reveal them unto her yet since he has no where promised that he will do this nor encouraged us to call upon her to this End we think we cannot in this manner pray to her without either great Folly or great Impiety Without great Folly if not believing that she do's certainly some way or other understand our Requests we yet neverless address to her Without great Impiety if in confidence that she has such an Ability we ascribe the most peculiar Prerogatives of God to her viz. Immensity Omniscience Omnipresence and so make her every way equal with God But were she now upon Earth where we could either speak to her our selves or otherwise entertain any certain Correspondence with her we should be far from discouraging any to beg the Benefit of her Prayers or thinking them worthy of Censure for so doing When we stand at our Altars and celebrate the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and set forth the Lord's death until his coming We cannot indeed allow our selves to do this to the Honour and Veneration of any other than of him only whose Death and Passion we commemorate But even here also we do the utmost that we can to Honour her We name her at the Holy Table we recite there the History of God's Favour to her and magnifie him with her upon the account of it In a Word when we confess our Sins and absolve our Penitents if we commend either our selves or others to God's Mercy In these and the like Cases we think it an Impiety to joyn the Daughter of Anna with the great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth If we give Thanks for any Blessings we have receved we chuse rather to follow her Example and cry out with her My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour than with others to divide the Glory between God and her and say Glory be to JESVS and MARY If we vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear by his Name we neither think it fitting nor lawful to joyn God and the Blessed Virgin together lest we should thereby seem to make her the Searcher of Hearts as well as him and a powerful Avenger of such secret Sins If we speak of Her we readily give her any Attribute that either the holy Scripture warrants or her Nature allows of But to call her a Goddess and our selves her Suppliants to style her Queen of Heaven and Mother of Divine Grace the Refuge of Sinners and the Ark of the Covenant the Sovereign Lady of Angels Archangels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all Saints and as such beseech her That she and her Son would bless us this we think is to carry the Complement too far and a Strain much fitter for some poetical Heathen Goddess than for a Christian Saint But let these and the like Superstitions be laid aside and which a Virgin so humble on Earth cannot sure be supposed to be so much altered for the worse as to aspire after in Heaven let Religion and the Worship of that be exempted as the peculiar Due of that God who made both her and us and whom alone both she and all of us therefore ought to adore and then what farther remains to proclaim her Blessed shall as freely be allowed and paid her by us as it can be justly claimed of us Now the sum of all such Honour may be referred by us to these two general Considerations 1. Of that just Esteem and Value and Opinion we have of her And 2. Of Actions suitable to such Opinions As for the former of these 1. That Esteem and Value and Opinion we have of her It is certainly as great as any sober Christian can desire it should be We believe her to have been a most pure and holy and vertuous Creature That her virgin Mind was clean and spotless as her Body Chast and immaculate and that she was upon the Account of both the most fit of any of all her Race or Sex for the Holy Ghost to overshadow and for the Son of the most Highest to inhabit When we consider the firmness of her Faith the fervour of her Devotion the excellency of her Humility we cannot but acknowledge a Grace extraordinary in her working all those eminent and Divine Qualities And tho' we are not so curious as to enter on those nicer Speculations in which so many have in vain exercised themselves Whether she was Conceived in Sin And if she was How far it was restrained in her at first and at what instant totally extinct in her afterwards Whether she was Sanctified in the Womb of her Mother And to what degree And at what time Whether before she was Animated or after And Whether this Sanctification was such as to keep her from ever committing any so much as Venial Sin Yet as the common condition of Mankind does not permit us without all warrant from Holy Scripture which they confess is here wanting to them to exempt her from all Sin so neither do we pretend to accuse her of any And for her present state we do not at all question but that God who shewed her such favour on Earth hath also very highly exalted her in Heaven So that among all the Race of Adam next unto him who was God as well as Man we think it very probable that she has obtain'd the chiefest place in God's Kingdom who brought forth the Son of God into the World And here then let these our Accusers who say that we are not of the number of those of whom the Blessed Virgin in my Text prophesied That Behold from thenceforth all Generations should call her Blessed tell us if they can Wherein is it that we are defective in our Opinion concerning the Mother of our Lord Is it that we deny her Immaculate Conception and suppose her to have in this been submitted to the common condition of all others since the Fall of our first Parents Christ only excepted But then they must not forget that this is no more than what their own Brethren of their own Infallible Church deny as stifly as we do And if there have been Saints and Popes and Visions and Miracles for it yet we know there have been also Saints and Popes and Visions and Miracles against it too And at this day there is Order against Order School against School about it And as if the Spirit of Infallibility had in this Matter forsaken their Church it could never yet be finally determined either by Council or Pope which Side is in the right Is it that we suspend our selves as to the Point of her Actual Sins And see no cause to conclude why the Blessed Virgin though a most pure and holy Creature yet should not have been as capable of committing Sins as well as all others Christ only excepted here also we think must be allowed to be But yet in this we do but follow some of the greatest
