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A27360
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A sermon preached at the funeral of M. Anthony Hinton late treasurer of St. Bartholomews Hospital on the 15th of November, 1678, at St. Sepulchres Church / by William Bell.
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Bell, William, 1626-1683.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing B1811; ESTC R24054
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16,767
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41
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those that may be absent as toward him that cannot and that in all Conditions when he hides his face as when he shines on our Tabernacle It s Piety is not strong only when we are weak and then languishing when we recover Is not puffed up by prosperity nor cast down by adversity as Boats that rise with the Floud and sink with the Ebb. Its mouth is not full of murmuring whe uempty of bread Phil. iv 11. but in all estates hath learned to be content Can tend on the Ark when its Manna is gone and nothing left but the Rod and the Law when banished as well as when it gratifies the flesh-hook Can be devout at Mesech and Kedar as in the goings and solemn Procession of the Sanctuary Good Barzillai was as faithful a Subject to David when hunted on the Mountains as when he went to be Crown'd at Hebron A good Conscience neither flatters the rich nor oppresseth the poor takes not the opportunity of a Friend's distress to insult or to betray to stand aloof from the sore or only to pour Vinegar into it by sharp upbraidings or uncharitable conclusions but where it cannot be a Shield to prevent a wound is ever ready with Balm to heal it not trampling on a Prostrate whether Friend or Enemy but is equally prompt to do good and to forgive evil James i. 27. Pure and undefiled Religion the Religion of a Conscience so qualified too visits the Fatherless and the Widow with a visit like that of Christ Luke i. 68. visits to redeem and as the same Christ too keeps it self unspotted of the world It throws no dirt and 't is hard to do it with clean hands nor doth any thrown at it stick on it but is soon wiped off by undisturbed Innocence And this all this is Fourthly and lastly The whole employ of a good Conscience as wherein it doth exercise it self as the word signifies prepares for the Combat bends all its wit and force to it is First Diligent to the utmost of its power striving to excell others and our selves That those things be in us and abound If it be possible and as much as in us lies to have peace with God and man with all men And this is more than a meer bending our tongues and wits to holiness and righteousness not a speaking great things but living them .. And though God sometimes takes the will for the deed it is there only where there is no ability to perform 2 Cor. viii 12. Thus Love may fulfil the whole Law in a hearty disposition to all obedience where the Act is not feazible Davids desire to keep Gods Commandments Psal cxix 4 5. goes for the deed 't was exercise when he did but strive in Prayer after that perfection which is not here attainable Yet a meer present wishing we might do God's will can no more secure us from Hell than a future wishing we had done it can deliver us out of it It is not a setting our faces toward Zion that will bring us thither when like Weathercocks the next wind of a Temptation alters our aspect and we are still where we were Mat. xxv 15 c. Two Talents improved to four have in Heaven a proportionable reward with the five that were made ten But the lazy Well-willers Talent that rusted in the Napkin had that rust as a swift witness against him before that God who expects his own with usury We have the knowledge of his Commandments and they are not grievous The Dictates of his Spirit the Assistances of our own Consciences the Examples of his Son and Servants the Encouragement of all his Promises which makes our service as profitable as it is reasonable And if herewith we faithfully do what we can he will mercifully accept of what we do And herein we must be as diligent so Secondly Prudent too to strive lawfully as well as earnestly to have light with our heat and that light is in the essentials of Religion the Word of God and we are not to vary from the Pattern in the Mount To the Law and to the Testimony Isa viii 20. if they speak not according to this it is because there is no truth in them They oblige our Faith in all the Articles of our several Creeds 2 Tim. i. 13. those forms of sound words founded in Scripture Our obedience in worshipping God by Prayer and Praise by hearing and receiving his Sacraments revering his Name avoiding Polytheism Atheism Idolatry Blasphemy honouring our Superiours not invading the Life Chastity Estate or Reputation of our Neighbour Which Laws are a Moral and perpetual rule to all our Intentions Expressions and Actions and with these neither men nor our own Consciences can dispense And our trial at the last day will be not meerly by our Consciences but as they have been guided by that Word Since Conscience like Fame may be as tenacious of a lie as of a truth may condemn where God acquits or acquit where God condemns He must touch the Needle to make it point right which else will vary as we know Conscience hath done to all the Points in the Compass We rightly set our Watches by the Dial when we are assured the Dial is well set by the Sun In things Civil the rule is right Reason we expect not a Law out of Scripture for every minute action of Life We try a Circle not by a Square but by a Compass The Law of the Land where it speaks is the common Conscience which ought to guide us in all things that are not apparently opposite to the Divine Law The Church is a Vineyard and is in the State as in it's Fence without which it would not be long a Vineyard Hos i. 9. Israel was Loammi that is not a People when without the true God a teaching Priest and Law when the Pillars are dissolved the People melt 2 Chron. xv 3. By undermining our Superiours we Sap our own foundations and while we pluck flowers from the Crown to weave Garlands for our selves the success is to see both droop and wither together Did we rightly understand things we should acknowledge it our liberty to be subject the very worst of Governments being better than none Law is the Mound of Property and without that enclosure every man would turn all his Lusts like Beasts without stint into the Common Now the Law is but a dead letter it 's life is it's execution and it 's best execution is in our active obedience It is not indifferent to the Law or the Lawgiver whether we do or suffer as it is in By-laws of Corporations whether we fine or serve Justice would be all Sword if it did not only consist in the mulcting or punishing our Persons or our Purses It is from our corruptions that Penal Statutes are inflicted as well as enacted Would we be a Law to our selves we should not need so many from our
