but a mean Employment to spend our time in spinning fine Nets for the catching of Flies Besides this Divine Life if it once took place in us would strangely dilate and enlarge our hearts in Charity towards our Brethren it would make us open our arms wide to the whole Creation it would perfectly work out of us all that Peevishness and Sowrness and Penuriousness of Spirit which we do too often contract by being addicted to a Sect and would make us Sweet and Benign and Obliging and ready to receive and embrace all Conditions of Men. In a Word It would quite swallow up all Distinctions of Parties and whatever did but bear upon it the Image of God and the Superscription of the Holy Jesus would need no other Commendatories to our Affection but would upon that alone account be infinitely dear and precious to us Let us all therefore earnestly contend after this Divine Principle of Holiness let us bring down Religion from our Heads to our Hearts from Speculation to Practice Let us make it our business heartily to love God and do his Will and then we may hope to see Peace in our days This this is that that will restore to the World the Golden Age of Primitive Christianity when the Love and Vnity of the Disciples of Jesus was so conspicuous and remarkable that it became into a Proverb See how the Christians love one another This this is that that will bring in the Accomplishment of all those glorious Promises of Peace and Tranquility that Christ hath made to his Church Then shall the Wolf dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid Then shall not Ephraim envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim but we shall turn our Swords into Plough-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks and there will be no more consuming or devouring in all God's Holy Mountain I should now proceed to the Second general Point in my proposed Method of handling this Text viz. To set before you the very great Engagements and Obligations we have upon us to follow after the Things that make for Peace and that 1. From the Nature and Contrivance of our Religion 2. From the great Weight the Scripture lays upon this Duty 3. From the great Vnreasonableness of our Religious Differences 4. From the very evil Consequences that attend them As 1. In that they are great Hindrances of a good Life 2. They are very pernicious to the Civil Peace of the State 3. They are highly opprobrious to Christianity in general And 4. and Lastly Very dangerous to the Protestant Religion as giving too many advantages and too much encouragement to the Factors of the Papacy But I have I fear already exceeded the Limits of a Sermon and therefore shall add no more God open our Eyes that we may in this our day understand the Things that belong to Peace before they be hid from our Eyes SERMON II. PREACHED AT BOW-CHURCH On the 30th of January 1675. 1 Tim. iv 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come THese words are the enforcement of an Exhortation which St. Paul had made to Timothy in the Verse beforegoing which was that he should Avoid prophane and Old-wives Fables meaning those impious and superstitious Doctrines and the carnal and unchristian Observances that were grounded upon them some of which he had mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter which some at that time did endeavour to introduce into Christianity and instead of applying his mind to these that he should rather Exercise himself unto true Godliness This was the Exhortation The Arguments wherewith he enforceth it are Two First The Unprofitableness of these Carnal and Superstitious Doctrines and Practices Bodily exercise saith he profiteth little Secondly The real usefulness of solid Vertue and Godliness to all the Purposes of life Godliness is profitable to all things having a promise of this Life as well as of that which is to come I shall not here meddle at all with the former part of the Apostle's Exhortation or the Argument that hath relation to it but shall apply my self wholly to the latter craving leave most plainly and affectionately to press upon you the Exercise of Godliness upon those Grounds and Considerations on which the Apostle here recommendeth it Indeed to a Man that considers well it will appear the most unaccountable thing in the World that among all those several Exercises that Mankind busie themselves about this of Godliness should be in so great a measure neglected that Men should be so diligent so industrious so unwearied some in getting Estates others in purveying for Pleasures others in learning Arts and Trades All in some thing or other relating to this sensible World and so few should study to acquaint themselves with God and the Concernments of their Souls to learn the Arts of Vertue and Religious Conversation Certain it is this Piece of Skill is not more above our reach than many of those other things we so industriously pursue nay I am apt to think it is more within our power than most of them For in our other Labours we cannot always promise to our selves certain success A thousand things may intervene which we know not of that may defeat all our plots and designs though never so carefully laid but no Man ever seriously undertook the Business of Religion but he accomplished it Nay farther As we can with greater certainty so can we with less pains and difficulty promise to our selves success in this affair than we can hope to compass most of our worldly designs which so much take up our thoughts I doubt not in the least but that less labour less trouble less solicitude will serve to make a Man a good Christian than to get an Estate or to attain a competent skill in Humane Arts and Sciences And then for other Motives to oblige us to the study of Religion we have incomparably more and greater than we can have for the pursuit of any other thing It is certainly the greatest Concernment we have in the World It is the very thing God sent us into the World about It is the very thing that his Son came down from Heaven to instruct us in It is the very thing by which we shall be concluded everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable after this life is ended These things well considered we may justly I say stand amazed that Men should be so prodigiously supine and negligent in an Affair of this nature and importance as we see they generally are If there can any account be given of this matter I suppose it must be some such as this That the things of this World upon which we bestow our Care our Time our Courtship are present to us We see them every day before our Eyes we taste we feel the sweetness of them we are sensible that their enjoyment is absolutely necessary to our present well-being But as
