render'd him a meer Laquey to the Goods and Evils that are without him and whither ever they send him he must go wherever they lead him he must follow let their Vagaries be never so wild or wicked If therefore while his Soul is thus enslaved to the World he should be tempted by him to Apostatize from his Religion what hath he to restrain or secure him For ever since he got loose from his Conscience he is wholly led by his Affections and these being chained and saftned to the World hale him after it which way soever it moves So long as his Religion and his worldly Interest consist and go hand in hand he is very well content to own and follow it but if ever a Storm of Persecution should part them in all Probability he will follow his Interest and like the treacherous Orpha give his Religion a parting Kiss and leave it For his Heart is now so wedded to the World that he esteems nothing so good as its Goods and nothing so evil as its Evils and the one being his Heaven and the other his Hell all other Considerations are overcome by them and to obtain the one and avoid the other he must stick at nothing no not at renouncing his God and his Religion together with all his Hopes of a future Immortality 6. And lastly Living in any known Course of Sin provokes God to give us up to the Power of Delusion For so long as Men submit themselves to the Guidance and Direction of a good Conscience the Spirit of God who is a Spirit of Truth abides with them and not only directs their Wills but also informs their Understandings and enables them to discern the Beauty and Reality of those heavenly Truths which he hath revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures For though since he hath revealed already the whole Will of God to us concerning our eternal Salvation we have no Reason to expect that he will reveal new Truths to us yet seeing so far forth as it is necessary he hath promised and engaged that he will co-operate with us to enable us as well to understand the Will of God as to perform it we have the greatest Reason in the World to depend upon it that so long as we cherish his heavenly Inspirations by yielding to them our free and ready Compliance he will be so far an assisting Genius to our Understandings as to suggest to us those Truths which he hath already revealed and set them before our Eyes in so fair a Light as that we shall not fail more clearly to discern and more distinctly to apprehend them than otherwise we should or could have done For when he writes his Truth upon our Minds it is with such a Victorious Sunbeam as will endure neither Cloud nor Shadow before it Whenever he speaks he speaks not to our Ears but to our Minds and represents Things nakedly and immediately to our Understandings He converses with our Spirits as Spirits do with Spirits without involving his Sense in articulate Sounds or material Representations but objects it to us in its own naked Light and characterizes it immediately on our Understandings And as he proposes the Divine Light to us so he also illuminates our Minds to discern and comprehend it He raises and exalts our Intellectual Powers and as a vital Form to the Light of our Reason invigorates and actuates it and thereby renders its Apprehension of Things more quick and piercing and sagacious Thus doth the Holy Spirit more or less assist us in the true Understanding of Divine Things as he finds us more or less compliant with his heavenly Pleasure and though he stands no more obliged to render our Minds infallible than our Wills impeccable yet so long as by our sincere Obedience to his holy Suggestions we keep our selves under his Conduct and Direction we may depend upon it he will either preserve us from all dangerous Errors or if for just Reasons he should permit us to fall into any such they shall not prove dangerous to us but either we shall be convinced of them while we live or obtain Pity and Pardon for them when we die But whilst we persist in any willful Course of Sin we do not only violate our own Conscience but also repel those good Motions of the Spirit of God whereby he strives to reduce and reclaim us in doing which we continually grieve him and if we do not forbear shall at length provoke him wholly to forsake and abandon us to give us up to our own Hearts Lusts as desperate Wretches with whom he hath hitherto strove and struggled in vain and of whose future Recovery there remains no farther Hope or Prospect And when he hath forsaken us our Mind will not only be left naked and destitute of all those Helps and Advantages for the understanding of Divine Truths which it receives from him but also be exposed to the Cheats and Fallacies of Evil Spirits whose Recreation it is to put Tricks upon our Minds to banter and play upon our easie Faith to cast Mists before our Eyes and therein to juggle away all true Religion from us and foist in the Room of it the most fulsom Errors and Mistakes For so the Apostle tells us of Antichrist the great Deceiver that he should come with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness to them that perish because they received not the love of truth that they might be saved And that for that Cause viz. their not receiving the truth in the love of it God should send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that is by abandoning them to the Power of cheating and deluding Spirits That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. And God grant that this at last prove not our Fate that because we have sinned against the clearest Light and gone astray in all Unrighteousness under the best and purest Religion in the World we are not at length given up by God to follow the wile Delusions of Antichrist and to believe all those fulsom Lyes and Impostures which he from Age to Age hath been imposing upon the World But whether it prove thus or no this I am sure of that by persisting in any vicious Course against the Light and Conviction of our Consciences we highly provoke Almighty God to withdraw his Grace from us and give us up to our own Hearts Lusts and when this is done our own Hearts Lusts will soon betray and give up our Faith to false and vicious Principles of Religion And now having shewn at large what strong and prevalent Tendencies there are in a wicked Life to Apostacy from true Religion I shall conclude this Argument with two or three Inferences 1. From hence I infer What a great Malignity there is in Mens being inconstant to and apostatizing from the true Religion in Compliance with their sinful Affections it being as you see the
