and looks upon it as a Favour that he will express his Respect to God in Devotion or fancies God reaps some great Advantages by them or performs them more because it is his Duty than because it is his Choice more because he doth not think himself safe without it than because he delights in it more to satisfy his unruly Conscience than his Pleasure or in a manner angry because God hath obliged him to the Drudgery of Devotion all such Persons have odd sinister preposterous Notions and Apprehensions of God and mistake the Nature of their own Felicity the World hath the Ascendent of them and something here below is dearer to them than their God In a word let every Soul that approaches to pay her Duty to God remember that God loves a chearful giver III. See here how heinous this Sin is I mean this Rancour Hatred Malice in our Hearts to our Neighbours whom we have offended and Unwillingness to forgive or to be Reconciled to them I say see here how heinous the Sin is since no Gift can prevail with God to pass it by It is very true my Friends Not all the Gold and Silver you have not all the Alms you give not ten thousand Rams not a thousand Rivers of Oyl not all the external Services you offer to him or lay upon his Altar will move him to overlook it Therefore if thou bring thy Gift unto the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy Gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy Gift Aristippus and Aeschines were both Heathens yet hear what they did Being at Variance for some time Aristippus of his own accord goes to Aeschines his Enemy and tells him shall not we be Reconciled till we become the Table-talk of all the Country Aeschines replied I would very gladly been at Peace with you Remember therefore said Aristippus that I the Elder and the better Man have first sought unto you You are so saith Aeschines not only the Elder but the better Man for I began the Quarrel and you the Reconciliation These things many of us can hear and read many of us that call themselves Christians Disciples of Christ Children of the Revelation Children of Light and that vow'd Obedience to God over and over and yet they blush not to see themselves out-done by Heathens Notwithstanding all this they can carry plumbeas iras as the Comedian speaks leaden and lasting Wrath and Hatred in their Hearts and though they have given occasion to the Variance and been the Beginners of that Distance which is between them and their Neighbours yet will not be persuaded to forgive or to be reconciled Or if they be sometime by the Endeavours of some Charitable Friend forced into a Reconciliation yet that Friendship is to use Menander's Phrase Lupina Amicitia a Wolflish kind of Friendship which lasts for a little while and then the Sore breaks out again And yet such Men shall say their Prayers and go to Church and sometimes receive the Holy Sacrament when a Place or Office or Employment or some such carnal Reason puts them upon it a Profanation so great that it is almost in vain to argue with such Men out of the Gospel for they have not common Principles of Morality they throw down the Bounds of Nature how shall the Gospel overrule them Yet that they may be without Excuse I must a little reason the Case with them Tell me then ye Men that name the Name of Christ and dishonour and disgrace it by your uncharitable Temper is it nothing to you that God hath declared himself your Enemy Hath not he declared himself your Enemy when he hath protested he will not forgive you and hath not he Protested so when he hath told you over and over in his Gospel in that Gospel which you pretend to believe that except ye forgive your Neighbours their Trespasses and from your Heart too he will not forgive you Do but read these Texts Matth. vi 11 Matth. xviii 31 Marc. xi 25 26. How do you forgive them when ye will not be Reconciled to them or do you call that Forgiveness and Reconciliation when after pretences of Agreement you speak ill of the other party again and invent a thousand Excuses to evade the Obligation of a true brotherly Reconciliation either that you will do them no hurt or that you will not meddle with them or that you will let them alone if they let you alone c. And is this Forgiveness doth this look like Reconciliation Have you read the Gospel and can you call it so If God be not Reconciled to you if this Gospel be true you must be Miserable and fall into the Hands of Tormentors and God will not be Reconciled to you except you Reconcile your selves to your Brethren who have ought against you And when shall this Reconciliation be What upon a Death-bed A Death-bed Go then and cry to the Gods whom ye have served and let them deliver you if they can Is it likely God will have any thing to do with you then when all the Charms of his Mercies and entreaties could not prevail with you to be Reconciled before Again to what purpose is the Multitude of your Sacrifices to what purpose do ye pray for if you spread forth your Hands toward Heaven he will hide his Eyes and when ye make many Prayers he will not hear for your Hearts are full of Rancour and Bitterness And how dare you in the Holy Sacrament look the Lord Jesus in the Face that Jesus who died for you that were his Enemies that Jesus who sought unto you when you had affronted God and wrong'd your own Souls that Jesus who came from Heaven to seek you and laid down his Life to rescue you from the Power of the Devil that Jesus who suffered the bitterest Torments to move his Father to forgive you ten thousand Talents I say how dare you look him in the Face who have no Compassion for your fellow Servants Can you hope for any Mercy from him at such a time when you do obstruct that Mercy by your uncharitable Spirit Ay but this seeking to be Reconciled is so Ungentile a Thing you 'll say it makes a Man look ridiculous among People of the better Sort to entreat a Person to be Reconciled when a Man can live without him and hath no need of him A wonderful Argument And doth not the neglect of this Reconciliation make you look far more ridiculous in the sight of God! Will it not provoke him to laugh at your Calamity and to mock when your Fear comes And have not you a fine Religion that makes you more afraid of the Opinion and Censures of Men than of the Wrath of the living God Ay but I have endeavour'd to Reconcile my self to the Person whom I have offended but he will hearken to no Terms of Peace
we see hath prevailed with them to break all those Engagements Besides in these unequal Yoakings there cannot be that sweet that mutual Encouragement to Prayer and Praises and other Acts of Devotion and Piety which ought to be betwixt such Relations and though I doubt not but it 's possible to Admonish one another to serve God faithfully in their own Way without Passion or passing Censures one upon another yet the Thoughts that one of them worships God in a forbidden Way will still be an Impediment to this faithful and Conscientious Exhorting one another duly And therefore though I cannot say it 's absolutely unlawful to marry a Person of a different Persuasion in Matters of Religion yet the Inconveniences are so great that he who duly Weighs and Ponders them before he enters upon that State will think himself obliged to arm himself against all such dangerous Mixtures and Conjunctions III. There is nothing causes these Desires of Divorcements more than unhappy and unfortunate Matches And as such Matches are too often the Effects either of Rashness and Precipitation or want of enquiring into the Temper and Disposition of the Persons that are to make this near Relation or of Covetousness and Greediness after Fortune and Riches and Mony or of nelecting the advice of Parents and faithful Friends or of a preceding vain and vitious Life which is punish'd very often with such uncomfortable Conjunctions so where the married State is embitter'd with many sad Ingredients to prevent all such Wishes and Desires of Divorcement these following Considerations and Remedies may be very useful 1. Let it be considered that though your Married State be full of grievous Troubles yet it doth not it need not hinder you from attaining Everlasting Salvation It 's true People may make any State and Condition an Impediment to Eternal Life but there is no Necessity for it Nay in the Case before us the Troubles in a Married State naturally direct you to seek a better Country and if you are in a Capacity of enjoying God for ever notwithstanding the Evils which befall you you have Reason still to Praise and Adore the Divine Goodness and since your Married State affords so little Comfort To labour hard to be made Partakers of Everlasting Consolations 2. Let another Consideration be added to this that as miserable as your Married Condition is this happens not comes not to pass without a very special Providence God either orders it or wisely permits it corrects you for great Purposes and chastises you to let you see your Affections have been misplaced and must be set upon Objects and Beings more Sublime more Adequate more Commensurate to your Immortal Souls God and Heaven and the Things unseen 3. Under such a Providence the Soul must learn to be humble to look upon her Sins as Meritorious and the Cause of this uncomfortable State and accuse her Carnal Worldly and Sensual Desires and Designs as the Procurers of this Misery and improve the Dispensation into Repentance and Self-Examination and Submission to the Will of God and the Practices of Spiritual Devotions and Aspirations and Breathings after Enjoyments of a nobler Nature 4. In this Case the Divine Power and Goodness must be adored to supply you with Grace and Assistance suitable that you may chearfully bear the Injuries Indignities and Crosses that befall you in that State and do not doubt but your Prayer if strong and importunate will draw Honey from the Rock and Oyl from the Flint and Blessings of great Value from him who hath declared himself a God that heareth Prayer 5. Another Consideration will be very profitable that God by such Crosses in a Married State teaches you Patience at home that you may be the better able to practise it abroad Thus the Philosopher said of his Angry and Unquiet Yoak-fellow That he found his Silence under the Effects of her Rage and unquiet Spirit when he was at home proved very salutary and beneficial to him when he was in Company abroad for by that means he was the better able to bridle his Passions when he was provoked or affronted in Publick And St. Chrysostome hath this Observation upon it It grieves me that Heathens are wiser than we who are to imitate Angels nay God himself in Meekness and Patience Indeed we cannot imitate a more Excellent Pattern He that is best able to Revenge himself upon the Insolent Wretches that affront him suffers most Be patient therefore unto the coming of the Lord Behold the Husbandman waits for the pretious Fruit of the Earth and hath long Patience for it until he receive the early and latter Rain Be ye also Patient Stablish your Hearts for the Coming of the Lord draws nigh Jam. v. 7 8. SERMON XXVIII St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 33. Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths THE sence of these words we have Levit. xix 12 but the Words themselves seem to be a Paraphrase of the ancient Expositions of the Law among the Jews upon that Law in Leviticus where it is Ye shall not swear by my Name falsely neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God which Words those ancient Interpreters expressed it's like as it is in the Text Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths And that 's the thing aimed at in these words Again ye have heard That it hath been said by them of old time And most certainly he that forswears himself swears falsly by the Name of God and he that doth not perform unto the Lord his Oaths or performs not what he hath Sworn and Promised to God and Man profanes his Name with a witness Or possibly all that is said in the Old Testament against Swearing was contracted by the Learned Men of old Time into this Axiom or Sentence Thou shalt not forswear thy self but c. Or These words are a Comment made by the Ancestors of the Jews upon the Third Commandment Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Or They relate to Numb xxx 2 However it be or whoever were the Authors of this Saying it must be confess'd that they spake conformably to the Will of God and therefore these words are in effect a Divine Precept and Obligatory for ever as much as a Command in the Decalogue and though it was said so by them of old Time yet it is no more than what the ancient of Days hath said over and over by Moses and the Prophets And to discourse of this Subject profitably I shall enquire I. What an Oath or taking an Oath or what Swearing is II. Whether an Oath or Swearing even in a modest serious judicial way be lawful III. Why Forswearing our selves or Perjury or not performing unto the Lord our Oaths is forbid and wherein the virulency or heinousness of the Sin consists IV. What the Ceremonies
