as the others did but were diligent in searching of the Scriptures daily and in a strict enquiry concerning the Grounds and Motives to Belief alleadged by the Apostles whether they were of that weight which was pretended whether they were so or no. In matters of so great moment as the Gospel doth pretend to be in reference to this world and that which is to come to despise or to reject the Proposals without a just consideration of them and without an impartial and ingenuous examination and full understanding of the Grounds and Reasons upon which they are propounded savours not of Prudence or Wisdom Wit or Learning Ingenie or Ingenuity in one word it savours neither of a Gentleman nor a Scholar Now that this is the Case in the Contempt of the Gospel I think it will appear if we shall attentively consider 1. What was the Judgement of Christ who was the Author of the Gospel concerning this matter 2. The signal Instances of the contempt and neglect of the Gospel mentioned in the Scriptures 3. If we shall make a rational enquiry into the Principles and Postulata into which the contempt of the Gospel is finally resolved 1. First this will receive evidence from the Judgement of Christ himself concerning the resolution of the rejection and contempt of the Gospel I suppose none will be so Jewish as to object the bringing of Christ to be a Witness in his own behalf seeing his case is not the case of an ordinary witness but resolves it self as afterwards will be briefly shewed into attestation of the greatest credit I say then that Christ himself who knew what was in man and needed not that any man should teach him hath resolved the contempt and rejection of the Gospel into want of understanding and of due and ingenuous consideration into Ignorance and want of Candour and Ingenuity In the Parable of the Sower we finde this Argument largely and profoundly handled by our Saviour the Parable is three times delivered in the Gospel and is very well known so that I need not stand upon the declaration or repetition of it The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the bad that is the high-way the stony the thorny and the good that is the fruitfull ground I shall not mention He that shall harmonize the triple Narration and Analyze the ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Parable shall finde that our Saviour therein propounds and intimates the causes immediate and mediate Mediate nearer and remoter of the reception and rejection of the Gospel whereof as to the point in hand the sum is this That the irregular endeavour after the attainment of temporal good things and the avoidance of temporal Evils The lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life the Cares of the World and Deceitfulness of Riches the lust of other things Pride and conceitedness of Wisdom and other Carnal Interests are the cause of the want of an attentive and patient an ingenuous and impartial consideration And that the want of such a consideration is the cause of the want of a thorow Understanding and that the want of a thorow Understanding this is the cause of the Contempt or Rejection or neglect of the Gospel In the Gospel of St. Luke he resolves the causes of the Reception of the Gospel into honesty and goodness of heart sincerity and ingenuity into a patient and constant attention to hearing and keeping of the word In the Gospel of St. Matthew he resolves the whole matter into this one point of a perfect and thorow Understanding The good ground says he is he that hears the Word and brings forth fruit with understanding A fair and honest a candid and ingenuous attention and Consideration and a full Understanding are the causes of the Reception Therefore an Attention hypocritical and unsincere An ignoble ignorance perversness and want of candour and ingenuity are the causes of the contempt of the Gospel in the judgement of our Saviour 2. The same also will further appear if we might be permitted to examine the several Instances of contempt and neglect of the Gospel and so go thorow the various degrees of the Symptoms of Infidelity mentioned in the Gospel I shall only touch them very briefly and the heads of them are such as these 1. The egregious hesitation or slowness in believing 2. The refusal or rejection of the Gospel 3. The Offence or Scandal at it 4. The quarrelling and disputation against it and opposition to it 5. The down-right scorn and contempt of it 6. And lastly the Persecution for it I say if we might stay upon this Argument it would appear that as the Remoter causes of every Case are easily reducible to the lusts and interests mentioned by our Saviour so the more immediate Causes whether in Jews or Gentiles will be found to resolve into want of Ingenuity and Understanding 1. The Apostles were slow in believing before the Resurrection and Mission of the Spirit Christ tells them that then they were Fools and slow of heart inconsiderate and inadvertent stupid and Disingenuous 2. The most eminent Rejecters of the Gospel were the Scribes and Pharisees if we shall enquire after the Vertue or Modesty Candour or Ingenuity of these men we will finde them the most barbarous and covetous proud and supercilious insincere and hypocritical in the world how often doth our Saviour charge them with all these things And