as good as they bring Mens Tongues are the most ready Instruments of their malice by which they who are otherwise never so weak and impotent and like a Serpent crawling upon their bellies as malice often does yet can dart out their stings even bitter words and with their forked and poisoned Tongues spit abundance of their venom at others which is in themselves and so plentifully disgorge that filthy and corrupted matter of their own exulcerated minds They consider not that for all these evil and idle words for it was chiefly of those words of Calumny and Slander our Saviour spoke they must give account in the day of Judgment Mat. 12.36 and that they are as answerable for such words tho they pass away as the wind as they say as for the more lasting actions For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned v. 37. A Man may be damn'd as well for injurious words as injurious actions and they may often do as much mischief not only to the person himself whose credit may probably be as dear to him as life and as great an injustice to take it away And it may do a much greater mischief to Religion and hinder all the good or a great part of it which a Man might be otherwise capable of doing And all this they are answerable for who are the causes of it and not the Innocent Person who is thus used When the Jews slandered our Saviour as a wine bibber and a drunkard as a friend of publicans and sinners as a deceiver and impostor and so kept others from hearing his Sermons and receiving his Doctrine they were answerable not only for themselves but for the Souls of others who thus perished by their means and our Saviour was no way blamable for not doing that good which others hindred and which he tho' unsuccessfully yet heartily endeavour'd 5. We are overcome by evil when we are brought by it to neglect any necessary duty or to do any unfit and unlawfull act that otherwise we should not have done as they who will neglect Prayer or coming to Church or attending upon God's word because they are offended with some of their Brethren who come there or with their Minister upon which they will fall out it seems with God himself too they who will give nothing in Charity because they who collect or distribute it agree not with them in all things and so they will revenge the supposed injury of another upon those poor wretches who never cou'd be supposed to do or think them any at allâ— they who will show spite to the publick and oppose the Government because some are in it they do not like or care for and so their hatred to them shall make them do all the mischief they can to the whole and they will Sacrifice the Peace of the Kingdom to the private piques and animosities with some particular Men. If the little injuries of others drive us to this we are sadly overcome by them they overcome those greater indispensible obligations we stand in which nothing can or ought to rescind and they make us do that which otherwise the sense of our duty and conviction of our mind wou'd perswade us not to do if we were not thus blinded with passion and hurried with rage and anger and had our understanding darkned and clouded with those storms of passion and resentment which arise in us The best way to allay those is to check them at first and put out the first sparks of the glowing flame and not suffer it to kindle to any height in our breasts but to quench and stifle it immediately with wise thoughts and steady resolutions and with a designed neglect and passing by of the supposed injury if we would lessen that or wholly take it away and destroy it if we would overcome the evil of it the best way is by doing good for evil by returning Offices of kindness for those of ill will of Love for those of Hatred Friendship and Civility for Rudeness and Unmannerliness Blessing for Cursing speaking well of others for their speaking evil of us and not rendring railing for railing nor injury for injury but overcoming evil with good How excellent a Virtue this is what advantages and benefits belong to it I come now to show nay how necessary a Christian duty it is without the performance of which in such measures as are required of us we forfeit Salvation and Pardon of our sins at the hands of God For no particular Vertue is made so much and so expresly the condition of our Pardon in the Holy Scripture as this but how hard is it to perswade our selves or others to it for want of getting a power over the first risings of passion and being able to check the Brutish inclinations that belong to us with thought and reason and for want of considering the excellency and perfection nay the ease and pleasure of it and the many obligations we have to perform it As First It must be owned that the quiet of our lives and the peace of our minds very much depend upon it for it cannot but be supposed that we shall sometimes meet with very ill usage and treatment from other people the best of men have not been free from it tho' they no way deserved it as our Saviour one of whose sufferings it is accounted that he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself Hebrews 12.3 and the Apostles who often complain of unreasonable and perverse and wicked Men 2 