the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost Father or Son the Father alius à filio the Son alius à Patre the Holy Ghost alius a Patre Filio each to be consider'd under his proper Character and in himself as a distinct Person tho' all three united in one indivisible nature In the same age we meet with Paul of Samosata advanced by Zenobia to the Chair of Antioch he is properly styl'd the Father of our modern Socinians for he asserted that Christ was a meer Man and had no existence before his Conception in the Womb of the Holy Virgin and was the Author of that foolish contradictory Notion of a Deus factus and the Socinians have only reviv'd his Heresie which was condemned in the Council of Antioch and in a second himself depos'd In the beginning of the next age Arrius a Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria sets up to be Patron of a new Heresie differing both from Sabellius and Paulus but agreeing with them in opposing the Divinity of our Blessed Lord he maintain'd another Essence of the Son and denied his Coeternity and Equality with the Father and many falling in with him the whole cause was publickly heard the controverted Texts of Scripture and the constant Tradition of the Church about the sence of them carefully examin'd and the Worship of the whole Christian Church appeal'd to and by these was the Christian Faith explain'd and asserted The fourth age being the time fix'd on and the Eastern Church the Stage on which these things were done our Author who had a mind to look thorough this Controversie set upon examining the Records and Writings of that time that are extant particularly he carefully perused the Confessions and Decrees of the great Councils of Nice and the first of Constantinople wherein were no new Articles of Faith fram'd but the old ones declared and explain'd which the Church has both Authority and Obligation to do as the rise and growth of Heresies make this necessary and the works of those two great Men St. Athanasius and St. Basil and he found full satisfaction and met with a Compleat recompense for all the pains his search had cost him Being to Preach in his course at Westminster on Trinity Sunday he pitch'd upon those words of the Apostle 1. Cor. 8.5 but to us there is but one God as the Theme of his discourse this he did not only with respect to the day which was sufficient to justifie him in undertaking such an Argument in so Learned an Auditory but with regard to the boldness of our Socinian Adversaries who have been very free in charging the Doctrine of the Trinity with Absurdities Contradictions and Impossibilities What he propos'd was to defend our Common Faith of the Divine Trinity and Vnity which is the peculiar Scheme and Constitution and Character of Christianity and to resolve that obvious difficulty of believing those Divine Persons of Father Son and Holy Ghost to be each of them God which is the Christian Faith and yet to maintain with the Apostle that to us Christians there is but one God It so fell out that some passages or rather words as is very common in the transient hearing a discourse were not rightly apprehended which had like to have been the occasion of a dispute betwixt him and some of his Brethren very eminent for their Learning and of known zeal for the Common Faith This occasion'd his Letter in defence of his Sermons to the Right Reverend Bishop of R. who as he was by his place a proper Judge to be appeal'd to is upon all other accounts so qualified that no Man who knows him would refuse his Vmpirage in any thing wherein Learning and Judgment joyn'd with Integrity and Candor are required but it went not so far for he was soon better understood and both sides satisfi'd 'T is not necessary for me to say why that discourse has not been yet published the reason is not that any thing new is advanced in it or what is not exactly agreeable with the Notion Language and Terms of the Church in constant use at the time when this Question was discuss'd some of the Authorities produced by him the World has already judg'd of I say some for he has collected a great many more to the same purpose but he thought these sufficient The last Winter of his life he spent in reviewing his thoughts on this Argument and examining them with all possible strictness by the Scriptures and the Church Records and it was great satisfaction to him that he had clear'd his own thoughts about this Adorable Mystery and found nothing to lie uneasie to them in believing with the whole Christian Church upon the Authority of Revelation that there is but one Essence which we call God and yet that in the Godhead there are three Persons of the same Essence and Power and Coeternal taking the name Person in the sence of the Church not for a meer different mode or manner of subsisting or in a metaphorical sence but for what properly subsists and he hop'd he had done something for the clearing other Mens thoughts however the honour of our Saviour and of the Christian Faith and Religion were the things he had in his Eye and were sincerely intended by him in all that he had either Preach'd or Wrote on that subject The World seems at present to stand very much in need of such Men who want neither Learning nor Courage to stop the insults of the Enemies not to this or that particular Church but to Christianity it self and tho' God whose counsels are unsearchable takes away some at a time when they were likely to have been most usefull yet he will always leave a sufficient number thus qualified to defend his own cause I dare not now undertake to give a full and just Character of our Author I will venture to say something but what I am ready to own falls short of him he was a Man of great natural endowments and what is more to his commendation of indefatigable industry he never left a subject till he had search'd it to the bottom and perfectly cleared his own thoughts about it In his younger years he was much taken with Experimental Philosophy having from his first enquiry into Books and Things always set the highest value upon that knowledge he thought most usefull and by a Collection of observations left under his hand it appears that he had spent some time and pains that way In the year 1681. Novem. 23. I find him admitted Fellow of the Royal Society but upon his settling in London he laid aside those studies and wholly apply'd himself to that which was his proper Profession his chief aim being now to do the utmost good he could among those over whom he had a pastoral care in that renowned City The effects of his Labours remain to my own knowledge among some of his Parishioners who have own'd to me the great benefit they have
off its own Nature this is such a Righteousness that has root in it self and lives and grows from that innate radical Principle and differs as much from the other as a thing that grew into such a shape from a Plastick and Vital Power in it self does from that which was cut and carved by the hand of another This is that Original Righteousness springing up in the true Fountain like light in the Sun whilst Righteousness in us tho' it be of the same Nature is but like that in the Air derived from it and mixt with a great deal of darkness and a mere observance of Precepts and Rules as they are prescribed by another and the acting from a Righteous and Inward Principle in ones own mind are as different as the Clock-Work Motion and flying of Regiomontanus's Eagle from some Wheels and Wires and the Natural Motion of a living one from its own Spirits and Muscles and the force and spring of inward life Thus is Righteousness in God truly Righteousness tho' he has no Superior to move or determine him And thus I have laid down what I conceive the true Notion and Fountain of Gods Righteousness which tho' it may be too deep for some to see to the bottom yet it stands upon the firmer ground and is immovable 2. I shall now shew you the usefulness of it from the mischievous Consequences of the other opinion That Gods Righteousness consists only in Arbitrary and Ungoverned Will 1. That takes very much off from our Obligation to Right if there be no such thing in the Divine Nature by Righteousness may be meant a very large and comprehensive Virtue that contains almost all others under it and there must be the same Reason and Foundation of those as of this and if we can conceive the God we worship to be without those it will greatly abate our esteem of them and obligation to them if we conceive that great mind is happy and perfect without those we have reason to think our own may be so too for whatever thoughts we have of God they must be the Standard and Measure to us of all Perfection It is a very natural Consequence which St. John makes 1 Ep. 2.29 if ye know that he is Righteous ye know that every one that doeth Righteousness is born of him if Righteousness be founded in the Divine Nature then whoever is truly Righteous is both like unto God and beloved by him as a Child of its Parent God cannot but love and be pleased with what is so agreeble to himself and bears his Divine Image and Resemblance upon it for the same Reason that he loves himself and takes infinite complacency and satisfaction in his own Perfections he will love also those who are partakers of the same Divine Life and Nature and are Righteous as he is Righteous that is Righteous Men as he is a Righteous God for that the Righteous Lord should love Righteousness as the Psalmist speaks Ps 11.7 is the result of his own Natural and Essential Perfections but there is no reason why he should not love any thing even the contrary if he were not truly Righteous himself and his love depended upon mere Arbitrary Will without regard to any thing else 2. This has been therefore the ground of all Superstition and undue Worship of God and of the great mistakes that are in Religion the conceiving God to be a mere Great and Arbitrary Being and only Absolute and Almighty Will without the Perfection and the line of Righteousness from hence Men have hoped to please him and procure his favour with outward Pomp and Solemnity with multitude of Sacrifices and great Presents and Oblations with Bowings and Cringes and Prostrations before him with bended Knees and empty Words and a course of External Performances without any true and inward Righteousness they have imagined a sort of Religious flattery would take with him and that it was enough to sooth up his greatness with some officious addresses and to make their court to him with a set of hollow and affected Complements by these they thought God was sufficiently obliged and took great pleasure in them like some vain and foolish and haughty Mortals Indeed was God such an one as themselves or as they imagine he might be so but if he be a Being Essentially Righteous and Holy himself 't is then not to be hoped that any thing will commend us to him or procure his Favour but a Righteous Mind without that let Men dispute as long as they please no Man can be Elected or Justified or think to be saved by a Righteous God nor can it be worth while to contrive any Tricks or Devices whatsoever which has been the great business of false Religion by which Men would fain please God and be very Religious without being truly Righteous without this neither Pennance nor Absolution Whipping or going Bare-foot Pardons or Indulgences Masses or Pilgrimages will signifie any thing and whatever we trust or rely on wherever we ground our Hopes and make comfortable Reserves and Expectations to our selves will most certainly deceive us without Righteousness Those who think God is only infinite Will acting Arbitrarily without observing any rules of Righteousness if their Constitution such that they are apt to have gay and pleasing Ideas and Images of things Represented to their Minds they are inclined to think that God will be easily pleased with them for very little Matters and so fall into that sanguine Superstition which I mentioned before or think perhaps that he has Chosen and Elected them from Eternity and their names are written in the Book of Life but if their blood be thick and their fancy blacker then they imagine God to be Severe and Revengeful hard to be pleased and easily provoked and implacable when he is so and with these sad and dreadful Apprehensions his Mind is always haunted as with frightful Spectres and he comes to the Temples as Plutarch says as if 't were to the Dens of Wild Beasts or the Nests of Dragons for he conceives that God is as hurtful as any of those Creatures so there with a scared Countenance and a perplext Mind the timorous Worshipper offers up his Child perhaps or the reeking Bowels of some Humane Sacrifice or sometimes his own Blood to the God he Worships and thus hopes to appease the cruel Moloch and the fierce Cerberus with some Morsel or other that may satisfy his Ravenous indignation all which miserable Superstition and mistakes in Religion which were so Notorious in the Heathen World and not quite got out of the Christian Church are for ever prevented by this clear and firm Principle That God is a Being truly Righteous himself and that he neither loves nor hates others but as they are or are not so for Righteousness excludes both partial fondness and unreasonable displeasure 3. It makes all Religion to be a positive Arbitrary thing and takes off from its intrinsick Worth and Excellency
Monitors of it in our own Bodies then what a melancholy thing must it be for a Man to think of going down into the place of darkness and forgetfulness to become a cold heavy lump a stiff dead Corps to have all his brisk and vigorous Spirits put out and extinguish'd and an end put to all his Pleasures and Enjoyments if he have not some Hopes of an after Immortality and of a better Life after this No Man could enjoy himself or be easie in his thoughts if he thinks at all who knows he must die in a little time if he has not the fears of Death took off and moderated by the Hopes and Expectations of Religion He that considers says Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of his Soul and that Death Translates us into a better State or at least one that is not at all evil has made an excellent provision both for the Happiness of life and against the fear of death and he make this one of the great means of procuring this Tranquility of Mind thus to overcome the fears of Death for otherwise that will embitter all our present Enjoyments and spoil all our Mirth and Jollity and draw a dark Cloud over all our Cheerfullness and Gaity to have the thoughts of Death steal in now and then upon us as they unavoidably will if we have nothing to make them less terrible and frightfull than they will be to a wicked Man he must be sadly scared and amazed at any such thing and cannot think much less look on Death without sad Misgivings and Horrors of Mind and therefore can never have any setled Peace and Tranquility in himself but it will be all broke by one thought of Mortality by the hearing a Knell or seeing a Coffin for let him seem to put on never so much false Courage and to laugh at these things in the midst of his Company and his Vices yet he trembles at them when he is alone and a cold and clammy sweat feizes upon him whenever he thinks of dying in earnest nothing can prevent this Despondency and dying of Mind and arm even against the natural fear of bodily Death which will often come upon us and scatter all our other Comfortable thoughts but Religion which takes out the sting of Death which lessens and abates its terror and fortifies us against it by the Christian Hopes of being free from all Guilt and Punishment hereafter and of having a better Life and being in another World when we are to part with this here Death must be very terrible to the thoughts either of an Atheist by Depriving him of all Being and of all Enjoyment or of a wicked Christian by consigning him to Judgment and Punishment and Translating him to Eternal Death and Misery only Religion can take off its Terror and sweeten the bitter Cup with the Supports and Comforts the Aids and Assistances the Hopes and Expectations it affords to a good Man in his last Agonies and Extremities and at all other Times when he thinks of dying Lastly Religion infuses inward and unspeakable Comforts into our Minds from its present Privileges and future Hopes from God and his Spirit and their secret Communications Operations and Influences upon our Souls which are the highest improvement and the highest degrees of Peace and Tranquility of Mind Nature and Philosophy knew nothing of this but Revelation and especially the Christian give us the Knowledge and Assurance of it and many a Pious and good Christian has felt the Effects and Comforts of it in his Soul when he has had a Cheerfull and well grounded Sense that his sins are pardoned in and through Christ upon his true Repentance and that he is justified by the Grace of the Gospel upon the Terms and Conditions of it and that he has a Title to Heaven by God's promise upon his own sincerity and has reason to Hope that he shall partake of all the great and glorious things that belong to the Christian Salvation these will raise and inspire him as it did the Apostles and first Christians with a more than ordinary Comfort Peace and Cheerfullness of Soul and make him very Happy tho' in the greatest Sufferings and outward Afflictions 'T was this which made the Christians Rejoyce always in the Lord Rejoyce in Tribulations Sing and be Cheerfull in Prisons and be more than Conquerors over all their Troubles when they had these inward Comforts to support and raise and invigorate their Minds when tho' their Enemies were implacable and irreconcileable yet God they knew was reconciled to them and tho' the World hated thom yet he loved them tho' they had Tribulation from without yet they had Peace in themselves and Peace in Christ as he promised them Mat. 16.32 and tho' all things were very dark and dismal about them yet they had a clear prospect of Heaven and like St. Stephen could see that opened thro a shower of Stones and Christ sitting at the right hand of God One such view of Christ and Heaven tho' but by the Eye of Faith would give a Man a Pleasure and Courage of Mind above not only the Pains and Torments he endured but all other Pleasures he ever felt in his Life A great but ill Man could say That the Pleasures and Comforts of Religion even when they are Mistaken and Enthusiastick are greater than all the Pleasures of Sense and Carnality What are they then when they are true and well grounded how do they not only give Peace to a Mans Mind but even Rapture not only Calm and Quiet it but Transport it not only give it Rest and Tranquility but Extasie and Joy This is called in Scripture the Joy of the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 and the Peace of God which passeth all Vnderstanding Philip. 4.7 for we do not know how God who is a Spirit can Communicate inward Joy and Peace to our Spirits and convey a secret Sense of his Favour and Relish of his Kindness and make us taste and see how Gracious he is as the Psalmist speaks Psa 34.8 and lift up the light of his Countenance upon us There is more in all this not only in the extraordinary supports promised in particular Cases and Circumstances but in the ordinary Hopes and Comforts of Religion to a good Man than all the Pleasures of this World all the Charms and Enjoyments of Flesh and Blood can ever amount to and as we plainly feel Peace and Ease of Mind to be a greater good than any bodily Pleasure and know this from Sense and Experience as well as Religion so when this is heighten'd by those unspeakable Joys and that inconceiveable Peace which is derived from God and Religion and his Holy Spirit these give such an improvement to this Peace and Tranquility of Mind as nothing can equal but the Enjoyment of Heaven and which the wife Heathens and Philosophers knew nothing of in their Discourses on this Subject Religion and Christianity therefore out-doe
tho' it conduces never so much to our Interest or Advantage so that we could gain the World by it yet it will prove a dear Bargain at the last and we must lose our Souls for it for by the irreversible Terms and unalterable Conditions of the Gospel every willful and habitual sin destroys our good State and without a timely Repentance and Amendment excludes us out of Heaven And however we may think fit to abate of those Terms by our loose Opinions and false Principles and make other Judgments of our selves by the wrong measures of a Licentious Age or as Mistaken and as Licentious Doctrines yet Christianity has so plainly fixt these that we have no reason to believe that God will or can any way abate of them and to be sure our Religion does not 3. There are some particular duties in Christianity that seem very hard and difficult as well as the general Terms of it such as loving Enemies not revenging Injuries self-denial Mortification and the like which tho' they are against the grain of our Nature as some Men think and as impracticable as the Rants of Stoical Vertue yet are made necessary to our Pardon and Salvation by the Gospel Mat. 5.43.6.14 15. Mark 8.34 Rom. 8.13 and they truly are so in their right Sense and Meaning and ought to be as much performed by us as any other parts of our Religion we are bound as Christians to love our Enemies with the general Acts of Charity due to all mankind not with the particular Offices of kindnesses due to our Friends we must not revenge an injury to gratify a mere Private and Outrageous Passion without regard to publick good we must deny our selves any Worldly Interest when it is Inconsistent with our duty we must mortifie every Natural Passion and Sensual Inclination so as to keep it within the bounds of Virtue and Religion these are all agreeable to Reason and Prudence and to the Laws of Civil Government as well as to the Principles of Religion 4. Religion puts a check and restraint not only upon our Actions but upon our Words and our very Thoughts and this is hard some think that their Tongues should not be their own nor their Thoughts neither but that of every idle Word they must give an account in the day of Judgment and by our Words we shall be Condemned or Justified as well as by our Actions Mat. 12.36 37. and that our secret Thoughts should be tyed up so that we must not harbour any wickedness even in our Hearts and Thoughts Mark 7.21 Now this however severe it seems yet if by idle Words be meant only evil Words as I doubt not but 't is such as those of Slander and Desamation of which our Saviour there particularly spoke or such Prophane and Lewd Discourse as tends to affront Heaven or to Corrupt those who hear it and proceeds from a Malicious Irreligious and Corrupt Mind This gives such a vicious Tincture even to our Words that he who cannot better govern his Tongue than thus to injure his Brother or let fly at God and Religion This Man's Religion is vain as St. James says Jam. 1.26 if he pretend to any and he who by his Mouth thus vents the Exulcerated Malice Pride and Uncharitableness of his Heart and from such an Unchristian Temper calls his Brother Fool or Racha is in danger of Gods Judgment and of Hell-fire as our Saviour says Mat. 5.22 'T is the Venom and Malignity of the Heart and inward Disposition that like a Corrupt Fountain Poysons and Vitiates those ill streams that flow from it and this is the true Plastick Principle within us that Forms and Denominates all our Actions which are but the Fruits growing upon that Root and as our Saviour says A good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit and a Corrupt Tree that which is evil v. 17 18. of this Chapter All Moral Good and Evil is conceived and produced from the Heart and God who sees it there even before it comes into Act whenever it has the full consent of the Will does very justly Condemn it and charge it upon us For as without this consent of the Will no Action is Criminal before him so with it the Crime is both Specified Committed and Perfected tho' it go no further than the Thoughts and the Heart 5. Religion requires our lives to be usefull as well as Innocent and enjoyns us not only to do no ill thing but to do all the good that we are able else 't is but a negative and a useless Vertue the easiest and the softest side of it like the old Principle of Privation without the Matter and Form that is to give it a Being and a Substance We read in Scripture not only of the wicked Servant who was guilty of great Crimes Misdemeanors and Injuries against his Lord but of the Unprofitable one who did no manner of good but was idle and useless in his Service and for this Reason alone was cast into outer darkness God will call every one of us to a strict and severe account how we have used and improved all the Talents he committed to us all the Powers Abilities and Opportunities of doing good he hath put into our hands and if like Loiterers in his Vineyard we have only Feasted our selves with the Fruits and Delicacies of it and wasted our idle time in Ease and Luxury and spent a vain and useless Life in trifling and impertinent either Pleasure or Business and not Laboured at all in the great Work and Business of Religion for which we were sent into the World we must not at the last expect any wages from him but be punished for our useless idleness and great omissions by the Just Distributer of Rewards and Punishments who will render to all Men according to their Works and who expects we should do all the good we can for the sake of Heaven as well as abstain from all manner of Evil for the sake of Hell 6. Religion requires the Uniform practice of all Vertues and the entire Union and Conjunction of all Christian Graces to make and constitute a good Man whereas any single Vice or willfull Habit of Sin will denominate and make a bad one so as to make him incapable of Happiness and obnoxious to Misery This is an undoubted truth in Religion which requires tho' not the Perfection of Degrees yet the Perfection of parts so that no plain Vertue must be wanting nor no voluntary sin be allowed without the certain danger of being excluded out of Heaven as St. James says he that shall keep the whole Law besides and yet offend in one point willfully break any part of it Commit one Act of willfull Treason and Disobedience against Heaven is guilty of all resists and opposes all that Divine Power and Authority which gives Force and Sanction to every Law and becomes liable to the same sort of Punishment tho' not to the same equal degrees of it The Vertue of
going in this narrow way these deceive Millions of Souls who tho they believe Religion yet do not live up to it but corrupt and pervert it so as to take off its Force and Influence upon their Lives and make them never the better by it The other reserve which is a most desperate one is that of Atheism and Infidelity or an utter dis-believing all Religion or at least a comfortable Doubt and Suspicion that it may not be true and this I am afraid lies in too many Minds but then all Mankind have been out of their Wits in believing it for there have been very few either in the most Wise or most Barbarous Parts and Ages of the World but what have done so unless then we have been all Cheated with Books of Revelation and Histories of Miracles done by the Prophets of Old and by Christ and his Apostles afterwards which are better attested than any Actions or any Books besides that ever were in the World 1600 Years ago so that we may as well call in Question all the Greek and the Roman story as the Jewish and the Christian and when we have run into such a Frenzy of Scepticism as to do that and without having any positive proof against Religion and the Being of God and another World for it is impossible to have that and the greatest Atheist will not pretend to have any Evidence Certainty and Demonstration but that they may be true notwithstanding all his doubts after all this the whole Frame of Nature and the Wise contrivance of the World of the Heavens above and the Earth and Animals below is a standing Evidence as great as can be given of the truth of Religion in general and a Man's Reason must be wretchedly blinded with his Vices who doth not see it or who winks so hard that he will not discern it these wretched Reserves being therefore taken away I shall proceed to press the duty of entering in at the strait Gate and narrow way and propose the motives to engage us to this notwithstanding all the Difficulties I mentioned 1. Religion is a business of such importance that whatever straits and hardships there be in it we must not stick at those but resolve however to go through with it for our Life our Happiness our All our Eternal state lies at stake and depends upon it Our Saviour only tells us strait is the Gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and wide is the Gate and broad is the way which leadeth to Destruction And this is sufficient if Life and Death be set before us whatever be the way to them we should look at the great Ends Issues and Consequences of things which are the mark a Wise Man always aims at and whatever means are in our Power to attain the one and avoid the other we should make use of without any long Counsel or Deliberation for no Man demurrs and considers whether he shall choose happiness and escape Misery Nature and Instinct prevent our Reason here and we are made with an inward spring which runs of it self to the one and flies from the other whenever we truly apprehend them and therefore did we consider what that Life is that Eternal Life of Happiness which Vertue leads to which is to live in the perfect Enjoyment of the greatest good and the purest Pleasures free from all Alloys and all Approach of the least Evil and Trouble to live for ever with God and Angels in rapturous Bliss and Heavenly Delights and Joy unspeakable to be Possest of a Crown a Kingdom of substantial Glory and all such Good and Desirable things that this World affords but a faint Shadow and imperfect Resemblance of we should find this is a Life worth being fond of and seeking after compared to which this our present short life mixt with so much real Care and Trouble and so little imaginary Pleasure is but a sort of Death but walking in a vain Shadow and Dreaming of Happiness and hardly worth a Wise Man's choosing were it not for a better Life which is only worth the name of Living where we are born into another World and Vertue shall give us a Glorious Immortality this is a Reward that will sufficiently Recompense our short Labours here and were Religion never so Difficult yet the worth and greatness of that were our Hopes and Desires of it proportionable to it would inspire us with new Vigour and Resolution and convey Strength and Power enough to carry us through them all for what will not a great reward make Men do whither will they not Travel where will they not fight what danger will they Flinch from what Labour will they Refuse when a certain and great reward is offered to ' em And had we but as good thoughts of Heaven as the Soldier has of Honour and Victory the Merchant of Gold and Gain and the Husbandman of a good Harvest we should never think much of all the Pains and Difficulties that are in Religion were they a great many more than they are as on the other side if Men had but a due sense of that Destruction to which the wide Gate and the broad way of wickedness leads 'em and the Sad and Dreadfull Condition their Vices will bring 'em to in another World did they consider what exquisite and amazing Misery both of Soul and Body is wrapt up in those Words of Hell and Damnation no Vice tho' never so Charming would make 'em endure it for one day no Pleasure of Sin for a Season would make 'em bear it for so long a time as this Life is and nothing would ever tempt 'em not only not to suffer it for ever but to run the hazard and venture of it were there not a thousand times the reason to fear it that we have by Religion and were it but meerly probable or but just possible which Atheism it self can never deny yet no Wise man would expose himself to such a Dreadfull and Irretrievable danger for the Poor and Pitifull Temptations that are in the greatest Sin But 2. Besides the Consideration of another World Religion with all its straitness and hardship does not abridge us of any Comfortable Enjoyments of this World nor Deprive us of any of the true Pleasures and good things here which a Wise Man would Desire or which our Nature was made for for they may be all enjoyed within the compass of Vertue and allowances of Religion and that with more Convenience and Advantage than in a Course of Vice and Wickedness Religion does not Deprive us of any good proper to our State and Nature nor tye us up from any of the Comforts or Pleasures of Life with a peevish severity and moroseness with a touch not tast not handle not but only restrains us from what would be Evil and Pernicious to us if it were allowed us keeps us from the forbidden Fruit and from those excesses and extravagancies that are Destructive to
