he does not believe this he cannot conceive himself bound to worship God 'T is also plain that no man is likely to worship God without believing that God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him because if he does not believe this he cannot conceive himself encouraged to be a worshipper and this is as evident in all other instances of Religion that 't is impossible men should perform them as they ought if they believe not those Doctrines whereby they are encouraged to them In the words as they are thus explain'd several truths there be which lye couched beside those the suggesting whereof is the main scope and design of the Text. 1st Of all 'T is plainly implied that the practice of Religion i. e. of Worship and Virtue is that which pleaseth God For pleasing of God here is further explained by coming to him and diligently seeking him a very considerable instance of Religion The same thing is true of all other Religious duties and all Moral virtues whatsoever that they also are well-pleasing to God and that he liketh and approveth them in us he loveth and praiseth us for them that they are delightful and acceptable to him Were the inculcating of this matter the chief design of the Text I would here at large represent unto you why the Religious practice the holiness and virtue of a Christian is acceptable and well-pleasing to God I would make it plain to you that it must be so because his Religious Practice is an acknowledgment of the Soveraign Authority of his Maker since 't is the Christians obedience to Divine Laws because also 't is his undeniable confession of the Goodness of God a plain testimony of his love to God and a visible demonstration how excellent and profitable the Laws of God are and how good they render those persons that observe them Because 't is in like manner the Christians true and sincere acknowledgment of the Divine perfections I would likewise shew you that although God cannot be pleased with this honour done unto him by his Creatures because of any advantage he himself receives thereby yet he is pleased with it because of the advantage accruing thereby to us because he delighteth in the good of his Creatures in their happiness and well-being which 't is as impossible for them to attain without the worship of God and the practice of Virtue as to reconcile light unto darkness or to make contradictions to be true If this also were the main scope of the Text I would not leave this consideration till I had convinced you throughly what a mighty spur to Religion and Virtue this persuasion is that they are well-pleasing to God I would not let you go till you granted me that it is the noblest Ambition which can inflame the Souls of men to become the true Worshippers of God and the sincere workers of Righteousness since this is your way to gratify and please so great and excellent a Being as the Eternal God to stand high in his esteem to be greatly accounted of by him to become acceptable to him and considerable with him But this is only the insinuation not the direct aim of the Text. 2. These words do also intimate to us that the practice of Religion and Virtue is the end of Faith For the Apostle plainly speaks of those Doctrines we believe under the notion of means to arrive at Godliness and Righteousness When he says without believing God 't is impossible we should come unto him he implies that it is therefore necessary we should believe there is a God because 't is necessary we should worship him When he says without believing that God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him 't is impossible to seek him diligently he sufficiently implies that 't is therefore necessary to believe that God is such a Rewarder because 't is necessary to seek him diligently In a word when he says without Faith 't is impossible to please God he plainly enough intimates that therefore Faith is necessary because the practice of Godliness and Virtue is so i. e. that Religious practice is necessary as the end and Faith as the means to that end I would here have shewn you what the true Notion of Fundamentals in Religion is viz. That only is Fundamental in Religion which is a Doctrine necessary to be believed in order to a Christian life and all Doctrines necessary to be believed for that end are Fundamental Doctrines That the belief of those Doctrines is laying a foundation upon which the superstructure of Religious practice of Worship and Virtue may and ought to be erected But that if it were required what is Fundamental i. e. necessary to fit a man for Heaven that then the practice of Religion and Virtue is the only thing necessary for that end but that Fundamentals in Doctrines are only those beliefs that are necessary to Righteousness and Godly living And this I should have insisted upon to confute all the vain pretences and frivolous hopes of all Orthodox believers that never yet learned to live Orthodox Lives that have laid a specious foundation of Christian Faith and Knowledge to no purpose in the world but to proclaim their own folly and madness in neglecting all thoughts of building that superstructure of Christian life and practice thereupon by which alone we can ascend to immortality of Bliss in that house of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens But this also is no more than insinuated in the words of the Text therefore I shall insist no longer upon it though so plainly hinted that I could not altogether pass it by 3. These words do expresly declare that some Doctrines there be which are fundamental to Religion i. e. the belief whereof is necessary to the worship of God and the practice of Virtue and consequently without the belief whereof we cannot conceive how a man should be induced to a Religious and Virtuous life And this is the main scope and design of the Text whereof I shall speak as fully and distinctly as I can shewing from the Text what these fundamental Doctrines be in the assent whereunto or the persuasion whereof it is most plain that the nature of Faith properly so called doth consist according to the latitude of which Doctrines the extent also of Faith as to Fundamentals is to be measured according to the influence of which Doctrines upon the wills of men to induce them to the worship of God and the practice of Virtue the right use also the true purpose and design of Faith is to be understood It remaineth therefore that we duly consider the Doctrines themselves the necessity also and sufficiency of them to induce men to Religion and Virtue And this will fully answer my design which is to shew the true nature the due extent and the right use of that Faith which is one of those Divine Qualifications and Graces whereby we are fitted for Life eternal All that
demonstrate the Being of their Maker If it be possible which for ought I know it is to deface the Testimonies of a Deity which are written within us it is not yet possible to blot out those Testimonies of his Being which are left without us Most plain it is that we find our selves in a World contrived into admirable beauty and order and furnished with that marvellous variety of things excellent and ufeful that the whole scheme and fabrick of Nature to the dullest Observer appears to be an effect of great Wisdom and Councel i. e. of an understanding Being Nothing is more plain than that this World could not make it self Nothing is more plain than that a Cause it must have if of any great Effect it be reasonable to require the Cause or at least to affirm that it hath one Whatever the Cause of this World is it could not make it self for that is a perfect Contradiction By inevitable consequence therefore it follows That something there is which is so perfect it needed no cause to produce it i. e. that there is an Infinite Everlasting Being which is God the Maker of all things But to pursue this Argument in a more obvious but equally convincing manner We ordinarily distinguish between the Works of Art and the Works of Nature By the Works of Art we mean those Effects that are produced by the skill of Man by the Works of Nature those Effects which are constantly preserved and performed to our hands Now that those which we call the Works of Nature are the Effects of a Divine Skill as we confess the Works of Art are of Human Skill is demonstrable beyond all reasonable Contradiction If I see a Statue curiously carved a Picture elegantly described or a Monument with an Ingenious Inscription engraven upon it I must so necessarily conclude that the Statuary the Painter and the Graver hath been there that if I should either affirm that these things came by chance or were eternally what they are I should be in danger of being sent to Bedlam But this I will offer at any time to demonstrate That the meanest the most minute the most contemptible Works of Nature have really more beauty and uniformity more variety and to say nothing else more wonder in them than the most exquisite and rich Inventions the most magnificent and ingenious Contrivances of Human Art Bring me the vilest and poorest Insect that flies above the ground or crawls upon it bring me the simplest Flower the most common Plant that is scattered abroad in the Fields I will shew beyond contradiction that the beauty the proportion the parts the growth and the motions of these the most contemptible Works of Nature do infinitely transcend all the Performances of the richest Humane Fancy That the nearer we look into the Works of Art the more unpolished and rude they appear to be as he that would please himself with gazing on a Picture must view it at a distance but if he come too near the ruggedness of the Paint makes it look like an ugly thing and so it is more or less in all the Contrivances of Human Art But as all Philosophers know the more minutely we search into the Works of Nature even those that are most contemptible to see to and which vulgar eyes pass by without observing if they be the Snow that falls on the ground the Wings of the smallest Fly or the meanest Animal that creeps upon the Earth the more advantageously and minutely they are seen the more uniformity smoothness beauty of colour and figure and variety of parts discover themselves in them which plainly shews how much the Works of Nature transcend those of Art Now shall I who confess here is more of Councel Wisdom and Power seen in these most ordinary Works of Nature than in the best effects of Human Skill shall I be ashamed not to confess the Art of Man in these and yet doubt whether those be the Products of a greater Artist What shall I then say of the Earth that bears me and nourishes me of the Air that is extended for me to breath in of the Clouds that drop their fatness upon me of the Heavens that cherish me of the Sun that divideth the Day and Night and gives light and heat to the World and of all the Ornaments of Heaven and Earth and what of my self who am endued with a Body of wonderful contrivance and with those greater privileges of Reason Will and Understanding Are all these things too without an Artist that made them thus No madness is comparable to the but doubting that they are He that does so must either want his Senses or his Soul He must either deny that these things are what he sees them Effects of great Wisdom and Understanding or he must affirm That such Effects there may be without a Cause proportionable to them he must either say that something made it self or that there was no need that these things should be made i.e. he must affirm that which is impossible may be otherwise and hold Contradictions to be true Well then might the Apostle say The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being known by the things which he hath made even his eternal power and Godhead So that when I consider the mighty evidence of those Arguments for the Existence of a Deity which are drawn from the Works of Nature I cannot see wherein they differ from Demonstrations though some there be who are not pleased to call them so and I do not question but he that can be an obstinate Atheist against them would also if it were for for his interest deny that three and three is six or contradict the plainest Proposition in Mathematicks Upon the whole matter when I consider the Works of God I would rather chuse if there were any choice in these matters to believe all the Tales of the Roman Legends as my Lord Bacon observes and I add tho Transubstantiation were cast into the Scale than believe that this great Body is without a Mind that inform'd it And thus at last I have said something more than I intended upon the first Doctrine of Natural Religion That there is a God proving it to be true by natural Reason as indeed 't is only to be proved For we cannot prove it by Revelation to a Gainsayer since to attempt that way is to beg what we should prove viz. That there is a God whose Revelation this is This therefore is the first Principle of Religion without the belief whereof there can be no obligation conceived to Faith and Worship and the practice of Vertue I proceed to show what the next are in which I shall be very brief because the truth of those is very evidently consequent from the demonstration of this 2. It is fundamentally necessary to Religion and Virtue That we believe there is a Providence i. e. that God is the Governor of that World which
