made us nor any Authority that one can have over another equal to that which he has over us there is great reason why we should meekly submit to his Chastisements and be content to receive not only that Good which we have not deserved but that Evil also which we have deserved at his Hand But this is not all For 3. To confess the Truth when the Evils of this Life happen they are for the most part very necessary and may be always very profitable to us They make us to reflect upon our Sins and they dispose us to Repentance For a great Truth it is and we may happily know it by experience That 't is our way to do many things in our Prosperity which trouble us in our Adversity When Joseph's Brethren were brought into Distress themselves then they could say Verily we are guilty concerning our Brother and therefore is this distress come upon us Our Faults do not much trouble us when we have nothing else to give us disturbance and in this case Affliction does well to bring us to a sense of them Again We are not so apt to feel our need of dependance upon God when all things that we can desire are round about us We must confess to our shame that Piety and Prosperity are seldom found together in a great degree both of the one and the other When we are full we are apt to forget God but in our Affliction we seek him early Not but that a Man may grow more impious under the chastisement of God as Ahab did But then this was left as a mark of Infamy upon him that in his distress he waxed worse and worse This is that King Ahab We should consider also that the troubles of this Life teach us patience a quality very necessary for us in this World It is undoubtedly true that continual ease and fulness and enjoying all that we would have incline us to be soft and hard to be pleased Every little thing almost is enough to put us into a passion and if God should always let us alone we should make great Troubles to our selves out of the smallest disappointments And when Afflictions happen to us in good earnest our very impatience is an Argument that we needed them to bring us to Wisdom and a good Temper God's Trials make us able to bear what once we could not they correct the Intemperance of our Desires and give us a firmness of Mind they bring our Contentment within a narrow compass and make it more easie for us to be happy than it was before and therefore says St. Paul We glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5.3 By the same reason they disengage our Affections from worldly things more than we are well able to do it without them For 't is Indulgence that makes us fond of the Pleasures of this World but when any one of them is taken away we must learn to be content without it and by satisfying ourselves wheh we have lost one we learn to moderate our desires about the rest which is a good that recompences all the grief we endure in the way to it Especially since it leads to another good thing which is the moderating of our Love to this Life it self which when we feel to be made up of Care and Trouble as well as Mirth and Pleasure we grow more reconciled to the thoughts of Death which puts an end as well to the Troubles as to the Delights of this World All which things tend to the greatest good of all even our eternal Salvation to which we should add that whatever Duties are necessary to this great end we shall perform them most carefully For when by experience we are convinced how foolish a thing it is to think of finding a compleat Happiness in this World or indeed any thing that deserves the Name of Happiness we shall seek for a more solid and enduring substance For we must needs be more sollicitous to secure that Rest and Happiness which God hath promised in a better Life when we are satisfied that no such thing is to be obtained here We are not so deeply affected with the danger of worldly Enjoyments as with the uncertainty of them They are indeed apt to corrupt our Minds but we do not use to be jealous of them upon that account but when we lose them we are easily sensible that they are not to be trusted and that if we would be wise for our selves we must take off our minds from these perishing things and grow wise to Salvation To conclude this Point The Evils of Life do not only offer good considerations to our Minds but they are proper means to put us into a considering Temper and to make us capable of understanding the full weight of them They cure us of the Levity and Easiness of Mind which grows out of Ease and Luxury and indisposes us to dwell for any long time upon wise and profitable thoughts Finally the Patience and the Godly manner of bearing Evils and the good use we make of them worketh the encrease of our Reward especially if we endure grief suffering wrongfully and most of all if we suffer for righteousness sake This is that which St. Peter makes no doubt to say is thank-worthy and it turns so greatly to our account that instead of mentioning it as a thing fit to discourage and deject his Disciples our Saviour bid them to rejoice and to be exceeding glad for says he great is your Reward in Heaven 4. As the Evils of this Life are for our good so God means and designs them for our good too There is not any one good use which may be made of them but God intends it when he sends them and 't is our own fault if we do not grow the better for them David found by experience that it was good for him that he was afflicted and he confessed that God in very faithfulness had afflicted bim i. e. meaning all the advantage to him which he had gained For that reason it is said God does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men not meerly to make us feel Pain and Trouble but because our good requires it Physick is sometimes as necessary for us as Food and though it be bitter we do not think the worse of him that administers it because 't is administred for our Health either for the cure or for the prevention of a Disease And should we take it in ill part from God when for the health and improvement of our Souls he gives us wholesome though sharp Medicines He gives us Food Raiment Plenty Peace and Health that we might in the midst of these good things serve him with thankfulness and the greatest cause we have to rejoice in them is that they are of his sending who intended them not for Snares but for Blessings to us When therefore he takes any of them away he does it with the same good meaning
