Religion so worthy of God to reveal so proper for us to be taught in as that system of true Piety and unaffected Morality that he has brought to Light WHEN I say Morality I do not understand Morality in the usual lame and defective signification of it as it regards our outward behaviour towards Man But rather the whole of our profound submission and obedience to the first and second Table of the Law And in this true and comprehensive notion I affirm that it was our Saviour's design to advance it unto practice and reputation amongst Mankind THE Jewish Religion take it all together was rather Gods indulgence and toleration than his law and commandment And tho it had the Seal of his Authority yet it was not in it self the best Religion but the best that they could bear When they returned from Aegypt the impressions of their servitude were not so soon worn off but that their proneness to Idolatry and former slavish dispositions remain'd And ever and anon upon all occasions for a long time after they relapse into their superstitions and Aegyptian Ceremonies IF we view them in the best periods of the Jewish Oeconomy their Religion was defective Many things were plainly permitted or tacitely conniv'd at as Polygamy and Divorce and some degrees of uncharitableness and revenge which natural and uncorrupted reason dislikes and condemns But when Our Saviour appear'd it was then high time to recover the World from their beggarly elements and to give us the true notions of Almighty God the spirituallity of his Worship and the extent of his universal Empire over Jew and Gentile and to form our manners by that accurate rule of his Doctrine and Example By which we were not only assured of Eternal Life but partly in a manner put in the possession of it A scheme of Christian Morals is given us in the Sermon on the Mount so pure and angelical that at first view we are forc'd to acknowledge that it came down from the Father of lights We are exhorted to whatsoever things are true honest just pure lovely and of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise to think on these things TO advance and facilitate the practice of this Morality was the design of our Saviour's undertaking when we consider the Gospel in its uniform strength and vigour as also to calm the consciences of men to remove our fears and to teach us to approach the Throne of God with a generous assurance of mind to bind us in the strongest bonds of Society amongst our selves and to liberate us from the yoke of Moses Law This was our Saviour 's business when he took upon him our Nature when we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth 1. I SAY one great part of his design was to form us into true Morals This is the comprehensive character by which good men are distinguished in the Holy Scriptures In this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Thus runs the description of Job that he was a man perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil AND David's religious man walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart The great character of Moses was that he was very meek above all the men upon the face of the Earth And Cornelius the Centurion is said to be a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much alms to the People and prayed to God alway BUT all along the New Testament the Pharisees are stigmatiz'd that they were cold and indifferent in the great Morals of Religion while they were very zealous and pragmatick to advance the rituals of it They were blind guides who strain'd at a Gnat and swallowed a Camel They tithed Mint Annise and Cummin and neglected the weightier matters of the Law WHEN the whole of Religion is summ'd up in the most compendious manner there is nothing else nam'd but the love of God and our neighbour Or the most ingenuous expressions of both What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And our Saviour tells us that on the Love of God and our neighbour hangs all the Law and Prophets And this is the same Doctrine that is preached by S. Paul for Love is the fullfiling of the Law And therefore we find that the Prophets upon all occasions did endeavour to withdraw the thoughts of the Jews from the External drudgery of their Religion to that Immortal Deity that was Worshiped and to convince them that if their Sacrifices were not attended with the Love of God and their Neighbour they could not be acceptable The blood of Bulls and of Goats was no entertainment for him that made Heaven and Earth A Soul disengaged from the corruptions of Life and animated in all its actions with true zeal and sincerity was the only acceptable Sacrifice AND the Rituals of Christianity if they are destitute of their true Spirit and Life are of no greater value Our Faith without works is dead in the language of S. James And S. Peter compares our Baptism if separated from Purity of Manners to the washing of Swine And our Communicating without Devotion is by S. Paul said to be our coming together to condemnation It is the pure heart and clean hands the modest and ingenuous temper of Spirit that perfume our Faith our Prayers and our Assemblies When we look into the New Testament