great Privilege of the Gospel which upon the account of Christ and his undertaking for us puts sinners into a good state a state of Favour and Reconciliation with God who were Enemies to him before and makes those the Children of God who were the Children of the Devil for all Men in a state of Sin are the Children of the Devil in the Scriptures account He that commiteth Sin is of the Devil 1 John 3.8 and whosoever is born of God as every good Christian is doth not commit Sin v. 9. Repentance therefore which is a passage from a state of Sin and Death to a state of Vertue and Holiness is truly and properly rather a duty antecedent and disposing to Christianity than one under it and therefore it was Preach'd both to the Jews and Gentiles by Christ and his Apostles as previous and preparatory to their becoming Christians Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 Repent and be Baptized Acts 2.38 for before Men turned Christians they were supposed to Repent of their past Sins and to resolve upon a new course of life to renounce all their former evil ways to put off the old Man i. e. all their old acts and habits of Sin and to put on the new Man and to put on Christ and not to walk henceforth as others who were not Christians walked for tho' they were accounted as sinners before yet now they were to be Saints devoted to a Holy life and wholly abandoning all Vice and Wickedness according to their Baptismal vow It was far therefore from the design of Christianity to suppose Men to fall into a state of Sin after their Christianity and to be as bad and as wicked as they were before they were Christians if they were and fell into any great Sins the Christian Church at first turned them out of its Communion as Apostates to their Religion and Renegado's to their Holy Profession and would not without great difficulty admit them again to the benefits of Christianity and hopes of Pardon so that they accounted not those for Christians who were Penitents and who stood in need of Repentance for any great Sin and indeed he is not a Christian who does so he is fallen off from his Christianity and has quitted his Baptismal vow and has forfeited the right of it and has put himself out of the Christian state who is guilty of any mortal Sin and is in a state of Penance for it and the Christian Church at first would hardly have owned and received him again no not in Articulo Mortis so great a disgrace and so horrid a reflection they thought it upon Christianity for a Christian to be guilty of any willfull and notorious Sin I confess this early Discipline was too severe never to admit such a Penitent again to Communion and looked as if no Sins were pardonable after Baptism which is a hard and untrue Doctrine and therefore the Church altered its first Discipline and condemned the Novatians who stuck too close to it and who would allow the Church no power to grant the benefit of Repentance and Communion in that case whatever God might do but upon relaxing the Canons too far and falling afterwards into another extream upon the looseness and corruption of Christians and their degenerating from the Primitive strictness and genuine design of Christianity Repentance when it came to be turned into a slight Penance became a very common and perfunctory and easie matter and Men began the round of Sinning and Repenting Repenting and Sinning and of taking it as a sort of standing Physick to be repeated toties quoties and took perhaps at some set times or Spring and Fall and that this was sufficient tho' they lived in their Vices and Debaucheries and unlawfull Liberties and never became such good Men and true Christians as the Gospel was designed to make them Now this is like a Man 's always using Physick but never to be well and only to do it that he may keep his Disease and it may not as he thinks prove mortal to him when he is loth to take away the cause of it by virtue of a present and easie Remedy Now this is horribly perverting and abusing the Notion and Design of Christian Repentance which is not a Contrivance to let us be bad Men and live in our Sins and yet hope for Pardon and Salvation upon a little sudden Sorrow miscalled Repentance now and then for them but to encourage us wholly to leave them upon the hopes and assurance of Pardon when we do so and to engage us to the practice of Obedience and a Holy Life ever after which is the only thing which makes us true Christians and entitles to the Happiness and Salvation of another World And let no man deceive himself and think he shall have the benefit of Repentance who is not made a good Man by it or think Repenting and Sorrowing at the last will do the business instead of a good life or that without actual Holiness and Obedience he can see God or enter into Heaven and let none fall into that other mistake as prejudicial to Religion to think a man that lives Innocently and Vertuously and Religiously all his days and performs a constant unbroken Obedience to God all his life shall not be more accepted by God and more highly rewarded by him than he that has lived wickedly and been a Prodigal tho' he Returns and Repents in time and is pardoned and accepted by God for tho' such an one shall be kindly and graciously received by his Heavenly Father and with all Demonstrations of Love and Compassion be Embraced and Treated by him and owned to be his Son and received again into his Family yet he that never left his Father's house but was always with him and served him and never transgress'd at any time his commands he it is of whom it will be said Son thou art always with me and all that I have is thine I shall only draw a few inferences from what has been said and so conclude 1. This allows all that is due to Repentance and all the Encouragements and Motives to it Repentance is the great Gospel Medicine the Cure for our greatest Sins and the most mortal Diseases of the Soul if it be compounded as it ought and taken in time if it be made up not only of sorrow for what is past and good purposes and resolutions for the future but of actual Amendment and Reformation Turning away from our wickedness that we have committed and doing that which is Lawfull and Right afterwards then 't is such an effectual and never failing Remedy as by the merits of it and the Grace of the Gospel will take off the greatest and vilest Sins that the worst sinner ever fell into but still tho' the Medicine is Good and Infallible for every Disease yet 't is much better to be always well and have an intire and perfect health than often to
true sanctity on one side or any real sin on the other in the use of them To say that no Indifferencies and Ceremonies must be used in the worship of God but what he has commanded is to condemn the Jewish and the Christian Church and even all Parties in Religion who can never worship God without some such and therefore 't is true superstition to think there is a sin in those and that God will be displeased at what is no way sinfull and unlawfull in it self and is confess'd not to be so before it is imposed when it is imposed for mere order and decency so on the other side 't is superstition to think there is any real sanctity in those or that they are true parts and not meerly Circumstances of worship that there is a real Goodness in the things themselves and that they are a means to please God and procure his favour and that there is such a Vertue in them to do this meerly for themselves tho' there were no human authority required them of us As the Jews thought of the Traditions of their Elders But the charge of superstition is brought nearer to us and laid to our own Church and it concerns us rather to vindicate our selves than to lay it upon others We blame the Papists for placing Religion in such things as God has not commanded and for a superstitious use of several Rites and Ceremonies no where prescribed in the Gospel but do not we our selves commit the same fault in using a great many Rites and Ceremonies in our worship which are no where commanded of God and are only human inventions and impositions and therefore superstitious This therefore I design to enquire into which is a great stumbling block to many who do not well understand superstition and are superstitiously afraid of it where there is no such thing nor are well acquainted with the nature and design of those Rites which are used in the Church of England and what it self teaches concerning them I shall therefore in this place examine whether to use any thing in the worship of God which he himself has not commanded be superstition and to vindicate our Rites and Ceremonies from such an imputation and particularly those bodily acts of worship which are most suspected to be so kneeling at the Sacrament and the like and that I may do this to the satisfaction of all persons who do not resolve that they will never be satisfied I shall offer these several things about this matter 1. If it be superstition to use any thing in the worship of God which he himself has not commanded and which is not prescribed by a Divine Law then the Dissenters themselves be they of what Party or Denomination soever are very guilty of superstition for they all of them use a great many things in their worshipping of God for which there is no Divine Law or Command as for Example where is it Commanded that they shall use a conceived prayer of their own and not pray by a form Where is it Commanded that they should receive the Sacrament sitting and not kneeling Where is it Commanded that the Minister shall be cloathed in black and shall not wear a Surplice when he Officiates those things that are in use among them are no more Commanded by a Law of God than those among us 2. If it be superstitious to use any thing in the worship of God that God himself has not prescribed then what shall we think of several things that the Jews used in their worship which God had not Commanded and yet both our Saviour and his Apostles complied with them in 'em as for Example in all their Synagogue-worship whither our Saviour and his Apostles often resorted and yet they had no Command for it in their Law but only for their worship at the Temple or Tabernacle They had no Command in their Law for Reading and Preaching Moses there every Sabbath day as was accustomed Acts 15.21 nor for that form of Prayer and Liturgy which they used there and in which no doubt but our Saviour and his Apostles joyned with them Nay there was no express Law for all their Temple worship nor for building their Temple nor for their Prayers and their Hymns there which were a great many of them appointed by David and their other Governors there was no precept for their hours of Prayer which were observed by the Apostles Acts 3.1 there was no Divine Command for the Feast of the Dedication at which our Saviour was present John 10.22 and yet he never in the least reproved those unappointed usages as having any thing of superstition in them but complied with them and countenanc'd them by his own Example So in the Passover which is a very considerable rite and part of Jewish worship our Saviour used the posture of lying and discumbency in the eating of it tho' that was not the posture Commanded in the Law and at the first institution of it Exodus 12.11 but taken up afterwards by the Jewish Church when they were settled with ease and liberty in the Land of Canaan and the Cup of Charity also that was not of Divine institution yet this our Saviour used also after the manner of the Jews Luke 22.17 and was pleased to conform to many innocent and inoffensive rites of the Jewish Church in their Divine worship though they were not all of them expresly Commanded or Prescribed by God 3. The whole Christian Church did use some things in their worship which were no way Commanded by Christ The Holy kiss or the kiss of Charity which is mention'd Romans 16.16 1 Pet. 5.14 was an outward symbol of Love and Charity which the Christians used at their meeting at Prayers and the Sacrament and such were their Love Feasts or Feasts of Charity which were Celebrated together with the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. â—0 Jude 12. These were only such rites as the Christians without any Command of Christ thought fit to join with the most solemn parts of the Christian worship and yet they were of so indifferent and alterable a nature that the Christian Church has thought it matter of prudence to lay them aside And whoever is acquainted with the state of the Christian Church in its purest times and immediately after the Apostles knows there were several Ecclesiastical rites appointed by the Governors of it and several Canons made in their Synods and Councils concerning indifferent things as there was before by the Apostles in the Council of Hierusalem Acts 15.29 prudential rules and orders concerning blood and things strangled which they then impos'd upon the Gentiles for that time but yet the obligation of them does not continue And he that will defend that Doctrine that nothing is Lawfull in the worship of God that is not prescribed by himself must not only condemn all the Reform'd Churches abroad who both practice and teach otherwise in all their Confessions but the whole Catholick Church ever
guilt been the medium thro' which they beheld him there is nothing in the Divine Nature should cause this superstitious dread of him nor draw him in such black and ghastly features as these are but no wonder that God looks very terrible to a very wicked and a very guilty mind especially in the 3. Third place when it is ignorant of any true and certain way to please or appease God to procure his favour or avert his anger which is the other cause of superstition the superstitious are a sort of timerous persons that are always in the dark where they have frightfull Images always before them and black and ghastly apparitions rise up in their fancies and they know not which way to turn themselves nor how to avoid the furies and spectres of their own thoughts They cannot tell how to deliver themselves from this sad state and thus anxious and perplexed they apply themselves to any Saint or any Daemon be it good or bad that they are told can help them they run to the altar and throw on any thing that may free 'em from punishment like persons in a Tempest they 'll part with their richest goods to save themselves they 'll perform every Rite and go through every Mystery and undergo any kind of Pennance they 'll whip themselves and walk bare-foot and run to the shrines of any Saint and whatever superstitious ignorance shall advise 'em to this they 'll comply withal and all out of great fear and silly ignorance and not knowing what it is that will truly recommend 'em to Heaven and procure the Divine favour And therefore as to the Cure of superstition which is the last thing I am to speak to I account a right knowledge of Religion and a true conception of the Divine Nature to be the cure and remedy for superstition and by this way our blessed Saviour who came to destroy all superstition and false worship out of the World has most effectually accomplish'd his design by assuring us that God is a Being of infinite Goodness and Compassion to his Creatures who is not apt to be angry nor provoked with little matters and who is very placable and willing to be reconciled whenever we have done a great fault that truly offends him who is not a peevish and angry Master whom it is impossible to please but a kind and gentle Father whom nothing but willfull disobedience and impudent undutifullness will anger and displease who tho' he is not a soft and easie Being who is to be flattered with shows and imposed upon by little tricks and sorry performances yet we may be sure to oblige him by being honest and sincere and doing what lies in our power who tho' we have a great many imperfections and a great many frailties yet will accept whatever we offer him in the integrity of our hearts and will not be extreme or severe to mark what is done amiss or take advantage of the unavoidable failures of Human Nature who is so far from that that he has provided a certain remedy for our most wilfull miscarriages and declared himself ready to pardon the most hainous offences of the greatest sinners upon the most equitable and gracious terms that can be desired Such a representation of God and the Divine nature as this is which Christianity has given us is enough to banish all superstitious fear and unreasonable dread of him this will remove all that anxious and perplexing astonishment which we might otherwise be opprest withal when we look'd up to an Almighty power above us and were uncertain how he would deal with us and would not tell by what ways we should either purchase his good will or avoid his displeasure Now we know very certainly how we may do that by living vertuously and observing the eternal Laws of Goodness and Righteousness by a hearty penitence for all our past faults and a sincere obedience for the time to come by living up to the excellent rules of the Gospel and the excellent Example of our Blessed Master By a true understanding and an honest practice of the Christian Religion we shall be delivered from all the fears and uncertainties from all the darkness and ignorance of superstition and that we may be so I shall add further two Rules or Advices to this purpose 1. Let us bring our minds truly to love God This the superstitious person does not he is afraid of God and trembles at the thoughts of him as a Slave does at the sight of his merciless Patron but he wishes there were no such being as he fansios God to be and it would be the most joyfull thing in the World if he could get out of his irresistible power He finds indeed that is impossible and so he crouches to him as a Captive does to his Insolent Conqueror that has him in Chains and leads him in Triumph tyed to his Chariot Wheels but he hates him in his heart even while he prays to him and when he bows the most submissively before him his heart within rises up against him and there he curses him whilst he flatters him with his lips Such a black and dismal apprehension the superstitious person has of God whom he fansies to be a cruel severe angry touchy Being an Almighty power without goodness which is to make him an infinite evil instead of a good and an Almighty Tyrant instead of a Righteous God This makes it impossible for him to love him he may worship him but 't is as Plutarch says some saluted those Tyrants and built Statues to them whom they would have killed and dethroned had it been in their power he may come to the Temple but as he says 't is as if it were to the nests of Dragons or the Caves of wild Beasts for he imagines the God that dwells there to be as hurtfull and mischievous as any of those only more powerfull and he has just such a conception of him as the Indians of the Devil whom yet they worship I know no greater blasphemy to the Divine Nature than to conceive thus of it as the superstitious person doth nor no worse Idolatry than to set up such an Idol of fear and terror in our Souls instead of the great and good God I will not say as some do that Atheism is better than this to deny a God than to think thus ill of him but this is certain that the superstitious would be an Atheist if he durst and 't is much against his Will his Wishes and his Inclinations to believe there is a God and therefore to prevent all superstitious and undue fear of God let us avoid all such false notions and misapprehensions of him as will make it impossible for us to love him 2. Let us love and practice Vertue and Goodness and only by that means hope to commend our selves to God and fit our selves for Heaven and so we shall avoid most of the little tricks the cheats and devices of
and therefore 't is not to be wonder'd at that there should be different sentiments about the means in those who all joyned in the same end Our Friend with whom I have often canvassed the Question was in his judgment which he sincerely followed in all things for a Comprehension and tho' he had a just sense of the sin of Schism and look'd upon that among us as utterly unjustifiable and that nothing of any moment could be urg'd in defence of it yet his Opinion was that this was the only Method which the present follies and mistakes of Men would admit of to establish the honour and interest of the Church and to recover expiring Piety Charity and other Christian Virtues which by our divisions had received a wound not to be cured without the use of this balm Vpon these considerations he was prevail'd with so far to concern himself on this occasion as to reply to a little piece entituled Vox Cleri published by a Learned and Eminent Divine as in the name of the Clergy which Circumstance with the stile of the answer being a little too facetious for so aged a Divine as his Adversary raised him some Enemies but had he lived never so long I believe he would hardly have concern'd himself any further in proposing expedients of Peace the very mentioning of which as his experience taught him made Men ready to Battle The design of the Comprehension being laid aside the Toleration bill pass'd into a Law with prudent Limitations for registring the places of Assembling the names of Preachers and for securing the Fidelity both of them and their people who were to be known to what Congregation they belonged to the Government but as it has been managed and used without regard to the directions of the Statutes 't is a sanctuary for such as are as well Enemies to the Government as to Religion 't is an assumed liberty to avoid all civil Tyes and to be of any Religion or none to worship God in their own way or not to worship him at all 't is a refuge for Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness and has produced such a neglect of publick worship and corruption of Morals as are very scandalous in a Christian Kingdom Some little Writers about this time expounded this Law to discharge all persons from all obligation to Church-Communion in point of Conscience but this tittle tattle was nothing to what has since follow'd every one taking the liberty according to the Model of Spinosa's happy Commonwealth to Speak and Write as he lists It was a little surprize to us so soon almost as our Controversies with the Papists and our fears from that party were over to be encountred with a set of Men who with unusual confidence profess an enmity to all Religion and bid defiance to the common faith of mankind who talk wildly of a Religion very improperly called so which has no dependance upon Times Places or Persons to Minister in holy things a Religion without worship or any publick Offices whereby it is profess'd a thing never heard of before in the World No man ought tamely to bear an attempt to set aside that publick Honour that is done to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth and no Christian can be silent when the Lord that bought them is openly deni'd and his Mission ridiculed Whither are we going when Pamphlets are to be seen on every Stall wrote directly against Christianity when under the pretence of advancing Reason Revelation is thrown up and at best is allow'd to be no more than a means of Information but no necessitating motive of assent Are these men of Cardan the Astrologer's mind that the Law of Christ shall be chang'd and shall it give way to that sect which all the other Philosophers expos'd and Epicurus be set up as a Master and Teacher instead of our Blessed Saviour Do they think to be too hard for God Are they stronger than he It has been observed that whoever breaks violently in upon the Laws of his Country tho' he may for a time brave it and presume himself beyond controul in the end the Laws are always too hard for him and crush him to nothing and shall men hope to be safe who spit in the face of Heaven and trample all the Laws of God under their feet Lucretius was as great a Bravo and no way inferiour to any modern writer in the Atheistical way either in Wit or Argument and yet Religion has kept its ground and will do so whatever vain imaginations some few fools may entertain of gaining a victory over it however there are those who are resolved not to give over their attempts and seem to be combin'd in a close Confederacy and with united strength to try what they can do The Age every one sees is extremely addicted to lightness and vanity and to turn every thing that is grave and serious into ridicule to make the best advantage of this prevailing humour they have a sort of Retainers to Atheism who are as great Enemies to Reason as to Religion and have neither enquir'd into what Religion has to say for it self or the objections against it their work is to break a Prophane Jest or two upon it and if they can but set down these in writing they grow into a great Opinion of their Parts and take it for an affront for any Man to speak a wise word in their Company Others for each seems to have his part assigned him according to his Genius pretend to be men of deep thoughts and to have searcht into all the secret Arts of Priest-craft and to have examined the juggle of Mysteries to the bottom and withal to have a great Charity for the long misguided World opprest under the Tyranny and slavish fear of Religion and yet in all this their design seems to be meerly to banter mankind The Author of Christianity not Mysterious has wrote a labour'd Book to amuse the world and prove nothing he acknowledges there are Mysteries without number and yet will allow nothing to be call'd so he will not suffer Mysteries in Revelation where reason can know nothing beyond what is reveal'd to be argued from Mysteries in nature where reason is a proper Judge whereas one would think that if in things knowable by reason we find difficulties we cannot solve it should seem less strange when we meet with as great in matters of Revelation which we can know nothing of further than they are reveal'd He will not have a thing said to be above reason because it cannot be imagined or conceived and yet makes above reason to signifie something unconceivable or unimaginable and to be the same with Mystery He asserts that there is nothing in Religion that is above reason and yet confesses that there are things in it of which we have not an Adaequate and Compleat Idea which is what is meant by being above reason And because we need not understand what we cannot discover by
