we call Judgment and Vengeance is unaccountable unless it serve for the doing Good to the World Fourthly and Lastly From hence it follows that all Events whatsoever that ever did or do or shall happen in the World either with respect to Nations and Kingdoms or with respect to particular Persons are really the Best that could or can happen And if things were ordered otherwise it would not be so well A strange Paradox you will say this is that not only the Mischiefs and Calamities that fall upon Mankind but even their Faults and Mismanagements nay their very Sins and Wickednesses should be for the best But really so it is and so it must be if both infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power govern the World Not but that a particular man's Sins may be the occasion of his Ruin nay and certainly will be so if he persist in them And likewise the Faults of a People may and will have such an ill influence upon the Community as if they be not amended the Desolation of the Nation may at last ensue thereupon But still tho' every thing that happens do not prove for the Good of that particular Person or that particular People that is immediately concerned in the Event yet it will certainly prove for the General Vniversal Good So that take all the whole Series of Events together that have or shall come to pass all the World over we may undoubtedly affirm that All things have been as well managed as it is possible they could be and will be so to the end of the World And this we our selves shall be satisfied of when we come to be in a condition of making a just estimate of things For indeed to suppose otherwise is to say either that Infinite Wisdom doth not act so wisely as it might do or that Perfect Goodness might do more Good than it does do or lastly that Omnipotent Power cannot do every thing that is possible All which Suppositions are plainly absurd and contradictious And now if all these things be true as they certainly are how natural is the conclusion of my Text Since God is the King of all the World and such a King likewise that the Measures of his Government are exact Goodness and Wisdom and Righteousness what have all Mankind to do especially Good Men but to Rejoyce and be glad This is the Psalmist's Inference from this Doctrine And this is the present Business of the Day And therefore let us all practise accordingly That is the only Application I desire to make of what hath been said And Two ways we ought to express our Rejoycing First In a hearty sense of all God's past and present Mercies to us and an actual giving Him our Thanks for the same Secondly In a chearful dependance upon Him for his Future Blessings Give me leave to speak a little to these two Points and I have done First Let us be heartily sensible of All God's Kindness to us both past and present and unfeignedly thank Him for the same It is very remarkable that not only David but the Prophets likewise when they are treating of God's Kingdom call upon the Isles in a particular manner to take notice of it See Isa xxiv 15. xlii 4 10 c. as here in my Text Let the multitudes of the Isles be glad thereof As if the Isles in a more particular manner were to have a share in the Blessings of his Government And no doubt it was so intended and accordingly it hath so come to pass For it is the Isles of the Gentiles by which Name the Scripture expresseth those Countries that were at the greatest distance from the Continent of Judea I say it is these Isles which now at this day God's ancient People the Jews being for their Infidelity long ago rejected are the principal Seat of his Church and Kingdom and to which He vouchsafeth the Light of his Gospel and the Means of Salvation so true is God to all his Promises But now of all the Isles of the Gentiles if any one above the rest hath felt the benign and gracious Influences of the LORD 's being our King certainly Ours is that Island How wonderfully bountiful hath God been to us in a continued succession of Publick Blessings even from the first beginning of Time that we have had any Memorials of Events among us We had the Happiness to be early made a Province of the Roman Empire and by that means were trained up to Civility and Arts and Good Manners That made way for the greatest Blessing that Heaven could bestow upon us even the receiving Christianity And that Blessing we had with the most early being the first among the Nations that embraced it When through the just Judgment of God Barbarism and Ignorance overspread the face of Europe and by the occasion thereof Superstition and Idolatry made its way and all the Western Kingdoms gave up their Power to a Foreign Usurper even then this Island made the longest stand nay and was never so perfectly subdued but that Popery was here a different thing from what it was in the Southern Climates When the happy time came that God thought fit to set on foot the Reformation having first made way for it by the restoring of Learning such was His particular Care of us that this was one of the first Kingdoms that was brought over to it And we have this Advantage above all other Reformed Churches that as our Reformation was regularly made and by just Authority so it was made most agreeably to the Pattern of the Primitive Churches of Christ And God be thanked according to the goodness of it such hath been its Success ever since for we have all-along from that time to this except the interruption of a few Years in the late Times served God in Peace and Happiness under the same Establishment And we trust we shall do so to the end of the World Many indeed have been the Oppositions and Disturbances that have been given us by our Adversaries both at home and abroad but as manifold likewise have been our Deliverances and that in a most wonderful manner I need not mention them for they are known to us all How many Secret Conspiracies against our Protestant Kings and Queens hath God Almighty's Mercy detected and defeated How many Open Attempts against our Laws and against our Religion hath He by strange Providences brought to nought More than once hath He by wonderful methods preserved us when we gave up our Church and our Liberties in a manner as lost and that in so easie and quiet a way that there was no concussion of the Nation followed thereupon Are not these Extraordinary Instances of God's Kindness to a People And ought not we who have receiv'd and do yet enjoy the Benefit and the Comfort of them to remember them with Thankfulness all the Days of our Life But some of us perhaps are not now in a Humour to think of these things our
