too Would become at most but mere indifferent Actions neither worthy in themselves nor deserving of any reward for the fulfilling of them God Almighty who has given us our Understandings and our Wills on purpose for his Service requires the concurrence of them in all our Actions that are intended for that purpose His Service must be reasonable or it will not be accepted He is not to be pleased with what we do by chance where his Glory is not designed he looks upon it that neither is it advanced And that good which is done without Considering is but a mere Natural Action deserves as little praise as a Plant for growing or a Stone for falling down to its Center and we may as reasonably expect to see one of these promoted to Heaven for so doing as the unthinking man be judged worthy of it for any thing he can do But 2 dly This Incogitancy does not only render us thus obnoxious to God but it exposes us to the censures of men too It does not only deprive us of all our pretences to Piety but even to common Wisdom and Discretion He that never Considers in any thing all the World will say is a Fool and sure I may well add That he who Considers only in little things and never thinks in those that are of the highest importance is not so wise as he should be But to pretend to be Christians and to desire Salvation and yet never reflect what it is to be the One or how we are to live that we may attain the Other this is certainly such a combination of Folly and Impiety that were not sin as great an Enemy to Reason as it is to Religion 't were impossible that any man should ever be guilty of it And now when so many engagements concur to recommend this duty that 't is impossible for us to approve our selves either to God or man without it what shall I say more to stir you up to the practice of it I am methinks unwilling so far to comply with the melancholly apprehensions of very many and those not altogether without just grounds too as to desire you to think whether our Circumstances at this time be not such as may well engage us in the literal import of our Text to be wise and consider our latter end for ought I know the final end of our selves and our Religion if we do not by a speedy Repentance reverse that Judgment which God seems ready to pronounce against us for our Incogitancy I will rather close all with a more excellent engagement Blessed be God who has made this a Duty as pleasing as it is necessary as apt to incite our practice as 't is fit to be practised by us For certainly to Consider these things after all the frightful Idea's men are apt to entertain of it is not only one of the most useful but one of the most pleasing things in the whole world Let me appeal to the experience of those Pious Souls who by a due performance of this Exercise have their Conversation already in Heaven are elevated above the little Passions and Interests that engage the busie part of mankind in so much labour and vanity Who live in this World as if they were not of it free and quiet in the midst of its disturbances still the same in every estate who love nothing but God and their Duty fear nothing but to sin against him nor desire any thing but to be dissolved and to be with him Whose well-grounded Hopes already secure them of their future Reward and a Good Conscience so fully justifies them that neither Death nor Hell its self not any evils of this life or any terrors of the other are able to disturb the Peace and Calm that is within them O happy state The blessed effect of a serious and frequent Consideration Where is the Sinner that can pretend to say he has ever found in any of his ways of Wickedness a pleasure comparable to that Peace and Joy which such a Christian meets with even in the present course of his Life Let the Miser boast his Riches The Ambitious Man his Honours let the Voluptuary wallow in his sensual and beastly satisfactions But ô Lord What Vanity are all these when compared with the solid Comfort and Satisfaction of a Good Conscience that can reflect freely upon its Actions can search into the most secret parts of its Life with Joy and Assurance and delight to compare its Duty and its Practice and see how Gloriously the One illustrates and sets forth the Other Who would not pursue the Happiness of such a state tho' there were no such thing as Heaven and Eternity to follow after Certainly if Pleasure be that which is to govern our pursuits 't is the good Christian that when all is done is the only Wise Man and to Consider the most delightful practice of any in the World Only let us Consider seriously and as we ought to do Let us once in our lives be persuaded heartily to experiment a Duty which we have been so often told should be the great Business of them Let us be willing to be convinced and do our Religion and our Souls so much justice as to give these things a fair and an Equal hearing So shall all those Blessings I have now been speaking of descend upon us We shall exchange only not lose or lessen our Enjoyments Whatsoever Pleasure or satisfaction we have heretofore met with in the ways of Sin we shall find them all infinitely surmounted in the Practice of Religion Till finally being fit for Heaven ripe for Immortality we shall be Translated from these Excellent but yet still imperfect Joys here to those absolute and Eternal Blessings which neither Eye has seen nor Ear heard nor does it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive To which God of his Infinite Mercy vouchsafe we may all arrive through Jesus Christ our Lord. OF THE DEVICES OF SATAN A SERMON Preach'd at WHITE-HALL April 26. 1688. 2 COR. II. 11 For we are not ignorant of his Devices AMong all the parts of a Christian Institution which either the Gospel of Christ directs or we as the Ministers of Christ and your Servants for Jesus sake Exhort you to there is none after the knowledg of our Duty towards God and what he requires of us in order to our Eternal Salvation either more necessary to be well understood or would men seriously apply themselves to it more easie to be attain'd by us than how to Arm and Fortifie our selves against those Devices of Satan whereby he continually Endeavours to Seduce us There are few so ignorant in this matter but are able at least to trace out his most ordinary Temptations and to discover what it is that the most usually exposes them to Sin And though he has his Crooked and by-paths too Devices both more subtily laid and more difficult to be discern'd yet a little more vigilancy and care
you to go along with me in these following Reflections First That though as I have just now shewn there must be the publick marks of Sorrow and Humiliation in our publick Repentance yet we must by no means stop in these nor thinks that this is all that God requires of us in order to our Forgiveness This was indeed the Vanity of the Jews heretofore and is too much the folly of some misguided Christians now Their Indignation against their Sins and against themselves for having committed them was spent especially in the outward appearance of Sorrow They rent their cloaths and put on sackcloth they wept and fasted and went softly and then they supposed they had done their business though it may be their Souls were not yet humbled nor their Hearts at all broken with any true Contrition for their Sins And so among those of the Church of Rome at this day If we may believe some of their greatest Casuists an external Worship is sufficient to carry a Man to Heaven without the trouble of the true inward Devotion of the Soul He may repent without Contrition may fast with a full Meal Nay and if the Pope pleases may obtain a plenary remission of his Sins se ancho non fosse confesso ne contrito though he has neither confess'd them to any Priest nor finds in his own Heart any manner of Contrition for them I shall not need to say how many new ways of Salvation of this kind they have found out by wearing Leathern Girdles about their Loins or Scapularies over