Contrivances for his own happiness He began to suspect his wise Father did not allow his Children liberty enough at home and that he concealed from him the great Mystery of the Happiness of Life and therefore concluded that if he did give way to those Desires which he found to be natural but his Father thought unreasonable he should enjoy much more Pleasure and Satisfaction than he did at home And being resolved upon this he gives way to those Inclinations he found strongest in himself denies himself no Pleasures of Life accounts Vertue but a Name which sowre and morose Persons put upon their own humours and Religion but a Device for Fools to deceive themselves and Knaves to deceive others by And so he throws off all checks and restraints upon himself and never regards the Good or Evil of what he doth for his Lusts are his Laws and the satisfaction of them he now looks upon as the only real Happiness of Mankind And could any thing be supposed more provoking to his heavenly Father than such a wicked and dissolute way of living So contrary to his Father's Will to his own Reason Conscience Interest Reputation and which soon brought him to Shame and Misery 3. But that which added yet more to the height of the Provocation was that he did not think of returning home to his Father upon the first apprehension of his own Folly but he resolved to undergo any difficulty and submit to any hardship rather than do what was necessary in order to Reconciliation with his Father How hard a Matter then is it to bring an habitual Sinner to Repentance It is not easie to bring him to any due and serious Conviction of the Evil of his doings but it is far more difficult to change the inward Disposition of the Mind and to alter all the great Designs and Pleasures of Life It is but a mean Notion of Repentance which is apt to prevail in the World as though it implied no more than some Acts of Contrition for greater Sins when the Habit and Disposition remain the same But true Repentance is the turn of the whole Soul from the Love as well as the Practice of Sin and this is not a thing to be done easily or suddenly a Sinner will bear a great many Checks and Reproofs of Conscience before he will part with his beloved Sins he will struggle a great while with himself and endure many Conflicts between an awaken'd Conscience and rooted Inclinations before the penitent Sinner can assure himself that his Repentance hath had its due and effectual operation upon him For we see here nothing but extremity brought the Prodigal to himself and made him at last to resolve to arise and go to his Father c. As Themistocles said of the People of Athens they did by him as Men commonly do by a great Tree they run to it for shelter in a Storm but care not how they use it another Time that is too true of Sinners with respect to God when they can make a shift for themselves any other Way they despise Religion and make God their Refuge only at a day of Extremity but not their Choice when their Conditions please them But when the prodigal Son had so slighted his Father broken his Commands despised the Advantages he had at home and was so hardly brought to think of returning thither how came he now to be so incouraged in his Mind to arise and go to his Father and confess his fault with hopes of being forgiven after all this We find no other Account here given but that he was his Father however he had offended him and therefore he was resolved he would arise and go to his Father as though there were charms and force enough in that word to answer all Discouragements Which being an Argument taken from the Bowels of Pity and Compassion which a Father hath towards a relenting Child we must enquire how far this will hold with respect to God who is so infinitely above all the fond Passions of humane Nature that it is a diminution to his Glory and Majesty to be thought like to Mankind and therefore his thoughts and ways are said to be as far above ours as the Heavens are above the Earth To clear this we are to consider not only that our Blessed Saviour doth here lay the force and weight of the Parable upon the tenderness of a Father to his Son but that he elsewhere argues from it in such a manner as to convince us that God hath far greater Pity and Compassion towards Mankind when they make due Applications to him than Fathers can have towards their Children even when they ask for necessary Sustenance What Man is there of you whom if his Son ask bread will he give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children How much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him There have been Philosophers so severe against the Passions of humane Nature that they would not allow any Pity or Commiseration towards others whatever their Condition or Relation were but only acting according to Reason in supplying their Wants But the Christian Religion doth far more reasonably allow such Passions in Mankind as dispose them to do good to others by fixing such an impression on their Minds of others Misery as doth excite them to do what is fitting for their Ease and Support And Compassion is not as some imagine such a mean and selfish Passion as doth arise only from the Apprehension that we may suffer the same things our selves which we pity others for but it is a generous Sense of what others feel joined with a Readiness to help them according to our Power And in this Sense our Saviour not only allows it in Fathers towards Children but looks on it as necessary in humane Nature in order to the good and advantage of Mankind and therefore himself taking our Nature upon him is said to be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities and to have compassion on the Ignorant and on them that are out of the Way But although this be allowable in humane Nature how can such a thing as Compassion be attributed to the Divine Nature which is uncapable of such impressions and motions which we are subject to And yet the Scripture is very full and clear in attributing Pity and Compassion to Almighty God with respect to his Creatures The Psalmist saith The Lord is full of Compassion and Mercy long-suffering and of great Goodness St. James saith He is very pitifull and of tender Mercy And in that wonderfull Appearance to Moses when God himself declared his own Attributes the greatest part consists of his Kindness and Mercy towards Mankind The Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin And
highest Testimonies even by the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God and all the Miracles wrought in Confirmation of it and of the Truth of his Doctrine 3. There are several Degrees of Wilfulness and Obstinacy and Men's Judgments shall be according to them Some Men's Capacities Opportunities and Helps have very much exceeded others some have broken through stronger Convictions and more powerfull Assistances of Grace than others some have had more early Instructions more frequent Warnings more obliging Favours from Heaven than others And as it is reasonable that Persons suffer for their obstinate Continuance in Sin so that they should suffer according to the Degrees and Circumstances of it 4. It is no unjust Severity in God to deprive Men of that Happiness which they have wilfully refused and to condemn them to that Misery which their Sins have deserved Hath not God made the most condescending Offer of Mercy and Salvation that it is possible for Creatures to expect from him after so many and great Provocations Could Heaven stoop lower than it hath done to vile and ungratefull Sinners When the Son of God came down from Heaven on purpose to reconcile God and Man together When the Spirit of God warns and excites their Minds to the Consideration of their Eternal Welfare When the Messengers of this Reconciliation are to woo and intreat and beseech Sinners in Christ's stead as tho' God did beseech them by them that they would be reconciled to God When the Patience and Goodness and Long suffering of God is exercised so much on purpose to lead them to Repentance When God instead of perfect Obedience is willing to pardon and pass by so many Offences if they truly repent of them and to receive them still into his Favour and Mercy When after all this Men do rather preferr the present Pleasures of Sin before all that Happiness which God so freely offers is it any Injustice in him to suffer them for ever to be deprived of that which they so wilfully so ungratefully so obstinately refused And supposing the Souls of Men to subsist in another World free from all those Clouds of Errour and Mistake and the false Notions they are deceived by here as well as all the Diversions and Pleasures of this Life it is not to be imagined but they must for ever suffer an intolerable Anguish within called A Worm that never dies and a Fire that never goes out from the Reflections upon their own Folly What Vengeance beyond this God may inflict we now know not may none of us ever know it but we are sure it will never exceed the Proportion and Desert of their Sins Which is sufficient to clear the Justice of God in his Proceedings with Mankind in the Day of Judgment 2. It remains now only to shew by what means God's bringing us to Judgment may make a deeper Impression upon our Minds By considering these two things 1. That our not considering it will not make our Condition better but much worse 2. That our Considering it is the best means to prevent the evil Consequences of it 1. Our not considering it will not make our Conditon better There were great Reason indeed to walk in the way of our hearts and in the sight of our eyes and never trouble our selves with what will happen at the great Day if the putting it out of our Heads would make our Accounts the easier when it comes But alas Whether we think of it or no the Account runs on and we must answer to every particular at last and how unprovided shall we be if we spend no time here in examining stating and clearing of them as far as we are able It is a mighty Privilege we have by the Gospel that God allows us to clear our Accounts with him in this World For if we would judge our selves we shall not be judged i. e. If we call our selves to a strict Account for our Actions if we repent heartily and sincerely of our Sins if we seek earnestly to God for Mercy if we have our Consciences cleansed by the Blood of Christ from the Pollution of our Sins then we may with Joy and Peace in our Minds think of the Great Day of Recompence But if we never enter into our selves to search and examine our own Actions never look into the Habits of our own Minds nor charge our selves with the Guilt of the Sins we have committed how can we ever hope to escape the Scrutiny or avoid the Severity of that Day For our Account continually increases by our Neglect of it and the Burthen of God's Wrath must be so much heavier when we have taken no care to lessen it but after our hardness and impenitent hearts have only treasured up wrath against the day of wrath 2. Our considering that God will bring us to Judgment is the best means to prevent the evil Consequences of it For although we cannot hope to plead Innocency yet which is next in Point of Wisdom this is the most effectual Motive to bring us to Repentance And that which makes us repent makes us to grow wise in time and to lay a good Foundation for Eternal Life There are many Arguments to induce us to it in the Folly and Shame of our Sins the Wisdom of Reflection and Reformation the Instances of it and Exhortations to it recorded in Scripture but there is none more sensible and which touches Men more in Point of Interest and Concernment than this of a Judgment to come Must I then saith a penitent Sinner give a strict Account to God of all the evil Actions of my Life and suffer according to the Desert of them if I die in Impenitency How much doth it then concern me to repent betimes to repent in good earnest to repent while there is hopes of Mercy Away then all ye deceitfull Vanities of this wicked World ye have too long deceived and seduced me What will all this vain shew this busie Seducer this impertinent Outside of the World signifie when I must be stript of all and stand guilty and accused by my own Conscience before the Judgment-Seat of Christ Oh! how wretched shall I be if my Conscience condemns me before the Sentence of the Judge Therefore I am resolved to prevent the Judgment of that Day I will accuse judge and condemn my self nay I will proceed to Execution as to all the vitious Habits and corrupt Inclinations within me And although I cannot wholly mortifie them yet I will crucifie them i. e. nail them to the Cross and allow them no longer Liberty and albeit they may struggle for a time yet I will never give way to their Dominion over me any more that so Death and Judgment may find me prepared if not with unspotted Innocency yet with hearty and sincere Repentance To conclude all let the Consideration of this Day of Judgment to come enter deep into our Minds and awaken us out of our Lethargy and
