word with joy and endure for a while but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they are offended not that they did not believe the Word but their Faith had taken no deep root and therefore it withered The weakness and wavering of Mens Faith makes them unstable and inconstant in their course because they are not of one mind but divided betwixt two interests that of this world and the other and the double minded man as St. James tells us is unstable in all his ways It is generally a true rule so much wavering as we see in the actions and lives of Men so much weakness there is in their Faith and therefore he that would know what any Man firmly believes let him attend to his actions more than to his professions If any Man live so as no Man that heartily believes the Christian Religion can live it is not credible that such a Man doth firmly believe the Christian Religion He says he does but there is a greater evidence in the case than words there is Testimonium rei the Man's actions are to the contrary and they do best declare the inward sense of the Man Did Men firmly believe that there is a God that governs the world and that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge it in righteousnes and that all mankind shall shortly appear before him and give an account of themselves and all their actions to him and that those who have kept the Faith and a good Conscience and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world shall be unspeakably and eternally happy but the fearful and unbelieving those who out of fear or interest have deserted the Faith or lived wicked lives shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone I say were Men firmly persuaded of these things it is hardly credible that any Man should make a wrong choice and forsake the ways of Truth and Righteousness upon any temptation whatsoever Faith even in temporal matters is a mighty principle of action and will make Men to attempt and undergo strange and difficult things The Faith of the Gospel ought to be much more operative and powerful because the Objects of Hope and Fear which it presents to us are far greater and more considerable than any thing that this world can tempt or terrifie us withall Would we but by Faith make present to our minds the invisible things of another world the happiness of Heaven and the terrors of Hell and were we as verily persuaded of them as if they were in our view how should we despise all the pleasures and terrors of this world And with what ease should we resist and repel all those temptations which would seduce us from our duty or draw us into sin A firm and unshaken belief of these things would effectually remove all those mountains of difficulty and discouragement which Men fancy to themselves in the ways of Religion To him that believeth all things are possible and most things would be easie 2. Another reason of this wrong choice is want of consideration for this would strengthen our Faith and make it more vigorous and powerful And indeed a Faith which is well rooted and establishould doth suppose a wise and deep consideration of things and the want of this is a great cause of the fatal miscarriage of Men that they do not sit down and consider with themselves seriously how much Religion is their interest and how much it will cost them to be true to it and to persevere in it to the end We suffer our selves to be governed by sense and to be transported with present things but do not consider our future and lasting interest and the whole duration of an immortal Soul And this is the reason why so many men are hurried away by the present and sensible delights of this world because they will not take time to think of what will be hereafter For it is not to be imagined but that the Man who hath seriously considered what sin is the shortness of its pleasure and the eternity of its punishment should resolve to forsake sin and to live a holy and virtuous life To conclude this whole Discourse If Men did but seriously believe the great principles of Religion the Being and the Providence of God the immortality of their Souls the glorious rewards and the dreadful punishments of another world they could not possibly make so imprudent a choice as we see a great part of mankind to do they could not be induced to forsake God and Religion for any temporal interest and advantage to renounce the favour of Heaven and all their hopes of happiness in another world for any thing that this world can afford nay not for the whole world if it were offered to them For as our Saviour reasons in this very case of forsaking our Religion for any temporal interest or consideration what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul When ever any of us are tempted in this kind let that solemn declaration of our Saviour and our Judge be continually in our minds he that confesseth me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven but whosever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels And we have great cause to thank God to see so many in this day of tryal and hour of temptation to adhere with so much resolution and constancy to their Holy Religion and to prefer the keeping of Faith and a good Conscience to all earthly considerations and advantages And this very thing that so many hold their Religion so fast and are so loth to part with it gives great hopes that they intend to make good use of it and to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it which alone can give us peace whilst we live and comfort when we come to die and after death secure to us the possession of a happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls To which God of his Infinite Goodness bring us all for his mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THE main Scope and design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to persuade the Jews who were newly converted to Christianity to continue stedfast in the profession of that Holy and Excellent Religion which they had embraced and not to be removed from it either by the subtile insinuations of their Brethren the Jews who pretended that they were in possession
of the true ancient Religion and the only true Church of God upon Earth or by the terrour of Heathen persecution which was so hot against them at that time And to this end the Author of this Epistle doth by great variety of arguments demonstrate the excellency of the Christian Religion above the Jewish dispensation and shews at large that in all those respects upon which the Jews valued themselves and their Religion as namely upon the account of their Lawgiver their High-Priests and their Sacrifices the Christian Religion had every way the advantage of them And having made this clear he concludes with an earnest exhortation to them to continue stedfast in the profession of this excellent Religion which was revealed to them by the Son of God the true propitiatory Sacrifice and the great High-Priest of their profession and into which they had solemnly been initiated and admitted by Baptism vers 19 20 21 22. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh and having an high-priest over the house of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith that is let us sincerly serve God with a firm persuasion of the Truth and Excellency of this Holy Religion into the Profession whereof we were solemnly admitted by Baptism for that is undoubtedly the meaning of the following words having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washt with pure water the Water with which our Bodies are washt in Baptism signifying our spiritual Regeneration and the purging of our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God From all which he concludes Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering This refers to that solemn Profession of Faith which was made by all Christians at their Baptism and which is contained in the ancient Creed of the Christian Church called by the ancient Fathers The Rule of Faith Let us hold fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us firmly retain the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 4. 14. Seeing then we have a great high-priest which is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us take fast hold of our profession So here in the Text the Apostle upon the same Consideration exhorts Christians to retain or hold fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Confession or Profession of their hope that is the Hope of the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting Life which was the Conclusion of that Faith or Creed whereof in Baptism they made a Solemn Profession Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith or Hope without wavering the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflexible unmoveable steady and not apt to waver and be shaken by every Wind of contrary Doctrine nor by the Blasts and Storms of Persecution For he is faithful that hath promised If we continue faithful and steady to God he will be faithful to make good all the Promises which he hath made to us In the words thus explained there are Two things which I shall distinctly consider I. The Exhortation Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering And II. The Argument or Encouragement used to enâ—â—â—ce it He is faithful that promised so I begin with the I. The Exhortation to be constant and steady in the Profession of the Christian Religion Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering In the handling of this and that we may the better understand the true meaning of this Exhortation here in the Text I shall do these two things 1. I shall shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion does not consist And here I shall remove one or two things which are thought by some to be inconsistent with Constancy and Steadfastness in Religion 2. I shall shew Positively what is implied in a Constant and Steady Profession of the true Religion 1. I shall shew Negatively what Constancy and Steadfastness in the Profession of the true Religion does not imply And there are two things which are thought by some to be imply'd in holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering 1. That Men should not take the liberty to examine their Religion and enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it 2. That men should obstinately refuse to hear any Reasons that can be brought against the true Religion as they think which they have once entertained 1. That Men should not take the liberty to examine their Religion and to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it This I think is so far from being forbidden in this Exhortation that on the contrary I doubt not to make it appear that a free and impartial Enquiry into the Grounds and Reasons of our Religion and a thorough Tryal and Examination of them is one of the best Means to confirm and establish us in the Profession of it I mean that all Persons that are capable of it should do it and that they will find great benefit and advantage by it For I do not think that this is a Duty equally and indifferently incumbent upon all nor indeed fit and proper for all Persons because all are not equally capable of doing it There are two sorts of Persons that are in a great measure incapable of doing it 1. Children 2. Such grown Persons as are of a very mean and low capacity and improvement of Understanding Children are not fit to examine but only to learn and believe what is taught them by their Parents and Teachers They are fit to have the fear of God and the Principles of the true Religion instilled into them but they are by no means fit to discern between a true and false Religion and to chuse for themselves and to make a change of their Religion as hath of late been allowed to them in a Nation not far from us and by publick Edict declared that Children at Seven Years Old are fit to chuse and to change their Religion Which is the first Law I ever heard of that allows Children of that Age to do any act for themselves that is of Consequence and Importance to them for the remaining part of their Lives and which they shall stand obliged to perform and make good They are indeed Baptized according to the custome and usage of the Christian Church in their Infancy but they do not enter into this Obligation themselves but their Sureties undertake for them that when they come to Age they shall take this Promise upon themselves and confirm and make it good But surely they can do no Act for themselves and in their own Name at that Age which can be obligatory They can neither make any Contracts that shall be valid nor incur any Debt nor oblige themselves by any Promise nor chuse themselves a Guardian nor do any Act that may bring
the Reason which the Learned Men give why the Worship of Images and the Invocation of Angels and Saints departed were not practised in the Primitive Church for the first Three Hundred Years is a plain acknowledgment that these Practices are very liable to the Suspicion of Idolatry for they say that the Christians did then forbear those Practices because they seem'd to come too near to the Pagan Idolatry and lest the Heathen should have taken occasion to have justified themselves if these things had been practised among Christians and they cannot now be Ignorant what Scandal they give by these Practices both to the Jews and Turks and how much they alienate them from Christianity by this Scandal nor can they chuse but be sensible upon how great disadvantage they are in defending these Practices from the Charge of Idolatry and that by all their blind Distinctions with which they raise such a Cloud and Dust they can hardly make any plausible and tollerable Defence of themselves from this Charge Insomuch that to secure their own People from discerning their Guilt in this Matter they have been put upon that shameful shift of leaving out the Second Commandment in their common Catechisms and Manuals lest the People seeing so plain a Law of God against so common a Practice of their Church should upon that Discovery have broken off from them 5. Nor is our Religion incumbered with such an endless number of superstitious and troublesom Observances as theirs infiintely is even beyond the Number of the Jewish Ceremonies to the great Burden and Scandal of the Christian Religion and the diverting of Mens Minds from the spiritual part of Religion and the more weighty and necessary Duties of the Christian Life so that in truth a devout Pastor is so taken up with the external Rites and little Observances of his Religion that he hath little or no time to make himself a good Man and to cultivate and improve his Mind in true Piety and Virtue 6. Our Religion is evidently more Charitable to all Christians that differ from us and particularly to them who by their Uncharitableness to us have done as much as is possible to discharge and damp our Charity towards them And Charity as it is one of the most essential Marks of a true Christian so it is likewise the best Mark and Ornament of a true Church and of all things that can be thought of methinks the want of Charity in any Church should be a Motive to no Man to fall in love with it and to be fond of its Communion 7. Our Religion doth not clash and interfere with any of the great Moral Duties to which all Mankind stand obliged by the Law and Light of Nature as Fidelity Mercy and Truth We do not teach Men to break Faith with Hereticks or Infidels nor to destroy and extirpate those who differ from us with Fire and Sword No such thing as Equivocation or Mental Reservation or any other Artificial way of Falshood is either taught or maintain'd either by the Doctrine or by the Casuists of our Church 8. Our Religion and all the Doctrines of it are perfectly consistent with the Peace of Civil Government and the Welfare of Humane Society We neither exempt the Clergy from Subjection to the Civil Powers nor absolve Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever from allegiance to their Princes both which Points the necessity of the one and the lawfulness of the other have been taught and stifly maintain'd in the Church of Rome not only by private Doctors but by Popes and General Councils 9. The Doctrines of our Religion are perfectly free from all Suspicion of a Worldly Interest and Design whereas the greatest part of the erroneous Doctrines with which we charge the Church of Rome are plainly calculated to promote the end of Worldly Greatness and Dominion The Pope's Kingdom is plainly of this World and the Doctrines and Maximes of it like so many Servants are ready upon all occasion to fight for him For most of them do plainly tend either to the Establishment and Enlargment of his Authority or to the Magnifying of the Priests and the giving them a perfect power over the Conscienees of the People and the keeping them in a slavish subjection and blind obedience to them And to this purpose do plainly tend the Doctrines of exempting the Clergy from the Secular Power and Jurisdiction the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for it must needs make the Priest a great Man in the Opinion of the People to believe that he can make God as they love to express it without all Reason and Reverence Of the like tendency is the Communicating of the Laity only in one kind thereby making it the sole Priviledge of the Priest to receive the Sacrament in both The with-holding the Scripture from the People and celebrating the Service of God in an unknown Tongue The Doctrine of an implicite Faith and absolute Resignation of their Judgments to their Teachers These do all directly tend to keep the People in ignorance and to bring them to a blind Obedience to the dictates of their Teachers So likewise the Necessity of the intention of the Priests to the saving Virtue and Efficacy of the Sacraments by which Doctrine the People do upon the matter depend as much upon the good will of the Priest as upon the Mercy of God for their Salvation but above all their Doctrine of the Necessity of Auricular and private Confession of all Mortal Sins commited after Baptism with all the Circumstances of them to the Priest and this not only for the ease and direction of their Consciences but as a necessary condition of having their Sins pardoned and forgiven by God By which means they make themselves Masters of all the Secrets of the People and keep them in awe by the knowledge of their faults Scire volunt secreta Domus atque inde timeri Or else their Doctrines tend to filthy lucre and the enriching of their Church As their Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences and their Prayers and Masses for the dead and many more Doctrines and Practices of the like kind plainly do 10. Our Religion is free from all disingenuous and dishonest Arts of maintaining and supporting it self such are clipping of ancient Authors nay and even the Authors and Writers of their own Church when they speak too freely of any Point as may be seen in their Indices Expurgatorii which much against their wills have been brought to light To which I shall only add these Three gross Forgeries which lie all at their doors and they cannot deny them to be so 1. The pretended Canon of the Council of Nice in the case of Appeals between the Church of Rome and the African Church Upon which they insisted a great while very confidently till at last they were convinced by Authentick Copies of the Canons of that Council 2. Constantine's Donation to the Pope which they kept a great stir with till the Forgery of it
it but having no root in themselves they endured but for a while and when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word presently they fall off And there is likewise a partial Apostasie from Christianity when some Fundamental Article of it is denied whereby in effect and by consequence the whole Christian Faith is overthrown Of this Hymeneus and Philetus were guilty of whom the Apostle says that they erred concerning the truth saying that tbe Resurrection was past already and thereby overthrew the faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. That is they turned the Resurrection into an Allegory and did thereby really destroy a most Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion So that to make a man an Apostate it is not necessary that a man should solemnly renounce his Baptism and declare Christianity to be false there are several other ways whereby a man may bring himself under this guilt as by a silent quitting of his Religion and withdrawing himself from the Communion of all that profess it by denying an Essential Doctrine of Christianity by undermining the great End and Design of it by teaching Doctrines which directly tend to encourage Men in impenitence and a wicked course of life nay to Authorise all manner of impiety and vice in telling Men that whatever they do they cannot Sin for which the Primitive Christians did look upon the Gnosticks as no better than Apostates from Christianity and tho they retained the Name of Christians yet not to be truly and really so And there is likewise a partial Apostacy from the Christan Religion of which I shall speak under the II. Head I proposed which was to consider the several sorts and degrees of Apostacy The highest of all is the renouncing and forsaking of Christianity or of some Essential part of it which is a virtual Apostafie from it But there are several tendencies towards this which they who are guilty of are in some degree guilty of this Sin As 1. Indifferency in Religion and want of all sort of Concernment for it when a Man tho he never quitted his Religion yet is so little concerned for it that a very small Occasion or Temptation would make him do it he is contented to be reckoned in the number of those who profess it so long as it is the Fashion and he finds no great Inconvenience by it but is so indifferent in his Mind about it like Gallio who minded none of those things that he can turn himself into any other Shape when his Interest requires it so that tho he never actually deserted it yet he is 2 kind of Apostate in the preparation and disposition of his Mind And to such Persons that Title which Solomon gives to some may fitly enough be applyed they are Backsliders in Heart 2. Another tendency to this Sin and a great degree of it is withdrawing from the Publick Marks and Testimonies of the Profession of Religion by forsaking the Assemblies of Christians for the Worship and Service of God to withdraw our selves from those for fear of Danger or Suffering is a kind of Denyal of our Religion And this was the case of some in the Apostles time when Persecution grew hot and the open Profession of Christianity dangerous to avoid this Danger many appeared not in the Assemblies of Christians for fear of being observed and brought into trouble for it This the Apostle taxeth some for in this Chapter and speaketh of it as a letting go our Profession and a kind of deserting of Christianity v. 23 35. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is He doth not say they had quitted their Profession but they had but a loose hold of it and were silently stealing away from it 3. A light temper of Mind which easily receives Impressions from those who lie in wait to deceive and seduce Men from the Truth When Men are not well rooted and established in Religion they are apt to be inveigled by the crafty Insinuations of Seducers to be moved with every wind of Doctrine and to be easily shaken in Mind by every trifling piece of Sophistry that is confidently obtruded upon them for a weighty Argument Now this is a temper of Mind which disposeth Men to Apostasie and renders them an easie Prey to every one that takes a Pleasure and a Pride in making Proselytes It is true indeed a Man should always have a Mind ready to entertain Truth when it is fairly proposed to him but the main things of Religion are so plainly revealed and lie so obvious to every ordinary capacity that every Man may discern them and when he hath once entertained them ought to be stedfast and unmovable in them and not suffer himself to be whiffled out of them by any insignificant noise about the Infallibility of a Visible Church much less ought he to be moved by any Man's uncharitableness and positiveness in damning all that are not of his Mind There are some things so very plain not only in Scripture but to the common Reason of Mankind that no subtilty of Discourse no pretended Authority or even Infallibility of any Church ought to stagger us in the least about them as that we ought not or cannot believe any thing in direct contradiction to Sense and Reason that the People ought to Read and Study the Holy Scriptures and to serve God and pray to him in a Language which they understand that they ought to receive the Sacrament as our Saviour instituted and appointed it that is in both kinds that it can neither be our Duty nor Lawful to do that which God hath forbidden as he hath done the Worship of Images in the Second Commandment as plainly as words can do it Upon any one of these Points a Man would fix his foot and stand alone against the whole World 4. Another Degree of Apostasie is a departure from the Purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship in a gross and notorious manner This is a partial tho not a total Apostasie from the Christian Religion and there have been and still are some in the World who are justly Charged with this degree of Apostasie from Religion namely such as tho they retain and profess the Belief of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and Worship the only true God and him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ yet have greatly perverted the Christian Religion by superinducing and adding new Articles of Faith and gross Corruptions and Superstitions in Worship and imposing upon Men the Belief and Practice of these as necessary to Salvation And St. Paul is my Warrant for this Censure who chargeth those who added to the Christian Religion the Necessity of Circumcision and observing the Law of Moses and thereby perverted the Gospel of Christ as guilty in some degree of Apostasie from Christianity for he calls it preaching another Gospel Gal. 1. 7 8. There be some that trouble
