which we partake in that Sacrament 1 Con. 10.17 We are all partakers of that one bread and that the Cup of which we drink and thus believing we do not give Divine worship unto the Elements in the Sacrament But they in absolute contradiction both unto Scripture and unto Reason and unto four of their five Senses believe that after Consecration there is no bread but the natural flesh of Christ's body no wine but his very natural blood Upon which account they pay a Divine worship to them worship that which is not God that which is really bread and wine To all these things I might now add the Superstition of their Devotions their Prayers for delivering departed Souls out of that place they call Purgatory a place that is of their own making for gaining Wealth unto their Church Their Pilgrimages to the Tombs of Saints an infinite Mass of Rites and Ceremonies for which things they have no precept in the Scripture no example either there or in the primitive Ages of Christianity Rites which obscure and burden Religion with a numberless heap of Superstitions contrary to the very nature to the simplicity of Christianity From matter of Worship pass we on to matter of common life and action 1. As it relates to moral Duty 2. And also unto Civil Society 1. And for the former our Church declares that true repentance is absolutely necessary to gain the remission and pardon of sin We also affirm that reformation is the best and most essential part of true repentance We do not pretend to any power to give Absolution to any person who doth not practise such repentance that is to say who doth not truly reform himself in life and action in case life be continued to him or in real purpose and resolution in an effectual change of heart We make no pretence to an Authority of giving Indulgences and Remissions or of admitting any Penances and Commutations for the Expiation of the sin where the sin is still continued in Whereas they of the Church of Rome give Absolution to Attrition that is to the meer fear of Hell and these two things namely Attrition and Absolution they judge sufficient to Salvation They admit of Penances and Commutations for the Expiation of mens sins and by these means teach their Followers to hope for remission of the punishment although they retain the sin it self And lest the Penance should seem burthensom and too severe they can give Indulgence for that too to them that will be at the cost to buy it By all which means they make the Precepts of the Gospel the Laws of Christ of no effect make it needless to obey them unless a man have a mind unto it and to do more than what is needful 2. For Civil Society 't is well known how many there are in the Church of Rome who do affirm that it is not needful to discharge a promise to a Heretick and all are Hereticks in their account who make profession of Christianity and do not communicate with their Church We know there was safe conduct promised to John Hus and Jerom of Prague to the Council of Conslance and how that promise was performed The promise was broken and the men burnt and so indeed they justified their Doctrine by their practice They exempt the Clergy from the Authority of secular Power till they be surrendred thereunto by their Superiors in the Church and they surrender them when they please and when they please they do not Upon which account many Villanies many Murders have been committed in the State to the infinite scandal of Religion It was complained in the sixth year of King Henry the Second that there have been above an hundred man slaughters committed by the then Clergy since the beginning of his Reign But that which is of the vilest consequence in this point is that they affirm that the Popes of Rome have power to depose Kings and Princes and that pursuant to this Doctrine they have excommunicated and deposed lawful Princes in several places and given their Kingdoms and Dominions to other persons that there are infinite numbers of Authors who defend and justifie this Doctrine that these are countenanced by a Council that is to say the fourth Lateran which they themselves call a General Council For it is there expresly said that in case a Prince does not purge his Country from heretical pravity in the space of a year after admonition so to do by the Metropolitan and his Comprovincials then this be signified to the Pope that he may deprive him of all Authority terram ejus exponat Catholicis occupandam expose his Country to be possessed and seized by Catholicks In direct pursuance of which Doctrine private persons have stab'd Princes and have been commended and applauded by the Pope himself for so doing For so it was in the case of Henry the Third of France These are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome relating unto Civil Society what ours are I need not say We owne our selves obliged to do good to all men and that although we have not obliged our selves thereto by any particular promise to them much more discharg'd our faith to all We owne the King to be supreme in his own dominions and that there is no power in any to depose him And to conclude we owne the truth of S. Peter's words and that in the very fullest sense Honour or as the margent reads it esteem all men love the Brotherhood fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 We owne all to be oblig'd to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or to Governours as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers I have here given you an account of some of the most material differences between us and the Church of Rome in point of faith and worship and manners and should now perswade you to stand fast in all these things as they are taught in this Church not