully instructed by others who have gone more worthily before me in this Exercise that I shall not spend any time in enforcing them but pass by these Circumstances to speak of the Duty it self which I take to be a strict obligation upon ev'ry Christian to lead a Life exemplary and shining in the ways of Vertue true Piety and all manner of Goodness And I look upon this to come home to the present Business of the Day and more nearly to concern you that are of these Societies It is a great Undertaking in which you have voluntarily embark'd the Suppressing of Vice and setting your selves as a Bulwark against an inundation of Prophaneness and Atheism which threatens destruction to these Kingdoms But you ought to consider Brethren with the Wise King going to War whether with your 10000 you are able to meet your Enemy that cometh against you with 20000. for many are the Wild Beasts with which you are to fight many the bold and hardned Vices which you are to encounter you must expect to meet with great Resistance in this Enterprize and to be press'd with all the Storms of Envy and Malice which the Stratagems of the Devil or the Impetuous Lusts of Wicked Men can raise against you Give me leave therefore to recommend unto you one Piece of necessary Armour in your Warfare necessary both to your own Defence and to the Overthrow of your Enemies which is your own good Example going before you in all those Vertues you would encourage and in refraining wholly from those Vices which by the Blessing of God you may be happily instrumental in subduing I do not recommend this as if I fear'd your want of it or suspected your Care of carrying it always about with you but I would fain endeavour to shew you the Force of this single Weapon and its Power far greater than any that is coercive and compulsory to reform the Manners of this licentious Age I would convince you of the wonderful Influence of a good and vertuous Example and of how great Account
vents himself in these Blasphemies of Hell but how strange would this Language appear to sober Men and Serious Christians if Custom had not made it too Familiar to our Ears In like manner may be shown the Dominion of Example over Men's Minds and Actions and our slavish imitation in many Sins of another Nature for there is nothing so Absurd or Wicked to which we may not be led by it Indeed it chiefly takes the Rule when our Reason sits the loosest and therefore governs us more especially in our follies and irregularities but if we consider well we shall find that it is not without Power of giving Laws to the serious and better part of our Life in which therefore the Prevalency of a good Example may be of an inestimable Benefit But yet such is our Natural Propensity to Sin and so much more of Evil than of Good doth this mirror represent unto us in this World that I much fear the disadvantages of a bad Example must be allowed to weigh down the Scale God hath been pleas'd indeed in all Ages of his Church to raise up Persons of an excellent Spirit in times of the most general Corruption Men who not being carried away with the stream of popular Vices make the right use of the Faculties they are indu'd with by Heaven in thinking reasoning and acting for themselves in Justice and Integrity not guided by the Influence of other Men's Example but by the Dictates of Reason and Precepts of Religion Such Persons will always distinguish themselves from a crowd of ill-doers and may by the Blessing of God become the good Genius of the Age they live in But alass in proportion to the great Hâ—â—â— these leaders in Vertue are but very few and genenerally speaking the Chains of this servile Folly of Imitation in ill things Fetter down the most of Mankind to Corrupt Manners and an Irreligious Life II. And now if the Example of others be thus prevailing it concerns all Christians to be careful that their Light shine before Men and that they set forth themselves Examples of Good both in their publick and in their private Capacities Which is my second particular The Example of a Good Life is so far influential as it can be seen known or read of for so Light directs the Eye as far as ever the Eye possibly can follow it And the Lives of the Apostles and other Holy Men cease not at this day to call upon us to imitate them And herein the Duty of ev'ry Christian may be considered two fold 1. A general Duty to lead a good Life to the End that all Men may be benefited and no one scandaliz'd by the Example an obligation to walk with Sincerity and Uprightness in the view of all Men alike for being our Saviour hath Commanded his Disciples to be the Light of the World the whole World hath an undoubted claim to the benefit of their Light 2. A Particular Duty to which ev'ry Christian is bound from the several Relations he bears to others in this Life either in his private Capacity or from any publick Character that is in any station whatever wherein he is immediately appointed by Almighty God to be exemplary to those under his care or where of themselves any shall be prone to Copy after his Actions Thus whosoever shall commit any Wickedness whereby others are in danger of being corrupted Transgresseth this general Duty but with regard to such who stand more nearly related to him he violates his particular Duty For as a Parent the Authority of his vicious Example is more immediately destructive to his Tender Children as a Master of a Family it easily Commands the obsequious Servants If he shall be the Supreme Magistrate his Example is in the highest degree fatal to his Subjects If a Minister of the Gospel sets himself an Example in any Sin He is no long the Shepherd of his Flock but the Pest and Rotteness of it