day render for so doing Thirdly Mens Religion and Christianity are also deeply concerned in this point Works of Charity are so essential to all Religion and more especially to that which we call Christian that without them it is but an empty name in whosoever professes it Let Men pretend what they will let them be never so Orthodox in their belief or regular in their conversation or strict in the performance of those Duties that relate to the worship of God yet if they be hard hearted and uncharitable if God hath given them Wealth and they have not Hearts to do good with it they have no true piety towards God They may have a name to live but they are really dead An unmerciful Christian or a Religious covetous Man are terms that imply a contradiction For the satisfying you of this I shall but need to put these following questions Can that Man be accounted Religious that neither loves God nor his Neighbour Sure he cannot for these two things are the whole of Religion as the Holy Scripture often assures us but now the Covetous Man neither doth the one nor the other His Neighbours he doth not love that is certain for if he did they would find some fruits of it unless this be to be accounted Love James 2.14 c. to give them good words to say to a Brother or a Sister that is naked and destitute of daily food depart in peace be ye warmed and filled when notwithstanding they give them not those things that be needful for the Body But this kind of Love S. James hath long ago declared not to be worth any thing And as for the Love of God another Apostle hath put it out of doubt that the uncharitable Man hath no such thing in him 1 John 3.17 Whoso saith S. John hath this World's good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him cap. 4.20 For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Can he be thought a Religious Man or a true Christian that wants the two main qualifications that go to the making up a Disciple of Christ that is to say Faith and Repentance yet this doth he that is rich in this World but is not rich in good works Good works are the very soul of Faith and it is no more alive without them than the Body is without the Spirit as S. James has expresly told us Jam. 2.26 If we mean that our Faith should avail us any thing it must work or be made perfect by Charity Gal. 5.6 saith S. Paul for though a Man have all faith so that he could remove mountains i. e. though he be so heartily persuaded of the truth of Christ's Religion as in the strength of his belief to be able to work Miracles as was usual in the first times of Christianity yet if he have not charity his Faith is nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 If it be said that the Charity that S. Paul makes so necessary to effectual Faith is not giving Alms but quite another thing for according to him a Man may give all his goods to feed the poor and yet want the Charity that he speaks of I answer it is true a Man may give Alms and very largely and yet want that Charity that S. Paul here so much recommends but then on the other side none can have that Charity that he speaks of but they will certainly express it in Alms and Bounty as they have ability and opportunity So that for all this suggestion Alms and Bounty are absolutely necessary to the Efficacy of Faith if there be opportunity of doing them The plain account of this matter is this S. Paul speaks of Charity with respect to its inward principle in the heart which consists in an universal kindness and good-will to the whole Creation of God and we speak of it with respect to the outward fruits of it in the Life and Conversation which are all sorts of good works especially works of Mercy and Bounty But both these come to the same thing as to our purpose for the one always follows the other whereever there is Charity in the heart it must of necessity shew it self in these kind of actions as there is occasion otherwise the Charity is not true but only pretended for as S. John hath told us He that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth must love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in work and in deed And then as for Repentance Charity and Alms-giving is a necessary ingredient into that also Luke 3.10 11. When S. John Baptist came preaching Repentance unto Israel the people asked him saying what shall we do meaning in what manner they should express their Repentance his answer was this He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do so likewise and suitable to this was the Prophet's advice to the King of Babylon when he exhorteth him to Repentance Dan. 4.27 break off thy sins saith he by righteousness and thy iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor that is evidence thy Repentance by thy Alms-giving and Charity Furthermore can he be either a good Man or a good Christian that lives in the habitual neglect of that which of all other Vertues God in Scripture seems to set the greatest value upon and contrariwise practiseth that which God hath most particularly declared his hatred and aversion to Yet thus doth he that is not charitable with what he hath So highly acceptable to God are works of Mercy and Charity that they are declared to be the sacrifices with which he is well pleased Heb 13.8 the things in which he doth delight Jerem. 9.24 and blessed and happy are they pronounced that do them Pro. 22.9 cap. 14.21 for hereby Men become the children of God Luke 6.35 and entitled to his more especial care and protection Ps 41.1 c. nay so dear do they render a Man to his Maker that the wise Son of Sirach scrupled not to recommend the practice of them in these terms Be thou saith he a Father to the Fatherless Ecclus. 4.10 and instead of a Husband unto their Mother so shalt thou be as the Son of the Most High and he shall love thee more than thy own Mother doth On the other side if we will believe the Scripture there is nothing more odious to God than the contrary qualities and practises The love of money which is the foundation of all uncharitableness 1 Tim. 6.10 is in Scripture called the root of all evil as certainly the greatest evils and mischeifs in the World do often take their beginning from thence Those that are covetous are styled by the name of Idolaters Eph. 5.5 than which no more hateful appellation can be given to a Man in the Sacred Language It is said
just to the same effect and with them I shall conclude The first is that of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews where having spoken most severe things and denounced no less than Hell fire against the false Brethren among them yet thus he comforts the Church to whom he writes Heb. 6.9 But beloved saith he we are persuaded better things of you and things that do accompany Salvation though we thus speak And what I pray is the reason he is thus persuaded Verily this ver 11. for God saith he is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed to his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and yet do minister It was purely their Charity to the Brethren that made him have these good hopes of them that they were in a state of Salvation Though that Church as to other things was in a very degenerate condition yet considering they had been laborious and diligent in the exercise of Charity and still continued so to be God would not forget them nay he was not so unrighteous as to forget them And then that which follows in the next verse is very observable verse 11. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to wit in the practice of Charity to the full assurance of hope unto the end If they would have their hopes of a future life assured to them the way to do it was to persevere in their diligent attendence to works of Mercy and Kindness and Charity The second passage is that of St. John Hereby saith he perceive we the love of God towards us 1 John 3. 