for the Jews used to call the Age of the Messias Seculum Futurum or the World to come it is impossible for those to be renewed again unto repentance where the least we can understand by impossible is that it is extreamly difficult for so the word impossible is sometimes used as when our Saviour says it is impossible for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And Ch. 10. 26. the Apostle speaking of the same thing says if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for sins that is they who renounce Christianity since they reject the only way of expiation there remains no more Sacrifice for their Sins St. Peter likewise expresseth himself very severely concerning this sort of Persons 2 Epist. 2. 20 21. For if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that is after they have been brought from Heathenism to Christianity they are entangled therein again and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning He seems loth to say how sad the Condition of such Persons is but this he tells them that it is much worse than when they were Heathens before and he gives the Reason for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them And St. John calls this Sin of Apostasie the Sin vnto Death and tho he do not forbid Christians to pray for them that are guilty of it yet he will not say that they should pray for them 1 Epist. 5. 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a Sin which is not unto Death he shall ask and he shall give him Life for them that sin not unto Death there is a sin unto Death I do not say that he shall pray for it Now that by this sin unto Death the Apostle means Apostasie from the Christian Religion to Idolatry is most probable from what follows Verse 18. we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not that is this Sin unto Death but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not that is he is preserved from Idolatry unto which the Devil had seduced so great a part of Mankind and we know that we are of God and the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is under the dominion of that wicked one viz. the Devil whom the Scripture elsewhere calls the God of this World and we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true that is hath brought us from the Worship of false Gods to the knowledge and Worship of the true God and then he concludes little Children keep your selves from Idols which caution hath no manner of dependence upon what went before unless we understand the Sin unto Death in this Sense and it is the more probable that it is so to be understood because Apostasie is so often in this Epistle to the Hebrews called the Sin by way of Eminency as it is here by St. John whosoever is born of God sinneth not So that at the very best the Scripture speaks doubtfully of the pardon of this sin however that the punishment of it unrepented of shall be very dreadful It seems to be mildly exprest here in the Text If any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But it is the more severe for being exprest so mildly according to the intention of the Figure here used and therefore in the next words this expression of Gods taking no pleasure in such Persons is explained by their utter Ruin and Perdition But we are not of them that draw back unto Perdition And in several parts of this Epistle there are very severe passages to this purpose Ch. 2. 2 3. If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation And Ch. 10. 26 27. If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary he that dispised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the Son of God! c. For we know him who hath said Vengeance is mine I will recompence saith the Lord And again The Lord shall judge his People it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God What can be more severe and terrible than these expressions I will mention but one Text more and that is Rev. 21. 8. where in the Catalogue of great Sinners those who Apostatize from Religion out of fear do lead the Van He that overcometh shall inherit all things which is elsewhere in this Book exprest by continuing faithful unto the Death He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death The fearful and unbelievers and lyars that is they who out of fear relapse into infidelity and abide not in the Truth shall be reckoned in the first rank of Offenders and be punished accordingly And thus I have done with the Four things I propounded to speak to from these words the Nature of Apostasie the several steps and degrees of it the heinous Nature of this Sin the danger of it and the terrible punishment in exposeth Men to And is there any need now to exhort men to hold fast the profession of Faith when the danger of drawing back is so evident and so terrible or is there any reason and occasion for it Certainly there is no great danger amongst us of Mens Apostatizing from Christianity and turning Jews or Turks or Heathens I do not think there is but yet for all that we are not free from the danger of Apostasie there is great danger not of Mens Apostatizing from one Religion to another but from Religion to Infidelity and Atheism and of this worst kind of Apostasie of all other I wish the Age we live in had not afforded us too many instances It is greatly to be lamented that among those who have profest Christianity any should be found that should make it their endeavour to undermine the great Principles of all Religion the Belief of a God and his Providence and of the Immortality of the Souls of Men and a state of Rewards and Punishments after this Life and to bring the most serious matters in the World into contempt and
malice and cruelty of the world could do unto them And if we would consider all things together and mind the invisible things of another world as well as the things which are seen we should easily discern that he who suffers for God and Religion does not renounce his happiness but put it out to Interest upon terms of greatest advantage and does wisely consider his own best and and most lasting interest This is the First II. This will yet more evidently appear if we consider the temporary injoyments of sin together with the mischiefs and inconveniencies attending and consequent upon them That as to the nature of them they are mixt and imperfect as to the duration of them they are short and but for a season and as to the final issue and consquence of them that they end in misery and sorrow 1. As to the nature of them all the pleasures and enjoyments of sin are mixt and imperfect A wicked Man may make a shew of mirth and pleasure but even in laughter his heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness There can be no true and sincere pleasure in any sinful and vitious course tho it be attended with all the Pomp and Splendor of outward Happiness and Prosperity for where ever sin and vice is there must be guilt and whereever guilt is the mind will be restless and unquiet For there are two very troublesome and tormenting passions which are naturally consequent upon guilt Shame and Fear Shame arising from the apprehension of the danger of being discovered and Fear from the apprehension of the danger of being punisht And these do continually haunt the sinner and fill him with inward horror and confusion in his most secret retirements And if sin were attended with no other trouble but the guilt of it a wise Man would not commit it if it were for no other reason but meerly for the peace and quiet of his own mind 2. The enjoyments of sin as to the duration of them are but short Upon this consideration Moses set no great price and value upon them but preferred affliction and suffering in good company and in a good cause before the temporary enjoyments of sin If the enjoyments of this world were perfect in their nature and had no