to the lowermost is the bottomless Pit and for all we know the very last Step we took brought us to the Brinks of the flaming Abyss and if it did one Step further will set us beyond all Hope of Recovery For in our sinful Progress we are wading forwards in a shelving Pool which the farther we go the deeper it is and so deeper and deeper till we come to the Bottom of it so that at every Step we are in Danger of going beyond our Depth and plunging our selves into in irrecoverable Ruin for we know not how soon we may be snatched away in our Iniquities and if it should so happen that after we have sinned this Moment we should die the next this will determine our everlasting Fate and sink us into eternal Misery Wherefore as we tender the safety of our precious Souls let us speedily forsake this dangerous Road in which Perdition way-lays and Hell gapes to devour us every step we go and return unto our Lord in whom our safety lyes As yet the Opportunity of Salvation is in our Hands but before to morrow Morning it may slip away from between our Fingers and vanish for ever and we that are this day wallowing in our Sins may before the next be roaring in Hell So that while we defer and put off our Repentance from day to day we do as it were cast Lots for our Souls and venture our everlasting Hopes upon a Contingency that is not in our Power to dispose of As yet the Gate of Mercy is open to us and our blessed Lord stands ready with his Arms out-stretched to welcome and receive us but for all we know if we enter not presently the Gate may be shut within a few Moments and then though we knock and cry till our hearts ake Lord Lord open to us we shall receive no other Answer but Depart from me I know you not O Good God how are we besotted then that rather than begin our Repentance to day we will wilfully run the Hazard of being eternally miserable before to morrow Morning For if this should be the Evening of our day of Tryal as for all we know it may our Life and Eternity depends upon what we are now doing and therefore one would think it should highly concern us wisely to manage this last stake the winning or losing whereof may prove our making or undoing In pity therefore to our pershing Souls let us return to our Saviour before it be too late before our Feet stumble on the dark Mountains and we fall down into everlasting Darkness And being returned and re-united to him let us have a Care we do not revolt again for if we draw back we cancel our Repentance and forfeit all its blesed Fruits and Benefits and unless we stedfastly persevere and hold out to the end all the Pains we have taken in our Christian Course will be for ever lost and the Remembrance of it will only administer to our future Misery For how will it vex us in the other World to consider the Labour it cost us to take Heaven by Storm How vigorously we strove to mount the Scaling Ladder through how many Difficulties we had forced our way to that height of Vertue and Religion we were arrived to and then when we are got as it were to the topmost Rounds and had laid our Hands upon the Battlements of Heaven just ready to leap in and take possession of all its Joys how basely we let go our Hold and so tumbled down from that stupendious height into the bottomless Abyss of endless Misery Doubtless this Consideration must necessarily sting our woful Souls hereafter and for ever inrage them against themselves Wherefore as we value the Safety of our precious Souls let us who by our wilful Rebellions have gone astray return and constantly adhere to our blessed Saviour Alas where can we be happier than in his Service who imposeth nothing on us but what contributes to our Welfare Where can we be safer than in his Arms and under his Protection who hath the Command and Disposal of all Events and to whom all Power is given in Heaven and Earth Where can we be placed more to our own Advantage than under his Guidance and Authority who never permits any to serve him for nought but hath engaged himself to recompence our Labour with a Crown of Glory that fades not away And is it not strange that after so many advantagious Invitations we should need to be scared to our Duty that after our blessed Master hath enjoyned us such a reasonable gnetle and infinitely beneficial Service he should be forced to terrify us into it with the Flames of Hell IV. I proceed now to the Fourth Proposition That when the Soul is lost 't is lost irrecoverably where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Exchange is used in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Price of Redemption denoting that when once a Man hath sold his Soul to Perdition it is unredeemable and that no Price will be accepted for its Ransom and Deliverance when a Man's Soul is in Hell under the wretched Bondage of a Damned Spirit how little soever he regards it now he would give all the World if it were in his power to be released again but if he had a thousand Worlds it will not do