suffering your selves to be abased by vain Sophistry of deceivers If they ask you where our Church was before Luther ask you again where theirs was before the fourth Laterane Council nay before that of Trent it self For sure it is there was never any Church before those Councils that did in all things teach and practise as the Church of Rome at this present time Tell them our Church that is a Church wherein the same faith and worship the same obedience to Gods commands were taught and required which are now taught and required in ours were many ages before theirs Such a Church there was assoon as there was a Christian Church such a Church planted by Christ himself such a Church propagated by his Apostles such a Church for several hundred years for several ages after that Afterwards there arose a time of darkness upon the face of the Christian world in that darkness many errours crept into the Church many corruptions in worship
R. White Sculp â—ELMUS OUTRAMUS S.T.P. S ti Petri apud Westmonasterienses Canonicus TWENTY SERMONS PREACHED upon Several Occasions BY WILLIAM OWTRAM D.D. Prebendary of Westminster and one of his MAJESTIES Chaplains in Ordinary Printed after the Authors own Copies LONDON Printed by J. M. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St Paul's Church-Yard 1682. TO THE READER Reader IT is well known that the Author of these following Sermons could never he prevailed upon either by the Intreaty of his Friends or the Authority of his Superiours though very much urged by both to publish any of his Sermons in Print and his nearest Relations would have paid that respect to him in this as in all other things to have denyed them to the Publick for the sake of his own Judgment in this matter had not a forward Bookseller only to serve the ends of his own profit thrust out into the World Six Sermons under his name not many Months after his Death To promote the Sale of which he indeavours in an Epistle before them to make the Reader believe that although as he confesses they were taken from the Author by a Short-hand-man many years since yet they were allowed and corrected by himself That they were agreeable to his sense And that there was no other more perfect Copy to be procured If all this had been true What right had the Bookseller and his Short-hand Friend by this to publish them in the name of this Author Did the Author Correct them for the Press Or is it sufficient to justifie the publishing of such Discourses under a Mans name because they are agreeable to his sense Or if no other Copy could be procured was it therefore necessary to publish this But this pretence was so far from being true that whosoever has been abused by this Publisher so much as to buy and look into those Sermons will find that they are so far from being Corrected by the Hand of this Author that they were never Corrected by any That they are so far from being agreeable to his sense that in very many places they are no sense at all And the Publisher knows very well that he never inquired of any of the Authors Relations for any Copies or Papers remaining in their hands If he had he might have been shewed Three Sermons upon the first Text Heb. 10.38 whereas he has published but Two of them and those two put together as one and that so imperfect so incoherent and so ungrammatical that the Reader must be very kind if he would excuse the Author in many places as well as the Printer One might point to mistakes in almost every Page some of which are very absurd and intolerable But in regard some Friends of the Authors have thought fit to collect a Volume of his Sermons upon Theological Subjects amongst which it will be most proper to insert these upon the 10th of the Hebrews concerning the Life of Faith in connection with other Discourses of Faith it is sufficient to acquaint the Reader that these shall be reprinted after the Authors own Copy In like manner the Publisher if he had consulted the Authors Friends might have seen that the Second and Third Sermons of Providence upon St. Matt. 10.29 are but a part of his Discourses upon that Subject which it will be most proper to put together and publish if at all in a Volume of the Attributes of God upon which the Author has several Sermons But besides that these are but apart of his Meditations upon Providence they are also very broken and imperfect in many places though the Short-hand-man has endeavoured according to his skill in Divinity to supply and fill them up Of the three following two of them cannot yet be found amongst the Authors Papers so that it is very doubtful whether they be his or no and therefore the Publisher besides the wrong he has done the Author and the World too in exposing his labours imperfectly has also very probably fathered upon him those that are none of his The just indignation which the Authors Friends have taken to this injurious dealing of the Publisher together with Reports brought frequently to their ears of a design of other persons to publish other of his Sermons inclined them though they are sensible against the Authors own opinion to set forth a Volume at present according to his own Copies And these Twenty being lately preached upon particular occasions and some of them in the most august and solemn Audience and all of them designed to obviate the evils of the Age and to secure Men in the belief and practice of the true Religion are thought not improper to be first offered to the publick view The Author was sensible by what Artifices what degrees and what parties of Men this most excellent constitution of the Church of England is endeavoured to be undermined and denying to no Man the liberty of Disquisition and Discourse he understood the