their Judgment or Immoral in their Lives What will these Men be able to say for themselves when they come to appear before the Judge of the World at the great Day of Accounts Will they pretend there was not force enough in the Gospel-evidence to convince them or weight enough in its Motives to reclaim them Ah their own Hearts will give them the Lye They can no longer be able to deceive themselves There will be no Unbelievers no seared Consciences in the other State They will then be clearly convinced that God for his part did all that was necessary nay all that was fit to be done in order to their Salvation but they were resolved to shut their Eyes and harden their Hearts against the gracious Means that were tendred them Oh how will the Rich Man and his five Brethren in Hell rise up in Judgment against these Men For they only refused to hear Moses and the Prophets But these besides them have obstinately refused to hear Christ and his Apostles who brought abundantly greater Light into the World than the former did Much more How will the poor ignorant Heathens rise up in Judgment against them Who were destitute both of Moses and Christ and yet to the shame of Christians it may be spoken have several of them lived better Lives than many of us do May not we justly and sadly apply that Woe which our Saviour pronounced of Chorazin and Bethsaida to Thousands among us Woe unto you Unbelievers Woe unto you O obstinate and irreclaimable Sinners for if the mighty Means of Grace the mighty Evidence of Truth had been afforded to Tyre and Sidon to Sodom and Gomorrha to Mahometans and Pagans that have been afforded unto you they would long ago have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for all these in the day of Judgment than for you God Almighty give us all Grace seriously to consider these things that we may by a timely and hearty closing with his Methods and Designs for our Salvation prevent the dismal Consequences of Infidelity and a Vicious Life that so it may not be our Condemnation at the last day That Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light SERMON VII PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL On the 11th of April 1690. Gal. v. 13. Vse not Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh ANY one that useth to make reflexions upon his own Actions cannot but observe That one of the great occasions of the sins he is guilty of in the course of his Life is the too free use of his lawful Liberty I do not say that any Man doth commit sin by using his lawful Liberty for that would be a kind of contradiction But I say the using our Liberty to the utmost pitch and extent of that which we call lawful is the occasion of a great many sins that would otherwise not have been committed If one should offer to tempt a Man that hath any Sense of Vertue or Religion to do a thing that at the first sight appears sinful or wicked it would certainly be rejected Every one that has any regard to God or Goodness would start at such a Proposal But here is our infelicity A Temptation comes on by degrees And at the first we are ingaged in nothing but what is lawful and honest and accordingly we use that Liberty which Nature and Religion allows us and so we proceed on insensibly in the use of that Liberty till at last we become uncertain whether we have not exceeded the bounds of what is lawful And by this means we are often caught Nay indeed nothing but this could betray well-meaning Persons and such as are vertuously disposed into sin Licitis perimus oumes said a devout Man It is by lawful things that we commonly miscarry With great reason therefore doth St. Paul give this advice in the Text Brethren saith he ye have been called unto Liberty only use not Liberty for an occasion to to the Flesh There is no doubt but the Apostle writ these words upon occasion of and with reference to the great Controversy that was then on foot among Christians touching the Obligation of the Jewish Law Some then thought themselves bound in Conscience to observe all the Precepts of Moses his Law Other Christians thought they were freed by the coming of Christ from all legal Observances The Apostle determines the Case in Favour of these latter and declares that by the Gospel they were called unto Liberty and were free from all the Mosaical Impositions But yet nevertheless he tells them they ought to be careful in the exercise of that Liberty that they do not use it for an occasion to the Flesh That is to say that this Liberty to which they were called should not Minister to any sin That they should not so use it as to be a snare either to themselves or others To themselves by running into licentiousness and taking unlawful Liberties To others either by affrighting the unbelieving Jews from the embracing Christianity or discouraging those that already believed the Gospel in the profession of it This is the strict Sense of the Apostle's words as they come in here in the Text and as they do relate to that occasion upon which he writ them But that sense with reference to that occasion is now out of doors among us Though the general Advice that is here given will eternally be good and useful Nay and always needful to be insisted on in all Ages of the World We have none now that use their Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh as to the point of the Judaical Ceremonies But we have abundance that do use it so as to other Matters Nay as I said before this too free use of our Liberty in lawful things is one of the great Sources and Fountains from whence most of our irregularities do proceed And therefore I do not know how I can entertain you more usefully upon this Text than by endeavouring to give you the best Rules I can for the reducing the Apostle's Exhortation into practice as it doth concern us at this day But that you may see plainly what I drive at I will yet state the Matter a little more particularly Our Case in this World is this The Laws of Vertue and Religion do allow Men all reasonable Liberties in the gratification of their natural Passions and Appetites and in the use and enjoyment of all the good things of this Life But all unreasonable gratifications all excesses and immoderate Liberties are forbidden by Religion and therefore are sinful and criminal If now in all Cases a Man could readily and certainly fix the precise bounds and land-marks of what is reasonable and moderate and what is unreasonable and excessive in the use of his Liberty so as that upon all occasions and in all emergencies he could say within his own Mind Thus far I may lawfully and innocently go in the
ardent Love and Charity set our selves not to seek his own but every man another's good as the Apostle exhorteth 1 Cor. 10.24 Secondly if the doing good be so necessary a duty as hath been represented what must we say of those Men that frame to themselves Models of Christianity without putting this duty into its notion There is a sort of Christianity which hath obtained in the world that is made up of Faith and knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries without any respect to Charity and good works Nay have we not heard of a sort of Christianity the very perfection of which seems to consist in the disparaging this duty of doing Good as much as is possible crying it down as a heathen Vertue a poor blind piece of Morality a thing that will no way further our salvation nay so far from that that it often proves a hindrance to it by taking us off from that full relyance and recumbency that we ought to have on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in order to our Salvation But O how contrary are these Doctrines to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles How widely different a thing do they make Christianity to be from what it will appear if we take our notions of it from their Sermons and Practices Is it possible that he that went about doing Good himself made it his meat and drink the business and employment of his life should set so light by it in us that are his followers Is it possible that they that so often call upon us to do Good 1 Tim. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.8 1 Cor. 13.2.13 to be rich in good works above all things to have fervent charity among our selves telling us that all faith is nothing all knowledge of mysteries is nothing all gifts of Prophecy and Miracles are nothing but that Charity is all in all I say is it possible that they should think doing Good so insignificant so unprofitable nay so dangerous a thing as these I spoke of do represent it But I need not farther reprove these Opinions because I hope they find but few Patrons but this seriously ought to be reproved among us viz. that we do not generally lay that stress upon this duty we are speaking of that we ought to do Many are ready enough to acknowledge their Obligations to do Good and count it a very commendable thing and a work that God will bless them the better for yet they are loth to make it an essential ingredient of their Religion they think they may be Religious and serve God without it If they be but sober in their lives and just in their dealings and come to Church at the usual times they have Religion enough to carry them to Heaven though in the mean time they continue covetous and hard and uncharitable without bowels of pity and compassion and make no use of their wealth or their power and interest or their parts and industry or their other Talents committed to them for the doing good in the World Far be it from any Man to pretend to determine what Vertues or degrees of them are precisely necessary to Salvation and what Vertues or degrees of them a man may safely be without But this is certain that Charity and doing Good are none of those that can be spared The Scripture hath every where declared these qualities to be as necessary in order to our Salvation as any condition of the Gospel Nay if we will consult St. Matth. 