Thess 3.2 and the greatest examples of Virtue before and since them such as Socrates Cato Seneca and the like have had the same measure and it 's often the Lot and Portion of the best of Men and that which has made them so as much as any thing and God has suffered it for a Tryal and increase of their Virtue Now if a Man must be always uneasie and unhappy and have a great disturbance and disquiet in his mind when he meets with this it will not be in the power of God and Religion nor of Vertue and a good Conscience to make a man happy as it certainly is and to give him ease and satisfaction in himself however others shall use and wrong him if every rude and ill natur'd Person whose Tongues are their own and who will use them as they please without any regard to Truth Manners or Religion shall task away a Mans peace and quiet or their unjust and undeserved usage shall make a breach upon the steadiness and firmness of a Man's mind and he shall be disturbed and unhappy because others are uncivil humoursome and ignorant there will be no such thing as inward peace and quiet nor will our Saviour's words signifie any thing My peace I leave with you John 14.27 In patience possess ye your Souls Luke 21.19 Blessed are ye when men shall speak evil of you and hate and reproach you Luke 6.22 But a Man must
cou'd not be so well known and discovered by the dim-light of nature nor were so fully promulged by the Law of Moses as they are now by the Gospel or the Christian Revelation One of the highest and noblest Virtues of Christianity is that advice precept or duty given here in my Text Be not overcome Concerning which tho' there be no such thing hardly to be found in the Law of Moses and the quite contrary to be often met with in the best Heathen Moralists who reckon'd Revenging an Injury as a part of Justice and among the number of their Vertues yet it 's certain if we consider of it it is very reasonable and has a natural and intrinsick Goodness in it and tends very much to the peace of our minds and the comfort of our lives among the many Evils Injuries and ill usages from others we may probably meet with in this World the best shelter and security against which and the best and most perfect Vertue a Christian ought to learn is that of the Text which tho' it be so much against the practice and therefore seems to be against the nature of mankind yet it is not but is a most excellent duty in it self and what we are always indispensibly bound to both as wise Men and good Christians Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good from whence I shall first show you what it is to be overcome of evil Secondly the good and excellency of not being overcome of evil but overcoming evil with good First what it is to be overcome of evil i. e. the evil that is done to us by others not that is done by our selves for that overcomes us whenever we fall into it but we may suffer a great deal of evil or injuries from others without being overcome by it for it may be said to overcome us only by these several ways 1. When it so takes away the peace of a Man's mind as to make him sink under it now no evil ought to do this but the evil of sin and guilt and the sad Consequences of those which are the wrath of God and Eternal Damnation these are so dreadfull that nothing can bear or stand up against them and therefore they are not to be born but to be avoided and wrought to take care to escape them by Repentance and a good Life for there is no mastering and overcoming them they are so great and intolerable that humane nature cannot grapple with them or endure them with any degree of courage or patience But now all the evils of this World may be bravely withstood or overcome and we can rally up power and resolution sufficient to contend with them and hold out pretty tolerably against them so as to preserve an inward ease and comsort peace and tranquility of mind under all or any of them and that strength and vigour and firmness and constancy of a Man's mind may not be broke or dissolved by them and this is true Courage and Bravery and Greatness of mind which was most eminently in the first Martyrs and Christians under all their sufferings wherein they were more than Conquerors thro' Christ who strengthened them Rom. 8.37 And many others have bore Sicknesses and Adversity Reproach and Calumny and other misfortunes of this World with great evenness and Equanimity and cheerfullness of mind and have not been sunk or depressed by them they have not lain down under the burden but tho' it has been heavy and hard and they have felt it so and not been without the sense of it yet they have born up under it and with putting forth their strength and patience made it less than it otherwise would have been or if they had faln down under it Ill usage and Injustice from others are not the least of evils nor the easiest to be born but when we consider they are no more in our power to prevent than Diseases or any other Accidents that may befall us the peace of our mind shou'd not be much affected with them since that ought always to depend upon what is in our own power and upon our own voluntary choice and actions or else we can never have any security