worse but still crushed all Impostures and discountenanced all Villany and Hypocrisie at its first setting out in the World where would be the Patience and Faith of the Saints of those that believe in God and take his Word for their Rule and their Comfort and live in the Expectation of his Promises But when Iniquity grows and thrives and can plead Prescription and Authority when it hath stood long enough to have some colour for Antiquity and hath obtained interest enough to pretend to a kind of Vniversality then it will be seen who they are that love God and Truth and Goodness that are not willing to be deceived that will take pains not to be deceived that will take pains to be rightly informed that prefer Truth before glorious Names and a good Conscience before Applause and Flattery and eternal Life before the Ease and Pleasures of this World God bears long with all the Provocations of Mankind for the same reason that he permits Heresies which is that they who are approved may be made manifest For these and such like reasons as these God in his Wisdom and Goodness bears with infinite Patience those Provocations for a long time together which he could be avenged of in a moment and which he utterly abominates which was the first Observation upon the Text. 2. The second was That God is so much the more just in the final destruction of incurable and obstinate Sinners when their Iniquity is full and ripe for Vengeance For as there was the Patience of God seen for four hundred Years together while the Iniquity of the Amorites was growing from bad to worse so at the end of that Period the Justice of God was seen when their iniquity was full To grow worse for the forbearance of God is the most criminal Presumption in the World and when Men are come to that pass as quite to forget that there is a God or believing him to be to perswade themselves That he either approves or at least connives at their Impieties then the same Wisdom and Goodness which hitherto had kept off their Punishments will bring them on swiftly and suddenly for as on the one side if the degeneracy and the impudence of Sinners should not be suffered to flourish long there will be no Tryal of the Faith of honest Men so if it should be suffer'd to last always the Temptation would at length grow too hard for them God exercises his own Patience that good Men might exercise theirs at length he shews his Justice to reward their Patience The Patience of God is a forbearance guided by Wisdom and Goodness and the Justice of God is a Severity that is also guided by Wisdom and Goodness And neither the one nor the other hath any mixture of that Selfishness and Passion which is for the most part the reason why we sometimes are and sometimes are not severe with those that have offended us This is the true Justice of Punishment to respect the evil that is committed and to punish for that reason and this appears in no instances more than when God punishes after long sparing for if he had been a selfish or a passionate Being he had never suffered Men to go on so long together in the most provoking ways of wickedness because he had it in his Power to Punish them long before as he punishes them at last and therefore that he punishes them at last is an effect of his Wisdom and Goodness and a Demonstration that the common good required it And as there are several good ends to which God's Patience tends in bearing with general Impieties so long as he often doth so there are as many to which his Justice tends in taking Vengeance of them at last For 1. This is a Demonstration that his Providence was not asleep before 2. It is a clear Instruction that Men ought not to presume upon God's Favour merely because they prosper in their ways but that they should measure his Love or his Anger by what they do and not by what happens to them since they who do the same wicked things may go unpunished from one Generation to another and in this World but one Generation may suffer for them 3. That we should not forget to call our past Sins to remembrance and to humble our selves before God for them since if God punishes the sins of the Fathers upon the Children in this Life the like cause have we to fear that he will punish the Sins of our Youth and our riper Years at the latter end of our Life 4. That we should make use of the Patience and long suffering of God to our selves to prevent his Anger from flaming out against us because otherwise we treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God The truth is these are the uses we ought to make of both those Considerations that I laid before you from the Text which I shall therefore inculcate again And 1. We have no reason to question either the watchfulness of God's Providence or to be cast into perplexities and doubts whether the way of Truth and the way of Error the way of Vertue and Piety and the way of Hypocrisie and Wickedness are so different from one another as is pretended in Religion we have I say no reason to perplex our selves about these things because for many Generations God hath suffer'd deceit and violence to prevail to spread and to flourish in the world for God is not as a Man his ways are above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts when we look abroad into the World and look back upon so many past Ages wherein Religion hath been made a formal pretence for the establishing of a worldly greatness and Dominion upon gross and palpable Errors supported by Fraud and Force it is foolishly done of us to disquiet our selves with doubts whether we are in the way of the Truth or not since it pleased God for so long a time to suffer the contrary to prevail mightily in the World and for some Ages to baffle all opposition For this is to suppose God to be such a one as our selves impatient of high Indignities and great Provocations ready to kindle upon any notable affront or however unable to bear repeated and long-continued injuries No doubt if our opinion had been asked the Luxury of the old World should have been mortified by some amazing Judgments and the Flood should have been spared the Idolatry of the new Race of Mankind had been prevented or at least by some irresistable Evidence of God's Displeasure banished long before the coming of Christ and Mahomet should either have never appeared or he should have glared only like a Comet and so gone out instead of founding so vast and so long an Empire as it seems he has done But let us leave God to rule the World and be content that he should rule us we are too angry and too passionate to say
