to worship God things would not be so bad among us But how can we expect better when there is no Religion either taught or practised in our Houses We give our Domesticks opportunities enough of learning all our bad qualities but we give them none of learning our good ones if we have any They see us offending God by many rash words and finful actions but they do not see us repenting and asking God's Pardon by our solemn Prayers and Applications to the Throne of Grace Let us therefore seriously lay this point to heart I am sure we have just cause to do it Let us bring Religion into our Families and not be contented that once a Week some of our People in their turns should hear something of it Let us every day call our Family together and pay our Common Tribute of Prayer and Praise for the Mercies we do daily receive in common Methinks our Saviour seemed to have a respect to this very Duty and to charge it mightily upon us when he made us that gracious promise that even where two or three were gathered together in his Name there would he be in the midst of them Sure his words have most naturally a respect to the Worship of God that is performed in Families As hath likewise the very contrivance of the Lord's Prayer All the Petitions thereof being so framed as to be most proper to be said by more than one and yet too when we have shut our Doors for that purpose But Thirdly As you ought to take care about the Worship of God in your Closets and in your Families let me add that it equally concerns you to frequent the more publick Worship of God in his own House It is a bad sign of some very ill principle or other for any Man to be much a stranger there Even to have the liberty and opportunity of worshipping God in publick is one of the greatest Blessings and Privileges that we can have in this World and hath by good Men always been so accounted Now sure if we have this Notion of it we shall think our selves mightily concerned to take all opportunities that come in our way not only on Sundays but on other days of resortting to the Publick Assemblies and joining with them in the solemn Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving and thinking it a good day to us wherein we have thus employed our selves The Sacrifices of this kind that we offer to God with an honest and devout mind we cannot doubt will always find acceptance and produce their effects nay perhaps when our Closet-prayers will not For there are certainly more promises to publick Prayers than to private ones Though yet both are very good nay both are absolutely necessary But to proceed Fourthly Being upon this Argument of the Means and Instruments of Religion you may be sure I cannot omit the mentioning of another thing as one of those points that I would most seriously recommend to you and that is the solemn observation of the Lord's Day I am not for laying stress upon the keeping of this day or any other more than the nature of the thing requires I am sensible that the Doctrine about the observation of the Sabbath as it is delivered by some Men is superstitious enough and oftentimes where it is believed proves rather a snare to Mens Consciences than of use to make them more Religious Far therefore am I from desiring you to be nice and scrupulous about the Punctilio's of the Lord's-Day-service The Laws both of God and Men have in that matter left a great deal to your own discretion and the circumstances you are in But however thus much is necessary that every Man who professeth himself a Christian should bear a constant Religious regard to the Lord's Day by devoting it to spiritual uses more especially the publick Worship of God I do not much doubt of the truth of the observation which some good Men have made viz. That a Man shall prosper much better both in his Spiritual and Temporal Affairs all the Week after for his careful observance of the Lord's Day And I am likewise of opinion that those Men have little or no sense of Religion that make no Conscience of sanctifying that Day or that put no difference between it and other Days Sure I am were there nothing of a Divine Command for the setting a part this Day to Religious uses which yet I believe there is yet it is one of the most prudent and useful Constitutions that ever was made So that even upon that account all Men that have any Honour for God or Zeal for the Publick Good should think themselves obliged to observe it The benefits of it are indeed unspeakable Not to mention the Civil or Temporal conveniences of it in truth to the keeping up the Religion of this day we owe in a great measure that the very Face of Christianity hath hitherto been preserved among us And were it not for this for any thing I know most of us in a very few years would become little better than Heathens and Barbarians And so great an influence towards the making Men better or at least keeping them from growing worse hath this practice always had that you may observe the most profligate Men among us who for their wickedness come to an untimely end do generally impute their falling into those sins which caused their Death to their breaking the Sabbath as they commonly express it But Fifthly Let me upon this occasion put you in mind of another thing which by many of us is too much neglected And that is the taking all opportunities of coming to the holy Sacrament I have often spoken to you abbout this matter and I now desire to remind you of it There are little hopes you will ever make any great progress in Virtue and Holiness till you can bring your selves to a frequent and constant participation in this Holy Mystery Because indeed this is the solemn Ordinance that Christ hath appointed for the conveying his Grace to us and enabling us to overcome our sins and grow daily in Virtue and Goodness I know we have generally many and inveterate prejudices as to this matter But assure your selves they are meer prejudices and no good reasons Every Man that means or designs honestly and endeavours to lead his life as a Christian ought to do may certainly with as little scruple come every Month to the Communion as he may come every Week to say his Prayers or hear a Sermon Nay and I say further if a Man do not so lead his life that he may approach to the Sacrament every Month nay every Week nay every Day if there be occasion I am afraid that he doth not live so as to be fit for it though he comes but once in a Year or once in seven Years For the dueness of your Preparation doth not depend upon your setting aside so many extraordinary days for the forcing your selves into a
