Prerogatives and dignity of humane nature Man is but a Beast of prey and his use of and dominion over the other creatures is but a proud usurpation over his equals So that this opinion degrades our natures and affronts the whole race of mankind together And 2. In the direct tendency of it it destroyes humane Societies For those cannot subsist without Laws nor Laws without some conscience of good and evil nor would this signifie to any great purpose without the belief of another world Take away this and every thing will be good that is profitable and honest that conduceth to a mans designs That would be mine that I could get by force and I had no right to any thing longer than I had strength to defend it and thus the world would be ipso facto in a state of war and fall into endless confusions and disorders So that the whole Earth would quickly be an Hell intolerable every man would be a Devil to another yea and every man to himself 3. It suppresseth mens private happiness and felicity and even the Rioters of the world have stings and torments from it If a man live in Sensuality and fulness of pleasure what a cutting thought is it to consider that in a little time he must bid adieu to this and to all felicity for ever And if his life be in trouble and discomfort how terrible is it to reflect that he must go from being miserable to be nothing How can those think of parting with their possessions and enjoyments that have nothing else to expect or how can they bear up under the burdens and vexations of this state that cannot relieve themselves by the hopes of a better With what sad pangs of sorrow should we lay our Friends into the Grave if we had cause to be assured that they were lost eternally and how could we reflect upon our own mortality if we were to look for no farther Being The pleasures of the present Life are gone in a moment and leave nothing but dregs and bitterness behind them and if there be no further delights besides these mean and fading satisfactions 't is not worth the while to live but we had better to have been nothing for ever The summ is The Sadducee vilifies Mankind destroyes the peace of Societies and the happiness of every private person and so professeth himself the common enemy of men and a Renegado to humane nature IT will not be needful for me to say much in Applying this Discourse Almost every Sermon we hear is an Application of it for here is the matter and ground of our hopes and hence are taken the great enforcements of our duty I presume there are few or none in this place but who are ready to profess their belief of a Future Life and as I premised I have not insisted on the proof to perswade You of this Article but to shew that the confidence is groundless which affirms There is no reason for the great Doctrines of Religion and to contribute somewhat towards the settlement of the weak against such temptations Now if we believe this great Truth as we say Let us do it to purpose and not content our selves with a cold and customary assent but endeavour to raise our Faith to such an height that it may have an effectual influence upon our lives The general belief that education hath infused is but a dead image in the soul that produceth nothing Let us endeavour by fervent Prayer and frequent Meditation to invigorate and excite ours to that degree that it may be a living representation of eternal things that our Faith may be the certainty and presence of the invisible world The substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. That we may have such an apprehension of it as if the prospect were open and our eyes beheld it that we may fix our thoughts there and fill up our souls with the consideration of that world Such a Faith as this ought to be our aim and if we did so believe the other world what excellent what heroical what happy persons should we be in this Such a Faith would secure us from the flatteries and temptations of this sensual life and excite us to more earnest longings and more vigorous endeavours after the happiness of a better It would inable us to despise this vain world in comparison and to bear all the crosses of it with magnanimity and steadiness of mind It would quiet our solicitudes and answer the objections against providence and the present unequal distribution of good and evil It would make the most difficult services of Religion easie and pleasant to us and fill our lives with sweet hope and delights infinitely more agreeable than the most relishing sensual joys It would afford us satisfaction amid our disappointments and rest amid our anxieties and cares It would raise our designs and thoughts to things generous and noble and make us live like the Inhabitants of an Heavenly Countrey Such blessed effects as these follow this Faith here and unmeasurably unspeakably greater in the other world the vision of God and full enjoyment of His love the perfection of our natures and the compleatment of our happiness in the arms of our Redeemer and amidst the triumphant Songs of Angels and Saints in the exercise of holy love admiration and praise Things too great to be exprest or to be imagin'd For eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath reserved for those that love him To Him be all Glory and humble Adoration henceforth and for ever SERMON VII THE Serious Consideration OF THE Future Iudgement The Second Edition SERMON VII ACTS XVII 31. Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained ALthough it might be well expected that the Laws of God should abundantly prevail by vertue of His Authority and their own native reason and goodness Yet such is the stupidity and perverseness of men that these alone have not usually any considerable effect upon us And therefore God who earnestly desires our Reformation and our happiness hath superadded the greatest Sanctions to enforce His Laws glorious rewards on the one hand and most terrible Penalties on the other and these to be distributed in a most solemn manner represented in such circumstances as are most apt to work upon our Hopes and Fears For He hath appointed a day Which words are part of St. Paul's Speech to the Athenians upon the occasion of their superstitions and Idolatries These in the time of Gentile ignorance God winked at vers 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He took no notice of those sins in comparison He was not so much offended and displeased but consider'd the general ignorance and temptations and made abatements for them As our Saviour said with reference to the Jews Joh. 15. 22. If I had not come
HIS was that they may be perswaded to conform theirs unto it and though mens understandings are convinced already that Charity is their Duty yet there is but too much need to represent some of the vast heap of injunctions that make it so to incline their Wills I shall therefore briefly lay together a few of the chief instances of this kind that you may have the distincter sense of the reasons of your Duty and from them the most powerful motives to enforce it In order to this let us consider in short the Injunctions of Christ and the teachings of his Apostles Our Saviour urgeth it as his New Commandment John 13. 34. and inculcates it again under the obliging form of his Command John 15. 12. He makes it a distinguishing note of his Disciples John 13. 35. and enjoyns them to love their Enemies Mat. 5. 24. He mentions it as the great qualification of those on his Right hand that shall be received into his Kingdom Mat. 25. 34 35. and the want of it as the reason of the dreadful Curse pronounced upon those miserable ones on the Left at the solemn Judgement ver 41 42. St. Paul calls Love the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 8 9 10. and sets it in the first place among the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. yea reckons it five times over under other Names in the Catalogue viz. those of Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness ver 22 23. He advanceth it above all Gifts and Graces 1 Cor. 13. above the Tongues of Men and Angels ver 1. and above Prophecie and Mysteries and Knowledge and Faith ver 2. And the beloved Disciple St. John who lay in the Bosom of his Dear Lord and seems to partake most of his Spirit is transported in the commendation of this Grace He tells us that God is love 1 John 4. 7. and repeats it again ver 16. He makes it an Argument of our being born of God and Knowing Him ver 7. and the want of this an evidence of not Knowing God ver 8. He counts it the mark of Discipleship aâ—d the contrary a sign of one that abideth in Death 1 John 3. 14. He calls him a Murtherer that hates another ver 15. and a Lyar if he pretends to Love God and loveth not his Brother 1 John 4. 20. In fine he out-speaks the greatest heights of Praise when he saith God is Love and he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4. 16. I might represent further that we are commanded to Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. to be kindly affectioned one towards another ver 10. to put on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love 1 Thess 5. 8. to be pitiful and courteous 1 Pet. 3. 8. to provoke one another to love and to good works Heb. 10. 24. to serve one another Gal. 5. 13. to love as Brethren 1 Pet. 3. 8. We are minded of Christ's New Commandment 1 Joh. 3. 23. and of the Message which was from the beginning That we should love one another ver 11. and are urged by the consideration of Gods loving us 1 John 4. 1. Thus the Apostles exhort and teach and they Pray that our Love may abound Phil. 1. 9. and 1 Thess 3. 12. and give solemn Thanks for it when they have found it 2 Thess 1. 