his bondage being such as will admit no Ransom For these Words of our Saviour seem to have been a common Proverb of the Age he lived in and that derived from those words of the Devil in Job All that a Man hath will he give for his Life that is when a Man is dying he would willingly part with all to redeem his Life but all will not do Which Proverb our Saviour adapts to his own Argument in which he proceeds from temporal to eternal Life If a Man would give so much for his temporal Life what would he not give for his eternal one But as our temporal Life is not to be redeemed so neither is our eternal one when once it is lost for when once our Soul is lost or abandoned to the State of the Damned it is lost for ever and there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ransom that will be accepted of by God for its Redemption thence In the Prosecution of which Argument I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew you that if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Justice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them 2. That he is actually determined so to do 1. That if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Justice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever without accepting any Ransom for them And this I doubt not will plainly appear upon the due Consideration of these following Propositions 1st That God being the
assumed or taken into The Word both being united into one Person the Natures being preserved entire and distinct without any Mixture or Confusion For as the Fourth General Council hath defined it He was so made Flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing that he was but assuming that which he was not And though our Humanity was advanced by it yet his Divinity was not at all diminished and the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh was no Detriment to the Godhead which is always unchangeably the same And therefore the seeming Harshness of this Expression may be easily molified by comparing it with others of the same import for elsewhere where it is said that he was manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 which only denotes that the Divinity was made known and did appear in the World in a Humane Nature Elsewhere it is said that he took on him the Nature of Man Heb. 2.16 which only denotes that the Divinity did assume the Humane Nature to it and was personally united with it So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made one with the Flesh by assuming the Humane Nature into a personal Union with it self Having thus explain'd to you the Sense and Meaning of the Words I shall now conclude this Argument with three or four short Inferences from the whole 1. From hence we may infer the Eternal Divinity of our Blessed Saviour even from this great name The Word that is here attributed to him For since it is so apparent that this Phrase is a Term of Art derived from the Schools of the Jews and Gentiles and since by it they did all so generally understand a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity it must necessarily follow that the Holy Ghost deriving it from them and applying it to our Blessed Saviour must use it to the same Sense for otherwise He were better never to have used it at all because by discoursing in the same Language with them he will give us just occasion to think that he means the same thing namely that Christ whom he calls The Word is a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity which if he doth not mean by using that Term he will almost necessarily betray us into a false Belief concerning our Saviour As to instance briefly in a Case of another Nature Our Saviour in his Sermons doth frequently press us to Meekness and Patience Humility and Charity all which are Terms frequently used long before in the Moral Philosophy both of the Jews and Gentiles by which they signify fuch and fuch particular Virtues Since therefore our Saviour doth use the same Terms with them we have just Reason to conclude that he mean the same Virtues by them and should he mean any thing else his very using of these Terms would necessarily impose upon us a false Sense of his meaning for how should we understand his Meaning but by his Words and how should we understand his Words but by the common Import and Signification of them And can we imagine that the Spirit of Truth would have ven described our Saviour by a Term that was so generally used to signify a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity and used it too as he doth without any Restraint or Limitation nay and so seemingly at least to the same Purpose as he doth in the three first Verses of his Chapter where he describes the Divine Nature and Operations of Christ The Word in the same terms in which the Jews and Gentiles were wont to describe the Divinity of their ΛΟΓΟΣ can we imagine I say that the Holy Spirit would have done thus had he known Christ to be nothing but a meer Man that never was before he was born of his Mother Far be it from us to charge that Blessed Spirit with imposing such a Delusion upon Mankind 2. Hence I infer the astonishing Love of our Blesed Saviour in condescending so low as to be made Flesh for us and assume our Nature For what he was before he took our Nature you have heard already He was no less than the Eternal Word of the Father in whose Bosom he enjoyed the supremest Degree of Bliss and Happiness being crowned with Glory and incircled about with the Essential Rays of the Divinity And yet such was his Love to poor Mortals so infinite was his Zeal and Concern for our Happiness that seeing the Misery we were plunged into he could not rest no not in the blessed Arms of his Father but strip himself of all his Majesty