but a mean Employment to spend our time in spinning fine Nets for the catching of Flies Besides this Divine Life if it once took place in us would strangely dilate and enlarge our hearts in Charity towards our Brethren it would make us open our arms wide to the whole Creation it would perfectly work out of us all that Peevishness and Sowrness and Penuriousness of Spirit which we do too often contract by being addicted to a Sect and would make us Sweet and Benign and Obliging and ready to receive and embrace all Conditions of Men. In a Word It would quite swallow up all Distinctions of Parties and whatever did but bear upon it the Image of God and the Superscription of the Holy Jesus would need no other Commendatories to our Affection but would upon that alone account be infinitely dear and precious to us Let us all therefore earnestly contend after this Divine Principle of Holiness let us bring down Religion from our Heads to our Hearts from Speculation to Practice Let us make it our business heartily to love God and do his Will and then we may hope to see Peace in our days This this is that that will restore to the World the Golden Age of Primitive Christianity when the Love and Vnity of the Disciples of Jesus was so conspicuous and remarkable that it became into a Proverb See how the Christians love one another This this is that that will bring in the Accomplishment of all those glorious Promises of Peace and Tranquility that Christ hath made to his Church Then shall the Wolf dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid Then shall not Ephraim envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim but we shall turn our Swords into Plough-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks and there will be no more consuming or devouring in all God's Holy Mountain I should now proceed to the Second general Point in my proposed Method of handling this Text viz. To set before you the very great Engagements and Obligations we have upon us to follow after the Things that make for Peace and that 1. From the Nature and Contrivance of our Religion 2. From the great Weight the Scripture lays upon this Duty 3. From the great Vnreasonableness of our Religious Differences 4. From the very evil Consequences that attend them As 1. In that they are great Hindrances of a good Life 2. They are very pernicious to the Civil Peace of the State 3. They are highly opprobrious to Christianity in general And 4. and Lastly Very dangerous to the Protestant Religion as giving too many advantages and too much encouragement to the Factors of the Papacy But I have I fear already exceeded the Limits of a Sermon and therefore shall add no more God open our Eyes that we may in this our day understand the Things that belong to Peace before they be hid from our Eyes SERMON II. PREACHED AT BOW-CHURCH On the 30th of January 1675. 1 Tim. iv 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come THese words are the enforcement of an Exhortation which St. Paul had made to Timothy in the Verse beforegoing which was that he should Avoid prophane and Old-wives Fables meaning those impious and superstitious Doctrines and the carnal and unchristian Observances that were grounded upon them some of which he had mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter which some at that time did endeavour to introduce into Christianity and instead of applying his mind to these that he should rather Exercise himself unto true Godliness This was the Exhortation The Arguments wherewith he enforceth it are Two First The Unprofitableness of these Carnal and Superstitious Doctrines and Practices Bodily exercise saith he profiteth little Secondly The real usefulness of solid Vertue and Godliness to all the Purposes of life Godliness is profitable to all things having a promise of this Life as well as of that which is to come I shall not here meddle at all with the former part of the Apostle's Exhortation or the Argument that hath relation to it but shall apply my self wholly to the latter craving leave most plainly and affectionately to press upon you the Exercise of Godliness upon those Grounds and Considerations on which the Apostle here recommendeth it Indeed to a Man that considers well it will appear the most unaccountable thing in the World that among all those several Exercises that Mankind busie themselves about this of Godliness should be in so great a measure neglected that Men should be so diligent so industrious so unwearied some in getting Estates others in purveying for Pleasures others in learning Arts and Trades All in some thing or other relating to this sensible World and so few should study to acquaint themselves with God and the Concernments of their Souls to learn the Arts of Vertue and Religious Conversation Certain it is this Piece of Skill is not more above our reach than many of those other things we so industriously pursue nay I am apt to think it is more within our power than most of them For in our other Labours we cannot always promise to our selves certain success A thousand things may intervene which we know not of that may defeat all our plots and designs though never so carefully laid but no Man ever seriously undertook the Business of Religion but he accomplished it Nay farther As we can with greater certainty so can we with less pains and difficulty promise to our selves success in this affair than we can hope to compass most of our worldly designs which so much take up our thoughts I doubt not in the least but that less labour less trouble less solicitude will serve to make a Man a good Christian than to get an Estate or to attain a competent skill in Humane Arts and Sciences And then for other Motives to oblige us to the study of Religion we have incomparably more and greater than we can have for the pursuit of any other thing It is certainly the greatest Concernment we have in the World It is the very thing God sent us into the World about It is the very thing that his Son came down from Heaven to instruct us in It is the very thing by which we shall be concluded everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable after this life is ended These things well considered we may justly I say stand amazed that Men should be so prodigiously supine and negligent in an Affair of this nature and importance as we see they generally are If there can any account be given of this matter I suppose it must be some such as this That the things of this World upon which we bestow our Care our Time our Courtship are present to us We see them every day before our Eyes we taste we feel the sweetness of them we are sensible that their enjoyment is absolutely necessary to our present well-being But as
all worldly respects when I once came to the knowledge of the Christian Religion I dispised them all For in truth I found that they were so far from being real Advantages to me that they were rather hindrances in the way of Vertue and Piety Yea doubtless as he goes on in the 8th verse I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ That is to say Not only the above-named priviledges but all other things whatsoever Wealth Greatness Fame Friends and Life it self I account them all very pitiful things if they be compared with the inestimable advantages of being a Christian As I have once so I will again readily forsake all part with all things that the World holds most dear and valuable nay I will trample them under my feet like dirt and dung provided I may obtain the Favour of Christ And as he goes on in the 9th verse that I might be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This passage hath been frequently misunderstood and interpreted to a sense that I believe St. Paul did not think of St. Paul doth not here oppose an inherent Righteousness to an imputed one but an outward natural legal Righteousness to that which is inward and spiritual and wrought in a Man by the Spirit of God The Righteousness which the Apostle here desires to be found in is not the Righteousness of Christ made his or imputed to him but a real Righteousness produced in his Soul by the Faith of Jesus Christ The plain Sense of the Verse seems to be this That which above all things I desire is to be found in Christ i. e. to be found a Disciple of his ingrafted into him by being a Member of his Church not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law i. e. not being content with those outward Priviledges and that outward Obedience which by my own natural Strength I am able to yield to the Precepts of the Law which is that Righteousness in which the Jews place their Confidence and by which they expect to be justified before God But that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that Righteousness which I desire and in which only I shall have the Confidence to appear before God is an inward Principle of Holiness that Spiritual renewed Obedience to God's I aws which he doth require as the condition of his Favour and Acceptance and which I can never attain to but by the Faith of Christ by becoming a Christian This is none of my own Righteousness but God's it being wrought in me by his Spirit accompanying the preaching of the Gospel and as it is his Gift so he will own it and reward it at the last â—ay This is the full importance of that Verse and then it follows by way of Explication of what he now said That I may know him and 〈…〉 Resurrection c. This is the 〈…〉 that I aspire after that I may know Christ nor only by a nâ—â—ional belief of his Doctrines 〈…〉 of his Religion but by a spirituâ—â— experimental Knowledge of him such a Knowledge as â—â—ansformâ—â—â— Spirit and Temper and that 〈…〉 the power of his 〈◊〉 i. e. then 〈◊〉 experience in my self all the good 〈…〉 that his Resurrection 〈◊〉 a power to work in me that I may see the Vertue and Efficacy of it in my daily dying to Sin and rising again to a 〈◊〉 holy and heavenly Life This is that Righteousness I long for and in comparison of which I account all things in the World but as less and as duâ—â— Thus have I given you a full account of the Text and all the Apostle's Discourse that it depends upon I now come to treat more particularly of it with reserence to the solemnity of this Day We all here present do profess to believe the Article of our Saviour's Resurrection and our business at this time is to celebrate the memory of it But we must not rest here We are not to look upon our Lord's Resurrection meerly as a thing to be believed or professed or commemorated or as a matter of Fact that only concerned himself But there is a great deal in it which doth nearly concern us The Apostle tells us there is a great Power in it even a Power of raising us from Sin to a Holy and Vertuous Life It is so ordered as to be capable of being and it ought to be a Principle of now Life in us as it was the beginning of a now Life in our Saviour Now this Vertue this Power this Efficacy of it as it is that which with the Apostle we ought all most earnestly to endeavour the experiencing in our selves so it is that which will be fittest for us at this time to apply our Meditations to My Work therefore at this time shall be to give some Account of the Power of Christ's Resurrection in order to the making Men good which the Apostle here speaks of to shew how or in what respects it doth instuence upon the Lives of Christians Now if we look into the Holy Scriptures we shall find that there is a four-fold Power attributed to it or that it hath an insluence upon our Lives in these four respects That is to say I. As it lays an Obligation upon Christians to Holiness and Vertue II. As it is the Principal Evidence of the Truth of our Religion the Design of which is to make Men Holy and Vertuous III. As it is the great Support of our future Hopes or our Hopes of another Life which indeed is the main Encouragement we have to apply our selves seriously to the business of Holiness and Vertue IV. And Fourthly as to it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Strength by which we are inabled to live Holily and Vertuously Of these four Points I shall Discourse very briesly I. And First of all our Saviour's Resurrection hath an influence upon our Practice as it lays an Obligation upon Christians to lead Holy and Vertuous Lives As it is in it self an incitement to Piety and heavenly-Mindedness This is indeed the lowest instance of its Power but yet we ought not to pass it by because the Writers of the New Testament do frequently insist on it For thus they argue If Christ was crucified for our Sins then ought we to crucifie them in our members And if Christ rose again the third day then are we ingaged in conformity to him to rise again to newness of Life to lead a Spiritual Divine Heavenly Life such a lise as he now lives with God And this in the ancient times was taught every Christian in and by his Baptism Whenever a person was baptized
that the Souls Immortality is demonstrable by the light of Nature yet there are generally these two Inconveniences in the Arguments they make use of for the Proof of this matter which render them in a great measure ineffectual for the reforming mens lives First They are generally of so great Subtilty so Nice so Metaphysical so much above the reach of ordinary Capacities that they are useless to the greatest part of Mankind who have not understandings fitted for them And Secondly They have this inconvenience likewise that a Man doth not see the Evidence of them without actual attention to a long Train of Propositions which attention it may be when a Man most stands in need of their Support he shall neither have the leisure nor the humour to give But now the Christian Method of proving another Life is quite of another strain and wholly free from these inconveniences That Demonstration which Christ hath given us of a glorious Immortality by his Resurrection from the dead as it is infinitely certain and conclusive so it is plain and easy short and compendious powerful and operative No Man that believes the matter of Fact can deny the Cogency of it Men of the meanest Capacities may apprehend it Persons in a crowd of business and in the midst of temptations may attend to it And it hath this Vertue besides that it leaves a lasting impression upon the Spirits of those that do believe and consider it Thanks therefore to our Lord Jesus Christ for this excellent Instrument of Piety that he hath given us by his Resurrection Everlasting Praises to his name that he hath thus brought Life and Immortality to light by his Gospel This very thing alone was there nothing else to be said for the Christian Revelation would sufficiently justify both the Gospel it self and our Lord Jesus the Author of it to all Mankind nay and effectually recommend his Religion above all others that ever were taught to all Persons in all Nations of the World IV. Fourthly and Lastly There is still a further Blessing coming to us by our Saviour's Resurrection from the dead and in which indeed is chiefly seen and expressed the great Power of it for the making us Holy and Vertuous That is to say Unto it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Assistance by which we are enabled to vanquish our Corruptions and to live up to the Precepts of our Religion As Christ by his Resurrection did oblige us to lead new lives As Christ by his Resurrection did demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion which is wholly in order to our leading new lives As by his Resurrection he cleared up to us the certainty of our future State and thereby gave us the greatest Motive and Encouragement to lead new lives So in the last place by the same Resurrection he acquired a Power of conferring Grace and Strength and Influence upon us by the Virtue of which we are in fact inabled to lead new lives Tho' Christ by his death reconciled us to God and procured a Pardon of Sin for us yet the actual benefit of this Reconciliation the actual application of this Pardon did depend upon our performance of certain Conditions Which conditions were that we should mortify all our evil affections and frame our Lives suitable to the Laws of the Gospel But now the Grace and Power by which we are inabled to do this was not the effect of Christ's Death but of his Resurrection It was when he ascended up on high and led Captivity Captive that is when he had vanquished Death which had vanquished all the World before It was then as the Scripture assures us and not till then that he was in a capacity of giving gifts unto men It was not till he was glorified as St. John observes that the holy spirit was given Hence it is that we every where find the Apostles attributing the business of Man's Justification and Salvation as much or more to Christ's Resurrection than to his Passion If Christ be not risen saith St. Paul 1 Cor. xv your Faith is in vain ye are yet in your Sins Indeed if Christ had perished in the Grave we had still had all the load of our sins upon us because we had no assurance that God had accepted the Atonement and Propitiation which he had made for them And much less could we have promised to our selves that we should have been assisted by any Divine Power for the subduing of them Again the same St. Paul tells us Rom. iv that Christ was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification Christ's Death was the Sacrifice the Satisfaction for our Sins But it was by the means of his Resurrection that that Sacrifice and Satisfaction is applied to us and we for the merits of it become justified before God Lastly To name no more Texts Who saith the same Apostle Rom. viii shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifyeth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Here then is the great Power of our Saviour's Resurrection to make us good Christ being risen from the dead hath all Power given him both in Heaven and in Earth God as St. Paul expresseth it hath put all things under his feet and hath given him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 Now in the fullness of that Power that he is invested with as he doth on one hand with never-failing efficacy make continual Intercession for his Church and every Member of it So he doth on the other hand out of the fulness of that Power derive and communicate so much Strength and Grace and Assistance of the Divine Spirit to all Christians that if they make a good use of it they shall not fail to perform all those Conditions of Faith and Repentance and a Holy Life that are required of them in order to their being made actual partakers of all those unspeakable Benefits which he purchased for Mankind by his Death and Sufferings Christ by his Resurrection is become both our High-Priest and our King both our Advocate and our Lord. By that Power which he then obtained as our Priest and Advocate he doth with Authority recommend us and all our concernments to his Father As our King and Lord he rules and governs us he takes care of us he provides for us he represses the insults of his and our Enemies and defeats all their attempts against us And lastly he supplies us from time to time with such a measure of Grace and Strength and influence of his Divine Spirit as he sees is needful or proper for our Condition If all this now that I have said be the effect of our Saviour's Resurrection as it certainly is Must we not needs own that there is a mighty Power in it for the making us good
for spiritual matters they lie under a great disadvantage They appear to us as at a great distance We do not apprehend any present need we have of them Nor do we fancy any sweetness or relish in them Nay on the contrary we form the most frightful and dismal Images of them than can be We look upon them not only as flat and unsavoury but as things which if we trouble our heads too much about will certainly ruin all our designs in this World We think Religion good for nothing but to spoil good company to make us melancholy and mopish to distract us in our Business and Employments and to put so many restraints upon us that we can neither with that freedom nor success pursue our Temporal Concernments which we think necessary to our happiness in this World But let us suppose things to be thus with Religion as we have fancied yet cannot this be any reasonable Excuse for our carelesness about it What though there were no visible Benefit by a religious life in this World What though the rewards of our pains about it were only in reversion Yet since a time will come when it will be our greatest Interest to have been heartily Religious is it not a madness now to neglect it What tho' Religion be a course of life difficult and unpleasant a way strewed with Briers and Thorns a way which if we follow we are certainly lost as to our hopes of any thing here Yet since a Time will certainly come when we shall wish that we had been good Christians though we had lost our right eyes and our right hands upon the condition when we shall wish that we had purchased Vertue tho' at the rate of the loss of the whole World For God's sake why should we not be of the same mind now Who but Fools and Children but will look upon that which shall certainly and unavoidably be with the same regard as if it was now present But indeed this is not the Case of Religion This Business of Piety is not so formidable as we often represent it It is no such Enemy to our temporal designs It is a very innocent thing and will do us no harm though we look no farther than this present World It will hinder none of our delights or pleasures but will allow us to gratifie every Appetite that God and Nature hath put into us And if any Man doubt this let him name that natural desire which the Christian Religion doth forbid or any way hinder the innocent satisfaction of I am consident he shall be able to name none Since this is the Case then how much more Childish than Children shall we appear if we make so little reckoning of it How inexcusably Foolish shall we be if we will not be at some pains to possess our selves of that which will be no manner of Hinderance to us in our affairs in this World and will infallibly make us everlastingly happy in that which is to come But farther What if it be certain that a Life of strict Vertue is not only no Hinderance to our Temporal designs but a great Furtherance of them What if it can be proved that besides the influence it has on our Happiness in the next Life it is also the best thing in the World to serve our turns in this And that nothing can so much contribute to the bringing about our Worldly Aims no such ready way to attain to what our very Flesh and Blood most desires most delights in as to be sincerely Pious What imaginable pretence can we then have for our contempt of God and Vertue If this can be made to appear sure all our Objections will be fully answered all our scruples satisfied all our prejudices against Religion wholly removed and every one that is not abandoned of his Fortune and his Senses as well as his Reason must think himself concerned to become a Votary to it since he can have no Temptation or Motive to Vice which will not more powerfully draw him to Vertue and all the ends that the one can pretend to serve will much more effectually be served by the other and he escapes an Eternity of Misery and gets everlasting Life into the Bargain I think it therefore worth the while to spend the time now allotted me in making good this Point and discovering something at least of that universal Profitableness of Godliness to the purposes of Human Life that St. Paul in my Text assures us of But because the Studies of Men are so infinitely various and the Ends of Life to be served so many that it will be impossible to speak particularly of them it will be needful to pitch upon some general Heads such as if they do not comprehend all may yet take in most of those things to which the Labours and Endeavours of Men are directed and in the acquisition of which they have compassed their Designs and to shew the serviceableness of Religion above all other means for the attaining of them And I think I cannot pitch better than upon those three noted Idols of the World Wealth and Honour and Pleasure these being the Goods which have always been accounted to divide Mankind among them and into the service of some one or all of which All that set up for a happy life in this World do list themselves how different and disagreeing soever they be from one another as to their particular Employments and ways of Living I shall therefore make it appear that Godliness and Religion is a very great furtherance to the acquisition of all these and that no Man can take a more ready way either to improve his Fortune or to purchase a Name and Reputation among men or to live comfortably and pleasantly in this World than heartily to serve God and to live in the practice of every Vertue And in the First place I begin with the Conduciveness of Religion and Godliness to improve our outward Fortunes the Advantages of it for the getting or encreasing an Estate For this is the thing to which our Thoughts are commonly first directed as looking upon it as the Foundation of a happy Life in this World But here I desire not to be mistaken I would not be thought to deal with you as one of our ordinary Empiricks that promises many brave feats in his Bill which are indeed beyond the power of his Art I do not pretend that Wealth and Opulency is necessarily entailed upon Religion so that whoever is good shall presently be enabled to make Purchases and to leave Lands and Livings to his Children Riches are one of those things that are not so perfectly in our power that all Men may hope for an equal share of them The having more or less depends oftentimes not so much upon our selves as upon that condition and quality in which we were born the way and course of Life into which our Friends put us and a hundred accidental circumstances to which our selves
