ought not to pretend any thing against the plain and safe paths of Religion which will entertain us with pleasure all along in the way and crown us with happiness at the end 2 TIM 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity THe whole verse runs thus Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are his And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity In which words the Apostle declares to us the terms of the covenant between God and man For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated foundation according to the usual signification of it is likewise as learned men have observ'd sometimes used for an instrument of contract whereby two parties do oblige themselves mutually to each other And this notion of the word agrees very well with what follows concerning the seal assix'd to it which is very fuitable to a Covenant but not at all to a foundation 'T is true indeed as the learned Grotius hath observed there used anciently to be inscriptions on foundation-stones and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render seal may likewise signifie an inscription and then the sense will be very current thus The foundation of God standeth sure having this inscription But it is to be considered that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie an inscription yet it is onely an inscription upon a seal which hath no relation to a foundation but is very proper to a covenant or mutual obligation And accordingly the seal affixt to this instrument or covenant between God and man is in allusion to the custom of those countries said to have an inscription on both sides agreeable to the condition of the persons contracting On God's part there is this impress or inscription The Lord knoweth them that are his that is God will own and reward those that are faithfull to him And on our part Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Let every one that nameth the name of Christ that is that calls himself a Christian For to name the name of any one or to have his name call'd upon by us does according to the use of this Phrase among the Hebrews signifie nothing else but to be denominated from him Thus 't is frequently used in the Old Testament and sometimes in the New Jam. 2.7 Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called that is the name or title of Christians and that expression 1 Pet. 〈◊〉 14. if ye be reproached for the name of Christ is at the sixteenth verse varied if any man suffer as a Christian So that to name the name of Christ is to call our selves Christians Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken strictly for injustice or unrighteousness but sometimes used more largely for sin and wickedness in the general And so it seems to be used here in the Text because there is no reason from the context to restrain it to any particular kind of sin or vice and because Christianity lays an equal obligation upon men to abstain from all sin Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity that is every Christian obligeth himself by his prosession to renounce all sin and to live a holy life In speaking to this argument I shall do these two things 1. Shew what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon men to live holy lives 2. Endeavour to perswade those who call themselves Christians to answer this obligation I. What obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon men to live holy lives He that calls himself a Christian professeth to entertain the Doctrine of Christ to live in the imitation of his holy example and to have solemnly engaged himself to all this I shall speak briefly to these and then come to that which I principally intend to perswade men to live accordingly 1. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to entertain the doctrine of Christ to believe the whole Gospel to assent to all the articles of the Christian faith to all the precepts and promises and theatnings of the Gospel Now the great design the proper intention of this doctrine is to take men off from sin and to direct and encourage them to a holy life It teacheth us what we are to believe concerning God and Christ not with any design to entertain our minds with the bare speculation of those truths but to better our lives For every article of our faith is a proper argument against sin and a powerfull motive to obedience The whole history of Christ's appearance in the world all the discourses and actions of his life and the sufferings of his death do all tend to this the ultimate issue of all is the destroying of sin So St. John tells us 1 Joh. 3.8 for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil But this is most expresly and fully declar'd to us Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The precepts of the Gospel do strictly command holiness and that universal the purity of our souls and the chastity of our bodies 2 Cor. 7.1 to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 1 Thes 5.22 to abstain from all kind of evil 1 Pet. 1.15 to be holy in all manner of conversation They require us to endeavour after the highest degrees of holiness that are attainable by us in this imperfect state to be holy as he that hath called us is holy Mat. 5.48 to be perfect as our father which is in heaven is perfect And all the promises of the Gospel are so many encouragements to obedience and a holy life ◠Cor. 7. ◠having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God We are told by St. Peter that these exceeding great and precious promises are given to us that by these we might be partakers of a Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust and that we might give all diligence to add to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and patience and brotherly-kindness and charity And the threatnings of the Gospel are so many powerfull arguments against sin Therefore the Apostle calls the Gospel the power of God unto salvation
worshipped such Gods as were examples of sin and patrons of their vices Thou who professest thy self a Christian may'st not walk in the lusts of the flesh and of uncleanness as those did who worshipped a lastfull Jupiter and a wanton Venus Thou may'st not be intemperate as those were who worshipped a drunken Bacchus Thou may'st not be cruel and unmerciful as those were who worshipped a fierce Saturn Nor may'st thou steal as those did who worshipped a thievish Mercury Thou must remember that thou art a Christian and when thou art ready to debase thy self to any vile lust consider what title thou bearest by what name thou art called whose disciple thou art and then say to thy self shall I allow my self in any impiety or wickedness of life who pretend to be instructed by that grace of God which teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Shall I cherish any sinful passion who pretend to have mortified all these and to have put off the old man with his deeds It is not being gilded over with the external profession of Christianity that will avail us our Religion must be a vital principle inwardly to change and transform us What the Apostle says concerning Circumcision we may apply to them that are baptized and make an outward profession of Christianity Baptism verily profiteth if we obey the Gospel but if we walk contrary to the precepts of it our Baptism is no Baptism and our Christianity is Heathenism If by our lives and actions we do contradict that Religion which we profess we do by this very thing prove our selves to be counterfeits and hypocrites and that we have onely taken up our Religion for a fashion and received it according to custom we were born in a Countrey where it is reverenced and therefore we are of it And the reason why we are Christians rather than Jews or Turks or Heathens is because Christian Religion had the fortune to come first in our way and to bespeak us at our entrance into the world Are we not ashamed to take up a profession upon such slight grounds and to wear about us such an empty title It should make our blood to rise in our faces to consider what a distance there is between our Religion and our lives I remember Tully upbraids the Philosophers very smartly for living unsuitably to their Doctrines A Philosopher saith he is unpardonable if he miscarry in his life quod in officio cujus magister esse vult labitur artemque vitae professus delinquit in vita because he is faulty in that wherein he pretends to be a master and whilst he professeth an Art of living better than other men he miscarries in this life With how much greater reason may we challenge Christians for the miscarriages of their lives which are so directly contrary to their profession It may justly be suspected that so perfect an institution as the Gospel is which the Son of God came from Heaven on purpose to propagate in the world should make men more strictly holy and vertuous and set the professors of it at a greater distance from all impurity and vice than ever any institution in the world did If a man profess any other Art or Calling it is expected that he should be skilled in it and excell those who do not pretend to it 'T is the greatest disparagement to a Physician that can be to say of him that he is in other respects an excellent man onely he hath no great skill in diseases and the methods of cure because this is his Profession He might be pardon'd for other defects but the proper skill of his Art may justly be expected from him So for a Christian to say of him the worst thing in him is his life he is very orthodox in his opinions but he 's an ill-natur'd man one of very violent passions he will be very frequently drunk he makes no