great Men by the Examples of good Men by the Examples of my ordinary Neighbours and shall the greatest Example the Example of God the Example of Christ Jesus make no impression upon me How easie a matter were it to draw such Inferences from what we believe and what a damp would this be to our Hatred And yet to see how careless how regardless we are of it and in despight of this great Example which we commend and magnifie justifie our Animosities against those whom we look upon to be our Enemies would make a Rational Man conclude and very justly too that whatever we pretend or talk of we do not believe that Christ died for us when we were God's Enemies What believe it and have no sence of it or if we have a sence of it not to gather our Duty from it Would any Man think that we are of the number of those Believers we read of Heb. xi Their Belief affected and wrought upon their Hearts and put them upon Heroick Actions and as God had done by them so they did by others This puts me in mind of the Justice of that Expostulation and the Proceedings we read of Matth. xviii 32 33 34. Then his Lord after he had called him said unto him O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that Debt because thou desiredst me Shouldst not thou also have had Compassion on thy Fellow-Servant even as I had pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and deliver'd him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Do you make the Application II. Though the Law of Moses enjoyn'd this Precept To love our Neighbour as our selves yet the Gospel presses it much more and in greater Instances too As by our Neighbours in the Gospel are meant not only our nearest Friends and Relatives not only those who dwell near us and about us not only those of the same Church and Religion with us but all our Fellow Christians and all Persons who were redeemed with the Blood of Jesus so our Love is to extend to all these and especially to them of the Houshold of Faith To this purpose St. Peter Honour all Men Love the Brotherhood Indeed this Love to our Fellow Christians the Apostles press with more than ordinary Fervour They lay the stress of Religion upon it and when they would describe Christians who thrive under the Showers and Irrigations of the Gospel they say That their Faith grows exceedingly and the Charity of every one toward each other abounds 2 Thess. i. 3 This was the distinguishing Character of the Primitive Believers and their Love one to another their dear their tender their affectionate Love one to another was taken notice of beyond any other Vertue whatsoever They called themselves Brethren and Sisters and by the Brotherhood or Fraternity they meant the Christian Church as appears from Clemens Romanus Their Hospitality their Candour their Veracity their Beneficence were the wonder of all Spectators Their tenderness to the Afflicted to Prisoners to Captives to the Sick and the Lame to the Ignorant and to their very Enemies was unspeakable insomuch that Julian the Apostate saw there was no way to propagate Heathenism like that of imitating Christians in their Works and Labours of Love and Charity Hereby shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another and so it was in those purer Ages and they were known more by their mutual Love than by their talking of Christ Jesus How is this Character inverted at this Day and one may say Hereby do all Men know who are Christians even by their hating one another I know not which is the harder Task whether Love to God or to our Neighbour Sure I am that many who pretend great love to God are strangely defective in their love to their Neighbours What a stir do many Men make about Religion and yet make nothing of Slandering Abusing Deriding Undervaluing their Neighbours My Brethren Doth a Fountain at the same place send forth bitter Water and sweet Indeed none is so fit to love God dearly as he that doth exercise himself very much in Love to his Neighbour It 's true one must help the other and Love to God must Influence that to our Neighbours but still great acts of Love to our Neighbours are the best Preparatives for high degrees of Love to God The Branches of this Love to our Neighbours are many and various and he who abounds in these acts of Love gets a Holy assurance that he is neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord How do we confine our Love to little Sects and Parties and from hence comes that bitterness of Spirit of one Party against another and how hard is it to find a Christian of a truly Catholick Love and Charity When shall we be wiser When shall that pristine Unity and Purity return When shall that admirable Spirit which shined so bright in the primitive Believers revive again Lord When shall thy Kingdom come that the whole Multitude which Believe shall be of one Heart and of one Soul The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that hears say Come Come thou God of Love thou Prince of Peace thou lover of Concord and Unity Come Amen even so come Lord Jesu SERMON XXXV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you MArcellinus writing to St. Austin tells him That the great Stumbling-Blocks which lay in the way of the Heathens of his Time especially of the wittier sort and hindred them from embracing Christianity were chiefly these three the Incarnation of our Lord the meanness of his Miracles which they thought those of Apollonius Tyanaeus did equal and the Prescriptions of the Text Love your Enemies bless them that curse you c. Not to meddle with their first and second Head this last particularly they could not digest they look'd upon 't as obliging Men to work Miracles and thought it in a manner as easie to snatch a Man from the Embraces of the Grave as to receive an Enemy into their own What! Love an Enemy He might as well have bid us swallow Poyson and take Toads and Vipers into our Bosoms What! Love a Man that hath sought my Life Caress a Wretch that hath attempted to ravish the pledges of my Love Take him into my Arms that hath endeavour'd to snatch from me the dearest Blessings I enjoy He might as well have bid us pull up Mountains by the Roots transplant Islands touch the Sun with our Fingers and empty the Waters of the Ocean Indeed this seems to be the highest step of Christianity and he that is arrived to an habitual observance of this Rule may not unfitly be said to be come to the top of the Mount of God But still whatever noise be
respect to their free and open Profession of their Principles and acting accordingly which was the Subject of our last Discourses So here he goes on and adds one Comparison more viz. That of a lighted Candle the use of which is to give Light to them that are in the House Neither do Men light a Candle c. Though the Subject seems to be in a manner exhausted by the preceding Discourses yet I shall so order the matter that I may either more clearly explain what I have hinted before or alledge something agreeable to the Similitude What Venerable Bede observes upon this Passage That he puts his Candle under a Bushel who obscures the noble Light of the Doctrine of the Gospel by his covetousness and greediness after the Profits of the World And That he sets it on a Candlestick who so submits to God that the power of the Gospel like Oyl swims a top and pleasing the flesh is the least of his Concerns And what the same Author adds concerning our Saviour That he lighted a Candle when he irradiated and inflamed the dark Lanthorn of humane Nature with his Divinity and placed this Candle his Divine Power in the Candlestick his Church and that the Candle the Gospel could not be put under a Bushel i. e. confined to the Jewish Common-wealth but was to give light to the whole World These I say are pious Allusions rather than the direct and natural sense of the Words or if they relate to the Sense they are but a small part of it or rather Inferences from the scope and drift of our Saviour's coming into the World than an Explication of the Words which enforce the Duty of being Exemplary in our Lives a Duty strangely neglected and which cannot be urged too often I shall therefore enquire with Relation to the Text I. How we cover and hide the Light of our Piety and Goodness II. What Injury we offer by doing so to God and Man III. What the Advantages are of letting the Light of our Piety shine to those that are round about us I. How we cover and hide the Light of our Piety and Goodness and this is done 1. When we content our selves with the Name of Christians and do nothing that doth properly belong to Christians as Christians What it is that constitutes a Christian Christ hath told us and you have often heard it It is Mat. 16.24 If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me How do we deny our selves when we indulge our natural Desires and Affections connive at that which we should restrain give our selves leave to think and speak and do what our Flesh suggests to us without curbing those Inclinations or do not subject our Appetites our Thoughts and Words and Desires and Actions to the Government and Will of God Is this denying our selves when we let loose the Reins of our inordinate Lusts to Pride to Covetousness to Wrath to Uncleanness to Slandering and Abusing our Neighbours c. Do we take up our Cross when we take it ill that God sends Afflictions upon us Repine and murmur when we are corrected are impatient under the Rod and look upon the Scourge as our greatest Enemy Do we follow Christ when his Example moves us not when his Meekness and Humility make no Impressions upon us when his delight in doing Good and his compassionate Temper charms us not into Imitation And if we do none of these things and yet call our selves Christians do we not hide the Light which that Name imports under a bushel Do not we obscure it do not we cover it do not we keep it from shining forth What! will the Name bear us out will the Title make us Favourites Do we believe that God is pleased with those that have the Name that they live and are dead What! A Christian and Cheat and Lye and Dissemble and commit a Thousand Abominations A Christian and do things as contrary to the Nature of Christianity as Light is to Darkness Are not these perfect Absurdities And yet Men will Glory in the Name alone 2. We hide it when we suffer the Honours Pleasures and gay Things of this World to obscure it Do not you see how Tares how Thistles and Bryars and Thorns cover and hide the Wheat the good Corn that grows among them that 's the Emblem of our hiding the Light of Goodness and Piety There is an admirable Seed sown in our Hearts by the great Husbandman God blessed for evermore Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in Heart Psal. xcvii 11. He sows it by the Word and there fall into the Soul good Motions excellent Inclinations Christian Dispositions Sparks of the Coal from the Altar which are ready to break forth into a light Fire But here come the Riches the Pleasures the Cares of this Life and beat these Inclinations back will not suffer them to advance into Fruits and Works and if here and there a little Virtue like an Ear of Corn peeps forth the force and power of it is hid and darkened by the Locusts of Worldly Lusts. And is not this hiding the Light when thou hast an Inclination to do Good and a carnal worldly Reason presently discourages thee When thou hast some Thoughts of paying thy Devotion to God and Company and some little impertinent Business can divert thee from thy Purpose When thou hast a good mind to Reprove thy Neighbour for his notorious Faults and thoughts of thy worldly Interest and fear of losing his Favour stops the good Intent When thou purposest to mind thy Salvation with greater seriousness and the sweetness of gain and profit and the Opinion and Censures of Men cool or damp that desire Is not this hiding the Light of our Piety and Goodness 3. We hide it when we suffer it to be put out or darkened by Temptations The Devil is watchful and the Evil Spirits that are about us are very busy and do what they can to hinder our good Thoughts and Desires from breaking out into suitable actions Many Men could find in their hearts to break off their Sins by Repentance and to forsake their Evil Courses They have Twitches within and Stings in their own Consciences and this Day they will set about it and the next Week or the next convenient Opportunity they will do it But here Temptations come in either That it's time enough to do it hereafter or The present Circumstances they are in will not yet permit it or It 's too early to torment themselves about their future State and therefore they will consider a little more of it If they were in another Condition of Life it would do well enough but there is some danger in going about it without great deliberation When such Temptations as these put by the nobler Checks within When the Voice of these drowns the Voice of that inward Witness When Men find Piety working within and
he hath promised though thou seeest them not The Reasons for the one are as convincing as the other In a word Believing God's Promises is to venture upon that Piety to which the greatest Blessings are promised And therefore not letting thy Light shine before Men it 's a sign thou dost not believe his Promises and not to believe his Promises is either to suppose that he hath made no such Promises or to think if he hath made any they are not true And what an injury this is to God judge you to whom God hath given Reason and Wisdom and Understanding to know that Heaven and Earth shall sooner perish than one jot or one tittle of his Word shall fail 3. It is an injury to Men too For by not letting the Light of your Piety shine forth you hinder others from the Ways of God Men are led by Example if you have an aversion from the Ways of Righteousness will not this tempt others to have an aversion too If you offer the Blind and the Lame will not others imitate you If to serve God be a weariness to you will it not be so to others It is true God may restrain them from following your example but if he doth not is not this the natural consequence of it It was very well said of St. Chrysostom There would not be a Heathen left in the World if we all of us labour'd to be Christians indeed and strictly obey'd the Counsels and Admonitions of the Gospel if being affronted we did suffer it if we did not render evil for evil if being cursed and abused we did bless if we render'd good for evil There is hardly any Man would be such a Brute as not to apply himself to the Fear of God whose Precepts cause such an admirable Temper if all of us shew'd the same Zeal for the Gospel But when we like Gallio care for none of these things we make others as careless as our selves We especially whom the meaner sort look upon as better Bred and more Knowing and having had the advantage of Education For this is the common Language Such a Man is a Scholar he can Read and Write and hath the Bible at his Fingers Ends If that Man believed these things were necessary he would certainly practise them But making no Conscience of them why should I who am not learned and know not so much as he doth So that this must needs be a manifest injury to Men for we make others regardless of Piety while we our selves do not place that Light on the Candlestick of our Lives and Conversations that it may give Light to all that are in the House But 4. This is not all for hereby we do not only hinder them from the Ways of Piety but we encourage them in Evil we harden others in their Sins help them to be miserable see them perishing and promote their Ruin Though we may not be so bad as others yet in not being so good as we might be and ought to be we confirm them in their Opinion that what they do is harmless And thus we turn Fiends and Devils teach others to Sin and prompt them to be Children of Perdition Our evil Actions are unhappy Schoolmasters to instruct others in the Art of Sinning We destroy Souls and instead of being helpers of their Faith we are helpers to hasten their Damnation And if this be not a signal Injury done to Men I know not what we can call Injury But it 's time I should III. In the last place shew you What the Advantages are of letting this Light of our Piety shine forth before Men. And though this be properly the subject of the next Verse yet something of it I will mention by way of preparation for the Discourse I intend upon that Exhortation of our Saviour 1. Are not we fond of Peace of Conscience Do not we talk of it Do not we commend it Do not we say all the kind things of it Do not we prize it in those that have it Do not we hear Men upon their Death-beds wish for it If it be so precious a thing why this is the way that leads to it even this letting the Light of our Piety shine forth How often have you heard that Saying of the Apostle 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World Ay this is the Spring the Fountain the Root the Vein from which Peace of Conscience flows It can no more arise from a sinful carnal sensual Life than Olive-berries can grow upon a Thorn-bush The Light of Piety causes Light in the Conscience this makes it easy and lightsome under all Burdens and gives a chearful merry Heart under the sharpest Dispensations of Providence All the Joys of Sinners and Hypocrites are not to be compared with it for they die when the Body dies and fill the Soul with Horrour But Peace of Conscience survives the mortal Part and leaps and skips and mounts with the Soul into the boundless Ocean of Eternity 2. Would you see and tast how sweet and gracious God is Why this setting the Light of your Piety on a Candlestick that it may enlighten all that are round about you is the way to it God can never appear truly Sweet to that Soul that hath an Aversion from his Service It is impossible that he should look amiable and charming to that Eye that delights in beholding Vanity It is the Holiness of God that makes him sweet and amiable to the Soul And how can that Soul delight in his Beauty that sees no Beauty in Holiness We wonder not that many Men stare and wonder and think we tell them Stories and Romances when we speak of the admirable Sweetness of God which a Soul enlightened from above is sensible of as well may a Horse understand the Study of the Mathematicks as He apprehend how sweet and amiable God is that rushes into Sin as the Horse rushes into the Battel But notwithstanding all this there is such a thing and the Soul whose pious Life shines before Men feels and sees and tastes how sweet and charming and lovely God the best of Beings is Sweet beyond Roses sweet beyond Perfumes sweet beyond Comparison sweet to Admiration sweet to Extasy And now I should add after all that this letting the Light of your Piety shine forth is the way to engage others what in you lies to Praise God But that must be the subject of my next Meditation However because it is very pertinent to my purpose I will add that which must be the beginning of my next Discourse Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good works and Glorifie your Father which is in Heaven I shall conclude with a word or two to those that intend this Day to partake of the Blessed Sacrament 3. Think what