strength both of their Arguments and their Interest And the Reader may discern by these Sermons that he apprehended our danger to arise of late from a confederacy it may be one cannot say but a complication of enemies Papists Libertines and Dissenters but chiefly from the first who imploy the two latter to work under them and to weaken the Church of England one by Prophaneness and the other by Separation that so they may argue against the sufficiency of our constitution to maintain good Life and preserve Unity and dispose those who are of no Religion and no Church to become Proselytes to theirs Amongst the Libertines may be reckoned that sort of Men who though indeed they have natural conviction of a supreme Being pretend to more wit than to be satisfied with the Authority of our Blessed Saviour and so because they have no good opinion of the Truth of his Religion they neglect Religion in general for what Theist was ever known to live according to the Principles of natural Religion to which notwithstanding he owns himself obliged For the Dissenters they have many different Opinions amongst themselves some of which are here taken notice of either ex proposito in some Sermons or by the by in others So that the whole Collection is an Antidote Very seasonable for the malignity of the Age and by the blessing of God may have some profitable effect from the Press as by the testimony of the Hearers they had from the Pulpit and they are offered to the world for that end not as a Character of the great abilities of the Author and his great Accomplishments in almost all kinds of Science but as an instance of his Zeal for the Truth and goodness of the Christian Religion in general and the Church of England in particular especially in this juncture His extraordinary skill in Rabbinical Learning and the use and service of it to the Confirmation and Illustration of the Christian Theology he has made appear to the learned World
darkest Plots he can defeat the greatest craft he can disarm the greatest Powers and scatter them all into confusion And we are not without very good hopes that he will concern himself for us and imploy his Providence for our help We have a Cause that God hath favoured wonderfully favoured in former times How many Plots against this Cause did he discover confound and punish during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth How did he do the like again when her Successor began his Reign How hath he still preserved and blessed it in many confusions many divisions amongst our selves since that time How hath he now at the present time wonderfully discovered the works of darkness brought hidden and secret evils to light Made those discoveries done those things that we could never have done for our selves God will never be wanting to us or to the Religion we profess if we our selves be not wanting to it Let us therefore awaken all our powers to diligence in our own defence and then commit our cause to God making our daily prayers to him that he would defend his own Truth that he would protect his own Inheritance and water the Vine that himself hath planted Yea let us make our appeals to him whether we or cur enemies be in the right And then O God who art a just and righteous God take the matter into thine own hand do thou judge between them and us Pardon our sins forgive those evils which may provoke thine indignation against us but for our cause for that Faith that we do profess against our enemies that we freely leave to thee we do appeal unto thy judgment and are willing to stand or fall by it Let us therefore adorn it in our lives this is the first and principal way of procuring the blessing of God upon it Let us seek and improve all occasions to gain it credit and reputation And seeing that it hath pleased the King to recommend the rebuilding of St Pauls unto our Charity at this time and himself to set us a great Example let us not be wanting to this Work according unto our proportion It is certainly a Work of Christian piety to build up places for Gods Worship No sooner were the Christians freed from the Persecutions of the Heathen but they did zealously apply themselves to this work and raised magnificent and noble Structures for the publick places of Gods Worship This Church which is now to be rebuilt may be stiled the chief of all the Nation It hath formerly been its greatest glory in its kind and we hope it may be so again What pity were it that such a Work should fail or flag at such a time when we are to give especial evidence of a publick Spirit of free and noble and generous minds The time is an extraordinary time the work an extraordinary work Let us open our hands to a more than ordinary bounty towards it And as for us in this place we have singular reason so to do seeing it pleased Almighty God to preserve our Churches and Habitations from those flames that devoured our Neighbours Now therefore let us at this time honour the Religion we do profess by this particular work of piety as well as in all other instances making our prayers to Almighty God that he would defend his own Truth that he would protect his own Inheritance and preserve the Religion himself planted And thou O God c. The Fourth Sermon Matth. 