mixture of trouble and sorrow in them Yet this would be a great abatement of them that they are of so short and uncertain a continuance The pleasure of most sins expires with the act of them and when that is done the delight vanisheth I cannot deny but there are several worldly advantages to be purchased by sin which may perhaps be of a longer continuance as Riches and Honours the common purchase of Covetousness and Ambition and of that long train of inferiour Vices which attend upon them and minister unto them but even these enjoyments are in their own nature of an uncertain continuance and much more uncertain for being purchased by indirect and ill means But if the enjoyment of these things were sure to be of the same date with our lives yet how short a duration is that compared with Eternity make the utmust allowance to these things that can be yet we can but enjoy them whilst we are in this world When we come into the world of spirits it will signifie nothing to us to have been rich or great in this world When we shall stand before that highest Tribunal it will not avail us in the least to have been Princes and great Men and Judges on the Earth the poorest Man that ever lived in this world will then be upon equal terms with the bigest of us all For all mankind shall then stand upon a level and those civil distinctions of rich and poor of base and honourable which seem now so considerable and make such a glaring difference amongst Men in this world shall all then be laid aside and moral differences shall only take place All the distinctions which will then be made will be betwixt the good and the bad the righteous and the wicked and the difference betwixt a good and bad Man will be really much greater than ever it seemed to be betwixt the highest and meanest persons in this world And if this be so why should we value the enjoyments of sin at so high a rate which at the best are only considerable and that only in the imagination of vain Men during our abode in this world but bear no price at all in that Country where we must live for ever Or if they did we cannot carry them along with us The guilt of them indeed will follow us with a vengance the injustice and all the ill arts we have used for the getting or keeping of them especially if at once we have made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience If we have changed our Religion or which is much worse if continuing in the profession of it we have betrayed it and the interest of it for the gaining or securing of any of these things we shall find to our sorrow that tho the enjoyments of sin were but for a season the guilt of it will never leave us nor forsake us but will stick close to us and make us miserable for ever But this belongs to the III. Thing I proposed to speak to namely The final issue and consequence of a sinful course which is misery and sorrow many times in this world but most certainly in the next 1. In this world the very best issue and consequence of a sinful course that we can imagin is Repentance And even this hath a great deal of sensible pain and trouble in it for it is many times especially after great sins and a long continuance in them accompanied with much regret and horror with deep and piercing sorrow with dismal and despairing thoughts of God's mercy and with fearful apprehensions of his wrath and vengeance So that if this were the worst consequence of sin which indeed is the best no Man that considers and calculates things wisely would purchase the pleasure of any sin at the price of so much anguish and sorrow as a true and deep repentance will cost him especially since a true repentance does in many cases oblige Men to the restitution of that which hath been gained by sin if it hath been got by the injury of another And this consideration quite takes away the pleasure and profit of an ill gotten Estate Better never to have had it than to be obliged to refund it A wise Man will forbear the most pleasant meats if he know before-hand that they will make him deadly sick and that he shall never be at ease till he have brought them up again No Man that believes the threatnings of God and the judgment of another world would ever sin but that he hopes to retrieve all again by repentance But it is the greatest folly in the world to commit any sin upon this hope for that is to please ones self for the
to give satisfaction to himself in so intricate and perplext a case The constancy of Abraham's Faith was not an obstinate and stubborn Persuasion but the result of the wisest reasoning and soberest consideration So the Text says that he counted the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Reasoned with himself that God was able to raise him up from the Dead so that he debated the matter with himself and gave himself satisfaction concerning the Objections and Difficulties in the case and being fully satisfied that it was a Divine Command he resolved to obey it As for the Objections I have mentioned 1. The horrid appearance of the thing that a Father should Slay his Innocent Son Why should Abraham scruple the doing this at the Command of God who being the Author of Life hath power over it and may resume what he hath given and take away the Life of any of his Creatures when he will and make whom he pleaseth instruments in the execution of his Command It was indeed a hard case considering natural affection and therefore God did not permit it to be executed But the question of God's Right over the lives of Men and of his authority to command any Man to be the instrument of his pleasure in such a case admits of no dispute And the God hath planted strong affections in Parents towards their Children yet he hath written no Law in any Man's heart to the prejudice of his own Soverign Right This is a case alwaies excepted and this takes away the objection of Injustice 2. As to the scandal of it that could be no great objection in those times when the absolute power of Parents over their Children was in it's full force and they might put them to Death without being accountable for it So that then it was no such startling matter to hear of a Father putting his Child to Death nay in much later times we find that in the most ancient Laws of the Romans I mean those of the 12 Tables Children are absolutely put in the power of their Parents to whom is given jus vitae necis a power of Life and Death over them and likewise to sell them for Slaves And tho amongst the Jews this paternal power was limited by the Law of Moses and the judgment of Life and Death was taken out of the Fathers hands except in case of Contumacy and Rebellion and even in that case the Process was to be before the Elders of the City yet it is certain that in elder times the paternal power was more absolute and unaccountable which takes off much from the horror and scandal of the thing as it appears now to us who have no such power And therefore we do not find in the History that this Objection did much stick with Abraham It being then no unusual thing for a Father to put his Child to Death upon a just account And the Command of God who hath absolute Dominion over the Lives of his Creatures is certainly a just reason and no Man can reasonably scruple the doing of that upon the Command of God which he might have done by his own Authority without being accountable for the Action to any but God only 3. As to the Objection from the horrible consequence of the thing Commanded that the Slaying of Isaac seemed to overthrow the Promise which God had made before to Abraham That in Isaac his Seed should be called This seems to him to be the great difficulty and here he makes use of Reason to reconcile the seeming Contradiction of this Command of God to his former Promise So the Text tells us that he offered up his only begotten Son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Reasoning