endeavors to know the Covenant of God revealed in the Gospel whether enjoining the Duty he expects from us or promising those benefits and rewards in this or the other life which we may expect from him this very Promise we have again repeated Prov. 3.32 His secret is with the righteous it had been enough if God had passed his but once but since he hath so often repeated it we cannot doubt but that good men shall be blessed with a better apprehension of the things of the Gospel than others In John 8. the like Promises are made and the like Conditions upon which they are made are annexed ver 12. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life shall know all things requisite to Life Eternal ver 32. Ye shall know the truth but 't is upon this condition ver 33. that ye continue in my word and John 14.21 I will love and manifest my self to every one that loveth me and keepeth my Commandments Upon the account of these and the like Promises as well as upon other grounds we may say with the Psalmist Psal 111. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it is the best most auspicious entrance upon it and they that do thereafter have a good understanding having good security that they cannot fail of it To conclude this particular From all these Promises we may be most assured that every man following the rule of Christ shall not fail of so much knowledge as will secure his Eternal Life and even that is a mighty encouragement to observe this Rule If any of us were sure that some Angel attended us constantly observing all our actions insinuating good counsels and exciting good thoughts when our Passions grow wild and we are on the brink of sin it would infuse a great regard of all we did into us and we should reckon our selves happy men Certainly it is more happy to be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God what can be more desirable than to have him who is Wisdom it self opening our ears and sealing Instruction to us blessing our searches into holy things and accompanying our meditations with a ready and prosperous apprehension And this is that we are sure of whilst we are in the way of doing God's will because we are sure he is not slack in his Promises But this advantage will appear so much the greater if we consider that God doth sometimes deliver up wicked men to darkness of understanding and hath threatned that he will do so That he has done so St. Paul shews plainly Rom. 1. by the example of the Gentiles because they detained the truth in unrighteousness ver 19. and did not glorify God with that knowledge which he had given them they first became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned ver 21. So they fell to Idolatry ver 22. and then we find that he gave them up to vile affections and a reprobate i. e. an undiscerning mind which knew no difference between good and evil and that God will deal so with us if we deny him by our works 't is but reasonable to expect tho' he had not said it but he hath given us sufficient warning in the threatning to the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. Repent and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place their Candlestick is removed and now they are in Turkish darkness and so the burden of Ephesus is fulfilled But why I beseech you should that admonition be so often repeated in the second and third Chapters He that hath ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the seven Churches but to let us know that the threatnings there denounced belong to the Churches of Europe as well as of Asia and to England as well as to Ephesus And seeing every one has ears to hear and therefore ought to hear therefore every particular man is as liable to the same severity as whole Churches and therefore as by the sins of a Nation God may be provoked to deliver it up to darkness and delusion and to believe lies so for the sins of particular persons he may give them over to a Lying spirit and suffer Seducers to prevail upon them so that they shall not see the plainest truths in Religion nor discern the most gross and monstrous Errors Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they might all be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.11 It is not therefore unreasonable to conclude that the contempt of all holy things that reigns amongst many wicked men is from the Judgment of God giving them up to a reprobate mind their habitual Vices have violated their natural Instincts and raised out the sense of good and evil and moreover the vengeance of God's wrath is upon them giving them over to their own vileness permitting them to run on in wickedness without the checks and restraints of his good Spirit and to defy the goodness of God and to laugh at Counsels and Admonitions and to make haste to their own perdition thereby fulfilling that Prophecy of Daniel referring to the Times of the Gospel The wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wiched shall understand Dan. 12.10 Of what hath been said the sum is this If godliness be in it self a fit means to promote the knowledge of truth if it hath moreover a sure word of promise which the unrighteous have not That the righteous shall be assisted in the search of truth and if on the other hand ungodly men are under so many natural impediments that obstruct the knowledge of the truth and moreover lye under such severe threatnings of