if we enquire after their Knowledge and Understanding we shall finde them to have been meer Braggadocio's and pretenders Christ often calls them blinde Pharisees and blinde guides he tells them that they were blinde leaders of the blinde that seeing they did see and not perceive hearing they did hear and did not understand 3. In the sixth of John we finde a mighty Scandal taken at the Gospel among the Auditors of Christ they murmured they strove amongst themselves they finally revolted upon a word because they judged it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hard saying They judged it so because they did not understand it they did not understand it because they had not the Modesty and Meekness Patience and Ingenuity to enquire the meaning of it or to attend to that Explication which our Saviour made of that expression 4. In the 22 of St. Mathew and the parallel places we finde the Pharisees the Scribes the Lawyers the Herodians coursing our Saviour charging him with questions about paying Tribute unto Caesar the Resurrection the Great Commandment c. If now ye will judge of the Ingenuity of these men consider there how thick and threefold how furiously and how rudely they fall upon him how stupidly they persist every one judgeing that he was too hard for all the rest and answered them well but every one adhering to his own Conclusion Consider how before they set upon him they took counsel to entangle him and sent spies to entrap or trepan him And for their
Wisdom and Power upon his Apostles Not to mention the Apparition of Angels and of Christ himself the Bath Kol the Extasies Dreams Visions and Impulses which were given them for their own assurance That they might be enabled to preach the Gospel to all Nations and deliver to the world those Scriptures whereof we are speaking they had the word of Knowledge and of Wisdom and of Faith and the gift of divers Tongues and interpretation of Tongues bestowed upon them And to justifie their Doctrine to the Ages present and to come they had the Gifts of Prophesie and of Healing and of Miracles John the beloved Disciple heard a voice as it were of a Trumpet talking with him which said Come up hitber and I will shew thee things which shall be hereafter and immediately he was in the Spirit and received the Revelation Paul an Apostle though born out of due time came to Visions and Revelation he twice foretold what should happen to the Ship wherein he was carried Prisoner to Rome He foretold the Apostacy of the latter times the rising of Antichrist the perillous times which should come upon the world in the last days Agabus a Believer at large foretold the Famine which was to come upon all the world and the binding of Paul at Jerusalem c. But the instances of supernatural Power exercised in healing of Diseases raising the dead confounding the Opposers of their Doctrine and in several other kinds by the Apostles and their Companions and Adherents the Preachers and Writers of the Doctrine of the Gospel are so abundantly delivered in the New Testament that I shall not offer at particulars In the 4. of the Acts we find all the Apostles praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God would stretch forth his hand to heal and that signs and wonders might be done by the Name of his holy Child Jesus And immediately the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Gost and with Power The particular Miracles of particular persons are recorded In one word they went and preached every where the Doctrines which are written in the Gospel the Lord working with them and confirming tbeir words by mighty signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost This is the state of the matter of Fact as it is propounded in the New Testament I conclude therefore that supposing matters of Fact to be truly delivered in the New Testament there is no reason to doubt of the Doctrines delivered by Christ or his Apostles relating to faith or manners And I come to the consideration of the last and extream Opinion of the Antiscripturists IV. The last opinion is of those who deny the truth of the Relation of matters of Fact delivered in the New Testament and in consequence reject the whole body of the Scriptures I could wish there were no such as these and that what I have yet to say were altogether needless for that reason But what mean then the publick Rumors which we hear and whence is an Opinion gone into the world that some great Philosophers and men of generous reason are dissatisfied concerning the truth of Scripture and believe the Authority of it to be wholy derived from the Magistrate In reference to these I shall endeavour 1. Briefly to shew that the ground upon which these Wisemen and Philosophers reject the Scriptures is contrary to the Reason of mankind 2. To evince that the belief of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures is most agreeable to Reason 1. As for the Argument and ground of those amongst us Christians that reject the body of the Scriptures I do not remember to have heard of other than this They have often called upon Believers Pastors perhaps or Doctors in the Church for a clear and undeniable evidence of the truth of the story of the Gospel and they have not afforded it therefore they conclude the Scriptures are to be rejected