quarrel in our own breasts and arm our own minds against our selves we create an enemy to our selves in our own bosoms and fall out with the best and most inseparable Companion of our lives And on the contrary a good Conscience will be a continual Feast and will give us that comfort and courage in an evil day which nothing else can And then whatever happen to us we may commit our souls to God in well-doing as into the hands of a faithful Creatour To whom with our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer and the Holy Ghost the Comforter be all honour and glory now and ever Amen How to keep a truly Religious Fast IN A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL September the 16 th 1691. How to keep a truly Religious Fast ZECH. vij V. Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years DID YE AT ALL FAST UNTO ME EVEN UNTO ME IN the beginning of this Chapter the People of the Jews who were then rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem and had already far advanced the work though it was not perfectly finish'd till about two years after send to the Priests and the Prophets to enquire of them whether they should still continue the Fast of the fifth Month which they had begun in Babylon and continued to observe during the seventy Years of their Captivity in a sad remembrance of the destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem or should not now rather turn it into a Day of feasting and gladness To this enquiry God by his Prophet returns an Answer in this and the following Chapter And first he expostulates with them concerning those their monthly Fasts whether they did indeed deserve that name and were not rather a mere shew and pretence of a Religious Fast verses 4 5. Then came the word of the Lord of Hosts unto me saying Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me The enquiry was particularly concerning the Fast of the fifth Month because the occasion of that was more considerable than of all the other but the Answer of God mentions the Fasts of the fifth and seventh Months these two being probably observ'd with greater solemnity than the other But for our clearer understanding of this it will be requisite to consider the original and occasion of all their monthly Fasts which as appears from other places of Scripture in short was this When the Jews were carried away Captive into Babylon in a deep sense of this great Judgment of God upon them for their Sins and of the heavy affliction which they lay under they appointed four annual Fasts which they observed during their seventy years Captivity viz. the Fast of the fourth Month in remembrance of the Enemies breaking through the Wall of Jerusalem which we find mention'd Jer. 52.6 7. The Fast of the fifth Month in memory of the destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem verses 12 13. The Fast of the seventh Month in remembrance of the slaying of Gedaliah upon which followed the dispersion of the Jews of which we have an account Jer. 42.1 2. And the Fast of the tenth Month in memory of the beginning of the Siege of Jerusalem of which we find mention 2 Kings 25.1 In this order we find these four Annual Fasts mention'd Zechar. 8.19 not according to the order of the Events but of the Months of the several Years in which these Events happened And there likewise God gives a full Answer to this Enquiry concerning the continuance of these annual Fasts namely That they should for the future be turned into solemn Days of joy and gladness And the word of the Lord of Hosts came unto me saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the Fast of the fourth Month and the Fast of the fifth and the Fast of the seventh and the Fast of the tenth shall be to the House of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts I return now to the Text Did ye at all fast unto me even unto me that is did these Fasts truly serve to any Religious end and purpose Did not the People content themselves with a mere external shew and performance without any inward affliction and humiliation of their Souls in order to a real repentance Did they not still go on in their sins nay and add to them upon these Occasions fasting for strife and debate and oppression In a word were they not worse rather than better for them And therefore God had no regard to them as it follows in this Chapter Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts saying Execute judgment and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother and oppress not the widows nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine mischief against his brother in your heart But they refused to hearken and pull'd away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear yea they made their heart as an Adamant-stone lest they should bear the Law and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent by his spirit in the former Prophets Therefore came great wrath from the Lord of Hosts Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts So that notwithstanding these outward Solemnities of Fasting and Prayer here was nothing of a Religious Fast did ye at all fast unto me even unto me They were sensible of the Judgments of God which were broken in upon them but they did not turn from their sins but persisted still in their obstinacy and disobedience And what God here by the Prophet Zechary calls fasting unto Him even unto Him the Prophet Isaiah calls the Fast which God hath chosen and an acceptable day to the Lord. Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou takest no knowledge Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable day to the Lord Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer c. From all which