3. And now considering the expresness of all these places I cannot see but that any Duty of Religion may be more easily evaded than this and those who can fansie themselves Christians and yet continue in the contrary Spirit and Practice may conceit themselves religious though they live in the constant commission of the greatest sins And if such can quiet their Consciences and shuffle from all these plain Recommendations and Injunctions they have found a way to escape all the Laws of God and may when they please become Christians without Christianity For the evidence I have suggested to prove the necessity of this Duty doth not consist in half Sentences and doubtful Phrases in fancied Analogies and far-fetcht Interpretations but in plain Commands and frequent Inculcations in earnest Intreaties and pressing Importunities in repeated Advices and passionate Commendations And those whom all these will not move are Incapable of being perswaded against their humour or their interest to any Duty of Religion So that though I see never so much eagerness for an Opinion or Heat for an indifferent Circumstance without the conscience of Christian Love I shall never call that forwardness for those little things Zeal or Religion Yea though those warm men should sacrifice their Lives to their beloved Trifles I should not think them Martyrs but fear rather that they went from one Fire to another and a Worse And in this I have the great Apostle to warrant me who saith Though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. Thus of the First Head the Necessity of the duty I Come to the II. the Extent Our Love ought 1. To be extended to all Mankind The more general it is the more Christian and the more like unto the Love of God who causeth his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Good and upon the Evil. And though our Arms be very short and the ordinary influence of our kindness and good will can reach but to a very few yet we may pray for all men and desire the good of all the world and in these we may be charitable without bounds But these are not all Love obligeth us to relieve the Needy and help the Distressed to visit the Sick and succour the Fatherless and Widows to strengthen the Weak and to confirm the Staggering and Doubting to encourage the Vertuous and to reprove the Faulty and in short to be ready in all the offices of Kindness that may promote the good of any man Spiritual or Temporal according to the utmost of our power and capacity The good man is Merciful to his Beast and the Christian ought to be Charitable to his Brother and his Neighbour and every man is our Brother and every one that Needs us is our Neighbour And so our Love ought to extend to all men universally without limitation though with this distinction II. That the more especial Objects of our Love ought to be those that agree with us in a common Faith Gal. 6. 10. that is All Christians as Christians and because such Whatever makes our Brother a Member of the Church Catholick that gives him a title to our nearer affections which ought to be as large as that Our Love must not be confin'd by names and petty agreements and the interests of Parties to the corners of a Sect but ought to reach as far as Christianity it self in the largest notion of it To love those that are of our Way Humour and Opinion is not Charity but self-Self-love 't is not for Christ's sake but our own To Love like Christians is to Love his Image
from whom we are so called And that consists not in demure Looks and affected Phrases in melting Tones and mimick Gestures in Heats and Vehemence in Rapture and Ecstasie in systems of Opinion and scrupulosity about Nothing But in Faith and Patience Innocence and Integrity in Love to God and Charity to all the World in a modest sweetness and humble Deportment in a peaceable Spirit and readiness to obey God and Those He hath set over Us Where-ever These are there is the Image of our Lord and There ought to be our Love though the persons thus affected are Ignorant of many things and err in many though they differ from us in some Opinions we count Orthodox and walk not in the particular ways or Circumstances which We esteem Best And thus briefly of the Extent of the Duty we ought to Love ALL MEN but especially ALL Christians I descend to the Third general viz. III. The Excellency of Christian Love which I represent in the following particulars I. IT is the Image of God and of all the graces renders us most like our Maker For God is love and the Lover of men and his tender Mercies are over all his Works And the most sutable apprehension we can form of his Being is to look on him as an Omnipotent Omniscient Immutable Goodness And is it not a glorious Excellency that makes Men like the fountain of all perfection Our unhappy first Parents lost Paradise by aspiring to be like God in Knowledge and if we endeavour to be like him in Love we shall be in the way of gaining a better Paradise than they lost II. LOVE is the Spirit of Angels Glorified Souls and the best of Men. There is nothing by which the Angelical nature is so much distinguish'd from the Diabolical as Love and Goodness for the Devils have Spiritual and Immortal natures and great degrees of Power and Knowledge and those perhaps not much inferiour to what is to be found in some of the better Spirits so that the great difference is not in the excess of natural perfections which the Angels of Light have above those of Darkness but in this that the former abound in Love Sweetness and Benignity and the latter in Malice Cruelty and Revenge these are the very Image of Satan and Spirit of Hell Whereas all the Celestial Inhabitants live in the joyful exercise of uninterrupted Love and endearments Nor is that Love confined to the blessed and glorified Company but it sheds it self abroad upon the nether world and they are Ministring Spirits for our good Heb. 1. 14. They so far Love us that they can stoop from Heaven to serve us There is Joy there at the Conversion of a Sinner and no doubt there is Love to converted Saints and care and pity for all the rest of Men. For the spirits of the just made perfect are freed from their froward humours and pettish natures their mistaken Zeal and fondness of Opinions which straitned their Affections while they were on Earth and now they are inlarged by the vast improvements of their Knowledge and accomplishment of their Vertue by a fuller sense of Divine Love and of their Duty by the genius of their company and the imployment of the happy Place So that in Heaven all are truly Catholick in their Affections And the better any man is the more he is so upon Earth The good man makes not himself his center nor are his thoughts wholly engrost about his own concernments but he is carefully solicitous for the general benefit and never so much pleased as when he is made an instrument of Divine Goodness to promote the interests of his Christian brethren 'T was an high strain of Love in Moses exprest towards the Transgressing Israelites when he was content to be blotted out of Gods Book rather than that their Sin should not be blotted out Exod. 32. 32. And St. Paul was no less Zealously affectionate towards the Jews when he said he could wish himself accursed from Christ viz. separated from Christian communion as a most vile and abject person for their sakes Rom. 9. 3. These were spirits whom Religion and Divine Love had enlarged and the more any man advanceth in Christianity the nearer he approacheth to this generous heroick temper III. LOVE is an eminent branch of the Divine Life and Nature Love is of God and every one that Loveth is born of God saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 7 8. The Divine Nature in us is the Image of God Pourtray'd and lively drawn upon the regenerated Soul and I noted before that Love is the vital Image of our Maker 't is His spirit infused into us and growing in us and upon that account to be preferred before all Gifts and natural Perfections as St. Paul hath done it in the mentioned 1 Cor. 13. And the common Gifts of the Spirit differ from this special Grace as the Painters Picture doth from his Son His Counterfeit may indeed in a superficial appearance to the Eye resemble him more than his Child but yet it is but an empty shadow destitute and incapable of his Life and Nature So there are a sort of Gifts that have a spiritual appearance and may to those that see things at distance or have not their senses exercised seem more like the divine nature than this modest vertue But those that come near them and are better able to discern perceive that in themselves they are without the Divine Life and Motion and are meer Lifeless Pictures And here I dare say that the happiest faculty to Preach Plausibly and Pray with Fluency and Eloquence to Discourse Devoutly and readily to Interpret Scripture if it be not joyned with a benign and charitable spirit is no participation of the God-like life and nature nor indeed any more Divine than those common gifts and natural parts which those that think highly of themselves upon these accounts despise For very Evil men have been eminent in these accomplishments and Wicked Spirits are without question endowed with them and they are of themselves arguments of nothing but a faculty of Imitation a devotional Complexion and warm Imagination Whereas on the other hand Charity and Christian Love are good Evidence of a Renewed state and nature Our Saviour made it a Character Joh. 13. and the Apostle concludes from it 1 John 3. 14. By this we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren And if this be a Mark and St. John be not mistaken I doubt that some who are very gracious by many Signs of their own will want one of Christs to prove their comfortable presumption IV. LOVE is the bond and tye of Christian Communion How can two walk together except they are agreed The Church is a Body consisting of many Members which unless they Unite and send their mutual supplies one to another the whole is distempered and in the ready way to Death and Dissolution Now Charity is that vital Cement whereby they
of Meekness Mercy and universal Love Thus imperfect Strivers may imploy themselves in the external offices of Religion I have instanced only in Three the like may be said of the rest And to this I add IV. That they may not only exercise themselves in the outward matters of duty but may arrive to some things that are accounted greater heights and are really more spiritual and refined To instance 1. They may have some love to God Goodness and good Men. The Soul naturally loves Beauty and Perfection and all mankind apprehend God to be of all Beings the most beautiful and perfect and therefore must needs have an intellectual love for him The reason that that love takes no hold of the passions in wicked men is partly because they are diverted from the thoughts of Him by the objects of Sense but chiefly because they consider him as their enemy and therefore can have no complacency or delight in him who they think hath nothing but thoughts of enmity and displeasure against them But if once they come to be perswaded as many times by such false marks as I have recited they are that God is their Father and peculiar Friend that they are his chosen and his darlings whom he loved from Eternity and to whom he hath given his Son and his Spirit and will give Himself in a way of the fullest enjoyment Then the Love that before was only an esteem in the understanding doth kindle in the affections by the help of the conceit of Gods loving them so dearly and the passion thus heated runs out even into seraphick and rapturous Devotions while yet all this is but meer animal love excited chiefly by the love of our selves not of the Divine Perfections And it commonly goes no further than to earnest expressions of extraordinary love to God in our Prayers and Discourses while it appears not in any singular obedience to his Laws or generous and universal love to mankind which are the ways whereby the true Divine Love is exprest for This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5. 