must this be to be so concerned for your good Works A Father your Father so great a Father A Father that dwells on high to humble himself and stoop to look upon your good Works and withall declare his willingness to accept of them surely this is self-denial infinite For him that is higher than the Heaven Higher than the Highest Higher than the greatest Potentates to vouchsafe a favourable Aspect to your good Works surely this must this should one would think prevail with many of you who retain some Sense of your Duty Nay and he is therefore said to be in Heaven to let you see where you shall be and whither you shall go when you leave this World having let the Light of your good Works shine before Men even into that Heaven where himself is adored by Angels and all the Morning Stars sing together where his own infinite Felicity fills all that are about his Throne with Joys and Ravishments unspeakable And therefore suffer this word of Exhortation and let your Light so shine before Men that others may see your good Works and Glorifie your Father which is in Heaven SERMON XVIII St. Matth. Ch. v. Ver. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil CHRIST having in the foregoing Discourse open'd and laid down the true Nature of the Christian Religion what it imports and what Qualifications it challenges and what Temper it requires and told us that a Christian is a Person Humble and concern'd for his own and other Men's Sins Meek and earnestly desirous of high degrees of Holiness Merciful and kind and Pure in Heart and of a peaceable and peace-making Disposition and Patient under Injuries and in his Affliction comforting himself with the Rewards of Heaven and the Blessings of Eternity and ready to do good and profitable and useful both to the Souls and Bodies of other Men I say having laid down these Characters as Essential to a Christian to a Disciple of the Holy Jesus He now goes on not only to let his Disciples see how much of the Old Religion he intended to adopt into his own which he was going to publish but to enforce the Duties he had mention'd from the Law and from the Prophets shewing that in prescribing the aforesaid Rules and Directions he was so far from contradicting the Law and the Prophets that he spoke their Sense and Meaning and that this was not to call them away from an Esteem and Veneration of the Law and the Prophets but to increase it and that what the Law and the Prophets had but obscurely hinted he was come to explain more largely and to deliver more clearly and to press with greater Motives and Arguments Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil In the Explication of which Words these four Things do naturally offer themselves to our Consideration I. What the Law and the Prophets are II. What it was that rais'd a Suspicion or made People think and fear That Christ came to destroy the Law and the Prophets III. How it appears That he came not with that intent IV. How he fulfill'd the Law and the Prophets I. What the Law and the Prophets are 1. By the Law and the Prophets are meant the Doctrine contained in the Books of the Old Testament call'd by various Names in Holy Writ sometimes the Law in general Joh. x. 34 sometimes Moses and the Prophets Luke xvi 31 sometimes the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Luke xxiv 44 sometimes the Scripture Joh. v. 39 sometimes the Book of the Lord Isai. xxxiv 16. sometimes the Law and the Prophets as here because this Book consists not only of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sina for the Instruction and Edification of the Jewish People but the Writings of other Men also Men inspired by the Holy Ghost who writ either in a Historical or Dogmatical or Prophetical way strictly so called by way of foretelling things to come even as the Spirit of God which governed their Thoughts and Pens thought fit to dictate to them for the use of the Church or Gods People The Law of Moses is as it were the Text the other Books are in the nature of Comments They are called the Law and the Prophets not as if the Law were not written by a Person inspired but the Law is named distinctly either because the Law had some peculiar marks of Divinity in it as appears from the circumstances of its Publication or because it was written by a Prophet of a higher Order and such was Moses Exod. xxxiv whose Prophetick Office God doth distinguish from that of other Persons moved by the Holy Ghost or because the principal part of the Books of Moses the Ten Commandements are said to be written by the Finger of God which gives the Law a special Priviledge so that both the Law and the Prophets came from God only the Law had something more Majestick than ordinary in it and therefore deserves to be named by it self This Law of Moses consists of Commands of a very different Nature Some are the result of natural Justice and Equity of the Eternal Law imprinted on the Souls of Men of the Law of Nature or of right Reason and Deductions from the common Notions of God and of his Perfections and the Relation we stand in toward him and toward one another the summary whereof is the Decalogue or the Ten Commandements Another sort of Commands in that Law relates to the outward manner of Gods Worship and to external Ceremonies to Gifts and Sacrifices and Meats and Drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on the Jewish People until the time of the Reformation Heb. ix 9 10. And these Commands are purely positive depending altogether upon the Will and Pleasure of the Law-giver and therefore alterable and mutable as Occasion and Time and Necessity and the Reason of things c. require and this is commonly stiled the Ceremonial Law A third sort hath Relation to Policy and Government made up partly of Rules issuing from natural Justice and Equity partly of Constitutions such as the Nature and Temper of the People and the Situation of the Country and the Neighbourhood of the Nations who dwelt round about them and the danger of being infected by them and the Circumstances they were in did suggest commonly call'd the Civil or Judicial Law 2. These three sorts of Commands given by God to Moses made up the Digests the Pandects or the Body of the Jewish Law and that 's it that 's commonly understood by that known and frequent Expression in Scripture especially the New Testament the Law it 's written in the Law or the Law saith c. even the complex of all these Laws given at the Command of God by Moses to the Jewish People and as such they did particularly oblige the
them to differ Who told you you may observe one and not another Where are the distinguishing Marks to discern which is to be practised and which is not Doth not the same Spirit run through all In a word if you love God to any purpose you will not only dread crying Sins but even those which looser Men make no great matter of and it 's certain that Soul is not yet truly converted that doth not seriously watch against evil Thoughts Desires Passions Affections c. for these are usually counted lesser Sins as well as against greater Abominations And therefore You may easily perceive that we are not to break a Command of our dear Lord and Master because it seems little or because the World esteems it so What hath the World to do with my Religion Doth God govern himself by the Verdict of the World and sensual Men What if Men who have no right Apprehensions of God make nothing of corrupt Communications must I be guided by their Example Can any Commandment that proceeds out of the Mouth of God be termed little Might not we as well say that God spoke in jest If God commands me to follow Righteousness Faith Charity and Peace with all them that call on him out of a pure Heart and to flee youthful Lusts shall I neglect this Command because the World makes a pish of it Hath the Great God of Heaven and Earth thought fit to send his Son into the World to tell me that private Revenge is unlawful and conforming to the World in their Vanities and Fooleries and Revellings and Extravagancies is displeasing to him and my covetous Thoughts and Desires are offensive to his Holiness and have not I all the reason in the World to stand in awe of his Command though a thousand wicked Men say it 's either needless or impracticable How can a Divine Command be little that concerns Mens Immortal Souls Is there any thing greater in this World than the good and welfare of their precious Souls Doth God tell me such a Sin though it seems never so small in the Eyes of the World will help to kill my Soul and is Ingratitude to him in whom I live and move and have my Being and shall I venture upon it God forbid Yea let God be True but every Man a Lyar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and be clear when thou judgest Rom. iii. 4 II. Let none of you wonder at Christ's peremptory Determination here Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven You 'll say What! break but one of these Commandments and one of the least and be damn'd Where then is the Grace of the Gospel What becomes then of the vast Treasures of Mercy which came in with Jesus Christ At this rate our Yoak is heavier than that of the Jews Marvel not my Brethren the greater the Grace is the greater will be the Account the greater the Mercy the greater will be the Reckoning And yet this ought to be no discouragement to any of us for the meaning is not that every surprize or accidental Failing or breaking one of these Commands against our Will or before we are aware or after we have used all possible Watchfulness excludes from the Kingdom of Heaven for then no Flesh could be saved But he that wilfully breaks one and makes a Trade of it knows or hears God's Will in that particular and yet will not be perswaded to do it and teaches others too either by his Discourse or Example neglects such a Command and feels no Remorse knows the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death and not only doth the same but hath pleasure in them that do them as it is said Rom. i. 32 That 's the Man who shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven And do not you think there is a great deal of Justice in all this What! For a Man first to disregard an express Command of Christ and then that he may not think himself obliged to it to call it little and inconsiderable and so to neglect it and after all prompt others to do so too Is not this a manifest contempt of God's Sovereignty and Mercy and Love and Charity in Christ Jesus Doth not this look like Enmity against God Is not this a sign of a secret Hatred and Indignation against the ways of God Is not this an Argument of Obstinacy and Stubbornness Doth not this infer want of Sense and want of Fear And would you have God save a Man that doth not fear him Would you have him receive Men into the Kingdom of Heaven that do not only not think it worth while to obey him in so small a matter small in their own account and therefore surely the easier but encourage others to do the like Doth not this argue a delight in a sinful sensual Life And what Do you think God will let a Man or Woman in at the Gates of Glory that looks upon the Prophet as mad because he bid him do so small a thing Wash in the River Jordan seven times that he may be clean God measures our Actions by our Hearts and if the Heart be averse from him or from the ways of Righteousness Is such a Person fit to sing with Angels to triumph with Martyrs and to sit and rejoice with Souls that loved God with all their Hearts and with all their Minds Ay but to break one of these least Commandments and to teach another to do so What great Matter is there in that My Friends He that breaks one will break another and is in a Disposition to offend against more He will never stop there one Sin engages him into the Practice of another and if he propagates the Evil too and like a rotten Sheep infects others doth not that one Folly discover a Heart that hath no Desire no Inclination to take Christ's Yoak upon him and loath unwilling backward to entertain Christ upon his own Terms and is this following him in the Regeneration And he that doth not follow him in the Regeneration How shall he be able to sit with him in his Throne And this puts me in mind of another Observation III. That he that lives ill teaches another to live ill too He that shall break one of these least Commandments and teach Men so c. In order to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven it is not necessary a Man should get into a Pulpit and there proclaim that it is lawful to lie to cheat to defraud to sing filthy Songs to break obscene Jests to hate our Neighbour or to return Evil for Evil this needs not Thy Actions Christian spread the Poison and teach the next Man thou meetest withal to do as thou doest for in breaking such a known Command of the Gospel and being unconcerned What can thy fellow Christian think
