careless unchristian Livers that ever they were I appeal to the Consciences of Men whether this be not true and why should we think it would fare otherwise with us if God should send one from the Dead to reclaim us That very Miracle would not convince our Understandings more then they have been convinced already and therefore why should we think it would work more upon our Wills The Sum of all this Discourse is this That how prevaling soever we may imagine such an experiment as the Rich Man here offers to Abraham for the Conversion of his Brethren would be upon us yet a sensual Man that was unwilling to give up himself to the Conduct of Religion might easily find out ways to avoid the Force that it ought to have upon his Mind Nay more easily perhaps than he hath hitherto resisted the Motives of the Gospel And therefore we may certainly conclude with Abraham in the Text that they that hear not Moses and the Prophets or to put it into our own Language they that hear not Christ and his Apostles neither in all probability would they be persuaded though one rose from the Dead Nothing now remains but that I draw two or three Inferences from what hath been said and so conclude In the first place From what I have discoursed upon this Argument we may discover the Infinite Wisdom of God in the pitching upon that Method he hath done for the bringing Men to Vertue and Happiness namely by the standing Revelations of Moses and the Prophets and of Christ and his Apostles For we may perceive this Method is every way more accommodated for that End than if God should be every day working Miracles for the reclaiming particular Persons As it is more suitable to the other Methods of God's Providence to the way that he hath chosen for the Government of the World which is by the setled standing Laws of Motion leaving Natural Causes to produce their Natural Effects and not interposing his Omnipotency but upon especial extraordinary Occasions So also as we have seen is it much more effectual for the covincing Mens Understandings and the working upon their Wills than the other Method of Private Miracles and Revelations would be We have seen how many ways the Force of an Argument drawn from ones appearance from the Dead may be evaded But now none of these Pretences can be made against the Evidence of a Publick Revelation so attested and confirmed and conveyed down to us as that of Christianity is And besides there are many Arguments to be drawn from such a Revelation to shew the Credebility of it which are altogether wanting to such a Private Miracle as we speak of Secondly We may learn from hence what little need there is of any new modern Miracles for the confirming to us any Doctrine of Christianity which was long ago in all the Articles of it so well attested by the Illustrious Miracles of Christ and his Apostles And more especially we may learn from hence what little Credit is to be given to those Miracles that are wrought or pretended to be wrought for the proof of such Doctrines as are really contrary to that Revelation of our Lord as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures We are sure that Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles taught nothing but the Truth of God he having so publickly and so convincingly set his Seal to all their Doctrines And we are sure likewise that the Scripture contains nothing in it but what was taught by them and consequently must be the Truth of God also And therefore if any Doctrine or Article of Religion be at any time recommended to our Belief that doth not agree with these Holy Writings or doth contradict them either directly or by plain unavoidable consequence we may be equally sure that that Doctrine cannot be true nor is to be received by us though we are told of never so many private Miracles that have been wrought for the confirmation of it Our Rule in these Cases is To the Law and to the Testimony To the Publick and undoubted Oracles of God in the Old and New Testament Whatever Doctrine can be proved out of them we are bound to embrace it without a new Miracle On the other side Whatever Doctrine is inconsistent with them we must reject it though an Angel from Heaven or one from the Dead should come and Preach it to us Thirdly From hence we see the Vanity and Unreasonableness of thos Men that not content with the Ordinary Means of Grace are always wishing for Extraordinaries There are a great many of us that will be saved by Methods of our own chusing otherwise we will not be saved at all As it was in St. Paul's time the Jews they required a Sign the Greeks they were for Wisdom and Philosophy and perhaps a third sort of Men were for another kind of means of Conviction So it is among us Here is one Man would have a particular Miracle wrought for his Conversion If he could see a Spirit or a Ghost he would believe there was another World If God would send an Angel from Heaven to preach to him he thinks he should become a New Man Here is another would believe the Gospel if every Point of it could be demonstrated by Reason and a clear and plain account be given of all the Mysteries of it but till that be done he is of the Religion of the Philosophers Here is another Man waits for Immediate Impulses