Christian Religion will permit us to believe and hope well of them and rather be contented to err a little on the favourable and charitable part than to be mistaken on the censorious and damning side And for this reason perhaps it is that our B. Saviour thought fit to frame his Parables with so remarkable a Byass to the charitable side Partly to instruct us to extend our charity towards all Christian Churches and Professors of the Christian Religion and our good hopes concerning them as far as with reason we can And partly to reprove the uncharitableness of the Jews who positively excluded all the rest of Mankind besides themselves from all hopes of Salvation An odious temper which to the infinite Scandal of the Christian Name and Profession hath prevail'd upon some Christians to that notorious degree as not only to shut out all the Reform'd Part of the Western Church almost equal in number to themselves from all hopes of Salvation under the notion of Hereticks but likewise to un-church all the other Churches of the Christian World which are of much greater extent and number than themselves that do not own subjection to the Bishop of Rome And this they do by declaring it to be of necessity to Salvation for every Creature to be subject to the Roman Bishop And this Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over all Christian Churches Bellarmin calls the Sum of the Christian Religion So that the Roman Communion is plainly founded in Schism that is in the most unchristian and uncharitable Principle that can be namely that they are the only true Church of Christ out of which none can be saved which was the very Schism of the Donatists And in this they are so positive that the Learned men of that Church in their Disputes and Writings are much more inclinable to believe the Salvation of Heathens to be possible than of any of those Christians whom they are pleas'd to call Hereticks The Faith of the Church of Rome is certainly none of the best but of one of the greatest and most essential Vertues of the Christian Religion I mean Charity I doubt they have the least share of any Christian Church this day in the World Secondly I observe not from any particular circumstance but from the main Scope and design of this Parable How very apt a great part of Christians are to neglect this great concernment of their Souls viz a careful and due preparation for another World and how willing they are to deceive themselves in this matter and to depend upon any thing else how groundless and unreasonable soever rather than to take the pains to be really good and fit for Heaven And this is in a very lively manner represented to us in the description of the foolish Virgins who had provided no supply of Oyl in their Vessels and when the Bridegroom was coming would have furnish'd themselves by borrowing or buying of others vers 8 9 10. They contented themselves with having their Lamps lighted at their first setting out to meet the Bridegroom that is with their being admitted into the Profession of Christianity by Baptism but either were not stedfast in this Profession or were not careful to adorn it with the Graces and Vertues of a good life And the true Reason why men are so very apt to deceive themselves in this matter and are so hardly brought to those things wherein Religion mainly consists I mean the fruits of the Spirit and the practice of real Goodness I say the true reason of this is because they are extremely desirous to reconcile if it were possible the hopes of eternal happiness in another World with a liberty to live as they list in this present World They are loth to be at the trouble and drudgery of mortifying their lusts and governing their passions and bridling their tongues and practising all those duties which are comprehended in those two great Commandments of the Love of God and of our Neighbour They would fain gain the favour of God and make their calling and election sure by some easier way than by giving all diligence to add to their Faith and Knowledge the Graces and Vertues of a good life For the plain truth of the matter is men had rather that Religion should be any thing than what indeed it is viz the thwarting and crossing of their vicious inclinations the curing of their evil and corrupt affections the due care and government of their unruly appetites and passions the sincere endeavour and the constant practice of all holiness and virtue in their lives And therefore they had much rather have something that might handsomely palliate and excuse their evil inclinations and practices than to be obliged to retrench and renounce them and rather than amend and reform their wicked lives they would be contented to make an honourable amends and compensation to Almighty God in some other way This hath been the way and folly of Mankind in all ages to defeat the great end and design of Religion and to thrust it by by substituting something else in the place of it which as they think may serve the turn as well having the appearance of as much devotion and respect towards God and really costing them more money and pains than that which God requires of them Men have ever been apt thus to impose upon themselves and to please themselves with a conceit of pleasing God full as well or better by some other way than that which he hath prescribed and appointed for them By this means and upon this false Principle Religion hath ever been apt to degenerate both among Jews and Christians into external and little observances and into a great zeal for lesser things with a total neglect of the greater and weightier matters of Religion and in a word into infinite Superstitions of one kind or other and an arrogant conceit of the extraordinary righteousness and merit of these things In which some have proceeded to that height as if they could drive a strict bargain with God for eternal life and happiness and have treated Him in so insolent a manner by their Doctrine of the Merit of their Devotions and good Works as if God were as much beholden to them for their service and obedience as they are to Him for the reward of them which they are not afraid to say they may challenge at God's hands as of right and justice belonging to them Nay so far have they carried this Doctrine in the Church of Rome as not only to pretend to merit eternal life for themselves but likewise to do a great deal more for the benefit and advantage of others who have not righteousness and goodness enough of their own Which was the silly conceit of the foolish Virgins here in the Parable as I shall have occasion to shew more fully by and by And it is no great wonder that such easy ways of Religion and pleasing God are very grateful to the corrupt nature of Man
for their Friends and begin a new Score and from that time forwards may put the Surplusage of their good Works as a Debt upon God to be laid up in the Publick Treasury of the Church as so many Bills of Credit which the Pope by his Pardons and Indulgences may dispense and place to whose account he pleases And out of this Bank which is kept at Rome those who never took care to have any Righteousness of their own may be supplied at reasonable rates To which they have added a further supply of Grace if there should be any need of it by the Sacrament of extreme Vnction never heard of in the Christian Church for many Ages but devised as it were on purpose to furnish such foolish Virgins with Oyl as are here described in the Parable And thus by one Device or other they have enervated the Christian Religion to that degree that it hath almost quite lost its true virtue and efficacy upon the hearts and lives of men And instead of the real fruits of Goodness and Righteousness it produceth little else but Superstition and Folly or if it produce any real Virtues yet even the virtue of those Virtues is in a great measure spoil'd by their arrogant pretences of Merit and Super-erogation and is render'd insignificant to themselves by their insolent carriage and behaviour towards God Sixthly and lastly if we could suppose any Persons to be so overgrown with Goodness as to have more than needs to qualify them for the Reward of eternal Life yet there can be no assigning and transferring of this over-plus of Grace and Virtue from one man to another For we see that all the ways that could be thought on of begging or borrowing or buying Oyl of others did all prove ineffectual because the thing is in its own nature impracticable that one Sinner who owes all that he hath and much more to God should have any thing to spare wherewithal to merit for another Indeed our B. Saviour hath merited for us all the Reward of eternal Life upon the Conditions of Faith and Repentance and Obedience But the infinite Merit of his Obedience and Sufferings will be of no benefit and advantage to us if we our selves be not really and inherently righteous So St. John tells us and warns us to beware of the contrary Conceit Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous If we do sincerely endeavour to please God and to keep his commandments in the general course of a holy and virtuous Life the Merit of Christ's perfect Obedience and Sufferings will be available with God for the acceptance of our sincere though but imperfect Obedience But if we take no care to be righteous and good our selves the perfect righteousness of Christ will do us no good much less the imperfect righteousness of any other man who is a Sinner himself And the holiest man that ever was upon Earth can no more assign and make over his Righteousness or Repentance or any part of either to another that wants it than a man can bequeath his Wisdom or Learning to his Heir or his Friend No more than a sick man can be restored to Health by virtue of the Physick which another man hath taken Let no man therefore think of being good by a Deputy that cannot be contented to be happy and to be saved the same way that is to go to Hell and to be tormented there in Person and to go to Heaven and be admitted into that Place of Bliss only by Proxy So that these good Works with a hard name and the making over the Merit of them to others have no manner of foundation either in Scripture or Reason but are all mere Fancy and Fiction in Divinity The Inference from all this shall be the application which our Saviour makes of this Parable Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh as if he had said the design of this Parable is to instruct us that we ought to be continually vigilant and always upon our guard and in a constant readiness and preparation to meet the Bridegroom because we know not the time of his coming to Judgment nor yet which will be of the same consequence and concernment to us do any of us know the precise time of our own Death Either of these may happen at any time and come when we least expect them And therefore we should make the best and speediest provision that we can for another World and should be continually upon our watch and trimming our Lamps that we may not be surprized by either of these neither by our own particular Death nor by the general Judgment of the World Because the Son of man will come in a Day when we look not for Him and at an hour when we are not aware More particularly we should take up a present and effectual resolution not to delay our Repentance and the reformation of our Lives that we may not have that great Work to do when we are not fit to do any thing no not to dispose of our temporal Concernments much less to prepare for Eternity and to do that in a few moments which ought to have been the care and endeavour of our whole Lives That we may not be forced to huddle up an imperfect and I fear an insignificant Repentance and to do that in great haste and confusion which certainly does require our wisest and most deliberate thoughts and all the consideration in the world And we should provide store of Oil in our Vessels wherewith to supply our Lamps that they may burn bright to the last I mean we should improve the Grace which we received in Baptism by abounding in the fruits of the Spirit and in all the substantial Virtues of a good Life that so an entrance may be ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ By this means when we are called to meet the Bridegroom we shall not be put to those miserable and sharking shifts which the foolish Virgins were driven to of begging or borrowing or buying Oyl which will all fail us when we come to depend upon them And though the Dying man may make a hard shift to support himself with these false Comforts for a little while yet when the short Delusion is over which will be assoon as ever he is stepp'd into the other World he will to his everlasting confusion and trouble find the door of Heaven shut against him and that notwithstanding all his vast Treasure of Pardons and Indulgences which have cost him so much and are worth so little he shall never see the Kingdom of God And lastly we should take great care that we do not extinguish our Lamps by quitting the Profession of our Holy Religion upon any temptation of advantage or for fear of any loss or suffering whatsoever This Occasion will
for abstaining from Revenge and so far we are to forgive our Enemies even whilst they continue so and though they do not repent And not only so but we are also to pray for them and to do good offices to them especially of common Humanity and this is the meaning of the Precept in the Text. But sometimes Forgiveness does signify a perfect Reconciliation to those that have offended us so as to take them again into our Friendship which they are by no means fit for till they have repented of their Enmity and laid it aside And this is plainly the meaning of the other Text. 2. It is further objected That this seems to be a very imprudent thing and of dangerous consequence to our selves because by bearing one Injury so patiently and forgiving it so easily we invite more and not only tempt our Enemy to go on but others also by his Example to do the like Which will make ill natur'd Men to provoke us on purpose with a crafty design to wrest benefits from us For what better Trade can a man drive than to gain Benefits in exchange for Injuries To this I answer three things First It is to be feared that there are but few so very good as to make this kind return for Injuries Perhaps of those that call themselves Christians not one in a hundred And he is not a cunning man that will venture to make an Enemy when there is the odds of a hundred to one against him that this Enemy of his will take the first opportunity to take his Revenge upon him Secondly It is also on the other hand to be hoped that but very few are so prodigiously bad as to make so barbarous a return for the unexpected kindness of a generous Enemy And this is encouragement enough to the practice of this Duty if there be a probable hope that it will have a good effect and however if it should fall out otherwise yet this would not be reason enough to discourage our goodness especially since the kindness which we do to our Friends is liable almost to an equal Objection that they may prove ungrateful and become our Enemies it having been often seen that great Benefits and such as are beyond requital instead of making a man more a Friend have made him an Enemy Thirdly Our Saviour never intended by this Precept that our goodness should be blind and void of all prudence and discretion but that it should be so managed as to make our Enemy sensible both of his own fault and of our favour and so as to give him as little encouragement as there is reason for it to hope to find the like favour again upon the like provocation Our Saviour commands us to do the thing but hath left it to our prudence to do it in such a manner as may be most effectual both to reclaim the Offender and likewise to secure our selves against future and further Injuries 3. Lastly It is objected What can we do more to our best Friends than to love them and bless them than to do good to them and to pray for them And are we then to make no difference betwixt our Enemies and our Friends Yes surely and so we may notwithstanding this Precept For there are degrees of Love and there are Benefits of several rates and sizes Those of the first rate we may with reason bestow upon our Friends and with those of a second or third rate there is all the reason in the World why our Enemies should be very well contented Besides that we may abstain from Revenge yea and love our Enemy and wish him and do him good and yet it will not presently be necessary that we should take him into our bosom and treat and trust him as our intimate and familiar Friend For every one that is not our Enemy is not fit to be our Friend much less one that hath been our Enemy and perhaps is so still There must be a great change in him that hath been our Enemy and we must have had long experience of him before it will be fit if ever it be so to take him into our Friendship All that now remains is to make some Inferences from the Discourse which I have made upon this Argument by way of Application And they shall be these four I. If we think it so very difficult to demean our selves towards our Enemies as the Christian Religion doth plainly require us to do to forgive them and love them and pray for them and to do good offices to them then certainly it concerns us in prudence to be very careful how we make Enemies to our selves One of the first Principles of Humane Wisdom in the conduct of our Lives I have ever thought to be this To have a few intimate Friends and to make no Enemies if it be possible to our selves St. Paul lays a great stress upon this and presseth it very earnestly For after he had forbidden Revenge Recompence to no man evil for evil As if he were very sensible how hard a matter it is to bring men to this he adviseth in the next words to prevent if it be possible the occasions of Revenge If it be possible and as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men That is if we can avoid it have no Enmity with any man And that for two weighty Reasons The first I have already intimated because it is so very hard to behave our selves towards Enemies as we ought This we shall find to be a difficult Duty to Flesh and Blood and it will require great Wisdom and Consideration and Humility of Mind for a Man to bring down his Spirit to the Obedience of this Command For the fewer Enemies we have the less occasion will there be of contesting this hard Point with our selves And the other Reason is I think yet plainer and more convincing because Enemies will come of themselves and let a man do what he can he shall have some Friendship is a thing that needs to be cultivated if we would have it come to any thing but Enemies like ill Weeds will spring up of themselves without our care and toil The Enemy as our Saviour calls the Devil will sow these Tares in the night and when we least discern it will scatter the Seeds of Discord and Enmity among men and will take an advantage either from the Envy or the Malice or the Mistakes of Men to make them Enemies to one another Which would make one wonder to see what care and pains some men will take to provoke Mankind against them how they will lay about them and snatch at opportunities to make themselves Enemies as if they were afraid to let the happy occasion slip by them But all this care and fear surely is needless we may safely trust an ill natur'd World that we shall have Enemies enough without our doing things on our part to provoke and procure them But above all it concerns