This shews the Reason of our Obligation to both the parts of this Duty and why we are to set forth ourselves Examples for Good in our private capacities and most retir'd conversation as well as in publick view As Christians we are to enlighten all Mankind but these and several other whether Domestick or Publick Characters do much enhaunce the obligation in respect of those to whom we stand thus related for consider'd only as Christians this Duty lies upon us in Common with all our Fellow-Christians but now from these Relations added to that Consideration a good Example is ev'ry particular Man's particular Duty and the performance of it belongs to no one but himself alone No one in the World bears properly a share with the Parent in the Duty and obligations of a Parent no Man can supply the Example of the Magistrate but the Magistrate nor any the care of the Master of the Family but the Master himself And under some one or other of these like Considerations there is no Person but must acknowledge it his Duty to be pious vertuous and exemplary in his Life for his Condition can never be so obscure nor his Conversation private but that He may be a shining Light in it nor can his Example ever become so profligate and contemptible but that there will be those who may be led astray by it If his Character is not large enough to fill a Country or to be look'd upon by the whole City yet to that House he lives in he may give a good and wholesome Example where-ever the pious Christian converses he is in a capacity of enlightning by his Reproofs and Advice and his Children Servants and Companions will by the Grace of God become the better for those Lessons in Vertue and Patterns of Goodness which he shall set them So on the contrary though thy vicious Habits shall have made thee the Scorn of Mankind in so much that the shame which encircles thee keeps all Wise Men at a distance yet Children and Fools are in danger and thy constant Companions in Sin will still be deprav'd and every day grow worse by thy Vices In short it is hardly possible but that the Example of an holy Life however private and mean it be must do some Good and I 'm sure it is utterly impossible but that a vicious Example though it be to the last Degree contemptible must do hurt to Mankind But then the more eminent the station is the farther will the Example be seen and the wider will its Influence spread if Good so much the more Good it does if Evil so much the more Hurt for the City that is set on an Hill cannot be hid And such have you made yourselves Bretheren by placing yourselves in this Station of overlooking other Man's Lives and of reforming their Manners Here indeed is the proper Sphere for Vertue Piety and Goodness to shine brightly in but on the other hand there is no soil more Fruitful for Sin for that seed falls into good
Ground which brings forth Fruit some an hundred some sixty and some thirty fold and such may the Produce of Vice be calculated from any one of your Examples it hardens those you would reform and betrays the innocent who think themselves secure by treading in your steps Such is the return of Vice from a Parent 's or a Master of a Family's Example it springs up with this entrease in his Children and Servants and like some Hereditary or Pestilential Distemper runs in the Blood and through the Family Such is its multiplication whenever it is sown in the Supreme Magistrate or in any Person in an high-place from whence the Great-Man showers down his Vices upon all that are around him the Nation is overspread with his Prophaneness and his Uncleanness as with Waters and his Sin runs down like a mighty Stream It is no longer a single Vice when it is in possession of these strong holds the name of it is Legion for they are many even as many as it hath propagated in many others and each of them goes still on to multiply in their Followers 't is as many as its Imitations are And if there are degrees of Torments in another World proportionable to the Aggravations of Guilt a Sin thus complicated will meet with as great a Punishment and we shall suffer under the Torments of those Men's Damnation which by our Example we have farthered as well as under the weight of our own The reason therefore is twofold for our Obligation to this duty of setting forth ourselves a good Example First because we are answerable for all the pernicious consequences of our Vices Corrupting other Men. And secondly because our good Example may by the Blessing of God become an inducement to others to walk in the Paths of Vertue and Holiness who by seeing our Good Works may Glorify our Father which is in Heaven by transcribing after these Actions of Vertue Piety and Goodness wherein God is chiefly Glorifyed by his Creatures But we must take great heed Brethren that it is not the effect of a Pharisaical Righteousness or of Pride and Ostentation which raises this Spirit in us but a Principle of true Piety and an humble Desire of doing real Good For the one of these is the Religion of the Hypocrite and aims at nothing more than to be seen but the other is the Piety of the hearty Christian and the only end is to serve God and benefit Mankind The one indeed may possibly break out frequently into sudden gusts and flashes and into violent and uneven heats of Holyness but it will end like the crackling of Thornes under the Pot consuming it self in a blaze and noise the sure signs of the weakness and short continuance of the flame But your duty Brethren is to shew forth a Prudent and Uniform Zeal and a well-weigh'd Resolution in the ways of Vertue and Piety 't is to be an eveness of Temper and sedateness of Mind arising from firmness and constancy in the Soul This