and Bliss and comes down among us and assumes our Nature to save and rescue us and invite and lead us to those Heavenly Mansions from whence he descended to us Lord what a Prodigy of Love was here as doth not only puzzle my Conceit but out-reach my Wonder and Admiration For when I seriously consider it though it be a Blessing beyond all my Hopes and such as I could never have had the Impudence to desire yet it fills my Mind with an awful Horror to think that there was a Time when the great God was here upon the Earth in my Form and Nature and conversed familiarly with such mortal Wights as my self and for my sake and such poor Worms as I patiently under-went the common Infirmities of Men and willingly exposed himself to the Contempt and Scorn of a malevolent World and the Malice and Cruelty of those barbarous Men to whom he gave Being and could with the Breath of his Nostrils have scattered into Atoms and all this in meer Compassion to a Company of apostatized Natures who had so highly deserved to be thrown from his Care and Mercy for ever O my Soul how am I astonished at this Miracle of Love Methinks when I consider it I am looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even over-setting Reason 3. From hence I infer what might Obligations we have for ever to love and serve our Blessed Redeemer If our Hearts are capable of being warmed into any degree of Affection sure 't is impossible but we must be affected at such an unheard of Instance of Love For the Son of God to leave his Father's Bosom where he was infinitely more happy then we can express and think of and disguise himself in mortal Flesh and become a Man of Sorrows that the might make me a Man of endless Joys can my Heart hold when I think of this Is it possible I should reflect upon such a prodigious Instance of Affection without being wrapt into an Extasy of Love Blessed Jesus what barbarous Hearts do we carry about with us that will not melt before the Flames of thy Love Flames that are sufficient to kindle Seraphims and to fill all reasonable Breasts with burning Affections towards thee For how is it Possible that any Man I had almost said that any Devil should be so disingenuous and ill-natured as not to be affected with such stupendous
is that they only released Offenders from the Obligation to Civil and Ecclesiastical Punishments but could by no means free them from the eternal Punishments of the other Life Not that I make the least Doubt but that truly penitent Offenders were forgiven the eternal Punishment then as well as now and forgives too for the sake of Jesus Christ the Lamb that was intentionally slain from the Beginning of the World but by what hath been said it's plain they were not forgiven by Virtue of that Law whereby the Eternal Word reigned over the House of Israel but rather by Virtue of that Gospel which was first preached to Adam and afterwards to the Patriarchs wherein Christ the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of Abraham is promised in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed 'T is true the Sacrifices of the Law were typical of the Sacrifice of Christ and so consequently was that temporal Pardon obtained by them typical of that eternal Pardon which we do obtain by the great Propitiation of our Saviour for so the Apostle tells us that the Law had in it a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 But we must not imagine that eternal Remission which is the Effect of Christ's real Sacrifice could ever be obtained by those Sacrifices which were only the Shadows and Resemblances of it So that that Remission of Sins which the Eternal Word gave whilst he tabernacled among the Jews was nothing near so perfect and compleat as that which he afterwards proclaimed in the Tabernacle of our Flesh because it neither extended to all Kinds of Sins nor yet to all Kinds of Punishments it left some unforgiven as to the Punishments of this Life and it left all unforgiven as to the Punishments of the Life to come But having pitched his Tabernacle in our Flesh he did by the meritorious Sacrifice of himself obtain of his Father this publick Act of Grace this free Charter of Mercy for all Mankind That whosoever would repent and amend whatsoever Sins he is guilty of whatsoever Punishments he is obliged to he shall certainly be forgiven them all and be as freely received into God's Grace and Favour as if he never had offended him for he is the Propitiation for the Sins of the World And by him saith the Apostle all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 In this respect therefore the Eternal Word dwelt among us full of Grace in that he proclaimed such a full and perfect Pardon of all Sins and of all Punishments to all that with a true Faith and hearty Repentance should turn unto him and accordingly this Pardon is frequently called by the Name of Grace or of the Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 15.11 Heb. 12.15 Rom. 3.24 4thly He dwelt among us full of Grace in respect of the internal Grace and Assistance which he so abundantly afforded us above what he did to the Jews under the Law of Moses when he tabernacled among them I make no doubt but God in all Ages hath been always ready to assist good Men in their Duty This the very Heathens themselves believed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God did concur with all good Men and that no Man did ever arrive to any eminent Degree of Virtue without a Divine Afflatus or Assistance And had the good Men among the Jews been ignorant of this what should move them to pray as we find they often do that God would wash and cleanse and quicken and strengthen and inliven them For so in the Book of the Psalms you find good David very often praying that God would teach