blindness it must needs follow that supposing the Good and the Bad to be equally endued with natural Abilities of understanding and equally enjoying the external means of knowledge that the former has vast advantages yet above the latter which was the first thing to be shown The Second is That there is some knowledge of Divine things that cannot be attained by the wicked man while he so continues though in other respects he be never so much superior to the righteous and that is the experimental knowledge of Religion which does above all other things confirm the Faith of a good Christian he that doth the will of God understands the power of good Principles to fortify him against temptations to restrain him from sin to keep him to his Duty to render it pleasant and delightful to him to moderate him in his prosperity and to support him in adversity and by all this he understands the great worth and excellency of true Religion incomparably better than any man who can talk learnedly and argue dexterously about it but never felt the
after sin there were no hope of pardon upon new obedience it would indeed be very grievous to be obliged to obey so perfect a Law under so bad a Penalty For then if a temptation should once prevail we were irrecoverably lost I say if we have violated the Law of Christ heretofore we are in a desperate case though we should never do the like again But blessed be God it is not thus with us Though we have heinously fail'd of our duty yet we may with good comfort repair our past neglects by future diligence being assured that if we do God will not impute to us our former sins so that the Law of Christ was not intended for a snare nor made perfect that occasion might be taken against us but that we at length might be perfect too And for ever blessed be his Name for the Grace of accepting Repentance that Grace which gives the worst of men some good hope if they will lay hold upon it in time and without which the best of men could have no hope at all 2. The utmost perfection which the Gospel requires is not expected but upon a gradual improvement and such improvement is by no means grievous It were intolerably hard indeed if we were obliged under penalty of Damnation to perfect holiness all at once which burthen they bring upon themselves who leave all to a Death-bed Repentance if it would not turn to good account to grow better to press forward toward the mark of our high calling to die unto Sin daily and live unto Righteousness But why is God patient and long-suffering toward us Why does he allow us one year after another but that we might recover our selves by degrees he in the mean time being ready to pardon us as we repent and to accept us in the way of growing better And this is great Grace to every man but most of all to him who is accustomed to do evil and cannot presently learn to do well i. e. to do well universally For he may now begin his Repentance well though he cannot yet compleat it He may forbear the outward sin though he cannot yet repress the inordinacy of his Desires he may avoid the temptation which he cannot resist he may pray for the Grace of God and read the Holy Scriptures he may attend to good Exhortations and make good Resolutions and think of them afterwards and desire the Counsels and Prayers of good men He may do many things in Religion when 't is not in his power to do all and by doing those which at present are in his power he is in the way of enabling himself to do those which at present are not Now that is no grievous task which will easily go off by degrees and which we may therefore make easy by an early beginning and allowing our selves time for it 3. As we grow more exact in obedience to Christ so our uneasiness under it wears away and at length it ends in the most pure and perfect delight that the Soul of man is capable of Self-denial and the resisting of Temptations will at first be painful especially to those that have been used to live without rule and restraint And there might be some colour for complaint if this would always last But the more earnestly we apply our minds to the duties of Repentance and a Holy Life the first discouragements will vanish the faster But more particulary 1. It is not so hard to begin well as our Prejudice and want of experience represent it For we begin with the help of mighty Arguments such as cannot be equalled by the Temptations of the World Should not the hope of Heaven have a strong influence upon a man endued with free-will especially when join'd with the fear of Hell Is there any difficulty in being concerned for Everlasting Salvation in being afraid of Everlasting Burnings And yet where this concern is it cannot be hard to lay a good foundation of a new life It is not grievous to love him above all things who is our Creator and Saviour and therefore why should it be thought a grievous thing for his sake especially when 't is for our own too to break off our sins by repentance Besides God hath not left us to grapple with our unruly Affections by the mere force of our own reasoning upon motives and the use of our natural liberty but has moreover promised the assistance of Supernatural Grace and Blessing to those that ask him And is it hard to have recourse to the Fountain of our Beings the God of Grace and Mercy and with earnest Prayers at least twice a day to beseech him that he would endue us with wisdom and