whatever Habit of doing well he may have yet all this will be of little or no use to him if he be under a present indisposition It is requisit that he keep his many-stringed Instrument always in good tune for else tho it self the Instrument the Strings and all be very good yet it will not make musick till it be tuned till all the Strings sound concordantly to each other and together make an agreeing Harmony And whosoever considers the many Faculties and Appetites which are in him and that they must all be tuned to one another that they must answer and serve each other conspire and harmonize into one end that is terminate in the greatest good He will be satisfied that this is not to be done without great care and exactness And thus I hope I have answered the Objection That it is needless and shewn that there is great necessity of Exactness that is if we would live well If any think this an infinite toil I would ask him Whether it would not turn to account at last and whether any thing so much deserves his care as this To live well Thou that art so extreamly cautious and circumspect wary and accurate in petty Trifles in some of the most inconsiderable things thou dost How canst thou be negligent and heedless how thou livest whether thou dost well or ill when nothing can possibly be so important to Man as this But perhaps some to excuse themselves from this Exactness will say They have never observ'd much to come of it but rather that they who have been so very exact have lived worse than they who have lived carelesly To such I reply 1. All who seem careful or negligent are not really so 2. Men have been careful only of some particular Actions and neglected all the rest Now it may perhaps make better musick if none of the Strings be wound up than only one of them I am sure there is greater discord and deformity in our Actions when a Man shall be devout and unjust or uncharitable or intemperate than if he had no Religion as well as no Justice and it is I think more ungrateful to the beholder 3. It may be their care has been wrong directed and they have striven to be exact but have all the while had a false Notion of what Exactness is As a Ship that plays up and down the Seas as the Wind and Tide carries it will not tho no care be taken be so far from the Port whither it should go as that Ship whose Pilot steers a quite contrary Course So I count that he who suffers himself to be driven by every Inclination and Appetite will not be so far off his Perfection as he that aims and strives at the state which is opposite to it And alas How many are those who call Good Evil and Evil Good How many who think that to be their Perfection which is most opposite to it So the Monkish Perfectionists have esteemed it an high attainment to be without all sense of this Body and to be wholly unaffected by it which is certainly a most unnatural state and very unsuitable to humane Condition in this World and a great hindrance to a Man from attaining Perfection and will make him uncapable of doing that good which God intended he should do in this Life and by this Body Others again think it their Perfection to be in a passionate emotion of Mind having no regard to the good use of their Understanding or their other Faculties which yet are far more necessary to them and beneficial to others than that Passion is Now whilst Men have been thus mistaken in their Notion of Perfection or what it is to be exact no wonder if their care and endeavour to be so have done them little good Nay it may be more harm than good After all this if any imagine that this exactness will be a matter of infinite Scrupulosity and Anxiety and fill his Mind with perpetual Disquiet and Trouble of Pains and Toyl Let him know that when he is persuaded that it is good and useful and necessary and when he has accustomed himself to it it will be no longer hard and troublesom but a pleasant and delightful Work And the harder it seems at first the greater reason has he to think it is so much the more necessary and excellent The Sum of what I have exhorted and which I take to be the true and full Sense of the Apostle's Words is That we should take care give good heed use great caution and diligence that we never do any ill nor omit any good we should not And that we constantly do all we should And whatever we do that we endeavour to do it as well as is possible as it can be done That we neither through Negligence and Heedlessness through Ignorance or Mistake or Inadvertency omit nor knowingly prevaricate in nor willingly violate nor carelesly and lastily perform our Duty nor do it by halves lamely and imperfectly And that we thus behave our selves not in some single actions only but in the tenour and course of them and in our whole Life The Arguments I have used to persuade to this have been such as these 1. That it 's very agreeable to the Christian Dispensation under which we are that we should be thus exact in our Lives 2. That the most absolute and universal perfection of Life and Action is intrinsecally and essentially necessary to our compleat Happiness And as 't is necessary so 't will most certainly procure and effect it And such care and caution endeavour and diligence is no less necessary nor will have less Efficacy to make us live perfectly well and virtuously than that has to make us happy Which I have shewed as from several other Arguments so from a Consideration of the likeness and nearness of Vice to Vertue of the great tendency there is in many good Actions and Things to that which is ill of the great difficulty there is in setting bounds to several Vertues and giving each its due place and order And lastly of the many things which must be done to keep our selves in a disposition and readiness to know and will and do the will of God I might also have pleaded this from the honour that will come to God and Religion and the great benefit and advantage that will accrue to other Men that shall behold and converse with us if we live thus exactly But I think what has been said is sufficient to persuade any one who will consider I shall therefore leave this and proceed to the second Proposition which I propounded to discourse of A DISCOURSE OF Redeeming the Time Of the Second Proposition EPH. 5. 16. Redeeming the Time because the Days are Evil. WE ought to make the best of bad Times when we fall into them from those words Ephes 5. 16. Redeeming the Time because the Days are Evil. I proceed to suggest some few of those many useful