6.23 If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness THE great security of mans life as well from the cheats of his own as from the temptations of the world depends upon true and stable Principles of Faith and Piety And the ground of all these Principles is a true judgment of what is happiness what is the great end of life and what are the ways that lead unto it and a choice suitable thereunto This is the thing which our Lord suggests 19 20 21 verses Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal hut lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal for says he when your treasure is there will your heart be also that is to say that which you chuse to be your happiness that will you place your hearts upon and pursue in all your deliberate actions Having thus exhorted us to take care to chuse that for our chief good which is indeed really so to conduct our lives by true Principles he speaks a Parable wherein he shews the great advantage of so doing and the danger of doing otherwise The former of these in those words vers 22. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body is full of light The application of which words is this The judgment of the mind is the guide of life Wherefore if the judgment be true and good the life hath a true guide to rule it And then the danger of a false judgment is declared in the words that immediately follow But if thine eye be evil thy whole body is full of darkness And so he comes to the words of the Text If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness that is if thy judgment be corrupt if thy mind and conscience be erroneous how great and dangerous are those mistakes which thou art then exposed unto Now that which the words thus explained offer unto our consideration is the mighty danger that they are in to lose their souls who are led and governed by false Principles Which will appear if we consider that such Principles 1. Leave them dangerously exposed to sin 2. And not only so exposed unto it but that they also encourage to it I say 1. They leave them dangerously exposed to evil which will be very clear and manifest if we consider 1. First of all that our present condition and state is such that we are under many temptations thereunto 2. That the nature of man is apt of it self to close and comply with those temptations 3. That we have nothing else save only true and right Principles assisted by the Grace of God to prevent and hinder complying with them 4. From whence it most inevitably follows that where those Principles are not found we are most dangerously exposed to evil 1. I shall begin with the first of these which is that our present condition is such that we are under many temptations unto evil The world is full of deceits and snares where-ever we tread we are in danger to fall into them There is no business no imployment no condition or state of life but lies exposed unto temptation Sometimes we are courted by sensual charms by the hopes of favour or wealth or honour to part with our innocence and integrity sometimes we are in great
have nothing but good Principles to prevent and hinder such complyance From whence it most inevitably follows that where such principles are not found where men are under the power and guidance of evil Principles they are most dangerously exposed to evil This is the least of the ill effects that we can possibly expect from them 2. But then secondly we must consider That as all ill principles in Religion leave us at least exposed to evil so are there many do very highly encourage to it There are such principles to be found as turn the greatest crimes to merit and make men hope for a reward hope to gain eternal glory by the foulest practices in the world by those that tend to eternal misery Our blessed Lord foretold his followers that the time would come wherein they would put them out of the Synagogues and not so only but also that whosoever killed them should think he did God service by it John 16.2 So did the Jews use his Disciples They first accused them of Schism and Heresie and then persecuted them unto death And just so doth the Roman Church to all Christians dissenting from them They pronounce them guilty of Schism and Heresie they excommunicate them out of the Church they flatly deny that they can be saved they doom them all unto damnation they pronounce it lawful to destroy them to destroy the very greatest Princes when they have once judged them Hereticks They make it a meritorious act in those that adventure so to do and lest men should not venture upon it some of them teach that they are obliged and bound to do it extremo animarum suarum perieule si vires habeant ad hoc idoneas Philopator under the pain of the loss of their Souls if they have sufficient strength to do it Could a man have thought that such practices as these are should ever have been undertaking by any making profession of Christianity could he have thought that although these should be undertaken they should be justified and defended nay urged and pressed with great severity under no less a tie and penalty than that of the loss of a mans Soul But this it is to have the mind and conscience defiled as the Apostle himself expresses it Tit. 1.15 This it is as he speaks elswhere 1. Tim. 4.2 to have the Conscience seared with a hot iron If a mans Principles be corrupt his conscience perverted and depraved what will not such a conscience admit and such Principles urge upon him If the very light that is in him be darkness how great then is that darkness And now to apply what I have said upon this point 1. Seeing the danger of false Principles in Religion is so prodigiously and strangely great let this be a mighty caution to us to avoid communion with such persons as govern themselves by such Principles and more especially the Church of Rome It is not imaginable how this Church hath perverted the Doctrine of Christianity and quite overthrown the practice of it in many considerable parts of it There is scarce any one command of God which they have not clouded and perverted by some perverse interpretations And besides all this they have formed and stated general Principles which effectually lead to the