Father and the Son as receiving that Infinite and Eternal Essence from them both this is the explication of that adorable Mystery as 't is deliver'd by that excellent Prelate forementioned in his Authentick Book upon the Apostles Creed By this time his spirits and his breath fail'd him and he could proceed no further and now having entertain'd me as long as he could he gave me to understand That I must not expect much more from him about one thing or other but that he would look to be entertain'd by me the little time I should have him with me And immediately calling the Family to Prayers so soon as they were ended he went to Bed and was willing I should leave him for that night In the morning which was Thursday he desir'd me to accompany him in his Chariot to London to consult Dr. M not that he expected any relief from his prescriptions for he concluded himself too far gone to be recovered but because he thought it not fit to omit any thing that could be done for the sake of his Family chiefly whose interest it was that he should have liv'd a little longer with them I returned with him to his Lodgings but he found himself so far spent that he hastned to Bed and desired me to come up to his Chamber and in the Church form to commend his Soul to God Not being willing to sink his Spirits too much and presuming that his apprehensions of present Death were the effect of the disorder his Journey had thrown him into I made use of some other Collects proper at that time and purposely omitted the commendatory Prayer upon which he called to me and entreated me to use no other than that and if I pleas'd the Lord's Prayer with it For said he I am just going So soon as I had done Well said he I now thank thee and take my leave of thee I have nothing more to say to thee nor needst thou say any thing to me thou hast nothing further to do but to bid me good night And immediately turning himself on one side lay still and spoke no more all that night On Friday morning he told me he wondered to find himself alive however we perswaded him to bleed according to the Dr.'s order the night before he told us it was to no purpose and had an opinion he should die whilst he was bleeding but he added that he gave up his body to our management and we might do with it as we pleased by this time his Friend Dr. T came in to whom he talk'd sensibly of his case and told him he was so well skill'd in his Profession that he knew very well he could not live out another night The Dr. was no sooner gone but he called me to him and attempted a Discourse which he was not able to go thro' with what he aim'd at was something to this purpose What a poor Creature is Man if he had hopes only in this Life he must go naked and alone and without any Friend to accompany him to the dark Grave All that thou wilt see of me presently will be a stiff and senseless carkass I have already lost all my thought I can scarce tell what I say to thee I did not just now know where I was now I do I am in my Bed-chamber I have no power to command a thought thou shalt in a few moments see that they are all perish'd and gone This he repeated several times with some concern and in half an hour they went quite away and returned no more for all that afternoon he lay still only at ten at night he put forth one hand to me and lifted up the other and his eyes to Heaven to signifie to me that he had yet some knowledge tho' his speech was gone and that he was praying for himself and a little after midnight he breath'd his last I have seen many Persons die but none like him in all my life I heard not the least unbecoming word from him in all his illness which was to me the more strange because I knew the natural heat and eagerness of his temper he shew'd not the least sign of uneasiness or dissatisfaction in his circumstances nothing of fondness for this World or any desire to stay longer in it no manner of fear of death or doubts about his future good state but throughout his sickness and to the last minutes that his understanding continued a perfect contempt of all Earthly things vigorous hopes of a Blessed Immortality and an entire and absolute resignation of himself to the Will of God The truth is his behaviour was enough to make a Man in love with death and to long for a dissolution and at that time it made such an impression upon my spirits that while it lasted I thought I could with great ease have dy'd with him Having been longer than I intended in my account of the Author I shall leave the following discourses to speak for themselves There is evidently a spirit of true Piety that breaths in them and one general aim propos'd to promote a wise understanding and sincere practice of Religion They are publish'd as they were found in his ordinary Notes and not designed by him for the Press but if they may do any service to God and Religion and the Souls of Men Our Author himself would have ventur'd them Abroad into the World without being any ways concern'd for the defects and imperfections which may be spy'd out in 'em for in the prosecution of such noble ends he has declar'd himself sufficiently arm'd against all manner of censures whatsoever and publickly profess'd That it was more satisfaction to him to publish a few plain and usefull Discourses Pref. to Practical disc of Rep. than to have had the ability or met with the applause of writing the Wittiest or Learnedst Book in the World The First Sermon ROM IX 14. What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness with God God forbid THE Apostle in defence of Christianity and the Gentiles being received into it who were Strangers and Aliens rather than the Jews who were the Children of Abraham and God's peculiar People having to justifie this made use of an Instance of God's free disposing his Favours as he pleases and such as to the Jews was an unanswerable President because upon it all their Priviledges depended above the rest of the World the same Children not of Abraham only but of Israel to whose line the promised Seed was confined before they were either of them born or were in a capacity to do Good or Evil yet God declared that Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated v. 13. and notwithstanding the rights of Primogeniture yet transmitted this his Love and Hatred down even to their Posterities the Israelites and the Edomites upon this he seems to be startled with an Objection rising up from all this and looking him fully in the Face What shall we say then is their
unrighteousness with God God forbid This is so shrewd an absurdity that if we must be driven to it 't is a demonstration against not only Christianity which he was defending but against all Religion For. if God be not a Being of Righteousness and Justice in what he does who can expect rewards for serving him or need sear punishment for any wickedness he commits Virtue and Vice are but empty names if he has not an impartial regard to them and his own words are not to be trusted or credited if we question his Righteousness and Integrity if we are not well assured of that in the first place we can never know but he may deceive us in whatever he says or promises to us nay all his Revelations may be but like the Heathens deceitful Oracles to impose upon the credulous and all his Miracles but tricks of Legerdemain and slights of an Almighty hand to deceive us more artificially but God forbid as the Apostle says that any such thing should blasphemously be charged upon the great God or any such Notions formed of him from whence it is unavoidable to infer them Tho we can never get the thoughts of him out of our mind nor wholly take out the Natural Characters of him that he has imprinted upon us yet if we so blur and deface them with lines drawn from our own ill Tempers or mistaken Apprehensions as to represent him instead of his Essential Excellencies and Moral Perfections which are the brightest Glory that shines all around him with the black and ugly features of Almighty Rage and Cruelty Malignant Spite or Ill Nature or which may be the same Imperious and Arbitrary and Ungoverned Will conducted by no Principles of Justice or Goodness nor acting by any Rules of Right or Wrong but as the unaccountable impulses of Fondness or Anger happen to incline him if we set up such a monstrous Idol in our thoughts with ghastly looks and terrible visage instead of the most Perfect and Righteous and Blessed God as we do the greatest dishonour to the Divine Nature mere than if the Jews had really set up an Asses head as they were charged to adore for the God of Israel so we destroy that inward love and delight that hearty esteem and veneration which the thoughts of so excellent and amiable so great and good and just a Being should excite in us and do a great many other the saddest mischiefs to True Religion as I shall shew by and by We make it a desirable thing even to the best of Men that there were no such Being i' the World under whose Tyranny for such is Power without Justice they may be made miserable as well as others and all must groan under his Iron Scepter and have reason to wish they could wrest it out of his Clutches but none could kiss it or be satisfied with it they might tremble and crouch and bow before it offer Prayers as the Manichees to their evil Principles or build Temples as the Romans to the Fever or the Plague they may dread him as an irresistable evil but never Worship and Honour and Esteem him as we ought to do an Infinite God i. e. as an Almighty Goodness or an Eternal Righteousness But alas who did ever deny that God was Righteous who was ever so bold as to charge the great Lord and Creator of the World with the least shadow of Unrighteousness or what pretence or possibility indeed can there be of any such thing Is not whatever he does therefore righteous because he does it let it be what it will There have been many who have thought he made the greatest part both of Men and Angels to be eternally miserable and doomed them before they were created to that wretched State and that he might have dealt so with all the rest if he had pleased and yet allow him to have been very righteous others have thought that he appointed that they should first sin at least some one of them and from thence he would take occasion to damn as many of them as he pleased without any regard to their own actions and this they thought was a better way of displaying his Righteousness to us But who could ever be so foolish as to charge God downright with unrighteousness He that has none above him to controul or determine him to give any Laws or Rules to him whatever he does according to the purpose and pleasure of his own Will is most certainly Righteous This is the common and easie but mistaken account of God's righteousness which because the Apostle here does not make use of as he might and so have given a shorter answer to the supposed Objection but rather allows that there is some unrighteousness which is so in its own nature and which therefore could not be charged upon God for else to say with such abhorrence God forbid that there be unrighteousness with him would be only to say God forbid that he should not do what he does or that he should not will what he wills when if you suppose that to be what you please yet the supposing him to will and to do it makes it to be righteous and then there would be no need of such a phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is here used before hand I shall endeavour therefore at this time 1. To lay down a better and a firmer Notion and account of God's Righteousness 2. To show you the usefulness of it by the consequences of the other Opinion And 3. To vindicate the Righteousness of God according to this true Notion of it and clear it from what either in this Chapter or any where else may seem to reflect upon it 1. I shall endeavour to lay down a better and a firmer Notion of God's Righteousness and that in these Particulars 1. 'T is not mere Will and Arbitrary Pleasure that makes God to be Righteous for that is such a floating and uncertain thing that it cannot be a fit and stable foundation for Righteousness mere Power and Will like a violent Wind act always strongly and impetuously but uncertainly too sometimes one way and sometimes the quite contrary as the vapours happen to rise and move it It will fall under no certain Rules or Calculation nor can you tell where to have it the next moment so variable will be ungoverned Will and so impetuous when 't is assisted with Strength and Power that only gives it weight and force but determines it not one way or t'other and if all the effects and efforts of this were to be called Right then the doing quite contrary things may happen to be so for what should hinder mere arbitrary Will from doing one thing at one time and the quite contrary at another unless it have something to regulate it The destroying the Righteous with the Wicked damning Innocents and doing all imaginable mischief shall be called righteousness if done by the Manichean Evil and Almighty Principle for there can be no
as having no Foundation in the real goodness of what is commanded nor in the Nature of God but only in his Arbitrary Will and Pleasure Whereas this it is that truly commends Religion to the Minds of considering Men that it is the obliging us to such Laws as are Eternally and Unalterably Good from the nature of things which do naturally produce good Effects to our selves and the World and are the necessary causes of our happiness and that therefore God has laid them upon us not as a Yoke he would have us submit to meerly because we ought to be subject to him but as they are good in themselves and the necessary means of our Happiness that his Commands are but the Copies of his own Original and wise Reason the Transcript of his own Eternal Righteousness and Perfections and that the Righteousness he Commands us is taken from God himself and is a lively Pattern and Exemplar of his own Nature and Essential Righteousness This does extremely commend Religion and Righteousness to us that 't is not only founded in the Will but the Nature of God too and is not only interwoven with the very make of our Humane Nature but derived from the Natural Perfections of God as the Fountain of it that 't is not an imperious restraint upon us from humoursom and boundless Will that had no antecedent Reason thus to limit and confine us but that all the Laws of Righteousness besides the Stamp and Impress that Heaven has fixt upon them are of intrinsick Worth and Value and that their own goodness is the firmest sanction and the truest reason of their obligation 4. The having such a Conception of God is very dishonourable to God and uncomfortable to our selves if we consider no other effects of it upon our lives 't is a robbing him of one of the Noblest Perfections of his Nature of the richest Jewels of his Crown and the most resplendent Justice and Righteousness are the greatest Excellencies of a Governor of a great and powerful Being and his power without those will be only a greater mischief There is nothing that all Men do more admire and commend than impartial Justice in those who are above them because 't is a guard and protection of every Man a fence set about him and all his Interests and nothing is more manifest than the influence which Justice has upon the good of the World so that every body when he thinks on a Cato or an Aristides blesses him in his heart and speaks well of him with his Lips And what we think such a Perfection in men and such an object of Esteem there if we deny it to God we stop one of the main streams of Honour that should flow from him and cut off the brightest Ray of the Divine Lustre neither can we give that Honour that belongs to him if we strip him of those Perfections any more than we can see the Sun if we disrobe it of its Light or admire the face that we have mangled and deformed There must be such a congruity in the Object like Charms sitted to attract our Passions and excite our Esteem or else we can no more love and honour than we can taste with our Eyes and see with our Palate and mere Power is no more an object of Love and Honour but as 't is an Instrument to do 〈◊〉 good than an Earthquake or a Clap of Thunder it will amaze and affright us and put us into a Consternation but never bring us heartily to Honour and Esteem it We shall dread such a Being as has us under and can crush us as he pleases just as a little Bird does the Eagle when its Claws are upon it and we shall live in as much terror and confusion and uncertain destractions of mind from such thoughts of God as a Slave does under his Merciless Patron who knows not what hardship he shall suffer next whether he shall be Sold or Starved or Murdered If when we know that his Power is Absolute and Irresistable and have no security from the goodness of his Nature that he shall not use it to rack and torture us and do us mischief unless we do that which Justly deserves it we may then be glad if we could with the Epicureans free our minds from the melancholy thoughts of such a Cruel and Over-ruling Nemesis and must never hope to come to perfect Ease and Tranquility and repose of Mind till we had got rid of the sears of such an Invisible Mormo But God forbid that this should be the case of Mankind no 't is the most equal and impartial Justice that rules the World that Administers all affairs with the greatest Justice and Righteousness whom we have no reason to dread unless we do base and wicked things that disorder and do mischief then indeed he will severely Chastise and Punish us but else there is not the severity or injustice or hard usage that we need ever fear from him no more than a Child from the most indulgent Parent or a Subject from the best natured Prince and Governor There was never in all his vast Kingdom and Empire of the World in all his long and lasting Government any the least Unrighteousness that could ever be charged upon it nor has any the meanest Person reason to complain of any the least injustice done it nor ever shall have which is the third and last Particular 3. To Vindicate the Righteousness of God according to this true account of it and clear it from what either in this Chapter or any where else may seem to reflect upon it which will be great ease to our minds and confirm what has been asserted before and this I shall do by laying down briefly two or three Principles that will meet with almost all cases and all objections about this matter for I must not descend now to Particulars 1. That Arbitrary and Unlimited goodness is no instance of Unrighteousness as if a Prince think fit to show extraordinary Favours to some of his Subjects more than others to raise them to higher Places and Preserments or to give them some greater Privileges and Advantages under him he is not to be called unjust or unrighteous if he do no wrong to his other Subjects tho' they do not taste so largely of his Favour and Bounty for a Power and Prerogative to do good is Unlimited only Justice like the Angel to Abraham stops its hand from doing mischief And this was the case in this difficult Chapter of God's bestowing the Privileges of the Gospel and Christianity on the Gentiles rather than the Jews As the Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness have attained to Righteousness even the Righteousness that is of Faith but Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness v. 30.31 tho that was wholly by their own Fault And this principle the Jews had no reason to disallow who had before reapt so much benefit
by it it being the only ground why God was more gracious to them than the rest of the World and that he still allows some Persons and Countries much greater means of Grace than others tho' there are none who want what is sufficient for them 2. That God as absolute Lord Proprietor and Creator of the World has so vast a Right over his Creatures as to put 'em into what condition he pleases that is not worse than the having no Being for that is but giving 'em a lesser good But to put them into such a state as it were desirable rather to be annihilated than to be so miserable to do this without some fault of theirs that shall deserve this as a punishment is against the plainest Axioms and Rules of Right and Justice and is to take more from a Creature than he gives it and so make himself as it were a debtor to it There cannot be any such thing as unlimited Right no not in God over his Creatures for all Right supposes some Rules to bound and limit it the transgressing of which may be supposed and therefore may be wrong and injury and here is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Predestinarians but to dispose of Kingdoms in this World and tranfer 'em from the Canaanites to the Jews to give others an express command to make the Jewels of the Egyptians their own to command the life of a Child at the hand of its Parents as a Sacrifice to him that gave it and the like this is a right belongs to the absolute Lord Proprietor and Creator of the whole World and as such he may give Jacob a more fruitfull Land and greater Kingdom and show his love to him rather than to Esau that way 3. That punishment and severity upon sinners which is necessary for publick good and for the Ends of Government is not to be called Unrighteous be it never so great and I can never believe that God does ever inflict more no not in the Eternal torments of Hell nor has any other end in that or any other punishment and severity than to give a sufficient sanction to his Laws than wisely to Govern and keep the world in order and procure with the best Advantage the Welfare and Happiness of all the Beings that are in it and whatsoever punishments are necessary to that end are upon that account Just and Righteous since that is the only true measure by which a Just proportion can be assigned between the fault and the punishment I know not what they mean who talk of any sort of Vindictive Justice in God different from this as if there were any revengefull Passion in him to be satisfied by the miseries of his Creatures or he took any other pleasure in the punishment of them but meerly the pleasure of doing Justice ' ris this is a further assurance to us of Gods Righteousness that a Being so great and powerfull and self sufficient can have no such passions as spring up in weak and impotent minds nor be tempted to do any injustice because that proceeds always from weakness and imbecillity But I must enlarge no further on these particulars I hope what has been said already will give some satisfaction to our minds that there is no Unrighteousness in the great God But he that is infinitely Great is therefore infinitely Just and Righteous because he can have no Mean and Unrighteous designs either for himself or against others so that Justice and Righteousness is necessarily joined with Almighty Power and it must be a thought full of dread and horror that can conceive it possible to have them parted and separated but in Truth where there is any one infinite Perfection there must be all and therefore we have the same Evidence from reason of Gods being Righteous as of his being Almighty or of his being at all and they who from some mistaken places of Scripture and Revelation endeavour to Represent God under another Notion and Character destroy that true natural Notion and Conception of a God upon which all Revelation is built and which must be previous and antecedent to it and make Religion and the thoughts of a God which is the most cheerfull and comfortable thing in the World to be an hideously black and melancholy Superstition and as this may reasonably be the cause of a great many's becoming Atheists who had rather believe there was no such Being as a God than that he was such an Unrighteous being as some would represent him so it would tempt any Man to wish to be so if he could and if it were in his Power But what shall we say then is there Vnrighteousness with God God forbid The Second Sermon MATTH XI 29. last Part. And ye shall find rest unto your Souls OUR Blessed Saviour in the foregoing verses was exhorting all Persons to embrace his Religion who were under any load and Burthen Trouble and uneasiness of Mind and he promises to give them ease and refreshment Come unto me allye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will give you rest This is a great Undertaking and Proposal and very desirable and inviting to Mankind The Diseases and Disorders and Uneasinesses of the Mind are a great many more than those of the Body and it is a more Divine thing and more owing to the Gods as Tully speaks to find out proper Physick and Remedies to Cure them than the other Our Saviour proposes his Religion and his Example as the means to do this Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me There were a great many Sects of Philosophers of old in which the wisest Men always aimed at this Tranquility and ease of Mind and proposed their Doctrine as the way to attain it and gave admirable Rules of living up to such heights of Vertue as should make Men casie and happy in all conditions even the worst that could befall them and a great many of them it must be confessed were as great Examples as Teachers of these such as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Zeno and others who were the natural Prophets and Apostles of the Heathen World and taught 'em the best Wisdom and Vertue and the best Directions how to attain the truest and perfectest happiness they knew humane Nature to be capable of Revelation and especially the Religion of Christ has done the same with much greater advantage hath shown us a right Notion of Happiness and all that conduces to it and has both enlarged the view and prospect of it in another World and improved the Method of acquiring and obtaining it and confirmed that good old Notion that it lies only in Vertue that nothing else can make a Man happy and this alone can do it Our Saviour as well as most of the Philosophers were to all appearance none of the happiest men in the World they were poor and mean and despised and contemned and had very little or none of those things in which the World places
and Duties of it Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls I shall premise a few cautions to prevent any mistake in this matter and the better to state and explain it Then show how we may by the help and means of Religion attain to this Rest Peace and Tranquility of Mind 1. First then I do not pretend that Religion and Virtue will set Men free from all the evils of this World and be a protection against any manner of outward Troubles or Calamities ever falling upon us This cannot be For Man is born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 They are a great many of them natural and necessary and unavoidable and God must alter the nature of Things and the nature of the World and work perpetual Miracles to free us always from them to have our Bodies subject to no Diseases and Indispositions our Estates subject to no Losses and Casualities or Children or Friends not subject to Death or to be taken away from us this is impossible and what no good Man must expect that the Rain or Drought should not sometimes spoil his Corn the Sea shipwrack his Goods or Vessel the Fire burn his House as well as anothers these common misfortunes which happen alike to all and a great many Losses from the fraud and injustice of others as well as abundance of natural evils arising from the Mechanism of our selves and the World these the most Virtuous cannot expect to be exempted from but like Travellers through this World they must all pass thro' the common Road with others and sometimes meet with bad and unpleasant way and now and then with a shower that may fall upon 'em but the Religious Man is however much better provided against those against the common and unavoidable evils of life than another who is but equally subject to them his Mind is Armed against all the darts of Fortune and they shall not enter so deep nor smart so grievously as to the wicked he has something within to support him under all the Calamities and Afflictions of this World a good God a good Conscience and a good Prospect and Hopes of Heaven when a wicked Man has none of those to keep him up but must wholly sink and fall under them The one will have the Peace of his Mind and a Comfort within that shall pour Oyl and Balsam into all the Wounds of Fortune and make Afflictions more easie and tolerable but the other will increase the smart of them by his wickedness that will then lie heavier upon him when his Spirit is oppressed with other troubles the load of those and of his sins both will be insupportable to him and when his mind is sore by its inward guilt every hard thing from without will more pinch and gall him A good Man may keep this Peace of Mind under any Worldly afflictions but a bad Man cannot 2. Neither will Religion make all things equal as to the outward Happiness of this life arising from Mens different States and Conditions and unequal Circumstances in this World It may be allowed that there is a proper and real good in the Plenty Riches and Conveniences of life and that a good Man is not quite so happy that wants them as if he had 'em but they might be an accession a small Addition to his more true and greater Happiness of Vertue tho' that be infinitely more Great and Valuable and Desirable yet I do not know that Religion takes away or disallows the other we may therefore both Lawfully Desire and Endeavour to make our outward Circumstances in this World as good and easie and comfortable as we can within the bounds of Vertue and 't is both Natural and Lawful to do it and it borders I doubt upon Hypocrisie or Superstition to pretend the contrary and is always confuted by a contrary Desire and Practice in those who have talked otherwise But still a good Man can be contented and easie in a very mean and strait Condition if Providence allots this to him and he will not Disquiet or Disturb himself for what he sees others enjoy if God sees not sit for him to have them and tho he can allow a lesser good and a proper use and conveniency and some small Happiness perhaps as to this life to belong to those outward things in respect of the Wants and Necessities and the State we are in here which made Aristotle and the Peripateticks put the Externa Bona into the Ingredients of compleat Happiness yet he can be very Happy with a few of those as knowing that Man's Life consisteth not in abundance as Christ says Luk. 12.15 and that a few things will suffice nature and having Food and Raiment which is the Apostles as well as Natures competency he can be content and make up a Happiness to himself out of the better and more essential Parts and Ingredients of it to wit Vertue and Wisdom and a good Mind without those Appendages and Ornaments Trimmings and Garnishings of it which we call outward Happiness and Prosperity I am not for maintaining that Stoical Paradox That a virtuous Man was thereby Rich and a King and every thing that 's Great They might as well have said also he is always Strong and Healthfull tho 't is plain he may be both Sickly and Poor and his greatest Virtues may take away neither of those evils and their contraries may be allowed to be both goods in a lower Sence and so Desir'd by us but he will be Happier a Thousand times without those than without his Vertue they can never make him truly Happy without that but he may be Happy without those by the Peace and Comfort the Firmness and Goodness of his own Mind altho' if he had them too they might add something to his present Happiness and Good Condition this I will not Cynically deny Nor yet 3. That Religion will quite alter his bodily Temper any more than his Worldly Circumstances but a good Man may labour under an unhappy Temper and ill Crasis and Disposition of Blood and Humours His Wise and Vertuous Soul may male habitare be lodged not only in a Deformed but a Sickly and Unhealthfull or otherwise ill-framed Body A natural Sulphur and Choler may lodge in his Blood that may be too apt to Fire and heat him or too much dull and heavy Phlegm may clog his Spirits and make them Listless and Unactive and not rise to Warmth and fervor in his Religious Duties the Salts that keep the Humours from putrefying may make them too Sharp or Sowre and apt to make a Temper too Fretfull and Peevish or a black melancholy Humour may be thus produced and become Predominant that will disorder the Spirits and fill the Head and other Parts with dark Vapours and irregular Ferments and draw a Cloud of Darkness and Disconsolateness over the Brain and even the Soul it self Now Religion will not nor cannot