some men and look on as wholly unconcerned They are extremely mistaken in the Temper of the Nation who think so But if Men will not be quiet when they have all they pretended to desire what can we expect but further Animosities will discourage our Friends animate our common Enemies and expose us all to Confusion if not to Ruine If Men loved this World less and another better they would be more quiet here and be more carefull to prepare for that better State If our Conversation were in Heaven as it ought to be with what Contempt should we look down upon the busie Designs the restless Cares the vain Hopes and the perplexing Fears of the greatest Part of Mankind Then we should have more Peace and Tranquillity in our Minds while we live and greater Satisfaction when we come to die For Integrity and Innocency will keep us most from giving disturbance to others and from finding any in our own Breasts Whoso hearkeneth unto Wisdom shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from the Fear of Evil. 2. We are assured that we are under the constant Care of Divine Providence The Tranquillity of our Minds in this World depends very much upon the Esteem we have of Providence and the Trust we repose in God What makes Children pass their time without solicitous thoughts about themselves but the Confidence they have in the Wisdom and Care of their Parents What makes Passengers lie down at rest in a Ship at Sea but because they trust to the Conduct of their Pilot We cannot alter the Methods of Providence by all our Solicitude God will govern the World by his own Measures and not by ours The Government is his the Duty of Submission is ours Let us not then be peevish and quarrelsome at what he doth but make the best Use of any extraordinary Instance of his Providence which seems to be intended for our Good unless we turn it another Way But it is not enough to be meerly contented with Providence but we ought to be active and usefull in our own Places to promote the common Interest and not to repine and murmur at what is necessary for the Support of it Let us not torment our selves with Fears of what may and what may not happen but let us commit our selves to God in well-doing as to our Creatour and Preserver SERMON VI. Preached at St. Laurence-Jewry April the 7 th 1691. 1 Timothy I. 15. This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief IF these Words were to be understood without any Restriction or Limitation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners they would overthrow the great Design of the Gospel and make its excellent Precepts useless and ineffectual For to what purpose should Men be put upon the severe Practice of Repentance Mortification and a continued Course of a Holy Life if the meer being Sinners did sufficiently qualifie them for Salvation This indeed would be thought a Doctrine worthy of all Acceptation by the greatest Sinners but it could not be a faithfull saying being not agreeable either to the Nature of God or Revelation of his Will by Christ Jesus But St. Paul speaks of such Sinners as himself had been i. e. such as had been great Sinners but had truly and sincerely repented Of whom I am chief What then Must we look on him as the Standard and Measure of such Sinners whom Christ Jesus came to save What will then become of all those who have been Sinners of a higher Rank than ever he was It 's true in the Verses before the Text he sets out his Sins as a humble Penitent is wont to do with the worst Colours and deepest Aggravations Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but yet he adds that he obtained Mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief How then is St. Paul the Chief of Sinners Are Sins of Ignorance and Mistake the greatest of Sins for which Christ died Is there no Expiation for any other by Jesus Christ What will become then of all such who sin against Knowledge and Conscience and not in Ignorance and Unbelief Can none of these hope for Mercy by Christ Jesus although they do truly repent But the Blood of Christ is said elsewhere to cleanse us from all Sin not while we continue in them but if we repent and forsake them And Jesus Christ is said to be a Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole World And therefore this Expression of St. Paul notes his great Humility and deep Sense of his own Sins but doth not exclude others from the hopes of Pardon whose Sins have other Aggravations than his had For if we leave out the last words as peculiar to his Case yet the other contain in them a true Proposition and of the greatest Importance to Mankind This is a fà ithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners This you may say is a matter out of all doubt among all such who hope for Salvation by Christ Jesus for all are agreed that one way or other we are to be saved by him But there is great Difficulty as to the Way of saving sinners by Christ Jesus whether by the Doctrine and Example of the Man Christ Jesus by the Power he attained through his Sufferings Or by the Eternal Son of God's assuming our Nature and suffering in our stead in order to the reconciling God to us and making a Propitiation for our Sins These are two very different Hypotheses or Notions of Christ's coming to save sinners and the former seems more easie to be understood and believed and the other seems to have insuperable Difficulties in point of Reason and to run our Religion into Mysteries which expose our Faith and make Christianity appear contemptible to Men of Sense and Understanding Is it not therefore much better to embrace such a Scheme of it as will have the least Objection against it that so Men of Reason may not be tempted to Infidelity and Men of Superstition may not under the Colour of Mysteries bring in the most absurd and unreasonable Doctrines These are plausible Insinuations and would be apt to prevail on considering Men's minds if they were to form and make a Religion that might be most accommodated to the Genius and Humour of the Age they live in And truly no Men by their own Authority can pretend to a Right to impose on others any Mysteries of Faith or any such things which are above their Capacity to understand But that is not our Case for we all profess to believe and receive Christianity as a Divine Revelation and God we say may require from us the belief of what we may not be able to comprehend especially if it relates to himself or such things which are consequent upon
believe no Life after this be compared with the Pains and Martyrdoms of those who have suffer'd for their Religion these will appear to be far more eligible than the other because the Mind hath far greater Satisfaction under them and a certain Expectation of an infinite Reward to follow upon them Whereas the other can have no Comfort in looking back on what they have done or forward in what they are to expect For they have destroy'd their own Happiness and hasten'd that upon themselves which they account their only Misery 2. As to the common Calamities of Life which none can prevent or avoid the spiritual Mind hath very much the Advantage of the carnal for the one â—ills them with inward Peace and Satisfaction of Mind which of all things carry Men best through the Troubles of Life being joyned with Patience Humility Self-denial and Submission to the Will of God which are all the genuine Effects of a spiritual Mind but a carnal Mind is froward and impatient uneasie to it self and to all about it and this makes every Pain and Trouble to be much greater than it would have been like the Ass in the Fable Which lay down in the Water with his Burthen of Wool and so made it heavier than before There were two things the philosophical Men of Pleasure sought to comfort themselves by under the unavoidable Troubles of Life which the spiritual Mind hath far greater Advantages than any of them had as to both of them and these are Reflection and Expectation 1. Reflection When Epicurus was in his last Agonies under the Stone what a miserable way was it for him to go about to comfort himself by reflecting upon his Atoms and his Maxims his imaginary Notion of the Happiness of Life consisting in Pleasure when his Life was so near being ended by excessive Pain But a good Man that hath sincerely endeavour'd to serve God in his Generation and to do all the good he could and to promote the Interests of Religion and Vertue in the World may in the Midst of many Failings and Infirmities look back with comfort on the Course of his former Life and by the Peace of a good Conscience may injoy inward Satisfaction under such Pains and Distempers which make Life uneasie and Death more welcome as it is a Passage to a far better State And that is the next thing 2. Expectation It was a sorrowfull Expectation which Epicurus supported himself with when he was in the Prospect of Death which was no more than that the subtle Atoms which made up his Soul would soon be scatter'd and dispersed he knew not where and then he should be as if he had never been But what Comfort is there in such a Dissolution Men that have deserved it may heartily wish it but they have deserved something worse and that they must expect For the just and holy God will certainly call them to an Account for all their Vices and Follies and it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God and what a miserable Case are those in who have nothing to look for but Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall consume the Adversaries of God and Religion But O the blessed Hope and joyfull Expectation that attends a spiritual Mind Especially when it is enliven'd and assisted by the powerfull Influences of Divine Grace For without that even good Men may be liable to some Dejections and Fears as to another World from the Vastness of the Change the Sense of their Failings the Weakness of their Minds and Mistrust of their own Fitness for Heaven but so great is the Goodness and Mercy of God towards them that sincerely love and fear him that he always makes their Passage safe though it be not so triumphant And although the Valley of the Shadow of Death may seem gloomy and uncomfortable at a Distance yet when God is pleased to conduct his Servants through it he makes it a happy Passage into a State of a glorious Immortality and everlasting Life and Peace To which God c. SERMON IX Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL ON Christmass-Day 1693. St. John III. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved THese words are part of the Gospel written by St. John wherein he doth not only fill up the History of our Saviour with many particular Discourses omitted by the other Evangelists but the whole seems to be penned in another Strain and with some different Purpose and Design It 's true that they all agree in the same general End of Writing which St. John mentions viz. That we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have life through his Name but they make use of several Methods as most agreeable to the Circumstances of the Time and Place and Occasion of their Writing St. Matthew wrote his Gospel for the sake of the Jews and therefore he begins with the Genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham and shews that the Prophecies were accomplished in him and how he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it and that his Miracles and Doctrine were sufficient to convince them that he was the promised Messias St. Mark wrote only a summary Account of the most material Passages relating to the Person and Doctrine of Christ for the sake of the Gentiles St. Luke takes a larger Compass and puts things into an exacter Order of Time as himself tells us and adds many Circumstances relating to the Birth of Christ and the general Advantage to Mankind by his coming that he was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as the Glory of his People Israel St. John succeeding the rest found two great things which gave him occasion of writing his Gospel 1. The perverting the Doctrine of Christ by the Ebionites and Cerinthians who pretended to give great Honour to Christ as an excellent Person both for Wisdom and Holiness but yet so that he was but a meer Man to whom God upon his Baptism had given extraordinary Gifts and Assistances of his Holy Spirit 2. The other was that the Gospel which was designed for the Universal good of the World met with such cold Reception and Entertainment from it He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not What could be more uneasie to so true a lover of Christ as St. John was than that he lived to see his Doctrine perverted and his Design in so great a Measure rendred ineffectual And therefore in the writing of this Gospel 1. He begins after another manner and in a very short significant and lofty Style he sets forth his Eternal Being and Godhead In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
