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A47669
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A sermon preach'd before the King at New-market, on Sunday the 16th day of April, 1699 by John Leng ...
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Leng, John, 1665-1727.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing L1050; ESTC R11706
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12,544
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38
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of God and another Life as they have been here represented But in answer to this it ought to be considered that it is not the outward pretence to Piety nor the external Profession of Religion though never so plausible that is to be look't upon as a True and Real Belief of God or his Providence even though a Man go so far in it as to deceive his own self For while the outward Profession of Religion is encouraged Men that are much concern'd for the good opinion of the World because they gain by it will be sure to make a Pretence of believing as the best Men do nay they will often Act this so far as to over-do it and make a greater shew than those that are truly Pious and Religious insomuch that they will not only deceive others but themselves also But then this is in truth only Acting such a part as they find will be most for their advantage and proceeds not from any solid and lasting Foundation For if it should so happen that Gain and Reputation or the Countenance of Authority or whatever else they value most should lye with prospect of any long continuance on the side of Atheism and contempt of Religion these very Men would then be as great pretenders to that however they may mistake themselves while the case is otherwise So that in truth next to the down-right Profession of Atheism there are none that come nearer to it than the thorough Hypocrites and therefore it is not without very great Reason that our Blessed Saviour so often joynes Hypocrites and Unbelievers together in the Gospel But 3. Not only Reason and Experience make it evident that Atheism and Infidelity are closely link't with Sin and Wickedness but the Holy Scriptures likewise in many places Testify the same For so Psal 14.1 We are told that The fool hath said in his heart there is no God which words though they be sometimes brought to shew the Folly of Atheism and in that sense be true enough yet the plain natural and direct meaning of them is that the wicked Man who is frequently in Scripture Language call'd a Fool has not in his Heart any true Belief of God and Providence but secretly either disbelieves or questions his Being and Attributes and endeavours as much as he can to thrust the thoughts of him out of his Mind and that this is the meaning of the place is fully made out by what follows Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity there is none that doeth good God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand that did seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doeth good no not one Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my People as they eat Bread and call not upon the Lord All which shews that by the Fool is meant a Wicked Person and the Wicked are such as seek not after God nor call upon the Lord. And so in the 9th Psalm The wicked and those that forget God are joyned together And in the 10th Psalm v. 4. it is said That the Wicked through the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts And again v. 11. He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten He hideth his face and he will never see And many more Expressions there are in the Book of Psalms to this purpose In like manner St. Paul shews at large in the First Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans concerning the Gentile World that the Reason of that great Corruption of Manners among them was their false and corrupt Notions of God and this not only by way of natural consequence but by the just Judgment of God upon such perverse and depraved Opinions and that because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge therefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient And Ephes 4.18 he says that the Gentiles being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them through the blindness of their heart have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness From all which it plainly appears that the corruption of Men's Manners springs from the want of a true and sincere Belief of the Being and Nature of God and therefore that Men may be truly accounted so far Atheists in their Hearts as they are resolutely Profligate and Debauched in their Practise Proceed we therefore to consider II. In the Second place whence this Infidelity or Doubting arises which thus hardens Men in Sin and the Text tells us it is Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily i. e. Men take occasion to Doubt about Providence and so fully to set their hearts to do evil from the seeming slowness of Divine Justice in dispensing Rewards and Punishments or rather from their over-hasty judging about these matters I mention Rewards as well as Punishments though the Text speaks expressly of the latter only Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily and perhaps the Reason why it is exprest more particularly on that side may be this because there is so much ill nature generally in the World that Men are much more offended to see any Man escape that deserves Punishment than they are concern'd for a good Man that misses of his due Reward and more apt to observe the evil Actions of Men than the good just as in the disposal of Temporal greatness it usually raises a greater indignation to see an unworthy and vile Person preferr'd than to see a deserving Man neglected or at least much more than it raises our Joy and Gratitude to see a worthy Person raised to a deserved Dignity And besides base and unworthy Minds such as are most wont to Tax the Providence of God are apt to be generally more mov'd by Principles of Fear than by Hope or Love and therefore when Punishment does not presently overtake their faults are soon persuaded to disbelieve that Providence which they think should presently punish if he had any regard to what they do But notwithstanding that the slowness of Divine Punishments only is mention'd in the Text and perhaps for the Reason now assign'd yet the slowness of Rewards also may be suppos'd to be a part of the Reason why Men Doubt of or disbelieve a Providence Now that this Long-suffering of God is generally the occasion of most Men's disbelief or perverse Opinions of God and his Attributes and consequently of their hardning themselves in Wickedness appears not only from this Expression of the Royal Preacher in the Text but likewise from many other places of Holy Scripture as well as from the common observation of Men's Practise in the World and the Confession of Wicked Men themselves Thus Job chap. 21. describing the Prosperous Estate of the Wicked how They live and become