Lights in the Primitive Church and Reason according to the common Condition of Mankind and from which they themselves cannot produce us any Authority of Holy Scripture to exempt her And if some among us have with St. Chrysostom freely supposed That in some cases she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in the very Instances to which they refer they have at least probable grounds for what they say And for the most part we are contented with St. Austin to suspend our selves and for the honour of our Saviour not to enter into any question at all concerning her as to this matter whether she ever did actually sin or no Or now that God has taken her up into Glory Have we not all that high and worthy Opinion of her Exaltation that we ought to have because indeed we freely profess we cannot believe such extravagant Romances as all sober Men even of their own Church are ashamed of We doubt not but she is at this time in Heaven Do we ever the more debase her because we will not entertain a shameless Legend of her Assumption thither We are persuaded that she is adorn'd with one of the brightest Aureola's in God's Kingdom That her Crown is more Illustrious than any among the Daughters of Eve Is not this sufficient unless we will undertake to tell you what her Crown was made of how many Stars went into her Atchievement what Badges her Servants wore and what Speeches and Complements were made to her upon the occasion and to compleat all set forth in perspective all the Holy Trinity concurring in this Ceremony and all the Powers of Heaven and Earth singing Praises to Her and adoring of Her We make no question but that as she was very highly favour'd by God on Earth so is she now no less beloved by him in Heaven But should we therefore set her up as another Mediatrix that as both Sexes concurr'd to our Ruin so might both concur to our Reparation and so tye up the Hands of God as not to allow any to be saved but according to Her Will Nay make her so far the Queen of Heaven and Earth as to give her a Power of all the Grace that is to be bestowed on Mankind Of saving her Votaries if they do but sufficiently love and worship Her whatever their Affections or their Service be to God Almighty Of fetching Souls not only out of Purgatory but even from Hell it self by her Authority Of ordering all the Events of the Fortunes of Men and Kingdoms insomuch that not a Battel can be fought or a Victory obtain'd but by the favour of this Pallas to whom the Success is due and to whom the Praise and Honour therefore ought to be return'd These indeed are the Extravagancies of some of our Adversaries but God forbid they should ever be the Practice or Opinions of any among us To conclude It is impossible for any to entertain more honourable Sentiments of the Blessed Virgin than we do who will not run out into Blasphemy and Fanaticism and believe such things as neither Scripture nor Antiquity have deliver'd nor will either Piety or common Sense suffer us to receive Let us see Secondly Whether our Actions be not every way suitable to our Opinions Now for this I must observe according to my Foundation before laid down That the Holy Virgin however highly exalted by God being yet still but a meer Creature our Actions towards her must be no other than what a Creature that is at such a vast distance from us and out of all compass of Civil Communication is capable of receiving And so the summ of what may warrantably be paid to her will fall under these Three Generals First To celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Secondly To return Praises to God on the account of them And Thirdly To endeavour what in us lies to imitate her Excellencies This is all the Honour she is capable of receiving from us and it cannot be doubted but that we are as careful as any to fulfil the Prophecy of our Text in every one of these Particulars First We celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Let this day and the other Solemn Festivals we observe to the same End be our Witness how careful we are as to this particular We mark it out in our Rituals as a Day Holy unto the Lord We assemble in our Sacred places solemnly to recount what the Holy Scriptures have recorded of God's Mercies to Her And annually as at this time we encourage one another to bless and praise Him upon the account of them But here the Objection made in the beginning will rise against us 'T is true indeed we do observe some of her Festivals but yet we pass by the greater part of them And for the main thing of all we quite omit it in that we say not AVE MARIA so often and so impertinently as they do nor other Anthems of our Lady as they call her by a new and phantastical Title never given her either in Scripture or by any of the ancient Fathers This we confess is in some measure true We say no AVE MARIE'S i. e. after the manner that they do nor can we imagin what Honour is done to the Blessed Virgin by the nauseous tautologie of a Salutation pertinent in its season when the Angel spoke to her upon her Conception but now as unseasonable in the Application as it is vain and absurd in the Repetition But yet when we recite the History and celebrate the Memory of that surprising Salutation then we read it in our Assemblies that is we do say Ave Maria as often as 't is either pious or to the purpose to do it And if for not doing it as they do we are to be excluded out of the Number of those of whom our Text speaks yet God be thanked we shall run but the same Fortune that the Apostles and the primitive Ages of the Church did before it was first as they tell us revealed to St. Dominick and by him to the Church how they were to recite the Rosary But now for the other Instances objected against us viz. The Feasts and Anthems of our Lady in these we may venture to justifie our selves We celebrate the Memory of all the great Particulars that we know of her Life And if upon the meer Authority of Fables confess'd to be uncertain and disputed by many among themselves as not fit to be credited we cannot be induced to observe more yet in this we hope all sober Christians will acquit us and esteem us to be very excusable in what we do It being certainly to mock not honour both God and Her solemnly to commemorate and seriously to thank God for such Blessings as at the same time we are sure He never bestowed upon Her nor She ever receiv'd
