It covers all Sins I answer That Charity nor no other Vertue in a high and Heroick Degree are Single but Complicated Vertues and whoever shall consider what S t Paul says of Charity throughout the thirteenth Chapter of the First to the Corinthians and again Rom. 13.8 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law will confess 't is not a Single Vertue but that whoever has Charity in an Eminent Degree must also have Faith Justice Liberality Patience Humility Self-denial even a whole Conjugation or Constellation of Christian Graces And that where this Vertue is entertain'd there all Quarrels and Dissentions secret Malice and open Injuries both the greater Outrages and more petty Vexations and Molestations so much complained of in humane Society are utterly interdicted and banisht Where Charity has its abode indifferent actions are not put upon the Tenter and men made guilty by Censures when their Lives are Innocent Calamities and Misfortunes are not reckoned among Crimes and the Miserable judged void of Goodness because they are void of Success Brutish and voluptuous Affections are not call'd Vertues Lust the greatest Enemy to Charity stampt with the Specious Title of Love Men are not seen to visit their Lawyer oftener than their Neighbour to seek his Ruine and undoing whom 't is their Duty to protect to keep him upon a perpetual Guard and Alarm whose Security should be as precious to them as their own giving him cause to complain That he rather borders on the Den of a Dragon or some savage Beast than on the Habitation of his Christian Brother Men disturb not for every Nothing the Quiet of their own Families making their Houses resemble the Habitation the Poets describe of Aeolus places of continual Storms and Tempests Look not upon the Peace and Safety of their Country with a more malignant and malevolent Aspect than a fatal Comet hatch not worse Mischiefs in their black Cabals than are brooded in the poysonous Womb of the Air when the Contagion of a Plague is fermenting in it Men rend not the Church in pieces to patch up their Beggarly Fortunes or to cover their more beggarly Endowment knowing the Perverseness of men is such that a mean Harangue will lead them sooner into Sedition than the most powerful Oratory will be able to retain them in their Duty and Obedience and that their Voices which sound so loud and shrill in the Cause of Schism and Rebellion would be hoarse and flat in the Defence of Loyalty and Conformity Against these and infinite Disorders more Charity is the best Catholicon the best General Antidote can be prescribed Which as the Apostle says seeks not its own things but the things of another And if we entertain this Vertue it will not only remove those Mischiefs which are already on foot but prevent those that are springing up it will defend us not by the Power of Arms but by turning Wars into Peace Ill-Will into Love Enemies into Brethren by making the World one Common Family and of one Common Interest by making God our Common Father and Heaven our Common Aim and Ambition to the attaining the highest Honours and Dignities in which Kingdom 't is not Envy and Strife the crossing and frustrating Mens Endeavours but the furthering and assisting them that conduces To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. The Twentieth Sermon MATTH xxii 46 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets THE Law being a large Body consisting of many weighty Precepts upon several distinct accounts as that of the Sabbath for the remembrance of the Creation of the World and the Redemption out of Egypt that of Tythes for the maintenance of the Sanctuary and the Priests that of Sacrifices for the purging away transgressions that of Circumcision for the sealing of the Covenant and which for its better remembrance was rigorously carved into the very Flesh of the Covenanters c. the Jewish Doctors more curious to compare the Excellence of their Precepts than solicitous to obey them to make them contest their Priority with one another than to reform and regulate their Lives by them made it a Question of the highest concern Which Commandment had the Preheminence of all the rest And our Lord in those days opening as 't were a School of Divine Knowledge and professing a Solution of all Difficulties in the Revealed Will of God to men a Pharisee either to shew his Skill in the Law or to try our Lord's to inform himself or to have whereat to cavil put to him this so controverted Point among those of his own Sect Quaenam est suprema Lex among the many Great Commandments which is the Queen or Supreme Commandment the Law as one may say that gives Law to all beside Our Lord whose custom it was not to answer directly to the impertinence of the Asker but to take occasion from his malice mistake or the like to make known some important Truth satisfies not the folly of the enquiry Which Law had the Precedence to