their Shoulders by listing themselves into such or such certain Fraternities by dressing of Altars and going on Pilgrimages by Holy Water and Agnus Dei's And all which and infinite more of the like kind if as our late Masters tell us they are not Authorized by their Church yet I am sure are publickly recommended by their Greatest Men and generally practised too without any censure or contradiction among them This is certain that all these and whatever Artifices of the like kind Men may please either to flatter themselves or to delude others withal without a true Contrition and a serious Reformation they are all but Vanity they make a shew of Piety in the Eyes of Men but they avail nothing to our forgiveness with God I will not now dispute of what use some of these External Performances may be to assist our Repentance and render our Sorrow for Sin the more solemn and so in some Cases as I have before observed the more pleasing to God I know well enough that St. Paul has told us That Bodily Exercise where 't is discreetly order'd does profit a little though it be not like Godliness profitable for all things But then as 't is plain that the greatest part of those Follies so much magnified and recommended in the Church of Rome are but vain and ridiculous Impositions to cheat the silly and superstitious Multitude so 't is certain that the best of these things are neither in themselves Meritorious much less Satisfactory for Sins as they pretend them to be nor otherwise of any value at all with God than as they are attended with that true Repentance which alone can either incline his Mercy or obtain our Forgiveness If we will therefore make our solemn Humiliation this day acceptable to God and available to our selves our Country and our Religion we must take the Method of the Prophet in our Text We must turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and then our fasting and our weeping and our mourning shall indeed be pleasing unto him We must rent our Hearts and not i. e. rather than our Garments must humble our Souls first and then the violence we do our Bodies will be considerâ—d by him When Jonah denounced God's Judgments against Niniveh we read in his 3 d. Chapter That the People of Niniveh believed and proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least But was this therefore that Repentance for which he spared them No it is not so much as once mentioned among the Reasons of it It was the Reformation of their Lives that tied up his Hand and sheathed his Sword ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil way and God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not 2. And this brings me to a second Remark for the farther clearing of this great Duty viz. That not only these outward marks of penitence are not sufficient to the discharge of it but though we should to these add a true and real sorrow of heart for the Sins we have committed even this would not be sufficient to purchase our Forgiveness Now by true sorrow I do not mean that little imperfect sorrow which looks rather to the danger of our Condition than to the heinousness of our Offences and bewails our Transgressions more out of an apprehension of those Judgments that may be the Consequence of them than out of any real regret that we have sinned against a most Gracious and Merciful God For however those of the other Communion out of their great tenderness to Sinners have declared such a sorrow as this if accompanied with Confession to be sufficient to dispose Men to obtain the Grace of God by the Sacrament of Penance and therefore have resolved that true Contrition or a sorrow for sin committed with a purpose of sinning no more is not necessary to the Sacrament of Penance after the Commission of mortal Sin but that Attrition is sufficient though a Man knows it to be no more Yet I suppose it needless in this place to obviate any such gross Error however otherwise of very great danger in the Practice of this Duty Be the sorrow for sin never so sincere and our Resolutions thereupon no more to return to the Commission of it never so firm and well grounded yet if instead of making good these Resolutions we shall stop here we are but half Penitents seeing we yet want that change of life which alone is able to compleat the Nature and render the Practice of our Repentance acceptable unto God and available to our Forgiveness 3. In short Thirdly if we will truly discharge that Repentance to which we are here called we must do it not by being sorry for our Sins or by resolving against them but by an effectual forsaking of them i. e. as our Text speaks By turning unto the Lord our God This is that which alone can implore his Favour and commend us to his Mercy And this was what I before observed in the Case of Niniveh When God saw their works that they turned from their Evil way then he repented him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not Nay but it is not any turning unto God that will suffice neither We must turn
produces a 4 th And which is the last Cause I shall now mention of that Incogitancy I am here complaining of viz. That men are apt to Procrastinate this great Affair They resolve they will one time or other consider but never heartily and effectually do so This is certainly a very great and yet I fear a very general fault and such as perhaps has ruined more souls than any one thing again in the whole world It is a hard matter totally to silence Conscience and stifle all the thoughts of Piety and Religion But our unhappiness is that when we are thus put in mind of our duty we either content our selves with some very slight and superficial Consideration of it or else we put off our Consciences as Felix did St. Paul to a more convenient Season Thus some refer these kind of thoughts to Old Age and never come to it but go down into the Grave before they have made any just provision for it Others it may be set it a shorter date but then still some business or hindrance interposes and then another time is fix'd and that too is disappointed and thus our lives run on but the great work of Considering is still to come It may be at length God's Grace is withdrawn and Conscience grows weary of being any longer importunate when it has been so often denied And thus when we thought to have consider'd we find neither will nor strength nor opportunity so to do How much the more earnestly may I beg leave to exhort you this day no longer to defer so great and to be sure so necessary a work as this and to that end that you will pass on with me to the Third Point I proposed to speak to III. Of the Practice of Consideration The Sum whereof in general will appear from the resolution which I shall give to these Two Enquiries 1 st How or after what manner 2 dly When or at what times this is to be done by us 1 st For the former of these how we are to practice this Consideration I reply That we must do it by a serious and impartial Enquiry both into our selves and into our Religion by a diligent and strict examination what our Duty towards God is and what our own Performances have been and ought to be of it 1. As to the former part of this Consideration Our duty towards God I shall not need say any thing to shew how necessary this is to be well understood by us I am persuaded there is no one how negligent soever he may have been in his performance of it but what is sufficiently convinced of his obligations to it I will rather complain that in a matter so necessary that our Eternal Salvation depends upon it and God be thanked so easie too to the very meanest capacity there should nevertheless so many continue in as utter an ignorance of it as if we too were some of those who encourage a blind Obedience and esteem an ungrounded Assent to be the best Faith and Ignorance indeed the Mother of Devotion It has been the fault of many in the practice of this kind of Consideration to fix their thoughts wholly upon some parts of their Religion but to take little