from us That the Gospel is all promises and our part is onely to believe and embrace them that is to be confident that God will perform them if we can but think so though we do nothing else which is an easie condition to fools but the hardest in the world to a wise man who if his salvation depended upon it could never perswade himself to believe that the holy God without any respect at all to his repentance and amendment would bestow upon him forgiveness of sins and eternal life onely because he was confident that God would do so As if any man could think that it were a thing so highly acceptable to God that men should believe of him that he loves to dispense his grace and mercy upon the most unfit and unreasonable terms A Covenant does necessarily imply a mutual obligation and the Scripture plainly tells us what are the terms and conditions of this Covenant both on God's part and ours namely that he will be our God and we shall be his people But he hath no-where said that though we be not his people yet he will be our God The seal of this Covenant hath two inscriptions upon it one on God's part that he will know them that are his and another on our part that we shall depart from iniquity But if we will not submit to this condition God will not know us but will bid us depart from him So our Saviour tells us Mat. 7.23 I will say unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not If we deal falsly in covenant with God and break loose from all our engagements to him we release God from all the promises that he hath made to us If we neglect to perform those conditions upon which he hath suspended the performance of his promises we discharge the obligation on God's part and he remains faithfull though he deny us that happiness which he promised under those conditions which we have neglected II. I come now to the second thing proprounded and that is to perswade those who profess Christianity to answer those obligations to a holy life which their Religion lays upon them We all call our selves Christians and would be very much offended at any man that should deny us this title But let us not cheat our selves with an empty and insignificant name but if we will call our selves Christians let us fill up this great title and make good our profession by a sutitable life and practice And to perswade us hereto I will urge these three considerations 1. The indecency of the contrary 2. The great scandal of it to our blessed Saviour and his holy Religion and 3. The infinite danger of it to our own souls 1. Consider how unbecoming it is for a man to live unsuitably to his profession If we call our selves Christians we profess to entertain the doctrine of the Gospel to be taught and instructed by the best master to be the disciples of the highest and most perfect institution that ever was in the world to have embraced a Religion which contains the most exact rules for the conduct and government of our lives which lays down the plainest precepts sets before us the best patterns and examples of a holy life and offers us the greatest assistances and encouragements to this purpose We profess to be furnished with the best arguments to excite us to holiness and vertue to be awed with the greatest fears and animated with the best hopes of any men in the world Now whoever makes such a profession as this obligeth himself to live answerably to do nothing that shall grosly contradict it Nothing is more absurd than for a man to act contrary to his profession to pretend to great matters and perform nothing of what he pretends to Wise men will not be caught with pretences nor be imposed upon with an empty profession but they will enquire into our lives and actions and by these they will make a judgment of us They cannot see into our hearts nor pry into our understandings to discover what it is that we inwardly believe they cannot discern those secret and supernatural principles that we pretend to be acted by But this they can do they can examine our actions and behold our good or bad works and try whether our lives be indeed answerable to our profession and do really excell the lives of other men who do not pretend to such great things There are a great many sagacious persons who will easily find us out will look under our mask and see through all our fine pretensions and will quickly discern the absurdity of telling the world that we believe one thing when we do the contrary If we profess to believe the Christian Religion we expose our selves to the scorn and contempt of every discerning man if we do not live up to it With what face can any man continue in the practice of any known sin that professeth to believe the holy doctrine of the Gospel which forbids all sin under the highest and severest penalties If we did but believe the history of the Gospel as we do any ordinary credible story and did we but regard the Laws of Christianity as we do the laws of the Land were we but perswaded that fraud and oppression lying and perjury intemperance and uncleanness covetousness and pride malice and revenge the neglect of God and Religion will bring men to hell as certainly as treason and felony will bring a man under the sentence of the Law Had we but the same awe and regard for the threatnings and promises of the Gospel that we have for the frowns and smiles of those who are in power and authority even this would be effectual to keep us from sin And if the Gospel have not this effect upon us it is an argument that we do not believe it 'T is to no purpose to go about to perswade men that we do heartily entertain the doctrine of Christ that doctrine which hath all the characters of piety and justice of holiness and vertue upon it which obligeth men to whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are chast whatsoever things are lovely and of good report if we have no regard to these things in our lives He that would know what a man believes let him attend rather to what he does than to what he talks He that leads a wicked life makes a more credible and effectual profession of infidelity than he who in words onely denies the Gospel It is the hardest thing in the world to imagine that that man believes Christianity who by ungodliness and worldly lusts does deny and renounce it If we profess our selves Christians it may justly be expected from us that we should evidence this by our actions that we should live at another rate than the Heathens did that we who worship a holy and just God should not allow our selves the liberty to sin as those did who
perfectos Philosophos turpiter vivere that some great Philosophers led very filthy lives Celsus and Porphyry Hierocles and Julian among all their witty invectives against Christian Religion have nothing against it that reflects so much upon it as do the wicked lives of so many Christians The greatest enmity to Religion is to profess it and to live unanswerably to it This consideration ought greatly to affect us I am sure the Apostle speaks of it with great passion and vehemency For many walk of whom I have told you often Phil. 3.18 and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things A Jew or a Turk is not so great an enemy to Christianity as a lewd and vitious Christian Therefore let me beseech Christians as they tender the honour of their Saviour and the credit of their Religion that they would conform their lives to the holy precepts of Christianity And if there be any who are resolved to continue in a vitious course to the injury and disparagement of Christianity I could almost entreat of them that they would quit their profession and renounce their Baptism that they would lay aside their title of Christians and initiate themselves in Heathenish rites and superstitions or be circumcised for Jews or Turks For it were really better upon some accounts that such men should abandon their Profession than keep on a vizard which serves to no other purpose but to scare others from Religion 3. And Lastly let us consider the danger we expose our selves to by not living answerably to our Religion And this I hope may prevail upon such as are not moved by the former considerations Hypocrites are instanc'd in Scripture as a sort of sinners that shall have the sharpest torments and the fiercest damnation When our Saviour would set forth the great severity of the Lord towards the evil servant he expresseth it thus Mat. 24.51 he shall cut him in sudden and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites So that the punishment of Hypocrites seems to be made in the measure and standard of the highest punishment Thou professest to believe in Christ and to hope in him for salvation but in the mean time thou livest a wicked and unholy life thou dost not believe but presume on him and wilt find at the great day that this thy confidence will be thy confusion and he whom thou hopest will be thy Advocate and Saviour will prove thy Accuser and thy Judge What our Saviour says to the Jews There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust may very well be applied to false Christians Joh. 5.45 there is one that accuseth you and will condemn you even Jesus in whom ye trust The profession of Christianity and mens having the name of Christ named upon them will be so far from securing them from Hell that it will sink them the deeper into it Many are apt to pity the poor Heathens who never heard of the name of Christ and sadly to condole their case but as our Saviour said upon another occasion Weep not for them weep for your selves There 's no such miserable person in the world as a degenerate Christian because he falls into the greatest misery from the greatest advantages and opportunities of being happy Dost thou lament the condition of Socrates and Cato and Aristides and doubt what shall become of them at the day of Judgment and canst thou who art an impious and prophane Christian think that thou shalt escape the damnation of Hell Dost thou believe that the moral Heathen shall be cast out and canst thou who hast led a wicked life under the profession of Christianity have the impudence to hope that thou shalt sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God No those sins which are committed by Christians under the enjoyment of the Gospel are of deeper dye and clothed with blacker aggravations than the sins of Heathens are capable of A Pagan may live without God in the world and be unjust towards men at a cheaper rate and upon easier terms than thou who art a Christian Better had it been thou hadst never known one syllable of the Gospel never heard of the name of Christ than that having taken it upon thee thou shouldst not depart from iniquity Happy had it been for thee that thou hadst been born a Jew or a Turk or a poor Indian rather than that being bred among Christians and professing thy self of that number thou shouldst lead a vitious and unholy life I have insisted the longer upon these arguments that I might if possible awaken men to a serious consideration of their lives and perswade them to a real reformation of them that I may oblige all those who call themselves Christians to live up to the essential and fundamental Laws of our Religion to love God and to love our neighbour to do to every man as we would have him to do to us to mortifie our lusts and subdue our passions and sincerely to endeavour to grow in every grace and vertue and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God This indeed would become our profession and be honourable to our Religion and would remove one of the greatest obstacles to the progress of the Gospel For how can we expect that the doctrine of God our Saviour should gain any considerable ground in the world so long as by the unworthy lives of so many Christians 't is represented to the world at so great disadvantage If ever we would have Christian Religion effectually recommended it must be by the holy and unblameable lives of those who make profession of it Then indeed it would look with so amiable a countenance as to invite many to it and carry so much majesty and authority in it as to command reverence from its greatest enemies and make men to acknowledge that God is in us of a truth and to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven The good God grant that as we have taken upon us the profession of Christianity so we may be carefull so to live that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things that the grace of God which bringeth salvation may teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. PHIL. III. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven FOR the understanding of which words we need to look back no further than the 18th verse of this Chapter where the Apostle with great vehemency and passion speaks of some among the Philippians who indeed profess'd Christianity but yet would do any thing to
will among men a readiness to forgive our greatest enemies to doe good to them that hate us to bless them that curse us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us And does inculcate these precepts more vehemently and forbid malice and hatred and revenge and contention more strictly and peremptorily than any Religion ever did before as will appear to any one that does but attentively read our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount And as Christianity hath given us a more certain so likewise a more perfect Law for the government of our lives All the precepts of it are reasonable and wise requiring such duties of us as are suitable to the light of nature and do approve themselves to the best reason of mankind such as have their foundation in the nature of God and are an imitation of the Divine excellencies such as tend to the persection of humane nature and to raise the minds of men to the highest pitch of goodness and vertue The Laws of our Religion are such as are generally usefull and beneficial to the world as do tend to the outward peace and the health to the inward comfort and contentment and to the universal happiness of mankind They command nothing that is unnecessary and burdensome as were the numerous rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Religion but what is reasonable and usefull and substantial And they omit nothing that may tend to the glory of God or the welfare of men nor do they restrain us in any thing but what is contrary either to the regular inclinations of nature or to our reason and true interest They forbid us nothing but what is base and unworthy to serve our humours and passions to reproach our understandings and to make our selves fools and beasts in a word nothing but what tends either to our private harm and prejudice or to publick disorder and confusion And that this is the tenour of the Laws of the Gospel will appear to any one from our Saviour's Sermons and Discourses particularly that upon the Mount wherein he charges his Disciples and followers to be humble and meek and righteous and patient under sufferings and persecutions and good and kind to all even to those that are evil and injurious to us and to endeavour to excell in all goodness and vertue This will appear likewise from the Writings of the holy Apostles I will instance but in some few passages in them St. Paul represents to us the design of the Christian doctrine in a very few words but of admirable sense and weight Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appear'd to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world The same Apostle makes this the main and fundamental condition of the Covenant of the Gospel on our part 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity St. James describes the Christian doctrine which he calls the wisdom that is from above by these characters It is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie St. Peter calls the Gospel 2 Pet. 1.3 4. the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue whereby saith he are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of a divine nature having escap'd the corruption that is in the world through lust and upon this consideration he exhorts them to give all diligence to add to their faith the several vertues of a good life V. 5 6 7. without which he tells them they are barren and unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ I will conclude with that full and comprehensive paslage of St. Paul to the Philippians Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever things are of venerable esteem whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure or chast whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things But the perfection and the reasonableness of the Laws of Christianity will most plainly appear by taking a brief survey of them And they may all be referr'd to these two general heads They are either such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men singly and personally good or such as tend to the peace and happiness of humane Society First Such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men good singly and personally consider'd And the precepts of this kind may be distributed likewise into two sorts such as enjoyn piety towards God or such as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the enjoyments and pleasures of this life 1. Such as enjoyn Piety towards God All the duties of Christian Religion which respect God are no other but what natural light prompts men to excepting the two Sacraments which are of great use and significancy in the Christian Religion and praying to God in the name and by the mediation of Jesus Christ For the sum of natural Religion as it refers more immediately to God is this That we should inwardly reverence and love God and that we should express our inward reverence and love of him by external worship and adoration and by our readiness to receive and obey all the revelations of his will And that we should testifie our dependence upon him and our confidence of his goodness by constant prayers and supplications to him for mercy and help for our selves and others And that we should acknowledge our obligations to him for the many favours and benefits which every day and every minute we receive from him by continual praises and thanksgivings And that on the contrary we should not entertain any unworthy thoughts of God nor give that honour and reverence which is due to him to any other that we should not worship him in any manner that is either unsuitable to the excellency and perfection of his nature or contrary to his revealed will that we should carefully avoid the prophane and irreverent use of his Name by cursing or customary swearing and take heed of the neglect or contempt of his Worship or any thing belonging to it This is the sum of the first part of natural Religion and these are the general heads of those duties which every man's reason tells him he owes to God And these are the very things which the Christian Religion does expresly require of us as might be evidenc'd from particular Texts in the New Testament So that there is nothing in this part of Christianity but what agrees very well with the reason of mankind 2. Such precepts as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the pleasures and enjoyments of this life Christian Religion