God should let loose our Enemies upon us the Enemies of our Nation and of our Religion and should give us over as a Prey unto them what have we to reply Truly nothing that I know of except that of the Psalmist Righteous art thou O Lord and Just are thy Judgments But we trust God's Lenity and Forbearance and Mercy is as great to Publick Societies and Kingdoms as it is to Private Persons And that we may apply those expressions to our Nation which David uttered with reference to himself O Lord if thou shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But there is Mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared When the Iniquities of a People are at the full God will not fail to punish them But whether ours be so or no He only knows We hope though they be very grievous and crying they have not yet exceeded the measure of God's Patience and that there is yet left a place for Repentance This is indeed the only Plank we have to trust to that can save us from Shipwrack and therefore we ought to lay hold upon it Let us therefore this day every one of us if we have any kindness for our Native Country If we have any respect to that dear Place where we and our Ancestors and all our Relations and Kindred for many Generations have lived so happily If we have any Zeal for or regard to that excellent Church and that Holy Religion that God did in so extraordinary a manner plant among us and for the preserving of which in our Land His Care and Providence hath so often and so wonderfully appeared If we have any Concernment for many thousands of innocent Souls who without their own fault may deeply suffer for the Nations Sins Lastly If we have any Bowels of Compassion to those dear Children of ours that God hath given us that we may transmit to them and their Children after them that Birth-Right and those Privileges and that excellent Religion we received from our Fathers I say if we have any sense of these things let every one of us this day most sincerely apply our selves to the Service of God in all the ways of a serious Virtue and Piety Or if we have been careless of this matter heretofore or which is worse have been lewd or wicked in our lives yet let us now at last heartily repent of it And with Prayers and Tears and the most solemn Resolutions of Amendment prostrate our selves before the Throne of Grace imploring and beseeching God's Pardon and Forgiveness and if it be possible a lengthning of our Tranquillity O let us not refuse this opportunity of doing the greatest Kindness and the best service to our Country that we possibly can And therefore let us not only heartily bewail our own Sins but the reigning Impieties and Wickedness that our Nation stands accountable for Now is the time if ever that we are all concerned to be importunate with God for our selves and our Country And a fitter Prayer for this purpose cannot be composed for us than that which Daniel put up to God for his Nation and that at such a solemn time as this when as he tells us he had set himself to seek God for his People by Prayer and Supplication with Fasting and Sackcloth and Ashes The Prayer is in the 9th Chapter of his Prophecy and I shall conclude with it and I earnestly beg of you all to join with me in it O Lord the great and dreadful God that keepest the Covenant and shewest mercy to them that love thee and to them that keep thy Commandments We have sinned and done wickedly and have committed Iniquity and have rebelled even by departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face as at this Day to the Men of Judah and to the Inhabitant of Jerusalem because we have sâ—â—â—red against thee But unto the Lord our God belongeth Mercy and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him â—â—ither have we 〈…〉 of the Lord our God to walk in his Laws which he set before us O Lord according to all thy Rightâ—â—â—sness we beseech thee let thy anger and thy fury be turned away from thy City Jerusalem thy holy Mountain Because for our sins and the iniquities of our Fathers Jerusalem and thy People are become a reproach to all that are about us Now therefore O God hear the Prayer of thy Servants and cause thy Face to shine upon thy Sanctuary O God incline thine ear and hear Open thine Eyes and behold the City which is called by thy Name O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do Defer not for thy own sake O our God For thy City and thy People are called by thy Name And whilst Daniel was thus praying and confessing his sins and the sins of his People unto the Lord and supplicating for his City Jerusalem Behold the Angel Gabriel was sent unto him from the Lord with the glad tidings that God had heard his Prayer for Jerusalem and that it should be built and the Lord would dwell in it O may we all thus Fast and Pray as Daniel did and may God Almighty give us such a return of our Prayers Amen O God for Jesus Christ his sake to whom c. SERMON X. PREACHED AT St. GILES in the Fields On the 28th of June 1691. Philip. iv 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things I Have the two last Lord's Days made it my business to treat of this Text in a way that I thought did most tend to the informing your Judgments And to that purpose I have raised several Observations and drawn several inferences from it I mean now to treat of it in another way and apply my self wholly to the pressing you to the practice of it And indeed the Nature of the Sermon I am to make doth call for this from me For I am now to take my leave of you this being the last time in all probability that I shall Preach among you as your Minister And therefore I suppose good Advice and Exhortation will more become me at this time than a close Discourse upon a Text. And yet my Text doth afford matter enough without straining it for such a purpose Nor indeed do I know a Text in the Bible that I could more willingly pitch upon to leave with you as the last Advice I would give you and as the Sum and Conclusion of my Preaching among you than these Words of St. Paul I have now read to you Let me therefore at this time address my self to you all as the Apostle here did at the conclusion of his Epistle to the Philippians Finally Brethren whatsoever things
