very almes betoken and discover the necessity he hath yet no malice to his Benefactor therefore but the perishing naked soul thinks he that labors to releive her wants upbraids her with them and the invitations therefore to the Supper of the Lamb the offers of the wedding garment of the robe of Immortality provoke her Men allow the Physitian yet to tell them of those maladies that have guilt in them and receive prescriptions from him of such methods of severity and discipline as few would go thro to Heaven and all this endears the man but he that shall attemt an application to the vice which is the cause of all this to remove which is the onely possible way to secure from relapses and the certain way to health and life eternal he is judg'd a mortal enemy as if there were nothing in the world so dear to men as their sins are no kindnesses but what are shew'd to those are grateful that were true love that would see them let them perish everlastingly and not speak to them to direct them as if all benefaction to the soul were injury and the mercies that have in them Heaven and Eternity were meer defiances But how irksom however such conversations are as by admonitions or whatever other methods aim at the recovery of Sinners they are the onely conversations with them that can be justified For which is the fourth and last thing that I am to speak to 'T is onely the opportunity and the design and hope of doing good to Sinners by reforming them that can make familiar converse with them excusable and lawful I mean where the duty of a Relation does not oblige to it And first I will not give my self the trouble to find out a law of God among the Jews forbidding to converse at all with Heathens and by consequence with open Sinners which might give occasion to this question of the Pharisees since St Peter tells Cornelius Acts 10. 28. Ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of an other Nation and our Savior when he would prescribe the distance which his censures were to make men keep from any refractory Sinner words it let him be unto thee as an Heathen or a Publican as supposing they were not to company with those and in the Text he also reckons the observance of that distance from all Sinners as a duty calls it Sacrifice and justifies his doing otherwise by this plea onely that he came to them to call them to repentance But if a command be call'd for we have several 1 Cor. 5. 11. Now I have written to you not to company if any man that is call'd a brother i. e. professeth himself a Christian be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no not to eat and the like 2 Thess. c. 3. v. 14. If any man obey not our word note that man and have no company with him adding v. 15. Yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother The Converse is therefore lawful onely as an opportunity of admonition For Secondly if it be lawful otherwise I might ask for whom not for the Clergy-man most certainly whose calling it is to admonish and he is false and trecherous to his office as well as his company if he do not who is set God's Watchman to give notice of approching dangers who is responsible for every soul that perisheth for want of warning nor the Magistrate who if he see vice by his office is as much oblig'd to punish it as the Clergy-man to preach against it He also is the Minister of God to execute wrath as the other is to denounce it whose easiness is much more baneful then the others silence and makes all those faults which by not punishing it does encourage and by that is more unmerciful to the community then arbitrary tyranny and is guilty of that blood it does forbear to shed and as not for these so not for any one since reproofs and admonitions have bin the duty of every person from the beginnings of Religion Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him Silence then in Gods esteem is enmity not to reprove perfect hatred and indeed to labor to preserve a man from perishing eternally does look like kindness but if this kindness be too sower and sullen for this present age that will not bear correption and in opposition to Gods judgment calls that hatred looks upon it as a provocation and affront and answers it with a defy and with the retributions of a mortal injury yet there are commands Thirdly which God hath made as fences merely to secure our virtue charging both in general of Sinners My son walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path Prov. 1. 15. and also in particular of almost every sin Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go least thou learn his waies and get a snare to thy soul Prov. 22. 24 25. and look not upon the wine when it sparkles and sit not by a woman c. so that merely to converse with these sollicitations to sin is the breach of commands which commands if they should be onely methods of security not rules of express duty yet not to observe them is to slight the onely Antidote Gods wisdom could prescribe against contagion and that man that do's so do's assume to guard himself and so devests himself of the protection of Gods Grace and Holy Spirit and then if he fall he is not onely guilty of the fault that he commits but of wilful contemtuous refusal of the means of preservation from it of design indeed to make the sin unavoidably to himself for such familiarities express that he desires to be engag'd in the necessity of sinning For he that does invite the danger and converse and play with the temtation can have no other ends but to be ensnar'd and taken Now judg of your selves I pray you whether he that do's require to pluck out the right eye if it offend and cut off the right hand and foot that with such torment to our selves we should bereave our selves of those so useful organs whether for the ornament or the necessities of our being if we find that we shall be betrai'd by them and who requires it on this penalty that otherwise we shall be cast with both ours eies and hands and feet into Hell fire whether he be likely to excuse the conversation with those objects that engage our eies and poyson our souls thro them or else will allow me by thrusting my self thus into temtations to lay violent hands upon sin and destruction who commands me to cut off my hand rather then touch vice Or else will he
they cannot chuse but be sufficient to conclude that they are such as ought to be believed that is assented to as true I shall allow it yea so far and in that manner as God intended that they should conclude that is by the assistant grace and influence of his Holy Spirit so far in that manner I will grant they could not fail to be conclusive But that God intended they should be conclusive to us themselves with the evidence of such Metaphysical necessity so that by consequence they cannot but infuse a greater certainty and evidence into that assent that must be given to the points of Faith than there is in the Science of those Propositions that are first in Science and where there is not such necessity certainty and evidence raised by clear resolution into Principles more evident certain and necessary than those are there is not that Faith wich is alone is true and consequently that all true Faith must assent with the highest evidence necessity and certainty This I say may be granted when it shall be made appear how it is possible that God can variously deal to men the measure of Faith if every true Believer must needs have the greatest fullest measure or how any man that hath Faith and by consequence is certain most infallibly can be weak in Faith or have his Faith increase so as that it may grow exceedingly and wax very strong even till it come to full assurance and plerophory how all this I say is not impossible if all true Faith have essentially this plerophory that highest most infallible certainty and evidence But it is certain that God variously deales the measure of faith Rom. 12. 3. that there are those who have Faith and yet are weak in faith Rom. 4. 19. 14. 1. that have their faith increased Luke 17. 5. so as that it does grow exceedingly 2 Thess. 1. 3. wax very strong Rom. 4. 20. even to a full assurance Heb. 10. 22. Is it not therefore certain but that he that hath true Faith may say here with our Confessor Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Moreover if those Principles and motives blaz'd with such an evidence so bright a lustre of so cogent a necessity can any man believe that God would think it needful to arm that necessity with strict precepts fortify it with the aids of his own Holy Spirit and eternally reward Obedience to a most invincible necessity Dare any man imagin God could be so sportive in commanding as on pain of everlasting torment to engage us to believe that that which is existent is existent or that the Sun does shine at bright noon-day when we behold it so as that we cannot see it 't is our Author's own instance or to assent to these must there be the graces and assistance of the Holy Ghost or to believe the Sun shines when it does is that a Faith that is fit to be rewarded with eternal light and glory In fine since that the onely certainty of Faith wich is effectual to the ends of Faith is the certainty and firmness of adherency to God and Christ and to our duty without which all other certainty however infallible can but help towards our condemnation and since where the Holy Spirit and his Graces intervene not howsoever evident men fancy that their principles and motives are their way of resolution demonstrative there will be no true Faith and where he works with his Graces tho they were not so infallible and bright yet the adherency is firm the Faith true and saving Therefore there appears no evident necessity of such pompous principles and ways of resolution of our Faith For I would onely ask for whose sake and on whose account it is so needful that these motives principles and ways of resolution should be so infallibly certain evident and necessary Those that do embrace the Faith sincerely and are saved or those that do not give their hearts up to it and so perish in their unbelief As to these since besides all arguments internal to the doctrine outward testimony the onely argument in matter of fact and that in behalf of Christians it is far greater and more pregnant than there is for any other fact that ever was such as humanely speaking is impossible not to be true nor could there ever yet be found a rational exception or just ground of doubt against it so that 't is impossible but they must be convinc't in reason that 't is most irrational not to assent Those therefore that do wilfully resist their understandings and their reason and withal God's ordinary methods of conviction and so put a bar against his Graces and his Spirit since much more than was enough was don for them they are without excuse and since they did defy what was more than sufficient in it self and so resist God's methods also there is no pretence or reason for more helps of evidence on their account As for the other those that give themselves up to the guidance of their light and reason and Almighty God's convictions and are made Partakers of the Holy Ghost 't is most certain that his Holy Spirit will do all that is needful to complete their Faith and make it certain to salvation so that there is no need on their behalf of such self evidence of principles and motives to infuse such metaphysical certainty into their Faith And yet this certainty of Faith not onely is the ground on which alone is built Infallibility wherever that is to be placed for they are not agreed about it and indeed there were no great need to assure their Faith into such certainty but besides poor we because we do not take upon us to assert dogmatically the necessity of such most infallible certainty not onely are unchurch'd but unchristen'd concluded beyond all possibility of evasion not to have true Faith nor be truly Faithful An heavy imputation therefore I crave leave a little to consider it in one word not desiring to reflect on others but to justify our selves for in truth God knows we would as willingly go to Heaven as our Neighbors where we know we cannot be receiv'd without true Faith Now tho it looks unlucky that we should be doom'd thus upon grounds of which the Founder is himself under censure for them and his books that laid them damn'd even by his own Church tho we are by vertue of their Principles condemn'd as Hereticks because we come not into their Church which condemns the Founder of these very Principles on their account yet since however any thing does serve their turns provided it condemns us 't is not therefore to be passed by Now the ground not onely of their Faith but this their Confidence whereby they so exalt themselves and censure us is the absolute certainty of the living voice and practice of that Church which resolves her Faith by this Rule or Principle not to believe or teach or practise any thing as of Faith but what
brings him more care and more parsimony and by consequence more want Now is there any thing that is like this in those others who pretend to aim at Heaven and the Blessedness that God is happy in Nay do they mind it cordially when they stand before him in his house in order to it Or is their heart upon it there while they are praying for it Whenever we discern religious performances are uneasy or unpleasing to us we may then assure our selves the mind is not intent upon the end of them For 't is impossible he should not busy concern himself extremely in the things that his affections are engag'd in which possess him mainly and which are his treasure But 't is as when God askt the question by the Prophet Jeremy c. 2. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire Yet my people have forgotten me days without number He asks a gentler question by the Prophet Isaiah c. 49. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not remember the fruit of her womb There is some object for an heart that it should mind and pour out it self in tenderness to that dear part of its own breast and bowels it is no wonder if it be not with so sensible affection set on any of those remoter objects such as God and Salvation in Heaven but that they should be less considerable than attire the Robe of Immortality not so much minded as a dress that to be gay should challenge morning hours and cares but to be blessed scarce engage a praier wish or thought is sad The truth is such is man's corruption that there is scarce any inclination left in nature that desires or is indeed content to be upon the way to Life Eternal Before any thing can be don for man he must be made willing not to destroy himself for St Paul tells us 't is God that by his power worketh in us both to will and to do We must not onely be oblig'd by duty not to neglect and forsake our own mercies but we must be wrought and made contented to receive them all God's arts and methods us'd the terrors of the Lord and the promises of Heaven and the strivings of the Holy Spirit and the power of Grace emploied to work in us to will for it is God that worketh in us to will In this the men of this World have especial advantages over the generality of Christians that they mind and are intent upon their aim For the mere being so engages them to the observance of that Rule of Prudence which above all others is to regulate the counsels and the actions of all men in order to their several ends if they mean to act wisely in relation to them which is this namely to be true to their own ends still observing their main point I say not they should never look off from it mind no other secondarily they must do that For as in the wise Government of Nations Princes must take care not onely that their Subjects live in Godliness and honesty and keep all the Laws but that they may live as St Paul says peaceable and quiet lives secure as far as may be from the danger of their Enimies abroad or at home in all tranquillity and plenty and the like in Oeconomical and Military Wisdom So in Christian Prudence we are so to look at everlasting life hereafter as not to neglect this here but may contrive for the conveniences of this life to avoid what may be dangerous or incommode us provided we do nothing that 's against the other So St Paul was wise when both the Sadduces and Pharisees conspir'd against his life to break that their confederacy by throwing in the question of the Resurrection of the dead which was certain to divide them since the thing he said was true and consequently since the means he us'd did not at all clash with his higher purposes the Rule thus signifying that wise men in order to whatever end their wisdom lies must still be true to their own end be careful to do nothing that may take them off from or oppose their main aim for that were to destroy their own design and must be certain never to avoid whatever tends most to attain their purposes Accordingly the Children of this World are us'd to stick at nothing that is likely to advance their ends This was the case expresly of the Text and thereupon our Savior pronounces they are wiser The unjust Stewards aim was to provide what should maintain him and his ease and reputation the remainder of his life a comfortable plentiful subsistence when his office should be taken from him and discerning no way to this but to cheat his Master and engage his Master's debtors in the wrong too making them as false and wicked as himself regards not the injustice but pursues his mark And so the Child of Light so far as he is wise in order to his aim the price of his high calling looks directly forward to it If he cannot at once do his duty in relation to his great end life eternal and take care of the conveniences of this life he will not for these let go the other never will look after these but when and so far as they will consist does not turn aside to any other ends that thwart that is neither byass'd from his mark by any flattering considerations of whatever this World temts with nor is forc'd from it by terrors or whatever sufferings We have great instances of this in the second book of Maccabees the seventh chapter the Mother and her seven Sons who looking to obtain a blessed resurrection as St Paul saith Heb. 11. 35. did in order to it resolve to die under God's Covenant of everlasting Life would not therefore accept life here and deliverance from most cruel torments on condition to transgress the Laws Thus the three wise men in Dan. 3. 17 18. told Nebuchadnezzar Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand But if not be it known unto thee that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Thus Eleazar 2 Macc. 6. from v. 19. chose to die gloriously rather than to live stain'd with an abomination as it behov'd them that are resolute to stand out against such things as are not lawful to be tasted tho the penalty propos'd were loss of life and tho the Officers that were his friends besought him to bring flesh of his own provision such as was lawful for him to use and make as if he did eat of the flesh taken from the Sacrifice he began to consider discreetly and as became his age and his most honest Education from a child or rather the holy Law made and given by God Therefore he willed them straitways to send him to the grave v. 24 25. For it becometh
not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar were now gon to a strange Religion and so they thro my hypocrisy and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me 'T is said the Prince of Conde gave this answer to King Charles the IX of France who told him he must make his option either of going to Mass or death or to perpetual prison for the first by God's help he would never chuse it in the other he submitted to his pleasure but that God would certainly dispose of them as it seem'd good to him On the other side we have an instance Chilon one of the wise men of Greece who whatsoever his last aim was here his end was to live justly and according to right reason who upon his death-bed told his friends it was not then a time for him to flatter deceive himself his thoughts did not suggest unto him any thing he had don in his whole life that troubled him but one that when he with two others was to sit in judgement on a man that was his great friend who had broke the Law so heinously that it was necessary to condemn him looking out for some means that might save his virtue and his friend too he resolv'd on this that since the suffrages were given so that none could know what sentence any one Judg in particular pronounc'd he perswaded his Companions to absolve him and himself condemn'd him thinking thus he salv'd his duty both as Judg and Friend but when he came to die he thought 't was wicked and perfidious to draw others in to do that which he held not just for him to do he was not true to his own end but was diverted by the calls of friendship to serve other and in that he found his Wisdom fail'd him and his Conscience condemn'd him So that we have seen the Rule exemplified in all kinds Now by this Rule we may make experiment both of the truth of what our Savior here pronounces and mens wisdom also of what kind it is what the aim is whether of this World or of the other and which of the pursuers are the truer to their end and so wiser There is scarce any one profession dignity or place of power nor indeed condition or state of life but is adapted so that it may serve ends either of the Child of this World or the Child of Light and contribute either to the advantages of this life or of that which is to come To take a view of one or two of them the man that gets into authority and place may have for his end to serve God and his Country if he intend it for an opportunity truly and indifferently to administer justice to the punishment of wickedness and vice and to the maintenance of God's true Religion and virtue by such Sons of restraint as the Scripture calls them vice may be discountenanc'd goodness cherish'd till judgement run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream and the Nation be taught to live in peace and honesty or he may intend to serve himself to gratify his pride or his ambition by getting into place and power that so he may be over others and his person more regarded and his will observ'd and himself be more uncontrolable in his words and actions may be vices or to gratify his covetous desires if in the perquisites of his place he find an opportunity for bribes a power to sell justice or what 's worse impunity of wickedness an office where men may buy off their duties yea their crimes and punishments at least a place of doing something like this as they find occasion Now whereas Authority finds good men often modest in the use of it as to its true ends of Religion and Justice power will scarce give them countenance and courage for its executions 't is uneasy or they are sollicited or aw'd and they look off at least they seldom put themselves upon it as upon the prosecution of a thing they mainly aim at or they seldom persevere so on the other side in order to the other ends men struggle for them buy the opportunities of selling give bribes that they may have power to receive them use all arts to compass offices to serve their worldly end with This is more notorious if the Office be Ecclesiastical the true end of whose Ministry is to gather Christ's Sheep that yet go astray to carry on the Salvation of those Souls which God hath purchas'd with his own bloud to preserve his Children from Eternal Hell to be applying to the wounds and the distempers of the body of Christ to prepare his Spouse for the marriage of the Lamb to be Dispensers and Stewards of his means of Grace and Glory in fine Fellow-workers with him to the Everlasting blessedness of those that are committed to their charge and who is sufficient for and does not tremble at these things to all which yet they do solemnly in express words dedicate themselves and their faithful endeavors and are consecrated to it by the Holy Spirit Or the end of this Ministry may be to advance themselves to reap the profits to receive the fleece enjoy the honors no great care appearing of those other dreadful obligations or concern that looks proportionable to them and if men will purchase this charge too as some say we may be sure they do not buy the duty or those fearful obligations and much less the Holy Spirit or his graces but 't is somwhat else they bargain for which they break thro oaths to come at some other end they aim at 2. As for states of life I must be endless should I enter into them to name but that which God himself did institute and first before all others which he made to be the complement of the felicities of Paradise to be mutual support in every state of life give all the comforts of society with innocence to preserve from vice in the most dangerous and fatal instances and so assist in the recovery of lost Paradise to fill earth so as by their good education it might people Heaven and repair its loss of faln Angels But some also may intend no more by it than dowry or to serve the needs or interests of families and to raise them for as for other satisfactions they intend to make them to themselves much otherwise and design not this at all a bar to any do not look upon it as God meant it for a remedy because they would not be preserv'd from the transgression onely they purpose to have such posterity it may be as the Law will suffer to inherit what their vices leave and their arts can secure from Creditors Yet truly since men learnt to disbelieve or not regard their own immortality and then learn not to care for living after they are gon hence in a good name it is not strange if they esteem not living
