his Grace what Apologie or Pretense are we able to make for our Impieties We cannot alledge at his Tribunal That we were ignorant of his Glory and unacquainted with his Works for the heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Psal 19. 1. We cannot say in that hour that we were destitute of the Law for He hath written it in our Hearts Nor that we wanted his Gospel for He hath put it into our Ears Nor that we were strangers unto his Name for we daily take it into our Lips Nor can we plead that He exacted more than 't was possible for us to do for we know we can do all things through Him that strengthens us And he accepteth according to what we have although it be but a willing mind where nothing more can be perform'd 2 Cor. 8. 12. He accepts the least Things where the least are the greatest that we can give Sincere we can be although not sinless Let us but be what we can and be perfectly willing to be what we can not that is let us be perfect as it is possible for us to be and perfectly willing to be perfect as our Father in Heaven and then we have that willing mind which S. Paul doth assure us will be accepted But here I would not be so mistaken by such as love to be misled into pleasant Errors as if I had hinted that the Will is still as good as the Deed or that if we are desirous to do our Duties and do them not it will certainly serve our turn as well as if we had done them The Apostle does not so speak and I onely speak with the Apostle whose words to the Corinthians are plainly These If there be first a willing mind God accepteth according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Which is as if he should have said God will not punish any man living who does as much as he is able for the not doing of That which 't is impossible for him to do From whence 't is obvious to infer not that any man may presume upon God's acceptance of his Will or his woulding rather without the performance of his Duty when he is able to perform as well as will it for this were to justifie our wilfullest which are our very worst sins but that when we have in earnest done the greatest good we can God accepts of our willingness to do the good we can not Being as good as we are able he will not be angry we are no better When he finds us sincere in all our Services he will not condemn us for not being sinless But notwithstanding all This which is indeed for our Comfort It is every whit as true and for our Humiliation that we shall be utterly unexcusable at the last great Audit in the day when God shall judge the Secrets of men by Jesus Christ in case we so far refuse Him that speaks to us from Heaven as live no more strictly with all the Advantages of the Gospel than the Jews and the Gentiles who liv'd without them First from the Gentiles 't is argued Thus by S. Paul If They were left without excuse who had no other Scripture than the great Book of Hieroglyphicks the double System of the Creatures in Heaven and Earth and had no other Light than that of Reason whereby to read it and had no Law to go by but That of Nature and had no where else to see it but in the Tables of their Hearts and where 't was written in no Characters but what were Invisible to their Eyes then what excuse can We hope for whom God hath spoken to by his Son and who besides the Light of Nature have All the Instruments of Grace too if We shall sin against the light of so clear a Knowledge 'T is very plain that we Christians may be less excusable than the Gentiles who many of them never heard of the Name of Christ and yet for all that were unexcusable Secondly from the Jews we find our Author to the Hebrews disputing thus Heb. 10. 28 29. If he that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of how much sorer Punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God And He is reckon'd to be the Man that hath trodden under foot the Son of God whoever he is that sinneth wilfully after he hath received the knowledge of the Truth v. 26. For if then we sin wilfully there remaineth no more sacrifice or expiation for sins but a certain fearfull looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries v. 27. The confirmation of this we have Heb. 6. 4 5 6. where 't is affirm'd to be impossible for them that once have been inlightned and have tasted of the good word of God if They fall away to be renewed unto Repentance And the reason there is because in God's interpretation they crucifie to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame This again is confirm'd by 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. where the End of relapsed Christians is said to be worse than the Beginning And thence 't is inferred to be better never to have known the way of Truth than after they have known it to turn c. Thus you see how the Jews might be less excusable than the Gentiles and yet how We who are Christians may be less excusable than the Jews And therefore let us look to it that we refuse not him that speaketh but rather that we make him some proportionable Answer speaking back to him better than by our Sins to wit by Repentance and change of Life For if They escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth much less shall we if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven § 8. I do insist so much the rather upon this fourth and last Topick from which the Caveat or Warning is now inforc'd because the hope of Reward in a world to come is less available with men than the fear of Punishment and because the Holy Ghost does seem to prefer this way of arguing not onely in my Text but in diverse other places of this Epistle In the second Chapter more especially at the first second third and fourth Verses we find the Argument and the Inference to be much the same that they are here First of all observe the Argument and especially the Topick from which 't is drawn If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Transgression and Disobedience received a just recompence of reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How shall we then escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with Signs and Wonders and diverse Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost
People Israel To hear the voice of God speaking from out the midst of the Fire Did ever People hear the like in any Time or at any Place First for Time Ask the days that are past since the day wherein God created Man upon the earth Secondly for Place Ask from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as This or hath been ever heard like it In the two next passages Moses strictly injoyns the People to addict themselves wholly to the words of God's Law to be conversant with them both Day and Night to have them always upon their Hands and in their Mouthes between their Eyes and in their Hearts Whereupon we are to argue à minori ad majus If such attention was to be given to what was spoken onely by Moses to all the People how much more to what is spoken by Jesus Christ for Christ was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as He that built the House hath more honour than the House Heb. 3. 3. And by how much a Son is above a Servant v. 5 6. And therefore if the Words which God had spoken by his Servant much more are the Words which He hath spoken by his Son very fit to be written upon our Gates and our Door-posts to be fixt as Frontlets between our Eyes to be set as a Seal upon our Hands and as a Signet upon our Hearts We ought to teach them unto our Children and to be ruminating on them on all Occasions in season out of season when we sit in our Houses and when we walk by the way when we lie down and when we rise up And thus we have the first of the four Inforcements by which the Warning of our Apostle may be set home upon our Souls § 5. Secondly Let us consider after the Quality of the Speaker the Nature of the Things that are spoken by him They are not any such hard and insupportable sayings as once were heard from Mount Ebal Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them no nor such as were spoken long before at Beersheba and to be put in Execution on Mount Moriah Take now thy Son thine onely Son whom thou lovest and offer him for a Burnt-offering upon one of the Mountains which I shall tell thee of No he does not require of us any such Terrible Expressions of our Obedience He commands us to kill and slay not our Children but our Sins And yet our Sins are our Children too the fruit of our Bodies very often and still the fruit of our Souls Nay many times these ugly Children I mean our Sins are dearer to us than Sons or Daughters Agamemnon found it easier to kill a Daughter than a Lust But they are viperous Darlings we so much doat on such miscreant Children as will kill their own Parents if not prevented by being kill'd And these alone are the Children which God requires us to sacrifice to his Displeasure Not our Isaacs but our Ishmaels I mean our wild and furious illegitimate Off-spring are to be slain We must sacrifice our Dishonesty by doing Justice we must sacrifice our Avarice by shewing Mercy and we must sacrifice our Pride by walking humbly with our God Mic. 6. 8. Well ye have heard what it is not will ye now know what it is which God in Christ doth speak to us he speaks the best and the happiest Tidings that any wounded or broken Spirit can hope or pray for So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have life ever lasting Joh. 3. 16. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be sav'd v. 17. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Joh. 7. 37. He that believeth in me there shall flow out of his Belly Rivers of living water v. 38. If a man keep my saying he shall never see Death Joh. 8. 51. Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11. 28. And if ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Joh. 14. 14. Thus we find God the Father speaking to us by his Son Now observe how God the Son is speaking to us by his Servants If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for all our sins 1 Joh. 2. 1. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And here I cannot but call to mind what was said unto Naaman the churlish Syrian Who coming to Elisha to be cured of his Leprosie was prescribed by the Prophet no harder Medicine than to wash seven times in the River Jordan When He being Angry in stead of Thankfull ask'd if Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were not better than all the Waters of Israel An Ingratitude so excessive that his own Servants took him up I know not whether with a more melting or a more cutting kind of Rebuke saying to him My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather when he saith to thee wash and be clean After the very same manner may I say here If God had sent us a Message by his Arch-Angel Michael who is said by the Rabbins to be the Messenger of his Justice and so to bring news of the saddest nature should we not have entertain'd him as a Messenger from Heaven with Fear and Reverence And then with a greater force