Worship viz. all kinds of virtue and moral Goodness such as Justice and Mercy Fidelity and Truth Meekness and Patience Sobriety and Temperance and 't is true of these things as well as of Worship that without faith they cannot be performed because they are all such things as God is pleased withal and 't is said in general That without Faith we cannot please him From hence 't is plain that we are thus to understand the phrase of pleasing God when the Apostle saith Without Faith we cannot please him viz. Without Faith it is impossible a man should be a worshipper of God and a practicer of Virtue More distinctly thus Without Faith a man cannot Love God or Fear him or Trust in him or Obey him or Honour him in his Thoughts Words or Deeds Nor can he be Righteous and Charitable Meek and Humble Sober and Temperate Or in a word That without Faith 't is impossible a man should be truly Religious in his life and actions If it be enquired 2. What the Apostle means by Faith without which 't is impossible to please God let us look to the following words again and we shall find the Faith the Apostle speaks of is 1. In general a persuasion of the truth of some proposition or an assent thereunto that it is true for he saith He that cometh to God must believe that he is To believe therefore to be persuaded that this proposition is true viz. that there is a God is an instance of the Faith whereof the Apostle speaks Likewise he that cometh unto God must believe that he is a rewarder of them that seek him To believe therefore or to be persuaded of this proposition That God is a rewarder of them that seek him is an instance of that Faith of which the Apostle speaks and consequently by Faith is here meant in general a persuasion concerning any Doctrine or Proposition that it is true 2. By consequence also as to the nature of those propositions which the Apostle saith we must believe if we will please God we find more particularly that the Faith without which we cannot please God is a persuasion of the truth of those propositions which are proper arguments and motives inducing a man to do those things whereby God is pleased for the Apostle saith He that cometh unto God must believe that he is And plain it is that to believe that there is a God is a reason why men should do those things which please him He says also that he that cometh unto God must believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Alike plain it is that to believe God to be such a rewarder is a reason or motive inducing a man to do those things whereby God is pleased and consequently the Faith which the Apostle speaks of is a persuasion of the truth of those Propositions or Doctrines which are proper motives or inducements to the doing of those things whereby God is pleased But hence we must not conclude that there are no other Doctrines or Propositions besides those here mentioned that are proper motives to Religion because all that the Apostle intends as I noted before is to give some particular instances to shew the truth of the general proposition Although therefore there be other Doctrines which are motives to Godliness and Vertue yet if without the belief of these a man cannot be induced to do those things which please God that was sufficient for the Apostle's purpose to prove that without Faith it is impossible to please him And that there are other Doctrines of like use with these I shall shew in due place If it be enquired 3. Whether by Impossible the Author of this Epistle means properly something that is absolutely impossible or more largely something that is exceeding difficult or highly improbable as sometimes the word is used to that purpose I answer This is to be resolved by considering also the following propositions to be believed the former of which is of that nature that it is absolutely necessary to be believed in order to Worship and Virtue viz. That there is a God Without this belief it is utterly impossible it implies a contradiction that a man should be a Worshipper of God and a practicer of Virtue But the latter of these beliefs that God is a rewarder c. is not in the same degree necessary that the former is because it does not imply a contradiction That that man who does not believe that God is a rewarder of them that seek him should be a Worshipper of God because 't is barely possible he may Worship God upon a belief that there is a God and a bare hope that he is a rewarder c. But then if we consider the woful corruption and degeneracy of Mankind and the power of those Temptations we are under 't is so utterly improbable that without this belief men should set themselves to do those things which please God that according to the usual manner of speaking it may be ranked with things impossible So that I do thus understand the Apostle as to what he says concerning the impossibility of pleasing God without Faith That there are some Doctrines so necessary to be believed in order to the practice of Religion and Virtue that it is naturally impossible a man should be a Worshipper of God and a doer of Righteousness without the belief of them and of this sort he hath given us one instance viz. That there is a God That also there are some Doctrines so necessary to be believed in order to the practice of Religion that 't is morally impossible a man should be a Worshipper of God and a worker of righteousness without the belief of them And of this sort he hath also given us one instance viz. That God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Thus I have by comparing one part of the Text with another given you as I am persuaded the true sence of the whole and that as I hope with great clearness of truth and plainness of words And according to this Explanation the words of the Text may be interpreted according to this Paraphrase Without the belief of some such Doctrines as are proper and suitable motives to the worship of God and the practice of Virtue wherewith God is pleased it is impossible any man should fear God and work Righteousness For some Doctrines there are so necessary in order to that end that 't is impossible to conceive how a man should find himself obliged thereto without the belief of those Doctrines Some Doctrines also there are so necessary to be believed in order thereunto that without the belief of them no man finds himself encouraged to the practice of Religion For instance the Worship of God is a part of Religion without which he will not be pleased with us but it is plain that no man can be a worshipper of God without believing that there is a God because if
can be thought necessary to be said for this purpose may be reduced to Four heads of Discourse whereof the 1. Shall be to inquire What those Doctrines be which are fundamental or necessary to the practice of Religion and Virtue 2. To demonstrate that the belief of those Doctrines is an adequate or sufficient foundation thereof or inducement thereto 3. To give an account of those other Doctrines in Christian Religion which are necessary to be believed and why they are necessary 4. To apply the whole Discourse by an exhortation To add unto Faith Virtue and that Life wherewith God is pleased 1. I am to show what those Doctrines be which are fundamental to the practice of Religion and Virtue Before I attempt the performance whereof it will be necessary for me to premise this Apology That I do not here intend a Catalogue of those Fundamentals which that Excellent man Mr. Chillingworth refused to give and which he demonstrated to the Romanists was a vain thing to require almost impossible to lay down and if it were never so easy yet very needless to show For that Notion of Fundamentals wherein he and his adversary used that word was different from that wherein I now use it Fundamental with them was any Doctrine which upon any account was necessary to be believed by every Christian These Doctrines I do not speak of at present as such but I intend in due place to give an account of them shewing what relation they have to those Doctrines I am about to lay before you But by Fundamentals I mean those Articles or Propositions which are necessary to be believed in order to a good Life and what these be every Minister that pretends to be skilled in the Gospel which is the power of God to salvation if his pretence be tolerably good may and ought to lay down For this attempt signifies no other thing than to shew what powerful obligations the Faith of Christians engageth them by to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world In laying down these Fundamental Doctrines I shall observe no other rule and method than what is offered here in the Text. You are to remember what I even now made plain to you That it was not the Apostle's purpose to instance in all Doctrines that were necessary to be believed as a Foundation of Religion and Virtue but only in some that were so necessary because that was sufficient to prove his general Proposition That without faith 't is impossible to please God As for those others which are of like necessity to be believed in order to that end I shall as I said lay them down in that distinct Method to which I am led by the Apostle's Words the great and deep Wisdom whereof the more I ponder the more I admire For here 't is very observable that the Apostle when he designs to prove That without Faith 't is impossible to please God he doth first instance in a proposition necessary to be believed for that end which is a Doctrine of Natural Religion viz. That there is a God He doth secondly instance in a Proposition necessary to be believed for that end which is a Doctrine of Revealed Religion viz. That God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him But in what sense 't is a Doctrine of Revealed Religion I must briefly explain to you to prevent mistakes That God will reward every rewardable Creature is to say no other thing but God is Just and this is known by the light of nature but in strictness no man is rewardable but he that is sinlesly righteous for he that offends is liable to punishment Now of all meer mortals there is no man that is sinlesly obedient Whether therefore God will reward us if we diligently seek him tho we are sinners this depends only upon the free will and pleasure of God and consequently cannot be known by us but through Revelation The belief therefore of this truth That God is a rewarder of such men as we are if we diligently seek him is the belief of a Doctrine that belongs to Revealed Religion It is further to be remembred by us that the Apostle doth instance in this Proposition of Natural Religion That there is a God in behalf of all other Principles of Natural Religion that are of like necessity to be believed with it Likewise that the Apostle doth instance in this Proposition of Revealed Religion That God is a Rewarder of them that seek him in behalf of all other Principles of Revealed Religion that are of like necessity to be believed with that It deserves also our notice That the Proposition of Natural Religion which the Apostle instances in is the first Principle and Foundation of Religion necessary to be believed first of all That also the Proposition of Revealed Religion which he instances in is the last Principle that makes up the Foundation of Faith as I shall shew in its place So that all the other Doctrines of Faith that are fundamental to Religion and Virtue lye between these two viz. The first Principle of Natural Religion That there is a God and the last Principle of Revealed Religion That he is a Rewarder My business is to shew What those Principles be which lye between the lowest and highest part of the Foundation and they are discoverable what they are by shewing what is of equal necessity to be believed with these Doctrines in order to the inducing of men to the practice of Religion and Virtue 1. I shall according to this rule shew what Doctrines of Natural Religion are fundamentally necessary to be believed in order to Worship and Virtue 2. According to the same rule what those Revealed Doctrines are which are of like necessity to be believed for the same end The Doctrines of Natural Religion are these 1. That there is a God which is here instanced in 2. That there is a Providence 3. That some things there be wherewith God is pleased and some wherewith he is offended Now concerning all these Principles I affirm That they are so absolutely necessary to be believed that not one of them can be spared 'T is the belief of all these things together from which resulteth the necessary obligation of men to worship God and work righteousness so that if the belief of any one of them ceaseth all sense of obligation to pious and virtuous practice must withal fail and perish Some there are which add unto this Foundation the belief of a life to come but unfitly upon these two accounts 1. Because the belief hereof is not in the same degree necessary to the practice of that which is pleasing to God as the belief of the forementioned things for if a man had but an uncertain hope of a future life but firmly believed the other truths it is barely possible that by the motive and inducement of such belief joined with such an hope he might be persuaded to do those things which he is
