a resurrection seems to require it namely that the very same body which died should be raised again Nothing dies but the body nothing is corrupted but the body the soul goeth upward and returns to God and therefore nothing else can be properly said to be raised again but onely that very body which died and was corrupted If God give to our souls at the last day a new body this cannot literally be called the resurrection of our bodies because here is no reproduction of the same thing that was before which seems to be plainly implied in the word resurrection Indeed the word is sometimes used otherwise as when a House or Temple that hath been consumed by fire is rebuilt on the same ground where it formerly stood this is often though improperly and figuratively called the resurrection of it and after the same manner do the Latines use the word resurgere but yet the most proper and literal signification of the word resurrection is that the same flesh which was separated from the soul at the day of death should be again vitally united to it 3. There are many places of Scripture which in their strict and literal meaning do seem plainly to favour this sense of the Article that the very same flesh shall be raised again what more plain and express saith St. Hierome than that of Job Job 19.26 27. Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another But however plain these words may seem to be yet I cannot think that the primary and original meaning of them doth at all relate to the resurrection nor were they ever so understood and interpreted by the Jews as Grotius tells us not but that they might be prophetical of it and so by way of accommodation may be fitly applied to it but the first and most easie sense of the words seems to be this After my skin is consumed let that which remains of me likewise by piecemeals be destroyed yet I am confident that before I die with these very eyes I shall see my Redeemer and be restored by him to my former happy state So that the words are a plain prophecy of his own deliverance and an high expression of his confident hope in God that in time he would vindicate his innocence and bring him out of all his troubles But if this place will not hold there are others in the New Testament of the same importance St. Paul in the 53d verse of this Chapter speaking of our body and the glorious change it shall undergo at the resurrection tells us that this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality now by this corruptible and this mortal can onely be meant that body which we now carry about with us and shall one day lay down in the dust Thus also the same Apostle tells us Rom. 8.11 He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies Now that which shall be quickned and raised to life again can be nothing else but that very body of flesh which is mortal and died though there is some question to be made whether the quickning our mortal bodies by the spirit of Christ dwelling in us should not rather be understood in a metaphorical or moral sense of the first resurrection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness than of the general resurrection at the consummation of all things But farther the mention and description the Scripture makes of the places from whence the dead shall rise doth seem plainly to intimate that the same bodies which were dead shall revive again Thus we reade in Daniel Ch. 12. v. 2. That those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting death Where we may yet farther observe that the Metaphor of sleeping and awaking by which our death and resurrection is here expressed doth seem to imply that when we rise again our bodies will be as much the same with those we lived in as they are when we awake the same with those we had before we laid our selves down to sleep Thus again it is said in St. John's Gospel Chap. 5. verses 28 and 29. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation And in the Revelations Chap. 20. verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell that is the grave delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged every man according to their works Now if the same flesh shall not be raised again what need is there of ransacking the graves at the end of the word the Sea can give up no other bodies but the same which it received in nor can the Grave deliver up any but onely those that were laid therein if it were not necessary that we should rise with the very same bodies the graves need not be opened but our flesh might be permitted to rest there for ever To this may be added that St. Paul tells us in the 3d Chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians verse 21. that our Saviour shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Now this vile body can be no other than this flesh and bloud which we are now cloathed with restored to life again 4. If we consider the several instances and examples either of those who did immediately ascend up into Heaven or of those who after death were restored to life again they all seem plainly to confirm this opinion that at the last day we shall rise again with the very same flesh and bloud which we had here Enoch and Elias of old were translated into Heaven in their terrestrial bodies and therefore may be supposed now to live there with the same flesh and parts they had when they were here upon earth And those three that were raised from the dead in the Old Testament and those that were recalled to life by our Saviour or accompanied him at his resurrection all appeared again in the very same bodies they had before their dissolution and these were examples and types of the general resurrection and therefore our resurrection must resemble theirs and we also must appear at the last day with the same bodies we lived in here Even our blessed Saviour himself who was the first fruits of them that slept did raise his own body according to that prediction of his Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it up again Nay he appeared to his Disciples with the very prints of the nails in his hands and feet and with all the other marks of his crucifixion Behold my hands and my
this he will take as a better expression of our gratitude than if we spent never so many days in verbal praises and acknowledgments of his love and bounty Let us all open our hearts and breasts to receive and entertain this great friend of mankind this glorious lover of our souls and suffer him to take full possession of them and there to place his throne and to reign within us without any rival or competitour and let us humbly beg of him that he would be pleased to finish that work in us which he came into the world about that by his bloud he would cleanse and wash us from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit that he would save us from our sins here and then we need not fear his saving us from everlasting destruction hereafter Which God of his infinite mercy grant to us all for the alone sake of our blessed Lord and Redeemer to whom with the Father c. A SERMON Preached on ASH-WEDNESDAY The Tenth Sermon St. MARK VI. 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent THOUGH repentance be a duty never out of season nay is indeed the work and business of our whole lives all of us being obliged every day to amend yet there are some particular times wherein we are more especially called upon to review our actions to humble our souls in God's presence to bewail our manifold transgressions and to devote our selves afresh to his service such are times of affliction either personal or publick when extraordinary judgments are abroad in the earth or are impendent over us or when we our selves are visited with any sickness or grievous calamity so also before we receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper we are then more strictly to examine our selves and renew our vows and resolutions of living better And to name no more the Church in all ages hath thought fit to set a-part some solemn times to call upon men more earnestly to repent and to seek God's face before it be too late such were the fasting-days before the feast of the resurrection or Easter and accordingly our Church as you have heard in the exhortation this day read to you doth at this time especially move us to earnest and true repentance that we should return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart bewailing and lamenting our sinfull lives acknowledging and confessing our offences and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of penance And such as now seriously set themselves to repent of all the sins they have committed using such abstinence as is necessary for the subduing the flesh to the spirit do certainly keep Lent far better than they who for so long time onely scrupulously abstain from all flesh and call filling themselves with the choicest fish sweet-meats and wine fasting I shall at this time suppose you sufficiently instructed in the nature of repentance it being one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ as the Apostle to the Hebrews calls it Heb. 6.1 and also that you will readily acknowledge the indispensible necessity of it in order to the obtaining the pardon of your sins and eternal life and that which I now design is onely to set before you some if not the main hindrances and impediments that keep men from repentance and to endeavour to remove them and I shall discourse in order of these three of the many that might be mentioned I. Want of consideration II. The unsuccesfulness of some former attempts when men have resolved and begun to reform but have soon found all their good purposes and endeavours blasted and defeated this discourageth them from making any farther trials III. The hopes of long life and some better opportunity of repenting hereafter One of these is commonly the ground