foundation than the Faith of the Gospel and the Practice of its Precepts doth build his house upon the Sand which when it comes to be tryed by the Rain and the Winds will fall and the fall of it will be great And elsewhere If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And he does very severely check the vain confidence and presumption of those who will needs rely upon Him for Salvation without keeping his commandments Why call ye me says He Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Does any man think that he can be saved without loving God and Christ And this saith St. John is the love of God that we keep his commandments and again He that saith I know him and by the same reason he that saith I love him and keepeth not his commandments he is a lyar and the truth is not in him If ye love me saith our B. Lord keep my commandments And again He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me Does any man think that any but the children of God shall be heirs of eternal Life Hear then what St. John saith Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous And again In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil he that doth not righteousness is not of God In a word this is the perpetual tenour of the Bible from the beginning of it to the end If thou dost well saith God to Cain shalt thou not be accepted And again Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him And in the Gospel when the young man came to our Saviour to be instructed by Him what good thing he should do that he might inherit eternal life our Lord gives him this short and plain advice If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments And in the very last Chapter of the Bible we find this solemn declaration Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and enter in through the Gates into the City that is into Heaven which the Apostle to the Hebrews calls the City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God So vain and groundless is the imagination of those who trust to be saved by an idle and ineffectual Faith without holiness and obedience of life II. I proceed now in the Second place to convince us all if it may be of the necessity of minding Religion and our Souls When we call any thing necessary we mean that it is so in order to some End which cannot be attained without it We call those things the necessaries of Life without which men cannot subsist and live in a tolerable condition in this World And that is necessary to our eternal happiness without which it cannot be attain'd Now happiness being our chief End whatever is necessary to that is more necessary than any thing else and in comparison of that all other things not only may but ought to be neglected by us Now to convince men of the necessity of Religion I shall briefly shew That it is a certain way to happiness That it is certain that there is no other way but this And that if we neglect Religion we shall certainly be extremely and for ever miserable First That Religion is a certain way to happiness And for this we have God's express Declaration and Promise the best assurance that can be He that cannot lye hath promised eternal life to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality All the happiness that we can desire and of which the nature of man is capable is promised to us upon the terms of Religion upon our denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world A mighty reward for a little service an eternity of happiness of joys unspeakable and full of glory for the diligence and industry of a few days A happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls Secondly 'T is certain also that there is no other way to happiness but this He who alone can make us happy hath promised it to us upon these and no other terms He hath said That if we live after the flesh we shall die but if by the spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh we shall live That without holiness no man shall see the Lord And that he that lives in the habitual Practice of any Vice of Covetousness or Adultery or Malice or Revenge shall not enter into the kingdom of God And we have reason to believe Him concerning the terms of this happiness and the means of attaining it by whose favour and bounty alone we hope to be made partakers of it And if God had not said it in his Word yet the nature and reason of the thing doth plainly declare it For Religion is not only a condition of our happiness but a necessary qualification and disposition for it We must be like to God in the temper of our minds before we can find any felicity in the enjoyment of him Men must be purged from their Lusts and from those ill-natur'd and devilish Passions of Malice and Envy and Revenge before they can be fit company for their heavenly Father and meet to dwell with him who is love and dwells in love Thirdly If we neglect Religion we shall certainly be extreamly and for ever miserable The Word of Truth hath said it that indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul of man that doth evil Nay if God should hold his hand and should inflict no positive torment upon sinners yet they could not spare themselves but would be their own Executioners and Tormentors The guilt of that wicked Life which they had led in this World and the Stings of their own Consciences must necessarily make them miserable whenever their own Thoughts are let loose upon them as they will certainly be in the other World when they shall have nothing either of pleasure or business to divert them So that if we be concern'd either to be happy hereafter or to avoid those Miseries which are great and dreadful beyond all imagination it will be necessary for us to mind Religion without which we can neither attain that Happiness nor escape those Miseries All that now remains is to perswade you and my self seriously to mind this one thing necessary And to this end I shall apply my Discourse to two sorts of Persons those who are remiss in a matter of so great concernment and those who are grosly careless and mind it not at all First To those who are remiss in a matter of such vast concernment Who