ought not to pretend any thing against the plain and safe paths of Religion which will entertain us with pleasure all along in the way and crown us with happiness at the end 2 TIM 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity THe whole verse runs thus Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are his And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity In which words the Apostle declares to us the terms of the covenant between God and man For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated foundation according to the usual signification of it is likewise as learned men have observ'd sometimes used for an instrument of contract whereby two parties do oblige themselves mutually to each other And this notion of the word agrees very well with what follows concerning the seal assix'd to it which is very fuitable to a Covenant but not at all to a foundation 'T is true indeed as the learned Grotius hath observed there used anciently to be inscriptions on foundation-stones and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render seal may likewise signifie an inscription and then the sense will be very current thus The foundation of God standeth sure having this inscription But it is to be considered that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie an inscription yet it is onely an inscription upon a seal which hath no relation to a foundation but is very proper to a covenant or mutual obligation And accordingly the seal affixt to this instrument or covenant between God and man is in allusion to the custom of those countries said to have an inscription on both sides agreeable to the condition of the persons contracting On God's part there is this impress or inscription The Lord knoweth them that are his that is God will own and reward those that are faithfull to him And on our part Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Let every one that nameth the name of Christ that is that calls himself a Christian For to name the name of any one or to have his name call'd upon by us does according to the use of this Phrase among the Hebrews signifie nothing else but to be denominated from him Thus 't is frequently used in the Old Testament and sometimes in the New Jam. 2.7 Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called that is the name or title of Christians and that expression 1 Pet. 〈◊〉 14. if ye be reproached for the name of Christ is at the sixteenth verse varied if any man suffer as a Christian So that to name the name of Christ is to call our selves Christians Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken strictly for injustice or unrighteousness but sometimes used more largely for sin and wickedness in the general And so it seems to be used here in the Text because there is no reason from the context to restrain it to any particular kind of sin or vice and because Christianity lays an equal obligation upon men to abstain from all sin Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity that is every Christian obligeth himself by his prosession to renounce all sin and to live a holy life In speaking to this argument I shall do these two things 1. Shew what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon men to live holy lives 2. Endeavour to perswade those who call themselves Christians to answer this obligation I. What obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon men to live holy lives He that calls himself a Christian professeth to entertain the Doctrine of Christ to live in the imitation of his holy example and to have solemnly engaged himself to all this I shall speak briefly to these and then come to that which I principally intend to perswade men to live accordingly 1. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to entertain the doctrine of Christ to believe the whole Gospel to assent to all the articles of the Christian faith to all the precepts and promises and theatnings of the Gospel Now the great design the proper intention of this doctrine is to take men off from sin and to direct and encourage them to a holy life It teacheth us what we are to believe concerning God and Christ not with any design to entertain our minds with the bare speculation of those truths but to better our lives For every article of our faith is a proper argument against sin and a powerfull motive to obedience The whole history of Christ's appearance in the world all the discourses and actions of his life and the sufferings of his death do all tend to this the ultimate issue of all is the destroying of sin So St. John tells us 1 Joh. 3.8 for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil But this is most expresly and fully declar'd to us Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that 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 The precepts of the Gospel do strictly command holiness and that universal the purity of our souls and the chastity of our bodies 2 Cor. 7.1 to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 1 Thes 5.22 to abstain from all kind of evil 1 Pet. 1.15 to be holy in all manner of conversation They require us to endeavour after the highest degrees of holiness that are attainable by us in this imperfect state to be holy as he that hath called us is holy Mat. 5.48 to be perfect as our father which is in heaven is perfect And all the promises of the Gospel are so many encouragements to obedience and a holy life ◠Cor. 7. ◠having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God We are told by St. Peter that these exceeding great and precious promises are given to us that by these we might be partakers of a Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust and that we might give all diligence to add to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and patience and brotherly-kindness and charity And the threatnings of the Gospel are so many powerfull arguments against sin Therefore the Apostle calls the Gospel the power of God unto salvation
Doctrines and Precepts of the H. Scriptures and one great reason why men do not so generally agree in the sense of these as of the other is because the interests and lusts and passions of men are more concern'd in the one than the other But whatever uncertainty there may be in the sense of any Texts of Scripture Oral Tradition is so far from affording us any help in this case that it is a thousand times more uncertain and less to be trusted to especially if we may take that to be the Traditionary sense of Texts of Scripture which we meet with in the Decretals of their Popes and the Acts of some of their Councils than which never was any thing in the whole world more absurd and ridiculous And whence may we expect to have the infallible Traditional sense of Scripture if not from the Heads and Representatives of their Church This may abundantly suffice for the vindication of that Passage which Mr. S. makes such a rude clamor about as if I had therein deny'd the truth and certainty of all Religion but durst never trust the Reader with a view of those words of mine upon which he pretended to ground this Calumny But the world understands well enough that all this was but a shift of Mr. S' s for the satisfaction of his own Party and a pitifull Art to avoid the vindication of Sure-footing a Task he had no mind to undertake And yet the main design of this Book which he calls Faith vindicated c. is to prove that which I do not believe any man living ever denyed viz. That what is true is not possible to be false Which though it be one of the plainest Truths in the world yet he proves it so foolishly as would make any man if it were not evident of it self to doubt of it He proves it from Logick and Nature and Metaphysicks and Ethicks c. I wonder he did not do it likewise from Arithmetick and Geometry the Principles whereof he * Sure-footing p. 93. tells us are concerned in demonstrating the certainty of Oral Tradition He might also have proceeded to Astrology and Palmistry and Chymistry and have shewn how each of these lend their assistance to the evidencing of this Truth For that could not have been more ridiculous than his †Faith vindic p. 6.7 c. Argument from the nature of Subject and Praedicate and Copula in Faith-Propositions because forsooth whoever affirms any Proposition of Faith to be true affirms it impossible to be false Very true But would any man argue that what is true is impossible to be false from the nature of Subject Praedicate and Copula for be the Proposition true or false these are of the same nature in both that is they are Subject Praedicate and Copula But that the Reader may have a taste of his clear style and way of reasoning I shall for his satisfaction transcribe Mr. S's whole Argument from the nature of the Praedicate His words are these Our Argument from the Copula is particularly strengthned from the nature of the Praedicate in the Propositions we speak of I mean in such speeches as affirm such and such points of Faith to be true P. 9 10 11 12. For True means Existent in Propositions which express onely the An est of a thing as most points of Faith do which speak abstractedly and tell not wherein the nature of the subject it speaks of consists or the Quid est So that most of the Propositions Christians are bound to profess are fully exprest thus A Trinity is existent c. and the like may be said of those Points which belong to a Thing or Action past as Creation was c. For Existent is the Praedicate in these two onely affixt to another difference of time and 't is equally impossible such Subjects should neither have been nor not have been or have been and have not been at once as it is that a thing should neither be nor not be at present or both be and not be at present Regarding then stedfastly the nature of our Praedicate Existent we shall find that it expresses the utmost Actuality of a Thing and as taken in the posture it bears in those Propositions that Actually exercis'd that is the utmost Actuality in its most actual state that is as absolutely excluding all manner or least degree of Potentiality and consequently all possibility of being otherwise which is radically destroyed when all Potentiality is taken away This Discourse holding which in right to truth I shall not fear to affirm unconcern'd in the drollery of any Opposer to be more than Mathematically demonstrative it follows inevitably that whoso is bound to profess a Trinity Incarnation c. is or was existent is also bound to profess that 't is impossible they should be not Existent or which is all one that 't is impossible these points of Faith should be false The same appears out of the nature of distinction or division applyed to our Praedicate Existent as found in these Propositions For could that Praedicate bear a pertinent distinction expressing this and the other respect or thus and thus it might possibly be according to one of these respects or thus considered and not be according to another that is another way considered But this evasion is here impossible for either those distinguishing Notions must be more Potential or Antecedent to the Notion of Existent and then they neither reach Existent nor supervene to it as its Determinations or Actuations which differences ought to doe nor can any Notion be more Actual or Determinative in the line of Substance or Being than Existent is and so fit to distinguish it in that line nor lastly can any determination in the line of Accidents serve the turn for those suppose Existence already 〈◊〉 and so the whole Truth of the Proposition entire and complete antecedently to them 'T is impossible therefore that what is thus affirmed to be True should in any regard be affirmed possible to be false the impossibility of distinguishing the Praedicate pertinently excluding here all possibility of divers respects The same is demonstrated from the impossibility of distinguishing the Subjects of those Faith-propositions for those Subjects being Propositions themselves and accepted for Truths as is supposed they are incapable of Distinction as shall be particularly shewn hereafter Besides those Subjects being points of Faith and so standing in the Abstract that is not descending to subsuming respects even in that regard too they are freed from all pertinent distinguishableness The same is demonstrated from the nature of Truth which consists in an Indivisible whence there is nothing of Truth had how great soever the conceived approaches towards it may be till all may-not-bees or Potentiality to be otherwise be utterly excluded by the Actuality of Is or Existence which put or discover'd the light of Truth breaks forth and the dim twilights of may-not-bees vanish and disappear I have
still retain a quick sense of pain and misery So that fear relies upon a natural love of our selves and is complicated with a necessary desire of our own preservation And therefore Religion usually makes its first entrance into us by this passion hence perhaps it is that Solomon more than once calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom 2. As for the Second phrase departing from evil the fitness of it to express the whole duty of man will appear if we consider the necessary connexion that is between the negative and positive part of our duty He that is carefull to avoid all sin will sincerely endeavour to perform his duty For the soul of man is an active principle and will be employed one way or other it will be doing something if a man abstain from evil he will do good Now there being such a strait connexion between these the whole of our duty may be expressed by either of them but most fitly by departing from evil because that is the first part of our duty Religion begins in the forsaking of sin Virtus est vitium fugere sapientia prima Stultitia caruisse Vertue begins in the forsaking of vice and the first part of wisedom is not to be a fool And therefore the Scripture which mentions these parts of our duty doth constantly put departing from evil first Depart from evil and do good Ps 34.14 37.27 Is 1.16 17. 55.7 Eph. 4.23 24. Cease to do evil learn to do well Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. We are first to put off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts and then to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new man 1 Pet. 3.11 c. Let him eschew evil and do good To all which I may add this farther consideration that the Law of God contained in the ten Commandments consisting mostly of prohibitions Thou shalt not doe such or such a'thing our observance of it is most fitly expressed by departing from evil which yet includes obedience likewise to the positive Precepts implied in those Prohibitions Having thus explain'd the Words I come now to consider the Proposition contain'd in them which is this That Religion is the best knowledge and wisedom This I shall endeavour to make good these three ways 1. By a direct proof of it 2. By shewing on the contrary the folly and ignorance of irreligion and wickedness 2. By vindicating Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence I begin with the direct proof of this And because Religion comprehends two things the knowledge of the Principles of it and a suitable life and practice the first of which being speculative may more properly be called knowledge and the latter because 't is practical may be called wisedom or prudence therefore I shall endeavour distinctly to prove these two things 1. That Religion is the best knowledge 2. That 't is the truest wisdom 1. First That it is the best knowledge The knowledge of Religion commends its self to us upon these two accounts 1. 'T is the knowledge of those things which are in themselves most excellent Of those things which are most usefull and necessary for us to know First It is the best knowledge because it is the knowledge of those things which are in themselves most excellent and desirable to be known and those are God and our duty God is the sum and comprehension of all perfection It is delightfull to know the Creatures because there are particular excellencies scatter'd and dispers'd among them which are some shadows of the Divine perfections But in God all perfections in their highest degree and exaltation meet together and are united How much more delightfull then must it needs be to fix our minds upon such an object in which there is nothing but beauty and brightness what is amiable and what is excellent what will ravish our affections and raise our wonder please us and astonish us at once And that the finite measure and capacity of our understandings is not able to take in and comprehend the infinite perfections of God this indeed shews the excellency of the object but doth not altogether take away the delightfulness of the knowledge For as it is pleasant to the Eye to have an endless prospect so is it some pleasure to a finite understanding to view unlimited excellencies which have no shore or bounds though it cannot comprehend them There is a pleasure in admiration and this is that which properly causeth admiration when we discover a great deal in an object which we understand to be excellent and yet we see we know not how much more beyond that which our understandings cannot fully reach and comprehend And as the knowledge of God in his nature and perfections is excellent and desirable so likewise to know him in those glorious manifestations of himself in the works of Creation and Providence and above all in that stupendious work of the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ which was such a mistery and so excellent a piece of knowledge that the Angels are said to desire to pry into it 1 Pet. 1.12 And as the knowledge of God is excellent so likewise of our Duty which is nothing else but vertue and goodness and holiness which are the image of God a conformity to the nature and will of God and an imitation of the Divine Excellencies and Perfections so far as we are capable For to know our duty is to know what it is to be like God in goodness and pity and patience and clemency in pardoning injuries and passing by provocations in justice and righteousness in truth and faithfulness and in a hatred and detestation of the contrary of these In a word it is to know what is the good and acceptable will of God what it is that he loves and delights in and is pleased withall and would have us to do in order to our perfection and our happiness It is deservedly accounted a piece of excellent knowledge to know the laws of the Land and the customs of the Countrey we live in and the will of the Prince we live under How much more to know the Statutes of Heaven and the Laws of eternity those immutable and eternal rules of justice and righteousness to know the will and pleasure of the great Monarch and universal King of the World and the Customs of that Countrey where we must live for ever This made David to admire the Law of God at that strange rate and to advance the knowledge of it above all other knowledge I have seen an end of all perfection Psal 119.96 but thy commandment is exceeding broad Secondly 'T is the knowledge of those things which are most usefull and necessary for us to know The goodness of every thing is measured by its end