the prejudice of the rest but declares That the End and Design of all God's Laws is Piety and Charity the love of God and the love of our Neighbour brings these two Duties which lay overwhelmed and neglected under the Rubbish of vain Traditions over-seen like Saul in the Stuff and Lumber not only into Competition with the Commandments more highly prized by them but as the tallest and most Illustrious anointed them with the Royal Oil and set the Crown upon their heads The Love of God and of our Neighbour are not distinct formal Laws but the Drift and Scope of the Whole Law duae Cardines Tabularum the Hinges on which the two Tables and all the preaching of the Prophets hang and turn and without which they would fall to the ground i. e. have nothing of Vertue or Moment in them But our Lord having styled them two Commandments has made them so by his authority and as such I shall observe in them these two General Parts I. The Substance of them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind And thy Neighbour as thy self And II. The high Dignity of them by reason of the Dependance of the Whole Law and Prophets on them On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets In the First of these two General Parts the Substance of these two Commandments I shall observe more particularly these three things 1. The Duty enjoin'd which is the same in both Commandments Love 2. The Objects of this Duty God and our Neighbour 3. The Measure or Degree in which the Love to each Object is commanded viz. God to be lov'd with All the heart And our Neighbour as our self I begin first with the Duty enjoin'd which is the same in both Commandments Love To love a Person as Aristotle defines is to wish him well and to procure things Good and
Structure of the Body or other Graces of a fair and amiable Person which is the Child only of an abused Fancy begot through Weakness and nurs'd up by fond Conversation Musick Feasts Comedies and other the like Genial Sports and busie Idlenesses of the times and produces no better Effects than Folly dissolute Manners Jealousie discontent Madness c. This Frenzy has obtain'd too much in being the glorified Theme of Poets and Romance-Writers who advance it above all other Concerns of Man's Life whether Secular or Sacred and while they make it the admired Subject of many Fables and the ambitious Pursuit and highest Ornament of their counterfeit Heroes the gilded Poyson is often swallow'd by the more Sober and Vertuous Our Apostle is so far from recommending or in the least degree countenancing of this Dotage that ver 3. he ranks it among the detestable practices of the Heathen and such things as Christians ought to be asham'd of For this Sensual Love in those days was not only an Immorality or Vice but a prime Branch of Idolatry from hence flew all the Cupids from hence came the Temples dedicated to Venus the Divinity of Beauty and the Deities of Women And happy it were if we could say These were not Idols still in the World for if as S t Jerome says every reigning Lust is an Idol set up in our hearts Sensual Love is no inferior Deity Quotcunque habemus Vitia says the Father quotcunque peccata tot recentes habemus Deos iratus sum ira mihi Deus est vidi Mulierem concupivi Libido mihi Deus est as many Vices we have as many Sins so many Gods we have I am angry Anger is a God to me I see a Woman and lust my Lust again's a God to me And the Reason of this is plain Because none of these things can be in us but they must be before God in us for if they can come after God they can agree with and be reconcil'd to God which is impossible and then being before or above him can we say less of them than that they are Gods in us 'T is not the Temple or the Image that constitutes the Idolatry but the Shrine the Idol has in our hearts the Adoration and Sacrifice paid to it by our Affections Neither does God require of us a higher Acknowledgment than to love him with all our Heart and with all our Mind The Love therefore recommended here by the Apostle cannot be any thing that is an Enemy to God to Man or to our Selves Charity or Love carries something Pious and Beneficial in its very Name and if these things be not in the Nature of it 't is a Spurious or Bastard Love To come then to the Love recommended by the Apostle we define it to be A Divine Vertue or Supernatural Grace inspired into us by God's Holy Spirit a Quality which resides in himself and which is subject to no perturbation an Image of it we see in the pious Love of Parents and Children the religious Amity between Brethren Friends and Neighbours and the Perfection of it in our Saviour his Apostles Martyrs and other Christian Heroes that follow'd his Example An Affection it is but a Severe and Sober one a Fire that warms the hearts of men but a pure and sanctify'd one lifted far above the Softnesses and Wantonnesses of the other Carnal heat and not kindled