But is this the reasoning of generous wits and men of mighty deeds in disputation of men pretending to the depths of reason and Philosophy To give a man a clear and undeniable evidence of any thing there are but two ways viz. To convince either his Senses or his Understanding the former where of is to be done by experiment the later by demonstration Would they have now an Experiment whether such or such a thing were done 16 or 17 hundred years ago Would they have a demonstration of particulars in their nature indifferent to be done or not to be done depending upon the liberty of Causes Well were it for the world if these Beaux Esprits would have the patience and endure the fatigue of acquainting themselves with the ways of knowledge Experiment and demonstration it would not then be troubled with the dangerous impertinency of such Pretenders Then these men would not call for Experiment in a subject uncapable of it and being instructed that demonstration is only of Universal Propositions in materia necessaria whose contrary Positions imply a contradiction they would know that to demand this kind of evidence of the truth of the story of the Gospel is to be absurdly injudicious and to act contrary to the Reason of mankind For seeing we may not with civility suppose this principle to be advanced only for the destruction of Religion and the ruine or at least undeniable hazard of the Souls of men We ought to believe that these Philosophers intend this as a General Maxim that in matters at least of moment men ought not to adventure to act but upon clear and undeniable evidence and speaking properly that wise men ought to believe nothing at all Wherefore let us suppose this for a general principle and consider what will follow Setting aside the knowledge of the Affections of a few Lines and Numbers is not all learning to be cast away Must not the Civil world of mankind be brought to swift confusion must not mankind it self in a few days come to an end Suppose a subject should not yield his Obedience or a Tenant his Rent till Titles be made out by Experiment or demonstation Suppose the husbandman and the Merchant the Artificer the Souldier the Banker and the Judge should not adventure but stay for the assurance of Experiment or Demonstration would not the whole world be confounded Suppose men should not marry nor take Physick nor eat or drink till they should have clear and undeniable evidence that all these things are what they suppose and shall succeed according to expectation would not mankind quickly be spent and brought to an end If the management of all humane concernments Political Oeconomical Personal proceed upon the grounds of Belief and Hope and rational but not demonstrative inference If neither these Philosophers if they would consider nor any other Person either ever did or possibly could perform any one action upon such evidence as these men require concerning the truth of the ftories of the Scripture then
men devoured of Beasts consumed of Fire swallowed by the Sea scattered to the four Winds in a moment in the twinckling of an eye shall be brought to Judgment And here shall I bewail the infirmity or inveigh against the negligence of us Men that suffer our selves to be hurried headlong by the power of our imaginations against the striving of our Consciences that suffer our Senses to carry away the crown from our Understanding and give over our selves to the impetuous stream of our passions That when we have a full information a compleat judgment a clear dictate of conscience we will suffer all these to be overborn in us by the Idola Specûs Tribûs c. which are brought into our imaginations That having clear and evident Principles we can yet doubt of their immediate consequences or whilest we profess an universal truth never descend to think of the particulars We know there is a vast difference between the things present and those to come and yet we form our thoughts of those according to the analogy of these deluding our selves with idle and childish imaginations God keeps silence we think he is such an one as we Vengeance is not presently executed we set our hearts to do wickedly We profess that all men must die and come to judgment yet we do not really believe that we our selves shall dy and come to judgment This is the fountain of our misery and the original of our spiritual miscarriages the discovery of the causes and remedy whereof lies deep in the Philosophy concerning Humane Nature but the thing it self is of every days observation we may recount it in these authentical examples David knew full well what belong'd to Murder and Adultery and what himself had done in the matter of Uriah yet he cried not out that he had sinned till Nathan had charged him Thou art the man Ahab undoubtedly had read the Law of Moses and knew the guilt of Murder and Oppression yet he goes on triumphantly he kills and also takes possession but when Elijah charges hime home In the field of Jezreel shall Dogs lick thy blood even thine then he cries out Hast thou found me O mine enemy 1 Kings 21. and having applyed things to his particular he Rent his Cloaths and put on sackcloth he fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly Once more 'T is likely Belshazzar had a general Judgment and an universal Maxime in his