16. c. because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren But whoso hath this World's good and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him My little Children let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him I pray mind that by our charitable disposition and doing good to our Brethren by this we know we are true Disciples of Jesus Christ and this is that that will assure our hearts will give us confidence to appear before God at the last day when he comes to judge the World And this is a point that the Apostle thinks so considerable that he goes over with it again in the next verse Beloved if our hearts condemn us not i. e. condemn us not as to this point of Love and Charity then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight The last Text to this purpose that I defire may be taken notice of is that of St. Peter Above all things my Brethren 1 Pet. 4.8 have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins O how comfortable are these words there is none of us even the best but hath a multitude of sins to answer for by what means now must we obtain that these sins shall be covered that is shall be forgiven Psal 33.1 for covering of sins is the forgiveness of them in the Scripture-language Why the Apostle hath directed us to the method above all things put on Charity for it is Charity that shall cover the multitude of sins Charity is of that power with God that it alone is able to overcome the malignity of many of our sins and frailties that would otherwise do us mischief If any thing can make atonement for the carelesness and the many failings of our lives and prevent the punishment that is due to them it is to be very charitable and to do much good Charity covers a multitude of sins in this life A great many temporal judgments that would otherwise have fallen upon us for our sins are hereby prevented and that not only private ones but publick too And I think it no Popery to affirm that Charity will cover a multitude of sins in the other life also That is whoever is of a truly charitable disposition and doth a great deal of good in his generation though he may have a great many infirmities and miscarriages to answer for yet if he be sincerely vertuous in the main and so capable of the rewards of the other world his other failings will be overlooked they will be buried in his good deeds and the Man shall be rewarded notwithstanding Or if he be a vitious person and so must of necessity fall short of the glory that shall be revealed yet still in proportion the good he hath done in his life will cover the multitude of sins Though it will not be available for the making him happy because he is not capable of being so yet it will be for the lessening his punishment He shall be in a much more supportable condition among the miserable than those that have been unmerciful or cruel or uncharitable in their lives O therefore what remains but that considering all these things we should be stedfast 1 Cor. 25.18 unmoveable always abounding in these works of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 2 Pet. 1.5 c. Giving all diligence to add to Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity verse 1â— By our good works making our calling and election sure so some Copies have the 10th verse of 1 Pet. 1. that doing these things we may never fall but an entrance may be ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ SERMON V. PREACHED AT BOW-CHURCH On the 29th of September 1680. Psalm cxij. 4. To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness GOdliness saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 4.8 hath the promise of this life as well as of that which is to come Of this Proposition of his the Psalm we have now before us may seem to be an Explication or Paraphrase For in this Psalm Two things are designed a description of the Pious Man and a description of his Blessedness in this Life each of which is done in five instances or particulars The terms wherein the Pious Man is here discrib'd are these following First He is one that Feareth God and greatly delighteth in his Commandments v. 1. Secondly He is one that is Righteous and Vpright in his Conversation ver 4. and 6. Thirdly He is one that is Prudent and Discreet in the managing of his Affairs verse 5. He guideth his affairs with discretion Fourthly He it one whose Heart is fixed trusting in the Lord v. 7. Lastly He is one that is extreamly Charitable He is gracious and full of Compassion
be healed and that an End being put to our unaccountable Separations and the Unchristian Animosities they are the Occasion of we shall all join together in one Communion and with one mind and one mouth glorifie God as the Apostle expresses it God only knows But sure I am it is the Duty of every one of us heartily to Pray for it and not only so but in our Place and Station to contribute all we can towards it It was this Consideration that put me upon the Choice of these Words of St. Paul for my Argument at this time Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace In treating of which I shall endeavour Two things First To Explain the Duty here recommended by reducing it to its Particular Rules and Instances Secondly To set before you the great Obligations that lie upon us to the Practice of it As to the first of these things viz. what is contained or implied in this Duty of Following after the things that make for Peace you may be pleased to take notice That this Duty hath a twofold Object according to the two different Relations and Capacities in which we are to be considered namely the Church our Common Mother and Particular Christians our Brethren In the first Relation we are considered as Subjects in the other as Fellow Christians Now with respect to the former the Peace we are to pursue implies Obedience and the Preservation of Communion in opposition to Schism and Separation With respect to the latter it implies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Quarrels and Contentions So that you see my Business upon this first Head must be to shew what are the Particulars of our Duty or what are the Things that make for Peace in both these Respects I begin with what is due from us to the Church in order to Peace as Peace stands in Contradistinction to Schism And this Point I shall beg leave to discuss very plainly and particularly because I fear many of us have wrong Notions about it And yet it is a matter of such Consequence that the right understanding of it would go a great way to the Cure of the sad Divisions that are among us What I have to say upon this Point I shall comprize in the four following Propositions taking my Rise from the first Principle of Church-Society The first Proposition I lay down is this That every Christian is by vertue of his Christianity a Member of the Church of Christ and is bound to join in External Communion with it where it can be had For the clearing of this let it be taken notice of That the Method which our Saviour set on foot for our Salvation doth not so much consider us as single Persons as joined together in one common Society It was his Design to gather to Himself a Church out