conscience of his dealings he is very uncharitable to all that differ from him This man is faulty in his profession he is defective in that which should be his excellency he may have orthodox opinions in Religion but when all is done there is no such errour and heresie nothing so fundamentally opposite to Religion as a wicked life A Christian does not pretend to have a better wit or a more piercing understanding than a Turk or Heathen but he professeth to live better than they to be more chast and more temperate more just and more charitable more meek and gentle more loving and peaceable than other men If he fail in this where is the Art the man boasts of to what purpose is all this noise and stir about the Gospel and the holy doctrine of Christ If any man profess himself a Christian and do not live better than others he is a mere pretender and Mountebank in Religion he 's a bungler in his own Art and unskill'd in his proper profession This is the first the indecency of the thing 2. Consider how great a scandal this must needs be to our blessed Saviour and his holy Religion The Christian Religion hath undergone many a hard censure for the miscarriages of the professors of it The impieties and vices of those who call themselves Christians have caused many sharp reflexions upon Christianity and made the Son of God and the Blessed Saviour of the world to wear the odious names of deceiver and impostor If a man did design to do the greatest spight to Religion he could not give it a deeper wound he could not take a more effectual course to disparage it than by a lewd and debauched life For this will still be an objection in the minds of those who are strangers and enemies to our Religion If the Gospel were so excellent an institution as it is reported to be surely we should see better effects of it in the lives of those who profess it When we would perswade a Heathen to our Religion and tell him how holy a God we serve what excellent patterns we imitate what spiritual and divine precepts of holiness and vertue our Religion does contain may not he reply would you have me to believe you when I see you do not believe your selves If you believed your Religion you would live according to it For if the Gospel were every word of it false if there were neither a Heaven to be hoped for nor a Hell to be feared after this life how could many Christians live worse than they do As we would not proclaim to the world that the Gospel is an unholy and vicious Institution let us take heed that we bring no scandal upon it by our lives lest the enemies of our Religion say as Salvian tells us they did in his time Si Christus Sancta docuisset Christiani sancte vixissent surely if Christ had taught so holy a doctrine Christians would have lived holier lives Tully tells us that one of the shrewdest arguments that ever was brought against Philosophy was this quosdam
means whereby that happiness is to be attained II. The having our conversation in heaven does imply likewise the effect which those considerations ought to have upon our hearts and lives As 1. To convince us of the vanity of this world God hath on purpose made this world troublesome and uneasie to us that there might be no sufficient temptation to reasonable and considerate men to take them off from the care and thought of their future happiness that God and heaven might have no rival here below that there might be nothing in this world that might pretend to our affection or court us with any advantage in comparison of everlasting life and glory When we come to die and eternity shall present it self to our serious and waking thoughts then things will put on another face and those things which we valued so much in this life will then appear to be nothing worth but those things which we neglected to be of infinite concernment to us and worthy to have been the care and endeavour of our whole lives And if we would consider these things in time while the opportunities of life and health are before us we might be convinc'd at a cheaper rate and come to be satisfi'd of the vanity of this world before we despair'd of the happiness of the other 2. To make us very active and industrious to be as good and to do as much good as we can in this life that so we may be qualifi'd and dispos'd for the happiness of the next Men are usually very industrious for the things of this life to be rich and great in the world did we but value heaven half as much as it deserves we should take infinitely more pains for that So often as we consider the glories that are above how does it accuse our sloth and condemn our folly that we are less concerned for our souls than most men are for their bodies that we will not labour half so much for an eternal inheritance as men ordinarily do for these corruptible things Let us remember that we are hasting apace to another world and that our eternal happiness now lies at the stake And how should it quicken our endeavours to have such a reward set before us to have Crowns and Scepters in our eyes would we but often represent to our minds the glorious things of another world what fervours should we feel in our hearts we should be all life and spirit and wing and should do God's will almost with the same readiness and delight as the Angels do who continually behold the face of their Father The consideration of heaven and the firm perswasion of our future happiness should actuate all the powers of our souls and be continually inspiring us with new vigour in the ways of holiness and vertue How should this thought swell our resolutions and confirm our purposes of obedience that if we have our fruit unto holiness our end will be everlasting life 3. To mitigate and lighten the evils and afflictions of this life It is no great matter how rough the way be provided we be sure that it leads to happiness The incomparably greater good of the next life will to a wise and considerate man weigh down all the evils of this And the Scripture tells us that there is no comparison between them The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 The evils of this life afflict men more or less according as the soul is fortified with considerations proper to support us under them When we consider that we have but a little while to be here that we are upon our journey travelling towards our heavenly Countrey where we shall meet with all the delights we can desire it ought not to trouble us much to endure storms and foul ways and to want many of those accommodations we might expect at home This is the common fate of Travellers and we must take things as we find them and not look to have every thing just to our mind These difficulties and inconveniences will shortly be over and after a few days will be quite forgotten and be to us as if they had never been And when we are safely landed in our own Country with what pleasure shall we look back upon those rough and boisterous Seas which we have escap'd The more troubles we have past through the kinder usage we shall find when we come to our Father's house So the Apostle tells us that our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory When we come to heaven our happiness shall then be as real as our miseries were here upon earth and far greater and more lasting And what great matter is it though we suffer a while in this world provided we escape the endless unsufferable torments of the next though we have not our good things in this life if infinitely greater be reserv'd for us and we shall receive them with interest in the other Several of the evils and calamities of this life would be unsufferable indeed if there were nothing better to be hoped for hereafter If this were true Christians would not onely be of all men but of all creatures the most miserable But out Religion hath abundantly assur'd us to the contrary And the assurance of this was that which made the primitive Christians to embrace sufferings with so much cheerfulness to glory in tribulation and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that in heaven they had a better and more enduring substance The seven brethren in the History of the Maccabees upon this perswasion would not accept deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection That storm of stones which was pour'd upon St. Stephen was no more to him than a common shower when he saw the heavens open'd and Jesus in whose cause he suffer'd standing on the right hand of God 4. To make us sincere in all our professions words and actions did men firmly believe the rewards of another world their Religion would not be onely in shew and pretence but in life and reality no man would put on a form of godliness that were destitute of the power of it we should do nothing for the opinion of others but all with regard to God and our own Consciences and be as curious of our thoughts and most retir'd actions as if we were in an open theatre and in the presence of the greatest assembly For in the next life men shall not be rewarded for what they seem'd to be but for what they really were in this world Therefore whatever we think or speak or do we should always remember that the day of revelation is coming when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclos'd when all disguises shall be laid aside and every ones mask shall be taken off and all our actions and designs shall be