of reason when a Messenger so glorious and one withall so obliging is sent unto us as God manifest in the Flesh and sent unto us in such a Message as is not onely the word of God but the word of Reconciliation sure the least we can render for so much Mercy is not onely very willingly but very thankfully to receive it And therefore as for the former so for this reason also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh § 6. Thirdly let us consider after the Quality of the Speaker and the Nature of what is spoken the Condition of the Persons to whom he speaks Even to us who were Gentiles that had long sat in Darkness and the shadow of Death To us who were so diseased and sick of sin as that we could not be cur'd but by the Death of our Physician this Sun of Righteousness did arise with healing in his Wings and translated us out of Darkness into his marvellous light We had nothing but Sin and Misery to make us capable of his compassion and nothing more than his own compassion to make us capable of his Love For had he not lov'd us whilst we were
which have not a fallacy lurking in them Now by such a way of arguing or at least by one as good if Pontius Pilate was not a Saint because his Name is in the Creed at least the Scribes and the Pharisees must pass for very good men because they have their Names writ in the Book of life But for the men who thus argue and are circumspect in their walking not as wise men but fools we can in charity call them no worse than Hypochondriacs in religion men whose Souls are directed by the Infirmities of their Bodies and are fitter for the Pity than Indignation of their Superiours because the Distempers of their spleen may be sincerely thought by Them to be the Scruples of their Conscience Thus the jealous Mithridates stood in such fear of being poison'd that even his Meals were all Antidote and so his Body in tract of time became a walking Pharmacopoeia This indeed is a great but an heedless Caution Such as does cross and confute the Proverb because abundance of this is hurtfull Some heed therefore is to be taken not to be heedless and imprudent in the extravagant excess of our taking heed and that we do not deceive our selves with too immoderate a fear of our being deceiv'd § 6. But This is certainly a Caution to which a small portion of Rhetorick will be sufficient to persuade us So unapt we are to erre on the farther side of This Duty that our usual fault is we are too much behither it Our greatest danger commonly is our opinion that there is none and we are most likely to be unsafe by our too great aptness to be secure Indeed in matters of little moment concerning the Body or the Purse we need no Sermons against Security or excitations to Circumspection Very few there are that travell in times of danger without a Pistol or a Sword or that in places of infection will walk the streets without an Amulet Few Families go to bed till they have made fast their Doors and in the morning when they arise their first care is to shut out Nakedness and Hunger So that if it were a Sin to be in Poverty or a scandalous matter to suffer Pain there would be nothing so difficult as not to abound in this Duty of Circumspection But alas we do not consider heedless Creatures as we are how it fares with our Souls as with so many Ships wherein the very least Crevices if undiscover'd are too sufficient to drown us all And yet how partially we prefer the care of our Bodies and Estates before the Care and Concernment we ought to have of and for our Souls we may conjecture by the Practice of the Physician and the Lawyer above That of the Divine For one Scruple in the Conscience how many are there in the stomach How many Empiricks are sought to for here and there a single Confessor and how many reall Patients are in all places to be met with for one true Penitent Be there never so slight an Vlcer in any part of the Body we straight desire the grim Artist to use his Corrosive and his Probe perhaps his Lance and his Caustick too But be the Soul never so ulcerous we are content either with none or a palliate Cure So again it is in the other Instance That though we have little or no sollicitude about the making of our Calling and Election sure which in my Text is expressed by walking circumspectly as Wise and not as Fools nor trouble our heads with an Inquiry what shall become of us hereafter what kind of Interest we may have in the Bloud of Christ what kind of Title we can pretend to the inheriting of a Kingdom a joyfull Aeternity in Reversion and how we shall plead it at the Assizes which will one day be held in the Court of Heaven Yet be there never so small a flaw in any Title to an Estate Lord how sedulous we are to have the matter made up How many Counsellors are consulted and set on work for one Casuist How many Cases are try'd in Law for one in Conscience I will not call it the universall but usuall Custom that when Luke the good Physician has little hope of our Bodies we send for Gamaliel the able Lawyer to take care of our Estates And That being done Then for Barnabas the Divine who is a Son of Comfort too to make provision for our Aeternity § 7. Thus we see the most of men have Circumspection very sufficient but 't is sufficiently misapply'd too And in the Misapplication lies all the Mischief Just as the Pharisee in the Parable was very free of his Confessions But he apply'd them to his Vertues and not his Sins He made confession of his righteousness to wit his fasting twice a week and paying Tithes to a