fortuitous circumstances who in all things keeps an exact conscience and in all times places and conditions acts by the same unalterable rule of righteousness and steadily pursues what is good and honest whatever he may lose or suffer by it Would you know saith Seneca whom I call a good and perfect man I mean such an one quem malum facere nulla vis nulla necessitas potest Whom no outward force no exigence or turn of affairs neither prospect of advantage nor fear of inconvenience can ever prevail with to doe an evil or base action who can never be swayed by any particular sinister interest to doe that which his own mind inwardly disapproves and condemns A truly honest man considers not what will take best or please most whether it will prove for his credit or profit whether he shall gain or lose friends by it whether it will hinder or further his advancement in the world but in all cases inviolably keeps to what is fit just and reasonable and behaves himself as becomes a good honest man being wholly unconcerned for the success and event of what his conscience tells him he ought to doe he is resolved to please God and to doe his duty and to maintain the peace of his own mind let the world go as it will But on the other side the crafty wise politicians of this world live by no certain law profess believe practise this Religion or that or none at all as may best suit with the present state of things and juncture of affairs or with those particular private designs which they carry on in the world and in all their actions are governed by the giddy and uncertain measures of interest and worldly policy and though sometimes if it happens to be for their interest so to doe they may seem to speak and act as fairly as any men whatever yet to serve a turn to promote their temporal safety and advantage or some other bye and selfish design they shall not refuse to commit the basest and foulest crimes Now that which I would persuade you to from these words is this that in all your actions you would govern your selves by the fixt and immutable principles of conscience and honesty and always stedfastly adhere to your plain duty though never so highly tempted to swerve from it Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live I shall handle these words I. More particularly as they relate to Job by whom they were spoken II. More generally as they may be applied to men in all states and conditions I. As to the particular instance of Job we all know he is propounded to us in holy Scripture as the most eminent example of an invincible resolution and unshaken constancy in maintaining his innocence and integrity in two very different fortunes the one highly prosperous and flourishing the other no less strangely adverse and calamitous both which one after another by God's wise providence did befall him for the more illustrious trial and manifestation of his sincere and disinterested loyalty to God and Religion and it is no easie matter to determine in which of these two states he met with the greater temptations whether he found it the more difficult task to keep a good conscience in that splendid and plentifull condition he was once in or to hold fast his righteousness in that deplorable poverty and want of all things which he was at last reduced unto For without doubt riches and honours and high places and an uninterrupted prosperity are as great snares and as dangerous temptations and often prove as fatal nay I may say are generally more apt to draw men aside from the love of goodness and the care of their souls than the severest afflictions or the most surprizing calamities and outward crosses So that Job perhaps was as much to be admired and as hard to be imitated in his vertue and piety when he was the greatest man in the East as in his submission meekness and patience when he became the miserablest spectacle that eyes ever beheld 1. Job in his most prosperous state held fast his righteousness and would not let it go Though he enjoyed all the pleasures riches and worldly satisfactions that the most ambitious or covetous mind could crave yet he was so strictly religious and temperate that when he was deprived and stripp'd of all and left as bare and as naked as he was when he first came into the world his mind could not reproach nor condemn him for any unworthy or unhandsome carriage for any one notorious failure in his duty that should provoke God to deal so harshly with him His three Friends indeed unadvisedly fell into that fault which is so common amongst us even to this day of judging and censuring men by their outward conditions and by what befalls them in this life they could not imagine that such unheard-of calamities could betide an innocent person when therefore they saw so great a Lord and Prince in so forlorn a plight him whom but a little before all men called blessed and accounted the darling and favourite of Heaven sitting among the ashes and scraping his painfull boils with a piece of a broken pot they presently began to suspect his piety and integrity and to call upon him to confess those grievous sins which had plucked down such terrible vengeance upon his head fondly presuming that he must needs be a greater sinner than others because he was more miserable and unfortunate Which uncharitable censure forced from this excellent person those rhetorical and pathetical vindications of himself and all his actions in the days of his prosperity which you may find scattered up and down in this Book especially in the 31st Chapter Though his Friends were so unkind as to reproach and condemn him as guilty of some notorious crimes whereby he had justly deserved all those evils which God had been pleased to lay upon him yet his own conscience a more impartial judge acquitted him and spoke peace to him He was not afraid or ashamed to have all his life past impartially and thoroughly examined and whatever he had done exposed to publick view and to the knowledge of all the world Nay he durst appeal to God himself the searcher of hearts and call the righteous and impartial judge of the earth to bear witness to his uprightness and sincerity He challenged even his very enemies those who had the least kindness for him to draw up a bill against him and to try if they could find any thing whereof to accuse him He was so just so humble so moderate so charitable when he was in power and prosperity that none either envied his greatness or rejoyced at his fall With such prudence and sobriety with such integrity and temper did he manage a great and magnificent fortune that in the lowest ebb of
assistence and charity of others how irksome and uneasie will it be to us to remember how little our bowels were moved at the misfortunes of our poor neighbours and what little compassion we shewed to the miserable and necessitous and how loth we were in our flourishing condition to doe any one a good turn if it put us but to the least expence or trouble However great and prosperous your present condition may be yet often consider it may shortly be otherwise with you daily interpose the thoughts of a change should I lose this honour esteem authority and dignity I am now possessed of how many untoward scars and blemishes will stick upon me should I be reduced to a mean low estate shall I not then blush to be put in mind of that pride vain-glory haughtiness oppression and domineering I was guilty of when I was in place and power and will not the forced remembrance of such our base and unworthy behaviour be more grievous and afflictive to us than any outward loss or pain our consciences which now we stifle and smother will at such a time be even with us and our own wickedness shall reprove us and our iniquity shall correct us as the Prophet expresseth it Learn therefore so to demean your selves in prosperity as that your hearts may acquit you and have nothing to chide and rebuke you for when you come into adversity and so to husband and improve those present advantages and opportunities you have in your hands that when they are withdrawn from you you may be able with great comfort and satisfaction to reflect upon the good you have done with them the sense of which will mightily blunt the edge and mitigate the sharpness of those evils that do at any time befall you this was Job's great comfort and support under all his dismal sufferings when he was fallen from the highest pinacle of wealth and honour almost as low as hell that he had held fast his integrity and that his mind could not reproach him 2. We should never either to prevent or to redeem our selves from any outward evil or calamity doe any thing which our own minds and consciences do disapprove and condemn Though Job had lost all other things that men usually call good yet his righteousness he held fast and would not let it go and indeed the peace of our own minds is more to be valued than any temporal blessing whatever and there is no pain or loss so intolerable as that inward fear regret and shame which sin and guilt create so that whatever external advantage we acquire in the world by wounding our consciences we are certainly great losers by it no real good can ever be obtained by doing ill a guilty conscience being the sorest evil that a man can possibly be afflicted with Herein especially do inward troubles exceed all outward afflictions whatever that can happen to our bodies or estates namely that under all temporal calamities how desperate and remediless soever they be yet we have something to buoy up and support our spirits to keep us in heart and ennable us to bear them the joys of a good conscience the sense or hopes of God's love and favour the inward satisfaction of our own minds and thoughts these things will wonderfully carry us through all those difficulties and adversities which we shall meet with in the world and are able to uphold and chear our hearts under the greatest pressures and hardships but when a man's mind it self is disturbed and disquieted where shall he seek for where can he find any ease or remedy This seems to be the meaning of the Wise-man in the 18th of the Proverbs the 14th Verse the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear It is a saying much like that of our Saviours if the salt hath lost its favour wherewith shall it be salted if that by which we season all other things it self want it by what shall it be seasoned so here the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity i. e. a mind and spirit that is at peace within it self that is conscious of its own innocence and integrity will enable a man to bear with great patience and contentment those chastisements which God may see good to exercise him with in this life