would be no hindrance or prejudice to any such design but very much for the advancement and furtherance of it Men that are good and vertuous do easily believe a God so that it is vehemently to be suspected that nothing but the strength of mens lusts and the power of vicious inclinations do sway their minds and set a byass upon their understandings toward Atheism 2. Atheism is imprudent because it is unsafe in the issue The Atheist contends against the religious man that there is no God but upon strange inequality and odds for he ventures his eternal interest whereas the Religious man ventures onely the loss of his Lusts which it is much better for him to be without or at the utmost of some temporal convenience and all this while is inwardly more contented and happy and usually more healthfull and perhaps meets with more respect and faithfuller friends and lives in a more secure and flourishing condition and more free from the evils and punishments of this world than the Atheistical person does however it is not much that he ventures And after this life if there be no God is as well as he but if there be a God is Infinitely better even as much as unspeakable and eternal happiness is better than extream and endless misery So that if the arguments for and against a God were equal and it were an even question whether there were one or not yet the hazard and danger is so infinitely unequal that in point of prudence and interest every man were obliged to incline to the affirmative and whatever doubts he might have about it to choose the safest side of the question and to make that the principle to live by For he that acts wisely and is a throughly prudent man will be provided against all events and will take care to secure the main chance whatever happens but the Atheist in case things should fall out contrary to his belief and expectation he hath made no provision for this case If contrary to his confidence it should prove in the issue that there is a God the man is lost and undone for ever If the Atheist when he dies should find that his soul remains after his body and has onely quitted its lodging how will this man be amazed and blank'd when contrary to his expectation he shall find himself in a new and strange place amidst a world of spirits entred upon an everlasting and unchangeable state How sadly will the man be disappointed when he finds all things otherwise than he had stated and determined them in this World When he comes to appear before that God whom he hath denied and against whom he hath spoken as despightful things as he could who can imagine the pale and guilty looks of this man and how he will shiver and tremble for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty How will he be surprised with terrors on every side to find himself thus unexpectedly and irrecoverably plunged into a state of ruin and desperation And thus things may happen for all this man's confidence now For our belief or dis-belief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing We cannot fansie things into being or make them vanish into nothing by the stubborn considence of our imaginations Things are as sullen as we are and will be what they are whatever we think of them And if there be a God a man cannot by an obstinate disbelief of him make him cease to be any more than a man can put out the Sun by winking And thus I have as briefly and clearly as I could endeavoured to shew the ignorance and folly of speculative Atheisme in denying the existence of God And now it will be less needful to speak of the other two Principles of Religion the immortality of the soul and future rewards For no man can have any reasonable scruple about these who believes that there is a God Because no man that owns the existence of an infinite spirit can doubt of the possibility of a finite spirit that is such a thing as is immaterial and does not contain any principle of corruption in it self And there is no man that believes the goodness of God but must be inclin'd to think that he hath made some things for as long a duration as they are capable of Nor can any man that acknowledgeth the holy and just providence of God and that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity and that he is a Magistrate and Governour of the World and consequently concerned to countenance the obedience and to punish the violation of his Laws and that does withall consider the promiscuous dispensations many times of God's Providence in this world I say no man that acknowledges all this can think it unreasonable to conclude that after this life good men shall be rewarded and sinners punished I have done with the first sort of irreligious persons the speculative Atheist I shall speak but briefly of the other Secondly The practical Atheist who is wicked and irreligious notwithstanding he does in some sort believe that there is a God and a future state he is likewise guilty of prodigious folly The principle of the speculative Atheist argues more ignorance but the practice of the other argues greater folly Not to believe a God and another life for which there is so much evidence of reason is great ignorance and folly but 't is the highest madness when a man does believe these things to live as if he did not believe them When a Man does not doubt but that there is a God and that according as he demeans himself towards him he will make him happy or miserable for ever yet to live so as if he were certain of the contrary and as no man in reason can live but he that is well assured that there is no God It was a shrewd saying of the old Monk that two kind of Prisons would serve for all offenders in the world an Inquisition and a Bedlam If any man should deny the being of a God and the immortality of the soul such a one should be put into the first of these the Inquisition as being a desperate Heretick but if any man should profess to believe these things and yet allow himself in any known wickedness such a one should be put into Bedlam because there cannot be a greater folly and madness than for a man in matters of greatest moment and concernment to act against his best reason and understanding and by his life to contradict his belief Such a man does perish with his eyes open and knowingly undoes himself he runs upon the greatest dangers which he clearly sees to be before him and precipitates himself into those evils which he professes to believe to be real and intolerable and wilfully neglects the obtaining of that unspeakable good and happiness which he is perswaded is certain and attainable Thus much for the second way of Confirmation III. The third way
of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to vindicate Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence And they are chiefly these three 1. Credulity 2. Singularity 3. Making a Foolish Bargain First Credulity Say they the foundation of Religion is the belief of those things for which we have no sufficient reason and consequently of which we can have no good assurance as the belief of a God and of a future state after this life things which we never saw nor did experience nor ever spoke with any body that did Now it seems to argue too great a forwardness and easiness of belief to assent to any thing upon insufficient grounds To this I answer 1. That if there be such a Being as a God and such a thing as a future state after this life it cannot as I said before in reason be expected that we should have the evidence of sense for such things For he that believes a God believes such a Being as hath all perfections among which this is one that he is a spirit and consequently that he is invisible and cannot be seen He likewise that believes another life after this professeth to believe a state of which in this life we have no trial and experience Besides if this were a good objection that no man ever saw these things it strikes at the Atheist as well as us For no man ever saw the World to be from eternity nor Epicurus his Atoms of which notwithstanding he believes the World was made 2. We have the best evidence for these things which they are capable of at present supposing they were 3. Those who deny these principles must be much more credulous that is believe things upon incomparably less evidence of reason The Atheist looks upon all that are religious as a company of credulous fools But he for his part pretends to be wiser than to believe any thing for company he cannot entertain things upon those slight grounds which move other men if you would win his assent to any thing you must give him a clear demonstration for it Now there 's no way to deal with this man of reason this rigid exactor of strict demonstration for things which are not capable of it but by shewing him that he is an hundred times more credulous that he begs more principles takes more things for granted without offering to prove them and assents to more strange conclusions upon weaker grounds than those whom he so much accuseth of credulity And to evidence this I shall briefly give you an account of the Atheist's Creed and present you with a Catalogue of the fundamental Articles of his Faith He believes that there is no God nor possibly can be and consequently that the wise as well as unwise of all ages have been mistaken except himself and a few more He believes that either all the world have been frighted with an apparition of their own fancy or that they have most unnaturally conspired together to cozen themselves or that this notion of a God is a trick of policy though the greatest Princes and Politicians do not at this day know so much nor have done time out of a mind He believes either that the Heavens and the Earth and all things in them had no Original cause of their being or else that they were made by chance and happened he knows not how to be as they are and that in this last shuffling of matter all things have by great good fortune fallen out as happily and as