Thirty first Year of his Age on the 5th of March that sad day whereon that never sufficiently to be lamented Princess our most incomparable QUEEN was interr'd about Three of the Clock in the Morning he with an humble Patience submitted to the stroke of Death cheerfully resigning his departing Soul into the most Holy hands of his gracious Redeemer The loss of so extraordinary a Person in the Flower of his Age and one from whom the learned World had justly conceiv'd such great Expectations of most admirable Performances from his indefatigable Labours for the advantage of it was very much lamented by Learned Men both at home and abroad The Clergy in particular as a Testimony of that value which they had for him did in great Numbers attend at his Funeral Here ought by no means to be past by in silence that singular Honour which was paid to him by the Right Reverend the Bishops Many of which and among the rest the most Reverend Archbishop himself and the Right Reverend Bishop of Litchfield who had both of them visited him in his last Sickness being present at it while another of that venerable Order the Right Reverend the Bishop of Rochester performed the Funeral Office All sorts of Persons were willing to shew their Respect for him in the best manner they were able The Reverend the Dean and Prebendaries of Westminster not only caused the Kings Schollars to attend him to his Grave an uncommon respect and the highest they can shew on such an occasion but did also each for himself remit their Customary Dues for Interment in their Church as the last and most proper Testimony they could then give of the high Esteem in which they held Mr. Wharton and his learned Labours The Quire likewise committing his Body to Rest with Solemn and Devout Anthems compos'd by that most ingenious Artist Mr. Henry Purcel He lyes Buried in the South side of the Cathedral Church of Westminster towards the West end Near whereunto in the Wall is erected a small but decent Monument of White Marble whereon is the following Inscription H. S. E. HENRICUS WHARTON A. M. ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE PRESBYTER RECTOR ECCLESIAE DE CHARTHAM NECNON VICARIUS ECCLESIAE De MINSTER IN INSULA THANATO IN DIAECESI CANTUARIENSI REVERENDISSIMO AC SANCTISSIMO PRAESULI WILHELMO ARCHIEPISCOPO CANTUARIENSI A SACRIS DOMESTICIS QUI MULTA AD AUGENDAM ET ILLUSTRANDAM REM LITERARIAM MULTA PRO ECCLESIA GHRISTI CONSCRIPSIT PLURA MOLIEBATUR Obiit 30. Non. Mart. A. D. MDCXCIV Aetatis suae XXXI THE CONTENTS SERMON I. On Whit-Sunday JOhn XIV 25 26. These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your Remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Pag. 1 SERMON II. Philip. II. 5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus p. 51 SERMON III. and IV. 1 Pet. III. 15. Be ready always to give an answer â—…to every Man that asketh you a reason of the hope that 's in you with Meekness and Fear p. 108 144 SERMOM V. Rom. II. 4. Not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance p. 172 SERMON VI. 1 Corinth I. 23. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a Stumbling-block and unto the Greeks Foolishness p. 227 SERMON VII Hebr. IX 27. It is appointed unto Men once to die but after this the Judgment p. 261 SERMON VIII 1 Tim. I. 17. Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen p. 287 SERMON IX Psal. XCV 7 8. To day if ye will hear his Voyce harden not your hearts p. 313 SERMON X. and XI Luk. XIII 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish p. 337 365 SERMON XII Acts X. 34 35. Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a Truth I perceive that God is no respecter of Persons But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him p. 394 SERMON XIII Coloss. III. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God p. 417 SERMON XIV John XIV 1. Let not your bearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me p. 439 The First SERMON ON WHITSUNDAY Prâ—…ach'd at Lambeth Chapel John XIV 25 26. These things havé I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you THese words being part of the Gospel for this Day â—…o not only contain the Promise of that infinite and wonderful benefit the completion of which we this Day commeâ—…orate But also declare the nature and intention of it and thereby most fitly not only excite us to a grateful remembrance of the Divine beneficence but also teach us to form true apprehensions and a just veneration of so great a Mystery A Mystery which was promis'd by Christ to his Apostles as the greatest of all Benefits Which might alone supply the otherwise irreparable loss of his Presence and intirely dispel their grief arising from the melancholy apprehensions of his approaching departure A Mystery which was reserved for the ultimate consummation of the