for the way that leads thither be it high or low all is one to him so long as he is but certain that it is the Right Way And as he doth not chuse his Religion out of worldly considerations So neither doth he quit it upon such But is resolute and constant in bearing witness to the Truth against all opposition whatsoever As he doth not make shew of his Religion the more when it is in fashion and when it may prove advantagious to him So neither doth he practise it the less when it may prove Ignominious or Dangerous He is obstinately tenacious of his Principles when he knows them to be good and prepared to endure the utmost extremities rather than violate the Laws and Dictates of his Conscience He is a Man that thinks Religion too Sacred a thing to be prostituted to mean purposes and therefore he never useth it as an Instrument for the serving a turn never makes it a Cloak for the covering a private end though he were sure he could compass his designs by it He knows that the greatest Impostures have laid hid under this mask and by such Artifices God hath been often made a Patron of the most horrid villanies He is a Man that doth not place his Religion in outward forms and services or in little cheap Duties that cost him nothing He hath a nobler sense of God than to think that such things can alone recommend us to him And therefore his principal concernment is about the great Indispensable Duties of Christianity Matt. 23.23 The weightier matters of the Law Justice and Mercy and Faith He hath the everlasting Notions and differences of Good and Evil deeply ingraven in his Heart and in the practising or the avoiding them he chiefly lays out himself He is a Man that doth not pick and chuse out of God's Commandments which to observe to the neglect of the rest but endeavours Uprightly and Sincerely to observe them all He calls no sin little because his temper inclines him to it or the course of his Life leads him more frequently into the Temptations of it But he hath an hearty uniform Aversion to every thing that is Evil. He holds no secret friendship or correspondence with any Enemy of God but fights as resolutely against his most agreeable and most gainful sins as those that he hath less Temptation to upon those accounts He is a hearty Enemy to all Factions in Religion as knowing the Life and Soul of Christianity is often eaten out by them All dividing Principles he abhors and as much as he loves Truth he is not less concerned for Peace And he is better pleased with one Instance of his Charity in Composing or his Zeal in Suppressing Religious Differences than with twenty of his Skill and Abilities in disputing them For he knows that LOVE is more acceptable to God than a right Opinion and to be a Martyr rather than divide and rend the Church Dionys Alex. in Euleb is not less Glorious than to be a Martyr for refusing to offer Sacrifice to Idols Lastly He is a Man Religious without Noise and uses no little Arts to make his Piety taken notice of in the World For he seeks not the praise of Men in any thing he doth but studies to approve himself to God only And therefore he is as careful of his Thoughts as of his Actions and hath the same fear of God and regard of his Duty when no Man sees him as when he is in the most publick places These are the great strokes of Vprightness as to Religion And whoever makes good these Characters may unquestionably conclude of himself that he is an Honest Man to God-ward a true Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile Come we now in the second place To take a view of the Vpright-Man in his civil Conversation To give some account of him with reference to his Carriage and Demeanour amongst Men. And here again we must consider him under two capacities as a Private Person and as a Magistrate And First As a Private Person The general Rule by which he frames and models his whole Conversation is such a prudent and diligent care of himself and his own good as is not only consistent with but doth effectually tend to promote the Good and Happiness of all others that he deals with This is the Fundamental Principle which he lays down to observe in all his commerce with Mankind For he considers that every Man in the World hath a right to be happy as well as himself And he considers that as things are so contriv'd that he cannot be happy without the assistance of others So it is infinitely reasonable that he in like manner should contribute his endeavours to the making them happy also These now being the main Principles of his Mind he takes care in his whole Conversation that his Actions and Carriage be suitable to them and bear some proportion with them And therefore we may be sure that he is a Man exactly Just in all his dealings and would not knowingly do the least wrong or injury to any though he could gain never so much by it and were he never so secure that he could do it without discovery He is a Man that where he is trusted is faithful to the uttermost Never making advantages of Mens credulity nor abusing the considence they repose in him He is one that in point of fair dealing between Man and Man is severe even to Scrupulosity and he would rather sit down with loss than serve his own ends by any practice that hath but a bad report that hath but even the appearance or suspicion of evil in it though in the mean time he knows that what is got by such practices is by some Men accounted lawful gain He is a Man of great candour and sweetness and obligingness in his Behaviour But withal as on one hand he is careful not to run himself into Inconveniencies by his good nature So on the other hand the kindness and good-will he professeth to all about him is more than a compliment or a semblance of his countenance For his fair speeches are always attended with honest dealings and what he once promiseth he is punctual in making it good though it be to his own prejudice He is a Man that loves a good Name and Reputation as well as any one and is extremely tender of it but yet he scorns to make use of any evil Arts either for the procuring or preserving it And consequently he is a Man that hates all mean and servile compliance and will neither speak nor do any thing against the sense of his Mind for the humouring any Flattery and Dissimulation he abhors and he dares speak his Mind when he judges it fit and reasonable even though he knows the doing it will give offence And as he is perfectly averse to all Fawning and Flattery So he is above Envy and Detraction He never lessens another Man to
FIFTEEN SERMONS Preach'd on Several Occasions The Last of which was never before Printed BY The Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of York Primate of England and Metropolitan LONDON Printed by Will. Bowyer for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. MVNIFICENTIA REGIA 1715. GEORGIVS D.G. MAG BR FR. ET HIB REX F.D. THE CONTENTS SERMON I. Page 1. THE Things that make for Peace Or The Obligation of Christians to Church-Communion and mutual Charity Rom. xiv 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace Preach'd before the Lord Mayor c. 1674. SERMON II. Page 41. The Profitableness of Godliness Or The Advantages of Piety for the promoting all a Man's Interests in this World 1 Tim. iv 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having a Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come Preach'd before the Lord Mayor 1675. SERMON III. Page 88. Of doing Good in our Lives shewing that it is every one's great Concernment and is in every one's Power Eccles iii. 10. I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and to do good in his Life Preach'd at the Yorkshire Feast 1680. SERMON IV. Page 127. The Rich-Man's Duty and the Encouragement he hath to Practise it 1 Tim. vi 17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal Life Preach'd at the Spittal 1680. SERMON V. Page 169. A Description of the Vpright Man and his Security in evil Times Psal cxij. 4. To the upright there ariseth Light in the Darkness Preach'd at the Election of the Lord Mayor 1680. SERMON VI. Page 205. A standing Revelation of more force to persuade Men than one rising from the Dead With the Evidence we have at this day for the Truth of the Christian Religion Luke xvj 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Preach'd at White-Hall 1684. SERMON VII Page 243. Rules for the Conduct of our selves where we are at a loss to distinguish the Bounds of Duty and Sin Lawful and Vnlawful in any Action Galat. v. 13. Vse not Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh Preach'd before the Queen 1690. SERMON VIII Page 173. Vertue and Religion the only means to make a Nation prosperous Deut. v. 29. O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever Preach'd before the House of Commons 1690. SERMON IX Page 209. General Directions for a Holy Life Phil. iv 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things A Farewel-Sermon preach'd at St. Giles 's 1691. SERMON X. Page 241. Zeal for Religion how to be govern'd Rox. x. 2. For I bear them Record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Preach'd before the House of Lords Novemb. 5. 1691. SERMON XI Page 369. Of our Saviour's Appearance Heb. ix 26. Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Preach'd before the King and Queen on Christmass-day 1691. SERMON XII Page 401. The Power of Christ's Resurrection Philip. iij. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Preach'd before the Queen on Easter-day 1692. SERMON XIII Page 429. God's Government of the World matter of Rejoycing to Mankind Psal xcvij. 1. The Lord is King the Earth may be glad thereof yea the multitude of the Isles may be glad thereof Preach'd before the King and Queen on the Day of Thanksgiving 1693. SERMON XIV Page 459. Of the Government of the Thoughts Prov. iv 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life Preach'd before the King and Queen 1693. SERMON XV. Page 487. A Persuasive to Prayer Luke xviii 1. And he spake a Parable unto them to this end That Men ought always to Pray and not to faint Preach'd before the King 1697. Note That by Mistake the Eighth Sermon which begins Page 173 hath on the Top of the Page the Title of the Ninth Sermon throughout As also the Ninth Sermon which begins Page 209. has for several Pages together the Title of the Tenth Sermon SERMON I. PREACHED AT GVILD-HALL CHAPEL On the 23d of August 1674. Rom. xiv 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace WHOSOEVER understandeth any thing of the State of Christianity as it hath now been for some Ages in the World will be easily convinced that there is no one Point of our Religion more necessary to be daily Preached to be earnestly pressed and insisted on than that of Peace and Love and Vnity here recommended by the Apostle It hath fared as the Learned Mr. Hales observed with the Christian Religion in this matter as it did with the Jewish of old The great and principal Commandment which God gave the Jews and which as they themselves teach was the Foundation of all their Law was to worship the God of Israel and Him only to serve yet such was the Perversness of that People that This was the Commandment that of all others they could never be brought to Keep but they were continually running into Idolatry notwithstanding all the Methods that God made use of to reclaim them from that Sin What the Worship of one God was to the Jews that Peace and Love and Vnity is to the Christians even the Great distinguishing Law and Character of their Profession And yet to the shame of Christians it may be spoken there is no one Commandment in all Christ's Religion that has been so generally and so scandalously violated among his Followers as this Witness the many bitter Fewds and Contentions that have so long Embroiled Christendom and the numerous Sects and Parties and Communions into which at this day it stands divided And God knows this is a thing that cannot be sufficiently lamented among our selves For though in many Respects we are the Happiest Nation in the World and particularly in this that we have the Advantage of all others both as to the Constitution of our Church and the Purity of Christ's Doctrine professed therein Yet in this point of Schisms and Divisions and Religious Quarrels we are as unhappy if not more than any Whether ever we shall see that blessed Day when these our Breaches will