Pin's-worth of Mint and Cummin He very ambitiously confess'd that he thought himself holier than other men for which he gave God thanks too and not himself But of his manifold impieties we do not hear a word from him So the greatest numbers of men are very circumspect and wary But they are wary of their Duties as of dangerous things things which probably will betray them to the disfriendship of the world esteeming Him an imprudent man who dares adventure on what is strait when the Times are crooked and to stand his old Ground when new is temporally safer and more in vogue too Men are wary of loving Enemies or doing good to such as hate them very wary how they part with a sinfull Pleasure or send a bill of divorce to a beloved Passion Extremely heedfull they are and cautious how they fall from a station of wealth and honour how they beat down their Bodies and bring their Flesh into subjection how they crucifie the world unto themselves and themselves unto the world as if there were nothing more ridiculous than That primitive Criterion by which a Christian was distinguish'd from Jew and Gentile nor any thing more to be avoided by one of Quality and Parts than such a seriousness of life and such a tenderness of Conscience as may expose him to the Censure of his being little more than a well-bred Quaker And as 't is commonly observ'd of the Lacedaemonians that they stated the guilt of Stealth not so much in the Act as the Apprehension and therefore reckon'd it a Sin not to steal but to be caught So the greatest heed taken by the Majority of Professors is not so really to be innocent as not to be censur'd for being guilty As if their Prayer were like That of the famous Hypocrite in the Poet Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere da justum sanctúmque videri Noctem peccatis fraudibus objice Nubem O my Goddess give me the Grace to seem as religious as the best and to be as deceitfull as may be possible The greatest Mischief to be avoided in most mens judgments if yet their Judgments may be judged of by their Practice
spreading of Irreligion and Atheism more since the Year 41 than ever before in our Memories and perhaps in our Readings too unless I may except the Days of Hildebrand when Hell is said to have broken loose One accompt of it is plain and obvious The horridst Rebellion under Heaven from after the Year 41 having been managed by Christians made the name odious ever since Insomuch that some Blasphemers have dar'd to say not That old and common word onely sit Anima mea cum Philosophis but as the effect of a greater hatred They would not indure going to heaven if they thought they should meet with such Christians There Which though the language of the most stupid and thick-headed Sinners who can no better distinguish 'twixt Words and Things or 'twixt the Picture and the Life or 'twixt the Vizard and the true Face or 'twixt the Actor and the Man or 'twixt the Use and the Abuse of the best things that can be nam'd or last of all betwixt a Nominal and Real Christian should yet be sufficient to deter such as are Christians at least in Wish from giving occasion for the future to such Aversions If the Enemies of Christ would but read over our Gospel and well consider it they would be juster and more ingenuous than to look upon Rebels and Mutineers in Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths as truly Christians But rather would guess that out of Malice they wear the Profession of Christianity to make it odious on purpose to bring it into disgrace and as much as in them lies to make us all asham'd of it Though God be thanked we are so far from being asham'd of the Gospel of Christ or asham'd of our Affliction in the Gospel's being abus'd and in The Adversaries Blaspheming that worthy Name by which 't is our Happiness and our Privilege to be called that we rejoyce to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake Yea 't is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such Disgrace is our Boasting and we glory in Tribulations Yea one step farther S. Paul advances we do so glory in our disparagement which we suffer for our Submission to every Ordinance of man upon Christ's accompt or in Obedience to his Doctrine or for the Lord's sake as S. Peter speaks that we glory in Nothing else God forbid that we should Glory says S. Paul to the Galatians save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the World is crucified unto us and we unto the World § 5. But what I speak last is but Occasional and may be reckon'd as a Parenthesis shewing All are not stagger'd or wavering in the Faith though many are And indeed they are so many whom the Schisms and Rebellions of men professing Christianity have made to waver if there are not many more whom they have made to fall off There are so many who do suspect the Christian Name in them that wear it as a cloak of Maliciousness which S. Peter provides against in the 16 th Verse of this Chapter and so many who do detest it for being so worn that if ever there can be any This is certainly the Time wherein the People are to be press'd to obey their Governours God I mean in the first place and human Authority in the second And This as really in the second as that other in the first because our Obedience to the first does clearly depend for its Completion upon our Obedience to the second Men should be made to understand by perspicuous and frequent and cogent reasonings how the whole of our Religion may be easily wound up into these two Bottoms our adaequate