him his Commandments and incline his Heart to keep them and keep him back from presumptuous Sin By which Prayers it's evident they had good Encouragement to hope that God would be ready to concur with them and to bless their pious Endeavours with the internal Assistance of his Grace and Spirit And this Encouragement I suppose they might have partly from their natural Notions of God which must needs suggest to them that He being infinitely good as he is will never be wanting to his Creatures in any think that is necessary to the obtaining those noble Ends for which he created them and consequently that he will be assistant to them in their Duty which is the way to that End and not leave them to contend with Difficulties which are insuperable to their natural Power and Ability and partly from those general Evangelical Promises which God made to them by the Patriarchs and Prophets from whence they might fairly infer that he who had promised to do so much for them upon Condition they persisted in their Duty and Allegiance to him would never be wanting on his Part to strengthen and enable them to it But I can by no means allow that they were encouraged to hope for any such Assistance from any Promise of that Law which the Eternal Word gave them when he tabernacled among them and by which in his Father's stead he ruled and governed them and that both because there is no such Promise found in all that Law and because the Apostle tells us that the Law was weak through the flesh Rom. 8.3 and calls it the Ministration of Death written and engraven in stones in opposition to the Ministration of the Spirit that is not written in Tables of stone but in fleshly Tables of the heart 2 Cor. 3.7 8. comp with v. 3. And Galat. 3.13 14. you find the Apostle opposes to the Curse of the Law the Blessing of Abraham and the Blessing of Abraham he tells us is the Promise of the Spirit through Faith that is by the Gospel And thus under the Law there was doubtless an internal Grace and Assistance vouchsafed to good Men though not promised by it yet after the Eternal Word forsook the Tabernacle of Moses and came to tabernacle in our Flesh it 's evident that then he did more plentifully communicate this his Grace to the World than ever for then the Spirit was said to be shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord and in the 16th ver of this 1st of John we are said of his fulness to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace upon Grace that is Grace heaped upon Grace and a vast overflowing Abundance according to that of Theognis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is thou givest me Calamities upon Calamities So that unless we will our selves it is now impossible we should fall short either of our Duty or the blessed Reward of it since our Saviour is become such an overflowing Fountain of Grace to us and hath promised to communicate it to us in such plentiful Effusions if we will sincerely ask and honestly endeavour after it and therefore in this respect also he may well be said to dwell among us full of Grace in that while he dwelt among us he obtained for
Act of Charity to Mankind For still you find him either instructing the Ignorant or reproving the Erroneous or comforting the Dejected or feeding the Hungry or curing the Sick and Diseased From Morning to Night he was constantly engaged in one good Action or other and the whole Race of his Life like that of the Sun was spent in enlivening or inlightning the World So endearing was his Behaviour that he obliged his very Enemies and when he had won them treated them with all the Tenderness and Affection of a most loving Father towards his dearest Children From all he conversed with he extorted Respect and Veneration and none were able to resist the Charms of his victorious Love but those whose Hearts were harder than the nether Milstone But that I may convince you of the infinite Goodness and Tenderness of his Nature I will give you but that one Instance Luke 19.41 And when he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it which as you will see afterwards was occasioned by the Fore-sight of its approaching Ruin and Destruction and yet at the same time he foresaw the Cruelties which those barbarous Villains were about to practise upon him how they would scourge his Body with knotty Whips and nail his Hands and Feet to the Cross and thrust a Spear into his Heart he saw how they would triumph over his Misery mock at his Calamity and dance to the Musick of his dying Grones And now one would have thought such a Prospect as this would have for ever enraged his Soul against them and made him rejoyce to see that sweeping Destruction that was coming upon them but such was the incomparable Sweetness of his Temper that while he foresaw them plotting his Ruin he could not but sigh over theirs and while he beheld their Malice all reeking in his Blood and sporting it self with his Torments and Agonies yet at the Sense of their approaching Destruction his very Bowels earned and his Heart melted with Commiseration and he could not forbear weeping to think that those cursed Instruments of all his Miseries must e're long be so wretched and miserable themselves earnestly wishing that they who so greedily thirsted for his Blood had known in that their day the things which belong to their Peace And though one would have thought the barbarous Entertainment he met with here upon Earth would have for ever quenched all his Affection to Mankind yet still it lives and in despite of all the Affronts and Outrages he endured burns as vigorously in his Breast as ever So unconquerable was his Love to his Subjects that all the bloody Cruelties they practised upon him when they chased him out of the World were never able to