Comforts at hand to support our Hearts his Power and Providence continually ready to protect our Persons to vindicate our Innocence to allay the wrath and rebuke the attempts of any that would harm us This is one Principal cause of all our Impatiency and Perturbation that we are so soon shaken and discomposed with every Temptation so soon posed with every Difficulty that we do soon despond under every Storm Because we do not with an Eye of Faith look up unto God as one that Careth for us and is ever near at hand as a Sun and a Shield a Sanctuary and an Hiding Place to secure us against all our Fears Prope ad judicium Near to judge us to take a Full and Impartiall Review of all that is done by us and accordingly to Recompence either Rest or Trouble as the Apostle speaks This is a Fundamentall doctrine which we all avow as an Article of the Christian Faith Act. 17. 13. Rom. 14. 10. 2. Cor 5. 10. That Christ shall Come as the Ordained Officer to whom all Judgement is Committed in flaming Fire attended with all the Holy Angels Matth. 25. 31 2. Thess. 1. 7 8. Iud. 10. 14 15. to give a Righteous an Impartiall and finall Doom and State unto the Everlasting Condition of all men Before whose most dreadfull Tribunal we must all appear Stripp'd of all our Wealth Honors Dignities Retinues accompanied with nothing but our Consciences and our Works whether good or Evill to beare witness of us and there receive a proportionable Sentence to the things which we have done Holy men a Sentence of Absolution and Mercy for the manifestation of Gods glorious Grace when he shall come to be Magnified in his Saints and admired in all those that believe Wicked men a Sentence of Rejection and Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord for the manifestation of his glorious Power and Justice when all the Devils in Hell and Powers of Darkness shall be brought all together and be trodden down under his Feet when all the low and narrow Interests of Secular wealth pleasures power and greatness which short-sighted men so passionately dote upon and so eagerly pursue shall to their Everlasting disappointment be swallowed up in the general Conflagration and so vanish for ever When the poor and pittiful Artifices whereby angry Mortalls do countermine and supplant one another and mutually project each others vexations shall to the confusion of the Contrivers be detected and derided In a word when nothing that ever we have done shall afford benefit or comfort to us any further then as it was with a single and upright aime directed to the Glory of God and mannaged by the Law of Love Certainly this is one principal Reason of all Immoderation amongst Men of Despondence in Adversity of Insolence in Prosperity of Excess in Delights of Perturbation in Passions of vindictive Retaliations one principal Reason why they do not with a single Eye and an unbiassed Heart mannage all their Actions and Designes to the Glory of God the Credit of the Gospel the Interest of Christianity the Edification and Salvation of the Souls of Men but often suffer weak Passions Prejudices Interests to State model and over-rule their Designes the Reason I say of all is Because the Terror of the Lord hath not perswaded them because they are not sufficiently awed with the All-seeing Eye and near approach of the Lord of Glory before whom all their wayes are naked with whom all their Sinnes are laid up in store and sealed amongst his Treasures Let us therefore seriously resolve to regulate all our Actions by our Great Accompt To say with Iob What shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Job 31. 14. He hath entrusted me with many Talents with a Rich Treasure of Power and Interest of Wisedom and Honour of Wealth and Learning he hath deposited with me the Custody of his Eternal Gospel the Grand Interests of the Church of Christ and of the Precious Souls which he redeemed with his own Blood God forbid that I should ever suffer any Immoderate Passions or Prejudices or Partialities or low and narrow Interests of mine own so farr to transport me as that I should betray so great a Trust and provoke the wrath of so Holy and Just a Judge God enable me with that Equanimity and Singleness of Heart without Hypocrisie and without Partiality with a direct Eye to the Glory of God the Kingdom of Christ the Edification and Peace of his Church the Flourishing of his Gospel and the Prosperity of the Souls of his People so to discharge every Trust reposed in me as that I may be able to give up mine Accompts with Joy and when the Chief Shepheard shall appear I may lift up my Head in the day of Redemption and receive a Crown of Glory which fadeth not away Thus let your Moderation be known unto All men because the Lord is at hand in his future approaching Iudgements But hath not the Lord been at hand near us in the middest of us already by many strange intermingled Providences by a series of Glorious Mercies and a vicissitude of dreadfull Judgments as if he would both wayes try whether