Miseries and Evils that sin brought upon it 'T is the great and proper business of Religion to save the Soul or make it Happy which is done by making it Wise and Vertuous by raising it to its truest Perfection by improving it with Vertuous Habits and Dispositions and bringing it to a Godlike Heavenly Frame and Disposition and so cultivating and fitting it for the greatest Enjoyment of God and Eternal Happiness Religion puts us upon this one thing needfull and its whole Scope and Design is to Cure and Mend to Perfect and Improve the Soul to Convert and Sanctifie and Regenerate and Inlighten the Mind which are words that import the making it wise and good because in this lies our true and proper Happiness in the Moral state and Gracious temper and Disposition of the Mind and in such a Perfection and Enjoyment of it as is attained by Religion They who think Happiness lies in bodily Pleasures or outward Enjoyments do at the same time leave Religion and mistake Happiness Religion bids us moderate all Carnal and Worldly Enjoyments and mortifie all the Excesses and Immoderate desires and degrees of them and takes off as far as may be our natural Love and Affections to them and will by no means allow us to place our Happiness in them as being poor and empty short and transient things in respect of the more true and greater and inward Happiness of our own Minds Religion bids us mind that and those things in which it consists take care of our Souls and the means of improving them in Grace and Vertue and the freeing them from those Vices and ill Tempers and Habits that will Destroy and make them Miseiable A Mans Happiness or Misery even his Eternal one is founded in his own Mind and depends upon the good or bad Temper and Disposition of it for the Happiness of the Soul is like the Health of the Body something within it self and consists in the Vigour and right Operations of all its Faculties and its own inward Powers and as Plutarch observes a Gouty Foot is not cured by a rich Shoe nor the Head-ach took off by a Crown or Diadem nor an ill Mind made Happy by any thing without it while it is sick and uneasie within it will be Miserable tho' it hath every thing else for Happiness lies in our Minds and within our selves and Religion by teaching us this and being concerned wholly to better and improve our Minds and applying it self wholly to them is very helpfull to bring us to it for it thereby directs us where it lies and takes us off from all false scents and pursuits of it and from all vain opinions and imaginations about it To know the true seat of Happiness and where it lies in what it is placed and wherein it consists is one of the best means to attain it and necessary to prevent all mistakes and wandring Quests and unprofitable Searches after it which almost all Men are guilty of by Imagining it lies in other things and in things without 'em and not as it truly does in their own Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch says wherefore since the Fountain of this Rest and Tranquility of Mind is in our selves let us take care to keep clean and purifie that 2. Religion teaches us the truest and best Wisdom which is the Foundation of this Tranquility of Mind for 't is some Folly or other some weak Thought or Passion vain Fancy or Opinion and the want of a true Understanding and the rightly using our Reason or making true Judgment of things that is always the cause of the Disorder and Disturbance and Indisposition of Mind Says Tully The Fountain of all perturbations is a Defection from right Reason something which does excite turbid motions contrary and opposite to Reason and therefore in his Excellent Discourse on this Subject he calls Wisdom Sanitas animi insipientia autem est quasi insanitas quaedam quae est insania eademque dementia Wisdom is the Health and Sanity of Mind and Folly is its Unsoundness and what puts it out of order And he calls this good state we are speaking of sanitatem animorum positam in tranquillitate quadam constantiaque Now Religion teaches the Mind the truest Wisdom and cures it of the greatest Follies that are incident to it it directs it to have right Thoughts and to make Judgment of things proposes to it the best end and the surest means to attain it shows it what is its chief Happiness and its Principal Interest and puts a right value and estimate upon things according to their worth and desert and thereby frees the Mind from all wrong Opinions and Imaginations which are apt to make it Vitious as well as Disorderly for all Vice is founded upon false Reasonings and want of right Judging of the Nature of things whereby they imagine such Actions to be good and agreeable and that they shall be Happy in having such Pleasures and Enjoyments and gratifying such Lusts and Desires but they and themselves Mistaken and Deceived and therefore vext and troubled and repent of their own Folly one time or other and so plainly confess and accuse themselves of having done a weak and silly thing what their wiser thoughts cannot but condemn and what appears now to be contrary to right Reason would Men live up to that which should be the design of a Wise Man and what his Reason was given him for and what makes him live above Brutes and Animals of meer Sense and lower Passions we should never be uneasie or disturbed or unquiet in our Minds we should always approve of what we do and be satisfied from our selves as the Wise Man speaks we should live by Principles that would always support and bear us up and let nothing sink or deject us we should never do a Weak a Rash or a Foolish thing that we repented of and were sorry for afterwards we should act steadily and constantly by the certain Rules of Wisdom and Vertue and not be so uncertain and mutable in our Thoughts and Actings which causes great disquietude and unevenness and disorder in our Minds Were we but as wise as Religion would make us we should have very little to disturb us Religion is what teaches us the best Wisdom and if rightly understood preserves us from the greatest follies and weaknesses of humane nature and true Wisdom is the Foundation of Peace and Tranquility of Mind which is always lost and destroyed by some folly or other contrary to right Reason and true Wisdom 3. Religion teaches us not to place our Happiness in any outward things of this World for if we do we shall find Happiness is not in our power and that we cannot always reach or attain it for things here will often fall out cross and contrary to our desires and wishes and there are a thousand Accidents to hinder and disappoint us of our Worldly aims and we must be often very uneasie
and very miserable if our meer missing of them makes us so and if we could attain them and become masters of them we should yet find our selves disappointed and should not meet with that Happiness that we expected from them Had we all we could wish for or desire in this World yet we should not find that satisfaction and compleat Enjoyment we imagined before-hand in any condition for thus Experience convinces us and convinces all Mankind that there is still something wanting to make us Happy whatsoever we enjoy of this World and how much soever we have of it there is so much emptiness in all the things of it so much mixture and allay of evil with good it is so unagreeable to the larger capacities of our Souls and so short of filling and satisfying them that Solomon pronounced of all Worldly things that they were Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Eccles 1.14 and this is not a Philosophical rant or a discontented Reflection or an Hyperbolical saying but a strict and certain truth founded upon the best Experience and the wisest Observation of things for no Man whoever set his Heart upon the things of this World found that contentment and full satisfaction in them that he expected but met with more cares and troubles in the pursuing them than they were worth and pierced himself through with a great many sorrows and anxieties by being over desirous of them and if he gained them with all his labour and toil yet was as far from true Happiness as before for as the Prophet elegantly expresses it The Bed is shorter than that a Man can stretch himself on it and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it Isa 28.20 Worldly things are too narrow short and imperfect and are no way fitted to make us compleatly happy something will still be wanting that we call good and some evil will be present and mixed with what we enjoy that will allay and embitter it To seek for Happiness in this World is to seek for the living among the dead It is not here it is risen it is above it is only in Heaven and in God and Religion and to be enjoyed no where else Religion raises our Minds to a nobler and truer Happiness than any in this World and it helps us to as good degrees of it as we are capable of at present by taking off our hopes and desires and expectations of it as to Worldly things and curing us of too much concern and anxiety about them and making us indifferent and casie and contented whatever our present Circumstances are in this World Which is the 4. Fourth thing by which it procures and affords this ease and tranquility of Mind that we are speaking of Most of the uneasinesses of life are caused by a sollicitude about Worldly things proceeding from an immoderate love and an over great Opinion of them as if our Happiness lay in possessing a great abundance of them This is the root of that Covetousness and Ambition which make us inordinately desire Riches and Honours which two are very restless and uneasy Vices and fill our lives with infinite Trouble and Disquietude and make our Minds always Uneasie and Discontented He is a very Happy Man who is easie and satisfied in his present Circumstances and has learnt with St. Paul in whatsoever state he is therewith to be content Phil. 4.11 who hath made such true Judgment of Worldly things that he has no great Opinion of them nor does admire or think there is very much in them but having the Conveniences and Accommodations of life can eat of his own little morsel and drink out of his own Brook with as much Pleasure and Satisfaction as if he were to take from the greatest Heap or drink of the greatest River or be Entertained with all the Luxurious Plenty and Ambitious State of the Rich and Great ones who with all their Enjoyments have a Thousand times more trouble and uneasinesses than the other in a more moderate condition For 't is certain the way to Contentment and Happiness is rather to abate our desires than to fill 'em and the more we raise and heighten these the more uneasie we shall always be Vain Opinion and weak Imagination set a false value and estimate upon the outward differences amongst Men but I doubt not but they may be all equally Happy and that Previdence has distributed good and evil with a more equal and impartial hand than we imagine and that those of low condition enjoy as much Happiness in this World as those of the highest The difference is not made by Circumstances but by temper of Mind and by keeping our desires within moderate bounds and not being anxious or sollicitous or uneasie for what we do not enjoy but in being contented and well pleased with whatever Providence allots to us when we bring our selves to this we shall be easie and happy and free our selves from those immoderate desires carking cares and anxious sollicitudes about the things of this World which pierce us through with a Thousand sorrows and destroy the Ease and Tranquility of our Minds Now to do this we must be taught and convinced by Religion that Happiness lies not in outward things and be cured of the contrary weak Fancy and Opinion that makes us so immoderately desire 'em and be so anxiously concerned about 'em to the loss even of that Rest and Peace of Mind that we might otherwise have without them 5. Religion teaches us to govern our Passions and lower Inclinations and so to keep them from disturbing us and breaking the Peace and Tranquility of our Minds One of the greatest causes of uneasiness to us and what is most contrary to this Rest and Tranquility we are seeking after is the Disorder of our Passions and the Disturbance and Disquiet they give us Anger ruffles us and puts us into a storm and destroys that smooth calm and sedate Temper that meekness puts us in Envy preys upon it self and is inwardly corroded with its own sharp and sowre humours Pride swells its self with its own inward poyson and is blown up with an inward Vapour that Pains and Distends it and makes it very uneasie even whilst 't is very conceited of its self Till these inward Diseases and Indispositions and Commotions of Mind are cured in great measure by the Prescriptions and Directions of Religion a Man can have no ease and quiet in his own Breast for while he is under the power of any of these or indeed of any lower or bodily Inclination such as Lust Anger brutal Rage or brutal Concupiscence and has not mastered those natural Corruptions nor brought those Boisterous and Head-strong Passions under some Government and Subjection to the Laws of Wisdom and Decency Vertue and Religion they will run him into a Thousand Mischiefs Follies and Inconveniencies and he will never have true Peace and Tranquility in his own Mind 'T is the great business therefore
of Religion to mortify these bodily Passions and lower Inclinations to Crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts to put away all Wrath and Clamour and Bitterness and to take off the Corruptions and Weaknesses of Humane Nature by the rules of Religion and the assistances of the Holy Spirit and to Guard us where sin doth so easily beset us by the Considerations of Heaven and Eternity and another World which are only Arguments strong enough to make men conquer and deny those passions and Inclinations which are in great part natural to them Religion has a Power in it if duly applied and attended to to make the most passionate Man Calm and Gentle the most Lustfull Man Chast to Sweeten the most Sowre and ill-natured Temper and Tame the most Outrageous and Violent This Christianity did of old as Lactantius and other Fathers assure us and boast of its Vertue and Efficacy and this it no doubt will and must do in order to our Eternal Happiness if we come under the full Sense and perfect Government of it for no Man can go to Heaven with those irregular and unmortified Passions about him any more than come to Peace and Tranquility of Mind here what is required and is necessary to the one is necessary to the other also and what promotes the one does at the same time promote the other for the more approaches we make towards Heaven hereafter the more we make at present to this Peace and Tranquillity of Mind and whatever tends to acquire the one tends also to acquire the other Religion by the same way leads to both and the more we grow in one the more we shall grow in the other 't is one of the greatest Perfections Religion is to bring us to not to Destroy or Extirpate but Govern and Master our natural Inclinations and bodily Passions and make them always easie to our selves and subject to Reason Wisdom and Vertue and when they are so then we shall be in this most Pleasant and Happy State which we call Rest and Tranquility and Calmness of Mind 6. Religion and especially Christianity removes all Guilt and all Reason of inward Trouble of Mind and Disquiet of Conscience nothing is so contrary to this Peace and Rest and Tranquility of Soul as an inward Consciousness of a Man 's own Guilt and a dread of what he Deserves upon it this will always disturb and make him uneasie in whatever outward Condition he be it will be a Wound at his very Heart and like a Dart struck thro' his Liver he will feel it like a Prick upon a Nerve a Pain in the Tenderest and most Sensible part of his Mind for such is a Sense of Guilt and the Fears and Horrors that go along with it Now what shall Cure this if a Man has faln into it and what shall best preserve him from it but Religion Christianity has provided a Remedy for the greatest Guilt which is the Blood of Christ and thereby pours in Oyl and Balsam into the most wounded Conscience and by the Privilege of Repentance and New Obedience restores it to Peace and Comfort and a good State and frees it from its Dreadfull Fears and Apprehensions it gives a Man firm Grounds of Hope and Comfort upon his return to his Duty tho' he has not always observed it and assures him that he shall be well treated by God upon it This is a great thing which is owing to the Grace of God in and thorough Christ and is the great Grace of the Gospel and what natural Religion could not Discover or Ensure to us Christ alone giveth this Rest to those who are weary and heavy Laden with the Burthen of their Sins and Guilt is a Load and Burthen too heavy for us to bear but what he has done takes it off from us upon our Repentance and Amendment and becoming good Men tho' after we have been otherwise Religion will best Guard and Preserve us against all Sin and keep us from doing any thing rashly and inconsiderately that should afterwards trouble and vex us when we reflect upon it and will therefore prevent as well as cure the painfull Disorders and Disturbances of a Guilty Conscience and Uneasie Mind and keep it always in the most Virtuous and therefore most Comfortable state for nothing is such a ground of Peace and inward Comfort as to live always in a Habit of Virtue and Religion in the practice of one and by the principles of the other and never to act contrary to them or oppose them in any thing we do this will make a good Man always pleased and satisfied from himself as the Scripture speaks Prov. 14.14 and give him the closest and the truest Happiness which is the Peace of his own Mind What a Comfort a good Conscience is it is like Health or Pleasure better felt than described 't is a continual Feast in all Conditions a perpetual spring of Joy and Comfort rising up in a Man 's own Mind and overflowing his Heart with unspeakable Pleasure and Delight What will make a Man bear any Circumstances Endure any evil Suffer any Affliction Go through any Cross or Reproach and be tho' not without Sense yet without any great Trouble When his Innocent Mind speaks Cheerfully to him and Refreshes him from within A Man can never have true Peace and Tranquility of Mind without Virtue and Religion for none but a good Man conscious to himself of his own Integrity and Sincerity can have a good Conscience and nothing is so contrary to this Ease and Rest this Tranquility of Soul as an evil Conscience which like the troubled Sea is always Stormy and Boisterous and casteth up Mire and Dirt as the Prophet speaks Isa 57.20 the filth that is at the bottom of it and is therefore the most directly opposite to the Calm and Serene State and Temper of Mind that we are seeking after An evil Conscience is always full of Fears and Horrors of Dread and Disquietude 't is a Worm gnawing on a Mans Vitals a Vultur preying on his Liver a Snake stinging him to the Heart a Fury Whipping him a Devil tormenting him a Hell kindled in his own Breast Nothing can be too great and terrible to represent it by and hardly any thing can come up to the misery of it when it is in a high degree Religion by delivering us from that delivers us from the greatest trouble and uneasiness of Mind and whoever is not stupid and senseless will fall into that some time or other unless he live Vertuously and Religiously 7. Religion gives us Cheerfull Hopes as to another World and so takes off the immoderate fear of Death which must otherwise all our life make us Subject to Bondage as the Apostle speaks Heb. 2.15 and fill us with wretched and servile Fear whenever we think of dying and we cannot but think of it sometimes when we see the common Fate of Mortality in all others and have some Warnings and
the Mind and Divine Life of the Soul like the Life Health or Beauty of the Body must be made up of the regular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disposition and Symmetry of all the parts whereas one Fatal Wound or Mortal Disease may kill us as well as many and one great and Notorious Deformity will Disfigure a whole Face Vertue is like a straight line which must be every where even and regular but a crooked and irregular one may be so in a hundred parts Vice is infinite and knows no Bounds but Wanders and Roves through all the vast unlimited extent of Evil but Vertue confines us and keeps us within the narrow compass of what is Good and Righteous and made our Duty by a Divine Law These are from Religion its Terms Conditions and Constitutions there are two other Difficulties arising from our selves 7. A great Reason why Religion and Vertue are so strait and narrow a way is because our Natural Appetites and Inclinations which are necessary to our present state are so many and so hard to be all governed and kept within the bounds of Vertue and Religion these result from our Animal Nature and are a true part of us as Compounded of Flesh and Blood and are so much Gods Workmanship and Creation that we neither can nor ought to destroy them he allows us to gratify 'em within due bounds and did not put those strong Appetites in our Natures meerly to vex and torture and disatisfie us but we must Govern them with great care and not lay loose the Reins upon their Necks nor let them grow too Masterless and unruly at any time for Reason and Religion they are I confess the great Tryal and Instance of Human Vertue and they may become a snare to us and the great inlets into sin without due care and watchfullness and managery we must be therefore always upon our Guard lest this Flesh and Sense which we carry about us and are so fond of become a Traytor to us and Sin do not some way or other surprize us and enter at some of those weak places of Humane Nature we must stop and check the strongest Inclination when it would lead us into Sin and so far as it is Vitious Immoderate and Excessive destroy it tho' with never so much Pains and Violence we must pluck out a right Eye and cut off a right hand and destroy every Sinfull Inclination be it never so Natural to us and Crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts so that we may keep them always within the bounds of Wisdom and Vertue and suffer no Sin to Reign in our Mortal Bodies that we should obey it in the Lusts thereof Romans 6.12 8. Lastly the Difficulties of Religion and Vertue arise mainly from the Prejudices and ill Customs and Habits of Vice which get possession of most Men before they well Understand Religion and the true good and necessity of it our first years are a life of Sense before we grow up to Reason and Understanding and then other things make the first Impression upon our Minds and fill them with weak Images and Fancies and Foolish thoughts and thus when our Passions are strong and our Reason is weak Vice generally gets the start of Religion and without a very Happy and Virtuous Education we contract a great many Ill Habits and Vitious Customs that increase and grow up with us and 't is very hard to break and alter those when we grow Wiser by Time and Experience and come afterwards to have a better Sense of Religion and better Apprehensions about it tho' we are then convinced of the Folly and Danger of our Sins yet we are become such Slaves to 'em by long use that it is hard to break their Chains and get loose from them and here lies the great Difficulty of Religion and this makes it to be a strait Gate and a narrow way especially at the first entrance into it when old Customs and Habits must be changed and altered former liberties retrench'd and denied old Companions must be forsaken and former Temptations must be overcome and Repentance which is the hardest part of Religion must be the first duty of it and must cure the old Prejudices and the long habits of Sin and in the Scripture phrase bring in a New Nature a New Soul and make us New Creatures and New Men this is a great Difficulty indeed but it is brought upon our selves by our own fault and we cannot blame Religion for it any more than we can the Physician or the Physick that is to cure us of a Disease that we have let run so long upon us that 't is hard now to perform the cure and it cannot be done without going thro' a long and tedious course and using a strict Regimen and very great abstinence from what may be hurtfull to us The great Argument to perswade us to all this is that we must die if we do not if notwithstanding all these Difficulties and hard Things in Religion we will not comply with it we must be Miserable for ever we must lose all that life and happiness those Glorious rewards it promises to us in another World and we must suffer all the Dreadfull Amazing punishments it there threatens There is no reserve against this but either by perverting Religion or by denying it either corrupting its Principles and by false and mistaken Notions giving our selves hopes of happiness without living up to the Terms and Conditions of it or else utterly denying it as a Cheat and a Falshood the latter is more impudent and daring and what but few hardned wretches can come up to the other is more common and as Pernicious and Destructive More Souls are lost by false Principles and the horrid corrupting of the Doctrines of Religion than by downright Atheism and Insidelity by trusting to a late and Death-bed Repentance and thinking a little matter will do the business hereafter as well as a very strict and a very good life by relying upon the Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ for Salvation without Obedience to the Gospel and performing such things upon which alone those are promised by thinking to be saved or justified by Faith alone without Works or a good Life and making Faith to lie in a presumptuous Confidence of Gods Favour or having an Interest in Christ without regard to the plain Terms and Conditions of Christianity or by the other superstitious Doctrines of having sins pardoned by an Absolution or an Indulgence and the like such Doctrines as these which turn the Grace of God into Wantonness which make Religion an incouragement to Looseness and Licentiousness and give Men hopes to escape Misery tho' they live in their Sins and come not up to the strict and severe Terms in Religion but to go to Heaven by some other Imaginary and Unaccountable way and to be saved upon some account or other by Grace or Christ without entering this strait Gate and
our selves and Mischievous to the World it does not destroy any of our Natural Pleasures but refines and purifies them and draws them off from the filth and Sediments which lies always at the bottom of those that are sinfull and so it makes them clearer and sweeter and frees them from all that Nauseousness and Bitterness that Vice generally mixes with them Virtue does neither Decay nor Disease our Bodies Trouble or Torment our Minds Consume or Squander away our Estates nor Ruin and Shipwrack our Fortunes nor bring any such Mischiefs upon us in this World as Mens Sins often do but as keeping the bounds of it will lead us to Eternal Life so it will generally promote and improve the greatest happiness we are capable of in this 3. Religion is as easie as God could possibly make it and none of its Straitnesses and Severities are Arbitrarily imposed upon us but from the Reason and Necessity of things and the absolute Fitness Goodness and Wisdom of whatever it Commands and its real Tendency to our greatest Perfection and Happiness for Religion is not an Arbitrary and Positive thing made so by the mere Will and Pleasure of God which might have lessened our Burthen and abated of our Duty in many Cases had he pleased and not imposed such hard Tasks and such strait and severe Vertues upon us but have left us more loose and not tyed us up so strictly as he has done this is a great Mistake and a wretched Mis-understanding of Religion for that as to the moral part of it is founded in the Nature and Perfections of God which are Eternal and Unalterable and in the as Eternal and Unalterable Reasons of things and those Respects and Relations which they necessarily have to one another so that as God cannot alter the Nature of a Circle or a Triangle nor make two and two not to be four so neither can he the Nature of Vice and Vertue nor make Good to be Evil or Evil Good Moral Vertues are as much founded in the Nature of things as Mathematical Truths or Metaphysical Verities and the Properties of them are as certain and fixt as those of Lines or Numbers Such Actions are as necessary to the good of the World and the Happiness of Societies and particular Persons as such Offices and Operations of the Body are to maintain its Life and Health so that breathing is not more necessary to the preservation of the one than Justice Fidelity and other Vertues are to the other and should God have let us loose from any of those Virtues even the strictest of them which the Libertines are most apt to complain against such as those which restrain their Natural Passions of Lust and Anger he would have let in a Thousand Mischiefs and Evils into the World and have roade us as Brutish and Uncivilized and as miserable as the very Beasts themselves and as uncapable of Society and the benefits of good Order and Goverment But 4. As all the Laws of God are good and as easie as he could make them so they are made more easie by that Divine Grace and Assistance whereby he enables us to perform them and whereby the Difficulties of Religion are much lightened and abated for every thing is said to be light or heavy in proportion to the strength and power of another and according as our strength is encreased by the Divine Grace and Holy Spirit so is Religion and Vertue made more easie to us so much then of inward strength and power as is conveyed to our Minds by Gods Grace which is a Physical and Secret Energy like that of inward life Strengthening us mightily in the inward Man regenerating quickning renewing raising enlivening us as the Scripture speaks so much lighter is the Burden of Religion that God lays upon us for it is the same thing to take off so much from that or to add so much new strength to him that is to bear it and therefore however hard and difficult Religion be to the weakness and imperfection of Human Nature to our single power which would of it self fall and sink under it yet when we have the Assistance of Heaven and the Aids and Supplies of Gods Grace to help and cooperate with us then we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us and thro' his Grace which is sufficient for us and we cannot in reason complain for want of Power when we may have it and God is ready to give us whatever power we want even to Conquer the strongest Propensities and most irresistable Temptations and this will take greatly off from the badness of the way which leads to Life when we have the Spirit of God like a good Angel to lead us thro' it always to Comfort and Help and Incourage us in it so that it would be much more tolerable tho' it were thro' never so Dark and Unpleasant a Wilderness when like the Jews we have the presence of God and his power to Conduct us all along to the Happy Land 5. Tho' we are apt to complain of the Difficulties in Religion yet there is no great End whatever which we can attain without as much Pains and Labour and going thro' as many Difficulties and Hardships as we do in Religion No Man can arrive to Learning or to any Liberal Art or Science in any Perfection no Man can rise to Honour and Preserment can get an Estate or the like without using as much Diligence as much Care and Watchfullness as in the business of Religion without denying himself as many Liberties spending as much Time and keeping himself to as strict Rules and Measures as are in Religion Nay I dare say many a Man takes more Pains and meets with more Difficulties to get a sorry livelihood in this World than would ordinarily carry a Man to Heaven and make him live Happily for ever what shall we then charge God so Foolishly as if he had used us hardly in Religion and make the way to Happiness strait and narrow and difficult when we as ordinarily and more willingly take as much Pains and go through as many Difficulties in all other things 't is because we have not such a value and Esteem of the Ends and Designs of Religion as we have of other Worldly ones that we complain of the Hardness and Difficulty of that above the other did we think Heaven as Desirable as an Estate and Vertue as great a Good as Honour which is but the shadow of it we should pursue it as vigorously and overlook and contemn all the Difficulties that lie in the way to it and there is this advantage in seeking and pursuing the Ends and Designs of Religion above any of those in this World not only as they are far greater and infinitely more valuable and important but that the one is certainly to be attained if we use our utmost Care and Diligence whereas we may sail and be Disappointed of the other after using all means in order