or no notice at all of the rest Thus many run away with the Promises of the Gospel but never consider what they have to entitle them to those Promises Others on the contrary look wholly on the difficulty of its Commands and as if that had given them a final release from all endeavours to fulfil them they conclude that 't is impossible for them ever to be able to live as they ought to do and that therefore 't is in vain to try whether they can or no. Some when they read the great and no doubt very just Elogies of Faith in St. Paul stop there and never trouble themselves either to consider what that Faith is which S. Paul speaks of much less to go on to St. James and there see the necessity of good works too They sit down contented that they have a right faith They are members of a Pure Reform'd Church on the one hand or else of an unerrable infallible Catholick Church on the other and so all is secure As if the espousing such or such an Interest or Party were an unquestionable mark of Election and all that God requires in order to our Salvation Many are the mistakes of this kind which men are apt to fall into in the Consideration of their Duty and to all which I will only offer this one plain Rule for their direction That whosoever will consider it as he ought must do it universally he must leave no part of his Religion unexamined being assured of this That whatsoever Consideration does any way contribute to lessen Practice nay rather does not very much serve to help and promote it is false and imperfect and if he stops there will certainly deceive and ruin him in the end 2. For the other part of our Consideration our Selves two things there are on which the Practice of it must chiefly terminate viz. 1. What our State is with reference to what is past 2. How to govern our selves for the time to come It would require some longer time than I may presume to allow to this Discourse but barely to enumerate the several Rules and Cautions to be observed in the doing of this With what Care and Diligence with what Exactness and Particularity in a word with what Piety and Sincerity we must proceed in all this and search into the real Grounds we have either to hope or fear and accordingly give God the Glory whether by a patient continuance in that Piety which we have hitherto practised or by our Repentance for those sins we have unhappily committed This is a work which I have always thought the proper business of a Casuist or if you will of a Confessor rather than a Preacher General Rules seldom come up to particular mens conditions Nor is it possible for the most exact Discourse to give any satisfaction comparable to those directions which our Church therefore exhorts us to seek by a free opening of our Condition to some of those who are appointed by God to be our Guides in these matters And to them therefore let me beseech all those who are sensible of any want of farther Instruction in this matter to address themselves for such Advice as neither the Nature nor Limits of this Discourse permit me to offer to them As for the other thing proposed in order to the Practice of this Duty 2 dly When or at what Times this is to be done by us If the question be concerning the last sort of Consideration I just now mentioned that of our Actions 't is evident that this must be perpetual because it has so necessary an influence upon all Moral Actions The same Prudence which directs every wise man before he acts to sit down and consider what he is going
about whether it be fit to be done by him ought certainly yet much more to carry every good Christian to this farther necessary Reflection Whether it may be done by him And whosoever ventures upon any Action without this he may by accident not do ill but 't is his good Fortune not his Praise that he does not And were it never so good yet for want of doing it with that design and knowing it to be such he must not expect that God should ever impute that to him for Righteousness which he himself did not design or perform with that intent As to the other sort of Consideration That of our State and of our Duty What God requires of us and how we have lived according thereunto Certain it is that 't is absolutely necessary that we should some time or other enter upon it and then I suppose I need not say how very prudent it will be for us not to defer it For since our Life is but a puff of breath every day in our Nostrils and which we can at no time say shall be our own the next moment surely it will very much concern us not to defer considering how we are provided for another World seeing we have so very little Hopes or security in this Repentance is not a Duty that can be discharged in a Moment and I fear the best among us upon the enquiry will find that we stand in need of a very great one Now there is no time no place for Repentance but only in this present Life And should we suffer our Incogitancy so far to prevail upon us as to neglect it here we shall in vain lament our sin and our folly to all Eternity hereafter If there be therefore any one among us that has hitherto omitted so great and necessary a Consideration what shall I say to him Let him no longer defer it Nay but rather in the words of holy David Let him not go back unto his house nor climb up into his bed let him not suffer his eyes to sleep nor his eye-lids to slumber till he has begun to set about it It were no doubt very much to be wish'd that men would not suffer any day to slip without this Consideration There is I believe but seldom a day passes in which we are not guilty of something that may justly call for a particular Repentance to obtain our forgiveness And who can tell if he lies down to sleep e're he has done this whether he shall ever rise up to perform it afterwards But alas This is the greatest Instance of all of our Inconsideration And instead of repassing in this manner every day upon our Actions I fear there are many who go on whole Weeks and Months and Years without ever thinking at all of it as if it were enough to practice this duty by the same proportions which some of our modern Casuists have prescribed for that other of the Love of God some of which have thought it necessary to be done only upon Sundays and Holy-days others not above once a year some once in Five years others at any one time in our whole lives and lastly others never at all either living or dying But thô there be then no time so proper as the present for the doing of that which cannot without the greatest danger be deferr'd the least moment yet some seasons there are which seem more especially to invite us to it Thus 1 st If old Age be crept upon us or any Sickness or Danger threaten us with a speedy appearance before God's Tribunal this ought certainly at the same time that it admonishes us of the shortness of our present life to call us to an immediate providing for the next 2. Thô the hand of God be not just upon us yet if we see his Arm lifted up to strike if we have some just cause to apprehend any evils or afflictions likely to come upon us much more if our Country and our Church be in danger for the iniquity of her Children and People within her this also may be another time that seems on purpose mark'd out to call us to Consideration to think upon our ways and how to prevent both our own and the publick desolation But now 3 dly If these Evils are not merely apprehended but are actually upon us so that we already have begun to bear the punishment of our sins and may have just cause to apprehend yet more dreadful effects of them this certainly ought yet more strongly to engage us to such a Consideration In such circumstances as these the worst of men naturally become Religious God himself could say of the Rebellious Israelites That in their afflictions they would seek him early And the Prophet observed of all men in general That when God's Judgment are in the Earth then the inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness I will only add 