and cause of those mens remaining in an impenitent state who yet are convinced of the absolute necessity of repentance in order to their peace and happiness I. Want of consideration For could men but once be persuaded seriously and in good earnest as becometh reasonable creatures to consider their ways and actions patiently to attend to the dictates of their own minds and soberly to weigh the reasons and consequences of things their is no doubt to be made but Religion would every day gain more proselytes vertue and righteousness would prosper and flourish more in the world and men would soon become ashamed and afraid of nothing so much as vice and wickedness Of such infinite moment are the matters of Religion so mighty and strong are the arguments which it propounds to us so clear and convincing are the evidences it gives us of its truth and certainty so agreeable to our minds are all its principles so amiable and excellent its precepts so pleasant and advantageous is the practice of them that there seemeth nothing farther required to make all men in love with it but onely that they would open their eyes to behold its beauty that they would not stop their ears against all its most alluring charms Let men but once throughly ponder the folly and mischief of sin with the benefits and rewards of piety and an holy life let them but compare their several interests together and look sometimes beyond things present unto that state wherein they are to live for ever and use their understandings about these matters as they do about other affairs and it is impossible they should enjoy any tolerable peace or ease without a carefull and strict provision for another world Vice oweth its quiet possession of mens minds onely to their stupidity and inadvertency to their carelesness and inconsideration it reigns undisturbedly onely in ignorant secure unthinking spirits but streight loseth all its force and power when once men begin to look about them and bethink themselves what they are doing and whither they are going Could we but once gain thus much of wicked men to make a stand and pause a little and to cease but a while from the violent pursuit of their pleasures and fairly reflect upon their lives and see what is the fruit of all their past follies and consider the end and issue of these things could we I say but obtain thus much we might spare most of our pains spent in persuading them to repent their own thoughts would never suffer them to be in quiet till they had done it Let us but once begin to deliberate and examine and we are sure on which side the advantage will lie sin and wickedness can never stand a trial let our own reasons be but judges it hates nothing so much as to be brought to the light A vitious man however he may brave it in the world yet can never justify or approve himself to his own free thoughts and however he may plead for sin before others yet he can never answer the objections his own conscience would bring against it would he but once dare impartially to consider them But the misery of wicked men is that they
being the best expression of our duty towards God and either formally containing or naturally producing all our duty towards our neighbour whence this is said to be the fulfilling of the whole law It is not enough that we give to every man what is due to him His Religion is but very little and of a narrow compass who is onely just nay he that is rigidly so in all cases hath no Religion at all that I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day for it is not for rapine or injury for pillaging or cousening their neighbours that men at the last day are formally impeached and finally condemned but I was an hungry and ye gave me no meat I was a stranger and ye took me not in you neglected to doe that good which you had power and opportunity to doe Some men are so taken up with their courses of piety and devotion that they have no time to doe much good if they be but temperate and just and come frequently to Church and constantly perform the duties of God's worship this they hope will carry them to Heaven though they are notoriously covetous and uncharitable and hardly ever doe any good office for their neighbours or brethren Some again there are who pretend to be of a more spiritual and refined Religion spend their time in contemplation and talk much of communion with God but look upon this way of serving God by doing good as a lower attainment an inferior dispensation suitable to children and novices in Religion and think that they are excused from these mean duties and yet reade over the life of the best man that ever lived the founder of our Faith and Religion and you cannot but confess what I have already shewn you that the great thing he was most exemplary and illustrious for was his unwearied readiness to help and oblige all men he went about doing good and it is a scandal raised on our Church that we do not hold the necessity of good works in order to salvation but trust wholly to faith for we hold and teach them to be as necessary as Papists themselves can or doe but then we say they are accepted by God onely for the sake of Jesus Christ 6. And Lastly Nothing hath greater rewards annexed to it than doing good and that both in this life and that which is to come I have time now but just to mention to you some few of those benefits and advantages that do either naturally flow from it or by God's gratious promise are annexed to it To doe good with what we enjoy is the most certain way to procure God's blessing upon all we have it doth entitle us to his more especial care and protection Trust in the Lord saith David and be doing good so shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed The divine goodness cannot but be mightily pleased to see men so far as they are able imitating it self and following the example of God's benignity For every good office we doe to other men we have some thing to plead with God Almighty to engage him to bestow upon us what we want or desire not by way of merit or desert but God himself graciously becoming our debtour takes what is done to others in such cases as done to himself and by promise obliges himself to full retaliation By this means we provide against an evil day that which will mightily support us under all the troubles and afflictions that may happen to us in this life our good works will attend us and stand by us at the hour of death as I have already hinted to you nay farther our good works will appear and plead for us before God's tribunal and will procure for us for the sake of Jesus Christ at the hands of our mercifull God a glorious recompense at the resurrection of the just for at the last and final reckoning when all mens actions shall be scanned and judged the great King shall pass his sentence according to the good men have done or neglected to doe in this life Nay every way so great is the reward of doing good that even wicked men who yet have been of bountifull tempers and have had generous spirits shall fare the better in the other world for those good acts of mercy and charity they have done here and in this sense it is said with which I end all that Charity doth cover a multitude of sins and to cover sins in the Scripture phrase is to forgive them Now of this saying there are several senses given which I cannot stand now to recite but the words are true in these two senses 1. If he that is thus truly charitable and hath done a great deal of good in his generation be also endued with the other vertues and qualifications required in a Christian then though he may have a great many infirmities and miscarriages to answer for yet these failings shall be overlooked and buried in his good deeds and then they mean the same with that of the Psalmist with the mercifull God will shew himself mercifull he will shew him all favour possible 2. Or else secondly if you understand these words Charity shall cover a multitude of sins as spoken of a person who though vitious in all other respects yet out of principles of common humanity or natural goodness of temper or greatness of Spirit is very apt and inclined to doe generous and great things for the good of the world which is a case that may sometimes happen they mean this that though Charity alone will not be sufficient to make such an one happy in the other world because he is otherwise incapable of it yet it shall be considered so far as to lessen his punishment He shall be in a less intolerable condition though that be sad enough than the cruel and uncharitable or than they who have delighted in doing mischief A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Second Sermon 1 COR. XI 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's Body THE Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which we are now to receive is undoubtedly the most solemn and venerable part of Christian worship a most excellent instrument of Religion an institution of our Saviour's of mighty use and advantage to us if we duly partake thereof and yet there is hardly any part of Religion so little or so ill understood by the generality of Christians amongst us as this duty which sufficiently appears from that great number of those who constantly join with the Church in all other publick offices of divine worship and yet wholly neglect the receiving of this Sacrament or at least communicate so seldom as if they looked upon themselves at liberty to doe it or not doe it as they thought best I speak not now of the prophane contemners of God and Religion who despise this as they do all the other duties