Opinions so long as we keep them to our selves cannot possibly cause any disturbance in or do any injury to Society But a Power in the latter sense is absolutely necessary for if Men may be allowed to vent and publish whatever fancies come into their head and the Church have no Authority to impose silence upon them it cannot be avoided but she will be over-run with Heresies and embroiled in insinite Quarrels and Controversies to the destruction of her publick Peace The fourth Proposition is That we can have no just cause of withdrawing our Communion from the Church whereof we are Members but when we cannot communicate with it without the Commission of a Sin For if we are bound to Communicate with the Church when we can lawfully do so as hath been before proved it is plain we are bound so long to continue our Communion with the Church till it be unlawful to continue in it any longer But it cannot be unlawful to continue in her Communion till she require something as a Condition of her Communion that is a Sin So that there are but Two cases wherein it can be lawful to withdraw our Communion from a Church because there are but two cases wherein Communion with her can be sinful One is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion an Acknowledgment and Profession of that for a Truth which is an Errour The other is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion the joyning with her in some practices which are against the Laws of God In these two Cases to withdraw our Obedience to the Church is so far from being a Sin that it is a necessary Duty because we have an obligation to the Laws of God antecedent to that we have to those of the Church and we are bound to obey these no farther than they are consonant or agreeable to those But now from this discourse it will appear how insufficient those Causes how unwarrantable those Grounds are upon which many among us have proceeded to Separation from our Church For first If what I have laid down be true it cannot be true that Vnscriptural Impositions are a warrantable cause of Separation from a Church supposing that by Vnscriptural be meant no more than only what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Scriptures For the Actions required by these Vnscriptural Impositions are either in themselves lawful to be done or not lawful to be done If they be in themselves unlawful to be done then they do not fall under that notion of Vnscriptural we here speak of they are downright Sins and so either particularly or in the general forbid in the Scripture If they be in themselves lawful to be done then it cannot be imagined how their being commanded can make them unlawful So that in this case there is no Sin in yielding obedience to the Church and consequently no cause of withdrawing our Communion from it Neither secondly can it be true that Errours in a Church as to matter of Doctrines or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errours and Corruptions are only suffered but not imposed can be a sufficient cause of Separation the reason is because these things are not Sins in us so long as we do not joyn with the Church in them So that so long as we can Communicate with a Church without either professing her Errours or partaking in her sinful Practices as in the present case it is supposed we may do so long we are bound upon the Principle before laid down not to separate from her Neither in the third and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministery or living under a more pure Discipline in a separate Congregation a just Cause of forsaking the Communion of the Church of which we are Members And the reason is because we are not to commit a Sin for the promoting a good end Now as we have said it is a Sin to forsake the Communion of the Church whereof we are Members so long as her Communion is not sinful But the enjoyment of a less profitable Ministery or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministery or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful Thus have I as briefly as I could represented to you the Particulars of that Duty we owe to our common Mother in the preservation of her Vnity and Communion And I hope I have not been so zealous for Peace as to have been at all injurious to Truth I am confident I have said nothing but what is very agreeable to Scripture and Reason and the Sense of the Best and Antientest Christians And I am certain I have not intrenched upon any of those Grounds upon which our Ancestors proceeded to the Reformation of Religion among us And for most of the things here delivered we have also the Suffrage of several and those the most learned and moderate of our dissenting Brethren And now if after this any one be offended as indeed these kind of Discourses are seldom very acceptable all I can say is this That the Truths here delivered are really of so great importance to Religion and the publick Peace that they ought not to be dissembled or suppressed for any bad Reception they may meet with from some Men But as for the manner of delivering them I have taken all the care I could not to give offence to any I now pass on to the second part of my Task upon this Head which is to consider the Duty recommended in the Text with relation to particular Christians our Brethren And here my Business is to direct you to the Pursuit of those things that make for Peace as Peace signifies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Strife and Bitterness and Contentions The things that make for Peace in this sense are more especially these that follow which I shall deliver by way of Rules and Advices The first Rule is to distinguish carefully between matters of Faith and matters of Opinion and as to these latter to be willing that every one should enjoy the liberty of judging for himself This is one thing that would help very much to the extinguishing of those unnatural Heats and Animosities which have long been the Reproach of Christians If Men would set no greater value upon their Notions and Opinions than they do deserve if they would make a difference between necessary Points and those that are not so and in those things that are not necessary would not rigorously tie up others to their measures but would allow every Man to abound in his own sense so long as the Church's Peace is not hereby injured we should not have so many bitter Quarrels and Heart-burnings among us But alas whilst every one will frame a System of Divinity of his own head and every puny Notion of that System must be Christen'd by the name of an