but a wounded spirit who can bear i. e. if that spirit or mind which should help us to bear all those evils that betide us be it self wounded and disquieted what is there then left in a man to sustain it when our onely remedy is become our disease when that which alone can support us in all our troubles and distresses is become it self our greatest torment how shall we be able to bear it What dangers soever therefore we are exposed unto let us be sure to preserve a good conscience nay let us rather suffer the greatest evils than doe the least If we always continue faithfull and constant to the dictates of reason and religion our minds will be in peace and the conscience of our having pleased God and done our duty and secured our greatest interest will hugely ease and alleviate our afflictions and sustain us under the most pressing evils we can suffer in this life whereas on the other side the greatest confluence of the good things of this world will not be able to free us from the disturbance and anxiety of an evil conscience or to quiet and settle our minds when harassed and tortured with the sense of guilt And this shall lead me to the second thing I propounded which was II. To consider these words more generally as they may be applied to men in all states and conditions and then they propound to us this rule which we should always live by namely that we should upon no consideration whatever doe any thing that our minds or consciences reprove us for And this is the just character of an honest man and of one fit to be trusted that he will never either out of fear or favour consent to doe any thing that his mind tells him is unfit unworthy or unbecoming or that he cannot answer or justify to himself but in all cases will doe what is right and honest however it may be thought of and relished by other men and resolutely adhere to his plain duty though perhaps it may hinder his preferment and advancement his trade and gain and expose him to many inconveniences in this world I wish you would all with Job in my Text take up this brave resolution My righteousness I will hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live For your encouragement I shall onely crave leave to represent unto you these two things 1. That this is the plainest easiest and most certain rule that we can propound to our selves 2. That it is the wisest and safest rule the best policy all things considered 1. That this is the plainest easiest and
SERMONS Preached upon Several Occasions Never before Printed BY BENJAMIN CALAMY D. D. Late Vicar of St. Lawrence Jewry and one of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for Henry Dickenson and Richard Green Booksellers in Cambridge and are to be sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner 1687. To his Worthy Friends The INHABITANTS Of the PARISHES OF St. LAWRENCE JEWRY AND St. MARY MAGD MILK-STREET Gentlemen I Here present you with some Sermons of my dear Brother deceased your late if I may be allowed to say it worthy and faithfull Pastour in transcribing them for the Press I have not presumed to make any alteration or to correct so much as the plain errata's of the original Copy except onely some few and those such as any Reader almost would have observed and may well be supposed to have been occasioned onely through his haste in writing and if after all there happen to be any such still remaining in the print I hope you will blame neither him nor me since I pretend not to publish any discourses designed or fitted by him for the Press but onely those very Sermons which you your selves heard just as I found them in his notes If it be asked why these rather than others I answer these were the Sermons which I found had been preached by him in the most publick places to which however because they would not alone have made a just volume I thought it necessary to add two or three more and I doubt not but you will find them all plain and usefull and every way fitted to doe good And if it be asked why no more I think it will be time enough to answer that question when I shall have seen what acceptance these now published meet with in the world It was some time before I could persuade my self to comply with your desire in publishing these Sermons because I have sometimes heard my Brother express an unwillingness that any thing of his should be printed after his death but when I had once resolved to print them it took me no time to consider it was not left to my choice to whom I should present them seeing you had an undoubted title to them and all the world would have blamed me if I had not taken this occasion of acknowledging with all thankfulness your extraordinary respect to his person whilst alive and to his memory after his decease one particular instance of which I must by no means omit I mean your generous Present to his Widow a kindness which as I am confident he never expected even from you from whom he might have expected any thing that was kind so I dare say if he could have foreseen it would have pleased him more than any nay than all the other kindnesses he ever received from you In the words therefore of Naomi concerning Boaz Blessed be ye of the Lord who have not left off your kindness to the living and to the dead I am Gentlemen Your most obliged Servant James Calamy The CONTENTS SERM. I. Act. X. 38. Who went about doing good Page 1. SERM. II. 1 Cor. XI 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's Body p. 37. SERM. III. Prov. I. 10. If sinners entice thee consent thou not p. 67. SERM. IV. Rom. XII 16. Be not wise in your own conceits p. 101. SERM. V. S. Matth. XV. 19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts p. 135. SERM. VI. 1 Cor. XIII 4 5 6 7. Charity suffereth long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things p. 177. SERM. VII Numb XXIII 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his p. 219. SERM. VIII S. Matth. V. 34. But I say unto you swear not at all p. 255. SERM. IX S. Matth. I. 21. And thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins p. 291. SERM. X. S. Mark VI. 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent p. 323. SERM. XI 1 Cor. XV. 35. But some man will say how are the dead raised up And with what body do they come p. 365. SERM. XII Job XXVII 5 6. God forbid that I should justifie you till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live p. 423. SERM. XIII 2 Tim. I. 10. And hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel p. 459. IMPRIMATUR Nov. 29. 1686. Ex Aedibus Lamb-hithanis Jo. Battely Rmo P rl ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. antuariensi a Sacris domesticis A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The First Sermon ACTS X. 38. Who went about doing good WHICH words give us a short account of our blessed Saviour's life here on earth it was spent in doing good They also teach us after what manner we his disciples ought to live in this World namely that we should omit no fair opportunity of doing good according to our several abilities and capacities I shall speak to them I. As referring to our Lord and Saviviour and describing his manner of life to us II. I shall consider them as prescribing to us our duty in imitation of his most glorious example who went about doing good I. As referring to our Lord and Saviour and describing his manner of life to us Now these words he went about doing good especially signifie these three things 1. That this was the chief business and employment of his life to doe good 2. That where he did not readily find he went about to seek objects of pity and compassion 3. This he constantly persevered in notwithstanding the foul ingratitude and malicious opposition his good works met with in the World 1. This was the chief business and employment of his life to doe good To propound to you the several instances of it were to give you an history and account of his whole life the four Gospels being nothing else but the authentick records of those good works Jesus of Nazareth did containing his excellent instructions his free reproofs the wise methods he used for the bettering and reforming men's minds together with those various kindnesses he shewed to their bodies and outward estates with a generosity and charity not to be parallell'd by any thing but the divine goodness it self I shall not therefore descend to particulars but onely take notice 1. That doing good was his ordinary daily employment 2. That to the same end tended all his extraordinary miraculous works and 3. That this was also the sum and substance of his Religion From all which it will easily appear that he made doing
beg your patience whilst I put you in mind of some of those arguments and considerations which seem most proper and effectual to engage men to the imitation of this blessed example to doe all the good they can in the World 1. This of all other employments is most agreeable to our natures By doing good we gratify and comply with the best and noblest of our natural inclinations and appetites The very same sense which informs us of our own wants and doth powerfully move and instigate us to provide for their relief doth also resent the distresses of another and vehemently provoke and urge us to yield him all necessary succour This is true in all men but most apparent in the best natures that at beholding the miseries and calamities of other men they find such yernings of their bowels and such sensible commotions and passions raised in their own breasts as they can by no means satisfy but by reaching forth their helping-hand and to deny our assistance according as our ability permits us is a violence to our very natural instincts and propensions as well as contrary to our religious obligations Our very flesh which in many other instances tempts us to sin yet in this case prompts us to our duty This is a gratious provision God Almighty hath made in favour of the necessitous and calamitous that since his providence for great reasons is pleased to permit such inequalities in mens fortunes and outward conditions the state of some in this life being so extremely wretched and deplorable if compared with others lest the sick and blind and naked and poor should seem to be forgotten or wholly disregarded by their Maker he hath therefore implanted in men a quick and tender sense of pity and compassion which should always solicit and plead their cause stand their friend and not onely dispose us but e'en force us for our own quiet and satisfaction though with some inconvenience to our selves to relieve and succour the afflicted and miserable according to our several capacities and opportunities And this sympathy doth as truly belong to