by the Deception of the Outward Senses or flaming from the Fewel of a bright Beauty but a reflected Beam of our Love to God descending downwards and glancing on our Brethren from a Sense of God's Goodness to us and in obedience to that Commandment of his that enjoins us to pay to men as his Proxies and Substitutes on Earth the Tolls and Tributes due unto himself So that 't is not This or That Person that this Love makes court to but to Mankind its Addresses are as Universal as the Image of God in the World no more regard is had by it of the Handsome than the Deformed of the Young than the Aged or if more be had of the one than the other 't is of the Party most to be compassioned the Object of this Love is Want or Misery in any kind and whoever it can help is its Amata or Beloved And as the Object of this Love is no less General than the Distresses of Humane Nature so its Expressions towards them are as many and various as there are Ways of doing Good and being Beneficial in any kind For Charity is not only a Largess of Money or a Dole of Bread a feeding of the hungry and a cloathing the naked c. but a parting with our Passions for the sake of our Brethren a condescending to their Weakness a complying with their Temper and tolerating their Infirmities 'T is again a relieving them with Good Counsel a Donative of Seasonable Admonition and Reproof a shewing of Severity when need requires as well as Mercy an Exacting of Punishment as well as a remitting of it for Charity is not that which is always grateful and always pleasing but which is ever salutary and ever beneficial The Wanton Love we condemned is a constant Floud of Sweetness which flows smoothly into the Ocean of Destruction a smiling Evil that knows nothing harsh or disagreeable till it turns all to Harshness and Disagreeableness But Godly Love is often bitter in the first Taste and sweet in the after Relish a rugged Mercy and an Austere Kindness a Good transferr'd with Frowns and Severe Discipline and such are the Corrections of Servants and Children the Correptions of Friends the Excommunications of the Church and the exterminating Sentences of the Law the Rod and the Stocks the Hurdle and the Axe being as instrumental unto Charity as Money Food Raiment and the like Open Rebuke says Solomon is better than secret Love and I may say Open Rebuke has in it much secret Love And to think the Remissness of Laws charitable and the Execution of them cruel is a Shortness of Reasoning which becomes only Women and Children who pity the present Sufferings of the Criminal but see not the future Good purchased by it The timely cutting off of a Notorious Malefactor has rescued a Nation from Destruction Phineas stood up and pray'd and the Plague ceas'd his seasonable Execution of two Eminent Offenders preserved the lives of many thousands of the people and holy Writ calls not his Fact Slaughter but styles it by the milder Name of Prayer because it invoked God's Mercy and propitiated his Wrath. If Pity may bind the hands of Justice and Charity protect Violence and Outrage not only one Wolf will worry a whole Flock but the Flock or Body of People will in time become Wolves and Tygers for Religion only perswades men to be Just and Righteous it does not constrain them to be so indeed it promises Rewards to Well-doers and threatens Judgment to Evil-doers but they are Rewards to come and Judgments at a
in this single term omnibus viribus with all thy Strength Instead therefore of amuzing my Auditory with fruitless Niceties it will be more worthy the while to take notice In the first place That when God commands us to love him with all our Strength or Power he commands us no more than what we are able to perform and not as some will have it what is above our Ability posse autem hominem quantum potest nemo sanus negabit for that a man can do as much as he can none that is in his wits will deny and we are enjoined here To love God With All our Strength and not Above it Secondly It may be worth the while to note on the other side The ambitious Folly and Vanity of the Church of Rome who more to exalt her own false Reputation than the Truth boasts of such performances of her Saints as are above the measures of Humane Nature For Example their living in Desarts after the manner of Elias and John the Baptist and using such wonderful Austerities as have not only mortify'd their Carnal Affections but so Spiritualiz'd their very Bodies that they have been seen to the astonishment of the Beholders raised and suspended in the Air many Foot above Earth as if it were as easie a thing to work Miracles as to write a Legend or tell Lies to bring God to câ—â—ply with the Follies of Men as for them to conceive or fansie foolish things as if again it were as easie to live a Miraculous Life as to assume the Name of Heremite or to live in a Wood the last indeed they do in an apish Imitation of Elias and John