Obedience to God and Man To the Royal Law of Christ and to the Laws of the Nation wherein we live whether those Laws are Ecclesiastical or Civil These two are the Measures we may warrantably take of our selves and others These two are the Touchstones by which we all are to be try'd Not the one without the other There is no fearing God without honouring the King nor vice versâ Our Obedience to God is a thing impossible without a suitable Obedience to his Vicegerents whether the King as Supreme or other Governours Subordinate These commissioned by Him as He by God Not onely Scripture and Reason but long Experience and Observation have made me look on These two as things which are never to be parted either in Practice or in Discourse Without These two all the rest are worth nothing And neither of These alone can be sincere without the other My Son says Solomon fear the Lord and the King and meddle not with Them that are given to change Either fear them Both or Neither though each in his Order The Lord for his own sake and therefore First The King for the Lord's sake and therefore Second But meddle not with Them whose evil communication may corrupt thy good manners and therefore meddle not with Them that are given to change who do neither fear God nor honour the King and accordingly are weigh'd in the opposite Scale of the Wise man's Ballance The People must not onely be told now and then upon the By but must purposely be taught nor must they cease from being taught until convinc'd of this union The fear of God and of the King Obedience to Divine and to human Laws as essential to our Present and Future Safety § 6. When I inquire into the Reasons why amongst a World of Christians there is so little of Christianity and why the Protestants themselves divide as much from one another as they all do from the Church of Rome which is as much as from the Jews or the Turks themselves for they will no more communicate with the one than with the other although in most Fundamentals they All agree This amongst several other reasons appears to me to be the chief that there is one thing Essential to the Christian Religion and by consequence to the Salvation of all men's Souls which however a Fundamental is not yet so well known or not so heartily believ'd or not so seriously consider'd and laid to heart nor so duly preached up as it ought to be For if it were there could not be so many Schisms and Separations here in England as now there are There could not be by any means such Inclinations to Rebellion such Oppositions of Authority and such Contempt of human Laws whether Civil or Ecclesiastical as now we see there are daily and are rather in a likelihood to grow worse and worse than in any present Hope of a sound Amendment Now the Truth which is Essential to our Christian Religion and to the saving of our Souls which I conceive to be so seldom either known or believ'd or sufficiently Consider'd or Taught as such is plainly This That the Duties of the First Table cannot possibly subsist without the Duties of the Second That Obedience to God does ever include and carry with it a strict Obedience unto our
I need not say more Committing therefore what I have said to due and serious Consideration I shut up all with That Prayer which is the fittest to compleat and conclude the Sermon That what we have heard at this time with our outward Ears may by the powerfull Grace of God be so grafted inwardly in our Hearts as to bring forth in us the fruit of good Living to the Honour and Praise of his Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit be Glory and Thanksgiving both now and for ever Amen THE APPENDIX § 1. OUr steddy Adherence or Assent to the Two last Articles of the Creed and indeed to the other Ten cannot possibly subsist without our Assent unto the First We cannot certainly believe that we shall rise from the Dead unless it be by believing that Christ is risen And as little can we believe that Christ is risen unless it be by believing first that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself This implies and presupposes the First Article of our Creed which is as well the Foundation as the Support of all the Rest But since the breaking loose of Hell in This last Age of a loathsome World we have met with such Enemies not onely to ours but to All Religion as from their wishing and woulding there were no God no Resurrection of the Body no life after Death no Day of Judgment have proceeded so far as to say and teach There is no God nor any one of those Things which have been regularly built upon This Foundation And if we suffer This Foundation to be either undermin'd or but shaken in us All the Fabrick of our Faith will fall to nothing in an Instant An Error here is like one in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second If we do not believe in God the first Article of our Creed we cannot choose but be Infidels in All that follow Nor are we onely to believe him as Belief is opposed unto a comprehensive knowledge But we must knowingly believe him as Belief is consistent with knowledge meerly Apprehensive And so as to say with as much Truth as S. Paul to Timothy every man for himself in whatsoever Temptations and Times of Trial For I know whom I have believed § 2. A Text which serves well for a double purpose to ascertain our Knowledge and to establish our Belief as well as to shew the just measure and use of Both in our Religion A Text accordingly to be consider'd not onely in its Relative but in its Absolute