are to put them to If we do not employ them this way we are so far from being better for them that we are much worse What will signifie our Wit and good Humour our Strength of Reason and Memory our Wisdom and Knowledge our Skill in Arts and Dexterity in managing Business our Wealth and Greatness our Reputation and Interest in the World I say what will all these signifie if they do not render us more Useful and Beneficial to others That which sets the price and value upon every worldly blessing is the Opportunity it affords us of doing Good To do Good seems to be the foundation of all the Laws of Nature the supreme Universal Law it is that by which the World is supported and take that away all would presently fall into confusion And perhaps if it were particularly examin'd it would be found that all the other Natural Laws may be reduced to this and are ultimately to be resolv'd into it It is a question whether there be any natural Standard whereby we can measure the Vertue or the Viciousuess of any Action but the Influence that it hath to promote or hinder the doing of Good This is that that seems to stamp Vertue and Vice To do Good is the great Work for the sake of which we were sent into the World and no Man lives farther to any purpose than as he is an Instrument of doing Good Be our Lives otherwise never so busie and full of action yet if others receive no benefit by them we cannot give our selves any tolerable account of our time we have in effect liv'd idly and done nothing To do Good is that which of all other services is most acceptable to God it is that which he hath laid the greatest stress upon in the Scripture it is that which he hath with the most earnest and affectionate persuasives with the strongest arguments with the greatest promises and with the most dreadful threatnings enforc'd upon us It is that which he hath chosen before all Sacrifices and all Relious worship strictly so called to be serv'd with It is that which he hath appoint-for the great Expression both of our Thankfulness for his Benefits and of our Love and Devotion to him Lastly it is that which Moses and the Prophets make the Sum of the Old Law and Christ and his Apostles the Sum of the New And very great Reason there is for it for to do Good is to become most like to God It is that which of all other Qualities gives us the greatest resemblance of his Nature and Perfections 1 Job 4.2 for perfect Love and Goodness is the very Nature of God and the Root of all his other Attributes and there was never any Action done any work wrought by him throughout the vast tracts of infinite space from the Beginning of time to this Moment but was an Expression of his Love and an instance of doing Good nay I doubt not to say the most severe acts of his Justice and Vengeance have all been such And therefore with great reason hath our blessed Lord told us Mat. 5.44 45. that the way to become the Children of our Heavenly Father is to do Good to all with the same Freedom and Unreservedness that God makes his Sun to shine upon the World And of this our Blessed Saviour himself was the most illustrious Example that ever appeared in the World so that to do Good is that which doth most truly and perfectly render us the Disciples and Followers of Jesus makes us really be what we pretend we are His whole Life as the Gospel tells us was but a continual going about doing Good The great Design of his Coming from Heaven and of all that he spoke and of all that he did and of all that he suffer'd upon Earth was the benefiting of others And he hath left it as the great distinguishing Badge and Character whereby his Disciples should be known from other Men that they should love one another even as he had lov'd them Joh. 13.34 35. that is as his Apostle expounds him they should love and do Good to that degree as to lay down their lives for their brethren 1 Joh. 3.16 But to do Good is not only our greatest Duty but our greatest Interest and Advantage which is that that Solomon chiefly refers to in the Text. It is certain that no Man can take a more Effectual way to render his Being in the world Happy and Comfortable to him according to the ordinary course and event of things in what Condition or Circumstances soever he is placed than to do all the Good he can in his life so that though a man that lays out himself in this way seems only to respect the good of other people yet in true reckoning he most consults his own profit For to do Good is the natural way to raise us Friends who shall be oblig'd to contribute their Endeavours to the furthering our honest designs to the upholding and securing us in our Prosperity and to the succouring and relieving us when we are in any evil Circumstances Such is the Contrivance and the Constitution of this World that no man can subsist of himself but stands in continual need of others both for their comfortable Society and their necessary Assistance in his Affairs Now of all men living the Good man who maketh it his Business to oblige all about him is most likely to be the best befriended To do Good is the truest way to procure to a man's self a Good name and Reputation in the World which as it is a thing desirable upon many accounts so it is a singular Advantage to a man for the carrying on his secular designs Nay to do good is to Embalm a man's name and to transmit it with a grateful Odour to Posterity The memory of a good man shall be blessed Prov. 1◠7 And the sense of Mankind has always been that too much honour could not be given to the name of those that have done good in their generation But which is a great deal more than all this to do Good is the most certain effectual means to procure the blessing of God upon our endeavours and to entitle our selves to his more especial Care and Providence and Protection So that let what will come in all circumstances and conditions the good man has the greatest assurance that all things shall at least be tolerably well with him and that he shall never be miserable Trust in the Lord saith David and be doing good Psal 37. verse 3. so shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed Nay farther to do Good is to entail a blessing upon our Children after us 〈◊〉 ◠25 I have been young and now am old saith the same Psalmist yet saw I never the Righteous that is the merciful and good man for that is the Notion of the word in that place and in most others such an one saw
I never forsaken nor his seed begging their bread Lastly to conclude this point To do Good besides all these advantages that attend it is most to consult our own Peace and to make the best provision possible for our pleasure and delight Charity as Dr. Hammond used to say is really a piece of Sensuality And Epicurus himself the great Master of Voluptuousness would confess that it was not only more Brave but more Pleasant to do Kindnesses than to receive them And certainly every good man will find it so for as the exercise of Charity and Beneficence is as truly a gratification of our Natural Inclinations and Appetites as any other action or thing that causeth pleasure to us So is it also a gratification of those Appetites which are the highest and the noblest we have Now by how much the appetite that is gratifi'd is more noble and divine by so much must the delight that ariseth from that gratification be more exquisite So that it was no very great Hyperbole of our Divine Poet when he said that All joys go less Than that one joy of doing kindnesses And which is farther to be considered it is not with this pleasure as it is with most others that vanish with the enjoyment nay often leave bitterness and melancholy upon the Mind after they are gone off For to do Good is a permanent pleasure a pleasure that will last as long as our lives The memory of our good actions will always be accompanied with Delight and Satisfaction when all our other past Enjoyments prove matters of anguish and torment to us upon our reflexions on them these will be a refreshment and the nearer we approach to death still the more comfort we shall find in them Would we therefore treasure up to our selves a stock of lasting peace and joy to support us in all conditions of our life and and so make our passage easie at our death let us do all the good we can I think I have said enough to convince any one of the truth of Solomon's Proposition that there is nothing better for a man nothing that more concerns him either in point of duty or happiness than to do good in his life Much more might be said and what hath been said might have been said with more advantage and greater evidence if it had been fit to insist upon every particular but I will pursue this Argument no farther but proceed to the second general point I proposed which is to set before you the practicabieness of this great duty by shewing the several ways which every person though in the meanest Circumstances is capable of doing Good A great many there are that are as strongly convinced as may be that 't is both their Interest and duty to be doing Good in their lives but they complain that it is not in their power they have not any Means or Opportunities for it and they bemoan themselves sadly upon this account as thinking their lives useless because they have not those visible Capacities of being serviceable to the world that others have To such as these let me say this in the general There is no condition in the world so mean and despicable but yields us Opportunities of doing Good There is neither Old nor Young Man nor Woman Rich nor Poor High nor Low Learned nor Unlearned but in their Sphere by a good husbandry of those Talents that God has intrusted to their care and management they may be very useful to others and prove instruments of much good in their generations This truth St. Paul most elegantly sets forth in 1 Cor. 12. where he compares the Society of Christians to a Natural body There he shews that as in the Natural body there are many members and all those members have not the same dignity and honour nor the same use or office and yet every member even the meanest hath its particular use by which it doth