of it but it will be at the mercy wholly of every chance or accident without us And secondly the way not to be overcome by them is not to dwell too much upon them in our thoughts not to chew or ruminate upon them nor keep them in our thoughts too morosely for that is to roll the bitterness of them as it were up and down in our mouths and to taste them over again whereas to spit them out to pass them by to neglect them and not think of them is the speediest way to have done with them if they lie heating and boyling upon our stomachs and the Cholerick and Revengefull humour be fermented and put in agitation by them it will greatly trouble and annoy us but when we check and suppress it at first we are at ease presently and have none of those tumultuous and disorderly disturbances that are in the breasts of Revengefull and Malitious Men that can never forget or pass by an injury but let it like a thorn in the flesh alway pain them and go in further and deeper and cause an Ulcer that shall throb and burn within and be very troublesome whereas all might have been cured by plucking it out presently and throwing it away and not letting it stick long or enter deep into our thoughts 3. Not to have any thoughts of Revenging it is the best way to overcome it for this lessens the trouble of it and puts a quick and speedy end to it whereas the other puts a Man upon a thousand uneasie thoughts and contrivances sets his head upon working like the Devil how to do mischief and like him is all the while tormented with his own mischievous designs whether they succeed or not and is always restless and uneasie least they should sail and he should be disappointed and if he is not yet he procures no manner of good to himself but only mischief to another which is all the Diabolical pleasure of the most successfull Revenge and he is certainly overcome by an injury who is thus provoked to return and retaliate it and will give himself a vast deal of trouble for no manner of good but meerly to do ill to another much good may do these Men with the sweets of their Revenge as they call it the Devils themselves may be pleased and delighted in the midst of Hell if there be great and true pleasure in this 4. We are overcome by evil when we are brought to commit the same evil and do the same thing to others which they did to us when we are brought to render railing for railing cursing for cursing evil speaking for evil speaking and the like i. e. when others treat us in this rude manner and we return them the same again and give them as we say
good for sinners as to send his own Son Christ into the World to die for us even when we were Enemies to him and to God that made us We then that had perished for ever had it not been for this Vertue how should we love and value it and endeavour to imitate it and deal with our Brethren as God dealt with us What an example of this our Savlour has left appears by his whole life which was a perpetual suffering of injuries and doing of good and especially at his death when he pray'd for his Enemies and being reviled he reviled not again but as a sheep led to the slaughter he was dumb and opened not his mouth unless to pray for those who barbarously used and murdered him and in this he left us an example that we should follow his steps But Fifthly and Lastly This is not a mere Christian perfection and a Noble Heroical degree of Virtue which it's matter of advice to attain but it 's a necessary Christian duty without which we shall not go to Heaven nor be capable of Pardon and Salvation at the hands of God If we revenge the injuries that are done to us God will not forgive us the sins we commit against him he has expresly told us so Matth. 6.15 Mark 11.26 Luke 6.37 and that with the same measure we mete to others it shall be measured to us again even by God in another World who will show himself mercifull to those that are mercifull and froward to those who are froward and to those who are revengefull and inexorable to their Brethren he will be so too when they stand in more need of mercy and forgiveness than any of their Brethren can at any time do of them What are the degrees and measures of exercising this Virtue I cannot now exactly show you but in general to forgive an injury and not return it by another to overcome it not with evil but with good is so much a duty to every Christian that he shall not come to Heaven who does not in some measure perform it and who notoriously and plainly acts contrary to it Let us therefore for the present Peace of our Lives for the quiet of our Minds and for the everlasting Peace and Happiness of our Souls endeavour to learn this Virtue and not be overcome of evil but overcome evil with good The Ninth Sermon LUKE XVI 31. And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead AMongst all the many Arguments that there are for Religion and to perswade men to a good life there are none so strong and so forcible if well consider'd as those which are drawn from another World and from a future state of rewards and punishments There are indeed a great many that lie near and arise from several other considerations from the tendency of Religion to make us happy in this