a Worshipper of God and a doer of Righteousness without the belief of them But from the firm persuasion of these things there ariseth a full obligation to do all those things whereby God is pleased But alas such is the degeneracy of Mankind our propensity to wickedness the Temptations of the World c. that if we believe no other motives besides these in order to Religion and Virtue it is very unlikely that they should have their effects upon us We know we are Sinners and should we be ready to justify our continuance in Sin by pretending that we know not whether God would pardon us upon our repentance We know our best Actions are imperfect and we should be ready to question whether God would accept what we could do and make that a pretence of neglecting to do what we might We know our own Frailties and the difficulties of Religion and Virtue and should in all likelihood deliver our selves from all care of pleasing God under colour of the impossibility of performing it by Humane Endeavours We know the enjoyments of pleasures and profits of Sin are present to us and we should be apt to question Whether it would be any thing better if we should forego them when the conscience of our duty required it It hath pleased therefore the All-wise and All-good God out of his tender Mercy and Compassion to Sinners to remove all these hindrances and by Revelation to supply all these defects and satisfy us concerning all these doubts viz. by adding to the Principles of Natural Religion these following Motives and Inducements to Godliness and Virtue 1. That God will pardon the sins of all those that repent 2. That he will accept our sincere endeavours to please him 3. That by his Spirit he will assist us in them And 4. That he will at last reward us for them All which are the Doctrines of revealed Religion and make up the entire foundation of Faith having all their dependance upon Faith in Christ The Third Sermon HEB. XI 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him I Come in the second place to shew what Doctrines of Revealed Religion are fundamental to Godliness and Virtue those are such which are immediately necessary to be believed in order to the removing or subverting of those Doubts which would hinder men from the care of Piety and Virtue notwithstanding their belief of the natural Principles of Religion If we suppose a man to believe a God a Providence and the difference between good and evil we must needs conclude this man lies under a very powerful obligation to the practice of Worship and Virtue and if the efficacy of these Motives be not subverted by other Principles destructive of all care to please God it may be expected that the man who believeth thus much should indeed be a Worshipper of God and a Practiser of Virtue But if it be most true that men are through the sad degeneracy and corruption of their Natures extreamly averse from that which is good and prone to that which is evil even all Mankind more or less and consequently that they are very ready to lay hold upon all pretences to excuse themselves the Service of God and obedience to his Will If it be true also that there are several Questions in Religion which unless they be satisfied the doubting of them will afford so many pretences to throw off all care to live vertuously and godly and that these Questions cannot be satisfied nor consequently the Doubts removed by the Principles of Natural Religion then it follows that those Principles though the belief of them be absolutely necessary yet by reason of the present evil state of Mankind are not sufficient to constrain them to the practice of Religion and Virtue but must be assisted and strengthned by such Principles of Revealed Religion the belief whereof will wholly remove all those Pretences which would be alledged in behalf of an ungodly vicious life It might be pretended by the natural man who believes that there is a God a Providence and that some things are pleasing and others displeasing to him That these are not sufficient Reasons why he should become religious and virtuous because knowing himself to be a Sinner he could not tell whether God would pardon the Sins he is guilty of without which it would signify little to his advantage to endeavour to please him for the future Clear it is by Natural light that God is a hater of Sin but whether he will pardon a Sinner depending meerly upon his Free-will the belief thereof must necessarily depend upon Revelation Almighty God hath by Revelation made known to us that he will pardon the Sins of men upon their repentance This therefore is the first Principle of Revealed Religion that is fundamental to Godliness and Virtue That God is ready to pardon the Sins of men upon their repentance But by the natural man i. e. one that believes there is a God it might further be alledged That though he were assured that God would forgive him all his past sins upon his return to obedience yet he is ignorant what degree of obedience it is with which God will be pleased for the future A perfect and unsinning Righteousness he knows no man is able to arrive unto in this state of imperfection and whether God will accept of our doing what we are able to do considering all our evil Circumstances we cannot know unless he is pleased to inform us that he will Almighty God hath therefore by Revelation made known to us that he will accept of the sincere endeavours of men in the practice of Religion and Virtue And so the second Principle of revealed Religion the belief whereof is fundamentally necessary to a good life is this That God is ready to accept of sincere obedience But considering the great Temptatations we are beset withal the natural aversation in us to good and propensity to evil the bad Examples of the World the power of Custom the prevelancy of Passions the frailties of Humane Nature It is further questionable whether Humane Endeavours can arrive at such a measure of Righteousness and Obedience which may justly be called sincerity in doing the whole Will of God and if that Righteousness be impossible to us in our present Circumstances without which God will not be pleased with us there is but little comfort in the belief that he will pardon us upon repentance and accept of our sincere endeavours of obedience there are but weak motives to those endeavours Almighty God therefore to encourage us against the fears of our own frailties and the temptatations of this World hath been pleased to reveal unto us that he will afford us the assistance of his Holy Spirit in a manner and measure proportionable to all the Difficulties of Religion and Virtue And so the
godly life because there are many men of clear and active thoughts and conversant in the study of Religion that do not live by Faith for as the Faith of such men cannot in reason be thought to be a confused and indeterminate persuasion so it is too plain by experience that some such do retain the Faith but make shipwrack of a good conscience And therefore let us consider the third thing wherein the power of Faith consists viz. 3. The permanence of it upon the mind or a constancy of frequent consideration upon what we believe That is to say let us suppose a man that doth not only believe all matters of Faith that are needful and apprehend them distinctly and particularly and with application to himself but likewise by very much consideration of these things hath made them present and habitual to himself and of such a man I say That he is under the whole power of Faith and he it is that overcomes the world For such a Believer has two advantages which cannot fail to make him a good man 1. His Persuasion or his Faith is present to his mind when he most needs it i.e. upon all occasions of temptation so that he will be ready in the strength of it to say with Joseph How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God But now though one believes all the awakening Doctrines of Religion yet if he does not think of them nor lay them to heart when the Devil the World and the Flesh are busy with him t is all one with him at the time as if he had never heard of the Articles of Christian Faith and for the present he is as much without the Operation of Faith as if he had none at all It is with him as it is with a man in a swooning fit there is indeed life in him but it is without sense and motion and for the time he differs not from one that is dead or rather as there is a principle of sense and motion in the one without any act of either so is there indeed in the other a Principle of Faith but no Act of it and it is therefore as if it were not at all Distinct and particular application of what we believe will do much towards the restraining of a man's lusts and this is properly Faith but then that Faith which once was and now is not can do nothing at present which is the case of too many persons professing Christianity That their belief of Divine Truth is oftner absent than present because they do not think of those things which should govern them and assist them under Temptations but by chance or when they cannot help it their business is to put those things out of their minds and not to fix them there And this is the first advantage of one that is constant in his consideration of the Truths whereof he is convinced that they are present to him when he stands in need of their help and indeed never at any great distance from him The 2d Is this and that is the greatest of all That he hath a true and lively sense of these things as often as they return to his mind and he always believes them as he should do under a vigorous apprehension of his own great concernment in them To believe that there is a God and a Life to come and that the Son of God came to be our Saviour and will come to be our Judge that through the Infinite Mercy of God and through the Death and Passion of our Saviour we may obtain Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life to believe these things I say according to their nature and our concernment in them is to have a due sense of them and to be justly affected with them more than with all other interests whatsoever because these indeed are the greatest of all Now it is by a Constancy of Believing i. e. of Considering these things and making them present to us that we come to that Faith which consists in a right apprehension and a just sense of them Nor will any other means do without this and indeed all means of Grace are ineffectual without it and they are then effectual when they bring us to this degree of Faith The Prayers that we make are unprofitable if they do not help to fix our minds upon God and Divine Truth and by their frequent returns make a sense of Religion natural and familiar to us Our reading the Scriptures and hearing good Doctrine and Exhortation and our assembling for the worship of God is unprofitable to Godliness otherwise than by accustoming of us to think as we should do that is to be affected with the Doctrines of our most holy Faith Good education and good examples do no otherwise promote the work of God in our minds than by awakening our consideration of that Truth which is to renew us in the spirit of our minds Afflictions and Judgments the Fears and Apprehensions of Death the amazing Calls of God's Providence cannot of themselves work the reformation of an evil heart and life if they do it it is by beginning to bring men to that Consideration which they continue afterwards till they come to a Faith that answers the nature of the things they believe which consists in a just sense and apprehension of them but this is not to be gained but by a constant Consideration because they are spiritual things or future things after this life which are the main Objects of our Faith If a sick man believes that he shall gain his health by such a method or a poor man that he shall get an estate or a prisoner that he shall recover his liberty or any man that he shall come to his end in this world by such a course of means there is no need of much Consideration to persuade himself to try it because without any pains taken with himself he is naturally possest with a lively persuasion of his concernment in things of this nature But in Religion it is otherwise tho the interest be great nay the greatest of all yet it is not a sensible nor a present interest in comparison and so our Faith must be renewed day by day that we may be affected with it as reasonable creatures ought to be and by much thinking of it i. e. by many Acts of Faith arrive to such a sense of God and our interest in Religion as the nature of the thing deserves And this is that Faith which overcomes the world which purifies the heart and makes a man a new creature I deny not That wicked men believe and do contrary to a sense of their duty and of their obligations to God I acknowledge that they have so much Faith as makes them uneasie under their guilt somewhat loth to commit sin and ashamed and afraid when it is committed I grant that they have Faith truly so called but then they want Faith too that Faith which is properly