25. where the Process of the General Judgment is described we shall find these to be the great points that at the last day Men shall be examined upon and upon which the whole case of their eternal state will turn So that if we take the Scripture for our Guide these Men at last will be found to be much mistaken and to have made a very false judgment both of Religion and of their own condition Thirdly From what hath been said about doing Good we may gather wherein that Perfection of Christianity which we are to aspire after doth consist It has been much disputed which is the most perfect life to live in the World as other Men do and to serve God in following our employments and taking care of our families and doing Good offices to our neighbours and discharging all other Duties that our relation to the publick requires of us or to retire from the World and to quit all our secular concernments and wholly to give up our selves to Prayer and Meditation and those other exercises of Religion properly so called This latter kind of life is so magnified by the Romanists in comparison of the other that it hath engrossed to it self the name of Religious None among them are thought worthy to be stiled Religious persons but those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery But whatever excellence may be pretended in this course of life it certainly falls much short of that which is led in a publick way He serves God best that is most serviceable to his Generation And no Prayers or Fasts or Mortifications are near so acceptable a Sacrifice to our Heavenly Father as to do Good in our lives It is true to keep within doors and to attend our devotions though those that are in appearance most abstracted from the world are not always the most devout persons I say this kind of life is the most easie and the safer A man is not then exposed so much to temptations he may with less difficulty preserve his innocence but where is the praise of such a Vertue Vertue is then most glorious and shall be most rewarded when it meets with most trials and oppositions And as for the bravery of contemning the world and all the Pomps of it which they so magnifie in this kind of life alas it is rather an effect of pusillanimity and love of our ease and a desire to be free from cares and burthens than of any true nobleness of mind If we would live to excellent purpose indeed if we would shew true bravery of Spirit and true piety towards God let us live as our blessed Lord and his Apostles did Let us not fly Temptations but overcome them let us not sit at home amusing our selves with our pleasing contemplations when we may be useful and beneficial abroad Let us so order our devotions towards God that they may be a means of promoting our worldly business and affairs and doing Good among men Let us take our fit times of retirement and abstraction that we may the more freely converse with God and pour out our souls before him but let this be only to the end that we may appear abroad again more brisk and lively in vanquishing the Temptations that come in our way and more prompt and readily disposed to every good work This is to imitate our Lord Jesus to walk as we have him for an example This is a life more suitable to the contrivance and the genius of his Religion
his Enjoyments So that however the varieties of his Condition may occasion a change in his Pleasures yet can they never cause any Loss or Destruction of them And this security he enjoys not as some of the Stoicks of old pretended to do by an Imaginary Insensibility or by changing the names of Things calling that no Evil which Really is one but by an absolute Resignation of himself to the Will of God and an Hearty acquiescing in his wise Providence He is certain there is a God that governs the World and that nothing happens to him but by his Order and Appointment And he is certain also that this God hath a real Kindness for him and would not dispense any Event unto him but what is really for his Good and Advantage And these thoughts so support his Spirit that he not only bears patiently but thanks God for whatever happens to him And instead of Fretting and Complaining that things succeed otherwise than he expected he resolves with himself that that Condition whatever it be in which he actually is is indeed best for him and that which he himself were he to be the Carver of his Fortunes supposing him but truly to understand his own Concernments would chuse for himself above all others But farther besides this security from Outward Disturbances which our Vertue obtains for us there is another Evil which it also delivers us from with which the wicked Man is almost perpetually haunted and which seldom suffers him to enjoy any sincere unmingled Pleasure That which I mean is the Pangs of an Evil Conscience the Fears the Restlesness the Confusion the Amazements that arise in his Soul from the sense of his Crimes and the just Apprehensions of the Shame and Vengeance that doth await them possibly in this Life but most certainly in the Life to come How Happy how Prosperous soever the Sinner be as to his other Affairs yet these Furies he shall be sure to be plagued with no pompousness of Condition no costly Entertainments no noise of Company will be able to drive them away Every Man that is wicked cannot but know that he is so and that very Knowledge is a Principle of perpetual Anguish and Disquietude Be his Crimes never so secret yet he cannot be confident they will always continue so and the very Apprehension of this makes him feel all the Shame and Amazement of a present Discovery But put the case he hath had the good luck to sin so closely or in such a nature that he need fear nothing from Men yet he knows there is an Offended God to whom he hath a sad and a fearful Reckoning to make a God too Just to be Bribed too Mighty to be Over-awed too Wise to be Imposed upon And is not the Man think you under such Reflections as these likely to live a very Comfortable life Ah none knows the Bitterness of them but himself that feels them To the Judgment of others he perhaps appears a very happy Man he hath the World at his beck all things seem to conspire to make him a great Example of Prosperity we admire we appland his Condition But ah we know not how sad a heart he often carries under this fair Out-side we know not with what sudden Damps his Spirit is often struck even in the heighth of his Revellings We know not how unquiet how broken his sleeps are how oft he starts and looks pale when the Wife that lies by his side understands not what the matter is with him He doth indeed endeavour all he can to stifle his Cares and to stop the mouth of his Conscience He thinks to divert it with Business or to flatter it with little Sophistries or to drown it with Rivers of Wine or to calm it with soft and gentle Airs And he is indeed sometimes so successful in these Arts as for a while to lay it asleep But alas this is no lasting Peace the least thing awakens it even the sound of a Passing-Bell or a clap of Thunder nay a Frightful Dream or a Melancholy Story hath the power to do it and then the poor Man returns to his Torment And now judge you whether the Honest and Vertuous Man that is free from all these Agonies that is at Peace with God and at Peace with his own Conscience that apprehends nothing terrible from the one nor feels any thing troublesome from the other but is safe from Himself and from all the world in his own Innocence Judge I say whether such a one hath not laid to himself better and surer Foundations for Pleasures and a happy Life than the Man that by indulging his Lusts and Vices only breeds up a Snake in his Bosom which will not cease to Sting and Gall him beyond what a Tongue is able to express or a witty Cruelty to invent Fourthly and lastly Besides the benefits of Religion for removing the hinderances of our Pleasures it also adds to Humane Life a world of Pleasures of its own which vicious men are utterly unacquainted with And these are of so excellent a kind so delicious so enravishing that the highest gratifications of sense are not comparable to them Never till we come to be heartily Religious do we understand what true Pleasure is That which ariseth from the grateful motions that are made in our outward senses is but a faint shadow a mere dream of it Then do we begin to enjoy true Pleasures indeed when our Highest and Divinest Faculties which were wholly laid asleep while we lived the Life of Sense begin to be awakened and to exercise themselves upon their proper objects when we become acquainted with God and the Infinite Abyss of Good that is in him when our hearts are made sensible of the great Love and Good-will he bears us and in that Sense are powerfully carried out in Joy and Love and Desire after him When we feel the Divine Nature daily more and more displayed in our Souls shewing forth it self in the blessed Fruits of Charity and Peaceableness and Meekness and Humility and Purity and Devotion and all the other Graces of the Holy Spirit It is not possible but that such a Life as this must needs be a Fountain of inexpressible Joy to him that leads it and fill the Soul with transcendently greater Content than any thing upon Earth can possibly do For this is the Life of God this is the Life of the Blessed Angels above this is the Life that is most of all agreeable to our own Natures While we live thus things are with us as they should be our Souls are in their natural Posture in that state they were framed and designed to live in whereas the Life of Sin is a state of Disorder and Confusion a perpetual violence and force upon our Natures While we live thus we enjoy the Pleasures of Men whereas before when we were governed by Sense we could pretend to no other satisfactions but what the Brutes have as well as we In
for the finding it And this is that which Solomon hath told us The Integrity of the Vpright shall guide him For Prov. 11.3 cap. 4.18 the path of the just is a shining light But 2dly If it be his Lot to fall into such circumstances where his way is not so plain but that there is need of great advice and deliberation what course to steer as it often happens especially in such times as the Text speaks of Yet here the Upright Man hath the advantage of all those that walk by different principles for all other things equal he has more Light to direct him in the finding of his way than they have There is this difference between a Man that walks Uprightly in all his conversation and a Man that hath sinister ends of his own to pursue The former hath always the free use of his Intellectual Powers and can exert his Reason in its highest perfection and to the best advantage Whereas the latter is horribly clouded in his discerning Faculties He hath constantly a mist before his Eyes which hinders him from rightly distinguishing the objects he looks upon and consequently occasions many blunders and mistakes in the choice of his way My meaning is this Whoever frames his Life by other Measures than those of Honesty and Conscience whoever intemperately pursueth his private ends or is a slave to inordinate Passions let them be of what kind they will These things do clap such a Byas upon his Soul as renders him utterly uncapable of making a right judgment of things before him and consequently must unavoidably expose him to a great many dangerous errours in the management of his affairs and this oftentimes in Matters that have no great difficulty in them Take any one of the Passions that usually govern the Man that hath no principles of Conscience let it be either Fear or Envy or Revenge or Vain-glory or Avarice or Ambition it is a wonderful thing to see how monstrously they distort his Reason and what odd extravagant courses they put him upon and this even in plain easy cases Nay though the Man in other things where his affections have no influence be a very wise Man One could scarce imagine the power that these things have over a Man's Judgment but that we every day see such strange instances of it But now the Upright Man is not in the least obnoxious to any of these inconveniences For having no turns to serve but those that are honest and good having no private Affections or Passions to be gratified he looks upon things in a pure and simple Light and not through a coloured Glass And consequently his conceptions of them as far as humane endeavours can secure are according to their Nature and his determinations and resolutions are suitable to his conceptions that is to say are reasonable and fit and such as become the occasion As his main design is to do in all instances that which is best so that design preserves him from mistaking in his Notions of what is best His Reason and Understanding are free and at liberty and if there do arise any knot or difficulty he of all others is likely to untie it with the greatest ease And this is that which the Psalmist hath told us The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdome a good Vnderstanding have all they that do thereafter Psal 111. â—â— But Secondly If we take Light for Safety and Security for Defence and Protection as it is sometimes used in the Holy Scripture In this sense also Light ariseth to the Vpright in times of Darkness For such a Man may in the worst of times above all other Men promise these things to himself And this is that which Solomon tells us He that walketh Vprightly walketh surely Prov. 10.9 And indeed this seems to be the thing principally intended in the Text The Light which is here said to arise to the Vpright in Darkness seemeth chiefly to respect his Security from Danger in the times of a Common Calamity as appears by what immediately followeth viz. He shall not be moved for ever he shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart shall not shrink untill he see his desire upon his Enemies Now this Security in times of Danger the Upright Man may expect upon these two accounts First his Uprightness in its own Nature as things are contrived and carried on in the World doth above all other things conduce to it And Secondly He is upon account thereof intituled to God's more particular Protection First The Paths of Uprightness are in themselves such as naturally tend to secure a Man in Evil and Dangerous times For first They do really contribute to the Good and Happiness of the Publick in the which every Man 's private safety is in a manner bound up Prov. 11.11 As by wickedness they are the words of Solomon a City is overthrown so by the blessing of the Vpright it is exalted Every Upright Man is really a benefactor to the Publick For by him and such as he Cities and Kingdoms are supported which would otherwise fall into confusion The whole Body Politick owes its preservation to the vertuous Care and honest endeavours of Upright Men. And every such Man in particular reaps the benefit of such his Endeavours for he shares in his own Person that protection and security he procures to the Community And if he had not been Upright as the Publick would have fared something the worse for it So it is certain he in his private Capacity would in the same proportion have fared the worse also But this consideration of the conduciveness of Honesty and Uprightness to the Good of the Publick I direct chiefly to those that are in Office and Authority for really their carriage and conduct hath a more than ordinary stroak in the good or bad success of the common affairs And therefore it concerns them especially to look to themselves that they be Men of Integrity and keep a Good Conscience in the discharge of their Trust Upon their Upright walking the safety and preservation of the Publick doth more depend than upon the Endeavours of a thousand private Men. Though they are but particular Persons yet being vested with Authority their Conduct and Management hath as great an influence upon the common Good or the common Ruin as if they were a Multitude and single as they are they do in a great Measure carry the Balance of the publick Fortune in their Hands But Secondly The conduciveness of every Man's Uprightness to the publick good is not the only consideration upon which it is recommendable as a means for obtaining safety and security in evil times For let the Publick go as it will In the worst of times if any Man can in probability be thought able to shift for himself if any Man can in reason hope to escape the Violence and Iniquity of the times the Upright Man the Man of Honesty and Integrity is
Pranks have been plaid to serve a Turn or promote a good Cause And whereas his Reason might tell him that this could not be so seeing the Person that appeared to him had both the Countenance and the Voice of his Friend yet that he would get over the Imposture was cunningly carried on and the Surprise and Fright it put him into did so disorder his Judgment that he was not able to distinguish between the True and the Counterfeit But supposing he be convinced that here was no Juggle in the matter but what appeared was a true Spirit or a Ghost if there be any such Yet how shall he know that it was the Ghost of his Friend If he was sure it was he he would give credit to what he reported because of the former experience he had had of his integrity But this he cannot any way be certain of For any thing he knows to the contrary it may be one of those ill-natured Inhabitants of the Air that are so much talked of that make it their Business to disturb the Rest and Quiet of Mankind and take a pleasure in filling their Heads with Fears and Scruples and drawing them to all kind of Superstition He hath heard and read of such And there is no Man of any Persuasion or Religion Jew Turk or Heathen nay all the several sorts of Heathens at this day which are to be found either in the East or the Western Indies and Christians too of all Communions There is none of these but have Stories to tell of Apparitions and Visions for the confirmation of their several Doctrines and Tenents Now that all these Apparitions are to have Credit given to them is absurd because they contradict one another in their Discoveries How therefore can he tell whether this particular Apparition that is made to him ought to be credited or no as to what it declares concerning Religion and the State of the other World In plain English rather than such a Man as we are speaking of will be prevailed upon to quit his dearly-beloved Lusts and Vices he will find Excuses and Reasons a great many why he ought not to believe any thing that is conveyed to him in such a manner as we now suppose Especially if we consider in the Third place What Advantages he will make for his purpose from that very Way that we now think would be most effectual to convert him that is One coming from the Dead Here is an Apparition pretends to be sent upon a particular Message to him from the other World to persuade him to embrace such a Religion and to change his way of Living and threatens him with horrible Punishments of he doth not The very unusualness of the thing will put some Apprehensions into him especially considering his concernment to find out all the ways that can be to elude the Force of the Argument that it is not so convincing doth not carry in it so great Evidence as at first sight there seemed to appear For what Imaginable Reason can be given why he should be dealt with in a way so different from that that the rest of Mankind are The Particularity of the Miracle will give occasion to him to suspect the Truth of what it discovers If his Neighbours and Friends were thus haunted he might think he had reason to be alarmed and to apprehend some danger in that Course of Life he is so much disuaded from But since none in the place where he lives is thus exercised besides himself he cannot satisfie his Reason as to this way of proceeding with him If this Means of Conviction was rational and strong without doubt others would have it afforded to them and be convinced by it as well as he But since no such thing appears as the Apparition it self is unaccountable so are the Arguments and Motives it offers unaccountable also And till he be convinced in the same way and by the same Reasons that other Men are he will continue as he is I represent these things not to shew the weakness or invalidity of such an Argument as we are speaking of but to shew how easily those that have espoused Interests inconsistent with Religion and Christianity may find out Expedients for the avoiding the Force of it But Fourthly and Lastly Let all this go for nothing Let us suppose the Man to be very well satisfied in his own Mind both concerning the matter of Fact and the cogency of the Argument he hath from thence to live after another rate than he hath hitherto done Nay as often as he thinks of this Vision or is asked concerning it he hath the same Sense and makes the same Judgment of it that he did at first though it be many Years after I say supposing all this yet doth it from hence follow That such a Man will be effectually brought over to Vertue and Religion after he hath long pursued a course of sin and resisted the Arguments of the Gospel Alas it is very unlikely How much alarmed soever he was at first yet it is a hundred to one if he be such a Person as we speak of but in time and by degrees the Impressions will wear off and Nature return to its first Course It was the newness and surprizingness of the thing that first wrought upon him but that will not last always After he hath once got over the first Transports and is come again to his usual temper and to his Business and to his Company the Argument though it have the same Force that it had at first yet it grows flat and unaffecting and will have no more effect upon him than the standing Motives of Christianity formerly had Notwithstanding all his first Convictions he will live as tamely under the Bondage and Tyranny of his old reigning Lusts though perhaps not without some checks of Conscience now and then as those that never had such kind of means vouchsafed them for their Conversion And it must needs be thus for when all is done Arguments will still be but Arguments They can persuade but they cannot compel The efficacy of them doth in a great Measure depend upon our Will and Choice especially where they are to combate with strong Passions and Prepossessions Are there not a thousand Persons in our days that are as fully convinced of the Truth of the Christian Revelation and the Necessity of a Holy Religious Life in order to the going to Heaven or avoiding the Pains of Hell as they would be if one should come to them from the Dead Nay more fully perhaps than they would have been by the Testimony of such an Apparition had they wanted the Scriptures And have not the Consciences of these Persons at several times by several means been severely awakened And have they not at these seasons in the most serious manner imaginable made Vows and Resolutions to live a Holy Christian Life And yet we see they continue still unreformed still they are the same sensual