the Baptist which is all that is true in this Piece of Pageantry they being ridiculously fed by the neighbouring Towns All that I shall say to this Affectation of Divine Performances shall be something like that which the Elder Pliny said to the Younger racking his Invention for an Oration he was to make Visne melius dicere quà m potes Will you speak better than you can So will you shew your selves Diviner Persons than you are When you are but Men would you act like Angels Have you perform'd all that is enjoined you in the Gospel Are the Commandments of God indeed so mean and trifling that they are not worthy to amuse your Greater Abilities The Example of Christ's patience meekness self-denial c. such narrow Scenes to shew your Spacious Vertue in that you aspire to his Supernatural Performances He trod no other way to Heaven than those which honest men ordinarily tread in and though none was ever so abstracted from the Love of the World as he yet none was more conversant in it none abhorr'd Sin equal to him and none yet was more familiar with Sinners But to leave these men to their Dreams as in Humane Love we may love ardently and yet be wise so in Divine Love we may love Exaltedly and yet not Extravagantly and affectedly we may love God above our selves and the whole World and yet not above Sobriety To direct us in the way of this Duty by so many perverted we need only observe two things which are express'd both in the Letter of the Commandment namely That we love God with the Heart And with All the Heart First With the Heart i. e. unfeignedly and without Hypocrisie Hypocritical Love is odious even to Men we endure not to have Professions made to us when there is no real Affection to be embraced and caressed when the Heart is far distant from the Outward Behaviour much less does God suffer such Juggling but as S t Augustine says Sim 〈…〉 Sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit Sanctity 〈◊〉 God's account is a double Provocation and he more detests the feigned Saint than the Open Sinner denounces more Judgments in Scripture against those that mock him in this manner than against those that defie him Secondly We are to love God with All the Heart which implies two things All in Quantity or Extension and All in Quality or Intention 1. With all the Heart in Quantity or Extension is as much as with the Intire Heart not excluding all Inferior Loves but all Competitor or Rival Loves with our Love of God and so debarrs not only Idolatry but all Inordinate Love whatsoever to any Creature which is a kind of Idolatry No man can serve two Masters nor no man can love two Opposite Objects Divers he may but not Contrary and Opposite but as he loves the one he must hate or dissemble with the other 2. To love God with all the Heart in Quality or Intention implies Fervency and excludes Coldness and Indifferency Slack Lukewarm Love is neither active nor durable productive of Service nor constant in the Day of Tryal Demas hath forsaken me says S t Paul having loved this present World and no wonder for 't is not possible for him that loves this present World to suffer Persecution for the Gospel Such as Demas love God as Flatterers love those in Power who are officious to them in Prosperity but are sure to leave them in Adversity As 't was observed that none were so forward to break down Sejanus's Statues and to lay their hand on the Hang-man's Rope that dragg'd him to Execution as those that had saluted him loudest that morning and were readiest to have proclaim'd him Emperor had his Treason succeeded Let this suffice to be said of our Love to God I proceed to the Love of our Neighbour In which as in the former there are two things to be observed The Object of our Love Our Neighbour And the Measure of our Love to him We must love him as our self I. The Object of our Love Our Neighbour The Jews before our Lord interpreted to them who was their Neighbour understood not this Commandment they allow'd none this Title but those that were of their Nation or at least Proselytes to their Religion to all beside that they were directly Inhumane they would not shew a Heathen a waste running Water to save him from perishing by thirst or so much as direct him in the right Way But our Lord in the Parable of the Samaritan taught them who they were to esteem their Neighbour that 't was not only those of the same Kindred or Religion but those of the same Kind or Nature as 't is said in the Parable Quidam homo a Certain man fell among Thieves no mention is made of what Country or Religion he was Tros Tyriusve nullo discrimine habentur in Point of Charity no Difference is to be made between Jew and Gentile Native and Stranger Charity or Divine Love knows no Partiality but where there is an Object of Misery there is also an Object of Mercy if there be Distress on the one Side and Power to relieve on the other all Circumstances are fitted to shew our Love and in Christ's account there are two Neighbours met The Object of our Love or who is our Neighbour is