4 thly And with reference to the approaching season That as the time of Lent has in all Ages of the Church been look'd upon as a season proper for the business of Repentance so certainly we cannot better prepare for it than by the practice of this great Preliminary duty of Consideration without which it will be impossible for us ever to discharge it as we ought to do And however the Godly Primitive Discipline of Publick Confession and Penance has for the hardness of our hearts been of late laid aside among us yet ought we not therefore to be ever the less nay rather we should be the more careful to examine our own souls and call our ways to remembrance and by our Private Diligence make some supply of what seems to be acknowledged by our Church as wanting to our Publick Discipline And to the end I may the better enforce this Practice which upon all these accounts seems so very proper for us I will now finally Close all IV thly With some Motives that may serve to stir us up to the fulfilling of our duty in so great and necessary a part of it I have already observed in the beginning of this Discourse That 't is the want of Consideration that is really the last universal Cause of all our Sins And I have just now shewn That till it be removed it will be impossible for us to repent of them And sure then one would think that nothing more need be said to engage any sober man to the practice of it But I must now go yet farther For to compleat our Obligation to so necessary a practice Inconsideration is not only to be charged as the cause of all our evils but the corrupter of our good too It spoils our very vertues insomueh that were it possible for the unthinking man to fulfil every Command and not deviate in the least degree from the rules of his duty all would be in vain his Inconsideration alone would ruin him and his Virtues themselves lose by it not only their Praise but their very Nature
their progress in Piety and that is a Principle of Compliment and Good Breeding When they neglect their duty it may be do that which they know to be contrary to it but yet rather than be thought rude and precise rather than they will disturb Company or be markt out as singular they will do as others do and so disobey God for fear of disobliging men That this is a Case which very often occurs in the method of our present Conversation in the World is not to be denied Now then consider I beseech you what the Contest here is and what the issue most certainly will be God and Man are the Parties concerned and the question is Whether your Duty towards him or your Civility towards the other ought to preponderate Whether you should go to Heaven with a few singular out-of-fashion Christians or for company sake take the broad road tho you know that it leads to Eternal Damnation And now when the choice is so plain methinks it should be no hard matter to persuade men to despise such a Principle as this To convince them that their Salvation is a concern of too great importance to be submitted to these formalities and that 't is to push the Compliment a great deal too far to be damned rather than be thought ill bred But 3 dly A Third Device whereby the Devil oftentimes endeavours to hinder mens progress in Religion is by filling their minds with groundless fears and scruples as to their Eternal Salvation It is a matter of sad Consideration to think what discouragements many Christians labour under in the discharge of their duty who either wanting a Capacity to receive a satisfaction or indulging a close and melancholly disposition so long till they are at last incapable of any live in doubts and fears and perplexities of mind and it may be by degrees wholly cast off all thoughts of Religion since they cannot find any peace or satisfaction in it Now tho such troubles as these may much more easily be prevented before they arrive than removed after yet there are ways to encounter even this Device too of our Enemy and to render it of no force to hinder our Piety To which end 1 st If any fears or scruples of this kind arise in your minds examine your selves and see whether there be any real grounds or foundation for them Whether your lives have been such as may give you just cause to apprehend your selves in danger of losing your souls If there be nothing of this kind which you can discover to support such fears then consider with your selves that the tenor of God's Threats and Promises is very plain and easie to be understood That he will never condemn any man in another world but for living in a disobedience to his Commands in This. That our duty is clear and express and that Conscience when sincerely examined will not fail to tell us whether we do truly fulfil it or no. And therefore that as St. John says Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But should the case be otherwise should you find your selves in never so dangerous a course of sin yet still 't is in your power by God's Assistance to deliver your selves out of it And then There is mercy with God that he may be feared So that be your state at the present never so dangerous yet if you will even now lay hold upon his Mercy if ye will yet repent and return unto the Lord your God and confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and the blood of Christ shall cleanse you from all unrighteousness But now 2 dly If your Case be dubious and neither these nor any other reflections are able to give you that satisfaction you desire yet should not this move you to give way to the Tempter but rather should engage you to set your selves the more diligently to this work to call in some Spiritual Guide to your assistance and if upon a sincere opening of your state to him neither can he find out any grounds for your fears and scruples your doubts and your apprehensions you ought then to labour by all means to possess your Souls in Peace and to conclude That these Terrors are only the Devices of the Devil to discourage you in your duty not any real causes for doubt or despair And yet 3 dly Thô neither by these nor any other means you should ever be able totally to overcome these difficulties yet ought not this to make you ever the less careful of going on still in a serious discharge of your duty Nay on the contrary it ought to make you the more zealous and diligent in the performance of it A man that lives here all his life in such perplexities if yet he fulfils that obedience and practices that repentance which God requires may nevertheless be saved at the last But he that upon any of these grounds neglects this tho he goes on never so securely and comfortably in his evil way shall certainly fall into ruin and destruction in the end And since such fears as these arise from an apprehension that we do not live so well nor serve God so sincerely as we ought to do the best means when all is done to remove them is if it be possible to out-live even our own apprehensions and to serve God so truly and heartily as not to be able to doubt but that we shall find a reward for it at his hands I shall add but one thing more in this Case 4 thly and it is this Be not discouraged nor think your Faith imperfect or your Religion vain because you find your selves still attended with some fears and anxieties about your future state St. Paul not only allows this but exhorts us with his Philipians To work out our own salvation with fear and trembling To be without all concern in a matter of such moment were to be stupid and insensible rather than religious And when we come to appear before Christ in Judgment we shall be sentenced not according to our own Opinions or Apprehensions of our selves whether good or evil but according to the Sincerity of our Lives to the Extent of our Charity and to the Truth of our Repentance And all these supported and made perfect by the Merits and Satisfaction of a most Gracious and Merciful Redeemer who will pity and pardon beyond what we are able to express or to conceive But 4 thly And to conclude this Point The last Device by which the Devil in these days especially has endeavoured to hinder our Piety is by turning that Zeal into Strifes and Disputes about Religion which ought to have been employed on the Practice of it For indeed were we now to enquire what the great demonstration of all our Zeal is both in the Priests and the People what other account should we be able to bring back than this That they are