to and the greatest Infidel must be forced at least to confess the Probability of it And indeed However Wicked men may endeavour to dissemble their Belief of these things and live so as if they truly did not give the least credit to them yet are their Fears many times too strong for them and discover their Apprehensions whether they will or no. This is the next Point I proposed III dly That however Sinners may Live as if they Believed nothing â—f all this yet the greatest of them cannot chuse but Tremble sometimes at the Appprehension of it So Felix did and so we have been told of many others that have done likewise Men may pretend to out-brave Hell and Eternity at a distance may laugh at our Discourses concerning another World and the Judgment that is to pass on all our Actions in it and make it a Piece of Wit and Gallantry not to believe any thing of them But I have seldome heard of that man that could look Damnation in the face when he came within prospect of it There is a certain time when all men begin to acknowledge the Power of Religion and if not to believe a Heaven yet at least to fear a Hell Atheism and Profaneness are things that pass well enough while there is no great cause to reflect on the danger of them Whilst mens Pulse beats strong their Years run briskly on their Condition is Easie and Prosperous they go on in their sins without Controul and therefore without considering either what they do or whether they are running But no sooner does any Trouble and Adversity come upon them If their prosperity fails them and the iniquity of their ways begins to encompass them round about If age and infirmities call upon them to think what they have done or where 't is they must next go but presently all their Schemes and Hypotheses vanish They awake as Men out of a deep sleep and too late begin if not to convince themselves that there is a Judgment to come yet to tremble with horror lest perhaps there should be One. But alas What is for the most part the consequence of these Terrors Is it even now at least to fit and prepare themselves for it No They are afraid of a future judgment and cannot endure the thoughts of it yet still they neglect to provide against it This was the last point I proposed to consider and is evidently the sad condition of many of these Men viz. IV thly That the use they make of these reasonings concerning a Judgment to come is not to bring themselves thereby to a repentance of their Evil-doings but rather to endeavour by any means to put off these thoughts of their future state that are so troublesome and uneasy to them There is not perhaps any one thing in the World that ruins more Souls than this unhappy Method so common with most sinners of still putting off the business of Religion to a more convenient season They cannot endure the thoughts of another World and that Judgment which we must every one of us undergo in it They tremble at the reflection of it and delude themselves with a future prospect of resolving in good earnest to prepare themselves for it but like Felix in the Text they put off this work to another Time without ever fixing when that Time is to come and it happens to them as it did to him that for the most part it never comes at all I believe there are but few in the World so wicked as never to have had their lucid intervals of Piety and Religion nor occasions both to consider of a Judgment to come and how much it would import them to provide for it On the contrary I am apt to think the greatest part of Sinners go on in their sins now with a confidence and resolution of repenting some time or other But still some thing or other interposes to prevent their doing of it and Death overtakes them before they are aware and they go out of this World or ever they have made the least provision for another I shall not need to say how unreasonable such a procrastination is even upon those Principles of Natural Reason on which I have hitherto proceeded in the managing of this great Argument For if we have so much reason as we have seen to believe that there is to be a Judgment to come in which we must render a strict account of all our Actions and every days experience convinces us of the shortness and uncertainty of our present life and the little dependâ—nce we can make upon it for the time to come If in that judgment the state and condition of sinners shall without controversy be very grievous and there be no way to promise our selves either any peace of Conscience now or any hopes of Happiness hereafter but only by acting in such a manner and putting our selves in such a state that we need not be either ashamed to live or afraid to die It must then certainly be most fit and reasonable for all of us to begin personally to consider and do like Men and no longer continue in those sins which are our torment now and which should we chance to die ere we have repented of them will prove our ruin for ever And all this the very light of reason and the dictates of natural Conscience speak to us to call us to repentance and to convince us of the Danger and Vnreasonableness of the least delaying of it And if there should chance to be any here present whose Wickedness and Infidelity render this discourse as seasonable to them now as St. Paul's once was to Felix I cannot but hope they may meet with somewhat in this reasoning that may have the same Effect upon them but with a better Consequence than the Apostles had upon that wretched Man may serve not only to awaken their fears of a judgment to come but to stir them up to an immediate provision for it But it is time now to remember that I am speaking all this while to a Christian Assembly and therefore to such as will admit of yet more lively persuasives of a future Judgment and of the Great and Eternal Torments that await the Wicked after it And I shall not need to say how much our Religion has discovered to us to make the sinner tremble at the apprehension of that dreadful Inquest which the best Christian cannot think of without amazement For indeed where is the Soul so well established so secure of its own sincerity as to be able to endure the Horrors of that day when the end of all things being come the World its self shall begin to tremble and fall into its ancient Chaos When the sun and moon and stars shall be darkened the mountains shall quake and the powers of Heaven be shaken When the Earth shall be set on fire the Heavens shall be shrivell'd up as a scroll the Elements also shall melt with
