when Vice hath got such head that it can hardly bear to be â—keckt and controll'd and when as the Roman Historian complains of his times Ad ea tempora quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus perventum est things are come to that pass that we can neither bear ouâ— Vices noâ— the Remedies of them Our Vices are grown to a prodigious and intolerable height and yet Men hardly have the patience to hear of them and surely a Disease is then dangerous indeed when it cannot bear the severity that is necessary to a Cure But yet notwithstanding this we who are the Messengers of God to Men to warn them of their sin and danger must not keep silence and spare to tell them both of their sins and of the Judgment of God which hangs over them that God will visit for these things and that his Soul will be avenged on such a Nation as this At least we may have leave to warn others who are not yet run to the same excess of riot to save themselves from this untoward generation God's Judgments are abroad in the Earth and call aloud upon us to learn Righteousness But this is but a small Consideration in Comparison of the Judgment of another World which we who call our selves Christians do profess to believe as one of the Chief Articles of our Faith The Consideration of this should check and cool us in the heat of all our sinful Pleasures and that bitter Irony of Solomon should cut us to the heart Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment Think often and seriously on that time wherein the wrath of God which is now revealed against sin shall be executed upon Sinners and if we believe this we are strangely stupid and obstinate if we be not moved by it The assurance of this made St Paul extreamly importunate in exhorting Men to avoid so great a danger 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the Body according to what he hath done whether it be good or evil Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade Men. And if this ought to move us to take so great a care of others much more of our selves The Judgment to come is a very amazing Consideration it is a fearful thing to hear of it but it will be much more terrible to see it especially to those whose guilt must needs make them so heartily concern'd in the dismal Consequences of it and yet as sure as I stand and you sit here this great and terrible Day of the Lord will come and who may abide his coming What will we do when that Day shall surprize us careless and unprepared what unspeakable horror and amazement will then take hold of us when lifting up our eyes to Heaven we shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of it with Power and great Glory when that powerful voice which shall pierce the ears of the Dead shall ring through the World Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment when the mighty Trumpet shall sound and wake the Sleepers of a thousand years and summon the dispersed parts of the Bodies of all Men that ever lived to rally together and take their place and the Souls and Bodies of Men which have been so long strangers to one another shall meet and be united again to receive the doom due to their deeds what fear shall then surprize Sinners and how will they tremble at the presence of the great Judge and for the glory of his Majesty How will their Consciences flye in their faces and their own hearts condemn them for their wicked and ungodly Lives and even prevent that Sentence which yet shall certainly be past and executed upon them But I will proceed no further in this Argument which hath so much of terror in it I will conclude my Sermon as Solomon doth his Ecclesiaâ—tes Ch. 12. 13 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man for God shall bring every work into Judgment and every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil To which I will only add that serious and merciful Admonition of a greater than Solomon I mean the great Judge of the whole World our blessed Lord and Saviour Luke 21. 34 35 36. Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you at unawares for as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole Earth Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accouuted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. SERMON XII Knowledge and Practice Necessary in Religion JOHN XIII 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them TWO Things make up Religion the Knowledge and the Practice of it and the First is wholly in order to the Second and God hath not revealed to us the Knowledge of Himself and his Will meerly for the improvement of our Understanding but for the bettering of our Hearts and Lives not to entertain our Minds with the speculations of Religion and Virtue but to form and govern our Actions If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them In which words our blessed Saviour does from a particular instance take occasion to settle a general Conclusion namely that Religion doth mainly consist in Practice and that the knowledge of his Doctrine without the real effects of it upon our Lives will bring no Man to Heaven In the beginning of this Chapter our great Lord and Master to testifie his Love to his Disciples and to give them a lively Instance and Example of that great Virtue of Humility is pleased to condescend to a very low and mean Office such as was used to be performed by Servants to their Masters and not by the Master to his Servants namely to wash their feet and when he had done this he asks them if they did understand the meaning of this strange Action Know ye what I have done unto you ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am if I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one anothers feet for I have given you an Example that ye should do as I have done to you Verily verily I say unto you the Servant is not greater than the Lord neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him if ye know these things