regularly as if the greatest wisedom had contriv'd them but yet he is resolv'd to believe that there was no wisedom in the contrivance of them He believes that matter of it selâ— is utterly void of all sense understanding and liberty but for all that he is of opinion that the parts of matter may know and then happen to be so conveniently dispos'd as to have all these qualities and most dextrously to performe all those fine and free operations which the ignorant attribute to Spirits This is the sum of his belief And it is a wonder that there should be found any person pretending to reason or wit that can assent to such a heap of absurdities which are so gross and palpable that they may be felt So that if every man had his due it will certainly fall to the Atheist's share to be the most credulous person that is to believe things upon the slightest reasons For he does not pretend to prove any thing of all this only he finds himself he knows not why inclin'd to believe so and to laugh at those that do not II. The second imputation is singularity the affectation whereof is unbecoming a wise man To this charge I answer I. If by Religion be meant the belief of the principles of Religion that there is a God and a providence that our souls are immortal and that there are rewa ds to be expected after this life these are so far from being singular opinions that they are and always have been the general opinion of mankind even of the most barbarous Nations Insomuch that the Histories of ancient times do hardly furnish us with the names of above five or six persons who denied a God And Lucretius acknowledgeth that Epicurus was the first who did oppose those great foundations of Religion the providence of God and the immortality of the soul Primum Grajus homo c. meaning Epicurus 2. If by Religion be meant a living up to those principles that is to act conformably to our best reason and understanding and to live as it does become those who do believe a God and a future state this is acknowledged even by those who live otherwise to be the part of every wise man and the contrary to be the very madness of folly and height of distraction Nothing being more ordinary than for men who live wickedly to acknowledge that they ought to do otherwise 3. Though according to the common course and practice of the world it be somewhat singular for men truly and throughly to live up to the principles of their Religion yet singularity in this matter is so far from being a reflexion upon any man's prudence that it is a singular commendation of it In two cases singularity is very commendable 1. When there is a necessity of it in order to a man's greatest interest and happiness I think it to be a reasonable account for any man to give why he does not live as the greatest part of the World do that he has no mind to die as they do and to perish with them he is not disposed to be a fool and to be miserable for company he has no inclination to have his last end like theirs who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son and shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. It is very commendable to be singular in
they be so or not and patiently to consider the arguments which are brought for them For many have miscarried about these things not because there is not reason and evidence enough for them but because they have not had patience enough to consider them Secondly Consider these things impartially All wicked men are of a party against Religion Some lust or interest ingageth them against it Hence it comes to pass that they are apt to slight the strongest arguments that can be brought for it and to cry up very weak ones against it Men do generally and without difficulty assent to Mathematical truths because it is no bodies interest to deny them but men are slow to believe moral and divine Truths because by their lusts and interest they are prejudiced against them And therefore you may observe that the more vertuously any man lives and the less he is enslaved to any lust the more ready he is to entertain the principles of Religion Therefore when you are examining these matters do not take into consideration any sensual or worldly interest but deal clearly and impartially with your selves Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a greater and more durable interest Think thus with your selves that you have not the making of things true or false but that the truth and existence of things is already fix'd and setled and that the principles of Religion are already either determinately true or false before you think of them either there is a God or there is not either your Souls are Immortal or they are not one of these is certain and necessary and is not now to be altered the truth of things will not comply with our conceits and bend it self to our interests Therefore do not think what you would have to be but consider impartially what is and if it be will be whether you will or no. Do not reason thus I would fain be wicked and therefore it is my interest that there should be no God nor no life after this and therefore I will endeavour to prove that there is no such thing and will shew all the favour I can to that side of the question I will bend my understanding and wit to strengthen the negative and will study to make it as true as I can This is fond because it is the way to cheat thy self and that we may do as often as we please but the nature of things will not be imposed upon If then thou be as wise as thou oughtest to be thou wilt reason thus with thy self my highest interest is not to be deceived about these matters therefore setting aside all other considerations I will endeavour to know the truth and yield to that And now it is time to draw towards a conclusion of this long discourse And that which I have all this while been endeavouring to convince men of and to perswade them to is no other but what God himself doth particularly recommend to us as proper for humane consideration unto Man he said behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding Whoever pretends to reason and calls himself a man is oblig'd to acknowledge God and to demean himself religiously towards him For God is to the understanding of man as the light of the Sun is to our eyes the first and the plainest and the most glorious object of it He fills Heaven and earth and every thing in them does represent him to us Which way soever we turn our selves we are encountred with clear evidences and sensible demonstrations of a Deity For as the Apostle reasons The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen Rom. 1. being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they are without excuse that is those men that know not God have no apology to make for themselves Or if men do know and believe that there is such a being as God not to consider the proper consequences of such a Principle not to demean our selves towards him as becomes our relation to him and dependance upon him and the duty which we naturally owe him this is great stupidity and inconsiderateness And yet he that considers the lives and actions of the greatest part of men would verily think that they understood nothing of all this Therefore the Scripture represents wicked men as without understanding It is a Nation void of counsel Deut. 32.28 Psal 14.4 neither is there any understanding in them and elsewhere have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge Not that they are destitute of the natural faculty of understanding but they do not use it as they ought they are not blind but they wink they detain the truth of God in unrighteousness and though they know God yet they do not glorifie him as God nor suffer the apprehensions of him to have a due influence upon their hearts and lives Men generally stand very much upon the credit and reputation of their understandings and of all things in the world hate to be accounted fools because it is so great a reproach The best way to avoid this imputation and to bring off the credit of our understandings is to be truly religious to fear the Lord and to depart from evil For certainly there is no such imprudent person as he that neglects God and his soul and is careless and slothful about his everlasting concernments because this man acts contrary to his truest reason and best interest he neglects his own safety and is active to procure his own ruine he flies from happiness and runs away from it as fast as he can but pursues misery and makes haste to be undone Hence it is that Solomon does all along in the Proverbs give the title of fool to a wicked man as if it were his proper name and the fittest character of him because he is so eminently such There is no fool to the sinner who every moment ventures his Soul and lays his everlasting interest at the stake Every time a man provokes God he does the greatest mischief to himself that can be imagined A mad man that cuts himself and tears his own flesh and dashes his head against the stones does not act so unreasonably as he because he is not so sensible of what he does Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy and a chosen distraction and every sinner does wilder and more extravagant things than any man can do that is craz'd and out of his wits onely with this sad difference that he knows better what he does For to them who believe another life after this an eternal state of happiness or misery in another world which is but a reasonable postulatum or demand among Christians there is nothing in Mathematicks more demonstrable than the folly of wicked men for it is not a clearer and more evident principle that the whole is greater than a