3. And as to the other thus If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 Joh. 4. 12. And on the contrary If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar John 4. 20. Charity then and universal obedience are the true arguments and expressions of our love to God and these suppose a victory over corrupt inclinations and self-will But the other love which ariseth from the conceit of our special dearness to God upon insufficient grounds that goes no further than to some suavities and pleasant fancies within our selves and some passionate complements of the Image we have set up in our imaginations This Love will consist with Hatred and contempt of all that are not like our selves yea and it will produce it those poysonous fruits and vile affections may be incouraged and cherish'd under it So that there may be some love to God in evil men But while self-self-love is the only motive and the more prevalent passion it signifieth nothing to their advantage And as the imperfect striver may have some love to God so he may to piety and vertue every man loves these in Idea The vilest sinner takes part in his affections with the vertuous and religious when he seeth them described in History or Romance and hath a detestation for those who are character'd as impious and immoral Vertue is a great Beauty and the mind is taken with it while 't is consider'd at a distance and our corrupt interests and sensual affections are not concern'd 'T is These that recommend sin to our love and choice while the mind stands on the side of vertue with that we serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin Rom. 7. 25. So that most wicked men that are not degenerated into meer Brutes have this mental and intellectual love to goodness That is they approve and like it in their minds and would practise it also were it not for the prevalent biass of flesh and sense And hence it will follow likewise That the same may approve and respect good men They may reverence and love them for their Charity Humility Justice and Temperance though themselves are persons of the contrary Character yea they may have a great and ardent affection for those that are eminently pious and devout though they are very irreligious themselves The conscience of vertue and of the excellency of Religion may produce this in the meer natural man who is under the dominion of vile inclinations and affections and therefore neither is this a good mark of godliness Our love to God and goodness will not stead us except it be prevalent And as the love described may be natural and a meer animal man may arrive unto it So 2. He may to an extraordinary zeal for the same things that are the objects of his love Hot tempers are eager where they take either kindness or displeasure The natural man that hath an animal love to Religion may be violent in speaking and acting for things appertaining to it If his temper be devotional and passionate he becomes a mighty zealot and fills all places with the same of his godliness His natural fire moves this way and makes a mighty blaze Ahab was very zealous and 't is like 't was not only his own interest that made him so 2 Kings 10. 16. The Pharisees were zealous people and certainly their zeal was not always personated and put on but real though they were Hypocrites yet they were such as in many things deceived themselves as well as others They were zealous for their Traditions and they believ'd 't was their duty to be so St. Paul while a persecutor was zealous against the Disciples and he thought he ought to do many things against that name And our Saviour foretells that those zealous Murderers that should kill his Saints should think They did God good service in it John 16. 2. So that all the zeal of the natural man is not feigning and acting of a part nor hath it always evil objects The Pharisees were zealous against the wickedness of the Publicans and Sinners Zeal and that in earnest and for Religion may be in bad men But then this is to be noted that 't is commonly about opinions or external rites and usages and such matters as appertain to first Table Duties while usually the same men are very cold in reference to the Duties of the Second And when Zeal is partial and spent about the little things that tend not to the overcoming the difficulties of our way or the perfecting of humane nature 't is a meer animal fervour and no Divine Fire And the natural man the Seeker that shall not enter may grow up to another height that looks gloriously and seems to speak mighty things As 3. He may have great comforts in
be a form of Godliness but 't is nothing to the life and power And where we see not this effect of Religion let the professor of it be never so high and glorious in his profession we may yet conclude that either his Religion is not good or that he only pretends and really hath it not This I take to be a consideration of great moment and great certainty viz. That Christian Religion aims at the bettering and perfecting of our natures For the things it commands relate either to worship or virtue The instances of external worship are prayer and praise both which are high acts of gratitude and justice and they fit us for divine blessings and keep us under a sense of God and prepare us for union with him which is the highest perfection of which the creature is capable Thus the outward acts of worship tend to our happiness and the inward do infinitely the same These are Faith and Love and Fear Faith in God supports and relieves us in all afflictions and distresses The love of him is a pleasure and solace to us in all losses and disappointments since he is an object most filling and satisfying and one that cannot be lost except we wilfully thrust him from us Fear of God hath no torment 'T is no slavish dread of his greatness and Power but a reverence of his perfections and a lothness to offend him and this disposeth us also for the communications of his grace and love Psal 85. 9. And this it doth by congruity and its own nature which is to be said likewise of the others So that they would make those happy that practise them whether they had been positively enjoyn'd or not And though no express rewards had been annext unto them There are other two acts of worship which Christianity requires which are instituted and positive and respect Christ our Lord They are the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper both which are holy Rites of high signification and seals of an excellent Covenant between God and us assuring us of pardon of sins and all divine favours upon the conditions of our Faith and repentance and more firmly obliging us to holy obedience and dependance The only way in which we can be happy Whence we see briefly that all the parts of worship which Christianity binds upon us tend to our perfection and Felicity And all the vertues that it commands do the same both those that respect us in a personal capacity and those others that relate to us as members of Societies Thus humility recommended Mat. 5. 3. Meekness blest ver 5. purity ver 8. are vertues that accomplish our particular persons and make us happy in our selves For of Pride cometh Contention Prov. 13. 10. And a great part of our troubles arise from stomach and self-will which humility cures Meekness also takes away the occasion of the numerous mischiefs we run into through the rage and disorder of our passions and 't is in it self a great beauty and ornament since it ariseth from the due order and government of our faculties Purity which comprehends temperance of all sorts frees us from the tormenting importunity of those desires that drag us out of our selves and expose us to sin and folly and temptation and make us exceeding miserable besides which it is a perfection that renders us like unto God and the blest Spirits of the highest rank And Christian vertues do not only accomplish and make us happy in our particular persons but they do the same in our publique capacities They dispose us to a quiet obedience to our governours without murmuring and complaining and thereby the publique peace is secured and all good things else in that But there are other vertues that Christianity enjoyns which have a more direct tendency to the happiness of others as Justice Mat. 7. 12. Charity 1 Cor. 13. Loyalty Rom. 13. and all other publique vertues may I think be comprehended under these Where there is no Justice every man preys upon another and no mans property is safe Where Charity is wanting Jealousies hatreds envying back-bitings and cruelties abound which render the world deplorably unhappy Where there is not Loyalty and conscionable submission to Governours the publick is upon every occasion of commotion involv'd in infinite miseries and disasters So that all the precepts of our Religion are in their own nature proper instruments to make us happy and they had been methods of Felicity to be chosen by all reasonable creatures though they had never been required by so great and so sacred an Authority These things I have said because I could not choose but take this occasion to recommend the excellency and reasonableness of our Religion And I have done it but only in brief hints because it ariseth but upon a Corollary from my main subject and from this I infer further III. That Christianity is the height and perfection of morality They both tend to the real bettering and accomplishment of humane nature But the rules and measures of moral Philosophy were weak and imperfect till Christ Jesus came He confirmed and enforced all those precepts of vertue that were written upon our hearts and cleared them from many corruptions that were grown upon them through ignorance and vice the glosses of the Jews and false conceits of the Gentiles and he inforced them anew by his Authority and the knowledge he gave of divine aids and greater rewards and punishments than were understood before yea he enlarged them in some instances such as loving enemies and forgiving injuries Thus Christ Jesus taught morality viz. the way of living like men And the 5th Chapter of Matthew is an excellent Lecture of this kind So that to disparage morality is to disgrace Christianity it self and to vilifie one of the ends of Christs coming into the world For all Religion and all duties respect either God our neighbour or our selves and the duties that relate to these two last are acknowledg'd moral vertues The Apostle St. James counted these Moralities of visiting the Widow and Fatherless to be the pure Religion and undefiled Jam. 1. 17. and the Prophet Micah intimates that those moral vertues of Justice and mercy were some of the main things that God required of us Micah 6. 8. Our Saviour saith that the whole Law is summ'd up in these two to love God with all our souls and our neighbour as our selves Matth. 22. 13. which latter contains the duties of morality And that which the grace of God in the Gospel teacheth according to St. Paul is to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11. There is no godliness without morality All the fruits of the Spirit reckon'd up Gal. 5. 22. are moral vertues And when we are commanded to grow in grace 2 Pet. 3. 18. vertue is partly understood For one branch of what is call'd Grace in us is moral vertue produced by divine aids Christian principles and incouragements though 't is