under Censure who are Creed-Coiners or Law-makers in Christianity who frame Creeds and make Laws of their own such as they had not from the Father of the Christian Church II. Christians have but one Master but one Father Indeed if we suppose the Institution rational there can be no more than one because there can be but One Infallible and we cannot imagine that the Christians would set up any other by whom they would be universally and absolutely determined Tho there be many Names that have proposed the Christian Doctrine to us and from whom we cannot appeal yet all their Authority is derived from One and it is by his Commission that they have done it They are his Heralds and he hath authorized them They propose his Doctrine and not their own his Articles and Canons That they are so we are assured because he bears them witness by Signs and Wonders and many mighty Works And that they are his is further evident from this that they are very agreeing with and in pursuit of the Revelation which is undoubtedly his If thus whence are those diversities of Names amongst us I am of Paul I of Apollo a third of Cephas One is a Poniifician another a Lutheran a third a Calvinist a fourth an Arminian Are any of these our Fathers If they be not why are we called by their Names Why should any of these dividing Names be heard amongst us Are not we all the Children of one Father the Disciples of one Master the Servants of one Lord Are we not Brethren why should we then fall out Are we not Fellow-Scholars of one and the same Master Yes it will be said we are so indeed but we may differ about our Master's Sence Plato and Aristotle were both Socrates's Scholars but yet agreed not We all own the same Master but yet cannot agree in his Mind in many both Articles of Faith and Rules of Life This is granted and yet the Expedient whereby Unity may be preserved in the Church is not hard if we come with peaceable Minds if we indeed desire it Therefore in this case if we can but suppose our selves fallible in interpreting and grant our Brethren a liberty of judging if we can think the Words capable of the Sence they give or can but believe that they think them so tho we do not if the Sence they put upon them be not in it self opposite to and inconsistent with the Foundations of Faith a good Life the great Design of our Master and only necessary to Salvation Or tho their Construction be in its tendency destructive of a good Life yet if it be not so in them if notwithstanding this difference in perhaps some obscure and great Mystery they agree with us in all that is plain and their Practice is suitable to the Rules of our Master in this case I see no reason to disown them as no Christians and whilst we own them as Christians we must love them as Brethren Perhaps their Understanding is short of mine but perhaps also mine may be short of theirs shall I not therefore bear with them Yes as long as they hold the Foundation tho they build on it Wood Hay Stubble c. they must not be rejected for they shall be saved tho it be as by Fire The great Apostle's Resolution in the like case should be ours If in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal this unto you Here it may be objected Object Doth not this abridg them of their liberty of thinking and consequently hinder that Improvement which might be in a free Enquiry after Truth which the Mind would make that is not determined by the Dictates of others To this I answer 1. That they do thus give up themselves absolutely to the determination of one is agreeable to the best Reason If there be One who is infallible who neither can be deceived nor deceive it is most highly rational to resign up our selves to believe and obey him No Man can assent on better Evidence or act on better Reason than the determination of such an One and such an One as he is into whose Authority Christians have resolved their Faith and Obedience 2. This no way prejudices but rather advantages the true Use of our Reason for it determines us to examine all Revelations that pretend an infallible Authority whether they do not contradict those Principles which we know are infallible This Course we are put upon that we may secure our selves from Cheats for if that which is proposed contradict the Principles commonly received and which all Men take as true we have reason to suspect it and must think that out Master who taught us these if he be wise and good did not teach us this But then because Principles commonly received may be doubted by some and some granted by all perhaps may be false if any Doctrine be proposed to be believed which is impossible to be believed that cannot come from him who is Wise and Good Now I account it impossible for a Man to assent to contradictory Propositions whether the Contradiction be express or implicit for it is all one to say A Man is reasonable and not reasonable and A Man is a Stone They therefore that would bring in Contradictions into our Religion and assert that there are Doctrines in it which are not only above our Comprehension but are plainly repugnane to the true Principles of Reason as well as to themselves they are a great Offence to Christianity and lay a sure Foundation of Mens rejecting it for they put them upon doing what they cannot do I say what they cannot not only because of the Corruption and Weakness but because of the Nature of our Faculties In this case a Man must either forsake his Religion or his Reason And I know not to what purpose any should keep his Religion if he forsake his Reason nor indeed do I see how he can do it if his Religion be reasonable and his Reason will signify little if Contradictions may be true By all this I blame their Practice who affix a Sence to the Scriptures and to those Confessions of Faith which the Church agrees should be publickly used that is contradictious and then to make the best of their Miscarriage and keep their own Error in credit will tell us we must believe Contradictions when they may as well bid the Sun give forth darkness or the Fire to wet and the Water to burn For all this they pretend an Authority into which we are to resolve our Faith not considering that they deny the Authority which they pretend for can it be consistent with the Wisdom and Goodness of a Superior to oblige his Subjects to Impossibles to require them to do what is repugnant and destructive to their Natures Whosoever therefore have under the Pretext of such an uncontroulable Authority ventured so far in the Explication of the Mysteries of our Religion that they have used such Words as in
in general he hath no malice against it But we must also consider it particularly as it is subjected in this or that Man A Man may be Aliquis in omnibus nullus in singulis in respect of his Love as well as his Knowledg We must do good to the Generality of Mankind but we must also do good to Particulars Again We must be beneficent to this and that and the other Man but yet always with respect to the rest of Mankind Our particular Affection must not exclude our Regard to the Community On the other side our loving and doing good to this or that or the other Person must consist with and be determin'd and bounded by our doing good unto all Men. This is founded on that received Principle The greatest Good is to be preferred and it is a greater Good which reaches more than that which belongs to fewer And caeteris paribus that is better which is good to all than that which is only good to some In treating of this Argument I shall enquire 1. What that is which is Good to Man 2. By what means we can contribute to it 3. Free the Apostle's sense from some Difficulties 4. Offer some Considerations that may engage us all to the Practice of this great and good Duty 1. In answer to our first Enquiry That in general is Good to Man which is either his Perfection or which has a Tendency to it that has the Goodness of the End this of the Means Here we are to consider that Man is made up of two Natures of various Powers and Faculties that one of these Natures is superiour to the other and some of these Faculties are subservient to the other that when we speak of Perfection we intend the Perfection of the whole and have special regard to that which is principal and supream the