that the Resurrection of the Dead should precede the general Judgment And what more Magnificent and suitable to this glorious Solemnity than the awful Circumstances which the Scripture mentions of the appearance of this great Judge that he shall descend from Heaven in great Majesty and Glory attended with his mighty Angels and that every eye shall see him that upon his appearance the frame of Nature shall be in an agony and the whole World in Flame and Confusion that those great and Glorious Bodies of Light shall be obscured and by degrees extinguish'd the Sun shall be darkned and the Moon turned into Blood and all the Powers of Heaven shaken yea the Heavens themselves shall pass away with a great noiseâ— and the Elements dissolve with â—ervent heat the Earth also and all the Works that are therein shall be burnt up I appeal to any Man whether this be not a Representation of things very proper and suitable to that Great Dayâ— wherein he who made the World shall come to Judge it and whether the wit of Man ever devised any thing so awful and so agreeable to the Majesty of God and the solemn Judgement of the whole World The description which Virgil makes of the Judgment of another World of the Elisian Fields and the Infernal Regions how infinitely do they fall short of the Majesty of the Holy Scripture and the description there made of Heaven and Hell and of the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord so that in Comparison they are Childish and trifling and yet perhaps he had the most regular and most govern'd imagination of any Man that ever lived and observed the gâ—eatest decorum in his Characters and Descriptions But who can declare the great things of God but he to whom God shall reveal them Secondly This Expression of the â—â—ath of God being Revealed from Heaven doth not only imply the clear discovery of the thing but likewise something extraordinary in the manner of the Discovery It is not only a Natural impression upon the Minds of Men that God will severely punish â—inners but he hath taken care that Mankind should be instructed in this Matter in a very particular and extraordinary manner He hath not left it to the Reason of Men to Collect it from the Consideration of his Attributes and Perfections his Holiness and Justice and from the Consideration of the promiscuous administration of his Providence towards good and bad Men in this World but he hath been pleased to send an extraordinaâ—y Person from Heaven on purpose to declare this thing plainly to the World the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven that is God sent his own Son from Heaven on purpose to declare his wrath against all obstinate and impenitent Sinners that he might effectually awaken the drouzie World to Repentance he hath sent an extraordinary Ambassador into the World to give warning to all those who continue in their Sins of the Judgment of the great Day and to summon them before his dreadful Tribunal So the Apostle tells the Athenians Acts 17. 30 31. Now he commandeth all Men â—very where to Repent because he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead Thirdly This Expression implies likewise the certainty of this Discovery If the wrath of God had only been declared in the Discourses of Wise Men tho' grounded upon very probable Reason yet it might have been brought into doubt by the contrary Reasonings of Subtle and Disputing Men but to put the Matter out of all question we have a Divine Testimony for it and God hath confirmed it from Heaven by Signs and Wonders and Miracles especially by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead for by this he hath given assurance unto all Men that it is he who is ordained of God to judge the quick and dead Thus you see in what respect the wrath of God is said to be reveal'd from Heaven in that the Gospel hath made a more clear and particular and certain discovery of the Judgment of the great Day than ever was made to the World before I proceed to the Third Observation which I shall speak but briefly to namely that every Wicked and Vicious Practice doth expose Men to this dreadful danger The Apostle instanceth in the two chief Heads to which the Sins of Men may be reduced Impiety towards God and Unrighteousness towards Menâ— and therefore he is to be understood to denounce the wrath of God against every particular kind of Sin comprehended under these general Heads so that no Man that allows himself in any impiety and wickedness of Life can hope to escape the wrath of God Therefore it concerns us to be entirely Religious and to have respect to all God's Commandments and to take heed that we do not allow our selves in the practice of any kind of Sin whatsoever because the living in any one known Sin is enough to expose us to the dreadful wrath of God Tho' a Man be Just and Righteous in his Dealingâ— with Men yet if he neglect the Worship and Service of God this will certainly bring him under Condemnation and on the other hand tho' a Man may serve God never so diligently and devoutly yet if he be defective in Righteousness toward Men if he deal falsly and fraudulently with his Neighbour he shall not escape the wrath of God tho' a Man pretend to never so much Piety and Devotion yet if he be unrighteous he shall not inherit the Kingdom of God if any Man over-reach and defraud his Brother in any matter the Lord is the avenger of such saith St. Paul 1 Thes 4. 