be persuaded that it was rude and clownish not to pledge one who drank to me in rank poyson as that it is any sign of want of good breeding and gentile accomplishments to be wiser and more sober than the rest of the World 3. Lastly Men are tempted to comply with bad examples and follow the multitude that they may avoid scoffs and reproaches and not expose themselves to the laughter and drollery of those who think every thing wit that is impudent or prophane But this surely is so little and inconsiderable that it deserves not to be named with the least of those inconveniences which attend a wicked life for what hurt can it be to us to have those speak ill of us whose very commendation and good word would be our greatest scandal and reproach and shall we to escape their irreligious scoffs and foolish jests justly merit the reproof of all wise men and make our selves liable to the censure of those whose opinion and judgment alone ought to be regarded Were we but once throughly convinced of the truth and excellency of that Religion we are baptized into how happy it would make us in this life and what great things it assures us of in the future no flouts nor railleries would any more be able to shake our purposes of good living than they are to persuade a rich man out of his estate and large possessions But farther the best way to preserve our reputation even amongst wicked men is to be true to those principles which we have first espoused for let men say what they will they have a secret respect and veneration for all those whose goodness is exemplary and conspicuous which appears sufficiently by their envying and snarling at them and they inwardly scorn none more than those whom they know to be guilty of those vices which yet they themselves tempted them to and he that will be drunk himself will yet be sure to laugh at another whom he sees in that condition But let us suppose the worst what is it that they can say of us onely that we are nice and squeamish and curious that we have not yet learned to live at random nor perfectly subdued our Consciences that we weigh and consider our actions and use our reasons and understandings and believe we were born into the World for some higher ends than pleasing our senses and gratifying our appetites that we are not indifferent to health and sickness peace and disquiet life and death that we think there is somewhat in the World besides what we daily see that we provide for a State which we may very soon enter upon and trouble our selves with thoughts of what will become of us after we are dead and the like but if this be all we ought to pray to God that we may constantly live under such ignominy and die under the disgrace To what I have already said on this subject I shall onely add that if bad examples even against our reason and interest do so far prevail with Men to their utter undoing what mighty power and influence would good examples have enforced with all the arguments for and advantages of Religion what an age of vertue and quiet and happiness should we enjoy if Men of dignity and renown of parts and understanding of birth and fortune would freely and conspicuously offer themselves to the World for patterns of life and conversation thus they might entice others to be good and soon retrieve the honour of our Religion and bring it again into credit and repute Were such Mens lives as good and holy as their profession is sinners would soon be put out of Countenance and be ashamed to appear in the World their party would be made inconsiderable and they would have but little power to draw others over to their side for there is not a more winning and taking sight in the World than the life of a Christian led exactly according to the prescripts of his Religion And were there not in all ages some such persons of authority and fame whose zeal for Religion inspires them with so much courage as that they are neither ashamed nor afraid of being honest and innocent whatever the mad World may say or think of them for it I say were it not for such we should soon lose not onely the power but even the form of Godliness too And God onely knows how many daily make shipwrack of their Consciences onely because they have not spirit enough to endure to be out of the mode and fashion II. But I hasten to the second thing propounded which was to shew how unreasonable it is to be enticed to sin by such as argue for it and would endeavour to excuse it for there are many that are not altogether thus easie and complaisant as to follow merely for company nor so lazy as to take up every thing on trust but they are men of prudence and discretion who desire first to be satisfied whether what they are inticed to be prudent and safe they like a wicked life well enough could they be but furnished with some small reasons and arguments for it by which they might justify their choice and stop the mouths of their Consciences I shall just mention these four ways whereby sinners ordinarily entice such as these to join with them either 1. by representing the pleasures or 2. by propounding the temporal advantages which attend sin or else 3. by speaking slightly of the evil of it or lastly by persuading them that there is no danger in it 1. Men entice others to sin by propounding to them the pleasures that are to be found in a loose and wicked life They tell them that the laws of Religion are fitted onely for the dull and Phlegmatick unactive and Hypocondriack who grudge at others enjoying those delights which themselves are not capable of that Nature designed we should freely use whatever she hath provided for our entertainment here and was not so unkind as perpetually to torment us with the sight and presence of such things as we are not permitted to taste nor touch that heaven indeed is the Lord's and he dwells there and doeth what pleaseth him best but that the earth by his grant and permission is ours and who shall interrupt or disturb us that God hath left this lower World to us to take our pastime therein and that that man makes the best use of it who improves it most to serve his own pleasures that to live honestly scrupulously and vertuously is to be buried whilst we are alive and that to order all our actions according to stinted rules and precepts belongs onely to slaves and those who are of a servile disposition but what greater pleasure say they than to be ungovernable and uncontrollable to satisfy every appetite with its proper object to deny our selves nothing that our lusts or passions crave in every thing to gratifie our own humour and fancy and to trouble our heads with nothing
unless it be to find out new delights and surprizing extravagancies But what are all these now other than the vain conceits of mad Men who during their phrenzy do many times think themselves the wisest greatest and richest Men in the World and take as much delight in such idle dreams as others do in real enjoyments but this pleasure lasts no longer than till they recover the use of their understandings and therefore in this case we are not to give credit to what wicked Men say nor judge of the pleasure and content of their lives by what outwardly appears Even in laughter the heart is sorrowfull saith Salomon and it is very possible for one who seems to spend all his days in mirth and jollity yet really to be in a very uneasie condition all the while which appears from this that such as are sensual and licentious find it best to keep themselves in a continual hurry and heat and as soon as they are tired with one sin presently to betake themselves to some other for fear they should unhappily light upon a Bible or a sober thought for this reason it is that they hate nothing so much as to be alone and be forced to converse with themselves and that if they chance to fall into any affliction or calamity they are the most dejected and disconsolate persons in the World all these are certain signs that they are haunted with dreadfull and ghastly apprehensions and jealousies which will ever and anon be crouding in and sometimes even when they are taking their fill of pleasures But on the other side Religion denies us no pleasures which are manly and suitable to our natures and forbids us onely such excesses as in themselves are both tedious and nauseous and layeth the foundation of that solid peace and joy which no external thing whatever is able to shake or discompose In short if to be carried away with every vanity and whimsie to be swayed by every unreasonable humour and lust to be a slave to every Man 's frolick and beck to try the utmost strength of our bodies to run a course of all diseases to undergoe all reproach and infamy to spend our estates and time in pursuit of short life rotten bones and wretched poverty if this be pleasure then for certain there is enough of it to be found in a dissolute and vitious life 2. With such as are not altogether so fool-hardy and but a little better husbands of their health and estates this kind of Philosophy will not take at all but if you would get them into a good opinion of wickedness it must be by propounding to them some temporal advantage Vertue or vice is very indifferent to such but what they can save or get most by is always the best Profit and gain do strangely mollifie sin and take away much from the odiousness and ugliness of it it shall be the most just and equitable thing in the World if it can help us to raise a new family or recover one that is decayed if it may serve to maintain our selves or relations if by it we may oblige and obtain the favour of any great men who will be so condescending as to admit us into a society with them though it be onely in their vices for men are in the worst instances ready to please and humour those they hope to get something from or upon whom they depend But to this I shall reply nothing but onely ask our Saviour's question What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul If we sell our integrity and hopes of future happiness onely to get a little of this world we make a foolish bargain And I hope I need say no more in this place since those onely who are made of