Soul of Man For tho the Body has its Perfections and Goods yet if these be not consistent with and subservient to the Soul they are of no account We are not therefore so much to consider our lower Appetites and the State of the Body in this Discourse but as it is serviceable to Knowledg and Wisdom to a Determination of our selves according to Reason to the good Government of our Wills and Affections and contributes to that Joy and Peace which is consequent on Vertue and Goodness Nor is any State of our Body or any outward Condition to be accounted good but evil which does disserve and hinder us either in the use of our Understandings or in the Government of our Wills and Appetites If it do not further and promote these things it is not good to us as Men. I will more particularly speak my meaning in these few Propositions 1. Man's Perfection consists in a good i. e. a clear distinct full and quick underderstanding of all those things that are within his Compass particularly in the Knowledg of God and of himself and of the Rules and Reasons of his own Actions 2. In a Will constantly following what is Good In the Guidance and Government of his Affections his Appetite and Inclinations his Intentions and Resolutions and all Principles of Action according to his best and clearest Knowledg Particularly in the exercise of a natural rational hearty Religion in a constant and even Fervency of Devotion toward God also in the Inclinations Habits and Practices of Vertue which refers to Men all which is summ'd up in Love and Goodwill 3. In that Joy and Peace that Tranquillity and Satisfaction which is the Companion of an Understanding so enlightened and a Will so directed 4. That is a good State and Temper of Body which will not obstruct and hinder but assist and be instrumental and serviceable to the Soul in all these things Natural Life and Health and Strength and such like are the Bodies Goods which are then good to Man when they serve the Ends aforesaid when they minister to Rellgion and Vertue to Knowledg and Goodness 5. Those outward Circumstances an Estate and Reputation and such like are the best which most help us to obtain to secure and use the Perfections before named when they tend to increase our Religion toward God or our Charity to Men and minister to our Devotions and Vertue as a competent Estate and a clear Reputation have an Aptitude to do All that 's good to Man in any respect must be either subservient or at least consistent with this therefore a Gratification of the sensitive Appetite if it prove prejudicial to Vertue and the Soul is not good but evil to the Man And an Estate may be for hurt to the Owner thereof as Solomon speaks God many times doth good to us when he withholds Estates or Health or Reputation from us For thereby he cures us of many Maladies rids us of many Vices And so amongst Men they that have Power over others and understand which are the best Methods to promote their Happiness do it very often by inflicting some Penalty and by debarring them of some Gratification of one or more of their Appetites But we must see that this be not a Cloak for Maliciousness we must not pretend that to be a Kindness which is not nor say we act from Charity and with Intention to make others happy when we act from Revenge when Peevishness or Malice are the true Principles of what we do We consider Man all this while in his present State but we are also to consider him in reference to the future And in that respect we attribute as great Perfection to him as we can suppose him capable of that he is there freed from all the Imperfection under which the best Men labour here and delivered from those bad Circumstances from which the most fortunate Men are not exempted in this Life Thus I have given a short Summary of what 's good to Man and you will see the Reason in the following Discourse why I have made such particular and distinct mention of that which is a subordinate and that which is a principal and final Good of that which is good to a part and to the whole II. I now proceed to shew what are those ways in which one Man may do good to another They are of two sorts either such as are mediate and which by means of others or immediate and by himself are done Of the first sort are our hearty Desires and Prayers to God that he would do them good and also when we live so good Lives as God is pleased to testify his Acceptance of them by shewing Mercy to our Family Kindred or Country Thus the Posterity of Abraham obtained great Mercies for his sake Of this kind also are our Persuasions and Intreaties with Men on the behalf of others when we prevail with others to do them that Good which our selves could not To this also appertains the making of good and true Reports and giving just but fair Characters of Men. When we give any Character of
the Pleasure that arises from it must needs be very great The best Faculty is now exercised about its proper Object and 't is generally said that all Pleasure consists in the Congruity of the Object and Faculty 2. Distinguish this Pleasure according to the three Differences of Time which its Cause hath and we shall find it in all these to be extraordinary 1. For the past Memory tho it be but a languishing Sense and the Ideas are not near so lively as when they were first imprest yet the Remembrance of having done good Offices gives a very sensible and lively Pleasure and it is a great Content to the Soul when it calls to mind any Acts of Beneficence and that it did such Actions for which others were the better To remember that I have relieved a Man in his Necessities or added to his Conveniencies eas'd his Pain or cured his Disease vindicated his Reputation preserved his Life instructed his Ignorance removed his Mistakes satisfied his Doubts confirmed his Resolutions moderated his Affections the Remembrance of this that I have been instrumental in such good Offices will be very pleasant Indeed a Man is more pleased with a Remembrance of the Good he hath done to others than of that which he hath done himself And I am well assured that when we come to die it will be a very great satisfaction if we can think that none can accuse us for doing them Injury and if others will testify that we have been kind and good to them 2. As to the Present A Man that is in the Exercise of Goodness hath the pleasant Sensation of the Health and good Plight of his Soul He feels himself his Mind as well as Body in an excellent State Some think that Sense of Health is the greatest Pleasure of Man and this is the Pleasure of a double Health 3. Future He that feels he hath attained to so much cannot but hope that what is yet behind shall be added and that he shall continue in those ways to the end which are so infinitely pleasant to him that he shall ascend to that Heaven which is come down to him and is in him that is that he shall continue the Exercise of that Love in Eternity which he hath begun in Time And this he hopes for because it is very natural and because this Sense of the Excellency of his own Goodness and Benignity assures him that God is good and will do good to them that are so 3. When Man complies with the grand Design of Heaven i. e. to promote the Happiness of Mankind and co-operates with natural Causes which have a manifest subserviency to the Good of the Generality he is then doing Acts of Kindness and Benignity