but that thou approvest of it And supposing thou approvest of it if the Grace of God restrains him not he soon begins to think that what is lawful for thee may be lawful for him and thus he learns of thee though thou doest not open thy Lips to him There are few Men so bold as in their Words and Speeches to defend and justify things directly contrary to the Will of God in the Gospel but you do mischief enough to the Souls of Men by your evil Practices The Mutes among the Turks teach by their Gestures much more may Men be taught by Actions especially where there is already a Disposition to embrace that which is Evil. Physicians and Naturalists talk of transplanting Diseases from Men into Beasts nay some go so far as to prescribe ways to transfer Distempers from Men into Herbs and Plants Whether it be so I enquire not but sure I am that the Diseases of the Soul are and may be transplanted and conveyed from one Man to another even by evil Practices and this is teaching and making Proselytes to Hell and to the Kingdom of Darkness the readiest way to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven which will give me occasion IV. To represent to you what it is to be the least or to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven Fancy you saw a poor miserable Man starving with hunger and so placed that directly over against him he could see the richest Banquet the most delicate Dishes huge plenty of Victuals of all sorts the Company eating their fill and satiating themselves with all the Variety that Earth and Sea and Air can yield and the poor Wretch that is over against this Company but a few paces removed from them unable to get the least Morsel of Bread ready to tear his own Flesh from off his Shoulders and yet in an utter impossibility to get so much as the Crums that fall from those Rich Mens Tables Do not you think this would be as great a Torment as can well be imagined Why this is the Emblem of being the least or excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven The Soul that is so unhappy as to miss of it will see Abraham a far off and Lazarus in his Bosom be ready to perish ready to burst see all the Glory and Joy of blessed Creatures before his Eyes the Delicates the Dainties the Pleasures the Festivals the rich Entertainments they enjoy and swim in passing before him and yet not able to touch not able to reach the least Extremity of all though his Soul be big with ten thousand desires after them What a Torment what a Plague what a Vexation must this be What Grief what Sorrow what Anguish must this cause And if this must continue to Eternal Ages what Tongue is able to express the Torment And can you after all this call any of the Commandments of the Gospel little ones and break them and pass by them as if they did not belong to you and tempt others to do so too when this is the high way to be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven But V. Are there no Ambitious Men here Are there none among you that desire to be Great Have none of you a mind to be prefer'd and exalted to eminent Places You must be either very mortified or very dull if Greatness can make no Impression upon you Preferment What is there that is more hunted after How do many break their Sleep and fall into Discontent and Vexation because they cannot be advanced What waiting at Court What cringing what bowing to Great Men What running to this Friend and to th' other Friend What Flattery what Dissembling what Compliances are used and all to be Great Behold We can tell you a way to be Great greater than Caesar or Pompey or Alexander greater than all the Kings or Rulers of the Earth Great Where Not at Court not in the Camp or Army Not in Church-Dignities or Preferments but great in the Kingdom of Heaven And is not the Kingdom of Heaven a more lofty and more spacious Empire than the whole Roman Monarchy in all its greatest Extent and Glory It 's true we cannot shew you this Kingdom we cannot make it visible to your Eyes but we can tell you that St. Paul saw it and Christ did enter into it and he that hath power to dispose of all the Glories of it hath sent us to tell you That you may be great and he 'll make you so great as Angels great as the Worthies of God greater than Kings greater than all the Princes of the Earth greater than all the proud things which make so great a noise in the World now and all this if you will close with his Desires and both do and teach the Commandments Christ recommends to in his famous Sermon Little they may seem and contemptible they may appear in the Eyes of the Men that have their portion in this Life But as little as they may seem to be your Conscientious and Impartial Respect to them all to the least as well as to the greatest shall exalt you exalt you far above all the Glory and Splendor of this World raise you from the Dunghil take you out of the Dust and set you with Princes even with the Princes of God's People If you are great already this shall make you greater Lay up therefore these Commandments in your Hearts and in your Souls bind them for a Sign upon your Hands let them be as Frontlets between your Eyes teach them your Children speak of them when you sit in your Houses and when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up Assure all those you Converse with that these Commandments are Life and Peace and Rational and Equitable and Just and Necessary and Health to the Soul Foretasts of Happiness and Prefaces to an endless Glory Thus do and thus teach Teach by your Discourses teach by your Actions teach by your Example So Noah taught the unbelieving World by building an Ark to the saving of his House to save themselves from the Wrath to come So do you and build upon the Word of the Son of God That you shall be great in the Kingdom of Heaven SERMON XXI St. Matt. Ch. v. Ver. 20. For I say unto you That except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven A Preface or Introduction will be needless It 's enough that these Words are part of Christ's Famous Sermon on the Mount The Method I shall observe in handling them shall be this following to Enquire and Consider I. Who these Scribes and Pharisees were II. What their Righteousness was and wherein it consisted III. How and in what our Righteousness is to exceed their Righteousness IV. The danger if we do not ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I. Who these Scribes and Pharisees were 1. The Pharisees You
to make Proselytes and Converts to their Religion for they compassed Sea and Land to do it Matth. xxiii 15 They were so strict or so nice rather that they were afraid of touching a Person who was counted an open and scandalous Sinner would not only not Eat with him but not so much as Touch him which was the reason why the Pharisee in whose House Christ dined found fault with our Saviour for suffering himself to be touch'd by a Woman who had been a notorious Sinner Luc. vii 39 And this is the account the Scripture gives of them St. Epiphanius adds that many of them would Vow very strict Chastity and Abstinence from the Partners of their Beds some for Four years some for Eight and some for Ten. They were very watchful against all Nocturnal Accidents and partly to prevent them and partly to awake the sooner to Prayer they would Sleep upon Boards not above nine Inches broad that falling or rolling off from those Boards on the Ground they might go to their Devotion some would stuff their Pillows with Stones and Pebles and some would venture even upon Thorns for that purpose Besides their Tythes they separated their First-Fruits and the Thirtieth and Fiftieth part of their Incomes to Pious Uses and as to all Vows and Sacrifices no Persons were more punctual to pay or discharge them than they This was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees All this looks well and hath a very good Gloss. And one would wonder at first sight how Christ could find fault with these Performances One would think that in stead of blaming he should have commended them for so doing How many Thousands are there in the World that do not do half so much in Matters of Religion and some would look upon themselves as extraordinary Saints if they came up to what the Scribes and Pharisees did so far are they from dreaming of going beyond them But have not You seen some counterfeit Pearls so Artificiously contrived that the ignorant Spectator hath taken them for truly Oriental Have not you seen some curious Limner draw Infects and Butterflies with that Life that one would take them for living Animals The same may be said of the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees As specious as glorious as it look'd it was perfectly or the Nature of the Glow-Worm and shined bright in that dark Night of Ignorance but view'd by Day-light was nothing but a squallid Worm a mere Skeleton of Devotion which leads me II. To shew You the Defects of their Righteousness and they will appear from the following Particulars 1. They laid the Stress of their Devotion upon the Opus Operatum the bare Outward Task and Peformance without any regard to the Inward Frame very indifferent whether their Minds at the same time were season'd with a due sense of God's Greatness and their own Imperfections Just as the People of the Church of Rome at this Day will say so many Credo's so many Pater Noster's so many Ave Maria's and fancy they have done admirably well when they have absolved their Task though their Minds or Thoughts all the while like the Evil Spirit in Job have been wandring to and fro in the Earth And I wish too many who profess themselves Members of the best Church in the World I mean the Church of England did not split their Vessel against this Rock I am sure the Scribes and Pharisees did They made no account of the inward Frame but rested in the Shell and thought God would be pleased with the slaying of a Bullock or Lamb or He-Goat and they measured the Goodness of their Prayers by their Length and Number more than by the great Sense they had of the Shekinah or Divine Presence whereas an humble and devout Mind in the Religious Service was the thing God required at their Hands Mat. xv 8 2. They were very Zealous for the Ceremonial part of Religion but very reguardless of the Moral and more Substantial part of it hot as Fire for the one cold as Ice with respect to the other The neglect of a Ceremony anger'd them more than the omission of a sober and pious Conversation much as the Greeks at this Day look upon breaking a Fast of the Church as a more heinous Crime than Killing or Murthering a Man and to this purpose Christ tells the Pharisees Mat. xxiii 22 23. Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites who strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Ye pay Tithe of Mint and Cummin and Anise and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith 3. They were abominably selfish in all their Religious Undertakings for all their Works they do to be seen of Men saith our Saviour Matth. xxiii 5 This was the Worm that corrupted their Alms their Prayers their Fasts their Self-Denials their Mortifications and all they did even a design to advance and promote their Profit Interest and Credit and to gain the Applauses and Admirations of Men and though they made long Prayers yet it seems it was to devour Widows Houses Matth. xxiii 14 Their very Doctrins were suited to their Profit and Interest As Transubstantiation Purgatory Private Masses Indulgences Auricular Confession c. in the Church of Rome are invented to aggrandize the Honour and Profit of the Priest so the Tenents they held were accommodated to their Gain and Lucre for they taught the People that there was greater Holiness in the Gold of the Temple than in the Temple and greater Sanctity in the Gift upon the Altar than in the Altar it self thereby to oblige the People to bring Gold and Gifts into the Temple whereby the Priests who were of the Order of the Pharisees suckt no small advantage Matth. xxiii 16 17. 4. They took care to purifie the outward Man but took none to cleanse the Heart and the Soul Such Acts of Piety and Devotion as were stately and favour'd of Pomp and served to attack the Eyes of Spectators they were for and of this Nature were all their External Severities and Rigors and Revenges they used upon themselves But as to Mortifying their inward Pride and Rancour and Hatred and Malice and Covetousness and love of the World they were so great Strangers to it that they did not think it part of their Religion which makes Christ tell them Thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the Cup and Platter that the outside of them may be clean also Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for ye are like unto whited Sepulchres which appear fair unto Men but within are full of Rotten Bones even so ye appear outwardly Righteous unto Men but within are full of Covetousness Matth. xxiii 26 27. 5. Though they own'd professed and taught the Law of Moses yet in effect they preferr'd their wild and phantastick Traditions before it Not to mention their common Proverb That the Words of the Scribes i. e. of their Traditionary Divines were more Lovely
Phrase may justly be understood of the Publick Worship of God nay any sort of Divine Worship whereby we intend to express our respect to God whether Publick or Private and that want of Reconciliation in case we have offered a signal Injury to our fellow Christians either in Word or Deed renders the Gift or Devotion we offer unpleasing or unacceptable will appear from the following Considerations 1. Because the Devotion is offered from an impure Heart want of Reconciliation I mean a wilful want or neglect of it supposes a Heart full of Rancour and Malice and secret Grudges against the Person whom we are at Variance with or whom we have offended and in this case David's saying holds true If I regard Iniquity in my Heart the Lord will not leave me Psal. lxvi 18 Shall God whose Purity is great and astonishing and infinite accept of an Oblation which hath so impure a Foundation Can we imagine God is so fond of Services as not to regard the Heart which is and ought to be the principal Agent in the Service He that scorned the Blind and the Lame offered to him in Sacrifice will he be pleased with such blind and lame Devotion It is not the bare Flower as beautiful as it's Colours may seem to be that God is delighted with if the Soil on which it grows be a Dung-hill No Let 's not flatter our selves that the Building we erect will be taking in the Eyes of the great Architect while the Foundation is rotten A Heart that cherishes Malice is the impure Root that sheds poyson on the Plant it produces and that can cause no odoriferous Scent in Heaven He that hath protested that an evil Heart is abomination to him will he relish the Water which comes from that bitter Spring He that hath told us that the pure in heart shall see him and none but they will he admit that Devotion into his gracious Presence which comes from a bottom where Toads and Serpents crawl He that delights in nothing so much as in a Heart sincere and upright will he be fond of Hypocrisy What is Hypocrisy Is it not seeming to be good when we are not And is not Devotion coming from a Heart unwilling to be reconciled to our fellow Christian an appearance of Goodness while love to our Brethren the principal Ingredient which must make it so is wanting 2. Such Devotion is a perfect Contradiction The Soul that is a Stranger or an Enemy to Reconciliation and yet offers Services of Devotion to God pretends to obey him by those Services and yet at the same time disobeys him by being unwilling to be reconciled Doth a Fountain at the same place send forth bitter water and sweet saith St. James ch iii. 11 Of the Samaritans we read 1 Kings xvii 33 That they feared the Lord and served their own Gods They sacrificed to the Great Jehovah and to Devils and their Worship was divided betwixt God and Belial betwixt Dagon and the Ark betwixt the Temple of God and Idols And is not Devotion from a Heart unwilling to be reconciled a Worship much like theirs At once to obey God and to disobey him at once to honour and to affront him at once to worship and to