the meer Animal Religion and very commonly do so This they understand not and by this ignorance are betrayed into the snare of Separation to the disturbance of the Peace of the Church and their own great hurt and inconvenience Whereas could they be made to know and consider that complexion and natural passions may bring forth all these fruits they might be secured by this means against the tempting imposture and learn that Meekness and Patience Affability and Charity Justice and a Peaceable humble temper are better arguments of Saintship than all these Thus a great mischief might be prevented and there is another that might be remedied by the same Observation The inconvenience is this While the enemies of Factions object Hypocrisie to them affirming that all they do and say is meer personating and pretence they confirm and settle those people in their way for many of them know that they are in earnest and consequently that their opposers are mistaken in their judgements concerning them by which they are better establisht in their own good opinion and hardned against conviction whereas did they consider such things as I have suggested about the Animal Religion and grant to them that they may be serious believe themselves infinitely and feel all those Warmths which they pretend and yet be evil men and far enough from being Godly Did they shew them that all their zeal and Devotion and more and greater than theirs may arise from a principle that hath nothing Divine and supernatural in it They would thereby strike them in the right vein and bring them down from the high perch whereon by their false marks they had placed themselves and thereby disabuse them and prevent the abuse of others VI. We see how we may know our state whether it be that of Grace and Life or the other sad one of Unregeneracy and Death The state of Grace is a motion towards the recovery of the Divine Image and a victory over our selves and all corrupt inclinations and affections The state of Unregeneracy and Death is the continuance under the power and prevalency of sense passion and evil habits Now when 't is question'd by our selves in which of these states we are it must be supposed that we are arrived at something of Religion For the grosly wicked cannot but know what their condition is And the way I would propose to those others who are yet uncertain is this viz. To take notice Whether they really design and make any progress in Goodness Every motion indeed cannot be felt or perceived but if we go on though never so insensibly time will shew that we are grown If we consider what are our particular defects and studiously apply proper instruments to remove them if we find success in those indeavours and that we are better this year than we were the former That our Passions are better governed and our inordinate affections more restrained and our evil habits and inclinations less powerful with us 't is an infallible sign that we live and are in a state of Grace that we shall at last arrive to a perfect man in Christ Jesus Eph. 4. 13. and shall attain if we faint not 2 Cor. 4. 1. Whereas on the other hand if we come to some hopeful pitch and stand still there if sin and temptation be as powerful with us now as they were a year ago and our inclinations and passions just at the same pass we are in a bad state and dead While the Plant grows it lives and may become a great tree though at present it be but small whereas that whose stature is bigger and more promising if it proceeds not decays and comes to nothing Though we are imperfect if we are striving and going towards perfection God overlooks our Infirmities and pardons them for Christ's sake This is our sincerity and an effect of true Faith But if on the other hand we think our selves well and do not always attempt forwards our state is bad and our sins will be imputed Be our pretences what they will our Faith is not sincere and will not stead us When we get to a certain pitch in Religion and make that our state 't is an argument that our Religion was meerly Animal and but a mode of complexion self-self-love and natural fear When we overcome some sins and are willing to spare and cherish others 't is a sign that we are not sincere in our attempts upon any and that what we have done was not performed upon good and divine motives Sincerity is discovered by growth and this is the surest mark that I know of Tryal So that we have no reason to presume though as we think we have gone a great way if we go not on Nor on the other side have we any to despair though our present attainments are but small if we are proceeding The buds and tenderest blossoms of Divine Grace are acceptable to God when the fairest leaves of the meer Animal Religion are nothing in his esteem This is a great advantage we have from the Gospel that imperfection will be accepted where there is sincerity whereas according to the measures of exact and regorous Justice no man could be made happy in the high degree of glory but he that was perfect and whose victories were absolute VII It may be collected from our Discourse Wherein the Power of Godliness consists viz. In a progress towards perfection and an intire victory over all the evils of our Natures The Forms of Godliness are not only in the ceremonies of Worship and external actions of feigned Piety But all the fine things of the Animal Religion are of this kind and they are the worst sort By the grosser Forms men hardly deceive others by these they effectually gull themselves So that many that vehemently oppose Forms are the greatest Formalists Forms of Worship may well agree with the Power of Godliness whenas zeal against Forms may be a Form it self whatever makes shew of Religion and doth not make us better that 's a Form at least to us There are Spiritual Forms as well as those of the other sort and these are most deadly Poyson is worst in Aqua Vitae He that speaks his Prayers ex tempore with vehemence and loudness if he strive not against ill nature and self-will is as much a Formalist as he that tells his Prayers by his Beads and understands not one word he saith And those that run away from Forms in Churches meet more dangerous ones in Barns and private corners Orthodox Opinions devout Phrases set Looks melting Tones affected Sighs and vehement Raptures are often meer Forms of Godliness that proceed from the Animal Religion which it self is a Form likewise O that the observers of so many motes in their Brethrens eyes would learn to throw out the Beams of their own The Form of Godliness that pretends it self to be no more is not so hurtful But the Forms that call themselves the Power are deadly 'T is
eternal Glories 'T is true indeed our own natural strength is small in proportion to the Difficulties we are to encounter but the Grace of God is sufficient for us 2 Cor. 12. 9. and we may do all things through Christ that strengthens us Phil. 4. 13. Nature is weak and imperfect but we are not left in the condition of meer nature For we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. We are under the influences of the holy Spirit which will remove the mountains and plain the way before us if we take care to engage those aids by Faith and sincere endeavour For this we may be sure of that God will never be wanting to us if we are not so unto our selves So that the case as to our natural inability and the assistance of Gods Spirit seems to be thus A man in a Boat is carried from the Harbour he designs by the violence of the Current he is not able only by plying the Oar to overcome the resistance of the Tide but a gentle Gale blows with him which will not of it self carry him up against the Torrent Neither of them will do it single But if he hoist the sail and use the Oar too this united force prevails and he gets happily to the Harbour This methinks resembles our Condition we are carried down the Torrent of evil inclinations and Affections our own unaided powers are too little for that great force but the Holy Spirit is with us It breaths upon us and is ready to assist if we are so to use it and by the superaddition and ingagement of those blessed Aids there is no evil in our natures but may be overcome So that we have no reason to be discouraged at the apprehension of our impotence out of weakness we shall be made strong Heb. 11. 24. If we imploy our Talent though it be but a very small one we shall have more Mat. 25. 29. And if we accept of those divine helps and use them what was before to meer natural consideration uneasie will be pleasant and sweetly relishing One of the greatest Difficulties in the way of Religion is to begin the first steps are roughest to those feet that have been unaccustomed to it The helps and manifold incouragements we shall meet with in the Progress will render it more agreeable and delightsome Those very toils will be grateful there is scarce any great sense of pleasure but where there is some Difficulty and Pain Even our Work it self will be Wages And 't is not only the End of Wisdom that is pleasantness but the very way Prov. 3. 17. So that though we are call'd upon to strive and to run and to fight which words import Labour yet we are not required to Quit our pleasures but to change the objects of them to leave the delights of Swine for those of Angels sensual for spiritual Satisfactions Thus all things encourage and invite us to strive God calls upon us and our own Interests call Christ Jesus came to engage us to this Work and the Holy Spirit waits to assist it If notwithstanding all this we sit still our Negligence will be inexcusable and fatal or if we arise and go a little forward and then lay us down to take our ease and rest our state in the judgement of one that knew will be worse more desperate and excuseless 2 Pet. 2. 21. I Conclude all then in the words of the Blessed Apostle 1 Cor. 15. Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord To him be Glory and Honour henceforth and for ever Amen SERMON II. Catholick Charity Preach'd to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen OF LONDON The Third Edition SERMON II. OF Catholick Charity 1 Pet. I. part of xxii v. See that ye Love one another HOW many and how great have been the Feuds and still are of this tottering and broken Age there is no man here so happy as to be ignorant That such Strifes among Brethren are Unnatural and Diabolical and that 't is a lovely thing to see Christians live together in Charity and Love there is no Christian but will grant but how the fatal Evil is to be cur'd and the lovely thing is to be compast here 's the Knot here 's the Difficulty To endeavour the reconciling Extreams that are so divided looks like a design to perswade a friendship between the Winds and Waves 'T is very strange that Christians should be so at odds whose Religion is Peace and Love and the reasons of whose differences are so small in proportion to the degree of their Animosities Our GOD is One and we have the same common SAVIOUR we profess one GOSPEL and believe the same Creeds we have the same SACRAMENTS and the same fundamental ORDINANCES And since we are agreed in These what is there left that is worth the heat of a Dispute what that can justifie a Division Certainly it is not mens Principles that keep them so at odds there is somewhat more in the matter there is something wanting that would heal our Breaches and compose our Divisions Love would heal us if we would be healed Now in a general Combustion 't is every Christians Duty to bring what Water he can to throw upon the Flames especially it is the office of the Ministers of Peace to endeavour to promote it 'T is a plain subject but such are most necessary and this is most seasonable seasonable at all times but principally in these wherein 't is hard to discern by the practice of Christians that the Duty of Love hath any thing to do with Christianity And yet this is a vital grace of our Religion 'T is the Law and Gospel in a word for Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Gospel is a Law of Love And 't is very strange and very sad that an Age which hath so much of light and faith in the pretence should have so little of Charity and love in the practice especially since that light which is from above is full of Benignity and Goodness and that Faith which is truly Divine worketh by love This is that which our Apostle recommends in the words and I have chosen it for my present subject In Discoursing it I shall shew you 1. The Necessity of the Duty 2. It s Extent 3. The Excellency of it and 4. propose some Means to assist us towards the attainment of this Generous and Catholick Spirit FOR the 1. The Necessity of the Duty the whole Scripture is so full and so express in enjoyning it that methinks I might be excused from a labour that would seem superfluous to one that knows the Gospel and not the practice of those that profess it But because the Christianity of most Christians is if I may so speak quite another thing from the Christianity of CHRIST it will be necessary to mind them what
different from that Charity which thinketh no Evil 1 Cor. 13. that it thinks nothing else concerning those of a differing Judgement but that their Vertues are dull Morality and their Piety Hypocritical Pretensions or what-ever Worse Ill-will can Invent and Rage can say They will not believe that to be a Jewel which they find among so much supposed Rubbish But let us take Care that we deny not God the Honour of his Gifts and Graces or proudly fancy that he hath given us the Monopoly This is contrary to that Charity which is not puffed up and doth not behave it self unseemly Or if we could modestly suppose that there is nothing but Ignorance and mistake among all those who are not of our Opinion yet however their Vertues ought to be acknowledg'd The Son of God was to be Worshipped even when he lay in the Stable and the Ark to be owned when among the Philistins 'T is a sign that we love God for himself if we Love him every where And indeed that Worth is more to be admired that grows up in an uncultivated Soyl and among the Weeds of Errour and false Principles To find a Rose or Tulip in a Garden is a common thing and merits less of our regard but to meet with them in the High-way or open Fields this ingageth our nearer Notice and recommends the Flowers to our more particular Kindness Thus Vertue though in all men excellent yet 't is no more than is expected to be in Persons of Knowledge and right Judgement But in the Ignorant and Mistaken it thrives under Disadvantages and deserves more to be Cherish'd and Incourag'd And now if 't were possible to bring the divided World to these Ingenuous Acknowledgements men would find their Spirits compos'd and their Animosities qualified They would see they have Friends even in the Tents of their Enemies and this Apprehended and Own'd mutually would be a very hopeful way to endear and reconcile us II. Be much in the Contemplation of the Love of God He that knows how much God hath Loved him hath a mighty Reason to Love his Brother The Apostle urgeth the Argument 1 John 4. 11. If God so Loved us we ought also to Love one another and he that considers cannot choose for he must needs find himself sweetly Ingaged to Love God of whose Love he is sensible and he that loves Him loves all things in him For all things are his and he tenders every thing he hath made The Love of God doth not confine us to his single abstracted Essence but requires our Kindness to all that bear his Image yea and produceth it Seraphick Love will be Catholick It doth not burn like a Lamp in a Sepulchre but 't is like the Stars of Heaven that impart themselves to all things And as the Planets that receive their Light from the Sun do not suck it in and ingross it but disperse and shed it abroad upon the most distant Bodies in like manner a Christian Soul that is warmed and lightned by Divine Love doth not keep it within it self but communicates its benign Influences to all the Objects that are within its reach The Love of God in its proper Nature is diffusive and very opposite to Envy and Animosity It Dispels the Clouds and Allays the Tempests that arise from the Body and its Appetites and composeth the Soul to the Sweetest and most even Temper It Inlarges our Minds and Softens our Affections and Calms our Passions and Smooths the Ruggedness of our Natures It destroys our Pride and Selfishness and so strikes up the Roots of Enmity and Divisions and thus disposeth us to the most Generous and Comprehensive Charity III. Make the great Design of Religion yours and know that the Intent of that is not to fill our heads with Notion or to teach us Systems of Opinion to resolve us a Body of Difficult Points or to Inable us to talk plausibly for lesser Truths But to furnish our minds with incouragements of Virtue and instances of Duty to direct us to govern our Passions and subdue our appetites and self-wills in order to the glory of God the good of Societies and our own present and eternal Interests And if Christians would take this to be their business and conscientiously apply themselves unto it they would find work enough in their own hearts to imploy them and neither have time nor occasion to pry into the Infirmities of others nor inclination to quarrel with them they would see how unwise it is to be seeking and making Enemies when they have so many within themselves and how dangerous to be diverted to a needless and unjust forein War while a deadly domestick Foe is strengthned by it And methinks 't is wonderful and 't is sad that we should be so mild and indulgent to the Enemies that we are bound to engage against by our Duty to God and to our selves by his Laws and our own Reasons by the precepts and examples of his Son our Saviour by his Sacraments and by his Blood by all things in Religion and all things in Interest and at the same time be so eager against those whom we ought to consider as Friends upon the account of our relation to God and the tie of common nature and the obligations of Divine Commands and the interests of Societies and the practice of the best times past and the hopes of a future happiness This is lamentable in it self and yet the more so for being common And it seems to me such a kind of madness as if a man should be picking causless quarrels with his Neighbours about a chip of Wood or a broken Hedge when a Fire in his house is consuming his Goods and Children Such Frenzies and much greater are our mutual enmities and oppositions while we quietly sit down in our unmortified Affections And we should know them to be so did we understand our Danger or our Duty and seriously mind either the one or other We should find then that a Christian hath no such enemies as the Flesh the world and the Devil that these will require all our care and imploy all our strength and diligence and he that knows this and considers and acts suitably will find too much in himself to censure and oppose and too little to admire himself for above other men He will see sufficient reason to incline him to pardon his erring brother and be the more easily induced to exercise charity which himself so many ways needs The last Direction is this IV. Study the moderate pacifick ways and principles and run not in extremes both Truth and Love are in the middle Extremes are dangerous After all the swaggering and confidence of Disputers there will be uncertainty in lesser matters and when we travel in uncertain Roads 't is safest to choose the Middle In this though we should miss a lesser truth which yet is not very likely we shall meet with Charity and our gain will be greater than our loss