And this last Way did God Know Israel above all the Families of the Earth for he knew them not only with a Perceptive Knowledge so as he Knows equally all the Nations of the World but Owned favoured and was beneficial to them As the Sun beholds some Countries with a more bounteous Aspect than others not only shedding on them Light and common Influences but enriching them with the Noblest Plants Minerals and Precious Stones Or as he is feign'd by the Poets to have beheld Thessaly when he was in love with Daphne terrâ figit in unâ Quos mundo debet oculos he fixt his Eyes on one particular Soil which ought to have cheered the Universe So God as if he had been Enamoured on Israel of all the Nations of the Earth set his Heart on them alone to the seeming Contempt of all beside he revealed himself to them in a more Especial Manner made a Covenant with them gave them Laws and heaped Blessings upon them vouchsafed to be their King and Governour in his own Person conducted fed protected them by by Wonderful and Supernatural Means and whereas he governed the other Nations by his Ordinary Invisible Power as if he had erected a New Providence in the World for them he brought all things to pass in their behalf by Miracles And thus though by Nature Israel was no better than other Nations by his Grace and Favour God made them Excel them But then though it be the highest Advantage To be Known by God after a particular and Extraordinary Manner yet if a People shew themselves not worthy of it it ceases to be an Advantage nay it turns to their greater Evil. 'T is not enough therefore that men are known by God to make them happy but God must also be known by them they must understand his Will what is pleasing and displeasing to him and hold a reciprocal Correspondence with him by Faith Love and Obedience For as S t Peter says of Apostates It had been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment So it had been better for Israel if they had not been the Favourites of God than after their being so by their Sins to lose that Grace for Sins against Favour are greater than Sins against a Commandment Men in this Case being not only Disobedient but Ungrateful and whereas God would possibly have past by the Offences of less Obliged Persons he will call such as these to a strict account what he would have pardoned in the Heathen that were Strangers to him he will punish in his own People whom he has known by so many Great and Distinguishing Benefits You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities The Words afford us this Proposition or Observation That whatever People God blesses above others if they shew themselves Ungrateful by sinning against him he will punish them above others Which Proposition I shall handle after this manner I. Prove and confirm the Truth of it that it is indeed so And II. Shew the Reason and Equity of it why it should be so I. To clear and confirm the Proposition Sin as soon as it is committed is followed by Punishment except prevented by Repentance Punishment follows it I say sometimes with Slow but always with Sure Paces till it over-takes it Vengeance attends it as the Gaoler in some Countries does Malefactors who is bound in the same Chain with them Or is coupled to it as the After-Birth is to the Birth For as in Natural Productions after the Birth of the Creature there is a second Birth or Protrusion so there is in the bringing-forth of Sin it is no sooner produced in the World but there succeeds a Title to Punishment so close upon it as if it came from the same Womb. If thou dost Evil says God to Cain Sin lyeth at the Door i. e. the Punishment of Sin is at hand to seize thee and says our Lord in regard of mens proneness to Wickedness It is necessary that Offences should come but then also that 't was as necessary That upon them Woes should come and the Scripture makes it a piece of Injustice to detain them no less than a Sin to spare Sin The Wages of Sin is Death says S t Paul and as when the Wages of a Labourer or the Pay of a Souldier is detained a Mutiny or Clamour is raised so when Punishment the Wages of Sin is with-held a Cry is sent up to Heaven and God's Justice is continually sollicited till Guilt receive its due Reward This indeed to the Men of this World is the primum incredibile one of the most Incredible Doctrines that is taught they see not the Link which by God's appointment couples Sin and Punishment and because the Act of Sin is transient and Vengeance deferred they conceive the Guilt and the Bitterness of Death contracted by it are also transient and that they can confute the whole Hypothesis from their own Experience they having not only run on in Disobedience for many Years together but encreased their Wickedness as well as continued in it proceeded from sinning