to the good order and more easie government of humane Society because they have a good influence both upon Magistrates and Subjects 1. Upon Magistrates Religion teacheth them to rule over men in the fear of God because though they be Gods on earth yet they are subjects of Heaven and accountable to Him who is higher than the highest in this world Religion in a Magistrate strengthens his authority because it procures veneration and gains a reputation to it And in all the affairs of this world so much reputation is really so much power We see that piety and Vertue where they are found among men of lower degree will command some reverence and respect But in persons of eminent place and dignity they are seated to a great advantage so as to cast a lustre upon their very Place and by a strong reflexion to double the beams of Majesty Whereas impiety and vice do strangely lessen greatness and do secretly and unavoidably derive some weakness upon authority it self Of this the Scripture gives us a remarkable instance in David For among other things which made the Sons of Zurviah too hard for him this probably was none of the least that they were particularly conscious to his crimes 2. Religion hath a good influence upon the People to make them obedient to Government and peaceable one towards another 1. To make them obedient to Government and conformable to Laws and that not onely for wrath and out of fear of the Magistrates power which is but a weak and loofe principle of obedience and will cease when ever men can rebel with safety and to advantage but out of Conscience which is a firm and constant and lasting principle and will hold a man fast when all other obligations will break He that hath entertain'd the true principles of Christianity is not to be tempted from his obedience and subjection by any worldly considerations because he believes that whatsoever resisteth authority resisteth the ordinance of God and that they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation 2. Religion tends to make men peaceable one towards another For it endeavours to plant all those qualities and dispositions in men which tend to peace and unity and to fill men with a spirit of universal love and good will It endeavours likewise to secure every man's interest by commanding the observation of that great rule of equity Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them by enjoyning that truth and fidelity be inviolably observed in all our words promises and contracts And in order hereunto it requires the extirpation of all those passions and vices which render men unsociable and troublesome to one another as pride covetousness and injustice hatred and revenge and cruelty and those likewise which are not so commonly reputed vices as self-conceit and peremptoriness in a man 's own opinion and all peevishness and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent And that these are the proper effects of true piety the doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles every where teacheth us Now if this be the design of Religion to bring us to this temper thus to heal the natures of men and to sweeten their spirits to correct their passions and to mortifie all those lusts which are the causes of enmity and division then it is evident that in its own nature it tends to the peace and happiness of humane society and that if men would but live as Religion requires they should do the world would be a quiet habitation a most lovely and desirable place in comparison of what now it is And indeed the true reason why the societies of men are so full of tumult and disorder so troublesome and tempestuous is because there is so little of true Religion among men so that were it not for some small remainders of piety and vertue which are yet left scatter'd among mankind humane society would in a short space disband and run into confusion the earth would grow wild and become a great forest and mankind would become beasts of prey one towards another And if this discourse hold true surely then one would think that vertue should find it self a seat where-ever humane societies are and that Religion should be owned and encouraged in the world until men cease to be governed by reason II. I come to vindicate this truth from the insinuations and pretences of atheistical persons I shall mention two 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God and a state of rewards and punishments after this life 2. That as for vertue and vice they are arbitrary things 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God or a state of rewards and punishments after this life And this the Atheist does and must assert otherwise he is by his own confession a declared enemy to Government and unfit to live in humane society For answer to this I will not deny but that though the generality of men did not believe any superior Being nor any rewards and punishments after this life yet notwithstanding this there might be some kind of Government kept up in the world For supposing men to have reason the necessities of humane nature and the mischiefs of confusion would probably compel them into some kind of order But then I say withall that if these principles were banished out of the world Government would be far more difficult than now it is because it would want its firmest Basis and foundation there would be infinitely more disorders in the world if men were restrained from injustice and violence onely by humane laws and not by principles of conscience and the dread of another world Therefore Magistrates have always thought themselves concerned to cherish Religion and to maintain in the minds of men the belief of a God and another life Nay that common suggestion of atheistical persons that Religion was at first a politick device and is still kept up in the world as a State-engine to awe men into obedience is a clear acknowledgment of the usefulness of it to the ends of Government and does as fully contradict that pretence of theirs which I am now confuting as any thing that can be said 2. That vertue and vice are arbitrary things founded onely in the imaginations of men and in the constitutions and customs of the world but not in the nature of the things themselves and that that is vertue or vice good or evil which the Supream Authority of a Nation declares to be so And this is frequently and confidently asserted by the ingenious Author of a very bad Book I mean the Leviathan Now the proper way of answering any thing that is confidently asserted is to shew the contrary namely That there are some things that have a natural evil and deformity in them as perjury perfidiousness unrighteousness and ingratitude which are things not onely condemned by the positive laws and constitutions of
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his Childrens Children Prov. 14.26 and again In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his Children shall have a place of refuge But the wicked derives a curse upon all that is related to him he is said to trouble his own house and again Prov. 11.29 The wicked are overthrown and are not Prov. 12.7 but the house of the righteous shall stand But setting aside the consideration of God's Providence Religion doth likewise in its own nature tend to the welfare of those who are related to us because it lays the strictest obligations upon men to take care of their Families and Relations and to make the best provision both for their comfortable subsistance here in this world and their salvation in the next And those who neglect those duties the Scripture is so far from esteeming them Christians that it accounts them worse than Heathens and Infidels 1 Tim. 5.8 He that provideth not for his own especially those of his own house is worse than an Infidel and hath deny'd the faith This I know is spoken in respect of temporal provision but it holds à fortiori as to the care of their souls Besides it is many times seen that the posterity of holy and good men especially of such as have evidenc'd their piety towards God by bounty and charity to men have met with unusual kindness and respect from others and have by a strange and secret disposition of Divine providence been unexpectedly car'd and provided for and that as they have all the reason in the world to believe upon the account and for the sake of the piety and charity of their Parents This David tells us from his own particular observation Ps 37 2◠I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread And that by the righteous is here meant the good and mercifull man appears from the description of him in the next words Ver. 26. He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed And on the contrary the posterity of the wicked do many times inherit the fruit of their fathers sins and vices and that not onely by a just judgment of God but from the natural course and consequence of things And in this sense that expression in Job is often verifi'd that God lays up the iniquity of wicked men for their Children Job 21.19 And doth not experience testifie that the intemperate and unjust do many times transmit their bodily infirmities and diseases to their Children and entail a secret curse upon their estates which does either insensibly waste and consume it or eat out the heart and comfort of it Thus you see how Religion in all respects conduces to the happiness of this life II. Religion and Vertue do likewise most certainly and directly tend to the eternal happiness and salvation of men in the other world And this is incomparably the greatest advantage that redounds to men by being Religious in comparison of