to that other People will be apt to fancy Silly and Ridiculous But this doth not at all reflect upon Religion nor doth it follow that because the Imprudence of this or the other particular Man exposes him to the Mirth and the Pleasantness of others that therefore all Religious Persons must fall under the same Fate Most certainly Religion where-ever it is governed by Knowledge and Sound Principles where-ever it is managed with Prudence and Discretion is a thing so Noble so Amiable that it attracts Love and commands Respect from all that are acquainted with it unless they be such profligately wicked Persons as I just now spoke of There is one Objection made from the Scripture against this and the former Point I have been speaking to which I desire to remove before I proceed to the Third General Head of my Discourse It is this That the Scripture is so far from representing Godliness as a means to improve our Fortunes or attain a Reputation in the World that it seems directly to affirm the contrary for it assures us that All those that will live godly in Christ must suffer Persecution That the Disciples of Christ shall be hated of all Men for His Name 's sake That the World shall revile and persecute them and speak all manner of Evil of them And that through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God But to this it is easily answered that these and other such like Passages of Scripture do not speak the General and Common Fate that attends Godliness in all Times and Places of the World according to the Ordinary Course of God's Providence but only refer to that particular Time when Christianity was to be planted in the World then indeed Persecution and Disgrace Loss of Goods and even of Life it self was to be the common Portion of those that professed it Nor could it otherwise be expected for when a new Religion is to be set up and such a Religion as is perfectly destructive of all those others that have been by long Custom received and are by Laws established in the World it cannot be imagined but that it will meet with a great deal of Contradiction and Opposition from all sorts of Persons But this was a peculiar and extraordinary Case and could but last for a certain Time Now that Christianity hath obtained in the World and is adopted into the Laws of Kingdoms as God be thanked it is among us at this day so far need we be from fearing that the Practice of it will draw upon us any Persecution or such other Inconveniences as are mention'd in the fore-cited places that there is no doubt but that we may rationally expect from it all those External Benefits and Advantages which as we have seen it is in its own nature apt to produce and which God hath indeed made over to it by Promise in several Passages of the Scripture especially of the Old Testament For that I may mention this by the By I do not conceive that those Promises of Long Life Good Days and all manner of Worldly Prosperity with which the Practice of Godliness is so frequently enforced in the Old Testament were so appropriated to the Jewish Religion as to be antiquated or disannualled by the Introduction of the Christian but rather that they are still in force to all the Purposes they were then for that the Coming of Christ into the World did add many great Blessings and Privileges to the People of God which before they had not we are certain of But that it took away from them any that before they had this we no where read nor indeed is it probable But I hasten to the Third and last General Head I am to speak to which is The excellent Ministeries of Religion above all other things to the Pleasures of Humane Life Which Point if it be clearly made out I do not see what can be farther wanting to recommend it unto us as the most effectual Instrument for the serving all our turns in this World Now that Godliness doth indeed make the most excellent Provisions for all sorts of Pleasures will appear by these four Considerations First That it eminently ministreth to Health which is a necessary Foundation for all Pleasures Secondly It doth much increase the Relish and Sweetness of all our other Pleasures Thirdly It secures us from all those Inquietudes and Disturbances which are apt to embitter our Pleasures and make our Lives uncomfortable Fourthly It adds to Humane Life a World of Pleasures of its own which those that are not possessed of it are utterly unacquainted with First of all Godliness doth very much conduce to Health Which is so necessary to our Enjoyment of any sensible Good that without it neither Riches nor Honours nor any thing that we esteem most gratifying to our Senses will signifie any thing at all to us Now that a Sound and Healthful Constitution does exceedingly much depend upon a discreet Government and Moderation of our Appetites and Passions upon a sober and temperate Use of all God's Creatures which is an Essential Part of True Religion is a thing so evident that I need make no words about it What are most of our Diseases and Infirmities that make us miserable and unpity'd while we live and cut us off in the midst of our days and transmit Weakness and Rottenness to our Posterity but the Effects of our Excesses and Debauches our Wantonness and Luxury Certainly if we would observe those Measures in our Diet and in our Labours in our Passions and in our Pleasures which Religion has bound us up to we might to such a degree Preserve our Bodies as to render the greatest part of Physick perfectly superfluous But these things are too well known to need to be insisted on I therefore pass on to the next thing Secondly A Life of Religion doth very much increase the Relish and Sweetness of all our sensible Enjoyments So far is it from abridging us of any of our Earthly Delights as its Enemies slanderously represent it that it abundantly heightens them It doth not only indulge to us the free Use of all those good Creatures of God which he hath made for the Support and Comfort of Mankind while they are in these Earthly Bodies but also makes them more exquisitely quisitely gratifying and delightful than without it they could possibly be And this it doth in part by the means of that never sufficiently commended Temperance and Moderation I before spoke of for hereby it comes to pass that our Senses which are the Instruments of our Pleasures are always preserv'd in that due Purity and Quickness that is absolutely necessary for the right performing of their Offices and the rendring our Perceptions of any thing grateful and agreeable Whereas the Sensual and Voluptuous Man defeats his own Designs and whilst he thinks to enjoy a greater share of Pleasures than other Men really enjoys a less for his Dissoluteness and giving
up to our selves in store a good Foundation against the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life And this is the Third thing I am to insist on from the Text. I mean not here to trouble you with the Criticisms about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text by disputing whether it should be render'd Foundation as it is in our Translation though to lay up a Foundation seems an unusual way of speaking we do not lay up Foundations but build upon them or whether the word should be taken to signifie the Bond or the Evidence that God hath given us for the performance of his part of the Covenant as it is used by this Apostle elsewhere where he tells us that the Foundation of God standeth sure having this seal that is to say 2 Tim. 2.19 that Covenant or Indenture that God hath made with Mankind standeth sure and hath this Seal put to it for Men do not put Seals to Foundations but to Covenants Or lastly whether the word should be rendred a Treasure so as to read the Text thus laying up to themselves a good Treasure against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc The original word say the Learned is capable or being translated all these ways and the last seems as natural as any for to lay up Treasure to our selves against the time to come is a proper way of speaking and that which our Saviour frequently useth in that very thing we are here treating of But it matters not much which of them we pitch upon for they all come to one sense and that is this That to be very charitable in this World is a good means to secure to our selves a title to eternal happiness in the next But to prevent all misunderstanding that may happen of this point I desire before I speak directly to it to premise these two things First Though we do maintain with the Ancient Church the efficacy of Charity and good works for the furthering a Man's Salvation yet we utterly reject those Doctrines which the Modern Romanists have advanced in this matter The Popish doctrines about good works are these three following that good works are meritorious do deserve the Favour and the Rewards of God Almighty Again that the surplusage of a Man's good works that is to say the merits of so many of his good deeds as are over and above what is sufficient to save his own soul may by the Church be dispensed out to the benefit of others they being part of the Church's treasure and upon this foundation they ground their Indulgences And lastly that good works i. e. the Alms of dying persons that are given to the Church or Clergy will by the means of the Masses and Diriges that they purchase to be said for them be effectual for the freeing their Souls out of the Torments of Purgatory These are the Popish Doctrines concerning good works which we all justly reject as having no foundation in Scripture or good Antiquity and being apparently contrived for the promoting their secular gain and advantage But then as for the necessity or the conduciveness of good works to a Man's Salvation which is all we here plead for I know no good Protestant but doth as earnestly contend for it as any of that Communion Secondly Whatever efficacy we attribute to works of Charity as a means for the obtaining eternal life we would not be understood hereby to exclude the necessary concurrence of other Vertues and Graces to that end It doth not from hence follow that it is an indifferent matter what Religion a Man is of or what kind of life he leads if he be but mighty bountiful to the Poor and do a great deal of good in his life No how acceptable to God soever the Sacrifice of Alms and Charity be yet we are not to expect it shall be available to our Salvation unless it proceed from a pure Heart and be offered with a lively Faith in Jesus Christ and accompanied with a sincere endeavour to obey all God's Commandments Eternal Happiness is not proposed in the Gospel as a reward of any one single Vertue no not of the greatest but of all of them together if indeed there can be any true Vertue where there is not a conjunction of all I say if there can be for St. James seems to affirm that there cannot Whosoever saith he shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point Jam. 2.10 he is guilty of all But now having said this by way of caution to prevent all occasion that any may take from our so earnestly pressing Charity to undervalue and neglect other Duties It cannot be denyed on the other side that very great effects are by our Saviour and his Apostles ascribed to this vertue with respect to Mens Salvation in the other World Luk. 6.30 35. In the 6. of St. Luke our Lord thus adviseth Love saith he your enemies give to him that asketh do good and lend hoping for nothing again so shall your reward be great and ye shall be the children of the most highest Now sure to be entitled to great rewards and to be the children of the most high doth look farther than this present World Our Saviour without doubt means the same thing here that he expresses upon the same occasion in another place viz. they those that you do good to cannot recompence you Luk. 14.14 but you shall be recompenced at the Resurrection of the just Again Luk. 16. the Parable of the unjust Steward that provided so well for himself against a bad time out of his Master's Goods is wholly designed to this purpose and that the Application of it sufficiently shews for our Saviour having said that the Lord of this Steward commended him for his providence and care of himself he thus applies it to all his Disciples verse 9. Wherefore I say unto you make you friends to your selves of the Mammon of unrighteousness i. e. of these false deceitful riches that when you fail you may be received into everlasting habitations plainly declaring that the best provision that rich Men can make for themselves against the time of their death in order to their reception into the other World must be the charitable actions they do with their Wealth while they live here Lastly Luk. 12.33 In another place our Saviour saith the very same thing in effect that is said in the Text for this is his counsel to all that mean to be happy in the next life viz. that they sell that they have that is when the times are such that it is reasonable so to do that they give alms for thereby they provide to themselves bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens where no thief approacheth nor moth corrupteth To these three Texts of our Saviour's I shall add three others of three of his Apostles which speak
of this Probity this Purity of Mind and Heart it would better instruct us in the use of our Liberty and teach us to distinguish between good and evil what is sit to be done and what ought not to be done in all cases and emergencies we are concerned in than all the dry Rules of Casuistical Learning be they never so carefully and accurately laid down When a Man is once arrived to that holy temper of Mind that he heartily loves God and his Neighbour and has such a lively sense of the truth and the excellency of Christ's Religion that he is resolved that that shall influence and govern the whole course of his Life and that he will do all his Actions as much as he can for the honour of our Lord and the advancement of his service in the World There can hardly any particular case occur to such a Man in which he will not have rules and measures ready at hand to steer and direct him in his proceedings Nay this general Principle alone of doing all his actions to the glory of God that is to say to the honour of his Religion and the edification of his Neighbour I say this alone will afford him sufficient light and direction for the government of his Actions in all Contingencies Because there is no Action he can be ingaged in but it is at the first sight discernable whether the doing of it or the not doing of it doth more tend to the honour of his Religion or the good of others That which makes the conduct of a Man's self in this World so nice and difficult a matter and has given occasion to the discussion of so many Cases of Concience about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Actions is this That Men are not throughly honest but halt between God and the World They have a great mind to serve their pleasure and their ambition and their secular ends and yet to serve God too and this puts them upon tampering and trying to reconcile these interests together Whence it comes to pass that the usual Questions that arise about their Actions are not what is best to be done or what is most agreeable to their Duty in this or the other ease But how far they may go in the gratification of such an Appetite or Passion without trangressing the Laws of God How far they may satisfie their covetuous desires without being unjust Whether they may use such arts or tricks in getting or saving without being knavish How far they may drink and not be drunk How far they may gratifie their humour of decking and adorning themselves and yet do no unlawful thing How far they may indulge wantonness and yet be chast Now as I said before such Questions as these are not easy to be resolved nor indeed is the Gospel of Christ so contrived as if it had taken much care whether they were resolved or no. But they are really Cases and Problems that require both Judgment and Learning and likewise the consideration of abundance of particular circumstances to have a good account given of them But now the Man that doth intirely give up himself to the conduct of the Spirit and proposeth nothing to himself in all his Actions but the pure glory of God Such a Man having none of these Worldly sensual designs to serve in his Actions can rarely be supposed to have any of these Questions to put to himself And consequently he can never be at a loss or uncertainty how he is to act for want of a resolution of them much less can he be in danger of transgressing the bounds that God hath fixed to his Actions All the point that such a one hath to consider in any Action is whether will his doing or not doing such an Action better serve the ends of Religion Which will tend most to his own spiritual benefit and the profit of his Neighbour to pursue this design or to let it alone Whether will be more conducive to the Honour of his Lord to gratifie such an Appetite or to deny it satisfaction This I say is the only Question that such a Man has to put to himself and there is no difficulty in giving an Answer to it For there is scarce any case to be put concerning an Action but it is very obvious without an Instructer to find out which side of the case if it be chosen will most minister to the ends of Vertue and Religion and Charity Or if it be not obvious then it is very certain the Man needs not much deliberate about it but may chuse either side indifferently It is a very hard matter oftentimes to determine concerning the Necessity and Obligation of Actions that is whether a Man be bound to do them or no. It is likewise often a hard matter to determine concerning the lawfulness of Actions whether a Man may do them or no. But it is a very easy matter in most cases to determine concerning the expedience of Actions that is to say whether it be best and fittest for a Man to do them or no. Now this last I say is the point that a throughly good Man will consider and steer himself by in all his Actions Thus for Instance It may perhaps bear a dispute Whether a Man be precisely bound by God's Law to pray solemnly twice a day so as that he sins if he do not But it will bear no dispute that it is much better and more acceptable to God and beneficial to our selves to pray at least thus often than to pray seldomer And therefore such a Person as I am speaking of will upon this consideration put it in practice nay and pray oftner too as he has occasion without concerning himself whether he be strictly bound so to do or no. It may bear a dispute among some Persons whether painting the Face be not allowable to Christian Women But it can bear no dispute among any that it is more agreeable to the Sobriety and Modesty and Chastity of a Disciple of Jesus Christ and better serves the ends of Religion to forbear all such suspicious Ornaments There being rarely any good end to be served by them but abundance of evil often arising from them Now this consideration alone is enough to set the Heart of every serious Christian against those practices and to make them wholly to refrain them Thus again it is argued both ways about Play or Gaming whether it be lawful or no especially when sums of Money are played for and the thing becomes rather an avaritious Contention than a Recreation and Divertisement some believing that it is innocent others that it is a grievous sin But there is no Man even of those that use it most but will readily acknowledge that it exposeth a Man to great and Dangerous Temptations of sundry kinds that it is the occasion of abundance of Sin and abundance of Mischief and that it seldom fails to produce intolerable consequences both as to Men's Souls and Estates
our Spiritual Life consists as Meat and Drink is to preserve the Union between our Souls and Bodies in which our natural Life consists And we may every whit as reasonably expect to keep our Bodies alive without the constant and daily use of Eating and Drinking As we can expect to keep our Souls alive to God without the constant and daily Exercise of Devotion This may to some appear strange Doctrine But I do believe I may appeal to experience for the Truth of it Nay I dare put the Question to any one that ever took any serious Care of his Soul and sincerely endeavoured to live vertuously and to please God whether he hath not found the Matter to be so as I have represented Have not such always found that so long as they kept up the Fervour and Vigour of their Devotion so long as they were constant and diligent in their Prayers and other Holy Exercises So long nothing could hurt them So long they have always maintained their Post and rather grown better than worse And though they have sometimes been foully overtaken by some Sin that they resolved against yet that Relapse hath done them no Mischief Their Continuance in their Prayers hath been an Antidote against the Malignity of the Sin And they have presently weather'd it out and suffered no ill Consequence by it But it has rather made them more watchful over themselves and more careful of their Actions afterward But on the other side have they not always found that when once they began to abate of the Fervour of their Devotions when once they began to pray seldomer or with more Coldness and Indifference They then began to live more loosely and carelesly to be more dull and sluggish towards every good Work Till perhaps by degrees the true Sense of God and Religion hath been in a great measure worn off from their Spirits and they in a manner have returned to a Worldly and Sensual Life Nay have they not often found that when it has been their Misfortune to break loose from their Duty and sink for some time into a State of Carelesness and Forgetfulness of God and of their own Vows and Resolutions as it hath sometimes hap'ned to very good Men I say Have they not often found that this their going backwards in Goodness was occasioned purely and solely by the Intermission of their Devotions That there was no visible Reason or Account to be given of this their Fall but only that through Sluggishness or some other Cause they have neglected to pray to God so earnestly and so frequently as they used to do I am confident a great many can say this out of their own Experience So that it concerns every Man that is at present in a good Disposition of Mind and hath good Hopes towards God It concerns him as he loves his Soul As he would not lose all the Fruits of his past Labours and Endeavours in the Service of God By all means possible to keep his Heart in a devout Frame And whatever comes of it not to grow cold or languid in his Prayers Or to omit or disuse them either in publick or private upon any pretence whatsoever But Thirdly and Lastly to conclude all there is this farther to be said for the Encouragement of all sorts of Persons to persevere in the Practice of this Duty namely That whoever makes Conscience of Saying his Prayers frequently and heartily and continues so to do tho' he be not good at the present yet it is impossible for him long to continue bad He will at last certainly get the Victory over all his Lusts and evil Habits and attain to the Favour of God and the Salvation of his own Soul This necessarily follows from what hath been said A Course of Prayer and a Course of Sin cannot consist together One will necessarily destroy the other Praying will either make a Man leave Sinning as a pious Man of our own used to say or Sinning will make a Man leave Praying But this is to be understood of Prayer that is put up to God with great Seriousness and Heartiness and out of a Sense of Duty and Conscience For as for those formal Prayers that are made out of Custom or upon the account of Education or for the serving some Worldly Ends of Interest or Reputation or the like God respects them no more than the impertinent Tattle of Fools All those of us therefore that mean and design to be good though we are not so already Let us above all things take care to mind our Prayers Let us pray to God in Private Let us pray to God with our Families And let us join as oft as we can with the Prayers of the Publick Assemblies This I am sure is the best Method we can take for the reforming our Lives and for the gowing in all Vertue and Goodness And the more we practise it the better we shall like it And if we persevere therein we shall find the Comfort of it both in the Grace and Assistance we shall receive from the Holy Spirit for the vanquishing all our Lusts and Corruptions And in the Blessings we shall procure from God both to our Selves and our Families and all our Affairs and Concernments And lastly in the Everlasting Salvation of our Souls in the Day of the Lord Jesus To whom c. FINIS