Christian Religion and Divine dispensation of the Gospel Which being designed by the Father and Founded by the Son was at last brought to perfection by the Mission and Descent of the Holy Ghost No wonder therefore if the promise of so great a benefit was so mightily insisted on by Christ as a sufficient remedy to his Disciples for all afflictions and the last and greatest Legacy which he could bequeath unto them If the performance of it was so earnestly expected by the Apostles and the remembrance of it with an uninterrupted solemnity Celebrated by the Church in all Ages more especially by the Antient Church in which all Christians used to stand continually in time of Divine Service from Easter to Whitsunday thereby testifying the impatient expectation wherewith they attended the Descent of the Holy Ghost as upon this Day The declaration of this promise made in the words of my Text was occasioned by the great anxiety which the Apostles expressed at the news of our Saviours departure and their wonderful ignorance of the true nature and design of the Christian Religion after so long and so excellent instruction from their Divine Master The former is related in the end of the preceding Chapter which therefore Christ endeavours to remove by a vehement exhortation to a steady Faith in the beginning of this Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Assuring them that his departure was for no other end than to prepare a place for their reception
our constant Duty to watch over them to prevent them and if possible at last wholly to remove them Otherwise if the hopes of obtaining Pardon for them betrays us into a neglect or perhaps a voluntary Admission of them they lose their Plea of Infirmity and become Sins of Presumption Sins of a much deeper Contagion To cure therefore and prevent even thofe Sins which alone can take place in a true and real Christian we must endeavour by an assiduous diligence and circumspect Carriage to form Habits of Vertue and Piety For this end the Observation of Lent was wisely instituted by the Church wherein by a more than ordinary vigilance over our Actions by frequent Meditation Prayer and other pious Exercises and if it were necessary by Bodily Austerities and Mortifications also we might seek Remedies to the diseases of our Soul and begin to form Habits of Holiness and Sobriety which should not expire with the Solemnity of the holy Season but be continued and improved through the whole year and even the whole Course of our Lives If then we be indeed convinced that Repentance is a necessary Duty that it ought to be undertaken upon the first Conviction and that to deferr it after That is an unpardonable Obduration let us from this moment resolve to do it let us confirm our Resolutions by a more than ordinary vigilance and attention in this Holy Season and so by making these pious Resolutions become Habits continue the happy Effects of them to our Lives end So shall we not fail of that infinite Reward which is annexed to true Repentance and the consequent of it unfeigned Obedience To which Reward God of his infinite Mercy bring us all for the Sake and Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Tenth SERMON PREACH'D March 16th 1689 90. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Luke XIII 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish IT is an ancient and most prudent Constitution of the Church to set a part solemn Times for the exercise of Repentance and a more serious application to the duties of Religion founded upon the example of our Lord himself who though he committed no Sins whereof to repent yet before he entred upon his Office prepared himself for the execution by it by an extraordinary abstinence for forty days together and continued by the Church in all Ages although the remissness and degeneracy of latter times hath almost defeated the use of it The design of it was that Men who are always willing to put off their Repentance from day to day and contriving reasons of their delay being loth to fix the time of an unwelcom Duty might be obliged by the Constitution of the Church by the example of their fellow Christians and by the admonition of their Guides to enter upon it at this time to apply themselves in a particular manner to search their Consciences enquire into the condition of their Souls discover their Diseases and seek the remedies of them by confessing their sins to God acknowledging the guilt of them begging pardon of God who is offended by them removing them from the Soul introducing contrary habits of Piety and Religion taming the unruly pafsions of the Body by a serious attention to the Commands of God to his precepts to his Promises and his Threats to the deformity and unhappy Consequences of Sin by inuring the mind to Acts of Religion