Tempers or our Circumstances lay us the most open and this will presently both shew us our danger and how we ought to fortify our selves against it But thô to enter therefore upon all the particular Devices of Satan whereby he leads Men into sin be a work as needless as it would be infinite yet some general remarks there are which we may do well to make in order to our security And 1 st It is commonly the first step which the Devil takes towards the leading Men into sin to perswade them to a Carelesness and Indifference in their duty Whil'st Men are warm and vigorous in the practice of Piety zealous of God's Honour and sincere in the pursuance of what makes for it 't is plain the Enemy can get but very little advantage of us But if instead of this we live only in a form of Godliness and regard not the power of it If we are negligent and unconcern'd for Religion and take but little notice of what it requires of us We are then ready for the Tempter to make his Assault upon us And 't will be no hard matter to deceive that Man into the commission of sin who is already but very little affected with the sense of his duty nor takes any great care for the fulfilling of it 2 dly Another device whereby the Devil often gets an advantage of us not only to hinder our Piety but even to lead us into the greatest violations of it is by the Customs and Opinion of the World I have before observed what Slaves we are the very best of us to these things They corrupt our Practice and debauch our very Reason and Vnderstanding And we may at this day find many things in the practice of mankind become the praise and accomplishment of a Gentleman which were we to examine them by the Rules of the Gospel would be seen to have no part in the Character of a Christian And then I need not say how fatally dangerous that must be to lead us into sin which is able so far to deceive our very Consciences as not to be thought to carry any guilt or shame in the commission of it And these are such Devices whereby the Devil oftentimes draws men into Sin I will add only two more whereby when once men are engaged in a course of sin he is wont to strengthen and confirm them in it viz. 1 st An unreasonable Hope of God's Mercy And 2 dly A vain dependance on their own future Repentance That is to say They sin on now in prospect of amendment hereafter and then they make no doubt but that they shall find favour and mercy with God as well as other sinners in the like circumstances have done before them But O God! what a desperate reliance is this whereon to venture all the Hopes and Glories of Eternity For tell me O Sinner whoever thou art that thus projectest a future Amendment after thou hast taken thy fill of Pleasure and art no longer able to pursue thy Sins and thy Debaucheries What security hast thou that That God whom thou so despisest shall continue thy life to thee and give thee any such Time and Opportunity to repent Canst thou command the Sun that it should stand still and put a stop to thy days that thou may'st the more freely follow thy Revels and thy Delights Or canst thou hope when thou lyest down on thy last Bed with Hezekiah to add a new Series of Years to thy expiring breath by then lifting up thy profane Heart and thy deceitful Voice to That God whom thou hast so long continued to offend Nay but couldst thou do this and so arrive to the time thou hast assign'd for this Work Art thou sure thou shalt then be in a Capacity of fulfilling it There is a time when there shall be no more any opportunity for Repentance tho' we should have otherwise leisure enough for the accomplishing of it And sure if any such is the most likely to be that Season which Wicked Men have lay'd out for their return to their duty in order to their going on for the present in their evil doings Nor is there any reason why that man should expect Grace to repent at the last who all his life long has neglected and despised the Offers of it I will not now say how unfit a time that of Old Age and Sickness is for so great an undertaking When the Soul as well as Body is feeble and impotent when the Memory is decay'd the Reason fails and our Affections are dull our Zeal is cold and all our thoughts taken up with the horrors of Hell and the sense of those Infirmities under which the Body labours But sure I am all these things ought to convince men of the desperate folly and even madness of such a procrastination and to engage them whil'st they have yet the time to lay hold upon that Mercy which it may be they shall hereafter neither have Grace nor Opportunity to implore But I must not pursue these things any further nor shall I make any Application of what I have already offer'd but without more enlargement will conclude all with the words of the Church O God who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers that by reason of the frailty of our Nature we cannot always stand upright Grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom c. OF Stedfastness in Religion A SERMON Preached before the PRINCE and PRINCESS OF DENMARK August 5 th 1688. 2 PET. III. 17 18. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen THese words are not only the Close of this Epistle but also the Application of all that the Apostle before had written in it And for the understanding of them we must observe That the design of St. Peter in this Address to the Christians dispersed abroad among the Jews and now under great temptations either to corrupt or to abandon that Faith that had once been delivered to them was to exhort and stir them up to a constant continuance in their Profession and not to suffer themselves whether by the cunning Artifice of Some or by the open Violence of Others to be either totally frightned out of their Religion or to be misled into any false Doctrines contrary to the Truth and Purity which they had been taught In the beginning of the second Chapter he speaks of certain false Teachers that were crept in amongst them and made it their great endeavour by any means to bring in damnable Heresies And he foresaw that their wicked Industry would be likely to prove
but too fatally succesful for Many says he shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of Truth shall be evil spoken of And in the next Chapter he goes on to foretel the near approach of those Judgments which our Saviour Christ had so often denounced against the Jews and in which those complying Christians were in like manner to be involved And by both these Considerations he finally in the Close of all stirs them up both to a Care of themselves and to a Constancy in their Profession Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to Him be Glory both now and for ever Amen Such was the occasion of these words and the prosecution of them at this time will engage Me to explain the nature and to exhort you to the practice of two Duties than which I know none more proper for our serious Consideration Growth in Grace and Stedfastness in Religion and from both which there are but too many Seducers on every hand to turn us aside I shall pursue both in this following Order I. I will shew you what the true nature of that stedfastness in Religion is to which our Text here exhorts us II. By what Motives especially it was that the Apostle stirr'd up the Christians to whom he wrote and that I would now crave leave to exhort you to such a stedfastness III. How highly both necessary in its self it is but especially how advantageous to this great End that we should all of us endeavour what in us lies