and Inspirations The ordinary Assistances of the Spirit that acccompany the Word and Sacraments will not do his business But let us not deceive our selves All these Imaginations are vain and foolish If God should grant us our several desires and give one of us a Sign another of us a Demonstration another of us a powerful Conviction upon our Minds from his Holy Spirit and that in an extraordinary way Yet it is still very doubtful whether for all this the Business of our Conversion would be effected None was more confident than the Rich Man in the Parable that if to the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets was superadded a new Miracle his Brethren would certainly be persuaded But yet you see our Saviour affirms the direct contrary Oh let us all close with the standing Publick Methods which God hath established in the Church for the bringing us to Vertue and eternal Happiness and not be hankering after new and fanciful ways of our own chusing Most certainly the Ordinary Means of Grace are sufficient for the Salvation of all our Souls and will be effectual to that End if we be not wanting to our selves And if any Extraordinaries be at any time needful God without doubt will supply us with them also Fourthly and lastly From what hath been said we see the horrible Guilt and the utter Inexcusableness of those Men that notwithstanding the Gospel means of Salvation that have been so long afforded them do still continue Infidels in
more loosly But both Parties especially the more moderate of both seem to drive at much-what the same thing though by different ways as appears from this That being interrogated concerning the Consequences of their several Opinions they generally agree in admitting or rejecting the same But Fourthly Another thing that would make for Peace is this Never to charge upon Men the Consequences of their Opinions when they expresly disown them This is another thing that doth hugely tend to widen our Differences and to exasperate Men's Spirits one against another when having examin'd some Opipinion of a Man or Party of Men and finding very great Absurdities and evil Consequences necessarily to flow from it we presently throw all those into the Dish of them that hold the Opinion as if they could not own the one but they must necessarily own the other Whereas indeed the Men we thus charge may be so innocent in this matter that they do not in the least dream of such Consequences or if they did they would be so far from owning them that they would abhor the Opinion for their sakes To give you an Instance or two in this matter It is a Doctrine maintained by some That God's Will is the Rule of Justice or That every thing is therefore just or good because God wills it Those that are concerned to oppose this Doctrine do contend that if this Doctrine be true it will necessarily follow that no Man can have any Certainty of the Truth of any one Proposition that God hath revealed in Scripture because say they his Eternal Faithfulness and Veracity are by this Doctrine made Arbitrary Things Granting now that this can by just consequence be made out yet I dare say those that hold the aforesaid Doctrine would be very angry and had good reason so to be if they were told that they did not no nor could not upon their Principles certainly believe the Scripture Some Men think that they can with demonstrative Evidence make out that the Doctrine of God's Irrespective Decrees doth in its Consequences overthrow the whole Gospel that it doth destroy the nature of Rewards and Punishments cuts the very Sinews of Men's Endeavours after Vertue makes all Laws Promises Exhortations perfectly idle and insignificant things and renders God the most unlovely Being in the World Now supposing all this to be true yet it would be a most unjust and uncharitable thing to affirm of any that believe that Doctrine many of whom are certainly pious and good Men that they do maintain any such impious and blasphemous Opinions as those that are now mentioned The Sum of all is that a Man may believe a Proposition and not believe all that follows from it Not but that all the Deductions from a Proposition are equally true and equally credible with the Proposition from whence they are deduced But a Man may not so clearly see through the Proposition as to discern that such Consequences are really deducible from it So that we are at no hand to charge them upon him unless he do explicitely own them If this Rule was observ'd our Differences would not make so great a noise nor would the Errours and Heterodoxes maintained among us appear so monstrous and extravagant and we should spare a great many hard words and odious appellations which we now too prodigally bestow upon those that differ from us The Fifth Rule is To abstract Men's Persons from their Opinions and in examining or opposing these never to make any reflections upon those This is a thing so highly reasonable that methinks no Pretender to Ingenuity should ever need to be called upon to observe it For it seems very absurd and ridiculous in any Argument to meddle with that that nothing concerns the Question But what do Personal Reflections concern the Cause of Religion Whatever it may be to the Reputation of an Opinion