either to correct what is bad or to perfect that which is good in us the best reason of our rejoicing concinues still which is that God still exercises a Paternal care over us as a Father corrects the Faults of his Child because he loves him and would have him do better for the time to come We are therefore to take all in good part the evil as well as good that comes from God's Hand because 't is all meant in good part to us Especially if we consider 5. That he is not and cannot be mistaken in judging what kind of Evil or what degree of Evil is expedient for our good Let that which happens be of what kind it will and how great soever it be in the kind yet from his infinite Wisdom we ought to conclude against all Objections That all things considered it is the best for us We perhaps no not see how it should be so but we have not the less reason to believe it God's thoughts are above ours and his ways above our ways and we are not to argue as if we understood our selves as well as God understands us Our business is to submit to him patiently and to depend upon him intirely and to thank him from our Hearts for his continual Providence over us acknowledging that we are not fit to be humoured in all our Desires neither to enjoy Pleasure longer than he sees 't is for our good nor to say with what pain we should be chastised or with what Trouble we should be exercised we are not wise enough to be our own Chusers and we cannot be better than by being in God's Hands 6. We should take Evil at God's Hand in good part because he is not wanting to supply us with strength to bear it and to support us with comforts of a better kind than those he takes away If he makes us more conformable to his Will we get a better Conscience than we had before and that will of it self enable us to go through many and great Troubles of this Life If he lessens our Love of this World and increases our Faith and Hope of a better Life and fixes our thoughts upon Heaven more than they were wont to be if he inspires us with a greater sense of his Love and gives us more and more of his Holy Spirit then although here are worldly Evils to be born yet there are also such spiritual Consolatives to support us under them that we have more reason to be thankful than to complain God will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but will with the Temptation c. So the Apostle assured the Christians and were themselves Examples of it none ever went through greater Troubles and Persecutions than they but they do not speak of themselves as Objects of Pity He says they were strengthned with all might according to God's glorious Power unto all Patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness Col. 1.11 They were indeed troubled on every side yet not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed sorrowful yet always rejoycing 1 Cor. iv 8. vi 10. 7. We are to consider that the Troubles of this Life are not always Punishments but sometimes Trials In which case they admit of great Comforts and therefore St. James says My Brethren count it joy when ye fall into divers temptations James 1.2 where by temptations he understands those Troubles that from time to time befel the Christians for their Profession and proved their Sincerity for so 't is explained in the following Words knowing this that the tryal of your Faith worketh patience Such were the Afflictions of Job as we see by the circumstances of his Story God had given this Testimony to him That he was a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil But Satan answered Doth Job fear God for nought Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his House and about all that he hath on every side Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face Thus the Devil charged Job and in him all Religious Men That his pretence to Piety was meer Flattery not proceeding from a hearty love to God but from the love of worldly Prosperity Now though the Event shewed the falseness of the Devil's Suggestion yet thus far he was in the right That affliction tries whether a Man be a meer mercenary pretender to Religion or whether he be an upright Man fearing God and eschewing evil For he that pretends Religion pretends to serve God and to depend upon him in all conditions of Life and that God is more to him than all the World besides But the reality of this can never be so well seen as when we do his Will and bless his Name even when he deprives us of the good things and sends us the Afflictions of this Life We should therefore receive evil from God's hand as well as Good though we were as perfect as Job was in fearing God and eschewing Evil because though it does not befal us in such a case as a Punishment yet it comes as a Tryal and there are weighty Reasons for Patience under it For 1. It is exceedingly for the Honour of God and Religion if we acquit our selves well in bearing it This shews the Sincerity and the Power of our Faith and that Religion is a Principle of the truest Fortitude and Fidelity when no worldly loss nor outward pain can hinder us from blessing God and persevering in our Duty the World will see that we are very sure we serve a good Master and one whom we believe nothing ought to deter or discourage us from obeying not Death it self nor Vexations worse than Death Hereby we declare that without all this Worlds good he alone is sufficient for our Reward that there is no evil like losing his Favour no good like keeping it 2. It will make also for our own Comfort for although without this a good Man may have reasonable assurance of his own Integrity i. e. by an equal Care to do his Duty in all respects while God makes an Hedge about him on every side yet it cannot be denied that he must needs have yet a more comfortable assurance of it when he goes on to depend upon God under the hardest pressures of Affliction For this is the highest Point of Religion and therefore proves our Sincerity in all the rest Upon this trial we cannot doubt but that it was for God's sake that we abstained from Drunkenness and Theft and hard dealing and Lust and Uncleanness that in pure Conscience and with pious Affections we offered up our daily Prayers and blessed God for all his Gifts and observed his Laws For no other Principle can make a Man persevere in religious dependance upon him when he