overthrowing of all the precepts of Christianity And some of these I shall instance in 1. The first of these is the Doctrine received in the Roman Church of acting according to probable opinions received not only among the Jesuits but by many others as well as them 1. They teach that although an opinion seems to be false to any man considering the reasons that make against it yet that it is a probable opinion if it be maintained by two or three nay by one Doctor of note amongst them 2. And then secondly that any person may lawfully act and govern himself by such an opinion in point of practice by an opinion maintained by others although it seem to be false to himself just contrary to the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin The very words they use are these Ex anthoritate unius tantùm posse quem illam in praxi amplecti licèt à principiis intrinsecis falsam improbahilem existimet that is That a man may lawfully follow an opinion in practice upon the authority of one Doctor though he himself considering the reasons of that opinion judge it to be false and improbable Guimen pag. 55 My Author adds an example to this and that is although a Confessor shall himself believe it to be unlawful to absolve a man in a certain case yet that notwithstanding he may absolve him if others judge it to be lawful Now here I observe in the first place that this is directly against the Scripture which pronounces that to be unlawful which a man acts against his own mind and conscience although agreeably to other mens And then secondly that this opinion gives all men liberty to do whatsoever a few Doctors nay any one of the Roman Church have judged lawful And what is it that some of them have not judged lawful especially against all those persons upon whom they fix the name of Hereticks And if you inquire what is the design of those persons that do maintain this opinion it is most evident that it is this That the spiritual Guides of the Roman Church may have a pretence to lead the people boldly to act what they require although against the minds and judgments of them they lead That is in case a private person judge it unlawful to break his faith to falsifie promise to a Heretick or to deprive him of life or fortunes or reputation yet that he may still lawfully do it if two or three of their Guides and Teachers nay if any one of them judge it lawful 3. But then thirdly they further teach That where there are any two opinions one less probable than another that a man may lawfully guide his practice by that which appears to be less probable So Martial de Prado concludes and abundance of others as well as he as Guimen p. 64. Saepe in praxi licitum est sequi opinionem minùs probabilem relictâ probabiliori It is often lawful in matter of practice to follow a less probable opinion forsaking that which is more probable Which is as much as if they said that a man is not bound to govern his life according to the best of his judgment but may very lawfully do what is worse where he knows and believes he might do better And is this for a man to guide his life according to the rules of Charity or that integrity that sincerity which true Christianity requires from us 4. And yet I must add what is still worse for it is added upon this point in the Church of Rome That it is lawful for any person to follow a less probable opinion rather than one that is more probable and that although the more probable
be also safer than the other And for this an Author of that Church cites the Testimonies of above forty of their Doctors Guimen p. 62 64. And is this to teach like true and faithful Guides of Souls Is this for men to behave themselves like faithful Pastors and careful of the Salvation of men to give them licence to guide their lives by such opinions as are not only less probable but less safe than the direct contrary are But these are the Methods these are the Arts of the Roman Church to draw men in unto their Church to allow them liberty to please themselves to do the things that are most pleasing though least safe to gratifie sinful inclinations though to the prejudice of their Souls By these liberties they fill their Church with numerous Proselytes and Disciples and gain Authority to themselves to put them upon the foulest actions by teaching them that it is lawful for them to follow the Judgment of their Teachers though it seems false unto themselves which is to rob every private person of his Conscience Reason and Understanding and to oblige them to follow others who as appears from these particulars have nothing at all of conscience in them 2. Add hereunto another Principle taught and maintained in the Roman Church concerning the rectifying of the intention which is that a man may lawfully do such things as are materially evil provided always that he direct the inward intention of his mind unto a good and an honest end As for example that a man may lawfully smite with a sword where he hath received a blow with the hand and is secure from further prejudice provided he do it non ad sumendam vindictam sed ad vitandam infamiam Guimen pag. 199 200. that is to say not for revenge but to repair his reputation Or as Father Escobar hath expressed it Letters Provincial p. 143. One may lawfully kill another who hath given him a box on the ear though he run away for it provided he do it not out of hatred or revenge In short that a man may do any evil to him that hath offered him an affront in case he do it not out of malice or to revenge himself upon him but only to repair his credit and defend his honour and reputation But if this be true and Christian Doctrine what shall we say to the Precept of Christ Mat. 5.39 I say unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also That is to say if any injury passed upon thee leave thee secure of life and limbs if it only touch thy reputation as this is measured amongst men by vulgar judgments and opinions do thou patiently bear the injury and be content to expect a reward hereafter for it whatsoever becomes of thy reputation In the mean time let it be observed how the Teachers in the Church of Rome loosen the reins to the lusts of men indulge their vain unchristian humors while they teach them to value their reputation and that in the eyes of vulgar Judges more than the very lives of men While they allow them to preserve the esteem of vain men by the spilling of their neighbours blood as though his life were of less value than the opinion of such persons Two things further I shall observe First That this Doctrine of good intention justifying actions of this kind is in effect no other than that of doing of evil that good may come or of the using of evil means for the attaining a good end A Doctrine most severely censured Rom. 3.8 And then further that a good intention justifies an indifferent action a thing that is lawful in it self but never justifies things unlawful In these things it hath no place but in indifferent things it hath Now then to conclude what I have to say seeing evil Principles do not only leave us exposed to sin but also encourage us thereunto seeing they expose us to death eternal by so doing let us have a care of such persons and such a Church as teach and promote such Principles Let us be stedfast in that Church where the saving Doctrine of Christianity is faithfully taught and offered to us We have no other certain helps against the most pernicious evils to secure us from the foulest sins but firm Principles Faith and Holiness assisted by the Grace of God These are the things that must preserve us against our natural inclinations against our depraved and corrupt affections these are the things that must secure us against the temptations of the world and recover us if we chance to fall through humane frailty and infirmity He that commits a sin by Principles hath nothing to retrive him from it and to recover him from his fall while such a Principle remains in him But he that falls through inadvertency may be soon recovered by good Principles He will remember he hath done amiss his conscience will check and smite him for it these checks will send him to his prayers to beg the pardon of what is past and a greater vigilance a greater assistance of Gods Grace for time to come and so recover him from his fall and restore him to his former station And therefore let it be our care to govern our lives by stable principles of integrity In doubtful cases let us always follow the safer part and not do as they of the Church of Rome forsake a safer to follow a more unsafe opinion And where the case is plain and obvious that it is unlawful to do a thing let us not cheat our own reason with any deceitful arts and reasonings to make it seem to be lawful for us If we do this we expose our selves to the guile and Sophistry of our lusts and may make the plainest things obscure But if we heartily love the truth and use no means to contradict it it will be a faithful guide unto us in this life and so conduct us to life eternal How many are there that are so far from believing Schism to be a sin that they value themselves upon this account and believe themselves the only Saints because they separate from the Church make that a Character of Religion which tends to its ruine and destruction The Fifth Sermon Matth. 16.18 And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The whole verse is thus And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it ST Peter having in the 16 verse of this Chapter made this confession of our Lord That he was Christ the Son of the living God is in return for this confession first pronounced a blessed person and then adorned with an excellent Character by our Saviour He is pronounced a blessed person at the 17 verse Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which
Rabbi here is their haughtiness and ambition their presumption and self conceit reproved And then there censure and scorn of others is also detected and chastised Matt. 7.3 4 5. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy Brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye or how wilt thou say to thy Brother let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold a beam is in thine own eye thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye And although the Pharisee in his prayer thanked God that he was not as other men particularly that he was no Extortioner Luc. 18.11 yet one that knew them much better than they themselves knew them our Lord himself gives us another account of them he tells us that they were full of Extortion greatly infected with it within Matt. 23.25 And as for malicious craft and subtilty these are not obscurely charged upon them by him that could not be mistaken Matt. 23.33 Ye serpents ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell ye says he build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous and say if we had been in the days of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets and yet they were of the same spirit their Fathers were insomuch that they who here profess that they would never have shed the blood of the Holy Prophets shed that of the very Son of God and of his followers and Disciples and this our Saviour well foresaw and therefore adds v. 32. fill ye up the measure of your Fathers from whence I conclude that as hypocrisie is a mock-religion and so an abuse of true Piety so likewise that it leaves the hypocrite under