God Almighty's Service Let none of us be afraid to put reasonable restraints upon our Passions and Appetites Assuredly the thus using our Liberty is the certain way to preserve and encrease it and with it the pleasure and comfort of our Lives and not only so but to render us Everlastingly Happy and Blessed in the other World Which that we may all be God of his infinite Mercy grant c. SERMON IX Preached before the House of Commons AT St. Margaret's Westminster On the 21st of May 1690. Deut. v. 29. O that there were such an Heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever THese are the words of God to Moses concerning the Children of Israel And two things may be gathered from them I. His serious desire of their Happiness II. The means whereby that Happiness is to be attained The first of these is imported in that solemn wish into which the Text is framed O that there were such an Heart in them c. that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever The second is imported in the way of connecting the former part of the wish with that which follows O that there were such an heart in them what then That they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always and why so It follows That it might be well with them and with their Children for ever Which plainly implies That the way to have things well with them and with their Children is to fear God and keep all his Commandments always I have but one thing more to observe concerning the Text and that is this That the wish or desire that God here expresses of Israel's Vertue and Happiness doth not so much relate to the Israelites considered singly and as particular Persons though it cannot be denied but it doth extend to them even under that notion but it chiefly relates to the Children of Israel considered collectively that is to say under the notion of a People or Nation God here expresses his care of the whole Nation and seriously wishes they may be a happy People they and their Children after them Two points then we have from this Text very proper to be insisted on upon this Occaasion which therefore I shall make the Heads of my following Discourse First That God is seriously concerned for the good and happiness of Nations and Kingdoms as well as that of particular Persons and more especially of those Nations that profess his true Religion Secondly That the Happiness and Prosperity of Nations is to be attained the same way that any particular Man's happiness is that is to say by fearing God and keeping his Commandments I. I begin with the first That God is seriously concerned for the good and happiness of Nations and Kingdoms as well as that of particular Persons and more especially of those Nations that Profess his true Religion I do not think this is much doubted of by any Christian and therefore I need not insist on a laborious proof of it That God who doth not overlook the meanest and the most inconsiderable Creatures that he hath made but so far concerns himself in taking care of them and providing for them that not so much as a Sparrow if we may believe our Saviour doth fall to the ground without his will Can it be imagined that he is not more concerned for the happiness and well-being of the noblest part of the visible Creation Mankind who bear his own Image and whom he looks upon as his own Children Certainly he is And that God whose Care and Providence doth so particularly extend to every individual Man that as the same our Lord Jesus speaks the very Hairs of our Head are numbered by him Can it be imagined that he doth not still take more care of the greater Bodies and Combinations of Men such as Nations and Kingdoms which are so many ways more considerable than single Men and in whose Fortunes the good or ill of particular Persons is so wholly bound up Certainly he doth And lastly That God who is the Author the Preserver the Protector of all publick Societies by whom Kings Reign and Magistrates decree Justice Can it be imagined that he hath not still a more particular regard to those Nations that he hath been pleased to call by his own Name and hath chosen for his own People such as were the Israelites in my Text of old and such are all those Peoples and Nations now that do profess his true Religion Certainly he hath Thus natural reason will teach us to argue And that it is a right way of arguing Matt. 6.26 30. 1 Cor. 9.9 is confirmed to us by our Saviour and St. Paul both of which we find reasoning after this manner To quote to you all that the Scripture saith upon this Argument would be endless One of the great designs of God's word is to possess us with a hearty Belief that God as he is the Creator so he is also the Governour of the World And that his Providence extends to all the things and Persons in it And that the constant Rule and Measure of that Providence is no other than the good of the World and the good of every Person in it so far as his private good is consistent with the publick And that therefore as God designs all good to every particular Man so doth he more especially design the good of Nations and Kingdoms in all his dispensations of Providence to them Nor is there any thing happens in any Nation or Kingdom but with his approbation Even the severest visitations that come upon Mankind are from him There is no evil happens to a City Amoâ— 3.6 Isa 28 2â— Miâ— 7.18 Latin 3 3â— but the Lord hath done it Though yet Judgment is his strange work And Mercy and Loving kindness is the thing wherein he delights He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. But sometimes it is necessary that Nations should be scourged yet even that is for the greater good of Mankind Isa 26. â— That thus when God's Judgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World may learn righteousness But then as for his own People those upon whom his name is called those that are in Covenant with him and profess his true Religion for them upon all occasions he declares so great a tenderness and concernment that there is hardly any figure of Speech that the most sensible Man can make use of for the expressing his most passionate love to his dearest Friend or Relation though it be his Wife or his Children but the very same figures are made use of by the Holy inspired Writers to set out to us the kindness and concernment that God hath for his own People He is their God their King their Shepherd their Father their Husband They are his chosen ones His Delight his peculiar
fell down flat only at the sound of Rams-Horns 2 Kings 7. ch And when the City of Samaria was Besieged and brought into the greatest extremity that was possible so that Women even are their own Children yet in one night God by an unaccountable terrour which he struck into the hearts of the Enemies raised the Siege And such plenty was left in their Camp that every one of the Besieged had wherewith not only to satisfy his hunger but to enrich himself Only that Nobleman that would not believe this when it was foretold by the Prophet did not live to taste of the Fruits of God Almighty's Victory being trodden to Death in the Crowd II. But it is time to come to the second general point I observed from this Text viz. That the Happiness and Prosperity of Nations is to be attained the same way that any particular Man's happiness is that is to say by being sincerely virtuous and religious or as my Text expresses it by fearing God and keeping all his Commandments always This is a true Proposition both with respect to particular Persons and to Nations too but with this difference That if we take Happiness and Prosperity for that which the World accounts so that is to say the possession of a great many outward Blessings and the freedom from temporal evils and inconveniencies the Proposition is not so universally true with reference to particular Persons as it is with reference to Nations and Kingdoms For every Man that fears God is not always blessed with happy outward Circumstances On the contrary some good Men are exposed to many and great Afflictions and Misfortunes and Sicknesses and Crosses all their lives long But it is certainly true of all Nations and Peoples whatsoever Every Nation or Society shall fare better or worse in this World exactly according as they fear God or despise and affront him exactly according to the degree they keep God's Commandments or break them Though it is not certain that every particular Man shall always do so And there is great reason that it should be thus For First We know that all God's ways are just and equal Now as to particular Persons there is a great room left for the dispensing this Justice and Equity to them For they being in their natures made to live for ever it is enough for the vindicating God's Justice that they be at any time hereafter either rewarded for their Piety and Virtue or punished for their Wickedness and abuse of God's Mercies So that wicked Men may be happy and prosperous here and good Men may suffer many afflictions and tribulations without any the least reflection on the Justice or Goodness of the great Governour of the World Because there is a farther day reserved for the adjusting all Men's Rewards according to their Works But now the consideration of publick Societies and Nations is quite different Nations are not made to be Immortal but end with this World No Society as a Society shall be called to a future account But all the Rewards and Punishments they are capable of as Societies must be adjudged and distributed to them in this present Life And therefore if we suppose God to be the Judge and Governour of the World and of all the Nations in it as well as he is the Judge and Governour of particular Persons We must likewise suppose that he administers all affairs so that Righteous and Religious Nations have in this World the reward of their Virtue in the blessings of Peace and Plenty and all manner of temporal Prosperity And on the other side impious and incorrigible Nations are likewise punished in this World for their wickedness either by severe Judgments or by a total destruction as God in his infinite Wisdom sees cause This now that I have offered is I think so reasonable that if there was no more to be said it ought to go a great way towards the making of the point I have in hand highly credible But in the second place there is a great deal more to be said The word of God doth all along bear testimony to the truth of this A multitude of Texts of Scripture there are that do most plainly give this account of God's dealing with Nations and Peoples that I have now mentioned There is no Judgment threatned to any Nation in the holy Scripture and abundance of Nations are there threatned but it is upon account of the sins and wickedness they were guilty of Which Sins if they repented of so repented as to forsake them they might find mercy And accordingly we find in fact that God always dealt with Peoples and Nations according to these measures God had solemnly denounced destruction to the City of Nineveh by his Prophet and that within forty Days But upon the Repentance of the Ninevites and turning to God with all their hearts he reversed his Sentence tho' to the great discontent of the Prophet and gave them a further time On the other side he waited long for the Repentance of the Canaanites but would not destroy them because their sins though very heinous admitted a place for Repentance But when their iniquities were filled up to the measures according to which God proceeds in his destruction of Nations He then sent the Israelites to root them out and to take possession of their Land And thus was Nebuchadnezzar raised up by God to be a scourge to all the Nations about him for the punishment of their sins Nebuchadnezzar had indeed other things in his Head That which he designed was the gratifying his own Ambition and enlarging his Dominions But these were not the ends which God had to serve by him God made use of him as his Instrument as his Servant and so he calls him for the rendring to the Nations that just recompence of vengeance which their sins called for I mention these things the rather because they are instances of God's dealing with Heathen Nations who were under no particular Covenant with God And I might have recourse likewise to the Histories of all Nations to shew the truth of this Name any Nation that was ever remarkable for Justice for Temperance and severity of Manners for Piety and Religion though it was in a wrong way that did not always thrive and grow great in the World and that did not always enjoy a plentiful portion of all those things which are accounted to make a Nation happy and flourishing And on the other side when that Nation has declined from its former Virtue and grown impious or dissolute in manners we appeal to Experience whether it has not likewise always proportionably sunk in its Success and good Fortunes I am sure any one that will be at the pains to read either the Greek or the Roman or even the Turkish History will meet with matter enough there to satisfie him of the truth of this observation But I confine my self to the Scripture and in that the History of the Jews is