God and That He will reward those that serve him Because unless a man do first believe these there would neither be ground nor encouragement for any such thing as Religion And this knowledge of the necessary Principles of Religion our B. Saviour calls eternal Life because it is so fundamentally necessary in order to our attaining of it This is life eternal says He to know thee the only true God and Him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ that is to be rightly instructed in the knowledge of the only true God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord Under which two general Heads are comprehended all the necessary Principles both of the Natural and of the Christian Religion And to the attaining of this knowledge which is absolutely necessary to Salvation no such extraordinary pains and study is requir'd but only a teachable disposition and a due application of mind For whatever in Religion is necessary to be known by all must in all reason be plain and easie and lye level to all capacities otherwise we must say that God who would have all men to be saved hath not provided for the Salvation of all men And therefore now that the knowledge of the true God and the light of Christianity are shed abroad in the world all that enjoy the Gospel are or may be sufficiently instructed in all things necessary to their happiness unless such care be used as is in the Church of Rome to take away the key of knowledge and to lock up the Scriptures from the People in an unknown Tongue and this as they pretend upon a very charitable consideration only it is to be hop'd that it is not true that the generality of Mankind are mad and have need to be kept in the dark But supposing men to be allowed those means of knowledg which God affords and hath appointed for us the great difficulty doth not commonly lie in mens Understandings but in their Wills Only when men know these things they must attend to them and consider them that the light which is in their Understandings may warm their Hearts and have its due influence upon their Lives II. The due care of our Souls consists in the frequent Examination of our lives and actions and in a sincere Repentance for all the errors and miscarriages of them In a more particular and deep humiliation and repentance for deliberate and wilful sins so far as we can call them to our remembrance and in a general repentance for sins of Ignorance and Infirmity and Surprize In the exercise whereof we are always to remember that the nature of true Repentance doth not consist only in an humble confession of our sins to God and a hearty trouble and contrition for them but chiefly in the stedfast purpose and resolution of a better life and in prosecution of this resolution in actual reformation and amendment By the constant exercise hereof we are put into a safe condition provided that we persevere in this holy resolution and course But if we still retain the love and practice of any known sin or if after we have taken up these good resolutions we return again to an evil course this is a clear evidence either that our Repentance was not sincere at first or that we are relaps'd into our former state And then our Souls are still in apparent danger of being lost and will continue in that dangerous state till we have renew'd our Repentance and made it good in the following course of our lives III. The due care of our Souls consists in the constant and daily exercise of piety and devotion both in private and in publick if there be opportunity for it especially at proper times and upon more solemn occasions By fervent prayer to God and by hearing and reading the Word of God with reverence and godly fear By frequenting his publick Worship and demeaning our selves in it with that solemnity and seriousness which becomes the presence and service of the great and glorious Majesty of God who observes our behaviour and sees into our hearts And by receiving the B. Sacrament as often as we have opportunity with due preparation and devotion of mind For these are not only outward testimonies of our inward piety but they are means likewise appointed by God to improve and confirm us in holiness and goodness And whoever neglects these Duties of Religion or performs them in a flight and superficial manner doth plainly shew that he hath neither a due sense of God nor care of himself For in vain does any man pretend that he does in good earnest design the End when he neglects the best and most proper means for the attainment of it IV. The due care of our Souls consists also in avoiding those things which are pernicious to our Salvation and whereby men do often hazard their Souls Such in general is the practice of any known Sin By this we do as it were run upon the swords point and do endanger our Salvation as much as a deep wound in our Body would do our Life And tho such a wound may perhaps be cur'd afterwards by Repentance yet no man that commits any wilful Sin knows the dismal consequence of it and whither by degrees it may carry him at last For upon such a provocation God may leave the Sinner to himself and withdraw his grace from him and give him up to a hard and impenitent heart to proceed from evil to worse and from one wickedness to another till he be finally ruin'd So dangerous a thing is it knowingly to offend God and to commit any deliberate act of Sin More particularly an inordinate love of the World is very pernicious to the Souls of men because it quencheth the heavenly life and fills our minds with earthly cares and designs it tempts men to forsake God and Religion when their worldly interests come in competition with them and betrays them to fraud and falshood and all kind of injustice and many other hurtful lusts which drown the Soul in perdition But besides these dangers which are more visible and apparent there is another which is less discernible because it hath the face of Piety and that is Faction in Religion By which I mean an unpeaceable and uncharitable zeal about things wherein Religion either doth not at all or but very little consist For besides that this temper is utterly inconsistent with several of the most eminent Christian Graces and Vertues as humility love peace meekness and forbearance towards those that differ from us it hath likewise two very great mischiefs commonly attending upon it and both of them pernicious to Religion and the Souls of men First that it takes such men off from minding the more necessary and essential parts of Religion They are so zealous about small things the tithing of mint and anise and cummin that they neglect the weightier things of the Law Faith and Mercy and Judgment and the Love of God They spend so much
of their time and heat about things doubtful that they have no leisure to mind the things that are necessary And are so concern'd about little Speculative Opinions in Religion which they always call fundamental Articles of Faith that the Practice of Religion is almost wholly neglected by them And they are so taken up in spying out and censuring Error and Heresy in others that they never think of curing those Lusts and Vices and Passions which do so visibly reign in themselves Deluded people that do not consider that the greatest Heresy in the World is a wicked life because it is so directly and fundamentally opposite to the whole design of the Christian Faith and Religion And that do not consider that God will sooner forgive a man a hundred defects of his Understanding than one fault of his Will Secondly Another great mischef which attends this temper is that men are very apt to interpret this zeal of theirs against others to be great Piety in themselves and as much as is necessary to bring them to Heaven and to think that they are very Religious because they keep a great stir about maintaining the Out-works of Religion when it is ready to be starv'd within and that there needs no more to denominate them good Christians but to be of such a Party and to be listed of such a Church which they always take for granted to be the only true one and then zealously to hate and uncharitably to censure all the rest of Mankind How many are there in the World that think they have made very sure of Heaven not by the old plain way of leaving their sins and reforming their lives but by a more close and cunning way of carrying their Vices along with them into another Church and calling themselves good Cathliques and all others Heretiques And that having done this they are in a safe condition as if a mere Name would admit a man into Heaven or as if there were any Church in the World that had this phantastical Privilege belonging to it that a wicked man might be saved for no other reason but because he is of it Therefore as thou valuest thy Soul take heed of engaging in any Faction in Religion because it is an hundred to one but thy zeal will be so employed about lesser things that the main and substantial parts of Religion will be neglected Besides that a man deeply engag'd in heats and controversies of this nature shall very hardly escape being possess'd with that Spirit of uncharitableness and contention of peevishness and fierceness which reigns in all Factions but more especially in those of Religion V. The due care of our Souls consists in the even and constant practice of the several Graces and Vertues of a good life or as the Apostle expresseth it in exercising our selves always to have a conscience void of offence towards God and men For herein is Religion best seen in the equal and uniform practice of every part of our Duty Not only in serving God devoutly but in demeaning our selves peaceably and justly kindly and charitably towards all men Not only in restraining our selves from the outward act of sin but in mortifying the inward inclination to it in subduing our Lusts and governing our Passions and bridling our Tongues As he that would have a prudent care of his health and life must not only guard himself against the chief and common diseases which are incident to men and take care to prevent them but must likewise be careful to preserve himself from those which are esteemed less dangerous but yet sometimes do prove mortal He must not only endeavour to secure his Head and Heart from being wounded but must have a tender care of every part there being hardly any disease or wound so slight but that some have dyed of it In like manner the care of our Souls consists in an universal regard to our Duty and that we be defective in no part of it Though we ought to have a more especial regard to those Duties which are more considerable and wherein Religion doth mainly consist as Piety towards God Temperance and Chastity in regard of our selves Charity towards the poor Truth and Justice Goodness and Kindness towards all men But then no other Grace and Vertue though of an inferiour rank ought to be neglected by us And thus I have endeavour'd as plainly and briefly as I could to declare to you in what Instances the due care of Religion and our Souls doth chiefly consist And I would not have any man think that all this is an easy business and requires but little time to do it in and that a small degree of diligence and industry will serve for this purpose To master and root out the inveterate Habits of Sin to bring our Passions under the command and government of our Reason and to attain to a good degree of every Christian Grace and Vertue That Faith and Hope and Charity Humility and Meekness and Patience may all have their perfect work and that as St. James says we may be perfect and entire wanting nothing nothing that belongs to the perfection of a good man and of a good Christian And this whenever we come to make the trial we shall find to be a great and a long work Some indeed would make Religion to be a very short and easy business and to consist only in believing what Christ hath done for us and relying confidently upon it Which is so far from being the true Notion of Christian Faith that if I be not much mistaken it is the very Definition of Presumption For the Bible plainly teacheth us that unless our Faith work by Charity and purify our hearts and reform our lives unless like Abraham's Faith it be perfected by works it is but a dead Faith and will in no wise avail to our Justification and Salvation And our B. Saviour the great Author and finisher of our Faith hath no where that I know of said one word to this purpose That Faith separated from obedience and a good life will save any man But He hath said very much to the contrary and that very plainly For he promiseth Blessedness to none but those who live in the practice of those Christian Graces and Vertues which are particularly mention'd by Him in the beginning of his excellent Sermon upon the Mount of Humility and Repentance and Meekness and Righteousness and Mercifulness and Purity and Peaceableness and Patience under persecution and sufferings for Righteousness sake And afterwards in the same Sermon Not every one saith He that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in heaven And again Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a Rock And afterwards He tells us that whosoever builds his hopes of eternal happiness upon any other
to be better inform'd A proud and conceited temper of mind is very likely to run into mistakes because pride and fulness of a man's self does keep out knowledge and obstructs all the passages by which wisdom and instruction should enter into men Besides that it provokes God to abandon men to their own follies and mistakes for God resisteth the proud but the meek will he guide in judgment and will give more grace and wisdom to the humble When men are once come to this to think themselves wiser than their Teachers and to despise and cast off their Guides no wonder if then they go astray Lastly Let us be sure to mind that which is our plain and unquestionable duty the great things of Religion wherein the life and substance of it doth consist and the things likewise which make for peace and whereby we may edify one another And let us not suffer our disputes about lesser matters to prejudice and hinder our main duty But let it be our great care not to fail in those greater things which are comprehended under the two great Commandments of the Law the Love of God and of our Neighbour Let us be strict and constant in our piety and devotion towards God chast and temperate in reference to our selves just and honest kind and charitable humble and meek patient and peaceable towards all men submissive and obedient to our Superiours Natural Civil and Spiritual A due regard to these great Vertues of the Christian life is the way to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men And surely the best means to have our doubts cleared about matters of lesser moment in Religion is heartily to set about the practice of the great and unquestionable Duties of it So our Blessed Saviour hath assur'd us that if any man will do the will of God he shall know of his Doctrine whether it be of God I come now in the VI th and Last place to consider the great Motive and Encouragement to this conscientious care of our Lives and Actions which St. Paul here tells us was his belief of a Resurrection and of the Rewards and Punishments consequent upon it I have hope says he towards God that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust For this cause therefore I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men If we believe the Resurrection of the dead and a future Judgment we ought to be very careful to discharge a good Conscience now in order to the rendring of a good Account hereafter that we may be sincere and without offence with respect to the day of Christ as the Apostle expresseth it For when that great Day of Recompences shall come we shall most assuredly find that nothing will then raise our hearts and make us to lift up our heads with joy like the witness of a good Conscience And therefore we should make that our constant care and companion now which will then be our great comfort and rejoycing a good Conscience and the testimony of it that in all simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world And on the contrary when we come to appear before the Great Judge of the World nothing will fill our minds with so much terrour and our faces with so much confusion as the clamorous accusations of a guilty Conscience which will be more than a thousand witnesses against us and will anticipate our condemnation and pass almost as severe a Sentence upon us as the Judge himself can This is that which will make the sinner to droop and to hang down his head for ever And one of the principal ingredients of his misery and torment will be the perpetual regret and remorse of his own mind for his wilful wickedness and folly which will kindle a fire within him as hot as that without him and as hard to be quench'd This consideration ought to have a mighty Operation upon us to make us very careful to have Consciences void of offence now that they may be free from torment and anguish hereafter That when we shall come into the other World we may not be eternally displeas'd with our selves and enrag'd at our own doings but may carry with us thither Consciences clear of all guilt either by Innocency or by Repentance The firm belief of a future state of eternal Happiness or misery in another World is the great weight or spring that sets a going those two powerful Principles of humane Activity the Hopes and the Fears of men and is in its Nature so fitted to raise these Passions to that degree that did not experience shew us the contrary one would think it morally impossible for humane Nature to resist the mighty force of it All men are sensible more or less at one time or other of the true force of these Arguments but the mischief is that in some persons they work quite the wrong way and instead of leading men to Repentance they drive them to Infidelity They cannot deny the force of these Arguments if they were true but that they may avoid the force of them they will not believe them to be true And so far they are in the right that granting these things to be true they cannot but acknowledge that they ought to live otherwise than they do But here is their fatal miscarriage that being resolv'd upon an evil course since they cannot reconcile their practice with such Principles as these they will fit their Principles to their practice and so they will believe nothing at all of the Rewards and Punishments of another World lest this should disturb them in their course Vain men as if Heaven and Hell must needs vanish and disappear because some witty but wicked men have no mind to believe them These men are Infidels in their own defence and merely for the quiet of their own minds that their Consciences may not perpetually rate them and fly in their faces For a right belief and an evil Conscience are but unsuitable companions they are quarrelsome Neighbours and must needs live very uneasily by one another He that believes the Principles of Religion and yet is conscious to himself that he hath liv'd contrary to them and still continues to do so how can he possibly have any peace and quiet in his mind unless like Jonah he can sleep in a storm and his conscience be as it were seared with a hot iron For if his Conscience be awake and in any degree sensible the evident danger of eternal ruine continually hanging over him must in reason either drive him to repentance or to despair If so forcible and violent an Argument can make no impression upon us we are stupid and bewitch'd we are lost and undone we are wretched and miserable for ever But besides the future Reward of a holy and conscientious course which is unspeakable and full of glory it hath also this