in reflecting how to set their paces to the cadences of an aire so much more considerable 't is to dance well then to live and dye well No guide in that science that must teach them how to be for ever blessed they march forwards in the way they fall into in which provided all their appetites be entertain'd well and themselves diverted the good company submissive and complaisant and let them have their will and rule it then they go on pleasantly not ever thinking what way they are in or whither going Much less are they circumspect and wary watching both their wayes and steps but rather love to walk amongst break into snares and so walking so entangled their last fatal minute overtakes them never till then sensible but then made so by despair when as the wise man words it they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselvs The Righteous we had in derision and a proverb of reproch we fools accounted his life madness how is he numbred among the Children of God and his lot is among the Saints Therefore have we erred from the way of truth we have wearied our selves in the way of wickedness yea we have gon thro deserts Where there lay no way but as for the way of the Lord we have not known it What hath pride profited us or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us All those things are pass'd away like a shadow For the hope of the ungodly is like a thin froth that is driven away with the storm but the Righteous live for evermore the reward of them is with the Lord and the care of them is with the most High Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom and a beautiful Crown from the Lords hand Which Crown God of his infinite mercy grant c. SERMON XVIII THE LIGHT OF THE BODY is the Eye Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evill thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness IN daies that above all others so pretend to light yet then in which the Church was scarcely ever more involv'd in darkness wholly overspread with error and confusion and these new lights prove but like those fires that do mislead them that are overtaken by the night guide them only out of their way into dangers and precipices and make them loose themselvs in many wandrings only Religious meteors It cannot be unseasonable or needless to try what kind of light it is that Christ would have us follow if all were true those others do pretend 't would give them but enlightned brains but Christs light here will give us shining lives make our whole bodies full of light and which light if men want notwithstanding all their wild illuminations they are still in the most amazing darkness For the light of the body is the eye c. The words are clearly the former part of a comparison only hinting at and leaving us to guess and to draw out the latter which hath by divers been assign'd diversly In their direct view they say thus much The Eye is the candle of the body that is as in the body of man the Eye is the director do's that office to it that a lamp dos in the dark shews it which way it should walk what it should do and by its guidance the body can discerningly set about its offices and perform its functions and if the Eye be as it ought pure and right it directeth well but if not the body not being able to discern not only cannot exercise its functions as it ought but also may walk on in dangerous errors and stumble upon precipices into ruin So also it fares in our spiritual estate But the particulars thereof are not by all agreed upon and are very variously rendred The single and the evil eye being exprest by such words as do assure us that a spiritual eye is here intended yet leaves place for enquiry into what it is and tho several meanings have been pitch't upon and but one was meant yet each having either large authority or reasons I know not why I may not apply it too and treat of every one seeing each way afford's us true and good instructions And first that which hath most generally been adhered to is that the singleness of the Eye should mean the singleness or simplicity of heart purity of intention So Abimelech Gen. xx 5 6. when he had taken Sarah to him pleads for himself he did it in the simplicity of his heart and God acknowledges he did so with an honest intention meaning to make her his wife not knowing that she was so to another man And then the second part of the comparison says thus So also if thy heart be single and sincere thy intentions right to God if in all thy actions thou intend his service and Glory that thy good meaning will derive a goodness into all thy doings thy whole body will be full of light all thy actions holy but if thy intentions be vitiated if in the duties I named before alms praier fasts thou aime not at my service but the praise of men if thy heart be impure mudded with the desire of earthly things which I did last forbid thee thy actions must needs be dark and foul yea indeed how great a spiritual darkness how much unholiness must needs dwell upon thy doings if the only thing that should give light and shed an holiness into them thy intentions be dark and evil To this sense I shall first speak and divide my text into subjects rather then parts 1. The first shall be this the lamp of the body is the eye a good intention a well meaning must enlighten direct every action to make it not reprovable 2. I shall lay before you a single eye shew you what is required to make a Religious intention singly and purely so 3. That from such a single eye the body shall be light that such good hearty meanings do either break out into holy actions or are accepted as such 4. That such a single eye makes the whole body light that by such pure religious intentions a man may sanctify all the actions of his life 5. The remaining part of the text but if thine eye be evil c. being but the affirming all the contraries to these of the evil eye the bad meaning the intention that is not honest and pure must needs be prov'd and press'd in pressing of the former part and therefore that shall only furnish me with application First of the first the candle of the body is the eye a good intention a well meaning must enlighten and direct every action to make it not reprovable I mean in actions that are any way matter of duty I know only an innocent harmless
other side if my ends be never so pious if I intend to compass them by unlawful means and do evil tho that good may come thereof what do's the justice of my ends do for me but only make damnation just to me Alas then in one word what is their doom who do by evil means intend to compass evil ends whose intentions are intirely singly wicked that design only the plesures or the profits of iniquity that level directly at sin both all the way and at the mark too whose aimes and whose contrivances are wickedness thy purpose such an evil action and care not by what means they compass it so they acquire their ends Our Savior had no way to express the condition fo these but that of an admiring question If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness The Sinner notwithstanding all his pomp of shine and splendor that he thinks himself cloth'd with drest up with guilded profits or with a glory of pleasures yet he is still in the dark his life is all night and that condition which three days made intolerable to Egypt is always on the Sinners soul he is envelop't in thick darkness like theirs that may be felt by any thing but by a soul of such stupidity as the sinners is a darkness such as Christ had not a fit word for nor did know how to phrase but by being astonish't at it How great is that darkness a state indeed that is most proper for his deeds and intentions of darkness that need a night to cover them a darkness that do's border on the regions of utter darkness that shall never have any dawne but such as flaming brimstone strikes into it and O How great is that darkness O blessed Savior who art the day spring from on high that came to visit us deliver us from those dark regions O thou Eternal Sun of righteousness that camest to enlighten the darknesses of the world by thy example and by thy doctrine and the illuminations of thy Holy Spirit let these thy methods shine powerfully upon our souls to scatter all the clouds and mists that dwell upon our hearts that we may have no misapprehensions of our duty that our intentions may be clear our affections pure and all our actions regular and holy Wee know O Lord we were created for thy glory and our own eternal happiness We beseech thee direct all the purposes of our minds the inclinations of our hearts and actions of our lives unto these blessed ends Teach us to mind thee in every thing we do that so whatever we shall do in our whole lives may work towards our future happy life Let no unholy aims mixe with any of our actions no forbidden contrivances or purposes creep into and make sinful our performancs Let not self-ends of pride vain-glory gain revenge or any vice make our Religion hypocrisy of sin nor any poor low ends of little pleasure or of profit rob the actions of our callings or recreations of that Religion which a good intention may put into them but make all our actions so orderly and temperate and so subordinate to holy ends that they may all turn into duty make us heartily intent on our Religious performances in their seasons and submitting all our other works to the occasions of Religion and making them serve and assist towards it and thereby become Religion that so our whole lives may be consecrated unto thee and our whole conversation become holy And do thou prevent us in all our doings with thy most gracious favor and further them with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy holy name and after an age of doing so may be glorisied with thee in thy Kingdom thy power and thy glory for ever c. SERMON XIX THE LIGHT OF THE BODY is the Eye Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evill thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness WHat is observ'd of the lights of our daies that they still abound in their senses will appear true of the light in the Text and indeed 't is but proper that it should have that most excellent quality of light still to communicate it self without decay to pour out fresh streams every moment and yet be still the same one of the rivulets we have exhausted in the last daies discourse and we shall also find that in another sense The light of the body is the eye Amongst the divers things to which the Eye in the Text may have Analogy and which may make Christs Aphorism here true in the spiritual sense as well as in the outward literal the second and indeed in my apprehension much more proper then that I have already given tho not so general is Conscience that Eye of the mind in order to practice from which alone and nothing else in matters of Religion the actions have all their direction and guidance and which so far as it is clear and well informed the actions that are regulated by it are all full of light and Piety and on the other side so far as the Conscience is amiss so far the mans deeds must of necessity be dark and evil And that I may now for all say without discussing every minute particular Analogy 't is for this that the expressions of blindness of mind understanding darkened and sins being call'd darkness and on the contrary holiness light and the Eye of the understanding enlightened are so frequent in the Scripture to let us see the whole comparison is good For to declare to you that the Conscience may be properly set out by the Analogy of an eye I need but tell you this eye of the mind is in the little world the frame of man the true deputy and Vicegerent of that universal and all seeing eye of Providence and inspection for as that eye of inspection spies all our waies watches over all a mans motions inclinations and thoughts and as the eye of Providence guides and directs every thing to its ends all this the Conscience do's in man 't is privy to every little rising of the appetite it knows each bending of the will There is not any closet no recess in the whole heart where the soul can retire to think of wish or design any thing but this same Eye of Conscience looks in beholds it all and lays it up And Conscience also is the under-Eye of Providence in man it prescribes to all our actions it leads the will that potentia caeca and gives directions to all that man attemts or do's in matter of Religion Thy word saith David is a lanthorn to my feet and light to my paths and it is certain Gods Commandments are the light we are to walk
them with them to that Sacrament set them at Christs table as it were to feed on that body which they crucified make them imbrue their hands in that blood which they shed And this is the return they make to that blood shed for them They bring them and their vows against them both together to the Altar and they leave their vows there but they take their Sins back with them and serve them still Now does eternal ruin look so lovely to us as that we will break thro all oaths to get at it Is 't worth the while to be at once false to God and our own blessedness Do vows so straiten us that we cannot endure the obligations to be happy In Gods name be at last more true to your own Souls consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding A SERMON OF THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY in being the best SACRIFICE Matth. 9. 13. Go yee and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice THE words are part of a reply of our Saviors to a cavilling question of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing him converse familiarly accept the friendship of an invitation sit and eat with open noted Sinners and which was as bad a name amongst them Publicans ask his Disciples why they and their Master do what they know was forbidden and unlawful To whom having answer'd that he did converse with them only in order to their cure now a Physitian that goes to visit his sick Patients is not therefore blam'd for going to them because they are sick he further justifies himself by an account of Gods own mind and dealing set down in the Scripture of whose meaning if they had not taken notice hitherto he bids them now go learn it For God tells them by his Prophet Hosea that he prefers acts of mercy doing good to others before any Ceremonies of his Worship tho himself ordain'd them whether Sacrifices or whatever others For I will says he have mercy and not sacrifice Therefore Christ did but comply with Gods own will when he accepted of an invitation from such sinners merely to have the better opportunity to invite them to repentance and to heaven and in doing so did but preferr the acts of highest mercy in the world the doing everlasting blessed good to souls before obedience to such ritual precepts as forbad converse with the unclean and sinful I need not here observe that the negation is but comparative and means I will not have Sacrifice but Mercy rather yea I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice where I cannot have both or that by Sacrifice also is meant all Ceremonies of Gods Worship altho instituted by himself and those not taken by themselves and merely external Acts and void of the inward zeal and devotion that should spirit them but taken in their best states yet God will have works of Mercy rather And that doctrine is it seems worth learning and attending to for so in the text there is besides the proposition it self I will have mercy and not sacrifice also the insinuation of its usefulness in those words go and learn what that means I shall not break these into other parts but raise some Propositions for the subjects of my discourse And First since God compares two sorts of things here in the text and says he will have or is pleas'd with one and not the other which other yet 't is plain that he was pleas'd with and would have for he commanded them 't is evident he does imply that as these call'd here Sacrifices were grateful to him as they were obedience to his precepts so the other therefore which he does prefer to those they must be good and acceptable to him in themselves not only as they are commanded Some actions therefore have an intrinsic honesty are of themselves in their own nature morally good and well-pleasing to God as some also are the contrary 2dly Of all that are so in that manner good those of Mercy are in an especial manner such I will have mercy 3dly Of all acts of mercy those are best and most well-pleasing in Gods sight which are employ'd in reducing Sinners from their evil ways those were such our Savior is here pleading for And 4thly 'T is onely the opportunity and the design and hope of doing good to Sinners by reforming them that can make familiar converse with them excusable and lawful I mean where no duty of a relation do's oblige to it Christ himself had no other plea to justify his eating with them but that he intended it as a mercy to them as his opportunity to call them to repentance All these we see flow naturally from the words First some actions have an intrinsic honesty are of themselves in their own nature morally good and well-pleasing to God as some are the contrary When I say they have an intrinsic honesty and are in nature good I mean the rule of them is intrinsic and essential to the agent is indeed his nature and by consequence their goodness is as universal and eternal as that nature Now it is a doctrine that hath had Advocates as ancient as the great Carneades and the Sect of the Pyrrhonians that in nature antecedent to all laws and constitutions there is no rule of unjust or just good or evil honest or dishonest and that nothing of it self is one or other but as our concerns or interests do make it to our selves to prosecute which is the only inclination and the only rule that nature gives us or else as the public interests incline superior powers to prescribe them whom it is our interest also to obey Accordingly we find â—this saying in Thucydides that to them that are in power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing is unreasonable that is useful And the Athenians being stronger tell the Melii that by rules of human reason things are just in that degree that they are necessary And then as necessities and interests do chance to vary good and just must change into their contrary and as different countries and persons cannot but have opposite rules and mesures of necessity and usefulness so they must of just and honest thus the laws of Vertue serve like Almanacks but for such a latitude and a different elevation of the Pole quite alters them and makes them good for nothing A pleasant sort of good and honest this which any wall or dike that divides Provinces or Countries can give boundaries lines and rules to so as that it shall be vertue and right on one side vice and error on the other as if those principles of good and evil which seem planted in us and the world calls natural were nothing else but prejudices taken in from early conversation as dogs learn they say the skill of chase And it were great pity if this age which so much needs the patronage of such a principle to give countenance to their licentious practices had not also found out some that
and means an unblameable conversation in thos duties that look towards God those of Devotion Piety and Godliness or of those duties that look towards man those of Justice and Honesty particularly so call'd Or 2. God and Man here may be look'd upon as having both to do in being the rule of Conscience God's law and man 's also that is the just laws of lawful Superiors both obliging it and a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man is such an one as does not onely not offend God nor man in that which God commands to be don to himself and to the neighbor but such also as doth not offend in what man the lawful Governor commands for to these we must needs be subject not only for wrath but conscience sake 3. Here are the seasons which this Conscience do's respect and they are all seasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwaies 4. The interest St Paul does seek after in this condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Jexercise my self as on one side it is not fancying or opining often hearing no nor talking of conscience but exercise and doing for the Christians life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a constant exercise and that is at once his duty and profession here so on the other side it is not perfect possession of this state there is no such thing as perfection in this life but laboring towards it In handling which parts I shall thus proceed 1. Having in word explain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall enquire what are those offences that must be remov'd in order to that state that 's here describ'd and having clear'd the conscience of those 2dly view the latitude and extent of its obligation see how it respects both God and man both as the rules and objects of its acts and as we go along we shall direct the practice of that duty which St Paul did labor in how we must exercise our selves that we may be in such a state which is the 3d thing and the application of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be understood from the use of that word as 't is taken either passively Phil. 1. 10. that ye may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without offence not led into evil by mistakes of what is good or any other color whatsoever or else as 't is taken actively 1 Cor. 10. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give no offence to any man which as the context proves is but the same and means let nothing that you do be such as may induce another man to sin lay not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rocks of offence or stumbling blocks in any Christians course and therefore in my text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is such a conscience as does not induce the man himself to any sin against God or man and a life that is not led into it a conversation that is according to such a conscience is that which St Paul aims to have and which that we may have all such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must endeavor to remove which what they are I told you was to be my first inquiry And the first is error of judgment which makes an erring conscience such a one as gives false information of duty which either tells me that I may or must do that which God's law or some other law in force upon me saies I must not do or else tels me I must not do that which I may or am perhaps bound to do A rock of offence this upon which many men do split and make ship-wrack of a good conscience and which is worse error of judgment call'd by some new light is such a light indeed so plac'd between the rocks as must needs guide the Mariner upon them make it necessary for him to be wreckt for in this case sin lies on the right and the left hand which way soever he does turn he falls upon it For first if this man act against his erring conscience he sins altho the Law of God do not make the act sin Rom. 14. 14. to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean altho St Paul saies there he knew it was not in it self unclean yet so it was to him and that to such an height that the man whose example wrought with any one to eat against the perswasion of his mind destroieth him v. 15. 'T is therefore a destroying sin to do a thing against the express judgment of the mind And all the reason in the world for since good or evil do not nor can move the will as they are in themselves such but as apprehended and according to the notion we have of them in the mind 't is certain therefore every motion of the will to good or evil consequently every good or evil action must be formally accounted such from good or evil things not in themselves but in the apprehension of the mind that is according as our consciences dictate to us they are good or evil And indeed no law of God or man no rule of duty can be appli'd to us but by the mediation of conscience for till that tell me such a thing 's commanded and my duty it is to me as if there were no such command and it were not my duty for till then I am not conscious it is know nothing of it This alone therefore does propose and apply duty to us and consequently whether that which it proposeth be my real duty in it self or no yet I must needs look on it as so as having no direction in the world besides what to do or forbear but what my conscience some way instructed tells me God or my Governors require while therefore that does absolutely tell me such a thing is unlawful whether it be so or no while that perswasion lasts the soul yet judges it unlawful and consequently if the heart embrace it then it does deliberately embrace unlawfulness which tho it be not in the thing is yet in the choice I like and follow that which in my judgment is vicious and be it in it self what it will 't is so to me 't is evident the inclinations and actions pursue vice when they pursue that which they cannot look upon but as vice And therefore St Paul saith what soever is not of faith whatsoever is contrary to the persuasion or judgment of lawfulness i. e. in other words what is against conscience is sin Conscience therefore is the rule from which it is sin to recede But you will tell me where the conscience errs the rule is false and crooked and so must not be follow'd but the rule of this rule God's Law and not the conscience must be obei'd Good counsel if it could be follow'd for certainly if the man know what God's Law does require of him in that case his conscience does not err if he do not know what God's Word requires how then can he follow it against that which his conscience tells him God requires and