and Devotion by a constant Meditation both of the Duty prescribed and the Arguments enforcing it and if all this be not sufficient to check and overrule the violent motions of the Body to depress them by abstinence and Fasting in a word to subdue the Body to the Government of the Soul and the Soul to the Obedience of God We are indeed always obliged to watch over our Actions to repent of our Sins as soon as we discover them and to strive against them yet it will be necessary to fix some certain times wherein a more severe examination is to be made the state of the Soul to be exactly searched the imperfections and corruptions of it to be discovered a stricter Course of Piety to be undergone whereby it may make deep impressions in the Mind and as it were take Root in it This time the Church hath most wifely determined and not left her Sons to their own direction who might possibly deferr their Repentance till either it were prevented by Death or Sin had taken such deep root that it could not be removed And such was the excellent discipline of the Church herein in former Ages so Solemn and Devout their Observation of Lent I mean not in abstaining from this or that sort of Meat for that even when rightly used is but â—…ubservient to the great Design but in the Forming an Exercise of a strict Repentance of a more careful Obedience and more constant Devotion that it could not fail to have great effect upon the Minds of all sorts of Christians They were not content to exercise in secret all theâ—…e Acts of Mortification for so I call whatsoever tends to destroy Sin in Man which is the true notion of mortification but did it in publick in the Face of the whole Church and in many external Acts of Life Those who had committed more hainous sins voluntarily underwent a publick Penance fequestred themselves from the â—…ank of the Faithful placed themselves in a particular part of the Church appointed for the Penitents there publickly confessed their sins implored the mercy of God and desired the Intercession of the whole Church for them Not only those but all other Christians who were not conscious to themselves of any flagrant Crimes still applyed themselves during all that holy Season to an extraordinary exercise of all the Acts of Religion denied themselves many of the ordinary and Innocent pleasures of Life that they might without interruption attend to the forming of a true Repentance to the mortifying of their Lusts and to the improving of their good Resolutions into habits of Piety I mean not that they macerated themselves with Hair-cloth or Whippings or unreasonable Fastings those were the Follies of latter and more Ignorant Ages but they afflicted their Souls with the continual thoughts of having offended God by their Sins they endeavoured to Form a hatred of sin by taking the shame of it upon themselves in a publick confession they daily implored the Mercy of God with all the ardent expressions and real signs of Repentance which Pious Souls could invent They fitted themselves for the receiving of that Mercy by raising and fixing steady Notions and Resolutions of their Duty to God and their obligation to all the Precepts of Religion by generous Acts of Charity by a vigilant strugling with all sinful Motions and even rooting them out by maceration if no other means could prevail that so they might present themselves pure and unspotted to their Lord at the ensuing solemnity of Easter when whosoever did not Communicate and had not prepared himself
Eucharist whereby we are initiated and enter into Covenant with God profess our belief of it and adherence to it intitle our Selves to the Benefits of it and continue to receive the influence of the Divine Grace Such Foederal Rites are absolutely necessary to all instituted and revealed Religions and so little derogate from the spiritual Nature of our Worship that they were intended on purpose to oblige us to it Thus the Christian Religion proposeth a Divine Worship most agreeable to the Nature of God and not only that but also most effectually secures his Honour and Majesty For it seems to have been the Principal design of Christianity to root Idolatry out of the world and introduce the sole Worship of the true God And how admirably it was fitted for this purpose appears as well from the Precepts as the Constitution of it which hath provided most excellent Remedies for those prejudices and imperfections of Mankind which before the coming of Christ betrayed it to an universal Idolatry The two great Motives and Causes of Idolatry seem to have been First That men inured to sensual and corporeal Objects either lost all Notions of an immaterial God and then betook themselves to the worship of their fellow Creatures or retaining the knowledge of the true God desired to worship him by some