and in an instant to knock off their Fetters and bid them be free but he makes use of all the gentle and effectual Methods of Perswasion not only by his Words but by his own Example that they might learn by him to despise this World who had so little in it and to prepare for that from whence he came where their Happiness should be unconceivable and without End III. The third Principle is That no such particular Favour of God is to be expected as long as his Displeasure is so just against Mankind for Sin and no effectual Means used to remove it The truth is the whole Scheme of the Gospel turns upon this Point whether God be really displeased with Mankind for their Sins so as to need a Reconciliation For if all that the Scripture so often expresses concerning the Wrath and Displeasure of God against Mankind for Sin be only figurative and hyperbolical Expressions then the whole Design of the Gospel must be given up as a meer Scheme for if God be not really displeased there is no need of Reconciliation if no need of that then there can be no need of Christ's coming to reconcile us to God and if he did not come for that End we have no Reason to believe the Scripture which affirms it over and over And I do not think any stronger Argument can be brought to prove a thing than that the most emphatical Expressions are so often applied to that purpose by such Persons who used all Sincerity and Plainness So that this matter as to the Scripture is clear if any thing can be made so and if nothing can I cannot see how it is possible to have a written Rule of Faith since all Writings are capable by Ambiguity of Words and Phrases by the different Use of Particles and Transposition of Letters and Syllables of very different Interpretations But this is not my present Business which is rather to consider the Natural Sense and Reason of Mankind as to this matter We cannot in Reason suppose any such Passion in an infinitely perfect being as that which we call Wrath and Anger in Men. For that is a violent Perturbation arising from Surprise and Indignation but there can be no Disorder or Surprise in a Being of infinite Wisdom Therefore Wrath in God must suppose two Things 1. A just Cause of Displeasure given by us 2. Such a just Displeasure following upon it as will end in the severe Punishment of Offenders if it be not removed Now whether there be a just Cause of Displeasure or not must depend upon the Natural Differences of Good and Evil. And it is impossible that any one who exercises his Reason can judge amiss in this Matter Not that all the Differences of Good and Evil are equally clear for all Propositions in Mathematicks are not so but it is sufficient to our Purpose that the general Principles are so and the greater Instances so that no Man can think that he acts as much according to Reason in one as the other And can any one of common Sense imagine God to be as well pleased with him who blasphemes his Name and despises his Service and hates Religion as with one that fears and Honours him and endeavours to please him Can he be as well pleased with him that assassines his Parents as with him that obeys them With him that robs and defrauds his Neighbour as with him that relieves him in his Necessities With him who subdues his disorderly Passions as with him that gives way to them With him who is cruel inhuman and persidious as with him that is faithfull and just and compassionate These are but some of the Instances of the Differences of Good and Evil but they are so plain and notorious that a Man must renounce the common Principles of Humanity who doth not own them And to say there are no such Differences because there have been Mistakes and Disputes about some things accounted Good and Evil is as absurd as to say there is no Difference between Day and Night because in the Twilight it is hard to distinguish them But if there be such a real Difference in the Nature of Humane Actions and God be a strict observer of them he being a God of infinite Holiness and Justice cannot but be offended with Mankind's wilfull Omission of what they know to be good and Commission of what they know to be evil But here we must distinguish between God's Displeasure against the Actions and against the Persons who commit them The former is a necessary Consequent upon the Evil of Sin and can never be removed for God is irreconcileable to Sin But those who commit Sin are his Creatures and therefore capable of Mercy and Forgiveness There is always a Desert of Punishment following upon Sin but there is no inseparable Connection between the Sin and the Punishment for the great and wise Governour of the World acts not by Necessity of Nature in punishing Sinners but by the Methods of Wisdom and Justice And if the saving of Sinners upon their Repentance can be made agreeable to these such is the Mercy and Goodness of God to his Creatures that there is great Reason to hope for a Reconciliation For although God be displeased he is not implacable although he be justly provoked to punish Sinners yet there is no absolute Necessity that he should nor any irreversible Decree that he will do it and therefore notwithstanding this Displeasure of God there is a way still left open for Reconciliation which leads to the next IV. The fourth Principle is That if God be thus displeased with the Sins of Mankind and yet there is a Possibility of Reconciliation between God and them he alone is the most proper and competent Judge on what Terms this Reconciliation may be obtained For being both the offended Party and the supreme Governour he hath the sole Right on both Accounts of fixing those Terms and Conditions upon which he will forgive Sins and receive the Offenders into Favour It is a vain thing for any to argue from one Attribute of God against another Some are apt to flatter themselves that God will easily forgive Sins because he is mercifull but they ought to consider that he is just and holy as well as mercifull and there is as much ground to fear that he will not forgive because he is just as there can be to hope that he will because he is mercifull And thus it is impossible for a considering Man to satisfie his own Mind as to God's forgiving his Sins unless he be some way assured from himself that he will do it And therefore a particular Revelation in this Case must be made if God designs to bring Men to Repentance by the Hopes of Forgiveness But meer Repentance can never make any satisfaction to God for the Breach of his Laws Suppose a Sinner come to himself and is heartily sorry that he hath offended God so many ways and with
to the Divine Perfections which are all wholly Spiritual then from the same Râ—ason we must remove all Perturbations from it which are as inconsistent with the absolute Perfection of it as Eyes and Ears and Hands and Feet are although they are all mention'd in Scripture From whence we justly inferr that there is a wonderfull Condescention to the ordinary Capacities and common Apprehensions of Mankind in the Language of Scripture concerning the Divine Nature which makes deeper impressions on meaner understandings and those who are of finer thoughts will see cause to attribute only such a Sense of things relating to God as is consistent with his Infinite and Divine Perfections But what now shall we say to this Tenderness and Compassion of God towards penitent Sinners Can he be moved by our Trouble and Sorrow and Acts of Contrition for our Sins If we be righteous what doth it profit the Almighty And if we be evil how can it hurt him And if when we have sinned we repent we do no more than is fitting for us but why should we imagine the Great and Wise God should have Compassion upon us when we become sensible of our own Folly For when we sin against God wilfully deliberately knowingly habitually we do what lies in us to provoke him to Wrath and Indignation against us we reject his wise Government we slight his righteous Laws we preferr the pleasing our corrupt Inclinations and sensual Lusts before our heavenly Father And what can be more provoking to him than to be so despised by one who had his Being and all the Comforts of Life from him Suppose now such a disobedient rebellious Son as here in the Parable be made sensible of his Folly is his Father bound to receive him Was it not his own choice to go from him If he hath suffered by his Folly he may thank himself for it and if his Father lets him alone in it he hath no cause to complain But such was the Tenderness of the Father towards his repenting Son that he shew'd the greatest Compassion imaginable for he did not stay at home expecting his Son 's solemn Submission before his Family but he ran towards him and fell upon his Neck and kissed him What Conceptions now ought we to have of God's Compassion towards penitent Sinners answerable to all this This I shall endeavour to clear in these Particulars 1. That God's hatred is not primarily against Persons who are his Creatures but against that which is evil which is none of his making and against Persons only so far as they are corrupted with Evil. Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest Wickedness faith the Psalmist God hates nothing for its own sake but Sin and for the sake of that he hates all Workers of Iniquity 2. There may be Good-will towards the Person of a Sinner at the same time when God discovers the hatred of his Sins I do not say God takes any Pleasure in him while he goes on in Sin for that is against the Eternal Rules of Righteousness in God but that he may have so much Good-will towards him as to design to reduce him from his evil Ways And this every Father finds in himself towards a disobedient Son while he hates his evil Courses yet he would make use of the best Methods to bring him to himself and to his Duty And upon this is grounded that Love and Kindness of God towards Mankind in sending his Son to be our Saviour and all the Promises and Invitations which are made to Sinners in the Doctrine of the Gospel 3. It is very agreeable to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness for God to shew himself full of Pity and Compassion towards penitent Sinners i. e. so as to forgive them their former Sins and to receive them into his Favour For Pity and Compassion in God is to be judged not according to the inward Motions we find in our selves but according to these two things 1. A readiness to do good to his Creatures according to their Necessities Which being in general is his Bounty and Goodness but considered with respect to the Persons of Sinners it is his Clemency or readiness to forgive and with respect to the Punishment they deserve by their Sins it is his Mercy and Pity Which in us is Aegritudo ex Miseriâ— alterius and therefore called Misericordia because the Heart is touched with the Sense of another's Misery but we are not so to apprehend it in God but that such is the Goodness of God towards repenting Sinners that he is as willing to shew Mercy as they are to repent 2. God's Pity and Compassion lies in the proper Effects of it which here in the Case of the Prodigal were passing by his former Extravagances and receiving him into as much Favour as if he had not gone astray This my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found Those who think they stand not in need of so much pardoning Mercy as others do are apt to repine at the Favour shew'd to great Sinners when they repent and therefore the Elder Brother could not bear the expressing so much kindness towards such a disobedient Son though now a Penitent But that there is nothing disagreeing to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness in such Compassion towards penitent Sinners will more fully appear if we consider 1. That God is not bound to deal with Sinners according to the utmost Rigour and Severity of his Justice Because he is under no fatal Necessity no superiour Law and therefore may act freely in the forgiving Offenders as seems best to his Infinite Wisdom The whole Race of Mankind is a perpetual Evidence that God doth not act according to the strictness of his Justice for if he had dealt with them after their Sins or rewarded them according to their Iniquities their Spirits would have failed before him and the Souls which he had made they had been long since destroy'd from the Face of the Earth and not suffer'd to continue in their Provocations But God hath not only forborn Sinners long when he might justly have punished them but he gives them many real Blessings and Comforts of Life freely and bountifully Now if God deal so mercifully with Sinners while they continue such is there not greater Reason to suppose he will be far more so when they cease to be such 2. A penitent Sinner doth what in him lies to vindicate God's Honour I do not say he can make satisfaction to Divine Justice for that is impossible for him to do and God hath provided for that by his own Son whom he hath made a Propitiation for the Sins of the World But a true Penitent takes all the Shame and Dishonour to himself he clears the Justice of God's Government and the Equity of his Laws and owns himself guilty of unspeakable Folly in his Disobedience O how justly saith he might God have taken me away in the midst of my Sins when my Conscience checked