things are really any blemish to Providence or Argue any want of it in the World if all things were duly considered but because we our selves that thus misjudge are to blame in several instances as 1. Because we put too great a value upon the outward circumstances of this Life that is we judge those Men happy whom we see abound in Wealth and Riches and worldly enjoyments not considering that those very Men may be really more miserable than they whose condition we so much pity We see their outside indeed and the abundance of good things that they seem to enjoy but then those many inward vexations and disquiets that they are troubled withal those we see not besides oftentimes the grievous pangs of Conscience and apprehensions of the Wrath of God notwithstanding all their endeavours to stifle them which are a Thousand times more irksome than the meanest outward circumstances And therefore if we did but value these outward good things according to their real worth we should not think much with Providence though Wicked Men possest the largest share of them since they are as often the means of making Men miserable as they are of making them truly happy But so long as we think the chief happiness or misery consists in the having or wanting of these 't is no wonder we think amiss of Providence 2. Another Instance of our Arraigning providence without Reason because of the impunity of Evil Men is that we judge without knowing or considering the Reasons upon which it proceeds Even in Human Governments there are a great many Actions of our Superiours that seem odd and unaccountable to those who are at too great a distance to understand the Reasons of them which nevertheless it would be very rash and unreasonable to find fault withal before we do understand them Now God is the great Governour of the whole World and has infinitely more things to take care of than we can possibly comprehend and therefore to judge of the whole of his Providence from some of those few particular Instances which we see indeed but can not understand is highly absurd and foolish It may be the suffering one Wicked Man to prosper in his wickedness for a while may be the occasion of doing good to abundance of innocent persons or of the punishing others as wicked as himself So that untill we can certainly tell why and for what purpose God Almighty suffers any particular Man to prosper we have no Reason to censure his Justice for it Again 3. Another instance of our over-hasty judging of the Conduct of Providence is in our passing Sentence before we see the final issue of things We see only the present Scene of things and therefore to pass our Judgment before the whole plot be unravelled must needs be the cause of great mistakes Thus for Instance if we were only to look at the first part of the History of Joseph or of Haman and consider the hard usage of the one notwithstanding all his Virtue and Piety and the great preferment of the other notwithstanding all his Pride and Treachery it would be a temptation to think Providence unobservant either of the one or the other But when we consider the latter part of the Story of each of them and observe the Gracious ends of Providence in the preservation of his People served by the mighty advancement of the one and the sudden downfall of the other we shall be forced to confess the Justice and Wisdom of God's dealing with them and the unreasonableness of Judging before things were brought to that unexpected Conclusion In like manner if we were now at this time only to look at the grievous sufferings of some of our Protestant Bretheren abroad for the sake of Religion and a good Conscience we might rashly conclude that God had forsaken his Inheritance or took no notice of the afflictions of his People But when we remember that not many years ago we our selves at Home were threatned with apparent Ruin and yet that God was pleased to raise us up an happy Deliverer who is still under God their chief Support also and consider how God at present enlarges the Bounty and Compassion of many Reformed Princes and States towards them we have Reason to hope that he has not utterly cast off his People nor is his Mercy clean gone for ever but though he suffer them to be evil entreated for a while as he did the Primitive Church yet he will in the end make them meet for a glorious Deliverance However till we can see the final issue we ought not to accuse Providence or charge God foolishly I might proceed to shew how unreasonable our complaints of Providence are from many more considerations As That the infinite Mercy and Long-suffering of God are if duly reflected on a strong proof of his Infinite Justice also and therefore that those who now complain for want of Justice would if Things were otherwise complain for want of Mercy That by this Conduct a great many excellent purposes of Providence are served which would otherwise be defeated That many vertues of Good Men are hereby exercised That Wicked Men have time and space for Repentance That all of us have herein an admirable lesson of Patience and forbearance of one another And that God has given other sufficient Indications of the righteousness of his Providence by many remarkable instances even in this World But the time will not allow me to speak to these particularly and therefore I shall only at present add these short inferences which seem to follow from what has been already said 1. Since Wickedness of Life so naturally proceeds from or is necessarily accompanied with a disbelief of the Nature and Attributes of God we may from hence easily judge what progress Atheism and Infidelity make in the World For the more open Vice and Wickedness barefac'd Debauchery and avowed Profaneness get ground in the World so much the greater proportion of Atheism and Infidelity must there necessarily be 2. We may from hence also learn the great danger and mischief of passing too hasty a Judgment upon the occurrences of Providence in the World since Doubting and Disbelief of the Justice of God so usually proceeds from those wrong judgments which we make of God's Government of it When we see things go otherwise than we imagin they ought to do we should have a great care of being too peremtory in our censures of the Righteousness and Equity of God's proceedings and rather patiently wait till we see the end For we have much more reason to conclude from the unequal distribution of present Rewards and Punishments that there shall be a future Reckoning when all things shall be set right than we have from the slowness of Divine Vengeance to imagine that the Wicked shall always escape unpunish'd since it is very absurd to argue that there shall be no Future Judgment only because that time is not yet come 3. And lastly We may therefore conclude that the best way to preserve our Vertue and Piety is always to retain fixt in our minds a strong sense of the Power and Providence of God because if we once let that go we have lost the greatest restraint to all Sin and Wickedness To this purpose it is necessary to make use of all those means which God has prescribed for the keeping up a sense of Religion in our minds such as frequent Reading and Hearing his Holy Word serious Meditation fervent and hearty Prayer constant and devout receiving the Holy Sacrament and the like which are the best means of retaining in our minds a lively sense of God and his Attributes and consequently of preserving and improving us in all holiness and righteousness of life And let us well remember what the Royal Preacher tells us in the verse after the Text that Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and â—his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him but it shall not be well with the wicked Now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour Glory Might Majesty and Dominion for evermore THE END