every man in prudence to take great care not to make personal Enemies to himself for these are the sorest and the surest of all other and when there is an opportunity for it will sit hardest upon us Injuries done to the Publick are certainly the greatest and yet they are many times more easily forgiven than those which are done to particular Persons For when Revenge is every bodies work it may prove to be no bodies The general Wrongs which are done to Humane Society do not so sensibly touch and sting men as personal Injuries and Provocations The Law is never angry or in passion and it is not only a great indecency but a fault when the Judges of it are so Heat of Prosecution belongs to particular Persons and it is their memory of Injuries and desire to Revenge them and diligence to set on and sharpen the Law that is chiefly to be dreaded And if the truth were known it is much to be fear'd that there are almost as few private as publick Acts of Oblivion pass'd in the World and they commonly pass as slowly and with as much difficulty and not till the grace and good effect of them is almost quite lost II. Secondly If we ought to be thus affected towards our Enemies how great ought our kindness and the expressions of it to be to others To those who never disobliged us nor did us any Injury by word or deed to those more especially who stand in a nearer relation to us to our natural Kindred and to our spiritual Brethren to whom we are so strongly link'd and united by the common Bond of Christianity and lastly to our Benefactors and those who have been before-hand with us in obligation For all these are so many special Ties and Endearments of men to one another founded either in Nature or Religion or in common Justice and Gratitude And therefore between all these and our Enemies we ought to make a very wide and sensible difference in our Carriage and Kindness towards them And if we do not do so we represent our Saviour as an unreasonable Lawgiver and do perversly interpret this Precept of his contrary to the reasonable and equitable meaning of it For whatever degree of Kindness is here required towards our Enemies it is certain that so much more is due to others as according to the true proportion of our tie and obligation to them they have deserved at our hands nothing being more certain than that our Blessed Saviour the Founder of our Religion did never intend by any Precept of it to cancel any real Obligation of Nature or Justice or Gratitude or to offer Violence in the least to the common Reason of Mankind III. Thirdly Hence we learn the excellency and the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion which hath carried our Duty so high in things which do so directly tend to the Perfection of Humane Nature and to the Peace of Humane Society and which if all things be rightly consider'd are most agreeable to the clearest and best Reason of Mankind So that those things which were heretofore look'd upon and that only by some few of the wiser sort as Heroical Instances of Goodness and above the common rate of Humanity are now by the Christian Religion made the indispensable Duties of all Mankind And the Precepts of no other Religion that ever yet appeared in the World have advanced Humane Nature so much above it self and are so well calculated for the Peace and Happiness of the World as the Precepts of the Christian Religion are for they strictly forbid the doing of Injuries by way of prevention and in case they happen they endeavour to put a present stop to the progress of them by so severely forbidding the revenging of them And yet after all this it must be acknowledg'd to be a very untoward Objection against the Excellency and the Efficacy of the Christian Religion that the Practice of so many Christians is so unequal to the Perfection of these Precepts For who is there in the Changes and Revolutions of Humane Affairs and when the Wheel of Providence turns them uppermost and lays their Enemies at their Feet that will give them any Quarter Nay that does not greedily seize upon the first opportunities of Revenge and like an Eagle hungry for his Prey make a sudden stoop upon them with all his force and violence and when he hath them in his Pounces and at his Mercy is not ready to tear them in pieces So that after all our Boasts of the Excellency of our Religion where is the practice of it This I confess is a terrible Objection indeed and I must intreat of you my Brethren to help me to the best Answer to it Not by any nice Distinctions and Speculations about it but by the careful and honest Practice of this Precept of our Religion This was the old Objection against Philosophy that many that were Philosophers in their Opinions were faulty in their Lives But yet this was never thought by wise men to be a good Objection against Philosophy And unless we will lay more weight upon the Objections against Religion and press them harder than we think it reasonable to do in any other Case we must acknowledge likewise that this Objection against Religion is of no force Men do not cast off the Art of Physick because many Physicians do not live up to their own Rules and do not themselves follow those Prescriptions which they think fit to give to others and there is a plain reason for it because their swerving from their own Rules doth not necessarily signify that their Rules are not good but only that their Appetites are unruly and too hard and headstrong for their Reason Nothing being more certain than this That Rules may be very reasonable and yet they that give them may not follow them IV. The fourth and last Inference from this whole Discourse shall be this That being convinced by what hath been said upon this Argument of the Reasonableness of this Duty we would resolve upon the Practice of it when ever there is occasion offer'd for it in the course of our Lives I need not to put you in mind that there is now like to be great occasion for it I shall only say that whenever there is so nothing can be tied more strictly upon us than this Duty is It hath often been a great Comfort and Confirmation to me to see the Humanity of the Protestant Religion so plainly discovering it self upon so many occasions in the practice of the Professours of it And setting aside all other advantages which our Religion hath been evidently shewn to have above Popery in point of Reason and Argument I cannot for my life but think that to be the best Religion which makes the best Men and from the nature of its Principles is apt to make them so most kind and merciful and charitable and most free from Malice and Revenge and Cruelty And therefore our
over let us say Peace be within thee For the House of the Lord our God for the sake of our Holy Religion and of that excellent Church whereof we all are or ought to be Members let every one of us say I will seek thy good And what greater good can we do to the best Religion how can we better serve the interest of it in all parts of the World than by being at peace and unity among our selves here in England upon whom the eyes of all the Protestants abroad are fixed as the Glory of the Reformation and the great bulwark and support of it That so under the Providence of Almighty God and the conduct of two such excellent Princes as He hath now bless'd us withal The One so brave and valiant and Both of them so wise so good so religious we may at last arrive at a firm establishment and become like mount Zion that cannot be moved the perfection of Beauty and Strength and the admiration and joy of the whole Earth which God of his infinite goodness grant for his mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory dominion and power thanksgiving and praise both now and ever Amen A Conscience void of Offence towards God and Men. IN A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL February the 27 th 1690 1. A Conscience void of Offence towards God and Men. ACTS xxiv 16 And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men THese words are part of the Defence which St. Paul made for himself before Faelix the Roman Governour In which he first of all vindicates himself from the charge of Sedition ver 12. They neither found me in the Temple disputing with any man neither raising up the People neither in the Synagogue nor in the City that is they could not charge him with making any disturbance either in Church or State After this he makes a free and open profession of his Religion ver 14. But this I confess that after the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Here he declares the Scriptures to be the Rule of his Faith in opposition to the Oral Tradition of the Pharisees More particularly he asserts the Doctrine of the Resurrection which was a principal Article both of the Jewish and the Christian Religion ver 15. And I have hope also towards God that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and the unjust And having made this declaration of his Faith he gives an account of his Life in the words of the Text ver 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in this work do I employ my self or as others render it in the mean time whilst I am in this World or as others I think most probably for this cause and reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this reason because I believe a Resurrection therefore have I a conscientious care of my life and all the actions of it The Discourse I intend to make upon these words shall be comprized in these following Particulars I. Here is the extent of a good man's pious practice to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men II. Here is his constancy and perseverance in this course to have always a conscience void of offence III. Here is his earnest care and endeavour to this purpose I exercise my self IV. Here is the principle and immediate Guide of his Actions which St. Paul here tells us was his Conscience V. I shall lay down some Rules and Directions for the keeping of a good Conscience VI. Here is the great motive and encouragement to this which St. Paul tells us was the belief of a Resurrection and of a future State of Rewards and Punishments consequent upon it for this cause because I hope for a Resurrection both of the just and unjust I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men I shall speak but briefly to the three first of these Particulars that I may be larger in the rest I. Here is the extent of a good man's pious practice It hath regard to the whole compass of his Duty as it respects God and Man I exercise my self says St. Paul to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men And this distribution of our Duty under these two general Heads is very frequent in Scripture The Decalogue refers our Duty to these two Heads And accordingly our Saviour comprehends the whole Duty of Man in those two great Commandments the love of God and of our Neighbour Matth. 22.38 Vpon these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets that is all the Moral Precepts which are dispers'd up and down in the Law and the Prophets may be referr'd to these two general Heads II. Here is his constancy and perseverance in this course St. Paul says that he exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continually at all times in the whole course of his life We must not only make conscience of our ways by fits and starts but in the general course and tenour of our lives and actions without any balks and intermissions There are some that will refrain from grosser Sins and be very strict at some Seasons as during the Time of a Solemn Repentance and for some days before they receive the Sacrament and perhaps for a little while after it And when these devout Seasons are over they let themselves loose again to their former lewd and vitious course But Religion should be a constant frame and temper of mind discovering it self in the habitual course of our lives and actions III. Here is likewise a very earnest care and endeavour to this purpose Herein do I exercise my self says St. Paul The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here render'd exercise is a word of a very intense signification and does denote that St. Paul applied himself to this business with all his care and might and that he made it his earnest study and endeavour And so must we we must take great care to understand our duty and to be rightly informed concerning good and evil that we may not mistake the nature of things and call good evil and evil good We must apply our minds in good earnest to be thoroughly instructed in all the parts of our Duty that so we may not be at a loss what to do when we are call'd to the practice of it And when we know our Duty we must be true and honest to our selves and very careful and conscientious in the discharge and performance of it I proceed in the IV th
found that which gave more joy and gladness to his heart the favour of God and the light of his countenance This gave perfect rest and tranquillity to his mind so that he needed not to enquire any further For so it follows in the next words I will both lay me down in peace and rest for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety The Hebrew word signifies confidence or security Here and no-where else his mind found rest and was in perfect ease and security I shall now only make two or three Inferences from this Discourse and so conclude First This plainly shews us the great unreasonableness and folly of Atheism which would banish the belief of God and his Providence out of the World Which as it is most impious in respect of God so is it most malicious to Men because it strikes at the very foundation of our happiness and perfectly undermines it For if there were no God Man would evidently be the most unhappy of all other Beings here below because his unhappiness would be laid in the very frame of his nature in that which distinguishes him from all other Beings below him I mean in his Reason and Understanding And he would be so much more miserable than the Beasts by how much he hath a farther reach and a larger prospect of future evils a quicker apprehension and a deeper and more lasting resentment of them So that if any man could see reason to stagger his belief of a God or of his Providence as I am sure there is infinite reason to the contrary yet the belief of these things is so much for the interest and comfort and happiness of Mankind that a Wise man would be heartily troubled to part with a Principle so favourable to his quiet and that does so exactly answer all the natural desires and hopes and fears of Men and is so equally calculated both for our comfort in this World and for our happiness in the other For when a man's thoughts have ranged and wandered as far as they can his mind can find no rest no probable foundation of happiness but God only no other reasonable no nor tolerable Hypothesis and Scheme of things for a Wise man to rely upon and to live and die by For no other Principle but this firmly believed and truly lived up to by an answerable practice was ever able to support the generality of Mankind and to minister true consolation to them under the calamities of life and the pangs of death And if there were not something real in the Principles of Religion it is impossible that they should have so remarkable and so regular an effect to support our minds in every condition upon so great a number of persons of different degrees of understanding of all ranks and conditions young and old learned and unlearned in so many distant Places and in all Ages of the World the Records whereof are come down to us I say so real and so frequent and so regular an effect as this is cannot with any colour of reason be ascribed either to blind Chance or meer Imagination but must have a real and regular and uniform cause proportionable to so great and general an effect I remember that Grotius in his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion hath this observation That God did not intend that the