will make your Light Shine always before Men Burning constantly but never Blazing and will be the Lamp which shall never want its Oyl III. It is likewise every Christians Duty to restrain all Vicious and bad Examples in other Men as far as he can We cannot hope wholly to extirpate Sin in ourselves and much less can we propose to root out all Vice and Prophaneness from the Land But yet we may endeavour to break their Force and by the Blessing of God hinder their Increase and if we unite ourselves strongly to keep them under and resolutely engage ourselves never to suffer them to appear but in their own proper colours of Shame and Confusion we shall in time tread upon their Necks And this is our Duty under all the same Obligations and in all the same Stations of Life both private and publick from the self same Considerations and fully in every circumstance our Duty as much as my last particular was The end of that was to shew forth the Example of a Blameless and Vertuous Conversation for the publick Benefit of Mankind and for the private Good of our Friends and such is the tendency of this Duty that was for the maintenance and improvement of Holyness and for the Honour and Glory of God and this is for the rescuing of oppress'd Vertue and for the discouragement of Prophaneness and Atheism And though we cannot expect as I have said to make all Men sincere Believers and true converts to Vertue for neither had the Holy Example the Divine Precepts nor the Severe Rebukes of our Blessed Saviour such an Effect nevertheless we may endeavour and I trust with some good success to brow-beat the Vicious and Prophane that by our over-civil and servile Compliance with them in their Impieties they may not bear themselves as Conquerours over Religion and Vertue we may blast the Reputation which Vice would get by a Good-Man's smiling upon it and we may do our parts in hindring its spreading into a Fashion under our Protection and Connivence And since we have the Laws of God and Man on our side in fighting in this Cause of true Vertue and Piety it is necessary that we should exert this Power and make the right use of our several Talents that Drunkenness Prophaneness and Uncleanness and all the bold Off-spring of open Wickedness may be kept under this Curb at least of being discountenanc'd and punish'd as far as Authority shall be put into our hands to that purpose We may lawfully joyn our endeavours to confine these Works of Iniquity to their Native Darkness and not suffer them to become Companions of Noon-day For why should it be permitted in a Christian Community to Wicked-Men to appear bare-fac'd and braving in their Shame Daring in their defyance of God Recounting their Victories and boasting of their Trophies in all manner of Vice Any Sin that shall get the ascendant thus far in a Nation becomes a Triumph of the People and is a sure sign that the majority or governing part are themselves deeply touch'd with the same Disease whether it be Prophaneness that they are Prophane or Uncleanness that they are Unclean or Corruption that they are Corrupt as surely as if Men should walk the Streets with their Plague-sores fresh upon them no one would doubt but that the Infection was general and that the Sick of that place out-number'd the Sound And it concerns us not only as Christians but as Lovers of our Country and as Friends to Ourselves and Posterity to be Hearty and Zealous in these Endeavours for we may assure ourselves that every Sin becomes a National Crime whenever it shall be accompanied with these Aggravations the Guilt is only private when it is committed in a Corner and secretly but the publick is to be accountable unto God when by their Impunity and Encouragement they shall make the Sin their own For then it begins to call loudly to Heaven for Punishment and the Cry
it is in directing the Actions of Life aright For such is our Perverseness and Peevishness that we are Obstinate against all Force though it be us'd to keep us from Destruction Such is our Blindness and Pride that Precepts are either obscure to us or else we deaf to them though they admonish us of our Eternal Welfare But now a good Example calls to the Eyes of the Learner and sets forth Virtue in a visible shape before him it insinuates it self where force is denyed an entrance and becomes more beneficial and instructive than Precept as our going along with the Traveller and Accompanying him in his Road is a safer and kinder direction than giving him Rules to find out his way alone our selves taking a contrary Road when we profess at the same time to be going the same Journey Wherefore let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your Good Works and Glorify your Father which is in Heaven From which Words I shall in my following Discourse endeavour to shew you these three Things I. The great Prevalency of Example in General II. That it behoves all Christians to be very careful that they shew forth themselves examples of Good that is of Vertue and Piety both in their publick and in their private Capacities III. That it is their Duty likewise to restrain all vicious and bad Examples in other Men to the utmost of their Power I. To shew the great Prevalency of Example in General There is naturally a strong influence arising from the Example of a Superiour or Companion in whatever we see them do for all Men have the same Affections planted within them and it is not to be expected but that the same Objects should move them and that which hath rais'd a Passion in one Man's Soul should strike upon the same string in another's Thus another Man's Sorrow naturally excites Trouble in the Beholder from whence proceeds Compassion A Friends Joy warms