That God may be justified in his sayings and appear Righteous when he judgeth And Secondly because the belief of the threatnings of God in their utmost extent is of so great moment to a good Life and so great a discouragement to Sin For the sting of Sin is the terrour of eternal punishment and if men were once set free from the fear and belief of this the most powerful restraint from Sin would be taken away So that in answer to this Objection I shall endeavour to prove these two things First That the eternal punishment of wicked men in another World is plainly threatned in Scripture Secondly That this is not inconsistent either with the Justice or the Goodness of God First That the eternal punishment of wicked men in another World is plainly threatned in Scripture namely in these following Texts Matth. 18.8 It is better for thee to enter into Life halt and maimed than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire And Matth. 25.41 Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And here in the Text these that is the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment And Mark 9. It is there three several times with great vehemency repeated by our Saviour where their worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched And 2 Thes 1.9 speaking of them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son it is said of them who shall be punish'd with everlasting destruction I know very well that great endeavour hath been us'd to avoid the force of these Texts by shewing that the words for ever and everlasting are frequently us'd in Scripture in a more limited sense only for a long duration and continuance Thus for ever doth very often in the Old Testament only signify for a long time and till the end of the Jewish Dispensation And in the Epistle of St. Jude verse 7th The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire that is of a fire that was not extinguish'd till those Cities were utterly consumed And therefore to clear the meaning of the forementioned Texts First I shall readily grant that the words for ever and everlasting do not always in Scripture signify an endless duration and that this is sufficiently proved by the instances alledg'd to this purpose But then Secondly it cannot be denied on the other hand that these words are often in Scripture used in a larger sense and so as necessarily to signify an interminable and endless duration As where Eternity is attributed to God and he is said to live for ever and ever And where eternal happiness in another World is promised to good men and that they shall be for ever with the Lord. Now the very same words and expressions are used concerning the punishment of wicked men in another life and there is great reason why we should understand them in the same extent Both because if God had intended to have told us that the punishment of wicked men shall have no end the Languages wherein the Scriptures are written do hardly afford fuller and more certain words than those that are used in this case whereby to express to us a duration without end And likewise which is almost a peremptory decision of the thing because the duration of the punishment of wicked men is in the very same sentence express'd by the very same word which is us'd for the duration of the happiness of the righteous As is evident from the Text These speaking of the wicked shall go away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into eternal punishment but the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into life eternal I proceed to the Second thing I propos'd namely to shew that this is not inconsistent either with the Justice or the Goodness of God For in this the force of the Objection lies And it hath been attempted to be answered several ways none of which seems to me to give clear and full satisfaction to it First It is said by some that because sin is infinite in respect of the Object against whom it is committed which is God therefore it deserves an infinite punishment But this I doubt will upon examination be found to have more of subtlety than of solidity in it 'T is true indeed that the dignity of the Person against whom any offence is committed is a great aggravation of the fault For which reason all offences against God are certainly the greatest of all other But that crimes should hereby be heighten'd to an infinite degree can by no means be admitted and that for this plain reason because then the evil and demerit of all sins must necessarily be equal for the demerit of no sin can be more than infinite And if the demerit of all sins be equal there can then be no reason for the degrees of punishment in another World But to deny that there are degrees of punishment there is not only contrary to reason but to our Saviour's express assertion that some shall be beaten with many stripes and some with fewer and that it shall be more tolerable for some in the day of judgment than for others Besides that by the same reason that the least sin that is committed against God may be said to be infinite because of its object the least punishment that is inflicted by God may be said to be infinite because of its Author and then all punishments from God as well as all sins against him would be equal which is palpably absurd So that this answer is by no means sufficient to break the force of this Objection Secondly It is said by others that if wicked men lived for ever in this World they would sin for ever and therefore they deserve to be punish'd for ever But this hath neither truth nor reason enough in it to give satisfaction For who can certainly tell that if a man lived never so long he would never repent and grow better Besides that the Justice of God doth only punish the sins which men have committed in this life and not those which they might possibly have committed if they had lived longer Thirdly It is said in the last place that God hath set before men everlasting Happiness and Misery and the sinner hath his choice Here are two things said which seem to bid fairly towards an answer First That the reward which God promiseth to our obedience is equal to the punishment which he threatens to our disobedience But yet this I doubt will not reach the business Because though it be not contrary to Justice to exceed in Rewards that being matter of meer favour yet it may be so to exceed in Punishments Secondly It is further said that the sinner in this case hath nothing to complain of since he hath his own choice This I confess is enough to silence the sinner and to make him to acknowledge that his destruction is of