and learned a man as Origen was should be positive in an Opinion for which there can be no certain ground in Reason especially for the punctual and precise term of a thousand years and for which there is no ground at all that I know of from Divine Revelation But upon the whole matter however it be be it for a thousand years or be it for a longer and unknown term or be it for ever which is plainly threatned in the Gospel I say however it be this is certain that it is infinitely wiser to take care to avoid it than to dispute it and to run the final hazard of it Put it which way we will especially if we put it at the worst as in all prudence we ought to do it is by all possible means to be provided against So terrible so intolerable is the thought yea the very least suspicion of being miserable for ever And now give me leave to ask You as St. Paul did King Agrippa Do you believe the Scrâ—ptures And I hope I may answer for you my self as he did for Agrippa I know you do believe them And in them these things are clearly revealed and are part of that Creed of which we make a solemn profession every day And yet when we consider how most men live is it credible that they do firmly believe this plain Declaration of our Saviour and our Judge That the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Or if they do in some sort believe it is it credible that they do at all consider it seriously and lay it to heart So that if we have a mind to reconcile our belief with our Actions we must either alter our Bible and our Creed or we must change our Lives Let us then consider and shew our selves men And if we do so can any man to please himself for a little while be contented to be punish'd for ever and for the shadow of a short and imperfect happiness in this life be willing to run the hazard of being really and eternally miserable in the next World Surely this consideration alone of the extreme and endless misery of impenitent Sinners in another World if it were but well wrought into our minds would be sufficient to kill all the temptations of this World and to lay them dead at our feet and to make us deaf to all the Enchantments of Sin and Vice Because they bid us so infinitely to our loss when they offer us the enjoyment of a short Pleasure upon so very hard and unequal a condition as that of being miserable for ever The eternal Rewards and Punishments of another Life which are the great Sanction and Security of God's Laws one would think should be a sufficient weight to cast the Scales against any Pleasure or any Pain that this World can tempt or can threaten us withal And yet after all this will we still go on to do wickedly when we know the terrors of the Lord and that we must one day answer all our bold violations of his Law and contempts of his Authority with the loss of our immortal Souls and by suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire What is it then that can give men the Heart and Courage but I recall that Word because it is not true Courage but fool hardiness thus to out brave the Judgment of God and to set at nought the horrible and amazing consideration of a miserable Eternity How is it possible that men that are awake and in their wits should have any ease in their minds or enjoy so much as one quiet hour whilst so great a danger hangs over their heads and they have taken no tolerable care to prevent it If we have any true and just sense of this danger we cannot fail to shew that we have it by making haste to escape it and by taking that care of our Souls which is due to immortal Spirits that are made to be Happy or Miserable to all Eternity Let us not therefore estimate and measure things as they appear now to our sensual and deluded and deprav'd Judgments but let us open our eyes and look to the last issue and consequence of them Let us often think of these things and consider well with our selves what apprehensions will then probably fill and possess our minds when we shall stand trembling before our Judge in a fearful expectation of that terrible Sentence which is just ready to be pronounced and as soon as ever it is pronounc'd to be executed upon us When we shall have a full and clear sight of the unspeakable Happiness and of the horrible and astonishing Miseries of another World When there shall be no longer any Veil of Flesh and Sense to interpose between them and us and to hide these things from our eyes And in a word when Heaven with all the Glories of it shall be open to our view and as the expression is in Job Hell shall be naked before us and Destruction shall have no covering How shall we then be confounded to find the truth and reality of those things which we will not now be persuaded to believe And how shall we then wish that we had believed the terrors of the Lord and instead of quarrelling with the Principles of Religion and calling them into question we had lived under the constant sense and awe of them Blessed be God that there is yet hope concerning us and that we may yet flee from the wrath to come and that the Miseries of Eternity may yet be prevented in Time And that for this very end and purpose our most Gracious and Merciful God hath so clearly revealed these things to us not with a desire to bring them upon us but that we being warned by his Threatnings might not bring them upon our selves I will conclude all with the Counsel of the Wise Man Seek not Death in the error of your Life and pull not upon your selves destruction with the works of your own hands For God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the Living But ungodly men with their works and words have called it down upon themselves Which that none of us may do God of his infinite Goodness grant for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes A FAST-SERMON Preached before the House of COMMONS ON Wednesday April the 16th 1690. Jovis 17. die April 1690. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls for the Sermon Preached before this House Yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same And that Sir Edmund Jenings do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cler. Dom. Com. Success not always answerable to the probability of Second Causes Ecclesiastes IX 11 I
Place to consider the principle and immediate Guide of our Actions which St. Paul here tells us was his Conscience I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence By which he does not only mean a resolution to follow the dictate and direction of his Conscience but likewise a due care to inform his Conscience aright that he might not in any thing transgress the Law of God and his Duty Conscience is the great Principle of moral Actions and our Guide in matter of Sin and Duty It is not the Law and Rule of our Actions that the Law of God only is but it is our immediate Guide and Directour telling us what is the Law of God and our Duty But because Conscience is a word of a very large and various signification I shall endeavour very briefly to give you the true notion of it Now in common speech concerning Conscience every man is represented as having a kind of Court and Tribunal in his own breast where he tries himself and all his Actions And Conscience under one Notion or other sustains all parts in this Tryal The Court is call'd the Court of a man's Conscience and the Barr at which the Sinner stands impleaded is call'd the Barr of Conscience Conscience also is the Accuser and it is the Record and Register of our Crimes in which the memory of them is preserv'd And it is the Witness which gives testimony for or against us hence are those expressions of the testimony of our Consciences and that a man 's own Conscience is to him instead of a thousand Witnesses And it is likewise the Judge which declares the Law and what we ought or ought not to have done in such or such a Case and accordingly passeth Sentence upon us by acquitting or condemning us Thus according to common use of Speech Conscience sustains all imaginable parts in this Spiritual Court It is the Court and the Bench and the Barr the Accuser and Witness and Register and all But I shall only at present consider Conscience in the most common and famous Notion of it as it is the Principle or Faculty whereby we judge of moral Good and Evil and do accordingly direct and govern our Actions So that in short Conscience is nothing else but the Judgment of a man 's own mind concerning the morality of his actions that is the Good or Evil or Indifferency of them telling us what things are commanded by God and consequently are our Duty what things are forbidden by Him and consequently are sinful what things are neither commanded nor forbidden and consequently are indifferent I proceed in the V th Place to give some Rules and Directions for the keeping of a conscience void of offence And they shall be these following First Never in any case to act contrary to the persuasion and conviction of our Conscience For that certainly is a great Sin and that which properly offends the Conscience and renders us guilty guilt being nothing else but trouble arising in our minds from a consciousness of having done contrary to what we are verily persuaded was our Duty And though perhaps this persuasion is not always well grounded yet the guilt is the same so long as this persuasion continues because every man's Conscience is a kind of God to him and accuseth or absolves him according to the present persuasion of it And therefore we ought to take great care not to offend against the light and conviction of our own mind Secondly We should be very careful to inform our Consciences aright that we may not mistake concerning our Duty or if we do that our errour and mistake may not be grosly wilful and faulty And this Rule is the more necessary to be consider'd and regarded by us because generally men are apt to think it a sufficient excuse for any thing that they did it according to their Conscience But this will appear to be a dangerous mistake and of very pernicious consequence to the Souls of men if we consider these two things 1 st That men may be guilty of the most heinous Sins in following an erroneous Conscience 2 ly And these Sins may prove damnable without a particular repentance for them 1 st That men may be guilty of the most heinous Sins in following an erroneous Conscience Men may neglect and abuse themselves so far as to do some of the worst and wickedest things in the World with a persuasion that they do well Our Saviour tells his Disciples that the time should come when the Jews should put them to death thinking they did God good