6. So that here is a very powerful Argument to take Men off from all Sin and to engage them to a constant and careful discharge of their whole Duty toward God and Men and to Reform whatever is amiss either in the frame and temper of their Minds or in the Actions and Course of their Lives because any kind of wickedness any one sort of vicious Course lays Men open to the vengeance of God and the punishments of another World the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men there is no exception in the Case we must forsake all Sin subdue every Lust be holy in all manner of Conversation otherwise we can have no reasonable hopes of escaping the wrath of God and the damnation of Hell But I proceed to the Fourth Observation namely that it is a very great aggravation of Sin for Men to offend against the light of their own Minds The Apostle here aggravates the wickedness of the Heathen World that they did not live up to that Knowledge which they had of God but contradicted it in their Lives holding the truth of God in unrighteousness And that he speaks here of the Heathen is
cruelty of Devils the severe lashes and stings the raging anguish and horrible despair of their own minds without intermission without pity and without hope of ever seeing an end of that misery which yet is unsupportable for one moment could I represent these things to you according to the terror of them what effect must they have upon us and with what patience could any Man bear to think of plunging himself into this misery and by his own wilful fault and folly to endanger his coming into this place and state of torments Especially if we consider in the Third place that the Gospel hath likewise declared that there is no avoiding of this misery no hopes of impunity if Men go on and continue in their Sins The terms of the Gospel in this are peremptory that except we Repent we shall perish that without holiness no Man shall see the Lord that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And this is a very pressing Consideration and brings the Matter to a short and plain issue Either we must leave our Sins or die in them either we must Repent of them or be Judged for them either we must â—orsake our Sins and break off that wicked Course which we have lived in or we must quit all hopes of Heaven and Happiness nay we cannot escape the damnation of Hell The clear revelation of a future Judgment is so pressing an Argument to Repentance as no Man can in Reason resist that hath not a mind to be miserable Now saith St. Paul to the Athenians he straightly chargeth all Men every where to Repent because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will judge the World in Righteousness Men may cheat themselves or suffer themselves to be deluded by others about several means and devices of reconciling a wicked Life with the hopes of Heaven and Eternal Salvation as by mingling some pangs of sorrow for Sin and some hot Fits of Devotion with a sinful Life which is only the interruption of a wicked Course without Reformation and amendment of Life but let no Man deceive you with vain words for our Blessed Saviour hath provided no other ways to save Men but upon the terms of Repentance and Obedience Fourthly This Argument takes hold of the most desperate and profligate Sinners and still retains its force upon the Minds of Men when almost all other Considerations fail and have lost their efficacy upon us Many Men are gone so far in an Evil Course that neither shame of their Vices nor the love of God and Virtue nor the hopes of Heaven are of any force with them to reclaim them and bring them to a better Mind but there is one handle yet left whereby to lay hold of them and that is their Fear This is a Passion that lies deep in our Nature being founded in self-preservation and sticks so close to us that we cannot quit our selves of it nor shake it off 〈…〉 may put off ingenuity and 〈…〉 all Obligations of gratitude Men may harden their Foreheads and Conquer all sense of shame but they can never perfectly stiâ—le and subdue their Fears they can hardly so extinguish the fear of Hell but that some sparks of that Fire will ever and anon be flying about in their Consciences especially when they are made sober and brought to themselves by affliction and by the present apprehensions of Death have a nearer sight of another World And if it was so hard for the Heathen to Conquer these apprehensions how much harder must it be to Christians who have so much greater assurance of these things and to whom the wrath of God is so clearly revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. Fifthly No Religion in the World ever urged this Argument upon Men with that force and advantage which Christianity does The Philosophy of the Heathen gave Men no steady assurance of the thing the most knowing Persons among them were not agreed about a Future State the greatest part of them spake but doubtfully concerning another Life And besides the natural jealousies and suspicions of Mankind concerning these things they had only some fair probabilities of Reason and the Authority of their Poets who talkt they knew not what about the Elizian Fields and the Infernal Regions and the three Judges of Hell so that the Wisest among them had hardly assurance enough in themselves of the truth of the thing to press it upon others with any great confidence and therefore it was not likely to have any great efficacy upon the generality of Mankind As for the Jewish Religion tho' that supposed