patience and safely guide us through all the discouragements of this World the importunities of fleshly desire and the Temptations of the Devil till we find every good work habitual and delightful And this one thing viz. fervent Prayer makes a wonderful alteration in the mind and brings a kind of new Soul into a man Again No sooner is Repentance well begun but a man begins to look up to Heaven without his wonted consternation he is no longer in a strait between the dread of God's Justice on the one hand and a prevailing love of his Sins on the other nor constrained to put God out of all his thoughts or to be in pain under them Finally now that he has conquered his first Aversions he is sure of a compleat Victory if he pursues his end which is a comfort that the wise of this World have not in their way How many are they that covet wealth and greatness with the same greediness labour for it with the same industry contrive for it with the same wit and wait for it with the same patience but this with very different success one of them thrives and another decays as fast and for one that comes to riches and honour perhaps ten find the greatest part of their care rewarded with nothing but experience of this world's uncertainty Nay in these things Chance is often seen to do more than Wisdom and the wary and diligent man is disappointed while the lazy and foolish prosper But whoever made it his design and business to be saved and in order to that to be good who found it too hard for him These and many other Arguments and invitations a man shall meet with at his first setting out to run the race of a Christian Life which wonderfully break the difficulty of his undertaking But 2. When he has arrived to a spirit and habit of Obedience then is the Promise of Christ perfectly made good to him that he shall find rest to his Soul Then he can with full advantage compare that sweet freedom he enjoys from the tyranny of lust and passion with that servitude in which he once was to inordinate desire to foolish hope and to those sower affections of malice envy and revengefulness which are to the Soul what the Stone and Strangury
untoward accidents of Life as any of them ever were For here is the same Reason Encouragement and Assistance to do what God requires and to be happy therein as there ever was And why should not the same causes still produce the same effects For on the one side those holy Men and Women that are now with God had the same Appetites and Passions to govern that we have they endured the same Temptations and overcome them they had the same natural sence of good and evil that we have and were encompassed with infirmities and yet they walked by Faith and performed their Duty to God not to be admired and courted by men but to be seen and rewarded of God On the other side we have the same God to trust that they had the same holy Word of God to direct us the same Promises to inflame us the same holy Spirit to assist us the same Everlasting Reward to encourage us which they had So that God hath made no difference between them and us And let not us I beseech you make so great a difference between our selves and them as to miss of that peace and satisfaction which they once enjoyed in this World and of that infinite Reward which they have in part attained to in a better A Reward so vast that 't is all one within a trifle whether with or without Tribulation whether with ease or difficulty with pleasure or pain we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For which God of his Infinite Mercy prepare us by his his holy Word by his gracious Spirit by his wise Providence through our Lord Jesus Christ And now to God Almighty the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Thanks and Praise for ever and ever Amen The Eight Sermon AN Assize Sermon MATTH V. 38 39 40. Ye have heard that it hath been said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you That ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain I Am very sensible that the Duty here prescribed is so contrary to the Lusts and Passions of men and to some Principles of Honour and Wisdom which are currant in the World that it will be no very easy matter to persuade most men to practice it We are beholding to them if they will allow it to be a speculation fit for the Pulpit but if we pretend to offer it as a Rule for daily use we must pardon them there for it does not seem by any means to be accommodated to the state of Mankind and 't is pursued without any respect to or regard of the daily Occurrences of life What living would there be for us in the World if we should forgive Injuries and Wrongs as fast as they are done and put up Affronts as often as they are put upon us This would incourage the insolent man that hath done us one injury to offer a greater and by our tameness in bearing the injustice of one man we invite another to deal as ill by us or worse than the former which is the way to be affronted by every Scoundrel and trampled upon at every man's pleasure No but let us make men afraid of presuming to do us any harm by letting them see what others have gotten by it we must make them Examples that dare put any contempt upon us if we would live quietly and maintain our Honour and when others sees how dangerous a thing it is to provoke us we shall be respected and courted by them they will be afraid to offend us and think themselves