be healed and that an End being put to our unaccountable Separations and the Unchristian Animosities they are the Occasion of we shall all join together in one Communion and with one mind and one mouth glorifie God as the Apostle expresses it God only knows But sure I am it is the Duty of every one of us heartily to Pray for it and not only so but in our Place and Station to contribute all we can towards it It was this Consideration that put me upon the Choice of these Words of St. Paul for my Argument at this time Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace In treating of which I shall endeavour Two things First To Explain the Duty here recommended by reducing it to its Particular Rules and Instances Secondly To set before you the great Obligations that lie upon us to the Practice of it As to the first of these things viz. what is contained or implied in this Duty of Following after the things that make for Peace you may be pleased to take notice That this Duty hath a twofold Object according to the two different Relations and Capacities in which we are to be considered namely the Church our Common Mother and Particular Christians our Brethren In the first Relation we are considered as Subjects in the other as Fellow Christians Now with respect to the former the Peace we are to pursue implies Obedience and the Preservation of Communion in opposition to Schism and Separation With respect to the latter it implies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Quarrels and Contentions So that you see my Business upon this first Head must be to shew what are the Particulars of our Duty or what are the Things that make for Peace in both these Respects I begin with what is due from us to the Church in order to Peace as Peace stands in Contradistinction to Schism And this Point I shall beg leave to discuss very plainly and particularly because I fear many of us have wrong Notions about it And yet it is a matter of such Consequence that the right understanding of it would go a great way to the Cure of the sad Divisions that are among us What I have to say upon this Point I shall comprize in the four following Propositions taking my Rise from the first Principle of Church-Society The first Proposition I lay down is this That every Christian is by vertue of his Christianity a Member of the Church of Christ and is bound to join in External Communion with it where it can be had For the clearing of this let it be taken notice of That the Method which our Saviour set on foot for our Salvation doth not so much consider us as single Persons as joined together in one common Society It was his Design to gather to Himself a Church out of Mankind to erect and form a Body Politick of which Himself should be the Head and Particular Christians the Members and in this Method through Obedience to his Laws and Government to bring Men to Salvation This is variously set forth to us in the New Testament Joh. 15.1 Sometimes Christ and Christians are represented under the Notion of a Vine of which He is the Root and They are the Branches 1 Cor. 12. Sometimes under the Notion of a Natural Body of which Christ is the Head and all Believers the Members And accordingly what ever Christ is said to have done or suffered for Mankind he is said to have done or suffered for them not as Scattered Individuals but as Incorporated into a Church Eph. 5.25 Thus Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it Acts 20.28 Christ redeemed the Church with his own Blood Christ is the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5.23 that is to say the Church with many passages of the like Importance The plain Consequence from hence is that every Person so far as he is a Christian so far he is a Member of the Church And agreeably hereto it is very plain that Baptism which is by all acknowledged to be the Rite of Initiating us into Christianity is in Scripture declared to be the Rite whereby we are entred and admitted into the Church 1 Cor. 12.13 Thus St. Paul expresly tells us that by one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body Now then it being thus evident that every Christian as a Christian is a Member of that Body of Christ which we call the Church there will be little need of taking pains to prove that every such person is obliged to joyn in External Communion with the Church where he can do so for the very nature of this Church-membership doth imply it Without this neither the Ends of Church-Society nor the Benefits accruing to us there from can be attained First not the Ends of it The Ends of Church-Society are the more Solemn Worship of God and the publick Profession of our Religion and the mutual Edification one of another Now how these can be in any measure attained without associating together in publick Assemblies and mutual Offices and other Acts of External Communion with one another cannot any ways be imagined And as little in the Second place can it be conceived how without this we can be made partakers of the Benefits and Privileges that Christ hath made over to the Members of his Church For we are to consider that God hath so ordered the matter and without doubt for this very reason to unite us the more firmly in Society that the Privileges of the Gospel such as Pardon of Sin and the Grace of the Holy Spirit are not ordinarily conveyed to us so immediately by God but that there must intervene the Ministery of Men. God's holy Word and Sacraments are the Channels in which they are derived to us and those to whom he hath committed the Ministery of Reconciliation and the Power of the Keys are the Hands that must dispense them We have no promise of Spiritual Graces but by these means so that in order to the partaking of them there is an absolute necessity laid upon us of joyning and communicating with the Church It is true indeed God doth not so tie himself up to these means but that he can and will in some cases confer the Benefits of them without them as in case of a General Apostasie of the Church or of Persecution for Religion or of an unjust Excommunication or any other case where Communion with a true visible Church is denied to us But though God doth act extraordinarily in extraordinary cases where these means cannot be had yet this doth not at all diminish much less take away the necessity of making use of them when they can be had From what hath been discoursed on this first Proposition we may by the way gather these two things I only name them 1. How untrue their Position is that maintain that all our Obligation to Church-Communion doth arise from a voluntary admission