of Mankind to erect and form a Body Politick of which Himself should be the Head and Particular Christians the Members and in this Method through Obedience to his Laws and Government to bring Men to Salvation This is variously set forth to us in the New Testament Joh. 15.1 Sometimes Christ and Christians are represented under the Notion of a Vine of which He is the Root and They are the Branches 1 Cor. 12. Sometimes under the Notion of a Natural Body of which Christ is the Head and all Believers the Members And accordingly what ever Christ is said to have done or suffered for Mankind he is said to have done or suffered for them not as Scattered Individuals but as Incorporated into a Church Eph. 5.25 Thus Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it Acts 20.28 Christ redeemed the Church with his own Blood Christ is the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5.23 that is to say the Church with many passages of the like Importance The plain Consequence from hence is that every Person so far as he is a Christian so far he is a Member of the Church And agreeably hereto it is very plain that Baptism which is by all acknowledged to be the Rite of Initiating us into Christianity is in Scripture declared to be the Rite whereby we are entred and admitted into the Church 1 Cor. 12.13 Thus St. Paul expresly tells us that by one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body Now then it being thus evident that every Christian as a Christian is a Member of that Body of Christ which we call the Church there will be little need of taking pains to prove that every such person is obliged to joyn in External Communion with the Church where he can do so for the very nature of this Church-membership doth imply it Without this neither the Ends of Church-Society nor the Benefits accruing to us there from can be attained First not the Ends of it The Ends of Church-Society are the more Solemn Worship of God and the publick Profession of our Religion and the mutual Edification one of another Now how these can be in any measure attained without associating together in publick Assemblies and mutual Offices and other Acts of External Communion with one another cannot any ways be imagined And as little in the Second place can it be conceived how without this we can be made partakers of the Benefits and Privileges that Christ hath made over to the Members of his Church For we are to consider that God hath so ordered the matter and without doubt for this very reason to unite us the more firmly in Society that the Privileges of the Gospel such as Pardon of Sin and the Grace of the Holy Spirit are not ordinarily conveyed to us so immediately by God but that there must intervene the Ministery of Men. God's holy Word and Sacraments are the Channels in which they are derived to us and those to whom he hath committed the Ministery of Reconciliation and the Power of the Keys are the Hands that must dispense them We have no promise of Spiritual Graces but by these means so that in order to the partaking of them there is an absolute necessity laid upon us of joyning and communicating with the Church It is true indeed God doth not so tie himself up to these means but that he can and will in some cases confer the Benefits of them without them as in case of a General Apostasie of the Church or of Persecution for Religion or of an unjust Excommunication or any other case where Communion with a true visible Church is denied to us But though God doth act extraordinarily in extraordinary cases where these means cannot be had yet this doth not at all diminish much less take away the necessity of making use of them when they can be had From what hath been discoursed on this first Proposition we may by the way gather these two things I only name them 1. How untrue their Position is that maintain that all our Obligation to Church-Communion doth arise from a voluntary admission
his Enjoyments So that however the varieties of his Condition may occasion a change in his Pleasures yet can they never cause any Loss or Destruction of them And this security he enjoys not as some of the Stoicks of old pretended to do by an Imaginary Insensibility or by changing the names of Things calling that no Evil which Really is one but by an absolute Resignation of himself to the Will of God and an Hearty acquiescing in his wise Providence He is certain there is a God that governs the World and that nothing happens to him but by his Order and Appointment And he is certain also that this God hath a real Kindness for him and would not dispense any Event unto him but what is really for his Good and Advantage And these thoughts so support his Spirit that he not only bears patiently but thanks God for whatever happens to him And instead of Fretting and Complaining that things succeed otherwise than he expected he resolves with himself that that Condition whatever it be in which he actually is is indeed best for him and that which he himself were he to be the Carver of his Fortunes supposing him but truly to understand his own Concernments would chuse for himself above all others But farther besides this security from Outward Disturbances which our Vertue obtains for us there is another Evil which it also delivers us from with which the wicked Man is almost perpetually haunted and which seldom suffers him to enjoy any sincere unmingled Pleasure That which I mean is the Pangs of an Evil Conscience the Fears the Restlesness the Confusion the Amazements that arise in his Soul from the sense of his Crimes and the just Apprehensions of the Shame and Vengeance that doth await them possibly in this Life but most certainly in the Life to come How Happy how Prosperous soever the Sinner be as to his other Affairs yet these Furies he shall be sure to be plagued with no pompousness of Condition no costly Entertainments no noise of Company will be able to drive them away Every Man that is wicked cannot but know that he is so and that very Knowledge is a Principle of perpetual Anguish and Disquietude Be his Crimes never so secret yet he cannot be confident they will always continue so and the very Apprehension of this makes him feel all the Shame and Amazement of a present Discovery But put the case he hath had the good luck to sin so closely or in such a nature that he need fear nothing from Men yet he knows there is an Offended God to whom he hath a sad and a fearful Reckoning to make a God too Just to be Bribed too Mighty to be Over-awed too Wise to be Imposed upon And is not the Man think you under such Reflections as these likely to live a very Comfortable life Ah none knows the Bitterness of them but himself that feels them To the Judgment of others he perhaps appears a very happy Man he hath the World at his beck all things seem to conspire to make him a great Example of Prosperity we admire we appland his Condition But ah we know not how sad a heart he often carries under this fair Out-side we know not with what sudden Damps his Spirit is often struck even in the heighth of his Revellings We know not how unquiet how broken his sleeps are how oft he starts and looks pale when the Wife that lies by his side understands not what the matter is with him He doth indeed endeavour