that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 11 12 13 14 And it was the charge of Christ to his followers That they should let their lights shine before men that is be Examples and Patterns of Piety and Holiness to all the World In short The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour doth strictly prohibit all Sins and Vices and every evil work which defiles a Man's mind or weakens his Body or blemishes his Fame and wastes his Estate And secondly it doth with great Authority enjoyn the practice of all Goodness and Vertue and every thing else that is worthy of praise And therefore that Life and Conversation which becomes the Gospel must in the first place be Pure and Holy clean and undefiled Secondly The Conversation which becometh the Gospel of Christ is that which is managed with all meekness and moderation in the mind and spirit and which carefully promotes Union Peace and Love in the World This is apparent from our Saviour's command Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in mind and from the Apostles direction that we should be mean in our own eyes in honour preferring one another and to condescend to men of low degree and to let our moderation be known unto all men So that the frame and temper of Mind and Spirit with which we are to govern our selves is to be meek and humble soft and gentle calm and moderate to all we converse with Again the Gospel of Christ directs us to further all the degrees of Love Amity and Quietness Our Saviour having call'd all Peacemakers the Children of God and pronounc'd them happy and also declared who are the heavenly-born Christians even they that love one another And how frequently do all the Apostles command and order us to be of modest and peaceable behaviour and to live in an unfeigned mutual love one with another As Rom. 12. 9 10 17 18. Let love be without dissimulation Be kindly affectioned one towards another in brotherly love in honor preserving one another Recompence to no man evil for evil provide things honest in the sight of all men And if it be possible as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things where with me may edifie one another Rom. 14. 19. And the most passionate and earnest request that ever St. Paul made in his life was that to his Colossians Put on therefore as the Elect of God Holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of Perfection Colossians 3. 12 13 14. And as the Gospel of Christ doth commend to our study practice unity peace and love every thing that promotes their flourishing growth so it forbids whateyer may obstruct and hinder it As namely all rash censuring and judging tale-bearing and backbiting whispering of lies and scandals publishing of Libels and defamations charging us not to give railing for railing but to avoid all occasions of janglings and quarrels and to keep our selves from proud peevish and passionate humours and sowing the seeds of strife and sedition And what is the great end and design of all these Evangelical Laws but only that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Timothy 2. 2. And thus very briefly I have shewed what that Conversation is which becomes the Gospel of Christ All which is excellently comprised in those words of the Apostle Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God that is the Gospel-dispensation doth not consist in meats and drinks in controversies and disputes about things Indifferent but in solid Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the like character doth St. James give of the Religion and Gospel of Christ For saith he If you have bitter envying in your hearts then the Religion which you have and profess is Earthly Sensual and Devilish But the Religion which is from above and came from God and Christ teaches all Men first to be Pure and Holy and secondly to be Peaceable and gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make peace James 3. from Verse the 13. to the end of the Chapter And so much for the Third Particular I pass to the Fourth To consider the Reasons why in Evil and Perilous Times we should then more especially lead pure and peaceable Lives according to the Gospel of Christ. And the Reasons are these Three First That we may if possibly prevail with God to be our favourer and friend And this is no small Argument to perswade us to be more Holy and Religious in dangerous and evil Times than at any other Because then it is we stand most in need of having God our Assistant and Defender For it 's he alone which hath the ordering and managing of all Humane Greatness and Wisdom and worldly affairs which generally have their Events and Successes according as God approves or dislikes the persons in whose hands they are plac'd For you must know that let the Cause or Design be what it will that any Nation or number of Men do take in hand yet there is an Over-seeing Eye and an Over-ruling Hand which turns and disposes all things to the advantage of them that endeavour to please him and to the destruction of them whom he is justly provok'd to hate And therefore in all Humane undertakings and Publick affairs it will be the prudence and interest of men to gain if possibly the great God on their side For if men will coin Projects and Designs in their own inventions If they will use their own art and skill in the management of them and relye upon their own parts and power to bring them to pass and all this without any concern or care whether God be their Friend or not I think such persons have no good grounds to hope that any prosperous events will crown their enterprize or endeavours The Royal Prophet who had run through as many various stages of Humane affairs and Worldly changes as ever any Man or Monarch did and who had observed that Providence did always interpose his Wisdom and power in the ordering and disposing of all things here below did at last conclude with this Maxim That the Greatest worldly Power and the deepest Policies of States-men were weak and foolish if God did not take the Actors under his Countenance and Protection Hence it was that he attributed the Art and Abilities which Men use in the building of