convinced God would be pleased withal And it seems probable that the Apostle in the first place doth instance in a sort of Doctrines without the belief whereof it is naturally impossible men should conceive themselves obliged to Godliness and Virtue and all the Principles of Natural Religion are such And that in the second place he instanceth in a sort of Doctrines without the belief whereof 't is morally impossible men should conceive themselves sufficiently encouraged thereto and all the Principles of Revealed Religion are of that nature 2. 'T is clear enough That the Faith of a life to come is grounded upon Revelation for tho it appears exceeding probable to natural reason yet by the discourses of those men that wanted a Revelation it appears withal that generally it was an exceeding hard matter to arrive at any certainty about it while they were only left to the light and conduct of natural reason in this matter 'T is only the Testimony of God in the Resurrection and Doctrine of our Saviour that hath cleared the world from all Disputes about it 'T is only the Gospel that hath brought life and immortality to light Upon these Reasons I conceive this belief is not to be ranked with those that I have already named under the head of Natural Principles whereof the first is 1. That there is a God This as I said is the Fundamental Principle of all Religion without which there is no obligation to worship and without the belief of which there can be no sense of any such obligation without the belief hereof no man can think himself obliged to Virtue since the denial thereof supposes that there is no authority to which a man can be accountable for his actions But this thing I take to be so clear that there is no further necessity of insisting upon it Since then the belief of a Deity is the Foundation of all Religion it would in this place be most adviseable to shew upon what grounds the belief of this most important and fundamental Article of Religion stands since all the Consequences naturally issuing from it will have more or less power and efficacy with us according as we are more or less under the power of this belief That there is a God Now altho the manifesting of these Reasons upon which this belief is established in humane nature the discovering of that Rock upon which this first stone in the Foundation is laid should be supposed never so needless in this Congregation yet considering the great and general importance of this Doctrine it cannot be suposed tedious to any Hearer unless withal I had reason to suspect there were any persons here to whom the Demonstrations of a Diety bring such evil Tidings that they would gladly embrace the most frivolous pretences to avoid them Upon which Supposition nothing could be more needful than to wrest their vain and running hopes away from them That possibly there is no God by the force of that reason which shews it to be eternally and immutably true That there is Wherefore tho I shall be saved much of that pains which would be otherwise requisite by the care I have formerly taken in particular Discourses to guard this part of the Foundation and to establish the belief of it in your minds yet I must needs observe that decorum of allotting it as considerable a place in my Sermon as it hath in the Text and as the Dignity of the Subject requires To believe that there is a God is to believe that there is a Being infinitely perfect i. e. Infinite in Wisdom Power and Goodness which ever was and ever will be and which is the Creator and First Cause of all things This is that Notion of God to which Natural Reason leads us inasmuch as by that Being which is called God we are to understand that which is Infinite in all Perfections Several there be which desire no other Argument to prove there is such a Being besides that Testimony which every man finds in his own breast And indeed the universal consent of mankind in this matter even of people whose Manners and Religions being as distant as their habitations were remote shew that they were never united in this persuasion by Compact or Confederacy Add to this likewise the Fears of a Diety in them who could only be supposed to invent this stratagem of governing the world if an Invention it be viz. in Philosophers and Princes who were much to blame to be afraid of their own fancies if it was but a mystery of State to possess the people with the belief of a Deity This I say so universal a Confession of this Doctrine is a pregnant evidence that 't is indeed written in the very minds and the sense thereof interwoven into the very Natures of men and if it be so there cannot possibly be any other cause offered of so uniform and constant an effect to satisfy a reasonable man besides the existence of such a Being which all men are persuaded of and who hath wrought into our Souls when he made us the Testimonies of his Eternal Power and Godhead But although the urging of this Argument of Universal Consent for the proving of a Deity together with clear Answers to all Objections that can be brought to weaken it be according to the most impartial Judgment I can make sufficient to conclude any but an unteachable mind that is unwilling to believe there is a God because 't is for its interest there should be none And although I am verily persuaded that whereas indeed many there are who live like Atheists yet there is scarce any of them to the glory of Religion be it spoken who deliberately dies an Atheist yet I confess this Argument from Universal Consent does rather suppose that there is no need of Arguments to convince an Atheist than offer any unanswerable means of Conviction to him If such a Creature there be in the World he will say to all this that the Argument supposes that to be true which he himself is an example of the falshood of viz. That all men believe the Being of a God And though it may be replied That some few Monsters there are in all the products of Nature and 't is no more to be inferred that the belief of a God is not the sense of Mankind because he is of another opinion than 't is the Law of Nature that men should be born with two Heads because a two-headed Monster once appeared in the World Yet if he should be so immodest and stubborn as to conclude against all the rest of Mankind that they are mistaken and he if alone he be is alone in the right have we then nothing left to confute this wretched Creature and by undeniable Reason to prove that Mankind is in the right and that there is a God Yes we have They are the Works of Nature which there is no man but must see and can enquire into and they
he made and still preserves and more particularly that he governs Mankind in a way suitable to his Nature by prescribing Moral Laws to him and expecting obedience from him that he sees and takes notice of all our Actions that he observes all that we do and all that we suffer and superintends all the Affairs of Humane Life And if there be a God it is clear by natural Reason that there is such a Providence and that upon several grounds I shall instance but in one It is not consistent with the Divine Wisdom to make such a frame of things as were not fit to be regarded and governed by him afterwards i. e to be a Creator and not to be the Lord and Governor of his Creation More particularly It is repugnant to the Truth and Wisdom of God to create such a being as man whose Faculties teach him that he is capable of honouring his Creator and receiving good from him and then not to regard whether he be honoured by his Creature or no and to leave him to the Conduct of Chance for the procuring of that which is good for himself But 't is also plain and evident from the Continuation of the Works of Nature in their serviceableness and usefulness to men that God does still govern the material World and that in order to the good of men which is a clear instance of his Providence over them and that he minds and regards them Now without the belief hereof it is evident that no man can think himself obliged to the practice of Religion and Virtue for though there be a God yet if he minds not our Actions there is no reason why we should fear to offend him or take any care to please him or how can a man be persuaded to worship God if he believes not that God regards his Worship What reason can be pretended why he should pray unto him unless he be convinc'd that God hears his Prayers What consolation can he have under any distress what trust can he place upon the Divine Power and Goodness if he thinks that God is not concern'd in Human Affairs and hath no respect to the Calamities of men and governs nothing by his Providence In brief 't is most plain that whatsoever obligation to Worship and Virtue ariseth from the belief that there a God supposeth also the belief of Divine Providence that God is the Governour of Mankind and taketh notice of their Actions 3. It is fundamentally necessary to Religion and Virtue that men believe that with some things God is pleased and that with others he is offended i. e. that there is a difference between good and evil which can by no means be altered and taken away That some things are so good that they can never become evil and some things so evil that they can never become good And if we believe there is a God such must be our persuasions concerning good and evil for if Justice be an indispensible Perfection of the Divine Nature then is there an eternal relation between a promise and the performance thereof and 't is impossible that Fidelity and Truth should ever cease to be fitting lovely and beautiful things If the Goodness of God be necessary to his Nature then the relation between Compassion and an indigent Creature is Eternal and Charity and Mercy are things immutably good And thus in all other instances of Virtue it might be made to appear from the Perfections of the Divine Nature whereof they are the imitations that they can no more cease to be good than God can cease to be what he is and consequently that the Dispositions and Practices contrary to them are immutably evil It can never be good to condemn the Innocent to oppress the Weak to be cruel and implacable to be sunk into sensuality or worldliness No Power in Heaven or in Earth no Will no Authority can make it ever cease from being a most comely fitting due thing for a Creature that is endued with Reason to praise his God to honour him in all his Perfections to love his Infinite Goodness to trust in his Infinite Power and Wisdom to reverence his great and holy Majesty and to obey his Will in all things the rectitude and duty hereof cannot be altered any more than the truth of a Mathematical Proposition upon this belief depends the persuasion that Worship and all Virtue and Goodness is pleasing to God and the contrary displeasing to him and this is as certain as 't is certain that God is immutably good and loves that which is most excellent and perfect This sense of good and evil is that also which is wrought into our very Natures the Heathens themselves who wanted a Revelation were yet subject to this Law of their Minds being terrified and punished by the Conscience of evil when they transgressed that Law cherished and rewarded by the Conscience of good when they observed it It was this sense that gave them courage and assurance when they did well and that touched their guilty minds with remorse and made them tremble when they did ill I will not trouble my self to enquire how far 't is in the power of custom in Sin to blot out these Apprehensions in the minds of men but let a man's Conscience be seared never so incurably though he hath no inward sense to inform him perpetually of the difference between good and evil yet that difference is demonstrable to him from the Being of a God as I have shewn and that is the most irrefragable way of proving it against the most hardned Sinner But plain it is that the belief hereof is absolutely necessary to the pleasing of God For what though a man believe there is a God and that there is a Providence which governs the World if yet he be not persuaded that some things there are by the doing of which God is pleased he will never take care to please him by the doing of those things If he is not persuaded some things there are by the doing whereof God is displeased he can never be afraid of offending him by the doing of those things If he thinks there is no difference between good and evil in the nature of things he cannot think himself obliged to make or observe any such difference in his Actions unless he believes that to worship God and practice Virtue is good in it self acceptable to God and rewardable by him nothing can effectually oblige him thereunto unless he believe the contrary to be evil displeasing and punishable no religious belief whatsoever can deter him from it So that to believe this difference between good and evil between things that God is pleased withal and wherewith he is displeased is of absolute necessity to Religion and Virtue or the doing of those things whereby God is pleased And all these things are so fundamentally necessary in order to that end that it is naturally impossible and it implies a contradiction that a man should be