the most remarkable for indeed it makes up a great part of the Old Testament Now in that History it is worth our taking notice of That every degree of publick Vice and departure from God's Laws was always punished with publick Judgments And on the other side every degree of publick Repentance and Reformation was always rewarded with publick Happiness and Prosperity So that any one that could make a right estimate of the Morals of that Nation and how it stood as to Virtue and Vice might constantly make a judgment likewise how it would fare with them as to their outward temporal affairs I must confess that generally speaking there is little force in those Arguments that are drawn from Examples But in the case I am now upon I think there is a great weight in them For though we cannot argue from God's dealing with one Person that he will just deal in the same manner with another Yet as to Nations and Kingdoms the case is otherwise as I before said For God's Dispensations and Providences to them seem all to proceed upon one immutable Foundation which will be the same in all Ages and Countries namely the expression and vindication of his Justice and Goodness in this World And for my part I have always been of this mind That there is no other difference between the History of God's dealings with his own People the Jews and that of other Nations but this That in other Nations the publick Events that happened whether good or bad though they were taken notice of yet they passed without any reflection on the true causes from whence they proceeded The Historians did indeed often lay their Fingers rightly upon the immediate visible outward occasions or means or instruments from whence their good or bad Fortune was derived to them But they searched no further They considered only second Causes and took no great notice of the first and principal Cause of all things God Almighty and his influencing humane affairs They left God in a great measure out of their Hypothesis and out of their History But now that the World might be awakened to a more hearty belief and sense of his Providence God took care to single out the Nation of the Jews and in them to give us a true Pattern or Platform of his dealings with all the Nations of the World And for that purpose he ordered that all the great strokes both of their departure from God and of their return to him and likewise both of the good or bad Fortune that did at any time befal that Nation should be faithfully Registred and the true Causes of them faithfully assigned That all Mankind might from thence receive Instruction how they ought to behave themselves towards God and what according to their different behaviours they were to expect To conclude this point By all that hath been said it appears That the State and Condition and Fortune of all Kingdoms and Nations is the very same with that of the Jews as it is represented by Achior the Ammonite in the advice he gave to Holofernes when he came up with an Army against that People You have the passage in Judith 5.17 Whilst saith he these People sinned not before their God they prospered because the God that hateth iniquity was with them But when they departed from the way that he appointed them they were destroyed in many Battels after a nonderful sort and were led Captive into a land that was not theirs But now they are turned to their God and are come up from their Captivity and have again possessed Jerusalem Now therefore my Lord and Governour if there be any fault in this People so that they have sinned against their God let us consider that this shall be their ruin and let us go up that we may overcome them But if there be no iniquity in this People let my Lord pass by lest their Lord defend them and their God be for them and we become a reproach before all the World Thus it is and will be always with all States and Nations if they notoriously sin against their God this will be their ruin But if there be not found iniquity in them it is in vain for any Enemy to set upon them for God will be for them and their Lord will defend them If this which I have said be not sufficient to satisfie any one about the truth of this point I might bring other Proofs for it I might for instance in the third place insist upon this That Virtue and Piety do in their own nature tend to promote the welfare and happiness of Peoples and Nations As on the other hand all Vice and Irreligion is destructive of humane Society And this without respect to any appointment or Decree of God that things should be managed in this way but purely in the very nature of the thing It is obvious That Virtue and Religion lay the surest Foundation for all those Blessings wherein the happiness of a Nation doth consist that is possible both by making Magistrates to govern well and by rendring the People easie to be governed And likewise by furnishing both the Governours and the governed with such kind of Principles and Habits as cannot fail with the Blessing of God to produce both Peace and Plenty and Victory and all other sorts of Prosperity in a Nation As on the other hand all Vice and Wickedness and Profaneness and Impiety do sow the worst Seeds in the World for the dissolving and breaking in pieces all Societies or at least for the so enfeebling them that they shall either be in a very low wretched condition among themselves if they have no Enemies or if they have any become an easie prey to the next Invader But I will not enter upon this Argument because I think the matter needs no further proof And I would spend the rest of my time in making some Application of what hath been said upon this point to the business of our present meeting on this Day WE are here met together for the solemn Humiliation of our selves with Fasting and Prayer before Almighty God In order to the Supplicating his Divine Majesty for the Pardon of our Sins and the Sins of our Nation And the imploring his Blessing and Protection to the King and Kingdom by continuing those Mercies to us we do injoy by averting those Judgments from us we have reason to fear and more particularly by giving a Happy Issue to that dangerous War in which his Majesty with the Kingdom is now engaged And very great reason there is that you the Representatives of the People of England should most seriously and solemnly join in this Religious Office since the Fortunes of the Nation you represent did never more lie at stake than at this present You have hitherto been acting and endeavouring for the Happiness and Security of your Nation by Humane Methods and we all put up our daily Prayers that what you have done and what
you shall do may be for the Glory of God and the good of his Church and the Safety Honour and Wellfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms And we hope all will so come to pass But now on this Day both You and We are to think of other Methods for the procuring Success to our Affairs Namely by having recourse to God Almighty who when we have done all that we can is the Governour of the World and will do what he pleaseth But yet will always do that which is best for Mankind and that too which is best for our Nation if we be capable Objects of his Favour And to make our selves such if it be possible is our business on this Day This is indeed a seasonable Business at all times but at this time it seems absolutely necessary Since we have reason to apprehend the Crisis of our Nation as to Happiness or Ruin to be upon the point of approaching The Judgments of God are now abroad in the World We have not only Rumours of Wars sounding in our Ears but all Europs is now in an actual War and a terrible one And what the Consequences will be we know not Some very great thing God certainly designs to bring to pass in these parts of the World and that very suddenly A Cup he has mingled for all the Nations to drink of Which to some undoubtedly will prove a bitter Potion a Cup of God's Wrath and Fury to others probably a Cup of Salvation But how it will prove to us is yet entirely in the Will of God However this is certain that we of this Nation shall have as much our share in it be it good or bad as any other in Christendom And now after the mention of this Can there be any need to call upon any one to weeping and fasting and mourning and crying mightily to the Lord that he would have mercy upon us and spare us and our Nation and not give his Heritage over to Confusion Why methinks the Circumstances we are in should put us upon so doing without any other Monitors Indeed we have no Humanity no Compassion for our selves or our Country if we do not We should all be of this mind if we did seriously consider how things stand with us We are not that Innocent Virtuous Pious People that may certainly reckon upon God's Favour and think our selves in all Cases sure of his Protection For if the Doctrine I have now been insisting on to you be true Doctrine then we of this Nation can but entertain very small hopes of being Happy and Prosperous Nay we cannot but apprehend Misery and Ruin and Desolation to our selves unless God be abundantly more merciful to us than we deserve And there can be no way to prevail with him to be so but an universal Humiliation and Repentance And this is the Application I desire to make of the Point I have been now treating of If the measure of God's dealing with Nations be always according to the Moral State of them If their good Fortunes be dealt out to them according to their Virtues and Judgments be inflicted upon them according to their provoking God by their Sins as we have said Good Lord What a lamentable Prospect have we of this Kingdom of what may come upon us And what infinite reason have we thereupon immediately to try all the ways that are possible of making our Peace with God that so Iniquity may not be our ruin I beg leave to dwell a little upon this Point because it is the proper Argument of the day I do not say nor do I think that we of this Nation are worse than our Neighbours But this I say considering how long God hath spared us and how long we have enjoyed the Blessings of Peace and Plenty and all sorts of Prosperity though perhaps with many Fears and just Apprehensions of danger whilst most of our Neighbours have been harassed with Wars and exposed to all the Cruelties and Miseries of Persecutions and Devastations And considering the great Priviledges and Advantages we have for many years enjoyed of all the outward means of Grace that could be desired for the Eternal Salvation of our Souls and that above any other Nation under Heaven And withal how unprofitable we have been under these means how unthankful to God for them and what little Effect they have had upon us for the bettering our Manners And lastly Considering how very wicked we generally are what a World of open gross Sins and Impieties do reign among us and what a lewd Prophane Hypocritical Atheistical Spirit seems to have gone out into the Nation and to prevail upon it I say these things considered we cannot make any very comfortable Reflections on our own Condition So far from that that if as I said the measure of God's dealings with Nations be taken from their Behaviours and moral Qualities