humane nature as love desire hope fear or any other affection of our minds and it is as easie a matter to devest our selves of any other passion as of this of pity and he who like the Priest and Levite in our Saviour's Parable of the wounded man is void of all compassion is degenerated not so much into the likeness of a brute beast as of the hardest rock or marble Thus to doe good is according to the very make and frame of our beings and natures 2. Hence it follows that it must be the most pleasant and delightfull employment we can choose for our selves Whatever is according to our nature must for that reason be pleasant for all actual pleasure consists in the gratification and satisfaction of our natural inclinations and appetites Since therefore the very constitution and temper of our nature sway and prompt us to the exercise of charity and beneficence the satisfying such inclinations by doing good must be as truly gratefull to us as any other thing or action whatever that ministreth to our pleasure and it cannot be more delightfull to receive kindnesses than it is to bestow them A seasonable unexpected relief doth not affect him that stands in great need of it with more sensible contentment than the opportunity of doing it doth rejoice a good man's heart Nay it may be doubted on which hand lies the greatest obligation whether he who receives is more obliged to the giver for the good turn he hath done him or the giver be more obliged to the receiver for the occasion of exercising his goodness When we receive great kindnesses it puts us to the blush we are ashamed to be so highly obliged but the joy of doing them is pure and unmixed and this our Saviour hath told us Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give than to receive and some good men have ventured to call it the greatest sensuality a piece of Epicurism and have magnified the exceeding indulgence of God who hath annexed future rewards to that which is so amply its own recompence These two advantages this pleasure of doing good hath above all other pleasures whatever 1. That this satisfaction doth not onely just accompany the act of doing good but it is permanent and lasting endures as long as our lives The very remembrance of such charitable deeds by which we have been really helpfull and serviceable to others our after-reflexion upon the good we have done in the world doth wonderfully refresh our souls with a mighty joy and peace quite contrary to all other worldly and corporeal pleasures There are indeed some vices which promise a great deal of pleasure in the commission of them but then at best it is but short-lived and transient a sudden flash presently extinguisht It perishes in the very enjoyment like the crackling of thorns under a pot as the Wise-man elegantly expresses it it presently expires in a short blaze and noise but hath very little heat or warmth in it All outward bodily pleasures are of a very fugitive volatile nature there 's no fixing them and if we endeavour to make up this defect by a frequent repetition and constant succession of them they then soon become nauseous men are cloyed and tired with them Nor is this yet all these sensual pleasures do not onely suddenly pass away but also leave a sting behind them they wound our consciences the thoughts of them are uneasie to us guilt and a bitter repentance are the attendants of such indulging our selves sadness and melancholy comes in the place of all such exorbitant mirth and jollity These are the constant abatements of all outward unlawfull pleasures Whereas that which springs from a mind satisfied and well pleased with its own actions doth for ever affect our hearts with a delicious relish continually ministers comfort and delight to us is a never-failing fountain of joy such as is solid and substantial fills our minds with good hopes and chearfull thoughts and is the onely certain ground of true peace and contentment 2. This pleasure and joy that attends doing good doth herein exceed all fleshly delights that it is then at the highest when we stand in most need of it In a time of affliction old age or at the approach of death the remembrance of our good deeds will strangely cheer and support our spirits under all the calamities and troubles we may meet with in this state By doing good we lay up a treasure of comfort a stock of joy against an evil day which no outward thing can rob us of But now it is not thus with bodily pleasures they cannot help us in a time of need they then become miserably flat and insipid the sinner cannot any longer taste or relish them nothing remains but a guilty sense which in such time of distress is more fierce and raging especially at the hour of death Yet even
being the best expression of our duty towards God and either formally containing or naturally producing all our duty towards our neighbour whence this is said to be the fulfilling of the whole law It is not enough that we give to every man what is due to him His Religion is but very little and of a narrow compass who is onely just nay he that is rigidly so in all cases hath no Religion at all that I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day for it is not for rapine or injury for pillaging or cousening their neighbours that men at the last day are formally impeached and finally condemned but I was an hungry and ye gave me no meat I was a stranger and ye took me not in you neglected to doe that good which you had power and opportunity to doe Some men are so taken up with their courses of piety and devotion that they have no time to doe much good if they be but temperate and just and come frequently to Church and constantly perform the duties of God's worship this they hope will carry them to Heaven though they are notoriously covetous and uncharitable and hardly ever doe any good office for their neighbours or brethren Some again there are who pretend to be of a more spiritual and refined Religion spend their time in contemplation and talk much of communion with God but look upon this way of serving God by doing good as a lower attainment an inferior dispensation suitable to children and novices in Religion and think that they are excused from these mean duties and yet reade over the life of the best man that ever lived the founder of our Faith and Religion and you cannot but confess what I have already shewn you that the great thing he was most exemplary and illustrious for was his unwearied readiness to help and oblige all men he went about doing good and it is a scandal raised on our Church that we do not hold the necessity of good works in order to salvation but trust wholly to faith for we hold and teach them to be as necessary as Papists themselves can or doe but then we say they are accepted by God onely for the sake of Jesus Christ 6. And Lastly Nothing hath greater rewards annexed to it than doing good and that both in this life and that which is to come I have time now but just to mention to you some few of those benefits and advantages that do either naturally flow from it or by God's gratious promise are annexed to it To doe good with what we enjoy is the most certain way to procure God's blessing upon all we have it doth entitle us to his more especial care and protection Trust in the Lord saith David and be doing good so shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed The divine goodness cannot but be mightily pleased to see men so far as they are able imitating it self and following the example of God's benignity For every good office we doe to other men we have some thing to plead with God Almighty to engage him to bestow upon us what we want or desire not by way of merit or desert but God himself graciously becoming our debtour takes what is done to others in such cases as done to himself and by promise obliges himself to full retaliation By this means we provide against an evil day that which will mightily support us under all the troubles and afflictions that may happen to us in this life our good works will attend us and stand by us at the hour of death as I have already hinted to you nay farther our good works will appear and plead for us before God's tribunal and will procure for us for the sake of Jesus Christ at the hands of our mercifull God a glorious recompense at the resurrection of the just for at the last and final reckoning when all mens actions shall be scanned and judged the great King shall pass his sentence according to the good men have done or neglected to doe in this life Nay every way so great is the reward of doing good that even wicked men who yet have been of bountifull tempers and have had generous spirits shall fare the better in the other world for those good acts of mercy and charity they have done here and in this sense it is said with which I end all that Charity doth cover a multitude of sins and to cover sins in the Scripture phrase is to forgive them Now of this saying there are several senses given which I cannot stand now to recite but the words are true in these two senses 1. If he that is thus truly charitable and hath done a great deal of good in his generation be also endued with the other vertues and qualifications required in a Christian then though he may have a great many infirmities and miscarriages to answer for yet these failings shall be overlooked and buried in his good deeds and then they mean the same with that of the Psalmist with the mercifull God will shew himself mercifull he will shew him all favour possible 2. Or else secondly if you understand these words Charity shall cover a multitude of sins as spoken of a person who though vitious in all other respects yet out of principles of common humanity or natural goodness of temper or greatness of Spirit is very apt and inclined to doe generous and great things for the good of the world which is a case that may sometimes happen they mean this that though Charity alone will not be sufficient to make such an one happy in the other world because he is otherwise incapable of it yet it shall be considered so far as to lessen his punishment He shall be in a less intolerable condition though that be sad enough than the cruel and uncharitable or than they who have delighted in doing mischief A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Second Sermon 1 COR. XI 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's Body THE Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which we are now to receive is undoubtedly the most solemn and venerable part of Christian worship a most excellent instrument of Religion an institution of our Saviour's of mighty use and advantage to us if we duly partake thereof and yet there is hardly any part of Religion so little or so ill understood by the generality of Christians amongst us as this duty which sufficiently appears from that great number of those who constantly join with the Church in all other publick offices of divine worship and yet wholly neglect the receiving of this Sacrament or at least communicate so seldom as if they looked upon themselves at liberty to doe it or not doe it as they thought best I speak not now of the prophane contemners of God and Religion who despise this as they do all the other duties