importance First the words in their Relation to Those that follow and go before them will be most easily understood by being paraphrased Thus. I am a Preacher and an Apostle and therefore now a Prisoner of Jesus Christ Even for this very cause of my being sent forth by the Will of God and made a Teacher of the Gentiles I suffer these Bonds and Persecutions of the Jews But I am not asham'd of my Bonds or Office I am not sorry for my Preaching though 't is the Cause of my Imprisonment For He on whom I have depended will never forsake me I am sure In His hands I can with chearfulness repose my Life by whom my Death will be a Door to my Resurrection For I have not believ'd I know not whom Nor do I nakedly believe whom I love and adore and rely upon but I perfectly Know whom I have believed and have a plentitude of Perswasion that He for whom I now suffer will never fail me on Him my Cares are all cast who careth for me With Him I have intrusted the whole Depositum of my Labours in the preaching of the Gospel and the Depositum of my Sufferings for having preach'd it And whatsoever I have intrusted or shall intrust to His keeping be it my Body or my Soul my Body in Peace or my Soul in Patience I am assur'd he is Able and am perswaded he is Willing to lay it up for me against That Day A Day expressed to us in Scripture by such Periphrases as These The Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire The day wherein God shall judge the Secrets of men by Jesus Christ The Day when all that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice and come forth The Day of Discrimination when He will make up his Jewels and a Book of Remembrance shall lie before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name All my Concerns are left with Him who will keep them in safety against That Day Thus lies the Text in its relation to the Context § 3. But being consider'd in it self and without such Relation 't will be as easily understood by this other Paraphrase I know Him perfectly as to his Being whom I believe as to his Essence or whom as to his Essence I know in part onely I can demonstrate his Existence although I can but most firmly believe his Word For at one and the same time as also in one and the same respect I cannot know and believe him too because what I know I do more than believe or am past believing And what I do but believe I have not yet attained the knowledge of Knowledge and Belief do move in two distinct Spheres and That of Knowledge is so much higher than This of Faith that 't is the Perfection of a man's Faith wholly to perish and expire to be drown'd and swallow'd up into perfect Knowledge St. Paul expresseth his Believing by his knowing in part And the Top of his comfort does stand in This that when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Here we can but see darkly as through a glass but the time is now coming when we shall see face to face Here we onely can Believe the Three Subsistences of the Godhead in but one and the same Substance whereas in That Day of Revelation and Restitution we shall Know this great Mystery even as also we are Known Here we can but Believe the Resurrection of our Bodies but in the great Day of Recompence our Fruition and Experience will make us Know it We do not know more exactly that Five and Five do make Ten or that a part of any Dimension is unequal to the whole than we do Know and can demonstrate against the Enemies of a Deity the uncontroulable existence of the Deity we adore But This I say onely of God's Existence and of his Essence onely in part For in our deepest Contemplation of certain Mysteries in our Religion such as a Trinity of the Persons in the Vnity of the Godhead the Generation of the Second the Procession of the Third and yet the Coessentiality of Both-together with the First I say in This contemplation our Childish understandings become so froward they cannot be quieted but by
to approach unto Christ himself with a Depart from me O Lord for I am a Sinfull man They would not separate from us Then like those Idolaters in Isaiah with a Stand farther off come not near to us for we are holier than you But rather like the Lepers under the Law of Leprosie would cover their faces with Confusion and stand aloof from God's House accusing themselves of their Vncleanness or like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Primitive Times of Discipline falling down flat upon their faces not in the Church but the Churchyard at an humble Distance would beg the Charity of Their Prayers whom they saw entring into God's House at the Times of Prayer Were they such Separatists as These and from such a Principle as This from the excesses onely of Meekness and not of Pride we should receive them with the Embraces of Arms and Hearts we should readily afford them even the Right hand of Fellowship we should conclude the Holy Ghost had so descended upon their Souls as once he did upon the Heads of the 12 Apostles or rather upon the Hearts of thâ—se 3000 who at S. Peter's one Sermon were added to them Though not in the Edifying Gifts which were bestowed upon the former yet in the Sanctifying Graces which were infused into the latter § 12. But having spoken enough already of Trying the Spirits in other men I think it fit to say something of Trying them also in our selves For considering the words of the Prophet Jeremy The Heart of man is deceitfull above all things and that 't is given to very few few I mean in comparison to know what Spirits they are of I guess it