this Blessed State of Good Men in another World so hath he likewise assur'd us that greater Degrees of this Happiness shall be the Portion of Those who suffer for Him and his Truth Mat. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven And nothing surely can be more Reasonable than to part with things of Small Value for things infinitely Greater and more Considerable to forego the Transient Pleasures and Enjoyments and the Imperfect Felicities of this World for the Solid and Perfect and Perpetual Happiness of a Better Life and to exchange a Short and Miserable Life for Eternal Life and Blessedness in a word to be content to be driven Home to be banisht out of this World into our own Native Country and to be violently thrust out of this Vale of Tears into those Regions of Bliss where are Joys unspeakable and full of Glory This Consideration St. Paul tells us supported the Primitive Christians under their sharpest and heaviest Sufferings 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause says he we faint not because our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal So that our Sufferings bear no more Proportion to the Reward of them than Finite does to Infinite than Temporal to Eternal between which there is no Proportion All that now remains is to draw some useful Inferences from what hath been Discoursed concerning this great and difficult Duty of Self-denial for the sake of Christ and his Religion and they shall be these following 1. To acknowledg the great Goodness of God to us that all these Laws and Commands even the Hardest and Severest of them are so reasonable God as he is our Maker and gave us our Beings hath an Entire and Soveraign Right over us and by virtue of that Right might have imposed very Hard things upon us and this without the giving Account to us of any of his matters and without propounding any Reward to us so vastly disproportionable to our Obedience to him But in giving Laws to us he hath not made use of this Right The most Severe and Rigorous Commands of the Gospel are such that we shall be infinitely Gainers by our Obedience to them If we deny our selves any thing in this World for Christ and his Religion we shall in the next be considered for it to the Utmost not only far beyond what it can Deserve but beyond what we can Conceive or Imagine For this perishing Life and the transitory Trifles and Enjoyments of it we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken an uncorruptible Crown which fadeth not away Eternal in the Heavens For these are Faithful Sayings and we shall Infallibly find them true That if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him if we be persecuted for righteousness sake great shall be our reward in Heaven if we part with our Temporal Life we shall be made Partakers of Eternal Life He that is firmly persuaded of the Happiness of the next World and believes the Glory which shall then be revealed hath no Reason to be so much offended at the Sufferings of this Present time so long as he knows and believes that these Light afflictions which are but for a Moment will work for him a for more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Seeing this is required of every Christian to be always in a Preparation and Disposition of Mind to deny our selves and to take up our Cross if we do in good earnest resolve to be Christians we ought to fit down and consider well with our selves what our Religion will cost us and whether we be content to come up to the Price of it If we value any thing in this World above Christ and his Truth we are not worthy of him If it come to this that we must either renounce Him and his Religion or quit our temporal Interests if we be not ready to forego these nay and to part even with Life it self rather than to forsake Him and his Truth we are not worthy of him These are the Terms of our Christianity and therefore we are required in Baptism solemnly to renounce the World And our Saviour from this very Consideration infers That all who take upon them the Profession of his Religion should consider seriously beforehand and count the cost of it Luke 14. 28. Which of you says he intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Or what King going to war with another King doth not sit down and consult whether with 10000 he be able to meet him that cometh against him with 20000. So likewise whosoever he be that forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my Disciple You see the Terms upon which we are Christians we must always be prepared in the Resolution of our Minds to deny our selves and take up our Cross tho we are not Actually put upon this Tryal 3. What hath been said is matter of great Comfort and Encouragement to all those who deny themselves and suffer upon so good an Account of whom God knows there are too great a Number at this Day in several parts of the World Some under actual Sufferings such as cannot but move Compassion and Horror in all that hear of them Others who are fled hither and into other Countries for Refuge and Shelter from one of the sharpest Persecutions that perhaps ever was if all the Circumstances of it be duly considered But not to enlarge upon so unpleasant a Theam they who suffer for the Truth and Righteousness sake have all the Comfort and Encouragement that the best Example and the greatest and most glorious Promises of God can give They have the best Example in their view Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith who endured the Cross and despised the Shame So that how great and terrible soever their Sufferings be they do but tread in the Steps of the Son of God and of the best and holiest Man that ever was and He who is their great Example in Suffering will likewise be their Support and their exceeding great Reward So that tho Suffering for Christ be accounted great Self-denyal and he is graciously pleased so to accept it because in denying things Present and Sensible for things Future and Invisible we do not only declare our Affection to him but our great Faith and Confidence in him by shewing that we rely upon his Word and venture all upon the Security which he offers us in
Foundation of the Confession of Faith will proceed and what Testimonies and Proofs she chiefly intends to make use of for the Confirmation of Doctrines and Reformation of Manners in the Church And no doubt all Men do see very plainly to what purpose this Foundation is laid of so large a Rule of Faith And this being admitted how easie is it for them to confirm and prove whatever Doctrines and Practices they have a mind to establish But if this be a new and another Foundation than That which the Great Author and Founder of our Religion hath laid and built his Church upon viz. the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles it is no matter what they build upon it And if they go about to prove any thing by the new parts of this Rule by the Apocryphal Books which they have added to the ancient Canon of the Scriptures brought down to us by the general Tradition of the Christian Church and by their pretended unwritten Traditions we do with Reason reject this kind of Proof and desire them first to prove their Rule before they pretend to prove any thing by it For we protest against this Rule as never declared and owned by the Christian Church nor proceeded upon by the ancient Fathers of the Church nor by any Council whatsoever before the Council of Trent In vain then doth the Church of Rome vaunt it self of the Antiquity of their Faith and Religion when the very Foundation and Rule of it is but of Yesterday a new thing never before known or heard of in the Christian World Whereas the Foundation and Rule of Our Religion is the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures to which Christians in all Ages have appealed as the only Rule of Faith and Life I proceed now to the 3. Thing I proposed viz. that we are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering against all the Temptations and Terrours of the World And this seems more especially and principally to be here intended by the Apostle in this Exhortation I shall first speak of the Temptations of the World And they are chiefly these Two the Temptation of Fashion and Example And of worldly Interest and Advantage 1. Of Fashion and Example This in Truth and Reality is no strong Argument and yet in Experience and Effect it is often found to be very powerful It is frequently seen that this hath many times too great an Influence upon weak and foolish Minds Men are apt to be carried down with the Stream and to follow a Multitude in that which is evil But more especially Men are prone to be swayed by great Examples and to bend themselves to such an Obsequiousness to their Superiours and Betters that in compliance with them they are ready not only to change their Affection to Persons and Things as They do but even their Judgment also and that in the greatest and weightest Matters even in Matters of Religion and the great concernments of another World But this surely is an Argument of a poor and mean Spirit and of a weak Understanding which leans upon the Judgment of another and is in truth the lowest degree of Servility that a reasonable Creature can stoop to and even beneath That of a Slave who in the midst of his Chains and Fetters doth still retain the Freedom of his Mind and Judgment But I need not to urge this upon considerate Persons who know better how to value their Duty and Obligation to God than to be tempted to do any thing contrary thereto meerly in compliance with Fashion and Example There are some Things in Religion so very plain that a wise and good Man would stand alone in the Belief and Practice of them and not be moved in the least by the contrary Example of the whole World It was a brave Resolution of Joshua though all Men should forsake the God of Israel and run aside to other Gods yet he would not do it Joshua 24. 15. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve But as for me and my House we will serve the Lord. It was well resolv'd of Peter if he had not been too confident of his own Strength when he said to our Saviour Though all Men forsake thee yet will not I. 2. Another sort of Temptation and which is commonly more Powerful than Example is worldly Interest and Advantage This is a mighty Bait to a great Part of Mankind and apt to work very strongly upon the Necessities of some and upon the Covetousness and Ambition of others Some Men are tempted by Necessity which many times makes them do ugly and reproachful Things and like Esau for a Morsel of Meat to sell their Birth-right and Blessing Covetousness tempts others to be of that Religion which gives them the prospect of the greatest Earthly Advantage either for the increasing or securing of their Estates When they find that they cannot serve God and Mammon they will forsake the one and cleave to the other This was one of the great Temptations to many in the Primitive Times and a frequent Cause of Apostacy from the Faith an eager Desire of Riches and too great a Value for them as St. Paul observes 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. But they that will be Rich fall into Temptation and a Snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in Destruction and Perdition For the Love of Money is the Root of all Evil which while some have coveted after they have erred or been seduced from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many Sorrows This was the Temptation which drew off Demas from his Religion as St. Paul tells us 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present World Ambition is likewise a great Temptation to proud and aspiring Minds and makes many Men false to their Religion when they find it a hinderance to their Preferment and they are easily perswaded that That is the best Religion which is attended with the greatest worldly Advantages and will raise them to the highest Dignity The Devil understood very well the Force of this Temptation when he set upon our Saviour and therefore reserv'd it for the last Assault He shewed him all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them and said to him All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me And when he saw this would not prevail he gave him over in despair and left him But though this be a very dazling Temptation yet there are Considerations of that Weight to be set over-against it from the Nature of Religion and the infinite Concernment of it to our immortal Souls as is sufficient to quench this fiery Dart of the Devil and to put all the Temptations of this World out of Countenance and to render all the Riches and Glory of it in comparison of the Eternal Happiness and Misery of the other World but as the very
this case of Renouncing our Religion unless it be very sudden and surprizing out of which a Man recovers himself when he comes to himself as St. Peter did or the Suffering be so extream as to put a Man besides himself for the time so as to make him say or do any thing I say in this case of Renouncing God and his Truth God will not admit Fear for a just excuse of our Apostacy which if it be unrepented of and the Scripture speaks of Repentance in that case as very difficult will be our Ruin And the Reason is because God has given us such fair Warning of it that we may be prepared for it in the Resolution of our Minds And we enter into Religion upon these Terms with a professed Expectation of Suffering and a firm Purpose to lay down our Lives for the Truth if God shall call us to it If any Man will be my Disciple says our Lord let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me And again He that loveth Life it self more than me is not worthy of me And if any Man be ashamed of me and of my Words in this unfaithful Generation of him will I be ashamed before my Father and the Holy Angels And therefore to master and subdue this Fear our Saviour hath propounded great Objects of Terror to us and a Danger infinitely more to be dreaded which every Man runs himself wilfully upon who shall quit the Profession of his Religion to avoid Temporal Sufferings Luke 12. 4 5. Fear not them that can kill the Body but after that have nothing that they can do But I will tell you whom you shall fear Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Yea I say unto you Fear him And to this dreadful Hazard every Man exposeth himself who for the Fear of Men ventures thus to offend God These are the Fearful and Vnbelievers spoken of by St. John Who shall have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Thus you see how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering against all Temptations and Terrors of this World I should now have proceeded to the next Particular namely that we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion But this I shall not now enter upon A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised IN these Words I have told you are contained these Two Parts I. An Exhortation To hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto Because he is faithful that hath promised I am yet upon the First of these the Exhortation to Christians to be Constant and Steady in the Profession of their Religion Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And that we might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this Exhortation I shewed I. Negatively what is not meant and intended by it And I mentioned these Two Particulars 1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend that those who are capable of enquiring into and examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion should not have the liberty to do it Nor 2. That when upon due Enquiry and Examination Men are settled as they think and verily believe in the True Faith and Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offered against their present Persuasion for Reason when it is fairly offered is always to be heard I proceeded in the Second Place Positively to explain the Meaning of this Exhortation And to this purpose I proposed to consider 1. What it is that we are to hold fast viz. the Confession or Profession of our Faith The Ancient Christian Faith which every Christian makes Profession of in his Baptism Not the Doubtful and Uncertain Traditions of Men nor the Imperious Dictates and Doctrines of any Church which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures imposed upon the Christian World though with never so confident a Pretence of the Antiquity of the Doctrines or of the Infallibility of the Proposers of them And then I proceded in the Second Place to shew how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And I mentioned these following Particulars as probably implied and comprehended in the Apostles Exhortation 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men contrary to plain Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind under both which Heads I gave several Instances of Doctrines and Practices imposed with great Confidence upon the World some without and others plainly against Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind 3. Against all the Temptations and and Terrours of the World the Temptations of Fashion and Example and of worldly Interest and Advantage and against the Terrours of Persecution and Suffering for the Truth Thus far I have gone I shall now proceed to the Two other Particulars which remain to be spoken to 4. We are to hold fast the profession of our Faith against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in some other Church and Religion God hath plainly declared to us in the holy Scriptures upon what Terms and Conditions we may obtain Eternal Life and Happiness and what will certainly exclude us from it That except we repent i. e. without true Contrition for our Sins and forsaking of them we shall perish That without Holiness no man shall see the Lord That no Fornicator or Adulterer or Idolater or Covetous Person nor any one that lives in the practice of such sins shall have any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God or Christ. There is as great and unpassable a Gulf fixt between Heaven and a wicked Man as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell And when Men have done all they can to debauch and corrupt the Christian Doctrine it is impossible to reconcile a wicked Life with any reasonable and well-grounded Hopes of Happiness in another World No Church hath that Priviledge to save a Man upon any other Terms than those which our Blessed Saviour hath declared in his holy Gospel All Religions are equal in this That a bad Man can be Saved in none of them The Church of Rome pretends their Church and Religion to be the only safe and sure way to Salvation and yet if their Doctrine be true concerning the Intention of the Priest and if it be not they are much to blame in making it an Article of their Faith I say if it be true that the Intention