same Grave but nothing could remove his Patience and take away his Integrity that still he retained and held fast Job 2.3 9. The Philosopher that lost all in a wreck yet kept his Philosophy and Wisdom in spite of Fortune and the Apostles who left all they had still preserved their Religion and a good Conscience which by the decree of the Senate could not be Sequester'd nor Confiscate by the Emperor's Edicts those inward Treasures of the Mind are safe when things without are never so uncertain and when they shall bring us to another World then they secure beyond possibility of the least danger whatever Storms and Shelves and Rocks we pass thro' here when we once Land and set Foot upon the shore of Eternity we are out of all danger and in a safe harbour where we shall enjoy the rewards of all our Toil and be vastly enriched with Treasures of that Happy and Secure place 2. These Earthly Treasures are fading and Transitory but the Heavenly are durable and lasting Riches certainly make themselves Wings and sly away as an Eagle towards Heaven Prov. 23.5 of a sudden we know not how they are got out of sight and we can never set Eyes on 'em again they leave their possessor sometimes without much warning like Tides they rowl from one Shore to another from this Man or Family to the other and leave him perhaps a Beggar to day who was in the greatest Plenty but a little before or if they be not so Fickle nor leave the owner on a sudden yet in a little time he must leave them Death will strip him naked as he came into the World and then all his thoughts perish Ps 146.4 All his thoughts of being rich or great or happy in this World all the mighty Projects and deep Contrivances about worldly things are quite at an end and a sudden stop is given to the building of bigger Barns or finer Houses or making greater purchases and laying up more of these Earthly Treasures The Soul is perhaps taken from him the night before he was resolved to do all this and then how insignificant are they all and what is he the better for ' em Thus Foolish it is to carry on only such short designs that we must break off very suddenly and abruptly and not lay our Thoughts deeper than the Grave or beyond this transitory Life not to have our thoughts and aims upon greater things that must for ever imploy our Minds that are more lasting and durable of a more sixt and solid Nature and that will last as long as our immortal Souls that we may sit down with and bid our Souls be for ever at rest for they have goods laid up not only for many years but for ever 3. These Earthly Treasures are such empty things that they can never give us such inward Happiness as the Heavenly will We are apt indeed to admite at the brave outside the appearing gaity and finery of the Rich and Great but all this without Vertue is but show and pageantry they have none of that real Happiness nor enjoy any thing of that fatisfaction we imagine they do they have a thousand Troubles and Multitudes of cares caused even by their Riches and Greatness that lie heavy upon 'em vast loads of unseen miseries oppress 'em and inward and secret guilt fills 'em with horror and vast legions of evil Spirits haunt and disturb those Houses within that look so stately and beautifully without We make very false measures and are mightily mistaken if we conclude him to be Happy that we see has the visits and the Complements and the greatest Court made to him alas we see not into his Mind nor how uneasie he is there and how little the better for our foolish Opinion of him 't is only his own thought and his own vertue and good temper of Mind that make him a Happy Man for all this and without this he may Cheat others but he can never deceive himself these are inward and close to his Mind and indiscernible to any one but himself the other are all external and loose like Scenes and Pictures looking fine at a distance but if we come near 'em 't is all gross daubing they cannot yield us that Enjoyment and Happiness that we vainly fancy and expect in 'em and whilst we imagine we embrace what we can wish it proves but a thin Cloud and Air and very often what the wise Man found it who had made as many Experiments about worldly Happiness as any Man did Vanity and Vexation of Sptrit and therefore not worth so much passion and concern to attain 'em nor fit that we should lay out our Money for that which is not Bread and our labour for that which satissieth not Isai 55.2 for windy and empty trash rather than for that solid food which will nourish and feed and feast 'em to all Eternity 2. Whenever there is a Competition between those and we cannot secure both that we part with the Earthly rather than the Heavenly when we do an ill thing in order to our worldly interest when a Bargain will not go off unless it be voucht with a downright lye nor an Estate be got without open Knavery or some underhand slight and secret injustice nor a great Place or Preferment be obtained unless we venture upon some thing that is mean and shamefull and dishonest then to scorn to do a base thing for any advantage and to prefer Honesty and Conscience before Gain or Greatness this is to value the Heavenly more than the Earthly Treasures this shows we love Vertue for it self when we choose that alone not for its present dowry or portion but for its own sake and what we may expect hereafter and will not forsake it for all the offers that the World can make This indeed is the true gage of our Affections the true way to measure our love to these worldly things and know whether it be too great and immoderate or no if we will be guilty of the least Sin or Injustice in order to the getting Money or growing Rich if we will wrong the Orphan or cheat the Widow whose Estate is entrusted to us if we will break our promise and deny our word when it would be some loss to us to perform it and avoid a Just debt upon some little trick or legal nicety or do any thing for our Interest that comports not with fair dealing with equity and an honest mind why this shews that we have too great a love and value for these Earthly things when we are taken so with the tempting Charms of 'em that if we cannot fairly court 'em to our Embraces we will commit a Rape upon 'em and force 'em some way or other into our possession When Naboth's Vineyard looks so pleasant and beautifull that Ahab will purchase it tho' at the hard rate of Perjury and false-Witness when we had rather part with our Vertue and violate our
need it or make use of it for tho' the goodness of it be never so great yet 't is but in order to an end which is to recover health that was lost and to restore us to that soundness that we wanted 'T is the great Mercy of God and the great Grace and Favour of the Gospel and the great Purchase of Christ's Blood to have the Privilege of Repentance granted to Sinners in so large and full a manner so as to be restored to God's Favour and reconciled to him upon their return as if they had never offended him to have all the guilt and punishment of their past Sins wholly taken off as if they had never committed them to be recti in curia pardoned and in as good state as if they had been always Innocent This should mightily encourage and prevail upon Sinners to Repent and leave their Sins when they are sure of this as they are by the Gospel When tho' their Sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow tho they were red like Crimson they should be as Wool as the Evangelical Prophet speaks Isai 1.18 i. e. tho' they were sins of the deepest Die or highest Nature yet they should be wholly done away and forgiven upon true Repentance from which no Person is excluded How must this encourage the greatest Sinners if they have any sense of Religion or another World left upon 'em to come off from their Sins how comfortable must it be to a poor wretch lying under the sense of his own guilt and the fears and horrors of his own Conscience and the dread of God's Judgments and of Eternal Misery to have these glad Tydings proclaimed to him how will this revive his desponding Soul and chear his sunk Spirit and like a pardon brought to a Condemned Malefactor in the Cart or upon the Gibbet restore him to life and to unspeakable joy and gladness Now this is offered to every Sinner by the Gospel if he repent and turn from his Sins however great they have been and lead a new life and become a new Man and a new Creature before he dies What can be desired more by any reasonable Creature or what more can God offer Would any desire to live and go on in his Sins and yet be forgiven This is for God to give up his Laws his Government and to grant a Liberty to his Creatures to be Rebellious and Disobedient and have no Check or Controul upon them 't is the utmost a good God can grant or a wicked man can desire to be pardoned upon his Repentance and Amendment but his Repenting and Amending is with sorrow for what is past doing his duty for the future as he ought always to have done it performing that Obedience which he ought always to have performed and now this is the best thing next to the having done it and performed it always but it can by no means be thought to be so good as that Repenting is like a Man's setting up again that was once broke and compounding with his Creditors and paying a part he owed them instead of the whole God is pleased to accept of the broken and after-obedience of a Sinner for some part of his Life instead of that entire and unbroken one which is due from him all his life 'T is God's great Grace and Mercy to do this and what he is no way obliged to for he might have damned us for every willfull sin and never have pardoned us tho' we had afterwards Repented of it this is meer free Grace which we owe to Christ and the Gospel and God was no way obliged to it either in Justice or by his natural Goodness but he might have denied it to mankind as he has done to other of his Creatures the Devils and the fallen Angels but still the design of God in granting us this Favour and this mighty privilege by the Gospel is to encourage us to Obedience to perswade us to leave our Sins and to bring us to true Holiness and Goodness of Life when we have been faulty and defective in these before 't is not to encourage us in our Sins or give us any Licence or Dispensation to commit 'em because we may Repent of them this is a horrid abuse and perverting the Grace of the Gospel and turning it into Wantonness and Looseness but the End and Design of all this is to make those good men who have been Sinners to make those Obedient who have been Disobedient either in general or any instance Now therefore 't is much better to have been always thus to have been always Good and always Obedient thro' the whole course of our lives this is the best thing and the very same End more fully and perfectly attained this is designed by Repentance As Health is the design of taking Physick and to be well and sound of using Remedies and Medicines and those who are always healthfull and always sound and always well are in a much better condition than those who stand in need of a Cure tho' it be never so certain and infallible 2. I speak this all the while of Repentance from great and wilfull sins from a habit of them in our lives or at least a voluntary practice of them at some time or other and this Repentance I hope there are many that need not who were never ill persons all their lives nor ever guilty of any such one great and mortal sin as should put them into an ill and damnable state and exclude them out of Heaven had they died I speak not now of the ill state of all mankind by the fall or by our original Corruption and Depravation for that is took off by Christ the second Adam and we are put into a good state by the Gospel and by our Baptism so that no Man is in any danger of Damnation but upon his committing some wilfull and known sins such as the Scripture declares are damnable and exclude from Heaven He therefore that has been free from those tho' not free from all sins which no man is or can be all his life no not in his best state but some Infirmity some Imperfection some sin of Frailty or Ignorance or Surprize will beset him He I say that has lived free from all wilfull known sins and not allowed himself in any voluntary breach of God's Laws tho' he has not kept them so perfectly and exactly as he ought to do but has always had a regard to Religion and his Duty and never violated them in any great instance he was always a Child of God and never forfeited that Title he was never a Prodigal and run away from his Father's house nor wasted his Substance in Riotous living but like the dutifull and elder Son always served his Father neither at any time transgress'd his Commandments He never wandered out of the paths of Vertue nor never let his steps take hold of death he never defil'd his Virgin Innocence nor sullied
and to all the Actions of this life we cannot think there is then an end of our being hardly any of mankind ever thought so our own thoughts tell us otherwise and Revelation assures us to the contrary and we have as much Evidence as we can have till we come thither as is consistent with Faith and comes not up to Sense We cannot then but be very sollicitous what shall become of our naked Souls when they are stript of these fleshly Bodies and what condition they shall be in in the other world We know in general how different the state is there there are Joys unspeakable on the one hand and Torments intolerable on the other and according as we believe the greatness and reality of both those so must we be concerned about this question How we shall be saved That is how we shall obtain the one and avoid the other We are very carefull here to make a short life that we know will quickly be at an end as Comfortable and Happy as we can We toil and drudge and contrive all we can to acquire the few good things that belong to it and to keep off those evils that are uneasie to us and yet when we have done all we can never hope to be perfectly Happy here and our utmost attainment can be only this that we be but less miserable we rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefullness rather than suffer want and poverty and we are at infinite pains and trouble to gain an Estate that we must quickly leave and whilst we have it we are not more happy perhaps less content than we were before we are very carefull to keep up our crazy Bodies in good repair tho' we know they must quickly decay and fall into the dust A Disease alarms us and we are concerned at the warning of death and are willing to endure almost any thing to prevent it that its a Suffering a greater Martyrdom for this life than ever Christian did for another but how much greater reason have we to be concerned for our future state that life is never to have any end and so we shou'd be more carefull about it it 's to continue to Eternity and what it once is it 's to be ever the same if it be happy it 's so unalterably without danger of changing and if it be miserable it 's irreversibly so without any hopes of relief Oh wonderfull state how is this life a shadow a dream a vapour a bubble a vanishing Nothing in respect of the other it deserves not a thought nor is it worth a thousandth part of that care the other is how foolish are we then to labour so much for a moment of our being and not be more concerned for an endless duration of it But the greatness of the thing is as considerable as the continuance the things we are saved from are the greatest and terriblest evils we can possibly suffer the utmost torments of Mind and Body despair and horror and a dreadfull sense of Divine Anger and Vengeance and all the terrible apprehensions that guilt within and punishment without can bring upon a Soul that can have nothing else to fly to and that must suffer greater torment day and night without intermission than we can have now any conception of Fire and Brimstone and Chains of darkness and a never dying worm are but lesser representations of the unspeakable misery in the other World and who is it that dreads a nights pain under a tormenting despair that knows the torments of a troubled mind or has but tasted the gall and bitterness of a Melancholick humour who would not be infinitely concern'd how he may be sav'd from what we mean by Hell and Damnation and what would not the hopes of Heaven when they are joyned with those fears make us farther do when the one is to fright us from the greatest evil and the most perfect misery and the other at the same time holds out and invites us to the greatest Happiness to endless Pleasures and Joy unspeakable Who that does not either secretly dis-believe or never consider of this would not think it the greatest Question in the World what shall I do to be saved And who would not do all he can and use all means that are in his power to this purpose Who would refuse any pains or labour to accomplish this great End Who would stick at any difficulty that he was able to overcome and surmount to gain this point this greatest point of his own Eternal Salvation Had God required us to have toiled all our lives in the most wearisom drudgery and to have spent all our days in the hardest slavery had he made Religion the greatest burden and uneasiness in the World in order to the attaining of this yet what Wise man would not have thought it worth his while to have endured it and gone through it Had he commanded us to deny every Appetite to have offered violence to every inclination to have stifl'd every natural desires and renounced all the Gratifications and Enjoyments of the Animal life had he obliged us to quit all the comforts of this World and to have retir'd into a barren Wilderness or a Melancholick Cloister and there have worn out our lives in the severest Exercises of Fasting and Mortification or to have made them one continued station one constant course of Penance and Devotion all this would have been much more tolerable than to have endured the far greater Evils and Miseries of another World tho but for a little time and for much less than half so long as this life and therefore a thousand times more so than to suffer a miserable Eternity What shall we think then of God's requiring no such hard things at our hands nothing but what is far less than any of those nothing that is extreamly hard or mighty difficult or very burdensome and uneasie to us nothing but what is truly comfortable and delightfull if we rightly understood it and what tends to our present Good Ease and Comfort Interest and Advantage even in this life as well as another God puts no such hard conditions upon us as those I mention'd but we may be saved hereafter and yet enjoy at present all the comforts and good things of this World that a Wise Man would desire Religion debars us of none of them so far as they are Innocent and Lawfull that is so far as they are not Evil and Mischievous to us and plainly Destructive both of our own good and the good of the World There is no natural good forbidden to us nor any inclination to be denied any farther than it is foolish and unreasonable and exceeds the bounds of Wisdom and Virtue nor has God restrained us from any thing but what like the forbidden fruit is poysonous as well as pleasant and it 's not the pleasantness but the poyson is the true reason why it is forbidden so that our
future Happiness is very consistent with our present and true Godliness may inherit the promises of this life as well as of another as the Scriptures assure us â— Tim. 4.8 It is not necessary to part with our present Happiness in order to the purchasing the Reversion of that in Heaven tho' if it were it would be great gain and advantage to us there is but one instance in Religion wherein this is to be done and that is in suffering persecution for Christ's sake and the Gospels in quitting all our Worldly Interests for the sake of Conscience and Religion and rather endure any evils here than to renounce Christ or any true part of Christianity this indeed is bearing the Cross and is the only hard part of Religion for which there shall be an abundant recompense hereafter and the hopes and expectations of that with the present Comfort and Satisfaction of Mind takes off from the burden and uneasiness of it and tho' without hopes of another life Christians might be of all Men most miserable in this when they fall under those Circumstances as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 15.19 yet with those hopes they are far from being so but with exception to that particular case which does not often happen Religion at the same time secures to us the greatest Happiness of this life as well as another and without losing any one Comfort or true Enjoyment of this World we may make sure of the next We may therefore put that question to our selves which is something like to that which Naaman's Servants put to him 2 Kings 5.13 Had God bid us do some great thing that we might be saved would we not have done it how much rather then when he bids us do nothing else in order to this but what is very reasonable and what tends to our Good here as well as our Salvation hereafter We must be therefore very bad judges of our own interest and very little understand that and so be very regardless of our selves as well as very ungratefull to the great God if we do not comply with whatever he has Wisely and Graciously appointed us in order to our Salvation What that is I shall now briefly consider and so give the true resolution to this question What shall I do to be saved And it is not very hard to resolve it God has not made it any difficult or abstruse thing to understand but the meanest Christian may easily comprehend it it 's not a Secret reserved only for the Wife and Learned but the poorest Soul if it be but sincere and honest may come to the true knowledge of it and there is hardly any without it tho' it may lie less clear and distinct in their thoughts Natural light teaches all men that such and such Actions are displeasing to God and that those who commit them shall be punished hereafter There is no Man who is guilty of any great wickedness but he finds some inward apprehensions of this in his own Mind and his own Conscience directs him in great measure what he must do to be faved but Revelation has made this so plain and evident that a Man must use great Art to deceive himself if he ever mistake it to believe the Gospel and live according to it is so plain a path-way to Heaven that there is no Christian but must see it and if he thinks of any other he cannot but know that he cheats himself and willfully puts a trick upon his own Soul St. Paul here told tho Jailor That he must believe on the Lord Jesu Christ and he should be saved v. 31. but this belief which is made the condition and means of Salvation must include all that which is consequent and ought to follow from such a belief all that Obedience to the Laws of Christ and that Repentance for past Sins and Newness and Holiness of life which is made as plain and indispensible a condition of Salvation as Faith it self and therefore St. Peter in answer to the same question to those who were greatly concern'd and prick'd in heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts. 2.37 answered Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Christ for the remission of sins Believing and embracing Christianity was the only way for a Jew or a Heathen to be saved and to have remission of Sins and when St. Peter bids them Repent and St. Paul bids them Believe they mean the same thing Faith is the first great Principle and Foundation of Repentance and all Christian Vertues and therefore as including and containing all those it is made the condition of our being saved by a Metonymy whereby the cause comprehends also the effect Faith in Scripture is not taken only for an assent to another's Words or a trust in them but it denotes a principle that worketh by love and is manifest by good works without which the Scripture expresly says it is dead and then it must be a strange mistake to make a bare faith the condition of our Justification and Salvation It is to be observed and I think it may be a little usefull to clear that matter that when Faith and Believing is made the only condition of being saved and nothing else is mention'd this is always spoken to those who were not yet Christians or Believers as when Christ says John 3.15 Whosoever believeth on the Son of Man shall not perish but have everlasting Life This is spoken to Nicodemus who then exprest his dis-belief of Christ's words and was not brought fully to believe in him tho' he was disposed for it So John 6.40 when Christ saith This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life This is spoken to the Jews who murmured at Christ and were far from believing in him and so Christ bid the Apostles preach this to the unbelieving World Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 i.e. Believing and Professing Christianity puts them into a salvable state and if they live according to this faith they shall certainly be saved as if we should say to a person who desires to know how he may be a Scholar Go to School or to the University this would put him into a certain way to Learning but he must not only be entred and enrolled there but he must study and read and do such things as belong to a Scholar When St. Peter bid the Jews and St. Paul the Jailor to believe and they should be saved they were such as yet had not embrac'd Christianity and Faith was the only means to bring them to that and so put them into a salvable state which ordinarily they cou'd not be in without it but then they must do all those other things which belong to Christians after they are brought to believe or else they wou'd lose and forfeit this their good state and therefore when Christ
speaks to his Disciples who already believ'd in him and St. Paul writes to those who were already Christians or Believers they then tell them not only of Faith which is the first Christian Vertue and the root of all the rest but of Obedience and all good works of living as becometh the Gospel and of adorning their profession with all manner of Vertues which they make as necessary to Salvation as Faith it self Thus if ye keep my Commandments saith Christ ye shall abide in my love John 15.10 and Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you v. 14. and Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord or that meerly believeth in me shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that does the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 So said St. Paul to the Corinthians Circumcision is nothing nor Vncircumcision but the keeping the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19 and to the Galatians in Christ Jesus i. e. in the Christian Religion neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature chap. 6. v. 15. that is a new temper of mind and habit of Life for by the Gospel the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Romans 1.19 and when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels he will take Vengeance on all them that obey not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord 2. Thess 1.8 9. and those Christians who do any such works of the Flesh as are mentioned Gal. 5.19 21. shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but for the sake of those the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience Colos 3.6 tho' they do believe in Christ and have made profession of his Religion It is therefore as requisite for such to live according to all the Laws of the Gospel as it was at first to believe in Christ that they may be saved What a Christian therefore who already believes in Christ and owns his Religion to be true and what we who all do this should further do to be saved and to make sure of Heaven I shall in one general Advice direct to and that is this That we never allow our selves to live in any one known sin that we never willfully violate any Law of the Gospel nor suffer our selves in the Custom of any thing that we know is unlawfull he that does that is in a dangerous and desperate condition and is uncapable of being saved by the Terms of the Gospel for tho' that allows pardon for every sin we repent of yet it allows none to any one of those we do not repent of but live in and therefore as we value our Salvation let no darling Sin nor beloved Lust nor any the most profitable or pleasing Wickedness whatsoever be indulged or continued in by us it 's as much as our Souls are worth if we do for every willfull habit of sin does most certainly exclude and shut us out of the Kingdom of Heaven without timely Repentance and Amendment if we have therefore been ever guilty of any such and so have forfeited Heaven and our own Souls and made our selves liable to Eternal Wrath and Damnation let us endeavour with all speed to recover our selves out of that sad state and to snatch our Souls out of the Jaws of Hell and from the very brink of perdition and let us bless God that he affords us both time and means and power to do this and when we have Emerged out of that wretched Condition let us not throw our selves into it again by any new Sins but let us ever after avoid that rock where we were like to have split and let us spend all the remainder of our lives in perfecting our Repentance and in bringing forth fruits worthy of it and in a constant and unbroken and uninterrupted obedience to all the Laws of Christianity so shall we approve our selves to God and our own Consciences so shall we have good grounds of Peace and Comfort while we live and so shall we be certainly saved when we come to die which God of his infinite mercy grant unto us The Seventh Sermon JOB XXVIII 28. And unto Man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is Vnderstanding THE Fear of the Lord is a phrase often used in Scripture to express all Religion by and 't is indeed the true Principle and Foundation of it for whoever has an awfull sense and belief of a Being above him and a just dread of his Almighty Power upon his Mind will take care to avoid all those things that he knows are displeasing to him and to perform all those duties which shall procure his favour and be acceptable to him for all our Happiness depends upon his Pleasure and he can make us miserable when we anger and provoke him Every one tho' he may have lost the sense of love either of God or Religion and the desire of Spiritual and Heavenly Happiness and may be sunk into such a state as to have no great relish of those things yet may have the sense of fear strong upon him and may be greatly affected with what he thinks may destroy and ruin and make him miserable and therefore fear is the strongest and most powerfull passion and the most deeply rooted in humane nature for it arises from a Natural love of our selves and a care and desire of our own self-preservation and every Man has this in him tho' he has no higher or nobler principles of Vertue and Religion and therefore 't is the Character of the most deplorably wretched and wicked Creatures that they have no fear of God before their Eyes Ps 36.1 Sometimes the love of God sometimes the fear of God sometimes the knowledge of God the belief of God is made to express the whole of Religion and the sum of our duty because where one of these is there are all the rest in some degree or other and they cannot be separated or divided for he that believes a God and knows him to be as he is a Being of infinite Power and of infinite Goodness must fear him and love him too his power makes him an object of fear and keeps us from offending him and his Goodness makes him an object of love and so both those do the same thing and as different causes yet concur to the same effect and all Vertue and Religion is produced by them and owes its being and original to them for without respect to God there can be no such thing as Vertue and Religion and where there is a true fear of him there they will always be as necessarily conjoin'd as effects are to their causes and therefore by an usual Metonymy the one is put for the other And this Vertue and Religion which is thus founded in the