alienate his Heart and Affections from them but after all their Cruelties he still retained his Fatherly Bowels towards them and when he could endure their Torments no longer breathed out his loving Soul in an earnest Prayer for their Pardon Father forgive them for they know not what they do And now that he is in Heaven among Angels and glorified Spirits where he cannot but remember how unkindly we treated him when he was upon Earth and perhaps doth still bear upon his glorified Body those very Wounds which he received from our Hands which one would think were sufficient to incense him against us for ever yet his Heart is the same towards us full of all those kind and tender Resentments that first brought him down from Heaven and render'd his Conversation among us so full of Sweetness and Endearments And now being so infinitely kind as he is why should we be disheartned from serving him Methinks the Sense of his Love to us if there were no other Argument in the World should be sufficient to bind us to his Service for ever For O my Soul how can I do too much for so kind a Friend How can I be too submissive to so good a Master That is so infinitely tender of all his Servants and loves them a thousand times more than they love themselves Sure if we had any Spark of Ingenuity in us the Sense of his matchless Kindness towards us would be sufficient to turn all our Duty to him into Recreation to make us thirst after his Service and catch at all Opportunities of expressing our Loyalty and Obedience to him We should embrace his Commands as Preferments to us and wear them as the greatest Favours and think our selves more honoured in being the Servants of Jesus Christ than in being made mighty Kings and Potentates 2. Consider as he is full of Grace in Respect of his own Personal Disposition so he is also in Respect of his Laws in which as I have already shewed you he requires nothing of us but what is for our Good nothing but what tends to the Perfection of our Natures and the Consummation of our Happiness All that our Saviour requires at our Hands is only that we should act according to the Laws of a Reasonable Nature and constantly pursue the great End of our Creation which can never be obtained by us unless we regulate our Actions by those wise and excellent Rules which he hath prescribed us and which he hath prescribed us upon no other Inducement but only to oblige us to be happy For as to any Advantage that will accrue to him from our Actions 't is altogether indifferent to him whether we obey him or no for he was always infinitely happy within himself and would have always been so though we had never had a Being so that his Felicity depends not upon us and were it not that the super abundant Goodness of his Nature doth for ever incline him to make us happy as well as himself he would never have concerned himself about us but would have let us alone to do as we list and abandoned us to the Fate of our own Actions He therefore being infinitely happy within himself can have no self-Ends to serve upon his Creatures because within the Circle of his own divine Being he hath all that he needs and all that he desires but being infinitely good as he is infinitely happy we are sure that our Good must be the only End of his intermedling with our Actions and his giving Laws to direct them And if we consult the particular Laws which he hath given us we shall find they all of them most naturally tend to perfect and rectifie our disordered Natures to exalt and spiritualize our Affections and inspire us with all those divine Dispositions that are requisite to qualify us for the Happiness of the World to come And now methinks if we had any Sense of our own Interest this Consideration should mightily encourage us to Obedience to think that while we are serving our blessed Master we are serving our selves to the best Purposes and that his Service and our Interest are so combined and united that by the same Actions we may gratify him and do our selves the greatest Kindness in
they have no Notion Put out a Man's Eyes and you certainly prevent his being imposed upon by false Medium's of Sight to mistake one Colour or Figure for another And yet I fancy most Men would think this a cruel Kind of Courtesy But if Men must not be allowed Scripture to instruct them in the Truth for this Reason because it may occasionally mislead them into Errors and Heresies then they must be allowed no Means of Instruction that may occasion them to err and consequently no Means at all there being no imaginable Means of Instruction which may not be an Occasion of errors and Heresies Is the Scripture it self in its own Nature an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy or not If you say it is consider before you say it how it could consist with the Truth and Veracity of God to publish such a Book to the World as tends in its own Nature to seduce and mislead the Understandings of those that read it If you say it is not so in it self but only that it may be so accidentally I would fain know what Means of Instruction is there which may not accidentally become an Occasion of misleading Men into Heresy and therefore if this be a sufficient Reason to deprive Men of Scripture it is sufficient to deprive them of all other Means of Instruction And seeing the Knowledge of Religion is the Food of Mens Souls to keep them in Ignorance for fear they should err is to deny them Food for fear they should surfeit There is no doubt but Men whose Minds are tinctured with Heretical pravity will be apt enough to extract the Poison of Error out of the clearest Conveyances and Discoveries of Truth but what then Do not bad Men ordinarily apply the best Things to the worst purposes If Men fall into Heresy by reading the