an House and the power of preserving and defending a City when built not unto the Men themselves but unto the Great God who is the Maker and Upholder of all things Except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it Except the Lord keep ' the City the watchman waketh but in vain Psal 127.1 After the same manner he attributes all Conquests and Victories not to the courage and conduct of Generals and their Armies but unto the God that goes along with them and fights for them Psal 108.11 12. If thou O Lord go not forth with our Hosts we cannot be saved from trouble for vain is the help of Man Nay though David was considerably assisted sometimes by Princes and Allies and though he had often seen the undaunted briskness and courage of his own Souldiers in many Battels yet he at last found it experimentally true That it was better to trust in the Lord than to put any considence in Man That it was better to trust in the Lord than to put any considence in Princes And at another time when this Royal Prophet was in the greatest straits and dangers and few would side with him or fight for him yet even then he was confident of Deliverance and Victory and that because he sound God to be his Friend The Lord is on my side I will not fear For what can Man do unto me The Lord taketh my part with them that help me therefore shall I see my desire upon mine Enemies Psal 118.6 7. And as all the power and force of Armies without God's favour and assistance is frail and weak so the most subtil and deepest contrived designs of the ablest Politicians without Divine help and approbation withers and proves abortive With what wrath and malice did Sanballat and Tobiah the Arabians the Ammonites and the Ashdodites sit in Council and secretly conspire to surprize and fall upon Nehemiah and the Jews just as they were employed and busie in building the walls of Jerusalem But God saith the Text defeated this stratagem for God brought their Counsel to nought Nehem. 4.7 8 15. In all David's Kingdom there was not a greater States-man than Achitophel and we find he proved a good Counsellor as long as he was Loyal to his Prince But when he entred into a conspiracy with Absalom to raise a War and Rebellion against his King and Father how soon was all his wisdom turned into foolishness And the Text tells us it was God himself that did it 2 Sam. 17.14 For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good Counsel of Achitophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom Now then if God's love to us and helping of us be so absolutely necessary as that without it we cannot either do what we design nor finish what we are doing nor be released from what we suffer nor be secured and saved from what we fear then it will be our highest wisdom and greatest Interest to engage God if possibly to espouse our Cause and take our part For according to the measure of God's will revealed and the usual proceedings of Providence in this World we shall find that Good and Holy Men have never been forsaken of God in any portion of their Lives For God is such a Lover of Goodness and Righteousness and what is like himself that he hath given us all possible Assurances of providing for the Innocent defending the Helpless relieving the Oppressed and of favouring the Righteous dealings of Men. Upon which account it is that God is so oft in Scripture call'd a Tower a Castle a Fortress a Rock of Defence a Refuge in due time of Trouble a Saviour and Mighty Deliverer And if we can but in any reasonable measure imitate David in his sincere Piety and Holiness we shall then have the same cause and occasion to say with him That the Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Tent round about them that fear him That the Lord never faileth them that put their trust in him That he is a Sun and a Shield that he will give grace and glory and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Psalm 84.11 Suitable to which are those words so confidently spoken by St. Paul We know that all things work together for good to them that love God Romans 8. 28. To which may be adjoyned the assurance of Christ himself If ye seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. 33. Seeing then that a Holy Religious Life is so beneficially operative and prevailing with God we ought in evil and perilous days to be then most carefully employed in it For then is the time we stand most in need of God's Power Love and Protection when we see our selves forsaken of all worldly helps and assistances And when there is nothing but Clouds and Darkness round about us then is the light of God's countenance most chearing and refreshing Nor doth Divine wisdom and Power so much delight and ravish our Souls as when it discovers the Snares that were laid for us and saves us just upon the brink of falling into them And that a good and holy Life is thus prevalent with God to protect and defend save and deliver us in evil and dangerous times we have the Testimony of Men in all Ages both of the Jewish and Christian Church who by one signal Demonstration have declared it to be an undoubted Truth and the constant matter of their Faith And this Demonstration was their usual exercise of one solemn Religious Duty or Service peculiarly appropriated to the particular time of worldly Adversity and Temporal Judgments call'd by the name of Fasting and Humiliation For we all very well know that publick or private Fasts are never appointed or kept but when a Kingdom or Person is under some heavy Pressures and Afflictions or the fear and apprehensions of some approaching danger and misery or for the commemorating some signal Judgment and Calamity that is past and we were mercifully saved and delivered from Now what is this Fasting or Humiliation but a taking a Revenge on our Sins which caused God to be our Enemy A putting our selves upon bettering our lives and to be for the Time to come more Godly Righteous and Sober in this present World And what is the end and design of exercising these Religious Duties upon such particular Days but only to seek and find if possibly God's favour to reconcile our selves to him and to prevail with him to stand our Defence and become our Saviour So that we can never religiously observe days of Fasting and Humiliation but it 's with a belief that if we do amend our ways and better our lives then God will be favourable to us and deliver us from all the Judgments we groan under and prevent the Sorrows and Calamities which we justly fear are coming upon us But against what I have said I know it