that God was able to raise him up from the Dead So that tho' Isaac were put to Death yet he saw how the Promise of God might still be made good by his being raised from the Dead and living afterwards to have a numerous Posterity There had then indeed been no Instance or Example of any such thing in the World as the Resurrection of one from the Dead which makes Abraham's Faith the more wonderful but he confirmed himself in this Belief by an Example as near the case as might be He Reasoned that God was able to raise him from the Dead from whence also he had received him in a Figure This I know is by Interpreters generally understood of Isaac's being delivered from the Jaws of Death when he was laid upon the Altar and ready to be Slain But the Text seems not to speak of what happend after but of something that had passed before By which Abraham confirmed himself in this peruasion that if he were Slain God would raise him up again And so the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the past time from whence also he had received him in a Figure So that this Expression plainly refers to the miraculous Birth of Isaac when his Parents were past the Age of having Children which was little less than a Resurrection from the Dead And so the Scripture speaks of it Rom. 4. 17. Abraham believed God who quickeneth the Dead and calleth the things which are not as if they were and not being weak in Faith he considered not his own Body which was Dead and a little before the Text speaking of the miraculous Birth of Isaac and therefore sprang there of one and him as good as dead as many as the Stars of Heaven From whence as the Apostle tells us Abraham Reasoned thus That God who gave him Isaac at first in so miraculous a manner was able by another miracle to restore him to life again after he was Dead and to make him the Father of many Nations He Reasoned that God was able to raise him up from the Dead from whence also he had received him in a Figure Thus you see the reasonableness of Abraham's Faith he pitched upon the main difficulty in the Case and he answered it as well as was possible And in his reasoning about this matter he gives the utmost weight to every thing that might tend to vindicate the Truth and faithfulness of God's Promise and to make the Revelations of God consistent with one another and this tho' he had a great Interest and a very tender concernment of his own to have biassed him For he might have argued with great appearance and probability the other way But as every Pious and Good Man should do he reasoned on God's side and favoured that part Rather than disobey a Command of God or believe that his promise should be frustrate he will believe any thing that is credible and possible how improbable soever Thus far Faith will go but no farther From the believing of plain Contradictions and Impossibilities it alwayes desires to be excused Thus much for explication of the Words which I hope hath not been altogether unprofitable because it tends to clear a point which
word with joy and endure for a while but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they are offended not that they did not believe the Word but their Faith had taken no deep root and therefore it withered The weakness and wavering of Mens Faith makes them unstable and inconstant in their course because they are not of one mind but divided betwixt two interests that of this world and the other and the double minded man as St. James tells us is unstable in all his ways It is generally a true rule so much wavering as we see in the actions and lives of Men so much weakness there is in their Faith and therefore he that would know what any Man firmly believes let him attend to his actions more than to his professions If any Man live so as no Man that heartily believes the Christian Religion can live it is not credible that such a Man doth firmly believe the Christian Religion He says he does but there is a greater evidence in the case than words there is Testimonium rei the Man's actions are to the contrary and they do best declare the inward sense of the Man Did Men firmly believe that there is a God that governs the world and that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge it in righteousnes and that all mankind shall shortly appear before him and give an account of themselves and all their actions to him and that those who have kept the Faith and a good Conscience and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world shall be unspeakably and eternally happy but the fearful and unbelieving those who out of fear or interest have deserted the Faith or lived wicked lives shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone I say were Men firmly persuaded of these things it is hardly credible that any Man should make a wrong choice and forsake the ways of Truth and Righteousness upon any temptation whatsoever Faith even in temporal matters is a mighty principle of action and will make Men to attempt and undergo strange and difficult things The Faith of the Gospel ought to be much more operative and powerful because the Objects of Hope and Fear which it presents to us are far greater and more considerable than any thing that this world can tempt or terrifie us withall Would we but by Faith make present to our minds the invisible things of another world the happiness of Heaven and the terrors of Hell and were we as verily persuaded of them as if they were in our view how should we despise all the pleasures and terrors of this world And with what ease should we resist and repel all those temptations which would seduce us from our duty or draw us into sin A firm and unshaken belief of these things would effectually remove all those mountains of difficulty and discouragement which Men fancy to themselves in the ways of Religion To him that believeth all things are possible and most things would be easie 2. Another reason of this wrong choice is want of consideration for this would strengthen our Faith and make it more vigorous and powerful And indeed a Faith which is well rooted and establishould doth suppose a wise and deep consideration of things and the want of this is a great cause of the fatal miscarriage of Men that they do not sit down and consider with themselves seriously how much Religion is their interest and how much it will cost them to be true to it and to persevere in it to the end We suffer our selves to be governed by sense and to be transported with present things but do not consider our future and lasting interest and the whole duration of an immortal Soul And this is the reason why so many men are hurried away by the present and sensible delights of this world because they will not take time to think of what will be hereafter For it is not to be imagined but that the Man who hath seriously considered what sin is the shortness of its pleasure and the eternity of its punishment should resolve to forsake sin and to live a holy and virtuous life To conclude this whole Discourse If Men did but seriously believe the great principles of Religion the Being and the Providence of God the immortality of their Souls the glorious rewards and the dreadful punishments of another world they could not possibly make so imprudent a choice as we see a great part of mankind to do they could not be induced to forsake God and Religion for any temporal interest and advantage to renounce the favour of Heaven and all their hopes of happiness in another world for any thing that this world can afford nay not for the whole world if it were offered to them For as our Saviour reasons in this very case of forsaking our Religion for any temporal interest or consideration what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul When ever any of us are tempted in this kind let that solemn