the power of Pride Covetousness and Animosity under the dominion of those lusts that are most flat contradictions to it 4. Having said so much of the nature and quality of this vice in the three particulars last mentioned you will not wonder at what I shall add in the last place which is that hypocrisie mightily tends to the utter destruction of true Religion not in the hypocrite for in him it hath no place at all but in the very world it self that is to say in all other persons and this it doth two several ways 1. By debauching the nature of it 2. By bringing a Scandal upon it 1. For first its the nature of hypocrisie to debauch the nature of true Religion by turning it into meer formality into nice and scrupulous Superstitions in the avoiding or in the practising of things indifferent in themselves and endless disputes about these things which do not only imploy mens minds in things that are not of any moment and take them off from the study and practice of true Religion but wholly destroy Christian Charity fill men with mutual Animosities and by their means eat out the very heart of Piety It is the temper of hypocrisie to accomodate itself to the opinion and judgement of men The generality of mankind look no farther than to the shew and surface of things and therefore hypocrisie concerns itself in nothing further than to obtain the applause of men either in the observing or the avoiding of things indifferent in themselves things that may be done or omitted unless commanded by superiours in the mean time while it is thought sufficient on one hand to recommend a man to God if he abound in rite and ceremony in an infinite number of outward actions such as are used in the Church of Rome and on the other while all Religion is placed in avoiding all that 's decent in appearance every thing that is called a Ceremony and a man must certainly be a Saint that shall defie and rail at this true Religion is almost lost almost forgotten and laid aside in the noise of these disputes and quarrels 2. But lastly ther 's yet another way wherein hypocrisie dangerously tends to the destruction of true Religion which is by the scandal which it brings upon the name of all Religion For although it be very true indeed that men are generally very strangely charm'd by the shews and pretences of Religion yet when it appears as it doth at last where it is not real that all these shews are void of truth that they are but shews and nothing more this makes the very name of Religion despicable odious and abhorr'd it brings profaneness and infidelity and makes the very profession of Piety vile and contemptible in the world a dangerous and a destructive issue as we our selves have plainly found by our own experience in this Nation Hypocrisie being but a counterfeit coin never long retains its Credit and so indeed it happened at last amongst the Pharisees for although they were in great reputation amongst the Jews in our Saviours time yet I find that they lost it afterwards and became so despicable in the Nation that they were branded with scurrilous names some they called Sechemitical Pharisees such as were so for their own profit others they styled the stumbling Pharisees who for an appearance of humility would scarce lift up their feet in the streets others they called the wounded Pharisees who shut their eyes as they went in the streets lest they should perhaps behold a temptation but by so doing often fell and hurt themselves others they styled the boasting Pharisees because they pretended not only to do whatsoever the Law of God required but also a great deal more than so other approbrious names and titles they put upon some other sorts from whence it appears that they did at last lose all their credit amongst people nor need we question that even true Religion it self became contemptible on that account The life is derided for the deformity of the picture the truth is prejudiced by the counterfeit the faults and basenesses of hypocrisie ascribed to true Religion itself and this I take to be one reason of the infidelity and profaneness that reign at present in this Nation God of his mercy remove the Scandals and heal the distempers that are amongst us The Tenth Sermon Luk. 12.1 Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie IN these words as I have observed there are these two things suggested to us 1. The greatness of the Evil which we are commanded to avoid this I have already finished 2. The diligence that must be used if we will duly observe the precept intimated in the word beware which shews it is no such easie thing to avoid all Pharisaism and hypocrisie as we may perhaps imagine it is And for the clearing of this point I shall desire you to observe that an appearance of Religion or a Religion in outward show void of the true spirit of it is apt to recommend it self and strangely to impose on men as such a Religion which is