hands of our Superiours by subjection to them and love to one another that since God hath given us Judges as at the first 26. and Counsellours as at the beginning it may appear that with our Government we have a restauration of our Loyalty too And this we shall do if we keep our Consciences and our Conversations void of offence toward our Superiours And Secondly Toward our Equals and that in things Civil and Religious in their concerns as Men and as Christians Not invading their property by fraud or violence The truly Consciencious person shuns every dishonest Act not so much for the sake of his Reputation as his Peace Every black mote is to him as to a tender eye his grief as well as his blemish He dares not wound his Soul to save his Estate or his Life as knowing that God hates the profitable as well as the pious fraud and that light gains ill got make the Conscience more heavy than the Purse When good plain Jacob saw the Money returned with the Corn in his Son's Sacks Gen. xlii 25 c. he orders them to take double money with them in their second Journey for peradventure says he it was an oversight He would not purchase his food too cheap lest he should buy repentance too dear and by such an act of Injustice turn his bread into gravel Prov. xx 17. And he is an Israelite indeed who is thus without guile John i 47. such a Nathanael who is come home to Christ one of whose Laws it is that whatsoever we would that men should do unto us Mat. vii 12. we should do so unto them I know a Christian must do more than this but he is no Christian who doth less Our Righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. v. 20. it must flow from a better Principle and spring of Grace have a larger current in our Conversation with all men not those of our own Sect only and empty it self into a deeper Sea God's Glory not our own Let us walk according to this rule in all simplicity and sincerity and then let others call it Morality and think they can be Saints without it whilst Christ commands it and Christians practise it we will call it Christianity a Conscience avoiding offence toward men in their Civil concerns And let be so in 2. their Sacred concerns too Let us not misguide the ignorant and ductile by false fires as Thieves draw Travellers into dark Woods with a design to rob them Let us not suffer Sin to rest upon them but rebuke them with a spirit of meekness and instruct them with a spirit of wisdom as men of feeding lips and healing tongues Eph. iv 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths which is as offensive to chaste ears as a stinking breath from rotten Lungs is to the Nostrils Let us not judge the strong nor despise the weak but think candidly of all and act charitably towards all and where we lawfully may Phil. iv 5. let our moderation be known unto all men As tender and teeming Mothers forbear what their stomachs would bear for their burthens sake Temperance is not the want but the restraint of Appetite the restraint of a lawful Lust But Brotherly-kindness considers not only what is lawful Gal. v. 6. but what is expedient also St. Acts xvi 3. Paul who very well knew that neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision circumcised Timothy to comply with the Jews but would not circumcise Titus Gal. ii 3. that he might gratifie the Gentiles It is an unchristian use of our Christian liberty to offend the Magistrate in forbearing what we may do or our Brother in doing what we may forbear This if ingenuously observed would keep the peace in the great world without us and in the little world within us too For this is the justice of a good Conscience that gives to every one his due and to every one in his order First Glory to God on high and then on earth peace and good will toward men For as we are not to displease God to please our Prince nor to displease our Prince to please our Fellow-subjects so neither are we to displease our fellow-subjects to please our selves Where the way is one we can follow both Fear God and the King But where they part we shew by our attendance to which we retain We cannot serve two Masters Dan. iii. his Servants we are whom we obey This caused the three Children to chuse affliction rather than sin and to deem a Furnace seven times heated cooler than Hell But God be thanked this is not our case and I hope will never be We have no Statutes of Omri Micah vi 16. no manners of the house of Ahab to obey but such a Government as be the times never so bad we may be as good as we will in them and that safely too we are not called to praise God in the fire Rom. xii 1. or to offer up our bodies as any other than a living sacrifice to him And are so far from suffering for righteousness sake that we are not so much as buffeted for our faults But can break the Laws pretendedly with as good a Conscience as others can really keep them But God who prescribes the Order prescribes the Union too we must provide things honest in the sight of both God and man 2 Cor. viii 21. For though Loyalty is no more founded in Grace than Dominion is a Nero must be obeyed as well as a Constantine Rom. xiii 1 c. and there may be as good Subjects in Turky as in England if not better and an Aristides may be as just as St. Paul yet he is no good Christian who is a Rebel or a Cheat Christ will not be righteousness to them who will have none of their own His Kingdom consists not in Carnal Wisdom or weapons but in Love Joy and Peace that peace which is both our duty and our reward and both in the Text. To have a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Thirdly That which speaks the constancy of duty is that it must be always the same in all conditions places and times We are to be chaste with Joseph in the Palace as well as the Prison within the Curtains of our bed as those of the Tabernacle To be sober among the Vines and temperate at a loaded Table to pray for the King as heartily in our Closets as in his Chappel and no more to curse him in our Bed-chamber than we would in his own To be true to every trust of the dead as of the living and not as too many among us who are so unlike to God and so like the Devil that they are most certainly false to all that put confidence in them Whereas an inoffensive Conscience sets God and man before its eyes and is the same to