as our thoughts but as the Heavens are high above the Earth so are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts And the best way to keep our selves from despairing of GOD's Mercy and Forgiveness to us is to be easy to grant Forgiveness to others And without this as GOD hath reason to deny Forgiveness to us so we our selves have all the reason in the World utterly to despair of it It would almost transport a Christian to read that admirable Passage of the Great Heathen Emperour and Philosopher M. Aurelius Antoninus Can the Gods says he that are Immortal for the continuance of so many ages bear without impatience with such and so many Sinners as have ever been and not only so but likewise take care of them and provide for them that they want nothing And dost thou so grievously take on as one that can bear with them no longer Thou that art but for a moment of time yea Thou that art one of those Sinners thyself I will conclude this whole Discourse with those weighty and pungent Sayings of the wise Son of Syrach He that revengeth shall find vengeance from the Lord and he will certainly retain his Sins Forgive thy neighbour that hath hurt thee so shall thy Sins also be forgiven when thou prayest One man beareth hatred against another and doth he seek pardon of the Lord He sheweth no mercy to a man like himself and doth he ask forgiveness of his own Sins Enable us O Lord by thy Grace to practise this excellent and difficult Duty of our Religion And then Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us For thy mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Adoration and Obedience both now and ever Amen The care of our Souls the One thing needful A SERMON Preached before the KING and QUEEN AT Hampton-Court April the 14 th 1689. The care of our Souls the One thing needful LUKE X. 42 But one thing is needful IN the accounts of Wise men one of the first Rules and Measures of human actions is this To regard every thing more or less according to the degree of its consequence and importance to our happiness That which is most necessary to that End ought in all reason to be minded by us in the first place and other things only so far as they are consistent with that great End and subservient to it Our B. Saviour here tells us that there is one thing needful that is one thing which ought first and principally to be regarded by us And what that is it is of great concernment to us all to know that we may mind and pursue it as it deserves And we may easily understand what it is by considering the Context and the occasion of these Words which was briefly this Our Saviour as He went about preaching the Kingdom of God came into a certain Village where He was entertain'd at the house of two devout Sisters The elder who had the care and management of the Family and the Affairs of it was imployed in making entertainment for such a Guest The other sate at our Saviour's feet attending to the Doctrine of Salvation which he preach'd The elder finding her self not able to do all the business alone desires of our Saviour that he would command her Sister to come and help her Upon this our Saviour gives her this gentle reprehension Martha Martha Thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful And what that is he declares in the next words And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her that is she hath chosen to take care of her Salvation which is infinitely more considerable than any thing else Our Saviour doth not altogether blame Martha for her respectful care of Him but cmmends her Sister for her greater care of her Soul which made her either wholly to forget or unwilling to mind other things at that time So that upon the whole matter He highly approves her wise choice in preferring an attentive regard to his Doctrine even before that which might be thought a necessary civility to His Person From the Words thus explain'd the Observation which I shall make is this That the care of Religion and of our Souls is the one thing necessary and that which every man is concern'd in the first place and above all other things to mind and regard This Observation seems to be plainly contain'd in the Text. I shall handle it as briefly as I can and then by way of Application shall endeavour to persuade You and my self to mind this one thing necessary And in speaking to this serious and weighty Argument I shall do these two things First I shall endeavour to shew wherein this care of Religion and of our Souls does consist Secondly To convince men of the necessity of taking this care I. I shall shew wherein this care of Religion and of our Souls doth consist And this I shall endeavour to do with all the plainness I can and so as every one that hears me may understand and be sufficiently directed what is necessary for him to do in order to his eternal Salvation And of this I shall give an account in the five following Particulars in which I think the main business of Religion and the due care of our Souls does consist First In the distinct knowledge and in the firm belief and persuasion of those things which are necessary to be known and believed by us in order to our eternal Salvation Secondly In the frequent Examination of our lives and actions and in a sincere Repentance for all the errours and miscarriages of them Thirdly In the constant and daily exercise of Piety and Devotion Fourthly In avoiding those things which are pernicious to our Salvation and whereby men do often hazard their Souls Fifthly In the even and constant practice of the several Graces and Vertues of a good Life I. The due care of Religion and our Souls does consist in the distinct knowledge and in the firm belief and persuasion of those things which are necessary to be known and believ'd by us in order to our eternal Salvation For this knowledge of the necessary Principles and Duties of Religion is the foundation of all good Practice wherein the life of Religion doth consist And without this no man can be truly Religious Without faith saith the Apostle to the Hebrews it is impossible to please God For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him Now these two expressions of pleasing God and seeking Him are plainly of the same importance and do both of them signify Religion or the Worship and Service of God which doth antecedently suppose our firm belief and persuasion of these two fundamental Principles of all Religion That there is a