of Religion when we labour honestly in our Vocation as when we go to Church or say our Prayers It is true indeed we ought to have our hearts in Heaven as much as is possible and to that end we ought to pray continually but what hinders but we may do this in the midst of our Business There is no employment doth so entirely engross a Man's mind but he may find leisure if he please many times a day to entertain good thoughts to quicken and reinforce his purposes to cast up a short Prayer or a wish to God Almighty And this I dare say for your encouragement that such a devout frame of heart such frequent and sudden dartings of your Souls to God while you are at your Business will be so far from hindring or distracting you in it that they will make you go about it with much more vigour and alacrity But farther I would ask any Man that makes the foresaid Objection supposing Religion ten times more expensive of our time than really it is yet whether Vice and Sin be not much more so than it would be What a multitude of idle avocations from and interruptions in our Business doth that daily occasion unto Men What a number of impertinent Discourses unprofitable Visits needless points of Gallantry long diversions by Drink and Play and Company not to mention a great many other Debauches doth it frequently engage Men in and yet these we count no hindrances to our Business these we complain not of but to spend a quarter of that time in some devout Exercise this is intolerable it wasts too much of our time our occasions will not permit it Such partial and unjust estimators of things are we But I proceed In the third place then as for Frugality and good Husbandry which is another necessary requisite for the getting of Wealth Religion is unquestionably the best Mistress of it in the World for it retrencheth all the exorbitances and wantonesses of our Desires which are the things that pick the money out of our Purses and teacheth us to live after the measures of Nature which every body knows are little and cheap It perfectly cuts off all those idle expences with which the Estates of other Men stand almost continually charged The Modesty of it Cloaths us at a small rate and its Temperance spreads for us though a neat yet a frugal Table The attendance it requires on our Business will not allow us to embezel our money in Drinking or Gaming nor will that Purity which is inseparable from it ever let us know what the vast and sinking expences of lewdness and uncleanness are In a word it is Vice only that is the chargeable thing it is only Shame and Repentance that Men buy at such costly rates Godliness is saving and full of good Husbandry nor has it any known or unknown ways of spending except it be those of Charity which indeed in proper speaking are not so much expence as Vsury for money so laid out doth always even in this life return to us with Advantage The fourth and last means I mentioned of Thriving in the World was the keeping a good Correspondence with all those in whose power it is to hinder or promote our Affairs This every body knows to be a prime point in Policy and indeed it is of a large extent and of continual use No Man can be supposed so independent on others but that as he is some way beholden to them for all that he has so he stands in need of their help and concurrence for all that he hopes for men do not make their fortunes of themselves nor grow rich by having Treasures dropped in their Laps but they do it by the benefit of Humane Society by the mutual Assistances and good Offices that one Man performs for another So that whoever intends to thrive in the World it above all things imports him so to carry himself towards all that he hath any Commerce with so far to secure their favour and good will that they may be obliged not to deny him any of those Assistances which the Exigency of his Affairs calls for at their hands But now how this should be done any otherwise than by being truly Just and Honest by abstaining from Violence and Injury by being True to our Trust and Faithful in performing our Contracts and in a word by doing all those good Offices to others which we expect they should do unto us which as our Saviour tells us is the Sum of Religion is a very hard thing to conceive The Usefulness or rather the Necessity of such a Behaviour as this in order to the gaining the good Opinion of others and so serving our own Ends by them is so universally acknowledged that even those that make no real Conscience of these things are yet nevertheless in all their Dealings forced to pretend to them Open and Bare-faced Knavery rarely serves a Man's turn in this World but it is under the Mask of Vertue and Honesty that it usually performs those Feats it doth which is no less than a Demonstration of the Conduciveness of those things to promote our Temporal Interests For if the mere Pretence to them be a great advantage to us for this purpose it cannot be imagined but that the Reality of them will be a greater Certainly the Power of Godliness will be able to do more than the Form alone and that if it was upon no other account than this that no Man that is but a mere Pretender to Honesty can long hope to keep his Credit among Men. It is impossible to act a Part for any long time let him carry it never so cunningly his Vizor will some time or other be thrown off and he will appear in his true Colours and to what a World of Mischiefs and Inconveniences he will then be exposed every one that knows how hated how detested how abandon'd by every one a Knave and a Villain is may easily determine I hope I need say no more to convince you that Religion is the best Policy and that the more hearty and conscientious any Man is in the practice of it the more likely he is to Thrive and Improve in the World So that I may now proceed to the Second general Point to be spoken to which is The Profitableness of Religion for the attaining a good Name and Reputation How very much it conduceth to this purpose will appear from these two Considerations First It lays the surest Grounds and Foundations for a Good Name and Reputation Secondly Men are generally so just to it that it rarely misses of a good Name and Reputation The first is an Argument from Reason the second from Experience First of all Godliness layeth the truest Foundation for a fair Reputation in the World There are but two things that can give a Man a Title to the good Opinion and Respects of Men the inward Worth and Dignity of his Person and his Vsefulness and