Scripture where lies the Fault not in the Scripture sure no Christian will Pretend that and if it be in themselves in their Pride or Vain-glory or Covetousness or Sensuality as it is demonstrable it is is it just that All should be deprived of it because some ill Men have made an ill Use of it Some Men have surfeited by Eating and Drinking is it just that all Mankind therefore should be deprived of Meat and Drink Suppose a Prince pretending to be an infallible Geographer should issue out a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to travel at Midnight and should assign this as the Reason of it that he had been certainly informed that several of them had lost their Way at Noon and wandred into Bogs and Precipices by the Light of the Sun would any one imagin this to be the true Reason or rather would not every one believe that his true Design was to keep his People in Ignorance of the Roads and Situation of his Country that so they might never be able to discover the Errors of his Maps which would perhaps discover him to be not only a fallible Geographer but also a very erroneous one And where the People are forbid travelling in the Light of the Scripture whatever may be pretended wise Men will believe that the true Reason is not to prevent the Peoples falling into Errors but to prevent the discovering the Errors of those to whose Guidance and Direction they are wholly and solely subjected And this I conceive is a sufficient Answer to the first Objection viz. That the Allowance of the Scripture to the People is a dangerous Inlet of Error and Heresy I proceed therefore to the Second which is this Object 2. That there are many Things recorded in Scripture which are very apt to suggest lewd Thoughts to the People and thereby to corrupt their Manners as particularly the many bad Examples therein related which are of a very contagious Nature and consequently dangerous for the People to converse with In answer to which I desire these four Things may be seriously considered 1. That this Objection strikes as much against the Scripture it self as against the People's reading it For what worse Thing can be said of the Scripture than this that it is such an infectious Book so apt to excite impure Thoughts in Mens Minds and to kindle lewd Affections in their Hearts that it is by no Means fit the People should read it Should this be said to a Turk or a Heathen who had never read one Word in the Bible he would certainly conclude it to be nothing but a Canto of Ribaldries written for no other End but to provoke and entertain the lascivious Inclinations of Mankind And certainly had our Objectors but as much Reverence for this Holy Book as they pretend they would rather oblige their People to read it than with-hold it from them upon a pretence that doth so scandalously reflect upo its Reputation If there be any such Passages in Scripture as are apt to start lewd Thoughts in Mens Minds the utmost that can be fairly pretended is That those Passages ought to have been left out of the Peoples Bibles or at least to have been left untranslated But to urge this as a Reason why all the rest of the Scripture should be denied to the People insinuates as if the whole were nothing else but a meer Kennel of contagious Obscenities For to urge that for a Reason why the Scripture in general should not be read by or to the People which at most is only a Reason why some few Passages of it should not be read by them is to suppose the whole Scripture to be made up of such Passages as are apt to infuse vicious Thoughts into the People than which what can there be supposed more false in it self or more derogatory to the Scripture 2. This Objection if it proves any Thing doth as well prove that it was unfit for God to publish the Scripture to the People as it is for the People to read it For is it fit that He who is a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity should publish such Things to the World as are apt to engender impure Thoughts in Mens Minds And yet though Mens Minds were as apt to imbibe impure Thoughts when these Things were first published as they are now this hindred not God from publishing them to the World in such languages as are best known and understood by the People Either therefore God did not so well know what is apt to corrupt Mens Minds as our wise Objectors or he was less concerned than they to preserve them for being corrupted or what they object is both false and scandalous For to say That the wise and holy God hath published such Things to the World as his Ministers find necessary to conceal from the World lest its Thoughts should be corrupted by them is in effect to say that his Ministers are grown wiser than he or are more concerned for the Interest of Holiness than he If the Vicious Examples for instance that are recorded in Scripture are more apt to deprave Men than to instruct
his Conscience the natural Tenderness of it will by Degrees wear off till at length it grows quite callous and insensible For what is reported of Methridates that by often drinking of Poison he had so familiarized it to his Constitution that at length it sate quietly on his Stomach and gave him no Disturbance is true of Conscience which at first recoils at every sinful Potion and cannot swallow it without suffering violent Spasms and Convulsions but having been awhile accustomed to it it by Degrees grows more and more natural till at length it goes more glibly down without straining and goes quietly off without Remorse or Reluctance And when once a Man's Conscience is frozen over by a Custom of Sinning it will every day grow harder and harder and at length be able to bear the heaviest Loads of Guilt without Relenting and when once Things are Reduced to this State Good