real service to the body nay so useful it is that the body cannot be without it so it is with the Church of Christ and with every Body Politick There is a necessity both in the Church and in the State that there should be variety of functions and callings and degrees and conditions There must be some to govern and some to be governed there must be some more conspicuous some more obscure some whose gifts and endowments lie this way and some whose Talents lie in another way and yet there is not one of these but in his degree and station either is or may be as useful as any that belong to the Society So that the eye cannot say to the hand as our Apostle there expresseth it I have no need of thee Nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you nay more those members of the body as he continues that seem to be most feeble are yet very necessary To reduce the Apostle's notion to its particulars or to shew in how many respects every individual person that is a Member of a Society is necessary to the publick and either doth or may serve the Weal of it and so do Good in his life is a task too great for me to undertake at this time let it suffice at the present to propose to you these general heads First of all None can want opportunities of doing Good that is in a capacity of performing any acts of Mercy or Charity stristly so called whether that Charity be shew'd to the Bodies or Souls of men Now the instances and expressions of this way of doing good are infinite as infinite as are the wants and necessities of mankind To the Bodies of men we do good whenever we contribute to the relieving and easing them of the outward pressures and wants and necessities they lie under Such as Sickness Pain Poverty Hunger Nakedness Debts Imprisonment or any other outward affliction that falls upon them whether that ease and relief be effected by our purse or by our counsel and advice or by our labour and pains And sure some one of these three things there is none so mean or inconsiderable in the World but it is in his power to benefit his poor Neighbour with To the Souls of men we do good whenever by our discourses or other endeavours we make men better or wiser when we instruct the ignorant when we satisfie the doubtful when we reduce those that are misled by errour when we establish the weak when we reprove those that do amiss in a word all our attempts and endeavours in what way soever to reclaim men from vice and to bring them to wisdom and sobriety is a Charity to their Souls and whether our designs succeed or not we shall be rewarded as those that have done good in the world Secondly All the acts of Beneficence and kindness nay even of Civility and good Nature are to be accounted among the instances of doing good A man doth Good not only by acts of Charity properly so called
of the covetous that God abhorreth them Psal 10.3 which implies the utmost aversion that the Divine nature is capable of to any sort of Men or things The uncharitable and hard hearted Men God hath declared he will have no mercy on Jam. 2.13 but they shall have judgment without mercy that have shewed no mercy Fourthly and lastly a necessity there is that those that are rich in this World should do good and be rich in good works c. upon their own account Though there were no other tye upon them yet self-love and self-preservation would oblige them to it I meddle not here how far in point of worldly interest they are concerned to be charitable though even the motives drawn from hence are very considerable For certainly Charity is a means not only to preserve and secure to them what they have and to make them enjoy it more comfortably but also to increase their store No Man is ever poorer for what he gives away in useful Charity but on the contrary he thrives better for it God seldom fails in this World amply to repay what is thus lent to him besides the other Blessings that accompany his store and go along with it to hs Children after him This I am sure is solemnly promised and in the ordinary dispensations of Providence we see it generally made good whereas to the greedy and penurious Man all things fall out quite contrary he may have Wealth but he hath little comfort in it for a curse generally attends it of which he feels the sad effects in a variously miserable and vexatious life and often in either having none or an unfortunate Posterity But this is not the thing that I mean to insist on This World lasts but for a while and it is no great matter how we fare in it but we have Souls that must live for ever If therefore Men have any kindness for them if they mean not to be undone to all eternity it is absolutely necessary they should do good with what they have O that uncharitable rich Men would think upon that woe that our Saviour pronounceth against them Luke 6.24 Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation O that they would seriously consider and often remember those words of Abraham to the rich Man in Hell Luk. 16.25 Son saith he remember that thou in thy life receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Not that it is a crime to be rich or to have good things in our life no it is the inordinate love of their Wealth to which those that have it are too frequently prone and their not imploying it to those purposes of doing good for which it was given it is these things that bring these curses upon them and really make it easier without an Hyporbole for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 18.25 Certain it is there is no one sin that can be named doth more fatally exclude from Salvation than this we are speaking of We never find the Prophets or the Apostles giving a list of those black crimes that will involve all that are guilty of them in inevitable destruction but we are sure to meet with Covetousness and all the attendants of it among them as many instances might be given Nay so great is this sin of Uncharitableness and not doing good with our Wealth that God in the final sentence that he shall pass upon wicked Men to their condemnation at the last day seems to take no notice of the other sins and crimes of their life but only to censure them for this Matth. 25.31 c. Thus we find that when the King having gathared all Nations before him comes to pronounce the sentence upon those on his left hand who are those that are doomed to everlasting fire there is no mention made of their criminal actions they are not condemned for fraud and oppression for unbelief and irreligion for lewdness and debauchery though any of these be enough to damn a Man but merely for their not doing good for their not relieving the necessitous and excercising other acts of Charity when it was in their power Since now from these Considerations it doth appear how necessary how indispensable a Duty it is to do good with what we have to be rich in good works to be ready to distribute and willing to communicate let me at this time charge all of you that are rich in this world as you would not be unthankful to your great Benefactor nor unjust to your Neighbours as you have any piety towards God or any care of your own Souls that you put it in practice And two instances of this great Duty the present occasion and the exigence of things doth oblige me more particularly to recommend to you The first is the business of the Hospitals the encouraging and promoting that Charity which the piety of our Ancestors begun and whose examples their Successors have hitherto worthily followed and of which we see excellent effects at this day for this we need no better proof than the Report given in of the great number of poor Children and other poor people maintained in the several Hospitals under the pious care of the Lord Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London the year last past For these so great instances of Charity what have we to do but with all Gratitude to commemorate those noble and publick Spirits that first began them and with all devotion to put up our prayers to God for all those now alive that have been promoters and encouragers of such good works and lastly with all chearfulness and diligence to follow these Patterns by liberally contributing to their Maintenance and Advancement These are th Publick Banks and Treasuries in which we may safely lodge that Money which we lend out to God and may from him expect the Interest O what comfort will it be to us when we come to die to be able to say to our selves That portion of goods that God hath in his Providence dispensed to me I have neither kept unprofitably in a Napkin nor squander'd it away upon my lusts but part of it I have put out towards the restoring my miserable Brethren to to the right use of their reason and understanding part of it to the amending Mens manners and from idle and dissolute persons redeeming them to vertue and sobriety and making them some way profitable to the Publick part of it for the healing the sick and curing the wounded and relieving the miserable and necessitous and lastly another part of it towards the Educating poor helpless Children in useful Arts for their Bodies and in the Principles of True Religion for their Souls that so both in their Bodies and Spirits they may be in a capacity to glorifie God and to serve their Country These are all
make himself greater nor looks upon the prosperity of his Neighbour with an evil Eye backbiting and carrying about idle stories is not the thing he lives by He puts a fair construction upon other Mens Words and Actions and will rather conceal a real fault than make it worse in the reporting it He hopes and thinks the best of all Men and rejoyceth in the happiness of those about him He doth as much good as he can and that good that is done by others he is so far from envying that he thanks God for it as if he had done it himself He is a Man of great Plainness and Simplicity apert and open and free in all his Carriage You may always know where to have him for his Words and his Thoughts always go together And though he is careful not to be lavish of his Speech nor at all times to discover all his Mind Yet he is as careful that what he doth speak shall be agreeable to Truth and he so speaks it that those that hear him may take measures of his Mind from it He is a Man who though he be very watchful of opportunities to do himself good and very sagacious in spying dangers and avoiding them Yet he never uses any indirect means either for the benefiting or securing himself He scorns to make advantages of any Man's necessities Nor will he undermine another for the effecting of his own designs Deceit and Collusion are strangers to all his dealings Above all things he hates a Trick and in his account to be a Man of Intrigues a cunning or a shrewd Fellow is but a more gentile term for a Knave In a word the designs he proposeth to himself are all Honest and Just and such as tend to the good of the Community as well as his Own but to no Man's loss or hindrance And the means he useth for accomplishing these designs are all fair and regular and so free is both his Heart and his Actions from all Imposture that he cares not if all the World were privy to them This is the Man that is Vpright in his Conversation towards Men. The Man that with the Wisdom of