hath forbidden us How strange is this for men out of a dread of damnation to neglect their duty and yet at the same time not to be afraid to live carnal and sensual lives Never therefore let any amongst you so long as you continue in your sins plead that you are afraid you should offend your Saviour if unworthily you eat his body and drink his bloud and therefore dare not communicate for your daily practice confutes this pretence whilst you notoriously break his Laws and violate his Authority and scandalize his Religion You pretend fear of damnation no such matter this is not the true reason of your abstaining from this Sacrament You are rather afraid the Sacrament will engage you to leave those sins you have no mind as yet to part with that it will put you upon the practice of those duties which are inconsistent with your profit pleasure or secular interest You are not afraid of displeasing God but of being too strictly tied and bound to please him You are afraid lest that solemnity should raise some scruples in your minds which you have no leisure to consider of You would not be troubled with such a serious business you suspect you shall not be able to sin so securely and quietly after it as now you do Let not such therefore as neglect this duty invent any such pitifull excuses but confess plainly that they love sin and the world too much that they prize them above the benefits purchased by Jesus Christ that they resolve to go on in their wickedness for some longer time and that therefore they do not come to this Sacrament They are loth to engage themselves so solemnly to doe that which they find in themselves no heart or will to perform This indeed is the secret thought of many men though indeed it is a very foolish one for they are very much mistaken who think themselves at greater liberty to doe evil whilst they abstain from this Sacrament for Christians are engaged by receiving this Sacrament to no other obedience than they were before by their Baptism it doth not so much oblige us to new duties as enable us to make good those obligations which our profession of Christianity hath already laid upon us 5. And Lastly If the receiving of this Sacrament were an indifferent rite or ceremony that might be done or omitted at pleasure then indeed the great danger there is in receiving it unworthily might in a great measure justify our omission of it But what if the danger be as great and the hazard equal of not receiving it at all as of receiving it unworthily where then is our prudence or safety when to avoid one danger we run into another every whit as great when for fear of displeasing God we disobey a plain command and for fear of damnation commit a damnable sin for I can call it no less to live in the neglect and contempt of this holy institution It is not very easie to determine which is the greatest affront to God or doth most highly provoke him never to perform our duty or to perform it after a wrong manner never to pray at all or to be present at prayers but not to mind or regard what we are about never to receive this Sacrament or to receive it often but make no difference between what we and drink there and what eat we do at our own houses But however he that receives this Sacrament although it be after an undue manner seems to me to shew somewhat more respect to God and his commands than he who wholly neglects it And besides there is hardly any wicked man that dares come to the Sacrament without some good thoughts and resolutions or who is not for a little time before and after the receiving of it more carefull of himself and his actions and though this doth not last long but he soon returns to his former wickedness yet however this is something better than continuing in sin and wickedness without any intermission or cessation Moreover such an one uses the best means of becoming better which by God's grace at some time may prove effectual whereas he that casts off all these duties is in a more desperate and irreclaimable state In short were there neither sin nor danger in omitting this Sacrament and yet so great hazard in the receiving it unworthily prudence and interest might engage us to chuse the safest side and not to meddle with it at all but if we expose our selves as certainly to God's anger and displeasure by wholly neglecting this duty as by performing it unduly then these words of the Apostle can be no pretence or excuse for our abstaining from this Communion For would not this be an odd way of arguing because intemperate eating and drinking is very prejudicial to our health and often breeds mortal diseases therefore 't is better never to eat or drink at all would it not be madness lest we should kill our selves by a surfeit to resolve to starve our selves by obstinate fasting And this shall bring me to the fourth and last thing I propounded to discourse of which was IV. To shew what is the onely true and just consequence which can be drawn from what is here affirmed by the Apostle He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself which is this that forasmuch as our Saviour hath plainly commanded all his Followers and Disciples to doe this in remembrance of him and yet on the other side there is so great danger in doing it unworthily that we should neither omit the duty for that would be a plain transgression of our Saviour's command nor yet be careless in the performance of it And this is the inference which the Apostle himself makes not that the Corinthians whom he blames so much for their unworthy receiving this Sacrament should therefore forbear coming to it any more at all but for the future they should examine themselves and partake of it with greater reverence and devotion than they had used to do Let the danger of receiving unworthily be never so great the consideration of this ought onely to make us so much the more carefull to receive it after a right and acceptable manner and to put us upon greater watchfulness over our selves when we meddle with such sacred things This is the use we ought to make of these words of the Apostle not rashly or precipitantly without due preparation or consideration to rush upon this holy Sacrament but seriously to mind the end and design of it and so duely to affect our spirits with the things represented to us by it that they may make lively and lasting impressions upon us and we may bring forth the fruit of all in a holy and unblamable conversation in the world To end all I would not have any thing I have now said upon this subject to you so interpreted or understood as in the least to take away from the reverence you have of
should all this that I have now rehearsed and whatever else can be added to it which a wicked man may doe upon his death-bed should it all amount to repentance yet where in the mean time is obedience to all the laws of the Gospel As for those indeed who in the sincerity of their heart have done God's will their repentance shall be accepted for what they have fallen short in or those few things they have miscarried and transgressed in and which the best of us all have need to lament over but I cannot think that a short repentance at last was ever intended to answer for an universal disobedience and a whole life of wickedness for repentance from dead works and resolutions of a godly life are required as a preparative for Christianity and are therefore accounted necessary in adult persons even before their Baptism but then by our Christian profession which we take upon us in Baptism we are obliged to more viz. to a new life and all manner of purity and righteousness and therefore to hope to be happy in another world without living well here is against our own very bargain and that agreement and covenant which we made with God in our baptism wherein we expresly promised to walk in God's holy Commandments all our days and therefore this keeping God's commands must be as necessary for the obtaining the reward as sorrow for or forsaking of our sins This I shall illustrate briefly thus The ways of vertue and righteousness and of sin and wickedness are not like two roads that lie nigh or parallel one to the other so that with ease and in a little time a man may step out of one into the other but they are perfectly opposite and directly contrary to each other Suppose that a man for a great reward be obliged in one day between Sun-rising and Sun-setting to travel so many miles Northward and moreover by a solemn oath as all Christians are to the practice of Christianity engaged to the performance of it but that the man freely presuming he hath time enough to doe this in doth not set out at the first rising of the Sun but loiters and trifles away all his time nay not onely so but that for his pleasure or some little convenience he travels the quite contrary way and goes Southward and finding that road very smooth broad and full of company and diversion is by any little temptations drill'd on still farther in it wholly forgetting his bargain till on a sudden the Sun is just ready to set night comes on a-pace and then the wretch begins to consider how much he is out of his way and finds himself weary and tired and unfit for travel and curseth his own folly and promiseth if he were to begin again he would go directly to the place commanded but by that time he hath thus resolved the Sun is set shall this man now obtain the promised reward Alas before he can challenge that he must first return back all the way he hath gone even to the point from whence he first set out and also after that will have his whole days journey still to go and all that task to doe which he at first engaged himself to perform so a wicked man upon his death-bed is not onely to unravel all his former works to break off all his lewd customs to mortify all his foolish passions and unruly lusts to forsake all his deadly sins and to repent of his past ill-spent life but he is then to live a new life he is then to accustome himself to the practice of goodness and to make it habitual to him his mind is then to be furnished with all Christian vertues and graces he hath his whole race still to run and his salvation still to work