FIFTEEN SERMONS Preach'd on Several Occasions The Last of which was never before Printed BY The Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of York Primate of England and Metropolitan LONDON Printed by Will. Bowyer for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. MVNIFICENTIA REGIA 1715. GEORGIVS D.G. MAG BR FR. ET HIB REX F.D. THE CONTENTS SERMON I. Page 1. THE Things that make for Peace Or The Obligation of Christians to Church-Communion and mutual Charity Rom. xiv 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace Preach'd before the Lord Mayor c. 1674. SERMON II. Page 41. The Profitableness of Godliness Or The Advantages of Piety for the promoting all a Man's Interests in this World 1 Tim. iv 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having a Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come Preach'd before the Lord Mayor 1675. SERMON III. Page 88. Of doing Good in our Lives shewing that it is every one's great Concernment and is in every one's Power Eccles iii. 10. I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and to do good in his Life Preach'd at the Yorkshire Feast 1680. SERMON IV. Page 127. The Rich-Man's Duty and the Encouragement he hath to Practise it 1 Tim. vi 17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal Life Preach'd at the Spittal 1680. SERMON V. Page 169. A Description of the Vpright Man and his Security in evil Times Psal cxij. 4. To the upright there ariseth Light in the Darkness Preach'd at the Election of the Lord Mayor 1680. SERMON VI. Page 205. A standing Revelation of more force to persuade Men than one rising from the Dead With the Evidence we have at this day for the Truth of the Christian Religion Luke xvj 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Preach'd at White-Hall 1684. SERMON VII Page 243. Rules for the Conduct of our selves where we are at a loss to distinguish the Bounds of Duty and Sin Lawful and Vnlawful in any Action Galat. v. 13. Vse not Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh Preach'd before the Queen 1690. SERMON VIII Page 173. Vertue and Religion the only means to make a Nation prosperous Deut. v. 29. O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever Preach'd before the House of Commons 1690. SERMON IX Page 209. General Directions for a Holy Life Phil. iv 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things A Farewel-Sermon preach'd at St. Giles 's 1691. SERMON X. Page 241. Zeal for Religion how to be govern'd Rox. x. 2. For I bear them Record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Preach'd before the House of Lords Novemb. 5. 1691. SERMON XI Page 369. Of our Saviour's Appearance Heb. ix 26. Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Preach'd before the King and Queen on Christmass-day 1691. SERMON XII Page 401. The Power of Christ's Resurrection Philip. iij. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Preach'd before the Queen on Easter-day 1692. SERMON XIII Page 429. God's Government of the World matter of Rejoycing to Mankind Psal xcvij. 1. The Lord is King the Earth may be glad thereof yea the multitude of the Isles may be glad thereof Preach'd before the King and Queen on the Day of Thanksgiving 1693. SERMON XIV Page 459. Of the Government of the Thoughts Prov. iv 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life Preach'd before the King and Queen 1693. SERMON XV. Page 487. A Persuasive to Prayer Luke xviii 1. And he spake a Parable unto them to this end That Men ought always to Pray and not to faint Preach'd before the King 1697. Note That by Mistake the Eighth Sermon which begins Page 173 hath on the Top of the Page the Title of the Ninth Sermon throughout As also the Ninth Sermon which begins Page 209. has for several Pages together the Title of the Tenth Sermon SERMON I. PREACHED AT GVILD-HALL CHAPEL On the 23d of August 1674. Rom. xiv 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace WHOSOEVER understandeth any thing of the State of Christianity as it hath now been for some Ages in the World will be easily convinced that there is no one Point of our Religion more necessary to be daily Preached to be earnestly pressed and insisted on than that of Peace and Love and Vnity here recommended by the Apostle It hath fared as the Learned Mr. Hales observed with the Christian Religion in this matter as it did with the Jewish of old The great and principal Commandment which God gave the Jews and which as they themselves teach was the Foundation of all their Law was to worship the God of Israel and Him only to serve yet such was the Perversness of that People that This was the Commandment that of all others they could never be brought to Keep but they were continually running into Idolatry notwithstanding all the Methods that God made use of to reclaim them from that Sin What the Worship of one God was to the Jews that Peace and Love and Vnity is to the Christians even the Great distinguishing Law and Character of their Profession And yet to the shame of Christians it may be spoken there is no one Commandment in all Christ's Religion that has been so generally and so scandalously violated among his Followers as this Witness the many bitter Fewds and Contentions that have so long Embroiled Christendom and the numerous Sects and Parties and Communions into which at this day it stands divided And God knows this is a thing that cannot be sufficiently lamented among our selves For though in many Respects we are the Happiest Nation in the World and particularly in this that we have the Advantage of all others both as to the Constitution of our Church and the Purity of Christ's Doctrine professed therein Yet in this point of Schisms and Divisions and Religious Quarrels we are as unhappy if not more than any Whether ever we shall see that blessed Day when these our Breaches will
more loosly But both Parties especially the more moderate of both seem to drive at much-what the same thing though by different ways as appears from this That being interrogated concerning the Consequences of their several Opinions they generally agree in admitting or rejecting the same But Fourthly Another thing that would make for Peace is this Never to charge upon Men the Consequences of their Opinions when they expresly disown them This is another thing that doth hugely tend to widen our Differences and to exasperate Men's Spirits one against another when having examin'd some Opipinion of a Man or Party of Men and finding very great Absurdities and evil Consequences necessarily to flow from it we presently throw all those into the Dish of them that hold the Opinion as if they could not own the one but they must necessarily own the other Whereas indeed the Men we thus charge may be so innocent in this matter that they do not in the least dream of such Consequences or if they did they would be so far from owning them that they would abhor the Opinion for their sakes To give you an Instance or two in this matter It is a Doctrine maintained by some That God's Will is the Rule of Justice or That every thing is therefore just or good because God wills it Those that are concerned to oppose this Doctrine do contend that if this Doctrine be true it will necessarily follow that no Man can have any Certainty of the Truth of any one Proposition that God hath revealed in Scripture because say they his Eternal Faithfulness and Veracity are by this Doctrine made Arbitrary Things Granting now that this can by just consequence be made out yet I dare say those that hold the aforesaid Doctrine would be very angry and had good reason so to be if they were told that they did not no nor could not upon their Principles certainly believe the Scripture Some Men think that they can with demonstrative Evidence make out that the Doctrine of God's Irrespective Decrees doth in its Consequences overthrow the whole Gospel that it doth destroy the nature of Rewards and Punishments cuts the very Sinews of Men's Endeavours after Vertue makes all Laws Promises Exhortations perfectly idle and insignificant things and renders God the most unlovely Being in the World Now supposing all this to be true yet it would be a most unjust and uncharitable thing to affirm of any that believe that Doctrine many of whom are certainly pious and good Men that they do maintain any such impious and blasphemous Opinions as those that are now mentioned The Sum of all is that a Man may believe a Proposition and not believe all that follows from it Not but that all the Deductions from a Proposition are equally true and equally credible with the Proposition from whence they are deduced But a Man may not so clearly see through the Proposition as to discern that such Consequences are really deducible from it So that we are at no hand to charge them upon him unless he do explicitely own them If this Rule was observ'd our Differences would not make so great a noise nor would the Errours and Heterodoxes maintained among us appear so monstrous and extravagant and we should spare a great many hard words and odious appellations which we now too prodigally bestow upon those that differ from us The Fifth Rule is To abstract Men's Persons from their Opinions and in examining or opposing these never to make any reflections upon those This is a thing so highly reasonable that methinks no Pretender to Ingenuity should ever need to be called upon to observe it For it seems very absurd and ridiculous in any Argument to meddle with that that nothing concerns the Question But what do Personal Reflections concern the Cause of Religion Whatever it may be to the Reputation of an Opinion I am sure it is nothing to the Truth of it that such or such a Man holds it And truly if Men would leave this Impertinence we might hope for a better Issue of our Religious Debates But whilst Men will forsake the Merits of the Cause and unmanly fall to railing and disparaging Men's Persons and scraping together all the ill that can be said of them they blow the Coals of Contention they so imbitter and envenom the Dispute that it rankles into incurable Distastes and Heart-burnings Christians would do well to consider that these mean Arts of exposing Men's Persons to discredit their Opinions are very much unworthy the Dignity of their Profession and most of all mis-becoming the Sacredness and Venerableness of the Truth they contend for And besides no Cause stands in need of them but such an one as is extremely bassled and desperate and even then they are the worst Arguments in the World to support it for quick-sighted Men will easily see through the Dust we endeavour to raise and those that are duller will be apt to suspect from our being so angry and so waspish that we have but a bad Matter to manage We should consider that Men's Persons are sacred things that whatever power we have to judge of their Opinions we have no Authority to judge or censure Them That to bring Them upon the Stage and there throw Dirt on them is highly rude and uncivil and an Affront to Humane Society and the most contrary thing in the World to Christian Charity which is so far from enduring Reproaches and Evil-speaking that it obliges us to cover as much as we can all the Faults and even the very Indiscretions of others The Sixth and last thing I shall recommend to you as an Expedient of Peace is a vigorous Pursuit of Holiness Do but seriously set your selves to be good do but get your Hearts deeply affected with Religion as well as your Heads and then there is no fear but you will be all the Sons of Peace We may talk what we will but really it is our not practising our Religion that makes us so Contentious and Disputatious about it It is our Emptiness of the Divine Life that makes us so full of Speculation and Controversie Was but That once firmly rooted in us these Weeds and Excrescencies of Religion would presently dry up and wither we should loath any longer to feed upon such Husks after we once came to have a Relish of that Bread Ah! How little Satisfaction can all our pretty Notions and fine-spun Controversies yield to a Soul that truly hungers and thirsts after Righteousness How pitifully flatly and insipidly will they taste in comparison of the Divine Entertainments of the Spiritual Life Were we but seriously taken up with the Substantials of our Religion we should not have leisure for the Talking Disputing Divinity we should have greater matters to take up our Thoughts and more profitable Arguments to furnish out our Discourses So long as we could busie our selves in working out our Salvation and furthering the Salvation of others we should think it
contribute nothing But this I say supposing the vertuous Man in equal circumstances with others supposing him to stand upon the same level and to enjoy the same fortuitous hits and external concurrences that they do and he â—hall by many odds have the advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thriving and improving in â—he World in any condition of life whatsoever So that so far as the getting of Riches depends upon Humane endeavours so far as it is an Art and falls under Precepts and Directions no Man alive can propose a better expedient in order thereto than a serious practice of Religion To make this good let it be considered that as to the means that do in a more direct and immediate manner influence upon the getting or improving an Estate I speak of general means such as are of use in all conditions of life for to meddle with the Mysteries of any Particular Art or Trade is not my purpose as indeed it is beyond my skill as to such means as these I say none can prescribe more effectual than these four 1. Prudence in administring our Affairs 2. Diligence in that Vocation wherein God hath placed us 3. Thrift and good Husbandry 4. Keeping a good Correspondence with those in whose power it is to hinder or promote our Affairs If now it do appear that Godliness doth highly improve a Man in all these four respects if it can be shewed that all these Fruits naturally grow and thrive better in a Religious Soil than any other it will evidently follow that supposing these above named means do indeed contribute to the making of a Fortune and if they do not no Man knows what doth and we strangely abuse our Friends and our Children when upon that account we recommend them to them it follows I say that a life of Godliness is a mighty advantage to a Man for the purposes I am speaking of And first of all it will be easie to shew that Godliness doth above all things tend to make a man wise and prudent skilful and dexterous in the management of his Affairs of what nature soever For it doth very much clear and improve a Mans understanding not only by a certain natural efficacy it hath as I shall shew hereafter to purifie the Blood and Spirits upon which the perfection of our Intellectual Operations doth exceedingly much depend but also by dispelling those adventitious clouds that arise in the discerning faculty from the noisome Fumes of Lust and Passion All Vice in the very nature of it depraves and distorts a mans judgment fills our minds with Prejudices and false Apprehensions of things and no Man that is under the dominion of it can possibly have such a free use of his Reason as otherwise he might for he will commonly see things not as they are in themselves but in those disguises and false colours which his Passion puts upon them Upon which account he cannot avoid but he will be often imposed upon and commit a thousand errours in the management of his Affairs which the vertuous Man whose Reason is pure and untinctur'd is secured from It cannot be imagined that either he should foresee events so clearly or spy opportunities so sagaciously or weigh things so impartially or deliberate so calmly or transact so cautiously as the Man that is free from those manifold prepossessions which his mind is fraught with We see this every day verified in Men of all Ranks and Conditions of all Callings and Employments What a multitude of inconveniences as to matter of dealing between Man and Man doth an intemperate Appetite betray Men to How silly and foolish is the most shrewd Man when Wine hath gotten into his head There is none so simple in his Company but supposing him to be sober and to have designs upon him he shall be able to over-reach him What a World of Advantages doth the Angry Man give to him he deals with by the hastiness and impatience of his Spirit How often doth a Man do that in the fury and expectancies of a Lust for which when his Ardours are over he is ready to bite his Nails for very vexation It is thus more or less with all kind of Vices they craze a Man's head and cast a mist before his Eyes and make him often lose himself in those very ways wherein he pretends to be most skilful So that it cannot be denied that Vertue is of a singular use in all matters wherein we have occasion to make use of our Reason and doth secure us from a multitude of indiscretions which without it we should unavoidably commit But secondly Godliness is also an excellent means to secure a man's diligence in the discharge of his Calling and Employment which is also a matter of very great consequence in order to our thriving in the World for it is the diligent hand that maketh rich and the man that is diligent in his business that shall stand before Kings as Solomon tells us Now the Obligations that Religion layeth upon us to be careful in this point are far stronger than what can arise from any other respect or consideration soever for it obligeth us to mind our Business not only for our own but for God's sake It chargeth the matter upon our Consciences and represents it to us as a part of that service we owe to our Creator and upon the due performance of which no loss than the everlasting welfare of our Souls doth depend for it assures us that he that will call us to account for every idle Word will much more do so for the idle expence of our Time and the abuse and not improvement of those Talents that he hath entrusted us with So that though we had no worldly inducement to make us diligent in our Callings though we were sure we should suffer no prejudice in our Temporal Affairs by Idleness and the neglect of our Business the fear of which yet is the only principle that puts Worldly Men upon action nevertheless we were infinitely concerned not to be slack or negligent in this matter in regard it is a point that will be so severely exacted of us in the other World I know but one Objection that can be made against this Discourse and it is this that what engagements soever Religion lays upon us to the careful spending of our time yet it s own Exercises Prayer and Reading and Meditation take up so great a portion of it which might be spent in the works of our ordinary Employment that in effect it rather hinders our attendance on our Business than promotes it But to this it is easily answered that there is no Man so engaged in the World but may if he please make both his Business and his Devotions consist together without prejudicing of either They have very false Apprehensions of Religion that think it obliges us to be always upon our Knees or always poring upon some good Book No we do as truly serve God and perform acts