this Doctrine runs through all its parts and breaths almost in every Line the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And for this very purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil IN all ages men have endeavoured to cross and oppose this part of our Saviour's design and to reconcile by little distinctions plausible and artificial tricks their Religion to their Lusts Some Religion they must have and that which renders them truly acceptable unto God penetrates too deep into the Soul searches the Hearts and Reins and teaches them to live in opposition to the corrupt Spirit of the World and to lead captive secret thoughts and imaginations unto the obedience of Christ The impressions of the Divinity are folded up in the Soul of Man the apprehensions and fears of an after reckoning haunt us whether we will or not
Enthusiasm THEY that acknowledge no Mysteries in the Gospel despise its Original and Divinity and by consequence they trample on the Priesthood also and therefore the followers of Socinus on this account are odious that they have forsaken the Belief of all Ages and what was received in the Christian Churches since the first Plantations of Christianity they have stript our Religion naked of its Mysteries and made the Holy Scriptures to bend and bow to that Scheme and Model that they have formed in their own fancies AND then again if this Well be so deep we can neither furnish our selves nor others with these Waters of Life without earnest Prayer profound Meditation and great Humility a serious and close application of Spirit So S. Paul advises Timothy Be in those things and it is an Apostolick Precept Give thy self to Reading CAN we think to beat down the Counter-batteries of Hell by carelesness and negligence ignorance or inadvertence Men will not resign their Reason without the best Arguments duly applyed and the Mines of the Holy Scriptures are not only rich but very deep we should dig in them night and day It was the great Commendation of Apollos that he was mighty in the Holy Scriptures BUT I go forward to the third Thing that I think implied in this Metaphor and that is the freedom unconstrain'd activity force and strength of their ebullitions 'T is a Well of Living Waters which cannot be contained in one place but must burst forth to water the Hills and Valleys high and low rich and poor When we remember what a World we live in how refractory and stubborn to the Yoke of Jesus we must not be niggardly of our Instructions we must reprove rebuke exhort in season and out of season with all long-suffering and doctrine here a little and there a little agitur de summa rei and there are no measures to be set to our endeavours but the measures of Charity It was said of the antient Christians upon that Monument rais'd to the Memory of Dioclesian that Superstitionem suam generi humano inculcabant they did embrace all occasions to make men acquainted with the truth and excellency of our Religion INDEED we should set our selves to do this with the greater readiness when we consider the opposition that we are like to encounter either First From the Malice of Satan or Secondly From our own Weaknesses and Infirmities or Thirdly From the Perverseness Hard-heartedness and Incredulity of them to whom the Gospel is preached First I SAY from the Malice of Satan When the Gospel began first to be proclaimed to the Nations the Powers of Hell did swell with fury and indignation they began with all spite and rage to crush the very beginnings of it he gathered together all the Forces and Legions of Darkness to consult how the growing Religion of Jesus might be stopped But the Apostles fortified themselves in the words of the Prophetic Psalm Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things It is the Devils very Nature to retard the Gospel 't is he that inspires Hereticks casts stumbling blocks in our way and finds out a thousand methods to stop our progress 1 Thess 2.18 We would have come unto you once and again but Satan hindered us and his endeavours in a peculiar manner are levelled against the Clergy who are most terrible to his Kingdom and beat down his strong holds and retirements in the Consciences of Men. Secondly WE are hindered by our own Weaknesses and Infirmities When we see so little success of our labours we are like to grow faint and give over and say with the Prophet Lord who hath believed our report 'T is true We have this treasure in earthen vessels and these Vessels are brittle and soon shattered and when we would vigorously and zealously serve our God we are dragged down again to the Earth by this dull and lumpish Body that we carry about us we cannot shake off human Passions Affections and Infirmities we are not priviledg'd to run his Errands so nimbly as the Angels do we are apt to despond and to suffer the flesh and its lazy whispers overcome our quickest motions and most zealous resolutions Oh! then to be within the Holy of Holies where the brightness of his face and the light of his Countenance can never suffer us to grow weary sullen and melancholy in his Service We shall minister before his Altar in the Sacrifices of Praise and Hallelujahs