or not which a testimony from God does suppose and therefore ought not to be brought for the proof of it 'T is true indeed that those effects of Divine Power I mean miracles which will prove a divine testimony to an infidel will as well prove the being of a God to an Atheist But when we dispute against those who deny a God no testimony ought to be presum'd to be from God but must be prov'd to be so And whatever argument proves that will also prove that there is a God Humane testimonies are of two sorts universal tradition and written History Both these are plainly and beyond dispute on our side First There is an universal tradition concerning the beginning of the world and that it was made by God And for the evidence of this we have the concurring Tradition of the most ancient Nations the Egyptians and Phoenicians * Vide Gâ—â—t de verit Chr Relig. L. 1. and of the most barbarous the Indians who as Strabo †Geograph L. 15. tells us did in many things agree with the Grecians particularly in this that the world did begin and should have an end and that God the maker and governour of it is present in all parts of it And Acosta tells us that at the first discovery of America the inhabitants of Peru did worship one chief God under the name or title of The Maker of the Vniverse And yet these people had not had any commerce with the other known parts of the world for God knows how many ages To which may be added that the most ancient of the Philosophers and those that were the heads of the chief Sects of Philosophy as Thales Anaxagoras and Pythagoras did likewise consent to this Tradition Particularly concerning Thales Tully * De Nat. Deorum L. 1. tells us that he was the first of all the Philosophers that enquired into these things and he said that water was the beginning of all things and that God was that mind or intelligent Principle which fashion'd all things out of water So likewise Strabo * Georg. L. 15. informs us that the Brachmans the chief Sect of Philosophers among the Indians agreed with the Grecians in this That the world was made of water Which agrees exactly with Moses's account of the Creation viz. That the Spirie of God moved upon the face of waters which St. Peter * 2 Pet. 3.5 expresses thus That by the word of God the heavens and the earth for so the Hebrews call the world wert of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constituted or made of water not standing out of the water as our Translation renders it Nay Aristotle * Metaph. L. 1. c. 3. himself who was the great asserter of the eternity of the world gives this account why the Gods were anciently represented by the Heathens as swearing by the lake Styx because water was supposed to be the principle of all things And this he tells us was the most ancient opinion concerning the original of the world and that the very oldest Writers of Theology and those who liv'd at the greatest distance from his time were of this mind And in the Book de Mundo * Cap. 6. it is freely acknowledg'd to have been an ancient saying and a general Tradition among all men That all things are of God and were made by him I will conclude this with that full Testimony of Maximus Tyrius * Dissertat 1. to this purpose However says he men may differ in other things yet they all agree in this Law or Principle that there is one God King and Father of all things c. This the Greeks say this the Barbarians this those that live upon the Continent and those that dwell by the Sea the wise and the unwise Secondly We have likewise a most ancient and credible History of the beginning of the world I mean the History of Moses with which no Book in the world in point of antiquity can contend I shall not now go about to strengthen my argument by pleading the Divine authority of this Book for which yet I could offer good evidence if that were proper to the matter hand It is sufficient to my present purpose that Moses have the ordinary credit of an Historian given him which none in reason can deny him he being cited by the most ancient of the Heathen Historians and the antiquity of his writings never questioned by any of them as Josephus * L. 1. contra Appion assures us Now this History of Moses gives us a particular account of the beginning of the world and of the creation of it by God Which assertion of his is agreeable to the most ancient Writers among the Heathen whether Poets or Historians And several of the main parts of Moses's History as concerning the Floud and the first Fathers of the several Nations of the World of which he gives a particular account Gen. 10. do very well accord with the most ancient accounts of Prophane History And I do not know whether any thing ought more to recommend the Writings of Moses to a humane belief than the easie and credible account which he gives of the original of the World and of the first peopling of it As to the account of ancient times both the Aegyptian and Chaldean accounts which are pretended by some to be so vastly different from that of the Scriptures may for all that be near the matter easily reconcil'd with it * Vide Dr. Stillingsleet's Orig. Sac. where this is fully made out if we do but admit what Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch very credible persons and diligent searchers into ancient Books do most expresly assure us viz. that both those Nations did anciently reckon months for years And the account of the Chineses is not hard to be reconcil'd with that of the Septuagint Now in so nice and obscure a matter as the account of ancient times is it ought to satisfie any fair and reasonable enquirer if they can be brought any whit near one another So that universal Tradition and the most ancient History in the world are clearly on our side And if they be one can hardly wish a more convincing argument For if the world and consequently mankind had a beginning there is all the reason in the world to expect these two things First that there should be an universal Tradition concerning this matter because it was the most memorable thing that could be transmitted to posterity And this was easie to be done if mankind sprang from one common root and originalâ— from whence this Tradition would naturally be universally diffus'd Secondly it may with the same reason be expected that so remarkable a thing should be recorded in the most ancient History Now both these have accordingly happened But then on the other hand if the world was eternal and had no beginning there could be no real ground for such a Tradition or History And if such a Tradition
apprehension of a God doth spring from an infinite jealousie in the mind of man and an endless fear of the worst that may happen according to that divine saying of the Poet which he can never sufficiently admire Primum in orle Deos fecit timor Fear first made Gods So that it is granted on both sides that the fear of a Deity doth universally possess the minds of men Now the question is whether it be more likely that the existence of a God should be the cause of this fear or that this fear should be the cause why men imagine there is a God if there be a God who hath impressed this image of himself upon the mind of Man there 's great reason why all men should stand in awe of him But if there be no God it is not easie to conceive how fear should create an universal confidence and assurance in men that there is one For whence should this fear come It must be either from without from the suggestion of others who first tell us there is such a being and then our fear believes it or else it must arise from within from the nature of man which is apt to fansie dreadfull and terrible things If from the suggestion of others who tell us so the question returns who told them so and will never be satisfied till the first Author of this report be found out So that this account of fear resolves it self into tradition which shall spoken to in its proper place But if it be said that this fear ariseth from within from the nature of man which is apt to imagine dreadfull things this likewise is liable to inexplicable difficulties For First The proper object of fear is something that is dreadfull that is something that threatens men with harm or danger and that in God must either be power or justice and such an object as this fear indeed may create But Goodness and Mercy are essential to the notion of a God as well as power and justice now how should fear put men upon fansying a being that is infinitely good and merciful No man hath reason to be afraid of such a being as such So that the Atheist must joyn another cause to fear viz. hope to enable men to create this imagination of a God And what would the product of these two contrary passions be the imagination of a being which we should fear would do us as much harm as we could hope it would do us good which would be quid pro quo and which our reason would oblige us to lay aside so soon as we have fansied it because it would signifie just nothing But Secondly suppose fear alone could do it how comes the mind of man to be subject to such groundless and unreasonable fears The Aristotelian Atheist will say it always was so But this is to affirm and not to give any account of a thing The Epicurean Atheist if he will speak consonantly to himself must say that there happened in the original constitution of the first men such a contexture of Atomes as doth naturally dispose men to these panick fears unless he will say that the first men when they grew out of the earth and afterwards broke loose from their root finding themselves weak and naked and unarmed and meeting with several fierce Creatures stronger than themselves they were put into such a fright as did a little distemper their understandings and let loose their imaginations to endless suspicions and unbounded jealousies which did at last settle in the conceit of an invisible being infinitely powerful and able to do them harm and being fully possest with this apprehension nothing being more ordinary than for crazed persons to believe their own fancies they became religious and afterwards when mankind began to be propagated in the way of generation then Religion obliged them to instill these Principles into their Children in their tender years that so they might make the greater impression upon them and this course having been continued ever since the notion of a God hath been kept up in the world This is very suitable to Epicurus his Hypothesis of the original of men But if any man think fit to say thus I cannot think it fit to confute him Thirdly whether men were from all eternity such timorous and fancifull Creatures or hapned to be made so in the first constitution of things it seems however that this fear of a Deity hath a foundation in nature And if it be natural ought we not rather to conclude that there is some ground and reason for these fears and that nature hath not planted them in us to no purpose than that they are vain and groundless There is no principle that Aristotle the great assertor of the eternity of the world doth more frequently inculcate than this That nature doeth nothing in vain and the Atheist himself is forc'd to acknowledge and so every man must who attentively considers the frame of the world That although things were made by chance yet they have happen'd as well as if the greatest wisedom had the ordering and contriving of them And surely wisedom would never have planted such a vain principle as the fear of a Deity in the nature of man if there had not been a God in the world Secondly If fear be not a sufficient account of this universal consent the Atheist thinks it may very probably be resolved into universal Tradition But this likewise is liable to great exception For whence came this Tradition It must begin some time it must have its original from some body and it were very well worth our knowing who that man was that first raised this spirit which all the reason of mankind could never conjure down since Where did he live and when In what Countrey and in what Age of the world What was his name or his sons name that we may know him This the Atheist can give no punctual account of only he imagines it not improbable that some body long ago no body knows when beyond the memory of all Ages did start such a notion in the world and that it hath past for current ever since But if this Tradition be granted so very ancient as to have been before all Books and to be elder than any History it may for any thing any body can tell have been from the beginning and then it is much more likely to be a notion which was bred in the mind of man and born with him than a Tradition transmitted from hand to hand through all Generations especially if we consider how many rude and barbarous Nations there are in the world which consent in the opinion of a God and yet have scarce any certain Tradition of any thing that was done among them but two or three Ages before Thirdly But if neither of these be satisfactory he hath one way more which although it signifie little to men of sober and severe Reason yet it very unhappily hits
if the providence of God be taken away what security have we against those innumerable dangers and mischiefs to which humane nature is continually expos'd What consolation under them when we are reduc'd to that condition that no creature can give us any hopes of relief But if we believe that there is a God that takes care of us and we be carefull to please him this cannot but be a mighty comfort to us both under the present sense of affliction and the apprehension of evils at a distance For in that case we are secure of one of these three things Either that God by his providence will prevent the evils we fear if that be best for us Or that he will support us under them when they are present and add to our strength as he encreaseth our burthen Or that he will make them the occasion of a greater good to us by turning them either to our advantage in this world or the increase of our happiness in the next Now every one of these considerations has a great deal of comfort in it for which if there were no God there could be no ground Nay on the contrary the most real foundation of our unhappiness would be laid in our Reason and we should be so much more miserable than the beasts by how much we have a quicker apprehension and a deeper consideration of things So that if a man had arguments sufficient to perswade him that there is no God as there is infinite reason to the contrary yet the belief of a God is so necessary to the comfort and happiness of our lives that a wise man could not but be heartily troubled to quit so pleasant an error and to part with a delusion which is apt to yield such unspeakable satisfaction to the mind of man Did but men consider the true notion of God he would appear to be so lovely a Being and so full of goodness and of all desirable perfections that even those very persons who are of such irregular understandings as not to believe that there is a God yet could not if they understood themselves refrain from wishing with all their hearts that there were one For is it not really desirable to every man that there should be such a Being in the world as takes care of the frame of it that it do not run into confusion and in that disorder ruin mankind That there should be such a Being as takes particular care of every one of us and loves us and delights to do us good as understands all our wants and is able and willing to relieve us in our greatest straits when nothing else can to preserve uâ— in our greatest dangers to assist us against our worst enemies and to comfort us under our sharpest sufferings when all other things set themselves against us Is it not every man's interest that there should be such a Governour of the world as really designs our happiness and hath omitted nothing that is necessary to it as would govern us for our advantage and will require nothing of us but what is for our good and yet will infinitely reward us for the doing of that which is best for our selves that will punish any man that should go about to injure us or to deal otherwise with us than himself in the like case would be dealt withal by us In a word such a one as is ready to be reconcil'd to us when we have offended him and is so far from taking little advantages against us for every failing that he is willing to pardon our most wilfull miscarriages upon our Repentance and amendment And we have reason to believe God to be such a Being if he be at all Why then should any man be troubl'd that there is such a Being as this or think himself concern'd to shut him out of the world How could such a Governour as this be wanting in the world that is so great a comfort and security to mankind and the confidence of all the ends of the earth If God be such a being as I have describ'd woe to the world if it were without out him This would be a thousand times greater loss to mankind and of more dismal consequence and if it were true ought to affect us with more grief and horrour than the extinguishing of the Sun Let but all things be well consider'd and I am very confident that if a wise and considerate man were left to himself and his own choice to wish the greatest good to himself he could devise after he had search'd heaven and earth the sum of all his wishes would be this that there were just such a being as God is Nor would he chuse any other benefactor or friend or protector for himself or governour for the whole world than infinite power conducted and managed by infinite wisedom and goodness and justice which is the true notion of a God Nay so necessary is God to the happiness of mankind that though there were no God yet the Atheist himself upon second thoughts would judge it convenient that the generality of men should believe that there is one For when the Atheist had attain'd his end and if it were a thing possible had blotted the notion of a God out of the minds of men mankind would in all probability grow so melancholly and so unruly a thing that he himself would think it fit in policy to contribute his best endeavours to the restoring of men to their former belief Thus hath God secur'd the belief of himself in the world against all attempts to the contrary not onely by rivetting the notion of himself into our natures but likewise by making the belief of his being necessary to the peace and tranquillity of our minds and to the quiet and happiness of Humane Society So that if we consult our reason we cannot but believe that there is if our interest we cannot but heartily wish that there were such a Being as God in the world Every thing within us and without us gives notice of him His name is written upon our hearts and in every creature there are some prints and footsteps of him Every moment we feel our dependance upon Him and do by daily experience and that we can neither be happy without Him nor think our selves so I confess it is not a wicked man's interest if he resolve to continue such that there should be a God but then it is not mens interest to be wicked It is for the general good of humane Society and consequently of particular persons to be true and just it is for mens health to be temperate and so I could instance in all other vertues But this is the mystery of Atheisme men are wedded to their lusts and resolv'd upon a wicked course and so it becomes their interest to wish there were no God and to believe so if they can Whereas if men were minded to live righteously and soberly and vertuously in the world to believe a God