and when he doth these he not only refreshes other Men but le ts in Streams of Pleasure to his own Soul And these Pleasures which derive from such a Spring must be 1. Sure for they depend on very certain Causes and such as act naturally and almost necessarily All the Uncertainty arises from his own Mutability and yet he is under an Engagement that is as powerful to determine him as the Nature of Man is capable of that is he perceives a great and sensible Pleasure in the Exercise of Goodness and either this will determine him to such Acts or nothing can Whilst Man perseveres in doing Good his Pleasure must remain and he will persevere whilst he considers God and the World i. e. whilst he uses his Reason 2. Near. They are in and from himself and do not so much depend on Things without us but on the Use of our selves Principally They are always with us if we do but reflect on our own Acts which we cannot chuse but do we shall not fail of Pleasure 4. By reason of its Duration It is 1. Continued 2. Lasting 1. A Pleasure that arises from such certain Causes and that are so near to us must needs be continual and without interruption That which is near and within a Man must certainly be more taken notice of than things at a distance such are his own Actions and the Principles of them he cannot chuse but he must observe them And as often as he is conscious of this beneficent Temper and Acts of Goodness and Kindness he feels an overflowing Joy in his Mind And if that be his Nature to incline him alway to do Good he must alway be sensible of it that is his Pleasure must be as interrupted as any thing can be in the Mind of Man 2. It is also lasting As long as the Sun is the Rays will flow from it and as long as the Soul continues benign and good and acts from this Principle so long will it continue in this pleasant Sense for this is an inseparable Emanation or Property of a benign Soul Other Pleasures that depend on contingent mutable external Things must be transient and fleeting and as full of Vicissitude as the Causes on which they depend but these which flow from that which is incorporeal and incorruptible will themselves last for ever As long as the Fountain springs these Streams will not fail and that will not be dried up for it is fed by the secret Aids sent from the inexhaustible Ocean of Goodness in God And will certainly be one of the great Pleasures of the other State for the Soul must lose it self must cease to be what now it is before this Pleasure can cease It is one of the greatest and fairest of those Rivers of Pleasure which encompass Paradise whose Waters fail not How unconceivable is the Delight of Souls when they are bathing themselves in these Streams when they are carried on with the greatest Gales of Good-will to all their Fellow-Creatures How will they be ravish'd with their own Countenance when they behold in it this excellent Grace with which Love hath beautified it How must they be delighted to feel themselves in so good a State in so healthful a Plight 5. This Pleasure is absolutely good There are some Pleasures that are hurtful The Soul may too much be taken with low and sensual Delights so as to neglect those that are higher and better There are Pleasures of Sin that are Baits to catch unwary Souls and will ensnare them in those Practices which will make them miserable But behold the Pleasures which arise from Beneficence are absolutely good have no mixture of evil are perfectly innocent and greatly useful do no harm and much good for they engage us to repeat those good Works which bring us in so great an Income of Bliss Thus they continue themselves and that is the greatest thing I can say of them for this is that which hath not the Goodness of Means only but of the End also Thus I have shewn how certain a Cause of greatest and most exquisite Pleasure doing Good must needs be so as I might hope to engage the greatest Epicureans to take this Course to be happy And now after all
no good perhaps with an ill Design How idly how unprofitably do they lavish away their time who converse together in this vain trifling false hypocritical manner who as they are conscious that no Credit is to be given to what they say so neither do they believe each other And to how little purpose do I converse with that Man whom I cannot think he means as he speaks 16. Be very watchful of our selves in such Particulars which if they be not regarded do very much endanger the loss of Time As 1. Be careful we be not too prodigal of it in the Gratifications of our Senses and the Services of the Body Whilst thou art eating and drinking take heed of devouring Time also And spend not those hours in Sleep or in dressing thy Body which should have been laid out on thy better Paâ—t I do not by this put eating and drinking sleeping and dressing into the vain Consumptions of Time No they are all very allowable things But this I say that we have need to set a Watch over our selves lest we spend more time in these things than we can account for than is requisite for them so long as they are good and natural Let us be doing other things while we are doing these While we are satisfying our Hunger and Thirst let us discourse While we are dressing our Bodies let us be cloathing and adorning and sprucing up our Souls by wise and good Thoughts and Affections But do not do this profunctorily and by the by for that 's hateful and a perverse piece of Folly to let thy Soul have thy Bodies leavings To do the Work of thy Soul when thou hast nothing else to do to cast off thy refuse Minutes to it and to allow it none other to afford it only the few Minutes which can be spared from the Services of the Body This may be an Instance how the same Action may be very good and very bad according to the Mind with and the Principle from which it is done He that lays his Bible before him and fills up those Minutes with reading and imploys those Thoughts about God's Revelation which need not be laid out wholly in dressing And does this out of the great Sense he has of the far greater Excellency and Necessity of one Work than of the other he does well in this But if these little Intervals of Time be all that are given to the Soul and if he only cast off the Shreds of Time for the Soul out of a Preference of the Body this is hateful 2. Beware of all diverting Exercises Those Games which were invented on purpose to take off our Minds a while from more serious Employments on which they could not be continually fixed they after prove an infinite Expence of Time and by a kind of Witchery do so insinuate themselves and excite our Passions and cause a tickling Pleasure that they detain us much longer time than we can spare from important Business It is Wisdom in this case to resolve before we be engaged in it how long we will stay at such a Sport And to be sure not to break our Purpose 3. Compliance with general Customs Some of these are great Devourers of Time We spend many hours and 't is but very little good we do in them I do not bid you be singular and break such Customs no I suppose them innocent in themselves and by my Care they may be so to me All I advise is that since they may not require a great or constant Intention of Mind to use them we let out our Thoughts after other matters and lay hold on such Advantages of doing any kind of good as are offer'd 4. Civil Visits Such as