third Principle of Revealed Religion the belief whereof is necessary to Godliness and Virtue is That God is ready to assist our endeavours of doing his will Lastly it is possible to be alledged by the natural man That though all these things be true yet he hath no sufficient inducement to Religion and Virtue unless he were assured that all his self-denial his resolution and overcoming his evil Appetites his foregoing the present pleasures of Sin his diligence and constancy in well-doing would be recompenced by obtaining of better things in the room of those advantages he foregoes to please God in the doing of his duty To take away this Plea Almighty God hath moreover revealed unto us that he will bestow a Crown of life immortal of endless glory and happiness upon every one that perseveres in well-doing And the last Principle of revealed Religion the belief whereof is necessary to the doing of those things whereby God is pleased is this That God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Which is the Proposition or Doctrine of Revealed Religion instanced in by the Apostle and that as I told you in behalf of all other Doctrines of Revealed Religion of like necessity to be believed And thus I have shewn you how all those other fundamental Doctrines of Faith without which we cannot do those things that please God are comprehended in and lie between those which are mentioned in the Text viz. the lowest of them That God is and the highest and last of them That he is a rewarder c. Having thus shewn you what Doctrines of Revealed Religion are fundamentally necessary to be believed to encourage men to the practice of Piety and Virtue I shall speak more distinctly and yet briefly to each of them shewing how they are to be understood what grounds we have to believe them and what force and efficacy the belief of them hath to persuade us to Godliness and Virtue And 1. That God will pardon the sins of those that repent Without Revelation we cannot have assurance thereof because it cannot be concluded from mere natural light that God will actually pardon a Sinner The reason is because a Sinner is obnoxious and liable to just punishment and to inflict a just punishment is consistent with Goodness So that we cannot argue merely from the goodness of the Divine Nature which is otherways abundantly expressed to us that God will remit that punishment because 't is not inconsistent with his Goodness not to remit it That God therefore would pardon the sins of men and remit his right to punish them as they deserv'd depended merely upon his own pleasure whether he would or not and consequently it must be a secret to us till he was pleased to manifest it to us by Revelation And we that do believe that God will pardon the sins of those that repent do believe it upon this ground That the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Revelation of God's Will to Mankind in which Gospel it is plainly declared that God will pardon those that repent The great and evident design of the whole Gospel being this to call sinners to repentance upon this motive That they shall obtain remission of sins if they obey that call to repentance which God hath given them by his Son Jesus That which is promised is Pardon the condition upon which it is promised is Repentance both which afford a powerful motive to the practice of those things which please God For that God will pardon a Sinner what doth it signify but this That he will not reckon his former sins to him and that all his future acts of obedience shall be reckon'd to him as if he had never been guilty of any sin Now plain it is that hereby all those Jealousies of the power and severity of God which can dishearten the Sinner from seeking to be reconciled unto him by submission and repentance are utterly removed Hereby he is assured that God is neither inxorable nor implacable his prayers will be heard his repentance will be accepted and there is a certain way opened by which he may return into the favour of God Now he that believes this is under the power of a strong motive to live so as to please God for the future For as nothing doth more deeply ingage men in an obstinate and unreclaimable course of wickedness than the apprehension that they have sinned beyond hope of pardon so nothing is more apt to soften them into dispositions of repentance than the kind and merciful offers of forgiveness which he makes who hath it both in his right and in his power to destroy them This we are sensible of in the carriage of men towards one another and why should we not suffer as kindly impressions from the Gentleness and Charity of God as we do from the good nature of men Certain it is that no one man hath been so rude and ungrateful to another as every Sinner hath been to his Maker and as true it is that no misery can equal that which would befal him from the unappeasedness of God's anger and therefore no Gentleness and Mercy no tenderness and Charity is comparable to that which God hath expressed towards him in proclaiming himself ready to pardon upon repentance 'T is true we see there are such inflexible Natures in the World as are not to be mended by forgiveness and the kindest usage there are men of such incorrigible Tempers that are not at all the better for God's pardon or the Kings but then these are veary hateful persons and deserve not to be pitied But if men are reclaimable by kindness as all men should be what can sooner melt them into thoughts and purposes of amendment than that their great and bountiful Creator against whom no man can sin without being guilty of the greatest baseness because he sins against the greatest goodness against whom no man can sin without exposing himself to the greatest miseries because he sins against the greatest Power that he I say should bear so tender a regard to his lost and undone Creatures as to forbear his right to punish them and allure them to amendment by declaring that he will do so because he delighteth not in the death of a sinner but had rather he should turn and live This if any thing must needs work upon our hearts and humble our wills and dissolve our affections into a disposition of the most ready and dutiful obedience to him for the future Again if we consider the condition upon which this pardon is offered to Sinners in the Gospel the belief thereof must needs be a strong foundation of Godliness and Virtue For that repentance upon the condition whereof pardon is promised is neither more nor less than a real conversion from the love and practice of Sin and Unrighteousness to the love and practice of Virtue and Holiness It is neither made up of confession of sin and sorrow for sin
necessary for the maintenance of Life as Bread c. In like manner by the holy Spirit which our heavenly Father is so ready to bestow upon his Children we must understand all Spiritual helps necessary for our improvement in Religion and Virtue viz. which hold the same proportion to the good of our Souls which Bread c. holds to the welfare of our Bodies this upon our asking i. e. upon our sincere endeavours after it we may promise our selves from the bounty of God to us since he hath promised it to us viz. such grace and spiritual help as shall be sufficient for us God will give to none of us less and he is unreasonable that expects more Now is not this evidently a strong Motive to Godliness and Virtue that God himself will cherish and maintain us will help and support us will prosper and guard us by the influences of his Holy Spirit upon us Have we such a Patron and Defender to overlook and care for us that we do not fall by our Spiritual Enemies for want of necessary help and yet can we be disheartned and dismay'd Can our Courage and Resolution leave us Can our hearts sink within us when such powerful Aids are near when such mighty encouragements are by us Is it not from hence plain that no man can fail of doing those things wherewith God will be pleased and his favour obtained but it must be through his own fault and slothfulness in not obtaining by his own endeavours or in not improving by his good Actions the graces of the holy Spirit wherewith he might have arrived to a Regenerate estate and persevered therein For God hath not made a feigned but a sincere promise of his Spirit to work and encrease his graces in us and if the promise be real it can imply no less and it needs not imply any more than a sufficient provision for our spiritual needs and if that provision be not effectual in the event no body is to be blamed for it but our selves The belief therefore of this Article of Revealed Religion That God is ready to assist by his holy Spirit our sincere endeavours to please him is a Motive of great force to persuade us to the practice of Religion and Virtue both because the Promise of God's Spirit made to us is sufficient to encourage us against all our fears of the difficulties of Religion and our own weakness to overcome them and likewise because it cannot but shew us what great aggravation our sins must receive if we continue in them because thereby we resist and do despight unto the spirit of grace 4. The last Principle of Revealed Religion fundamental to a holy Life is that which is mentioned in the Text viz. That God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him This point of belief is not knowable but by Divine Revelation because it depends on the will and pleasure of God whether he will reward our diligent seeking of him or no for if it were discoverable by natural reason as it is not that God would certainly pardon our Sins upon Repentance that he would accept of our sincere endeavours of obedience that he would by his Spirit assist our endeavours to please him If all this could be concluded from the general notion of Divine Goodness yet Natural Reason could not give us any other confidence about the effects of that pardon and our sincere endeavours to please God which are excited and assisted by the Holy Spirit I say the highest confidence we could arrive unto about the good effects of these things with regard to our selves could amount reasonably to no more than this That hereupon we should be exempted and released from that punishment which is due unto our sins For that God should pardon Sinners and that he should prescribe unto them such excellent and useful Laws as should tend to their advantage in this Life and which should recompence the obedience of them with a present reward and thereupon should remit the penalty due to sin this must needs argue as great goodness in God as any Sinner could with reason or modesty expect the manifestation of towards himself but that he should over and above requite our imperfect if sincere obedience with free and ample rewards in the Life to come that those rewards should be the highest and fullest which our natures are capable of that the continuance of them should be as long as our Beings that they should be no less than immortal glory and happiness than an Eternal Crown of Righteousness than Life Everlasting than the Society and Fellowship of Angels than the glorious and happy imployments of Spirits made perfect than the sight and fruition of God for ever this is such abundant benignity and good-will towards Sinners that it can flow from nothing but self-moving goodness free grace and unsought kindness and benevolence This could never be known by us but by God Almighty's Revelation of his purpose and intention so to do if we would labour to please him in all things This with modesty could never be expected by us if the declared Promise of God thus to deal with us had not given us confidence to believe it and made it our Duty so to do That we might therefore want no motive and encouragement to the practice of Religion and Virtue He who by his Son Jesus Christ calleth us to repentance promising pardon thereupon and acceptance and assistance hath moreover by the same Messenger who hath declared to us the things of God his secret and hidden purposes of Mercy and Goodness towards Sinners by him I say he hath assured us that the righteous shall go into life eternal into a state of immortal glory and happiness reserved for them in the Heavens This also after all the rest is a pregnant and strong motive to the practice of Religion and Virtue since as the rest shew the possibility thereof so this satisfieth us of the great advantage that will accrue to us thereby since God himself will be our rewarder if we diligently seek him If indeed we had no reason to believe that it would make for our advantage to accept of God's pardon and to study to please him in all things for the future the present Pleasures and Profits of Sin would captivate the minds of men and leave us less reason to wonder at the wickedness of the World but since the Bountiful and Righteous God hath bid an everlasting immense reward for our poor and to him unprofitable but to our selves most beneficial Services what can be said in our excuse if we undervalue so magnificent and free a Gift such rich Grace and Bounty If this cannot prevail with us to do those things which are so reasonable in themselves that a truly good man finds there is little need of any other temptation to do them what shame will it be to us if we prefer a Moment before Eternity and those Advantages we see but which we
last he useth much what the same variety of methods by which men should learn to fear before him The main thing intended I conceive is this That we should be as far from being displeased with the Duty that God requireth of us as with the circumstances our worldlyly condition in which he hath set us and that upon the same account since as he governs by steddy Rules of Providence so he governs by steddy Rules of Duty and our condition in both respects is very much the same with theirs that have been before us And we cannot be in such circumstances making our Obedience hard to us but others have been in the like To forgive injuries though they be great is no new burden for no man perhaps has lived in the world but has met with great provocations To abstain from unlawful pleasures though our Appetites prompt us never so violently to pursue them is no strange Duty for those that have been before us had the same natural Passions and Inclinations that we have To live by Rules that are contrary to the Customs and Examples of the Age we live in may seem unreasonable to an inconsiderate man but this has been the case of good men in almost all Ages of the World Neither is thy Duty a new thing whatever it be nor the difficulty of performance new whatever that be still God requireth that which is past Let therefore no man think that he would be a good Christian if he had a good Estate that he would be an honest man if it were not the way to die a Beggar that he would be very humble if he were once great and above contempt that he could forgive wrongs if his Enemies were not very spiteful and implacable that he would serve God if he would make a Hedge about all that he had and observe the Rules of Religion if he were not under unusual Temptations to the contrary Say not thou that the Age in which thon livest and the Circumstances in which thou art will not bear the practice of strict Piety and true Virtue Say not thou what is the cause that that the former days are better than these for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this thing For 1. There is no end of these pretences and excuses such things as these may always be said and there will be always more or less occasion to plead them and therefore they are never to be allowed It seldom happens that we conclude