all he can to stifle his Cares and to stop the mouth of his Conscience He thinks to divert it with Business or to flatter it with little Sophistries or to drown it with Rivers of Wine or to calm it with soft and gentle Airs And he is indeed sometimes so successful in these Arts as for a while to lay it asleep But alas this is no lasting Peace the least thing awakens it even the sound of a Passing-Bell or a clap of Thunder nay a Frightful Dream or a Melancholy Story hath the power to do it and then the poor Man returns to his Torment And now judge you whether the Honest and Vertuous Man that is free from all these Agonies that is at Peace with God and at Peace with his own Conscience that apprehends nothing terrible from the one nor feels any thing troublesome from the other but is safe from Himself and from all the world in his own Innocence Judge I say whether such a one hath not laid to himself better and surer Foundations for Pleasures and a happy Life than the Man that by indulging his Lusts and Vices only breeds up a Snake in his Bosom which will not cease to Sting and Gall him beyond what a Tongue is able to express or a witty Cruelty to invent Fourthly and lastly Besides the benefits of Religion for removing the hinderances of our Pleasures it also adds to Humane Life a world of Pleasures of its own which vicious men are utterly unacquainted with And these are of so excellent a kind so delicious so enravishing that the highest gratifications of sense are not comparable to them Never till we come to be heartily Religious do we understand what true Pleasure is That which ariseth from the grateful motions that are made in our outward senses is but a faint shadow a mere dream of it Then do we begin to enjoy true Pleasures indeed when our Highest and Divinest Faculties which were wholly laid asleep while we lived the Life of Sense begin to be awakened and to exercise themselves upon their proper objects when we become acquainted with God and the Infinite Abyss of Good that is in him when our hearts are made sensible of the great Love and Good-will he bears us and in that Sense are powerfully carried out in Joy and Love and Desire after him When we feel the Divine Nature daily more and more displayed in our Souls shewing forth it self in the blessed Fruits of Charity and Peaceableness and Meekness and Humility and Purity and Devotion and all the other Graces of the Holy Spirit It is not possible but that such a Life as this must needs be a Fountain of inexpressible Joy to him that leads it and fill the Soul with transcendently greater Content than any thing upon Earth can possibly do For this is the Life of God this is the Life of the Blessed Angels above this is the Life that is most of all agreeable to our own Natures While we live thus things are with us as they should be our Souls are in their natural Posture in that state they were framed and designed to live in whereas the Life of Sin is a state of Disorder and Confusion a perpetual violence and force upon our Natures While we live thus we enjoy the Pleasures of Men whereas before when we were governed by Sense we could pretend to no other satisfactions but what the Brutes have as well as we In
this state of Life we gratifie our Highest and Noblest Powers the intellectual Appetites of our Souls which as they are infinitely capacious so have they an infinite good to fill them whereas in the sensual Life the meanest the dullest and the most contracted Faculties of our Souls were only provided for But what need I carry you out into these Speculations when your own sense and experience will ascertain you in this matter above a thousand Arguments Do but seriously set your selves to serve God if you have yet never done it do but once try what it is to live up to the Precepts of Reason and Veriue and Religion and I dare confidently pronounce that you will in one mouth find more Joy more Peace more Content to arise in your spirits from the sense that you have resisted the Temptations of Evil and done what was your duty to do than in many years spent in Vanity and a Licentious course of living I doubt not in the least but that after you have once seen and tasted how gracious the Lord is how good all his ways are but you will proclaim to all the World that One day spent in his Courts is better than a thousand Nay you will be ready to cry out with the Roman Orator if it be lawful to quote the Testimony of a Heathen after that of the Divine Psalmist that One day lived according to the Precepts of Vertue is to be preferred before an Immortality of Sin You will then alter all your sentiments of things and wonder that you should have been so strangely abused by false representations of Vertue and Vice You will then see that Religion is quite another thing than it appeared to you before you became acquainted with it Instead of that grim sowre unpleasant Countenance in which you heretofore painted her to your self you will then discover nothing in her but what is infinitely Lovely and Charming Those very Actions of Religion which you now cannot think upon with Patience they seem so harsh and unpleasant you will then find to be accompanied with a wonderful Delight You will not then complain of the narrowness of the Bounds or the scantiness of the Measures that it hath confined your desires to for you will then find that you have hereby gained an entrance into a far greater and more perfect Liberty How ungentilely how much against the grain of Nature soever it now looks to forgive an Injury or an Affront you will then find it to be as far more easie so far more sweet than to revenge one You will no longer think works of Charity burdensome or expensive or that to do good Offices to every one is an employment too mean for you for you will then experience that there is no sensuality like that of doing Good and that it is a greater pleasure to do a kindness than to riceive one How will you chide your self for having been so averse to Prayer and other devout Exercises accounting them as tiresome unsavoury things when you begin to feel the delicious Relishes they leave upon your Spirit You will then confess that no Conversation is half so agreeable as that which we enjoy with God Almighty in Prayer no Cordial so reviving as heartily to pour out our Souls unto him And then to be affected with his Mercies to praise and give thanks to him for his Benefits what is it but a very Heaven upon Earth an anticipation of the Joys of Eternity Nay you will not be without your pleasures even in the very entrance of Religion then when you exercise acts of Repentance when you mourn and afflict your self for your sins which seems the frightfullest thing in all Religion For such is the nature of that holy sorrow that you would not for all the World be without it and you will find far greater Contentment and Satisfaction in grieving for your Offences than ever you did receive from the Committing them But O the ineffable Pleasures that do continually spring up in the heart of a good Man from the snse of God's Love and the hope of his Favour and the fair prospect he hath of the Joy and Happiness of the other World How pleasing how transporting will the thought of these things be to you To think that you are one