and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be done in Religion and often to be repeated many graces and virtues are to be long practised and exercised before the contrary vices will be subdued and before we arrive to a confirmed and setled state of goodness such a state as can only give us a clear and comfortable evidence of the sincerity of our resolution and repentance and of our good condion towards God We have many lusts to mortifie many passions to govern and bring into order much good to do to make what amends and reparation we can for the much evil we have done We have many things to learn and many to unlearn to which we shall be strongly prompted by the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the remaining power of ill habits and customs and perhaps we have satisfaction and restitution to make for the many injuries we have done to others in their persons or estates or reputations In a word we have a body of sin to put off which clings close to us and is hard to part with we have to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our graces and virtues to add to our faith knowledg and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God We have to be useful to the world and exemplary to others in a holy and virtuous conversation our light is so to shine before men that others may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven And do we think all this is to be done in an instant and requires no time That we may delay and put off to the last and yet do all this work well enough Do we think we can do all this in time of sickness and old age when we are not fit to do any thing when the spirit of a man can hardly bear the infirmities of nature much less a guilty conscience and a wounded spirit Do we think that when the day hath been idlely spent and squandered away by us that we shall be fit to work when the night and darkness comes When our understanding is weak and our memory frail and our will crooked and by a long custom of sinning obstinately bent the wrong way what can we then do in Religion what reasonable or acceptable service can we then perform to God when our candle is just sinking into the socket how shall our light so shine before men that others may see our good works Alas the longest life is no more than sufficient for a man to reform himself in to repent of the errors of his life and to amend what is amiss to put our souls into a good posture and preparation for another world to train up our selves for eternity and to make our selves meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it and if we have time whether we shall have a heart to it and the assistance of Gods grace to go thorough with it God indeed hath been graciously pleased to promise pardon to repentance but he hath no-where promised life and leisure the aids of his grace and holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance He hath no-where promised acceptance to meer sorrow and trouble for sin without fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life He hath no-where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give him good words and are at last contented to condescend so far to him as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer Many have gone thus far in times of affliction and sickness as to be awakened to a great sense of their sins and to be mightily troubled for their wicked lives and to make solemn promises and professions of becoming better and yet upon their deliverance and recovery all hath vanished and come to nothing and their righteousness hath been as the morning cloud and as the early dew which passeth away And why should any man meerly upon account of a death-bed repentance reckon himself in a better condition than those persons who have done as much and gone as far as he and there is no other difference between them but this that the
that we are what we ought to be and do what in reason we ought to do that which best becomes us and which according to the primitive intention of our Being is most natural for whatever is natural is pleasant Now the practice of piety towards God and of every other grace and virtue which Religion teacheth us are things reasonable in themselves and what God when he made us intended we should do And a man is then pleased with himself and his own actions when he doth what he is convinced he ought to do and is then offended with himself when he goes against the light of his own mind by neglecting his duty or doing contrary to it for then his conscience checks him and there is something within him that is uneasie and puts him into disorder As when a man eats or drinks any thing that is unwholsom it offends his stomach and puts his body into an unnatural and a restless state For every thing is then at rest and peace when it is in that state in which Nature intended it to be and being violently forced out of it it is never quiet till it recover it again Now Religion and the practice of its virtues is the natural state of the soul the condition to which God designed it As God made man a Reasonable creature so all the acts of Religion are reasonable and suitable to our nature And our souls are then in health when we are what the Laws of Religion require us to be and do what they command us to do And as we find an unexpressible ease and pleasure when our body is in its perfect state of health and on the contrary every distemper causeth pain and uneasiness so is it with the soul When Religion governs all our inclinations and actions and the temper of our minds and the course of our lives is conformable to the precepts of it all is at peace But when we are otherwise and live in any vitious practice how can there be peace so long as we act unreasonably and do those things whereby we necessarily create trouble and disturbance to our selves How can we hope to be at ease so long as we are in a sick and diseased condition Till the corruption that is in us be wrought out our spirits will be in a perpetual tumult and fermentation and it is as impossible for