without fainting interruption or slumber BUT Thirdly We are opposed by the perverseness incredulity and ingratitude of the World When we contemplate the Arguments and Nature of our Religion we would think that they are so strong that no Soul could resist them but when we come abroad into the World and endeavour to reason men out of their folly and wickedness how hard is this undertaking How many Sermons are lost upon the inconsiderate multitude We must after many years endeavours sit down with sorrow and complain of their incurable madness THEY have hardned themselves against all reproof we must make our approaches to their hearts and cut out our way through Rocks and Iron Bars and inveterate Prejudices they have fenc'd themselves against our serious entreaties and stopped their ears like the deaf Adder when we have charmed never so wisely and affectionately HAD we nothing else to do but to let men see the reasonableness and excellency of the Christian Religion the folly and danger of Sin and Vice then our work had been easie as indeed it is honourable but we find to our sad experience that when we have chased them from one Cavil to another when we have shamed them out of all their denyals and exceptions they still keep their hold in defiance of all our Remonstrances The God of this World hath blinded the minds of men lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them How hard is it to recover the World from Sensuality and Error How difficult to make them love the Precepts of our Saviour and the Doctrine of the Cross To deny themselves and crucifie the flesh to forgive injuries to bless them that curse us to despise the World and all its trifling interest This is the aim of our Religion and this is it which men are loth to practise this ought to provoke our Zeal to the highest flame and make us set our faces against tho stream and current of wicked practices against all immoralities and errors THE Church like some Aromatick Spices the more you press them the more fragrant they smell their effluvia fly on all hands and their Smell perfumes the Air. The more we are besieged the more the Gospel takes Air like those precious Spices mentioned in the Verse before my Text so skilfully plac'd and so orderly disposed that by their Order suaviorem reddant odorem So the Prince of Poets in his Pastorals Sic
circumstances and weaknesses that made his work more difficult 2. THE manner of his address not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and in power 3. THE true reason of this whole Oeconomy that their faith might stand in the power of God And 1. WE have here his uneasie circumstances and weaknesses that made his work more difficult I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling The weaknesses wherewith the Apostle was emcompassed in preaching of the Gospel were partly his own bodily frailties partly the infirmities that did arise from the many persecutions of his implacable enemies for the Gospels sake The Jews and the Gentiles did daily thirst for his blood and from place to place he was hunted like a Partrige upon the mountains Those frailties whether incident to the peculiar structure of his body or whether left by the stripes and violences frequently offered unto him made his person appear despicable to them that only considered the outward appearance That mighty Soul that had nothing less in his view than the total overthrow of the Devils universal Monarchy this Soul I say dwelt in a ruinous tabernacle This he himself often acknowledged 2. Cor. 10. v. 1. I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presence am base among you And again v. 7. Do you look on things after the outward appearance Consider also the 2. Cor. 4.7 We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us v. 8. We are troubled on every side yet not distress'd we are perplex'd but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroy'd And again Chap. 6. v. 4. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labors in watchings in fastings Consider also 2. Cor. 7.5 6. For when we were come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears and it may be the messenger of Satan mentioned 2. Cor. 12.7 was some bodily infirmity NOW considering the natural temper of his body the extraordinary troubles watchings and labours that he endured and the voluntary restraints and chastisements he had used towards himself we may easily understand what a complication and series of difficulties he had to wrestle with Sometimes hardly escaping with his very life Let down in a basket by the wall and to put this account beyond all debate read 2. Cor. 11.23 forward Are they ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft v. 24. Of the Jews five times received I fourty stripes save one v. 