our hopes Were not all miscarriages of Government well mended when Government was thrown up by the roots and was not the disease well cured when the Body was destroyed Were we not well freed from evil Counsellors when we made Kings of the worst we had And was not Tyranny well extirpated when we were under an Army of Tyrants But the glorious things are to come and we must be cast into New Models And when the Birds of Prey have divided the Spoil and satisfied the cravings of their appetites and ambition the Nation shall be made happy with New-nothings and golden Mountains with Chimaera's of Common-wealths and fine names for Slavery In the mean while Loyalty must be scourged with the Scorpions that are due to Rebellion And those that feared the damnation of the Apostle shall be sure to incur the damnation of the Reformers and they that would not hazard their Souls must compound for their Estates But when the JUNCTO had run to the length of their Line that is as far as their MASTER would permit them when they were as odious as they deserved and his designs as ripe as he could wish then up steps the single TYRANT kicks them out of their Seats and BEELZEBUB dispossesseth the LEGION He engrosseth the prey to himself and assumes the sole priviledge of compleating our miseries He made himself after the Image of a King and invested his Sword with the authority of Law He ruled us with the Rod of Iron we deserved and made us feel a difference between the silken Reins of a lawful Authority and the heavy yoke of an insolent Usurpation And when Providence had freed us from this Plague and called him to account for his Villanies we fell back into our old disorders we reeled to and fro and staggered like a Drunken man and were at our wits end We knew not this week who would be our Lords the next nor did our Lords themselves know to day by what Laws they would Rule to morrow Confusion was in their Councils as well as Tyranny in their Actions and there was but one thing they seemed to be agreed upon which was to inslave the Nation And if we would not believe that this was Liberty we must be knockt on the head with our chains if the Sheep would not take the Wolves for their Guardians 't was fault enough and good reason why they should be devoured And were not things come at length to a good pass when men in Buff durst proclaim themselves the only Legal Authority of the Nation when our Armed Masters murdered men in the Streets and threatned the ancient Metropolis of the Nation with Gunpowder and Granadoes Fire and Sword must be our portion if we would not be in love with infamous Usurpers and a worse Powder-plot than Faux's was acting in the face of the Sun The strength the riches the beauty yea the almost All of the Nation was designed a Sacrifice to the rage and revenge of our Oppressors and Plunder and Massacres were almost the least evils we feared Thus were we tost up and down from one wave to another and made the sport of the proud and insulting billows till Almighty Goodness setled us again upon our old basis and by a Miracle of Providence restored us our PRINCE and our Government which our sins had deprived us of to re-establish us upon the sure Foundations of Righteousness and Peace These are some sprinklings of that deluge of Woe that we brought upon our selves by resistance which I have briefly described to this purpose that the remembrance of these miseries may beget a sense of our sins and the truth of the particular Proposition I have been discoursing under this Head viz. That Resistance is fatal to Government And though Government may be fixt again upon its Foundations and Laws turned into their ancient Channel after the violence they have suffered yet they lose much of their reverence and strength by such dissettlements And the People that have rebelled once and successfully will be ready to do so often As water that hath been boyled will boyl again the sooner And thus we see how ruinous resistance is to Government and how destructive to that first great Interest of Societies as it is also 2. TO RELIGION which is the other That Rebellion is contrary to the Spirit of Religion we have seen and consequently that 't is destructive of its Being will not need much proof since contraries destroy one another Rebellion lays the Reins on mens necks and takes off the restraints of their appetites it opens the flood-gates of Impiety and le ts loose the brats of extravagant Imagination It destroys the reverence of all things sacred and drives Vertue to Corners It gathers mens lusts into a common storm and fills all things with Chaos and confusion Religion cannot be heard in the noise of a battel but is trampled under-foot in the hurry and tumult Faith and love humility and meekness purity and patience are overcast and silenced by Atheism and Cruelty pride and barbarism lust and revenge Thus Rebellion by breaking up the foundations of the Earth le ts in an Hell upon us and brings a kind of present damnation upon the World And that this is another fatal mischief of Resistance we have felt also by an experience that will keep it in our memories And what execution it hath done upon Religion must be considered next But this is a tender thing and I am willing to keep my self within bounds that are charitable and sober and therefore must premise to what I have to say about it that I charge not the whole Body of the People of the late Times with the guilt of all the Follies and corruptions I describe Nor do I believe or say that the whole Mass of their Religion was so monstrously vitiated and depraved I profess Universal Charity and have perhaps more for the worst of them than they generally will own for any that are not of their own party or opinion And therefore at present I shall say no more than what the sober and intelligent among themselves will acknowledge to be justly chargeable upon some or other of the Sects bred by our late Disorders and this will be enough for my purpose which is only to prove by near and deplorable instances that resistance brings mischiefs upon Religion and not to expose to hatred or contempt the persons of any that are serious in the way of their profession though I judge it never so obnoxious and mistaken And having said this out of a tender charity that none may be wronged by misinterpretation nor any offended that are not concerned I come with freedom to describe some of the injuries our unhappy resistance hath done Religion not withstanding that both Arms and Tongues so highly pretended its defence And indeed men fought for Religion till they had destroyed it and disputed about it till they had lost it Midtiplicity of Opinion had quite confounded the
that native Majesty and splendour in the face of universal mankind That He who made an humble stoop from the Throne to the Manger from the Government of the World to the life of a mean subject should at last be illustriously advanc'd as much above the heights of humane grandeurs as then he was below them 'T is fit that That Holy and Divine Person who was buffeted and affronted condemned and crucified by an abusive and injurious world should righteously judge his Judges That Herod may see that he persecuted not the Infant King of a little Province but the Soveraign of Angels and men And that Pontius Pilate and the Jews may be convinc'd that He whom they called King in scorn is really a greater Emperour than Caesar And that those who were scandal'd at the Cross and a verse to the belief of an humble Saviour may see the shame and confutation of their Infidelity and their Folly in the exaltation of the Holy Jesus above all the possibilities of worldly glory Upon this account 't is reasonable and becoming that the Man Christ Jesus should be the Judge And it is so upon another viz. 2. Because He contracted an alliance with our Natures and experimentally knows and felt the Infirmities of our state If the Supream naked Deity should judge us immediately we should be confunded and astonished at the Mjaesty of his presence his greatness would make us afraid For who can bear that dazzling Glory who can stand before a Throne surrounded with incomprehensible Light and Flame This Glory is therefore allay'd by the interposal of humane nature and this Light wears a veil upon it to encourage our approaches Yea 't is our Brother and our Friend that loved us and dyed for us who is the man ordain'd to be our Judge He hath the same compassion as when he wept over an obstinate City and the same love as when he bled and dyed for a rebellious World He knows the strength of our temptations and the weakness of our natures and will make abatements for them So that the faithful may hearfully appear before his Throne confessing their sins and relying upon his Love He that loved us and was like us is to take our Accounts 'T is our Redeemer is to be our Judge Thus may believing Penitents incourage themselves before him and hold up their heads in that Day of terrours as much reviv'd by the apprehension of his humanity and meekness as the wicked will be dejected by the knowledge of his greatness and power And for this cause also 't is congruous and fit that the Man Christ Jesus should be Judge when mankind is at the Bar. I Come now to the IV. General to be consider'd He will judge the World in Righteousness viz. 1. By a Rule Not by unaccountable humour or arbitrary Will Not by hidden Decrees or secret scrowls of Predestination But by those plain and open Records that are in our Houses and our Hands that are Preached in Publique places and declar'd in a language we understand The Books shall be opened Rev. 20. 12. and the Books the Rules of Righteousness are the Law and the Gospel The one strictly requires perfect obedience the other accepts of sincere Now while our actions are tried by the Law and measured by its Righteousness our straightest Lines are crooked and uneven and our greatest services are very scant and defective The best are like the dust in the Ballance and the rest are lighter than Vanity For as Magnifying Glasses betray roughness and a ragged surface in the best polish'd Marble So this Glass of the Law discovers wrinkles and deformity in the fairest and most even vertue And while mens lives and actions are compared with this Rule all mankind is distrest and a cloud hangs upon the brow of the most religious and most innocent The Law concludes all men under sin and sin under wrath So that by this all the world is cast and were happiness to be had upon no other terms strait would be the Gate indeed and so narrow the way that none would find it And while no other Book than this is opened all the Generations of men fall prostrate before the Throne condemn'd by the Law and by themselves Nothing is to be heard but an universal groan and the suppliant cry of Mercy Mercy Lord When loe the other Book is opened and out of it is read Grace and Peace and multiplyed Pardons to all the followers of the Lamb who have believ'd in the Crucified Jesus and testified that Faith by their Repentance and sincere obedience But shame and darkness and new confusions Death Horrour and everlasting Destruction from the presence of God and of his Christ to all the stubborn rejecters of His Grace who would not have him to Rule over them nor accept of His offer'd Salvation These are the Declarations of this Book and these the measures of that Righteousness whereby we are to be judg'd As the Judge himself hath told us John 12. 48. The words that he spake the same shall Judge us in the last day And God will judge the secrets of men saith St. Paul according to my Gospel Rom. 2. So that believing Penitents that are not perfect according to the Law of Works may plead their sincerity their Faith Repentance and new obedience which is their perfection according to the Law of Pardon And this will be accepted by the Judge with a gracious Air and the sweet reviving voice of Well done ye good and faithful Servants He invites them to Him with the voice of pity and endearment and ravisheth their souls with the pleasant sound of Come ye blessed of my Father Matth. 25. 34. O the Ecstasies that are in that Sentence O the killing harmony of that voice Can a Finite spirit bear such excess The pleasures of Eternity crouded into a moment Did unfaln Angels ever know such another or can there be more transport in ten thousand Hallelujahs Certainly the boundless imagination it self cannot form an Idea of that rapture nor the Tongue of a Cherub express it The summ is The World shall be judg'd in Righteousness viz. according to a Rule and not by meer power and will A Rule not the strict and severe one of the Law but the sweet and gracious one of the Gospel whose Righteousness is Faith and sincere obedience which in the Great Day shall be accepted and gloriously rewarded 2. God will judge the World in Righteousness viz. with impartial equity To evidence this let us consider the Judge in the three great qualifications of his WISDOM JUSTICE and POWER 1. He is Wise and cannot be abused by Witnesses nor mistaken in Law cannot be imposed on by false allegations nor cozened by fair pretensions He intimately understands the Fact and the Cause and cannot be deceived by malice of enemies nor subtilty of excuses 2. He is Just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A pure Mind without interest or affection He cannot be aw'd by