and be suited to their merits and deserts we have as little to hope for as most Nations under Heaven I take no delight in saying these things on the contrary it is very grievous But if ever one may be allowed to run out into a Declamation against the Vices of the Times it is upon such an occasion as this and before such an Audience as this that the liberty may be challenged For God's sake let us not deceive our selves nor think that we are Favourites of Heaven meerly because we profess the Best Religion and are Members of the Best Church in the World For as good as our Church and Religion is and as zealous as we seem to be for them yet never did Vice and Iniquity of all sorts and indeed every thing that is contrary to our holy Religion more abound in this Nation than at this day Give me leave to speak out upon this occasion and to tell you of some of the Crying Sins that reign among us and that deserve Your Care to put a stop to and which if if they be continued in will certainly bring down the Vengeance of God upon us Where was there ever more Atheism and Insidelity to be seen in a Country that professed the Religion of Jesus Christ than is among us at this day We do not perhaps meet with very many that do openly affirm There is no God For as bad as we are God be thanked we are not yet arrived to such Impudence That is such an affront to the Laws and good Manners that it is not to be born with But we may meet with several every day that do affirm the same thing by consequence asserting such Principles from whence it may be necessarily concluded For my part I account it much the same thing as to the ill effects of the Opinion to deny the Being of God as to deny the Being of Angels and Spirits and Immaterial Souls to deny the Being of particular Providence to deny the natural difference between good and evil to deny another Life after this wherein good Men shall be
God should let loose our Enemies upon us the Enemies of our Nation and of our Religion and should give us over as a Prey unto them what have we to reply Truly nothing that I know of except that of the Psalmist Righteous art thou O Lord and Just are thy Judgments But we trust God's Lenity and Forbearance and Mercy is as great to Publick Societies and Kingdoms as it is to Private Persons And that we may apply those expressions to our Nation which David uttered with reference to himself O Lord if thou shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But there is Mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared When the Iniquities of a People are at the full God will not fail to punish them But whether ours be so or no He only knows We hope though they be very grievous and crying they have not yet exceeded the measure of God's Patience and that there is yet left a place for Repentance This is indeed the only Plank we have to trust to that can save us from Shipwrack and therefore we ought to lay hold upon it Let us therefore this day every one of us if we have any kindness for our Native Country If we have any respect to that dear Place where we and our Ancestors and all our Relations and Kindred for many Generations have lived so happily If we have any Zeal for or regard to that excellent Church and that Holy Religion that God did in so extraordinary a manner plant among us and for the preserving of which in our Land His Care and Providence hath so often and so wonderfully appeared If we have any Concernment for many thousands of innocent Souls who without their own fault may deeply suffer for the Nations Sins Lastly If we have any Bowels of Compassion to those dear Children of ours that God hath given us that we may transmit to them and their Children after them that Birth-Right and those Privileges and that excellent Religion we received from our Fathers I say if we have any sense of these things let every one of us this day most sincerely apply our selves to the Service of God in all the ways of a serious Virtue and Piety Or if we have been careless of this matter heretofore or which is worse have been lewd or wicked in our lives yet let us now at last heartily repent of it And with Prayers and Tears and the most solemn Resolutions of Amendment prostrate our selves before the Throne of Grace imploring and beseeching God's Pardon and Forgiveness and if it be possible a lengthning of our Tranquillity O let us not refuse this opportunity of doing the greatest Kindness and the best service to our Country that we possibly can And therefore let us not only heartily bewail our own Sins but the reigning Impieties and Wickedness that our Nation stands accountable for Now is the time if ever that we are all concerned to be importunate with God for our selves and our Country And a fitter Prayer for this purpose cannot be composed for us than that which Daniel put up to God for his Nation and that at such a solemn time as this when as he tells us he had set himself to seek God for his People by Prayer and Supplication with Fasting and Sackcloth and Ashes The Prayer is in the 9th Chapter of his Prophecy and I shall conclude with it and I earnestly beg of you all to join with me in it O Lord the great and dreadful God that keepest the Covenant and shewest mercy to them that love thee and to them that keep thy Commandments We have sinned and done wickedly and have committed Iniquity and have rebelled even by departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this Day to the Men of Judah and to the Inhabitant of Jerusalem because we have sâ—â—â—red against thee But unto the Lord our God belongeth Mercy and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him â—â—ither have we 〈…〉 of the Lord our God to walk in his Laws which he set before us O Lord according to all thy Rightâ—â—â—sness we beseech thee let thy anger and thy fury be turned away from thy City Jerusalem thy holy Mountain Because for our sins and the iniquities of our Fathers Jerusalem and thy People are become a reproach to all that are about us Now therefore O God hear the Prayer of thy Servants and cause thy Face to shine upon thy Sanctuary O God incline thine ear and hear Open thine Eyes and behold the City which is called by thy Name O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do Defer not for thy own sake O our God For thy City and thy People are called by thy Name And whilst Daniel was thus praying and confessing his sins and the sins of his People unto the Lord and supplicating for his City Jerusalem Behold the Angel Gabriel was sent unto him from the Lord with the glad tidings that God had heard his Prayer for Jerusalem and that it should be built and the Lord would dwell in it O may we all thus Fast and Pray as Daniel did and may God Almighty give us such a return of our Prayers Amen O God for Jesus Christ his sake to whom c. SERMON X. PREACHED AT St. GILES in the Fields On the 28th of June 1691. Philip. iv 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things I Have the two last Lord's Days made it my business to treat of this Text in a way that I thought did most tend to the informing your Judgments And to that purpose I have raised several Observations and drawn several inferences from it I mean now to treat of it in another way and apply my self wholly to the pressing you to the practice of it And indeed the Nature of the Sermon I am to make doth call for this from me For I am now to take my leave of you this being the last time in all probability that I shall Preach among you as your Minister And therefore I suppose good Advice and Exhortation will more become me at this time than a close Discourse upon a Text. And yet my Text doth afford matter enough without straining it for such a purpose Nor indeed do I know a Text in the Bible that I could more willingly pitch upon to leave with you as the last Advice I would give you and as the Sum and Conclusion of my Preaching among you than these Words of St. Paul I have now read to you Let me therefore at this time address my self to you all as the Apostle here did at the conclusion of his Epistle to the Philippians Finally Brethren whatsoever things
demonstration by the sending his own Son into it how little a Value he sets upon these Things But II. I proceed to the Second Point which my Text leads me to speak to and that is the Time of our Saviour's Appearance here mentioned Once hath he Appeared in the end of the World You see here that the time of his Appearance is said to be the end of the World But how is that to be understood If we take the expression in the literal sense and as we commonly use it the thing is not true For there have already passed near seventeen Hundred Years since our Saviour's Appearance and yet the end of the World is not come nor do we know when it will But there will be no difficulty in this matter if we carefully attend to the Phrase the Apostle here useth and interpret it according to the Propriety of the Language in which it is delivered The word in my Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which every body that is versed in the style of the New Testament knows may be better and more naturally rendred the Consummation or Conclusion of the Ages than the End of the World Fot the understanding this Phrase we must have recourse to the known Idiom of the Jews who used to speak of the several Oeconomies and Dispensations under which the World successively had been or was to be as of so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ages The last of which Ages and the Accomplishment and Completion of all of them they held to be the Age of the Messiah beyond which they knew there was to be no other Age or Oeconomy With reference to this way of speaking the times of the Gospel-dispensation are frequently called in Scripture the Last Times the Last Days the Fulness of the Times and in the Text the Consummation or Shutting up of the Ages The meaning of all which Phrases is no more than this That the Times of the Gospel that is the Appearance and Revelation of our Saviour though God intended them from the beginning yet should they be the last of all Times There should be several Dispensations set on foot in the World before they came and when those times were fulfilled when the Ends of those Dispensations were accomplished then should our Saviour appear and begin his Kingdom which should never be succeeded by any other This is the true meaning of Christ's appearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Text expresseth it that is not as we translate it in the end of the World but in the last of the Ages or at the time when the Ages were fulfilled and accomplished Now what use are we to make of this Consideration the Apostle himself doth fairly intimate to us in the beginning of this Epistle God saith he who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath made heir of all things and by whom he made the Worlds And so he goes on to set forth the incomparable Dignity and Preheminence of this last Messenger of God above that of either Angels or Men by whom he had spoken to Mankind before But what is the inference he draws from all this Why That you may see in the beginning of the second Chapter We ought therefore saith he to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard that is to say the Doctrine of the Gospel lest at any time we let them slip For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation as was spoken to us by the Lord Jesus The Apostle's Argument here proceeds