the Serpent joyns the Innocence and Simplicity of the Dove But thus much of the Vpright Man as a Private Person Let us now view him a little under a more conspicuous character Let us consider him as a Magistrate intrusted with the management of publick affairs Which is the Second particular we are to insist on under this head and here the Upright Man is still the same acted by the same Principles pursuing still the same designs we have hitherto mentioned Onely his Vertues have another Sphere and another Object and therefore require another consideration The great thing he proposes to himself in taking any Office upon him is the glory of God and the publick good The Honour and Dignity of the place and the other worldly advantages that may attend it are but secondary considerations with him The first is his main design which he steadily and constantly pursues throughout the whole Administration of his Office the other is never thought on but with subordination to the former And therefore acting from such Principles as these we may easily conclude him to be a Man whose Counsels and Actions are not steer'd by the wind of popular Applause but by the sense of his Duty He studies not to ingratiate himself with Men but to discharge a good Conscience He is more careful to be a Good Magistrate than to be a Loved one though so happily are things contriv'd that in being the former he rarely fails of the latter The consequence of which is that he is a Man of great Courage and Boldness and Resolution He dares to do whatsoever is fit and just and conducive to the publick good what discouragements soever he meet with Neither the menaces of the Mighty nor the murmurings of the Multitude can fright him from his Duty For he dreads none but God nor fears to do any thing but what is misbecoming him But then he is a Man that doth not resolve things hastily and upon the consideration of a few particulars but takes good advice and useth mature deliberation before he determines himself He doth nothing precipitately But weighs all things represented to him as impartially as he can His Ears are open to all Parties and he debates what is said without Passion or Prejudice or Prepossession and he always considers more what is spoken than who it is that speaks it He is a Man whom you cannot so much disoblige as by attempting to corrupt him Neither the regard of his profit nor his kindness to his Friends can in Matters of Right tempt him to act against his inward sense As to these things he is as blind as Justice herself and you may as soon draw the Sun from his line as him from the steady and strict paths of Righteousness He is a Man that looks upon his Office rather as a burthen than a preferment And therefore he is wonderfully solicitous about the well discharging it His care and study is chiefly employed upon the Publick and he rather suffers the miscarriage of his own affairs than that the Community by his negligence should receive any prejudice While others are doing their own business he is watching for the common good for he always remembers that he is a publick person and that the time and strength that God affords him are not his but theirs by and for whom he is intrusted He is a Man that imploys all his power and interest as much as is possible for the maintenance of the worship and service of God and the defence and encouragement of the true Religion For he considers God as the first and principal person to be respected in all Governments and Societies as being not only the Author but the Head of them And he remembers that Religion doth so much influence the Civil State that the happiness and ruin of Cities and Kingdoms are link'd with the well or ill management of it And in pursuance of this his Zeal for God and Religion he takes care as much as in him lies to encourage those Persons that are Vertuous and Good and to suppress and bring out of credit all Vice and Debauchery all Impiety and Irreligion all Faction and Disorder together with the Maintainers and Abettors of them He is a Man that effectually makes good Job's Character of himself who was also a Magistrate Job 29.14 c. He puts on Righteousness and it cloaths him his Judgment is a Robe and a Diadem He is Eyes to the Blind and Feet he is to the Lame He is a Father to the Poor and the cause which he knoweth not he searcheth out He breaketh the Jaws of the Wicked and plucketh the Spoil out of his Teeth He is a Man that looketh upon himself to have a Trust both with reference to to those above him and those under him And therefore he
and Families Now to a Man that loves God and hath a tender sense of his Duty this is enough in all Conscience to deter him for ever from the practice of Gaming though it be not made to appear to him that it is expresly and explicitly forbid by any Law of Jesus Christ So that you see that in those points where there are disputes on both sides when the Consideration is concerning the Obligation or the lawfulness of an Action there is no difficulty no dispute at all when the Consideration is only concerning what is best and most fitting to be done concerning what is most agreeable to our Duty and most conducive to the Honour of God and Religion as to that Action That is evident enough in all Cases nor is any Man at a loss for finding it out And that is the Principle which I say every sincere lover of God governs himself by and which I would have us all to propose to our selves for the Rule of our Actions in order to the securing us from those snares and stumbling blocks to which the affinity between Vertue and Vice Lawful and Vnlawful will otherwise expose us Let us not stand upon points with God Almighty as if so much was his and so much was our own as if we were to share our selves between his Service and our own Pleasures and Profits and the like and were resolved not to pay him any more respect or love than what some express Letter of his Law doth exact at our Hands But let us so entirely devote our selves to his Service as to do not only all those things which we are strictly bound to do or else we are Transgressors but all those things that are acceptable to him all those things that are praise worthy and tend to the Perfection of our Nature and the Reputation of Christ's Religion Let us make it the end of our Actions not to seek our selves but his Glory every day to grow better and better and in every Occurrence to consider not what may lawfully be done but what is Most becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ to do In a word what ever is best in any Action what ever most serves the end of piety what ever tends most to the credit of our Religion and the benefit of others let us consider that and act accordingly And thus I am sure to design and act is most suitable to the Nature and Genius of our Christian Religion nay indeed it is the Principal Law and Commandment of it The design of Christianity is not to adjust the precise bounds of Vertue and Vice Lawful and Vnlawful which is that that a great many among us so greedily hanker after For the best that could have come from such a design had been only this that Men by this means might have been fairly instructed how they might have avoided the being bad though they never became very good But the design of Christianity is to make Men as good as they can possibly be as devout as humble as charitable as temperate as contented as heavenly-minded as their Natures will allow of in this World And for the producing this effect the exact distinguishing the limits of the several Vertues and their opposite Vices signifies very little The Laws of our great Master are not like the Civil Municipal Laws of Kingdoms which are therefore wonderfully nice and critical and particular in setting bounds to the practices of Men because they only look at overt Actions so that if a Man do but keep his Actions within the compass of the Letter of the Law he may be accounted a good Subject and is no way obnoxious to the Penalties which the Law threatens If our Religion had been of this strain we should without doubt have had a World of particular Laws and Precepts and directions about our Actions in all emergent Cases more than we now have And we might as easily have known from the Bible what was forbidden unlawful Anger what was excessive drinking what was pride and luxury in Apparel and the like as we now know by the Statute-Book what is Burglary or Murther or Treason But there was no need of these particularities in the institution of Christ Jesus His Religion was to be a Spiritual thing And the design of it was not to make us chast or temperate or humble or charitable in such a degree but to make us as chast and temperate as humble and charitable as pure and holy in all our Conversation as we possibly can be This I say was the design of Christ's Religion It was to be the Highest Philosophy that was ever taught to Mankind It was to make us the most excellent and perfect Creatures as to purity of Mind and Heart that Humane Nature is capable of And therefore it hath not been so accurate and particular in prescribing bounds to our outward Actions because it was abundantly enough for the securing them to oblige us to the highest degree of inward purity And this it hath done above all the Laws and Religions in the World It teacheth us to abhor every thing that is evil or impure in all the kinds of it in all the degrees of it and in all the tendencies towards it And to lay out our selves in the pursuit of every thing that is honest that is lovely that is praise-worthy and of good report among Men. If this now be the design of our Religion and these be the Laws of it I leave it to you to judge of these two things First Whether it doth not highly concern all of us that profess this holy Religion to endeavour in all our Conversation to be as holy and as vertuous as we can and to do as much good as we can and not to content our selves with such a degree of honesty and vertue as is just sufficient to the rendering us not vicious And then secondly Whether if we do thus endeavour we can easily be at a loss in distinguishing between Good and Evil Duty and Sin in any instance And consequently Whether we can be much in danger of ill using our Liberty and so transgressing upon that account I have been longer upon this first Head than I intended but I shall make amends for it by dispatching the two following in so much the fewer words And indeed after so large an account as I have given of the general Rule there is less need of dwelling upon particular ones II. In the second place In order to the right use of our Liberty and so securing our serves from falling into sin through mistaking the measures of Good and Evil This will be a good Rule to propose to our selves namely That in matters of Duty we should rather do too much than too little But in matters of Indifferency we should rather take too little of our Liberty than too much First As to matters of Duty my meaning is this That where the Laws of God have generally and indefinitely commanded a thing but