happy in our friendship But to sit down quietly under Abuses is the way to be scorned and insulted over by every body Tell them of forgiving Injuries that want a Spirit to resent them and have not Courage enough to revenge them this is a Principle fit for none but Cowards or Fools either for those that are so dull as not to understand an Affront or so fearful that they dare not return it but it comes too late for men of Honour and Mettle that know what is their Interest and are able to defend it And there is no reason in the world why they should expose themselves to Injuries and Abuses when they have Strength and Courage enough to guard themselves from them Thus in truth they say in their hearts as they plainly shew by their Actions revenging every little Disrespect or Affront or Injury of any kind by returning an equal or very often a vastly greater mischief upon the wrong-doer and this to secure themselves as they pretend from further wrongs by making all that observe it careful to forbear offending them in like manner as they would be encouraged to do if the present Injury were tamely past by and nothing done to revenge it But in the first place This Objection was well foreseen by our Saviour he knew it would be pretended against the Duty of forgiving Injuries that this would be to pull great inconveniencies upon our selves and invite every body that had any thing to get by it to multiply Injuries against us And therefore he prescribed the Rules of Forgiveness in those very terms that imply he considered the Objection well enough But I say unto you resist not evil resist not the evil or the injurious man but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also The latter words are not to be taken in a literal sense as if I were to offer my self to a second stroke after I had been struck once But in a moral sense i. e. venture a second injury rather than go about to be revenged of the first though it should be never so probable that the wrong-doer would take heart by thy meekness to add another abuse to the former thou shalt not secure thy self by revenge for all that And so if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also Not that I am presently to part with more to him than he has unjustly gotten by a wrong Verdict but that I am to venture another loss rather than be reveng'd for the first And so is the other instance to be understood From whence it is plain that our Blessed Saviour was not unmindful of the Objection that one would be apt to make against his Rule though if this matter had not been so plainly implied one would think a little modesty would serve to acknowledge that God is wiser than man and it is better for us to be governed by his Will than by our own foolish Reasonings at least if we would be thought to be Christians we should not think much to take the Authority of Our Lord and Master for a sufficient Reason to do as he
seems to be the plainest yet he repeats the substance of this For if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses But then with what face can they pretend to be Christians with what quiet can they think of a Future Judgment who take pleasure in the doing of Injuries and Wrongs who are as forward to trespass against their Brother as they are backward to forgive their Brother's Trespasses If I were to describe what a true Christian is by taking some one point of Christian duty the performance whereof does in all reasonable construction imply all the rest it should be this That he is one who would not for the world do the least injury but can forgive the greatest And God grant that this may be our practice for the rest of our lives The Ninth Sermon AN Assize Sermon MATTH 5.34 35 36 37. But I say unto you Swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the City of the great King neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black but let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil THat Religion and the fear of God and a sense of his Authority are Principles supposed by the Laws of God is from hence evident that in great part the process of our Courts depends upon Testimony given under the obligation of an Oath for though the use of an Oath there is required by Humane Authority yet the peculiar obligation it lays upon us to speak the Truth is antecedent to all Humane Laws being founded originally upon our Duty to God wherefore though an Oath in respect of some use and end of it may be a Civil Act yet in respect of the reason whereby it obligeth it is an Act of Religion for this reason it is highly conducible to the end of Civil Government to maintain a sense of Religion in the minds of men and particularly it must be of great use to make them observe those Laws of God which are plainly designed to secure the reverence which is due to an Oath and to keep men at a wide distance from the danger of Perjury Such is that Law of our Saviour which I have read to you which therefore doth not tend more to the Honour of God than to the Common Good of Mankind and this no man can be ignorant of who considers what a vast influence the use of an Oath hath upon all the Affairs of Humane Life This is that whereby we come to confide in one another about things of the greatest moment to our lives this is that which is so often necessary to secure our Properties to save us from wrong and to make even our Enemy to do us right it is