of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his person who did as never man did spake as never man spake even he came unto his own and they received him not they many of them believed not his words nor would they abide his Counsel but gave him occasion to lament their hardness with tears of compassion when he drew near the City he beheld and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace and then grief and tenderness breaks off the sentence they would not know the things belonging to their peace though the Prince of Peace was the Preacher of them and therefore elsewhere he passionately expostulated with them upon the score of the same perverseness O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that were sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thee as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings and ye would not The Son of God himself could not prevail upon a City to which he made his frequent and earnest addresses all he could do by the Methods of his Graces was to bewail their obstinacy resolved impenitency and unbelief But Jonah succeeds on one as wicked and much greater in the very first attempt he makes on it v. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the City a days journey and he cryed and said yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed and the very next words are those of my Text So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a Fast and put on Sack-cloth from the greatest of them to the least of them c. In discoursing of this wonderful change and conversion of the Ninevites I shall 1. Consider their sins and 2. Their Reformation in the two main parts of it Their Faith They believed God Their Repentance exprest by Fasting prayer and turning from evil ways And 3. The universality of both From the greatest of them to the least of them And As I go shall humbly compare their Circumstances with our own and consider what duties are suggested to us by that comparison I begin 1. With their Sins those were great and the cry of them was loud Their wickedness is come up before me Chap. 1. 2. What their sins were in particular we are not told but from the circumstances and the severity of the judgement threatned we may conclude they were very grievous St. Paul tell us that at the times of Ignorance God winked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He over-lookt in comparison he made abatements and had respect to their frailties He considers our Frame our Impotency and Temptations and is not so severe in judging and punishing men under those circumstances of disadvantage According to the same Scheme of Speech our Saviour speaks If I had not done the works that no man ever did they had had no sin viz. theirs had not been so great not such in comparison But now notwithstanding the allowances the divine goodness makes for a state of Ignorance and consequent Infirmity the sins of these Ninevites were such as called for the severest judgements even desolation Destruction Nineveh shall be destroyed What this destruction was in particular whether Fire from Heaven such as destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha or an Inundation of waters such as had over-whelmed divers Cities and Countreys whether an Earth-quake such as swallowed Corah and his company a sudden surprize of Foreign Enemies such as that of the Barbarous Nations among the Romans or of the Europeans on the Americans or else any unexpected violent commotion among themselves by Massacre or Rebellion whether to be extraordinary and miraculous or in a plain and visible course which of these it was whether any of them in particular we are not told only destruction is threatned Things were come to a sad issue with them their sins were full and ripe for vengeance Let us now in the Name and Fear of God humbly compare this with our own case Our sins also are very great great as theirs in their Nature and Quality in their circumstances and aggravations much greater and more heinous Blasphemy Prophane Swearing Perjury Luxury Uncleanness Drunkenness Disobedience Murder Treason Violence Oppression all the deadly sins whatever is contrary to found Religion and true Doctrine Reign Triumph brave the Sun are fashionable almost creditable Fear and Shame all the Restraints are gone men make a mock of sin glory in it are ashamed of nothing But Virtue Sobriety Religion Religion matter of the best highest truest honour despis'd buffoon'd exposed as ridiculous Atheism the greater the less formerly hid its head the Fool of old said only in his heart there is no God but now it appears openly and boldly claims the reputation of wit the only wit and good sense men like not to retain God in their knowledge but dispute his Being Attributes Providence and you are beholding to them if they do not bluntly tell you There is no such thing or do not say at least with those in the Psalmist Tush God seeth not he careth not is there knowledge in the most high Such we are and thus do after Miracles of Mercies and of Judgements after mighty Calamities and equal Deliverances frequent warnings and Importunate Calls to Repentance And now we have not indeed any immediate extraordinary Prophet particularly sent to thunder against us but we have the warning of Moses and all the Prophets of Christ his Apostles and Ministers of all sorts besides all which the Providence of God and the Circumstances of our affairs and all things about us call loudly that we should prepare our selves to meet the Lord coming to reckon with us but alas how shall we do this Strength is weakness Policy is Folly and Infatuation when he is angry his power is not to be resisted Hast thou an Arm like God or canst thou Thunder like him Job His presence is not to be avoided Whither shall I flee from thy Spirit Ps What shall we do then must we sit down in despondency in despair of Mercy is there no Remedy no way Blessed be God there is one the same that was taken by the poor Ninevites who did not summon their armed Forces nor put their wits upon the Rack for Stratagem and Counsel for publick Safety means that may be used and ought in their place No they lookt on the Evil threatned as from the Lord with whom there was no contending against whom there was no contriving and applyed themselves to appease the offended Majesty and they took the right course to do it for They Believed God c. This was 2. Their Reformation the second thing I was to speak of in which I consider First their Faith They believed God his Being Attributes Providence Love of Virtue Hatred of Vice and that the way to appease him when he was angry was by the use of Prayer Fasting and turning from evil ways These they understood without a Prophet and believed before the preaching
Doctrines both Christ and his Apostles continually appealed Here is the firm reasonable Foundation of the Christian certainty The truths we believed are confirmed by Miracles than which there can be no greater evidence But now the Roman Church destroys this ground of certainty by a multitude of lying wonders which they impudently obtrude upon the belief of the people for proof and confirmation of their false and corrupt Religion the immediate consequence of which is a suspicion thereby brought upon the true Miracles and here is way made for Scepticism and uncertainty in the greatest and most Sacred Christian Doctrines And besides the Church of Rome having introduced among these many doubtful uncertain and many certainly false opinions and imposed them upon the faith of its votaries under the same obligations as it doth the most fundamental Articles what can be the consequence but that those who discover the errour or uncertainty of some of those pretended propositions of Faith should doubt all the rest And indeed since the main assurance is placed in the Infallibility of that Church for which there is so no reason and so much plain evidence to the contrary Since themselves cannot tell where that boasted Infallibility is whether in Pope or Council if we should allow them any such it follows that their Faith is precarious and hath no foundation at all In like manner the Sects among us resolve all their assurance either into a bare belief or the testimony of a private Spirit for their ground of crediting the Scriptures is but this Testimony and consequently whatever they receive from hence bottoms here The Papists believe the Scripture on the Testimony of the Church and these believe them on the Testimony of the Spirit that is in earnest the suggestions and resolutions of their own viz. they believe because they will believe and they find themselves inclin'd unto it And upon the same reason when the imagination and humour alters they may cease to believe or believe the contrary And there is not any thing in the world more various and uncertain than the suggestions and impulses of a private Spirit Besides the Sects also have vastly multiplied Articles of Faith and made all their private opinions sacred calling them Gospel truths precious truths saving truths and the like when they are but uncertainties at the best and usually false and sensless imaginations by which way also they expose the whole body of Christian Principles to suspicion and so weaken the Faith of some and destroy the Faith of others But the Church of England secures the certainty of our Faith by resolving it into the Scriptures the true seats of Infallibility and the belief of that into the Testimony of the Spirit in the true sense viz. that Testimony that God gave by his Spirit to Christ and his Apostles in those miraculous works he enabled them to perform They did not only bear witness of themselves that as our Saviour argues with the Jews Luk. 11. 