present Circumstances fill our Minds and Those are difficult enough Let our past Deliverances have been what they will yet we are sure we are now in a Hazardous Condition notwithstanding all the Prayers we have put up for better Successes That is too true And I pray God make us all sensible of it and especially make us sensible of the things that have caused it namely our Ingratitude for God's former Mercies our Lewdness and Debauchery the Spirit of Atheism and Profaneness and Irreligion that still reigns among us as much as ever and above all our unaccountable dividing our selves into Parties and pursuing particular Piques and Quarrels not only to the neglect but to the plain ruin of our common Interests These are the things that have hinder'd our Successes and provoked God's Displeasure against us and till these things be amended I am afraid we shall never be a happy Nation But yet notwithstanding our high Provocations yet so gently hath God corrected us and even in his Judgments so much hath He remembred Mercy that we have all reason to rejoyce at the Benignity and Kindness of His Dispensations towards us nay and to render Him our most hearty and solemn Thanks for the Mercies that He hath bestowed upon us even with respect to the Matters we complain of For God hath really so far heard our Prayers this Year that He hath given us the most important Successes tho' not the Successes we desir'd He hath kept the War at a distance from us and we have under the Happy Government of Her Majesty lived free from all Disturbance at home every man sitting under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree as the Prophet speaks enjoying his Religion and Rights in perfect Peace and with a bountiful Provision likewise from God's Hand of all the Things that were either needful or convenient And as for our Successes abroad tho' it is not proper for me to talk of those matters yet I believe thus much I may decently and truly say That tho' the King had not the Victory being over-power'd by Numbers yet he gained more Honour and sustain'd less Loss than those that boasted of the Victory And which is yet more God hath not only Preserved his Person amidst the infinite Hazards he was continually exposed to and Returned him safe to us but returned him likewise with such Reputation for his Courage and Vigilance and Conduct in the Difficulties he had to struggle with as hath gained him the highest Esteem among his Enemies and therefore ought much more to endear him to his own Subjects And now let all this be considered and then let any man say that really loves the Interest of his Country whether we have not reason to look upon these things as Great Blessings and as such to return our Solemn Thanks to God for them And then in the Second place as to our Future Successes let us all chearfully depend upon God's Providence and trust in his Mercy for them This is all the Rejoycing we can express as to Future things and this is that which the Apostle calls Rejoycing in Hope And surely great Reason have we thus to do when we consider who it is that orders our Affairs One whose Kindness we have no reason to doubt of having had so many Experiences of it even beyond our hopes and Expectations And one likewise upon whose Power we may securely depend since His Arm is not shortned nor ever can be how much soever our Arm of Flesh may God Almighty is our King and He both certainly knows and will certainly do that which is best for us provided we take care to do that which becomes us Away therefore with all Fear and Distrust and Despondency it is an Argument of Infidelity and Irreligion as well as Cowardise to despair of the Commonwealth We are in as good Hands as it is possible for us to be Nay we our selves cannot wish to be in any other Let but us do our Parts by qualifying our selves for God's Mercies and that is to be done by contributing our best Endeavours every man in his Place and Station to the Service of the Publick and then we may safely cast all our care upon him who careth for us and we may be sure we shall not be disappointed This Method as it is much more easie so we shall find it much more conducing towards the obtaining the Successes we desire than Complaining and Fretfulness and a tormenting Anxiety about our Affairs We may indeed by our Peevish and Querulous Humour disquiet our selves and put others into a Ferment nay and at last perhaps may contribute a great deal to the Glory of hindring and defeating the most wise Counsels that are proposed for our Safety but that is the greatest Point we gain God Almighty will not alter his Methods for any of our foolish Passions but there is a way to prevail upon God himself to do for us all that our own Hearts can desire provided that which we desire be good for us and that way is to own Him and his Government to love him and to serve him to be thankful for his Mercies to be easie and chearful under all his Dispensations to us and lastly to referr our selves entirely to his Wise Counsels and to trust in his Mercy for all that is to come Great indeed and wonderful are the Promises that are made to those that put their Trust in God Jer. 17.5 Cursed saith the Prophet be the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm But Blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord Psal 32.10 and whose hope the Lord is Many sorrows saith the Psalmist shall be to the wicked But whoso trusteth in the Lord mercy shall embrace him on every side Psal 34.3 And again O taste and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the Man that trusteth in him If now we believe these things and if we be Christians we do and must believe them consider I beseech you the Vse we are to make of them What have we all to do Let our late Disappointments have put us into never so bad a Humour let our present Circumstances be entangled with never so many Difficulties yet what have we all to do but to Rejoyce in GOD and to Trust in his Mercy All is well and All will be well for ever to them that Love God and put their Trust in Him Sing we therefore unto the Lord a New Song Let the Congregation of Saints praise him Let Israel rejoice in him that made him And let the Children of Sion be joyful in their King God is the King of all the Earth let us sing praises with understanding The Lord hath pleasure in his People He will for ever help the meek hearted For his delight is in them that fear him and that put their trust in his mercy He is our help and Strength a very present help in Trouble therefore will we not fear though the Earth be moved