which all temporal considerations are less than nothing and vanity The worldly advantages that Religion brings to men in this present life are a sensible recommendation of Religion even to the lowest and meanest spirits But to those who are rais'd above sense and aspire after immortality who believe the perpetual duration of their souls and the resurrection of their bodies to those who are throughly convinc'd of the inconsiderableness of this short dying life and of all the concernments of it in comparison of that eternal state which remains for us in another life to these I say the consideration of a future happiness and of those unspeakable and everlasting rewards which shall then be given to holiness and vertue is certainly the most powerfull motive and the most likely to prevail upon them For those who are perswaded that they shall continue for ever cannot chuse but aspire after a happiness commensurate to their duration nor can any thing that is conscious to its self of its own immortality be satisfyed and contented with any thing less than the hopes of an endless felicity And this hope Religion alone gives men and the Christian Religion onely can settle men in a firm and unshaken assurance of it But because all men who have entertain'd any Religion have consented to these principles of the immortality of the soul and the recompences of another world and have always promis'd to themselves some rewards of piety and vertue after this life and because I did more particularly design from this Text to speak of the temporal benefits and adavantages which redound to men from Religion therefore I shall content my self to shew very briefly how a religious and vertuous life doth conduce to our future happiness And that upon these two accounts from the promise of God and from the nature of the thing 1. From the promise of God 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness saith the Apostle hath the promise of the life that is to come God hath all along in the Scripture suspended the promise of eternal life upon this condition He hath peremptorily declar'd that without obedience and holiness of life no man shall ever see the Lord. And this very thing that it is the constitution and appointment of God might be argument enough to us if there were no other to convince us of the necessity of obeying the Laws of God in order to our happiness and to perswade us thereunto For eternal life is the gift of God and he may do what he will with his own He is master of his own favours and may dispense them upon what terms and conditions he pleases But it is no hard condition that he hath imposed upon us If Religion brought no advantages to us in this world yet the happiness of heaven is so great as will abundantly recompence all our pains and endeavours there is temptation enough in the reward to engage any man in the work Had God thought fit to have impos'd the most grievous and difficult things upon us ought we not to have submitted to them and to have undertaken them with cheerfulness upon such great and glorious encouragements As Naaman's servants said to him in another case Had he bid thee doe some great thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had said that without poverty and actual martyrdom no man shall see the Lord would not any man that believes heaven and hell and understands what these words signifie and what it is to escape extream and eternal misery and to enjoy unspeakable and endless glory have been willing to accept these conditions How much more when he hath onely said wash and be clean and Let every man that hath this hope in Him purifie himself as he is pure But God hath not dealt thus with us nor is the imposing of this condition of eternal life a meer arbitrary constitution therefore I shall endeavour to shew 2dly That a
be restless is good for nothing but to fret and enrage our pain to gall our sores and to make the burthen that is upon us sit more uneasie But this is properly no consideration of comfort but an art of managing our selves under afflictions so as not to make them more grievous than indeed the are But now the arguments which Christianity propounds to us are such as are a just and reasonable encouragement to men to bear sufferings patiently Our Religion sets before us not the example of a stupid Stoick who had by obstinate principles harden'd himself against all sense of pain beyond the common measures of humanity but an example that lies level to all mankind of a man like our selves that had a tender sense of the least suffering and yet patiently endur'd the greatest of Jesus the Authour and finisher of our faith Heb. 1.22 who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God God thought it expedient that the first Christians should by great hardships and persecutions be train'd up for glory and to animate and encourage them hereto the Captain of our salvation was crown'd by sufferings Heb. 2.10 Much more should the consideration of this pattern arm us with patience against the common and ordinary calamities of this life especially if we consider his example with this advantage that though his sufferings were wholly undeserv'd and not for himself but for us yet he bore them patiently But the main consideration of all is the glory which shall follow our sufferings as the reward of them if they be for God and his cause and if upon any other innocent account as reward of our patience 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Christian Religion hath secur'd us that we shall be infinite gainers by our sufferings And who would not be content to suffer upon terms of such advantage to pass through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God and to endure a short ffliction for an endless happiness The assurance of a future blessedness is a cordial that will revive our spirits more in the day of adversity than all the wise sayings and considerations of Philosophy These are the arguments which Christianity propounds to us and they are firm and sound at the bottom they have strength and substance in them and are apt to work upon humane nature and the most ordinary understanding is capable of the force of them In the strength and vertue of this great example and in contemplation of this glorious reward with what resolution and chearfulness with what courage and patience did vast numbers of all sorts of people in the first Ages of Christianity not only men but women not only those of greater spirit and more generous education but those of the poorest and lowest condition not onely the learned and the wise but the ignorant and illiterate encounter all the rage and malice of the world and embrace torments and death Had the precepts and counsels of Philosophy ever any such effect upon the minds of men I will conclude this with a passage in the life of Lipsius who was a great studier and admirer of the Stoical Philosophy When he lay upon his death-bed and one of his friends who came to visit him told him that he needed not use arguments to perswade him to patience under his pains the Philosophy which he had studied so much would furnish him with motives enough to that purpose he answers him with this ejaculation Domine Jesu da mihi patientiam Christianam Lord Jesus give me Christian patience No patience like to that which the considerations of Christianity are apt to work in us And now I have as briefly and plainly as I could endeavour'd to represent to you the excellency of the Christian Religion both in respect of the clear discoveries which it makes to us of the nature of God which is the great foundation of all Religion and likewise in respect of the perfection of its Laws and the power of its arguments to perswade men both to obey and suffer the will of God By which you may see what the proper tendency and design of this Religion is and what the Laws and precepts of it would make men if they would truly observe them and live according to them substantially Religious towards God chast and temperate patient and contented in reference to themselves and the dispensations of God's providence towards them just and honest kind and peaceable and good natur'd towards all men In a word the Gospel describes God to us in all respects such a one as we would wish him to be gives us such Laws as every man that understands himself would chuse to live by propounds such arguments to perswade to the obedience of these Laws as no man that wisely loves himself and hath any tenderness for his own interest and happiness either in this world or the other can refuse to be mov'd withall And now methinks I may with some confidence challenge any Religion in the world to shew such a compleat body and collection of holy and reasonable Laws establish'd upon such promises and threatnings as the Gospel contains And if any man can produce a Religion that can reasonably pretend to an equal or a greater confirmation than the Gospel hath a Religion the precepts and promises and threatnings whereof are calculated to make men wiser and better more temperate and more chast more meek and more patient more kind and more just than the laws and motives of Christianity are apt to make men if any man can produce such a Religion I am ready to be of it Let but any man shew me any Book in the world the doctrines whereof have the seal of such miracles as the doctrine of the Scriptures hath a Book which contains the heads of our duty so perfectly and without the mixture of any thing that is unreasonable or vicious or any ways unworthy of God that commands us every thing in reason necessary to be done and abridgeth us of no lawfull pleasure without offering us abundant recompence for our present self-denyal a Book the rules whereof if they were practic'd would make men more pious and devout more holy and sober more just and fair in their dealings better friends and better neighbours better magistrates and better subjects and better in all relations and which does offer to the understanding of men more powerfull arguments to perswade them to be all this let any man I say shew me such a Book and I will lay aside the Scripture and preach out of that And do we not all profess to be of this excellent Religion and to study and believe this holy Book of the Scriptures But alas who will believe that we do so that shall look upon the actions and consider the lives