Principles of Religion should have the utmost evidence that any thing is capable of and such as is sufficient to answer and bear down all sorts of captious Cavils and Objections against it but so much as is abundantly sufficient to satisfie a sober and impartial Enquirer after Truth one that hath no other interest but to find out Truth and when he hath found it to yield to it If it were otherwise and the Principles of Religion were as glaring and evident as the Sun shining at Noon-day as there could hardly be any vertue in such a Faith so Infidelity would be next to an impossibility All that I would expect from any man that shall say that he cannot see sufficient reason to believe the Being and the Providence of God is this That he would offer some other Principles that he would advance any other Hypothesis and Scheme of things that is more agreeable to the common and natural Notions of Men and to all Appearances of things in the World and that does bid more fairly for the comfort and happiness of Mankind than these Principles of the Being of a God and of his watchful Providence over the children of men do plainly do And till this be clearly done the Principles of Religion which have generally been received by Mankind and have obtain'd in the World in all Ages cannot fairly be discarded and ought not to be disturbed and put out of Possession And this I think puts this whole matter upon a very fair and reasonable Issue and that nothing more needs to be said concerning it Secondly From what hath been said in the foregoing Discourse it naturally follows That God is the only Object of our trust and confidence and therefore to him alone and to no other we ought to address all our Prayers and Supplications for mercy and grace to help in time of need But now according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome the Psalmist here puts a very odd and strange Question Whom have I in Heaven but thee To which they must give a quite different answer from what the Psalmist plainly intended namely that God was the sole Object of his hope and trust and that upon Him alone he relied as his only comfort and happiness But to this Assertion of the Psalmist the Church of Rome can by no means agree They understand this matter much better than the Psalmist did namely that besides God there are in Heaven innumerable Angels and Saints in whom we are to repose great trust and confidence and to whom also we are to address solemn Prayers and Supplications not only for temporal good things but for the pardon of our Sins for the increase of our Graces and for eternal Life That there are in Heaven particular Advocates and Patrons for all exigencies and occasions against all sorts of dangers and diseases for all Graces and Vertues and in a word for all temporal spiritual and eternal Blessings to whom we may apply our selves without troubling God and our Blessed Saviour who also is God blessed for evermore by presuming upon every occasion to make our immediate Addresses to Him For as they would make us believe though Abraham was ignorant of it and David knew it not the blessed Spirits above both Angels and Saints do not only intercede with God for us for all sorts of Blessings but we may make direct and immediate Addresses to them to bestow these Blessings upon us For so they do in the Church of Rome as is evident beyond all denial from several of their Prayers in their most publick and authentick Liturgies They would
a great deal more in Innocence And the more any man considers this the truer he will find it and when-ever we are serious we our selves cannot but acknowledge it When a man examines himself impartially before the Sacrament or is put in mind upon a Death-bed to make reparation for Injuries done in this kind he will then certainly be of this mind and wish he had not done them For this certainly is one necessary qualification for the Blessed Sacrament that we be in love and charity with our neighbours with which temper of mind this quality is utterly inconsistent Thirdly There is yet a more specious Plea than either of the former that men will be encouraged to do ill if they can escape the tongues of men as they would do if this Doctrine did effectually take place Because by this means one great restraint from doing evil would be taken away which these good men who are so bent upon reforming the World think would be great pity For many who will venture upon the displeasure of God will yet abstain from doing bad things for fear of reproach from Men Besides that this seems the most proper punishment of many Faults which the Laws of Men can take no notice of Admitting all this to be true yet it does not seem so good and laudable a way to punish one Fault by another But let no man encourage himself in an evil way with this hope that he shall escape the censure of men When I have said all I can there will I fear be evil-speaking enough in the World to chastise them that do ill And though we should hold our peace there will be bad tongues enow to reproach men with their evil-doings I wish we could but be persuaded to make the Experiment for a little while whether men would not be sufficiently lash'd for their Faults though we sate by and said nothing So that there is no need at all that good Men should be concern'd in this odious Work There will always be Offenders and Malefactors enow to be the Executioners to inflict this punishment upon one another Therefore let no man presume upon Impunity on the one hand and on the other let no man despair but that this business will be sufficiently done one way or other I am very much mistaken if we may not safely trust an ill-natur'd World that there will be no failure of Justice in this kind And here if I durst I would fain have said a word or two concerning that more publick sort of Obloquy by Lampoons and Libels so much in fashion in this witty Age. But I have no mind to provoke a very terrible sort of men Yet thus much I hope may be said without offence that how much soever men are pleas'd to see others abused in this kind yet it is always grievous when it comes to their own turn However I cannot but hope that every man that impartially considers must own it to be a fault of a very high nature to revile those whom God hath placed in Authority over us and to slander the footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed Especially since it is so expressly written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy People Having represented the great evil of this Vice it might not now be improper to say something to those who suffer by it Are we guilty of the evil said of us Let us reform and cut off all occasions for the future and so turn the malice of our Enemies to our own advantage and defeat their ill intentions by making so good an use of it And then it will be well for us to have been evil spoken of Are we innocent We may so much the better bear it patiently imitating herein the Pattern of our Blessed Saviour Who when he was reviled reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously We may consider likewise that though it be a misfortune to be evil-spoken of it is their fault that do it and not ours and therefore should not put us into Passion because another man's being injurious to me is no good reason why I should be uneasie to my self We should not revenge the injuries done to us no not upon them that do them much less upon our selves Let no man's Provocation make thee to lose thy Patience Be not such a fool as to part with any one Virtue because some men are so malicious as to endeavour to rob thee of the Reputation of all the rest When men speak ill of thee do as Plato said he would do in that case Live so as that no body may believe them All that now remains is to reflect upon what hath been said and to urge you and my self to do accordingly For all is nothing if we do not practise what we so plainly see to be our Duty Many are so taken up with the deep Points and Mysteries of Religion that they never think of the common Duties and Offices of humane Life But Faith and a good Life are so far from clashing with one another that the Christian Religion hath made them inseparable True Faith is necessary in order to a good Life and a good Life is the genuine product of a right Belief and therefore the one never ought to be press'd to the prejudice of the other I foresee what will be said because I have heard it so often said in the like case that there is not one word of Jesus Christ in all this No more is there in the Text. And yet I hope that Jesus Christ is truly preach'd when-ever his Will and Laws and the Duties injoyn'd by the Christian Religion are inculcated upon us But some men are pleased to say that this is mere Morality I answer that this is Scripture-Morality and Christian-Morality and who hath any thing to say against that Nay I will go yet further that no man ought to pretend to believe the Christian Religion who lives in the neglect of so plain a Duty and in the practice of a Sin so clearly condemn'd by it as this of evil-speaking is But because the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword yea sharper than Calumny it self and pierceth the very Hearts and Consciences of men laying us open to our selves and convincing us of our more secret as well as our more visible Faults I shall therefore at one view represent to you what is dispersedly said concerning this Sin in the Holy Word of God And I have purposely reserved this to the last because it is more persuasive and penetrating than any Humane Discourse And to this end be pleas'd to consider in what company the Holy Ghost doth usually mention this Sin There is scarce any black Catalogue of Sins in the Bible but we find this among them in the company of the very worst Actions and most irregular Passions of men Out of the heart says our Saviour proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications false-witness
SERMONS PREACH'D UPON Several Occasions By JOHN Lord Archbishop of Canterbury The Fourth Volume LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill and W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV His Grace John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Texts of each Sermon SERMON I. MAtth. XXV 1 2 c. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bride-groom And five of them were wise and five were foolish c. Page 3. SERMON II. Ezra IX 13 14. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the people of these Abominations wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping 43 SERMON III. Matth. V. 44 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you Page 83 SERMON IV. Luke X. 42 But one thing is needful 123 SERMON V. Matth. 25.46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal 153 SERMON VI. Ecclesiastes IX 11 I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all 185 SERMON VII Jeremiah VI. 8 Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited Page 221 SERMON VIII Acts XXIV 16 And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men 259 SERMON IX Zech. VII 5 Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years DID YE AT ALL FAST UNTO ME EVEN UNTO ME 297 SERMON X. Psalm LXXIII 25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 339 SERMON XI Jer. IX 23 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. 379 SERMON XII Tit. III. 2 To speak evil of no man 419 The Parable of the ten Virgins IN A SERMON Preached before Her ROYAL HIGHNESS THE Princess ANN of Denmark AT Tunbridge-Wells September 2 d. 1688. The Parable of the ten Virgins MATTH XXV 1 2. c. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom And five of them were wise and five were foolish c. MY design at present is to explain this Parable and to make such Observations upon it as seem most naturally and without squeezing the Parable to spring from it And then to make some Application of it to our selves Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the state and condition of things under the Gospel By the ten Virgins those who embraced the Profession of it which is here represented by their taking their Lamps and going forth to meet the Bridegroom in allusion to the ancient Custom of Marriages in which the Bridegroom was wont to lead home his Bride in the Night by the light of Lamps or Torches But this Profession was not in all equally firm and fruitful and therefore those who persever'd and continued stedfast in this Profession notwithstanding all the temptations and allurements of the World and all the fierce storms and assaults of persecution to which this Profession was exposed and being thus firmly rooted in it did bring forth the fruits of the Spirit and abound in the Graces and Virtues of a good life These are the wise Virgins But those who either deserted this Profession or did not bring forth fruits answerable to it are the foolish Virgins And that this is the true difference between them will appear if we consider how the Parable represents them vers 3 4. They that were foolish took their Lamps and took no Oyl with them But the wise took Oyl in their Vessels with their Lamps So that they both took their Lamps and both lighted them and therefore must both be suppos'd to have some oyl in their Lamps at first as appears from verse 8. where the foolish Virgins said unto the wise give us of your oyl for our Lamps are gone out They had it seems some Oyl in their Lamps at first which kept them lighted for a little while but had taken no care for a future supply And therefore the difference between the wise and foolish Virgins did not as some have imagin'd consist in this that the wise Virgins had Oyl but the foolish had none but in this that the foolish had taken no care for a further supply after the Oyl which was at first put into their Lamps was spent as the wise had done who besides the Oyl that was in their Lamps carried likewise a Reserve in some other Vessel for a continual supply of the Lamp as there should be occasion the wise took Oyl in their Vessels with their Lamps Now the meaning of all this is That they who are represented by the wise Virgins had not only embraced the Profession of the Christian Religion as the foolish Virgins also had done for they both had their Lamps lighted but they likewise persever'd in that Profession and brought forth fruits answerable to it For by Oyl in their Lamps and the first lighting of them which was common to them both is meant that solemn Profession of Faith and Repentance which all Christians make in Baptism By that farther supply of Oyl which the wise Virgins only took care to provide is signified our constancy and perseverance in this Profession together with the fruits of the Spirit and the improvement of the Grace received in Baptism by the practice and exercise of all the Graces and Virtues of a good life whereby men are fitted and prepar'd for Death and Judgment which are here represented to us by the coming of the Bridegroom This being plainly the main scope and intention of the Parable I shall explain the rest of it as there shall be occasion under the several Observations which I shall raise from the several parts of it And they shall be these
call for all our Faith and Patience all our Courage and Constancy Nunc animis opus Aenea nunc pectore firmo When it comes to this Trial we had need to gird up the loins of our minds to summon all our forces and to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand fast in an evil day and when we have done all to stand And now my Brethren to use the words of St. Peter I testify unto you that this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand The Protestant Reformed Religion which we in this Nation profess is the very Gospel of Christ the true ancient Christianity And for God's sake since in this hour of Temptation when our Religion is in so apparent hazard we pretend to love it to that degree as to be contented to part with any thing for it let us resolve to practise it and to testify our love to it in the same way that our Saviour would have us shew our love to Him by keeping his commandments I will conclude all with the Apostle's Exhortation so very proper for this purpose and to this present Time Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ that is chiefly and above all take care to lead lives suitable to the Christian Religion And then as it follows stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your Adversaries which to them is an evident token of perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Now unto Him that is able to stablish you in the Gospel and to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy To the only wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power both now and ever Amen A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Our Deliverance by the P. of Orange Preached at Lincolns-Inn-Chappel January 31. 1688. To the Worshipful the Masters of the BENCH And the rest of the GENTLEMEN Of the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn THough I was at first very unwilling to Expose to the Publick a Sermon made upon so little Warning and so great an Occasion yet upon second thoughts I could not think it fit to resist the Unanimous and Earnest Request of so many Worthy Persons as the Masters of the Bench of this Honourable Society to whom I stand so much indebted for your great and continued respects to me and kind acceptance of my Labours among you for now above the space of Five and Twenty Years In a most grateful acknowledgment whereof this Discourse such as it is in mere Obedience to your Commands is now humbly presented to you by Your most Obliged and Faithful Servant JOHN TILLOTSON Feb. 28. 1688 9. A Thanksgiving-Sermon FOR Our Deliverance by the P. of Orange EZRA ix 13 14. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the people of these Abominations wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping I Am sufficiently aware that the particular occasion of these Words is in several respects very different from the Occasion of this Day 's Solemnity For these Words were spoken by Ezra at a time appointed for Publick and Solemn Humiliation But I shall not now consider them in that relation but rather as they refer to that Great Deliverance which God had so lately wrought for them and as they are a Caution to take heed of abusing great mercies received from God and so they are very proper and pertinent to the great Occasion of this Day Nay these Words even in their saddest aspect are not so unsuitable to it For we find in Scripture upon the most solemn Occasions of Humiliation that good Men have always testified a thankful sense of the goodness of God to them And indeed the Mercy of God doth then appear above measure merciful when the Sinner is most deeply sensible of his own Vileness and Unworthiness And so Ezra here in the depth of their sorrow and Humiliation hath so great a sense of the greatness of their Deliverance that he hardly knew how to express it And hast given us such a Deliverance as this And on the other hand we find that good Men in their most solem Praises and Thanksgivings have made very serious reflections upon their own unworthiness And surely the best way to make Men truly thankful is first to make them very humble When David makes his most solemn acknowledgments to God for his great Mercies to him how doth he abase himself before Him But who am I and what is my people And so likewise after he had summoned all the powers and faculties of his Soul to join in the praises of God he interposeth this seasonable meditation He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities The greater and more lively sense we have of the goodness of God to us the more we shall abhor our selves in dust and ashes nothing being more apt to melt us into tears of Repentance than the consideration of great and undeserved Mercies vouchsafed to us The goodness of God doth naturally lead to repentance Having thus reconciled the Text to the present Occasion I shall for the more distinct handling of the Words take notice of these two Parts in them First Here is a Case supposed should we after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and since God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandments Secondly Here is a sentence and determination in the Case Wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consum'd us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping This is not spoken doubtfully though it be put by way of question but is the more vehemently positive the more peremptorily affirmative as if he had said it cannot otherwise be in reason expected but that after such repeated provocations God should be angry with us till he had consumed us First Here is a Case supposed should we after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and since God hath punish'd us less than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such a deliverance as this Should we again break his commandments and join in affinity with the People of these abominations In which Words these following Propositions seem to be involv'd which I shall but just mention and pass to the Second Part of the Text. 1. That Sin is the cause of all our sufferings after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for
as our thoughts but as the Heavens are high above the Earth so are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts And the best way to keep our selves from despairing of GOD's Mercy and Forgiveness to us is to be easy to grant Forgiveness to others And without this as GOD hath reason to deny Forgiveness to us so we our selves have all the reason in the World utterly to despair of it It would almost transport a Christian to read that admirable Passage of the Great Heathen Emperour and Philosopher M. Aurelius Antoninus Can the Gods says he that are Immortal for the continuance of so many ages bear without impatience with such and so many Sinners as have ever been and not only so but likewise take care of them and provide for them that they want nothing And dost thou so grievously take on as one that can bear with them no longer Thou that art but for a moment of time yea Thou that art one of those Sinners thyself I will conclude this whole Discourse with those weighty and pungent Sayings of the wise Son of Syrach He that revengeth shall find vengeance from the Lord and he will certainly retain his Sins Forgive thy neighbour that hath hurt thee so shall thy Sins also be forgiven when thou prayest One man beareth hatred against another and doth he seek pardon of the Lord He sheweth no mercy to a man like himself and doth he ask forgiveness of his own Sins Enable us O Lord by thy Grace to practise this excellent and difficult Duty of our Religion And then Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us For thy mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with Thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Adoration and Obedience both now and ever Amen The care of our Souls the One thing needful A SERMON Preached before the KING and QUEEN AT Hampton-Court April the 14 th 1689. The care of our Souls the One thing needful LUKE X. 42 But one thing is needful IN the accounts of Wise men one of the first Rules and Measures of human actions is this To regard every thing more or less according to the degree of its consequence and importance to our happiness That which is most necessary to that End ought in all reason to be minded by us in the first place and other things only so far as they are consistent with that great End and subservient to it Our B. Saviour here tells us that there is one thing needful that is one thing which ought first and principally to be regarded by us And what that is it is of great concernment to us all to know that we may mind and pursue it as it deserves And we may easily understand what it is by considering the Context and the occasion of these Words which was briefly this Our Saviour as He went about preaching the Kingdom of God came into a certain Village where He was entertain'd at the house of two devout Sisters The elder who had the care and management of the Family and the Affairs of it was imployed in making entertainment for such a Guest The other sate at our Saviour's feet attending to the Doctrine of Salvation which he preach'd The elder finding her self not able to do all the business alone desires of our Saviour that he would command her Sister to come and help her Upon this our Saviour gives her this gentle reprehension Martha Martha Thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful And what that is he declares in the next words And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her that is she hath chosen to take care of her Salvation which is infinitely more considerable than any thing else Our Saviour doth not altogether blame Martha for her respectful care of Him but cmmends her Sister for her greater care of her Soul which made her either wholly to forget or unwilling to mind other things at that time So that upon the whole matter He highly approves her wise choice in preferring an attentive regard to his Doctrine even before that which might be thought a necessary civility to His Person From the Words thus explain'd the Observation which I shall make is this That the care of Religion and of our Souls is the one thing necessary and that which every man is concern'd in the first place and above all other things to mind and regard This Observation seems to be plainly contain'd in the Text. I shall handle it as briefly as I can and then by way of Application shall endeavour to persuade You and my self to mind this one thing necessary And in speaking to this serious and weighty Argument I shall do these two things First I shall endeavour to shew wherein this care of Religion and of our Souls does consist Secondly To convince men of the necessity of taking this care I. I shall shew wherein this care of Religion and of our Souls doth consist And this I shall endeavour to do with all the plainness I can and so as every one that hears me may understand and be sufficiently directed what is necessary for him to do in order to his eternal Salvation And of this I shall give an account in the five following Particulars in which I think the main business of Religion and the due care of our Souls does consist First In the distinct knowledge and in the firm belief and persuasion of those things which are necessary to be known and believed by us in order to our eternal Salvation Secondly In the frequent Examination of our lives and actions and in a sincere Repentance for all the errours and miscarriages of them Thirdly In the constant and daily exercise of Piety and Devotion Fourthly In avoiding those things which are pernicious to our Salvation and whereby men do often hazard their Souls Fifthly In the even and constant practice of the several Graces and Vertues of a good Life I. The due care of Religion and our Souls does consist in the distinct knowledge and in the firm belief and persuasion of those things which are necessary to be known and believ'd by us in order to our eternal Salvation For this knowledge of the necessary Principles and Duties of Religion is the foundation of all good Practice wherein the life of Religion doth consist And without this no man can be truly Religious Without faith saith the Apostle to the Hebrews it is impossible to please God For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him Now these two expressions of pleasing God and seeking Him are plainly of the same importance and do both of them signify Religion or the Worship and Service of God which doth antecedently suppose our firm belief and persuasion of these two fundamental Principles of all Religion That there is a
foundation than the Faith of the Gospel and the Practice of its Precepts doth build his house upon the Sand which when it comes to be tryed by the Rain and the Winds will fall and the fall of it will be great And elsewhere If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And he does very severely check the vain confidence and presumption of those who will needs rely upon Him for Salvation without keeping his commandments Why call ye me says He Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Does any man think that he can be saved without loving God and Christ And this saith St. John is the love of God that we keep his commandments and again He that saith I know him and by the same reason he that saith I love him and keepeth not his commandments he is a lyar and the truth is not in him If ye love me saith our B. Lord keep my commandments And again He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me Does any man think that any but the children of God shall be heirs of eternal Life Hear then what St. John saith Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous And again In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil he that doth not righteousness is not of God In a word this is the perpetual tenour of the Bible from the beginning of it to the end If thou dost well saith God to Cain shalt thou not be accepted And again Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him And in the Gospel when the young man came to our Saviour to be instructed by Him what good thing he should do that he might inherit eternal life our Lord gives him this short and plain advice If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments And in the very last Chapter of the Bible we find this solemn declaration Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and enter in through the Gates into the City that is into Heaven which the Apostle to the Hebrews calls the City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God So vain and groundless is the imagination of those who trust to be saved by an idle and ineffectual Faith without holiness and obedience of life II. I proceed now in the Second place to convince us all if it may be of the necessity of minding Religion and our Souls When we call any thing necessary we mean that it is so in order to some End which cannot be attained without it We call those things the necessaries of Life without which men cannot subsist and live in a tolerable condition in this World And that is necessary to our eternal happiness without which it cannot be attain'd Now happiness being our chief End whatever is necessary to that is more necessary than any thing else and in comparison of that all other things not only may but ought to be neglected by us Now to convince men of the necessity of Religion I shall briefly shew That it is a certain way to happiness That it is certain that there is no other way but this And that if we neglect Religion we shall certainly be extremely and for ever miserable First That Religion is a certain way to happiness And for this we have God's express Declaration and Promise the best assurance that can be He that cannot lye hath promised eternal life to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality All the happiness that we can desire and of which the nature of man is capable is promised to us upon the terms of Religion upon our denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world A mighty reward for a little service an eternity of happiness of joys unspeakable and full of glory for the diligence and industry of a few days A happiness large as our wishes and lasting as our Souls Secondly 'T is certain also that there is no other way to happiness but this He who alone can make us happy hath promised it to us upon these and no other terms He hath said That if we live after the flesh we shall die but if by the spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh we shall live That without holiness no man shall see the Lord And that he that lives in the habitual Practice of any Vice of Covetousness or Adultery or Malice or Revenge shall not enter into the kingdom of God And we have reason to believe Him concerning the terms of this happiness and the means of attaining it by whose favour and bounty alone we hope to be made partakers of it And if God had not said it in his Word yet the nature and reason of the thing doth plainly declare it For Religion is not only a condition of our happiness but a necessary qualification and disposition for it We must be like to God in the temper of our minds before we can find any felicity in the enjoyment of him Men must be purged from their Lusts and from those ill-natur'd and devilish Passions of Malice and Envy and Revenge before they can be fit company for their heavenly Father and meet to dwell with him who is love and dwells in love Thirdly If we neglect Religion we shall certainly be extreamly and for ever miserable The Word of Truth hath said it that indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul of man that doth evil Nay if God should hold his hand and should inflict no positive torment upon sinners yet they could not spare themselves but would be their own Executioners and Tormentors The guilt of that wicked Life which they had led in this World and the Stings of their own Consciences must necessarily make them miserable whenever their own Thoughts are let loose upon them as they will certainly be in the other World when they shall have nothing either of pleasure or business to divert them So that if we be concern'd either to be happy hereafter or to avoid those Miseries which are great and dreadful beyond all imagination it will be necessary for us to mind Religion without which we can neither attain that Happiness nor escape those Miseries All that now remains is to perswade you and my self seriously to mind this one thing necessary And to this end I shall apply my Discourse to two sorts of Persons those who are remiss in a matter of so great concernment and those who are grosly careless and mind it not at all First To those who are remiss in a matter of such vast concernment Who
we are now so loth to think upon I say if we believe this it is time for us to be wise and serious And happy that man who in the days of his health hath retir'd himself from the noise and tumult of this world and made that careful preparation for Death and a better Life as may give him that constancy and firmness of Spirit as to be able to bear the thoughts and approaches of his great Change without amazement and to have a mind almost equally poiz'd between that strong inclination of Nature which makes us desirous to live and that wiser dictate of Reason and Religion which should make us willing and contented to die whenever God thinks fit Many of us do not now so clearly discern these things because our eyes are dazzel'd with the false light and splendor of earthly felicity But this assuredly is more worth than all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them to be able to possess our Souls at such a time and to be at perfect Peace with our own minds having our hearts fixed trusting in God To have our Accounts made up and Estate of our immortal Souls as well settled and secur'd as by the assistance of God's Grace humane care and endeavour though mix'd with much humane frailty is able to do And if we be convinc'd of these things we are utterly inexcusable if we do not make this our first and great care and prefer it to all other interests whatsoever And to this end we should resolutely disentangle our selves from worldly cares and incumbrances at least so far that we may have competent liberty and leisure to attend this great concernment and to put our Souls into a fit posture and preparation for another World That when Sickness and Death shall come we may not act our last part indecently and confusedly and have a great deal of work to do when we shall want both time and all other advantages to do it in Whereby our Souls when they will stand most in need of comfort and support will unavoidably be left in a trembling and disconsolate condition and in an anxious doubtfulness of mind what will become of them for ever To conclude This care of Religion and our Souls is a thing so necessary that in comparison of it we are to neglect the very necessaries of Life So our Lord teacheth us Take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be cloathed But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness The Calls of God and Religion are so very pressing and importunate that they admit of no delay or excuse whatsoever This our Saviour signifies to us by denying the Disciple whom he had call'd to follow him leave to go and bury his Father Let the dead says he bury their dead but do thou follow me There is one thing needful and that is the business of Religion and the care of our immortal Souls which whatever else we neglect should be carefully minded and regarded by every one of us O that there were such a heart in us O that we were wise that we understood this that we would consider our latter end Which God grant we may all do in this our day for his mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and ever Amen Of the Eternity of Hell-Torments A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITEHALL March 7. 