constant performance of Piety and Good-Works But now 2dly If the Question be of a dying Penitent then indeed it will be a matter of more difficulty to answer it For if on the one hand I may not be so uncharitable as to conclude at all adventures the utter invalidity of such a Repentance because for ought I know 't is possible for a man in the very last act of his life to be struck with such a true contrition for his sins as might if he had lived have produced a real Amendment and then God who is able to discern this will consider him accordingly Yet neither on the other can we ever be sure that such a Repentance is sincere nor by consequence may we at all Adventures supppose in favour of it The truth is a Death-bed Repentance is in the best prospect we can take of it exceeding dangerous and in the case before us I am afraid desperate Nor have we in all the Holy Scripture so much as one Example of any one that purposely put off his Repentance to this time and yet was saved upon it and the Instance of Felix in my Text is a terrible one to the contrary He was touch'd with St. Paul's Preaching and feared the Judgment of which he spake But he put off the Apostle to a more convenient season and we do not find that ever that more convenient season came or that he had ever any future call to Repentance It is not to be question'd but that if a man be come to this sad pass he ought by all means to be exhorted to repent because otherwise to be sure he must perish and 't is possible this may save him But what that Repentance is which a wicked man then exercises we cannot tell and the effect of it must be left to God's Judgment to declare and it will be our parts instead of being over-inquisitive into these secrets to be careful not to expose our selves to a condition so full of danger in which there is much to be feared but little Hope and no Security And now what more remains to engage us to a speedy or rather to a present Repentance but that having thus largely shewn the danger of deferring our duty I very briefly close all with a more excellent Prospect II dly Of the Comfort and Satisfaction that will arrive to us from the Consideration of having perfected this great and necessary Work This is a Point on which it were as easie to speak great things as I think 't is needless so to do If to Live in a State of Friendship with God and to be able to look forward into Eternity with Comfort If to be freed from the stings of Conscience and the Terrors of Everlasting Punishment and instead thereof to be full of a well-grounded Confidence that Heaven and all its Glories shall be one day Ours in short If there be any such thing as a Felicity to be attain'd either in this World or in the Next such a Christian as this possesses it all For he enjoys the Love the Favour of that God who is the Great dispenser of all Good both in Heaven and Earth O the Peace and the Tranquility The Pleasure and the Satisfaction of that Man who lives in such a State as this Whose Conscience acquits him whose Innocence supports him in the midst of Dangers whose Piety and Virtue chear his Soul and fill it with the most excellent Comforts whose Present Condition is full of Hope and whose Future Prospect is to be for Ever Happy How will such a Christian as this Triumph over all the Miseries and despise the Blandishments of a vain uncertain sinful World Even Death its self the last and greatest of Terrors will not be able to amaze him But rather He will welcome it with a chearful mind and with St. Paul desire to depart and to be with Christ whilst able with him to cry out I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my Course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day But O Wretched Sinner Who by thy unreasonable Delays in a matter of such vast concernment both to thy Present and Eternal Happiness not only exposest thy self to the danger of Damnation in the other World but deprivest thy self of the only true and real Felicity of this Men indeed may flatter themselves in their Evil doings and find a great deal of seeming satisfaction in their ways of Wickedness But when all is done the Remembrance of this one thing That in a little time they must die and come to Judgment will ever and anon come in and embitter all their Enjoyments and convince them that 't is the way of Piety that alone is the way of pleasantness and her paths the paths of peace But I must not pursue these Reflections any farther I will therefore conclude this whole Argument with those excellent Words of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. v. xviii Make no long tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day Before Judgment examine thy self and in the day of Visitation thou shalt find mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick and in the time of sins show repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy Vows in due time and defer not until death to be justified AN EXHORTATION To Mutual Charity and Union AMONG PROTESTANTS IN A SERMON Preach'd before the KING and QUEEN AT HAMPTON-COURT MAY 21. 1689. ROM XV. 5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God THE Words are part of that affectionate Application which the Apostle here makes of his excellent Discourse concerning the Exercise of Christian Charity in that great Instance of Condescension to the Infirmities of our Weaker Brethren in the foregoing Chapter The Occasion of it was this There were in those first times many among the Jews who tho' they were converted to the Christian Faith yet still continued zealous for the Law and not only carefully observed themselves all the Rites and Ceremonies of it but would also by any means impose upon all others also the observance of them And how earnest they were upon this account and how much they hated the Gentile Converts upon whom the Apostles did not think fit to lay any such burden many Passages both in the Acts and in St. Paul's Epistles do sufficiently declare But as in all other differences it seldom happens that the whole heat of the Controversie rests only on one side so here tho' the Jewish Converts were both the first beginners of this Dispute and the more zealous pursuers of it yet