our Heart with Chearfulness and encourageth Mirth Whatever we see done to which either from Nature or from the Corruptness of it we have any Propensity there is so near an alliance in Humanity that it calls upon the same affection in our Souls to bear it company and sympathize with it In this manner doth the force of Example work upon us by having power from any external Objects to move our outward senses and strength from thence to wind up our Passions Indeed it prevails most over us when we make the least use and application of our Reason and accordingly there is one part of our Life not inconsiderable if compar'd with the span-length of our Days but of great moment as it is the Foundation of the whole Structure that is capable of knowing nothing but from Imitation Besides in our Infancy most documents are instill'd into us this way and the first dawning of our Reason shews it self by a ready aptness in acting those things over which we see others do before us These rudiments are sure to take place in the Child and to grow up in the young Man from hence the one is taught to Speak and the other learns in time to Sin And though the Lines which Nature draws in him may be sometimes found weak and unresembling his Father yet the Impressions from an ill Example are commonly strong and lasting and always shew the Parent in the likeness of his Vices From this first Seas'ning we receive the Tincture of our whole Lives and are never afterwards wholly freed from the servitude of Custom and Imitation These alone are the Masters of our tender Years and the great Instructers of our Youth having once taken Possession they Insinuate themselves by gentle and easy steps and their Precepts sink insensibly into our Souls unless it be where our own Corrupted Nature joyns forces with them and there they carry us irresistibly and throw us headlong down the precipice When our Ears have been much us'd to any kind of Imperfection of Speech our Tongues by degrees will frame themselves into the same way of Utterance and from Stammering Lips learn to Stammer But let such Vices stand before us wherein 't is hard to resist and we prone and obedient to meet them half way with delight how rapid then is the stream in which we are carried how impossible is it that we should carry Fire in our Bosom and our Cloaths not be Burnt Or touch pitch and be undefil'd Even so impossible is it that the pernicious Example of any Vice should not leave some footsteps of its Acquaintance wherever it hath had an intimate Conversation and to shew its great Dominion it doth not fail usually to lead us captive even in those things where there is no allurement or temptation from pleasure and much less no inducement from Reason for the doing of which no other plea can be assign'd but that we blindly give ourselves up to Imitation and Naturally turn mimicks Nevertheless to this cause the propagation of many grievous Sins amongst us may be justy Attributed which I am confident would never find a place in the Catalogue of our growing Transgressions but that others are seen to commit them To instance in one too Common and much encreasing amongst us No other reason I suppose can be given for the prophane and Customary Sin of Swearing and for those execrable Oaths and Curses the Vomit which even Children lick up Whatever Blaspheming Fiend was the first Author of them 't is I believe demonstrable that Imitation only keeps them now alive amongst us Men. For it is plain that neither Reason nor Pleasure goes along with any of them there is no delight that I ever heard of in the pronunciation of an Oath nor are there any of those Men I believe who have habituated their Mouths to these Customary Prophanesses that either mean or speak any thing by them For let us Consider any of these Oaths or Curses as Words and parts of Humane Speech and we shall find that Words were first of all taught Mankind to an useful purpose and far different End They were instituted to represent Things in discourse and to stand in the place of those Objects which we cannot bring into sight so often as we have occasion to talk of them But what Object in the Creation doth an Oath or Curse stand for What Being doth an hasty Adjuration of the Name of the Almighty imprint an Idea of in his Mind who hears it Surely it cannot give him any Representation of God if he considers his awful Majesty and Honour and at the same time the Mockery and Contempt to which his Holy Name is expos'd What particular conception then doth it convey of his Mind who speaks by these Oaths and Curses No image surely of his Reason who dares to make sport with that Great Name by which alone he must either be Happy or Miserable to all Eternity It may perhaps be said that it is to express the fury of his Passion that He
enters into the Ears of the Almighty Lord how long wilt thou look on How long Lord forever Arise O God in thy Righteousness and make bare thy Arm to Judgment Behold the Children of Men are all Backsliders They encourage themselves in their own Wickedness and say Tush God shall not see But arise O Lord in thy Fury and scatter them in thine indignation for there is none that dealeth righteously and Loveth Judgment No there is not one Godly Man left This is the Cry of a publick National Guilt that is of unpunish'd spreading and triumphing Vice and Atheism The Justice of God requires that the community should suffer and the Punishment become as general as the Offence His Wisdom Equity and Providence are then at stake and must be made good by a Visible and Publick Execution of Justice which comes down upon a Nation in Famines or Pestilences in the Sword in Earth-quakes and in other great desolations which are