blaspheme him To build with one hand and to pull down with another At the same time to please God and to offend him to please him with Devotion and to offend him with neglect of Charity Is God a God of Order and will he be pleased with Contradictions May it not justly be said to such among you as Elijah to the Israelites 1 Kings xviii 21 How long halt you between two Opinions If the Lord be God then follow him but if Baal then follow him But to think to oblige both is to reconcile Fire and Water Light and Darkness Heaven and Hell and things that have the greatest Antipathy one to another 3. God is the God of Love and will he accept of a Devotion coming from a Heart that hath no Love Can there be Love there where there is no Reconciliation Can Charity be there where the Man will not be Friends with his offended Brother It was indeed said in Commendation of that Roman that having lived so many years with his Mother he was never reconciled to her but the meaning was that they had never quarrelled never fallen out so there was no need of any Reconciliation But here we speak of Offences given and taken and a wilful neglect of Reconciliation must necessarily argue want of Love and can God love that Service in which there is nothing agreeable to his Nature Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity saith David Psal. cxxxiii 1 It is pleasant to Men and pleasant to God He loves to see it there is harmony in it and can that Devotion make Musick in Heaven which runs upon jarring and Discord and Animosities and Dissentions God is Love and where should Love dwell but in a Heart that loves A Heart that doth not is no Seat no Place no Mansion no Habitation no Tabernacle for the God of Love to rest in The Spirit of love flees from such a House There must be a similitude of Tempers For God to dwell in a Heart where Hatred lodges would be as unseemly a thing as for a King to chuse a Dungeon for his Habitation I love them that love me saith the Eternal Wisdom Prov. viii 17 He that is unwilling to be reconciled to his offended Neighbour cannot love God and God cannot love him nor his Service for if the Man doth not love his Brother whom he hath seen how shall be love God whom he hath not seen 1 John iv 20 4. Such Devotion coming from a Heart loath to be reconciled is a plain attempt to put a cheat upon the great God of Heaven for such a Man hopes God will be so dazled with his Devotion that he will over-look the Malice that 's glowing in his Heart He hopes that God will be so taken with the external Service he lays at his feet as not to take notice of the abomination that lurks within Will you put out the Eyes of these Men said Corah and Dathan Numb xvi 14 And may it not be said to such Will you put out the Eyes of Almighty God Do you think to blind him that sees by Night as well as by Day Do you hope to deceive him that searches the Hearts and the Reins Is it a small thing to you to affront him and would you cheat him too Do you think to lull him asleep with your Devotion that he may not mind the Leprosy which infects your Souls Is he a Man that you think to impose upon him Or a Being so weak that it 's possible to gull him into approbation of your Services See what Absurdities Men run into when they hope that some external Acts of their Piety will cover the multitude of their Sins Strange
complain of Wrong is no just Offence given since the Law of Nature and Scripture doth not absolutely forbid it and the Common Good which the Law of Nature hath respect to sometime requires it so that if a Person Vitious and Brutish and Covetous and Illnatured Base and Selfish who is able to pay and will not and deals Fraudulently and Deceitfully be cast into Prison it is no Breach of Charity provided still that it is not Anger or Malice or Revenge or delight in Men's Misery or some other base sinister End and Design that is the cause of our taking this rougher Way but love to Justice intent to reform the Offender by Affliction and care to prevent his continuance in Sin and doing hurt to others c. And if there be no Breach of Charity there needs no Reconciliation It 's granted the Law of the Land allows you to Arrest any Man that is indebted to you whether he be able to pay or not But may it not be said in this Case as Christ to the Pharisees in the Law of Divorce for the hardness of your Hearts the Law permits it but still it doth not hinder you from shewing Mercy The Law of the Land contradicts not the Law of the Gospel nor was it ever intended to draw Men off from their Duty to God and to their Neighbour and since Charity is the great Gospel Duty we must think our selves obliged more by what the Gospel commands than by what the Law of the Land permits and though it be a kind of Charity to punish Malefactors yet every Debtor comes not into this Number nor must those to whom it is an Affliction not to be in a Condition to satisfy their Creditors be confounded with the Wicked that borrows and pays not again This being Premised I shall consider what Use we are to make of these Words of our Saviour and this will soon appear if you will attend to the following Observations I. While a Man keeps or maintains Hatred and Malice to his Neighbour in his Heart God is his Adversary II. To agree with God betimes is our wisest Course III. God deals very gently with us before he lets us feel the heaviest Stroak of his Vengeance He both calls to Repentance and gives time for it IV. Delay of true Repentance provokes God to proceed to very severe nay to the severest Courses of Vengeance V. Hell is a Prison from which there is no coming out till all the Debt be paid I begin with the First I. While a Man harbours Hatred and Malice in his Heart to his Neighbour God is his Enemy-or his Adversary So much is evident from the Similitude here used where what is said of an Adversary among Men is referr'd to God as such a Person deals with a perfidious Debtor here on Earth so God will deal with the Uncharitable and Persons who will not be Reconciled to their offended Brethren Till Affliction and Trouble comes very few People will believe that God is their Adversary Indeed when a great Loss befalls them or some painful Disease seizes upon them or a Distemper that very much discomposes and disturbs their Minds hangs about them or some other Disaster unforseen and unlook'd for happens then God from whom the Affliction comes is look'd upon as an Adversary and Men are apt to believe he is angry with them but while Prosperity lasts and that Sun continues to shine upon them and Ease and Plenty are their Companions and like officious Servants wait upon them then God is a Friend and they will have him to be so sometimes whether he will or not But as Gods Favour and Hatred are not to be measured by outward Accidents not by outward Want or Plenty so it is certain it may infallibly be known whether God be our Friend or Adversary by our Obedience or Disobedience to his Holy Commands let our outward Condition be what it will So that if you live in Disobedience to his express and peremptory Commands it is a never-failing Sign that God is your Adversary though you wash your Feet in Butter and the Rocks pour you out Rivers of Oyl though your Oxen be strong to labour and your Sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousand in your Streets and particularly if no Argument no Motive no enforcive drawn either from the Word of God or from your Spiritual and Eternal Interest or from the Examples of Holy Men or from the reason of the Thing can prevail with you to be Reconciled to your Brethren with whom you are fallen out it is as sure as any Oracle in the Bible that God is your Adversary Perhaps such an Adversary you like very well that Crowns you with temporal Blessings and lets you enjoy what your Flesh desires and fills your Bellies with hid Treasures These are the Things you are fond of and you desire to be punish'd with such outward Conveniencies and Accommodations And indeed if this Life were all you have to look after the Argumentation or Inference would not be amiss But did not Dives live as Calmly and as Plentifully as you can do and yet when his Body dropt from him and was Buried the Man the unhappy Man felt what it was to have God for his Adversary The very Plenty he formerly enjoy'd became now an Ingredient of his bitter Potion and he felt the Might of his Adversary's Hand his former Prosperity was so far from being a Sign that God was his Friend that it gave Evidence that he was his Enemy and he that had formerly look'd upon him as the Fountain of Mercy now found him to be a Spring indeed not flowing with Milk and Honey but with Fire and Brimstone so that upon the whole Matter it is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God Heb. x. 31 And therefore certainly to agree with him betimes must be our wisest Course which is the II. Proposition I am to speak to Agree with thine Adversary quickly Agree with God! Who would have any Difference with him Who can grapple with him Who can resist him Who can make his Party good against him Poor feeble Clay Shall it rise against the Porter who hath Power to make of it a Vessel of Honour and Vessel of Dishonour Agree with him The Greatness the Majesty the Excellency of God one would think should be Motive great enough to labour to be at Peace with him To be at Peace with him is to be at Peace with our Consciences and with him who hath promis'd to make all our Enemies to be at Peace with us and can make all the Elements to be at Peace with us so that the Sun shall not smite us by Day nor the Moon by Night so that the Air shall not infect us nor the Water drown us nor the Fire burn us nor the Earth swallow us up But then how can we agree with him except we walk with him Except we be of the same Mind with him Can we say
we agree with him when God and we draw different ways When he bids us walk in the Light and we walk in Darkness When God bids us do one Thing and we do another When God commands us to live in Love and we maintain and harbour Hatred and ill Will to our fellow Christians when God enjoins us to take to the strait Way and we venture upon the Broad Is this Agreement when he bids us harken to the Motions of his Spirit and we are guided by the Suggestions of the World and the Devil And yet this Agreement will signify little except it be timely and while we are in the Way with him To be sure to delay that which God would have us apply our selves to presently doth not look like Agreement To run those Hazards which God would have us prevent is nothing but Contradiction And what is it that God would have us agree with him in without delay Why it is in all the Vertues and Graces whereof Christ hath shewn us an Example and particularly in agreeing with our Neighbours if we have any Difference with them If we agree with them we agree with him And why should we delay it Have we a Lease of our Lives Do we know how long we shall continue here Do not we see how uncertain every thing is and shall we build upon Uncertainties which in Temporal Concerns we count Folly and can it be Wisdom in the greater concerns of our Souls And is this a suitable return for the Patience God exercises toward us And this calls me to examine the III. Proposition that God deals very gently with us before he lets us feel the heaviest stroke of his Vengeance he not only calls to but give us time for Repentance This is also intimated by these Words Agree with thine Adversary quickly while thou art yet in the way with him i. e. while he allows thee time to come in and agree with him which must necessarily have relation to Gods Patience and the Time he gives for Repentance He might strike the Drunken Man dead in the midst of his Cups and send the Swearer immediately into that Hell by which his Tongue is set on Fire and dispatch the cholerick Man in his Rage and Fury send the Adulterer Fornicator and Lustful even before their Lust is satiated to keep Company with Devils and bid Lucifer arrest the Proud and Covetous as they are going up the Hill But behold he bears with you spares you cuts not down the barren Trees as soon as they appear unfruitful but prunes them digs about them and waters them with the Rain of Heaven and by this Patience he calls to Repentance This we are assured of by the Apostle Rom. vi 4 Thus he hangs out the white Flag the Flag of Peace before the Red or Black be shewn the certain Sign of utter Ruin and Destruction And Oh! the Blindness of poor Sinners that will not understand what this Patience of God means that will not see in it his Endeavour to prevent their Misery To what purpose is your Reason if from Gods forbearing to punish you you do not infer his earnest desire to save you Shall his Patience make you worse or his Forbearance harden you As soon as you begin to cherish any Sin you are Children of Death for the Wages of Sin is Death Rom. vi 23 and these Wages God might immediately pay you But behold what a merciful God you have to deal withal He that might immediately send you to the Place of Execution waits to be gracious He stops the destroying Angel that is drawing out his Sword against you and that 's the reason why you are not consum'd in an instant And will you make that an Argument of Gods Approbation of your Sin which is a most powerful Call to forsake it What Stupidity is this to make such an Interpretation of Gods Goodness Is it possible God can encourage any Man to Sin or to continue in the ways of Death who takes upon him all the Passion and Grief and Sorrow of a disconsolate Father to let us see what a trouble it is to him if we do so And if it be impossible his Silence and Forbearance to punish you must necessarily be an Invitation to wash your Heart from Uncleanness Why will you play with his Patience You play with it when you delay your Repentance and what the Consequence of this delay is The Fourth Proposition will tell us viz. Delay of True Repentance provokes God to proceed to very severe nay to the severest courses of Vengeance For as it is with Men when they will not agree with their Adversaries quickly while they are in the way with them the Adversary delivers them to the Judge the Judge to the Officer and the Officer casts them into a Dungeon So God when this serious Repentance is delay'd and in despight of all his Entreaties and Beseechings put off as a thing neither necessary nor convenient seeing the Sinner incorrigible he orders him without any further delay to be delivered to the Tormentors Though this is spoken particularly with respect to those counterfeit Christians that harbour Wrath and Malice in their Hearts and will not be perswaded to forgive or to be reconciled to those they are at variance with yet it is the Method God takes in all other Sins if Mercy cannot win them Justice must force them into a sense of their Duty if Kindness and Gentleness cannot charm and melt the Wrath of the Living God shall fright and astonish and drive to Despair And O ye Sons of Men Why will ye provoke your Father in Heaven to deal with you as with hardned Malefactors Will you tempt him to send Scorpions and fiery Serpents among you when he designed nothing but Rods to correct you Why will ye pull down that Vengeance upon you which God was willing to lay by and to keep lock'd up in his Magazenes of Thunder The longer you delay your Repentance the more you hasten his Vengeance What 's the Reason that God calls away so many and summons them to Judgment before they have seriously consider'd why they did come hither Is it not because they have abused his Mercy trespassed upon his Patience delay'd their change of Life and no Kindness no Love no Clemency no Compassion will melt them into Remorses Compunctions and the Pangs of Regeneration And how dreadful must their Condition be when called away to give an account of their turning the Grace and Patience of God into Wantonness Who shall plead for those who have slighted Mercy baffled the Entreaties of God stopt their Ears against the Beseechings of the Almighty and hardned their Heart against his endearing Sollicitations O my Soul come not thou into their Secret unto their Assembly mine Honour be not thou united Immediately upon their Death God proceeds to a severe Discipline and now the Torments begin and the Artillery of Heaven is brought forth against them They made God their