out and is the least part of this possible to be done on a languishing bed of sickness Had we made Religion the business of our whole lives and in every thing exercised our selves to keep a conscience unblameable yet at such a time when we come to die we should find work and duty enough to employ us to the utmost To manage our selves well and decently and as becomes Christians in such a condition patiently to bear our affliction chearfully to submit to God's will to beg pardon of our manifold failings and miscarriages readily to leave this world and all that is dear to us in it at his call these and many other are the exercises of a Christian on the bed of sickness And how few are there in those agonies that are able to bear up with any tolerable manhood or courage and therefore we do not ordinarily account him a wise man that will leave so much as his worldly affairs then to be setled How then besides taking care of all these things at a time when our very natural powers and faculties are disabled when our bodies are full of pain and our minds full of distractions and perplexities shall we be able also to doe all that work for which our whole life is little enough and for which alone we were born into this world and this the Devil subtilly foresees that if he can but prevail with men to put off the care of Religion till a sick bed he shall find othergess employment for them then He will not fail to be present at such an opportunity and as before in their life-time he told them it was too soon so now he will himself suggest to them that it is too late to repent and turn to God Ye therefore that are apt to defer your repentance till a death-bed condescend sometimes to visit your sick neighbours and friends look on their condition when they lie on their dying bed and by it judge whether that be a fit time to doe so great a work in see how troubled and disturbed their thoughts are how uneasie and distempered their minds are as well as their bodies how fast their reason and understanding decays how their memories are lost and their senses fail them and they cannot in the least help themselves Is this a time say then to prepare for eternity to vanquish all sin and to obtain all grace is this the fittest opportunity we can chuse to make our peace with God in to sue out our pardon and to perform all those duties of piety mercy justice and charity that we were before wanting in or rather are not they then happy who at such a time have nothing else to doe but to die would you but take the opinion of those who are themselves in this condition and be moved by their judgments they will all give their suffrages for what I have been now proving Do not they when surprized by death offer all their goods and substance that they have so long and vainly laboured and toiled for for some longer time for a little truce and respite what are they not willing to give on condition that God would spare them yet a little while before
they go hence and be no more seen Did you ever hear of any dying penitent that did not a thousand times wish he had begun sooner and how earnestly do such warn every one by their example to take heed of trusting to a death-bed repentance If therefore he that hath served the lusts of the flesh and done his own will during a long malitious life can for any thing a dying person can doe be in any sense said to have lived soberly righteously and godly then may he be sure of salvation if we walk according to this rule then shall peace be upon us but how can a man sow to the flesh and reap to the spirit serve the Devil all his life long and be crowned by God at his death but III. The last thing to be considered was what hopes or encouragement God hath given us to believe that he will remit or abate of those conditions of a good life which are propounded to us in the Gospel And indeed there is very little to be found either of promise or example in Scripture to be a sufficient ground of belief that he will ordinarily accept of a death-bed repentance for are not the conditions of salvation the same to persons sick and dying as they are to men alive and in health Are they not both under the same covenant and is not the same actual obedience required of all under equal penalties or can we think that any man shall fare better and come off upon easier terms or that God will deal more mildly and gently with him and accept of less from him onely because he hath been so hardy and bold as to continue in sin and to put off his duty towards God even to the very last minute of his life But however there are two instances commonly mentioned in favour of a death-bed repentance The first is that of the labourers in our Saviour's Parable that came into the vineyard at the eleventh hour and yet received equal wages with those that came in at the first and had born the heat of the day But it is here to be observed 1. That these labourers who came in so late yet came in as soon as ever they were called and invited for they gave this reason why they had stood so long there idle because no man hath hired us Had they been often solicited by the Master or his Servants and offered work and all the day refused and onely then at last just in the close of the evening been willing to have taken upon themselves the service when it was over this had been something like the case I have been now speaking of of Christians all their lives long rejecting Christ's yoke but just when they are summoned to give an account willing to submit their necks to it But this Parable rather represents the case of an Heathen man that never heard of Christ or his Religion till a little before his death whose coming into the Church so late shall not therefore hinder his receiving a full reward But this is by no means the condition of those who have made a covenant with Christ in baptism and after they have most notoriously failed of what they promised do then onely return to their service when the night is come in which no man can work He that came in at the eleventh hour was under no engagement to work any sooner he had no-where promised it nor had the Master commanded it and therefore he was without fault 2. He that came in at the eleventh hour did yet work one hour that was indeed but a short time yet however sufficient to render his case very different from that man's who comes in but at the twelfth which is the case of the death-bed penitent The other instance often named in favour of a death-bed repentance is that of one of the Thieves on the Cross a passage in the Gospel remembred better and studied more by wicked men than any other story whatever though the whole of it was so very miraculous and extraordinary that the like never can be expected again unless our blessed Lord should once more descend from Heaven and suffer here amongst us and one of us should happen to die in company with him and then indeed from such a wonderfull repentance and faith as his was we might hope for the like success and acceptance But this example affords but little comfort to those who have for many years professed the Religion of Jesus and yet deferred the practice of it till the day of their death But you 'll say then is there no hopes is there no remedy what must a wicked man doe in such a condition when he happens to be thus surprised by death I am far from taking upon me to limit and confine the mercies of God Almighty they are over all his works and are as infinite as himself such persons therefore as have spent their days in luxury and profaneness and contempt of all religion but at last humbly beg pardon and heartily promise and resolve amendment we must leave to his goodness and pity and gratious compassion who though he ties us up to rules yet is not himself bound by them and who may doe more for us than he hath any where promised and therefore persons in such circumstances ought to be encouraged and quiosâ—â—ed to doe all that they can and at last to submit themselves to God's good pleasure and all that we can tell such men is that the greater and more remarkable their repentance is the more hopes of their forgiveness that sometimes there have appeared now and then some illustrious instances of the power of God's grace and spirit men who have been as famous for their signal repentance as they were before for their profaneness and debauchery and that where God gives such extraordinary grace in this life it is to be hoped he will shew extraordinary favour in the other so that if such men may be saved it is nevertheless by way of prerogative not by the ordinary rule of judgment it is we know not how But yet lest men should from hence presume to defer their repentance thus much must I think and ought to be said on the other side that God hath no where expresly declared that he will accept of all our sorrows and submissions and tears and promises and resolutions made on a death-bed that all these do not amount to what is the plain condition of the covenant of grace that though what God may doe is not for us to define yet he hath plainly enough told us what we are to doe and that it is the greatest madness in the world to run so great an hazard as that we cannot be saved without a dispensation from the ordinary rule had a wise man an hundred souls he would not venture one of them on such uncertainties and thus the ancient fathers have determined this question Do I say saith St. Augustine such an one shall be damned