Scripture or in the Doctrine and Practice of the Ancient Christian Church any Command or Example for the Worship of Images for the Invocation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin which do now make a great part of their Religion Nay is not the Doctrine of the Scriptures and of the Ancient Fathers plainly against all these Practices With what face then can it be said That the Church of Rome hath made a constant Visible Profession of the same Faith and Practice in all Ages from the time of Christ and his Apostles Or would the primitive Church of Rome if it should now visit the Earth again own the present Church of Rome to be the same in all Matters of Faith and practice that it was when they left it And whereas they demand of Us to shew a Visible Church from the time of Christ and his Apostles that hath always opposed the Church of Rome in those points of Doctrine and Practice which we Object to them what can be more impertinent than this Demand When they know that in all these Points we charge them with Innovations in Matters of Faith and Practice and say that those things came in by degrees several Ages after the Apostles time some sooner some later as we are able to make good and have done it And would they have us shew them a Visible Church that opposed these Errors and Corruptions in their Church before ever they appeared This we do not pretend to shew And supposing they had not been at all opposed when they appeared nor a long time after not till the Reformation yet if they be Errors and Corruptions of the Christian Doctrine and contrary to the Holy Scriptures and to the Faith and Practice of the Primitive Church there is no Prescription against Truth 'T is never too late for any Church to reject those Errors and Corruptions and to reform it self from them The bottom of all this Matter is they would have us to shew them a Society of Christians that in all Ages hath preserved it self free from all such Errors and Corruptions as we charge them withall or else we deny the Perpetual Visibility of the Catholick Church No such matter We say the Church of Christ hath always been Visible in every Age since Christ's time and that the several Societies of Christians professing the Christian Doctrine and Laws of Christ have made up the Catholick Church some parts whereof have in several Ages fallen into great Errors and Corruptions and no part of the Catholick into more and greater than the Church of Rome So that it requires the utmost of our Charity to think that they are a true tho a very unsound and corrupt Part of the Catholick Church of Christ. We acknowledge likewise that We were once involved in the like Degeneracy but by the mercy of God and pious care and prudence of those that were in Authority are happily rescued out of it and tho' we were not out of the Catholick Church before yet since our Reformation from the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome we are in it upon better Terms and are a much sounder Part of it and I hope by the Mercy and Goodness of God we shall for ever continue so So that to the Perpetual Visibility of Christ's Church it is not necessary that the whole Christian Church or indeed that any Part of it should be free from all Errors and Corruptions Even the Churches planted by the Apostles in the Primitive Times were not so St. Paul reproves several Doctrines and Practices in the Church of Corinth and of Colosse and of Galatia and the Spirit of God several Things in the Seven Churches of Asia and yet all these were true Parts and Members of the Catholick Church of Christ notwithstanding these Faults and Errors because they all agreed in the Main and Essential Doctrines of Christianity And when more and greater Corruptions grew upon the Church or any part of it the greater reason and need there was of a Reformation And as every particular Person hath a right to reform any thing that he finds amiss in himself so far as concerns himself so much more every National Church hath a Power within it self to reform it self from all Errors and Corruptions and by the Sanction of the Catholick Authority to confirm that Reformation which is our Case here in England And whatever part of the Church how great and eminent soever excludes from her Communion such a National Church for reforming her self from plain Errors and Corruptions clearly condemned by the Word of God and by the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Christian Church is undoubtedly Guilty of Schism And this is the Truth of the Case between us and the Church of Rome And no blind talk about a Perpetual Visible Church can render Us guilty of Schism for making a Real Reformation or acquit Them of it for casting us out of their Communion for that Cause 7. And Lastly to mention no more they pretend that we delude the People by laying too much stress upon Scripture and making it the only Rule of Faith and Manners whereas Scripture and Tradition together make up the entire Rule of Faith and not Scripture Interpreted by every Mans private Fancy but by Tradition carefully preserved in the Church So that it ought to be no wonder if several of their Doctrines and Practices cannot be so clearly made out by Scripture or perhaps seem contrary to it as it may be expounded by a private Spirit but not as Interpreted by the Tradition of the Church which can only give the true Sense of Scripture And therefore they are to understand that several of those Doctrines and Practices which we Object against are most clearly proved by the Tradition of their Church which is of equal Authority with Scripture In this Objection of theirs which they design for the Cover of all their Errors and Corruptions there are several things distinctly to be considered which I shall do as briefly as I can First Whereas it is suggested That We delude the People by laying too much stress upon the Scriptures which certainly we cannot well do if it be the Word of God it ought to be considered whether They do not delude and abuse them infinitely more in keeping the Scriptures from them and not suffering them to see That which they cannot deny to be at least a considerable Part of the Rule of Christian Doctrine and Practice Doth it not by this dealing of theirs appear very suspicious that they are extreamly afraid that the People should examine their Doctrine and Practice by this Rule For what other Reason can they have to conceal it from them Secondly Whereas they affirm that Scripture alone is not the Rule of Christian Faith and Practice but that Scripture and Oral Tradition preserved in the Church and delivered down from hand to hand makes up the entire Rule I would fain know whence they learn'd this new Doctrine
Priledges are omitted by plain Fact and Evidence of things themselves their Supremacy in that the far greatest part of the Christian Church neither is at this day nor can be shewn by the Records of any Age ever to have been subject to the Bishop of Rome or to have acknowledged his Authority and Jurisdiction over them and the Infallibility of the Pope whether with or without a General Council about which they still differ though Infallibility was devised on purpose to determine all differences I say this Infallibility where-ever it is pretended to be is plainly confuted by the contradictory Definitions of several Popes and Councils for if they have contradicted one another as is plain beyond all contradiction in several instances then there must of necessity be an Error on one side and there can be no so certain demonstration that any one is infallible as evident Error and Mistake is of the contrary Next their concealing both the Rule of Religion and the Practice of it in the Worship and Service of God from the People in an unknown Tongue and their administring the Communion to the People in one kind only contrary to clear Scripture and the plain Institution of our Blessed Saviour and then their Worship of Images and Invocation of Angels and Saints and the Blessed Virgin in the same Solemn manner and for the same Blessings and Benefits which we beg of God himself contrary to the express Word of God which commands us to Worship the Lord our God and to serve him only and which declares that as there is but one God so there is but one Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus but one Mediator not only of Redemption but of Intercession too for the Apostle there speaks of a Mediator of Intercession by whom only we are to offer up our Prayers which are to be put up to God only and which expresly forbids Men to worship any Image or likeness And the Learned Men of their own Church acknowledge that there is neither Precept nor Example for these Practices in Scripture and that they were not used in the Christian Church for several Ages and this acknowledgment we think very considerable since so great a part of their Religion especially as it is practised among the People is contained in these points for the Service of God in an Unknown Tongue and withholding the Scriptures from the People they do not pretend so much as One Testimony of any Father for the first 600 Years and nothing certainly can be more unreasonable in it self than to deny People the best means of knowing the Will of God and not to permit them to understand what is done in the publick Worship of God and what Prayers are put up to him in the Church The two great Doctrines of Transubstantiation and Purgatory are acknowledged by many of their own Learned Writers to have no certain Foundation in Scripture and that there are seven Sacraments of the Christian Religion tho' it be now made an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent is a thing which cannot be shewn in any Council or Father for above a Thousand Years after Christ. And we find no mention of this Number of the Sacraments till the Age of Peter Lombard the Father of the Schoolmen That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches tho' that also be one of the new Articles of Pope Pius the IV. his Creed which their Priests are by a Solemn Oath obliged to believe and teach yet is it most evidently false That she is not the Mother of all Churches is plain because Jerusalem was certainly so for there certainly was the first Christian Church and from thence all the Christian Churches in the World derive themselves that she is not tho' she fain would be the Mistress of all Churches is as evident because the greatest part of the Christian Church does at this day and always did deny that she hath any Authority or Supremacy over them Now these are the principal matters in difference betwixt us and if these Points and a few more be pared off from Popery that which remains of their Religion is the same with ours that is the true Ancient Christianity III. I shall shew that our Religion hath many clear advantages of theirs not only very considerable in themselves but very obvious and discernable to an ordinary capacity upon the very first proposal of them as 1. That our Religion agrees perfectly with the Scriptures and all points both of our Belief and Practice esteemed by us as necessary to Salvation are there contained even our Enemies themselves being Judges We Worship the Lord our God and him only do we serve We do not fall down before Images and Worship them we address all our Prayers to God alone by the only Mediation and Intercession of his Son Jesus Christ as he himself hath given us Commandment and as St. Paul doth plainly direct giving us this plain and Substantial Reason for it Because as there is but one God so there is but one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus The publick Worship and Service of God is perform'd by us in a Language which we understand according to St. Paul's express Order and Direction and the universal Practice of the ancient Church and the Nature and Reason of the thing it self We administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in both kinds according to our Saviour's Example and plain Institution and the continual Practice of all the Christian Churches in the World for above a Thousand Years 2. We believe nothing as necessary to Salvation but what hath been owned in all Ages to be the Christian Doctrine and is acknowleged so to be by the Church of Rome it self and we receive the whole Faith of the Primitive Christian Church viz. What ever is contained in the Apostles Creed and in the Explications of that in the Creeds of the Four first General Councills By which it plainly appears that all points of Faith in difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome are meer Innovations and plain Additions to the ancient Christian Faith But all that we believe is acknowledged by them to be undoubtedly the ancient Christian Faith 3. There is nothing wanting in our Church and Religion whether in Matter of Faith or Practice which either the Scripture makes necessary to Salvation or was so esteem'd by the Christian Church for the first Five Hundred Years and we trust that what was sufficient for the Salvation of Christians in the best Ages of Christianity for Five Hundred Years together may be so still and we are very well content to venture our Salvation upon the same terms that they did 4. Our Religion is not only free from all Idolatrous Worship but even from all Suspicion and probable Charge of any such thing but this the Church of Rome is not as is acknowledged by her most Learned Champions and as no Man of Ingenuity can deny And
a much clearer revelation and much greater assurance than former Ages and Generations had and the firm belief and perswasion of this is the great Motive and Argument to a Holy life The hope which is set before us of obtaining the Happiness and the fear of incurring the Misery of another world This made the Primitive Christians with so much patience to bear the Sufferings and Persecutions with so much constancy to venture upon the dangers and inconveniencies which the love of God and Religion exposed them to Under the former Dispensation of the Law tho good Men received good hopes of the Rewards of another life yet these things were but obscurely revealed to them and the great inducements of Obedience were Temporal Rewards and Punishments the promises of long life and peace and plenty and prosperity in that good Land which God had given them and the threatnings of War and Famine and Pestilence and being delivered into Captivity But now under the Gospel Life and Immortality are brought to light and the great Arguments that bear sway with Christians are the Promises of Everlasting Life and the Threatnings of Eternal Misery and the firm Belief and Persuasion of these is now the great Principle that governs the Lives and Actions of good Men for what will not Men do that are really persuaded that as they do demean themselves in this World it will fare with them in the other That the Wicked shall go into everlasting Punishment and the Righteous into Life Eternal I proceed to the II. Observation namely That Faith is a Degree of Assent inferiour to that of Sense This is intimated in the Opposition betwixt Faith and Sight We walk by Faith and not by Sight that is we believe these things and are confidently persuaded of the truth of them tho we never saw them and consequently cannot possibly have that Degree of Assurance concerning the Joys of Heaven and the Torments of Hell which those have who enjoy the One and endure the Other There are different Degrees of Assurance concerning things arising from the different Degrees of Evidence we have for them The highest Degree of Evidence we have for any thing is our own Sense and Experience and this is so firm and strong that it is not to be shaken by the utmost Pretence of a Rational Demonstration Men will trust their own Senses and Experience against any subtilty of Reason whatsoever But there are inferiour degrees of Assurance concerning things as the Testimony and Authority of Persons every way credible and this Assurance we have in this state concerning the things of another World we believe with great Reason that we have the Testimony of God concerning them which is the highest kind of Evidence in it self and we have all the reasonable assurance we can desire that God hath testified these things and this is the utmost assurance which things future and at a distance are capable of But yet it is an unreasonable obstinacy to deny that this falls very much short of that degree of assurance which those Persons have concerning these things who are now in the other World and have the Sense and Experience of these things and this is not only intimated here in the Text in the Opposition of Faith and Sight but is plainly exprest in other Texts of Scripture 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. We know now but in part but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away That degree of knowledge and assurance which we have in this Life is very imperfect in comparison to what we shall have hereafter and Verse 12. We now see as through a Glass darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a Riddle in which there is always a great deal of Obscurity all which Expressions are certainly intended by way of abatement and diminution to the certainty of Faith because it is plain that by that which is in part or imperfect the Apostle means Faith and Hope which he tells us shall cease when that which is perfect meaning Vision and Sight is come We see likewise in Experience that the Faith and Hope of the best Christians in this Life is accompanied with doubting concerning these things and all doubting is a degree of uncertainty but those blessed Souls who are entred upon the Possession of Glory and Happiness and those miserable Wretches who lye groaning under the Wrath of God and the Severity of his Justice cannot possibly if they would have any doubt concerning the Truth and Reality of these things But however contentious Men may dispute against common Sense this is so plain a Truth that I will not labour in the farther Proof of it nor indeed is it reasonable while we are in this state to expect that degree of assurance concerning the Rewards and Punishments of another Life which the sight and sensible experience of them would give us and that upon these Two Accounts 1. Because our present state will not admit it and 2. If it would it is not reasonable we should have it 1. Our present state will not admit it for while we are in this World it is not possible we should have that sensible Experiment and Tryal how things are in the other The things of the other World are remote from us and far out of our Sight and we cannot have any experimental knowledge of them till we our selves enter into that state Those who are already past into it know how things are those happy Souls who live in the reviving presence of God and are possest of those joys which we cannot now conceive understand these things in another manner and have a more perfect assurance concerning them than it is possible for any Man to have in this World and those wretched and miserable Spirits who feel the vengeance of God and are plunged into the Horrors of Eternal Darkness do believe upon irresistable evidence and have other kind of Convictions of the Reality of that state and the insupportable Misery of it than any Man is capable of in this World 2. If our present state would admit of this high degree of assurance it is not fit and reasonable that we should have it such an over-powering evidence would quite take away the virtue of Faith and much lessen that of Obedience Put the case that every Man some considerable time before his departure out of this Life were permitted to visit the other World to assure him how things are there to view the Mansions of the Blessed and to survey the dark and loathsome Prisons of the Damned to hear the lamentable outcrys of Miserable and Despairing Souls and to see the inconceivable Anguish and Torments they are in after this what virtue would it be in any Man to believe these things He that had been there and seen them could not dis-believe them if he would Faith in this case would not be virtue but necessity and therefore it is observable that our Saviour doth not Pronounce
for the Jews used to call the Age of the Messias Seculum Futurum or the World to come it is impossible for those to be renewed again unto repentance where the least we can understand by impossible is that it is extreamly difficult for so the word impossible is sometimes used as when our Saviour says it is impossible for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And Ch. 10. 26. the Apostle speaking of the same thing says if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for sins that is they who renounce Christianity since they reject the only way of expiation there remains no more Sacrifice for their Sins St. Peter likewise expresseth himself very severely concerning this sort of Persons 2 Epist. 2. 20 21. For if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that is after they have been brought from Heathenism to Christianity they are entangled therein again and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning He seems loth to say how sad the Condition of such Persons is but this he tells them that it is much worse than when they were Heathens before and he gives the Reason for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them And St. John calls this Sin of Apostasie the Sin vnto Death and tho he do not forbid Christians to pray for them that are guilty of it yet he will not say that they should pray for them 1 Epist. 5. 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a Sin which is not unto Death he shall ask and he shall give him Life for them that sin not unto Death there is a sin unto Death I do not say that he shall pray for it Now that by this sin unto Death the Apostle means Apostasie from the Christian Religion to Idolatry is most probable from what follows Verse 18. we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not that is this Sin unto Death but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not that is he is preserved from Idolatry unto which the Devil had seduced so great a part of Mankind and we know that we are of God and the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is under the dominion of that wicked one viz. the Devil whom the Scripture elsewhere calls the God of this World and we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true that is hath brought us from the Worship of false Gods to the knowledge and Worship of the true God and then he concludes little Children keep your selves from Idols which caution hath no manner of dependence upon what went before unless we understand the Sin unto Death in this Sense and it is the more probable that it is so to be understood because Apostasie is so often in this Epistle to the Hebrews called the Sin by way of Eminency as it is here by St. John whosoever is born of God sinneth not So that at the very best the Scripture speaks doubtfully of the pardon of this sin however that the punishment of it unrepented of shall be very dreadful It seems to be mildly exprest here in the Text If any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But it is the more severe for being exprest so mildly according to the intention of the Figure here used and therefore in the next words this expression of Gods taking no pleasure in such Persons is explained by their utter Ruin and Perdition But we are not of them that draw back unto Perdition And in several parts of this Epistle there are very severe passages to this purpose Ch. 2. 2 3. If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation And Ch. 10. 26 27. If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary he that dispised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the Son of God! c. For we know him who hath said Vengeance is mine I will recompence saith the Lord And again The Lord shall judge his People it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God What can be more severe and terrible than these expressions I will mention but one Text more and that is Rev. 21. 8. where in the Catalogue of great Sinners those who Apostatize from Religion out of fear do lead the Van He that overcometh shall inherit all things which is elsewhere in this Book exprest by continuing faithful unto the Death He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death The fearful and unbelievers and lyars that is they who out of fear relapse into infidelity and abide not in the Truth shall be reckoned in the first rank of Offenders and be punished accordingly And thus I have done with the Four things I propounded to speak to from these words the Nature of Apostasie the several steps and degrees of it the heinous Nature of this Sin the danger of it and the terrible punishment in exposeth Men to And is there any need now to exhort men to hold fast the profession of Faith when the danger of drawing back is so evident and so terrible or is there any reason and occasion for it Certainly there is no great danger amongst us of Mens Apostatizing from Christianity and turning Jews or Turks or Heathens I do not think there is but yet for all that we are not free from the danger of Apostasie there is great danger not of Mens Apostatizing from one Religion to another but from Religion to Infidelity and Atheism and of this worst kind of Apostasie of all other I wish the Age we live in had not afforded us too many instances It is greatly to be lamented that among those who have profest Christianity any should be found that should make it their endeavour to undermine the great Principles of all Religion the Belief of a God and his Providence and of the Immortality of the Souls of Men and a state of Rewards and Punishments after this Life and to bring the most serious matters in the World into contempt and