fear of God is the greatest and truest Wisdom in the World he is the Wisest man who is the most Vertuous and Religious and he is the greatest Fool who lives Vitiously and Irreligiously and without the fear of God the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom or the first and chief Wisdom and the Foundation of all other a good understanding have all they that do his Commands i. e. they are the truly wise Men who live Vertuously and Religiously and they Fools who live Vitiously and Wickedly Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is Vnderstanding There is no greater blemish contempt or imputation upon any Man than that he is a Fool and that he acts as such in whatever he does for it supposes the utmost decay and depravation of his Nature the loss of his Reason and that he wants that which makes us to be Men and is the proper perfection of our Being which is Wisdom and Understanding It will therefore greatly recommend and be for the honour of Religion if that appears to be the greatest and only Wisdom and it will justly reproach and expose Vice and Wickedness if that be made out to be nothing else but folly in the highest degree which I shall therefore endeavour at this time 1. First then Religion proposes and attains and secures the greatest End the chief Good and utmost Happiness that we can desire or are capable of and this is the truest part of Wisdom whereas Vice has but low and mean Ends such as are below the excellency of our Nature and are so far from promoting our Happiness that they defeat and destroy it all beings indeed aim at their own Happiness and have a blind and general design to compass and attain it self-preservation is a principle lies at the root of our Beings and we cannot chuse open and bare-fac'd misery but Vice and Wickedness takes down the poyson that is a little Guilded over and swallows the fatal hook that is baited with an appearing pleasure or profit and Men are led away in the dark and deluded with a shadow till they are brought into the deepest misery Vice proposes either bodily and sensual pleasure or worldly gain or some such present End and Design to be its greatest Happiness but alas it often loses those and Vertue and Religion picks up what the other drops and le ts go and secures those by ends a thousand times better than Vice does whilst it looks yet further and still aims at greater ends and a more true and compleat Happiness than any of those can yield to it for what is the most gustfull and luscious sensuality of body to an unquiet and uneasie and disturbed Mind Is not that worm of Conscience that gnaws it within and is bred from the filth and putrefaction of its own sins a greater torment than all the pleasures of sense can make amends for And what could a Man hope for if by his wickedness he could gain the whole world which yet many have even lost by it if thereby he loses his Soul the peace and quiet of it here and its Eternal felicity hereafter All the ends we can aim at and all the objects we can wish and desire are very little and inconsiderable without Religion and such are all the things and enjoyments of this World but Religion has great and noble aims and designs to make our Minds as well as our Bodies pleased and easie and to give a pleasure and satisfaction infinitely above the highest bodily delights which the Brutes are capable of as well as we to perfect and improve and fit our Souls for the greatest pleasure and happiness here and for that which is endless and unspeakable hereafter and to see this more particularly let 's consider 2. Secondly that all Ends and Designs but those of Religion are consined only to this World whereas those of Religion reach beyond this to a never ending Eternity how little and short and narrow are all the poor designs we can have here when in the compass of a few years they all cease and perish and come to an end when but a small time hence they shall be as useless and insignificant as if we had never been or ne'er had any of them Death which we all expect and which will certainly come in a little time whether we expect it of no puts a speedy end and conclusion to all other projects and designs but those of Virtue and Religion it covers all worldly Pomp and Grandeur with a cloud of night and darkness and draws a sable mantle over all it's glistering and shining vanity its honours lie here buried in the dust it's riches take leave of it at the Grave and all its bodily pleasures are exchanged for stench and noy fomness and its greatest strength and beauty is turned into weakness and gastliness This mortifying consideration should one would think make this World and every thing in it be very contemptible and all ends and designs but those of Virtue and Religion which teach beyond this World to be very poor and little and inconfiderable for like a Dream they are all quickly past and gone and when we awake into another World into a better and more substantial life all these images and shadows and fancies of happiness will then vanish and disappear and we shall be no more affected with them than with a last nights dream or the past visions of slumber and imagination but then Religion and Vertue will stand us in stead then they and a good Conscience will stick by us and attend and bear us Company into the other World and there we shall meet with those Ends and Designs which Religion has proposed to us and our greatest hopes and wishes shall be turned into greater fruition and enjoyment then a long Eternity shall reward and recompense our short Labours here and we shall never lose or be depriv'd of that great End and compleat Happiness which Religion recommended and directed us to Vice with all its delights is but for a very little time and the pleasures of sin are enjoy'd but for a Season Heb. 11.25 Men not only lose those and be for ever depriv'd of the End it aimed at but shall receive its sad and miserable portion laid up for it and be eternally tormented with unexpressible misery And what extream Folly will it then be found to have pursued no other End nor aimed at no other Happiness but that of this World which is so soon gone and at an end and for the sake of that to have exposed it self to a misery that shall never have end to have preferr'd a present moment before an endless Eternity and to gain some poor and little Ends here which yet are often lost rather than attain'd by Mens Vices to lose Heaven and everlasting Happiness 3. Religion and Virtue secure the Comfort and Happiness of this life as well as of another much better than Vice
and Irreligion so that here is the extream folly of Wickedness that whilst its dosigns are confined to this World and 〈◊〉 aims at the present pleasure 〈…〉 and good things of this life it loses even those and misses of that present Comfort and Happiness which is a thousand times more likely to be met with in the ways of Virtue and Religion than in a life of Vice and Wickedness for as the one deprives us of no real pleasure or proper enjoyment fit for a wise Man but rather sweetens them and enhances their relish by keeping them Pure and Innocent and free from the filth and bitterness that Vice mixes with them so wickedness brings a great many evils and mischiefs upon it self here and most Mens Vices make them miserable in this life as well as in another Godliness says Saint Paul is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 and it was the wise Mans observation long before that the most desirable blessings of this life belong to Wisdom and Religion Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3.16 whereas nothing does more generally shorten Men's days than Vice and Debauchery and though those Men value nothing so much as life yet they prodigally squander it away and spend it too fast and consume it upon their Lust and their Lewdness and these make shipwrack of their Estates as well as of their Consciences and bring Poverty and Beggery very often along with them so that the ruined Fortunes of most Men are owing to their vitious and ill Courses and they are undone by their Vices here as well as hereafter an indelible Character of shame and reproach is hereby fixed to their Name and Memory which stains and blemishes their Repute and Credit among Men and their mind reproaches and smites them from within and they feel most of the outward and inward evils which are the most grievous and uneasie to us in this life So that besides the misery in Reversion which is due to them and unavoidable there is a present one which they seldom escape but generally befalls them so foolish are they whose fondness to their Sins makes them hug and embrace them though they at the same time Wound and Poyson them so infatuated are they and almost fascinated by them that they stick to them though to their manifest ruin and against their plainest interest and make themselves such Martyrs and Confessors to their Vices that as they wear their scars always about them so they will endure any thing for their sakes and make their way to Hell through the greatest sufferings and evils that their sins bring upon them here 4. Roligion is the truest Wisdom as it best provides against all the Accidents and Contingencies of this uncertain world and against all the infirmities of our present state and nature A good man may not be secure here that he shall not come into the same misfortune and be plagued like other Men either with some Affliction or Sickness or other common Calamity which the greatest Vertue and Religion may be no protection against but the same chance may happen both to the Sinner and to the Righteous and without respect either to their Vice or to their Virtue a Disease or a Misfortune a Loss or a Trouble may come upon either of them which nothing can keep off or prevent in this uncertain state but here Religion gives us the best relief and stands us in the greatest stead and is the most usefull to us it takes care as we may say of the main chance and makes the best provision for whatever may or can befall us it supports and revives our drooping Spirits under any afflictions of this world with the cheering thoughts of a Heaven above us and a Providence over us and the gladsom reflections of a good Conscience within us and a Comfortable trust in a good God without us whereas when any of the troubles and misfortunes of life fall on a wicked Man he has nothing to keep up his mind under them but they sink and crush him into the utmost despair and disconsolateness and he has no whither to fly for ease and comfort sad and miserable must be his case who when his body is sick and uneasie has his mind so too and feels as much anguish and anxiety in the one as he does pain in the other when his body is under the strugglings and agonies of death has his Mind and Conscience under greater and when he sees death come up behind him sees Hell open before him as ready to devour and swallow him up Tho' nothing can secure us against one of these yet Religion does against the other which is ten times the greatest and so in all other the unavoidable accidents and misfortunes of this worldly state Religion does wisely prepare and provide against them and make the best defence and security for us against all the dangers that may in this hazardous world come upon us and without this a man lies always open to every uncertain accident and shall be miserable at every turn of Fortune and shall have no Happiness but what shall be at the will and pleasure of outward Contingencies and shall have no soundation or root of Happiness within himself which nothing but Religion and Vertue can ever give him 5. Religion makes us wise for our selves and for things of the greatest importance and concern to us makes us wise unto Salvation which is the only true Wisdom that deserves so to be called or accounted for 't is a Wisdom salsely so called and no other than great folly to be wise about all other things wise in our Notions and Apprehensions and Judgments of things wise in the Managery and Conduct of all our outward Affairs wise in searching the policies and fathoming the most cunning Intrigues wise in the greatest Mysteries of Knowledge and researches of Learning so that both our selves and others applaud us for our great Wisdom and yet be a Fool in what is more valuable and more concerning to us a thousand times which is the everlasting Salvation of our immortal Souls He that is not so wise as to take care of that is with all his other Wisdom the worst of Fools and Mad Men and more void of common Prudence and Discretion than he that while he pretends to understand the great secret of being Rich and turning all into Gold yet is Poor and a Beggar or like him in a Frenzy who thought himself an Emperor and to have the greatest Territories and Dominions when he had only a Chain and a little Straw or him who while he was viewing the Stars and observing the Heavens above him did not mind his way but fell into a Pit 6. I shall show the Wisdom of Religion from the two causes of sin and wickedness which are only two sorts of folly and
weakness of mind The first is heedlesness rashness and inconsideration the other is infidelity and ignorance or inapprehensiveness of the truth of things All Irreligion is owing to these two Causes for either Men do not mind and consider as they ought to do those principles of Religion which they own and believe as that there is a Heaven and a Hell and an Eternal state of Bliss and Misery after this Life so as to let these have that full force and influence which they ought to have upon their minds or else they do not really believe and apprehend those to be true which are both high degrees of Folly and proceed from a great defect of Understanding and want of Wisdom As to the first of these what can be a grosser folly than to act contrary to those principles which we own and allow to believe that there is a God and that the Soul is immortal and yet to live as if there were no God and as if there were no other Life but this This is certainly the most desperate folly and madness to run upon the greatest danger that we see evidently before us and to leap into Hell with our eyes open when Men do really believe they shall be damn'd for a wicked and ill life and yet still continue in their sins 'T is folly one would think even to the height of distraction to live thus contrary to their belief and let their principles and their actions thus disagree and to condemn themselves in their acting contrary to their own knowledge belief and understanding in a matter which is of so great moment and concern as they must acknowledge this to be Of the two the other one would think were more excusable who do not believe these things tho' that is great ignorance and folly for 't is dis-believing that which all mankind have in all Ages believed in some degree or other and which we have as much reason to believe as we can have if the thing were never so true and certain and which it is impossible we should ever know or have any reason to believe to be false and which if it were only doubtfull and but meerly probable or indeed possible yet a wise Man would not run a great hazard or venture upon it but would take care to save and secure himself against the worst and utmost possibilities that might happen I shall not now consider the great weakness and folly of infidelity against the clearest reason and evidence and the utmost demonstration the thing is capable of and requiring more than a thing of that nature can have nor how Religion is Wisdom as being established upon the greatest foundations of truth and certainty 'T is the other folly that of inconsideration by which most men perish by not attending to the power and force of those truths which they do believe but rashly and inconsiderately following the career of their Lusts and violence of their Inclinations against the reason and belief of their Minds and the conviction of their Judgment and Understanding for could any Man that seriously consider'd and believ'd an everlasting state of rewards and punishments and let his mind duly attend and be affected with those considerations which he really believes to be true could he be wicked without the greatest folly and madness and can it appear to be any other than the most foolish and unreasonable thing in the World to believe all those great and important things which Religion teaches us and yet to live as if we believed none of them This is such unaccountable folly as wants a name and can have nothing to palliate or excuse it Indeed a wicked life is the greatest folly in the World and appears to all to be so upon reflection and a little serious consideration no body but repents of it afterwards and is sorry for it one time or other tho' perhaps it be too late and when he cannot retrieve or amend it unless he be stupified and hardned and have lost the use of his Judgment and Understanding which is a plain owning it to be Folly and Unadvisedness even upon Tryal and Experience and a wishing they had done better and that they had been much wiser No Man Repents of his having done Vertuously and lived Religiously but is pleased and satisfied in himself upon his reflecting upon it which shows that he acted wisely and prudently but the direfull agonies and sad reflections and horrors and disquiets that a Man feels in his mind upon his having liv'd wickedly shows the height of his folly and how he is forc'd to condemn himself for it and to bewail and lament his extream weakness and madness and this is truly Hell when he must do so to all Eternity then I am sure it will appear whatever it does now that Vice and Wickedness is the greatest folly and that Vertue and Religion are the true and only Wisdom and that what the Psalmist says is true The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom The Eighth Sermon ROM XII 21. Be not overcome of Evil but overcome Evil with Good IT is a question with some whether Christ have added any thing to the law of nature or requir'd any higher and more perfect Vertues than are founded in that As for the Law of Moses he has taken away the Ritual and Ceremonial part of it and as to the Moral he has cleared it from the false glosses and corruptions and errors of the Scribes and Pharisees who had expounded it into a meaning contrary to the true sense and intention of the Law for that to be sure coming from God cou'd have nothing immoral in it and therefore whatever corrections were made by our Saviour were only of the perverse and corrupt interpretations of others and not of the Law it self But whether he has not added any new and more perfect Laws both to the Law of Moses and that of Nature and required higher instances of Vertue of us Christians than of the rest of mankind is a great question On the one side it seems more for the honour of Christ and his Religion in which there are some nobler precepts that excell any that are to be met with in any other Moralist as against Lust and Revenge for loving Enemies and not retaliating injuries and the like On the other side if Christ has added any new Laws not founded in nature they must be meerly positive and alterable and not have any natural or intrinsick good in them but be owing to the mere Arbitrary will of God and not to the original settlement and constitution of things for if they have a foundation either in the nature of God or the nature of things they cannot be new and so added to those of nature but I think this Controversie may be thus compounded and resolved that those Laws though they were founded in nature and had a natural and intrinsick and eternal Goodness in them as all moral Vertues have yet
good for sinners as to send his own Son Christ into the World to die for us even when we were Enemies to him and to God that made us We then that had perished for ever had it not been for this Vertue how should we love and value it and endeavour to imitate it and deal with our Brethren as God dealt with us What an example of this our Savlour has left appears by his whole life which was a perpetual suffering of injuries and doing of good and especially at his death when he pray'd for his Enemies and being reviled he reviled not again but as a sheep led to the slaughter he was dumb and opened not his mouth unless to pray for those who barbarously used and murdered him and in this he left us an example that we should follow his steps But Fifthly and Lastly This is not a mere Christian perfection and a Noble Heroical degree of Virtue which it's matter of advice to attain but it 's a necessary Christian duty without which we shall not go to Heaven nor be capable of Pardon and Salvation at the hands of God If we revenge the injuries that are done to us God will not forgive us the sins we commit against him he has expresly told us so Matth. 6.15 Mark 11.26 Luke 6.37 and that with the same measure we mete to others it shall be measured to us again even by God in another World who will show himself mercifull to those that are mercifull and froward to those who are froward and to those who are revengefull and inexorable to their Brethren he will be so too when they stand in more need of mercy and forgiveness than any of their Brethren can at any time do of them What are the degrees and measures of exercising this Virtue I cannot now exactly show you but in general to forgive an injury and not return it by another to overcome it not with evil but with good is so much a duty to every Christian that he shall not come to Heaven who does not in some measure perform it and who notoriously and plainly acts contrary to it Let us therefore for the present Peace of our Lives for the quiet of our Minds and for the everlasting Peace and Happiness of our Souls endeavour to learn this Virtue and not be overcome of evil but overcome evil with good The Ninth Sermon LUKE XVI 31. And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead AMongst all the many Arguments that there are for Religion and to perswade men to a good life there are none so strong and so forcible if well consider'd as those which are drawn from another World and from a future state of rewards and punishments There are indeed a great many that lie near and arise from several other considerations from the tendency of Religion to make us happy in this World from the miserable effects that most Vices have upon Men's Fortunes and Enjoyments from the natural and intrinsick Goodness and Amiableness that is in Virtue and Religion whereby it recommends it self to our minds and the abominable filthiness and ugliness that is in Vice and it's contrariety to right reason as well as our true interest by these and many other considerations Religion is strengthened on every side and planted round with such Arguments as are enough to defend it from most of the assaults that Vice and Wickedness can make upon it But its strongest Hold its main Fort wherein lies its greatest and impregnable strength is the thoughts of another World of a Heaven and a Hell hereafter this will hold out if all the other should fail and if Vice should be never so Fortunate and Happy as it sometimes is in this World if Wickedness should have as many Prizes as Virtue in this Lottery of things that is here below yet there it would be sure to be the loser and could have no pretences to vye and contend with Religion there the account between 'em appears manifestly and notoriously different without adjusting it by particulars and making such abatements as we must often in this World This is a plain and obvious an universal and undoubted and one would think an irresistible Argument for Religion that depends not upon long reasonings and many observations as some others do but may be easily understood and will strongly work upon all mankind and therefore the Scripture does chiefly make use of it and every where presses and suggests it to us as the strongest sanction of the Divine Law and that which is the likeliest to prevail upon us when 't is fully believed and considered The Rich Man here in the Parable thought there was so much strength in it now that he selt it that he question'd not but it would prevail even upon his wicked Brethren if it were offered with all its advantage to 'em if one went from the dead and told 'em what he suffered and what they would certainly do if they took not care in time not to come into that place of torment and therefore he seems to have picht upon the likeliest way for this when he requested Abraham that a Messenger might be sent from the dead to 'em if that might be granted by the Laws and Polity of the other World there was no doubt sure but it would attain the effect and bring 'em to Repentance such a Message as he would send 'em such an account of things in the other World as he would give them should surely work strangely upon 'em and make 'em amend their lives This he made no question of for had it been his own case were he to have lived again after he knew so much as he did now he would have been quite another man and so should his Brethren one would think by such a way as this was but Abraham tells him the quite contrary If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rise from the dead This seems very strange and will do much more so when we consider particularly what Arguments a Messenger from the dead would bring along with him to perswade a man to Repentarce such as it is impossible sure not to be overcome by them such as if they will not do nothing else will I shall offer some of them to you and then endeavour to give you an account of what Abraham here says If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead And First let us consider what strong and powerfull Arguments a Messenger from the dead would bring along with him to perswade a wicked man to Repentance and in the 1. First place he would satisfie him of the truth and certainty of such a place that there is really a future state that there is not an end of us when we go off from this Worldly Stage and Theatre but that there is