truly when we compare our own Circumstances with other mens and conclude to our own disadvantage as if God requir'd easier things of them than he does of us and therefore it is not wisely done to begin with an inquiry which is almost certain to end in a false Judgment especially when we make a false Judgment to excuse an evil practice But then if it were allowable for men thus to argue in excuse for themselves The World is not so good a World as our Fathers found it for my Affairs in it do not succeed so well as another man's and my Temptations are greater than his and therefore I am excusable if I do not come up to the Piety and Integrity of others If this I say were once allowed how hard would it be for God to please man and to keep him to his Duty and that if nothing else were to be said because of the perpetual false Judgments we should make in comparing our selves with others Every man being sensible of his own Temptations and the inconveniencies of the Times in which he lives and of his own Temper and of his proper condition and circumstances in the World would think Providence had been partial against him and that the Duties of Religion pressed harder upon himself than upon any other person A poor man would think his rich Neighbour had more time and greater obligations to serve God than himself The wealthy man would believe that the poor man has more leisure for Prayer and fewer Temptations to earthly-mindedness than he has God would lose the thanks of every man that could fancy another more happy than himself and the Duty and Service of every man that could fancy his own Temptations to be stronger than all other mens and because we feel our own good and evil and do but guess at other mens by their outward appearance we should run into all manner of false judgment in comparing them with one another but that there might be no pretence for this wretched way of arguing God hath not only tied us up all strictly to the same Piety and Duty but is pleased to let us know as the truth is that upon the whole matter there is nothing new under the sun that upon the whole matter he hath made no difference between the present and former Ages between our selves and other Persons Thy Neighbour perhaps has not all those very Temptations thou hast but then he has his own he has perhaps some obligations in one kind which thou hast not but thou hast the advantage of him in another Every condition of life has not only its proper inconveniencies but its proper advantages and what is lost in the difference of our state from others or in the change which we may suffer our selves is made up another way prosperity and success should make us love God better but disappointments on the other side and adversities do very often make it more easy for us to love the world less in a word seek no excuses for neglecting Piety and Virtue from the difference of Times Fortunes Temptations and the like between thy self and those that live in this or that lived in former Ages for thou art likely to make but a foolish judgment and wilt unavoidably run into great mistakes in making the comparison and the reason of thy sin will not bear the judgment of the All-seeing God nor the examination of the last and terrible Day But do thou believe God to be impartial and to have tempered the Seasons and Ages of the World and the different condition of Persons with a wise equality with an unerring judgment And do thou give up thy self to follow and to comply with his wise Providence And though his judgements in respect of others be unsearchable and his ways past finding out yet thou shalt find that all his ways towards thy self are so wise and so good that at last thou shalt not wish there had been the least alteration of them And therefore I proceed farther and in pursuance of what has been said add in the second place 2. Suppose that in some notable respects thy case may differ from another man's yet this difference is not so great as to make any material difference between thine obligation and his to do that which God requires Nor can we be less obliged so to do than our Forefathers were for in every Age it may be said That which hath been is now and in every Age God requireth that which is past and
that under the same Motives and Obligations without any difference so considerable as to turn the Ballance one way or other for let the World go which way it will an Impious man is a Fool and a Wretch and the Righteous man is Happy and Wise for himself and therefore certainly that is a very good condition and a good World for thee in which thou maist be as good as thou pleasest to be What condition can be better for a man than that which puts him under the immediate Protection and special Providence of God who is not only the disposer of long Life and Wealth and Honour and Security but of a greater thing than all these and that is a contented and chearful mind nay if thou wilt go and learn thoroughly all the qualities of a good man and a good Christian some of them as thou wilt find will guard thee against the anger and displeasure of others others will conciliate their friendship and good will and all together will breed reverence and high esteem and thou wilt find that to be true which St. Peter said of his Times Who will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good Let it be once plain that thou art ready to good but especially that thou art a Friend to the miserable and all men will rise up and call thee blessed and if need were thou shouldst be assisted by those that have not the heart to do such things themselves and shalt feel the benefit of what humanity they have if they have any left Let it it be once plain that thou art averse from doing the least injury but canst forgive the greatest and do seasonable good turns to all Persons upon occasion that thou art candid in thy Censures and discreet in Reproofs and that the affectation of seeming wiser and better than others has nothing to do in thy Wisdom and in thy Concern for the Honour of God and the happiness of Men this will go a great way to make a bad man ashamed to be thy enemy so that he will not abuse that man's name who seeketh not his own Honour and yet is tender of another man's nor do ill offices to one who is known to do none but good ones Every one will probably shew himself a Friend to him that is a Friend to all Finally let thy Devotion to God be inartificial and unaffected let it be exprest by all decent signs of reverence and seriousness without ostentation and withal let it be shewn by an universal regard of thy actions as done in his presence let it infuse manliness into all thy Mirth and guard thee in all thy Pleasures from any approach to Intemperance and a brutish Sensuality let it be seen in governing thy Passions in tempering thy Discourse in modelling thy Behaviour in making thee a good Man or Woman in all thy Conversation and then thou maist venture thy self abroad in an ill-natured World and in a degenerate Age and the odds are very great on thy side that tho others may be flattered thou shalt be reverenced and that even those who will not afford to give thee a good word will be more unwilling to give thee a bad one if they will not do you any good yet that they will do you no harm All which is not only probable in the speculation but for the most part verified by experience And therefore upon this account it should seem that God lays no heavier burden upon one than another but that he still requireth that which is past But suppose things should not always happen according to common Rules but sometimes leave their ordinary Course as suppose a righteous man must suffer for his righteousness then I say we must leave the consideration of this world and go to that of a better And why should we not suppose that so incomparable a state of Blessings reserved for a good man in the World to come and justly esteemed and earnestly desired by him should not only make all present inconveniencies very light but in comparison none at all Most certainly the Blessedness of an Everlasting state does in it self infinitely out-weigh all the transitory pleasures of the world and if we believe and live accordingly they will out-weigh them in our esteem and affection and then inward peace and the hope of Heaven will satisfie us that true Religion is a means of the best happiness that can be attained here though it does not bring worldly prosperity And it does indeed make me very happy though it does not bring me to honour if it does but teach me humility though it does not make me wealthy if it does but make me contented though it does not give me the abundance of outward pleasures nor free me from injuries and wrongs if it does but bless me with a quiet Mind and a good Conscience with a steddy government of my Passions with meekness and easiness to forgive with the sweet hope of a better Life which when all is done is the true ground of a quiet and serene Enjoyment of our selves in this Now these in all Ages of the world have been the Reasons upon which good men have built their resolution and their practice of Virtue For they lived in all good Conscience not because they expected the Riches and the Pleasures of this world in recompence of their Piety and Justice not that they thought their Virtue would be a fence about all they had to secure their Goods from Rapine their Names from Reproach their Persons from Affronts and Injuries and this course of Life from common or uncommon Troubles and Afflictions They did not hope to make a gainful Traffick with Heaven by their Prayers and Charity for the encreasing of their Treasures upon Earth 'T is true God has often blest good men with strange Prosperity in this world but that was not their end nor the reason of their dependance upon God and doing his Will But they were such as they were by Faith By Faith they wrought righteousness i. e. they did the thing which God required because they expected an heavenly Countrey and believed God to be a rewarder of them that diligently seek him tho not always with the Idolized Pleasures and Greatness no not always with the ease and quiet of this Life yet without fail with those pure and ravishing Joys of a better World which will shortly begin and never end So that the Duties which God requires of us are the same and whether the Temptations be exactly the same or not which make our Duty any thing difficult yet the Motives and Reasons are the same which take away the difficulty and make it equally easy again And if as to God's Grace and the Reasons of doing well and the encouragements which good men always find in his Love and Favour we are upon equal terms with all that have been before us we may be very well content that we are as liable and obnoxious to all the
that saith unto me Lord Lord c. Nay 2. Notwithstanding this and the like forewarnings yet men have and do in this manner delude themselves inasmuch as our Saviour upon this occasion told his Disciples before hand Many shall say unto me in that day Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works which certainly was spoken of those Workers of Iniquity that lived in the early days of the Church whilst Mirales were yet continued in it And this was a terrible instance of the proneness of men to fall into this kind of presumption That some of them who did not only hear but preach the Gospel of Christ who did not only see but do Miracles in the name of Christ should yet be workers of iniquity that they who had faith to cast out devils out of others should not have faith enough to dispossess themselves of their vile Lusts and to cleanse their own hearts and ways But when Honour and Power and Wealth became the Rewards of professing Christianity the instances of this folly and madness grew still more numerous and more open and men more easily passed for Christians than in former times though they were as lustful and revengeful as vain and insolent and altogether as worldly and vicious as other men they then came into the Church with more ease and were turned out of it with more difficulty and they continued in it under a Discipline less severe than in former times and no wonder then that upon the encrease of Bad Examples there were still more and more who looked for Salvation by the Name of Christ that had little or nothing of his Spirit and were themselves Christians in nothing else but in name and profession And now let us consider 2dly How it comes to pass that men can thus deceive themselves as to rest upon so false a foundation of hope and comfort as a mere profession of the Name and Religion of Christ without being such persons in life and soul as their profession requires Now 1. The first and most general cause is this That men are willing to be thus deceived and no man is in greater danger of falling into a mistake how pernicious soever it be than he that has a mind to believe it no mistake Our Saviour in this Sermon whereof the Text is a part speaks against causeless Anger and an adulterous Eye and a revengeful Spirit and Vain-glory and Worldly sollicitude and a great many other things which are often as hard to reform as it would be to cut off a right hand and to pull out a right eye especially where a corrupt Inclination is confirmed by custom in sin This is indeed the principal cause why men will conceit any thing though it be never so foolish rather than they will feel an indispensible obligation to repent and reform their wicked ways 'T is true when a man has had some experience of it the practice of Religion in all his conversation becomes the joy of his life and he finds more pleasure in a constant course of piety towards God of justice and mercy