with fear to sin with presumption from offending God to the affronting him from breaking his Laws to the deriding of his Worship and the denying of his Deity and yet say they we have found none of that Vengeance that is spoken of no not the least Disturbance in our Evil Ways But is it then no Vengeance to let a Sinner run on in the Ways of Perdition without any Check Is the Blindness and Darkness of the Soul and Hardness of the Heart no Judgment Is the falling from the Condition of a Man to that of a Beast the despising all things Spiritual and Noble and finding no relish but in things sensual and Brutish no Judgment Is God's giving them up thus to a Reprobate Mind and Vile Affections condemning them to love Necessarily and Finally what they have so long loved Perversely and Wilfully no Judgment Is the visible trailing after them in this manner the Chain of Damnation and going on singing and dancing to Hell without apprehending the least Evil no Judgment What Sadder Arrest can there be of God's Wrath than such an Exemption from it What Plague or Punishment sent upon Less Offending Sinners half so dreadful as the Calm and Peace which these boast of But let it be as these Men imagine that all these things we speak of are Dreams that Obdurateness and Insensibility in Sinning is no Punishment and that nothing deserves the Name of Vengeance but what is Corporal Loss of Life or Liberty deprivation of Health Estate and the like How do these know they shall escape these Evils Those of this Way are for the most part Young or in the Strength of their Days and perhaps God has determined before they depart hence to make them as Eminent Examples
consider not how Accursedly themselves in the mean time Live and Dye Again on the other side other Rich men as sottishly waste in Voluptuousness and Sensuality what the former gripingly spared to gratifie a Lust to purchase a Delicious Sin they will pour out their Wealth without Measure and think no Profusion too great but to all Works of Piety and Charity they are Deaf and a Publick Contribution in their conceit would undo them And thus all the Advantages God has given them to procure their Salvation serve only to encrease their Accounts at Dooms-Day and to aseertain to themselves a greater Damnation of all the Vast Riches they possess'd there remains not one Monument of Liberality but only fouler Sinks and bigger Dunghills an Ill Reputation and a Corrupted Age. When Alphonso the Good King of Arragon who gave so much in Charity was ask'd What he intended in such vast Donations to reserve for himself answer'd Ea ipsa quae dono the very things that I give Which Saying though it may be despised by those that are of a contrary Temper as the rapacious Pharisees laugh'd at our Lord and pity'd him when he preach'd against Covetousness yet at that Day when Mens Words and Works shall be rewarded according to their Merit the Words of King Alphonso will be found to have no less Wisdom in them than Bounty and then men will also understand That all that they have Ill-Saved or Spent profits them nothing but only what they have Piously or Charitably bestowed that this is the only Wealth that benefits them and never forsakes them the Good Works which as S t John says follow them into the Other World But the Rich and Potent are not only concerned in the Policy taught in my Text but those also of an Inferior Condition have their Names in God's Census or Book of Cesments for the Poor and must not look upon themselves as exempted from the Duties of Charity Acts 3.6 says S t Peter Gold and Silver have I none but such as I have give I thee In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk He that cannot clothe nor feed his Brother possibly may heal him who can Give him nothing can Forgive him and pray for him But we may keep here to the Letter of Giving Charity for 't is rarely seen that any are so destitute but they may give to the Destitute Christ had not where to lay his Head yet he had a Small Bag out of which he could say to his Disciples Give something to the Poor And if those that count themselves the most Indigent did compute what pass'd through their Hands in a Year as Seneca says of Mens Time Non exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus We have not little Time but spend much Idly they might say of their undervalued Stock Non exiguum Mammonae habemus sed multum perdimus our Money would not be little if we spent it not Idlely The Summs which slip away inconsiderately through the Fingers even of the Meaner Sort would set Beggars on work and knock the Shackles off from hundreds of Prisoners and Captives But let us all consider of what Condition soever we are High or Low that we have no long time either to abuse our Wealth or to deceive our Selves with false Measures taken of our Actions Some perhaps who hear me this Day may not have so much Leisure allowed them as the Steward had