are made by those who are not quite Strangers to each other nor yet so well known as to be Friends and Confidents I do not suppose these to end in meer Tattle much less in a saucy Discourse against their Governours nor in slandering or uncharitable detracting from their Neighbours nor any such ill things as these which is the worst Consumption of Time that can be But if these Visits stay in general and innocent Discourse yet we must be careful that too much of our little Time which more necessary things call for be not laid out on these lesser matters Let us also endeavour to improve these Occasions to the best Uses of which they are capable 5. Curiosities They are things that require much Pains and are of no great use Now if whilst we are in pursuit of these we neglect something that is more necessary if things of far greater moment call for that Time and Pains which we lay out on these Prettinesses they prove the loss of our Time and there is great Danger lest our Curiosity should engage us so far in the quest of these dissiciles Nugae these things that please meerly because they are rare and odd and hard to come at that we should not mind the Seasons of doing far better and greater things Which if we do we lose the Advantage in part for we do not do the best we might 6. Conversation with Friends It is commonly said Amici fures temporis and there is some danger of it as there is of every thing that hugely pleases us lest it should so fix and chain our Souls to it that they be not ready to fly away with the first Opportunity that calls to the doing some other and more necessary Good This that I say is no Disparagement to Friends and which of all the things this World affords that are without us is of greatest value And there is nothing so pleasant so profitable nothing so truly honourable nothing that carries with it a Signification of greater Wisdom and Vertue and good Nature than to live in Friendship And the more there is of this the larger the more universal still it deserves a greater Praise It is that which tho I am occasionally fallen into the mention of yet I can hardly forbear to perswade all Men to enter into and to preserve this most sacred League Notwithstanding this I must intimate that amongst the other Miscarriages you may by occasion of it fall into this is not the least That the most pleasant Conversation of your Friend may so take you up that you may be by this bereft of the Season of doing some more needful Good which it may be whilst you are in those delightful Transports you have in the Enjoyment of him you love and trust as you do your own Soul passes away and will return no more This Caution should be no more prejudice to Friendship or bring us into any ill Thoughts of that than if it were as it might be applied to a greater thing than Friendship that is Devotion or converse with God himself which is the highest Act we can put forth yet we may be too long in the Mount There are other Services to be done besides though none so great as this 17. Do
these Punishments on themselves 2. The Penalties are very Humane such as will chiefly work on Men's Understandings and Modesty and do suppose their Love to Vertue and Sense of Religion and Value for the Christian Institution To admonish to withdraw from to account him as an Heathen to shut him out of the Church Indeed there followed upon this Diseases and Death but these were instructive and by such Punishments greater might be and were prevented 3. They were as gentle and easy as could be inflicted no more than Necessity and the Nature of the Crime extorted They were gradual And yet 4. Sufficiently severe that if a Man had any Sense of Goodness they must reclaim him 5. Yet even the most severe were very charitable They were not inflicted to satisfy Revenge and Malice but in compliance with Love and to carry on the Deâ—igns of Charity That the Spirit may be saved and thou hast gain'd thy Brother No other end Sixthly The Holy Solemnities and Sacred Rites to which every one as a Christian is admitted in the publick Assemblies are such as are instructive to those that use them as well as full of Argument to ingage them to the practice of Vertue and they have a manifest aim and tendency to make all that are admitted to them truly religious toward God and to unite them in Love to each other Besides we may well suppose the Divine Blessing and Influence on these his own Institutions and Ordinances and that we receive more good by them than is naturally consequent on the use of them I may refer them to these three Heads 1. Praying to God 2. Hearing his Word 3. The Sacraments 1. Prayer is one of the first and most natural of those Acknowledgments we make to God And there is no holy good Man that is not frequent in this For â—he is sensible of his dependance on God and therefore he supplicates he knows his own Guilt and therefore confesseth he understands his own Inability and God's Power and Readiness to help others and therefore he intercedes and upon the receipt of any Good he gives Thanks and by all he praises and glorifies the great Power and Wisdom the Goodness and Holiness of God He owns him to be the Great and Good God on whom all depend and who governs the Worlds and is the Author of all that Good which we or others enjoy that he hath Right to our Obedience and may require of and do with us what he will All this we ascribe to God by our Prayers and Praises by our Confessions of our Faults and Intercessions for our Brethren This is a piece of Worship so due to God that we may not alienate it from him it is an incommunicable Honour which must not be given to any of his Creatures This is so just and so fit a thing that every one is naturally inclined to and can hardly be with-held from it Rather than not do it at all they will pay this Homage where it is not due and pray to Stocks and Stones or to Men that cannot hear nor help them All which shews that we have a secret sense of our Dependance on God and our Obnoxiousness to him and of his Perfections This is inherent in us and we cannot but know it and if we would carefully observe and trace this Inclination it would lead us to the knowledg of God and we should easily infer that he must be powerful and wise and good and holy Now tho no good Man can be with-held from frequently addressing himself to God in this manner for his Mind will silently ejaculate his good thoughts of God and his holy Fervors will ascend up to Heaven like the Fumes of sweet Incense and he hath also his constant Times of entring into his Closet and shutting his Door and there pouring out his very Soul before Him that sees in secret and will reward openly yet besides all this his great Humility in himself and Charity to others and Desire of God's Glory make him to set a great value on the Publick Prayers and it is and ought to be a thing of great account to join with the Assembly in Prayer and Thanksgiving to God When a Man confesseth his own and his Brethrens Faults thus publickly it must necessarily lay an Engagement on him for the future to be careful to prevent the Repetition of the same or the Commission of any others by himself or his Brethren who join with him His Intercession for others and theirs for him doth both suppose and will increase their mutual Love and Friendship But all those Acknowledgements of the Divine Goodness which are made in