the basest and coursest metal and are of poor and degenerous spirits are capable of being ensnared by this temptation 3. Another way men have of enticing others to sin is by assuring them that there is no such great evil in it as is commonly believed That when once we have conquered our fear of sinning we have seen the worst of it that the evil of sin lies most in a little scandal that is cast upon it by some doting Philosophers or melancholy Enthusiasts or some covetous Usurers who will not be at the expence of it or by those who receive tythes to declaim against it that the nature of good and evil hath been always matter of dispute and there is hardly any vice but what hath been not onely approved but rewarded by some whole Nation or other that at the best Religion is onely the politick contrivance of some wise Governours who knew how to manage and make advantage of the simplicity and credulity of ignorant people but that all things are in their own natures indifferent Now is it not strange that men should ever be persuaded that it is as good to kill as to obey ones Parents that we deserve as much commendation when we repay kindnesses with ill-will and injuries as when we relieve those that are in necessity that cruelty treachery and malice are as amiable in themselves and as innocent dispositions as mercifulness fidelity and good nature and why may we not as well believe that wisedom is to be found onely in Bedlam and that all that hath been ever spoken or done by men hitherto counted in their wits hath been indeed onely the effect of madness and distemper'd brains though some politick men for notable ends have cunningly made common people for this great while to imagine quite otherwise But I forbear 4. And Lastly That which prevails most powerfully is to persuade men that there is no great danger in sin Some sins may indeed prove inconvenient but the pleasure recompenseth that some may be of ill report but the profit will pay off that score and if sin should chance to have any evil in it what 's that to us when we are dead the onely fear is of an after-reckoning And therefore do they who would fain sin without controll especially labour that they may free themselves and others from all suspicions of a future state raking up every trifling objection that hath been of old used by any of the Atheistical Philosophers and hath been a thousand times answered and inventing new ones as far as their wit serves them But if after all there still remain any doubts concerning another life then they plead how little we know or understand of it or how absurd it is to think that a man shall be for ever punished for what he did by mistake or surprize or strength of passion or height of bloud or good nature or civility or to save his life or to maintain his reputation family or the like But will nothing convince men of the certainty of future punishments but their feeling of them or do they think that God hath as little regard
they go hence and be no more seen Did you ever hear of any dying penitent that did not a thousand times wish he had begun sooner and how earnestly do such warn every one by their example to take heed of trusting to a death-bed repentance If therefore he that hath served the lusts of the flesh and done his own will during a long malitious life can for any thing a dying person can doe be in any sense said to have lived soberly righteously and godly then may he be sure of salvation if we walk according to this rule then shall peace be upon us but how can a man sow to the flesh and reap to the spirit serve the Devil all his life long and be crowned by God at his death but III. The last thing to be considered was what hopes or encouragement God hath given us to believe that he will remit or abate of those conditions of a good life which are propounded to us in the Gospel And indeed there is very little to be found either of promise or example in Scripture to be a sufficient ground of belief that he will ordinarily accept of a death-bed repentance for are not the conditions of salvation the same to persons sick and dying as they are to men alive and in health Are they not both under the same covenant and is not the same actual obedience required of all under equal penalties or can we think that any man shall fare better and come off upon easier terms or that God will deal more mildly and gently with him and accept of less from him onely because he hath been so hardy and bold as to continue in sin and to put off his duty towards God even to the very last minute of his life But however there are two instances commonly mentioned in favour of a death-bed repentance The first is that of the labourers in our Saviour's Parable that came into the vineyard at the eleventh hour and yet received equal wages with those that came in at the first and had born the heat of the day But it is here to be observed 1. That these labourers who came in so late yet came in as soon as ever they were called and invited for they gave this reason why they had stood so long there idle because no man hath hired us Had they been often solicited by the Master or his Servants and offered work and all the day refused and onely then at last just in the close of the evening been willing to have taken upon themselves the service when it was over this had been something like the case I have been now speaking of of Christians all their lives long rejecting Christ's yoke but just when they are summoned to give an account willing to submit their necks to it But this Parable rather represents the case of an Heathen man that never heard of Christ or his Religion till a little before his death whose coming into the Church so late shall not therefore hinder his receiving a full reward But this is by no means the condition of those who have made a covenant with Christ in baptism and after they have most notoriously failed of what they promised do then onely return to their service when the night is come in which no man can work He that came in at the eleventh hour was under no engagement to work any sooner he had no-where promised it nor had the Master commanded it and therefore he was without fault 2. He that came in at the eleventh hour did yet work one hour that was indeed but a short time yet however sufficient to render his case very different from that man's who comes in but at the twelfth which is the case of the death-bed penitent The other instance often named in favour of a death-bed repentance is that of one of the Thieves on the Cross a passage in the Gospel remembred better and studied more by wicked men than any other story whatever though the whole of it was so very miraculous and extraordinary that the like never can be expected again unless our blessed Lord should once more descend from Heaven and suffer here amongst us and one of us should happen to die in company with him and then indeed from such a wonderfull repentance and faith as his was we might hope for the like success and acceptance But this example affords but little comfort to those who have for many years professed the Religion of Jesus and yet deferred the practice of it till the day of their death But you 'll say then is there no hopes is there no remedy what must a wicked man doe in such a condition when he happens to be thus surprised by death I am far from taking upon me to limit and confine the mercies of God Almighty they are over all his works and are as infinite as himself such persons therefore as have spent their days in luxury and profaneness and contempt of all religion but at last humbly beg pardon and heartily promise and resolve amendment we must leave to his goodness and pity and gratious compassion who though he ties us up to rules yet is not himself bound by them and who may doe more for us than he hath any where promised and therefore persons in such circumstances ought to be encouraged and quiosâ—â—ed to doe all that they can and at last to submit themselves to God's good pleasure and all that we can tell such men is that the greater and more remarkable their repentance is the more hopes of their forgiveness that sometimes there have appeared now and then some illustrious instances of the power of God's grace and spirit men who have been as famous for their signal repentance as they were before for their profaneness and debauchery and that where God gives such extraordinary grace in this life it is to be hoped he will shew extraordinary favour in the other so that if such men may be saved it is nevertheless by way of prerogative not by the ordinary rule of judgment it is we know not how But yet lest men should from hence presume to defer their repentance thus much must I think and ought to be said on the other side that God hath no where expresly declared that he will accept of all our sorrows and submissions and tears and promises and resolutions made on a death-bed that all these do not amount to what is the plain condition of the covenant of grace that though what God may doe is not for us to define yet he hath plainly enough told us what we are to doe and that it is the greatest madness in the world to run so great an hazard as that we cannot be saved without a dispensation from the ordinary rule had a wise man an hundred souls he would not venture one of them on such uncertainties and thus the ancient fathers have determined this question Do I say saith St. Augustine such an one shall be damned