then have we confidence of our selves By doing those things that please him we are sure to please our selves By making him our Friend we shall infallibly make one Friend more and that is our own Consciences which is infinitely more to us than the opinion of the World 'T is a plain case that we approve our selves to God by following Truth and Goodness and this we know will not put us upon struggling with our own Judgment and straining points against our clear knowledge of what we ought to do All the while we are gaining his Favour we are sure we do well and when we have done it we shall thank our selves instead of being plagu'd with a sad and black remembrance of the way we took to get it Acquaint now thy self with God and be at peace with him and so shall good come unto thy Soul 5. There lies no Flattery nor false Accusation nor outward accident against us to put us out of God's Favour or to make us lose that we have wrought to turn his mind or to blot our services out of his remembrance No change of Fortune shall bring us into disgrace which consideration St. Paul laid great strength upon in pursuance of the Text. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword v. 35. I am persuaded says he that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord v. 38. Nay says the Apostle in all these things we are more than Conquerors that is we get by being condemned by others because by that we are made more dear to God who will consider not only that we served him but under what discouragements from the World we did so Lastly 6. Whom God justifies them he also glorifies For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to he conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren v. 29 30. i. e. Those whom he foreknew to be his most faithful Servants he did before time decree that by suffering for Righteousness they should follow so glorious a Pattern as their elder Brother the Lord Jesus Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called i. e. he brought them to the profession of the truth in a hazardous time that they should shew their Integrity and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Which is so sure that the Apostle mentions it as if it were done already Then he proceeds in the following Verses What shall we say to these things If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect It is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The conclusion is this That whoever condemns we are not to be discourag'd if God justifies But it may be said That all this is very true indeed but it serves the turn of all Parties even of those who are most severely condemned by each other while each of them pretends to have God and Truth on their side And therefore that this Subject might have been more usefully pursued by shewing particularly what that Faith and that Practice is with which they must be qualified whom God justifies and how we are assured of it Now I considered all this at first but then I knew that I was to speak to persons who are neither ignorant of the Doctrine of this Church nor of the evidence whereby it appears to be the very Truth of Christianity by which whoever governs himself in worshipping God in behaving himself to others and in all his ways shall be assuredly justified of God though all the World should condemn him for it But I considered also that of all things which are apt to shake the constancy of modest Persons nothing is more likely to do it than the mighty confidence wherewith they of the Roman Church condemn us and exclaim against us For to those who are acquainted with the History of the World and of the Church it must needs be a surprize that Men who are said to be Learned and known to be zealous do pronounce against us with no less severity than if we were mere Infidels One would think there must be some deep reason for it when they make us nothing at all and themselves all in all For thus they will not allow that we are a Church or that we have any certainty so much as of that true Doctrine we profess for they know us better than we do ourselves and as for our Salvation they are as sure it belongs not to us till we are converted to them as if they kept the Keys of Heaven Nor do they sink us more than they raise themselves who are not only a Church but the whole Church and not only not deceived but even Infallible They talk as if there were no safety with us and no danger with them which may raise such doubts in weaker Minds that I thought it not unseasonable to bring to your remembrance how violently the Apostles and their Christian Brethren were condemned by Men of whom yet these Men will grant that they were justified of God If it shall be said This is a common-place Argument of which all Men serve themselves I answer That the Argument is so much the stronger For if these Men themselves will tell you that confidence is not to be trusted you will I hope make this application That neither is their confidence to be trusted and therefore that you ought to consider what they are before you believe them to be what they call themselves and examine what they teach before you think the worse of your selves for what they call you And this is all that we desire of you That you would weigh the reasons of things and not mind sweling Words Brethren it is by no means a new Artifice to talk in a very high strain when Argument runs very low Thus Jews and Gentiles exclaimed against our Fathers the Apostles and the primitive Believers condemning them for going against Antiquity Universality Authority Tradition Philosophers Law-makers Kings and Nations And yet when all was done all this was but empty noise and vain pretence and the Cause of Christianity was the Cause of God Foul Errors have been drest with glorious appearances of Truth and Truth has been opposed with Confidence and God suffers it to be so to try the sincerity of Men that while they who are willing to be deluded fall by