towards men of a sober and temperate use of the good things of this life than can possibly be had in the ways of sin but whilst one is under the power and lust of Passion his indulgence to his own Appetite is like drink to a man in a Feaver who till he recovers his health knows no other pleasure nor is there a greater torment to him than to be denied it Now they are those Rules of Christianity which concern the government of our Affections and Passions our Manners and Practices in the general course of our conversation that are directly contrary to those corrupt Inclinations of Mankind whereas the obligation to profess a Religion and to worship God amongst those that do so doth not of it self thwart them otherways than it brings the other part of Religion to mind which is to act accordingly in all our conversation And therefore men would fain believe that their care in one part shall supply the defects in the other that is That saying Lord Lord shall stand them in good stead although they do not the will of our heavenly Father To this we may add 2. That there is as great a difficulty on the other side to throw off all fear of God and all concern for a Life to come as there is to come up throughly to that which Religion requires And we have infinite reason to bless God for this difficulty i. e. that he hath made it I will not only say as difficult but more difficult for us to become mere Atheists and Infidels than even bad men have made it to become true and sincere Christians For he hath left those natural impressions of his own Being upon our hearts and hath given such evidence to the World of the truth of the Gospel of his Son that it must needs be an hard thing for us to grow downright Atheists or even Unbelievers and for the most part do what we can we are held under the sense and awe of Religion and if we will make an evil course of life easy to our selves it must not be done by throwing off all pretence to Religion for then we should be self-condemned without any relief and have nothing at all to trust to but it must be done by putting some cheat upon our selves consistent with the profession of Religion that is by flattering our selves that a diligent profession of it will serve the turn and they are these two things taken together viz. the unwillingness of men to leave their sins on the one side and the unavoidable apprehensions of God and a Life to come and a general conviction of the truth of Christianity on the other that have not only made many Persons take up this false way of comforting themselves but have also made them easy to receive divers Errors which help to support this to expect spiritual relief from things blest by man without any appointment from God and to place Religion in things which have neither reason of their own nor Divine Authority to make them valuable Certainly if it were either easy for Mankind to throw off all pretence to Religion on the one hand or if they could easily be persuaded to break off their sins by repentance on the other it had been a much harder thing to corrupt Religion than Experience has shewn it to be But so long as there will be Conscience and a sense of God and an apprehension of a life to come as there will be while the World endures and so long as there will be lust and passion vice and wickedness more or less amongst men so long also they will be very desirous to believe those Doctrines that promise security without an effectual reformation And in the company of more mistakes tending to the same comfort it will be a very hard matter
though I was addicted to sensuality and uncleanness and to the Vices of my natural Constitution yet by the Grace of God and power of Faith I am what I am quite another man than I was by my corrupted Nature So much as there is of this in the World so much true Religion there is in it and no more and so many as there are who can thus approve themselves to God so many shall be saved and no more All other Reliefs will fail all other Foundations will ruin a man in the time of his distress they will deceive him at the hour of death or at the day of Judgement and therefore that men might not deceive themselves our Saviour concludes his Precepts and Cautions in this effectual manner Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it But let not that happen to us which St. James saith He that is an hearer of the word and not a doer thereof is like to a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and for the time knoweth himself but then goeth away and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was Which Similitude is not so much intended to expose the nature of the folly in hearing and believing and in doing nothing as to assign the reason of it i. e. If ye would not be hearers only but doers of the word take care that the convictions of Truth and the impressions which it makes upon your minds when you hear it do not slide away just as the Image of a man's Countenance which the Glass hath made in his imagination vanishes away when he turns from the Glass and he does not so well know his own as any other man's face The Doctrine of our Saviour doth represent us to our selves and sheweth us our own Actions what they are and our Consciences witness thereto while we hear those plain and powerful words of his which are laid up in the Evangelists But if we straightway forget what we are and what we should be and take no care to make his word abide in us then as the same Apostle says we shall be hearers only but not doers of the word deceiving our own selves The Eleventh Sermon JOHN VII 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God AMongst the many Arguments in Scripture persuading to an upright Intention and honest Conversation this in the Text is fit to be propounded and considered as being not only weighty in it self as all the rest are but adapted to allure the curious temper of man and most proper for them who are most inquisitive after knowledge and likely to be effectual with the most prudent who aim at the best knowledge For 1. The knowledge spoken of in the Text is that of the Wisdom of God or his Revelations to Mankind by Jesus Christ and it is of infinite importance to us for it concerns the welfare of our immortal Souls and this should invite us to endeavour after it through the most difficult methods that could be propounded But 2. For our great encouragement the method laid down in the Text is easy to apprehend and obvious to all Capacities it is easy likewise to put in practice it requires nothing but a willing mind If any man will do the will of God if he will but walk according to his present light if he intends to learn that he may practice he shall know 3. The Promise is universal in respect of the Object being made to all If any man will do his will no man who is capable of being sincere and honest is excluded therefore every man is concerned in the Promise the Condition is not only possible to all but being performed the Promise is sure to all therefore this method will fail no man For 4. The promise is made by him who is the way the truth and the life he himself whose Doctrine it is that we would learn and best knows that method by which we may learn it hath given us this assurance That if we make Piety and Virtue our first design we shall know 5. The Promise is universal in respect of the matter of it he shall know of the doctrine i. e. of the whole Doctrine whatsoever is necessary or greatly profitable to the end of knowledge He shall not therefore only learn in general that the Doctrine of Christianity is of God but the particular Doctrines that are so so likewise he shall know the same things better than he did before this method will confirm us and give us the best assurance it will keep us from wandring and doubting afterwards and if we shall know the Truth and know the same more perfectly then the motive is proper to be used in all Ages of the Church and we have reason to think our selves concerned in it Lastly It is yet a greater encouragement to follow this method if we consider that no man can possibly miss of Happiness in that way which our Saviour here prescribes for the attainment of the best knowledge what reason have I to take that way of arriving to sound knowledge which hath not only so great a promise to secure me that I shall not miss of that end but which undoubtedly will secure a farther end and one much better and more desirable than that the love of God and the compleat happiness of Soul and Body for ever But now although a man could by other methods arrive to knowledge yet if in the mean time he neglected to do the Will of God he doth not at all provide for his Happiness for tho he had as clear an apprehension as an Angel though he received Revelations from the mouth of our Lord himself or by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost though he had an Infallible Guide to determine all Controversies for him and to clear up the darkness of every doubt yet if all this while he hath a perverse and vicious Will and is carried aside by wandring and unruly Affections and leads a wicked life he is certainly in a way of error as damnable as Heresy but he that arrives at knowledge this way doth thereby also secure his Salvation and Eternal Happiness which certainly is a most powerful recommendation of our Saviour's way especially if you add this consideration that it hath the advantage of all other methods by which we can hope to gain a fight understanding in Religion I know it will be objected That Impious and Profane men have apprehensions as capable of judging what is true and what is false as Good men and oftentimes their Abilities are greater
and their Parts quicker than those of the sincere and godly and moreover that some wicked men have arrived to greater knowledge in Religion than thousands of Religious persons ever had To this Objection I answer 1. That supposing an equality of other means and abilities he that is sincere towards God hath many advantages above a wicked man in order to the gaining of that knowledge to which the wicked may possibly arrive 2. That there is some knowledge in Religion proper to the godly which the other continuing as he is can never gain Now if that which is possibly to both may be more easily and certainly attained by the good man supposed to be equal in other respects to the wicked if there be something also that cannot be attained by the wicked though in other respects never so superior to the good man then is not the Rule of our Saviour disparaged by the pretence now mentioned but we have still as great reason to take his method as there seemed to be at first Now there are these two things which I hope to make out by the following Discourse First of all That supposing the good and the bad to be equally endued with natural Abilities of understanding and equally to enjoy the external means of knowledge the former hath great Advantages above the latter for the gaining of that knowledge in Religion which is possible to both this will appear from these two general Arguments 1. That sincerity of heart with a religious life is in it self a fit means to attain knowledge and that the contrary disposition and course of life renders a man very unfit to discern divine Truth 2. That there are many great promises of knowledge and wisdom made to godly men and to none else but that of his Justice he hath threatned and by the same Justice doth often infatuate the understandings of the wicked 1. That a sincere intent towards God and doing his Will is a fit means of it self to attain knowledge For in the 1st place It takes in all that is good and profitable in any other way of coming to the knowledge of the Truth For is searching the Scripture a good means doing the will of God includes that for it is his will that we should search the Scriptures Is hearkning to our Sipritual Guides another way It is the will of God that we should know them that labour amongst us and are over us in the Lord and admonish us Is an impartial examination of those grounds upon which the several Parties in Christendom pretend to hold the truth It is the will of God that we should prove all things and hold fast that which is good that we should not believe every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God Is it the use of our own reason and arguing from Principles of natural Religion This is plainly supposed in the command of trying their Doctrines who pretend to instruct us in Revelation Is it of any use to enquire into the sense of Ancient Churches if we are able to do it this is not hindred but furthered by doing the will of God which always supposeth a sincere desire to know the truth for this sincerity gives a prosperous influence to the labours of the diligent and learned whereas if the interest of ambition or covetousness does mix it self with the studies of men and infect them with a secret disloyalty to the truth it doth most commonly blast their endeavours through the corruptness of their end making them bend their wit not so much to know the truth as to serve their Cause This is the first consideration That whatever is good and profitable in any other way is included in this 2. The obedient and honest mind is peculiarly fitted for the evidence of Divine Truth which is enough to satisfy the prudent and considerate and those that are willing to learn but not to bear down the prejudices and passions of the untractable To this purpose we may consider That our Saviour accommodated his Instructions to the tempers of the humble and willing But when he met with the captious Pharisees he returned them Answers like their Questions designing rather to silence their