sins before ever he will save us from the penal consequences of them So that the efficacy of Christ's undertaking for us and the necessity of our own personal righteousness do very well consist together and each hath its proper work in obtaining the pardon of our sins and the favour of God Our Saviour's incarnation and perfect obedience even unto death is the sole meritorious cause of our acceptance with God and of our salvation He alone purchased those great benefits for us made atonement paid our ransome and procured this covenant of grace from God wherein eternal life is promised to penitent sinners But then these great advantages are not immediately and absolutely conferr'd upon us but under certain qualifications and conditions of repentance faith and sincere obedience for the performance of which the holy Spirit is never wanting to sincere endeavours We do therefore vilely affront and disgrace our blessed Lord when we boldly expect to be saved by him whilst we continue in our sins Nay we ought to think our selves as much beholden to him for his doctrine and the assistences of his grace and the glorious promises of the Gospel by which we are made truly holy and righteous as for his sufferings and death by which he satisfied God's justice and purchased the pardon of our sins 2. I shall hence make that inference of the Apostle Heb. 2.3 How then shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Hath God so abundantly provided for our happiness hath his onely begotten Son done and suffer'd so much for it and shall we be so sottish and stupid as foolishly to despise it when it hath been so signally the unwearied care of Heaven to procure it for us It is onely our own advantage that is design'd God projects no private profit nor doth any accrue to him from the salvation of all mankind Shall we our selves therefore madly defeat all these designs of grace and goodness towards us by our invincible resolution to ruine and undoe our selves Did the onely begotten Son of God as at this time descend from the regions of bliss and happiness was he born into this miserable world and did he humble himself to take our flesh that by that means he might exalt mankind and make us capable of dwelling in the highest Heavens and all this out of mere pity and compassion of our desperate condition and shall we think the denying our selves a lust or the satisfaction of a forbidden appetite or a short-liv'd pleasure too much for the obtaining the same glory Did he live here a poor mean and contemptible life and at last die a shamefull death to merit eternal life for us and for the obtaining the same shall we grudge to live a sober temperate and honest life Oh how will this consideration one day aggravate our torment What vexation and anxiety will it one day create in our minds with what horrour and despair will it fill our guilty souls Had God predestinated us from all eternity to everlasting misery so that it had been impossible for us to have avoided our sad fate had he never provided a Mediatour and Redeemer for us it would have been a great ease in another world to consider that we could no ways have escaped this doom But when we shall reflect upon the infinite love and kindness of God and how desirous he was that all men should be saved when we shall consider the wonderfull pity and compassion of our Saviour in being born and dying for us and procuring for us such easie terms of salvation and so often by his Spirit moving and exciting us to our duty and the care of our souls when we shall think of those many obligations he hath laid upon us and the wise methods he hath used for our recovery and amendment and how that nothing was wanting on God's part but that we might now have been praising blessing and adoring his goodness and wisedom amongst the glorified Spirits in the happy regions of undisturbed peace and joy and yet that we through our own most shamefull neglect though often warned to the contrary are now forced in vain to seek but for a drop of water to cool the tip of our tongues How will this heighten our future pains and prove the very essence of Hell Better shall it be in the last day for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah places overrun with lust and barbarity for the Nations that sit in darkness and never heard of these glad tidings of a Saviour than for you to whom this salvation is come but you cast it behind your backs The fiercest vengeance the severest punishments are reserved for wicked Christians and what can we imagine shall be the just portion of those whom neither the condescension and kindness nor wounds and sufferings of the Son of God could persuade nor yet the excellency easiness and profitableness of his commands invite nor the promises of unexpressible rewards allure nor the threatnings of eternal punishment engage to live and be happy In vain therefore do such come hither to celebrate the memory of Christ's birth They of all men who despise this great salvation purchased by the Son of God have no great cause to rejoyce this day nay happy had it been for them who still persist in their sins notwithstanding all that Christ hath done to save them from them if this holy Jesus had never been born 3. Lastly Let us all improve this present opportunity to return our most humble praises and thanksgivings for so great and unvaluable a blessing and to join our voices as well as we are able with those bright Seraphims and that heavenly Host that attended and celebrated Christ's nativity when the Heavens proclaimed his birth with their loud shouts of joy saying Glory be to God in the highest on earth peace good-will towards men Blessed be God for ever blessed be his holy name who hath found out a way for our deliverance and hath raised up for us a mighty salvation that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Praise therefore the Lord O our souls and all that is within us praise his holy name and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all our iniquities and healeth all our diseases who hath redeemed our life from destruction and hath crowned us with loving-kindness and tender mercies What shall we now return what do we not owe to him who came down from his imperial Throne and infinitely debasing himself and eclipsing the brightness of his glorious Majesty became a servant nay a curse for our sakes to advance our estate and to raise us to a participation of his divine nature and his eternal glory and bliss To him therefore let us now all offer up our selves our souls and bodies and spirits and that not onely to be saved by him but to be ruled and governed by him and
Vertue and goodness purifies and exalts a man's natural temper and makes his very looks more clear and brisk 3. Our bodies shall be raised in power This is that which the Schools call the agility of our heavenly bodies the nimbleness of their motion by which they shall be rendred most obedient and able instruments of the soul In this state our bodies are no better than clogs and fetters which confine and restrain the freedom of the soul and hinder it is all her operations The corruptible body as it is in the wisedom of Solomon presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things Our dull sluggish and unactive bodies are often unable oftner unready and backward to execute the orders and obey the commands of our souls so that they are rather hindrances to the soul than any-ways usefull or serviceable to her But in the other life as the Prophet Isaiah tells us Isaiah 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint or as another expresses it They shall shine and run too and fro like sparks amongst the stubble the speed of their motion shall be like that of devouring fire in an heap of dry stubble and the height of it shall surpass the towring flight of the Eagle for they shall meet the Lord in the air when he comes to judgment and afterwards mount up with him into the third and highest Heavens This earthly body is continually groveling on the ground slow and heavy in all its motions listless and soon tired with action and the soul that dwells in it is forced as it were to drag and hale it along but our heavenly bodies shall be as free as active and nimble as our very thoughts are 4. And Lastly Our bodies shall be raised spiritual bodies not of a spiritual substance for then the words would imply a contradiction it being impossible that the same thing should be both a spiritual and a bodily substance But spiritual is here opposed not to corporeal but to natural or animal and by it is exprest as it is ordinarily interpreted the subtilty and tenuity and purity of our heavenly bodies But I would rather explain it thus In this state our spirits are forced to serve our bodies and to attend their leisure and do mightily depend upon them in most of their operations but on the contrary in the other world our bodies shall wholly serve our spirits and minister unto them and depend upon them So that by a natural body I understand a body fitted for this lower and sensible world for this earthly state by a spiritual body such an one as is suited and accommodated to a spiritual state to an invisible world to such a life as the Saints and Angels lead in Heaven And indeed this is the principal difference between this mortal body and our glorified body This flesh which now we are so apt to dote upon is one of the greatest and most dangerous enemies we have and therefore is defied and renounced by all Christians in their baptism as well as the world and the Devil It continually tempts and solicits us to evil every sense is a snare to us and all its lusts and appetites are inordinate and insatiable it is impatient of Christ's yoke and refuseth discipline it is ungovernable and often rebelleth against reason and the law in our members warreth against the law of our minds and brings us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members and when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak so that the best men are forced to keep it under and use it hardly lest it should betray them into folly and misery We are now in a state of warfare and must always be upon our guard and watch continually arming and defending our selves against the assaults of the flesh and all its violent and impetuous