I never forsaken nor his seed begging their bread Lastly to conclude this point To do Good besides all these advantages that attend it is most to consult our own Peace and to make the best provision possible for our pleasure and delight Charity as Dr. Hammond used to say is really a piece of Sensuality And Epicurus himself the great Master of Voluptuousness would confess that it was not only more Brave but more Pleasant to do Kindnesses than to receive them And certainly every good man will find it so for as the exercise of Charity and Beneficence is as truly a gratification of our Natural Inclinations and Appetites as any other action or thing that causeth pleasure to us So is it also a gratification of those Appetites which are the highest and the noblest we have Now by how much the appetite that is gratifi'd is more noble and divine by so much must the delight that ariseth from that gratification be more exquisite So that it was no very great Hyperbole of our Divine Poet when he said that All joys go less Than that one joy of doing kindnesses And which is farther to be considered it is not with this pleasure as it is with most others that vanish with the enjoyment nay often leave bitterness and melancholy upon the Mind after they are gone off For to do Good is a permanent pleasure a pleasure that will last as long as our lives The memory of our good actions will always be accompanied with Delight and Satisfaction when all our other past Enjoyments prove matters of anguish and torment to us upon our reflexions on them these will be a refreshment and the nearer we approach to death still the more comfort we shall find in them Would we therefore treasure up to our selves a stock of lasting peace and joy to support us in all conditions of our life and and so make our passage easie at our death let us do all the good we can I think I have said enough to convince any one of the truth of Solomon's Proposition that there is nothing better for a man nothing that more concerns him either in point of duty or happiness than to do good in his life Much more might be said and what hath been said might have been said with more advantage and greater evidence if it had been fit to insist upon every particular but I will pursue this Argument no farther but proceed to the second general point I proposed which is to set before you the practicabieness of this great duty by shewing the several ways which every person though in the meanest Circumstances is capable of doing Good A great many there are that are as strongly convinced as may be that 't is both their Interest and duty to be doing Good in their lives but they complain that it is not in their power they have not any Means or Opportunities for it and they bemoan themselves sadly upon this account as thinking their lives useless because they have not those visible Capacities of being serviceable to the world that others have To such as these let me say this in the general There is no condition in the world so mean and despicable but yields us Opportunities of doing Good There is neither Old nor Young Man nor Woman Rich nor Poor High nor Low Learned nor Unlearned but in their Sphere by a good husbandry of those Talents that God has intrusted to their care and management they may be very useful to others and prove instruments of much good in their generations This truth St. Paul most elegantly sets forth in 1 Cor. 12. where he compares the Society of Christians to a Natural body There he shews that as in the Natural body there are many members and all those members have not the same dignity and honour nor the same use or office and yet every member even the meanest hath its particular use by which it doth real service to the body nay so useful it is that the body cannot be without it so it is with the Church of Christ and with every Body Politick There is a necessity both in the Church and in the State that there should be variety of functions and callings and degrees and conditions There must be some to govern and some to be governed there must be some more conspicuous some more obscure some whose gifts and endowments lie this way and some whose Talents lie in another way and yet there is not one of these but in his degree and station either is or may be as useful as any that belong to the Society So that the eye cannot say to the hand as our Apostle there expresseth it I have no need of thee Nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you nay more those members of the body as he continues that seem to be most feeble are yet very necessary To reduce the Apostle's notion to its particulars or to shew in how many respects every individual person that is a Member of a Society is necessary to the publick and either doth or may serve the Weal of it and so do Good in his life is a task too great for me to undertake at this time let it suffice at the present to propose to you these general heads First of all None can want opportunities of doing Good that is in a capacity of performing any acts of Mercy or Charity stristly so called whether that Charity be shew'd to the Bodies or Souls of men Now the instances and expressions of this way of doing good are infinite as infinite as are the wants and necessities of mankind To the Bodies of men we do good whenever we contribute to the relieving and easing them of the outward pressures and wants and necessities they lie under Such as Sickness Pain Poverty Hunger Nakedness Debts Imprisonment or any other outward affliction that falls upon them whether that ease and relief be effected by our purse or by our counsel and advice or by our labour and pains And sure some one of these three things there is none so mean or inconsiderable in the World but it is in his power to benefit his poor Neighbour with To the Souls of men we do good whenever by our discourses or other endeavours we make men better or wiser when we instruct the ignorant when we satisfie the doubtful when we reduce those that are misled by errour when we establish the weak when we reprove those that do amiss in a word all our attempts and endeavours in what way soever to reclaim men from vice and to bring them to wisdom and sobriety is a Charity to their Souls and whether our designs succeed or not we shall be rewarded as those that have done good in the world Secondly All the acts of Beneficence and kindness nay even of Civility and good Nature are to be accounted among the instances of doing good A man doth Good not only by acts of Charity properly so called