service Nay the Jews murthered the Son of God himself through ignorance and a false perswasion of mind Father forgive them says our Blessed Lord when he was breathing out his Soul upon the Cross for they know not what they do And St. Peter after he had charged the Jews with killing the Prince of Life he presently adds I wote that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers And St. Paul in mitigation of that great Crime says Had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of life and glory And concerning himself he tells us That he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth And yet notwithstanding that he acted herein according to the persuasion of his Conscience he tells us that he had been a blasphemer and a persecutour and injurious and a murtherer and in a word the greatest of Sinners So that Men may be guilty of the greatest Sins in following an erroneous Conscience And 2ly These Sins may prove damnable without a particular repentance for them Where the ignorance and mistake is not grosly wilful there God will accept of a general repentance but where it is grosly wilful great Sins committed upon it are not pardon'd without a particular Repentance for them And an errour which proceeds from want of ordinary human care and due Government of a man's self is in a great degree wilful As when it proceeds from an unreasonable and obstinate prejudice from great pride and self-conceit and contempt of counsel and instruction or from a visible byass of self-interest or when it is accompanied with a furious passion and zeal prompting men to cruel and horrible things contrary to the light of nature and the common sense of humanity An errour proceeding from such causes and producing such effects is wilful in so high a degree that whatever evil is done in vertue of it is almost equally faulty with a direct and wilful violation of the Law of God The ignorance and mistake doth indeed make the person so mistaken more capable of forgiveness which is the ground of our Saviour's Prayer for his Murtherers Father forgive them for they know not what they do St. Paul likewise tells us that he found mercy upon this account Nevertheless says he I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in
will amend and do better for the future And we should endeavour also to fortifie these good Resolutions in the best manner we can by serious consideration and by solemn promises of better obedience and of a more conscientious Care of our Lives and all our Actions for the future And then with the greatest earnestness and importunity we should implore the Assistance of God's Grace and Holy Spirit to this purpose By this means the great End of a solemn Fast and Humiliation will be in some good Measure attain'd and not wholly defeated as for the most part it is by being hudled up and lost in a confused and general Repentance which commonly ends together with the publick Assembly without any real and permanent Effect upon particular Persons Perhaps a great part of the Congregation may have been in some degree sorry for their Sins but after all no man forsakes them nor is the better for his sorrow but leaves that behind him in the Church and carries home with him the same Affection for his Sins which he had before and a secret Resolution not to leave them Thus it was with the People of the Jews They had their solemn monthly Fasts in which they made a great shew of Humiliation hanging down their heads like a bulrush for a day and spreading sackcloth and ashes under them But there was no inward change of their minds no real Reformation of their Lives and assoon as ever the publick Solemnity was over they turned every one to his former evil Course So God complains of them I hearkned says He and I heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done but they turned every one to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel They spake not aright that is they did not take the right Method for an effectual Repentance They humbled themselves indeed before God and repented at random for the Sins of the Nation in general which they were all of them ready enough to acknowledge and to lay a heavy load of guilt upon the Community But all this while they never reflected upon themselves in particular they had no sense no conviction of their own personal faults and miscarriages without which there can be no true general Repentance No man repented of his wickedness saying what have I done And as they had no sense of their own particular Sins which they had been guilty of so they had no thought of leaving them but assoon as ever the publick Fasting and Humiliation was over they return'd to them again with the same eager and furious Appetite they turned every one to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel that is without any consideration or sense of danger Secondly We should likewise upon this Day heartily lament and bewail the Sins of others especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation committed by all Ranks and Orders of men amongst us and whereby the wrath and indignation of Almighty God hath been so justly incensed against us This hath been the temper and practice of good men in all Ages to be greatly troubled and afflicted for the Sins of others as well as for their own to mourn for them in secret as the Prophet Jeremy does for the obstinacy and impenitency of the Jews and for the terrible Judgments