visible Representations which might strike their Senses Or Secondly that from a Sense of their sins and having deserved the Divine Displeasure they formed to themselves the Notion of an inexorable Deity who would not receive any Prayers from their polluted hands nor be intreated any otherwise than as earthly Princes by the Mediation of Friends and Favourites Hence they set up innumerable Intercessours with God either Angels whom they termed Demons or the Souls of departed Heroes whom they imagined dear to God solicited their Mediation directed their Prayers unto them and by them transmitted them to the Supreme God These Prejudices and false perswasions laid the Foundation of Idolatry in all Ages and are excellently provided for in the Christian Religion wherein God forbidding us to worship him by any corporeal Representations upon Earth hath invested his own Son The brightness of his Glory and express image of his Person with our Flesh and commanded us through him to worship himself And then to cure the Fondness of Mankind desiring to address themselves to God by Intercessours he hath constituted him our only Intercessour and promised to hear our Prayers directed to him in his Name and through his Merits and at his Mediation to be propitious to us Thus the wise Constitution of Christianity hath most admirably secured the Honour of God and indeed most successfully For hereby Idolatry was rooted out the constant Worship of one only God introduced and while the Church continued uncorrupted preserved inviolate In the antient Church not the least resemblance of Idolatry could be discovered the very Heathen Philosophers were forced to confess their Worship to be purely spiritual and most worthy the Nature of God No Images were used by them nor any Prayers offered up but by the alone Mediation of Jesus Christ. It was the ignorance and unhappiness of latter Ages which admitted corporeal Representations of God and set up new Intercessours in the Court of Heaven Saints and Angels who might receive and manage their Requests That so palpable a Corruption of the Christian Religion which intirely defeats the great Ends and Designs of it before mentioned should be still defended as lawful and continued in any part of the Church after so manifest Conviction of the unlawfulness of it may justly be admired But the maintenance of their pretence to Infallibility hath enforced them to do this which nothing but the defence of a desperate Cause could perswade Men to do It is our Happiness to be Members of a Church wherein no such Corruptions are practised nor any Acts of Worship taught which are not even by the Confession of our Adversaries undoubtedly lawful And it will be our Condemnation if after so plain Conviction we depart from a rational and truly Divine Worship to embrace one corrupted with so gross a Superstition which if it be not downright I dolatry hath at least all the resemblance of it Secondly Christianity doth not only direct the natural religious Inclination of Man into the right Channel the Worship of the true and only God but also promoteth the real perfection of Man by prescribing to him the most excellent Rules of Life and Conduct Which is no small Argument of the Divinity of it in that it beareth so manifest resemblance of the perfect Holiness of God And indeed what can be imagined more Excellent and Holy more conducing to Piety Justice and Temperance than the Rules and Precepts of the Christian Religion So admirably fitted to the Nature of Man that it would be his Happiness to Practice them although enforced with no Command nor crowned with any Reward For what can be more worthy a rational Soul than to entertain noble and reverent Conceptions of its Creatour to express an unlimited Devotion and Gratitude to him by all imaginable Actions of Respect and Honour to subdue our carnal Affections to the Government of Reason conquer our Lusts and trample under foot all Considerations of Interest and Prosperity when standing in Competition with Vertue and Holiness to maintain an exact Justice to all Mankind seek the good of others and delight in Acts of Charity Such a Conduct of Life even the more wise of the antient Heathens directed by the Light of Reason esteemed the utmost degree of humane Perfection and believed thofe Persons who possess it already enstated in the Supreme Happiness And that they might manifest themselves fully convinced of the truth of this Opinion there were not wanting some generous Souls who chose to foregoe all temporal Conveniences and even Life it self rather than violate any part of their Duty And is not the Exercise of all the aforementioned Vertues the very design of Christianity Are not those the very Precepts of our Religion With this only difference that we are taught to practice them in a