1689 90. Of the Eternity of Hell-Torments MATTH 25.46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into life eternal AMong all the arguments to Repentance and a good Life those have the greatest force and power upon the minds of men which are fetch'd from another World and from the final state of good and bad men after this Life And this our Saviour represents to us in a most lively manner in that prospect which in the latter part of this Chapter he gives us of the Judgment of the great Day namely that at the end of the World the Son of Man shall come in his glory with his Holy Angels and shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory and all Nations shall be gathered before him and shall be separated into two great Companies the Righteous and the Wicked who shall stand the one on the Right hand and the other on the Left of this great Judge who shall pronounce sentence severally upon them according to the actions which they have done in this Life The Righteous shall be rewarded with eternal happiness and the Wicked shall be sentenc'd to everlasting punishment And these that is the Wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into Life eternal The Words are plain and need no explication For I take it for granted that every one at first hearing of them does clearly apprehend the difference between the Righteous and the Wicked and between endless Happiness and Misery But although these Words be so very easy to be understood they can never be too much consider'd by us The Scope and design of them is to represent to us the different Fates of good and bad men in another World and that their Ends there will be as different as their Ways and doings have been here in this World The serious consideration whereof is the greatest discouragement to Sin and the most powerful argument in the World to a holy and vertuous life Because it is an argument taken from our greatest and most lasting interest our happiness or our misery to all Eternity A concernment of that vast consequence that it must be the greatest stupidity and folly in the World for any man to neglect it This eternal state of Rewards and Punishments in another World our Blessed Saviour hath clearly revealed to us And as to one part of it viz. That good men shall be eternally happy in another World every one gladly admits it But many are loth that the other part should be true concerning the eternal punishment of wicked men And therefore they pretend that it is contrary to the Justice of God to punish temporary Crimes with eternal Torments Because Justice always observes a proportion between Offences and Punishments but between temporary Sins and eternal Punishments there is no proportion And as this seems hard to be reconcil'd with Justice so much more with that excess of Goodness which we suppose to be in God And therefore they say that though God seem to have declar'd that impenitent Sinners shall be everlastingly punish'd yet these declarations of Scripture are so to be mollified and understood as that we may be able to reconcile them with the essential perfections of the Divine nature This is the full force and strength of the Objection And my work at this time shall be to clear if I can this difficult Point And that for these two Reasons First For the vindication of the Divine Justice and Goodness
passages we may easily understand wherein these Monthly Fasts of the Jews were defective and what was the fault that God finds with them when he expostulates so severely in the Text When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh Month even these seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me In the general the fault which God finds with them was this that these Solemnities did not serve any real end and purpose of Religion but fail'd in their main design which was a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives For which reason he tells them that they were not at all acceptable to Him nor esteem'd by Him as perform'd unto Him because they did not answer the true intention and design of them My work at this time shall be First to consider in general what it is to fast unto God that is to keep a truly Religious Fast Secondly to bring the matter nearer to our selves I shall consider more particularly what the Duty of this Day appointed by their Majesties for a solemn Humiliation and Repentance throughout the Nation does require at our hands I. I shall consider in general what it is to fast unto God that is to keep a truly Religious Fast And of this I shall give an account in the following particulars First a truly Religious Fast consists in the afflicting of our Bodies by a strict abstinence that so they may be fit and proper instruments to promote and help forward the grief and trouble of our minds Secondly in the humble Confession of our Sins to God with shame and confusion of face and with a hearty contrition and sorrow for them Thirdly in an earnest deprecation of God's displeasure and humble supplications to Him that he would avert his Judgments and turn away his Anger from us Fourthly in Intercession with God for such spiritual and temporal Blessings upon our selves and others as are needful and convenient Fifthly in Alms and Charity to the poor that our Humiliation and Prayers may find acceptance with God I do but mention these particulars that I may more largely insist upon that which I mainly intended and proposed to consider in the next place namely II. What the Duty of this Day appointed by their Majesties for a solemn Humiliation and Repentance throughout the Nation doth require at our hands And this I shall endeavour to comprize in the following particulars First that we should humble our selves before God every one for his own personal Sins whereby he hath provoked God and increased the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the judgments and vengeance of God upon the Nation Secondly that we should likewise heartily lament and bewail the Sins of others especially the great and crying Sins of the Nation committed by all Ranks and Orders of men amongst us and whereby the wrath and indignation of Almighty God hath been so justly incensed against us Thirdly we should most importunately deprecate those terrible Judgments of God to which these our great and crying Sins have so justly exposed us Fourthly we should pour out our earnest prayers and supplications to Almighty God for the preservation of their Majesties Sacred Persons and for the establishment and prosperity of their Government and for the good success of their Arms and Forces by Sea and Land Fifthly our Fasting and Prayers should be accompanied with our Charity and Alms to the poor and needy Lastly we should prosecute our Repentance and good Resolutions to the actual Reformation and Amendment of our lives Of these I shall by God's Assistance speak as briefly and as plainly as I can and so as every one of us may understand what God requires of him upon so solemn an Occasion as this First We should humble our selves before God every one for his own personal Sins and Miscarriages whereby he hath provoked God and increased the publick Guilt and done his part to bring down the Judgments and Vengeance of God upon the Nation Our Humiliation and Repentance should begin with our selves and our own Sins because Repentance is always design'd to end in Reformation but there cannot be a general Reformation without the Reformation of particular Persons which do constitute and make up the generality And this Solomon prescribes as the true Method of a National Reformation and the proper effect of a publick Humiliation and Repentance in that admirable Prayer of his at the Dedication of the Temple If there be says he in the Land famine if there be pestilence blasting mildew locust or if there be caterpillar or if their Enemy besiege them in the Land of their Cities what-ever plague what-ever sickness there be what prayer or supplication soever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel WHO SHALL KNOW EVERY MAN THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART and spread forth his hands towards this House Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his way whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men that they may fear thee all the days which they live in the Land which thou gavest to their Fathers You see here that in case of any publick Judgment or Calamity the Humiliation and Repentance of a Nation must begin with particular Persons What prayer or supplication so-ever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel WHO SHALL KNOW EVERY MAN THE PLAGUE OF HIS OWN HEART Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling-place and forgive Particular persons must be convinced of their personal Sins and Transgressions before God will hear the Prayers and forgive the Sins of a Nation And because we cannot perform this part of confessing and bewailing our own personal Sins and of testifying our particular Repentance for them in the publick Congregation any otherwise than by joining with them in a general Humiliation and Repentance therefore we should do well on the Day before the publick Fast or at least the Morning before we go to the publick Assembly to humble our selves before God in our Families and especially in our Closets confessing to Him with great shame and sorrow all the particular Sins and Offences together with the several Aggravations of them which we have been guilty of against the Divine Majesty so far as we are able to call them particularly to our remembrance and earnestly to beg of God the pardon and forgiveness of them for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ And so likewise after we return from the Church we should retire again into our Closets and there renew our Repentance with most serious and sincere Resolutions of reforming in all those particulars which we have confessed and repented of And if we would have our Resolutions to come to any good we must make them as distinct and particular as we can and charge it upon our selves as to such and such Sins for which we have declared our sorrow and repentance that we
in execution As against the profanation of the Lord's Day by secular business by vain sports and pastimes which by the very nature of them are apt to dissolve the minds of men into mirth and pleasure and to carry them off from all serious thoughts of God and Religion and from the Meditations of another World and to give the Devil an advantage and an opportunity which be never fails to take to steal the good seed the Word of God which they have heard that Day out of their hearts and to make it of none effect And which is yet worse by lewd and sinful practices which are unlawful at any time but upon that Day are a double breach and violation of God's Law And likewise by neglecting to put in execution the Laws against profane Swearing and Cursing for which the Land mourns and against Drunkenness and Adultery and Fornication which are so common and so impudently committed amongst us whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws and it is hard to say which of them are most remisly executed And to mention no more by neglecting to prosecute that horrible Sin of Murther so frequently now committed in our Streets beyond the example of former Ages with that severity and impartiality which is necessary to free the Nation from the guilt of that crying Sin which calls so loud to Heaven for Vengeance And all this notwithstanding the Magistrates are under the Oath of God to put the Laws in due execution against all these Crimes so far as they come to their knowledge and fall under their cognisance 2. The Sins of the Ministers who serve at God's Altar and watch over the Souls of men whose bloud will be required at their hands if any of them perish through their fault and neglect There is no reason to doubt but that there are a good number of faithful Shepherds in the Land who watch over their Flocks with great care and conscience remembring the dreadful Account which they must one Day make to Him who shall judge the quick and dead of the Souls committed to their charge But yet how grosly do many of us fail of the faithful discharge of the substantial parts of this high Office wanting a just sense of the inestimable worth and value of the Souls of men for whom Christ died taking little or no care to instruct them in the good knowledge of the Lord and to lead them in the way to eternal happiness by an exemplary conversation Nay too many among us demean themselves so scandalously as perfectly to undermine the credit and effect of their Doctrine by leading lives so directly contrary to it and to alienate their People from the Church and to make them to abhorr the Sacrifice and Service of the Lord by their wicked and unhallowed Conversations hereby exposing them to the craft of Seducers and rendring them an easie prey to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome or to any other Sect and Faction that pretends a greater zeal for Religion or makes a better shew of a strict and unblameable life For who will regard or believe those Teachers who give all the evidence that can be by their lives and actions that they do not believe themselves and their own Doctrines When all is said the life and manners of the Preacher are the best eloquence and have that dint and power of persuasion in them which no words no art can equal Who so lives as he speaks does as it is said of our Blessed Saviour Speaks as one that hath authority and not as the Scribes Not as the Scribes whose words notwithstanding all the formality and gravity with which they were deliver'd did therefore want weight and force because as our Saviour tells us of them they said but did not their Lives were not answerable to their Doctrines Whereas our Blessed Saviour therefore spoke as never man spake because he liv'd as never man liv'd so innocent so useful so exemplary a life He was holy harmless and undefil'd He did no sin neither was guile found in his lips He fulfilled all righteousness and went about doing good This was that which made Him so powerful a Preacher of Righteousness and we must necessarily fall so much short of Him in the authority and efficacy of our Sermons as we do in the holiness and goodness of our Lives Such a Preacher and such a practice as that of our Blessed Saviour was is every way fitted to reprove and persuade and reform Mankind We now live in an Age and Church wherein they who are called to be the Teachers and Guides of Souls ought to take great heed both to their Doctrine and their Lives that the Name of God may not be blasphem'd and his holy Religion be brought into contempt by those who above all others are most nearly concern'd to preserve and support the credit and honour of it And we cannot but see how our Religion and Church are beset and endanger'd on every side by the rude assaults of Infidelity and by the cunning Arts of seducing Spirits and by our own intestine Heats and Divisions And it can never be sufficiently lamented no though it were with tears of bloud that we whose particular charge and employment it is to build up the Souls of Men in a holy Faith and in the resolution of a good Life should for want of due instruction and by the dissolute and profligate lives of too many among us and by inflaming our needless Differences about lesser things have so great a hand in pulling down Religion and in betraying the Souls of Men either to downright Infidelity or to a careless neglect and profane contempt of all Religion May not God justly expostulate this matter with us as he did of old with the People of the Jews A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets prophesy falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my People love to have it so and what will ye doe in the end thereof When they who are the Pastors and Guides of Souls have by their ill conduct and management brought matters to that pass that the generality of the People sit down contented with the worst state of things and are become almost indifferent whether they have any Religion or not what can the end of these things be but that the Kingdom of God will be taken from us and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits of it If ever there be a publick Reformation among us it must begin at the House of God and they who are the Ministers of Religion must lead on this work and be more careful and conscientious in the discharge of that high and holy Office which is committed to them by the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls Else what shall we say when God shall challenge us as he once did the Pastors of the Jewish Church by his Prophet saying Where is the Flock that was given thee thy beautiful