I am sure it is nothing to the Truth of it that such or such a Man holds it And truly if Men would leave this Impertinence we might hope for a better Issue of our Religious Debates But whilst Men will forsake the Merits of the Cause and unmanly fall to railing and disparaging Men's Persons and scraping together all the ill that can be said of them they blow the Coals of Contention they so imbitter and envenom the Dispute that it rankles into incurable Distastes and Heart-burnings Christians would do well to consider that these mean Arts of exposing Men's Persons to discredit their Opinions are very much unworthy the Dignity of their Profession and most of all mis-becoming the Sacredness and Venerableness of the Truth they contend for And besides no Cause stands in need of them but such an one as is extremely bassled and desperate and even then they are the worst Arguments in the World to support it for quick-sighted Men will easily see through the Dust we endeavour to raise and those that are duller will be apt to suspect from our being so angry and so waspish that we have but a bad Matter to manage We should consider that Men's Persons are sacred things that whatever power we have to judge of their Opinions we have no Authority to judge or censure Them That to bring Them upon the Stage and there throw Dirt on them is highly rude and uncivil and an Affront to Humane Society and the most contrary thing in the World to Christian Charity which is so far from enduring Reproaches and Evil-speaking that it obliges us to cover as much as we can all the Faults and even the very Indiscretions of others The Sixth and last thing I shall recommend to you as an Expedient of Peace is a vigorous Pursuit of Holiness Do but seriously set your selves to be good do but get your Hearts deeply affected with Religion as well as your Heads and then there is no fear but you will be all the Sons of Peace We may talk what we will but really it is our not practising our Religion that makes us so Contentious and Disputatious about it It is our Emptiness of the Divine Life that makes us so full of Speculation and Controversie Was but That once firmly rooted in us these Weeds and Excrescencies of Religion would presently dry up and wither we should loath any longer to feed upon such Husks after we once came to have a Relish of that Bread Ah! How little Satisfaction can all our pretty Notions and fine-spun Controversies yield to a Soul that truly hungers and thirsts after Righteousness How pitifully flatly and insipidly will they taste in comparison of the Divine Entertainments of the Spiritual Life Were we but seriously taken up with the Substantials of our Religion we should not have leisure for the Talking Disputing Divinity we should have greater matters to take up our Thoughts and more profitable Arguments to furnish out our Discourses So long as we could busie our selves in working out our Salvation and furthering the Salvation of others we should think it
are true c. Here are a great many things recommended by the Apostle to our thoughts and pursuit If we would make a distribution of them I believe they will all naturally enough full under these Four Heads For the things here recommended are not so many as the words by which they are express'd there being several Words used in this Enumeration that are of the same importance and seem to express much the same thing The Four Heads I would reduce them to are these I. A constant Adherence to the true Religion II. Honesty and Justice in our Dealings III. A Life of Strict Purity in opposition to Sensuality and Lewdness IV. The adorning the Doctrine of God we do profess by the constant Practice of every other thing that is Virtuous or Commendable or well thought of by Mankind This as I take it is a fair account of the Parts of this Text and these I shall make the Heads of my following Exhortation I begin with the first Finally my Brethren whatsoever things are true think on those things The Truths that St. Paul here exhorts them to think on are undoubtedly the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he had delivered to them These he would have them to think upon and persist in and never to be prevailed upon by any Temptation to depart from them Let me now apply this Advice of his to you It is the particular Blessing of God to this Kingdom and an inestimable Blessing it is that he has not only vouchsafed us the Light of his Gospel for many years but he has also taken Care that the Truths of it should be delivered to us with greater Purity and Sincerity and freer from the mixtures of Errour than to most I was going to say than to any other People in the World If it lay in your way to make observations concerning the State of Religion in other Countries nay or but to read the Accounts that are given of it I am sure you would be convinced how exceedingly happy we of this Church are above all the Churches in Christendom O therefore let us all firmly adhere to the Truths we have been taught to the Truths we have hitherto made Profession of And let us firmly adhere to that Church which hath held forth these Truths to us and taught us this Profession We do not pretend that any Church is Infallible and therefore not ours