concerns us all in general and every one of us in particular to resume the whole Text and bring it home unto our selves to search and try our own Hearts and to examin our own Spirits whether or no they are of God 'T was the Precept of Pythagoras to every man of his Sect that he should bring himself to the Test or call himself to an Accompt every Evening of his whole Life with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he had done in That Day which he ought to have omitted and what good thing he had omitted which 't was his Duty to have done Nor was he to suffer himself to sleep till he had made up this Reckoning three several Times So 't was the Precept of S. Paul in his 2 d Epistle to the Corinthians Examin your selves whether ye be in the Faith meaning That Faith which does work by Love all manner of Obedience to the Law of Christ's Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove or try your own selves whether ye have not yet received the True Faith of Christ or whether having once received ye still retain it Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates So S. Paul reason'd with his Corinthians and so must we with or within our selves Know we not that Christ is in us by the Presence of his Spirit and by the Power of his Word and by the evident effects of His Operation Such as our Sorrow for our sins past our hatred of our selves in Remembrance of them and our stedfast Resolutions of better life Know we not that Christ is in us by such Evidences as These If we do Then let us treat him in such a manner as may become so Divine a Guest But if we do not we have some reason to fear lest we have sinn'd-away our Saviour as arrant Reprobates and Castaways as men unworthy to be call'd Christians as men who either are not at all Regenerate or else are fallen from That State of Regeneration which we were in or to express it with S. Paul as men who have received the Grace of God in vain And as it concerns us on all occasions to try the Spirit which is in us whether 't is a good or an evil Spirit so most especially does it concern us at such a Time as This is when we Tread in God's Courts to offer up the Gospel-sacrifice of Supplication and Thanksgiving to hear His Word to partake of his Sacraments Duties equally belonging to the first Sunday of the month For the Bread of God's Children must not be cast unto the Dogs and the Food which is Spiritual belongs to Them onely who can spiritually discern it and who live not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I do not mean after every Spirit for there are many more than good as I shew'd before but after The Spirit that is of God The Spirit of Holiness and Truth The Spirit of Vnity and Love The Spirit of Meekness and of Order The Spirit of Singleness and Sincerity The Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding The Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly Strength The Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and lastly The Spirit of God's Holy Fear as the divine Prophet Isaiah expresseth him resting upon Christ of whom the good King Hezekiah was but a Type in That place Unto all which if I should add The Spirit of Promise with S. Paul and The Spirit of Prophecy with S. John The Spirit of Grace with holy Zachary and The Spirit of Glory with S. Peter I should but say The same Spirit in the vindicating of whom from the many False Spirits which in this last Age especially have been debauching the Christian World I have imploy'd the little Time which is allow'd for this Part of our Morning Service To Him therefore with The Father in their Unity with The Son Sing we Hosannahs and Hallelujahs Blessing Glory Honour and Power To Him that liveth for evermore OF The exceeding Sinfulness OF SCHISM In how many GREAT REGARDS It is worse than HAERESIE AND Why more damning than other Crimes 2 THESS 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly § 1. A TEXT exciting us to a Duty which does equally invite and command Attention For the Duty is introduced with as important an Obtestation as is any-where us'd in S. Paul's Epistles and it must certainly be a matter of exceeding great moment which could extort from our Apostle so great and signal an Obtestation He calls us Brethren for we are now in the place of the Thessalonians to win our Love and to shew his own But withall he commands us as God's Embassador that he may make as good impression upon our Fear too We may take his whole Meaning in This plain Paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We charge you and that by virtue of our Commission or in the power of our Apostleship in the name and the behalf by the Bowells and the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ as ye will answer it at the great and terrible Day of Discrimination the Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power by every thing that is dreadfull or dear unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we declare we denounce we command you Brethren that if ye observe any Professor of the Christian Religion who for that reason onely is call'd a Brother to forsake his proper Calling his Place and Station and to meddle as a Buisybody in other mens Matters v. 11. and so to cast off all Obedience to the Rules of Direction which we have given especially if ye observe him to leap from the Shop into the Pulpit or out of the Church into a Synagogue consisting of the most factious and disorderly Opiniators who under colour of serving God despise the Ordinances of Men ye presently Note him and mark him out as a Disorderly Walker as a Disturber of Society as a Disseminator of Discords the very Bane of all Religion and the Discredit of Christianity most unworthy to be admitted to any Commerce or Conversation with regular Christians but to be shunn'd like any Leper and to be cast out of your Company as if he had a Plague-sore v. 14. Thus I paraphrase the Text as I find it relating to the Context and by comparing our Apostle's with our Saviour's own Rule For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Brother walking disorderly in this present verse does seem to be the same unruly and irregular Person who is expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 5. 