by the one we would be led unto Repentance or by the other learn Righteousness Is it a small Mercy that we have had the Gospel of Salvation in the purity of the Reformed Religion for so long a time in this Land having brought forth so little Fruit in answer to the Light and Grace which hath been therein revealed unto us I have read an Observation in one of the Homilies of our Church if my memory do not greatly faile me That we shall not often finde that a Nation which hath had the Gospel in purity and not brought forth the Fruits thereof hath enjoyed it much longer than 100 years I do not mention this as a sad Presage for I dare not set bounds to the infinite Mercy and Patience of God his Judgements are unsearchable and his Wayes past finding out the secret things belong unto him and things revealed to us and our Children It is not for us to know the Times or the Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power onely I desire by this sad Observation to awaken both my self and you timely to consider the things that do belong unto our Peace before they be hidden from our Eyes for this is a sober and certain Truth that the Sins of a Church as the Fruits of a well-ordered Garden do ripen much faster than those of a Wilderness and therefore the Prophet Amos calleth them by the name of Summer Fruit Amos 8. 2. The Prophet Ieremiah compareth the Judgements threatned against them unto the Rod of an Almond-tree Jer. 1. 11. which shooteth forth her Blossoms before other Trees And therefore when we have reason to fear that God will hasten Iudgements we have great reason to resolve with holy David to
being blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke shining as Lights in the World For this End it is that the Apostle requireth this Moderation of theirs to be known not as the Philosophers and Heathen shewed their Vertues for Vain-glory Ostentation and Interest as Gloriae Animalia Negociatores Famae as Tertullian calls them But that others seeing our good Works may glorifie God in the day of Visitation for if they who profess Obedience to the Rule of Christ in the Gospel live dissonantly from the Prescripts of that Rule they do not onely harden wicked men in their Sinnes but expose the name of God and his Doctrine unto Reproach as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 2. 23 24. 1 Tim. 6. 1. as Nathan told David that by his Sinne he had caused the Enemies of God to blaspheme 2 Sam. 12. 14. So perverse and illogical is Malice as to charge those Sinnes which are aberrations from the Doctrine of Christianity upon the Doctrine it self as genuine Products and Consequences thereof The Moralist hath observed that the antient Grecians called a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Light teaching him so to live as to be a Light unto others Sure I am the Apostle hath told us that though we were by nature Darkness yet we are Light in the Lord and therefore should walk as Children of Light and shine as Lights in the World Eph. 5. 8. Phil. 2. â—5 Lastly As it must be known so universally known unto All Men It must be without Hypocrisie not attempered to Interests and Designs like the Devotion of the Pharises who for a pretence made long Prayers like the Civilities of Absolom and Otho of whom the Historian saith That he did Adorare vulgum jacere oscula omnia serviliter pro Dominatione It must be without partiality not varied or diversified according to the differences of Persons with whom we have to do We Christians saith Tertullian Nullum Bonum sub exceptione Personarum administramus It must be known to our Brethren that they may be edified it must be known to our Enemies that their Prejudices may be removed their Mouths stopped their Hostilities abated and their Hearts mollified and perswaded to entertain more just and honourable thoughts of those Precepts of the Gospel by which our Conversations are directed Many and weighty are the Arguments which might be used to perswade all sober pious and prudent Christians unto the practise of this most excellent Grace They may be drawn from Our great Exemplar and Pattern whom though we finde once with a Curse against a barren Figg-tree once with a Scourge against Prophaners of his Fathers House once with Woes against malicious and incorrigible Scribes and Pharises yet generally All his Sermons were Blessings all his Miracles Mercies all his Conversation meek lowly humble gentle not suited so much to the greatness and dignity of his Divine Person as to the oeconomy of his Office wherein he made himself of no reputation but took upon him the form of a Servant From a principal Character of a Disciple of Christ Humility and Self-denial which teacheth us not onely to moderate but to abandon our own Judgements Wills Passions Interests when ever they stand in Competition with the Glory of Christ and welfare of his Church which maketh the same minde be in us which was in Christ Iesus to look not every man on his own things but every man on the things of others From the Credit and Honour of Christianity which is greatly beautified by the meekness and moderation of those that profess it Hereby we walk worthy of our Calling or as those who make it their work to shew forth the worth and dignity of the Christian Profession when we walk in lowlyness meekness long-suffering unity and love Eph. 4. 