form Difficulties and to heighten these with Similes that tend to render them ridiculous and then to season all with Laughter and Scorn and to take no further Care of being better informed about them That these are Defects and Disorders even in a wise Man common Observation does justifie But if a Man will study to free himself from them and take some Pains to adjust the Balance that is to bring his Understanding to a due fixedness and attention to consider well and to pronounce slowly And to have the Scales made equal that is to have no Biass in him or Weight from bad Inclinations in the Scale opposite to Religion then let him consider the Matter as if he were in a Jury for his own Life or Death turns upon the Verdict and then let him give Sentence Before such a Judgment so well poised and so duly made there is no reason to fear the Cause of the Christian Religion If the mighty are prejudiced against Religion it is by reason of those ill qualities that commonly creep upon the Men of Power Justice and Equity do very often lie in the way of a present Interest Impartial Proceedings require Impartial Minds The thoughts of a Judgment to come must be very unacceptable to him that perverts Judgment and Justice He who is not content with what he hath cannot be easie while he sees that his Neighbour has more than himself Or that he has that which would very much accommodate himself and which he might come at if it were not for such an importunate Rule as is that of doing as one would be done by He who has been successful in his Injustice and Violence cannot easily receive a Doctrine which brings him under indispensable Obligations of restoring all that he has unjustly acquired The Horrors of Guilt the Tears of the Oppressed and the cry of Blood that pursues them would arise too fast and be heard too sensibly by them if they admitted such a secret Monitor as true Religion would prove to them When Felix heard the Doctrines of Temperance Iustice and a Iudgment to come he trembled indeed but yet he sent away the Preacher putting him off to a more convenient time And whereas no Man is in danger to be much corrupted by the Flatteries of others till he has accustomed himself to such kind Thoughts of his own supposed Worth that he easily believes that all others are as favourable to him as he himself is the severe Reflections that will arise out of this Holy Doctrine will soon take off the Visar and make him see himself in his own Deformity and that perhaps in the most odious appearances In a word unless this Man of Power and Dominion can free his Mind from the false Notions he has of his own Glory and Authority he cannot receive the Christian Religion but with great aversion since his Nature and his Habits are so totally opposite to its chief Tendency and Design Yet this arises not from any Contradiction that it has to the true Ends of Power and Government as if these were incompatible but from those ill qualities which do so generally vitiate the Taste and corrupt the Tempers of the great and mighty Men. As for the Noble if the Humility enjoined in the Gospel obliged them to meannesses unbecoming their Rank or if that Awe and Fear which arises out of Religious Principles did sink Mens Spirits or depress their Courage here were a very colourable Pretence But when this Humility consists chiefly in a modesty of Temper and a readiness to do good Offices even to the meanest what harm can this do to the Men of the greatest Advantages for Birth and Rank In the performing these Offices there is a natural Decency and Suitableness agreeable to the Order that must be maintained in the World Persons of the highest Form when they hear the just Complaints of the miserable and the oppressed with Patience and Pity and take care that they be relieved do the Humilities of their Rank as much as those of a lower Order that visit the Sick or serve Hospitals and Prisons And since the Fear with which Christianity inspires does only work on the Guilty it is their Guilt and not our Doctrine which gives the disquiet But on the other hand nothing gives such an exalted Courage and so true a contempt of Death as the prospect of another State with the just assurances of the Favour of God and of endless Happiness Nor does any thing make a Man so firm against Accidents and Misfortunes as the Belief of Providence and nothing raises a Man to a truer Generosity and a greater nobleness of Mind than the contempt of Wealth and that extent of Charity which our Religion enjoyns But if the Noble of this World get into the Habits of Voluptuousness and Sensuality if they think it becomes their Dignity to give a loose range to Appetite and to be as Publick and Eminent for their Irregularities as they are by the Rank they hold if they cannot submit to the drudgery of Instruction and Knowledge nor to such Imployments as are truly Manly and Useful to the Age if they think that Laziness and Luxury Sloth and Idleness belong to them as Appendages of their Birth if because they need be at no Pains to help to support themselves they think they owe nothing to Humane Nature or to their Country and if the little Submissions to which they are accustomed within Doors make them Insolent and Insufferable to all abroad then it is from those vicious Habits that their dislike of our Religion does arise It is from the undisciplined wildness of their own Natures and the neglected Methods of their Education that this flows Herod heard Iohn gladly but could not part with Herodias And somewhat like this made that Agrippa went no further than to be almost a Christian. So now I hope it is abundantly clear That the too common opposition