and took for granted the Rewards of another World as a Principle of Natural Religion yet in the Law of Moses there was no particular and express Revelation of the Life of the World to come and what was deduced from it was by remote and obscure Consequence Temporal Promises and Threatnings it had many and clear and their Eyes were so dazled with these that it is probable that the generality of them did but little consider a Future State 'till they fell into great temporal Calamities under the Grecian and Roman Empires whereby they were almost necessarily awakened to the Consideration and hopes of a better Life to relieve them under their present Evils and Sufferings and yet even in that time they were divided into two great Factions about this Matter the one affirming and the other as considently denying any Life after this But the Gospel hath brought Life and Immortality â—o light and we are assured from Heaven of the truth and reality of another State and a Future Judgment The Son of God was sent into the World to preach this Doctrine and rose again from the Dead and was taken up into Heaven for a visible demonstration to all Mankind of another Life after this and consequently of a Future Judgment which no Man ever doubted of that did firmly believe a Future State The Sum of all that I have said is this the Gospel hath plainly declared to us that the only way to Salvation is by forsaking our Sins and living a Holy and Virtuous Life and the most effectual Argument in the World to perswade Men to this is the consideration of the infinite danger that a sinful Course exposeth Men to since the wrath of God continually hangs over Sinners and if they continue in their Sins will certainly fall upon them and overwhelm them with Misery and he that is not moved by this Argument is lost to all intents and purposes All that now remains is to urge this Argument upon Men and from the serious Consideration of it to perswade them to Repent and reform their wicked Lives And was there ever Age wherein this was more needful when Iniquity doth not only abound but even rage among us when Infidelity and Profaneness and all manner of Lewdness and Vice appears so boldly and openly and Men commit the greatest Abominations without blushing at them
find any of those Virtues that I have mentioned condemned and forbidden A clear Evidence that Mankind never took any exception against them but are generally agreed about the Goodness of them Fourthly God hath shewn us what is good by External Revelation In former Ages of the World God revealed his will to particular Persons in an extraordinary manner and more especially to the Nation of the Jews the rest of the World being in a great measure left to the conduct of natural Light But in these later Ages he hath made a publick Revelation of his Will by his Son And this as to the matter of our Duty is the same in Substance with the Law of Nature For our Saviour comprehends all under these two general Heads the love of God and of our Neighbour The Apostle reduceth all to three Sobriety Justice and Piety The grace of God that brings Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World So that if we believe the Apostle the Gospel teacheth us the very same things which Nature dictated to Men before only it hath made a more perfect discovery of them So that whatever was doubtful and obscure before is now certain and plain the Duties are still the same only it offers us more powerful Arguments and a greater Assistance to the performance of those Duties so that we may now much better say than the Prophet could in his days He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what it is that the Lord requires of thee Fifthly and lastly God shews us what is good by the motions of his Spirit upon the Minds of Men. This the Scripture assures us of and good Men have experience more especially of it though it be hard to give an account of it and to say what motions are from the Spirit of God and what from our own Minds for as the wind blows where it listeth and we hear the sound of it but know not whence it comes nor whither it goes so are the Operations of the Spirit of God upon the Minds of Men secret and imperceptible And thus I have done with the three things I propounded to speak to All that now remains is to make some Inferences from what hath been said by way of Application First Seeing God hath so abundantly provided that we should know our Duty we are altogether inexcusable if we do not do it Because he hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what the Lord requires of thee therefore thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art who livest in a contradiction to this light God hath acquainted us with our Duty by such ways as may most effectually both direct and engage us to the practice of it we are prompted to it by a kind of natural Instinct and strong impressions upon our Minds of the difference of good and evil we are led to the knowledge and urged to the practice of it by our Nature and by our Reason and by our Interest and by that which is commonly very prevalent among Men the general voice and consent of Mankind and by the most powerful and governing passions in Humane Nature by hope and by fear and by shame by the prospect of advantage by the apprehension of danger and by the sense of honour and to take away all possible excuse of ignorance from us by an express Revelation from God the clearest and most perfect that ever was made to the World So that when ever we do contrary to our Duty in any of these great Instances we offend against all these and do in the highest degree