more eminent and perfect manner and to refer all to God performing them from a Principle of Love to him and Obedience to his Commands Our Saviour hath obliged us to guard our thoughts with the same Care and Vigilance with which we do our outward Actions and possess those Vertues in our Soul which others are content to do in appearance The Jewish Religion required no more than the performance of the several Rites and Observances of the Law And whosoever performed them although without any inward Sense of Piety Had fulfilled all legal righteousness and was no longer a debter to the law But the Evangelical righteousness Soars higher and scorning to stoop at such mean and beggerly Elements primarily respects the Affections of the heart A manifest Argument that the Author of it was a Divine Person and could discover the most secret Recesses
he did with a Discourse on that Text S. John 14. 25 26. the first of the following Sermons In September following the Archbishop admitted him into the number of his Chaplains at the same time as his Custom was giving him a Living his Institution to which being deferr'd a while till he should be of full Age in the mean time the Vicaridge of Minster in the Isle of Thanet fell void to which he was Collated Novemb. the 12th of the same Year and afterwards to the Rectory of Chartham Septemb. the 19th 1689. He having first conferr'd on him the Holy Order of Priesthood with his own hand on his Birth-day Novem. the 9th 1688. Now it was that by the Advice and Encouragement of his Noble and Learned Patron he addrest himself to the composing of his Great Work called by him Anglia Sacra A Work of incredible Pains as must needs be acknowledged by any one who considers the uncommonness of the Subject never before so treated of by any one the scarcity and obscurity of the Materials from whence it was to be Collected and these too not to be had but in several places and at vast distances yet all these Difficulties were overcome by his own unwearied Diligence a◅d Patience and the kind and generous ◅sistance of Friends Among whom particularly must always be mentioned with Honour the profoundly Learned Dr. Lloyd the then Right Reverend Bishop of St. Asaph and now of Litchfield and Coventry who freely imparted to him many things worthy of Notice out of the curious Treasury of his incomparable Collections and did also several other ways animate him in the Prosecution of his Design Nor ought here to be forgotten the Reverend and Learned Dr. John Battely Archdeacon of Canterbury his dear and worthy Friend who with those two Learned Persons Dr. William Hopkins and Dr. Matthew Hutton the former Prebendary of Worcester and the Latter the Worthy Rector of Ayno in Northamptonshire communicated to him many things worthy of Publick Noticē the two first from the Archives of their respective Churches and the last out of his own private Collections A Work this was of such excellent Design that for it alone though he had given no other instance of his Industry and Zeal for the cause of Religion and Learning as he had many the Name of Mr. Wharton ought always to be dear to the Learned World for the benefit and advantage whereof so many Ancient Monuments of our Nation relating to Church Affairs have been brought to light and retriev'd from perishing in that Obscurity and Darkness wherein they had layn hid for many Ages Which methinks should have inclined a Learned Gentleman in the Preface to a late Book to reflect upon some of his Discourses with a little more Tenderness and Respect The whole Work was design'd to exhibit to us a compleat Ecclesiastical History of England untill the Reformation Two Volumes in Folio were by himself published in his Life time 1691. A Third in Octavo is since his Death come out giving an account of the Bishops and Deans of London and St. Asaph from the first Foundation of those Sees to the Year 1540. His account of which may perhaps by some be thought small and the performance not considerable tho' to them who know how very little the helps in such Matters are and the many tedious hours it must cost even to search them out it will I doubt not appear to deserve another sort of Judgment and the Consideration thereof reflect a due Commendation upon his unwearied Endeavours He intended the like for all the other Sees if God had granted Life but the infinite All-seeing Wisdom hath other ways disposed of him and in the midst of his great Designs call'd him to himself to receive an early Reward for his well-deserving Labours In 1693. He put out Venerable Bede's Commentaries on Genesis and on the Song of Habacuc together with Aldhelmus his eloquent Book of the Praise of Virginity There are several other Pieces for which the World is in some measure and upon some account indebted to him As. the Life of