up to our selves in store a good Foundation against the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life And this is the Third thing I am to insist on from the Text. I mean not here to trouble you with the Criticisms about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text by disputing whether it should be render'd Foundation as it is in our Translation though to lay up a Foundation seems an unusual way of speaking we do not lay up Foundations but build upon them or whether the word should be taken to signifie the Bond or the Evidence that God hath given us for the performance of his part of the Covenant as it is used by this Apostle elsewhere where he tells us that the Foundation of God standeth sure having this seal that is to say 2 Tim. 2.19 that Covenant or Indenture that God hath made with Mankind standeth sure and hath this Seal put to it for Men do not put Seals to Foundations but to Covenants Or lastly whether the word should be rendred a Treasure so as to read the Text thus laying up to themselves a good Treasure against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc The original word say the Learned is capable or being translated all these ways and the last seems as natural as any for to lay up Treasure to our selves against the time to come is a proper way of speaking and that which our Saviour frequently useth in that very thing we are here treating of But it matters not much which of them we pitch upon for they all come to one sense and that is this That to be very charitable in this World is a good means to secure to our selves a title to eternal happiness in the next But to prevent all misunderstanding that may happen of this point I desire before I speak directly to it to premise these two things First Though we do maintain with the Ancient Church the efficacy of Charity and good works for the furthering a Man's Salvation yet we utterly reject those Doctrines which the Modern Romanists have advanced in this matter The Popish doctrines about good works are these three following that good works are meritorious do deserve the Favour and the Rewards of God Almighty Again that the surplusage of a Man's good works that is to say the merits of so many of his good deeds as are over and above what is sufficient to save his own soul may by the Church be dispensed out to the benefit of others they being part of the Church's treasure and upon this foundation they ground their Indulgences And lastly that good works i. e. the Alms of dying persons that are given to the Church or Clergy will by the means of the Masses and Diriges that they purchase to be said for them be effectual for the freeing their Souls out of the Torments of Purgatory These are the Popish Doctrines concerning good works which we all justly reject as having no foundation in Scripture or good Antiquity and being apparently contrived for the promoting their secular gain and advantage But then as for the necessity or the conduciveness of good works to a Man's Salvation which is all we here plead for I know no good Protestant but doth as earnestly contend for it as any of that Communion Secondly Whatever efficacy we attribute to works of Charity as a means for the obtaining eternal life we would not be understood hereby to exclude the necessary concurrence of other Vertues and Graces to that end It doth not from hence follow that it is an indifferent matter what Religion a Man is of or what kind of life he leads if he be but mighty bountiful to the Poor and do a great deal of good in his life No how acceptable to God soever the Sacrifice of Alms and Charity be yet we are not to expect it shall be available to our Salvation unless it proceed from a pure Heart and be offered with a lively Faith in Jesus Christ and accompanied with a sincere endeavour to obey all God's Commandments Eternal Happiness is not proposed in the Gospel as a reward of any one single Vertue no not of the greatest but of all of them together if indeed there can be any true Vertue where there is not a conjunction of all I say if there can be for St. James seems to affirm that there cannot Whosoever saith he shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point Jam. 2.10 he is guilty of all But now having said this by way of caution to prevent all occasion that any may take from our so earnestly pressing Charity to undervalue and neglect other Duties It cannot be denyed on the other side that very great effects are by our Saviour and his Apostles ascribed to this vertue with respect to Mens Salvation in the other World Luk. 6.30 35. In the 6. of St. Luke our Lord thus adviseth Love saith he your enemies give to him that asketh do good and lend hoping for nothing again so shall your reward be great and ye shall be the children of the most highest Now sure to be entitled to great rewards and to be the children of the most high doth look farther than this present World Our Saviour without doubt means the same thing here that he expresses upon the same occasion in another place viz. they those that you do good to cannot recompence you Luk. 14.14 but you shall be recompenced at the Resurrection of the just Again Luk. 16. the Parable of the unjust Steward that provided so well for himself against a bad time out of his Master's Goods is wholly designed to this purpose and that the Application of it sufficiently shews for our Saviour having said that the Lord of this Steward commended him for his providence and care of himself he thus applies it to all his Disciples verse 9. Wherefore I say unto you make you friends to your selves of the Mammon of unrighteousness i. e. of these false deceitful riches that when you fail you may be received into everlasting habitations plainly declaring that the best provision that rich Men can make for themselves against the time of their death in order to their reception into the other World must be the charitable actions they do with their Wealth while they live here Lastly Luk. 12.33 In another place our Saviour saith the very same thing in effect that is said in the Text for this is his counsel to all that mean to be happy in the next life viz. that they sell that they have that is when the times are such that it is reasonable so to do that they give alms for thereby they provide to themselves bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth To these three Texts of our Saviour's I shall add three others of three of his Apostles which speak