plain then that there is no Reason nor Necessity to extend this Precept of our Saviour concerning self-denyal to every thing that may properly enough be called by that name and therefore this Precept must be limited by the plain scope and intendment of our Saviour's Discourse and no Man can argue thus such a thing is self-denyal therefore our Saviour requires it of his Disciples For our Saviour doth not here require all kinds of self-denyal but limits it by his Discourse to one certain kind beyond which self-denyal is no Duty by virtue of this Text and therefore for our clearer understanding of this Precept of self-denyal I shall do these two things 1. Remove some sorts of self-denyal which are instanced in by some as intended in this Precept 2. I shall shew what kind of self-denyal that is which our Saviour here intends 1. There are several things brought under this Precept of self-denyal which were never intended by our Saviour I shall instance in Two or Three things which are most frequently insisted upon and some of them by very devout and well-meaning Men as that in matters of Faith We should deny and renounce our own Senses and our Reason nay that we should be content to renounce our own Eternal Happiness and be willing to be damned for the Glory of God and the Good of our Brethren But all these are so apparently and grosly unreasonable that it is a Wonder that any one should ever take them for Instances of that self-denyal which our Saviour requires especially considering that in all his Discourse of self-denyal he does not so much as glance at any of these Instances or any thing like to them 1. Some comprehend under self-denyal the denying and renouncing our own Senses in matters of Faith and if this could be made out to be intended by our Saviour in this Precept we needed not dispute any of the other Instances For he that renounceth the certainty of Sense so as not to believe what he sees may after this renounce and deny any thing For the Evidence of Sense is more clear and unquestionable than that of Faith as the Scripture frequently intimates as John 20. 29. where our Saviour reproves Thomas for refusing to believe his Resurrection upon any less Evidence than that of Sense Because thou hast seen thou hast believed Blessed are they wich have not seen and yet have believed Which plainly supposeth the Evidence of Sense to be the highest and clearest degree of Evidence So likewise that of St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by Faith and not by Sight Where the Evidence of Faith as that which is more imperfect and obscure is opposed to that of Sight as more clear and certain So that to believe any Article of Faith in contradiction to the clear Evidence of Sense is contrary to the very Nature of Assent which always yields to the greatest and clearest Evidence Besides that our Belief of Religion is at last resolved into the certainty of Sense so that by renouncing that we destroy and undermine the very Foundation of our Faith One of the plainest and principal Proofs of the Being of God which is the first and Fundamental Article of all Religion relies upon the certainty of Sense namely the Frame of this visible World by the Contemplation whereof we are led to the acknowledgment of the invisible Author of it So St. Paul tells us Rom. 1. 20. That the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And the great external Evidence of the Christian Religion I mean Miracles is at last resolved into the certainty of Sense without which we can have no assurance that any Miracle was wrought for the confirmation of it And the knowledge likewise of the Christian Faith is conveyed to us by our Senses the Evidence whereof if it be uncertain takes away all certainty of Faith How shall they believe saith St. Paul Rom. 10. 14. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not Heard And ver 17. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God So that to deny and renounce our Senses in matters of Faith is to take away the main Pillar and Foundation of it 2. Others almost with equal absurdity would comprehend under our Saviour's Precept of Self-denial the denying and renouncing of our Reason in matters of Faith and this is Self-denial with a witness for a Man to deny his own reason for it is to deny himself to be a Man This surely is a very great mistake and tho the ground of it may be innocent yet the consequence of it and the Discourses upon it are very absurd The Ground of the mistake is this Men think they deny their own Reason when they assent to the Revelation of God in such things as their own Reason could neither have discovered nor is able to give the reason of whereas in this case a Man is so far from denying his own Reason that he does that which is most agreeable to it For what more reasonable than to believe whatever we are sufficiently assur'd is revealed to us by God who can neither be deceived himself nor deceive us But tho' the Ground of this mistake may be innocent yet the Consequences of it are most absurd and dangerous For if we are to renounce our Reason in matters of Faith then are we bound to believe without Reason which no Man can do or if he could then Faith would be unreasonable and Infidelity reasonable So that this Instance likewise of Self-denial to renounce and deny our own Reason as it is no where exprest so it cannot reasonably be thought to be intended by our Saviour in this Precept 3. Nor doth this Precept of Self-denial require Men to be content to renounce their own Eternal Happiness and to be willing to be Damned for the Glory of God and the good of their Brethren If this were the meaning of this Precept we might justly say as the Disciples did to our Saviour in another Case This is a hard saying and who can hear it The very thought of this is enough to make Humane Nature to tremble at its very foundation For the deepest Principle that God hath planted in our Nature is the desire of our own Preservation and Happiness and into this the Force of all Laws and the Reason of all our Duty is at last resolved From whence it plainly follows that it can be no Man's Duty in any case to renounce his own Happiness and to be content to be for Ever Miserable because if once this be made a Duty there will be no Argument left to perswade any Man to it For the most powerful Arguments that God ever used to perswade Men to any thing are the Promise of Eternal Happiness and the Terrour of Everlasting Torments But if this were a Man's Duty to be content to
the IV. And Last Particular which I proposed to speak to viz. To vindicate the Reasonableness of this Self-denial and Suffering for Christ which at first appearance may seem to be so very difficult And this Precept cannot be thought unreasonable if we take into Consideration these Three Things I. That He who requires this of us hath Himself given us the greatest Example of Self-denial that ever was The greatest in it self in that he denied himself more and suffered more grievous things than it is possible for any of us to do And such an Example as in the Circumstances of it is most apt and powerful to engage and oblige us to the imitation of it because all his Self-denial and Sufferings were for our sakes II. If we cosider That he hath promised all needful Supplies of his Grace to enable us to the Discharge of this difficult Duty of Self-denial and Suffering and to support and comfort us therein III. He hath assured us of a Glorious Reward of all our Sufferings and Self-denial beyond the Proportion of them both in the Degree and Duration of it I shall go over these as briefly as I can I. If we consider That He who requires us thus to deny our selves for him hath given us the greatest Example of Self-denyal that ever was Our Saviour knowing how unwelcome this Doctrine of Self-denyal and Suffering must needs be to his Disciples and how hardly this Precept would go down with them to sweeten it a little and take off the harshness of it and to prepare their Minds the better for it he tells them first of his own Sufferings that by that means he might in some measure reconcile their Minds to it when they saw that he required nothing of them but what he was ready to undergo Himself and to give them the Example of it And upon this Occasion it was that our Saviour acquaints them with the hard and difficult Terms upon which they must be his Disciples V. 21. The Evangelist tells us that Jesus began to shew unto his Disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the Elders and Chief-Priests and Scribes and be killed Then said Jesus unto his Disciples that is immediately upon this Discourse of his own Sufferings as the fittest time for it he takes the Oportunity to tell them plainly of their own Sufferings and that unless they were prepared and resolved to deny themselves so far as to suffer all manner of Persecution for his sake and the Profession of his Religion they could not be his Disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me that is let him reckon and resolve upon following that Example of Self-denyal and Suffering in which I will go before him Now the Consideration of this Example of Self-denyal and Suffering which our Saviour hath given us hath great force in it to reconcile us to this difficult Duty and to shew the Reasonableness of it 1. That He who requires us thus to deny our selves hath Himself in his own Person given us the greatest Example of self-denyal that ever was And 2. Such an Example as in all the Circumstances of it is most apt and powerful to engage and oblige us to the imitation of it because all his Self-denyal and Sufferings were for our sakes 1. He who requires us thus to deny our selves hath Himself in his own Person given us the greatest Example of Self-denyal that ever was in that he denyed himself more and suffered more grievous things than any of us can do He bore the insupportable Load of all the Sins of all Mankind and of the Wrath and Vengeance due to them Never was sorrow like to his sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs his visage was marred more than any mans and his form more than the sons of men i. e. He underwent more Affliction and had more Contempt poured upon him than ever was upon any of the Sons of Men and yet he endured all this with incredible Patience and Meekness with the greatest Evenness and Constancy of Mind and with the most perfect Submission and Resignation of himself to the Will of God that can be imagined Such an Example as this should be of great force to animate us with the like Courage and Resolution in lesser Dangers and Difficulties To see the Captain of our Salvation going before us and leading us on so bravely and made perfect by greater sufferings than we can ever be called to or are any ways able to undergo is no small Argument and Encouragement to us to take up our Cross and follow him The Consideration of the unknown Sufferings of the Son of God so great as we cannot well conceive of them should make all the Afflictions and Sufferings that can befall us not only tolerable but easie to us Upon this Consideration it is that the Apostle animates Christians to Patience in their Christian Course notwithstanding all the Hardships and Sufferings that attended it Heb. 12. 2. Let us run with patience the race which is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who endured the Cross and despised the Shame For consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye also be weary and faint in your minds And this Example is more Powerful for our Encouragement because therein we see the World conquered to our Hands and all the Terrours and Temptations of it baffled and subdued and thereby a cheap and easie Victory over it obtained for us By this Consideration our Saviour endeavours to inspire his Disciples with Chearfulness and Courage in this great Conflict John 16. 33. In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good chear I have overcome the world 2. This Example of our Saviour is such as in all the Circumstances of it is most apt and powerful to engage and oblige us to the Imitation of it because all his Self-denyal and Sufferings were for our sakes in Pity and Kindness to us and wholly for our Benefit and Advantage We are apt to have their Example in great regard from whom we have received great Kindness and mighty Benefits This Pattern of Self-denyal and Suffering which our Religion proposeth to us is the Example of One whom we have Reason to Esteem and Love and Imitate above any Person in the World 'T is the Example of our Lord and Master of our Sovereign and our Saviour of the Founder of our Religion and of the Author and Finisher of our Faith And surely such an Example must needs carry Authority with it and command our Imitation 'T is the Example of our best Friend and greatest Benefactor of Him who laid down his Life for us and sealed his Love to us with his dearest Blood and even when we were bitter Enemies
to him did and suffered more for us than any Man ever did for his best Friend If we should be reduced to Poverty and Want let us consider Him Who being Lord of all had not where to lay his head who being rich for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich If it should be our lot to be persecuted for righteousness sake and exercised with Sufferings and Reproaches Let us look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who endured the Cross and despised the shame for our sakes In a Word can we be discontented at any Condition or decline it in a good Cause when we consider how Contented the Son of God was in the meanest and most destitute how Meek and Patient in the most afflicted and suffering Condition how he welcomed all Events and was so perfectly resigned to the Will of his Heavenly Father that whatever pleased God pleased him And surely in no Case is Example more necessary than in this to engage and encourage us in the discharge of so difficult a Duty so contrary to the bent and inclination of Flesh and Blood A bare Precept of Self-denial and a peremptory Command to sacrifice our own Wills our Ease our Pleasure our Reputation yea and Life it self to the Glory of God and the Maintenance of his Truth would have sounded very harsh and severe had not the Practice of all this been mollified and sweetned by a Pattern of so much advantage by One who in all these respects denied himself much more than it is possible for us to do by One who might have insisted upon a greater Right who abased himself and stooped from a greater Hight and Dignity who was not forced into a condition of Meanness and Poverty but chose it for our sakes who submitted to Suffering tho he had never deserved it Here is an Example that hath all the Argument and all the Encouragement that can be to the imitation of it Such an Example is of greater force and authority than any Precept or Law can be So that well might our Lord thus going before us command us to follow him and say If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For if He thus denied himself well may We who have much less to deny but much more Cause and Reason to do it He did it voluntarily and of choice but it is our Duty He did it for our sakes we do it for our own His own Goodness moved him to deny himself for us but Gratitude obligeth us to deny our selves in any thing for him We did not in the least deserve any thing from him but he hath wholly merited all this and infinitely more from us So that such an Example as this is in all the Circumstances of it cannot but be very powerful and effectual to oblige us to the Imitation of it But the Reasonableness of this Precept will yet farther appear if we consider in the Third place That God hath promised to all Sincere Christians all needful Supplies of his Grace to inable them to the discharge of this difficult Duty of Self-denial and to support and comfort them therein For the Spirit of Christ dwells in all Christians and the same Glorious Power that raised up Jesus from the Dead works mightily in them that believe Eph. 1. 19. That ye may know saith St. Paul speaking in general to all Christians what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Of our selves we are very weak and the Temptations and Terrors of the world very powerful but there is a Principle residing in every true Christian able to bear us up against the World and the power of all its Temptations Whatsoever is born of God saith St. John overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Ye are of God little children and have overcome because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world And this Grace and Strength was afforded to the first Christians in a most Extraordinary manner for their Comfort and Support under Sufferings So that they were strengthned with all Might according to God's glorious Power unto all long-suffering with joyfulness as St. Paul prays for the Colossians Ch. 1. 11. And these Consolations of the Spirit of God this Joy in the Holy Ghost was not peculiarly appropriated to the first times of Christianity but is still afforded to all sincere Christians in such degree as is necessary and convenient for them And whenever God exerciseth Good Men with tryals more than humane and such Sufferings as are beyond the ordinary rate of humane Strength and Patience to bear he hath promised to endue them with more than humane Courage and Resolution So St. Paul tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10. 13. He is faithful that hath promised who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it And why should we be daunted at any Suffering if God be pleased to increase our Strength in proportion to the Sharpness of our Sufferings And Blessed be God many of our persecuted Brethren at this day have remarkably found this comfortable Assistance and Support tho many likewise have fallen through fear and weakness as it also hapen'd in the Primitive times But where ever this Promise is not made good it is as I have formerly said by reason of some Fault and Failing on our part Either Men were not Sincere in the profession of the Truth and then no wonder If when Tribulation and Persecution ariseth because of the Word they are offended and fall off Or else they were too Confident to themselves and did not seek God's Grace and Assistance and relie upon it as they ought and thereupon God hath left them to themselves as he did Peter to convince them of their own Frailty and rash Confidence and yet even in that case when there is Truth and Sincerity at the bottom there is no Reason to doubt but that the Goodness of God is such as by some means or other to give to such persons as he did to Peter the oportunity of recovering themselves by Repentance and a more stedfast Resolution afterwards 4. If we consider in the last place that our Saviour hath assured us of a Glorious and Eternal Reward of all our Self-denial and Sufferings for him a Reward Infinitely beyond the proportion of our Sufferings both in the Degree and Duration of it Now the clear discovery of this is peculiarly owing to the Christian Religion and the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And as our Blessed Saviour hath assured us of