the usual Judgments of Heaven and Terrible Vials of God's Wrath pour'd out upon a Sinful Land and polluted People And let us not deceive our selves there are Family Sins as well as National and the same Rule holds with proportion in every private Houshold and lesser Company of Evil-Doers but the more populous the Society is the greater is the danger in permitting the Trangressions of the People to be seen in the Gates of the City and to walk our streets publickly for there is as certain a Contagion in some sorts of Sins which Men catch by looking on as there is in some diseases These therefore are to be suppress'd if they cannot be wholly extinguish'd that they may be like those subterranean Fires which burn slow and prey only upon their own Fewel whilest pent within the Bowels of the Earth but when they once take air break out into a Flame laying all things before them in Ruine And there is no great difficulty if we knew but our own strength to keep any Sin thus far at least under our Feet for there is a Natural shame which attends every dishonest Action Vice is conscious of its own deformity and loathsomness and by instinct requires darkness and a Vizor but it may be flatter'd by great Examples into a good Opinion of its own Excellencies it may be Cherish'd by Complaisance and and harden'd by Familarity into such an Impudence as to appear before the Sun and without its Mask However since God and Nature have stamp'd shame upon every Vice Let us know our own Right and Dominion over it and keep it within its Natural bounds of shame Let every honest and Vertuous Man set his Face directly and boldly against Atheism Prophaneness and Immorality assuring himself that there is no Sin so daring and hardy which a Man resolutely-good and pious may not dash out of Countenance and strike into Confusion I need not tell you Brethren that it is Lawful for you to do this and that it is Just to use all the power which the Laws have vested in you to restrain all such Immoralities for I hope I have prov'd it to be your Duty and believe me it behooves us all to consider seriously the several opportunities and advantages God hath put into our hands to discourage and prohibit Atheism Prophaneness and Debauchery and faithfully to discharge our Duty herein for this likewise is one way of making other Men's Vices our own when they thrive and propagate by our connivence for be we well assur'd that whosoever hath it in his Power to forbid and hinder a Sin and doth not when he can he invites and commands it And thus I have shew'd you how Powerful and Influential example is in most things we do how effectually that teaches and how addicted we are to learn and that therefore it doth concern us all very much to set forth ourselves Examples of Vertue and Holyness and that of consequence it is our Duty to restrain all Examples of Vice and Wickedness in other Men to the utmost of our Power When you shall do this Brethren ye are then what our Blessed Saviour requires his Disciples to be the Light of the World which Shines before Men and the Salt of the Earth which hath not lost its Savour I will conclude with some serious Considerations upon the whole 1. We must not expect from what hath been said that the ill Example of other Men should excuse the Followers though it will most certainly condemn the Authors of it The truth is we readily catch at the least Shadow of excuse for Sinning and so lay hold upon this Pretence The Woman says Adam whom thou gavest me gave one of the Tree and I did Eat But yet neither the Woman's Temptation exempted Adam from the Punishment nor the Serpent's Temptation the Woman And as long as we have a Judgment rightly inform'd to discern between Good and Evil and are constantly instructed from the Word of God what are the Bounds of the one and of the other what we are to do and what to avoid other Men's deviations can be no real excuse for our Transgressing When the Precepts of the Gospel have chalk'd me out the Paths of Vertue and Holyness which I am to walk in it is my own fault and the proneness of my own Vicious Inclinations if I follow him that shews me other ways By this God hath given me sufficient Light to secure me against errour and if I am mislead I seduce my self All Men would commiserate the sad fate of a Blind-Man to be led by others unknowingly to the edge of a Precipice and to break himself in pieces by his fall from thence but they will condemn it for Self-Murder in one that is not Blind Remember therefore young Men that whosoever hath Eyes leads himself to his own Ruine even when he follows another that tempts him to it 2. If we are convinc'd of the certainty of a future State and of the Rewards and Punishments after Death no Argument can be more forcible against our Tempting others to Wickedness than this Consideration that by the same act we encrease our own Guilt and mightily further our Brothers Damnation knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit these things are worthy of Death and yet not only do the same but have Pleasure in them that do them Those indeed who have gone so far beyond the Bounds of Shame know no measure 't is the less wonder therefore that their own and other mens Sins become their triumph and sport that they magnify themselves upon their Victories in the lists of some beastly Vice and make it their mirth to have been successful in tempting others in having compass'd Sea and Land to gain one Proselyte whom they make many-fold more the Child of Hell than themselves But the commonness of this Sin cannot excâ—se it When seriously consider'd it is but a melancholy subject for Mirth and a most shameful one to boast of For it is not the part of an honest Man