and Calamities which their Sins were ready to bring down upon them But if ye will not return says he to that obdurate People my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride or obstinacy and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's Flock is carried away captive And indeed almost the whole Prophecy of Jeremy and his Book of Lamentations are little else but a perpetual Humiliation and Mourning for the Sins of that People and for the Judgments of God which he saw already inflicted or foresaw to be coming upon them We reade likewise of Lot when he dwelt in Sodom how he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man saith St. Peter dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds Holy David also upon all occasions testifies his great trouble and grief for the Sins which he saw committed by others and was so affected with them that he trembled at the very thought of them Rivers of tears says he run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law And in the same Psalm Horrour hath taken hold of me because of the wicked which forsake thy Law And again I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy Word And how does Daniel humble himself before God and mourn and in the Name of all the People and of all Degrees and Orders of men among them take shame to himself and them for the great Sins which they had been guilty of We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day To our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee With what trouble and confusion does Ezra upon a solemn Day of Fasting and Humiliation acknowledge and bewail the Sins of the People O my God says he I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God For our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasses grown up unto the heavens Since the days of our Fathers we have been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our Kings and our Priests been delivered into the hands of the Kings of the Lands c. And thus also ought we the People of this sinful Land upon this solemn Day of Fasting and Humiliation to set our Sins in order before us with all their heinous Aggravations and in the bitterness of our souls to lament and bewail that general prevalence of Impiety and Vice which hath over-spread the Nation and diffused it self through all Ranks and Degrees of men Magistrates Ministers and People I shall speak something more particularly concerning each of these 1. The Sins of the Magistrates and those that are in Authority They that make Laws for others and are to see to the execution of them ought to be strict observers of them themselves For it must needs put a man not a little out of countenance to be severe upon those faults in others of which he knows himself to be notoriously guilty And yet how many are there whose place and duty it is to correct the vices and immoralities of others who are far from being examples of vertue themselves And therefore it is no wonder that there is so lame and unequal a distribution of justice in the Nation and that Magistrates are so cold and slack in the discountenancing of Vice and Impiety and in putting the good and wholesome Laws made against them
in execution As against the profanation of the Lord's Day by secular business by vain sports and pastimes which by the very nature of them are apt to dissolve the minds of men into mirth and pleasure and to carry them off from all serious thoughts of God and Religion and from the Meditations of another World and to give the Devil an advantage and an opportunity which be never fails to take to steal the good seed the Word of God which they have heard that Day out of their hearts and to make it of none effect And which is yet worse by lewd and sinful practices which are unlawful at any time but upon that Day are a double breach and violation of God's Law And likewise by neglecting to put in execution the Laws against profane Swearing and Cursing for which the Land mourns and against Drunkenness and Adultery and Fornication which are so common and so impudently committed amongst us whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws and it is hard to say which of them are most remisly executed And to mention no more by neglecting to prosecute that horrible Sin of Murther so frequently now committed in our Streets beyond the example of former Ages with that severity and impartiality which is necessary to free the Nation from the guilt of that crying Sin which calls so loud to Heaven for Vengeance And all this notwithstanding the Magistrates are under the Oath of God to put the Laws in due execution against all these Crimes so far as they come to their knowledge and fall under their cognisance 2. The Sins of the Ministers who serve at God's Altar and watch over the Souls of men whose bloud will be required at their hands if any of them perish through their fault and neglect There is no reason to doubt but that there are a good number of faithful Shepherds in the Land who watch over their Flocks with great care and conscience remembring the dreadful Account which they must one Day make to Him who shall judge the quick and dead of the Souls committed to their charge But yet how grosly do many of us fail of the faithful discharge of the substantial parts of this high Office wanting a just sense of the inestimable worth and value of the Souls of men for whom Christ died taking little or no care to instruct