the solemn publick Prayers and Praises of the holy Congregation as they proceed from true and right thoughts of God and becoming Affections towards him so they tend to continue and increase their Knowledg and Devotions and will have a mighty Influence on their Love and Good-will to each other For whilst they pray and give thanks for one another they are in the greatest exercise and highest expression of their Love to one another that can be and by this they engage themselves to use their utmost endeavours to do all good Offices for and to make one another as happy as they can For they that pray to God for the greatest Blessings of Heaven upon their Brethren will not fail to do all they can toward the procuring of that Happiness for them which in their Prayers they have desired of God And whosoever he be that joins with the Publick Assemblie in Prayers for all the Congregation but in private opposeth the Welfare and good Estate of any or that doth not constantly and heartily endeavour it he proclaims to the World that he is an Hypocrite that he goes about to mock God and to cheat the World in that he pretends to pray for the Welfare but acts for the Ruine of his Neighbour Again the joining together in the same Religious Worship the doing the same Actions tends greatly to Love and Unity especially when by this we discover our selves to have the same Deâ—ires and Designs as Men that pray together do Besides a Man may reasonably expect to receive greater Benefits on the account of the united Prayers of many than of his own single ones and therefore our Saviour hath made the Promise to two or three met and agreeing together to ask any thing It is on this consideration that an humble Christian relies so much on the Prayers of the Church and even when he is in secret he is comforted with the thoughts that the Prayers of the whole Catholick Church are made to God on his behalf And this I heartily with they would consider who make so small account of those good Prayers which are the Common-Prayers of our whole Church and are used by all the Members of it 2. Hearing the Word of God frequently read and sometimes expoâ—â—ded But is this such an Advantage Yes â—urely Two sorts of Men will look on
in opposition to their Opinion of old must be understood in the same Sense they took them in and then the plain Sense of our Saviour is that we should design their Good and Welfare who desire and intend ill to us That we should repay Hatred with Love ill Offices with good ones and in sum do well to them that do evil to us not requiting Hatred with Hatred one ill turn with another 3. Let us consider the Words with Relation to other Precepts This is necessary to be considered for the understanding the Bounds and Limits of any Precept and consequently how far it is obligatory There are two Propositions which in general may serve for Rules in the Interpretation of any Command and they are not that I know denied by any First That no Action that is impossible is commanded and none that is necessary forbidden If any Laws be made that keep not within these Bounds it argues Folly and perhaps Cruelty in the Maker of them and he to whom they are made cannot be under any Obligation Secondly No Law that is particular and of less moment can null one that is greater and universally obliging Such are those Love and do Good Avoid Evil c. And where two good things are in Competition and one is apperently better chuse the best because that which is less good habet Rationem mali 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the untransgressible Law it is contrary to Nature to do otherwise this is perpetually obliging This is a Law which cannot be abrogated from which no other Law can derogate in the least So that no Precept whatsoever can oblige any Person not to do that which is better Of two good things the greater of two Evils the lesser is always to be chosen And indeed Men naturally do chuse that which they appreliend to be so These two Rules premised it is manifest that our Saviour in this Precept of loving our Enemies doth not command us 1. To love any thing that is in it self Evil nor to be pleased with our own Harm considered in it self This is impossible for Humane Nature to do He doth not by this intend to make us affected to Evil as we are to Good This we cannot be whilst we are Men our Nature must be first destroyed Every one naturally and necessarily intends his own Preservation and is averse from that which tends to his Ruine The desire of his own Preservation and Perfection is a Principle so deeply ingraven in Man's Nature that it cannot be obliterated Nor 2. Are we here commanded to do no Evil to those who are our Enemies Men who are competent Judges of Offences and who have Power and Right to punish Offenders are not hereby forbidden to inflict Penalties on them where other Methods will be probably ineffectual to remove or prevent some greater Evils This makes doing ill to any not only excusable but necessary where a greater Evil cannot be removed without it And 3. If we may do any Evil to another then we may also desire and will it It is unquestionable a Man may will to do what he may do And he may do Evil to another Man where 1. It is the likeliest means to procure the Offender some greater Good than by this he is depriv'd of Or 2. Where it is but consistent with his Happiness if it be in order to the greater Good and Advantage of others the Liberty and Security of other Men the Publick Peace This is the only Reason I can readily think of why the Life of a Robber should be taken away that People may be secure and quiet in their Possessions and encouraged to Labour and Industry to get by their being protected by the Laws in keeping what they have and also lest the Contagion should spread and the Malefactor himself proceed to more Offences and others receive the Infection from him All which is more valuable than such a Man's Life These are the Principles of Justice and our Saviour came not to overturn any of these Foundations This then seems to be the Sense of our Saviour in this Precept Not that we should love any thing that is Evil to us and tends to our Ruine as such Nor that we should not endeavour and take the best and likeliest ways to free our selves from a bad Estate Nor that we should not do and desire some Evil to Men who may be our Enemies provided that it be in order to a greater Good than it is a Deprivation of to themselves or others and never inconsistent with their Happiness But that we should desire and do as much as we can all that Good to them who design and do the worst Evils to us which can be consistent with our wisest Endeavours after their our own and others greatest Good This seems to be all that is meant by this Precept Only this Caution is necessary that Passion and Interest and Folly must not determine in the case but Wisdom and Righteousness must sit in Judgment and decide what is and what is not consistent with their or other Mens greater Good II. Now let us consider the Reasonableness of such a Practice considered in it self and the Arguments that are drawn from such a Consideration of it as well as the more external that perswade to it 1. Consider Love in it self It is the most pleasant as well as the most beneficial and perfective Operation of Man There is none but will confess himself beholden to this Passion for the