me for my Sins and yet I had no heart to repent of them When I could not but see my danger and yet was unwilling to come out of it I can never be sufficiently thankfull for so great a Mercy as his bringing me to my self hath been I had gone on in the same secure stupid senseless Condition that others lie in if he had not throughly awaken'd me and roused me out of my impenitent State How dreadfull had my Condition for ever been if my first awakening had been in the Flames of Hell Nothing but infinite Goodness and Patience would have waited so long for the Repentance of such an Offender as I have been I have sinned so often that I am ashamed to think of the Number of my Transgressions so deeply that I am confounded at the thoughts of them so foolishly that I am unworthy to be called thy Son who have acted so unlike thy Children so the prodigal Son here speaks to his Father And if thou wouldst admit me but to the meanest Condition of thy Servants I shall ever esteem it as the greatest Privilege of my Life and endeavour to serve Thee for the future tho' in the lowest Capacity Thus the repenting Prodigal goes on v 19. And in a suitable Manner every true Penitent behaves himself towards God with great Humility and a deep Sense of his own Unworthiness and is thereby rendred more capable of Divine Favour For God reâ—steth the proud but giveth grace to the humble And therefore it is very agreeable to infinite Wisdom and Goodness to shew pity towards a truly humble and penitent Sinner For a broken and contrite heart he will not despise 3. If God were not so full of Compassion to penitent Sinners there would have been no incouragement for Sinners to repent but they must have sunk into everlasting Despair For if God should forgive none that Sin then all Mankind must be condemned to Eternal Misery for all have sinned and there is not a just Man upon Earth who sinneth not and so the best and worst and all forts of Sinners must here suffer together which would have taken away all the Notion of any such thing as Mercy and Clemency in God towards Mankind But if we set bounds to it as to some particular kinds and degrees of sinning we limit that which is infinite we determine what we know not viz. how far God's Mercy doth extend we destroy the Power of Divine Grace in changing and reforming the worst of Men. But the Scriture hath recorded some remarkable Instances of great Sinners who have been great Penitents and upon that have been pardon'd such as Manasses and some others that no penitent Sinner might be discouraged in the Work of Repentance For a true Penitent searching to the bottom and setting all his Sins before him with their several Aggravations can be kept from Despair by nothing less than the Infinite Mercy of God to those who truly repent 4. Because there is nothing so provoking in Sin as obstinate Impenitency and Continuance in it It is true God hates all Sin for its own sake but not all equally some Sins being of a higher Nature than others are being against plainer Light stronger Convictions more easie Commands stricter Obligations than others are but yet it is the Temper of a Sinner's Mind which is most provoking when Sins are committed not through Infirmity or sudden Surprize or a violent Temptation but habitually knowingly wilfully especially when they are done in Contempt of God and his Laws and with an obstinate Resolution to continue in the Practice of them This is so provoking to God that the chief Reason of the severe Punishments of Sinners in another World is taken from thence because God hates obstinate and impenitent Sinners And thus he will by no means acquit the Guilty There is a Sin unto death saith St. John and there is a Sin not unto death There is a Sin unto death which Christ hath said he will never pardon and that is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost a Sin which none who do truly own Christianity are capable of committing But is there then no Sin unto death to them Yes it is possible for Men who have clear Convictions in their minds of the Truth of the Gospel to act so plainly and wilfully and directly against it as either to provoke God to take them away by an extraordinary Judgment and so it is properly a Sin unto death or to withdraw his Grace from them and leave them to the hardness of their own Hearts and so it becomes a Sin unto a Spiritual death But besides these Cases every wilfull Sinner who adds Impenitency to his Sin commits the Sin unto death because there is no other Condition of Pardon allow'd by the Gospel without true Repentance How infinite is the Goodness of God that excludes no Sinners from the hopes of Pardon who have a heart to repent sinâ—erely of their Sins And how just is God in the final Punishment of those Sinners who still go on in their Sins and refuse to repent after all the Invitations and Incouragements which are given them to that End Can we in Reason suppose that God should stoop lower towards Sinners than to offer them pardon of former Sins if they do repent and to tell them they must expect no Mercy in another World if they do not repent But suppose we are come thus far that we are convinced we must repent what Course and Method must we take in order to it Of this briefly and so to conclude Secondly I know no better than to follow the Example of the prodigal Son here And in the first place to form a present sincere fixed and peremptory Resolution of doâ—ng it I will arise and go to my Father c. If we suffer Convictions to cool upon our Minds the force and spirit of them will soon be gone It hath been of late observed by the strictest Enquirers into Nature that the beginnings of Life are very small and hardly discernible It is but as a spark that appears and may easily be exstinguished but if it be incouraged by a continual heat a wonderfull Alteration soon follows and the distinct parts begin to be formed the first which is discerned is the Eye but the Fountain of Life is in the Heart and when the Course of the Bloud is there setled the other parts come to their due formation with greater quickness This may be a Representation of the first Beginnings of Spiritual Life that which answers to the Eye is the Conviction of the Mind where the inward Change first appears that which answers to the Heart is Resolution and when that is fixed a mighty Reformation will soon follow But Spiritual Life as well as Natural is in its first Beginnings a very nice and tender thing it may be easily stopt and very hardly recovered It is therefore of very great Concernment to keep up the Warmth of our
Assistance to sincere and humble Minds And that Assistance carries a Lumen Fidei into the Mind as Aquinas calls it 2. 2. a 3 ad 2. and by that he saith the Mind is united to Truth that its Assent is only fixed upon it and therefore there is no danger of Damnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and are thus illuminated by Faith in him Not that this is an Argument to convince others who have not that inward Sense which they have but the same Holy Spirit which did at first indite them may give such an inward and effectual Testimony as to the Truth of the Matter contained in them that from thence they may firmly conclude these Books to contain the Word of God And that Assurance which the Minds of good Men have from the Influence of Divine Grace may be more effectual and powerfull in them than all the pretended Infallibility or Demonstration in the World It is certain those cannot be deceived whom the Holy Spirit teacheth and the best and wisest of the Antient Schoolmen did make the great firmness and certainty of Faith not to depend on outward Motives but on inward Grace which so inlightned the Mind and fixed the Inclinations of the Soul that nothing is able to remove it This sort of Faith is no blind Assent but after all the Evidence which it hath to make its Assent reasonable it takes so fast a hold of Divine Truths by discerning the excellency and value of them that he that hath it is willing to let go any thing rather than that and although the Apprehension of Faith be not so clear as that of Science yet the Hypostasis as the Apostle calls it may be so firm that no Temptations may be able to shake it And he that can die for his Religion hath a stronger and better Fâ—ith than he that thinks himself never so infallible in the Grounds of it That is a true Divine Faith which purifies the Heart and thereby enlightens the Mind which works by Love and not by cavilling and wrangling about the Grounds of it which overcomes the World and not that which is overcome by the Temptations of it And such a Faith and only such a one will carry us to Heaven when if it were possible for us to have the utmost Infallibility in the Act of believing yet if it did not work effectually on our Hearts and Lives we might go infallibly to Hell And so I shall conclude this Discourse with the second Sense of the Obligation which lies on those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord so to walk in him i. e. to improve their sound Faith into the Practice of a good Life For alas What advantage will it be to us to have the most Primitive and Apostolical Faith if our Works be not answerable to it Why call ye me Lord Lord saith Christ and do not the things which I say Why do we pretend to receive Christ Jesus the Lord if we do not observe his Commands It is good saith St. Paul to be zealously affected always in a good thing And no doubt our Faith is such but then let us be zealous of good Works too that we may shew our selves to be that peculiar People who are redeemed by Jesus Christ. So that our Obligation arises every way from Christ Jesus the Lord to walk in him if we consider him as our Lord so we are to obey him if as Christ Jesus so he died for us to redeem us from all iniquity We can have no pretence to live in our sins if we have received him who commands us to forsake them for then we receive and reject him at the same time Let every one that names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity saith St. Paul what should those then do that profess to receive him as their Lord who are thereby bound to yield obedience to his Laws one of the great causes of the Degeneracy of the Heathen World was the separating Religion and Morality when this was left to the Schools of Philosophers to instruct men in whereas their Religion consisted only of some Solemn Rites and Sacrifices Let us have a care of as dangerous a Separation between Faith and Works or which is all one between receiving Christ and doing his Will For those are the proper Works of the Gospel wherein we own Christ as our Lord and do them because he commands us And the Apostle hath summ'd up the whole Duty of Christians in those comprehensive words Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom c. SERMON III. Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL February the 22 d 1688 9. 1 Pet. IV. 18. And if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear THis Epistle was written by S. Peter for the Incouragement of Christians under all their Sufferings but these Words seem to carry so much Terrour and Severity in them as though none but Martyrs and Confessors could have any Reason to hope for Salvation and all others were to be left in Despair Although Mankind be not easily satisfied concerning the Punishment denounced against the Ungodly and Sinner yet the Justice of God the Equity of his Commands the Freedom of their Choice the Contempt of Grace and their wilfull and obstinate Impenitency take away all just Cause of Complaint But that the Righteous should scarcely be saved seems hardly reconcilable with the Grace and Design and Promises of the Gospel For the Righteous here are not vain proud self-conceited Hypocrites such who think they need no Repentance but such who by the Grace of God were brought off from their former Sins and were redeemed from their vain Conversation with the precious Blood of Christ who had purified their Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit Who were a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People yet of such as these it is said if the Righteous scarcely be saved But how can this agree with the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God declared in the Gospel whereby Sinners are courted and encouraged to repent with the Hopes and Promise of Salvation Did not Christ come to save Sinners and St. Paul call this a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation and yet after all shall the Righteous scarcely be saved What Joy in Heaven can there be over one Sinner that repents if after his Repentance it be so hard to come to Heaven Doth not Christ himself invite those who are weary and heavy laden to come to him with a Promise that he will give rest to their Souls But what Rest can they have who notwithstanding their coming to him do with so much difficulty attain to Eternal Rest How can that