of those happy Souls that are of an Enemy become the Friend of God that your ways please him and that you are not only Pardoned but Accepted and Beloved by him to think that you a poor Creature who were of your self nothing and by your sins had made your self far worse than nothing are yet by the goodness of your Saviour become so considerable a Being as to be able to give delight to the King of the World and to cause joy in Heaven among the Blessed Angels by your Repentance to think that God charges his Providence with you takes care of all your Concerns hears all your Prayers provides all things needful for you and that he will in his good time take you up unto himself to live everlastingly in his Presence to be partaker of his Glories to be ravished with his Love to be acquainted with his Counsels to know and be known by Angels Archangels and Seraphims to enjoy a Conversation with Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and all the Raised and Glorified Spirits of Brave Men and with all these to spend a happy and a rapturous Eternity in Adoring in Loving in Praising God for the Infiniteness of his Wisdom and the Miracles of his Mercy and Goodness to all his Creatures Can there be any Pleasure like this Can any thing in the World put you into such an Ecstasie of Joy as the very thought of these things With what a mighty scorn and contempt will you in the sense of them look down upon all the little Gauderies and sickly Satisfactions that the Men of this World keep such a stir about How empty and evanid how flat and unsavoury will the best Pleasures on Earth appear to you in comparison of these Divine Contentments You will perpetually rejoyce you will sing Praises to your Saviour you will bless they day that ever you became acquainted with him you will confess him to be the only master of Pleasure in the World and that you never knew what it was to be an Epicure indeed till you became a Christian Thus have I gone through all those Heads which I at first proposed to insist on What now remains but that I resume the Apostle's Exhortation with which I began this Discourse that since as you have seen Godliness is so exceedingly profitable to all the purposes of this Life as well as the other since as you have seen Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour and all her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace you would also be persuaded seriously to Apply your selves to the exercise of it Which that you may do God of his c. SERMON
the beginning to the end thereof So that now every one hath free Access to God and a Right to his Favour through the Blood of Jesus Christ And though we have been never so bad never so unworthy yet if we have but the Hearts to forsake our Sins and come to Jesus Christ we shall as certainly obtain the Acceptance and the Love of our Heavenly Father as if we had been Innocent and never sinned at all Nay God is not only willing to receive us but he earnestly begs and sollicits us to take his Mercy And so pleased he is at the Return of a Sinner that our Saviour has told us there is joy in Heaven over such a one Nay more joy among the Angels over a sinner that repenteth than over ninety nine just persons that need no Repentance O how welcome ought this News to be to us How transported should we be at the infinite Kindness of God manifested to us by our Saviour O! praised be God for his astonishing Love For ever adored be our Lord Jesus that has made a Propitiation for us by his Blood O let us for ever kiss and hug the pretious unvaluable Scriptures of the New Testament if there was nothing else in them but that faithful Saying that Saying worthy of all Men to be received That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners to save you and me and all Sinners even the greatest of Sinners O! who is there that is in his Wits would chuse to be out of the Christian Dispensation or be left to the Methods of Nature and Philosophy for the attaining their Happiness as some loose People among us do sometimes talk Were the natural Talents of Mankind exalted far above what they either are or ever have been yet I would value that one Saying That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners more than all the Notions and Speculations of Reason and Philosophy I would desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified I would with the Apostle count all things as loss nay as Dung in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Saviour and that I may be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is by Nature but that Righteousness which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ who gave himself for me And thus much of Christ's appearing to put away Sin in the first Notion of that Expression But Secondly Christ appeared to put away Sin in another sense That is to say To destroy the Power and Dominion of it from among Men to abolish it so as that it should not henceforth reign in our mortal Bodies To free us from Sin as the Apostle speaks that is to enable us to lead holy and virtuous Lives So that whereas Mankind heretofore yielded their Members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so they should now yield their Members Servants to righteousness unto holiness Thus to put away Sin was as principal an End of Christ's coming as the other before mentioned nay perhaps more principal For the other in true reasoning may be said to be wholly in order to this Certain it is unless this End be attained the other will signifie nothing to us For we are not capable of any Benefit from that Remission of Sin which was purchased for us by Christ until our Sins be put away by Repentance and and we become holy Persons by the change and renewal of our Natures Never therefore let us deceive our selves Though Christ hath actually put away all the Sins of the World in the former sense by his satisfaction that is to say hath procured the Pardon of them hath taken away the Sting of them so as that they shall not be deadly to any Yet all this is upon supposition that the Strength of them be taken away in us that they have no Dominion over us that we mortifie them in all our Members that we daily die to them and live a Life of Righteousness All that Christ merited or purchased for the World will not do us the least good unless we be made conformable to him in his Death and Resurrection by our dying to Sin and living to Righteousness And in truth if we will mind it the putting away Sin in this sense of it hath as great weight laid upon it in Scripture and is as often assigned for the great End and Business of Christ's appearance as the other St. John tells us plainly that for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil And St. Paul likewise tells us that he therefore gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And lastly St. Peter gives the same account of his coming Acts 3.26 where he tells us that therefore God raised up his Son Jesus that is sent him into the World for his raising up there spoken of as any one will see that looks into the Context was not his being raised from the dead but his being manifested to Mankind For here the Apostle's business is to apply that Promise or Prophesie of Moses unto our Saviour viz. That