and honour him and that the outward expressions of our Piety and Obedience to him are the genuine issue of our inward apprehensions of him and affections towards him and this no doubt our Saviour intended in the first place in the Character of this good Man that he was a Man of a real and substantial and unaffected Piety and in truth what he appeared to be that he did sincerely love God and his Truth and was ready to embrace it whenever it was fairly proposed to him as did plainly appear in his Carriage towards our Saviour for when Philip invited him to come and see him he did not conceal the prejudice and objection he had against him grounded upon a common but uncharitable Proverb That out of Nazareth ariseth no Prophet but having an honest and sincere mind he was not so carried away by a popular prejudice as not to have patience to be better informed and therefore was easily perswaded to go and see our Saviour and to discourse with him himself and being satisfied that he was the Messias he presently owns him for such calling him the Son of God and the King of Israel and because sincerity is the very heart and substance of Religion it concerns us not only to endeavour after this temper and disposition but to enquire into the nature and properties of it that we may know when we have it and may have the comfort of it I shall mention five or six Properties of a sincere Piety by which Men may sufficiently know the integrity of their hearts towards God 1. Our Piety is then sincere when the chief reasons and predominant motives of it are Religious and I call that a Religious or rational motive which regards God and another World in opposition to Men and to our present temporal Advantages when the principal and swaying motives of our Piety are a sense of God's Authority over us and of our Duty and Obligation to him a fear of his Displeasure and Threatnings and the hopes of the Glorious Reward which he hath promised to Obedience these motives are properly Religious because they respect God and are the Arguments to Obedience which he himself offers to us to perswade us to our Duty and that is a sincere Piety which is wrought in us by these Considerations how unequally soever mixed for even in the most of Men Fear does many times prevail more than Love and in case of great temptation may preserve Men from sin when perhaps no other consideration will do it On the contrary that is an unsincere Piety to which we are moved meerly by the regard of Men and the consideration of some temporal Advantages and when these have the chief influence upon us it is easie for any Man to discern in himself for he that will carefully observe himself can hardly be ignorant of the true spring and motive of his own actions but there is one sign whereby a Man may certainly know that his heart is not right towards God and that is if when these motives are absent our Piety and Zeal for the true Religion doth either cease or be sensibly cooled and abated as if Impiety or Popery or any thing else that is bad begin to be in fashion and to have the Countenance of great Examples if those whom we fear and upon whom we depend do discover any inclination that way if the garb of Religion cease to be for our interest or in the revolution of things happen to be contrary to it if in any of these cases we let fall the profession of our Religion or neglect the practice of it this is a plain and undeniable demonstration of the insincerity of our former Piety 2. A sincere Piety must be rooted in the heart and be a living principle within us for as the Apostle reasons in another case he is not a Jew who is one outwardly but he who is one inwardly and in the heart and without this all outward acts of Piety and Devotion are hypocrisie a picture of Religion and a form of Godliness without the life and power of it 3. A Third Evidence of a sincere Piety is when Men are Religious in private and in secret as well as in publick and in the open view of Men he is truly devout who is so in his Family and in his Closet where he hath no Witness but God and his own Soul as well as in the Church he is a downright honest Man who will make good his Word and perform his Promise when no proof can be made of it and no Law compel him to it as readily as if there had been an hundred Witnesses of it he is sincerely just who will not detain from another his right though he be ignorant of it nor wrong any Man tho' he could do it with all the secresie and safety in the World who will not impose upon anothers ignorance or unskilfulness tho never so much to his own benefit and advantage he is truly Charitable who would not only as soon but rather sooner give his Alms in secret than in the sight of Men and he is truly grateful who when there is occasion and opportunity will acknowledge a kindness and requite a benefit to the Relations of his Deceased Friend though he be sure that all memory of the Obligation dyed with him and that none are conscious to it but God and his own Conscience And indeed there is scarce any act of Piety and Vertue the sincerity of which may not by this evidence be known to us As on the contrary a Man may for certain conclude himself a Hypocrite if he be not the same in the presence of God and his own Conscience that he is in the sight of Men. 4. Another Evidence of a sincere Piety is a constant tenour of goodness in the general course of our Lives I do not now speak of the first beginnings of Piety in new Converts which are many times very imperfect and such as afford little or no evidence of a Man's sincerity but in those who have made any considerable progress in goodness the habits of any known sin and the wilful and deliberate neglect of our Duties and even the single acts of more hainous Crimes will bring in question our sincerity and are by no means to be sheltred under the name of infirmity for these the Grace of God if we be not wanting to our selves will inable us to subdue and he is not sincerely good who doth not seriously endeavour to be as good as he can and does not make use of that Grace which God is ready to afford to all the purposes though not of a perfect yet of a sincere obedience to the Laws of God 5. Another Evidence of a sincere Piety is that our obedience to God be uniform and universal equally respecting all the Laws of God and every part of our Duty that it do not content it self with an especial regard to some Precepts of the Law though never so
considerable and allow it self in the breach or neglect of the rest no nor with observing the Duties of one Table of the Law if it overlook the other no nor with obedience to all the Commandments of God one only excepted St. James puts this case and determines That he that keeps the whole Law saving that he offends in one point is guilty of all that is is not sincere in his obedience to the rest and therefore we must take great heed that we do not set the Commandments of God at odds and dash the two Tables of the Law against one another lest as St. James says we break the whole Law And yet I fear this is too common a fault even amongst those who make a great profession of Piety that they are not sufficiently sensible of the obligation and necessity of the Duties of the second Table and of the excellency of those Graces and Vertues which respect our Carriage and Conversation with one another Men do not seem to consider that God did not give Laws to us for his own sake but ours and therefore that he did not only design that we should Honour him but that we should be happy in one another for which reason he joyns with our humble and dutiful Deportment towards himself the Offices of Justice and Charity towards others Mich. 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And 1 John 4. 21. This Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also And yet it is too visible that many who make a great profession of Piety towards God are very defective in Moral Duties very unpeaceable and turbulent in their Spirits very peevish and passionate very conceited and censorious as if their profession of Godliness did exempt them from the care and practice of Christian Vertues But we must not so fix our eye upon Heaven as to forget that we walk upon the Earth and to neglect the ordering of our steps and Conversation among Men lest while we are gazing upon the Stars we fall into the Ditch of gross and foul Immorality It is very possible that Men may be devout and zealous in Religion very nice and scrupulous about the Worship and Service of God and yet because of their palpable defect in points of Justice and Honesty of Meekness and Humility of Peace and Charity may be gross and odious Hypocrites for Men must not think for some acts either of outward or inward Piety to compound with God for the neglect of Mercy and Judgment or to demand it as a right from Men to be excused from the great Duties and Vertues of Humane Conversation or pretend to be above them because they relate chiefly to this World and to the temporal happiness of Men as if it were the priviledge of great Devotion to give a license to Men to be peevish and froward sower and morose supercilious and censorious in their behaviour towards others Men must have a great care that they be not intent upon the outward parts of Religion to the prejudice of inward and real goodness and that they do not so use the means of Religion as to neglect and lose the main end of it that they do not place all Religion in Fasting and outward Mortification for though these things be very useful and necessary in their place if they be discreetly managed and made subservient to the great ends of Religion yet it is often seen that Men have so unequal a respect to the several parts of their Duty that Fasting and Corporal severity those meager and lean Duties of Piety in comparison do like Pharaoh's lean kine devour and eat up almost all the goodly and well-favoured the great and substantial Duties of the Christian Life and therefore Men must take great heed lest whilst they are so intent upon mortifying themselves they do not mortifie Vertue and good Nature Humility and Meekness and Charity things highly valuable in themselves and amiable in the eyes of Men and in the sight of God of great price For the neglect of the Moral Duties of the second Table is not only a mighty scandal to Religion but of pernicious consequence many other ways A fierce and ill governed an ignorant and injudicious Zeal for the Honour of God and something or other belonging necessarily as they think to his true Worship and Service hath made many Men do many unreasonable immoral and impious things of which History will furnish us with innumerable instances in the practice of the Jesuits and other Zealots of the Church of Rome and there are not wanting too many examples of this kind amongst our selves for Men that are not sober and considerate in their Religion but give themselves up to the conduct of blind prejudice and furious zeal do easily perswade themselves that any thing is lawful which they strongly fancy to tend to the Honour of God and to the advancement of the cause of Religion hence some have proceeded to that height of absurdity in their Zeal for their Religion and Church as to think it not only lawful but highly commendable and meritorious to equivocate upon Oath and break Faith with Hereticks and to destroy all those that differ from them as if it were Piety in some cases to lie for the Truth and to kill Men for God's sake So that if we would approve the integrity of our hearts to God and evidence to our selves the sincerity of our Obedience we ought impartially to regard all the Laws of God and every part of our Duty and if we do not our heart is not upright with God 'T is observable that sincerity in Scripture is often call'd by the name of Integrity and Perfection because it is integrated and made up of all the parts of our Duty 6. The last evidence I shall mention of the sincerity of our Religion is if it hold out against persecution and endure the fiery tryal this is the utmost proof of our integrity when we are called to bear the Cross to be willing then to expose all our worldly interest and even life it self for the Cause of God and Religion this is a tryal which God doth not always call his faithful Servants to but they are always to be prepared for it in the purpose and resolution of their minds this our Saviour makes the great mark of a true Disciple if any man saith he will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me this is a certain sign that Men have received the word into good ground and are well rooted in their Religion when they are not shaken by these fierce assaults for many as our Saviour tells us hear the word and with joy receive it but having not root in themselves they endure but for a while and when persecution or tribulation ariseth because of
another but Truth is always consistent with it self and needs nothing to help it out it is always near at hand and sits upon our Lips and is ready to drop out before we are aware whereas a Lye is troublesome and sets a Mans invention upon the Rack and one trick needs a great many more to make it good It is like building upon a false Foundation which continually stands in need of props to shoar it up and proves at last more chargable than to have raised a substantial Building at first upon a true and solid Foundation for Sincerity is firm and substantial and there is nothing hollow and unsound in it and because it is plain and open fears no discovery of which the Crafty Man is always in danger and when he thinks he walks in the dark all his pretences are so transparent that he that runs may read them he is the last Man that finds himself to be found out and whilst he takes it for granted that he makes Fools of others he renders himself ridiculous Add to all this that Sincerity is the most compendious Wisdom and an excellent instrument for the speedy dispatch of Business it creates confidence in those we have to deal with saves the labour of many enquiries and brings things to an issue in few words It is like travelling in a plain beaten Road which commonly brings a Man sooner to his Journeys end than By-ways in which Men often lose themselves In a word whatsoever convenience may be thought to be in falshood and dissimulation it is soon over but the inconvenience of it is perpetual because it brings a Man under an everlasting jealousie and suspicion so that he is not believed when he speaks truth nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly When a Man hath once forfeited the reputation of his Integrity he is set fast and nothing will then serve his turn neither Truth nor Falshood And I have often thought that God hath in great Wisdom hid from Men of false and dishonest minds the wonderful advantages of Truth and Integrity to the prosperity even of our worldly Affairs these Men are so blinded by their Covetousness and Ambition that they cannot look beyond a present advantage nor forbear to seize upon it tho by ways never so indirect They cannot see so far as to the remote Consequences of a steady Integrity and the vast benefit and advantages which it will bring a Man at last Were but this sort of Men wise and clear-sighted enough to discern this they would be honest out of very Knavery not out of any love to Honesty and Vertue but with a crafty design to promote and advance more effectually their own Interests and therefore the Justice of the Divine Providence hath hid this truest point of Wisdom from their Eyes that bad men might not be upon equal Terms with the Just and Upright and serve their own wicked Designs by honest and lawful means Indeed if a man were only to deal in the world for a day and should never have occasion to converse more with Mankind never more need their good opinion or good Word it were then no great matter speaking as to the concernments of this world if a man spent his Reputation all at once and ventured it at one throw but if he be to continue in the world and would have the advantage of Conversation whilst he is in it let him make use of Truth and Sincerity in all his Words and Actions for nothing but this will last and hold out to the end all other Arts will fail but Truth and Integrity will carry a man through and bear him out to the last 'T is the Observation of Solomon Prov. 12. 19. The lip of Truth is established for ever but a lying Tongue is but for a moment And the wiser any man is the more clearly will he discern how serviceable Sincerity is to all the great ends and purposes of humane life and that man hath made a good progress and profited much in the School of Wisdom who valueth Truth and Sincerity according to their worth Every man will readily grant them to be great Vertues and Arguments of a generous mind but that there is so much of true Wisdom in them and that they really serve to profit our interest in this World seems a great Paradox to the generality of Men and yet I doubt not but it is undoubtedly true and generally found to be so in the experience of Mankind Lastly Consider that it is not worth our while to dissemble considering the shortness and especially the uncertainty of our Lives To what purpose should we be so cunning when our abode in this world is so short and uncertain Why should any man by dissembling his Judgment or acting contrary to it incur at once the displeasure of God and the discontent of his own mind Especially if we consider that all our Dissimulation shall one day be made manifest and published on the open Theatre of the World before God Angels and Men to our everlasting Shame and Confusion all Disguise and Vizards shall then be pluckt off and every man shall appear in his true Colours For then the Secrets of Men shall be judged and God will bring every Work into Judgment and every secret thing whether it be Good or whether it be Evil. Nothing is now covered which shall not then be revealed nor hid which shall not then be known Let us then be now what we would 〈◊〉 glad to be found in that day when all pretences shall be examined and the closest Hypocrisie of Men shall be laid open and dasht out of Countenance when the Secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed and all the hidden Works of Darkness shall be revealed and all our Thoughts Words and Actions shall be brought to a strict and severe Tryal and be censured by that impartial and infallible Judgment of God which is according to Truth In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVI Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI 17 18 19. By Faith Abraham when he was Tryed offered up Isaac And he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotton Son Of whom it was said That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the Dead From whence also he received him in a Figure THE design of this Epistle to the Hebrews is to recommend to them the Christian Religion to which they were but newly Converted and to encourage them to Constancy in the profession of it notwithstanding the Sufferings which attended it He sets before them in this Chapter several examples in the Old Testament of those who tho they were under a much more imperfect dispensation yet by a stedfast belief in God and his promises had performed such wonderful acts of
great and conspicuous were we verily persuaded that all the Precepts of our Religion are the express Laws of God and that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel will one day be verified and made good What manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness How would the lively thoughts of another world raise us above the vanities of this present life and set us out of the reach of the most powerful temptations that this world can assault us withall and make us to do all things with regard to Eternity and to that solemn and dreadful account which we must one day make to God the Judge of all It is nothing but the want of a firm and steady belief of these things that makes our Devotion so dead and heartless and our resolutions of doing better so weak and inconsistent This it is that makes us so easie a prey to every temptation and the things of this world to look so much bigger than they are the enjoyments of it more tempting and the evils of it more terrible than in truth they are And in all disputes betwixt our Conscience and our Interest to hold the balance so unequally and to put our foot upon the lighter Scale that it may seem to weigh down the other In a word in proportion to the strength or weakness of our Faith our obedience to God will be more or less constant uniform and perfect because Faith is the great source and spring of all the Virtues of a good life 5. We have great reason to submit to the ordinary strokes of God's Providence upon our selves or near relations or any thing that is dear to us Most of these are easily compared with Abraham's case it requires a prodigious strength of Faith to perform so miraculous an act of obedience 6. And lastly We are utterly inexcusable if we disobey the easie Precepts of the Gospel The yoke of Christ is easie and his burden light in comparison of God's former dispensations This was a grievous Commandment which God gave to Abraham to sacrifice his only Son It was a hard saying indeed and which of us could have been able to hear it But if God think fit to call us to the more difficult duties of self-denial and suffering for his truth and righteousness sake we must after the example of faithful Abraham not think much to deny or part with any thing for him no not life it self But even this which is the hardest part of Religion is easier than what God put upon Abraham For it doth not offer near the violence to nature to lay down our life in a good cause as it would do to put a Child to death with our own hands Besides the consideration of the extraordinary comfort and support and the glorious rewards that are expresly promised to our obedience and self denial in such a case encouragement enough to make a very difficult duty easie And whilst I am perswading you and my self to resolution and constancy in our Holy Religion notwithstanding all hazards and hardships that may attend it I have a just sense of the frailty of humane nature and of humane resolution But with all a most firm persuasion of the goodness of God that he will not suffer those who sincerely love him and his Truth to be tempted above what they are able I will add but one consideration more to shew the difference betwixt Abraham's case and ours God commanded him to do the hardest thing in the world to sacrifice his only Son but he hath given us an easie commandment and that he might effectually oblige us to our duty he hath done that for us which he required Abraham to do for him he hath not spared his own Son his only Son but hath given him up to death for us all And hereby we know that he loveth us that he hath given his Son for us What God required of Abraham he did not intend should be executed but one great design of it was to be a Type and Figure of that immense love and kindness which he intended to all mankind in the Sacrifice of his Son as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world And as the most clear and express promise of the Messias was made to Abraham so the most express and lively Type of the Messias that we meet with in all the old Testament was Abraham's offering up his Son And as St. Hierom tells us from an ancient and constant Tradition of the Jews the Mountain in Moriah where Abraham was commanded to Sacrifice Isaac was Mount Calvary where our Lord also was Crucified and offered up that by this one sacrifice of himself once offered he might perfect for ever them that are sanctified and obtain eternal redemption for us Now to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb that was slain to God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead to the Prince of the Kings of the Earth to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood to him be Glory and honour thanksgiving and power now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVII Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI 24 25. By Faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season THE Text sets before us a great pattern of self-denial for our better understanding whereof I will give a brief account of the History of Moses to which our Apostle in this passage doth refer When Moses was born his Parents for fear of the cruel law which Pharaoh had made That all the male Children of the Hebrews so soon as they were born should be put to death after they had hid him three months did at last expose him in an Ark of Bulrushes upon the River Nile and committed him to the providence of God whom they despair'd to conceal any longer by their own care Pharaoh's Daughter coming by the River side espied him and had compassion on him and guessing him to be one of the Hebrew Children called for an Hebrew Nurse to take care of him who as the Prviodence of God had ordered it proved to be the Child 's own Mother As he grew up Pharaoh's Daughter took care of his Education in all Princely qualities and adopted him for her Son and Pharaoh as Josephus tells us being without Son designed him Heir of his Kingdom Moses refused this great offer But why did he refuse it when it seem'd to be presented to him by the providence of God and was brought about in so strange a manner and when by this means he might probably have had it in his power to have eased the Israelites of their cruel bondage and perhaps have had the oportunity of reducing that great Kingdom from the worship of Idols to the true God