things laid to his charge some against God himself as prophanation of his temple v. 6. he was accus'd of being also pestilent a mover of sedition v. 5. to all which he answers in my text that he was so far from prophaness in Religion and his duty towards God and from sedition in the State that he did exercise himself in this alone in laboring to have a conscience void of offence in all things by God or his Governors commanded And this president of our Apostle every one that hears me knows the true sons of this Church always follow'd both in doctrine and in practice even to the Martyrdom not onely of their persons families but of the Church it self Not like those holy Church-men who account themselves exemt no subjects to the secular powers nor those others who withdrawing their obedience in all things which they do not like do seem to own no powers but themselves are Subject onely to their own minds Now he that does thus exercise himself always which is the onely thing that I have left to speak to is in that state of Christian perfection which the Travellers to Heaven while they are upon the way can arrive at for that must needs be a good life which is regulated by a good conscience for if a conscience do its part do neither err nor doubt but is tender in all in a word if it inform truly in all duty and thou doest accordingly thou doest all thy duty therefore all good life is call'd by the name of a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19. and plainer Hebr. 13. 18. We trust we have a good conscience willing in all things to live honestly sincere endeavors to obey in every thing a conscience that is right in every thing not boggling with it accepting the persons of duty being very consciencious in some things but taking liberty in others and being so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always not by fits having onely Paroxysmes of Religion now and then very consciencious otherwise loose enough but to be so in all respect and at all times this was the sum of all St Pauls endeavor he had no stricter aims this was the height of his Religion this his exercise Yet why should I call it his exercise when it is his enjoiment 't is his ante past of heaven it self The applauds of an honest undeceiving heart that is conscious to it self of this in earnest they shed comforts into every state of life beyond all that the earth can give they shed the peace of God that passeth understanding If my conscience be clear let my condition be never so overcast I live in shine let them be troubled with afflictions or with sad expectations who understand no delights but carnalities whose souls are married to some little comforts of this world adversity indeed sweeps all their joys away at once but he that understands the comforts of a good conscience and knows where to find them and who hath a treasure of them in his breast will soon be able to allay the other sadnesses What can I want if I have a continual feast and such is a good conscience let all the world look black upon me as long as I have light within me and in that light can see a pleasantness upon Gods face Yea it is this indeed must make prosperity contentful when to the candle of the Lord the light of his countenance also does add its shine when I have no ill remembrances either as to the possession or to the enjoiment when my heart assures me I did neither get it ill nor use it ill 't was truly Gods gift to me and I strive to make it an instrument of my service to him This is transfigur'd prosperity but without this for all the hurry of mens pleasures something will now and then rejolt worse than surfets and come up bitterer than the gall of ejected riots and they shall find their great provisions are but variety of nauseousness onely plentiful vexation and a jolly restlesness while they are here and then when they but think of going hence O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives at rest in his possessions to the man that hath nothing to molest him hath hath prosperity in all things and if he have the sting of conscience to imbitter it which will be sure to stir at such a time alas how unconceivable a sadness must then dwell upon that soul that can think nothing kinder to it self than hell But he that can at such a time say with Hezekiah Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walk'd before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have don that which is good in thy sight then if God do not send a message of fifteen years yet he will add to him an everlastingness of years of joy if his days do no return nor the Sun mount back again to give him a more full noon light he shall be taken to the fountain of eternal light Oh let me have that light that will enlighten the sad approaches of the dark grave that when I am going to make my house in a black lonely desolate hole of earth will be like the day spring of immortality like the dawn of heaven and such glimpses will break in thro a clear conscience 'T was that which made the Martyrs run to the fires of execution as to fires triumph and they look'd upon their flames as on Elijah's chariot's flames that flew upwards not with hast to their own Sphere but the Sphere of Martyr's Heaven and whose brightness did prelude and expire into Glory SERMON VI. Of the Blessedness of Mourners Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted THE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shecina say the Jewish Doctors will not rest upon a sad person that is God will not be especially with him nor will his holy Spirit keep him company that is a solitary Mourner and indeed we often find in Scripture that when the Prophets would invite Gods Spirit down upon they did heighten themselves with mirth but now saith Elisha bring me a Minstrel and it came to pass while the Minstrel plai'd the hand of the Lord came upon him And he said thus saith the Lord 2 Kings 3. 15. as if the Music had inspir'd him and his soul was tun'd into Enthusiasme and so also 1 Sam. 10. 5. thou shalt meet a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery and a Tabret and a Pipe and a Harp before them and they shall prophecy and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee Yea and as God would not dwell with them so neither would he let them keep him company they were not to appear before him sad Deut. 12. 7. And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God and ye shall rejoyce and therefore God hath no worse expressions for unclean Sacrifices than the bread of Mourners Hos.
our selves de malo conjuncto for as appetite is implanted for the use of him in whom it is implanted so it is not proper to it to have any aversation to evil except it be some way evil to him whose appetite hath that aversation and to greive at misery I must some way conceive it to concern my self Now then as he that does not conceive himself a member of a Church nor a fellow member nor any way relating to it he cannot truly greive so he that does not greive declares no communion with it he is another thing a member quite cut off or dead and so stupid and insensible Such a judgment doest thou pass upon thy self whoever doest not mourn outlawest and excommunicatest thy self neither belongst to Church nor State nor yet to Christ. 2. As thou hast no charity to thy Brother nor to thy afflicted Mother so neither hast thou any love to God whose glory tho it be asserted by the punishment of a sinful Land or Church he is also still dishonor'd by the sins which do then reign and to which he does permit for the most part the punishment of sin and that power and authority or discipline which divisions in the Church cut short hath for its consequent all unbridled looseness and profaness Blasphemy and Atheisme the calamities of a State are embitter'd by all sorts of licences that grow when Government is weakn'd to see a whole Land mourn with the dark purple of its bloud all which bloud as it is the punishment of that Nation so it is the guilt also to see the wickedness of a Kingdom plagu'd with the ruin of many thousands of men's lives and thousands of souls too that fell in actual iniquity and yet to think that this plague is the greatest wickedness of all arm'd with the most crying sins that are that the very punishment must call for punishment and revenge of it self and help to make up the measure of judgment that the sentence of desolation may be irreversible and utter to see two inundations overflow the Land two abysses of bloud and guilt and one deep calling upon another to meet and swallow us and bury us in their graves of sin and deep ruin yea to see iniquity become impudent and sin triumphant which is the great sign of utter ruin as it was to the Jews an omen worse than Comets or Blazing-stars the dismal voice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and in this ruin too I do not see how any will well free themselves from guilt for if they be the ruiners they are the great spoilers the sinners if the ruined they have contributed to make those others the sinful inflicters and if in all this there be not matter for a little mourning if God dishonor'd souls destroi'd lives perishing Church ruining and nothing but sin flourishing and ourselves not unguilty and if this be not an object for our tears we are the most uncharitable most obdurate creatures in the world Niobe's stone is not fit to be our embleme for that stone could sweat tears we are more rock than that which Moses struck whom the rod of God cannot make weep we are next degree to Lucifer himself for onely Hell is sure at ease to see its company increase 3. Lastly this not mourning in the judgment of a Nation is a sin which God does most heavily characterize and threaten Amos 6. 1 6 7 8. Isaiah 22. when the Prophet had describ'd how it should be in the day of desolation v. 4 5. then because they did not do it see the judgment v. 12 13 14. yea this very thing that men are insensible is as it were the very last judgment on a Nation and the sign of utter rejection Jer. 16. 5 6 7. But how can this duty of mourning consist with those so frequent Gospel-Commands to rejoyce in utmost afflictions James 1. 2 3. Count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temtations knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience and St Paul most often 'T is true indeed we are to rejoyce in them because they are Gods methods of bettering us by them he does purge ad cleanse us Isaiah 4. 4 5. and c. 1. 25 27. Redeem'd with judgment even with the judgment that I shall execute upon them But then 1. What reason have we to mourn also that we are such foul sinners as to need such ways of purging that Christs death should not have motive enough in it to turn us from iniquity that his bloud should not be sufficient laver enough to wash us but our own must be pour'd out also that our air should be so infected that nothing but an universal conflagration can purify that we should be such refractory stubborn persons whom nothing but wounding will do good upon nothing but ruin will reduce But then 2. How are we more to mourn that this very method should not be able to reduce us that we will run upon lashes swords and deaths to sin that in the midst of judgments and against them too we commit iniquity that every stripe does encrease our reckoning add to our iniquities no possible method left to reduce them whom correction will not make sensible but our villanies grow up with our sufferings and our sins are fatned by our bloud as the land is Yea lastly how are we to mourn that to the rest of our sins this also is added by us of not mourning at our judgments but using all possible means to prevent it to lay a sleep the sense of any judgment that is upon the Nation to be so far from bestowing one hour of sadness upon those so grand motives to it that they do all they can to keep it from them and if those judgments happen to some they look upon it carelesly as a thing that does not concern rather as a matter onely of rejoycing if to others whom they wish well to they search out wine and vice to quench and to divert the memory and thought of it to drown sad news in sadder sin this is to labor hard lest sadness and a virtue should creep upon me to search out means to assist me to keep Gods last method from doing any good upon me this is one cause of greatest judgment Isaiah 5. 11 12 13 14. The second and indeed the great exercise of this duty in the text is to mourn for our sins and First for the infirmities of our nature that stain that we were born with that engagement to death that we brought into the world with us and which is a clog and weight upon us throughout the whole course of our lives to disable us from doing our duty as we ought Secondly for the sins of our habits whereby we have advanc't those infirmities into customs made a covenant with that death to which we were born engag'd and our whole practice is the exercise of those things whose wages is death eternal or if we are not gon so far
see him as he is add this Every man that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure doth righteousness in the words following and so is righteous even as he is righteous But that we may know what King David means by beholding Gods face in Righteousness we must know that first by Righteousness is meant uprightness and sincerity of a religious holy virtuous life and as for the beholding of Gods face we may take notice that altho God saith he spoke to Moses face to face yet he tells the same Moses that he cannot see his face and live Exod. 33. 11 10. so that Davids beholding of his face is not seeing him as he did hope to do when he did awake up after Gods likeness but 1. As for God to lift up the light of his countenance Psalm 4. 6. and to make his face to shine upon a man Psalm 31. 16. is to be favorable to him and to hide Psalm 30. 7. or turn away his face 2 Chron. 30. 9. is to withdraw his favor and to be displeased so also to seek his face 1 Chron. 16. 11. is to endeavor to obtain his kindness and accordingly to see or behold his face is to be in his favor to be in a state of enjoying it But besides this also 2. As those that are said to behold the face of Kings are those that minister about them do them service of the nearest admission and that stand in their presence and are ready still to execute whatever they command So 2 King 25. 19. and he took five men of those that saw the King's face of those that serv'd him in ordinary and so very often Ester 1. 14. c. And as secondly the Angels that are ministring Spirits sent forth by God to minister perpetually are said to see the face of God always Matt. 18. 10. so when David says of God thou settest me before thy face Psalm 41. 12. the Jews expound set me that he might serve minister unto him for that is to stand before the face of one 1 Kings 1. 2 4. and c. 10. 8. and c. 17. 1. c. as he had said dost appoint me for thy service and by consequence to see his face or to behold his presence is to wait upon him in all duty and obedience to his commands whom they attend accordingly to walk before him or walk with him in his presence is to serve him constantly with all uprightness Gen. 17. 1. and to please him Heb. 11. 5. cum Gen. 5. 24. But particularly in the acts of Worship and Religion his House the place that 's dedicated to his Worship being call'd his Court his presence Psalm 95. 2. and 100. 2 4. because he sate upon and spoke from the Mercy-seat Exod. 25. 22. Numb 7. 89. and the Ark is therefore his presence and his face those that serve there are said to minister before him in his presence those that come there to appear before him Psalm 42. 2. those that pray to seek his face 2 Chron. 7. 14. and to intreat the face of the Lord 1 Kings 13. 6. and our King David did desire one thing of the Lord which says he I will require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord Psalm 27. 4. So that to behold God's face in righteousness here does signify all this I will serve thee truly faithfully attend thy commands and wait upon thee in a constant diligent performance of my duty live as always in thy presence holily and righteously especially in attendance on thy Worship when I come to seek thy face to put my self before thee in thy presence and so doing I make no doubt but that thou wilt lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall behold thy face to shine upon thy servant And indeed that this is the means and that there is no other way to arrive at this state is not difficult to prove for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness saith the same David Psalm 11. 7. his countenance will behold the thing that is just whereas without this no man shall see the Lord and thereupon the Prophet Micah after strict inquiry in the peoples name what they were to do that they might find God's face look pleasingly upon them and see his favorable countenance wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and how myself before the most High God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams If his favor be to be bought tho at the greatest price 't will be abvisable to give it and the dearest purchase would be a reasonable one Or shall I give ten thousand rivers of oyl thereby to make his face to shine and look upon me with a chearfull countenance This sure were to be don Or farther yet shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Time was indeed when men would do that offer up their tender infants in the fire to Moloch to preserve themselves from those sins of the other Tophet as if the burnt child were to expiate the foul heats that begat it I know not whether men believe now such transgressions can deserve so severe atonements that a sin of theirs is valuable at the life of their own first-born tho they take upon them to profess the faith that they were valued at the life of the first-born of God however there our Prophet shapes this answer to that question wherewithall shall I come before the Lord He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And truly if we come before the Lord to behold his presence in the duties of Religion we must see his face in Righteousness otherwise he will either turn away his Face or else our praiers will but call his frowns upon us and indanger us to perish at the rebuke of his countenance The Prophet Isaiah speaking as from God to that vainglorious nation of the Jews saith c. 1. v. 12 c. When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it is iniquity even your solemn meetings Sabboths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many praiers I will not hear Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment right the oppressed c. And surely if men do not put away the evil of their doings from them when they come before his face how lowd