of the greatest part of Christians How grosly and openly do many of us contradict the plain precepts of the Gospel by our ungodliness and worldly lusts by living intemperately or unjustly or prophanely in this present world As if the grace of God which brings salvation had never appear'd to us as if we had never hear'd of Heaven or Hell or believ'd not one word that the Scripture says concerning them as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him but will come in flaming sire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us not then deceive our selves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord if we do not frame our lives according to it For though we know these things never so well yet we are not happy unless we do them Nay we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not Therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives If not all the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will rise up in judgment against us and the Articles of our Faith will be so many Articles of Accusation and the great weight of our charge will be this that we did not obey that Gospel which we profess'd to believe that we made confession of the Christian Faith but liv'd like Heathens Not to believe the Christian Religion after so great evidence and confirmation as God hath given to it is very unreasonable but to believe it to be true and yet to live as if it were false is the greatest repugnancy and contradiction that can be He that does not believe Christianity either hath or thinks he hath some reason for with-holding his assent from it But he that believes it and yet lives contrary to it knows that he hath no reason for what he does and is convinc'd that he ought to do otherwise And he is a miserable man indeed that does those things for the doing of which he continually stands condemn'd by his own mind and accordingly God will deal more severely with such persons He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings if they do not proceed from gross carelesness and neglect of our selves but the faults of our wills have no excuse because we knew to do better and were convinc'd in our minds that we ought not to have done so Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and dost thou still allow thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Art thou convinc'd that without holiness no man shall see the Lord and dost thou still persist in a wicked course Art thou fully perswaded that no whoremonger nor adulterer nor covetous nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ and dost thou for all that continue to practise these vices What canst thou say man why it should not be to thee according to thy faith If it so fall out that thou art miserable and undone for ever thou hast no reason to be surpriz'd as if some unexpected thing had happen'd to thee It is but with thee just as thou believ'dst it would be when thou didst these things For how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own Conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better and chose to make our selves miserable when we understood the way to have been happy To conclude we Christians have certainly the best and the holiest the wisest and most reasonable Religion in the world but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind if the best Religion in the world do not make us good 1 JOHN 5.3 And his commandments are not grievous ONE of the great prejudices which men have entertain'd against the Christian Religion is this that it lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born that the Laws of it are very strict and severe difficult to be kept and yet dangerous to be broken That it requires us to govern and keep under our passions and to contradict many times our strongest inclinations and desires to cut off our right hand and to pluck out our right eye to love cur enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us to forgive the greatest injuries that are done to us and to make reparation for the least that we do to others to be contented with our condition patient under sufferings and ready to sacrifice our dearest interests in this world and even our very lives in the cause of God and Religion All these seem to be hard sayings and grievous commandments For the removal of this prejudice I have chosen these words of the Apostle which expresly tells us the contrary that the commandments of God are not grievous And though this be a great truth if it be impartially consider'd yet it is also a great paradox to men of corrupt minds and vicious practices who are prejudic'd against Religion and the holy Laws of God by their interest and their lusts This seems a strange proposition to those who look upon Religion at a distance and never try'd the experiment of a holy life who measure the Laws of God not by the intrinsecal goodness and equity of them but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts against them Upon this account it will be requisite to take some pains to satisfie the reason of men concerning this truth and if it be possible to make it so evident that those who are unwilling to own it may yet be asham'd to deny it And methinks I have this peculiar advantage in the argument I have now undertaken that every reasonable man cannot chuse but wish me success in this attempt because I undertake the proof of that which it is every man's interest that it should be true And if I can make it out this pretence against Religion will not onely be baffled but we shall gain a new and forcible argument to perswade men over to it Now the easiness or difficulty of the observation of any Laws or commands depends chiefly upon these three things First Upon the Nature of
from us That the Gospel is all promises and our part is onely to believe and embrace them that is to be confident that God will perform them if we can but think so though we do nothing else which is an easie condition to fools but the hardest in the world to a wise man who if his salvation depended upon it could never perswade himself to believe that the holy God without any respect at all to his repentance and amendment would bestow upon him forgiveness of sins and eternal life onely because he was confident that God would do so As if any man could think that it were a thing so highly acceptable to God that men should believe of him that he loves to dispense his grace and mercy upon the most unfit and unreasonable terms A Covenant does necessarily imply a mutual obligation and the Scripture plainly tells us what are the terms and conditions of this Covenant both on God's part and ours namely that he will be our God and we shall be his people But he hath no-where said that though we be not his people yet he will be our God The seal of this Covenant hath two inscriptions upon it one on God's part that he will know them that are his and another on our part that we shall depart from iniquity But if we will not submit to this condition God will not know us but will bid us depart from him So our Saviour tells us Mat. 7.23 I will say unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not If we deal falsly in covenant with God and break loose from all our engagements to him we release God from all the promises that he hath made to us If we neglect to perform those conditions upon which he hath suspended the performance of his promises we discharge the obligation on God's part and he remains faithfull though he deny us that happiness which he promised under those conditions which we have neglected II. I come now to the second thing proprounded and that is to perswade those who profess Christianity to answer those obligations to a holy life which their Religion lays upon them We all call our selves Christians and would be very much offended at any man that should deny us this title But let us not cheat our selves with an empty and insignificant name but if we will call our selves Christians let us fill up this great title and make good our profession by a sutitable life and practice And to perswade us hereto I will urge these three considerations 1. The indecency of the contrary 2. The great scandal of it to our blessed Saviour and his holy Religion and 3. The infinite danger of it to our own souls 1. Consider how unbecoming it is for a man to live unsuitably to his profession If we call our selves Christians we profess to entertain the doctrine of the Gospel to be taught and instructed by the best master to be the disciples of the highest and most perfect institution that ever was in the world to have embraced a Religion which contains the most exact rules for the conduct and government of our lives which lays down the plainest precepts sets before us the best patterns and examples of a holy life and offers us the greatest assistances and encouragements to this purpose We profess to be furnished with the best arguments to excite us to holiness and vertue