motions How doth it hinder us in all our religious devotions How soon doth it jade our minds when employed in any divine or spiritual meditations or how easily by its bewitching and enchanting pleasure doth it divert them from such noble exercises So that St. Paul breaks forth into this sad and mournfull complaint Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Who shall Death shall That shall give us a full and final deliverance When once we have obtained the resurrection unto life we shall not any more feel those lustings of the flesh against the spirit which are here so troublesome and uneasie to us our flesh shall then cease to vex our souls with its evil inclinations immoderate desires and unreasonable passions But being its self spiritualized purified exalted and freed from this earthly grosness and all manner of pollution shall become a most fit and proper instrument of the soul in all her divine and heavenly employments It shall not be weary of singing praises unto God Almighty through infinite Ages It shall want no respite or refreshment but its meat and drink shall be to doe the will of God In these things chiefly consists the difference between those bodies which we shall have at the resurrection and this mortal flesh which we can but very imperfectly either conceive or express but yet from what hath been discoursed on this subject it doth sufficiently appear that a glorified body is infinitely more excellent and desireable than that vile and contemptible flesh which we now carry about with us The onely thing remaining is III. And Lastly to draw some practical inferences from all I have said on this subject I shall but just mention these five and leave the improvement of them to your own private meditations 1. From what I have said we may learn the best way of fitting and preparing our selves to live in those heavenly and spiritual bodies which shall be bestowed upon us at the resurrection which is by cleansing and purifying our souls still more and more from all fleshly filthiness and weaning our selves by degrees from this earthly body and all sensual pleasures and delights We should begin in this life to loosen and untie the knot between our souls and this mortal flesh to refine our affections and raise them from things below to things above to take off our hearts and leisurely to disengage them from things present and sensible and to use and accustome our selves to think of and converse with things spiritual and invisible that so our souls when they are separated from this earthly body may be prepared and disposed to actuate and inform a pure and spiritual one as having before hand tasted and relished spiritual delights and pleasures and been in some degree acquainted with those objects which shall then be presented to us A soul wholly immersed and buried in this earthly body is not at all fit and qualified
for those celestial and glorious mansions which God hath provided for us an earthly sensual mind is so much wedded to bodily pleasures as that it cannot enjoy its self without them and is incapable of tasting or relishing any other though really greater and infinitely to be preferred before them Nay such persons as mind onely the concerns of the body and are wholly led by its motions and inclinations as do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were embody their souls would esteem it a great unhappiness to be cloathed with a spiritual and heavenly body it would be like cloathing a beggar in princely apparel Such glorious bodies would be uneasie to them they would not know how to behave themselves in them they would e'en be glad to retire and put on their rags again But now by denying the solicitations of our flesh and contradicting its lusts and appetites and weaning our selves from bodily pleasures and subduing and mortifying our carnal lusts we fit and dispose our selves for another state and when our souls are thus spiritualized they will soon grow weary of this flesh and long for their departure they will be always ready to take wing and fly away into the other world where at last they will meet with a body suited to their rational and spiritual appetites 2. From hence we may give some account of the different degrees of glory in the other state For though all good men shall have glorious bodies yet the glory of them all shall not be equal they shall all shine as stars and yet one star differeth from another star in glory there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars so also is the resurrection of the dead Some will have bodies more bright and resplendent than others Those who have done some extraordinary service to their Lord who have suffered bravely and courageously for his name or those who by the constant exercise of severity and mortification have arrived to an higher pitch and attained to a greater measure of purity and holiness than others shall shine as stars of the first magnitude Dan. 12.3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever It is certain that the purest and most spiritual bodies shall be given to those who are most fitted for them to the most heavenly and spiritual souls so that this is no little encouragement to us to make the greatest proficiency we can possibly in the ways of vertue and piety since the more we wean our selves from these present things and sensible objects the more glorious and heavenly will our bodies be at the resurrection 3. Let this consideration engage us patiently to bear those afflictions sicknesses and bodily pains which we are exercised with in this life The time of our redemption draweth nigh let us but hold out awhile longer and all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall never sigh nor sorrow any more And how soon shall we forget all the misery and uneasiness we endured in this earthly tabernacle when once we are cloathed with that house which is from above we are now but in our journey towards the heavenly Canaan are pilgrims and strangers here and therefore must expect to struggle with many straits and difficulties but it will not be long before we shall come to our journeys end and that will make amends for all we shall then be in a quiet and safe harbour out of the reach of those storms and dangers wherewith we are here encompassed we shall then be at home at our Father's house no more exposed to those inconveniences which so long as we abide in this tabernacle of clay we are subject unto And let us not forfeit all this happiness onely for want of a little more patience and constancy but let us hold out to the end and we shall at last receive abundant recompence for all the trouble and uneasiness of our passage and be enstated in perfect endless rest and peace 4. Let this especially arm and fortify us against the fear of death for death is now conquered and disarmed and can doe us no hurt It separates us indeed from this body for a while but it is onely that we may receive it again far more pure and glorious It takes away our old rags and bestows upon us royal robes either therefore let us lay aside the profession of this hope of the resurrection unto life or else let us with more courage expect our own dissolution and with greater patience bear that of our friends and relations Wo is us who are forced still to sojourn in Mesech and to dwell in the tents of Kedar for how can it be well with us so long as we are chained to these earthly carcasses As God therefore said once to Jacob fear not to go down into Egypt for I will go down with thee and I will surely bring thee up again so may I say to you fear not to go down into the house of rottenness fear not to lay down your heads in the dust for God will certainly bring you out again and that after a much more glorious manner Let death pull down this house of clay since God hath undertaken to rear it up again infinitely more splendid and usefull 5. And Lastly Let us all take care to live so here that we may be accounted worthy to obtain the other world and the resurrection from the dead Let us rise in a moral sense from the death of sin to the life of righteousness and then the second death shall have no power over us A renewed and purified mind and soul shall never fail of an heavenly and glorious body in the other world but a sensual and worldly mind as it hath no affection for so can it find no place in those pure regions of light and happiness Since therefore we have this comfortable hope of a glorious resurrection unto life eternal let us purify our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit let us hold fast our profession and stedfastly adhere to our duty whatever we may lose or suffer by it here as knowing we shall reap if we faint not And this is Saint Paul's exhortation with which he concludes his discourse of the resurrection Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. A SERMON Preached before the House of COMMONS The Twelfth Sermon JOB XXVII 5 6. God forbid that I should justify you till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live THESE words may be considered as the resolution of a truly honest man whose vertue and goodness depends not upon any outward accidents or