that the blessed time so long wrapped up in sacred Prophecy is indeed now ready to be revealed When the Church of Christ being purged from those Corruptions that have so long defaced its Beauty shall again appear in its primitive Purity When all Heresie and Schism being every where abolished and the Mystery of Iniquity laid fully open and the Man of Sin destroyed true Religion and sincere Piety shall again reign throughout the World God himself shall pitch his Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and we shall be his People and he shall be our God O Blessed State of the Church Militant here on Earth the glorious Antepast of that Peace and Piety which God has prepared for his Church Triumphant in Heaven Who would not wish to see those days when a general Reformation and a true Zeal and a perfect Charity passing through the World we should All be united in the same Faith the same Worship the same Communion and Fellowship one with another When all Pride and Prejudice all Interests and Designs being submitted to the Honour of God and the discharge of our Duty the Holy Scriptures shall again triumph over the vain Traditions of Men and Religion no longer take its denomination from little Sects and Factions but we shall all be content with the same common primitive Names of Christians and Brethren and live together as becomes our Character in Brotherly Love and Christian Charity with one another And who can tell but such a Change as this and which we have otherwise some reason to believe is nigh at hand may even now break forth from the midst of us would we but all seriously labour to perfect the Great Work which the Providence of God has so gloriously begun among us and establish that Love and Vnity among our selves which may afterwards diffuse it self from us into all the other Parts of the Christian World besides But however whether we shall ever see I do not say such a Blessed Effect as this but even any good Effect at all of our Endeavours here on Earth or no yet this we are sure we shall not lose our Reward in Heaven When to have contributed tho' in the least degree to the healing of those divisions we so unhappily labour under shall be esteemed a greater Honour than to have silenced all the Cavils of our Enemies and even to have pray'd and wish'd for it and where we could not any otherwise have contributed our selves but to have exhorted others to it shall be rewarded with Blessings more than all the Stars in the Firmament for number Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ To Him be Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET'S WESTMINSTER June 5 th 1689. Being The FAST-DAY Appointed by the KING and QUEEN'S Proclamation TO Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon Their MAJESTIES Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the FRENCH KING Jovis 6 o die Junii 1689. Resolved THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Wake for the Sermon he Preached before them yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same Ordered THat Mr. Grey do give him the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desires of this House accordingly Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. OF THE Nature and Benefit OF A PUBLICK HUMILIATION JOEL ii 12 13. Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for He is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth Him of the Evil. THough the time of this Prophecy be uncertain so that neither the Jewish Rabbins nor Christian Antiquaries are able to give us any tolerable Account of it yet is the Design plain and the words of my Text a most proper and pathetick enforcement of the great duty of this day to turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning for he is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. If we look into the foregoing Chapter we shall there find an astonishing Account of the great Evils that were just ready to befall the Jews for their Sins But that which is yet more surprising is That though all this was about to come upon them yet were they nevertheless insensible of their danger nor took any the least care to prevent their utter desolation To awaken a stupid and inconsiderate People a Nation dead in Sin and Security in the beginning of this Chapter he prepares a lofty and magnificent Scene He sets before them a Prophecy of yet greater dangers than any they had hitherto experimented and that in a manner so unusual with such a Pomp of Words and in such Triumphant Expressions as carry a terror even in the Repetition of them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Allarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the LORD cometh for it is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of glooâ—iness a day of Clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains a great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burneth The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining Whatever be the Import of these Phrases whether by the mighty and terrible Host here spoken of we are only to understand that swarm of Locusts and other Insects that we are before told were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land Or whether under the Character of these we shall with most Interpreters comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldeans and Babylonians which at divers times brought such Desolations as we read of upon the Jews This is plain that we have here the denunciation of some Judgment worthy of God and great as the sins and incorrigibleness that occasion'd it And now who would not here expect the final desolation of such a People as this But behold God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy and tho' they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invitations of his holy Prophets to Repentance yet He resolves once more to try whether they would now at least in their dangers hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Joel at once both to set before