in those Errors than it hath been and perhaps utterly impossible to maintain them amongst Christians without destroying the Bible out of the World But then by the same reason that such cautions had been necessary a thousand times as many more had been necessary too For so many Additions by way of caution must have been made as there are ways of eluding and perverting a Rule which are so many that to have provided expresly against them all would have made the Bible a more voluminous Book than any is in the World not to say the most odd and uncouth Book that ever was seen For whoever wrote or spoke in that manner as to provide against all possible ways of being mistaken or having his words perverted According to this rate a man must not expect to make an end of a sentence in an hour and when he has done all he can his explications may be perverted too And therefore we are not to wonder if God has not provided express Cautions against all possible Mistakes and Abuses of this nature but thought good to leave a Rule of Faith and Manners and Worship which would be sufficient to guide all honest Persons and lovers of Truth though not sufficient to exclude all Cavil and Abuse For this reason it was that our Saviour did not pretend that all who saw his Works and heard his Doctrines must necessarily believe in him but he required constantly a certain temper of mind consisting of Humility Sincerity love of the Truth and in a word A good and honest Heart in order to a Man's being his true Disciple Common Sense and Reason was not sufficient for this purpose but there must be also a peculiar Probity or teachable Spirit a Mind ready to believe all Truth and to do all Duty These were the Sheep that would hear his voice and the Ground that would receive his Seed and bring forth Fruit Such were the Men that would hear and understand and know of the Doctrine whether it were of God But as for others they would make a shift to reject it with some colour for so doing or to pervert it if they once admitted it This was the first things to be considered the temper and design of the Gospel which delivers Truth that does by no means gratify the Lusts of Men or please their Imaginations or serve the interest of particular persons to the disadvantage of all others and then that this Truth was delivered in that way which though it be apt to instruct and convince all honest Men yet will not infallibly bear down a spirit of Contradiction Now to this we must add 2. The consideration of the general temper of Mankind for whose sake the Gospel was made known viz. that it is very corrupt and exceedingly prone to Sin and therefore to Error impatient of true Virtue and Piety and therefore of true Doctrine Human Nature does affect a lawless Liberty and cannot well bear to be confined and it is so diseased that it doth not take it well to be healed it is therefore no wonder if the Remedy which God hath provided hath been so tampered withal by Men as to make it ineffectual for that purpose for which he hath sent it to us and Doctrines have been taught which give that liberty that Truth denies It was not to be expected but that if the Doctrine of Christianity should not effectually overcome those Lusts that reign in the World those Lusts would corrupt and pervert that Doctrine and bring in Heresies Ambition and Covetousness would bring in Heresies for the establishing of a worldly Power and Dominion in the Name of Christ Licentiousness would bring in Heresies for making void the Commandments of God Pride would bring in Heresies though for nothing else but a Man's satisfaction and glory in drawing many People into a Party and becoming the Head of it and when they were brought in the natural inconstancy and wavering of some would carry them away from the Truth the natural stiffness and inflexibility of others would detain them in Error the very desire and love of Novelty would at first help to bring in some and in process of time the pretence of Antiquity would be every day more and more able to gain others Finally the unwillingness of most Men to take pains in the search of Truth and the greater ease of depending upon the absolute Authority of others would give a farther advantage to Error which fears nothing more than an Examination and therefore discourages all Persons from giving themselves so needless a trouble since they have the word of those for their security who cannot possibly mislead them considering the diseases of Human Nature which the Doctrine of Christ doth not cure miraculously and irresistibly it could not be expected but there would be Factions and Heresies against the Truth If therefore it be thought strange that the Apostle should say there must be Heresies let us consider that this is no more than if he had said after all the care that God hath taken to restore Mankind there will be Pride and Ambition there will be Covetousness and Injustice and the Love of this World there will be Luxury and Licenciousness there will be both Inconstancy and Stiffneckedness there will be Laziness and Slothfulness and Unaptness for Instruction and therefore there must be Heresies for God hath provided no infallible Remedies against Sin and Wickedness and as certainly as the Vices of the World would break out in the Church so certainly would Errors get into it by degrees and usurp the Name and Authority of Truth 'T is true that God if he pleased could absolutely have hindred it by his over-ruling Power But in this saying it is implied that he would not do so and Experience has shewn that he has not done so and we have no reason to wonder at it since he is not pleased to make all Men good by an irresistible Grace and there was less reason to expect that he should make all Men Orthodox by an irresistible Illumination And so I come to the second point Which concerns the reason assigned why God is pleased to permit Heresies That they which are approved may be made manifest i. e. that it may most evidently appear who are sincere and honest and who are not so for opposition to the Truth and the ways that are taken to advance Error do prove what Men are at the bottom and distinguish between those that would appear all alike if the same Truth were equally professed by all The great difference that breaks out is that between the probity of some Men on the one side and the falseness and hypocrisy of others on the other side which appears in these instances 1. In a more diligent search after Truth which is the effect Heresies have upon honest and godly Men while they give occasion to Hypocrites to consider what is most for their ease their safety their advantage in this World whilst the several parties