to keep up the Life and Spirit of it that a general Design of Holiness is enough to recommend them As to positive Duties of Religion we cannot exactly fix the Time and Measure and Season of their Performance which must vary according to Circumstances but this we can say that the more Persons set themselves to the Practice of Holiness and the greater Preparation they make for another World the more they will delight in the Performance of God's Service and the more ready to embrace any Opportunities for it Those who would have all Religious Duties determined as to the Circumstances of them are like Men who would have punctual Rules set down how often two Friends should converse with each other and how long time they are to stay together True Friendship will need none of those things but will incline them to embrace the best Opportunities for mutual Conversation lest too long distance beget a Coldness first and then the Friendship dissolves It is no hard matter to pray as far as words go but to pray with Zeal and Devotion to attend upon God with that seriousness of Mind we ought to do will require our utmost Attention And it is no easie matter to keep our Minds composed and fit to converse with God in Prayer and other solemn Duties of Religion But as hard as this appears to us it is most fit and reasonable that we should do it For what an unbecoming thing it is to worship God in a careless trifling perfunctory Manner as though nothing less deserved the imploying the Vigour of our Minds about than the Service of God But how can we love him with all our Hearts if we do not serve him with all our Minds and Strength 4. Resignation of our selves to God This the Apostle calls casting all our Care upon him This is a very wise Duty if we can attain to it because it eases our Minds of many Fears and Perplexities both as to our selves and others But it is no easie thing to set our Minds free from solicitous thoughts about possible Evils We cannot mend our Condition nor prevent what is determined by our most anxious Care but we may enjoy our selves with far greater Peace and Tranquillity if we can be content to commit our selves to the best Conduct and that is of him that governs the World And whatever strugglings we may find within our selves about it yet the more we search and weigh and consider things the more we shall be satisfied that the Resignation of our selves to God as to all our Concernments in this World is the best means to calm our Passions and to abate our Fears to prevent our Impatience and so to attain to that Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is with God of great Price But if all these Duties be so necessary to our being saved and we lie under such Difficulties as to the Performance of them their appearing to be reasonable makes our Condition so much worse For to find it so hard to do what we are convinced is most reasonable to be done is one of the worst Circumstances of our Condition It 's true we do not want Faculties of Understanding and Will but what then if our Moral Indispositions make these useless to our Spiritual Advantage A Man that is like to be stifled in a large Vessel full of Downy Feathers cannoâ— complain of the hardness of what he lies upon for all things feel soft and easie about him yet he may be stifled with them our evil Habits and corrupt Inclinations have nothing that feels hard or troublesome to us but if we cannot overcome them they will certainly ruine and destroy us There is therefore a Necessity of a higher Principle of Divine Grace to enable us to break through all these Difficulties Which Grace is so abundantly promised by the Gospel to those who seek it that it comes at last to be our own fault if we be not saved II. And this helps us to reconcile the Difficulty of Salvation with the Easiness of the Terms of the Gospel For that which is not only hard but impossible to us in our own strength may by the mighty Power of Divine Grace become not only possible but easie to us And withall those things are accounted easie which bring ease and that is a light Burthen which rids one of a far harder And thus the Commands of Christ however hard in themselves to us yet being considered with the Grace of the Gospel and the blessed Effect of inward Peace which follows sincere Obedience even his Yoke which keeps us most in may be said to be easie and his Burthen which sits hardest upon us may be said to be light III. And from hence we see what Encouragement there is still for us to hope to be saved if we be righteous There is none for the Ungodly and Sinner i. e. for the profane Contemner of God and Religion or for the wicked Liver For however they may flatter themselves with vain and presumptuous hopes there is no more ground to think that the Righteous shall be saved than that the Ungodly and Sinner shall not For both are alike made known by the same Word of God But what Comfort is it may some say to hear that the Righteous are scarcely saved when we are so conscious to our selves of our own Unrighteousness If we could think our selves righteous before God there were some hopes but we are Sinners and if we should deny or excuse it we should be so much more so what hope can there be then for us To this I shall answer and conclude 1. The Righteous here spoken of were once great Sinners for St. Peter mentions their former lusts and working the Will of the Gentiles in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings and abominable Idolatries Yet these are said to be redeemed from their vain Conversation by the precious Blood of Christ and to be begotten again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible c. There is therefore not merely a Possibility of being saved but a just and grounded Hope if we renounce our former Sins and become righteous according to the Terms of the Gospel i. e. If we sincerely repent of our Sins and turn from them and live the rest of our time not to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God But if God had declared that he expected from Mankind an entire and perfect Righteousness without any Sin it were all one as to publish a general and irreversible Decree of Damnation to all for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God From whence the Apostle well argues that Men cannot save themselves But God of his infinite Pity and Mercy towards the deplorable Condition of Mankind hath found out a way to save them by the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom he hath made a propitiation for their sins Although therefore as to our selves we
here given but the sight of the eye and the way of the heart i. e. outward Appearance and inward Inclination and these are the beloved Rules of the most sensual and voluptuous Persons and they judge of Happiness only by the pursuit of them Here is nothing mention'd of Reason or Conscience or a regard to Vertue in the Restraint of Natural Inclinations Nay here is nothing of that Severity which Epicurus himself thought necessary towards the maintaining of a pleasant State of Life which he granted could never be done without some Restraint of Men's Appetites and Inclinations to the Pleasures of Sense and it is not to be imagined that Solomon should give young Men greater Liberty than the corruptest Moralists did Therefore I cannot look upon these words as a Permission for them to do what is here expressed but as a full Description of that Method of Living which the jolly and voluptuous Corrupters of Youth would instruct them in Rejoyce O young Man in thy Youth and let thine heart chear thee c. II. We have here the most powerfull Check and Restraint laid upon all these sensual Inclinations of Youth But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Which words are the wise Man's Correction of the foregoing Liberty or the Curb which Reason and Religion give to the pursuit of Natural Inclinations wherein every Word hath its force and ought to make a deep Impression upon us For 1. Know thou Thine is not then the same cafe with Creatures that have no understanding they are not capable of any Check from themselves having no Law of Reason or Conscience within them to controul or govern theâ— sensual Desires but God hath given thee not meerly a brutal Appetite but a rational Soul capable of understanding the differences of Good and Evil and the Reasons why some things which appear pleasant are very difagreeing to the Principles of humane Nature i. e. to that Order Decency Modesty and Regularity which the more elevated Frame and Capacity of Mankind do require 2. For all these things as light and vain as you esteem them as soon as they are over and forgotten by you as secretly and closely as they are committed as much as you endeavour to palliate and excuse them yet but for all these things God will certainly bring thee into Judgment Therefore you have all the Reason in the world to consider what you do since every thing will be brought to Judgment whether it be good or evil as Solomon concludes this Book Which shews the great regard God hath to the Good or Evil of ouâ— Actions and if the great Judge of the World hath so certainly we ought to have it and never think our selves at liberty to do what we please in gratifying our Lusts and pursuing our Natural Inclinations to Evil. 3 God will do it If there were no God to call thee to an Account yet there are some Actions of Vertue so agreeable to Mankind and some Vices â—o loathsome and deformed that there would be sufficient cause for them to love the one and to abhorr the other If we could suppose such a Frame of things things and such sorts of Beings as we now see and no God to make them which is most absurd and unreasonable yet we must suppose these Beings to have Natures and Properties distinct from each other so that we could not imagine Men to become Beasts and therefore they must not act like them but preserve that Decorum or Agreeableness in their Actions which is suitable to the peculiar Excellencies of humane Nature And there are some Sins so much below the Dignity thereof that no Circumstances no Suppositions can make them fitting for Mankind to commit them which shews that the Nature of Good and Evil is no Arbitrary thing but is founded in the very Frame of our Beings and in the Respects we owe to our selves and to one another And since there is an Infinite and Supreme Being which hath absolute Power and Command over us and gives us both our Beings and the Comforts of our Lives it is most absurd to suppose it not to be a fault to hate his Goodness or to despise his Mercy or to slight his Power and to contemn his Authority For in all these there is something repugnant to the common Sense of Mankind and to all Principles of true Honour and Justice And there are such common Principles of Morality arising from our necessary Relation to God and each other which are of so clear and convincing Evidence that every one that considers them will grant that wicked Men may as well go about to dispute their Beings as their Sins and may as easily prove that they are not but only appear to be as that no Actions are really evil but only by false Glasses appear so to be But however vain Men may deceive themselves God will not be mocked for he not only sees and knows all our Actions but he will bring us to an Account for them 4. God will bring thee into Judgment It is a dreadfull Consideration to a Sinner that God knows all his false Steps all his secret Sins all his Falshood and Dissimulation with God and Men And there is nothing which Men of Art and Design hate more than to be discover'd and found out in all their double and deceitfull Dealings but to have these not only privately discover'd but exposed and laid open to the view of the World and not only so but to have every Circumstance examin'd and every Action scanned and that by the great Judge of all the World whom nothing can escape nothing can deceive nothing can withstand whose Justice is inflexible whose Knowledge is incomprehensible whose Power is irresistible and whose Vengeance is insuppoâ—table This we cannot but imagine must strike an awe and terrour into the Minds of Men when they are pursuing the Pleasures of Sin that for all these things God will bring them into Judgment But notwithstanding these and many other Expressions to the same purpose in Scripture wherein God hath declared that he will certainly Judge the World in Righteousness at the Great Day that the Secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed that we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and that God will render to every Man according to his Deeds And notwithstanding it is a thing in it self very reasonable from the Consideration of God's Justice and Providence and the Nature and Consequences of good and evil Actions yet the generality of Mankind go on as secure and careless as if there were no such thing or that they ought not to be concerned about it Therefore I shall not spend time in the Proof of that which I take for granted you all believe and I am sure have Reason so to do but I shall enquire into these things which are most practical and therefore proper for our Consideration at this Time 1. How a