on this manner God's Revelation of his Will to Mankind and the discovery of his Grace and Goodness was not all at once but gradual and by parts He first spake to Mankind by the Patriarchs who were burning and shining Lights in their Generations He afterwards singles out the Nation of the Jews to be his peculiar People and to them he gives a written Law which was delivered to them by Angels in the hand of Moses their Mediator as the Apostle speaks in the third of the Galatians which Law was a shadow or dark representation of the Good things which were afterwards to be revealed After this he sends Prophets in a continual Succession for several Ages who do more clearly discover God's will to them who call upon them to Holiness and Virtue and who speak in very plain Terms of that Great Salvation which God should one day manifest to the World And last of all as the Lord of the Vineyard in the Parable dealt with his Husbandmen who after he had sent Servants one after another of different Qualities and Degrees at last sent his own Son So at last I say did the great Lord of the World when the fulness of the time was come send his own Son to be his Embassador to Mankind his own Son who was the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person If now as the Apostle here argues If under the former Dispensations when God only declared his Will by Angels or by Prophets he was yet so severe that no Transgression or Disobedience escaped without a just recompence of Vengeance How can we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation as that was which in these last days was preached by Jesus Christ How can we escape if these last and greatest Methods of God for our good and in which all the Treasures of his Goodness are displayed I say if these have no effect upon us in order to the making us both Holy and Happy What Teachers what Instructers can we further expect What new Lights or Assistances do we yet wait for Can any one think that God should set on foot some other new Dispensation for the bringing off those wretched People upon whom this last could prevail nothing Do we dream of another Covenant or another Mediator between God and Man besides Christ Jesus Do we fancy that God will send some other Embassador or Saviour into the World after he hath sent his own Son Or that the Son of God will come a second time in Humane Flesh and again be crucified for us No certainly God hath afforded the last and greatest means for Man's Salvation and no other is ever to be expected Christ hath once appeared in the end of the World to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself and to those that believe in him and love him and obey him will he appear the second time to their alvation But never will he appear again to make a new Reconciliation for those Men that are not reconciled to God by his first Appearance To such as our Apostle speaks in the Tenth Chapter There remains no more Sacrifice for Sin but a fearful expectation of Judgment and fiery Indignation
For as the same Psalmist tells us Psal 33.5 He loveth righteousness and judgment the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. He is holy in all his ways Psal 145.17 9. and righteous in all his doings and his tender mercies are over all his works To say That God deals arbitrarily with any of his Creatures or that He dispenseth Good or Evil to them meerly because He will without any other Reason is in truth to disparage His Nature and gives us such a notion of Him as we have perhaps of some of the Great Monarchs of the World but whom we are far from esteeming the Best Men. No certainly if we Mankind find in our selves that the wiser and better we grow the less are we led by Humour and Will and the more do we shake off our Indifferency to Good and Evil and the more steadily do we cleave to the eternal Laws of Reason and Righteousness in all our Actions We may be sure that God who is Wisdom and Justice and Goodness it self can never in any of his Actions or Dealings with his Creatures depart from these Principles The true Scheme of God Almighty's Government is plainly this His Infinite Mind clearly understood all the Possibilities of things long before they were in actual being He knew what things were possible to be and how they would act if they were put into being and what the Events of all their Actings would be His Infinite Goodness moved him to put into actual being every thing that he saw was Good to Be and to give them all those powers of Action that they have and withal to look after them so as that both they and all their Motions and Actions should at last be to the Praise and Glory of the same Goodness that first enclined him to create them His Infinite Wisdom contrived the Methods in which all this should be brought to pass and so laid the Scheme and Platform of things that nothing could happen in the whole Creation from the beginning of the World to the end thereof tho' it was in it self never so bad never so mischievous but what both might and should be so ordered as to be subservient to that end And lastly The Scheme of Things being thus laid His Infinite Power first produced All things and still upholds All things and from time to time in their several seasons actually brings to pass every thing according to the Determinations of his eternal Wisdom And tho' it doth it in ways secret to us yet it doth it certainly and surely and withal most easily and gently with the least violence to the establish'd Laws of Nature and without any force at all upon the Free Wills of Intelligent Beings This I say is the Account that both Reason and Scripture give us of God's Making and Governing the World Infinite Knowledge is the Foundation of All. Infinite Goodness is the Author and Mover of All. Infinite Wisdom is the Contriver and Director of All. And Infinite Power executes All. Admit now these Principles and see what will follow from them It will follow from hence in the first place that every Event that happens in the World is beautiful in its season as Solomon expresses it That is to say How unaccountable soever it may appear to us yet there is a good Reason to be given both why it happens at all and likewise why it happens at that time and with those circumstances that it doth It helps to adorn the Great Drama and Contrivance of God's Providence and ministers to excellent Ends tho' we poor Creatures do little apprehend how it makes for them As indeed it is impossible we should unless we had the whole Comprehension of Things in our Minds and saw the entire Scheme of God's Government from the beginning to the end This must needs be so if we be Govern'd by Infinite Wisdom Secondly It follows from hence that both Good and Evil are measured to Mankind according to their respective Capacities If we be fit for Good Good will come If we deserve Punishment we must expect that likewise For All God's ways are equal tho' Ours be unequal And therefore it is the most unreasonable thing in the World to impute our Successes whether they be Good or Bad so wholly to the immediate Hands that managed our Affairs as not in the first place to take notice of the Hand of God in them There is a Divine Power that governs all these matters And tho' it be true that no Misfortune no ill Success ever happens but there is a Human Reason to be given for it and it may be found out upon what occasion or by what neglect or thro' what ill management that Misfortune happened Yet it is as true that if those that managed for us had the Wisdom and the Conduct and the Strength of the very Angels of God yet their Endeavours would not be effectual for the making us happy unless we our selves were in a Capacity of being so by being proper Objects of God's Mercy and Favour This must likewise be true if perfect Justice govern the World Thirdly It follows from hence that even the severer Dispensations of God's Providence toward us the things we complain of and are uneasie under our very Calamities and Misfortunes and Disappointments even these are the effects of God's Kindness tho' at the same time they may be likewise Instances of His Justice That is to say they are meant really for our Good and will prove so if we make that use of them we should do The very Nature of God is to do all Good at all Times to all his Creatures For He had no other End in making them nor has he any other End in looking after them But God cannot do good to All in the same way Correction and Chastisement and Punishment is in some cases more expedient for the bringing People to Rights and promoting their true Interests than the giving them all that their own Hearts can wish In such cases therefore God must deal with his Creatures as every wise Parent deals with his Children And tho' these Chastisements as the Apostle tells us are not joyous but grievous yet are they design'd for the bringing forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness in all them that are exercised thereby The truth is we do not know what is good for our selves We often wish for things that perhaps if our wishes were granted would undo us But our Happiness is that God knows all and so tempers all that all Events even those that we are apt to look upon as the greatest Judgments shall at last appear more visibly to have been the wisest methods that could possibly have been contrived for the doing the Greatest Good to us And if they do not succeed accordingly it will be our own fault This must likewise needs be true if perfect Goodness govern All For even Justice it self is but a different way of expressing Goodness And all that which
the Proposition with relation to Christianity or the Revelation of our Saviour and his Apostles That being the Dispensation we are now under and in which we are more immediately concerned Understanding therefore our Proposition of that Especial Revelation which we call the Gospel two things there are to be offered which will undeniably make it out First Those Persons that lived in the Times of our Saviour when this Publick Revelation of the Gospel was made and attested had greater Evidences and Motives to bring them over to the Belief and Practice of his Religion than if any particular Miracle had been wrought in order to their Conversion Secondly We at this day all things considered have as strong Arguments to convince us as powerful Motives to persuade us as those that lived in the Times of our Saviour and were Witnesses of what he did and taught The unavoidable Consequences of which two Points are these That those who lived in the time of our Saviour and were not persuaded by his Gospel would not have been persuaded though one had been sent to them from the dead And those they are now alive and are not persuaded by the Evidences and Motives of Christianity which we now have among us would not have been persuaded if they had lived in the Times of our Saviour So that in all Ages of Christianity the Proposition will hold true That those who give no credit to the standing Revelation of the Gospel or are not thereby induced to lead their Lives according to it would not be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought for their Conversion First then Our Saviour's Gospel at the first publishing of it was a more effectual Means for the Conversion of any Man then living than the sending to him one from the dead Let us suppose the Parable we are now upon to be a true History and that this Rich Man had five Brethren living at