Cardinal Pool The Disceptation between the Embassadors of England and France in the Council of Constance about Precedency Mr. Stripe's Life of Archbishop Cranmer which he reviewed adding some critical Observations thereon in a large Postscript With some others also But that which he himself more especially rejoyced in and which to use his own words He accounted the most fortunate Transaction of his whole Life was the Honour which his late Lord the most Reverend Archbishop Sancroft did him upon his Death-bed in committing to his Trust the Papers of that Blessed Martyr Archbishop Laud and to his Care the Edition of them The most considerable among which containing the Troubles and Tryal of that great Person he published in the Year 1694. These we◅e the Works of Mr. Wharton which the Author of this Account has thought sufficient almost barely to Name without pretending to pass any Judgment concerning the Performance for that indeed is render'd altogether needless by the Universal Approbation and Applause wherewith they were constantly received as well in Foreign Countries as in our own by the Engagements which they always drew upon him from the greatest and most Learned of entring upon something else as soon as any one was finished and Lastly by the Esteem and Value they procured to him from Persons of all Degrees and Qualities Besides those which he publish'd in his Life-time he has left several Pieces behind him both Manuscript and others about which he has bestowed great Pains Among the former are several English Historians never as yet published which he hath with exact Care and Faithfulness transcribed and collated with the Originals sitting them for the Press and which possibly sometime or other may be made publick viz. Benedictus Abbas de Gestis Henrici Secundi Regis Angliae A. D. 1170. Chronicon Nicolai Tribetti vulgo de Trebeth Dominicani ab An. 1136. ad An. 1307. Chronicon Petri Ickham Compilatio de Gestis Britonum Anglorum Stephani Birchington Monachi Cantuariensis Historia de Regibus Angliae post Conquestum Liber Nonus de Miraculis Anglorum In some of them are contained vast Collections out of Ancient and Modern Records relating to Church Affairs As to his Sermons which are here presented to the Reader there is one thing which he is desired to take notice of There was a Sermon which ought to have accompanied these to wit that Preacht before her late Majesty of Blessed Memory but being by some accident left imperfect it has not been thought fit to be Printed among the rest which 't is hoped will be entertain'd with no less Applause now appearing together in publick than the Satisfaction they were heard with when deliver'd apart in private Auditories So much however happily remains of that aforesaid imperfect Sermon as is sufficient to declare what Worthy thoughts he had of the present Government and
if it teacheth Doctrines contrary to Reason and refuseth to give any account of them we may infallibly conclude it to be erroneous and to have departed from the true Faith Yet we know a Church that hath wholly evacuated the Apostles Precépt by inhibiting to private Christians the use of Reason in Divine Matters and setting up an infallible Judge to whom all ought blindly to submit that useth her utmost endeavours to disable private Christians from giving a Reason of their Faith by forbidding them to read the Scripture that hath made Christianity irrational by adding to it absurd and contradictive Doctrines For what reason can be given that men should not use their Reason What Reason can be assigned for Transubstantiation which is directly contrary both to Sense and Reason What reason for a blind Submission to a pretended infallible Judge which defeats all use of Reason But these things are too apparent I omit them and pass to the second and last Branch of Application That 2. We ought to adorn this most rational and Holy Religion of our Saviour with a correspondent Holiness and Purity of Life The Apostle draws this inference in the words immediately preceding and following my Text But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and having a good conscience and indeed most naturally For if it be the highest Perverseness to reject the Gospel after so clear a Demonstration of the Divinity of it what a degree of Folly and Impiety must it be in those who are perswaded of the truth of it to contradict the Evidence and Design of it by the wickedness of their Lives and live as if they believed it to be most false The Apostle urgeth it as the utmost Aggravation of the sin of the wiser Heathens that they held the truth in unrighteousness and surely with much more force will the Argument fall upon immoral Christians For the Heathen Sages dissembled their Opinions from the world and so no wonder that they directed not