would be no hindrance or prejudice to any such design but very much for the advancement and furtherance of it Men that are good and vertuous do easily believe a God so that it is vehemently to be suspected that nothing but the strength of mens lusts and the power of vicious inclinations do sway their minds and set a byass upon their understandings toward Atheism 2. Atheism is imprudent because it is unsafe in the issue The Atheist contends against the religious man that there is no God but upon strange inequality and odds for he ventures his eternal interest whereas the Religious man ventures onely the loss of his Lusts which it is much better for him to be without or at the utmost of some temporal convenience and all this while is inwardly more contented and happy and usually more healthfull and perhaps meets with more respect and faithfuller friends and lives in a more secure and flourishing condition and more free from the evils and punishments of this world than the Atheistical person does however it is not much that he ventures And after this life if there be no God is as well as he but if there be a God is Infinitely better even as much as unspeakable and eternal happiness is better than extream and endless misery So that if the arguments for and against a God were equal and it were an even question whether there were one or not yet the hazard and danger is so infinitely unequal that in point of prudence and interest every man were obliged to incline to the affirmative and whatever doubts he might have about it to choose the safest side of the question and to make that the principle to live by For he that acts wisely and is a throughly prudent man will be provided against all events and will take care to secure the main chance whatever happens but the Atheist in case things should fall out contrary to his belief and expectation he hath made no provision for this case If contrary to his confidence it should prove in the issue that there is a God the man is lost and undone for ever If the Atheist when he dies should find that his soul remains after his body and has onely quitted its lodging how will this man be amazed and blank'd when contrary to his expectation he shall find himself in a new and strange place amidst a world of spirits entred upon an everlasting and unchangeable state How sadly will the man be disappointed when he finds all things otherwise than he had stated and determined them in this World When he comes to appear before that God whom he hath denied and against whom he hath spoken as despightful things as he could who can imagine the pale and guilty looks of this man and how he will shiver and tremble for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty How will he be surprised with terrors on every side to find himself thus unexpectedly and irrecoverably plunged into a state of ruin and desperation And thus things may happen for all this man's confidence now For our belief or dis-belief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing We cannot fansie things into being or make them vanish into nothing by the stubborn considence of our imaginations Things are as sullen as we are and will be what they are whatever we think of them And if there be a God a man cannot by an obstinate disbelief of him make him cease to be any more than a man can put out the Sun by winking And thus I have as briefly and clearly as I could endeavoured to shew the ignorance and folly of speculative Atheisme in denying the existence of God And now it will be less needful to speak of the other two Principles of Religion the immortality of the soul and future rewards For no man can have any reasonable scruple about these who believes that there is a God Because no man that owns the existence of an infinite spirit can doubt of the possibility of a finite spirit that is such a thing as is immaterial and does not contain any principle of corruption in it self And there is no man that believes the goodness of God but must be inclin'd to think that he hath made some things for as long a duration as they are capable of Nor can any man that acknowledgeth the holy and just providence of God and that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity and that he is a Magistrate and Governour of the World and consequently concerned to countenance the obedience and to punish the violation of his Laws and that does withall consider the promiscuous dispensations many times of God's Providence in this world I say no man that acknowledges all this can think it unreasonable to conclude that after this life good men shall be rewarded and sinners punished I have done with the first sort of irreligious persons the speculative Atheist I shall speak but briefly of the other Secondly The practical Atheist who is wicked and irreligious notwithstanding he does in some sort believe that there is a God and a future state he is likewise guilty of prodigious folly The principle of the speculative Atheist argues more ignorance but the practice of the other argues greater folly Not to believe a God and another life for which there is so much evidence of reason is great ignorance and folly but 't is the highest madness when a man does believe these things to live as if he did not believe them When a Man does not doubt but that there is a God and that according as he demeans himself towards him he will make him happy or miserable for ever yet to live so as if he were certain of the contrary and as no man in reason can live but he that is well assured that there is no God It was a shrewd saying of the old Monk that two kind of Prisons would serve for all offenders in the world an Inquisition and a Bedlam If any man should deny the being of a God and the immortality of the soul such a one should be put into the first of these the Inquisition as being a desperate Heretick but if any man should profess to believe these things and yet allow himself in any known wickedness such a one should be put into Bedlam because there cannot be a greater folly and madness than for a man in matters of greatest moment and concernment to act against his best reason and understanding and by his life to contradict his belief Such a man does perish with his eyes open and knowingly undoes himself he runs upon the greatest dangers which he clearly sees to be before him and precipitates himself into those evils which he professes to believe to be real and intolerable and wilfully neglects the obtaining of that unspeakable good and happiness which he is perswaded is certain and attainable Thus much for the second way of Confirmation III. The third way
of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to vindicate Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence And they are chiefly these three 1. Credulity 2. Singularity 3. Making a Foolish Bargain First Credulity Say they the foundation of Religion is the belief of those things for which we have no sufficient reason and consequently of which we can have no good assurance as the belief of a God and of a future state after this life things which we never saw nor did experience nor ever spoke with any body that did Now it seems to argue too great a forwardness and easiness of belief to assent to any thing upon insufficient grounds To this I answer 1. That if there be such a Being as a God and such a thing as a future state after this life it cannot as I said before in reason be expected that we should have the evidence of sense for such things For he that believes a God believes such a Being as hath all perfections among which this is one that he is a spirit and consequently that he is invisible and cannot be seen He likewise that believes another life after this professeth to believe a state of which in this life we have no trial and experience Besides if this were a good objection that no man ever saw these things it strikes at the Atheist as well as us For no man ever saw the World to be from eternity nor Epicurus his Atoms of which notwithstanding he believes the World was made 2. We have the best evidence for these things which they are capable of at present supposing they were 3. Those who deny these principles must be much more credulous that is believe things upon incomparably less evidence of reason The Atheist looks upon all that are religious as a company of credulous fools But he for his part pretends to be wiser than to believe any thing for company he cannot entertain things upon those slight grounds which move other men if you would win his assent to any thing you must give him a clear demonstration for it Now there 's no way to deal with this man of reason this rigid exactor of strict demonstration for things which are not capable of it but by shewing him that he is an hundred times more credulous that he begs more principles takes more things for granted without offering to prove them and assents to more strange conclusions upon weaker grounds than those whom he so much accuseth of credulity And to evidence this I shall briefly give you an account of the Atheist's Creed and present you with a Catalogue of the fundamental Articles of his Faith He believes that there is no God nor possibly can be and consequently that the wise as well as unwise of all ages have been mistaken except himself and a few more He believes that either all the world have been frighted with an apparition of their own fancy or that they have most unnaturally conspired together to cozen themselves or that this notion of a God is a trick of policy though the greatest Princes and Politicians do not at this day know so much nor have done time out of a mind He believes either that the Heavens and the Earth and all things in them had no Original cause of their being or else that they were made by chance and happened he knows not how to be as they are and that in this last shuffling of matter all things have by great good fortune fallen out as happily and as regularly as if the greatest wisedom had contriv'd them but yet he is resolv'd to believe that there was no wisedom in the contrivance of them He believes that matter of it selâ— is utterly void of all sense understanding and liberty but for all that he is of opinion that the parts of matter may know and then happen to be so conveniently dispos'd as to have all these qualities and most dextrously to performe all those fine and free operations which the ignorant attribute to Spirits This is the sum of his belief And it is a wonder that there should be found any person pretending to reason or wit that can assent to such a heap of absurdities which are so gross and palpable that they may be felt So that if every man had his due it will certainly fall to the Atheist's share to be the most credulous person that is to believe things upon the slightest reasons For he does not pretend to prove any thing of all this only he finds himself he knows not why inclin'd to believe so and to laugh at those that do not II. The second imputation is singularity the affectation whereof is unbecoming a wise man To this charge I answer I. If by Religion be meant the belief of the principles of Religion that there is a God and a providence that our souls are immortal and that there are rewa ds to be expected after this life these are so far from being singular opinions that they are and always have been the general opinion of mankind even of the most barbarous Nations Insomuch that the Histories of ancient times do hardly furnish us with the names of above five or six persons who denied a God And Lucretius acknowledgeth that Epicurus was the first who did oppose those great foundations of Religion the providence of God and the immortality of the soul Primum Grajus homo c. meaning Epicurus 2. If by Religion be meant a living up to those principles that is to act conformably to our best reason and understanding and to live as it does become those who do believe a God and a future state this is acknowledged even by those who live otherwise to be the part of every wise man and the contrary to be the very madness of folly and height of distraction Nothing being more ordinary than for men who live wickedly to acknowledge that they ought to do otherwise 3. Though according to the common course and practice of the world it be somewhat singular for men truly and throughly to live up to the principles of their Religion yet singularity in this matter is so far from being a reflexion upon any man's prudence that it is a singular commendation of it In two cases singularity is very commendable 1. When there is a necessity of it in order to a man's greatest interest and happiness I think it to be a reasonable account for any man to give why he does not live as the greatest part of the World do that he has no mind to die as they do and to perish with them he is not disposed to be a fool and to be miserable for company he has no inclination to have his last end like theirs who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son and shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. It is very commendable to be singular in
to Religion Religion is against them and therefore they set themselves against Religion The principles of Religion and the doctrines of the holy Scriptures are terrible enemies to wicked men they are continnually flying in their faces and galling their consciences And this is that which makes them kick against Religion and spurn at the doctrines of that holy Book And this may probably be one reason why many men who are observed to be sufficiently dull in other matters yet can talk prophanely and speak against Religion with some kind of salt and smartness because Religion is the thing that frets them and as in other things so in this vexatio dat intellectum the inward trouble and vexation of their minds gives them some kind of wit and sharpness in rallying upon Religion Their consciences are galled by it and this makes them winch and fling as if they had some metal For let men pretend what they will there is no ease and comfort of mind to be had from atheistical principles 'T is found by experience that none are more apprehensive of danger or more fearfull of death than this sort of men Even when they are in prosperity they ever and anon feel many inward stings and lashes but when any great affliction or calamity overtakes them they are the most poor spirited creatures in the whole world The sum is the true reason why any man is an Atheist is because he is a wicked man Religion would curb him in his lusts and therefore he casts it off and puts all the scorn upon it he can Besides that men think it some kind of apology for their vices that they do not act contrary to any principle they profess Their practice is agreeable to what they pretend to believe and so they think to vindicate themselves and their own practices by laughing at those for fools who believe any thing to the contrary III. The third thing I propounded was to represent to you the heinousness and the aggravations of this vice And to make this out we will make these three suppositions which are as many as the thing will bear 1. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false 2. Suppose the matter were doubtfull and the arguments equal on both sides 3. Suppose it certain that there is a God and that the principles of Religion are true Put the case how we will I shall shew that the humour is intolerable I. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false Not that there is any reason for such a supposition but onely to shew the unreasonableness of this humour Put the case that these men were in the right in denying the principles of Religion and that all that they pretend were true yet so long as the generality of mankind believes the contrary it is certainly a great rudeness or incivility at least to deride and scoff at these things Indeed upon this supposition there could be no such thing as sin but yet it would be a great offence against the laws of civil conversation Suppose then the Atheist were wiser than all the world and that he did upon good grounds know that all mankind besides himself and two or three more were mistaken about the matters of Religion yet if he were either so wise or so civil as he should be he would keep all this to himself and not affront other men about these things I remember that that Law which God gave to the people of Israel Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy people is rendred by Josephus in a very different sense What other nations account Gods let no man blaspheme And this is not so different from the Hebrew as at first sight one would imagine for the same Hebrew word signifies both Gods and Rulers But whether this be the meaning of that Law or not there is a great deal of reason in the thing For though every man have a right in dispute against a false Religion and to urge it with all its absurd and ridiculous consequences as the Ancient Fathers did in their disputes with the Heathen yet it is a barbarous incivility for any man scurrilously to make sport with that which others account Religion not with any design to convince their reason but onely to provoke their rage But now the Atheist can pretend no obligation of conscience why he should so much as dispute against the principles of Religion much less deride them He that pretends to any Religion may pretend conscience for opposing a contrary Religion But he that denies all Religion can pretend no conscience for any thing A man may be obliged indeed in reason and common humanity to free his neighbour from a hurtfull error but supposing there were no God this notion of a Deity and the Principles of Religion have taken such deep root in the mind of man that either they are not to be extinguished or if they be it would be no kindness to any man to endeavour it for him because it is not to be done but with so much trouble and violence that the remedy would be worse than the disease For if this notion of a Deity be founded in a natural fear it is in vain to attempt to expell it for whatever violence may be offer'd to nature by endeavouring to reason men into a contrary perswasion nature will still recoil and at last return to it self and then the fear will be augmented from the apprehension of the dangerous consequences of such an impiety So that nothing can create more trouble to a man than to endeavour to dispossess him of this conceit because nature is but irritated by the contest and the man's fears will be doubled upon him But if we suppose this apprehension of a Deity to have no foundation in nature but to have had its rise from tradition which hath been confirmed in the world by the prejudice of education the difficulty of removing it will almost be as great as if it were natural that which men take in by education being next to that which is natural And if it could be extinguish't yet the advantage of it will not recompence the trouble of the cure For except the avoiding of persecution for Religion there is no advantage that the principles of Atheism if they could be quietly setled in a man's mind can give him The advantage indeed that men make of them is to give themselves the liberty to do what they please to be more sensual and more unjust than other men that is they have the priviledge to surfeit themselves and to be sick oftner than other men and to malte mankind their enemy by their unjust and dishonest actions and consequently to live more uneasily in the world than other men So that the principles of Religion the belief of a God and another life by obliging men to be vertuous do really promote their temporal happiness And all the priviledge that Atheism pretends