World from the miserable effects that most Vices have upon Men's Fortunes and Enjoyments from the natural and intrinsick Goodness and Amiableness that is in Virtue and Religion whereby it recommends it self to our minds and the abominable filthiness and ugliness that is in Vice and it's contrariety to right reason as well as our true interest by these and many other considerations Religion is strengthened on every side and planted round with such Arguments as are enough to defend it from most of the assaults that Vice and Wickedness can make upon it But its strongest Hold its main Fort wherein lies its greatest and impregnable strength is the thoughts of another World of a Heaven and a Hell hereafter this will hold out if all the other should fail and if Vice should be never so Fortunate and Happy as it sometimes is in this World if Wickedness should have as many Prizes as Virtue in this Lottery of things that is here below yet there it would be sure to be the loser and could have no pretences to vye and contend with Religion there the account between 'em appears manifestly and notoriously different without adjusting it by particulars and making such abatements as we must often in this World This is a plain and obvious an universal and undoubted and one would think an irresistible Argument for Religion that depends not upon long reasonings and many observations as some others do but may be easily understood and will strongly work upon all mankind and therefore the Scripture does chiefly make use of it and every where presses and suggests it to us as the strongest sanction of the Divine Law and that which is the likeliest to prevail upon us when 't is fully believed and considered The Rich Man here in the Parable thought there was so much strength in it now that he selt it that he question'd not but it would prevail even upon his wicked Brethren if it were offered with all its advantage to 'em if one went from the dead and told 'em what he suffered and what they would certainly do if they took not care in time not to come into that place of torment and therefore he seems to have picht upon the likeliest way for this when he requested Abraham that a Messenger might be sent from the dead to 'em if that might be granted by the Laws and Polity of the other World there was no doubt sure but it would attain the effect and bring 'em to Repentance such a Message as he would send 'em such an account of things in the other World as he would give them should surely work strangely upon 'em and make 'em amend their lives This he made no question of for had it been his own case were he to have lived again after he knew so much as he did now he would have been quite another man and so should his Brethren one would think by such a way as this was but Abraham tells him the quite contrary If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rise from the dead This seems very strange and will do much more so when we consider particularly what Arguments a Messenger from the dead would bring along with him to perswade a man to Repentarce such as it is impossible sure not to be overcome by them such as if they will not do nothing else will I shall offer some of them to you and then endeavour to give you an account of what Abraham here says If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead And First let us consider what strong and powerfull Arguments a Messenger from the dead would bring along with him to perswade a wicked man to Repentance and in the 1. First place he would satisfie him of the truth and certainty of such a place that there is really a future state that there is not an end of us when we go off from this Worldly Stage and Theatre but that there is
superstition the design of those is to supersede honest Vertue and inward Goodness and by some other ways to think to purchase the Divine Favour and the Happiness of Heaven 'T is very hard and difficult to men to be inwardly good and exactly vertuous to drive out every known sin and live in the practice of every duty which is the plain and the honest path-way to Heaven and therefore superstition would find out other by-roads and easier passages and would have Religion lie in more easie and outward performances and would relieve it self against that strait and narrow way which the Gospel directs us to and would have it suffice to be sent to Heaven by an Absolution or an Indulgence Thus by a Pass as it were by the Priest or Pope to the other World by making a short Confession and being a little contrite and absolved and anointed on the Death-Bed the work is quickly done and as well he thinks as if the Man had lived a Saint or died a Martyr or if he had been so Religious in his life time as to tell over his Beads every day and carry a Crucifix always about him and perform the Pennance of his Confessor and gone a few Pilgrimages to a few Saints then he has done such works as are very meritorious tho' his Saviour never Commanded one of them and he must be thought to be very Religious tho' 't is such a Religion as the Gospel is a perfect stranger to But Superstition is for placing Religion in some other things than the Gospel does in some inventions of its