the disturbance of his Faith as I declar'd convincing it that conscience is not to accuse or else excuse but by the measures of sincerity or insincerity in known real duty not from the events or dispensations of God's providence on one side nor on the other in little things wherein there is no Law to guide us and which onely prejudice or seduction can make doubtful assuring us the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink indifferent rites but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Thus as St Paul says Heb. 6. 4. they that have tasted of the heavenly gift the comfort of the pardon of their sins and consequent to that the peace of Conscience and v. 5. tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come have intimate experimental relish of the Gospel-promises those powers of heaven those omnipotent forces God hath prepar'd to cast down every reasoning or imagination that should rise against the Christian Doctrine and bring every thought to the obedience of it 2 Cor. 10. 5. All which are said to be effected there in them who had bin made partakers of the Holy Ghost By these means therefore he enflames the Will sets it all on fire with ardent love to God and his rewards and consequently to his service in all the works of Piety and Virtue and endued with firm and setled resolutions of adhering to him in faithful constant practice of all this And thus Christ by his Spirit as he was the Author the Beginner of the faith by which he is stil'd Heb. 12. 2. so by the same he is the Finisher and the completer of it He was the Author as that Testimony which the Spirit gave by miracles did evince the infallible certainty and the Divinity of the doctrine to the world for the Spirit is said to bear witness to it by those signs and wonders Heb. 2. 3. and those signs are called the demonstration of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 4. that which did irrefragably prove and demonstrate all the Doctrine of the Gospel and make certain Faith of it and in this sense it is that Faith is truly said to be resolv'd into the testimony of the Spirit So also by the same he is the Finisher by the graces the preventings and excitings overshadowings and assistings of that Spirit working in us as we shew'd a firm sincere adherence to that Faith and the obedience of it which when it is wrought Faith hath attain'd that height and in that degree that is to make us capable of those benefits which Christ hath promis'd to bestow on true believers The last thing I was to shew and withal whether such Believers in that true degree can say with our man here Lord I believe yet say too help my unbelief Faith as the Son of Syrach does define it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principle of cleaving to God that which knits joints us to him and St Paul saith as much when he makes the formality of an evil heart of unbelief to consist in departing from the living God and to Faith by which the just must live opposes drawing back slinking away for fear of danger or affliction Heb. 10. 38. So that according as that cleaving and adherency must be firm and indissoluble so we are to judge of Faith But secondly 't is certain this adherency must be without waverings James 1. 6 7. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering for let not that man him that wavers think that he shall receive any thing at the hands of God A firm and infallible assurance of God's promises a confident expectation of a grant to his petitions tho the power of Praier be almost omnipotent on that account What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11. 24. yet those are not meant by Faith here for the person that is bid not to expect a grant is here suppos'd to think and to be confident he shall receive it but the Praier here spoken to is for wisdom how to behave ones self in times of chance and danger or affliction for the truth's sake in these trials of his Faith v. 3. Now that he may obtain that wisdom he is bid to ask for it of God but he is also bid to ask it in faith nothing wavering i. e. he must come to God for it with firm adherence to him with dependance on him onely and a mind resolv'd whatever happens to stick fast to him and his commands and methods not to labor or accept deliverance on terms not allow'd by God and a good Conscience must not waver betwixt duty and security nor be double minded so as to apply now to Christ and Religion now to worldly carnal politics Such double minded men that have a mind to God and their duty but a mind also to safety interest or some other satisfaction are unstable are divided betwixt two not knowing which to turn to now taking one now the other do not stick to God they are not faithful It is not sound Faith where there is not a resolv'd and setled cleaving such false-hearted wavering ulcerates and gangrenes all But then thirdly where there is that firm sincere adherency to God and duty with such a dependance on him there is Faith that is effectual to the ends of Faith for this is true Faith that works and is consummated by love and that begets an efficacious Hope by that hope works out the purifying of our selves as God is pure and consequently does entitle us to see God i. e. to the beatifick Vision I know there are some who besides this certainty of adherence do require an absolute certainty of evidence affirming there is no true Faith but such as stands on a clear resolution into Principles more evident and certain than those Propositions are which are made out to us by Demonstration than any Principles of Sciences which Principles since they are more necessary than that first one that which is is and the contrary to them more impossible than for the same thing that is to be and not to be at the same time while it is by consequence they cannot but infuse greater necessity and certainty into our Faith than there is in the knowledg of those Propositions so that 't is impossible for him that is a true Believer to say Lord I believe help thou my unbelief I shall not put it to the question whether the Rule of Faith be firm and immovable or the Principle which true Belief must be resolved into is most infallible and necessary for all those which resolve their Faith into God's Revelation and that make his Word the Rule must needs assert all that and where it is affirm'd that the motives laid in second Causes by God's Providence to perswade men to embrace the faith must be such as of their own nature cannot fail to conclude points true if they mean
came along to them by the way of oral practical Tradition If it did 't is not a sure infallible Rule of conveying Faith if it did not then that Church did not still receive their Faith upon that Rule and Principle or by that method tho that they did so is their first great Principle and the great Master of that Scheme assur'd his Holiness it was not possible to maintain their doctrine otherwise against the subtlety of the English Hereticks And truly they that make the greatest noise amongst us now are fled to the last hold of it but that indeed it does alone protest Infallibility whether of the Church or the Succession of their doctrine by that way of practical Tradition and that is the infallible most necessary certainty of Faith But I shall say no more to this than what the grand Abettor of the Principle hath said in answer to himself objecting what was to be said to them that could not penetrate into his demonstrations see the force and evidence of that Rule and Principle and yet have that Faith that 's necessary to Salvation I shall give it you in his own words as near as I can put them into English He says there is a certainty deriv'd into the understanding of these men out of their will for since they think themselves assur'd these truths were brought down by the Church from Christ to them stand convinc't of that act this is sufficient to cause their wills firmly to adhere to them and by that adherence to repell all difficulties and objections to which curious wits are subjects And whether the man see that the Autority of the Church which he follows is of more force at least to him than particular objections in those truths or whether he thinks nothing at all of it but rests stedfast in that assent which his very ignorance caus'd 't is plain he hath a certainty of will which in its way extends it self to the Government of his whole life answerably to that his perswasion and by consequence he hath a certainty exclusive of all doubt and such as moves him to direct his actions all to God that is there is in him that Faith which worketh by love So he Now hence 't is evident by his Concessions first that there may be a saving Faith which hath not that infallible certainty arising from the motives Guide or Principle or way of Resolution And that secondly a Certainty deriv'd into the Understanding from a Will that is piously dispos'd sufficeth Thirdly that there is this certainty where the Will firmly cleaves and adheres to God relying on him with a vigorous hope and trust directing all the actions up to God and to his service and persevering in it to the life's end Now this is all that I am all this while contending for It is not by self-evident or demonstrative methods or by an infallible Guide that he provides against mens unbelief but when with preparation like our man here in the Text in weeping earnestly we betake our selves to him crying out for help and direction and applying our understanding meekly to attend his methods he disposes piously the Will to entertain the gracious blessed Proposals of the Gospel with complacency and heartiness and from conversing with the experience of them to prefer them before all worldly carnal things that used to bait our lusts ravish our hearts and carry us away from God and from our duty and it is against this unbelief in thus departing from the living God that his assistances are mainly level'd and our Praiers chiefly are to be directed For 't is most infinite madness to perswade and satisfy our selves we are of the true Church have the onely true certain Faith if yet our practices be such as set us at as great a distance from Almighty God as Hell is from Heaven and while we do commit such things 't is as impossible we can adhere to God as 't is impossible for Christ to have communion with Belial It is a Contradiction by ungodly actions to defy God and turn our backs upon and depart from him yet to cling and adhere to him 't is as I say a Contradiction to believe that we have Faith while we do not cling to and adhere but depart from him Lord help thou this our unbelief And if his grace but once dispose us to prefer the blessed expectations of a Christian he does easily prevail with us to cling to them with such certain assurances as will carry us thro all the stages of our life and duty with all chearfulness and constancy This is that certainty of Faith by which the Martyrs cleav'd to and embrac'd at once the Cross and their Religion firm in dying as believing and when with arts of torment they broke all their joynts and their limbs piece-meal scatter'd all their parts asunder tore their souls out of their bodies still they kept their Faith whole and their Tormentors could not tear one Article of their belief or Christian practice from them and when their Wills were once inflam'd with the desires and expectations of God's preparations then no other martyring flames could make them shrink Those seem'd to them but brighter Emblems of and speedier Conveyances to that Eternal Light and Glory which their Faith had given them the evidence and the first vision of they knew by them they onely did expire into Everlasting Life and Glory SERMON XIV THE CHRISTIANS LIGHT is to shine before men Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THE words have two parts a command and a reason of it the command Let your light shine before men the reason That they may see your good works c. The command affords to us this instruction the life of a Christian is to be fruitful and exemplary Both these are commanded not onely in the command it self but proved in the reason That they may see your good works there must therefore be works which are the fruits of virtue Yea and fruitfulness is every where requir'd by Christ and if we look upon the current of Scripture and our duty we shall find that it will not serve a Christian's turn not to bring forth ill fruit to be onely barren ground not to have vices bud and sprout within us and grow with an increase of sin but we must do good In the Parable of the Sower Matt. 13. 23. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold We are gods Husbandry 1 Cor. 3. 9. Now is any of you satisfied with his field because it plows well and receives the seed most kindly if it bring you no increase or crop yield you no harvest No saith the Author to the Hebrews c. 6. 8. such ground is nigh to cursing Why your works they are your
crop your harvest and when God shall send forth his Reapers the Angels if they can find no returns of all God's cultivating you but all his husbandry his seedness and his pains too have bin lost upon you no increase but onely barreness your end is to be burnt or onely tares they are to be cast into a furnace of fire where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matt. 13. 42. And in like manner by the Parable of fruit trees John Baptist Bring forth fruits meet for repentance for the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire And David describing his blessed man Psalm 1. does it first by shewing he does not bring forth ill fruit But neither will that serve turn to hear and meditate and talk of the word of God and not to do it It is the very same thing as a wilderness upon the water side a dead barren tree upon the River's bank No his man is like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that brings forth his fruit in due season We are God's Vineyard Isaiah 5. and he tells us there what pains he hath bestow'd upon us v. 2. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vines c. v. 4. What could have bin don more to my Vineyard that I have not don unto it Now if we do not bring forth grapes Go to saith God v. 5 6. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedg thereof and it shall be eaten up break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down And I will lay it wast it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it Yea God did not onely lay wast his Vineyard in that Isaiah 5. because it brought forth sower and wild fruit but our Savior in the Gospel curst a Fig-tree because it brought forth no fruit And indeed that barren Fig-tree was the onely thing upon the earth that ever Christ did curse all his Miracles were mercies but that An unfruitful Christian is such a thing a Savior hath no mercy for a mere negative virtue hath so little claim to Heaven that it cannot escape the curse of a Jesus And shall we apply this first to the conviction of their opinions who think if they lie under no gross customs if they be not tainted with any foul commissions they are then in a safe condition What if they forgive no wrong why they will do none and so who shall lay any thing to their charge Pardon they will not any minute offence because they avoid the wanting it from others and they will not hate nor malice tho they cannot have the bowels of of love no fellowship of Christian kindness they have no foul unclean heats nor no devout ones no ardencies of lust nor yet of zeal so they do not blaspheme God by daily oaths make no matter of worshipping him by daily Praiers and if his holy name be not in their execrations 't is well enough tho he be not in their Petitions No tho they go a little further and besides their doing no gross ills have great Professions of Religion they have all the leaves and foliage of a Christian they make a fair shell of Piety take abundance of pains to do all those things that are to stile them great Professors plenty of hearing and abundance of talking but no doing if you search the leaves you find no fruit no constant tenor of good works in every kind of Christian duty these are but too obvious stratagems of Satan and our deceitful hearts to make us satisfy our selves either with our condition tho our Piety look no further than to do no ill and the positive part of Religion be altogether unregarded by us or tho we have no more of it but the Profession O my Brethren as to these last remember that the curst Fig-tree had leaves had fair shew enough to bait our Savior's hunger and promise him refreshment and temt him out of the way to it and to the other hath God autority onely to forbid can he command nothing from us Are we content onely to abstain from something for his sake but will not do any thing for his nor Heaven's sake Is not his Worship as dear to him as our lusts are hurtful to him and hath he not as much reason to require that we should be devout and holy as that we should not be profance and filthy Can all his mercies all his rewards neither procure nor deserve more of us than onely not to serve the Devil Surely my Beloved both these sorts of Christians shall find that in the catalogue of sins to be accounted for omissions shall be reckon'd when our Savior comes to pass his sentence at the dreadful day of Judgment See the tenor of it Go ye cursed for when I was hungry ye gave me no meat 'T is not ye shall be damn'd because ye stript me and because ye starved me but because ye did not relieve me And 't is so in the other not bringing forth fruit not doing fills up the sentence of final malediction But the sadder conviction of this is for the practice of those that are nothing but commissions whose vice is positive men that cleanse themselves from holiness and go on daily perfecting filthiness If the man Matt. 25. that received the one Talent and laid it up safe in a Napkin and did no ill with yet because he did no good was therefore cast into utter darkness whither think you had he bin cast if he had made that Talent the instrument of his sin if like the Prodigal he had spent it upon harlots or upon excesses And whither shall they be doom'd who do so If it be not enough to abstain from sin what will become of them that do little else but act it If not to do pass sentence how will to commit condemn and if the half righteous shall not be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear If the tree with leaves that was green in foliage be curst shall not the dry and rotten one be burnt Alas for these men what a long stage of duty have they to go thro if they do intend in this life ever to be better who have not yet set forth have entred upon any part who have not cast off the works of darkness which yet when they have don they have but half they must put on the armor of light such too as will shine they must be fruitful and exemplary And this second quality is indeed the great design of this Text which hath more force in it than that of a single command for the verse is a conclusion following upon the three former He tells them that they are Salt
life and would see good daies let him eschew evil and do good But he hath a very obvious objection it is the most concerning part of wise men in the choice of means to pitch on such as are within their power for to deliberate about and to intend impossibilities is the most horrible instance of folly Now the man of this world chuseth such means as humanely speaking seem within man's power But the means whereby the Christian must attain his ends he thinks are not so and he is glad to think so 't is Apology and he had rather have the excuse of God's not giving grace to him than have the virtue and 't is certain truth that God must give it O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels all just works do proceed saith our Church All holy desires for he prepares the heart that his ear may hearken thereto his Spirit is the Spirit of supplication he must intercede in us with grones unutterable as if men need not set themselves to it but were to wait for inspiration for it from that Spirit who blows where he listeth All good counsels also and just works are from him For we are not able of our selves to think a good thought as of our selves all our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. the very preparations of the heart are from him Psalm 10. 17. 't is he that does touch the heart 1 Sam. 10. 26. and open it Acts 16. 14. turn it Jer. 31. 18. he must draw us John 6. 44. which if he do not no man cometh to him and must give an heart to know him Jer. 24. 7. give a new heart Ezek. 36. 26. and in all variety of expression a new spirit I will put within you and will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and cause you to walk in my statute and ye shall keep my judgments and do them In a word he worketh in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. Now since he onely does all this at his own pleasure as St Paul affirms there therefore 't is not in man's power I know O Lord saith Jeremy c. 10. 23. that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps no not to his main soveraign end And in this the worldling thinks he has advantage but does he not know that he must pray too as well as labor for his own bread Matt. 6. 11. it is God produceth all in order to it He bringeth food out of the earth and giveth wine that maketh man's heart glad and bread which strengthens it Psalm 104. 14 15. He that watereth the hills from his chambers v. 13. and his clouds drop fatness he prepares men corn Psalm 65. 9 10. c. 'T is he that gives us power to get what we have and he that does not know this knows not God Deut. 8. 14 17 18. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God and say in thy heart my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth yea he gives it it self whatever labor we bestow in getting it 1 Chron. 29. 16. O Lord our God all this store cometh of thine hand and is all thine own riches and honor come of thee v. 12. 'T is I gave them corn and wine and oyl and multiplied her silver and her gold even that whereof they did make Baal made an Idol And God is so jealous of his honor in this particular that if men do not render this acknowledgment he threatens to take all away Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof and will recover my wooll and my flax given to cover her nakedness Hos. 2. 8 9. And if he do not take it he must bless it otherwise we shall not thrive shall have no comfort in it for the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. Without that bread may stuff us but not nourish we may have saturity but not have sustenance 1 Hag. 6. 9. for I did blow upon it saith the Lord. So that for ought appears if Scripture signify to the men of this world as here they appeal to it the means whereby they should attain their Ends seem no more in their power then the others For as in the order of Grace those general rules to which he hath determin'd the conversion of a sinner God must work with his means to make them effectual so in the order of Nature those general rules by which all things in nature are effected he must prepare the means and bestow the power and bless the endeavors yea and himself give all too otherwise they also cannot be effectual Thus he hath in both appointed that in one and the other we should live with constant application to and with entire dependence on him in the faithful use of means both in the one and the other order So that the objection is quite vanisht 'T is true tho somtimes God doth blast mens actions so that do they what they can they cannot prosper for some secret cause that 's unaccountable to us yet because for the most part in the sphere of Nature so far as the men of this world diligently use the means they attain their aims in some measure therefore notwithstanding all the interest God pleads in these things they make no doubt but they are sufficiently in their power much more then those in the sphere of Grace are in that of the Christians where they have express promises of not being disappointed and are requir'd by most strict and multiplied commands which represent the work of grace as duty For tho all good desires and Prayers come from God's good Spirit and from his preparing of the heart as we saw yet Before thou praiest prepare thy self and be not as one that temts God as one that waits for a particular inspiration to it one that will not pray without a Miracle Tho God is said to open Lydia's heart yet Rev. 3. 20. he dos only knock and we must open He turns the heart and therefore Ephraim praies turn thou me O God yet by Ezekiel he saies turn your selves from your transgressions and bids Judah Return now every one from his evil waies and make your waies and your doings good He promises to circumcise the heart Deut. 30. 6. but yet he bids them circumcise the foreskin of their hearts Deut. 10. 16. He dos engage to put a new heart and a new spirit in them Ezek. 18. 31. In fine altho he worketh in us both to will and to do as S. Paul says yet he therefore charges us Work out your own Salvation For it is God that worketh in you Now when the man of this world thinks all those expressions of Gods workings in the course of Nature are