fall under the heavy Sentence of our Saviour This is the Condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light Secondly You see hence what are the great Duties of Religion which God mainly requires of us and how reasonable they are Piety towards God and Justice and Charity towards Men the knowledge whereof is planted in our Nature and grows up with our Reason And these are things which are unquestionably good and against which we can have no exception things that were never reproved nor found fault with by Mankind neither our Nature nor our Reason riseth up against them or dictates any thing to the contrary We have all the Obligation and we have all the Encouragement to them and are secure on all hands in the practice of them In the doing of these things there is no danger to us from the Laws of Men no fear of displeasure from God no offence or sting from our own Minds And these things which are so agreeable to our Nature and our Reason and our Interest are the great things which our Religion requires of us more valuable in themselves and more acceptable to God than whole Burnt-offerings and Sacriâ—ices more than thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl more than if we offered to him all the Beasts of the Forest and the Cattle upon a thousand Hills We are not to neglect any Institution of God but above all we are to secure the observance of those great Duties to which we are directed by our very Nature and tyed by the surest and most sacred of all other Laws those which God hath riveted in our Souls and written upon our Hearts And that Mankind might have no pretence left to excuse them from these the Christian Religion hath set us free from those many positive and outward observances that the Jewish Religion was incumbred withall that we might be wholly intent upon these great Duties and mind nothing in comparison of the real and substantial Virtues of a good Life Thirdly You see in the last place what is the best way to appease the displeasure of God towards a sinful Nation God seems to have as great a Controversie with us as he had with the People of Israel and his wrath is of late years most visibly gone out against us and proportionably to the full measure of our Sins it hath been poured out upon us in full Vials How have the Judgments of God followed us And how close have they followed one another What fearful Calamities have our eyes seen enough to make the ears of every one that hears them to tingle What terrible and hazardous Wars have we been ingaged in What a raging Pestilence did God send among us that swept away thousands and ten thousands in our streets What a dreadful and fatal Fire that was not to be checked and resisted in its course 'till it had laid in Ashes one of the Greatest and Richest Cities in the World What unseasonable weather have we had of late as if for the Wickedness of Men upon the Earth the very Ordinances of Heaven were changed and Summer and Winter Seed-time and Harvest had forgotten their appointed Seasons And which is more and sadder than all this what dangerous attempts have been made upon our
this Pattern hath been since not only closely followed but out-done by the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome as we have too much Reason to remember upon this day But to proceed in the farther explication of the Text the meaning whereof in short is this that the ritual and instrumental parts of Religion and all Laws and Duties concerning them are of less Value and Esteem with God than those which are of a moral Nature especially the great Duties and Offices of Piety and Humanity of the love of God and of our Neighbour And if we consider the matter well we shall see the Reason of it to be very plain because natural and moral Duties are approved of God for themselves and for their own sake upon account of their own natural and intrinsical Goodness but the ritual and instrumental parts of Religion are only pleasing to God in order to these and so far as they tend to beget and promote them in us they are not naturally good in themselves but are instituted and appointed by God for the sake of the other and therefore great Reason there is that they should be subordinate and give way to them when they come in competition with one another For this is a known Rule which takes place in all Laws that Laws of less importance should give way to those that are of greater quoties Leges ex circumstantiâ— colliduntur ita ut utraque servari non potest servanda est lex potior When ever two Laws happen to be in such circumstances as to clash with one another so that both of them cannot be observed that Law which is better and of greater consequence is to be kept And Tully gives much the same Rule in this matter In comparing of Laws says he we are to consider which Law is most useful and just and reasonable to be observed From whence it will follow that when two Laws or more or how many soever they be cannot be observed because they clash with one another ea maxime conservanda putetur quae ad maximas res pertinere videatur It is reasonable that that Law should be observed which is of greatest Moment and Concernment By what hath been said we may learn what is the meaning of this Saying which our Saviour more than once cites out of the Prophet I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice From the words thus explained I shall take occasion to prosecute the two Propositions which I mentioned before namely First That Natural Religion is the Foundation of Instituted and Revealed Religion Secondly That no Instituted Religion was ever designed to take away the obligation