God would in due time raise up to his People a Prophet like unto him whom they should all be obliged to hearken to I say therefore God raised up his Son Jesus i. e. sent him into the World that he might bless his People in turning every one of them from their Iniquities This turning every one from their Iniquities was the great End for which our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested unto Mankind And indeed Reason will teach us all this as well as Revelation For in the nature of the thing none can be truly Happy but those that are truly Pious And in the same degree and proportion that any one is wicked or is under the power of his Lusts in the same degree he must needs be miserable So that if Christ came to be our Saviour and in that meant either to make us happy or to keep us from being miserable there was an absolute necessity that his first and principal Design must be to root out of our Nature all Sin and Wickedness and to restore the Image of God in our Minds which consists in unchangeable Purity and Holiness and Goodness Away therefore with all those Hypotheses that give such an account of Christ's coming into the World as to make the ultimate End of it to be the freeing us from Hell and Damnation and purchasing Heaven and Eternal Life for us but without any respect had to the renewing our Natures or the making us sincerely Holy and Virtuous All such accounts of Christ's Undertaking are monstrously unreasonable and absurd For not to insist upon the manifest Affront they put upon God's Justice and Holiness in making Him the great Patron of Sin whilst they assert Him to be the Justifier of wicked Men even whilst they continue wicked
Living and for the Dead And none among them dare deny this under pain of an Anathema as the Council of Trent hath ordered the matter Good God! whither will Interest and Faction and Zeal for a Party transport Men But it is not my business to expose them but to put you in mind of what concerns our selves namely as I said that when we come to the Lord's Table we do not approach thither with a belief that our Lord Jesus is there again offered but only with a design to commemorate his Sacrifice that was once offered We come not thither to sacrifice Christ but to be Partakers of his Sacrifice We are not to feast God but God there feasts us and that with the best Food in the World such Food as will nourish us to Eternal Life if we be worthy Guests Only we must not appear before God empty at this Solemnity We must offer to him of our Substance We must offer our Prayers and Supplications not only for our selves but for all the World but more especially for all that are called by the Name of Christ and among those most particularly for our own Church and Kingdom and all Orders and Degrees of Men therein We must offer likewise our selves our Souls and Bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is our reasonable service And lastly to conclude we must offer our most hearty and affectionate Thanks to God Almighty for that incomprehensible Instance of his Love in sending Christ Jesus to us to be our Saviour for his wonderful Birth for his holy Life for his pretious Death for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and for his Intercession for us at the right hand of God And O thou Blessed Saviour that hast done all this for us give us such a lively Sense of thy marvelous Love in leaving thy Glory and taking Humane Flesh upon thee that thou mightest dwell among us and instruct us in our Duty and assist us in the performance of it and encourage us thereto by the glorious Hopes of a never dying Life and at last make thy self an Offering for our Sins O let these things sink so deeply in our Minds and so wholly possess our Hearts that we may entirely give up our selves to thee That we may with our whole Souls embrace all thy Doctrines and Revelations That we may endeavour in all our Actions to conform our selves to thy Example and make it the Business of our Lives to be obedient to thy Precepts to submit to thy Will and to be contented to be disposed of by thee in all the Circumstances of our Lives O let nothing in thy Religion ever be an Offence to us But enable us to hold the Profession of our Faith in thee without wavering in all the Tryals and Difficulties thou shalt think fit to expose us to that so in Faith and Obedience in Patience and Perseverance we may ever wait for and at last obtain that Crown of Righteousness which thou hast laid up for all that love thee and expect thy second and more glorious Appearance To thee O eternal Son of God thou great Lover of Mankind to Thee who tookest upon thee to deliver Man and didst not abhor the Virgins womb to thee who overcamest the sharpness of death and didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers To thee O most dear O most beloved O most adorable Jesus be for ever given by us and by all the Souls whom thou hast redeemed and by all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth all Honour and Glory and Praise all Service and Love and Obedience henceforth and for evermore SERMON XII Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On EASTER-DAY 1692. Philip. iii. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection WE shall easily see the Design of these Words and what use we are to make of them if we look at their Connexion with the Discourse that goes before St. Paul in this Chapter sets himself to shew the Excellency and the great Advantages of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and how inconsiderable how unworthy to be named in comparison therewith all those things were that the Jews his Country-men so much gloried in His Discourse upon this occasion is so very remarkable that it will he worth our while to run over the particulars of it I also saith he in the 4th verse might have considence in the flesh If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the Flesh I more As if he had said Think not O Philippians that I therefore speak lightly of those Priviledges and Advantages which the Jews among you so much boast of upon this account because I have none of them my self No on the contrary if I would value my self upon such outward carnal things I have as much reason as any Nay there is not a Jew among you that perhaps can say so much on his own behalf in this respect as I can For as he goes on in the 5th and 6th verses I was circumcised the eighth day of the Stock of Israel of the Tribe of Penjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the Law a Pharisee concerning Zeal persecuting the Church touching the Righteousness which is by the Law blameless That is to say I have not only the Character of a Son of Abraham upon me being circumcised but I am also of the Race of 〈◊〉 which all the circumcised Children of Abraham are not Nay surther I am an Israelâ—â— of the Tribe of Benjamin that Benjamin which our Father Israel so dearly loved and of that Tribe which together with Judah kept him to the house of David and the true Religion when the other ten Tribes revolted Nay more I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews Not sprung from Proselytes as many among you are but all my Ancestors both by Father and Mother being natural born Jews And then as to my Profession in Religion it was the strictest among the Jews for I was a Pharisee And you all know That Sector all others to be the most eminent for the Reputation of Preciseness and Sanctity Neither did I in my Zeal for the 〈…〉 Moses come short of the strictest 〈…〉 is among you for who was more 〈…〉 eager more violent in persecuting â—…nity than I was And lastly To sum up all As to the Righteousness which is by the Law I am blâ—â—dless So punctual have I always been in observing the Precepts of Moses his Law that 〈◊〉 reprove me in theâ— point but I may truely in the Jewish notion of Righteousness be accounted a Righteous Person But now am I much the better for all these things Have I any great reason to glory upon the account of them No verily as he goes on in the 7th verse but what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ All these outward Advantages my Birth my Profession my Sect my Reputation my strict way of living which might have proved very beneficial to me in