Adversary in their Life time who would fain have been their Friend They were even fond of having him for their Enemy and now they begin to feel the effects of their Folly for what can be the issue of Gods Severity against them but being thrust into Prison from whence they are not to come out till they have paid all This Prison is Hell and that calls me to the last Proposition Hell is a Prison from which there is no coming out till Men have paid all their Debts Hell A very unpleasant Theme to speak of Yet it 's better to speak of it than to feel it to discourse of it that Men may save themselves from the Terror of it than drop into it Hell And is there such a thing The Atheist and the Man of Pleasure is loath to believe it and he hath reason for if he should it would spoil his Mirth he would sin with trembling and his Sensuality would be uneasie But in despight of all the Arguments such bruitish Men alledge against this place of Torments which they are loath to feel there is a Hell and â—â—ere must be one and every impenitent Soul shall find it by sad Experience whether they will or not There is one abundance of Sinners feel it before they dye and the dreadful Fire begins to burn in their Consciences There must be one Can there be a Government without Goals and Prisons and Dungeons And is God the Governour of the World and shall his Government alone be without Places to tame obstinate Offenders There are few so senseless but are content to believe there is a Heaven and an Eternity of Joy and they wish for it I would fain know how they come to believe there is a Heaven Is it not because the Gospel faith so And doth not the same Gospel say there is an Everlasting Punishment a Worm that dies not and a Fire that is never quench'd Did Christ speak Truth in one place and not in another Behold ye Men who cherish Wrath and Malice and Hatred and cannot be perswaded to forgive and reconcile your selves to those whom ye have offended and who have offended you for against you the Text is particularly levelled Behold the dismal Dungeon you must lye in It is not laughing at it will excuse you nor making a mock of it will secure you against the horror of it You are Debtors to God and will not discharge that Debt by Repentance and turning to God The place we speak of is the Prison Oh that you would prevent your danger where you shall lie and mourn and howl and fill the hollow place with your Shreeks and Lamentations Here ye are not like to pay your Debts for you will encrease your Scores daily your Torments will tempt you to speak ill of God and that will still make your Debt more dreadful In a word from hence there is no going out till you have paid the uttermost farthing and that 's never You may fancy with Origen that this Debt will be paid in a thousand Years Suppose the Torment were to last but so long and that that was all that 's meant by Everlasting Punishment Is the Misery or Pain of a thousand years a thing to be made light of Ye that are not able to endure the Tooth-ache twenty four hours together how will ye be able to bear the weight the infinite weight of the Wrath of God a thousand years Suppose it were to last but a hundred years Would a Man of Consideration for the Enjoyment of a few sensual Pleasures for twenty thirty or forty years run the hazard of a hundred years Misery Before I would do it I would if possible out-live a Saint out-fast a Hermite out-pray a Monk and go beyond a Turkish Dervise or an Indian Brahmin in Self-denial and Mortification But after all the Temporary Punishment of Hell is but an imaginary thing What if some over-charitable Men have thought so will their Opinion stand against the current of the Word of God which over and over saith the Torment shall be Eternal Oh! that this were laid to the Heart by every Soul here present To sit for ever howling in a Dungeon for ever Without any hopes of Release To feel something that is painful and piercing and astonishing like Fire like outward Darkness like gnashing of Teeth and to feel it for ever what Man that believes and seriously thinks of it can be so profane as to refuse him that speaks from Heaven and after all these Descriptions of Hell where Wrath and Malice shall be punish'd to the purpose keep and cherish those evil Spirits in his Bosom The very possibility of falling into such a Prison is enough to put a Man upon a serious Study how to be wise unto Salvation How then should the certainty of it work upon us all I feel a kind of Horror upon my Spirits while I talk of it and that even forces me to stop and conclude with the Prayer or Petition of our Litany From all Evil and Mischief from Sin from the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil from thy Wrath and from Everlasting Damnation Good Lord deliver us SERMON XXV St. Matt. Ch. v. Ver. 27 28. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time thou shalt not commit Adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart LUST and Revenge proceed from the same Cause That which makes Men revengeful makes them lustful Wrath and Concupiscence have the same Father and Original even a hot fiery Temper and Constitution heightned by ill Company nourished by high Fare cherished by Intemperance in eating and drinking and encreased by Luxury And because these two Sins are so near of kin they are joined in the Decalogue or the Moral Law of Moses one immediately follows the other and the Law against Adultery is subjoin'd to that of Murther the effect of Wrath and Revenge as the other is of Lust and Lasciviousness And in this Order our Saviour treats of these two Sins in his Sermon on the Mount What Precepts he hath given what Injunctions what Warnings what Cautions what Admonitions what Sanctions about inordinate Wrath and Anger and Hatred and Malice reproachful Names and Titles and Expressions and unwillingness to forgive and to be reconciled ye have heard already this having been the subject of divers preceding Discourses As the Scribes and Pharisees by their Explications and Traditions had corrupted the sixth Commandment and introduced monstrous Errors and Abuses among the Jewish People so they dealt with the seventh level'd against Adultery which they restrain'd to the outward Act not concerning themselves much about Lasciviousness or adulterous Thoughts Desires Lusts Affections c. Nor did they teach the People their Duty as to these Particulars And because the antient Masters of Tradition had deliver'd the Law against Adultery with these Glosses Christ quotes that Commandment
15 17 18. But the Sin here aimed at lies in the secret Wishes Will Purposes Lust and Desires after Adultery Fornication Uncleanness and forbidden Mixtures And therefore if the Observation of the Jews be true that Ahab and Zedekiah mentioned Jer. xxix 21. were the Persons who attempted the Chastity of Susanna are charged with downright Adultery because they intended it though they could not compass it as we see Jer. xxix 23 And he that purposes to sollicit a Woman to that which God counts Abomination or wishes to enjoy the dangerous Love of the Person which hath no Matrimonial Relation to him or whose Desires Languish because he cannot gratifie his base Lust which his wicked Mind desires or who feeds himself with impure Imaginations with obscene Pictures and Images of the Person upon whom his Heart is set all these are secret Adulterers and Fornicators and must expect the Wrath of God the Anger the Indignation the Fire the Brimstone and the Portion of Misery designed for Adulterers and Fornicators who are outwardly so 3. That this is a very just Sentence and that he is justly charged with the guilt of Adultery and Fornication and Lewdness who Wills or Wishes or Desires it whatever Notion they are represented under is evident from hence because the Will is the principal Agent in the Action so that if the Will consents the Man consents and it is as much as if he had done the unlawful Act which is only impeded or hindred from being executed by certain Circumstances which fall out cross I very much question whether the outward Acts of Fornication and Adultery would be Sins at all if it were not for the Will It 's this gives the Act the tincture of Hell Before the outward Act the Malice and the Turpitude of the Sin is already compleated though the Act be hindred by accidental Causes from being consummated And this is no new Doctrine the very Heathens saw the reasonableness of it and to this purpose several excellent Sayings might be alledged here out of Aristophanes Seneca Juvenal Ovid and others were it necessary and though humane Laws lay no Penalty upon the Will because they are no competent Judges of it nothing falling under the Cognisance of the publick Magistrate but Overt Actions yet with respect to God who sees the Heart the Sin is the same and he that would or hath a mind to commit Adultery Fornication Lewdness whatever Names he may give his Desires and Lusts is the Person who hath committed all these because all that was in his power to do toward it he hath done i. e. his Will Consent and Desire do concur to the Sin though an Opportunity of finishing the Sin outwardly be wanting And God counts such a Person an Adulterer and Fornicator and lewd Man though his Neighbours at the same time who know nothing of his secret Sins may count him Honest and Sober and Innocent The Romans punish'd a Vestal Virgin who had vow'd perpetual Chastity with Death because she did once merrily in Company say that it was a pretty thing to Marry because by saying so she discover'd her Desire and Will to break her Vow I do not justify that piece of Rigor but only mention it to prove that the very Light of Nature discovered to Heathens and Pagans that the Desire and Will to commit a Sin was a complete Sin so far as the inward Man could make it and consequently deserv'd the same Punishment This leads me to discourse of the III d. Particular viz. Whether notwithstanding all this there be not a very great difference betwixt the internal Consent and the outward Act as to the heinousness of the Sin To this the Answer is that Sins as to the Substance may be the same yet Circumstances may make the Sin more heinous than it would have been without those Circumstances He that hates his Brother is a Murtherer saith St. John 1 John iii. 15 Yet there is no doubt be that besides that Hatred doth actually deprive him of Life is a greater Sinner and the Sin becomes more black and dreadful So it is in Adultery and Fornication and Incest and Carnal self-pollutions and other Lewdnesses He that wishes or wills it or purposes it or feeds himself with filthy Images of any of these Sins commits a Sin of the same Nature and Complexion that he doth who to the inward Formation of it adds the outward Act but still the outward Act aggravates it and gives it a deeper Dye because of the Scandal it gives and the greater hurt it doth in that another Person is made a Partner of the Folly and dragg'd with him into Hell and the Sinner goes as far in it as he can So that though as to the degrees of the Heinousness of the Sin there is a difference betwixt the internal Consent and the outward Act yet the Sin is the same in Substance and therefore must be supposed to participate of the same Punishment which is threatned to Adulterers Fornicators c. though according to the degrees of the blackness of the Crime the Punishments in the other World will be proportionable INFERENCES 1. Here we see how necessary Solomon's Rule is Prov. iv 23 Keep thy Heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life The Heart being guarded the whole Man is safe If that be left Defenceless the whole Man lies open to the Devils Power In the Heart or Mind Sin first takes Root and then if not checkt it presently spreads and diffuses it self into the outward Man and brings forth fruit unto Death Keep Sin out of the Heart and you keep it out of the Body for from within from the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Covetousness c. saith our Saviour Marc. vii 21 When Sin first offers it self to the Mind and is rejected as soon as it doth make its first Appearance the purity of the Soul is preserv'd We cannot hinder the Motions and Suggestions of the Devil from approaching or assaulting our Minds and an impure Thought may jog the Mind but if the Mind do immediately oppose the Enemy as soon as it comes before the Gate of the House its Forces are broke and disordered and they can never make head or insinuate into the Affections our Saviour therefore charges us to cleanse the inside of the Dish and Platter that the out-side may be clean also And indeed a Man or Woman cannot be truly said to stand in awe of God that do not watch over their Hearts and resist the first Assaults of Sin and though I will not deny that restraining the outward Act upon the account of it's Odiousness and Danger may be called part of the fear of God yet it is but a very imperfect Fear till the Heart comes to detest the first Suggestions In the Sin of unlawful Lust this is particularly to be observed and he that means to get the Mastery of a lascivious Temptation must be concerned and tremble upon