this which all Processes in Courts of Judicature are governed by which is supposed to all Administrations of Justice and gives an end to all Controversies about matters of Fact which will be no otherways decided it is this which must either direct or misguide the wisest Magistrates and make their Sentence it self either right or wrong and by which we are either strongly guarded against Injury or almost inevitably exposed to it of how great consequence therefore must it be to the good of all men to have the reverence of an Oath secured and to make every man tremble at the thought of Perjury since the World cannot be well-governed nor the Administrations of Justice go forward without the use of Oaths and yet we had better be without them in as many cases as there are wherein Men are not afraid to be Forsworn and yet alas it is the daily complaint of our Age that the fear of an Oath is almost banished out of the World And although it be really a thousand times more dreadful to profane the Name of God by calling him to be a witness to our Lies than it would be to play before the Mouth of a Canon while it was Firing yet if we may believe the Reports which are sometimes made from Courts of Judicature there are very few Peasants so pusillanimous but they are hardy enough to Swear to any thing and with equal confidence to contradict one another in the plainest matters and when under an equal obligation to speak the Truth by the Invocation of the dreadful Name of God Now if we would enquire how the sacredness of an Oath is grown into such contempt I do not question but the common and frequent use of Swearing in our ordinary Conversation would be found at least accessary to that dishonour which is done to God and that mischief to men by the so frequent Perjuries of our Age. Oaths are grown so familiar with us that men have forgotten the nature and true use of them and are not sensible that they call the Divine Vengeance upon themselves if their Testimonies be not exactly true they have been prostituted to the meanest Services and profan'd by common use and then no wonder if the Sacred Obligation peculiar to them be forgotten when they are used in those special cases for which they ought to be reserved therefore if we would do any thing to recover the fear of an Oath amongst our Countrey-men we must endeavour to do it by means contrary to those whereby it hath been so generally lost that is by abstaining our selves and not only so but by disswading and restraining others as much as in us lies from that familiar and fashionable Swearing which is one of the great reproaches of our Age to which end I shall endeavour to explain the meaning and reason of these words of our Saviour And in them I shall consider 1. The Law it self Swear not at all but let your communication be yea yea nay nay 2. The sanction and reason of this Law viz. 1. The Authority of our Saviour But I say unto you 2. The nature of the thing it self For whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil In the Law it self we are to consider the Prohibition and the Precept 1. The Prohibition which contains 1. A general Rule Swear not at all 2. Some particular instances whereto the Rule extends Neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by Hierusalem nor by thy head 3. The Reason why the Rule extends to these Instances not by Heaven for it is God's Throne not by the Earth for it is his Footstool not by Hierusalem for it is the City of the great King not by thy Head for thou canst not make one hair white or black Let us begin with the general Rule Swear not at all from which words the Anabaptists and Quakers have contended that an Oath or an Appeal to God that what we say is true is in no case lawful I shall here shew the contrary and prove that the meaning of the Rule is this That we are not to Swear
according to the Gospel for their common Prayers and Worship for celebrating the Holy Communion and for doing all those things in which the outward profession of true Christianity stands that they laid down their lives and have been tormented many of them not accepting deliverance and therefore our Saviour who here says Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter c. hath also said Whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the son of man also confess before the angels of God But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God Luke 12.8 9. So that although confessing Christ be not of it self enough for salvation yet it is always necessary to it and sometimes it is of that force that one may conclude nothing else is wanting and that is when we confess with great hazard to our selves in this World But one reason why 't is sometimes so exceedingly praise-worthy and signifies all other necessary qualities is because it is always a duty for if it were in it self but indifferent and might be omitted without breach of our duty to God it were a foolish thing not to omit it when our own safety and welfare in this World required us to forbear In a word Confession with the mouth assembling our selves together for Prayer Baptism and the celebration of the Holy Communion and every other part of outward Religion in which the profession of Christianity stands are all of them required in the Scriptures which we are not to wonder at since it is evident that the Honour of God that Charity to men and the Interest and maintenance