1 2 3. as the splendour of a Princes Court is set forth by the Robes and fine Rayments of their Servants Matth. 11. 8. 2 Sam. 13. 18. So the Servants of Christ shew forth the Honour and Excellency of their Lord by being cloathed with Humility 1 Pet 5. 5 and decked with the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit 1 Pet. 3. 4. From the Breaches Divisions and Discomposures which are at any time in the Church or State towards the Healing of which Distempers Moderation Meekness and Humility do exceedingly conduce though sharp things are used to search wounds yet Balm and Lenitives are the Medicines that heal them as Morter a soft thing is used to knit and binde other things together It is observed by Socrates and Nicephorus of Proclus Patriarch of Constantinople that being a Man of singular lenity and meekness he did thereby preserve intire the Dignity of the Church and by his special prudence healed a very great Division in the Church bringing back unto the Communion thereof those who had departed from it From the various vicissitudes and inconstancies of Human Events whereby many times it cometh to pass that things which for the present are judged very needfull and profitable prove inconvenient and dangerous for the future as Polybius hath observed Hereby we may in all Conditions be taught Moderation not to faint or be dejected in the day of Adversity because God can raise us again nor to swell or wax Impotent with Prosperity because God can as easily depress us It was a wise Speech of the Lacedemonian Ambassadours unto the Athenians in Thucydides That they who have had many alternations and vicissitudes of Good and Evil cannot but deem it Equal to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diffident and moderate in their Prosperity as Coenus the Macedonian said unto Alexander That nothing did better become him than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Arrian tells us And so on the other hand this Grace of Moderation doth so poize and ballance the heart with Christian Constancy and Courage that it is not easily tossed or overturned by any Tempest but as they say of the Palm tree beareth up above all the difficulties that would depresse it as good Iehosaphat when he was distressed with a great multitude of Adversaries said in his Prayer to God We have no might against this great Company that cometh against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron 20. 12. Lastly From the Nearness of Christ which is the Apostles Argument in the Text The Lord is at hand Prope ad Auxilium Near to help us The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him Psal. 145. 18. Deut. 4. 7. We have no sufficiency of our selves to improve any Talent to manage any Condition to use our Knowledge or Liberty our Power or Prosperity to the Honour of God or Service of his Church no power to rejoyce in Adversity to forgive Injury to correct the exorbitancy of any inordinate and irregular Passion Only we have a Lord Near unto us his Eye upon us to see our Wants his Ear open to hear our Desires his Grace present to assist our Duties his
Celestial Bodies which in all their Motions are regular and steady Even Heathen men by the dictates of Reason and Philosophy have arrived at a very noble Constancy and Composednesse of Minde of one it is said That in all Companies Times I and Places suos semper Mores retinuit he never departed nor varied from himself of another that he was never observed either to laugh or weep of another that he was of so equal a Temper that in his Youth he had the wisedom of an Old Man and in his Age the valour of a Young man and of that excellent Emperor Marcus Antoninus it is observed by Dion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was ever like himself never given to change How much more should Christians who have an unchangeable God to take care of them a Kingdom which cannot be shaken provided for them Promises which are all yea and Amen and an Hope which is sure and stedfast set before them retain a minde like the Rock on which they are built fixed and inconcussible Such was the blessed Apostle as dying and yet alive as chastened and yet not killed as sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycing as having nothing and yet possessing all things and such he would have us all to be stedfast and unmoveable 1 Cor. 15. 58. not soon shaken in minde 2 Thess. 2. 2. but holding our Confidence and the rejoycing of our Hope firm unto the end Heb. 3. 6. 