mind That it was unlawful to spoil the House of God to plunder those things which were dedicated to the Lord and to debauch in the Bowls of the Temple and probably he had seen the hand-writing of the book of God to that purpose yet all this does not restrain him But when the Fingers write upon the Wall Mene Mene c. thou art weighed c. then his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another This then is the Office of this second Proposition it charges us home it lays down the Universal and it brings it down to the Particular Thou shalt be brought to Judgment Thy Judgment is unavoidable O but then thy Evasion is crossed O my stupid Soul Thou art spoyled of thy frivolous ground of hope Thou shalt surely be cited and thou must appear if thou refuse to come thou shalt be brought to Judgment Return then again into thy self and take a review of thy condition what will the issue be of that Judgment to which thou must be brought What hopes are now remaining that thou shalt not be condemned when the Officers have haled thee before the Judge that thou be 〈◊〉 delivered to the Executioners If thou art called to Examination Canst thou elude thy Judge by thy wily Answers or Canst thou baffle or suborn the Witnesses Canst thou work off thy Jury not to find the Verdict or bribe the Judge to favour thee in thy Doom Canst thou withdraw him from the Rigour of Justice by the mediation of thy friends or melt him into compassion by the loudness of thy cries the sadness of thy lamentation Canst thou procure a Reversion or Reprieve of thy sentence or appeal from thy Judge unto another Canst thou make an escape from thine Executioner Or lastly Canst thou stoutly endure the sentence of Condemnation These are the hopes of men here brought to Judgement and why may not some of them be mine No thou knowest O treacherous heart all these to be fond impossibilities dreams and suggestions of a childish fancy If once this day be over and that time come thy hopes are barely these that Omniscience and Wisdom it self may be deluded by stupidity that Omnipotence and Power it self may be evaded by poor contemptible infirmity that Severity and Justice it self may be perverted by iniquity all this is evident by that which follows For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ. III. God will bring thee to Judgment And here we are concerned to raise our thoughts and employ the utmost of our attention lest by the prejudice which our Idleness hath brought upon us we treasure up wrath to our selves against that day of Judgment 'T is true we daily hear of God and receive the names of his Attributes into our ears but we pass over his Name as if he were like to us and never bestow so much labour as to attain to a considerable notion of those names O that the God of Heaven would afford us here some glimpse of himself That he would illustrate us with some beam of his Majesty That he would be pleased to visit every unprovided soul and insinuate into it a full and clear apprehension of this Proposition God will c But how shall we endure to see his face No man can see my face and live Exod. 33. if the Israelites durst not hear him proclaim the Law how shall we endure to hear him denounce the Judgment If the Angels veil their faces not able to behold his Excellency how shall we be affected with his terrors If the Cherubims are oppressed with the sight of his glory what shall we be with the sense of his fury If we find our selves confounded and swallowed up into inextricable Labyrinths when we set our selves to consider of his immanent Attributes of his eternal Duration his unbounded Essence his unconfined Presence With what disposition can we entertain the terror of his Judgment the search of his Omniscience the stroke of his Omnipotence If the best and choicest of the Saints of God have been afraid and trembled at the thoughts of Judgment if they have been surprised with horror and confusion at the meer imagination of that Dreadful voice Arise and come to Judgment what shall the worst and most obdurate sinners when they shall be stript of this cloud of flesh and error and cited before the great tribunal there to render an account of their Creation Preservation and Redemption What fear what horror what
up in chains that he should exclude them from the benefit of Repentance and reserve them to the Judgement of the Great Day That he should allow this priviledge to lapsed men that he should reveal himself to them that he should make them understand their duty and their interest that he should set before them good and evil happiness and misery the desire and the detestation of humane nature that he should by all means court and wooe them to that which all men naturally desire and discourage and divert them from that which they naturally abhorr That after all this he should not prevail in such a case as this that they should scornfully reject the end of all their hopes that they should studiously pursue the object of all their fears This is that rational wonder that I am now to lay before you To manifest this wonder a little more explicitely let us consider the advantages of Nature and the Motives from Scripture to bring men to repentance The grounds and fundamental elements of the Doctrine of Repentance are these The Being Attributes of God The