another life to succeed this wherein we shall receive as we have behaved our selves here That the Soul when it is releas'd from the Body and puts on a thinner and a lighter Vehicle passes to the vast Regions of Eternity and there has a very different life from what it had here when naked of all earthy matter and not wanting any of the Conveniencies of its mortal state its thoughts are more vigorous and sprightly and it understands more clearly and wills more freely and acts more nimbly and expeditely and unrestrainedly He could tell us how it feels it self when it is first loosed from the Body and strip'd naked of its fleshly Cloathing whither it will betake it self next and to what place it is convey'd what reception it has at its first coming into the other World and how it is provided for when like a stranger it arrives at that unknown place He would acquaint us how it was brought before the bar of God and a Divine Judgment immediately pass'd upon it and so was Sentenc'd to its sinal state and irreversible doom according to what it had done in the flesh whether it were good or evil and therefore in the 2. Second place he would acquaint us with the Happy and Blessed state of good Souls there If he were Lazarus as was desired here by the rich man one that lay in Abraham's Bosom and tasted of the Joys and Pleasures that are at God's right hand what a ravishing account would he give us of those things which no Eye upon Earth hath seen nor Ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of any Man who hath not enjoy'd 'em to concieve what they are He that had been an Inhabitant of the new Jerusalem the Glorious City and Beautifull Palace of the great God what a Description would he give of all the Glories of it of all the Riches and Heavenly Treasures that are there laid up of all the Crowns that are worn by every Citizen there of all the mansions that are there for every Soul of all that blest Society of Angels and glorisied Spirits of all the Orders of Cherubims and Seraphims and all the Armies of Martyrs of the Glorious Throne of the Heavenly King and of the Lamb that sits upon it of the lustre and brightness that shines in every place and the Joy and Gladness that dances in every heart and sparkles in every eye and appears in every face of the great Complacency and Delight that they have in one another and the most inflamed Love and Charity with which they meet their fellow Saints how they are infinitely Happy in themselves and double all their Happiness by the sweet relish and tast they have of that of others as well as their own how they live all in Raptures and Extasies of Joy and have their Souls overflowed with those Rivers of Pleasure that are at God's right hand and for ever stream from that Spring and Fountain of all good In a word that they enjoy such Pleasures and Delights that he which selt 'em one moment would be willing to endure all the Racks and the Tortures of the cruelest Persecutors that he might but once tast of 'em again That those short afflictions are not worthy to be compared with them that the greatest Pleasures and Delights in this World are but saint and empty shadows and poor resemblances of 'em and that he long to be enjoying 'em again and that he is impatient to be so long absent from ' em 3. A Messenger from the dead would testisie also of the Misery and grievous Torments of Men wicked and sinfull Lazarus that had seen the slames of Hell tho' asar off or Dives that had felt and been in the midst of them would give a Tragical description of that place of horrors he would tell us what a Dismal and Disconsolate place is that dark Prison where they are shut up with hellish Fiends and accursed Spirits who affright and insult over the wretched Soul how they are there bound hand and foot with chains of darkness not able to move any way for the least ease nor call to any Friend to pity or comfort 'em how they are always sinking into a dark and bottomless Pit and lie for ever scalding in a Furnace of fire rowling and scorching in a Lake of burning Brunstone where the raging flames with unexpressible pain enter the tender parts and pierce through the Soul with their keenness and sharpness how in the extremity of their Torments the miserable wretches cry out and roar and gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme the God of Heaven because of their pains Revel 16.10 11. How with Rage and Fury against themselves cursing their own folly and madness and swallow'd up with bitter despair the remembrance of their own Guilt stings their enraged Conscience and the never dying Worm gnaws and eats at their very hearts and the anger of an Almighty and Incens'd God lies always heavy upon 'em and his wrath presses 'em fore and fills their Souls with all the dreadfull Ideas of sear and despondency and in the midst of all this anguish there is one thing more terrible than all this than all they feel and that is the Apprehension that it shall last for ever that there shall be no end of those Torments that they are not able to bear for one day This this is the bitterest and most sad circumstance that confounds the wretched tormented Soul and sharpens every pain it feels and fills it with unexpressible Horror and Despair that it must endure all this to insinite Ages to a boundless and never ending Eternity and that after it has lain many thousand years in that place of Torments it will still have as many to go through as it had at first Oh sad and dreadfull state how grievous and intolerable does it appear to us and how would one that had been in it represent it How if he had but as much Charity as Dives would he warn us not to come into that place of Torments how unwilling would he be to go back to it how loth to end his message and how desirous to give us an Eternal account of them rather than endure ' em And now would a wicked Man be able to resist this message could he stand out against such Arguments as these are would not these cool the heat of his Lusts and damp all the Jollity of his most tempting Vices Would not this spoil all their Charms and sully all their enticing Peauty and Gayety Would not such a Ghostly Messenger appearing before him make his blood chill and his joynts tremble and the heart of the most hardy sinner be afraid at the sight of him when he brought the terrible news to his brethren in wickedness from one with whom they had often laugh'd at Religion and the stories of Hell and another World with whom they had been often merry and that with those very things that they now hear the
all cure and all possible recovery We see how strangely some Men are enslaved to their sins tho' they see the greatest mischiefs that will certainly follow from them that if they should see Hell it self even open before them yet it would hardly prevail upon them but let us consider the great arguments of Religion contained in Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles God has given us a standing Canon and Revelation of his Will which we may be sure contains all things in it that are necessary to perswade all Men to Repentance and carry 'em to Heaven and 't is this is the most proper and most perfect method that God has thought fit to make use of to that purpose and much better than sending Messengers from the dead to do this which would signifie nothing unless they were sent in every particular Age and to every particular Person and what that could do this the Holy Scriptures may do now if we consider and attend to them The Papists indeed seem to be something of the rich Man's mind that the Scriptures are not sufficient nor the best way to convert Men and therefore they have taken away those from the people and instead of them have put their fabulous Legends their stories of Purgatory and of Men coming from the dead into their hands but a well attested and consirm'd Revelation has infinitely the advantage of all those and therefore by those and by what is contained in them let us be perswaded from a course of wickedness and impiety Let those powerfull considerations of another World which are there laid before us prevail upon our hearts and let us not hope if we neglect those ordinary and sufficient means which God has appointed for that purpose that we shall be made good or converted by any miraculous or extraordinary methods of Divine Grace for if we hear not Moses and the Prophets and much more Christ and his Apostles neither should we be persivaded tho' one rose from the dead The Tenth Sermon ACTS XVII 22. latter part I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious ST Paul speaks these words to the Citizens of Athens in their great Court of Judicature whither he was brought by the Philosophers and Learned Men of that University v. 19. the Epicureans and the Stoicks with whom he had been disputing about his Religion and they were willing to bring him to that publick place and to those great men that used to be there not to have him Judged or Accused before them as Socrates was formerly for that appears not and St. Paul had free liberty and went away without any restraint v. 33. but only to gratify their Curiosity and to hear of the new Religion and the new God that they suppos'd he Preacht for the Athenians as they were desirous of all other news v. 21. so especially in Religion being the most forward to admit all fort of Gods they heard of into their Worship and the most inclin'd to Religion such as it was of all the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus and Pausanias speak of them It is thought therefore by some even Chrysostom and Oecumenius that St. Paul means the same here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and took occasion here to commend 'em and so the better to insinuate himself and like a skilfull Orator perswade 'em to the true Religion and that these words of his were design'd as a Compliment to 'em and may be taken in a good sense but then he did not continue it but spoke against the Idolatry that was amongst 'em and their representing the Godhead by gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device v. 29. From the Altar indeed that he saw among the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 23. or the Images they worshipt with this inscription To the unknown God he took a fair occasion of Preaching the true God to them supposing at least that they meant him and that they ignorantly worship'd him that was the Creator and the Supream tho' it is hard to conceive how they meant or knew him to be so when he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unknown to them by their own Confession However they acknowledged that there was a Deity which they wanted among those of their City and that they were at a loss for him and therefore St. Paul made use of this and thought it a seasonable opportunity to Preach the true God to them whether they meant him by their Altar or no. There have been disputes about this among Learned men but I intend not to consider 'em or the particalar superstition of the Athenians which consisted probably in a Religious and Ignorant forwardness of worshipping all manner of Daemons and Deities that they could hear of and all the Heathen Polytheism was such a superstition and arose from that ground but I intend to discourse to you of superstition in general and that not of the signification of the word and its Etymology but of the thing it self and what is truly meant by it what is the nature of it and wherein it consists Superstition is a word that has made a great noise in the world and like other words of ambiguous and uncertain meaning it has been clapt upon whatever men pleased and been made a phrase to denote whatever they dislike in a Religion whether they have reason for it or no it has stood for a mark of what is to be hated tho' they cannot tell why to beget an aversion to a thing and a suspicion of something ill in it tho' they cannot clearly see or understand it Indeed superstition has been the great Discase of Religion it has like a Canker eat into the heart of it and consumed it it has put it generally into a great heat but often into a Frenzy too and grows sometimes to a Religions distraction 'T is that by which the Devil when he cannot destroy the natural sense of a God and Religion out of Mens minds yet so darkens and disorders it that it may be of no great use to them nor do much to destroy his interest or Kingdom in the World it is too apt to grow up in weak and not seldom in good and pious minds it sadly over-run all the Heathen World and too soon crept into the Christian Church it sticks like a secret Leprosie to many even holy things and the Priests themselves do not discern it and it is as common as any where among those who are the loudest and fiercest in exclaiming against it But that we may understand what is the true nature of it I shall endeavour to give you as clear an account of it as I can in the following method 1. By giving a general Definition or Description of it and explaining the parts of that 2. By considering some particular instances of Superstition and examining others that are accounted so 3. By enquiring into the true Causes of it and the right means to
avoid it I. By giving a general definition c. Now I would thus define superstition 'T is such a mistaken apprehension of God and Religion as makes us worship him in an undue manner and place Religion in those things in which it does not really consist 1. 'T is an apprehension of God The superstitious have a great sense upon their minds of a powerfull being above 'em that there is a God who is the invisible Lord of the World This is the common belief of the religious and the superstitious The Atheist who thinks there is no such Being no spiritual and invisible Powers above him but that these are all the Spectres of fear and fancy and the melancholy Images of our own scared Thoughts and Imaginations he calls all Religion Superstition and thinks it the best way to free Mens minds from the slavish fears of a Being above them to deny either him or his Providence and clear his mind if he can from all the thoughts of Religion that so horribly oppress it and keep it in bondage This is a mad and an extravagant project and what he was encourag'd to from the folly and wildness of superstition and the mischief that it had done in the World and from laying all the scelerosa atque impia facta all the Villanies which that had committed to the charge of Religion This is very dis-ingenuous and unjust and the other is a very false extravagance to expell the thoughts of a God in order to the quiet and ease of our minds There is no such reason for fear and melancholy in the belief of a God if we have true and right Conceptions of him 't is matter of the greatest Comfort to us to think there is an Almighty Being to take care of us and to do us good to keep the World orderly and to govern all things below We have all reason to rejoyce in our having such a common Father to provide for us and such a Governor to protect us who is wise and good as well as powerfull which is the Notion of a God sad would be our Condition if there were not such a being and I know no such melancholy consideration as that which the Atheist supposes to be the remedy for all his fears and disquietudes the believing there is no God for then we take away all true hope and comfortable trust and have nothing at all to support our sinking minds nor to relieve the necessities of mankind so that tho' superstition believe a God yet the belief does not make Men superstitious but 2. 'T is a wrong and mistaken apprehension of this God the believing him to be a severe and cruel Being arm'd indeed with irresistible power but arbitrary and wilfull in the use of it and that may probably do infinite mischief and only ruin and destroy his innocent Creatures with it that may make them only to be the pastime of his rage and the sport and entertainment of his Almighty revenge and may damn the greatest part of 'em to Eternal flames only to show his Groatness and incontrolable Power over them or if he be not thus Cruel and Tyrannical yet that he is froward and pettish hard to be pleased and easily provoked that it is next to impossible to please him and utterly so to be reconcil'd to him when be is angry such thoughts as these of God may very well produce a superstitious and uncomfortable dread of him and sill the mind with nothing but terror and astonishment and a dismal uncertainty and perplexity and in these black colours superstition always draws him with gastly look and terrible visage with a brow always threatning and a hand Armed with Thunder and ready to strike without any regard to the merit or behaviour of those that are under him And were God such a Being as this without natural Justice or essential Righteousness were not his goodness as infinite as his power and were not one as much his nature as the other then indeed we might live as miserably under the thoughts of him as the most timorous Slave does under his merciless Patron or the poorest Prisoner under his insolent Keeper and what will not such fearfull wretches do to appease the anger of such a God as they think is over them what is so mean and base what so foolish and silly what so cruel and barbarous that they will not perform to satisfie this devouring Moloch It is very strange that ever Men should think the burning their Children alive should be an acceptable duty in Religion or that cutting their own throats should please their Gods but when they have had such dreadfull apprehensions of them no wonder that these cruel things were made the offices of their Religion which were so suited to the conceptions of their Gods For in the 3. Third place these mistaken apprehensions of God will put Men upon worshipping him in an undue manner the acts of worship and offices of Religion will be suitable to the conceptions we have of the Divine nature if we think God is a severe and a cruel being we shall think he delights in nothing so much as in bloody Sacrifices and in having his Altars reek with Human gore which was become a very general custom and a common office of the Gentile Religion and the Devil without doubt endeavoured to bring mankind into this abominable superstition by representing God to be such an one as himself and by making his own Diabolical temper to be the Image and Character of the Divine nature by thus setting up himself as the Idol of God this horrid worship did terminate in him and what the Gentiles thus offered they Sacrificed to Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10.20 But if we have other conceptions of God very unsuitable to his nature if we think he is not a wise and righteous but a vain being that will be pleased with little and outward things with affected Formalities and studied Compliments with officious Addresses and appearing shows with adorning Images and pompous Processions then all our Religion quickly runs into those trifling things and to be sure it will some way be defective if it have not a very right Foundation a true conception of God and his Nature 4. This will necessarily bring Men to wrong apprehensions of Religion and to place it in those things in which it does not consist it will make them think God is pleased with what is no way agreeable to his nature or else displeased with what is no way contrary to it God's Love or Hatred to any thing is founded in his Nature and if we mistake in that we shall do so in his Will too which is always Regulated and Conducted by the essential rectitude and perfections of his Nature and this as 't is the truest Original so 't is the best Interpreter of the Will of God but superstition that knows not God aright as it is afraid of him as of a Friend in the dark so
deportment so does the superstitious make shows and appearances of courtship to Heaven but he is out in all of them and does not what is proper what is really obliging and acceptable to it The Devil not being able to destroy the religious sense that is in our minds not being able to root out that which Nature has planted in every man's breast a sense of a God and a Divine Being above us he endeavours to spoil and corrupt that as much as he can and to sow such cockle and tares among the good and natural seed of religion as may quite choke it and make it unfruitfull as may alter its kind and make it produce such fruit as is not true and genuine but quite of another nature as looks like religion and like the Apples of Sodom seem more fair outwardly but is another thing within because he cannot hinder men from being Religious but there is something within themselves will make them so in spite of all his attempts and designs to the contrary therefore he will make 'em superstitious because he cannot stop the religious instinct and inclination of their minds he will determine and set it wrong because he cannot dry up that natural spring of Religion that rises up in every ones breast he will poyson and corrupt it and because Religion is so deeply and strongly rooted in human nature that it can never be wholly pluck'd up by him therefore he will graft upon it such false and superstitious principles as shall quite alter it's nature and tho' they are fed and nourish'd by a religious sense at the bottom yet this vine shall bring forth Thorns and this Fig-tree Thistles and from this sweet Fountain shall come forth Salt and bitter Waters by a superstitious mixture Religion shall be changed and perverted both in its nature and its effects This is the saddest mischief to true Religion that it should be thus made to destroy it self that its force and power should be turned upon its self and it should be consumed like some Animals by what grows out of it self 'T is thus the Devil most successfully countermines God and destroys Religion by turning it into superstition which how it is done and by what means effected I shall endeavour to show you in three prrticulars 1. By making Men vitious and wicked for tho' superstition may often grow up in weak and silly minds that may be innocent and far from being guilty of very great and notorious vices yet I believe the first and most general cause of superstition in the World is Vice and Wickedness the Devil has first drawn Men to that and then has led them into all manner of errors and falshoods he has first debauch'd their morals and then their understandings he has first wrought upon their Wills and Affections by abominable Lusts and Vices and then he has quickly corrupted their Judgments and led 'em into all manner of mistakes in Religion The superstition of the Heathen World arose I doubt not from that horrible corruption of manners that was among them they would never have set up such a Religion as they did made up of nothing almost but obscenity and filthiness cruelty and blood apishness and folly had not they been as the Apostle represents the Heathen World Rom. 1. Vain in their imaginations and fill'd with all manner of unrighteousness implacable and unmercifull in their own tempers and given up to the most beastly Lusts and unnatural Lewdnesses these Vices in themselves naturally lead them to such a false Religion and such superstitious abominations as they were guilty of But as their manners decay'd so did the true Religion and the right worship of God and as vice got ground so did superstition and they always grew up and encreased and like Hippocrates his Twins lived and died together What hidden cause thus linked them together and how they came to be such inseparable Companions may seem strange when superstition owns and acknowledges a God has a great sense of him upon the mind but if we consider that this sense of a God when it has not had such a due effect as it ought upon it so as to preserve it vertuous and Innocent but Lust and Wickedness and the Temptations of the Devil have overcome it this sense of its own Wickedness joyned with the sense of a God does very naturally and easily bring it to superstition If it had no sense of a God nor no belief of such a being at all if it could get rid of that which it never can then indeed there would be no ground of superstition and this way the Atheist would free himself from all superstitious fears or if it were not vicious and so not sensible of its own horrid guilt and wickedness and its obnoxiousness to this God above neither then would it be superstitious but when it is thus sensible of a great and just God which is the avenger of such crimes as it knows it has been highly guilty of this is the first thing that brings it to superstition because in the 2. Second place this causes a dreadfull fear and terrible apprehension of God upon it it s own guilt scares and affrights it and draws terrible Ideas and Images of God upon its mind so that it looks upon him only as a Malefactor does upon his severe Judge his Jailor or his Executioner it sees nothing but frowns in his face and anger in his eyes and Thunder and Lightning in his hand and fancies all the Instrumenes of Torture and Punishment ready to be applied to it And in such a case as this is what would it not do to pacifie and appease this Deity that it thus dreads what a dreadfull fright and passion must it be in when it can think of nothing that will do it how will it be trying every thing it can think of Come before his altars and bring thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyl if it were rich enough and give its first born for its transgression and part with the fruit of its own body for the sin of its soul Micah 6.7 and shed its own blood for to make some expiation for its guilt Nothing is so mean and servile nothing so cruel and bloody so shamefull and scandalous but a Soul overwhelmed with a superstitious fear will be attempting and trying be it never so unagreeable to the Divine Nature and never so unfit and unsuitable to please him there is just ground of being afraid of God when we are sensible of our guilt and 't is not this is superstition but when this fear puts Men upon foolish and undue and abominable ways to appease him and gives us such a dreadfull Idea and Apprehension of him as quite excludes all the thoughts of his Goodness and Mercy and puts the mind only into an excessive fright and fit of horror then it is so I cannot think that ever mankind would have formed such a conception of God had not their
superstition the design of those is to supersede honest Vertue and inward Goodness and by some other ways to think to purchase the Divine Favour and the Happiness of Heaven 'T is very hard and difficult to men to be inwardly good and exactly vertuous to drive out every known sin and live in the practice of every duty which is the plain and the honest path-way to Heaven and therefore superstition would find out other by-roads and easier passages and would have Religion lie in more easie and outward performances and would relieve it self against that strait and narrow way which the Gospel directs us to and would have it suffice to be sent to Heaven by an Absolution or an Indulgence Thus by a Pass as it were by the Priest or Pope to the other World by making a short Confession and being a little contrite and absolved and anointed on the Death-Bed the work is quickly done and as well he thinks as if the Man had lived a Saint or died a Martyr or if he had been so Religious in his life time as to tell over his Beads every day and carry a Crucifix always about him and perform the Pennance of his Confessor and gone a few Pilgrimages to a few Saints then he has done such works as are very meritorious tho' his Saviour never Commanded one of them and he must be thought to be very Religious tho' 't is such a Religion as the Gospel is a perfect stranger to But Superstition is for placing Religion in some other things than the Gospel does in some inventions of its own in some little and easie and trifling performances in some of the externals and shadows of Religion in a strict observance of some lesser duties and a zealous concern for inconsiderable matters in being over forward for the little adjuncts and appendages of Religion but very negligent of that which is the true life and substance of it and in vainly believing to please God by some other things than by a righteous and good mind and the practice of universal Holiness Thus did the Jews think that often washing their Hands would make their Souls clean that to observe the lesser duties of the Law and the Rites and Traditions of their Elders was the way to render them extraordinary Holy and Religious though they foully neglected the weightier duties of Judgment Mercy and Truth Superstition will often overdo in some parts of Religion and therefore puts on the face of greater sanctity and is a kind of excess in Religion but 't is at the bottom a great defect a want of true and inward goodness and it would supply that defect by other shows and appearances and a mighty zeal in little things it would compound as it were with Heaven and commute its sorry and worthless performances for actions of true and substantial goodness It always lays too much value upon the little things of Religion and does but little esteem and not heartily love Morality and inward Goodness and therefore the truest principle to free us from all superstitious follies and mistakes in Religion is this That nothing will please God but being truly and inwardly good that nothing will commend us to his favour but a Vertuous Mind and a Holy Life and the sincere practice of all the moral substantial duties of Religion and that without those all other little things in Religion will be vain and idle and insignificant which is the truest principle in the World and the best preservative against Superstition The Eleventh Sermon ACTS XXVI 8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead THe Resurrection of the dead is an Article of our Faith of that weight and importance that as it confirms and strengthens all natural Religion for if Mens bodies rise most undoubtedly there is a future State so it is the very Basis and Foundation of Christianity without which our Faith in Christ is as the Apostle says vain and ungrounded It seems not so necessary indeed for the truth of Religion in general to believe the Resurrection of the flesh or body since the Soul without that may be capable of Happiness or Misery in another state and the belief of this alone may be sufficient to the designs of Vertue and Religion But Christianity lays a very great stress upon it makes the Resurrection of the body as necessary and fundamental an Article upon some accounts as the immortality of the soul and this because of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour which as 't is the great demonstration of the truth of our Religion so it is an Argument of the Resurrection of all other Humane Bodies for if he be risen again with the same Body with which he lived and with that is gone into the Heavens it 's fit we should follow him thither with our bodies too with our whole Humane Nature which he was pleased not only to assume upon Earth but to carry up to be an Inhabitant of the mansions above if he our head be raised we his Members must be raised with him he the first fruits from the dead has by his Resurrection Consecrated our Bodies to Life and Immortality It would be very strange if he should carry his Humane Body into Heaven were there no others of the same nature to follow him so that as the Apostle argues 1 Cor. 15.13 If there be no Resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen It does therefore highly concern us to maintain and defend this main post and strongest hold of our Religion by which our Christianity must either stand or fall and that the more because Infidelity and Irreligion is most apt to be making its attempts and assaults upon it in this place the weakest as is supposed which belongs to it and to represent this article above all others as an impossible and incredible thing There were found not only among the Athenians some of the Sect of Epicurus probably who when they heard of the Resurrection mocked at it Acts 17.32 and Pliny I remember reckons it among one of the things that exceed the power of God revocare defunctos but even amongst the Jews there were some known to St. Paul who thought it a thing unreasonable and unfit to be believed to whom he directs himself in this his defence of Christianity the Sadduces were a numerous and prevailing Sect among them who say there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit Acts 23.8 There are too many of their mind in our days who cannot believe or conceive any spiritual or immaterial substances and who cannot think that a body after it has been dead and lain rotting so many hundred or thousand years and been dispersed into ten thousand atoms and scattered into as many different places and had a thousand other bodies made out of it that this should be brought together again and rise the same body it was before Against these modern Sadduces and Unbelievers these pretenders to Reason