Treasure He rejoiceth over them to do them good His bowels earn his heart is turned within him his repentings are kindled together when through their miscarriages he is forced to pass any severe Sentence upon them All this is the language of God in Scripture when he speaks of his People and therefore we cannot doubt of his sincere affection to them and particular care of them All the doubt is whether these expressions ought to be applied to any other people than the Jews with respect to whom the Scripture useth them But we that believe the Gospel need not make much doubt of it For it is certain the reason of all these expressions of kindness to the Jews more than to other Nations was founded in this That they were the People whom God had chosen to plant his Church among They were the People where his Religion was owned But now it is evident to all Christians that after our Saviour came into the World and Preached his Gospel to all Nations the Jews as a Nation ceased to be God's Church or peculiar People and from that time all those Nations that embraced Christ's Religion came into their place and were from thence forward to be as dear to God and as much his Care and his Treasure as ever the Jews were And upon that account we of this Nation may with as much reason apply the expressions of Scripture to our selves which declare God's kindness and concernment for his People as ever the Jews did Especially considering that God has owned us of this Nation for his People in as remarkable a manner as any Nation in Christendom As appears not only from that glorious light of the Gospel which he has for many years blessed us with above any other people perhaps in the Christian World But also from the wonderful Providences by which he has from time to time preserved our Church and with it the true Religion among us notwithstanding the various attempts of our Enemies to subvert it O may these Mercies of God to our Nation never be forgotten and may we always remember them with that due thankfulness they call for at our hands And thus much of our first Head I beg leave to draw a practical Inference or two from what hath been said before I proceed to the other First Since it appears that God sits at the Helm and steers and manages all the affairs of Mankind and that publick Societies are more especially the objects of his Care and Providence Methinks this Consideration should be a good Antidote against all those troublesome Fears and Sollicitude we are apt to disturb our selves with about the success of publick Matters If indeed all things went in the World by Chance or Fate and there was no God that did superintend human Affairs I should think it very Natural for Men to be extreamly concerned at every piece of ill News they heard It might be allowed them to break their sleep in the night and to complain dismally in the day of the sad times that were coming upon us But since we are certain as much as we are certain there is a God and as much as we are certain that the Scripture is true that all our Affairs our publick as well as our private Affairs the Affairs both in Church and State are entirely in God Almighty's disposal and that He doth really manage and order all things among us and likewise so manageth them that all shall at last turn to the good of his People and to the good of every honest Man I say since we are or may be satisfied that our Business is in so good hands I must confess I do not see what reason People have to give themselves so much trouble and uneasiness about things that may or may not come Thus far indeed it is fit that every one should be concerned nay it is fit that every one should charge his Conscience with it Namely to do his Duty to the publick in his place and station to contribute all that is in his power towards the procuring and promoting the common Happiness and to endeavour all that in him lies towards the avertting those Judgments we have reason to fear But when a Man hath done this to what purpose is it for him to trouble himself any further I should think he had better follow our Saviour's advice which when all things be considered will be found Eternally Prudent and Reasonable Matt. 6.34 Take no thought for to morrow let the morrow take care for the things of it self Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Secondly This Doctrine ought to teach us this farther Lesson to depend altogether upon God Almighty and upon him only for the good success of our Affairs either in Church or State whenever they are in a doubtful or dangerous condition Prov. 19.21 For though many are the devices in the hearts of men nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand It is in vain to trust humane means For be our strength never so great or be those that manage for us never so industrious or be our hearts never so much united Yet it is an easy matter for God to blast all our designs and to disappoint all our Counsels in a Moment He hath often done so where Men have been confident in their own strength 2 Kings 19.34 In one night's time he made that prodigious Army of Assyrians that came up against Jerusalem and thought themselves sure of taking it to decamp and fly back into their own Country leaving a hundred and fourfcore thousand of their number Dead upon the place There is in truth no trusting to an Arm of Flesh For the successes of War depend upon a thousand Contingencies which it is not in the power of mortal Men either to foresee or remedy Eccles 9.11 Psal 33.16 So that the race is not always to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor can a King be sav'd by the multitude of an Host nor any mighty Man be delivered by his much strength But the God of Heaven that ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men it is He that preserves or destroys that gives Victory or sends a Defeat as it pleaseth him And therefore he is by way of eminence stiled The Lord of Hosts the God of Battels On the other hand If our Affairs at any time be in so very bad a posture that we cannot not avoid the having a melancholy dismal prospect of things yet let us not be discouraged let us still trust in God let us do what belongs to us to do for the obtaining his Mercy and Favour and then refer the Event to him God hath certainly a kindness for his People and if we do our parts towards the preserving his Affection to us we may still hope he will continue to be our Saviour and Deliverer Is is as easy to God to save by few as by many the Walls of Jericho at his Command Josh 6.20