but by every courtesie that he doth to another He doth good by shewing his respect and good-will to all about him by reconciling differences among neighbours and promoting peace friendship and society as much as he can by being Generous and Liberal and Hospitable according to his ability by forgiving injuries and if it be possible making friends of those that did them by being easie of access and sweet and obliging in his carriage by complying with the infirmities of those he converseth with and in a word by contributing any way to make the lives of others more easie and comfortable to them Thirdly A man also doth good when he makes use of that acquaintance or friendship or interest that he hath with others to stir them up to the doing of that good which he by the narrowness of his condition or for want of Opportunity cannot do himself This is a very considerable instance of doing good how slight soever it may seem the man that exercises himself this way is doubly a benefactor for he is not only an instrument of good to the person or persons for whom he beg'd the kindness or the charity but he does also a real kindness to the man himself whom he puts upon the benefaction for God will not less reward his Good-will for being excited by another Fourthly Another way to do good is to be careful and diligent and conscientious in the discharge of all those Publick Offices which we are called upon to excecute in the place where we live How burthensome soever these be and how much soever of our time they rob us of yet God by calling us to them hath put a prize into our hands as the Wise man speaks to do much good if we have hearts to make use thereof Fifthly We do good when being in a private Capacity we so carry our selves in all the Relations in which we stand as the nature of the Relation requireth As for instance when being Subjects we conscientiously obey the Laws of the Kingdom and submit to our Governours and promote what we can the publick Peace both of Church and State When being Masters of Families we take care of those under our Charge making sufficient provision both for their Souls and Bodies When being Husbands or Wives we discharge faithfully all the Conjugal duties When being Parents we love our Children and bring them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. When being Children we obey our Parents in all things When being Servants we do our work in singleness of heart not as men-pleasers but as those that account they have a Master in Heaven When having contracted friendships we are secret and faithful and prudent in the maintaining and preserving of them and so proportionably in all the other relations that we stand in All these things though they appear little yet are they in their degree a real good and benefit to Mankind and so necessary that there is no living tolerably without them Sixthly We also do good by an honest and a diligent pursuit of our calling and employment There is no Art or Trade that we are bred to but if it be a lawful one it may be of great use to the publick and by well minding it and fairly managing it we may render our selves very profitable members of the Common-wealth Seventhly and Lastly We may do a great deal of good by our good Examples by being to others Patterns of Piety and Prudence of Diligence and Industry of Peaceableness and Loyalty of Humility and Meekness and Temperance In a word every man that will make himself Eminent in any Vertue will be a Light to the World his life will be a constant Sermon and he will often prove as effectual a Benefactor to those about him by his Example as others are by their Counsels and Exhortations And now all these things considered who is there among us in such deplorable Circumstances that he can reasonably pretend to want ability or opportunity to do good in his life Sure I am he must live in a desert and have no Communication with mankind that cannot some or other of these ways be useful and beneficial to them And thus much of our Second Head of Discourse I now come in the Third and Last place to make some Application of what hath been spoken And First Since every man is so highly concern'd as we have seen to do Good in his life let us all be persuaded seriously and heartily to apply our Minds hereunto Let us look upon it not as a by-work a thing to be done now and then as there is occasion after our own turns are served But let us lay out our selves upon it let us propose it to our selves as the great Business of our lives Let us take all opportunities for it let us contrive and manage all our affairs so that they may some way or other be subservient to the carrying on this great work Let this be the end of our gathering riches and the measure of our expending them To heap up riches that we may be rich or to throw them away upon our lusts are both equally intolerable it is the doing good with them that sanctifies both the getting and the spending them Let this be the compass to steer and direct us in our pursuit after knowledge in our learning Arts and Sciences in the managery of our Trades and employments in a word in the choice and in the prosecution of every design that is proposed to us In all these things the great enquiry is to be what Good will they tend to How shall we be rendred more useful to the world if our designs and endavours as to these matters do take effect Let this be the great rule by which we proceed in the Education of our Children and Relations and the provisions we make for them in the world Let it be our first care to possess them with a deep sense of the duty they owe to the Publick and to furnish them with such qualities as will render them profitable Members of it and to put them into such professions and employments as may afford them fair scope for the exercise of those qualities If we thus provide for them though we otherwise leave them never so small an Estate yet with the Blessing of God they have a good Portion Lastly let this design of doing good influence our very Offices of Religion When we make our applications to the Throne of Grace let us be sure to have the Publick always in mind and even when we pray for our selves let it be with this design and resolution that as God in mercy bestows upon us the Blessings and the Grace we pray for we will employ them for the good of others O that we would thus seriously concern our selves in doing good O that we would once lay aside all our little selfish designs and that narrowness and penuriousness of Spirit with which most of us are bound up and with