fail to punish the Wicked nor to protect the Righteous Brethren let us remember our Profession which is to believe in God and consequently to believe that we are not made safe by Wealth or by Favour by worldly Power or by worldly Policy but that God is more to us than all these things and that we depend intirely upon him that by forsaking him we forsake our Strength and Defence that by adhering to him we have that Power for our Security and that Goodness for our Security which made the World and which governs the World Let us then in this our day consider the things that belong to our peace and seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near that he may be near unto us in all our Troubles and Adversities whensoever they oppress us and be found of us at the hour of Death and the day of Judgment that God of Mercy and Love which in himself he always is and which he desires to shew himself to be to us all Let therefore the unrighteous man forsake his ways and the wicked man his thoughts and turn unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon To the God of infinite Goodness let us ascribe all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen The Twelfth Sermon LUK. XIII v. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish COncerning the Galileans whose Blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices and the Eighteen Jews upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell and slew them our Saviour's Discourse to those that were present was this Suppose ye that these Glileans and these Jews were Sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things and above all men that dwelt at Jerusalem I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise peperish From which Words taken in Connexion with what went before there are two kinds of Observations that may be laid down The former are rather supposed than expressed and they are these Two 1. That God is just in the Punishments that he inflicts upon Sinners 2. That by what means soever Evil happens to Men the Providence of God is concerned in it The second kind are intended more directly viz. 1. That they who suffer very great Evils are not always greater Sinners than those who in the mean time suffer nothing 2. That one reason why such Evils do nat befal all Persons at the same time who are equally Sinners is That while some are visited with the Rod others may take warning by it And 3. That if they do not take warning they shall not escape These are all profitable Instructions and such as this place naturally yields which I shall therefore pursue without taking much pains to shew how they are contained in it Something I shall say but very briefly of the two first because they are supposed in these Sayings of our Lord though not the main things intended The first is that Punishment is due to Sin which is the Ground of all that our Saviour discourses here concerning the Ends of those unhappy Men he knew that his Hearers would be apt to pass an hard Censure upon them and he took care to prevent it but they would never have been in danger of running into that extreme if it had not been fixed in all of them That Punishment was due to Sin and this our Saviour was far from correcting but rather confirmed them in it by concluding That they also should perish except they repented The Truth is this is one of those things that Men know by Nature and it is well that they do for if notwithstanding this Sense the World is so bad how much worse would it have been if these apprehensions could have been extinguished Hence it is that the Conscience of well-doing inspires a Man with assurance and that Guilt makes him a Coward that the disasters of others expose them to be hardly thought of and that our own Afflictions bring our old sins to remembrance The Natives of Melita though they were Barbarians yet when they saw a Viper fasten upon St. Paul's hand presently concluded That he was a murderer whom though he had escaped the Sea yet vengeance would not suffer to live Acts 28. There the natural Sense of Punishment being due to Sin wrought though they carried it too far But with something better reason did Joseph's Brethren when he had brought them into distress argue with one another Verily we are guilty concerning our Brother therefore this distress is come upon us Gen. 42.21 It is this natural belief that supported many Mysteries of Religion every where in all Ages of the World whether those Mysteries were of God's appointing or of Man's inventing A good part of the Sacrifices and Rites of the Heathens and the Jews in their Worship was to make expiation of Sin and the Beast was killed to confess that Punishment was due to that Man for whom it was offered It is this Sense that disposes Men to believe strange Delusions that there is vertue in little things which seem to he no better than Charms to take away the guilt of Sin and to prevent the Punishment of it When people wear Habits and go Pilgrimages and touch Relicks and apply Holy Water and twenty other such Remedies to themselves for the ease of their Minds tho' they take a silly way to their end yet the Principle is good at the bottom That Sin and Punishment are linked together and that one naturally draws on the other if some method be not used to break the Chain which belief is so troublesom to a guilty mind that for this reason the generality of Men are naturally disposed to like a Religion so much the more for having great variety of Reliefs for an uneasie Conscience which is the true reason why Mankind if good care be not taken are ready to run into a thousand Superstitions To prevent which and to bring us into the way of Salvation God sent his own Son into the World to be a Sacrifice for us that we having so great an assurance of the expiation of our Sins should chearfully set our selves to the Reformation of our Hearts and Lives and serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life This is the first Observation That the Principle upon which all this Discourse proceeds is a natural Truth viz. That Punishment is due to Sin 2. That by what means soever evils befal Men it still comes by the Providence of God either directly sending it or at least knowingly permitting it and for wise and good Reasons determining to permit it This also is evidently presumed in this Discourse for upon the relation of those disasters the minds of the hearers presently turned to this Conclusion That they were very great Sinners that suffered such things and consequently that the evil was sent by a just and wise