declaration of our Saviour and our Judge be continually in our minds he that confesseth me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven but whosever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels And we have great cause to thank God to see so many in this day of tryal and hour of temptation to adhere with so much resolution and constancy to their Holy Religion and to prefer the keeping of Faith and a good Conscience to all earthly considerations and advantages And this very thing that so many hold their Religion so fast and are so loth to part with it gives great hopes that they intend to make good use of it and to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it which alone can give us peace whilst we live and comfort when we come to die and after death secure to us the possession of a happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls To which God of his Infinite Goodness bring us all for his mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THE main Scope and design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to persuade the Jews who were newly converted to Christianity to continue stedfast in the profession of that Holy and Excellent Religion which they had embraced and not to be removed from it either by the subtile insinuations of their Brethren the Jews who pretended that they were in possession
this case of Renouncing our Religion unless it be very sudden and surprizing out of which a Man recovers himself when he comes to himself as St. Peter did or the Suffering be so extream as to put a Man besides himself for the time so as to make him say or do any thing I say in this case of Renouncing God and his Truth God will not admit Fear for a just excuse of our Apostacy which if it be unrepented of and the Scripture speaks of Repentance in that case as very difficult will be our Ruin And the Reason is because God has given us such fair Warning of it that we may be prepared for it in the Resolution of our Minds And we enter into Religion upon these Terms with a professed Expectation of Suffering and a firm Purpose to lay down our Lives for the Truth if God shall call us to it If any Man will be my Disciple says our Lord let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me And again He that loveth Life it self more than me is not worthy of me And if any Man be ashamed of me and of my Words in this unfaithful Generation of him will I be ashamed before my Father and the Holy Angels And therefore to master and subdue this Fear our Saviour hath propounded great Objects of Terror to us and a Danger infinitely more to be dreaded which every Man runs himself wilfully upon who shall quit the Profession of his Religion to avoid Temporal Sufferings Luke 12. 4 5. Fear not them that can kill the Body but after that have nothing that they can do But I will tell you whom you shall fear Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Yea I say unto you Fear him And to this dreadful Hazard every Man exposeth himself who for the Fear of Men ventures thus to offend God These are the Fearful and Vnbelievers spoken of by St. John Who shall have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Thus you see how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering against all Temptations and Terrors of this World I should now have proceeded to the next Particular namely that we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion But this I shall not now enter upon A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised IN these Words I have told you are contained these Two Parts I. An Exhortation To hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto Because he is faithful that hath promised I am yet upon the First of these the Exhortation to Christians to be Constant and Steady in the Profession of their Religion Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And that we might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this Exhortation I shewed I. Negatively what is not meant and intended by it And I mentioned these Two Particulars 1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend that those who are capable of enquiring into and examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion should not have the liberty to do it Nor 2. That when upon due Enquiry and Examination Men are settled as they think and verily believe in the True Faith and Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offered against their present Persuasion for Reason when it is fairly offered is always to be heard I proceeded in the Second Place Positively to explain the Meaning of this Exhortation And to this purpose I proposed to consider 1. What it is that we are to hold fast viz. the Confession or Profession of our Faith The Ancient Christian Faith which every Christian makes Profession of in his Baptism Not the Doubtful and Uncertain Traditions of Men nor the Imperious Dictates and Doctrines of any Church which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures imposed upon the Christian World though with never so confident a Pretence of the Antiquity of the Doctrines or of the Infallibility of the Proposers of them And then I proceded in the Second Place to shew how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And I mentioned these following Particulars as probably implied and comprehended in the Apostles Exhortation 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men contrary to plain Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind under both which Heads I gave several Instances of Doctrines and Practices imposed with great Confidence upon the World some without and others plainly against Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind 3. Against all the Temptations and and Terrours of the World the Temptations of Fashion and Example and of worldly Interest and Advantage and against the Terrours of Persecution and Suffering for the Truth Thus far I have gone I shall now proceed to the Two other Particulars which remain to be spoken to 4. We are to hold fast the profession of our Faith against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion God hath plainly declared to us in the holy Scriptures upon what Terms and Conditions we may obtain Eternal Life and Happiness and what will certainly exclude us from it That except we repent i. e. without true Contrition for our Sins and forsaking of them we shall perish That without Holiness no man shall see the Lord That no Fornicator or Adulterer or Idolater or Covetous Person nor any one that lives in the practice of such sins shall have any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God or Christ. There is as great and unpassable a Gulf fixt between Heaven and a wicked Man as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell And when Men have done all they can to debauch and corrupt the Christian Doctrine it is impossible to reconcile a wicked Life with any reasonable and well-grounded Hopes of Happiness in another World No Church hath that Priviledge to save a Man upon any other Terms than those which our Blessed Saviour hath declared in his holy Gospel All Religions are equal in this That a bad Man can be Saved in none of them The Church of Rome pretends their Church and Religion to be the only safe and sure way to Salvation and yet if their Doctrine be true concerning the Intention of the Priest and if it be not they are much to blame in making it an Article of their Faith I say if it be true that the Intention