to the good order and more easie government of humane Society because they have a good influence both upon Magistrates and Subjects 1. Upon Magistrates Religion teacheth them to rule over men in the fear of God because though they be Gods on earth yet they are subjects of Heaven and accountable to Him who is higher than the highest in this world Religion in a Magistrate strengthens his authority because it procures veneration and gains a reputation to it And in all the affairs of this world so much reputation is really so much power We see that piety and Vertue where they are found among men of lower degree will command some reverence and respect But in persons of eminent place and dignity they are seated to a great advantage so as to cast a lustre upon their very Place and by a strong reflexion to double the beams of Majesty Whereas impiety and vice do strangely lessen greatness and do secretly and unavoidably derive some weakness upon authority it self Of this the Scripture gives us a remarkable instance in David For among other things which made the Sons of Zurviah too hard for him this probably was none of the least that they were particularly conscious to his crimes 2. Religion hath a good influence upon the People to make them obedient to Government and peaceable one towards another 1. To make them obedient to Government and conformable to Laws and that not onely for wrath and out of fear of the Magistrates power which is but a weak and loofe principle of obedience and will cease when ever men can rebel with safety and to advantage but out of Conscience which is a firm and constant and lasting principle and will hold a man fast when all other obligations will break He that hath entertain'd the true principles of Christianity is not to be tempted from his obedience and subjection by any worldly considerations because he believes that whatsoever resisteth authority resisteth the ordinance of God and that they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation 2. Religion tends to make men peaceable one towards another For it endeavours to plant all those qualities and dispositions in men which tend to peace and unity and to fill men with a spirit of universal love and good will It endeavours likewise to secure every man's interest by commanding the observation of that great rule of equity Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them by enjoyning that truth and fidelity be inviolably observed in all our words promises and contracts And in order hereunto it requires the extirpation of all those passions and vices which render men unsociable and troublesome to one another as pride covetousness and injustice hatred and revenge and cruelty and those likewise which are not so commonly reputed vices as self-conceit and peremptoriness in a man 's own opinion and all peevishness and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent And that these are the proper effects of true piety the doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles every where teacheth us Now if this be the design of Religion to bring us to this temper thus to heal the natures of men and to sweeten their spirits to correct their passions and to mortifie all those lusts which are the causes of enmity and division then it is evident that in its own nature it tends to the peace and happiness of humane society and that if men would but live as Religion requires they should do the world would be a quiet habitation a most lovely and desirable place in comparison of what now it is And indeed the true reason why the societies of men are so full of tumult and disorder so troublesome and tempestuous is because there is so little of true Religion among men so that were it not for some small remainders of piety and vertue which are yet left scatter'd among mankind humane society would in a short space disband and run into confusion the earth would grow wild and become a great forest and mankind would become beasts of prey one towards another And if this discourse hold true surely then one would think that vertue should find it self a seat where-ever humane societies are and that Religion should be owned and encouraged in the world until men cease to be governed by reason II. I come to vindicate this truth from the insinuations and pretences of atheistical persons I shall mention two 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God and a state of rewards and punishments after this life 2. That as for vertue and vice they are arbitrary things 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God or a state of rewards and punishments after this life And this the Atheist does and must assert otherwise he is by his own confession a declared enemy to Government and unfit to live in humane society For answer to this I will not deny but that though the generality of men did not believe any superior Being nor any rewards and punishments after this life yet notwithstanding this there might be some kind of Government kept up in the world For supposing men to have reason the necessities of humane nature and the mischiefs of confusion would probably compel them into some kind of order But then I say withall that if these principles were banished out of the world Government would be far more difficult than now it is because it would want its firmest Basis and foundation there would be infinitely more disorders in the world if men were restrained from injustice and violence onely by humane laws and not by principles of conscience and the dread of another world Therefore Magistrates have always thought themselves concerned to cherish Religion and to maintain in the minds of men the belief of a God and another life Nay that common suggestion of atheistical persons that Religion was at first a politick device and is still kept up in the world as a State-engine to awe men into obedience is a clear acknowledgment of the usefulness of it to the ends of Government and does as fully contradict that pretence of theirs which I am now confuting as any thing that can be said 2. That vertue and vice are arbitrary things founded onely in the imaginations of men and in the constitutions and customs of the world but not in the nature of the things themselves and that that is vertue or vice good or evil which the Supream Authority of a Nation declares to be so And this is frequently and confidently asserted by the ingenious Author of a very bad Book I mean the Leviathan Now the proper way of answering any thing that is confidently asserted is to shew the contrary namely That there are some things that have a natural evil and deformity in them as perjury perfidiousness unrighteousness and ingratitude which are things not onely condemned by the positive laws and constitutions of
in the practice of Religion and Vertue Because the publick happiness and prosperity depends upon it It is most apparent that of late years Religion is very sensibly declin'd among us The manners of men have almost been universally corrupted by a Civil War We should therefore all jointly endeavour to retrieve the ancient vertue of the Nation and to bring into fashion again that solid and substantial that plain and unaffected piety free from the extreams both of superstition and enthusiasm which flourished in the age of our immediate Forefathers Which did not consist in idle talk but in real effects in a sincere love of God and of our neighbour in a pious devotion and reverence towards the Divine Majesty and in the vertuous actions of a good life in the denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts and in living soberly and righteously and godly in this present world This were the true way to reconcile God to us to stop the course of his judgments and to bring down the blessings of Heaven upon us God hath now been pleased to settle us again in peace both at home and abroad and he hath put us once more into the hands of our own counsel Life and Death blessing and cursing prosperity and destruction are before us We may chuse our own fortune and if we be not wanting to our selves we may under the influences of God's grace and assistance which is never wanting to our sincere endeavours become a happy and a prosperous People The good God make us all wise to know and to do the things that belong to the temporal peace and prosperity of the Nation and to the eternal happiness and salvation of every one of our souls which we humbly beg for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom c. PSALM xix II. And in keeping of them there is great reward IN this Psalm David celebrates the glory of God from the consideration of the greatness of his Works and the perfection of his Laws From the greatness of his Works verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work c. From the perfection of his Laws verse 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul c. And among many other excellencies of the Divine Laws he mentions in the last place the benefits and advantages which come from the observance of them verse 11. and in keeping of them there is great reward I have already shown how much Religion tends to the publick welfare of mankind to the support of Government and to the peace and happiness of humane Societies My work at this time shall be to shew that Religion and obedience to the Laws of God do likewise conduce to the happiness of particular persons both in respect of this world and the other For though there be but little express mention made in the Old Testament of the immortality of the Soul and the rewards of another life yet all Religion does suppose these principles and is built upon them I. And First I shall endeavour to shew how Religion conduceth to the happiness of this life and that both in respect of the inward and outward man First As to the mind to be pious and religious brings a double advantage to the mind of man 1. It tends to the improvement of our understandings 2. It brings peace and pleasure to our minds 1. It tends to the improvement of our understandings I do not mean onely that it instructs us in the knowledge of divine and spiritual things and makes us to understand the great interest of our souls and the concernments of eternity better but that in general it does raise and enlarge the minds of men and make them more capable of true knowledge And in this sense I understand the following Texts Psal 19.8 The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Psal 111.10 a good understanding have all they that keep his commandments Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies Psal 119.98 which plainly refers to political prudence I have more understanding than all my teachers ver 99. for thy Testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts ver 104. ver 130. Through thy precepts I get understanding The enterance of thy word giveth light it giveth understanding to the simple Now Religion doth improve the understandings of men by subduing their lusts and moderating their passions The lusts and passions of men do sully and darken their minds even by a natural influence Intemperance and sensuality and fleshly lusts do debase mens minds and clog their spirits make them gross and foul listless and unactive they sink us down into sense and glew us to these low and inferiour things like birdlime they hamper and entangle our souls and hinder their flight upwards they indispose and unfit our minds for the most noble and intellectual considerations So likewise the exorbitant passions of wrath and malice envy and revenge do darken and distort the understandings of men do tincture the mind with false colours and fill it with prejudice and undue apprehensions of things There is no man that is intemperate or lustful or passionate but besides the guilt he contracts which is continually fretting and disquieting his mind besides the inconveniences he brings upon himself as to his health he does likewise stain and obscure the brightness of his Soul and the clearness of his discerning faculty Such persons have not that free use of their reason that they might have their understandings are not bright enough nor their spirits pure and fine enough for the exercise of the highest and noblest acts of reason What clearness is to the eye that purity is to our mind and understanding and as the clearness of the bodily eye doth dispose it for a quicker sight of material objects so doth the purity of our minds that is freedom from lust and passion dispose us for the clearest and most perfect acts of reason and understanding Now Religion doth purifie our minds and refine our spirits by quenching the fire of lust and suppressing the fumes and vapours of it and by scattering the clouds and mists of passion And the more any man's soul is cleansed from the filth and dregs of sensual lusts the more nimble and expedite it will be in its operations The more any man conquers his passions the more calm and sedate his spirit is and the greater equality he maintains in his temper his apprehensions of things will be the more clear and unprejudic'd and his judgment more firm and steddy And this is the meaning of that saying of Solomon He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly Ira furor brevis est Anger is a short fit of madness and he that is passionate and furious deprives himself of his
reason spoils his understanding and helps to make himself a fool whereas he that conquers his passions and keeps them under doth thereby preserve and improve his understanding Freedom from irregular passions doth not onely signifie that a man is wise but really contributes to the making of him such 2. Religion tends to the ease and pleasure the peace and tranquillity of our minds wherein happiness chiefly consists and which all the wisdom and Philosophy of the world did always aim at as the utmost felicity of this life And that this is the natural fruit of a religious and vertuous course of life the Scripture declares to us in these Texts Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Great peace have all they that love thy Law Psal 119.165 and nothing shall offend them Her ways are ways of pleasantness Pro. 3.17 and all her paths are peace Isa 32.17 The fruit of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever The plain sense of which Texts is that pleasure and peace do naturally result from a holy and good life When a man hath once engag'd himself in a Religious course and is habituated to piety and holiness all the exercises of Religion and devotion all acts of goodness and vertue are delightfull to him To honour and worship God to pray to him and to praise him to study his will to meditate upon him and to love him all these bring great pleasure and peace along with them What greater contentment and satisfaction can there be to the mind of man when it is once purifi'd and refin'd from the dregs of sensual pleasures and delights and rais'd to its true height and pitch than to contemplate and admire the infinite excellencies and perfections of God to adore his greatness and to love his goodness How can the thoughts of God be troublesome to any one who lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world No man that loves goodness and righteous ness hath any reason to be afraid of God or to be disquieted with the thoughts of him There is nothing in God that is terrible to a good man but all the apprehensions which we naturally have of him speak comfort and promise happiness to such a one The consideration of his attributes is so far from being a trouble to him that it is his recreation and delight It is for wicked men to dread God and to endeavour to banish the thoughts of him out of their minds but a holy and vertuous man may have quiet and undisturb'd thoughts even of the justice of God because the terrour of it doth not concern him Now Religion doth contribute to the peace and quiet of our minds these two ways First By allaying those passions which are apt to ruffle and discompose our spirits Malice and hatred wrath and revenge are very fretting and vexatious and apt to make our minds sore and uneasie but he that can moderate these affections will find a strange ease and pleasure in his own spirit Secondly by freeing us from the anxieties of guilt and the fears of divine wrath and displeasure than which nothing is more stinging and tormenting and renders the life of man more miserable and unquiet And whaâ— a spring of peace and joy must it needs be to apprehend upon good grounds that God is reconcil'd to us and become our friend that all our sins are perfectly forgiven and shall never more be remembred against us What unexpressible comfort does overflow the pious and devout soul from the remembrance of a holy and well-spent life and a conscience of its own innocency and integrity And nothing but the practice of Religion and Vertue can give this ease and satisfaction to the mind of man For there is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds and consequently to our happiness and that is holiness and goodness which as it is the perfection so is it likewise the happiness of the Divine nature And on the contrary the chief part of the misery of wicked men and of those accursed spirits the Devils is this that they are of a disposition contrary to God they are envious and malicious and cruel and of such a temper as is naturally a torment and disquiet to it self And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of mens minds and till this be cur'd which can onely be done by Religion it is as impossible for a man to be happy that is pleas'd and contented within himself as it is for a sick man to be at ease Because such a man hath that within him which torments him and he cannot be at ease till that be remov'd The man's spirit is out of order and off the hinges and till that be put into its right frame he will be perpetually disquieted and can find no rest within himself The Prophet very fitly describes to us the unquiet condition of wicked men Isa 57.10.21 The wicked is like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked So long as sin and corruption abound in our hearts they will be restlesly working like wine which will be in a perpetual motion and agitation till it have purg'd it self of its dregs and foulness Secondly Religion does likewise tend to the happiness of the outward man Now the blessings of this kind are such as either respect our health or estate or reputation or relations and in respect of all these Religion is highly advantageous to us 1. As to our health a Religious and vertuous life doth eminently conduce to that and to long life as a consequent of it And in this sense I understand these following Texts Prov. 3.1 2. My Son forget not my Law but let thy heart keep my Commandments for length of days and long life shall they add to thee and v. 7 and 8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones and v. 16. among the temporal advantages of wisdom or Religion this is mention'd as the first and principal length of days is in her right hand and v. 18. she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and again Whoso findeth me findeth life but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8.35 36. that is injurious to his own life all they that hate me love death all which is undoubtedly true in a spiritual sense but is certainly meant by Solomon in the natural sense And these promises of the blessings of health and long life to good men are not only declaratory of the good pleasure and intention of God towards them but likewise of the natural tendency of the thing For Religion doth oblige men to the practice of those vertues which do in their