Orator Men have their shifts of conscience as of clothes their dress is carefuller and their rules stricter much abroad in public then when at home or out of sight As for the conscience of compliance many do not only do things which they have dislike to out of compliance but satisfy themselves because they do them with reluctancy against their inclination to avoid the being singular or offensive For the mode too Men learn to interpret God's laws also by the practice of the age live and judge by imitation and example The man's conscience tho it boggle at first sight of dangerous uncomely liberties yet conversation with them as it takes away the horror of them so he thinks it do's the danger and ill influence And as fashion makes all dresses to be mode and not look uncomely so the custom of these things makes them seem indifferent A Conscience also for the interests of a Profession as in trade for example and in Corporations of it it thinks their combinations for the better keeping up the Company fair and honest and therewithal make tricks and exactions lawful And in single traders such another principle makes Princes Laws be broken their dues stoln without any check of Conscience and I verily believe that many think these are not inconsistent with a good mind I might have instanc'd in other professions particularly in that which satisfies it self in the defending manifestly wrongful and in right causes in protracting suits to mens great molestation and the ruin of just rights But in truth this is paltry trifling with religion having false weights and mesures of what 's lawful and unlawful things that God abhors and indeed these frauds will in the end return upon their authors and the unhappy artist will most certainly deceive his own soul. For he never can arrive at life whom he that is the way do's not lead thither Christ and his rules only can introduce us into the mansions of Eternity 'T is true there may be doubts somtimes about the way of duty for 't is that I speak to in applying general rules for circumstances may perplex vary cases obligations seem to clash and quarrel so that one may be uncertain which to follow what means he should take to attain his great end 2. Now in case of such uncertainty as to the means the Child of this world do's observe a Rule of Prudence better then the Christian for he takes advice For who intends to purchase an inheritance but he goes to Counsel and if there be the least appearance of uncertainty in the Title spares no charge to have it searcht and to be sure The least indisposition drives the man that aims at life to his Physician In every difficulty of a voiage where there 's any apprehension of a shelf or rock the Merchant and the Master will consult the Pilot. But in the voiage towards heaven how many make shipwrack of a good conscience because they will not commit themselves to any conduct How often do they shake their Title to God's inheritance because they will not take advice of him at whose mouth God commanded they should seek the Law And who do's go to the Physician of Souls to prevent death Eternal I do not say men should betake themselves to a director in each action of their lives For who goes to a Doctor to know whether he should eat stones or poison or who asks a Lawyer whether he should keep or burn his evidences Now for the most part what I ought to do what to forbear is every jot as clear as those except where circumstances trouble or else seeming cross obligations a muse our judgment and then for a man not to ask direction in his way to heaven is unanswerable folly in a man that will inquire the way to the next village 't is nothing but a wretchless stupid carelesness in the Eternal interests of his own Soul When he that takes the best directions he can get with this sincere intent that he may not transgress may quiet his own mind in this that he hath don his utmost faithfully towards duty and in doing that with our good God shall be interpreted to have don his duty if he also faithfully pursue the means directed the 3d. property of Wisdom which does set the man upon the use of those means which he must attain his end by the last thing I am to speak too Now as to this I must confess the Child of this world wiser and give up the cause Whoever does resolvedly intend his profit pleasure honor or whatever state in this life 't is the business of his parts his study and his whole life to pursue it and it is so while the appetite of any carnal end is eager in him Anger hate revenge c. And I cannot say it is so with the Christian as to his end But the worldly man besides the zeal in using all means in pursuit of his end he observs two Rules that wisdom dictates with more carefulness 1. Be circumspect then wary both prescrib'd us by St. Paul Ephes. 5. 15. See that ye walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumspectly not as fools but wise as we translate it and the Vulgar caute warily with caution Now the first of these two Circumspection signifies the looking every way about him to discern or if he can foresee whatever may obstruct him in his progress give him any hindrance in whatever shape it is likely to attemt it whether it do threaten with inconvenience or do flatter with the deceitful appearances of being useful come with treachery or open opposition as a false Friend or a known Enemy and the other Caution sets him upon all the care he can make use of to avoi'd or rid himself of such impediments of what kind soever Now t is evident the man of this world in whatever occupation trade profession or place he may be from the lowest to the highest who proposes any one thing to himself and does not live ex tempore and follow ends and objects as the boy 's do Crows but hath at least some one design so far as he does so looks round him that he may shun every thing that would defeat divert or but disturb him in it and endeavors to move every stone which he may stumble at in his pursuit whatever may be an impediment to his attainments Now the Child of Light hath warning given him by the wise man also My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul for temtation There are those that will attemt to break his progress in pursuit of any such designment His enemy the Devil like a roaring Lyon his false friend the Flesh and a third that will assault him under both appearances the World somtimes by reproches taunts and insolent scorn by turning piety and virtue into raillery discouraging men from the pursuit somtimes by vexatious molesting injuring oppressing good men that they think will bear it making
judgment the soul shall be rewarded with the blessing of its intentions As it did often do its part in piety without the body so it shall have a crown before the body shall forestal happiness and for a while it shall alone be blessed as oftentimes it hath been vertuous alone in good intentions when it could not act 4. But all this is not strange that the great mercy of our God should so interpret to our advantage our designs of piety as to impute good meanings to our glory as if they were good doings and consequently where the intentions are holy the actions must be holy and where this eye is clear the body must have light but 't will be very strange if a clear eye make the whole body full of light illustrate those performances which have no relation to the soul. Most of the actions of our life are common and indifferent serve only the necessities or recreations of nature and how can these be holy Why yes by pure Religious intentions a man may sanctify all the actions of his life and if thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 31. Every therefore the most common action may be intended to Gods glory and then 't is sanctified That the Lord should look for honor from the devout performances of our strictest Religion 't is no wonder for therefore he requires them but that when in the meanest instance I do serve my self in doing so I should be able to give glory to my God is sure by vertue of some strange stratagem some Divine elixar that will so transmute things why a good meaning will do this To shew thee how when thou goest about the employments of thy lawful calling have but good thoughts about thee good intentions in them and the actions of thy calling are for the uses of grace and thy necessities do prove thy vertue As for instance when thou labourest do but consider to what pains sin hath put thee sells thee thy bread for sweat for if man had not sin'd Eden had furnish't him with all the delicacies of Paradise without his care or contribution and he had had the fruits of the tree of life without the pains of planting any thing 't is sin that gives thee all this toil and then do but resolve to use this as an argument to thy self to make thee hate the cause of so much trouble I will sure labour most against that which hath so chang'd and debas'd my condition and which do's aim to make me far more miserable to eternity If I am weary of my work e're night what shall I be of everlastingness of torment If little thirsty heats and drops of sweat offend me what will unquenchable feavors and what a lake of brimstone And think again upon the mercies of thy God who offers thee at the rate of easier endeavors the food that lasteth to eternal life the calling of a Christian being the least painful and yet it brings the greatest fruits the price of that high calling being blessedness if thou but labor in it If thou be sustaining the necessities of nature in meat and drink look up to him that do's provide for them and resolve only not to use his blessings to his dishonor by excesses not to spew his mercies out into his face again but use them as assistances of nature to enable thee for such emploiments as his providence hath assign'd to thee And in thy recreations also do but take notice thankfully how God hath provided for delights too how he hath not only brought forth bread to strengthen man but wine to make his heart glad and oyl to make him a cheerful countenance and instruments of sport to delight him and but acknowledg all these things to God and intend with thy self to use them only to his ends Thy calling either to provide for thy subsistence here that thou may'st serve him or to do good to others Thy meals for preservation of that life which he hath lent thee for his uses and recreations for refreshment and for health and make no doubt if nothing do interpose to spoil these instances that thou art serving God in all of these that thy most secular actions are thus make spiritual imploiments by being dedicated so to God undertaken in his fear and intended for the uses of his providence so that if whensoever thou art going about any thing thou do but ask thy self why thou do'st set upon it and can'st but make a good intention look towards it and resolve only to let it serve such ends resolve not to transgress in it the bounds that God hath set thee either of time or measure and to make all subordinate and to assist towards piety some way or other and then sometimes with eyes lift up call for and look for a blessing down upon thee in it and by this means the action is sanctified so thou dost consecrate thy deeds to God and he accepts thy meaning in it as an offering to him the action is adopted into the stock of Religion meant to God and so thy whole life may be made pious by such good intentions and thus thy single eye makes thy whole body full of light And this consideration alone might apply it self with pressingness upon us Shall I think God not easy to be serv'd when I may teach my recreations to serve him Shall I think Heaven placed out of my possibilities when I can learn my sports to wing me towards it Religion sure is not so very difficult when a good honest meaning can transmute every action of my life into Religion and then who would not at such easy rates change his imployments which he must do and his sports which he will do into pieties when it is don by putting good intentions into them by good thoughts and ejaculations engaging God along in them But the last words do urge an application which I promised in one word But if thine eye be evil thy whole body is full of darkness My brethren if ill intentions have so destructive an influence upon our actions that when the end is foolish tho the action I practise be a vertue yet that aim do's defeat it of its vertuosness it loseth all its tast of piety and an ill enddo's debauch it into vice as I have prov'd and so for want of a good meaning I either lose my Religion or my Religion becomes sin unto me Unhappy I that when with such intentions I practise duty I lose the pleasures or the profits of the sins I might have practis'd every jot as innocently and much more usefully as to those ends and I lose the duty and by the very duty I purchase condemnation enjoy neither the vice I do omit nor yet the piety I practise nor any thing but the sad sentence of they have their reward And on the
Eye then a clear single eye is a clear conscience and then of that it must be true that it do's make the man full of light and so it do's indeed as light do's signify joy and gladness and so it often do's in Scripture Psalm 4. 6 7. And truly the applauds of an honest undeceiving heart that is conscious to it self of cordial endeavors after good and knows it neither had ill ends nor ill means they shed comforts beyond all that the earth can give they shed the peace of God that passeth understanding If my conscience be clear let my condition be never so overcast never so dark and cloudy yet do I live in shine This is the only thing that makes every estate gladsome If my condition be low pressing adversity yet if my conscience assure me 't is not my fault that threw me down into it my sin did not put out the light of Gods candle of prosperity that before shone about me but rather because I would hold fast my duty and would not let go a good conscience therefore I was thrown down with them into deep affliction here my conscience assures me I am in a case which S. James bids me count all joy Jam. 1. 2. and which our Savior do's call blessed Matth. 5. 11. S. Peter tells me If ye be reproched for the name of Christ and 't is so for all duty happy are ye for the spirit of Glory and of God resteth on you 1 Pet. 14. 14. What if I be in the place of Dragons my conscience do's assure me 't was my duty not guilt did put me there that is God brought me thither and he is with me there the Spirit of God resteth on you What if I be in darknesss and dimness of anguish encompast with the shadow of death the Spirit of Glory resteth on me And then sure a clear conscience makes the man full of light when it makes him full of glory when in his darkest solitudes there do's break in the light of Gods countenance Let them be sadded with afflictions who understand no delight but in carnalities whose souls are married to some little comforts of this world Adversity indeed sweeps all their joys away at once a cross throws blacks upon them strait their heart 's in mourning instantly But he that understands the comforts of a good conscience and knows where to find them and hath a treasure of them in his breast will soon be able to allay the other sadnesses What can I want while I have a continual feast for so'is a good conscience It is not in the power of words to express the happiness of this blisful state It is the peace of God which passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 7. and tho felicity seems to be measur'd by our perception of it here we are happy beyond the scanty limits of our narrow apprehensions do not take in the beatific object but are our selves enclos'd and enter into the joy of our Lord Matt. 25. 23. 2. In order to the second act accusing if conscience be an eye then the well qualified eye is the tender conscience I mean not in the modern sense not only as it is accompanied with but as 't is but another word for a weak Judgment and a proud heart sturdy opposing private opinion or phancy against public authority And whereas conscience is said to be the eye of the soul a tender conscience has the sme importance in this case as when we call a blear or bloudshot a tender eye A gentle word for a troublesome malady The innocent importance of the word is that which denotes besides weakness in judging quickness in perception for conscience is the judgment of the mind concerning actions and whatsoever is tender is weak but a conscience which is such as tender things are alwaies is sensible of every the least touch of guilt checks at whatsoever we do amiss the least thing we do is a wound to it This is the tender conscience Such a one as is deeply sensible of the majesty and power and justice of Almighty God and the fatally provoking guilt of sin fears alwaies doubts and trembles foregoes lawful enjoyment least they should prove to be unlawful and flies from every not only approch but even appearance of evil This is an uneasy state but the inconvenience is abundantly repaid by the safety it procures whilst this flaming sword that turns every way guards both our Paradise and us and suspicions render us secure But if my heart grow hard not tender and my conscience insensible there is no hopes of cure I shall content my self with this one instance in answer to the evil eye as it relates to both these actions of accusing and excusing tho I might also name the conscience that accuseth to despair This is an evil eye indeed that entertains it self with the terrors of utter darkness in their own shapes that sees nothing but feinds those spirits of the dark nor will see any other An eye that will not endure but hates the least light of instruction or comfort A darkness this out of which the grave hath been counted an escape the darks of death a refuge yea to avoid the horror they have run into the shades of Hell And oh how great how insupportable is this darkness But God knows in this age we see little cause to fear nor reason to endeavor to prevent this Some little beginnings of it would be mercies to most men the danger now a daies is in the insensibleness of conscience the heart that never do's accuse of its commissions in earnest nay rather do's find out excuses it do's not check or sting them to the quick but rather tickles them Good God the heathens had a much more tender constitution of soul. The Poet says of guilty souls ad omnia fulgâ—ra pallent Cum â—onat exanimes primo quoque murmune coeli They that knew not there was an Hell to recompence iniquity nor knew that God threaten'd it with plagues yet when they heard it thunder their guilt did strike them like the thunder-bolts their souls did faint as it were the voice of God pronouncing wrath to their iniquities as if its lightnings were the flashes of that brimstone in whose eternal burnings sin must dwell This conscience did in them when knowing Christians can stand unappal'd We read of men of sear'd consciences 1 Tim. 4. 2. and such indeed cannot be tender Searing do's make insensible of pricks or little touches that you may lance and gash and it will not perceive And so it seems are some mens consciences and you will find there some other qualifications of such men they depart from the faith they give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils and it will be no wonder if they desert the holy Christian faith who have put themselves under the tutorage of Satan and have imbib'd the doctrine of Devils who with his institution have receiv'd his flames whose consciences are fear'd
that we should submit too is the will of God saith S. Peter and the law of scandal are the full and entire rule of conscience Whatsoever they prescribe or forbid that my conscience if it be rightly inform'd will tell me I must do or forbear and if I act according to the dictates of a conscience so inform'd my actions will be good and honest and such a single eye makes my whole body full of light which was the second thing Now this is prov'd in one word that must needs be a good life which is regulated by a good conscience because all good life is call'd by the name of a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 19. This was S. Pauls whole charge to Timothy holding faith and a good conscience there 's the belief and duty that 's the whole So 1 Pet. 3. 16. a good conscience is explain'd by a good Conversation in Christ and plainer yet Heb. 13. 18. We trust we have a good conscience willing in all things to live honestly Sincere endeavors to obey the conscience in every thing not boggling with it accepting the persons of duties and being very conscientious in some things but taking liberty in other bribing my conscience to wink like an evil eye and leave me in the dark as to some actions this is not to be conscientious he is so only that is willing to live honestly in all things and to do so is matter for the Apostles confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This also was the sum of all S. Paul himself endeavored after Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man He had no stricter aims here was the height of his Religion these were his exercises And the antient Father Clemens Alex. Strom. 6. says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what would any man have more Yea 't is apparent from the very terms for if thy conscience truly inform thee of all thy duty and thou dost accordingly then thou dost all thy duty or which is all that we can do So far as thy hearty endeavor is to this so far is thy life good and acceptable And here I have an hint for application by conviction of those who guide their conscience and consequently their lives by humors and fancies and not by the certain rules of conscience the laws I have assign'd Some men will call that conscience which is their inclination tho they do not examin whence the inclination springs from God or from suggestion of an interest or an affliction and think they are bound to do or may do that they have a mind to do Some mens rash heats that have somthing like zeal and it may be that have good intentions in them are strait the dictates of their Conscience and they must actuate those animosities and heats for they are bound in conscience Some men are advis'd by their fears and that will look like conscience in a little time Some mens imaginations promted by loose and libertine interpretations of Scripture or false infusions are strait their conscience and then their conscience tells them they must act accordingly But where 's the Law for these Conscience was I told you Gods Vicegerent possest his throne in man and was his Deputy prescrib'd to all mans actions and took cognizance of them and accordingly did sentence and will a man have humor give the Law to Gods Vicegerent or vain imaginations rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God within us as the ancients call'd it set fancy on the Throne Or I might secondly complain of them that would divide the rule of conscience and pick and chuse and take but part of it the immediate law of God they would think themselves bound to but for the law of scandal they regard it little Who did make them the keepers of their brothers soul If others by misunderstanding of their actions be drawn to sin at their own peril be it and at so little rates they value the salvation of that soul which Christ thought worth his bloud that for their meat or drink as S. Paul words it they will let their Brother perish for whom Christ died do actions for their interest or security under a close and secret sense of their own which being not understood by other weaker souls that look on their example with some Reverence they are led to sin and to perdition But much less do they think a law of man a Rule for conscience According to the Spartan method to be found out was transgressing the law the crafty performance was merit and vertue and whereas only Almighty God has cognizance of the heart his laws alone can reach designs and the obortive issues of the thought or those reserv'd enormities that are committed in the dark and without the privity of a witness Here were a subject for a sad complaint but that I have occasion for a worse and that is of the conscience that answers to the evil eye the other subject of the parable that is an evil conscience a conscience that do's not give true judgment of duty ill inform'd And first that which is totally or for the most so and of that but a word for 't is not pleasant sure to rake in such a sinke We read in Scripture of men given up to a reprobate mind or sense Rom. 1. 28. and to every good Work reprobate Tim. 1. 16. men who against all the checks of conscience and in despite of all its oppositions have chosen and pursued forbidden interests and pleasures so long till custome of them hath made them a part not only of their family but themselves and they do nothing now but prosecute them by contrivances and actions and have don this till conscience is stupified and as pleasures are especially saith Aristotle corruptive of principles from the absolute necessity they have conceived of them they think them little sins and from a long practise none at all these men are so far in a reprobate ense their hearts give a false judgment as false indeed as Satan would have them give and falser much then he can give himself of things of Religion who believes and trembles For they stick not to think those terrors Clergy men do talk of are but mormo's vizards of fear only Religious spectres shades of terror those strictnesses of vertue and of the means of practising it but the dreams of bigots foolish self injuries and those things we with so much eager zeal call sins the only and not dangerous enjoyments 'T is the Apostles asseveration and it is justified by every daies unhappy experience that evil men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceiv'd 2 Tim. 3. 13. Habits of ill emprove gradually as those of vertue only with this difference that the grouth is more suddain and prosperous like that of weeds and noxious plants in respect of those which are medicinal There is no opinion nor no practice so bad