the Ethiopians had invaded Egypt and almost over-run it that Pharaoh was directed by the Oracle at Memphis to make Moses his General who by his extraordinary Conduct and Courage overthrew the Ethiopians and drave them out of Egypt This Moses did not think fit to relate of himself but St. Stephen seems to allude to it when he says that he was mighty in word and deed And then it follows and when he was full forty years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel that is when he was at full maturity of judgment and in the hight of his Prosperity and Reputation he quitted the Court of Egypt and went to visit his afflicted Brethren and chose rather to take part with them in their sufferings than to accept those great offers that were made to him There is likewise another passage in Josephus concerning Moses which seems to be a forerunner of the contempt which he shewed afterward of the Crown of Egypt That when Moses was about three years old Thermuthis the Daughter of Pharaoh brought the Child to him who took him in his arms and put his Diadem upon his Head But Moses took it off and cast it to the ground and trampled it under his feet This was but a childish act and they who saw it would easily believe that for all his childish contempt of it then it it were put upon his Head in good earnest when he came to be a Man he would hold it on faster and use it with more respect And it is not improbable but that the Apostle might have some regard to this when he says that Moses when he came to Years intimating that he did not only trample upon the Diadem of Pharaoh when he was a Child but when he was come to years and was capable of judging better of those things he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter But before I proceed any farther I cannot but take notice of an objection which may seem to reflect greatly upon the integrity of Moses Can we think him so very conscientious a Man who persuaded the people of Israel and pretended God's direction in the case to cheat the Egyptians of their Jewels under a fraudulent pretence of borrowing them There is some difficulty in the thing as at first sight it appears And yet I doubt not with your favourable attention and free from prejudice to vindicate Moses clearly in this matter And I shall not insist upon that which is commonly and truly said in this case That God who is the supream Lord of all things may transfer the Rights of Men from one to another because the objection doth not lye against God's Right to take away from any Man what he hath given him but against the fraudulent manner of doing it which seems unworthy of God to command or encourage Now this matter I think is capable of another and much clearer answer which in short is this and grounded upon the History as we find it related Ex. 12. The Providence of God did it seems design by this way to make some reparation to the Israelites for the tyrannical usage which they had received from the Egyptians And that first as the Text expresly tells us in giving them favour with the Egyptians who in truth for their own ends and to get rid of such troublesome Guests were disposed to lend them any thing they had Thus far all is right Here is nothing but fair borrowing and lending And if the Israelites acquired a right to those things afterwards there was then no obligation to restitution Let us see then how the Providence of God brought this about Namely by permitting the Egyptians afterwards without cause and after leave given them to depart to persue them with a design to have destroyed them by which Hostility and Perfidiousness they plainly forfeited their Right to what they had only lent before For this hostile attempt which would have warranted the Israelites to have spoiled them of their Jewels if they had been in the possession of the Egyptians did certainly warrant them to keep them when they had them and by this means they became rightful possessors of what they had only by Loan before and could not have detained without fraud and injustice if this hostility of the Egyptians had not given them a new title and clear right to them But I proceed to the third thing I proposed which was to vindicate the prudence and reasonableness of this choice And in speaking to this I shall abstract from the particular case of Moses and shew in general That it is a prudent and reasonable thing to prefer even an afflicted state of Piety and Virtue before the greatest pleasures and prosperity of a sinful course And this will appear if we consider these two things 1. The sufferings of good Men upon account of Religion together with the the reward of them 2. The temporary enjoyment of sin with the mischiefs and inconveniencies consequent upon them 1. The sufferings of good Men upon the account of Religion together with the reward of them This Moses had in his eye when he made this choice for therefore he chose to suffer Affliction with the People of God rather than to enjoy the Pleasures of sin which are but for a Season because he had respect to the recompence of reward And tho he had but a very imperfect discovery in comparison of the future state yet it seems he had so much assurance of the goodness of God as firmly to believe that he should be no loser at the last by any thing that he suffered for God and Religion Indeed if there were no life after this and we had no expectation beyond this world the wisest thing we could do would be to enjoy as much of the present contentment of this world as we could make our selves Masters of But if we be designed for immortality and shall be unspeakably happy or intorably miserable in another world according as we have demeaned our selves in this life then certainly it is reasonable that we should take the greatest care of the longest duration and be content to dispense with some present inconveniences for an eternal felicity and be willing to labour and take pains for a little while that we may be happy forever And this is accounted prudence in the account of the wisest Men to part with a little in present for a far greater future advantage But the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is so vast that did we but firmly believe that we shall live for ever nothing in this world could reasonably be thought too good to part withall or too grievous to suffer for the obtaining of a blessed Immortality And upon this belief and persuasion of a mighty reward beyond all their present sufferings and that they should be infinite gainers at the last the Primitive Christians were kept from sinking under their present sufferings and fortified against all that the
is faithful that promised I Have already made entrance into these Words which I told you do contain in them I. An Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto because he is Faithful that promised If we continue stedfast and faithful to God we shall find him faithful to us in making good all the Promises which he hath made to us whether of Aid and Support or of Recompence and Reward of our Fidelity to him I have begun to handle the First part of the Text viz. The Apoostles Exhortation to Christians to be constant and steady in their Religion Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render without wavering signifies inflexible and unmovable not apt to waver and to be shaken with every Wind of contrary Doctrine nor by the Blasts and Storms of Persecution And that we might the better comprehend the full and true meaning of this Exhortation I propounded to do these Two things 1. To shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist And 2. To shew Positively what is implied and intended here by the Apostle in holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering 1. To shew Negatively wherein this Constancy and the Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist This I spake to the last Day and shewed at large that there are Two things which are not contained and intended in this Exhortation 1. That Men should not have the Liberty to examine their Religion and to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it Such I mean as are capable of this examination and enquiry which some I shewed are not as Children who while they are in that state are only fit to learn and believe what is taught them by their Parents and Teachers And likewise such grown Persons as either by the natural Weakness of their Faculties or by some great Disadvantage of Education are of a very low and mean Capacity and Improvement of Understanding These are to be considered as in the condition of Children and Learners and therefore must of necessity trust and rely upon the Judgment of others 2. This holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering does not imply that when Men upon examination and enquiry are settled as they think and verily believe in the true Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offer'd againg them Both these Principles I shew'd to be unreasonable and Arguments of a bad Cause and Religion I shall now proceed to explain the meaning of this Exhortation To hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering by shewing in the Second place what it is that is implied in the constant and steady Profession of the true Faith and Religion namely That when upon due search and examination we are fully satisfied that it is the true Religion which we have embraced or as St. Peter expresses it 1st Epistle 5. 12. That this is the true Grace of God wherein we stand that then we should adhere stedfastly to it and hold it fast and not suffer it to be wrested from us nor our selves to be moved from it by any Pretences or Insinuations or Temptations whatsoever For there is a great deal of difference between the Confidence and Stedfastness of an Ignorant Man who hath never considered Things and enquired into the Grounds of them and the Assurance and Settlement of one who hath been well instructed in his Religion and hath taken pains to search and examine to the bottom the Grounds and Reasons of what he holds and professeth to believe The first is meer Wilfulness and Obstinacy A Man hath entertained and drank in such Principles of Religion by Education or hath taken them up by Chance but he hath no Reason for them and yet however he came by them he is resolved to hold them fast and not to part with them The other is the Resolution and Constancy of a Wise Man He hath embraced his Religion upon good Grounds and he sees no Reason to alter it and therefore is resolved to stick to it and to hold fast the Profession of it stedfastly to the end And to this purpose there are many Exhortations and Cautions scattered up and down the Writings of the holy Apostles as that we should be stedfast and unmoveable established in the Truth rooted and grounded in the Faith and that we should hold fast that which is good and not suffer our selves to be carried to and fro with every wind of Doctrine through the slight of Men and the cunning craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive that we should not be removed from him that hath called us unto the grace of Christ unto another Gospel that we should stand fast in one Spirit and one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and be â—n nothing terrifled by our Adversaries and that if occasion be we should contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints and here in the Text That we should hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering For the explaining of this I shall do two Things 1. Consider what it is that we are to hold fast namely the profession of our Faith And 2. How we are to hold it fast or what is implied in holding fast the profession of our Faith without wavering 1. What it is that we are to hold fast namely the profession of our Faith i. e. of the Christian Faith or Religion For I told you before that this Profession or Confession of our Faith or Hope as the word properly signifies is an Allusion to that Profession of Faith which was made by all those who were admitted Members of the Christian Church by Baptism of which the Apostle makes mention immediately before the Text when he says Let us draw near in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure Water And then it follows Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering The Profession of Faith which we made in our Baptisms and which by the Ancient Fathers is call'd the Rule of Faith and which is now contain'd in that which we call the Apostles Creed and which is called by St. Paul Rom. 6. 17. the Form of Doctrine which was delivered to them i. e. to all Christians and 2 Tim. 1. 13. the Form of sound Words Hold fast saith he the Form of sound Words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus and by St. Jude The Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints So that it is the first and ancient Faith of the Christian Church delivered to them by Christ and his Apostles which we are here exhorted to hold fast the necessary and fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith
might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this Exhortation I shewed 1. Negatively what is not meant and intended by it And I mentioned these two Particulars 1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend that those who are capable of enquiring into and examining the Grounds of their Religion should not have the Liberty to do it Nor 2. That when upon due Enquiry and Examination Men are settled as they think and verily believe in the true Faith and Religion they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offered against their present Persuasion Both these I shewed to be unreasonable and Arguments of a bad Cause and Religion And therefore neither of them can be intended by the Apostle in this Exhortation 2. I proceeded Positively to explain the meaning of this Exhortation And to this purpose I proposed 1. To consider what it is that we are to hold fast viz. the Confession or Profession of our Faith The antient Christian Faith of which every Christian makes Profession in his Baptism For of That the Apostle here speaks as appears by the Context not the doubtful and uncertain Traditions of Men nor the imperious Dictates and Doctrines of any Church not contained in the Holy Scriptures imposed upon the Christian Church tho with never so confident a pretence of the Antiquity of the Doctrines proposed or of the Infallibility of the Proposers of them And then I proceeded in the 2. Place to shew how we are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering And I mentioned these following Particulars as probably implied in the Apostles Exhortation 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men without Scripture or Reason to support their Confidence 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men against Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind 3. Against all the Temptations and Terrours of the World 4. Against all vain Promises of being put into a safer condition and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms in another Religion 5. Against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busiy and disputing Men whose design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion and to gain Proselytes to their Party and Faction 1. We are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men without Scripture or Reason to support their Confidence And of this I gave several Instances As in the Pretence of the Church of Rome to Infallibility without any Proof or Evidence of it either by Scripture or Miracles I mean such Miracles as are sufficiently attested For as for their Legends since the wisest among themselves give no credit to them I hope they do not expect that We should believe them or be moved by them And then their Pretence that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches which is now made an Article of their Creed And that the Bishop of Rome as Successor of Saint Peter there is by Divine Appointment the Supream and Vniversal Pastor of Christs Church And that it is necessary to Salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to him And lastly their Invocation and Worship of the Blessed Virgin and Saints departed without any Warrant or Example of any such thing either in Scripture or in the practice of the first Ages of the Christian Religion and without sufficient Ground to believe that they hear the Prayers which are put up to them 2. Much more are we to hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men contrary to Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind And here I instanced in the Worship of Images the Locking up of the Scriptures from the People and celebrating the publick Prayers and Service of God in an unknown Tongue in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation their Communion in one kind and their daily repetition in the Sacrifice of the Mass of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ which was offered once for all and is of Eternal Virtue and Efficacy and therefore ought not because it needs not like Jewish Sacrifices under the Law to be repeated To these Instances which I have already spoken to I shall add one or two more as namely That to the due Administration of the Sacraments an Intention in the Minister at least to do what the Church does is requisite This is expresly defined and under an Anathema upon all that shall say otherwise by the Council of Trent Sess. the Seventh Can. 11th which is to make the Validity and Virtue of the Sacraments to depend upon the Intention of the Priest or Minister So that if in the Administration of Baptism he do not intend to Baptize the Party he pretends to Baptize then it is no Baptism and consequently the Person Baptized is not made a Member of Christ's Church nor is any Grace or special Benefit conferred upon him nor is he a Christian. So likewise in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper If the Priest do not intend to Consecrate the Host then is it no Sacrament and they that receive it receive no benefit by it and which according to their Opinion is a dreadful Consequence by the words of Consecration there is no change made of the Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ and consequently they that give Adoration to the Sacrament in such cases Worship Bread and Wine for God which is Idolatry And so likewise in their Sacrament of Penance though the Priest pronounce the words of Absolution yet if he do not intend to absolve the Penitent though he be never so truly penitent and God on his part is ready to forgive him yet if the Priest do not intend to do so there is nothing done and the Man is still in his Sin So likewise in Ordination which is another of their Sacraments if the Bishop do not intend to Ordain the Man he is no Priest and all that he does as a Priest afterwards either in Administration of Baptism or the Lords Supper or the Absolution of Penitents all is vain and of no effect Nay in Marriage which they will needs have to be a Sacrament too if the Intention of the Priest be wanting there is nothing done the Contract is null'd and they that are so Married do really live in Adultery though they do not know it nor have any suspicion of it Now this is contrary to Scripture and the whole Tenure of the Gospel which promiseth the benefit and efficacy of the Sacraments to all those that perform the Conditions of the Covenant which are required on their parts and declares forgiveness of Sins to those who confess them to God and truly repent of them And there is not the least intimation given in the Bible that the Virtue and Efficacy of the Sacraments does depend upon the Intention of him that administers them or that the Forgiveness of sins is suspended upon the Intention or Absolution of the Priest but