have not set down Rules about the particular measures and proportions of it in that case it is advisable rather to do more than we are perhaps precisely bound to do that so we may be sure we have performed our Duty than by being scanty in our obedience to run the hazard of falling short of our Duty Thus for instance Our Lord in the New Testament hath often and solemnly commanded us to pray But neither he nor his Apostles have any where told us how often we are to pray only they have bid us pray frequently In this Case now a Man that makes a Conscience of performing his Duty will take all occasions and opportunities of listing up holy hands and devout affections to his heavenly Father However he will not fail at least once every time he riseth and once every time he goes to rest to offer up a solemn Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise Less than this I say he must not do for fear he break the Commandment of praying frequently praying continually But more than this it will become him to do in order to the giving himself satisfaction that he hath fully performed it Thus again To give Alms to the poor is an indispensable Duty of our Religion But what proportion of our substance we are to give away in Alms and Charity is no where set down but is wholly left to our discretion Now in this case it is certainly much more advisable to give liberally and largely and plentifully even as much as our condition in this World and the necessities of our Families can allow though by so doing we shall prove to have given in greater abundance than we were strictly obliged to Than by giving stingily and pinchingly now and then a little pocket money or so to run the hazard of being Trangressors of the Commandment and having our Portion among the covetous and unmerciful There is no damage comes to a Man by doing the former but on the contrary a great deal of good For God never fails bounteously to reward the bountiful hand But there is both damage and infinite danger in the latter And thus we are to practise in all other Duties Only this caution we must take along with us That we are always so to proportion the measures of every single Duty as to render it consistent with the performance of the other Duties of our lives As for instance we must not spend so much time in Prayer as to hinder the pursuit of our Callings and necessary business We must so give Alms as yet to leave our selves enough to pay every one their own and to make a competent provision for our Families But let us but take care to secure this and then we cannot easily exceed in the measures of any Duty The more we pray and the more we give alms still the better And so in all other instances of Duty But now in the second place the quite contrary to this are we to practise in matters of Liberty There the rule is rather to take less than is allowed us than to take all Rather to abridge our selves of our lawful Liberties than by doing all that we may lawfully do indanger our falling into sin There is no harm at all in departing from our Rights and Privileges which God hath indulged us But there is a great harm in extending them beyond their bounds There is no evil in not gratifying our desires and appetites in all the things they crave which are allowable and which we are permitted to gratifie them in But there is an infinite evil in gratifying them in unlawful forbidden instances And therefore every wise and good Man will be sure to keep on the safe side and to prevent the danger of doing more than he should do he will not always do all that he may do The truth is that Man that makes no scruple of using his Liberty to the utmost stretch and extent of it upon all occasions and regards nothing more in his Actions than just that he do not fall into some direct sin That Man cannot always be innocent but will be drawn into a hundred irregularities and miscarriages Thus for Example he that useth himself to eat or to drink to the utmost pitch that can be said to be within the limits of Temperance it is impossible but such a one will now and then be unavoidably overtaken in the sin of Gluttony or Drunkenness He that will use all the liberties that the Law allows him for the making advantages to himself in his Trade or his Dealings with other Men Such a one will not be able to avoid the just imputation of being in many instances an Oppressor or a hard Conscienced Man The safest way therefore if we mean to preserve our Vertue amidst the multitude of Snares and Temptations that we meet with in the World is to set bounds even to our Lawful Liberties to keep our actions within such a compass as not to come even near the Confines of Vice and Sin Though it is but a point and that often an undiscernable one that distinguisheth between what is lawful and what is unlawful Yet there is a great latitude in what is lawful That is if I gratify my Appetites but a little I do that which is lawful and if I gratifie them more I may do that which is lawful likewise But he shews the most Honest and Vertuous Mind that in his actions takes but a little of this latitude and by that means keeps himself at a good distance from that which is vicious and criminal III. But thirdly and lastly To what degree soever we may think fit to make use of our liberty yet at all times As soon as we begin to doubt or fear we have gone as far as we lawfully can go it is then high time to break off and to proceed no farther This is the last Rule I have to offer upon this occasion And thus also wherever we have a just ground of suspition or doubt whether a thing be lawful or no this doubt or suspicion is of it self reason enough to make us forbear that thing Unless indeed there be a Necessity or a great Charity to be served by the doing of it which may in reason over-balance the suspicion of its lawfulness Thus in matters of Recreation If we have the least doubt whether this or the other Pleasure or Divertisement be innocent and lawful why that is Argument enough without more ado to make us forbear it though perhaps we see others use it without scruple Thus in matters of Temperance when we first begin to suspect that we have drunk as much as is convenient for us Let us by all means leave off and break from the Company Thus in matters of Sobriety when we have reason to doubt that we are come up to the full bounds of the Christian gravity and modesty and that any degree more of pomp or bravery in our garb or in our attendance or in our equipage will
this state of Life we gratifie our Highest and Noblest Powers the intellectual Appetites of our Souls which as they are infinitely capacious so have they an infinite good to fill them whereas in the sensual Life the meanest the dullest and the most contracted Faculties of our Souls were only provided for But what need I carry you out into these Speculations when your own sense and experience will ascertain you in this matter above a thousand Arguments Do but seriously set your selves to serve God if you have yet never done it do but once try what it is to live up to the Precepts of Reason and Veriue and Religion and I dare confidently pronounce that you will in one mouth find more Joy more Peace more Content to arise in your spirits from the sense that you have resisted the Temptations of Evil and done what was your duty to do than in many years spent in Vanity and a Licentious course of living I doubt not in the least but that after you have once seen and tasted how gracious the Lord is how good all his ways are but you will proclaim to all the World that One day spent in his Courts is better than a thousand Nay you will be ready to cry out with the Roman Orator if it be lawful to quote the Testimony of a Heathen after that of the Divine Psalmist that One day lived according to the Precepts of Vertue is to be preferred before an Immortality of Sin You will then alter all your sentiments of things and wonder that you should have been so strangely abused by false representations of Vertue and Vice You will then see that Religion is quite another thing than it appeared to you before you became acquainted with it Instead of that grim sowre unpleasant Countenance in which you heretofore painted her to your self you will then discover nothing in her but what is infinitely Lovely and Charming Those very Actions of Religion which you now cannot think upon with Patience they seem so harsh and unpleasant you will then find to be accompanied with a wonderful Delight You will not then complain of the narrowness of the Bounds or the scantiness of the Measures that it hath confined your desires to for you will then find that you have hereby gained an entrance into a far greater and more perfect Liberty How ungentilely how much against the grain of Nature soever it now looks to forgive an Injury or an Affront you will then find it to be as far more easie so far more sweet than to revenge one You will no longer think works of Charity burdensome or expensive or that to do good Offices to every one is an employment too mean for you for you will then experience that there is no sensuality like that of doing Good and that it is a greater pleasure to do a kindness than to riceive one How will you chide your self for having been so averse to Prayer and other devout Exercises accounting them as tiresome unsavoury things when you begin to feel the delicious Relishes they leave upon your Spirit You will then confess that no Conversation is half so agreeable as that which we enjoy with God Almighty in Prayer no Cordial so reviving as heartily to pour out our Souls unto him And then to be affected with his Mercies to praise and give thanks to him for his Benefits what is it but a very Heaven upon Earth an anticipation of the Joys of Eternity Nay you will not be without your pleasures even in the very entrance of Religion then when you exercise acts of Repentance when you mourn and afflict your self for your sins which seems the frightfullest thing in all Religion For such is the nature of that holy sorrow that you would not for all the World be without it and you will find far greater Contentment and Satisfaction in grieving for your Offences than ever you did receive from the Committing them But O the ineffable Pleasures that do continually spring up in the heart of a good Man from the snse of God's Love and the hope of his Favour and the fair prospect he hath of the Joy and Happiness of the other World How pleasing how transporting will the thought of these things be to you To think that you are one of those happy Souls that are of an Enemy become the Friend of God that your ways please him and that you are not only Pardoned but Accepted and Beloved by him to think that you a poor Creature who were of your self nothing and by your sins had made your self far worse than nothing are yet by the goodness of your Saviour become so considerable a Being as to be able to give delight to the King of the World and to cause joy in Heaven among the Blessed Angels by your Repentance to think that God charges his Providence with you takes care of all your Concerns hears all your Prayers provides all things needful for you and that he will in his good time take you up unto himself to live everlastingly in his Presence to be partaker of his Glories to be ravished with his Love to be acquainted with his Counsels to know and be known by Angels Archangels and Seraphims to enjoy a Conversation with Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and all the Raised and Glorified Spirits of Brave Men and with all these to spend a happy and a rapturous Eternity in Adoring in Loving in Praising God for the Infiniteness of his Wisdom and the Miracles of his Mercy and Goodness to all his Creatures Can there be any Pleasure like this Can any thing in the World put you into such an Ecstasie of Joy as the very thought of these things With what a mighty scorn and contempt will you in the sense of them look down upon all the little Gauderies and sickly Satisfactions that the Men of this World keep such a stir about How empty and evanid how flat and unsavoury will the best Pleasures on Earth appear to you in comparison of these Divine Contentments You will perpetually rejoyce you will sing Praises to your Saviour you will bless they day that ever you became acquainted with him you will confess him to be the only master of Pleasure in the World and that you never knew what it was to be an Epicure indeed till you became a Christian Thus have I gone through all those Heads which I at first proposed to insist on What now remains but that I resume the Apostle's Exhortation with which I began this Discourse that since as you have seen Godliness is so exceedingly profitable to all the purposes of this Life as well as the other since as you have seen Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour and all her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace you would also be persuaded seriously to Apply your selves to the exercise of it Which that you may do God of his c. SERMON