Religious and Holy life doth from the very nature and reason of the thing conduce to our future happiness by way of necessary disposition and preparation of us for it We cannot be otherwise happy but by our conformity to God without this we cannot possibly love him nor find any pleasure or happiness in communion with him For we cannot love a nature contrary to our own nor delight to converse with it Therefore Religion in order to the fitting of us for the happiness of the next life does design to mortifie our lusts and passions and to restrain us from the inordinate love of the gross and sensual delights of this world to call off our minds from these inferiour things and to raise them to higher and more spiritual objects that we may be disposed for the happiness of the other world and taught not to relish the delights of it whereas should we set our hearts onely upon these things and be able to taste no pleasure in any thing but what is sensual and earthly we must needs be extremely miserable when we come into the other world because we should meet with nothing to entertain our selves withall no employment suitable to our disposition no pleasure that would agree with our deprav'd appetites and vicious inclinations All that Heaven and Happiness signifies is unsuitable to a wicked man and therefore could be no felicity to him But this I shall have occasion to speak more fully to in my last Discourse From all that hath been said the reasonableness of Religion clearly appears which tends so directly to the happiness of men and is upon all accounts calculated for our benefit Let but all things be truly considered and cast up and it will be found that there is no advantage to any man from an irreligious and vicious course of life I challenge any one to instance in any real benefit that ever came to him this way Let the sinner declare what he hath found by experience Hath lewdness and intemperance been more for his health than if he had liv'd chastly and soberly Hath falsehood and injustice prov'd at the long run more for the advancement and security of his estate than truth and honesty would have done Hath any vice that he hath lived in made him more true friends and gain'd him a better reputation in the world than the practice of holiness and vertue would have done Hath he found that peace and satisfaction of mind in an evil course and that quiet enjoyment of himself and comfortable assurance of God's favour and good hopes of his future condition which a religious and vertuous life would have not some of his vices weaken'd his body and broken his health have not others dissipated his estate and reduc'd him to want What notorious vice is there that doth not blemish a man's reputation and make him either hated or despis'd and that not only by the wise and the vertuous but even by the generality of men But was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience and the torment of a restless and uneasie mind from the secret dread of Divine displeasure and of the vengeance of another world Let the sinner freely speak the very inward sense of his soul in this matter and spare not and I doubt not if he will deal clearly and impartially but that he will acknowledge all this to be true and is able to confirm it from his own sad experience For this is the natural fruit of sin and the present revenge which it takes upon sinners besides that fearful punishment which shall be inflicted on them in another life What reason then can any man pretend against Religion when it is so apparently for the benefit not onely of humane society but of every particular person when there is no real interest of this world but may ordinarily be as effectually promoted and pursued no as great advantage nay usually to far greater by a man that lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world than by any one that leads the contrary course of life Let no man then say with those prophane persons whom the Prophet speaks of Mal. 3.14 It is in vain to serve the Lord and what profit is it that we have kept his Commandments God has not been so hard a master to us that we have reason thus to complain of him He hath given us no Laws but what are for our good nay so gracious hath he been to us as to link together our duty and our interest and to make those very things the instances of our obedience which are the natural means and causes of our happiness The Devil was so far in the right when he charg'd Job that he did not serve God for nought 'T is he himself that is the hard master and makes men serve him for nought who rewards his drudges and slaves with nothing but shame and sorrow and misery But God requires no man's service upon hard and unreasonable terms The greatest part of our work is a present reward to it self and for whatever else we do or suffer for him he offers us abundant consideration And if men did but truly and wisely love themselves they would upon this very ground if there were no other become Religious For when all is done there is no man can serve his own interest better than by serving God Religion conduceth both to our present and future happiness and when the Gospel chargeth us with piety towards God and justice and charity towards men and temperance and chastity in reference to our selves the true interpretation of these Laws is this God requires of men in order to their eternal happiness that they should do those things which tend to their temporal welfare that is in plainer words he promises to make us happy for ever upon condition that we will but do that which is best for our selves in this world To conclude Religion is founded in the interest of men rightly apprehended So that if the God of this world and the lusts of men did not blind their eyes so as to render them unfit to discern their true interest it would be impossible so long as men love themse ves and desire their own happiness to keep them from being religious for they could not but conclude that to be their interest and being so convinc'd they would resolve to pursue it and stick to it PHIL. III. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. IN the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle makes a comparison between the Jewish and the Christian Religion and shews the Christian to be in truth and substance what the Jewish was onely in type and shadow v. 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit And then he enumerates the several priviledges he was partaker of by virtue of his being born in the Jewish Church v. 4 5 6. Though I might
be restless is good for nothing but to fret and enrage our pain to gall our sores and to make the burthen that is upon us sit more uneasie But this is properly no consideration of comfort but an art of managing our selves under afflictions so as not to make them more grievous than indeed the are But now the arguments which Christianity propounds to us are such as are a just and reasonable encouragement to men to bear sufferings patiently Our Religion sets before us not the example of a stupid Stoick who had by obstinate principles harden'd himself against all sense of pain beyond the common measures of humanity but an example that lies level to all mankind of a man like our selves that had a tender sense of the least suffering and yet patiently endur'd the greatest of Jesus the Authour and finisher of our faith Heb. 1.22 who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God God thought it expedient that the first Christians should by great hardships and persecutions be train'd up for glory and to animate and encourage them hereto the Captain of our salvation was crown'd by sufferings Heb. 2.10 Much more should the consideration of this pattern arm us with patience against the common and ordinary calamities of this life especially if we consider his example with this advantage that though his sufferings were wholly undeserv'd and not for himself but for us yet he bore them patiently But the main consideration of all is the glory which shall follow our sufferings as the reward of them if they be for God and his cause and if upon any other innocent account as reward of our patience 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Christian Religion hath secur'd us that we shall be infinite gainers by our sufferings And who would not be content to suffer upon terms of such advantage to pass through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God and to endure a short ffliction for an endless happiness The assurance of a future blessedness is a cordial that will revive our spirits more in the day of adversity than all the wise sayings and considerations of Philosophy These are the arguments which Christianity propounds to us and they are firm and sound at the bottom they have strength and substance in them and are apt to work upon humane nature and the most ordinary understanding is capable of the force of them In the strength and vertue of this great example and in contemplation of this glorious reward with what resolution and chearfulness with what courage and patience did vast numbers of all sorts of people in the first Ages of Christianity not only men but women not only those of greater spirit and more generous education but those of the poorest and lowest condition not onely the learned and the wise but the ignorant and illiterate encounter all the rage and malice of the world and embrace torments and death Had the precepts and counsels of Philosophy ever any such effect upon the minds of men I will conclude this with a passage in the life of Lipsius who was a great studier and admirer of the Stoical Philosophy When he lay upon his death-bed and one of his friends who came to visit him told him that he needed not use arguments to perswade him to patience under his pains the Philosophy which he had studied so much would furnish him with motives enough to that purpose he answers him with this ejaculation Domine Jesu da mihi patientiam Christianam Lord Jesus give me Christian patience No patience like to that which the considerations of Christianity are apt to work in us And now I have as briefly and plainly as I could endeavour'd to represent to you the excellency of the Christian Religion both in respect of the clear discoveries which it makes to us of the nature of God which is the great foundation of all Religion and likewise in respect of the perfection of its Laws and the power of its arguments to perswade men both to obey and suffer the will of God By which you may see what the proper tendency and design of this Religion is and what the Laws and precepts of it would make men if they would truly observe them and live according to them substantially Religious towards God chast and temperate patient and contented in reference to themselves and the dispensations of God's providence towards them just and honest kind and peaceable and good natur'd towards all men In a word the Gospel describes God to us in all respects such a one as we would wish him to be gives us such Laws as every man that understands himself would chuse to live by propounds such arguments to perswade to the obedience of these Laws as no man that wisely loves himself and hath any tenderness for his own interest and happiness either in this world or the other can refuse to be mov'd withall And now methinks I may with some confidence challenge any Religion in the world to shew such a compleat body and collection of holy and reasonable Laws establish'd upon such promises and threatnings as the Gospel contains And if any man can produce a Religion that can reasonably pretend to an equal or a greater confirmation than the Gospel hath a Religion the precepts and promises and threatnings whereof are calculated to make men wiser and better more temperate and more chast more meek and more patient more kind and more just than the laws and motives of Christianity are apt to make men if any man can produce such a Religion I am ready to be of it Let but any man shew me any Book in the world the doctrines whereof have the seal of such miracles as the doctrine of the Scriptures hath a Book which contains the heads of our duty so perfectly and without the mixture of any thing that is unreasonable or vicious or any ways unworthy of God that commands us every thing in reason necessary to be done and abridgeth us of no lawfull pleasure without offering us abundant recompence for our present self-denyal a Book the rules whereof if they were practic'd would make men more pious and devout more holy and sober more just and fair in their dealings better friends and better neighbours better magistrates and better subjects and better in all relations and which does offer to the understanding of men more powerfull arguments to perswade them to be all this let any man I say shew me such a Book and I will lay aside the Scripture and preach out of that And do we not all profess to be of this excellent Religion and to study and believe this holy Book of the Scriptures But alas who will believe that we do so that shall look upon the actions and consider the lives
of the greatest part of Christians How grosly and openly do many of us contradict the plain precepts of the Gospel by our ungodliness and worldly lusts by living intemperately or unjustly or prophanely in this present world As if the grace of God which brings salvation had never appear'd to us as if we had never hear'd of Heaven or Hell or believ'd not one word that the Scripture says concerning them as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him but will come in flaming sire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us not then deceive our selves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord if we do not frame our lives according to it For though we know these things never so well yet we are not happy unless we do them Nay we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not Therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives If not all the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will rise up in judgment against us and the Articles of our Faith will be so many Articles of Accusation and the great weight of our charge will be this that we did not obey that Gospel which we profess'd to believe that we made confession of the Christian Faith but liv'd like Heathens Not to believe the Christian Religion after so great evidence and confirmation as God hath given to it is very unreasonable but to believe it to be true and yet to live as if it were false is the greatest repugnancy and contradiction that can be He that does not believe Christianity either hath or thinks he hath some reason for with-holding his assent from it But he that believes it and yet lives contrary to it knows that he hath no reason for what he does and is convinc'd that he ought to do otherwise And he is a miserable man indeed that does those things for the doing of which he continually stands condemn'd by his own mind and accordingly God will deal more severely with such persons He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings if they do not proceed from gross carelesness and neglect of our selves but the faults of our wills have no excuse because we knew to do better and were convinc'd in our minds that we ought not to have done so Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and dost thou still allow thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Art thou convinc'd that without holiness no man shall see the Lord and dost thou still persist in a wicked course Art thou fully perswaded that no whoremonger nor adulterer nor covetous nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ and dost thou for all that continue to practise these vices What canst thou say man why it should not be to thee according to thy faith If it so fall out that thou art miserable and undone for ever thou hast no reason to be surpriz'd as if some unexpected thing had happen'd to thee It is but with thee just as thou believ'dst it would be when thou didst these things For how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own Conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better and chose to make our selves miserable when we understood the way to have been happy To conclude we Christians have certainly the best and the holiest the wisest and most reasonable Religion in the world but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind if the best Religion in the world do not make us good 1 JOHN 5.3 And his commandments are not grievous ONE of the great prejudices which men have entertain'd against the Christian Religion is this that it lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born that the Laws of it are very strict and severe difficult to be kept and yet dangerous to be broken That it requires us to govern and keep under our passions and to contradict many times our strongest inclinations and desires to cut off our right hand and to pluck out our right eye to love cur enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us to forgive the greatest injuries that are done to us and to make reparation for the least that we do to others to be contented with our condition patient under sufferings and ready to sacrifice our dearest interests in this world and even our very lives in the cause of God and Religion All these seem to be hard sayings and grievous commandments For the removal of this prejudice I have chosen these words of the Apostle which expresly tells us the contrary that the commandments of God are not grievous And though this be a great truth if it be impartially consider'd yet it is also a great paradox to men of corrupt minds and vicious practices who are prejudic'd against Religion and the holy Laws of God by their interest and their lusts This seems a strange proposition to those who look upon Religion at a distance and never try'd the experiment of a holy life who measure the Laws of God not by the intrinsecal goodness and equity of them but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts against them Upon this account it will be requisite to take some pains to satisfie the reason of men concerning this truth and if it be possible to make it so evident that those who are unwilling to own it may yet be asham'd to deny it And methinks I have this peculiar advantage in the argument I have now undertaken that every reasonable man cannot chuse but wish me success in this attempt because I undertake the proof of that which it is every man's interest that it should be true And if I can make it out this pretence against Religion will not onely be baffled but we shall gain a new and forcible argument to perswade men over to it Now the easiness or difficulty of the observation of any Laws or commands depends chiefly upon these three things First Upon the Nature of