that is between the Wise the Mighty and the Noble and the Precepts and Rules of the Christian Religion arises not from any thing that is justly exceptionable in it but from a great many qualities and dispositions that hang about those Orders and Ranks of Men which make that they cannot bear a Yoke that is so hard to them They can neither resolve on changing those Dispositions nor of suffering a set of Thoughts to break in upon them that will make them uneasie in them and give them much trouble for them And if it is Visible as I hope it is that all those habits are in their nature and effects hurtful both to those who are over-run with them and to the rest of Mankind then all this is so far from being a just prejudice against the Christian Religion that it tends rather to recommend it the more Since those who are the most averse to it are so only by reason of the prevalency of some very bad Habits and Customs which the Interest of the whole World does require
the regards that the world naturally paies them and the dependencies that are upon them bring vertue in credit and put vice out of countenance they who make fashions in all other things might go far in this too if they would set about it in good earnest but if they go into the Stream they make it so much the stronger and to grow the more rapid They run good things down by a set of bad words which they bestow upon them they call Religion Superstition Zeal Bigotry Strictness of Conscience Narrowness of mind The just apprehensions of the guilt of sin or the wrath of God goes for a poorness of spirit and a want of courage Such words pass upon them and among them without any strict inquiry and thus they run headlong into false notions so that all those great Characters of Wise Mighty and Noble that have so August a sound are far from answering the first Ideas that we naturally frame in our minds concerning them 2dly Men of a lower form ought to be the more easily satisfied with that narrow Portion that has fallen to them since it delivers them from many temptations which otherwise would probably overset them A Man of a moderate sise as to parts tho perhaps few put themselves into this Classis except those who are really above it as they have little to answer for so they have little to encounter or to fear They may have sense enough to know what is their duty how they ought to go thro this Scene of life and what part they are to act in it But they were not born to disturb the Age to embroil Kingdoms and to distract Churches they are not Men of notions or speculations yet after all if they are Men of Probity and Industry Piety and Conscience they may fully answer the ends of their coming into the World and fulfil the obligations of that State of life in which they are put Men of Middlefortunes who are contened and easy who know to obey without aspiring to command and who chose rather to use well what they have than ravenously to cover what they have not are secure from many accidents and exempted from many temptations They are as much above Necessity as below Envy happy is a Middle-region Serene and Calm or if the Ballance seem rather to lean to the extraem of want yet they are thereby carried to take Sanctuary in the secret comforts which Religion gives in those two most eminently the firm belief of a wise Providence and of a future State the never-failing Springs of Joy to those who are possessed of them And if those who pass for the refuse and dreggs of Mankind have reason to conclude that they are the Sons of God and the Heirs of Glory How easily may they bear with all the depressions of their present condition who have such a Blessedness in view and in Reversion 3dly And lastly let us all consider what great reason we have to bless Almighty God for this high and holy calling to which he hath called us Let us but compare the present State of the greatest part of the world with our own how much preferable are our circumstances to theirs for all their happier Climates and richer Soils and how much does the present condition of this Island exceed that of our Ancestors either in the ruder times of Paganism or under the later corruptions of Popery how sensible how vast is the difference in all respects Since then we are called to so holy a Religion and enjoy it in its true purity with advantages both spiritual and temporal beyond any Church or Nation now under Heaven and far beyond what we had in former ages we have just reason to Glory in the Lord to value our selves upon the favours we have received and the priviledges that we are under but if we are under such peculiar distinctions the natural inference from this is that we ought to distinguish our selves from all others and that in proportion to what we have received we ought to rejoyce in this light to walk in it and to walk worthy of it and to become in every respect both the wiser and the better for it But if we have reason to glory in the Lord God knows how little reason we have according to St. Paul's other inference to glory in his sight that is to glory or boast of our selves This is but too evident and needs not be proved the enumeration of particulars would be too sad and too long all is to be summed up in these words that Light is come among us but that we love darkness better than Light because our Deeds are Evil. May the great God so touch our hearts with a sense of all his blessings to us and above all of his unspeakable Love in sending his Son to die for us that we may bring forth fruits worthy of them to the glory of his great name and to the salvation of our souls in the day of the Lord Jesus To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever FINIS Books lately Printed for R. Chiswell A Discourse of the Pastoral Care By the Lord Bishop of Sarum 8vo Four Discourses delivered to the Clergy of the Diocess of Sarum concerning I. The Truth of the Christian Religion II. The Divinity and Death of Christ III. The Infalibility and Authority of the Church IV. The Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church By the Lord Bishop of Sarum An Impartial History of the Late Wars of Ireland from the beginning to the end In two Parts Illustrated with Copper Sculptures describing the most Important Places of Action Written by George Story an Eye-witness of the most Remarkable Passages 4to A Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts By George Tully Sub-Dean of York 8vo Memorials of the Most Reverend Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Wherein the History of the Church and the Reformation of it during the Primacy of the said Archbishop are greatly illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now first published in Three Books Collected chiefly from Records Registers Authentick Letters and other Original Manuscripts By Iohn Strype M. A. Fol. Origo Legum Or A Treatise of the Origin of Laws and their Obliging Power As also of their great Variety and why some Laws are immutable and some not but may suffer change or cease to be or be suspended or abrogated In Seven Books By George Dawson M. A. Fol. FINIS
PRINTED By Her Majesty's Special Command A SERMON PREACH'D Before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On the 11th of March 1693 4. BEING The Third SUNDAY in LENT By the Right Reverend Father in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of SARVM LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV THE BISHOP of SARVM's LENT-SERMON Before the QUEEN On Sunday March the 11th 1693. 1 COR. i. 26. For ye see your Calling Brethren how that not many Wise after the Flesh not many Mighty not many Noble are called IT was one of the earliest and is like to be one of the most lasting Prejudices against the Christian Religion that few of those who have been under eminent Distinctions in the World have sincerely gone into its Precepts and Discipline many have indeed gone into its Interests when they found their own in them who have been much above the common Level but these have lived so little like their Profession that they have become a Reproach to it and what they seemed to build up with one Hand was more than defaced with the other while the World by comparing their Zeal with their Morals have been led to collect that they themselves did not believe that Religion about whose Concerns they seemed to be so warm and active But when it has been observed that those few upon whose Tempers and Actions this Religion seemed to have a more real and a more powerful Influence have been for the greater part Men of a lower size of Mind and Fortune many have from thence framed to themselves the most mischievous Idea possible of our most holy Faith that its Votaries were either apt to deceive or be deceived in plain English either Knaves or Fools This the Jews began and charged our Saviour with it that none of the Doctors Joh. 7. 48 49. the Rulers or the Pharisees had believed on him and that the Rabble who followed him were People who knew not the Law and were accursed The Philosophers when they heard St. Paul preach reckoned him a Babler Acts 17. 18 32. and his Doctrine foolish and whereas they thought that none were capable of true Philosophy that is in the sense of those Ages of true Notions concerning God and Morality but Men happily born and duly prepared they were amaz'd when they saw Multitudes of all Ages and Conditions and of both Sexes imbrace this Doctrine adhere so firmly to it and die so resolutely for it that whereas a generous Contempt of Life and a Firmness against the Terrors of Death had been esteemed the greatest Indication of the Courage of the Romans or the Philosophy of the Greeks the Christians came to be marked with this Character not only by the profane Lucian but by a much better Man Marcus Aurelius as too regardless and prodigal of Life yet still the World stuck to that as to a just Prejudice that those who embraced this Doctrine were mean and illiterate Men who having little to lose in this World were the more easily prevailed on to despise it and to hearken after the hopes of another and to embrace a Doctrine that offered its Proselytes many Privileges beyond the rest of Mankind And since mean Mens Minds are often as low as their Fortunes and poor and weak People are more apt to be imposed on and less capable of making strict Enquiries into the truth of Things all this seems to give a fair and reasonable Presumption against a Religion whose first Converts were neither the Learned Rabbins nor the Subtile Philosophers neither Men of Authority nor Birth Somewhat like the same Observation is still made if not of the Nominal Christians of our days for now all are such yet of those of whom one has the justest reason to conclude that they are in earnest with their Religion that they are neither of the highest size for Parts Quality or Power but are more commonly Persons of a moderate Proportion as to all these things This seems to afford a very proper Subject for a Discourse of this kind to consider and discuss the Truth and the Consequences that may arise out of this Prejudice and that both with relation to the Beginnings of Christianity and to the present State in which we find it to be among our selves I need not amuse you long with explaining the words of my Text. By Calling is meant their Vocation to the Christian Religion not in that general sense Mat. 20. 