to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And first I. What the true nature of that stedfastness in Religion is to which our Text exhorts us and which I am from thence to recommend to you For 't is not every firmness that deserves the name of a true and rational stedfastness and a man may as well exceed by a perverse unwarrantable resolution not to hearken to any Motives tho' never so reasonable to change his Opinion as by an unfix'd and irresolute temper abandon himself to every wind of Doctrine that shall come to turn him aside from it Constancy in Religion is a Vertue that like all others must be regulated by Prudence It must be firm but it must be well-grounded too And he who would go about at all adventures to recommend a perseverance in that Faith whatever it be in which a man has been born and bred without allowing a just enquiry to be made into the Grounds of it and even a liberty to forsake it too should they prove less solid than they ought to be He may indeed provide for their security who chance to be already in the right way but shall render it utterly impossible for those that are not ever to come to the knowledge of it It is not therefore such a blind stedfastness as this a constancy in our Religion whether it be good or bad that either the Apostle here means or that I would now recommend to you This would be to make a plea for Obstinacy rather than Constancy whil'st by such a Rule it would be the duty of a Jew to remain a Jew a Heathen a Heathen for a Papist or Socinian to continue all their lives Papist or Socinian no less than for One of the Church of England to be firm and stedfast to the Faith and Communion of it That which I understand by a true stedfastness is this When a man is upon rational and good Grounds evidently perswaded of the Truth and Purity of his Religion then to resolve to stick close to it and not suffer any base unworthy Motives to draw him aside from it Our Religion must first be well grounded and then it will be true stedfastness to adhere to it And therefore to give such necessary directions as may suffice for the practice of this Duty I must distinctly consider it in both its respects and as it stands in the Middle between the two Extremes of a blind Obstinacy on the one hand and of a weak Instability on the other and by either of which the true nature of it will become equally destroy'd First then He that will be truly stedfast in his Religion must take heed that he does not mistake Obstinacy for Stedfastness This is an Error so much the rather to be remarked on this occasion in that a daily experience sadly shows us at once both the danger and easiness of such a mistake It is a strange perverseness in some men that they make it no less than a mortal sin to have any doubts though never so reasonable of any the least Doctrine they have once been taught to profess And there is hardly an Immorality so heinous and provoking so contrary to the Honour of God and so destructive of Salvation which their Spiritual Guides will not sooner overpass than such a Scruple Insomuch that by the express Order of the Church which I am now speaking of 't is made a part of mens solemn reception into their Communion the very condition of being admitted into a state of Proselytism with them not only to abjure for the present all those Tenets which they are pleased to call Heretical but also to imprecate upon their heads all the miseries of Eternal Torments if ever they suffer themselves BY ANY OCCASION OR ARGUMENTS WHATSOEVER to be hereafter better instructed This is in good truth to make a Faction of Religion 't is a Combination rather than a Constancy And what wretched effects it has upon the minds of those unfortunate deluded men that have once suffered themselves to be thus engaged appears in this That no rational Motives no Arguments though never so clear are almost able to work upon them The sad Vow they have made recurs continually upon their minds They have sworn to continue where they are gone at all adventures and therefore they now as obstinately resolve never to return to the Truth as they once weakly suffered themselves to be seduced from it To avoid such an unhappy Obstinacy as this and be constant in our Religion upon such rational Grounds as may justifie us before God and Man from the charge of a pertinacious firmness we may please to observe these following directions 1 st Let our Religion be founded in Knowledg i. e. Let us be clearly and evidently convinced of the Truth of that to which we do adhere and then we may be sure we cannot be justly charged with Obstinacy for our adhering to it He who takes up his Religion upon trust that receives all the Articles of his Creed by wholesale believes as his Church believes but it may be knows not either what that is or wherefore he does so 't is evident that such a credulous Disciple as this may be blindly
or else so desperate and impossible on the other that there was no need of their own Care or Concern about it nor any reason for them to trouble themselves about that which if they shall ever attain no negligence of their own can do them any hurt if they must not no care or endeavour can do them good 4. I shall add but yet one thing more which I fear has led many into a neglect of Repentance and that is An unwarrantable presumption upon God's Mercy either that he will afford them time to repent at the last though they go on for the present in their Sins or if he does not will at least make a very favourable allowance for their Impenitence This is an Opinion which Wicked Men do as greedily catch at as their deplorable State renders them greatly in need of it And indeed far be it from me to lessen any reasonable Hopes of God's Favour to Sinners who my self stand so much in need of it No doubt there is Mercy with God that he may be feared Many are the ways and Gracious and Excellent the Methods whereby He calls and invites us to Repentance And if we accept the Invitation we need not question but that we shall most certainly receive the pardon of our Sins through the Blood of Christ. But then this is not the Question Whether God will not make very great allowances for our Infirmities and forgive us though we have never so long and grievously sinn'd against Him if we repent at the last But whether if we neglect the Opportunities which he affords us of repenting if with Felix in the Text we still put off our Consciences to a more convenient season and at last die in our sins without ever repenting of them God will not then turn his Mercy into Judgment and whether we ought not therefore to make all the haste we can to repent lest perhaps he should do so But 3 dly A third cause of mens delaying their Repentance is That though they do believe it necessary for them to repent some time or other yet they think this may be done hereafter as well as now And this is what most of us are but too apt to flatter our selves withall Repentance is God knows a melancholly duty It calls us to another kind of life than that we have been used to or indeed for the most part do at all desire to be acquainted with He that will put it in practise must expect to meet with no small difficulties in the setting out and few there are who have Constancy enough to go through them all and therefore no wonder if we find the generality of Men so little care to set about a work that is so hard and discouraging to the most resolute Undertakers of it Now 't is this makes them willing to meet these troubles as late as ever they can When their years run deep and their Lusts fail them and they can no longer pursue the Pleasures of this World then they suppose it will be time enough to think of the other And they see no reason why they may not hope as well to be accepted then as others who in like manner have come in at the Eleventh hour and yet received as great a reward as those that had born the heat and burthen of the day But this is indeed as unreasonable a ground for any one to delay his