to his former Practices If we had been to judge of Ahab in the time of his Humiliation and of David in the time of his Impenitency after his Sins of Adultery and Murther we should have thought in common Justice and Charity the latter had been the carnal and the former the spiritual minded Man But it was quite otherwise which shews that we are not to judge of Men's spiritual Condition by sudden and violent Motions whether good or bad but by that Interest which prevails with them in the whole Course of their Lives To give a general Character of a Man from some violent Passion against the Tenour of his Life would be like drawing the Picture of a Man in a Fit of an Epilepsy or a convulsive Motion of his Face And to believe a Man to be a good Man because he hath some good Moods and passionate Fits of Devotion is as if we should take a piece of rotten Wood for a true Phosphorus because it shines sometimes or suppose Judas to be a Saint because he was so much in our Saviour's Company The inward Habits and Dispositions of Men's minds may be cover'd over and disguised a great while but a tempting Occasion lays them open as no doubt Judas did not get his Habit of Covetousness of a sudden but it was still growing and ripening under a fair Appearance and when the proper Season came the secret Malignity brake forth and the Temptation of Thirty Pieces of Silver discover'd the Baseness and Hypocrisie of his Heart Sometimes the Vein of Hypocrisie lies deep and is cover'd over with such a fair out-side that no one can have Reason to mistrust it till it discovers it self and then the Corruption is found so loathsome as to render ordinary Sincerity suspicious But this is a common Fault either to be too easily deceived or too unreasonably mistrustfull there is no certainty in a Deduction from particulars but where the Causes are equal and necessary It is as absurd an Inference that there is no such thing as a spiritul Mind because some who have pretended to it have been found Carnal as that there is no such thing as common Honesty among Men because some who have long born the Name of honest Men have been found great Cheats and Impostors But when a predominant Habit doth discover it self the Person must bear that Title and Denomination which it gives him 3. A Spiritual Mind is known by the general Conformity of Actions to a Divine and Spiritual Rule and so a carnal Mind by following the Bent and Inclinations of the Flesh. And there lies a great Part of the Difference for such who lay no Restraint upon their Natural Inclinations must needs be carnally minded because the Flesh as St. Chrysostom observes is not taken by St. Paul meerly for the Body but for the corrupt Part of our selves as consisting of Soul and Body It is observed by Cicero 3. de Rep. That Mankind came into the World in a very ill Condition with a Body naked frail and infirm with a Mind subject to Troubles dejected with Fears impatient of Labour prone to Lust but in the midst of all this there is a certain Divine Flame of Wit and Understanding which lies as it were buried and overwhelmed but with great Care and Industry may be so preserved and improved as to command our Appetites and governour Passions But alas How little doth the Reason of Mankind signifie to the greatest Part of them It helps them to see their Folly and like a Sea-light to a sinking Ship in a dark Night makes those who are aboard to behold their Misery without helping them out of it If the Frame of human Nature be considered in it self and by way of Speculation we have no Cause to complain of it for as God hath given us inferiour Faculties suitable to the Constitution of our Bodies so he hath likewise Superiour which are capable of controlling and covering them But when Habit and Custom is joyned with a vicious Inclination how little doth human Reason signifie All the Considerations of Natural Order and Decency and Regularity and good Example are easily over-born by the strong Propensities of a corrupt Inclination which hurries Men on to satisfie first their brutal Appetites and leaves Consideration till afterwards So that Reason seems by such an After-game rather given to torment than to reform them Therefore the wise God hath superadded his own Law to inforce that of Reason by a greater Authority that Men may think themselves more concerned to take care of their Actions when they must give an Account of them to one infinitely above them But what can Mankind do in such a wretched Condition For the Law of it self is but like a Toyl to a wild Beast the more he struggles the more he is intangled so that he sees his Misery by it but not his Remedy But such is the Goodness and Mercy of God towards Mankind that he hath never refused to accept those who have sincerely endeavour'd to do his Will according to the Measure of that Assistance which he hath given them Thus we find Characters of Men in all Ages who were said to be Righteous before God just and upright and perfect Men and yet some of the most eminent of these had remarkable failings as Noah Abraham and Job yet they had extraordinary Testimonies of God's approving their Integrity and passing by those Faults which were contrary to the general Design and Tenour of their Lives I confess we meet with two Instances to the contrary in Scripture which deserve our Consideration and those were of extraordinary Persons too eminent for their long and faithfull Service of God and yet upon single Faults committed by them he was very severe with them Which may seem to take much off from this Lenity and Goodness of God towards such who have a general Sincerity of Mind towards him But if we more strictly consider these two Cases we shall find there was something very provoking in the Circumstances of them which made God so much more displeased with the committing them For they were Sins committed by them in their publick Capacities and about such things wherein the Honour of God was more particularly concerned The first is the Case of Moses who was a great Pattern of Wisdom and Meekness and Faithfulness for forty Years together in the Conduct of a very froward People in the Wilderness yet at last he happen'd to fail in some Part of his Duty and God was so angry with him that he would not hear his Prayer for going into Canaan but he cut him off in the Wilderness at last as he did the People for their Unbelief But what was this Sin of Moses which made God so highly displeased with him If we read the Passage as it is related in the History of the Fact it is not so easie to find it out The People murmured for want of Water God upon Moses his
such aggravating Circumstances as he hath done and now resolves in the Anguish of his Soul never more to return to the Practice of them This no doubt is far more pleasing to God than going on to offend still but all this is no more than a Man in justice to God and to himself is bound to do for he is bound to vindicate the Honour of God's Laws and to condemn himself for his own Folly and to return no more to the Practice of it But what amends is made by all this for the infinite Dishonour which hath been done to God and his Laws by the Violation of them The Courts of Justice among Men take no Notice of the Malefactor's Repentance however he be affected the Law must be observed and Offenders punished How then can any Persons be assured from meer Natural Reason that God will not be as tender of the Honour and Justice of his Laws as Mankind are allowed to be without any Imputation of Cruelty or Injustice If God should be exact in punishing Offenders who could complain For who can plead Not Guilty before his Maker And when a Man 's own Conscience condemns him that he hath deserved Punishment what Reason can he have from himself not to expect it And if he doth justly expect to be punished what reason can he have to hope for Forgiveness Since he knows that he deserves to be punished and therefore can never deserve to be forgiven It must be therefore a free Act of Grace and Mercy in God to forgive even penitent Sinners and upon what Terms and in what Manner he will do it depends wholly upon his own Good-will He may forgive Sins if he pleases and it is agreeable to his Natute to do it if Sinners do repent and forsake their Sins but whether God hath actually made known to us the way of Reconciliation cannot be known by any Principles of Nature because it is a Matter of Fact and must have such Proof as a thing of that Nature is capable of II. Having thus shewed how strongly the Principles of Natural Religion do make way for entertaining this Point of the Christian Doctrine as to God's sending his Son into the World in order to our Reconciliation with him and our Salvation by him it remains now to shew how justly God doth require the Belief of it from us as true for the next words tells us That he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God v. 18. This some may say is very hard Doctrine for they believe as much as they can and if they can believe no more it is no fault for no Man can be bound to believe more than he can I do not question but Nicodemus to whom these words are generally supposed to be spoken by our Saviour thought he had gone a great way when he used those words to Christ v. 2. Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no Man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him i. e. He was willing to believe him some great Prophet whom God had sent and this was a fair step for a Ruler among the Jews who were generally very unreasonable Unbelievers But Christ tells him plainly this would not do for unless he believed him to be the only begotten Son of God he could not be saved And this is the great Point That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life v. 16. Not as though meer believing this were sufficient for this carries a great many other things along with it but that since God had sent his only begotten Son into the World upon such a Message he did expect that he should be received and entertained as such upon their utmost Peril But can we believe farther than we have Reason to believe No God doâ—h not expect it from us provided that with sincere and impartial Minds we set our selves to consider and weigh the Evidence and with great Humility beg the Assistance of Divine Grace without which God may justly leave us to our Unbelief It would be too large a Subject now to lay open the several Arguments to prove that it is as evident as a Matter of Fact can be made to us that God did send his Son that the World through him might be saved Therefore I shall only mention these two things 1. That if the Matters of Fact are true concerning the History of Christ's coming as related by the Evangelists there can be no Reason to doubt his being the Son of God For he that was the most exact Pattern of Humility and Self-denial not only frequently assumes this Title to himself and his most intimate Disciples affirm it of him but God himself gave the most ample and convincing Testimony to it by his miraculous Birth and a Voice from Heaven to that Purpose at his Baptism by a long Train and Series of publick and usefull Miracles to attest the Truth of his Doctrine by his Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven and wonderfull Effusion of the Holy Ghost with the strange Effects which followed it so that no one who doth believe these things to be true can have any ground to say that he cannot believe Christ to be the Son of God 2. That if these Matters of Fact are not to be believed as true we cannot be bound to believe any thing but what we see our selves For the Distance of Time and Place are equal in this Case and no other Matters of Fact are so well attested as these are And so as the Apostle saith of Christ's Resurrection If he be not risen our Faith is vain so in this Case I say if there be not Reason to believe these things all Faith is vain For no other Matters of Fact which we should be accounted Fools for not believing have had such a sort of Testimony which these have had For these things were not conveyed by a silent Tradition for some time till the chief Parties were dead who could either prove or disprove them but they were publick and exposed to all Manner of Examination They were not deliver'd by one or two who were trusted with a Secret but openly avowed by a great Number of competent Witnesses who were present and none of them could be brought by the greatest Sufferings to deny or falsify or conceal any Part of their Evidence that when these things had been thus delivered by those who saw them who were most remarkable for their Innocency and Integrity in the next Ages they were examined and enquired into by Men of Sagacity and Learning who upon the strictest Search found no Reason to suspect their Testimony and therefore heartily embraced and defended the Christian Faith And from thence they have been conveyed down to us not by