16. in which it is said that many are called which imports only that the Gospel was to be preached to many but in a more restricted sense in which it is used promiscuously with Election so we are required to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet 1. 10. that is our being gathered together by the Call of the Gospel into a Body distinct and separated from the World By this then is to be understood that Vocation by which Christians as they are called on by the Gospel so they do hearken to it and follow it By the wise after the Flesh may be well meant Men of Worldly Prudence Skill and Dexterity in the ordering their Affairs or in the Conduct of the World but the common Acceptation of this word used among the Greeks and in this Epistle relates to those Men of Speculation and Knowledg of Subtilty and Dispute known by the Names of Sophists and Philosophers By Mighty are to be understood the Men of Power and Authority Princes and Magistrates By Noble are meant Men of high Birth and great Blood So the Importance of my Text is this You Christians of Corinth see that among you who have imbraced the Christian Religion there are not many some few there might be either Philosophers Magistrates or Men of Noble Extraction but on the contrary you see that your Assemblies are made up of Persons that are weak and despised that are of no Account or Esteem in the World And of this the Apostle is so little ashamed and so little disposed to deny hide or extenuate it that he enlarges upon it in a variety of several very full Expressions he calls them not only foolish and weak base and despised but things that are not as low a Figure as Language is capable of and draws from it two very important Reflections That no Flesh should glory in God's Presence but that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord. In speaking to these words I shall consider I. What reason there was for such Reflections in the days of the Apostles and how came it that their Converts were not of the upper but of the lower Ranks of Men II. What reason there may be for the like Reflections in the present Age III. Whether this is a just Prejudice against the Christian Religion or not IV. That all this belongs only to the greater part the many and that it is not universally tho it be generally true And V. What are the proper Inferences to be drawn from all this To the
that Men should be cured and freed from And this appears more evident by considering the fourth Particular which is 4. That all this belongs only to the greater part the many but that it is not constantly nor Universally true We have seen what a Powerful Biass the Orders of Men specified in the Text are under as to the Christian Religion But we are now to consider the Abatements that are to be made in this Point In Fact we find a Nicodemus and a Ioseph of Arimathea among the first who acknowledged our Saviour tho' they were both of the Sanhedrin the chief Judicature and indeed the Head of the Jewish State We see Gamaliel was not far from it besides several Rulers of Synagogues who were always Men of distinction in the Neighbourhood we find also one of the Iudges of Areopagus the most Celebrated Court in Greece and one of the Roman Deputies among the first Converts to our Faith St. Paul himself was a Master of the Jewish Learning and acquainted with the Greek Philosophers and Poets We find some of Domitian's Kindred were not only Christians but Martyrs Many of the Philosophers and the most admired Orators of Greece came afterwards to receive and defend this Faith And now in a course of a great many Ages Men in all respects eminent both for Sense and Learning Wit and Eloquence have not only made outward Profession of this Doctrine but have strenously defended it and which is yet more have conformed their own Lives to it If we will judge a little of this Matter by the Bulk we must confess that where the Light of this Gospel shines even in colder Climates less productive of Men of Genius yet there is a more general Knowledge spread among Nations that were dull and barbarous while under the Power of other Religions than is to be found in Provinces of a much vaster extent that live in a purer Air a happier Soil and under a kinder aspect of the Heavens I need not observe what a Darkness is spread over all the Pagan Nations how most of them are sunk even below Humane Nature and how little the Mahometans rise above them bating their Freedom from Idolatry Greece and Rome the two most refined Scenes of Paganism had Notions of their Gods and Religion which the wiser Men among themselves could hardly endure and which they have sufficiently exposed The good Laws under which all States are brought which acknowledge this Doctrine in its purity produce an unspeakable Change on the outward face and appearances of things which tho' it does not reform Men inwardly yet it proves a great Blessing to humane Society and the cultivation of all Arts and Sciences that accompanies this happy Light shews that it awakens Mens Faculties excites their Thoughts and quickens their Industry All other Religions feed so much Superstition that it tends to Barbarity and tho' under some happy Reigns and great Princes we find good Sense and true Knowledge sometimes in the Ascendant Yet this went soon off it is not the natural growth of such a Religion and cannot thrive long in that Soil Thus upon the whole Matter this our Doctrine is Light and it illuminates Mankind in gross And some even of the sublimest Minds that Ages and Nations have produced the Men of the liveliest Thoughts truest Judgments and most piercing