of the Priest is necessary to the Validity and Virtue of the Sacraments then there is no Religion in the World that runs the Salvation of Men upon more and greater Hazards and Uncertainties and such as by no Care and Diligence of Man in working out his own Salvation are to be avoided and prevented As for the easier Terms of Salvation which they offer to Men they signifie nothing if they be not able to make them good which no Man can reasonably believe they can do that hath read the Bible and doth in any good measure understand the Nature of God and the Design of Religion For Instance That after the long Course of a most lewd and flagitious Life a Man may be reconciled to God and have his Sins forgiven at the last Gasp upon Confession of them to the Priest with that imperfect degree of Contrition for them which they call Attrition together with the Absolution of the Priest Now Attrition is a Trouble for Sin meerly for fear of the Punishment of it And this together with Confession and the Absolution of the Priest without any Hatred of Sin for the Evil and Contrariety of it to the holy Nature and Law of God and without the least Spark of Love to God will do the Sinner's business and put him into a state of Grace and Salvation without any other Grace or Disposition for Salvation but only the Fear of Hell and Damnation This I confess is easie but the great Difficulty is to believe it to be true And certainly no man that ever seriously considered the Nature of God and Religion can ever be persuaded to build the Hopes of his Salvation upon such a Quick-sand The Absolution of all the Priests in the World will not procure the Forgiveness of God for any Man that is not disposed for his Mercy by such a Repentance as the Gospel requires which I am sure is very different from that which is required by the Council of Trent They that offer Heaven to Men upon so very large and loose Terms give great Cause to suspect that they will never make good their Offer the Terms are so unreasonably cheap and easie that there must be some Fraud and False Dealing And on the other hand nothing ought to recommend our Religion more to a wise and considerate Man than that the Terms of Salvation which we propose to Men viz. Faith and Repentance and a sincere Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel manifested in the Tenure of a Holy and Virtuous Life are not only perfectly agreeable to the plain and constant Declaration of Holy Scripture but do likewise naturally tend to engage Men most effectually to a good Life and thereby to make them meet to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And therefore every body ought to be afraid of a Religion which makes such lavish Offers of Salvation and to take heed how he ventures his Soul upon them For if after all the Hopes that are given of Salvation upon such and such Terms the Sinner do really miscarry and miss of Heaven it is but very ill Comfort to him to be put into a Fools Paradise for a Minute or two before he leaves the World and the next Moment after to find himself in the place of Torments I proceed to the 5. And Last Particular I mentioned as implied in the Exhortation here in the Text viz. That we hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busie and disputing Men whose Design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion and to gain Proselytes to their Party and Faction To this purpose there are several Cautions given by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles Matth. 24. 4. Take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name and shall deceive many Eph. 4. 14. That ye henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine by the slight of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word signifies the Cunning of Gamesters at Dice by the slight of Men and the cunning Craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive And Chap. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain Words Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit that is by Sophistry and vain Reasoning under a pretence of Philosophy Heb. 13. 9. Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest you also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness And this Caution is enforc'd by an express Prediction of a great Apostasie which should happen in the Christian Church by which many should be seduced by pretence of Miracles and by several Arts of Deceit and Falshood This Apostasie St. Paul expresly foretels 2 Thess. 2. 1 2 3. We beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by Spirit that is by pretence to Inspiration nor by Word or Message nor by Letter as from us as that the Day of Christ is at hand Let no man deceive you by any means for that Day shall not come except there come a falling away and that Man of Sin be revealed the Son of Perdition And after a particular Description of him he adds v. 9. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders and in all deceitfulness of Vnrighteousness in them that perish From all which he concludes v. 15. Therefore Brethren stand fast The particular nature and kind of this Apostasie the same Apostle describes more fully 1 Tim 4. 1 2 3. Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall apostatize from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisie i. e. under a great Pretence of Sanctity spreading their pernicious Errours forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats This is a very lively and pat Description of that great Apostasie in the Christian Church which began in the Western Part of it and hath spread it self far and wide For there the Spirit of Error and Falshood has prevailed under an Hypocritical Pretence of their being the only True Church and True Christians in the World There Marriage and several sorts of Meat are forbidden to several Ranks and Orders of Men. All the Difficulty is what is here meant by Doctrines of Devils and these certainly can be no other than Doctrines tending to Idolatry which the Scripture every where doth in a particular manner ascribe to the Devil as the Inventer and great Promoter of it And this is very much confirmed by what we find added in some ancient Greek Copies in this Text which runs thus In the latter times some shall apostatize from the Faith for they shall worship the Dead as some also in Israel worshiped And then it follows
Church And this is a Glorious Priviledge indeed if they could prove that they had it and that it would be so certain a remedy against Heresie and give a final Decision to all Controversies But there is not one tittle of all this of which they are able to give any tenable Proof For 1. All the pretence for their Infallibility relyes upon the truth of the former Proposition That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church and That they say is Infallible And I have already shewn that That Proposition is not only destitute of any good Proof but is as evidently false as that a Part of a thing is the Whole 2. But supposing it were true That the Roman Church were the Catholick Church yet it is neither evident in it self nor can be proved by them that the Catholick Church of every Age is Infallible in deciding all Controversies of Religion It is granted by all Christians that our Saviour and his Apostles were Infallible in the delivery of the Christian Doctrine and they proved their Infallibility by Miracles and this was necessary at first for the Security of our Faith but this Doctrine being once Delivered and Transmitted down to us in the Holy Scriptures Written by the Evangelists and Apostles who were Infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost we have now a certain and Infallible Rule of Faith and Practice which with the assistance and instruction of those Guides and Pastors which Christ hath appointed in his Church is sufficiently plain in all things necessary And as there is no evidence of the Continuance of Infallibility in the Guides and Pastors of the Church in the Ages which followed the Apostles because Miracles are long since ceased so there is no need of the Continuance of it for the Preservation of the True Faith and Religion because God hath sufficiently provided for that by that Infallible Rule of Faith and Manners which he hath left to his Church in the Holy Scriptures which are every way sufficient and able to make both Pastors and People wise unto Salvation 3. As for a certain Remedy against Heresie it is certain God never intended there should be any no more than he hath provided a certain Remedy against Sin and Vice which surely is every whit as contrary to the Christian Religion and therefore as fit to be provided against as Heresie But it is certain in Experience that God hath provided no certain and effectual Remedy against Sin and Vice for which I can give no other reason but that God does that which He thinks best and fittest and not what We are apt to think to be so Besides that Infallibility is not a certain Remedy against Heresie The Apostles were certainly Infallible and yet they could neither prevent nor extinguish Heresie which never more abounded than in the Apostles Times And Saint Paul expresly tells us 1 Cor. 1. 19. That there must be Heresies that they which are approved may be made manifest And St. Peter the 2 Epist. 2. 1. That there should be false Teachers among Christians who should privily bring in damnable Heresies and that many should follow their pernicious ways But now if there must be Heresies either the Church must not be Infallible or Infallibility in the Church is no certain Remedy against them I proceed to the next Step they make viz. 6ly That Christ hath always a Visible Church upon Earth and that They can shew a Church which from the time of Christ and his Apostles hath always made a Visible Profession of the same Doctrines and Practices which are now believed and practised in the Church of Rome but that We can shew no Visible Church that from the time of Christ and his Apostles hath always opposed the Church of Rome in those Doctrines and Practices which we now revile and find fault with in their Church That Christ hath always had and ever shall have to the end of the World a Visible Church Professing and Practising his True Faith and Religion is agreed on both sides But We say that he hath no where promised that This shall be free from all Errors and Corruptions in Faith and Practice This the Churches Planted by the Apostles themselves were not even in Their times and during Their abode amongst them and yet they were true parts of the Christian Catholick Church In the following Ages Errors and Corruptions and Superstitions did by degrees creep in and grow up in several parts of the Church as St. Austin and others of the Fathers complain of their Times Since that several Famous Parts of the Christian Church both in Asia and Africa have not only been greatly corrupted but have Apostatiz'd from the Faith so that in many Places there are hardly any Footsteps of Christianity among them But yet still Christ hath had in all these Ages a Visible Church upon Earth tho' perhaps no Part of it at all times free from some Errors and Corruptions and in several Parts of it great Corruptions both in Faith and Practice and in none I think more and longer than in the Church of Rome for all she boasts her self like Old Babylon Isa. 47. 7 8. That she is a Lady for ever and says in her heart I am and none else besides me And like the Church of Laodicea Revel 3. 17. which said I am rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing When the Spirit of God saith that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and knew it not Thus the Church of Rome boasts that She hath in all Ages been the True Visible Church of Christ and none besides her free from all Errors in Doctrine and Corruptions in Practice and that from the Age of Christ and his Apostles she hath always professed the same Doctrines and Practices which she does at this day Can any thing be more shameless than this Did they always believe Transubstantiation Let their Pope Gelasius speak for them who expresly denies that in the Sacrament there is any Substantial change of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Was this always an Article of their Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians Let Scotus and several other of their Schoolmen and Learned Writers speak for them Was Purgatory always believed in the Roman Church as it is now defined in the Council of Trent Let several of their Learned Men speak In what Father in what Council before that of Trent do they find Christ to have Instituted just Seven Sacraments neither more nor less And for Practices in their Religion they themselves will not say that in the Ancient Christian Church the Scriptures were with-held from the People and lockt up in an Unknown Tongue and that the Publick Service of God the Prayers and Lessons were Read and the Sacraments Celebrated in an Unknown Tongue and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was given to the People only in one Kind Where do they find in Holy
of the Rule of Faith I know that the Council of Trent declares it for the Rule they intend to proceed upon and make use of for the Confirmation and Proof of their following Determinations and Decrees But did any of the ancient Councils of the Christian Church lay down this Rule and proceed upon it Did not Constantine the Emperour at the opening of the First General Council lay the Bible before them as the only Rule according to which they were to proceed and this with the Approbation of all those Holy Fathers that were assembled in that Council And did not following Councils proceed upon the same Rule Do any of the ancient Fathers ever mention any Rule of Christian Faith and Practice besides the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Creed which because it is an Abridgment of the necessary Articles of Christian Faith contained in the Holy Scriptures is by them frequently called the Rule of Faith Do not the same Fathers frequently and expresly say That the Scriptures are a perfect Rule and that all things are plainly contained in them which concern Faith and Life and that whatever cannot be proved by Testimony of Scripture is to be rejected All this I am sure I can make good by innumerable express Testimonies of the ancient Fathers which are well known to those that are versed in them By what Authority then hath the Council of Trent set up this new Rule unknown to the Christian Church for 1500 Years and who gave them this Authority The plain truth is the necessity of it for the Defence of the Errors and Corruptions which they had embraced and were resolved not to part with forced them to lengthen out the Rule the old Rule of the Holy Scriptures being too short for their purpose Thirdly Whereas they pretend that Holy Scripture as expounded by a private Spirit may not seem so favourable to some of their Doctrines and Practices yet as interpreted by Tradition which can only give the true Sense of Scripture it agrees very well with them I suppose they mean that whereas a private Spirit would be apt to understand some Texts of Scripture as if People were to search and read the Scripture Tradition interprets those Texts in a quite other Sense that People are not to be permitted to read the Holy Scriptures A private Spirit would be apt to understand St. Paul's Discourse in the 14th of the 1st to the Corinthians to be against Celebrating Prayer and the Service of God in an unknown Tongue as being contrary to Edification and indeed to common Sense For he says If one should come and find them speaking and praying in an unknown Tongue will they not say Ye are mad But now Tradition which only knows how to give the true Sense can reconcile this Discourse of St. Paul very easily with the Practice of the Church of Rome in this matter And so likewise the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians with the Worship of Angels and the Epistle to the Hebrews with offering the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass a Thousand times every Day And to give but one Instance more Whereas a Man by his private Spirit would be very apt to understand the Second Commandment to forbid all Worship of Images Tradition discovers the meaning of this Commandment to be that due Veneration is to be given to them So that at this rate of interpreting Scripture by Tradition it is impossible to fix any Objection from Scripture upon any Doctrine or Practice which they have a mind to maintain Fourthly Whereas they pretend the Tradition of their Church delivered from the Mouth of Christ or dictated by the Holy Spirit and brought down to them and preserved by continnal Succession in the Church to be of equal Authority with the Word of God for so the Council of Trent says That the Holy Synod doth receive and venerate these Traditions with equal pious Affection and Reverence as they do the written Word of God This we must declare against as unreasonable in it self to make Tradition conveyed by Word of Mouth from one to another through so many Ages and liable to so many Mistakes and Miscarriages to be at the distance of 1500 Years of equal Certainty and Authority with the Holy Scriptures carefully preserved and transmitted down to us because this as I said before is to make common Rumor and Report of equal Authority and Certainty with a written Record And not only so but hereby they make the Scriptures an imperfect Rule contrary to the declared Judgment of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Christian Church and so in truth they set up a new Rule of Faith whereby they change the Christian Religion For a new Rule of Faith and Religion makes a new Faith and Religion This we charge the Church of Rome with and do challenge them to shew this new Rule of Faith before the Council of Trent and consequently where their Religion was before that Council to shew a Religion consisting of all those Articles which are defined by the Council of Trent as necessary to Salvation and established upon this new Rule professed by any Christian Church in the World before that time And as they have pitch'd upon a new Rule of Faith so it is easie to see to what End For take Pope Pius IV. his Creed and we may see where the Old and New Religion parts even at the end of the Twelve Articles of the Aplostles Creed which was the ancient Christian Faith to which are added in Pope Pius his Creed Twelve Articles more defined in the Council of Trent and supported only by Tradition So that as the Scripture answers for the Twelve old Articles which are plainly contained there so Tradition is to answer for the Twelve new ones And therefore the matter was calculated very exactly when they make Tradition just of equal Authority with the Scriptures because as many Articles of Their Faith were to be made good by it and rely upon it as those which are proved by the Authority of Scripture But that Tradition is of equal Authority with the Scriptures we have nothing in the whole World for it but the bare Assertion of the Council of Trent I should now have added some other Considerations tending to confirm and establish us in our Religion against the Pretences and Insinuations of Seducing Spirits But I shall proceed no farther at present The Tenth Sermon as number'd follows THere is a mistake in Numbering of these Sermons The Tenth should be called the Ninth and so on to the end For there are but Fifteen Sermons in this Volume and should be no more A SERMON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised THESE words contain an Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering and an Argument or Encouragement thereto because he is faithful that hath promised By the Exhortation to hold fast the
was discovered 3. The Decretal Epistles of the Ancient Popes a large Volume of Forgeries compiled by Isidore Mercator to countenance the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and of which the Church of Rome made great use for several Ages and pertinaciously defended the Authority of them till the Learned Men of their own Church have at last been forced for very shame to disclaim them and to confess the Imposture of them A like instance whereto is not I hope to be shewn in any Christian Church This is that which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slight of Men such as Gamesters use at Dice for to alledge false and forged Authors in this case is to play with false Dice when the Salvation of Mens Souls lie at stake 11. Our Religion hath this mighty advantage that it doth not decline Tryal and Examination which to any Man of ingenuity must needs appear a very good Sign of an honest Cause but if any Church be shy of having her Religion Examined and her Doctrines and Practices brought into the open light this gives just ground of Suspicion that she hath some distrust of them for Truth doth not seek corners nor shun the light Our Saviour hath told us who they are that love darkness rather than light viz. they whose deeds are Evil for every one saith he that doth Evil hateth the light neither cometh he to the light lest his deeds should be reproved and made manifest There needs no more to render a Religion suspected to a wise Man than to see those who profess it and make such proud boasts of the Truth and Goodness of it so fearful that it should be examin'd and lookt into and that their People should take the liberty to hear and read what can be said against it 12. We perswade Men to our Reliligion by Human and Christian ways such as our Saviour and his Apostles used by urging Men with the Authority of God and with Arguments fetcht from another World The promise of Eternal Life and Happiness and the threatning of Eternal death and Misery which are the proper Arguments of Religion and which alone are fitted to work upon the Minds and Consciences of Men the terror and torture of death may make Men Hypocrites and awe them to profess with their Mouths what they do not believe in their Hearts but this is no proper means of converting the Soul and convincing the Minds and Consciences of Men and these violent and cruel ways cannot be denyed to have been Practised in the Church of Rome and set on foot by the Authority of Councils and greatly countenanced and encouraged by Popes themselves Witness the many Croisades for the extirpation of Hereticks the standing Cruelties of their Inquisition their occasional Massacres and Persecutions of which we have fresh Instances in every Age. But these Methods of Conversion are a certain Sign that they either disturst the Truth and Goodness of their Cause or else that they think Truth and the Arguments for it are of no force when Dragoons are their Ratio ultima the last Reason which their Cause relies upon and the best and most effectual it can afford Again we hold no Doctrines in defiance of the Senses of all Mankind such as is that of Transubstantiation which is now declared in the Church of Rome to be a Necessary Article of Faith so that a Man cannot be of that Religion unless he will renounce his Senses and believe against the clear Verdict of them in a plain sensible matter but after this I do not understand how a Man can believe any thing because by this very thing he destroys and takes away the Foundation of all Certainty if any Man forbid me to believe what I see I forbid him to believe any thing upon better and surer Evidence St. Paul saith that Faith cometh by hearing but if I cannot rely upon the certainty of Sense then the means whereby Faith is conveyed is uncertain and we may say as St. Paul doth in another case Then is our Preaching vain and your Faith also is vain Lastly To mention no more particulars as to several things used and Practised in the Church of Rome we are on the much safer side if we should happen to be mistaken about them than they are if they should be mistaken for it is certainly Lawful to read the Scriptures and Lawful to permit to the People the use of the Scriptures in a known Tongue Otherwise we must condemn the Apostles and the Primitive Church for allowing this Liberty It is certainly Lawful to have the publick Prayers and Service of God celebrated in a Language which all that joyn in it can understand It is certainly Lawful to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to the People in both kinds otherwise the Christian Church would not have done it for a Thousand Years It is certainly Lawful not to Worship Images not to pray to Angels or Saints or the Blessed Virgin otherwise the Primitive Church would not have forborn these Practices for Three Hundred Years as is acknowledged by those of the Church of Rome Suppose a Man should pray to God only and offer up all his Prayers to him only by Jesus Christ without making mention of any other Mediator or Intercessor with God for us relying herein upon what the Apostle says concerning our High Priest Jesus the Son of God Heb. 7 25. That he is able to save them to the utmost who come unto God by him i. e. by his Mediation and Intercession since he ever liveth to make Intercession for them might not a Man reasonably hope to obtain of God all the Blessings he stands in need of by Addressing himself only to him in the Name and by the Intercession of that one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus Nay why may not a Man reasonably think that this is both a shorter and more effectual way to obtain our requests than by turning our selves to the Angels and Saints and importuning them to solicite God for us especially if we should order the matter so as to make ten times more frequent Addresses to these than we do to God and our Blessed Saviour and in comparison of the other to neglect these we cannot certainly think any more able to help us and do us good than the great God of Heaven and Earth the God as St. Paul styles him that heareth Prayers and therefore unto him should all flesh come We cannot certainly think any Intercessor so powerful and prevalent with God as his only and dearly beloved Son offering up our Prayers to God in Heaven by vertue of that most acceptable and invaluable Sacrifice which he offered to him on Earth we cannot surely think that there is so much Goodness any where as in God that in any of the Angels or Saints or even in the Blessed Mother of our Lord there is more Mercy and Compassion for Sinners and a tenderer sense of our Infirmities