his Enjoyments So that however the varieties of his Condition may occasion a change in his Pleasures yet can they never cause any Loss or Destruction of them And this security he enjoys not as some of the Stoicks of old pretended to do by an Imaginary Insensibility or by changing the names of Things calling that no Evil which Really is one but by an absolute Resignation of himself to the Will of God and an Hearty acquiescing in his wise Providence He is certain there is a God that governs the World and that nothing happens to him but by his Order and Appointment And he is certain also that this God hath a real Kindness for him and would not dispense any Event unto him but what is really for his Good and Advantage And these thoughts so support his Spirit that he not only bears patiently but thanks God for whatever happens to him And instead of Fretting and Complaining that things succeed otherwise than he expected he resolves with himself that that Condition whatever it be in which he actually is is indeed best for him and that which he himself were he to be the Carver of his Fortunes supposing him but truly to understand his own Concernments would chuse for himself above all others But farther besides this security from Outward Disturbances which our Vertue obtains for us there is another Evil which it also delivers us from with which the wicked Man is almost perpetually haunted and which seldom suffers him to enjoy any sincere unmingled Pleasure That which I mean is the Pangs of an Evil Conscience the Fears the Restlesness the Confusion the Amazements that arise in his Soul from the sense of his Crimes and the just Apprehensions of the Shame and Vengeance that doth await them possibly in this Life but most certainly in the Life to come How Happy how Prosperous soever the Sinner be as to his other Affairs yet these Furies he shall be sure to be plagued with no pompousness of Condition no costly Entertainments no noise of Company will be able to drive them away Every Man that is wicked cannot but know that he is so and that very Knowledge is a Principle of perpetual Anguish and Disquietude Be his Crimes never so secret yet he cannot be confident they will always continue so and the very Apprehension of this makes him feel all the Shame and Amazement of a present Discovery But put the case he hath had the good luck to sin so closely or in such a nature that he need fear nothing from Men yet he knows there is an Offended God to whom he hath a sad and a fearful Reckoning to make a God too Just to be Bribed too Mighty to be Over-awed too Wise to be Imposed upon And is not the Man think you under such Reflections as these likely to live a very Comfortable life Ah none knows the Bitterness of them but himself that feels them To the Judgment of others he perhaps appears a very happy Man he hath the World at his beck all things seem to conspire to make him a great Example of Prosperity we admire we appland his Condition But ah we know not how sad a heart he often carries under this fair Out-side we know not with what sudden Damps his Spirit is often struck even in the heighth of his Revellings We know not how unquiet how broken his sleeps are how oft he starts and looks pale when the Wife that lies by his side understands not what the matter is with him He doth indeed endeavour all he can to stifle his Cares and to stop the mouth of his Conscience He thinks to divert it with Business or to flatter it with little Sophistries or to drown it with Rivers of Wine or to calm it with soft and gentle Airs And he is indeed sometimes so successful in these Arts as for a while to lay it asleep But alas this is no lasting Peace the least thing awakens it even the sound of a Passing-Bell or a clap of Thunder nay a Frightful Dream or a Melancholy Story hath the power to do it and then the poor Man returns to his Torment And now judge you whether the Honest and Vertuous Man that is free from all these Agonies that is at Peace with God and at Peace with his own Conscience that apprehends nothing terrible from the one nor feels any thing troublesome from the other but is safe from Himself and from all the world in his own Innocence Judge I say whether such a one hath not laid to himself better and surer Foundations for Pleasures and a happy Life than the Man that by indulging his Lusts and Vices only breeds up a Snake in his Bosom which will not cease to Sting and Gall him beyond what a Tongue is able to express or a witty Cruelty to invent Fourthly and lastly Besides the benefits of Religion for removing the hinderances of our Pleasures it also adds to Humane Life a world of Pleasures of its own which vicious men are utterly unacquainted with And these are of so excellent a kind so delicious so enravishing that the highest gratifications of sense are not comparable to them Never till we come to be heartily Religious do we understand what true Pleasure is That which ariseth from the grateful motions that are made in our outward senses is but a faint shadow a mere dream of it Then do we begin to enjoy true Pleasures indeed when our Highest and Divinest Faculties which were wholly laid asleep while we lived the Life of Sense begin to be awakened and to exercise themselves upon their proper objects when we become acquainted with God and the Infinite Abyss of Good that is in him when our hearts are made sensible of the great Love and Good-will he bears us and in that Sense are powerfully carried out in Joy and Love and Desire after him When we feel the Divine Nature daily more and more displayed in our Souls shewing forth it self in the blessed Fruits of Charity and Peaceableness and Meekness and Humility and Purity and Devotion and all the other Graces of the Holy Spirit It is not possible but that such a Life as this must needs be a Fountain of inexpressible Joy to him that leads it and fill the Soul with transcendently greater Content than any thing upon Earth can possibly do For this is the Life of God this is the Life of the Blessed Angels above this is the Life that is most of all agreeable to our own Natures While we live thus things are with us as they should be our Souls are in their natural Posture in that state they were framed and designed to live in whereas the Life of Sin is a state of Disorder and Confusion a perpetual violence and force upon our Natures While we live thus we enjoy the Pleasures of Men whereas before when we were governed by Sense we could pretend to no other satisfactions but what the Brutes have as well as we In
ardent Love and Charity set our selves not to seek his own but every man another's good as the Apostle exhorteth 1 Cor. 10.24 Secondly if the doing good be so necessary a duty as hath been represented what must we say of those Men that frame to themselves Models of Christianity without putting this duty into its notion There is a sort of Christianity which hath obtained in the world that is made up of Faith and knowledge of the Gospel Mysteries without any respect to Charity and good works Nay have we not heard of a sort of Christianity the very perfection of which seems to consist in the disparaging this duty of doing Good as much as is possible crying it down as a heathen Vertue a poor blind piece of Morality a thing that will no way further our salvation nay so far from that that it often proves a hindrance to it by taking us off from that full relyance and recumbency that we ought to have on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ only in order to our Salvation But O how contrary are these Doctrines to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles How widely different a thing do they make Christianity to be from what it will appear if we take our notions of it from their Sermons and Practices Is it possible that he that went about doing Good himself made it his meat and drink the business and employment of his life should set so light by it in us that are his followers Is it possible that they that so often call upon us to do Good 1 Tim. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.8 1 Cor. 13.2.13 to be rich in good works above all things to have fervent charity among our selves telling us that all faith is nothing all knowledge of mysteries is nothing all gifts of Prophecy and Miracles are nothing but that Charity is all in all I say is it possible that they should think doing Good so insignificant so unprofitable nay so dangerous a thing as these I spoke of do represent it But I need not farther reprove these Opinions because I hope they find but few Patrons but this seriously ought to be reproved among us viz. that we do not generally lay that stress upon this duty we are speaking of that we ought to do Many are ready enough to acknowledge their Obligations to do Good and count it a very commendable thing and a work that God will bless them the better for yet they are loth to make it an essential ingredient of their Religion they think they may be Religious and serve God without it If they be but sober in their lives and just in their dealings and come to Church at the usual times they have Religion enough to carry them to Heaven though in the mean time they continue covetous and hard and uncharitable without bowels of pity and compassion and make no use of their wealth or their power and interest or their parts and industry or their other Talents committed to them for the doing good in the World Far be it from any Man to pretend to determine what Vertues or degrees of them are precisely necessary to Salvation and what Vertues or degrees of them a man may safely be without But this is certain that Charity and doing Good are none of those that can be spared The Scripture hath every where declared these qualities to be as necessary in order to our Salvation as any condition of the Gospel Nay if we will consult St. Matth. 25. where the Process of the General Judgment is described we shall find these to be the great points that at the last day Men shall be examined upon and upon which the whole case of their eternal state will turn So that if we take the Scripture for our Guide these Men at last will be found to be much mistaken and to have made a very false judgment both of Religion and of their own condition Thirdly From what hath been said about doing Good we may gather wherein that Perfection of Christianity which we are to aspire after doth consist It has been much disputed which is the most perfect life to live in the World as other Men do and to serve God in following our employments and taking care of our families and doing Good offices to our neighbours and discharging all other Duties that our relation to the publick requires of us or to retire from the World and to quit all our secular concernments and wholly to give up our selves to Prayer and Meditation and those other exercises of Religion properly so called This latter kind of life is so magnified by the Romanists in comparison of the other that it hath engrossed to it self the name of Religious None among them are thought worthy to be stiled Religious persons but those that Cloyster up themselves in a Monastery But whatever excellence may be pretended in this course of life it certainly falls much short of that which is led in a publick way He serves God best that is most serviceable to his Generation And no Prayers or Fasts or Mortifications are near so acceptable a Sacrifice to our Heavenly Father as to do Good in our lives It is true to keep within doors and to attend our devotions though those that are in appearance most abstracted from the world are not always the most devout persons I say this kind of life is the most easie and the safer A man is not then exposed so much to temptations he may with less difficulty preserve his innocence but where is the praise of such a Vertue Vertue is then most glorious and shall be most rewarded when it meets with most trials and oppositions And as for the bravery of contemning the world and all the Pomps of it which they so magnifie in this kind of life alas it is rather an effect of pusillanimity and love of our ease and a desire to be free from cares and burthens than of any true nobleness of mind If we would live to excellent purpose indeed if we would shew true bravery of Spirit and true piety towards God let us live as our blessed Lord and his Apostles did Let us not fly Temptations but overcome them let us not sit at home amusing our selves with our pleasing contemplations when we may be useful and beneficial abroad Let us so order our devotions towards God that they may be a means of promoting our worldly business and affairs and doing Good among men Let us take our fit times of retirement and abstraction that we may the more freely converse with God and pour out our souls before him but let this be only to the end that we may appear abroad again more brisk and lively in vanquishing the Temptations that come in our way and more prompt and readily disposed to every good work This is to imitate our Lord Jesus to walk as we have him for an example This is a life more suitable to the contrivance and the genius of his Religion
which is more accommodated to Cities and publick Societies than to Cloysters and Deserts And lastly Mat. 5.16 this is to walk in a conformity to his command who hath bid us make our light so to shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But Fourthly and lastly If it be a thing so necessary that every man should do Good in his life as hath been represented then how much to be reproved are they that do no Good till their death That live scrapingly and uncharitably and uselesly to the world all their lives long and then when they come to die think to Atone for their sins and neglects of this kind by shewing some extraordinary Bounty to the poor or devoting some part of their Estates to publick or pious uses I must confess this kind of proceeding doth to me seem just like the business of putting off a man's repentance to his death-bed It is absolutely necessary that a Man should repent though it be never so late and so it is that he should do good if he have done little Good in his life he is bound as he loves his soul to shew some extraordinary uncommon instances of Charity and a Publick Spirit when he comes to die But then it is here as it is with the long delaying of Repentance the deferring it so long has robbed the man of the greatest part of the praise and the comfort he might have expected from it His Rewards in Heaven will be much less though his good deeds should be accepted but he is infinitely uncertain whether they will or no. It must be a very great act of Generosity and Charity that can obtain a pardon for a whole life of uncharitableness Let us all therefore labour and study to do Good in our lives let us be daily giving evidences to the World of our kind and charitable disposition and let not that be the first which is discovered in our last Will and Testament If God hath blessed us with worldly goods let us distribute them as we see occasion in our life time when every one may see we do it voluntarily and not stay till we must be forced to part with them whether we will or no for that will blast the credit of our good deeds both with God and man I have said enough concerning the first point recommended in the Text viz. doing Good I now come briefly to Treat of the other that is Rejoycing which is equally a part of the business of this day There is no Good saith Solomon in any earthly thing or there is nothing better for any Man than to rejoyce and to do Good The Rejoycing her recommended is capable of two senses the first more general and more concerning us as Christians the other more particular and which more immediately concerns us as we are here met upon this occasion In the first place by Rejoycing we may take to be meant a constant habit of joy and chearfulness so that we are always contented and well pleased always free from those anxieties and disquiets and uncomfortable reflexions that make the lives of mankind miserable This now is the Perfection of Rejoycing and it is the utmost degree of Happiness that we are here capable of It must be granted indeed that not many do arrive to this state but yet I doubt not but that it is a state that may be attained at least in a great measure in this world Otherwise the Holy Men in Scripture and particularly the Apostles of our Lord would never have recommended it to us so often as they have done Rejoyce evermore 1 Thess 9 16. Phil. 4.4 saith S. Paul to the Thessalonians And to the Philipians Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce The way to attain to this happy condition doth consist chiefly in these three things First a great innocence and vertue a behaving our selves so in the world that our Consciences shall not reproach us This St. Paul lays as the Foundation of Rejoycing This saith he is our rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in this world It is in vain to think of any true solid Joy or Peace or Contentment without a hearty Practice of all the duties of our Religion so that we can satisfie our selves of our own sincerity before God And then secondly To make us capable of this constant Rejoycing besides the innocence of our lives there must go a firm and hearty persuasion of God's particular Providence a belief that he not only dispenseth all events that come to pass in the World even the most inconsiderable but that the measure of the Dispensations of his Providence is infinite Wisdom and Goodness and nothing else so that nothing doth or ever can happen to us in particular or to the world in general but what is for the best Now when we firmly believe this and frequently attend to it how can we be either solicitous for the future or discontented at the present events of things let them fall out never so cross to our desires and expectations This is the best Antidote in the world and an effectual one it is against all trouble and vexation and uneasiness that can happen to us upon any occasion whatsoever to wit the consideration that all things are managed by an infinitely wise and good God and will at last prove for the best how unaccountable soever they appear to us at present And this is that which the wise man insinuates in the verse before the Text when he saith that God hath made every thing beautiful in his season Thirdly Another requisite both for the procuring and preserving this continual chearfulness and rejoycing is a frequent and fixed attention to the great rewards of the other world which God hath promised to all that truly love him and endeavour to please him This consideration will extreamly add to our comfort and contribute to our Rejoycing under all the miseries and afflictions that we can possibly fall into namely that whatsoever condition we are in here we shall certainly in a little time be in a most happy and glorious one and the worse our circumstances are in this life the greater if we be good shall be our happiness in the next 2. Cor. 4.17 for these light afflictions as S. Pual tells us which indure but for a moment do work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory This then is the joy that we are to endeavour after in the first place to be constantly well pleas'd and contented with our present condition whatever it be and these are the ways to attain to it But Secondly There is another more particular Notion of Rejoycing and which I conceive Solomon doth chiefly intend in the words of the Text and that is the free and comfortable enjoyment of the good things of this life that God hath
day render for so doing Thirdly Mens Religion and Christianity are also deeply concerned in this point Works of Charity are so essential to all Religion and more especially to that which we call Christian that without them it is but an empty name in whosoever professes it Let Men pretend what they will let them be never so Orthodox in their belief or regular in their conversation or strict in the performance of those Duties that relate to the worship of God yet if they be hard hearted and uncharitable if God hath given them Wealth and they have not Hearts to do good with it they have no true piety towards God They may have a name to live but they are really dead An unmerciful Christian or a Religious covetous Man are terms that imply a contradiction For the satisfying you of this I shall but need to put these following questions Can that Man be accounted Religious that neither loves God nor his Neighbour Sure he cannot for these two things are the whole of Religion as the Holy Scripture often assures us but now the Covetous Man neither doth the one nor the other His Neighbours he doth not love that is certain for if he did they would find some fruits of it unless this be to be accounted Love James 2.14 c. to give them good words to say to a Brother or a Sister that is naked and destitute of daily food depart in peace be ye warmed and filled when notwithstanding they give them not those things that be needful for the Body But this kind of Love S. James hath long ago declared not to be worth any thing And as for the Love of God another Apostle hath put it out of doubt that the uncharitable Man hath no such thing in him 1 John 3.17 Whoso saith S. John hath this World's good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him cap. 4.20 For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Can he be thought a Religious Man or a true Christian that wants the two main qualifications that go to the making up a Disciple of Christ that is to say Faith and Repentance yet this doth he that is rich in this World but is not rich in good works Good works are the very soul of Faith and it is no more alive without them than the Body is without the Spirit as S. James has expresly told us Jam. 2.26 If we mean that our Faith should avail us any thing it must work or be made perfect by Charity Gal. 5.6 saith S. Paul for though a Man have all faith so that he could remove mountains i. e. though he be so heartily persuaded of the truth of Christ's Religion as in the strength of his belief to be able to work Miracles as was usual in the first times of Christianity yet if he have not charity his Faith is nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 If it be said that the Charity that S. Paul makes so necessary to effectual Faith is not giving Alms but quite another thing for according to him a Man may give all his goods to feed the poor and yet want the Charity that he speaks of I answer it is true a Man may give Alms and very largely and yet want that Charity that S. Paul here so much recommends but then on the other side none can have that Charity that he speaks of but they will certainly express it in Alms and Bounty as they have ability and opportunity So that for all this suggestion Alms and Bounty are absolutely necessary to the Efficacy of Faith if there be opportunity of doing them The plain account of this matter is this S. Paul speaks of Charity with respect to its inward principle in the heart which consists in an universal kindness and good-will to the whole Creation of God and we speak of it with respect to the outward fruits of it in the Life and Conversation which are all sorts of good works especially works of Mercy and Bounty But both these come to the same thing as to our purpose for the one always follows the other whereever there is Charity in the heart it must of necessity shew it self in these kind of actions as there is occasion otherwise the Charity is not true but only pretended for as S. John hath told us He that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth must love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in work and in deed And then as for Repentance Charity and Alms-giving is a necessary ingredient into that also Luke 3.10 11. When S. John Baptist came preaching Repentance unto Israel the people asked him saying what shall we do meaning in what manner they should express their Repentance his answer was this He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do so likewise and suitable to this was the Prophet's advice to the King of Babylon when he exhorteth him to Repentance Dan. 4.27 break off thy sins saith he by righteousness and thy iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor that is evidence thy Repentance by thy Alms-giving and Charity Furthermore can he be either a good Man or a good Christian that lives in the habitual neglect of that which of all other Vertues God in Scripture seems to set the greatest value upon and contrariwise practiseth that which God hath most particularly declared his hatred and aversion to Yet thus doth he that is not charitable with what he hath So highly acceptable to God are works of Mercy and Charity that they are declared to be the sacrifices with which he is well pleased Heb 13.8 the things in which he doth delight Jerem. 9.24 and blessed and happy are they pronounced that do them Pro. 22.9 cap. 14.21 for hereby Men become the children of God Luke 6.35 and entitled to his more especial care and protection Ps 41.1 c. nay so dear do they render a Man to his Maker that the wise Son of Sirach scrupled not to recommend the practice of them in these terms Be thou saith he a Father to the Fatherless Ecclus. 4.10 and instead of a Husband unto their Mother so shalt thou be as the Son of the Most High and he shall love thee more than thy own Mother doth On the other side if we will believe the Scripture there is nothing more odious to God than the contrary qualities and practises The love of money which is the foundation of all uncharitableness 1 Tim. 6.10 is in Scripture called the root of all evil as certainly the greatest evils and mischeifs in the World do often take their beginning from thence Those that are covetous are styled by the name of Idolaters Eph. 5.5 than which no more hateful appellation can be given to a Man in the Sacred Language It is said