Understandings that have gone the deepest into Knowledge and have seen the furthest into Humane Nature have not only undertaken and managed the Cause of Religion with great Advantages but have recommended it more by their own unblemished and exemplary Lives than can possibly be done by the most laboured Writings and the most moving Persuasions They have expressed a genuine Humility an unaffected contempt of the Pleasures and Interests of this Life They have been pure without spot grave and sober yet neither sullen nor ill-natured They have been serious without Melancholy and devout without Superstition And have shewed that Wit could be lively without being Impious and that one may be cheerful without being Prophane or Scurrilous Now I would gladly know whither any such whom you may have known and I hope you may have known many of them have not been more Beneficial to Mankind have not been greater Blessings in their Families and Neighbourhoods and if their Knowledge set off with their Modesty and Humility has not looked full as well about them as the highest Pretenders to Wit and unsanctified Vivacity The Presumption of the latter takes off from the true Value that does perhaps belong to them Whereas the former have nothing that is troublesome and offensive with all that is useful in Knowledge They can feel that they know more than others without either despising them or offering to impose upon them they can be superior to others without Insolence and Conquer without Scorn In such Persons knowledge does both shine and triumph and is equally useful and amiable None are hurt but such Mens Wit and many are the better by their means The temper that Religion inspires them with does really exalt their Capacities it fixes their attention and composes their Minds and as the Revelation of this Doctrine has brought a great deal to Light which the World could never have thought on without it so the excellent disposition under which Men are brought by it puts them in a good way to improve those Seeds and to increase them But as some of the disputers of this World the Wise and the Learned have been great Ornaments to this Religion as well as they have been much adorned by it so some Men of Power and Authority have come under the standarts of the Crosse they have owned their Power to be derived from him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords They have not only taken on the Profession of this Faith but have established and conformed it by Laws they have imployed their Power to protect and encourage Virtue and Justice they have studyed the common good of Societies and the true Interest Mankind Some Princes and Magistrates I am sorry that I must only say some but some they have been whose Exemplary lives have been Patterns to one great part of mankind and Reproaches to the rest They have been raised above the World only to let others see to what a height of vertue and to what an exactness of Deportment to what a nobleness of Temper and purity of Morals humane Nature may be exalted and remain untainted under all the smiles of Fortune and the flateries of the obsequious Some have reckon'd it the end of their Power to promote Justice to repress Rapine to encourage Vertue and put Vice out of countenance and to pursue the common Good of the whole Society as well as the particular happiness of every deserving Person in it and have reckoned no part of their time better imployed and more to their own content than that which has been applyed to consider the miseries and to procure the happiness of their
Partiality and Injustice and to Violence and Rage if they are at the top of Human Nature in high Power and Authority they are apt to extend that either to an undue Domination over those who are subject to them or to an unjust Enlargement of Empire Unlawful Wars and Conquests look great and sound big if they are successful in them and flattered for them they are enchanted with a false Opinion of their own Glory so that neither the Blood that is shed nor the Miseries that are occasioned by them are able to disturb that Imaginary Happiness with which they seem to be at present so much delighted Men thus turned and so vitiated are not capable to apprehend themselves to be under the Obligations to Justice and Compassion to Truth and Fidelity to Moderation of their Desires and to the restoring what they have injustly taken or do as unjustly detain from other Men. If a Zeal for some of the Interests or Passions of a Party in Religion if Cost and Magnificence Solemnity and Cruelty in the Cause of a Church will buy off greater Obligations or pay for the most Criminal Violations of all that is just and sacred among Men then they will perhaps purchase a Name at that rate as well as pay those who flatter them on that account It is then very true that the Men of Power and Authority are under such a Biass and so many Temptations that it is scarce to be hoped for that many of them shall come within this high and holy Calling As for the Noble the Men of Extraction and Descent of high Blood and antient Families they are often so much mollified and broken by a soft and careless Education they are so enervated by Luxury and so dissolved into Idleness and Voluptuousness that they are as little capable of coming under this Yoke as either of the former were found to be The Abundance to which they were born and in which they have always lived seems to set them beyond the Necessity of imploying their Thoughts and Time in worthy or useful Studies and Exercises They are steeped in Laziness and over-run with fierce and craving Appetites Pleasure sways and turns them it consumes their Time and