will be Objected That though it be true that God in his revealed will hath given Promises and Assurances of providing for and protecting and defending the Good and Righteous yet we see frequently in the outward Dispensations of Providence that God is not always firm to his word For how often do we see the wicked flourish and prevail and triumph over the godly and those that are far better than themselves As at this Day the Turks trample upon the Christians and the Papists upon the Protestants To this I Answer First In General That the Proceedings of Providence and the Methods of God's dealings with Men in this World are very Mysterious So that we may justly subscribe to that saying of the Apostle Romans 11. 33. How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out But Secondly To be more particular in the Solution of this Objection I shall only desire you to observe That though there are many Men which as to all outward Appearance and in our Esteem are very Pious and Good yet there are none so Vertuous and Good as they should be and as they might be And therefore God makes use of Prosperous wicked Men as Rods to correct them who thorough their own Carelesness or Idleness might be much better than they are And not to meddle with the Reasons which Statesmen give for the Growth of Mahometism over Christians and of Popery over Protestants I shall only offer one which the most censorious Critick will allow doth belong to our office to give And the Reason is this The Christians in General notoriously abusing their most Excellent Religion And Protestants in Particular not living in that Measure of Piety and Vertue which is suitable to the Purity of their Doctrines And it 's very Probable that God afflicts and chastises Christendom with the Turks because All sorts of Christians so much neglect the living answerably to their Religion And God doth trouble and Correct the Protestants in Europe with Papists Because though their Religion be best as being Reformed from Superstition Heresie and Idolatry yet the visible Conversations of Protestants are notoriously Scandalous and quite different from and opposite to that Purity and Godliness which they Profess and Glory in And for ought any Man can yet see or know to the contrary We may reasonably Judge that God will suffer the Turks and Papists to Prosper and Prevail the one over Christians in General the other over Protestants in Particular till such time as both are more zealous and careful than they are now to let their Conversations be as becometh the Gospel of Christ. But Secondly Another Reason why in Evil and Perilous Times we ought then to be most Holy and Good is this That thereby we may stop the mouths of our Gainsayers and either convince our Enemies or at least prevail with them to have a better Opinion of us than now they have In a Kingdom or Nation crumbled into several Factions and Parties we can expect no less than Violent Heats and Passions and bitter Railings and Revilings one against another For we know that different Perswasions and Interests were ever upheld with fierce Controversies zealous Debates and clamorous Janglings All which things never tend to cement and heal Divisions but make the Rent much wider For it 's Rarely seen that Controversies and Disputes especially in Religion brought Enemies to be Friends No the only way of silencing our Adversaries and taking them off from Slandering and Reviling of us is to abstain from the evil things which may give them a just cause of doing it And though the World will still be pestered with such Critical and Malicious Inquisitors as will Censure and Condemn the most harmless and Inoffensive Actions and which they would allow to be so if done by themselves yet the man that goes on in the constant course of an Upright Honest Conversation will in Time convince his Gainsayers and Proselyte his most spightful Enemies Was it not the Advice and Command of our Saviour That we should Bless them that Curse us And pray for them that Despightfully use us And doth not S. Paul say If thine Enemy hunger feed him If he thirst give him Drink And what is the Fruit and the Benefit we shall reap by it Why In so doing Thou heapest coals of fire upon his Head that is Thou wilt in time melt him down into Brotherly Love and compliance And what was the Reason that S. Peter charged his Converts to be Quiet and Peaceable Subject and Obedient to Magistrates and Governors Only that thereby They might stop the mouths of their Adversaries who had Represented them at Caesar's Court to be men of Turbulent Factious and Seditious Spirits That so with Well-doing saith S. Peter ye may put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 15. And in another place he Advises them to keep and preserve a Good Conscience for in time it will make them ashamed that falsly accuse you 1 Pet. 3. 16. I shall conclude this Second Reason with the Caution of S. Paul Ephes 5. 15 16. See that you walk Circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise And that you walk in Wisdom toward them that are without Redeeming the time Colos 4. 5. Thirdly We ought most especially to Guide our Conversations only by the Gospel of Christ in Evil and Dangerous Times because we shall thereby be best fitted and prepared to meet with and endure the worst that may befal us When we are in the Prospect or foresight of any Calamity or Misery coming upon us we have but Two things to do either Prudentially to prevent it or else prepare our selves to bear it First Prudentially to Prevent it especially if it be capable of Prevention For the Gospel of Christ doth not so Positively and Indispensably oblige us to take up our Cross as that we may not use all the Wisdom and means we can to save and defend our selves from suffering No in all Temptations and Trials it 's lawful for us to make a way for an Escape But then We are to observe that the Scripture allows of no means to be used for the Preventing of an Approaching Evil and Danger but what is Honest and Just and Lawful For the Rules of the Apostle are Perpetually True and of Everlasting Force That We must abstain from all Appearance of Evil And that we must not do Evil that Good may come thereby So that though my own Will and Reason byassed by self-Self-love and Interest shall put me upon Preventing a Misery that is coming yet I must be cautious and careful of using any ways and means for the Doing of it which I cannot justifie to be Good and lawful by the Word of God or which my own Conscience shall tell me is Base and Dishonest and unbecoming a Man and a Christian For first I have no Divine Divine Warrant or Licence to do any Unjust Act though it be for my Temporal Safety and Worldly Advantage