than in the Son of God Who is at the right hand of his Father to appear in the Presence of God for us we are sure that God always hears the Petitions which we put up to him and so does the Son of God by whom we put them up to the Father because he also is God blessed for evermore But we are not sure that the Angels and Saints hear our Prayers because we are sure that they are neither Omniscient nor Omnipresent and we are not sure nor probably certain that our Prayers are made known to them any other way there being no Revelation of God to that purpose we are sure that God hath declared himself to be a jealous God and that he will not give his Honour to another and we are not sure but that Prayer is part of the Honour which is due to God alone and if it were not we can hardly think but that God should be so far from being pleased with our making so frequent use of those other Mediators and Intercessors and from granting our desires the sooner upon that account That on the contrary we have reason to think he should be highly offended when he himself is ready to receive all our Petitions and hath appointed a great Mediator to that purpose to see more Addresses made to and by the Angels and Saints and Blessed Virgin than to himself by his Blessed Son and to see the Worship of himself almost jostled out by the Devotion of People to Saints and Angels and the Blessed Mother of our Lord a thing which he never Commanded and which so far as appears by Scripture never came into his mind I have been the longer upon this matter to shew how unreasonable and needless at the best this more than half part of the Religion of the Church of Rome is and how safely it may be let alone But now on the other hand if they be mistaken in these things as we can demonstrate from Scripture they are the danger is infinitely great on that side for then they oppose an Institution of Christ who appointed the Sacrament to be received in both kinds and they involve themselves in a great danger of the guilt of Idolatry and our common Christianity in the scandal and reproach of it And this without any necessity since God hath required none of these things at our hands and after all the bustle which hath been made about them the utmost they pretend which yet they are not able to make good is that these things may Lawfully be done and at the same time they cannot deny but that if the Church had not enjoyned them they might Lawfully be let alone and can any thing be more unreasonable than so pertinaciously to insist upon things so hard I might say impossible to be defended or excused and which by their own acknowledgment are of no great weight and necessity in which we are certainly safe in not doing them if they should prove Lawful but if they do not prove so they are in a most dangerous condition so that here is certain safety on the one hand and the danger of damnation on the other which is as great odds as is possible And they must not tell us that they are in no danger because they are infallible and cannot be mistaken they must prove that point a great deal better than they have yet done before it can signifie any thing either to our Satisfaction or their Safety I might have insisted more largely upon each of these Particulars any one of which is of weight to incline a Man to that Religion which hath such an advantage on its side but all of them together makes so Powerful an Argument to an unprejudiced Person as must almost irresistably determine his choice for most of the Particulars are so evident that they cannot upon the very mention and proposal of them be denied to be clear Advantages on our side And now to use the words of St. Peter I testifie unto you that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand that the Reformed Religion which we profess and which by the goodness of God is by Law established in this Nation is the true Ancient Christianity the Faith which was at first delivered to the Saints and which is conveyed down to us in the Writings of the Apostles and the Evangelists of our Lord and Saviour Remember therefore how you have received and heard and hold fast for he is Faithful that hath promised which is the Second part of the Text the encouragement which the Apostle gives us to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering he is Faithful that hath promised to give us his Holy Spirit to lead us into all Truth to stablish strengthen and settle us in the Profession of it to support and comfort us under all Tryals and Temptations and to seal us up to the day of Redemption and he is faithful that hath promised to reward our constancy and fidelity to him and his Truth with a Crown of everlasting life and Glory Wherefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast and unmoveable and alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord for he is faithful that hath promised and let us provoke one another to Charity and Good Works which are the great Ornament and Glory of any Religion and so much the more because the day approacheth in which God will judge the belief and lives of Men by Jesus Christ not according to the imperious and uncharitable dictates of any Church but according to the Gospel of his Son To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Now the God of Peace which brought again from the Dead the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant make you Perfect in every good word and work working in you that which is pleasing in his Sight And the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your Hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. A SERMON 2 COR. V. 7. For we walk by Faith not by Sight IN the latter part of the former Chapter the Apostle declares what it was that was the great support of Christians under the Persecutions and Sufferings which befel them viz. the Assurance of a Blessed Resurrection to another life Verse 14. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus for which cause saith he verse 16. we faint not but though our outward Man perish our inward Man is renewed day by day that is though our Bodies by Reason of the Hardships and Sufferings which we undergo are continually decaying and declining yet our Minds grow every day more healthful and vigorous and gain new strength and resolution by contemplating the Glory and Reward of another World and as it were feeding upon
Jesus standing at the right hand of God with Crowns of Glory in his hands ready to be set upon the Heads of all those who continue faithful and obedient to him And why should I not be as much afraid to commit any Sin as if Hell were naked before me and I saw the astonishing Miseries of the Damned Thus we should by frequent Meditation represent these great things to our selves and bring them nearer to our Minds and oppose to the present temptations of Sense the great and endless Happiness and Misery of the other World And if we would but thus exercise our selves about the things which are not seen and make Eternity familiar to our selves by a frequent Meditation of it we should be very little moved with present and sensible things we should walk and live by Faith as the Men of the World do by Sense and be more serious and earnest in the Pursuit of our great and everlasting Interest than they are in the pursuit of Sensual Enjoyments and should make it the great Business of this present and temporal Life to secure a Future and Eternal Happiness A SERMON On HEB. X. 38. But if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him THE great Design of this Epistle whoever was the Author of it which I shall not now enquire into is plainly this to confirm the Jews who were but newly converted to Christanity in the stedfast Profession of that Faith which they had embraced and to arm them against that Temptation which Christians were then exposed to viz. the fierce and cruel Persecutions which threatned those of that Profession And to this purpose he represents to them the excellency of that Religion above any other former Revelation that God had made of himself to the World both in respect of the Author and Revealer of it who was the Son of God and in respect of the Revelatition it self which as it contains better and more perfect Directions of a good Life so likewise more powerful and effectual Motives thereto better Promises and more terible Threatnings than were annexed to the Observation of the Jewish Law or clearly and certainly discoverable by the Light of Nature From these Considerations he earnestly persuades them all along throughout this Epistle to continue constant in the Profession of this Faith and not to suffer themselves to be frighted out of it by the Terrour of Persecution Chap. 2. V. 1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard left at any time we should let them slip and Chap. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a Promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should come short of it and verse 23. of this Chapter Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering and to encourage them to constancy he sets before them the Glorious Rewards and Recompences of the Gospel Verse 35. Cast not away therefore your Confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your free and open Profession of Christianity which hath great Recompence of Reward And then on the other hand to deter them from Apostacy from this Profession he represents to them the horrible danger of it here in the Text But if any man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him I shall briefly explain the Words and then prosecute that which I mainly intended in them if any Man draw back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Words with the foregoing are cited out of the Prophet Habakkuk Chap. 2. Verse 3 4. and they are cited by the Apostle according to the Translation of the LXX which differs somewhat from the Hebrew and the difference ariseth from the various readings of the Hebrew Word which is rendered by the LXX to draw back but by the change of a Letter signifies to be lifted up as we render it in the Prophet but however that be the Apostle follows the Translation of the LXX and accommodates it to his Purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any Man draw back the Word signifies to keep back to withdraw to sneak and slink away out of fear to fail or faint in any Enterprize And thus this Word is rendered in the New Testament Acts 20. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did not with-hold or keep back any thing that was profitable for you and so it is said of St. Peter Gal. 2. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he slunk away or withdrew himself fearing them of the Circumcision and the Hebrew Word which is here rendered by the LXX to draw back is elsewhere rendered by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to fail or faint from all which it appears that by drawing back the Apostle here means Mens quitting their Profession of Christianity and slinking out of it for fear of suffering for it My Soul shall have no Pleasure in him These Words are plainly a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and less is said than is meant for the meaning is that God will be extreamly displeased with them and punish them very severely The like Figure to this you have Psal. 5. 4. Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness which in the next Verse is explained by his hatred and detestation of those who are guilty of it Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity So that the plain sense of the words is this that Apostasie from the profession of God's true Religion is a thing highly provoking to him and will be most severely punisht by him In speaking to this Argument I shall consider these four things I. The Nature of this sin of Apostasie from Religion II. The several steps and degrees of it III. The heinousness of it IV. The great danger of it and the terrible punishment it exposeth men to And when I have spoken to these I shall conclude all with a short Exhortation to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering I. We will consider the Nature of this sin of Apostasie from Religion and it consists in forsaking or renouncing the Profession of Religion whether it be by an open declaration in words or a virtual declaration of it by our actions for it comes all to one in the sight of God and the different manner of doing it does not alter the nature of the thing He indeed that renounceth Religion by an open declaration in words offers the greatest and boldest defiance to it but he is likewise an Apostate who silently withdraws himself from the profession of it who quits it for his interest or for fear disowns it and sneaks out of the Profession of it and forsakes the Communion of those who own it Thus Demas was an Apostate in quitting Christianity for some worldly interest Demas hath forsaken us having loved this present world saith St. Paul 2 Tim. 4. 10. And those whom our Saviour describes Mat. 13. 20 21. who receiv'd the word into stony ground were Apostates out of fear they heard the word and with joy receiv'd
and Terrors of Sense Our Faith and Hope have not their due and proper Influence upon us if they do not govern our Lives and Actions and make us stedfast in the Profession of our Holy Religion and in the Conscientious Practice of it St. Paul reason'd himself into this Holy Resolution from the Hopes of a blessed Resurrection Acts 24. 15 16. I have Hope says he toward God that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause therefore I exercise my self always to have a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. VI. And Lastly If we be Sojourners and Travellers in this World we should often think of our End and carefully mind the Way to it Our End is Everlasting Happiness and the direct Way to it is by a constant and sincere and universal Obedience to the Laws and Commandments of God And this in it self is so plain a way that a sincere and honest Man can hardly err in it And therefore we must not suffer our selves to be led and trained out of it upon any Pretence whatsoever not by the Wild-fire of pretended Illuminations and Enthusiasms nor by the confident Pretence of an Infallible Guide that will needs shew us another way and perswade us to follow him blindfold in it Let us not quit the Infallible Rule of God's Word to follow any Guide whatsoever If an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Doctrine and Way to Heaven let him be accursed He who is the Way and the Truth and the Life when he was consulted with about the Way to Eternal Happiness knew no other but this For when the Young Man ask'd him Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life His Answer was If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments 'T is true indeed that by reason of our corrupt Inclinations within and powerful Temptations without this Way especially at our first setting out is rugged and difficult So our Lord hath forewarned us telling us That strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth to Life and that there be few that find it Therefore we should strive to enter in take great Care and Pains to discern the Right Way and to overcome the Difficulties of our first Entrance into it and should often pray to God as David did Psalm 119. 19. I am a Stranger in the Earth hide not thy Commandments from me And Psalm 139. 23 24. Search me O God and know my Heart try me and know my Thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the Way Everlasting Thus if we would always have our End in our Eye it would both be a Direction to us in our Way and an Encouragement to quicken our Pace in it there being no more powerful Motive to a good Life than to be assured that if we have our Fruit unto Holiness our End shall be Everlasting Life FINIS ERRATA PAge 16. l. 26. r. Complement p. 28. l. 6. r. Nathanael p. 63. l. 20. after so dele p. 78. l. 19. r. Providence p. 80. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 88. l. 11. after Comparison put p. 97. l. 26. r. farther p. 98. l. 16. r. fared p. 104. l. 15. r. established p. 110. l. ult dele p. 130. l. 15. r. sleight p. 142. l. 13. r. against p. 292. l. 1. r. infinitely p. 295. l. 18. after Confession dele p. 298. l. 24. after World put l. ult after Men put a Full Point p. 299. l. 21. r. distrust p. 303. l. 9. after God put l. 11. after us put a Full Point p. 313. l. 8. r. sufficiently p. 426. l. 7. r. goes off BOOKS Printed for Richard Chiswell DR THOMAS TENISON now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his Sermon concerning Discretion in giving Alms. 1668. His Sermon against Self-love before the House of Commons 1689. His Sermon of doing Good to Posterity before Their Majesties 1690. His Sermon concerning the Wandring of the Mind in God's Service before the Queen Feb. 15. 1690. His Sermon of the Folly of Atheism before the Queen Feb. 22. 1690. His Sermon preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Clergy-mens Sons Decemb. 3. 1691. His Sermon concerning the Celestial Body of a Christian before the Queen on Easter-Day 1694. His Sermon concerning Holy Resolution before the King at Kensington Decemb. 30. 1694 on Psal. 119. 106. His Sermon at the Funeral of the Queen in the Abby-Church in Westminster March 5. 1694 5. Dr. BVRNET Lord Bishop of Sarum his Discourse of the Pastoral Care 8vo His Four Discourses delivered to the Clergy of the Diocess of Sarum Concerning I. The Truth of the Christian Religion II. The Divinity and Death of Christ. III. The Infallibility and Authority of the Church IV. The Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church 8vo 1694. His Sermon at the Funeral of Archbishop Tillotson 1694. His Sermon Preach'd before the King at St. James's Chappel on the 10th of February 1694 5 being the first Sunday in Lent on 2 Cor. 6. 1. Dr. PATRICK now Lord Bishop of Ely his Hearts-Ease or a Remedy against all Troubles With a Consolatory Discourse particularly directed to those who have lost their Friends and Relations To which is added two Papers printed in the time of the late Plague The sixth Edition corrected 12mo 1695. His Answer to a Book spread abroad by the Romish Priests Intituled The Touch-Stone of the Reformed Gospel wherein the true Doctrine of the Church of England and many Texts of the Holy Scripture are faithfully explained 8vo 1692. His Eight several occasional Sermons since the Revolution 4to His Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8vo A Vindication of their Majesty's Authority to fill the Sees of deprived Bishops In a Letter occasioned by Dr. B 's refusal of the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells 4to Rushworth's Historical Collections The Third Part in Two Volumes Containing the Principal Matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. to the end of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period Fol. 1692. The Letters of the Reverend Father Paul Counsellor of State to the most Serene Republick of Venice and Author of the Excellent History of the Council of Trent 1693. An Impartial History of the late Wars of Ireland In Two Parts From the time that Duke Schomberg landed with an Army in that Kingdom to the 23d of March 1692. when their Majesty's Proclamation was published declaring the War to be ended Illustrated with Copper Sculptures describing the most important Places of Action Written by George Story an Eye-witness of the most remarkable Passages 4to 1693. Dr. John Conant's Sermons Publish'd by Dr. Williams 1693. 8vo Of the Government of the Thoughts The Second Edition By Geo. Tully Sub-Dean of York 8vo 1694. Origo Legum Or A Treatise of the Origine of Laws and their Obliging Power as also of their great Variety and why some Laws are immutable and some not but may suffer change or cease to be or be suspended or abrogated In Seven Books By George Dawson Fol. 1694. A brief Discourse concerning the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common-Prayer in Answer to a Book intituled A Brief Discourse of the Vnlawfulness of Common-Prayer-Worship By John Williams D. D. 4to 1694. A true Representation of the absurd and mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the Name of Muggletonians 4to 1694. Memoirs of the most Reverend THOMAS CRANMER Archbishop of Canterbury Wherein the History of the Church and the Reformation of it during the Primacy of the said Archbishop are greatly illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now first published In Three Books Collected chiefly from Records Registers Authentick Letters and other Original Manuscripts By John Strype M. A. Fol. 1694. A Commentary on the First Book of Moses called Genesis By the Right Reverend Father in God Simon Lord Bishop of Ely 4to 1695. The History of the Troubles and Tryal of the Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM LAVD Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Wrote by himself during his Imprisonment in the Tower To which is prefixed the Diary of his own Life faithfully and entirely published from the Original Copy And subjoyned a Supplement to the preceding History the Arch-Bishop's Last Will His Large Answer to the Lord Say's Speech concerning Liturgies His Annual Accounts of his Province deliver'd to the King and some other Things relating to the History Publish'd by Henry Wharton Chaplain to Archbishop Sancroft Fol. The Possibility and Expediency and Necessity of Divine Revelation A Sermon preach'd at St. Martin's in the Fields January 7. 1694 5. at the beginning of the Lecture for the ensuing Year Founded by the Honourable Rob. Boyle Esq by John Williams D. D. The Certainty of Divine Revelation being his Second Sermon preach'd at the said Lecture Feb. 4. 1695. His Vindication of the Sermons of his Grace John Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and of the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Sermon on the Mysteries of the Christian Faith from the Exceptions of a late Socinian Book Intituled Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity To which is annexed a Letter from the Lord Bishop of Sarum to the Author of the said Vindication on the same Subject 1695. 4to Historia de Episcopis Decanis Londinensibus necnon de Episcopis Decanis Assavensibus à prima utriusque fundatione ad Annum MDXL. Accessit Appendix instrumentorum quorundam insignium duplex Autore Henrico Whartono A. M. 8vo 1695. An Essay on the Memory of the late QUEEN By Gilbert Bishop of Sarum 8vo Advertisement THere will be published several Sermons and Discourses of the most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury by order of his Administratrix faithfully transcribed from his own Papers by Dr. Ralph Barker Chaplain to his Grace Which are disposed of to Richard Chiswell and his Assigns If any Person Print any others except those published in the Author's Life-time they are to be look'd upon as Spurious and False And the Publishers will be proceeded against according to Law