them Blessed who believed his Resurrection upon the forcible evidence of their own Senses but Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed They might be Happy in the Effects of that Faith but there is not praise no reward belongs to that Faith which is wrought in Man by so violent and irresistable an evidence It was the great commendation of Abraham's Faith that against hope he believed in hope he believed the promise of God concerning a thing in it self very improbable but it is no commendation at all to believe the things which we have seen because they admit of no manner of dispute no Objection can be offered to shake our assent unless we will run to the extremity of Scepticism for if we will believe any thing at all we must yield to the Evidence of Sense This does so violently enforce our assent that there can be no Virtue in such a Faith And as this would take away the Virtue of Faith so it would very much lessen that of our Obedience It is hardly to be imagined that any Man who had seen the Blessed condition of good Men in another World and been an Eye-witness of the intolerable Torments of Sinners should ever after be tempted knowingly to do any thing that would deprive him of that Happiness or bring him into that place of Torment Such a sight could not chuse but affect a Man as long as he lived and leave such impressions upon his mind of the indispensable necessity of a Holy life and of the infinite danger of a wicked course that we might sooner believe that all the Men in the World should conspire to kill one another than that such a Man by consenting to any deliberate Act of Sin should wilfully throw himself into those flames No his Mind would be continually haunted with those Furies he had seen Tormenting Sinners in another World and the fearful Shrieks and Outcries of Miserable Souls would be perpetually ringing in his Ears and the Man would have so lively and terrible an imagination of the danger he was running himself upon that no Temptation would be strong enough to conquer his fears and to make him careless of his life and actions after he had once seen how fearful a thing it was to fall into the hands of the living God So that in this case the Reason of Mens obedience would be so violent that the virtue of it must be very little for what praise is due to any Man not to do those things which none but a perfect mad Man would do For certainly that Man must be besides himself that could by any Temptation be seduced to live a wicked life after he had seen the state of good and bad Men in the other World the glorious Rewards of Holiness and Virtue and the dismal event of a vitious and sinful course God hath designed this Life for the Trial of our Virtue and the exercise of our obedience but there would hardly be any place for this if there were a free and easie passage for us into the other World to see the true state of things there What argument would it be of any Mans virtue to forbear sinning after he had been in Hell and seen the miserable end of Sinners But I proceed to the III. And Last Observation namely That notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assent yet it is a Principle of sufficient force and power to Govern our lives we walk by Faith Now that the belief of any thing may have its Effect upon us it is requisite that we be satisfied of these Two things 1. Of the Certainty and of the great Concernment of the thing for if the thing be altogether uncertain it will not move us at all we shall do nothing towards the obtaining of it if it be good nor for the avoiding and preventing of it if it be evil and if we are certain of the thing yet if we apprehend it to be of no great Moment and Concernment we shall be apt to slight it as not worth our regard but the Rewards and Punishments of another world which the Gospel propounds to our Faith are fitted to work upon our Minds both upon account of the Certainty and Concernment of them For 1. We have sufficient Assurance of the Truth of these things as much as we are well capable of in this state Concerning things future and at a distance we have the dictates of our Reason arguing us into this Perswasion from the consideration of the Justice of the Divine Providence and from the promiscuous and unequal Administration of things in this world from whence wise men in all ages have been apt to conclude that there will be another state of things after this life wherein rewards and punishments shall be equally distributed We have the general consent of Mankind in this matter and to assure us that these Reasonings are true we have a most credible Revelation of these things God having sent his Son from Heaven to declare it to us and given us a sensible demonstration of the thing in his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Aseension into Heaven so that there is no kind of evidence wanting that the thing is capable of but only our own sense and experience of these things of which we are not capable in this present state And there is no Objection against all this but what will bring all things into uncertainty which do not come under our Senses and which we our selves have not seen Nor is there any considerable Interest to hinder Men from the Belief of these things or to make them hesitate about them for as for the other World if at last there should prove to be no such thing our Condition after Death will be the same with the Condition of those who disbelieve these things because all will be extinguish'd by Death but if things fall out otherwise as most undoubtedly they will and our Souls after this Life do pass into a State of Everlasting Happiness or Misery then our great Interest plainly lies in preparing our selves for this State and there is no other way to secure the great Concernments of another World but by believing those things to be true and governing all the Actions of our Lives by this Belief For as for the Interests of this Life they are but short and transitory and consequently of no Consideration in comparison of the things which are Eternal and yet as I have often told you setting aside the case of Persecution for Religion there is no real Interest of this World but it may be as well promoted and pursued to as great Advantage nay usually to a far greater by him that believes these things and lives accordingly than by any other Person For the Belief of the Rewards and Punishments of another World is the greatest Motive and Encouragement to Virtue and as all Vice is naturally attended with some temporal Inconvenience so the Practice of all Christian
among whom we should shame as Lights The same Argument St. Peter useth 1 Pet. 2. 11 12. I beseech you as Pilgrims and Strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles that is Considering that you are among Strangers and Enemies and therefore ought to be very careful to bring no Scandal upon your Holy Profession among those who will be ready to take all advantages against you Particularly we who pretend to the same Heavenly Country must be kind to one another and whilst we live among Strangers have no Quarrels amongst our Selves In a Strange Country it useth to be a Mighty Endearment of Men to one another that they are of the same Country and Fellow Citizens and this alone is commonly sufficient to unite their Affections and to link their Interests together But how little of this is to be seen among Christians how shamefully do they Quarrel among themselves in the midst of Enemies and Strangers as if they had no Relation to one another and never expected to meet at last in the same Country and there to live together for ever III. Let us be as Patient and Chearful as we can under all the Troubles and Afflictions which we meet with in this Life They who are in Strange Countries must expect to encounter many Injuries and Affronts and to be put to great Difficulties and Hardships Those which are lighter and more tolerable we must bear with Chearfulness Upon a Journey Men use to put on all the Pleasantness they can and to make Sport of all the Inconveniences of the Ways and Weather and little cross Accidents that befall them And thus if we had but the Art and