be a Fool. 7. An Oath must be taken with great Deliberation being a thing of the greatest Consequence where the safety and welfare and interest of our Immortal Souls are in a special manner concern'd We use this Deliberation in lesser things and therefore must not be omitted in a thing of that Weight and Moment which shews That Children and Madmen and Persons very like them Men in Drink or in a Passion are no fit Persons to take an Oath because they are not capable of mature Deliberation while under these Circumstances and therefore we are injoyn'd and directed to Swear with Judgment Jer. iv 2 8. An Oath taken to Hereticks and Infidels to Enemies to Turks Jews and Heathens even to the worst of Men must inviolably be kept as we see in the Example of the Oath the Israelites took to the Gibeonites Josh. ix 18 I will not charge every Member of the Church of Rome with the contrary Doctrine and Practice especially as it relates to Hereticks and Infidels but certain it is that it was both the Doctrine and Practice of the Council of Constance and the Advice of Martin V. to Alexander Duke of Lithuania whom he exhorted to break his Faith and Oath given to the Bohemian Protestants and of Urban VI. to Wenceslaus to do the like to Persons who differ'd from the Church of Rome If such a Principle were part of Christ's Religion it would not only contradict the Law of natural Justice which Christ came to establish but were enough to render Christianity odious to the sober sort of Mankind who in this Case might justly say as he in the Case of Transubstantiation Let my Soul be with the Philosophers These are some of the principal Rules to be observ'd in taking of an Oath if there be any more they shall be discoursed of in the Prosecution of the Subject Let us go on and enquire III. Why Perjury or Forswearing our selves or not performing unto the Lord our Oath is so strictly forbid and wherein the virulency or heinousness of the Sin consists 1. It is Dishonesty in the highest degree a most base Treachery and Perfidiousness not only to Man but to God He that either Swears falsly or doth not perform unto the Lord his Oath deceives not only Man but doth as much as in him lies to Cheat God if it were possible at least he discovers his good Will to do it tho' he is not able He that Cozens another with counterfeit Wares or gives him a Stone for Bread a Serpent for a Fish is not so great a Cheat as the Perjur'd Creature because the Person he Affronts and seeks to impose upon in this Case is infinitely greater He attempts at the same time to rob Heaven and Earth God and Man of their due which is the performance of his Oath a performance due to the Creator and the Creature by all the Laws of Property and a most solemn Contract He gives both God and his Neighbour Shells for Kernels Husks for Dates and Words for Deeds and Lyes for Truths and deceives his Neighbour particularly in that which all Mankind looks upon as Rational to put the greatest Trust and Confidence in and there cannot be greater Dishonesty 2. It 's playing with God and deriding his Justice and Omniscience for it is as much as granting and denying these Attributes The Swearer in taking an Oath grants that God is the searcher of Hearts and a discerner of his Thoughts and Words and Actions and that he takes notice of them and remembers them and yet by his non-performance acts as if all this were but Fable and Romance Who can read the Passage of the Soldiers without trembling who Crown'd our Saviour with Thorns put a Reed in his Hand bow'd the Knee before him and cryed Hail King of the Jews Such a mocking of God is Perjury the Oath shews that the Perjur'd Man acknowledges all his great Attributes and yet his Behaviour discovers that he was in Jest when he made that Confession and Dionysius when he robb'd Jupiter of his Golden Beard did not mock that fictitious Deity more than such a Man doth the living God He deals with him as if he were some Idiot or Heathen Idol which hath Eyes and sees not Ears and hears not and how great must be this Impiety 3. It 's profanation of the most sacred and the most serious Thing in the World An Oath is one of the highest Acts of Religion It is a most solemn Invocation of his Name a most solemn declaration of his Excellencies and Perfections above all Created Beings and a most solemn Appeal to him from all Creatures whatsoever This Opinion the very Heathens had of it so that Perjury is profaning the most solemn Worship of God and Belshazzar was not guilty of so great Prophaneness in Drinking out of the Hallow'd Vessels of the Temple as the Man who doth not perform unto the Lord his Oath for he profanes not Vessels dedicated to his Service but his glorious Name and prostitutes it to the contempt of Men and Devils 4. It is a Sin next to Atheism for there is very little difference betwixt believing there is no God and believing there is one whose Omnisciencee and revenging Eye deserves no regard at all It is a Sin Man cannot well attain to till he hath stupified his Conscience and saith at least in his Heart or Wishes There is no God And what shall I say more It is a Sin which kills at one stroke It doth not waste the Soul by degrees as other Sins but makes the Sinner a Child of Death presently so that if Death should arrest him immediately upon his Perjury the Man is miserable as Dives unhappy as Judas undone as Corah Dathan and Abiram and must drink the Potion of the Sinners Cup. It is a crying Sin brings a Curse upon the Perjur'd Man and his Family It calls aloud for Vengeance awakens the Divine Justice and will not let it be quiet till it brandishes its Sword against the daring Sinner It makes a Man infamous and odious among Men when it comes to be known It defiles the Land where it goes unpunish'd and helps to hasten the intended Judgment upon a City or Nation It leads to other dreadful and clamorous Sins for God withdraws his Spirit from the Man who Affronts him thus and he tumbles down lower and lower and becomes every Day more and more a Child of Hell and of the Devil It causes mighty Terrors of Conscience even on this side Eternity and God is so concern'd to Revenge the Profanation that very often he stays not till the Sinner drops into the burning Lake but even here the Profane Creature must feel his Vengeance Zedekiah for his Perjury to King Nebuchadnezzar is taken Captive by his Army and hath his Eyes pull'd out Saul for his Perjury to the Gibeonites is the ruine of seven of his nearest Relations Uladislaus for the same Crime loses the Battel at a time when Victory
the Accomplishment by our uneasiness under the Injury Ay but still experience shews that this Patience under Injuries hardens the insolent Man in his Sins We grant it but whose fault is it not ours but of his own impenitent Heart which indeed deserves our Pity and our Prayers but heaps no Guilt upon our Heads Surely we shall not be answerable for other Mens boldness in their Sins nor is our Patience a compliance with their Folly which is not intended to harden but to melt them and if like vitious Stomachs they turn that into Corruption which was intended for their Nourishment they feed indeed but not like Bees that gather Honey from the Flowers they suck but like Toads and Vipers that convert the Juice of wholsome Herbs into Poyson But is this an Argument that I must therefore inflame my Soul with Wrath and Revenge because the other swells with Venom So that all these Objections vanish and that which seem'd impossible appears if view'd without these false Glasses very practicable No doubt it is so and may be made very easie too and if you ask me how the following Rules will give you satisfaction 1. By admiring the praise of God above the praise of Men. It is recorded to the eternal Shame and Disgrace of those chief Men and Rulers among the Jews who believed in Christ yet durst not confess him Cowards as they were that they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God Joh. xii 48 Men in great Places and Dignities this is their Temper this is the Rule they go by let God praise and commend a Vertue never so much if it meet not with the same Applause among Men. If Men do count it disagreeable to the Punctilio's of Honour and the Aire of the Court and the Humour of the Age or if it be not good Manners they carefully shun it and to be sure such Men will never come up to the Rule of the Text. But he that comes to a fixt and steady Resolution of esteeming the praise of God above the praise of Men that 's the Person who is like to triumph over all the Desires of Revenge And O God! why should not we esteem thy Praise thy Commendations and Approbations beyond the Applauses of Mortal Men Are not thy Commendations most rational most weighty most unbyass'd most true and most durable whereas those of poor Mortals how partial are they how subject to Mistakes how uncertain how weak how transitory how short and how unprofitable in that Day when God shall judge the World in Righteousness He that esteems the praise of God more than the praise of Men doth not only act like a true Philosopher but hath this satisfaction in himself that he lives by Faith and not by sight and will be able to Laugh when others shall Howl in outward Darkness so true is that Saying of the Apostle 2 Cor. x. 18 Not he who commends himself and we may add Not he whom Men commend is approv'd but whom the Lord commends 2. By a firm perswasion that without this Patience under Evil or Injuries or Affronts or reviling Language we cannot be and are no Christians I say by a firm Perswasion for most Men have general slight and imperfect Idea's and Notions of the thing but that will do no good A firm Perswasion is convincing our selves thoroughly by suitable powerful Arguments that we bear the name of Christians in vain and play with it and make a meer formality of it except we heartily comply with our Master's Will in this particular And if the Soul be impregnated with this principle and hath a brisk and lusty Sense of it the Danger or rather the Thoughts of it will work through all Obstacles and Impediments and we shall make a shift to resist the importunate desires of Flesh and Blood which tempt us to return Evil for Evil. 3. By fixing the Eyes of our Understandings upon the future Reward and Recompence This is the great Engine whereby our base slavish and worldly Fears must be removed and till we have lively apprehensions of that Reward and are concern'd about it like Men in danger of losing the greatest Blessing the Opinions and Censures of the World will prevail more with us than all that Christ or any Apostle can say Till a Man doth more vehemently desire to be happy in the other World than in this the Vertues which go against the Interest of Flesh and Blood will move very heavily and so will Patience under Affronts and Injuries But the Soul being chafed and heated with brisk and lively thoughts of that Heavenly Country and walking through that Holy City which is above and viewing the Towers and Bullwarks of it will break out into Holy Flames which will consume and burn up the Hay and Straw and Stubble of Carnal Reasons and false Suggestions of the Flesh and the Devil and frown the motions of Revenge into Exile 4. By quickning and raising our Love to God into more than ordinary fervours Love dares do any thing I mean Love that hath Fire in 't and burns clear upon the Altar of the Heart The great Reason why you dare not venture upon these harder Lessons is because your Love to God is weak and faint and like that of green Wood apt to expire The Soul that sets God before her in all his Beauty and Glory and Mercy and Rewards and Promises till she loves him beyond what the Eye doth see and the Hands can handle gets the Victory and this very Command will not seem grievous to her Love made the Lord Jesus give his back to the Smiter and Love will make you give the other Cheek to the striker Love will make you even rejoyce that you have something to lose for God and that you can do something that inclines his Favour to you Love will carry you above all the little Lime-twigs which are apt to catch and intangle your Souls Love will charm your Passions tye up your Tongues and hold your hands that you will not dare to return Evil for Evil. 5. Examples are incouraging things And have not we very illustrious Examples of this Patience under Affronts and Injuries in Moses David St. Paul and of other Apostles and Believers Why should not we do as they did Why should not we free and extricate our selves from the Snares of the World and press toward the Mark as well as they Was the way they walk'd in good and safe and shall we be afraid to tread in their Steps Did they understand the Will of God and can we follow better Patterns We all conclude they were saved by doing as Christ directs in the Text and shall we be fond of finding out a new way to Salvation It 's true they were derided by the World for so doing but have they lost any thing by the Bargain If they have been Gainers why should not we venture upon the reproach of Christ as well as they Did they thrive and
Gain if they lead us to secure the everlasting Inheritance The Precepts of our great Master are so order'd and so laid that the Love of this World may be rooted out of our Hearts and if this Love be truly mortify'd we are greater Gainers than if we gained the whole World and lost our own Souls It is true we would fain keep this present World and all the enjoyments of it and enjoy the bliss of the next too but he that goes by that principle reckons without his Host and will find himself miserably mistaken when he comes to set his Accounts even with the Sovereign Judge of the World To meet with ungrateful and unreasonable Men is no more than what our Master and his Disciples have met withal and to think we must fare better in this World than they is to mistake the end of our Vocation Let us do good and rejoyce in the doing of it and be confident we shall be no losers in the end He is faithful who hath promised and he will perform it too It is but a little while that we are to continue here and the great Question in the last Day will be not how Rich or how great we have been here but whether we have made Conscience of the Rules our Master hath left us Blessed are those Servants whom their Master when he comes shall find so doing Prosperity is so far from being a sign of God's Children or of our Reconciliation to God that a Christian who enjoys much of it hath very great reason to question his Spiritual Condition and Interest in Christ Jesus Not but that it 's possible to be prosperous and a true Servant of God but where there is one that is so there are multitudes that drown themselves in Destruction and Perdition I shall conclude with St. Paul's Saying 1 Tim. vi 17 18. Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the Living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good Works ready to Distribute willing to Communicate SERMON XXXIV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 43. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy FOR the right understanding of this Passage these following things will deserve Consideration I. By whom it was said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy II. How agreeable this principle is to corrupt Nature III. How contrary to the Principles of Reason and the design of Christianity IV. What is the true import of love to our Neighbour V. Whether in some sense it may not be a Duty to love our Neighbour and hate our Enemy I. By whom it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And most certainly 1. It hath not been said so by Almighty God in the Old Law we have indeed a Command Levit. xix 18 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self but we read no where Thou shalt hate thine Enemy so far from it that there are express Precepts against it as Exod. xxiii 4 5. When thou seest thine Enemies Oxe or Ass going astray thou shalt freely bring him back to him again and if thou shalt see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Besides the Law God gave the Jews was never intended as a contradiction to the Law of Nature it was to be a help to the better Observance of it but never design'd to reverse it or any part of it and we are certain the Law of Nature enjoyns no such thing but Mercy rather than Hatred to an Enemy and this is evident from hence not only because the Law of Nature bids us imitate God who is kind to the Unthankful and to the Evil but because we find that the very Heathens from the dictates of this Law of Nature have shewn Mercy even to their greatest Foes not only by giving them decent Burial after Death as Hannibal and others but also by exercising acts of Charity toward them while they were alive and therefore God it could not be that said so Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And therefore 2. If God did not say so then the Men that said and taught so must be the same Men who had corrupted several other Laws of God mention'd in this Chapter and detorted them from their original Intent and Design to accommodate them to the sinful Humours of Men and to the interest of the Flesh even the Scribes and Pharisees and their Ancestors the ancient Masters of the Oral Law who by their Traditions rendred the Law of God of none effect I have observ'd often in the preceding Discourses what false Glosses and Interpretations these Men did put upon the Sixth and Seventh Commandment and the Law of Divorces and Retaliation In like manner this Precept of loving their Neighbour could not escape their Sacrilegious Hands for as their business was to make the Moral Law of God as easie to the Flesh as they could and as they had made several Experiments of that Nature in others so they dealt with this excellent Precept Indeed many of them in Christ's Days made no great Account of this Duty for when they spoke of the summ of the Law of God they repeated part of the sixth Chapter of Deut. Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Might This they said taking no notice of the Precept of loving their Neighbour was the summ of the Law of God and this they inscrib'd and writ upon their Philacteries or Parchments they tyed to their Wrists and Foreheads Which shews that the Lawyer who came to Christ to enquire of him What he must do to inherit eternal Life Luke x. 27 was more rational than the rest for when Christ asked him how readest thou he answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self Upon which our Saviour tells him That he had answer'd right or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Mark hath it Mark xii 34 So that set aside some few judicious thinking Persons the Scribes and Pharisees in general pretending warrant from Tradition had very slight and slender Notions of loving their Neighbour and though they granted it was a Command of God and confessed their Obligation to obey it yet they had made so many restrictions of it that in effect they had render'd it very insignificant For 1. By the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Neighbour they understood a Friend or a Person that was kind to them or had obliged them the largest signification they would allow of was that of a Jew or a Person of the same Tribe and Kindred and
Office of a Magistrate is not superseded by this Command Nor 3. Doth this Law of loving our Enemies forbid us reproving an Enemy for the Sins he involves himself in by hating us much less doth it import that we are to love his Sins and Follies or flatter him in his Undecencies and Insolencies There is no doubt we may lawfully tell him of his Faults in a meek and rational way and seek to reduce him to a better Temper and in doing so we do nothing against that Love we owe him so far from it that it is an Argument of Hatred not to Rebuke him Lev. xix 17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Nor 5. Doth this Command import that we are to make an Enemy our Bosom Friend to whom we are to unburden our selves and make him acquainted with the Secrets of our Souls Friendship in this strict sence is Master of Discretion more than Duty nor is our Love to our Enemies prejudic'd by not making them Friends in this sence Indeed if by the Coals of Fire we heap upon their Heads if by the warmer kindnesses we shew them we melt them into a tractable and docible Temper and then prove occasions of their becoming new Men we may if we see it convenient raise our Love Unto a higher degree even to that of Friendship and make him that was an Enemy as our own Soul but while he is an Enemy he is not a Subject capable of entring into the Bond of Friendship with him except by Friendship we mean the acts of Love hereafter mention'd 6. As an Enemy is a Person who cherisheth a secret Spleen and Malice against us in his Heart and as occasion serves vents and expresses it either in his Words or Actions either by Reviling or Abusing us or doing Unkindnesses or attempting to Betray or Bespatter or to Ruine and Undoe us in which sence even a Husband a Wife and the nearest Relatives may be Enemies so this Love we owe them imports an inward Affection to them even Bowels of Mercy and Compassion and a certain tenderness within The acts whereby our Love to them is to be expressed must have some Root and that Root must be the Heart the true seat of Love and let no Man plead here that Love arising from the agreeableness of the Object it 's impossible there should be any real Love in the Heart toward an Enemy because of the disagreeableness of the Object to our Temper and Contrariety to our Humour and Interest for though there may be no agreeableness with respect to the Wrong he doth or hath done us yet there are other Respects and those more weighty and of greater Concernment in which a likeness and similitude appear and consequently a suitable Foundation for this Love For 1. He is God's Creature and so are we 2. He is a Man and so are we 3. He is a Neighbour still nor doth the Wrong he doth us deprive him of that Relation 4. May be he is a Christian too and professes the same Faith the same God the same Jesus and the same Religion all which Respects make even an Enemy an agreeable Object of our Love Nay his very Enmity doth formally dispose and qualifie him for our Love for the nature of Love is That it is not easily provoked 1 Cor. xiii 5 And I need not tell you that Men are not provoked by Kindnesses but by Injurious Acts and these being the acts of an Enemy Love not being easily provoked by such acts the Enemy must be a very proper object of our Love But let 's go on and consider II. The particular acts of this Love or whereby this Love is to be expressed And the first is 1. Bless them that curse you This is to give good Language for bad kind Answers for Revilings praising the good that is in the Enemy for his denying that there is any in our selves and gracious Wishes for his base and horrid Imprecations The Apostles did so for being reviled we bless being defamed we entreat saith St. Paul 1 Cor. iv 13 This look'd great What a lovely excellent sight was this How pleasing to God how pleasing to Angels how pleasing to all rational and understanding Men Do but take a serious view of it you your selves cannot but like it approve of it and commend it What harmony what beauty what sweetness what evenness what perfection must there be in such a Soul What a command over his Passions must we suppose in such a Person and can any thing look more stately and magnificent And if there be such beauty in it why are not we enamour'd with it Why should we think much of it to cry God bless you when the Enemy cries God damn you Is not the one as easily said as the other and is there not far greater satisfaction in the one than in the other What if the brutish Man do curse us what hurt can his Cursing do us while we do not answer him according to his Folly The Curse may fall on his own Head but cannot singe a Hair of ours His ill Language doth it not look very odious in him and doth it change its Face or Nature if we use it by way of Retaliation Can that be lovely in us which all Men take to be deformity in him Doth not the Enemy sin grievously against God when he doth Revile or Curse us And shall not we be concern'd at his Sin How are we concern'd if we do not mourn for it How do we mourn for it if we do not pity him How do we pity him if we do not endeavour to reform him How shall we reform him except we shew him a good Example How can we shew him a good Example if we do not let him see that there is a better Spirit in us And how shall he be convinc'd of that if we do not return soft Answers for his rough and insolent ones even Blessings for Curses Such Christian returns God blesses sometimes with Conversion of the Enemy and thinks himself concern'd to reward the Self-denial with an extraordinary Providence To this purpose Moschus tells us That three Religious Men Travelling and losing their way and thereupon belated were forc'd to lie down on the Ground the Night coming on and the Sky growing very dark But so it happen'd that ignorantly they laid themselves down at the edge or corner of a Corn-field whereby they pressed a portion of Corn on the Ground Early in the Morning the Owner of the Field coming by and seeing what was done began to be in a Passion and cursed them bitterly saying You Religious Men if you had had the fear of God before you you would not have done so The innocent Men let him run on and then with all gentleness imaginable told him Truly you say right if we had had the fear of God before us we should never have done so
Fashions that will make you Masters of this Love No the School of the Cross teaches this Self-denial and the Sacrament is that School There a Crucify'd Saviour dying for his Enemies is seen and what were all his Prayers and Tears and Agonies but kindnesses to Enemies These we contemplate in this Ordinance at least they come to very little purpose that approach not with this Consideration Here to see his Love and Charity spread and diffuse it self with all the acts of Love my Text speaks of and to believe all this must needs help to melt the Heart and make us willing to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them which despitefully use us Let the Soul walk about the Cross and think Behold the Son of God whom I have promised to follow and to imitate even he who bleeds on the Cross he blessed me that had cursed him did good to me that had hated him and pray'd for me that had despitefully used him If I am not like him how shall I be washed with his Blood The Language of the Gospel is that I must be conformable to his Image and chang'd into it and tread in his Steps if I mean to be partaker of his Merits and shall not I consider the importance of this Truth and contrive that the same Mind may be in me which was also in Christ Jesus Thy Death sweet Jesu must do it Thy Death must kill my Hatred and my Rages Thy Love must burn that dross away and whenever my unruly Passions rise against my Enemy I 'll tâ—row the whole weight of thy Love upon them that they may be crush'd to Death and expire I conclude with a Passage of St. John and the rather because he was the great Preacher of this Love and St. Jerom takes notice that when he was very old and his Disciples came to visit him still he would say My little Children love one another and being ask'd why he did repeat this so often he said This is all Love one another as you ought to do it is enough you need no more I conclude I say with 1 John ii 9 10 11. He that saith he is in the Light and hateth his Brother is in Darkness even until now He that loves his Brother abideth in the Light and there is none occasion of Stumbling in him But he that hateth his Brother is in Darkness and walketh in Darkness and knows not whither he goes because that Darkness hath blinded his Eyes SERMON XXXVI St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 45. That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he makes the Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and Unjust OUR Saviour having in the two foregoing Verses endeavour'd to rectifie the wilful Mistakes of Men the Jews especially about loving their Neighbours and hating their Enemies confuted their false Maxims and Notions establish'd a standing Law among his Followers and charged them as they hop'd for the everlasting Kingdom he promised and proclaim'd to love their Enemies to bless them that curse them to do good to them that hate them c. He lays down some Motives and Arguments in the Text which he thought would prevail with rational and considerate Men and such who had a serious sence of God and another Life prevail I mean if seriously thought of and consider'd and ponder'd in the Heart It 's thinking that puts Men upon Action and we see with what violence and vehemence Men fall to work if they apprehend in it something that 's profitable or pleasant or preservative from Evil and indeed in in so great a work as loving our Enemies and doing good to them that hate us a work so contrary to corrupt Nature and the receiv'd Customs of Men the motives must not be survey'd slightly or superficially but so regarded that no Objection no Temptation of Flesh and Blood may stop or hinder the Votary from doing so Carnal Men may fancy that no Motive can be strong enough to effect it but if it were so our blessed Master would have been under a great Mistake which is impossible yea let God be true and every Man a Lyar. He knew they would prevail and no doubt they will prevail with Men who are ambitious of things unseen ambitious of the invisible future Glory ambitious of being Children of their Father which is in Heaven for so we read That you may be Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he lets the Sun rise upon the Evil and the Good and sendeth Rain upon the Just and Unjust Concerning the Phrases and Expressions of the Text I have only this to observe That for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children some ancient Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like your Father which is in Heaven which it 's probable was at first only a Marginal Note and was afterward by the Transcribers put into the Text. However the sence is the same and to be Children is to be like our Father which is in Heaven In Heaven not that he is confined to that place for he is not far from every one of us Act. xvii 27 and The Heaven even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee saith Solomon 1 Kings viii 27 And whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there if I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost Parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me saith David Psal. cxxxix 7 8 9. yet he is in Heaven because there is his Court his Palace his Throne where he manifests himself in a most signal manner and his Power Goodness Mercy Influences are felt and dispensed there infinitely beyond what is known here on Earth This is all I think necessary to observe concerning the Expressions used here The more material things may be resolv'd into these following Propositions I. Men are made Children of God not born so II. The great design of the Gospel is to make us like God like our Father which is in Heaven III. The greatness and vastness of God's Bounty is to be seen in his letting the Sun rise upon the Evil and the Good and sending Rain upon the Just and Unjust I. Men are not born Children of God but made so That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven which shews there is something to be done that they may become God's Children and come into the World with that Privilege Indeed if we consider God as the Original Cause of all things as in him we all live and move and have our being and as of one Blood he hath made all Nations of Men in that respect he is the Father of us all and all are his Children and born so But I do