exhausts both Bodies and Minds a Restraint of Excess and Riot and a Limitation of Appetite are Doctrines they cannot submit to but think their Liberties ought to be as unbounded as their Desires are The ill Example they see and the bad Company they keep meet little Resistance from them and do soon conquer Minds so little disciplined or cultivated And thus it is not to be denied but that the Opposition which the Christian Doctrine gives to those Corruptions that do but too easily beset the Wise the Mighty and the Noble makes that few of them can conquer themselves and break thrô those ill Habits and Dispositions of Mind that do as it were belong to their Condition and Circumstances and by so doing become true Christians Common Observation is so full of this that I will not go about to prove it I wish I were mistaken and out in my account The thing is but too visible and crying and the Corruptions are too publick and scandalous Men glory too much in them to be either ashamed of them or willing to forsake them While on the other hand the few Men of Vertue and Probity of Morality and true Piety are for the most part Men of a lower size whose honest Tempers and good Nature do more than ballance those seeming Defects in Vivacity and Knowledg they are Men of a middle size neither contemptible for their Folly nor of a sublime Exaltation Men of moderate Fortunes as well as Desires who are neither depressed with Poverty nor exalted with Wealth are generally the most capable of Justice and Honesty of Industry and a chearful Contentedness with their Condition and those who are neither high nor low neither blown up nor sunk with their Fortunes are generally the best fitted for the Precepts of Religion As for those who are placed in the Extreams of Fortune certainly tho the lowest have their Temptations as well as the greatest yet of the two they are by their Condition much more disposed to Religion they are less dissipated and more alone they have more occasion both to fear bad Accidents and to be devout under them and the mean Condition to which they seem to be doomed in this Life may very naturally dispose them to try to have it better'd in another World So far I have gone on the second Head The third is Whether this is a just Prejudice against the Christian Religion or not At first view it looks as if the Truth of our Faith appeared very doubtfully and could not bear a strict Enquiry that howsoever weaker Minds might be overcome yet it could not stand the Test before Men of more searching Understandings It looks also ill that it seems incompatible with Authority and Dignity as if it were a mean and dispiriting Doctrine suted only to Men of abject Minds and broken Fortunes and a proper Theory for the Unfortunate to take Sanctuary in It is true we have already considered and agreed this matter that there is somewhat in most of the Wise the Mighty and the Noble which bars out this Discipline they are not fitted to it nor it to them But after all if this Indisposition arises not from any Opposition between Religion and their Faculties or Circumstances but only from the Contradiction it gives to some bad and vicious Qualities that are in the Persons here described then it can furnish us with no just or well-grounded Prejudices against the Christian Faith That Humility and Modesty a due distrust of our selves and regard to others that Application and Industry are necessary Dispositions to the perfecting our Faculties is that which few can deny What is true Breeding among the civilized but the putting on the appearances of Modesty and Humility And if the appearances of these things are so Beautiful and that Youth is formed in them with so much Care how much more valuable must these things be When they are the genuine and natural growth of our Minds When they are not only counterfeit and mimickry but the product of Hearts duly seasoned and well principled How rough and boisterous a thing is Pride and a haughtiness of Temper and Behaviour How unkind and unneighbourly a thing is the contempt of other Peoples Understandings And how unseemly and brutal is it for a Man to Dictate and to be Imperious It is a sign of a trifling Mind to affect to Doubt when all the just Reasons of Doubting are sufficiently cleared And nothing shews a Man to be more a stranger to himself and to the natural Defects of his Faculties than to imagine that all things may fall well within the compass of his Thoughts Nor is there any thing more contrary to the true Methods of arriving at Knowledge than for Men after a slight view of things to
People They have easily admitted and patiently heard the groans of the helpless and oppressed and have thought it no interruption nor disturbance of their own happy tranquility to enter into and feel the sufferings of others with a tenderness that becomes those who are called and ought to be the Fathers and Guardians of their people When such blessings happen to any Age how sensibly do all Men feel it This softens the afflictions of the Unfortunate which grow the lighter to them if they who are so far exalted above them seem to afford them but one tender look or thought It gives a reserve of hope for the Prosperous who apprehend the Calamities that may happen to them with a less dreadful prospect when they can promise themselves supplies in Reversion to their present abundance Now let every Man consider and pronounce whither Men so made do not become their power better and if their power is not an Instrument of much realler blessings to mankind more benigne and beneficial than all that glitter all the shews of Glory and affectations of Greatness in the Men of