ver 4. He sheweth favour and lendeth ver 5. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor ver 9. Now the Blessedness of such a Man as this as to this Life is describ'd in the five instances following The first of which is A great and happy Posterity thus ver 2. His seed shall be mighty upon earth the generation of the Vpright shall be blessed The second is A Plentiful and an Ample Fortune thus in the third verse Riches and Plenteousness shall be in his house The third is A lasting Fame and Reputation thus again in the third verse His Righteousness remaineth for ever and likewise in the sixth verse He shall be had in everlasting remembrance The fourth is Honour and Power and Dignity even such as shall excite the Envy of the Wicked thus in the ninth verse His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and shall be grieved c. The fifth is Great Safety and Peace in the midst of Dangerous and Troublesome times thus in the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness i. e. Light in the greatest Straits and Difficulties for that is the meaning of Darkness in this place Times of Darkness in the Scripture Language are Evil and Difficult and Dangerous times Now upon account of this Light that ariseth to the Vpright Man in Evil times it comes to pass as it followeth v. 6 7 8. that such a one shall not be moved for ever neither shall he be afraid of evil tidings for his heart is established and he shall not shrink until he see his desire upon his Enemies Or as the Chaldee perhaps better renders it until he see redemption in distress This is the just Analysis of the whole Psalm Now of these several Characters whereby the Pious Man is describ'd I have pitch'd upon that of his Vprightness to give an account of and to recommend to you at this time And of the several Instances of the Blessedness of such a Man I have pitch't upon that of Safety and Peace in the midst of Perillous and Troublesome times These two points I have chosen to entertain you upon as judging them most suitable to the present occasion and to our present circumstances And we find them both join'd together in the words of the Text To the Vpright there ariseth Light in the Darkness Here then we have Two things to consider First The Person to whom the Promise here made or the Blessedness here mentioned doth belong It is the Vpright Man Secondly The Promise or the Blessedness it self It is Light in times of Darkness I begin with the Character of the Person to whom this Promise is made He is the Vpright Man or as in our more common Language we express him the Honest Man the Man of Integrity We all know so well what is meant by these words that it would render the thing more difficult to offer Critically to give Light to them As all those General Terms whereby a Man 's whole Duty is exprest in Scripture have their several respects and considerations which difference them one from the other though they be all equally Comprehensive So hath this term of Vprightness That which it immediately and particularly respects is the Goodness of a Man's Principles and the suitableness of his Actions to them Or thus The Conformity of a Man's Mind to the Eternal Rules of Righteousness and the Conformity of his Actions to the Principles of his Mind This is that upon account of which any person is denominated Upright and contrary to this is all Hypocritical and Partial dealings in matters of our Duty So that if we would give the definition of an Vpright Man it should be in such terms as these He is a Man that in all things follows the Dictates of his Conscience Or he is One that makes his Duty the Rule of his Actions Or he is One that always proposeth to himself Righteous Ends and pursues those Ends in Righteous Ways This is the general description of the Vpright Man But for the more lively display of him and the rendring him as more Amiable so more Imitable it will be fit that we represent him a little more particularly under those several Respects and Capacities in which his Uprightness is principally seen and exprest And here we must consider him with respect to God and with respect to Men. Under the former Consideration we are to view his Religion under the latter his Civil Conversation And none ought to be surpriz'd that in the Character of an Vpright Man we take notice of his Religious Carriage towards God For in truth that is a point which is Essentially necessary to Uprightness He saith Solomon that walketh in Vprightness feareth the Lord. Prov. 14.2 Indeed take away Religion and the Fear of God and the Foundation of Vprightness is destroy'd For all the Principles of Conscience and all the Obligation to live up to those Principles is thereby taken away He that hath no sense of God and Religion can never think himself bound to observe any Rules in his Actions and Behaviour but what are subservient to the carrying on his private sensual worldly Interest And consequently whatever is Inconsistent with that be it never so base and vile and injurious he cannot take himself in point of Duty oblig'd to stick at it when he hath the least temptation to it The result of which is That he may commit all the villanies in the World and yet think himself as Innocent and his Actions as Commendable as if he had been never so Honest and Vertuous He therefore that is an Vpright Man hath a serious and hearty sense of God and Religion upon his Spirit and is above all things careful to preserve and increase that sense But then his conduct in this affair is much different from that of ordinary pretenders to Religion For he is a Man that doth not content himself with a mere speculative belief or an outward profession of the Truths of Religion but doth so far impress them on his Heart that they influence his whole Life and Conversation He doth not think it sufficient to be Orthodox in his Opinions or to be a Member of a True Church or to be zealous in maintaining and promoting the right way But he takes care to live as he believes to practise suitably to the prefession he makes As he holds fast the Form of Godliness so he never fails to express the power of it in an Innocent and a Vertuous Life He is a Man that in the whole Conduct of his Religious affairs minds Conscience more than any selfish consideration He takes not up his Principles either out of Humour or Passion to advance his Interest or to please a Party But he believes a thing because it is True and Professeth it because it is his Duty In matters of Religion he hath the indifference of a Traveller whose great concernment is to arrive at his Journeys end but
for the way that leads thither be it high or low all is one to him so long as he is but certain that it is the Right Way And as he doth not chuse his Religion out of worldly considerations So neither doth he quit it upon such But is resolute and constant in bearing witness to the Truth against all opposition whatsoever As he doth not make shew of his Religion the more when it is in fashion and when it may prove advantagious to him So neither doth he practise it the less when it may prove Ignominious or Dangerous He is obstinately tenacious of his Principles when he knows them to be good and prepared to endure the utmost extremities rather than violate the Laws and Dictates of his Conscience He is a Man that thinks Religion too Sacred a thing to be prostituted to mean purposes and therefore he never useth it as an Instrument for the serving a turn never makes it a Cloak for the covering a private end though he were sure he could compass his designs by it He knows that the greatest Impostures have laid hid under this mask and by such Artifices God hath been often made a Patron of the most horrid villanies He is a Man that doth not place his Religion in outward forms and services or in little cheap Duties that cost him nothing He hath a nobler sense of God than to think that such things can alone recommend us to him And therefore his principal concernment is about the great Indispensable Duties of Christianity Matt. 23.23 The weightier matters of the Law Justice and Mercy and Faith He hath the everlasting Notions and differences of Good and Evil deeply ingraven in his Heart and in the practising or the avoiding them he chiefly lays out himself He is a Man that doth not pick and chuse out of God's Commandments which to observe to the neglect of the rest but endeavours Uprightly and Sincerely to observe them all He calls no sin little because his temper inclines him to it or the course of his Life leads him more frequently into the Temptations of it But he hath an hearty uniform Aversion to every thing that is Evil. He holds no secret friendship or correspondence with any Enemy of God but fights as resolutely against his most agreeable and most gainful sins as those that he hath less Temptation to upon those accounts He is a hearty Enemy to all Factions in Religion as knowing the Life and Soul of Christianity is often eaten out by them All dividing Principles he abhors and as much as he loves Truth he is not less concerned for Peace And he is better pleased with one Instance of his Charity in Composing or his Zeal in Suppressing Religious Differences than with twenty of his Skill and Abilities in disputing them For he knows that LOVE is more acceptable to God than a right Opinion and to be a Martyr rather than divide and rend the Church Dionys Alex. in Euleb is not less Glorious than to be a Martyr for refusing to offer Sacrifice to Idols Lastly He is a Man Religious without Noise and uses no little Arts to make his Piety taken notice of in the World For he seeks not the praise of Men in any thing he doth but studies to approve himself to God only And therefore he is as careful of his Thoughts as of his Actions and hath the same fear of God and regard of his Duty when no Man sees him as when he is in the most publick places These are the great strokes of Vprightness as to Religion And whoever makes good these Characters may unquestionably conclude of himself that he is an Honest Man to God-ward a true Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile Come we now in the second place To take a view of the Vpright-Man in his civil Conversation To give some account of him with reference to his Carriage and Demeanour amongst Men. And here again we must consider him under two capacities as a Private Person and as a Magistrate And First As a Private Person The general Rule by which he frames and models his whole Conversation is such a prudent and diligent care of himself and his own good as is not only consistent with but doth effectually tend to promote the Good and Happiness of all others that he deals with This is the Fundamental Principle which he lays down to observe in all his commerce with Mankind For he considers that every Man in the World hath a right to be happy as well as himself And he considers that as things are so contriv'd that he cannot be happy without the assistance of others So it is infinitely reasonable that he in like manner should contribute his endeavours to the making them happy also These now being the main Principles of his Mind he takes care in his whole Conversation that his Actions and Carriage be suitable to them and bear some proportion with them And therefore we may be sure that he is a Man exactly Just in all his dealings and would not knowingly do the least wrong or injury to any though he could gain never so much by it and were he never so secure that he could do it without discovery He is a Man that where he is trusted is faithful to the uttermost Never making advantages of Mens credulity nor abusing the considence they repose in him He is one that in point of fair dealing between Man and Man is severe even to Scrupulosity and he would rather sit down with loss than serve his own ends by any practice that hath but a bad report that hath but even the appearance or suspicion of evil in it though in the mean time he knows that what is got by such practices is by some Men accounted lawful gain He is a Man of great candour and sweetness and obligingness in his Behaviour But withal as on one hand he is careful not to run himself into Inconveniencies by his good nature So on the other hand the kindness and good-will he professeth to all about him is more than a compliment or a semblance of his countenance For his fair speeches are always attended with honest dealings and what he once promiseth he is punctual in making it good though it be to his own prejudice He is a Man that loves a good Name and Reputation as well as any one and is extremely tender of it but yet he scorns to make use of any evil Arts either for the procuring or preserving it And consequently he is a Man that hates all mean and servile compliance and will neither speak nor do any thing against the sense of his Mind for the humouring any Flattery and Dissimulation he abhors and he dares speak his Mind when he judges it fit and reasonable even though he knows the doing it will give offence And as he is perfectly averse to all Fawning and Flattery So he is above Envy and Detraction He never lessens another Man to
and assuring them of Eternal Rewards if they would repent I say If they were Witnesses of these things I will appeal to all the World whether they had not greater Means of Conviction offered to them than if any Ghost had appeared to them from the Dead or any particular Miracle had been vouchsafed them for the bringing them over to Vertue and Sobriety But I believe no Body will much doubt of this for indeed the matter will not bear a dispute But here is the Question Whether we that live at this distance from our Saviour have the same Means of Conviction and Whether one now appearing from the dead to us would not be of greater force to persuade us than the standing Revelation of the Gospel as we have it now conveyed to us This therefore leads me to my second Proposition upon this Head which if it can be made out will wholly take away all Controversie in this Matter And it is this That we at this day have as great Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Christ's Revelation and consequently as great Motives from thence to persuade us to reform our Evil Lives as those that Lived in the Times of our Saviour It is true indeed we want the Evidence of Sense in these Matters which they had and upon that account it must be acknowledged that they have the Advantage of us But this we say notwithstanding that if we take all things together and weigh them Impartially we shall find that that Want is abundantly supplied to us in other respects For first of all Our Saviour's Gospel and all the Evidences of it I have been now speaking of were timely and faithfully recorded and are as faithfully transmitted down to us So that though we did not see or hear those things yet we have a certain and exact Account of them and such an Account as was never yet questioned by any Adversaries that lived in those Times when such a Question was most reasonably to be made and such an Account as appears by all the Evidences that a thing of that Nature is capable of to have been written by Eye-witnesses and such Witnesses as were honest undesigning Men and not only so but they sealed with their Blood the Truth of what they reported And this same Account was religiously received by all Christians in all Places without Contradiction in those very Times and was shortly after translated into a Multitude of Languages so that it is scarce possible it should in any Considerable Matter be corrupted And from that Time to this in a continual Succession there have been Men that have suffer'd Martyrdom for the Attestation of it and in the first Ages after Christ when they had the best Opportunities of Examining the Truth of these things many thousands did so Now I say Though acccording to the Ordinary Proverb Seeing be Believing Yet next to Seeing an universal well-grounded Tradition which hath visible Effects attending it hath the most force to gain belief Nay I do not know whether there be so much Difference between the Evidence of the one and the other as one would think at first Sure I am there are many Cases in which we do as firmly believe Matters of Fact upon the Credit of Tradition and the permanent Effects that do accompany it as if we our selves had been present and seen them with our Eyes Which of us for Instance doth make any more doubt of the Story of William the Conquerour his subduing this Kingdom or of Henry the Eighth his casting off the Pope's Supremacy than he doth of the Revolutions that have happned in his own time And yet these Matters of Fact are no better attested than the History of our Saviour and his Miracles and Doctrines But Secondly Though those that lived in our Saviour's time had Evidence of Sense for the Truth of what they believed concerning him and his Doctrine which we have not Yet this is to be considered that they laboured under far greater Prejudices against his Religion than we now do And consequently all that sensible Proof which they had of the Truth of it would not be more effectual for the convincing of them than that Proof we now have though it be less ought in reason to be for the convincing of us They that were the Hearers and Spectators of what our Saviour said and did had mighty and inveterate Prepossessions to struggle with They were educated in a quite Different Religion and so must be supposed to have entertained several Notions and Principles which would very difficultly be rooted out and indeed for the effecting of it there needed little less than an Almighty Power But it is not so with us we by our Education are already disposed and prepared for the receiving Christianity We have no praevious Engagements to alienate our Minds from it nay it is our Interest to be of that Religion rather than any other So that certainly a less Evidence for the Truth of it will be as convincing to us as a much greater would have been to those to whom our Saviour first Preached Nay I am very confident that this thing being duely considered it will appear that our Arguments for Christianity drawn from Tradition will be more convincing to thinking Men among us than those Arguments they had from Sense and Experience could be to them But Thirdly If to what hath been said we add the several Arguments for the Credibility of the Christian Religion which we now have at this distance that they had not nor could have that were our Saviour's Immediate Disciples we shall be satisfied that in point of Evidence we have indeed much the advantage of them We have now several standing proofs of our Religion which they could not have and which are so strong and conclusive that they do more than compensate for the want of that Evidence of Sense which they had and we have not I breifly Instance in these three following First The strange Propagation and Success of our Religion throughout the World and the Means by which it was Effected That a poor despised crucified Person should in a few Years draw all the Roman Empire after him and that without any visible Means except the Goodness of his Cause and the Reasonableness of his Doctrine and the Sincerity and Constancy of his Disciples not in fighting for their Master but in laying down their Lives for him And this against all the Power and all the Arts and Stratagems that the Devil or the Princes of this World could invent to stifle and suppress his Name This is so strong an Argument that this Cause was the Cause of God and that his Providence was particularly concerned in the promoting of it that he must seem little to be sensible either of God or Providence that is not convinced by it If Christianity had been of the same strain that the Religion of Mahomet is had been as well calculated for Mens Lusts and Worldly Interests as that
is had allowed as many sensual Liberties to its Disciples as that doth and lastly had been carried on in the World by the same ways and means that that hath been that is by the Force of Arms and Dint of the Sword it would have been no great wonder that it should have prevailed as we see it hath done But that a Religion which had no Worldly Advantages to promise to its Followers Nay on the contrary was so contrived that none could own it but he must at the same time deny all his Temporal Interests quit his Friends his Reputation and all his Fortunes in this World and live in hourly expectation of a Martyrdom that such a Religion as this should not only not die with the first Broachers of it but daily grow and spread and the more it was persecuted the more increase till at last it so weathered out all Opposition that it got Possession of the Thrones of Princes and Kings became Nursing Fathers to it I say Whoever is not convinced that the Finger of God was in this would scarce have been convinced that the Finger of God was in our Saviour's Miracles had he been alive and present when they were done But this Effect of Christianity both the Prophets and our Lord long ago foretold and this we now see was verified long ago and is still verified in our days Though those that lived with our Saviour had no experience hereof nor perhaps would several of them have been forward to believe it though it had been told them So that in this respect we have a most Considerable Argument for our Religion which they had not Secondly This is not all Those that undertook the Religion of our Saviour upon his Preaching had no Experience of it They were to be the first Experimenters themselves They ran a great Risque and ventured the Sale of all that they had and yet knew not so certainly what kind of Treasure they should Purchase But we have the Experience and Suffrage of Sixteen Ages which will all vouch that what we lay out in this way will prove valuable Treasure will Reward all the Pains and all the Expence we are at for the Purchasing of it We have never in the compass of our own knowledge nor in all History met with any who seriously laid out themselves in the Service of Jesus Christ and lived up to his Religion that ever grudged the Pains they took about it or repented themselves that they believed or practised as they did The more any Man has been a Christian still the more he hath thanked God for it still the more Quiet of Mind and Peace of Conscience he hath possessed the more he hath enjoyed him self and the less he hath feared Death and all other outward Calamities If ever any Christian hath repented of any thing it is that he hath not been Christian enough that he hath not so heartily believed in our Saviour and obeyed his Precepts as he should have done This we all know and must be sensible of and it is a mighty Evidence of the Truth and Goodness of the Religion we profess We now can try our Religion and give our Approbation of it by the same Standard and Measures by which we try and approve of our Customs and Common Laws After long experience we find the Usefulness and the Conveniency of it and to put another in its place would involve us in horrible Mischiefs and Dangers and Perplexities But this Argument for Christianity those that were the first Converts to it could not have and therefore in this respect also we have the advantage of them Thirdly and Lastly There is another very Considerable standing Argument for the Truth of the Christian Revelation which those in our Saviour's Time were uncapable of and that is the Events which he by the Spirit of Prophecy foretold should after his Death come to pass in the World most of which have punctually hapned as he predicted them and the rest in due time we doubt not will be accomplished I have not leisure to prosecute this Argument particularly only two things I cannot pass by without mention in both of which our Lord shewed himself as wonderful and as true a Prophet as ever appeared in the World The one is the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple which he foretold with all the Circumstances imaginable both as to Time and Manner Now all that he said concerning that Destruction was punctually verified even according to the Accounts that the Jewish Historian gives us of that Matter And when afterwards Julian the Emperour with a design to blast the Credit of our Saviour's Prophecy resolved to re-edifie that Temple and set Men on work for that purpose he was soon forced to desist from his Enterprise by Earthquakes and Globes of Fire issuing from out of the Foundations As the Writers of that time both Christian and Pagan do assure us The other Instance I mention is our Saviour's Prophecy of the Rejection of the Jews and that they should be carried Captive into all Nations till the Times of the Gentiles were fulfilled Now this we see hath been accomplished for many Ages and still continues to be so in our days That Nation of the Jews who were once the Peculiar People of God settled in the Land of Canaan by his own immediate Hand are now dispersed all the World over but no where incorporated into a Nation Yet which indeed is wonderful they continue Jews still a People that mingle not with the rest of the World and that are still as zealous for the Scriptures from whence we fetch the Grounds of our Christianity as ever they were So that they are a standing Monument of God's Vengeance upon a People for rejecting the Gospel and a standing Testimony of the Truth of our Saviour's Prophecies These things now with others that I might name are very considerable Evidences of the Truth of our Religion which those that were Contemporary with our Saviour could not have So that putting all these things together I think we may safely draw our Conclusion viz. That we now have as great or greater Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Christ's Revelation as or than they had who were Witnesses of what he did and taught And consequently those that are not persuaded now by the Evidence of it would not have been persuaded though they had seen with their Eyes or heard with their Ears the Publication of the Gospel Which is in effect to say They would not have been persuaded though one had risen from the dead But notwithstanding all this that I have said it is to be feared the thing will not easily go down with many of us but still with the Rich Man in the Parable after all that Abraham had said concerning Moses and the Prophets we will insist on our former Notion Nay but if one came to us from the Dead we should repent The Motives that are offered to us in the Gospel