us to enjoy the peace and serenity of our minds as it is for a sick man to be at ease He may use what arts of diversion he will and change from one place and posture to another but still he is restless because there is that within him which gives him pain and disturbance There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Such men may dissemble their condition and put on the face and appearance of pleasantness and contentment but God who sees all the secrets of mens hearts knows it is far otherwise with them There is no peace saith my God to the wicked 2. Another ground of peace which the religious man hath is That he hath made God his Friend Now Friendship is peace and pleasure both It is mutual love and that is a double pleasure And it is hard to say which is the greatest the pleasure of loving God or of knowing that he loves us Now whoever sincerely endeavours to please God may rest perfectly assured that God hath no displeasure against him for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance shall behold the upright that is he will be favourable to such persons As he hates the workers of iniquity so he takes pleasure in them that fear him in such as keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them And being assured of his favour we are secured against the greatest dangers and the greatest fears and may say with David Return then unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid What can reasonably trouble or discontent that man who hath made his peace with God and is restored to his favour who is the best and most powerful friend and can be the sorest and most dangerous enemy in the whole World 3. By being religious we do most effectually consult our own interest and happiness A great part of Religion consists in moderating our appetites and passions and this naturally tends to the composure of our minds He that lives piously and virtuously acts according to Reason and in so doing maintains the present peace of his own mind and not only so but he lays the foundation of his future happiness to all Eternity For Religion gives a man the hopes of eternal life And all pleasure does not consist in present enjoyment there is a mighty pleasure also in the firm belief and expectation of a future good and if it be a great and a lasting good it will support a man under a great many present evils If Religion be certainly the way to avoid the greatest evils and to bring us to happiness at last we may contentedly bear a great many afflictions for its sake For though all suffering be grievous yet it is pleasant to escape great dangers and to come to the possession of a mighty good though it be with great difficulty and inconvenience to our selves And when we come to heaven if ever we be so happy as to get thither it will be a new and a greater pleasure to us to remember the pains and troubles whereby we were saved and made happy So that all these put together are a firm foundation of peace and comfort to a good man There is a great satisfaction in the very doing of our duty and acting reasonably though there may happen to be some present trouble and inconvenience in it But when we do not only satisfie our selves in so doing but likewise please him whose favour is better than life and whose frowns are more terrible than death when in doing our duty we directly promote our own happiness and in serving God do most effectually serve our own interest what can be imagined to minister more peace and pleasure to the mind of man This is the second thing Religion furnisheth us with all the true causes of peace and tranquillity of mind Thirdly The Reflection upon a religious and virtuous course of life doth afterwards yield a mighty pleasure and satisfaction And what can commend Religion more to us than that the remembrance of any pious and virtuous action gives us so much contentment and delight So that whatever difficulty and reluctancy we may find in the doing of it to be sure there is peace and satisfaction in the looking back upon it No man ever reflected upon himself with regret for having done his duty to God or man for having lived soberly or righteously or godly in this present world Nay on the contrary the conscience
defer his repentance and the change of his life for one moment I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments This day this hour for ought we know may be the last opportunity of making our peace with God Therefore we should make haste out of this dangerous state as Lot did out of Sodom lest fire and brimstone overtake us He that cannot promise himself the next moment hath a great deal of reason to seize upon the present opportunity While we are lingering in our sins if God be not merciful to us we shall be consumed Therefore make haste sinner and escape for thy life lest evil overtake thee 6. Lastly An apprehension of the possibility of making this change God who designed us for happiness at first and after we had made a forfeiture of it by sin was pleased to restore us again to the capacity of it by the Redemption of our blessed Lord and Saviour hath made nothing necessary to our happiness that is impossible for us to do either of our selves or by the assistance of that grace which he is ready to afford us if we heartily beg it of him For that is possible to us which we may do by the assistance of another if we may have that assistance for asking And God hath promised to give his holy Spirit to them that ask him So that notwithstanding the great corruption and weakness of our natures since the grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared it is not absolutely out of our power to leave our sins and to turn to God For that may truly be said to be in our power which God hath promised to enable us to do if we be not wanting to our selves So that there is nothing on Gods part to hinder this change He hath solemnly declared that he sincerly desires it and that he is ready to assist our good resolutions to this purpose And most certainly when he tell us that he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live