which men by degrees cannot make plausible as custome renders vice necessary so by familiarity it becomes acceptable the first horrors are soon worn off and as it fares in War the enemy is made a servant and after grows up to be a favorite and is at length a master The progress from bad to worse is like that of heavy bodies downwards the native weight gains fresh accessions from the decent already made and the motion being continued grows still more rapid and irresistible That fool who said in his heart there is no God e're long emproves into a wit and loudly saies there neither is or can be one Conscience gall'd with perpetual ill usage contracts a callows hardness and becomes utterly insensible and by these unhappy steps ungodly men are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. are dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. 1. O thou the day-spring from on high that cam'st to visit us who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death in ignorance and sin and in the suburbs of eternal darkness shed thy light in our hearts we beseech thee and by the Illuminations of thy Holy Spirit give us enlightned minds and sanctified wills and affections Thou hast plac'd conscience in thy stead within us to do thy offices and to be thy Vicegerent to lay thy laws to us for our direction and to watch over all our actions to teach us to convince us to correct or comfort us Furnish we beseech thee then this thy commissioner within us with all qualifications necessary for thy offices endue it with the knowledg of all thy will that we may have a right judgment in all things and then endue us with obsequious hearts that may be alwaies ready to obey the dictats of our consciences willing to live piously and honestly in all things exercising our selves alwaies in this to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man and when the good Lord delivers us from this sad state and the occasions of it and if at any time we do rebel against thy officer our conscience Lord arm it with thy terrors that it may whip and lash us back again into our duty and sting and goad and never let us rest till we return to our obedience and persevere therein unto the end then shall we have the blessed comforts of a good conscience here and the gladsome light of a clear heart in this world and in the world to come light and Glory with the in thy Kingdom c. SERMON XX. THE LIGHT OF THE BODY is the Eye Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evill thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness I Have drawn you the parallel betwixt the Eye and the Conscience to several of their objects and uses shew'd you how the clear eye is not a better guide to a mans walks nor finds more pleasure in the prospects of those beauties that are made to temt and entertain the sight then a pure conscience do's find in looking over the landshape of a life led righteously soberly and Godly which it must needs if it follow the guidance of this single eye this well-inform'd conscience I have lead you also to the confines of that more dismal prospect the dark of that sad state which an evil conscience do's lead into This I have done in one and that in the worst consideration that of a sear'd reprobate conscience there remain three that I propos'd to consideration the first that of an erring conscience second doubtful third scrupulous And now I am to shew how each of these do's lead a man into the dark the scrupulons raiseth a dust about him leads into error and discomfort too the doubtful do's instead of guiding him leave him so puzl'd that he knows not which way to betake himself and the erring conscience lights him into the pit and takes him by the hand only to thrust him down if in any of these waies the eye be evil the whole body shall be full of darkness Of these in their order 2. An erring conscience a conscience that gives false information of duty that either tells me I may or I must do that which either Gods Law or some Law in force upon me tells me I must not do or else tells I must not do that which I am bound to do or at the least may do Now that this is a light indeed like those deceitful ones that lead men over precipices into dark ruins like such lights that were so plac'd between the rocks as to guide the mariner into a shipwrack to make it necessary for him to be dasht against the one or the other is most certain for so it is here There is scarce such another infelicity as that this man lies under whose conscience tells him one thing when God's Law or that which is any way his duty do's require the contrary for if he do according to the Law of God he acts against his conscience and so sins and if he act according to his conscience he sins against the Law of God Poor soul Sin lies on the right and on the left hand which way soever he do's turn it seizes on him and all this I shall prove 1. That if he act against his conscience he sins tho the Law of God make it no sin Scripture and reason shall make good Rom. 14. 14. I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean God had once forbidden such and such meats under pain of sin to the Jews by Moses Law and made them unclean that is unlawful to their use Now Christ had taken off this obligation and made all meats lawful for any man S. Paul saith that he knew so I am assur'd that Christ hath so remov'd all obligation to the Law of Moses that to a Christian no meat is unlawful to be eaten but yet for all this 't is unlawful to him who thinks it still prohibited and if his erring conscience tell him he ought not eat it tho by Christ's certain Law he may he sins if he do eat against his conscience and that to such an height that he whose example wrought with him to eat against the perswasion of his mind destroyeth the man v. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died 't is therefore a destroying sin to do a lawful thing against a mans conscience The reason of all this is cleer because no Law of God or man no rule of duty can be applied unto us but by the mediation of conscience for till my conscience laies it to my heart and tells me such a thing is commanded and my duty it is to me as if there were
no such command and it were not my duty for till then I knew nothing of it this alone therefore do's propose and apply duty to us and consequently whether that which it proposes be my duty really in it self or no yet I must needs look upon it as so having no other direction imaginable what to do or forbear but what my conscience some way instructed tells me God or my Governors have commanded or forbid me So that if I am resolv'd in my mind of the sinfulness and obliquity of an action propos'd tho really the thing be innocent yet to me in my present circumstance 't will be utterly unlawful and tho the action be innocent the agent will be guilty 2. That God hath plac'd the conscience in us as the only next and immediate rule of all our actions according to which they are to be directed which if they be not they are faulty as every thing that swerves from its rule is not right tho what I have said will sufficiently prove yet Scripture do's confirm when it saies Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin that is to say whatsoever is contrary to the perswasion of lawfulness that is in other words contrary to conscience is sin whatsoever he do's as long as he thinks in conscience he should not do it he sins whether the thing be sin or no as that was no sin of which he there spake And reason good for we are so far honest hearted lovers of God as we embrace that which our hearts are really possest is his service and our duty and hate the contrary that is as we follow our conscience conscience being nothing but the persuasion that this is duty which if we go against 't is sure we like and follow that which in our thoughts is vicious and wicked be it what it will in it self to us 't is so 't is sure the inclinations and the actions pursue vice when they pursue that which they cannot look upon but as vice Conscience therefore is the rule from which 't is sin to recede 'T is with fair pretence to reason said that nothing can be a rule which is it self crooked and irregular That which is strait is indeed said to be index sui obliqui and having justified its own rectitude becomes qualified to be a test of right and wrong in others For certainly if the man knew what God's Law do's require of him in that case the conscience do's not erre if he do not know what God's word do's require how can he follow it against that which his conscience tells him God requires And it is certain if the man should suspend his action and have not reason to act according to his erring conscience he never can have reason to act according to a conscience well-inform'd not when it tells him God is to be lov'd for it is sure his conscience do's as much propose the error as his duty as it do's the truth the man as really believes the one is to be don as the other and hath no reason to make difference and therefore if at any time he must follow his conscience he must alwaies and it will be sin to act against it be it what it will But then you 'l hope it will excuse to act according to it Oh no alas for that 's the second thing in this case of erring conscience if a man act according to his conscience he sins too if he act against the Law of God Scripture will furnish me with several examples and proofs of this and 't is a doctrine worth the taking notice of it having prov'd to so many persons a plea for actions otherwise abominable they follow'd their conscience 't was it may be mistake in judgment but 't was uprightness of heart sincerity of conscience Now to take off this color which I shall do with all imaginable plainess Our Savior John 16. 2. foretells to his Disciples they shall put you out of their Synagogues yea the time will come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he do's offer God an oblation or worship shall think it not only lawful but acceptable to God and of the nature of a Sacrifice which propitiates for other offences to put you to death See here a conscience bravely glos'd when the error look'd like Religion and Attonement a color not at all strange to our daies in such another case and yet these Jews that did so for of them he speaks were given up to the direst punishments that ever any nation did groan under Of the same Jews S. Paul saies Rom. 10. 2. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledg that is I must testify of them that they are very many of them great zealots for their Law as that which is commanded them by God and so in their way and heart zealous to have God obeied only for want of knowledg they are mistaken in their zeal Here is strong conscience granted in these Jews and that built up upon a Law of God then indeed outdated which yet thro a zealous earnestness they were ignorant of but yet the following this zeal and conscience was plagued with total induration of of that people c. 11. 8 9 10. Nor was this S. Pauls heat against that persecuting nation but that Apostle do's more plainly yet and home to our matter say of himself Acts 23. 1. I have liv'd in all good conscience before God until this day I have all my life long even when I was a defender of the Mosaical Law against Christ's reformation acted sincerely and uprightly according to my conscience and again 2 Tim. 1. 3. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience i. e. whom I have obeied sincerely all my time even when thro ignorance I persecuted the Christian faith doing according to the dictate of my conscience and as I was perswaded I ought to do And now if conscience will excuse there was enough of that a good conscience and a pure conscience and will his fiery persecutions nâ—w by vertue of his conscience be Christned holy zeal shall the pure conscience make his bloudy hands to be undefil'd Oh no 't was Blasphemy and injury and persecution for all 't was conscience 1 Tim. 1. 13. I was before a blasphemer c. and notwithstanding I did it all in the uprightness and sincerity of my heart I am the chief of sinners v. 15. And let us not suppose these aggravations were laid on by S. Paul upon himself because of his unbelief that that was the only thing that gave guilt to his actions and that we thro faith and assurance shall escape if we do such gross actions out of an erring conscience For on the contrary S. Paul do's bring his unbelief not as the Aggravation but the Apology of his crimes he pleads that for himself v. 13. and he finds
are not always well connected there is no chain or thred of fancies and the thoughts are not joynted regular and even but there are breaches and disorder in them still the Images of sleep being like Nebuchadnezzar's made of such things as do not well unite So there is something I confess like this in our condition for with our gold and silver our precious things that are restored there is Iron and Clay not onely meaner mixtures but such things as will not close or be soder'd but do incline to part asunder and would moulder and tend towards dissolution and just as in a Dream the composure of things is no so undisturb'd but that there is some confusedness neither our affections nor practices do perfectly cement but yet I hope it is no dream of mercy 't is not a Phantasm or an Apparition of Gods kindness but the Lord will be truly good to us Yet if we do proceed as Israel and equal it in provocations But I will make no parallels publique clamors do that too loud these do display the factions of iniquity among us and muster up the several parties of our Vices too and each man is as perfect in the guilts of all sides that he is not of as if their memories were the books that shall be opened at the Day of Judgment some men can point you out our Pharisees and Zelots others can shew you our prophane licentious Professors Lay and Clergy both and indeed we need not go far to seek any or all of these nor do we want our Sadduces Now if all this be true then as those were the signs of the Son of Man's coming to them in Judgment so we may fear they are his Harbingers to us If they be I am sure the only way to make his coming good to us is to prepare for it by cleansing from all filthiness and insincerity then though he come clothed with a Glory of flaming Vengeance yet will those streams of Fire find nothing to consume or wash away in us but through that flame the pure in heart shall see God so as that that sight shall be the Beatifick Vision Yea they shall see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living they shall see Jerusalem in prosperity all their life long and Peace here upon Israel and in his light hereafter in the Jerusalem that is above To the state of which glorious Light He bring us all who is the brightness of his Fathers Glory To whom be Glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen The Third SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Second Wednesday in Lent LEVIT XVI 31. Ye shall Afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever THE words are one Single Precept concerning one part of the Celebration of a Day I shall not take the Precept asunder into parts for it hath none but shall frame my Discourse to answer three Enquiries that naturally offer themselves to be consider'd from these words And they are 1. What the Importance of the thing commanded is What is required in this Injunction Ye shall afflict your Souls 2. What Usefulness and Efficacy this Duty had upon that time in which it was prescribed what the Afflicting of the Soul contributed to the work of that Day that it should be made so indispensable an ingredient of its performances tied to it by a Statute for ever 3. Whether that for ever do reach us which is the Application and brings all home to us First What the Import of the thing commanded the Afflicting of the Soul is The Arab. and Targum of Jerusalem Translate it Fasting yea and a Learned Rabbine says that wheresoever these two words are put together that is meant And indeed they are often joyned in Scripture to express it Psalm XXXV 13. I afflicted my Soul with Fasting And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of this Day in my Text says Is it such a Fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his Soul Isa. lviii 5. Somewhat a strange expression it is for Fasting does afflict the Body properly and yet we find the like too in the other Extream We read of pampering the Soul Psalm lxxviii 18. They required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat for their Souls not to supply the Hunger of their Body that they had before but to indulge the Lusts of their mind they did not want for food but variety Festival diet and a Table furnish'd they would have and this luxuriancy and wantonness of Meat the Scripture calls meat for the Soul Such as God says in other places the Soul lusteth after Indeed forc'd meats and things that please meerly by being rare and dear or by being extravagant these do not feed the Appetite but Opinion and the Mind it is the Soul that only hungers after these Thus when I look after Wine in the glass and make my Eye a Critique of its accidents and by the mode and fashion of it teach it to please or displease my judgment I do not thirst after the cool moysture of it but the sparkling flame and do not drink the Wine but the flavour and colour and this is all but Notion Now certainly these are not proper objects for our Appetites meat for the Body says the Scripture and it is the Stomach and not the Imagination that is hungry nor is it Fancy or the Soul that thirsts but 't is the Palate so that these are unnatural and monstrous satisfactions And yet to bring mens selves to this is one of the great masteries of Wit and Art to force themselves to find a relish in these things and then contrive them is a piece of Skill which the advantages of parts and fortune are desireable mostly as they are useful to And a well studied Epicure one expert in the mysteries of Eating is a singularly qualified and most grateful Person It were in vain to ask what else such men can be good for that being their Profession they are out at most other things Indeed the Soul that dwells in Dishes and is stew'd in its own Luxuries grows loose and does dissolve its sinews melt all its firmness of mind forsakes it the man is strong for nothing but for Lusts his faculties are choak'd and stifled they stagnate and are mir'd within him and there corrupt and putrefie And then what Cranes will force out thence and wind up such a Soul into the practices and expectations of Piety will make it mind and entertain the hopes and Duties of Religion what macerations what Chymistry will defecate a Spirit so incarnated and rectifie it into such a fineness as befits that state where all their blessedness have no sensual relish but are sublimed into Divine and purely Spiritual Lord God! that thou shouldst shed a rational Angelick Soul into us a thing next to the Being of thy Self to animate only the Organs of Intemperance and Gluttony and their appendant lusts Only inspire us how to be but more sagacious indeed but more luxurious
the Land again and embowel it self in Church and State these call for it as loud as the hatangueing Prayers of Seditious Men and the Lord knows there are too many hands that would unsheath it if God do not interpose to hinder and well we have deserv'd he should But if we would endeavour to engage him by Repentance that will require the Afflicting of the Soul by some severities Do not mistake your selves Repentance as it cannot be wrought out amidst our courses that were contradiction to return and yet go on so also it will not be wrought out amidst the Comforts as we call the jollities of life Tertullian is very pleasant with those who did dislike that in their Penitencies they were by the Church prescrib'd to put off Mirth and put on Sackcloth and take Ashes for Bread Come says he reach that Bodkin there to braid my Hair and help me now to practise all those Arts that are in Mode to attire it give me the washes of that Glass the blushes of that Paper the foyles which that Box hath to beautifie and dress my Cheeks come and set out and dress my Table too let me have Fowl with costly forc'd and not a natural Fat or let me have cramb'd Fish and cram my Dishes also get me chearful Wine too and if any one ask why I do thus indulge my self Why I will tell him I have sin'd against my God and am in danger of Perdition and therefore I am in great trouble I macerate do you not see the signs of it and excruciate my self I take these fearful careful ways that I may reconcile God to me whom I have offended Alas to humble ones self thus in fulness and to afflict the Soul in chearful plenties is such a thing as none but he that sinks under the surfeit of those Plenties understands I 'm sure the Lord when he required his People to repent required them then to discipline and use severities upon themselves they were to fast or dye God took the execution for whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be Afflicted that same day shall be cut off from among his People Levit. xxiii 29. Even cut off by God himself And I do verily persuade my self that one great cause why men that have sometimes thought to reform their lives and do resolve against their Courses yet repent of their Repentance their resolutions untwist and become frail as threds of Cobweb the first assault of a temptation does break through them is they do not use mortifications to work their aversations high and strong against their sins and fix their resolutions The universal sense of the whole Primitive Church gives me confidence in this persuasion who for that very reason in their penitential Excommunications did inflict such severities as 't is almost incredible that Christians would submit to yet they beg'd to be censur'd into and those had S. Paul for their precedent But now Repentance are but dislikes little short unkindnesses at our sins and wouldings to do better On some moving occasion if Gods Hand or his Spirit lash it may be Tears will gush out of the Wound and we in angry sadness do intent against our Vices but when that fit is over and the Flesh by indulgences prepared to make or answer a temptation we fall again and then it may be shake the head and curse the sin but yet again commit it if the invitation be fair And then are very sorry account our selves unhappy who lie under such a violent infirmity but act it still Now if we consider how it comes to pass that we go round like men inchanted in a Circle of Repenting and of Sinning we shall find it is for want of Discipline upon our selves for had we strove to make our humiliations more low and full of pungent sorrow the Soul would start and fly at the first glance of that which cost it so much anguish but who would fear to act that sin which puts him to so little trouble to repent of as a sad thought a sigh a wish and a loose purpose thin intentions and that 's all Do not complain of the Infirmity of the Flesh for this and say thou wouldst live Spiritually but the frailty of thy sensual part betrays thee its stings and incitations make thee start from duty and goad and force thee into actions which otherwise thou neither shouldst or wouldst commit 'T is thou thy self that arm'st thy Flesh with all its stings thou givest it strengths whereby it does subdue the Spirit thou waterest thy desires with Wines thou feedest them with strong meat and teachest them to crave thou cocker'st them with thy indulgence and thou dost treat Temptations to sin dost invite wickedness and nourish the occasions of Ruin and then it is no wonder if thy resolutions be not strong enough there is no way but by Austerities to mortifie all inclinations that stir against the Spirit and by denying satisfactions to thy Appetite to calm and moderate thy affections to every thing below and then Temptations will have neither Aid nor Avenue But Secondly You shall Afflict your Souls cannot be meant only that ye shall Afflict your Bodies the Spirit also must be troubled and we must rent the Heart as well as Garments that is indeed a Sacrifice fit for a Propitiation day for it is such a one as God will not despise Psal. li. 17. and without which all others are but vain Oblations God may call fasting the Afflicting of the Soul because it is the most appropriate and natural means to work it but when he calls it so he does intend it should produce it Austerities are humilificandi hominis disciplina as Tertul. says Humiliation Discipline but yet they have not always that effect The Pharisee that fasted twice a week did not mortifie at all but his Humiliation made him lofty his emptiness filled him with wind and puft him up and the Publican was more justified than he And late experiences have taught us that Fasting does not always humble when it did gape for Sovereignty and did afflict then into Power only when there attended it a sacra fames an hunger after Holy things and such as all the relicts of old Sacriledg could not allay but it devoured Church and State and yet crav'd still And the throat of these fasting men was an open Sepulchre indeed open to bury and that could no more be satisfied than the Grave But 't is not only these demure impieties and those that are devout in wickedness and act it in Religion and the Fear of God I have to speak against But in the general If Fasting do not humble and those severities that wear the Flesh break not the heart too and make it contrite then they are lost upon us and do not profit us All these strictnesses of bodily and outward exercise as S. Paul calls it are acts of discipline prescribed to make the Sorrows of Repentance more severe and operative and so to