to change an Item in their Accounts to say to a Poor Debtor that owes them a hundred Measures Take thy Bill sit down and write fifty or Take thy Bill and write fourscore If any of us have a Lease or Patent ready to expire we neglect no time to renew it but we are not at all sollicitous whether we lapse the Time of Grace or forfeit our Heavenly Inheritance How much wiser Tenants are we than Christians Patentees than Heirs of Glory We are all assured that the Day of Death the Dissolution of these Earthly Tabernacles will come the Day in which Wealth Beauty Greatness Glory and all other Worldly Advantages will profit us nothing the Day in which the Rich and Potent as well as the Poor and Mean however Numerous their Friends and Attendants now are must stand alone and answer for what they have done in this Life in solatium ruinae in Consolation of the Dreadful Circumstances of that Day let us provide some Support some Refuge some Good Works as Friends to stand by us lest our Spirits break through intolerable Horrour and Despair We will not remove from one House to another without sending before Furniture Provisions and Servants to receive us and is it possible we should not care what the Habitations are in which we must abide to all Eternity Whether they be Places of Refreshment or Torment Mansions of Bliss or Prisons of Darkness and Horrour If we value not what it becomes us to do in this Life as Good Men yet let us consider at least what it becomes us to do as Wise Men But alas Wisdom and Goodness are not two things Had the Rich Man in the Parable had leave to return out of Hell to have acted his Life a second time over upon Earth he would not have deserved to have been call'd Fool again for despising the Poor and trusting in Full Barns and Enlarged Store-houses he would sooner have clothed the Beggar in Purple and have set him at his Table and have taken himself his place among the Dogs but the Season was past and Leave and Opportunity to shew such Wisdom was not allow'd him This this Life is the Time of doing our Duty of giving Largess and Charity to the Poor and of performing every Good Work beside if our Lord could say of himself I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is Day the Night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9.4 then certainly it more highly concerns us to lay hold of the Season allow'd us to do God's Will and this weighty Admonition is our Lord's and not mine Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations The Fifteenth Sermon PSALM xi 3 If the Foundations be destroyed what can the Righteous do THE preceding Verses run thus In the Lord put I my trust how say ye to my Soul Fly as a Bird to the Mountain For lo the wicked bend their Bow and make ready their Arrow upon the String that they may privily shoot at the Vpright in heart If the Foundations be destroyed what can the Righteous do That the Lord careth for the Righteous defendeth them against the Machinations of the Wicked as with a Shield or as it follows at the 7 th Verse That the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness his Countenance doth behold the Vpright is prima Veritas the first Truth and Fundamental Article that both comforts and confirms the Godly in their Godliness that while they continue to be
Agreeable to him for his own sake And this Rule of Love to Men may teach us what Love we ought to pay to God for we ought to wish Well to God and to procure things Good and Agreeable to him And if any ask Wherein we can do this to God I need look no further for an Answer than the second Petition in the Lord's Prayer Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as 't is in Heaven It consists in the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory For all other things besides these are nothing to God as the Psalmist says My goods are nothing unto thee The Riches of this World and the most precious things in its account are contemptible in his Sight but these two which I have named he esteems and in some measure wants and desires possesses not perfectly and absolutely as he would All his Creatures do not acknowledge him honour him worship him delight in his Dominion pay a ready cheerful Obedience to his Commands as the Angels in Heaven do notwithstanding that they are reasonable honourable beneficial have more of Profit than of the Yoke in them But so it is there is another God of this World that blinds most men and leads them away captive with divers Lusts and they chuse rather to be Vassals and Drudges to this Usurper and Tyrant than to be Nobles and Princes even adopted Children to the King of Heaven and Earth And with good reason holy Men in every Age have pray'd for God's Kingdom i. e. the Encrease of Righteousness and of the Number of the Faithful for God is yet in a manner like those Princes which are outed of part of their Dominions and deny'd the Obedience of whole Nations