Jerusalem at the time when our Saviour spoke it and they were all Wicked Lewd Atheistical Persons and God Almighty in pity to their Souls is pleased to grant that Request which the Rich Man here makes to Abraham on their behalf and accordingly sends Lazarus from the dead to preach Repentance to them We cannot doubt but such a Sermon from such a Man and in such Circumstances would mightily awaken them and put them upon a more serious Consideration of the folly of their Ways and the danger they exposed them to than ever they entered into before and this Consideration it is likely might work them to serious Resolutions of quitting their present Courses and entring upon a stricter Life Certainly such an Apparition as this in reason should work such Effects and without doubt upon many it would But this we say Whether did not our Saviour perform a great deal more than all this comes to in order to the Conviction and Conversion of all about him And whether had not these five Brethren supposing them to live when he preached his Gospel and to be Witnesses of his Actions much more reason to be persuaded by what he did and taught than by the aforesaid Vision Our Saviour did by all the Signs and Tokens in the World evidence himself to be an Express Messenger sent from God which they could not be certain that the Vision was The Prophetick Records of their own Country did all testifie of him and they themselves by comparing his Life and them together might see they were fulfilled in him To omit the Circumstances of his Birth which were such as never any besides himself was born with After he came to enter upon his Publick Employment God did more than once by a Voice from Heaven testifie that he had sent him and that all People were to hearken to him And the Truth of this he himself confirmed not only by his Life which was the most Innocent and Vertuous and God-like that ever was Nor only by his Sermons and Doctrines which were the most Perfect and Unexceptionable and every way the most worthy of God that ever were taught among Men But also and most chiefly by his extraordinary Works which were such as none but God or one acted by a Divine Power could possibly perform He did the greatest things that ever were seen by Men. He shewed by his Actions and those most publickly done and frequently repeated that he had an absolute Sovereign Power over the course of Nature over the invisible Agents of this World as well Angels as Devils And likewise over both the Bodies and the Souls of Men. And particularly to make it appear that his Testimony was more authentick his Authority more to be relied on than that of any Ghost any Lazarus whatsoever that should rise from the Dead It was very usual with him to send again to the Living these that were once dead And one Lazarus he really brought again from the Bosom of Abraham after he had been four days Dead to testifie to the World that Jâ—sus was the Great Embassador that God had sent and that all Mankind were to receive and obey him And lest all this should not be convincing enough lest it should be said still One that should rise from the dead and come and preach to us would leave the greater Impressions upon us Jesus himself did rise from the dead and did come and preach to the World and that in a far more convincing manner than the Ghost of Lazarus would have done if the Rich Man had had his own Wish For Jesus told his own Death before-hand and fore-told also his Resurrection And if God meant not to lay an invincible Temptation before Mankind to believe a Falshood it had concerned his Providence to have hindred this Resurrection if Jesus had been any thing else than what he pretended to be But he did rise after three days according to his Prediction and conversed upon Earth with his Followers for forty days together shewing himself not only to a few particular Disciples but to great Crowds of them Five hundred at a time And after this in the sight of his Friends he took his leave of the World and ascended up into Heaven And for a Testimony how God approved him there he sent down the Holy Spirit upon his Disciples who for many years together enabled them to do our Saviour's Miracles over again in confirmation of his Doctrine If now to come to our Argument if these five Brethren of the Rich Man be supposed to be alive when all these things came to pass If they had the Opportunity of being present at many of these Passages and of satisfying themselves of the rest as certainly supposing the Matter of Fact to be true none that lived at that time and in that Country but had this Opportunity If they heard this Jesus that was sent from God at the first and that was sent from God the second time after he was dead testifying against their Sins forewarning them of the Judgment to come
and assuring them of Eternal Rewards if they would repent I say If they were Witnesses of these things I will appeal to all the World whether they had not greater Means of Conviction offered to them than if any Ghost had appeared to them from the Dead or any particular Miracle had been vouchsafed them for the bringing them over to Vertue and Sobriety But I believe no Body will much doubt of this for indeed the matter will not bear a dispute But here is the Question Whether we that live at this distance from our Saviour have the same Means of Conviction and Whether one now appearing from the dead to us would not be of greater force to persuade us than the standing Revelation of the Gospel as we have it now conveyed to us This therefore leads me to my second Proposition upon this Head which if it can be made out will wholly take away all Controversie in this Matter And it is this That we at this day have as great Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Christ's Revelation and consequently as great Motives from thence to persuade us to reform our Evil Lives as those that Lived in the Times of our Saviour It is true indeed we want the Evidence of Sense in these Matters which they had and upon that account it must be acknowledged that they have the Advantage of us But this we say notwithstanding that if we take all things together and weigh them Impartially we shall find that that Want is abundantly supplied to us in other respects For first of all Our Saviour's Gospel and all the Evidences of it I have been now speaking of were timely and faithfully recorded and are as faithfully transmitted down to us So that though we did not see or hear those things yet we have a certain and exact Account of them and such an Account as was never yet questioned by any Adversaries that lived in those Times when such a Question was most reasonably to be made and such an Account as appears by all the Evidences that a thing of that Nature is capable of to have been written by Eye-witnesses and such Witnesses as were honest undesigning Men and not only so but they sealed with their Blood the Truth of what they reported And this same Account was religiously received by all Christians in all Places without Contradiction in those very Times and was shortly after translated into a Multitude of Languages so that it is scarce possible it should in any Considerable Matter be corrupted And from that Time to this in a continual Succession there have been Men that have suffer'd Martyrdom for the Attestation of it and in the first Ages after Christ when they had the best Opportunities of Examining the Truth of these things many thousands did so Now I say Though acccording to the Ordinary Proverb Seeing be Believing Yet next to Seeing an universal well-grounded Tradition which hath visible Effects attending it hath the most force to gain belief Nay I do not know whether there be so much Difference between the Evidence of the one and the other as one would think at first Sure I am there are many Cases in which we do as firmly believe Matters of Fact upon the Credit of Tradition and the permanent Effects that do accompany it as if we our selves had been present and seen them with our Eyes Which of us for Instance doth make any more doubt of the Story of William the Conquerour his subduing this Kingdom or of Henry the Eighth his casting off the Pope's Supremacy than he doth of the Revolutions that have happned in his own time And yet these Matters of Fact are no better attested than the History of our Saviour and his Miracles and Doctrines But Secondly Though those that lived in our Saviour's time had Evidence of Sense for the Truth of what they believed concerning him and his Doctrine which we have not Yet this is to be considered that they laboured under far greater Prejudices against his Religion than we now do And consequently all that sensible Proof which they had of the Truth of it would not be more effectual for the convincing of them than that Proof we now have though it be less ought in reason to be for the convincing of us They that were the Hearers and Spectators of what our Saviour said and did had mighty and inveterate Prepossessions to struggle with They were educated in a quite Different Religion and so must be supposed to have entertained several Notions and Principles which would very difficultly be rooted out and indeed for the effecting of it there needed little less than an Almighty Power But it is not so with us we by our Education are already disposed and prepared for the receiving Christianity We have no praevious Engagements to alienate our Minds from it nay it is our Interest to be of that Religion rather than any other So that certainly a less Evidence for the Truth of it will be as convincing to us as a much greater would have been to those to whom our Saviour first Preached Nay I am very confident that this thing being duely considered it will appear that our Arguments for Christianity drawn from Tradition will be more convincing to thinking Men among us than those Arguments they had from Sense and Experience could be to them But Thirdly If to what hath been said we add the several Arguments for the Credibility of the Christian Religion which we now have at this distance that they had not nor could have that were our Saviour's Immediate Disciples we shall be satisfied that in point of Evidence we have indeed much the advantage of them We have now several standing proofs of our Religion which they could not have and which are so strong and conclusive that they do more than compensate for the want of that Evidence of Sense which they had and we have not I breifly Instance in these three following First The strange Propagation and Success of our Religion throughout the World and the Means by which it was Effected That a poor despised crucified Person should in a few Years draw all the Roman Empire after him and that without any visible Means except the Goodness of his Cause and the Reasonableness of his Doctrine and the Sincerity and Constancy of his Disciples not in fighting for their Master but in laying down their Lives for him And this against all the Power and all the Arts and Stratagems that the Devil or the Princes of this World could invent to stifle and suppress his Name This is so strong an Argument that this Cause was the Cause of God and that his Providence was particularly concerned in the promoting of it that he must seem little to be sensible either of God or Providence that is not convinced by it If Christianity had been of the same strain that the Religion of Mahomet is had been as well calculated for Mens Lusts and Worldly Interests as that