Enemies that we may sin against Him without fear all the days of our Lives To what purpose should the Providence of God take so much care to preserve our Religion to us when we make no better use of it for the direction and government of our Lives When it serves most of us only to talk of it and too many amongst us to talk against it to deride it and despitefully to use it If this be the truth of our Case what can we say why the Kingdom of God should not be taken from us and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits of it What can we say why our Candlestick should not be remov'd and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which we have so long enjoyed and so long rebelled against should not be utterly extinguish'd amongst us And if I cannot prevail with you to come to these good Resolutions and to make them good If you will not be persuaded to practise yet be pleas'd to attend to what we say Hear our words at least if ye will not do them This the People of the Jews would do when they were at the worst So God tells the Prophet concerning them They come unto thee as the People cometh and they sit before thee as my People and they hear thy words but they will not do them I had much rather at any time have occasion to praise than to reprove especially in this great Assembly And yet it is not to be dissembled that the behaviour of too many in this place is frequently so careless and irreverent as is very mis-becoming those who are in the more peculiar Presence of the Great and Glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth and profess at that very time to worship Him I am sure we have a better Pattern perpetually before us of a decent and unaffected devotion of a most serious and steddy attention without wandring without diversion and without drowsiness such an Example as I cannot but hope will in a short time gain upon us all and by a more gentle and silent reproof win us to the imitation of it And if we could but be prevail'd upon to demean our selves with that Reverence and to hear with that Attention which becomes the Worship and the Word of God it might then be hop'd that we would consider what is said and consideration would probably work conviction and conviction bring us to a better mind and to a firm purpose of doing what we are inwardly convinc'd it is both our duty and our interest to do Let us then go away from this Solemnity with a resolution to do every one what we ought truly and earnestly to repent us of our sins past and to lead a new life for the future to fear that great and terrible God in whose presence we have humbled our selves this Day and to turn to Him that hath smitten us lest we provoke him to punish us yet seven times more and after that seven times more for our sins and for our impenitency in them till at last He make our plagues wonderfull To conclude Let us every one with that true Penitent in Job take words to our selves and say Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more Oh! that there were such a heart in us that it might be well with us and with our children for ever Which God of his infinite Goodness grant for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory both now and ever Amen That God is the only Happiness of Man IN A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL March the 20 th 1691 2. That God is the only Happiness of Man PSALM Lxxiij 25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee THE design of this Psalm is to vindicate the Goodness and Justice of the Divine Providence notwithstanding the prosperous estate of the wicked and the afflicted condition of good men many times in this World And in the first place the Psalmist whoever he was whether David or Asaph lays down this for a most certain Truth that God is good to good men Of a truth God is good to Israel to such as are of a clean heart And yet for all this he tells us that at some times he was under no small temptation to question the truth of this Principle when he beheld the promiscuous dispensation of things here below that the wicked are often prosperous and good men exposed to great calamities in this life as if God either neglected humane affairs or had a greater kindness for the workers of iniquity than for pious and good men As for me my foot had well-nigh slipp'd for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked This he says was a very great slumbling-block to good men and tempted them to doubt of the Providence of God Therefore his People return hither and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them and they say Doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High This Sentence is somewhat obscurely rendred in our Translation so as to make the sence of it difficult which is plainly this Therefore his people return hither that is therefore good men come to this in the greatness of their affliction and in the bitterness of their soul to question God's knowledge and care of humane affairs Behold say they these are the ungodly and yet they are the prosperous in the world they increase in riches To what purpose then is it for any man to be Religious and Vertuous Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency In vain have I endeavoured after purity of heart and innocency of life since so little good comes of it nay so far from that that I have been in continual trouble and affliction All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning Such thoughts as these often came into his mind and gave him great trouble and disquiet But he presently corrects himself If I say I will speak thus I should offend against the generation of thy Children that is I should go against the sense of all pious and good men who have always believed the Providence of God notwithstanding this Objection Which at last he tells us he had raised on purpose to try if he could find the solution of it I thought to know this which was grievous in mine eyes And then he resolves all into the unsearchable Wisdom of the Divine Providence which if we fully understood from first to last we should see good reason to be satisfied with the equity of it When I go into the Sanctuary of God then shall I understand
the foundation of that which is reveal'd And therefore nothing can in Reason be admitted to be a Revelation from God which does plainly contradict his essential Perfections Upon this Principle a great many Doctrines are without more a-do to be rejected because they do plainly and at first sight contradict the Divine Nature and Perfections I will give a few Instances instead of many that might be given In vertue of this Principle I cannot believe upon the pretended Authority or Infallibility of any Person or Church that Force is a fit Argument to produce Faith No man shall ever persuade me no not the Bishop of Meaux with all his Eloquence that Prisons and Tortures Dragoons and the Galleys are proper means to convince the Understanding and either Christian or Humane Methods of converting men to the true Religion For the same Reason I cannot believe that God would not have men to understand their publick Prayers nor the Lessons of Scripture which are read to them Because a Lesson is something that is to be learnt and therefore a Lesson that is not to be understood is nonsense for if it be not understood how can it be learnt As little can I believe that God who caused the Holy Scriptures to be written for the instruction of mankind did ever intend that they should be lock'd up and concealed from the People in an unknown Tongue Least of all can I believe that Doctrine of the Council of Trent That the saving Efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest that administers them Which is to say that though the People believe and live never so well yet they may be damn'd by shoals and whole Parishes together at the pleasure of the Priest And this for no other reason but because the Priest is so cross and so cruel that he will not intend to save them Now can any man believe this that hath any tolerable Notion either of the Goodness or Justice of God May we not appeal to God in this as Abraham did in another Case Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked That be far from thee to do after this manner Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Much more to destroy the righteous for the wicked and that righteous and innocent People should lie at the mercy and will of a wicked and perverse Priest to be sav'd or damn'd by him as he thinks fit That be far from thee Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right For to drive the argument to the head if this be to do right there is no possibility of doing wrong Thus in things which are more obscure we should govern all our Reasonings concerning God and Religion by that which is clear and unquestionable and should with Moses lay down this for a certain Principle All his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He And say with St. Paul Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid And again We know that the Judgment of God is according to truth 2 ly The other Inference is this That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness And therefore nothing but our conformity to it can make us happy And for this reason to understand and know God is our great excellency and glory because it is necessary to our imitation of Him who is the best and happiest Being And so far as we are from resembling God so far are we distant from Happiness and the true temper of the Blessed For Goodness is an essential ingredient of Happiness and as without Goodness there can be no true Majesty and Greatness so neither any true Felicity and Blessedness Now Goodness is a generous disposition of mind to diffuse and communicate it self by making others to partake of our Happiness in such degrees as they are capable For no Being is so happy as it might be that hath not the power and the pleasure to make others happy This surely is the highest pleasure I had almost said pride of a great Mind In vain therefore do we dream of Happiness in any thing without us Happiness must be within us the foundation of it must be laid in the inward frame and disposition of our spirits And the very same causes and ingredients which make up the Happiness of God must be found in us though in a much inferiour degree or we cannot be happy They understand not the Nature of Happiness who hope for it upon any other terms He who is the Authour and Fountain of Happiness cannot convey it to us by any other way than by planting in us such dispositions of mind as are in truth a kind of participation of the Divine Nature and by enduing us with such qualities as are the necessary Materials of Happiness And a man may assoon be well without Health as happy without Goodness If a wicked man were taken up into Heaven yet if he still continue the same bad man that he was before coelum non animum mutavit he may have chang'd the Climate and be gone into a far Country but because he carries himself still along with him he will still be miserable from himself Because the man's mind is not chang'd all the while which would signifie a thousand times more to his happiness than change of place or of any outward circumstances whatsoever For a bad man hath a Fiend in his own Breast and the fewel of Hell in his guilty Conscience There is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary and essential to Happiness and that is Holiness and Goodness which is the very Nature of God and so far as any man departs from this temper so far he removes himself and runs away from happiness And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of a man 's own mind which is naturally a torment to it self And till this be cur'd it is as impossible for him to be happy as for a Limb that is out of joint to be at ease because the man's Spirit is out of order and off the hinges and as it were toss'd from its Center and till that be set right and restored to its proper and natural state the man will be perpetually unquiet and can have no rest and peace within himself The wicked saith the Prophet is like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest There is no peace saith my God to the wicked No peace with God no peace with his own mind for a bad man is at perpetual Discord and Wars within himself And hence as St. James tells us come Wars and Fightings without us even from our Lusts which warr in our members And now that I have mention'd Wars and Fightings without us this cannot but bring to mind the great and glorious Occasion of this Day Which gives us manifold Cause of Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God For several wonderful Mercies and Deliverances and
sake of that to deny themselves almost all sort of ease and pleasure To deny themselves did I say No they have wisely and judiciously chosen the truest and highest Pleasure that this World knows the Pleasure of doing good and being Benefactors to Mankind May they have a long and happy Reign over us to make us happy and to lay up in store for Themselves a Happiness without measure and without end in God's glorious and everlasting Kingdom For his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Thanksgiving and Praise both now and for ever Amen A SERMON AGAINST EVIL-SPEAKING Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL Febr. the 25 th 1693 4. A Sermon against Evil-speaking TIT. iij. 2 To speak evil of no man GEneral Persuasives to Repentance and a good Life and Invectives against Sin and Wickedness at large are certainly of good use to recommend Religion and Virtue and to expose the deformity and danger of a Vicious course But it must be acknowledged on the other hand that these general Discourses do not so immediately tend to reform the Lives of men Because they fall among the Croud but do not touch the Consciences of particular Persons in so sensible and awakening a manner as when we treat of particular Duties and Sins and endeavour to put men upon the practice of the one and to reclaim them from the other by proper Arguments taken from the Word of God and from the nature of particular Vertues and Vices The general way is as if a Physician instead of applying particular Remedies to the Distemper of his Patient should entertain him with a long discourse of Diseases in general and of the pleasure and advantages of Health and earnestly persuade him to be well without taking his particular Disease into consideration and prescribing Remedies for it But if we would effectually reform men we must take to task the great and common disorders of their Lives and represent their faults to them in such a manner as may convince them of the evil and danger of them and put them upon the endeavour of a cure And to this end I have pitched upon one of the common and reigning Vices of the Age Calumny and Evil-speaking by which men contract so much guilt to themselves and create so much trouble to others And from which it is to be feared few or none are wholly free For who is he saith the Son of Sirach that hath not offended with his tongue In many things saith St. James we offend all And if any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man But how few have attain'd to this perfection And yet unless we do endeavour after it and in some good measure attain it all our pretence to Religion is vain So the same Apostle tells us If any man among you seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart that man's Religion is vain For the more distinct handling of this Argument I shall reduce my Discourse to these Five Heads First I shall consider the Nature of this Vice and wherein it consists Secondly I shall consider the due extent of this Prohibition To speak evil of no man Thirdly I shall shew the Evil of this practice both in the Causes and Effects of it Fourthly I shall add some further Considerations to dissuade men from it Fifthly I shall give some Rules and Directions for the prevention and cure of it I. I shall consider what this Sin or Vice of evil speaking here forbidden by the Apostle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to defame and slander any man not to hurt his reputation as the Etymology of the word doth import So that this Vice consists in saying things of others which tend to their disparagement and reproach to the taking away or lessening of their Reputation and good Name And this whether the things said be true or not If they be false and we know it then it is down-right Calumny and if we do not know it but take it upon the report of others it is however a Slander and so much the more injurious because really groundless and undeserved If the thing be true and we know it to be so yet it is a defamation and tends to the prejudice of our neighbour's reputation And it is a fault to say the evil of others which is true unless there be some good reason for it besides Because it is contrary to that charity and goodness which Christianity requires to divulge the faults of others though they be really guilty of them without necessity or some other very good reason for it Again It is Evil-speaking and the Vice condemn'd in the Text whether we be the first Authors of an ill Report or relate it from others because the man that is evil spoken of is equally defam'd either way Again Whether we speak evil of a man to his face or behind his back The former way indeed seems to be the more generous but yet is a great Fault and that which we call reviling The latter is more mean and base and that which we properly call Slander or Backbiting And Lastly Whether it be done directly and in express terms or more obscurely and by way of oblique insinuation whether by way of down-right reproach or with some crafty preface of commendation For so it have the effect to defame the manner of address does not much alter the case The one may be more dextrous but is not one jot less faulty For many times the deepest Wounds are given by these smoother and more artificial ways of Slander as by asking questions Have you not heard so and so of such a man I say no more I only ask the question Or by general intimations that they are loth to say what they have heard of such a one are very sorry for it and do not at all believe it if you will believe them And this many times without telling the thing but leaving you in the dark to suspect the worst These and such like Arts though they may seem to be tenderer and gentler ways of using men's reputation yet in truth they are the most malicious and effectual methods of Slander because they insinuate something that is much worse than is said and yet are very apt to create in unwary men a strong belief of something that is very bad though they know not what it is So that it matters not in what fashion a Slander is dress'd up if it tend to defame a man and to diminish his Reputation it is the Sin forbidden in the Text. II. We will consider the extent of this Prohibition to speak evil of no man and the due bounds and limitations of it For it is not to be understood absolutely to forbid us to say any thing concerning others that is bad This in some cases may be necessary and our duty and in several cases