of Christianity do require it also 1. The Honour of God doth plainly require it for if it be fit and necessary that God should be honoured by us i. e. confessed praised and prayed unto who doth not see that all this ought to be done not only in private singly but in publick jointly unless one should think that we have Reason and Speech given to us for transacting common Affairs of the least moment and not of the greatest viz. those which concern our dependance upon God and our subjection to him Hence it is that David in the Psalms called his Tongue his glory because he did therewith praise and confess and glorify God amongst men And in the New Testament we are not only exhorted to glorify God with our Mind but with our Mouth too Nor can any thing be more plain at first fight than that without this it is impossible that God should be honoured as it is most fit he should be in the Societies of Mankind And 2. The outward profession of Religion is no less requisite to the good of the World to which we in charity are to contribute what we can For there is nothing more necessary for the common welfare of Mankind than a sense of God and Religion which although it has its foundation in our very Natures yet as many other natural Inclinations may be strangely weakned and in danger to be lost if it be not supported by use and exercise and what is there more necessary for the maintaining of a common sense of Religion than a common profession of it And therefore in a matter of so great moment as this is every man ought to be an Example to his Neighbour and all men should encourage and animate one another Nor can any one single person withdraw from the profession of Religion but in so doing he grows an enemy to Mankind and as much as in him lies he teaches others to be so too But then 3. Above all The interest and maintenance of Christianity requires a publick profession of it For Christianity doth not only consist in the belief of such and such Doctrines but in meeting together also for the Worship of God according to them which is the most comprehensive instance of outward profession for when our Lord instituted a Church and his Apostles did afterward gather men to it nothing could be more plain than that he made a profession of his Doctrine and the outward Service of God according to his Gospel a part of Christianity for without this it is impossible that Believers should be a Body or a Society as they are And therefore that man that lives without Christian Communion or which is all one without Christian Profession cannot rightly be called a Christian but hath rather renounced his Baptism by declaring in effect that although he was admitted by Baptism into the Body of Christ's Church yet now he will have nothing to do with it But if the secret belief of the Doctrine of Christ without any appearance of Profession of it were enough to make a man a Christian as I think it is not yet such a person would deserve very ill of Christianity to conceal his belief for it is by our profession of it that it must be upheld in the World and propagated amongst those that do not yet receive it and he that dissembles his Faith doth therefore his part and gives his consent that the True Religion should fail from among the Children of men And there is no doubt but that amongst other Reasons the Gospel requires that Believers should profess their Faith and be a visible Communion of Worshippers that so the Doctrine and worship of the Gospel might be upheld and maintained in the World The truth is there is that wickedness amongst men that so holy a Doctrine as that of our Saviour's will not be readily entertained and there is that folly and superstition every-where that so reasonable and excellent a Worship as that which the Gospel prescribes is not apt to take with most people and for this reason Error and Superstition are things that men will run into of themselves When therefore our Lord brought into the World the knowledge of Divine Truth and of the way how God would be worshipped and served he did therefore make his Disciples a Society of men professing the way of Truth and Purity that his Doctrine might spread in the World and keep all the ground it should gain by every man's making profession of the common Faith For which reason Origen thought that when Our Saviour said Vpon this rock will I build my Church he meant by the rock every Christian that should do as St. Peter had done i. e. who should make open confession of that Truth which St. Peter confessed because the Profession of every Christian did something to support the Interest of the Gospel in the World A great many more things might be said to this purpose to shew that what is meant here by saying unto Christ Lord Lord i. e. an outward profession of true Christianity is so far from being an indifferent thing that it is a most necessary duty standing upon plain Commands and plain Reasons nay so necessary that without it we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven no though it should bring never so much trouble upon us in this World