Dominion the mighty Potentates and Conquerours those plagues of Heaven and scourges of the Earth And as for the 3d and last rank of the Noble it cannot be denied neither but how general soever the corruption of that sort of Men has been spread yet that this admits of exceptions Some of high Birth have delighted to distinguish themselves by their Generosity and Bounty by their Sobriety and Temperance by their Affability and sweetness of Temper Some have passed their lives in Courts and Camps how little soever these may seem Schools of Vertue so exactly that neither the censures of the envious nor the Calumnies of the malicious which are the more natural grouth of those places could fix on them or lessen them Some have mixed their Piety with their Courage so equally That it was plain both were fed from the same root They have exposed themselves to every danger from the Enemies but have born indignities rather than deride their private differences in that Inhumane and Unchristian way that the corruption of these latter Ages has introduced with a sort of uncontroulled Authority among the men of the Sword Such among the Noble must needs appear with a very particular Lustre having in them all that is valuable among the men of their sort without any of the abatements or diminutions that do too commonly appear among them Does not their Sobriety and moderation their temperance of Mind as well as of Diet the firmness of their Courage with the modesty of their Deportment their Intrepidity in danger together with their pious Meditations both before and after it look greater and nobler has it not an Air in it that arises above humane nature and strickes more than all the false Vanities and the proud boastings of pretending Hero's I will dwell no longer on this Head I hope it is undeniable that instances have happened both among the Wise the Mighty and Noble of men that have been strict and eminent Christians and therefore this prejudice is the less just because not universally true and since those few among these orders of Men have been so much superiour in their true value and in their usefulness to mankind to all the rest of their sort there is therefore no strength nor force in this prejudice against our Religion that is founded on this ground because the greater numbers of the Wise the Mighty and the Noble are not true and sincere Christians since that arises only from the purity of this Religion and the impurity of their Tempers and Morals so that upon the whole matter this becomes rather an argument to recommend our Religion since those who stand out against it do it by reason of the disorders they fall under in which if they could continue secure in ours as well as they may in other corrupt Religions they would probably like it as well as any other So that we may justly conclude that how true soever the position in the Text may still continue to be yet it furnishes the world with no just prejudice against this Religion It remains now in the last place that I consider 5ly What are the proper Inferences to be drawn from all this and 1st It is plain how little value we ought to set on all those distructions that look so big in the eyes of blinded and mistaken Men for if on the one hand they put men in a capacity of doing good and great services to mankind on the other hand they bring them under temptations that for most part prove too hard for humane frailty So that they have a double account to make both of the good that they might have done but have not done and the evil that they have done The men of Parts and Wit might contribute to enlighten the World to make knowledge both easier and pleasanter they might gain an Ascendant by the superiority of their understandings to subdue the rest to their Reasons They might by the authority of their perswasions and the exactness of their conduct make the World see in the most sensible manner the beauty and excellence of Wisdom and Vertue all this they might do but if instead of this they turn the most Serious things into Burlesque and profane the most Sacred if they set themselves to face down Vertue and to laugh away the sense of Religion and furnish little dablers with some scraps to support them in their Impieties these persons tho pressed down with a vast load of there own Guilt have a huge accession from all those Crimes that others are brought to by their Influence and Example so that by a fatal fruitfulness they are entitled to all that cursed off-spring That is the descent of their Wit and humour The Men of Authority that might set bright Patterns and have a noble Influence over others which is perhaps all that is valuable in a great Post and all that can well ballance that vexation and the other ill accidents that accompany it will have a severe reckoning to make if instead of endeavouring this they have not only been passive and indifferent but have really perverted Justice and authorized Crimes if they have look'd on as unconcerned at many evils which they might have redressed and not content with that have enouraged Vice and promoted Wickedness If those of whom the Scripture has said ye are Gods a strain that without such an authority had passed for unsufferable flattery will make that which in respect to their Character is not to be named if they who might be the blessings and almost the Idols of mankind become plagues and curses then certainly that great exaltation to which God had raised them here must end terribly they who have received their good things in this Life must look to be tormented in proportion to the ill returns they have made for such extraordinary favours The Men of Birth and Blood might by