cometh of evil i. e. whatsoever is more than bare affirming or denying any thing that is still in our communication in our ordinary talk and discourse is from evil from mens so commonly breaking of promises and speaking of falsities from whence that lewd custome of adding oaths proceeds because they cannot be believed without them Now therefore since our Saviour is here directing us how to govern our common discourse and conversation together the prohibition also in the beginning must be restrained to the same matter and so the full sense of the words seems to me to be this In your communication familiari sermone in your common talk use no swearing not so much as by any creature but let it suffice barely to affirm or deny and be always so true to your words that nothing farther need be desired or expected from you all other confirmation in such ordinary affairs is practised onely by such as are used to lie and dissemble and intend to impose upon others 3. That our Saviour did not here forbid all swearing whatever cause there might be for it as a thing in it self unlawfull we are fully satisfied from the example of St. Paul who certainly understood his Master's mind in this particular Now it is a very unreasonable thing to imagine that he should so often swear and that by the name of God too that such his oaths should be recorded in the Scriptures and that there should not be the least intimation of his sinning in so doing if all swearing was utterly prohibited by his Lord and Master I shall propound two or three eminent instances to shew that in serious and great matters of mighty concernment he made no scruple of adding the confirmation of an oath Gal. 1.20 Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not He bears witness to the truth of his writings by an express oath Rom. 1.9 For God is my witness whom I serve that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers It was of great moment that in the beginning of his Epistle he should persuade those to whom he did address himself of his good-will toward them How well therefore he did wish them he calls God to witness which is the formal essence of an oath Thus again to name no more 2 Cor. 11.31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not which is a plain appeal to God's testimony So that when the glory of God and the publick good was engaged he thought it not unlawfull to invoke God's holy name and to call his Majesty for a witness of his truth or the avenger of his falshood Thus our blessed Saviour himself when he stood before the High-priest of the Jews did not refuse to answer upon oath Matth. 26.63 The High-priest said unto him I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God which amongst the Jews was the form of giving an oath to which our Saviour answered Thou hast said that is upon my oath it is as thou sayst Nay to make all sure that there is no evil in swearing when it is done gravely and seriously and upon an important occasion that requires it we find that God himself hath been pleased to give us his oath Though it were impossible for him to lye yet that we might have strong consolation and full assurance to shew the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel he confirmed it by an oath and when he could not swear by a greater he swore by himself Heb. 6.13 And therefore it must be very absurd to deny amongst Christians the lawfulness of doing that though upon never so great reason which St. Paul so often did nay which God Almighty who is truth it self did yet vouchsafe out of condescension to our weakness to doe more than once Not now to mention Baptism and the Lord's Supper both of which have in them the nature of oaths and are therefore called Sacraments 4. We are to consider that swearing rightly circumstanced is so far from being a thing in it self evil and so universally forbidden that it is indeed a most eminent part of religious worship and divine adoration by which we do most signally own and recognize God Almighty to be the great Sovereign Lord and Governour of the world the highest and supremest Power to which the last and final appeal is in all cases to be made By it we acknowledge the immensity of his presence his exact knowledge and continual care of humane affairs and all things that happen here below his all-seeing eye that he searcheth into the depth of our hearts and is conscious to our most inward thoughts and secret meanings We do by it avow him as the grand Patron of truth and innocence as the severe punisher and avenger of deceit and perfidiousness And therefore doth God often in holy Scripture appropriate this to himself Him onely shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave and shalt swear by his name And if this be done with that consideration and solemnity which doth become such a special part of devotion upon an occasion that doth deserve and that will in some measure excuse our engaging the divine Majesty as a witness in it I say if it be performed with due awe and reverence with hearty intention for a considerable good we do thus calling upon God when we swear by him honour and glorify his great and holy name as well as by prayer or praises or any other act of religious worship whatever 5. Add to this the necessity of taking oaths in order to civil government publick administration of justice and the maintaining of good order and peace in Societies And therefore the Apostle tells us Heb. 6.16 That an oath for confirmation to men is the end of all strife and that not by particular customs and laws prevailing in some places onely but from the appointment of God the reasonableness and fitness of the thing it self and the constant practice of all the world in all ages for as far and wide as the sense of a Deity hath spread it self hath also the religion of an oath and the final determination of matters in difference by calling to witness the Lord and Maker of all things this being the utmost assurance and the surest pledge any can give of their faith and sincerity For nothing can be imagined sufficient or effectual to engage men to speak truth or to be faithfull and constant to their promises if an oath doth not He must surely renounce all sense and fear of God all conscience of duty or regard to the Almighty's love and favour who can with open face call him to testify to a lye or challenge him to punish him if he speaks not true when yet at that very time he knows he does not This is the greatest security men can give of their honesty and
save to the utmost all that come unto God by him Thus this Jesus hath saved us from our sins in the first sense that is obtained and purchased the pardon of them and made God placable to us But this is not all 2. In order to the salvation of sinners it is farther necessary that men should be freed from the power of sin and from their evil natures and become really good and holy It is not enough that God should be made willing to forgive our sins unless we also are made willing to forsake them Christ came not to save us from the evil consequences of our sins whilst we loved them and delighted our selves in them He did not purchase for us an indulgence or licence to sin without punishment That indeed had been an employment unworthy of the Son of God nay an impossible task to have reconciled God to unhallow'd and impure minds The reformation of the world the reparation of our natures the purifying our minds the implanting the divine nature in men were as much the design of his incarnation as the vindication of the divine justice to which all the world was obnoxious and pardon me if I say it he is more our Saviour by freeing us from the dominion of sin than from the penalty Our blessed Lord had not been so kind and gratious to us had he obtained Heaven for us could such a thing possibly have been whilst we continued impenitent and utterly unlike to God Now there are these two things absolutely necessary for the recovery of mankind and making us really happy repentance for sins past and sincere obedience for the future and to effect both these no means so likely as this appearance of the Son of God in our nature 1. As for repentance for sins past what in the world can be imagined more effectual for the working in men an ingenuous shame and sorrow for what they have done amiss than these tender offers of God's pardon and acceptance upon our submission and returning to a better mind We have now all possible assurance given us that mercy is to be had for the most grievous offenders Nothing can exclude or exempt us from this act of grace but onely our own wilfull and obstinate refusal of life and happiness All men are in the condition of the prodigal Son in the Parable of our Saviour Luke 15. They have gone astray from their Father's house after their own inventions promising themselves indeed great pleasures and full satisfactions in a licentious riotous course of life but soon wearied with such painfull drudgeries and many woefull disappointments at last they begin to recollect themselves to remember that plenty they had enjoy'd of all good things in their Father's house how easily and happily they lived whilst they continued under his mild and gratious government and to think of returning thither again but the sense of their horrid guilt and unworthiness flying in their faces fills them with dismal fears and anxious despair so that they cannot hope for any kind reception or entertainment after such an ungratefull rebellion Now let us suppose this Parable thus continued that the Father who was so highly provoked had nevertheless sent his other Son who had never offended him into a far Countrey exposed to many difficulties and hazards to seek and find out his lost Brother to beseech him to be reconciled to promise him that he should be dealt with as if he had never displeased him Would not such condescension and unparallel'd goodness have melted and dissolved the poor Prodigal 's heart what joy would soon have o'erspread his face with what gladness would he have hearken'd to such an overture what haste would he have made home Could he after this have doubted of his Father's love and kindness to him This therefore is the greatest encouragement that can be given to our repentance that God hath now by his Son declared himself exorable and placable more willing to forgive than we can be to ask it of him and can we desire pardon and peace upon more equal and easie terms Can any thing be conceived more reasonable than that before our sins be forgiven we should humbly acknowledge our faults and with full purpose of heart resolve to doe so no more and if such love and kindness of Heaven towards us will not beget some relenting and remorse in us if such powerfull arguments will not prevail with us to grow wise and considerate it is impossible that any should 2. As for sincere obedience for the future without which we can never be accepted by God nor be made happy this also our Saviour hath most sufficiently engaged us to by his doctrine clearly revealing God's mind and will to us setting before us his own most excellent example promising us all needfull help and assistence and propounding eternal rewards and punishments as the motives of our obedience 1. He hath clearly revealed to us God's nature and his whole mind and will concerning our salvation He came into the world a Preacher of righteousness plainly to instruct mankind in all their duty towards God themselves and one another He freed men from the intolerable yoke of many burthensome and costly ceremonies and brought in a rational service an everlasting righteousness consisting in purity humility and charity all his commands being such as are most becoming God to require and most reasonable for us to perform They are most agreeable to our best understandings perfective of our natures fitted to our necessities and capacities the best provision that can be made for the peace of our minds quiet of our lives and mutual happiness even in this world they are easie and benign humane and mercifull institutions and all his laws such as we should chuse to govern our selves by were we but true to our selves and faithfull to our own interest He hath not denied us the use or enjoyment of any thing but what is really evil and hurtfull to us he hath considered our infirmities and manifold temptations maketh allowances for our wandrings and daily failings and accepteth of sincerity instead of absolute perfection so that the advantages and excellency of his laws are as great an argument to oblige us to the observance of them as the divine authority by which they were enacted 2. Our Saviour propounded himself an example of all that he required of us the better to direct us in our duty and to encourage us to the performance of it since nothing is expected from us but what the Son of God himself was pleased to submit unto He conversed therefore publickly in the world in most instances that occur in humane life giving us a pattern of an innocent and usefull conversation thereby to recommend his Religion to us and to oblige us to tread in his steps and to follow him as the leader and great Captain of our salvation 3. He hath promised and doth continually afford the mighty assistences of his holy Spirit to all