that he would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the truth that he would not that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He means plainly as he saith and doth not speak to us with any private reserve or nice distinction between his secret and revealed will that is he doth not decree one thing and declare the contrary So far is it from this that if a sinner entertain serious thoughts of returning to God and do but once move towards him how ready is he to receive him This is in a very lively manner described to us in the Parable of the Prodigal Son who when he was returning home and was yet a great way off what haste doth his Father make to meet him he saw him and had compassion and ran And if there be no impediment on Gods part why should there be any on ours One would think all the doubt and difficulty should be on the other side Whether God would be pleased to shew mercy to such great offenders as we have been But the business doth not stick there And will we be miserable by our own choice when the Grace of God hath put it into our power to be happy I have done with the first thing The course which David here took for the reforming of his life I thought on my ways I proceed to the II. The success of this course It produced actual and speedy reformation I turned my feet unto thy testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments And if we consider the matter throughly and have but patience to reason out the case with our selves and to bring our thoughts and deliberations to some issue the conclusion must naturally be the quitting of that evil and dangerous course in which we have lived For sin and consideration can not long dwell together Did but men consider what sin is they would have so many unanswerable objections against it such strong fears and jealousies of the miserable issue and event of a wicked life that they would not dare to continue any longer in it I do not say that this change is perfectly made at once A state of sin and holiness are not like two Ways that are just parted by a line so as a man may step out of the one full into the other but they are like two Ways that lead to two very distant places and consequently are at a good distance from one another and the farther any man hath travelled in the one the further he is from the other so that it requires time and pains to pass from the one to the other It sometimes so happens that some persons are by a mighty conviction and resolution and by a very extraordinary and over-powering degree of Gods grace almost perfectly reclaimed from their sins at once and all of a sudden translated out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son And thus it was with many of the first Converts to Christianity as their prejudices against the Christian Religion were strong and violent so the holy Spirit of God was pleased to work mightily in them that believed But in the usual and setled methods of Gods grace evil habits are mastered and subdued by degrees and with a great deal of conflict and many times after they are routed they rally and make head again and 't is a great while before the contrary habits of grace and virtue are grown up to any considerable degree of strength and maturity and before a man come to that confirmed state of goodness that he may be said to have conquered and mortified his lusts But yet this ought not to discourage us For so soon as we have seriously begun this change we are in a good way and all our endeavours will have the acceptance of good beginnings and God will be ready to help us and if we pursue our advantages we shall every day gain ground and the work will grow easier upon our hands and we who moved at first with so much slowness and difficulty shall after a while be enabled to run the ways of Gods commandments with pleasure and delight I have done with the two things I propounded to speak to from these words The course here prescribed and the success of it And now to perswade men to take this course I shall offer two or three Arguments 1. That Consideration is the proper act of Reasonable creatures This argument God himself uses to bring men to a consideration of their evil ways Isa 46.8 Remember and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye transgressors To consider our ways and to call our sins to remembrance is to shew our selves men 'T is the great fault and infelicity of a great many that they generally live without thinking and are acted by their present
he has it And accordingly good and holy men in Scripture do every where with great confidence and assurance appeal to God concerning the integrity and sincerity of their hearts towards him Job and David Hezekiah and Nehemiah in the old Testament and in the new St. Paul for himself and Timothy makes this solemn profession of their sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have our conversation in the world And I cannot call to mind so much as any one passage in Scripture from whence it can be collected that any good man ever doubted of his own sincerity And to say the truth it would not be modesty but impudence in any man to declare that he suspects himself of hypocrisie good men have always abhorred the thoughts of it Ye have heard of the patience of Job and yet he could not bear to have his integrity questioned It was a brave and a generous speech of his Till I dye I will not remove my integrity from me And yet it hath so happened that this is become a very common doubt among religious people and they have been so unreasonably cherished in it as to have it made a considerable evidence of a mans sincerity to doubt of it himself It is indeed said in Scripture Jer. 17.9 That the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it which is true concerning our future intentions and actions no man knowing how his mind may change hereafter Little did Hazael think that ever he should do those things which the Prophet foretold him But though this be true in it self yet 't is not the meaning of that Text. For