are true c. Here are a great many things recommended by the Apostle to our thoughts and pursuit If we would make a distribution of them I believe they will all naturally enough full under these Four Heads For the things here recommended are not so many as the words by which they are express'd there being several Words used in this Enumeration that are of the same importance and seem to express much the same thing The Four Heads I would reduce them to are these I. A constant Adherence to the true Religion II. Honesty and Justice in our Dealings III. A Life of Strict Purity in opposition to Sensuality and Lewdness IV. The adorning the Doctrine of God we do profess by the constant Practice of every other thing that is Virtuous or Commendable or well thought of by Mankind This as I take it is a fair account of the Parts of this Text and these I shall make the Heads of my following Exhortation I begin with the first Finally my Brethren whatsoever things are true think on those things The Truths that St. Paul here exhorts them to think on are undoubtedly the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he had delivered to them These he would have them to think upon and persist in and never to be prevailed upon by any Temptation to depart from them Let me now apply this Advice of his to you It is the particular Blessing of God to this Kingdom and an inestimable Blessing it is that he has not only vouchsafed us the Light of his Gospel for many years but he has also taken Care that the Truths of it should be delivered to us with greater Purity and Sincerity and freer from the mixtures of Errour than to most I was going to say than to any other People in the World If it lay in your way to make observations concerning the State of Religion in other Countries nay or but to read the Accounts that are given of it I am sure you would be convinced how exceedingly happy we of this Church are above all the Churches in Christendom O therefore let us all firmly adhere to the Truths we have been taught to the Truths we have hitherto made Profession of And let us firmly adhere to that Church which hath held forth these Truths to us and taught us this Profession We do not pretend that any Church is Infallible and therefore not ours But this we dare say and we can justifie that if we take our measures concerning the Truths of Religion from the Rules of the Holy Scriptures and the Platform of the Primitive Churches the Church of England is undoubtedly both as to Doctrine and Worship the Purest Church that is at this day in the World the most Orthodox in Faith and the â—â—â—est on the one hand from Idolatry and Superstition and on the other hand from Freakishness and Enthusiasm of any now extant Nay I do farther say with great seriousness and as one that expects to be called to account at the dreadful Tribunal of God for what I now say if I do not speak in sincerity That I do in my Conscience believe that if the Religion of Jesus Christ as it is delivered in the New Testament be the true Religion as I am certain it is Then the Communion of the Church of England is a safe way to Salvation and the safest of any I know in the World And therefore I do exhort you all in the Name of God steadfastly to hold and to persevere in this Communion Here you have the Things that are true Think of them and embrace them heartily and Live and Die in the Profession of them This is the Doctrine I have always Taught you and by the Grace of God I mean to Practise accordingly II. The next thing I have to recommend to you from these words of the Apostle is Universal Honesty and Justice and Righteousness in your Conversation Whatsoever things saith he are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just think on these things You see I join these two words Honest and Just together as importing the same thing Though yet I am aware that the word we here render Honest is often used in another signification that is to say for Grave or Venerable But since that other signification falls in most properly under my last Head I wave it here and take the word as our Translation renders it Indeed it is in vain to expect any advantage from our profession of the Truth if we be not sincerely Just and Honest in our Actions Whosoever can allow himself in the practice of any dishonest knavish indirect Dealing let that Man be never so Orthodox in his Belief and Opinions yet I am sure he is no true Christian O therefore let me exhort you all whatever Interests you have to serve whatever Dealing you are to engage in to be always strictly Just and Vpright in your Conversation Use no Tricks practise no ill Arts for the serving your ends but in all your transactions with Men deal with that Simplicity and Integrity and good Conscience that becomes those who would be accounted the Disciples of Him who was the most Innocent the most Sincere and the least Intrigueing Person in the World Assure your selves no dishonesty can prosper long Whatever turns you may serve by it at present yet you will bitterly repent of it sometime or other But Righteousness and Justice doth establish a Man's ways And the upright Man though he is not always the richest yet always walketh most surely And as for the final event of things Remember this that God Almighty has pronounced that no Vnrighteous men no Covetous no Lyars no Extortioners shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But to go on III. The next thing I have to exhort you to from the words of my Text is the Practice of Purity For after the Apostle hath recommended the pursuit of things that are true and the things that are honest and just he next adds the things that are pure Meaning hereby that we should study to be pure and chast and temperate both in our Hearts and Lives avoiding all Excesses and Lewdness and Sensuality And if he thought it convenient in that Age of strictness and severity and devotion to put the Christians in mind of this I am sure it is not only convenient but necessary to do it in this Age of ours when Luxury and Debauchery when Whoredom and Drunkenness and all sorts of Vice that are contrary to Purity are grown to that height among us that we seem to defie God Almighty by our impudent Practice of them and provoke Him to give us up to Destruction I pray God make the whole Nation deeply sensible of the Folly and Wickedness as well as of the Danger and dreadful Cousequences of these Practices And as for you who are here present let me bespeak you in the Words of the Apostle Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims to