and Evil Virtue and Vice are Things indifferent to him which he chuses or refuses as they come to hand and are more or less subservient to his present Convenience He can blaspheme and pray oppress and give Alms with the same Unconcernedness of Mind and to act the Devil or the Saint are Parts so indifferent to him that he can perform them both with the same Remorslessness And when a Man is thus got loose from the Restraints of his Conscience there is nothing so bad that can come amiss to him If therefore while he stands in this Posture his temporal Interest should chance to beckon him to change the best Religion in the World for the worst to pray to insensible Images and dead Mens Ghosts instead of the everliving God to let go Substances to catch at Shadows and Ceremonies and to part with the most rational Truths for the most palpable and fulsom Contradictions he hath no Principle in him strong enough to withold him from a base Compliance his Conscience being laid fast asleep which whilst awake would have trembled at such an horrid Proposal And though by thus prostituting his Faith to his Interest he at once renounces his God his Saviour and all his Hopes of future Immortality yet his insensible and remorsless Heart is no more toucht or affected with it than if it were the slightest Peccadillo Thus by letting go a good Conscience Men pave themselves an easie way to Apostacy from true Religion which otherwise would be one of the most craggy and difficult Passages in all the High-Way to Hell 5. Living in any known Course of Sin doth very much strengthen and enforce the Temptations to Apostacy He who lives under the Conduct and Government of a good Conscience takes Care to regulate his Affections towards the Things of this World so as neither to fear the Evils of it too much nor love the Goods of it too well but makes a just and equal Estimate of both and by that proportions his Affections towards them and he who doth this disarms them of their tempting Power which is chiefly owing to our selves and the false Estimate we make of them 'T is our own Imagination that gives Life and Efficacy to the Charms and Terrors of the World and renders them so successful and victorious We fancy that to be in them which is not and so are affected not so much with the Things themselves as with the false Representations that we make of them But he who by following the Dictates of a good Conscience hath reduced his wild Affections within the Lists of Reason and Sobriety can from thence defie the World and maintain his Post against all its Temptations He loves its Goods no better than they deserve and consequently he loves them not so well as to part with his Virtue his Innocence and his Soul for them He dreads its Evils no farther than they are truly dreadful and consequently is fully satisfied that to Sin is much more dreadful than to suffer and he hath found by often Experience that in the faithful discharge of his Duty there is far more Peace more Joy and Satisfaction than in all the vain Allurements of this World He hath found another Heaven upon Earth besides these temporary Enjoyments a Heaven within his own Breast composed of joyous Hopes and blessed Expectations and in this Heaven hath often found himself a thousand times more happy than among all the Festivities of an earthly Paradise and therefore knows very well that he is bid to his Loss when ever he is tempted to exchange the one for the other He is throughly sensible having already found it to his Smart that by Sinning he shall sustain a much heavier Loss and expose himself to far more exquisite Agonies of Mind than any this World can threaten him withall and therefore certainly reckons upon it that when ever to avoid a Sin he incurs a Suffering he wisely chooses of two Evils the least And while his Soul stands thus affected it is shot-proof against all Temptations and much more against those Temptations which sollicite him to renounce his Religion and in which he knows by Experience there is far more Good than the World can propose to him in Exchange for it He knows both how little the World and how much true Religion is worth and having made a just Estimate of both to propose to him any worldly Hope as a Price for his Faith is the same Thing as to offer a Miser Dross for his gold His Mind is fixed in this Persuasion that all the Mischiefs this World can do him are inconsiderable to one who must live for ever in another unspeakably happy or miserable and therefore to threaten him into a Apostacy with any worldly Fear is to attempt to blow up a Rock of Marble with a Squib of Wild-fire But when once a Man hath taken off the Restraints of his Conscience from his wild Affections and let them loose to the World they will aid and assist its Temptations against him and animate them with a thousand times more Life and Vigour than is in their own Natures For as for the Goods of this World they can never bewitch us as they do did we not give a Dress to them we paint their Faces and varnish them over with an artificial Beauty and then fall in Love with our own Fucus and so much as we value and affect them beyond their natural Worth so much Power we give them to conquer and inslave us When therefore by leading a sensual and wicked Life a Man has wholly devoted himself to the World he hath put himself into the Worlds Power to be commanded and disposed of as it pleases And now if any worldly good beckons and invites him his mad Affection will presently hurry him after it though it be through thick and thin through the most flagitious and enormous Courses If any worldly Evil threaten and alarm him he must immediately fly though it be from Virtue and Innocence from God and Heaven and all that is Sacred in Religion His Affections have