ardent Love and Charity set our selves not to seek his own but every man another's good as the Apostle exhorteth 1 Cor. 10.24 Secondly if the doing good be so necessary a duty as hath been represented what must we say of those Men that frame to themselves Models of Christianity without putting this duty into its notion There is a sort of Christianity which hath obtained in the world that is made up of Faith and knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries without any respect to Charity and good works Nay have we not heard of a sort of Christianity the very perfection of which seems to consist in the disparaging this duty of doing Good as much as is possible crying it down as a heathen Vertue a poor blind piece of Morality a thing that will no way further our salvation nay so far from that that it often proves a hindrance to it by taking us off from that full relyance and recumbency that we ought to have on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in order to our Salvation But O how contrary are these Doctrines to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles How widely different a thing do they make Christianity to be from what it will appear if we take our notions of it from their Sermons and Practices Is it possible that he that went about doing Good himself made it his meat and drink the business and employment of his life should set so light by it in us that are his followers Is it possible that they that so often call upon us to do Good 1 Tim. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.8 1 Cor. 13.2.13 to be rich in good works above all things to have fervent charity among our selves telling us that all faith is nothing all knowledge of mysteries is nothing all gifts of Prophecy and Miracles are nothing but that Charity is all in all I say is it possible that they should think doing Good so insignificant so unprofitable nay so dangerous a thing as these I spoke of do represent it But I need not farther reprove these Opinions because I hope they find but few Patrons but this seriously ought to be reproved among us viz. that we do not generally lay that stress upon this duty we are speaking of that we ought to do Many are ready enough to acknowledge their Obligations to do Good and count it a very commendable thing and a work that God will bless them the better for yet they are loth to make it an essential ingredient of their Religion they think they may be Religious and serve God without it If they be but sober in their lives and just in their dealings and come to Church at the usual times they have Religion enough to carry them to Heaven though in the mean time they continue covetous and hard and uncharitable without bowels of pity and compassion and make no use of their wealth or their power and interest or their parts and industry or their other Talents committed to them for the doing good in the World Far be it from any Man to pretend to determine what Vertues or degrees of them are precisely necessary to Salvation and what Vertues or degrees of them a man may safely be without But this is certain that Charity and doing Good are none of those that can be spared The Scripture hath every where declared these qualities to be as necessary in order to our Salvation as any condition of the Gospel Nay if we will consult St. Matth. 25. where the Process of the General Judgment is described we shall find these to be the great points that at the last day Men shall be examined upon and upon which the whole case of their eternal state will turn So that if we take the Scripture for our Guide these Men at last will be found to be much mistaken and to have made a very false judgment both of Religion and of their own condition Thirdly From what hath been said about doing Good we may gather wherein that Perfection of Christianity which we are to aspire after doth consist It has been much disputed which is the most perfect life to live in the World as other Men do and to serve God in following our employments and taking care of our families and doing Good offices to our neighbours and discharging all other Duties that our relation to the publick requires of us or to retire from the World and to quit all our secular concernments and wholly to give up our selves to Prayer and Meditation and those other exercises of Religion properly so called This latter kind of life is so magnified by the Romanists in comparison of the other that it hath engrossed to it self the name of Religious None among them are thought worthy to be stiled Religious persons but those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery But whatever excellence may be pretended in this course of life it certainly falls much short of that which is led in a publick way He serves God best that is most serviceable to his Generation And no Prayers or Fasts or Mortifications are near so acceptable a Sacrifice to our Heavenly Father as to do Good in our lives It is true to keep within doors and to attend our devotions though those that are in appearance most abstracted from the world are not always the most devout persons I say this kind of life is the most easie and the safer A man is not then exposed so much to temptations he may with less difficulty preserve his innocence but where is the praise of such a Vertue Vertue is then most glorious and shall be most rewarded when it meets with most trials and oppositions And as for the bravery of contemning the world and all the Pomps of it which they so magnifie in this kind of life alas it is rather an effect of pusillanimity and love of our ease and a desire to be free from cares and burthens than of any true nobleness of mind If we would live to excellent purpose indeed if we would shew true bravery of Spirit and true piety towards God let us live as our blessed Lord and his Apostles did Let us not fly Temptations but overcome them let us not sit at home amusing our selves with our pleasing contemplations when we may be useful and beneficial abroad Let us so order our devotions towards God that they may be a means of promoting our worldly business and affairs and doing Good among men Let us take our fit times of retirement and abstraction that we may the more freely converse with God and pour out our souls before him but let this be only to the end that we may appear abroad again more brisk and lively in vanquishing the Temptations that come in our way and more prompt and readily disposed to every good work This is to imitate our Lord Jesus to walk as we have him for an example This is a life more suitable to the contrivance and the genius of his Religion
the observation of them upon our selves which if we can all resolve to do I can safely apply to every one of you that saying of Solomon in the ninth Chapter of this Book of Ecclesiastes and the seventh Verse with which I shall conclude Go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work SERMON IV. PREACHED AT The SPITTLE On the 14th of April 1680. 1 Tim. vi 17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on Eternal Life GROTIVS his Note upon this Text is this that St. Paul now having finished this his Epistle to Timothy it comes into his Mind that there was need of some more particular application to be made and admonition to be given to those Wealthy Merchants with which the City of Ephesus where Timothy resided did then abound and upon this consideration he inserts those words I have now read charge them that are rich in this World c. How famous soever the City of Ephesus was at that time for Wealth or Trade there is little doubt to be made that this City of ours praised be God for it doth in those respects at this day equal if not much exceed it And therefore that which St. Paul thought of so great importance as to give especial orders to Timothy to press upon the Ephesian Citizens will always be very sit to be seriously recomended to you in this place and more especially at this time since it is the proper work of the day Waving therefore wholly the argument of our Saviour's Resurrection upon which you have before been entertained I apply my self without farther Preface to conclude this Easter Solemnity with that with which St. Paul concludes his Epistle viz. with a short discourse of the Rich Man's great duty and concernment which is in these words plainly set forth to us In them we may take notice of these three Generals which I shall make the heads of my following discourse First The duty it self incumbent upon those that are Rich in this World expressed in several particulars Secondly The great Obligation that lies upon them to the performance of it which we may gather from the Vehemence and the Authority with which St. Paul orders Timothy to press it charge them saith he that are Rich that they be not c. Thirdly The mighty encouragement they have to observe this charge for hereby they lay up to themselves in store a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life First I begin with the Rich Man's Duty which is here expressed in four points two of them Negative teaching what things he ought to avoid the other two Positive teaching what he ought to practise They are these I. That he should not be high minded II. That he should not trust in uncertain riches III. That he should trust in the living God IV. That he should do good he rich in good works c. The first thing that is given in charge to all those that are rich in this World is that they be not high minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they do not think too well of themselves for being rich and take occasion from thence to despise others that are in meaner circumstances than they They are not