day render for so doing Thirdly Mens Religion and Christianity are also deeply concerned in this point Works of Charity are so essential to all Religion and more especially to that which we call Christian that without them it is but an empty name in whosoever professes it Let Men pretend what they will let them be never so Orthodox in their belief or regular in their conversation or strict in the performance of those Duties that relate to the worship of God yet if they be hard hearted and uncharitable if God hath given them Wealth and they have not Hearts to do good with it they have no true piety towards God They may have a name to live but they are really dead An unmerciful Christian or a Religious covetous Man are terms that imply a contradiction For the satisfying you of this I shall but need to put these following questions Can that Man be accounted Religious that neither loves God nor his Neighbour Sure he cannot for these two things are the whole of Religion as the Holy Scripture often assures us but now the Covetous Man neither doth the one nor the other His Neighbours he doth not love that is certain for if he did they would find some fruits of it unless this be to be accounted Love James 2.14 c. to give them good words to say to a Brother or a Sister that is naked and destitute of daily food depart in peace be ye warmed and filled when notwithstanding they give them not those things that be needful for the Body But this kind of Love S. James hath long ago declared not to be worth any thing And as for the Love of God another Apostle hath put it out of doubt that the uncharitable Man hath no such thing in him 1 John 3.17 Whoso saith S. John hath this World's good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him cap. 4.20 For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Can he be thought a Religious Man or a true Christian that wants the two main qualifications that go to the making up a Disciple of Christ that is to say Faith and Repentance yet this doth he that is rich in this World but is not rich in good works Good works are the very soul of Faith and it is no more alive without them than the Body is without the Spirit as S. James has expresly told us Jam. 2.26 If we mean that our Faith should avail us any thing it must work or be made perfect by Charity Gal. 5.6 saith S. Paul for though a Man have all faith so that he could remove mountains i. e. though he be so heartily persuaded of the truth of Christ's Religion as in the strength of his belief to be able to work Miracles as was usual in the first times of Christianity yet if he have not charity his Faith is nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 If it be said that the Charity that S. Paul makes so necessary to effectual Faith is not giving Alms but quite another thing for according to him a Man may give all his goods to feed the poor and yet want the Charity that he speaks of I answer it is true a Man may give Alms and very largely and yet want that Charity that S. Paul here so much recommends but then on the other side none can have that Charity that he speaks of but they will certainly express it in Alms and Bounty as they have ability and opportunity So that for all this suggestion Alms and Bounty are absolutely necessary to the Efficacy of Faith if there be opportunity of doing them The plain account of this matter is this S. Paul speaks of Charity with respect to its inward principle in the heart which consists in an universal kindness and good-will to the whole Creation of God and we speak of it with respect to the outward fruits of it in the Life and Conversation which are all sorts of good works especially works of Mercy and Bounty But both these come to the same thing as to our purpose for the one always follows the other whereever there is Charity in the heart it must of necessity shew it self in these kind of actions as there is occasion otherwise the Charity is not true but only pretended for as S. John hath told us He that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth must love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in work and in deed And then as for Repentance Charity and Alms-giving is a necessary ingredient into that also Luke 3.10 11. When S. John Baptist came preaching Repentance unto Israel the people asked him saying what shall we do meaning in what manner they should express their Repentance his answer was this He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do so likewise and suitable to this was the Prophet's advice to the King of Babylon when he exhorteth him to Repentance Dan. 4.27 break off thy sins saith he by righteousness and thy iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor that is evidence thy Repentance by thy Alms-giving and Charity Furthermore can he be either a good Man or a good Christian that lives in the habitual neglect of that which of all other Vertues God in Scripture seems to set the greatest value upon and contrariwise practiseth that which God hath most particularly declared his hatred and aversion to Yet thus doth he that is not charitable with what he hath So highly acceptable to God are works of Mercy and Charity that they are declared to be the sacrifices with which he is well pleased Heb 13.8 the things in which he doth delight Jerem. 9.24 and blessed and happy are they pronounced that do them Pro. 22.9 cap. 14.21 for hereby Men become the children of God Luke 6.35 and entitled to his more especial care and protection Ps 41.1 c. nay so dear do they render a Man to his Maker that the wise Son of Sirach scrupled not to recommend the practice of them in these terms Be thou saith he a Father to the Fatherless Ecclus. 4.10 and instead of a Husband unto their Mother so shalt thou be as the Son of the Most High and he shall love thee more than thy own Mother doth On the other side if we will believe the Scripture there is nothing more odious to God than the contrary qualities and practises The love of money which is the foundation of all uncharitableness 1 Tim. 6.10 is in Scripture called the root of all evil as certainly the greatest evils and mischeifs in the World do often take their beginning from thence Those that are covetous are styled by the name of Idolaters Eph. 5.5 than which no more hateful appellation can be given to a Man in the Sacred Language It is said