them in the good knowledge of the Lord and to lead them in the way to eternal happiness by an exemplary conversation Nay too many among us demean themselves so scandalously as perfectly to undermine the credit and effect of their Doctrine by leading lives so directly contrary to it and to alienate their People from the Church and to make them to abhorr the Sacrifice and Service of the Lord by their wicked and unhallowed Conversations hereby exposing them to the craft of Seducers and rendring them an easie prey to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome or to any other Sect and Faction that pretends a greater zeal for Religion or makes a better shew of a strict and unblameable life For who will regard or believe those Teachers who give all the evidence that can be by their lives and actions that they do not believe themselves and their own Doctrines When all is said the life and manners of the Preacher are the best eloquence and have that dint and power of persuasion in them which no words no art can equal Who so lives as he speaks does as it is said of our Blessed Saviour Speaks as one that hath authority and not as the Scribes Not as the Scribes whose words notwithstanding all the formality and gravity with which they were deliver'd did therefore want weight and force because as our Saviour tells us of them they said but did not their Lives were not answerable to their Doctrines Whereas our Blessed Saviour therefore spoke as never man spake because he liv'd as never man liv'd so innocent so useful so exemplary a life He was holy harmless and undefil'd He did no sin neither was guile found in his lips He fulfilled all righteousness and went about doing good This was that which made Him so powerful a Preacher of Righteousness and we must necessarily fall so much short of Him in the authority and efficacy of our Sermons as we do in the holiness and goodness of our Lives Such a Preacher and such a practice as that of our Blessed Saviour was is every way fitted to reprove and persuade and reform Mankind We now live in an Age and Church wherein they who are called to be the Teachers and Guides of Souls ought to take great heed both to their Doctrine and their Lives that the Name of God may not be blasphem'd and his holy Religion be brought into contempt by those who above all others are most nearly concern'd to preserve and support the credit and honour of it And we cannot but see how our Religion and Church are beset and endanger'd on every side by the rude assaults of Infidelity and by the cunning Arts of seducing Spirits and by our own intestine Heats and Divisions And it can never be sufficiently lamented no though it were with tears of bloud that we whose particular charge and employment it is to build up the Souls of Men in a holy Faith and in the resolution of a good Life should for want of due instruction and by the dissolute and profligate lives of too many among us and by inflaming our needless Differences about lesser things have so great a hand in pulling down Religion and in betraying the Souls of Men either to downright Infidelity or to a careless neglect and profane contempt of all Religion May not God justly expostulate this matter with us as he did of old with the People of the Jews A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets prophesy falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my People love to have it so and what will ye doe in the end thereof When they who are the Pastors and Guides of Souls have by their ill conduct and management brought matters to that pass that the generality of the People sit down contented with the worst state of things and are become almost indifferent whether they have any Religion or not what can the end of these things be but that the Kingdom of God will be taken from us and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits of it If ever there be a publick Reformation among us it must begin at the House of God and they who are the Ministers of Religion must lead on this work and be more careful and conscientious in the discharge of that high and holy Office which is committed to them by the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls Else what shall we say when God shall challenge us as he once did the Pastors of the Jewish Church by his Prophet saying Where is the Flock that was given thee thy beautiful
a great deal more in Innocence And the more any man considers this the truer he will find it and when-ever we are serious we our selves cannot but acknowledge it When a man examines himself impartially before the Sacrament or is put in mind upon a Death-bed to make reparation for Injuries done in this kind he will then certainly be of this mind and wish he had not done them For this certainly is one necessary qualification for the Blessed Sacrament that we be in love and charity with our neighbours with which temper of mind this quality is utterly inconsistent Thirdly There is yet a more specious Plea than either of the former that men will be encouraged to do ill if they can escape the tongues of men as they would do if this Doctrine did effectually take place Because by this means one great restraint from doing evil would be taken away which these good men who are so bent upon reforming the World think would be great pity For many who will venture upon the displeasure of God will yet abstain from doing bad things for fear of reproach