their Judgment or Immoral in their Lives What will these Men be able to say for themselves when they come to appear before the Judge of the World at the great Day of Accounts Will they pretend there was not force enough in the Gospel-evidence to convince them or weight enough in its Motives to reclaim them Ah their own Hearts will give them the Lye They can no longer be able to deceive themselves There will be no Unbelievers no seared Consciences in the other State They will then be clearly convinced that God for his part did all that was necessary nay all that was fit to be done in order to their Salvation but they were resolved to shut their Eyes and harden their Hearts against the gracious Means that were tendred them Oh how will the Rich Man and his five Brethren in Hell rise up in Judgment against these Men For they only refused to hear Moses and the Prophets But these besides them have obstinately refused to hear Christ and his Apostles who brought abundantly greater Light into the World than the former did Much more How will the poor ignorant Heathens rise up in Judgment against them Who were destitute both of Moses and Christ and yet to the shame of Christians it may be spoken have several of them lived better Lives than many of us do May not we justly and sadly apply that Woe which our Saviour pronounced of Chorazin and Bethsaida to Thousands among us Woe unto you Unbelievers Woe unto you O obstinate and irreclaimable Sinners for if the mighty Means of Grace the mighty Evidence of Truth had been afforded to Tyre and Sidon to Sodom and Gomorrha to Mahometans and Pagans that have been afforded unto you they would long ago have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for all these in the day of Judgment than for you God Almighty give us all Grace seriously to consider these things that we may by a timely and hearty closing with his Methods and Designs for our Salvation prevent the dismal Consequences of Infidelity and a Vicious Life that so it may not be our Condemnation at the last day That Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light SERMON VII PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL On the 11th of April 1690. Gal. v. 13. Vse not Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh ANY one that useth to make reflexions upon his own Actions cannot but observe That one of the great occasions of the sins he is guilty of in the course of his Life is the too free use of his lawful Liberty I do not say that any Man doth commit sin by using his lawful Liberty for that would be a kind of contradiction But I say the using our Liberty to the utmost pitch and extent of that which we call lawful is the occasion of a great many sins that would otherwise not have been committed If one should offer to tempt a Man that hath any Sense of Vertue or Religion to do a thing that at the first sight appears sinful or wicked it would certainly be rejected Every one that has any regard to God or Goodness would start at such a Proposal But here is our infelicity A Temptation comes on by degrees And at the first we are ingaged in nothing but what is lawful and honest and accordingly we use that Liberty which Nature and Religion allows us and so we proceed on insensibly in the use of that Liberty till at last we become uncertain whether we have not exceeded the bounds of what is lawful And by this means we are often caught Nay indeed nothing but this could betray well-meaning Persons and such as are vertuously disposed into sin Licitis perimus oumes said a devout Man It is by lawful things that we commonly miscarry With great reason therefore doth St. Paul give this advice in the Text Brethren saith he ye have been called unto Liberty only use not Liberty for an occasion to to the Flesh There is no doubt but the Apostle writ these words upon occasion of and with reference to the great Controversy that was then on foot among Christians touching the Obligation of the Jewish Law Some then thought themselves bound in Conscience to observe all the Precepts of Moses his Law Other Christians thought they were freed by the coming of Christ from all legal Observances The Apostle determines the Case in Favour of these latter and declares that by the Gospel they were called unto Liberty and were free from all the Mosaical Impositions But yet nevertheless he tells them they ought to be careful in the exercise of that Liberty that they do not use it for an occasion to the Flesh That is to say that this Liberty to which they were called should not Minister to any sin That they should not so use it as to be a snare either to themselves or others To themselves by running into licentiousness and taking unlawful Liberties To others either by affrighting the unbelieving Jews from the embracing Christianity or discouraging those that already believed the Gospel in the profession of it This is the strict Sense of the Apostle's words as they come in here in the Text and as they do relate to that occasion upon which he writ them But that sense with reference to that occasion is now out of doors among us Though the general Advice that is here given will eternally be good and useful Nay and always needful to be insisted on in all Ages of the World We have none now that use their Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh as to the point of the Judaical Ceremonies But we have abundance that do use it so as to other Matters Nay as I said before this too free use of our Liberty in lawful things is one of the great Sources and Fountains from whence most of our irregularities do proceed And therefore I do not know how I can entertain you more usefully upon this Text than by endeavouring to give you the best Rules I can for the reducing the Apostle's Exhortation into practice as it doth concern us at this day But that you may see plainly what I drive at I will yet state the Matter a little more particularly Our Case in this World is this The Laws of Vertue and Religion do allow Men all reasonable Liberties in the gratification of their natural Passions and Appetites and in the use and enjoyment of all the good things of this Life But all unreasonable gratifications all excesses and immoderate Liberties are forbidden by Religion and therefore are sinful and criminal If now in all Cases a Man could readily and certainly fix the precise bounds and land-marks of what is reasonable and moderate and what is unreasonable and excessive in the use of his Liberty so as that upon all occasions and in all emergencies he could say within his own Mind Thus far I may lawfully and innocently go in the
and Families Now to a Man that loves God and hath a tender sense of his Duty this is enough in all Conscience to deter him for ever from the practice of Gaming though it be not made to appear to him that it is expresly and explicitly forbid by any Law of Jesus Christ So that you see that in those points where there are disputes on both sides when the Consideration is concerning the Obligation or the lawfulness of an Action there is no difficulty no dispute at all when the Consideration is only concerning what is best and most fitting to be done concerning what is most agreeable to our Duty and most conducive to the Honour of God and Religion as to that Action That is evident enough in all Cases nor is any Man at a loss for finding it out And that is the Principle which I say every sincere lover of God governs himself by and which I would have us all to propose to our selves for the Rule of our Actions in order to the securing us from those snares and stumbling blocks to which the affinity between Vertue and Vice Lawful and Vnlawful will otherwise expose us Let us not stand upon points with God Almighty as if so much was his and so much was our own as if we were to share our selves between his Service and our own Pleasures and Profits and the like and were resolved not to pay him any more respect or love than what some express Letter of his Law doth exact at our Hands But let us so entirely devote our selves to his Service as to do not only all those things which we are strictly bound to do or else we are Transgressors but all those things that are acceptable to him all those things that are praise worthy and tend to the Perfection of our Nature and the Reputation of Christ's Religion Let us make it the end of our Actions not to seek our selves but his Glory every day to grow better and better and in every Occurrence to consider not what may lawfully be done but what is Most becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ to do In a word what ever is best in any Action what ever most serves the end of piety what ever tends most to the credit of our Religion and the benefit of others let us consider that and act accordingly And thus I am sure to design and act is most suitable to the Nature and Genius of our Christian Religion nay indeed it is the Principal Law and Commandment of it The design of Christianity is not to adjust the precise bounds of Vertue and Vice Lawful and Vnlawful which is that that a great many among us so greedily hanker after For the best that could have come from such a design had been only this that Men by this means might have been fairly instructed how they might have avoided the being bad though they never became very good But the design of Christianity is to make Men as good as they can possibly be as devout as humble as charitable as temperate as contented as heavenly-minded as their Natures will allow of in this World And for the producing this effect the exact distinguishing the limits of the several Vertues and their opposite Vices signifies very little The Laws of our great Master are not like the Civil Municipal Laws of Kingdoms which are therefore wonderfully nice and critical and particular in setting bounds to the practices of Men because they only look at overt Actions so that if a Man do but keep his Actions within the compass of the Letter of the Law he may be accounted a good Subject and is no way obnoxious to the Penalties which the Law threatens If our Religion had been of this strain we should without doubt have had a World of particular Laws and Precepts and directions about our Actions in all emergent Cases more than we now have And we might as easily have known from the Bible what was forbidden unlawful Anger what was excessive drinking what was pride and luxury in Apparel and the like as we now know by the Statute-Book what is Burglary or Murther or Treason But there was no need of these particularities in the institution of Christ Jesus His Religion was to be a Spiritual thing And the design of it was not to make us chast or temperate or humble or charitable in such a degree but to make us as chast and temperate as humble and charitable as pure and holy in all our Conversation as we possibly can be This I say was the design of Christ's Religion It was to be the Highest Philosophy that was ever taught to Mankind It was to make us the most excellent and perfect Creatures as to purity of Mind and Heart that Humane Nature is capable of And therefore it hath not been so accurate and particular in prescribing bounds to our outward Actions because it was abundantly enough for the securing them to oblige us to the highest degree of inward purity And this it hath done above all the Laws and Religions in the World It teacheth us to abhor every thing that is evil or impure in all the kinds of it in all the degrees of it and in all the tendencies towards it And to lay out our selves in the pursuit of every thing that is honest that is lovely that is praise-worthy and of good report among Men. If this now be the design of our Religion and these be the Laws of it I leave it to you to judge of these two things First Whether it doth not highly concern all of us that profess this holy Religion to endeavour in all our Conversation to be as holy and as vertuous as we can and to do as much good as we can and not to content our selves with such a degree of honesty and vertue as is just sufficient to the rendering us not vicious And then secondly Whether if we do thus endeavour we can easily be at a loss in distinguishing between Good and Evil Duty and Sin in any instance And consequently Whether we can be much in danger of ill using our Liberty and so transgressing upon that account I have been longer upon this first Head than I intended but I shall make amends for it by dispatching the two following in so much the fewer words And indeed after so large an account as I have given of the general Rule there is less need of dwelling upon particular ones II. In the second place In order to the right use of our Liberty and so securing our serves from falling into sin through mistaking the measures of Good and Evil This will be a good Rule to propose to our selves namely That in matters of Duty we should rather do too much than too little But in matters of Indifferency we should rather take too little of our Liberty than too much First As to matters of Duty my meaning is this That where the Laws of God have generally and indefinitely commanded a thing but
Treasure He rejoiceth over them to do them good His bowels earn his heart is turned within him his repentings are kindled together when through their miscarriages he is forced to pass any severe Sentence upon them All this is the language of God in Scripture when he speaks of his People and therefore we cannot doubt of his sincere affection to them and particular care of them All the doubt is whether these expressions ought to be applied to any other people than the Jews with respect to whom the Scripture useth them But we that believe the Gospel need not make much doubt of it For it is certain the reason of all these expressions of kindness to the Jews more than to other Nations was founded in this That they were the People whom God had chosen to plant his Church among They were the People where his Religion was owned But now it is evident to all Christians that after our Saviour came into the World and Preached his Gospel to all Nations the Jews as a Nation ceased to be God's Church or peculiar People and from that time all those Nations that embraced Christ's Religion came into their place and were from thence forward to be as dear to God and as much his Care and his Treasure as ever the Jews were And upon that account we of this Nation may with as much reason apply the expressions of Scripture to our selves which declare God's kindness and concernment for his People as ever the Jews did Especially considering that God has owned us of this Nation for his People in as remarkable a manner as any Nation in Christendom As appears not only from that glorious light of the Gospel which he has for many years blessed us with above any other people perhaps in the Christian World But also from the wonderful Providences by which he has from time to time preserved our Church and with it the true Religion among us notwithstanding the various attempts of our Enemies to subvert it O may these Mercies of God to our Nation never be forgotten and may we always remember them with that due thankfulness they call for at our hands And thus much of our first Head I beg leave to draw a practical Inference or two from what hath been said before I proceed to the other First Since it appears that God sits at the Helm and steers and manages all the affairs of Mankind and that publick Societies are more especially the objects of his Care and Providence Methinks this Consideration should be a good Antidote against all those troublesome Fears and Sollicitude we are apt to disturb our selves with about the success of publick Matters If indeed all things went in the World by Chance or Fate and there was no God that did superintend human Affairs I should think it very Natural for Men to be extreamly concerned at every piece of ill News they heard It might be allowed them to break their sleep in the night and to complain dismally in the day of the sad times that were coming upon us But since we are certain as much as we are certain there is a God and as much as we are certain that the Scripture is true that all our Affairs our publick as well as our private Affairs the Affairs both in Church and State are entirely in God Almighty's disposal and that He doth really manage and order all things among us and likewise so manageth them that all shall at last turn to the good of his People and to the good of every honest Man I say since we are or may be satisfied that our Business is in so good hands I must confess I do not see what reason People have to give themselves so much trouble and uneasiness about things that may or may not come Thus far indeed it is fit that every one should be concerned nay it is fit that every one should charge his Conscience with it Namely to do his Duty to the publick in his place and station to contribute all that is in his power towards the procuring and promoting the common Happiness and to endeavour all that in him lies towards the avertting those Judgments we have reason to fear But when a Man hath done this to what purpose is it for him to trouble himself any further I should think he had better follow our Saviour's advice which when all things be considered will be found Eternally Prudent and Reasonable Matt. 6.34 Take no thought for to morrow let the morrow take care for the things of it self Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Secondly This Doctrine ought to teach us this farther Lesson to depend altogether upon God Almighty and upon him only for the good success of our Affairs either in Church or State whenever they are in a doubtful or dangerous condition Prov. 19.21 For though many are the devices in the hearts of men nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand It is in vain to trust humane means For be our strength never so great or be those that manage for us never so industrious or be our hearts never so much united Yet it is an easy matter for God to blast all our designs and to disappoint all our Counsels in a Moment He hath often done so where Men have been confident in their own strength 2 Kings 19.34 In one night's time he made that prodigious Army of Assyrians that came up against Jerusalem and thought themselves sure of taking it to decamp and fly back into their own Country leaving a hundred and fourfcore thousand of their number Dead upon the place There is in truth no trusting to an Arm of Flesh For the successes of War depend upon a thousand Contingencies which it is not in the power of mortal Men either to foresee or remedy Eccles 9.11 Psal 33.16 So that the race is not always to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor can a King be sav'd by the multitude of an Host nor any mighty Man be delivered by his much strength But the God of Heaven that ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men it is He that preserves or destroys that gives Victory or sends a Defeat as it pleaseth him And therefore he is by way of eminence stiled The Lord of Hosts the God of Battels On the other hand If our Affairs at any time be in so very bad a posture that we cannot not avoid the having a melancholy dismal prospect of things yet let us not be discouraged let us still trust in God let us do what belongs to us to do for the obtaining his Mercy and Favour and then refer the Event to him God hath certainly a kindness for his People and if we do our parts towards the preserving his Affection to us we may still hope he will continue to be our Saviour and Deliverer Is is as easy to God to save by few as by many the Walls of Jericho at his Command Josh 6.20
rewarded and wicked Men punished to deny the liberty of Humane Actions and to say that all things which we do we do by a fatal necessity and we cannot do otherwise And yet we may every day meet with Men of these Principles nay and that laugh at all those that maintain the contrary But then as for the business of Jesus Christ and that which we call the Christian Religion what a very little do a great many among us make of that To talk of Christ's being sent for the Saviour of the World and that he died to procure the Pardon of our Sins and that we must believe all the Scripture-Doctrines concerning him and worship him as a God why what stuff is this to a great many of the resined Spirits of our Age It is very well if they can so far prevail with themselves as to own the Being of God and to acknowledge their obligation to the Duties of moral Honesty and Justice which natural Religion teacheth But as for Jesus Christ and the Trinity and the Sacraments and all revealed Religion they beg your Pardon for these things they are too nice and subtil for them to meddle with Not but that they are good Christians all the while For they can come to our Churches and to our Sacraments too if there be occasion Because indeed they will always be of the Religion of the Country where they live But at the same time they do this they do no more really believe or expect any Spiritual Benefit in our Religion nor look for any more Salvation from Christ Jesus than they would expect from Mahomet if they should live in Turky But this is not all Even among those that do believe in Jesus Christ and own his Religion yet what little regard have they generally speaking to his Worship and Service It is very well if they now and then afford their presence on Sundays at the publick Religious Assemblies I will not examine with what designs and for what ends they come thither nor how devoutly and religiously their hearts are affected during the time they are there I say it is very well that they are there at all But even of those that do come thither and do once a Week seem to have a sense of publick Religion I say how few are there of them that take any care of worshipping God either in their Families or in their Closets Why if a Man was truly Religious he could not pass a day without solemn Addresses to his Maker and to his Redeemer He would pray in his Closet constantly and if he had a Family he would Pray with them constantly And if he had no Family he would constantly resort to those places where he might pay his Tribute of publick Prayer and Praises to God unless he had urgent business to hinder him But is there any thing of this to be seen among us except in some few Persons here and there Are there not twenty Families for one that live without so much as the shew of any Devotion Without any sort of Prayer or Worship of God in their Houses Nay and I am afraid I may say there are twenty for one even of Private Persons that live without Devotion in their Closets that never call upon God never renew their Vows to their Saviour never pay him any Homage except perhaps once a Week in a formal way when the Custom of the Country obliges them to resort to the Church The truth is so little sense have most of us of Religion and Devotion so little regard of our Duty to God and our depenance upon him and expressing that dependance either in Private or in our Families That were it not for that Happy Institution of the Lord's day on the which we are obliged by the Laws of God and Man to meet together for the Worship of God we should hardly see any Face of Religon among us and in a little time should scarce be distinguished from Heathens But yet this is not the worst of our Case Our gross Immoralities that Horrid Lewdness and Debauchery that is every where to be observed in our days doth still increase our Guilt and cry to Heaven for Judgment upon our Nation It would make a Man's heart ake that has any sense of God or Religion to think of the Riots the Drunkenness the continued course of spending our Time and our Parts and our Substance in Revelling and Gaming and all manner of such excesses that is daily practised among us And yet at the same time the Men that thus live think themselves very honest Men all the while It would really amaze a Man and put him upon admiring God's Patience that he doth not presently confound the World if he did seriously reflect on the many filthy lewd Speeches and Actions the numerous wicked intrigues of Lust the Infamous Whoredoms and Adulteries that are without any sense of shame daily carried on and acted among us and that by Persons too that have the Face to shew themselves at our Holy Assemblies Especially if to these be added the infinite Lyes and Cheats and Perjuries which our Land groans under The Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations the Damn me 's and Sink me's the Horrid Profanations of the Name of God and all things Sacred that are in every place in every street where we pass belched out in contempt of the Almighty and his Laws by all sorts of Persons of all sorts of Qualities from the Beggar in the street to the Man of Honour and that for no other reason in the World but because it is their Humour or their Custom And lastly to fill up the measure of our iniquities to our other reigning Vices we have added that of Hypocrisie too which one would think should not often be found among so much Profaneness How many of us make a mighty noise with Religion and are zealous even to Bigottry in the defence of it and yet have not one grain of inward sense of what it obligeth them to Nay so far from that that if Religion be but in their Mouths If they do but appear Zealous enough for the Protestant Cause If they can but cry loue enough The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in the Prophet They matter not how coutradictory their Actions are to the Precepts of that Religion they do Profess Their Zeal for so good a Cause will sanctifie all the other Actions be they never so wicked and unjust But if this be not Hypocrisie there is no such thing in the World Sure I am it was this sort of Carriage that God so often reproves the Jews for by his Prophets and upon account of which they are so often reproached as a Generation of Hypocrites and for which he threatens them with utter destruction O my Brethren what have we to say to these things If the Case be thus with us as I am afraid it is What plea have we to put in for our selves If