Treasure He rejoiceth over them to do them good His bowels earn his heart is turned within him his repentings are kindled together when through their miscarriages he is forced to pass any severe Sentence upon them All this is the language of God in Scripture when he speaks of his People and therefore we cannot doubt of his sincere affection to them and particular care of them All the doubt is whether these expressions ought to be applied to any other people than the Jews with respect to whom the Scripture useth them But we that believe the Gospel need not make much doubt of it For it is certain the reason of all these expressions of kindness to the Jews more than to other Nations was founded in this That they were the People whom God had chosen to plant his Church among They were the People where his Religion was owned But now it is evident to all Christians that after our Saviour came into the World and Preached his Gospel to all Nations the Jews as a Nation ceased to be God's Church or peculiar People and from that time all those Nations that embraced Christ's Religion came into their place and were from thence forward to be as dear to God and as much his Care and his Treasure as ever the Jews were And upon that account we of this Nation may with as much reason apply the expressions of Scripture to our selves which declare God's kindness and concernment for his People as ever the Jews did Especially considering that God has owned us of this Nation for his People in as remarkable a manner as any Nation in Christendom As appears not only from that glorious light of the Gospel which he has for many years blessed us with above any other people perhaps in the Christian World But also from the wonderful Providences by which he has from time to time preserved our Church and with it the true Religion among us notwithstanding the various attempts of our Enemies to subvert it O may these Mercies of God to our Nation never be forgotten and may we always remember them with that due thankfulness they call for at our hands And thus much of our first Head I beg leave to draw a practical Inference or two from what hath been said before I proceed to the other First Since it appears that God sits at the Helm and steers and manages all the affairs of Mankind and that publick Societies are more especially the objects of his Care and Providence Methinks this Consideration should be a good Antidote against all those troublesome Fears and Sollicitude we are apt to disturb our selves with about the success of publick Matters If indeed all things went in the World by Chance or Fate and there was no God that did superintend human Affairs I should think it very Natural for Men to be extreamly concerned at every piece of ill News they heard It might be allowed them to break their sleep in the night and to complain dismally in the day of the sad times that were coming upon us But since we are certain as much as we are certain there is a God and as much as we are certain that the Scripture is true that all our Affairs our publick as well as our private Affairs the Affairs both in Church and State are entirely in God Almighty's disposal and that He doth really manage and order all things among us and likewise so manageth them that all shall at last turn to the good of his People and to the good of every honest Man I say since we are or may be satisfied that our Business is in so good hands I must confess I do not see what reason People have to give themselves so much trouble and uneasiness about things that may or may not come Thus far indeed it is fit that every one should be concerned nay it is fit that every one should charge his Conscience with it Namely to do his Duty to the publick in his place and station to contribute all that is in his power towards the procuring and promoting the common Happiness and to endeavour all that in him lies towards the avertting those Judgments we have reason to fear But when a Man hath done this to what purpose is it for him to trouble himself any further I should think he had better follow our Saviour's advice which when all things be considered will be found Eternally Prudent and Reasonable Matt. 6.34 Take no thought for to morrow let the morrow take care for the things of it self Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Secondly This Doctrine ought to teach us this farther Lesson to depend altogether upon God Almighty and upon him only for the good success of our Affairs either in Church or State whenever they are in a doubtful or dangerous condition Prov. 19.21 For though many are the devices in the hearts of men nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand It is in vain to trust humane means For be our strength never so great or be those that manage for us never so industrious or be our hearts never so much united Yet it is an easy matter for God to blast all our designs and to disappoint all our Counsels in a Moment He hath often done so where Men have been confident in their own strength 2 Kings 19.34 In one night's time he made that prodigious Army of Assyrians that came up against Jerusalem and thought themselves sure of taking it to decamp and fly back into their own Country leaving a hundred and fourfcore thousand of their number Dead upon the place There is in truth no trusting to an Arm of Flesh For the successes of War depend upon a thousand Contingencies which it is not in the power of mortal Men either to foresee or remedy Eccles 9.11 Psal 33.16 So that the race is not always to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor can a King be sav'd by the multitude of an Host nor any mighty Man be delivered by his much strength But the God of Heaven that ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men it is He that preserves or destroys that gives Victory or sends a Defeat as it pleaseth him And therefore he is by way of eminence stiled The Lord of Hosts the God of Battels On the other hand If our Affairs at any time be in so very bad a posture that we cannot not avoid the having a melancholy dismal prospect of things yet let us not be discouraged let us still trust in God let us do what belongs to us to do for the obtaining his Mercy and Favour and then refer the Event to him God hath certainly a kindness for his People and if we do our parts towards the preserving his Affection to us we may still hope he will continue to be our Saviour and Deliverer Is is as easy to God to save by few as by many the Walls of Jericho at his Command Josh 6.20