to value themselves a jot the more or to think worse of others upon account of that outward fortune they are possessed of but are in all their conversation to express the same moderation and humanity and easiness and obligingness of temper to those they have to do with even the meanest and the poorest as if they stood with them upon the same level And with very great reason hath St. Paul given this caution to rich Men. For by the experience of the World it hath been always found that Wealth is apt to puff up to make Men look big and to breed in them a contempt of others but what little ground there is for this is easily seen by any that will give themselves leave to consider For what doth any of these worldly goods which make us keep at distance really add to a Man in point of true worth and value do they either recommend him more to God or to wise Men or even to himself if he have a grain of sense in him than if he was without them Certainly they do not For that for which either God approves us or wise Men esteem us or we can speak peace and content to our selves is not any thing without us any thing that fortune hath given to us but something that we may more truly call our own something that we were neither born with nor could any body hinder us of nor can be taken from us that is to say the Riches of our Minds our vertuous and commendable qualites A Man is no more a fit object of esteem merely for being rich than the Beast he rides on if I may use the old comparison is of commendation for the costly Trappings he wears Secondly Another caution given to those that are rich in this World is that they should not trust in uncertain riches This likewise is a temptation to which they are exposed and our Saviour hath very lively set it forth to us in the Parable of the Rich man in the Gospel who having got mighty Possessions and filled his Barns thought of nothing farther but presently saith to himself Luke 12.16 c. Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry for thou hast goods laid up for many Years But the conclusion of that Parable doth sufficiently shew the vanity and ridiculousness of this trusting in our riches for a message comes to him from God Thou fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee and then whose shall all these things be that thou hast provided It is the greatest madness in the World to please or speak Peace to our selves upon account of that which we are not sure to enjoy a day but we may for any thing we know be snatch'd away the next moment into another World and so must leave the Joy and Pride of our Hearts to we know not whom But supposing we had some certainty of our lives and could promise our selves that we should not leave our Wealth for some competent time yet we have no certainty that our Wealth will not leave us How prosperous soever our present circumstances be yet we cannot ensure the continuance of them there are a thousand accidents may happen every day which may strip us as naked as when we came into the World and we may be reduced to the extremities of
since it is Zeal for God that we are here speaking of it must be something wherein our Duty is concerned that must be the object of our Zeal So that a right Zeal of God implies that we do so well inform our selves of the Nature of our Religion as not to pretend a Religious Zeal for any thing that is not a part of our Religion If our Zeal for God be as it should be it must certainly express it self in matters that are good about such objects as God hath made to be our Duty It is good saith St. Paul to be always zealously affected in a good matter But if we mistake in our Cause if we take that for good which is evil or that for evil which is good here our Zeal is not according to Knowledge Secondly as the object of our Zeal must be according to Knowledge so also the Principle from whence our Zeal proceeds must be according to Knowledge also That is to say We must have solid and rational grounds to proceed upon in our concernment for any thing such as will not only satisfie our selves but all others that are unbyassed In a word such as we can justifie to all the World If it be every Man's Duty as St. Peter tells us it is to be ready to give an Answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him Then I am sure it is much more every Man's Duty to be able to give a reason of the Zeal that is in him Because this business of a Man's Zeal doth more affect the Publick and is of greater Concernment to it than what a Man 's private Faith or Hope is But yet how little is this considered by many zealous Men among us Some are zealous for a point to serve an Interest or a Faction But this is not to be owned as the ground and reason of Zeal for indeed if it should it would not be allowed of Others are zealous for no other reason but because they find their Teachers or those they most converse with are so They follow the common Cry and examine no more of the matter Others indeed have a Principle of Zeal beyond all this For they are â—â—ved from within to stand up for this or the other Cause they have Impulses upon their minds which they cannot resist But that in truth is no more a justifiable ground of any Man's Zeal than either of the former For if these Motions and Impulses that they speak of be from God there will certainly be conveyed along with them such Reasons and Arguments for the thing that they are to be zealous about as will if they be declared satisfie and convince all other reasonable Men as well as themselves For it is a ridiculous thing to imagine that God at this day doth move or impel Men in any other way than what is agreeable to the Reason of Mankind and the Rule of his holy Word And if the Man's Zeal can be justified by either of these there is no need of vouching Inspirations for it Thirdly As the Zeal which is according to knowledge hath a good matter for its object and proceeds from a right Principle So it is also regular as to the Measures of it He that hath it is careful that it do not exceed its due Bounds as the Ignorant Zeal often doth but he distinguisheth between the several objects he is zealous for and allows every one of them just so great a Concernment as the thing is worth and no more If the thing be but a small matter he is but in a small measure concerned for it If it be of greater moment he believes he may be allowed to be the more earnest about it But he looks upon it as a rash and foolish thing and an effect of great ignorance or weakness to be hot and eager for all things alike We should account him not many degrees removed from a Child or an Ideot that upon the cut of a Finger should as passionately complain and cry out for help as if he had broken a Limb. Why just the same Folly and Childishness it is to make a mighty bustle about small matters which are of no consequence in which neither Religion nor the Publick Peace are much concerned as if indeed our Lives and Souls were in danger It therefore becomes all prudent and sober Men to take care that their Zeal do not spend it self in little things that they be not too passionate and earnest and vehement for things that are not worth much contending for If we lay a greater weight upon a Cause than it will bear and shew as much warmth and passion for small matters as if the Fundamentals of our Faith were at stake we are zealous indeed but not according to Knowledge Fourthly The Zeal that is according to knowledge is always attended with hearty Charity It is not that bitter Zeal which the Apostle speaks of which is accompanied with Hatred and Envy and perverse Disputings But it is kind and sociable and meek even to Gainsayers It is that Wisdom which is from above that is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated It is a Zeal that loves God and his Truth heartily and would do all that is possible to bring Honour and Advancement to them But at the same time it loveth all Men. And therefore in all things where it expresses it self it purely consults the Merits of the Cause before it but lets the Persons of Men alone It is a certain Argument of an Ignorant and ungoverned Zeal when a Man leaves his Cause and his Concernment for God's Glory and turns his Heat upon those that he has to deal with when he is peevish and angry with Men that differ from him When he is not contented to oppose Arguments to Arguments and to endeavour to gain his point by calm Reasoning but he flies out into Rage and Fury and when he is once transported herewith he cares not what undecent bitter Reflections he makes upon all those that have the Fortune to be of a different side But in these Cases Men would do well to remember that the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God as the Apostle expresses it All this kind of behaviour favours of the Wisdom of this World which is Earthly and Sensual and Devilish Fifthly and lastly Another inseparable Property of Zeal according to Knowledge is That it must pursue lawful Ends by lawful Means must never do an Ill thing for the carrying the best Cause This St. Paul hath laid down as a Rule to be eternally observed among Christians when in the third of the Romans he declares that their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Be therefore our Point never so good or never so weighty yet if we use any dishonest unlawful Arts for the gaining of it that is to say If we do any thing which is either in it self Evil and appears
any of our Betters without saluting them or some way or other testifying our Respect to them tho' they had no way particularly obliged us But if we were beholding to them for our daily Bread to come into their Presence without taking notice of them or their Bounty to us would be intolerable How much more intolerable therefore must it be to pass by God Almighty day after day nay to be in his Presence continually as indeed we always are and yet neither to pay any Homage or Reverence to him as He is our Supreme Lord nor to make any Acknowledgments as He is our daily Preserver and Benefactor If we had any sense of Ingenuity we should blush to think of passing a Day without several times lifting up our Minds and doing our Respects to Almighty God tho' there was no other ill in the Neglect than only the horrible Rudeness and ill Manners that it discovers in us But Secondly The constant Exercise of Prayer is not only recommended to us under the notion of a very decent and reasonable thing but as an indispensable Duty God Almighty hath most strictly charged it upon us and we are Transgressors of his Laws if we do not practise it Nature it self speaks sufficiently plain in this matter And where-ever God hath to the Law of Nature super-added any Revelation of his Will this Duty we are speaking of fails not to make up a considerable part of it It would be endless to mention all that is said upon this Head by our Lord and his Apostles in the new Testament I have told you already that they oblige us to no less than Praying always Praying without ceasing They use likewise abundance of other Expressions to the like purpose They bid us every where to lift up holy hands In every thing to make our Supplications known unto God To pray in the Spirit with all Prayer and Supplication and and to watch thereunto with