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I ston'd thrice I suffer'd shipwrack night and day I have been in the deep v. 26. In journeyings often in perils of waters in perils of robbers In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fasting often in cold and nakedness NOW the natural result of this heap of Sufferings and Calamities so thick crowded together were fear and trembling Partly his innocent fear of dangers and persecutions partly his holy care and solicitude for the success and propagation of the Gospel though the false teachers vilified the blessed Apostle because of his Infirmities yet considering the nature of his Office and the design of his Ministry they were an undeniable proof of his authority and mission and consequently of the verity and divinity of Christian Religion FOR allow but the Apostles to be men of common sense and desirous to preserve themselves if they were not sure of the truth of what they delivered how unaccountable were their sufferings and therefore their calamities so much mistaken by other had in them the strongest proof of their sincerity since they were ready to sacrifice all that was dear to human Nature in defence of the Gospel How came they so readily and unanimously to part with all their justest Interests if they had not the highest assurances of their Commission and Authority and of a life after this more pure solid and immoveable than what we here enjoy How came they to be so ready upon all occasions to undergoe all that was most bitter and painful most disgraceful and ignominious and this for no other design than to advance a fable amongst mankind and for no other reward either here or hereafter than stripes tumults persecutions and martyrdoms He that supposes the Apostles to have been endowed with ordinary reason and judgment and yet will believe that they followed cunningly devised fables for no other design than to make themselves miserable to all intents and purposes will yield his assent to something more incredible more monstrously fictitious than the most Romantick Follies of imagination AND if we yet suppose that the Apostles were destitute of the use of their reason and still be able to the wonder and admiration of mankind to contrive the story of the Gospel so orderly and coherent and adapt the most antient Prophecies to its proof and illustration and that to the conviction and astonishment of the learnedest of their opposers He I say that believes all this which Atheists and Anti-scripturists are obliged to do believes something more fabulous more inconsistent than all the Legends of Poets and all the adventures of Knight-errantry The Apostle then is so far from denying his Infirmities that he glories in them as one special proof of his mission and authority highly agreeable to the Christian Religion and the tendency of that Doctrine that recommended Christ Crucified to the world In another manner and by other demonstrations than those demonstrations that the Schools of Philosophy did furnish I have chosen to discourse of the Sufferings and Infirmities of the Apostle under this aspect as they yield a clear proof of Christianity rather than to run out in the commendations of the courage and patience of Primitive Christians and it will appear in its greater lustre if we consider 2. THE manner of his address not in the eloquent and harmonious periods of Rhetorical Discourses but by a more heavenly and victorious demonstration more certain and undeniable than the surest Principles of the Grecian Philosophy not in the enticing words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power There are who understand by these words the inward and powerful illuminations and presence of the Divine Spirit upon a mans heart in order to his Sanctification I am very far from denying that Illumination to be necessary but that is not meant in this place nor by this phrase For the proof that the Apostle brings here is External and consequently must be referred to that demonstration of the Divine Power that waits upon the Apostles in preaching and asserting the Gospel
is to contemn and despise all the glad Tidings of the Gospel to prefer their meanest things to their greatest Concerns to dissemble with the Almighty who knows that our time is not so narrow but that we have leisure to look after our Souls But what do we gain by such foolish and treacherous Excuses Can we hide the darkest retirements of our Soul from the Omniscience of Heaven Or is there any thing so directly opposite to the nature of God as this perfidious Hypocrisie It is true We cannot serve God and Mammon both together yet we may look after our worldly Business in subordination to our Souls but if we must so serve our Mammon as to neglect the Solemnities of Religion we then plainly make it our God and renounce the hopes of Christianity I do not deny but that at some time or other a Man may be so entangled that he cannot without extraordinary inconvenience give his attendance at the Lords Table but when his business is made his ordinary excuse we may reasonably presume that he loves this World more than God and the promises of another life and consequently that this World is the Idol which he worships with the strength and activity of his Soul Our Saviour lays down this Maxim that where our hearts are there our treasure is also Whatever the Object is that devours most of our time and takes up our strongest thoughts desires and endeavours that of necessity must be our God since we bestow upon it the highest adoration love and esteem Let us not then so often