immortality of the Souls of men The principles of Synteresis The terrours of natural Conscience The forecasts of vengeance The apprehension and desire of an Attonement And all these are manifest from the Dictates and discoveries of the Light of Nature The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work They speak it loud they spread it largely they proclaim it constantly Their sound is gone out into all the world there is no speech or language but their voice is heard among them The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen even his eternal power and God-head Concerning his providence in governing the world St. Paul tells the men of Lyftra and the Priest of Jupiter that he did not leave himself without witness amongst the Heathen The whole earth is full of his righteousness and all the people see his glory So that a man shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth He is not far from any one of us in whom we live and move and have our being He is the Father of Spirits and we are his off-spring Surely there is a spirit within a man and that spirit immortal deriving from Him who only hath immortality And these things have asserted themselves with so great evidence that they have been generally acknowledged by all sorts of heathen Authors Philosophers Historians Orators and Poets Moreover they shew the Lam of Synteresis written in their hearts they have consciences accusing or excusing they find themselves concluded under sin and are perplexed and tormented under the apprehensions of an offended God For Conscience condemned by its own witness is very timorous and always fore-casteth grievous things The starting of Alexander when he had killed his friend and of Nero when he had destroyed his mother The confusions of Tiberius when he wrote from Capreae to the Senate concerning the death of Sejanus The fore tastes of an avenging Nemesis described by heathen Orators and Historians The passions ascribed to Medea and Hercules and Orestes c. by the Poets The Rites and Sacrifices of all the Pagan world The prodigious ways of expiations devised to make their attonement with their imaginary Deities offended They were all of them the products of natural Conscience exerting it self in such a disquisition as is delivered by the Prophet Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord or bow my self before the high God shall I come fore him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul All these and many more are the Indications of Nature the incitements and provocations of natural Conscience to bring men to repentance But beside these common Motives the persons of the Text whether they were the Jews and Inhabitants of Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of it by Titus and Vespasian or any that called themselves Christians they had a clearer and more glorious light to guide them they had far more efficacious and noble Motives to 〈◊〉 and urge them to repentance the Light and Motives of the Holy Scriptures There it is that the Power and Wisdom and Goodness and Severity of God are gloriously displayed the immortal Nature and sinful condition of the souls of men the rewards and punishments of this life and of the world to come are clearly discovered The elements of the Doctrine of Repentance the Motives to it are there explained and applyed mixt and combined a 1000 several ways The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament are nothing else but a Systeme of various powerful Methods to bring men to repentance This is the general aim and common scope of all the Doctrines the Histories the Logick and Rhetorick of the Book of God This was Noah's Text upon which he preached to the old world 120 years Upon this errand God sent all the Prophets rising early and sending them they said Turn again now every one from his evil way This was the message of him that was the voice of one crying in the wilderness Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand Our Lord Christ and his seventy Disciples and his twelve Apostles they all with one voice infisted upon this Theme and when the Holy Ghost himself descended he likewise drove at this conclusion Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. The time would fail me if I fhould attempt in any measure to lay before you the declarations promises threatnings exhortations dehortations reasonings expostulations instances of mercies and of judgements delivered in the Scriptures to bring men to repentance To this end God hath declared himself slow to anger gracious and merciful He hath said that he would have no man perish He hath sworn that he doth not desire the death of the wicked but had rather that he should turn and live He considers our frame and his ways are equal He is ready to pardon to pardon iniquity transgression and sin though they are as scarlet to make them white as snow if they be a cloud to scatter them like a cloud Wherefore let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous his imaginations and return unto the Lord. On the other side to break the hardness of the hearts of men to rouze them up from their impenitency he declares his justice and asserts his propriety in vengeance Vengeance is mine and I will repay it He protests that he will by no means acquit the guilty that he is of