indeed to convince a man of that mistake that his form of godliness will supply the want of the real power of it But alas where Truth is professed without the mixture of any Doctrinal Errors of this kind there is still too much room left for this practical Error of holding the truth in unrighteousness For whilst some men are led into sin by Error do not others who are guilty of the same sins hope that they shall be overlooked for the sake of their opposition to those Errors and the professing and maintaining the contrary Truth 'T is true that our Church according to the truth of the Scriptures and the clearest reason that there is for any thing in the world holds forth a necessity of actual reformation in order to God's Pardon and eternal Life and we disclaim all manner of ways to supply the want of effectual repentance and a thorough change of heart and life from Sin to God But my Brethren let us lay one Particular seriously to heart under this General and that is this That our very Profession of this Truth in the natural and proper sense of it That without holiness no man shall see the Lord will not serve our turn without the practice of it our profession of the necessity of an holy life is not that holy life which is necessary And if the unavoidableness of professing some Religion and the desire we have to keep our Sins too works this way upon us as to make us trust in the purity of our Profession we are guilty of one Error as pernicious if we continue in it as if a thousand more were added to it I say if we continue in it for there is this advantage of a true and pure profession of Christianity that whosoever makes it to use the words of our Saviour in a sense something different he is not far from the Kingdom of God there is less to do to recover him to repentance no false Principle being in the way to hinder it he lies open to Exhortation and Persuasion and every serious Instruction and Admonition smites his very Conscience he feels the truth that is delivered to him there is that within him which confesseth it all and will not easily let him be quiet till it hath made him a new man But to proceed 3. In some Persons a dishonourable opinion of God may be the reason of expecting his Rewards without performing the Duties of Purity and Charity I fear there are those in the world who think that God hath appointed the confession of his Name with Prayer and Thansgivings and other holy Offices of Religion that by these things men might give him the satisfaction of hearing the greatness of his Perfections and the excellency of his Works applauded by his Creatures and therefore that these things being performed they have entitled themselves to his thanks and favour But this is in truth to have but a very low and mean opinion of the Divine Majesty and seems to suppose God to be altogether such an one as our selves who perhaps are so vain as to take great delight in our own praises and love to be flattered into a great opinion of our selves If we believe worthily of the Divine Nature we must say That because God is holy and good therefore he will have men to be so and that he expects to be glorified by us to be confessed and adored not that he needeth us or is taken with our commendations of him but because it is infinitely fit and reasonable and equitable that we should thus worship him and because this is a necessary means also of forming our minds and actions into the likeness of what God is and of what he does in the World We are mistaken if we think that our Saviour is beholden to us for keeping up the profession of his Name or that some great Interest of his is served when Religion gets ground upon the World because there will be more and more to speak his Praise and to celebrate his Goodness and his Greatness as if he were like some one of those great men who if they have Flatterers enough and can make others seem to honour them though there be no such matter are very well pleased The Religion of our Saviour was not sent into the world for the ostentation of his Power and Greatness and he plainly told us that he sought not his own honour It is indeed our indispensible duty to honour him before all the World with all expressions of gratitude and humble reverence and we are most inexcusable and wretched Creatures if we do it not But the end of his Religion was to turn us from our iniquities and to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works and so far as this Design takes so far he approves of us otherwise he hath plainly told us what we are to expect from him even that Sentence Depart from me ye that work iniquity I know you not 4. The conceit and expectation of some unpromised mercy of God must necessarily be one ingredient into the presumption oâ— those men that hold the truth in unrighteousness For the Threatnings of God's Word are so undeniably plain that a man of sense who believes the truth as it is in Jesus can have no ease under a guilty Conscience but upon a supposition that God will or may at least abate something of the rigour of his threatning and accept of less perhaps a Death-bed Repentance of less I say than he hath required This seems to be at the bottom of their Confidence of whom our Lord foretold that they should say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name c. that is to say they had been instrumental to maintain and support his Doctrine in the World and expostulate now with him as if they always had some secret hope this would at last be accepted though there was no promise of it before-hand But to prevent this presumption Our Saviour hath said before-hand Then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity which plain dealing was very necessary For though it is true that he that threatens punishment doth not delight in taking punishment but intends to prevent the fault yet when God threatens for this end and adds moreover Declaration upon the Threatning That he will not spare if the fault be not prevented 't is an affront to him to presume that he will spare for all that To conclude Let us seriously lay to heart these words of our Saviour which are an answer to the most concerning Question in the World who are they that shall be saved Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of our father which is in heaven He that can say I was by my natural temper and inclination thus and thus but the Religion of Jesus and the Worship of God according to the Gospel hath given me a new heart and a new nature and