excuse our absence by our wordly Affairs lest we should come at length to say that there are no portions of our time due to God nor to the thoughts of another life But when we invite you to the holy Sacrament we do not persuade you to abandon your business for ever that may again return in its season and with the greater success too when you acknowledg God in all your ways and are sensible that his Providence interposes in the meanest accidents of our life Nay this pretended excuse from the variety of our incumbrances is against the common sense of Mankind for all Nations have allowed large portions of their time for their publick Devotion and they reckoned that the more religious they were by so much the more they prospered 2. SOME excuse themselves by the multitude of their Scruples and that they cannot compose their Consciences after their most serious endeavours In that case they are obliged to go to their spiritual Guides who are sent by God to inform their Consciences to confirm their Faith to clear and explain the nature of this Mystery and to direct them in all the steps of their approach towards it we cannot then be excused by our Scruples when they might be removed in the regular Method of Gods appointment 3. SOME are discouraged upon the sight of their sins to approach so great a Mystery And without all doubt unless they are sincere and peremptory in their penitential resolutions they ought not to thrust themselves so near the presence of the Almighty but such as are humbled at the sight of their sins and can appeal unto God that they desire now at last to be freed from their burden this Sacrament in its nature and tendency is designed for them for penitent and broken-hearted Sinners for he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance The danger of receiving unworthily is very great but the danger of contemning and vilifying a plain Institution of our Saviours perhaps is of an equal if not of more terrible consequence For they do nothing less than provoke the Lord to jealousie i. e. they set up other Gods to worship and trample upon his most sacred and plainest Institutions 4. THEY excuse themselves from their hopes of after amendment and greater preparations but this is the most pernicious subterfuge that can be invented Our time runs away our spiritual strength is decayed our Hearts are more and more hardened against the Gospel and is it safe for us under so many disadvantages to delay our Cure one moment longer Now while it is called to day harden not your hearts as in the provocation and do not fright your selves from your Duty by such idle and impertinent Excuses that because your preparation is necessary your absence is excusable Such reasonings are intolerable we ought to conclude rather that because our presence is indispensible therefore our preparation ought to be the more accurate and seasonable When we consider the whole Affair more maturely we may easily see that they who make light of the holy Sacrament seem to renounce their Baptism since the Vows of Baptism are again reinforced and made stronger and if we do not disown them why do not we gladly renew them IN the second place I promised to direct your approaches to the Holy Table All which may be summ'd up in the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this bread for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself Which last words the Apostle added not to keep us back from the Communion but to make us more impartial strict and accurate in our trial and preparation It is gross stupidity and ignorance to think that by shunning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we may escape damnation for the very sins in which we continue unreform'd and which indispose us for the Eucharist are the true causes of Damnation there is no help then but to be rid of our sins by the most ingenuous remorse and Contrition to search and try our ways and to turn again unto God in the use of all his holy Institutions And that I may direct you in this previous examination and trial Let me advise you in the First place To retire for some convenient time where you may take your self alone for the subject of your thoughts and reflections Certainly this work cannot be perform'd in a hurry it requires a serious and sober consideration the Memory must be employed to bring back our sins to our present view the Judgment to determine without fallacy and disguise what the state of thy Soul is and the Affections must be wrought upon suitably to our condition Examination of ones self is one of the most difficult undertakings the Conscience is intricate and our Hearts are deceitful and we are apt too often to extenuate the grossest follies and miscarriages by favourable and benign interpretations therefore are we to retire from the noise and clamour of the World that our Souls may be clear and serene like those Regions of the Air that are above Storms and Tempests where no Vapour no Wind can enter we are to apply the utmost strength of our Souls to this one thing and therefore we are to gather our thoughts into a recolected frame and not suffer them to wander abroad until we have brought this Affair to some