it be brought into Action In that case we are no longer to plead our Original Corruption for in that very Instant we become Actual Sinners Actual Transgressors of the Law of God the Obligation of which reaches to our very Hearts and Thoughts as well as our Actions Tho' yet we are not so great Transgressors so long as our Sin is only in Thought or Desire or Purpose as if it had proceeded to outward Action All this is taught us for true Divinity by no less an Author than St. James in the first Chapter of his Epistle v. 13 14 15 Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of of God for God tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Which passage of the Apostle doth plainly contain these three Propositions First That no man is drawn to commit Sin by any State or Condition that God hath put him into no nor by any Temptation either outward or inward that is presented to him It is not a Sin to be tempted no nor to seel that we are tempted by some disorderly Inclination that arises in our Minds thereupon But secondly then our Sin begins when we yield to the Temptation when we are drawn away by our own Lusts and enticed when they get the Victory over us and we do consent to them Then Lust hath conceived and bringeth forth Sin But Thirdly Though the very consent of our Wills to a Temptation be a Sin in us yet that Sin is not so great as it will be afterwards if it be brought to Action Sin in the desire or purpose is but an Embryo it is but the first Rudiments of Sin but when it comes to be acted it is then a Sin in its full dimensions and the Consequences of it may be Fatal without Repentance Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Having thus given some Account how far our Hearts or Thoughts do fall under Government I now come to my Second Point that is to treat of the Art of Governing them or to lay down the necessary Rules and Directions which are to observed in order thereunto And we shall not need to go far for these Rules for they will all naturally flow from the Principles I have already laid down And I think they may conveniently enough be reduced likewise to these Five following First From what hath been said it appears that the First and great Point to be done by us if we would keep our Hearts in a good Frame and order our Thoughts to good purposes is that we rightly pitch our main Designs that we chuse that for the great business of our Lives that really ought to be so Now what that is can bear no dispute with any Man that will fairly use his Reason For certainly that which is our greatest Concernment in the World ought to be our greatest Business and Design in the World And it is evident to every one that believes he hath a Soul to save that his greatest Concernment of all is to approve himself to that God who made him and disposes of all his affairs and who accordingly as we sincerely endeavour or not endeavour to serve him will make us either very Happy or very Miserable both in this Life and the other So that there can as I said be no Dispute about what ought to be the great Business and Design of our whole Lives and to which all other Businesses must yield Now if we be so wise as really to propose this as our main End and resolve to mind it and follow it as such I say if we be so wise as to do this we have made a very great step towards the obtaining a security to our selves that the greatest part of our Thoughts and Desires and Affections will be such as they should be such as will be acceptable to God and satisfactory to our selves For as I told you before whatever is our main Business be it what it will it will in a great measure draw all our Thoughts to it Our Natures are so contrived that we must always be thinking of something or other But then they are so contrived likewise that we think most of that which is most in our Eye most in our Esteem most in our Pursuit And this is that which our Saviour tells us Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Whatever it be that you place your Happiness in upon that will your Thoughts run upon that will your Desires your Inclinations your Affections be fixed We have a World of instances of the truth of this every day before our Eyes If a Man hath set his heart on Money and proposeth it to himself as the Business of his Life to be Rich Why I dare say such an one will own to you that most of his Thoughts are upon that Project and that he finds it so far from being difficult to keep his Mind close and steady to his Main Interest as he calls it that it is rather difficult to him to think of any other Matters If a Man be given up to Pleasure and thinks nothing worthy his living for but Wine and Women and good Eating and good Company Is it not natural to such an one to bend all his Thoughts that way Or doth he put any force or violence upon himself in thinking and contriving all the day long how to bring to pass the Gratification of his Lusts or his Appetites Why my Brethren if we did all of us in good earnest make the Service of God and the purchasing Heaven and Happiness to our selves as much our Business our End our Design as these Men make Wealth or Pleasure to be theirs we should certainly be thus affected The common Course of our Thoughts would naturally and easily without the least constraint run upon those Objects And we should take as great delight in Thinking of our Treasure and Contriving for the obtaining of it as they do in Thinking and Projecting for theirs I say Thus it would be with us For I cannot for my Life apprehend what Charms there can be in Worldly or Sensual Things to attract a Man's Mind what Fetters there can be in them to bind his Thoughts and tye them to themselves But that there are the same or greater in Vertue and Goodness in the Love and Favour of God in a Pure Conscience here and Eternal Glory hereafter Always provided that they are as much made the Objects of our Choice and Pursuit as the other And therefore I cannot but suspect where we see Men so very cold and backward to Spiritual Things and so apt to spend all their Thoughts upon trifling vain or worldly Matters that it is with a great deal of Pains and Reluctancy that they can bring themselves to think of their Everlasting Concernments I say I cannot but suspect that