By which I do not mean any fancifull Notions or Pretences to it but the true and real publick Interest of the Nation which consists in the Preservation of our Religion and Laws The main Duty of this kind which I shall insist upon is the laying aside all Heats and Animosities and Distinctions of Parties and minding and carrying on that which is the undoubted common Interest of us all What is the Meaning of all those Jealousies and Suspicions which are among us when we all profess to own the same Religion the same Laws and the same Government This is a very melancholy Subject to speak of for this unseasonable Difference of Parties among our selves is like a flaming Meteor in the Air we can hardly keep our selves from looking upon it and yet cannot behold it without some kind of Terror and Amazement It is disputed among the Casuists whether if a Man sees two Men fighting with each other he be bound to part them to his own Hazard and the general Resolution is that if he be in a private Capacity he is not but in a publick he is I hope the publick Capacity I appear in here at this time will excuse my interposing to allay such Heats and Animosities as are not only of dangerous Consequence but great Sins And therefore unless I would be guilty of omitting a Duty my self I must and will lay open the Mischief of such divided Interests as the Difference of Parties carries along with them When God had given Children to Rebekah while they were yet unborn and in their Mother's Womb she found them struggling within her to such a Degree as made her in a Consternation to cry out If it be so why am I thus i. e. If God hath given me these Children for Blessings What is the meaning of this struggling between them And it is said her Concernment was so great that she went to enquire of the Lord. Some think that Melchisedek was still living at Salem and that she went to him to consult about the Consequence of it and he was a very proper Person for it for he was King of Righteousness and King of Peace And those are the best Antidotes against the Strugglings and Animosities of those who have the same common Interest and Obligations We need not to consult any Oracle in this Case for St. Paul hath told us that if we bite and devour one another not like Canibals but like different Parties living in Hatred and Malice and Animosity to each other take heed saith he that ye be not consumed one of another As if he had said Things cannot always continue at this pass the inward Fires if not suppressed will break out at last and in Probability end in your mutual Destruction Nothing hath more puzzled the Wits of Men in this inquisitive Age than to give an Account of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea but a great Man of our Nation hath told us that we need not run to the Moon or other remoter Causes for the true Reason of it is nothing else but the clashing of the Waters of two mighty Seas crossing each other and therefore where there are no such contrary Motions there is no such Ebbing and Flowing We have too much of this Ebbing and Flowing upon Land both as to our Condition and Expectation But whence comes it Is it not from two Parties among us crossing and striving to overtop and overpower each other And till we unite and join in the same common Current we have little Cause to hope for a State of Peace and Tranquility Our Saviour tells us a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand I need not tell you of what Kingdom he speaks but it was such a one where there would be no Subtilty or Diligence wanting in the several Parties as to carrying on their Designs but he looks on an united common Interest so necessary to the Preservation of Government that he declares that no kind of Society can be supported without it If we then regard the Interest of our Nation or of our Religion if we would avoid the Shame and Reproach of destroying by our Divisions what we pretended to value above our Lives we must lay aside our mutual Jealousies and Suspicions we must abate our Heats and Animosities we must unite and join in the things that belong to our Peace But if they be hid from our eyes then I am afraid what St. Paul said of the Gospel may be too truly applied to the things of our Peace If they be hid they are hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded their eyes For it is too apparent that the true Ground of the Contention of the several Parties is not Matter of Conscience or Religion or the common Interest of the Nation but about Power and Superiority over each other which if it be carried on in humane Probability can end in nothing but mutual Destruction Which God of his Mercy prevent II. Men cannot without Sin omit the doing those Duties which their Places do require from them For those are intended for a publick Benefit Those who study to be quiet and to do their own business are not only the best Christians but the best Instruments of the publick Good Whereas Men of turbulent restless and ambitious Minds who make abundance of Noise and Clamour are like Wasps always flying and buzzing about and very angry and peevish and discontented but are nothing so usefull as the more silent and industrious Bees which make the best of every thing and serve the common Interest by it Every Society of Men is a Body made up of Head and Members knit and compacted together by Joints and Bands but all have their several Uses and Functions and while these are duly performed the whole is preserved but if the Feet should mutiny against the other Parts because they bear the Burthen of the whole or the Stomach that it is loaded and oppressed with what serves for the Nourishment of all or the Head that it must direct and contrive and manage all what would the Effect be of such Complaints and Discontents at their own Share but that the whole Body must suffer by them While all the Materials of a Building are kept in their due Place and Order the whole is strengthened and supported but if they start out of their Places and tumble one upon another the whole must fall There are always some who love to carry on their own Ends under publick Pretences and if those be not attained they matter not what becomes of all other Interests although their own must suffer with the rest These are like the Ivy to a flourishing Tree which seems to embrace it and stick close to it but it is for its own Advantage but at the same time it weakens it and hinders its Growth and if it falls it must perish together with it But there are others who by the very
Yet taking altogether our Saviour tells them They ought to watch and pray that they enter not into Temptation and he gives the Reason for it in the following words The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak 2. In which words he gives an account of the reason of the Inconstancy and Insufficiency of good Resolutions viz. that although the Spirit be willing yet there is something we carry about us which weakens our best Resolutions and betrays us into Temptations our Flesh is weak which being so near us as to be a part of our selves makes our Case more dangerous and enforces the necessity of Watchfulness and Prayer But here arises one of the most useful necessary and important Cases that relates to practical Christianity which I shall first set down in its full Force and then endeavour to clear it The Case is this how far and in what Circumstances the weakness of the Flesh doth lessen the guilt of Sin which is committed by it If it be not an Extenuation of the Sin why doth our Saviour mention it in such a manner And if it be then these Inconveniencies follow 1. It seems to abate the necessity of our Care and Watchfulness if the Sin be lessened through the weakness of the Flesh which is unavoidable in this imperfect State 2. It seems to be a fair Plea and Excuse for the greatest part of the Sins of Mankind For 1. The Original inclination to Sin in Mankind comes from the weakness of the Flesh the very frame of humane Nature being such as exposes them to continual Temptations There is a natural Combat between the Flesh and the Spirit for the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other as the Apostle speaks and all Mankind find it too true Now wherever the Flesh is there are Inclinations agreeable to it and these being contrary to the Dictates of the Mind all the Sins of the Flesh will appear to come from the weakness of the Flesh. 2. The frequent Commission of the same Sins will be laid upon the weakness of the Flesh. For the generality of Mankind do not sin out of defiance to God or his Laws or with an obstinate Resolution to sin for they know their Duty and wish they could perform it but alas The Flesh is too hard for the Spirit in them They have many Convictions in their Minds many good Purposes and serious Resolutions at some times and if they do sin it is not with their whole Wills for they have great strugglings and checks of Conscience within even while they commit those Sins And therefore what can their continuing in sin be so properly attributed to as to the weakness of the Flesh. 3. Relapses into the same sin after Repentance seems to proceed from the weakness of the Flesh. For he that hath once smarted severely for his Sins and suffered under the Agonies of Conscience for them he that hath gone so far as not meerly to lament his Folly and to abhor his Wickedness but to make solemn Vows and Promises and Resolutions never more to return to the Practice of them it is hard to conceive that such a one should fall into his Sins again with his whole Mind and Soul for the Light of Conscience when it is once throughly kindled is not easily put out it is a secret Fire which burns inward and can hardly be extinguished and all those who sin against Conscience the Dictates of their Minds are right while they commit their Sins and therefore even these Sins seem to be excused by the weakness of the Flesh. But on the other side the Scripture is plain and express that Sins which do come from the Flesh do exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven The works of the Flesh are manifest saith St. Paul Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness c. Drunkenness Revelling and such like which are properly Sins of the Flesh. Of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And in another place For this ye know that no Whoremonger nor unclean Person nor Covetous Man who is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometâ— the wrath of God on the Children of Disobedience Would God be so severe under the Dispensation of his Mercy to punish Mankind with utter exclusion from Heaven and eternal Misery for Sins which came meerly from the weakness of the Flesh Then indeed there were just cause to bewail the sad Condition of Humanity born under one Law to another bound created Sick commanded to be Sound But God will vindicate his Justice at the great Day and Mankind shall be fully satisfied that none shall be damned for the meer weakness of the Flesh but for the Sins of their Will and Choice That as they had evil Inclinations from the Flesh so they had good Inclinations from the Grace of God and the Law of their Minds ought to have governed and kept under the Law of their Members that others by the same Assistance which was offered to them have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof That the Grace of God doth enable them to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World That if Men do fail of the Grace of God it is through their own fault that those who relapse into sin after Repentance and escaping the pollutions of the World Their latter end is worse than the beginning and in short If Men do live after the Flesh they shall die but if through the Spirit they do mortifie the Deeds of the Body they shall live All which shews That there is so great a Possibility of fubduing the Inclinations of the Flesh that if Men neglect it and give way to the fulfilling of them this very thing will be imputed to them as a wilfull and damning Sin But here the Difficulty still rises for Christ supposes that his own Disciples even the most forward and the best resolved might fall through the infirmity of the Flesh and they did so upon no great Temptation as appears by St. Peter's denying his Master in so dreadful a manner upon so slight a Provocation as the Damsels saying to him Thou also wast wâ—â—h Jesus of Galilee What a mean low and timorous Spirit had possessed St. Peter at that time Was this he who but a few hours before said That though he should die with him he would not deny him Lord what is Man Verily in his best Estate he is altogether Vanity What St. Peter deny his Lord who made that Confession of him which Christ owned was not revealed to him by Flesh and Blood but by his Father in Heaven viz. That he was