what are the motives what the arguments to that diligence 1. That which is mentioned in the Text where we find that this is the very thing that recommends us to Gods acceptance He that doth righteousness is righteous that is he is so in Gods account as well as really so in himself for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry Psal 34.15 They are as the apple of his eye he hath a tender kindness for them he bears a singular regard unto them and takes an especial care of them Righteousness is the Image of God true goodness wheresoever it is is a beam derived from the fountain of light which God doth always love and cherish always bless with especial favour whatever regard or disregard whatever favour or disfavour it finds with men it never wants the favour of God it is a participation of his Image and he loves it wheresoever it is as he loved it in his only Son so the Apostle himself adds He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous And is not this a singular motive to live in the constant practice of it what is that that supports the minds what is that that cheers the hearts and spirits of wise and good and holy men under all the troubles all the calamities of the World but the hope and sense of Gods favour where can we find a sure refuge an assured shelter and security under thousands of fears and disappointments that attend us in the present World but under the shadow of Gods wings the grace and favour of God Almighty which Grace is Almighty like himself and will preserve to life eternal if we labour faithfully to retain it by true and diligent obedience to him let this therefore move us to obedience 2. And lastly because we have taken upon us the name and profession of Jesus Christ and because that Christ hath strictly commanded that every one that names his name depart from iniquity left he bring a scandal on that profession Let the honour of so dear a Master the credit and service of his Church which he hath purchased with his blood perswade the obedience of the Gospel If these with other considerations tending unto the same purpose have not this effect upon us we shall bring a scandal upon the Gospel we shall open the mouth of scorn and clamour against the Religion we profess we shall give occasion for men to think that we are under the great delusion which the Apostle here corrects of thinking our selves righteous persons although we do not do righteousness But in the diligent and careful practice of the holy Laws that Christ hath given us we shall honour our Lord adorn his Religion edifie others edifie our selves grow to an excellent habit of mind What shall I say more In so doing we shall obtain all the blessings of the Gospel and at last arrive at eternal happiness The Nineteenth Sermon Luk. 16.8 For the Children of this world are in their generation wiser than the Children of light THESE words are a short reflection made upon the behaviour of a certain Steward as it is represented in a Parable who having imbezeld his Masters goods is called to account for his miscariage and thereupon to be displaced How is it saith his Lord to him that I hear this of thee give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward v. 2. of this Chapter The Steward surprized with the suddain notice of his removal from his place presently begins to bethink himself how he shall now provide for himself He said with himself v. 3. what shall I do for my Lord taketh away from me the Stewardship I cannot dig to beg I am ashamed But long it was not before he comes to a resolution which was to gratifie his Masters debtors in the abatement of their debts that so when his Master had removed him they might receive and entertain him so it follows v. 4. I am resolved what to do that when I am put out of the Stewardship they may receive me into their houses accordingly calling them to reckon with him he makes some abatement to every debtor of what was owing to his Lord To him that owed him an hundred measures of Oyl he makes abatement of one half saying unto him take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty v. 6. To him that owed an hundred measures of wheat he abated a fifth part of the debt Take thy bill and write fourscore v. 7. So he obliged his Masters debtors to entertain him in their houses when he had lost his Stewards place so he provided for himself His Lord in the mean time knowing this as well as his other misbehaviours though he could not approve the fraud and injustice of his Steward yet commends the care he had of himself commends the wisdom of his Servant in making provision for the future so it follows v. 8. And the Lord commended the unjust Steward because he had done wisely whereupon our Saviour adds this following observation For the Children of this world are in their generation wiser than the Children of light 1. The Children of this world are those that mind and study the present World that is the concerns and profits of it as the great and only valuable things and have no other end at all but to attain to wealth and power and what may be useful in this life for wheresoever the World is put for one particular sort of men it always signifies the worser sort so in those words John 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world and afterwards at the 16. v. they are not of the world even as I am not of the world From whence as from divers other places it hath been truly and well observed that although the World do often signifie all mankind the good and evil both together yet where it is put for one part only it always designs the worser part 2. Now to go on the Children of light are those that profess the faith and hope of future Glory and to make the attainment of that glory their chief endeavour in the World so is the same expression taken John 6.36 While ye have the light believe in the light that ye may be the Children of the light and so the Apostle 1 Thess 5.5 ye are all the Children of the light and the Children of the day that is to say ye all profess the faith of the Gospel which hath brought us out of darkness into light ye all profess the stedfast hope of that Glory which is promised in the Gospel to us and to make the pursuit of that Glory the chief design and end of life These are the persons whom the Scriptures style the Children of light and this is the reason why they are so styled 3. And then further whereas it is said that the Children of this World are in their Generation wiser then the
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