the Prophet in that chapter plainly makes use of this consideration of the falshood and deceitfulness of mans heart as an argument to take off the people of Israel from trusting in the arm of flesh and in those promises which were made to them of forreign assistance from Egypt Because men may pretend fair and yet deceive those that rely upon them for the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked and none but God knows whether mens inward intentions be answerable to their outward professions for he searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins And this I verily believe is all that the Prophet here intends That there is a great deal of fraud and deceit in the hearts of bad men so that no man can rely upon their promises and professions but God knows the hearts of all men But now because God alone knows the hearts of all men and the sincerity of their intentions towards one another doth it from hence follow that it is a thing either impossible or very difficult for any man to know the sincerity of his own present intentions and actions To make any such conclusion were to condemn the generation of Gods children those holy and excellent men in Scripture Job and David and Hezekiah and St. Paul who do so frequently appeal to God concerning their own integrity And surely when the Apostle saith No man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him he plainly supposes that every man is conscious to the motions and intentions of his own mind I have insisted the longer upon this that I might from the very foundation destroy an imagination which is not only untrue in it self but has likewise been a very great hindrance to the peace and comfort of many good men III. Let us enquire whence it comes to pass that notwithstanding this so many persons are at so great uncertainty about their spiritual condition For the clearing of this matter we will distinctly consider these three things First The grounds of the false hopes and confidence of men really bad concerning their good condition Secondly The causeless doubts and jealousies of men really good concerning their bad condition And thirdly The just causes of doubting in others As for the troubles and fears of men who are notoriously bad and live in the practice of known vices these do not fall under our consideration If they be troubled about their condition it is no more than what they ought to be and if they be only doubtful of it it is less than they ought to be To persons in this condition there is only counsel to be given to leave their sins and become better but no comfort to be administred to them till first they have followed that counsel For till they reform if they think themselves to be in a bad condition they think just as they ought and as there is great reason and no body should go about to perswade them otherwise First then we will consider the grounds of the false hopes and confidence of men really bad concerning their good condition I do not now mean the worst of men but such as make some shew and appearance of goodness It is very unpleasing to men to fall under the hard opinion and censure of others but the most grievous thing in the world for a man to be condemned by himself and therefore it is no wonder that men use all manner of shifts to avoid so great an inconvenience as is the ill opinion of a mans self concerning himself and his own condition Some therefore rely upon the profession of the Christian Faith and their being baptized into it But this is so far from being any exemption from a good life that it is the greatest and most solemn obligation to it Dost thou believe the Doctrine of the Gospel thou of all men art inexcusable if thou allowest thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Others trust to their external Devotion they frequent the Church and serve God constantly they pray to him and hear his word and receive the blessed Sacrament But let us not deceive our selves God is not mocked All this is so far from making amends for the impiety of our lives that on the contrary the impiety of our lives spoils all the acceptance of our devotions He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law that is from obeying it even his prayer shall be an abomination Others who are sensible they are very bad depend very much upon their repentance especially if they set solemn times apart for it And there is no doubt but that a sincere repentance will put a man into a good condition But then it is to be considered that no repentance is sincere but that which produceth a real change and reformation in our lives For we have not repented to purpose if we return again to our sins It is well thou art in some measure sensible of thy miscarriage but thou art never safe till thou hast forsaken thy sins thy estate and condition towards God is not chang'd till thou hast really alter'd thy self and the course of thy life Others satisfie themselves with the exercise of some particular graces and vertues Justice and Liberality and Charity And is it not
to go on and fortifie their good resolutions to be more vigilant and watchful over themselves to strive against sin and to resist it with all their might And according to the success of their endeavours in this conflict the evidence of their good condition will every day clear up and become more manifest The more we grow in grace and the seldomer we fall into sin and the more even and constant our obedience to God is so much the greater and fuller satisfaction we shall have of our good estate towards God For the path of the just is as the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever I shall only make two or three Inferences from what hath been discoursed upon this Argument and so conclude 1. From hence we learn the great danger of sins of Omission as well as Commission Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God The mere neglect of any of the great duties of Religion of piety towards God and of kindness and charity to men though we be free from the commission of great sins is