14. Which being a Military expression and of peculiar use in Tacticks does properly signifie a Souldier who runs away from his Colours quits the Service he undertook and ingaged in denies obedience to his Commander not onely to his Lieutenant but Captain-General that is to say without a Metaphor depraves the Doctrin disturbs the Disciplin disowns the Government of the Church By any one of which Three he is disorderly in his Walking however they are commonly all Three in one § 2. Now when a Brother that is a Christian at least in Profession and Pretense is so disorderly in his Walking as that he will not hear the Church but is a Contemner of Authority and Publick Order He is by the Rule of our Blessed Saviour to be look'd upon and dealt with just as Heathen-men and Publicans were look'd upon and dealt with amongst the Jews We must avoid him as a prophane and an impious person as one who is void of all Religion and as it were without God in the World Thus we must brand and stigmatize him for two good Reasons and pious Ends first that himself may be asham'd and being asham'd may be converted 2 Thess 3. 14. next that others also may fear to doe and suffer by his Example § 3. That This was the meaning of our Lord Matth. 18. 17. seems to me very evident from Two especially of his Apostles I mean the most learned and most beloved They tell us Both that when a Brother is become contumacious and not reclaimable either by private or by publick Admonitions we must not onely not religiously but not so much as civilly entertain commerce with him We must not eat with such a Brother or keep him company must not receive him into our Houses or bid him God speed And there is reason for this Severity which S. Paul and S. John have thus injoyn'd us For can there be any thing more apposite more pertinent or proper than to deny them our Company in private Houses who disdain to afford us their own in God's Why should we eat and drink with Them either at Their or Our Tables who are therefore too unworthy because they think they are too Good to eat and drink in our company at the Table of the Lord Why should we any-where go with Them who will not go with Vs to Heaven and hate the means of Salvation so far forth as we injoy them Is it any way consistent either with Charity or Reason that we should bid a man God speed in the ways of Corah or affect his Society who hates our Religion and our God No he is rather says our Apostle to be put away from us and from among us as a foul pestilential accursed thing and even deliver'd up to Satan by the Censures of the Church although it be to this charitable and wholsome end that he may learn not to blaspheme that he may learn to be conformable to Rules and Rulers and so that his Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus § 4. 'T is true that All vicious persons are disorderly Walkers who walk as far as they are able from the strait Path of God's Commandments and from All that are Scandalous we are commanded to withdraw For so saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 5. 11. I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is call'd a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat No not in one of your private Houses much less in the Sacrament and House of God But I do not here speak nor does S. Paul touching absolute Apostates who do renounce and fall away from the whole Faith of Christ and the very Profession of Christianity because They are not so much as call'd or accompted Brethren Nor do I speak of Jews or Heathens who because they are avow'd and open Enemies of Christ may with much the more safety or rather with much the less danger be traffick'd with And accordingly S. Paul has excepted Them in the very next verse before my Text and the next verse after But I speak of gross Sinners on whom the name of Christ is call'd And amongst Them in special manner I aim at two sorts of men who are called Brethren and so like Judas downright do betray the whole Cause of Christianity with a Kiss I mean the Haeretick for one who breaks the Unity of the Church in point of Doctrin by denying one or more of her Fundamentals I mean the Schismatick for another who breaks the Unity of the Church in point of Disciplin by doing as much as in him lies to overthrow her very Government Laws and Order The First of These we must reject and withdraw our selves from in case he shall not reform himself after a couple of Admonitions Tit. 3. 10. Much more the Second as the more Scandalous and the more mischievous and the more impious of the two And being by much the most irregular of all disorderly Walkers my Text intends he is the fitter to be the Subject of my Discourse at this Time For an Haeretick as he is such does onely offend against Faith and Truth and keeping his Errour to himself as very