Arrogance than to inform them and convince them of the truth for he perceived all that labour was lost upon men of their perverse minds which was abundantly sufficient to satisfie those there that were wise and modest and disinterested Thus after they had been cavilling at his Doctrine he asks them whose son Christ was to be they said David's if David then says he call him Lord how is he his son where he left them speechless without explaining the difficulty for he knew Reason would not serve them So when they asked him By what Authority he did those things which he did and this after they they had known his wonderful Works he did not vouchsafe to give them a direct Answer but replies to their Question with another The baptism of John was it from heaven or of men He knew they would say They could not tell Neither tell I you says he by what authority I do these things How evident and reasonable soever the institution of the Gospel is it was not delivered in such a way as should certainly prevail against the obstinacy of the wicked and enlighten the minds of them that love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil but in such a way as would satisfy all that love the truth and are resolved to follow it Hereby God hath made great distinction between the humble and honest on the one side and the proud and insincere on the other while the best knowledge is easy and ready to the former but in comparison hard to the latter 3. Due reverence and love of God's Word is it self apt to promote the understanding of it which is a great advantage which the good man hath above all others what a man admires and delights in engages his whole Soul and makes it all attention and in that posture the mind apprehends more readily and clearly On the other side no man makes a good proficiency in that which he studies with an alienated mind and indeed it is impossible he should since he doth not put his strength to the work and his Soul is hardly present with the business he is about What other reason can we give why men that are accurate at one sort of business are heavy and inapprehensive at others for the Soul in it self hath a capacity equally open to the embracing of all Reason that therefore which makes the difference must be their value of and delight in one subject and their aversion from the other It is no wonder then if David as he speaks of himself was wiser than all his enemies and understood more than the ancients and had more understanding than his teachers themselves For saith he I have kept thy precepts I love thy law it is my meditation all the day long and the
endeavors to know the Covenant of God revealed in the Gospel whether enjoining the Duty he expects from us or promising those benefits and rewards in this or the other life which we may expect from him this very Promise we have again repeated Prov. 3.32 His secret is with the righteous it had been enough if God had passed his but once but since he hath so often repeated it we cannot doubt but that good men shall be blessed with a better apprehension of the things of the Gospel than others In John 8. the like Promises are made and the like Conditions upon which they are made are annexed ver 12. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life shall know all things requisite to Life Eternal ver 32. Ye shall know the truth but 't is upon this condition ver 33. that ye continue in my word and John 14.21 I will love and manifest my self to every one that loveth me and keepeth my Commandments Upon the account of these and the like Promises as well as upon other grounds we may say with the Psalmist Psal 111. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it is the best most auspicious entrance upon it and they that do thereafter have a good understanding having good security that they cannot fail of it To conclude this particular From all these Promises we may be most assured that every man following the rule of Christ shall not fail of so much knowledge as will secure his Eternal Life and even that is a mighty encouragement to observe this Rule If any of us were sure that some Angel attended us constantly observing all our actions insinuating good counsels and exciting good thoughts when our Passions grow wild and we are on the brink of sin it would infuse a great regard of all we did into us and we should reckon our selves happy men Certainly it is more happy to be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God what can be more desirable than to have him who is Wisdom it self opening our ears and sealing Instruction to us blessing our searches into holy things and accompanying our meditations with a ready and prosperous apprehension And this is that we are sure of whilst we are in the way of doing God's will because we are sure he is not slack in his Promises But this advantage will appear so much the greater if we consider that God doth sometimes deliver up wicked men to darkness of understanding and hath threatned that he will do so That he has done so St. Paul shews plainly Rom. 1. by the example of the Gentiles because they detained the truth in unrighteousness ver 19. and did not glorify God with that knowledge which he had given them they first became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned ver 21. So they fell to Idolatry ver 22. and then we find that he gave them up to vile affections and a reprobate i. e. an undiscerning mind which knew no difference between good and evil and that God will deal so with us if we deny him by our works 't is but reasonable to expect tho' he had not said it but he hath given us sufficient warning in the threatning to the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. Repent and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place their Candlestick is removed and now they are in Turkish darkness and so the burden of Ephesus is fulfilled But why I beseech you should that admonition be so often repeated in the second and third Chapters He that hath ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the seven Churches but to let us know that the threatnings there denounced belong to the Churches of Europe as well as of Asia and to England as well as to Ephesus And seeing every one has ears to hear and therefore ought to hear therefore every particular man is as liable to the same severity as whole Churches and therefore as by the sins of a Nation God may be provoked to deliver it up to darkness and delusion and to believe lies so for the sins of particular persons he may give them over to a Lying spirit and suffer Seducers to prevail upon them so that they shall not see the plainest truths in Religion nor discern the most gross and monstrous Errors Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they might all be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.11 It is not therefore unreasonable to conclude that the contempt of all holy things that reigns amongst many wicked men is from the Judgment of God giving them up to a reprobate mind their habitual Vices have violated their natural Instincts and raised out the sense of good and evil and moreover the vengeance of God's wrath is upon them giving them over to their own vileness permitting them to run on in wickedness without the checks and restraints of his good Spirit and to defy the goodness of God and to laugh at Counsels and Admonitions and to make haste to their own perdition thereby fulfilling that Prophecy of Daniel referring to the Times of the Gospel The wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wiched shall understand Dan. 12.10 Of what hath been said the sum is this If godliness be in it self a fit means to promote the knowledge of truth if it hath moreover a sure word of promise which the unrighteous have not That the righteous shall be assisted in the search of truth and if on the other hand ungodly men are under so many natural impediments that obstruct the knowledge of the truth and moreover lye under such severe threatnings of blindness it must needs follow that supposing the Good and the Bad to be equally endued with natural Abilities of understanding and equally enjoying the external means of knowledge that the former has vast advantages yet above the latter which was the first thing to be shown The Second is That there is some knowledge of Divine things that cannot be attained by the wicked man while he so continues though in other respects he be never so much superior to the righteous and that is the experimental knowledge of Religion which does above all other things confirm the Faith of a good Christian he that doth the will of God understands the power of good Principles to fortify him against temptations to restrain him from sin to keep him to his Duty to render it pleasant and delightful to him to moderate him in his prosperity and to support him in adversity and by all this he understands the great worth and excellency of true Religion incomparably better than any man who can talk learnedly and argue dexterously about it but never felt the
life and power of it in his heart for this reason it is that the Faith of good Christians who are not so well verst in subtle reasonings as in religious practice cannot be shaken by the objections of a Sophister because they have that inward sense of the power and excellency of Divine Truths which is above all other argument They know by experience that in the keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward and cannot therefore be entangled by any artificial objections against it but that I may not be mistaken I do not pretend that the pleasure which a man finds in believing any Doctrine is always an argument that the Doctrine is true There are some Doctrines in the World that tend to licentiousness that weaken the obligations to an holy life and therefore are sweet to the carnal man because they can put him in possession of great joy in himself before he has that good title to it which can only be founded upon repentance and holiness therefore it is neither false nor allowable always to argue from the experience a man hath of the sweetness and pleasure of his perswasions to the truth of them as many misguided Souls have done but for all that it is most certain that Religion consisting in the belief of truth and the practice of goodness a man shall understand the power of the one and the excellency of the other by experience better than he can by meer speculation for the nature of things that are to be done is never so fully understood as by doing them and the force of Truth is never so thoroughly felt as when it makes the Will and Affections as well as the Understanding submit to it now the best way to avoid arguing to our selves fallaciously from our own experience and being imposed upon by the joy and pleasure which those perswasions yield that tend to carnal security the best way I say to avoid this is to follow our Saviour's rule by laying the foundation even of experimental knowledge in doing the will of God and applying our selves with all sincerity to the keeping of his Commandments because then we shall never argue from experience but in favour of the truth i. e. of true Virtue and Holiness and of those Principles which lead to the practice of it And most certainly there is that comfort and satisfaction in believing Divine Truth there are those Joys in living according to it which can never be thoroughly understood but by the practice of Religion and Virtue which no man can have a just conception of till he hath tasted and seen how gracious God is Solomon says That the ways of wisdom are pleasantness and all her paths are peace but then we shall never thoroughly understand this till we walk in them in the keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward but how shall we find this reward but in keeping of them It may be described to us by others but as imperfectly as the Pencil doth Life and Motion the best descriptions will fall short of the subject and if we be alienated from the life of God we cannot fully conceive it Nay most commonly the delights of the righteous are things flat and insipid and the representation of them is nauseous and irksom to the carnal worldling and he is hardly in a better condition to understand it than one that is born Blind can apprehend that saying of Solomon Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun The sum of all is this That if sincerity towards God in doing his will is a great advantage towards the obtaining of that knowledge which is possible to the wicked man the knowledge of speculation if also that knowledge is gained by it which the insincere have nothing at all of if the righteous do not only better apprehend the weight of arguments but understand more by having their senses exercised to discern between good and evil then have we great reason to follow our Saviour's method If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Only let us remember that this knowledge is not to be gained this blessing is not to be procured to our selves either by my discourse or by your hearing what hath been said concerning our Saviour's words no nor by granting the truth and reasonableness of what hath been offered in illustration of them but only by putting our selves seriously upon the trial of this way by doing the will of God for what hath been said of Divine Truths in the general holds good of this in particular That the excellency of our Lord's method for the gaining of good knowledge in the things of God cannot be thoroughly judged till we have applied our selves to the use of it and I doubt not but those that have made trial do acknowledge the truth of what hath been said FINIS