be taken do suppose that when Men suffer for their sins they are not to be accounted greater Sinners meerly for that reason than those who at the same time escape and suffer nothing for when he said that neither should they escape that heard him unless they repented it was implied or at least not denyed that those things happened to the aforesaid Galileans and Jews as a Punishment of their Sins and a plain case it is that in this Life where the Tares and the Wheat grow together that by the same Afflictions God punishes the Sins of some while he manifests the Sincerity of others And in this Case it remains true that those who are punished are not to be accounted greater Sinners than all those that escape of which we need not desire any other Proof than our Saviour's Word for it But in some Cases we have very evident and sensible demonstration of it For sometimes God punishes the Sins of some Men by the Hands of others that are worse than they whom he reserves for far greater Punishments in this Life as the Histories of the Church do abundantly testifie Now by the same reason that it must not be concluded of those that suffer under the Oppressions of others that they are worse than those that oppress them it ought not neither to be concluded of those that do not suffer by them that they are worse than those that do for the former observation is an evident Proof that they do not suffer first who deserve it most Which is a Doctrine that our Saviour thought fit to deliver in his days and will be of constant use while the World lasts to keep Christians at the greatest distance from that Jewish Error That Men may discern God's Love and Hatred by what befals them in this World I will therefore never suffer my self to be run into an ill opinion of any Man or any People by any adversity how great soever it be which happens to them before my Eyes much less will I enter into comparisons I will not conclude from the Affliction I see that there must needs be some great Sin at the bottom which Vengeance has found out And when I see the Sin and cannot forbear acknowledging the Justice of God I will not go on to suppose there is something more than I do see and make him to be a worse Man than he seems to be nor will I conclude that he is worse than those that do not suffer such things And what construction I will forbear to make of a single Person I will much more forbear to make of Multitudes Because I know the Reasons of God's Proceedings with Peoples and Nations and great bodies of Men are by me unsearchable and that time discovers that Wisdom of his Counsels which my Reason cannot fathom In a word I will conclude ill of none because they suffer but rather well of them if I know no cause to the contrary because it is often God's method to afflict his own best Servants and when he punishes for Sin to begin with those that do not most of all deserve it Shall I conclude for instance that the French Protestants have been the greatest Sinners of all the Protestants in Europe or greater than our selves because they have suffered such things God forbid I speak not of those who to their Glory in this World but alas that is little worth it becomes me to say and you to hear it who to their Praise with God and to the encrease of their Reward hereafter in a better Life have suffered the loss of all things to keep a good Conscience but of those whom the Terrors of this World have prevailed with more than the Terrors of the Lord in whom the desire of ease here hath been too hard for the desire of Salvation hereafter I will not say and we must not say that even these were greater Sinners than our selves who have not fallen into their Temptations Such instances as these Brethren do best explain the intention of our Saviour in these words and will affect us with the true sense of them and the more that we look abroad into the World and consider the unsearchableness of God's Judgments and that his ways are past finding out as we cannot but do if we ask our selves the reason why this and that happens the more sensibly we shall acknowledge the Truth of our Saviour's Doctrine in this place and shall forbear passing Judgment upon the unhappy meerly because they are so But yet to take notice of what God doth of this kind in the World is not an unprofitable observation and that because the second point of the three which I have mentioned is as true as the first and that is this 2. That one reason why the Evils of this Life do not befal all Persons at the same time who are equally Sinners is That while some are visited with the Rod of God others may take warning by it This Proposition I lay down with great confidence not only of the Truth of it in general but also of the pertinence of it to the Text For you may observe that our Saviour upon mention made of the former of the two tragical Stories observes the latter himself and takes occasion from thence to divert his Hearers from censuring those miserable persons as they were ready to do and to imploy them in reflecting upon themselves I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish He imployed them in reflecting upon their own sins for says he except ye repent and upon their own danger except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And now I am sure it will be granted that our Saviour did not wander from the true intent of God's Providence in the things that happened to those Persons nor make an application of them which was not to the purpose and therefore since he gave warning by their examples it remains true as I said that one reason why the Evils of this Life do not befal all Persons at the same time who equally deserve them and I will add who equally need them is this That while some are corrected others may be instructed I rather keep to the case of punishing Sin than trying Virtue because that is the case of the Text tho' I might say too that the reason why all that can bear a tryal are not tryed at the same time is because the tryals of some righteous Men are not only profitable to themselves but the examples of them also are profitable to other good Men to encourage and fortifie them But when God punishes he doth not at one and the same time punish all that deserve it equally but he punishes some that the rest may take warning for if the Sufferings of a few in comparison would instruct all the rest God's end is gained which is that we should learn righteousness when his judgments are abroad in the earth And this is one of those arguments