you to go along with me in these following Reflections First That though as I have just now shewn there must be the publick marks of Sorrow and Humiliation in our publick Repentance yet we must by no means stop in these nor thinks that this is all that God requires of us in order to our Forgiveness This was indeed the Vanity of the Jews heretofore and is too much the folly of some misguided Christians now Their Indignation against their Sins and against themselves for having committed them was spent especially in the outward appearance of Sorrow They rent their cloaths and put on sackcloth they wept and fasted and went softly and then they supposed they had done their business though it may be their Souls were not yet humbled nor their Hearts at all broken with any true Contrition for their Sins And so among those of the Church of Rome at this day If we may believe some of their greatest Casuists an external Worship is sufficient to carry a Man to Heaven without the trouble of the true inward Devotion of the Soul He may repent without Contrition may fast with a full Meal Nay and if the Pope pleases may obtain a plenary remission of his Sins se ancho non fosse confesso ne contrito though he has neither confess'd them to any Priest nor finds in his own Heart any manner of Contrition for them I shall not need to say how many new ways of Salvation of this kind they have found out by wearing Leathern Girdles about their Loins or Scapularies over their Shoulders by listing themselves into such or such certain Fraternities by dressing of Altars and going on Pilgrimages by Holy Water and Agnus Dei's And all which and infinite more of the like kind if as our late Masters tell us they are not Authorized by their Church yet I am sure are publickly recommended by their Greatest Men and generally practised too without any censure or contradiction among them This is certain that all these and whatever Artifices of the like kind Men may please either to flatter themselves or to delude others withal without a true Contrition and a serious Reformation they are all but Vanity they make a shew of Piety in the Eyes of Men but they avail nothing to our forgiveness with God I will not now dispute of what use some of these External Performances may be to assist our Repentance and render our Sorrow for Sin the more solemn and so in some Cases as I have before observed the more pleasing to God I know well enough that St. Paul has told us That Bodily Exercise where 't is discreetly order'd does profit a little though it be not like Godliness profitable for all things But then as 't is plain that the greatest part of those Follies so much magnified and recommended in the Church of Rome are but vain and ridiculous Impositions to cheat the silly and superstitious Multitude so 't is certain that the best of these things are neither in themselves Meritorious much less Satisfactory for Sins as they pretend them to be nor otherwise of any value at all with God than as they are attended with that true Repentance which alone can either incline his Mercy or obtain our Forgiveness If we will therefore make our solemn Humiliation this day acceptable to God and available to our selves our Country and our Religion we must take the Method of the Prophet in our Text We must turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and then our fasting and our weeping and our mourning shall indeed be pleasing unto him We must rent our Hearts and not i. e. rather than our Garments must humble our Souls first and then the violence we do our Bodies will be considerâ—d by him When Jonah denounced God's Judgments against Niniveh we read in his 3 d. Chapter That the People of Niniveh believed and proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least But was this therefore that Repentance for which he spared them No it is not so much as once mentioned among the Reasons of it It was the Reformation of their Lives that tied up his Hand and sheathed his Sword ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil way and God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not 2. And this brings me to a second Remark for the farther clearing of this great Duty viz. That not only these outward marks of penitence are not sufficient to the discharge of it but though we should to these add a true and real sorrow of heart for the Sins we have committed even this would not be sufficient to purchase our Forgiveness Now by true sorrow I do not mean that little imperfect sorrow which looks rather to the danger of our Condition than to the heinousness of our Offences and bewails our Transgressions more out of an apprehension of those Judgments that may be the Consequence of them than out of any real regret that we have sinned against a most Gracious and Merciful God For however those of the other Communion out of their great tenderness to Sinners have declared such a sorrow as this if accompanied with Confession to be sufficient to dispose Men to obtain the Grace of God by the Sacrament of Penance and therefore have resolved that true Contrition or a sorrow for sin committed with a purpose of sinning no more is not necessary to the Sacrament of Penance after the Commission of mortal Sin but that Attrition is sufficient though a Man knows it to be no more Yet I suppose it needless in this place to obviate any such gross Error however otherwise of very great danger in the Practice of this Duty Be the sorrow for sin never so sincere and our Resolutions thereupon no more to return to the Commission of it never so firm and well grounded yet if instead of making good these Resolutions we shall stop here we are but half Penitents seeing we yet want that change of life which alone is able to compleat the Nature and render the Practice of our Repentance acceptable unto God and available to our Forgiveness 3. In short Thirdly if we will truly discharge that Repentance to which we are here called we must do it not by being sorry for our Sins or by resolving against them but by an effectual forsaking of them i. e. as our Text speaks By turning unto the Lord our God This is that which alone can implore his Favour and commend us to his Mercy And this was what I before observed in the Case of Niniveh When God saw their works that they turned from their Evil way then he repented him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not Nay but it is not any turning unto God that will suffice neither We must turn