You cannot as I said but see in the first place how very much such Doctrines do disparage the Love of our Saviour and lessen his Undertaking For whilst he is here supposed to have Redeemed us only from his Fathers Wrath and the Punishment consequent thereupon leaving us in the mean time to the wickedness and impurity of our own Nature which alone without the accession of any other external Evil is a misery great enough He is hereby rendred but half a Saviour One that freed us indeed froman External Evil but left us irremediably exposed to an Internal one as grievous as the other One that delivered us from the apprehensions of a Gibbet or an Executioner but could not or would not cure us of the inward Sicknesses and Maladies under which we languished But this is not all In the second place it ought to be taken notice of what an absurd inconsistent Notion this kind of Doctrine gives us of the Happiness of Mankind For whilst they suppose that a Man under the Power and Dominion of Sin is capable of that Happiness which Christ purchased for us in the other World which Happiness as both Scripture and Reason testifie doth chiefly consist in the enjoyment of God and of his Excellencies and Perfections They must at the same time suppose that a Man may berendred happy by the enjoyment of that of which he has no Sense no Perception or rather to speak properly that he is the happiest Creature alive in the enjoyment of an Object to which he has the greatest aversion and antipathy in the World Which if it be not an absurdity I know not what is When Light can have Communion with Darkness when God can have Fellowship with Belial Then and not till then can a wicked Man a Man that lives in Sin and loves it be capable of that Happiness which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us IV. The Fourth thing I should speak to from this Text is the Means by which our Saviour brought to pass the great End of his Appearance viz. The putting away of sin Which means are said to be the Sacrifice of himself Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Two things should be done in order to a just Discourse upon this point First To give an account how the Death of Christ was a Means for the putting away of sin in the first Sense I gave that is the procuring the Pardon of it Secondly How it was a Means of putting it away in the other Sense that is the destroying or mortifying it in us But these things being Foreign to our present Business and more proper for the Argument of a Good-Friday Sermon I shall say no more of them but proceed to my last point V. The Fifth and last thing observable from the Text is the difference of Christ's sacrifice whereby he put away sin from the Mosaical ones Which difference so far as it is here taken notice of consists in this That the Legal Sacrifices for the Expiation of Sin were daily offered But Christ offered the Sacrifice of himself but once Once in the end of the World c. The Apostle in this Chapter is discoursing of the Difference between the Law and the Gospel And as to that Point he insists much on the Difference of their Sacrifices The Christians that owned the Gospel had but one Sacrifice the Sacrifice of Christ once offered whereas those that were under the Law were forced to have many Nay even the most solemn Sacrifice that God had appointed for the Expiation of their Sins was repeated once a Year as the Apostle tells us in the Verse before my Text. But now the Sacrifice of Christ which he puts by way of opposition to theirs That was but once offered and was never to be repeated This is the point with which he concludes this Chapter two Verses after my Text Christ saith he was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time unto salvation This is the Apostle's Doctrine and I insist on it now because all those that design on this day to receive the Holy Sacrament are concerned in it Let us from hence take notice that in this Service of the Holy Communion we are not to pretend to offer Christ as a Sacrifice to his Father His Sacrifice was but once to be offered and that was done 1600 Years ago and in the Virtue of that Sacrifice once offered all faithful Christians and sincere Penitents shall receive Remission of Sins and all other Benefits of his Passion But for us to think of offering Christ again as a Sacrifice is in effect to put our selves into the same rank and condition with the unbelieving Jews that is to need the repetition of the same Sacrifices every Year nay every Day which is the very reason for which the Apostle denys the Efficacie of them We do not indeed deny but that every time we approach to the Lord's Table for the receiving of the Holy Communion we offer Sacrifices to God For we offer our Alms which we beg of God to accept as our Oblations and these in the Language of Scripture are Sacrifices with which God is well pleased We likewise offer our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for the Death of our Saviour And all our Prayers and Supplications we put up in his Name and in the Virtue and for the Merits of that Sacrifice he offered to God in our behalf And in so doing we commemorate that Sacrifice both to God and before Men. And this is all we are confident that the Ancient Church meant by the great Christian Sacrifice or the Sacrifice of the Altar But if we go further if we will in the Communion pretend to offer up the Body and Blood of Christ in Sacrifice to God that was once sacrificed upon the Cross It is intolerable It is a thing that was never dreamed of in the first Ages of the Church It is directly contradictory to the Foundation of all the Apostle's Argument and Discourse here in the Text and the very supposal of it brings along with it many grievous Absurdities in the Theory and something that looks like impious in the Practice And yet this is the constant and avowed Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome in every Sacrament they have and that is in every Mass that is said among them The main business of that Mystery they make to consist in the Priest's offering up to God the very Body and Blood of Christ the same Body and Blood that was once offered up at Jerusalem this they pretend to offer up as a Sacrifice every day And they attribute to this their Offering the same Virtue and Efficacy that the Apostles and all Christians have always attributed to the one Sacrisice of Christ upon the Cross that is that it is a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the