the greatest pleasure we are capable of will be to please him For nothing is difficult to love It will make a man deny himself and cross his own inclinations to pleasure them whom he loves It is a passion of a strange power where it reigns and will cause a man to submit to those things with delight which in other circumstances would seem grievous to him Jacob serv'd for Rachel seven years and after that seven years more and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her Did but the love of God rule in our hearts and had we as real an affection for him as some men have for their friends there are no such difficulties in Religion but what love would conquer and the severest parts of it would become easie when they were once undertaken by a willing mind V. There is incomparably more trouble in the ways of sin and vice than in those of Religion and Vertue Every notorious sin is naturally attended with some inconvenience of harm or danger or disgrace which the sinner seldom considers till the sin be committed and then he is in a labyrinth and in seeking the way out of a present inconvenience he intangles himself in more He is glad to make use of indirect arts and laborious crafts to avoid the consequence of his faults and many times is fain to cover one sin with another and the more he strives to disentangle himself the more is he snar'd in the work of his own hands Into what perplexities did David's sin bring him such as by all his power and arts he could not free himself from He was glad to commit a greater crime to avoid the shame of a less and could find no other way to conceal his adultery but by plunging himself into the guilt of murther And thus it is proportionably in all other vices The ways of sin are crooked paths full of windings and turnings but the way of holiness and vertue is a high way Isa 35.8 and lies so plain before us that wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein There needs no skill to keep a mans self true and honest if we will but resolve to deal justly and to speak the truth to our neighbour nothing in the whole world is easier For there is nothing of artifice and reach required to enable a man to speak as he thinks and to do to others as he would be dealt withal himself And as the ways of sin are full of intricacy and perplexities so likewise of trouble and disquiet There is no man that wilfully commits any sin but his conscience smites him for it and his guilty mind is frequently gall'd with the remembrance of it but the reflection upon honest and vertuous actions hath nothing of regret and disquiet in it No man's conscience ever troubled him for not being honest no man's reason ever challeng'd him for not being drunk no man ever broke his sleep or was haunted with fears of divine vengeance because he was conscious to himself that he had liv'd soberly and righteously and godly in the world But with the ungodly it is not so There is no man that is knowingly wicked but he is guilty to himself and there is no man that carries guilt about him but he hath received a sting into his Soul which makes him restless so that he can never have any perfect case and pleasure in his mind I might have descended to particular Instances and have shewn how much more troublesome the practice of every sin and vice is than the exercise of the contrary grace and vertue but that would be too large a Subject to be brought within the limits of a single discourse VI. Let but vertue and vice a religious and wicked course of life be put in equal circumstances do but suppose a man to be as much accustom'd and snur'd to the one as he has been to the other and then I doubt not but the advantages of ease and pleasure will be found to be on the side of Religion and if we do not put the case thus we make an unequal comparison For there is no man but when he first begins a wicked course feels a great deal of regret in his mind the terrours of his conscience and the fears of damnation are very troublesom to him It is possible that by degrees a man may harden his conscience and by a long custome of his conscience and by a long custome of sinning may in a great measure wear off that tender sense of good and evil which makes sin so uneasie But then if in the practice of a holy life a man may by the same degrees arrive to far greater peace and tranquillity of mind than ever any wicked man found in a sinful course if by custome vertue will come to be more pleasant than ever vice was then the advantage is plainly on the side of Religion And this is truly the case It is troublesom at first for a man to begin any new course and to do contrary to what he hath been accustom'd to but let a man but habituate himself to a religious and vertuous life and the trouble will go off by degrees and unspeakable pleasure succeed in the room of it It is an excellent rule which Pythagoras gave to his Scholars optimum vitae genus eligito nam consuetudo faciet jâ—cundissmum pitch upon the best course of life resolve always to do that which is most reasonable and vertuous and custom will soon render it the most easie There is nothing of difficulty in a good life but what may be conquer'd by custome as well as the difficulties of any other course and when a man is once us'd to it the pleasure of it will be greater than of any other course Let no man then decline or forsake Religion for the pretended difficulties of it and lay aside all cares of God's commandments upon this suggestion that they are impossible to be kept For you see they are not only possible but easie And those who upon pretence of the trouble and difficulties of Religion abandon themselves to a wicked course of life may easily be convinc'd that they take more pains to make themselves miserable than would serve to bring them to happiness There is no man that is a servant of sin and a slave to any base lust but might if he pleas'd get to Heaven with less trouble than he goes to Hell So that upon consideration of the whole matter there is no reason why any man should be deterr'd from a holy and vertuous life for fear of the labour and pains of it Because every one that is wicked takes more pains in another way and is more industrious onely to a worse purpose Now he that can travel in deep and foul ways ought not to say that he cannot walk in fair He that ventures to run upon a precipice when every step he takes is with danger of his life and his soul
Rom. 1.16 18. because therein the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that if we call our selves Christians we profess to embrace the holy doctrine of the Christian Religion which is perfectly opposite to all impiety and wickedness of life We profess to be governed by those laws which do strictly enjoyn holiness and vertue We profess to be perswaded that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel are true which offer such great and glorious rewards to obedience and threaten transgression and disobedience with such dreadfull punishments And if so we are obliged both by our reason and our interest to live accordingly 2. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to live in the imitation of Christ's example and to follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Son of God came into the world not onely by his Doctrine to instruct us in the way to happiness and by his death to make expiation of sin but by his life to be an example to us of holiness and vertue Therefore in Scripture we find several Titles given him which import his exemplariness as of a Prince and a Captain a Master and a Guide Now if he be our pattern we should endeavour to be like him to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to walk in love as he also hath loved us and given himself for us We should aspire after the highest degree of holiness make it our constant and sincere endeavour to please God and do his will and to fulfill all righteousness as he did Does any man profess himself a Christian and yet abandons himself to intemperance and filthy lusts is this like our Saviour Are we cruel and unmercifull is this like the High Priest of our profession Are we proud and passionate malicious and revengefull is this to be like-minded with Christ who was meek and lowly in Spirit who prayed for his enemies and offer'd up his blood to God on the behalf of them that shed it If we call our selves Christians we profess to have the life of Christ continually before us and to be always correcting and reforming our lives by that pattern 3. He that calls himself a Christian hath solemnly engaged himself to renounce all sin and to live a holy life By Baptism we have solemnly taken upon us the profession of Christianity and engaged our selves to renounce the Devil and all his works and obediently to keep God's commandments Anciently those who were baptized put off their garments which signified the putting off the body of sin and were immers'd and buried in the water to represent their death of sin and then did rise up again out of the water to signifie their enterance upon a new life And to these customs the Apostle alludes when he says How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 6. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we might not serve sin So that by Baptism we profess to be entered into a new state and to be endued with a new nature to have put off the old man with his deeds to have quitted our former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And therefore Baptism is called the putting on of Christ Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now if we profess to have put on Christ we must quit and renounce our lusts because these are inconsistent as appears by the opposition which the Apostle makes between them Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 And as we did solemnly covenant with God to this purpose in Baptism so we do solemnly renew this obligation so often as we receive the blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood Therefore the cup in the Sacrament is called the new Covenant in his Blood that is this represents the shedding of Christ's blood by which rite the covenant between God and man is ratified And as by this God doth confirm his promises to us so we do oblige our selves to be faithfull and obedient to him and if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is after we are become Christians we account the blood of the Covenant a common thing that is we make nothing of the solemnest rite that ever was used in the world for confirmation of any covenant the shedding of the blood of the son of God And that this was always understood to be the meaning of this holy Sacrament to renew our Covenant with God and solemnly to confirm our resolutions of a holy life is very plain from that account which Pliny * Plin. Epist L. 10. Epist 97. gives us of the worship of the Christians in a Letter to Trajan the Emperour in which he tells him that they assembled early in the morning before day to sing a Hymn to Christ as God and then saith he they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves by a sacrament or oath not to rob or steal or commit adultery not to break their word or falsisie their trust and after they have eaten together they depart home Which is plainly an account of the Christians celebrating of the holy Sacrament which it seems was then look'd upon as an oath whereby Christians did solemnly covenant and engage themselves against all wickedness and vice Thus you see what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon us to holiness of life From all which it is evident that the Gospel requires something on our part For the Covenant between God and us is a mutual engagement and as there are blessings promised on his part so there are conditions to be performed on ours And if we live wicked and unholy lives if we neglect our duty towords God we have no title at all to the blessings of this Covenant The contrary doctrine to this hath been greedily entertained to the vast prejudice of Christianity as if in this new Covenant of the Gospel God took all upon himself and required nothing or as good as nothing of us that it would be a disparagement to the freedom of God's grace to think he expects any thing
worshipped such Gods as were examples of sin and patrons of their vices Thou who professest thy self a Christian may'st not walk in the lusts of the flesh and of uncleanness as those did who worshipped a lastfull Jupiter and a wanton Venus Thou may'st not be intemperate as those were who worshipped a drunken Bacchus Thou may'st not be cruel and unmerciful as those were who worshipped a fierce Saturn Nor may'st thou steal as those did who worshipped a thievish Mercury Thou must remember that thou art a Christian and when thou art ready to debase thy self to any vile lust consider what title thou bearest by what name thou art called whose disciple thou art and then say to thy self shall I allow my self in any impiety or wickedness of life who pretend to be instructed by that grace of God which teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Shall I cherish any sinful passion who pretend to have mortified all these and to have put off the old man with his deeds It is not being gilded over with the external profession of Christianity that will avail us our Religion must be a vital principle inwardly to change and transform us What the Apostle says concerning Circumcision we may apply to them that are baptized and make an outward profession of Christianity Baptism verily profiteth if we obey the Gospel but if we walk contrary to the precepts of it our Baptism is no Baptism and our Christianity is Heathenism If by our lives and actions we do contradict that Religion which we profess we do by this very thing prove our selves to be counterfeits and hypocrites and that we have onely taken up our Religion for a fashion and received it according to custom we were born in a Countrey where it is reverenced and therefore we are of it And the reason why we are Christians rather than Jews or Turks or Heathens is because Christian Religion had the fortune to come first in our way and to bespeak us at our entrance into the world Are we not ashamed to take up a profession upon such slight grounds and to wear about us such an empty title It should make our blood to rise in our faces to consider what a distance there is between our Religion and our lives I remember Tully upbraids the Philosophers very smartly for living unsuitably to their Doctrines A Philosopher saith he is unpardonable if he miscarry in his life quod in officio cujus magister esse vult labitur artemque vitae professus delinquit in vita because he is faulty in that wherein he pretends to be a master and whilst he professeth an Art of living better than other men he miscarries in this life With how much greater reason may we challenge Christians for the miscarriages of their lives which are so directly contrary to their profession It may justly be suspected that so perfect an institution as the Gospel is which the Son of God came from Heaven on purpose to propagate in the world should make men more strictly holy and vertuous and set the professors of it at a greater distance from all impurity and vice than ever any institution in the world did If a man profess any other Art or Calling it is expected that he should be skilled in it and excell those who do not pretend to it 'T is the greatest disparagement to a Physician that can be to say of him that he is in other respects an excellent man onely he hath no great skill in diseases and the methods of cure because this is his Profession He might be pardon'd for other defects but the proper skill of his Art may justly be expected from him So for a Christian to say of him the worst thing in him is his life he is very orthodox in his opinions but he 's an ill-natur'd man one of very violent passions he will be very frequently drunk he makes no conscience of his dealings he is very uncharitable to all that differ from him This man is faulty in his profession he is defective in that which should be his excellency he may have orthodox opinions in Religion but when all is done there is no such errour and heresie nothing so fundamentally opposite to Religion as a wicked life A Christian does not pretend to have a better wit or a more piercing understanding than a Turk or Heathen but he professeth to live better than they to be more chast and more temperate more just and more charitable more meek and gentle more loving and peaceable than other men If he fail in this where is the Art the man boasts of to what purpose is all this noise and stir about the Gospel and the holy doctrine of Christ If any man profess himself a Christian and do not live better than others he is a mere pretender and Mountebank in Religion he 's a bungler in his own Art and unskill'd in his proper profession This is the first the indecency of the thing 2. Consider how great a scandal this must needs be to our blessed Saviour and his holy Religion The Christian Religion hath undergone many a hard censure for the miscarriages of the professors of it The impieties and vices of those who call themselves Christians have caused many sharp reflexions upon Christianity and made the Son of God and the Blessed Saviour of the world to wear the odious names of deceiver and impostor If a man did design to do the greatest spight to Religion he could not give it a deeper wound he could not take a more effectual course to disparage it than by a lewd and debauched life For this will still be an objection in the minds of those who are strangers and enemies to our Religion If the Gospel were so excellent an institution as it is reported to be surely we should see better effects of it in the lives of those who profess it When we would perswade a Heathen to our Religion and tell him how holy a God we serve what excellent patterns we imitate what spiritual and divine precepts of holiness and vertue our Religion does contain may not he reply would you have me to believe you when I see you do not believe your selves If you believed your Religion you would live according to it For if the Gospel were every word of it false if there were neither a Heaven to be hoped for nor a Hell to be feared after this life how could many Christians live worse than they do As we would not proclaim to the world that the Gospel is an unholy and vicious Institution let us take heed that we bring no scandal upon it by our lives lest the enemies of our Religion say as Salvian tells us they did in his time Si Christus Sancta docuisset Christiani sancte vixissent surely if Christ had taught so holy a doctrine Christians would have lived holier lives Tully tells us that one of the shrewdest arguments that ever was brought against Philosophy was this quosdam