their Actions by them whereas these publickly profess their belief of Christianity and yet live in open Contradiction to it And indeed it is a most astonishing Consideration that rational Creatures should deliberately violate those Laws upon which they acknowledge the hopes of Eternity to depend Do we really believe the Christian Religion to be Divine and yet go on without remorse to trample under foot its Laws and Precepts Are we perswaded that infinite Rewards in another world attend the performance of our Duty in this and yet preferr the Temptations and Pleasures of the World to the Attainment of them Do we profess our Belief of eternal Punishments and yet are not affrighted from the Commission of any pleasing sin by the terror of them However we may pretend a firm Assent to all these Articles yet certainly it will be impossible to perswade a considering Man that the belief of them can be reconciled with the Practice of the contrary And after all if we should be allowed to be what we pretend Believers in Christ Can faith save us No Shew me thy faith by thy works If a sober Heathen should come among us and compare the Rules of Christ with the Lives of Christians the exercise of Piety Temperance and Chastity and all moral Vertues commanded by the one in the higest degree and upon the severest Penalties and Impiety Intemperance Lust and all enormous Vices openly and greedily practised by the other he would be tempted to believe that the Religion of Christ were no more than a pleasing Fable wherewith Christians sometimes entertained themselves An ancient Father who lived in the declining times of Christianity tells us how the Heathens in his Age formed dishonourable thoughts of Christ from the scandalous Lives of his Disciples Quomodo bonus est Magister cujus tam malos videmus Discipulos How can he be a good Lawgiver that hath no better Followers how can his Laws be excellent that do not reform the Lives of their Professours And then proceeds to deplore this Scandal In nobis Christus opprobrium patitur Thus we defame our most excellent Religion dishonour our Saviour and blaspheme him in our Lives Let us live up to the Rules of our Religion and by a Conscientious practice of them manifest that we are perswaded of the truth of it otherwise it will be in vain to be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us This were unanswerably to refute our Arguments by our Practice and add to our own Condemnation Let us demonstrate the Divinity of our Religion by the influence it hath upon our Lives and profess an intire Belief of it by a constant Obedience to it that so we may not fall short of the Promises annexed to it and others seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in heaven The Fifth SERMON PREACH'D December 2d 1688. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Rom. II. 4. Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance THE infinite and wonderful Love of God towards Mankind is in nothing more visible and conspicuous than in the various methods which he makes use of to draw us to himself The Faculties and Passions of our Soul are not more numerous and different than are the means which he hath employed to render us happy and oblige us to the performance of our Duty inducing us by all those Motives and Arguments which in other moral Actions are wont to make impression on us He hath engaged our Understandings by proposing to our belief and practice a reasonable and holy Religion attended with the greatest Evidence and in all things highly agreeable to the Nature of Mankind and first Principles of Reason He hath assured our Wills by presenting such Objects to it as employ every single Passion of it If the desire of obtaining the greatest good can move us he hath allured us by the Promise of an infinite and eternal Happiness If fear of Misery hath any influence upon our minds he hath deterred us from the Violation of his Laws by affixing to it the most severe and terrible Punishments If hope can excite us he hath given to us an infallible assurance of more than we can conceive If Love can affect us he hath obliged us by the greatest Benefits Lastly If reason and the sense of our Duty if Rewards and Punishments if Favours and Benefits can together engage us he hath united all in one most holy and excellent Religion And in this appears the wonderful Goodness of God that whereas any one of these methods were alone sufficient to oblige Mankind to the practice of our Duty he hath chose to employ them all that so that Attribute of Mercy wherein he most delights might be more conspicuous and the impemtence of Mankind in opposition to it might not only become irrational but even monstrous It had been sufficient as to the Obligation of it to have proposed a reasonable Religion without annexing to it