sake of that to deny themselves almost all sort of ease and pleasure To deny themselves did I say No they have wisely and judiciously chosen the truest and highest Pleasure that this World knows the Pleasure of doing good and being Benefactors to Mankind May they have a long and happy Reign over us to make us happy and to lay up in store for Themselves a Happiness without measure and without end in God's glorious and everlasting Kingdom For his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen A SERMON AGAINST EVIL-SPEAKING Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL Febr. the 25 th 1693 4. A Sermon against Evil-speaking TIT. iij. 2 To speak evil of no man GEneral Persuasives to Repentance and a good Life and Invectives against Sin and Wickedness at large are certainly of good use to recommend Religion and Virtue and to expose the deformity and danger of a Vicious course But it must be acknowledged on the other hand that these general Discourses do not so immediately tend to reform the Lives of men Because they fall among the Croud but do not touch the Consciences of particular Persons in so sensible and awakening a manner as when we treat of particular Duties and Sins and endeavour to put men upon the practice of the one and to reclaim them from the other by proper Arguments taken from the Word of God and from the nature of particular Vertues and Vices The general way is as if a Physician instead of applying particular Remedies to the Distemper of his Patient should entertain him with a long discourse of Diseases in general and of the pleasure and advantages of Health and earnestly persuade him to be well without taking his particular Disease into consideration and prescribing Remedies for it But if we would effectually reform men we must take to task the great and common disorders of their Lives and represent their faults to them in such a manner as may convince them of the evil and danger of them and put them upon the endeavour of a cure And to this end I have pitched upon one of the common and reigning Vices of the Age Calumny and Evil-speaking by which men contract so much guilt to themselves and create so much trouble to others And from which it is to be feared few or none are wholly free For who is he saith the Son of Sirach that hath not offended with his tongue In many things saith St. James we offend all And if any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man But how few have attain'd to this perfection And yet unless we do endeavour after it and in some good measure attain it all our pretence to Religion is vain So the same Apostle tells us If any man among you seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart that man's Religion is vain For the more distinct handling of this Argument I shall reduce my Discourse to these Five Heads First I shall consider the Nature of this Vice and wherein it consists Secondly I shall consider the due extent of this Prohibition To speak evil of no man Thirdly I shall shew the Evil of this practice both in the Causes and Effects of it Fourthly I shall add some further Considerations to dissuade men from it Fifthly I shall give some Rules and Directions for the prevention and cure of it I. I shall consider what this Sin or Vice of evil speaking here forbidden by the Apostle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to defame and slander any man not to hurt his reputation as the Etymology of the word doth import So that this Vice consists in saying things of others which tend to their disparagement and reproach to the taking away or lessening of their Reputation and good Name And this whether the things said be true or not If they be false and we know it then it is down-right Calumny and if we do not know it but take it upon the report of others it is however a Slander and so much the more injurious because really groundless and undeserved If the thing be true and we know it to be so yet it is a defamation and tends to the prejudice of our neighbour's reputation And it is a fault to say the evil of others which is true unless there be some good reason for it besides Because it is contrary to that charity and goodness which Christianity requires to divulge the faults of others though they be really guilty of them without necessity or some other very good reason for it Again It is Evil-speaking and the Vice condemn'd in the Text whether we be the first Authors of an ill Report or relate it from others because the man that is evil spoken of is equally defam'd either way Again Whether we speak evil of a man to his face or behind his back The former way indeed seems to be the more generous but yet is a great Fault and that which we call reviling The latter is more mean and base and that which we properly call Slander or Backbiting And Lastly Whether it be done directly and in express terms or more obscurely and by way of oblique insinuation whether by way of down-right reproach or with some crafty preface of commendation For so it have the effect to defame the manner of address does not much alter the case The one may be more dextrous but is not one jot less faulty For many times the deepest Wounds are given by these smoother and more artificial ways of Slander as by asking questions Have you not heard so and so of such a man I say no more I only ask the question Or by general intimations that they are loth to say what they have heard of such a one are very sorry for it and do not at all believe it if you will believe them And this many times without telling the thing but leaving you in the dark to suspect the worst These and such like Arts though they may seem to be tenderer and gentler ways of using men's reputation yet in truth they are the most malicious and effectual methods of Slander because they insinuate something that is much worse than is said and yet are very apt to create in unwary men a strong belief of something that is very bad though they know not what it is So that it matters not in what fashion a Slander is dress'd up if it tend to defame a man and to diminish his Reputation it is the Sin forbidden in the Text. II. We will consider the extent of this Prohibition to speak evil of no man and the due bounds and limitations of it For it is not to be understood absolutely to forbid us to say any thing concerning others that is bad This in some cases may be necessary and our duty and in several cases