his own conscience will be sure to come off well at last in the final account and judgment then God will confirm and ratify the sentence of his conscience and publickly own and approve of what he hath done and clear and vindicate his innocency and reward his fidelity and constancy before all the world At that day when all our great undertakers and contrivers of mischief all the cunning practisers of guile and hypocrisie shall lie down in shame when their secret arts and base tricks whereby they imposed on the world shall be detected and proclaimed as it were upon the house-top and all their unworthy projects and designs shall be laid open and naked being stript of those specious pretences they here disguised them with when the hidden things of darkness shall be brought to light and the counsels of all mens hearts shall be made manifest as the noon-day at that day I say the upright and righteous man shall stand in great boldness and shall lift up his head with joy and confidence and then it will appear that he was the best politician and the onely person that either understood or regarded his true interest To conclude all Our consciences are either our best friends or our greatest enemies they are either a continual feast or a very hell to us A conscience well resolved and setled is the greatest comfort of our lives the best antidote against all kind of temptations the most pretious treasure that we can lay up against an evil day and our surest and strongest hold to secure us from all dangers which can never be taken unless through our own folly and negligence But an evil clamorous conscience that is continually twitting and reproaching us is a perpetual wrack and torment it wasts our spirits and preys upon our hearts and eats out the sweetness of all our worldly enjoyments and fills us with horrid fears and ghastly apprehensions this is that knawing worm that never dieth the necessary fruit of sin and guilt and the necessary cause of everlasting anguish and vexation A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Thirteenth Sermon 2 TIM I. 10. And hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel LIFE and immortality by a figure often used in the holy Scriptures is the same with immortal life which our Saviour hath brought to light that is hath given us undoubted assurance of by the revelation of the Gospel For though all men by the light of nature have some apprehensions of a future state yet their reasonings about it when left to themselves are miserably vain and uncertain and often very wild and extravagant The best discourses of the Heathens about the other life were weak and obscure and the wisest Philosophers spake but doubtfully and conjecturally about it nor even in the books of Moses or writings of the Prophets are there contained any plain express promises of eternal life all the knowledge men had of it before was but like the faint glimmerings of twilight till the sun of righteousness appeared till God was pleased to send one from that invisible world even his own most dear Son to dwell here and converse amongst men to make a full discovery to us of this unknown countrey and to conduct us in the onely true way to this everlasting happiness an happiness so great that we have not words big enough to express it nor faculties large enough to comprehend it but yet so much of it is clearly revealed to us in the Gospel as is most abundantly sufficient to raise our thoughts and incite our sincerest endeavours for the obtaining of it By which plain revelation of this state of immortality First Is most illustriously manifested to us the transcendent goodness and indulgence of our most mercifull Creatour in that he will be pleased to reward such imperfect services such mean performances as the best of ours are with glory so immense as that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the greatness of it There is nothing in us nor any thing done by us that bears the least proportion to such an ample recompence Our best actions stand in need of a pardon so far are they from deserving to be crowned All possible duty and obedience we certainly owe to him to whom we owe our beings and should God almighty have exacted it from us onely on the account of his sovereign authority over us as we are his creatures we had been indispensably obliged to all subjection to him but that he should over and above promise to reward our faithfulness to him with eternal life this is a most wonderfull instance of his infinite grace and goodness Secondly By this revelation of immortal life is farther demonstrated the exceeding great love of our ever blessed Saviour who by his death and perfect obedience not onely purchased pardon for all our past rebellions and transgressions not onely redeemed us from hell and destruction to which we had all rendred our selves most justly liable which alone had been an unspeakable favour but also merited an everlasting kingdom of glory for us if with true repentance we return to our duty And this if any thing shews the infinite value and efficacy of our Saviour's appearing on our behalf that by his most powerfull mediation he obtained not onely freedom from punishment but also unexpressibly glorious rewards for us vile and wretched sinners upon easie and most reasonable conditions Thirdly This especially recommends our Christianity to us which contains such glad tidings which propounds such mighty arguments to engage us to our duty such as no other religion ever did or could For since hope and fear are the great hinges of all government and the most prevailing passions of humane nature what better thing can be propounded to our hope than to be as happy both in body and soul as we can be and that for ever what more dreadfull thing to our fear than everlasting misery and this indeed is the utmost that can be said or offered to men in order to the reclaiming them from their sins and recovering them to a conscientious observance of God's laws that God hath appointed a day wherein he will call all men to an account for the deeds they have done in this body and reward the sincere faithfull Christian with immortal glory and punish the disobedient and impenitent with everlasting vengeance and if men can harden themselves against these most powerfull considerations if they are not at all concerned or solicitous about their eternal happiness or misery what other motives are likely to prevail with them or able to make any impression upon them For is there any thing of greater weight and moment that can be propounded to the reasons and understandings of men than what shall become of them in a state which they are very shortly to enter upon and which shall never have an end I humbly therefore beg your patience whilst with all the
by St. Paul 1. Charity suffereth long is not hasty to return any evil or injury we may have received from others it makes a man patient forgetfull of wrongs and slow to demand satisfaction He that is possessed with this excellent grace of charity will defer righting himself when injured and seem for a great while as if he did not at all observe or take notice of those affronts and treâ—â—asses which the furious and wrathfull would be sure streight to revenge He doth not lie at catch and presently take all advantages against his neighbour and trouble him for every little offence and require strict reparation for every petty damage he may unjustly sustain he doth not take all forfeitures that the rigour of the law would give him or stand with his debtours for a day or streight break off friendship for the first unkindness but he will for a long time bear with the failures and miscarriages of other men as all of us do easily overlook and readily forgive the mistakes or misdemeanours of those whom we entirely love with great patience he waiteth their amendment and silently tarries till of their own accord they make him satisfaction and is always willing to hearken to any fair terms of accommodation and to accept of the least submission and acknowledgment Contrary to all this is the temper of those whom the Apostle calls fierce and Solomon hasty of spirit who when once offended breath forth nothing but utter ruine and slaughter and are for the present destruction of all who stand in their way Thus David in that great fit of impatience 1 Sam. 25. when displeased at Nabal's surly answer resolved streight to murther him and all his houshold and so the Servant in the Parable of our Saviour St. Matthew 18. who though his Lord had forgiven him a vast debt of ten thousand talents yet after this when he met with one of his Fellow-servants who owed him but an hundred pence laid violent hands on him took him by the throat would not tarry one hour for his money notwithstanding the poor man humbly besought him to have patience with him but for a-while and promised him he would honestly pay him all But a truly charitable man suffereth long and forgiveth much and dealeth with others as he hath experienced and yet hopes God will deal with him he giveth them time to recollect and bethink themselves doth not soon despair of their growing better but tries all the arts and methods of patience and kindness and is unwilling to be brought to extremities or to doe any thing that may seem harsh or rigid and in a word had rather suffer an hundred than doe one evil 2. Charity is kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and courteous easie to be treated with is gratious and benign and as far as may be usefull to all Christian charity doth sweeten mens minds and spirits smooths the ruggedness and unevenness of their natures makes them tractable affable and as far as is consistent with their innocency complaisant Contrary to which is that roughness and sourness of disposition and manners which is distastfull to and grates upon every one that falls in its way as it was said of Nabal before-mentioned that he was such a son of Belial that a man could not speak unto him Such were the Pharisees of old grave formal and morose troublesome and uneasie to all who conversed with them sullen and froward And too many such there are in the world who pretend to great and high attainments in Religion and yet are of such techy and fiery dispositions that there is no living quietly by them nothing can please them a man is afraid of having any thing to doe with them they are of such waspish quarrelsome and churlish natures Whereas he in whom Christian charity dwells endeavours to oblige every one and carries himself fairly towards all so as to gain every man's