are true c. Here are a great many things recommended by the Apostle to our thoughts and pursuit If we would make a distribution of them I believe they will all naturally enough full under these Four Heads For the things here recommended are not so many as the words by which they are express'd there being several Words used in this Enumeration that are of the same importance and seem to express much the same thing The Four Heads I would reduce them to are these I. A constant Adherence to the true Religion II. Honesty and Justice in our Dealings III. A Life of Strict Purity in opposition to Sensuality and Lewdness IV. The adorning the Doctrine of God we do profess by the constant Practice of every other thing that is Virtuous or Commendable or well thought of by Mankind This as I take it is a fair account of the Parts of this Text and these I shall make the Heads of my following Exhortation I begin with the first Finally my Brethren whatsoever things are true think on those things The Truths that St. Paul here exhorts them to think on are undoubtedly the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he had delivered to them These he would have them to think upon and persist in and never to be prevailed upon by any Temptation to depart from them Let me now apply this Advice of his to you It is the particular Blessing of God to this Kingdom and an inestimable Blessing it is that he has not only vouchsafed us the Light of his Gospel for many years but he has also taken Care that the Truths of it should be delivered to us with greater Purity and Sincerity and freer from the mixtures of Errour than to most I was going to say than to any other People in the World If it lay in your way to make observations concerning the State of Religion in other Countries nay or but to read the Accounts that are given of it I am sure you would be convinced how exceedingly happy we of this Church are above all the Churches in Christendom O therefore let us all firmly adhere to the Truths we have been taught to the Truths we have hitherto made Profession of And let us firmly adhere to that Church which hath held forth these Truths to us and taught us this Profession We do not pretend that any Church is Infallible and therefore not ours But this we dare say and we can justifie that if we take our measures concerning the Truths of Religion from the Rules of the Holy Scriptures and the Platform of the Primitive Churches the Church of England is undoubtedly both as to Doctrine and Worship the Purest Church that is at this day in the World the most Orthodox in Faith and the â—â—â—est on the one hand from Idolatry and Superstition and on the other hand from Freakishness and Enthusiasm of any now extant Nay I do farther say with great seriousness and as one that expects to be called to account at the dreadful Tribunal of God for what I now say if I do not speak in sincerity That I do in my Conscience believe that if the Religion of Jesus Christ as it is delivered in the New Testament be the true Religion as I am certain it is Then the Communion of the Church of England is a safe way to Salvation and the safest of any I know in the World And therefore I do exhort you all in the Name of God steadfastly to hold and to persevere in this Communion Here you have the Things that are true Think of them and embrace them heartily and Live and Die in the Profession of them This is the Doctrine I have always Taught you and by the Grace of God I mean to Practise accordingly II. The next thing I have to recommend to you from these words of the Apostle is Universal Honesty and Justice and Righteousness in your Conversation Whatsoever things saith he are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just think on these things You see I join these two words Honest and Just together as importing the same thing Though yet I am aware that the word we here render Honest is often used in another signification that is to say for Grave or Venerable But since that other signification falls in most properly under my last Head I wave it here and take the word as our Translation renders it Indeed it is in vain to expect any advantage from our profession of the Truth if we be not sincerely Just and Honest in our Actions Whosoever can allow himself in the practice of any dishonest knavish indirect Dealing let that Man be never so Orthodox in his Belief and Opinions yet I am sure he is no true Christian O therefore let me exhort you all whatever Interests you have to serve whatever Dealing you are to engage in to be always strictly Just and Vpright in your Conversation Use no Tricks practise no ill Arts for the serving your ends but in all your transactions with Men deal with that Simplicity and Integrity and good Conscience that becomes those who would be accounted the Disciples of Him who was the most Innocent the most Sincere and the least Intrigueing Person in the World Assure your selves no dishonesty can prosper long Whatever turns you may serve by it at present yet you will bitterly repent of it sometime or other But Righteousness and Justice doth establish a Man's ways And the upright Man though he is not always the richest yet always walketh most surely And as for the final event of things Remember this that God Almighty has pronounced that no Vnrighteous men no Covetous no Lyars no Extortioners shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But to go on III. The next thing I have to exhort you to from the words of my Text is the Practice of Purity For after the Apostle hath recommended the pursuit of things that are true and the things that are honest and just he next adds the things that are pure Meaning hereby that we should study to be pure and chast and temperate both in our Hearts and Lives avoiding all Excesses and Lewdness and Sensuality And if he thought it convenient in that Age of strictness and severity and devotion to put the Christians in mind of this I am sure it is not only convenient but necessary to do it in this Age of ours when Luxury and Debauchery when Whoredom and Drunkenness and all sorts of Vice that are contrary to Purity are grown to that height among us that we seem to defie God Almighty by our impudent Practice of them and provoke Him to give us up to Destruction I pray God make the whole Nation deeply sensible of the Folly and Wickedness as well as of the Danger and dreadful Cousequences of these Practices And as for you who are here present let me bespeak you in the Words of the Apostle Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims to
since it is Zeal for God that we are here speaking of it must be something wherein our Duty is concerned that must be the object of our Zeal So that a right Zeal of God implies that we do so well inform our selves of the Nature of our Religion as not to pretend a Religious Zeal for any thing that is not a part of our Religion If our Zeal for God be as it should be it must certainly express it self in matters that are good about such objects as God hath made to be our Duty It is good saith St. Paul to be always zealously affected in a good matter But if we mistake in our Cause if we take that for good which is evil or that for evil which is good here our Zeal is not according to Knowledge Secondly as the object of our Zeal must be according to Knowledge so also the Principle from whence our Zeal proceeds must be according to Knowledge also That is to say We must have solid and rational grounds to proceed upon in our concernment for any thing such as will not only satisfie our selves but all others that are unbyassed In a word such as we can justifie to all the World If it be every Man's Duty as St. Peter tells us it is to be ready to give an Answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him Then I am sure it is much more every Man's Duty to be able to give a reason of the Zeal that is in him Because this business of a Man's Zeal doth more affect the Publick and is of greater Concernment to it than what a Man 's private Faith or Hope is But yet how little is this considered by many zealous Men among us Some are zealous for a point to serve an Interest or a Faction But this is not to be owned as the ground and reason of Zeal for indeed if it should it would not be allowed of Others are zealous for no other reason but because they find their Teachers or those they most converse with are so They follow the common Cry and examine no more of the matter Others indeed have a Principle of Zeal beyond all this For they are â—â—ved from within to stand up for this or the other Cause they have Impulses upon their minds which they cannot resist But that in truth is no more a justifiable ground of any Man's Zeal than either of the former For if these Motions and Impulses that they speak of be from God there will certainly be conveyed along with them such Reasons and Arguments for the thing that they are to be zealous about as will if they be declared satisfie and convince all other reasonable Men as well as themselves For it is a ridiculous thing to imagine that God at this day doth move or impel Men in any other way than what is agreeable to the Reason of Mankind and the Rule of his holy Word And if the Man's Zeal can be justified by either of these there is no need of vouching Inspirations for it Thirdly As the Zeal which is according to knowledge hath a good matter for its object and proceeds from a right Principle So it is also regular as to the Measures of it He that hath it is careful that it do not exceed its due Bounds as the Ignorant Zeal often doth but he distinguisheth between the several objects he is zealous for and allows every one of them just so great a Concernment as the thing is worth and no more If the thing be but a small matter he is but in a small measure concerned for it If it be of greater moment he believes he may be allowed to be the more earnest about it But he looks upon it as a rash and foolish thing and an effect of great ignorance or weakness to be hot and eager for all things alike We should account him not many degrees removed from a Child or an Ideot that upon the cut of a Finger should as passionately complain and cry out for help as if he had broken a Limb. Why just the same Folly and Childishness it is to make a mighty bustle about small matters which are of no consequence in which neither Religion nor the Publick Peace are much concerned as if indeed our Lives and Souls were in danger It therefore becomes all prudent and sober Men to take care that their Zeal do not spend it self in little things that they be not too passionate and earnest and vehement for things that are not worth much contending for If we lay a greater weight upon a Cause than it will bear and shew as much warmth and passion for small matters as if the Fundamentals of our Faith were at stake we are zealous indeed but not according to Knowledge Fourthly The Zeal that is according to knowledge is always attended with hearty Charity It is not that bitter Zeal which the Apostle speaks of which is accompanied with Hatred and Envy and perverse Disputings But it is kind and sociable and meek even to Gainsayers It is that Wisdom which is from above that is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated It is a Zeal that loves God and his Truth heartily and would do all that is possible to bring Honour and Advancement to them But at the same time it loveth all Men. And therefore in all things where it expresses it self it purely consults the Merits of the Cause before it but lets the Persons of Men alone It is a certain Argument of an Ignorant and ungoverned Zeal when a Man leaves his Cause and his Concernment for God's Glory and turns his Heat upon those that he has to deal with when he is peevish and angry with Men that differ from him When he is not contented to oppose Arguments to Arguments and to endeavour to gain his point by calm Reasoning but he flies out into Rage and Fury and when he is once transported herewith he cares not what undecent bitter Reflections he makes upon all those that have the Fortune to be of a different side But in these Cases Men would do well to remember that the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God as the Apostle expresses it All this kind of behaviour favours of the Wisdom of this World which is Earthly and Sensual and Devilish Fifthly and lastly Another inseparable Property of Zeal according to Knowledge is That it must pursue lawful Ends by lawful Means must never do an Ill thing for the carrying the best Cause This St. Paul hath laid down as a Rule to be eternally observed among Christians when in the third of the Romans he declares that their damnation is just who say Let us do evil that good may come Be therefore our Point never so good or never so weighty yet if we use any dishonest unlawful Arts for the gaining of it that is to say If we do any thing which is either in it self Evil and appears
to be so by the natural Notices of Mankind or which the Laws of our Holy Religion do forbid I say in all such Instances we are Transgressors And though our Cause be very good and our Ends very allowable yet since the Means by which we would accomplish those Ends are unwarrantable the whole Action though proceeding from never so much Zeal for God is very Bad For true Zeal as it always supposeth a right Information of Judgment as to the matter of it so likewise it supposeth that a Man should act in honest ways and endeavour to attain his ends by lawful means And thus have I laid before you the Properties and Characters of that Zeal which is according to knowledge which was the third and last thing I proposed upon this Text and I pray God we may always remember them whenever we have occasion to express a Zeal for any thing especially in matters of Religion All that remains now is to make some brief Application of my Text with reference to the business of the Day These words as I told you were spoke of the Jews But the Character here given of them doth so well fit a sort of Men whose fiery Zeal for God and their Religion gave occasion to the Solemnity of this Day that it looks as if it were made for them It is the Bigots of the Church of Rome that I mean to whom we must do the same right that St. Paul here did his Countrymen We must bear them Record that they have a Zeal of God but not according to Knowledge Zealous they are sufficiently as the Jews were no body doubts of it But as for their Zeals being according to knowledge there is great reason to doubt they are as faulty in that point as St. Paul's Countrymen were Indeed if you were to draw the comparison between the Jewish and Popish Zealots as to all the several particulars that our Saviour and St. Paul take notice of as Instances of blind Zeal in the former You would find in all those particulars both their Zeals to be much of a piece not only as to the Fervour but as the Blindness of them Was it an instance of Ignorant Zeal in the Jews that they set up their Traditions to the disparagement of the Law of God I pray who are those that disparage the Holy Scriptures by setting their Traditions upon an equal foot with them Were the Jews to be blamed for that they were so zealous for their old Religion as to oppose that Reformation of it which our Lord Jesus endeavoured to introduce among them because they thought it was an Innovation I pray who are those who upon that very ground oppose all Reformation at this Day though yet the wisest and best Men among themselves are sufficiently sensible that there are great Corruptions both in their Doctrine and Worship Was it a fault in the Jewish Zeal that it placed Religion too much in Ceremonies and Formalities in washing Cups and Platters in tithing Mint and Cummin and the like to the neglect of the weightier matters of the Law Justice and Mercy and Faith I pray wherein is Image-worship Invocation of Saints Penances Pilgrimages the use of Reliques Holy Water c. I say wherein are these things better than those And yet we know who they are that lay so great a stress upon these and such other things that it may be truly said a great part of their Religion is made up of them It would not be difficult to run the parallel between the Zeals of the two Religions through several more Instances But it is an unpleasant Argument and therefore I will pursue it no farther Only one instance more of the Jewish Zeal I must not pass by because it comes up so fully to the business of this Day So zealous were they for their Religion that they did not care what sort of means they made use of for the promoting of it were they never so wicked and unnatural Our Saviour they hunted to Death with false Witnesses Stephen they stoned out of pure zeal in a popular tumult Forty of them solemnly bound themselves under a Curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed St. Paul But all this and a great deal more our Saviour had foretold they would do when he told his Apostles that the time would come when whosoever killed them should think that he did God good service A Blessed way of doing God service this is to act such wicked inhumane things as these But such inhumane things as these doth a Blind Zeal for Religion sometimes put Men upon And that it doth so we cannot have a greater proof except what I have already mentioned than the practices of the zealous Men of the Church of Rome How many unlawful Arts have they used to subject all the Christian World to their Lord and Master How many Forgeries for this purpose have they been the Authors of and maintained them afterwards How many disturbances have they given to the Peace of Christendom in the most unjust and unnatural ways for the Advancement of the Papal Cause It was out of Zeal for Gods Service and the Interest of Holy Church that so many Princes have been Excommunicated and Deposed that so many Tumults and Rebellions have been raised that so many Crusados for the extirpating Hereticks have been sent out By which and such like means it may justly be computed that as much Christian Blood has been shed for the establishing Popery as it now stands nay and a great deal more than ever was during all the times of the Heathen Persecutions for the supporting of Paganism But if there were no other instance extant in the World to shew what is to be expected from a blind Zeal especially a blind Popish Zeal for Religion that instance which the deliverance of this Day doth give us occasion to mention would be alone sufficient to inform us When for no other end but for the Advancement of Popery and the rooting out that Pestilent Heresie of the Reformation which infested these Northern Climates a Company of Popish Zealots entered upon the most Barbarous and Inhumane Project that ever was undertaken by Men even neither better nor worse than the destroying the King and Parliament at one blow and had put all things in such a readiness in order thereunto that they certainly had effected it as on this Day had not their Conspiracy been detected in a wonderful manner But thanks be to God their designs then and ever since have been defeated and some of them even miraculously and we trust in the Mercies of God that they will ever be so God hath been wonderfully Gracious to us in the Preservation of our Church and Religion from Popish attempts to destroy it ever since it was setled among us How many Plots and Conspiracies were laid in the time of the Glorious Q. Elizabeth to put an end to her Life and with it to our reformed establishment