of their People and his Loyal Subjects can no way shew their affection so much to him as by espousing his Interest abetting his Title employing their best Endeavours to reduce the Rebellious to Allegiance by wishing with the Psalmist That Kings and all People young men and maidens old men and children would praise and glorifie his holy Name 'T is the business of Great Ministers of State to understand the Strength and weakness of Foreign Princes the Commodities and Defects of their Countries that they make the most advantageous Alliances for their own Masters and they are held the best Politicians that do this best But if both those of the highest Condition and also of the lowest and meanest even all People would set to their Power to serve the Great Monarch of Heaven and Earth they would find no Policy comparable to this that the promoting of his Designs would be the most certain way of promoting their own whether publick or private they would find that they would thrive like Jacob that all things would prosper under their hands like Joseph that they would return with constant Victory like David and heap up Gold and Silver like Solomon Numa though a Heathen rely'd so confidently on this Policy that when he was told on a time That the Enemy was drawing up against him he answer'd And I am praying against them And when 't was said They were charging he reply'd and he was Sacrificing assuring himself the Gods would not neglect his Safety while he was solicitous for their Worship But you will say Is it needful that we should wish for the Encrease of God's Kingdom does he want the help of his Creatures No. Is he not Omnipotent and can bring to pass whatever seems good to him Yes Who has resisted his Will As the Question is ask'd None and yet it may be as truly said Who is there that has not resisted his Will What was spoken of Israel may be affirmed of all Mankind that they are a rebellious and gain-saying People God 't is true is Omnipotent and his Power never fails he brought the World out of nothing by his Word and by his bare Word can reduce it again to nothing if he had pleas'd he could have created a Generation of Men that should have served him regularly and constantly fatally and necessarily as the Fire burns and the Sun and the Moon move in their Courses But this is not the Service that God wants and which we are to pray for in his behalf 't is the Free and Voluntary not the Constrain'd Service of his Rational Creatures that Men would obey him out of Love and Choice as his Dominion is gracious that they would desire it as it is beneficial and honourable that they would delight in it Compell'd Righteousness is no Righteousness 't is in Obedience as in Charity he that gives grudgingly and of necessity does not give but is tax'd and he that obeys of Compulsion is a Slave and not a Votary 'T is reported of the famous Painter Apelles that when he had finish'd any rare Piece his custom was latere post tabulam to hide himself behind it that he might hear what Passengers said of it and that he car'd for no Approbation but what came in this free way After the like manner God exposes to the View and Consideration of Men his Works of Power and of Wisdom of Mercy and of Goodness and then delights latere post tabulam to conceal himself in his inaccessible Glory and to observe what free and unextorted Returns of Honour and Love they will bring him in all forc'd or feign'd Superstitious and Hypocritical Acknowledgments being odious to him And now after all that has been said in strict speaking God stands no more in need of our Obedience and Worship than he does of our Riches as 't is said Acts 17.24 He dwelleth not in Temples made by hands neither is he worshipp'd by mens hands The meaning of his being outed of part of his Kingdom and denied his full Dominion in truth signifies no more But that he has not yet extended the Salvation of Men to the Bounds his Goodness designed But to proceed We said Love did not only Wish but Procure things good and acceptable to the Person belov'd and we ought not only to wish the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory but to set-to our hands to Effect what we pray for as it is not sufficient in Point of Charity to give good Words only to the Poor to say Be thou warm be thou fill'd God assist thee and the like when we can supply what they want our selves so 't is not sufficient in our Love to God to say only Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven but we must zealously and industriously do his Will and endeavour all we can to promote his Kingdom Says our Lord to S t Peter Simon Peter lovest thou me Lord reply'd he thou knowest that I love thee And yet notwithstanding that he knew the Sincerity of his heart he ask'd him the same Question three times Why to grieve Peter or that he delighted in the repetition of the Profession of his Love No but to excite him to a more