of Natural Duties but is intended to establish and confirm them And both these are sufficiently grounded in the Reason of our Saviour's Discourse from this Rule I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice I. That Natural Religion is the Foundation of Instituted and Revealed Religion and all Revealed Religion does suppose and take for granted the clear and undoubted Principles and Precepts of Natural Religion and builds upon them By Natural Religion I mean obedience to the Natural Law and the performance of such duties as Natural Light without any express and supernatural Revelation doth dictate to Men. These lye at the bottom of all Religion and are the Great and Fundamental Duties which God requires of all Mankind as that we should love God and behave our selves reverently towards him that we should believe his Revelations and testifie our dependance upon him by imploring his aid and direction in all our necessities and distresses and acknowledge our obligations to him for all the Blessings and Benefits which we receive that we should moderate our Appetites in reference to the Pleasures and Enjoyments of this World and use them temperately and chastly that we should be just and upright in all our Dealings with one another true to our word and faithful to our trust and in all our words and actions observe that Equity towards others which we desire they should use towards us that we should be kind and charitable merciful and compassionate one towards another ready to do good to all and apt not only to pity but to relieve them in their misery and necessity These and such like are those which we call Moral Duties and they are of eternal and perpetual obligation because they do naturally oblige without any particular and express Revelation from God And these are the Foundation of Revealed and Instituted Religion and all Revealed Religion does suppose them and build upon them for all Revelation from God supposeth us to be Men and alters nothing of those Duties to which we were naturally obliged before And this will clearly appear if we consider these three things First That the Scripture every where speaks of these as the main and Fundamental Duties of the Jewisâ— Religion Secondly That no Instituted Service of God no positive part of Religion was ever acceptable to him when these were neglected Thirdly That the great Design of the Christian Religion was to restore and reinforce the practice of the natural Law 1. That the Scripture every where speaks of these as the main and Fundamental Duties of the Jewish Religion When our Saviour was ask'd which was the first and great Commandment of the Law he answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self One would have expected he would have given quite another Answer and have pitched upon some of those things which were so much magnified among the Jews and which they laid so much weight upon that he should have instanced in Sacrifice or Circumcision or the Law of the Sabbath but he overlooks all these as inconsiderable in comparision and instances only in those two great heads of Moral Duty the love of God and our Neighbour which are of natural and perpetual obligation and comprehend under them all other Moral Duties And these are those which our Saviour calls the Law and the Prophets and which he says he came not to destroy but to fulfill Mat. 5. 17 18 19 20. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill for verily I say unto you 'till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law 'till all be fulfilled Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be call'd the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven For I say unto you that except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That our Saviour doth not here speak of the Judicial or Ceremonial Law of the Jews but of the Duties of the Moral Law
Not but that Mankind had always apprehensions and jealousies of the danger of a wicked Life and Sinners were always afraid of the vengeance of God pursuing their evil Deeds not only in this Life but after it too and tho' they had turned the Punishments of another World into ridiculous Fables yet the wiser sort of Mankind could not get it out of their Minds that there was something real under them and that Ixion's Wheel which by a perpetual motion carried him about and Sisyphus his Stone which he was perpetually rolling up the Hill and when he had got it near the top tumbled down and still created him a new labour and Tantalus his continual hunger and thirst aggravated by a perpetual nearness of enjoyment and a perpetual disappointment and Prometheus his being chained to a Rock with an Eagle or Vulture perpetually preying upon his Liver which grew as fast as it was gnawed I say even the wiser among the Heathens lookt upon these as fantastical Representations of something that was Real viz. the grievous and endless Punishment of Sinners the not to be endured and yet perpetually renewed Torments of another World for in the midst of all the ignorance and degeneracy of the Heathen World Mens Consciences did accuse them when they did amiss and they had secret fears and misgivings of some mighty danger hanging over them from the displeasure of a superior Being and the apprehension of some great mischiefs likely to follow their wicked actions which some time or other would overtake them which because they did not always in this World they dreaded them in the next And this was the foundation of all those Superstitions whereby the Ancient Pagans endeavoured so carefully to appease their offended Deities and to avert the Calamities