Repentance as either of the foregoing For 1 st They cannot endure to set about their duty immediately because of the trouble and difficulty which they apprehend in it I will not now enquire how they are sure it is so troublesome and difficult a thing to fulfil their duty as they suppose it to be seeing they have never yet tried it to be convinced by their own Experience that it is so This only I would know Will it become ever the more easie for their deferring of it Nay but on the contrary I shall hereafter shew that the longer it is deferr'd the harder it will prove to us And were it not so yet since 't is necessary some time or other to Repent and so Dangerous to die ere we have done it Certainly the more difficult a thing it is the sooner we ought to set about it whilst we may have yet the time by the Grace of God to accomplish it And then 2 dly For that poor presumption That others have done this and yet were saved at the last and why therefore may not we be so too Though I will not say that none who have put off the business of their Repentance to the last have ever gone to Heaven yet I must needs say I fear that but few have done so I do not remember in all the Holy Scripture more than One Instance of the Salvation of a dying Penitent and that so extraordinary in all its Circumstances that it cannot with any reason be made a Precedent by us for the likes Hopes I mean that of the Thief upon the Cross And even of Him too it does not appear that ever he deferr'd his Repentance or put it off purposely to that as the most convenient Season And for those who came in at the Eleventh hour and yet were received I shall only say thus much That they came in as soon as they were called and did not refuse to go into the Vineyard at the Third hour because they thought it was too soon and their Laziness prompted them to decline their work till the Heat and Burden of the day was past In short He that delays his Repentance upon this prospect that he may do it hereafter as well as now ought first to have very well consider'd these two things 1 st Is he sure that he shall live to that time which he so warily allots to this great work For if he be not then I am sure he lives in danger of Eternal damnation all the while he neglects to enter on a state of Piety and Religion and chuses rather to hazard his Everlasting Happiness than to put himself upon a Work that yet must be done or he shall remain for ever miserable 2 dly Is he certain that though he should live to that time yet that then God will give him Grace to repent That his Aversion to his duty shall not be greater then than it is now and his Unwillingness encrease the more the older he grows in his Sins and Impenitence What the satisfaction of Mens Lusts may be I cannot tell but certainly if they have any thoughts at all of their Future state and do indeed believe a Judgment to come such dangers as these cannot chuse but amaze them and their disquiets at the Apprehension that by thus deferring their Repentance they may possibly lose their Souls for ever infinitely outweigh whatever Pleasures they can in the mean time propose to themselves by going on a little longer in their Wickedness But I must not insist upon these things and therefore 4 thly
is I cannot but think that such Persons as these who not only continue in the Commissions of sin but project and contrive for the continuing in it and therefore put off the Time of their Repentance as a work that may be well enough done hereafter do in effect despise the Holy Spirit of God and trample under foot that Grace which should have led them to Repentance And it must certainly be a most daring Presumption in any Sinner to think that notwithstanding such a provocation God will yet attend his leisure and continue to afford him the Assistance of his Grace for his Salvation at the last though he has so often wilfully and designedly rejected all the Offers of it I am sufficiently persuaded that there is none of us whom God does not call most truly and sincerely to Salvation and by consequence that there is none of us to whom he has not offer'd such a measure of his Grace as might enable him to fulfil his Duty in order thereunto and perfect his Repentance But I must confess I cannot without some concern think what an unworthy use we have the most of us made of it and how justly we have deserved that God should at last leave us to our selves and no longer in vain attend our Amendment And O! that we would therefore be persuaded seriously to reflect upon all these things and no longer go on to expose our immortal souls to such desperate hazards as 't is plain from all these Considerations we do every day that we neglect to provide for Eternity Be it enough that we are not already made the fatal Monuments of Abused Mercy That we are yet on this side Hell and may if we please by our speedy Repentance still prevent those Judgments which our former Impenitence has but too justly deserved Let us begin in this our day to see and to pursue the things that make for our peace bâ—fore they be hid from our eyes Let us exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of us be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to come short of it Let us give glory to God before darkness come and our feet stumble upon the dark mountains I conclude all with the words of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. LV. Vers. 6 7. Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon OF THE DANGER OF Mens Delaying their Repentance A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL ACTS XXIV 25 Felix trembled and answer'd Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee AMong all the Aggravations of sin there is none greater than to continue it not only against the checks of Conscience and the motions of God's Holy Spirit to the contrary but after many admonitions in vain sent us by his merciful Providence to bring us to Repentance There are I believe but few if any in the World so lost to all the Hopes of Heaven and Eternity who have not some time or other been put in mind of their Duty and invited by God's Grace to Pardon and Salvation And if notwithstanding all this men will nevertheless continue still incorrigible and harden themselves against all the means that can be made use of to reclaim them we ought not to wonder if they are at last given up to the Dominion of Sin and reserved as monuments of the just Judgment of God at the day of his glorious appearing I will not now enter on any Enquiry what the cause should be why we who are all of us sufficiently convinced of the necessity of Repenting and the deplorable State in which we must expect to be if we do not some time or other effectually set about it should yet still for the most part be so very unwilling to Repent But because this is one of the most fatal delusions men are apt to cheat themselves withall that with Felix here in my Text they put off this business to a more convenient Season and by their unseasonable Procrastinations in an Affair that of all others ought the least to be defer'd too often die without ever performing it at all I will make it my endeavour so to lay before you the Danger of such a Delay as if it shall please God to convince you not so much of the Necessity of Repenting some time or other which I take it for granted without my speaking you are all of you already resolved to do as of the great concern we have immediately to set about it and do that presently which we must some time or other do and can never do so Well as now And this I shall make appear from these two Considerations I st Of the great Danger we run by delaying our Repentance II dly Of the Comfort and Satisfaction that will arise to us from the Conscience of having duly Perform'd it as we ought to do I begin with the former of these Considerations I st Of the great Danger we run by delaying our Repentance Now that in one Word is this That whilst we go on continually to put off our Duty