own in some little and easie and trifling performances in some of the externals and shadows of Religion in a strict observance of some lesser duties and a zealous concern for inconsiderable matters in being over forward for the little adjuncts and appendages of Religion but very negligent of that which is the true life and substance of it and in vainly believing to please God by some other things than by a righteous and good mind and the practice of universal Holiness Thus did the Jews think that often washing their Hands would make their Souls clean that to observe the lesser duties of the Law and the Rites and Traditions of their Elders was the way to render them extraordinary Holy and Religious though they foully neglected the weightier duties of Judgment Mercy and Truth Superstition will often overdo in some parts of Religion and therefore puts on the face of greater sanctity and is a kind of excess in Religion but 't is at the bottom a great defect a want of true and inward goodness and it would supply that defect by other shows and appearances and a mighty zeal in little things it would compound as it were with Heaven and commute its sorry and worthless performances for actions of true and substantial goodness It always lays too much value upon the little things of Religion and does but little esteem and not heartily love Morality and inward Goodness and therefore the truest principle to free us from all superstitious follies and mistakes in Religion is this That nothing will please God but being truly and inwardly good that nothing will commend us to his favour but a Vertuous Mind and a Holy Life and the sincere practice of all the moral substantial duties of Religion and that without those all other little things in Religion will be vain and idle and insignificant which is the truest principle in the World and the best preservative against Superstition The Eleventh Sermon ACTS XXVI 8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead THe Resurrection of the dead is an Article of our Faith of that weight and importance that as it confirms and strengthens all natural Religion for if Mens bodies rise most undoubtedly there is a future State so it is the very Basis and Foundation of Christianity without which our Faith in Christ is as the Apostle says vain and ungrounded It seems not so necessary indeed for the truth of Religion in general to believe the Resurrection of the flesh or body since the Soul without that may be capable of Happiness or Misery in another state and the belief of this alone may be sufficient to the designs of Vertue and Religion But Christianity lays a very great stress upon it makes the Resurrection of the body as necessary and fundamental an Article upon some accounts as the immortality of the soul and this because of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour which as 't is the great demonstration of the truth of our Religion so it is an Argument of the Resurrection of all other Humane Bodies for if he be risen again with the same Body with which he lived and with that is gone into the Heavens it 's fit we should follow him thither with our bodies too with our whole Humane Nature which he was pleased not only to assume upon Earth but to carry up to be an Inhabitant of the mansions above if he our head be raised we his Members must be raised with him he the first fruits from the dead has by his Resurrection Consecrated our Bodies to Life and Immortality It would be very strange if he should carry his Humane Body into Heaven were there no others of the same nature to follow him so that as the Apostle argues 1 Cor. 15.13 If there be no Resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen It does therefore highly concern us to maintain and defend this main post and strongest hold of our Religion by which our Christianity must either stand or fall and that the more because Infidelity and Irreligion is most apt to be making its attempts and assaults upon it in this place the weakest as is supposed which belongs to it and to represent this article above all others as an impossible and incredible thing There were found not only among the Athenians some of the Sect of Epicurus probably who when they heard of the Resurrection mocked at it Acts 17.32 and Pliny I remember reckons it among one of the things that exceed the power of God revocare defunctos but even amongst the Jews there were some known to St. Paul who thought it a thing unreasonable and unfit to be believed to whom he directs himself in this his defence of Christianity the Sadduces were a numerous and prevailing Sect among them who say there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23.8 There are too many of their mind in our days who cannot believe or conceive any spiritual or immaterial substances and who cannot think that a body after it has been dead and lain rotting so many hundred or thousand years and been dispersed into ten thousand atoms and scattered into as many different places and had a thousand other bodies made out of it that this should be brought together again and rise the same body it was before Against these modern Sadduces and Unbelievers these pretenders to Reason