Wisdom to do it many of the lesser Inconveniences of Humane Life might well enough be play'd off and made matter rather of Mirth and Diversion than of Melancholy and serious Trouble But there are some Evils and Calamities of Humane Life that are too heavy and serious to be Jested withal and require the greatest Consideration and a very great degree of Patience to Support us under them and enable us to bear them Decently as the Loss of Friends and dearest Relations as the Loss of an Only Son grown up to be well fixt and settled in a Virtuous Course and promising all the Comfort to his Parents that they themselves can wish These certainly are some of the Greatest Evils of this World and hardest to be born For Men may pretend what they will to Philosophy and Contempt of the World and of the Perishing Comforts and Enjoyments of it to the Extirpation of their Passions and an Insensibility of these things which the weaker and undisciplin'd part of Mankind keep such a Wailing and Lamentation about but when all is done Nature hath framed us as we are and hath planted in our Nature strong Inclinations and Affections to our Friends and Relations and these Affections are as naturally moved upon such Occasions and pluck every String of our Hearts as violently as extream Hunger and Thirst do gnaw upon our Stomachs And therefore it is foolish for any Man to pretend to love things mightily and to rejoyce greatly in the Enjoyment of them and yet to be so easily contented to lose them and to be parted from them This is to separate things which Nature hath strongly linked together Whatever we mightily love does thereby in some sort become part of our Selves and it cannot hand loose to us to be separated and divorced from us without Trouble no more than a Limb that is vitally and by strong Ligaments united to the Body can be dropt off when we please or rent from the Body without Pain And whoever pretends to have a mighty Affection for any thing and yet at the same time does pretend that he can contentedly and without any great Sense or Signification of Pain bear the Loss of it does not talk like a Philosopher but like an Hypocrite and under a grave Pretence of being a Wise is in truth an Ill-natured Man For most certainly in proportion to our Love of any thing will be our Trouble and Grief for the Loss of it So that under these great and heavier Strokes we had need both of Faith and Patience And indeed nothing but the firm Belief of a better Country that is an Heavenly another Life after this and a blessed Immortality in another World is sufficient to support a Man in the few and evil Days of his Pilgrimage and to sustain his Spirit under the great Evils and Calamities of this Life But This fully answers all That the Afflictions and Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us Nay that if we bear these Afflictions patiently and with a due Submission to the Will of God especially our Sufferings for his Truth and Cause it will certainly increase our Happiness in the other World and work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory IV. The Consideration of our Present Condition and of our Future Hopes should set us above the Fondness of Life and the slavish Fears of Death For our Minds will never be raised to their true pitch and hight till we have in some good measure conquered these two Passions and made them subject to our Reason As for this present Life and the Enjoyments of it What is it that we see in them that should make us so strangely to dote upon them Quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido This World at the best is but a very Indifferent place and he is the wisest Man that bears himself towards it with the most Indifferent Mind and Affection that is always willing to leave it and yet patient to stay in it as long as God pleaseth And as for Death tho' the Dread of it be natural yet why should the Terrors of it be so very surprising and amazing to us after we have consider'd that to a good and pious Soul it is no other but the Gate of Heaven and an Entrance into Eternal Life We are apt to wonder to see a Man undaunted at the approach of Death and to be not only contented but chearful at the Thoughts of his Departure out of this World this Sink of Sin and Vale of Misery and Sorrow Whereas if all things be duly considered it is a greater Wonder that Men are so patient to Live and that they are not glad of any fair Excuse and Opportunity of getting out of this strange Country and retiring Home and of ridding themselves of the Troubles and Inconveniences of Life For considering the numerous Troubles and Calamities we are liable to in a long Pilgrimage there are really but Three Considerations that I can readily think of that can make this World and our present Condition in it in any good measure tolerable to a wise Man viz. That God governs the World That we are not always to stay in it That there is a Happiness designed
and reserved for us in another place which will abundantly recompense and make amends to us for all the Troubles and Sufferings of this Life And yet it is strange to see how fast most Men cling to Life and that even in Old Age how they catch at every Twig that may but hold them up a little while and how fondly they hanker after a miserable Life when there is nothing more of Pleasure to be enjoy'd nothing more of Satisfaction to be expected and hoped for in it When they are just putting in to the Port and one would think should rejoyce at their very Hearts that they see Land yet how glad would they be then of any cross Wind that would carry them back into the Sea again As if they loved to be tost and were fond of Storms and Tempests Nay the very best of us even after we have made that acknowledgment of David I am a Stranger and a Sojourner with thee as all my Fathers were are apt with him to be still importuning God for a little longer Life O spare me a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more And when God hath granted us this Request then we would be spared yet a little longer But let us remember that God did not design us to continue always in this World and that he hath on purpose made it so uneasie to us to make us willing to leave it and that so long as we linger here below we are detained from our Happiness While we are present in the Body we are absent from the Lord. This Consideration made St. Paul so desirous to be dissolved because he knew that when his Earthly House of this Tabernacle was dissolved he should have a much better Habitation a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens This was that which made him so full of Joy and Triumph at the Thoughts of his leaving the World 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready says he to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge shall give me in that day Nay the Consideration of this tho but obscurely apprehended by them did raise the Spirits of the wiser and better Heathen and fill them with great Joy and Comfort at the Thoughts of their Dissolution With what Constancy and Evenness of Mind did Socrates receive the Sentence of Death And with what excellent Discourse did he entertain his Friends just before he drank off the Fatal Cup and after he had taken it down whilst Death was gradually seizing upon him One can hardly without a very sensible Transport read Cato's Discourse concerning his Death as it is represented by Tully in his Book of Old Age. I am says he transported with a Desire of seeing my Fore-fathers those Excellent Persons of whom I have Heard and Read and Written and now I am going to them I would not willingly be drawn back into this World again Quod si quis Deus mihi largiatur ut ex hac aetate repuerascam in cunis vagiam valde recusem If some God would offer me at this Age to be a Child again and to cry in the Cradle I would earnestly