good word and opinion he is calm and mild and friendly in his deportment receiveth every one that addresseth himself to him with civility and respect his demeanour is full of compliance and condescention his carriage and behaviour free candid and ingenuous and indeed there is no greater pleasure in the world than what is to be found in the conversation of those in whom the true Christian temper and spirit rules and prevails No one complains of such an one he is not grievous or offensive to any and if he cannot doe you all that courtesie you desire yet he so civily denies you that you are almost as much pleased as if he had granted your request Charity is kind 3. Charity envieth not the charitable man grudgeth not at another's good doth not mutter and repine because his neighbour thrives better hath a greater trade is of better repute hath got a larger estate or hath arrived to greater dignity and preferment than himself Charity rather rejoyceth and pleaseth it self in other mens doing well it addeth to a charitable man's contentment to see other men satisfied and doth really minister unto and encrease his own happiness to see the happiness of his neighbours and acquaintance He findeth almost as much delight and complacence in their good fortune and success as they themselves do thus making the happiness of every man to become really and truly his own it maketh him better to see other men in health and refresheth his spirits to see others chearfull and pleased No real benefit or advantage happens to any round about him but he comes in for his share and largely partakes of it and the pleasure of it becomes as truly his as it is the persons who is possessed of it Nay as it hath been observed by some here love hath the advantage I enjoy greater pleasure in my neighbour's good success and prosperity than he himself can possibly do for all the content and joy that his prosperity ministers to him I have pure and unmixt without bearing part in those cares and troubles with which it is usually attended Love makes us not apt to take disgust and pet though God should bestow the good things of this life more liberally upon some others than our selves whereas the envious man would not have God doe any good turn for any person without his leave and approbation He would alone engross and monopolize all the blessings of heaven and benefits of the earth or at least if he could have his will none should partake of them but some private friends of his and those he hath a good opinion of He would have God mind no one else in the world nor hear any other prayers besides his own nay he reckons himself ill dealt with and mutinies against heaven if any thing goes beside him or any one enjoys something he is without There is many a man in the world who thinks himself beyond all expression miserable for no other reason but onely because another man is happy the good things his neighbour enjoys eat up his flesh
dry up his marrow and prey upon his spirits make his eyes hollow his cheeks lean his face pale and his bones rotten Hence it hath been observed that envious men are the onely persons to whom without form of justice or breach of charity we may doe harm since to doe them hurt or mischief we need onely doe good to their neighbours Love envieth not 4. Charity vaunteth not it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall not dispute the rigid meaning of the original word but follow our translation of it vaunteth not it self is not insolent and domineering and arrogantly imposing upon others as if we onely were wise and worthy to be regarded but it is modest and governable willing to yield and comply and submit to the judgment of others This vaunting foolish and giddy elation of the mind is the cause of manifold quarrels and disturbances in the world when men malapertly take upon themselves to prescribe to others and fondly expect that their singular humour onely should be observed that their private will and fancy should stand for a rule and law to all others and that all men should accommodate themselves to their idle conceits fond prejudices unreasonable customes or impertinent opinions Charity vaunteth not it self and as it follows is not puffed up which is of near signification and therefore may be joined with the former Haughtiness and imperiousness of mind proceeding from a too great love and opinion of our selves doth especially shew it self in despising all others Proud persons are so full of themselves so wrapt up in the vain contemplation of their own perfections that they slight and despise all the world they look upon it as a disparagement to learn from any they cannot bear the least contradiction or opposition they take upon themselves to judge and condemn all others and will allow none to pretend to wisedom or understanding besides themselves Any the least disrespect or oversight any failure of due observance and submission streight begets a quarrel for they think themselves wronged affronted and unjustly dealt with if every one does not value them just at the same rate they do themselves But now love makes us humble and lowly minded teacheth us to value those accomplishments to set a due price and estimate upon those abilities others are endued with and not to magnifie our selves or to think of our selves more highly than we ought to think and therefore in Scripture where the vertue of charity is commanded humility is very often joined with it Put on therefore bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind Be ye kindly affectioned one towards another in brotherly love in honour preferring one another esteeming others better than your selves What we have a real kindness for is apt to appear to us in all circumstances better than indeed it is and were our minds once throughly possessed with charity towards others we could not easily entertain any despicable and contemptible thoughts of them but upon all occasions should bear a due regard and deference to them and if this one effect of charity did but get ground in the world if men were humble and modest diffident and distrustfull of themselves willing to learn and receive instructions from others more learned and wiser than themselves we might hope soon to see an end of those unchristian feuds and schisms which our Church is so miserably infested with But so long as men lean so much to their own understandings and are swelled with such lofty conceits of their own abilities that they think they need no instruction so long as they are so fond of their own private and singular opinions as that they not onely resolve inflexibly to adhere to them themselves but seek to impose them upon others and fall out with all who are not of their mind and way nay take upon them to pronounce every one damned who is not as fond of their childish conceits as themselves are what can we expect but strife and envying contention confusion and every evil work Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up 5. Charity doth not behave it self unseemly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth never use others rudely in words or gestares especially not reproachfully and thus it is fitly joined with what went before contumelious behaviour being the natural effect of pride and arrogance We care not how we demean our selves towards those whom we despise and set at nought we can hardly vouchsafe such a good look or a civil word but now love giveth no abusive language never casteth dirt in the face of any it never endeavoureth to dishonour or disparage any ones person but is respectfull to all however they differ from us it can confute the errours of those whom we oppose without any opprobrious or disgracefull reflexions and answer their arguments and shew that they are in the wrong without reviling their persons or calling them names And it were well if this were regarded more than it is in our religious debates and controversies if we would learn to differ from one another in our judgments and matters of opinion without virulent railing and taunting speeches and unhandsome bespattering and exposing our adversaries which one thing if it were conscientiously observed would go a great way towards the maintaining peace amongst us notwithstanding our different sentiments and apprehensions The ill language which we give one another oftentimes doth set us at a greater distance and more estrange our minds from one another than all our different conceptions and judgments Railing against those who dissent from us never yet made nor is it likely ever to gain any one convert or proselyte men are naturally inclined to suspect that to be a bad cause which needs such base and unmanly artifices to uphold it and it is a shrewd sign that we want substantial reasons and arguments against any thing when once we begin to scold and cry out with him in Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou cursed damned villain it is not so or so but now love is not rude or clamorous but patiently and calmly hears both sides and soberly and cooly debates the matter and reasons meekly about things it considereth more what it is that is spoken than who it is that speaks it giveth no needless provocation it behaveth not it self unseently 6. Charity seeketh not her own A selfish stingy and narrow spirit when we care for none but our selves and regard not how it fares with other men so we do but live in ease and plenty our selves is of all other things most contrary to that charity which our Saviour both by his doctrine and example hath taught and so earnestly recommended to us love is not mercenary or self-seeking it inclineth us to doe good to others though we thereby receive not the least advantage to our selves besides the pleasure of doing it if our hearts be full of true charity it will never suffer us to be in quiet till we give it some vent and will make