and the business of Repentance to a more convenient Season and like Felix in the Text think it still too soon to set presently about it we run the hazard of never doing it at all and like Felix too often die in our Sins and our Impenitence So that whatsoever danger there is of dying without ever Repenting the same is the danger which we run by delaying our Repentance And this I shall make appear 1 st From the great Shortness and Vncertainty of our present State 2 dly From the Nature and Difficulty of Repentance And 3 dly From the Method of God's proceeding in the Dispensation of his Grace as set forth to us in the Holy Scripture And 1 st That the Shortness and Vncertainty of our Present State ought to convince us how great a danger we run by Delaying our Repentance For Proof whereof I shall not think it necessary to entertain you with any Common-place-Argument of the Infirmities of our Nature and the many Casualties to which our Lives here are perpetually exposed and against which we can never say we are secure for the next moment How many Persons have been struck with Sudden Death What accidents have befallen others to render them wholly unfit for their Duty so that though they have had a longer warning of their Approaching End yet either by the Intollerable Sharpness of their Pain or its influence upon their understanding Faculties so as many times to deprive them of all the use of their Reason and render them utterly uncapable either to reflect upon their lives
way and be filled with their own devices It were an easie matter to multiply Passages to the same purpose out of every part of the Holy Scripture But I have said enough already to shew the danger of delaying our Repentance from the apprehension of over-passing the time of it and to warrant that great Conclusion which I think is generally received by most Christians viz. That there is to every wicked man a certain Time when the measure of his Iniquities being accomplish'd there shall be no more any space for repentance nor any farther assistance given them by God to bring them to it Now if this be so then would I only desire that these three things might seriously be consider'd by every one of us 1 st Whether he who being invited by the Grace of God and the Motions of his Holy Spirit by the cheeks of Conscience within and the importunate calls of the Ministers of the Gospel without to Repentance nevertheless neglects all these Admonitions and with Felix still puts off the practice of this duty to some more convenient season does not thereby grieve the Holy Spirit of God and despise his Grace and affront his Goodness who thus graciously offers and continues to him the means and opportunities of Salvation 2 dly Whether by so doing he does not provoke God in as high a manner as can well be imagined no longer to continue his Grace to him nor to expose his Mercy to contempt by suffering his Holy Spirit still to strive with such obstinate Offenders And then by consequence 3 dly and lastly Whether every such Person may not have just cause to apprehend that by delaying his Repentance and putting off the business of Religion to a still future opportunity he shall at last provoke God to withdraw his Grace from him And seeing when he had the opportunity given him and was invited to repent he despised the offer and neglected so to do God may not hereafter deliver him up to a hardned and impenitent heart and take away that Grace from him which he has so unworthily abused and thereby deserved to have no longer continu'd to him To conclude If in that famous Parable of the Talents there be any application yet remaining to be made of that part of it in which we find the Talent taken from the unprofitable Servant and a terrible Sentence of Everlasting Misery pronounced against him for his neglect Or in that other of the Fig-tree which was to be pruned and digg'd and then try'd another year and if still it continued to bring forth no Fruit then to be cut down and cast out of the Vineyard The meaning of both can be no other than this That he who despising the Grace of God and the opportunity of Salvation continues still in his Sins and improves not those Abilities God has given him to the great ends for which they were bestowed upon him shall at last by a severe but most just judgment of God be deprived of them and have his neglect punish'd with the loss of God's Grace here and in the consequence of it with an Eternal Damnation hereafter And this then may suffice to shew how dangerous it is for a man to put off the business of Repentance at the present out of an unwarrantable presumption that it will be time enough to perform it hereafter But now if the Question be What a man who has unhappily done this should do I reply 1 st Let him by all means hasten his Repentance all he can and the longer he has deferr'd it already the more careful and resolute let him be not to put it off one moment longer 2 dly Let him be so much the more zealous and diligent in his Religious Performances let his sorrow be the more pungent his Confessions the more humble his Prayers the more fervent but especially his Resolutions and his Endeavours the more hearty and sincere to break off the course of his Sins the longer he has continued in them that so by the extraordinary vigor of his present Endeavours he may make some kind of reparation for the slowness he has been hitherto guilty of in setting about his duty But this is not all It will perhaps be farther enquired Whether upon the Principle I have now laid down of the withdrawing God's Grace from such as refuse and reject the offers of it it will not follow that such persons as these are to be look'd upon as in a desperate Estate and therefore that it is in vain for them now to think of repenting at all But this is a Question which every man will best be able to satisfy himself about That he who puts off his Repentance now upon a presumption that it will be time enough to fulfil it hereafter may justly fear the withdrawing of God's Grace from him I have fully shewn But that God does absolutely withdraw his Grace from every such Person I do not say and whether or no he has withdrawn it from any particular Person he will presently be able to discern by the state in which he finds his Soul as to the business of Religion If his Lusts and his Passions lead him captive at their pleasure If he has no Affections or Desires remaining after Piety in his soul if he cares not for God nor his duty nor can yet persuade himself either to think of another world or to provide for it These indeed are though I will not say certain signs of a desperate condition yet such as may give us just cause to fear whether he be not come into that state from which there is no Redemption and in which God will no longer give him any Assistance to return into the way of Righteousness But if on the contrary he even now begins to come again to himself and wishes and desires if it be possible to be reconciled unto God If being touch'd with a lively sence of his sins and his obstinacy he is at last willing to amend and return unto God with all his heart Then 't is plain that though his Condition may be bad yet it is not desperate God has not yet given him up a Slave to the Devil but still continues to him the benefit of Repentance so that if he be not again wanting to himself he may yet hope for a sufficient measure of Divine Grace to bring him by Repentance to Salvation But here still there will one difficulty more arise and it is this How such a Person shall satisfie himself that he is truly penitent and by consequence that he may depend upon the mercy of God for Pardon notwithstanding his former Impenitence To this I answer 1 st If the person who thus repents at the last be in a condition of continuing yet longer in this world he may then be sure of the sincerity of his Repentance and of the consequent security of his Condition by the same experience that all others are viz. by the fruits of it in a