asking all sorts of Blessings of him whether to deliver us from any Evil or to grant us any Good we confess the Sovereign Authority of his Providence over us and declare his Omnipotence who can do whatever he pleases and manifest our trust and dependance upon him In a word By all Creatures doing this in all places and at the same time we set forth the vast capacity of his immense Nature that is able to attend without distraction at once to all the Affairs of the World and can without confusion both hear and answer whatever Requests are made to him But now to suppose that any meer Creature can do this what is it but to confound that infinite distance that above all things ought the most carefully to be kept up in the Minds of Men between God and Us And leave no Perfection in the one so proper to him as not to be communicable to the other And yet however they may think fit to palliate this matter 't is plain he that will pray with any tolerable reason or confidence to the Blessed VIRGIN must suppose all this He must in effect esteem her what the very act of his calling upon her supposes her to be Omniscient Immense Omnipresent and even Omnipotent too It being otherwise a most stupid thing for millions of Men every hour to pray to one who has no power to hear their Prayers to offer up the motions of their Souls to one that cannot search or know their Hearts and ask all manner of Blessings of her who has neither Ability nor Authority to confer any upon them Now 't is upon this ground then that without considering of what kind the Requests are that are made to the Blessed VIRGIN we look upon the very Act it self of Invocation to be an Act indeed one of the most proper Acts of Religious Worship and by consequence such as ought to be paid to God only And though they may pretend that 't is no more to pray to the Holy MARY in Heaven than it would be to desire the Prayers or Assistance of some Friend on Earth yet it is apparent from what I have now been speaking that there is a very vast difference between these two the one supposing no Power or Perfection in our Friend but what may without danger be ascribed to a Creature the other necessarily implying such as are peculiar to God only For to consider this Pretence in a Reflection or two First Does any Man that is well in his Wits discourse with his Friend at a thousand Miles distance from him with that seriousness that those who worship the Blessed VIRGIN pray to Her And yet why is the one esteemed a piece of Piety while the other would be thought meer madness but only that they suppose the Blessed VIRGIN though absent from them nevertheless to be capable of knowing what they do while they think the other is not in a capacity of so doing For as for Gods communicating it to her I presume he is as well able to do it in the one instance as in the other and I think I may say he has as much promised he will do the first as the last that is indeed there is no grounds that he will do it to either Or Secondly Were this a rational thing would yet they themselves endure that a Man should in the House of God and in the midst of his solemn Devotions to him not only desire but in the same breath with which he addresses to God invoke the Assistance of a pious Christian yet living upon Earth Would they think this no more than an act of Brotherly Charity and which one Christian might warrantably use towards another Much less Thirdly Would they permit the Images of a living Christian to be set up in their Churches Candles to be burnt before them and Incense offered to them his Name to be put in the Liturgies of the Church and all the Faithful upon Earth be directed and encouraged every where to pray to Him as a most useful and innocent piece of Piety And with the same opinion and confidence of his hearing their Prayers and answering their desires as they now call upon the Blessed VIRGIN Would they say that this were no more than to ask a private Friend as we have opportunity to pray for us or to desire by Letter the Supplications of our absent Brethren in our behalf And yet much less Fourthly Would they permit this living Christian not only to be thus called upon to pray for his Votaries but to bless them too to keep them in their Lives and to receive them at the hour of Death If indeed these are Instances of Brotherly Charity I shall for my part be content to allow that their Devotion to the Holy MARY is no more But if the very Supposition of such a Power as this be something beyond the natural Abilities of any Creature on Earth with what Conscience can it be said that when they consecrate the Images of the Blessed VIRGIN burn Tapers and Incense before them list themselves under her Protection commit all the care of their Salvation to her call her the Queen of Heaven and Sovereign Lady of Angels and Men put her Name into their Liturgies erect Congregations to her Honour set apart Festivals and Days for her particular Service and then call upon her at the same time in all Parts of the World and this as expecting no small benefit from their Prayers and therefore certainly in a confidence that she though Ten thousand times farther off from us than one Christian on Earth can be from another does nevertheless know what they call upon her for and can and will grant their desires I say with what Conscience can it be pretended that in all this they do but entertain a Brotherly Communion with her and in effect do no more than when a Christian here below desires a Fellow-Christian to pray for Him It remains therefore that to ascribe to the Holy MARY such a Power as is necessary to receive our Prayers and to attend to our Petitions and to search our Hearts and know the motions of our Souls towards her and answer us accordingly is to raise her above the state of a Creature and therefore unlawful for us so to do And it is observable that when the Ancient Fathers first began to make some kind of Addresses to the Holy Martyrs not only the Subject of them was innocent but the Supposition on which they went as to this Point of the Saints or Martyrs hearing them however fanciful yet was such as did not ascribe any undue Perfections to them They call'd upon them not in all places and at all times indifferently but only at their Monuments at the places of their Suffering where their Bodies or Reliques were interr'd and about which they had a conceit that their Souls hovered for some time and therefore being present with them were capable of knowing their desires In process of time