of Reason and there is less of time and Deliberation and Contrivance in the one than in the other But when Anger goes inward instead of breaking forth when it gets to the Heart it then degenerates into Malice and Revenge and then it hath the greatest Aggravations going along with it 3. As to the manner of Committing If it be committed Presumptuously it is so much the more aggravated And that consists in these things 1. The lowest degree of Presumption is when a Sin is committed of set Purpose not only with Deliberation but with Contrivance Design and Resolution Thus by the Law a Man was said to kill his Neighbour Presumptuously when he lay in wait to do it Thus the Psalmist opposes presumptuous Sins to those which are committed through Ignorance or Inadvertency And where there is a Will bent and set to commit Sin there must be an inward and secret Contempt of God and his Laws as Nehemiah expresses the presumptuous sinning of their Forefathers They dealt proudly and harden'd their Necks and hearkend not to the Commandments and refused to obey So that where there is obstinacy and wilful Continuance in Sin there Men are said to sin Presumptuously If it be done with open Contempt and Defiance to God and his Law This the Scripture calls sinning with a high Hand and such who do are said to reproach the Lord and to despise the word of the Lord. This saith Maimonides is beyond sinning out of Inclination or from the Power of evil Habits or Custom but it is with a malicious Design to bring the Law of God into Contempt and Dishonour And this in respect of the Gospel is the sinning wilfully which the Author to the Hebrews speaks of whereby they tread under foot the Son of God and count the Blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of Grace Which implies a malicious Design to reproach the Gospel 2. As to Infirmities with respect to our present State the meaning is what those failings are which are consistent with a State of Grace and Salvation now under the Gospel To resolve this we have but one certain Rule that is whatever failings are consistent with the Terms of Salvation are allowed for Infirmities by the Gospel And so Infirmities are opposed to such Sins as put those who commit them out of the State of Grace and Salvation If God were so strict under the Covenant of Grace as to require perfect and unsinning Obedience there could be no allowance for Infirmities because even those are a breach of the Law of God and a Deviation from a perfect Rule And if God should be exact to mark all Irregularities or whatever is done amiss who can stand before his Tribunal The best Men in the world have reason to pray with the Psalmist Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified For if God were so severe to make no Abatements for Failings and Imperfections it were impossible for Mankind to be saved But what then doth the Gospel mean with all its Promises of Salvation and the hopes it gives of eternal Life If Christ's own Disciples were in a State of Salvation there must be an allowance made for Infirmities and Imperfections which we find them often charged with in the History of our Saviour What meant their vain and eager Disputes about Superiority and Pre-eminence and that at the most unseasonable time when they were at Table with him just before his Suffering Lord what a time was this for them to contend who should be accounted the greatest What meant that passionate Zeal in James and John to call for Fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans when they knew it was not a particular dis-respect to our Saviour which made them so rude but the common Quarrel between the Samaritans and the Jews How many Errors and Mistakes were they liable to even while our Saviour taught them and those about very weighty Points as the Nature of his Kingdom the necessity of his Death and Resurrection What Fears and Dejections and disorders were they all under upon our Saviour's apprehension though but a little before they had all resolved to die with him rather than forsake him What was there now under all these Infirmities which made these Disciples to be in a State of Salvation Nothing certainly but their hearty and sincere Love to Christ which they manifested before by their constant adhering to him and afterwards by continuing to serve him So that our Rule in this Case is That whatever is consistent with the Love of Christ and with a sincere and constant endeavour to do his Will will be allowed for Infirmities under the Gospel i. e. for such Irregularities which are consistent with a State of Salvation To make this Rule more useful we must consider 1. What Failings are not consistent with it 2. What sort of Failings are consistent 1. What Failings are not consistent And those are of three kinds 1. Such as come from an habitual Carelessness or a general Neglect of our Duty with respect to God and another World When Persons do not regard what Duties they omit or what Sins they Practise it is impossible they should have any true Love to God or to their own Souls For the first thing which springs from thence is a Care to please God without which there is no Salvation But there are too many in the world who regard no more than how to live easily and pleasantly in it a fair Estate and Reputation and therefore avoid great and scandalous Sins and the gross Neglect of God's publick Worship but never mind inward and secret Sins such as evil Habits the violence of Passions the vanity of their Minds being carried away with the pleasing Temptations of a deceitful World without serious considering or looking into their own Temper and Disposition which may be very vain and sensual and therefore unfit for Heaven though they be not remarkable for Profaneness or any gross Impiety But the Gospel requires a spiritual Temper and Disposition of Soul to qualifie Persons for Heaven and where ever that is there will be a constant Care to avoid being overcome by the Temptations of an alluring and sinful World 2. The habitual Practice of any known Sins such I mean as the Scripture saith Those who commit them shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And as to these St. James his Rule is Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point he is guilty of all This seems to be very severe Doctrine now under the Covenant of Mercy but we are to consider that by one Point he doth not mean any one Act of sin for he saith afterwards That in many things we offend all but he means any one sort or kind of known Sins It was a common Doctrine among the Jews that if a Person were remarkable for keeping
think that God is pleased meerly with the torment we put our selves to What Conceptions must we have of God then I do not deny but reason teaches us to moderate our Appetites and not to indanger our sensual Inclinations to Rest and Ease too much because of ill Consequences But there is a great deal of difference between a moral Government of our selves and making those things a part of Religion and imagining that God is pleased with our meer doing them Which was the Principle which carried the Idolaters of old to Sacrifice their Children to Molochi because God would be best pleased with that which was the most against their natural Inclination to do 3. That God is more pleased with Duties of Worship than with moral Duties From hence they think to make amends for the Miscarriages of their Lives by diligence in Religious Duties This was the Foundation of Pharisaism i. e. of Hypocrisie among the Jews Their Principle was That God valued nothing so much as his own immediate Service and therefore they took great Care about that and what related to it but for Justice and Mercy and Charity they seemed to have very little regard to them and thought God was so pleased with their Zeal for his Service that he would easily pass by other Faults And no doubt one of their great Quarrels against our Saviour was delivering the contrary Doctrine that God preferr'd Mercy before Sacrifice and that Men ought to be reconciled to their Brother before they offer'd their Gift at the Altar But still Men are prone to go on in the same way and to hope that some more than ordinary Devotion will make amends for their Sins and then it is no wonder to see such over devout at some times who are very loose and careless at others 4. That God takes more notice of the Duties we perform than of our manner of doing them As though he rather number'd than weighed them And no wonder if such be more frequent and diligent than others in them they think they can never exceed therein though they neglect some necessary Duties as to themselves or Families the mean time The Service of God ought not to be neglected for that argues a contempt of Religion but neither ought we to neglect the Duties of our Calling for that argues a mis-understanding Religion as though we did not Serve God when we did our Duties therein It is no hard Matter to allot the several proportions of time to both if Men consider their several Obligations For as the Pretence of worldly Business ought not to excuse Men in their neglect of God's Worship so neither ought the Pretence of God's Service to justifie Men in the neglect of their Callings God did not require of the Jews to be constant in his Temple from all parts for then they could never have subsisted but at the solemn Feasts he strictly required it and every Week where-ever they were they were to keep Holy the Sabbath day Persons that were more at leisure and had greater Conveniences spent more time in their Devotion than others Thus Anna departed not from the Temple but served God therein night and day But this was not a Matter of strict Obligation to others although it shewed an excellent Temper of Mind in her But in Case of such frequent returns of Devotion there must be great Care least that abate the Fervency and what was first taken up for Devotion come to be a meer Custom and we flatter our selves that God will accept the bare Duties without the Life and Spirit of them 3. These words may be taken in a Moral Sense for that Righteousness which respects other Men and that is twofold 1. Of Judgment 2. Of Practice 1. Of Judgment concerning the Actions and Designs of others i. e. be not too ready to censure and condemn them why shouldst thou destroy thy self i. e. Why shouldst thou bring the same Severity upon thy self which thou usest towards others according to that of our Saviour Judge not that ye be not judged c. Two things to be spoken to for clearing this Point 1. How Men are too Righteous in this Matter 2. What Mischief this brings upon them 1. How Men are Righteous overmuch in this Matter 1. Not in passing a true Judgment upon the Actions of others For to do otherwise proceeds from want of Judgment and Righteousness Of Judgment if we do not see the difference of Good and Evil Of Righteousness if we will not As far as we are concerned we are not to suffer our Passions to blind our Judgments not to think that to be a Vertue in one which we should account a Vice in another nor to call that an Infirmity in one which we should judge to be Wilfulness and Presumption in another 2. Not in keeping our selves from being deceived by the false Pretences of others It is possible for Men to make use of this very Saying to abuse the Credulity of well meaning Persons and to account the discerning of Spirits as far as it lies within our reach to be assuming too great a Power of Judging But our Saviour thought it not inconsistent with his Precept of not Judging to expose the Hypocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees but then he certainly knew it to be Hypocrisie in them And as far as we are certain by the Rules which he hath given us we may do the same thing But wherein then lies being Righteous overmuch 1. In not making allowance for the common Infirmities of Mankind which do not only consist in the Imperfections of good Actions but in such Failings which human Nature is subject to in this State notwithstanding our greatest Care to avoid them If Persons will be severe upon others for such things as these are and condemn all Religion as meer Shew and Hypocrisie in them on that account this is being Righteous overmuch For they do not make the same allowance which God doth and without which it were a vain thing to hope for Salvation For if God should be so exact to mark what is done amiss by us who can stand before him And if we expect such an allowance to be made to our selves what reason have we not to make it to others At least so far as not to condemn them for want of Sincerity in the main because of some such Infirmities How can we righteously judge them whom God will not judge We must in judging others make allowance for the Weakness of Judgment and Strength of Passion which we find often accompanied with a real Tenderness of Conscience I confess it is very hard to believe where we see a great appearance of Spiritual Pride a neglect of moral Duties Censoriousness towards others Impatience of Contradiction c. that there is a real Tenderness of Conscience joyned with them But yet some have stronger Convictions of some Duties than they have of others and if they did Act against their Consciences in those Matters they