to be awed with the greatest fears and animated with the best hopes of any men in the world Now whoever makes such a profession as this obligeth himself to live answerably to do nothing that shall grosly contradict it Nothing is more absurd than for a man to act contrary to his profession to pretend to great matters and perform nothing of what he pretends to Wise men will not be caught with pretences nor be imposed upon with an empty profession but they will enquire into our lives and actions and by these they will make a judgment of us They cannot see into our hearts nor pry into our understandings to discover what it is that we inwardly believe they cannot discern those secret and supernatural principles that we pretend to be acted by But this they can do they can examine our actions and behold our good or bad works and try whether our lives be indeed answerable to our profession and do really excell the lives of other men who do not pretend to such great things There are a great many sagacious persons who will easily find us out will look under our mask and see through all our fine pretensions and will quickly discern the absurdity of telling the world that we believe one thing when we do the contrary If we profess to believe the Christian Religion we expose our selves to the scorn and contempt of every discerning man if we do not live up to it With what face can any man continue in the practice of any known sin that professeth to believe the holy doctrine of the Gospel which forbids all sin under the highest and severest penalties If we did but believe the history of the Gospel as we do any ordinary credible story and did we but regard the Laws of Christianity as we do the laws of the Land were we but perswaded that fraud and oppression lying and perjury intemperance and uncleanness covetousness and pride malice and revenge the neglect of God and Religion will bring men to hell as certainly as treason and felony will bring a man under the sentence of the Law Had we but the same awe and regard for the threatnings and promises of the Gospel that we have for the frowns and smiles of those who are in power and authority even this would be effectual to keep us from sin And if the Gospel have not this effect upon us it is an argument that we do not believe it 'T is to no purpose to go about to perswade men that we do heartily entertain the doctrine of Christ that doctrine which hath all the characters of piety and justice of holiness and vertue upon it which obligeth men to whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are chast whatsoever things are lovely and of good report if we have no regard to these things in our lives He that would know what a man believes let him attend rather to what he does than to what he talks He that leads a wicked life makes a more credible and effectual profession of infidelity than he who in words onely denies the Gospel It is the hardest thing in the world to imagine that that man believes Christianity who by ungodliness and worldly lusts does deny and renounce it If we profess our selves Christians it may justly be expected from us that we should evidence this by our actions that we should live at another rate than the Heathens did that we who worship a holy and just God should not allow our selves the liberty to sin as those did who
perfectos Philosophos turpiter vivere that some great Philosophers led very filthy lives Celsus and Porphyry Hierocles and Julian among all their witty invectives against Christian Religion have nothing against it that reflects so much upon it as do the wicked lives of so many Christians The greatest enmity to Religion is to profess it and to live unanswerably to it This consideration ought greatly to affect us I am sure the Apostle speaks of it with great passion and vehemency For many walk of whom I have told you often Phil. 3.18 and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things A Jew or a Turk is not so great an enemy to Christianity as a lewd and vitious Christian Therefore let me beseech Christians as they tender the honour of their Saviour and the credit of their Religion that they would conform their lives to the holy precepts of Christianity And if there be any who are resolved to continue in a vitious course to the injury and disparagement of Christianity I could almost entreat of them that they would quit their profession and renounce their Baptism that they would lay aside their title of Christians and initiate themselves in Heathenish rites and superstitions or be circumcised for Jews or Turks For it were really better upon some accounts that such men should abandon their Profession than keep on a vizard which serves to no other purpose but to scare others from Religion 3. And Lastly let us consider the danger we expose our selves to by not living answerably to our Religion And this I hope may prevail upon such as are not moved by the former considerations Hypocrites are instanc'd in Scripture as a sort of sinners that shall have the sharpest torments and the fiercest damnation When our Saviour would set forth the great severity of the Lord towards the evil servant he expresseth it thus Mat. 24.51 he shall cut him in sudden and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites So that the punishment of Hypocrites seems to be made in the measure and standard of the highest punishment Thou professest to believe in Christ and to hope in him for salvation but in the mean time thou livest a wicked and unholy life thou dost not believe but presume on him and wilt find at the great day that this thy confidence will be thy confusion and he whom thou hopest will be thy Advocate and Saviour will prove thy Accuser and thy Judge What our Saviour says to the Jews There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust may very well be applied to false Christians Joh. 5.45 there is one that accuseth you and will condemn you even Jesus in whom ye trust The profession of Christianity and mens having the name of Christ named upon them will be so far from securing them from Hell that it will sink them the deeper into it Many are apt to pity the poor Heathens who never heard of the name of Christ and sadly to condole their case but as our Saviour said upon another occasion Weep not for them weep for your selves There 's no such miserable person in the world as a degenerate Christian because he falls into the greatest misery from the greatest advantages and opportunities of being happy Dost thou lament the condition of Socrates and Cato and Aristides and doubt what shall become of them at the day of Judgment and canst thou who art an impious and prophane Christian think that thou shalt escape the damnation of Hell Dost thou believe that the moral Heathen shall be cast out and canst thou who hast led a wicked life under the profession of Christianity have the impudence to hope that thou shalt sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God No those sins which are committed by Christians under the enjoyment of the Gospel are of deeper dye and clothed with blacker aggravations than the sins of Heathens are capable of A Pagan may live without God in the world and be unjust towards men at a cheaper rate and upon easier terms than thou who art a Christian Better had it been thou hadst never known one syllable of the Gospel never heard of the name of Christ than that having taken it upon thee thou shouldst not depart from iniquity Happy had it been for thee that thou hadst been born a Jew or a Turk or a poor Indian rather than that being bred among Christians and professing thy self of that number thou shouldst lead a vitious and unholy life I have insisted the longer upon these arguments that I might if possible awaken men to a serious consideration of their lives and perswade them to a real reformation of them that I may oblige all those who call themselves Christians to live up to the essential and fundamental Laws of our Religion to love God and to love our neighbour to do to every man as we would have him to do to us to mortifie our lusts and subdue our passions and sincerely to endeavour to grow in every grace and vertue and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God This indeed would become our profession and be honourable to our Religion and would remove one of the greatest obstacles to the progress of the Gospel For how can we expect that the doctrine of God our Saviour should gain any considerable ground in the world so long as by the unworthy lives of so many Christians 't is represented to the world at so great disadvantage If ever we would have Christian Religion effectually recommended it must be by the holy and unblameable lives of those who make profession of it Then indeed it would look with so amiable a countenance as to invite many to it and carry so much majesty and authority in it as to command reverence from its greatest enemies and make men to acknowledge that God is in us of a truth and to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven The good God grant that as we have taken upon us the profession of Christianity so we may be carefull so to live that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things that the grace of God which bringeth salvation may teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. PHIL. III. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven FOR the understanding of which words we need to look back no further than the 18th verse of this Chapter where the Apostle with great vehemency and passion speaks of some among the Philippians who indeed profess'd Christianity but yet would do any thing to