is not bribed with the Prosperity of this World The Truth is that all the Virtues that are exercised while every thing goes well with us as heart can wish are something necessary for our Welfare in this World if we go wisely to work for it A Lyar will not be believed a false Man will not be trusted Drunkards will hardly thrive a malicious and hard-hearted Man will be hated and he that does not worship God shall be reproached The Vices and Impieties of Humane Life are Enemies to our well-doing in this World affecting either our Bodies or our Estates or our Quiet or our Reputation so that the very love of this World will teach a wise Man to live well and religiously in appearance that he may fare the better for it here But when God sends those Evils that our Piety is so far from hindring that it does expose us to them and yet we go on to bless and serve him this puts it out of all question that we are really and in earnest what we seem to be the faithful Servants of God as God speaking after the manner of Men said to Abraham when he offer'd up his Son Isaac Now I know that thou fearest God because thou hast not with-held thy Son thine only Son from me Thus I have laid down some Considerations very useful I am persuaded to prepare us for all the Portion of Evil which God may think fit to send upon any of us in this World that whenever any of it happens we may follow the Example of Job and receive Evil from God's Hand as well as good But then Brethren we must remember that such things as these are to be thought of very much before or we shall be little the better for them when once adversity happens For 't is not barely knowing nor hearing them but 't is much considering them that must make them Principles within us and fortifie us against all Surprizes It is a great mistake that these thoughts must make us melancholy and spoil that reasonable comfort we should take in the good things which God lends us for our use For while we enjoy them without overvaluing them we have all that they are good for and they are not the less pleasant because we know of greater Blessings than they are our part is to use them thankfully while they are ours for our use and by all prudent means as far as lawfully we can to keep off Adversity because then we may be sure that those Evils which befal us without our own Faults are most properly of God's sending And so we shall feel our selves under the Power of all those Reasons why we should with submission and thankfulness receive not only good but evil also at the hand of God The Seventeenth Sermon ROM VIII Part of 33. and 34. v. It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth THESE Words signifie one of these things Either that when God justifies no Man will condemn but that when we are sure of pleasing him we are sure of pleasing all too or else that if he approves and justifies it is no great matter nor should we be much concerned by whom we are accused or condemned But the first cannot be the meaning that no Man condemns whom God justistifies for the Disciples of Christ were used in that manner that St. Paul applied this Saying to their Case v. 36. For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are appointed as sheep for the slaughter He means therefore That if God justifies it is not considerable who condemns They were brought before the Tribunals of Men where grievous things were laid to their Charge yet because God saw their Innocence says the Apostle who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect They were dealt with as Malefactors yet says he Who is he that condemneth so that he supposes them to be condemned by no body in comparison because while they were condemned by Men God justified them Which offers two Points to be considered 1. That Men do sometimes condemn those whom God justifies 2. That they whom God justifies have no cause to be dejected when they are condemned by Men. 1. That Men do sometimes condemn those whom God justifies and they condemn them too for the sake of those things which he approves and lay that to their charge which he is now pleased with and will hereafter reward It was such a case which our Saviour prepared his Disciples for when he said Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil falsly against you for my sake Which began to be fulfilled as soon as ever the World took notice of them And here let us briefly consider what kind of Persons they then were and how they were used The Apostles and those that were in fellowship with them professed the sincere and uncorrupted Truth of the Gospel teaching all Purity and Virtue and whatever they received in Command from our Lord Jesus Nor will any Christian of what other Name soever pretend that there was too much or too little in their Doctrine All are agreed not only that Christianity is worthy of all acceptation but also that it was by them profess'd intirely and without mixture As to their Manners they were Persons of the greatest Simplicity easie to be known what they were given to no deceit desiring to live in quiet because there was nothing in their Doctrine or in their way of Life to create Jelousies in others It was a very great part of their Religion to deny themselves and to do good to their Neighbours They did not aim at worldly Power and Greatness but instead of using that interest they had in the People to save themselves by Violence from Persecution they urged subjection to Laws and Government upon Principles of Conscience They were such kind of Men and we doubt not but God justified them Let us therefore see how they were used by Men by Jews and Gentiles As for the Jews it was not indeed very likely that they should be treated much better than their Master had been before And so the Event shewed 't is true they made many Converts and a great part of the People cleaved to their Doctrine and Fellowship but this enraged their Enemies so much the more and the more numerous that Christians grew there were so many more to be hated and reviled and persecuted For 1. They were charged with Heresie and represented as a Sect that subsisted upon the Profession of new and false Doctrines For thus we find St. Paul obliged to apologize for himself before Foelix against the accusations of the Jews They cannot says he prove the things whereof they now accuse me But this I confess unto thee That after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets Acts 24.14 And have hope towards God which they