from Men Besides that this seems the most proper punishment of many Faults which the Laws of Men can take no notice of Admitting all this to be true yet it does not seem so good and laudable a way to punish one Fault by another But let no man encourage himself in an evil way with this hope that he shall escape the censure of men When I have said all I can there will I fear be evil-speaking enough in the World to chastise them that do ill And though we should hold our peace there will be bad tongues enow to reproach men with their evil-doings I wish we could but be persuaded to make the Experiment for a little while whether men would not be sufficiently lash'd for their Faults though we sate by and said nothing So that there is no need at all that good Men should be concern'd in this odious Work There will always be Offenders and Malefactors enow to be the Executioners to inflict this punishment upon one another Therefore let no man presume upon Impunity on the one hand and on the other let no man despair but that this business will be sufficiently done one way or other I am very much mistaken if we may not safely trust an ill-natur'd World that there will be no failure of Justice in this kind And here if I durst I would fain have said a word or two concerning that more publick sort of Obloquy by Lampoons and Libels so much in fashion in this witty Age. But I have no mind to provoke a very terrible sort of men Yet thus much I hope may be said without offence that how much soever men are pleas'd to see others abused in this kind yet it is always grievous when it comes to their own turn However I cannot but hope that every man that impartially considers must own it to be a fault of a very high nature to revile those whom God hath placed in Authority over us and to slander the footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed Especially since it is so expressly written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy People Having represented the great evil of this Vice it might not now be improper to say something to those who suffer by it Are we guilty of the evil said of us Let us reform and cut off all occasions for the future and so turn the malice of our Enemies to our own advantage and defeat their ill intentions by making so good an use of it And then it will be well for us to have been evil spoken of Are we innocent We may so much the better bear it patiently imitating herein the Pattern of our Blessed Saviour Who when he was reviled reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously We may consider likewise that though it be a misfortune to be evil-spoken of it is their fault that do it and not ours and therefore should not put us into Passion because another man's being injurious to me is no good reason why I should be uneasie to my self We should not revenge the injuries done to us no not upon them that do them much less upon our selves Let no man's Provocation make thee to lose thy Patience Be not such a fool as to part with any one Virtue because some men are so malicious as to endeavour to rob thee of the Reputation of all the rest When men speak ill of thee do as Plato said he would do in that case Live so as that no body may believe them All that now remains is to reflect upon what hath been said and to urge you and my self to do accordingly For all is nothing if we do not practise what we so plainly see to be our Duty Many are so taken up with the deep Points and Mysteries of Religion that they never think of the common Duties and Offices of humane Life But Faith and a good Life are so far from clashing with one another that the Christian Religion hath made them inseparable True Faith is necessary in order to a good Life and a good Life is the genuine product of a right Belief and therefore the one never ought to be press'd to the prejudice of the other I foresee what will be said because I have heard it so often said in the like case that there is not one word of Jesus Christ in all this No more is there in the Text. And yet I hope that Jesus Christ is truly preach'd when-ever his Will and Laws and the Duties injoyn'd by the Christian Religion are inculcated upon us But some men are pleased to say that this is mere Morality I answer that this is Scripture-Morality and Christian-Morality and who hath any thing to say against that Nay I will go yet further that no man ought to pretend to believe the Christian Religion who lives in the neglect of so plain a Duty and in the practice of a Sin so clearly condemn'd by it as this of evil-speaking is But because the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword yea sharper than Calumny it self and pierceth the very Hearts and Consciences of men laying us open to our selves and convincing us of our more secret as well as our more visible Faults I shall therefore at one view represent to you what is dispersedly said concerning this Sin in the Holy Word of God And I have purposely reserved this to the last because it is more persuasive and penetrating than any Humane Discourse And to this end be pleas'd to consider in what company the Holy Ghost doth usually mention this Sin There is scarce any black Catalogue of Sins in the Bible but we find this among them in the company of the very worst Actions and most irregular Passions of men Out of the heart says our Saviour proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications false-witness