3. Being by the Condition of our Christianity to expect manifold Afflictions and Injuries in the World Here also it is necessary that our Moderation be known Moderation of Patience in bearing them of Candor in interpreting them and of Lenity and meekness in forgiving them 1. Moderation of Patience in bearing them having our Eye more fixed on the hand of God ordering than on the hand of Man infflicting them being more taken up with the Hope of Future Good than with the Sense of Present Evil looking rather with Comfort on the need we have of them 1 Pet. 1. 16. on the fruit we have from them Heb. 12. 10. on the Recompence of the Reward which will follow them Heb. 11. 25 26. Rom. 8. 17 18. on the love of God which will support us under them Heb. 12. 6. on our Communion in them with Christ for whose sake we suffer them 1 Pet. 4. 13. on the End of the Lord who is ever pittifull and of tender mercy to us in them Iam 5. 11. than on any present weight or pressure we sustain from them Nullus dolor est de incursione Malorum praesentium quibus fiducia est futurorum Bonorum saith Saint Cyprian A Man is never miserable by any thing which cannot take away God or Salvation from him 2. Moderation of Candor and Equanimity putting the best Constructions on them as the Carpenter's Plain rendreth rugged things smooth as favourable Glasses report Faces better than they are A meek Spirit doth not easily take up every Injury not out of dullness because it cannot understand them but out of love which doth not wittingly or hastily suspect Evil 1 Cor. 13. 5. which covereth all Sinnes Prov. 10. 12. which teacheth us to shew all meekness to all men Tit. 3. 2. we are prohibited Society with some men 2 Thess. 3. 6. but we are commanded to follow Peace with All Heb. 12. 14. 3. Moderation of Meekness and Lenity not resisting of Evill nor out of a vindictive Spirit embracing all advantages to avenge our Selves as if it were an Argument of a low and dejected Soul not to repay Evil with Evil and bid a defiance and challenge upon every Wrong directly contrary to the Word of God which maketh it a man's wisedom and glory to pass over a transgression Prov. 19. 11. and expressly requireth us not to recompence Evil but to wait on God Prov. 20. 22. Rom. 12. 17. yea contrary to the noble practice of many magnanimous Heathens Epaminondas Agesilaus Pompey Caesar and others who by their clemency and bounty toward Enemies provided for their own Safety and made the way easie unto further victories But we have a more excellent Example to follow forbearing one another and forgiving one another saith the Apostle even as Christ forgave you so also do ye Col 3. 13. that man can have no assurance of Christs forgiving him who resolveth to be avenged on his Brother Matth. 18. 35. He who choseth rather to be a Murtherer to take away another Mans life or to throw away his own than to suffer a Reproach hath give me leave to say it eousque renounced the Doctrine of Christ who commandeth us to do good unto those that hate us and pray for those that despitefully use us Matth 5. 44. as himself did Luke 23. 34. who being reviled reviled nor again but was as a Sheep dumbe before the Shearer as the Prophet speaks By this noble Moderation we disappoint those that wrong us quia fructus Laedentis in dolore laesi est we fence our selves against the harm which an Injury would do us as a Canon bullet is deaded by a soft Mudd wall and the force of a Sword by a pack of Wooll He that is slow to anger appeaseth strife Prov. 15. 18. We melt and overcome our Enemie and heap coals of fire on his head Rom. 12. 20. But above all we honour God to whom alone Vengeance belongeth we adorn the Gospel and evidence our selves to be the Disciples of Christ. 4. Being subject by the dictates of overmuch Self-love to assert with rigour our own Right and Interest in this Case also the Precept is necessary Let your Moderation be known rather remit of your own Due than by too earnest an exacting of it to grieve your Brother or to discredit your Profession Abraham did so though the nobler Person yet in order unto Peace and Honor that their Dissentions might not expose Religion unto reproach amongst the Canaanites he gave unto Lot the praeoption of what part of the Land he would live in Gen. 13. 9. It was as free for the Apostle to have taken the Rewards of his Ministry of the Corinthians as of other Churches yet he purposely refused to use that power that he might not hinder the Gospel nor give occasion of glorying against him unto those that sought it 1 Cor. 9. 12 14 15. 2 Cor. 1◠8 12 Our Saviour though he might have insisted on the dignity of his Person as the Sonne of God from paying Tribute yet to avoid offence he did Cedere de Iure and gave order about the payment of it Matth. 17. 24 25 26. No doubt is to be made but that it is free for Christians to recover their Just Rights by a legal tryal yet when the Corinthians sued one another before Unbelievers and thereby exposed the Gospel unto Contempt the Apostle reproveth them that they did not rather take wrong and suffer themselves to be defrauded the Evil being farr less for them to suffer wrong than for the Gospel to suffer