he should in prudence have some consideration of himself Thirdly Let us accustom our selves to pity the Faults of men and to be truly sorry for them and then we shall take no pleasure in publishing them And this common Humanity requires of us considering the great infirmities of humane Nature and that we our selves also are liable to be tempted Considering likewise how severe a Punishment every Fault and miscarriage is to it self and how terribly it exposeth a man to the wrath of God both in this World and the other He is not a good Christian that is not heartily sorry for the faults even of his greatest Enemies and if he be so he will discover them no further than is necessary to some good end Fourthly When-ever we hear any man evil-spoken of if we know any good of him let us say that It is always the more humane and the more honourable part to stand up in the defence and vindication of others than to accuse and bespatter them Possibly the good you have heard of them may not be true but it is much more probable that the evil which you have heard of them is not true neither However it is better to preserve the credit of a bad man than to stain the Reputation of the innocent And if there were any need that a man should be evil-spoken of it is but fair and equal that his good and bad Qualities should be mention'd together otherwise he may be strangely misrepresented and an indifferent Man may be made a Monster They that will observe nothing in a Wise man but his over-sights and follies nothing in a Good man but his failings and infirmities may make a shift to render a very wise and good man very despicable If one should heap together all the passionate Speeches all the froward and imprudent Actions of the best Man all that he had said or done amiss in his whole Life and present it all at one view concealing his Wisdom and Vertues the Man in this Disguise would look like a Mad-man or a Fury And yet if his Life were fairly represented and just in the same manner it was led and his many and great Virtues set over against his failings and infirmities he would appear to all the World to be an admirable and excellent Person But how many and great soever any man's ill Qualities are it is but just that with all this heavy load of Faults he should have the due praise of the few real Virtues that are in him Fifthly That you may not speak ill of any do not delight to hear ill of them Give no countenance to busy-bodies and those that love to talk of other men's Faults Or if you cannot decently reprove them because of their Quality then divert the discourse some other way or if you cannot do that by seeming not to mind it you may sufficiently signifie that you do not like it Sixthly Let every man mind himself and his own Duty and Concernment Do but endeavour in good earnest to mend thy self and it will be work enough for one Man and leave thee but little time to talk of others When Plato withdrew from the Court of Dionysius who would fain have had a famous Philosopher for his Flatterer they parted in some unkindness and Dionysius bade him not to speak ill of him when he was return'd into Greece Plato told him he had no leisure for it meaning that he had better things to mind than to take up his thoughts and talk with the faults of so bad a man so notoriously known to all the World Lastly Let us set a watch before the door of our lips and not speak but upon consideration I do not mean to speak finely but fitly Especially when thou speakest of others consider of whom and what thou art going to speak Use great Caution and Circumspection in this matter Look well about thee on every side of the thing and on every person in the Company before thy words slip from thee which when they are once out of thy lips are for ever out of thy power Not that men should be sullen in company and say nothing or so stiff in conversation as to drop nothing but Aphorisms and Oracles Especially among Equals and Friends we should not be so reserved as if we would have it taken for a mighty favour that we vouchsafe to say any thing If a Man had the understanding of an Angel he must be contented to abate something of this excess of Wisdom for fear of being thought Cunning. The true Art of Conversation if any body can hit upon it seems to be this an appearing freedom and openness with a resolute reservedness as little appearing as is possible All that I mean by this Caution is that we should consider well what we say especially of others And to this end we should endeavour to get our minds furnished with matter of Discourse concerning things useful in themselves and not hurtful to others And if we have but a Mind wise enough and good enough we may easily find a Field large enough for innocent Conversation such as will harm no body and yet be acceptable enough to the better and wiser part of Mankind And why should any one be at the cost of playing the fool to gratifie any body whatsoever I have done with the Five things I propounded to speak to upon this Argument But because hardly any thing can be so clear but something may be said against it nor any thing so bad but something may be pleaded in excuse for it I shall therefore take notice of two or three Pleas that may be made for it First Some pretend mighty injury and provocation If in the same kind it seems thou art sensible of it and therefore thou of all men oughtest to abstain from it But in what kind soever it be the Christian Religion forbids Revenge Therefore do not plead one Sin in excuse of another and make Revenge an Apology for Reviling Secondly It is alledged by others with a little better grace that if this Doctrine were practised Conversation would be spoil'd and there would not be matter enough for pleasant discourse and entertainment I answer The design of this Discourse is to redress a great evil in Conversation and that I hope which mends it will not spoil it And however if men's Tongues lay a little more still and most of us spake a good deal less than we do both of our selves and others I see no great harm in it I hope we might for all that live comfortably and in good health and see many good days David I am sure prescribes it as an excellent Receipt in his Opinion for a quiet and cheerful and long Life to refrain from evil-speaking What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking falsehood But granting that there is some pleasure in Invective I hope there is
evil-speakings And the Apostle ranks backbiters with fornicators and murderers and haters of God and with those of whom it is expressly said that they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And when he enumerates the Sins of the last times Men says he shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters evil-speakers without natural affection perfidious false accusers c. And which is the strangest of all they who are said to be guilty of these great Vices and Enormities are noted by the Apostle to be great pretenders to Religion for so it follows in the next words Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof So that it is no new thing for men to make a more than ordinary profession of Christianity and yet at the same time to live in a most palpable contradiction to the Precepts of that Holy Religion As if any pretence to Mystery and I know not what extraordinary attainments in the knowledge of Christ could exempt men from obedience to his Laws and set them above the Vertues of a good Life And now after all this do we hardly think that to be a Sin which is in Scripture so frequently rank'd with Murther and Adultery and the blackest Crimes such as are inconsistent with the life and power of Religion and will certainly shut men out of the Kingdom of God Do we believe the Bible to be the Word of God and can we allow our selves in the common practice of a Sin than which there is hardly any Fault of men's Lives more frequently mention'd more severely reprov'd and more odiously branded in that Holy Book Consider seriously these Texts Who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy Hill He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour Have ye never heard what our Saviour says that of every idle word we must give an account in the day of Judgment that by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd What can be more severe than that of St. James If any man among you seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue that man's Religion is vain To conclude The Sin which I have now warned men against is plainly condemn'd by the Word of God and the Duty which I have now been persuading you to is easie for every man to understand not hard for any man that can but resolve to keep a good guard upon himself for some time by the grace of God to practice and most reasonable for all Men but especially for all Christians to observe It is as easie as a resolute silence upon just occasion as reasonable as prudence and justice and charity and the preservation of peace and good-will among men can make it and of as necessary and indispensible an obligation as the Authority of God can render any thing Upon all which Considerations let us every one of us be persuaded to take up David's deliberate Resolution I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue And I do verily believe that would we but heartily endeavour to amend this one Fault we should soon be better Men in our whole lives I mean that the correcting of this Vice together with those that are nearly allied to it and may at the same time and almost with the same resolution and care be corrected would make us Owners of a great many considerable Vertues and carry us on a good way towards perfection it being hardly to be imagin'd that a man that makes conscience of his Words should not take an equal or a greater care of his Actions And this I take to be both the true meaning and the true reason of that saying of St. James and with which I shall conclude If any man offend not in Word the same is a perfect man Now the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good word and work to do his will working in you always that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be glory for ever Amen FINIS V. 8 9 10 11 12. V. 8. V. 9. V. 10. V. 8. V. 9. V. 13. 1 Pet. 5.12 Philip. 1.27 1 Chron. 29.4 Psal 103.10 Lev. 26.13 Isaiah 1.4 Verse 5. Isaiah 9.13 Isaiah 26.11 2 Chron. 28.22 Judges 8.34 35. 1 Kings 11.9 2 Chron. 32.25 Isaiah 1.2 Verse 3. Isaiah 26.10 Deut 13.1 2. Verse 5. Numb 14.32 Judges 10.11 12 13 14. Jer. 2.19 Judges 10.13 Gen. 15.16 Rom. 9.22 Isaiah 1.5 Matth. 23.37 38. Psal 28.5 Psal 118.23 24. 1 Cor. 10.6 7 9 10 11. Numb 2.5 6. V. 11. Dr. Barrow Dr. Barrow Prov. 14.29 Eccl. 7.9 Prov. 16.32 Verse 45. Eph. 4.32 chap. 5.1 Luke 17.3 4. Rom. 12.17 V. 18. Matth. 6.14 15. Matth. 18.23 V. 35. M. Aur. Antoni lib. 7. Eccl. 23 1 2 3 4. Heb. 11.6 Joh. 17.3 Matth. 5.3 4 c. Matth. 7.21 V. 24. V. 26 27. John 13 17. Luke 6.46 1 Joh. 5.3 1 Joh. 2.4 John 14.15 V. 21. 1 Joh. 3.7 V. 10. Gen. 3.7 Isa 3.10 11. Matth. 19.17 Matth. 6.31 33. * Ita me Dij Deaeque omnes pejus perdant quà m bodiè perire me sentio c. Rev. 20.14 Wisd of Solomon ch 1. ver 12 13 16. 2 Chron. 14.11 Ps 33.16 Psal 44 6. Prov. 21.30 31. Prov. 3.5 6. Deut. 23.9 Isa 37.23 26 27 28 29 32. Isa 26.10 11. Isa 58.5 6 c. Jer. 15.2 Hos 9.12 Gen. 7.1 1 Cor. 10.11 Jer. 4.14 Jer. 13.27 Hos 11.8 9. Jonah 4.11 Psal 78. * Lib. 1. c. 3. Lib. 4. c. 5. Lib. 7. c. 1. Lib. 5. c. 2. Lib. 6. c. 11. Lib. 7. c. 1. Jer. 2.19 Psal 122. John 16.2 Luke 23.34 Acts 3.17 Acts 26.9 1 Tim. 1.13 Acts 3.19 Jam. 1.20 Boeth Acts 22.4 Acts 26.9 John 7.17 1 Cor. 4.4 Job 25.5 6. 1 Joh. 3.21 Prov. 14.32 Ps 37.37 Acts 23.1 John 17.4 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Zech. 8.18 19. Verse 9 10 11 12 13. 1 Kings 8.37 38 39 40. Jer. 8.6 Jer. 13.17 Psal 119.36 v. 53. v. 158. Dan. 9.5 7 8. Ezr. 9.6 7. Jer. 5.30 31. Jer. 13.20 21. Isai 1.4 5. Ezra 9.6 Joel 2.15 16 17. Ver. 18. Dan. 9 3â— Ver. 16 17 18 19. Dan. 4.27 Jer. 29.11 12 13. Job 41.33 34. Acts 10.4 Isa 58.7 9. 2 Chron. 7.14 Zech. 8.19 Ezek. 33.31 Ver. 1. Ver. 2. Ver. 10. Ver. 12. Ver. 13. Ver. 14. Ver. 15. Ver. 16. Ver. 17 18. Ver. 21. Ver. 23. Psal 22.9 10 11. Rom. 8.35 v. 38 39. Prov. 1.24 25 c. Isa 27.11 Psal 4.6 7 8. Psal 119. 1 Cor. 1.25 Job 28.12 Ch. 28.12 Job 28.28 Eccl. 9.11 â—â— 38.22 23. Psal 52.1 Prov. 23.5 Eccl. 5.13 Prov. 1.18 Job 40.9 Judg. 10.13 Deut. 32.20 Jer. 6.8 Isa 14. Psal 48.2 Rev. 18.17 Isa 26.11 Ecclus 19.16 James 3.2 Jam. 1.26 Eccl. 19.8 Ecclus. 19.13 14 15. Matth. 24.12 Ecclus. 19.8 9. Matth. 7. Psal 34.12 13. Jam. 1.26 1 Cor. 6.10 Wisdom of Solomon c. 1. v. 11. Ecclus. 19.10 Psal 34.12 13. Matth. 15.19 Rom. 1.29 1 Cor. 6.10 2 Tim. 3.2 3. Psal 15.1 Psal 31.1
First I observe the charitable Decorum which our B. Saviour keeps in this as well as in the rest of his Parables as if He would fain suppose and hope that among those who enjoy the Gospel and make profession of it the number of them that are truly good is equal to those that are bad For our B. Saviour here represents the whole number of the Professors of Christianity by ten Virgins the half whereof the Parable seems to suppose to be truly and really good and to persevere in goodness to the end vers 1 2. Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten Virgins which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom And five of them were wise and five were foolish Secondly I observe how very common it is for men to neglect this great concernment of their Souls viz. a due preparation for another World and how willing men are to deceive themselves herein and to depend upon any thing else how groundless and unreasonable soever rather than to take pains to be really good and fit for Heaven And this is in a very lively manner represented to us in the description of the foolish Virgins who had provided no supply of Oyl in their Vessels and when the Bridegroom was coming would have furnish'd themselves by borrowing or buying of others vers 8.9 10. Thirdly I observe That even the better sort of Christians are not careful and watchful as they ought to prepare themselves for Death and Judgment Whilst the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept even the wise Virgins as well as the foolish Fourthly I observe further how little is to be done by us to any good purpose in this great work of Preparation when it is deferr'd and put off to the last Thus the foolish Virgins did and what a sad confusion and hurry they were in we may see vers 6 7 8 9. And at midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet Him At midnight the most dismal and unseasonable time of all other Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out But the wise answered not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves And how ineffectual all that they could do at that time prov'd to be we find verse 10 11 12 And whilst they went to buy the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut Afterwards came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us But he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not Fifthly I observe that there is no such thing as Works of Super-erogation That no man can do more than needs and is his duty to do by way of preparation for another World For when the foolish Virgins would have begg'd of the wise some Oyl for their Lamps the wise answered not so lest there be not enough for us and you It was only the foolish Virgins that had entertain'd this foolish conceit that there might be an over-plus of Grace and Merit in others sufficient to supply their want But the wise knew not of any that they had to spare but suppos'd all that they had little enough to qualify them for the reward of eternal life Not so say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest at any time lest when there should be need and occasion all that we have done or could do should prove little enough for our selves Sixthly and lastly I observe That if we could suppose any persons to be so over-good as to have more grace and goodness than needs to qualify them for the reward of eternal life yet there is no assigning and transferring of this over-plus of Grace and Virtue from one man to another For we see verse 9 10. that all the ways which they could think of of borrowing or buying Oyl of others did all prove ineffectual because the thing is in its own nature impracticable that one Sinner should be in a condition to merit for another All these Observations seem to have some fair and probable foundation in some part or other of this Parable and most of them I am sure are agreeable to the main scope and intention of the whole I shall speak to them severally and as briefly as I can First I observe the charitable Decorum which our B. Saviour keeps in this as well as in the rest of his Parables as if he would fain suppose and hope that among those who enjoy the Gospel and make Profession of it the number of those who make a firm and sincere Profession of it and persevere in goodness to the end is equal to the number of those who do not make good their Profession or who fall off from it I shall not be long upon this because I lay the least stress upon it of all the rest I shall only take notice that our B. Saviour in this Parable represents the whole number of the Professors of Christianity by ten Virgins the half of which the Parable seems to suppose to have sincerely embraced the Christian Profession and to have persever'd therein to the last The Kingdom of heaven shall be likened unto ten Virgin which took their Lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom And five of them were wise and five were foolish And this Decorum our B. Saviour seems carefully to observe in his other Parables As in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15. where for one Son that left his Father and took riotous courses there was another that stayed always with him and continued constant to his duty And in the Parable of the ten Talents which immediately follows that of the ten Virgins two are supposed to improve the Talents committed to them for one that made no improvement of his He that had five Talents committed to him made them five more and he that had two gained other two and only he that had but one Talent hid it in the earth and made no improvement of it And in the Parable which I am now upon the number of the Professors of Christianity who took care to fit and prepare themselves for the coming of the Bridegroom is supposed equal to the number of those who did not And whether this be particularly intended in the Parable or not it may however be thus far instructive to us That we should be so far from lessening the number of true Christians and from confining the Church of Christ within a narrow compass so as to exclude out of its Communion the far greatest part of the Professors of Christianity that on the contrary we should enlarge the Kingdom of Christ as much as we can and extend our charity to all Churches and Christians of what Denomination soever as far as regard to Truth and to the foundations of the