greatest Delights he hath ever met with It is that which makes us receive any thing of Pleasure in our Enjoyments Without it the best Condition would afford us no Content and with it we shall have Satisfaction in the worst It is Love more than any other thing that differences Mens Delights Estates Enjoyments c. Our Delight consists not in having abundance of Riches nor in being honoured nor in knowing much but in our Love and value for these things He that hath much and loves not his Wealth hath no more of pleasure from his Riches than he who is poor Hence is it that the Necessitous hath more of Delight in his Condition than the Wealthy-Man in his because he more loves and values his few Necessaries than the other can his many Superfluiries But I need no further Evidence of the Pleasures of Love and Good-will than an Appeal to every Mans Sense and Observation of himself will give The more he has of this the better it is with him If therefore it be extended as far as there is any thing that may be an Object of Love how great must his Delight be The most that we know of Heaven which is a State of the greatest Pleasure and Delight that Humane Nature can have is that there is a constant and a great Love and Hell which is the greatest Torment is destitute of all Good-will Love and Kindness are banished hence and Spite and Hatred and Envy take the place How
Title affected a greater Authority then is competible to Men. 2. Their wretched Covetousness which shewed it self in the Instances of devouring Widows Houses of esteeming the Gifts and the Gold above the Altar and the Temple 3. Their abominable Hypocrisy which appeared in their teaching others to do what themselves would not do in serving a carnal Interest by a Religious Carriage making long Prayers in pretence and wearing broader Phylacteries that so under these Vizards they might pass more unsuspected and have a better Opportunity to seize on their prey This further appeared in their partial Obedience chusing to obey those Commands that were least considerable but yet make the greatest appearance of an extraordinary Holiness whilst they omitted the weightier and more necessary but which have less of Pomp and Ostentation They were much in external Washings and Purifications neglecting to wash their Hearts from Wickedness They 〈◊〉 Mint and Anise and Cummin in which they would seem to supererrogate their Goodness transcending the too narrow Bounds of the Law whilst they omitted Faith and Judgment and Meroy They would build the Sepulchres of the Prophets whom their Fathers had slain whilst themselves persecuted and at last murdered the greatest Prophet that ever the World had Who could have believed that they who pretended to such as honourable Esteem of the Dead should have so little Affection for the Living The fairest account of this Carriage is this Nos mericles ca qua per didimus bona magni facimus qua habimus nihili But perhaps the truest is mortui non â—â—rdent The Prophets that were dead could not be Witnesses of their Wickedness nor rebuke them otherwise than by their Writings which themselves having both the keeping and the interpreting of would be sure to make them speak nothing to their Disparagement But tho they could either conceal or put a false gloss on the Writings of dead Men yet they could not either silence our Saviour or by any Arts of interpreting clude the sense of his Words No he would speak and tell them their Faults truly and plainly These and such like were those great Crimes in these Enemies of our Religion which our Blessed Saviour so severely taxed and threatned Whereupon it might have been supposed that his Disciples had been out of danger of these Evils that they would not have come near the place where their Pilot had set a Sea-mark But not to go further back whose takes a view of the Christian Church at least a great part of it in these Western Parts as Erasmus hath represented it he 'll say that Pharisaism then lived and râ—â—gned as much as ever Our Saviour had not it 〈◊〉 by all those terrible Denunciations afrighted this unchristian Temper out of the World but it appeared rather to have gotten ground and to have prevailed against the true Christian Spirit Now as Erasmus complains the Disciples of Christ are more truly Pharisees than the Pharisees themselves and Christians are become more ceremonious than Jews How every where doth so far this in the Romish Church even in those that should have been Examples of good Works And what Reformation hath since been made let every Man judg who doth not only judg of Things by Names and of Men by Professions There hath indeed been a very great and good Change made for which thousands of Souls must bless God but that much of this Leaven of the Pharisees still remains is too notorious that this Proteus who can change himself into any Shape or Colour who is of all Sects and Professions who can be Pagan or Jew or Mahometan or Christian Papist or Protestant a Member of the Church of Rome or Geneva Scotland or England a Teacher or a Learner That he is under these several Forms that this Pharisee is to be found in the Christian Church as well as the Jewish Synagogues that he is both of 〈◊〉 and Bellarmine's Persuasion a Follower of Calvin and of Arminius In brief I know no Way no Sect but this Serpent insinuates it self amongst them That I be not mistaken I understand by all this what our Saviour plainly taxes viz. a Spirit of Pride that affects and arrogates undeserved Titles and a Power which no Man can reasonably challenge of Covetousness or an Humour of monopolizing all the World a neglect of the greatest Commands with endeavours to make amends by a Zeal in the lesser matters An exact Observance of Externals with a Supine Omission of the Intrinsicks and Essentials of Religion such are Truth and Justice Love to God and Men. This is what I understand by a Pharisee Whilst I am on this Argument I must insert this necessary Caution that all I aim at is to tax the Vices of some Men in our Church not to disparage all Let none therefore take occasion from what I say to wrest my Words and think me an Enemy to the Church who if I had been so I should then have been silent or flatter'd and said all is well Let none be so unreasonably suspicious of my honest Intentions as to think me to be undermining whilst I am really using the best Method I know to build and settle That I take to be a free and plain censuring a publick Notice-taking of those Sins that are done openly in the Face of the Sun such we are guilty of and these are the Disturbers of our Peace these shake our Foundations These are they that cause Earthquakes and raise those Tempests that threaten our Subversion Whilst we pretend to instruct others who are grosly ignorant our selves to exhort them to a diligent Observance of those Commands which we neglect and so pull down what we would seem to build Whilst we are frequently guilty of profane Swearing Intemperance and other Immoralities we open other Mens Mouths but stop our own for we cannot condemn that in them which we allow in our selves nor can they approve that in us which we have taught to condemn in them Whilst we live in the neglect of God are really without any Sense of or Love to him in our Minds have not Faith and Hope in him Whilst we are void of true Love to Men are so far from Charity from Bounty and Kindness that we are not Just Whilst we omit Judgment Mercy and Faith tho we be very punctual in all lesser Observances both of God's and the Churches Commands we are no better than they who tithed Mint and Anise and Cummin and made long Prayers And if we be such our Saviour threatens us and Men not only threaten us but our way too by such Practices a good way is evil spoken of Assuredly those are the things that have given Men that Advantage against us which else they could never have had for Who shall harm us if we do well No certainly if we lived in the Love of God and of all Men in Humility and meekness in Temperance in Justice and Truth in Mercy and Goodness tho our Church-Constitutions were