not well see how they will be able to clear themselves altogether of those Follies which they so readily encourage and not only neglect to correct themselves but will not suffer those who would to do it Nay but we must not stop here They have given a yet greater encouragement to the dishonour of our Saviour than this If we look into their Churches and there view their Pictures and their Images those Books of the Ignorant as they are pleased to call them what can be either more wretched in it self or more apt to seduce unthinking Votaries than every where to see Holy MARY with our Saviour still an Infant in her Arms as if he were never to get out of the state of his Pupillage And this were yet tolerable if they thereby took care to call back their Minds to the condition of his Infancy once when on Earth But alas I must add what exceeds all Extravagances besides that they set him out still as a Child in Heaven Nor is there any thing more common in the Lives of their Saints in the Records of the Miracles of the VIRGIN and even in their Offices and Books of Devotion than to hear of the Son of God brought down in the Arms of his Mother and still behaving himself as a little Child towards her Votaries And what mean and low Opinions such things as these must needs create in Superstitious and Ignorant Minds of the Saviour of the World is very natural to conceive and the Devotion of the People towards the Blessed VIRGIN compared with their Notions and Zeal towards the Holy JESVS does but too fatally demonstrate But Secondly This Consideration is not only thus important in it self but of a more especial concern with regard to us Were the Votaries of the Blessed VIRGIN content with a Speculative Opinion of her Excellencies or would they be satisfied to pay her what Homage they thought fit themselves without forcing others to joyn in it this Matter though very Scandalous to our Religion yet would not so much concern our Practice But now that the very Publick Devotion of the Church is wholly over-run with this Abuse so that 't is impossible to pray to God with them unless you will be content to pray to Holy MARY too it was certainly very necessary for us to understand the danger of such an Error which is thus combined with the most publick and solemn Piety of a whole Body of Christians And then Thirdly This is a Point not only of very great moment in it self and of a particular concern to us but very plain too and easie to be understood In other things though our Arguments are strong to those that comprehend the force of them yet many times the Subject is obscure and the Disputation past the Capacity of the ordinary Christian. Thus in their Doctrines about the Church the Authority Vnity Infallibility and other either real or pretended Privileges of it The Argument is nice and easily perplexes an uninstructed Capacity But here the Advice is evident and the whole Subject easie The only hardship is to bring them to own their Doctrine but afterwards the most Vulgar Christian is able to discern the falseness of it Those first Rudiments of Christianity Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed There is one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus and the like being abundantly sufficient to shew how impossible it is that those should not have departed from their first Faith who give Religious Honour to the Virgin MARY and set her up as a Mediatrix in Heaven Now this being once proved it will from hence presently follow Fourthly That all the Pretences of the Church of Rome against us are vain and that we not only had sufficient Reason but that it was our Duty to reform as we did from them For to consider this Argument in one word If the Church of Rome be actually and undoubtedly Erroneous in this Point then let her fancy what she please 't is plain she can Err and is not what she says Infallible If she be not Infallible then there can be no Obligation to believe and follow her at all Adventures without examining what she teaches whether it be true or false If we may examine her Doctrine then the End of all Examination being to find out the Truth and to cleave unto it it must follow that when upon the Enquiry we had discovered her to be involved in grievous Errors it was our Duty to abandon her Corruptions and to declare against them And thus this one Point alone being well cleared does in the Consequence of it plainly prove a Vindication of the whole Work of the Reformation and is alone sufficient to satisfie any unprejudiced Mind what just Cause we had for it And let us then Bless God who has opened our Eyes to discover such Abuses as these and which had almost subverted the very chief Principles of Christianity And let us as we ought value nothing so much as that Purity of Religion in which we have the happiness to exceed most Christians in the World Let our Adversaries if they please revile us let them call us Hereticks and Schismaticks Despisers of the Church and Haters of the Blessed Virgin let them fill Heaven and Earth with their Anathema's against us because we will not joyn with them in these and the like Abominations But let us stand fast in the Lord and in the Religion which we have received knowing from whom we have received it and what is the rule and measure of it And that though I do not say They or We or any other Church or Society of Men whatsoever but though an Angel from Heaven though St. Peter himself should come to us and preach any other Gospel he is to be accursed I shall conclude all with those excellent words of an Ancient Father of the Church against some who began in his time to Honour the Blessed VIRGIN though not with any part of that excess that these Men now do yet more than he supposed was fitting for them 'T is true says he MARY was Holy but she was not therefore God She was a Virgin and highly honoured but she was not set forth to us to be worshipp'd And therefore the Holy Gospel has herein arm'd us before hand our Lord himself saying Woman what have I to do with thee Wherefore does he say this But only left some should think of the Blessed VIRGIN more highly than they ought He called her Woman as it were foretelling those Schisms and Heresies that should arise upon her account But God permits us not to worship Angels how much less the Daughter of Anna Let MARY be held in Honour but let the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Worshipped Let no one Worship MARY for though she were most fair and holy and honourable yet she is not therefore to