he was not only to profess his faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection but he was also to look upon himself as obliged in correspondence therewith to mortifie his former carnal affections and to enter upon a new state of Life And the very Form of Baptism did lively represent this Obligation to them For what did their being plung'd under water signifie but their Undertaking in Imitation of Christ's Death and Burial to forsake all their former evil courses As their ascending out of the water did their Engagement to lead a holy spiritual Life This our Apostle doth more than once declare to us Thus Rom. vi 4. We are buried saith he with Christ by Baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life Thus again in the 10th and 11th verses of that Chapter In that Christ died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is to say After the example of Christ's Death and Resurrection account ye your selves obliged to die to sin and to live to Righteousness Lastly To name no more Texts the same use doth the Apostle make of Christ's Resurrection in Coloss iii. 1 2. If ye then saith he be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God i. e. You by entring into the Christian Covenant are incorporated into Christ He is your Head you are his Members and therefore since he no longer leads a life of this World it will by no means become you to live like Worldlings or Epicures but being risen with him as the Members ought to do with the Head to mind those things that are above where he is to set your affections as he goes on on the things above and not on the things of the Earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God These things plainly shew that the Apostles delivered the Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection as a Practical Doctrine as a point which if Christians believed as they should do it would ingage them to mortifie their lusts to die to the World to place their affections on Spiritual things to have their conversations in Heaven where Christ our Head our Life now sits at the right hand of God II. Great will the insluence and Power of Christ's Resurrection upon our lives appear to be when we consider that it is indeed the principal Evidence that we have for the Truth of our Religion the very design of which is to make us Vertuous and Holy If any thing in the World can make a man good it must be a hearty belief of the Gospel And if any thing in the World can make a man heartily to believe the Gospel it must be the Resurrection of our Saviour from the dead All that Power therefore that the Gospel of Christ hath to make men good all that force and efficacy that its Arguments its Promises its Precepts its Encouragements its Threatnings have upon the Understandings and Wills of men in order to bring them to Vertue and Holiness I say all this may in a great measure uitimately be resolved into the Article of Christ's Resurrection For this Resurrection of his was the thing that did from the beginning and doth now and ever will ascertain mankind of the Truth of Christ's Religion This was and will be for ever the convincing Evidence that what Jesus taught was true Doctrine that what he commanded was of perpetual obligation that what he promised or threatned he was able to make good If Christ had not risen from the dead but had for ever been detained in the Grave notwithstanding all that might be urged from the Goodness of his Doctrine and the Inuncency of his Life and the multitude of his Miracles for the Proof of the Truth of Christianity though yet very strong and concluding Proofs these are I doubt it would hardly have met with that ready Entertainment in the World that we find it did But a great many both then and now would have made the same Objection against Jesus Christ and his Gospel that the Pharisees did of old that is to say That all his great Works and Miracles were done by Sorcery and Magick And that as for the Innocency of his Life and the great Vertue and Strictness that he expressed in his Conversation that was only used as a Trick and an Artifice the more easily to impose upon the World But now when it appears that Jesus who taught this holy Religion who did those Miracles who liv'd that vertuous Life did after he was put to a cruel death rise again to Life and conversed upon earth for forty days together and after that in the presence of many Spectators did ascend into Heaven I say when this appears as God be thanked it is evident beyond all contradiction here is no room left for any suspicion of this nature but all pretences of Imposture do perfectly vanish It is impossible for any considering man to believe Christ's Resurrection and at the same time to doubt of the truth of his Religion For thus let us reason Christ over and over again told his Apostles that he should be put to death but after that he would within three days rise again Matth. xvi 21. xvii 22. John xvi 16. Nay he told this not only to the Apostles but to all the People nay more than that he gave this as a Token as an Evidence to them whereby they should know and be convinced that he was what he gave himself out to be the Son of God and the great Prophet and Saviour that was to come John ii 19. Nay in the last place he not only refers the Jews to his Resurrection as an Evidence of his being the Christ but as the last and greatest Evidence that he had to give And such as if they were not convinced by they must expect no other Matth. xii 39 40. Our Saviour now laying such a mighty stress upon this point of his Resurrection putting his whole cause as I may speak upon this Issue I ask How is it possible to imagine that God Almighty should make these predictions of our Saviour good if he was not really what he pretended to be If Christ had been an Impostor it had been the easiest matter in the World to have stifled all his pretences for ever It had but been to have let him mouldered to dust in his Grave as all other men do and as He without the help of Omnipotency would have done and then all the World would have seen that he was a Deceiver But now when in stead of perishing in the Grave he was after three days restored to life again as he had foretold the People nay to a gloririous immortal Life What are we to conclude from
hence Did not God in this appear with a witness as a Voucher and Approver of his cause Was not this a demonstration to all the World that Christ Jesus was no Deceiver but that he came from God and that whatever he delivered was the Truth of God and to be received as the Oracles of God Certainly it was For that a man should be raised from the Dead by any other Power than the very Power of God all the World knows to be impossible The Devil though he can do very strange Feats in the natural World Yet I rever heard or read that either he or any of his Agents or Ministers so much as pretended to raise the dead to life again And certainly if he could have done it he would have done it often before this as in the case of Apollonius Tyanaeus Mahomet and others if it had been for no other reason than to baffle thereby the Evidence of our Saviour's Resurrection and render it unconcluding Ir must therefore certainly be the Power of God that raised up Jesus from the dead But then to suppose that God should employ this Tower for the giving Testimony to a Falshood that he should set his own Seal to attest an Untruth as he must be supposed to have done if Jesus was not his Son What an unaccountable thing is this No man that believes that God is faithful and just and true and that he governs the World can possibly imagine such a thing For this had been to have contradicted all his own Attributes and to have laid an invincible temptation and snare before all mankind to believe an Impious Lye You see then what an unexceptionable Proof nay Demonstration I may call it the Resurrection of Christ doth afford us of the Truth of his Religion which is the second Instance of the Power that is in it to bring men over to Holiness and Vertue III. But Thirdly the Power of Christ's Resurrection for the making us holy and vertuous will further appear in this respect Namely as it is in particular the great support of our Future Hopes the great Pledge and Assurance of our own Resurrection and Immortality For if Christ be risen then may we also be certain that we shall at last be raised by him Because Christ is not risen for himself only but as the first-fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. xv Good reason therefore had S. Paul to argue as he doth in that place If Christ be preached that he is risen from the dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection On the contrary as he urges If we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again Even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. For how can we desire to be better assured that our Bodies shall not for ever sleep in the Grave but shall at last be reunited to our Souls and both Soul and Body live eternally in unspeakable bliss and happiness I say How can we have greater assurance of this than by what was on this day brought to pass in our Saviour We have hereby a clear demonstration that the Resurrection is possible For Christ who was once dead is alive again and lives in unexpressible Glory at the right hand of God And at the same time that he rose he raised up other Bodies also of Holy Men to accompany him in his Triumph over Death But that is not all He that raised up himself and them hath given us his solemn Word and Promise in as express terms as is possible that he will by the same Power raise up us also and exalt us to the same Glory that he is possessed of He hath told us That he is the Resurrection and the Life And that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life and he will raise him up at the last day There cannot be a stronger Proof of any thing than our Saviour's Resurrection is of the happiness of good Men in another State Which being so How powerful a means must we needs conclude it to be for the Reforming the manners of Mankind and making them truly Holy and Vertuous Since we have thereby such a Demonstration given us of a glorious Immortality to be expected by us what is it that can be able to hinder or divert us from a serious pursuit of those things that lead to it What could God do more by way of Motive and Argument towards the Proselyting the World to Religion and Righteousness than he hath done by thus Ascertaining our future Happiness by the Resurrection of his Son Jesus To be certain that if we seriously apply our selves to a life of Piety here we shall be crowned with everlasting Felicity hereafter To be certain that if we follow the steps of our Blessed Saviour we shall for ever shine in the same Glory and Lustre that he now doth at the right hand of his Father To be able positively to say I know that my Redeemer liveth and I know that if I live as he did I shall for ever live with him and tho' it doth not yet appear what I shall be yet this I know that when he shall appear I shall be like him O what noble Thoughts what brave Resolutions is this able to inspire us with What Difficulties shall we be afraid of What Labours shall we not willingly undertake What Temptations shall we not easily vanquish in the Prospect of such an eternal Crown of Glory as awaits us and is secured to us by our Lord Jesus O happy we Christians that have so clear a Revelation of those things which God hath prepared for them that love him those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither did they enter into the heart of man Blessed for ever blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ that hath begotten us again to this lively hope by his Rosurrection from the dead O! what mighty Encouragements have we to set our selves against our Sins and to labour after the Perfection of Vertue in comparison of what those have who are ignorant of our Saviour's Resurrection and who know nothing of the other World but by the uncertain conjectures of their natural Reason If we had no other assurance of the Immortality of the Soul and the rewards and punishments of another life but what is afforded us by the light of Nature and the deductions of Philosophy I doubt we could never expect to see any great Reformation in our manners Some of the Philosophers have indeed to their immortal Fame asserted the truth of these things But then others of them have as much made it their business to run them down And as for those of them that spoke the best concerning the other World yet God knows their Discourses upon this Argument as will appear to any that reads them are generally very uncertain and altogether conjectural But admitting their Reasons to be strong and conclusive as I am far from denying
this World so dark and miserable a place that no serious considering man can tolerably enjoy himself in it For here upon the former supposition you are left without Counsel or Advice You have nothing to propose nothing to design in the course of your Lives It is all one how you behave your selves whether honestly or wickedly whether you mind your Business or mind it not for the Even will be the same You are obliged to no body for any Benefits you can complain of no body for any ill usage If you be in ill circumstances you have none to apply to for Remedy and if you be in good ones you may be stript of them without Remedy the next moment for all things are carried on by a whirl of Fate And you are not much better'd by the latter Hypothesis That God hath trusted the Government of the World with Mankind who are endowed with Reason and Understanding For if we consider how Mankind do sometimes use their Reasons it is as good if not better to be exposed to the Hazards of Chance or Necessity as to be subject to their Wills The truth of it is if this Systeme of the World be well consider'd it will appear a more uncomfortable one than the other for it doth not remove from us the Iron Bands of Fate we are still under that Yoke as much as we were before Yet besides these it puts upon us another Yoke the arbitrary Pleasures of those of our own kind which if they be not govern'd by Reason are ten times more unsupportable than the other We are by this Hypothesis as much exposed to Natural Evils as we were before and there is no help for them but over and above we must bear the Indignities and Insolences the Ravages and Cruelty of every one that is stronger than our selves and hath the will to oppress us O hard Lot of Mankind if this was their Constitution better by far were it for them to be Brutes and think of nothing than to be Men upon such Terms as these Happy therefore are the Inhabitants of the Earth happy are the remotest Isles thereof that there is a King that reigns both over Fate and Men. Happy are we that there is a wise and intelligent Being that superintends all our Affairs and so governs both the Powers of Nature and the Powers of Mankind that nothing can be done by either of them but what is designed by and pursuant to his Counsels Upon this Supposition we may live like Men and enjoy our selves with some Comfort in this World We may propose Ends and Designs to our selves and hope that with our diligence and good management they may take effect Upon this Supposition we may and ought to look upon all our good Successes as the Blessings of God to us and particularly that which we are this day met together to thank Him for I mean the wonderful Preservation of His Majesty from all the Dangers to which he hath so often been exposed and his safe Return to us Upon this Supposition we may hope that tho' all things have not succeeded according to our Wishes yet in due time they may since the King of the World hath by the frequent and unexpected Deliverances he hath wrought for us and the strange unusual Providences that have attended our King given us some Encouragement to believe provided we do our parts towards it that He hath reserv'd Vs for better Times and Him for the executing those Glorious Designs which Good Men hope will at last be accomplish'd in the World Lastly Upon this Supposition every Honest Man will find reason enough both to bear contentedly whatever uneasie Circumstances he lyes under and to trust in God's Mercy for the removal of them and in the mean time to possess his own Soul in a cheerful dependance on God's Providence and a hearty Thankfulness for all the innumerable Blessings he hath receiv'd and doth daily receive from his Hands And therefore since the Lord is King let the earth be glad yea let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof Now That the Lord is really thus the King of the World there are all the Arguments to perswade us that can be desir'd It is the Voice of Reason It is the Voice of all Mankind It is the Voice of GOD himself both in His Works and in His Word Give me leave to give you a Specimen in all these ways of Arguing and but a Specimen because it would be rather the Work of a Book than of a Sermon to dilate upon these matters First I say Reason tells us it must be thus For admitting that the World did not make it self but was made by God it will follow that the same God that made it must still govern it For the same Ends and Designs and Motives whatever they were that induced God to make the World at first will oblige Him for ever to take care of it and look after it Unless we suppose God to contrive an act as uncertainly and unstedily and with the same inconstancy and levity of Mind that some of us Mortals here upon Earth do Secondly It is the Voice of all Mankind For otherwise how comes it to pass that among all Nations and in all Ages there has been some Religion or other practised I pray what is the meaning of worshiping God of putting up Prayers and Supplications to Him for the things we need of returning Thanks for the Benefits we have received of appointing Religious Rites and Methods for the expiation of Guilt or the averting of impendent Calamities all which things have been practised in all Nations from the beginning of the World to this day I say what is the meaning of all this unless it was hereby meant to be signified That there is a God which doth concern himself in the Affairs of Mankind and who doth dispense Good or Evil to them as they well or ill behave themselves towards him The Truth is To say that God doth not govern the World is to say that all Religion is a Cheat and that all Mankind except a few debauch'd Wits in the more polite Countries and a few Brutes in the very barbarous ones who are of no Religion at all have been and are a company of credulous Fools For this is certain whatever Argument either Jew or Turk or Pagan or Christian can suggest to himself for the convincing him that it is his Concernment or his Duty to worship God or to be of any Religion at all nay or to make any conscience of any Action he does I say all these Arguments do not only prove but suppose that God both knows and orders the Affairs of the World Thirdly It may likewise be as strongly proved from Effects from the tracks and footsteps of a Divine over-ruling Providence which are to be seen in the Events that happen in the World which is what I call the Voice of God in his Works These are indeed so many and so
visible that whosoever hath either read History or hath made Observations must needs have taken notice of them If ever there were any extraordinary Deliverances vouchsafed to Kingdoms or Cities or particular Persons or ever any remarkable Judgments inflicted upon any of these which so carried the Marks and Signatures of God's Hand in them that the One could not in reason but be attributed to the Care that he had that Religion or Innocence should not be oppressed and the Other must in reason be interpreted as a Divine Vengeance that pursued the Guilty for their Crimes If ever there were any Prophecies that did punctually foretell a Particular Event that came not to pass till many Years after and such an Event as was perfectly contingent and depended upon the Wills of Men If ever there were any Notices given of Approaching Calamities by Voices from Heaven by strange Appearances in the Air and such other like Presages not naturally to be accounted for If ever there were any Apparitions any Witchcraft any effects of a Diabolical Power by which it may appear that there are a sort of Invisible Beings in the World which do bear ill will to Mankind but yet are so curbed that they cannot do all the Mischief they would If ever there were any Miracles wrought either by Moses and the Prophets or by Jesus Christ and his Apostles for the confirmation of the Jewish or the Christian Religion Lastly If ever any Good Man did ever receive any Blessing or avoid any Misfortune which he might rationally look upon as an Answer to the Fervent Prayers that he had put up to God or others had put up for him I say If any of these things that I have now named be true as all Histories give us a World of Instances of the truth of all of them and as for some of them I do not doubt but they fall within the compass of our own Observation and Experience I say if any of these things be true then have we a convincing Proof that there is a Power that doth interpose in the Affairs of the World superiour both to that of Nature and to that of Mankind and which moderates all things according as it seems good unto him But in truth we need not go to supernatural Events or to particular Providences for the Truth of this For in my Opinion the daily effects that every one of us sees and feels the very Subsistence of the World for so many Ages in that regular frame that it was at first and the fair Treatment and Encouragement how unequally soever things seem to be distributed which vertuous and religious men have always found in it and do yet find notwithstanding that far the greatest number of men are of another stamp I say these very things seem an Argument beyond exception That there is a God that presides over us and takes care of us But Fourthly and lastly God has yet given us a further Proof of this by his own many Authentick Declarations in the Holy Scriptures which we call his Word One of the main businesses of which is Dan. 4.17 to assure us That He rules in the kingdoms of men and disposeth of all their Affairs There He is set forth as the Author of all Events Amos. 3.6 both good and bad so that no evil happens in a City but the Lord doth it There He is represented as the searcher of all hearts the Judge of all mens Designs and Actions the Avenger of all Evil Practices and the Refuge of all Good Men. There we are told that He is the God of of Battles Psal 33.16 and that no King is saved by the multitude of his Armies nor any mighty Man delivered by his own strength but Salvation is from the Lord. And so are Disappointments also There we are assured Psal 33. â—4 that He from his Habitation looketh down upon all that dwell on the earth He fashioneth the hearts of them he understandeth all their ways Pror 19.21 And though many are the devices that are in their Hearts yet it is his counsel only that shall stand In a word Eph. 1. â—â— it is God as the Apostle tells us that worketh all things and he worketh them all according to the counsel of his own will So that nothing comes by chance nothing is done in vain but all Events are in pursuance of a Design Nay not so much as the Event of casting a Lot which seems the most fortuitous contingent thing in the whole World is left at random For even in that Case the disposal of the Lot as Solomon tells us Prov. 16.33 is from the Lord. All this is not only the Doctrine but in a great measure the very Language and Expression of those Holy Books And what can we desire more Or what words can we invent that shall declare more fully the thing we are speaking of None can that I know of except perhaps those of our Saviour with which I shall shut up this point Matt. 10.29 Fear not saith he to his Disciples Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing yet not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your Father Nay I say unto you the very hairs of your head are all numbered O wonderful this what God Almighty number the very Hairs of our Heads Lord what is man that thou shouldst have such respect unto him and do that for him which even the nicest and most delicate of Men never yet did for themselves But thus art thou pleased to express thy particular regard to the Sons of Men. Thus art thou pleased to let us see that none of us are so inconsiderable but that we are within the Verge of thy Providence and Objects of thy Care And therefore much more are Cities and States and Kingdoms so wherein the Fortunes of so many Individuals are wrapt up O blessed be God for his Love to Mankind O for ever adored be his Name for thus humbling himself to take notice of us and our Affairs and likewise for giving us such abundant Assurance that he doth so Since therefore we have such mighty Evidence of all sorts that the Lord is King let the Earth be glad yea let the multitudes of the isles be glad thereof And we shall still see greater reason thus to be glad if we consider a little more particularly the Rules and Measures by which God administers the Affairs of his Kingdom Which are not as too often happens in Human Governments Arbitrary Will or Humour but perfect Wisdom and Justice and Goodness Tho' it be true what the Psalmist saith Psal 135.6 That Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth that doth he in Heaven and in Earth and in the Sea and all deep places Yet it is as true that the Lord will never be pleased to do any thing either in Heaven or in Earth but what is suggested by infinite Goodness and in such ways as are the Result of Infinite Wisdom