all perseverance If it be said there is no such express command for Prayer in that Revelation which was made to the Jews I answer It is a great Mistake The Prophets do over and over again injoin it as the Principal Part of the Worship of God And those that live without Praying are by those Inspired Writers rank'd among the Atheists Psalm 53.1.4 And as for the Law of Moses it self it is obvious to observe that the greatest part of it is concerning Sacrifices Now Sacrifices if we will understand them right were nothing else but that Form or Method of putting up Prayers to God that was in those times used in the World So that in truth so far was Prayer from being left as a Matter of Indifferency to the Jews that most of their Religion consisted in it And accordingly all the Devout Men of that Church spent much of their Time in this Exercise David's manner was to pray seven times a Day And Daniel took himself to be so much obliged to the frequent Practice of this Duty that rather than break his Custom of performing his Solemn Devotions three times a day he would expose himself to the Den of Lyons Nay Thirdly So great is our obligation to frequent Prayer that he acts against his Nature whosoever doth not practise it For in truth Prayer is the proper and peculiar Duty of Man as he is a Man That which constitutes the nature of Man and doth formally difference and distinguish him from all other Animals is not so much the power of Reason as the capacity of being Religious There are some Foot-steps of an obscure Reason to be observed in many Creatures besides Man But in none except Him is there found any sense of a Deity or Disposition towards Religion or any thing that looks like it That seems to be the Prerogative of Mankind God endowed them and them only with Spirits capable of Reflecting upon the Author of their Beings and of making acknowledgments and performing Religious Worship to him So that to Worship God to converse with him in the exercise of Devotion to Pray and give Thanks for his Benefits may be truly said to be the proper Office of a Man as Man The natural exercise of those Faculties that distinguish him from brute Creatures And consequently those that live in a continual neglect of this what must be said of them but that they act unsuitably to their Natures and are degenerated into a sort of Brutishness It appears then that our Obligations to this Duty are many and great and such as there is no possibility of evading But here is our unhappiness that those Duties which we are most strictly obliged to are not those that we are always most inclined to practise There may be something in the most indispensable Duties so harsh and unpleasant so disagreeing with our other Appetites or Interests They may be so hard to be performed so Laborious or so Expensive or upon some other account so ungratefull that we shall naturally put our selves upon the finding out Excuses for the ridding our hands of them and easily satisfy our minds for so doing But now which I desire in the Fourth place to be considered There are none of these pretences to be made against this Duty of Prayer none of these Inconveniencies do attend it But it is so naturally so easily performed and so inoffensively to all our other Appetites and Interests That one would think nothing but mere laziness or stupidity could hinder a Man from the daily Exercise of it It requires no great Parts or Learning or Study for the discharging it The meanest Capacity the most un-improved Vnderstanding if there be but an honest Heart may perform it as well as the learnedest Man in the World It requires no Labour or Toil. The feeblest and most dis-spirited Body that can but lift up eyes to Heaven and direct wishes thither doth it as effectually as the most vigorous Constitution It doth not go against the grain of any natural Inclination nor put the body to any pain or hardship Nor doth it contradict any appetite or affection that Nature hath implanted in us No Humour but either the Sottish or the Malicious the Brutish or the Devilish is distasted by it It puts us to no Charge or Expence in the World save that of our Thoughts yet that is the noblest way of spending them And if they be not employed thus it is ten to one but they will be employed much worse It is not at all consumptive of our Time For we may attend this work when we are a doing other business and there is no man so full of business but he hath abundance of vacant spaces which he will not know how to fill up to any good purpose unless he hath learned this Art of saving Time In a word there is no Objection against it it is one of the Easiest Naturalest Inoffensivest Duties in the World Nay so easie it is that the most Selfish Man if he was to make his own Terms with
are made it should be at their Peril if they transgressed them supposing Magistrates did their Duty And all this we say is very consistent with that Tenderness and Charity that all Christians and even Magistrates themselves in their private Capacity do owe to mis-perswaded erroneous Consciciences And then Secondly it is to be remembred that that Kindness and Tenderness to mistaken Zealots which we are speaking of from the Text is not to be expressed to all alike but to some more to some less to some perhaps in no degree at all according as the nature and quality of their Errors are and according as the Men that are guilty of them may more or less or not at all be thought to have a real Zeal of God and to act out of Principles of Conscience Thus for instance In the First place Those that set up for Patrons of Atheism or Epicurism that make it their business in their Conversation to expose all Religion and to bring it into contempt that ridicule the Professors of it as a company of easie credulous Men that make no Conscience of blaspheming God and all things Sacred as occasion is given them Why these Men may have Zeal enough for their Opinions and we find that they often have a great deal too much But are such to be treated with that sort of Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of No by no means For they are quite out of the bounds of my Text They have a Zeal indeed but it is not a Zeal for God but for the Devil and the Interests of his Kingdom And if one were to measure the greatness of Crimes by the mischief they do to humane Society I should think that this sort of People were not to expect so much favour and respect from Mankind as some other Malefactors that yet by our Laws are to pay for their offences at no less a rate than their Lives Again Secondly If there be any Men that under a pretence of Religion do teach or encourage or promote any sort of Vice or Immorality or whose Principles do necessarily lead to debauch Mens Manners in the plain matters of Sobriety Chastity Truth or Justice and the like such kind of People are by no means Objects of that Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of For the Laws of Nature as to moral Virtue and Vice are so plainly writ in every Man's heart that he must be supposed to be an Ill Man that can easily entertain any Principle let it come never so much recommended under the Name of Religion that contradicts them And whatever allowance may in charity be made for a Man's mistakes there is no reason that much should be made for his Wickedness Again Thirdly If there be any Men that whilst they express a great Zeal for the Purity of Religion and exclaim against the Corruptions of it as they term them which are introduced into the Publick Establishment and turn every stone to have all things setled in another Method yet all this while God and their own Hearts know that all this Concernment and Zeal of theirs for Religion though it make a great shew is only pretended and that there is another thing that lies at the bottom that is to say Worldly Interest and Dominion and Power which they hope to compass by such a Regulation of Matters as they desire I say if there be any such Men they are likewise no way concerned in that Compassion my Text speaks of For though they may be very Zealous yet it is a Zeal for their own secular advantages that acts them and not a Zeal of God If such Men could be known instead of being kindly and charitably thought of for their Zeal in Religion the Virtuous part of Mankind would look upon them as the worst of Hypocrites But since God only knows the Hearts of Men all such pretenders to Zeal for Religion must till we know them also be treated according to the Merits of the cause they pretend to be Zealous for But then Fourthly and Lastly All that I have now said is with respect to those that are out of the limits of my Text such as have no Zeal of God though some of them may pretend it But then as for those that really act out of Principles of Conscience and have a real Zeal of God though in a wrong way These are true Objects of our Tenderness and Compassion though yet in different degrees For according as their Principles and Practices do more or less injure our common Christianity or are more or less dangerous to our Government and Constitution in the same proportion the greater or less Tenderness and Indulgence is to be expressed towards them But most of what concerns this matter being already setled by Law I will not be so bold as to meddle in it and therefore I proceed to the Third Head of my Discourse III. The Third thing I told you we might observe from this Text was this The Apostle's tacit Reprehension of the Jewish Zeal upon this account that it was not according to Knowledge The Use I make of this is that from hence we may be able to gather to our selves a true Rule for the governing our Zeal in matters of Religion and likewise for the judging in others what Zeal is commendable and what is not For be our Zeal of God never so great yet if it be not a zeal according to knowledge it is not the right Christian Zeal And though we see others never so fervent and vehement in pursuing a Religious Cause and that too out of Conscience yet if this Zeal of theirs be not according to knowledge it is a Zeal that justly deserves to be reproved And though both we and they may for our sincerity in Gods Cause expect some Allowances both from God and Man yet neither they nor we can justifie it either to God or Man that we are thus foolishly and ignorantly Zealous I wish this mark of right Zeal that it ought to be according to knowledge were more considered For it seems not often to be thought on by those that are most zealous in their way of what perswasion soever they be This same business of Knowledge is a thing that is most commonly forgot to be taken in as an ingredient or Companion of Zeal in most sort of Professors For as the World goes those Men are generally found to be the greatest Zealots who are most notoriously Ignorant Whereas true Zeal should not only proceed from true Knowledge but should also be always accompanied with it and governed by it But what is it to have a Zeal according to Knowledge What doth this Character of justifiable right Zeal contain in it I answer it must at least contain in it these five following things First To have a Zeal according to Knowledge doth import that we be not mistaken as to the matter of our Zeal that it be a good Cause that we are zealous about And