enough to cast us out of the favour of God and to shut us for ever out of his kingdom I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink sick and in prison and ye visited me not therefore depart ye cursed 2. It is evident from what hath been said That nothing can be vainer than for men to live in any course of sin and impiety and yet to pretend to be the Children of God and to hope for eternal life The Children of God will do the works of God and whoever hopes to enjoy him hereafter will endeavour to be like him here Every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure 3. You see what is the great mark and character of a mans good or bad condition whosoever doth righteousness is of God and whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Here is a plain and sensible evidence by which every man that will deal honestly with hâ—mself may certainly know his own condition and then according as he finds it to be may take comfort in it or make haste out of it And we need not ascend into heaven nor go down into the deep to search out the secret counsels and decrees of God there needs no anxious enquiry whether we be of the number of Gods elect If we daily mortifie our lusts and grow in goodness and take care to add to our faith and knowledg temperance and patience and charity and all other Christian graces and vertues we certainly take the best course in the world to make our calling and election sure And without this it is impossible that we should have any comfortable and well grounded assurance of our good condition This one mark of doing righteousness is that into which all other signs and characters which are in Scripture given of a good man are finally resolved And this answers all those various phrases which some men would make to be so many several and distinct marks of a child of God As whether we have the true knowledg of God and divine illumination for hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments Whether we sincerely love God for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments And whether God loves us for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance will behold the upright Whether we be regenerate and born of God for whosoever is born of God sinneth not Whether we have the Spirit of God witnessing with our Spirits that we are the children of God for as many as have the Spirit of God are led by the Spirit and by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh Whether we belong to Christ and have an interest in him or not for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof In a word Whether the promise of heaven and eternal life belong to us for without holiness no man shall see the Lord but if we have our fruit unto holiness the end will be everlasting life So that you see at last the Scripture brings all to this one mark viz. holiness and obedience to the Laws of God or a vicious and wicked life In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Let us then deal impartially with our selves and bring our lives and actions to this tryal and never be at rest till the matter be brought to some issue and we have made a deliberate judgment of our condition whether we be the children of God or not And if upon a full and fair examination our consciences give us this testimony that by the grace of God we have denyed ungodliness and worldly lusts and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world we may take joy and comfort in it for if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But if upon the search and tryal of our ways our case appear clearly to be otherwise or if we have just cause to doubt of it let us not venture to continue one moment longer in so uncertain and dangerous a condition And if we desire to know the way of Peace the Scripture hath set it plainly before us Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Though our case be very bad yet it is not desperate This is a faithful saying and worthy of all men to be embraced that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And he is still willing to save us if we be but willing to leave our sins and to serve him in holiness and righteousness the remaining part of our lives We may yet be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God We who have ventured so long upon the brink of ruin may yet by the infinite mercies of God and by the power of his grace be rescu'd from the base and miserable slavery of the Devil and our lusts into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And thus I have endeavoured with all the plainness I could to represent every man to himself and to let him clearly see what his condition is towards God and how the case of his soul and of his eternal happiness stands And I do verily believe that what I have said in this matter is the truth of God
at last upon this as the greatest felicity of humane life and the only good use that is to be made of a prosperous and plentiful fortune Eccl. 3.12 I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and do good in his life And a greater and a wiser than Solomon hath said that it is more blessed to give than to receive Thirdly To employ our selves in doing good is to imitate the highest Excellency and Perfection It is to be like God who is good and doth good and to be like him in that which he esteems his greatest glory and that is his Goodness It is to be like the Son of God who when he took our nature upon him and lived in the World went about doing good It is to be like the blessed Angels whose great employment it is to be ministring spirits for the good of others To be charitable and helpful and beneficial to others is to be a good Angel and a Saviour and a God to men And the Example of our blessed Saviour more especially is the great Pattern which our Religion propounds to us And we have all the reason in the World to be in love with it because that very Goodness which it propounds to our imitation was so beneficial to our selves when we our selves feel and enjoy the happy effects of that good which he did