this he will take as a better expression of our gratitude than if we spent never so many days in verbal praises and acknowledgments of his love and bounty Let us all open our hearts and breasts to receive and entertain this great friend of mankind this glorious lover of our souls and suffer him to take full possession of them and there to place his throne and to reign within us without any rival or competitour and let us humbly beg of him that he would be pleased to finish that work in us which he came into the world about that by his bloud he would cleanse and wash us from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit that he would save us from our sins here and then we need not fear his saving us from everlasting destruction hereafter Which God of his infinite mercy grant to us all for the alone sake of our blessed Lord and Redeemer to whom with the Father c. A SERMON Preached on ASH-WEDNESDAY The Tenth Sermon St. MARK VI. 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent THOUGH repentance be a duty never out of season nay is indeed the work and business of our whole lives all of us being obliged every day to amend yet there are some particular times wherein we are more especially called upon to review our actions to humble our souls in God's presence to bewail our manifold transgressions and to devote our selves afresh to his service such are times of affliction either personal or publick when extraordinary judgments are abroad in the earth or are impendent over us or when we our selves are visited with any sickness or grievous calamity so also before we receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper we are then more strictly to examine our selves and renew our vows and resolutions of living better And to name no more the Church in all ages hath thought fit to set a-part some solemn times to call upon men more earnestly to repent and to seek God's face before it be too late such were the fasting-days before the feast of the resurrection or Easter and accordingly our Church as you have heard in the exhortation this day read to you doth at this time especially move us to earnest and true repentance that we should return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart bewailing and lamenting our sinfull lives acknowledging and confessing our offences and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of penance And such as now seriously set themselves to repent of all the sins they have committed using such abstinence as is necessary for the subduing the flesh to the spirit do certainly keep Lent far better than they who for so long time onely scrupulously abstain from all flesh and call filling themselves with the choicest fish sweet-meats and wine fasting I shall at this time suppose you sufficiently instructed in the nature of repentance it being one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ as the Apostle to the Hebrews calls it Heb. 6.1 and also that you will readily acknowledge the indispensible necessity of it in order to the obtaining the pardon of your sins and eternal life and that which I now design is onely to set before you some if not the main hindrances and impediments that keep men from repentance and to endeavour to remove them and I shall discourse in order of these three of the many that might be mentioned I. Want of consideration II. The unsuccesfulness of some former attempts when men have resolved and begun to reform but have soon found all their good purposes and endeavours blasted and defeated this discourageth them from making any farther trials III. The hopes of long life and some better opportunity of repenting hereafter One of these is commonly the ground and cause of those mens remaining in an impenitent state who yet are convinced of the absolute necessity of repentance in order to their peace and happiness I. Want of consideration For could men but once be persuaded seriously and in good earnest as becometh reasonable creatures to consider their ways and actions patiently to attend to the dictates of their own minds and soberly to weigh the reasons and consequences of things their is no doubt to be made but Religion would every day gain more proselytes vertue and righteousness would prosper and flourish more in the world and men would soon become ashamed and afraid of nothing so much as vice and wickedness Of such infinite moment are the matters of Religion so mighty and strong are the arguments which it propounds to us so clear and convincing are the evidences it gives us of its truth and certainty so agreeable to our minds are all its principles so amiable and excellent its precepts so pleasant and advantageous is the practice of them that there seemeth nothing farther required to make all men in love with it but onely that they would open their eyes to behold its beauty that they would not stop their ears against all its most alluring charms Let men but once throughly ponder the folly and mischief of sin with the benefits and rewards of piety and an holy life let them but compare their several interests together and look sometimes beyond things present unto that state wherein they are to live for ever and use their understandings about these matters as they do about other affairs and it is impossible they should enjoy any tolerable peace or ease without a carefull and strict provision for another world Vice oweth its quiet possession of mens minds onely to their stupidity and inadvertency to their carelesness and inconsideration it reigns undisturbedly onely in ignorant secure unthinking spirits but streight loseth all its force and power when once men begin to look about them and bethink themselves what they are doing and whither they are going Could we but once gain thus much of wicked men to make a stand and pause a little and to cease but a while from the violent pursuit of their pleasures and fairly reflect upon their lives and see what is the fruit of all their past follies and consider the end and issue of these things could we I say but obtain thus much we might spare most of our pains spent in persuading them to repent their own thoughts would never suffer them to be in quiet till they had done it Let us but once begin to deliberate and examine and we are sure on which side the advantage will lie sin and wickedness can never stand a trial let our own reasons be but judges it hates nothing so much as to be brought to the light A vitious man however he may brave it in the world yet can never justify or approve himself to his own free thoughts and however he may plead for sin before others yet he can never answer the objections his own conscience would bring against it would he but once dare impartially to consider them But the misery of wicked men is that they
most certain rule that we can propound to our selves Let times be never so difficult or dangerous and affairs never so intricate and involved yet an honest man is hardly ever at a loss what to doe The integrity of the upright shall guide him and the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way The path of justice and honesty is streight right on neither to the right hand nor to the left there are no labyrinths or winding Meanders in it so that there is no great wit or cunning required to find it out To any one whose mind is free from prejudice and evil affections who is not governed by blind passion or interest or any bye corrupt designs the way he should walk in is plain and obvious like the high-way So it is called by the Prophet Isaiah An high-way shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness and wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein As for those indeed that will not keep the direct road but thinking to pass some nearer way travel in untrodden paths through desart woods or solitary fields over hedge and ditch as we say it is no wonder if they are sometimes out of their way and go backward and forward and are often at a stand not knowing how to guide their steps and what path to chuse till at last they are utterly lost and bewildred and such are all the wise men of this world who make haste to be rich and are resolved by right or wrong to be great and powerfull and mind nothing but their own interest and worldly advantage who forsake the plain and beaten â—enin of vertue and piety and betake themselves to the crooked ways of unrighteousness they are infinitely various and uncertain sometimes they go streight forward and then quite back again sometimes they are of one party sometimes of another to day of this Religion to morrow of that reeling to and fro like a drunken man so that whatever they profess themselves to be this week yet neither themselves nor any one else can guess what mind they will be of the next seeing their opinions and judgments and practices depend upon such causes as are as variable as the wind or weather they are always ready to turn as the tide and stream does and are resolved to please those that are uppermost like the Roman that told Augustus Caesar in his Civil-wars when asked by him what side he would take that he would be praeda victoris of that party which prevailed But alas what an absurd and unequal life do such men lead How do their minds their words their actions clash and interfere one with the other How often are they forced to contradict themselves and to call themselves fools or knaves for doing those things