is the Way walk in it The Sum of these Arguments is That if we will not transgress the express Law of God if we think our selves bound to follow the Examples of good Men if we will obey God in an Instance where Obedience has procured most singular Blessing if either the Sense of what 's just and fit or the Desire of Benefit and Advantage will prevail with us if we either love God or our selves or our Children if we either follow the Inclinations of Nature or the Directions of Reason if we will be concluded either by the common Sense of Mankind or the Divine Oracles if we would secure our Souls from the Guilt of inhuman unnatural Cruelty and our Children from the greatest Misery We must take care to train them up betimes in the Way in which they should go OF HOSPITALITY Preach'd to the Company of Inn-holders ROM 13. 12. latter part Given to Hospitality THE Occasion of our present Assembly as I am informed is to fulfill the Will of Mrs. Anne Astel who having bequeath'd a yearly Revenue toward the Maintenance of a Lecturer in the Parish of St. Lawrence Jury out of good respect she had to the Worshipful Company of Inn. holders obliged that her Lecturer once a Year to preach a Sermon to them In which she shewed her self a prudently pious and charitable Person that when she had taken care for the good Instruction of her own Parish she would improve and extend her Charity to others and make it as diffusive as she could that others and particularly You to whom she seems to have had particular Good-will might partake of her Bounty That we might perform the Will of this religious and good Person we are here assembled and that you may receive that Benefit which she piously design'd I have chosen to discourse of a Text of Scripture the Consideration of which will set before you a great part of the particular Duty of Inn-holders whose Name this Company bears And that I look on as the main Business of Sermons and such Exercises as these to put Men in mind of and persuade them to the faithful discharge of their respective Duties which when in all our several Places Stations and Employments we shall faithfully do then and not till then shall we all be happy and Glory shall dwell in our Land To make way for what I intend The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Translators here render Hospitality is compounded of two Words which signify Love of Strangers and in its common use it doth not much depart from this Signification that 's imported in the Original The more simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same Sense only leaves us to guess what Affection or Deportment we should have to Sttangers which is exprest in the Compound The other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we here translate given to more properly signifies and in other places is rendred following It denotes the study of and earnest pursuit after a thing So that the Sense of the Apostle's Exhortatio◠to the Romans and to us and all Men as well as to them is that they and we should diligently and studiously with Care and Pains Earnestness and Industry set our selves to exercise Hospitality Concerning which I shall endeavour to shew three things in general First What that is which is here signified to us by Hospitality Secondly How good and necessary it is From whence it will appear that there is an Obligation on all Christians nay on all Men to practise it And having done this I shall proceed to shew that you especially of all Men are most peculiarly and most strictly bound to be hospitable And here I shall discourse of the Benefits that will redound to those that carefully and conscionably practise this Duty likewise I will mention some of those Practices which are notorious Violations of the Laws of Hospitality And shall also offer some Directions which may help to the better Performance of it First In general To have such Affections such inward Dispositions toward Strangers as are fit for us to have is to be hospitable and to carry and demean our selves toward them in a becoming manner is to exercise Hospitality This is all that 's imported by the word Hospitality which is originally Latin or by the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes that inward Affection or outward Deportment that should be towards Strangers And if the generality of Mankind were asked what that is they would answer that it is to be just and honest faithful and true in our Dealings with them 'T is to be civil courteous humane loving kind in our Disposition and Carriage 'T is to be inclin'd and ready to do all Good Offices for them that are in our Power which their Condition calls for and which they either do or if they understood would desire That is to inform them when they are ignorant to rectify their Mistake to assist them in the Government of their Passions about those matters with which they are unacquainted To withhold them what in us lies from doing any foolish evil Actions to which their Unexperience might betray them To supply them with those things of which by reason of their Absence from their Acquaintance they are destitute In short It is to bail and screen them from that Evil and those Mischiefs and Dangers to which by being Strangers they are exposed to secure them from all that Harm to which their Condition makes them liable and to do all that Good to and confer those Benefits on them which if they were where they are known they might expect and would have It is to be their Friends to do them any good Office that they want and we can do civilly to converse with them to advise and counsel to relieve with Money or any other way to entertain them at our Tables to lodg them and to do this with a willing Mind and a chearful Countenance which is more than a Circumstance in this matter for this hospitable Look if I may so call it is no small part of the Behavior that 's intended in Hospitality And tho in our modern use of it the Word imports no more than an entertaining a Person with whom I have no great Acquaintance at my Table and lodging him yet anciently it signified all sorts of Civility and Kindness which is shewn to Stangers So that this is the Sum of vvhat I mean by Hospitality to be kind and friendly to Strangers I proceed Secondly To make it appear that this is very good That is 1st It 's fit and becoming 2dly It 's profitable and advantageous 1st It 's a piece of that good Nature which so well becomes Man that it is called Humanity and therefore the Ancients call our Kindness to Strangers by this Name Humanity and the defect of this is ever censured by them with this Expression of Barbarous and Inhumane And we have further Reason to think this good