refuse it and upon no terms accept it And now that my Race is almost run and my Course just finished how loth should I be to be brought back and made to begin again For what Advantage is there in Life Nay rather what Labour and Trouble is there not in it But let the Benefit of it be what it will there is certainly some Measure of Life as well as of other things and Men ought to know when they have enough of it O praeclarum diem cum in illud animorum consilium caetumque proficiscar cum ex hac turbâ colluvione discedam O Blessed and Glorious Day when I shall go to that great Council and Assembly of Spirits and have got out of this Tumult and Sink And if a Heathen who had but some obscure Glimmerings of another Life and of the Blessed State of departed Souls could speak thus chearfully of Death how much more may We who have a clear and undoubted Revelation of these things and to whom Life and Immortality are brought to Light by the Gospel V. We should alway prefer our Duty and the keeping of a good Conscience before all the World because it it is in truth infinitely more valuable if so be our Souls be immortal and do survive in another World and we must there give a strict Account of all the Actions done by us in this Life and receive the Sentence of Eternal Happiness or Misery according to the things done in the Body whether they be Good or whether they be Evil. For as our Saviour argues concerning the case of denying him and his Truth to avoid temporal Suffering and Death What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul When we are tempted by temporal Interest and Advantage or by the Fear of present Loss and Suffering to deny or dissemble our Religion to do any thing that is sinful in any kind and contrary to our Duty and Conscience let us ask our selves What will be the Profit and Advantage of it What if for fear of Men and what they can do to me I incur the Wrath and Displeasure of Almighty God This is infinitely more to be dreaded and these Frowns are a thousand times more terrible than the bitterest Wrath and cruelest Malice of Men. What if to preserve this frail and mortal Body I shall evidently hazard the Loss of my Immortal Soul and to escape a Temporal Inconvenience I forfeit Everlasting Happiness and plunge my self into Eternal Misery and Ruine Would not this be a wild Bargain and a mad Exchange for any Temporal Gain and Advantage to lose the things that are Eternal And for the pleasing of our selves for a little while to make our selves miserable for ever If we confess our selves to be Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth and are perswaded of the Promises of God concerning an Heavenly Country where we hope to arrive after the few and evil days of our Pilgrimage are over let us not by complying with the Humours of Strangers and the vitious Customs and Practices of an Evil World bar our selves of our Hopes and banish our selves from that happy Place to which we all profess we are going We pretend to be travelling towards Heaven but if we make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience we destroy our own Hopes of ever arriving at that happy Port. We do not live up to our Expectation of a future Happiness if the unseen Glories of another World do not raise us above all the Temptations
to him did and suffered more for us than any Man ever did for his best Friend If we should be reduced to Poverty and Want let us consider Him Who being Lord of all had not where to lay his head who being rich for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich If it should be our lot to be persecuted for righteousness sake and exercised with Sufferings and Reproaches Let us look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who endured the Cross and despised the shame for our sakes In a Word can we be discontented at any Condition or decline it in a good Cause when we consider how Contented the Son of God was in the meanest and most destitute how Meek and Patient in the most afflicted and suffering Condition how he welcomed all Events and was so perfectly resigned to the Will of his Heavenly Father that whatever pleased God pleased him And surely in no Case is Example more necessary than in this to engage and encourage us in the discharge of so difficult a Duty so contrary to the bent and inclination of Flesh and Blood A bare Precept of Self-denial and a peremptory Command to sacrifice our own Wills our Ease our Pleasure our Reputation yea and Life it self to the Glory of God and the Maintenance of his Truth would have sounded very harsh and severe had not the Practice of all this been mollified and sweetned by a Pattern of so much advantage by One who in all these respects denied himself much more than it is possible for us to do by One who might have insisted upon a greater Right who abased himself and stooped from a greater Hight and Dignity who was not forced into a condition of Meanness and Poverty but chose it for our sakes who submitted to Suffering tho he had never deserved it Here is an Example that hath all the Argument and all the Encouragement that can be to the imitation of it Such an Example is of greater force and authority than any Precept or Law can be So that well might our Lord thus going before us command us to follow him and say If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For if He thus denied himself well may We who have much less to deny but much more Cause and Reason to do it He did it voluntarily and of choice but it is our Duty He did it for our sakes we do it for our own His own Goodness moved him to deny himself for us but Gratitude obligeth us to deny our selves in any thing for him We did not in the least deserve any thing from him but he hath wholly merited all this and infinitely more from us So that such an Example as this is in all the Circumstances of it cannot but be very powerful and effectual to oblige us to the Imitation of it But the Reasonableness of this Precept will yet farther appear if we consider in the Third place That God hath promised to all Sincere Christians all needful Supplies of his Grace to inable them to the discharge of this difficult Duty of Self-denial and to support and comfort them therein For the Spirit of Christ dwells in all Christians and the same Glorious Power that raised up Jesus from the Dead works mightily in them that believe Eph. 1. 19. That ye may know saith St. Paul speaking in general to all Christians what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Of our selves we are very weak and the Temptations and Terrors of the world very powerful but there is a Principle residing in every true Christian able to bear us up against the World and the power of all its Temptations Whatsoever is born of God saith St. John overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Ye are of God little children and have overcome because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world And this Grace and Strength was afforded to the first Christians in a most Extraordinary manner for their Comfort and Support under Sufferings So that they were strengthned with all Might according to God's glorious Power unto all long-suffering with joyfulness as St. Paul prays for the Colossians Ch. 1. 11. And these Consolations of the Spirit of God this Joy in the Holy Ghost was not peculiarly appropriated to the first times of Christianity but is still afforded to all sincere Christians in such degree as is necessary and convenient for them And whenever God exerciseth Good Men with tryals more than humane and such Sufferings as are beyond the ordinary rate of humane Strength and Patience to bear he hath promised to endue them with more than humane Courage and Resolution So St. Paul tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10. 