in the World this should mightily endear the Example to us and make us forward to imitate that love and kindness to which we are indebted for so many blessings and upon which all our hopes of happiness do depend And there is this considerable difference between our Saviour's charity to us and ours to others He did all purely for our sakes and for our benefit whereas all the good we do to others is a greater good done to our selves They indeed are beholden to us for the kindness we do them and we to them for the opportunity of doing it Every ignorant person that comes in our way to be instructed by us every sinner whom we reclaim every poor and necessitous man whom we relieve is a happy opportunity of doing good to our selves and of laying up for our selves a good treasure against the time which is to come that we may lay hold on eternal life By this principle the best and the happiest man that ever was governed his life and actions esteeming it a more blessed thing to give than to receive Fourthly This is one of the greatest and most substantial Duties of Religion and next to the love and honour which we pay to God himself the most acceptable service that we can perform to him It is one half of the Law and next to the first and great Commandment and very like unto it like to it in the excellency of its nature and in the necessity of its obligation For this commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his brother also The first Commandment excels in the dignity of the object but the Second hath the advantage in the reality of its effects For our righteousness extendeth not to God we can do him no real benefit but our charity to men is really useful and beneficial to them For which reason God is contented in many cases that the external Honour and Worship which by his positive commands he requires of us should give way to that natural duty of Love and Mercy which we owe to one another And to shew how great a value he puts upon Charity he hath made it the great testimony of our Love to himself and for want of it rejects all other professions of love to him as false and insincere If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Fifthly This is that which will give us the greatest comfort when we come to die It will then be no pleasure to men to reflect upon the great estates they have got and the great places they have been advanced to because they are leaving these things and they will stand them in no stead in the other world Riches profit not in the day of wrath But the conscience of well-doing will refresh our Souls even under the very pangs of death With what contentment does a good man then look upon the good he hath done in his life and with what confidence doth he look over into the other world where he hath provided for himself bags that wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not For though our estates will not follow us into the other world our good works will though we cannot carry our riches along with us yet we may send them before us to make way for our reception into everlasting habitations In short works of Mercy and Charity will comfort us at the hour of death and plead for us at the day of Judgment and procure for us at the hands of a merciful God a glorious recompence at the resurrection of the just Which leads me to the Last consideration I shall offer to you which is the reward of doing good both in this world and the other If we believe God himself he hath made more particular and encouraging promises to this grace and virtue than to any other The advantages of it in This World are many and great It is the way to derive a lasting blessing upon our estate Acts of charity are the best Deeds of Settlement We gain the prayers and blessings of those to whom we extend our charity and it is no small thing to have the blessing of them that are ready to perish to come upon us For God hears the prayers of the destitute and his ear is open to their cry Charity is a great security to us in times of evil and that not only from the special promise and providence of God which are engaged to preserve from want those that relieve the necessities of others but likewise from the nature of the thing which makes way for its own reward in this world He that is charitable to others provides a supply and retreat for himself in the day of distress For he provokes mankind by his example to like tenderness towards him and prudently bespeaks the commiseration of others against it comes to be his turn to stand in need of it Nothing in this World makes a man more and surer friends than charity and bounty and such as will stand by us in the greatest troubles and dangers For a good man says the Apostle one would even dare to die 'T is excellent counsel of the Son of Sirach Lay up thy treasure according to the Commandment of the Most high and it shall bring thee more profit than gold Shut up thy alms in thy store-house and it shall deliver thee from all affliction It shall fight for thee against thine enemies better than a mighty shield and strong spear It hath sometimes happened that the obligation that men have laid upon others by their Charity hath in case of danger and extremity done them more kindness than all the rest of their Estate could do for them and their Alms have literally delivered them from death But what is all this to the endless and unspeakable Happiness of the Next life where the returns of doing good will be vastly great beyond what we can now expect or imagine For God takes all the good we do to others as a debt upon himself and he hath estate and treasure enough to satisfie the greatest obligations we can lay upon him So that we have the Truth and Goodness and Sufficiency of God for our security that what we scatter and sow in this kind will grow up to a plentiful harvest in the other World and that all our pains and expence in doing good for a few days will be recompensed and crowned with the Joys and Glories of Eternity FINIS Bishop Sanderson Juven Vell. Patere Seneca * Tully * Aristides Antonin lib. 10.