which afterwards when another interest is to be served they are fain to disown nay to doe the quite contrary Into what mazes and perplexities doth this wandring fickle and desultory temper betray men what pitifull shifts are they put to to patch up such disagreeing practices and to reconcile such different designs since they are forced servilely to comply with so many several humours to act so many different parts and so often to follow other counsels and take new measures with what great artifice and subtilty must they continually manage themselves with what wariness must they direct their feet lest by any misadventure they should expose their own mean and sordid designs Now such persons as are thus fickle and inconstant to themselves and are guided by no fixt and steady principles but onely by their own present interest which depends upon the uncertain state of worldly affairs and a thousand other little contingencies must needs be often at a loss which way to steer themselves and can never be certain they are in the right They are always to seek and are utterly unresolved what to say or doe till they can smell out how matters are likely to go and see the final event and issue of things such men are like the Samaritanes who as Josephus tells us when the Jews were in any affliction or danger disclaimed all acquaintance with them and relation to them and knew them not but at another time when the Jews prospered and were great and potent then they boasted of their alliance and would needs be near a-kin to them of the race of Ephraim and Manasses the Sons of Joseph But on the other side he that aims at nothing more than to please God and his own conscience and to doe the duty of the place he is in fairly and justly in all times knows what to doe and is still the same man and meddles not with those that are given to change his own honesty is his tutour and directour his counsellour and guide He knows that the nature of goodness and vertue is always the same and cannot be altered by any change of the times or state of affairs and therefore under all external changes and occurrences whatever he keeps the same smooth and even course of righteousness peaceableness sobriety loyalty and charity whether the world smiles or frowns upon him he still holds to his principles does the same things and goes on in the same road and nothing neither honour nor dishonour neither good report nor evil report can divert him from it 2. This is not onely the plainest but the wisest and safest rule the best policy all things considered For if we resolutely maintain our innocence and integrity 1. We shall ordinarily escape best in this life but however 2. We shall be sure to come off well at last and to be plentifully rewarded for our faithfulness and uprightness in the other world 1. We shall ordinarily escape best in this life There is nothing that doth more contribute to our safety and security even in the worst and most dangerous times than a firm and constant adherence to our duty For 1. By this we engage God Almighty to be our friend and do most effectually recommend our selves to his care and good providence so long as we commit our ways unto God in well-doing and no hazards or dangers on the one side nor any worldly advantages or conveniences on the other can prevail with us in any one instance to disobey him we may be assured that he will never forsake us but that he will either deliver us from those evils we fear or else support us under them and by the assistences of his blessed spirit enable us to bear them with patience and chearfulness A good man in all his dangers and distresses hath a sure friend who will always stand by him an Almighty Saviour and Deliverer on whom he may securely rely for salvation and protection he is not afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord He hath nothing to agast him or fill him with pale fears and dreadfull terrours and jealousies he hath no secret guilt that haunts him and stares him in the face
plainness and seriousness I can I apply my self to these three sorts of persons I. To those who would seem to doubt of this fundamental doctrine of a future life II. To those who profess to believe it but not fully and heartily III. To those who do really and constantly believe it I. I begin with those who would seem to doubt of this fundamental doctrine of a future life And though far better things are to be hoped concerning all here present who shew so much respect to religion as to bear a part in God's solemn worship yet since nothing is more complained of than the prevailing atheism of this age and since if we judge of mens faith by their lives we cannot but suspect many of those who pass among us for orthodox believers to be really no other than mere infidels in these matters I shall not wholly pass these sort of persons by not that I design at large to shew you the unreasonableness of atheism or to set before you the undeniable evidences we have of another world but I shall put the whole cause upon this short issue Let us for once be so kind to the sceptical disputers against religion as to suppose what they are never able to prove that it is a very doubtfull thing whether there will be another life after this that it is possible that all these stories of a judgment to come heaven and hell are mere fables the inventions of crafty politicians and designing Priests and that all good and vertuous men have been miserably deceived and fed with fond hopes and fancies and have unnecessarily troubled themselves about the matters of religion and surely you will all acknowledge this to be a very large concession yet granting all this nothing is more plain than that if we would act prudently and consult our own safety we ought to believe and live as if all these doctrines of religion were most certainly true for every wise man will run as little hazard as he can especially in such things as are of highest concernment to him and wherein a mistake would be fatal and undoing Here therefore be pleased to consider I. What little hazard he runs or what little loss he ordinarily undergoes who believes and acts according to these principles should they all at last prove false II. What extreme and desperate hazard he runs who doth not believe nor live according to them should they all at last prove true 1. What little hazard he runs or what little loss he ordinarily undergoes who believes and acts according to these principles should they all at last prove false All that this man loses or ventures is onely some present gratifications and enjoyments which he denies himself he crosses indeed the irregular inclinations of his nature and forbears those excesses that are truly hurtfull to him and lives according to the dignity of his species and is possessed with cares and fears about another world and these even the atheist himself cannot wholly free his mind from and ties up himself to several rules and strict duties which contribute not a little to his convenient living here and perhaps is exposed to some hardships reproaches and sufferings for righteousness sake and this is the worst of his case but on the other side he is blessed at present with a contented life with peace of conscience and the joyfull expectation of an eternal reward hereafter so that if he be in the right he is then made for ever if not if he be mistaken his condition however will be no worse than other mortals he will have lost indeed all the pains and trouble he was at about religion but if his soul survive not his body he will never be sensible of it this disappointment will never vex nor grieve him in that land where all things are forgotten So that a vertuous and righteous man may ordinarily pass his days here more easily and comfortably than any wicked person and please himself all his life long with the hopes or dreams of future glories which fancy alone were it no other will make him abundant recompence for all the self-denial it puts him upon But if these things at last prove true he is then blessed above all expression if they prove false and vain hopes and there be no other life after this yet will it be as well with him as with the Atheist in that supposed state of eternal silence and insensibility He runs no hazard he loses nothing except some forbidden pleasures which in most cases it is best for him even as to this life to be without He is safe if these doctrines be not true and unspeakably happy for ever if they be true 2. Consider the extreme and desperate hazard that man runs who doth not believe nor act according to these principles should they at last prove true for he stakes and pawns all that can be called good and desirable he ventures being for ever undone and miserable if he should chance to be mistaken in his opinion and it should at last prove that there is another life after this And therefore nothing would sooner convince such men of their deadly folly than if they would but sometimes ask themselves when they are calm and sober a few such questions as these What though I have almost persuaded my self that religion is nothing but a melancholy dream or a politick cheat or a common errour yet what if at last it should be true How dismal and of what affrighting consequence is a mistake in such a matter as this what amazing surprizing thoughts fears and despairs will it fill me with if after all I should find my self to be alive when my friends had closed my eyes and should presently be hurried away into the company of those spirits which I had before derided and droll'd upon and into the presence of that God whose existence I had boldly denied What horrour and confusion must it create when my infidelity shall be confuted by such a wofull experiment and I shall find my self suddenly entred into that endless state which I would not here believe any thing of Were the arguments on both sides equal yet the hazards are infinitely unequal since the one runs the chance of being for ever happy the other runs the chance of being eternally miserable Which one consideration justifies the discretion of a religious man in renouncing and despising the glories and pleasures of this world though it were very uncertain whether there were another life after this How much greater madness then must they needs be guilty of who reject this doctrine of another life against all the probabilities reasons nay demonstrations of the truth of it when they have as great evidence of the truth of it as its nature will admit of when God from Heaven hath most plainly revealed it to them when this revelation is confirmed by all the signs and testimonies they can reasonably expect and demand nay when he hath implanted in their