13. He is faithful that hath promised who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it And why should we be daunted at any Suffering if God be pleased to increase our Strength in proportion to the Sharpness of our Sufferings And Blessed be God many of our persecuted Brethren at this day have remarkably found this comfortable Assistance and Support tho many likewise have fallen through fear and weakness as it also hapen'd in the Primitive times But where ever this Promise is not made good it is as I have formerly said by reason of some Fault and Failing on our part Either Men were not Sincere in the profession of the Truth and then no wonder If when Tribulation and Persecution ariseth because of the Word they are offended and fall off Or else they were too Confident to themselves and did not seek God's Grace and Assistance and relie upon it as they ought and thereupon God hath left them to themselves as he did Peter to convince them of their own Frailty and rash Confidence and yet even in that case when there is Truth and Sincerity at the bottom there is no Reason to doubt but that the Goodness of God is such as by some means or other to give to such persons as he did to Peter the oportunity of recovering themselves by Repentance and a more stedfast Resolution afterwards 4. If we consider in the last place that our Saviour hath assured us of a Glorious and Eternal Reward of all our Self-denial and Sufferings for him a Reward Infinitely beyond the proportion of our Sufferings both in the Degree and Duration of it Now the clear discovery of this is peculiarly owing to the Christian Religion and the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And as our Blessed Saviour hath assured us of
this Blessed State of Good Men in another World so hath he likewise assur'd us that greater Degrees of this Happiness shall be the Portion of Those who suffer for Him and his Truth Mat. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven And nothing surely can be more Reasonable than to part with things of Small Value for things infinitely Greater and more Considerable to forego the Transient Pleasures and Enjoyments and the Imperfect Felicities of this World for the Solid and Perfect and Perpetual Happiness of a Better Life and to exchange a Short and Miserable Life for Eternal Life and Blessedness in a word to be content to be driven Home to be banisht out of this World into our own Native Country and to be violently thrust out of this Vale of Tears into those Regions of Bliss where are Joys unspeakable and full of Glory This Consideration St. Paul tells us supported the Primitive Christians under their sharpest and heaviest Sufferings 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause says he we faint not because our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal So that our Sufferings bear no more Proportion to the Reward of them than Finite does to Infinite than Temporal to Eternal between which there is no Proportion All that now remains is to draw some useful Inferences from what hath been Discoursed concerning this great and difficult Duty of Self-denial for the sake of Christ and his Religion and they shall be these following 1. To acknowledg the great Goodness of God to us that all these Laws and Commands even the Hardest and Severest of them are so reasonable God as he is our Maker and gave us our Beings hath an Entire and Soveraign Right over us and by virtue of that Right might have imposed very Hard things upon us and this without the giving Account to us of any of his matters and without propounding any Reward to us so vastly disproportionable to our Obedience to him But in giving Laws to us he hath not made use of this Right The most Severe and Rigorous Commands of the Gospel are such that we shall be infinitely Gainers by our Obedience to them If we deny our selves any thing in this World for Christ and his Religion we shall in the next be considered for it to the Utmost not only far beyond what it can Deserve but beyond what we can Conceive or Imagine For this perishing Life and the transitory Trifles and Enjoyments of it we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken an uncorruptible Crown which fadeth not away Eternal in the Heavens For these are Faithful Sayings and we shall Infallibly find them true That if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him if we be persecuted for righteousness sake great shall be our reward in Heaven if we part with our Temporal Life we shall be made Partakers of Eternal Life He that is firmly persuaded of the Happiness of the next World and believes the Glory which shall then be revealed hath no Reason to be so much offended at the Sufferings of this Present time so long as he knows and believes that these Light afflictions which are but for a Moment will work for him a for more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Seeing this is required of every Christian to be always in a Preparation and Disposition of Mind to deny our selves and to take up our Cross if we do in good earnest resolve to be Christians we ought to fit down and consider well with our selves what our Religion will cost us and whether we be content to come up to the Price of it If we value any thing in this World above Christ and his Truth we are not worthy of him If it come to this that we must either renounce Him and his Religion or quit our temporal Interests if we be not ready to forego these nay and to part even with Life it self rather than to forsake Him and his Truth we are not worthy of him These are the Terms of our Christianity and therefore we are required in Baptism solemnly to renounce the World And our Saviour from this very Consideration infers That all who take upon them the Profession of his Religion should consider seriously beforehand and count the cost of it Luke 14. 28. Which of you says he intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Or what King going to war with another King doth not sit down and consult whether with 10000 he be able to meet him that cometh against him with 20000. So likewise whosoever he be that forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my Disciple You see the Terms upon which we are Christians we must always be prepared in the Resolution of our Minds to deny our selves and take up our Cross tho we are not Actually put upon this Tryal 3. What hath been said is matter of great Comfort and Encouragement to all those who deny themselves and suffer upon so good an Account of whom God knows there are too great a Number at this Day in several parts of the World Some under actual Sufferings such as cannot but move Compassion and Horror in all that hear of them Others who are fled hither and into other Countries for Refuge and Shelter from one of the sharpest Persecutions that perhaps ever was if all the Circumstances of it be duly considered But not to enlarge upon so unpleasant a Theam they who suffer for the Truth and Righteousness sake have all the Comfort and Encouragement that the best Example and the greatest and most glorious Promises of God can give They have the best Example in their view Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith who endured the Cross and despised the Shame So that how great and terrible soever their Sufferings be they do but tread in the Steps of the Son of God and of the best and holiest Man that ever was and He who is their great Example in Suffering will likewise be their Support and their exceeding great Reward So that tho Suffering for Christ be accounted great Self-denyal and he is graciously pleased so to accept it because in denying things Present and Sensible for things Future and Invisible we do not only declare our Affection to him but our great Faith and Confidence in him by shewing that we rely upon his Word and venture all upon the Security which he offers us in