in relation to our selves as well as to the World that is the prime and general cause of Mens being deceived into sin and the first part of its deceitfulness is by the immoderate and salse Opinion of those little Goods or present Enjoyments we may obtain by them Thus when our Fancies and vain Imaginations represent Riches and a great Estate as the greatest Good as the greatest Security Credit and Comfort and what will afford and bring in all other good things of this World this makes a Man make Riches his God and put his trust in 'em and Sacrifice every thing to Mammon and use any means to attain 'em because he thinks nothing so evil as to be without them and nothing else so good as having abundance of them So another fancies no happiness like that of being Great and above others of having the knee and the head and the outward marks and acknowledgments of superiority given him or to appear in State and Grandeur with a rich Train and splendid Equipage always attending him and he despises poor and contemptible Vertue in respect of all this and thinks as meanly of the greatest Wisdom without those as that does of him and therefore rather than part with those he will part with his Conscience and change his Religion rather than his place and will stick at nothing either to keep or gain his ambitious Ends and Designs Another who is a Voluptuary and thinks Pleasure the summum bonum the chiefest good he can taste or feel he hunts after it thro' all the Scents and Paths of Sensuality Luxury Lewdness and Debauchery and either Bacchus or Venus is the Deity he worships and the greatest Good and Enjoyment he fancies and imagines and has an Idea of is the Wine sparkling in the Glass or the Charms of Beauty or the other objects of sensual Pleasure and by heating his thoughts and inflaming his fancy his desires of those things grow impatient excessive and ungovernable Now if a man had used himself to consider seriously how little there is in all those things how very little in respect of the greater pleasures of a wise and easie Mind a good Conscience and the hopes of Religion and that all the true Pleasures of Life that are desirable to a Wise Man may be otherwise enjoyed within the bounds of Vertue and that the going beyond those is an unavoidable mischief to himself and to the World and that all those little sensual and temporary goods he is so fond of are at best but short and transitory empty and unsatisfying things but poor trisling satisfactions and mere gilded decaying Vanities that will all quickly perish and pass away so that our proper happiness cannot lie in them This would give us such true Opinions and right Apprehensions of all carnal and Worldly things in which the whole strength and temptations of sin are placed as would disarm and weaken it of all its power strip it of all its fine dress and false attire wash off all its paint spoil all its beauty and shining lustre whereby it imposes upon our vain fancies and weak imaginations and deceives us with a false Opinion of those small Goods Profits or Pleasures it can afford us 2. We do not at the same time compare with those the great evil that is in them and so do not judge rightly and impartially on both sides but determine hastily on one and so are deceived whereas to make a true Judgment and Estimate we should set the evil against the good and so weigh the matter and set the balance right between them but Alass Men are in too much haste to do this when they are so hotly and eagerly pursuing their Lusts when having the fancied good Pleasure and Enjoyment of their sins only in their Eye they never think or consider or take into their accounts the much greater and more numerous and more certain evils that belong to them and are inseparably annext to the commission of them if they did no Man would swallow the thin bait when he saw the satal hook under it None would eat the forbidden fruit tho' never so fair and pleasant to the Eye if he knew and certainly believed that Death was its bittter sauce and in the day he eat thereof he should die No Man would drink the sweetest draught or take down the most delicious morsel if he thought it would kill him Nature without any great deliberation refuses immediately and abhors what it apprehends to be evil as it is extreamly fond and desirous of what appears good and agreeable to it and the fear of the one is perhaps more strong and affecting than the love of the other as the sense of pain is greater and quicker than that of pleasure and therefore did it spy the Snake in the Grass the Serpent hid under the Bed of Roses and Violets it would not be invited by all their beauty and sweetness to lie down upon them and it would be quickly frighted and run from the tempter tho' he appear'd as an Angel of light if it saw his Cloven Foot Vice therefore always uses art to conceal its worst side hides its deformity and rottenness under a false paint and counterfeit colour and varnishes over its real evil with the fucus of some seeming good so the unwary sinner is drawn into its deadly embraces with its meritricious Looks and false Charms The venomous sting lies covered under the sweet hony and the sinner perceives not the Dagger of the Treacherous Assassin till he is stabb'd with it to the heart But a little Wisdom and Observation and looking about us would plainly discern the innumerable evils that sin carries in its bowels and is big and productive of which grow out of it as fruit from its proper root and are inseparably annexed to it as effects to their causes that can no more be divorced or rescinded from it than light clipt from the Sun and are unalterably setled upon it by the nature and constitution of things and the will and appointment of the first cause and Author of them How do many not only shipwrack their Consciences but their Fortunes too by their Vices in this world where we see abundance of those broken Vessels who have split themselves upon Laziness or Luxury Lewdness or Prodigality or some other wickedness by which they have ruined themselves here as well as hereafter How have others wasted their Bodies by the same courses as they have done their Estates And have sinn'd particularly against those as the Scripture speaks as well as against their Souls and been a kind of Martyrs in the service of the Devil and their own Lusts and endured more pains in their bodies to go to Hell than other Martyrs have done to go to Heaven How do they whose hopes and designs are only in this Life and who fear nothing so much as Death and think nothing so happy as to live long yet shorten their lives by their Vices and by
feeling as Scripture speaks so they darken and blind the Understanding which is as it were the Eye of the Soul and bring a cloud over it or cast a mist before it and hinder it from seeing and discerning things as it ought to do These I confess are all figurative expressions whereby we are forc'd to describe and illustrate the Acts and Operations of the Mind by material and bodily resemblances as the Holy Ghost it self does But there are such real effects in the Mind as answer to them and about which we can use no other Words or Ideas Mens Sins at the same time they harden their Wills and bring them to a senselessness and stupidity about their moral Actions they blind their Judgment also and bring them to a Reprobate sense so as not to see the plainest Truths or greatest Evidence nor be aware of the grossest and most notorious Errors nor be convinced by the strongest Arguments and Demonstrations for the Truth or Practice of Religion 2. I shall consider a little more particularly in the 2d place how and to what degrees the mind is thus hardned and blinded by its Sins 1. And this is done first of all by breaking thro' natural shame and the innate modesty of our minds this is one of the strongest sences which God and Nature have set about Vertue and the greatest check and restraint against Vice for it arises from the first quick and discerning sense of the mind whereby it sees the â—â—â—ness and reasonableness of the one and the indecency and natural turpitude and shame of the other and when this is once broke thro' the mind is quickly Prostituted and Debauched to the greatest Lewdness and Villany and comes to Sin Impudently and with a Where 's forehead at first indeed it was modest and reserv'd and blusâ—â—'d at the rude offers of Sin and ran from them but by coming nearer and making some further approaches to it it was drawn in to consent and so having lest its Original innocence and native modesty it is sooner brought to after-acts of Sin and wears off by degrees that shame which was its great guard and preservative at first and then it lies open to every Temptation and 〈…〉 to every offer and opportunity that invites 〈◊〉 and hardly needs to be tempted but becomes a tempter both to it self and others and a Pander in time to all Vice and Wickedness 2. Sin hardens by stupifying Conscience and deadning the inward and natural sense of good and evil on our Minds so as to bring Men by degrees to Sin without struggle dispute or reluctancy It must be a great while before it comes to this and a man must have gone thro' a long course before he can arrive at this state and perfection of Sinning No Man can commit a plain and great Sin at first without great struggle and remorse of mind and great reluctance and opposition from his own Conscience the spirit will strive against the flesh as the flesh lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 there being a natural principle of Vertue in us as well as of Vice And as a good Man must have many conflicts with his lower inclinations before he can arrive at a full state of Vertue so must a bad Man have as great a contest with his Conscience and the natural sense of his own Mind before he can be perfectly wicked Conscience will check and restrain him at first and inwardly smite and reprove him for doing amiss and this is an evident proof of the natural difference between good and evil and an excellent Monitor set up by God in every Mans breast to mind him of his duty and the great security indeed of all Religion but when Men have by many acts and long customs of wickedness wasted and sinned away Conscience and stifled or stupisied the inward sense of their own minds so as to sin with greater ease and without any trouble or opposition from within without any rebukes or resistances or remorses of their own Consciences for whatever they do then they are become perfect Sinners indeed and come to an absolute and full state of Wickedness to be hardned into an utter insensibility so as to be past feeling and to have their Conscience as it were seared with a hot iron as the Scripture speaks 1 Tim. 4.2 so as to be quite senseless This senselessness may seem an easier and less painfull state but it is more mortal and dangerous and is just such a Disease to the Soul as an Apoplexy or a Lethargy is to the body If this senselessness and stupidity would always last it were much better indeed than sharp and actual pain but the Conscience of a Sinner tho' it may sleep and slumber a while yet it will awake one time or other and like an enraged Lyon tear and devour all about it Either Death or Sickness or some Judgment or Affliction will probably rowse it here and bring the stupify'd mind to it self or to be sure the flames of Hell will make it open its Eyes when it is too late when it can see nothing but horror and despair before it and round about it and where it Conscience shall always torment it with a Worm that never dieth and with never ceasing Anguish and Remorse 3. A third instance and degree of being thus hardned by Sin is doubting of the Truth of Religion and calling into question the principles of it and at last an utter rejecting and dis-believing of them No Man ever did this till he was corrupted in his morals and engaged in a vitious course so that this Scepticism and Infidelity was plainly the effect and consequent of his Vices and proceeded from his Will blinded with his Sins and Lusts rather than from his Understanding or from any want of Evidence about those matters It was first the Sinners wish and desire that there were no God before he question'd whither there was one or no and he never doubted of the truth of another World till it was against his Interest and he was lost and undone if there were one and therefore he was very unwilling to believe it Men must have very much blinded their Minds if they do not see the plainest Evidence for Religion both from Nature and Reason and from History and Revelation from the make and frame of the World and from the make of their own bodies and the inward sense of their own Minds all which make it as unreasonable almost to doubt of the Being of a God as to doubt of their own being and existence and we may as well be Scepticks to the truth of any thing else as to the truth of Religion 4. There is a degree yet beyond this and that is ridiculing Religion and exposing it to Contempt and Laughter which is not only the utmost and most desperate attempt and affront against God but the most rude and unmannerly as well as mischievous thing to all Mankind for all sober and wise Men and civiliz'd
Nations have always believed there is a God and 't is no very civil thing to call them all Fools or Cheats for doing so 't is so much the interest nay the necessity of mankind that there should be one that all Government all Security all Society and living happily in the World must be lost without it to laugh therefore at this as either a Politick Cheat or a Melancholy Delusion on which so much depends both as to the benefit of the publick and the happiness and comfort of all private Men is only to show the boldest folly and ill-will both together and without any reason in the World to take upon themselves to perswade mankind that they are deceived in the most usefull and necessary thing to 'em that can be 'T is certainly the highest impudence and rudeness to run down those things and expose them as ridiculous which have been the greatest objects of Honour and Reverence to all wise men and to treat Religion and things Sacred with jest and drollery about which all the World has been the most serious and in earnest and to mock and scoff at that which others bow down to and tremble at This is only a more mad and daring bravery in wickedness and one of the highest instances of a corrupted and hardned Mind I shall add but another which is an effect as it were of this and that is 5. An industrious design of being wicked and glorying in it to make it their business to spread and promote it and to take pleasure not only in committing Sin themselves but likewise in those that do it This is to love Wickedness for Wickedness sake and out of pure opposition to Vertue and a direct enmity to Religion When Men make it their Trade and a kind of Profess'd Science to be Debauch'd and set down rules to themselves and others of being so When they can boast of their Wickedness and glory in it and assume perhaps more to themselves than they have been guilty of and charge themselves with such Sins as they never committed thereby to Triumph as it were in their mighty deeds and great exploits and to endear themselves the more to their Lewd Companions when they endeavour to out-do one another and out-vye their fellow Sinners in Oaths Drinking and Debauchery and give greater proofs of their highest proficiency in Wickedness and Lewdness This is perfectly giving up themselves to the Devil's Service and to toil and drudge in it as his greatest Slaves and as his Disciples to devote themselves to him and become sworn votaries to Hell and Wickedness and declare themselves Champions and Defenders of his cause and interest against God and Religion 'T is strange that Human Nature should be depraved and corrupted to these degrees but we see too many Examples of it in the World and we see too what is the cause of it namely men's being so strangely hardned and blinded by their Sins and having their Reason and Understanding and all the Faculties of their Minds so horribly corrupted and depraved by them 3. From what has been said I shall make the following Remarks and Observations 1. I observe from hence That our proper and truest happiness lies in the Perfection and Improvement of of our Minds and therefore we ought to take the greatest care of them 2. That Vice is the greatest Corruption and Depravation of the Mind and therefore we should not suffer that to grow upon us 3. I shall enquire into the Scripture-notion of God's hardning Men and whether that be any thing more than our Sins hardning us 4. From hence we may conceive and understand the misery and wretched state of the Devils and damn'd Souls who are come to the highest degree of this hardning 1. I observe that our proper and truest happiness lies in the Perfection and Improvement of our Minds The happiness of any Being must be suited and adapted to its Capacity and Faculties for otherwise it has no root to grow upon and the more those Capacities are enlarged and extended and have agreeable objects to fill and entertain 'em the greater is the happiness of it The lowest Creatures that have sense have very small Capacities and their Enjoyments are very little the more we rise in the scale of Beings the Capacities are greater till we come to the All-perfect Being We have bedily Capacities the same with the Brutes which can partake of such bodily pleasures as they do but these are very little and narrow and confined to few things and a short time We have much higher Capacities even like God himself whereby we take in all the truth that can be known and all the good that can be enjoyed and hoard up these immortal Treasures in our Minds and in the fullest measure of those consists our proper happiness as we are Men and Rational and Immortal Beings 'T is in our Souls those noblest parts of us that our Happiness lies and will lie for ever Our bodies are poor dying decaying matter that can afford very little Enjoyments and for a very little while the capacities of the mind are great and large and comprehensive and can reach not only to all things that are made but even to the God that made them and partake of a proper happiness from all of them for the more it increases its knowledge and grows up to a more perfect Understanding and to a more free choice and entire willing of what is good and the more good it enjoys and the more its faculties are enlarged and filled up with their proper objects the more Happiness and Perfection Satisfaction and Enjoyment it must have and this will be its Eternal Heaven when we shall be as like God as we can be and equal to the Angels in the proper perfections of our rational nature advanced to the highest degrees and the most unspeakable Enjoyments and Satisfactions 2. Vice is the greatest Corruption and Depravation of the Mind and therefore is our greatest misery it sinks and impairs the Faculties decays and weakens the Mind as a Disease does the body and fills it generally like that with pain and uneasiness as being contrary to its natural frame and to its proper and regular Operations Vertue is the Vigor and Health the Soundness and right Constitution of the Soul the Spiritual life which Religion and God's Grace would advance it to but Vice and Wickedness are the Spiritual death of it both in the Language of the Scripture and of the best Philosophers of Old their manner and custom of setting a Coffin in the place of him that had left the Schools and Precepts of Vertue was speaking the same thing in emblem and figure with the Scripture expression of being dead in trespasses and sins The loss of the Soul is justly accounted so great an one as the gain of the whole World will not compensate What shall it profit a Man says our Saviour to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul Matth. 16.26
spoiling and corrupting all its Life and bringing to this fad state and condition and now it is desperate and irrecoverable and because it has lost the only opportunities of improving and sitting it for happiness it must now necessarily be miserable with it as long as its duration lasts that is for ever God grant that we may avoid all those sins which will thus spoil our minds and bring this hardness and this misery upon us FINIS ERRATA besides some false Pointings PAge 2. L. 11. r. there p. 4. l. 18. r. Principle p. 9. l. 9. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 21. l. 7. r. distractions p. 22. l. 2. for the r. any p. 33. l. 5. r. perception p. 49. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 50. l. 16. r. true Judgment p. 51. l. 7. r. Reason Would men p. 58. l. 6. r. only are p. 91. l. 27. r. Sediment p. 100. l. 16. r. Dying the. p. 106. l. 8. r. hid p. 143. l. 17. r. leave them p. 158. l. 12. r. ever p. 214. l. 31. r. take p. 219. l. 1. r. better not p. 246. l. 8. r. as it was of p. 270. l. 28. r. no where p. 289. l. 5. r. could ADVERTISEMENT THe Mystery of the Christian Faith and of the Blessed Trinity Vindicated and the Divinity of Christ proved In three Sermons Preached at Westminster-Abbey upon Trinity-Sunday June the 7th and September 21. 1696. By the late Reverend William Payne D. D. In the Press before his Death and by himself order'd to be Published And also a Letter from the Author to the Bishop of Rochester in Vindication of them THE CONTENTS Sermon I. Rom. IX 14. WHat shall we say then Is there Vnrighteousness with God God forbid P. 1. Sermon II. Matth. XI 29. last Part. And ye shall find rest unto your Souls p. 29. Sermon III. Matth. VII 13 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there he that find it p. 71. Sermon IV. Matth. VI. 19 20. Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon Earth where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal p. 103. Sermon V. Luke XV. 31. And he said unto him Son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine p 131. Sermon VI. Acts XVI 30 latter part Sins what must I do to be saved p. 167. Sermon VII Job XXVIII 28. And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding p. 185. Sermon VIII Rom. XII 21. Be not overcome of Evil but overcome Evil with Good p. 203. Sermon IX Luke XVI 31. And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead p. 223. Sermon X. Acts XVII 22. latter part I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious p. 245. Sermon XI Acts XXVI 8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead p. 295. Sermon XII Heb. III. 13. latter part Lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfullness of sin p. 325. Books Printed for Ri. Wilkin at the King's-Head in St. Paul's-Church-Yard Immorality and Pride the great Causes of Atheism The Atheist's Objection that we can have no Idea of God refuted The notion of a God neither from Fear nor Policy Three Sermons Preach'd at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul Jan. 3. Feb. 7. and Mar. 7. 169◠being the First Second and Third of the Lecture for that year founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By John Harris M. A. and Fellow of the Royal Society 4vo Remarks on some late Papers relating to the Universal Deluge and to the Natural History of the Earth by the same Author 8vo Dr. Woodward's Natural History of the Earth 8vo Dr. Abbadies Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Objections of all Modern Opposers In 2. Vol. 8vo A serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their true and greatest interest By a Lover of her Sex The Third Edition 12o. A serious Proposal to the Ladies Part II. wherein a Method is offer'd for the Improvement of their Minds By the Author of the First Part 12o. Letters concerning the Love of God between the Author of the Proposal to the Ladies and Mr. John Norris 8vo An Answer to W. P.'s Key about the Quakers Light within and Oaths with an Appendix of the Sacraments 8vo A Letter to the Honourable Sir Robert Howard To gether with some Animadversions on a Book entituled Christianity not Mysterious 8vo
these and Discover new Springs to feed and maintain this and to raise it higher and tho' they run into the same Channel namely the Happiness of the Mind yet 't is with a fuller Current and a stronger Stream and they do more perfectly promote that Rest and Peace and Tranquility of Mind which tho' it be various in degrees yet is the greatest Happiness Perfection or Pleasure it is capable of in general either in this or the other World Whoever attains to this is the Happy Man whatever his outward Condition be for while he is easie within himself and has an inward Rest Peace and Tranquility in his own Soul all outward things signifie very little to him Our Saviour did not Promise his Disciples or Followers any good Circumstances or Happy outward Condition in this World but he promised them Peace in him and Peace in themselves and that if they followed his Example and learnt his Temper and lived up to his Religion they should find Rest and Ease to their Souls and be freed from those heavy Loads and Burdens that oppress our Minds and are the causes of Misery to us Religion and Christianity are the true cure for the Uneasiness and Indispositions and Diseases of the Mind and if we could live up to its wise Rules and bring our selves to that Frame and Temper of Mind it would beget in us we should be always Easy and always Happy as Happy as we could be in this World in spite of all the evils of it and Eternally and Compleatly Happy in the next The Third Sermon MAT. VII 13 14. Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the Ga'e and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it OUR Saviour did not think fit to give the World a set Code of Laws as Moses did the Jews or a Methodical System of Ethicks as other Writers have done since no more did the other wise Teachers of Virtue and Morality Pythagoras Socrates Epictetus Antoninus and other Heathens the Patriarchs of old who were Preachers of Righteousness Solomon or the Prophets afterwards but with greater simplicity and inartificial plainness they dropt their excellent Precepts and sage Directions without any formal Method and thus Christ taught us the best and most perfect Rules of Virtue in his occasional Discourses and Particularly in this his excellent Sermon upon the Mount which is such a Discourse that it carries an internal Evidence and a Heavenly Authority along with it enough to satisfie any Wise and Good Man that the Doctrine is true and that it comes from God tho' it had no Miracles nor other Evidence to prove it for the Soul if it be not vitiated Tastes and Relishes such Congenial truths that are agreeable and natural to it as the Palate does its food and Judges of their inward truth and goodness by an internal Sensation and Perception and an immediate Congruity to its Faculties When our Saviour comes towards the Conclusion of this his Sermon upon the Mount which was an Epitome of Christianity and the Sum of all those Virtuous Precepts which were to make his Followers the best Men in the World to make them exceed all the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and out-doe all the Examples and all the Characters of Heathen Vertue he tells 'em there would be great Difficulty to rise to these Attainments that Religion and Vertue in such a pitch as he had set them and as was necessary to make a good Christian and to fit him for Heaven were not such slight and easie things but that they must use great Care and Pains and Labour in the Attaining and Performing of them that it was very easie to be vitious and wicked and therefore most Men were so but that to be Virtuous as a Christian ought to be in all those Instances and Degrees he had taught them was a more Hard and Difficult matter and that few would come up to it but yet this was a thing absolutely necessary to their Eternal Happiness and they must either take the Pains to do this to come up to these strict Terms or else they must Perish and be undone for ever by falling short of them Enter ye in at the strait Gate From which words I shall consider I. What are the Difficulties of Religion and Vertue or upon what account they are a strait Gate and a narrow Way and Vice a wide Gate and a broad Way II. Press the Duty and propose the Motives for our entering in at this strait Gate and narrow way notwithstanding that it is so 1. What are the Difficulties of Religion and Vertue c. 1. Then our Saviour's words might perhaps have some regard to the hard Circumstances Dangers and Persecutions that Christianity was exposed to at that time in those first ages of it and is liable to afterwards then indeed it was a strait Gate when they who enter'd into it were bound to leave all they had in this World all their Temporal Interests and Possessions for Christ's sake and the Gospel's and all that would live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 then it was hard for a Rich Man who had great Possessions and was loath to part with them to follow Christ tho he had a great Desire and Inclination to do so as in the Instance of the young Man Mat. 19.21 so that our Saviour said thereupon it was easier for a Camel to go thro' the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. to become a Christian at that time Then the way to Heaven was strait and narrow when it was beset with so many Dangers fill'd with Crosses and Gibbets and a Man must venture his Life as well as Estate whenever he entered into it but this was but a particular and accidental case tho every good Christian ought to come to such a Perfection in Religion as to be prepared and disposed for this whenever God shall think fit to put this hard Tryal and Difficulty upon him But 2. Christianity is thus strait and narrow upon other accounts viz. The standing Terms and Conditions of it as it forbids every sin and every wilfull wickedness upon the Pain of Damnation This is very hard indeed to the generality of Men and makes it a very strait and narrow way when it leaves no room for any one darling Lust undue Liberty or beloved Sin to go along with us for according to the Gospel he that will not part with every willful sin however Pleasant or Profitable it be to him must part with Heaven for it tho' the Temptation to it be never so Great and the Charms of it never so powerfull yet if Religion do not conquer and overcome it we must for the short Pleasures of Sin be Miserable for ever