which they feared they would send down upon them But all this while they had no certain assurance by any clear and express Revelation from God to that purpose but only the jealousies and suspicions of their own Minds naturally consequent upon those Notions which Men generally had of God but so obscured and depraved by the Lusts and Vices of Men and by the gross and false conceptions which they had of God that they only serv'd to make them superstitious but were not clear and strong enough to make them wisely and seriously Religious And to speak the truth the more knowing and inquisitive part of the Heathen World had brought all these things into great doubt and uncertainty by the nicety and subtilty of Disputes about them so that it was no great wonder that these Principles had no greater effect upon the Lives of Men when their apprehensions of them were so dark and doubtful But the Gospel hath made a most clear and certain Revelation of these things to Mankind It was written before upon Men's Hearts as the great Sanction of the Law of Nature but the impressions of this were in a great measure blurred and worn out so that it had no great power and efficacy upon the Minds and Manners of Men but now it is clearly discovered to us the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven which expression may well imply in it these three things First The Clearness of the Discovery the wrath of God is said to be revealed Secondly The extraordinary Manner of it it is said to be revealed from Heaven Thirdly The Certainty of it not being the result of subtle and doubtful Reasonings but having a Divine Testimony and Confirmation given to it which is the proper meaning of being revealed from Heaven First It imports the Clearness of the Discovery The Punishment of Sinners in another World is not so obscure a Matter as it was before it is now expresly declared in the Gospel together with the particular Circumstances of it namely that there is another Life after this wherein Men shall receive the just recompence of Reward for all the actions done by them in this Life that there is a particular time appointed wherein God will call all the World to a solemn account and those who are in their graves shall by a powerful voice be raised to Life and those who shall then be found alive shall be suddenly changed when our Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal and only begotten Son of God who once came in great humility to save us shall come again in Power and great Glory attended with his Mighty Angels and all Nations shall be gathered before him and all Mankind shall be separated into two Companies the Righteous and the Wicked who after a full Hearing and fair Tryal shall be sentenced according to their Actions the one to Eternal Life and Happiness the other to Everlasting Misery and Torment So that the Gospel hath not only declared the thing to us that there shall be a future Judgment but for our farther assurance and satisfaction in this Matter and that these things might make a deep impression and strike a great awe upon our Minds God hath been pleased to reveal it to us with a great many particular Circumstances such as are very worthy of God and apt to fill the Minds of Men with dread and astonishment as often as they think of them For the Circumstances of this Judgment revealed to us in the Gospel are very solemn and awful not such as the wild fancies and imaginations of Men would have been apt to have drest it up withal such as are the Fictions of the Heathen Poets and the extravagancies of Mahomet which tho' they be terrible enough yet they are withal ridiculous but such as are every way becoming the Majesty of the great God and the Solemnity of that great Day and such as do not in the least â—avour of the vanity and lightness of humane imagination For what more fair and equal than that Men should be tried by a Man like themselves one of the same Rank and Condition that had experience of the Infirmities and Temptations of Humane Nature So our Lord tells us that the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son because he is the Son of Man and therefore cannot be excepted against as not being a fit and equal Judge And this St. Paul offers as a clear proof of the equitable proceedings of that Day God says he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained And then what more congruous than that the Son of God who had taken so much pains for the Salvation of Men and came into the World for that purpose and had used all imaginable means for the Reformation of Mankind I say what more congruous than that this very Person should be honoured by God to sit in Judgment upon the World and to Condemn those who after all the means that had been tried for their Recovery would not Repent and be Saved And what more proper than that Men who are to be judged for things done in the Body should be judged in the Body and consequently