a Pompous Royal Messiah they will not believe in this but reject a Saviour that comes upon those disadvantages which will therefore prove occasions of falling to them That is was so is expresly said Behold I lay in Sion a Chief Corner-stone a stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence And that it was so upon this account is clear the Great ones cry out of him This fellow we know not whence he is They that seem'd to know whence did upbraid him with it Is not this the Carpenter And therefore with a deal of scorn they question Do any of the Rulers or the Pharisees believe in him Yea Christ himself knew this would be so great a Scandal that in the 11. Chapter of S. Matthew in the close of many Miracles which he wrought on purpose to demonstrate he was the Messiah he adds vers 6. and blessed is he that shall not be offended in me As if he thought his mean condition would prove a greater argument against him than his mighty Works were for him And it were a vaster Prodigy to see the Saviour of the World the promised Messiah poor and abject than to see one cure the Blind and heal the Lame and raise the Dead and they might think they had a stranger Miracle to confirm their unbelief than any he would work to make them believe in him And really that the Kingdom of the Messiah which the Prophets did express in terms as high as their own Extasies and Raptures in transported words as if it vied with Gods Dominion both for extent and for duration should prove at last an Empire onely over twelve poor Fishermen and Publicans and one of them a Traytor too And that He that was born this King should be born in a Stable while he liv'd that he should not have an hole to put his Head in nor his Corps in when he died but his Grave too must be Charity this would startle any that did wait for the Redemption of Israel in those glorious expresses which the Prophets trac'd it out in To you indeed that are Votaries to this Child are confirmed Christians these seeming disadvantages can give no prejudice However mean and abject his condition were that cannot make you to despise him who from that must needs reflect how dear you were to God when for your sakes meerly he became so mean an abject He became poor saith S. Paul that you through his poverty might be made rich He was made the Child of Man that you might be made Sons of God it was to pay the price of your Redemption that he so emptied himself thus he valued you and men do not despise meerly because and by those measures that they are esteem'd these are not the returns of love its passionate obliging ravishing effects do not use to be thus requited this his great descent cannot occasion your fal who know he descended onely to assume you up to glory But 't is worth inquiry why since it was certain that for this this Child should be the fall of Israel that for this they would reject him and the meanness of his condition would prove an unremovable obstruction to their belief as it is to this day Why yet he would chuse to be born in a condition so in the utmost extream to his own nature so all contradiction to his Divinity and so seemingly opposite to the very end of his coming The Jew indeed will find no excuse for his Infidelity from this condition For whatever that were yet those Miracles that made the Devils to confess him brought conviction enough to make Jews inexcusable And it was obvious to observe that He who fed five thousand with five Loaves and two Fishes till they left more than was set before them needed not to be in a condition of want or meanness if it were not otherwise more needful he should not abound God that when he brought this first begotten Son into the World said Let all the Angels of God worship him might have put him into an estate which all Mankind most readily would have done homage to As easily have dress'd his Person with a blaze of Pomp and Splendor as his Birthday with a Star if there had not been necessity it should be otherwise And such there was For when the fulness both of Time and Iniquity was come when Vice could grow no further but did even cry for Reformation and when the Doctrine that must come to give the Rules of this Reformation was not onely to wage War with Flesh and Blood with those desires which Constitution gives but which perpetual universal Custom had confirmed and which their Gods also as well as Inclinations did contribute to which their Original sin and their Religion equally â—omented for Vice was then the Worship of the World Sins had their Temples Theft its Deity and Drunkenness its God Adultery had many and to prostitute their bodies was most â—acred and their very Altar-fires did kindle these soul heats whence Uncleanness ' is so often call'd Idolatry in Scripture And besides all this when all the Philosophy and all the power of the World were ingag'd in the belief and practice of this and resolv'd with all their wit and force to keep it so When it was thus the Doctrine that must come to oppose controul reform all this must come either arm'd with Fire and Sword design to settle it self by Conquest or come in a way of Meekness and of suffering The first of these Religion cannot possibly design because it cannot aim to settle that by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is force is not Religion One may as well invade and hope to get a Conquest over thoughts and put a Mind in Chains and force a man to will against his will All such motives are incompetent to demonstrate Doctrines for however successful their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true for by that Argument is proves that Religion that it settles true it proves that which it destroys was true before while it prevail'd and had the Power Had this Child come so he had onely given such a testimony to the truth of Christianity as Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since He might indeed have drown'd the wicked World again in another Deluge of their own Bloud But sure never had reform'd it thus Therefore that Religion that must oppose the Customs and the Powers of the World upon Principles of Reason and Religion must do it by Innocence and Patience by doing good and which was necessary then by consequence as the World stood by suffering evil parting with all not onely the Advantages but the Necessaries of this life and life it self too where they stood in competition and were inconsistent with mens duties and their expectations And by this means they must shew the World that their Religion did bring in a better hope than that which all the profits pleasures glories
Miracle and the Rock must give them drink yet having no Imployment they made Feasts They sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play Nor would eating to the uses of their nature serve them but they must have entertainments for their wantonness Had they been imployed to get their Bread their labour would have made their morsels sweet But since God as the Wise-man says sent them from Heaven bread prepared without their labour they must have varieties to sweeten it they require him to prepare a Table also in the Wilderness and furnish them with choice And although they had the food of Angels able to content every mans delight and agreeing to every taste and serving to the appetite of the eater it temper'd it self to every mans liking and what could they fancy more The latitude of Creatures the whole Universe of Luxury could do nothing else in every single morsel they had sorts Variety all choice as if that Desert had been Paradise that Wilderness the Garden of the Lord Yet so coy is Idleness so apt to nauseate that they abhor the constancy of being pleas'd And though they were not sated neither he that gather'd much had nothing over onely to his eating God as well providing for their Health and Vertue as Necessity and dieting their Temperance as he did their Hunger Yet their very liking does grow loathsom to them When their Bodies were thus excellently well provided for having no imployment nothing to take up their Minds and Entertain their Souls they require 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat for their Souls meat not to serve the uses of their bodies but to feed their fancies their extravagant minds Thus Idleness requires to be dieted And all this but to pamper and feed high mens inclinations so to make Temptations irresistible and by consequence Vice necessary It were easie to recount more of those ways by which the Devil does make use of mens want of Imployment to debauch their lives and ruin all the hopes of Vertue in them S. Jude finds more of its effects at Sodom They gave themselves over to Fornication and went after other flesh and are set forth for an Example suffering the vengeance of Eternal fire Indeed these are most certain consequents of not being imployed Quaeritur Aegysthus is too known an instance and great holy David is another But it s dire influence is sufficiently visible in that which it rain'd down upon those Cities Since it did fulfill the guilt of Sodom and made Heaven furnish Hell for it and God himself turn Executioner of fire and brimstone to revenge it this shall serve to prove it is one of the Devil's Master-pieces 3. Next succeed his fiery darts as S. Paul calls them namely Persecutions or Calamities of any kind Which he manageth either by inflicting pressures and he was so confident of the force of these that he did tell God he would make Job curse him to his face with them Or if he find men in necessities and pressures then by tempting them to get from under them by methods which he shall direct and he had such assurance of the strength of this Temptation that by it he tried our Saviour to find out whether he were the Son of God or no believing none but he that was so would be able to resist it Indeed the trials are severe which this Temptation does present to draw men from their Duty and to overcome their Constancy Whether it solicite by inflicting punishment as on the Mother and her Children 2 Maccab. vii or by offering to withdraw it if they will submit to their unlawful terms and so they tried her youngest Son there verse 24. or at leastwise by some feigned act some ambiguous words or practices will pretend compliance so they dealt with Eleazar Chap. vi 21. whom they would have had to bring flesh of his own provision such as he might use without offence and so onely seem to eat forbidden meat Each of which is as great a trial also and to stand against them reckon'd up amongst as vigorous acts of Faith as those that held out in the greatest tortures persecuting malice could invent Heb. xi 17. They were stoned sawn asunder were tempted Now to fetch an instance of the sad success of these I shall not need to go so far as to those Persecutions of Antiochus nor those of the primitive times of Christianity when they had no other choices but these to deliver up their Bibles or their Lives either to sacrifice to Idols or at least procure a Ticket which should certifie that they had done it or to be themselves an Holocaust and give those Idols a Burnt-offering with their martyr-flames Which made the Traditores Lapsi the Thurificati and the Libellatici to be so numerous Through Gods blessed mercy there is no use of such instances as there is no fear of such a trial 't is not death to be a Christian now For if the Son of Man or Satan's self should come to try us at those rates 't were a great doubt whether the one or other would find Faith upon the Earth whether they would sacrifice a life to our Religion who are not content to sacrifice a little interest or pleasure to it whether they are likely to resist unto blood fighting against sin who will not resist to tears nor sober resolutions Alas what Religion should we be of if God should raise a Dioclesian come to tempt us with the fiery trial Martyrs as we are to nothing but our Passions and our lusts Nor shall I produce more known and near experiences when by reason of such storms of Persecution men made shipwreck if not of their Faith yet of good Conscience When by order or permissions of Providence they were brought to such a streight that either they must let go their possessions or their honesty acting against Principles and Conscience of Duty I shall not remember how when God did shake his angry hand thus over them they fled to the Devils kindness and made Hell their refuge to save them from their Fathers rod how they grew so Atheistical as to believe a Perjury or other crime greater security that would preserve their selves and their condition better than all God had promis'd were such Infidels that they did rather trust their being here to the commission of a sin than to the Providence and the Engagements of the Almighty For indeed what need I instance in these greater cases where the trial was so sharp as not to offer any easier choice than this either to part with Conscience or with all they had God knows we find less Interests will do The Devil by no more than this driving the Gadarens swine into the Sea was able to drive Christ out of their Coasts You have the story Matth. viii from the 28. verse A legion of those evil spirits did possess two men and finding Christ would cast them out
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mind earthly things the fourth sort in whicâ— all their wisdom lies Which two last sorts of Enemies I shall attaque together The Cross of Christ amongst its other ends was set to be an instrument whereby the World is to be Crucified to us and we unto the World to be the means whereby we are enabled to prevail upon and overcome our worldly lusts and inclinations and to sleight yea and detest all the temptations of its Wealth Delights and Heights when they attempt to draw us into sin or take us off from Duty Now to this it works by these three steps First shewing us the Author and the finisher of our Faith nailed himself to that Cross his joints rack'd on it his whole Body strip'd and nothing else but Vinegar and bitter potions allow'd his thirst and thus convincing us that if we will be his Disciples we must take up his Cross and follow him at leastwise we must have preparedness of mind to take it up when ever it is fix'd to Duty to renounce all profits honours and delights of this World that are not consistent with our Christian profession This is the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ it being otherwise impossible to to be the Disciples of a Crucified Master And when this great Captain of our Salvation was himself consecrated by his sufferings and had for his Standard his own Body lifted up upon the Cross we that are listed under him and with that very badg the Cross too crucis Consecranei Votaries and fellow Soldiers of that Order if we shall avoid our Duty when it is attended with a Cross or straitned any ways and the provisions of this World are cut off from it and betake our selves rather to the contents of Earth we do not onely shamefully fly from our Colours Fugitive and Cowards Poltrons in the Spiritual Warfare but are Renegadoes false and traytours to our selves too such as basely ran away not onely from our Officer but from Salvation which he is the Captain of and which we cannot possibly attain except we be resolv'd to follow him and charge through whatsoever disadvantages to attend Religion vanquishing all those temptations with which the World assaults us in our course to Duty Thus the Cross of Christ first shews us the necessity we have to renounce and Crucifie the World But to encourage and enable us to do so it does also shew us Secondly The certainty of a good issue in the doing it assures us that those who deny themselves forbidden satisfactions here that will be vertuous maugre all the baits and threats of Earth will embrace Duty when it is laden with a Cross although so heavy as to crush out life and kill the body assures us that those lose not but exchange their lives shall save their Souls and that there is another World wherein their losses shall be made up to them and repaired with all advantage To the truth of this the Cross of Christ is a most pregnant and infallible testimony For as by multitudes of Miracles Christ sought to satisfie the World that he was sent from God to promise all this and justified his Power to perform it by experiment raising some up from the dead so when they said he did his Miracles by Beelzebub he justified it â—urther with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God no 't is impossible but he must know whether he were or no and consequently sent and able to do all he promised and resolv'd to do it also for our more assurance in himself that he would raise himself up from the dead within three days and saying this when he was sure he should be Crucified for saying so and sure that if he did not do according to his words he must within three days appear a meer Impostor to the world and his Religion never be receiv'd Now 't is impossible for him that must needs know whether all this were true or no to give a greater testimony to it than his Life For this that Bloud and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon Cross which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witness to his being the Son of God and consequently to the truth of all this equal to the testimony of the Spirit whether that which the Spirit gave when he came from Heaven down upon him in his Baptism or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witness upon Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood Thus by his Death Christ did bring Life and Immortality to light his choosing to lay down his own life for asserting of the truth of all this was as great an argument to prove it as his raising others from the dead and Lazarus's empty Monument and walking Grave-cloaths were not better evidence than this Cross of Christ. 4. Once more this Cross not onely proves the certainty of a future state but does demonstrate the advantage of it and assures us that it is infinitely much more eligible to have our portion in the life to come than in this life That to part with every thing that is desireable in this World rather than to fail of those joys that are laid up in the other that to be poor here or to be a spoyl to renounce or to disperse my wealth that so I may lay up treasures for my self in Heaven and may be rich to God never to taste any one of these puddle transient delights rather than to be put from that right hand where there are pleasures for evermore to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascent those everlasting Hills and Mount Sion that is above that this is beyond all proportion the wisest course it does demonstrate since it shews us him who is the Son of God who did create all these advantages of Earth and prepare those in Heaven and does therefore know them both Who also is the Wisdom of the Father and does therefore know to value them yet for the joys that were set before him choosing to endure the Cross and despising the shame On that Beam he weigh'd them and by that his choice declar'd the Pomps of this World far too light for that exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that the whole earth was but as the dust upon the Ballance and despis'd it and to make us do so is both the Design and direct influence of the Cross of Christ. But as at first the Wise men of this World did count the Preaching of the Cross meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucified and for the sake of such an one to renounce all the satisfactions suffer all the dire things of this Life and in lieu of all this onely expect some after Blessednesses and Salvations from a man that they thought could not save himself seemed to them most ridiculous So truly