But this we dare say and we can justifie that if we take our measures concerning the Truths of Religion from the Rules of the Holy Scriptures and the Platform of the Primitive Churches the Church of England is undoubtedly both as to Doctrine and Worship the Purest Church that is at this day in the World the most Orthodox in Faith and the â—â—â—est on the one hand from Idolatry and Superstition and on the other hand from Freakishness and Enthusiasm of any now extant Nay I do farther say with great seriousness and as one that expects to be called to account at the dreadful Tribunal of God for what I now say if I do not speak in sincerity That I do in my Conscience believe that if the Religion of Jesus Christ as it is delivered in the New Testament be the true Religion as I am certain it is Then the Communion of the Church of England is a safe way to Salvation and the safest of any I know in the World And therefore I do exhort you all in the Name of God steadfastly to hold and to persevere in this Communion Here you have the Things that are true Think of them and embrace them heartily and Live and Die in the Profession of them This is the Doctrine I have always Taught you and by the Grace of God I mean to Practise accordingly II. The next thing I have to recommend to you from these words of the Apostle is Universal Honesty and Justice and Righteousness in your Conversation Whatsoever things saith he are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just think on these things You see I join these two words Honest and Just together as importing the same thing Though yet I am aware that the word we here render Honest is often used in another signification that is to say for Grave or Venerable But since that other signification falls in most properly under my last Head I wave it here and take the word as our Translation renders it Indeed it is in vain to expect any advantage from our profession of the Truth if we be not sincerely Just and Honest in our Actions Whosoever can allow himself in the practice of any dishonest knavish indirect Dealing let that Man be never so Orthodox in his Belief and Opinions yet I am sure he is no true Christian O therefore let me exhort you all whatever Interests you have to serve whatever Dealing you are to engage in to be always strictly Just and Vpright in your Conversation Use no Tricks practise no ill Arts for the serving your ends but in all your transactions with Men deal with that Simplicity and Integrity and good Conscience that becomes those who would be accounted the Disciples of Him who was the most Innocent the most Sincere and the least Intrigueing Person in the World Assure your selves no dishonesty can prosper long Whatever turns you may serve by it at present yet you will bitterly repent of it sometime or other But Righteousness and Justice doth establish a Man's ways And the upright Man though he is not always the richest yet always walketh most surely And as for the final event of things Remember this that God Almighty has pronounced that no Vnrighteous men no Covetous no Lyars no Extortioners shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But to go on III. The next thing I have to exhort you to from the words of my Text is the Practice of Purity For after the Apostle hath recommended the pursuit of things that are true and the things that are honest and just he next adds the things that are pure Meaning hereby that we should study to be pure and chast and temperate both in our Hearts and Lives avoiding all Excesses and Lewdness and Sensuality And if he thought it convenient in that Age of strictness and severity and devotion to put the Christians in mind of this I am sure it is not only convenient but necessary to do it in this Age of ours when Luxury and Debauchery when Whoredom and Drunkenness and all sorts of Vice that are contrary to Purity are grown to that height among us that we seem to defie God Almighty by our impudent Practice of them and provoke Him to give us up to Destruction I pray God make the whole Nation deeply sensible of the Folly and Wickedness as well as of the Danger and dreadful Cousequences of these Practices And as for you who are here present let me bespeak you in the Words of the Apostle Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims to
all worldly respects when I once came to the knowledge of the Christian Religion I dispised them all For in truth I found that they were so far from being real Advantages to me that they were rather hindrances in the way of Vertue and Piety Yea doubtless as he goes on in the 8th verse I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ That is to say Not only the above-named priviledges but all other things whatsoever Wealth Greatness Fame Friends and Life it self I account them all very pitiful things if they be compared with the inestimable advantages of being a Christian As I have once so I will again readily forsake all part with all things that the World holds most dear and valuable nay I will trample them under my feet like dirt and dung provided I may obtain the Favour of Christ And as he goes on in the 9th verse that I might be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This passage hath been