48. would not have signified much The Father bore witness with them John 15. 8. and the works they performed by his power were the sure testimony Believe me for the works sake saith our Saviour Here is the ground of certainty And the Church of England entertains no Articles of Faith but those principles that have been so confirm'd that is none but what are evidently contain'd in the Holy Scriptures Whereas the Roman Church to mention no other have made the absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation sacred though it is not only not contained in Scripture but contrary to the reason and even to the sound senses of mankind And if neither reason nor so much as our senses may be believ'd what assurance can we have of any thing A ground is here laid for everlasting Scepticism and uncertainty And the Sects have laid the same in their numerous silly tenents that are contrary to some of the most fundamental principles of Reason Nothing of which can with any shew be objected against this Church 6. The Faith delivered to the Saints was Catholick 'T was deliver'd to all the Saints entertain'd by all and was not only the opinion and belief of a prevailing Faction or of particular men in Corners The Commission given the Disciples was to go and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel to every creature and accordingly it was widely diffused and all that profest the name of Christ were instructed in his Faith and Religion in all the articles and duties of it that were essential and necessary In these they joyn'd in holy love and communion till Sects came among them that introduced damnable Heresies contrary to the doctrine they had received These divided from the Unity of the pure Catholick Church and separated themselves from it gathering into select companies of their own under pretence of more Truth and Holiness After this manner the Church of Rome which had for some ages been eminent in the Catholick Church did at last corrupt and introduce divers unsound doctrines and usages unknown to the Ancient Catholicks and being great and powerful it assumed the name of the Catholick Church to it self and condemn'd all other Christians as Hereticks when it was it self but a grand Sect against whose depraved doctrines and ways there was a Church in all ages that did protest For the Greek Churches which are of as large extent as theirs never assented to them and divers other Christians in all times bore Testimony against those errours and depravations This Sect was large and numerous indeed but 't is not the number but the principles make the Catholick Principles conformable to those that were deliver'd to the Saints From these they have departed And the lesser Sects among us have done the same by the many vain additions that they have made to the Faith and their unjust Separation from that Church which retains the whole body of Catholick Doctrines and main Practices without the mixture of any thing Heretical or unlawful A Church that doth not damn all the world besides her own members as the Roman Church and divers of the Sects do but extends her Charity to all Christians though many of them are under great mistakes and so is truly Catholick both in her Principles and Affections I mean the Church of England as now established by Law which God preserve in its purity Amen FINIS A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M r. Jos Glanvil Late Rector of BATH and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty Who dyed at his Rectory of Bath the fourth of November 1680. and was Buried there the Ninth of the same Month. By Jos Pleydell Arch-Deacon of Chichester LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and the White Hart in Westminster-Hall 1681. REVEL XIV Ver. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their
would suffer a contradiction and become imperfect And that not only for the future but the present by introducing such passions as must needs debase and allay the highest delights So that by being thus secur'd in the possession of our happiness we receive thereby an unspeakable addition to it II. Proceed we next to shew you the Security and Evidence upon which this happiness is promis'd and asserted and whether it bear any proportion to our duty and the Rewards of it for so we are allow'd to call them though not upon the account of merit yet by reason of their necessary connexion with dependance upon and that kind such a one as 't is of proportion they bear to each other There is a two-fold evidence God Almighty has given us for the strengthning of our hope and confirming of our faith in the belief and expectation of the other World The first moral grounded upon the testimony of the Spirit the other I call natural and is grounded in the things themselves 1. The first evidence of our future bliss is the testimony of the Spirit express in the Text Yea saith the Spirit But then we must have a care of what kind of Testimony of the Spirit we understand it for understand it as 't is vulgarly taken for some act or operation wrought in and upon us besides the Enthusiasm of it fain would I be satisfy'd what validity can there be in such a testimony as it self needs something else to confirm it for so this testimony of the Spirit is to be tryed by its concordance and agreement to the word of God nor do I know any other way to distinguish it from a motion or suggestion of the Devil 's besides And though to err thus in this single instance may not be very pernicious for I am not mighty solicitous how it was wrought so there be a firm perswasion in us of this truth yet in other cases I know how dangerous it is nor is it safe in this for it leaves a passage open and unguarded to down-right Atheism By the testimony of the Spirit therefore I understand the word of God or the Scriptures as made known and prov'd to us to be deriv'd from this Divine Spirit which we may call the outward testimony thereof for though St. John knew this by the other way as most certainly all others did who received any Revelation yet never was any other than the person himself assur'd that way Nor do I make degrees of more or less certainty in the way or manner of the Spirit 's revealing a thing for the Apostles were as well assur'd of the infallibility of their doctrine before they wrought any miracles as we are by them but we were not nor could be so But this notwithstanding in respect of us we must admit of such degrees for no body I hope will be so blasphemous to equal such private dictates they have in their own breast to the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures So then I make this to be the moral evidence of future happiness God hath said it in his word And this I call a moral certainty not in opposition to divine and infallible as they are sometimes contradistinguish'd but only to natural for we can desire no greater evidence we cannot have a higher confirmation of any truth than the veracity of Heaven to attest it I do not know any proposition that carries greater self-evidence than this That God ought to be believ'd in what he says and therefore though we may question the truth of the Revelation 't is impossible to do so of any thing we acknowledge to be so revealed So that the stress of this point lyes upon that great and necessary praecognition in our Religion namely the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures Upon which postulate if we proceed there is as great certainty of the truth of this proposition That good men shall enjoy eternal happiness after this life as if we should again hear that Daughter of voice and God himself should sensibly attest it 2. But there is another ground or evidence of our future happiness which I call natural because it depends upon that Intrinsick Relation and consent there is between goodness and it the difference between them being only in degree like the dawning of the Morning to the lustre of the Noon For what is it to be happy but to be united to God and what does unite us to God but Love and what is the love of God but Religion And if you remove but all inward imperfections and all outward impediments there remains no difference at all So that Virtue and Piety do not only dispose and prepare us for Heaven and Salvation but we thereby receive and experience the very beginnings and anticipations of it And though in respect of the mutability of our will and affections toward God and goodness in this world we cannot be infallibly assur'd of it as to our own particulars because every alteration in the one produceth a like answerable effect as to the other Yet in the general we may even from hence be very well assur'd hereof because there is nothing more requir'd to the compleating of our essential happiness than an advance and progression in the same vertuous tract And however it looks in a Divine if we will speak rationally to the thing we must allow the love and hatred of God to be the true natural causes of our salvation and damnation even of their very eternity it being naturally impossible to be other than happy while we love God and contrariwise if we hate him and this is the only instant cause of its continuation through all the durations of Eternity And to remove your astonishment see how in this lower world many stupendous and admirable works are daily produc'd which were mean and unnoted while they lay hid and contain'd in the seminal beginnings after the same wonderful manner by divers minute gradations does this divine Creature grow up from its first formation in our trembling and unstable desires to the stature and perfection of Everlasting Glory And yet there remains less doubt if we take in the Consideration of the Divine nature How else will you vindicate the Justice of God in all the odd and confused occurrences of this World Where 's your infinite goodness and bounty that suffers its servants always to be neglected what will become of an almighty and omniscient Justice if sinners are never call'd to an accompt Or one or t'other cannot be III. 'T is true indeed the compleating of this bliss which brings us to our next head is neither promis'd nor to be had in this life 'T is at Death these rewards become due and payable Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera possit It has been the constant method of Divine providence to cause the most excellent things to follow and arise from the most uncouth and unlikely Thus in the Creation order springs from confusion and