us in broken pieces or mixt and adulterated here a Lesson of Scripture and there a Legend but whole and entire sincere and uncorrupt God hath not left us as he did the Heathen for many Ages to the imperfect and uncertain direction of Natural Light nor hath he revealed his Will to us as he did to the Jews in dark Types and Shadows but hath made a clear discovery of his Mind and Will to us The Dispensation which we are under hath no vail upon it the Darkness is past and the true Light now shineth we are of the Day and of the Light and therefore it may justly be expected that we should put off the Works of Darkness and walk as Children of the Light Every degree of knowledge which we have is an aggravation of the Sins committed against it and when our Lord comes to pass Sentence upon us will add to the number of our stripes Nay if God should inflict no positive torment upon Sinners yet their own Minds would deal most severely with them upon this account and nothing will gall their Consciences more than to remember against what Light they did offend For herein lies the very nature and sting of all guilt to be conscious to our selves that we knew what we ought to have done and did it not The Vices and Corruptions which reigned in the World before will be pardonable in comparison of ours The times of that ignorance God winked at but now he commands all Men every where to Repent Mankind had some excuse for their Errors before and God was pleased in a great measure to overlook them but if we continue still in our sins we have no cloak for them All the degrees of Light which we enjoy are so many Talents committed to us by our Lord for the improving whereof he will call us to a strict account for unto whomsoever much is given of him much shall be required and to whom he hath committed much of him he will ask the more And nothing is more reasonable than that Men should account for all the advantages and opportunities they have had of knowing the Will of God and that as their knowledge was increased so their sorrow and punishment should proportionably rise if they sin against it The ignorance of a great part of the World is deservedly pitied and lamented by us but the Condemnation of none is so sad as of those who having the knowledge of God's Will neglect to do it how much better had it been for them not to have kuown the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them If we had been born and brought up in ignorance of the true God and his Will we had had no sin in comparison of what now we have but now that we see our sin remains This will aggravate our Condemnation beyond measure that we had the knowledge of Salvation so clearly revealed to us Our Duty lies plainly before us we know what we ought to do and what manner of Persons we ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness We believe the coming of our Lord to Judgment and we know not how soon He may be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels not only to take vengeance on them that know not God but on them that have known him and yet obey not the Gospel of his Son And if all this will not move us to prepare our selves to do our Lord's Will we deserve to have our stripes multiplied No Condemnation can be too heavy for those who offend against the clear knowledge of God's Will and their Duty Let us then be perswaded to set upon the practice of what we know let the light which is in our Understandings descend upon our Hearts and Lives let us not dare to continue any longer in the practice of any known Sin nor in the neglect of any thing which we are convinced is our Duty and if our hearts condemn us not neither for the neglect of the means of Knowledge nor for rebelling against the Light of God's Truth shining in our Minds and glaring upon our Consciences then have we confidence towards God but if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knows all things SERMON XIV The Sins of Men not chargeable upon God but upon themselves JAMES I. 13 14. Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any Man But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed NEXT to the Belâ—ef of a God and his Providence there is nothing more Fundamentally necessary to the practice of a good Life than the belief of these two Principles That God is not the Author of Sin and That every Man's Sin lies at his own door and he hath reason to blame himself for all the evil that he does First That God is not the Author of Sin that he is no way accessary to our faults either by tempting or forcing us to the Commission of them For if he were they would neither properly be Sins nor could they be justly punished They would not properly be Sins for Sin is a contradiction to the Will of God but supposing Men to be either tempted or necessitated thereto that which we call Sin would either be a meer passive Obedience to the Will of God or an active Compliance with it but neither way a contradiction to it Nor could these actions be justly punished for all punishment supposeth a fault and a fault supposeth liberty and freedom from force and necessity so that no Man can be justly punished for that which he cannot help and no Man can help that which he is necessitated and compel'd to And tho' there were no force in the case but only temptation yet it would be unreasonable for the same person to tempt and punish For as nothing is more contrary to the holiness of God than to tempt Men to Sin so nothing can be more against justice and goodness than first to draw Men into a fault and then to chastize them for it So that this is a Principle which lies at the bottom of all Religion That God is not the Author of the Sins of Men. And then Secondly That every Man's fault lies at his own door and he has reason enough to blame himself for all the evil that he does And this is that which makes Men properly guilty that when they have done amiss they are conscious to themselves it was their own act and they might have done otherwise and guilt is that which makes Men liable to punishment and fear of punishment is the great restraint from Sin and one of the principal Arguments for Virtue and Obedience And both these Principles our Apostle St. James does here fully assert in the words which I have read unto you Lâ—t no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for