frequently misunderstood and interpreted to a sense that I believe St. Paul did not think of St. Paul doth not here oppose an inherent Righteousness to an imputed one but an outward natural legal Righteousness to that which is inward and spiritual and wrought in a Man by the Spirit of God The Righteousness which the Apostle here desires to be found in is not the Righteousness of Christ made his or imputed to him but a real Righteousness produced in his Soul by the Faith of Jesus Christ The plain Sense of the Verse seems to be this That which above all things I desire is to be found in Christ i. e. to be found a Disciple of his ingrafted into him by being a Member of his Church not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law i. e. not being content with those outward Priviledges and that outward Obedience which by my own natural Strength I am able to yield to the Precepts of the Law which is that Righteousness in which the Jews place their Confidence and by which they expect to be justified before God But that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that Righteousness which I desire and in which only I shall have the Confidence to appear before God is an inward Principle of Holiness that Spiritual renewed Obedience to God's I aws which he doth require as the condition of his Favour and Acceptance and which I can never attain to but by the Faith of Christ by becoming a Christian This is none of my own Righteousness but God's it being wrought in me by his Spirit accompanying the preaching of the Gospel and as it is his Gift so he will own it and reward it at the last â—ay This is the full importance of that Verse and then it follows by way of Explication of what he now said That I may know him and 〈…〉 Resurrection c. This is the 〈…〉 that I aspire after that I may know Christ nor only by a nâ—â—ional belief of his Doctrines 〈…〉 of his Religion but by a spirituâ—â— experimental Knowledge of him such a Knowledge as â—â—ansformâ—â—â— Spirit and Temper and that 〈…〉 the power of his 〈◊〉 i. e. then 〈◊〉 experience in my self all the good 〈…〉 that his Resurrection 〈◊〉 a power to work in me that I may see the Vertue and Efficacy of it in my daily dying to Sin and rising again to a 〈◊〉 holy and heavenly Life This is that Righteousness I long for and in comparison of which I account all things in the World but as less and as duâ—â— Thus have I given you a full account of the Text and all the Apostle's Discourse that it depends upon I now come to treat more particularly of it with reserence to the solemnity of this Day We all here present do profess to believe the Article of our Saviour's Resurrection and our business at this time is to celebrate the memory of it But we must not rest here We are not to look upon our Lord's Resurrection meerly as a thing to be believed or professed or commemorated or as a matter of Fact that only concerned himself But there is a great deal in it which doth nearly concern us The Apostle tells us there is a great Power in it even a Power of raising us from Sin to a Holy and Vertuous Life It is so ordered as to be capable of being and it ought to be a Principle of now Life in us as it was the beginning of a now Life in our Saviour Now this Vertue this Power this Efficacy of it as it is that which with the Apostle we ought all most earnestly to endeavour the experiencing in our selves so it is that which will be fittest for us at this time to apply our Meditations to My Work therefore at this time shall be to give some Account of the Power of Christ's Resurrection in order to the making Men good which the Apostle here speaks of to shew how or in what respects it doth instuence upon the Lives of Christians Now if we look into the Holy Scriptures we shall find that there is a four-fold Power attributed to it or that it hath an insluence upon our Lives in these four respects That is to say I. As it lays an Obligation upon Christians to Holiness and Vertue II. As it is the Principal Evidence of the Truth of our Religion the Design of which is to make Men Holy and Vertuous III. As it is the great Support of our future Hopes or our Hopes of another Life which indeed is the main Encouragement we have to apply our selves seriously to the business of Holiness and Vertue IV. And Fourthly as to it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Strength by which we are inabled to live Holily and Vertuously Of these four Points I shall Discourse very briesly I. And First of all our Saviour's Resurrection hath an influence upon our Practice as it lays an Obligation upon Christians to lead Holy and Vertuous Lives As it is in it self an incitement to Piety and heavenly-Mindedness This is indeed the lowest instance of its Power but yet we ought not to pass it by because the Writers of the New Testament do frequently insist on it For thus they argue If Christ was crucified for our Sins then ought we to crucifie them in our members And if Christ rose again the third day then are we ingaged in conformity to him to rise again to newness of Life to lead a Spiritual Divine Heavenly Life such a lise as he now lives with God And this in the ancient times was taught every Christian in and by his Baptism Whenever a person was baptized