we call Judgment and Vengeance is unaccountable unless it serve for the doing Good to the World Fourthly and Lastly From hence it follows that all Events whatsoever that ever did or do or shall happen in the World either with respect to Nations and Kingdoms or with respect to particular Persons are really the Best that could or can happen And if things were ordered otherwise it would not be so well A strange Paradox you will say this is that not only the Mischiefs and Calamities that fall upon Mankind but even their Faults and Mismanagements nay their very Sins and Wickednesses should be for the best But really so it is and so it must be if both infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power govern the World Not but that a particular man's Sins may be the occasion of his Ruin nay and certainly will be so if he persist in them And likewise the Faults of a People may and will have such an ill influence upon the Community as if they be not amended the Desolation of the Nation may at last ensue thereupon But still tho' every thing that happens do not prove for the Good of that particular Person or that particular People that is immediately concerned in the Event yet it will certainly prove for the General Vniversal Good So that take all the whole Series of Events together that have or shall come to pass all the World over we may undoubtedly affirm that All things have been as well managed as it is possible they could be and will be so to the end of the World And this we our selves shall be satisfied of when we come to be in a condition of making a just estimate of things For indeed to suppose otherwise is to say either that Infinite Wisdom doth not act so wisely as it might do or that Perfect Goodness might do more Good than it does do or lastly that Omnipotent Power cannot do every thing that is possible All which Suppositions are plainly absurd and contradictious And now if all these things be true as they certainly are how natural is the conclusion of my Text Since God is the King of all the World and such a King likewise that the Measures of his Government are exact Goodness and Wisdom and Righteousness what have all Mankind to do especially Good Men but to Rejoyce and be glad This is the Psalmist's Inference from this Doctrine And this is the present Business of the Day And therefore let us all practise accordingly That is the only Application I desire to make of what hath been said And Two ways we ought to express our Rejoycing First In a hearty sense of all God's past and present Mercies to us and an actual giving Him our Thanks for the same Secondly In a chearful dependance upon Him for his Future Blessings Give me leave to speak a little to these two Points and I have done First Let us be heartily sensible of All God's Kindness to us both past and present and unfeignedly thank Him for the same It is very remarkable that not only David but the Prophets likewise when they are treating of God's Kingdom call upon the Isles in a particular manner to take notice of it See Isa xxiv 15. xlii 4 10 c. as here in my Text Let the multitudes of the Isles be glad thereof As if the Isles in a more particular manner were to have a share in the Blessings of his Government And no doubt it was so intended and accordingly it hath so come to pass For it is the Isles of the Gentiles by which Name the Scripture expresseth those Countries that were at the greatest distance from the Continent of Judea I say it is these Isles which now at this day God's ancient People the Jews being for their Infidelity long ago rejected are the principal Seat of his Church and Kingdom and to which He vouchsafeth the Light of his Gospel and the Means of Salvation so true is God to all his Promises But now of all the Isles of the Gentiles if any one above the rest hath felt the benign and gracious Influences of the LORD 's being our King certainly Ours is that Island How wonderfully bountiful hath God been to us in a continued succession of Publick Blessings even from the first beginning of Time that we have had any Memorials of Events among us We had the Happiness to be early made a Province of the Roman Empire and by that means were trained up to Civility and Arts and Good Manners That made way for the greatest Blessing that Heaven could bestow upon us even the receiving Christianity And that Blessing we had with the most early being the first among the Nations that embraced it When through the just Judgment of God Barbarism and Ignorance overspread the face of Europe and by the occasion thereof Superstition and Idolatry made its way and all the Western Kingdoms gave up their Power to a Foreign Usurper even then this Island made the longest stand nay and was never so perfectly subdued but that Popery was here a different thing from what it was in the Southern Climates When the happy time came that God thought fit to set on foot the Reformation having first made way for it by the restoring of Learning such was His particular Care of us that this was one of the first Kingdoms that was brought over to it And we have this Advantage above all other Reformed Churches that as our Reformation was regularly made and by just Authority so it was made most agreeably to the Pattern of the Primitive Churches of Christ And God be thanked according to the goodness of it such hath been its Success ever since for we have all-along from that time to this except the interruption of a few Years in the late Times served God in Peace and Happiness under the same Establishment And we trust we shall do so to the end of the World Many indeed have been the Oppositions and Disturbances that have been given us by our Adversaries both at home and abroad but as manifold likewise have been our Deliverances and that in a most wonderful manner I need not mention them for they are known to us all How many Secret Conspiracies against our Protestant Kings and Queens hath God Almighty's Mercy detected and defeated How many Open Attempts against our Laws and against our Religion hath He by strange Providences brought to nought More than once hath He by wonderful methods preserved us when we gave up our Church and our Liberties in a manner as lost and that in so easie and quiet a way that there was no concussion of the Nation followed thereupon Are not these Extraordinary Instances of God's Kindness to a People And ought not we who have receiv'd and do yet enjoy the Benefit and the Comfort of them to remember them with Thankfulness all the Days of our Life But some of us perhaps are not now in a Humour to think of these things our