and ears and wings and these of strange prodigious dimensions neither tells us which of these is proper and which figure Here if Reason that can prove God cannot be a Body and cannot endure his God should be a monster shall be called in to pass sentence they that make Philosophy interpret Holy Writ in this case and give the last resort to Reason do no more usurp or trespass on Religion then they that make use of Authors or a Dictionary judge of the sense of any Greek or Hebrew word in Scripture But notwithstanding this we may not think the mysteries of Faith are to be measured by the Rules of natural Reason so to stand or fall as they approve themselves to its discourse or Principles for though it be impossible that any Revelation can contradict right Reason truth cannot be inconsistent with truth yet it is very possible God can reveal those truths which we have neither faculties analogal nor Principles or notions proportioned to nor any natural ways of judging or examining And if those faculties which are not capable of cognisance will judge and judge of things removed from all our notices such as Spiritual Infinite Eternal being is and do it by principles gathered from the information of our Sences and by analogy with things of another kind corporeal finite things that are about us reason need not be informed how liable such judgments must be to mistakes and how that which we call repugnancy in one may have no place in the other Here therefore to submit ourunderstandings and believe is but modest justice and to receive as Children what our Heavenly Father says And therefore they that will presume to comprehend what ere they are commanded to believe and those that will believe nothing but what they are able to comprehend are alike insolent if not pernicious 'T is true God by the Gospel hath revealed and brought to light many things which before appeared onely as he himself did in the Temple in a Cloud namely concerning the Divine nature Persons Properties and the Eternal being and the Incarnation of his Son but still as God himself is said to do these also dwell in Light that no man can approach unto Which he that will needs gaze and pry too near to must be dazled into blindness and be only so much more in the dark But he that proudly does conceit his little spark of Reason can bear up with that Divinity of brightness and enlighten him to look through all those inaccessible discoveries with Lucifers assuming he hath reason to expect his fall The one of these that will needs clear all mysteries the other will take them all away the one that with his Pencil will presume to figure him who is the brightness of Gods glory and trace out the lineaments by which that everlasting Father did impress the character and express Image of his person on him and the other that with a bold hand dashes out the Person from the Nature the one that will untie the knots of the Hypostatick union and the other that will cut them and the union too asunder the one that will needs prove by Reason whatsoever is in Scripture and the other that speaking of Christs Satisfaction saith for my part if it were not onely once but oftentimes set down in holy Scripture yet would not I therefore believe it because forsooth it was against his reasonings Neither the one or other of these sure receive revelation as a little Child not like young Samuel Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth But these as all extravagance is wont are profited into much worse The one that would be proving making reasons for the mysteries often God knows framed only shadows and the other by their light of Reason being able to dispel and make those shadows vanish that so easie victory encouraged them to frame reasons against and to attaque the mysteries themselves and then others finding there was something that was taken to be reason not agreeing with some chief heads of Religion as they had been still received took occasion thence to conclude against the whole Religion and by scruples at some Articles taught themselves to dispute all the Creed and now a difficulty in one Doctrine makes the rest suspected and regarded onely as things made to amuse and the unusual wording of a Command is thought ground enough to turn all Christian duty into Raillery For instance If Christ intending by prescribing patience to teach men how to escape not onely from the guilt and present torture that a Spirit which will needs return each sleight offence is subject to but also from the future and eternal recompences of revenge shall in phrasing his injunctions but bid them turn the other cheek no Gentleman can be of his Religion and that is cause enough I hope not only to renounce but scorn it If in meer compassion meaning only to make virtue easie by advising us against the snares and the occasions of Vice he word his Counsel in prescriptions to pull out the right eye cut off the right hand His Religion is a much worse Tyranny then the Covenant Naâ—ash offered to the men of Jabesh Gilead and they think themselves as much concern'd to make parties against it In fine if that he might at once instruct us how to pull up the root of all evil he forbid us to lay up treasures upon the Earth and tell us that our treasures should be laid up in Heaven and say it is impossible for a rich man to enter into Heaven here they cry out mainly he supposeth us and treats us just as Children This Command requires indeed that they who do receive it should be Children whom we use to cheat of gold by the same methods telling them it is not good for them at present that it shall be laid up for them and therefore when Religion does attempt to deal with men so 't is concluded it designs to cozen them as they think it does indeed and is a cheat and all that minister about it are meer fourbes And truly if we rackt the Consciences of dying men and if so be they would give so much to this Cloyster or that Order promised them remission of their sins and worse than Judas sold the purchase of Christs Blood at those base rates and betrayed the Redemption so on Gods name let them so account us but if we do attempt on nothing but mens vices and would onely steal their Souls from Hell and cheat them into piety and blessedness these we hope are very unreproachful frauds But alas to talk to them of these after-things of Heaven and Hell is altogether as much liable to their contempt as the commands are If we tell them of a Resurrection to Judgment and of everlasting fire to punish wicked men because their reason cannot comprehend how flame can hurt a Soul or for the Body how devouring fire can repair the food it
that do not by putting them out of his Train into the condemnation of Publicans 't is no wonder all this does not work with them whom their own sufferings and black Calamities will not convince There is not one of us but knows that thus our miseries began but few years since and yet we that have suffered for and by our Divisions whose quarrels wounded the whole Nation and our selves who have wept so much bloud at once to vent and to bewail our differences are still as full of the same animosities as ever and want nothing but opportunity to confound all again Religion and our selves And in the name of God what did Christ mean when he prescrib'd this Precept when he disputed prest it thus or what do Christians mean when they do break and tear this Precept and themselves Though I be far from any hopes to reconcile our Parties as by Gods help I shall ever be from making any yet I will offer an Expedient to make them not so noxious namely if they will keep the differences of their judgments from breaking out into their affections and actions And though while meekness and obedience to Governours and the whole constellation of Gospel-graces do not seem to shine so fair as man's own reputation or humor or possibly some strict opinion which they have own'd and the shew of holiness that glitters in it while 't is thus I say we cannot look any party will yield all do or will believe themselves to be in the right yet I will give them leave to think so and my prescription shall concern them equally although they be and by addressing my Discourse to them that are so really I shall conclude more forcibly them that are not who ere they be for sure I am none can be more in the right than those whom Christ lays this injunction upon than his Disciples and Apostles as relating to those that would be their Enemies as such Yet 't is to them he speaks here I say unto you love your Enemies c. The words contain a Duty prescrib'd and the Authority prescribing it The Prescription and the Authority in these words I say unto you the Duty in the rest where it is set down 1. in general Love your Enemies and that to be consider'd under a double prospect 1. As it is plac't in opposition to somthing that was before indulg'd the Jews or presum'd so to be by them signified here by the particle But and then as it stands by it self in its own positive importance Love your Enemies And Secondly this Duty is particulariz'd in several exercises of the Act commanded Love in relation to several sorts of the Objects of that Act Enemies As 1. Those that curse you you must bless 2. Those that hate you you must do good to 3. Those that use you despitefully and persecute you you must pray for These I shall treat of in their given order beginning with the general Duty and viewing that at once in both the lights that it doth stand in that one may clear and fortifie the other But I say unto you love your Enemies Of all the Points of Christian Religion those which did most stagger the faith of some and check their acceptation of it or adherence to it saith Marcellinus writing to St. Austin were these 3 The incarnation of our Lord The meanest of his Miracles which they thought the works of Apollonius equall'd and thirdly the prescriptions in the Text It seems they lookt upon these Duties as the mysteries of Practice that spoke as loud a contradiction to their active principles and inclinations as the other appear'd to do so those of Speculation and Discourse a God made flesh and flesh and bloud made so lame and passive sweetned so being alike impossible to their belief As if no flesh could certainly be so except that of which God was made and the Word incarnate onely could fulfill these words here in my Text They lookt upon this as a much-more mighty work than any of his Miracles as if 't were easier to snatch one out of the arms of Fate from the embraces of the Grave than to receive an enemy into ones own As if Christ had done more when he pray'd for his Crucifiers then when he pray'd Lazarus out of his grave For their Magicians they say vied Miracles with him but none of their Religions or Gods did ever aim at this Prescription ut quae sit propria bonitas nostra saith Tertullian this being a sort of Piety peculiar to the Christians Nor did they onely think it unpracticable but unreasonable as carrying opposition to all Government to the Prosperity and Peace of every Polity for he that does require that I shall have no return of injuries but for a wrong makes me in debt a kindness not onely supersedes judiciary proceedings but does secure Rapine by Law and encourage it by reward and truly if it were impossible for him that does affect a person to dislike his evil actions and to desire he may have condigne punishment such as by Gospel-measures may be satisfaction equal to his fault and warning to himself and others these men had reason But if a Father can at once love and correct his Child if when I am with indignation displeas'd at my offences against God and by severities revenge them on my self I do then love my self most passionately and if I can pray with all the vigour of my soul for that false Traytor-bosom-enemy my flesh while it lies goading me to sin and with temptation persecuting me to everlasting death then no reason of State or of my own requires I should not do all these acts of kindness to my Adversary In that thou hast an exact pattern for thy enmity to them that wrong thee and thou shalt hate thine enemy as thy self is a most perfect Gospel-Rule that being most consâ—â—â—nt with and directive of this Duty love your enemies But yet there is so great a difference indeed betwixt this Act here and its object Enemy being constituted such by enmity that is aversion and hate that love and that seem strangely coupled things that can be put together onely for a contest just as heat and cold to weaken one another that both the love and enmity may be refracted into a luke-warmhess Therefore I shall divide them handling Love first by it self viewing the import of that as it is sincere lest the enemy appearing with it make it shrink into a very slender Duty and having done that secondly see whether an others enmity and thirdly whether enmity with that appropriation here your enemies can take off from the Obligation of that Duty Love Now Love shews fairest to our purposes in those dresses which S. Paul presents her in 1 Cor. 1. 13. and 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 5. it suffers long if not the damage yet the malice of repeated injuries as knowing it is bound to forgive 'till
that account thy rod comforts us our correction is joyous we take pleasure in the stones of Sion and we favor love her dust the other Symtom They prize her reliques wht is standing of her and since 't is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low and weak they are more tender love and pity her more in that condition which they brought her into will do what they can to raise her pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt in the Tigurine Translation 'T is true indeed the stones of Sion in the dust are apt to become stones of stumbling and rocks of offence as St Peter saith of the chief corner stone of Sion Christ hmself 1 Pet. 2. 8. whereat many stumble and fall We had fatal experience how when once the building was disorder'd the subordination broken the Church offices and powers thrown down on the one side Sion strait became like Babel every one almost spoke a strange language and so built by himself built up divided Faiths and Churches and Religions on the other side that broken tottering State made many run away as from a falling Church take shelter in another and what the Cross of Christ was to the Jews that the Cross of his Spouse too was to many pretended Christians a ground to renounce her They no sooner saw their Mother wounded naked in the dust but they concluded her fit to be buried and ran from her as from the house of death as if in the noblest way of sufferings to follow Christ could look like the mark of being Anti-Christian and the yet unsettled state of it is made great use of for the same intents her stones are laid on purpose to be stones of stumbling and to give occasion of falling And truly 't is to be confest that since the bonds of Government which kept men under discipline were unloos'd and since the Churches Ministeries and her Powers are cut so short that they are not so effectual to the ends of their institution to work out a strict Christian life as were to be wisht and since men are divided so by claims of several Churches and by fearful expectations also both the Coversations and the Faiths of men too are grown loose and dissolute and 't was not the least Stratagem of our Adversaries to contrive men should be such as could while they continue such find Sanctuary no where but in their Church at their Altars whether they have but to come to be absolv'd of all But truly 't is extreme barbarity in us when 't is on our account by our demerits for our punishment that she is distressed that fears and dangers press upon her then to sleight her if when we see our Mother gasping then to throw dirt at her make her mouth her mouth be stopt with the reports of her ungodly offspring the reproches of a pointing Scorner that shall cry see how her Sons behave themselves how little love or pity they have for her He favors her stones that beautifies and guilds them with inscriptions of Religious actions this if any thing will raise them and repair her And truly'tis to be expected from the men that do pretend to have the pity and the sorrow that is due to their Mother whom the powers of Hell seem arm'd against to ruin her so far as she 's disabled should themselves supply to themselves what is wanting if her discipline be loosen'd and she have no strong ties on mens actions we should do her work upon us put obligations fetters on our selves 'T is probable this very state of Sion in the text was that which Nehemiah labour'd to repair and see how he effected it c. 9. after a most solemn fasting and confession and bemoaning rather of their guilts then sufferings in the 10th himself the Princes and the Priests and Levites and he rest of all the People with their Wives their Sons and Daughters that were come to understanding entred into a curse and into an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and do all the Commandments of the Lord our God his Judgments and his Statutes v. 29. Here was a cement would compact the Stones of Sion the whole building against all assaults whatever seat her in her perfect height and beauty It is not he loves her who curses them that laid her in the dust but he who enters such a curse of serving God 't is not he favors her dust who wishes talks or swears on the Churches side but he that humbles himself daily in the dust in her confessions and Prayers he who binds himself with such an obligation to worship and serve God faithfully as she prescribes this will help to raise her make her visible in the lives of her Children and when the dust of Sion shall have a more perfect Resurrection in this world and this of Christ shall as his other body rise out of the earth it will be comfortable to each one that put his hands to the repairs that did but fit one stone to it that would not let God rest till he had establisht our Jerusalem again a praise in the Earth Then God almighty would be importun'd prevail'd upon to put it in the hearts of those men whose part 't is to secure our Sion and repair her breaches to build by a true line and level make such an establishment as may be fitted not to the satisfying parties factions interests or any human appetites but the just obligations or Religion not build weakly fearing as it were the Churches strength should aw men in their practices that the weapons of her warfare should gall their vices besides that their own strong holds may be still able to hold out and not be beat down by her forces for this were to model the structure of Sion to mens own and to their sins convenience But to build her up so as that the profession and the practice of true Religion may be preserv'd safe and Gods Worship kept intire that upon our one onely foundation the rock Christ Jesus we may be built up with a lively faith into an holy life all cemented by Charity and all divisions be made up and we may with one heart and one voice meet and join in giving Glory Honor c SERMON V. OF THE EXERCISE OF CONSCIENCE In the avoiding of Offence towards God and Men. Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man MY text is the sum of a Christians practical duty for as St Paul had in the verse before set down his faith and hope here he sets down his workings In the words we have 1. The state of that duty exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a onscience void of offence 2. That is brancht out into its several respects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and towards man and those either 1. As the objects of that which a good conscience endeavors
a prey of the meek patient and long-suffering treading under foot the humble because they know their principles will make them suffer it and somtimes by invading them with downright persecution when duty and Religion are made crimes true faith and a good Conscience mark men out for ruine Sometimes on the other side it courts us shews us all it's glory it's places powers plenties pomps and gayeties and so kindles in us the desire of wealth which is the only way to compass all those which desire if it touch the heart once if the world can charm us once with the deceitfulness of riches as our Saviour words it Matth. 13. 22. we are quite betraid For these deceitful riches tho they are and may be made great instruments of good and most well minded men when they are in the way of getting them imagine they shall do more good with more of them when they have got them they deceive them prove occasions and foments of vices do not only serve but grow incentives to those Sins which men have any inclinations too yea many times betray them into those they before had no disposition towards by putting them into their power and by heightning for them And however many that possess them do make blessed use of them yet those that seek them and endeavor their increase on the account of doing so to make them help their entry into life do in our Savior's judgment for the most part so deceive themselves and are as sottish as a man that should get up upon a Camel to ride thro the eye of a Needle 'T is our only wisdom to beware of all temtations 'T was Christ's last advice in that agony both of his Love and Sufferings Watch and pray that ye enter not into them Look about you give no opportunities to them to approch you undiscern'd advert still that you may be either able to avoi'd them or have time to fortify and call up all the succours Reason and Religion offer and all those of Grace which God is ready to bestow upon your prayers that you may not be surpriz'd and taken unprepar'd and rather bear suffer any thing then yield Whatever 't is that is most precious to thee serves thy greatest uses contributes to thy most charming satisfactions rather part with it then let it temt thee 'T is our Saviors charge if thy right Eye offend insnare thee pluck it out and cast it from thee It is sad indeed when the Eye that should watch the organ of Circumspection and with which we should discern the snare to shun it should it self lead into it and be it But 't is sadder when the snare is dear to men as the usefullest part and most delightful of their senses when they can no more endure to withdraw from temtation then to cut off their right hand or pull out their right Eye when they use those parts to look about for ruine and lay violent hands upon the instruments of their Perdition when they will loose any of those organs rather then not pursue what the temtation suggests rather cut off a right hand and pull out a right Eye then not satisfy the appetite it raises give up all their own aimes and the worldlings also for that only loose their Salvation their God and their own Soul spend wealth and strength and body honor and understanding on one sin that they may become their own ruins here in this life and the type of their judgment in the life to come Now these are such instances of folly that the men that practise them and call themselves Christians are not to be put in the comparison with the children of this world who in every part of wisdom are much wiser in relation to their ends and to the means they pitch upon and to the use of those means in pursuit of their intentions which I undertook to shew And then when all their Wisdom is foolishness with God and branded with the worst extremest names of it in Scripture in what rank of folly stand most Christians And truly to sum up all 't is a most astonishing contemplation how 't is only in these everlasting interests that most men act without any consideration as men wholly destitute of understanding and that could not think He that hath a journey or a voyage which he must make and accordingly designes he takes some thought of fit means of conveyance and providing whatsoever else is at least necessary for it never is so sottish as to chuse and prepare a Ship for land or a Coach for Sea nor to hire and put himself in any one he meets by hazard without minding whether it is going and will carry him Now each man hath a journey to the other World knows he must make it and is going on it and and pretends at least to be assur'd there are two ways to that world one that leads to felicities which never can dye and the other to as endless and immortal misery and torment yet the one of these however dreadful and the other how desireable soever never enter into his Consideration so as to weigh ought with him and to incline him in the choice he makes of that way which he walks in all his life long And tho men know that they approch nearer to that terrible moment every day and have for ought they know few paces more but are to step immediatly into one of these two Eternities yet if you ask them why they go that way they march in not another whether they ever minded where that way will lead them why alass they did not ask themselves that question may be never yet reflected on it but their inclinations and affections the example of converse with others carried them along without consideration whither these did guide them wholly and from these they took their sentiments of things and actions which they follow'd without ever giving heed too or examining how they came by them or what grounds of truth or goodness they have for them but pursued them constantly and doing so that while those sentiments remain in them as judgments and remaining long so and by that becoming prejudices with them go for Principles and if ever they be call'd on to reflect upon the way they walk in being willing out of a desire that 's natural to man and is inbred in him to justify themselves as much as may be in their inclinations and their actions they seek reason or colour of it to guild over and beautify the principles they took up so Thus they come to have their maxims and rules and so a Conscience which excuses or at least does not reprove their conduct and so go on confidently and acquiesce in those and never take nor ask other direction Yet these very men will hire a Tutor to direct their footings that they may be to the mesures and the rules of Music will be bountiful and docile obedient to him and spend time too