decline suffering for that profession there are many that walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ they cannot endure to suffer with him and for him they are so sensual and wedded to this world that they will do any thing to avoid persecution so he describes them in the next verse whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Now in opposition to these sensual and earthly-minded men the Apostle gives us the character of the true Christians they are such as mind Heaven and another world and prefer the hopes of that to all the interests of this life our conversation is in Heaven For the right understanding of which phrase be pleased to observe that it is an allusion to a City or Corporation and to the privileges and manners of those who are free of it And Heaven is several times in Scripture represented to us under this notion of a City Heb. 11.10 It is said of Abraham that he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 12.22 It is called likewise the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem And the same Apostle speaking of the uncertain condition of Christians in this world says of them Heb. 14.14 that here they have no continuing City but look for one that is to come Now to this City the Apostle alludes here in the Text when he says our conversation is in Heaven For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred conversation may either signifie the privilege of Citizens or their conversation and manners or may take in both these In the first sense of the priviledge of Citizens we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of near affinity with this sometimes us'd Act. 22 28. with a great sum says the Captain to Paul obtained I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this freedom According to this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be rendred as Tertullian often does this Text municipatus noster our Citizenship is in Heaven an allusion perhaps as the learned Dr. Hammond observes to those who though they were not born at Rome and it may be lived at a great distance from it had yet jus civitatis Romanae the privilege of Roman Citizens In like manner the Apostle here describes the condition of Christians 'T is true we are born here in this world and live in it but we belong to another Corporation we are denizens of another Countrey and free of that City which is above In the other sense of the coversation of Citizens we find the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used towards the beginning of this Epistle Let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ And why may not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Teâ—t without any inconvenience include both these Phil. 1.27 as if the Apostle had said there are some that mind earthly things and are so addicted to them that rather than part with them they will forsake their Religion but as for us we consider that we are Citizens of Heaven and accordingly we converse and demean our selves in this world as those that are free of another City and do belong to it So that to have our conversation in heaven does imply these two things First The serious thoughts and considerations of Heaven Secondly The effect which those thoughts ought to have upon our lives These two things take up the meaning of my Text and shall be the subject of the following discourse I. The serious thoughts and considerations of Heaven that is of the happy and glorious state of good men in another life And concerning this there are two things principally which offer themselves to our consideration First The happiness of this state Secondly The way and means whereby we may come to partake of this happiness First We will consider the happiness of this state But what and how great this happiness is I am not able to represent to you These things are yet in a great measure within the veil and it does not now fully appear what we shall be The Scriptures have reveal'd so much in general concerning the reality and unspeakable felicities of this state as may satisfie us for the present and serve to inflame our desires after it and to quicken our endeavours for the obtaining of it as namely that it is incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it is very great and that it is eternal in a word that it is far above any thing that we can now conceive or imagine 1. It is incomparably beyond any happiness in this world It is free from all those sharp and bitter ingredients which do abate and allay the felicities of this life All the enjoyments of this world are mix'd and uncertain and unsatisfying nay so far are they from giving us satisfaction that the very sweetest of them are satiating and cloying None of the comforts of this life are pure and unmixt There is something of vanity mingled with all our earthly enjoyments and that causeth vexation of spirit There is no sensual pleasure but is either purchas'd by some pain or attended with it or ends in it A great estate is neither to be got without care nor kept without fear nor lost without trouble Dignity and greatness is troublesome almost to all mankind it is commonly uneasie to them that have it and it is usually hated and envy'd by those that have it not Knowledge that is one of the best and sweetest pleasures of humane life and yet if we may believe the experience of one who had as great a share of it as any of the Sons of men ever had Eccles 1.17 18. he will tell us that this also is vexation of spirit for in much wisdom there is much grief and he that encreaseth konwledge encreaseth sorrow Thus it is with all the things of this world the best of them have a mixture of good and evil of joy and sorrow in them but the happiness of the next life is free from allay and mixture In the description of the new Jerusalem it is said that there shall be no more curse Rev. 22.3 5. and there shall be no night there nothing to imbitter our blessings or obscure our glory Heaven is the proper region of happiness there onely are pure joys and an unmingled felicity But the enjoyments of this world as they are mix'd so they are uncertain So wavering and inconstant are they that we can have no security of them when we think our selves to have the fastest hold of them they slip out of our hands we know not how For this reason Solomon very elegantly calls them things that are not Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make to themselves wings and flie like an Eagle towards heaven So
fugitive are they that after all our endeavours to secure them they may break loose from us and in an instant vanish out of our sight riches make to themselves wings and flie like an Eagle intimating to us that riches are often accessary to their own ruin Many times the greatness of a man's estate and nothing else hath been the cause of the loss of it and of taking away the life of the owner thereof The fairness of some mens fortune hath been a temptation to those who have been more powerfull to ravish it from them thus riches make to themselves wings So that he that enjoys the greatest happiness of this world does still want one happiness more to secure to him for the future what he possesses for the persent But the happiness of Heaven is a steady and constant light fixt and unchangeable as the fountain from whence it springs the father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning And if the enjoyments of this life were certain yet they are unsatisfying This is the vanity of vanities that every thing in this world can trouble us but nothing can give us satisfaction I know not how it is but either we or the things of this world or both are so phantastical that we can neither be well with these things nor well without them If we be hungry we are in pain and if we eat to the full we are uneasie If we be poor we think our selves miserable and when we come to be rich we commonly really are so If we are in a low condition we fret and murmur and if we chance to get up and to be rais'd to greatness we are many times farther from contentment than we were before So that we pursue the happiness of this world just as little children chase birds when we think we are come very near it and have it almost in our hands it flies farther from us than it was at first Nay so far are the enjoyments of this world from affording us satisfaction that the sweetest of them are most apt to satiate and cloy us All the pleasures of this world are so contriv'd as to yeild us very little happiness If they go off quickly they signifie nothing and if they stay long we are sick of them After a full draught of any sensual pleasure we presently loath it and hate it as much after the enjoyment as we courted it and long'd for it in the expectation But the delights of the other world as they will give us full satisfaction so we shall never be weary of them Every repetition of them will be accompanied with a new pleasure and contentment In the felicities of Heaven these two things shall be reconcil'd which never met together in any sensual delight long and full enjoyment and yet a fresh and perpetual pleasure As in God's presence there is fulness of joy so at his right hand there shall be pleasures for evermore 2. The happiness of the other life is not onely incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it may be is no great commendation of it but it is very great in it self The happiness of Heaven is usually in Scripture descirb'd to us by such pleasures as are manly and excellent chast and intellectual infinitely more pure and refin'd than those of sense and if the Scripture at any time descend to the metaphors of a feast and a banquet and a marriage it is plainly by way of accommodation to our weakness and condescention to our capacities But the chief ingredients of this happiness so far as the Scripture hath thought fit to reveal it to us are the perfection of our knowledge and the height of our love and the perpetual society and friendship of all the blessed inhabitants of those glorious mansions and the joyfull concurrence of all these in chearfull expressions of gratitude in the incessant praises and admiration of the fountain and author of all this happiness And what can be more delightfull than to have our understandings entertain'd with a clear sight of the best and most perfect Being with the knowledge of all his works and of the wise designs of his providence here in the world than to live in the reviving presence of God and to be continually attending upon him whose favour is life and whose glory is much more above that of any of the Princes of this world than the greatest of them is above the poorest worm The Queen of Sheba thought Solomon's Servants happy in having the opportunity by standing continually before him to hear his wisdom but in the other world it shall be a happiness to Solomon himself and to the wisest and greatest persons that ever were in this world to stand before this great King to admire his wisdom and to behold his glory Not that I imagine the happiness of Heaven to consist in a perpetual gazing upon God and in an idle contemplation of the glories of that place For as by that blessed sight we shall be infinitely transported so the Scripture tells us we shall be also transform'd into the image of the divine perfections we shall see God and we shall be like him and what greater happiness can there be than to be like the happiest and most perfect Being in the world Besides who can tell what employment God may have for us in the next life We need not doubt but that he who is happiness it self and hath promis'd to make us happy can easily find out such employments and delights for us in the other world as will be proper and suitable to that state But then besides the improvement of our knowledge there shall be the most delightfull exercise of love When we come to heaven we shall enter into the society of the blessed Angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect that is freed from all those passions and infirmities which do now render the conversation even of the best men sometimes troublesome to one another We shall then meet with all those excellent Persons those brave Minds those innocent and charitable Souls whom we have seen and heard and read of in this world There we shall meet with many of our dear relations and intimate friends and perhaps with many of our enemies to whom we shall then be perfectly reconcil'd notwithstanding all the warm contests and peevish differences which we had with them in this world even about matters of Religion For Heaven is a state of perfect love and friendship there will be nothing but kindness and good nature there and all the prudent Arts of endearment and wise ways of rendring conversation mutually pleasant to one another And what greater happiness can be imagin'd than to converse freely with so many excellent persons without any thing of folly or disguise of jealousie or design upon one another For then there will be none of those vices and passions of covetousness and ambition of envy and hatred of wrath and peevishness which
and activity as much above that of the most knowing persons in this world as the thoughts of the greatest Philosopher and wisest man upon earth are above the thoughts of a child or a fool No man's mind is now so well fram'd to understand any thing in this world as our understandings shall then be fitted for the knowledge of God and of the things that belong to that state In the mean time let us bless God that he hath reveal'd so much of this happiness to us as is necessary to excite and encourage us to seek after it The Second thing to be consider'd concerning our future happiness is the way and means whereby we may come to be made partakers of it And that in short is by the constant and sincere endeavours of a holy life in and through the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus Christ Christ indeed is the author of our salvation but obedience is the condition of it so the Apostle tells us Heb. 5.1 that Christ is the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him It is the grace of God in the Gospel which brings or offers this salvation to us but tâ—en it is by the denying of ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.11.12 and by living soberly and righteously and godly in this present world that we are to wait for the blessed hope Our Saviour promises this happiness to the pure in heart Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and elsewhere the Scripture doth exclude all others from any share or portion in this blessedness so the Apostle assures us that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 18.14 And holiness is not onely a condition but a necessary qualisication for the happiness of the next life This is the force of St. John's reasoning we shall be like him for we shall see him To see God is to be happy but unless we be like him we cannot see him The sight and presence of God himself would be no happiness to that man who is not like to God in the temper and disposition of his mind And from hence the Apostle insers in the next verse every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure So that if we live wicked live if we allow our selves in the practice of any known sin we interrupt our hopes of Heaven and render our selves unfit for eternal life By this means we defeat all the designs of God's grace and mercy towards us and salvation it self cannot save us if we make our selves incapable of that happiness which God offers Heaven is in Scripture call'd an inheritance among them that are sanctified and the inheritance of the Saints in light so that it is not enough that this inheritance is promis'd to us but we must be qualifi'd and prepar'd for it and be made meet to be made partakers of it And this life is the time of our preparation for our future state Our souls will continue for ever what we make them in this world Such a temper and disposition of mind as a man carries with him out of this life he shall retain in the next 'T is true indeed heaven perfects those holy and vertuous dispositions which are begun here but the other world alters no man as to his main slate he that is filthy will be filthy still and he that is unrighteous will be unrighteous still If we do not in a good degree mortifie our Iusts and passions here death will not kill them for us but we shall carry them with us into the other world And if God should admit us so qualifi'd into the place of happiness yet we shall bring that along with us which would infallibly hinder us from being happy Our sensual inclinations and desires would meet with nothing there that would be suitable to them and we should be perpetually tormented with those appetites which we brought with us out of this world because we should find nothing there to gratifie them withall For as the Apostle says in another sense The kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The happiness of heaven consists in such things as a wicked man hath no gust and relish for So that if a covetous or ambitious or voluptuous man were in Heaven he would be just like the rich man in Hell tormented with a continual thirst and burnt up in the flames of his own ardent desires and would not be able amidst all the plenty and treasures of that place to find so much as one drop of suitable pleasure and delight to quench and allay that heat So likewise our fierce and unruly passions if we should carry them with us into the other world how inconsistent would they be with happiness They would not onely make us miserable our selves but be a trouble to all those with whom we should converse If a man of an envious and malicious of a peevish and passionate temper were admitted into the mansions of the blessed he would not onely be unhappy himself but would disturb the quiet of others and raise storms even in those calm regions Vain man that dreamest of being happy without any disposition or preparation for it To be happy is to enjoy what we desire and to live with those whom we love But there is nothing in heaven suitable to the desires and appetites of a wicked man All the joys of that place and the delights of that state are purely spiritual and are onely to be relish'd by those who have purified themselves as God is pure But if thou be carnal and sensual what are these things to thee What happiness would it be to thee to see God and to have him always in thy view who was never in all thy thoughts to be tied to live for ever in his company who is of a quite contrary temper and disposition to thy self whose presence thou dreadest and whom whilst thou wast in this world thou couldst never endure to think upon So that the pleasures of Heaven it self could signifie no good or happiness to that man who is not so dispos'd as to take pleasure in them Heaven is too pure an air for corrupt souls to live and breath in and the whole employment and conversation of that place as it would be unsuitable so would it also be unacceptable to a sensual and vicious person From all this it appears how necessary it is for us to prepare our selves for this blessed state by the constant and sincere endeavours of a holy life and by mortifying every lust and inordinate passion in our souls For till this be done we are not meet to be made partakers of the felicities of the other world And thus I have done with the first thing imply'd in this phrase of having our conversation in heaven viz. the serious thoughts and considerations of heaven or the happiness of that state and of the way and