life and power of it in his heart for this reason it is that the Faith of good Christians who are not so well verst in subtle reasonings as in religious practice cannot be shaken by the objections of a Sophister because they have that inward sense of the power and excellency of Divine Truths which is above all other argument They know by experience that in the keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward and cannot therefore be entangled by any artificial objections against it but that I may not be mistaken I do not pretend that the pleasure which a man finds in believing any Doctrine is always an argument that the Doctrine is true There are some Doctrines in the World that tend to licentiousness that weaken the obligations to an holy life and therefore are sweet to the carnal man because they can put him in possession of great joy in himself before he has that good title to it which can only be founded upon repentance and holiness therefore it is neither false nor allowable always to argue from the experience a man hath of the sweetness and pleasure of his perswasions to the truth of them as many misguided Souls have done but for all that it is most certain that Religion consisting in the belief of truth and the practice of goodness a man shall understand the power of the one and the excellency of the other by experience better than he can by meer speculation for the nature of things that are to be done is never so fully understood as by doing them and the force of Truth is never so thoroughly felt as when it makes the Will and Affections as well as the Understanding submit to it now the best way to avoid arguing to our selves fallaciously from our own experience and being imposed upon by the joy and pleasure which those perswasions yield that tend to carnal security the best way I say to avoid this is to follow our Saviour's rule by laying the foundation even of experimental knowledge in doing the will of God and applying our selves with all sincerity to the keeping of his Commandments because then we shall never argue from experience but in favour of the truth i. e. of true Virtue and Holiness and of those Principles which lead to the practice of it And most certainly there is that comfort and satisfaction in believing Divine Truth there are those Joys in living according to it which can never be thoroughly understood but by the practice of Religion and Virtue which no man can have a just conception of till he hath tasted and seen how gracious God is Solomon says That the ways of wisdom are pleasantness and all her paths are peace but then we shall never thoroughly understand this till we walk in them in the keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward but how shall we find this reward but in keeping of them It may be described to us by others but as imperfectly as the Pencil doth Life and Motion the best descriptions will fall short of the subject and if we be alienated from the life of God we cannot fully conceive it Nay most commonly the delights of the righteous are things flat and insipid and the representation of them is nauseous and irksom to the carnal worldling and he is hardly in a better condition to understand it than one that is born Blind can apprehend that saying of Solomon Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun The sum of all is this That if sincerity towards God in doing his will is a great advantage towards the obtaining of that knowledge which is possible to the wicked man the knowledge of speculation if also that knowledge is gained by it which the insincere have nothing at all of if the righteous do not only better apprehend the weight of arguments but understand more by having their senses exercised to discern between good and evil then have we great reason to follow our Saviour's method If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Only let us remember that this knowledge is not to be gained this blessing is not to be procured to our selves either by my discourse or by your hearing what hath been said concerning our Saviour's words no nor by granting the truth and reasonableness of what hath been offered in illustration of them but only by putting our selves seriously upon the trial of this way by doing the will of God for what hath been said of Divine Truths in the general holds good of this in particular That the excellency of our Lord's method for the gaining of good knowledge in the things of God cannot be thoroughly judged till we have applied our selves to the use of it and I doubt not but those that have made trial do acknowledge the truth of what hath been said FINIS